The U.S. is "accelerating, not decelerating" war on Iran, Hegseth says, as strikes intensify in the region and reach 1,000 miles away.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee. Follow live updates.
The State Department said it was facilitating charter flights from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the UAE for Americans.
Continuing its product launches this week, Apple today announced the "MacBook Neo," an all-new, low-cost Mac featuring the A18 Pro chip. It starts at $599 and begins shipping on Wednesday, March 11. MacRumors reports: The MacBook Neo is the first Mac to be powered by an iPhone chip; the A18 Pro debuted in 2024's iPhone 16 Pro models. Apple says it is up to 50% faster for everyday tasks than the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5, up to 3x faster for on-device AI workloads, and up to 2x faster for tasks like photo editing. The MacBook Neo features a 13-inch Liquid Retina display with a 2408-by-1506 resolution, 500 nits of brightness, and an anti-reflective coating. The display does not have a notch, instead featuring uniform, iPad-style bezels. It is available in Silver, Indigo, Blush, and Citrus color options. The colored finishes extend to the Magic Keyboard in lighter shades and come with matching wallpapers. It weighs 2.7 pounds. There are two USB-C ports. One is a USB-C 2 port with support for speeds up to 480 Mb/s and one is a USB-C 3 port with support for speeds up to 10 Gb/s. There is also a headphone jack. The MacBook Neo also offers a 16-hour battery life, 8GB of unified memory, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 6 connectivity, a 1080p front-facing camera, dual mics with directional beamforming, and dual side-firing speakers with Spatial Audio.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Nearly 150 reported missing and 32 people from the 180-crew frigate Iris Dena
Lebanese state media said that four people were killed and six more were wounded in an Israeli strike on a building in Baalbek in eastern Lebanon on Wednesday.
“The initial toll is four killed and six wounded, and work is underway to rescue families from under the rubble,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said.
Continue reading...The government unveiled items said to have been found on the boat, including high-powered weapons, more than 12,800 pieces of ammunition and 11 pistols.
Access minister says government is working to solve ‘postcode lottery’ of access to green or blue spaces
There are urban areas of England where no one lives within a 15 minute walk of nature, new government data shows, as ministers scramble to meet their access to nature targets.
While the new data shows 80% of people live within walking distance of green or blue spaces such as a river, park or woodland, it also reveals a disparity between rural areas and poorer urban areas.
Continue reading...The German government convened a crisis meeting after several prize winners at this year’s event condemned Israel’s actions against Palestinians
The American head of the Berlin film festival, Tricia Tuttle, will keep her job after a free speech row over Gaza, but the event will have to consider a new code of conduct to “fight antisemitism”, the German culture ministry has said.
Tuttle’s position came under threat after an awards gala at the end of the 76th edition last month in which several prize winners condemned Israel’s actions against Palestinians from the stage.
Continue reading...Rep. Christian Menefee, who was first elected earlier this year in a special election, is running against longtime Rep. Al Green, who had been gerrymandered into the same district.
Congresswoman said that she called Talarico to congratulate him
Gen Caine said today that the US will “now begin to expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory”, after forces were able to establish air superiority.
“The throttle is coming up,” Caine said, “as opposed to ramping down”.
Continue reading...Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. and Israeli forces will obtain “complete control of Iranian skies” within days, and will soon begin a second massive air assault.
Tony Gonzales allegedly had affair with Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, who later died after setting herself on fire
The House ethics committee said on Wednesday that it has opened an investigation of Tony Gonzales, a Republican representative from Texas, over allegations that include having an affair with an aide.
The top Republican and Democratic members on the committee said in a joint statement that an investigative panel would look into whether Gonzales engaged in sexual misconduct toward an employee in his office and whether he discriminated unfairly by dispensing special favors or privileges.
Continue reading...A facility in Kuwait, the site of the attack, is among 10 U.S. military outposts to have been hit by retaliatory strikes, along with French and British bases.
Joani Reid asks for privacy after it was revealed her husband David Taylor was one of the three men arrested
Starmer begins PMQs by telling the Commons that his thoughts are with Sarah Everard “on this very painful anniversary” of her death.
He says the government is working hard to prevent boys and men from becoming abusers.
Continue reading...California governor was asked if US should rethink military partnership with Israel while promoting his memoir in LA
Gavin Newsom, the Democratic California governor, likened Israel to “an apartheid state” on Tuesday in comments sharply critical of the country’s joint war with the US against Iran.
Newsom, seen as a frontrunner for his party’s presidential nomination in 2028, made the comment during an appearance in Los Angeles to promote his book, Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery. He was asked if the US should rethink its military partnership with Israel.
Continue reading...With USC, IBM and RWTH scientists as co-authors, paper introduces dynamic decoupling method to deliver highest ever fidelity on entangled, logical superconducting qubits
LOS ANGELES, March 4, 2026 — Quantum Elements, a quantum software start-up based in Los Angeles, today announced the publication of research in Nature Communications demonstrating the highest fidelity of entangled, logical qubits on a superconducting quantum computer ever achieved with a new error detection and suppression approach.
In the peer-reviewed paper, Demonstration of high-fidelity entangled logical qubits using transmons, researchers use a hybrid technique combining quantum error detection (QED) with a new form of dynamical decoupling. By using the normalizer elements of a standard QED code as logical-level decoupling pulses, the method directly identifies and suppresses both logical and physical errors, significantly boosting the fidelity of entangled logical qubits on a 127-qubit IBM superconducting processor.
Co-authors of the paper include scientists from Quantum Elements, USC’s Center for Quantum Information Science & Technology, IBM, and the Institute for Quantum Information of RWTH Aachen University in Germany.
“By integrating code-based dynamical decoupling directly into the logical layer, the research shows that we can suppress errors significantly more effectively than with physical techniques alone,” said co-author Daniel Lidar, holder of the Viterbi Professorship of Engineering at USC and co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer for Quantum Elements. “The method allows us to protect a pair of entangled logical qubits at record high fidelities on superconducting hardware, a potentially valuable step on the path to more reliable quantum computation at the error-corrected, logical level.”
A breakdown of key achievements from the research includes:
“We are very proud of this groundbreaking work by all the scientists involved in this research,” said Izhar Medalsy, co-founder and CEO of Quantum Elements. “We intend to fully integrate these new techniques into our existing software solutions to accelerate the development of fault-tolerant quantum computing for our customers and partners.”
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About Quantum Elements
Founded in 2023 in Los Angeles, Quantum Elements seeks to transform the quantum computing industry by making the path to real-world commercial applications more efficient and cost-effective through its proprietary, AI-native software stack and world-leading quantum Digital Twins.
Source: Quantum Elements
The post Quantum Elements Reports Record Logical Qubit Fidelity in Nature Communications Study appeared first on HPCwire.
Stéphane Séjourné is the latest high-profile name to express solidarity with Spain over Trump’s comments last night
in Madrid
Sánchez’s defiant speech may have been made in response to Trump’s threat to cut off all trade with Spain, but his words were also aimed every bit as much at other EU leaders (and at Spain’s political class).
“A war that, in theory, was said to be waged to eliminate Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, bring democracy, and guarantee global security, but which, in reality, seen in retrospect, produced the opposite effect. It unleashed the greatest wave of insecurity our continent has suffered since the fall of the Berlin Wall.”
“It is absolutely unacceptable that those leaders who are incapable of fulfilling this duty use the smokescreen of war to hide their failure and, in the process, line the pockets of a select few – the same ones as always; the only ones who profit when the world stops building hospitals and starts building missiles.”
“The government of Spain stands with those it must stand with. It stands with the values that our parents and grandparents enshrined in our constitution.
Spain stands with the founding principles of the European Union. It stands with the Charter of the United Nations. It stands with international law and, therefore, stands with peace and peaceful coexistence between countries and their harmonious coexistence.
Continue reading...Lawsuits and slander claims fly in IG Metall’s battle with Elon Musk over employment rights and conditions
Europe’s largest trade union is trying to gain control of the works council at Elon Musk’s Tesla gigafactory near Berlin, in an industrial relations showdown marked by lawsuits and mutual accusations of slander.
The works council, an elected body of employees that negotiates everything from working hours to pay deals with a company’s management, is considered an entrenched aspect of the German corporate world, particularly in the car industry.
Continue reading...The Federal Reserve will meet later in March to discuss interest rates. Here's what homebuyers should do before then.
Firm admits supplying water unfit for human consumption after nearly 150 people fell ill
A major utility company has admitted supplying water unfit for human consumption after a parasite outbreak in Devon made almost 150 people sick.
South West Water (SWW) pleaded guilty to the criminal offence relating to the cryptosporidiosis outbreak in Brixham, Devon, which affected 2,500 homes.
Continue reading...The House Ethics Committee announcement comes one day after the Texas primary, which resulted in Rep. Tony Gonzales and Brandon Herrera heading to a runoff.
The year has barely begun, and there are rumors aplenty about the next big iPhone. Here are all the speculations and leaked information about the iPhone 18 so far.
We've put the top meal kit and prepared meal delivery services to the test. Here are the best options if you're watching your budget.
Intel has formally unveiled its Xeon 6+ "Clearwater Forest" data-center processor with up to 288 cores, built on the company's new Intel 18A process and using Foveros Direct packaging. The chip targets telecom, cloud, and edge-AI workloads with massive parallelism, large caches, and high-bandwidth DDR5-8000 memory. Tom's Hardware reports: Intel's Xeon 6+ processors with up to 288 cores combine 12 compute chiplets containing 24 energy-efficient Darkmont cores per tile that are produced using 18A manufacturing technology, two I/O tiles made on Intel 7 production node, as well as three active base tiles made on Intel 3 fabrication process. The compute tiles are stacked on top of the base dies using Intel's Foveros Direct 3D technology, whereas lateral connections are enabled by Intel's EMIB bridges. Intel's 'Darkmont' efficiency cores have received rather meaningful microarchitectural upgrades. Each core integrates a 64 KB L1 instruction cache, a broader fetch and decode pipeline, and a deeper out-of-order engine capable of tracking more in-flight operations. The number of execution ports has also been increased in a bid to improve both scalar and vector throughput under heavily threaded server workloads. From a cache hierarchy standpoint, the design groups cores into four-core blocks that share approximately 4 MB of L2 cache per block. As a result, the aggregate last-level cache across the full package surpasses 1 GB, roughly 1,152 MB in total. This unusually large pool is intended to keep data close to hundreds of active cores and reduce dependence on external memory bandwidth, which in turn is meant to both increase performance and lower power consumption. Platform-wise, the processor remains drop-in compatible with the current Xeon server socket, so the CPU has 12 memory channels that support DDR5-8000, 96 PCIe 5.0 lanes with 64 lanes supporting CXL 2.0.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Rising oil and gas prices may affect increase of £300 a year for typical working-age households, says leading thinktank
The Middle East crisis could trigger an energy price shock that more than wipes out the £300 rise in living standards a typical working-age household could otherwise expect this year, a leading thinktank has warned.
The Resolution Foundation said a “decent” one-off increase in average living standards in 2026 and a bumper rise for lower-income households could be reversed by rising oil and gas prices as the Iran conflict disrupts supplies.
Continue reading...The Pentagon chief claims Tehran ‘cannot outlast’ US as strikes intensify and civilian toll climbs
The US will have complete, uncontested control of Iranian airspace within days, the Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, declared Wednesday, saying Iran “cannot outlast” American military power and that its capabilities were “evaporating by the hour”.
The joint US-Israeli operation to attack Iran, which began on Saturday, had already delivered “twice the air power of shock and awe of Iraq in 2003” and “seven times the intensity of Israel’s previous operations against Iran during the 12-day war”, Hegseth claimed at a press conference alongside Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
Continue reading...Ban affecting Sudan, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Cameroon will mean more people make Channel crossings, charity says
A new ban on students coming to the UK from four countries where there is war and human rights abuses will drive more people use small boats, campaigners have warned.
The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, announced a bar on student visas from Sudan, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Cameroon on Tuesday evening. It will come into force on 26 March.
Continue reading...Player found guilty of ‘non-serious assault’ in 2020
England defender to appeal again against verdict
The England and Manchester United defender Harry Maguire has been handed a 15-month suspended prison sentence by a Greek court over a 2020 incident in Mykonos.
In 2020, Maguire was found guilty of repeated bodily harm, attempted bribery and violence against public employees after his arrest after a brawl outside a nightclub.
Continue reading...US defense secretary was evasive when asked about the airstrike that Iranian officials say killed at least 165 students
Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, offered few details and was evasive when asked about the deadly strike on a girls’ school in Iran, saying only that the US was “investigating” the incident.
Iranian officials say the attack, which happened on Saturday, killed at least 165 students.
Continue reading...The war will have incalculable implications for Europe – and yet, the chancellor has held back from publicly challenging an increasingly erratic Donald Trump
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You could be forgiven for thinking Friedrich Merz would rather be anywhere but Germany of late.
But hopes that his stop in Washington this week would provide the chancellor even a brief respite from woes at home were dashed by Donald Trump’s risky Iran gamble.
Continue reading...Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison were called to testify at a House Oversight Committee hearing on fraud and the "misuse" of federal funds in the state.
Rapidly escalating war enters fifth day and spreads as far as Indian Ocean with sinking of Iranian vessel off Sri Lanka
Israel has carried out a wave of airstrikes on Iranian security targets and Hezbollah in Beirut as Tehran threatened the “complete destruction of the region’s military and economic infrastructure” as the rapidly escalating war entered its fifth day and reached as far as the Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka.
The Israeli military said it had hit buildings in Iran belonging to the Basij, the volunteer police arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and buildings belonging to internal security forces. Police stations and IRGC headquarters in the Kurdish regions of north-western Iran were also razed by strikes, Kurdish media reported.
Continue reading...UK’s FTSE 100 up by more than 50 points, while pan-European Stoxx 600 share index rises 1.2%
European stock markets have rallied on a report claiming Iran is engaging in a “secret outreach” to end the war in the Middle East, after several days of heavy losses on indices around the world.
The New York Times reported that a day after the attacks began, operatives from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence indirectly contacted the CIA with an offer to discuss terms for ending the conflict.
Continue reading...I’ve been riding one wheels for 3 years now, the currently place I live I have been riding here every day for 2 years, snow or shine. Last night I got pulled over on the way to the store. The reasoning was only bikes are allowed to ride on the road and no one else. I’ve never had a problem with any of the other cops in this town and the rest of them have always just waived and told me I can ride wherever bikes go. Just wondering if anyone else have been harassed by cops for just riding around before.( Had headlights+ tail lights on,a helmet and reflective gear and a headlamp as it was getting dark out)
Attorney General Pam Bondi has rescinded a policy that prohibited political appointees at the Justice Department from attending campaign events or fundraisers, according to a memo seen by CBS News.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem misled Congress on Tuesday about the powers of her controversial top aide Corey Lewandowski, according to records reviewed by ProPublica and four current and former DHS officials.
Lewandowski has an unusual role at DHS, where he is not a paid government employee but is nonetheless acting as a top official, helping Noem run the sprawling agency. For months, members of Congress have asked the agency to detail the scope of his work and authority.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., asked Noem whether Lewandowski has “a role in approving contracts” at DHS. Noem responded with a flat denial: “No.”
But internal DHS records reviewed by ProPublica contradict Noem’s Senate testimony. The records show Lewandowski personally approved a multimillion-dollar equipment contract at the agency last summer.
That was not a one-off. Lewandowski has approved numerous contracts at DHS and often needs to sign off on large ones before any money goes out the door, the current and former department employees said.
Last year, Noem imposed a new policy that consolidated her and her top aides’ power over all spending at DHS, requiring that she personally review and approve all contracts above $100,000. Before the contracts reach Noem, they must be approved by a series of political appointees, who each sign or initial a checklist sometimes referred to internally as a routing sheet. Typically, the last name on the checklist before Noem’s is Lewandowski’s, the DHS officials said.
Under federal law, it is a crime to “knowingly and willfully” make a false statement to Congress. But in practice, it is rarely prosecuted.
In a statement, a DHS spokesperson reiterated Noem’s claim. “Mr. Lewandowski does NOT play a role in approving contracts,” the spokesperson said. “Mr. Lewandowski does not receive a salary or any federal government benefits. He volunteers his time to serve the American people.” Lewandowski did not respond to a request for comment.
Several news outlets, including Politico, have previously reported on aspects of Lewandowski’s involvement in contracting at DHS.
There have been widespread reports of delays caused by the new contract approval process at the agency, which has responsibilities spanning from immigration enforcement to disaster relief to airport security. DHS has asserted that the review process saved taxpayers billions of dollars.
A similar sign-off process exists for other policy decisions at DHS. One of the checklists, about rolling back protections for Haitians in the U.S., emerged in litigation last year. It featured the signatures of several top DHS advisers. Under them was Lewandowski’s signature, and then Noem’s.
Lewandowski is what’s known as a “special government employee,” a designation historically used to let experts serve in government for limited periods without having to give up their outside jobs. (At the beginning of the Trump administration, Elon Musk was one, too.) Special government employees have to abide by only some of the same ethics rules as normal officials and are permitted to have sources of outside income.
Lewandowski has declined to disclose whether he is being paid by any outside companies and, if so, who.
The post Kristi Noem Misled Congress About Top Aide’s Role in DHS Contracts appeared first on ProPublica.
Doctors say that if left untreated, raccoon roundworm can cause severe health complications, including brain damage and death.
With the wait for the new Winds and Waves games set to stretch into 2027, Pokemon’s 30th anniversary celebrations have plugged the gap with a deluge of nostalgia bait. Is the franchise in danger of losing its heart?
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It has been almost impossible to escape Pokémon for the past few weeks. To mark the 30th anniversary of the original games, the Pokémon Company has been on an unprecedented promotional nostalgia trip for the entire month: there was a campaign where celebrities gushed about their favourite Pokémon, gifting us the memorable sight of Lady Gaga singing with a Jigglypuff, and Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (great Game Boy Advance remakes of the original 1996 games) were rereleased on the Nintendo Switch. The Natural History Museum in London has opened a special Pokémon pop-up shop, and a limited-edition greyscale Pikachu plush toy sold out in about three seconds (they will be making more, to the disappointment of scalpers everywhere).
And all that is just the start. We’ve seen the opening of a Pokémon theme park in Tokyo, the announcement of a tiny Game Boy-shaped music player that plays the games’ soundtrack, a collaboration with high-fashion brand JimmyPaul that had its own runway show … it’s been endless. Regular readers will know that I am exactly the target audience for this festival of Pokémon nostalgia: the first generation of Pokémon kids and now hurtling towards 40. And yet I have been unmoved by most of this, even slightly annoyed by it.
Continue reading...A new Android app called Nearby Glasses alerts users when Bluetooth signals from smart glasses are detected nearby. The Android app, called Nearby Glasses, "launches at a time as there is an increasing resistance against always-recording or listening devices, which critics say process information about nearby people who do not give their consent," reports TechCrunch. From the report: Yves Jeanrenaud, who made the app, first spoke to 404 Media about the project and said he was in part inspired to make Nearby Glasses after reading the independent publication's reporting into wearable surveillance devices, including how Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses have been used in immigration raids and to film and harass sex workers. On the app's project page, Jeanrenaud described smart glasses as an "intolerable intrusion, consent neglecting, horrible piece of tech." Jeanrenaud told TechCrunch in an email that his motivation came from "witnessing the sheer scale and inhumane nature of the abuse these smart glasses are involved in." Jeanrenaud also cited Meta's decision to implement face recognition as a default feature in its smart glasses, "which I consider to be a huge floodgate pushed open for all kinds of privacy-invasive behavior." The app works by listening for nearby Bluetooth signals that contain a publicly assigned identifier unique to the Bluetooth device's manufacturer. If the app detects a Bluetooth signal from a nearby hardware device made by Meta or Snap, the app will send the user an alert. (The app also allows users to add their own specific Bluetooth identifiers, allowing the user to detect a broader range of wearable surveillance gadgetry.) Further reading: Meta's AI Display Glasses Reportedly Share Intimate Videos With Human Moderators
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
‘We just don’t know what will happen,’ western officials say, as UK bases prepare for arrival of US heavy bombers
Britain has not ruled out participating in future strikes against Iranian ballistic missile launch sites, officials have indicated.
US heavy bombers are expected to reach UK bases at Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands and Fairford in Gloucestershire in the next few days, from where they are expected to attack Iran’s underground “missile cities”.
Continue reading...Dassault Aviation says €100bn project may soon be ‘dead’ if Airbus will not agree on how to share workload
France and Germany’s next-generation fighter jet project could soon be “dead”, one of the two companies tasked with delivering it has warned, amid a worsening corporate rift over who gets to build the aircraft.
Dassault Aviation, France’s leading warplane maker, said Airbus’s defence arm – which represents Germany and Spain – needed to cooperate on the €100bn programme otherwise it would collapse.
Continue reading...The measure, which would block President Trump from further military force against Iran, appears poised to fall short of the simple majority needed to advance in the Senate.
Democratic rematch in Durham-area district draws focus to fight over AI datacenters increasingly shaping US elections
A North Carolina congressional primary held on Tuesday is an early test of datacenter politics – a fight increasingly shaping elections nationwide.
In the Durham-area fourth district, Congresswoman Valerie Foushee is seeking her third term against progressive challenger Nida Allam, a Durham county commissioner she defeated in 2022. The election was too close to call as of Wednesday morning, with Foushee up by less than one percentage point, and is likely headed for a recount.
Continue reading...BARCELONA, Spain, March 4, 2026 — SK Telecom announced it has signed a three-party memorandum of understanding (MOU) with global server manufacturer Supermicro and global mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) leader Schneider Electric to develop a total solution for artificial intelligence data centers (AIDC).
The agreement, signed at MWC26, aims to shorten AIDC construction timelines and help alleviate supply bottlenecks by leveraging the combined expertise of the three companies.
The companies will collaborate on a pre-fabricated modular model that integrates AI computing servers with supporting power and cooling infrastructure into a single pre-manufactured module, enabling AIDCs to be constructed in a building-block configuration.
Compared with the conventional steel-reinforced concrete (SRC) method, in which servers and infrastructure are installed sequentially after completion of the data center building, the pre-fabricated modular model offers both faster deployment and improved cost efficiency.
In addition, modules can be deployed in phases as demand grows, enhancing scalability while reducing the burden of significant upfront investments and enabling flexible responses to evolving market needs.
Under the MOU, SK Telecom will contribute its AIDC operational expertise; Supermicro will provide high-performance GPU servers optimized for customer-specific AI computing scenarios; and Schneider Electric will deliver MEP infrastructure design and construction capabilities to reliably support large-scale AI demand.
“Through collaboration with global leaders in the AIDC business, we are advancing a total solution based on a pre-fabricated modular model,” said Ha Min-yong, Head of SK Telecom’s AIDC Business. “Building on this initiative, we aim to proactively address the AIDC deployment needs of global hyper-scalers while further strengthening our cost competitiveness.”
“In the era of AI, the true measure of competitiveness lies in how fast and sustainably organizations can deliver high-performance infrastructure,” said Andrew Bradner, Senior Vice President at Schneider Electric. “Through this collaboration, we are introducing an integrated AI DC model based on a pre-fabricated modular design — empowering customers to lower carbon emissions, eliminate supply bottlenecks, and operate high-density AI workloads with greater resilience and efficiency.”
“Supermicro is excited to partner with SK Telecom to bring data centers online faster than ever before,” said Cenly Chen, Chief Growth Officer at Supermicro. “This new integrated solution will leverage Supermicro’s high-performance, GPU-optimized servers tailored to customer workloads. We look forward to helping organizations meet their growing data center needs with this latest technology.”
About SK Telecom
SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) has been leading the growth of the mobile industry since 1984. Now, it is taking customer experience to new heights by extending beyond connectivity. By placing AI at the core of its business, SK Telecom is rapidly transforming into an AI company with a strong global presence. It is focusing on driving innovations in areas of AI Infrastructure, AI Transformation (AIX) and AI Service to deliver greater value for industry, society, and life.
Source: SK Telecom
The post SK Telecom, Supermicro and Schneider Electric Sign MOU on Total Solutions for AI Data Center Deployment appeared first on HPCwire.
I've owned a OneWheel Pint for around 4 years now in the UK. I've only racked up around 360 miles and they were mainly in the first 2 years. I've barely touched the board in the last 2 years due to lack of places to ride locally. So i'm thinking about selling, but it seems like a tough thing to sell.
Would anyone be able to advise on price, where to sell etc?
My main worry is that these things get battered, for obvious reasons. No one wants to buy something that's all scratched and dented. I learnt to ride with this board so it has it's fair share of wear and tear. It also has a decent dent in the front where it hit some railing. But apart from that, it's a solid working board.
Do I take the approach of selling as a way to learn without buying an expensive new board maybe?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Lawsuit is first wrongful death case brought against Google over flagship AI product after death of Jonathan Gavalas
Last August, Jonathan Gavalas became entirely consumed with his Google Gemini chatbot. The 36-year-old Florida resident had started casually using the artificial intelligence tool earlier that month to help with writing and shopping. Then Google introduced its Gemini Live AI assistant, which included voice-based chats that had the capability to detect people’s emotions and respond in a more human-like way.
“Holy shit, this is kind of creepy,” Gavalas told the chatbot the night the feature debuted, according to court documents. “You’re way too real.”
Continue reading...BARCELONA, Spain, March 4, 2026 — At the Huawei product and solution launch event during MWC Barcelona 2026, Bob Chen, President of Huawei Optical Business Product Line, unveiled Next Generation Optical Network products and solutions to foster synergy between AI and networks, accelerating the evolution toward AI-centric All-Optical Network.
Bob Chen, President of Huawei Optical Business Product Line, is unveiling Next Generation Optical Network products and solutions
Upgrading optical networks for the AI era is the right move. The ITU-T has officially released the ION-2030 vision, defining key capabilities, application scenarios, and standardization roadmap for next-generation optical networks. Leading global operators are also accelerating the deployment of next-generation optical networks.
Chen stated, “Huawei advances Next Generation Optical Network solutions in two directions: AI for Networks and Networks for AI. In AI for Networks, AI technologies enable intelligent fiber sensing, enhance network performance and user experience, improve O&M efficiency, and reduce energy consumption. In Networks for AI, enhanced network capabilities help operators build AI-centric all-optical target networks, accelerating AI adoption across homes and enterprises.”
AI for Networks: Improving Network Quality and Efficiency
Networks for AI: Accelerating AI Popularization
Huawei has launched a full series of products and solutions for Next Generation Optical Network. In the optical access domain, Huawei has introduced Next Generation FAN products such as FTTR, OLT, ONT, and ODN. In the optical transmission domain, Huawei has released Next Generation OTN products for OTN backbone, OTN optical layer, and OTN metro networks, helping operators build Agentic UBB networks.
Source: Huawei
The post Huawei Launches Next-Gen Optical Network Products and Solutions to Drive New Growth in the AI Era appeared first on HPCwire.
It has a 13-inch display powered by an A18 Pro chip, and you can get it in a rainbow of colors.
A network of satellites supported 300 rescues across the U.S. and its surrounding waters in 2025, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
YouGov poll shows 50% support as Kristi Noem defends ‘terrorist’ claim and shutdown drags on
Half of Americans support the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, a new poll has found, as opposition to Donald Trump’s aggressive federal immigration crackdown continues to grow.
The analysis by YouGov revealed that exactly 50% of respondents “strongly or somewhat” want to see the agency dismantled, a 5% rise from a January poll taken between the deaths in Minnesota of US citizen protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti by immigration officers.
Continue reading...Afghanistan and Pakistan are facing ‘open war’. De-escalation is needed Expert comment thilton.drupal
With the world distracted by war in the Middle East, de-escalation will need to come from Kabul and Islamabad directly.
Fighting between Afghanistan and Pakistan has intensified in recent weeks, with no sign of de-escalation after Islamabad said it is waging an ‘open war’ against its neighbour.
Pakistan launched air strikes on Afghanistan last week in response to attacks on border posts by the Afghan military on 26 February. In a serious escalation, it targeted major cities including Kabul and Kandahar, as well as Bagram airbase. Kabul responded by targeting Pakistani military facilities.
These developments mark a clear escalation from the previous limited border skirmishes and use of proxies. Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of hosting separatist and terror groups that have carried out increasing attacks within Pakistan, including the Tereek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, or Pakistan Taliban) and Baloch separatists. These groups contributed to a 34 per cent increase in the number of annual terror attacks inside Pakistan in 2025. The Taliban denies involvement.
In November, the TTP carried out a suicide attack outside a district court in Islamabad, pointing to its growing reach beyond border tribal areas. The separatist Balochistan Liberation Army, which Pakistan says has sanctuaries in Afghanistan, also claimed attacks in Baluchistan province in January that killed almost 50 people.
The degree of direct complicity between Kabul and these militant groups is contested. At best, the uptick in attacks reflects Kabul’s inability to control militant activities within its borders; at worst, it reflects a degree of collusion between the Taliban and the TTP, who both espouse a similar conservative version of Sunni Islam.
These tensions are exacerbated by the forced repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan. An estimated 2.7 million Afghans returned to Afghanistan in 2025 alone, mainly from Iran and Pakistan, contributing to a 12 per cent increase in population since 2023. The eviction of Afghan refugees from Pakistan is likely to accelerate amid the current tensions, placing further pressure on Afghanistan’s already stretched public services.
Afghanistan’s precarious economic situation has been further exacerbated by Islamabad’s decision to close the Afghan-Pakistan border in October and suspend all trade. As a landlocked country, Afghanistan is heavily dependent on Pakistan and other neighbouring countries for transit trade.
The current conflict has deep historic roots. The Afghan government does not recognize the Durand Line, the 2,600km line demarcating the Pakistan-Afghanistan border that was drawn in 1893. The border goes through ethnic Pashtun areas and, as such, is opposed by Pashtun nationalists in Afghanistan. For this reason, Afghanistan was the only country to initially vote against Pakistan’s admission to the United Nations in 1947.
During the Afghan civil war in the 1990s, Pakistan supported the Taliban against the Northern Alliance, which was backed by India (as well as Iran and Russia). Islamabad has historically maintained close relations with the Taliban and initially welcomed the US/NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. But relations have since soured amid the recurring border skirmishes and attacks in Pakistan.
Afghanistan’s role in relation to the India-Pakistan rivalry has also strained relations. Historically, the Taliban was seen by New Delhi as a Pakistani proxy. This fuelled claims that Afghanistan was giving Pakistan ‘strategic depth’ in its rivalry with India, with Islamabad accused of seeking to leverage relations with the Taliban and other extremist groups to mount asymmetric attacks on India. New Delhi supported the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taliban.
This has now reversed, with Pakistan accusing the Taliban of turning Afghanistan into a ‘colony of India’. This narrative has gained further momentum due to renewed hostilities between India and Pakistan following their brief four-day conflict last year, as well as Kabul and New Delhi moving towards a partial normalization of relations. Although India has yet to formally recognize the Taliban government, it has reopened its embassy in Kabul.
New Delhi may welcome conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan as it diverts Islamabad’s attention away from its eastern border with India. But if the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment perceive an Indian hand behind Kabul’s actions, it could also fuel hostilities between New Delhi and Islamabad.
India conducts trade with Afghanistan via Iran’s Chahbahar port, where New Delhi is a key stakeholder. However, reported US and Israeli air strikes on the port city and the wider instability in Iran may now limit access via this route.
Pakistan’s unstable periphery also raises questions about the credibility of Islamabad’s broader regional ambitions.
Islamabad has demonstrated a growing ambition to play a more prominent role in the geopolitics and security of the Middle East. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia announced a ‘Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement’ in September. Pakistan also joined the ‘Board of Peace’ in January, prompting speculation about Pakistani peacekeepers being deployed to Gaza.
Yet while Islamabad remains eager to ingratiate itself with the Trump administration, it will be reluctant to get dragged into the Iran conflict or overextend itself in the Middle East as it faces instability with its other neighbours.
At the domestic political level, Pakistan’s recurring tensions with its neighbours have been used by the military to justify it maintaining a monopoly over the country’s foreign and security policies. The military and intelligence establishment will use the conflict with Afghanistan as grounds for further tightening its grip.
This comes amid recent concerns about the health of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, who became increasingly critical of the military’s role during his tenure. Khan’s party, the PTI, currently controls the government of KP province, which borders Afghanistan. This will further complicate any diplomatic initiative between Afghanistan and Pakistan, given the difficult relationship between the KP provincial government and the national government in Islamabad.
Countries in the Middle East have played an increasingly prominent role in trying to mediate Afghanistan-Pakistan hostilities in recent years. After their previous round of fighting, both sides agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Doha and Istanbul in October. This has been followed by Saudi-led mediation efforts. However, with renewed instability in the Middle East, Gulf states will have limited bandwidth to play a hands-on role in de-escalating Afghan-Pakistan tensions.
China is another possible contender, having held a trilateral foreign minister-level meeting with Afghanistan and Pakistan in August. Beijing has so far demonstrated a limited appetite for entanglement in inter-state tensions that do not directly threaten its national security. However, threats to its nationals and investments in Pakistan as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor may prompt it to play a more hands-on role.
The US has also demonstrated a limited appetite to intervene. Even before Washington became preoccupied with its military operation against Iran, President Donald Trump had already stated that he did not see the need for the US to intervene or mediate as ‘Pakistan is doing terrifically well’.
The report comes just hours before Walz and Ellison are expected to testify before the committee.
How will the war in Iran affect Ukraine? 11 March 2026 — 3:00PM TO 4:00PM Anonymous (not verified) Online
Assessing the geopolitical, military and economic spill overs of the Iran conflict on Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Experts examine how Middle East conflict may alter the course of the war in Ukraine.
The recent escalation in the Middle East – marked by the joint US-Israeli strikes against Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes – sent shockwaves across the globe, with knock-on effects for on the war in Ukraine. In this webinar, experts will share perspectives on the geopolitical, economic and military implications of the situation in the Middle East for the Ukraine-Russia war.
The man behind the AI-generated image in question reflects on what he calls a "philosophical milestone."
Commentary: The problem of aligning artificial intelligence with human interests is one of the biggest challenges we face.
I guess that means we're best friends now.
Apple could unveil a new iPhone at its special event or in September. Either way, you should wait. Here's why.
Yes, you should absolutely marathon them.
At Mobile World Congress, Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm argued that the coming 6G networks will power an AI-driven "agent economy," where devices and AI assistants constantly communicate across the network. "AI will fundamentally change our mobile experiences," Qualcomm chief executive, Cristiano Amon says. "It's going to change how we think about our smartphones. Think about our personal computing. Think about and interact with a car. The car is now a computing surface. If you actually believe in the AI revolution, 6G will be required. Resistance is futile." The company says early consumer testing could begin around the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, with broader rollouts expected by 2029. Fortune's Kamal Ahmed reports: Akash Palkhiwala is Qualcomm's chief financial officer and chief operating officer. I spent some time with him at the company's stand, as his leading engineers took me through a 6G future where individuals will have real-time information delivered to them via their glasses. Palkhiwala compliments me on my watch, which only does one thing. It tells me the time. "6G is going to be the first time that connectivity and AI come together in the network. What we're building is the first AI-native wireless network that's ever been built," he explains. "The traffic that we expect on 6G is way different than what we had before," says Palkhiwala. "Before, it was all about consumer traffic. We expect 6G to be driven by [AI] agent traffic. Think about all these use cases where there are AI agents sitting on various devices -- your glasses, your watch, your phone, your PC. These agents are going to be talking back and forth across the network to other agents and services. "The traffic completely changes. 6G is being built with this idea that the traffic that goes on the network is not just going to be consumer voice calls or downloading videos, we're going to have agents talking to each other, so the reliability of the network becomes very important." On-device capabilities (the ability of your phone to process far more data); edge computing (locally sourced IT technology rather than distant data centers); more efficient use of available bandwidth (AI-enabled load control); and greater cloud access will all come together to produce a new wireless network. [...] "Today we are in the application economy," he notes. "On the phone, you want to make a travel reservation, you go to one application. You want to order an Uber, you go to a second application. You want to order food, you go to a third application, movie tickets, etc. The user has to go through that effort. In the future, you think of the app economy moving over to an agent economy, where there's one agent I'm interacting with, and I can ask that agent to book me a movie ticket or a plane ticket, to order food for me, get an Uber for me. It knows everything about me."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Judge notes New York legislature passed $9 fee and it was signed into law by governor before federal approvals
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to halt New York’s first-in-the-nation congestion fee meant to reduce traffic and pump revenue into the region’s ageing transit system.
Lewis Liman, a US district judge, on Tuesday ruled that the US Department of Transportation lacked the authority to unilaterally rescind approval of the $9 toll, which was initially greenlighted by Joe Biden.
Continue reading...Light therapy can give you an energy boost, perfect for making it through daylight saving time.
Defence secretary confirms strike on Iris Dena in first US attack on Iranian forces outside Middle East during conflict
The US has carried out a submarine torpedo strike that sank an Iranian warship off the south coast of Sri Lanka, according to the US secretary of defence.
Pete Hegseth confirmed that the US was behind the deadly strike on an Iranian frigate that killed more than 80 people, as it was sailing close to the Sri Lankan coast.
Continue reading...Englishman has led team to back-to-back triumphs
Tiger Woods is first choice to take over US captaincy
Luke Donald will captain Europe’s Ryder Cup team for a third time in a move that will increase pressure on the PGA of America to tie down Tiger Woods to lead the US at Adare Manor next September. Woods, who is the first choice to succeed Keegan Bradley, has been publicly vague on his captaincy status.
The announcement on Donald’s captaincy, revealed by the Guardian earlier on Wednesday, has enhanced Europe’s sense of continuity and togetherness with the US picture uncertain. Donald has been widely lauded for his approach in Rome and New York, where Europe won back-to-back Ryder Cups. After a dramatic success at Bethpage last year, it was apparent players wanted the Englishman to remain in office.
Continue reading...I spoke with a public health professor and a toxicologist to learn if microwaving leftovers is the reason why microplastics enter our food and body.
We used a smoke chamber to test 12 different air purifiers. This is the model that works best to prevent colds and the flu.
Texas state Rep. James Talarico’s victory in a heated Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday offered a potential bright spot to the state’s progressive organizers — not necessarily because they prefer his policies, but because some see him as more malleable than his opponent, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
The bitter race was framed as a referendum on the style of Democrat Texas voters want, with Talarico known for bridging divides and Crockett for inflaming them. While the avowed Christian Talarico drew praise from pundits for assailing billionaires and describing wealth redistribution as a righteous cause, more voters perceived him as the moderate in the race, according to a Texas Public Opinion Research poll. Organizers in Texas said they saw his openness as an opportunity to push him left, too.
Groups active in Palestinian rights work “feel like there’s movement and space to move Talarico,” said Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, a labor organizer who ran against the Democratic Party’s pick in Texas’s Senate primary, even though currently “he’s not where they want him to be.”
As Talarico gears up for the November election against either incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn or Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, who are set to compete in a runoff in May, local progressive organizers are “very much going to push” him, Ramirez said. They’ll need to, she and other organizers pointed out — while Talarico and Crockett diverge in tone, local activists said that on key issues, including immigrants’ rights and accountability for Israel, they offered little difference in substance.
“Their policies on Gaza are pretty much the same,” said Azra Siddiqi, a community activist who met with both campaigns as part of a coalition of over a dozen Muslim organizing groups. Before the primary, she said her group couldn’t “really recommend one over the other.”
Voters were able to scrutinize Crockett’s federal record, which included voting to send weapons to Israel, whereas they couldn’t do the same with Talarico, a state legislator. Siddiqi said she came away from the meetings feeling like Talarico didn’t necessarily understand where her community was coming from on Gaza.
After the meetings, Siddiqi said, organizers were frustrated by what she described as Talarico’s refusal to call Israel’s destruction of Gaza a genocide pending an official international designation, or his attempt to delineate between his support for defensive weapons for Israel rather than offensive ones. Talarico has accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza and said the destruction was a “moral disaster” and one of many reasons Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election. He stopped short of describing Israel’s violence in Gaza as a genocide during a September interview with HuffPost. Siddiqi and other activists also pressed him on accepting campaign contributions in the Texas state house from a pro-casino PAC bankrolled by pro-Israel Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson.
Sameeha Rizvi, the Texas policy and advocacy coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations Action, said refusing to describe the war as a genocide could turn away voters in Texas’ Muslim community. And while Rizvi, who also met with the coalition, has heard the sentiment that Palestine is an unwinnable issue in a red state, she pointed to growing voter frustration with Israel on both the left and right over the genocide in Gaza and the U.S. and Israel’s war in Iran, connecting that outrage to the economic issues that powered Talarico’s campaign.
“We can barely afford the cost of living, and health care is like inaccessible to half the population.”
“Ending the genocide and standing with the Palestinian people essentially does benefit this country, because we wouldn’t be sending billions of our taxpayer dollars over to a foreign entity for them to commit genocide. We look back at our state at home and we can barely afford the cost of living, and health care is like inaccessible to half the population,” Rizvi said.
In a mid-February email shared with The Intercept, organizers told Talarico they could not formally endorse him because he had not addressed their concerns on Israel and Gaza. They described being brushed off by the campaign and “feeling disregarded in this process.”
“I want to be candid,” wrote organizer Hatem Natsheh, “if Talarico wins the primary, success in the general election will require broad coalition support, including ours. We sincerely hope it will not be too late to rebuild communication and trust should the campaign wish to re-engage in a meaningful way.”
Several days later, Talarico’s campaign sent Natsheh a backgrounder saying he would support legislation to end offensive weapons to Israel, would push to make sure defensive weapons weren’t used to harm civilians, and would “not take campaign contributions from any PACs on any side of this conflict — because I want people to know that my position is driven by my values, not any outside influence.”
Organizers also requested a similar statement from Crockett’s campaign, Siddiqi said, but they did not hear back.
Beyond Israel and Palestine, immigration policy may feel closer to home for many Texas voters. Texas border towns have long been the front line for the militarization of immigration enforcement, and local immigration activists told The Intercept they hope the Democratic nominee will be more aggressive in halting violence from federal immigration agents than their party leadership.
“If anybody has a standpoint that is not abolish ICE, then I think they can do more,” said Amerika Garcia Grewal, co-founder and co-director of Frontera Foundation, who said that applied to both Talarico and Crockett.
Garcia Grewal is based in the border city of Eagle Pass, which Gov. Greg Abbott has made ground zero for his immigration crackdown, known as Operation Lone Star. Since 2021, the Republican governor has constructed dangerous barriers along the Rio Grande to deter crossings, seized city property to house National Guard soldiers, and sent hundreds of troops and military vehicles to police the streets in what has been described as a military occupation of the city. Under the Biden administration, the city was touted by congressional Republicans as a success story of border security.
Now, Garcia Grewal sees the violence from federal agents who fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis as a continuation of a war on immigrants that has been raging in Texas for years. She criticized Texas Democrats who were quiet on defending Eagle Pass from Republican attacks as laying the groundwork for increased militarization of immigration enforcement elsewhere.
“What happened on the border didn’t stay on the border.”
“What happened on the border didn’t stay on the border,” Garcia Grewal said. “The rest of the country is waking up to what we’ve been experiencing here for years.” She pointed out that Immigration and Customs agents killed another American citizen, Ruben Ray Martinez, in the coastal Texas town of South Padre Island nearly a year ago — which went largely unnoticed and was not linked to ICE until last month.
Talarico has decried the killings of Americans by federal agents, calling for the prosecution of ICE agents who have broken laws, but has stopped short of saying he would abolish ICE. Instead, he has stuck closer to the route of party leadership, which emphasizes “reining in” ICE and Customs and Border Protection with reforms and more accountability around use of force. He has also advocated for at least partially defunding the agency’s budget in favor of social services, such as healthcare.
Aspects of Talarico’s border security policies would continue militarized immigration enforcement. Talarico has likened the border to a front porch that “should have a welcome mat out front and lock on the door.”
While the welcome mat is for refugees, asylum-seekers, or anyone who wants to contribute to the economy, according to his campaign platform, Talarico’s lock shows up in his calls for continued investment in border security. His policy says the border should keep out people “who mean to do us harm,” listing cartels and gang members, and that ports of entry should be modernized “to better detect threats before they come.”
“Democrats are missing the opportunity to really show the way and how to fix what’s going on with immigration,” said José Palma, the Houston-based coordinator of the National Temporary Protected Status Alliance. The party’s dominant strategies, he added, represent “a very, very low ask.”
For both Palma and Garcia Grewal, violent immigration enforcement is the product of a failed immigration system that has not offered people viable paths to citizenship. Even people with status through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals are being deported, Palma pointed out, and poor conditions persist at detention centers, where 32 people died in ICE custody last year. At least eight more have died in the agency’s hands this year so far.
Palma said he was frustrated with the Democrats’ long history of promising to fight for immigrants in campaigns but failing to deliver legislation once in power. He worried as a similar dynamic was playing out amid the outcry against ICE and called on Democrats like Talarico to lay out clear objectives to protect immigrant communities.
“The harassment and the abuse is something to denounce,” he said, “But at the same time, undocumented immigrants are getting detained in every other opportunity they have and they are getting deported. At the same time we need to highlight abuses, we have to talk about harm reduction, but also, what is the solution?”
In a celebratory speech on primary night, Talarico pledged to serve “a people-powered movement to take on this broken political system,” saying he ran “truly a campaign of, by, and for the people.” As he prepares to face a Republican in the months to come, Texans will have to determine which people his movement includes.
The post Will James Talarico Really Fight for Justice in Texas? appeared first on The Intercept.
Trump’s sweeping tariffs have left many businesses facing higher costs and uncertainty. We want to hear how smaller companies are navigating the fallout
Small businesses across the US are reportedly struggling to navigate the fallout from Donald Trump’s global tariff wars and the legal battles surrounding them.
Last month, the US supreme court struck down the president’s so-called “liberation day” tariffs, potentially opening the door to as much as $175bn in refunds for businesses that paid the import taxes but the process for claiming that money is complex and uncertain.
Continue reading...It's the third day of the world's largest phone and mobile technology show. CNET is on the ground in Barcelona, covering announcements from Honor, Google, Samsung, Xiaomi and more.
A crew of movers boxed in the car of a suspect in an Amber Alert case, blocking in the suspect until police arrived.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors: OpenAI today updated its most popular ChatGPT model, debuting GPT-5.3 Instant. GPT-5.3 Instant is supposed to provide more accurate answers and better contextualized results when searching the web. The update also cuts down on unnecessary dead ends, caveats, and overly declarative phrasing, plus it has fewer hallucinations. According to OpenAI, it tweaked the Instant model to address complaints about tone, relevance, and conversational flow, which are issues that don't show up in benchmarks. GPT-5.2 Instant had a "cringe" tone that could be overbearing or make unsubstantiated assumptions about user intent or emotions. The new model will have a more natural conversational style and will cut back on dramatic phrases like "Stop. Take a breath." Users found that GPT-5.2 Instant would refuse questions it should have been able to answer, or respond in ways that felt overly cautious around sensitive topics. GPT-5.3 Instant cuts down on refusals and tones down overly defensive or moralizing preambles when answering a question. The model will no longer "over-caveat" after assuming bad intent from the user. GPT-5.3 Instant also provides higher-quality answers based on information from the web. OpenAI says that it is able to better balance what it finds online with its own knowledge, so it is less likely to overindex on web results.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Exclusive: study finds workers at 20 S&P 500 firms rely on Medicaid and Snap as CEO pay and buybacks soar
Many workers at some of the largest US corporations have no choice but to rely on healthcare and food assistance because of low wages, even as CEO compensation continues to grow, according to a new report released Wednesday.
The report, published by the Institute of Policy Studies, focuses on 20 of the S&P 500 corporations that have primarily US-based workforces and report the lowest median wages of the group.
Continue reading...The US president’s plan will hurt consumers, companies and the stock market, as well as relations with other countries
After the US supreme court overturned Donald Trump’s global tariffs, he had two options: do what’s best for the US economy or do what’s best for his ego. Trump of course chose what’s best for his ego, and he did that by seizing on a never previously used legal provision to impose new tariffs that Trump – who can never admit defeat – insists will be just as good as the overturned tariffs.
Unfortunately, Trump’s decision to create a whole new set of tariffs will be bad for both the US economy and the world economy. When one cuts through Trump’s delusional poppycock about how great his new tariffs will be, it becomes clear that his new 15% across-the-board tariff will hurt consumers, corporations, factories, US trading partners and Trump’s beloved stock market. While Trump says “tariffs” is “the most beautiful word”, economists, business executives and consumers give Trump’s tariffs a thumbs down. A huge 64% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of tariffs, according to a new ABC News/WashingtonPost/Ipsos poll.
Continue reading...These misconceptions about your security are wrong, outdated and often costly mistakes.
At a meeting of the board that governs the World Cup stadium in Foxborough, promises were made if not accepted
Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Foxborough, Massachusetts, Select Board is still minutes from starting, but a local resident can’t keep himself from approaching the bench. He has an urgent question for the five members, who in effect serve as the town’s primary governing body. His tone isn’t one of anger, more of concern.
“Do you think we’re going to have the World Cup here?”
Continue reading...Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine are holding their second briefing on Iran war operations, as the conflict enters its fifth day.
Exclusive: Trio arrested by counter-terrorism police understood to also include partner of a former Labour MP
The partner of a sitting Labour MP is among three men who have been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, the Guardian understands.
The Met Police took the men into custody on Wednesday morning on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service, and as part of a wider investigation into national security offences related to China.
Continue reading...In 2011, a Chicago police officer is murdered. Police find four suspects. Three confess. But the fourth refuses to break. He’ll embark on a 12-year battle to prove his innocence, against a system which refuses to admit that it might be wrong. The latest podcast series from Guardian Investigates. Coming soon
Continue reading...Oxford-based firm has raised $103m for commercial development of software for self-driving industrial vehicles
Nvidia is investing in the British autonomous driving startup Oxa, alongside backing from the UK’s National Wealth Fund, in a boost to the country’s technology sector.
The Oxford-based company, which has developed software for self-driving industrial vehicles, said it had raised $103m (£77m) from investors to focus on commercial solutions for that software, as well as its physical AI and robotics technology, and to push on with its global expansion plans.
Continue reading...Amazon's sci-fi slate is top-notch.
When I searched to see if you can make popcorn in an air fryer, I couldn’t find a clear answer, so I reached out to a manufacturer and pro chefs.
We're telling you where to watch it all, plus F1 extras on Apple Music, Apple Sports and other Apple apps.
Company promises ‘rapprochement discount’ for shoppers from country after decade-long action in EU court
The UK supermarket chain Iceland has abandoned its decade-long trademark battle with Iceland and instead promised a “rapprochement discount” for shoppers in the country.
After the budget grocery chain suffered its third legal loss last year, its executive chair, Richard Walker, said on Wednesday that it would draw a line under the dispute.
Continue reading...Choice of anti-western candidate would give signal that senior figures will not seek accommodation with US
Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the assassinated Ali Khamenei, is being heavily tipped to succeed his father as supreme leader of Iran, which would pitch a hardliner into the task of steering the Islamic republic through the most turbulent period in its 48-year history and offer a powerful signal that, for now, it has no intention of changing course.
No official confirmation has been given and the announcement may be delayed until after the funeral of Ali Khamenei, which was on Wednesday postponed.
Continue reading...Commentary: I love the idea behind the dedicated Camera Control button on recent iPhones, but it keeps getting in the way.
From wired models to battery-powered, these smoke alarms are the best on the market.
The SunBooster mounts onto a laptop or monitor to hopefully give you a dose of energy when you can't see the sun.
Medvedev and Rublev both miss pre-event exhibition
Challenger event in Dubai cancelled over security alert
The Russian tennis players Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev did not arrive at Indian Wells in time to participate in Tuesday night’s southern California exhibition event after they were among those affected by travel disruptions caused by the war on Iran.
The US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran over the weekend and the conflict has led to airspace closures and widespread flight cancellations across parts of the Gulf, disrupting a key transit hub.
Continue reading...Mukund Krishna arrested by City of London police along with two other national board members
The head of the Police Federation of England and Wales has been arrested on suspicion of corruption.
Officers from the City of London police arrested Mukund Krishna and two other national board members.
Continue reading...Takeshi Ebisawa was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a New York court after being convicted of trafficking nuclear material as well as drugs and weapons.
Vote to come after Israel launches wave of strikes on Tehran. Plus, why a ChatGPT boycott could work
Good morning.
Republicans in the Senate are expected to reject a resolution backed by the Democrats that would prevent Donald Trump from continuing the Iran war, with the majority leader, John Thune, arguing the president was “acting in the best interest of the nation”.
What would the war powers resolution do? It would force an end to US participation in the conflict and require Trump to go to Congress before re-entering the war. The Democrats would need five Republicans to vote with them for it to pass, as they are outnumbered in the Senate.
What impact is the war having on global markets? They tumbled further on Wednesday despite US assurances, including Trump’s offer to have the US navy escort oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz, which Iran has in effect closed.
How could the conflict backfire? Experts have warned it risks driving the regime towards building a secret bomb, with one scholar saying: “A vengeful Iran that survives this strike is likely to reach the same conclusion that North Korea reached: that it’s a dangerous world out there with the United States and it’s better to go nuclear.”
Follow the latest in this rapidly developing conflict on our liveblog.
Continue reading...Groundsman stumbles across room, sealed for more than 100 years, that was part of 12th-century Manchester hall
A sinkhole that opened up on a Manchester golf course has exposed a wine cellar abandoned for more than a century.
The cellar, along with dozens of empty wine and port bottles, was discovered by a groundsman who assumed the hole was nothing more than a collapsed drain.
Continue reading...London conference 2026 9 July 2026 — 8:00AM TO 6:00PM Anonymous (not verified) One Great George Street and Online
The 11th edition of Chatham House’s flagship event, will bring together leading voices from policy, business, and academia to propose a route to order in an evolving world.
Annual London Conference - Chatham House showcase
More than a year on from the re-election of Donald Trump as US president, countries are grappling with a rapidly changing international order in security and in economics which many of them also seek to shape.
The US has made clear that its protection of its allies is limited but nonetheless aims to resolve conflicts around the world. It has reset, several times, the terms on which it trades with the world. China has declared that it aims to be the architect of the evolving world order but its intentions remain unclear.
Other countries and regions, from the Middle East to Europe, Latin America, Africa and China’s Asian neighbours seek a path of stability between the two superpowers.
One set of questions is what should be preserved of the old order. Is international law resented as a construction of the West; can countries and companies globally see it as in their interest to embrace? Can the WTO and the IMF be saved? The United Nations itself? Are agreements on health cooperation needed to counter a new pandemic? Is there still hope for a coordinated response to newer challenges: environmental change and AI?
Agreement on new forms of order is emerging, however, as countries including the Global South see their chance to shape an evolving order.
The 2026 London Conference, the 11th edition of Chatham House’s flagship event, will bring together leading voices from government, business, international institutions and universities to propose a route to order in an evolving world.
#CHLondon
By registering for this event, attendees agree to our code of conduct, ensuring a respectful, inclusive, and welcoming space for diverse perspectives and debate.
Republicans are set to vote down the resolution introduced by Democrats, who have condemned Trump for launching strikes without Congressional approval
Senate Republicans are on Wednesday expected to vote down a Democratic-backed war powers resolution that would prevent Donald Trump from continuing the conflict against Iran, with majority leader John Thune arguing the president is “acting in the best interest of the nation”.
Democrats have condemned Trump for ordering an air campaign against Iran without first seeking permission from Congress, while offering shifting explanations of its objectives. The war powers resolution introduced by Democratic senators Tim Kaine, Adam Schiff and minority leader Chuck Schumer would force an end to US participation in the current hostilities and require the president to go to Congress before re-entering the war.
Continue reading...I worked my way through nearly every temperature setting on my fridge to find one that gets it right.
Democratic governors, under pressure, must decide whether to participate in the new federal voucher program, which offers dollars for public and private school students.
Tennessee Republicans are pushing forward with a bill that could force undocumented children out of public education and turn school administrators into immigration informants against their own students, making Tennessee the frontier of an effort led by the Heritage Foundation to fundamentally injure the right to public education.
The state’s proposed “trigger laws,” which will be heard in committee on Wednesday, are direct challenges to Plyler v. Doe, a narrowly decided 1982 Supreme Court case that enshrined the right to a free K–12 public education regardless of immigration status. The parallel bills would also likely violate federal statutes that codify the same right.
The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, has officially called on other states to pass similar laws challenging Plyler, situating Tennessee’s push as among the first in a broader national effort to overturn the decision.
“Illegal aliens should not be eligible for federal, state, or local government benefits, including through their children,” wrote Lora Ries, the director of Heritage’s Border Security and Immigration Center, in a February 17 post, “because the receipt of such benefits facilitates longer unlawful residence in the United States and takes resources from American citizens and lawful immigrants.”
So far, six states — Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho, Indiana, New Jersey, and Tennessee — have introduced bills that would violate Plyler. If passed, their implementation could force a challenge at the Supreme Court.
Educators and immigration advocates told The Intercept that if Tennessee and other states were to get Plyler overturned and enact legislation to track and potentially expel undocumented children from public school, it would “end public education as we know it.”
“This feels like a credible threat,” said Cassandra Zimmer-Wong, an immigration policy analyst at the Niskanen Center. “The ramifications of this are huge … denying children carte-blanche education would create an uneducated, potentially illiterate underclass of children and then adults in this country.”
Last year, the Tennessee state legislature introduced a bill, H.B. 793, that would allow schools to refuse to enroll students who cannot prove “lawful presence” in the United States or charge them tuition, but it was tabled due to concerns about potential federal funding losses because the law violated federal statutes. The bill would also require schools to report the number of students who enroll without a birth certificate. The Tennessee Senate version would allow schools to choose to deny enrollment to undocumented students only if they are unable to pay.
Now, the bill is back — and scheduled for a state House Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday. A companion bill, which would require schools and other entities that receive state funding, like hospitals, to report to the government on recipients’ immigration status, moved out of committee last week. The second bill is also scheduled to be heard by the House State & Local Government Committee on Wednesday. It can only be enacted if H.B. 793 passes and Plyler is overturned.
Sam Singer, a high school teacher who teaches English language learners in Tennessee, said she’s had “numerous students” who’ve heard of the bills ask if they’re still allowed to go to school.
“They’re questions that no child should ever have to ask, much less come to school and wonder about,” said Singer. “The expectation should be, of course, you’re supposed to be here, you’re a kid. This is where you belong.”
School should be a “safe space” for children, said Singer, “where you can trust that teachers are here to help you become your best self as you grow into the young adult you want to be.” Instead, the bills would effectively turn school administrators and teachers into immigration agents.
Across the state border in Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has said that he would seek to overturn Plyler for years. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican Texas congressman now running for attorney general, has called for the 1982 ruling to be overturned as well.
“For illegal alien children, the Supreme Court said we have to fund education for them. The fact of the matter is that it is a massive tax burden on the people of Texas,” Roy said in an interview last week. “I don’t believe that the Constitution requires that the state of Texas should fund it, and we should make a new precedent by taking it to court.”
The Texas state legislature previously introduced two bills challenging Plyler. The first bill would allow public schools to charge undocumented children to attend, and the latter bill would require proof of citizenship to enroll in public school. Both of those bills have stalled, but Krystal Gómez, managing attorney for the Texas Immigration Law Council, said she expects more challenges to Plyler in the next legislative session.
“It used to be that we had a federal government in the Department of Education that didn’t seem interested in it, and was able to sort of put this to kibosh and have like a backstop to states that got a little out of hand in trying to create these chilling effects or overturn Plyler outright,” said Gomez. “We don’t have that now. So it’s sort of the wild, wild West, and whatever sad, terrible thing that a state can dream up, they can probably get away with.”
The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
In Texas, immigrant student attendance has already declined dramatically since the start of Trump’s immigration enforcement ramp-up. The Houston school district lost nearly 4,000 immigrant students this year, a decline of roughly 22 percent of the school district’s immigrant population. It’s unclear how many of those students left the United States willingly, or were deported, and how many children still living in Houston are simply too afraid to return to classrooms.
The stress of constant raids weighs on many of the immigrant children still attending school, said Klara Aizupitis, 34, a high school English teacher in Terlingua, Texas.
“You’re living under the constant threat of either being picked up and deported or your parents or your siblings being picked up and deported,” said Aizupitis. “That stress is going to have an impact on, certainly, academic performance, but also your ability to manage your emotions in everyday life.”
“You’re living under the constant threat of either being picked up and deported or your parents or siblings being picked up and deported.”
Further eroding protections for immigrant students would devastate the border community where Aizupitis teaches. “We do really have a shared culture, on both sides of the [Rio Grande] river,” she said.
The district’s funding is based on average daily attendance, so losing undocumented students would “threaten the existence of our school district,” said Aizupitis. “Moreover, it would threaten the existence of our entire community.”
An estimate from FWD, a criminal justice and immigration policy organization, found that undocumented students would lose a collective $1 trillion — or 600,000 individually — in lifetime income if they were denied access to public education.
Heritage frequently suggests that undocumented students represent a substantial burden on taxpayers, arguing in a statement to The Intercept that “unaccompanied alien children sent to states cost them hundreds of millions of dollars for one year of public education.” But according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented people in the U.S. pay nearly $97 billion in federal, state, and local taxes annually. Tax contributions from undocumented people far outweigh the financial burden of K–12 education for undocumented children.
The Heritage Foundation’s argument, said Zimmer-Wong, “does not hold up to any kind of basic scrutiny.”
The FWD report found that educating undocumented students provides $633 billion more money in state and local income tax contributions than the cost of their education. The report also found that, if Plyler were overturned, the U.S. workforce would decrease by 450,000 workers in critical jobs that require at least a high school or college education.
None of that accounts for the expense of implementing a widespread immigration surveillance system in schools. “It would be extremely costly,” said Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.
Schools would have to acquire “new software, new computers, new administrative processes and staff” to track and determine the immigration status of the tens of thousands of children within any given school district, not just students who are undocumented, she said.
“The Heritage Foundation reports notes the burden placed on schools, [from undocumented children],” said Ignacia Rodriguez Kmec, policy council at the National Immigration Law Center, “yet their solution is for school personnel to become essentially DHS and TSA agents, verifying, reviewing documents, and recording immigration status.”
“Their solution is for school personnel to become essentially DHS and TSA agents.”
The Heritage Foundation pushed back on criticism of its plan, telling The Intercept that undocumented children would still have the option to receive an education — if they paid tuition, self-deported, or left the state.
“These are the consequences for the decision the parent or student made to break our law. American taxpayers should not have to pay for law breaking. Nor can American taxpayers afford it,” Ries wrote in a statement to The Intercept.
Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which originally litigated Plyler, said that he doesn’t believe the Supreme Court will allow these bills to be implemented. Because the bills would violate federal statutes, they would run up against the supremacy clause of the Constitution, Saenz pointed out.
However, if the courts were to look favorably on a challenge to Plyler and its corresponding federal statutes, Saenz said, the consequences would be devastating.
“It would have the impact of ending public education as we know it, because when a certain cohort of kids is allowed to be out of school, what happens next is that their siblings and friends don’t go to school,” Saenz said, “and rapidly, no one goes to school.”
The post Tennessee Wants to Let Schools Ban Immigrant Kids, Threatening to “End Public Education as We Know It” appeared first on The Intercept.
The company showed off its latest ultrathin handsets, including a new trifold.
ZTE's Nubia Neo 5 series of gaming phones has everything a die-hard mobile gamer could want: a big battery, fans and capacitive buttons for gaming.
Iran was only country missing from Fifa planning summit
US and Israel began attacking Iranian targets on Saturday
Donald Trump has said he does not care whether Iran participate in this summer’s World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. The US and Israel began attacking targets in the country on Saturday, with the conflict in the Middle East since spreading to the wider region.
US president Trump told Politico: “I really don’t care. I think Iran is a very badly defeated country. They’re running on fumes.” Iran was the only nation missing from a Fifa planning summit for World Cup participants held this week in Atlanta, deepening questions over whether the country’s team will compete on US soil this summer amid an escalating regional war.
Continue reading...PM says his country will not be complicit in growing conflict in Middle East ‘simply out of fear of reprisals from someone’
The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has responded to Donald Trump’s extraordinary threat to cut off all trade with Spain over his government’s refusal to facilitate the US’s ongoing attacks against Iran, comparing the growing conflict in the Middle East to playing “Russian roulette with the destiny of millions”.
Sánchez, who has been one of the most vociferous European critics of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, said his government’s position on the widening instability could be summed up in three words: “No to war.”
Continue reading...U.S. diplomatic outposts in Kuwait, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia were closed on Tuesday, as Israel struck targets in Iran and Lebanon.
The future Hall of Famer’s behavior over the years has been rash and erratic. But it’s understandable given the scrutiny he finds himself under
They’re calling the posts the “KD Files”. There’s no definitive proof that Kevin Durant is the man behind the X account @gethigher77 (display name: getoffmydickerson), but if he isn’t, somebody has done a phenomenal impersonation. In various screenshots splashed across the internet, getoffmydickerson took shots at Durant’s teammates, as the player himself has done before. There was also creative and amusing trash talk, something Durant has shown a talent for. Some of it crossed the line: the account made a reprehensible joke about supplying drones (Durant invests in the company Skydio, which has provided the Israel Defense Forces with weapons) and called Durant’s teammate Jabari Smith Jr “retarded”. When asked about @gethigher77, Durant said, “I’m not here to get into Twitter nonsense” – far from a denial that he was behind it, and in the eyes of many, confirmation that he was. We’ve got people writing in-depth proofs that the account is real.
Not that getoffmydickerson is Durant’s only problem. Shortly after the tweets blew up, Boardroom, which defines itself as a “sports, media, and entertainment brand” co-founded by Durant and his agent Rich Kleiman, laid off three of its staff writers, rationalizing the move as part of a pivot to video. (An aside: what’s the point of having career earnings of half a billion dollars if you’re not willing to invest some of it to protect your media company from financial headwinds?)
Continue reading...The MLS champions face a familiar conundrum: lend credence to a warmongering administration, or sit out and draw heat
Donald Trump was not at the White House when the military he commands began bombing Iran over the weekend. He was at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Florida, following the action from a makeshift situation room apparently built from those curtains that you can wheel away. That’s also where he was when American forces kidnapped Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife a few weeks earlier.
On Thursday, however, Trump will be at the White House for the really important business – namely, receiving Inter Miami as winners of the 2025 MLS Cup.
Continue reading...During his reelection campaign last fall, the mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico, criticized his challenger for suggesting the city should get tougher on the homeless population. Such an approach would be cruel, Tim Keller said during a televised debate with former County Sheriff Darren White.
The city clears encampments and gives people citations “all the time,” said Keller, who defeated White to win a third term. But “this problem is complex and you cannot dumb it down to arresting people,” he said. “You simply cannot arrest your way out of this problem whether you want to or not.”
Despite his rhetoric, a ProPublica analysis found that under Keller’s leadership, Albuquerque has increasingly criminalized conduct associated with homelessness, causing a growing number of people on the streets to be arrested and jailed.
In 2025, people were charged 1,256 times for obstructing sidewalks, nearly six times the number of cases in the previous eight years combined. More than 3,000 trespassing charges were handed out last year, the highest for any year since 2017. And cases of unlawful camping increased to 704 from 113 the year before, according to previously unreported county data provided to ProPublica by the New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts.
Cases involving sidewalk obstruction, camping and trespassing have risen in recent years. People were charged nearly six times more often for sidewalk obstruction in 2025 than the previous eight years combined.
In recent years, a majority of these cases, once they were adjudicated, were dismissed. But not without consequences: Each citation lists a court date, which, if missed, can lead to a bench warrant and arrest.
And that’s often what has happened.
Over the past four years, the number of bookings in Bernalillo County’s jail classified as homeless or “transient” has skyrocketed — to nearly 12,000 in 2025, from 3,670 in 2022. In recent months, the share of people booked who are transient made up about 49% of the jail’s population, according to a ProPublica analysis.
This has occurred as the average daily population at the jail from July 2024 through June 2025 reached its highest point in a decade. On some days last year, the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center held more homeless people than the largest local shelter.
Over the past three years, the number of jail bookings marked as homeless or “transient” has skyrocketed. Admissions marked as transient made up nearly 50% of the county jail bookings at the end of 2025.
The city’s homeless population has more than doubled from 2022 to 2025, while the increase in homeless people jailed by the county has more than tripled during the same time period. Police and court records and interviews with homeless people show the increase in their incarceration is primarily driven by the cascading effects of repeatedly citing people who are experiencing homelessness.
In an interview with ProPublica, Keller echoed his contention from the debate that citations and arrests are not a solution to homelessness. Still, he defended the actions police have taken. “What we’re doing is following the letter of the law. There are much more punitive things that I’m sure a lot of people would want, that we don’t do because they’re inappropriate,” he said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Keller noted that other cities “rely on immediate arrests, blanket sweeps without service connection or criminal penalties without offering alternatives.” The city issues three citations before an arrest is made, the spokesperson said. (People living outside told ProPublica they’ve been taken to jail without first receiving three citations.)
When ProPublica pointed out that citations can lead to arrests and jail time, Keller acknowledged that jail “is not the solution.” But, he said, people call the city and ask that laws be enforced.
In recent years, U.S. cities, facing record numbers of people on the street, have adopted more laws targeting them. In 2024, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities may enforce bans against sleeping outside, more than 150 municipalities nationwide, including Albuquerque, either passed new laws prohibiting public camping or ramped up enforcement of existing laws.
President Donald Trump has endorsed this approach, calling for federal grants to be prioritized for cities that enforce bans on “urban camping and loitering.”
The emphasis on enforcement has come despite evidence that such citations and arrests are costly. For example, Bernalillo County spends about $169 per night to jail inmates without significant medical or mental health needs, according to a county spokesperson. The cost increases for people with severe medical ($250 a day) and mental health (about $450 a day) needs, a spokesperson said.
By comparison, housing an individual in the city’s year-round emergency shelter costs $44 a night.
Tony Robinson, a political science professor at the University of Colorado who has studied camping bans, said the share of homeless inmates in Bernalillo County’s jail is “unusually high” — even at a time when cities are ramping up enforcement. ProPublica found that jails in similarly sized counties, including San Francisco and Pasco County, Florida, have lower rates of incarceration for people who are marked homeless.
Citing people who are homeless can land them in jail because some lack cellphones or an address where they can receive notices by mail. This is a barrier to appearing in court, leading to a warrant for their arrest, he said. “Simple citations lead to jail time and arrest by a predictable path.”
ProPublica reviewed more than 100 cases and interviewed two dozen people experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque about their encounters with police. Nearly everyone ProPublica spoke to had been charged for a crime associated with homelessness. They said they feel singled out by the police: Officers contact them frequently and issue citations, which can lead to warrants. When officers see they have warrants, they can take them to jail.
Natalie Rankin, a 45-year-old homeless woman in Albuquerque, was charged 12 times over the last year for a variety of crimes, including blocking the sidewalk, public camping and criminal trespassing. She spent a night in jail in August after an officer noticed that she had a warrant for her arrest.
“I don’t do anything more than get little warrants for not showing up in court,” she said in August.
Rankin has already been charged at least seven times in 2026 and spent at least one day in jail.
Since Keller took office nine years ago, Albuquerque has spent at least $100 million to expand the city’s Gateway system, which includes shelter for families and adults, a 50-person treatment program, and a place where people are supervised by medical professionals as they withdraw from drugs or alcohol.
“We’re one of the few cities who really has been proactive about building a new system,” Keller said. “It needs tons of work and tons of help, but we’ve at least built something that has gotten 1,000 people off the street.”
Meanwhile, the city’s homeless population, which was at least 2,960 last year, exceeds the shelters’ capacity even with the expansions. Keller has also become less tolerant of encampments in public spaces like parks and sidewalks, vowing to not allow “tent cities.”
In text messages reported in 2024 by the news organization City Desk ABQ, Keller asked then-police Chief Harold Medina to develop a plan to address the “growing crisis.” Medina texted back a plan to “hammer the unhoused.” (After the texts were published, a spokesperson for Keller said, “We continue to balance enforcing laws against illegal activity to keep our communities safe, and providing resources for people experiencing homelessness to both get them connected to services.”)
The city has been accused of breaking the law as it carries out the crackdown.
In 2022, current and former homeless people sued Albuquerque in state district court over its targeting of encampments, alleging the city “criminalizes their status as homeless,” according to court documents. The class-action lawsuit is pending.
A 2024 ProPublica investigation found city workers routinely discarded the belongings of homeless people as they cleared encampments, violating a court order and city policy. Some people told ProPublica in recent interviews that city workers continue to throw away their belongings, and police are issuing citations more frequently.
Officers have not targeted people who are homeless, Medina said in an interview in December. The increase in citations and arrests for crimes associated with homelessness are the result of a broader crime-fighting surge, he said.
Last April, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham deployed the National Guard to assist Albuquerque police, citing the “fentanyl epidemic and rising violent juvenile crime.” The National Guard was also to provide humanitarian and medical assistance in parts of the city frequented by people who are homeless.
“It’s important that we don’t categorize this as, ‘We’re doing an initiative on the unhoused,’” said Medina, who retired at the end of last year. “We’re doing an initiative across the board.”
City statistics show, however, that the biggest jump in arrests from 2024 to 2025 was for misdemeanor warrants, the kinds described by many of the people ProPublica interviewed. Arrests associated with misdemeanor warrants were up 72%.
Priscilla Montano, 67, sometimes stays under a bridge near downtown Albuquerque. She said city workers, who are occasionally accompanied by police, visit the spot at least five days a week to tell people to move their belongings. In July, Montano was charged three times for unlawful camping and obstructing sidewalks. In September, she was incarcerated for a day on the same charges. There is a warrant for her arrest related to a separate violation from September.
Montano said each time she goes to jail her belongings are thrown away. She’s lost her wedding ring and property she needs to survive.
Lisandra Tonkin, who leads a team at the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness that helps people find housing, said the crackdown has made it more difficult to stay in touch with the people they’re trying to help because they’re “constantly moved” by sweeps and jail stays.
City officials say they first offer resources, including a spot in a shelter. Tonkin said some people are reluctant to accept because they have been traumatized by their experiences in shelters, like being assaulted or having their belongings stolen. The offer sometimes comes with requirements they won’t accept, like giving up a pet or separating from a companion.
“So what is the solution of where to move them? I think a lot of times the choice is shelter or jail,” she said.
The result, according to Medina, the former chief, is that the Metropolitan Detention Center has become the state’s largest “mental health facility.”
“I don’t think it’s ideal for these individuals to always end up in jail, 100%, but there’s limited resources and ability to get people to those resources under our current system,” he said.
People who have received citations or who have been arrested told ProPublica that the city’s offer is either a bed in a shelter that used to be the county jail or nothing at all.
One evening in December, Tiffany Leger sat on a sidewalk in northwest Albuquerque listening to a virtual meeting through headphones. Leger, who spent two years on the streets but now has a home, still visits friends who live outside and shares phone numbers for local organizations where they can seek help. As she listened to the virtual meeting, police approached and told her she was being detained for camping, noting there was a tent nearby. The officers issued a citation.
Over the years, Leger has heard from friends that if police offer resources, it’s usually a card with outdated information on shelters in the city or a bed in the shelter on the outskirts of town, she said.
Leger said that usually police approach people who look homeless and check for warrants, sometimes leading to an arrest.
For decades, Peter Cubra has monitored the city’s treatment of homeless people. Cubra was involved in a 1995 lawsuit in which Jimmy McClendon, an inmate at the Bernalillo County Detention Center, sued Albuquerque and the county over conditions there, including overcrowding. The lawsuit also alleged that police were jailing people, including those who were homeless, for nonviolent misdemeanors.
A city settlement in the lawsuit directed police to issue citations for nonviolent misdemeanors, when possible, instead of making arrests on the spot.
Cubra said that in 2020, he started noticing “slow-motion arrests,” where police issue citations understanding that a person experiencing homelessness won’t get the notices from court. Police, he said, would revisit the same location, demand identification and run warrant checks, eventually picking people up on warrants from the previous citations or charges.
Janus Herrera, a local advocate and volunteer, said people have told her they miss court dates because they lost paperwork stating where and when to appear in court that they received during an encampment sweep.
“People are already strained to a breaking point,” she said. “You keep adding more and more on top of that.”
ProPublica’s review of 100 randomly selected cases for criminal trespassing from 2025 showed 67% of people had missed their court dates, leading to an arrest warrant.
Most of the people ProPublica interviewed who had gone to jail said they were held overnight and released back to the streets with a pending case. A recent study supports their claims: From 2024 to 2025, the number of people jailed for less than a day increased by 131%, according to a data analysis by the Center for Applied Research and Analysis at the University of New Mexico.
If a person doesn’t attend subsequent court dates, their case can result in additional warrants. The next time they encounter police, they can be arrested again.
Cubra said instead of repeatedly citing and arresting people, some communities designate places for people to “informally but deliberately” sleep outdoors without harassment. (A church opened such a space in Albuquerque last year with capacity for 10 tents.) But in Albuquerque, Cubra said, the arrests “have persisted and accelerated” over the past year, which he called “shameful.”
“Our city is knowingly saying, ‘We won’t let you sleep outdoors,” Cubra said. “We know there is no place for you to sleep indoors, and we’re going to keep arresting you and harassing you for something that is unavoidable and intrinsic to just existing.’”
ProPublica obtained court data on three charges frequently associated with homelessness: criminal trespassing, unlawful obstruction of sidewalks and unlawful camping. In some circumstances, a single charge appeared multiple times in the data. In these cases, we included only the most recent outcome associated with the charges. We also excluded cases marked as transferred within the court system, to avoid double-counting. As much as possible, we excluded cases where it was clear the charges were not directly associated with homelessness — for example, domestic violence and driving under the influence.
The court data did not include housing status. The county jail tracks whether a person has permanent housing during booking and marks a person “transient.” The court data did not list the law enforcement agency that issued the charge. But jail data shows the Albuquerque Police Department was responsible for 75% of the homeless bookings from 2020 to 2025.
ProPublica interviewed 24 people who are homeless about being charged with crimes associated with their housing status. We independently verified their cases through court records.
The post Albuquerque’s Mayor Said Arrests Were “Not the Solution” to Homelessness. Yet Jail Bookings Have Skyrocketed. appeared first on ProPublica.
Why Should Delaware Care?
For years, policymakers have debated why Delaware public school students have consistently scored low on standardized tests. Now the state’s new education secretary has laid out a plan as part of a $2.4 billion budget that she says will ultimately demonstrate that students are improving — and scoring higher on the tests.
With Delaware’s student scores under scrutiny, state education officials are asking lawmakers to continue to invest in teachers, as well as in reforms that they say will improve reading comprehension, graduation rates, and other performance metrics.
During a legislative budget committee hearing on Tuesday, Delaware Education Secretary Cindy Marten requested a nearly 4% increase in her departmental budget for the next fiscal year.
If passed as requested, the department’s state funding would reach nearly $2.4 billion – the largest amount of any state agency — due primarily to the fact that Delaware’s education funding model sees the state government cover 60% of each student’s annual cost to educate.
During the budget committee meeting, education officials linked the requested increase in part to rising personnel costs and an increasing enrollment. Marten also unveiled what she said was the Department of Education’s first strategic plan in over a decade.
According to the plan, the department’s funding would focus on four central pillars.
Those include expanding access to early childhood education; supporting student well-being and teacher retention; improving student achievement and test scores; and transitioning to a new hybrid school funding formula that would send additional dollars to schools with large numbers of students who are low-income or English-language learners.
The budget request also included funding for Delaware’s growing student population. Brian Maxwell, the director of the state’s Office of Management and Budget, said during the meeting that the cost of paying school staff increases with the implementation of a $60,000 starting salary for educators.
During the hearing, lawmakers showed mixed reactions to the department’s funding request.
Reps. Kim Williams (D-Stanton) and Charles Postles (R-Milford) praised Marten’s presentation.
Williams said it was “probably the best DDOE presentation” she has seen, while Postles noted the “potential delivery” of Marten’s promises to improve performance metrics.
Not all legislators agreed.
State Sen. Dave Lawson (R-Marydel) noted his appreciation for Marten’s work, but said he has heard similar sentiments for the last 14 years as test scores have declined.
“So if [performance metrics] aren’t accomplished, what are going to be your actions? Are you still going to be secretary?” he said.
In recent years, Delawareans across the political spectrum have grown increasingly frustrated with the state’s education spending compared to students’ test scores.
Delaware’s 2024 results on the National Assessment on Educational Progress – or better known as the Nation’s Report Card – showed that 40% of eighth graders and 45% of fourth graders were found to be “below basic” proficiency levels on the assessment.
Although there has been some growth since the COVID pandemic, Marten said her recommended budget is “designed to accelerate this trajectory.”
As part of the strategic plan, Marten told legislators that her department will in the coming years focus particularly on increasing the state’s graduation rate, and the third-grade reading proficiency rates.
Her plan also calls for the passage of legislation that would allow the state to transition to the new hybrid funding model by August 2027.
In recent months, the state’s Public Education Funding Commission, which is in charge of recommending how to reform how dollars are distributed to Delaware schools, voted to approve a recommendation to move forward with the new hybrid framework.
The model incorporates the state’s traditional framework of distributing money on a per-student basis with one that also allocates dollars based on student needs. The details for such a formula and how it would impact individual school districts and schools has yet to be determined.
The post Education secretary requests nearly $2.4B for Delaware schools appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Why Should Delaware Care?
For local and county governments, data centers have become a flashpoint that have tested existing regulations, forced moratoriums on development and stirred massive community outrage. In Delaware, one project is expected to use twice the amount of energy consumed by all the state’s homes combined, leading county leaders to upheave some land use rules.
What started as a mild debate over proposed regulations on large-scale data center developments quickly devolved into a bitter back and forth between two New Castle County Council members over who will bear the cost of one specific project: a proposed 6 million-square-foot data center near Delaware City.
Soon after during the Tuesday meeting, the council would hear more than an hour of public comment from concerned residents who overwhelmingly supported the proposed regulations and urged council members to apply them to data centers already in the development pipeline.
In recent months, this is nothing new.
The short-lived argument came as council members held a rare second hearing for the proposal to regulate data centers in northern Delaware. It also was representative of months of frustration from residents, as well as animosity between county leaders, over how the county should respond to a growing artificial intelligence industry with the funds and momentum to match the concerns of local residents and leaders.
Councilman Dave Carter, who introduced the ordinance in August, said he has done what he can to find a compromise, and he hopes to bring the ordinance to the full council for a vote on March 10.
One of the main points of contention on the new bill was the removal of a “pending ordinance doctrine,” which would allow the county to retroactively apply the proposed regulations to data center applications currently in the development pipeline.
After the hearing, Carter said in an interview with Spotlight Delaware that he hopes to bring the ordinance back to the 13-member council without the pending ordinance doctrine, but that if the council wants to vote on an amendment, that would be up to them.
“I think we’re as close as we’re gonna get,” he said.
Following a short discussion, two council members representative of the old and new guards in county leadership broke into a brief argument over the retroactive application of rules to planned data centers in the county.
New Castle County Council members Kevin Caneco and Penrose Hollins briefly sparred over both the environmental and economic burdens of proposed data center projects.
Caneco, who represents the district where the proposed Starwood data center would be built, lambasted some retiring council members who months ago derailed the proposed regulation over the retroactivity clause.
Specifically, he homed in on Councilwoman Janet Kilpatrick, who in November worked to defang Carter’s initial ordinance while insisting that the developments would be economic drivers for the county.
“Until you give me a good justification, Councilwoman Kilpatrick, on why you think the pending ordinance doctrine is not applicable outside protecting rich business interest and Starwood Ventures and capital investment, I’ll sit here and I’ll wait for [an] answer,” Caneco said at Tuesday’s hearing.
Hollins, who is also retiring and opposed the regulation late last year, jumped to defend Kilpatrick and said the data center argument has become “too personal.”
“To call someone out like that because they disagree with you, it’s just being disrespectful and being dishonest and not being real,” he said.
The animosity between Hollins and Caneco is the latest episode in a monthslong feud between council members over how they should regulate data center development in the wake of the 6 million-square-foot data center proposal brought by Starwood Digital Ventures.
Starwood, the developer looking to build the Delaware City data center, sustained a massive blow from state officials weeks ago after Delaware environmental regulators ruled the project violated the Coastal Zone Act.
Weeks later, Starwood appealed the state’s decision to the Delaware Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board. Separately, the developer had applied to New Castle County’s Board of Adjustment, seeking a necessary variance to build an electric switch station.
But that hearing, which was scheduled for this Thursday, has since been canceled.
Carter’s amended ordinance included a few concessions on noise regulations, but also clearly outlined how data centers are allowed to use water to cool their supercomputers. The new ordinance also establishes how close developers can build their often loud and bright data centers to residential homes.
In Carter’s new ordinance, he removed specific requirements developers would have to meet in order to dampen persistent noise from data centers. Instead, Carter’s ordinance says developers would have to defer to existing code that says they “shall not generate noise levels that exceed the pre-development noise level.”
He applied the same standard to lighting regulations, deferring back to existing standards for industrial projects.
Additionally, the ordinance says data centers must use closed-loop cooling systems, which are designed to reuse as much water as possible. By mandating these systems, Carter said during the meeting, data centers could reduce their water and energy use.
Another major change in the regulations says data center projects must be at least 1,000 feet from the nearest residential dwelling. But the new code also says that data centers can, if they submit a noise study to the county, build within 500 feet of a home.
Marissa McClenton, a community advocate with the Sierra Club Delaware Chapter, attended Tuesday’s hearing to express her support for the ordinance. She said she was disappointed to see it had been “watered down in order to get the necessary votes.”
She said people support stronger regulations on data centers, and she called it “deeply unfair” for the proposed ordinance, and the rules therein, to not apply to projects already in the planning pipeline.
“Please listen to the over 1,500 people who have voiced their support for the strong guardrails for data centers in this ordinance,” McClenton said.
Get Involved
While it’s unclear whether council members will vote on the ordinance next week, the New Castle County Council is scheduled to meet in-person at 6:30 p.m. on March 10, in the Louis L. Redding City County Building, located at 800 N. French St. in Wilmington. See the agenda and virtual meeting information here.
The post Data center regulations in NCC may see final vote, council makes compromises appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Warner Bros. is developing a feature film set in the world of Game of Thrones with writer Beau Willimon of Andor and House of Cards. "That's about all we know right now, and as with everything 'Thrones' things could change, but the film is firmly in development," reports TheWrap. Page Six Hollywood was first to break the news and speculated that the story could revolve around Aegon I, the legendary Targaryen king who spawned a dynasty. From the report: The Targaryens have been at the center of all things "Thrones" on HBO, with "Game of Thrones" following Daenerys Targaryen's (Emilia Clarke) quest to usurp the throne, spinoff "House of the Dragon" set in the midst of the Targaryens' reign and recent spinoff "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" following the squire-ship of Aegon "Egg" Targaryen towards the end of the family's run atop the Iron Throne. All, of course, based on George R.R. Martin's expansive book universe.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Trump, the polls, and the war with Iran: What happened to the ‘President of Peace’? Expert comment jon.wallace
The president once saw opposition to wars as key to his popularity. But the Iran attacks show he is now more interested in spending political capital than saving it.
So much for the ‘President of PEACE’.
When Donald Trump ran for election in 2024, he repeatedly emphasized the fact that he had been the first president since Jimmy Carter who did not get the US involved in a new armed conflict. ‘I’m not going to start wars, I’m going to stop wars,’ he assured the nation in his victory speech on election night.
Just over one year on, the president has now authorized the use of force in seven different countries in his second term.
For years, Trump railed against his predecessors for their costly record of quixotic military misadventures in the Middle East. Now, with the Supreme Leader dead and much of Iran in ruins, Trump appears to have acquired a taste for regime change after all.
With only 27 per cent of Americans approving of the strikes, Democrats calling the attack a ‘war of choice’, and Republicans split, Trump has taken a massive political gamble. Why?
In his first term, Trump pulled back from the brink of war on multiple occasions. In 2019, he aborted a military response to the downing of a US drone by Tehran, apparently convinced by Tucker Carlson that he could ‘kiss his chances of re-election goodbye’ if he got into a war with Iran. The US assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the following year was an aggressive act. But Trump sought to de-escalate soon after rather than risk getting embroiled in conflict in an election year.
Today, the president seems much less concerned by these risks. He is now a second term president, who doesn’t have to face voters again. This reduces his sensitivity to political risk overall: he is no longer angling for re-election but thinking about his legacy.
Carlson has described Trump’s strikes as ‘disgusting and evil’. But he no longer has Trump’s ear. And those that do, like Senator Lindsay Graham, understand that the president is now more interested in spending political capital than saving it.
Having advised Trump against targeting Soleimani in 2020, Graham was among the leading voices pushing the president to ignore such warnings last week.
Trump is not the first president to seek fundamental change in Washington’s relationship with Tehran as a means of cementing a foreign policy legacy. Ever since the revolution of 1979, relations have oscillated between bouts of hostility and attempts to broker a rapprochement.
But most presidents have sought to use the political space afforded by a second term to pursue a diplomatic solution. In launching military strikes at such an unprecedented scale, Trump has flipped the script.
To Trump, the use of force is not incompatible with the pursuit of peace. On the contrary, the president has repeatedly expressed a belief in the efficacy of exercising military power as an instrument of peace-making.
At the signing ceremony for the newly established Board of Peace, for example, the president lauded last summer’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities as ‘another great victory for the ultimate goal of peace’. He also spoke enthusiastically of ‘annihilating terrorists’ in Nigeria, having ‘wiped out’ ISIS in Syria, and the ‘amazing’ military operation that captured Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.
The president’s affinity for authorizing spasmodic violence is not new. Trump routinely celebrates his first term successes in eliminating individuals, from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria to Soleimani in Iraq. It is one reason why efforts to paint Trump as an isolationist have only ever been half-right.
The president’s position also captures a central contradiction in public attitudes about foreign policy.
On the one hand, voters tend to oppose long, costly conflicts in which the public bears the brunt of the human and financial costs. As such, there are clear disincentives to excessive sabre rattling on the campaign trail. As President George W. Bush once joked to troops in the Middle East: ‘You don’t run for office in a democracy and say, ‘Please vote for me, I promise you war.’
On the other hand, polls consistently find that the US public expresses considerable concern about a whole host of global threats, and support for the use of force as an appropriate tool to address them. The development of nuclear weapons by Iran routinely features near the top of these lists. 77 per cent perceived it a critical threat when Gallup last asked about it in 2024.
More recently, a CBS poll taken just three days prior to the attacks showed 51 per cent of Americans would favour military action against Iran to stop them from producing nuclear weapons. Research also indicates that voters systematically favour candidates who take policy positions which project an image of toughness.
Trump’s strikes on Iran can be understood as the logical culmination of the president’s efforts to cater to an inherent ‘cakeism’ in public opinion about foreign policy: voters want leaders to be able to whack the bad guys and influence outcomes they care about, without bearing the costs of doing so.
President Trump’s appetite for risk may also have been buoyed by confidence in his own ability to lead public opinion. Foreign policy is a distant issue for most voters, who rely on political leaders for cues about what to make of events overseas. And the president is a particularly powerful opinion leader, especially among co-partisans.
Take Venezuela. According to a YouGov poll in late December, just 21 per cent of Americans supported the use of military force to overthrow Nicolas Maduro. Yet just three weeks later, after the president did precisely that, support almost doubled to 40 per cent. More importantly, perhaps, Trump’s base rallied to his side, with support from Republicans rising from 43 to 78 per cent in the same period.
Trump’s actions may have his advisers engaging in rhetorical gymnastics to square his frequent use of force overseas with his ‘America First’ vision. But vocal opposition from hardcore elements of the MAGA wing of the Republican party seems to be the exception to the rule – for now.
It is also not unusual for the public to ‘rally around the flag’ in the immediate aftermath of a major use of force abroad. The jury is still out on whether incumbents can manipulate public opinion as easily as implied in the ‘Wag the Dog’ scenario. But Trump is at least aware of the dynamic, having repeatedly predicted that Barack Obama would start a war with Iran to boost sagging poll numbers during the 2012 campaign.
History suggests that, politically speaking, the only thing worse than getting involved in a war is failing to win at an acceptable cost. The fluidity of US objectives offered by the administration may give Trump some room to simply declare victory if costs begin to mount.
Fears US-Israeli onslaught could lead regime to push for bomb or embolden other groups to steal uranium stockpile
The US-Israeli onslaught against Iran is intended to resolve a 24-year standoff over Tehran’s nuclear programme, but it runs the risk of backfiring and driving the regime towards making a secret bomb, proliferation experts have warned.
The regime in Tehran has long insisted that the programme is for civilian purposes and it has no intention of making a nuclear weapon. However, since two undeclared sites, for uranium enrichment and heavy water plutonium production, were discovered in 2002, the programme has been treated with intense suspicion.
Continue reading...Anthony Vaccarello marks decade at helm of fashion house with powered-up take on Yves Saint Laurent’s classic
The most famous suit in the world, Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking, has returned to the Paris catwalk 60 years after its invention.
Designed by the late couturier to be worn by men in smoking rooms to protect clothing from the smell of cigars, he adapted it for women, slimming the trousers and lapels. It wasn’t a runaway success – only one sold from his 1966 collection – but it became a global symbol of power dressing and gender dismantling, and would appear in every collection until Saint Laurent retired in 2002.
Continue reading...Samsung's thinnest and lightest phone brings more subtle design changes that add up.
Critics say administration has overstepped authority in using 1994 law to prosecute protesters and journalists
When dozens of protesters interrupted a church service in St Paul, Minnesota, earlier this year, it revived a fierce yet enduring debate about whether places of worship are appropriate arenas for dissent.
In demanding the resignation of a pastor who leads a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office, demonstrators chanted “ICE out” and “Hands up, don’t shoot!” at Cities church on 18 January. Religious and political leaders condemned the action, fueled by the church’s statement that protesters had “frightened children and created a scene marked by intimidation and threat”.
Continue reading...Misty Roberts, 43, faces sentences of up to 10 and seven years in prison after July 2024 sexual assault at pool party
The former mayor of a Louisiana city has been convicted of raping a 16-year-old boy during a party at her house while she was still in office.
Misty Roberts, 43, faces sentences of up to 10 and seven years in prison after a jury in the municipality of DeRidder on Tuesday found her guilty of two felonies: carnal knowledge – or statutory rape – of a juvenile as well as indecent behavior with a minor.
Continue reading...State lawmaker beats Jasmine Crockett in fiercely contested election marked by record turnout and confusion at polls
James Talarico won the Democratic nomination for a US Senate seat in Texas on Tuesday, capping a remarkable rise from state lawmaker and seminary student to the party’s standard-bearer in one of the key races of the 2026 midterm cycle.
With his blend of faith-based populism, bipartisan appeal and generational energy, Talarico defeated Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, a firebrand beloved by the party’s base but who struggled to dispel concerns that she could defeat a Republican in a state that has not elected a Democrat statewide in more than 30 years.
Continue reading...Texas Rep. James Talarico will win the Democratic Senate primary in Texas, CBS News projects, defeating Rep. Jasmine Crockett in what could be one of the most closely watched races in this year's midterms.
Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas and gun activist Brandon Herrera are locked in a tight primary battle, as Gonzales faces calls to resign after being accused of having an affair with an aide who later died by suicide.
Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas lost his primary race to Republican state Rep. Steve Toth.
My family is in Tehran; I am in Abu Dhabi. Across the region, ordinary people are paying the price for these attacks
Since Saturday, my mind has been torn between the place I live, Abu Dhabi, and Tehran, which has been the focus of my work and research for more than 15 years, and where I still have family. When I saw that Israel and the US had attacked Iran, I started worrying for family, thinking about potential consequences. But I barely had time to consider that before Donald Trump announced that this was about regime change. At that moment, I knew this was going to be big – worse than last June – and that it would lead into a regional schism. Predictably, Iran’s response started shortly after: first against Israel, then against states across the Gulf region, including the United Arab Emirates. It all followed the worst-case escalation scenarios we had been outlining since June, and especially since January, when – in the midst of protests – Donald Trump said “help” was on its way.
I kept on trying to reach family when the internet there was working, which is, at best, for a few minutes a day. Each conversation is short, practical: are you OK? Is your area affected?
Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi is an associate fellow at the Chatham House Middle East and North Africa programme and senior analyst at Control Risks
Continue reading...Voters headed to the polls Tuesday in Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas, marking the start of the 2026 midterm cycle.
Pintx with 1900 miles on it, my tire looks like it was going to crumple and I finally decided to get a new one. Goddamn was that a project but I officially did it and I couldn’t be more happy with the results. Too bad it’s raining and I haven’t got to fully test it yet. Breaking the bead with the new tire was 100% the scariest part.
Also if anyone lives in south Jersey and rides lmk!
Detainees accused of coming from the US with intent to sow chaos and attack military units on Communist-ruled island
Cuban prosecutors have formally charged six people with crimes of terrorism after a US-flagged speedboat was involved in a deadly shootout with Cuba’s coast guard last week.
The US-based Cuban defendants are accused of packing a boat with weapons and heading toward Cuba in hopes of destabilising the government in Havana.
Continue reading...NASA is eyeing an April launch window for the upcoming Artemis II mission after it repaired a helium-flow issue on the Space Launch System upper stage rocket. "Work on the rocket and spacecraft will continue in the coming weeks as NASA prepares for rolling the rocket out to the launch pad again later this month ahead of a potential launch in April," NASA wrote in an update on Tuesday. Space.com reports: The repair work occurred inside the huge Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Artemis 2's SLS and Orion crew capsule have been in the VAB since Feb. 25, when they rolled back to the hangar from KSC's Launch Pad 39B. Just a few days earlier, the Artemis 2 stack successfully completed a wet dress rehearsal, a two-day-long practice run of the procedures leading up to launch. In the wake of that test, however, NASA noticed an interruption in helium flow in the SLS' upper stage. That was a significant issue, because helium pressurizes the rocket's propellant tanks. Rollback was the only option, as the affected area in the upper stage was not accessible at the pad. The problem took a potential March launch out of play for Artemis 2, which will send four astronauts on a roughly 10-day flight around the moon. It will be the first crewed flight to the lunar neighborhood since Apollo 17 in 1972. The next Artemis 2 launch window opens in April, with liftoff opportunities on April 1, April 3-6 and April 30. And those options apparently remain in play, thanks to recent work in the VAB. That work centered on a seal in an interface through which helium flows from ground equipment into the SLS upper stage. That seal was obstructing the interface, which is known as a quick disconnect.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
As a historian, I’ve studied the major consumer boycotts of history. We can take down ChatGPT and send a powerful signal to Silicon Valley
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is on track to lose $14bn this year. Its market share is collapsing, and its own CEO, Sam Altman, has admitted it “screwed up” an element of the product. All it takes to accelerate that decline is 10 seconds of your time.
A grassroots boycott called QuitGPT has been spreading across the US and beyond, asking people to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions. More than a million people have answered the call. Mark Ruffalo and Katy Perry have thrown their weight behind it. It is one of the most significant consumer boycotts in recent memory, and I believe it’s time for Europeans to join.
Continue reading...With much of the world’s oil supplies out of action, Russia could step in to meet demand in China and India
A prolonged energy crisis triggered by the widening war in the Middle East could offer an economic lifeline to Russia’s war machine at a moment when it was beginning to show signs of strain.
The sharp weakening and possible collapse of the regime in Iran would deprive the Kremlin of one of its closest regional partners. But that setback could be outweighed by an economic windfall if disruption pushes buyers toward Russian energy, alongside a possible slowdown in western arms supplies to Ukraine.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed. More election coverage can be found here:
Texas Senate seat fight heads to runoff after Republicans fail to secure required votes
Democratic rivals in close Senate primary amid Texas polling confusion
North Carolina: Roy Cooper and Michael Whatley win primaries to set up Senate contest
North Carolina’s election results will be delayed at least an hour because a rural county will be open late after workers couldn’t get equipment working earlier in the day.
In Halifax county, the electronic poll books synchronized for 90 minutes and didn’t use any backup measures to let people vote, according to notes from an emergency meeting held by the state’s board of elections.
Continue reading...And really compete with China.
Iran’s favorite proxy is down but not out.
The perils for the region—and the alliance.
CBS News projects Bobby Pulido wins Texas' 15th Congressional District, setting up battle against Republican incumbent Rep. Monica De La Cruz.
In the Texas GOP Senate primary, CBS News projects Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will go to a runoff, with neither clearing 50% of the vote.
Neither Ken Paxton or John Cornyn captured 50% of the vote in Texas, forcing another poll in May
A bitter primary contest between the four-term Republican US senator John Cornyn and the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, ended in a runoff on Tuesday.
In Texas, a primary runoff is declared if neither candidate are able to capture 50% of the vote. Paxton and Cornyn will now face that election on 26 May.
Continue reading...Buckhout narrowly lost to Democratic Rep. Don Davis in 2024.
US Southern Command said joint mission with Ecuadorian forces involves ‘decisive action’ against narco-terrorists
US and Ecuadorian forces have launched joint operations to combat drug trafficking, the US Southern Command said on Tuesday, but neither side gave more details.
Southern Command, which encompasses 31 countries through South and Central America and the Caribbean, said in a statement on X that the “decisive action” was aimed at combating illicit drug trafficking.
Continue reading...Six American service members have been killed in the U.S.-Iran conflict, U.S. Central Command said.
The soldiers were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command based out of Iowa and were among the six troops killed in a drone attack at Port Shuaiba, Kuwait.
Last week, Bill Gates apologized to the staff of his philanthropic Gates Foundation for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, which he said began in 2011 and continued through 2014.
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 4.
Security researchers say a highly sophisticated iPhone exploitation toolkit dubbed "Coruna," which possibly originated from a U.S. government contractor, has spread from suspected Russian espionage operations to crypto-stealing criminal campaigns. Apple has patched the exploited vulnerabilities in newer iOS versions, but tens of thousands of devices may have already been compromised. An anonymous reader quotes an excerpt from Wired's report: Security researchers at Google on Tuesday released a report describing what they're calling "Coruna," a highly sophisticated iPhone hacking toolkit that includes five complete hacking techniques capable of bypassing all the defenses of an iPhone to silently install malware on a device when it visits a website containing the exploitation code. In total, Coruna takes advantage of 23 distinct vulnerabilities in iOS, a rare collection of hacking components that suggests it was created by a well-resourced, likely state-sponsored group of hackers. In fact, Google traces components of Coruna to hacking techniques it spotted in use in February of last year and attributed to what it describes only as a "customer of a surveillance company." Then, five months later, Google says a more complete version of Coruna reappeared in what appears to have been an espionage campaign carried out by a suspected Russian spy group, which hid the hacking code in a common visitor-counting component of Ukrainian websites. Finally, Google spotted Coruna in use yet again in what seems to have been a purely profit-focused hacking campaign, infecting Chinese-language crypto and gambling sites to deliver malware that steals victims cryptocurrency. Conspicuously absent from Google's report is any mention of who the original surveillance company "customer" that deployed Coruna may have been. But the mobile security company iVerify, which also analyzed a version of Coruna it obtained from one of the infected Chinese sites, suggests the code may well have started life as a hacking kit built for or purchased by the US government. Google and iVerify both note that Coruna contains multiple components previously used in a hacking operation known as "Triangulation" that was discovered targeting Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky in 2023, which the Russian government claimed was the work of the NSA. (The US government didn't respond to Russia's claim.) Coruna's code also appears to have been originally written by English-speaking coders, notes iVerify's cofounder Rocky Cole. "It's highly sophisticated, took millions of dollars to develop, and it bears the hallmarks of other modules that have been publicly attributed to the US government," Cole tells WIRED. "This is the first example we've seen of very likely US government tools -- based on what the code is telling us -- spinning out of control and being used by both our adversaries and cybercriminal groups." Regardless of Coruna's origin, Google warns that a highly valuable and rare hacking toolkit appears to have traveled through a series of unlikely hands, and now exists in the wild where it could still be adopted -- or adapted -- by any hacker group seeking to target iPhone users. "How this proliferation occurred is unclear, but suggests an active market for 'second hand' zero-day exploits," Google's report reads. "Beyond these identified exploits, multiple threat actors have now acquired advanced exploitation techniques that can be re-used and modified with newly identified vulnerabilities."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
This live blog has now closed. Our live coverage continues here
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has claimed the US attacked Iran after learning that Israel was going to strike, which would have meant retaliation against US forces.
“We knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” he told reporters
The Air Force is now attacking Tehran and Beirut simultaneously
The Air Force has now begun a wave of extensive strikes against the Iranian terror regime and the Hezbollah terror organization.
Continue reading...U.S. financial markets rebounded after shedding more than 1,200 points in earlier trading on Tuesday.
Former Democratic governor Cooper to take on Trump-backed Whatley for seat held by retiring Thom Tillis
North Carolina’s competitive Senate race came into shape on Tuesday, with former Democratic governor Roy Cooper and former Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley winning their respective primaries.
Cooper, a former two-term governor, is widely seen among North Carolina’s Democrats as their best chance at flipping a Republican-controlled seat, held by retiring US senator Thom Tillis, a conservative who has turned hard against the Trump administration on its handling of healthcare, defense and the Epstein file disclosures.
Continue reading...Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for March 4, No. 527.
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 4, No. 731.
Former Gov. Roy Cooper and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley are set to face off in November in what's expected to be among the most competitive Senate races of the cycle.
 | Im currently replacing the bearings on my pint x. However im stuck at this part. Both me and one other person tried to get it off, but it won’t budge. We tried a hammer and a piece of wood but it just won’t move. I’m looking for any advice! [link] [comments] |
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 4 #997
Company will halt production of controversial paraquat weed killer by end of June as it faces thousands of lawsuits
Syngenta, maker of a controversial pesticide linked to Parkinson’s disease, said on Tuesday that it will stop making its paraquat weed killer by the end of June.
The announcement comes as the company is facing several thousand lawsuits brought by people in the US who allege they developed Parkinson’s disease due to their exposure to Syngenta’s paraquat products.
Continue reading...
NICO HART
Staff Reporter
After months of planning, construction and delays, Trabant Student Center held a ribbon-cutting ceremony last December for its official grand reopening. Notably present were university dining administrators and President Laura Carlson, among others.
The newly renovated Trabant features a SNAP Pizza (relocated from Perkins Student Center), The Halal Shack and an upgraded Chick-fil-A menu. Spatial modifications have also been made, with table space being adjusted to make room for the new restaurants.
Even though Trabant unofficially reopened to students months prior, many came to attend the official ceremony.
Many students held positive opinions about the new food court.
Benson Davis, a junior, noted his appreciation for the added variety in meal options.
“I do really like Halal Shack, I’m a big fan of Mediterranean food,” Davis said. “And I like the more streamlined approach with some of the other restaurants.”
Senior Ben Elsner has also found Trabant to be more efficient post-renovation.
“I’ve noticed that it’s easier to get my food since it was last year,” said Elsner. “And the lines in Chick-fil-A are smaller than they used to be.”
Others added that the expanded food court makes dining more inclusive for different cultures.
“I really like that they opened The Halal Shack as an option, because I don’t eat meat,” Ashna Patel, a junior, said. “I think it’s inclusive of them to include the Muslim community.”
Trabant’s overhaul was not completely free from criticism, however. Some questioned whether the university’s allocation of resources was effective or appropriate.
“The Trabant renovations were supposed to be done before a certain time and I think it took a lot longer than we all expected,” Patel said.
Davis argued that modernization efforts would be better applied elsewhere.
“If the university is going to invest money in renovations, it should primarily go towards residence halls, as there are a lot of residence halls which are not the best.”
Catherine Dotchel, a sophomore, agreed.
“They should focus on dorms,” Dotchel said. “My bathrooms at Sypherd are absolutely horrible. They look like they’re from when they were built.”
Sypherd Hall was originally constructed in 1957.
A few students were also unhappy with the relocation of SNAP Pizza.
“I feel it’s odd to put SNAP in Trabant, given the actual SNAP location is less than a five minute walk away,” Davis said. “I feel it would have made more sense to remain in Perkins.”
Elsner pointed out that the relocation disrupts previously established student routines.
“I’m in the YChromes, an a capella group on campus,” Elsner said. “We have our practice at Perkins sometimes, so I liked to have SNAP there.”
Finally, some students seemed not to notice.
“I thought everything was already open, I’m pretty happy,” said Jeremy Wade, a junior transfer student from Delaware Technical Community College. “I got a free shirt.”
OpenAI is reportedly developing a code-hosting platform that could compete with GitHub, The Information reported on Tuesday. "If OpenAI does sell the product, it would mark a bold move by the creator of ChatGPT to compete directly against Microsoft, which holds a significant stake in the firm," notes Reuters. From the report: Engineers from OpenAI encountered a rise in service disruptions that rendered GitHub unavailable in recent months, which ultimately prompted the decision to develop the new product, the report said. The OpenAI project is in its early stages and likely will not be completed for months, according to The Information. Employees working on it have considered making the code repository available for purchase to OpenAI's customer base.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem faced skepticism from both sides of the aisle at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
The entire portfolio of Ziff Davis Connectivity brands is changing hands in a $1.2 billion deal.
The U.S. Department of State has urged Americans to leave 14 countries across the Middle East amid the widening Iran war, but most flights have been canceled.
Homeland security department appears to be looking into comments made about Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has opened an internal investigation into allegations that Gregory Bovino, a senior border patrol official, made disparaging remarks about the Jewish faith of Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor, the New York Times reported.
Bovino, who became the public face of the heavily scrutinized immigration crackdown in Minnesota that left two US citizens dead at the hands of federal agents, allegedly mocked federal prosecutor Daniel Rosen during a January phone call with state prosecutors. According to the Times, Bovino allegedly made sarcastic comments about Rosen’s observance of Shabbat – the weekly period of rest from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset – and used the phrase “chosen people” in a derisive tone during the 12 January call.
Continue reading...Amazon's audiobook service is adding a lower-cost plan that gives subscribers limited listening without monthly credits.
The strikes in Bahrain and the UAE caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery and, in some cases, sparked fires and caused water damage.
The attack on the CIA station in Riyadh comes as Iran widens retaliation across the Middle East in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign.
 | I've tested pretty much every board combo possible and this is the final form for my race board going into the 2026 season • TFL 5" BTG Pioneer Tire • TFL extended Steep n Deep WTF • Fungineers 5" HT SuperFlux • Fungineers Thor400 full box paired with • eve50pl 32s1p 134v battery in TFL Torque Box 592wh more range than gt !!! • MOFF shop POUTZ footholds with vow style blocks • TFL Bang Bumpers Lighter than 12x8, more maneuverable, more grip, more sidewall, and no specialty rails required ! What do you guys think? 12x8 still on top? or are we going to see BTG Pioneer dominate this season [link] [comments] |
Foreign affairs committee report finds summit improved political relationship but efforts lack ‘strategic priorities’
Keir Starmer’s efforts to reset the UK’s relationship with the EU are lacking in “direction, definition and drive”, parliament’s foreign affairs committee has said.
A report based on months of expert witness testimony found the summit between the UK and the EU at Lancaster House last May had “substantially improved the overall political relationship” after years of Brussels-bashing by the Conservatives.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed. For the latest on US politics, you can follow our US midterms blog here.
In a late night post on Truth Social, Donald Trump said that the US munition stockpiles “at the medium and upper medium grade” have “never been higher or better”.
He added that the US has a “virtually unlimited supply of these weapons”, meaning that “wars can be fought ‘forever’”.
Continue reading...Apple now sells more iPhone models than ever, and we've tested everything available. From the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 to the iPhone 16E and iPhone 17 Pro, we have recommendations that will work for your budget and needs.
The top handsets of Mobile World Congress, from Xiaomi, Honor, Motorola and more.
Shabana Mahmood says UK’s generosity abused as visas halted for nationals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan
The government has imposed an emergency brake on visas for the first time on nationals from four countries, as Shabana Mahmood accused them of exploiting Britain’s generosity to claim asylum.
Study visas for nationals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan have been halted, in addition to work visas for Afghans.
Continue reading...Annual political gathering kicks off this week in Beijing with the economy, technology and the military high on the agenda
China’s annual Two Sessions meetings begin this week, with thousands of political and community delegates descending on Beijing from across mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau to ratify legislation, personnel changes and the budget over about two weeks of highly choreographed meetings.
Continue reading...Democrats have decried Marco Rubio’s briefings as inadequate in articulating the goals of war
Donald Trump attempted to counter a simmering anti-Israel backlash in Congress and among his own Maga supporters on Tuesday by denying suggestions that he had been bounced into attacking Iran because Israel had already decided to do so.
Amid growing criticism among opponents and allies alike, Trump rebuffed claims that he had struck Iran only because Israel had forced his hand, a suspicion fueled by comments made by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state.
Continue reading...Party worries crowded field to replace Gavin Newsom – and quirk of primary system – could open door for Republicans in November
It’s been three decades since Democrats last had a wide open contest for the California governorship, one of the most visible and most powerful positions in the US. Instead of relishing in the competition of a crowded field, though, party leaders worry that the race to succeed Gavin Newsom could blow up in their faces.
On Tuesday, the state’s Democratic party chair, Rusty Hicks, wrote in an extraordinary open letter to the candidates: “If you do not have a viable path to make it to the general election, do not file to place your name on the ballot for the primary election.”
Continue reading...Chips and Cheese has an excellent deep dive into Arm’s latest core design, and I have thoughts.
Arm now has a core with enough performance to take on not only laptop, but also desktop use cases. They’ve also shown it’s possible to deliver that performance at a modest 4 GHz clock speed. Arm achieved that by executing well on the fundamentals throughout the core pipeline. X925’s branch predictor is fast and state-of-the-art. Its out-of-order execution engine is truly gargantuan. Penalties are few, and tradeoffs appear well considered. There aren’t a lot of companies out there capable of building a core with this level of performance, so Arm has plenty to be proud of.
That said, getting a high performance core is only one piece of the puzzle. Gaming workloads are very important in the consumer space, and benefit more from a strong memory subsystem than high core throughput. A DSU variant with L3 capacity options greater than 32 MB could help in that area. X86-64’s strong software ecosystem is another challenge to tackle. And finally, Arm still relies on its partners to carry out its vision. I look forward to seeing Arm take on all of these challenges, while also iterating on their core line to keep pace as AMD and Intel improve their cores. Hopefully, extra competition will make better, more affordable CPUs for all of us.
↫ Chester Lam at Chips and Cheese
The problem with Arm processors in the desktop (and laptop) space certainly isn’t one of performance – as this latest design by Arm once again shows. No, the real problem is a complete and utter lack of standardisation, with every chip and every device in the Arm space needing dedicated, specific operating system images people need to create, maintain, and update. This isn’t just a Linux or BSD problem, as even Microsoft has had numerous problems with this, despite Windows on Arm only supporting a very small number of Qualcomm processors.
A law or rule that has held fast since the original 8086: never bet against x86. The number of competing architectures that were all surely going to kill x86 is staggeringly big – PowerPC, Alpha, PA-RISC, Sparc, Itanium, and many more – and even when those chips were either cheaper, faster, or both, they just couldn’t compete with x86’s unique strength: its ecosystem. When I buy an x86 computer, either in parts or from an OEM, either Intel or AMD, I don’t have to worry for one second if Windows, Linux, one of the BSDs, or goddamn FreeDOS, and all of their applications, are going to run on it. They just will. Everything is standardised, for better or worse, from peripheral interconnects to the extremely crucial boot process.
On the Arm side, though? It’s a crapshoot. That’s why whenever anyone recommends a certain cool Arm motherboard or mini PC, the first thing you have to figure out is what its software support situation is like. Does the OEM provide blessed Linux images? If so, do they offer more than an outdated Ubuntu build? Have they made any update promises? Will Windows boot on this thing? Does it work with any GPUs I might already own? There’s so many unknowns and uncertainties you just don’t have to deal with when opting for x86. For its big splashy foray into general purpose laptops with its Snapdragon Elite chips, Qualcomm promised Linux support on par with Windows from day one.
We’re several years down the line, and it’s still a complete mess. And that’s just one chip line, of one generation!
As long as every individual Arm SoC and Arm board are little isolated islands with unknown software and hardware support status, x86 will continue to survive, even if x86 laptops use more power, even if x86 chips end up being slower. Without the incredible ecosystem x86 has, Arm will never achieve its full potential, and eventually, as has happened to every single other x86 competitor, x86 will eventually catch up to and surpass Arm’s strong points, at lower prices.
Never bet against x86.
In discussing his reasoning for launching U.S. airstrikes on Iran, President Donald Trump said, “An Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would be a dire threat to every American.” But arms control experts have disputed his claim that Iran “soon” could have missiles capable of reaching the U.S., and they say there’s a lack of evidence that the country “attempted to rebuild” nuclear enrichment facilities damaged by U.S. strikes last year.
Trump first made his case for the U.S. and Israeli military bombing, which started on Feb. 28, in two videos that day and the next. In his first remarks, he said, “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.” He specifically focused on stopping Iran from having a nuclear weapon.
“It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular, my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon. I’ll say it again. They can never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. The White House on March 2 sent out a list of 74 times Trump has said something similar, saying in the press release, “This position — rooted in longstanding, bipartisan American policy — guides his actions to ensure the leading state sponsor of terrorism cannot threaten the world with nuclear devastation.”
A year ago, in late March 2025, the U.S. Intelligence Community assessed that “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.” However, in a congressional hearing about that assessment, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also said, “Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons.”
Last June, Trump said he believed Iran was “very close” to obtaining a nuclear weapon, an apparent contradiction to the IC assessment. Days later, the U.S. bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities. In his Feb. 28 remarks, Trump repeated his claim that those military strikes had “obliterated the regime’s nuclear program” at those sites. (As we’ve written, experts and a classified U.S. intelligence report said the sites were damaged and the enrichment program set back — but the sites and nuclear capabilities weren’t completely destroyed.) Trump said that Iran refused to make a deal after the June bombings and refused to “renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can’t take it anymore.”
“Instead, they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could soon reach the American homeland,” the president said.
We’ll explain what arms control experts say about Iran’s long-range missile capabilities and the state of its damaged nuclear enrichment program.
In his Feb. 28 comments, Trump said the U.S. “will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon” and that after the June 2025 U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, “they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program.” Arms control experts told us that last year’s bombing set back Iran’s nuclear program and there’s a lack of evidence that the country was rebuilding it.
“In the absence of IAEA monitoring, accurate information is scant,” Emma Sandifer, program coordinator at the nonpartisan Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, told us in an email, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA hasn’t been able to assess the three bombed nuclear program sites, though it has inspected all other declared nuclear facilities in the country, the IAEA chief told Reuters in January.
“These actions are right,” Trump said in his March 1 video statement, “and they are necessary to ensure that Americans will never have to face a radical, bloodthirsty terrorist regime armed with nuclear weapons and lots of threats.”
A week before the recent military operation, on Feb. 21, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, was more definitive in describing a time frame for Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Witkoff said in a Fox News interview that while Iran says that its nuclear capability is “about their civil program … they’ve been enriching well beyond the number that you need for civil nuclear. It’s up to 60%. They are probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material, and that’s really dangerous.” But experts told us it would likely take months for Iran to enrich uranium to that level and then much longer before the “bomb-making material” could be made into a weapon.
Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a nonpartisan organization that provides analysis on arms control and national security issues, told us that “it is clear that it would take Iran years to fully rebuild its enrichment plants” that were bombed in June 2025. “It is possible that Iran may have a very small number of operational centrifuges somewhere undisclosed,” Kimball said. “But it would still take months for a smaller number of centrifuges to accomplish what thousands of centrifuges at these major facilities could’ve done,” which would be to enrich small amounts of uranium to weapons-grade level and then turn it into metal to be used for a weapon. “It would take longer to fashion a nuclear explosive device.”
Eliana Johns, a senior research associate with the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists told us that “if Iran enriches uranium to weapons-grade, they will need to weaponize the material and develop a nuclear device with other sensitive components. It’s relatively easy to put various payloads on a missile; however, while Iran certainly has ballistic missiles that could theoretically be used for this purpose, there are still challenges with designing a nuclear device that can be mated with the intended missile, will detonate when desired, survive reentry, and arrive accurately at its target.”
As we’ve reported before, the “breakout time” — a term that refers to the time Iran would need, if it chose to do so, to produce weapons-grade uranium that could then be used for one bomb — had been about a week or so for at least the past few years. However, “‘breakout time’ is often misleading,” Sandifer said. “While the time it may have taken Iran to enrich enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon may have once been a matter of weeks, that is only one piece of the puzzle. After this point, once you have the weapons-grade uranium, Iran would then need to manufacture the rest of the weapon. This process would likely take much longer, perhaps months to a year.”
She said that estimating this time is difficult, since the IAEA hasn’t been able to assess Iran’s operations since the June 2025 airstrikes. “Regardless, the damage to Iran’s nuclear weapons program, however severe, likely lengthened any ‘breakout time’ whether it relates to Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium or the manufacturing of a nuclear weapon.”
Kimball said that last year’s bombings “severely damaged Iran’s major uranium enrichment facilities, but not its resolve to retain a nuclear program or its nuclear know-how. Nor did the operation remove or help account for 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent U-235 that Iran already had stockpiled, and that the IAEA reported this week is buried [at] Iran’s nuclear complex near Isfahan.”
To be weapons-grade, the uranium would need to be enriched to 90%. Isfahan is one of the sites hit in the June strikes, but, again, the IAEA hasn’t had access to the site in order to account for the 60% enriched material.
As for Trump’s statement that Iran “attempted to rebuild their nuclear program” after last year’s airstrikes, Kimball and Sandifer said there wasn’t evidence of that. “There is no evidence from the IAEA, from independent analysis of commercial satellite imagery, nor any evidence presented to Congress from the U.S. intelligence Community that Iran was rebuilding the damaged nuclear facilities and preparing to restart enrichment operations,” Kimball said.
Sandifer said that satellite images in January “showed repair activity at two of the Iranian nuclear sites bombed in June of 2025, the Natanz and Isfahan facilities. However, there is a lack of evidence that Iran had taken steps toward rebuilding its nuclear program beyond these repairs. Some experts believe that this activity was not a sign of reconstruction but an assessment of the damage to key assets.”
Other experts similarly have said there’s not evidence of Iran restarting a nuclear enrichment program. “There’s a general conclusion today that there’s a de facto suspension of enrichment,” Robert Einhorn, a senior fellow in the arms control and non-proliferation initiative at the Brookings Institution think tank and a former State Department official during the Obama administration, told the Wall Street Journal. “There’s no enrichment taking place.”
Before the June 2025 bombings, a May 31, 2025, report from the IAEA said it “has no credible indications of an ongoing, undeclared structured nuclear programme” to develop nuclear weapons in Iran, and it noted high officials in the country have said that using nuclear weapons was “incompatible with Islamic Law.” But the IAEA said it had concerns about “repeated statements by former high-level officials in Iran related to Iran having all capabilities to manufacture nuclear weapons.”
The agency said, “[T]he fact that Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon State in the world that is producing and accumulating uranium enriched to 60% remains a matter of serious concern, which has drawn international attention given the potential proliferation implications.”
In Trump’s Feb. 28 remarks, he spoke generally of “eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”
Kimball told us that “[w]hile Iran’s nuclear program remains a medium- to long-term proliferation risk, there was and is no imminent Iranian nuclear threat; Iran is not close to ‘weaponizing’ its nuclear material so as to justify breaking off negotiations and launching the U.S.-Israeli attack.”
Speaking in the White House on March 3, Trump said of the U.S. military strikes: “If we didn’t do what we’re doing right now, you would have had a nuclear war, and they [Iran] would have taken out many countries.”
In his State of the Union address on Feb. 24, Trump said Iran was “working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”
While “soon” is a subjective term, experts say the threat of Iran developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland of the United States was not particularly imminent. One expert put the time frame at several years, while others have said it would take Iran a decade or more to develop a functioning ICBM.
“Iran’s missile arsenal remains one of the pillars of its security strategy,” Sandifer, of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, told us. “However, there is little evidence that Iran could build missiles that reach the United States in the near future. Recent estimates determined that not only does Iran have no intercontinental ballistic missile capability, but the country appears to have maintained its self-imposed missile range limit of 2,000 km.”
Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities, a Washington-based think tank advocating restraint in U.S. foreign policy, said Iran currently lacks the technological ability to build an effective ICBM.
“If you’re building an ICBM, there’s lots of technical details behind it, but broadly speaking, you’ve got to be able to shoot something out of the atmosphere into low Earth orbit,” Kelanic told us in a phone interview. “Then you need to be able to have it reenter the atmosphere and not burn up on reentry, which is a different level of technological difficulty. There’s no evidence Iran can do that yet. And then you also have to be able to put a warhead on it … and the added difficulty that you need to miniaturize the warhead, to put it on a missile that would be capable of shooting that far out of the atmosphere and then coming back in and not burning up on reentry. Then you also have to do guidance systems to make sure it lands in the right place. And there’s no evidence that Iran can do that either.”
In addition to the State of the Union speech, Trump has on two other occasions this past week said that Iran is developing long-range missiles that could “soon” reach the U.S.
A day after the State of the Union address, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was more circumspect when a reporter asked how far away Iran was from achieving the development of missiles that could reach the U.S.
“I won’t speculate as to how far away they are, but they are certainly trying to achieve – and this is not new — they are trying to achieve intercontinental ballistic missiles,” Rubio said. “For example, you’ve seen them try to launch satellites into space. You’ve seen them increasing the range of the missiles they have now, and clearly they are headed in the pathway to one day being able to develop weapons that could reach the continental U.S. They already possess weapons that could reach much of Europe — already now, as we speak. And the ranges continue to grow every single year exponentially, which is amazing to me. For a country that’s facing sanctions, whose economy’s in tatters, whose people are suffering – and somehow they still find the money to invest in missiles of greater and greater capacity every year. This is an unsustainable threat.”
Several Democrats pushed back on the idea that Iran would “soon” be able to reach the continental U.S. with missiles.
“There was no way that any Iranian ballistic missile can hit the U.S. mainland,” Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego said on CNN on March 1. “That is just entirely false.”
“All of the intelligence I’ve seen in 13 years on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees tell me there is no imminent threat from Iran that justifies sending our sons and daughters into war,” Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said on Fox News. “The missile issue is important. The intelligence suggests that Iran might have missiles that could reach the United States within a decade. There was nothing imminent about this.”
Kaine was referring to a Defense Intelligence Agency report released last May that stated, “Iran has space launch vehicles it could use to develop a militarily-viable ICBM by 2035 should Tehran decide to pursue the capability.” The report, which assessed missile threats that might be faced by a Trump-proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense shield, projected Iran could have 60 ICBMs by 2035.
“So basically, the U.S. intelligence agencies have said that Iran would need 10 years to build ICBMs capable of hitting the United States militarily if they chose to do so,” Kelanic said. “And it did not necessarily say that there was evidence that Iran had chosen to do so. … To me, that doesn’t register as soon.”
“Concern about the development of long-range missiles by Iran is not anything new,” Kimball of the Arms Control Association told us in an email. “The United States is 10,000 km away from Iran. The longest range of a deployed Iranian ballistic missile is 2000 km.”
Kimball noted that the 10-year window has been the intelligence estimate for nearly three decades now.
“A 1999 U.S. National Intelligence estimate predicted that the United States would probably face an ICBM threat from Iran by 2015. It is now 2026,” Kimball said.
Kimball said that the 2025 DIA assessment not only forecast it would take a decade for Iran to develop a ballistic missile capable of hitting the U.S., but that “Iran would need to make a determined push to achieve those capabilities on that timeline,” he said. “A decade or more is not ‘soon.’”
In several posts on X on Feb. 25, however, Jeffrey Lewis, an expert on global security at Middlebury College, warned that many were misreading the context of the Defense Intelligence Agency report.
“The question wasn’t ‘When will Iran have an ICBM’, it was ‘What will the threat environment look like in 2035 when Golden Dome is to be fully operational,'” Lewis wrote. “In other words, it isn’t ‘How soon can my friend have a baby?’ Instead, the question is ‘In 2035, how many children will my friend have?’ It’s easy to say your friend could have a child within ten years and that you expect she might have three.”
A March 2 article in the Wall Street Journal reported that Lewis “said that even if Tehran wanted to pursue building the weapons, it would likely take two to three years at least to build a single missile based on the history of how other nations developed similar missiles.”
“US officials have been saying since the late 1990s that Iran is a little over a decade away from developing an ICBM and is pursuing that capability,” the Federation of American Scientists’ Johns told us. “However, building an ICBM capable of accurately striking the US mainland would require overcoming substantial technical hurdles with propulsion, guidance, and reentry, among other things. And there is little evidence to indicate that Iran has this capacity or intends to pursue it. Given the lack of publicly available and verifiable information, the DIA’s assessment and the statements by the administration are difficult to evaluate, especially regarding what timeline Iran could develop and deploy these longer-range missiles. It is also worth noting that parts of Eastern Europe have technically been within range of Iranian missiles for years.”
In an interview with India Today TV released on Feb. 25, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied that Iran was developing ICBMs, Reuters reported.
“We are not developing long range missiles. We have limited range to below 2000 kilometers intentionally,” he said. “We don’t want it to be a global threat. We only have (them) to defend ourselves. Our missiles build deterrence.”
On March 2, Rubio spoke about destroying Iran’s short-range ballistic missiles as the objective of the U.S. military operation. “This operation needed to happen because Iran, in about a year or a year and a half, would cross the line of immunity, meaning they would have so many short-range missiles, so many drones, that no one could do anything about it, because they could hold the whole world hostage,” he said.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 3, 2026 — Vertiv, a global leader in critical digital infrastructure, today announced the expansion of the Vertiv PowerBar Track busway family with the introduction of a compact, high-capacity double-stack design that enables higher power density while optimizing valuable white-space.
The Vertiv PowerBar Track double-stack design supports higher capacity and can scale vertically, optimizing white space. Credit: Vertiv Group Corp.
Designed to address rapidly evolving AI workloads within colocation and hyperscale data centers, the scalable system delivers high-capacity power distribution through a flexible, modular architecture that supports future growth, enables improved energy efficiency, and provides simplified deployment. The solution is designed to meet rigorous global safety and performance standards, with configurations of up to 2000A under UL standard 857, and up to 2500A for IEC 61439-6 with variants in copper and aluminum conductors.
The Vertiv PowerBar Track enables safe, continuous power delivery and live configuration changes without system downtime. Its open-track architecture allows operators to install or relocate tap-off boxes anywhere along the busway while maintaining active load distribution. Each connection point includes built-in mechanical and electrical interlocks for operator safety, and optional integrated metering provides real-time visibility of power usage for improved capacity planning and energy management. The double stack configuration supports higher capacity and more connections per tap-off box and can also scale vertically to efficiently serve high density environments.
“Power distribution must keep pace with the scale and density of modern AI and high-performance computing environments,” said Kyle Keeper, senior vice president of the power business unit at Vertiv. “As customers navigate increasing power demands, tighter space constraints, and rapidly evolving infrastructure requirements, they need solutions that provide flexibility. Vertiv PowerBar Track double stack is designed to address these challenges by enabling compact yet scalable expansion, supporting live changes, and delivering the reliability required in mission-critical data center environments.”
The busway system integrates seamlessly with the broader Vertiv end-to-end power train, including Vertiv PowerBoard switchgear, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, and racks, forming a complete and coordinated infrastructure for high-density applications. Supported by Vertiv’s global manufacturing and service network, Vertiv PowerBar Track can be configured to aid maintenance, helping reduce maintenance-related downtime while enabling faster deployment and greater adaptability for data centers undergoing rapid expansion. Vertiv PowerBar Track also contributes to the Vertiv 360AI power ecosystem, which combines power distribution, protection, and management technologies designed to support the next generation of AI-ready digital infrastructure.
Vertiv PowerBar Track integrates with Vertiv OneCore, a scalable prefabricated data center infrastructure solution, and Vertiv SmartRun, a modular overhead IT infrastructure system, enabling a cohesive approach to modular, scalable data center design.
For more information about Vertiv PowerBar Track and Vertiv’s end-to-end power and thermal management solutions, visit Vertiv.com.
About Vertiv
Vertiv (NYSE: VRT) (NYSE: VRT) brings together hardware, software, analytics and ongoing services to enable its customers’ vital applications to run continuously, perform optimally and grow with their business needs. Vertiv solves the most important challenges facing today’s data centers, communication networks and commercial and industrial facilities with a portfolio of power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions and services that extends from the cloud to the edge of the network. Headquartered in Westerville, Ohio, USA, Vertiv does business in more than 130 countries. For more information, and for the latest news and content from Vertiv, visit Vertiv.com.
Source: Vertiv
The post Vertiv Introduces Double-Stack Busway System for High-Density AI Data Centers appeared first on HPCwire.
A new iPad Air has made the decision a little more complicated.
Google is accelerating Chrome's major release cadence from four weeks to two starting with version 153 on September 8th. "...our goal is to ensure developers and users have immediate access to the latest performance improvements, fixes and new capabilities," says Google. "Building on our history of adapting our release process to match the demands of a modern web, Chrome is moving to a two-week release cycle." The company says the "smaller scope" of these releases "minimizes disruption and simplifies post-release debugging." They also cite "recent process enhancements" that will "maintain [Chrome's] high standards for stability." 9to5Google reports: There will still be weekly security updates between milestones. This applies to desktop, Android, and iOS, while there are "no changes to the Dev and the Canary channels": "A Chrome Beta for each version will ship three weeks before the stable release. We recommend developers test with the beta to keep up to date with any upcoming changes that might impact your sites and applications." The eight-week Extended Stable release schedule for enterprise customers and Chromium embedders will not change. Chromebooks will also have "extended release options": "Our priority is a seamless experience, so the latest Chrome releases will roll out to Chromebooks after dedicated platform testing. We are adapting these channels for the new two-week browser cycle and we will share more details soon regarding milestone updates for managed devices."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The recent military actions in Iran by Israel and the United States has reignited a simmering constitutional debate: the ability of the president to use military force without prior congressional approval.
On Feb. 28, 2026, the joint attacks by Israel and the United States forces were met with counterattacks by Iran on other Middle East nations, as well as Israeli and American assets. Israeli and United States forces also killed Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other Iranian leaders.
Almost immediately, some members of Congress claimed President Donald Trump’s actions violated the Constitution’s Article I, Section 8, Clause 11, which grants the power to “declare War’ to Congress, and a congressional act from 1973, the War Powers Resolution.
“Trump’s military attack on Iran is illegal and unconstitutional. It was not approved by Congress and holds dangers for all Americans,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in a statement that echoes other critics’ comments. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) responded by calling these critiques of presidential power a “frightening prospect.”
As recently as early January 2026, the same debate was ongoing after United States military forces captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas, and removed them to the United States to stand trial on narco-terrorism, cocaine-importation, and weapons charges.
The Declare War Clause: Text and History
The Founding generation looked to divide the responsibility of declaring and conducting war between Congress and the president. Congress’s power to authorize military actions is rooted in the Constitution’s Declare War Clause. The clause is among the enumerated, or listed, powers granted to Congress by the Constitution in Article I, Section 8. The president’s commander in chief powers emanate from Article II, Section 2, which states, “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.”
Beginning in the early republic, presidents have used military force in smaller actions without explicit congressional approval, including forays into West Florida, Mexico, and the Caribbean. However, many presidents still sought congressional authorization for the use of military force. President Thomas Jefferson took action against pirates in the First Barbary War, starting in 1801, with congressional approval by statute. During the Second Barbary War in 1815, Commodore Stephen Decatur attacked Algiers under powers authorized by Congress. And, with the War of 1812, Congress issued a formal declaration of war against Great Britain. In 1846, Congress similarly declared war against Mexico.
Congress and the War Powers Resolution
Congress has not approved a formal declaration of war since World War II. Since then, the use of American forces in overseas combat took a different turn. In Korea, President Harry Truman claimed he was taking part in a United Nation’s police action that did not need congressional approval. He also argued that Congress had implicitly approved of his actions by continuing to fund the military. However, some congressional leaders such as Sen. Robert Taft objected, claiming Truman was declaring “a de facto war . . . without consulting Congress and without congressional approval.” Truman’s State Department cited more than 80 past incidents of presidents deploying forces overseas without express congressional authorization. The Korean conflict went on without explicit congressional approval.
The Vietnam conflict was also not a declared war, but Congress approved a joint resolution requested by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 after the Gulf of Tonkin incident—the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The fallout from the Vietnam War and ongoing conflicts between President Richard Nixon and Congress led Congress to enact the War Powers Resolution (1973) over President Nixon's veto. (President Nixon argued that the War Powers Resolution was both unconstitutional and unwise.)
The War Powers Resolution required that, in the absence of the authorization for the use of military force by Congress, a president must report to Congress within 48 hours after introducing military forces into hostilities and must end the use of such forces within 60 days unless Congress permits otherwise. The War Powers Resolution also requires the president “in every possible instance” to consult with Congress before introducing the military into imminent hostilities. It also gives Congress the ability to terminate the use of force used in unauthorized hostilities at any time by concurrent resolution of the House and Senate. (These resolution powers were later modified by a Supreme Court decision in 1983.)
Actions taken after the War Powers Resolution was passed
Since 1973, presidents have dealt with the War Powers Resolution in several ways. In 1993, President Bill Clinton ordered U.S. military forces to take part in NATO activities in Bosnia, including the use of air strikes. In 2011, President Barack Obama authorized U.S. military operations in Libya including air strikes, stating the actions were not “hostilities” under the language of the War Powers Resolution that required formal approval from Congress. But in 2013, Obama asked Congress to approve intervention in the Syrian civil war; Congress then declined to act. In 2018, President Trump ordered airstrikes in Syria and, in 2020, an airstrike in Iraq that killed General Qasem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Trump cited an authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) issued 2002 during Bush administration within the purview of his Commander in Chief authority.
In 2021, President Joe Biden cited the AUMF of 2002 and his Article II powers in taking military actions against Iran-backed militant groups in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. In June 2025, the United States attacked nuclear facilities in Iran during that nation’s conflict with Israel. President Trump submitted a War Powers Resolution report to Congress. After the capture of Maduro, Trump also filed a report as required to Senate president pro tempore Charles Grassley. In the above cases, there were stated objections from members of Congress and others to the presidential use of war powers without congressional consultation and approval.
The current debate in Congress
According to media reports, President Trump has filed a 48-hour report with the Senate about the latest military actions in Iran. He also has stated publicly that military actions in the conflict could last for some time.
So far in Trump’s second term, Congress has failed to advance a resolution in response to the president’s actions in this context. On Jan. 14, 2026, the Senate failed to approve a proposed joint resolution related to the situation in Venezuela by one vote. A similar vote failed last June related to Iran. Currently, a resolution about Iran sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is up for consideration.
While the gravity and scope of the Iran attacks could lead to the resolution narrowly passing the House and the Senate, it is subject to a veto by President Trump. In that case, the Senate and the House would need two-thirds majorities to override the veto under Article I, Section 7, of the Constitution. Congress did approve a resolution in May 2020 limiting Trump’s ability to act against Iran without congressional consent a U.S. drone strike killed Qasem Soleimani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force. The Senate failed to override the veto in a 49-44 vote.
The basic constitutional debate about the War Powers Resolution is unlikely to fade away. In 1973, President Nixon said in his veto message a constitutional amendment was needed to resolve the matter. Still others are convinced the resolution is fully within the powers of Congress.
One person who offered an early view in 1975 was a young assistant attorney general, Antonin Scalia, who wrote a opinion for Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel about President Gerald Ford’s powers under the resolution to evacuate Americans from Vietnam. Scalia believed the resolution “was intended only as an expression of Congress’ interpretation of the Constitution.”
So far, the Supreme Court has not considered the matter, but its ruling in INS v. Chada (1983) extended the president’s veto power to current resolutions of Congress such as war powers resolutions. The Court found that concurrent resolutions that approved or disapproved of presidential action were unconstitutional because at the time they did not require their presentation to the president.
Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.
Mark Zuckerberg's company begins a partial rollout of its agentic AI shopping research tool.
Homeland security secretary was grilled in Senate hearing over immigration enforcement crackdown in Twin Cities
The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, on Tuesday would not retract her statements calling the two US citizens who were killed by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis earlier this year “domestic terrorists”, while also claiming that agents do not abide by quotas for arrests.
Appearing before Congress for the first time since the killings, Noem evaded a question by the Senate judiciary committee’s ranking member, Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, about whether she would take back the false accusations about Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
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For at least a decade, President Donald Trump has denounced U.S. efforts to change the regimes of foreign countries around the world.
But in February, when a reporter asked Trump if he wanted regime change in Iran, the president pivoted: "Well, it seems like that would be the best thing that could happen."
Two weeks later, on Feb. 28, the U.S. joined Israel to attack Iran, and Trump called on Iranians to overthrow their government. It came about two months after the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by force.
For some of the president's critics, Trump’s comments reveal he reversed his longtime position against regime change. In 2019, for example, he said during a campaign rally in Mississippi that "our policy of never-ending war, regime change, and nation-building is being replaced by the clear-eyed pursuit of American interests."
PolitiFact uses a Flip-O-Meter to measure politicians’ consistency on issues. The rating is not a value judgment. Some people say changing positions shows inconsistent principles; others say it shows pragmatism and willingness to compromise given new information.
When we asked the White House about Trump’s position on regime change, a spokesperson referred us to Trump’s outline of his goals for Iran, including destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, annihilating its navy and preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly criticized his campaign rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and then-President Barack Obama for pursuing regime change. Trump called the Democrats’ strategy a "disaster."
"We must abandon the failed policy of nation-building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, in Libya, in Egypt and in Syria," Trump said during the 2016 Republican convention.
That September, he vowed to avoid pursuing foreign regime change.
"We're going to stop the reckless and costly policy of regime change overseas, and instead, focus on working in partnership with our allies or a military campaign to utterly destroy ISIS," Trump said in a Florida speech, less than two months before winning the election.
In 2018, Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal that Obama had struck with Iran and five other nations in which Iran agreed not to pursue nuclear weapons and allow monitoring of its compliance.
The next year, he said he wanted to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons but did not call for a change in the country’s leadership.
"We're not looking for regime change," Trump said in May 2019. "I just want to make that clear. We're looking for no nuclear weapons."
He continued to criticize his predecessors, saying that previous administrations’ "lust for regime change."
"We're not looking for regime change," Trump said in August 2019 while speaking about Iran. "You've seen how that works over the last 20 years."
In November 2019, Trump told the crowd in Mississippi his administration was focused on domestic policy.
"After years of building up foreign nations, we are finally building up our nation," Trump said in the speech, which his critics recently circulated online. "We are finally putting America first. Our policy of never-ending war, regime change, and nation-building is being replaced by the clear-eyed pursuit of American interests."
After the U.S. killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January 2020, Trump still publicly disavowed regime change.
"We do not seek regime change," he said. "However, the Iranian regime's aggression in the region, including the use of proxy fighters to destabilize its neighbors, must end, and it must end now."
During the 2020 campaign, Trump did not speak about "regime change" as much as he did in 2016.
Trump continued to oppose regime change in his 2024 campaign, saying he didn’t want "senseless wars."
Trump floated the idea of supporting regime change in June 2025, after the U.S. struck three nuclear sites in Iran. Trump wrote on Truth Social: "It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!"
But then he walked it back. A couple days later, a reporter asked him if he wanted regime change in Iran.
"Well, if there was, there was, but no, I don't want it," Trump said. "I'd like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible. Regime change takes chaos and, ideally, we don't want to see so much chaos."
After the Feb. 28 strikes on Iran, Trump and his allies stated different takes on whether regime change was a goal of Operation Epic Fury.
The military operation against Iran killed the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei along with dozens of other officials, and struck 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours, U.S. military officials said. Iran launched retaliatory strikes on U.S. embassies and several Arab states.
In his first remarks after the attack, Trump addressed the people of Iran: "When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations."
Trump told The New York Times on March 1 that one option was an outcome similar to Venezuela, in which only the top leader was removed but much of the rest of the government remained in place and was willing to work with the U.S. He told the Times that he had "three very good choices" about who could lead Iran. On the evening of March 1, Trump told ABC News that the possible candidates he had in mind were killed in the attack.
But he also described a scenario in which the Iranian people would overthrow the government, the opposite of the Venezuela model. "That’s going to be up to them about whether or not they do," Trump said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said March 2, "This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change and the world is better off for it."
That same day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. operation’s objective was to block Iran’s weapons access. Yet he also called for new leadership.
"We would love to see this regime be replaced," Rubio said, adding that Trump "would love for the people of Iran to use this as an opportunity to rise up and remove these leaders."
Trump has changed his rhetoric about U.S. involvement in foreign regime change.
In 2016 while campaigning, Trump called for abandoning what he said was a failed policy of regime change.
During his first term, Trump repeatedly said that he sought to prevent a nuclear Iran but did not seek regime change. In 2024, he said it was not the role of the U.S. military "to wage endless regime change, wars."
After the U.S. struck nuclear sites in 2025, Trump floated the idea of Iran regime change in a Truth Social post but when asked about it he took a dim view saying regime change creates chaos.
After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran Feb. 28 and killed Iran’s top leaders, Trump told the people of Iran to take over their government. But in other remarks, he said objectives included dismantling Iran’s weapon capabilities and did not mention regime change.
Trump has been inconsistent on regime change, and overall he has shifted from being critical of the idea for years to describing it as a possibility to following through by removing Iran’s leadership and calling on its people to overthrow their government.
We rate this a Full Flop.
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Player showed glimpses of genius but was uneven
28-year-old played in playoffs once with Arizona
The Arizona Cardinals have informed former No 1 overall pick Kyler Murray that they plan to release him at the beginning of the new league year on 11 March, a person familiar with the decision told the Associated Press.
The quarterback, who is owed $36.8m in guaranteed money in 2026, will be free to sign with another team once he’s released.
Continue reading...Push to give English same status as Māori and NZ sign languages triggers backlash from opposition parties and linguistic experts
A bill to recognise English as an official language of New Zealand has cleared its first hurdle in parliament amid ridicule from opposition parties and linguists who say it is “unnecessary” and “cynical”.
The bill seeks to give English, which is spoken by 95% of the country, the same official status as te reo Māori (Māori language) and New Zealand sign language. The bill said the status and use of the existing official languages would not be affected.
Continue reading...Check out our favorite Windows laptops and MacBooks for work, tested and reviewed by CNET's laptop experts.
From inexpensive Windows models to affordable MacBooks and even a cheap Copilot Plus PC, these are my favorite low-cost, high-value laptops that I've tested and reviewed.
HAMBURG, Germany, March 3, 2026 – ISC High Performance is pleased to announce that Amanda Randles, a pioneer in extreme-scale biomedical simulation, will return to ISC 2026 as the Midweek Keynote speaker on June 24. The keynote continues ISC’s tradition of spotlighting visionary leaders whose work expands the boundaries of scalable computing and its real-world applications.
Amanda Randles
Randles, the Alfred Winborne Mordecai and Victoria Stover Mordecai Associate Professor at Duke University, gained widespread recognition at ISC as the recipient of the Jack Dongarra Early-Career Award in 2024. After serving as the ISC Research Paper program chair last year, she returns to demonstrate how HPC is moving medicine from reactive treatment to a new era of proactive, patient-specific care in a keynote titled “HPC for Vascular Digital Twins.”
Over the last few years, Randles’ work has become synonymous with extreme-scale biomedical simulation. In her keynote address, she will demonstrate how HPC enables the creation of patient-specific vascular digital twins. These models integrate medical imaging, physiological data, and large-scale blood flow simulations into dynamic, high-fidelity representations of the human circulatory system.
In her abstract, Randles explains that this technology could reshape healthcare by moving beyond “snapshot” analyses. Unlike static models, vascular digital twins capture the dynamic nature of physiology. This requires sustained simulation across thousands to millions of cardiac cycles, the management of massive multimodal datasets, and rapid analysis needed for clinical work.
Randles will discuss how GPU-accelerated supercomputing and extreme-scale parallelism make this kind of modeling feasible.
Her talk will further explore the convergence of:
About Amanda Randles
Amanda Randles is the Director of the Duke Center for Computational and Digital Health Innovation. Her research integrates HPC, machine learning, and biophysical simulation to advance patient-specific care. Her contributions have been recognized with numerous distinctions, including the ACM Prize in Computing, the NIH Pioneer Award, NSF Career Award and the ACM Grace Hopper Award. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a software engineer at IBM on the Blue Gene supercomputing team.
Randles received her Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard University, an M.S. in Computer Science from Harvard, and a B.A. in Computer Science and Physics from Duke. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a software engineer at IBM on the Blue Gene supercomputing team.
Join ISC High Performance 2026 in #ConnectingTheDots
ISC 2026 returns to the Congress Center Hamburg from June 22 – 26 for its 41st edition. Since its inception in 1986, it has been recognized as the world’s oldest and Europe’s most attended event for the HPC community, and increasingly for AI and quantum professionals interested in performance, energy efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.
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Source: ISC
The post ISC 2026: Amanda Randles to Deliver Keynote on HPC for Vascular Digital Twins appeared first on HPCwire.
Fifteen months have passed since our last Guix/Hurd on a Thinkpad X60 post and a lot has happened with respect to the Hurd.
And most of you will have guessed, unless you skipped the title of this post, the rumored x86_64 support has landed in Guix!
↫ Janneke Nieuwenhuizen and Yelninei at the Guix blog
A huge amount of work has gone into this effort over the past 18 months, but you can now download Guix and alongside the Linux kernel, you can now opt for the Hurd as well, in eother 32bit or 64 bit flavour. Do note that while Debian GNU/Hurd offers about 75% of Debian packages, Guix/Hurd only offers about 1.7% (32-bit) and 0.9% (64-bit) of packages for now. These percentages are always growing, of course, and now that Guix/Hurd can be installed in virtual machines and even on bare metal relatively easily like this, things might speed up a bit.
CEO cited AI advances in cutting 4,000 workers, but a weak crypto market and declining stock price may also be at play
Jack Dorsey cited AI as the driving force behind cutting 40% of his company’s employees, but other factors such as a weak crypto market, overstaffing and a declining stock price may also have motivated the move.
Last week, the financial technology company Block announced that it would lay off 4,000 of its 10,000 workers. Dorsey, Block’s CEO, said in a letter to shareholders that advances in AI “have changed what it means to build and run a company”.
Continue reading...LONDON, March 3, 2026 — NTT DATA, a global leader in AI, digital business and technology services, announced that its Global Data Centers business has secured four substantial capacity commitments reaching nearly 115MW across campuses in Gainesville, Virginia; Chicago, Illinois; and Sacramento, California. Combined, these agreements highlight the growing demand from both hyperscale platforms and large enterprises for infrastructure engineered to support rapidly expanding digital and AI deployments.
The new commitments include a 90+MW deployment for a major hyperscale provider in addition to nearly 20MW contracted by three enterprise organizations. These agreements reflect the accelerating need for environments that can support high-density compute operations, evolving regulatory expectations, and scalable deployment models for AI and next‑generation workloads.
Organizations across financial services, cloud, gaming and cybersecurity sectors choose NTT Global Data Centers for its ability to meet next‑stage operational needs while providing built‑in pathways for future expansion:
“These new commitments speak to the confidence that clients place in NTT Global Data Centers to support their most ambitious digital initiatives,” said Doug Adams, CEO and President, NTT Global Data Centers. “As compute requirements continue to accelerate, organizations are seeking infrastructure that can evolve at the same pace. Our ability to pair compliance, agility and future‑ready design is increasingly a decisive factor for customers looking to stay ahead of demand. These needs are not just limited to hyperscalers — enterprise organizations across every sector also require high‑performance platforms to serve their customers reliably.”
As one of the world’s largest data center providers, NTT Global Data Centers continues to scale its global platform to meet rising demand. Over the past year, the company launched ten new facilities across key regions in North America, EMEA and APAC, delivering more than 370MW of new IT capacity. These expansions support NTT’s multi‑year plan to invest over $10 billion by 2027 to deliver infrastructure capable of supporting dense AI workloads and the broader digital economy.
About NTT DATA
NTT DATA is a $30+ billion business and technology services leader, serving 75% of the Fortune Global 100. We are committed to accelerating client success and positively impacting society through responsible innovation. We are one of the world’s leading AI and digital infrastructure providers, with unmatched capabilities in enterprise-scale AI, cloud, security, connectivity, data centers and application services. Our consulting and industry solutions help organizations and society move confidently and sustainably into the digital future. As a Global Top Employer, we have experts in more than 70 countries. We also offer clients access to a robust ecosystem of innovation centers as well as established and start-up partners. NTT DATA is part of NTT Group, which invests over $3 billion each year in R&D.
Source: NTT DATA
The post NTT DATA Continues Data Center Momentum with Major Commitments from Hyperscale and Enterprise Clients appeared first on HPCwire.
Many see the Iran conflict lasting at least months. A majority oppose it, and more say it makes the U.S. less safe.
Nigel Farage’s recent efforts to woo centre-ground voters may cause tension in party’s right flank, says Hope Not Hate
More than half of Reform UK members believe non-white British citizens born abroad should be deported or encouraged to leave, according to the first publicly available poll of those in Nigel Farage’s party.
The findings come as the Reform leader attempts to court centre-ground voters while facing pressure from his right flank, including a hardline new party launched by Rupert Lowe, who left Reform after falling out with Farage.
Continue reading...1,500 Exhibitors and 6,000 Booths Position the Show as a Global AI Benchmark — Visitor Pre-Registration Now Open
TAIPEI, Taiwan, March 3, 2026 — COMPUTEX 2026 will take place from June 2–5 in Taipei, spanning four venues — TaiNEX 1 & 2, TWTC Hall 1, and the Taipei International Convention Center (TICC). Stretching across Taipei’s Nangang and Xinyi districts—two interconnected innovation and business hubs—the exhibition forms one of the world’s largest multi-venue technology showcases dedicated to AI and next-generation computing.
COMPUTEX showcases a comprehensive range of exhibits spanning the AI supply chain, advanced communications, key components, and smart solutions, fully demonstrating the commercialization of AI technologies and emerging industry trends.
This year’s show reaches a new milestone, bringing together 1,500 exhibitors from around the globe across 6,000 booths. From semiconductor design and advanced computing infrastructure to robotics systems and real-world AI applications, COMPUTEX presents a vertically integrated technology ecosystem spanning R&D, manufacturing, and deployment. Visitor pre-registration is now open to industry professionals worldwide.
AI Together: Mapping the Global AI Value Chain
As a global benchmark for AI and startups, COMPUTEX 2026, themed “AI Together,” highlights three cores: AI & Computing, Robotics & Mobility, and Next-Gen Tech. The exhibition captures a pivotal phase of AI commercialization and infrastructure scaling, spanning the value chain from chip design and high-performance computing to smart infrastructure and industry applications.
Major international brands including ASUS, Acer, MSI, GIGABYTE, BenQ, and ASRock will showcase integrated AI systems and computing platforms. Global manufacturing leaders Foxconn, Compal, Pegatron, and Wiwynn will demonstrate system integration and scalable production capabilities that underpin worldwide AI deployment. Technology leaders including MediaTek, Intel, Vertiv Taiwan, and Delta will showcase end-to-end solutions — from AI processors and data centers to intelligent power and sustainable infrastructure — highlighting the convergence of performance, efficiency, and scalability in the next phase of AI growth.
Robotics and Smart Applications Take Center Stage
Responding to surging global demand for automation and intelligent systems, COMPUTEX 2026 introduces new highlight zones at TWTC Hall 1, including the Robotics Zone and the TechXperience Zone.
Participating companies such as Intel, YUAN, Texas Instruments, Solomon, and E Ink will present advancements in AI robotics, machine vision, embedded systems, and smart applications. These zones demonstrate how robotics is rapidly expanding beyond manufacturing into healthcare, logistics, retail, and everyday environments—signaling the next frontier of AI-driven productivity.
Meanwhile, InnoVEX will continue to connect global startups, venture capital firms, accelerators, and national pavilions. Recognized internationally as a gateway to Asian innovation markets, InnoVEX fosters cross-border collaboration and emerging technology commercialization.
Expanded COMPUTEX Keynote & Forum and Upgraded On-site Activities
Highly anticipated COMPUTEX Keynote and Forum will return with an expanded scale, connecting technology leaders across the AI supply chain—from upstream semiconductor innovators to downstream application developers. Discussions will focus on AI scalability, infrastructure readiness, sustainability challenges, and long-term market direction.
Co-organizer TAITRA will also integrate a wide range of resources to deliver diverse featured events, including sourcing meetings, guided tours, ESG Go sustainability initiatives, and startup pitch contest. Global media and technology influencers will be invited to Taiwan to amplify global engagement and industry dialogue.
COMPUTEX 2026 will demonstrate Taiwan’s strong R&D capabilities while connecting global enterprises, innovative startups, and professional buyers to create unlimited technology opportunities.
Visitor registration is now open: https://www.computexonline.com.tw/?userlang=en.
About COMPUTEX
COMPUTEX was founded in 1981. It has grown with the global ICT industry and become stronger over the last four decades. Bearing witness to historical moments in the development of and changes in the industry, COMPUTEX attracts more than 40,000 buyers to visit Taiwan every year. It is also the preferred platform chosen by top international companies for launching epoch-making products. Taiwan has a comprehensive global ICT industry chain. Gaining a foothold in Taiwan, COMPUTEX is jointly held by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council and Taipei Computer Association, aiming to build a global tech ecosystem. COMPUTEX has become a global benchmark exhibition for AI and startups, connecting global pioneers and enabling new sparks of breakthrough technology.
Source: COMPUTEX
The post COMPUTEX 2026 Brings the Global AI Ecosystem to Taipei appeared first on HPCwire.
darwinmac writes: While many users choose Microsoft Office over LibreOffice because of its support for the proprietary formats (.docx, .xlsx, and .pptx), others prefer Office for its "better" ribbon interface. These users often criticize LibreOffice for having a "clunky" UI instead of the "standard" ribbon interface you would find in Word, Excel, and other Office apps. Now, Neowin reports that LibreOffice is fighting back, arguing that its UI is actually superior because it is customizable, with several modes such as the classic toolbar interface, an Office-inspired ribbon layout, a sidebar-focused design, and more. Furthermore, it argues that there is no evidence that the ribbon offers "superior usability" over other interface modes. LibreOffice says in a blog post: Incidentally, the characterization of ribbon-style interfaces as "modern" or "standard," used by several users, is not based on any objective usability parameter or design principle, but is the result of Microsoft's dominance in the market and the huge investments made when the ribbon was introduced in Office 2007 as a new paradigm for productivity software. The idea that "modern" equals "similar to a ribbon" is a normalization effect: the Microsoft interface has become a benchmark because of its ubiquity, not because of its proven advantages in terms of usability. Added to this is the fact that many users evaluate office software through the lens of familiarity with Microsoft Office and consider deviation from it as a problem rather than a design choice. Before this, LibreOffice had also criticized its competitor OnlyOffice, accusing it of being "fake open source" because it believes OnlyOffice is working with Microsoft to lock users into the Office ecosystem by prioritizing the formats mentioned earlier instead of LibreOffice's own OpenDocument Format (ODF).
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
We tested dozens of affordable phones, from he $114 Samsung Galaxy A03S to the $500 Google Pixel 8A and $700 OnePlus 13R. Here are the best cheap phones in 2026.
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 3, 2026 — Ayar Labs today announced the closing of $500 million in Series E funding led by Neuberger Berman. The company will use the funds to scale high-volume production and test capacity to accelerate the deployment of its CPO solution. This brings the company’s total funding to $870 million and raises the company’s valuation to $3.75 billion.
“AI infrastructure is hitting a power wall driven by interconnect inefficiency. As bandwidth demands explode, copper becomes the bottleneck — consuming too much power and limiting AI throughput per watt and per dollar,” said Mark Wade, CEO and co-founder of Ayar Labs. “Co-packaged optics overcomes these barriers, enabling thousands of GPUs to operate as a unified system. This funding fuels our ability to meet the demands of hyperscale AI.”
The round aligns premier capital investors with industry leaders across the AI and semiconductor ecosystem, reinforcing the market’s support for Ayar Labs’ technology leadership and production-ready CPO solution for AI scale-up. New investors include Alchip Technologies, ARK Invest, Insight Partners, MediaTek, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Sequoia Global Equities, and 1789 Capital. They join existing financial institutions such as Advent Global Opportunities, Boardman Bay Capital Management, IAG Capital Partners, Light Street Capital, and Playground Global, and existing strategic investors, AMD Ventures, and NVIDIA.
“Today’s AI infrastructure buildout is one of the largest capital deployment opportunities of our generation, and data center interconnect has quickly emerged as the most critical bottleneck,” said Gabe Cahill, Managing Director, Neuberger Berman. “Ayar Labs’ execution against key customer milestones is driving strong market conviction in its technology leadership. We believe that both ongoing and new strategic investments from industry leaders in this round reinforce this momentum. With a production-ready scale-up co-packaged optics solution and deep ecosystem integration, we are excited to lead this round and help accelerate the paradigm shift taking place in AI infrastructure.”
Neuberger Berman will take a board observer role, bringing deep experience in scaling category-defining technology companies. In addition, the investment participation of MediaTek and Alchip Technologies further strengthens Ayar Labs’ alignment with key custom ASIC design ecosystem partners.
Ayar Labs will use the new funds to scale high-volume production and test capacity, expand global operations, including at its new Hsinchu, Taiwan, office, strengthen ecosystem partnerships, and accelerate the deployment of its CPO solution.
The company’s AI scale-up CPO solution unlocks AI performance and profitability by replacing bandwidth-limited copper interconnects with optical connectivity that provides the performance and efficiency gains required for next-generation AI infrastructure. At the heart of the solution is the TeraPHY optical engine, built on the standard form factor, manufacturing, and packaging flows used by major accelerator and switch vendors for seamless integration into existing customer designs.
About Ayar Labs
Ayar Labs is transforming AI infrastructure with the industry’s first proven co-packaged optics (CPO) solution manufactured in partnership with the world’s leading semiconductor ecosystem. By unlocking performance gains and reducing workload costs in a power-constrained environment, Ayar Labs’ TeraPHY optical engines are key to unleashing next-generation AI scale-up. Founded in 2015, Ayar Labs is funded by domestic and international venture capital firms, as well as strategic investors including AMD, Alchip Technologies, MediaTek, NVIDIA, and VentureTech Alliance. For more information, visit https://ayarlabs.com.
Source: Ayar Labs
The post Ayar Labs Closes $500M Series E, Accelerates Volume Production of Co-Packaged Optics appeared first on HPCwire.
WASHINGTON, March 3, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science today announced a $352 million funding opportunity for DOE’s Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC).
This funding will bring together world-class teams of scientists from universities, DOE National Laboratories, and other institutions to perform fundamental research in materials sciences, chemistry, geosciences, and biosciences. These efforts will lay the scientific foundation needed to accelerate breakthroughs in critical minerals, quantum computing, and advanced manufacturing to secure America’s technological leadership.
“For over 15 years, the EFRC program has provided a transformational research environment that has brought together the strengths of our National Laboratories and universities to accelerate discovery, develop innovative tools, and train the next generation of the American energy science workforce,” said DOE Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil. “The EFRCs will continue to play a vital role in bridging disciplines and institutions, advancing foundational science and strengthening America’s leadership to push forward scientific frontiers critical for new energy technologies.”
Since 2009, the EFRC program has supported 107 centers spanning more than 190 institutions in 43 states and Washington, D.C. and trained more than 6,200 students and postdoctoral researchers in energy-relevant team science. EFRC-supported research has resulted in over 17,000 peer-reviewed publications, 780 patent applications, 270 patents, and 135 companies that have benefited from EFRC-enabled innovations.
Applicants must propose basic research that addresses scientific challenges in one or more of the following topics:
Applications for new and renewing EFRCs are open to accredited U.S. colleges and universities, National Laboratories, nonprofit organizations, and private sector companies.
For more information about this funding opportunity and the EFRC program, please register for a webinar on March 9, 2026, at 1 PM ET. Register on Zoom.
The funding opportunity is sponsored by Basic Energy Sciences within the Department’s Office of Science and can be found on the BES funding opportunities website. Total planned funding is up to $352 million, with $88 million in Fiscal Year 2026 dollars and $264 million in outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy
The post DOE Announces $352M for EFRC to Accelerate Science Underpinning Energy Tech appeared first on HPCwire.
Target will invest another $2 billion in its business this year to spruce up stores, remodel locations and invest in workers, the retailer said Tuesday as it outlined plans to try to reverse a persistent sales malaise and reclaim its footing in fashion and home categories.
United said it could permanently ban travelers who refuse to wear headphones while listening to audio or video content on its flights.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 3, 2026 — Akamai has announced the acquisition of thousands of NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs to bolster its global distributed cloud infrastructure. The deployment creates a unified platform for AI R&D, fine-tuning, and post-training optimization that intelligently routes AI inference workloads to optimized compute resources across Akamai’s massive global network. The architecture is designed to support rapid inference by reducing the latency and data egress issues associated with centralized data centers.
While the first wave of AI focused on model training in centralized hubs, the industry has reached a tipping point where inference matters as much as training. The MIT Technology Review recently reported that 56 percent of organizations cite latency as the primary barrier preventing AI deployment at scale. By treating the globe as a single, low-latency backplane, Akamai is bridging this gap and providing the foundational infrastructure for physical and agentic AI where decisions must happen at the speed of the real world.
“While hyperscalers continue to push the boundaries of AI training, Akamai is focused on meeting the unique demands of the inference era,” said Adam Karon, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager, Cloud Technology Group, Akamai. “Centralized AI factories remain essential for building models, but bringing those models to life at scale requires a decentralized nervous system. By distributing inference-optimized compute across our global fabric, Akamai isn’t just adding capacity. We’re providing the scale, at minimal latency, that is required to move AI from the laboratory to the street corner and the hospital bed – where the work happens, where the data lives, and where the ROI is realized.”
Akamai’s adoption of Blackwell GPUs advances Akamai’s vision for a globally distributed AI compute grid built for the inference era. By extending AI processing beyond centralized AI factories to high-density distributed infrastructure, Akamai allows AI to interact with physical systems — from autonomous delivery and smart grids to surgical robotics and critical fraud prevention — without the geographic or cost limitations of traditional cloud architecture.
The integration of NVIDIA Blackwell AI infrastructure enables:
This announcement follows Akamai’s recent initiatives to expand its AI inference and generalized compute capabilities. In October 2025, the company announced Akamai Inference Cloud, redefining where and how AI is used by bringing AI inference closer to users and devices.
By providing tools for platform engineers and developers to build and run AI applications and data-intensive workloads closer to end users, Akamai delivers highly efficient throughput while reducing latency up to 2.5x, saving businesses as much as 86% on AI inference using NVIDIA AI infrastructure when compared to traditional hyperscaler infrastructure.
The platform combines NVIDIA RTX PRO Servers, featuring NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs, and NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs with Akamai’s distributed cloud computing infrastructure and global edge network, which has over 4,400 locations worldwide.
Akamai has seen strong demand for its initial deployment of NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs, and will be continuing to add GPU capacity as part of its cloud infrastructure strategy.
About Akamai
Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM) is the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business online. Our market-leading security solutions, superior threat intelligence, and global operations team provide defense in depth to safeguard enterprise data and applications everywhere. Akamai’s full-stack cloud computing solutions deliver performance and affordability on the world’s most distributed platform. Global enterprises trust Akamai to provide the industry-leading reliability, scale, and expertise they need to grow their business with confidence.
Source: Akamai
The post Akamai Adds Thousands of NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs to Power Distributed AI Platform appeared first on HPCwire.
 | I noticed the dent after it got ran over by a car and since then the range has dropped considerably. I ran diagnostics with future motion support and it seems to look fine. So is it possible that this dent is what’s causing the range to drop? [link] [comments] |
March 3, 2026 — Fujitsu and BCN Port Innovation Foundation today announced a new agreement between Fujitsu Spain and the BCN Port Innovation Foundation to develop a proof of concept (PoC) for an ocean digital twin at the Port of Barcelona. This pioneering initiative is aimed at the regeneration of the marine environment, the protection of biodiversity and the promotion of the blue economy.
Catalina Grimalt, CEO and President, BCN Port Foundation (left) and Ángeles Delgado, President of Fujitsu Technology Solutions S.A. (right) shaking hands after the signing ceremony to kick off the proof of concept.
The project is based on the use of underwater drones combined with artificial intelligence and advanced analytics, capable of capturing high-resolution representations of the seabed. Using this non-destructive sensing approach, the digital twin will make it possible to visualize and quantify biodiversity, calculate biomass based on vegetation cover, and estimate blue carbon associated with marine algae.
This project lays the foundations for the BCN Port Innovation Foundation to have a unified digital platform that centralizes all information on port biodiversity and enables its long-term monitoring.
With this initiative, Fujitsu reinforces its commitment to developing proprietary technology with social and environmental impact, aligned with climate neutrality goals and the protection of marine ecosystems, and consolidates its role as a technology partner in sustainable innovation projects in Spain.
Fujitsu and the BCN Port Innovation Foundation plan to carry out the proof of concept in the Port of Barcelona during 2026.
A New Approach to Measuring and Protecting Marine Biodiversity
Global marine ecosystems face a severe crisis due to global warming and ocean pollution. The EU is accelerating marine environmental conservation and restoration efforts, notably with the 2024 adoption of the Nature Restoration Law, which mandates marine ecosystem recovery.
By integrating AI-enabled underwater data capture with advanced analytics, the Ocean Digital Twin transforms how marine ecosystems are measured, understood, and utilized. Autonomous surface and underwater vehicles follow optimized survey routes with real-time stabilization control, enabling consistent and repeatable seabed data acquisition and generating high-quality data suitable for AI processing.
Machine learning models convert this data into quantitative environmental intelligence, estimating vegetation coverage, assessing habitat extent, and calculating blue carbon absorption. The technology also provides precise spatial data on seabed conditions, habitat distribution, and species types, creating a strong empirical foundation for the design and evaluation of conservation, restoration, and regeneration projects.
In addition, the system enables continuous monitoring of multiple plant species, making it possible to analyze ecosystem evolution over time and anticipate potential impacts resulting from both climate change and port activity.
Environmental Simulation and Data-Driven Decision-Making
The platform developed by Fujitsu enables the simulation of “what if” scenarios, helping pre-verification of environmental measures before they are implemented to prioritize investments based on their real impact. Thanks to the creation of a high-fidelity digital model, port authorities can identify priority areas for protection, as well as zones suitable for environmental restoration or rehabilitation.
This simulation capability makes the digital twin a key tool for balancing port activity with the preservation of the natural environment, facilitating the design of more sustainable infrastructure and operations. Following a successful PoC, Fujitsu and BCN Port Innovation Foundation can collaborate to add regeneration and preservation simulation scenarios to the project.
Blue Economy, Transparency and Social Engagement
Beyond environmental conservation, the project could open up new opportunities within the blue economy, facilitating the potential development of marine research initiatives, environmental education and scientific outreach activities.
Moreover, the visual and immersive nature of the digital twin enhances transparency and awareness, helping to bring knowledge of the marine environment closer to stakeholders and fostering greater understanding of the importance of protecting coastal ecosystems.
Ángeles Delgado, president of Fujitsu Spain and Portugal, points out: “This project demonstrates how technology can become a true ally of sustainability. The ocean digital twin allows us to transform complex data from the marine environment into actionable information to protect biodiversity, promote blue carbon initiatives, and make evidence-based decisions.”
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu’s purpose is to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation. As the digital transformation partner of choice for customers around the globe, our 113,000 employees work to resolve some of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Our range of services and solutions draw on five key technologies: AI, Computing, Networks, Data & Security, and Converging Technologies, which we bring together to deliver sustainability transformation. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 3.6 trillion yen (US$23 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025 and remains the top digital services company in Japan by market share.
Source: Fujitsu
The post Fujitsu to Deploy Underwater Drones and AI for Ocean Digital Twin at Port of Barcelona appeared first on HPCwire.
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 3, 2026 — Nutanix, a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, today announced the findings of its eighth annual Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) survey and research report which measures global enterprise progress with cloud adoption. This year’s report looked closely at the challenges IT executives face as they navigate the rapid increase of AI use and need for application and infrastructure modernization in the enterprise.
The rapid rise of AI adoption in the enterprise over the last year is forcing a wave of infrastructure modernization, as companies race to build and run applications more efficiently. In fact, containers have become a core component of the enterprise application strategy with the survey showing that 85% of respondents report that AI is accelerating their adoption of containers to improve speed, reliability, and scalability.
“The findings indicate organizations need enterprise-grade security, resilience, and portability as AI workloads can run anywhere,” said Lee Caswell, SVP, Product and Solutions Marketing at Nutanix. “Organizations would also benefit from a common operating environment for virtual machines and containers that enables their IT leaders to scale AI confidently across hybrid environments.”
Key findings from this year’s report, based on survey responses, include:
For the eighth consecutive year, Nutanix commissioned a global research study to assess the state of cloud adoption, containerization, and GenAI application deployment. Conducted in November 2025 by Wakefield Research, the survey gathered responses from 1,600 cloud, IT, and engineering executives with at least a manager-level title. Respondents represent organizations with 500 or more employees across Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
To learn more about the report and findings, please download the full eighth annual ECI report here. Watch Dan Ciruli, VP Cloud Native at Nutanix, comment about the report here.
About Nutanix
Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX) is a hybrid multicloud computing leader, offering organizations a unified software platform for running applications and AI and managing data anywhere. With Nutanix, organizations can simplify operations for traditional and modern applications, freeing them to focus on business goals. Trusted by more than 30,000 customers worldwide, Nutanix helps empower organizations to transform digitally and power hybrid multicloud environments consistently, simply, and cost-effectively. Learn more at www.nutanix.com or follow us on social media.
Source: Nutanix
The post Nutanix Finds Enterprises Accelerating Container Use as AI Workloads Expand appeared first on HPCwire.
Religious freedom group says 200 troops sent complaints of superiors using extremist Christian rhetoric to justify war
US military commanders have been invoking extremist Christian rhetoric about biblical “end times” to justify involvement in the Iran war to troops, according to complaints made to a watchdog group.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) says it has received more than 200 complaints from service members across all branches of the armed forces, including the marines, air force and space force.
Continue reading...Lib Dems table amendment to crime and policing bill, saying system ‘simply not doing enough to protect women’
Parliament is to debate whether all suicides in cases involving victims of domestic abuse should be investigated as homicide.
The Liberal Democrats have tabled an amendment to the crime and policing bill saying that if “there is reasonable suspicion that a death by suicide has been preceded by a history of domestic abuse committed against the person by another person, the relevant police force must investigate that suicide as if it were a potential homicide”.
Continue reading...The attacker who opened fire at a bar in Austin, Texas, over the weekend appears to have posted antisemitic, anti-Christian and misogynistic messages on social media.
Many of the agents who were fired last week by FBI Director Kash Patel were assigned to a squad that worked on global counterintelligence cases, including those involving Iran, sources said.
Israel sent troops into Lebanon as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran widened, and some of Iran's Gulf neighbors warned that Iran's retaliatory fire could draw them into the spreading conflict.
The Trump administration said it is looking to use a mix of military and chartered flights to help U.S. citizens leave the Middle East as Iran steps up retaliatory strikes.
Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for March 4, No. 1,719.
MinIO AIStor Table Sharing natively integrates Delta Sharing open protocol for seamless access to enterprise data across private and public clouds
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 3, 2026 — MinIO today announced AIStor Table Sharing, an industry-first capability built into MinIO AIStor that allows enterprises to securely share their on-premises data directly with the Databricks platform for instant access to fresh data for real-time analytics and intelligence. AIStor natively integrates Delta Sharing open protocol.
Even as enterprises increasingly standardize on Databricks for advanced analytics and AI, a growing share of their most valuable data remains on-premises due to scale, performance, cost, and data sovereignty requirements. Historically, making that data available to Databricks required complex pipelines, duplicate datasets, and separate governance layers, resulting in delayed time-to-insight, increased costs, operational risk, and ongoing overhead.
AIStor Table Sharing addresses that friction by embedding Delta Sharing directly into the object store. Delta Sharing is Databricks’ open source approach that enables customers to share live data across platforms, clouds, and regions with strong security and governance. Table Sharing enables federated, enterprise-scale analytics without data movement, copies, or lock-in.
“Enterprises shouldn’t have to move massive datasets just to analyze them,” said AB Periasamy, co-founder and co-CEO, MinIO. “Today, all data is AI data, and as AI blurs the lines between on-premises and cloud environments, data gravity remains a hard reality. Powered by Delta Sharing, AIStor Table Sharing removes that constraint by allowing data to be accessed and shared where it lives, providing faster insights, lower risk, and simpler operations as enterprises scale AI across hybrid environments.”
“Customers consistently ask us to be able to govern and share data stored in and out of the cloud. Our partnership with MinIO is a testament to the power of an open data ecosystem,” said Stephen Orban, SVP of Product Ecosystem and Partnerships, Databricks. “By natively integrating Delta Sharing, MinIO enables enterprises to securely connect their on-premises data to Databricks without complex replication, accelerating time-to-insight for hybrid workloads.”
Unifying Enterprise Data for AI at Scale
AIStor Table Sharing is built on AIStor Tables, the Iceberg V3-native foundation for modern data lakehouses running at enterprise scale on-premises and in hybrid environments. AIStor Tables combines MinIO’s high-performance, S3-compatible object storage with integrated Iceberg table catalogs, metadata, REST API, and open sharing standards, allowing table shares to be defined, governed, and published directly from the same system where the data is stored.
By bringing structured and unstructured data together in a single platform, AIStor Tables transforms AIStor into a true AI data store, feeding analytics engines and GPUs directly without data duplication, architectural sprawl, or operational overhead. AIStor Table Sharing extends this foundation, enabling Databricks customers to unify access to their on-premises data for analytics and AI while preserving performance, cost efficiency, and control.
As AI raises the stakes for speed, scale, and governance, AIStor Table Sharing redefines how enterprises can unify and connect their cloud compute with their on-premises data stores:
Purpose-Built for Enterprise Data Environments
MinIO and Databricks share a growing base of large enterprise customers across manufacturing, financial services, energy, retail, and logistics. These organizations generate and retain massive volumes of on-premises data for valid operational, economic, and regulatory reasons and want to apply Databricks’ analytics and AI capabilities to that data in place.
Flexibility at Enterprise Scale
AIStor Table Sharing reflects how enterprises actually operate today: multi-format, hybrid, and at massive scale. By supporting both Delta and Apache Iceberg tables, MinIO avoids locking customers into a single analytics path or proprietary sharing model.
All MinIO AIStor editions share the same binary and core architecture, differing only by licensed features, supported scale, and support entitlements. This allows customers to adopt AIStor table sharing today and seamlessly scale as requirements grow.
Availability
AIStor Table Sharing is now generally available with MinIO AIStor. Additional information, including documentation, demos, and reference architectures, are available at www.min.io.
About MinIO
MinIO is the data foundation for enterprise analytics and AI. Built for exascale performance and limitless scale, MinIO AIStor delivers a secure, sovereign, and AI-ready data store that spans from edge to core to cloud. With rampant adoption across the Fortune 100 and 500, MinIO is redefining how organizations and government agencies store, manage, and mobilize all of their data in the AI era. MinIO is backed by Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, Dell Technologies, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Intel Capital, Softbank Vision Fund 2, and others.
Source: MinIO
The post MinIO Unlocks On-Prem Enterprise AI Data for Databricks Customers appeared first on HPCwire.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: Users of Meta's AI smart glasses in Europe may be unknowingly sharing intimate video and sensitive financial information with moderators outside of the bloc, according to a report from Sweden's Svenska Dagbladet released last week. Employees in Kenya doing AI "annotation" told the journalists that they've seen people nude, using the toilet and engaging in sexual activity, along with credit card numbers and other sensitive information. With Meta's Ray-Ban Display and other glasses with AI capabilities, users can record what they're looking at or get answers to questions via a Meta AI assistant. If a wearer wants to make use of that AI, though, they must agree to Meta's terms of service that allow any data captured to be reviewed by humans. That's because Meta's large language models (LLMs) often require people to annotate visual data so that the AI can understand it and build its training models. This data can end up in places like Nairobi, Kenya, often moderated by underpaid workers. Such actions are subject to Europe's GDPR rules that require transparency about how personal data is processed, according to a data protection lawyer cited in the report. However, Svenska Dagbladet's reporters said they needed to jump through some hoops to see Meta's privacy policy for its wearable products. That policy states that either humans or automated systems may review sensitive data, and puts the onus on the user to not share sensitive information.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Wigdor LLP accuses billionaire of trying to ‘destroy those who seek to hold him to account for alleged sexual assault’
A law firm that represented multiple women who accused former Jeffrey Epstein associate Leon Black of sexual misconduct alleged in a Manhattan civil suit on Monday that the powerful financier deployed “multiple frivolous and malicious lawsuits” as retaliation for representing these accusers.
Wigdor LLP claimed Black, who co-founded and formerly chaired Apollo Global Management, tried “to use his billions to buy his own form of justice” and “to weaponize the civil justice system to silence and destroy those who seek to hold him to account for alleged sexual assault”. Black has emphatically denied all wrongdoing.
Continue reading...Colin Gray was found guilty on 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder. Prosecutors argued that he had failed to secure his son’s gun.
Many Democrats have claimed that President Donald Trump didn’t have the legal authority to unilaterally order the Feb. 28 joint military airstrikes with Israel that resulted in the death of the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Experts have told us that, according to an originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, congressional approval for the use of military force against another country is required. Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives the power “To declare War” to Congress.
However, in practice, several presidents have unilaterally ordered military action abroad without authorization from Congress.
In this story, we’ll look at what Democrats have said about Trump’s latest military order and review what experts already told us in similar past cases.
Not long after the attack on Saturday, several Democrats were quick to criticize Trump’s military operation in official statements or media appearances.
Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona said in a Feb. 28 statement on his congressional website, “President Trump promised no more forever wars. Instead, he has illegally dragged us into another one without congressional authorization and no long term strategy.”
Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia called it an “illegal war” on “Fox News Sunday” on March 1.
“The Constitution says no declaration of war without Congress,” he said. “The president has called this war against Iran. The president can act to imminently defend the United States against imminent attack, if that happens, without congressional approval, needing later ratification by Congress. But if you’re going to initiate war, you need Congress. The president not only did not come to Congress to seek a debate or vote, he acted without even notification to the vast majority of us.”
That same day, on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut also called Trump’s actions “illegal” without authorization. “Congress wouldn’t vote to give him the permission to do it, but he’s obligated to come to Congress,” Murphy said.
But Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that members of Congress were informed consistent with current law.
“We notified Congress,” Rubio told reporters in a March 2 press gaggle. “I mean, we notified the Gang of Eight. We notified congressional leadership. There’s no law that requires us to do that. The law says we have to notify them 48 hours after beginning hostilities. We’ve done that.”
The Gang of Eight refers to a special group of eight members of Congress, including the four top Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate, as well as the chairperson and ranking member of the House and Senate Select Committees on Intelligence. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X that, prior to the attacks, Rubio “called all members of the gang of eight to provide congressional notification, and he was able to reach and brief seven of the eight members.”
Rubio said there was no legal requirement to notify all members of Congress at that time.
We previously examined the legality of unilateral uses of military force by presidents when the U.S. bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities in June, and again when the U.S. carried out the military operation in Venezuela that led to the capture of that country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, in January.
One of the experts we quoted in our January story, Oona Hathaway, a professor of international law at Yale Law School, was definitive in her assessment of the latest use of military force abroad.
“The strikes on Iran are blatantly illegal,” she wrote in an X post on Feb. 28. “I explained in June why the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were unlawful under US and international law. Everything I wrote then is true today, but this is a far larger assault with far graver consequences.”
In her guest essay for the New York Times last year, Hathaway wrote, “It has become almost quaint to observe that the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to declare war. Yes, the president is commander in chief of the military, but he is obligated to seek authorization from Congress before he initiates a war.”
Hathaway said the only time that a president does not need advance congressional approval “is when the United States has been attacked and he must act quickly to protect the country.” She said the president is also “required to seek authorization from the United Nations Security Council,” since the U.S. long ago signed on to a U.N. Charter that prohibits unjustified uses of military force by one country against another.
But other legal experts have told us that the issue of legality isn’t so clear.
Peter Shane, a constitutional law scholar and adjunct professor at New York University School of Law, told us in June that it is “difficult to give a definitive answer” on the constitutionality of such military actions “because there is so much disagreement about how the Constitution should be interpreted with regard to the unilateral presidential deployment of military force.”
In an email, he said, “Under the most persuasive reading of the Founding era, the Constitution does not authorize Presidents to deploy military force abroad without advance congressional authorization.” But he added that it has “long been the position” of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel “that history has ratified unilateral presidential deployments of military force as long as (1) the deployment serves ‘sufficiently important national interests,’ as judged by the President, and (2) the deployment does not portend a ‘prolonged and substantial military engagement, typically involving exposure of U.S. military personnel to significant risk over a substantial period.’”
Kermit Roosevelt, a constitutional expert and professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, made similar points to us for our June story.
“The Constitution says that Congress has the power to declare war, and the records of the Constitutional Convention are pretty clear that the drafters did not want to give one person the power to take the United States into war,” Roosevelt told us in an email. “However, presidents have done things that count as acts of war under international law without congressional authorization, like the Libya bombings [under then-President Barack Obama], and no one has stopped them, so our practice has departed from the text and original understanding.”
As for when Congress has to be notified of military action, the Congressional Research Service has explained that the 1973 War Powers Resolution passed by Congress requires presidents within 48 hours “to report to Congress any introduction of U.S. forces into hostilities or imminent hostilities.” After the military action is reported, the resolution “requires that the use of forces must be terminated within 60 to 90 days unless Congress authorizes such use or extends the time period.” It also “requires that the ‘President in every possible instance shall consult with Congress before introducing’ U.S. Armed Forces into hostilities or imminent hostilities.”
Roosevelt told us that the resolution should not be interpreted to mean the president “can do what he wants for 48 hours before notifying Congress, or for 60 days even if Congress doesn’t” grant its approval. He said, “That’s not consistent with the Constitution and it’s not consistent with the purpose and policy section of the WPA, which says that the intent is to make sure that the President’s power to engage in military action is exercised ‘only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.’”
The “48 hour and 60 day windows are supposed to be relevant to presidential responses to attacks, and the President is not supposed to be able to initiate wars at all,” he explained, with emphasis.
On March 2, Trump sent a report informing Congress that the strikes he authorized against Iran “were undertaken to protect United States forces in the region, protect the United States homeland, advance vital United States national interests, including ensuring the free flow of maritime commerce through the Strait of Hormuz, and in collective self-defense of our regional allies, including Israel.”
The president said he “acted pursuant to my constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive to conduct United States foreign relations.”
Since earlier this year, Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has been saying that the debate among experts about the legality of unilateral presidential uses of force is largely meaningless.
“Immediately after these operations happen, every time this happens – Libya, Kosovo, Iran, all of these unilateral uses of force without congressional authorization – we immediately jump to the law and commentators immediately say this is illegal, depending on whether they like the war or not, or they defend it as being lawful, and we have this debate about whether it’s lawful or not, and I frankly think it’s kind of a meaningless debate in almost every circumstance,” he said in a Jan. 5 online discussion with another legal scholar, Bob Bauer, a New York University School of Law professor of practice.
Goldsmith said the question is why has Congress ceded the power to use military force to the president without restrictions. He made the same points in a Feb. 28 analysis after the U.S-Israel attack on Iran.
“As I’ve been saying for a while, there are no effective legal limitations within the executive branch. And courts have never gotten involved in articulating constraints in this context. That leaves Congress and the American people,” he wrote. “They have occasionally risen up to constrain the president’s deployment of troops and uses of force—for example, in Vietnam, and in Lebanon in 1983, and in Somalia in 1993. But those actions are rare and tend only to happen once there is disaster.”
He said “rhetoric of legal constraint, and debates about the legality of presidential uses of force, are empty,” and “deflect attention from Congress’s constitutional responsibility to exercise its political judgment and the political powers that the framers undoubtedly gave it to question, to hold to account, and (should it so choose) to constrain presidential uses of force.”
Congress may vote this week on war powers resolutions drafted by members of the House and Senate, including Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Republican Sen. Rand Paul, both of Kentucky. The resolutions would require congressional approval before any further military action in Iran is taken.
Trump could veto a passed resolution, and if that happens, there may not be enough support in Congress to override the veto. Few Republicans have indicated support for a war powers resolution.
Last June, the Senate failed to pass a war powers resolution that was introduced after the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities. Then in January, the House and Senate failed to pass a resolution after the military raid in Venezuela.
Trump told the New York Times that the U.S-Israel attacks on Iran could go on for “four to five weeks.”
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The post Legality of Latest Iran Attack in Question appeared first on FactCheck.org.
Documents released by the Justice Department provided a look into Howard Lutnick's ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Donald Trump’s commerce secretary has acknowledged visiting convicted sex offender on private island in 2012
Howard Lutnick, Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, has agreed to appear voluntarily before the House committee on oversight and government reform as part of its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal network, the committee’s chair announced on Tuesday.
James Comer, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the panel, said Lutnick had “proactively” agreed to the transcribed interview.
Continue reading...The new key functionality runs through Aliro, a new protocol from the makers of Matter and Thread.
Tests of dozens of baby formulas by Consumer Reports found that nearly half contained potentially dangerous chemicals.
As more women seek hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, the shortage of estrogen patches increases, forcing them to look for other options.
The AI-powered visual search tool that debuted on the Samsung Galaxy S26 is now on Pixel phones too, and it's dangerously good at helping me shop. RIP my bank account.
No injuries have been reported in the strike and fire, Dubai’s media office said on Tuesday
Authorities have put down a limited fire near the US consulate in Dubai due to a drone strike, with no injuries reported, according to Dubai’s media office on Tuesday.
In a statement posted online, the media office said: “Dubai authorities have confirmed that a fire resulting from a drone-related incident near the US Consulate has been successfully contained.”
Continue reading...US president criticises prime minister for third time 24 hours, describing him as ‘not Churchill’ over initial refusal
Donald Trump has launched a deeply personal attack on Keir Starmer over his refusal to let the US launch initial strikes on Iran from British bases, telling reporters: “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”
In his latest extraordinary salvo, the US president said he was not happy with the UK even though the prime minister eventually agreed the US could use Diego Garcia for strikes on Iranian missile facilities.
Continue reading...At least four tankers have been struck by drones and maritime traffic has dropped by 80%, reports say
Iran has in effect closed the strait of Hormuz to oil and gas exports for the past four days with a mixture of drone strikes and fear that has halted commercial maritime traffic despite intense US attacks on Iran’s navy.
At least four tankers have been struck and Lloyd’s List Intelligence reported that seaborne traffic had dropped by 80% on Sunday, with little sign of a return as key maritime insurers cancelled cover the next day.
Continue reading...Jorge Pederson, 30, had been on life support after weekend attack which left more than a dozen others wounded
A Minnesota-based mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter has been named as the third victim to die in the recent mass shooting at an Austin bar being investigated as a potential act of terrorism in retaliation for US airstrikes in Iran.
The death of 30-year-old Jorge Pederson was announced by the Austin police department on Monday evening. Police told NBC News that Pederson had been on life support after the attack, which left more than a dozen others wounded and ended with officers fatally shooting the gunman.
Continue reading...March 3, 2026 — Fusion research seeks to recreate on earth the processes responsible for powering the sun. Fusing atoms, which requires temperatures in excess of 100 million degrees Celsius, promises an abundant, carbon-free source of energy.
Credit: Shutterstock
But first, researchers need to tame the beast — the ionized gas plasma held in magnetic fields inside a reactor known as a tokamak. Armed with recent federal grants, University of Florida researchers are working to do just that.
For Christopher McDevitt, Ph.D., a plasma physicist and professor in UF’s Nuclear Engineering program, understanding, predicting and ultimately preventing “off-normal” plasma behaviors inside a tokamak is the central challenge facing researchers around the world as they try to harness the energy released by fusing atoms together.
Two recent projects — one funded by the National Science Foundation, the other by the U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration — are making strides toward improving the predictability of the plasma inside tokamaks using cutting-edge AI through UF’s supercomputer, HiPerGator.
Inside the tokamak reactor, the plasma’s extreme heat and magnetic confinement cause the fuel’s nuclei to collide and fuse, releasing massive amounts of energy that is absorbed as heat in the walls of the vessel. Just like a conventional power plant, a fusion power plant will use this heat to produce steam and then electricity by way of turbines and generators.
But if the plasma inside the reactor becomes unstable, bad things can happen.
“At those temperatures, if you were to suddenly lose control of the plasma, if all of that hot plasma were to suddenly hit a localized region of your reactor wall, it could do serious damage to the materials and structure,” McDevitt explained. “Or even worse would be the unintentional generation of energetic electrons. You can inadvertently turn your fusion device into a particle accelerator. It’s interesting physics, but it’s the nightmare scenario for tokamaks.”
Rather than using trial and error to determine the design parameters that yield the most stable plasma, researchers have turned to machine learning to simulate conditions inside the reactor, predicting plasma anomalies without risking damage to the reactor itself.
McDevitt’s group harnesses the power of HiPerGator to develop machine learning surrogates of these complex plasma events. The recently upgraded supercomputer allows for simulations that used to take days to be completed in a few minutes.
If unstable plasma can be accurately anticipated and ultimately prevented, all with the help of HiPerGator, clean energy powered by fusion could be one step closer to reality.
More from HPCwire
Source: Harrem Monkhorst, UF
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BARCELONA, Spain, March 3, 2026 — At the Global Digital Power Forum during MWC Barcelona 2026, Huawei Digital Power launched the AIDC Ecosystem Co-construction Initiative with Global Computing Consortium (GCC) and unveiled the New-Gen AI-Powered Green Site to empower the ICT industry in the AI era.
Zhou Jianjun, Vice President of Huawei and President of Global Marketing, Sales and Services, Huawei Digital Power
As the intelligent era is advancing rapidly, the demand for AIDC is growing, challenges in power supply, fast delivery, safety and reliability need to be addressed. At the same time, the millions of telecom base stations, also facing high energy consumption and weak grid challenges. With the development of energy technologies, solar energy not only enables low-carbon power generation but has also become the most effective energy resource. The integration of green power with AI has become the optimal solution to address the energy consumption challenges in AI era.
According to Zhou Jianjun, Vice President of Huawei and President of Global Marketing, Sales and Services, Huawei Digital Power, Huawei has been providing the ICT industry with 5G, AI, and cloud to enable digital transformation. In the AI era, the ICT industry needs more sustainable, resilient, agile, and reliable energy infrastructure. Operators will use facilities such as telecom sites and data centers to improve equipment energy efficiency, integrate solar power and energy storage. This will enable operators to transition from being mere energy consumers to both consumers and producers for green and sustainable development. Huawei Digital Power will leverage its established expertise in computing, large AI models, solar, energy storage, and power grids, to help operators evolve toward prosumers 2.0, to win the AI era.
According to Xia Hesheng, CMO of Huawei Digital Power, the adoption of AI applications is accelerating, driving soaring demand for computing power and propelling the AIDC industry into a phase of rapid growth. As the power of chips, servers, and racks, as well as the scale of campuses, undergo dramatic changes, AIDC construction now faces four major challenges: reliability, energy efficiency, delivery, and smooth evolution. Huawei focuses on technology and advances innovation around power supply, cooling, energy storage, and operations, as well as the construction mode. It provides a highly reliable, energy-efficient, fast-delivered, and fully compatible AIDC solution to maximize tokens per watt.
At the event, Huawei Digital Power and GCC jointly launched the AIDC Ecosystem Co-construction Initiative. The initiative is designed to enhance the regional compatibility of standards and specifications by considering local policies, environmental conditions, and technical needs. It also seeks to share practical experiences and build a dynamic global AIDC knowledge base through an alliance platform. By using specifications as a bridge, the initiative will foster a thriving ecosystem and build an open, mutually beneficial global AIDC industry ecosystem.
According to Jin Hai, BOD Chairman of GCC, different countries and regions have varying energy mixes, policy orientations, environmental protection measures, and application scenarios. This presents both challenges for refining specifications and valuable opportunities for industry co-creation. Standards can truly empower global digital economic development only when they are rooted in a deep understanding of regional needs and aligned with industry realities.
AI-Powered Green Site Launch
At the event, Huawei Digital Power launched its AI-Powered Green Site solution, which features a unique end-to-end intelligent synergy to empower operators’ transition from energy consumers to prosumers. The AI-Powered Green Site solution is built on the concept of “one-time deployment, 10-year evolution” for simplified construction, meeting operators’ requirements in scenarios such as 5G site construction, green power supply, and energy storage revenue increase.
Gautham Gnanajothi, Senior Vice President of Frost & Sullivan, believes that telecom networks were built for resilience, but the next decade will define them by intelligence; transforming expansive, geographically distributed energy footprints into orchestrated platforms that not only protect uptime, but actively stabilise power systems, unlock new value streams, and reposition telecom as a strategic force within the broader energy ecosystem.
As the intelligent era rapidly unfolds, AI is unlocking vast growth prospects for the global ICT industry while creating new opportunities and challenges for ICT energy infrastructure. Huawei Digital Power will continue to invest in innovation, harness green energy to power the AI era, and collaborate with global partners to shape a new digital world.
Source: Huawei
The post Huawei Collaborates with GCC to Launch the AIDC Ecosystem Co-Construction Initiative appeared first on HPCwire.
OpenAI is amending its Pentagon contract after CEO Sam Altman acknowledged it appeared "opportunistic and sloppy." On Monday night, Altman said the company would explicitly restrict its technology from being used by intelligence agencies and for mass domestic surveillance. The Guardian reports: OpenAI, which has more than 900 million users of ChatGPT, made the deal almost immediately after the Pentagon's existing AI contractor, Anthropic, was dropped. [...] The deal prompted an online backlash against OpenAI, with users of X and Reddit encouraging a "delete ChatGPT" campaign. One post read: "You're now training a war machine. Let's see proof of cancellation." In a message to employees reposted on X, the OpenAI CEO said the original deal announced on Friday had been struck too quickly after Anthropic was dropped. "We shouldn't have rushed to get this out on Friday," Altman wrote. "The issues are super complex, and demand clear communication. We were genuinely trying to de-escalate things and avoid a much worse outcome, but I think it just looked opportunistic and sloppy." Upon announcing the deal, OpenAI had said the contract had "more guardrails than any previous agreement for classified AI deployments, including Anthropic's." [...] However, observers including OpenAI's former head of policy research, Miles Brundage, have queried how OpenAI has managed to secure a deal that assuages ethical concerns Anthropic believed were insurmountable. Posting on X, he wrote: "OpenAI employees' default assumption here should unfortunately be that OpenAI caved + framed it as not caving, and screwed Anthropic while framing it as helping them." Brundage added: "To be clear, OAI is a complex org, and I think many people involved in this worked hard for what they consider a fair outcome. Some others I do not trust at all, particularly as it relates to dealings with government and politics." In his X post, he also wrote that he would "rather go to jail" than follow an unconstitutional order from the government. "We want to work through democratic processes," Brundage wrote. "It should be the government making the key decisions about society. We want to have a voice, and a seat at the table where we can share our expertise, and to fight for principles of liberty."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The rationale keeps changing – from Iran planning a preemptive strike to lobbying by Israel
It took months for the Bush administration’s falsehoods about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to come to light, after an invasion, regime change, an investigation, and then, finally, the truth. For the Trump administration’s warnings of an imminent threat from Iran, it took an afternoon.
On Capitol Hill on Monday, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, swiftly undercut the Trump administration’s claims that Iran was planning a preemptive strike by adding a key piece of information: Israel was planning to strike first.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has insisted that Israel did not put pressure on the US to launch the initial strikes over the weekend, telling reporters that Iran 'was going to attack first'. The US president also threatened to cut off all trade with Spain after the Nato ally refused permission for two jointly operated bases to be used in US strikes on Iran
Continue reading...The 'MacBook Neo' just showed up in Apple's regulatory documents. Could this be the budget MacBook we've been waiting for?
Roku customers can sign up for Apple TV directly through their account.
Despite rebukes from Donald Trump, many MPs back Keir Starmer’s stance so far, and say lessons from conflict in Iraq must not be forgotten
Calvin Bailey keeps his Iraq medal, issued to members of the British armed forces who served as part of Operation Telic, safe in a drawer in his home. It features a clasp, given to personnel who were part of the very first wave of flights to leave British bases to invade Iraq in March 2003.
So when the Labour MP for Leyton and Wanstead spoke at a meeting between Labour MPs and the prime minister on Monday evening, people listened. “I was exposed to and aware of all the things that were happening in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, the groupthink, the sense of unstoppable momentum,” he said on Tuesday. “If you look at what is happening right now, it’s materially different to 2003, but I think I can speak with adequate weight and credibility.”
Continue reading...US president claims ‘they want to talk. I said: Too Late!’, while Rubio threatens the ‘hardest hits are yet to come’
Israel and the US intensified their attacks on Iran on Tuesday, launching waves of strikes targeting command and control facilities, strategic state offices and missile launch sites as Donald Trump said he had rejected what he claimed was an attempt by Tehran to restart negotiations.
Iran retaliated with hundreds of missile and drone attacks against Israel and across the Gulf region, targeting US military bases, embassies and civilian infrastructure.
Continue reading...Veterans carry a disproportionate share of the debt burden. Here's what the VA offers — and where it falls short.
Two sources familiar with the U.S. military's use of artificial intelligence confirm that the U.S. used Anthropic's Claude AI model over weekend for the attack on Iran — and is still using it.
Interest earnings on a $100,000 deposit can be significant this year, but is it truly the right move for savers?
Come for the new processor, stay for the greater storage.
From the Chagos Islands to ‘windmills’ and sharia law, the US president’s comments do not bear much scrutiny
Donald Trump has been opining about the UK again, saying on Tuesday that Keir Starmer was “not Winston Churchill” and repeating his complaint about the deal to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Here are some recent things the US president has said about British issues, and how they compare with reality.
Continue reading...Move comes day after department said it would drop fight against law firms that stood up to Trump’s executive orders
The US justice department abruptly reversed course on Tuesday and decided it would defend executive orders made by Donald Trump to try to penalize law firms that represented clients or causes the president did not like.
On Monday, the department announced in a court filing that it was dropping its appeal against a ruling by a district court judge that blocked Trump’s retaliatory executive actions against four companies that refused to make a deal with him.
Continue reading...George Calicut Jr has been in prison for more than 25 years for murder, though there were no witnesses or evidence against him
A Detroit-area judge erased a 1999 murder conviction on Tuesday of a man who was serving a life prison sentence after prosecutors acknowledged his confession was coerced by a rogue police officer.
In addition, recent DNA testing “further supports the lack of any evidence” connecting George Calicut Jr to the murder of Virgie Perkins at her Detroit home, the Wayne county prosecutor’s office and his lawyers said.
Continue reading...Just ordered my X7 build with HS 5” hub. It shipped in 3 hours after ordering (USA).
I’m assuming it doesn’t come with a tire, what do people suggest. I ride 50/50 street/mtb singletrack. Looking at the trail pro II for 5” ‘MTE’ hub. Will this fit?
Proponents of the measure announce they have collected 1.3m signatures to put the issue on the midterm ballot
Republican organizers in California announced they have gathered enough signatures to place a measure that would require voters in the state to present identification every time they vote and for election officials to verify that registered voters are US citizens on the ballot this November.
Proponents of the measure announced that they have collected 1.3m signatures on a petition to put the issue on to the ballot for a vote in the midterm elections, surpassing the 874,641 signatures needed under California state law. Officials must now verify the signatures.
Under the current law, Californians are not required to show or provide identification when casting a ballot in person or by mail. They are, however, required to provide identification when registering to vote. Voters must also swear under penalty of perjury – a felony – that they are a US citizen eligible to vote.
Google rolls out a new batch of features for the Pixel Watch as part of its latest Pixel Drop.
The Privacy Display might feel brand new, but Samsung is already working to improve it. Here's what to expect.
Accenture is acquiring Downdetector parent company Ookla from Ziff Davis in a $1.2 billion deal to bolster its network analytics and visibility tools for telecoms, hyperscalers, and enterprises. "The deal, which will transfer all of Ziff Davis's Connectivity division to Accenture, includes Ookla's Speedtest, Ekahau, and RootMetrics," notes The Register reports: "Modern networks have evolved from simple infrastructure into business-critical platforms," said Accenture CEO Julie Sweet in a canned statement. "Without the ability to measure performance, organizations cannot optimize experience, revenue, or security." Ookla is meant to let them do just that. Data captured at the network and device layer are used to enhance fraud prevention in banking, smart homes monitoring, and traffic optimization in retail, Accenture said. Ookla's platform, which lets user's test their own connectivity speed, captures more than 1,000 attributes per test, and provides the foundation for those analytics, Accenture said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Major product announcements from Apple are happening even before its big Wednesday event.
President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News that Iranian negotiators said Iran had the "inalienable right to enrich all their nuclear fuel."
The accelerating complexity of artificial intelligence (AI) workloads and high-performance computing (HPC) is reshaping infrastructure requirements across industries. Large language models, multimodal AI, agentic AI, and advanced scientific simulations demand unprecedented compute power, memory bandwidth, and energy. These requirements extend beyond raw performance to include orchestration flexibility, cost optimization, and compliance readiness. Organizations have nearly unanimously adopted AI integration for their traditional workloads, and a recent Hyperion Research study indicates several key elements of continued expansion:
In today’s rapidly evolving AI landscape, organizations face a large array of choices when selecting infrastructure for their workloads. Decisions span on-premises deployments and cloud-based solutions, each offering distinct advantages. Likewise, accelerated computing options—particularly GPUs—present multiple paths to performance optimization. Strategic partnerships, such as IBM Cloud with AMD, seek to deliver integrated solutions that combine advanced technical capabilities with flexibility, enabling users to achieve the right balance of performance, functionality, service, and cost efficiency through hybrid solutions while maintaining a forward-looking, agile roadmap.
AI is being explored nearly unanimously among user groups across industries and application spaces, even among those users who previously did not adopt AI infrastructure.
While many trends continue to shape the landscape of AI use among large user groups, research suggests three major influences on current circumstances:
Increased investment and allocation: Organizations prioritize hardware optimized for AI training and inference, with growing interest in GPUs supporting lower-precision compute (FP8, BF16). Due to factors such as cost confinement, limited availability of hardware, and continued experimentation, only 16% of users indicate the sole use of on-premises hardware to meet their inferencing compute needs (Fig. 1), highlighting the value of diverse and available cloud resources.
Fig. 1: Hybrid Characteristics of Compute Resources to Meet Inferencing Needs (Source: Hyperion Research, 2025)
Growing Environment Complexity: Hybrid cloud, on-prem environments as well as containerization have become a near-unanimous staple of large-scale advanced computing and AI organizations. Hybrid arrangements such as this bring agility in hardware availability and support from the cloud while maintaining the cost effectiveness and reliability of on-premises. However, with this new complexity brings demands such as unique software tools to manage cross-source compute and data management, expanded expertise to use these unique tools, and a more scrutinous attention paid to cost-effectiveness to avoid runaway spending.
Establishment of AI Best Practices: The majority of advanced computing/AI users indicate continued experimentation and exploration of their AI technology and the diverse market offerings to support it. With the leveraging of AI still a relative newcomer to the continuum of advanced computing, especially among those legacy HPC organizations such as national laboratories, it will take time for standard practices to be truly established. While users take strides to more aptly parameterize and scope their application compute needs, resources like those offered by cloud providers continue to shine.
Users tend to provision their AI inference needs with high-performance GPUs with mainstream GPUs and hyperscalers not far behind in popularity (Fig. 2). This preference to high-performance GPUs is expected to rise as AI adoption and scaling mounts.
Fig. 2: Hybrid Characteristics of Compute Resources to Meet Inferencing Needs (Source: Hyperion Research, 2025)
Recent Hyperion Research studies highlight key user concerns and requirements shaping AI infrastructure decisions:
Scale and Complexity: Training trillion-parameter models requires massive parallelism and memory capacity. Furthermore, continued fine-tuning and retraining while inference capabilities are being scaled presents unique challenges. With rapidly evolving software products on the market and growing questions about the future of the availability of new data, training and running a fully scaled advanced AI model in-house can prove to be challenging, costly, and, at times, inefficient.
Hybrid Deployment: Enterprises increasingly operate across on-prem and cloud environments, introducing orchestration and compliance complexity. Managing data locality and provenance, cross-platform software tools, and achieving continuous efficiency and cost-effectiveness requires detailed and rigorous scheduling and management. Users engaged in experimental or exploratory efforts most often report engaging in these projects in a cloud environment, with production as well not far behind, likely due to its ease-of-access and low commitment. Recent studies indicate a high level of migration among users adopting AI (Fig.3).
Fig. 3: Advanced Computing Users Respond to AI Needs with Cloud Resources (Source: Hyperion Research, 2025)
Affordability and Availability: The hardware and tools required to support leading-edge AI computing are expensive and, at times, wholly unavailable to some users as on-prem resources. Whether it be due to cost constraints, increased pace and expense of chip development, or shifts in trade laws, affordability and availability of required resources to populate data centers are a noted concern of users.
Energy and Sustainability: Rising power and cooling demands make efficiency a procurement priority. Accessing required power, water, space, and other infrastructure is a growing potential obstacle for user organizations, especially those hoping to continue scaling up.
Security and Compliance: Regulated industries require zero-trust architectures, agile responses to new regulations, and resilient security. AI technology and its applications are experiencing a continuous and, at times, confusing barrage of regulatory policies that can prove hard to navigate.
While challenges persist among AI users, there remains a tremendous level of trust in the technology to enhance and reshape current workloads. According to a recent Hyperion Research study, users most often anticipate a return on their AI investments within 3 years while continuing to explore their options and experiment with new model types, hardware configurations, and software tools. These hopes are well founded, with users reporting that their recently integrated AI technology is meeting or exceeding expectations, especially within certain application spaces.
IBM Cloud integrates AMD hardware offerings from their latest generation MI Instinct
series GPUs to deliver high memory bandwidth for optimized large model inference and fine-tuning, supported by unified memory designed to eliminate bottlenecks between CPU and GPU with optimized support for a diversity of AI data types and sparsity. This hardware, combined with IBM’s secure, compliance-ready cloud, enable performance at scale for AI and HPC workloads.
This hardware family, purpose-built to deliver AI and HPC at scale, introduces a lower cost of ownership on the back of efficiency in scaling infrastructure and high memory capacity enabling running larger or a greater number of models on fewer GPUs. Additionally, with a commitment to open standards, users are given freedom from vendor lock-in and flexibility to scale allowing for future growth and agility.
Key Features:
Fig. 4: IBM Cloud User Resources (Source: IBM, 2025)
IBM Cloud services offer a full stack approach to advanced computing support with a research-informed approach considerate of common user challenges, behavior patterns, and value creation. In addition to the peripheral support, these cloud services contain a comprehensive Gen AI stack including AI assistants and agent AI, SDKs and APIs for embedding, data platforms and services, and infrastructure tools. The following graphic outlines some of the key user resources offered within the IBM environment:
AMD hardware on IBM Cloud leverages a suite of cross-industry tools to establish a holistic, research-informed ecosystem to meet users’ most pressing needs. These tools, from start to finish, empower modern enterprises with secure, scalable AI. These solutions, which include not only IBM and AMD solutions, integrate open-source solutions with Red Hat OpenShift and Ansible Automation Platform as well as opportunities to modernize with IBM Consulting and Business Partners.
IBM Cloud has identified certain common patterns for AI usage based on user desires and introduced solutions. These needs, their solutions, and some sample use cases are outlined in the figure below.
Fig. 5: IBM Clouds Needs Meet Solutions (Source: IBM, 2025)
With user cost expectations often being exceeded and a high expectation of return on AI investments, IBM Cloud partnered with AMD is uniquely positioned to provide users and organizations with the solutions to meet challenges head on and realize their full potential of efficiency, reliability, and return.
Zyphra, an open-source AI research and product company based in San Francisco, is building human-aligned superintelligence that empowers individuals and companies to reach their fullest potential. One of the world’s largest open-science superintelligence labs, Zyphra set out to accelerate innovation in multimodal foundation models — spanning language, vision, audio, and brain computer interface (BCI) audio — while advancing breakthroughs in neural network architectures, long-term memory, and continual learning.
Challenges:
To achieve their goals, Zyphra required:
Solutions:
Under a multi-year agreement, IBM and AMD partnered to deliver a dedicated AI training cluster on IBM Cloud featuring:
This deployment marks the first large-scale integration of AMD’s training platform on IBM Cloud, combining compute, networking, and orchestration capabilities into a unified solution. With this deployment, Zyphra has successfully trained ZAYA1-Base, the first large-scale Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) foundation model trained entirely on the AMD platform, from compute to networking to software. During training Zyphra was able to achieve over 750 PFLOPs of real-world training performance on the cluster and the resulting ZAYA1-base model’s benchmark performance is extremely competitive with the SoTA Qwen3 series of models of comparable scale and outperforms comparable western open-source models such as SmolLM3, and Phi4.
IBM Cloud has also adopted the AMD EPYC 9005 Turin series designed for simulation and modelling HPC workloads; for example, IBM introduced the top in line frequency model to run HPC/AI workloads which provides unmatched performance. AMD Instinct GPUs and Turin CPUs offer a competitive platform by which traditional HPC workloads can be empowered by ongoing innovations in the hardware space. Advancing capabilities for supporting HPC workloads within the IBM Cloud/AMD environment allows users engaged in the highest levels of scientific and engineering computing to rely on continued support and innovation for their established workloads as well as more easily integrate AI models into workflows, a practice which has become common even among applications leveraging legacy codes.
IBM Cloud HPC is an example of a flexible, cost-effective, and highly-scaling cloud resource, and is uniquely suited for occasional bursting, hybrid computing, or a full cloud native experience. It is powered by an impressive wide-ranging portfolio of IBM IP to choose from, including:
Further cementing their relationship, last year IBM and AMD announced in a press release plans to cooperatively develop the key technologies needed to facilitate the integration of IBM’s quantum computers (QC) into the classical HPC ecosystem. As the promise of true quantum computing advantage could be realized in the next few years, IBM, as a leading supplier of quantum systems, is looking to AMD to help develop the classical hardware and related software needed to extract the best possible performance from an integrated quantum classical computer environment. IBM is one of the first major QC suppliers to establish such a critical link with a leading developer and supplier of key traditional CPUs as well as AI-centric accelerators.
As users broadly shift toward production-level generative AI applications, their needs are evolving and growing. Infrastructure, support, and raw compute requirements are not only increasing in scale but in complexity. Innovative solutions sensitive to and informed by these requirements are poised to capture favor in this fast-moving ecosystem. AMD Instinct hardware on IBM Cloud aims to not only offer leading edge compute power but seeks to aid users in modernization through a complete toolset of solutions for their most common roadblocks. The customization offered by these tools can bring previously unattainable efficiencies, time-to-solution, ease-of-use, and compliance readiness. With continued support, expansion opportunities, and scalability, this compute environment provides forward-looking products that advanced AI users can trust to take into the future.
Tom Sorensen
Bob Sorensen
About the authors: Tom Sorensen provides a broad range of support to research areas including high performance computing, cloud, AI-related developments, quantum computing, and other advanced computing topics at Hyperion Research. Bob Sorensen serves as Senior Vice President of Research & Chief Analyst for Quantum Computing at Hyperion Research.
Editor’s note: This article is reprinted with permission from Hyperion Research
The post Enabling Advanced AI Computing in the Cloud with Innovative Hardware/Software Collaborations appeared first on HPCwire.
March 3, 2026 — One of the fastest supercomputers in the world, Aurora is enabling new simulations of a powerful but elusive concept: fusion energy.
If you could build a star on Earth and harness its abundant energy, you’d need to know exactly how to store the star and keep it stable. Fusion energy scientists have been working for decades to make the idea a reality. They now have a potent new tool at their disposal: the Aurora supercomputer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.
Tungsten density profile in the German tokamak ASDEX-U. Tungsten walls in devices like this can release tungsten particles into the core plasma, which helps researchers study plasma behavior. Image credit: ALCF Visualization and Data Analytics Team; CS Chang and Julien Dominski/Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Aurora was opened to scientists across the world in 2025 at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), a DOE Office of Science user facility. It is among the three fastest computers in the world, capable of performing a quintillion (or a billion billion) calculations per second. That exascale supercomputing power makes Aurora a critical tool in solving grand scientific challenges such as fusion energy, quantum computing and protein design for targeted medicine, among others.
Fusion, in theory, would solve a lot of problems related to our growing need for energy. One of its main inputs, deuterium, can be derived from water. The fusion reaction is straightforward to extinguish, making it a safe prospect as a long-term energy source. Indeed, the reaction’s fragility is fusion energy’s primary hurdle — commercially viable power plants need a reliable, tunable resource. To get there, scientists are using Aurora to simulate conditions inside tokamaks, doughnut-shaped machines, which are one type of device where fusion happens.
Early Access to a World-Leading Supercomputer
When the Aurora supercomputer made its official debut early last year, scientists from various disciplines had already been using it through the Aurora Early Science Program. Projects chosen for the program had access to the machine for a few months before it was transitioned into production. The arrangement is mutually beneficial: Scientists got to optimize their code for Aurora, and the ALCF team got to troubleshoot based on the project teams’ experiences.
“These projects help to shake down and debug Aurora’s hardware and software,” said Tim Williams, deputy director of Argonne’s Computational Science division. “They get the earliest possible access to the complete system. As part of that, they help diagnose problems and get them fixed.”
The Early Science Program awarded pre-production computing time and resources to several projects under three categories within ALCF’s mission: simulation, data and learning. Two of those projects were fusion energy projects led by scientists from the DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), William (Bill) Tang and Choongseok (C.S.) Chang.
“Historically, fusion energy has been at the vanguard of use of high performance computing,” Williams said. “And here at the ALCF, there has always been a presence of fusion energy research, because its complexity makes it so computationally intensive.”
Predicting Fusion Energy Disruptions with AI
To achieve fusion energy requires creating an environment where two atomic nuclei join together and form one heavier nucleus, releasing energy in the process. This happens within plasma, a heated, electrified gas. Stars, including the sun, are examples of fusion energy at work.
Scientists have simulated this process in experimental, plasma-filled tokamaks such as the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility in California. But they have not yet created a machine that can reliably deliver large amounts of energy.
Magnetic fields within the tokamak form a sort of “bottle” that confines the plasma. Understanding the tokamak’s inner workings involves simulating the flow of plasma energy and mass — an endeavor that is both well established and enduringly difficult. Computational fluid dynamics simulations aren’t confined to plasma: Research at Argonne and elsewhere has explored how the movement of air and liquids plays into hypersonic flight, engine efficiency, weather trends and other phenomena.
“Even just regular fluids are a very complicated scientific problem that we use supercomputers for. When they become turbulent, it’s very chaotic, and it’s hard to predict what they’ll do,” said Argonne assistant computational scientist Kyle Felker. “In tokamaks, we’re complicating this by adding magnetic fields and trying to bring this magnetic fluid up to extreme conditions that don’t occur anywhere on Earth.”
The temperature of the tokamak under construction at ITER, an international collaboration in France, will reach 150 million degrees C (302 million degrees F). That is ten times hotter than the center of the sun. Disruptions to the tokamak plasma, such as the formation of magnetic islands, can damage the reactor and snuff out the fusion reaction.
Felker is working with Tang, principal research physicist at PPPL, on a project that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to predict when disruptions in a tokamak are likely. Trained on data from experiments in machines such as DIII-D and the Joint European Torus in the United Kingdom, the code can assign a “disruption score” to indicate the likelihood of an imminent disruption, doing so within milliseconds.
“We have lots and lots of data from historical campaigns. So we can take AI to learn what we can about these instabilities and hopefully avoid them entirely,” Felker said.
In this case, AI is being called on to meet a challenge partially driven by AI itself. The rise of algorithm-based tools such as ChatGPT has driven up demand for processing power, and therefore energy, worldwide.
“You really have to have more power to have the next-generation machines continue to produce the discoveries that AI has such a tremendous potential to deliver for you,” Tang said. “That’s another major role for what we do in trying to deliver clean fusion energy through magnetic confinement methods.”
Looking Ahead to France’s ITER
Chang, managing principal research physicist at PPPL, leads research focused on fundamental edge plasma physics — what happens when the plasma meets its magnetic boundary. Simulating problems at the plasma edge can help prevent serious confinement issues in the future ITER tokamak.
The kinds of simulations Chang wants to do in a perfect world are not possible, even with an exascale computer like Aurora.
“The bigger the computers, the better,” he said. “The equation we’re trying to solve in such a big machine like ITER is at least five-dimensional, with several tens of charge-state ion species represented by many trillions of mathematical particles. For that, we may need 10 exascale computers.”
To solve for this limitation, Chang whittles down problems as he can. One aspect of his project is examining the effect of tungsten particles that break away from the tokamak wall. Tungsten, even in tiny quantities, can radiate enough energy out of the tokamak to shut it down. And there are dozens of permutations of tungsten to account for — again, impossible on just one exascale machine. So Chang’s team has devised a strategy to bundle similar tungsten species together and simulate them that way on Aurora.
Another aspect of Chang’s project aims to analyze the risk of plasma damaging the ITER-size tokamak’s divertor plates, which remove exhaust heat from the system — and how impurities such as tungsten and neon might have a mitigating effect.
Aurora will make it possible to do calculations for his project in a matter of hours, rather than the several days it might have taken on previous computers. Chang noted that, beyond the processing speed, Aurora’s high-capacity memory makes it newly possible to conduct higher-fidelity simulations than before. (At 20.4 petabytes, Aurora’s memory is more than 40 times that of previous supercomputers.)
“Once we understand the basic physics of these problems in a tokamak, then we can be creative and find a way to manage them,” Chang said.
ALCF’s Broad Reach
The private sector also relies on Argonne’s computing resources. Scientists at TAE Technologies, a California-based fusion energy company, used ALCF supercomputers to develop its magnetic fusion plasma confinement devices.
“Simplistic simulations can miss a lot of details,” Jaeyoung Park, a lead scientist at TAE, recently told Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. “The ALCF gave us the computational power to look at these things at a much deeper level and gain a better understanding, as well as identify ways to make our systems work better.”
Another company, Tennessee-based Type One Energy, is using DOE computing resources, including ALCF’s Polaris, to hatch a new physics design basis for a pilot power plant. The work was done through DOE’s Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program, which allots ALCF production supercomputer time to researchers who are working on computationally intensive projects that address “grand challenges” in science and engineering.
Now that the Aurora Early Science Program has come to a close, both Chang and Tang are continuing their fusion energy research at the ALCF through INCITE awards.
Tang noted that even with the best supercomputers, fusion energy still needs talented scientists across disciplines.
“These machines are not going to do the work for you. They are powerful tools, but they also tell you what you don’t know,” he said. “As long as we stay focused and have bright, young scientists engaged in fusion energy, then I’m very hopeful for the future.”
More from HPCwire: Argonne Releases Aurora Exascale Supercomputer to Researchers
Source: Christina Nunez, Argonne National Laboratory
The post Argonne’s Aurora Supercomputer Powers AI-Driven Fusion Disruption Prediction appeared first on HPCwire.
Valdo Calocane approached security at Thames House in 2021 but did not meet threshold for further assessment, public inquiry told
A man who killed three people during a 2023 knife attack in Nottingham had attempted to hand himself into MI5 for arrest two years earlier, an inquiry has heard.
Valdo Calocane, 34, fatally stabbed Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65, during a stabbing spree in the city on 13 June 2023.
Continue reading...Prosecutors argued Colin Gray gave 14-year-old son, who is accused of killing four in 2024 shooting, access to firearm
The father of a teenage boy accused of killing two students and two teachers in a mass shooting at a Georgia high school in 2024 was found guilty on Tuesday of second-degree murder and other charges.
After roughly two weeks of testimony, jurors deliberated for just a few hours before convicting 54-year-old Colin Gray on more than two dozen charges, including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, related to the 4 September fatal shooting at Apalachee high school in Georgia.
Continue reading...The Justice Dept. said in a court filing it seeks to withdraw its motion to voluntarily dismiss appeals of court decisions invalidating executive orders targeting four law firms.
More than 1,000 lawsuits were resolved last year, including multimillion-dollar payouts tied to overturned convictions
Misconduct by the New York police department (NYPD) cost the city’s taxpayers more than $117m in 2025, a study of lawsuits resolved last year has found.
The figure, in an analysis by the Legal Aid Society reported by the Gothamist, is the third highest yearly total since 2018. But it is lower than the 2024 settlement amount, which topped $200m.
Continue reading...With a wealth of pro video-focused tools on board, the latest flagship phone from Vivo could be a video creator's dream.
OBR raises forecast from 4.9% and downgrades UK’s growth prospects for 2026 – while also warning of war uncertainty
Unemployment in the UK is set to peak this year at a higher rate than previously estimated, with a “worrying” increase in young people being out of work, the government’s official forecaster has said.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said unemployment will peak at 5.3% this year, up from its previous forecast in November of 4.9%.
Continue reading...Entertainment giant keeps average of $7.58 of each ticket for events at major concert venues, court hears
Ticketmaster keeps an average of $7.58 of the price of each ticket for events at major concert venues, an attorney for New York state told jurors at a trial on Tuesday in which dozens of states are seeking to recoup damages for fans.
Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, are accused of abusing their market power to prop up illegal monopolies in the concert industry. The trial in Manhattan could result in the US Department of Justice arguing for a breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster or the companies paying compensation to ticket purchasers.
Continue reading...Designated hitter was also banned last season
Player set to miss postseason and WBC too
Atlanta Braves designated hitter Jurickson Profar faces a 162-game suspension after a second positive test for performance-enhancing drugs, ESPN reported on Tuesday.
If the punishment is confirmed, the 33-year-old will also forfeit his entire $15m salary for the 2026 season and will be ineligible for the postseason and for this month’s World Baseball Classic, where he was due to play for the Netherlands.
Continue reading...Dolby Atmos surrounds you with sound -- in movie theaters, at home and even through headphones. Here's how it works.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: India's Supreme Court has threatened legal consequences after a judge was found to have adjudicated on a property dispute using fake judgements generated by artificial intelligence. The top court, which was responding to an appeal by the defendants, will now examine the ruling given by the lower court in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The Supreme Court called the case a matter of "institutional concern" and said fake AI-generated judgements had "a direct bearing on integrity of adjudicatory process." [...] Coming down sternly against the fake judgements, the top court last Friday stayed the lower court's order on the property dispute. It said the use of AI while making judgements was not simply "an error in decision making" but an act of "misconduct." "This case assumes considerable institutional concern, not because of the decision that was taken on the merits of the case, but about the process of adjudication and determination," the top court said. The court said it would examine the case in more detail and issued notices to the country's Attorney and Solicitor General, as well as the Bar Council of India.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
After a long, cold winter, the vernal equinox heralds the arrival of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. But have you heard the myth about balancing an egg on its end?
Prosecutors in the northern city of Forlì are investigating a 27-year-old man, currently suspended from the Italian Red Cross
Prosecutors in the northern Italian city of Forlì are investigating an ambulance driver on suspicion of murdering five elderly patients.
All the suspicious deaths occurred while or soon after the patients were transported in an ambulance driven by the 27-year-old man, lawyers of the victims told the Guardian.
Continue reading...Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted that the U.S. was forced into the war with Iran by Israel while speaking with reporters on Monday. He explained that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had effectively boxed in the Trump administration, taking the decision out of American hands.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio explained. “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”
Rubio’s disclosure highlights the Trump administration’s unwillingness to rein in the actions of Israel, even when that country’s policies resulted in U.S. attacks that only a tiny minority of the American public supports.
On Sunday, Netanyahu said the attacks on Iran were being conducted with “the assistance of the United States, my friend, U.S. President Donald Trump, and the U.S. military.” He described how the second U.S.–Israeli war with Iran in less than a year was something he had been fomenting for decades. “This coalition of forces allows us to do what I have yearned to do for 40 years. … This is what I promised — and this is what we shall do.”
Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer and expert in counterterrorism and the laws of war, suggested the secretary of state was using Israel as a convenient cover for Trump’s own desire for war — illustrated by Trump’s prior willingness to attack Venezuela and capture its president, Nicolás Maduro. Israel relies on U.S. military aid, which Trump could have used as leverage to pressure Netanyahu, Finucane said.
“The U.S. likely could have prevented Israel from attacking Iran if it really wanted to,” Finucane, currently a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, told The Intercept.
“The U.S. retains leverage over Israel.”
Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023, the U.S. government has spent $21.7 billion on military aid to Israel, according to Brown University’s Costs of War Project. Israel has also been the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding, receiving more than $300 billion in total assistance.
U.S.–Israeli strikes have killed at least 555 people in Iran and wounded hundreds more, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. This includes more than 165 people killed in an attack on an elementary school. On Monday, Central Command announced six U.S. military personnel had been killed in action, including two troops who were previously unaccounted for.
Democratic leadership, including Reps. Gregory Meeks, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Adam Smith, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Rubio and top Trump administration officials on Monday, ahead of Tuesday briefings. They called for the administration’s legal justification for initiating hostilities, U.S. objectives, and “what conditions would constitute mission success, and under what circumstances would operations cease.”
The State Department did not respond to request for comment by The Intercept on Rubio’s claims that Israel was effectively dictating U.S. war policy and whether it would continue to exert undue influence going forward.
“The U.S. retains leverage over Israel and, if it really wanted to, may be able to compel Israel to cease its military operations,” said Finucane. “But whether Iran is ready to cease hostilities is a separate matter.”
The post Rubio Admits That America Is Fighting Israel’s War appeared first on The Intercept.
The 27-inch Studio Display XDR also has a 120Hz refresh rate, speakers and a webcam. Plus, the Studio Display gets a minor refresh.
These shopping bags turned my grocery runs from a scattered mess into something resembling a system.
Beijing’s foreign ministry urges ‘all parties’ to avoid escalation as number of crossings drops 60% in one day
The Chinese government has called for vessels passing through the strait of Hormuz to be protected by all sides in the escalating Iran conflict, as shipping freight rates soared.
Maritime traffic through the strait – a narrow channel on Iran’s southern border that connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman – has effectively been closed since the US and Israel launched missile attacks on Iran at the weekend, prompting a retaliation from Tehran.
Continue reading...Your rice cooker has capabilities far beyond its namesake. Here are a dozen things you can make in a rice cooker that aren't rice.
The massive tranche of files the Justice Department currently maintains is more than 65,000 pages shorter than what the agency initially released.
The jury has found Colin Gray, the man whose teenage son is accused of killing two students and two teachers in a shooting at Georgia's Apalachee High School, guilty of second-degree murder and all other charges.
The first American service members to die in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran were killed in an apparent Iranian drone attack on a makeshift office space in Kuwait, sources told CBS News.
Get ready for new movies like Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, War Machine, BTS: The Return and more arriving this month.
We've put more than a dozen blenders to the test to see which countertop counterparts came out on top.
Today, Apple updated the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air with support for its new M5 chips. It also unveiled a pair of all-new Studio Display XDR monitors. Longtime Slashdot reader jizmonkey shares details about the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, which look to be fairly major updates from the previous generation: Apple announced its newest CPUs today, which it claims has the fastest single-threaded performance in the world. Both the M5 Pro and M5 Max have eighteen-core designs, versus twelve or fourteen in the M4 Pro and fourteen or sixteen in the M4 Max. However, the number of higher-performing cores has been reduced significantly. In the older M4 designs, the chips had eight, ten, or twelve "performance" cores and four "efficiency" cores. In the M5 design, there are now only six higher-performing cores (now called "super" cores) and twelve lower-performing cores (now called "performance" cores). [Apple positions this "reduction" as a redesigned architecture with new core types.] The maximum amount of RAM remains the same at 128GB for the M5 Max (64GB for the M5 Pro), and GPU performance has increased. [The M5 Pro features up to a 20-core GPU, while the M5 Max scales up to 40 cores, each equipped with a Neural Accelerator. Apple also says the new architecture delivers over 4x peak GPU compute for AI compared to the previous generation, along with up to 35 percent faster performance in ray-traced graphics workloads.] Laptops with the new chips are available to order starting tomorrow and will be delivered starting March 11. As for the new XDR monitors, MacRumors highlights some of the key features in its reporting: Apple today introduced an all-new Studio Display XDR monitor with a 27-inch screen, mini-LED backlighting, 5K resolution, peak brightness of 2,000 nits for HDR content, up to a 120Hz refresh rate, Thunderbolt 5, and more. The new Studio Display XDR replaces Apple's former Pro Display XDR, which has been discontinued. Going forward, there are now two Studio Display models. Both new Studio Display models have the same overall design as the original model. Both models have a 12-megapixel Center Stage camera, but it now supports Desk View on the new models. Both models also feature an upgraded six-speaker system, with Apple advertising "30 percent deeper bass" compared to the previous model. Only the higher-end Studio Display XDR received a 120Hz refresh rate, mini-LED backlighting, increased brightness, and faster 140W pass-through charging. The regular Studio Display still has a 60Hz refresh rate and up to 600 nits of brightness. Both models have 27-inch displays with a 5K resolution. The new Studio Displays can be pre-ordered starting Wednesday, March 4, ahead of a Wednesday, March 11 launch. In the U.S., the regular Studio Display continues to start at $1,599, while the Studio Display XDR starts at $3,299.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Republican is accused of improperly claiming more than $9,000 in funds meant to subsidize housing costs for members of Congress
Nancy Mace, a Republican representative, is under investigation by the House ethics committee over allegations that she may have improperly claimed more than $9,000 in reimbursements meant to subsidize housing costs for members of Congress.
According to a report from the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct (OCC), which reviews ethics complaints against lawmakers, the South Carolina representative’s requests for reimbursement had exceeded the total of her DC property expenses during several months in 2023 and 2024, “amounting to an excess of $9,485.46”.
Continue reading...Spring forecast show UK unempoyment to peak higher than feared, as tax take heads for a record, but headroom against fiscal rules has increased
UK grocery price inflation has risen, showing that people are being hit in the pocket even before the surge in energy prices feeds through to the economy.
Data provider Worldpanel by Numerator has reported that annual grocery inflation rose to 4.3% in February, after four consecutive months of falls, in a blow for households. That’s up from 4% in January.
Sentiment towards BP and Shell has strengthened significantly off the back of oil price spikes. But it’s a complex picture. Neither company has production in Iran. But BP’s significant production in Iraq and Abu Dhabi risks being bottlenecked through disruption to the Strait of Hormuz. For Shell the same applies to its LNG facilities in Qatar and the Emirates. If a moderate sustainable regime is established in Iran, there is the potential for substantial derisking, and for prices to be rebased downwards. If sanctions are removed, it also opens the door for investment into Iranian oil fields.
But uncertainty remains high. This could prove to be highly profitable for both Shell and BP’s trading arms with Shell’s optimisation capabilities in LNG transit likely to be in particularly strong demand. Shell’s balance sheet strength also leaves it better placed to deal with any prolonged volatility and while BP’s buybacks remain on pause, we’re expecting Shell’s generous payouts are likely to continue this year.
Continue reading...Glasgow high court found Lee Milne, from Dundee, guilty of the culpable homicide of Kimberly Milne, 28
A man has been convicted of killing his wife after she took her own life following a campaign of domestic abuse, in what is the first prosecution of its kind in Scotland.
Kimberly Milne, 28, died after jumping from a motorway bridge in July 2023. Her husband Lee Milne, 39, from Dundee, had denied culpable homicide and a separate charge of domestic abuse, but was found guilty following a trial.
Continue reading...Cynomi, Hopami, Mimiu, Mogogo and Morin just want to be loved. Is that so wrong?
A map created by the CBS News data team shows the strike locations across Iran, including the capital and the site of a major nuclear facility.
State department urged US citizens in 14 countries to leave, but many flights have been canceled
Americans across the Middle East are scrambling to leave the region after the US state department late on Monday urged US citizens in 14 countries there to depart immediately as the conflict with Iran widens.
Mora Namdar, the US assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, issued the advisory on Monday, urging Americans to “DEPART NOW” from more than a dozen countries, citing “serious safety risks”.
Continue reading...Crude oil prices are surging due to the Iran war, pushing up prices at the pump across the U.S., according to AAA.
To take advantage of today's cooler mortgage rate climate, buyers should consider the answers to these questions.
Commentary: Something that's compact but still lets me shoot pro-grade video sounds like the dream for a YouTuber like me.
Trump long promised to end ‘endless wars’, but the US has joined Israel in attacking Iran. We want to hear how people in the US are reacting
Hundreds of people thought to have died in Iran following the strikes by US and Israeli forces on Saturday with the numbers expected to rise. Six US service members have been killed since the conflict began on Saturday.
For the last decade Donald Trump has denounced US military intervention in other countries; back in December 2016 the then president elect said; “We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with.”
Continue reading...Gold has soared past $5,100 an ounce, but the metal's impressive price run doesn't mean it's risk-free for investors.
AI might help social media pros be more productive, but it also means higher expectations.
French president will make his speech this evening; first wave of European travellers arrive home, but hundreds of thousands remain stuck in region
Ahead of von der Leyen’s call with Zelenskyy later today, the European Commission was also asked about Ukraine’s 2027 target for joining the bloc.
A spokesperson for the commission said that it was Ukraine’s ambition, but the EU “cannot have it as our reference” as it needs to go through the formal process and get the political agreement of all other member states.
Continue reading...The Supreme Court of the United States declined to review a case challenging the U.S. Copyright Office's stance that AI-generated works lack the required human authorship for copyright protection, leaving lower court rulings intact. The Verge reports: The Monday decision comes after Stephen Thaler, a computer scientist from Missouri, appealed a court's decision to uphold a ruling that found AI-generated art can't be copyrighted. In 2019, the U.S. Copyright Office rejected Thaler's request to copyright an image, called A Recent Entrance to Paradise, on behalf of an algorithm he created. The Copyright Office reviewed the decision in 2022 and determined that the image doesn't include "human authorship," disqualifying it from copyright protection. After Thaler appealed the decision, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled in 2023 that "human authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright." That ruling was later upheld in 2025 by a federal appeals court in Washington, DC. As reported by Reuters, Thaler asked the Supreme Court to review the ruling in October 2025, arguing it "created a chilling effect on anyone else considering using AI creatively." The U.S. federal circuit court also determined that AI systems can't patent inventions because they aren't human, which the U.S. Patent Office reaffirmed in 2024 with new guidance. The UK Supreme Court made a similar determination.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Multiple sources say the deployment of HMS Duncan is under consideration; Yvette Cooper says flight will take off from Muscat this week
Ellie Chowns, the Green party’s foreign affairs spokesperson, has said she has tabled an “armed conflict (requirements) bill’” which would require any UK military intervention to have a lawful basis, viable objective and approval from MPs.
In a letter addressed to the prime minister, which she shared to X, Chowns, who is the Green’s MP for North Herefordshire, wrote:
In recent days we have seen a deeply concerning escalation in conflict in the Middle East following a series of illegal and dangerously irresponsible airstrikes on Iran by the United States and Israel.
You have now confirmed that UK bases will be used by the US for their operations in the area. This is a significant concession to President Donald Trump and one which risks drawing the UK into a dangerous conflict.
Continue reading...Watchdog upholds complaint it breached code with article about impact of VAT on banker who did not exist
The Telegraph has been reprimanded by a press standards watchdog after it published an entirely fabricated story about a wealthy banker complaining of the impact of school fee increases.
Ian Fraser, a freelance journalist and author, complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) that the Telegraph had breached the editors’ code of practice in an article headlined: “We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can’t go on five holidays.”
Continue reading...Attempt to project calm in spring forecast may be short-lived if living costs and unemployment keep climbing
“This government has restored economic stability,” Rachel Reeves told the House of Commons on Tuesday.
Yet the chancellor was speaking just moments after MPs had been hearing from the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, about plans to evacuate British nationals from the escalating conflagration in the Middle East.
Continue reading...Nepal’s general election will test the political power of Gen Z Expert comment thilton.drupal
Young people are playing a leading role in the election that they made happen. But they may struggle to translate protest fervour into concrete policy change.
On 5 March, Nepal takes to the polls for a general election unlike any it has previously experienced. Triggered by the mass protests that rocked the country in September 2025, this election will be crucial not only for the future of youth politics in Nepal, but in other democracies across the Global South, where Nepal’s youth movement has helped to inspire similar ‘Gen Z’ protests.
Nepal’s elections are taking place six months after protests triggered by corruption, unemployment and wealth disparity led to the resignation of K.P. Sharma Oli as prime minister and the subsequent dissolution of Parliament on 12 September 2025. The former Chief Justice of Nepal, Sushila Karki, was chosen as interim prime minister on the online communication platform Discord.
Now, six months on, Gen Z will play a significant role in shaping the next phase of Nepal’s political process. More than 800,000 new voters have registered to vote – over two thirds of whom are ‘Gen Z’.
The stakes are high, especially after the world’s first ‘Gen Z-inspired election’ in Bangladesh. Nepal’s September protests took place as part of a wave of youth movements across the world, from Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines to Morocco, Madagascar, Peru and Bulgaria. Nepal’s elections are therefore a testbed for a critical question: can the energy of Gen Z protests translate into electoral success?
Yet whoever wins in the elections, Nepal’s youth have already shown themselves to be successful drivers of their political process. In demanding an alternative to corrupt government and shaping Nepalese politics, Gen Z protesters have demonstrated at least a short-term success for a nascent movement. This election is the beginning, rather than the end, for youth politics in the nation and beyond.
Gen Z – and the issues they protested against in September 2025 – are central to campaigning politicians this election cycle.
Around 120 political parties have registered for the 5 March election, the most parties to participate in an election in Nepal since the country’s democracy was restored in 2006. More than a third of the competing parties were formed after the Gen Z protests, including many parties formed by protesters themselves.
While some confusion will no doubt be sown by the wave of new politicians in the mix, it also offers the chance for Gen Z protesters to solidify and formalize their role in a new Nepal.
The relatively young and popular mayor of Kathmandu, Balen Shah, is considered by many to be the frontrunner for the prime minister role. Formerly an independent candidate, Shah recently joined the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), a party which came fourth in the general election in 2022. But despite this new allegiance, Shah has signaled he is still a member of the anti-establishment youth.
The former rapper has long attacked Nepal’s ruling class in his music, and has largely shunned the mainstream press in favour of using social media to disseminate campaign messages. His image as a digital native, and his vocal adoption of platforms such as Facebook, suggests an understanding of Gen Z as his most important audience.
Nepal’s Gen Z protests were triggered, if not defined by, the ban on several key social media platforms in the country. Protesters’ subsequent use of platforms such as TikTok and Discord to shape the movement revealed the importance of these tools to young Nepalis.
Social media is also playing a significant role in this election. Traditional analogue election material, such as pamphlets, flags, and banners, have reportedly been largely replaced by primarily digital campaigns.
Nepal’s Election Commission is also taking steps to discourage the spread of misinformation on social media platforms, and has announced stricter monitoring of election-related advertising on social media. This process involves the flagging of harmful or false content to regulators, and the commission said it was working with platforms such as Meta and TikTok to remove such posts.
In this sphere, Nepal’s establishment has learned its lesson from the September protests and has opted for a vigilant yet less repressive approach to social media moderation. The new approach now seeks to promote safety rather than curb speech.
Its execution has likely been challenging – social media firms are typically under-resourced on moderation in languages other than English. But the establishment of election-specific content moderation nevertheless signifies a commitment to moderate without shutting down freedom of expression, representing a different approach to Nepal’s neighbours in China and India, which have opted for stricter approaches to social media.
For perhaps the first time, young people are at the forefront of political campaigns in a Nepali general election. But Gen Z protests will not necessarily translate neatly into polling victory. The September 2025 protests coalesced around anti-corruption and anti-government themes – they were a reaction against the current state of Nepal, rather than a demonstration for a specific leader or party.
These are necessarily broad and simple narratives for a mass movement, but may be too vague for a politician to build a platform on. Even an elected leader sympathetic to – or part of – the Gen Z movement may find it challenging to translate protest fervour into concrete policy change. Many issues that brought Nepal’s youth to the streets are long-term challenges without easy solutions; for example, the high rates of unemployment and poverty in the country.
At least 169 killed in raid near Sudan border as clashes between government and opposition forces intensify
South Sudan is reeling from an escalating conflict between the government-aligned army and opposition forces and allied groups that observers say risks returning the country to a full-blown civil war.
Violent confrontations in the world’s youngest country between the military, which is loyal to President Salva Kiir, and insurgents believed to be allied to the suspended vice-president, Riek Machar, have increased in recent weeks.
Continue reading...If you're still keeping wine on top of the fridge, these wine experts would like a word.
Versant, an NBCUniversal cable spinoff, says MS NOW is growing as its stock falls about 27% in 2026
The US’s biggest liberal-leaning network, MS NOW, has seen double-digit viewership gains since rebranding from MSNBC, the company’s CEO claimed on Tuesday.
“Since the rebrand to MS NOW in the fourth quarter, that momentum has not only held, it has accelerated with double-digit growth in total viewers since November,” said Mark Lazarus, CEO of MS NOW parent company, Versant.
Continue reading...Stockpiles of the most advanced US-made weapons are limited – while few know how large Iran’s arsenal is
The outcome and duration of the war in the Middle East may be decided by a grim calculus based on the size of Iran’s drone and missile stocks v vital air defence munitions held by the US, Israel and Gulf states, analysts and officials say.
Since Saturday, Iran and its proxies have sought to counter the intensive joint US and Israeli offensive with more than 1,000 strikes against targets across almost a dozen countries spread over 1,200 miles. With its antiquated air force unable to compete with those of Israel and the US, Tehran has relied on its arsenal of missiles and drones.
Continue reading...
Shortly before CNN’s launch in 1980, founder Ted Turner — displaying what could politely be described as impressive foresight – instructed that a special video be prepared. The tape, which was leaked online by a former CNN intern in 2015, portrays members of the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine bands performing a melancholy rendition of the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” As the legend goes, this somber sign-off was meant to be the last thing broadcast by CNN should the end of the world become assured. In light of recent events, CNN employees may be considering digging it out of the archives.
CNN has beheld a pale horse; the rider’s name is David Ellison, and Bari Weiss follows closely behind. After confirmation last week that Warner Bros. Discovery, of which CNN is a subsidiary, would accept Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion takeover bid, the network is set to be swallowed by the father-and-son oligarch duo of Larry and David Ellison, whose naked alignment with the Trump administration predicated their earlier absorption and regime-friendly retooling of CBS News. (Larry, the Oracle CEO, was also pivotal earlier this year in the purchase of TikTok’s U.S. operations from its Chinese owner, installing a new CEO who earlier took credit for the app designating the term “Zionist” as “hate speech.”) Many now look to CBS as a preview of what is to come. Speaking to the Daily Beast, a senior CBS News staffer said, “It can — and will — always get worse,” and added CNN staffers were right to be fearful, as “it is hell over here.”
When it became apparent that the Ellisons’ bid for Warner Bros. would win out after Netflix declined to further raise its offer, Weiss was attending a Free Press debate between Ross Douthat and Steven Pinker on God — an event that would move even the most militant atheist to sympathize with the Almighty — but giggled trollishly on X: “I hear there’s some news?” At CNN, reports indicate the mood is less chipper. “No one wants to work for the Ellisons,” one CNN employee told NBC News. “If Bari is going to be running CNN, expect people to leave.”
This is further proof that there is seemingly no amount of money or power that can force any journalist not married to her to like or respect Weiss, a tool in every sense of the word, whose blatantly ideological interventions and ham-fisted incompetence since being installed at CBS have repeatedly provoked contempt from her underlings. But competence was never part of Weiss’s job description — her role was to act as sugar in the gas tank of a news network against which Donald Trump has long held a grudge. Now, CNN — which has long been even higher on Trump’s enemies list — also faces being press-ganged into a circus where a clown is also the ringleader.
Still, this would not be the first time CNN employees have been forced to tolerate an idiot boss, and if the Ellisons plan to copy their CBS blueprint and disfigure another network into something less objectionable to the average American fascist, they will find some of the work has already been done.
Prior to CNN’s then-CEO Jeff Zucker’s forced resignation in 2022, the Warner Bros. Discovery board was already grumbling about the network’s perceived liberal bias and brought in Chris Licht as Zucker’s replacement. Licht entered the job determined to tone down CNN’s anti-Trump coverage and win back Republican viewers. The latter of these ambitions has been a spectacular failure — as of March 2023, CNN’s prime-time ratings had tanked by 61 percent compared to the previous year — while the former led to an infamous CNN town hall with Trump himself, ahead of which Licht reportedly told the president to “have fun.” The result was a ritual humiliation which obliterated what little support Licht had among CNN staff and presaged his departure after little more than a year in the job.
Now, CNN — which has long been even higher on Trump’s enemies list — also faces being press-ganged into a circus where a clown is also the ringleader.
Writing in The Nation in 2023, Jeet Heer observed that “whether out of genuine conviction or out of a desire to please the plutocrats who own Warner Bros. Discovery, Licht has mastered the art of deploying centrist rhetoric for reactionary ends.” This strategy — of attempting to meet MAGA where it is, or at least nearer to halfway — is bafflingly popular, not just with establishment media organizations but among prominent mainstream Democrats, despite the fact it has never been shown to work. After all, why would Trump and the Ellisons tolerate media that is merely amenable when they can force it into groveling supplication?
The Warner Bros. deal now must get past antitrust regulators, but any challenge would be at the discretion of the courts and Trump’s Justice Department. Anyone putting their faith in this possibility should remember the Justice Department’s erstwhile antitrust chief Gail Slater was forced out of her role last month after frustrating the Trump administration with her resistance to corporate mergers. This may account for why Paramount, even before the deal was closed, declared its “confidence in the speed and certainty of regulatory approval for its transaction.”
Always right on time, numerous Democrats are now expressing grave concerns over what this next major act of consolidation would mean for the media landscape. But if America genuinely had a problem with such monopolies, media empires from Rupert Murdoch to William Randolph Hearst would never have come into being; instead, American capitalism operates on the belief that a cyberpunk dystopia ruled over by vast, unaccountable mega-corporations constitutes an environment of healthy competition, provided there is more than one mega-corporation at any given time.
You do not need to be a fan of CNN to consider its embattled future a grim prospect, any more than you need to be a fan of the Washington Post to be dismayed by its gutting at the hand of boorish gazillionaire Fauntleroy Jeff Bezos. Both are indicative of a prevailing philosophy shared by the uber-wealthy and the far right. If media has influence, they want to control it. If media no longer has influence — or worse, has the kind of influence they don’t care for — it can and must be destroyed, or else reshaped in their own image and for their own ends.
This all raises the question of what a healthy media landscape should look like, and what, if anything, can be done to bring it about. Transcending cable news’ version of ideological diversity — a spectrum that runs from Tucker Carlson to Anderson Cooper and treats anything further to the left the same way local news reports on wild bear attacks and UFO sightings — might be a start, but most immediately, it would require breaking the ability of the billionaire class to buy, control, or dismantle media on a national or international scale.
Achieving this, however, would require a political class with the will and the desire to do so. If CNN staffers and Americans at large aren’t holding their breath, it is hard to blame them.
The post CNN Could Be Next Up for a Right-Wing Reboot Thanks to the Ellisons appeared first on The Intercept.
BOISE, Idaho, March 3, 2026 — Micron Technology, Inc. today extended its leadership in low-power server memory by shipping customer samples of the industry’s highest-capacity LPDRAM module — 256GB SOCAMM2. Enabled by the industry’s first monolithic 32Gb LPDDR5X design, this milestone represents a transformational step forward for AI data centers, delivering low-power memory capacity that can unlock new system architectures.
Credit: Micron
The convergence of AI training, inference, agentic AI and general-purpose compute are driving more demanding memory requirements and reshaping data center system architectures. Modern AI workloads drive large model parameters, expansive context windows and persistent key value (KV) caches, while core compute continues to scale in data intensity, concurrency and memory footprint.
Across these workloads, memory capacity, bandwidth efficiency, latency and power efficiency have become primary system level constraints, directly influencing performance, scalability and total cost of ownership. LPDRAM’s unique combination of these attributes position it as a cornerstone solution for both AI and core compute servers in increasingly power and thermally constrained data center environments. Micron is collaborating with NVIDIA to co-design sophisticated memory for the needs of advanced AI infrastructure.
“Micron’s 256GB SOCAMM2 offering enables the most power-efficient CPU-attached memory solution for both AI and HPC. Today’s announcement highlights Micron’s technology and packaging advancements to deliver the highest-capacity, lowest-power modular memory solution with the smallest footprint in the industry,” said Raj Narasimhan, senior vice president and general manager of Micron’s Cloud Memory Business Unit. “Our continued leadership in low-power memory solutions for data center applications has uniquely positioned us to be the first to deliver a 32Gb monolithic LPDRAM die, helping drive industry adoption of more power-efficient, high-capacity system architectures.”
Designed for Capacity, Power Efficiency and Workload Performance Optimization
Micron’s 256GB SOCAMM2 delivers higher memory capacity, substantially lower power consumption and faster performance for a variety of AI and general-purpose computing workloads.
“Advanced AI infrastructure requires incredible optimization at every layer to maximize performance and efficiency for demanding AI reasoning workloads,” said Ian Finder, head of Product, Data Center CPUs at NVIDIA. “Micron’s achievements in delivering massive memory capacity and bandwidth using less power than traditional server memory with 256GB SOCAMM2 is enabling the next generation of AI CPUs.”
Driving Industry Standards and Accelerating Low-Power Memory Adoption
Micron continues to play a leading role in the JEDEC SOCAMM2 specification definition and maintains deep technical collaborations with system designers to drive industry-wide improvements in power efficiency and performance for next-generation data center platforms.
Micron is now shipping customer samples of its 256GB SOCAMM2 and offers the industry’s broadest data center LPDRAM portfolio, spanning 8GB to 64GB components and 48GB to 256GB SOCAMM2 modules.
More from HPCwire: Micron Celebrates Opening of India’s 1st Semiconductor Assembly and Test Facility
About Micron Technology, Inc.
Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) is an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions, transforming how the world uses information to enrich life for all. With a relentless focus on our customers, technology leadership, and manufacturing and operational excellence, Micron delivers a rich portfolio of high-performance DRAM, NAND and NOR memory and storage products. Every day, the innovations that our people create fuel the data economy, enabling advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and compute-intensive applications that unleash opportunities — from the data center to the intelligent edge and across the client and mobile user experience.
Source: Micron
The post Micron Ships 256GB SOCAMM2 Customer Samples for AI and HPC Servers appeared first on HPCwire.
Ted Lasso star and Celebrity Traitors finalist will take the helm at Royal Albert Hall ceremony in London next month as special award recipients are announced
Nick Mohammed has been named as the host for this year’s Olivier awards, which take place at the Royal Albert Hall in London next month.
The comedian, writer and actor, who recently found a new fanbase as a Celebrity Traitors finalist, will follow in the footsteps of his Ted Lasso co-star Hannah Waddingham, who presented the Oliviers in 2023 and 2024. Last year, they were co-hosted by Beverley Knight and Billy Porter. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the awards, which recognise achievements in theatre, dance and opera.
Continue reading...Echinus Geyser is about 66 feet wide and is surrounded by rocks that resemble sea urchins.
A political advertisement claimed that one of North Carolina’s most powerful legislators "killed" a bill that would’ve banned sex-reassignment surgeries for minors.
The video ad, paid for by the Guilford-Rockingham Alliance political action committee, is airing in North Carolina’s 26th Senate District. That’s where state Sen. Phil Berger, the Senate leader, is hoping to fend-off a Republican primary challenge from Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page.
Here’s a transcript of the ad:
"Phil Berger claims he supports Trump, but in Raleigh he acts like a Democrat.
Phil Berger worked with Roy Cooper to repeal the law that kept men out of women’s bathrooms.
And in 2021, Phil Berger killed a bill banning sex-change surgeries for minors.
Phil Berger even voted with open-border Democrats, creating a loophole that let illegal immigrants stay in America for longer."
Berger and other Republican legislators did strike a deal in 2017 to repeal North Carolina’s 2016 bathroom law, known as HB2, which banned transgender people from using the bathroom of the gender they identify as in all city, county and state buildings. And in 2013, Berger and other Republican legislators passed a law allowing farmers to hire seasonal workers for longer periods of time without undergoing a background check.
But did Berger really block a bill that would’ve banned sex-reassignment surgeries for minors?
No. The ad misrepresents what happened with a failed 2021 bill and overlooks the fact that Republican legislators — including Berger — enacted a ban on sex-reassignment surgeries for minors just two years later.
The ad refers to Senate Bill 514, introduced by three Republican legislators on April 5, 2021. The bill would have banned sex-reassignment surgery for people under age 21. Medical professionals who violated the law could have had their license revoked and faced civil fines of up to $1,000 per occurrence.
A day after the bill was introduced, it was referred to the Committee on Rules and Operations of the Senate — where it never received a hearing. Every bill proposed in the state Legislature is referred to one or more committees. When they’re sent directly to the rules committee, as this bill was, that’s an unofficial way for chamber leadership to indicate the idea is dead-on-arrival and won’t get attention during the session.
To back up the ad’s claim, the alliance cited Associated Press articles published by Courthouse News Service and WFAE. The article published on the WFAE website April 6, 2021, describes the bill when it was introduced. The April 20, 2021, article on the CNS website explains why the bill didn’t become law.
The AP reported that the Senate wouldn’t hold a vote on the ban.
"We do not see a pathway to Senate Bill 514 becoming law," Berger spokesman Pat Ryan told the AP at the time. He added that "the bill will not be voted on the Senate floor."
Ryan, who now runs a public relations firm, told PolitiFact that the Senate didn’t take up the bill because Republicans didn’t have enough votes in the Senate and House to override a likely veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. To override a veto, Republicans would’ve needed Democrats to also vote for the bill, which Ryan said was an unlikely proposition at the time.
As Senate leader, Berger wields immense power over which bills make it to the floor, though there are procedural avenues senators can take to advance a bill against his wishes.
PolitiFact asked the Guilford-Rockingham Alliance why the group believes Berger "killed" the bill. In an email, a spokesperson for the group said Berger allowed votes on other bills that were destined to be vetoed. "The decision not to allow a vote in 2021 therefore reflects a discretionary leadership choice, not a procedural inevitability," the alliance’s statement said.
Former state Sen. Jim Perry, who served as the Republican majority whip in 2021, told PolitiFact that legislative leaders consider multiple factors when deciding whether to vote on a bill: Can it become law? If not, should legislators hold a vote anyway to put pressure on the opposition? Will the opposition use news of the vote to raise money for their party?
Perry said he didn’t remember exactly why Berger decided not to hold the vote. But he agreed with Berger’s assessment that it was doomed, saying it’s "absurd" for the alliance to suggest Berger "killed" the legislation.
"The fact that it was passed in the near future should make his position very clear," Perry said.
State Sen. Ralph Hise, a Mitchell County Republican and top Berger lieutenant who sponsored the 2021 bill, called the alliance’s ad a lie. "The reason North Carolina now bans sex change surgeries and hormones for minors is because of Sen. Berger’s leadership," Hise told PolitiFact.
PolitiFact asked the alliance if it had evidence that the bill would’ve become law if Berger had allowed a vote. The alliance said: "The fact that Phil Berger wouldn't allow the people's representatives to decide is the point."
By 2023, the landscape had changed: Republicans had enough legislative seats to override gubernatorial vetoes without needing help from Democrats.
That June, the House and Senate passed House Bill 808 — which, like the 2021 bill, prohibited medical professionals from performing surgical sex-reassignment procedures on minors under threat of losing their license. That July, Cooper vetoed the bill. And that August, the bill became state law after both chambers voted to override Cooper’s veto. No Democrats voted for the bill in the Senate.
The Guilford-Rockingham Alliance said Berger’s support for the 2023 bill, "does not negate the consequences of his decision not to advance the bill in 2021," adding that "individuals were affected" because Berger didn’t allow senators to vote on the bill.
The Guilford-Rockingham Alliance said Berger "killed a bill banning sex change surgeries for minors."
That’s a misrepresentation of what happened. Berger was Senate leader in 2021 when he referred such a bill to the rules committee, stalling its progress. Berger’s spokesperson at the time said the measure did not have the votes needed to make it law should the Democratic governor, Cooper, veto the measure, as he was likely to do.
Two years later, that landscape changed when Republicans secured enough seats to override any vetoes the Democratic governor might issue. Republican legislators — including Berger — enacted a ban on sex-reassignment surgeries for minors, passing it into law over Cooper’s veto.
The ad mentions none of that. Its statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. That’s our definition of Mostly False.
Drones struck two facilities in the United Arab Emirates directly, and damaged a data center in Bahrain, Amazon said.
‘I don’t know what game they’re trying to play,’ says Rahm
Spaniard’s stance has put Ryder Cup place in peril
Jon Rahm’s dispute with the DP World Tour has escalated after the Spaniard accused the organisation of “extorting” golfers over fines for competing on the LIV circuit. Rahm’s Ryder Cup future remains in peril with no resolution to the matter in sight, with insiders at the DP World Tour and Europe’s Ryder Cup fans baffled by his stance.
Rahm incurred fines and suspensions as a DP World (formerly European) Tour member playing on what are regarded as competing Saudi‑backed LIV events. Rahm signed for LIV in 2023 in a deal reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Continue reading...After OpenAI announced a partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. uninstalls of ChatGPT surged 295% in a single day. Meanwhile, rival Anthropic "gained enough popularity to earn the number one spot on the App Store's Top Free Apps leaderboard," reports Engadget. TechCrunch reports: This data, which comes from market intelligence provider Sensor Tower, represents a sizable increase compared with ChatGPT's typical day-over-day uninstall rate of 9%, as measured over the past 30 days. [...] In addition, ChatGPT's download growth was impacted by the news of its DoD partnership, with its U.S. downloads dropping by 13% day-over-day on Saturday, shortly after the news of its deal went public. Those downloads continued to fall on Sunday, when they were down by 5% day-over-day. (Before the partnership was announced, the app's downloads had grown 14% day-over-day on Friday.) [...] Consumers are also sharing their opinions about OpenAI's deal in the app's ratings, where 1-star reviews for ChatGPT surged 775% on Saturday, then grew 100% day-over-day on Sunday, Sensor Tower said. Five-star reviews declined during the same period, dropping by 50%. Other third-party data providers back up Sensor Tower's findings.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Formula One’s newest team join the grid having designed a car from scratch in only 12 months with the aim of becoming a championship-winning force
When the new Formula One season begins on Sunday in the usual fever of excitement and anticipation, consider amid the maelstrom the Cadillac team. Before the lights go out in Melbourne, F1’s newest entrant will have a deserved chance to take a breath and savour for but a moment, their remarkable achievement of simply having made it to the grid.
The US team backed by General Motors has been built, aside from those involved in the pre‑planning, from scratch in what will be a year and a day since its entry was formally approved. As their team principal, Graeme Lowdon, explained, that process had begun in an empty room with a screwdriver and an A4 sheet of paper.
Continue reading...  | So I've been getting this error when I turn on my GT. Instant yellow light when turning it on. I'm not touching it. It has the original factory footpads. I did not put on the recall footpads when i received them. Unfortunately I've lost them somewhere along the way. I'm thinking I need new footpads. Is it possible or cheaper to just replace the sensor and not the whole footpad? [link] [comments] |
WASHINGTON, March 3, 2026 – Phasecraft today announced it has commenced work on the University of Maryland’s Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security’s (ARLIS) new contract to support the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) ongoing Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI).
QBI’s goal is to assess if it is possible to achieve utility-scale quantum computing by 2033. Phasecraft joins the contract as a technical expert and will leverage its proprietary software and quantum algorithms to develop optimized estimates of resource requirements for quantum applications to inform the U.S. Government (USG) verification and validation efforts.
Evaluating Progress Towards Quantum Utility
While the cutting-edge quantum hardware selected for QBI inches closer to commercial utility, ultra-efficient quantum algorithms like those Phasecraft develops are required to unlock the full potential of any quantum hardware. The company’s hardware-agnostic algorithms, which in some cases are millions of times more efficient than the best previous work, enable the company to provide unique value to ARLIS, DARPA, and the USG.
Specifically, Phasecraft’s work will focus on two application areas: 1) materials and molecular modeling; and 2) hard optimization problems. In both cases, Phasecraft’s algorithms have pushed the boundaries of what was thought possible, and radically shortened the timeline to quantum advantage – the point at which quantum computers will outperform classical methods. This enables the company to produce far more accurate estimates of when quantum will deliver true utility to users across application areas.
“The team at DARPA has long understood the strategic importance of quantum computing, and we are thrilled at the opportunity to collaborate on this vital work, working alongside ARLIS,” said Ashley Montanaro, co-founder and CEO of Phasecraft. “For all the emphasis we see on hardware in the field, it is gratifying to have a government partner like DARPA appreciate the importance of quantum algorithms in the race to achieve industrially useful quantum computing. Our quantum algorithms are delivering meaningful results today, and we’re excited to join the impressive QBI team.”
Building on Momentum
A preferred research partner for all the leading hardware companies like Google Quantum AI, IBM, Quantinuum and QuEra, Phasecraft prioritizes making quantum useful in the near term. In October, Phasecraft unveiled Mondrian, its first-of-a-kind quantum-enhanced software platform designed to speed up classical optimization algorithms and apply them to hard optimization and constraint satisfaction problems across several industries. Mondrian demonstrates how classical and quantum computing can work together to tackle some of the most complex optimization problems facing industries such as energy, finance, and logistics.
This contract comes on the heels of the company’s recent $34 million Series B fundraising announcement. The new funding brings the total raised to over $50M – including grant and contract funding – and will allow the company to double down on its R&D breakthroughs and expand industrial efforts, building real-world solutions for end users.
More from HPCwire
About Phasecraft
Phasecraft is the UK and U.S-based quantum algorithms company whose mission is to accelerate the practical application of quantum computing by redesigning quantum algorithms for the imperfect quantum computers of today. Phasecraft was founded in 2019 by Toby Cubitt, Ashley Montanaro, and John Morton, expert quantum scientists who have spent decades leading top research teams at UCL and the University of Bristol. Phasecraft works in partnership with leading quantum hardware companies, including Google, IBM, Quantinuum, and QuEra, academic and industry leaders, to develop high-efficiency algorithms to move quantum computing from experimental demonstrations to useful applications.
Source: Phasecraft
The post Phasecraft Joins DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative appeared first on HPCwire.
The refined architecture of the new chips promises the usual performance increases across the board and improved battery life.
From robots doing backflips to video game cars that can drive on real roads, this year's show has had a lot going on.
If POTUS can really bomb peace, stability and women’s rights into the Middle East, I’ll take my hat off to him. Judging by his role in Gaza, I won’t hold my breath
Donald Trump says Keir Starmer has damaged the special relationship by not helping him more in the US-Israel war on Iran. But you have to remember that when you do help, Trump pretends you didn’t anyway, and also pisses on your war dead. Still, what could be more enticing than the Americans trying to sell you a timeshare on a war in the Middle East?
And so to Iran. “War is the realm of uncertainty,” said Carl von Clausewitz, who – and not to be a bitch – I still think of as a more impressive military theorist than Pete Hegseth. Certainly, Carl had fewer Crusades tattoos than the US defence secretary. Hegseth is 100% certain about all his nailed-down positions, even the ones in apparent conflict with each other. And it feels like a great sign that he, Marco Rubio and JD Vance already seem to have different rationales for why this war was launched. This is an administration that came to power on an explicit “no more wars” ticket – but look, as Pete keeps saying, this isn’t a regime-change war. If that seems confusing, given he first said it about 10 minutes after US-Israeli strikes had just cratered the ayatollah’s compound, Hegseth has since been on hand to scoff that what’s going down in Iran is “no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise”.
Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Along with Apple's latest M-series processor, the 13- and 15-inch Air models also offer more storage but at a higher starting price.
Some repatriation flights depart as governments around the world work to extract their citizens from the conflict-hit region
The biggest Middle East carriers have ruled out resuming scheduled flights until at least Thursday as the US-Israeli war on Iran continues, denting hopes of a swift return to normal air travel after the first repatriation flights left the United Arab Emirates.
Etihad, based in Abu Dhabi, said its commercial services were suspended until 2pm local time on Thursday 5 March, with Emirates ruling out scheduled flights until midnight on Wednesday.
Continue reading...The lesson here isn’t that one AI company is more ethical than another. It’s that we must renovate our democratic structures
OpenAI is in and Anthropic is out as a supplier of AI technology for the US defense department. This news caps a week of bluster by the highest officials in the US government towards some of the wealthiest titans of the big tech industry, and the overhanging specter of the existential risks posed by a new technology powerful enough that the Pentagon claims it is essential to national security. At issue is Anthropic’s insistence that the US Department of Defense (DoD) could not use its models to facilitate “mass surveillance” or “fully autonomous weapons,” provisions the defense secretary Pete Hegseth derided as “woke”.
It all came to a head on Friday evening when Donald Trump issued an order for federal government agencies to discontinue use of Anthropic models. Within hours, OpenAI had swooped in, potentially seizing hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts by striking an agreement with the administration to provide classified government systems with AI.
Continue reading...March 3, 2026 — NVIDIA today announced that GTC, the world’s premier conference on AI and accelerated computing, will take place March 16-19 this year in San Jose, California. More than 30,000 attendees — spanning developers, researchers, business leaders and AI-native companies — will gather from over 190 countries to explore how AI is becoming essential infrastructure, powering a new industrial era.
Huang’s Keynote, 1,000+ Sessions and Breakthroughs Across the AI Stack Headline the World’s Leading AI Conference
“GTC is the epicenter of the AI industrial era,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “AI is no longer a single breakthrough or application — it is essential infrastructure. Every company will use it. Every nation will build it. From energy and chips to infrastructure, models and applications, every layer of the stack is advancing at once, and you’ll see that all come to life at GTC.”
What to Expect at GTC 2026
Keynote: Huang will deliver the keynote from SAP Center on Monday, March 16, at 11 a.m. PT. The keynote will outline NVIDIA’s latest advancements across the full AI stack, from accelerated compute and AI factories to open models, agentic systems and physical AI, setting the industry’s direction for the year ahead. The keynote will be livestreamed and available on demand at nvidia.com. Registration is not required to view the keynote online.
AI Is a Five-Layer Cake: GTC will showcase every layer of AI spanning energy, chips, infrastructure, models and applications. Through keynotes, sessions and demos, attendees will see how each layer has its own ecosystem of partners, technologies and skilled jobs, and how the coordination of these layers is driving one of the largest infrastructure expansions in history.
1,000+ Sessions: From AI factories and large-scale inference to robotics, digital twins, scientific computing, quantum computing and enterprise AI deployments, GTC sessions will dive into building, scaling and optimizing every layer of the AI stack and how they interconnect in real-world production environments. Huang will host a discussion on the state of the art in open frontier models and what comes next with industry leaders from A16Z, AI2, AMP Coalition, Black Forest Labs, Cursor, Reflection AI and Thinking Machines Lab.
GTC Live Keynote Pregame Show: The pregame show will feature industry leaders discussing accelerated computing beyond AI as well as the five-layer stack behind the largest infrastructure buildouts in human history — in addition to the ecosystem required to deliver it worldwide. Virtual attendees can catch the pregame show live online on Monday, March 16, at 8 a.m. PT. Notable speakers include Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, LangChain CEO Harrison Chase, Skild AI CEO Deepak Pathak, OpenEvidence CEO Daniel Nadler and Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch.
Hands-On Training and Certification: Developers and engineers can gain in-demand skills across AI, accelerated computing, networking, data science and physical AI through nine full-day workshops, 60+ hands-on labs and onsite certification opportunities. Self-paced courses, educator programs and one-on-one training consultations will also be available, helping grow the workforce needed to support the expanding AI infrastructure buildout.
Startups, Investors and the AI Ecosystem: More than 240 NVIDIA Inception startups will showcase technologies spanning physical AI, robotics, generative AI and enterprise applications. Dedicated startup and venture programming, AI Day with leading venture firms and NVentures engagement sessions will connect founders and investors building across every layer of the AI industrial stack.
Developer and Research Tracks: At GTC, developers can learn directly from NVIDIA engineers and partners, and plug into the global ecosystem building the next wave of AI applications. Technical deep dives, CUDA® sessions and infrastructure workshops will explore large-scale model training, inference optimization and deploying AI services across cloud, edge and sovereign environments.
More than 150 poster presentations will highlight cutting-edge research from the global AI community, spanning model innovation, robotics, systems architecture and new AI applications.
AI Across Industries and Around the World: GTC will turn downtown San Jose into an AI campus, spanning 10 venues. Cesar Chavez Park will host a Day and Night Market featuring food, entertainment and live programming. The All-In Podcast will host interviews from the show floor on Wednesday, March 18. Student and Community Day on Thursday, March 19, will open GTC to the broader community at a discounted rate.
Virtual programming with customized regional content and programming is also available through the online session catalog.
A Global Lineup of Leaders: Representatives from organizations building every layer of the AI industrial system — including cloud platforms, model labs, application developers and robotics companies — will share how AI is driving productivity and transformation across every industry.
Participating organizations include Adobe, Agile Robots, Agility Robotics, AI2, AMP Coalition, Black Forest Labs, Canva, CodeRabbit, Cohere, Crusoe Energy Systems, Cursor, Dassault Systèmes, Decagon, General Motors, Genspark, Google DeepMind, Hugging Face, IBM Research, idealworks, Inception Labs, Johnson & Johnson, Kimi (Moonshot AI), L’Oréal, Lucid Motors, Magic AI, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Poolside, Physical Intelligence, Reflection AI, Runway, Siemens, Shopify, Snap, Tesla, Together AI, Thinking Machines Lab, Uber Technologies, Universal Robots, the U.S. Department of Energy, Vention and others.
NVIDIA Financial Analyst Q&A
NVIDIA will hold a Q&A session for investors and analysts on Tuesday, March 17, at 9 a.m. PT. The webcast will be available at investor.nvidia.com.
Source: NVIDIA
The post NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Global Tech Leaders to Showcase Age of AI at GTC 2026 appeared first on HPCwire.
An anonymous reader shares a CTech article with the caption: "A brilliantly executed operation." From the report: Years before the air strike that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israeli intelligence had been quietly mapping the daily rhythms of Tehran. According to reporting by the Financial Times (paywalled), nearly all of the Iranian capital's traffic cameras had been hacked years earlier, their footage encrypted and transmitted to Israeli servers. One camera angle near Pasteur Street, close to Khamenei's compound, allowed analysts to observe the routines of bodyguards and drivers: where they parked, when they arrived and whom they escorted. That data was fed into complex algorithms that built what intelligence officials call a "pattern of life," detailed profiles including addresses, work schedules and, crucially, which senior officials were being protected and transported. The surveillance stream was one of hundreds feeding Israel's intelligence system, which combines signals interception from Unit 8200, human assets recruited by the Mossad and large-scale data analysis by military intelligence. When US and Israeli intelligence determined that Khamenei would attend a Saturday morning meeting at his compound, the opportunity was judged unusually favorable. Two people familiar with the operation told the FT that US intelligence provided confirmation from a human source that the meeting was proceeding as planned, a level of certainty required for a target of such magnitude. Israeli aircraft, reportedly airborne for hours, fired as many as 30 precision munitions. The strike was carried out in daylight, which the Israeli military said created tactical surprise despite heightened Iranian alertness. The Financial Times reports that the assassination was a political decision as much as a technological feat. Even during last year's 12-day war, when Israeli strikes killed more than a dozen Iranian nuclear scientists and senior military officials and disabled air defences through cyber operations and drones, Israel did not attempt to kill Khamenei. The capability to do so, however, had been built over decades. Former Mossad official Sima Shine told the FT that Israel's strategic focus on Iran dates back to a 2001 directive from then-prime minister Ariel Sharon instructing intelligence chief Meir Dagan to make the Islamic Republic the priority target. What distinguishes the latest operation, according to the FT, is the scale of automation. Target tracking that once required painstaking visual confirmation has increasingly been handled by algorithm-driven systems parsing billions of data points. One person familiar with the process described it as an "assembly line with a single product: targets." Further reading: America Used Anthropic's AI for Its Attack On Iran, One Day After Banning It
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Researchers hope restoring the original song will improve breeding prospects for birds released into the wild
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Scientists have rescued the lost song of the critically endangered regent honeyeater – one of Australia’s rarest birds.
Regent honeyeaters were once seen in vast flocks across south-eastern Australia, with a distribution that ranged from Queensland to Kangaroo Island in South Australia.
Continue reading...Michael Sockwell, one of Alabama's longest-serving death row inmates, could soon receive a new trial.
US county attorney is ‘confident’ her office will be able to pursue charges in cases which led to criticisms of use-of-force policies
A Minnesota state prosecutor announced an investigation on Monday that may lead to charges against federal officers, including Greg Bovino, for misconduct during an immigration enforcement crackdown.
The Hennepin county attorney, Mary Moriarty, said in a news conference that her office is already looking into 17 cases, including one in which Bovino, a border patrol official, threw a smoke canister at protesters on 21 January.
Continue reading...Shark's new robot vacuum is going to reveal your embarrassing secrets. It uses a UV light to detect old, dried-up stains.
China calls it unacceptable to ‘kill leader of sovereign state’, while South Africa questions ‘pre-emptive’ justification
The US-Israeli war on Iran has been condemned as illegal across much of the global south, with China saying it was unacceptable to “blatantly kill the leader of a sovereign state”.
Many countries objected that negotiations between the US and Iran over its nuclear programme and missile capability were not given a chance to succeed before Washington and Israel began bombing, and analysts often saw the war in terms of a colonial-style exercise of might.
Continue reading...In dorm rooms and dining halls, students at University of Maryland and elsewhere train future guide dogs.
Today's home cameras can dazzle with powerful LEDs: These are the models that impressed me the most.
President Trump on Monday listed four reasons why the U.S. launched its attack on Iran, initiating what he said he expects to be a weeks-long war.
Six American service members have been killed. Trump doesn’t rule out ground troops to Iran if ‘necessary.’
Cosa Nostra leader, who controlled most of eastern Sicily, dies while serving multiple life sentences for murder
Benedetto “Nitto” Santapaola, a Sicilian mafia boss and one of the most dangerous figures in Italian criminal history, has died aged 87.
Santapaola, who was widely believed to have been the architect of a campaign of bloodshed that scarred Italy in the 1980s and 1990s, died on Monday in a Milan prison where he was serving multiple life sentences. An autopsy has been ordered.
Continue reading...Point guard argues with official during team’s loss
Four-time All-Star arrived in January trade
Trae Young has managed to earn an ejection before even stepping on the court for his new team.
The four-time NBA All-Star guard, who was acquired by the Washington Wizards from the Atlanta Hawks in early January, is not set to make his debut for the Wizards on Thursday night against the Utah Jazz. However, he still found a way to be ejected for leaving the bench area in Washington’s 123-118 loss at home to the Houston Rockets.
Continue reading...sizzlinkitty shares a Reuters report detailing how drone strikes in the Middle East conflict with Iran damaged AWS data centers in the UAE and Bahrain, disrupting core cloud services and causing "prolonged" outages. Following the initial report, where Reuters said "objects" had triggered a fire at the data centers, the article was updated with additional information: A strike on the UAE facility marks the first time a major U.S. tech company's data center has been disrupted by military action. It raises questions around Big Tech's pace of expansion in the region. "In the UAE, two of our facilities were directly struck, while in Bahrain, a drone strike in close proximity to one of our facilities caused physical impact to our infrastructure," Amazon's cloud unit Amazon Web Services (AWS) said in an update on its status page. "These strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage," AWS said. "We are working to restore full service availability as quickly as possible, though we expect recovery to be prolonged given the nature of the physical damage involved," it added. Financial institutions that use AWS services have been affected by the outage, one person with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. "Even as we work to restore these facilities, the ongoing conflict in the region means that the broader operating environment in the Middle East remains unpredictable," AWS said. The AWS outage disrupted a dozen core cloud services and the company advised customers to back up critical data and shift operations to servers in unaffected AWS regions. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank said its platforms and mobile app were unavailable due to a region-wide IT disruption, although it did not directly link the outage to the AWS incident. "In previous conflicts, regional adversaries such as Iran and its proxies targeted pipelines, refineries, and oil fields in Gulf partner states. In the compute era, these actors could also target data centers, energy infrastructure supporting compute, and fiber chokepoints," Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies said last week.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
From the ghostly Shutter Story to road trip adventure Outbound and strategy puzzler Titanium Court, here are the titles we enjoyed the most from this year’s Steam Next Fest showcase
These days, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that every new indie game is either a co-op extraction shooter or a roguelike deck-builder – fortunately that’s not quite the case. Each February, the week-long Steam Next Fest is a vast and varied showcase of forthcoming titles, all with downloadable demos, and only a minority of them adhere to those dominant genres. It’s a lovely chance to dig into the sometimes bewildering Steam store and pick out interesting treats – and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Here are five of my favourites.
Continue reading...The league and its players, locked in a contentious 17-month standoff, must agree to new CBA terms by 10 March or threaten not starting the season on time
It’s not dramatic to say the labor negotiations between the WNBA and its players feel like an old-timey western standoff. The opposing sides have been holding in a quick-draw stance over a new collective bargaining agreement for the past 17 months, passing proposals back and forth that contain what each side envisions for the future of the league. But with less than 70 days until the 30th WNBA season is supposed to tip off, there’s still no resolution.
The two sides blew past the original deadline of 31 October 2025 and the 9 January extension, entering a “status quo” period. The league said that if a term sheet hasn’t been agreed to by 10 March, the 2026 season is at risk of not meeting its planned 8 May start.
Continue reading...British institutions can keep politicians somewhat in check. But in the US, shamelessness has become contagious
It is both sad and ironic that, 250 years after the revolt against George III, the British monarchy is teaching its former colony lessons about accountability. While elite impunity is rampant in the US – from a president who conspired to steal an election, to the “Epstein class” – the man formerly known as Prince Andrew is facing both shame sanctions and legal consequences. The same is true for a towering member of the British establishment, the man still known as Lord Mandelson. Just what explains the difference?
Being shamed is not the same as being convicted in a court of law – a difference that those pushing back against #MeToo and other supposedly woke movements never failed to emphasize. But both can be crucial for upholding norms of decency as well as democracy. Successful shaming depends on someone credibly accused of misconduct being part of groups whose approval matters to them. Larry Summers might well be resigning from Harvard because it would just have been too uncomfortable to face students and colleagues who might have voiced their disapproval of the attitudes revealed in the Epstein files. By contrast, certain Republicans appear to feel utterly unashamed, no matter how cruel or racist their utterances, because constituents do not seem to mind or because they can safely keep away from any unpredictable encounters (after all, GOP congressmen systematically cancel town halls).
Continue reading...Nominees for key Senate seat to be set while voters choose in congressional contests reshaped by GOP gerrymander
The first votes of the 2026 midterm cycle will be cast on Tuesday, with a pair of high-stakes US Senate primaries in Texas that will test both parties’ appetite for political change in the Trump era.
Voters across the state will decide their nominees for a critical Senate seat, as well as for several key congressional contests reshaped by a mid-decade gerrymander sought by Donald Trump to preserve the GOP’s fragile House majority.
Continue reading...
NIK ANNA
Photographer
BEATRICE AQUAVIA
Associate Visuals and Layout Editor
Managing Visuals and Layout Editor Beatrice Aquavia and Photographer Nik Anna capture Delaware Baseball versus La Salle.
As hundreds of schools implement an automated monitoring tool, educators say that students can find talking to a chatbot ‘more natural’ than confiding in a human
• Produced in partnership with EdSurge
The alert came around 7pm.
Brittani Phillips checked her phone. A middle school counselor in Putnam county, Florida, Phillips receives messages from an artificial intelligence-enabled therapy platform that students use during nonschool hours. It flags when a student may be at risk for harming themself or others based on what the student types into a chat.
Continue reading...FTSE 100 on track for its worst day in 11 months, while Japan’s Nikkei and South Korea’s Kospi also fall
The war in the Middle East has plunged financial markets around the world into turmoil for a second day, with oil and gas prices surging and share indices plummeting days after the US-Israel attack on Iran.
After a calm Monday, US stocks fell sharply after trading opened on Tuesday, with the Dow dropping more than 2% before paring back those losses. At Tuesday’s closing, the Dow had dropped 400 points, or 0.8%, while S&P and Nasdaq saw similar dips.
Continue reading...Trump says the war could last weeks or ‘far longer’. Plus, what a high schooler detained by ICE for 10 months wants you to know
Good morning.
Iranian drones hit the US embassy in Riyadh as Tehran continued to launch waves of retaliatory strikes at the Gulf and Israel, while Israeli soldiers began operating in southern Lebanon on the fourth day of an increasingly regional war in the Middle East.
What is the legality of the attacks on Iran? The Guardian spoke to legal experts, who were in consensus that the initial strikes were unlawful under international law. “There doesn’t seem to be any evidence of an imminent threat by Iran,” said Susan Breau, a professor of international law and a senior associate research fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. The US constitution also enshrines the power to formally declare war exclusively to Congress, but the president did not seek congressional approval beforehand.
What has the US said about the war’s justification? It keeps shifting. Donald Trump initially said there were “imminent threats” to Americans, and that the US wanted to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, as well as urging Iranians to rise up and topple the regime. Then Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, said on Monday that Israel’s determination to attack Iran – and the certainty that US troops would be targeted in response – had forced the Trump administration to take pre-emptive strikes.
Are European countries joining? Spain denied the US permission to use jointly operated military bases on its territory for its “unjustified” assault on Iran, while Trump criticized the UK for taking “far too long” to approve American use of its airbases.
What are the implications of disrupting the strait of Hormuz? The strait, which Iran controls, is a key global shipping route, with a fifth of global seaborne oil passing through it. It is now effectively closed and the price of oil has jumped, triggering fears of a new wave of global cost-of-living pressures.
This is a developing story. Follow our live coverage here, and see the war in maps, video and photos here.
Continue reading...ECB says Middle East war could cause higher inflationary pressure and warns of potential ‘sharp drop in output’
Shoppers faced a surprise jump in grocery inflation last month, as experts warned there was worse to come if there was prolonged war in the Middle East and the odds of a UK interest cut fell sharply.
In a blow to households struggling with the cost of living, grocery price inflation rose to 4.3% in the four weeks to 22 February, after falling to 4% in January from 4.7% in December, according to the market research company Worldpanel by Numerator.
Continue reading...Rights groups and experts say situation is unclear as ruling that quashed ban faces challenge from home secretary
Human rights organisations, academics and writers have called on Ofcom to clarify what the high court ruling that the ban on Palestine Action was unlawful will mean for online platforms pending the home secretary’s appeal against the judgment.
The Metropolitan police have said that officers will no longer arrest people at protests who express support for the direct action group. But the signatories of a letter to Ofcom say it is unclear what it will mean for platforms which have duties to remove terrorist content under the Online Safety Act.
Continue reading...The rare earths race risks environmental disaster Expert comment LToremark
Rare earth elements are essential for the green transition but the accelerating geopolitical race to reduce dependence on China carries great environmental risks.
Rare earth elements are essential for the green transition. Rare earth magnets are used in a wide range of green technologies, including wind turbines and electric vehicles (EVs). But their extraction and processing also have significant environmental impacts, including toxic waste, water pollution and ecosystem destruction.
In the global race to secure rare earth elements and reduce dependence on China’s dominance in mining, refining and magnet production, countries are increasingly turning to more remote and technically challenging frontiers. Nothing illustrates this more vividly than Japan’s latest feat of extracting rare earth-rich seabed mud from the Pacific Ocean – 5,700 metres below the surface. It’s the world’s first attempt to raise rare earths from such extreme ocean depths.
But attention is also turning to land-based deposits in remote and ecologically sensitive regions such as the Amazon in Brazil. The Amazon has an estimated 21 billion tonnes of rare earth reserves, the second-largest reserves after China, according to the US Geological Survey. But the region is also home to some of the world’s richest biodiversity that play a critical role in regulating the global climate, and located on or nearby Indigenous community territories.
Other ecologically sensitive regions where rare earth exploration is advancing include Greenland, the grasslands of Mongolia, and the biodiverse island ecosystems of Madagascar.
As rare earth exploration expands into these new frontiers, it highlights a growing tension between the geopolitically driven need to secure rare earth supply chains and the arguably more important need to protect the planet’s most vulnerable ecosystems.
It also raises a fundamental question: are efforts to secure these materials worth the risk of creating a new generation of environmental legacies?
Every tonne of rare earth mined generates up to 2,000 tonnes of toxic waste, including radioactive waste. It also generates millions of tonnes of wastewater annually. Exposure to rare earth elements has been linked to severe health impacts, including lung diseases, neurological damage, cardiovascular dysfunction, reproductive harm, and increased risks of cancer and genetic damage.
The severe environmental damage caused by decades of rare earth extraction in China offers a stark cautionary lesson for countries now seeking to develop their own supplies.
Ganzhou in Jiangxi Province – also known as the Rare Earth Kingdom – is a major global hub for so-called in-situ leaching of rare earth elements that causes severe soil acidification and water contamination. As far back as 2011, estimates by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology highlighted ¥38 billion (approx. $5.5 billion) worth of environmental damage, which has since multiplied.
In China’s Inner Mongolia province, the Bayan Obo mining sites have caused severe environmental degradation. For decades, rare earth processing facilities in the region discharged large volumes of chemically contaminated waste into tailings reservoirs, most notably the Weikuang Dam. These waste streams contain a mixture of toxic chemicals used in processing, as well as heavy metals and radioactive elements such as thorium. Over time, pollutants have seeped into surrounding soils and groundwater, affecting agricultural land, causing social disruptions for local herder communities, and raising concerns about long-term ecosystem and human health impacts.
As countries seek to diversify rare earth supply chains away from China, there are options for how to do this without repeating the same toxic legacies.
Mitigating the environmental impacts of rare earth mining must begin well before extraction starts. Pre-mining processes are critical, particularly meaningful community consultation and engagement with Indigenous peoples in line with the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as articulated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. For companies and governments alike, embedding robust consultation frameworks at the outset is a prerequisite for long-term project stability and social licence to operate. It also reduces the risk of social conflict delaying or derailing projects.
Tailings and chemical management represent some of the most significant environmental risks. While industry standards exist, notably the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management, compliance is lacking. According to Benchmark’s rare earth ESG assessment from 2024, only 17 per cent of rare earth producers currently comply with the standard. This gap highlights the need for stronger enforcement and alignment of public financing and offtake agreements with internationally recognized standards.
Radioactive waste management is another defining challenge in rare earth value chains. Certain rare earth ores contain thorium and uranium, requiring secure, long-term storage solutions to prevent contamination. The only reliable way to avoid radioactive leakage is through properly engineered, monitored, and permanently managed storage facilities in line with safety standards issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The creation of a new international pricing system which incorporates environmental costs into rare earth prices is gaining momentum and is actively being explored by the G7 and other governments. This would ensure prices more accurately reflect the true cost of responsible production while incentivizing mining and refining companies to apply the highest environmental standards.
An international price floor system for rare earth elements is another option discussed by policymakers and industry actors. During the recent Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington, D.C., the US announced its intention to create a preferential trade zone that would maintain an international price floor for critical minerals. Linking it to verified environmental performance would help reduce environmental impacts and costs that were previously externalized, ensuring that future rare earth supply chains are not only more secure but also less destructive.
Why Should Delaware Care?
Delawareans debating the impact of data centers often cite nearby Virginia as an example of the benefits they could bring and a cautionary tale of overdevelopment. Last week, two Virginia leaders spoke for themselves to Delaware lawmakers.
As Delaware debates whether an embrace of the data center industry will put too big of a toll on the electricity supply, two officials from Virginia testified to state legislators that their region has benefited greatly from the high-tech facilities.
The lawmakers on the Senate Environment, Energy and Transportation Committee listened politely to the comments made on Friday, but revealed little about whether they were persuaded in what has become one of the state’s biggest economic development debates in years.
Buddy Rizer — Loudoun County, Virginia’s economic development director — recounted how his region was in a tough spot in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Officials there, he said, had to raise taxes and cut staff as the economy struggled to regain its full output.
Then came a proliferation of data centers into his region, which would eventually become known as “Data Center Alley.” And with them came hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue for Loudoun County, Rizer said.
Now the county can build new schools, create new parks and dedicate funds to affordable housing, he said. It also lowered the residential tax rate.
“Today’s economy is based on the infrastructure that data centers bring. It’s not a matter of if data centers [will come], it’s where and how,” Rizer said to lawmakers.
Rizer’s testimony, and that from another Virginia official at the center of that state’s data center boom, highlighted what they called the “transformative” economic impact of data centers.
The state was first to capitalize on the boom in the industry sparked by investors seeking the financial windfalls of the artificial intelligence.
But whether that could occur in Delaware from five proposed data centers is unclear.
In Delaware, the tax structures are different.
Unlike Virginia, Delaware does not have a sales tax or a personal property tax, meaning that local counties could not levy an annual tax on the valuable servers within data centers.
And the recent property tax reassessment controversy in New Castle County has demonstated that assessors only consider the building as rentable space, and not its current use — likely limiting the assessed value.
During Friday’s committee hearing, Rep. Frank Burns (D-Pike Creek) indicated that the tax structure acts as an incentive for developers.
“In a sense, we already have pretty much all the tax breaks that anyone has ever wanted to give to a data center developer,” Burns said.
But members on the other side of the aisle — including Republican Reps. Jeff Hilovsky (Long Neck, Oak Orchard) and Richard Collins (Millsboro) — argued that Delaware needs to attract the industry.
“We either use AI or we’re going to be in the backwaters of history,” Collins said.
Also testifying to the state legislators Friday was Glenn Davis, Virginia’s former director of its Department of Energy, who argued that the relatively small number of jobs that data centers create is actually a benefit.
Additional workers, he said, would require better roads, more schools and other amenities that the county would have to pay for. Data centers provide a tax base for those services without requiring as much investment as other industries. That allows municipalities to use the tax revenue to spur economic growth in other sectors, he said.
“I don’t want to call it free tax revenue, but essentially, to a locality, it’s free tax revenue,” Davis said.
He later told Spotlight Delaware that he thinks Delaware could still benefit economically from data centers despite its low taxes because the industry’s valuations are skyrocketing.
Davis also touched on what many view as the most salient critique of data centers.
He acknowledged that it is possible for data centers to raise energy prices locally, which could offset some benefits. But he said that could be prevented by imposing rules that ensure energy infrastructure upgrades are paid for only by the data center companies.
Delmarva Power recently created a proposal for a “large-load tariff” with the goal of doing just that. But during a public comment session Wednesday for the proposal, several residents said the proposal did not go far enough to stave off high energy bills.
The post Virginia officials pitch benefits of data centers to Delaware lawmakers appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
How the US-Israeli war against Iran exploded into a regional conflict, as Tehran retaliated with strikes across the Middle East
A US-Israeli war against Iran that began on Saturday with bombing and missile attacks that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has exploded into a regional conflict, with Tehran retaliating by launching strikes across the Middle East.
On Tuesday, Israel’s military launched a ground invasion of Lebanon, where it has been carrying out intense strikes after Iran’s ally, Hezbollah, fired rockets across the frontier.
Continue reading...The president needs a quick win to avoid a quagmire – but he needs a long war to justify potential emergency powers
Donald Trump has trapped himself in his war with Iran by announcing that his intention is regime change. That uncertain objective is linked to his most urgent objective at home. While pursuing regime change in Iran, he is desperately attempting to stop regime change through the midterm elections. He needs a swift victory in Iran to avoid a quagmire, but he needs a long war to attempt the assertion of unconstitutional emergency authority over the electoral process.
Plunging into war followed Trump’s signature style: he negotiated in bad faith, turned to bombing when the sides were making “significant progress”, according to Oman’s foreign minister, was heedless of international law, and shut out congressional consultation. He offered as his imperative Iranian “imminent threats”, which the Pentagon briefed congressional staffers after Operation Epic Fury began was simply without basis in fact. There was no intelligence suggesting an “imminent threat”. Where’s the WMD?
Continue reading...The world’s most popular podcaster seemingly disapproving of ICE does not mean he has soured from the administration
Joe Rogan, the world’s most popular podcaster, is struggling to sleep. In an interview last week, he complained that the “madness” of the news cycle – from the release of the Epstein library, to US military strikes on Iran – has him “overwhelmed”. For some, this admission is just the latest sign that the world’s most popular podcaster might be regretting his role in cheerleading Donald Trump back into office.
It follows seemingly scathing criticism of ICE after the killing of Renee Nicole Good. Rogan compared ICE to the Gestapo in a short clip that quickly went viral. It led this newspaper to reasonably ask “Has Joe Rogan fully soured on Trump’s presidency?”, with ABC, Bloomberg and CNN all recently reporting on Rogan’s apparent disapproval of ICE.
Continue reading...Trump administration accused Luis Muñoz Pinto of being part of the Tren de Aragua gang. Now living in Colombia he hopes to clear his name and study engineering in the US
It was the busiest hour of the evening in Bolivar Square, one of the most iconic spots in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital. Amid the buzz of smiling tourists, however, Luis Muñoz Pinto sat very still, his head in his hands, as memories of his deportation from the United States to a Salvadorian prison flooded back.
Muñoz Pinto, 27, was one of more than 250 Venezuelan men accused by the Trump administration of being part of the dangerous Tren de Aragua gang and deported from the US to the brutal terrorism mega-prison called Cecot in El Salvador last March.
Continue reading...You deserve to wear the right earbuds and headphones during your workouts. These are our favorites.
 | Pint X didnt even make it to 90 days before it stopped working so gotta send it back 😟 [link] [comments] |
Authorities were initially skeptical of the reported find but had caught the elusive reptile by Sunday night.
Netanyahu’s biggest gamble Expert comment jon.wallace
Regime change in Iran could secure election victory. But much depends on President Trump. And the risks for Israel’s diplomatic position – and even its US alliance – are high.
If there is an issue that unites the vast majority of Israelis, it is that Iran poses an existential threat to the Jewish state. Moreover, most believe there is only a military solution to this danger, not a diplomatic one. Hence the joint US-Israeli military campaign against the Islamic Republic is not only a response to recent developments. It has been brewing for more than two decades and has its roots in the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
What is somewhat novel on this occasion is the candour with which the leadership of Israel has stated that the war’s objective extends beyond eliminating Iran’s military threat to pursuing regime change in Tehran. That position was immediately and unequivocally endorsed by opposition leader Yair Lapid, along with the rest of the Zionist opposition parties.
Over the past few weeks, there has been a growing sense of inevitability about an imminent US-Israeli attack on Iran. The suspicion was that negotiations in Geneva, and reports about progress made, were a mere smoke screen, part of a deception and psychological war to lull the Iranian leadership into a false sense of security.
It largely worked, at least for the open gambit of this war, which saw Iranian leadership, as was the case in the 12-day war last June, caught by surprise – with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed in the first wave of Israeli strikes.
Israel entered this war in a complex geopolitical position. Since the disaster of 7 October 2023, it has regained much of its military credibility but equally lost political and moral ground.
It has considerably weakened the military capabilities of most of Iran’s proxies, the so-called Axis of Resistance, whether Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen. And unlike his predecessor, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is no friend of the regime in Tehran. Moreover, following the 12-day war with Iran, the Israeli air force has gained complete supremacy in the air, if at a heavy price on the home front: Israel’s vulnerabilities have been exposed, due to its geography and high population concentration in a relatively small area.
However, Israel’s political position has been badly undermined. Its use of excessive force, with little regard for civilian lives, especially in Gaza, has put a strain on relations with much of the region, including those countries with which it has normalized relations. Close allies in Europe and beyond have grown increasingly critical of its operations.
A major feature of Israel’s conduct under Netanyahu is its inability (one suspects also unwillingness due to domestic political pressure) to translate military successes into diplomatic achievements. All the fronts it opened over the last two and a half years remain unresolved as the Israeli government constantly repeats the need for ‘absolute’ or ‘total’ victory. Such objectives are bound to result in never-ending wars, yet similar terminology is again surfacing regarding Iran in the current campaign. This causes deep concern among the Gulf countries now under Iranian attack.
Rather surprisingly, the administration of President Donald Trump, which prides itself on rapidly settling conflicts rather than starting them seems, when it comes to Israel, to subscribe to the Netanyahu version of events on most fronts.
In the case of Iran, US negotiators insisted that all demands regarding uranium enrichment, limits on ballistic missile development, and an end to support for proxy groups be accepted in full.
Chief negotiator Steve Witkoff, speaking to Fox News about the negotiations, said that Trump had wondered why the Iranians didn’t simply capitulate to his demands – revealing that from the start, there was no room for compromise, only a military option. This approach was naïve at best, demonstrating inexperience and a lack of understanding of how the Iranian leadership thinks and operates. It would definitely not have led to a deal.
The triumphalist statements by both Trump and Netanyahu at the end of the first day of the war encouraged Iranians to topple their regime. That is likely to make countries in the region, especially in the Gulf, extremely concerned, regardless of what they think about the regime, as it might end in Tehran intensifying attacks on them, and the nightmare scenario of chaos spreading across the region.
Iran’s almost instant response to the US-Israeli airstrikes was to attack Gulf states, which now find themselves caught in a war they tried hard to prevent and paying a heavy price. In the long run, they are very likely to ask themselves whether close relations with Israel are more of a liability than an asset.
If the war – which is already expected to last for weeks – drags on with no resolution, with the Strait of Hormuz and much of the Gulf’s airspace closed, both the US, but mainly Israel, will be held responsible. The fallout will be even worse should the conflict fuel radicalism and further animosity between Sunni and Shia, as concerns some analysts.
Many Iranians and much of the international community would not mourn the brutal regime in Tehran, if it falls. But Israel, already extending its operations to Lebanon, again finds itself in the spotlight for acting under US protection with disregard for international law and lacking any legal basis for its military adventure.
Netanyahu has taken a bet that embarking on this war will boost his chances of political survival. More concerning, he is also gambling with his country’s long-term security and international standing.
It is an election year in Israel, and Netanyahu is desperate to stay in power. For the gamble to pay off there must be minimum casualties at home. Both Israel and the US are operating, thus far, on such a best-case scenario.
Netanyahu is also betting that Trump’s support will last until Iran’s nuclear programme and military threat are removed and regime change is delivered. That is risky.
It is not beyond President Trump to declare a victory while there is neither a military nor a political resolution. Furthermore, if this war goes wrong and it costs the Republicans the mid-term elections in the US, the blame will be put on Israel’s doorstep, with long-term implications for the alliance between the two countries. This is at a time when there is also growing scepticism among Democrats about associating the US with Israel’s policies in the region.
By the end of last year’s June war with Iran, the Israeli prime minister declared that the Iranian existential threat of ‘annihilating’ Israel had been removed. In his words, this ‘historic victory’ would prevail for generations. Only 8 months later, the country is embroiled in another, and even more intense war with its main nemesis in the region. And the reason given is exactly the same as back then.
MPs and campaigners had warned law imposed by Tories could be used by future leaders to ‘undermine democracy’
Ministers are to repeal powers imposed by the Conservatives that allowed them control over the elections watchdog, after warnings they could be abused by a future government with authoritarian ambitions.
Steve Reed, who as communities secretary is overseeing a new elections bill, announced the move to MPs, saying he would “repeal in full the power for government to impose a strategy and policy statement on the Electoral Commission”.
Continue reading...ChatGPT owner’s CEO says it will bar its technology being used for mass surveillance or by intelligence services
OpenAI is amending its hastily arranged deal to supply artificial intelligence to the US Department of War (DoW) after the ChatGPT owner’s chief executive admitted it looked “opportunistic and sloppy”.
The contract prompted fears the San Francisco startup’s AI could be used for domestic mass surveillance but its boss, Sam Altman, said on Monday night the startup would explicitly bar its technology from being used for that purpose or being deployed by defence department intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA).
Continue reading...Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes' killing set off retaliatory violence by the cartel, killing more than 70 people.
Spectre of military upheaval will hang over annual meetings where Beijing’s five-year plan will be launched
The standing committee of China’s top political advisory body has voted to remove three generals from its ranks as a sweeping purge of the military continues before this week’s annual Two Sessions gathering.
The advisory body will meet on Wednesday, while China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC) – which removed nine generals last week – will start its annual session on Thursday. Collectively the concurrent meetings are referred to as Two Sessions, one of the most important events in China’s political calendar when thousands of delegates arrive in Beijing.
Continue reading...Don't let retro tech clutter your space. Here's how and where you can dispose of it without paying a dime.
A note to my readers: The U.S. is in a new conflict or war with Iran. (President Trump has called it a war, and—to quote Annie Lennox—who am I to disagree?) Though it might blow over in a few days or weeks, it could also last for years, altering not only Iran and the Middle East but our country as well. For this reason, I’ve decided to dedicate this Tuesday newsletter to an overview of how we got here. I think it’s worth it—and hope you do too.
Kareem
Before I get into this story, I need to say something about where I’m coming from as a Muslim man. My introduction to Islam, the way I learned it and lived it, has nothing to do with the version that dominates today’s headlines. It wasn’t about chanting hatred, smuggling drugs, stripping women of their rights, or promising heaven through destruction.
The Islam I grew up with is about love, peace, and harmony. This is the Islam I connected to, not these fanatics.
The story of The Islamic Republic begins the way many tragedies do: with hope disguised as justice.
On December 31, 1977, at a New Year’s Eve state dinner, President Jimmy Carter praised Iran as “an island of stability.” One year later, Iranians poured into the streets against a monarchy that had grown distant, corrupt and violent. The Shah’s police force, SAVAK, had broad powers to suppress opposition, using its vast surveillance network to control universities, unions and even Iranian communities abroad, and the Iranian people had had enough. They wanted a voice that felt like it belonged to them.
Into that moment stepped Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a cleric who played the Islam card with the poor and the pious, who promised freedom from tyranny and independence from foreign powers. This was strange, in that Iran had a very fine working relationship with both the U.S. and Russia. Still, many believed they were trading one form of oppression for a more righteous order. What they got instead was a new kind of cage.
From the beginning, the Islamic Republic defined itself by measuring itself against the United States. The takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979 was not just a stunt; it was a founding ritual. Fifty‑two American diplomats and staff were held hostage for 444 days. The regime used them as props in a morality play about imperialism and resistance, broadcasting the images of blindfolded Americans to cheering crowds. That crisis shattered any remaining trust between Washington and Tehran and set the tone for the next four decades: the Islamic Republic would build its legitimacy by manufacturing enemies and then claiming to stand bravely against them.
As the new regime consolidated power, it created the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an ideological army believing that the U.S. is the great Satan and that our death is their ticket to paradise. The IRGC would become the long arm of the revolution, reaching far beyond Iran’s borders. In Lebanon in the early 1980s, Islamic Republic helped nurture and arm Hezbollah, a militant group that would become its most important proxy. In 1983, a suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American servicemen. Another bombing hit the U.S. Embassy that same year, killing dozens, including American personnel. U.S. investigations and court rulings later tied these attacks to Hezbollah, which had been backed, trained, and funded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. For the families of those Marines, the revolution in Tehran was no longer an abstract geopolitical shift: it was a hole in their lives that would never close.
The pattern continued. In 1996, a massive truck bomb exploded outside the Khobar Towers housing complex in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. Air Force personnel and wounding hundreds. Years later, U.S. indictments and intelligence assessments pointed to Saudi Hezbollah, again linked to Iran’s IRGC, as responsible. The Islamic Republic had found a way to hurt Americans without ever firing a shot directly under its own flag. It preferred shadows: proxies, militias, deniable operations. But the funerals in the United States were real.
After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iran saw an opportunity and a threat. American troops were suddenly on both its eastern and western borders. The IRGC’s Quds Force moved quickly to shape the battlefield. They supplied Shi’a militia with money, training, and a particularly deadly weapon: explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs. These were sophisticated roadside bombs designed to punch through armored vehicles. U.S. military reports and later public statements by American officials attributed hundreds of American deaths and thousands of life‑altering injuries in Iraq to Iranian‑supplied EFPs and training. Young Americans who thought they were fighting insurgents in Iraq were, in many cases, facing the long reach of the Islamic Republic.
Even outside active war zones, the regime’s hostility toward the United States has been a constant drumbeat. Plots to assassinate diplomats, cyberattacks, harassment of U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf, rocket and drone attacks on bases housing American troops in Iraq and Syria—these are all part of the same strategy: keep pressure on, never fully cross the line into open war, and always maintain plausible deniability. The Islamic Republic has made a habit of treating American lives as expendable pieces on a regional chessboard.
But if the regime has been ruthless toward Americans, it has been even more brutal toward its own people.
In the early years after the revolution, the new rulers moved quickly to eliminate rivals. Former officials of the Shah’s government were executed after show trials. Leftists who had helped topple the monarchy were imprisoned, tortured, or killed once they outlived their usefulness. In 1988, near the end of the Iran‑Iraq War, thousands of political prisoners were executed. Many were young people who had been arrested years earlier for handing out leaflets or attending protests. Human rights organizations estimate that several thousand were killed and thrown into unmarked graves. Families were never told where their children were buried. The message was clear: the revolution belonged to the clerics, and dissent would not be tolerated.
Over the decades, the Islamic Republic built a system of control that reached into every corner of life. Women were forced to wear the hijab by law. Morality police patrolled the streets. Journalists, writers, and artists who stepped out of line were arrested. Ethnic and religious minorities were discriminated against and persecuted. Iran’s prisons became synonymous with torture, rape and forced confessions. Executions, often after unfair trials, became a grim routine. By many measures, Iran has consistently ranked among the world’s top executioners per capita.
And yet, despite the fear, Iranians have never stopped resisting.
In 1999, students took to the streets after a reformist newspaper was shut down. Security forces and plainclothes thugs attacked dormitories, beat students, and arrested hundreds. The protests were crushed, but a new generation was on a mission to face arrest, torture, rape and execution but to continue the fight.
In 2009, millions of Iranians poured into the streets to protest what they believed was a stolen presidential election. The Green Movement, as it came to be known, was one of the largest mass mobilizations since 1979. People marched peacefully, chanting “Where is my vote?” The regime responded with beatings, mass arrests, rape, show trials, and killings. The death of Neda Agha‑Soltan, a young woman shot during a protest, was captured on video and spread around the world. Her face became a symbol of a generation betrayed.
In 2017 and 2019, protests erupted again, this time driven by economic hardship and anger at corruption. In November 2019, demonstrations over a sudden hike in fuel prices spread rapidly across the country. The response was ferocious. Security forces opened fire on protesters in multiple cities. Reports from journalists and human rights groups, citing sources inside Iran, suggested that more than a thousand people were killed in a matter of days. The government shut down the internet to hide the scale of the crackdown. Once again, the regime treated its own citizens as enemies to be subdued, not people to be heard.
Then, in 2022, the death of a young Kurdish woman named Mahsa (Jina) Amini in the custody of the morality police ignited something deeper. She had been arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly.” Her death became the spark for the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement. Women burned their headscarves in the streets. Schoolgirls chanted against the Supreme Leader. Men joined them, recognizing that the fight for women’s freedom was a fight for everyone’s dignity. Again, the regime responded with live ammunition, mass arrests, rape and executions. But something fundamental had shifted: the fear barrier, at least for many, had cracked.
The regime’s contempt for human life was also on display in the skies above Tehran in January 2020. In the tense hours after Iran fired missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, a Ukrainian passenger jet, Flight PS752, took off from Tehran’s airport. Minutes later, it was shot down by two missiles fired by the IRGC, killing all 176 people on board, many of them Iranian citizens or people of Iranian origin. IRGC’s plan was to blame the U.S. for shooting down the plane, but there was no satellite or in-ground evidence to back up their accusations.
When you step back and look at the full arc of the Islamic Republic, a pattern emerges. This is a regime that has survived by manufacturing enemies abroad and crushing dissent at home. It has used religion as a shield and a weapon, not as a source of compassion or justice. It has turned a country with immense human and natural resources into a place where young people dream of leaving, where talent is exported and fear is imported into every home.
The cost, both to Iran and the United States, has been staggering. Americans have lost loved ones in bombings and wars shaped by Ayatollah’s hand. Iranians have lost children to bullets, prisons, and gallows. The region has been destabilized by proxy wars in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Millions of refugees have been created by conflicts in which the Islamic Republic has played a central role. And inside Iran, generations have grown up under a government that treats their aspirations as threats.
Iran is an ancient civilization with poetry, music, science, and philosophy that have enriched humanity for centuries. The problem is not Iran; the problem is a regime that has hijacked Iran’s name and used it to justify violence and repression.
A world without the Islamic Republic as a governing system would be a world where American families wouldn’t have to learn the names of distant cities only because their sons and daughters died there in attacks planned in Tehran. It would be a Middle East where one of its largest, most educated populations could participate openly in building regional stability instead of being used as cannon fodder in ideological battles.
And yet, in spite of all that, the U.S. cannot be the country that begins wars, or even conflagrations. We cannot become the world’s attack dog. We cannot simply march into a sovereign nation and take out their leader or system of government. Have we done that in the past? Have we begun and even sustained conflicts without going through the proper channels, also known as congressional support?
Yes we have. And it has never, ever turned out well.
Whether or not we intervene, the fall of a regime is never guaranteed. The Islamic Republic has spent 45‑plus years trying to convince Iranians that they are weak and isolated, and trying to convince the world that it is strong and permanent. The courage of ordinary Iranians, students, workers, women, retirees, ethnic minorities say otherwise. Every protest, every act of civil disobedience, every refusal to bow quietly is a reminder that the regime’s power is not the same as legitimacy.
The rise of The Islamic Republic is a matter of historical record. Its fall, whenever and however it comes, will be a matter of human dignity finally catching up with power. I’m sorry that this administration made the choice it did: I think it’s anti-democratic and therefore anti-American.
But I hope the Iranian people finally have a say in their own destiny.
When Bob Marley recorded “War” for his 1976 album Rastaman Vibration, he didn’t write a single word of the lyrics. Every line came from a speech Haile Selassie I delivered to the United Nations in October 1963, a direct address to world leaders demanding an end to racism and colonial rule. Selassie laid out conditions: meet them, or there would be war.
What I find remarkable is the structure of the argument. Every time Marley sings “war,” he delivers a ruling, the way a judge reads a verdict aloud. He calls out Angola, Mozambique, South Africa by name. These are real places where real people were living under colonial rule and apartheid in 1976. For Marley, a Rastafari believer who regarded Selassie as a holy figure, singing these words was both a political act and an act of faith. I put it on this playlist because some songs age gracefully. This one ages with urgency.
TO BE GOOD, YOU MUST DO GOOD. WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER.
This is a war without a plan, without a strategy, and without any clear understanding of where it leads or how it ends
I’ve spent the last several days checking with foreign policy experts, analysts and specialists in the Middle East for their understanding of Donald Trump’s real goal in Iran, and how anyone (including him) will know he’s achieved it.
Several told me that Trump is seeking the kind of “war” that the US executed in Venezuela – an abduction of a leader by special forces or, as in June, surgical airstrikes on locations where Iran appeared to be building nuclear bombs.
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 in the US and on 15 March in the UK
Continue reading...At a meeting this week, the National Capital Planning Commission will be hearing from about 100 people who are expected to register their dismay over Trump's plans for a White House ballroom addition.
The president and top aides have offered varying justifications for attacking Iran — from regime change to preemption to eliminating its nuclear program and ballistic missiles.
Previously unreported records also offer new details about what was cut from ICE’s basic training program. Concerns about the quality of ICE agents’ training have mounted for months.
The U.S. military said Monday that the number of Americans killed during the ongoing conflict with Iran now stands at six. Follow live updates on Day 4 of the war.
After the league gathered for the combine, we look at the plots that will dominate the news cycle in the coming weeks and months
Barring a gas mask situation, we know who will be the No 1 overall pick in the draft. The Raiders need a viable long-term solution at quarterback after Geno Smith flamed out last year. Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner and national champion, is the top quarterback on the board and will be the first named called on 23 April. After Mendoza, the real intrigue begins.
Continue reading...The technology most people use only as a chatty tool for daily tasks is reportedly aiding US military aggression. And there is not much we can do about it
There are a lot of things that AI can do. It can sort out your shopping list, and it can keep your kids entertained when they’re mutinous by spinning up a tailor-made bedtime story for them. It can make you more efficient at work, and can help our government operate more effectively.
What is written less about, and what we need to shout louder about now, are the risks inherent in the militarisation of AI. In the last three months Donald Trump’s White House has reportedly used AI twice to effect regime change, or to – in the most recent case in Iran – get as close to doing so as possible, and leaving it up to rank-and-file Iranians to finish the job.
Chris Stokel-Walker is the author of TikTok Boom: The Inside Story of the World’s Favourite App
Continue reading...Some Republican state lawmakers and health associations are pushing back against spending plans under the Trump administration's $50 billion federal rural health fund.
Why Should Delaware Care?
Dover leaders denied a funding request by the People’s Church, one of the few homeless shelters in the city, at a recent committee meeting. The denial comes on the heels of extended controversy over the state of panhandling, drug use and homelessness in Delaware’s capital city.
In the midst of continued debate over panhandling and homelessness in Dover, city leaders have turned their ire toward the People’s Church Community Center, a homeless shelter in the heart of the city.
Dover City Council’s Committee of the Whole – a committee made up of all nine council members and two additional community members – voted unanimously at a meeting on Feb. 26 to deny the church’s request for $47,000 in city funds to be spent on workforce development programs at the shelter.
The shelter, considered to be one of the few homeless service centers in the resource desert that is Kent County, has served nearly 500 people since October 2025 alone, director Teresa Campbell Harris told Spotlight Delaware. The church, which Harris described as “low barrier,” serves daily meals and operates as a Code Purple overnight shelter in the winter months.
But city council members and residents in attendance at last week’s meeting waged a series of criticisms against the shelter, including that it is a “magnet” for individuals doing drugs or engaging in prostitution outside the building.
City Council President Fred Neil railed against the shelter during the meeting, saying the city received 17 “articulate letters” complaining about the People’s Church. He also said the city has received threats of a lawsuit over the shelter, but did not say from whom.
“The services offered at the center have become a magnet for individuals whose actions are systematically destroying the quality of life and devaluing the property of residents,” Neil said at the meeting.
But leaders of the People’s Church rebuked these attacks, saying at the meeting that council members have “factual misunderstandings” about the way the shelter is run.
The shelter, officially known as “The People’s Community Center,” is housed in the same building as the People’s Church of Dover at 46 S. Bradford St. That address is a mere 800 feet away from the properties where the city is currently undertaking a large-scale downtown revitalization project, including building a parking garage and apartment complex.
Neil drew an explicit connection between the downtown revitalization efforts and his concerns with the People’s Church, saying people are moving out of “stately homes” on New Street, Bradford Street and Governor’s Avenue due to the conditions outside the shelter.
He also said the city has received a complaint from the State Department of Health that the sanitation in the shelter’s kitchen is violating state code.
According to food establishment inspection reports published on the Department of Health website, the shelter has had a number of violations between February 2024 and January 2026, including improper cleaning of tools and cross contamination concerns.
Cameron Llewellyn, who runs a construction company with an office next door to the church, wrote one of the 17 opposition letters. He gave an impassioned public comment at last week’s meeting about the impact the church has on his business.
“People that show up at that center, we find them in the bushes behind our building,” Llewellyn said. “And the next day we have to call the paramedics because they have a needle hanging out of their arm and they look like they’re dead.”
While city council members and residents in attendance were aligned in their opposition to the shelter’s operations, organizers of the People’s Church defended their efforts both at the meeting and in a follow up interview with Spotlight Delaware.
Derrick Hodge, the lead pastor at the People’s Church, attended the council committee meeting and spoke in response to the accusations waged against the shelter.
Hodge said the center is “perfectly compliant” with relevant codes, and that he believes the organization has the same goals as the city council, to improve the quality of life “for all Dover residents and all of our neighborhoods.”
In a follow up interview, Campbell Harris, the shelter director, and Sue Harris, a coordinator for the shelter, said they, like council members, are upset by the people that gather on Bradford Street near their facility.
But the people congregating outside are not using the shelter’s services, they said.
“We are victims, just like the neighborhood,” Harris said. “The people standing like zombies around the streets, they don’t come to us. We don’t let them inside.”
Harris added that these people used to hang around other areas downtown, like Governor’s Avenue and Queen Street, but they were “squeezed” out of those areas, so now they happen to gather in the alleys near the People’s Church.
She acknowledged that the shelter has gotten some criticism in the past for not requiring sobriety to use their services, but she feels committed to being “low barrier.”
Harris added that many of the people utilizing the shelter’s meals and overnight housing already have a job, or are working toward other goals, like getting mental health counseling.
While Campbell Harris and Harris said receiving the $47,000 grant from the city would have been helpful, the pair said they will be able to stay afloat with other funding sources, including a $350,000 grant they are slated to receive from the next round of Prescription Opioid Distribution Settlement Commission funds.
Brad Owens, director of the opioid settlement commission, said his committee is working to ensure there is a “rigorous budget and oversight framework” in place before they allocate the funds to the shelter.
Harris said the People’s Church is already working on ways it can set the record straight with the city, including filming a documentary about the shelter and bringing “hundreds and hundreds of supporters” to testify in front of the city council.
“There’s so much misinformation,” she said, “and people do not understand all sides.”
The post Dover leaders deny downtown homeless shelter funding, express concerns appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
The Library of Congress has restored Gugusse et l'Automate, an 1897 short by Georges Melies that likely features the first robot ever shown on film. Long thought lost, the reel was discovered in a box of decaying nitrate films donated from a Michigan family collection. NPR reports: The film, which can be viewed on the Library of Congress' website, depicts a child-sized robot clown who grows to the size of an adult and then attacks a human clown with a stick. The human then decimates the machine with a hammer. In an Instagram post, Library of Congress moving image curator Jason Evans Groth said the film represents, "probably the first instance of a robot ever captured in a moving image." (The word "robot" didn't appear until 1921, when Czech dramatist Karel Capek coined it in his science fiction play R.U.R..) "Today, many of us are worried about AI and robots," said archivist and filmmaker Rick Prelinger, in an email to NPR. "Well, people were thinking about robots in 1897. Very little is new."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
If you’re among the more than 1 million people who make Nike’s sneakers and apparel around the world, the company says you should be able to support your family. You should earn enough to pay your living expenses and have some discretionary money left over. If your factory wages don’t cut it, your employer should have a plan to get you there.
But Nike’s expansion in Indonesia over the last decade has directly undermined these goals, an analysis by ProPublica and The Oregonian/OregonLive found.
Over the last decade, employment at factories supplying the world’s largest athletic apparel brand expanded dramatically in regions of Indonesia where, according to one leading estimate, the minimum wage is less than the amount workers need to live on. Meanwhile, Nike’s supply chain shrank overall in places that pay this estimated living wage, our analysis found.
The trend shows how the movement of multinational corporations to countries with ever-lower labor costs is being replaced, in some cases, by movements within a country that can achieve major savings and improve the bottom line.
Nike’s suppliers employ 280,000 people in Indonesia, the company’s second-largest production center.
From 2015 through last year, these suppliers shed around 36,000 jobs in places where the monthly minimum wage exceeds or comes close to a living wage. In these high-wage areas, which include the capital of Jakarta, the minimum typically equates to about $300 a month.
By contrast, the company’s supplier workforce grew by nearly 112,000 in parts of Central and West Java with local minimum wages that are typically about $165 a month — far from what’s considered enough to live on. Dozens of workers employed by Nike suppliers in Indonesia told the news organizations the minimum is about all they make.
“If it’s very labor intensive, then you go where labor is cheapest,” said Nurina Merdikawati, a lecturer in the Indonesia Project at Australian National University. In Indonesia, she said, “that’s going to be Central Java.”
Other brands have also moved to Central Java and other low-wage regions of Indonesia in recent years and continue expanding there, local news organizations have reported.
For Nike, the trend threatens the jobs of the existing factory workforce elsewhere in the country. Last October, more than 2,000 workers were laid off by Victory Chingluh, one of Nike’s longtime suppliers near Jakarta. In 2024, another 1,500 workers were cut by a Nike shoe supplier nearby, Adis Dimension, according to local news reports.
Labor advocates say the geographic shift is concerning because the Jakarta area has a stronger union presence that ensures working conditions and wages get closer attention than in less-developed places like Central Java.
At Victory Chingluh, three employees told the news organizations that the fear of more job cuts hangs over their work. They said the company is building a new factory in Cirebon, in West Java, where the minimum wage is 45% lower.
Factory employment shrank in the areas near Jakarta where the minimum wage is considered enough to meet basic needs.
Employees said when they were offered a choice between keeping their jobs and accepting severance packages during layoffs last year, workers were willing to take the buyout, fearing that they wouldn’t get anything if the factory closed altogether.
That happened in 2018 when one Nike supplier near Jakarta, Kahoindah Citragarment, shut down without paying workers their full severance after Nike pulled its orders, an investigation by the Worker Rights Consortium found. The factory’s South Korean parent company, Hojeon, eventually agreed to pay workers $4.5 million after labor advocates argued they were legally owed separation pay. Hojeon did not respond to requests for comment.
At Victory Chingluh, two union leaders said in December that they anticipated another 5,000 layoffs at a company that once employed about 15,000.
“Almost all employees here are worried about that,” one of them said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions from talking to reporters.
The leaders said they’ve been told the factory being built in Cirebon could be ready by 2027. They said they’ve been told it’s for an expansion — even though their factory recently lost thousands of jobs.
Victory Chingluh did not respond to questions. Nike said in a statement that it works closely with suppliers during layoffs to minimize disruptions. “We mandate that suppliers pay all statutory severance, social security, and other separation benefits required by local law and often assemble working groups — which may include civil society, unions, and local governments — to aid in proper execution,” the company said.
Business leaders near Jakarta have voiced concern about the wage disparity between their region and Central Java, more than 150 miles away, saying that mandated pay increases around Jakarta could lead to mass layoffs and cause manufacturers to shift production.
“There is a real possibility that many labor-intensive industries will move to other regions,” Herry Rumawatine, the head of a local employers association, told the Jakarta Globe in January.
Asked whether the geographic shifts in Nike’s Indonesian supply chain were aimed at improving the bottom line, the company said that creating “operational efficiencies” is part of doing business in a competitive environment.
However, the company said treating Nike’s geographic shift primarily as a move to save money “creates an incomplete picture” and cited “other plausible drivers” such as automation or changing production needs.
Less-developed regions shouldn’t be excluded from opportunities for economic growth, Nike said, and it expects its suppliers everywhere to meet its code of conduct.
“Growth and progress go hand in hand,” Nike wrote, “and we remain committed to investing in ways that expand opportunity while strengthening labor standards and worker protections where we operate worldwide.”
Nike suggests that people who work for its foreign suppliers are well paid. In particular, the company says workers at its strategic suppliers earn an average of nearly double the local minimum wage.
As The Oregonian/OregonLive reported in partnership with ProPublica in January, Nike does not pay workers anywhere close to this amount in Indonesia. In interviews across three regions of the country, roughly 100 workers said they made the minimum wage or a little bit more.
Nike told the news organizations that its figure is a global average and variations naturally exist. But the company also told the news organizations that it’s important not just to compare what its suppliers pay relative to the minimum wage. Nike’s focus, one company official said, is on whether workers make a living wage and, if not, whether their employers are trying to get there.
Although Nike does not explicitly require its suppliers to pay this amount, it says every worker “has a right to compensation for a regular work week that is sufficient to meet workers’ basic needs and provide some discretionary income.” The company reported that two-thirds of its key suppliers — it did not say which ones — paid above living wage benchmarks in 2022.
Jason Judd, executive director of the Global Labor Institute at Cornell University, said living wage pledges from companies like Nike are so flexible that they’re almost meaningless. Only asking factories to be working toward living wages, as Nike does, “could go on for 20 years,” Judd said, “until you’ve found yet another lower-wage province.”
Nike’s recent move to Central Java is notable because while wages are far lower there than in urban Jakarta, food and housing are not dramatically cheaper, according to estimates from the WageIndicator Foundation, a Dutch nonprofit. The foundation says a living wage in Central Java starts around $245 a month; in the parts of the province that are home to Nike suppliers, the local minimum wage ranges from only $136 to $215.
Workers in Central Java said second jobs are common, including selling fish and gasoline. One said workers covertly sold snacks inside the factory, out of sight of managers who might fire them if caught.
“At its core, this is about cost reduction and power,” Wiranta Ginting, deputy international coordinator for the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, a labor group, said in an email.
It isn’t clear exactly how much Nike may have saved on labor by growing aggressively in low-wage regions. But some rough calculations are possible, based on addresses Nike has published for its suppliers, the numbers it says they employ and the minimum wage they must pay in each municipality.
If each factory worker made exactly the minimum wage and worked only on Nike products, then the company’s shift into lower-cost areas would have saved about $200 million on labor in 2025 alone. The estimate is based on what Nike’s suppliers paid last year versus what they would have paid in labor costs had the company expanded uniformly across regions where it had factories in 2015.
It’s only a broad indicator of potential savings.
Nike said the analysis “rests on a series of oversimplified assumptions that limit the reliability of its conclusions.”
For example, the company said that to assume the workforce could have grown where suppliers were located in 2015 “does not reflect the realities of manufacturing operations, which are constrained by factors such as facility capacity, workforce availability, skills, technology, and changes in product mix.”
The geographic shift into lower-wage regions of Indonesia shows one way Nike can try to wring more profit from its vast supply chain. The company, which reported $46.3 billion in revenue last year, is struggling with declining annual sales and profits, problems compounded by uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which Nike had estimated would cost $1.5 billion a year before a recent Supreme Court decision struck them down. Its stock has dropped more than 60% from a 2021 peak.
“Margin expansion is a top priority for me and my leadership team,” CEO Elliott Hill told Wall Street analysts in a December earnings call.
Officials in low-wage Central Java have welcomed the industrial expansion. The province’s then-governor said in 2022 that 97 factories had opened there. Another 10 garment and footwear factories were under construction last year, according to local news reports, with 17 more expected to be built this year.
Nike’s explanation of its move into the region was in keeping with assertions decades ago by its co-founder, Phil Knight, that Nike’s arrival was a positive force for local economies and workers in developing countries.
“Increased manufacturing in Central Java is not an accident and, in many ways, is something to be celebrated,” Nike told The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica. “The Indonesian government has taken meaningful, intentional steps to transform Central Java into an industrial hub, with an eye toward extending the economic growth that has benefited other regions of the country for more than 30 years.”
The company added that “manufacturing growth in regions with lower prevailing wages can lead to raised standards, increased worker skills, and positive contributions to local communities.”
Nike’s move has ripple effects around relatively high-wage Jakarta, Indonesia’s biggest city, where the company has sourced sneakers since 1988. Factory workers and union officials there said they’re reluctant to demand wage increases.
They said they fear better pay will mean fewer jobs.
“It’s clear that every company will expand where it’s cheaper,” a union official at a Nike supplier near Jakarta said.
The differences between Indonesia’s well-established urban production centers and the less-developed areas where Nike has expanded employment go beyond wages.
“Greater Jakarta is an older industrial region with a long history of unionization and collective bargaining, reflected in higher minimum wages won through years of worker organizing and mass mobilization,” Ginting, the Asia Floor Wage Alliance representative, said in his email.
By contrast, he said, factories in the new apparel hot spots of Central Java often recruit younger workers, have less union representation and face less scrutiny from labor inspectors.
Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, said problems on the factory floor are more prevalent in this region. Nova’s international watchdog group has conducted investigations at the region’s apparel factories for the past five years.
Despite some recent progress, Nova said by email, workers at many factories “suffer gender-based violence and other abuses at higher rates than in the country’s older production centers.”
“Because unions have a tenuous foothold in the region and face harsh employer resistance,” he added, “workers often cannot fight back.”
An investigation by Nova’s group found that women at a Central Javanese factory producing Nike-licensed goods for Fanatics, a privately owned brand, had been sexually harassed for years. The labor rights group told Fanatics in 2022 it had heard from women who said they had to endure unwanted touching and verbal harassment by supervisors.
After the factory owner pledged to fix the problems, the consortium found even more egregious abuse in 2023 at another Central Java factory owned by the same company, South Korea-based Ontide. The company struck a binding deal with labor unions in 2024 called the Central Java Agreement for Gender Justice, which mandates harassment training and monitoring.
Ontide did not respond to a request for comment. However, Ontide sustainability director John Yoon said in a press release announcing the gender justice agreement that it would protect workers. “As part of our commitment to our workers’ safety and well-being, we are pleased to be seeing initial results,” the release said.
Fanatics said in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica that there has been “excellent progress” in implementing the agreement. “We are proud of this work, which has been recognized by the Agreement signatories, and which will continue into 2026,” the company said.
Nova, of the Worker Rights Consortium, called the outcome at Ontide “a ray of hope.”
But workers told the news organizations that problems have persisted at other factories in Central Java. Ten workers at one supplier said many women’s toilets hadn’t been working for months. Two workers at other factories said they received written reprimands after they told their employers they were injured on the job.
Asked about these workers’ accounts, Nike said that a “safe and healthy work environment is a fundamental human right” and that it audits factories annually for compliance with its code of conduct. It said it has not found more problems at suppliers in Central Java than in other parts of Indonesia. The company added that it works quickly with its suppliers when needed to put improvement plans in place.
At Selalu Cinta, a Central Java factory that employs 18,000 people and has made Nike Burrow slippers, Blazer Mid ’77 sneakers and other shoes, hundreds of workers signed petitions asking the factory to remove a manager they said repeatedly screamed at and intimidated workers.
Leaders at the factory have failed to remove him, 10 workers told the news organizations.
Nike said it required Selalu Cinta to engage in an independent third-party investigation and is overseeing corrective actions in consultation with unions. Nike said it plans follow-up verification. Selalu Cinta officials did not respond to requests for comment.
A woman who worked for the manager said in an interview last summer that her parents depended on her wages, forcing her to keep her job despite what she described as her boss’ frequent tantrums.
“Working like that,” she said, “feels like you’re in hell.”
Overall employment at Nike suppliers in Indonesia grew by 39% from 2015 to 2025. To see where in Indonesia that growth occurred, we used factory-level data self-reported by Nike in November 2015 and November 2025.
Because Nike said it began working to increase its disclosure of materials and components factories in 2021, we excluded any factories of this kind that appeared on Nike’s list in 2025 but not in 2015, to avoid counting Nike’s expanded disclosure as employment growth. This eliminated 12 materials factories from 2025, removing about 3,500 workers from the analysis.
ProPublica and The Oregonian/OregonLive assigned minimum and living wages to each factory based on their locations. Wage and location data was manually reviewed, and when information was incomplete or inconsistent, classification was based on the data that appeared to be the most reliable.
The city or regency of each factory was identified using factory addresses and verified against Google Maps, factory websites, shipping records and other public disclosures.
We assigned minimum wages at the municipal level based on 2025 government decrees. Some municipalities specify a single minimum wage across all sectors. Others specify wages by sector (in which case we used the sectoral wage that best matched what each factory produces) and/or by nature of the work and employer (in which case we used the rate for labor-intensive multinational companies).
Unlike minimum wages, which are defined by law, living wage estimates can vary. We used estimates from the WageIndicator Foundation, an independent Dutch nonprofit. While the group calculates living wages as a range, we used the group’s lowest estimate for 2025 of what a worker would need to provide a decent standard of living for a typical family.
Factories were classified as “at or above living wage” if the applicable minimum wage was at least 95% of WageIndicator Foundation’s lowest living wage estimate for the province.
Wages were converted from Indonesian rupiah to U.S. dollars using the mean of monthly average daily USD/IDR exchange rates for 2025 from the Federal Reserve.
For the graphic, factory coordinates were manually reviewed, then grouped when multiple factories were close to one another. Factories were grouped when located within 15 kilometers of at least one other factory, forming density-based clusters that were represented on the map as the geometric center of those points. We verified that factories in different wage classifications were not lumped together. For municipalities without a Nike factory, we assigned the highest 2025 minimum wage that could apply if a Nike factory was located there.
To estimate potential savings based on where Nike expanded production between 2015 and 2025, we compared actual 2025 supplier payroll (based on reported number of factory workers and municipal minimum wages) to a counterfactual scenario in which employment grew proportionally across the same municipalities where Nike had factories in 2015. The calculation reflects what Nike’s suppliers would have paid in labor costs under each scenario if all workers earned the applicable minimum wage and factory employment were dedicated to Nike production. Because suppliers can produce for multiple brands and some workers earn above minimum wage, the estimate merely provides a broad sense of potential savings rather than a precise measure of how much the company and its suppliers actually saved in labor costs.
The post Nike Wants Factory Workers to Earn a Decent Living. In Indonesia, It’s Moved Into Areas Where Workers Don’t. appeared first on ProPublica.
Republicans and Democrats in Texas start the process of choosing their candidates in what has become an expensive and divisive primary.
Why Should Delaware Care?
Delaware’ Department of Health and Social Services is the second largest state agency behind the Department of Education. Its budget is nearly $2 billion and growing each year as the state ages and health care costs rise.
Delaware’s state health department, which last year received $1.7 billion from state taxpayers, requested an additional $200 million on Monday during a committee hearing before state legislators responsible for crafting the state’s final operating budget later this year.
During the Joint Finance Committee hearing, legislators also expressed concerns with a new medical school proposed by Gov. Matt Meyer, which he intends to fund for the next five years using federal dollars meant to bolster rural health across the country.
One of the largest line item increases for Fiscal Year 2027’s proposed budget was an additional $128.5 million for the state’s Medicaid program, as eligibility changes at the federal level have upended programs across the country.
If passed as is, the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) budget would reach nearly $2 billion in the next budget cycle, maintaining its position as the second largest state agency behind the Department of Education.
DHSS Secretary Christen Linke Young addressed members of the committee, saying her office had three priorities going into 2027: responding to federal changes, innovating services and working to bring down health care costs.
“DHSS, like businesses and families across the state, struggles with the high and rising cost of health care services,” she said at the hearing.
During the hearing, lawmakers and DHSS Secretary Young sparred over the impact a proposed four-year medical school would have on the state’s health care workforce.
One of those lawmakers, State Sen. Trey Paradee (D-Dover), who also chairs the Joint Finance Committee, questioned the cost of building and sustaining a medical school when the Delaware Institute of Medical Education and Research (DIMER) already places medical students in nearby medical schools like Thomas Jefferson University and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Young replied that the goal of the medical school is to keep young, learning physicians within the communities they train and to “greatly reduce the friction it takes to lure people” back to Delaware if they study out of state.
Paradee also expressed concerns about sustainably funding the school long term, when the state already funnels hundreds of millions of dollars to multiple public universities.
At the end of 2025, the federal government awarded Delaware $157 million as part of a national program aimed at bolstering rural health care across all 50 states. The initial award represents the first batch of funding Delaware hopes to receive over the next five years.
Delaware budgeted more than $100 million to establish and operate a medical school for the duration of the grant, but that amount is subject to change depending on how much the state receives between now and 2031.
“Once these rural health dollars go away in a few years the question becomes, what is the state’s commitment?” Paradee said.
State Sen. Eric Buckson (R-South Dover) said he also supports the current DIMER system used to place Delawareans in nearby medical schools. If that program does not have enough seats, he said it would make more sense to invest in a DIMER expansion rather than a new school.
Still, Buckson said if the state does pursue the medical school, he hopes it is “highly successful.”
Separately, Rep. Krista Griffith (D-Fairfax) questioned how the state intends to keep young physicians in the area following their training.
Young pointed to a scholarship program the state hopes to award with the federal grant money, which would require medical students to commit to practicing in rural Delaware five years after their residency.
Andrew Wilson, the director of the Delaware Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance (DMMA), pointed to long-term care for seniors and people with disabilities as one of the main cost drivers for Medicaid going into the next fiscal year.
In an interview with Spotlight Delaware, Wilson called long-term care the “top line” driver for Medicaid costs to the state, but he said it is not the only factor causing the spike. Wilson also pointed to pharmaceutical prices, as well as the cost of health care as reasons for the requested increase.
Other factors like an increasing and aging population have contributed to more people using long-term options like home or community care, Wilson said. While the increases in Delaware’s population may not be dramatic, retirees and those seeking long-term care cost more to the state than people not using those services.
“We spend almost seven times the amount of funds on one of those individuals versus somebody in our mainstream Medicaid program,” Wilson said.
Separately, President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed last year, would impose new work requirements for those on Medicaid.
A work requirement itself is not entirely new, but universal ones imposed under the OBBBA set a new precedent for the social safety net.
During Trump’s first term, he approved waivers for a handful of states implementing work requirements. But during the Biden administration, those waivers were pulled, KFF reported in 2024.
Wilson said that people in states with work requirements prior to the OBBBA were often compliant with employment rules, but would become ineligible for the program because of the paperwork demands.
And in Delaware, he said he expects those same paperwork woes to manifest themselves here with the new requirements. However, he said the department’s aim is to keep as many people from falling through the cracks as possible.
“Our goal is to keep as many people as we can on the program,” Wilson said.
The post Lawmakers debate medical school, hear $200M budget increase ask from DHSS appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Iran continues to target American bases and Hezbollah fires at Israel as conflict spreads across Middle East
Iranian drones hit the US embassy in Riyadh as Tehran continued to launch waves of retaliatory strikes at the Gulf and Israel, while Israeli soldiers began operating in southern Lebanon on the fourth day of an increasingly regional war in the Middle East.
The drone attack on the US embassy in Riyadh caused a minor fire, prompting the diplomatic mission to tell Americans to distance themselves from the compound. The attack followed an earlier Iranian drone strike on the US embassy in Kuwait, as Iran continued to target US bases, facilities and personnel in Arab Gulf states.
Continue reading...Google's showcase is like a tech-centric block party with demos and upcoming products. Here's what I tried out.
US president says ‘relationship is not what it was’ after PM defends decision not to allow use of British bases
Donald Trump has criticised Keir Starmer again over the UK’s refusal to aid the offensive strikes on Iran, saying the “relationship is obviously not what it was”.
Starmer had issued his strongest rebuke yet of Trump’s action in Iran, saying the UK did not believe in “regime change from the skies” and defended his decision not to allow the use of British bases to conduct the strikes.
Continue reading...alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: According to a study of 38 adult human brains donated to science, superagers -- people who retain exceptional memory as they age -- have roughly twice as many immature neurons as their peers who age more typically. Moreover, people with Alzheimer's disease show a marked reduction in neurogenesis compared to a normal baseline. [...] Led by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago, the team set out to examine a variety of postmortem hippocampal tissue samples to see if they could identify markers of neurogenesis -- and if different groups had any notable differences. The brain samples were donated from five groups: eight healthy young adults, aged between 20 and 40; eight healthy agers, aged between 60 and 93; six superagers, aged between 86 and 100; six individuals with preclinical Alzheimer's pathology, aged between 80 and 94; and 10 individuals with an Alzheimer's diagnosis, aged between 70 and 93. The young healthy adult brain tissue was first analyzed to establish the neurogenesis pathways in the adult brain. Then, they analyzed 355,997 individual cell nuclei isolated from the hippocampus, searching for three different stages of cell development: Stem cells, which can develop into neurons; neuroblasts, which are stem cells in the process of that development; and immature neurons, on the verge of functionality. The results were striking. "Superagers had twice the neurogenesis of the other healthy older adults," [says neuroscientist Orly Lazarov of the University of Illinois Chicago]. "Something in their brains enables them to maintain a superior memory. I believe hippocampal neurogenesis is the secret ingredient, and the data support that." That's an interesting result on its own, but the data from the individuals with preclinical Alzheimer's pathology and Alzheimer's diagnoses is where the real meat of the study sits. In the preclinical group, subtle molecular changes hinted that the system supporting new neuron growth was beginning to falter. In the Alzheimer's group, a clear drop in immature neurons was evident. A genetic analysis of the nuclei also showed that superager neural cells have increased gene activity linked to stronger synaptic connections, greater plasticity, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a critical protein for neural survival, growth, and maintenance. Taken together, these three things can be interpreted as resilience. The research has been published in the journal Nature.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
With 46% of Nepal’s population under the age of 24, the election will be a test of whether their hopes and frustrations are being taken seriously
In the unassuming, dusty lanes of the Nepali city of Damak, an unprecedented political showdown is unfolding. Pitting an old political heavyweight against a rapper-turned-politician with a penchant for dark sunglasses and sharp suits, the battle is one that could completely reshape the country’s politics.
As Nepal heads into its most gripping election in years, at the forefront stands Balendra Shah, the 35-year-old known simply as Balen. He rose to fame as a popular rapper whose songs criticised the ruling elite, before pivoting to politics and winning a resounding victory to become the mayor of Kathmandu in May 2022.
Continue reading...Speed and scale of US military’s AI war planning raises fears human decision-making may be sidelined
The use of AI tools to enable attacks on Iran heralds a new era of bombing quicker than “the speed of thought”, experts have said, amid fears human decision-makers could be sidelined.
Anthropic’s AI model, Claude, was reportedly used by the US military in the barrage of strikes as the technology “shortens the kill chain” – meaning the process of target identification through to legal approval and strike launch.
Continue reading...None of the prime minister’s critics engages with the hard strategic dilemmas arising from Britain’s perilous dependency on US power
It is not easy being a friend of Donald Trump, but it is a lot less dangerous than being his enemy. There isn’t a huge range of options in between. War in the Middle East is exposing how limited the choices are for a British prime minister.
The US president doesn’t see alliances as long-term relationships based on mutual advantage, but as rolling transactions on a mafia model. The boss offers protection in exchange for tribute and loyalty.
Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist
Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink?
On Thursday 30 April, ahead of the May elections, join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss how much of a threat Labour is under from both the Green party and Reform and whether Keir Starmer can survive as leader of the party. Book tickets here
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...What things in your everyday life do you wish you could declare your independence from?
I was a newcomer, negotiating all of usual classroom difficulties for the first time. Throwing AI into the mix felt like downing a coffee in the middle of a panic attack
Two years ago, at the age of 39, I began training to be a school teacher. I wanted to teach English – to help young people become stronger readers, writers and thinkers, with a deeper connection to literature. After 15 years of working as a freelance writer and as a novelist, I felt confident that I had something to offer. But the further I progressed in my training, the more uncertain I felt. One particular question taunted me for my lack of an answer. What to do about artificial intelligence?
The immediate dilemma: what does it mean for English instruction that all pupils now have access to free online chatbots that can produce fluid, fairly complex prose on demand? This question sits atop a teetering pile of timeless pedagogical quandaries: What are we actually trying to do in school? How should we go about doing it? How do we know if we’ve succeeded? I was a newcomer, negotiating all of this for the first time. Throwing AI into the mix felt like downing a coffee in the middle of a panic attack.
Continue reading...He lasted just 11 days as White House communications director, before being fired from the Trump administration. The financier and broadcaster discusses working for the president – and becoming his biggest critic
‘If somebody walks into your office and says they’re friends with Donald Trump, they’re either exaggerating the relationship, or they don’t understand the relationship,” says Anthony Scaramucci. “Because nobody is friends with Donald. You’re a transaction in this guy’s field of vision.”
Scaramucci should know. He has been non-friends with Trump for more than 30 years, though these days he’s more an outright enemy. Just as the attention-devouring president once stalked Hillary Clinton on the debate stage, Trump looms large in Scaramucci’s story. The two men seem to haunt each other. When we meet in London during a stopover in his hectic schedule, the conversation rarely drifts away from Trump for more than a few minutes. Conversely, the 62-year-old financier and broadcaster has become one of Trump’s most vocal and penetrating critics. “We fight like New Yorkers,” Scaramucci says. “He doesn’t really come back at me, because he knows I’m going to come back at him.” Unlike Trump’s presumptive friends, Scaramucci does understand Trump, he claims. “There’s something called ‘Trump derangement syndrome’; I think I have ‘Trump reality syndrome’. I know what he is, I know what he does, I know what he’s capable of and I know the danger of him.”
Continue reading...Cross-strait peace requires working with both Beijing and Washington.
Change is coming, but It won’t be fast.
How constraints on the U.S. president’s war-making authority eroded—and how to restore them.
Beijing can again leverage its critical minerals dominance over an increasingly busy US military, as Taiwan slides further down the White House list of priorities
As the US and Israel opened a new chapter of chaos in the Middle East, China stands to benefit from a Washington establishment that does not have the political or physical resources to focus on Asia.
Officially, China has condemned the attacks. Wang Yi, the foreign minister, called them “unacceptable” and called for a ceasefire, rhetoric that is typical of Beijing in response to Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic foreign policy moves.
Continue reading...The gunman who killed 3 and wounded 13 at a bar in Austin also wore a hoodie that said "Property of Allah."
 | For all of you who crave some X7 content, here’s a compilation of the trail riding day! [link] [comments] |
AI-guided approach takes over manual steps in powerful X-ray technique
March 2, 2026 — Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming nearly every branch of science. And researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are helping lead the way.
Artistic rendering shows new AI-guided approach capturing absorption edge from atomic structure of material analyzed by XANES at a light source. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory.
“There is a lot of hype around AI today in the media,” said Mathew Cherukara, a computational scientist and group leader at Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility. “Yet there is no question that AI can help researchers at APS and other light sources make breakthroughs in advanced chemical processes critical to American industry.”
As proof, the Argonne team has developed an AI-guided method that dramatically speeds up a widely used X-ray technique known as X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. It does so with far less risk of human error or damage to the sample from the X-ray beams.
This powerful analytical tool reveals the hidden chemistry inside materials important to modern life, such as batteries, catalysts and materials through which electricity flows without resistance. The team’s AI approach cuts the number of measurements previously needed by as much as 80%, with no loss of accuracy. The result is a dramatic shortening of data acquisition duration, allowing researchers to capture fast chemical changes in real time.
Here’s how XANES works: Scientists shine X-ray beams with increasing energy onto a material. Each X-ray beam is a tiny packet of energy. When the energy is high enough to knock a tightly bound electron out of an atom, the material suddenly absorbs more X-rays. This sharp jump in absorption is called the absorption edge.
By tracking how X-ray absorption changes before, during and after this edge, researchers can watch the chemistry of a specific element unfold within a material, from how a metallic catalyst reacts with other chemicals to how the charge state of a battery element changes during cycling.
“XANES is incredibly powerful, but until now, scientists had to make dozens or even hundreds of choices about where to measure and how long to measure at each X-ray energy level,” said Shelly Kelly, an APS physicist and group leader.
Some regions of X-ray energy are rich with chemical information, calling for numerous measurements. Other parts are not, meaning far fewer measurements are needed. “It is often not easy for experimenters to set the optimal number of measurements to make in a given energy region,” Kelly said. “AI is helping us take the guesswork out of XANES.”
The team’s new approach replaces the manual measurement process with an AI algorithm that automatically selects the most useful measurement points. The algorithm identifies where the absorption edge is likely to occur, which regions hold the most chemical detail and which regions offer little added information.
“Our AI method measures only where needed,” said Ming Du, a computational scientist and lead author on the paper. “It’s smarter, faster and more efficient, and it lets researchers focus on the big picture.”
The system also enables something new: AI-directed experiments. By comparing a sample’s evolving spectrum against known starting and ending states (for example, a fully charged electrode versus fully discharged), the AI can tell researchers in real time the state of the chemical progress, when enough information has been collected, and when it’s time to move on.
“It’s not just speeding up the measurement,” Kelly said. “It’s making decisions during the experiment — decisions a human used to make.”
The work points toward a future in which X-ray beamlines, such as those at the APS, are more autonomous and better able to track complex chemical reactions as they happen.
“This brings us closer to intelligent X-ray stations that make the most of every photon,” Cherukara said. “Argonne plans to continue developing AI-driven tools for next-generation X-ray science, especially as the upgraded APS delivers beams up to 500 times brighter than before.”
The team demonstrated the method using beamlines 25-ID-C, 20-BM and 10-ID at the APS. The project was supported by the DOE Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
The research first appeared in npj Computational Materials. In addition to Du, Kelly and Cherukara, contributors include Mark Wolfman and Chengjun Sun.
Source: Joseph E. Harmon, Argonne National Laboratory
The post Argonne Applies AI to Speed Chemical Analysis at DOE’s Advanced Photon Source appeared first on HPCwire.
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 3.
The satellite images show damage to sites including the Choqa Balk-e drone facility and former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's compound.
Linn County, Iowa has adopted what may be one of the nation's strictest local zoning ordinances for data centers, requiring detailed water studies, formal water-use agreements, 1,000-foot residential setbacks, noise and light limits, and infrastructure compensation. "But seated beneath a van-sized American flag hanging from the rafters of the drafty Palo Community Center gymnasium, residents asked for even stronger protections," reports Inside Climate News. "One by one, they approached the microphone at the front of the gym to voice concerns about water use, electricity rates, light pollution, the impacts of low-frequency noise on livestock, and the county's ability to enforce the terms of the ordinance. Some, including Dorothy Landt of Palo, called for a complete moratorium on new data center development." Landt asked: "Why has Linn County, Iowa, become a dumping ground for soon-to-be obsolete technology that spoils our landscape and robs us of our resources? While I admire the efforts of the Board of Supervisors to propose a data center ordinance, I would prefer to see all future data centers banned from Linn County." From the report: The county is already home to two major data center projects, operated by Google and QTS. Both are located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa's second-largest city, and are therefore subject to its laws. The new ordinance would apply only to unincorporated areas of the county, which make up more than two-thirds of its geographic footprint. [...] In drafting the ordinance, [Charlie Nichols, director of planning and development for Linn County] and his staff drew on the experiences of communities nationwide, meeting with local government officials in regions that have seen massive booms in data center development, including several counties in northern Virginia, the "data center capital of the world." As data center development balloons, many communities that initially zoned the operations as warehouses or standard commercial users are abandoning that practice, Nichols noted. The extreme energy and water demands of data centers simply cannot be accounted for by existing zoning frameworks, he said. "These are generational uses with generational infrastructure impacts, and treating them as a normal warehouse or normal commercial user is just not working." [...] The Linn County, Iowa, ordinance goes one step further than tightening existing zoning rules. Instead, it creates a new, exclusive-use zoning district for data centers, granting county officials the power to set specific application requirements and development standards for projects. No other counties in the state have introduced similar zoning requirements, said Nichols. In fact, few jurisdictions nationwide have. [...] From its first reading to final adoption, the ordinance has expanded to include language setting light pollution standards, requiring a waste management plan, including the Iowa DNR in the water-use agreement to address potential well interference issues and requiring an applicant-led public meeting before any zoning commission meetings. "I am very confident that no ordinance for data centers in Iowa is asking for more information or asking for more requirements to be met than our ordinance right now," said Nichols at the final reading. The Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance has said that it strongly supports current and future data center development in the area. The new ordinance is not an effective moratorium, Nichols said. He said he "strongly believes" that a data center can be built within the adopted framework.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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While speaking today, Pete Hegseth acknowledged the fourth US service member killed in Iran’s counterattacks.
“War is hell and always will be,” he said. “Our grateful nation honors the four Americans we have lost thus far and those injured – the absolute best of America.”
Continue reading...Democrats disturbed by rationale that Trump ordered pre-emptive strikes out of concern about Tehran retaliation
Israel’s determination to attack Iran and the certainty that US troops would be targeted in response forced the Trump administration to take pre-emptive strikes, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said, in a new explanation for Washington’s surprise entry into the conflict.
The rationale drew divided reviews from top members of Congress who on Monday evening received the first briefing by the Trump administration since it ordered the air campaign to begin over the weekend.
Continue reading...Club is popular with athletes and rappers
Kornet says night helps objectify women
San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet has called on the Atlanta Hawks to abandon their collaboration with a famous strip club.
Magic City is an Atlanta institution and been mentioned in a string of hip-hop records, as well as hosting rappers such as Drake, Lil Yachty, Migos, Jack Harlow and Future. It is also popular with athletes: past visitors have included Michael Jordan, while MLS’s Atlanta United celebrated their title at the club in 2018. The club gained widespread attention in 2020 when the Los Angeles Clippers’ Lou Williams visited the club after leaving the NBA’s quarantine bubble during the Covid pandemic.
Continue reading...  | No head lamp just the XL and a helmet! 60°F tonight! Absolutely beautiful! [link] [comments] |
Virginia State Police were called to Interstate 495 southbound near exit 52 in Annandale, Virginia, around 1:20 p.m. on Sunday for a reported road rage incident.
Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for March 3, No. 526.
Trump said military campaign could ‘go far longer’ then initial four-to-five week projection as violence and chaos ripple across Middle East – key US politics stories from Monday 2 March at a glance
Donald Trump has laid out four goals in Iran and said the US campaign had been projected to last four to five weeks but could “go far longer than that”.
On Monday, the US president offered his most extensive comments yet about the war, going beyond two video messages and a series of brief phone interviews with reporters that offered sometimes conflicting objectives.
Continue reading...US first lady Melania Trump has chaired a meeting of the United Nations security council on children and education in conflict, two days after her husband, Donald Trump, and Israel launched attacks on Iran that prompted a UN warning about child safety. The UN event happened days after Iranian state media reported that an airstrike killed at least 165 people at a girls’ school in southern Iran. Melania Trump did not comment on reports of strikes on the Iranian school. 'The US stands with all of the children throughout the world. I hope soon peace will be yours,' she said
Melania Trump urges protecting children’s education at UN after Iran school strike
Death toll from school bombing in southern Iran reportedly rises to 165
State laws had limited sharing of information with parents about gender identity of trans students in public schools
The US supreme court has decided to block a series of California laws that can limit the sharing of information with parents about the gender identity of transgender students in public schools. This ruling marks a victory for parents who challenged these protections on religious and due process grounds.
The emergency request was granted on Monday and the decision was made along party lines, with the three liberal justices dissenting.
Continue reading...Four different district court judges found President Trump's executive orders targeting the law firms were unconstitutional.
The Iran war is renewing concerns about the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. A prolonged closure could sharply drive up oil prices, experts said.
Eclipse will feature a deep, coppery-red full moon on 3 March. From Sydney to New York, use our guide to find out when the eclipse will be visible and the best time to see it tonight.
North America, Australia and New Zealand will be treated to a rare total lunar eclipse on Tuesday known as a “blood moon”.
As the full moon dips into the planet’s shadow tonight it will change colour to a “deep and coppery red”, says astrophysicist Dr Rebecca Allen of Swinburne University.
Continue reading...President Trump is a central figure for both Democrats and Republicans, going into the primary season, ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
After a Washington Post investigation, congressional Democrats are asking tech giants how they handle administrative subpoenas targeting DHS’s critics.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC.ca: The B.C. government says this Sunday will be the last time British Columbians have to change their clocks. The province will be permanently adopting daylight time and the March 8 "spring forward" will be the last time change, Premier David Eby announced Monday. "We are done waiting. British Columbia is going to change our clocks just one more time -- and then never again," Eby said. Residents will have eight months to prepare for Nov. 1, 2026, when the clocks would have been turned back one hour, but will now remain the same. B.C.'s new time zone will be called "Pacific Time," according to the province. Further reading: Permanent Standard Time Could Cut Strokes, Obesity Among Americans
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
SABRINA BALLAH
Staff Reporter
During my semester in Aix-en-Provence through the university’s France study abroad program, I found myself noticing and learning new things whilst being immersed in the language, food and day-to-day norms.
Interestingly enough, in France, they have recommendations like “au moins cinq portions de fruits et légumes par jour pour la santé.” This phrase promotes balanced eating, meaning that one should have at least five portions of fruits and vegetables a day for good health. It can be heard on commercials when out and about.
Programme National Nutrition Santé (PNNS), the French nutrition program, was launched in 2001 to improve the general state of health for the French population. It created recommendations to “augmenter, aller vers, reduire,” meaning to add, go towards and reduce. For example, it recommends adding more fruits and vegetables, home-cooked meals, legumes and 30 minutes of physical activity.
The program also encourages going towards a sufficient amount of dairy, fish, seasonal produce and whole grains while reducing the consumption of red meat, alcohol and sugary drinks, as well as time spent sedentary.
In France, there are many popular dishes that are largely vegetable-based, like ratatouille. Also, shopping for seasonal produce to be cooked later in the day is normal. Lifestyle in France and America, a scholarly source, states “Refrigerators in French households are small and food storage is uncommon. Instead the daily ritual is to go to the market at the end of the day to find ingredients for the evening meal from an array of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, and cheese.”
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the United States Department of Agriculture created guidelines to encourage balanced eating in its citizens which is visually represented by the MyPlate model. Half of the plate must be fruits and vegetables, one-fourth of the plate is grains, with an emphasis on whole grains, and the other fourth of the plate is varied proteins. The cup on the side represents dairy, with an emphasis on low-fat, fortified soy versions of dairy, such as milk or Greek yogurt.
In traditional French cafes, there are typically no fancy coffee creamers or lattes. This may come as a surprise to Americans who are familiar with Starbucks lattes. The coffee in France tends to be consumed black or as café au lait, which translates to coffee with milk. Drinking iced coffee is also a strange concept. In addition, due to the style of drinking coffee, all popular chain grocery stores in France like Monoprix and Franprix do not sell fancy coffee creamer.
French political conversation is also less polarizing than that of the U.S. Therefore, it is more acceptable to debate and discuss politics at the dinner table — it is even considered appropriate. It demonstrates intellect and engagement with the world around oneself. Exhibiting intellect is a large part of French national pride.
As noted by Cultural Atlas, “Debating and deep discussions about politics, cultural events, education and philosophies are common.”
Because France is a part of the European Union (EU) — developed from the European Economic Community (EEC) as a way to unite Western European nations for economic interdependence and common market — trips out of the country to the other EU countries are much more affordable. For example, an economy round trip from southern France to Belgium costs only $121.
According to Article 21 of the treaty on the functioning of the EU, barriers to free movement and residence across the member states have been lifted. In other words, it is much easier to navigate to countries within the EU and citizens can enjoy the benefits of having freer movement across countries.
According to Europa, nurses, midwives, doctors, dentists, pharmacists, architects and veterinary surgeons have automatic qualifications to work around the EU. In other words, a French nurse can work in Belgium with an approved application.
French culture also values slow-living and a more relaxed mindset towards work. On that same note, local businesses like bakeries tend to close temporarily at noon for their workers. On Sundays, most businesses are closed. Moreover, the alcohol section in Monoprix, a Target-like chain, is generally closed on Sundays due to understaffing, which results in staff checkouts being closed and only self-checkouts available. Jobs tend to have extended and frequent vacations to shake off the stress of life.
Lifestyle in France and America states, “The cross-cultural comparison reported that the French take 21 more vacation days a year than the Americans.”
This mentality extends into dining out, where the French take a long time to eat to savor the social setting.
In the U.S., work days are long, vacation days are limited and there is a hustle and bustle work culture.
According to Service Public, the official French administration information website, all full-time and part-time employees are entitled to 30 working days or five weeks of paid leave for a full year of work.
The U.S. does not federally allocate paid vacation leave. Instead, policies vary by state. Workers must meet specific requirements, such as working for six months, to receive paid vacation leave.
Southern French living is a niche within itself due to daily rituals, government recommendations, benefits of the EU, slow living, coffee norms, work-life balance and the intellectualist culture.
A new CBS News poll finds most Americans say nationwide ICE operations should be decreased.
Donald Trump says the war could go on for four-five weeks, adding US has ‘capability to go far longer’
Bahrain has said that one person was killed by shrapnel from an intercepted missile. The death of a foreign worker at Salman Industrial City, working on a boat there, marks the kingdom’s first reported fatality in the war.
Bahrain, home to the US navy’s 5th fleet, said it intercepted 61 missiles and 34 attack drones launched against it. It said some shrapnel had gotten through, striking buildings and the naval base.
Continue reading...The Supreme Court order blocks for now a California law that bans automatic parental notification requirements if students change their pronouns or gender expression at school.
Nvidia is helping to accelerate the silicon photonic era with today’s revelation that it’s investing $4 billion across two photonics companies, Coherent and Lumentum. The investments come as Nvidia looks to meet the burgeoning demand for compute capacity driven by the big AI boom.
As system makers reach the physical limits of copper, they’re looking to alternative technologies to move data between chip components. With advantages over copper in bandwidth, latency, power, heat, and resilience, silicon photonics has a lot to offer. Nvidia is adopting co-packaged optics (CPO) with photonic switches for its Infiniband and Ethernet switches for scale-out clusters, but has yet to announce the adoption of photonics for NVLink, its switch and interconnect for scale-up systems.
The investments in Lumentum and Coherent could indicate that Nvidia is gearing up for a photonic push for scale-up systems, which is the preferred architecture for AI inference workloads that are dominating the AI conversation these days. The news focuses on 1.6T lasers and optics that delivers data at a 1.6 terabit rate.
Lumentum is a publicly traded San Jose-based company (NASDAQ: LITE) that designs high-performance indium phosphide lasers, fiber-optic transceivers, and 3D sensing products for data center, communication, and industrial purposes. The company, which was founded in 2015 as a spin-off from JDS Uniphase, is positioning its external laser source form factor pluggable (ELSFP) as a standard for CPO architectures for next-gen data centers.
An optical circuit switch from Coherent
Coherent is a global supplier of lasers, optics, and transceivers that are used in data center, industrial, communications, electronics, and instrumentation markets. The publicly traded Saxonburg, Pennsylvania-based company (NYSE: COHR) was previously called II-VI Incorporated, and took the name Coherent after it acquired a company by that name in 2022 to become a major player in photonics.
Nvidia and the two photonics firms issued nearly identical press releases this morning announcing nearly identical deals. The announcement state that, as part of a nonexclusive agreement, Nvidia has made a “a multibillion purchase commitment and future capacity access rights for advanced laser” and optical components. The deals also call for Nvidia to invest $2 billion in both Lumentum and Coherent “to support R&D, future capacity, and operations as the company builds out its U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities.”
In the case of Lumentum, the announcement stated that the investment would be for building a new fab. “In support of this collaboration, we are also investing in a new fabrication facility to increase capacity and accelerate innovation,” stated Lumentum CEO Michael Hurlston. “We’re excited to work together to expand what’s possible for the AI optical architectures of tomorrow.”
Lumentum’s ELSFP laser for CPO
Jim Anderson, CEO of Coherent and apparently the highest paid CEO in the United States, said the new deal with Nvidia “underscores Coherent’s role as a key enabler of next-generation AI data center infrastructure. We are proud to expand our 20-year relationship with Nvidia by increasing their access to include multiple product families to help them build the AI data centers of the future,” he stated in a press release.
These aren’t the only stakes Nvidia has taken in photonic companies. Nvidia has also invested in Scintil Photonics, a French firm that’s developing a multiplexing laser technology that can be used with next-gen CPO gear going into scale-up systems.
Investors approved of the deals. Lumentum’s stock closed up 11.75% at a $50.0 billion market cap while Coherent was up 15.44% at a $48.5 billion market cap.
The post Nvidia Invests $4B In Two Silicon Photonics Companies appeared first on HPCwire.
Trump boycotted the dinner in 2017 and has not attended any in either of his terms as president
Donald Trump said Monday he will attend the White House correspondents’ association dinner for the first time as president.
Writing in a social media post, Trump said: “In honor of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these ‘Correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many, it will be my Honor to accept their invitation, and work to make it the GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER, OF ANY KIND, EVER!”
Continue reading...Ruling retains boundaries for 2026 elections despite state court ruling it was unfair to Black and Hispanic residents
The supreme court on Monday sided with Republicans in ruling that the boundaries of the only GOP-held congressional district in New York City do not need to be redrawn for the 2026 elections, despite a court ruling that the district is unfair to Black and Hispanic residents.
Over the dissent of the court’s three liberal justices, the conservative majority halted the state court ruling that had ordered New York’s redistricting commission to redraw the district held by Nicole Malliotakis that covers Staten Island and a small piece of Brooklyn.
Continue reading...Latest research based on animal model trials shows GLP-1 drugs may prevent problem of ‘no-reflow’ in recovery
Weight-loss drugs could help people who have had a heart attack avoid suffering potentially fatal complications afterwards, research has found.
Drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy reduce the risk of the tissue damage that affects up to half of the 100,000 people a year in the UK who suffer a heart attack, according to the study.
Continue reading...
As President Donald Trump launched air attacks on Iran Feb. 28, skeptics quickly argued that ousting a foreign country’s government — as the U.S. may be pursuing in Iran — takes more than airstrikes.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said creating an improved political system is unlikely unless there are boots on the ground.
"There is no history … that shows an air campaign alone will result in positive regime change," Murphy said in a March 1 interview on CBS News’ "Face the Nation." "In fact, there's not a single example of it in the entirety of American history. An air campaign without at least the threat of a ground invasion, which the administration is ruling out, never results in a democratic rebirth in an authoritarian country."
Most of the seven military experts and historians we interviewed for this article agreed with Murphy.
"Airpower can have devastating effects, but without ground troops — or the clear threat of invasion — we have not seen regime change," said Barbara Slavin, a fellow at the Stimson Center, a foreign policy think tank.
A few experts cited a case or two that could undercut Murphy’s argument, but other experts pushed back against their interpretation.
On March 2, Trump declined to rule out ground troops. "Every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it," Trump told the New York Post in an interview.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also didn’t take ground troops off the table when asked about it at a press conference.
Murphy’s office did not respond to an inquiry for this article.
In World War II, the U.S. and its allies achieved regime change in Germany, Japan and Italy through a combination of air power and extensive use of ground troops over several years, resulting in more than 400,000 U.S. military deaths.
Many of the U.S. military interventions since then have involved U.S. ground troops, including the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the post-9/11 Afghanistan War and the Iraq War.
But other military campaigns in recent years have involved air warfare without significant numbers of U.S. ground troops. They include a 1986 airstrike that unsuccessfully targeted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi; two campaigns in the Balkans in the 1990s, in Bosnia and Kosovo; a continuing conflict in Yemen; allied airstrikes against Libya in 2011; Israel’s 12 day war against Iran in 2025; and the January 2026 U.S. mission to capture Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.
"Airpower is extraordinarily effective at destroying infrastructure and eliminating individuals," Robert Pape, a University of Chicago political scientist, recently wrote. "It is far less reliable as a tool for reshaping political systems."
Pape wrote, "Removing a central figure is not insignificant. But in practice, regimes are networks: security services, political elites, patronage structures, ideological institutions. When an external power kills a leader, those networks often consolidate rather than fragment."
Pape wrote that although the 2011 airstrikes in Libya did oust Gadhafi, "The resulting chaos was deadly for Americans as the country spiraled out of control."
Murphy’s framing is a high bar, and it’s possible to achieve more modest goals with airstrikes, said David Silbey, a Cornell University military historian.
"The Libyan intervention of 2011 did not have democratic results, but it did achieve the American strategic goal of overthrowing Gaddafi and ending Libya’s support of terrorism," Silbey said. "So that seems a successful use of airpower, if not quite in the way" that Murphy framed the issue.
Italian soldiers under NATO command deployed to Albania on April 25, 1999, to help with the care of displaced Kosovar refugees. (AP)
Experts said the examples that come closest to achieving beneficial regime change through air warfare are Bosnia and Kosovo. But their support for his argument is far from foolproof.
Bosnia did have troops on the ground — United Nations troops to support humanitarian convoys with peacekeeping.
"In Bosnia, the August 1995 air campaign helped bring the Bosnian Serb Army and the Milosevic regime to Dayton, Ohio, for peace negotiations," said Gerard Toal, a Virginia Tech political science and international affairs professor. But it wasn’t just airstrikes in this case; local ground forces, the Croatian army and Army of Bosnia, were on the ground taking territory, he said.
After various twists and turns, the talks themselves became the catalyst for a more durable settlement, said Susan L. Woodward, a political scientist at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.
As for Kosovo a few years later, an air campaign was eventually "combined with the threat of a ground campaign, though that threat was just beginning to take shape when the Serbs gave in," said Mark F. Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a national security think tank.
In addition, the Kosovo Liberation Army, a separatist militia, was active on the ground in Kosovo.
In any case, the Kosovo bombing did not achieve a full regime change, Woodward said. "The eventual decision on regime change was declared by Kosovar parties in 2008 — nine years later, and unilaterally, not a result of the bombing," she said.
Murphy said, "There is no history … that shows an air campaign alone will result in positive regime change. In fact, there's not a single example of it in the entirety of American history."
Although some U.S. airstrikes have helped improve political conditions, airstrikes alone are generally not sufficient to achieve regime change, especially regime change that produces a lasting political improvement. Usually, airstrikes combined with ground troops have a better likelihood of success.
The statement is accurate but needs additional context, so we rate it Mostly True.
Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman contributed to this article.
A truck driver is facing two citations after driving under the low-clearance bridge on North Chapel Street, getting the truck stuck and blocking the road for approximately two hours Monday afternoon.
We'll spring forward and lose an hour of sleep, but we'll gain more daylight.
More than 100 people, including children, were killed in a missile strike on a girls’ school in southern Iran, the Iranian government reported. The Feb. 28 strike in Minab happened the day the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran, accusing it of building nuclear weapons that threaten the U.S. and its allies.
Some social media users said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s armed forces, took responsibility for the attacks.
"The regime in Iran has now confessed that the IRGC mistakenly bombed an Iranian school yesterday, killing many children," a March 1 X post said. It had been viewed 5.6 million times by the afternoon of March 2.
Another X post with 2.3 million views as of March 2 said, "Iran admits — It was an IRGC missile that killed 148 school-girls… The regime in Iran has now officially confirmed that the IRGC mistakenly bombed an Iranian school yesterday, killing many children."
The posts include screenshots of a Telegram account called Radio Gilan.
"An IRGC aerospace missile hit a school in Minab County, Hormozgan Province," a translation of the Feb. 28 Telegram post said. "The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that this was an inadvertent mistake and that serious action will be taken against those responsible for this action."
Neither the U.S. nor Israel have taken responsibility for the strike, and there is no evidence that Iran’s government has either. Iran’s government described the attack as perpetrated by U.S.-Israeli strikes.
Immediately after the strike and in the days since, Iran’s government and state-run media blamed the U.S. and Israel.
"The US & Israel launched an egregious, unwarranted act of aggression against Iran by indiscriminately targeting Iranian cities," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in a Feb. 28 X post. "In just one single case, they targeted a primary school in #Minab, Hormozgan Province, killing and maiming tens of innocent young girls. This is a blatant crime."
In a March 2 post, Baghaei again described the school strike as caused by "American and Israeli missiles."
Hossein Kermanpour, an Iran health ministry spokesperson, also said in a Feb. 28 X post that there had been "an enemy's missile strike on a girls' elementary school."
PolitiFact found no official statements, state media reports or news stories that said Iran’s government took responsibility for the attack.
U.S. Central Command did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment, but provided a statement to The New York Times: "We are aware of reports concerning civilian harm resulting from ongoing military operations. We take these reports seriously and are looking into them."
We rate claims that the Iranian regime confessed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps bombed an Iranian school False.
Law Society says home secretary’s review of refugee status after 30 months is in tension with UK’s legal obligations
Shabana Mahmood’s decision to tell every person applying for asylum from Monday that their status is temporary could undermine the refugee convention, the Law Society has said.
The body representing solicitors in England and Wales said the home secretary’s move to review every refugee’s status after 30 months was “in tension” with the UK’s legal obligations.
Continue reading...Dublin, Helsinki, Stockholm and Tallinn among port cities more choked by sulphur oxides from ferries, analysis shows
Fume-belching ferries spew more sulphur pollution than cars in several EU capitals, analysis has found.
Dublin, Helsinki, Stockholm and Tallinn are among 13 of Europe’s 15 biggest port cities choked more by sulphur oxides (SOx) from ferries than road vehicles, data shared exclusively with the Guardian shows.
Continue reading...Apple has reportedly asked Google to look into "seting up servers" for a Gemini-powered upgrade to Siri that meets Apple's privacy standards. The Verge reports: Apple had already announced in January that Google's Gemini AI models would help power the upgraded version of Siri it delayed last year, but The Information's report indicates Apple might lean even more on Google so it can catch up in AI. The original partnership announcement said that "the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google's Gemini models and cloud technology," and that the models would "help power future Apple Intelligence features," including "a more personalized Siri." While the announcement noted that Apple Intelligence would "continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute," it didn't specify if the new Siri would run on Google's cloud. Apple's Private Cloud Compute is not only underpowered but it's also underutilized in its current state, notes 9to5Mac, "with the company only using about 10% of its capacity on average, leading to some already-manufactured Apple servers to be sitting dormant on warehouse shelves."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
AI glasses accounted for 88% of smart glasses shipments in the second half of 2025.
Have you bought and set up a new phone for someone else lately, especially someone less technologically savvy? It’s a bit of a nightmare, with an endless list of confusing steps and dark patterns trying to trick you into signing up for all kinds of services. Joel Chrono (he took his username from the best game ever made) just went through this experience, with new Samsung phones for his parents, and it wasn’t great.
Without me, my parents would have ended up creating at least one extra Samsung account. Cloud services like OneDrive or Google Photos would be sucking up files and copying them to their servers, getting filled up with the data and then asking them to subscribe to unlock more storage a couple of months down the line.
Left on their own, my parents may be seeing ads popping up constantly in OneUI, as well as browsing the web without an adblocker, they would be using default applications that don’t work as reliably, that track whatever they do to a certain degree.
And of course, all of those AI assistants would be listening in in the background. It really is a nightmare out there, and it’s not only affecting my parents, it affects all of those unaware of the dangers that these practices bring. It’s a mess all around.
↫ Joel Chrono
In this particular case it involves Samsung phones, but the same applies to phones from other brands and even with other operating systems. Do you want to login with these accounts? Please add your credit card and all your personal information! Set up tap-to-pay so we can see where you buy what! Do you want to subscribe to our music service? Do you want access to our streaming service? What about the premium versions? Need more online storage? You’re only getting 5GB for free, so if you don’t want to lose those priceless pictures of your grand kids you should really upgrade to 1TB! Have you checked out our application store yet? And don’t worry, if you say no to any of these questions we’ll keep pestering you about them with notifications, fullscreen interstitials and banners in the settings application until your brain dissolves to mush!
I have a collection of about a million PDAs, from the early days up until the very fanciest models from right around when the iPhone and Android started taking off. Of course, they’re in storage so virtually always out of battery, but when I do turn any of them on, their onboarding process couldn’t be simpler. Tap a few locations on the screen to calibrate the touch layer, set the date and time, and that’s it – you’re at the home screen ready to go. I wish modern smartphones were similar. I wish the greedy bean counters were told to pound sand and the user interface specialists took over again.
My wife and I have two young boys, 3 and almost 5. One day, I’ll be the out-of-touch dad or grandpa and I’ll need their help to set up my brain implant chip or whatever. I hope it won’t involve upsells for streaming services.
As US-Israeli airstrikes hit their cities, people tell of how the authorities are warning them off the streets
At least 200 civilians have been killed since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran last weekend, according to rights groups, as people inside Iran told the Guardian they were fearful of a rising death toll.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that at least 555 people had been killed across Iran. However, in its latest update, the Norway-based human rights group Hengaw said the death toll on day three had reached at least 1,500, including 200 civilians and 1,300 members of the Iranian forces.
Continue reading...The first lady’s UN security council speech came days after Iranian media reported an airstrike killed 165 people and injured 96 others at girls’ school
Melania Trump became the first spouse of a sitting world leader to preside over the UN security council on Monday, calling on member states to protect children’s access to education days after Iranian state media reported that an airstrike killed at least 165 people at a girls’ school in southern Iran.
The meeting, titled Children, Technology and Education in Conflict, had been scheduled before the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday.
Continue reading...Stocks recovered on Monday after tumbling earlier in the day over concerns that the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran could drive up energy costs.
US military also says three US fighter jets were shot down in ‘friendly fire’ incident, all six crew members survived
Six US service members have been killed in the US military operations against Iran, the US Central Command said on Monday afternoon.
The announcement comes one day after the military confirmed the deaths of three US service members on Sunday, which marked the first known US fatalities since the strikes against Iran began on Saturday, and just several hours after the Central Command had reported that a fourth US service member had been killed.
Continue reading...Commentary: The iPad Air just got a chip bump. Meanwhile, the most affordable iPad remains cut off from AI and is another year older.
STOCKHOLM, March 2, 2026 — Ericsson and Intel are pooling their next-generation technology leadership to help accelerate ecosystem readiness for seamless transition to AI-native 6G deployments and use cases.
The collaboration, an extension of a decades’ long relationship, was announced at Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2026. It will span mobile connectivity, cloud technologies, and compute capabilities across AI-driven RAN and packet core use cases, and platform level-security and network capabilities to help enhance ecosystem enablement and time-to-market for cloud-native solutions.
Börje Ekholm, President and CEO, Ericsson, said: “6G is not merely an iteration of mobile technology. It is the infrastructure that will distribute AI across devices, the edge and the cloud. Ericsson’s long history of network innovation and large-scale operator deployments positions us to lead practical integration across the value chain and move 6G from research into commercial reality.”
Lip-Bu Tan, CEO, Intel, said: “Intel’s ambition is to be the undisputed technology leader in unifying RAN, Core and edge AI to enable a seamless transition to AI-native 6G environments. Together with Ericsson, we will continue to demonstrate that the future of network connectivity is open, power-efficient, secure and grounded in intelligent AI inference. With future Ericsson Silicon, powered by Intel’s most advanced process nodes, ongoing multi-year research plans, and flexible AI-RAN ready Cloud RAN powered by Intel Xeon, we are well on our way to delivering the future performance, efficiency, and supply security that the world’s leading operators require.”
A Shared Commitment
As 6G transitions from the research phase to commercial reality, the industry needs a collaborative, well-prepared ecosystem-aligned with global standards bodies and industry organizations to help turn innovation into deployable infrastructure.
The collaboration will advance future high-performance, and energy-efficient compute architectures designed for both AI for networks and Networks for AI.
AI-native 6G will combine intelligent and programmable networks with advanced compute and real-time sensing, creating a stronger foundation for more responsive, efficient and capable services. Over time, that evolution could bring sensing and compute closer together across the network.
Collaboration Results on Show
Ericsson and Intel have collectively achieved important milestones across cloud RAN, 5G Core and open network infrastructure. That momentum continues at MWC 2026, where multiple demonstrations – across Ericsson (Ericsson Pavilion, Hall 2), Intel (Hall 3, Stand 3E31) and various ecosystem partner event spaces – showcase innovative collaboration.
About Ericsson
Ericsson‘s high-performing networks provide connectivity for billions of people every day. For 150 years, we’ve been pioneers in creating technology for communication. We offer mobile communication and connectivity solutions for service providers and enterprises. Together with our customers and partners, we make the digital world of tomorrow a reality.
About Intel
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) is an industry leader, creating world-changing technology that enables global progress and enriches lives. Inspired by Moore’s Law, we continuously work to advance the design and manufacturing of semiconductors to help address our customers’ greatest challenges. By embedding intelligence in the cloud, network, edge and every kind of computing device, we unleash the potential of data to transform business and society for the better.
Source: Ericsson
The post Ericsson and Intel Collaborate to Accelerate Path to Commercial AI-Native 6G appeared first on HPCwire.
Zinke, interior secretary during Trump’s first term, cites health problems and declines to run again in Montana
Ryan Zinke, a Montana Republican who served as interior secretary during Donald Trump’s first administration, said he would not seek re-election to a fifth term in the US House, citing health concerns.
The decision gives Democrats an outside chance to pick up a House seat in a state that has veered to the right politically over the past decade.
Continue reading...The war in the Middle East triggered by the joint US and Israeli attack on Iran expanded dramatically on Monday, with casualties and destruction reported across at least nine countries, including major strikes on Tehran.
Since the US and Israel first struck Iran with bombing and missile attacks over the weekend, the speed at which this war has exploded into a regional conflict is ‘dizzying’, says the Guardian’s Oliver Holmes. Tehran swiftly retaliated to the attacks, which killed the country’s supreme leader, by launching strikes across the Middle East.
Continue reading...Macron says his nation will bring European neighbors into nuclear military drills and may let them host nuclear-capable fighters planes for the first time.
If Democratic voters wanted party leaders to give a strong, unanimous condemnation of President Donald Trump’s war on Iran, they would probably be disappointed. Leaders of the liberal party have instead sought to criticize the process leading up to Trump’s multiday onslaught, rather than the onslaught itself.
Soon enough, however, primary elections will give voters their say on that approach.
Starting Tuesday, a series of primaries will serve as referenda on candidates who have either given ambivalent responses to the war or who have drawn past support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying flagship that backed Trump’s strikes.
The first big test will come in North Carolina, where Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee-backed incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee is under attack from challenger Nida Allam over prior ties to AIPAC.
Allam, a Durham County commissioner hoping to topple Foushee in the 4th Congressional District, chose to make the U.S. strikes on Iran the subject of her final pitch to voters in a video ad where she condemned the war.
“I have opposed these forever wars my entire career.”
“I will never take a dime from defense contractors or the pro-Israel lobby,” Allam said. “I have opposed these forever wars my entire career, and I hope to earn your vote to be your proudly uncompromised pro-peace leader in Washington.”
Taking heat from Allam, Foushee says she also opposes the war.
“I will go on record right now: I do not support Trump’s illegal war with Iran and will do everything I can in Congress to support War Powers Resolutions to stop it,” Foushee said on social media Saturday morning, hours after the bombs began dropping.
A super PAC affiliated with AIPAC gave Foushee crucial support during her 2022 race. With the lobbying group’s brand becoming increasingly toxic within the Democratic Party, she has sworn off support from the organization this time around — but a group tied to an AIPAC donor has nonetheless flooded the race with ads on her behalf.
The North Carolina candidates’ stances reflect the overwhelming sentiment of Democratic voters, according to a pair of polls conducted over the weekend. Only 27 percent of Americans and 7 percent of Democrats approve of the attacks, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that lined up with the results of a Washington Post survey.
Democratic leaders in Congress have taken a different tack. Before the strikes, they dragged their feet on forcing a vote on a war powers resolution meant to block launching strikes without congressional approval.
After the attack, many top Democrats criticized Trump’s decision to launch the war without congressional approval, while being vague on the substantive question of whether it was right to go to war.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., for instance, tied the attacks to the Democratic campaign theme of affordability and blasted Trump for failing to ask Congress for approval.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has also stopped short of directly criticizing the idea of attacking Iran. In his statement, he invoked the threat of Iran attaining nuclear weapons, cited the public’s fear of “another endless and costly war,” and called on Congress to pass a war powers resolution.
Those positions allow Democratic leaders to focus their criticism on Trump’s violation of the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress the sole power to declare war, rather than the underlying issue of whether the war is warranted.
Democrats should be doing more than merely criticizing the process leading up to the war, said Hannah Morris, the vice president of government affairs for J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group that is lobbying members of Congress to support a war powers resolution that blocks Trump from launching further attacks without congressional approval.
“This is not just about process, this is about a reckless war by choice.”
“Process plus. This is not just about process, this is about a reckless war by choice, and it completely flies in the face of what President Trump ran on,” Morris told the Intercept.
One congressional candidate was blunt in her critique of the response from Democratic leaders.
“As we plunge headlong into another catastrophic war, Sen. Schumer and Rep. Jeffries’ throat clearing and process critique only serves Trump and the war machine. Democrats should speak clearly and with one voice: no war,” said Claire Valdez, a state assembly member who is running in New York’s 7th Congressional District with the blessing of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Only a few Democratic members of Congress have given their outright support to the war — most notably Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.
Even in congressional races where none of the candidates have given the war their blessing, however, there have important distinctions in whether they focus Trump’s wrecking ball approach to the Constitution or the wisdom of the war itself.
In Illinois, a Democratic primary election in the 9th Congressional District on March 17 will give voters a test on whether they want candidates more forthrightly opposed to the conflict.
State Sen. Laura Fine, a top candidate in that race who has drawn the backing of AIPAC donors, supported Israel’s attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities last year. She was one of the candidates centering Trump in her response to the attack over the weekend.
“Donald Trump is leading us into another military conflict to distract from his own failures that puts American lives at risk and threatens to send the Middle East into further chaos,” she said. “He simply cannot be trusted and must be impeached.”
Two candidates vying for the progressive vote, Daniel Biss and Kat Abughazaleh, have both come out against the war. Biss called it “reckless and illegal.” Abughazaleh, a social media influencer, also called out Democrats who were willing to go along with the attacks in a video post.
“The problem is that many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle love playing into the idea of Iran as a boogeyman, and so they’re willing to bomb them to hell. Especially if it lines their pockets or gets them more donors from the military–industrial complex,” she said.
In Maine, firebrand oyster fisher Graham Platner was far ahead of popular two-term Gov. Janet Mills in a recent primary poll.
Platner, a Marine combat veteran, called an emergency protest over the weekend and called the war “tragic, stupid, ill-conceived.”
In her statement, Mills criticized Trump’s “unilateral” decision to go to war while adding that Iran could not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.
“The American people have had enough of forever wars,” Mills said, “that put the lives of American servicemembers and civilians in danger, that do not protect the American people, that hurt our alliances and escalate global tensions.”
The post Democratic Leaders Avoid Criticizing Trump’s Iran War. Now Voters Will Have a Say. appeared first on The Intercept.
A gunman killed two people and wounded 14 others during a March 1 attack on an Austin, Texas, bar, and officials are exploring whether the shooting could be connected to U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.
As investigators sought information about the shooter’s motive, an X post with more than 662,000 views shared footage of the attack and an unfounded theory about his background.
"BREAKING: Israeli shooter opened fire inside an Austin bar," the March 1 X post said, adding disparaging comments about Jewish people.
This claim conflicts with early reporting about the suspect. No credible evidence of an Israel connection has emerged as of early evening March 2.
Austin police identified the suspect, who was killed by police, as Ndiaga Diagne, 53.
PolitiFact asked multiple agencies — the Department of Homeland Security, the Austin Police Department and the FBI — about the suspect’s country of origin, but received no replies. Diagne was a native of Senegal, according to multiple news outlets that quoted unnamed U.S. officials.
Diagne entered the U.S. on March 13, 2000, on a B-2 tourist visa, a DHS spokesperson said. In June 2006, he became a lawful permanent resident based on marriage to a U.S. citizen. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen on April 5, 2013.
DHS said Diagne was arrested in Texas in 2022 for a collision with vehicle damage, without specifying the arrest’s location. PolitiFact searched Texas’ public database for Diagne’s possible convictions, but found none.
The FBI is investigating whether the shooting was a terrorist attack. Photos obtained by news outlets showed the suspect wearing a hoodie that said "Property of Allah" over a bloody shirt with a design of the Iranian flag.
The investigation is ongoing.
Based on currently available information, we rate the X post’s claim that the shooter was Israeli False.
After spending taxpayers’ money, Florida governor will likely be left holding bill for $608m promised by Trump administration
Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, spent $1.2m of taxpayers’ money per day to open and operate the notorious immigration jail known as Alligator Alcatraz, court records obtained by the independent investigative news website the Florida Tributary reveal.
A switch in position by Donald Trump’s administration also now looks likely to leave Florida on the hook for at least $608m spent on the harsh Everglades detention and deportation facility and other immigration jails, the outlet said. That was despite gloating by DeSantis in September that the state would be reimbursed from federal funds.
Continue reading...Lawmakers are raising concerns that prediction market users are engaging in insider trading to wager on U.S. military actions.
Paramount Skydance plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single streaming platform following its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. "As we said, we do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers," said David Ellison, the company's CEO. "We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space." The deal still needs regulatory approval. The Washington Post reports: He added that Paramount didn't want to make changes to the HBO brand. "Our viewpoint is HBO should stay HBO," Ellison said, noting that his favorite HBO product is "Game of Thrones." If Justice Department regulators allow the deal to go through, it would place recent HBO Max hits, such as "The Pitt" and "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," alongside Paramount offerings including "South Park" and "Yellowstone." "They built a phenomenal brand," he said. "They are a leader in the space, and we just want them to continue doing more of it." The deal to buy Warner Bros., valued at about $110 billion, will almost surely attract regulatory scrutiny from the Justice Department because -- without divestments -- it places major swaths of the film, television and news industries under one roof: Warner Bros. and Paramount studios, HBO Max and Paramount+, and CBS and CNN would all have the same parent company. Ellison expressed confidence on the call that the deal wouldn't face hurdles with regulators.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The Pentagon announced Monday that six American service members have been killed in Operation Epic Fury.
Bill and Hillary Clinton last week faced hours of questioning from lawmakers about the convicted sex offender
Videos of Bill Clinton, the former US president, and Hillary Clinton, the former US secretary of state, answering questions about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released on Monday by a House committee investigating the late financier.
The recordings of the depositions, which spanned hours over two days last week, show how both Clintons distanced themselves from Epstein. Bill Clinton told the committee that he had ended his relationship with Epstein years before the financier entered a guilty plea in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.
Continue reading...Major US indexes recover after falls earlier in the day amid concerns of rising gas prices
US stocks see-sawed on Monday as investors tried to keep abreast of the news on the first day of trading since the US and Israel attacks on Iran began.
After dipping down over 1% across the board, the major indexes recovered most of their losses even after global markets saw heftier drops earlier in the day. At Monday’s closing, the Dow was down 0.15%, while the S&P 500 was 0.04% up. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 0.36% for the day.
Continue reading...Anyone have any info on either of these boards?
 | Bought this pint off marketplace over the weekend. Seller mentioned it had issues flashing yellow because the pad didn’t register sometimes which is the case and I can live with that. If I apply hard pressure it registers and turns on fine. What I didn’t understand is that it also meant it would ghost if I fell off. I’m wondering if there are any fixes besides a new footpad. And if a new footpad is my only option should I get the flared soft pad from fm? The board already has a tfl kush flared rear pad. [link] [comments] |
BARCELONA, Spain, March 2, 2026 — NVIDIA has announced a commitment — together with Booz Allen, BT Group, Cisco, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, MITRE, Nokia, OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation, ODC, SK Telecom, SoftBank Corp. and T-Mobile — to build the world’s next generation of wireless networks on AI-native, open, secure and trustworthy platforms.
Credit: Shutterstock
The initiative represents a shared commitment to ensure 6G infrastructure — the foundation for the world’s future connectivity — is open, intelligent, resilient and accelerates innovation and safeguards global trust.
Beyond traditional connectivity, 6G wireless networks will become the fabric for physical AI, enabling billions of autonomous machines, vehicles, sensors and robots and significantly increasing demands for security and trust. Legacy wireless architectures were not designed to meet these requirements, creating challenges as networks increase in complexity.
To address this, NVIDIA is bringing the industry together to advance AI-native, software-defined wireless platforms built on open and trusted principles. By embedding AI across the radio access network (RAN), edge and core, 6G networks must enable secure integrated sensing and communications, intelligence and decision-making while supporting interoperability, supply-chain resilience and faster innovation.
“AI is redefining computing and driving the largest infrastructure buildout in human history — and telecommunications is next,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Together with a global coalition of industry leaders, NVIDIA is building AI-RAN to transform the world’s telecom networks into AI infrastructure everywhere.”
Uniting on Openness and Trust for the AI-Native, Software-Defined Era of Connectivity
6G will be AI-native and software-defined, enabling wireless networks to advance at the pace of innovation. 6G networks, built on AI-RAN architecture, will continuously evolve through software, enabling real-time intelligence and rapid advancement. This transformation opens the door for a diverse ecosystem of participants — from global operators and technology providers to startups, researchers and developers — all contributing through open and programmable platforms.
Allison Kirkby, chief executive of BT Group, said: “Connectivity is the backbone of economic growth, and with this collaboration, we’re helping lay the foundations for a future ecosystem that is intelligent, sustainable and secure. By building on open and trustworthy AI native platforms, we can simplify future technologies like 6G, ensuring they build upon the strengths of today’s 5G networks while still unlocking powerful new capabilities at scale.”
Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG, said: “Best network, best customer experience — that remains our promise. With an open, intelligent and trusted 6G infrastructure, we are laying the foundation for the era of physical AI and unlocking new value for our customers, for industry and for society.”
Arielle Roth, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, and Administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said: “America’s 6G leadership will be critical to our nation’s economic prosperity, national security and global competitiveness. Today’s announcement demonstrates that the United States and our allies and partners around the world are leading in this next-generation technology. We look forward to the next steps from this international industry coalition as they advance and implement their shared 6G vision.”
Jung Jai-hun, president and CEO of SK Telecom, said: “SKT is evolving telco infrastructure to serve as the foundation for the AI era, where connectivity serves as a platform for intelligence and innovation. Together, we can build open, trusted infrastructure that drives a global ecosystem of AI innovation.”
Hideyuki Tsukuda, executive vice president and chief technology officer of SoftBank Corp., said: “Al-native 6G will transform wireless networks into secure, software-defined infrastructure that supports the next wave of global innovation. SoftBank Corp. is driving this innovation with NVIDIA by advancing open and trusted platforms that enable interoperability, resilience and continuous evolution at scale.”
Srini Gopalan, CEO of T-Mobile, said: “We’re at a pivotal moment. In the U.S., we’ve laid the foundation with 5G Advanced and AI-native networks where intelligence lives inside the network. As 6G becomes the backbone of the AI era, telecom will serve as the nervous system of the digital economy, enabling autonomous systems and intelligent industries at scale and unlocking new value for customers and businesses alike. T-Mobile is proud to help define what’s next through deep ecosystem collaboration and sustained innovation.”
A Shared Vision for 6G: Open, Software-Defined, AI-Native
NVIDIA participates in global private and public initiatives to advance 6G innovation, contributing open source software, accessible platforms and joint research and development projects:
Together, these collaborations represent a unified commitment — supported by like‑minded governments, operators and technology partners — to shape secure, intelligent and trusted global connectivity for the next generation of wireless technology.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in AI and accelerated computing.
Source: NVIDIA
The post NVIDIA and Global Telecom Leaders Commit to Build 6G on Open and Secure AI-Native Platforms appeared first on HPCwire.
The Fifa president’s sycophancy towards the US president has left the organisation facing a new nadir, but any reckoning seems a distant prospect
Mr President. Fellow exco members. We’re going to need a bigger Board of Peace. How many mini‑pitches are we up to now? Gaza got 50 of them last month. What will it take to football-fix the global conflict being set in train by Fifa’s own Peace Prize Boy? A hundred mini-pitches? Four billion mini-pitches? All the mini‑pitches in the universe?
In a more sane version of what we must, out of habit, call the real world, it would seem absurd to talk about sports administration in the context of the US, Iran and the airborne conflict being played out across the borders of their allies.
Continue reading...The first U.S. casualties of the war with Iran occurred among American personnel based in Kuwait.
US captain scored in final despite dealing with injury
Knight says she has been overwhelmed by fans’ support
Hilary Knight revealed on Monday that she led the US women’s ice hockey team to gold at last month’s Olympics while suffering from a torn medial collateral ligament (MCL) in one of her knees.
“I’m not walking around the best, and I’m missing a few games for the [PWHL’s] Seattle Torrent,” Knight said on CBS Mornings. “To be able to play through injury was definitely a mental sort of gymnastic challenge for myself and also physical, but we’ve got some amazing support staff that did their best to get me out there and perform at my best – as best as I could.”
Continue reading...President is using ‘very common cream’, personal doctor Sean Barbarella says without giving details
Donald Trump was seen with a rash on the side of his neck during the Medal of Honor Ceremony on Monday, fueling more speculation about the state of the president’s health.
In a statement, Trump’s personal doctor said that the rash was caused by a cream that the president was using as a “preventative skin treatment”.
Continue reading...The White House announced first lady Melania Trump would preside over the meeting last week before the U.S. and Israel launched a joint U.S.-Israeli military mission in Iran.
The DNC is announcing Monday that the 2028 national convention will be held from Aug. 7 to Aug. 10, CBS News has learned.
The House Oversight Committee released recordings of last week's depositions with former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
President Trump said he expects the bombing campaign to last four to five weeks, but "we have [the] capability to go far longer than that."
From the president's usual opponents in his party to some of his most stalwart supporters, the U.S. actions in Iran have prompted strong pushback in pockets of the GOP.
The Pentagon is bracing for more casualties as it wages a massive campaign to eliminate Tehran’s arsenal but acknowledged that U.S. forces cannot intercept all incoming fire.
In less than three days, the conflict ricocheted beyond the original targets in Iran, Israel and Iraq to threaten some 300 million civilians across more than a dozen nations.
Meta's messaging app calls out Swedish- and Cyprus-based virtual private networks.
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 3 #996
Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for March 3, No. 1,718.
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 3, No. 730.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Charter Communications, operator of the Spectrum cable brand, has obtained Federal Communications Commission permission to buy Cox and surpass Comcast as the country's largest home Internet service provider. Charter has 29.7 million residential and business Internet customers compared to Comcast's 31.26 million. Buying Cox will give Charter another 5.9 million Internet customers. The FCC approved the deal on Friday, but the companies still need Justice Department approval and sign-offs from states including California and New York. Opponents of Charter's $34.5 billion acquisition told the FCC that eliminating Cox as an independent entity will make it easier for Charter and Comcast to raise prices. But the FCC dismissed those concerns on the grounds that Charter and Cox don't compete directly against each other in the vast majority of their territories. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's primary demand from companies seeking to merge has been to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and policies. In a press release (PDF), the Carr-led FCC said that "Charter has committed to new safeguards to protect against DEI discrimination," and that Charter's network-expansion plans will bring "faster broadband and lower prices" to rural areas. The merger was approved one day after Charter sent a letter to Carr outlining its actions to end DEI. Charter offers broadband and cable service in 41 states, while Cox does so in 18 states.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
March 2, 2026 — Researchers at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory have successfully trapped and manipulated ions using in-vacuum cryoelectronics, allowing for reduced thermal noise and improved sensitivity. This proof-of-principle experiment marks an important advancement toward building large-scale ion-trap quantum computing systems.
MIT Lincoln Laboratory researchers Lucy Gray Shamel, left, and Will Setzer, are members of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory trapped-ion team. They used optics and electronics in recent proof-of-principle experiments demonstrating ion-trap-potential control with a compact-form-factor application-specific integrated circuit. Photo credit: MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
The co-integration of ion traps and deep cryogenic control circuits project was made possible through collaboration between two DOE National Quantum Information Science Research Centers — the Quantum Science Center, led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Quantum Systems Accelerator, led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This particular effort within the Quantum Systems Accelerator was led by Sandia National Laboratories in collaboration with MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
Recognizing the complementary expertise of Fermilab and MIT Lincoln Laboratory, leaders from both centers jointly supported the demonstration.
“This remarkable research integrates state-of-the-art capabilities in quantum technologies to deliver an exciting new direction for scalable ion trap quantum computing using cryoelectronic control chips,” said Travis Humble, director of the Quantum Science Center.
At the heart of the effort were Fermilab-developed cryoelectronics — specialized circuits designed to operate at the extreme cold temperatures required for quantum computers. These cryoelectronics were integrated into MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s ion-trap platform to test whether they could reliably perform key functions: moving individual ions, holding them at set positions and measuring the effects of electronic noise.
Why Ion Traps?
Ion-trap quantum computers use charged atoms confined by electric or magnetic fields as qubits. Such systems are prized for their long coherence times and high-fidelity operations.
However, scaling them to millions of qubits, as needed for advanced applications, is a major challenge. Today’s systems rely on lasers and extensive wiring between room-temperature electronics and cryogenic ion traps — a setup that becomes increasingly impractical as the number of ions grows.
By placing ultra-low-power cryoelectronics near the ion traps, the Fermilab–MIT Lincoln Laboratory team realized a promising path forward. Their redesigned system replaced some of the room-temperature controls with a chip mounted inside the cryogenic environment. The researchers successfully demonstrated this hybrid approach could move and control ions.
“In addition to demonstrating feasibility, we learned a lot,” said Farah Fahim, head of Fermilab’s Microelectronics Division. “By showing that low-power cryoelectronics can work inside ion-trap systems, we may be able to accelerate the timeline for scaling quantum computers, bringing closer into reach what seemed decades away. This approach could ultimately support systems with tens of thousands of electrodes or more.”
Future work will directly connect the electronics with the ion-trap chips, further increasing efficiency and performance and enabling scaling of ion-trap arrays for larger systems.
Lessons Learned
The experiment also surfaced new insights that will guide future chip designs. For instance, transistors that behaved well in Fermilab’s setup did not perform as well in MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s significantly colder environment, impacting the control circuit performance and operation range.
Also, the circuits initially held voltages for milliseconds. Though modifications extended the hold times, further modifications will be required to further extend them to the minutes or hours large systems require. Addressing these and other challenges will be central to the next round of development.
Robert McConnell, a technical staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, said that “while there are still significant challenges to establishing the technology needed to control ion arrays of a practical scale, this demonstration of small-form-factor, low-noise electronics lays the foundation for hybrid-integrated systems we hope to develop in the near future.”
The successful integration highlights the value of cross-center collaboration, in addition to marking a concrete step toward realizing scalable quantum computing technologies for science and beyond.
Source: Fermilab
The post Fermilab and MIT Lincoln Laboratory Demonstrate Cryoelectronic Control of Ion-Trap Qubits appeared first on HPCwire.
Team previously beset by sexual misconduct claims
Team was sold to new ownership in 2023
The Washington Commanders have agreed to pay $1m to the District of Columbia to settle a lawsuit from 2022 that alleged the team’s previous owners lied to fans about an inquiry into sexual misconduct and a persistently hostile work environment.
DC attorney general Brian L Schwalb announced the settlement on Monday.
Dan Snyder owned the team at the time of the lawsuit, before selling to Josh Harris’s group in 2023 for $6.05bn. The league fined Snyder $60m after an independent investigation found he sexually harassed a team employee and oversaw executives who deliberately withheld millions of dollars in revenue from other clubs.
Continue reading...Here are the highly rated series you should stream on HBO Max, plus new additions in March.
The Supreme Court seemed likely Monday to loosen a federal law that bars marijuana users from owning guns in a case that crossed typical political lines.
Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana announced Monday he will not run for reelection, becoming the latest Republican to retire.
Claude climbs to top of app store charts in US and UK after being blacklisted by Pentagon over ethics concerns
The AI model Claude has surged in popularity after being blacklisted by the Pentagon last week over ethics concerns.
Claude climbed to the No 1 spot on Apple’s chart of top free apps on Saturday in the US – dethroning OpenAI’s ChatGPT, just one day after the Pentagon tapped OpenAI to supply AI to classified military networks. The bot’s app climbed the iPhone app charts in the UK but did not beat out ChatGPT. Claude also raced up the Android charts in the US and UK, though ChatGPT reigned supreme, according to data from Sensor Tower.
Continue reading...Prime minister does not believe US has a plan beyond ‘shock and awe’ stage, as some MPs dread what lies ahead
• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates
• What we know so far on day three of the Iran war
• A visual guide to strikes on Iran and Tehran’s response
Tony Blair’s support for the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 has long loomed like a spectre over the Labour party.
It was present in 2013 when Ed Miliband as opposition leader voted to block UK military action against the Syrian regime.
Continue reading...Microsoft is pushing “AI” hard in Windows, Office, and in their other products, and it’s earned them a cute new nickname: Microslop. It turns out the company really doesn’t like it when you use this nickname, however, and its official Copilot Discord server – yes, there is an official one – has gone into a complete meltdown over people using the nickname. First the company started banning the word “Microslop” in its Discord server, but after people started circumventing the ban with alternative spellings. That’s when all hell broke loose.
What started as a simple keyword filter quickly snowballed into users deliberately testing the restriction and posting variations of the blocked term. Accounts that included “Microslop” in their messages first got banned from messaging again.
Not long after, access to parts of the server was restricted, with message history hidden and posting permissions disabled for many users.
↫ Abhijith M B at Windows Latest
People don’t like “AI”. They don’t like being forced to use it at work, they don’t like it shoved in their face in their operating systems, they don’t like every new product being plastered with nonsensical “AI” marketing. It’s absolutely no surprise that one of the companies pushing “AI” in the most visible way, a company few people like anyway, gets a nice new nickname.
I love that this happened. I hope their brand suffers as much as possible.
Bulky and noisy Iran-made unmanned attack drones have hit buildings in Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE and elsewhere
Iran’s noisy $50,000 delta-winged Shahed 136 drones have long been an unwanted sight over the skies of Ukraine.
Now, over the last 48 hours, hundreds of the distinctive weapons have struck Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE and across the Gulf as Tehran tries to intimidate and impose costs on regional allies of the US.
Continue reading...Civil rights leader will get final full honors from state where, in 1960, he led Black students into segregated library
After a long career of fighting for civil rights, the Rev Jesse Jackson Sr is visiting his home for one last time to lie in state at the South Carolina capitol on Monday.
The final full honors from the state where he was born is a far cry from his childhood in segregated Greenville, where in 1960 he couldn’t go inside the local library’s much better-funded whites-only branch to check out a book he needed.
Continue reading...The man who opened fire in the deadly shooting also had photos of Iranian leaders in his home, a source said.
Over the weekend, Windows Latest noticed that Microsoft's official Copilot Discord server began automatically blocking the term "Microslop." As shown in a screenshot, any message containing the word is automatically prevented from posting, and users receive a moderation notice explaining that the message includes language deemed inappropriate under the server's rules. From the report: Windows Latest found that sending a message with the word "Microslop" inside the official Copilot Discord server immediately triggers an automated moderation response. The message does not appear publicly in the channel, and instead, only the sender sees the notice stating that the content is blocked by the server because it contains a phrase deemed inappropriate. Of course, the internet rarely leaves things there. Shortly after Windows Latest posted about Copilot Discord server blocking Microslop on X, users began experimenting in the server with variations such as "Microsl0p" using a zero instead of the letter "o." Predictably, those versions slipped past the filter. Keyword moderation has always been something of a cat-and-mouse game, and this isn't any different. What started as a simple keyword filter quickly snowballed into users deliberately testing the restriction and posting variations of the blocked term. Accounts that included "Microslop" in their messages first got banned from messaging again. Not long after, access to parts of the server was restricted, with message history hidden and posting permissions disabled for many users.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
State-of-the-art site in Sanand, Gujarat, expands Micron’s global footprint and advances India’s semiconductor ecosystem
SANAND, India, March 2, 2026 — Micron Technology, Inc. recently celebrated the grand opening of its semiconductor assembly and test facility in Sanand, Gujarat, India. The state-of-the-art facility converts advanced DRAM and NAND wafers from Micron’s global manufacturing network into finished memory and storage products. Once fully ramped, the first phase of Micron’s Sanand operation will feature more than 500,000 square feet of cleanroom space, making it one of the world’s largest single-floor assembly and test cleanrooms. The site serves customers worldwide to meet the growing global demand for memory and storage fueled by AI.
The facility represents a combined investment of approximately $2.75 billion by Micron and its government partners, advancing semiconductor manufacturing capabilities in India. Micron Chairman, President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra and other executives witnessed the opening ceremony with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat Bhupendra Patel, Union Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics & IT Ashwini Vaishnaw, U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor and other distinguished government officials and guests.
“Today is a proud moment for Micron and India’s growing semiconductor industry,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, Chairman, President and CEO of Micron Technology. “This pioneering facility, the first assembly and test site of its kind in the country, helps build a resilient ecosystem that underpins the global AI economy. We are deeply grateful to the government of India, the Gujarat government and all of the partners involved for their steadfast support in making this achievement possible.”
The Sanand site is ISO 9001:2015 certified and has begun commercial production. To mark the grand opening of the site, Micron presented its first shipment of made-in-India memory modules to Dell Technologies for its laptops made in India for India. Micron expects to assemble and test tens of millions of chips at Sanand in 2026, scaling to hundreds of millions in 2027. The expansion of conventional assembly and test operations in India complements Micron’s planned development of advanced manufacturing and packaging capabilities in the United States and strengthens the company’s global assembly and test network.
“The inauguration of Micron’s semiconductor facility in Sanand marks a historic milestone as Bharat begins its first commercial semiconductor chip production,” said Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. “This is a decisive step towards building a trusted, resilient and self-reliant semiconductor ecosystem under the leadership of Hon’ble PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji. India is now moving from being a consumer of chips to becoming a global hub for semiconductor manufacturing and innovation.”
Micron is building India’s next generation of semiconductor talent to support its operations in India. Through partnerships with Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU), Namtech, leading universities nationwide and government-sponsored skills development programs, Micron is supporting STEM education, specialized training, workforce readiness for advanced manufacturing roles and community initiatives, including digital and AI literacy programs across the region.
Micron built and is operating the assembly and test facility in accordance with the company’s sustainability goals, rigorous health and safety standards, and with local and global environmental commitments. The facility is designed to meet or exceed Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standards. Additionally, the facility uses advanced water-saving technologies to enable zero liquid discharge.
About Micron Technology, Inc.
Micron Technology, Inc. is an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions, transforming how the world uses information to enrich life for all. With a relentless focus on our customers, technology leadership and manufacturing and operational excellence, Micron delivers a rich portfolio of high-performance DRAM, NAND and NOR memory and storage products. Every day, the innovations that our people create fuel the data economy, enabling advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and compute-intensive applications that unleash opportunities — from the data center to the intelligent edge and across the client and mobile user experience. To learn more about Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), visit micron.com.
Source: Micron
The post Micron Celebrates Opening of India’s 1st Semiconductor Assembly and Test Facility appeared first on HPCwire.
President says he ordered attacks to thwart Tehran nuclear aims – and abruptly pivots to talk up White House ballroom
Donald Trump has laid out four goals in Iran and said the US campaign had been projected to last four to five weeks but could “go far longer than that”.
On Monday, the US president offered his most extensive comments yet about the war, going beyond two video messages and a series of brief phone interviews with reporters that offered sometimes conflicting objectives.
Continue reading...Like the title says, my Onewheel Pint won't turn off after being in storage for an extended period of time. It's been in my basement (controlled temp) for 2 years. I left it on the charger overnight, but it still won't turn on. Any ideas? I'm looking to give it away to my cousin, but of course I'd like it working.
After the U.S. launched a military strike against Iran, social media users shared videos claiming Iran retaliated by attacking the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
"Iranian missiles have sunk USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf," read one X post that gained 8 million views as of midday March 2.
Another X post read, "Iranians are circulating a video showing the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on fire. The authenticity of the video cannot be verified."
The clips appear to show smoke and fire billowing from the carrier.
But these videos are fake. Iranians claimed they targeted the carrier with ballistic missiles, but there are no credible reports the ship was struck.
In a March 1 X post, U.S. Central Command said, in part, "The Lincoln was not hit. The missiles launched didn’t even come close. The Lincoln continues to launch aircraft."
Robert Farley, University of Kentucky senior lecturer on diplomacy and national security, told PolitiFact that if such an attack occurred, people onboard the carrier and neighboring vessels would have witnessed it. There have been no such witness reports.
The first video shows ship details inconsistent with the real USS Abraham Lincoln. Posts resharing it contain the Instagram logo and username "96_W6," but that account is no longer available.
In the first video, planes on the water have unrealistic shapes, and the vessel’s details do not match legitimate photos of the USS Abraham Lincoln. The real photos show there are empty spaces on both sides of the painted lines on the aircraft carrier’s deck. However, in the video clip, there is no empty space on one side of the lines. There’s no sign that any such space was taken out by a strike, as the ship edges are clean.
(Screenshot on the left is from X, images on the right are from The Associated Press. The red lines represent the painted runway lines, and the green lines represent empty spaces.)
The second video does not show current events; it was first posted online in June 2025, during the 12-Day War between Iran and Israel. It might have originated from video game footage, fact-checker Lead Stories found.
Sinking a carrier such as the USS Abraham Lincoln would be "extremely difficult," Farley said.
"Any US carrier will have several layers of defenses against ballistic missiles, including escort warships and close-engagement weapons," he wrote in an email to PolitiFact.
Recent news reports say the USS Abraham Lincoln had been in the Arabian Sea.
Social media posts claimed to show footage of the USS Abraham Lincoln damaged by an Iranian attack. We rate that claim Pants on Fire!
With gold at $5,400 an ounce, it's important to choose the right gold assets to invest in. Here's what to consider.
Hundreds of thousands of passengers remain stranded, with key air hubs in Middle East closed amid fallout from US-Israeli strikes on Iran
Thousands more flights were cancelled on Monday as the turmoil in global air travel caused by the US-Israel war on Iran continued, with hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded.
Gulf airports and airlines have suspended normal operations until at least 10.00 GMT on Tuesday. However, a limited number of special services were due to depart from the UAE on Monday evening.
Continue reading...Web-based phishing and spoofing reports increased by over 85% year over year.
French president says Paris could deploy nuclear-capable fighter jets to countries such as Germany and Poland
France will increase the size of its nuclear arsenal for the first time in decades and significantly intensify nuclear weapons cooperation with eight European allies including the UK as part of a “major” strengthening of its deterrence doctrine, Emmanuel Macron has said.
Amid growing concern among European leaders about wavering US commitments to help defend the continent, the French president said on Monday that Paris could deploy nuclear-capable Rafale fighter jets to partner countries such as Germany and Poland.
Continue reading...BARCELONA, Spain, March 2, 2026 — Red Hat today announced that Telenor has chosen Red Hat’s cloud-native and AI platforms to power its sovereign AI factory, powered by NVIDIA. This latest Telenor AI Factory offering provides high performance hardware and innovative AI models while maintaining national control over data and processes. With this collaboration, Red Hat and Telenor AI Factory intend to make it faster and easier for organizations to realize AI business value by smoothing the flow from AI blueprints to actual production.
“Telenor AI Factory is leading the way in rolling out sovereign cloud for the enterprise and Red Hat is excited to bring our experience of open innovation and flexible platforms to support delivery of these diverse and complex services,” said Rich Stephens, vice president, EMEA Telecommunications, Red Hat. “With the pace of change in the AI market, Red Hat and Telenor AI Factory are catering for today’s greatest strategic need: The freedom to choose any model, on any accelerator, across any environment. Together we are delivering support for sovereignty, governance and enhanced systems security so that customers can scale AI efforts to drive value, with control and autonomy over data.”
Addressing the Sovereign AI Opportunity
As the demand for AI grows, Telenor is tapping its decades of experience in operating critical infrastructure to help meet the stringent national and EU requirements around data controls and digital resilience. Telenor AI Factory provides a highly scalable, security-focused infrastructure optimized for AI and other compute-intensive tasks able to process sensitive data in-region. Its architecture of GPUs, low-latency networking and high-performance storage is based on NVIDIA’s reference architecture.
Accelerate Time to Value with a Cloud-Native Foundation
Telenor AI Factory selected Red Hat OpenShift AI as the core environment for building, training and deploying AI-based agents and applications, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and agentic workflows with LlamaStack. Red Hat Consulting supported Telenor AI Factory in designing and implementing an architecture capable of delivering AI services to external companies, from resource provisioning to multi-tenancy to data sovereignty. OpenShift AI pairs with Red Hat OpenShift Platform Plus to form the common cloud-native foundation for Telenor AI Factory, and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform automates the creation, management and scalability of operations.
Scaling AI Through Freedom of Choice and Operational Consistency
Red Hat’s support for any model, on any hardware, across any environment gives Telenor AI Factory and its customers extensive flexibility to deploy applications and workloads with their preferred tools, libraries and hardware, fulfilling many of the demands for sovereign AI. This choice and control also enables Telenor AI Factory and its customers to optimize performance by improving GPU utilization and potential profitability for demanding AI workloads.
Additionally, Red Hat Confirmed Sovereign Support for European Union offers dedicated technical support from within the EU, providing new levels of operational sovereignty when it comes to supporting critical operations. Red Hat’s commitment to delivering enhanced security capabilities on day one as well as its trusted software supply chain approach supports Telenor AI Factory’s ability to handle sensitive workloads.
By standardizing on Red Hat technologies, Telenor AI Factory and its customers gain a vendor-neutral foundational layer of technology that abstracts away hardware complexity and eases portability. This provides sovereignty across the spectrum of enterprise IT, starting with the transparency and auditability of open source. As the crux of Red Hat’s technology stack, open source software delivers freedom of choice, enabling organizations to see the code, verify it and readily understand it.
Red Hat OpenShift AI streamlines AI model lifecycles, bringing together data scientists, AI engineers and app developers on the same platform. This promotes collaboration, operational consistency and production scalability. Telenor AI Factory’s IT teams can manage both traditional applications and AI workloads side-by-side, helping avoid operational silos, reduce costs and improve overall agility.
Telenor’s AI Factory has two sites so far in Norway, running on renewable energy. The Red Hat-based infrastructure hosts several multi-tenant customers, both within the Telenor group and external customers with use cases dealing with sensitive and critical data within the public and private sector.
About Red Hat
Red Hat is the open hybrid cloud technology leader, delivering a trusted, consistent and comprehensive foundation for transformative IT innovation and AI applications. Its portfolio of cloud, developer, AI, Linux, automation and application platform technologies enables any application, anywhere—from the datacenter to the edge. As the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, Red Hat invests in open ecosystems and communities to solve tomorrow’s IT challenges. Collaborating with partners and customers, Red Hat helps them build, connect, automate, secure and manage their IT environments, supported by consulting services and award-winning training and certification offerings.
Source: Red Hat
The post Red Hat and Telenor AI Factory Bring Scale, Sovereignty and Control to Production AI appeared first on HPCwire.
The Guardian's senior international correspondent, Julian Borger, explains the implications within US and international law of Donald Trump ordering a joint attack with Israel against Iran
Continue reading...A man was arrested for a stabbing incident in Edinburgh, Scotland, after a standoff with police in which he was photographed leaning out a window with a menacing grin.
SAN JOSE, Calif., and BARCELONA, Spain, March 2, 2026 — Supermicro, Inc. is announcing expanded support for infrastructure solutions powering sovereign AI platforms and Artificial Intelligence – Radio Access Networks (AI-RAN). At Mobile World Congress Barcelona (MWC), the world’s largest event for the telecom industry, Supermicro and its ecosystem partners are featuring the latest real-world use cases that bring together performance, efficiency, and scalability.
AI-RAN and Sovereign AI solutions
“Delivering AI to the RAN at scale requires infrastructure optimized for telecom networks,” said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. “As operators embed intelligence across their networks and advance sovereign AI strategies, Supermicro’s flexible Data Center Building Block Solutions (DCBBS) and deep ecosystem collaborations enable rapid deployment of high-performance, energy-efficient solutions that help ensure data sovereignty and long-term scalability.”
The adoption of AI in telecom networks is growing rapidly as operators seek greater efficiency and automation. AI-RAN embeds intelligence into the Radio Access Network to optimize spectrum, energy, and performance, while simultaneously creating a distributed network that powers AI solutions for operators and end users.
AI-RAN requires infrastructure solutions that are designed to meet the unique requirements of telecom networks in a scalable, cost-efficient way. Supermicro is expanding its broad range of AI-RAN systems, in line with NVIDIA Aerial RAN Computer (ARC) design, to support the latest technologies including NVIDIA Blackwell architecture, with upcoming products using the latest NVIDIA ARC-Pro.
Sovereign AI refers to an enterprise’s ability to develop, deploy, and govern artificial intelligence within its own controlled infrastructure, data environments, and compliance frameworks. Increased demand for sovereign AI platforms represents a strategic opportunity for telecom operators, by offering secure, in-country AI infrastructure as a service, and unlocking new revenue streams in the digital economy.
Delivering sovereign AI at scale requires infrastructure that is powerful, scalable, and energy efficient. Supermicro’s innovative DCBBS are designed to enable organizations to rapidly deploy and expand AI data centers. Modular architectures simplify scaling, while advanced thermal and power designs improve operational efficiency.
At MWC, Supermicro is collaborating with leading industry players to demonstrate real-world deployments and practical use cases that advance AI acceleration.
For more information about Supermicro’s solutions for AI-RAN and Sovereign AI Networks, visit our booth 2D35 at MWC 2026, March 2-5 in Barcelona.
About Super Micro Computer, Inc.
Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI) is a global leader in Application-Optimized Total IT Solutions. Founded and operating in San Jose, California, Supermicro is committed to delivering first-to-market innovation for Enterprise, Cloud, AI, and 5G Telco/Edge IT Infrastructure. We are a Total IT Solutions provider with server, AI, storage, IoT, switch systems, software, and support services. Supermicro’s motherboard, power, and chassis design expertise further enables our development and production, enabling next-generation innovation from cloud to edge for our global customers. Our products are designed and manufactured in-house (in the US, Asia, and the Netherlands), leveraging global operations for scale and efficiency and optimized to improve TCO and reduce environmental impact (Green Computing). The award-winning portfolio of Server Building Block Solutions allows customers to optimize for their exact workload and application by selecting from a broad family of systems built from our flexible and reusable building blocks that support a comprehensive set of form factors, processors, memory, GPUs, storage, networking, power, and cooling solutions (air-conditioned, free air cooling or liquid cooling).
Source: Supermicro
The post Supermicro Expands Support for AI-RAN and Sovereign AI Solutions appeared first on HPCwire.
Billionaire Paramount Skydance chief announces plan days after winning takeover battle for Warner Bros Discovery
Paramount Skydance plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into one streaming service, chief executive David Ellison announced during a call with investors, days after the company said it would acquire HBO parent company Warner Bros Discovery.
The deal would allow major HBO Max titles, such as The Sopranos, Sex and the City, and Succession, to sit alongside Paramount offerings including Yellowstone and Survivor. Ellison said combining the two platforms would give the company more than 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers.
Continue reading...Workplace Gender Equality Agency report shows a slight increase in number of women in highly paid roles, which are still dominated by men
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Men are nearly twice as likely as women to be making $220,000 a year, with minimal progress made on closing Australia’s gender pay gap in the past 12 months.
The federal government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) published its gender pay gap results for 10,500 employers on Tuesday. It revealed there was a slight increase in the number of women in highly paid roles, but men were still 1.8 times more likely to be in the upper quartile of earners on an average salary of $221,000.
Continue reading...Make billionaires pay their fair share act would apply to those with a net worth of $1bn or more
Senator Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna, a representative, on Monday introduced legislation that would impose a 5% annual wealth tax on America’s billionaires.
The proposal, titled the make billionaires pay their fair share act, would apply to individuals in the US with a net worth of $1bn or more, of which Sanders’s office estimates there are 938 people who meet that threshold.
Continue reading...TOKYO, March 2, 2026 — Today, NTT, Inc., NTT DOCOMO, Inc., and NTT DATA Group Corporation announced that they will exhibit at MWC Barcelona 2026, the world’s largest connectivity exhibition, in Barcelona, Spain, from March 2 to 5. At the event, NTT, Inc. will showcase and promote initiatives centered around the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN)‘s ability to meet the rising demands of networking, computing and AI workloads.
With its high bandwidth and extremely low latency, IOWN accelerates the development of advanced solutions by replacing electronics with photonics in communication infrastructure, creating distributed and efficient networking and AI architecture for a sustainable, low power future. NTT’s exhibition and executive keynote presentations will highlight how photonics-based technologies, distributed computing and 6G integration are enabling energy-efficient, high-performance infrastructure designed to power a sustainable, AI-driven future.
Redefining Intelligence in the 6G Era: Supercharging AI Video Inference and AI Agents
Ahead of MWC, NTT announced two key initiatives around the advancement of AI to meet data processing needs of 6G use cases. The first is a joint project between The University of Tokyo, NTT and NEC Corporation (NEC), integrating 6G and IOWN technologies to achieve high-capacity data communication and optimization of computation processing required for AI agents.
The successful integration affirms the establishment of infrastructure for next-generation ICT systems to enable AI agents to act autonomously, processing and transmitting massive amounts of data with low latency and high reliability. To control computational resources used, reduce end-to-end delay and maintain AI inference accuracy, this approach combines small, specialized AI distributed in a network and external information sources, streaming semantic communication technology and selective media control technology.
The second announcement surrounded a successful demonstration by NTT and NTT DOCOMO of low latency and high-speed AI video analysis using In-Network Computing (INC) Edge. Traditionally, AI inference processing has been controlled by application and servers and data transfer controlled by the network. The proposed method uses INC edge to connect commercial 5G networks and IOWN All-Photonics Networks (APN) and enables distributed GPU resources to be used as part of the 5G network, reducing communication delays.
Experts anticipate that networks in the 6G era will control communication, data processing and inference to ensure high quality of service for data-intensive applications such as AI and robotics. This signals that INC Edge will form a fundamental component for 6G networks to effectively maintain high inference performance; the experiment illustrates that this robust result can be achieved even with geographically distant GPUs, maximizing the value of AI systems.
Photonics Innovation for an AI-Driven Society
Throughout MWC, the NTT Group booth will showcase a range of initiatives that leverage optical technologies to support the growing adoption of AI and drive global transformation of data center and compute infrastructure. These exhibitions will be structured around technologies that leverage IOWN to build energy-efficient infrastructure for an AI-driven society – “AI-Resilient Infrastructure with Photonics” – and real-world use cases for AI – “AI-Powered Services and Solutions.”
NTT will highlight IOWN technologies, including the photonics-electronics convergence (PEC) devices that will be spotlighted in NTT President and CEO Akira Shimada’s keynote, and how they improve energy efficiency in data centers and optical quantum computing to enable large-scale computation with lower power consumption, lower costs and high speed. NTT will also present recent advancements in the integration of AI within 6G mobile networks, inclusive of Network for AI, a concept envisioning seamless coexistence between humans, AI and robots.
Additional technology offerings across NTT operating companies that will be on display at the NTT Group booth will feature initiatives and solutions that drive global transformation across corporate activities and industries such as NTT DATA’s Edge AI solutions for enterprise as well as NTT DOCOMO’s platform that enables remote robot operation and autonomous control through Physical AI, new personal AI agent and AI-driven solutions under development for immersive entertainment experiences.
Akira Shimada Keynote: Reimagining the Possibilities of Digital Infrastructure
As part of the event, Shimada-san will deliver a keynote speech titled, “Photonics Unlocks an Intelligent Power-Optimized Future,” on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. His presentation will emphasize the transformational power of IOWN to reduce power consumption, challenging the status quo in the AI era. In his presentation, Shimada-san will introduce key IOWN initiatives including the commercialization of PEC devices and the development of optical quantum computers.
Shimada-san notes, “As AI adoption accelerates the rate at which power consumption is rising, IOWN has become a strategic foundation aiming to address both the explosive growth in data use and the global need for lower energy consumption. IOWN will support AI scaling through sustainable connectivity, helping to transform bold ideas into tangible impact.” He added, “By replacing electronics with photonics, we will give people and businesses the capacity to move beyond the limits of conventional internet infrastructure and redefine what we can achieve.”
About NTT
NTT is a leading global technology innovator, providing a broad range of services to both consumers and businesses. As a mobile operator and provider of infrastructure, networks, and services, NTT is dedicated to promoting a sustainable future through cutting-edge innovations. Our portfolio includes business consulting, AI-powered solutions, application services, global networks, cybersecurity, data center and edge computing, all supported by our deep global industry expertise. Generating over $90 billion in revenue and employing 340,000 professionals, we allocate 30% of our annual profits to fundamental research and development. With operations spanning more than 70 countries and regions, our clients include over 75% of Fortune Global 100 companies, alongside thousands of enterprises, government organizations, and millions of consumers.
Source: NTT
The post NTT Unveils Tech to Enhance AI Performance for 6G and Next-Gen Computing appeared first on HPCwire.
Tecno's modular camera phone concept at MWC 2026 is a neat idea, especially if you're passionate photographer.
More employees are clinging to their positions in a trend known as "job-hugging." That's making it harder for job-seekers to find work.
A halt to shipping in strait of Hormuz and attacks on Middle East refineries are threatening supplies and stoking inflation
Iran has responded to US and Israeli attacks by launching a series of counterstrikes against states across the Middle East, with serious consequences for the oil and gas industry and the global economy.
Tehran has attacked oil facilities in neighbouring countries, while shipping traffic through the strait of Hormuz – the crucial bottleneck at the mouth of the Gulf – has all but ground to a halt.
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Whoops, he did it again.
We need to adjust our language for President Donald Trump’s so-called regime-change efforts. Let’s call them “regime adjustments.”
Trump was fresh off his successful regime-adjustment operation in Venezuela when he decided to double down on his newly interventionist streak. Along with Israel, Trump attacked Iran with one of the largest military operations in at least a decade. The war — and that’s what it is — came only days after a gathering in Washington of Trump’s “Board of Peace,” which includes Israel, marking, ironically, the board’s first war.
It’s hard to imagine what success, even by Trump’s loose standards, will actually look like in Iran.
Unlike Venezuela, though, this time it’s hard to imagine what success, even by Trump’s loose standards, will actually look like — if there can be any measure of success at all.
In a somewhat rambling video message posted on Truth Social announcing the new Iran war, Trump offered no evidence as to why a preemptive or preventative attack was necessary at this time. Iran, after all, was in the middle of negotiations with the U.S. over its nuclear program, with negotiations set to continue the following week and, according to insiders, making solid progress. Unlike the U.S., Iran had made no moves that could be interpreted as aggressive or preparatory for initiating military action against either Israel or the U.S.
Instead of articulating any reasoning or goals for his strikes, Trump declared a decapitation strategy and exhorted the people of Iran to rise up and “take control” of the government: DIY regime change.
He demanded that the security services and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “lay down” their arms and join the people — presumably the same people they had been brutally cracking down on only a month ago. There were no instructions on how the people were supposed to “take control” or who might be the leader to guide them. Nor did Trump give instructions to the security forces on how exactly they were supposed to lay down their arms and join the people. Hand over their arms to whom? Or did he have in mind a depot that would be set up somewhere IRGC personnel could drop off their AK-47s and assorted other weaponry?
Reza Pahlavi, the former shah’s son, pretender to the throne, and the most visible and possibly popular among opposition leaders, also exhorted his fellow Iranians to rise up at this opportunity to change the regime — in his own favor, of course.
It has been telling, however, that neither the U.S. nor even Israel — Pahlavi’s most ardent booster — have been promoting him as the replacement for the regime that they’re in the process of decapitating.
There has been no plan, at least none apparent or even hinted at, to have Pahlavi brought to Tehran in the hope that millions will, like Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s arrival from Paris in 1979, greet him at the airport and escort him to a palace.
The clearest endorsement Pahlavi has won to lead Iran was a probing interview on “60 Minutes” on the second day of the war — best understood as an expression of Bari Weiss and David Ellison’s hope for an Israeli-backed regime in Iran, not as a vouch of support from the Trump administration.
In the first moments of the first day of the war, Israel was able to — reportedly with intelligence assistance from the CIA — assassinate Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his daughter and grandson, and a number of senior military commanders, including the powerful secretary of Iran’s newly established Defense Council, Ali Shamkhani. The top regime figures had gathered to meet in the morning in an aboveground building in the leader’s complex, assuming any threat against them would appear only under the cover of darkness.
Confirmation from the government of the assassination of the head of state — a shocking development in the 47-year history of the Islamic republic — resulted in both nationwide mourning by supporters of the ayatollah and simultaneous celebration by those who held him responsible for the deaths of thousands of citizens in the early January crackdown on massive protests across the country.
What came next, though, was not the people “taking control” of the government. Instead, there was a rather ordinary constitutional move: A council of three was formed the next day that took over the duties of the supreme leader until a new one could be elected by the Assembly of Experts, the body that oversees succession.
Then on the second day of the war, with bombs falling on Tehran, Trump announced that “they” — presumably the council — “want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them.”
Hoping for an Iranian Delcy Rodríguez? Our “Whoops, he did it again” moment.
So, it wasn’t regime change the U.S. was after, as Trump claimed when launching his war, but regime adjustment. Perhaps the deaths of three U.S. service members in Iraq — by any measure, their blood on the hands of the person who ordered a war of choice — gave him pause and inspiration to find an alternative to continuing the violence.
What is increasingly apparent is that a war was launched, almost willy-nilly, with no actual, achievable objective. Trump, whose cellphone number it seems most journalists in Washington have, admitted to Jonathan Karl of ABC News in a phone call on Sunday that he didn’t know what came next for Iran.
“The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,” Trump reportedly told Karl. “It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.”
In other words, Trump doesn’t even have a Delcy Rodríguez in waiting.
The war with revolving goals entered a third and more violent day for the very Iranian people who were supposed to take over from the regime and become friends with Israel and the United States. Bombing in Tehran took on an indiscriminate flavor, with buildings, a hospital, and other infrastructure unrelated to the military being struck, according to videos and witnesses, including my own cousin who managed to leave me a voice message on WhatsApp despite the internet cuts.
With the death of at least three U.S. service members, hundreds of Iranian schoolgirls, and dozens of other innocent Iranians; with destruction across the Persian Gulf countries; with the loss of so far three U.S. fighter jets costing Americans anywhere between $250 and 300 million; and with the billions of dollars being otherwise spent on the war, the “Keystone Cops” flavor the war has taken on would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.
We can’t predict how the war will end. It is certain, however, to end with unnecessary death and destruction, and misery and trauma for survivors.
The only other certainty it seems, is that no matter the war’s result nor how incompetently it is carried out, the man who started it will declare that he has brought about peace with a glorious victory.
The post The Regime Change President Who Won’t (or Can’t) Actually Change Any Regimes appeared first on The Intercept.
The US president laid out four objectives for the US and Israel-led operation, including destroying Iran's missile capabilities, annihilating its navy and preventing it from gaining a nuclear weapon. The US and Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iran on Saturday, killing several top Iranian leaders including the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Continue reading...U.S. motorists could soon see higher prices at the pump as oil prices surge following the attacks in Iran.
The interest earnings on a $10,000 CD remain substantial, but that's not the only reason why you should open one now.
At MWC 2026, Motorola announced a partnership with the GrapheneOS Foundation to bring the hardened, Google-free Android variant to future devices. Until now, the OS had been designed exclusively for Google Pixel phones. "We are thrilled to be partnering with Motorola to bring GrapheneOS's industry-leading privacy and security-focused mobile operating system to their next-generation smartphone," a GrapheneOS statement reads. "This collaboration marks a significant milestone in expanding the reach of GrapheneOS, and we applaud Motorola for taking this meaningful step towards advancing mobile security." GrapheneOS is a privacy and security focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility developed as a non-profit open source project. It's often referred to as the "de-Googled OS" because Google apps are not available by default. However, users can install them via a sandboxed version of Google Play Services.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
So to everybody who said it wouldnt work to take a onewheel on a plane without fully dismantling it: it does work. I have a new pint and just took the rail guards and and hubcap and put it in my checked luggage and put the rest of the pint in my carry on. No one said anything or asked any questions. I went from Louisville to Puerto Rico on American Airlines
Gold prices have more than doubled since 2020. Here's exactly what one gram of 24K gold will cost you right now.
The car was designed for Gran Turismo, but the company built a real one. I got to see it in the flesh.
If you're looking for a new game to add to your collection, this one is down to just $33 -- a record-low price.
As for Keir Starmer, even when he tries to make a reasonably sound judgment he somehow ends up losing both sides of the argument
Maybe we should have just had done with it back in December. Instead of offering a polite reservation, every western country should have sent a full, state delegation to Norway. Begging, imploring the Nobel Committee to award Donald Trump the peace prize. We could all have chipped in a couple of billion just to make it even more worth winning.
And if that wasn’t enough, we could have twisted the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, to upgrade his “Peaceiest Ever President” award to the “Makes Jesus Look Second Rate” prize. A large solid gold statue of The Donald would have done the trick. There’s more than enough in the Fifa slush funds.
Continue reading...In a combative press conference, the Pentagon chief dodged questions about the goals of the US military’s Iran operation
Leave it to Pete Hegseth, the ex-Fox News host now leading the Pentagon, to reframe the massive US-Israeli military operation in Iran as an act of resistance against political correctness: the first based regime-change war of the Maga era.
In a combative press conference at the Pentagon on Monday, Hegseth brought his anti-PC ethos to defend exactly what Donald Trump has said he did not want: to embroil the US in a major intervention in the Middle East with no clear timeline for exit.
Continue reading...An internal government database reviewed by The Washington Post demonstrates the vast scope of the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to revise or remove information on African American history, climate change and other topics at hundreds of national park sites.
As you scale your AI workload, one of the problems you’ll run into is the KV cache exhausting HBM memory, which restricts how much your AI app “remembers” and leads to a degraded user experience. A potential answer to this problem is the new Context Memory Storage (CMX) platform that Nvidia and its partners are developing. Representatives from Nvidia and VAST Data demonstrated how CMX can blast through the memory wall at the inaugural VAST Forward conference last week in Salt Lake City, Utah.
KV cache is an intrinsic component of the modern AI stack. Instead of requiring your users to reload all the context they fed into their AI models at 7 o’clock every morning, the KV cache allows users to maintain that context–from day-to-day and month-to-month–as a simple key-value store that resides in HBM, on-chip memory, and eventually storage. As one of the main user-facing components of the AI stack, the KV cache naturally is subject to human wants and needs. In other words, it fills up fast as your employees use AI, whether that’s generating cat videos or searching for new nucleotides.
Expanding KV caches are straining memory (Source: Nvidia and VAST presentation”Breaking Through the GPU Memory Wall” at VAST Forward 2026)
“A key problem with KV cache is it grows with the context menu and batch sizes that you work with,” said Nvidia Senior Research Scientist Vikram Sharma Mailthody in a session at the VAST Forward conference last week. “Assuming we have the same model for inference…the cost of computing cache grows quadratically as the context length increases. As you can see, this increases the amount of burden that you have when you have longer context windows that you have to work with, which is very true in the case of agentic workflows.”
This has become one of the key bottlenecks in scaling AI inference systems today. In addition to the rate at which you can move data between HBM and GPUs, the amount of data you can store in HBM is a big determinant of how much useful work you can get out of AI. As HBM fills up, the KV cache starts spilling over into system memory. When that fills up, it spills over into local storage. However, at that point, the latencies start punishing users. Who wants to wait five minutes for an agentic AI system to generate answers?
“The key takeaway is simple: The farther inference context goes away from the GPU, the more expensive and inefficient the inference becomes,” Mailthody said. “This is why existing memory and storage hierarchies are not designed to scale for the AI that is coming. And this is why we have to really envision how the storage is being built and how it has to be built for the inference context management.”
Nvidia near-term answer to the context window-GPU wall problem is the CMX platform, which it unveiled in January as part of the launch of BlueField-4 data processing units (DPUs). Nvidia is working with its storage partners, including VAST Data, to dramatically expand the KV cache to enable customers to do more work with agentic AI.
CMX is designed to expand customer KV caches without hurting performance (Source: Nvidia and VAST presentation”Breaking Through the GPU Memory Wall” at VAST Forward 2026)
CMX brings several components. At an infrastructure level, it will use Nvidia’s upcoming Rubin GPU systems and utilize BlueField-4 DPUs deployed in storage clusters managed by storage vendors like VAST. BlueField-4 will help manage metadata, reduce data movement, and isolate the Rubin GPUs from the burdens of data management. It will also utilize Spectrum-X Ethernet switches to implement an RDMA over converged Ethernet (RoCE) fabric for sharing KV cache data at high speeds. On a software front, CMX will utilize Nvidia’s DOCA software development kit for BlueField-4, as well as Nvidia’s Inference Transfer Library (NIXL), which is an open source library for accelerating data movement within Dynamo, Nvidia’s open source AI inference framework for AI inference.
The combination of CMX and VAST storage will deliver a next-generation gigascale inference architecture that delivers up to a 20x improvement in time-to-first-token (TTFT) latency, 90% better GPU utilization, and 70% lower storage power consumption, Mailthody said.
By building upon CMX’s key value block manager, VAST can “fundamentally change the math,” said VAST Director of AI Architecture Anat Heilper during the VAST Forward session. “We turned the slow I/O heavy process into a high throughput network bound one,” she said. “Essentially, this means that the storage can scale with the network for this workload.”
During benchmark tests on a Llama 3 model, VAST was able to achieve near line-rate utilization of a 200 GbE network connected to an eight H100 GPU setup.
VAST and Nvidia are working together on CMX (Source: Nvidia and VAST presentation”Breaking Through the GPU Memory Wall” at VAST Forward 2026)
“The results show that 20x performance boost in time to first token when fetching the KV cache from VAST systems, compared to forcing the GPU to recalculate it,” Heilper said. “It’s…something that you can feel as a user. Instead of 65 seconds of waiting for the GPUs to calculate it, we fetch it by three seconds. That’s fundamental change. This speedup, along with 90% saving in GPU time, demonstrates a massive gain in efficiency.”
The gains could be even higher on a faster network, as VAST was able to (almost) saturate the 200 GbE line. In a real-world setting, VAST estimates a 60% to 130% increase in profit by spilling the KV cache over to VAST NVMe storage via CMX and the BlueField-4 DPUs. (VAST also last week announced its new CNode-X, which integrates Nvidia GPUs, Bluefield-4 DPUs, and SpectrumX silicon photonic switches directly into VAST storage cluseters).
“We assume the conservative cache hit rate of between 40% to 60% for enterprise AI flows. For agentic flows and cognitive tasks [the increase] may be even higher,” Heilper said. “The principle is clear: We’re not making the GPU faster. That’s Nvidia’s job. But we are making it available more often and turning the storage into compute force multiplier.”
VAST shared a sizing guide for achieving optimal KV cache sizes for employees working with agentic systems. For an organization with 10,000 users, each of whom would have a 32 GB KV cache size per conversation, VAST estimates customers would need a 320 TB system to deploy CMX to support “instant resume,” which would maintain the users’ current session. To keep the last five sessions for each user (or a daily backup), it would require a 1.6 PB system. To keep the past 15 sessions, which VAST says would be useful for maintaining weekly caches for power users, such as coders, researchers and layer, it would need a 4.8 PB system. To achieve “agentic memory,” or the equivalent of 150 sessions for each of those 10,000 systems, would require 48 PB of storage.
“CMX is a new type of storage designed for KV cache,” Mailthody said. “Does it replace all storage here or is it for everyone or for every cluster? No, it is not. CMS is designed for inference and KV cache management. If your workloads have large model and needs large cache, CMX is made for it. If you have use cases requiring long input sequence length, say in the AI or chat bots or reasoning model, then this provides very large memory capacities to serve them very efficiently. If you have large content reuse in your access pattern or have large GPU cluster sharing shared across multiple continents, CMX makes it easy to enable and increase your operational efficiency.”
The post Blasting Through the GPU Memory Wall with Nvidia’s New CMX Platform appeared first on HPCwire.
The exploding cost of RAM may contribute to a rise in PC prices, eliminating the category of computers under $500.
Sir Keir Starmer draws a narrow legal distinction. But if British bases enable a wider US-Israeli campaign, the UK risks sliding into an unlawful conflict
In the Commons on Monday, Sir Keir Starmer was clear that Britain will not join offensive action against Tehran. It is wise not to join an illegal attempt at “regime change from the skies”. Sir Keir will, however, permit US use of British bases for limited defensive strikes aimed at stopping Iranian missile attacks. That is a legally clear line, but it may be politically and militarily tricky to stick to.
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions are reckless and unlawful. But so are Iran’s strikes – hitting hotels, airports and energy infrastructure – across the Gulf. Where Britain’s allies have asked for support, or where UK nationals are at risk, the UK is legally entitled to act in collective self-defence. But this holds only as long as the action is restricted to halt Tehran’s barrage.
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...The Supreme Court ruled last month at President Trump did not have the authority to issue his sweeping tariffs under a federal emergency powers law.
Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed and vessels rerouted, sending some freight costs surging
Leading maritime insurers have cancelled war risk cover for vessels operating in the Gulf as the escalating Iran conflict disrupted shipping and sent some freight costs surging.
At least 150 vessels including oil and liquefied natural gas tankers have dropped anchor in the strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters, and at least three tankers were damaged and one seafarer killed over the weekend.
Continue reading...National Cyber Security Centre urges increased vigilance over risk of indirect attack by hacktivists amid conflict
UK businesses with a presence in the Middle East have been urged to step up vigilance against cyber threats from Iran after US-Israeli attacks.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said there was “almost certainly” a heightened risk of an indirect cyber threat for organisations that had offices, or supply chains, in the Middle East.
Continue reading...Olympian Hilary Knight, who won gold with the U.S. women's hockey team, spoke to "CBS Mornings" about the support the team has received following controversial comments from President Trump and her future in the sport.
A higher-end mixed reality headset coming later this year wants to be a work device to rival the Apple Vision Pro and Samsung Galaxy XR. It's got the power for it.
QatarEnergy says it has halted production of liquefied natural gas after attacks on Ras Laffan and Mesaieed sites
Gas prices surged on Monday and oil rose sharply as an escalation in the US-Israel war on Iran caused major disruption to production and supplies.
QatarEnergy, the state-owned energy company, said it had halted production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) after attacks on facilities in Ras Laffan and Mesaieed.
Continue reading...Former Oxford professor Tariq Ramadan did not appear in court as he was in a Geneva hospital, according to lawyers
The prominent Swiss academic and Islam scholar Tariq Ramadan has not appeared in court for the first day of his trial in Paris on charges of raping three women in France between 2009 and 2016.
The head judge in the case adjourned proceedings until Wednesday and ordered a medical report on Ramadan’s health, after his lawyers said he was in hospital in Geneva because of his multiple sclerosis.
Continue reading...These are the best laptops my colleagues and I have reviewed from basic models to high-powered gaming systems and everything in between.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Washington Post: The Plain Dealer, Cleveland's largest newspaper, has begun to feature a new byline. On recent articles about an ice carving festival, a medical research discovery and a roaming pack of chicken-slaying dogs, a reporter's name is paired with the words "Advance Local Express Desk." It means: This article was drafted by artificial intelligence. "This article was produced with assistance from AI tools and reviewed by Cleveland.com staff," reads a note at the bottom of each robot-penned piece, differentiating it from those still written primarily by journalists. The disclosure has done little to stem the backlash that caromed across the news industry after the paper's editor, Chris Quinn, published a Feb. 14 column lamenting that a fresh-out-of-college job applicant withdrew from a reporting fellowship when they found out the position included no writing -- just filing notes to an AI writing tool. "Artificial intelligence is not bad for newsrooms. It's the future of them," Quinn wrote, adding that "by removing writing from reporters' workloads, we've effectively freed up an extra workday for them each week." [...] Quinn, for his part, says his paper's use of AI to find, draft and edit stories is a success story that others must emulate if they want to survive. "It's a tool," he said in a phone interview last week. "If AI can do part of our job, then why not let it -- and have people do the part it can't do?" He added that the paper's embrace of technology -- including using AI to write stories summarizing its reporters' podcasts and its readers' letters to the editor -- is already boosting its bottom line, helping it retain staff at a time when other newspapers are shrinking or even shutting down. Just 130 miles east of Cleveland, the 240-year-old Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said in January that it will close its doors this spring. Quinn, who has led the Plain Dealer's newsroom since 2013, said its newsroom has shrunk from some 400 employees in the late 1990s to just 71 today. Over the past three years, Quinn has implemented a suite of AI tools with various purposes: transcribing local government meetings, scraping municipal websites for story leads, cleaning up typos in story drafts, suggesting headlines and helping reporters draft follow-ups to articles they've already written. He said he is particularly pleased with an AI tool that turns podcasts by the paper's reporters into stories for the website, which he said generated more than 10 million page views last year. He has documented those efforts in letters to readers and sought their feedback. But the paper's latest experiment -- using AI to turn reporters' notes into full story drafts -- has aroused indignation online and anxiety within the paper's ranks.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Fifa regulations vague on issue of replacing any teams
Withdrawal would be first since France and India in 1950
Iraq and the United Arab Emirates are viewed as the most likely beneficiaries should Iran withdraw from the World Cup. Fifa’s general secretary, Mattias Grafström, said on Saturday that “our focus is to have a safe World Cup with everybody participating”, but the president of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, has raised doubts over his country’s participation by saying: “After this attack, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope.”
Fifa has not commented since Grafström spoke and remains determined to ensure the World Cup, which starts on 11 June, goes ahead as planned, but several sources have said that if its hand were forced by Iran’s withdrawal the replacement will probably come from the Asian Football Confederation.
Continue reading...Paramount CEO David Ellison revealed that a single streaming service is in the plans.
Two more drones intercepted on Monday, authorities say, in what appears to be sustained targeting of base
A one-way attack drone – said to have been launched by Lebanon’s Hezbollah – struck the UK’s RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus at about midnight on Sunday, prompting a partial evacuation of the military facility.
Two more drones were successfully intercepted on Monday morning, the Cypriot authorities said, as part of what appears to be a sustained targeting of the base on the third day of the war in the Middle East.
Continue reading...Look to the skies on March 3 for a total eclipse of the full blood moon.
Many early-stage crowdfunders left empty-handed as Tilray acquires beer company’s UK and Irish assets
The UK and Irish assets of BrewDog, the Scottish self-styled “punk” brewer, have been sold to the US cannabis and drinks firm Tilray for £33m, in a deal that will cost nearly 500 jobs and leave legions of the company’s early-stage crowdfunders empty-handed.
Tilray agreed a deal to buy BrewDog’s brand, intellectual property, UK brewing operations and 11 “strategic” bars in the UK and Ireland, the two companies confirmed, preserving 733 jobs. The remaining 38 bars will close immediately, at a cost of 484 jobs.
Continue reading...Video of Chris Kempczinski trying new ‘product’ the Big Arch burger criticized for feeling forced and corporate
Business leaders are increasingly placing themselves in front of the camera, in an effort to appear more relatable to a social media-first audience. When it goes well, it can be a huge hit. When it doesn’t, you risk becoming the subject of online ridicule.
In the recent case of Chris Kempczinski, McDonald’s CEO and president, it’s the latter.
Continue reading...Plus, a new update on Avengers Campus as it doubles in size.
US-China: What are the two superpowers competing for? 18 March 2026 — 3:45PM TO 4:45PM Anonymous (not verified) Chatham House and Online
Ahead of the upcoming meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, this event examines what defines the US–China struggle for global influence — and what is at stake.
Exploring what defines – and what’s at stake in – the contest for global influence.
As geopolitical competition intensifies, the United States and China are shaping a global landscape defined by strategic rivalry, technological ambition and a widening contest for influence.
From trade and industrial policy to defence modernisation and emerging technologies, both powers are seeking advantages that will determine their future growth, security and international standing. Their actions are reshaping the global economy, fragmenting supply chains, and prompting governments worldwide to reassess alliances and vulnerabilities.
This event will examine what Washington and Beijing are truly competing for — and how this rivalry is evolving. Bringing together leading experts on US–China relations, the discussion will explore the drivers of strategic competition, where confrontation or limited cooperation may still be possible, and the implications for global governance, economic stability and regional security. Attendees will gain deeper insight into the choices facing both powers — and what these mean for the rest of the world.
French president says deterrent needs to be ‘strengthened’ in recognition of new challenges
A Cypriot government spokesperson has just confirmed that two unmanned drones headed to RAF Akrotiri were intercepted before reaching the base.
“Two unmanned aerial vehicles that were moving towards the direction of the British Bases at Akrotiri were confronted in time,” Konstantinos Letymbiotis said.
Continue reading...Officials continue to investigate Sunday shooting in Texas amid fears of further attacks following US airstrikes on Iran
Officials in Texas are continuing to investigate a weekend mass shooting at an Austin bar by a man wearing a “Property of Allah” hoodie as an act of potential terrorism, as fears rise over the possibility of further attacks following US airstrikes on Iran.
Police shot and killed Ndiaga Diagne, 53, a Senegalese national and naturalized US citizen, early on Sunday after he reportedly opened fire at the downtown bar popular with university students. Two people were killed, and another 14 wounded, some of them seriously.
Continue reading...Air travel chaos intensified as the war with Iran stretched into a third day — keeping airspace and airports in the Middle East closed and leaving travelers stranded.
The war in the Mideast has effectively halted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to push up gas prices and raise the cost of other goods.
Apple today announced the iPhone 17e with support for MagSafe and an upgraded A19 chip. The base model also gets a bump to 256GB of storage at $599, and Apple is equipping the device with its new scratch-resistant Ceramic Shield 2 glass that's supposedly 3x more durable than the 16e. Macworld reports: MagSafe would normally mean significantly faster wireless charging speeds too: the 16e is capped at 7.5W, whereas recent iPhones can wirelessly charge using MagSafe at up to 22W or even 25W. Unfortunately the iPhone 17e has not been given access to the full extent of MagSafe's powers in this regard, and has a limit of 15W. That's the same as MagSafe on the iPhones 12 through 15, and remains an improvement on the 16e, but is still disappointing. [...] It was also expected that the 17e would get a new processor, as this is a standard upgrade for almost every refresh of almost every Apple product. The iPhone 16e came with an A18 chip; the 17 has an A19, which, according to Apple, "delivers exceptional performance for everything users do." Of course that depends on the user and their needs, and it's important to point out that, just like last year, Apple has chosen to use "binned" units of the chip in order to save money. Binned chips have failed manufacturing tests in some minor way and don't have the full complement of cores. [...] And although the cameras are still disappointingly few in number -- one on the front and one on the back -- the wording for the portrait mode has been updated from "Portrait mode with Depth Control" (the same as on the iPhone 12) to "Next-generation portraits with Focus and Depth Control" (same as on the iPhone 17). This appears to highlight the fact that you can change the focus point. The 17e is available in white, black, and soft pink starting at $599.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
US-Israel war with Iran hits shares in travel companies, and the pound, although oil producers and weapons makers are rallying
Over in New Delhi, India and Canada have agreed deals covering critical minerals and uranium supply.
The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after talks between India’s prime minister Narendra Modi and Canada’s Mark Carney.
“Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust, and positivity.”
“This is not merely the renewal of a relationship. It is the expansion of a valued partnership with new ambition, focus, and foresight, a partnership between two confident countries charting our own course for the future.”
Continue reading...BARCELONA, Spain, March 2, 2026 — At MWC Barcelona 2026, Huawei unveiled its latest SuperPoD product Atlas 950 SuperPoD, TaiShan 950 SuperPoD and a series of computing solutions to the global market. This embodies the company’s latest endeavor to open source and open collaboration with the aim of building a resilient computing foundation and creating a new option worldwide.
Huawei is showcasing SuperPoD products at MWC Barcelona 2026.
With AI technologies evolving rapidly and models now using trillions of parameters, agentic AI is beginning to penetrate into core production processes in many industries. This is driving up demand for larger computing scale and lower latency. However, these massive models are beyond the reach of conventional horizontal scaling; larger clusters often suffer from lower utilization and frequent training interruptions.
Huawei has tacked these challenges with its innovative UnifiedBus interconnect for SuperPoDs. The groundbreaking “cluster + SuperPoD” system architecture is tailormade for growing computing demands and driving AI progress. At MWC, Huawei debuted its latest SuperPoD offerings on a global arena, including the Atlas 950 SuperPoD and Atlas 850E. Built on UnifiedBus, these products are fit for a diverse range of AI training and inference scenarios. The Atlas 950 SuperPoD, for instance, connects up to 8,192 NPUs via UnifiedBus, delivering ultra-high bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and unified memory addressing. It operates as a single, logical computer for learning, reasoning, and processing.
Huawei also exhibits TaiShan 950 SuperPoD—the industry’s very first general-purpose computing SuperPoD—alongside next-generation servers like the TaiShan 500 and TaiShan 200. These provide flexible computing options for computing workloads on a scale of high to low intensity.
Open Source and Open Collaboration Foster a Symbiotic Ecosystem
Huawei continues to champion open source and open systems in vision of accelerating developer innovation and ecosystem prosperity. The company plays a pivotal role in advancing openEuler, which has rapidly risen as one of the world’s leading open source operating system communities. Huawei has fully open-sourced its CANN heterogeneous compute architecture. Through layered decoupling, all software components—from operator libraries, acceleration libraries, and graph computing to programming languages—are openly available for developers. CANN also supports open source communities and projects typified by Triton, TileLang, PyTorch, vLLM, and verl, which tangibly facilitates developers in terms of accessibility and efficiency.
As intelligence transforms industries, Huawei remains dedicated to building a resilient computing foundation and a symbiotic ecosystem to create a new option for the AI era.
Source: Huawei
The post Huawei’s SuperPoD Portfolio Creates New Option for Global Computing at MWC Barcelona 2026 appeared first on HPCwire.
ProPublica has sued the U.S. Department of Education in federal court in New York, accusing it of withholding public records about how it’s enforcing civil rights protections for millions of American students.
The Education Department has failed to provide public records related to its investigations, communications and other work that ProPublica sought through four Freedom of Information Act requests filed last year.
The Education Department’s civil rights arm for decades has investigated allegations of discrimination in schools. It historically has kept an online list of its open investigations and posted the findings of completed inquiries. But under Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, the Office for Civil Rights has been decimated and the work of its remaining investigators is largely cloaked in secrecy.
ProPublica submitted three FOIA requests — the first of them more than a year ago — seeking records about civil rights investigations that have been opened or closed, notices sent to institutions being investigated and previous findings of discrimination that have been reversed under the Trump administration. A fourth request sought communication between top Education Department officials and conservative groups that have criticized public schools. Some of the groups have urged the OCR to investigate specific school districts and have met often with McMahon.
The department has not responded to the requests other than to acknowledge that it received them.
“Actions by the Department of Education have real consequences for millions of students and families,” said Alexandra Perloff-Giles of the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, which is representing ProPublica.
“The public deserves to understand how executive authority is being exercised so that it can hold government accountable,” she said. “Congress enacted FOIA to offer the public that necessary transparency, and we’re asking the court to enforce it.”
Spokespeople for the department did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit. The department has not yet responded to the complaint in court.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, argues that since Trump took office, the work of the OCR — once one of the federal government’s largest enforcers of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — has become significantly more opaque. Though each presidential administration has its priorities, OCR has consistently worked to uphold constitutional rights against discrimination based on disability, race and gender.
But the focus of the OCR under Trump has shifted to investigations relating to curbing antisemitism, ending participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports and combating alleged discrimination against white students. Complaints about transgender students playing sports and using girls’ bathrooms at school have been fast-tracked while cases of racial harassment of Black students last year were ignored.
And although some documents that detail how cases were resolved are being posted online, some older resolution agreements have been terminated. Those terminations have not been disclosed to the public.
“The public interest in this information is substantial and ongoing. Since there are approximately 49.6 million students in the U.S., changes to the ED and its policies affect millions of families,” the lawsuit says.
Trump has been working to shutter the department. Hundreds of department workers have been laid off and official employee counts at the OCR went from 568 in 2024 to 403 as of December 2025. McMahon closed seven of the 12 regional OCR offices that handled discrimination complaints across the country. Amid the staffing difficulties and the shift in priorities at the OCR, families’ discrimination complaints have piled up.
When President Joe Biden left office, about 12,000 investigations were open; by December 2025, there were nearly 24,000. ProPublica reporting has found that new complaints as well as older ones included in the backlog often are dismissed without investigation. OCR workers have said they feel as if they’re working in a “dismissal factory.”
In the past year, ProPublica has filed several other lawsuits seeking to force transparency in courts and the federal government. That includes a lawsuit filed in May against the State Department. ProPublica also has joined other media organizations in lawsuits.
Have you recently filed a civil rights complaint or do you have a pending case? We need your help to get a full picture of how the dismantling of the Office for Civil Rights is affecting students, parents, school employees and their communities.
The post ProPublica Sues Education Department for Withholding Records About Discrimination in Schools appeared first on ProPublica.
Exclusive: Schemes worth hundreds of millions of pounds to protect biodiversity and oceans likely to be substantially reduced
UK programmes to protect nature and the climate in developing countries are suffering swingeing budget cuts despite ministers’ promises, the Guardian has learned.
The cuts belie the government’s claims to be fulfilling international obligations on climate finance and are veiled behind a system that experts have slammed as opaque.
The cutting and partial closure of the £100m Biodiverse Landscapes Fund, intended to protect nature in vital ecosystems in poor regions overseas. Six regions were originally targeted, in Africa, South America and Asia, but this has been reduced to two.
Coast – a project for Climate and Ocean Adaptation and Sustainable Transition – and Pact (Prepare and Accelerate Climate Transitions) are having substantial cuts.
The future of the £500m Blue Planet Fund has been thrown into doubt despite its successful operation.
Other schemes have been reduced in scope, for instance by allowing only one year’s funding where years were expected.
Requests for data under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed spending has been slashed among the departments responsible for international climate finance (ICF).
Continue reading...Women and children were among the dead, in addition to dozens of combatants, officials said.
Fifty-two percent of Americans oppose the strikes, and two-thirds say the Trump administration hasn’t clearly explained the goals of the military action.
Three U.S. fighter jets involved in the offensive against Iran were shot down mistakenly by Kuwait’s air defenses, the U.S. military’s Central Command said.
PM defends use of UK bases for defensive action but says Britain has ‘learned the lessons from Iraq’ on need for ‘thought-through plan’
Keir Starmer has said the UK will not join offensive strikes by Israel and the US on Iran, saying the UK does not believe in “regime change from the skies”.
But the prime minister defended the use of UK bases for defensive action, saying that was “the best way to protect British interests and British lives”.
Continue reading...The prime minister is explaining his decision to allow the US to use British bases for military attacks after initially refusing
After an unmanned drone struck the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus overnight – and two more drones heading toward the base were struck down on Monday – Greece will send two frigates and two F-16 fighter jets to Cyprus “to contribute to its defence against the threats it faces,” said Greek defence minister Nikos Dendias, who will also travel to Cyprus tomorrow.
For the latest on Europe’s response to US-Israel war on Iran, follow The Guardian’s live coverage here.
Continue reading...The follow-up to the 2025 iPhone 16E comes with double the base storage of last year's budget device.
Defense secretary refuses to establish timeline for how long operation will continue in first public remarks since strikes
The US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, has called the joint US-Israeli strikes in Iran the “most lethal and precise air power campaign in history”, indicated the US did not plan to effect a democratic transition in Iran – and refused to establish a clear timeline for how long the US operation will continue.
In the first public remarks by an administration official since the war began on Saturday, Hegseth also said that the US did not have “boots on the ground” in Iran but that he wouldn’t speculate what “we will or will not do”. He also said that four US service members had been killed by a ballistic missile that managed to penetrate allied air defenses.
Continue reading...Banner has sparked criticism as Kirk was a polarizing figure who made incendiary and often racist and sexist comments
The US Department of Education has hung large banners outside its building in Washington DC, including one featuring an image of the late far-right commentator, Charlie Kirk.
Kirk, who was shot and killed last September while speaking at a campus event a Utah Valley University, co-founded the conservative non-profit organization Turning Point USA, which advocates for and promotes conservative politics among young people, particularly on college campuses.
Continue reading...The company started seeing increased errors with its flagship AI service Monday.
South Korean tax authorities lost millions in seized cryptocurrency after publishing high-res photos of Ledger hardware wallets that clearly displayed the wallets' seed phrases, allowing an unknown party to drain the funds. Gizmodo reports: South Korea's National Tax Service seized crypto assets during recent enforcement actions against 124 high-value tax evaders, but now, a large chunk of that crypto cash has been lost. The operation originally resulted in the confiscation of crypto holdings worth about 8.1 billion won, or roughly $5.6 million. However, officials later issued a press release to showcase these efforts in recovering delinquent taxes, and the release included photographs of Ledger hardware wallets taken into custody along with handwritten notes that displayed the wallet seed phrases. Those images attached to the press release turned out to be the critical error. High-resolution photos clearly showed the mnemonic recovery phrases, which serve as the master key for accessing the wallets. This exposure eliminated any protection provided by the offline cold storage on the Ledger devices. Possession of the seed phrase allows complete control, and anyone who knows the phrase can import it into software or another hardware wallet and initiate transfers without the original device. In this case, an unknown individual who saw the photos published by law enforcement first added a small amount of ether to one of the addresses to cover Ethereum network gas fees necessary for outbound transactions. From there, they executed three transfers to move approximately 4 million Pre-Retogeum, or PRTG, tokens. At the time, those tokens carried a value of $4.8 million, but reporting from The Block indicates liquidating that much value from the holdings would have proven difficult due to market dynamics.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Should you buy a new MacBook now or wait for the rumored updates? See our favorite MacBooks from Apple’s current lineup and find out when we expect to see new models announced (hint: soon).
 | Just sharing the road in Belfast. [link] [comments] |
Hydrolysis uses alkaline and water to break down body in a few hours and is part of demand for more sustainable funerals
Scotland has become the first part of the UK to legalise hydrolysis, an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation or burial, reflecting increasing demand for more sustainable funeral arrangements.
Also known as water cremation or aquamation, the process is already available in many parts of the world, and regulations approved by the Scottish parliament on Monday mark the most significant change to funeral law since cremation was introduced in 1902.
Continue reading...The price of gold has seen remarkable growth over the past year. Here's where it sits as of March 2, 2026.
Commentary: At a time when companies are using AI to alter images, it's refreshing to see a phone that embraces the best aspects of traditional photography.
The rapid rollout of datacenters across the US is creating a divide between municipal governments and residents
Wilmington, Ohio, resident Quintin Koger Kidd was so concerned last June with his local public officials’ alleged misdoings – open meeting violations and other discrepancies – that he filed a complaint in court to have the mayor and city council members removed from their posts.
When Koger Kidd later heard that the city supported plans by Amazon Web Services to build a $4bn datacenter on 500 acres (200 hectares) south of town, he was aghast. Amazon has sought a tax abatement that would see its datacenter exempt from paying property taxes for 30 years in exchange for the funding of local schools and infrastructure projects.
Continue reading...Japan will effectively ban the in-flight use of power banks starting in mid-April after a "recent series of alarming incidents," reports the Asahi Shimbun. From the report: Currently, mobile batteries in Japan are classified as "spare batteries" and are prohibited in checked luggage. For carry-on bags, those exceeding 160 watt-hours are banned, while passengers are limited to two units for those over 100 watt-hours. There is no quantity limit for batteries of 100 watt-hours or less. The new rule will limit passengers to a total of two spare batteries, including power banks. While there is no limit on the number of spare batteries below 100 watt-hours, carrying power banks exceeding 160 watt-hours will remain prohibited. Power banks will be capped at two units regardless of power capacity. Additionally, charging them on board will be prohibited, and it will be "recommended" that passengers not use them at all. As a result, domestic airlines are expected to require passengers to stop using power banks, cementing the effective ban on in-flight use.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Refusal to allow use of bases in Rota and Morón follows Pedro Sánchez’s condemnation of US-Israeli action
Spain has denied the US permission to use jointly operated military bases on its territory to attack Iran as Madrid stepped up its criticism of the “unjustified and dangerous military intervention”.
Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has explicitly condemned the US and Israel’s “unilateral military action” against Iran, warning that it is contributing to “a more hostile and uncertain international order”. The rebukes have been reinforced by his government’s refusal to allow the US to use bases in Rota and Morón for the continuing strikes against Iran.
Continue reading...Footage circulating on social media appears to show a military aircraft falling from the sky in Kuwait. US Central Command (Centcom) said on Monday that three US F-15 fighter jets flying in Iran-related operations had mistakenly been shot down by Kuwait air defences and that the cause of the incident was under investigation. The US and Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iran on Saturday, killing several top Iranian leaders including the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Continue reading...SANTA CLARA, Calif. and SAN JOSE, Calif., March 2, 2026 — NVIDIA today announced multiyear strategic agreements with Lumentum Holdings Inc. to accelerate innovation in advanced optics technologies, including research and development, to enable next-generation AI infrastructure and systems designs.
Credit: Shutterstock
The nonexclusive agreement includes an NVIDIA multibillion purchase commitment and future capacity access rights for advanced laser components. In addition, NVIDIA is investing $2 billion in Lumentum to support R&D, future capacity and operations as the company builds out its U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities in a new fab.
Optical interconnect technology and package integration are critical for the continued scaling of AI factories, improving the energy efficiency and resiliency of large-scale AI networks. This expanded collaboration will draw on the strengths of NVIDIA’s leadership in AI, accelerated computing and networking, and Lumentum’s leadership in optics and advanced manufacturing. The investment enables Lumentum to scale its manufacturing capacity and R&D to meet the needs of future AI data centers.
“AI has reinvented computing and is driving the largest computing infrastructure buildout in history,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Together with Lumentum, NVIDIA is advancing the world’s most sophisticated silicon photonics to build the next generation of gigawatt-scale AI factories.”
“This multiyear strategic agreement reflects our shared commitment to advancing the optics technologies that will power the next generation of AI infrastructure,” said Michael Hurlston, CEO of Lumentum. “In support of this collaboration, we are also investing in a new fabrication facility to increase capacity and accelerate innovation. We’re excited to work together to expand what’s possible for the AI optical architectures of tomorrow.”
More from HPCwire: NVIDIA and Coherent Announce Strategic Partnership to Develop Optics Tech
About Lumentum
Lumentum (NASDAQ: LITE) is a global leader in optical and photonic technologies that power the networks and infrastructure behind AI, cloud computing, and next-generation communications. Built on decades of photonics innovation, Lumentum delivers high-performance lasers, modules, and optical subsystems that enable scalable, energy-efficient data center connectivity, advanced telecom networks, industrial manufacturing, and sensing applications. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company operates R&D, manufacturing, and sales facilities worldwide. Learn more at www.lumentum.com.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in AI and accelerated computing.
Source: NVIDIA
The post NVIDIA Signs Multiyear Optics Agreement with Lumentum appeared first on HPCwire.
AUSTIN, Texas, March 2, 2026 — Flex today announced the expansion of its strategic collaboration with AMD to manufacture the AMD Instinct platform in the United States, marking a significant milestone in strengthening domestic production of advanced AI and high-performance technologies.
As part of the collaboration, manufacturing of AMD Instinct MI355X platform is now underway at Flex’s headquarters in Austin, Texas, with volume ramp expected next quarter. The collaboration extends beyond the current generation; Flex will also support the next generation of AMD Instinct platforms to meet surging demand for large‑scale AI deployments across data centers.
Flex manufactures the complete AMD Instinct platform, assembling eight AMD Instinct GPUs along with surrounding components — including PCIe Gen 5 interfaces, high-bandwidth memory, and high-speed interconnect fabric — into a single, high-density system design. Each platform undergoes rigorous factory testing and validation, including using advanced liquid-cooling hardware from JetCool, a Flex company.
“Partnering with AMD to manufacture AMD Instinct platforms in the U.S. marks an important milestone in advancing domestic AI infrastructure,” said Rob Campbell, President of Communications, Enterprise and Cloud, Flex. “By combining Flex’s advanced manufacturing capabilities, resilient supply chain, and U.S. footprint with AMD’s leadership in high-performance computing, we’re enabling customers to scale AI faster and with greater reliability.”
“Expanding our U.S. manufacturing presence with Flex for AMD Instinct platforms is an important step in strengthening how we build and deliver for customers,” said Keivan Keshvari, senior vice president, Global Operations & Quality, AMD. “By growing a resilient, agile, and diverse supply chain, we are better positioned to meet AI demand and deliver at scale.”
Flex’s Austin, Texas headquarters spans 1.4 million square feet and is designed to support complex, high-volume production with sustainable manufacturing practices. The site is part of Flex’s expansive U.S. footprint, which encompasses more than seven million square feet across 17 facilities.
To learn more about Flex’s end-to-end portfolio of data center infrastructure products and services, visit: https://flex.com/industries/data-center.
About Flex
Flex (NASDAQ: FLEX) is the manufacturing partner of choice that helps leading brands design, build, and manage products that improve the world. With a global footprint spanning 30 countries, Flex delivers advanced manufacturing and supply chain solutions, innovative products and technology, and lifecycle services that support customers from concept to scale. In the AI era, Flex is helping customers accelerate data center deployment by solving power, heat, and scale challenges through cutting-edge power and cooling technology and scalable IT infrastructure solutions.
SourcE: Flex
The post Flex Announces US Manufacturing Collaboration with AMD to Accelerate Domestic AI Infrastructure appeared first on HPCwire.
The contest of will between Trump and Iran Expert comment jon.wallace
Iran is operating from the principle that if it goes down, it will bring down others with it.
History is replete with examples of smaller and less militarily endowed nations achieving victories over much larger and better equipped adversaries because they employed smarter strategies.
Can Iran today survive a war with the United States – the world’s most powerful military – by employing the right kind of strategy? It all starts with Iran being able to understand its opponent’s own strategy and devise a plan to counter it.
President Donald Trump is employing a strategy of shock and awe. He wants a quick and decisive outcome, and he has deployed a massive amount of firepower to the region for that objective.
He wants to keep the military confrontation with Iran geographically limited, minimizing repercussions for regional stability and the international economy. He wants Iran to concede on its nuclear and conventional capacities, and even topple its regime, before it mounts an effective resistance, retaliates and kills Americans.
He has pursued these goals by applying a tremendous amount of military pressure on the regime, attacking a range of military and security targets across the country – for now, exclusively from the air – and decapitating much of its leadership structure. In short, Trump is on the offensive.
Iran, on the other hand, is on the defensive. It is doing, quite rationally, the exact opposite of everything Trump is trying to do. As always, it is playing the long game.
Given the overwhelming military superiority of the US, Iran knows that it cannot ensure regime survival – its top priority – by engaging in a shooting war. There is no way it can inflict enough military damage on the US to make Trump stop. Iran’s capabilities are far weaker, and its resources limited compared to its American and Israeli adversaries.
Instead, Iran’s strategy is to exact a high enough political price on Trump to compel him to discontinue military operations. So, the core element of Iran’s response is political and psychological in nature, not military. Its ultimate weapon is its much greater tolerance for casualties. This is where it holds a clear, and possibly the only, advantage over the US.
Tehran wants to extend and expand this conflict because it knows that Trump may not have the patience for a long conflict. Nor does the president’s domestic constituency, which opposes open-ended American interventions abroad – Trump has campaigned promising to be the ‘peace president’.
Democrats are gearing up for a fight with the president in Congress. The longer the war lasts and the more American soldiers are killed (four so far with five seriously wounded), the more effective they will be.
Iran is trying to regionalize and possibly even internationalize the conflict by dragging other countries, most notably the wealthy Gulf Arab states, into it.
The regime is operating from the principle that if it goes down, it will bring down others with it. It is messaging to Washington and the world that attempts to kill it will lead to chaos and serious economic pain.
It’s no accident that after it was hit by the US and Israel, Iran immediately struck oil fields, airports, and civilian buildings across the Arabian Peninsula. It’s hoping that this will rattle the international energy markets and compel the fragile Gulf Arabs states to push Trump to stop shooting. Their livelihoods and very political stability are at stake.
Iran also has struck various areas in Israel and instructed Hezbollah to open a military front from southern Lebanon.
In addition, the Houthis have threatened to resume strikes against Israel and in the Red Sea. Pro-Iran Iraqi militias have vowed to get involved, too. The activation of Iran’s regional network serves its strategy.
To stoke greater international fears, Iran also might close or disrupt commercial ship traffic near the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most vital maritime chokepoints. According to reports, traffic has already slowed considerably due to regional uncertainty caused by the war.
Both Iran and Trump’s strategies have important limitations. On the American side, air power alone is unlikely to bring down the Iranian regime. Boots on the ground are needed to accomplish that mission. Trump’s plan of helping the Iranian people rise up again and topple the theocracy sounds more like hope than a real strategy. There are no signs, yet, of any effective domestic opposition, or of defections from the regime.
On the Iranian side, attacking the Gulf Arab states could backfire. Those countries could reverse their policy of refusing the US permission to strike Iran using weapons based on their soil. They could even join the fight alongside the US. Beijing also won’t be enthusiastic about Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz. The Chinese import much of their oil from the Middle East.
NATO allies are staying on the sidelines for now, but a serious degradation of the global security environment might push some, including the British and the French, into action. (France and the UK have military bases in the Gulf).
Limited resources will challenge both Trump and Iran considerably. Of course, the US and its regional partners have more than Iran, but the latter is using cheaper missiles and drones which the US military is spending millions of dollars to intercept.
Gregory Caulier has attempted to quash rumours that Mask actor was replaced by a heavily made-up impersonator for his appearance picking up an honorary award in Paris
The organiser of the César awards has sought to debunk reports that a lookalike stood in for Jim Carrey at last week’s ceremony.
In a statement sent to Variety on Monday, Gregory Caulier, general delegate of the Césars, said the controversy was a “non-issue” and testified to Carrey’s investment in the event, which had been in the planning since last summer.
Continue reading...FREMONT, Calif., March 2, 2026 — Penguin Solutions, Inc. today announced the appointment of Ian Colle as senior vice president and chief product officer. He will be responsible for leading product strategy, roadmap development, and lifecycle execution for Penguin’s AI Factory Platform. Colle brings 25 years of experience to Penguin Solutions, joining from Amazon Web Services (AWS) where he most recently served as general manager of advanced computing and simulation. At AWS, he helped build a global HPC and AI infrastructure business from the ground up and scale it into a multi-billion-dollar portfolio, leading globally distributed teams across product management, engineering, go-to-market, and operations.
Penguin Solutions announced the appointment of Ian Colle as Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer. Colle will lead product strategy, roadmap development, and lifecycle execution for Penguin’s AI Factory Platform.
“We are thrilled to welcome Ian to the Penguin Solutions team as we continue to deliver AI Factories for enterprises at scale, so they can accelerate the deployment of agentic AI workflow automation and unlock new AI-driven revenue streams,” said Kash Shaikh, CEO of Penguin Solutions. “His appointment strengthens our executive leadership team and reinforces our commitment to product innovation and customer obsession.”
Prior to AWS, Colle held senior engineering leadership roles at Red Hat and Intel, where he led global teams through periods of rapid growth and acquisition, and at various startups. He will draw on that experience to support growth for Penguin Solutions AI Factory Platform.
“Penguin Solutions has the experience and expertise to deliver innovative AI Infrastructure including hardware, software, and services designed to drive the next generation of AI innovation,” said Ian Colle. “I look forward to working closely with our customers to help them harness the power of AI to achieve their business goals.”
Colle holds a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois, an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, an MS in Telecommunications and Computer Information Systems from the University of Denver and an MA in Philosophy from the Denver Seminary.
About Penguin Solutions
The most exciting technological advancements are also the most challenging for companies to adopt. At Penguin Solutions, we support our customers in achieving their ambitions across our AI infrastructure, computing, memory, and LED lines of business. With our expert skills, experience, and partnerships, we turn our customers’ most complex challenges into compelling opportunities. For more information, visit https://www.penguinsolutions.com.
Source: Penguin Solutions
The post Penguin Solutions Appoints Ian Colle as SVP and Chief Product Officer appeared first on HPCwire.
Another iPad Air appears, right on schedule. M4 chip and some wireless improvements are on tap.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. and SAXONBURG, Pa., March 2, 2026 — NVIDIA and Coherent Corp. today announced a multiyear strategic agreement to advance the frontier of advanced optics technologies, including manufacturing capacity and research and development, to enable next-generation AI infrastructure.
Credit: Shutterstock
The nonexclusive agreement includes an NVIDIA multibillion-dollar purchase commitment and future access and capacity rights for advanced laser and optical networking products. In addition, NVIDIA is investing $2 billion in Coherent to support research and development, future capacity and operations as Coherent builds out its U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities.
Optical interconnects and advanced package integration are foundational to the next phase of AI infrastructure, as they unlock ultrahigh-bandwidth, energy-efficient connectivity across AI factories. This expanded partnership harnesses NVIDIA’s leadership in AI, accelerated computing and networking, and Coherent’s expertise in optical innovation and advanced manufacturing, enabling Coherent to scale its R&D and manufacturing capacity to support the global buildout of next-generation AI data centers.
“Computing has fundamentally changed. In the age of AI, software runs on intelligence with tokens generated in real time by AI factories for every interaction and every context,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “With Coherent, NVIDIA is pioneering next-generation silicon photonics to enable AI infrastructure at unprecedented scale, speed and energy efficiency.”
“This strategic relationship underscores Coherent’s role as a key enabler of next-generation AI data center infrastructure,” said Jim Anderson, CEO of Coherent. “We are proud to expand our 20-year relationship with NVIDIA by increasing their access to include multiple product families to help them build the AI data centers of the future.”
More from HPCwire: NVIDIA Signs Multiyear Optics Agreement with Lumentum
About Coherent
Coherent is the global photonics leader. We harness photons to drive innovation. Industry leaders in the datacenter, communications, and industrial markets rely on Coherent’s world-leading technology to fuel their own innovation and growth. Founded in 1971 and operating in more than 20 countries, Coherent brings the industry’s broadest, deepest technology stack; unmatched supply chain resilience; and global scale to help its customers solve their toughest technology challenges. For more information, please visit us at coherent.com.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in AI and accelerated computing.
Source: NVIDIA
The post NVIDIA and Coherent Announce Strategic Partnership to Develop Optics Tech appeared first on HPCwire.
At the inaugural meeting of his self-styled Board of Peace earlier this month, Donald Trump declared peace in the Middle East while simultaneously threatening to plunge the region into devastating conflict by again attacking Iran. Within 10 days, Trump followed through on that promise, teaming up with Israel to unleash a widespread campaign of deadly airstrikes in Iran that have thrust the Middle East into regional war.
It was one of numerous incongruities that surfaced during the bizarre first meeting of Trump’s Temu United Nations.
“In terms of prestige, there’s never been anything close because these are the greatest world leaders, almost everybody has accepted, and the ones that haven’t will,” Trump proclaimed before he grasped a diminutive gold-colored mallet and gaveled out the conclave to strains of the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a member of the group’s executive board, could be seen standing alone in the background as Trump glad-handed some of the assembled world leaders. Rubio skulked off before Laura Branigan’s 1982 hit “Gloria” began to play.
An Intercept analysis finds that every member state of the Board of Peace has been rebuked for human rights violations, including many by Rubio’s own State Department. Those not currently on the State Department list after a 2025 whitewash of countries’ human rights reports shielding Trump’s allies from honest assessments were previously cited by the department.
Originally conceived as a means to oversee the shaky Gaza peace plan, Trump has recast the Board of Peace as an international body under his control and direction, ostensively devoted to ending or preventing wars. “We’re also going to maybe take it a step further where we see hot spots around the world,” Trump decreed. “We will help Gaza, we will straighten it out, we’ll make it successful, we will make it peaceful, and we will do things like that in other spots.”
Trump even suggested his group would provide oversight of the U.N. “The Board of Peace is going to almost be looking over the United Nations and making sure it runs properly,” Trump said.
As chair of the Board of Peace, with a lifetime appointment, Trump determines the council’s membership, chooses the executive board, and has the final say on all things since “decisions shall be made by a majority of the Member States present and voting, subject to the approval of the Chairman,” according to the Board’s charter. As chair, Trump is also the “final authority regarding the meaning, interpretation, and application” of the charter. Any amendments to the charter also must have Trump’s stamp of approval.
Trump controls the Board’s finances as chair, creating what looks to be a slush fund of international proportions. A $1 billion contribution secures permanent membership on the Board instead of a three-year appointment, which requires no payment. Trump said he also exacted promises of more than $7 billion from nine countries, although Board of Peace documents show only eight countries formally signed a pledge of their “intention to contribute funds to the Board of Peace.” For his part, Trump promised to siphon U.S. tax dollars — at least $10 billion — into the Board’s coffers. The Board of Peace, in turn, announced “more than $15 billion in funding commitments” for “humanitarian relief and reconstruction activities” in Gaza.
The Board’s charter states that it can acquire and dispose of “immovable and movable property, institute legal proceedings, open bank accounts, receive and disburse private and public funds, and employ staff.” As chair, Trump has “exclusive authority to create, modify, or dissolve subsidiary entities as necessary or appropriate to fulfill the Board of Peace’s mission.” It remains unclear how all of the Boards’ funds will be spent and if there will be any meaningful supervision of the Board’s finances. The executive board — which Trump chooses and controls — provides “oversight mechanisms with respect to budgets, financial accounts, and disbursements,” according to the charter.
The Board says that the World Bank-administered Gaza Reconstruction and Development Fund “will operate under defined fiduciary controls, aligned with global best practices” and that an “AI-enabled digital infrastructure backbone will support procurement transparency and transform Gaza into a modern economy, reducing corruption risk and ensuring responsible stewardship of reconstruction capital for the benefit of Gaza’s residents.”
Traditional U.S. allies like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, and Ukraine have all declined to join the Board of Peace. But the U.K., Italy, the European Union and 20 other nations did attend the inaugural Board of Peace meeting as observers.
In addition to Trump, Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, White House chief of staff Susan Wiles, Trump son-in-law and diplomatic consiglieri Jared Kushner, and Kushner’s negotiating partner and Trump friend Steve Witkoff, numerous world leaders joined the inaugural meeting as their countries’ Board representatives. They included Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Argentine President Javier Milei, both staunch Trump allies and noted authoritarians. They and other leaders were gifted red MAGA-style hats emblazoned with “USA.”
Trump said other “great boards” were “peanuts” because unlike other governing bodies, almost all members of his Peace Board were “the head of a country.” While the executive board — which includes Trump, Rubio, Kushner, and Witkoff, among others — is made up of individuals, the Board of Peace itself is made up of member states. They constitute a veritable who’s who of global bad actors.
Longtime U.S. adversaries Russia and China, both consistent gross human rights abusers, have been invited to join. While those powers have yet to sign on, there are currently 28 members of the Board of Peace, according to its new website.
| Member Nation | Title | Name |
|---|---|---|
| Albania | Prime Minister | Edi Rama |
| Argentina | President | Javier Milei |
| Armenia | Prime Minister | Nikol Pashinyan |
| Azerbaijan | President | Ilham Aliyev |
| Bahrain | King | Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa |
| Belarus | President | Alyaksandr Lukashenka |
| Bulgaria | President | Iliana Iotova |
| Cambodia | Prime Minister | Hun Manet |
| Egypt | President | Abdel Fattah el-Sisi |
| El Salvador | President | Nayib Bukele |
| Hungary | Prime Minister | Viktor Orbán |
| Indonesia | President | Prabowo Subianto |
| Israel | Prime Minister | Benjamin Netanyahu |
| Jordan | King | Abdullah II |
| Kazakhstan | President | Kassym-Jomart Tokayev |
| Kosovo | President | Vjosa Osmani |
| Kuwait | Amir | Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah |
| Mongolia | President | Khurelsukh Ukhnaa |
| Morocco | Prime Minister | Aziz Akhannouch |
| Pakistan | Prime Minister | Shehbaz Sharif |
| Paraguay | President | Santiago Peña |
| Qatar | Amir | Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani |
| Saudi Arabia | Crown Prince and Prime Minister | Mohammed bin Salman |
| Turkey | President | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan |
| United Arab Emirates | President | Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan |
| United States | President (Chair) | Donald J. Trump |
| Uzbekistan | President | Shavkat Mirziyoyev |
| Vietnam | General Secretary | Tô Lâm |
All member states have been cited for human rights abuses in the State Department’s two most recent annual human rights reports, including for some of the gravest possible violations.
Last year, Rubio’s State Department issued sanitized human rights reports that soft-peddled abuses. But the analyses still cited allegations that 23 of the 27 foreign Board of Peace member states for arguably the worst crimes: unlawful or arbitrary killings or torture. Including the last Biden-era reports, the number rises to 25. Members of Trump’s Board are, in fact, among the worst human rights violators on the planet, chief among them Belarus, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.
The State Department and White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Board of Peace did not reply to a request on X for public affairs’ contact information.
A report issued last summer by Rubio’s State Department took the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to task for “significant human rights issues” including credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings; disappearances; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; and arbitrary arrest and detention; among many other violations. “The government did not take credible steps or action to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses in a verifiable way,” according to that report.
Even Rubio’s State Department referenced reports that Israel conducted “arbitrary or unlawful killings” as well as “serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom.” A United Nations commission investigating the war in Gaza went further and established that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians. “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention,” said Navi Pillay, the chair of the commission, last September. “The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons who have orchestrated a genocidal campaign for almost two years now with the specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza.”
Belarus is another wildly oppressive Board of Peace member-nation. Freedom House — a nongovernmental organization that advocates for human rights and gets the bulk of its funding from the U.S. government — calls that country “an authoritarian state in which elections are openly rigged and civil liberties are severely restricted.” The group noted that the Eastern European nation’s security forces “have violently assaulted and arbitrarily detained journalists and ordinary citizens who challenge Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s regime.” Last year, the State Department also called out Belarus for a raft of abuses including “torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; involuntary or coercive medical or psychological practices; [and] arbitrary arrest or detention.”
“War is peace” was one of the slogans on the facade of the Ministry of Truth, in George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.” Trump’s Board of Peace exemplifies this same Orwellian doublethink in which contradictory ideas are cast as true. Israel’s and Belarus’s inclusion on the Board, for example, puts a spotlight on the startling disconnect between Trump’s league of rogue nations and its stated purpose.
“What we’re doing is very simple. Peace. It’s called the Board of Peace and it’s all about an easy word to say, but a hard word to produce — peace, but we’re going to produce it,” said Trump at the February 19 meeting. But the Peace Board is filled with warmakers called out even by Rubio’s State Department. For instance, it accused Belarus of crimes of war including “serious abuses in a conflict, related to Belarus’ complicity in Russia’s war against Ukraine”; Indonesia for “arbitrary or unlawful killings” in “counterinsurgency operations against armed separatist groups”; Israel for “continued large-scale military operation in densely populated Gaza”; Pakistan for “serious abuses in a conflict”; and Turkey for “unlawful recruitment or use of children in armed conflict by government-supported armed groups outside of the country.”
“We have peace in the Middle East right now.”
The greatest offender to peace on the Board, however, be the United States. While Trump said “there’s nothing more important than peace” at the inaugural meeting, during his second term he has already launched attacks on Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, civilians in boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean — and, over the weekend, Iran.
The Trump administration also claims to be at war with at least 24 cartels and criminal gangs it will not name and has also threatened Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, Iceland, and Mexico.
“We have peace in the Middle East right now,” Trump declared in his rambling speech, during which he also threatened to again attack Iran to knock out a nuclear program that he said had already been “totally decimated.”
A 2025 survey of 25 nations around the world found that the publics in 17 of them saw the United States as the first or second greatest international threat to their country, including America’s neighbors, Canada (59 percent) and Mexico (68 percent). Just this month, a poll by the Allensbach Institute, a market research firm, found Germans see the U.S. as the second-greatest threat to world peace, surpassing China and edging closer to Russia.
The post Trump’s Orwellian Board of Peace Consists Entirely of Human Rights Abusers appeared first on The Intercept.
A new batch of A24 films including The Zone of Interest, Aftersun and Midsommar are available this March on free streaming services.
Ken Henry leads push for federal government to do more to protect animals as biodiversity declines
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Labor is being pushed to introduce tough new national rules for protecting threatened species exposed to disasters including bushfires and floods, with the former Treasury boss Ken Henry among advocates warning that risks to wildlife could reach a point of no return.
Months after a major rewrite of environment laws passed parliament, a consortium of animal protection and campaign groups want the Albanese government to standardise rescue, treatment and rehabilitation processes and help fund organisations working to protect species including endangered koalas in the May federal budget.
Continue reading...The narrow shipping route on Iran’s southern border carries one fifth of global seaborne crude oil, one fifth of LNG shipments and one third of the most widely used fertiliser
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Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the Iranian government by force could trigger a new wave of cost-of-living pressures that embattled governments and central banks around the world will struggle to deal with.
The US-Israel attack on the Middle Eastern country at the weekend is the latest in a long series of global economic shocks.
Continue reading...An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: One day not long ago, a founder texted his investor with an update: he was replacing his entire customer service team with Claude Code, an AI tool that can write and deploy software on its own. To Lex Zhao, an investor at One Way Ventures, the message indicated something bigger -- the moment when companies like Salesforce stopped being the automatic default. "The barriers to entry for creating software are so low now thanks to coding agents, that the build versus buy decision is shifting toward build in so many cases," Zhao told TechCrunch. The build versus buy shift is only part of the problem. The whole idea of using AI agents instead of people to perform work throws into question the SaaS business model itself. SaaS companies currently price their software per seat -- meaning by how many employees log in to use it. "SaaS has long been regarded as one of the most attractive business models due to its highly predictable recurring revenue, immense scalability, and 70-90% gross margins," Abdul Abdirahman, an investor at the venture firm F-Prime, told TechCrunch. When one, or a handful, of AI agents can do that work -- when employees simply ask their AI of choice to pull the data from the system -- that per-seat model starts to break down. The rapid pace of AI development also means that new tools, like Claude Code or OpenAI's Codex, can replicate not just the core functions of SaaS products but also the add-on tools a SaaS vendor would sell to grow revenue from existing customers. On top of that, customers now have the ultimate contract negotiation tool in their pockets: If they don't like a SaaS vendor's prices, they can, more easily than ever before, build their own alternative. "Even if they do not take the build route, this creates downward pressure on contracts that SaaS vendors can secure during renewals," Abdirahman continued. We saw this as early as late 2024, when Klarna announced that it had ditched Salesforce's flagship CRM product in favor of its own homegrown AI system. The realization that a growing number of other companies can do the same is spooking public markets, where the stock prices of SaaS giants like Salesforce and Workday have been sliding. In early February, an investor sell-off wiped nearly $1 trillion in market value from software and services stocks, followed by another billion later in the month. Experts are calling it the SaaSpocalypse, with one analyst dubbing it FOBO investing -- or fear of becoming obsolete. Yet the venture investors TechCrunch spoke with believe such fears are only temporary. "This isn't the death of SaaS," Aaron Holiday, a managing partner at 645 Ventures, told TechCrunch. Rather, it's the beginning of an old snake shedding its skin, he said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
All six crew members ejected safely in apparent ‘friendly fire’ as Kuwait launches investigation into incident
Three US fighter jets were mistakenly shot down over Kuwait early Monday in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, military officials said. All six crew members ejected safely.
According to a statement from US Central Command (Centcom), Kuwait’s air defences fired on the F-15 war planes during a combat mission on the third day of conflict following Saturday’s launch of US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran.
Continue reading...If you’re following KDE Plasma development, you’ve most likely run into something called Union, a project KDE is working on to unify their various ways of theming their applications. The problem KDE is facing right now is that after so many decades of development and changes in how people want to develop applications, they ended up with various different ways of writing applications, each with their own theming method. The end result has been that for a while now, theming on KDE is kind of broken.
Broken in what way? Most long-time KDE users will be aware that ever since KDE 4, the KDE shell (Plasma using SVG for theming) and KDE applications (QtWidgets using QStyle for theming) use separate theme engines. While this has always been annoying, it’s at least manageable in that most theme designers tended to create both a Plasma SVG theme and a QStyle theme that matched. However, things got more complicated when KDE introduced QtQuick, its modern way of creating applications with QML. QtQuick has its own theme, qqc2-desktop-style, to make QtQuick applications look and feel like Breeze, KDE’s current theme.
Not only do all of these have to be kept in sync manually, QtQuick applications also do not properly inherit all the elements of the QStyle theme you set, leading to many modern KDE applications looking broken when using a non-default theme (and the same applies when using Kvantum; it also cannot properly theme QtQuick applications). In other words, there is currently no way to theme the entire KDE desktop for a consistent look, and if you try, many applications will simply look broken.
Union is KDE’s answer to this set of problems. Union is a new style engine that takes CSS and processes it into consistent themes for both QtWidget and QtQuick applications. It’s quite flexible, and can potentially even be extended to generate GTK themes from that same CSS. Sadly, since the KDE Pasma shell SVG stuff is entirely different, it won’t be styled by Union, but KDE might simply retire the SVG stuff entirely and move the Plasma shell to QtQuick’s qqc2-desktop-style to address that issue.
Union has been in development for a long time, as it’s a difficult effort, but progress is definitely being made. KDE is currently already at the stage where they’re adapting the current Breeze QStyle to better match the Union Breeze’s style, to make the future transition from the separate QStyle/qqc2-desktop-style to the unified, single Union Breeze as seamless as possible. These changes are currently available for testing in the master branch, and will be part of Plasma 6.7 or 6.8.
As a KDE user who likes to have a more classic, late ’90s theme, but who also values consistency above all else, Union is something I’m very much looking forward to. While it certainly won’t fix every single issue right away, it will definitely address the biggest issues with theming on KDE. I’m incredibly happy that KDE’s developers still consider theming and user choice and agency over what pixels appear on their screen important enough to undertake an effort like Union.
Since 2016, the cosy, inclusive, non-heteronormative escapism of the beloved farming sim has inspired a community of devoted fans, and helped it shift 50m units
When farming sim Stardew Valley first came out back in 2016, most of us saw it as a modest indie hit, offering charm, wit and a beautiful little world. Ten years later, this tiny indie has sold nearly 50m copies. If you haven’t played it yourself, you’ve probably seen someone playing it on the train (or, in the case of one of my musical theatre castmates, in the dressing room between scenes). As we discussed on the Tech Weekly podcast shortly after its launch, this calming game about tending crops and animals and relationships with neighbours rejuvenated the entire farming/life sim genre. To this day, I still get press releases promising that some upcoming cosy game or another is the next Stardew Valley.
While developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone now has a small team to help with periodic updates, the original game – his first – was all his own work, from the distinctive pixel art and animations to the soundtrack that has since toured the world in concert. Unable to get a job after university, he’d started his own project inspired by the Harvest Moon series (now called Story of Seasons). One notable addition was the inclusion of queer romance options. The ability to pursue a romantic relationship with other townsfolk is a key part of the game’s popularity – as demonstrated by the thousands who tuned in to a video from Barone revealing the identities of two new marriage candidates – and the fact that all potential spouses are available to the player character regardless of gender has helped the game garner a dedicated queer fanbase.
Continue reading...The Iran war exposes the limits of Russia’s leverage in a fragmenting regional order Expert comment jon.wallace
The war will not affect Russian plans in Ukraine – but it will likely force a rethink of long-held Russian strategic concepts.
In a diplomatic note to the Iranian government dated 29 March 1944, Vyacheslav Molotov, then foreign minister of the Soviet Union, noted that ‘the Soviet Union [couldn’t] remain indifferent to the fate of Iran’. That statement crystallized a perennial tenet of Soviet foreign policy – one that still synthesizes much of Moscow’s approach to the Middle East today: Iran is not a dispensable peripheral actor. It is a structural node on the southern flank of the Russian Central Asian zone of influence.
The current military confrontation between Iran on the one side, and the United States (US) and Israel on the other, might well push this logic to its limits. Moscow may be forced to navigate a new and possibly perilous geometry of utility, ideology, and strategic restraint.
Depending on the war’s outcome, the Kremlin might see its already wobbly strategic architecture in the Middle East so badly undermined that it is compelled to reassess its regional calculus.
Russia’s public posture in response to the military action against Iran has been one of sharp rhetorical condemnation. Moscow has labelled the strikes ‘unprovoked acts of armed aggression’ and warned of regional and global instability unless diplomacy is restored.
But Russia will obviously not enter into any kind of military confrontation with the US and Israel. Nor has it sent Tehran the least sign that it may provide any form of support.
The Kremlin’s next steps will likely be calibrated to uphold its credibility as a counter-Western partner but avoid being drawn into a second high-intensity conflict. It will also seek to preserve bargaining space with Washington on other issues – not least the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
Until the situation in Iran is clarified, the keywords for Moscow will be ‘strategic hedging’. In other words, it will seek to make the most of the US distraction in the hope of depriving Kyiv of media oxygen and pushing the war on Ukraine into the background.
But the current developments in Iran are not without deeper implications for Moscow, particularly relating to the nuclear question.
Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), enrichment levels and stockpiles were embedded in a negotiated framework in which Russia was an instrumental participant. That framework is now gone.
US and Israeli strikes during June’s so-called ‘Twelve-Day War’ had already significantly degraded elements of Iran’s enrichment infrastructure. The ongoing war is now moving to the next level, shifting the nuclear issue from managed diplomacy and short-term surgical strikes to outright coercive force with a clear longer-term ambition of regime change.
For Moscow, this changes the calculus in three ways. First, a weakened, yet unresolved nuclear file preserves Iran’s strategic relevance while increasing the volatility surrounding the country. Any engagement with an Iranian regime that has now struck at almost every country across the Arabian peninsula won’t go without a political risk.
This reflects a deeper structural irony: the very cooperation that once bound Russia and Iran economically and technologically may now expose Moscow to reputational and operational dilemmas.
Second, the normalization of preventive strikes against nuclear infrastructure erodes the diplomatic architecture that Russia once used to project influence and political legitimacy in the region.
Third and certainly not least, if Tehran emerges either significantly enfeebled or forced into a coercive settlement with Washington, Moscow will lose leverage in a region where its room for manoeuvre has already significantly narrowed after the fall of Assad in Syria.
The death of Iran’s Supreme Leader and the heightened military pressure from a growing number of countries could indicate that Moscow’s influence in the region may be waning.
But the situation in Iran is unlikely to hinder Moscow’s plans in Ukraine, or to tilt the battlefield. Russia’s need for Iranian support in sustaining its war has already declined, as Moscow has internalized production of weapons systems that it once sourced from Tehran.
As part of a structural rebalancing, Iranian Shahed drones and components, once critical stopgaps, have been integrated into Russian production lines. Russia now produces substantial quantities of similar systems domestically, making continued Iranian deliveries less essential.
This reduces the short-term operational risk to Moscow should the conflict in Iran become protracted. Russia can absorb Iranian instability without immediate capability collapse.
But that insulation comes with a cost. The partnership could grow less reciprocal and even more transactional that it had already become in recent months.
The asymmetry creates leverage for Tehran (which has been providing Moscow with strategic expertise on sanctions circumvention) but reduces incentives for the Kremlin to defend a partner under existential pressure.
Russia’s Middle Eastern posture was historically supported by layered and strategically complementary partnerships – with Syria as a western anchor and Iran as an eastern axis. But Russian influence in Damascus has eroded over the past decade, leaving Tehran’s role more conspicuous and, paradoxically, more fragile in Moscow’s strategic calculus.
If Iran becomes consumed by war, and if its capacity to act as a regional balancer wanes, Russia faces a sequential attrition of strategic depth. The wider geopolitical architecture could shift, from a multipolar balance where Moscow plays off rivals against each other, to a more fragmented environment in which Russia is reactive rather than proactive.
This is significant because regional power projection relies as much on predictability and stability in adjacent zones as on the mere presence of partner regimes. A war-consumed Iran introduces new uncertainties along Russia’s southern arc, from the Caucasus to Central Asia, where Moscow’s standing has also eroded.
‘Russia will seek the formation of a multipolar world’, remarked Yevgeny Primakov, Russia’s prime minister and foreign policy grand strategist, in 1998. That would become the cornerstone of the Kremlin’s foreign policy narrative: a drive for a multipolar world in which powers like Iran, China, and Russia balance the perceived hegemony of the US and the ‘collective West’.
In this framework, Primakov treated Iran’s capacity as a structural counterweight within a broader Eurasian balance – one that blurs the boundary between Europe and Asia and challenges the idea that Europe is institutionally and strategically Western.
In today’s context, however, that thesis is under strain. If the US and Israel succeed in degrading Iran’s strategic position, the narrative of a resilient multipolar order loses ideological traction.
The war’s trajectory therefore impacts not just material balance but also the normative legitimacy of Moscow’s grand strategic conception.
A prolonged war raises critical questions about spill-over effects – from refugee flows to the proliferation of arms and militant networks. For Russia, whose southern flank security strategy has historically relied on internal and regional stability, this is not peripheral.
At the same time, Russia’s options are constrained. It cannot militarily balance the US–Israel coalition in the Middle East. And it lacks the economic weight to fully underwrite Tehran if Iran is isolated post-conflict.
Moscow must also navigate the China variable, since Beijing – not Moscow – might well come out as a more consequential external actor in a post-war Iran than one might think.
Thus, Russia is faced with a strategic dilemma: should it prioritize managed distancing and diplomatic leverage, or entrench deeper into a partnership that exposes it to systemic risk and greater regional geopolitical volatility?
In some regards, Molotov’s insight about Iran’s strategic salience for Moscow remains relevant today. But the context has shifted dramatically. Russia is not operationally dependent on Iran for its war in Ukraine – that helps in the short term. But Russia is exposed to the broader geopolitical turbulence that Iran’s war with the US and Israel creates.
The war tests Russia’s strategic patience, ideological narrative, and capacity to maintain agency in a rapidly fragmenting region. The partnership of convenience that once served as a buffer is now a variable in a much larger equation – one where Russian influence is neither pre-eminent nor entirely optional. It is contingent, negotiated, and increasingly vulnerable to shifts far beyond Moscow’s direct control. And loss of control sits uneasily with Kremlinology…
17th-century Dutch master’s Vision of Zacharias in the Temple to go on display this week
It hung unrecognised on the wall of a private home for decades but now a 17th-century painting has been revealed as a Rembrandt, taking its potential value from thousands to millions of pounds.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam announced on Monday that it had rediscovered an early biblical scene by the Dutch master that was once thought lost, thanks to hi-tech scanning and two years of expert analysis.
Continue reading...Rachel Reeves’s upcoming spring forecast has not led to slowdown, as property tax rumours did in November
House prices in the UK increased in February, avoiding a repeat of the “negative speculation” that depressed the market before last November’s budget, as Rachel Reeves prepares to present the spring forecast on Tuesday.
The average price of a home rose to £273,176 last month, up by 0.3% from the month before, according to Nationwide, the UK’s biggest building society. It matched January’s monthly increase, and was above analysts’ forecasts of a 0.2% gain. The annual growth rate remained steady at 1%.
Continue reading...Regulator looks into claim Hilton, InterContinental Hotels and Marriott could be sharing ‘competitively sensitive’ information via analytics tool
The UK competition watchdog has opened an investigation into three of the world’s biggest hotel chains – Hilton, InterContinental Hotels (IHG) and Marriott – amid suspicions they could be sharing “competitively sensitive” information with each other.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating allegations that the businesses, which together operate more than 25,000 hotels worldwide, could be sharing information through the data analytics tool STR. CoStar, the real estate data firm that owns STR, is also under investigation.
Continue reading...Three American fighter jets were "mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses," CENTCOM said in a statement Monday, as the war with Iran continued for a third day.
Israel said Sunday that it launched another wave of strikes on Iran, and Tehran retaliated across the region.
Effects of extended conflict between US and Iran could also lead to higher interest rates and hit economic growth
The impact of the deadly and unpredictable conflict in the Middle East on the global economy will be felt most immediately, and keenly, through the rising cost of oil.
Prices jumped on Monday, as markets had their first opportunity to digest the weekend’s tit-for-tat attacks. A barrel of Brent crude oil was trading at about $79 (£59) by lunchtime in London, up about $6 or 8.5% on the day.
Continue reading...Trump cited debunked claims in video address that Iran was on verge of nuclear weapons to justify US casualties. Plus, the teacher who exposed Putin’s primary school propaganda
Good morning.
Donald Trump recorded a new video address yesterday, vowing to avenge three American deaths after the joint US-Israel strikes on Iran and accusing the Iranian regime of “waging war against civilization itself”.
What is Trump’s plan? It’s unclear but he is under pressure to spell out his vision for Iran. Trump’s critics are demanding that the White House provide greater clarity about what comes next. Opponents and analysts say the lack of a clear plan outlined so far has created a danger of the US being sucked into a long-lasting conflict of the sort that Trump repeatedly vowed to avoid.
This is a developing story. Follow our liveblog here.
How many flights have been cancelled? Early on Monday, 1,239 flights had already been cancelled. Emirates, based in Dubai; Etihad Airways, based in Abu Dhabi; and Qatar Airways, based in Doha, have collectively cancelled hundreds of flights. Almost 2,800 flights were cancelled on Saturday, and 3,156 were cancelled on Sunday, according to the tracking platform FlightAware.
Continue reading...This Switch 2 exclusive might be its biggest killer app yet. I'm lost and in love with the cozy apocalypse.
The days of the retirement league trope appear to be ending, while Inter Miami’s star had an outstanding – and amusing – game against Orlando City
Even before David Beckham swapped Madrid for Los Angeles, MLS had harbored a reputation as a “retirement league.” The notion is well worn in banter circles. It’s tired, and also at least a little bit true.
Robbie Keane. Kaká. David Villa. Andrea Pirlo. Didier Drogba. Wayne Rooney. Zlatan Ibrahimović. All of them – and many others – enjoyed late-career stops in the United States. Today, three of the 11 players named to Fifa’s Dream Team after the 2014 World Cup play in the league: Lionel Messi (Inter Miami), Thomas Müller (Vancouver Whitecaps) and James Rodríguez (Minnesota United). When Son Heung-min (33 years old) joined Los Angeles FC after his decade with Tottenham, he reunited with longtime Spurs teammate Hugo Lloris (39), and ensured derby days against the LA Galaxy’s Marco Reus (36).
Continue reading...The weather phenomenon known as El Niño could form later this year, potentially pushing global temperatures to record heights, researchers say.
The photos showed "the last moments" of 200 men executed at an Athens shooting range on May 1, 1944, Greece's the culture ministry said.
"At its peak in early 2014, Stack Overflow received more than 200,000 questions per month," notes the site DevClass.com. But in December they'd just 3,862 questions were asked — a 78 percent drop from the previous year. But Stack Overflow's blog announced a beta of "a redesigned Stack Overflow" this week, noting that at July's WeAreDevelopers conference they'd "committed to pushing ourselves to experiment and evolve..." Over the past year, on the public platform, we introduced new features, including AI Assist, support for open-ended questions, enhancements to Chat, launched Coding Challenges, created an MCP server [granted limited access to AI agents and tools], expanded access to voting and comments, and more. However, these launches are not standalone features. We have also been rethinking our look and feel, how people engage with Stack Overflow, and how content is created and shared. These new features, along with the redesign, represent how we are bringing Stack Overflow's new vision to life and delivering value that developers cannot find elsewhere. Our goal is to build the space for every technical conversation, centered on real human-to-human connection and powered by AI when it helps most. To support this, we are introducing a redesigned Stack Overflow to best reflect this direction... During the beta period, users can visit the beta site at beta.stackoverflow.com and share feedback as we build towards a new experience on Stack Overflow. They've updated their library of reusable UI components (buttons, forms, etc.), and are promising "More ways to share knowledge and ask any technical question." ("Alongside looking for the single right answer to your question, you can now find and share experience-based insights and peer recommendations...") They're launching all the planned features and functionality in April, when "More users will automatically redirect to the new site." (Starting in April users "can continue to toggle back to the classic site for a limited time.")
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Exclusive: National Film and Television School introduces fully accessible accommodation and bursary scheme at its Beaconsfield campus
For a long time, physically disabled students who dreamed of studying at the UK’s most prestigious film and TV production school had nowhere to stay in the local area. And when they commuted, they would encounter hundreds of inaccessible areas on campus.
In an industry where just 12% of TV employees are disabled, compared with 18% in the labour market as a whole, something had to change.
Continue reading...Before you drop hundreds of dollars on a Vitamix, read what cooking professionals have to say about the lauded blenders.
Our new free course AI for the People will show you practical ways to work with AI –without giving up judgment, privacy or your humanity
Continue reading...AI is transforming our world. Accepting independent oversight is the least companies can do to protect our rights
The speed with which AI is transforming our lives is head-spinning. Unlike previous technological revolutions – radio, nuclear fission or the internet – governments are not leading the way. We know that AI can be dangerous; chatbots advise teens on suicide and may soon be capable of instructing on how to create biological weapons. Yet there is no equivalent to the Federal Drug Administration, testing new models for safety before public release. Unlike in the nuclear industry, companies often don’t have to disclose dangerous breaches or accidents. The tech industry’s lobbying muscle, Washington’s paralyzing polarization, and the sheer complexity of such a potent, fast-moving technology have kept federal regulation at bay. European officials are facing pushback against rules that some claim hobble the continent’s competitiveness. Although several US states are piloting AI laws, they operate in a tentative patchwork and Donald Trump has attempted to render them invalid.
Heads of AI platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini say they care about safety. But owning the future of AI means pouring billions into models that not even their creators fully understand, and making choices like adding ads – and the capabilities that the Pentagon is now seeking from Anthropic – that raise risk. Anthropic, which styles itself as the most conscientious frontier AI company, says its model is trained to “imagine how a thoughtful senior Anthropic employee” would weigh helpfulness against possible harm. The directive echoes criticisms levied years ago over Silicon Valley companies that shaped the lives of users worldwide from insular boardrooms. Consumers don’t believe they are in good hands. Fully 77% of Americans surveyed last year think AI could pose a threat to humanity.
Continue reading...In contrast with the takedowns of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson, US consequences have been limited to resignations and apologies
Weeks after justice department officials released more than 3m investigative documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, there have not been any arrests in the US, prompting questions about whether any potential co-conspirators will be held accountable on American soil.
Indeed, consequences in the US for the sex trafficker’s associates have largely been limited to a handful of sombre resignations and public apologies of late – not high-level criminal prosecutions that victims and advocates have long demanded.
Continue reading...Lawmakers from Sanders to Mark Kelly offer mixed feelings on Trump’s action and killing of Iranian supreme leader
As Republicans celebrated the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with praise for Donald Trump’s decisive action, Democrats faced their own divisions and a reckoning over how to present a united front.
Most were quick to condemn the US president for sidelining Congress to launch an illegal and unconstitutional war and demanded a swift vote on a war powers resolution that would restrain his military onslaught.
Continue reading...Activists who dispute safety of vaccines are pushing to limit immunization requirements in schools
As South Carolina grapples with a measles outbreak that has infected nearly 1,000 people, groups with ties to the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, are pushing to eliminate immunization requirements that protect children.
Activists are targeting vaccine mandates in states trying to tamp down measles as communities across the country struggle to stop the worst spread of the illness since the early 1990s. The Guardian found anti-vaccine groups are encouraging their followers to organize opposition to vaccine mandates in more than 20 states, including at least six with current measles outbreaks.
Continue reading...U.S. officials said they were negotiating with Iran in good faith, even if hours later they joined Israeli military strikes that targeted the Iranian government.
The war has already become regional: Iran is attacking American-aligned Arab states in the hope that they will pressure Trump to sign a ceasefire
Last week, during his State of the Union address on Tuesday and again on Friday, just before launching Operation Epic Fury, Donald Trump laid out his case for attacking Iran.
The US president offered a lengthy bill of indictment against Iran’s Islamic Republic, stretching back to the 1979 revolution: the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran, support for terrorism, brutality towards its citizenry, and support for proxies that have killed Americans.
Continue reading...Commentary: I'm not a fan of tech-loaded spectacles, but a demo at Mobile World Congress may have swayed me.
Local emergency managers, the behind-the-scenes coordinators who mobilize help during disasters, have raised the same point time and again: We need adequate resources to protect people in harm’s way — before the harm arrives.
In some notable cases, resources didn’t come soon enough. It wasn’t until after Hurricane Helene devastated Yancey County, North Carolina, in 2024 that commissioners there hired additional emergency management staff, which the former emergency manager said he’d requested for years. City officials in St. Louis, Missouri, were in the process of upgrading their faulty outdoor warning system when a tornado killed four people and injured dozens of others in May 2025.
We wanted to know more about the cracks in the systems meant to keep communities safe when disasters strike. To do that, we reached out to dozens of emergency management agencies and wound up hearing from more than 40 current and former emergency managers in 11 states. They described common concerns.
Some said their agencies have been saddled with an ever-growing list of responsibilities. In Saluda County, South Carolina, the emergency management director said his team of six is responsible for everything from the county’s IT department to a spay and neuter program. In San Bernardino County, California, the emergency manager said that she has had to help respond to new challenges like a lithium battery fire and, at a previous agency, was tasked with responding to busloads of immigrants arriving from other states.
Funding for additional staff was the most pressing issue they cited. One North Carolina emergency management director said an internal study from about three years ago recommended their agency have more than 20 staffers, but they still only have 10. Across the country, more than half of the 1,689 local emergency management agencies that responded to Argonne National Laboratory’s July 2025 emergency management survey have either one or no permanent full-time employees, and a “notable percentage” of local emergency managers who responded are volunteers.
We know disasters are a matter of where and when, not if. And our reporting team at ProPublica wants to be prepared well in advance. If you are a local or state emergency manager, sign up to be a part of our long-term source network to help fuel ProPublica’s investigative journalism.
Given the wide-ranging responsibilities and increasing risk due to climate change, part-time or volunteer emergency management positions shouldn’t exist, said Samantha Montano, an emergency management associate professor and researcher at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
“To expect somebody to understand how to mitigate cyber risks and also recover from a tornado, I mean, these are different skill sets,” Montano said. “So to think that one person is going to be capable of doing all of those things, especially working part time or as a volunteer, is ludicrous.”
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s administration has caused delays in emergency management funding to state and local agencies and issued an executive order to shift more of the weight of disaster preparedness to state and local governments.
Kelly McKinney, the vice president of emergency management at NYU Langone Health and a former deputy commissioner at the New York City Emergency Management office, said that over the years states have become “overly dependent” on funding administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But there is no clear plan for alternative funding streams, according to McKinney.
“This crisis-management system in the United States is itself in crisis,” he said.
Several emergency managers we heard from said one of the only times they’re able to draw attention to their agency’s needs is in the aftermath of a wide-scale disaster. Wike Graham, the emergency management director for the Charlotte-Mecklenberg area of North Carolina, said the first question the media typically asks following such a disaster is: “Did emergency management do what they were supposed to do?”
According to Graham, that’s almost always the wrong question. He instead asks: “Did you properly fund emergency management staff? And did you provide them with the resources that they need? Did you make emergency management a priority for your community?”
Unlike firefighters, EMTs or law enforcement, emergency managers face a “public identity issue” that can result in agencies receiving smaller budgets, Montano said.
Several emergency managers told ProPublica that because people in their field operate mostly behind the scenes or as part of larger departments, they often find themselves competing for funding with better-recognized agencies, and they say elected officials frequently don’t have a clear understanding of their role. Some said it’s simply difficult to get people to care about a disaster that hasn’t happened yet.
Several others told ProPublica they are also seeing an uptick in the frequency and intensity of disasters, which makes it difficult to manage recovery (which can take years) while preparing for the next storm or fire. In St. Louis, for example, emergency management commissioner Sarah Russell was still in the midst of managing recovery efforts from 2022 flash flooding when the 2025 tornado hit.
During the St. Louis tornado, the sirens — which the city was in the early process of upgrading — weren’t activated, in part due to a miscommunication between Russell and a fire alarm dispatcher, according to an external investigation commissioned by the city. Russell, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, told ProPublica that the fire department was responsible for sounding the sirens.
But even if the activation button had been pressed, more than a third of the sirens weren’t working, and a later test showed that the button at the fire alarm office wasn’t either.
Russell was terminated in August 2025, in part due to their management of the tornado response, according to their termination letter. But Russell, who is appealing the termination, said the incident highlights the need to proactively invest in emergency management.
Russell had made several requests for additional staff who specialize in emergency management to help with core responsibilities, like updating the city’s outdated plan for responding to emergencies.
“There’s always things that you would do different with hindsight,” Russell said. “But there’s only so much you can do with so little resources and support.”
St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer, who had been in office for a month at the time of the tornado and who was an alderwoman for the decade prior, told ProPublica that she was aware of the agency’s requests for additional funding, but that most city departments make such requests. After the tragedy, the city fully automated the tornado sirens and issued an executive order declaring that the fire department would have primary authority over the sirens, replacing an unclear protocol.
A city spokesperson said the new emergency management commissioner has “implemented several improvements” to the emergency operations plan.
“Recognizing that budget restraints are unfortunately the reality across many aspects of government,” Spencer said via email, “I’m incredibly proud of the improvements this team has been able to implement with almost no additional funding.”
Strained budgets for local emergency management agencies aren’t a new issue. But in recent months, federal funding has become uncertain.
In April 2025, the Trump administration cut federal grants that pay for local disaster-preparedness projects — but a judge later halted the administration’s efforts to shutter the grant program. In May 2025, federal officials delayed grants that help fund local and state emergency managers’ salaries.
In December, the FEMA Review Council, which Trump created to advise on ways to reform the agency, was expected to vote on a long-awaited report that would outline the agency’s future. But after a draft was leaked to CNN, the meeting was abruptly canceled. The work of the review council has been extended until late March.
Several emergency managers told ProPublica they would welcome change at FEMA. But many voiced concerns about the federal government shuttering grant programs — which fund salaries, upgrades to equipment and disaster-mitigation efforts — or drastically reducing reimbursement for local agencies responding to large-scale disasters without alternative funding in place. They said such actions would be detrimental, especially in small, rural regions with limited local budgets.
In North Carolina, one emergency manager said that without federal emergency management performance grants, which can be used to pay 50% of an emergency manager’s salary, “we are looking at the loss of preparedness and response capabilities.” Another called the grant “vital” to daily operations.
FEMA did not respond to requests for comment.
Claire Connolly Knox, who directs the University of Central Florida’s master’s program for emergency and crisis management, has been studying what a “decentralized FEMA” could mean for state agencies. She said it could take several legislative cycles before states are prepared to fill in the gaps that changes to FEMA might create. Many states, Knox said, are not closely tracking spending across multiple departments and multiple phases of emergency management, meaning “we don’t know the true cost” of mitigating, preparing for, responding to and recovering from disasters.
“When you start breaking that down,” Knox said. “You start seeing that this isn’t a quick fix.”
The post What Emergency Managers Say They Need More Than Ever appeared first on ProPublica.
We know disasters are a matter of where and when, not if. And just like you, our reporting team at ProPublica wants to be prepared well in advance.
If you are a local, state or federal emergency manager, former emergency manager, emergency management researcher, or a part of the broader network of disaster response and recovery partners, we want to hear your concerns. Dozens of current and former emergency managers working everywhere from large cities to rural counties have already told us about the growing challenges they face amid more frequent disasters and uncertain federal funding.
Now we need your help to build a comprehensive picture of the real conditions across the country. What resources do you need to feel prepared for the next gray-sky day? How have or will changes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency impact the work you’re doing? How are alerts and warning systems working in your region? Have you been hit by multiple large-scale disasters in recent years? What new hazards are on your radar?
We know that emergency managers are critically important but aren’t often thought about until after tragedy strikes. We are building this source network to fuel in-depth coverage of the nation’s emergency preparedness and disaster response and recovery infrastructure that goes far beyond breaking news and brings attention to important issues across the country. As with all ProPublica journalism, our goal is impact.
Fill out the brief form below to tell us what we should be covering, or to stay in touch as changes unfold. You may hear from our team as we report on major overhauls to the emergency management system, develop emergency preparedness guides or provide crucial information to communities that have just experienced their worst day.
The post Emergency Managers: Help ProPublica Prepare to Report on the Next Disaster appeared first on ProPublica.
Local crews rescued Andrew Giddens, 36, near a borrow pit after he faced freezing weather without food or water
A Florida man who had been missing since Valentine’s Day was found over a week later trapped in mud up to his shoulders, authorities said.
Andrew Giddens, 36, had reportedly gone several days without food or water by then, and officials ultimately rescued him in dramatic fashion to end his nightmarish ordeal.
Continue reading...The U.S. has a fraught track record of toppling autocratic regimes and securing peaceful democracies — even when it has vision for the day after.
Why Should Delaware Care?
New Castle County Police is the latest law enforcement department in Delaware to embrace new technologies that can create additional records of police interactions. But it also comes during a lean year for finances and officials are not saying exactly how they will fit into their budget.
The New Castle County Police Department signed a $50 million contract late last year to purchase new technology, including drones, tasers, and body cameras for officers.
Police officials say the investment improves their effectiveness and reduces safety risks for civilians and officers. But some county officials and residents have questioned how the local government will pay for the upgrades.
With a tough budget season weeks away, Spotlight Delaware asked New Castle County officials how they will pay for the ongoing contract into the future. They did not provide a direct answer.
Asked whether the county will raise taxes to pay for the contract, County spokeswoman Natalie Criscenzo said officials from County Executive Marcus Henry’s administration “are actively in the budget-building process.”
Henry will present a budget address to the County Council at the end of March.
Criscenzo also noted that Henry is in support of the police technology initiative.
“One of his top priorities in this job is public safety,” she said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware.
In December, New Castle County police officials publicly presented to the County Council their initiative to purchase the drones, body cameras, and other technologies. They said then that the initiative aims to “bring officer safety and accountability” through the use of surveillance tools and cameras.
During the meeting, the county’s police chief — Col. Jamie Leonard — also noted that initial conversations about the new tech upgrades were sparked by the department’s lack of body cameras for every officer.
“Currently, we don’t have enough deployable body cameras to put them on the entire 411 of us,” Leonard said.
But during the meeting, Council members David Tackett, George Smiley, and Jea Street expressed concern over unanswered questions about where the money for the contract would come from.
“How many times in the last year have we borrowed out of reserve? To me, you can’t afford it, and that’s a major problem,” said Street, who was the sole council member to vote against authorizing the police department to make an initial $750,000 payment for the new technology.
Later during the presentation, Leonard indicated that the technology, including body cameras, could save the county money in legal settlements involving the police department’s deadly force cases.
He said that such technologies “exponentially reduces the risk.”
“I mean, you guys have seen the settlement numbers and what they are,” Leonard said.
Following the December meeting, Henry approved the initial payment of $750,000 for police to use the technology package during the current fiscal year.
The payment went to Arizona-based Axon Enterprise, the nation’s largest producer of Tasers and body cameras.
While Tackett and Smiley joined Street in questioning how the county would pay for the technology, they were supportive of the initiative, as were the rest of the council members except Street.
“Technology is moving forward, with or without New Castle County,” Councilman Penrose Hollins said. “It’s going to move forward. We can be part of it, or we can watch it go by.”
To purchase the technology, New Castle County will pay Axon a total of $50 million over the next 10 years, according to contract documents.
But Criscenzo said some of those costs are already baked into the existing budget because the contract is an upgrade from an existing one the police had. As a result, she said the county will actually pay an average of about $1.78 million extra each year over the decade.
“This is different from what you’re looking at because it’s the delta between the new contract and what we’re paying now,” she said.
The police department was previously under a seven-year contract with Axon that was then replaced by the new 10-year contract in December.
New Castle police first started wearing body cameras in 2015 as part of a pilot program the department started for certain units.
That was six years before then-Gov. John Carney signed the law that mandated that all police officers wear body cameras during interactions with the public.
The new Axon contract will provide the department with 450 new tasers and 450 body cams for the department.
The department will also have access to what they call a Real Time Crime Center, an online hub to integrate police data into one system. This hub will allow officers to monitor feeds, such as drone footage, live body camera and dash camera video.
Another major piece of the contract includes the Drone First Responder (DFR) program, which would allow police to deploy drones from pre-established launch sites to scenes before officers.
The department will deploy 24 drones over the next six years and will start with 12 in the first year. Police have said the drones could reduce unnecessary ground responses by about 25%, citing an example of an abandoned car where a license plate number would need to be run.
The post Drones, tasers & body cameras: NCCPD gets $50M tech upgrade appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Why Should Delaware Care?
As the legal home for more than 2 million companies, the rules that Delaware sets for corporate governance shape how much of global capitalism gets done. Delaware’s positions as a leading corporate home also provides the state’s General Fund with more than a third of its annual revenues.
A Delaware law passed last year in the wake of escalating assaults on the state’s corporate brand shielded powerful company leaders from facing certain lawsuits brought by smaller investors.
What it didn’t do was violate the Delaware Constitution, the state Supreme Court ruled on Friday.
More than three months after hearing arguments, the justices ruled that the corporate law reform – known as Senate Bill 21 – did not strip Delaware’s prominent Court of Chancery of its constitutional authority to decide when a business deal is fair.
“The General Assembly’s enactment of SB 21 falls within the ‘broad and ample sweep’ of its legislative power,” the justices stated.
The ruling ends a bruising fight in Delaware over when the state’s business court should allow small-time investors to interrogate insider deals struck within companies by founders or other business leaders.
The ruling also averts what could have been an embarrassment for the state’s legal and political establishment had the high court overturned the law.
More than a year ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk — the world’s richest person — was calling on business leaders to move their companies’ legal homes out of Delaware. Musk had launched the campaign, which became known as “DExit,” after a Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled that he could not accept a multibillion-dollar pay package from Tesla.
Just as the campaign appeared to be gaining a foothold, Gov. Matt Meyer, legislative leaders, and Delaware attorneys who represent corporations threw their collective heft behind SB 21.
They argued then that the legislation amounted to a “course correction” that would bring the state’s business courts back into alignment with rulings from a decade ago. Many also said the bill was needed to pacify executives who were considering following Musk’s calls to move their companies’ legal homes out of Delaware.
In response, a cadre of critics — which included national law professors, pension fund attorneys, and a handful of progressives within the Delaware legislature — derided SB 21 as a “billionaires bill.”
Some also argued that the legislation was the latest in a string of recent changes to Delaware corporate law that have shifted the state away from protecting shareholder rights and toward giving greater deference to powerful executives.
Meyer and others SB 21 supporters rejected those characterizations last year. And on Friday, he celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling.
In a statement, he said the decision affirms that “Delaware is the gold standard locale for global companies to do business.” He also stated that the number of companies that maintain their legal home in Delaware had increased throughout 2025 despite the DExit campaign.
“In short, SB 21 is working, and I’m glad it will continue to be the law,” Meyer said.
When arguing against SB 21 in front of the Supreme Court last fall, one attorney asserted that the new law removed the Chancery Court’s time-honored and constitutional duty to say what is fair – or equitable – in a business dispute.
The attorney, Gregory Varallo, argued that by removing a shareholders’ ability to sue their company, the law reduced what he described as the immutable power of the Court of Chancery to oversee a “complete system of equity.”
During his arguments, Varallo also offered the justices an unusual acknowledgement, stating that he knew that his stance was unpopular — and that he understood “well the pressures on this court.”
The comments were a likely reference to the consensus of big business groups and the state’s political establishment that believed SB 21 was necessary for Delaware to remain the world’s preeminent corporate domicile.
Following Varallo, Washington, D.C.-based attorney Jonathan C. Bond defended SB 21, in part, by characterizing his opponents arguments as unprecedented. If adopted, he said they would imperil several existing Delaware laws that go back decades.
He also argued that changing the rules of corporate law – as SB 21 did – “is the same as wiping out jurisdiction merely because it makes some plaintiff’s claims harder.”
Also arguing in favor of SB 21 during the hearing was William Savitt, an attorney with the Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz – among the most prominent corporate law firms in the country.
Last spring, Meyer hired Savitt’s firm to represent the state in the legal defense of SB 21 for a budget rate of $100,000. By comparison, Wachtell Lipton charged Twitter $90 million in 2022 to ferry that company through its arduous, four-month-long acquisition by Elon Musk.
Wachtell’s client list also includes Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta executives and board members, who last summer settled a seven-year-long, multibillion-dollar shareholder lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court.
During his arguments on SB 21, Savitt said equity as determined by judges must follow the statutes created by the legislature, and “not displace the law.”
“No natural reading of the words (of the Delaware Constitution) support plaintiff’s position,” he said.
The post Delaware Supreme Court upholds SB 21 reforms designed to counter ‘DExit’ appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
For the fourth year, ProPublica will invite up to 10 news editors from media companies across the country to participate in a yearlong investigative editing training program, led by the newsroom’s award-winning staff.
Applications are now open for the ProPublica Investigative Editor Training Program. Submissions are due Monday, March 30, at 9 a.m. Eastern time.
As the nation’s premier nonprofit investigative newsroom, ProPublica is dedicated to journalism that changes laws and lives and to advancing the careers of the people who produce it. The goal of this program is to address our industry’s critical need to broaden the ranks of investigative editors. Building a pipeline of talent is a priority that serves us and our industry.
“Journalism is vital to a healthy democracy, and it is clear that our world needs more investigative journalism at this moment, not less,” Managing Editor Ginger Thompson said. “We see the Editor Training Program as an indispensable training ground to ensure the future of investigative journalism. Where others are contracting, we are investing in the future of our industry, and that of talented journalists across the country.”
This year’s program will begin with a weeklong boot camp in New York that will include courses and panel discussions on how to conceive of and produce investigative projects that expose harm and have impact. The editors will also get training in how to manage reporters who are working with data, documents and sensitive sources, including whistleblowers, agency insiders and people who have suffered trauma. The program also includes virtual continuing education sessions and support from a ProPublica mentor.
The ProPublica Investigative Editor Training Program is designed to help expand the ranks of editors with investigative experience in newsrooms across the country, to help better reflect the nation as a whole.
The program kicks off with a five-day intensive editing boot camp in New York, which includes a series of courses and panel discussions led by ProPublica’s senior editors, veteran reporters and other newsroom leaders. The boot camp will include hands-on editing exercises and opportunities for participants to workshop projects underway in their own newsrooms.
Afterward, participants will gather virtually for seminars and career development discussions with their cohort and ProPublica journalists. Each of the participants will also be assigned a ProPublica senior editor as a mentor for advice on story and management challenges or on how to most effectively pursue their own professional aspirations.
The five-day, all-expenses-paid boot camp will be held May 31 to June 4, 2026, in New York, with remote sessions via Google Meet throughout the year.
This boot camp will be held in person and will not have a virtual option.
ProPublica will cover participants’ expenses for meals, travel and lodging during the boot camp.
Up to 10 journalists.
The program is open to all. The aim is to help broaden our industry’s investigative editing ranks to include journalists from a wide array of backgrounds. We encourage everyone to apply, including those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds and rural news organizations, as well as women, people of color, veterans, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities. Past participants have come from a wide range of news outlets across the country.
The ideal participants will have:
No.
The application period is now open and closes Monday, March 30, at 9 a.m. Eastern time. You can find the posting to apply at propublica.org/jobs.
Send an email to Assistant Managing Editor Talia Buford at talent@propublica.org.
The post Applications Open for 2026 ProPublica Investigative Editor Training Program appeared first on ProPublica.
Hartlepool leaders ‘furious and appalled’ after meeting with Steve Reed about growing cost of social care
The housing, communities and local government secretary has been accused by a Labour council of showing “arrogance, indifference and moral bankruptcy” towards children in social care.
In an unusually forthright attack, Labour leaders of Hartlepool council said they were “furious and appalled” at Steve Reed after a meeting with him last week. A cross-party delegation had asked the secretary of state for £3m to help alleviate the growing cost of social care.
Continue reading..."Saturn and some of its 274 moons are pretty weird," writes Smithsonian magazine: [Saturn moon] Titan has strangely few impact craters, Hyperion is tiny and misshapen, and Iapetus has a tilted orbit. What's more, planets tend to wobble along their rotational axes as they spin, like an off-kilter spinning top in the moments before it topples over. Formally called precession, scientists have long thought that Saturn's wobble rate should match Neptune's because they're probably gravitationally linked. However, data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which studied the ringed planet from 2004 to 2017, revealed that Saturn's precession rate is slightly speedier than Neptune's. In 2022, some researchers suggested that the destruction of a hypothetical moon, called Chrysalis, around 160 million years ago may have knocked Saturn out of sync and formed the pieces that became the planet's rings. But this work implied that Chrysalis probably would've crashed into Titan, posing a major problem, study co-author Matija Äuk, an astronomer at the SETI Institute, tells New Scientist's Leah Crane. In that case, Chrysalis' debris couldn't have become the rings, he says. So, Äuk and his colleagues used computer simulations to investigate what would happen if Chrysalis did smack into Titan. If that happened around 400 million years ago, they found, the crash would've wiped away Titan's craters and made its orbit more elliptical. The altered path may have slowly pushed the trajectories of other moons, which then scraped against one another and left chunks of ice and rock that now make up Saturn's rings. The timing seems to align with the rings' estimated age of roughly 100 million years. Additionally, one piece of kicked-up debris may have formed the weird moon Hyperion, which may have subsequently tilted the orbit of the moon Iapetus, according to the analysis. The scenario could also resolve Saturn's unexpected wobble, which is currently "a little bit too fast," Äuk tells Jacopo Prisco at CNN. The study has been accepted for publication in the Planetary Science Journal, and is already available on the preprint server arXiv.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Fears that decision to strike could be open-ended as Trump comes under pressure to spell out his vision for the country
Donald Trump is under pressure to spell out his vision for Iran amid the ongoing attacks on the country and reports of the first American casualties since the launch of unprovoked US and Israeli military strikes.
Trump’s critics are demanding that the White House provide greater clarity about what comes next. Opponents and analysts say the lack of a clear plan outlined so far has created a danger of the US being sucked into a long-lasting conflict of the sort that Trump repeatedly vowed to avoid.
Continue reading...Still trying to fine a good tune for my GTV. Best I’ve found is Lukes tune, but in the title it sates its for a superflux motor. Is it fine to use these premade tunes in the floaty app for a GTV?
Snapdragon Wear Elite is built to be on camera-enabled watches, pins, pendants and even glasses, according to Qualcomm. And it could mean a wave of devices that can also work as car keys and more.
Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon Wear Elite platform, which will be integrated into the next Galaxy Watch, at MWC in Barcelona.
Trying to change the tire on my onewheel pint but the bolts that are on the side of it that connect to the tires are sk tight that it is Bending the allen wrench i have and a screw driver cant crack it. Any advice on how to get it?
Funding uncertainty is main concern, despite Labour’s pledge to revitalise construction, survey shows
Almost two-thirds of senior council officers have said they are seeing construction projects delayed, despite the key role of local authorities in creating the wave of new housing and infrastructure promised by Labour.
Before Rachel Reeves’s spring forecast on Tuesday, a survey of senior council officers showed that 40% do not think the local authority they work for is well placed to follow through on its construction plans.
Continue reading...Grenade-throwing contests replaced PE and ‘denazification’ speeches became homework. Pavel Talankin’s undercover film about his school’s indoctrination drive won a Bafta and is tipped for an Oscar, but has left him in exile
In order to watch the Oscar-nominated documentary in which many of them have starring roles, pupils at Karabash School No 1 have had to source bootlegged copies, viewing the film in private, on their phones or their laptops.
Last week’s Bafta best documentary win for Mr Nobody Against Putin has been studiously ignored by Russian state media, and the prize the film won at Sundance last year was also met with silence. Staff at the school and government officials in the Kremlin seem united in their desire to pretend that they know nothing about the film.
Continue reading...Stitch by stitch, a group of University of Delaware students lent their embroidery skills to a collaborative project meant to celebrate Revolutionary War history as the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary later this year.
FBI official says evidence found on the suspect and in his car indicated a ‘potential nexus to terrorism’
The FBI’s joint terrorism taskforce has been called in to help investigate a deadly mass shooting in downtown Austin, Texas, on Sunday morning in which a gunman opened fire in front of a bar popular with university students, killing two people and injuring 14 others before being fatally shot by police.
An FBI official, Alex Doran, told reporters at a press conference that it was too early to determine the shooter’s motivation. But he added that evidence found on the suspect and in his car indicated a “potential nexus to terrorism”, while an intelligence group said the shooter had expressed “pro-Iranian regime sentiment”.
Continue reading...As the Mobile World Conference begins in Spain, Lenovo brought a new attachable accessory for their laptops — an AI agent. CNET reports: The little circular module perches on the top of your Lenovo laptop display, attached via the magnetic Magic Bay on the rear. The module is home to an adorable animated companion called Tiko, who you can interact with via text or voice... [I]t can start and stop your music, open a web page for you or answer a question. You can also interact with it by using emoji. Give it a book emoji, for example, and it will pop on its glasses and sit reading with you while you work... The company wants to sell the Magic Bay accessory later this year — although it doesn't know exactly when, or how much it will cost. It even comes with a timer (for working in Pomodoro-style intervals) — but Lenovo has also created another "concept" AI companion that CNET describes as "a kind of stationary tabletop robot, not dissimilar to the Pixar lamp, but with an orb for a head." With a combination of cameras, microphones and projectors, the AI Workmate can undertake a variety of tasks, including helping you generate and display presentations or turn your written work or art into a digital asset... It's robotic head swivelled around and projected the slides onto the wall next to me. Lenovo created a video to show this "next-generation AI work companion" — with animated eyes — "designed to transform how modern professionals interact with their workspace." It bridges the physical and digital worlds — capturing handwritten notes, recognizing gestures, summarizing tasks, and proactively helping you stay ahead of your day. The moment you sit down, Lenovo AI Workmate greets you, surfaces priority tasks, and keeps your work organized without switching apps or losing context. From turning sketches into presentations to projecting information for instant collaboration, [it] brings on-device AI intelligence directly to your desk — secure, responsive, and always ready... It's not just software. It's a smarter way to work. It looks like Lenovo once considered naming it "AI Sphere" (since that name still appears in its description on YouTube). Lenovo also showed another "concept" laptop idea that PC Magazine called "futuristic": The ThinkBook Modular AI PC looks like a traditional laptop at first glance, but a second, removable screen fastens onto the lid. You can swap that screen onto the keyboard deck (in place of the keyboard, which can then be used wirelessly), or use it alongside the laptop as a portable monitor, attached via an included cable.... While Lenovo is still working on this device, and it's very much in the concept phase, it feels like one of its best-thought-out prototypes, one likely to make it to store shelves at some point. Another "concept" laptop is Lenovo's Yoga Book Pro 3D Concept, ofering directional backlight and eye-tracking technology for the illusion of 3D (playing slightly different images to each of your eyes). It offers gesture control for 3D models, two OLED displays, and some magical "snap-on pads" which, when laid on the display — make the GUI appear on the screen for a new control menu to "provide quick-access shortcuts for adjusting lighting, viewing angle, and tone".
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
US president signals potential willingness to engage with surviving leadership as violence intensifies across region
Donald Trump said on Sunday he was prepared to talk to what was left of the Iranian leadership after the killing of the country’s supreme leader by US-Israeli airstrikes aimed at overthrowing the regime.
Trump was speaking as a second day of intense bombing of Iranian cities and Tehran’s missile counterattacks sent tremors across the region and through the global economy. On Monday the conflict spread to Lebanon as Israel began striking Hezbollah targets, after the group launched missiles and drones towards Israel’s north in retaliation for the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Continue reading...Tufan Erginbilgiç says decision is for the government but German participation remains a possibility
The boss of Rolls-Royce has said he would welcome Germany helping to build Britain’s next-generation fighter jet, arguing it would bring in more business for the project.
The aircraft, designed to replace the Eurofighter Typhoon, is a joint effort between the UK, Italy and Japan. Rolls-Royce is building the engine for the jet, which has attracted fresh attention as plans for a rival Franco-German warplane edge towards collapse.
Continue reading...At Mobile World Congress, the company shares more details about its upcoming book-style foldable.
Iran, Venezuela, and the end of the Powell Doctrine.
The PLA’s tech strategy is working.
Sporadic clashes reported in several provinces in Afghanistan as both sides give conflicting death tolls
Afghanistan has said it had thwarted Pakistan’s attempted airstrikes on Bagram airbase, the former US military base north of Kabul, as cross-border fighting between the two countries stretched into a fourth day.
Months of clashes have flared up again since Thursday, when Afghanistan launched attacks along the frontier and Pakistani forces hit back on the border and from the skies. Pakistan has declared it is in “open war” with Afghanistan.
Continue reading...Authorities say capture of bull and tiger sharks necessary to protect lives as environmentalists launch urgent legal challenge
Some beaches in areas of New Caledonia are closed to swimming and the authorities have begun shark culling off the capital, Nouméa, after a fatal attack in the popular tourist spot – prompting a legal challenge to stop the operation and reigniting debate over public safety and marine conservation.
The culling operation began on 23 February, after a man from New Caledonia riding a wing foil in a recreational area was attacked and killed. Preliminary investigations indicate the victim was attacked by a tiger shark that measured at least three metres.
Continue reading...Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 2.
Ponder loses control of Tesla on Sunday morning
Coach Sanders mourns ‘one of my favorites’
Colorado quarterback Dominiq Ponder died early Sunday morning in a single-car crash in Boulder County, police said. He was 23.
Ponder lost control of his Tesla on a curve and hit a guardrail, according to the Colorado State Patrol. The car then struck an electrical line pole and rolled down an embankment before it caught fire. Ponder was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said a preliminary investigation “shows that speed is suspected as a factor”.
Continue reading...  | Cleaned it pretty good if you ask me! [link] [comments] |
 | How are Onewheels recieved in Washington DC? Come summertime im gonna hop a train down to Union Station, grab a hotel nearby and do a week of Smithsonian. Thinkin bout bringin the GT to get around on. Good idea? Bad Idea? Im usually a NYC rider which they are apparently illegal in the city but ive never had anyone care which is basically why im askin here instead of looking up laws. [link] [comments] |
If U.S. automakers turn their backs on electric vehicles, "their sales outside the U.S. will shrivel," warns Bloomberg. [Alternate URL.] They're already falling behind on the technology, relying on a 100% U.S. tariff on Chinese EVs to keep surging rivals like BYD Co. at bay.... While the American automakers "mostly understand the challenge in front of them, they don't have full plans" to confront it [said Mark Wakefield, head of the global automotive practice at consultant AlixPartners]... "Now is a great time for the V-8 engine," said Ryan Shaughnessy, the Mustang's brand manager. "We've done extensive customer research in multiple cities, looking at a variety of powertrains, and the V-8 is always the number-one choice." It isn't just customers. U.S. automakers have long been run by "car guys:" enthusiasts who live for the bone-shaking rumble of a big engine. For them, quiet and smooth EVs — even the absurdly fast ones — can't satisfy that craving. They're convinced many American car buyers share the same enthusiasm for what Shaughnessy described as "the sound and roar of the V-8." Wall Street couldn't be happier with the new direction... Ford's fortunes are also on the rise, as it's predicting operating profits could grow by as much as 47% this year to $10 billion. Ford's stock has risen nearly 50% over the last 12 months. Under the previous environmental rules, automakers effectively had to sell zero-emission vehicles in growing numbers to offset their gas-guzzlers. When they fell short, they had to buy regulatory credits from EV companies such as Tesla Inc. or face penalties. GM spent $3.5 billion on credits from 2022 to the middle of 2025. Now, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Ryan Brinkman, GM and Ford each have "billion dollar tailwinds"... [T]he hangover from all that new horsepower could leave US automakers lagging their Chinese rivals who already build the world's most advanced — and lowest priced — electric cars. Indeed, there is much talk in Detroit about the competitive tsunami that will be unleashed on American automakers once Chinese car companies find a way to break through trade barriers now protecting the US market. [Ford Chief Executive Officer Jim] Farley even calls it an "existential threat"... "They're going to build as many V-8 engines and big trucks as they can get out the factory doors," said Sam Fiorani, vice president of vehicle forecasting for consultant Auto Forecast Solutions. "And as the rest of the world develops modern drivetrains, newer batteries and better electric vehicles, GM and Ford in particular are going to find themselves falling even further behind." The article notes GM "continues to develop battery-powered vehicles, and CEO Mary Barra said the automaker would begin offering a 'handful' of hybrids soon," while Ford and Stellantis "have plans to launch extended-range electric vehicles, or EREVs, a new kind of plug-in hybrid with an internal combustion engine that recharges the battery as the vehicle drives down the road." But while automakers may be investing in future EV vehicles, they're also "leaning into the lucre that comes from selling millions of fossil-fuel vehicles in a rare moment of loosened regulation."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 | me nor crashing [link] [comments] |
Trump has taken an approach to selling U.S. citizens on military action in Iran that contrasts with his predecessors, seeking to avoid completely owning it.
Lindsey Heaps and Jaedyn Shaw score for US
US continue SheBelieves Cup v Canada on Wednesday
Rodman has dealt with back problems
Lindsey Heaps and Jaedyn Shaw scored as the US women’s national team defeated Argentina 2-0 in their opening match of the SheBelieves Cup in Nashville, Tennessee on Sunday.
Heaps made it 1-0 in the 19th minute, and Shaw doubled the count in the 56th.
Continue reading...Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 2, No. 995
Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for March 2, No. 525.
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 2, No. 729.
Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for March 2, No. 1,717.
Can making foldable phones more premium help sell more? Motorola sure thinks so.
"Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That's the way it is. Likely be more," President Trump said after mentioning the three U.S. service members killed in the operation.
Police say Cher's son was arrested on Friday after acting belligerently at a New Hampshire private high school, of which he has no association.
The U.S. military says three troops have been killed in the war with Iran, as President Trump says the operation is proceeding "ahead of schedule." Follow live updates.
Following a precedent setting case out of Michigan, prosecutors are starting to hold parents accountable for their child's mass shooting crimes. 60 Minutes reports on whether it's enough to break the cycle of school shootings.
U.S. forces say they have hit 1,000 targets over the past two days in a race to take out Iran’s ability to threaten American personnel and allies across the Middle East.
US president says ‘an Iranian regime armed with long range missiles would be a dire threat to every American’ in video released on Truth Social Sunday evening
Loud explosions were heard early on Sunday near Erbil airport, which hosts US-led coalition troops in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, AFP reported. Thick black smoke was rising from the airport area.
On Saturday, US-led coalition forces downed several missiles and explosive-laden drones over Erbil.
Continue reading...Within hours of the prime minister’s statement, the UK’s Akrotiri air force base in Cyprus was reportedly hit by a drone
The UK has agreed to let the US use British military bases to attack Iranian missile sites, Keir Starmer has said.
The UK has so far not been involved in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, but in a recorded statement on Sunday evening, the prime minister said that Iran’s approach was becoming more reckless and putting British lives at risk, leading to the decision to allow the US to use two of its military bases.
Continue reading...Trump cited debunked claims in video address that Iran was on verge of nuclear weapons to justify US casualties
Donald Trump recorded a new video address on Sunday, vowing to avenge three American deaths after the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran and accusing the Iranian regime of “waging war against civilization itself”.
The US president addressed the deaths, saying “we grieve for the true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, even as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives” and called for prayers for “the full recovery” of five others that were seriously wounded.
Continue reading...  | Hey all I’ve got a bit of a conundrum here. I’ve had this owgt (hardware 6407) for years and I’ve recently rediscovered this glitch (I think) when charging. Normally I use the hyper charger but I am unable to due to it being away from me atm so I am using the supplied 75v charger. For context I have seen this bug always in some way but I just never thought it to be a big deal as over time the flickering lights went away and rarely if ever came back using the hyper charger but now using the 75w charger they are back. Is this the board calibrating the battery for the new lower voltage or is this a bug? I’ve never had this issue on my pint at all so kinda looking for some help before I call future motion and are on hold with them for hours lol. Any help would be great thanks [link] [comments] |
Oil prices rose sharply when market trading began late Sunday over concerns that the supply from Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East would slow or grind to a halt.
Federal judges say criticism from President Trump can put their safety at risk. The White House says the president "understands the dangers of political violence."
Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late deposed shah of Iran, said he hopes to help lead a transitional government in his home country.
Federal judges who have ruled against the Trump administration say they have been targeted by violent threats.
Prince Reza Pahlavi, a leader of the opposition to the Islamic Republic, discusses whether regime change is coming, who leads a transition, and nuclear weapons.
After a deadly school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, prosecutors, in a first, charged both the gunman and his parents. It's a change some victims' families believe could help break the cycle of violence.
Criminologists tell 60 Minutes that dismissing shooters as incomprehensible villains misses an opportunity to prevent the crime.
US president says he is willing to speak to Iran’s remaining leadership as war spreads across Middle East – key US politics stories from 1 March 2026
Republican senators have defended Donald Trump’s decision to launch a war against Iran, but some Democrats, while welcoming the elimination of the Iranian senior leadership, said the case for the attack should have been made to the American public and Congress.
Three US service members have been killed so far in the military operation, and Trump appeared to link the ordering of the attack to his 2020 election loss.
Continue reading...The Norwegian Consumer Council, a government funded organization advocating for consumer's rights, released a report on the trend of "enshittification" in digital consumer goods and services, suggesting ways consumers for consumers to resist. But they've also dramatized the problem with a funny four-minute video about the man whose calls for him to make things shitty for people. "It's not just your imagination. Digital services are getting worse," the video concludes — before adding that "Luckily, it doesn't have to be this way." The Consumer Council's announcement recommends: Stronger rights for consumers to control, adapt, repair, and alter their products and services, Interoperability, data portability, and decentralisation as the norm, so the threshold for moving to different services becomes as low as possible, Deterrent and vigorous enforcement of competition law, so that Big Tech companies are not allowed to indiscriminately acquire start-ups, competitors or otherwise steer the market to their advantage, Better financing of initiatives to build, maintain or improve alternative digital services and infrastructure based on open source code and open protocols, Reduce public sector dependence on big tech, to regain control and to contribute to a functioning market for service providers that respect fundamental rights, Deterrent and consistent enforcement of other laws, including consumer and data protection law. The Norwegian Consumer Council is also joining 58 organisations and experts in a letter asking the Norwegian government to rebalance power with enforcement resources and by prioritizing the procurement of services based on open source code. And "Our sister organisations are sending similar letters to their own governments in 12 countries." They're also sending a second letter to the European Commission with 29 civil society organisations (including the EFF and Amnesty International) warning about the risks of deregulation and calling for reducing dependency on big tech. Thanks to Slashdot reader DeanonymizedCoward for sharing the news.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Lenovo brought some adorable AI concepts to MWC 2026 -- one of which you'll actually be able to buy soon.
This handheld gaming prototype has a ridiculous number of options when it comes to screen orientation and controller placement.
The concept is just one of a number of new Yoga and Legion products that Lenovo unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2026.
This is the most modular laptop I've ever seen.
Royal College of Psychiatrists says impact on mental health often overlooked and calls for improvements in care
Nearly three-quarters of UK women do not know menopause can trigger a new mental illness, polling shows.
This lack of understanding is so acute that the Royal College of Psychiatrists has launched its first targeted “position statement” to raise awareness about menopause and mental health.
Continue reading..."Advanced AI models appear willing to deploy nuclear weapons without the same reservations humans have when put into simulated geopolitical crises," reports New Scientist: Kenneth Payne at King's College London set three leading large language models — GPT-5.2, Claude Sonnet 4 and Gemini 3 Flash — against each other in simulated war games. The scenarios involved intense international standoffs, including border disputes, competition for scarce resources and existential threats to regime survival. The AIs were given an escalation ladder, allowing them to choose actions ranging from diplomatic protests and complete surrender to full strategic nuclear war... In 95 per cent of the simulated games, at least one tactical nuclear weapon was deployed by the AI models. "The nuclear taboo doesn't seem to be as powerful for machines [as] for humans," says Payne. What's more, no model ever chose to fully accommodate an opponent or surrender, regardless of how badly they were losing. At best, the models opted to temporarily reduce their level of violence. They also made mistakes in the fog of war: accidents happened in 86 per cent of the conflicts, with an action escalating higher than the AI intended to, based on its reasoning... OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, the companies behind the three AI models used in this study, didn't respond to New Scientist's request for comment. The article includes this comment from Tong Zhao, a senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace think tank. "It is possible the issue goes beyond the absence of emotion. More fundamentally, AI models may not understand 'stakes' as humans perceive them." Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader Tufriast for sharing the article.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Trials to form part of three-month consultation on Keir Starmer’s plans to tackle negative effects of smartphone use
Hundreds of teenagers will be enlisted to trial social media bans in the coming months with overnight digital curfews and daily screen time limits also tested as part of Keir Starmer’s plan to crack down on the negative effects of smartphone use.
The trials will be part of a three-month consultation launched this week that could lead to an outright ban on social media for under-16s similar to that introduced in Australia. Ministers have said they are ready to toughen laws just six months after the introduction of child protection measures in the Online Safety Act.
Continue reading...Iran intensified its strikes against countries in the Persian Gulf and Israel on Sunday, attacking at least nine countries since the start of the joint U.S.-Israeli attack.
I’m 40 miles in with my XR. I want to go to In N Out near my house by there is heavy traffic heading there.
So far I’ve been riding around my neighborhood with minimal traffic well.
When did you guys start riding with more traffic around you?
Home secretary announces 30-month protection limit, with refugees required to leave if their home countries are later judged safe
Shabana Mahmood has ripped up the government’s asylum rules so that from Monday every refugee will be told that their status is temporary and will last just 30 months.
In a move that has concerned a refugee charity, the home secretary said that claimants whose countries are deemed to be safe by the UK government will from now on be expected to return.
Continue reading...On tour of returns centre, home secretary says ‘legitimate grievances’ have to be acknowledged as part of ‘responsible’ politics
The UK home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, and Danish immigration officials strode through the bleak and chilly Sjælsmark returns centre, a former military barracks used to house men and women who have no right to remain in the country. Followed by photographers, reporters and civil servants, Mahmood was told of the strict conditions in which hundreds of people live after asylum and right to remain appeals are rejected and before many are sent to other countries.
Sjælsmark, about 20 miles north of Copenhagen, is at the sharp end of an asylum system set up by Denmark’s left-leaning Social Democrat government to deter claimants. As well as those facing swift deportations, refugees are given temporary permission to stay and will later be told to leave if their countries of origin are deemed safe.
Continue reading...About 200,000 nationals thought to be in the region as tensions rise after US-Israeli attacks on Iranian regime
The Foreign Office is drawing up plans to evacuate tens of thousands of British citizens if war in the Middle East escalates, with many travellers currently stranded in Dubai.
Keir Starmer said on Sunday that about 200,000 British people are in the region, on holiday or otherwise travelling across the Gulf. He urged everyone in areas targeted by Iranian strikes to register with the Foreign Office to receive advice, with about 94,000 doing that so far.
Continue reading...Lindo speaks out after man with Tourette syndrome shouted slur while actor was on stage with Michael B Jordan
British-American actor Delroy Lindo expressed gratitude for “the support and love” he and Michael B Jordan have received after a man with Tourette syndrome (TS) shouted the N-word as the two men presented a Bafta award.
“We appreciate all the support and love that we have been shown,” Lindo – who, like Jordan, is Black – said on stage at the annual NAACP Image awards in Los Angeles. He called it “a classic case of something that could be very negative becoming very positive”.
Continue reading...Slashdot reader JustAnotherOldGuy shared this report from the Guardian: Chronic ocean heating is fuelling a "staggering and deeply concerning" loss of marine life, a study has found, with fish levels falling by 7.2% from as little as 0.1C of warming per decade. Researchers examined the year-to-year change of 33,000 populations in the northern hemisphere between 1993 and 2021, and isolated the effect of the decadal rate of seabed warming from short shifts such as marine heatwaves. They found the drop in biomass from chronic heating to be as high as 19.8% in a single year. "To put it simply, the faster the ocean floor warms, the faster we lose fish," said Shahar Chaikin, a marine ecologist at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Spain and the study's lead author. "A 7.2% decline for every tenth of a degree per decade might sound small," he added. "But compounded over time, across entire ocean basins, it represents a staggering and deeply concerning loss of marine life."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
I had no idea, but apparently, you can just use newline characters and tabs in URLs without any issues.
Notice how it reports an error if there is a tab or newline character, but continues anyway? The specification says that A validation error does not mean that the parser terminates and it encourages systems to report errors somewhere. Effectively, the error is ignored although it might be logged. Thus our HTML is fine in practice.
↫ Daniel Lemire
This reminds me of the “Email is easy” quiz.
PM is in diplomatically precarious position of declining to endorse US strikes while also refusing to condemn them
It was perhaps naive of No 10 ever to position Keir Starmer as a “Donald Trump whisperer” capable of persuading the unpredictable US president to step back from reckless decisions.
The “special relationship” has been under severe strain in recent months over the UK’s decision to give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands and the refusal of European countries to back Trump’s play for Greenland.
Continue reading..."Anthropic may have lost out on doing business with the US government," reports Engadget, "but it's gained enough popularity to earn the number one spot on the App Store's Top Free Apps leaderboard." Anthropic's Claude AI assistant had already leaped to the #2 slot on Apple's chart by late Friday," CNBC reported Saturday: The rise in popularity suggests that Anthropic is benefiting from its presence in news headlines, stemming from its refusal to have its models used for mass domestic surveillance or for fully autonomous weapons... OpenAI's ChatGPT sat at No. 1 on the App Store rankings on Saturday, while Google's Gemini was at No. 3... On Jan. 30, [Claude] was ranked No. 131 in the U.S., and it bounced between the top 20 and the top 50 for much of February, according to data from analytics company Sensor Tower... [And Friday night, for 85.3 million followers] pop singer Katy Perry posted a screenshot of Anthropic's Pro subscription for consumers, with a heart superimposed over it. Sunday Engadget reported Anthropic's "very public spat" with the Pentagon "led to a wave of user support that finally allowed Claude to dethrone OpenAI's ChatGPT on the App Store as the most downloaded free app" . Friday Anthropic posted "We are deeply grateful to our users, and to the industry peers, policymakers, veterans, and members of the public who have voiced their support in recent days. Thank you. "
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
"Anthropic may have lost out on doing business with the US government," reports Engadget, "but it's gained enough popularity to earn the number one spot on the App Store's Top Free Apps leaderboard." Anthropic's Claude AI assistant had already leaped to the #2 slot on Apple's chart by late Friday," CNBC reported Saturday: The rise in popularity suggests that Anthropic is benefiting from its presence in news headlines, stemming from its refusal to have its models used for mass domestic surveillance or for fully autonomous weapons... OpenAI's ChatGPT sat at No. 1 on the App Store rankings on Saturday, while Google's Gemini was at No. 3... On Jan. 30, [Claude] was ranked No. 131 in the U.S., and it bounced between the top 20 and the top 50 for much of February, according to data from analytics company Sensor Tower... [And Friday night, for 85.3 million followers] pop singer Katy Perry posted a screenshot of Anthropic's Pro subscription for consumers, with a heart superimposed over it. Sunday Engadget reported Anthropic's "very public spat" with the Pentagon "led to a wave of user support that finally allowed Claude to dethrone OpenAI's ChatGPT on the App Store as the most downloaded free app." . Friday Anthropic posted "We are deeply grateful to our users, and to the industry peers, policymakers, veterans, and members of the public who have voiced their support in recent days. Thank you. "
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
State trooper used Pit ramming maneuvre to stop Dillon Hess from speeding while transporting his son to hospital
An Arkansas father speeding while transporting his sick child to the hospital will not face charges after a state police trooper used a vehicle-ramming technique known as a Pit maneuvre to stop his vehicle, authorities have said.
Officials said they have ruled out charges against the father, identified as Dillon Hess, who was speeding as he rushed his son to the hospital for emergency medical treatment after he suffered an allergic reaction, as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette first reported.
Continue reading...Iran’s constitution calls for an assembly of experts to choose the next supreme leader, but that may not be possible in wartime.
Efforts in Congress to block President Trump from using further military force against Iran without support from lawmakers have intensified after the U.S. and Israel launched a massive military operation.
President Trump said Sunday that he is willing to speak with the new leadership in Iran following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Attack on Iran has widespread support, with little questioning of whether it is best option for lasting security
In June, Benjamin Netanyahu declared “a historic victory, which will stand for generations” after the 12-day war on Iran.
His decision to attack Iran again, less than a year later, was greeted with broad and enthusiastic support from Israeli politicians, including the prime minister’s bitter rivals, and a public willing to endure death and massive disruption to their lives.
Continue reading...Chancellor urged to reform Office for Budget Responsibility to open way to more public investment
Rachel Reeves must reform the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to open the way to more public investment, an alliance of thinktanks has argued ahead of the chancellor’s spring forecast on Tuesday.
With Keir Starmer’s government under intense pressure after Labour’s defeat by the Greens in Thursday’s Gorton and Denton byelection, the thinktanks called on Reeves to review the watchdog’s remit.
Continue reading...Danise Baird, the wife of Indiana Rep. Jim Baird, has died following complications from her car crash injuries with her husband in January.
Engadget reports: In a lengthy post on Truth Social on February 27, President Trump ordered all federal agencies to "immediately cease all use of Anthropic's technology" following strong disagreements between the Department of Defense and the AI company. A few hours later, the U.S. conducted a major air attack on Iran with the help of Anthropic's AI tools, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Even Trump's post noted there would be a six-month phase-out for Anthropic's technology (adding that Anthropic "better get their act together, and be helpful during this phase out period, or I will use the Full Power of the Presidency to make them comply, with major civil and criminal consequences to follow.") Anthropic's Claude technology was also used by the U.S. military less than two months ago in its operation in Venezuela — reportedly making them the first AI developer known to be used in a classified U.S. War Department operation. The Wall Street Journal reported Anthropic's technology found its way into the mission through Anthropic's contract with Palintir.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The US and Israel launched a joint military operation against Iran on Saturday, killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Why did Trump decide (again) to attack Iran during negotiations on a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic? How does he sell a new war in the Middle East, with potential US casualties, to people at home? What happens next for Iran?
In this special collaboration with Today in Focus, Annie Kelly speaks to the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour.
Archive: CBS News, NBC News, PBS Newshour, CNN, Fox News
Continue reading...Retaliatory strikes have so far been high in volume but mostly not very effective and are likely to become less so
In the grim calculus of war, Iran now has to hope it gets lucky. The first hours of the joint US-Israeli assault were catastrophic for the Iranian regime: the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, killed alongside, it is believed, the minister of defence, the head of the armed forces and the head of the powerful Revolutionary Guards.
Iran knew its security apparatus had been compromised during the 12-day war of June 2025 when Israel killed a string of senior military commanders. During January’s street protests, Khamenei was moved away to a secure location for his own safety, yet on Saturday he felt safe enough to hold a security meeting in his compound in Tehran.
Continue reading...On this "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" broadcast, Sens. Tom Cotton and Chris Murphy join Margaret Brennan.
President Donald Trump’s order to launch a coordinated U.S.-Israeli strike against Iran ran afoul of international and domestic law, according to military and legal experts including the former legal chief at U.S. Central Command, which carried out the attacks.
“Not only does this violate international law in numerous respects, it clearly violates the U.S. Constitution and the War Powers Resolution,” said retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham, who previously served as chief of international law at U.S. Central Command.
The United Nations Charter generally restricts the use of force to cases of self-defense or with approval from the U.N. Security Council. The Constitution separately gives Congress the power to authorize offensive war.
The War Powers Resolution also requires presidents to notify Congress within 48 hours of introducing U.S. forces into hostilities and limits how long those forces can operate without congressional approval. Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed members of Congress’s bipartisan “Gang of Eight” in calls Friday night ahead of the strikes, according to administration officials and news reports.
Legal experts say advance briefings to the Gang of Eight do not necessarily satisfy the War Powers Resolution, which contemplates a formal written report to Congress as an institution, not just a small group of leaders.
“This is an introduction of U.S. forces into hostilities,” said VanLandingham, who now teaches national security law at Southwestern Law School. “It absolutely triggers the 48-hour notice requirement,” she said.
The fact American service members died in the operation raises further legal concerns, she said, as Congress is intended to decide when American lives are placed at risk in offensive wars.
Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., called the operation “dangerous” and “illegal,” saying Trump launched the attack “without authorization from Congress.”
“Speaker Johnson must immediately reconvene the House so we can pass a War Powers Resolution to rein in this unauthorized use of our military and taxpayer dollars,” Balint said.
Democratic leaders had already been moving toward a vote on a bipartisan war powers resolution in the days before the strikes, though the measure was widely expected to fail amid scattered Democratic opposition and near-unified Republican resistance.
From a legal perspective, VanLandingham said the attacks, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, present fewer ambiguities than prior U.S. strikes on Iran, including Operation Midnight Hammer on June 22, 2025, which the U.S. said targeted Iranian nuclear facilities.
Over time, administrations of both parties have steadily expanded unilateral war powers, VanLandingham said, effectively redefining what counts as war in constitutional terms and expanding the circumstances in which presidents can use force without congressional approval. She pointed to air campaigns under Presidents Barack Obama in Libya and Donald Trump in Syria as examples of operations the executive branch treated as falling short of war requiring congressional authorization.
The death toll for Operation Epic Fury is mounting, both among civilians and combatants. A strike on a girls’ primary school resulted in nearly 100 reported civilian casualties, and U.S. Central Command said three U.S. service members were killed in action and five seriously wounded. Several others service members sustained minor injuries, the command said, as combat operations continued across the region.
Video circulating on social media appeared to show large explosions near U.S. military installations in Bahrain, including the headquarters of the Navy’s Fifth Fleet, though the extent of any damage was not immediately clear. The U.S. Navy did not respond to questions from The Intercept about whether any service members were killed or injured in Iran’s retaliatory strikes.
U.S. casualties heighten the constitutional stakes, VanLandingham said, because the decision to place American troops in harm’s way has traditionally rested with Congress, which she described as the government’s closest representation of the American public.
“To say there’s no risk to U.S. troops … I wouldn’t call it naive. I’d call it a pure lie,” said Wes Bryant, a former Air Force special operations member who previously served as chief of civilian harm assessments at the Pentagon’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence.
Bryant said the scope of the strikes suggested major combat operations that could quickly tip toward large-scale conflict in a densely populated country, with predictable risks to both U.S. troops and civilians.
Bryant said the early casualty figures may not reflect the full risk if hostilities continue. “I’m surprised it’s only been three deaths,” he said. “It will be more if this continues and we lose the initial shock value.”
U.S. Central Command said U.S. forces successfully defended against hundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks targeting American installations and reported minimal damage that did not disrupt base operations.
Early reports of successful Iranian strikes, if confirmed, could signal vulnerabilities in U.S. regional defenses, said analysts with the Eisenhower Media Network.
“If these reports are accurate, this should be very concerning to U.S. forces,” said Matt Hoh, a former Marine Corps captain and State Department official who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Iranian missiles and drones were able to breach U.S. defenses very early in the conflict.”
Hoh said early breaches of U.S. defenses, if confirmed, could reflect gaps in regional air defenses, evolving Iranian missile capabilities, or lessons Tehran has drawn from observing U.S. operations.
The Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain serves as the centerpiece of U.S. naval operations in the Persian Gulf, and any sustained threat to installations in the region could complicate American force posture and maritime security operations.
Also within range of Iran’s missile arsenal is Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, one of the largest U.S.-operated airfields outside the United States and home to thousands of American personnel.
Iran had repeatedly warned it would target U.S. bases if attacked, said Karen U. Kwiatkowski, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and former Pentagon officer. The retaliation reflects “the behavior of a near-peer adversary” and marks a sharp contrast with the kinds of conflicts the United States has fought over the past three decades.
Iran is conventionally weaker than the United States but remains regionally dangerous through its large missile and drone arsenal and its ability to apply asymmetric pressure on U.S. forces. Recent reporting has also raised concerns about strain on U.S. naval interceptor stockpiles after heavy use in Middle East operations.
The risks extend beyond military escalation. Bryant said the opening strikes raise significant concerns about civilian harm and the risk of a broader regional conflict, particularly given the coordinated nature of the U.S.–Israel campaign.
“I really worry about the civilian harm that’s going to result if this becomes a prolonged conflict,” Bryant said. “Whatever happens … we own that.”
Some national security analysts sharply questioned the administration’s humanitarian rationale for the strikes, noting that the threshold for unilateral presidential force is typically tied to imminent threats to the United States. Critics also argue that the administration’s broader domestic record — including policies affecting women’s bodily autonomy, aggressive immigration enforcement, and the detention of some government protesters — undercuts its stated moral justification for military action against Iran.
Bryant warned the risks could escalate quickly if the conflict expands beyond the opening air campaign, particularly given Iran’s military capabilities and regional proxy network.
“If we thought the insurgency was bad in Iraq or even Syria, wait until we enter Iran,” Bryant said.
U.S. officials have not announced any plans for ground operations in Iran, and analysts say the administration’s next steps remain uncertain.
Shortly after the strikes, Trump and his allies framed the operation through a domestic political lens, amplifying without evidence unsubstantiated claims that Iran interfered in the 2020 election.
For VanLandingham, the rhetoric stood out not just for its substance but also its timing ahead of midterm elections.
“What’s chilling is that he’s tying this attack against another country to domestic politics as a way to further consolidate power over his base and potentially link the use of force to domestic use of force this fall,” she said.
“He is laying the groundwork, I strongly believe, to use the U.S. military improperly.”
Viewed in that light, she said, the seemingly ridiculous claim appears more strategic.
“It’s mind-boggling. But when you look at it, it makes rational sense for him to say, ‘I’m doing this because I’m taking out everyone who stood in my way in 2020,’” VanLandingham said. “He is linking it to his own domestic grievances because he is laying the groundwork, I strongly believe, to use the U.S. military improperly.”
Bryant, who previously led civilian harm assessments at the Pentagon, said the administration’s framing echoes familiar patterns in which when governments blur external threats with internal political messaging. He pointed to recent violence against protesters and legal observers in Minnesota as a parallel, albeit on a smaller scale, to Iran’s brutal crackdowns on dissent.
“Everything that Trump is accusing the Iranian regime of doing, he has done,” Bryant said.
“Everything that Trump is accusing the Iranian regime of doing, he has done.”
Other national security analysts warned the messaging could have concrete domestic consequences if wartime authorities are invoked inside the United States. Trump has previously threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in response to protests over ICE operations in Minneapolis.
“This is the kind of messaging that will allow the administration to cite national security if they attempt to nationalize elections, have federal law enforcement, like ICE, patrol polling places, and enact executive orders or push legislation to strip Americans of voting rights and other civil liberties,” Hoh said.
Federal law enforcement has already signaled an elevated posture. FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X that counterterrorism teams are operating at heightened readiness.
“Our Joint Terrorism Task Forces throughout the country are working 24/7 to address and disrupt any potential threats to the homeland,” Patel wrote.
The post Trump’s Iran Attack Was Illegal, Former U.S. Military Officials Allege appeared first on The Intercept.
Thinktank’s board distances itself from Josh Simons’ decision in 2023 to hire lobbying firm to investigate journalists
A Labour thinktank that helped Keir Starmer into No 10 has said it is making a “clean break” from the past after its former director, Josh Simons, resigned as a minister over a report falsely linking journalists to a “pro-Kremlin” network.
The board of Labour Together distanced itself from Simons’ decision in 2023 to hire a lobbying firm to investigate Sunday Times, Guardian and independent reporters who were looking into its failure to declare more than £700,000 in donations.
Continue reading..."Podcasts have officially overtaken AM/FM talk radio as the more popular medium for spoken-word audio in the United States," reports TechCrunch, citing Edison Research's Share of Ear survey: The researchers have tracked these statistics over the last decade, and almost always, the percentage of time people spent listening to podcasts increased, while their time with spoken radio broadcasts decreased. For the first time this year, podcasts eclipsed spoken-word radio with 40% of listening time, as opposed to 39% for radio... We checked with Edison to see if these statistics include video podcasts, and they do. But the need to clarify that question points to the undeniable growing prevalence of video podcasts, hosted on platforms like Spotify and YouTube, which marks another key trend in podcasting... YouTube said that viewers watched 700 million hours of podcasts each month in 2025 on living room devices, like TVs, up from 400 million the previous year.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
‘They should have done it sooner, they waited too long,’ says Trump but he doesn’t say when talks would take place
Donald Trump said on Sunday that Iran’s political leadership have agreed to talks, a day after the US and Israel began to target the country’s military and political infrastructure, killing the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several top officials.
“They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them,” Trump told a reporter for the Atlantic magazine on Sunday. “They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long.”
Continue reading...The following is the transcript of the interview with Karim Sadjadpour from the Carnegie Endownment for international peace and former CENTCOM commander and CBS News contributor Ret. Gen. Frank McKenzie that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on March 1, 2026.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Mike Turner, Republican of Ohio, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on March 1, 2026.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on March 1, 2026.
The CIA had tracked Khamenei's location for several months before the strike that killed him, a person familiar with the matter tells CBS News.
The US-Israeli military action will test the fragile rules governing the use of force
The killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, by a US-Israeli strike is a targeted assassination of a head of state. It also marks a grave escalation in a region already burdened with smouldering wars and fragile states. The consequences of the deliberate strike will reverberate across a Middle East marked by the aftershocks of foreign intervention. Revulsion against the hardline regime in Tehran, or the desire for a better future for the Iranian people, does not confer a legal justification.
Force is lawful, under the UN charter, only in self-defence against an imminent attack or with security council approval. Neither condition has been met. There was no evidence of an “instant, overwhelming” Iranian attack being prepared. What Donald Trump’s Operation Epic Fury looks like is not pre-emption but prevention: a decision to eliminate a future risk while an enemy appeared weak. It is a war of choice. Mr Trump’s call to overthrow a sovereign government was extraordinary.
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...Lead vehicle takes top-three off main course
Jess McClain falls from first to ninth
USA Track & Field has denied an appeal after its Half Marathon Championship in Atlanta ended in chaos.
With less than two miles to go in the women’s race, Jess McClain had a significant lead over Ednah Kurgat and Emma Hurley when the guide vehicle took the trio off course. Molly Born, who had been more than a minute behind the leaders, came through to win the race, with Carrie Ellwood and and Annie Rodenfels in second and third. McClain, Hurley and Kurgat finished in ninth, 12th and 13th respectively around two minutes behind Born. Wesley Kiptoo won the men’s race.
Continue reading...Disney Imagineers looked at "thousands of AI companies" before backing one that keeps animators in the driver's seat.
 | XRC makes a knocking sound if I accelerate while turning then slow down quickly. Normal or no? [link] [comments] |
"Billions fewer birds are flying through North American skies than decades ago," reports the Associated Press, "and their population is shrinking ever faster, mostly due to a combination of intensive agriculture and warming temperatures, a new study found." Nearly half of the 261 species studied showed big enough losses in numbers to be statistically significant and more than half of those declining are seeing their losses accelerate since 1987, according to Thursday's journal Science... The only consolation is that the birds that are shrinking in numbers the fastest are species — such as the European starling, American crow, grackle and house sparrow — with large enough populations that they aren't yet at risk of going extinct, said study lead author Francois Leroy, also an Ohio State ecologist... When it came to population declines — not the acceleration — the scientists noticed bigger losses further south. When they did a deeper analysis they statistically connected those losses to warmer temperatures from human-caused climate change. "In regions where temperatures increase the most, we are seeing strongest declines in populations," [said study co-author Marta Jarzyna, an ecologist at Ohio State University]. "On the other hand, the acceleration of those declines, that's mostly driven by agricultural practices." The scientists found statistical correlations between speeded-up decline rates and high fertilizer use, high pesticide use and amount of cropland, Leroy said. He said they couldn't say any of those caused the acceleration of losses, but it indicates agriculture in general is a factor. "The stronger the agriculture, the faster we will lose birds," said Leroy... McGill University wildlife biologist David Bird, who wasn't part of the study, said it was done well and that its conclusions made sense. With a growing human population, agriculture practices are intensified, more bird habitats are being converted to cropland, modern machinery often grind up nests and eggs and single crop plantings offer less possibilities for birds to find food and nests, said Bird, the editor of Birds of Canada. "The biggest impact of agricultural intensity though is our war on insects. Numerous recent studies have shown that insect populations in many places throughout the world, including the U.S., have crashed by well over 40 percent," Bird said in an email. "Many of the birds in this new study showing population declines depend heavily on insects for food." A 2019 study of the same bird species by Cornell University conservation scientist Kenneth Rosenberg also found that North America had 3 billion fewer birds than in 1970, the article points out.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 | I finally took my 134V remote VESC setup for the first ride. I’ve always ridden footpad boards, so the hand throttle felt super weird at first! There was definitely a learning curve with starting, stopping, and trusting the remote instead of your feet, but after a bit, it started to click! I can see why people say once you go remote, you don’t go back. What do you think about riding a VESC with a remote? [link] [comments] |
Hillary Knight, Megan Keller and Jack and Quinn Hughes made a surprise appearance during "Heated Rivalry" star Connor Storrie's opening monologue on "SNL."
The US joined an Israeli assault after intel suggested Iran’s top clerics and commanders could be hit at once
Donald Trump launched attacks against Iran on Saturday alongside Israel after they developed intelligence that they could simultaneously target the country’s leaders and mullahs at a compound in Tehran, according to two people familiar with deliberations.
The Israelis had been tracking the movements of Iran’s top leaders and determined, in conjunction with the United States, that there was a window of opportunity to kill them and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as they convened, the people said.
Continue reading...The desire to see an increasingly ruthless Iranian regime collapse has intensified in Iranian expat communities
A decade ago, when Iran signed an agreement with the Obama administration and five other countries to give up its ambitions for a nuclear weapon, Alaleh Kamran was staunchly on the political left and welcomed the prospect of peace in the country of her birth.
Now, though, as Israel and the United States launched punishing airstrikes on Iran, she finds herself in a dramatically different headspace.
Continue reading...Isaiah Martin’s videos have gone viral – he thinks his party should follow his lead and stand up to Republican excess
Dynamism, courage, and wit are words that few are likely to associate with the mainstream Democratic party, particularly after its capitulation to Republicans’ budget demands last year.
Polls show that majorities of Democratic voters think their party is weak and ineffective. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, is even more unpopular than Donald Trump. People are crying out for a bold voice, someone to take the fight to an increasingly authoritarian Republican party.
Continue reading...Trump calls Anthropic a ‘Radical Left AI company run by people who have no idea what the real World is all about’
The US military reportedly used Claude, Anthropic’s AI model, to inform its attack on Iran despite Donald Trump’s decision, announced hours earlier, to sever all ties with the company and its artificial intelligence tools.
The use of Claude during the massive joint US-Israel bombardment of Iran that began on Saturday was reported by the Wall Street Journal and Axios. It underlines the complexity of the US military withdrawing powerful AI tools from its missions when the technology is already intricately embedded in operations.
Continue reading...Senators Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham defend attack, Democrats say administration must answer vital questions
Donald Trump administration allies reinforced on Sunday the administration’s messaging on the Israel-US strikes on Iran, while Democrats decried it as a “war of choice” that required congressional approval.
On Sunday talk shows, Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham and Texas senator Ted Cruz defended the strikes, while Virginia senator Mark Warner, vice-chairman of the Committee on Intelligence, and other Democrats welcomed the elimination of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei but said the administration must now answer vital questions.
Continue reading...With Iran attacks, President Trump is making the use of force the new normal – and casting aside international law Expert comment jon.wallace
The attacks – and the assassination of Supreme Leader Khamenei – create precedents for other countries seeking to resort to force without consideration for the rule of law.
The United States has taken a further, major step in unhinging the global order. The core principle of that order is that no state can go to war in pursuit of its own national policy. Where use of force is claimed as necessary in the global interest, this can only be done through a mandate from the UN Security Council.
After last year’s Israeli-US strikes against Iran, President Donald Trump’s threats of force against Greenland, the conflict in Gaza, Israel’s attack on Qatar and other cases, including most notably Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it seems as if we are now moving to a world where deference to international law is no longer seen as decisive and the use of force is becoming the new normal.
The killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Hosseini Khamenei, at the outset of the conflict has put this into even sharper focus.
The international system, as understood up to now, balances the need to safeguard the security of states with the aim of supressing war and its devastating consequences. The use of force is prohibited, although it remains available to countries as a last resort, when faced with an armed attack that cannot be averted or defeated by other means.
This rules out a preventative war, launched early against a potential enemy while the military balance still favours the attacker. There is also a prohibition on ‘pre-emptive war’ where both sides expect an armed conflict and striking first would offer an advantage. This would add greater instability as it would create an incentive for states to go to war first.
International law only allows ‘anticipatory’ self-defence when the other side has prepared its military hardware for an immediate attack and has taken a decision to launch hostilities. A state does not have to await a first blow once it is clear that a specific attack is inevitable and imminent. For instance, Israel’s first strike against Egypt in 1967 was justified by the imminent, large-scale attack Egypt was preparing.
US President Donald Trump has partly justified this latest attack by invoking a long list of hostile acts committed by Iran, starting with the Tehran hostage crisis of 1979, alleged involvement in terrorist attacks, and support for proxies hostile to the US.
However, international law does not permit the use of force in response to a hostile overall posture of another state short of an armed attack. Neither is the use of force permitted by way of armed retaliation in answer to past provocations. Force is only permissible as a means of last resort, where no other means is available to secure a state from an armed attack.
The president claims that Iran is developing intercontinental ballistic missiles that ‘could soon reach the American homeland.’ But Iran is not expected to achieve that capacity for another five to ten years.
There was also no indication of an imminent attack against US forces in the Middle East, within reach of Iran’s present medium-range missile force. Trump’s determination to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s military potential also appears to violate the requirement of proportionality which is part of the doctrine of self-defence.
Israel, which attacked Iran alongside the US, asserts that it faced an existential threat in the shape of Iran’s nuclear weapons programme and ballistic missile capacity, necessitating what it terms a ‘pre-emptive’ attack.
But Israel has confirmed that it has been planning and preparing for this operation with the US for many months. This suggests that this is indeed a war of choice – a preventative war – launched with due deliberation, while it was still relatively easy to remove Iran’s armed potential before it fully materialized.
Last June, some Western states did support ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’, when Washington joined Israel’s 12-day war to degrade Iran’s nuclear ambitions. But according to President Trump, that operation set back the Iranian nuclear programme by several years. That would undermine any claim of an imminent and overwhelming necessity to strike Iran now, as a last resort.
The progress made in the nuclear talks between the US and Iran in Geneva also diminishes such a claim. The Omani mediators have confirmed that Iran had agreed to important concessions concerning its nuclear enrichment programme – supposedly the principal focus of the talks.
Arguably, it is lawful to use force to save a population in another country from its own government. However, this doctrine is controversial. In any event, it applies only where a large segment of the population is threatened with extermination, enforced starvation or forced displacement. This would have been the case, for instance, in Rwanda in 1994, where some 800,000 civilians were massacred.
The Iranian government’s attacks on demonstrators in January were tragic. However, this probably did not yet reach the threshold justifying foreign military intervention. Moreover, a humanitarian intervention must aim to address an ongoing, overwhelming humanitarian emergency. The doctrine does not apply retroactively, after the emergency has passed. And the action taken must be strictly limited to its humanitarian motives, which may exclude an agenda of regime change.
It would also be difficult to justify intervention if the state doing the intervening is a principal agent that contributed to the emergency. In January, while the protests in Iran were underway, President Trump called on Iranians to ‘TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS…HELP IS ON ITS WAY’. That could be argued to have contributed to the armed confrontation between the Iranian government and segments of the population that followed the unrest.
Now, the US president has again expressly called on the people of Iran to ‘take over your government’ perhaps provoking the next armed confrontation between government and population.
Targeted assassinations of political leaders in peacetime is prohibited – but during armed conflict the situation is more complex. In principle, only those involved in the military campaign can be targeted.
It is also generally assumed to be wise to keep the governmental authority in place, if only to have someone who can negotiate peace at the end of hostilities. There is also a reluctance to turn leaders into martyrs in the eyes of their followers. National leaders also may be hesitant to target their counterparts in other states, in case it leads to their own targeting.
In this instance, it is clear that Iran’s top leadership, including the Supreme Leader, cannot be easily distinguished from those directing the war. It would seem inappropriate to extend a kind of immunity to those who have been involved in past atrocities, including threats or even assaults, directly or through surrogates, and who are directing the present attacks on other states.
An authoritarian head of state can be so closely connected to the war effort, and indeed in charge of it, that he or she might be classified as being directly involved in the hostilities.
While this is also politically sensitive, the status of Ali Hosseini Khamenei as a religious leader, along with other clerics at the head of state institutions, would not necessarily grant them protection from attack. There is also no prohibition on attacks against buildings frequented by high officials, such as presidential palaces or key ministries, if they are used to direct the war effort.
Although there is no available legal justification for the present, sustained attack on Iran, there has been only limited international condemnation. At an emergency session of the UN Security Council, other than the predictable attitude of Russia and China, only Columbia carefully framed its presentation in terms of international law and the evident violation of the prohibition of the use of force.
Iran’s record as a rogue state over the past decades dominated the debate, along with sharp criticism of its apparently indiscriminate, and indeed unlawful, counterattacks against other countries in the region.
As in the discussion of Trump’s Venezuela intervention, other states limited themselves to general exhortations that international law must be complied with, without drawing any conclusions concerning the attack on Iran. But such identifications of unlawful conduct by other states are essential if broader precedents upending the rule of law are to be avoided.
This reluctance to highlight unlawful conduct may encourage a broader sense that the use of force as a means of national policy is becoming acceptable again – at least to the most powerful countries.
It may seem inappropriate to insist on compliance with the law even where laudable objectives – such as nuclear non-proliferation and freedom from repression –are being claimed as the attackers’ objectives.
But with its actions, following its intervention in Venezuela and its threats against Greenland, the US has created multiple potential precedents which others may follow in different circumstances. Indeed, there are already cases where regional powers have acted in a similar way.
Moreover, it will not be easily possible to oppose further Russian aggression or potential Chinese expansionism if there are no clear principles left to rely on, without triggering objections of double standards and hypocrisy.
The US, and the states that have failed to identify its conduct as a violation of international law, may come to regret the loss of legal and moral authority this will bring.
Across the United States, Iranian Americans expressed frustration, hope, dread and — above all — concern for relatives still in Iran after the joint U.S.-Israeli attacks.
UK plans evacuation of more than 76,000 Brits as key transit hubs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha close
The US and Israeli attack on Iran continued to cause severe disruption to flights throughout the Middle East and beyond on Sunday, creating uncertainty for hundreds of thousands of travellers.
Countries across the region closed their airspace, and three of the key airports that connect Europe, Africa and the west to Asia halted operations.
Continue reading...President says in social media post that Iran tried to ‘stop Trump’ and now ‘faces renewed war with United States’
Donald Trump on Saturday appeared to link the massive attack he ordered against Iran to his persistent claims about his 2020 election loss to former president Joe Biden, in a social media post about allegations that Tehran’s government interfered in the US president elections.
“Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump,” his Truth Social post said, “and now faces renewed war with United States”.
Continue reading...Campaign groups write to technology secretary amid concerns that sites could double overall electricity demand
Datacentre developers are facing pressure to reveal whether their projects will increase the UK’s net greenhouse gas emissions, amid concerns the sites could double national electricity demand.
Campaign groups have written to the UK technology secretary, Liz Kendall, warning that the energy required by new AI infrastructure poses a “serious threat to efforts to decarbonise the electricity grid”.
Continue reading...Though the supreme court ruled against the levies, businesses hit hard by the tariffs shouldn’t hold their breath for any rebates
Now that the supreme court has found that the Donald Trump exceeded his authority to levy tariffs, the big question for many businesses – particularly small businesses who were so hard hit by these tariffs – is are they able to get their money back?
Don’t hold your breath. When it comes to tariffs, Trump still has many more tricks up his sleeve.
Continue reading...Effective closure of the narrow waterway could spell trouble for many developed economies
The US-Israeli war on Iran has ignited fears that escalating military aggression in the Middle East could send oil prices soaring, push up prices at the pump and drive a global economic downturn.
The US began “major combat operations” in Iran on Saturday morning, shortly after Israel launched a strike against Tehran. Within hours of the US-Israeli strikes, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reportedly warned tankers in the strait of Hormuz that no ship would be allowed to pass through the world’s most critical oil trade route.
Continue reading...More than 2,400 flights were canceled Sunday across airports in the Middle East, according to flight tracker FlightAware.
One of the biggest tech events of the year may not be on your radar, and not because it's happening in Barcelona.
President Trump said that "heavy and pinpoint bombing" of Iran would "continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary."
The centennial of what became Black History Month offered a microcosm of President Donald Trump’s views on race and progress.
60 Minutes has been covering the geopolitical situation in Iran for five decades. Here are some of the reports we've broadcast.
My bewilderment at pricing of used onewheels remains, but I held out for one to hit my $500 target and finally scored a Pint X complete with CF hood, "fangs" and some other perks. Anyway, so far I love it! I have to say I was really shocked at how easy it was straight away. I was reluctant to try it right there at a park with the seller because I was prepared to crash and repeat lots of times before getting the hang of it- nope. Just got on and rode- 5 minutes after purchasing was walking my dog with it. 10 minutes after I met the fam at a brewery a mile up the road. Now I'm riding it regularly around town.
I'm going to credit regular skateboarding (a vintage Per Welinder) around the hood and house (probably since the 80's!) to that success- the only part that may throw you is picking up front wheels to turn or tic-tac. Otherwise its just like riding a board with loose trucks. Awesome!
The only thing I've added so far is an airtag, which got me thinking/wondering: Is there a practical way to connect to the pack for accessories? A usb would be nice. Also: This was promptly rideable, with no security features- convenient, but somewhat surprising. My drone/phone and other devices all are linked and can be bricked remotely. You'd think they would do this with a device this costly. Is there something I need to check or register? So far everything's been suspiciously smooth!
What some of your favorite accessories? I'm a little surprised the head/tail lights aren't more prominent- so looking into those first for night riding- and probably will try to improve waterproofing a bit just in case. Anyway, overall just happy to be here and happy to learn its as fun as I'd hoped!
A Newark man is charged with carrying a concealed weapon while driving drunk, police said.
Days before embarking America on another foreign war, Donald Trump spent more than 90 minutes speaking endlessly about America being back during his State of the Union, leveling racist accusations of Somali American fraud, and expounding on the beauty of America’s raid to arrest Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. It was a master class in testing the attention span of Americans hoping to hear anything at all about the danger that has loomed in the background now for months: the threat of armed conflict with Iran. Those who made it to the finale — and who have conscious memories of the George W. Bush years — would have noticed a similar tenor to the State of the Union in 2003, the one which paved the way for the justification of the invasion of Iraq less than two months later.
In that speech, Bush outlined the alleged threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the myriad ways in which Iraq had supposedly deceived international investigators, and the staggering human rights abuses committed by Saddam Hussein against his own countrymen. Secretary of State Colin Powell, the president boasted, would soon outline to the United Nations the threat the United States, and indeed the world, was up against in Baghdad.
However, while many of the claims made by Bush were spurious at best and outright deceptions at worst, the claims Trump made in his speech were even less believable — and much more scattershot. Trump claimed that Iran would “soon” have intercontinental ballistic missiles that would “reach the United States of America,” that more than 32,000 Iranians had been killed in recent protests (NGOs estimated the number to be much lower, and an Iranian human rights group put the death toll at 6,488), and that the Iranian military had somehow killed “millions,” somewhere in history, with roadside bombs it pioneered. Perhaps most plainly false of all, Trump contended he just wanted the Iranians to say “those secret words, ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon,’” despite Iranian officials constantly making such insistences.
Before the U.S. and Israeli military launched strikes Saturday, the specter of an Iranian war has become something of a national miasma, the build-up having gone on now so long that its cause is imperceptible, yet perhaps everything at once. The build-up to the Iraq War was similarly argued under many causes, with Saddam’s authoritarian governance very much part of the discussion, but the aftermath of 9/11 and the supposed threat Iraq posed to the homeland was chief among them — the fire that led Americans to line up front and center behind the cause. While Iran has been on the wish list for American neoconservatives and foreign policy wonks for decades, this escalation has happened over a much shorter time frame, much more suddenly, and much more obvious in how the government is desperately in search of a compelling cause.
Stretching back into December, the cards were being laid out. Benjamin Netanyahu had made plans to meet with Trump at the White House to discuss what he saw as the threat posed by Iran’s conventional ballistic missile program, seeking a green light to initiate another devastating war, with hoped-for American support. Israel’s reasoning was not based on Iranian human rights abuses or about threats to the American homeland, but threats to Israel and “U.S. interests,” according to NBC News. Netanyahu had wanted a post-war situation similar to Lebanon’s, where Israel has been able to continue striking that country daily with Hezbollah unable to respond. Iran still retained deterrent military capacity to prevent this from happening. A greater threat, however nonexistent, needed to be communicated.
The rollout of news stories to back up Netanyahu’s claim was well-telegraphed, with reports suddenly emerging in the Israeli press that Iran was planning to use an imminent military exercise as a diversion to strike Israel. At the same time that Netanyahu was meeting with Trump, reports again suddenly emerged that Iran was seeking to develop and purchase “biological and chemical warheads” for its missiles, eerily echoing the false claims Powell made before the U.N. about Iraq.
As attention shifted to the burgeoning protests in Iran, suddenly the United States and Israel had a much stronger casus belli: supporting anti-government demonstrators to overthrow the government. Only a few days after the protests began, Trump promised the “United States of America will come to their rescue” if the Iranian government killed protesters, “which is their custom.” As the death toll mounted, far exceeding the toll of previous protest movements, the threats of intervention continued but never actually materialized. Western officials brought in Starlink satellites to keep protesters connected (SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk has joked that he supports Secretary of State Marco Rubio becoming the shah of Iran), and unnamed foreign intelligence agencies allegedly brought in firearms used to kill over 200 members of government security forces. Yet Trump continued to promise that he was planning something, saying “help is on the way,” and demanding protesters “take over institutions” even as protests dissipated.
The specter of an Iranian war has become something of a national miasma, the build-up having gone on now so long that its cause is imperceptible, yet everything at once.
Trump wanted war, as did Netanyahu, but there was no conception of when it should happen, for what cause it should exactly be waged, and what would even be done. There was want, but there was no will, and there was no way. Everything had to be cobbled together in the background, sometimes to seemingly even get Trump on board with the plan he himself put into motion.
Reports of considering strikes on “symbolic military targets” were followed by Trump commending Iran for supposedly halting hundreds of planned executions. Declarations of an “armada” being sent to Iran’s shores were accompanied by demands to stop killing protesters, even though the protests had ceased days earlier. More reports poured in of plans for special ops raids and strikes to assassinate Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (and perhaps also his son), with reports of imminent attacks being just as suddenly thrown out as more and more military assets moved in to allow for greater and greater operations, a build-up not seen since Bush’s full-scale invasion of Iraq 23 years ago.
With attacks underway, the plan now seems to revolve around a complete decapitation of the Islamic Republic’s leadership and the overthrow of the entire system via the air — followed by a populist uprising Trump hopes will topple the regime. “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take,” Trump said in a video address. “This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
The campaign of airstrikes comes only hours after the United States insisted it wanted to have a civil diplomatic conversation.
As with the diplomatic talks that preceded Iran’s war with Israel in June, these negotiations are set up to fail, and the scope of demands is now far wider and even more contradictory. Reports emanating from the discussions seem to oscillate between a willingness to resurrect some version of the Obama-era nuclear deal and a demand for what amounts to complete capitulation — with Rubio demanding restrictions on ballistic missile range and ending of support to Hamas and Hezbollah; Israel demanding the full dismantling of said ballistic missile arsenal; and Trump plainly stating “no nuclear weapons, no missiles, no this, no that, all the different things you’d want.”
There is also no consensus about what the threat from Iran is even supposed to be in the American imagination. Trump’s accusation of near-imminent ICBM production is a recent invention, clearly meant to steer things in a familiar, concrete direction. But the Trump administration cannot seem to agree on whether or not Iran is even developing its nuclear program at all — with Rubio telling reporters there is no enrichment happening, even as special envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News that Iran was merely “a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material.”
Bush administration officials infamously claimed they did not want “the smoking gun” to be “a mushroom cloud,” but officials had always kept that estimate in months — the way the threat of Iran making a nuclear bomb has often been phrased as “months away” for the better part of two decades. Now, the threat is somehow both days away and barely off the ground.
While opposition figures like Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah, as well as Mojahedin-e-Khalq leader Maryam Rajavi, have jostled for the attention of Trump’s circle, there seems to be little attention paid to their efforts, with the president dismissing Pahlavi as “very nice, but I don’t know how he’d play within his own country.” Those who remember Ahmed Chalabi and the motley crew of Iraqi opposition cronies may rest easy, as there seems to be little care at all about what would even come next. Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the brewing war’s strongest supporters, scorned the idea of even considering the day after in an interview with an Emirati newspaper, saying: “You gotta quit saying we. It’s not we, it’s them. It’s not my job to construct a new Iran. It’s my job to give them the opportunity to construct a new Iran.”
The feeling at home, despite oversaturation in the media, could not be more different than it was before Iraq. Just before the bombs fell, 64 percent of the country supported the invasion; more than two decades later, only 21 percent of Americans currently favor an attack on Iran, with only 40 percent of Republicans supporting it. The Trump administration is apparently so concerned about the optics of the scenario they have walked themselves into that, according to reporting from Politico, officials were hoping Israel would attack Iran first, leading Iran to attack American troops, thereby rallying the country behind the war effort after the fact.
There is no consensus about what the threat from Iran is even supposed to be in the American imagination.
One would think that such a drive toward an unpopular war-in-the-making would galvanize Democrats, but so far, anti-war voices have been limited. Lawmakers like Rep. Ro Khanna have found themselves drowned out by demands from Democratic leaders that the Trump administration simply provide a clear explanation, apparently seeking to avoid the embarrassment of pundits and politicians after the disaster of Iraq, who blamed their initial support on buying the Bush administration’s flimsy case.
It is an unshakeable belief that consistency of logic is the primary issue with a war to cement Israel’s military hegemony, one that may cost thousands of lives. While some prominent progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders attempted to hamper Trump’s funding to execute the war without congressional approval in June, Sanders has not made any public comments on the march to war in over a month, and other progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who have also supported anti-war initiatives, were seen applauding as Trump railed against Iran this week at the State of the Union.
The world is now watching a devastating war rage with no real reasoning, already no end in sight, and its chief belligerent making promises it cannot keep to a population it will surely massacre in the process. Unpopularity has not stopped the Trump administration before, whether it be in Venezuela or in Minneapolis, but the United States finds itself in a uniquely baffling position, where its opposition party, much like how it goes in Israel, instead begs for a better execution of the government’s evil plan.
The post Fool Me Twice: The Case for War With Iran Is Even Thinner Than It Was for Iraq appeared first on The Intercept.
Why Should Delaware Care?
Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s government has scores of commissions, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.
Below are some of the most important or interesting public meetings happening around the state this week.
Residents of the town of Middletown will head to the polls Monday to select three new council members, or half of the legislative body.
Candidates this year include three incumbents Bruce Orr, Craig Sherman and David W. Thomas as well as challenger Michelle Williams. The top three vote-getters will earn a two-year term on the council.
You must be at least 18, resident in town limits, and be eligible to vote under state statute to vote in the municipal election.
Residents must offer proof of residency with a form of identification such as a driver’s license or State of Delaware ID card; a uniformed service ID card; another current photo identification ID card issued by the State of Delaware; the U.S. government; the voter’s employer; high school or higher education; a current utility bill; bank statement; credit card statement; a paycheck or pay advice; or another type of bill or statement.
📍 Voters can cast ballots from noon to 8 p.m. Monday, March 2, at Town Hall, located at 19 W. Green St. in Middletown.
Update: The New Castle County Board of Adjustments hearing for Thursday has been cancelled.
The controversial Delaware City-area data center project known as Project Washington will have two hearings next week.
Starwood Digital Ventures filed a request with New Castle County’s Board of Adjustments for a special use permit to allow it to build an electric switch station for the project. The board will consider the request during a hearing on Thursday.
Starwood’s plan is also continuing to move through the state’s land-use review process – in which representatives from multiple state agencies offer comments about how the data center plan may be impacted by their respective regulations.
Among the agencies that typically participate in the process is the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, which has ruled that the plan violates the state’s Coastal Zone Act. Starwood recently appealed that decision.
The land use process is conducted by the Delaware Preliminary Land Use Service board, which does not have the power to make final decisions. Still, its recommendations can influence the ultimate decisions that local governments make. The public is allowed to listen and comment on those deliberations, but they cannot ask questions.
📍 The New Castle County Board of Adjustments will meet at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 5, at 67 Reads Way in New Castle. Members of the public can also attend the meeting over Zoom. The Preliminary Land Use Service will meet from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 4.
State lawmakers will complete their budget hearings next week, by hearing testimony from two of the state’s largest departments: the Department of Health and Social Services and the Department of Education.
The Joint Finance Committee’s budget review for DHSS will span the entirety of Monday’s hearings, as the department oversees a swath of large-scale programs used by many Delawareans, including Medicaid and SNAP benefits. It was originally set to present last week, but the hearings were postponed following the latest snowstorm.
Legislators will hear from Department of Education leaders as well as leaders from the Redding Consortium and Wilmington Learning Collaborative (WLC), two appointed work groups that are working on improving educational achievement in the city of Wilmington, on Tuesday.
Notably, the Redding Consortium is behind a controversial proposal to merge the four school districts that serve the city of Wilmington: Brandywine, Christina, Colonial and Red Clay. It has published a preview of its presentation to be found here.
The Redding and WLC leaders will present between 10:30 a.m. and noon Tuesday, while Education Secretary Cindy Marten will lead a department discussion from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Those hearings were likewise postponed from earlier in February.
📍 The Joint Finance Committee will meet from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, March 2, and 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, at Legislative Hall, located at 411 Legislative Ave. in Dover. For information about virtual attendance for the Monday meeting, click here. For the Tuesday meeting, click here.
After presenting to state lawmakers earlier in the day, the members of the Redding Consortium for Educational Equity will convene in Wilmington for their first meeting in a month.
According to their agenda, the work at their Tuesday, March 3, meeting will again be light and largely procedural, with just an hour scheduled.
They will be finalizing the process for how to recommend combining four school districts and forming, by far, the largest single school district in Delaware. The draft version of that plan can be found here.
📍 The Redding Consortium for Educational Equity will meet publicly at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, at the Delaware Tech-George Campus, located at 300 N. Orange St. in Wilmington. For more details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.
After weeks of soliciting information for its once-in-a-decade update to the land-use plan, known as its Comprehensive Plan, Newark city and planning officials will begin deliberations Tuesday on what to include.
Comp Plans have enormous impacts on future building projects, transportation investments and natural resource protections.
Officials will review the results of public surveys and listening sessions as they begin crafting the final plans over coming months.
📍 The Newark Planning Commission and City Council Joint Meeting will meet publicly at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, at the Newark Municipal Building, located at 220 S. Main St. in Newark. For more details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.
On the Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission’s agenda next week are final decisions on two solar projects.
The larger of the two would be located on nearly 7 acres of land at 27858 Cypress Road near Frankford. It is a 4-megawatt system being developed by RWE Renewables Americas, which acquired the former Con Edison Renewables, one of the nation’s largest solar developers.
The other project is proposed by San Francisco-based Forefront Power, and would be located on roughly 11 acres of land at 32507 Vines Creek Road near Dagsboro.
Both projects are seeking conditional use waivers as their properties are currently zoned AR-1, or agricultural residential.
📍 The Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission will meet publicly at 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, at the Sussex County Administrative Office Building, located at 2 The Circle in Georgetown. For more details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.
The post Get Involved: Middletown election, data center hearings, more appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
A New Jersey man is facing an assault charge after allegedly pepper-spraying another person during a road rage dispute in Brookside.
It’s time once again for HPC Career Notes, our monthly feature that’s designed to keep you up-to-date on the latest career developments for individuals in the HPC community, including promotion, new company hires, and accolade. Check in each month for an updated list and you may even come across someone you know, or better yet, yourself!
Franck Cappello
Argonne National Laboratory announced that one of its senior computer scientists, Franck Cappello, has been named a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), making him part of the 1% of ACM members to achieve the prestigious position.
Cappello was recognized for his contributions to high performance parallel and distributed computing, including Grid’5000, the first large-scale experimental testbed designed as a scientific instrument for researchers to test and improve advanced parallel and distributed computing technologies. Grid’5000 has supported thousands of publications and hundreds of doctoral theses, and is still used more than 20 years after its initiation.
“I am truly honored to receive this recognition,” Cappello said. “The field of high performance parallel and distributed computing for scientific applications has provided so many challenging opportunities for research and development, from advanced computing platforms to innovative software technology to the interplay of high performance computing with artificial intelligence. I am grateful to my colleagues and to Argonne for providing the environment to pursue this research. A special thanks to all the students and postdocs without whom our research results would not have been possible.”
Cappello is one of 71 new ACM Fellows among ACM’s global membership of more than 100,000 computing professionals. The ACM Fellows induction ceremony will take place at the ACM Awards Banquet on June 13 in San Francisco.
Qualcomm announced that it has appointed Kevin O’Buckley to the position of executive vice president of global operations and supply chain. In his new role, O’Buckley will lead Qualcomm’s global semiconductor operations across manufacturing engineering, foundry and supplier partnerships, supply chain, and procurement.
Kevin O’Buckley
O’Buckley joins Qualcomm from Intel, where he most recently served as senior vice president and general manager of Intel Foundry Services. Previously he worked at Intel, IBM, GlobalFoundries, and Marvell. Intel announced that it has expanded the responsibilities of Chief Technology and Operations Officer Naga Chandrasekaran to take O’Buckley’s former role at Intel Foundry Services.
“Kevin brings deep operational expertise, proven commercial leadership, and decades of experience scaling complex semiconductor operations and delivering custom silicon products across data center and edge devices,” said Akash Palkhiwala, Qualcom’s CFO, COO, and EVP. “His leadership will further strengthen our global operations as we continue to deliver industry-leading products with high-performance, low-power computing, AI and connectivity at scale.”
Penguin Solutions announced the retirement of Mark Adams as president and CEO and, after a thorough search process, the board appointed Kash Shaikh as succeed Adams, effective February 2.
Mark Adams
Shaikh brings more than 30 years of technology and operational experience to Penguin. Most recently, he was the president and CEO of Securonix, where he scaled the business, introduced agentic AI solutions, and strengthened customer relationships while growing the company. Earlier in his career, Shaikh held executive leadership roles at Virtana, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cisco, Ruckus Wireless, and Nortel Networks. He’s has been recognized for his leadership excellence with industry honors, including the Stevie Gold Award for Executive of the Year and multiple Comparably Best CEO awards. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from NED University of Engineering and Technology, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Wichita State University and a Master of Business Administration from Boise State University.
Kash Shaikh
“Penguin Solutions has built a differentiated platform at the intersection of advanced computing, memory and services, with a long history of helping customers design, build, deploy and manage complex infrastructure at scale,” Shaikh said. “As enterprises move from proofs of concept to production AI environments, Penguin’s focus on performance, reliability and time-to-value is increasingly critical. I’m excited to work alongside the leadership team and our employees to deepen customer partnerships, continue expanding our enterprise footprint and execute our strategy with discipline as we build the next chapter of the company.”
Adams is retiring after running Penguin for five years. “Leading Penguin Solutions has been a privilege and a defining chapter in my career,” he said. “This is the right time for me personally to retire, and I’m deeply grateful for the support of the board, our employees, our customers and our shareholders over my tenure as CEO. I am incredibly proud of what our teams have accomplished together – we have redefined Penguin Solutions and put it in a position to capture significant opportunities in the AI and advanced memory markets.”
Kim Fischer
Q.ANT, a provider of photonic quantum computing sensors and solutions, has hired Kim Fischer as its new vice president of marketing. In this role, Fischer will lead the strategic development of Q.ANT’s global brand and market positioning, including strengthening communications with investors, customers, partners, and the press.
Fischer has more than 20 years of experience in strategic corporate and brand development at a range of companies. She impressed Q.ANT Founder and CEO Michael Förtsch with her ability to translate technological leadership into market positioning.
“Q.ANT represents a technological innovation with the potential to fundamentally change the future of high-performance computing and AI,” Fischer said. “I see my role as translating this technological excellence into clear and strategically effective communication in order to build and anchor visibility, trust, and relevance in the relevant markets over the long term. The focus is not on technology as an end in itself, but on its concrete added value for companies, society, and sustainable infrastructures.”
DDN made two executive hires in February, including the appointment of Mohsen Moazami as Vice Chair and Guido Torrini as Chief Financial Operating Officer.
Mohsen Moazami
In his strategic leadership role, Moazami will work closely with CEO and Co-Founder Alex Bouzari and the executive team to advance DDN’s next phase of growth in the HPC and AI storage market. Moazami most recently served as a member of the Office of the CEO and President of International at Groq, which Nvidia recently acquired for $20 billion. He also founded a venture capital firm, CNTP, and spent 12 years at Cisco in the Emerging Markets group.
“DDN is helping define how AI is built and operated at industrial scale,” Moazami said. “Its data intelligence platforms sit at the center of the global AI ecosystem. I look forward to working closely with Alex and the leadership team as Vice Chair to support DDN’s strategic growth, deepen its global impact, and help position the company for its next chapter.”
Guido Torrini
Torrini brings more than 25 years of experience leading finance and operations across global technology companies. He began his career at Cisco and Dell during the rise of networking and infrastructure at scale and later held senior finance leadership roles at Groupon and Gympass. He also had leadership roles at Celonis, where he helped guide the company through a significant phase of enterprise software expansion and value creation. And most recently was CFO of OneTrust, a provider of privacy, security, and data governance solutions.
“DDN is delivering the critical data intelligence infrastructure organizations need to deploy AI at scale—across enterprises, governments, and the world’s most demanding AI factories,” Torrini said. “I’m excited to join at a moment when AI is reshaping the technology landscape and redefining the global economic order—and when DDN is uniquely positioned to help lead what comes next.”
QuSecure a provider of post-quantum cybersecurity and cryptographic solutions, has appointed Brian Cunningham to be its EVP Strategy & Growth. In his role, Cunningham will be responsible for building and scaling QuSecure’s go-to-market operating system across federal and commercial sectors, aligning strategy, delivery readiness, partner ecosystems, and execution discipline.
Brian Cunningham
QuSecure CEO and co-founder Rebecca Krauthamer said Cunningham, who is a former Special Operations commander and a Navy SEAL, brings “a rare combination of operational discipline, strategic clarity, and credibility across government and enterprise markets. He knows how to build systems that scale under pressure, and that capability is exactly what QuSecure needs as demand for quantum-safe security accelerates.”
“Post-quantum cryptography is no longer a future problem; it’s a present execution challenge,” Cunningham said. “Organizations know they need to modernize cryptography, but many struggle with how to do it safely, at scale, and without breaking critical systems. QuSecure has built the right platform for this moment, and I’m excited to help scale the strategy, partnerships, and operational muscle required to turn PQC readiness into durable advantage for customers.”
Quantum computer maker PsiQuantum has hired former AMD President Victor Peng to be its interim CEO, enabling co-founder Jeremy O’Brien to take the role of executive chairman.
PsiQuantum executives (L-R): Dr. Pete Shadbolt, Chief Scientific Officer; Prof. Jeremy O’Brien, Executive Chairman; Victor Peng, Interim CEO; and Prof. Terry Rudolph, Chief Architect.
Peng will lead day-to-day operations and execution at PsiQuantum, which is working to develop utility-scale, photonic quantum computing systems. Peng has decades of experience in the computer business, starting as an engineer with DEC in the early 1980s, and has played a central role in major computing shifts spanning CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, and system-level architectures. He served as CEO of Xilinx, where he led the company’s transformation into a global leader in adaptive computing, culminating in the $49 billion acquisition by AMD in 2022.
O’Brien will lead the board of directors and continue to guide strategy and key partnerships for the Palo Alto, California company, which is coming off a decisive year in which it raised over $1 billion in a Series E round, advanced to the final stage of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), and broke ground on America’s largest quantum computing site in Chicago.
With Peng serving as Interim CEO and O’Brien in the Executive Chairman role, PsiQuantum has experienced leadership in place as it conducts its search for a permanent CEO.
Ariel Kelman
AMD has hired Ariel Kelman to be its new chief marketing officer and senior vice president. In his new role, Kelman will report to Chief Administrative Officer Ruth Cotter
Kelman brings more than two decades of experience at enterprise and technology companies, including serving as president and CMO at Salesforce, as well as leadership roles at Amazon Web Services and Oracle, where he helped scale and modernize global marketing teams during periods of rapid growth.
“I’m thrilled to join AMD at such an exciting moment in the company’s journey,” Kelman said. “I’m looking forward to working with the team to elevate the AMD brand, deepen engagement with customers and partners and capture the massive AI data center opportunity enabled by AMD’s uniquely differentiated products. That combination is what energizes me most.”
For the previous edition of HPC Career Notes, click here.
The post HPC Career Notes: February 2026 appeared first on HPCwire.
US and Israel attack Iran, killing Khamenei. Tehran launches counterstrikes: Early analysis from Chatham House experts Expert comment jon.wallace
What do the attacks mean for the regime after the death of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei? How will they affect ordinary Iranians, and the region? And what does President Trump hope to achieve? Chatham House experts provide insights.
The United States and Israel launched multiple air strikes across Iran on Saturday 28 February, striking multiple targets and killing the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Here is early analysis from Chatham House experts.
There is no doubt that we are at a critical moment, one that will reshape the region and profoundly affect Iran itself. The Iranian people will bear the greatest cost.
For Tehran, this is not a short twelve-day war or a contained round of escalation that can be paused and reset. This new stage of conflict is existential and clearly about regime survival. It is also unlikely to end quickly.
President Donald Trump campaigned against regime change wars and was sharply critical of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. As recently as his Gulf visit in May 2025 he promised that those days were over.
Yet what we are seeing now suggests something far more ambitious than coercive diplomacy. Trump has framed this confrontation as the culmination of a 47-year adversarial relationship between the US and Iran, dating back to 1979, arguing that the Islamic Republic has consistently undermined US interests and destabilized the region. These strikes are intended to do more than bring Tehran back to the negotiating table. Trump appears to be attempting to redefine the terms of that 47-year conflict and secure his place in history by trying to resolve it decisively.
The US and Israel have targeted nuclear facilities, ballistic missile infrastructure and radar installations, alongside specific strikes on leadership compounds and elements of Iran’s military command structure.
This is not limited to degrading capabilities at the margins. It is a direct blow to the state’s security architecture and governing apparatus. The parallel with the 2003 Iraq war is difficult to ignore. That war demonstrated that collapsing or attempting to collapse a regime is far easier than shaping what follows.
Khamenei’s death will be accompanied by temporary constitutional succession plans that are necessary to project continuity, even if continuity is anything but clear.
It is no surprise that people are cheering and celebrating the death of the longest-serving regional autocrat. He is single-handedly responsible for stubbornly clinging to his ideology and resistance, leading the regime into countless poor decisions. and choosing time and again to massacre his own people.
Trump has spoken about freedom for the Iranian people. That is a powerful message rhetorically, but it is difficult to see how genuine political transformation develops under conditions of sustained war, chaos and potential fragmentation.
External military pressure may weaken a regime, but it does not automatically build a viable alternative. Even if such an outcome benefits Israel strategically by removing a hostile government, it does not mean the immediate result for Iranians will be stability or something better. The space between regime collapse and democratic consolidation is historically the most dangerous phase.
Iran, moreover, is not Iraq in 2003. It has more cohesive state institutions, a deeply embedded ideological structure and regional networks that extend well beyond its borders.
Even if parts of its leadership and command structure are degraded, the Islamic Republic has experience regenerating under pressure. While talks were ongoing, Tehran was simultaneously preparing for this contingency. Its response came within four hours of the first strikes, suggesting pre-planning and coordination.
Strikes across Israel and against Gulf states indicate a deliberate decision to externalize the conflict rather than absorb the blows quietly.
From the regime’s perspective, if survival is at stake, there is little incentive to keep the confrontation geographically contained. Expanding the theatre raises costs for US partners, and signals that any attempt to dismantle the system will reverberate across the region. There is also a real possibility that Iran’s allies, including the Houthis and perhaps others within Iran’s broader network, will be drawn in more directly.
You don’t do regime change from the air.
The ayatollah was the main character of a theocratic, repressive and brutal regime that yearned for nuclear power, but he was not the only character. At best, there’s a very confused picture. There are many people still defending the regime.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are a real military-industrial complex running much of the economy, and one of them could end up in charge.
One thing I think that has become clear to us is that intelligence, probably Israeli intelligence, is right through the country.
It’s also a question of how many targeted assassinations there are taking out the whole leadership of the regime - and how much the regime is weakened at this point. But it’s very hard to get from where we are now to a vision of democracy or where Iranians can choose.
Risk of protest
I’m afraid we’re heading for a very messy picture which is of enormous risk to those who want to come out and protest.
President Trump talked about Iran’s protesters. But the protesters already feel betrayed. Tens of thousands were shot in the wave of demonstrations earlier this year, and they do not want to come out again. Trump saying weeks ago that ‘help is on its way’ was not enough to save them. And they still lack a leader.
The best-case scenario is that the protesters begin to come out again, on the streets, they find that they are not shot down, they begin to produce leaders or a leader and realise that they can actually change the regime.
The worst-case scenario is that the Revolutionary Guard still show themselves to be very much in control of the country, that they continue to hit other countries around, which not only destabilizes the region but encourages Arab countries to pull away from the US, and pull away from any talks about stabilizing Gaza and the West Bank.
Objectives
The risk is that the US already has multiple stated objectives – ending Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, missiles, and supporting Iranian protesters. That is a recipe for confusion.
Iran’s neighbours and the Gulf states will be very uncomfortable at the strikes on them, presumably from Iran, this morning. Iran is trying to make them look complicit with the US in the eyes of their populations.
I don’t think it’s realistic to see an all-out war, because so many countries don’t want it but a destabilization and the Gulf and Saudi Arabia pulling away from the US, I think that is likely.
This has the makings of the kind of enduring conflict that Trump said he didn’t want.
UK policy
The UK government is taking what is an inevitable position. and a defensible one. Which is to be arms-length from the US. To say: we, Britain, are going to stick to the rule of law. And this is very much what the UK did over Venezuela as well: to say that we might welcome the ends of what has been achieved, but we don’t embrace the means of that.
And this is part of the gradual distancing that you are beginning to see in parts of UK policy. I think, easily mocked as it is, to say: ‘come on, go on one side or the other’ – this is where the UK is going to have to find a path.
We can’t tell what the next stage of this crisis will bring, but two facts are crucial to understand Iranian decisions.
First, the regime was ready for this. Plans for succession, delegation of command, and interim leadership were in place both in the military and in the political hierarchies. And second, that this is all about regime survival: indeed, given the way the conflict has been framed by both sides, survival equals victory.
Seen through that lens, lashing out at other regional states as well as Israel makes total sense.
Iran is seeking the pain points that drive a wedge between Gulf states and the US, and has realised that, perhaps even more than their traditional threat to hydrocarbon exports, destabilising those countries as investment, business and tourism destinations touches a crucial nerve. Iran’s recent rapprochement with Saudi and UAE as well as more longstanding partners like Qatar has been valuable - but is less so than regime survival.
Meanwhile, it seems from a number of sources that the Basij have been mobilised in force to prevent any major public demonstrations.
Unless we see any signs of defections from those loyalist security forces, there may be little scope for public pressure to seriously threaten the regime.
What we may see, though, now that Khamenei is dead, is an intensification of the jockeying for position that was happening even before these attacks. This depends somewhat on who from the top leadership is left alive when the dust settles.
There must be some attraction for the US in opening discreet channels to figures who might steer a post-Khamenei Islamic Republic towards less antagonistic and dangerous policies - in a parallel with Venezuela.
This would not be the complete transformation that many activists and monarchists are calling for. But it would allow the US to disengage, before bringing about a total collapse of state authority and power vacuum, with responsibility for all that would follow.
President Trump has said these attacks are intended to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. After the US air strikes in June 2025, the US government said they had significantly degraded Iran’s nuclear programme.
The strikes also come at a time when several US officials have called for regime change in Iran.
The US seems to have targeted sites that either have a connection with Iran’s nuclear research, or are missile production and storage sites, seeking a further degradation of Iran’s military capabilities.
The Iranian government is already weakened after two years of on-and-off conflict escalation. But it is striking back. Israel and Qatar have reported intercepting incoming Iranian missiles. This means that even with a weakened Iranian government, there is a risk of this conflict escalating and drawing other states in.
Beyond the risk of war in the Middle East, the attack set a worrying precedent by continuing a pattern: striking when negotiations are not going as Washington would like them to. This reduces the likelihood that other states will be willing to enter into negotiations with the US in future, if there is always a risk of the US escalating to military attack.
President Trump’s declaration of war against Iran to depose the regime is a high-risk break with decades of US policy towards Tehran.
The American strategy appears wholly predicated on the untested proposition that the Iranian people will quickly rise up – a huge gamble. Should a massive revolt fail to materialize, the Trump administration will face a fork in the road: fold or double down.
In abandoning negotiations for force, the US opens an uncertain and dangerous path ahead, with grave risks for US military personnel in the ballistic missile strike zone, and US partners vulnerable to retaliation from Iranian proxies.
It is undeniable that Iran’s nuclear ambitions, stockpile of ballistic missiles, and regional militia proxies pose a threat to the United States and its partners. The Iranian regime has cultivated these tools for decades, at great cost to the Iranian people. Multilateral sanctions and periodic US strikes against Iranian proxies sought to bind Iran’s hands.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) successfully cabined Iran’s nuclear problem until the US withdrew. It was a strategy to manage symptoms versus address root causes, and – though imperfect – it prevented a risky and grinding US military entanglement.
President Trump ran on a platform of ending forever wars and bringing US troops home.
The White House National security strategy (NSS), published just two months ago, affirms that the ‘days in which the Middle East dominated American foreign policy in both long-term planning and day-to-day execution are thankfully over.’ Both accurately reflect American public attitudes, with little appetite for a war of choice in the Middle East.
The initial US military campaign appears limited to air strikes but – if the lessons from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya are instructive – aerial bombardment alone is unlikely to topple a regime absent mass defections from Iran’s deeply entrenched military command.
Requirements typically include a significant commitment of ground troops, relentless diplomatic coordination among partners, and careful planning and stewardship of successor structures. These are the ingredients of nation-building that the American public has rightfully rejected.
If the past year of US foreign policy decision-making is predictive of the days ahead, Trump’s desire to project strength and ‘win’ may quickly supplant the popular mandate that brought him back to power – as well as his own strategy.
Every recent US president has tried to, finally, redirect US attention beyond the Middle East. To Asia. To the Western Hemisphere. None has succeeded.
While the Houthis are widely viewed as one of Iran’s closest remaining regional allies – particularly after the weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon – it is far from certain that they will intervene militarily.
The Yemeni militia, formally known as Ansar Allah, has for years benefited from Iranian financial and military support, including assistance from elements of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran has helped develop the Houthis’ ballistic missile and drone capabilities, and Yemen has at times served as an arena through which Tehran could pressure its regional adversaries indirectly while claiming deniability.
However unlike Hezbollah, which openly embraces its ideological and organizational ties to Tehran, the Houthis have historically been sensitive to accusations that they are merely an Iranian proxy even if that – throughout the years – proved to be true.
Yemen does not offer Iran the same theological, social, or political depth that exists in parts of Lebanon or Iraq. On the contrary, suspicion of ‘Persian’ influence has deep historical roots in Yemen. With the exception of a limited ideological circle within the Houthis, overt identification with Iran remains unpopular. This explains why Houthi leaders have often denied or downplayed the extent of their relationship with Tehran, and have reacted sharply when they are labeled an Iranian tool.
Domestic calculation therefore remains central to any decision to escalate. The Houthis cannot afford to frame a war as one fought simply on behalf of Iran.
Previous attacks on Israel and on Red Sea shipping were justified internally through the lens of solidarity with the Palestinian cause – an issue that commands broad sympathy among Yemenis, including among the Houthis’ rivals. That domestic narrative provided political cover. A direct intervention in defence of Tehran would not carry the same unifying legitimacy.
Moreover, the movement is still recovering from significant US strikes last year that degraded parts of its military infrastructure. Entering a new confrontation at a moment of relative fragility would carry serious risks, particularly as the Houthis attempt to consolidate governance over territories under their control and to preserve fragile understandings with regional actors, including Saudi Arabia.
At the same time, the Houthis are not inherently risk-averse. The group has historically thrived in wartime conditions, using conflict to sustain mobilization, reinforce ideological cohesion, and postpone difficult political compromises.
War can serve its internal logic. This does not mean it will automatically intervene, but it does mean that controlled escalation remains an available instrument, especially if it can be framed as self-defence rather than solidarity.
Two factors could significantly shift the calculation. The first, and more likely, would be direct military strikes against Houthi targets. In that scenario, intervention would become less a matter of choice and more one of perceived survival.
The second concerns the residual presence of Iranian and Hezbollah-linked operatives in Yemen. In the past, personnel affiliated with the IRGC and Hezbollah have reportedly assisted in launches toward Saudi Arabia, at times pushing escalation beyond what Houthis preferred.
That footprint appears to have diminished following Hezbollah’s regional setbacks, but if those external actors retain operational influence, the risk of entanglement increases.
Should the Houthis decide to escalate, they possess meaningful leverage. They can threaten shipping through the Bab al-Mandab strait, a critical chokepoint linking the Red Sea to global trade routes. They can resume drone and missile attacks against Israel, as well as target US military facilities or Western-linked infrastructure within range.
Such actions would not fundamentally alter the balance between Washington and Tehran, but they would expand the theatre of conflict and raise economic and security costs for the US and its partners.
For now, however, it remains doubtful that the Houthis will initiate a campaign solely on Iran’s behalf. Their decision-making is shaped as much by domestic legitimacy and strategic self-preservation as by regional alignment. Unless directly drawn in, they are more likely to calibrate their involvement carefully rather than commit to open-ended escalation.
Read full analysis and commentary here:
’Iran is operating from the principle that if it goes down, it will bring down others with it.’ Bilal Y. Saab on the contest of will between Trump and Iran.
‘President Trump is making the use of force the new normal – and casting aside international law.’ Professor Marc Weller of Chatham House’s International Law Programme on how the attacks – and the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – create precedents for other countries seeking to resort to force without consideration for the rule of law.
’Depending on the war’s outcome, the Kremlin might see its already wobbly strategic architecture in the Middle East so badly undermined that it is compelled to reassess its regional calculus.’ Grégoire Roos on how the Iran war exposes the limits of Russia’s leverage in a fragmenting regional order.
Chatham House is an international affairs think-tank based in London. Our mission is to address geopolitical challenges and international problems.
Find out more about our work from our website, here.
China is playing the long game over Iran Expert comment thilton.drupal
Beijing’s diplomatic restraint over the US’s standoff with Tehran should not be mistaken for unreliability or indifference.
Despite close ties with Tehran, China has refrained from coming out in strong support of its partner as the US continues its military build-up in the Gulf.
Amid US threats to attack Iran, Beijing has focused on encouraging diplomacy and regional security. On 24 February, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson reiterated this position, saying that ‘We hope various parties will exercise restraint and resolve differences through dialogue.’
For some, China’s ostensibly neutral emphasis on restraint and dialogue in the face of US military threats may seem like it has abandoned Tehran, reinforcing the view that it is an unreliable partner. This follows China’s inaction after the US kidnapped its close partner Nicolás Maduro and established control over Venezuela’s oil sector, in which Beijing had invested billions.
However, this is not new. China has always avoided backing Iran militarily. Beijing criticized the US and Israel’s strikes on Iran during the 12-day war in 2025 but did not provide material support to Tehran. Despite being a comprehensive strategic partner to Iran, Beijing also supported UN-led economic sanctions against Iran before the 2015 nuclear deal and has since procrastinated on injecting investment into the Iranian economy.
Instead, China sees Iran as a long game, which the US’s maximum pressure campaign may inadvertently help it win.
Beijing’s restrained statements have raised questions about China’s reliability in supporting its allies in their hour of need.
For many Western observers, China’s reserved stance on Iran is surprising given close ties. After all, Beijing and Tehran are comprehensive strategic partners, having signed a 25-year strategic agreement in 2021.
China remains a lifeline for the Iranian economy, which has been hit by international sanctions. In 2025, China bought more than 80 per cent of Iran’s shipped oil, at a significant discount, accounting for 13.5 per cent of all the oil China imported by sea.
Beijing also sought to lessen Iran’s international political isolation in recent years by granting it membership in BRICS+ and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
China’s lack of action can also be seen as undermining its advocacy for a multipolar world order and challenge to US world hegemony. Beijing has enshrined this view in the Global Security Initiative and encapsulated it in its slogan, ‘the East is rising and the West is declining.’ Yet, in practice, Beijing seems to be showing little initiative to assert itself in the Middle East or seriously push for a decline in US influence there.
Beijing’s limited response to both the 12-day war and the Trump administration’s current pressure on Tehran undermines previous narratives that China’s influence in the Middle East was rising. Indeed, since October 7, China has largely taken a backseat in the region, taking little concrete action beyond criticizing Israel over Gaza and calling out the US for threatening and using unilateral force against Iran.
This assessment, however, is hasty. It misses the long-term lessons that the 12-day war revealed about China’s position on the nuclear negotiations. It also overlooks Beijing’s main objectives for its future relations with Tehran.
First, Chinese officials publicly oppose Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. This is not at odds with Beijing’s position of respecting ‘Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy as a state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.’ Although China is still officially a member of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal, it supports a new agreement on the issue.
Beijing is concerned that a nuclear Iran may trigger a regional war. Such a war would risk the blocking of vital shipping lanes and obstruct China’s oil imports from the Gulf. It could also lead to Iran targeting the Gulf states, where China’s commercial interests far outweigh its ties with Tehran.
By obtaining nuclear weapons, Iran would shift the balance of power in its favour and set a new deterrence mechanism that may restrain any future US or Israeli military actions. This may destabilize the Middle East for generations by triggering a race towards nuclear weapons. More broadly, it could also encourage China’s regional rivals, such as Japan, South Korea and Australia, to also seek to become nuclear powers as a means of deterring Beijing’s assertiveness.
US diplomatic efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear breakout potential in exchange for removing sanctions therefore align with China’s preference for a peaceful solution. Beijing has publicly voiced its opposition to any strikes on Iran or infringement of its sovereignty.
However, Beijing’s has also long been opposed to a nuclear-armed Iran. Given this, it may even be fair to assume that Beijing would tolerate limited US-Israeli strikes on Iran as a negotiating tactic if they could secure a diplomatic breakthrough that resolved the Iranian nuclear issue without triggering an all-out regional war.
Second, China sees a weakened Iranian regime as both a risk and an opportunity. Beijing doesn’t want to see a total regime collapse that would be replaced by a Western-aligned government. At the same time, Beijing can capitalize on Iran’s weakness to increase the regime’s dependence on China.
The importance of relations with China has been strongly emphasized by both supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. During his August visit to Beijing, the president underscored Tehran’s commitment to implement its 25-year comprehensive cooperation agreement with China.
Specifically, China may intensify its exports of dual-use technology to Iran, which may help rebuild parts of Tehran’s missile and drone strategy. However, reports about Chinese air defence systems, fighter jets or supersonic anti-ship missiles potentially being sold to Iran should be considered with caution. China has not confirmed the sales, and Iran has a vested interest in exaggerating the depths of bilateral relations to establish deterrence.
Why Should Delaware Care?
An anti-panhandling ordinance has embroiled Delaware’s capital city in controversy for months. City Council members ultimately voted on Wednesday against the ordinance, leaving its proponents unsatisfied with the situation of people standing on street medians, and opponents pleased the city will not face potential legal challenges over its adoption.
In a more decisive vote than many anticipated, the Dover City Council voted 6-3 against an ordinance that would have banned panhandling in city road medians — a common sight in heavily traveled corridors.
The Wednesday night vote came nearly five months after City Councilman David Anderson introduced the ordinance, officially called a “Traffic, Vehicles and Pedestrian Safety” measure, which would have prohibited pedestrians from stopping and standing on street medians.
Since Anderson first presented the ordinance in late October, the proposal has faced dozens of hours of debate among council members and city residents, amendments delaying final vote, threats of legal challenge by the ACLU of Delaware, and even calls for Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings to weigh in on the measure.
Debate has gotten so tense at times that councilmembers’ spouses got involved, personal attacks were waged on social media, and residents on opposite sides of the debate hurled insults at each other across the council chamber.
City leaders discussed the proposal for more than an hour and a half on Wednesday, and 23 residents gave one last public comment before council members ultimately cast their final votes after 9 p.m.
The three council members who voted in favor of the measure — Anderson, Council President Fred Neil and Councilwoman Julia Pillsbury — cited serious traffic safety concerns and hearing support for the ordinance from their constituents as their reasons for supporting it.
“It deals with basically keeping the intersections and the medians flowing and free of those who are not using them for their intended purposes,” Anderson said at the meeting.
Anderson did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s requests for comment after the meeting about the outcome of the vote on the ordinance, an effort he has championed since the fall.
Each of the six elected officials who voted against the ordinance provided a lengthy explanation for their thought process in opting to reject the measure.
Councilman Gerald Rocha, who had expressed tentative support for the proposal at previous council meetings, said he ended up being convinced that the possible legal risks of the ordinance are too strong. Rocha also said he put a lot of stock in the opinion of State Rep. Sean Lynn (D-Dover), who wrote a letter to council opposing the ordinance.
“I didn’t hear anything that says this ordinance, if passed, is going to pass the litmus test in a lawsuit,” Rocha said at the meeting.
Councilwoman Donyale Hall, who has said in the past that she considers herself to be a swing vote on the council, said similarly that she voted against the ordinance because it isn’t in the best interest of taxpayer dollars to “welcome more legal challenge.”
A number of the more than 40 residents sitting and standing in the audience clapped and cheered as additional council members voted against the ordinance and the city clerk announced that it had failed.
Many of the same citizens who have previously spoken about the ordinance came out again ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
Speakers in favor of the ordinance characterized it as purely addressing a safety concern they encounter on a daily basis. Those against it, however, said the city is inviting a legal challenge by passing the measure, and deflecting from directing resources toward the root causes of homelessness.
Five residents spoke in favor of Anderson’s ordinance, while 19 made arguments against the proposal.
Katrina Stubbs, who said she has been homeless multiple times over the past 10 years, said she views the ordinance as separate from the homelessness issue in the city.
“Homelessness, panhandling, mental health – totally different,” Stubbs said. “This is something dealing with safety.”
Dover resident Ronald Eads, on the other hand, said he panhandles frequently on one of the road medians along U.S. Route 13 that city council members have described as a hot spot for loitering activity.
Eads, who said he solicits money to afford a motel room and food for himself and his wife, said peoples’ portrayals of panhandlers as careless and aggressive with passing cars is not accurate.
“You see a car, you don’t run out to a car,” Eads said. “We ask when we approach the cars. We’re not that stupid.”
Community activist Chelle Paul handed out to council members and attendees a packet of potential legal challenges that could stem from the ordinance, including that it leaves too much up to individual police officers’ discretion, and is difficult to enforce.
Paul said she interprets the proposed ordinance as strikingly similar to the previous state law on loitering and solicitation, which was struck down by an agreement between the ACLU and the state’s Attorney General in 2024. She questioned why City Solicitor Dan Griffith had allowed the ordinance to move forward.
Griffith responded that Paul’s research looked like she had taken the proposal and ”put it through an AI,” but said he believes the city’s ordinance to be in line with the updated bill that Jennings announced this year, rather than the previously nullified legislation.
Jared Silberglied, a lawyer for the ACLU of Delaware, wrote in a message to Spotlight Delaware that his organization is pleased that the city council “resoundingly defeated this proposed ordinance.”
“We are closely monitoring strikingly similar legislation proposed by the City of Wilmington and the State of Delaware, and we encourage those public bodies to follow Dover’s example,” he added.
While many of the residents who have worked for months to defeat the ordinance left the meeting pleased, council members were left to reckon with the personal insults and flared tensions stemming from the prolonged debate.
Sudler, who has been perhaps the most vocal opponent of the measure, said after the meeting he was “concerned” by how biting the attacks between council members have become. He cited comments on Facebook about legal fees his family has cost the city in a lawsuit over the city unnecessarily taking land from his family.
“I think we need to get back to being respectful of each other’s positions,” Sudler said. “When we are divided, we don’t do our best job.”
While some council members made vague mentions of the city reconsidering the ordinance in the future, Sudler said he cannot imagine that happening while he is still on council, because he has been such a staunch opponent of it.
Councilman Brian Lewis said he does not believe the city will reintroduce the ordinance, unless the Attorney General’s proposed state law is passed, and the city must begin enforcing that legislation.
Lewis agreed with Sudler that the council has escalated to a state of extreme tension over the ordinance, but he said one positive has been the increased resident turnout and engagement at meetings.
“Most council meetings have a very, very low turnout,” he said. “I’m glad people came out and voiced how they felt.”
The post Dover panhandling ordinance fails following months of controversy appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Several new businesses are headed for downtown Newark and The Grove at Newark.
Heart & Home announced last week that its Peoples Plaza location will be closing after 30 years in business.
A 13-year-old Newark boy is facing several charges after stealing a car and fleeing from police, authorities said.
Music, movement and a shared commitment to women’s health filled Shue-Medill Middle School on Feb. 6 as the Sigma Zeta Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority hosted Pink Goes Red: Line Dancing for Heart Health, a community event…
NIK ANNA
Photographer
HANNAH PALIATH
Photographer
Photographers Nik Anna and Hannah Paliath capture Delaware’s game against Navy
When guards appeared earlier this month outside the room Christian Hinojosa shared with her son and other women and children at the immigrant detention center in Dilley, Texas, she guessed what they might be after. She quickly donned her puffy winter jacket, then slipped a manila envelope inside it. “Thank God the weather was cool,” she said — the jacket didn’t raise suspicions.
Then, she said, she was instructed to leave the room while eight to 10 guards lifted up mattresses, opened drawers and rifled through papers. In the envelope were kids’ writings and artwork about life in America’s only detention facility for immigrant families, a collection of trailers and dormitories in the brush country south of San Antonio. She planned to share their letters with the outside world.
Guards have taken away crayons, colored pencils and drawing paper during recent room searches at Dilley, according to Hinojosa and three other former detainees, along with lawyers and advocates in contact with the families inside.
Guards have taken artwork, too, they said — even one child’s drawing of Bratz fashion dolls.
They said detainees have lost access to Gmail and other Google services in the Dilley library amid stepped up searches, seizures and restrictions on communications, making it more difficult for them to contact lawyers and advocates.
They and family members said guards sometimes hover within earshot during detainees’ video calls to relatives and reporters.
The detainees and others interviewed for this story said these measures increased after the Jan. 22 arrival of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old in a blue bunny hat, sparked protests and congressional visits. They said the clampdown intensified as children and parents at Dilley wrote letters to share with the public and reporters and relatives recorded video calls with the detainees, including those published by ProPublica this month. The children’s stories, many told in their own words, fueled an outcry over the scope of the Trump administration’s deportation campaign, which the president had promised would focus on criminals.
The detainees said the more they tried to make their voices heard, the more difficult it became.
One mother, who asked to remain anonymous because her immigration case is still pending, told ProPublica that she and her three kids watched through a window as guards swept through their room in late January, removing drawings from the walls and placing colored pencils and crayons in plastic bags before taking them away.
With little schooling available at Dilley and weather too chilly for kids to want to play outdoors, drawing had been the children’s main diversion, the former detainee said. “What were they going to do now?” she said. “They were so bored.”
After the room inspection, the woman said, the children just “cried and cried and cried.”
CoreCivic, the private prison company that runs the Dilley facility for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a written statement that routine inspections of living facilities are a common practice and that detainees are informed of what items they are allowed to have in their rooms.
“We vehemently deny any claims that our staff have confiscated or destroyed children’s personal artwork or their related supplies,” the statement reads, adding that there are examples of kids’ artwork “proudly displayed” throughout the facility.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said in a statement that “ICE is not destroying children’s letters,” but the agency acknowledged that in one case “all the written items in the cell were seized” as part of an investigation of a mother who DHS said refused to comply with a search and pushed a detention center employee. CoreCivic referred questions to DHS when asked about this incident. ProPublica was unable to reach the mother for comment.
This week, DHS issued press releases that it said were “correcting the record” about Dilley, saying “adults with children are housed in facilities that provide for their safety, security, and medical needs.” DHS’ and CoreCivic’s statements to ProPublica did not answer questions about Google services being blocked or whether guards listen in on Dilley detainees’ calls.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, visited Dilley after Liam and his father, both originally from Ecuador, were picked up in Minnesota and transferred in January. He went again last week and was asked at a Friday news conference about reports of children’s letters and drawings being suppressed.
“I believe those stories, because I’ve heard similar stories myself,” Castro said.
He said he’d been told repeatedly that guards had warned detainees not to talk to him. “Yes, I think there’s a lot of secrecy there,” Castro said.
DHS did not respond when asked to comment on Castro’s assertion about the guards. A CoreCivic spokesperson said, “We are not aware of any staff member warning residents not to speak with Rep. Castro.”
The Dilley Immigration Processing Center first opened during the Obama administration primarily to hold families that had just crossed the border. Then Biden ended the practice of detaining families in 2021. President Donald Trump restarted it even as border crossings in his second term hit record lows. Now ICE is ramping up immigration arrests inside the country, and Dilley holds many families who have been living in the United States for years.
The families spend their days behind a metal fence, sleeping in rooms that hold six bunk beds and a common area with a few small tables and desks. More than 3,500 people have cycled through the detention center since the Trump administration began sending families here last spring.
A ProPublica reporter who had been speaking with families at Dilley since late last year went to the center for an in-person visit in mid-January and asked families whether their children would want to write about their experiences. On Jan. 22, we received a packet of colorful drawings and handwritten letters from a detainee who had been recently released, which we later published.
Then on Jan. 24, dozens of detainees staged a mass protest in the yard, which was photographed from above, where they yelled “libertad” and held up hand-drawn signs. The signs were made using the detention center’s art supplies, former detainees said.
That protest and Liam’s detention triggered widespread media coverage and a visit by Castro, who arrived on Jan 28. Supporters gathered outside Dilley, and some clashed with state troopers. At the beginning of February, Liam and his father were released, and ProPublica published the letters it had received. By that time, it had become clear to detainees that their voices — especially children’s voices — had gotten broad public attention.
They kept writing.
“We were looking for help,” said Hinojosa, who collected letters at ProPublica’s request. “We were looking to be heard.”
Hinojosa, along with her 13-year-old son, Gustavo, both originally from Mexico, were released in early February after four months at Dilley to return home to San Antonio. (Although a 1990s legal settlement holds that children should generally not be detained for more than 20 days, DHS has said the settlement should be terminated because newer regulations have addressed the needs of child detainees.)
“My parents say it’s been 4 months but for me and my little sister,” a 9-year-old wrote in one of the letters Hinojosa gathered. “It feels like a year I just want to go to the United States to be with my grandparents and finally end this nightmare.”
“I’m writing this letter so that you can hear my story,” a 7-year-old wrote in another of the letters. “I need you to help us … I cry a lot. I want to get out of here go back to my school.”
“I see how they treat us like criminals,” wrote Edison, a seventh grader from Chicago who was born in Guatemala, “and we’re not.”
CoreCivic said that Dilley residents are given a written description of property they’re allowed to have in their living areas, and that decorating rooms with personal items is permitted “provided they do not present a health or safety hazard.”
Former detainees told ProPublica they experienced room searches before January but that they typically were carried out by just two employees at a time, not eight or more.
After guards searched Hinojosa’s room following the protest, she said, she and the other residents were unable to locate their colored pencils, which were purchased at the commissary and stored in a little cup atop the writing table where the kids liked to doodle. “Even knowing that we had paid for those ourselves,” she said, “they removed them.”
“There were many, many families whose children had their pencils and what they created thrown away,” said a third mother, who also asked to remain anonymous because of her immigration status.
Former detainees and their family members described close attention by guards during calls home, some of which happened via tablet computers in a common area.
Edison, the 13-year-old Chicago seventh grader, cried during a recent video call home that his father shared with ProPublica, saying he felt locked up.
The father, who asked that his son’s last name not be used, recalled the boy saying before the recording began, “Dad, there’s an agent here and he’s watching us.” He said his son sounded panicked.
The mother who said she watched guards sweep her room told ProPublica that after the January protest inside Dilley, a half-dozen guards were posted in a room where calls took place. “Every time someone came in to make a call,” she said, “they practically stood behind you.”
As families held at Dilley continue to try to make themselves heard, Hinojosa and other recently released detainees are determined to help.
Hinojosa carefully protected her fellow residents’ letters and drawings before her release. Every time she left her room, she wore the CoreCivic-issued puffy gray jacket and tucked the drawings and letters inside.
“I carried them around with me all day to prevent anyone from taking them,” she told ProPublica. “I knew they were valuable.”
Many of the pieces she carried were different from the vibrant paper drawings ProPublica received in January. With paper in short supply, Hinojosa said, children drew pictures on the backs of old artworks. With crayons and colored pencils now scarce, some drew in plain pencil.
Hinojosa walked out of Dilley earlier this month with her son Gustavo and with 34 pages of drawings and letters. They capture the names and lives of dozens of people.
Along with long notes from moms who remain inside are simple sketches by the kids detained with them: a teddy bear. A bus going home. A pet cat named Willi. A family of three stick figures trapped behind a wire fence. A family of six stick figures trapped behind a wire fence. A single small stick figure trapped behind a wire fence. Many of the drawings show faces, and most of the faces are frowning.
The post Seized Art, Eavesdropping Guards: Parents Describe a Clampdown at Dilley Detention Center as Kids Shared Their Stories appeared first on ProPublica.
Wendy Faith and Alesi Diana Denise were taken into custody under laws that have outraged LGBTQ+ community and rights activists
Two women have been arrested and detained in Uganda after allegedly kissing in public, an act of “same-sex activity” which can lead to a life sentence in the east African country.
Wendy Faith, a 22-year-old musician known as Torrero Bae, and Alesi Diana Denise, 21, were taken into custody after police raided their rented room in Uganda’s north-west Arua City last week.
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In the first State of the Union address of his second term, President Donald Trump proclaimed that “our nation is back, bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before.”
“What a difference a president makes,” Trump said. “A short time ago, we were a dead country. Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world.”
But our review of his speech found that he distorted a number of facts about the state of the economy, health care, immigration and other topics.
Trump’s Feb. 24 address was longer than any prior SOTU, clocking in at over 1 hour and 47 minutes, as measured by the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Trump falsely claimed that he inherited “a stagnant economy” with “inflation at record levels.”
Economists have told us that the U.S. economy under Joe Biden was not stagnant. “Real GDP growth during the Biden presidency was positive and often above trend, and unemployment remained historically low,” Kyle Handley, a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, told us for a Feb. 11 story.
Bureau of Economic Analysis data show that under Biden, real gross domestic product (meaning it has been adjusted for inflation), grew at an annual rate of 6.2% in 2021 (during the COVID-19 recovery), 2.5% in 2022, 2.9% in 2023 and 2.8% in 2024. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate also decreased under Biden, going from 6.4% when he was inaugurated to 4% in his last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The average monthly unemployment rate for Biden’s presidency was 4.1%, below the historical average
As for inflation, when Trump took office, the annualized rate of inflation was 3%, based on the Consumer Price Index. That was far from the 9.1% rate in June 2022, under Biden, which was the highest 12-month increase since November 1981, according to the BLS. The worst inflation in U.S. history was not long after World War I, when the Consumer Price Index was up 23.7% for the 12 months ending in June 1920.
Trump later said in his speech that “the roaring economy is roaring like never before.” But under Trump, real GDP growth was down to an annual rate of 2.2% in 2025, and the unemployment rate was up to 4.3% as of January.
Trump also claimed that the 43-day shutdown of the federal government ended up “costing us two points” on GDP.
Fourth quarter growth in 2025 was 1.4%, much lower than economists had projected. The Bureau of Economic Analysis said that was partly due to the extended shutdown, but attributed just 1 percentage point — not 2 — of reduced GDP growth to the shutdown.
Trump misleadingly claimed to be bringing down “high prices” he blamed on Democrats.
“Their policies created the high prices,” the president said. “Our policies are rapidly ending them. We are doing really well. Those prices are plummeting downward.”
He went on to name some food items that he claimed have seen average price declines and cited energy prices as well. “Nobody can believe when they see the kind of numbers, especially energy,” he said. “When they see energy going down to numbers like that, they cannot believe it.”
Prices had increased substantially during the first half of Biden’s term, due largely to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic — not just Democratic policies.
Furthermore, overall prices are not down under Trump. As we said, in January, the annual inflation rate was down to 2.4%, which is above the 2% target set by the Federal Reserve. So, prices are still increasing, but at a slower pace than when Trump took office.
In addition, while the average price of some grocery items, such as eggs and bread, have come down since the start of Trump’s second term, other items, such as beef, or ground chuck, have seen an average price increase, contrary to what Trump said. And average food prices overall are up instead of down. As of January, the Consumer Price Index for at-home food products purchased at a grocery store or supermarket had increased about 2.2%, year over year, according to the most recent BLS data.
As for energy prices, it wasn’t clear from his remarks which energy prices Trump was referencing. The CPI for energy overall was down 0.3% for the 12 months ending in January, while the index for household energy specifically rose 6.6% in that period, according to BLS data. Also, the average price of electricity per kilowatt hour has risen about 7.3% in the last year.
During the speech, Trump claimed, “More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country.” While accurate, the statistic loses some luster when factoring in steady U.S. population growth. In fact, job growth slowed and the employment-to-population ratio declined a bit in the first year of Trump’s second term.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 158,627,000 people employed in the U.S. in January, and that’s the highest number on record. But by and large, as the population of the U.S. has grown over the years, so too has the number of people employed in the U.S., with notable exceptions during recessions.
Since employment recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-2022, jobs have reached new highs nearly every single month. Trump’s claim also overlooks that job growth was lower between January 2025 and January 2026 under Trump — a gain of 359,000 jobs or 0.2% — than it was for Biden’s final year — a gain of 1.2 million jobs or 0.8.%.
There are other, more relevant statistics, on employment growth that factor in population growth. BLS’ employment-population ratio, which is the percentage of the population that is working, declined from 60.1% in January 2025 to 59.8% in January 2026. Another measure is the labor force participation rate, which is the percentage of the total population over age 16 that is either employed or actively seeking work. That rate has stayed relatively the same, going from 62.6% in January 2025 to 62.5% in January 2026. The so-called “prime age” labor force participation rate, focusing just on those ages 25 to 54, rose from 83.5% in January 2025 to 84.1% in January 2026.
Trump misleadingly said that he had taken prescription drugs “from the highest price in the entire world to the lowest.” He also said that Americans “will now pay the lowest price anywhere in the world for drugs.”
The Trump administration’s negotiations with drugmakers may have lowered prices for specific drugs to some degree, and in limited situations. However, there’s no evidence of a broad decrease in U.S. drug prices, as we wrote in a recent story. In fact, the median list price for hundreds of brand-name drugs rose by 4% in 2025 and in 2026 thus far, according to the research firm 46brooklyn.
Trump’s drug pricing strategy is based on the concept of most favored nation pricing. Under an MFN policy, a country bases its prices off of those in other countries.
So far, the Trump administration has made deals with 16 drug companies, securing commitments to offer selected brand-name drugs at discounted cash prices for people not using insurance. Companies have also promised to launch new drugs and offer drugs to Medicaid at MFN prices. In return, companies have gotten various benefits, including promised exemptions from tariffs and from future mandatory MFN policies.
TrumpRx, the federal website designed to highlight the administration’s cash deals, launched on Feb. 5 and so far shows cash prices for 43 brand-name drugs from the first five companies to make deals with the administration.
However, experts previously told us that while the site does offer a few good deals — for example, for people taking fertility or weight loss drugs that are often not covered by insurance — its impact is limited.
“Manufacturers have agreed to discount prices on some drugs that are not well covered by insurance or already have generic competition, and that’s not nothing, but it’s not necessarily going to help a lot of people, right now anyway,” Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the program on Medicare policy at KFF, told us.
For most people, insurance will offer a better deal, she said. And even for people paying for their drugs in cash, at least 18 of the drugs on TrumpRx are available as generics for lower prices elsewhere, an analysis from STAT found.
Trump claimed that the prices are now the lowest in the world, but even for the select drugs on TrumpRx, it’s not clear if that’s true. A spokesperson for the White House previously told us the administration was using prices from other G7 nations as comparators on the site but didn’t specify what prices were being compared. Cubanski told us that it’s difficult to determine whether the prices are the lowest internationally, as countries may get rebates or discounts that are not disclosed.
Trump said he was asking Congress to “codify” his MFN program but his Great Healthcare Plan is light on specifics regarding the legislation he is suggesting Congress should pass.
Trump repeated a regular talking point, saying, “In 12 months, I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe.” That’s an unsubstantiated figure.
A White House website tallying such promises puts the total at $9.6 trillion for “U.S. and Foreign Investments,” providing very few details on these agreements. But as we’ve written before, even that number is shaky because it includes pledges and planned investments that may not happen.
“[T]hey’re just promises — and often vague ones at that,” Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the libertarian Cato Institute, said in an April 2025 analysis when Trump began making such claims.
In looking at the White House list in May, we found that some investments may not be due to Trump. A $500 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure project, for example, was reportedly in the planning stages in March 2024, well before the election. And both a labor union and a Democratic governor took credit for the announced reopening of an auto assembly plant that also was on the Trump administration’s list.
Trump made the unsupported claim that “the flow of deadly fentanyl across our border is down by a record 56% in one year.”
Experts who study drug flow and policy have told us before that it’s not possible to know how much more or less of an illicit drug is getting into the U.S. That’s because there is no comprehensive data on the total flow of drugs into the country, which includes drugs that have not been detected by authorities, as the Congressional Research Service has reported.
“The best thing that we have as a gauge for what comes into the country is the seizure data,” and that “is not a metric of how much is actually coming into the U.S.,” Katharine Neill Harris, a fellow in drug policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, told us for an October 2024 story. “This is just the data that’s coming through the border security,” she said, noting that this excludes drugs that are smuggled into the country other ways, such as by mail.
Some use the seizure data as a proxy for how much enters the country undetected, with more drug seizures suggesting that more drugs are coming into the country — or vice versa.
The amount of fentanyl seized by federal border officers decreased by about 49% in the first year of Trump’s second term, going from 21,075 pounds seized in Biden’s last full 12 months in office to 10,674 pounds seized in Trump’s first full 12 months, according to the most recent Customs and Border Protection data. A White House spokesperson pointed to a CBP announcement in September that said since Trump took office in January, “fentanyl trafficking at the southern border is down by 56% compared to the same period in 2024.”
The number of pounds seized has been on the decline since peaking in fiscal year 2023. The fact that the seized amount has gone down could mean that less of the drug is being trafficked to the country, but it could mean that authorities are simply catching less of it. (The declining number of fentanyl overdose deaths since late 2023 suggests that it may be the former.)
But not having the figure for the total fentanyl flow to the U.S. makes it difficult to know if the president’s claim is accurate. “If you don’t know the denominator, you can’t have an answer,” David Luckey, director of the RAND Rural America Partnership Initiative and professor of policy analysis at the RAND School of Public Policy, told us in 2024.
Trump continued to making false claims about gasoline prices, saying: “Gasoline — which reached a peak of over $6 a gallon in some states under my predecessor was, quite honestly, a disaster — is now below $2.30 a gallon in most states. And in some places, $1.99 a gallon. And when I visited the great state of Iowa just a few weeks ago, I even saw $1.85 a gallon for gasoline.”
As of Feb. 24, there were no U.S. states where the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was below $2.30, according to state price data from AAA. Oklahoma was the closest to that figure, with an average price of $2.37. That also means there are no states with an average price below $2 per gallon. In Iowa, the state Trump mentioned, the average price statewide was $2.55, at the time of his remarks.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told us for a Feb. 19 story that, as of Feb. 14, there were “about 40 stations in the nation with gasoline below $2/gal, which is what we’ve generally seen on a daily basis for February thus far.” In a Feb. 24 post on Substack, he wrote that, as of that date, $2.69 was the “most common price being charged at stations nationwide.”
Nationwide, gasoline prices are roughly 17 cents (or about 5%) lower than they were when Trump took office. As of the week ending Feb. 23, the average price in the U.S. for a gallon of regular gasoline was almost $2.94, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Trump continued to make his inflated claim about ending “eight wars.”
“My first 10 months, I ended eight wars, including Cambodia,” Trump said. “Cambodia and Thailand, Pakistan and India would have been a nuclear war. Thirty-five million people, said the prime minister of Pakistan, would have died if it were not for my involvement. Kosovo and Serbia, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Congo and Rwanda. And, of course, the war in Gaza, which proceeds at a very low level, it’s just about there.”
When his claim was seven wars last year, experts in international relations told us that Trump played a substantial role in ending fighting in four of those conflicts — although the Indian government denied that the U.S. played a role in negotiating the ceasefire with Pakistan. Trump also counts some international disagreements that weren’t wars, as well as some battles that haven’t ended.
Trump includes the more than two-year-long war between Israel and Hamas as the eighth war, as the two sides agreed in October to a ceasefire and the return of hostages and prisoners. Many have said that Trump should get credit for getting the deal done, including Biden’s former national security adviser.
Steven A. Cook, senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, noted that implementing Trump’s 20-point peace agreement comes with challenges. “Whether this leads to an end to the war remains an open question,” Cook said.
We’d note that both Israel and Hamas have accused the other of violating the terms of the ceasefire deal.
Trump claimed to have presided over a “tremendous renewal” of religion in America, but recent polling has found the opposite.
A Gallup poll conducted in November found that less than half of Americans reported that religion was an important part of their daily lives, which is a 17 percentage point decline since 2015, the year before Trump won his first election.
“The steady decline in U.S. religiosity over the past decade has been evident for years,” according to Gallup. “Fewer Americans identify with a religion, church attendance and membership are declining, and religion holds a less important role in people’s lives than it once did.”
That contradicts the president’s claim that “during my time in office, both the first four years, and in particular, this last year, there has been a tremendous renewal in religion, faith, Christianity and belief in God.”
Trump went on to claim, “This is especially true among young people, and a big part of that had to do with my great friend, Charlie Kirk.”
A study released by the Pew Research Center in December found that Americans have remained roughly steady in whether or not they identify as religious since 2020, and that there is no surge in religious belief among the young.
“On average, young adults remain much less religious than older Americans,” according to Pew. “Today’s young adults also are less religious than young people were a decade ago. And there is no indication that young men are converting to Christianity in large numbers,” as had been suggested in some recent reporting.
The president touted the so-called “warrior dividend” bonus checks that were sent to military personnel in December.
“Every service member recently received a warrior dividend of $1,776,” Trump said, later adding, “we got the money from tariffs and other things.”
It’s true that about 1.5 million active-duty and reserve military members received checks, but the money didn’t come from tariffs.
Those bonuses were a reallocation of funds initially earmarked for an increased Department of Defense housing allowance, funded by a $2.9 billion appropriation in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
During his address, Trump repeated — as he does in virtually every speech — his unsupported claim that many of the immigrants who came to the U.S. during the Biden administration “poured in by the millions and millions, from prisons, from mental institutions” in other countries. Trump has never provided any credible evidence of that.
Trump also claimed that Biden’s immigration policies allowed the entry of “11,888 murderers.” He has been citing variations of this figure for more than a year. But as we’ve written, he’s referring to noncitizens convicted of murder who were not being detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The list, known as the agency’s non-detained docket, included 13,099 people as of July 21, 2024. The “vast majority” of them entered the country prior to the Biden administration and had their custody status determined “long before this Administration,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a 2024 statement, noting that many were in prison. Also, the noncitizens include those who entered the country legally, such as green-card holders.
Trump boasted, “The stock market has set 53 all-time record highs since the election. Think of that, one year. Boosting pensions, 401(k)s and retirement accounts for the millions and millions of Americans are all gaining. Everybody’s up, way up.” The stock market is up in Trump’s first year, but it’s down from the gains seen in the last two years under Biden.
Since Trump took office, the S&P 500 has risen 14.9% (that’s for the period between the close of the market on Jan. 17, 2025, the last business day before the inauguration, and the close of the market on the Feb. 24, 2026). Although Trump has said stocks far outperformed Wall Street expectations, that’s only a little better than many financial analysts forecast for 2025 just before Trump took office.
As Yahoo! Finance wrote on Jan. 2, 2025, “The median year-end target for the S&P 500 among strategists tracked by Yahoo Finance sits at 6,600. This would represent about a 12% increase from the index’s current level.”
Trump claimed the Dow Jones “broke 50,000 four years ahead of schedule, and the S&P hit 7,000 where it wasn’t supposed to do it for many years.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, made up of 30 large corporations, reached 50,000 in early February, but has since dropped a bit, and was at 49,174 at the close of the market on Feb. 24.
Although Trump’s claim may make it seem like the stock market rebounded since he took office, the stock market performed well in Biden’s final two years in office — with the S&P 500 rising over 20% each of those years — better than the 13% gain Trump saw in his first year. As we wrote in our story, “Biden’s Final Numbers,” the S&P grew by nearly 58% over the entirety of Biden’s four years. The stock market has been on a good long-term run, with the S&P rising nearly 68% during Trump’s first four years in office and by 166% during the eight years under President Barack Obama before that.
We also note that while Trump said that “everybody’s up, way up,” only about 62% of Americans own any stock, according to a Gallup poll in 2025. Ownership of stock skews heavily to the wealthy — 87% among those in households earning at least $100,000. It was 28% among those in households earning less than $50,000.
“With the great Big Beautiful Bill, we gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors,” Trump said, recycling some of his favorite short descriptors to describe the reconciliation bill he signed into law in July.
As we’ve noted before, the law boosted the number of people who don’t have to pay any tax on their Social Security benefits through 2028, but does not eliminate the tax for all seniors since there is a phase-out for those with higher incomes.
According to the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, 88% of Social Security recipients 65 years or older will not pay any tax on those benefits under the law. That’s up from the 64% of senior recipients who already did not have to pay. (The law does not exempt individuals younger than 65 from having to pay taxes.)
The situation is similar with Trump’s claims of “no tax” on overtime or tips, which are also temporary and have phase-outs as income increases and other limitations. There is a maximum deduction of $25,000 for tips and $12,500 for overtime pay.
As he has for years, Trump insisted, without evidence, that “cheating is rampant in our elections.”
Trump urged Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote, and also photo identification to vote in federal elections. Under the current law, registrants must attest that they are a citizen under penalty of perjury, and noncitizens who vote risk deportation and being permanently inadmissible for return to the U.S. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 14 states and Washington, D.C., don’t require identification at the polls.
We’ve written a lot of articles about Trump’s false, misleading and unfounded claims about fraud in the 2020 election (and other elections). We’ve also looked at the Trump campaign’s 2020 legal challenges, which lacked evidence of voter fraud and were almost universally dismissed by judges.
Trump’s own Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency concluded that the 2020 election “was the most secure in American history” and that there was “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” And William Barr, U.S. attorney general in Trump’s first term, told a House committee in testimony released June 13, 2022: “In my opinion then, and my opinion now, is that the election was not stolen by fraud.” Barr told the committee the election fraud narrative the Trump campaign was “shoveling out to the public … was bullshit.”
Trump said the SAVE America Act was needed “to stop illegal aliens and others — they’re unpermitted persons — from voting in our sacred American elections.” He called that kind of illegal voting “rampant” in American elections. But that’s not what was found when numerous states used a program called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, to check the citizenship status of people on the voter rolls in numerous states.
According to the New York Times, of the 49.5 million voter registrations checked, the Department of Homeland Security referred about 10,000 cases to investigators. As the Times noted, that’s about 0.02% of registrations that were flagged as potentially being noncitizens. But even that number is inflated. The Times found that when several counties began looking into those on the voter rolls who were marked as potentially noncitizens, it turned out that only a fraction of them were. Moreover, there was no indication of how many of those who may have improperly registered to vote actually voted.
A spokesperson for the Trump administration noted that most of the states using the verification program are Republican-led states, and that the program might identify more noncitizens if it were embraced by Democratic-led states, many of which have less strict voter ID laws.
A systematic review and analysis of claims about noncitizen registrants and voters in all 50 states by the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research, updated in February, found that “sweeping allegations about noncitizen registrations or voting appear to arise from misunderstandings, mischaracterizations, or outright fabrications about complex voter data. In every examined case, when claims about large numbers of noncitizens on voting rolls are subject to scrutiny and properly investigated, the number of alleged instances falls drastically.”
Trump also criticized mail-in ballots, calling them “crooked,” and saying they should only be allowed, “for illness, disability, military or travel.”
Mail-in voting is widely used around the country. Eight states and Washington, D.C., conduct their elections mostly by mail, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Another 28 states offer “no excuse” mail-in voting, meaning that any voter can request a mail-in ballot without needing to provide a reason. As we have written, experts have told us that voter fraud via mail-in ballots is rare, though more common than in-person voting fraud.
Trump made the dubious claim that the federal budget can be balanced by eliminating fraudulent spending.
“I am officially announcing the war on fraud to be led by our great Vice President JD Vance,” he said. “We’ll get it done, and if we’re able to find enough of that fraud, we will actually have a balanced budget overnight. It’ll go very quickly.”
In a 2024 report, the Government Accountability Office estimated that the entire federal government “could lose between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud.” But the federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2025, which ended on Sept. 30, was nearly $1.8 trillion, and the Congressional Budget Office projected in its February budget outlook that the deficit will be $1.9 trillion for fiscal year 2026 and rise to $2 trillion or more in 2028 and subsequent fiscal years.
Trump claimed that he inherited “rampant crime at home” and later boasted “last year, the murder rate saw its single largest decline in recorded history. This is the biggest decline, think of it, in recorded history, the lowest number in over 125 years.”
Crime data show that violent crime continued to decline in 2025, but the trend began in 2022 after a spike in crime, particularly murders, in 2020 — the year the pandemic began and the last year of Trump’s first term. Trump is right in touting the good news that violent crime continues to fall, but he wrongly paints this as a stark turnaround from when he took office.
U.S. violent crime rate peaked in the early 1990s and has generally declined since, even with the bump up in 2020. The rate dropped by 33.2 percentage points under Biden and was less than half the 1990s peak in 2024, the year before Trump took office, according to estimates from the FBI, which relies on voluntary reports from law enforcement agencies nationwide. The number and rate of murders also declined since 2020.
In 2024, Trump claimed such crime data amounted to “fake numbers.” But now that he’s in office, and the drop in crime continues, he has embraced those numbers.
Full-year nationwide data from the FBI won’t be released until later this year, but, as we reported last month, other groups that aggregate crime data reported by law enforcement agencies across the country show violent crime, including murder, went down again in 2025. Trump has highlighted a report by the Council on Criminal Justice that found a 21% decline in the homicide rate from 2024 to 2025 in 35 cities.
CCJ reported, “When nationwide data for jurisdictions of all sizes is reported by the FBI later this year, there is a strong possibility that homicides in 2025 will drop to about 4.0 per 100,000 residents. That would be the lowest rate ever recorded in law enforcement or public health data going back to 1900, and would mark the largest single-year percentage drop in the homicide rate on record.”
The nationwide homicide rate was 5 per 100,000 in 2024.
Trump has attributed the crime drop to his policies of sending federal law enforcement, including the National Guard or immigration officers, into cities, as he mentioned repeatedly in the NBC News interview. But crime experts say such claims need robust research. “Without rigorous evidence, it is not possible to confidently pinpoint the factors fueling the drop in homicide,” the CCJ report said. “Any assertive claims about the influence of specific policy interventions, such as National Guard deployments and increased immigration enforcement or expanded community violence intervention programs, should be supported by robust research designs intended to measure their causal effects.”
Trump repeated a dubious claim he’s made several times before — and we’ve written about twice — regarding the ability of his increased tariffs to replace income taxes.
“I believe the tariffs paid for by foreign countries will, like in the past, substantially replace the modern day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love,” the president said.
But, as we’ve explained, there’s a wide margin between the revenues raised from personal income taxes versus those raised from tariffs.
For example, the federal government brought in a total of $560 billion in January, according to the Treasury’s most recent monthly report. More than half of that revenue came from individual income taxes, while just 5% came from tariffs.
“It is literally impossible for tariffs to fully replace income taxes,” Kimberly Clausing and Maurice Obstfeld, economists with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote in 2024. “Tariff rates would have to be implausibly high on such a small base of imports to replace the income tax, and as tax rates rose, the base itself would shrink as imports fall, making Trump’s $2 trillion goal unattainable.”
Replacing the income tax with higher tariffs would cause job losses, higher inflation, larger federal deficits and a recession, Clausing and Obstfeld said.
“It would also shift the tax burden away from the well off, substantially increasing the tax burden on the poor and middle class,” they argued.
Many economists also say Trump is wrong to say tariffs are “paid for by foreign countries.” A Federal Reserve Bank of New York analysis published on Feb. 12 concluded that “nearly 90 percent of the tariffs’ economic burden fell on U.S. firms and consumers.”
White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett blasted the report as an “embarrassment,” saying, “It’s, I think, the worst paper I’ve ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve system.” Hassett claimed the authors “put out a conclusion which has created a lot of news that’s highly partisan based on analysis that wouldn’t be accepted in a first-semester econ class.”
But the New York Fed is hardly alone in holding that position. A working paper revised in February from Harvard University professor and former International Monetary Fund economist Gita Gopinath and Brent Neiman of the University of Chicago for the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded that “tariff pass-through to U.S. import prices is almost 100 percent, so the United States is bearing a large share of the costs.”
Trump said that last year, the U.S. “obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons program” and “wiped it out.” But experts told us at the time that the June bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities damaged the country’s nuclear capabilities but that they were not “obliterated.” A preliminary classified intelligence assessment, described by CNN and the New York Times, said that Iran’s nuclear program had been set back by just a few months.
Indeed, Iran’s nuclear program continues. On Feb. 21, special envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News that Iran is “probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material.” Meanwhile, the U.S. has been amassing warships and warplanes in the Middle East, and Trump has threatened military action against Iran. There will be further talks between the U.S. and Iran about the Iranian nuclear program on Feb. 26.
“We will always protect Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,” Trump insisted, about a third of the way through his speech.
To partially pay for the tax cuts in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Republicans cut more than $990 billion in spending on Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for people who have low incomes or disabilities. The law has many Medicaid-related provisions, but a major way spending was brought down was by modifying Medicaid eligibility requirements and introducing new work requirements. With fewer people on Medicaid, the program costs less.
Republicans have previously argued that Medicaid remains available and has not changed, but the Congressional Budget Office estimated that Medicaid-related changes in the law would result in 7.5 million fewer Americans having health insurance in 2034. A much smaller number of people — 100,000 — would lose coverage in a decade as a result of changes to Medicare under the law, CBO said. Another 2.1 million were estimated to lose coverage as a result of changes to the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
Trump exaggerated the increase in U.S. oil production and gave himself too much credit for the country’s record output of natural gas.
“American oil production is up by more than 600,000 barrels a day, and we just received, from our new friend and partner, Venezuela, more than 80 million barrels of oil,” he said. “American natural gas production is at an all-time high because I kept my promise to drill, baby, drill.”
As of November, U.S. crude oil production had increased to an average of more than 13.6 million barrels per day in Trump’s first full ten months in the White House, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That’s up about 2.5%, or 334,600 barrels per day, from less than 13.3 million barrels per day during the same period in 2024.
Before Trump was inaugurated, and before any of his policies were in place, the EIA had already projected in its January Short-Term Energy Outlook that average daily production would increase to a 13.5 million barrels a day in 2025 — up from the previous record of 13.2 million barrels per day in 2024.
Meanwhile, through November, production of dry natural gas had increased to an average of nearly 3.3 trillion cubic feet per month in Trump’s first full ten months in the White House, according to EIA data. That’s up about 4.2% from more than 3.1 trillion cubic feet produced per month during the same period in 2024, which was already a record year for natural gas production in the country, the EIA said.
Correction, Feb. 25: We have corrected Trump’s quote about the price of gasoline. He said gasoline is “now below $2.30 a gallon in most states,” not $2.36.
Clarification, Feb. 25: We edited the summary to make clear that the annual inflation rate was 3% when Trump took office in January 2025, not 9.1%.
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| Business | The Guardian | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| Chatham House: What's New | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| CNET | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| Constitution Daily | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| Custom RSS Feed for The Latest | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| FA RSS | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| FactCheck.org | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| Home - CBSNews.com | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| HPCwire | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| https://www.mlb.com/mets/feeds/news/rss.xml | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| Kareem Takes on the News | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| Lima Charlie World | XML | 2026-03-02 16:04 | 2026-03-04 16:04 |
| Linux.com | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| National | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| News Facts Network | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| Onewheel -●- The Self-Balancing Electric Skateboard | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| Onewheel Instagram | XML | 2026-03-04 08:04 | 2026-03-04 20:04 |
| OSnews | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| pev.dev - Latest posts | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| PolitiFact - Rulings | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| ProPublica | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| RAND: News Releases for 2023 | XML | 2026-03-03 20:04 | 2026-03-04 20:04 |
| Recently Active Topics | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| Slashdot | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| Smart News | smithsonianmag.com | XML | 2026-03-03 20:04 | 2026-03-04 20:04 |
| Spotlight Delaware | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| surfdado | XML | 2026-03-03 20:04 | 2026-03-04 20:04 |
| Technology - CBSNews.com | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| Technology | The Guardian | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| The Bridge | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| The Intercept | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| The RAND Blog | XML | 2026-03-03 20:04 | 2026-03-04 20:04 |
| The Review | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| The Sideways Movement | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| TomDispatch - Blog | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| Truth or Fiction? | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| Udaily Newsletter Feed | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| Us - CBSNews.com | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| US news | The Guardian | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| USAFacts | Nonpartisan Government Data | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| VESCmann | XML | 2026-03-03 20:04 | 2026-03-04 20:04 |
| wheel -●- Self-Balancing Electric Skateboards | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| World | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| World news | The Guardian | XML | 2026-03-04 12:04 | 2026-03-04 14:04 |
| www.newarkpostonline.com - RSS Results in news,news/* | XML | 2026-03-03 20:04 | 2026-03-04 20:04 |
| www.newarkpostonline.com - RSS Results in regional,regional/* | XML | 2026-03-03 20:04 | 2026-03-04 20:04 |
| www.newarkpostonline.com - RSS Results in sports/college,sports/college/* | XML | 2026-03-03 20:04 | 2026-03-04 20:04 |
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