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The time is long overdue for members of Congress to listen to the American people and end US military aid to the extremist Netanyahu government

I am a proud Jewish-American. My father fled Poland in 1921 to escape poverty and antisemitism. Those in his family who stayed were murdered by the Nazis. Since childhood, I have known very well where antisemitism, racism, fanaticism and demagoguery lead.

So let me be clear. Speaking out against the horrific and inhumane actions of Israel, and its extremist leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is not antisemitic. Speaking out about the dangerous and destructive role that Israel plays in shaping US foreign and military policy is not antisemitic. It is, in fact, what every member of Congress and every American should be doing.

Bernie Sanders is a US senator, and ranking member of the health, education, labor and pensions committee. He represents the state of Vermont

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: Rivian is joining with Redwood Materials to reuse EV batteries for energy storage -- the largest repurposed-battery energy storage system for an automotive manufacturer in the U.S., executives told The Wall Street Journal. Redwood Materials is a battery-recycling firm started by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel. Once completed later this year, Rivian's plant in Normal, Ill., will draw electricity from more than 100 Rivian EV batteries in an area the size of a small parking lot. It will reduce Rivian's dependence on the power grid during peak demand hours. "It saves Rivian money on what it takes to run the plant. It reduces the demand on the grid, which is great," Rivian Chief Executive Officer RJ Scaringe said in an interview. In the Rivian project, the batteries will come from either its test vehicles or from vehicles that have viable batteries but can no longer drive. Those batteries get sent off to Redwood, which integrates them into power storage units. Both companies declined to specify the cost of this project. The setup is expected to initially provide 10 megawatt-hours of energy, equivalent to about 1,000 home-energy battery storage units linked together, Redwood's Straubel said. "These batteries are already built," he said. "We need to integrate them and connect them together, but that can happen quite fast. They don't have to get imported from some other place." [...] Scaringe said that while branching into battery energy storage systems is "not a focus for us as a business right now," Rivian hopes to do more at its sites with Redwood. "There's hopefully a lot more, and there's going to be a lot of batteries we'll have access to," he said.

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The latest iteration of the Save America act could disenfranchise millions of voters. Guardian democracy reporters George Chidi and Sam Levine will be taking readers’ questions at 12pm ET (5pm BST) on Wednesday about its implications. Post yours now

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The latest version of the Save America act could, if it is passed, upend voting for all Americans in the middle of a federal midterm election year and create costly, chaotic changes for elections workers. As this explainer by Rachel Leingang sets out: “this year’s version [of Save] includes expansive documentary proof of citizenship requirements and criminal liability for election officials from the initial Save act, in addition to a very strict voter ID requirement for casting a ballot and a provision that requires states to regularly turn their voter rolls over to the Department of Homeland Security.”

George Chidi is the Guardian’s politics and democracy correspondent. His recent reporting has included looking at the states bringing in strict proof-0f-citizenship requirements to register to vote and covering efforts by the FBI to investigate Fulton county in Georgia over the 2020 election, the results of which are still challenged by Donald Trump’s supporters.

Iran's Fars News Agency says a supertanker sailed through international waters and the Strait of Hormuz with its tracking system switched on, "without any concealment."

All three accounts offer sizable returns for savers who act now, but which type will earn the most interest in 2026?

Dr. Erica Schwartz has emerged as the White House's top pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to current and former officials.

President has nominated Kevin Warsh to replace Powell, whom he has repeatedly attacked over interest rate decisions

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At a Turning Point USA event in Georgia on Tuesday, vice-president JD Vance was heckled by a protester who seemed to criticized the conflicts in the Middle East, including the war in Gaza.

“Jesus Christ does not support genocide,” the audience member shouted. The vice-president addressed the demonstrator and agreed with their statement, before responding to further comments from the heckler who appeared to say that the administration “supports a genocide in Gaza”.

Pro-Hezbollah media says ceasefire set to begin tonight; Israel ‘not yet decided on issue’, Israeli outlet reports

• US-Iran peace talks could resume in next two days, Trump says

Donald Trump said the “special relationship” between the US and UK was in a poor state but that it will not have impact on King Charle’s upcoming state visit to America.

In an interview with Sky News, the US president once again criticised Keir Starmer over his policies, particularly on energy and immigration, and reiterated his disappointment that the UK and other Nato allies had not joined his war against Iran when the US “needed them”.

Airport body has asked for power to suspend EES checks requiring personal information and biometrics

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Travellers going through some European airports are reportedly waiting up to three hours at border checks because of the EU’s new entry-exit system (EES).

Passengers in airports in countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Greece are waiting several hours at border checks, the Airports Council International (ACI) body has said.

Chancellor tells US audience she is ‘not convinced that this conflict has made the world a safer place’

PMQs is starting soon.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

I’ll be honest, when people would pop up on social media laying those sorts of charges, they tended to be the sort of people who appear in your timeline trolling. And I just didn’t think it could be credible that [Mandelson] would have had that kind of relationship.

So, the FT did a report, but I don’t remember seeing it in other newspapers. Mandelson still had a podcast. He was appearing regularly on really big news programmes. And so, to be honest, the only time I remember seeing stuff, Mandleson/Epstein, you just think, ‘I haven’t seen that from a credible news source, he hasn’t been questioned, I think that must be overblown’.

I think it stems from the same root cause, which is those women [Epstein’s victims], those girls, not being taken seriously enough, their experiences not mattering enough and being prioritised. And that is exactly the sort of sexism and misogyny at the root of the issue, I’m afraid. And I think all of us have to take responsibility for that.

Brian Cole Jr. faces new charges of attempting to use weapons of mass destruction and committing an act of terrorism while armed.

Confessions II reunites her with producer Stuart Price and is billed as a study of the dancefloor as ‘a ritualistic space where movement replaces language’

Madonna has announced the release of her 15th studio album, Confessions II: a sequel to Confessions on a Dance Floor, her disco-fabulous 2005 release regarded as one of the jewels of her discography.

The album will be released on 3 July. Details are still relatively scarce beyond that, but like its predecessor, Confessions II is a collaboration with the British producer Stuart Price.

When Stuart Price and I first started working on this record, this was our manifesto:

We must dance, celebrate, and pray with our bodies. These are things that we’ve been doing for thousands of years — they really are spiritual practices. After all, the dance floor is a ritualistic space. It’s a place where you connect with your wounds, with your fragility. To rave is an art. It’s about pushing your limits and connecting to a community of like-minded people.

Sound, light, and vibration
Reshape our perceptions
Pulling us into a trance-like state.
The repetition of the bass, we don’t just hear it but we feel it.

Altering our consciousness and dissolving ego and time.

Cuts by Snapchat’s parent company come in response to a declining stock price and pressure from an activist investor

Snapchat’s parent company plans to lay off 16% of its employees, around 1,000 people, citing “rapid advancements in artificial intelligence”, the social media company told staff on Wednesday in an internal memo. The staff reduction is part of a wave of tech industry layoffs in the past year, with many firms blaming AI for the cuts.

Snap Inc’s layoffs follow demands last month from Irenic Capital Management, an activist investor whose portfolio manager wrote a letter to the Snap Inc CEO, Evan Spiegel, calling on him to reduce costs and headcount while criticizing the company’s current strategy. In Spiegel’s memo to staff, he claimed that the layoffs would move Snap towards profitability and suggested that artificial intelligence could fill the lack of human labor.

Lifestyle influencer died while on vacation with boyfriend, who local officials say has since had his passport ‘withheld’

Ashly Robinson, a US lifestyle influencer, died last week while on vacation in the Tanzanian islands of Zanzibar with her boyfriend, Joe McCann. Robinson’s death on 9 April, just days after her birthday and a marriage proposal from McCann, has sparked suspicion on social media, with users doubtful of the current narrative surrounding her death.

No arrests have been made, and police previously said that McCann was not suspected of wrongdoing. But officials in Zanzibar released a statement on Tuesday saying that McCann’s passport has been “withheld”.

Bita Hemmati is believed to be the first woman to be sentenced to death over the protests.

Mark Rutte urges members of military alliance to boost backing for Kyiv to $60bn in 2026

Meanwhile, Nato chief Mark Rutte urged members of the military alliance not to “lose sight” of the Ukraine conflict, and to boost their backing for Kyiv to $60bn in 2026, AFP reported.

His comments came at the start of a meeting in Berlin of defence ministers from Ukraine’s key supporters, including Germany and Britain, with the conflict against Russia now in its fifth year.

Another Haiku monthly activity report, but this time around, there’s actually a big ticket item. Haiku has been in a pretty solid and stable state for a while now, so the activity reports have been dominated by fairly small, obscure changes, but during March a major milestone was reached for the ARM64 port.

smrobtzz contributed the bulk of the work, including fixes for building on macOS on ARM64, drivers for the Apple S5L UART, fixes to the kernel base address, clearing the frame pointer before entering the kernel, mapping physical memory correctly, the basics for userland, and more. SED4906 contributed some fixes to the bootloader page mapping, and runtime_loader’s page-size checks.

Combined, these changes allow the ARM64 port to get to the desktop in QEMU. There’s a forum thread, complete with screenshots, for anyone interested in following along.

↫ waddlesplash

While it’s only in QEMU, this is still a major achievement and paves the way for more people to work on the ARM64 port, possibly increasing its health. There’s tons of smaller changes and fixes all over the place, too, as usual, and the team mentions beta 6 isn’t quite ready yet, still. Don’t let that stop you from just downloading the latest nightly, though – Haiku is mature enough to use it.

Once you start noticing “it’s not X, it’s Y” as you scroll online, you can’t fail to register it. I’ve become so hypervigilant that it has seeped into my subconscious thoughts

If you’ve never seen Jim Carrey’s 2007 psychological thriller The Number 23, then congratulations. It is a film about a man who sees the number 23 so many times that he ends up going bonkers. I used to think this film was stupid. However, now I appear to be living it.

My own personal number 23 is a rhetorical device: “It’s not X, it’s Y.” Everywhere I look, there it is. Whenever I hate myself enough to scroll through Facebook’s wilderness of algorithmically suggested posts, I find myself being smacked in the face with sentences such as: “Self-improvement isn’t a trend, it’s a lifestyle shift,” and “The small wins aren’t just moments, they’re the majority of your life.” Once you notice it, it becomes impossible to ignore. This weekend during a Peloton class (I know, shut up), I heard an instructor bark a variation of “this isn’t X, it’s Y”. Yesterday, a character did the same during a TV show I was reviewing, and I dropped a star from its score in retaliation.

Appointment of Roelf Meyer seen as attempt to improve relations amid false US accusations of ‘white genocide’

South Africa has appointed a former apartheid government chief negotiator during the talks that ended white rule in the 1990s as ambassador to the US, in what is seen as an attempt to improve the deeply strained diplomatic relationship between the two countries.

Roelf Meyer replaces Ebrahim Rasool, who was expelled in March 2025 after he criticised the Trump administration.

Six lenders, including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan report jump in first-quarter earnings

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Big US banks raked in nearly $50bn (£37bn) worth of profits in the first three months of the year, as they benefited from stock market turbulence triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Wall Street’s largest lenders have reported a jump in first-quarter earnings, reflecting the surge in demand for trading services as investors dumped risky stocks and bonds and sought safer havens for their cash.

The brand launched the Westwood series, a new line of more approachably priced pellet grills with plenty of premium features.

Tech company has signed on to nine deals as it aims to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040

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Amazon has entered power agreements with nine new renewable projects in New South Wales and Victoria, as the technology company seeks to source renewable power for its datacentre operations in Australia.

The nine deals, including one windfarm and 10 solar and battery projects, will take the amount of renewable energy Amazon is sourcing in Australia from 430MW to nearly 1GW.

I've been collecting people into my human zoo and conducting social experiments. Tell me this is OK.

A 63-year-old man in Norway appears to be cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant from his brother, who turned out to have a rare mutation that makes immune cells resistant to HIV. "Four years after the transplant, and two years after the man stopped antiretroviral therapy, he still appears to be free of the infection," reports Gizmodo. From the report: According to the report, the man was first diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a type of cancer that weakens blood cell production from bone marrow, in 2018. Though he seemed to initially respond to treatment, the cancer returned after two years, and doctors decided to perform a stem cell transplant. Because the man also had HIV (diagnosed in 2006), the doctors were hoping to treat both conditions at once, though they knew their chances were low. Most of these cases have involved the use of stem cells taken from people with two copies of a particular mutation in their CCR5 gene, which regulates the CC5R receptor on white blood cells. This mutation, named CCR5-delta 32, makes immune cells naturally resistant to infection from strains of HIV-1 (the most common type of the virus). However, only about 1% of the population carries two copies of the mutation. After initial screening failed to find someone who both possessed the mutation and had compatible bone marrow, the doctors decided to move ahead with the man's brother, who was already known to have compatible bone marrow. But to everyone's surprise, testing on the day of the transplant showed that the brother also had the mutation. Though the man did experience some complications from the procedure, his body successfully started to produce new blood cells with the mutation. The doctors decided to take him off antiretroviral medication two years after the transplant. And in the two years since then, regular follow-up tests have failed to show any signs of the virus in his system. [...] According to AFP, there have only been roughly 10 cases worldwide involving an HIV cure through stem cell transplantation. This is the first to involve a family donor.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SINGAPORE and INNSBRUCK, Austria, April 15, 2026 — Horizon Quantum Computing Pte. Ltd., the wholly-owned subsidiary of Horizon Quantum Holdings Ltd. (Horizon Quantum), a pioneer of software infrastructure for quantum applications, and AQT (Alpine Quantum Technologies), a leading European provider of trapped-ion quantum computers, today announced a strategic collaboration to advance the development of real-world quantum computing applications via increased hardware-software integration. By combining advanced hardware capabilities with scalable software infrastructure, the two companies aim to accelerate users’ ability to build real-world quantum applications.

The integration of Triple Alpha—Horizon Quantum’s integrated development environment—with AQT’s trapped-ion quantum processors—a leading modality known for high gate fidelity and low error rates—is intended to enable developers with and without specialised hardware expertise to harness the power of AQT’s systems at various levels of abstraction. Using Triple Alpha, developers can write, compile, and deploy quantum programs directly onto AQT’s processors, accessing the hardware via the cloud.

“AQT’s trapped ion systems provide low error rates and long coherence times, potentially increasing the scalability and reliability of quantum computing,” said Horizon Quantum CEO Dr. Joe Fitzsimons. “Through this collaboration, Triple Alpha users will gain access to AQT’s processors, expanding their options for cutting-edge hardware designed to solve difficult computational problems.”

Horizon Quantum and AQT will engage customers as equals, working together to solve computational problems and achieve joint technical firsts in the fields of quantum computing and software development.

“The Triple Alpha software development environment navigates the diversity and complexity of today’s quantum stack, providing developers with access at multiple levels of abstraction to deliver both programming freedom and fine-grained precision,” said Dr. Thomas Monz, CEO of AQT. “The collaboration with Horizon Quantum provides broad and easy access to AQT’s hardware and leverages synergies between the two companies, which share the common goal of advancing quantum computing in practice.”

Horizon Quantum’s objective is to build the most capable hardware-agnostic software infrastructure. Horizon Quantum believes the collaboration with AQT is an important step towards further broadening the range of hardware architectures supported in Triple Alpha. To accelerate its research and development efforts and further advance Triple Alpha, Horizon Quantum recently listed on Nasdaq under the ticker HQ.

About Horizon Quantum

Horizon Quantum (NASDAQ: HQ) is on a mission to unlock broad quantum advantage by building the software infrastructure that empowers developers to use quantum computing to solve the world’s toughest computational problems. Founded in 2018 by Dr Joe Fitzsimons, a leading researcher and former professor with more than two decades of experience in quantum computing, the company is bridging the gap between today’s hardware and tomorrow’s applications through the creation of advanced quantum software development tools. Its integrated development environment, Triple Alpha, enables developers to write sophisticated, hardware-agnostic quantum programs at different levels of abstraction. Learn more at www.horizonquantum.com.

About AQT

Building on decades of experience in experimental and theoretical quantum information processing in Innsbruck (Austria), AQT develops and builds quantum computers. The company offers ion trap-based quantum computers that fit seamlessly into conventional IT infrastructure and can be operated from any PC or laptop, regardless of location. AQT enables its customers to install quantum computers on site or to explore use-cases via a convenient cloud solution. Researchers and developers are supported by both quantum hardware components as well as complete systems that significantly accelerate the development of quantum solutions. Learn more at www.aqt.eu.

Source: Horizon Quantum

The post Horizon Quantum and AQT Integrate Software Stack with Trapped-Ion Quantum Hardware appeared first on HPCwire.

US president says he has ‘held back’ on firing the head of the Federal Reserve leading up to end of Powell’s term in May

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Donald Trump threatened to fire Jerome Powell if he stays on as US Federal Reserve chair past the end of his tenure and doubled down on a criminal investigation into renovations of the central bank’s headquarters.

As the White House pushes Trump’s new nominee to take charge of the Fed, Kevin Warsh, Powell has a month left in the role. The possibility of Powell staying on as chair past 15 May, the official end of his term, has grown amid mounting scrutiny of Trump’s approach to the Fed in the Senate, which is required to approve Warsh’s nomination.

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More than 1,000 people were in shelters across Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands as Sinlaku moved away

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Super Typhoon Sinlaku hammered the Northern Mariana Islands, flipping over cars, toppling utility poles and ripping away tin roofs.

Authorities were just beginning to assess the damage left behind by the typhoon, which first hit the islands on Tuesday night local time and continued with a barrage of fierce winds and relentless rains for hours on Wednesday. So far, there have been no reports of deaths.

London police are looking for two people who threw bottles likely containing gasoline at a North London synagogue in what's being treating as an "antisemitic hate crime."

Seconds after a gunman opened fire at an Oklahoma high school, the school's principal was seen racing into the hallway, pushing the suspect onto a bench and holding him down.

A Seoul court found Ramsey Khalid Ismael, a self-proclaimed online "troll"​ known as Johnny Somali, guilty of multiple charges.

Camp’s medical officer testified at a hearing as state health agency reviews camp’s application to reopen this summer

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The medical officer for Camp Mystic, the Christian summer camp in Texas where 27 girls and counselors were killed in a catastrophic flood last year, testified this week she has still not officially reported the deaths to the state health agency reviewing the camp’s application to reopen.

Mary Liz Eastland, a member of the family that owns and operates the camp, appeared in court this week as part of a hearing tied to a lawsuit brought by the family of eight-year-old camper Cecilia “Cile” Steward, whose body has not been found. The family is seeking to temporarily close off the camp’s flooded areas to preserve the damage as evidence while their lawsuit proceeds.

President says he gave Britain ‘better deal than I had to’ but ally was ‘not there when we needed them’ on Iran

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Donald Trump has threatened to row back on the trade deal the US signed with the UK last year, in his latest salvo against the British government over sharp differences about the US’s approach to the Middle East.

The US president said the economic deal struck with the UK, which cut some of his tariffs on cars, aluminium and steel, was “better than I had to” and that it could “always be changed”.

The Dolby Atmos receiver includes improved streaming support and extra gaming features.

Regulator says tool, which creates reports for humans to review, has helped classify entire UK catalogue of HBO Max

TV shows including Game of Thrones and Euphoria have received age ratings for the first time in the UK, after the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) deployed an AI tool to help assess content.

The BBFC has developed a tool to identify content that triggers compliance issues, such as violence, nudity and bad language. The flagged scenes are then passed over to BBFC staff for human review.

Rumors about the reporter and New England head coach Mike Vrabel flew all week. The conclusion to the saga was all too predictable

Dianna Russini, one of the NFL’s most high-profile reporters, is photographed holding hands with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel at a fancy resort in Sedona, Arizona. Rumors fly. Vrabel and Russini, who are both married to other people, issue statements denying the assumptions of something untoward. But the firestorm only grows. Russini resigns from her post at the Athletic, Vrabel continues with his job as usual.

The female reporter’s career is in shambles. Meanwhile, it’s business as usual for the male head coach.

Péter Magyar’s stunning victory in Hungary is a boost for liberal democracy. But don’t bank on similar upsets in upcoming European elections

When future historians come to write about the stunning electoral overthrow of Viktor Orbán on 12 April 2026, let’s hope they devote at least footnotes to zebras and golden toilet brushes. The zebras were spotted by drones on the sprawling grounds of a countryside palace belonging to Orbán’s extended family. The 72 gilded toilet brushes were said to have been bought at a cost of almost €10,000, for a lavish renovation of Hungary’s central bank. For Orbán’s opponents, such excesses became symbols of the rampant corruption among cronies of Orbán’s ruling party Fidesz, which drained Hungary’s economy and earned the country the worst ranking on the crookedness league tables in the EU, as Ashifa Kassam and Flora Garamvolgyi reported.

In the end, it was disgust with corruption and how that corruption affected people’s livelihoods that were the main factors behind Sunday’s election rout. But the landslide achieved by Peter Magyar’s Tisza party – despite an electoral system designed to favour Fidesz – suggests that these eye-popping details were merely the last straws for a population desperate to reclaim their country as a functioning democracy.

Narwhal Labs ad for ‘AI employee’ contains strapline: ‘She outworks everyone. And she’ll never ask for a raise’

A British AI company that recently secured millions of pounds of investment has been accused of running a misogynistic and sexist advertising campaign.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has received at least seven complaints about the campaign by Narwhal Labs, which includes an advert depicting a woman next to the strapline: “She outworks everyone. And she’ll never ask for a raise.”

More than 2,200 ants were found in Zhang Kequn’s luggage at Nairobi airport, with baggage destined for China

A Chinese national has been sentenced to a year in prison and fined by a Nairobi court for attempting to smuggle thousands of ants out of Kenya, a lucrative trade in east Africa that was exposed last year.

The insects are mostly destined for China, the US and Europe, where they become pets and can be worth about $100 each.

Current conditions make mortgage rates particularly hard to forecast. Here's what some experts are predicting.

U.S. Army Sgt. Celestino Chavez enlisted in the military when he was 17, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

‘Unc’ is meant to disparage older players who favour slow-paced shooters and epic narrative games, but the industry should make games for all generations

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While researching women’s experiences in multiplayer video games recently, I came across this thread on the subreddit about Bungie’s latest live shooter, Marathon. “I’ve played a lot of shooters, and as a feminine-presenting player tbh it’s often a struggle,” it reads. “I’ve heard all the ‘get back to the kitchen’ jokes … ​But Marathon has been completely different, guys. I haven’t had a single issue, people have been incredibly kind and helpful… ​The community feels genuinely welcoming to everyone.”

The top-voted reply? “Benefit of being an unc game.”

The editor in chief of this blog was born in 2004. She uses the 1997 window manager, Enlightenment E16, daily. In this article, I describe the process of fixing a show-stopping, rare bug that dates back to 2006 in the codebase. Surprisingly, the issue has roots in a faulty implementation of Newton’s algorithm.

↫ Kamila Szewczyk

I’m not going to pretend to understand any of this, but I know you people do. Enjoy.

JENI NANCE
Co-Managing Mosaic Editor

The first time I heard about “People We Meet on Vacation” by Emily Henry was at a bookstore with one of my friends. She mentioned it as we passed a section of the author’s books, telling me how the movie was coming out soon. I had never heard of the book or author before, but suddenly, my social media became flooded with trailers for the upcoming movie. 

After watching the initial trailer, I circled back to the topic with the same friend, who told me it was the book that got her out of a reading slump. Being in somewhat of a slump myself, I was excited to pick it up at the bookstore during our next trip, with the goal of finishing it before the movie dropped on Netflix. 

While I didn’t quite make the deadline, finishing the book about 21 hours and 30 minutes post movie release (I’m a slow reader and had work), I still managed to trudge through without encountering any spoilers. 

My initial impression of the book is that it was a fun, cute beach read. It’s an easy read and, depending on how you take corny rom-coms, can have you hooked. While I was cringing almost every other page — and also frustrated with the main female character, Poppy Wright, and her male counterpart, Alex Nilsen — I still was very much entertained. 

I had a few criticisms of the book itself, but most of them were technical errors in the writing. I personally think it could have been polished a little bit more, but I also want to give grace to the author, who clearly has talent. 

My other criticism was that it was hard for me to understand the characters’ personalities. It wasn’t until I watched the movie that I got a clearer picture of their behaviors. In the book, it felt more like a telling, rather than showing. 

With that being said, that’s the only thing the movie had that trumped the book. Working with multiple timelines and moving back and forth between the past and present was interesting and I wondered how all 12 summers were going to be consolidated into one movie. 

Spoiler: they weren’t. 

I honestly expected this, considering what the maximum length for a rom-com typically is, but I expected more from what was shown. Only four past vacations are merely skimmed over and key events are switched to the vacations that are shown. 

This was really frustrating because, as a viewer, how am I supposed to understand how their relationship evolves without seeing the majority of it? It seemed like the producers were more concerned about certain events happening rather than how the characters develop throughout the timeline. 

The little intimate moments between the two main characters were lightly grazed over, if they were even shown at all. Longer, more emotional scenes throughout the past summers would allow the viewer to get a better understanding of how their relationship develops over the course of this decade, even if it means cutting some of the present-day timeline. I’ve said this before about other book-to-movie adaptations I’ve reviewed and I’m starting to see a pattern with all of them: they’re just long trailers for the book.

My biggest problem with the film was how its title didn’t reflect the lesson from the book. In the novel, it’s all about the random people you meet on vacation — the fleeting friendships, yet impactful connections that make the time special. This is displayed in some of the people the main characters meet on their journeys — a water taxi driver, newlyweds, a Norwegian couple, an angry motel owner and a couple of giant dinosaurs (if you know, you know). 

While a couple of these encounters were shown on screen, the rest are simply alluded to, or have disappeared entirely. What’s the point of “People We Meet On Vacation” if one of the book’s main focuses is being taken away? 

While there are holes in the movie adaptation, it is so incredibly funny and one I’d watch again. It’s one of those bad yet guilty pleasure rom-coms that you can’t help but put on for a light movie night. It’s kind of a shame this movie wasn’t in theaters — it deserved its box office moment. However, since it wasn’t featured on the big screen and considering how many elements of the book were missing, it would have done better as a limited series. 

The actors were amazing, and this review is not a reflection on them; they all did an amazing job and arguably saved the film. I’d never seen any of Emily Bader’s (Poppy Wright) projects, but she was perfectly cast. Tom Blyth (Alex Nilsen) is also an incredible actor. 

The one thing that stood out to me was that I was rooting for Alex and Poppy the whole time. In the past, when I was watching rom-coms, I was always thinking, “I wish I were them” or “they’re so lucky,” jealous of the characters’ romance and aware of the fact that I’m chronically single. 

With this movie, I didn’t feel any of that. That tells me that this was one heck of a movie. To watch a romance movie without a twinge of yearning or envy is another level of somewhat uncharted territory for me — opening a door I didn’t know existed — and it felt good. 

I’ll definitely be reading more of Emily Henry’s books because, even though I’m not a big fan of her writing style, the stories she comes up with are nothing short of amazing. Henry also mentioned that all of her other books are being adapted into movies, which I’ll also be watching — I look forward to seeing their outcome. 

I recommend this book for people who need a quick and easy read and are suckers for cheesy romances (and don’t mind cringe). I recommend the movie to people who like good but also kind of crappy rom-coms, that either haven’t read the book or don’t intend to. As for me, I will absolutely be watching this movie again (I’ve already watched it twice).

Rapid data analysis powered by ALCF supercomputers is enabling APS users to adjust experiments on the fly, refine hypotheses, and make the most of their beam time.

April 15, 2026 — At the upgraded Advanced Photon Source (APS), a powerful X-ray light source at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, new analysis capabilities are changing how experiments unfold. Instead of waiting until an experiment ends, researchers can now use near real-time feedback from the X-ray beamlines to guide their next steps.

APS staff members Suresh Narayanan, Dana Capatina and Matt Spilker monitor live data from the XPCS beamline. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory.

“Coming back to the APS after the upgrade was a completely different experience,” said Ryan Poling-Skutvik, assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Rhode Island. ​“Based on the early signals we were getting from our experiments, we were able to bring materials to the wet lab and make new samples to better target the dynamics we were studying. That’s something that’s impossible to do if you don’t have the real-time data.”

After its recent upgrade, the APS produces X-ray beams that are up to 500 times brighter than before, enabling researchers to study materials with higher resolution and at time scales that were previously out of reach. But those enhanced capabilities are also producing more data than its local computing systems can handle.

“When I started using the APS around 2015, the fastest time scales we could probe were on the order of milliseconds,” Poling-Skutvik said. ​“Now we’re collecting data on microsecond time scales, which opens up a much broader view of material behavior. At that rate, you can imagine collecting 10,000 frames in less than a second, which would completely swamp everything. Having analysis proceed at a comparable speed allows us to fully realize the potential of the upgraded beamline technology.”

To make this possible, APS experiments are now tightly integrated with supercomputers at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF). Building on years of collaboration between APS and ALCF, Argonne researchers created an automated pipeline that streams experimental data from the beamlines to ALCF systems for analysis as it is being collected. The APS and ALCF are DOE Office of Science user facilities.

The Argonne team’s work is helping to advance DOE’s Genesis Mission, a national AI initiative to build a powerful scientific platform for accelerating discovery science, strengthening national security and driving energy innovation. In particular, the rapid data analysis capabilities have prepared the way for new efforts under the American Science Cloud (AmSC), a cornerstone of the Genesis Mission. AmSC is an integrated, federated platform that connects AI models, curated scientific data, workflows and computing resources across DOE laboratories.

Linking Light and Compute

The connection between APS and ALCF is powered by the APS Data Management System and Globus. The APS Data Management System provides a uniform way to connect to data from the approximately 100 unique instruments at the APS. It also keeps track of information about data and experiments at the facility. Globus, a research automation and data management platform developed at Argonne and the University of Chicago, handles the movement of data between the APS and the ALCF’s Polaris supercomputer, automatically running analyses and returning results to the beamline while experiments are still underway.

“The actual data collection is triggering all of the data movement — the storage, the access permissions, the processing on Polaris and the transfer back to the APS,” said Thomas Uram, ALCF data services and workflows team lead. ​“All of this is happening without any intervention by the scientists.”

Bringing all the pieces together required extensive collaboration. Teams spanning X-ray science, beamline operations, data management and scientific software worked alongside ALCF staff and Globus developers to map out how each beamline collects data, when to launch processing workflows and how to best integrate APS control systems with Globus and remote supercomputers.

“By combining the expertise of multiple teams with powerful computing resources, we were able to build reliable data processing pipelines that can return analysis results quickly enough to guide experiments as they happen,” said Hannah Parraga, a software engineer at the APS developing scientific data workflows that run on supercomputers for many of the facility’s beamlines.

With this infrastructure in place, researchers visiting the APS are now using the analysis tools across many of the facility’s beamlines, taking full advantage of the brighter X-ray beams and faster detectors provided by the upgrade. While Polaris is the primary system currently supporting APS experiments, researchers will also be able to tap ALCF’s Aurora exascale system and next-generation supercomputers for increasingly data-intensive work.

One of the first beamlines to employ the enhanced computing capabilities is the X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (XPCS) beamline. XPCS enables scientists to observe how materials behave over time and under different conditions at the nanoscale.

“We’re already seeing how the faster analysis is helping researchers steer XPCS experiments in ways that weren’t possible before,” said Suresh Narayanan, APS physicist and group leader. ​“Our users can adapt their experimental setup on the fly, adjust their hypotheses as new data comes in and make more efficient use of their beam time.”

Probing Soft Materials with Experiment-Time Feedback

Poling-Skutvik’s team is using XPCS to study soft materials, a broad class of materials found in everyday products like shampoos and paints as well as biological systems such as cells and tissues. Understanding their dynamics is essential for designing materials that move and respond predictably under stress.

“What we’re really asking is how can we design these materials to be more functional,” Poling-Skutvik said. ​“One of the biggest challenges is that we don’t have a good understanding of the dynamics that are present inside of these materials.”

The XPCS beamline at the APS enables scientists to probe the nanoscale dynamics of materials, such as liquids, gels and glasses, by measuring how their structure evolves over time. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory.

XPCS is uniquely suited to tackle such problems, allowing researchers to probe motion deep within materials at the length and time scales relevant to soft matter. With faster analysis, Poling-Skutvik’s team can now get early insight into those dynamics while an experiment is happening, rather than reconstructing them after the fact.

This rapid feedback is particularly useful because many soft materials can be synthesized quickly by adjusting physical parameters like salt concentration. During recent experiments, Poling-Skutvik’s team brought a range of candidate materials and used early measurements to guide what they tested next.

“We could make new samples with different molecular weights and concentrations, put them on the beamline to see the dynamics, and then go back to the lab to modify the next samples,” he said. ​“With the ability to process the dynamics really fast, we were able to iterate through multiple designs within a day.”

Making Beam Time Count

Researchers from the University of Texas and the University of Michigan are taking advantage of the rapid analysis capabilities in XPCS experiments involving metal oxide nanocrystals. Their work aims to shed light on how nanocrystals assemble into gel-like networks with tunable optical and electronic properties.

“We have a very good plan going into our experiments, but we like to treat the beam time as this living and breathing thing because XPCS allows you to see things you cannot see anywhere else at conditions you cannot measure anywhere else,” said William Brackett, a graduate student at the University of Texas. ​“You want to be flexible because the data often reveals unexpected or interesting results worth deeper investigation.”

Using the XPCS beamline and rapid analysis, researchers tracked how tin-doped indium oxide nanocrystals form dynamic, covalently linked gels as the material cools from 144 degrees C to 19 degrees C (g² = intensity correlation; q = scattering vector; Δt (s) = correlation lag time). Image credit: William Brackett, University of Texas.

Before the APS-ALCF integration, the team typically collected data that would be analyzed long after beam time ended. Now, each dataset triggers an automated analysis on Polaris, with results returning to the beamline in minutes. That speed proved especially valuable when studying gel systems that evolved at very different rates.

The team was able to quickly identify whether a gelation process would be fast or slow, enabling them to adjust their experimental plan accordingly. ​“The name of the game when you have beam time is to maximize your efficiency,” Brackett said. ​“We were able to group gels by their gelation time and achieve much higher experimental throughput during our allotted time.”

The quick analysis also helped the team zero in on a narrow temperature window where a material rapidly switches between liquid and gel states. With immediate feedback, they were able to refine their measurements on the spot.

“We needed to figure out how the dynamics evolve in a quickly arresting gel, and that wouldn’t have been possible unless we could have seen the data right then and there,” Brackett said. ​“That allowed us to tweak some of the experiments to isolate the temperatures and get a more resolved idea of what’s going on around that gel point.”

Adapting Experiments as Data Comes in

In another XPCS experiment, researchers from the Olsen Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are using the beamline to study complex, disordered materials.

“Our research bridges the realm between protein and polymer dynamics,” said Brian Carrick, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT. Gaining insights into the behavior of these materials could help inform the design of recyclable plastics and self-healing materials.

“We deal with a lot of systems with reversible bonds,” Carrick said. ​“You can think of it like Silly Putty. You can rip it into two pieces and put them back together, and it kind of heals. We’re trying to understand the molecular characteristics of these healing processes so we can make better recyclable materials.”

Before the APS upgrade, experiments often came with limited feedback during beam time. Without the ability to analyze data quickly, Carrick’s team had less visibility into how samples were responding during experiments, including whether the X-rays were altering the materials.

“We’ve tried running these exact same materials on XPCS in the past, but we could never analyze the data in real time,” he said. ​“So, everything we collected was either damaged by radiation, or we just couldn’t get a good enough signal. And since we couldn’t reduce the data on the beamline, we couldn’t really quantify any of it.”

With the enhanced data analysis capabilities in place, that constraint has been removed. ​“We were able to perform a measurement and less than three minutes later get our data back,” Carrick said. This allowed the team to screen samples for stability, tune exposure conditions and decide what to measure next while their experiments were still underway.

“With this kind of real-time analysis, you can start with a hypothesis at point A and then evolve the questions you’re trying to probe as your understanding grows,” Carrick said. ​“Because you have that flexibility and can see your data in real time, you can push the frontier a little bit faster.”

A New Model for Experiment-Driven Discovery

Argonne continues its work to extend these data processing capabilities to more APS beamlines and other experimental facilities, enabling scientists to integrate high performance computing seamlessly into their workflows to speed up the pace of discovery.

At the APS, that shift from delayed analysis to near-instant feedback is already changing how experiments are designed, executed and refined. With computing infrastructure operating smoothly in the background, scientists like Poling-Skutvik can concentrate on their experiments rather than data management and processing.

“The fact that it was so frictionless allowed me to focus on the science I wanted to go after rather than the details of how to manage the data and run the analyses,” Poling-Skutvik said. ​“That’s the best-case scenario — when the infrastructure exists to let you do what you need to do without limiting your ability to do it.”

This work was supported in part by the DOE Office of Science’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) and Basic Energy Sciences programs. Access to ALCF computing resources was provided through the DOE ASCR Leadership Computing Challenge award, ​“Enhancing APS-Enabled Research through Integrated Research Infrastructure,” led by Argonne’s Nicholas Schwarz. Additional funding was provided by DOE’s AmSC project.

Source: Jim Collins, Argonne Leadership Computing Facility

The post Argonne APS Upgrade Links Beamlines to Supercomputers for Real-Time Experiment Feedback appeared first on HPCwire.

Modern laptops promise a kind of magic. Shut the lid or press the sleep button, toss it in a backpack, and hours, days, or weeks later, it should wake up as if nothing happened with little to no battery drain. This sounds like a fairly trivial operation — y’know, you’re literally just asking for the computer to do nothing — but in that quiet moment when the fans whir down, the screen turns dark, and your reflection stares back at you, your computer and all its little components are actually hard at work doing their bedtime routine.

↫ Aymeric Wibo at the FreeBSD Foundation

A look at how suspend and resume works in practice, from the perspective of FreeBSD. Considering FreeBSD’s laptop focus in recent times, not an unimportant subject.

The spy tool, known as FISA Section 702, expires Monday. But it currently has opposition from several House factions.

Several shots – including flu and Covid – lost their CDC recommendations under overhauls from the White House

Several shots lost their recommendation from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after a judge’s stay against changes made by the Trump administration – which may affect access to the shots in some states. And no new vaccine recommendations may be made as long as the vaccines committee is halted.

Access to existing vaccines – and the future development of new vaccines – has been increasingly called into question under the second Trump administration, as the now-halted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) made controversial recommendations and health officials made unilateral changes to routine vaccines, with long-term and global implications.

Adobe's Firefly AI is getting a new agentic assistant.

Ari Hodara initially thought it might be a hoax after winning raffle he found out about by chance while dining out

A Picasso painting worth more than €1m (£870,000) has been won in a raffle by a software engineer from Paris who thought the whole thing might be a hoax.

Ari Hodara learned he was the winner of the raffle on Tuesday when he answered a video call from Christie’s auction house in Paris. “How do I check that it’s not a hoax?” the 58 year-old asked when he was told he was the new owner of the 1941 work by the Spanish master.

Péter Magyar compares media coverage to Nazi-era Germany and aims to ‘restore its public service character’

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Hungary’s prime minister-elect has vowed to suspend state media news coverage, describing it as a “propaganda machine,” when his government takes office around mid-May.

Péter Magyar, whose landslide election victory on Sunday brought an end to Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power, detailed his plans for the suspension as he gave two tense interviews to public radio and television on Wednesday.

Kirk Moore was injured as he tackled a former pupil who opened fire at Pauls Valley high school

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An Oklahoma principal has been praised for preventing a tragedy at his high school by charging and disarming a former student armed with two semi-automatic handguns, an episode captured on dramatic surveillance video.

Kirk Moore, principal of Pauls Valley high school, was shot in the leg as he wrestled the attacker, a 20-year-old said by court documents to be obsessed with the 1999 shooting at Colorado’s Columbine high school in which 12 students and one teacher were killed.

Conflict is pushing up price of energy and food, fuelling higher borrowing costs and hitting growth, report says

• Iran war escalation could trigger global recession, IMF warns

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The Iran war risks triggering a rise in global debt levels, forcing governments to choose between cushioning a cost of living shock and maintaining sound public finances, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

Against a volatile backdrop of the Middle East conflict, the Washington-based fund said the war could add to the already strained position of government finances throughout the world.

Amazon announces plans to acquire satellite service provider Globalstar in its quest to provide connectivity from space.

Miami Fire said crews were called to the corner of 9th Street and South Miami Avenue in Brickell after getting reports of a possible overdose of a 20-year-old man.

The federal government will begin the long-awaited cleanup of a nuclear waste dump outside Apollo in Armstrong County.

Amazon says the slimmer, faster device will start shipping by the end of April.

New AWS and Google Cloud frameworks enable customers to modernize digital infrastructure by making mission-critical software as easy to consume as the cloud itself

LUXEMBOURG, April 15, 2026 — SUSE, a global leader in enterprise open source solutions, has updated its Cloud Elevate Program, a pillar of the SUSE One Partner Program, to simplify buying enterprise software. Customers can now buy SUSE mission-critical software directly through AWS and Google Cloud using their existing cloud credits.

“By expanding the Cloud Elevate Program, we are easing the procurement and consumption process that often slows down new projects,” said Hayley Wienszczak, global head of ecosystem programs, SUSE. “This is about choice: giving our customers and partners the flexibility to buy and run SUSE software wherever they do business, without the headache of traditional billing.”

By introducing new commercial frameworks for AWS and Google Cloud, SUSE is removing the traditional barriers of complex procurement, allowing customers to modernize their digital infrastructure with the same speed and ease as the cloud itself. These changes enable SUSE’s partners to help customers transition to the public cloud while continuing to use their preferred technology stacks and providers.

Modernizing How Enterprises Buy Software

As organizations transition to cloud-native environments, traditional procurement processes create bottlenecks. The expanded Cloud Elevate Program addresses these hurdles directly through two key updates:

• AWS Private Offers through Distributors: Authorized distributors can now manage custom pricing while keeping billing consolidated under a single AWS account.
• Google Cloud Marketplace Channel Private Offers: Partners can push discounted, tailored terms directly to a customer’s Google Cloud console.

Using Pre-Committed Cloud Spend

The program also addresses the challenge of managing annual spend commitments with cloud providers. The Cloud Elevate Program allows customers to use pre-committed cloud credits to fund infrastructure projects using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and SUSE Rancher Prime. This eases the procurement process for all parties and accelerates Time-To-Value (TTV) for customers.

Key benefits of this streamlined approach include:

• 40% Faster Sales: Deals move from initial intent to closing significantly faster.
• 66% Less Admin Time: Standardized contracts eliminate the need to manage hundreds of individual vendor payments.
• 20 Days Earlier Deployment: Software is ready for engineering teams nearly three weeks sooner than through traditional channels.

About SUSE

SUSE is a global leader in enterprise open source software, across Linux operating systems, Kubernetes container management, Edge solutions and AI. The majority of the Fortune 500 rely on SUSE to provide resilient infrastructure, enabling IT leaders to optimize cost and manage heterogeneous environments. SUSE collaborates with partners and communities to provide organizations with choices to maximize their current IT systems and innovate with next-generation technologies across traditional on-premises to cloud native, multi-cloud to edge and beyond. For more information, visit www.suse.com.

Source: SUSE

The post SUSE Expands Cloud Elevate Program to Simplify Cloud Procurement on AWS and Google Cloud appeared first on HPCwire.

Here are our top picks for devices that pause, record and stream free over-the-air television with an antenna.

• Ball appeared to trip Bam Adebayo in Tuesday’s game

• Hornets went on to win play-in game in overtime

Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said LaMelo Ball should have been ejected for tripping Bam Adebayo, leading to an injury that knocked the Heat’s star center out of Tuesday night’s 127-126 play-in tournament loss to the Charlotte Hornets.

Ball fell to the floor after missing a shot on a drive to the basket early in the second quarter, and appeared to reach out and grab Adebayo’s left leg, causing the center to fall on his back. Ball was not called for a foul, and Adebayo remained on the floor as play continued. He eventually walked to the locker room under his own power but did not return.

The European Commission's new app is "technically ready and soon available," says President Ursula von der Leyen.

Intense heat in cities like New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC is unusual for April, weather experts say

A long-lasting weather pattern is poised to blast hot air like a furnace across the eastern United States, with the unusual heatwave threatening to shatter record high temperatures on Wednesday in big cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC.

The heat is unusual for April, not only because it is scorching much of the nation so early in the year but also for its duration. The near-record temperatures are expected to last into this weekend, forecasters say.

Lebanon–Israel talks must be given a chance Expert comment thilton.drupal 15 April 2026

Rare direct talks are unlikely to succeed in the long-term without Hezbollah disarming, but they are a welcome opportunity for the Lebanese state to regain its authority in foreign policy and pursue confidence-building measures with Israel.

The US hosted direct talks between Lebanon and Israel in Washington this week against the backdrop of Israel’s ongoing strikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the US, along with the US ambassador to Lebanon, met in Washington on Tuesday. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio chaired the meeting, which he hailed as a ‘historic gathering that we hope to build on.’ 

The State Department said that both sides agreed to ‘launch direct negotiations at a mutually agreed time and venue.’

While significant hurdles remain, most notably the issue of Hezbollah’s disarmament, these talks should be welcomed as an important initial confidence-building measure that lays the ground for much-needed future negotiations. Importantly, this reasserts the Lebanese state’s independence and authority in foreign policy. 

New cast, same plot?

The talks bring back memories of when the two sides met directly and signed a short-lived accord during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war. 

In 1983, a year after Israel launched an invasion of Lebanon with the aim of expelling Palestinian militants, Lebanese President Amin Gemayel entered into negotiations with Israel. On May 17 of that year, both parties reached an agreement that briefly ended the state of war between the two countries.

However, the agreement lasted only a short while due to opposition from Syrian President Hafez Assad and pro-Syrian factions in Lebanon. 

Today, the threat to Israel from Palestinian militants in Lebanon is gone. So is the Assad regime. But Hezbollah remains a formidable security challenge to Israel. This is despite the group having been severely weakened over the past two years due to Israel decapitating its leadership, penetrating its ranks and degrading much of its military capacity.

But Israel cannot simply oust Hezbollah – a Lebanese party with Lebanese fighters, parliamentarians, ministers and supporters – from Lebanon like it did with the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1980s. Nor can it disarm Hezbollah without launching another deep and costly ground invasion, with severe consequences for Lebanon.

Instead, Israel says it is trying to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon – like it did in 1985-2000 – to push Hezbollah away from the border and reduce the threat of missile attacks or ground infiltration. Hezbollah restarted drone and missile attacks against Israel following the US-Israeli war on Iran, the group’s main patron.

These Israeli strikes and evacuation orders have created a dire humanitarian situation in southern Lebanon. More than 80 towns and villages have been emptied and more than 15 per cent of Lebanon’s population displaced. 

Last week, Israel bombed more than 100 targets across the country in 10 minutes, killing hundreds of people. The wave of strikes came despite the US-Iran ceasefire, which Tehran and Islamabad said included Lebanon (a claim rejected by the US).

Hezbollah’s opposition

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called for direct talks with Israel in March, but until last week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had refused. 

President Aoun enjoys a popular mandate, but he faces stiff resistance from Hezbollah. The group insists on a ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory as preconditions for talks. 

US Vice President JD Vance said last week that Israel had offered to ‘check themselves a little bit in Lebanon’ to avoid undermining the US-Iran ceasefire. However, Israel has continued to strike southern Lebanon and has intensified its ground operations in the town of Bint Jbeil.

Related work

Any Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon will work to Hezbollah’s advantage

Israel is likely aiming to push the Lebanese government to demonstrate its commitment to disarming the group, which it is committed to under UN Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701, as well as the 2024 ceasefire deal. Hezbollah has categorically refused to disarm. 

While Hezbollah’s support base is a minority within Lebanese society, the group has the military and intelligence capabilities to eliminate its domestic political opponents and pressure the Lebanese government, both of which it has done before. 

This week, Hezbollah political council member Wafiq Safa said that his group will not abide by agreements that may result from the talks. During the talks in Washington, the group claimed it launched at least 24 attacks against Israel and Israeli troops. 

Unable to prevent talks

Given these challenges, it’s easy to be pessimistic about the fate of any future negotiations. 

But neither Tehran nor Hezbollah have been able to torpedo the talks so far. In a combative speech, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem urged the Lebanese government to cancel the talks but was unable to prevent Tuesday’s meeting in Washington.

Politically, Hezbollah doesn’t have the numbers in Parliament to reverse the Lebanese government’s decision. And if it withdraws its ministers from the cabinet in protest, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam can replace them with other Shia figures with no allegiances to Iran.

Last week, Hezbollah’s supporters protested against the government. But the small demonstration appeared to have little participation from Hezbollah’s political allies including Amal, led by Shia Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri. 

Hezbollah could use its weapons against its fellow Lebanese, as it has done previously. But this would be a high-risk move at a time when its ally, Iran, has been severely weakened by the US and Israel.

Hezbollah also has much to lose from a return to civil war. It would likely face armed conflict with the Lebanese army, other Lebanese factions that might seek to re-arm, and fighters loyal to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The near-constant threat from Israeli drones would make it virtually impossible for Hezbollah to mount any effective military campaign in Lebanon. 

Confidence-building measures 

None of this means that Lebanon–Israel talks going forward are likely to yield positive results. 

The current mess is primarily a result of Hezbollah again dragging Lebanon into war with Israel. Moving forward, Israel will expect results, not just speeches, on Hezbollah’s disarmament.

Given the deeply rooted nature of the Hezbollah problem, the only way to approach the next round of negotiations is for both sides to pursue confidence-building measures. The initial meeting in Washington is a welcome and historic first step, but both sides should now take more concrete action.

Israel must recognize that this Lebanese government presents the best chance to disarm Hezbollah and disassociate the country from Iran. It should avoid further attacks on state infrastructure and urban centres, and particularly Beirut, which risk civilian casualties, undermine the Lebanese government and bolster Hezbollah’s narrative of resistance. 

The Lebanese government, meanwhile, should make it as difficult as possible for Hezbollah to operate. Politically, it should consider expelling Hezbollah ministers from the cabinet, given that officials from the group have accused the government of treason. Financially, the government must outlaw all of Hezbollah’s financial activities. And militarily, it could instruct the army to deploy in all of Beirut including its southern suburbs, confiscate any arms belonging to Hezbollah in the capital, and arrest anyone endangering civil peace. 

Americans are receiving larger tax refunds this year due to the 2025 "big, beautiful bill," which enacted new tax deductions.

Typhoon Sinlaku came ashore on a chain of remote U.S. island territories in the Western Pacific, which includes Guam, on Tuesday. It was a super typhoon at the time.

With the Iran war paused halfway through a 2-week ceasefire, President Trump is again voicing optimism over the potential for a deal to end it for good.

Whether you're a vegan looking for easy meals or simply want to eat less meat, these are the vegan meal kits and prepared meal services that taste the best.

The GoChess Wizard Lite board uses tech to guide you through the rules of the game. You can challenge the board or online players.

The president has reportedly promised mass pardons to administration officials. His misuse of the power goes far beyond what the constitution’s authors intended

Since returning to office, Donald Trump has issued more than 1,800 pardons – to financial fraudsters, drug kingpins, January 6 insurrectionists and others. Unfortunately, Trump’s pardons don’t begin to conform with Alexander Hamilton’s high-minded vision of how presidents would use pardons.

When the US constitution was being written in 1787, Hamilton, a delegate to the constitutional convention, pushed to give presidents a broad pardoning power, saying presidents would use it with “scrupulousness and caution”. But Trump’s use of that power has been anything but scrupulous and cautious.

With 15,000 satellites crowding the sky and hundreds of thousands more planned, we may soon have a cataclysmic mess overhead.

The FBI and Department of Justice recently disrupted a Russian attack targeting home and small-office business routers. Here's how to protect yours.

UK official receiver understood to prefer Blastr as buyer for SSUK’s electric arc furnace in Rotherham and site in Stocksbridge

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UK officials have entered exclusive talks with a Norwegian startup to buy the former Liberty Steel works in South Yorkshire, in a significant step towards its rescue.

Norwegian-owned Blastr is understood to be the bidder preferred by the government’s official receiver to take on ownership of the UK’s largest existing electric arc furnace in Rotherham and other works in Stocksbridge, both in South Yorkshire.

The deployment includes sailors and Marines due to arrive as the administration attempts to enforce a maritime blockade against the regime in Tehran.

The US federation’s sporting director hired Mauricio Pochettino and Emma Hayes, but it’s too early to judge his larger impact

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Sporting directors live in the mid-to-long-term. While the coaches they hire and players they recruit have to deal with the highs and lows of week-to-week performance reviews, the executives watch on and make sure the project hasn’t veered off course. With a club, the rule of thumb is that it can take at least three transfer windows to start seeing tangible evidence of progress under a new sporting director. In international soccer, it often takes multiple cycles.

Matt Crocker arrived at US Soccer in April 2023 pledging to guide the program into a brave new era while acknowledging that initiative would take time to actualize. As it turned out, he never game himself that time. US Soccer announced on Tuesday that Crocker was stepping down as sporting director, and he’s reportedly due to take up a similar position with Saudi Arabia.

We know you're paying to stream Re:Zero and Dorohedoro right now, but why not supplement your watchlist this week?

Anas Sarwar says there have been ‘no stitch-ups, no deals, no backroom chats, no back-channel contact with Reform’

• UK politics live – latest updates

Anas Sarwar has dismissed as “a desperate lie from a desperate man” a claim by Reform UK’s Scotland leader, Malcolm Offord, that he offered to do a deal with the hard-right party to keep the Scottish National party out of power.

Offord made the claim on Channel 4’s Scottish leaders’ debate on Tuesday evening, alleging the Scottish Labour leader came “bouncing up” to him at an event in December last year, suggesting they “work together to remove the SNP”.

The two-night event heads to Las Vegas this weekend.

I wore both fitness trackers for months to find out what each gets right, and the deal-breakers that get in the way.

A Pakistani official said he expected talks to restart soon, but it may take longer than Trump suggested. Plus: how to stop catastrophizing? Here’s what experts say

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Good morning.

Donald Trump has said that US-Iranian peace talks could resume in Islamabad over the next two days.

Have Israel and Lebanon had talks yet? Yes. The two held negotiations about their conflict in Washington – their first direct talks in more than three decades. The US state department praised the two sides for having “productive discussions” but Hezbollah has said it will not abide by any agreements made by Israeli and Lebanese government negotiators in Washington.

For the latest updates, follow our liveblog.

The league’s emphasis on youth development has seen its place in the careers of US national team players shift dramatically

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When the United States men’s national team traveled to France for the 1998 World Cup, they did so with 16 Major League Soccer players on their 22-man roster. This was very much by design. MLS had kicked off in 1996 as a fulfilled promise made to Fifa by US Soccer for the right to host the 1994 World Cup. The new league then set about hoarding as many national team players as it could.

In a winless and mirthless tournament in 1998, fraught by a fractious camp, the Americans started an MLS player 21 times in their three group-stage matches, for an average of seven per starting lineup. That number has trended down ever since. In the 2002 run to the World Cup quarter-finals, setting the program’s modern high-water mark, an average of 5.4 MLS players made a start in the USA’s five matches. In 2006, it was 3.33. By 2010, that number had sunk to two; and in 2022, it was only one. In Qatar, the USMNT’s final group stage match against Iran was, in fact, the first time the team had started no MLS players at all at a World Cup since the league’s founding.

Detainees tell of abuse at sprawling Texas facility whose giant generators gobble energy and fuel climate crisis

Dust was everywhere, covering people’s blankets and clogging their airways inside Camp East Montana, the huge tent facility for immigration detention in west Texas, said D, a young Venezuelan man who was held there.

The air conditioning blasted constantly, keeping the living areas inside tents the length of two football fields at what felt like near-freezing temperatures despite the balmy weather outside, and rain leaked through the tarps, so people awoke on wet mattresses, he recalled.

Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman urged theater owners to cut down the roughly 30 minutes of trailers and ads before movies. "Get off the ad crack," Rothman told the audience at CinemaCon this week. "Get rid of the endless advertising and substantially shorten the long pre-shows." Variety reports: He noted that frequent moviegoers now show up a half hour late to avoid all the spots (something that reserved seating has made easier than ever before). Rothman said that means many people "don't even see the trailers," which results in "enticements gone to waste." Rothman predicted that the 2026 box office, which has already benefitted from hits like "Super Mario Galaxy Movie" and "Project Hail Mary," will rebound in a big way. But he acknowledged that attendance still trails pre-pandemic levels. Rothman has been a vociferous defender of the big screen, pushing studios to embrace longer windows so that movies will stay in cinemas longer. That was a theme that Rothman returned to at CinemaCon, pressing exhibitors to hold strong and agree not to show movies that quickly appear on streaming services or on-demand platforms. "Enforce longer windows," Rothman said. "Yes, even if that means you cannot play every film." In addition to stumping for exhibition, Rothman has practically begged Hollywood to invest in new stories along with all the franchise fare. In a recent New York Times op-ed, for instance, Rothman, the longest-serving studio chief, wrote, "For all the success of films driven by existing intellectual property, originality is essential to movies. Neither movie theaters nor the art form itself can survive without at least some originality. After all, you can't make a sequel to nothing."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Landmark ruling finds Wright Prospecting successfully made out its contractual claim to 50% of past and future royalties from Hope Downs iron ore project

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Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has lost its bid to retain royalties from the mammoth Hope Downs iron ore project and will be forced to pay Wright Prospecting half of its royalties from the project, worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

In a landmark ruling in the Western Australian supreme court on Wednesday, justice Jennifer Smith said that Wright Prospecting had successfully made out its contractual claim to 50% of past and future royalties paid from the project.

Former US Fed chair says lowering rates to reduce debt service cost can lead to inflation getting out of control

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The former US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen has attacked Donald Trump’s push for lower interest rates, comparing it to the actions of a “banana republic”.

The US president has repeatedly urged the central bank to slash interest rates, in the hope of cutting the government’s borrowing costs on its $39tn (£29tn) debt.

The Cartel del Noreste has been accused of trafficking weapons, drugs and people, and is characterized by its violent practices and extortion.

Barratt Redrow blames effects of Iran war, and likely impact on mortgage rates and costs, for further reduction

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Britain’s largest housebuilder is planning to dramatically cut back on buying new land, blaming the impact of the conflict in the Middle East and putting Labour’s ambitious housebuilding target under more pressure.

Barratt Redrow said it intends to approve between 7,000 and 9,000 plots of land for purchase in its current financial year, far lower than previous guidance of between 10,000 and 12,000.

Beijing may be reaping some diplomatic benefit but Trump’s war holds risks for its energy security and economy

Two months ago, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, promised it would be a “big year” for China-US relations. He was right, but perhaps not in the way he expected.

Wang was speaking before a planned visit by the US president to Beijing in March, which would have been Donald Trump’s first trip to China since 2017. But the trip, and a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, was kicked back by several weeks after Trump decided to launch strikes with Israel against Iran, starting a war in the Middle East that has caused a global energy crisis and roiled diplomatic relations across the board.

The president’s attack on the head of the Catholic church and the AI depiction of himself as a Christ-like figure have not gone down well with one of the largest groups of swing voters in the US

Poor persecuted Donald Trump has frequently portrayed himself as a modern messiah. Some of his supporters, meanwhile, have compared him directly to Jesus. And, to be fair, while the son of God didn’t eat Big Macs on a private jet and encourage his followers to buy AI stocks, there are similarities between the two figures. Namely the miracle-working. The US president may not be able to turn water into wine, but he’s turned public office into a personal goldmine. This week, Trump also managed to transform a staunch atheist (me) into a defender of the Catholic church.

I’m not defending everything, mind you, just Pope Leo XIV’s recent condemnations of war. “God does not bless any conflict,” the pope wrote on X on Friday. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who … drop bombs.” During Saturday prayers, the pope also called out the “delusion of omnipotence”. While Leo didn’t name names, his statements were widely interpreted as a rebuke of the Trump administration, which has repeatedly framed its warmongering in religious terms.

There is no justification for a regressive system in which the super-rich contribute less than the rest of us

Today, we have more income and wealth inequality than ever before. New York City’s average household income is $131,000. Without extreme inequality, residents could live reasonably well. Instead, a few people at the top of the income ladder capture enormous wealth, while millions of others struggle just to get by. Some simply can’t make it. For them, New York has become fundamentally unaffordable.

This outsized level of inequality has enormous economic, political and social consequences. It undermines social and political cohesion, erodes trust in institutions and leads people to conclude, correctly, that the system is rigged.

The United States tolerates Trump’s behavior because of our warped definition of strength

The strongest men I’ve known didn’t behave anything like Donald Trump.

They were capable of restraint, first off. They may have spoken loudly, but they never used volume to enforce authority. None of them thought domination equaled leadership. How silly that would be.

Staring at your iPhone for a long time could hurt your eyes, but a hidden feature could block your screen until your device is at a safer distance.

The restaurant’s patriarch, Tanios Abi-Najm, fled war-ravaged Beirut before starting Lebanese Taverna in 1979. He died last week at 94.

Organizers unveil new drive to reverse decline in union membership as workers seek to combat growing wealth inequality

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Leaders of some of the largest unions in the US have unveiled a drive to jumpstart the country’s ailing labor movement and combat growing wealth inequality under Donald Trump.

To make it easier for workers to join a union, and strengthen the hand of new unions negotiating with powerful businesses, a string of prominent organizers joined together to launch Union Now, a non-profit designed to increase labor union density.

As Americans race to file their federal taxes before Wednesday’s deadline, new analysis breaks down where the money goes

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Many US households spent hundreds more tax dollars on the military last year, according to new analysis, as Donald Trump’s plans to dramatically increase federal defense spending faces growing scrutiny.

Millions of Americans will race to file their taxes on Wednesday, the final day for federal returns, amid concern over rising living costs and government spending.

Bob McCaffrey, whose wife Gayle has never been found, to face murder charges over New Jersey killing of Lisa McBride

A man who was convicted in connection with his wife’s 2012 disappearance in South Carolina has been arrested over the murder of another woman in New Jersey 22 years earlier.

Robert “Bob” McCaffrey Jr, 54, was apprehended in North Carolina, where he had been residing, on suspicion of the 1990 killing of Lisa Marie McBride, 27, in New Jersey, authorities said in a statement.

While the Lesbian Action Group claims a ‘definite win’, Equality Australia says the judge ‘simply identified legal errors in the tribunal’s reasoning’

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A Victorian lesbian group has won a legal appeal in its case to exclude transgender women from its public events after the federal court set aside a decision by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).

The decision on Wednesday afternoon means the case will return to the administrative review tribunal for another determination. While the Lesbian Action Group called the finding a “definite win”, Equality Australia said the judge “simply identified legal errors in the tribunal’s reasoning”.

On an overcast Saturday in February, a street vendor named Elmer lined up dozens of pairs of worn but carefully cleaned tennis shoes on tables next to a convenience store. 

The 44-year-old father from Honduras felt like his head was on a swivel, greeting the handful of shoppers that approached while also scanning the busy thoroughfare behind him. He was ready to serve — or to run.

Last fall, as Elmer and his son were setting up their shoe stand, he said, agents wearing Homeland Security vests arrested two Guatemalan men in a nearby parking lot. A few hours later, the Mexican owner of a taco truck across the street was also detained by immigration authorities. 

Then in December, Elmer’s 19-year-old nephew was taken, too, following a traffic stop; he remains incarcerated in a Tennessee detention center. Elmer worries that he and his son could be next. They fled Honduras seven years ago to escape gang violence and are not authorized to be in the United States. Elmer spoke with MLK50: Justice Through Journalism and ProPublica on the condition that only his first name be used. 

Those around Elmer were swept up as part of President Donald Trump’s September order deploying more than two dozen state, local and federal law enforcement agencies, including the National Guard, to neighborhoods in Memphis, Tennessee. Unlike federal operations in Minneapolis, Chicago and other cities where immigration officers flooded the streets to ramp up deportations, the stated mission of the Memphis Safe Task Force was different: “to end street and violent crime in Memphis to the greatest possible extent.”

But just over a quarter of the more than 5,200 arrests made by the task force in and around Memphis have been for violent crimes, according to an MLK50 and ProPublica analysis of nearly four months of daily arrest reports from October through the beginning of February. The vast majority of violent crime arrests stemmed from outstanding warrants.

And despite casting violent criminals as the task force’s primary target, the operation has swept up more than 800 immigrants whom law enforcement deemed to be unlawfully present in the United States. Of those, just 2% — or 17 — were also arrested for violent crimes, our analysis found. Being unlawfully present on its own is a civil, not a criminal, offense.

More immigration arrests occurred in and around Parkway Village, the neighborhood where Elmer sells shoes, than in any other part of Memphis, according to our analysis. This majority Black community on the outskirts of the city’s core is also one of the fastest growing Hispanic neighborhoods in Memphis. It is dotted with immigrant-owned businesses — barber shops, grocery stores, a tax preparer — that serve a predominantly Spanish-speaking clientele. Other vendors sell tamales and cheese from the trunks of their cars. Overall, 81% of the neighborhood’s task force arrests have been for nonviolent crimes, including immigration violations, drug offenses, theft and illegal possession of weapons.

Trump has repeatedly proclaimed success in Memphis, crediting the task force for a more than 30% decline in homicides, aggravated assaults and sexual assaults compared with the same period last year. 

While some research has shown that a surge in policing could deter crime, Memphis Police Department data indicates that crime had already been dropping steadily since 2023, hitting a 25-year low before the task force began its operations last fall. Criminologists say more analysis is needed to determine how much impact the task force has had on crime rates in Memphis. 

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said crime rates continued to drop due to “the great work of President Trump’s task force.”

“Every local leader should want to mimic this success,” she said in a written statement.

Jackson did not answer questions about the gap between the task force’s stated mission to end violent crime and the fact that so few of the immigrants arrested were suspected of committing such crimes. Nor did Brady McCarron, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service, which leads the task force. Instead, he reiterated Trump’s claims that the task force has restored law and order to Memphis.

“All Memphians are safer today than they were seven months ago because of the Memphis Safe Task Force,” McCarron said in a written statement. “Calls for service are down 18% since last year. Meaning less crimes are being committed that residents must call in for law enforcement response.”

In response to some Memphians saying that the task force’s immigration activity makes them feel unsafe and discourages immigrants from reporting crimes and cooperating with police, McCarron said: “We are aware of concerns raised by community advocates. Our focus remains on removing violent offenders, recovering illegal firearms, and protecting all Memphis residents, including communities who are disproportionately victimized by violent crime.”

What the Trump administration celebrates as a successful crime-fighting campaign, Latino advocacy groups and civil rights organizations argue is a crusade that’s left much of the Hispanic community in turmoil and fear, as it grapples with the social isolation, economic instability and trauma the task force has brought.

The task force has shrunk Elmer’s world to work, church and a drafty rental home near the railroad tracks that he shares with his 20-year-old son, whom he raised alone. 

Three of Elmer’s siblings also live in Memphis, but since the task force arrived, family gatherings have been few. No one wants to risk being detained while driving across town.

During the week, Elmer shops for used Nikes, New Balances and other sneakers at thrift stores, then sells them in front of the neighborhood convenience store on the weekends. Elmer said he used to sell 100 pairs of shoes a week. Now, he’s lucky if he sells 20 — bringing home $500 a month instead of his usual $2,400.

Elmer said his father, a former police officer who had a car rental business in Honduras’ capital city, was gunned down after refusing to pay off a local gang. Elmer tilted his chin up as he spoke to keep tears from falling. 

“Sometimes I ask my son, ‘What would your life be like if we never left?’” Elmer said through a Spanish interpreter. “He answered, ‘I would probably be dead,’” killed by the same gang that took his grandfather.

Ever vigilant still, Elmer has mapped three escape routes from his shoe stand, just in case the task force reappears. As he pointed them out, a Tennessee Highway Patrol SUV flew down the road behind him, lights flashing and sirens blaring. 

On a recent Friday afternoon, while Elmer was working, an unmarked white SUV leaving the parking lot slowed to a stop a few feet from his shoe stand. Immigration officers wearing bulky green vests sat inside the vehicle and stared at Elmer and the Hispanic men standing with him. 

The agents didn’t say a word, Elmer recalled, but “I could feel the intimidation because I know who they are.”

Although it felt like forever, Elmer said, the federal agents only looked at them for 10 or so seconds — long enough for Elmer to abandon the escape routes he had planned and remember his son’s advice: Don’t run, or they may chase you.

So he froze, waiting for the moment to pass.

Violent Crime Campaign Swept Up Immigrants 

Last month, Trump came to Memphis and declared victory from a stage decorated with seized weapons and cardboard boxes stamped “DEA EVIDENCE.” 

“You have now developed a reputation as a city that’s coming back stronger than any city in the country because of what’s happened with crime, and because your political leaders have the courage to do what they did,” Trump told hundreds of National Guard troops, law enforcement officers and local and state Republican leaders gathered in a Tennessee Air National Guard hangar.

Armored vehicles and a law enforcement helicopter were parked next to the stage, framing the president and other administration officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. Miller has worked closely with Tennessee Republicans as they try to pass bills to require courts, public health clinics and law enforcement to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Trump administration has praised the proposed legislation and the task force as possible models for the rest of the country.

The influx of law enforcement has created a political minefield for Memphis Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat in a blue corner of a Republican-led state. Hours after Trump’s appearance, which the mayor did not attend, Young said during a press conference that the task force has “amplified” the work Memphis police had already been doing to reduce crime and that the increased law enforcement presence has led to “greater results,” especially in executing warrants. About half of all task force arrests have been for outstanding warrants.

But Young said he disagreed with the task force’s immigration enforcement role. “That’s not a part of those efforts that I am supportive of,” he told reporters. “I think that immigrants in our community have been a vital part of the growth of our city for the past 10 to 15 years, and we want them to feel welcome in our community.”

For immigrants without proper documentation, some say one of the riskiest things they can do since the task force arrived is to get behind the wheel. Of the task force’s immigration arrests, about 4 out of 5 followed traffic stops, the MLK50 and ProPublica analysis found. The Tennessee Highway Patrol, which leads the task force’s traffic enforcement efforts, usually initiates the traffic stops — often for minor violations such as a broken taillight or windows tinted too dark. Then immigration officers, who are often following the state troopers or riding with them, interrogate the driver and passengers, according to Vecindarios 901, an immigration rapid-response organization that has witnessed dozens of stops. Those who cannot provide proper documentation are arrested. 

The task force did not answer questions about the use of traffic stops as a primary means of arresting immigrants who are not authorized to be in the United States.

As law enforcement descended upon Parkway Village, church attendance dipped, according to a pastor with a primarily indigenous Guatemalan congregation; parishioners too scared to leave home chose instead to submit prayer requests through online services, she said. Pastors have agreed to serve as guardians to their members’ U.S.-born children in case their parents get deported.

Business owners and grocery store workers say sales have plummeted, forcing some to cut back on staffing. In the first weeks of task force operations, Hispanic student attendance at a neighborhood school fell by half, one administrator said.

At another neighborhood school, its communications coordinator, Paola, used to start her workday at the front desk, greeting students. Now she often starts it in her car, shuttling a pair of siblings to school. The 21-year-old from Venezuela stepped in to help after the children’s father was arrested in October during an appointment at immigration court. Their mother is afraid to drive them to school.

Paola and her father worried at first that she, too, might be detained even though she is authorized to work in the United States. She agreed to be interviewed on the condition that only her middle name be used to protect her and her family.

“Our role is not political,” she said. “We are here to care for students and their families.” 

Minutes away off Winchester Road, a busy street in Parkway Village, the Rev. Rolando Rostro is also watching out for his community. Rostro pastors Iglesia Nueva Vida, the largest Hispanic church in the Memphis area, where Sunday attendance fell from 800 to 500 during the first several months of the task force. Parishioners still live in fear, but attendance has gradually increased, he said. “We have to go to church.”

Alerted to traffic stops through phone calls or an online system set up by Vecindarios 901, Rostro often responds to the scene after state troopers or county sheriff’s officers — followed by federal agents — have pulled drivers over. It’s part of his “assignment” as a pastor during a difficult period for his community, he said; he goes to bear witness and ask that immigrants arrested be released. “The Bible says ask and you will receive,” he said. 

Sometimes, he recognizes his parishioners. 

“Hey, that’s not ‘the worst of the worst,’” Rostro said he has told the law enforcement officers, rebutting the Trump administration’s characterization of the immigrants federal officials are targeting. “I know him. He goes to my church. He’s a good man,” Rostro has said — in hopes that sharing details about the people’s lives would “plant a seed of a different way of seeing things.” 

During Trump’s first administration, Rostro said one of his parishioners was released from ICE detention after he spoke with agents.

But that hasn’t happened this time.

So he checks in with church members who are detained, learning they are held in cold, rat-infested conditions and pressured to return to their home countries. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons but would not address the conditions at the detention centers in which Rostro’s parishioners are held.

“This is a family community,” Rostro said, “so the breakup of that is very detrimental to the children and to the whole family structure.”

A Community Hub Unnerved

A few miles down the street from the church, Juan Hernandez, who is originally from Mexico, led a reporter through El Mercadito, the sprawling indoor shopping center he opened in 2005. Vendors in the normally bustling commercial hub had few customers to greet one afternoon in early March.

With dozens of immigrant-run booths selling everything from neon safety vests for construction workers to frilly dresses for little girls, El Mercadito also rents space for events, including lucha libre (Mexican wrestling) and quinceañeras.

But since October, there have been fewer bookings for birthday parties. As shoppers stayed home, some booth owners struggled to keep up with the rent, Hernandez said. Two Guatemalan booth owners were so fearful to come to work that they shuttered their clothing stands.

In the task force’s first weeks, Hernandez tried to calm the fears of shoppers, vendors and his employees at the Mexican restaurant inside the market. He hired private security to guard the doors and to monitor video cameras for signs of task force agents. Then he realized that it was the traffic stops by state troopers that were most often leading to immigration arrests, so he no longer needed the guards.

Two or three times a week, federal agents would show up at his restaurant for breakfast. First one, then a pair, then eight or more, pushing tables together. When they left to get in their cars, Hernandez saw them putting on vests marked HSI: Homeland Security Investigations.

On two occasions, someone — he’s not sure if it was a customer or a booth owner — posted photos of the agents at El Mercadito on social media, as a warning to customers to stay away.

Hernandez understands why people are wary: Two of his friends have been deported by immigration authorities across town, leaving behind teenage children. The sister of one of his servers was detained.

But, as he has explained to his vendors and employees in a meeting, no shoppers or diners means no income for the booth owners or the restaurant. He said restaurant sales have fallen by 40% since the task force’s launch.

“I used to have these feelings of anger like, you know, they are looking for us, and then they come to eat here,” Hernandez said through a Spanish interpreter, but there was nothing he could do. “They were paying for the food, so we have to serve.”

Hernandez typically offers police officers 10% off their checks, but not for this group. “I decided I don’t give discounts to them because of the harm they are doing in our community.”

Hernandez had received amnesty under Republican President Ronald Reagan when he came to the United States more than 40 years ago. He said he’s now been forced to consider the unthinkable.

“I have never had the thought of coming back to my country,” he said. “Now I do — because of the government.”

The post Trump’s Memphis Crime Task Force Arrested Over 800 Immigrants, Records Show. Only 2% of the Arrests Were for Violent Crimes. appeared first on ProPublica.

Deal will create pensions and savings group with 16 million customers and £480bn of assets, while Aegon focuses on US

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The Dutch financial services group Aegon has struck a £2bn deal to sell off its almost 200-year-old UK arm to Standard Life, as part of a US push in which the group will be rebranded as Transamerica.

Standard Life, previously known as Phoenix Group, said the deal to buy Aegon UK would create a pensions and savings group with 16 million customers and £480bn of assets under administration.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 15 No. 569.

In a post-apocalyptic landscape of cutthroat scavengers, surprisingly peaceful players are opting to team up and open up – a phenomenon that’s intriguing game developers and psychologists alike

The video game Arc Raiders is set in a lethal imagining of an apocalyptic future for humanity. Survivors have been forced to live deep underground in colonies while mysterious, murderous AI machines patrol the surface. Only the desolate ruins of former cities survive, and reckless human “raiders” take trips topside to conduct dangerous scavenging missions.

For all the menace of these armed robots, called Arcs, the deadly droids are not the biggest threat in this hugely popular game, which was released late last year and has sold more than 14m copies. Raiders operate with the constant anxiety that another person will shoot them on sight and steal their loot. Mercilessness is rewarded in this kind of competitive, high-stakes world.

Luther Davis, a national champion with the Crimson Tide, is said to have worn wigs and make-up to secure fraudulent loans

A former University of Alabama football star plans to plead guilty later this month to orchestrating an alleged scheme in which he impersonated NFL players and defrauded lenders out of nearly $20m. The alleged scam is described in detail by the US attorney for the northern district of Georgia, including depictions of the former defensive lineman donning disguises during loan closings.

Luther Davis, a member of the Alabama team that won the 2010 national championship game, along with a partner, CJ Evins, “obtained at least thirteen fraudulent loans totaling more than $19,845,000”, the criminal information filing alleges. A criminal information (CI) document is filed by a US attorney when a defendant agrees to waive the constitutional right to indictment by a grand jury and instead proceed by typically entering a guilty plea; both Davis and Evins are doing so according to the court docket.

Aliya Sports and Sure Sports did not reply to a request for comment for this article.

What began as a fan-friendly revolution has splintered into a confusing, expensive web of subscriptions, blackouts and ads

There was a moment, perhaps a decade ago, when it felt as if sports broadcasting nirvana was near. A world where ordinary fans could access any game on any device, any time, anywhere.

Or near enough, as cord-cutting devastated traditional cable subscription models and viewers who had long been locked into expensive and restrictive TV packages now had choices. Streaming nurtured a diverse and bespoke landscape.

Starting next year, about 18.5 million adults will be subject to new Medicaid work rules in 42 states and Washington, D.C. Some Republican-controlled states want to triple the required work period.

A video of Barbara Collins and Chewy gardening together has amassed millions of views on social media.

Belinda Daniels panicked in 2018 when the pediatrician said her 1-year-old son, Jovanni, had lead in his body. The toxic metal could stunt his brain, the doctor told her, but catching it early meant she could prevent more damage.

Daniels moved out of her Omaha, Nebraska, apartment that had chipping lead paint. The doctor continued testing Jovanni periodically while Daniels followed instructions on cleaning, handwashing and keeping Jovanni away from contaminated dirt.

Eventually, the lead level in Jovanni’s blood dropped. While the now-8-year-old has anger and impulse-control issues, Daniels said it could have been a lot worse.

“They told me that the side effects of it would be him being autistic” or having “very delayed behaviors,” she said.

Not every child’s high lead levels are caught as early as Jovanni’s. In Nebraska, it’s largely up to the doctor or health system to decide whether to test a child’s blood for lead. As a result, local public health officials say, not enough kids are getting tested, given Omaha’s lead problems, which include being home to the largest residential lead cleanup site in the country.

For more than a century, smoke from a lead smelter and other factories deposited 400 million pounds of the toxic metal across the city’s east side. That prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to begin investigating the pollution in 1999, and a few years later, the agency declared 27 square miles of east Omaha to be a Superfund site. Over more than two decades, the EPA and the city have dug up and replaced nearly 14,000 yards, from about a third of the site’s residential properties.

Faced with similar public health concerns about lead, 13 states, including New Jersey, Louisiana and neighboring Iowa, have passed laws requiring universal lead screening, meaning all kids would get a blood test before entering kindergarten.

But not Nebraska.

Most places passed these laws after recognizing that they were reaching too few kids by simply targeting high-risk groups like children who live in old housing. Every state with available data saw increases in the number of kids tested after passing these laws, the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica found. Some identified more kids with elevated blood lead levels.

A lack of consistent testing nationally leads health officials to miss about half the kids with high levels, according to research by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The academy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend testing in areas that have a high prevalence of lead or older housing.

Over the years, Omaha public health officials have raised awareness about blood testing with billboards and community events about the risks of lead. But a bill to require that every child be tested failed in the Nebraska Legislature in 2011. Since then, there have been no efforts to revive it.

Naudia McCracken, supervisor of the Douglas County Health Department’s Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, said she is planning to propose an ordinance to the Omaha City Council this summer. That could require health workers to test all kids up to age 7 who live in the Superfund site itself and a broader area east of 72nd Street, generally thought of as the dividing line between the city’s urban east side and suburban west side. Right now, fewer than half of kids under 7 in that area are tested for lead.

As a whole, the county’s testing rate is better than most, CDC data shows. But that’s not comforting to local health workers. “That number is abysmally low,” said Peg Schneider, a physician assistant who has been testing Omaha kids for lead since 1989 and believes every kid should be tested.

McCracken said the city “needs to come to grips” with its lead problems. Not only is it home to the Superfund site, but the majority of east Omaha’s housing was built before lead paint was banned, and many residents’ drinking water travels through lead pipes. While Daniels lived in the Superfund site, she believes her baby might have been exposed to the apartment’s lead paint.

Since the cleanup began, the percentage of kids in the Superfund site whose tests showed high lead levels has decreased from 33% in 2000 to 2.4% in 2025. That mirrors national trends over the same time period.

But east Omaha still has a higher rate of children with elevated blood lead levels than the national average, according to the most recent CDC data. 

Without mandatory testing, there’s no way to know if health workers are missing kids with potentially life-changing exposures to lead, said Dr. Jennifer Sample, a Kansas City, Missouri-area pediatrician and former chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Environmental Health and Climate Change. 

“That’s why I support universal testing: so we can actually see where those kids are,” she said. “We need better data.”

Getting an accurate picture of the community’s blood lead levels is not only important for public health. While levels of lead in soil are the main drivers for EPA action, the data on children’s blood lead levels can inform decisions like lowering cleanup thresholds, said Kellen Ashford, an EPA spokesperson. The EPA is currently reassessing the site, and tens of thousands more Omaha properties could be cleaned up.

Jim Woolford, who led the EPA’s Superfund program from 2006 to 2020, worries that if kids with lead poisoning aren’t being tested and the community’s levels appear low, EPA officials may use that data as a reason not to carry out a remediation project that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Instead, Woolford said, they could “declare victory” and “move on.”

“That Opportunity Was Lost”

In 1977, Douglas County, which contains Omaha, took advantage of a new federal grant and started a screening program to test kids for lead. By then many communities in the U.S. recognized the dangers of the toxic metal and had begun passing laws to catch and address its effects.

But in Omaha, local officials struggled to test enough kids with limited resources. Four health workers went door to door with suitcases full of swabs and vials. Dr. John Walburn, who treated lead-poisoned kids at the time, tried to convince doctors at Omaha’s clinics and hospitals to test, but, outside poor areas, “they did not see it as their problem,” he said.

After the EPA proved lead contamination was a far-reaching problem and began the Omaha cleanup in 1999, testing increased dramatically as the EPA and local government recommended kids in the Superfund site be screened. But many still went unchecked, said Brenda Council, a longtime lead poisoning prevention advocate in the city.

So when she won a seat in the Nebraska Legislature, she proposed that every child in the state undergo at least one blood lead test before kindergarten unless a health care worker determined the child to be at low risk for lead poisoning using a questionnaire. Some believed the survey would flag too many kids and result in unneeded tests.

“Among the things in that checklist are that they’ve never ingested a nonfood product,” Paul Schumacher, a state senator from Columbus, Nebraska, said at the time. “It would be un-American for a kid not to have eaten dirt or grass at some time in its life.”

The bill eventually passed the Legislature but was vetoed by then-Gov. Dave Heineman, who said it was unnecessary and would be too costly. 

“There could have been so much prevention,” Council said. “That opportunity was lost.”

Heineman did not return phone calls, texts or emails requesting comment. Schumacher said in an interview that he still believes a one-size-fits-all approach would test kids unnecessarily but said a local policy for a place with lead issues would make more sense. 

Without universal testing, Nebraska policymakers and health institutions have taken different approaches. The state recommends testing every kid who lives within the Superfund site at ages 1 and 2. Douglas County recommends kids be tested annually until age 7. 

Only 1- and 2-year-olds with Medicaid insurance are required to be tested — and even then, only two-thirds of eligible kids in the county are tested each year, according to state data.

Providers in the biggest medical systems are left to follow individual policies. OneWorld Community Health Centers, which serves primarily low-income and Latino patients in South Omaha, requires its providers to try to test every 1- and 2-year-old. Children’s Nebraska, the state’s only independent pediatric hospital, requires one test by 2 years old. Nebraska Medicine, the state’s largest hospital network, does not have its own policy, according to a spokesperson. But Schneider, the physician assistant at Nebraska Medicine’s Fontenelle Health Center in North Omaha, said she tests kids annually until the age of 5.

In recent years, several states that had similar approaches realized they weren’t catching enough kids with high lead levels. In Maine, more than 160 such children were likely missed due to inconsistent screening across the state, according to a 2019 report by a Maine affordable housing group. Since then, the state has passed a universal testing law and its health department reported that its testing rate, which had been stagnant for years, was now rising. 

Michigan passed a new universal testing law in 2023. The state previously relied on recommendations similar to Nebraska’s, and parents had to push doctors to get their kids tested, said Ellen Vial, a Detroit program manager at the Michigan Environmental Council, which lobbied for the law. She hopes the new law will do as much to prevent exposure there as banning lead from paint did.

Nebraska state Sen. Ashlei Spivey of North Omaha said she’s considering introducing lead-related policies again in the Legislature, such as bills to increase testing, provide tax credits to fix lead paint issues inside homes and enforce the replacement of water service lines that contain lead.

Cleanups and Blood Tests

The EPA has been reexamining Omaha’s Superfund site, particularly how contaminated dirt has to be to qualify for cleanup. One factor that may influence the cleanup decision is local blood lead data. In 2019, the EPA wrote in a review of the Omaha site that its plan “may not protect children,” given that the CDC had lowered the concentration at which it considers someone’s blood lead level “high.” 

Nearly 27,000 Omaha properties could have qualified for cleanup if the EPA applied guidance that had been set under the Biden administration to better match the updated advice on blood lead levels, according to documents obtained by the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica. But those guidelines were rolled back last fall by the Trump administration, tempering some experts’ expectations and residents’ hopes for additional cleanup. The EPA plans to have updates on its Omaha cleanup plans by the end of the year, agency spokesperson Ashford said. 

Ashford also said the EPA uses local blood lead data, when it’s available, to set or lower cleanup levels. The local data also helps establish whether other remedies are needed, such as interior dust screenings or repainting homes that have lead paint.

But using blood data to understand the prevalence of lead is problematic, said Danielle Land, a University of Iowa public health researcher. Lead only stays in the blood for about 30 days, meaning an exposure can be missed even though it can continue to cause damage. Testing kids in winter when they spend more time inside versus summer when they’re playing outside can also provide different results. Isolating how someone was exposed or whether a cleanup is behind a decline in blood lead levels can be difficult.

Despite those issues, Land said she’s seen declines in the number of kids with high blood lead levels “shape public and institutional narratives” about whether to investigate or fix hazards in places like Flint, Michigan, where millions have been spent replacing lead pipes, or Anniston, Alabama, where the soil was contaminated. In 2018, the EPA said blood lead data in Omaha could shape how the agency conducts cleanups elsewhere.

Industries and local government officials have used low blood lead levels to avoid cleanups before, said Larry Zaragoza, a retired EPA employee who spent decades analyzing and developing policies relating to lead risk. 

In the 1990s, a Colorado county and the state argued against widespread cleanup in the town of Leadville, Zaragoza said. Residents spent years criticizing the EPA’s research and felt the agency was unfairly saddling corporations that owned local mining operations with cleanup costs, news reports show. Cleanups only happened at homes where kids’ blood tests came back as high or where yards contained nearly nine times the levels required to qualify for a cleanup in Omaha. 

Still, the agency needs a way to measure success, said Woolford, the former Superfund program director. The data can be valuable if enough kids are tested and they generally represent the area. 

“You’re going to need, even with all its uncertainties, some indicator of what’s happened over time,” he said.

As Jovanni gets older, Daniels said her fear for his health has dissipated. Her son loves Ferraris and Dodge Challengers. He wrestles, plays soccer and rides his bike. 

But he was also exposed to lead, which can carry lifelong consequences similar to the behavioral issues he’s dealing with. Daniels wonders how many other parents have kids like him but may never know why.

“I think that needs to be standard across the board — all kids getting tested,” she said.

The post Omaha Is Home to a Massive Superfund Site. Most Kids Living There Aren’t Tested for Lead. appeared first on ProPublica.

A U.S. blockade in effect since Monday has completely cut off Iran’s sea trade, the U.S. military said after six merchant ships were prevented from leaving Iranian ports.

The armed and masked off-duty Phoenix, Arizona, cop said he wanted to get kids at a high school ICE protest arrested.

Pyongyang making ‘very serious’ progress on producing weapons, with rapid rise in activity at main nuclear complex

North Korea has made “very serious” progress in its ability to produce more nuclear weapons, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has said, in another sign that the regime is seeking to use its nuclear arsenal to ensure its survival.

North Korea is thought to have assembled about 50 nuclear warheads, although some experts are sceptical of its claims that it is able to miniaturise them so they can be attached to long-range ballistic missiles.

John Hancock welcomes findings on ownership of mines and companies although judge says dispute should be determined in private arbitration

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Gina Rinehart’s son has said he wants to reunite his family after a landmark court case left a long-running feud over ownership of mines and companies unresolved.

The Western Australian supreme court on Wednesday found Rinehart’s children were at one point set to inherit 49% of her company and said their ownership claims should be determined in separate proceedings.

CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper says a blockade of Iranian ports "has been fully implemented," as the U.S.-Iran impasse over control of the Strait of Hormuz continues amid a delicate ceasefire.

Amazon is buying satellite communications company Globalstar for $10.8 billion to expand its Leo satellite-internet network and compete more directly with SpaceX's Starlink. The deal also includes a partnership with Apple to support satellite connectivity for iPhones and Apple Watches, with Amazon planning voice, data, and messaging services starting in 2028. The New York Times reports: Leo was Amazon's move to enter the market for beaming high-speed internet to the ground from orbit. That is an arena dominated by Elon Musk's SpaceX, which operates the Starlink satellite-internet service. Starlink, which has thousands of satellites in orbit, already serves several million customers around the world. This month, SpaceX filed to go public in what is shaping up to be one of the largest-ever initial public offerings. Mr. Musk has valued SpaceX -- which has landed contracts with federal agencies such as NASA and the Department of Defense -- at more than $1 trillion. Other companies are racing to catch up to what Mr. Musk has built for space. Globalstar, founded in 1991, is a Louisiana-based global telecommunications company. It operates networks of low-Earth orbiting satellites to provide internet connectivity to customers. Paul Jacobs, Globalstar's chief executive, said in a statement that together, the two companies "will advance innovations in digital connectivity."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

@lia Glad you're ok overall and hope you heal super fast, falling crosses my mind most rides... Not all of the time but regularly and especially as I've not had one for age. I tend to keep the speed under 15mph in general, I always put my arms out and for me it's the left arm that gets hit. Can't be screwing that up again 😉
Never seem to hit my head though.
Take care.

Chip upgrade brings pro-level power, long battery life and plenty of storage, but the Air now faces real competition

Apple’s latest MacBook Air is its most powerful yet, comes with double the starting storage and is better than ever for getting work done and as the benchmark for a consumer laptop. But this year the new lower-cost MacBook Neo has muddied the waters.

The M5 MacBook Air starts at £1,099 (€1,199/$1,099/A$1,799) for the 13in version, which is £100 or equivalent more than last year’s excellent M4 version, but comes with at least 512GB of storage. It sits above the £599 MacBook Neo and below the £1,699 M5 MacBook Pro, making the Air Apple’s mid-range machine.

Screen: 13.6in LCD (2560x1600; 224 ppi) True Tone

Processor: Apple M5 with eight or 10-core GPU

RAM: 16, 24 or 32GB

Storage: 512GB, 1, 2 or 4TB SSD

Operating system: macOS 26 Tahoe

Camera: 12MP centre stage

Connectivity: wifi 7, Bluetooth 6, 2x Thunderbolt/USB 4, headphones

Dimensions: 215 x 304.1 x 11.3mm

Weight: 1.23kg

Struggle for justice symbolises limitations of Truth and Reconciliation Commission, whose hearings began 30 years ago

Darkness had fallen on 27 June 1985 when Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlauli and Sparrow Mkonto set off on the 150-mile drive back from a meeting of anti-apartheid activists in the South African city of Port Elizabeth, now known as Gqeberha. They never made it home.

About an hour into their journey, as the road wound north from the coast towards their home town of Cradock (now called Nxuba), the four men were pulled over by three white security police officers. They were handcuffed and driven back towards Gqeberha.

Two more candidates have filed for the District 23 state House race, setting up at least a three-way Democratic primary election in September.

Proposed legislation would formalize what officials call an existing “de-facto ban” on Airbnb and similar short-term rentals in Newark.

What it will take to gain the advantage over China.

A U.S. blockade threatens the regime's grip.

Lessons from Hungary for pro-democracy movements worldwide.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Cord Cutters News: Sony has notified owners of its recent BRAVIA television models that significant changes to the built-in TV Guide for its OTA TV antenna users and related menu features will take effect starting in late May 2026. The update affects a range of premium sets released between 2023 and 2025, marking another instance of feature adjustments for older smart TV hardware as manufacturers shift focus toward newer product lines. The changes primarily target the program guide functionality for over-the-air antenna TV channels received via the ATSC tuner. After the cutoff date, program information may fail to display on certain channels, limiting the guide's usefulness for planning viewing schedules. Users will often see listings only for channels they have recently watched, rather than a comprehensive overview of available broadcasts. Additionally, channel logos that previously appeared in the guide will disappear, and any thumbnail images accompanying program descriptions will no longer load or show. Further modifications will appear in the television's menu system. For users relying on connected set-top boxes, the dedicated Set Top Box menu option will be removed entirely. In its place, a simpler Control menu will surface, streamlining access but eliminating some specialized navigation previously available. Program thumbnails, which provided visual previews in various menu sections, will also cease to appear across affected interfaces. These adjustments stem from Sony's ongoing efforts to manage backend services and data feeds that support enhanced guide features on its Google TV-powered BRAVIA lineup. As television ecosystems evolve rapidly with advancements in processing power, artificial intelligence integration, and cloud-based content delivery, companies periodically retire select capabilities on prior-generation hardware to optimize resources. The 2023 through 2025 models, while still offering excellent picture quality through advanced OLED and LCD panels with features like XR processing, now fall into the category of devices receiving scaled-back support. These are the models impacted: 2025 models: Bravia 8 II (XR80M2), Bravia 5 (XR50) 2024 models: Bravia 9 (XR90), Bravia 8 (XR80), Bravia 7 (XR70) 2023 models: Bravia A95L series

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Why Should Delaware Care?
Delaware labor officials and the Trump administration are at odds over whether immigration enforcement officials should have access to residents’ sensitive data. A recent ruling could open new avenues for immigration enforcement in Delaware.

Delaware’s top federal judge rejected on Tuesday the state government’s attempt to withhold employment records from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation of more than a dozen businesses, ordering officials to hand over the data.

In a 27-page ruling that smacks of incredulity in recounting the Delaware Department of Labor’s reasons for not complying with a federal subpoena, Delaware District Court Chief Judge Colm Connolly wrote that “these are not close calls.”

The ruling was largely expected after a hearing earlier this month, when a skeptical Connolly picked apart the state’s arguments and told the defending counsel that her legal brief was not written on her “best day.”

After asserting that complying with the subpoena was in the federal government’s legitimate interests and denying that doing so would endanger Delaware’s unemployment trust fund, Connolly surmised that the non-compliance was simply “a political argument; not a legal one.”

“This court is not the proper forum in which to air [DDOL’s] generalized grievances about the conduct of government. It would be wholly inappropriate for me to consider this line of argument, and I decline to do so,” wrote Connolly, a former U.S. attorney who was appointed to the bench in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term.

On Tuesday, it was unclear whether the Department of Labor would appeal the ruling to the Third Circuit. The Delaware Department of Justice, which represented the state during the court hearings, declined to comment and a spokesperson for Gov. Matt Meyer’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

If the department does not appeal the ruling, it’s equally unclear when the department may turn over the records to ICE.

Following Delaware’s passage of a statewide ban on local police cooperation agreements with ICE under the 287(g) program, the successful acquisition of labor data could open a new front in the Trump’s administration’s immigration crackdown in the First State.

Where did this case begin?

The case stems from a subpoena ICE issued to the Delaware Department of Labor in April 2025, seeking wage records for 15 Delaware businesses for the final two quarters of 2024, which the agency suspected of employing undocumented immigrants.

The subpoena, which originated from “hotline tips” that ICE received, sought employees’ names, addresses, wages and Social Security numbers from 15 Delaware businesses, according to court records. ICE’s subpoena efforts align with the Trump administration’s broader strategy of using federal and state agency data to bolster its promised immigration enforcement push.

Attorneys with the U.S. Attorney’s Office argued in court documents that wage records would help ICE further its focus on “worksite enforcement” and may help determine whether employees are using fake Social Security numbers or if employers are paying workers “under the table,” or using cash and without reporting it to the IRS, court records show. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Claudia Pare asked Connolly to seal the April subpoena when the case was first filed, arguing that ICE did not want to have the 15 business names become public and “prematurely alert” the targets of the agency’s worksite investigations. 

Conversely, Deputy State Attorney Jennifer-Kate Aaronson filed a motion to unseal the subpoena in August. The 15 businesses suspected of hiring undocumented immigrants should have the opportunity to come to court and argue against their information being transmitted to ICE, she said during a previous court hearing. 

Connolly initially declined to rule on those motions, although he said it remained a good decision to keep the subpoena under seal. If suspected businesses are made public and associated with potentially hiring undocumented employees, it could harm their reputation if they’re ultimately found to be innocent, he said.

On Tuesday, the judge likewise denied the state’s motion to unseal the subpoena at the heart of the case.

DOL officials have received at least four subpoenas from ICE since February 2025, Aaronson said during an August court hearing. Department officials complied with one ICE subpoena that sought information about a single individual, Aaronson said.

According to other subpoenas obtained by the News Journal, ICE has also reportedly investigated the potential employment of undocumented workers at a Perdue plant in Seaford along with a fencing company and a northern Delaware restaurant.

Connolly noted in his ruling that prior to 2025, the Department of Labor routinely complied with subpoena requests from ICE and other federal agencies.

The post Judge orders Delaware to turn over labor data to ICE appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

A cross-party effort caused two House members to resign on Tuesday, and the female lawmakers who helped lead that push told CBS News that additional members of Congress could face similar pressure.

The black-and-white Mickey-Mouse-with-a-gun game backs up its signature art style with a surprisingly mature detective yarn.

The renovations at the Federal Reserve are the subject of a months-long criminal investigation.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 15.

The chain's North American operator forecast it will open 205 stores in 2026, although those openings will be outpaced by a series of closures.

Passengers can book a four-hour session in the bunk beds from May for Auckland-New York flights but airline cautions against smuggling in children

Economy passengers on Air New Zealand’s ultra-long-haul flight between Auckland and New York can book a spot in the airline’s bunk-bed style sleeping pods from May, which will take to skies in late 2026.

In what the airline says is a world first, six full-length, lie-flat sleeping pods, are squeezed into the aisle of the new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. The pods, known as “Skynest”, will include fresh bedding, a privacy curtain, ambient lighting and kit with eye-masks, skincare, earplugs and socks.

This live blog is now closed.

• New accuser says Eric Swalwell sexually assaulted her in 2018

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As both chambers of Congress return to Capitol Hill today, the news of two resignation announcements is not the only thing news occupying lawmakers.

The House still needs to pass a bill to fund several Department of Homeland Security (DHS) subagencies, like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Coast Guard, amid a record-breaking partial government shutdown.

Sheinbaum has recently been taking a firmer stance with the US, defying pressures where other countries have caved

The Mexican government has voiced concern about the deaths of its citizens in US custody, with Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum also pushing back against the Trump administration’s decision to impose an energy blockade on Cuba.

The progressive Mexican leader has walked a careful line with Trump for more than a year, addressing provocations with a measured tone and meeting US requests to crack down on cartels more so than her predecessors, in an effort to offset threats of tariffs and US military action against gangs.

Strike marks third deadly attack on vessels in region in four days, and killing of 174 people since September

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The US military said it killed four more people in a boat strike in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, marking the third deadly attack on vessels in the region in four days.

The US Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, announced the killings in a social media post, claiming, without providing evidence, that the men killed were “narco-terrorists”.

Filing seeks to overturn seditious conspiracy charges of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers members who laid siege to US Capitol in 2021

The US Department of Justice has requested that a federal appeals judge overturn convictions for members of far-right groups Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, who were previously found guilty of seditious conspiracy in connection with the violent siege of the US capitol in 2021.

Jeanine Pirro, the Donald Trump-appointed US attorney for the District of Columbia, signed separate motions on Tuesday to vacate convictions for a slew of individuals, including the Proud Boys’ leaders Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs as well as Stewart Rhodes, a former attorney who founded the Oath Keepers’ militia.

This live blog has now closed. You can read the latest on the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran here

South Korean president Lee Jae Myung has said rising tensions around the strait of Hormuz make it hard to be optimistic about the fallout from the Iran war, warning that high oil prices and supply-chain strains are likely to persist for some time.

Lee told a cabinet meeting on Tuesday the government should treat prolonged disruption in global energy and raw materials markets as a given and reinforce its emergency response system.

For the time being, difficulties in global energy and raw materials supply chains and high oil prices will continue … I ask that we pursue the development of alternative supply chains, medium- to long-term industrial restructuring, and the transition to a post-plastic economy as top-priority national strategic projects.”

Lebanon and Israel have been at war in some form since the early 1980s. You’re not allowed to enter Lebanon if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport. The two don’t have diplomatic relations. So the fact that these talks are happening directly between the two governments is something that’s really astonishing.

Omaha police fatally shot a woman they say kidnapped a young boy and slashed him across the face before killing her.

U.S. Southern Command posted aerial video on social media Tuesday showing a vessel bobbing in the water before being struck by a projectile and exploding.

Interior minister is ‘highly determined’ to block US rapper from performing in the southern city in June due to his past antisemitic remarks, sources say

Kanye West has announced he will postpone an upcoming concert in France, just after reports emerged that France’s interior minister is seeking to block the US rapper from performing due to his antisemitic remarks.

“After much thought and consideration, it is my sole decision to postpone my show in Marseille, France until further notice,” the rapper, legally known as Ye, wrote on X.

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Microsoft's Surface laptops are now priced higher than some of the best laptops on the market.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for April 15, No. 1,761.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for April 15, No. 773.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 15, No. 1,039.

Earlier this year, the House narrowly defeated a Senate bill on the issue, angering victims' families.

The streaming package costs $20 a month.

"People should try to drive less. They should try to conserve energies," Andy Walz told CBS News. "We should be doing that all the time. Energy's essential for people's lives, but we should conserve it."

The Justice Department on Tuesday asked a federal court to vacate Jan. 6 convictions against a dozen former members of the right-wing Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, aiming to wipe away some of the final Capitol riot charges that are still standing.

Departures came after lawmakers from both parties threatened to introduce resolutions expelling the two men

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The Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell and Republican congressman Tony Gonzales submitted their resignations to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, abruptly ending their political careers amid bipartisan furor over allegations of sexual misconduct against both.

Swalwell resigned at 2pm ET, while Gonazales’s resignation will take effect at 11.59pm on Tuesday evening, according to the House clerk.

Ashly Robinson, an influencer who went by Ashlee Jenae online, died on a trip with her fiancé in Zanzibar. Now, her family is searching for answers.

The vacuum bends around furniture, and SharkNinja says its dock can hold debris for 45 days.

Between a product page leak and a trademark filing, Garmin seems to be cooking up a new recovery-tracking wearable.

The FCC has granted (PDF) Netgear the first exemption from its foreign-made router ban, allowing the company to keep selling new consumer router models made outside the U.S. through Oct. 1, 2027. PCMag reports: The Defense Department reviewed Netgear's application for an exemption and found that its products "do not pose risks to US national security." The FCC's order doesn't elaborate on why. Netgear is based in San Jose, California, although its products are made in Asia. The exemption, known as a conditional approval, lasts until Oct. 1, 2027. It covers a large range of future Wi-Fi models from Netgear, spanning the R, RAX, RAXE, RS, MK, MR, M, and MH series, the Orbi consumer mesh, mobile, and standalone routers under the RBK, RBE, RBR, RBRE, LBR, LBK, and CBK series, as well as cable gateways and cable modems under the CAX and CM series. The exemption isn't a full green light for the future product models from Netgear. The FCC says the company still needs to go through the normal Commission-regulated equipment authorization process for each device. The Oct. 1, 2027 date effectively amounts to a deadline for Netgear to receive FCC certification for the router models; each certification is also permanent, enabling the product to be sold in the US on an ongoing basis. This also suggests that Netgear has an 18-month period to receive FCC certifications for future products.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Analysis by IFS shows George Osborne’s mortgage schemes launched in 2013 had little effect on social mobility

Higher-income households were the biggest beneficiaries of George Osborne’s Help to Buy mortgage schemes, introduced in the 2010s, according to an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) thinktank.

Launched by the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government in 2013, Help to Buy involved two separate schemes aimed at making home ownership more achievable in a period of rapid house price growth.

ASA rules ads on Instagram and Daily Mail website broke ban on promoting items high in fat, salt and sugar

Lidl and Iceland have become the first companies to have ads banned after the introduction of rules cracking down on the marketing of junk food in the UK.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has been policing the ban on ads featuring junk food on TV before 9pm, and in paid online advertising at any time of the day, since 5 January.

Air pollution caused by wildfires is another blow to northern Thailand’s tourism industry as businesses suffer amid war in Iran

The Doi Suthep temple in northern Thailand is known for its spectacular views of Chiang Mai and the lush forested mountains that surround it. Over recent weeks, though, visitors can see little of the city beyond a thick cloud of grey haze.

Persistent wildfires have caused intense air pollution across the north of Thailand, forcing three provinces to declare emergencies and triggering spikes in pollution-related illnesses.

British aid to double as 19m people face acute hunger, but summit unlikely to end conflict amid Saudi-UAE tensions

The British foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, will urge Sudan’s warring parties to “cease bloodshed” during a major conference on Wednesday, which analysts believe is unlikely to deliver a significant step towards peace.

The talks in Berlin – held on the third anniversary of the start of Sudan’s ruinous war – are expected to help address a catastrophic funding shortfall that is compounding the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Massachusetts liberal arts college laments ‘heartbreaking reality’ and says financial pressures to blame

A Massachusetts liberal arts college is set to close permanently due to low enrollment and financial problems.

The board of trustees of Hampshire College, a small liberal arts school in Amherst founded in 1965, pointed to “financial pressures” that have been “compounded by shifting external factors”.

French child, six at time of 2019 attack, suffers setback in recovery after January operation

The family of a boy thrown from the 10th-storey balcony of the Tate Modern seven years ago said it feels as though his recovery has taken a “sad step backwards” after surgery.

The unnamed French child was six when he was seriously hurt in an attack by Jonty Bravery at the London attraction in August 2019.

Venezuelan oil shipped to the U.S. is providing relief from higher prices caused by the Iran war, according to a senior Chevron executive.

Suit alleges the billionaire’s AI company is illegally spewing toxic pollutants from its datacenter in the Memphis area

A new lawsuit accuses Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company of illegally spewing toxic pollutants into the Black neighborhoods on the border of Tennessee and Mississippi.

The suit, filed on Tuesday in Mississippi federal court, alleges xAI is violating the Clean Air Act due to emissions from its makeshift power plant in Southaven, Mississippi, which powers its datacenters in south Memphis. The NAACP, represented by environmental groups Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice, says xAI has been polluting the surrounding historically Black communities by using dozens of methane gas generators without permits. The organization is seeking to force the company to stop operating its unpermitted turbines in Southaven.

Microsoft has sharply raised prices across its Surface lineup as RAM and component costs keep climbing. "Both its midrange and flagship Surface lines are now significantly more expensive than they were just a few weeks ago, with the flagship Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11 now starting at $500 more than they launched at in 2024," reports Windows Central. From the report: The Surface Pro 12-inch, which was previously Microsoft's cheapest modern Surface PC at $799, now starts at $1,049. The flagship Surface Pro 13-inch, which originally launched for $999, now starts at an eyewatering $1,499. It's the same story for the Surface Laptop lines, with the entry-level 13-inch model originally priced at $899, now starting at $1,149. The 13.8-inch flagship Surface Laptop launched at $999, but now costs $1,499, with the 15-inch model now starting at $1,599. This means that Microsoft's midrange devices now cost more than the flagships did when they launched in 2024. [...] Microsoft has raised prices for all SKUs on offer, meaning the high end models are now more expensive too. A top end Surface Laptop 15-inch with Snapdragon X Elite, 64GB RAM and 1TB SSD storage now costs a staggering $3,649. To compare, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro, 64GB RAM, and 1TB SSD is $3,299, and that comes with a significantly better display and much more power under the hood.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The bill would block new data centers that draw more than 20 megawatts of power until the fall of 2027. It also calls to study their impact on the electrical grid.

Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, 44, was arrested Monday after a two-year investigation by local, state and medical authorities.

April 14, 2026 — Today, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) inaugurated Lucy, a new EuroHPC quantum computer, located near Paris, in France, marking a significant step in Europe’s efforts to build world-class, sovereign supercomputing infrastructure.

Credit: EuroHPC JU

The inauguration ceremony took place at the Très Grand Centre de Calcul (TGCC) in Bruyères-le-Châtel and was hosted by the CEA, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, together with GENCI (Grand Équipement National de Calcul Intensif).

The event was attended by Anne Le Hénanff, French Minister for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs, Kilian Gross, Director in the Directorate-General Communication Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT) at the European Commission and Anders Jensen, the Executive Director of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking.

Lucy is Quandela’s state-of-the-art photonic quantum computer ‘MOSAIQ-12’ enabling computations with up to 12 physical qubits. The system will be integrated into the Joliot-Curie supercomputer, and will enable researchers and industry to apply quantum accelerated high-performance computing (HPC-QC) in technological and scientific fields such as material science, meteorology, energy, and advanced engineering.

Anders Jensen, Executive Director of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking stated: “Lucy is the fourth EuroHPC quantum computer to be inaugurated. It brings new quantum capabilities to Europe’s supercomputing ecosystem and marks another important milestone for our technological sovereignty. By bringing together quantum and high-performance computing, EuroHPC JU is enabling researchers and industry to tackle complex challenges and unlock new opportunities for innovation across strategic sectors.”

Anne-Isabelle Etienvre, Administrator General of the CEA, said: “With Lucy, the CEA is giving new concrete expression to its long-standing commitment to quantum technologies. From the invention of the first qubits by our fundamental research teams—an excellence recently recognized at the highest level—to the operation of breakthrough machines at the TGCC, we are demonstrating the strength of our integrated model. This continuity enables us to transform a technological breakthrough into a sovereign industrial tool. Lucy is now at the service of our researchers, as well as the entire European scientific and industrial ecosystem, to explore new computing horizons.”

Michaël Krajecki, CEO of GENCI, commented: “With Lucy, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, the CEA, and GENCI are providing European and French scientific and industrial communities with a unique, hybrid, and sovereign quantum computing capability. Freely accessible, Lucy is becoming a cutting-edge sovereign asset for research and innovation. Thanks to Quandela’s photonic technology, hosted at the TGCC, the transition to the industrial scale of the quantum era has never seemed so close. This marks a major milestone for France and for Europe.”

Hosted by GENCI, Lucy is installed and operated at the TGCC, a computing centre of CEA and one of France’s three national supercomputing facilities. The system is supplied by a French-German vendor partnership including Quandela and attocube.

The system is now undergoing final calibration and should be available to European end-users in the coming weeks.

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Lucy is a photonic quantum computer that uses particles of light (photons) as qubits. Photonic systems operate at room temperature and are made of modular, fibered and rack-mounted components, making them easier to integrate with existing HPC infrastructure. Lucy is based on linear optics quantum computing (LOQC), a promising approach that could accelerate applications across a range of scientific and industrial domains.

Owned by the EuroHPC JU, Lucy has a total acquisition cost of EUR 8.5 million, co-funded by the EuroHPC JU (50%) and France (50%).

The EuroQCS-France consortium is led by GENCI as hosting entity and CEA as hosting site, with the University Politehnica of Bucharest (UPB, Romania), Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ, Germany) and Irish Centre for High- End Computing (ICHEC, Ireland) as members.

To date, the EuroHPC JU has procured six quantum computers, located across Europe. Three of these systems have already been inaugurated since last year:

• PIAST-Q in Poznań, Poland in June 2025,
• VLQ in Ostrava, Czechia in October 2025,
• Euro-Q-Exa in Munich, Germany in February 2026.

The deployment of these quantum computers across Europe aims to offer the widest possible variety of European quantum computing platforms and hybrid classical-quantum architectures, including analogue quantum simulators based on neutral atoms, trapped ions, superconducting circuits, and photonics to adiabatic systems, enabling the execution of annealing routines. This approach positions Europe at the forefront of this emerging field while providing European end-users with access to diverse and complementary quantum technologies.

In addition to these six systems, two analogue quantum simulators, Jade and Ruby, have been procured under the EuroHPC JU project HPCQS and inaugurated end of 2025 in Germany (Julich Supercomputing Centre, JSC) and France (GENCI).

Procurement processes are also currently ongoing for additional EuroHPC quantum computers to be hosted and operated by SURF in the Netherlands and by LuxProvide in Luxembourg.

About EuroHPC JU

The EuroHPC JU is a legal and funding entity that brings together the European Union and participating countries to coordinate efforts and pool resources with the objective of making Europe a world leader in supercomputing.

To equip Europe with a cutting-edge supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured 12 supercomputers, distributed across Europe including JUPITER in Germany, and Alice Recoque in France, Europe’s first exascale systems.

European scientists and users from the public sector and industry can benefit from EuroHPC supercomputers via the EuroHPC Access Calls no matter where in Europe they are located, to advance science and support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe.

Currently, the EuroHPC JU is also overseeing the implementation of 19 AI factories (AIF) across Europe, complemented by 13 AI Factory Antennas, to offer free, customized support to SMEs and startups.

The EuroHPC JU also funds research and innovation projects to develop a full European supercomputing supply chain, from processors and software to applications to be run on these supercomputers and know-how to develop strong European HPC expertise.

With the recent adoption of Council Regulation (EU) 2026/150, the EuroHPC JU’s mandate has been expanded with new action pillars dedicated to the deployment of AI Gigafactories across Europe and the advancement of quantum technologies.

Source: EuroHPC JU

The post EuroHPC Inaugurates ‘Lucy’ Photonic Quantum System in France appeared first on HPCwire.

DHS accused of false and misleading statements about Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez who was shot in face

Federal officials have arrested a California man who was shot by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and charged him with “assault” on a federal officer.

Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, 36, was shot by ICE officers on 7 April in Patterson, a rural town in California’s central valley roughly 80 miles south-east of San Francisco. He was hit by more than six bullets, including in the face, according to his attorney.

A scaled-up version of OpenAI's Trusted Access for Cyber program appears to be OpenAI's response to Anthropic's Project Glasswing.

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James Heaps was first sentenced in 2023 but appeals court found he was denied a fair trial

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A former University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) gynecologist pleaded guilty to 13 felony sexual abuse charges on Tuesday in connection with the sexual assault of several patients over his career, and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

James Heaps was originally sentenced in 2023 to 11 years in prison after being convicted of five counts of sexual battery and penetration involving two patients. That sentence was overturned by an appeals court in February, which ruled that Heaps was denied a fair trial because the judge did not share with his attorneys a note from the court’s foreman sharing concerns about a juror’s English proficiency.

Sexual assault allegations leveled against former Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., stood out for their lurid detail — and because the fallout was unusually swift.

Within hours after the San Francisco Chronicle dropped a story Friday that accused Swalwell of sexually assaulting a former staffer, over a dozen Democrats had pulled their endorsements of the then-frontrunner for governor of California. CNN followed that evening with a story labeling the former staffer’s accusations as rape and revealing that three additional women were accusing Swalwell of sexual misconduct. He suspended his campaign for governor Sunday, and on Monday, he announced his resignation from Congress. He was out Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET.

The outcry made sense, in part, because of the severity of the allegations: The ex-staffer said Swalwell left her vaginally bruised and bleeding; another woman alleged Tuesday that he had drugged her in order to rape her. But the fact that Swalwell, who has denied the allegations, did not remain in Congress while under investigation suggests that American politicians are sensitive to concerns over sexual abuse and misconduct — particularly as the midterms approach against the backdrop of the Epstein files, and Democrats position themselves as defenders of victims as they head into November.

“It’s hypocrisy if they don’t” speak out, said Nina Smith, a Democratic communications strategist and former senior adviser to former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams. 

Smith said that the advocacy from Epstein’s survivors, as well as the people who’ve been speaking out online about Swalwell, helped force lawmakers to take a stand on this issue.

Related

Attorney for Epstein Survivors Warns That Justice Is Impossible With Bondi as AG 

“It has created this watershed moment on the Democrats’ part to address this issue quickly,” she told The Intercept. “Both parties are recognizing that accountability is something that is at the forefront of a lot of voters’ minds.”

In a February poll from Reuters/Ipsos, 69 percent of respondents said the statement that the Epstein files “show that powerful people in the U.S are rarely held accountable for their actions” represented their views “very well” or “extremely well.”

Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., said that Democrats have to demonstrate “accountability” even when allegations come up against one of their own.

“Our job is to center the people who were harmed, to take allegations seriously, and to make sure there are real systems for justice,” Lee wrote in a statement to The Intercept. “The work and bravery of Epstein’s survivors helped further expose just how deeply these systems are failing us — all while protecting perpetrators with money, connections, or status. That legacy demands more from all of us right now.”

Still, it’s too soon for Democratic leadership “to be patting themselves on the back,” about Swalwell’s swift rebuke, said Michael Ceraso, a Democratic communications strategist who worked on Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign. He pointed to the level of detail and corroboration in the stories that CNN and the SF Chronicle published, arguing the careful reporting “made it fail-safe for political leaders to do the right thing.” 

And that doesn’t excuse the people who had heard the rumors and continued to support Swalwell until the allegations were in a newspaper, Ceraso added. “I would call bullshit on people” within his proximity who are “claiming they didn’t know this,” he said.

There’s been heavy attention on Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who was long known to be a close friend of Swalwell’s. Gallego claimed Tuesday that Swalwell had “lied to” him — but admitted to hearing that his close friend and colleague was “flirty.”

“I definitely look at the world a different way now,” Gallego told reporters. “I certainly am going to make sure that I’m going to take, you know, personal steps and office steps to make sure that we don’t even get close to a gray line.” 

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown also alluded to other members of Congress being aware of Swalwell’s actions. “I’m not surprised frankly, because there have been rumors after rumors after rumors, his colleague in Washington pretty much said that. That’s what Adam Schiff said, that’s what Nancy Pelosi said,” Brown told ABC 7. 

The Democrats, Lee added, cannot ask voters to trust them on this issue if they fail to hold their members accountable when they engage in abusive behaviors.

“Accountability has to mean something, even when it is uncomfortable, even when it is one of your own, and even when power is involved,” she wrote. “No one and no party should ask for the public’s trust if it is unwilling to hold itself to the same standard.”

The Intercept has not independently verified the allegations against Swalwell. In a statement posted Tuesday, Sara Azari, a criminal defense attorney representing Swalwell, wrote that the former congressman “categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation of sexual misconduct and assault that has been leveled against him,” calling the accusations “a ruthless and shameless attempt to smear Congressman Swalwell.”

The Intercept reached out to Swalwell’s communications staff for comment; a reporter for The Hill wrote Tuesday that the relevant staff members no longer work for him. Azari did not immediately respond to The Intercept’s request for comment.

Smith, who spoke out in 2018 about being sexually harassed and assaulted while working in the Maryland state legislature, said she believes that these abuses will continue to happen wherever disparities in power exist. But she was heartened to see how quickly Democrats called out Swalwell, which she said means that survivors have moved the needle on this issue.

“Survivors have been the most powerful piece of holding elected officials and officials accountable. … They are the ones who have continued to fight in a way that has made all of this possible,” said Smith. “Ten years ago, we really just talked about this behind closed doors.”

The post Swift Swalwell Fallout Suggests the Democrats Have Finally Learned From Epstein appeared first on The Intercept.

Health secretary says NHS is ‘failing women’ and pledges to end ‘gaslighting’ by doctors

Wes Streeting has vowed to stop women being “gaslit” by doctors as he relaunches the women’s health strategy for England.

Speaking before the publication of the renewed strategy on Wednesday, Streeting said the NHS was “failing women” and set out measures to help them access the healthcare they need.

Geoscience Australia says aftershocks likely but much lighter and in a smaller area

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Part of Australia’s east coast has been shaken by an earthquake that could be felt hundred of kilometres away.

A 4.5-magnitude quake hit at 8.19pm on Tuesday at a depth of 5km about 30km south-west of Orange in central west NSW, near the Cadia goldmine.

A few weeks ago, Microsoft made some concrete promises about fixing and improving Windows, and among them was removing useless “AI” integrations. Applications like Notepad, Snipping Tool, and others would see their “AI” features removed. Well, it turns out Microsoft employs a very fringe definition of the concept.

Microsoft seems to have stripped away mentions of the “Copilot” brand in the Windows Insider version of the Notepad app. The Copilot button in the toolbar is gone, and instead, you’ll find a writing icon which will present you AI-powered writing assistance, such as rewrite, summarize, tone modification, format configuration, and more. Additionally, “AI features” in Notepad settings has been renamed to “Advanced features” and it allows users to toggle off AI capabilities within the app.

↫ Usama Jawad at Neowin

If the recent changes to Notepad are any indication, it seems Microsoft is, actually, not at all going to “reducing unnecessary Copilot entry points”, as they worded it, but is merely just going to rename these features so they aren’t so ostentatiously present. At least, that seems to be the plan for Notepad, and we’ll have to see if they have the same plans for the other applications. I mean, they have to push “AI” or look like fools.

I just don’t understand how a company like Microsoft can be so utterly terrible at communication. While I personally would want all “AI” features yeeted straight from Windows, I’m sure a ton of people are just fine with the features being less in-your-face and stuffed inside a normal menu alongside all the other normal features. They could’ve just been honest about their intentions, and it would’ve been so much better.

Like virtually every other technology company, Microsoft just seems incapable of not lying.

Find out if your router is banned, when to expect firmware updates and what the latest news on the Federal Communications Commission ban means for your home network.

Sharon Simmons was photographed delivering McDonald’s to Trump on Monday but company admits it was a stunt

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The DoorDash delivery driver who had a turn in the national spotlight on Monday by bringing a fast-food order to Donald Trump at the White House has publicly touted the president’s so-called “no tax on tips” policy before – causing some to question the encounter’s authenticity and the company to confirm it was a stunt.

Sharon Simmons had lobbied in July 2025 in favor of the policy, which DoorDash supports, testifying in Congress that she was based in Nevada and driving for the delivery platform because her husband’s cancer treatments had made it difficult to make ends meet otherwise.

After President Donald Trump said the U.S. Navy would blockade the Strait of Hormuz to prevent the shipment of oil and other goods to and from Iran, Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., defended the decision.

Iran has controlled the vital international shipping route since shortly after the U.S. and Israel launched attacks Feb. 28. When Iran said it would charge tolls for ships attempting to pass, Trump initially condemned the idea, floated a U.S.-Iran tolling "joint venture," then settled on the blockade plan. 

Donalds, who is running for the Republican nomination for Florida governor, reached back to the early 19th century for a precedent, citing a time when Ottoman Empire outposts demanded payments from U.S. shipping vessels in the Mediterranean Sea. The sporadic conflicts between 1801 and 1815 became known as the Barbary wars.

In an April 12 interview on NBC’s "Meet the Press," host Kristen Welker asked Donalds how Trump’s action would lead to the reopening of the strait.

Donalds said, "Our Navy — its creation was actually to free international waters from the Barbary pirates. That’s why we have the U.S. Navy."

Historians who study the period say there are definite echoes between the two conflicts.

"The threat from the Barbary regimes was critical for the creation of the U.S. Navy," said Frederick C. Leiner, author of "The End of Barbary Terror" and "Prisoners of the Bashaw."

Donalds’ office did not respond to an inquiry for this article.

Did the Barbary threat help create the U.S. Navy?

The U.S. had a navy during the American Revolution, but after being saddled with debt from the war and operating under a weak central government, the country decided against maintaining a standing fleet. The continental navy disappeared with the sale of the Alliance warship, a 36-gun frigate, to a private merchant in 1785.

As the United States’ first president under the 1788 Constitution, George Washington did not immediately push to form a new navy. But the piracy threat from the Barbary states — particularly Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, which were loosely affiliated with the Ottoman Empire — grew during his tenure, and the British no longer had any interest in helping its former colony on the high seas. It wasn’t long before the U.S. decided it needed a naval force.

Historians describe the Barbary states’ actions as a well-developed protection racket. Countries paid hefty monetary "tributes" to the Barbary rulers to secure free passage for their ships through the Mediterranean Sea. Countries that refused to pay would risk being boarded, with crew members held hostage and cargo confiscated. (Technically, this was not "piracy," which is committed by non-state actors; the proper term for such government-backed privateering is "corsairing.")

Initially, the United States decided to pay tribute. But American leaders argued that doing so would inspire more outrageous financial demands. 

As president, Washington successfully lobbied Congress to authorize six ships. But before that order was completed, the U.S. agreed to pay a large tribute to Algiers rather than fight. This eased the pressure for U.S. shippers, so lawmakers cut back the number of ships to three, plus some smaller vessels. 

With this modest navy, the U.S. fought France — an ally during the revolution but a competitor in trade — in what became known as the Quasi War between 1798 and 1801. It was a limited conflict for the brand new naval force, but a real one. 

After Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, he rejected Tripoli's demand for payment. Tripoli countered by declaring war on the United States. 

"U.S. ships were declared a legitimate target by Barbary pirates operating out of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, hence the U.S. Navy's involvement in the area," said historian Adrian Tinniswood, author of "Pirates of Barbary."

Jefferson sent forces to the Mediterranean, and after sporadic combat, hostilities ended four years later with a negotiated settlement in which the United States paid a smaller tribute than had initially been demanded.

As happened in the current Iran war, the U.S. mounted a blockade, with Congress’ authorization. The effort was reasonably successful until a frigate, the Philadelphia, ran aground; its 307-man crew was captured and imprisoned for 19 months. At that point, Jefferson ordered more ships, and the focus turned to securing the crew’s release. Eventually, in 1805, the crew was freed after a U.S. payment of about $50 per man.

The second Barbary war, against Algiers in 1815, was much briefer, aided by the experience of fighting the War of 1812. With a few exceptions, this ended the era of piracy by the Barbary states.

"It is fair to say that the Navy was established as a permanent organization because of the Barbary pirates," said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Before the blockade of Iran, the Barbary wars were mostly remembered by modern-day Americans as the source of the lyric "to the shores of Tripoli" in the Marine Hymn.

How similar is the comparison between the two wars?

There are some differences — Iran has not held crews hostage for ransom, for instance — but there is some historical similarity.

In both cases, the U.S. intervened militarily to protect the free passage of goods against a power that sought to exact tolls or tribute. Iran has reportedly assessed tolls on certain vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, though the Iranian government has denied doing so in at least some instances.

"Just as seizing ships and holding crew for ransom, as the Barbary states did, is a form of economic warfare, if every ship that passes has to pay money to Iran to assure their safety, that adds a cost," Leiner said. "I can see the comparison as valid."

But there's another dimension of the blockade of Iran that differs from the Barbary wars: The current blockade is "as an element of a broader war with Iran that does not have a Barbary pirate parallel," Cancian said.

Our ruling

Donalds said the U.S. Navy was created "to free international waters from the Barbary pirates."

Historians say this is accurate. The long-running problem from Barbary state attacks on merchant ships drove many of the key decisions in the early United States’ creation of a standing Navy. 

Donalds’ statement is accurate but needs additional information because he did not refer to the 19th century example in isolation; he cited it in the context of today’s situation with Iran, and the two wars have important differences. For example, the Barbary wars involved holding crews hostage for ransom. 

But both the Barbary wars and the Iran war involved the U.S. acting militarily to protect trade from efforts to exact tributes or tolls.

We rate the statement Mostly True.

Exclusive: Fiona Hill, a former White House chief adviser, joins ex-Nato chief in criticising Starmer’s leadership on defence

A co-author of Britain’s strategic defence review has joined criticism of Keir Starmer’s leadership on military policy, warning of a “bizarre” lack of urgency in defence planning.

Fiona Hill, a former chief adviser to the White House on Russia, echoed the concerns of George Robertson, her co-author with Gen Richard Barrons on the strategic defence review (SDR), over what he had called the prime minister’s “corrosive complacency”.

The search giant is implementing new rules that categorize back-button hijacking as a malicious practice.

A proposed California bill would require 3D printer makers to use state-certified software to detect and block files for gun parts, but advocates at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) say it would be easy to evade and could lead to widespread surveillance of users' printing activity. The Register reports: The bill in question is AB 2047, the scope of which, on paper, appears strict. The primary goal is clear and simple: to require 3D printer manufacturers to use a state-certified algorithm that checks digital design files for firearm components and blocks print jobs that would produce prohibited parts. [...] Cliff Braun and Rory Mir, who respectively work in policy and tech community engagement at the EFF, claim that the proposals in California are technically infeasible and in practice will lead to consumer surveillance. In a series of blog posts published this month, the pair argued that print-blocking technology -- proposals for which have also surfaced in states including New York and Washington - cannot work for a range of technical reasons. They argued that because 3D printers and other types of computer numerical control (CNC) machines are fairly simple, with much of their brains coming from the computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software -- or slicer software -- to which they are linked, the bill would establish legal and illegal software. Proprietary software will likely become the de facto option, leaving open source alternatives to rot. "Under these proposed laws, manufacturers of consumer 3D printers must ensure their printers only work with their software, and implement firearm detection algorithms on either the printer itself or in a slicer software," wrote Braun earlier this month. "These algorithms must detect firearm files using a maintained database of existing models. Vendors of printers must then verify that printers are on the allow-list maintained by the state before they can offer them for sale. Owners of printers will be guilty of a crime if they circumvent these intrusive scanning procedures or load alternative software, which they might do because their printer manufacturer ends support." Braun also argued that it would be trivial for anyone who uses 3D printers to make small tweaks to either the visual models of firearms parts, or the machine instructions (G-code) generated from those models, to evade detection. Mir further argued that the bill offers no guardrails to keep this "constantly expanding blacklist" limited to firearm-related designs. In his view, there is a clear risk that this approach will creep into other forms of alleged unlawful activity, such as copyright infringement. [...] Braun and Mir have a list of other arguments against the bill. They say the algorithms are more than likely to lead to false positives, which will prevent good-faith users from using their hardware. Many 3D printer owners also have no interest in printing firearm components. Most simply want the freedom to print trinkets and spare parts while others use them to print various items and sell them as an income stream.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Happy World Quantum Day. Quantum computers remain limited by noise, instability, and the challenge of error correction in real time. Nvidia’s latest answer is Ising, a new open model family introduced today that is designed to bring AI-driven control to quantum hardware.

The Ising family includes models for quantum processor calibration and error-correction decoding, two of the current bottlenecks in scaling quantum systems. The models are designed to interpret measurement data, calibrate quantum hardware, and process errors fast enough to support real-time correction, tasks that are currently handled through a mix of human-guided calibration and classical decoding algorithms.

According to Nvidia, the Ising family has debuted with two model types:

• Ising Calibration: A vision language model that can rapidly interpret and react to measurements from quantum processors. The company says this enables AI agents to automate continuous calibration and reduces the time needed from days to hours.
• Ising Decoding: Two variants of a 3D convolutional neural network model, optimized for either speed or accuracy, to perform real-time decoding for quantum error correction. Nvidia claims Ising Decoding models are up to 2.5x faster and 3x more accurate than pyMatching, the current open source industry standard.

(Shutterstock)

In a press briefing, Nvidia described Ising Calibration as a 35-billion-parameter vision-language model trained to interpret measurement data and automate the full calibration workflow. Conventional approaches rely on physicists or predefined calibration workflows to tune systems before each run, but Ising Calibration is designed for continuous recalibration as hardware drifts over time. Nvidia said the approach is intended to scale to much larger systems, where manual calibration becomes impractical as qubit counts move from the hundreds into the thousands and beyond.

For error correction, Nvidia introduced Ising Decoding as a complementary layer rather than a replacement for existing methods. The model acts as a pre-decoder that uses neural networks to process syndrome data, or the error signals derived from qubit measurements, and correct a large portion of errors before passing the processed syndromes to traditional algorithms like pyMatching. This hybrid approach is meant to improve speed and accuracy while remaining compatible with existing error-correction pipelines. Nvidia said the models operate at microsecond timescales, fast enough to support real-time correction across multiple qubit modalities.

Nvidia also explained how the models are meant to scale with system size. In the briefing, Nvidia said its decoding approach can generalize as systems scale, without requiring retraining. The company demonstrated the models at code distances up to 31, which is a metric tied to how well a system can suppress errors and a key step toward large, fault-tolerant quantum machines. That corresponds to a regime associated with hundreds to thousands of physical qubits per logical qubit, depending on the error-correction scheme, placing the work closer to the scale targeted in current quantum roadmaps.

“Today, the very best quantum processors make an error about once in every 1000 operations, which is amazing, but to become useful accelerators for scientific and enterprise problems, that number needs to become one in a trillion or even less,” said Sam Stanwyck, Nvidia’s director of quantum product, in the briefing. “The good news is that AI can be the answer for how you manage that noise at scale, and it has the potential to enable very rapid progress in closing that gap.”

(Shutterstock)

In the press briefing, Stanwyck explained how calibration and error correction are “AI-shaped problems,” meaning they involve high-throughput, real-time data processing well suited to GPU-accelerated AI workloads. The goal is to integrate these models into hybrid quantum-classical systems, where GPUs handle control, decoding, and optimization alongside the quantum processor.

“This is the path to quantum GPU supercomputing, which is a quantum accelerator, integrating with the GPU supercomputer, solving valuable problems,” he said.

An important part of Nvidia’s strategy with Ising is that the models are fully open, including training data, frameworks, and workflows for fine-tuning and deployment. The company says a shared foundation is needed more than ever in quantum computing, where hardware architectures, noise characteristics, and error-correction methods vary widely across systems.

“Developers can fine-tune these for their specific hardware and noise characteristics, follow our recipes to integrate these with their agents, use our frameworks to train their own open models, or build on our research to do their own,” Stanwyck said. “It’s everything you need to make this capability yours. And quantum teams have been building this kind of tooling and capability in-house, but now there’s an open foundation they can all build on.”

Nvidia said Ising Calibration is already being used by a range of hardware and research organizations, including Atom Computing, IonQ, IQM Quantum Computers, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Advanced Quantum Testbed. Ising Decoding is also being evaluated by universities and national labs, including the University of Chicago, UC Santa Barbara, Sandia National Laboratories, and Yonsei University.

The company expects the Ising family to expand over time, with future models potentially addressing other parts of the quantum computing stack, such as circuit optimization, noise characterization, and system-level control. In the short term, Stanwyck said adoption will likely be uneven, as calibration is more immediately applicable than large-scale error correction, depending on where hardware teams are in their roadmaps.

(Credit: Nvidia)

“There are plenty of quantum builders, not to mention quantum research groups, who aren’t yet ready to tackle error correction at scale,” Stanwyck said. “That may be a little bit more gated by quantum hardware roadmaps before Ising Decoding is useful, and I’d expect that Ising Calibration, once it can be fine-tuned for different types of calibration processes that different quantum processor builders need, will be a lot more universally useful, at least right away.”

Stanwyck said Nvidia’s larger goal is to accelerate progress toward practical quantum systems.

“We’ve made everything open because we expect this to be a new baseline, where every quantum builder can use these with the ecosystem to make progress together,” he said. “What we’re hoping for with this is that our AI leadership is going to directly accelerate the path to useful quantum computers. The same GPUs that are running the world’s AI can run the control plane for quantum hardware.”

The post Nvidia Launches Ising Open Models for Quantum Calibration and Error Correction appeared first on HPCwire.

Millions of people using Android mobile devices could receive a payout, according to the settlement website.

• Photos prompted investigation by The Athletic

• Russini seen as one of NFL’s top reporters

NFL reporter Dianna Russini has resigned from The Athletic less than a week after photos of her and New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel prompted an internal investigation at The New York Times-owned sports outlet.

The New York Post last week published the photos of Vrabel and Russini at an Arizona resort and said they were taken before the NFL owners meetings that began in Phoenix on 29 March.

In 2023, 36 million Xfinity customers had personal information stolen by data thieves.

From emotionally moving to adventurous to hilarious, these are some of the streaming service's best.

US president says negotiations could restart in Islamabad under ‘fantastic’ Pakistani army chief Asim Munir

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Donald Trump has said that US-Iranian peace talks could resume in Islamabad over the next two days, and complimented the work of Pakistan’s army chief as mediator.

The US president was speaking on Tuesday to a New York Post reporter who had gone to Islamabad for the first round of ceasefire talks over the weekend. After an interview discussing prospects for negotiations, the reporter said the president had called her back “with an update”.

Lonna Drewes came forward Tuesday with the allegations after the California Democrat announced he would resign from Congress.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted ambassadors from the two neighboring states in what was described as a working group aimed at reaching a ceasefire.

Amazon announces plans to acquire satellite service provider Globalstar in its quest to provide connectivity services from space.

See maps of how Texas, California, Missouri and North Carolina redistricting pushes could play out, based on the 2024 election results.

alternative_right shares a report from 404 Media: An independent privacy audit of Microsoft, Meta, and Google web traffic in California found that the companies may be violating state regulations and racking up billions in fines. According to the audit from privacy search engine webXray, 55 percent of the sites it checked set ad cookies in a user's browser even if they opted out of tracking. Each company disputed or took issue with the research, with Google saying it was based on a "fundamental misunderstanding" of how its product works. The webXray California Privacy Audit viewed web traffic on more than 7,000 popular websites in California in the month of March and found that most tech companies ignore when a user asks to opt-out of cookie tracking. California has stringent and well defined privacy legislation thanks to its California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which allows users to, among other things, opt out of the sale of their personal information. There's a system called Global Privacy Control (GPC), which includes a browser extension that indicates to a website when a user wants to opt out of tracking. According to the webXray audit, Google failed to let users opt out 87 percent of the time. "Google's failure to honor the GPC opt-out signal is easy to find in network traffic. When a browser using GPC connects to Google's servers it encodes the opt-out signal by sending the code 'sec-gpc: 1.' This means Google should not return cookies," the audit said. "However, when Google's server responds to the network request with the opt-out it explicitly responds with a command to create an advertising cookie named IDE using the 'set-cookie' command. This non-compliance is easy to spot, hiding in plain sight." The audit said that Microsoft fails to opt out users in the same way and has a failure rate of 50 percent in the web traffic webXray viewed. Meta's failure rate was 69 percent and a bit more comprehensive. "Meta instructs publishers to install the following tracking code on their websites. The code contains no check for globally standard opt-out signals -- it loads unconditionally, fires a tracking event, and sets a cookie regardless of the consumer's privacy preferences," the audit said. It showed a copy of Meta's tracking data which contains no GPC check at all.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This year marks the ten-year anniversary of Singularity, the project that became Apptainer, and it is worth pausing to recognize what that decade actually meant.

I have been thinking a lot lately about origins—the moment a problem is so pervasive that the solution instantly transforms an entire ecosystem. A notable example is how containers were aggressively and pervasively adopted within research and academia.

Back in the mid 2010’s, scientists were beginning to embrace containers (Docker) for their work, but high-performance computing (HPC) systems utilized a fundamentally incompatible architecture, leaving researchers without the portability they desperately needed. Recognizing that a solution built specifically for the rigorous constraints of HPC was essential, I set out to create one.

The resulting solution was immediate and universal. This wasn’t gradual uptake; it was an incredible adoption of an urgently required solution that, within months, spread from zero to virtually the entire ecosystem of national labs and supercomputing centers. That is how containers came to HPC, and how everything that followed became possible.

Docker served as the inspiration for an HPC-specific containerization technology

Before we get to Apptainer, we have to go back to Singularity.

The Problem That Refused to Stay Quiet

High-performance computing had a portability problem. Researchers spent weeks configuring software environments locally that could not be reproduced on an HPC resource, much less portably or reproducibly between systems. Experiments could not be replicated. Collaboration stopped at the software boundary instead of the scientific one.

Docker made containers accessible by providing well understood interfaces as well as build and mobility APIs and standards for containers, but Docker was not built for HPC. It consisted of privileged daemons, root-owned runtimes, security models designed for enterprise workloads: none of it belonged on a shared research system where a single misconfiguration affects thousands of users. HPC administrators faced a binary choice. Open the door to Docker and accept the risk of everyone having root and circumventing the resource manager, or keep it closed and leave researchers to fight the same environment problems indefinitely.

I was working at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2015 when I decided to see if I could prototype a solution. I built Singularity to solve the actual problem: define a software environment once, run it anywhere, without privilege escalation, without a daemon, and without asking a system administrator to trade security for portability.

The solution mattered to everybody.

The Big Bang of HPC Containers

Apptainer helps simplify the management of HPC resources

What happened next was not gradual adoption, it was immediate and global uptake. Researchers and system administrators at national laboratories, universities, and supercomputing centers found Singularity and understood immediately the painpoint that it solved for them. Within months, Singularity ran on some of the most powerful systems in the world: national labs, TOP500 clusters, academic HPC centers serving thousands of researchers across every major scientific discipline.

The impact was concrete. Weeks spent on environment configuration became hours. Multi-institution collaborations that had stalled over software reproducibility found a path forward. Bioinformatics pipelines, molecular dynamics simulations, climate models, particle physics workflows, genomics analysis: all of it ran portably, reproducibly, securely, and at scale.

Singularity was not a container tool adapted for HPC. It was the first container tool built for HPC. That is why it spread the way it did.

An Act of Stewardship

As Singularity grew, I made a decision to offer the project to the Linux Foundation to provide it a permanent home to always be governed by the community it served. It was accepted and renamed to Apptainer.

The name change confused some people. It should not have. Renaming the project was an act of love for what it had become. I wanted Apptainer to outlast any single company, contributor, or business decision (which is why Rocky Linux is also not owned by a company, not even mine!). The Linux Foundation provided exactly what the project needed. Apptainer 1.0 shipped in 2022: mature, stable, community-governed, and built to last.

More recently, Apptainer joined the Linux Foundation’s High Performance Software Foundation (HPSF), a broader effort to sustain the open source software stack that scientific computing depends on. The foundation under it keeps getting stronger.

What 10 Years Reveals

Apptainer proved something the HPC community knew but could not always articulate. Scientific computing has requirements that legacy infrastructure was not designed to meet. Portability, security, and reproducibility was just the beginning. It was the view point that was needed to see what the future of high-performance computing looks like and the urgency for it.

The Question Apptainer Made It Possible to Ask

Containers solved portability and reproducibility, but this was not the whole problem.

As HPC workloads grew more complex and AI entered the picture, a new set of requirements emerged. New types of orchestration and meta-orchestration for large-scale heterogeneous compute environments. Scheduling and management across distributed infrastructure, lowering the barrier for users, and scheduling resource consuming services like inferencing and Jupyter Notebooks alongside compute and MPI jobs where data is a tier 1 resource requirement.

That question is now the defining challenge of HPC and AI infrastructure. The next advance in scientific and AI computing is not faster hardware alone. It is a modern computing architecture that gives users the ability to orchestrate that hardware intelligently, at scale, without surrendering control over data, environment, or security. Apptainer proved that building for the actual problem produces results that outlast any single tool, company, or era. The same principle points the way forward.

One Long View

I have spent decades working on software that researchers depend on to do science that matters. Apptainer runs on the fastest machines in the world. The science it enabled spans every major scientific discipline. The governance model I chose for it means it will continue to run for the next decade and the one after that.

What started as a solution to a portability problem became the architecture for reproducible science. What started as a single tool became a community. What started as one answer is now the foundation for the next generation of innovation.

That is a good decade’s work. The next one has already started.

About the author:  Gregory Kurtzer is the CEO and Founder of CIQ and the original creator of Singularity and Apptainer. Join the Apptainer community at https://github.com/apptainer/apptainer

The post Ten Years of Apptainer/Singularity: A Look Back at the Big Bang of HPC Containers appeared first on HPCwire.

The House of Representatives is set to vote Wednesday on renewing a spy power that grants the Trump administration warrantless access to thousands of Americans’ communications.

While uniting against President Donald Trump on many fronts, Democrats are split on what to do over the domestic spying power — and the party’s leadership isn’t giving much guidance, according to a congressional notice obtained by The Intercept.

In the notice laying out leadership’s advice on bills up for a vote this week, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark simply explained that the relevant top committee leaders were split. House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Jim Himes supports a clean reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, while Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin wants further reforms.

Clark gave straight up-or-down recommendations on many other pieces of legislation, but not the spying law.

With leadership silent, progressive activists are trying to step into the void to pressure members. They say Trump’s disregard for the rule of law in his second term means that representatives should only vote for the law with reforms. Government officials have engaged a pattern of abuses at the Justice Department.

Centrists on two key committees, on the other hand, say that modest changes enacted in 2024 went far enough and Congress should give Trump the so-called “clean” reauthorization he has requested.

“They, I don’t think, have a stance on this,” Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s security and surveillance project, said of the Democratic leadership. “I would hope the gutting of oversight systems and what we have seen at DOJ and politicization there would push them against that — but we don’t know yet.”

With Republicans themselves divided, the margin within the Democratic caucus could prove crucial.

Rather than advising members how to vote, however, Democratic leaders is stepping aside. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has said that he personally supports reforms but has not signaled that he will pressure his caucus. (Jeffries’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

The debate concerns Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which last came up for renewal in April 2024.

The law allows intelligence agencies to hoover up ostensibly “foreign” communications, such as text messages and emails, and then search them for information about Americans. Intelligence agencies conduct thousands of these “backdoor” searches every year.

Safeguards are supposed to ensure that the National Security Agency and FBI are only searching for information on genuine national security threats. Past reviews of the program have regularly found violations, however, including instances where spy agencies searched for information on Black Lives Matter activists and even members of Congress.

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During the last reauthorization, Congress enacted a handful of reforms meant to put tighter rules into place for when intelligence agencies can search through the collected data, and to ensure that there are more after-the-fact audits. Since then, a review by an inspector general found a steep decrease in the number of apparent violations.

Supporters of a “clean” reauthorization say those reforms went far enough. Opponents say they still want Congress to force intelligence agents to go to a court to ask for a warrant.

Grassroots Opposition?

Progressive groups are trying to exert grassroots pressure. They targeted Himes, the centrist supporter of the “clean” renewal, at a town hall in his district last month, asking him to withdraw his support for the spying law.

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NSA Won’t Say If It Automatically Transcribes American Phone Calls in Bulk

Himes, however, has not budged, saying that he is confident that there have been no abuses under Trump. For his part, Himes is lobbying his fellow members: He convinced House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., to support a clean reauthorization.

On the other side of the debate, Raskin has pointed out that Trump has gutted key oversight bodies, including the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. Advocates have also pointed more recently to a secret court opinion, reported by the New York Times, which found significant problems with how the government is tracking its searches of information about Americans.

Prior FISA renewal fights have rarely drawn the kind of in-person, grassroots activism on display at the Himes town hall. Advocates said that what has changed this time around are growing concerns about how spy agencies can use artificial intelligence to search through reams of information on foreigners and Americans.

“These models give a lot of leverage to analysts working inside the national security establishment,” Dave Kasten, the head of policy at the AI safety nonprofit Palisade Research, said on a call with reporters on Tuesday, “which certainly can be both a good thing and a bad thing, depending on the uses to which they are put.”

Further fueling those concerns is the fact that federal intelligence agencies increasingly rely on information obtained through commercial data brokers, which the government contends does not require a warrant even when it pertains to U.S. citizens.

Aside from committee leaders, the FISA reauthorization fight has also split some of the powerful Democratic caucuses.

The Congressional Black Caucus is poised to support a “clean” reauthorization, The American Prospect reported Monday. The caucus did not respond to a request for comment.

In contrast, the chairs of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus released a letter on Tuesday calling for “meaningful” reforms.

In addition to a warrant requirement for “backdoor” searches, progressives are also pushing to limit when and how intelligence agencies can use information obtained from commercial data brokers.

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Democrats Might Save Mike Johnson’s Push to Give Trump Domestic Spying Power

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has pointed to the pending April 20 expiration of Section 702 as the reason that Congress needs to urgently renew the law. Progressives, though, pointed out that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court effectively provided the spy agencies with a yearlong extension of their spying powers, regardless of what Congress does.

In a rare cross-chamber letter on Monday, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., urged representatives to wait before reauthorizing the program.

“[T]here are multiple issues related to Section 702 that the American people and many Members of Congress have been left in the dark about,” he said, “including a FISA Court opinion from last month that found major compliance problems. These matters should be declassified and openly debated before Section 702 is reauthorized.”

The post Dem Leaders Aren’t Even Bothering to Rally Caucus Against Trump Domestic Spying Powers appeared first on The Intercept.

A $12,000 CD account offers a good balance of profitability and flexibility. Here's what it can earn in interest now.

Why Should Delaware Care?
ChristianaCare is Delaware’s largest hospital system. It is one of the state’s largest private employers, as well as a powerful political entity. Its current CEO announced she is retiring before the end of the year, and that her successor is rising from within the hospital’s own ranks. 

Dr. Janice Nevin, the longtime president and CEO of Delaware’s largest hospital system, ChristianaCare, announced Tuesday that she is retiring at the end of the summer.

Nevin, who served in the top executive role for more than 12 years, will end her tenure as the hospital expands its reach and continues its fight against state regulations.

Jenn Schwartz, the hospital’s executive vice president and chief strategy officer, will take her place in September. 

In a statement announcing her retirement, Nevin said working as ChristianaCare’s CEO was the “greatest honor” of her career. 

“Together, we have built an organization defined by love and excellence, and by an unwavering commitment to improving the health and well-being of those we are privileged to serve,” Nevin wrote. 

Nevin’s announcement comes as the hospital expands both in and out of state and braces for federal cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, all while engaging in a bitter fight in the statehouse to oppose proposed primary care price cap legislation. 

When asked why Nevin was retiring, a spokesperson said the decision was planned, and it followed a “long and extraordinary tenure.” The hospital did not make Schwartz available for an interview on Tuesday.

Still, Nevin will leave the role after having committed nearly $1 billion to health care infrastructure investments across Delaware. She also maneuvered the hospital closer to the Philadelphia market with clinics in the nearby suburbs and by securing a pediatric partnership with the prestigious Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. 

Nevin also gave the state a political black eye, coming out on top of a legal fight that led to the watering down of a hospital oversight board by removing its ability to veto hospital budgets it deemed excessive. 

Who is Schwartz?

The incoming CEO, Schwartz, has worked for the hospital since 2018 in various legal roles. Before starting at ChristianaCare, she worked for various legal firms across New Jersey. 

According to her LinkedIn, Schwartz also worked for the Lourdes Health System based in Camden, N.J., for more than a decade. 

She left Lourdes shortly before it was acquired by regional health system Virtua Health, which also had a proposed merger deal with ChristianaCare last year. That deal ultimately fell through at the end of 2025. 

Combining the current ChristianaCare and Virtua Health footprints would have created a system covering more than 10 contiguous counties in New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland, with more than 600 facilities, nearly 30,000 employees and more than 500 residents and fellows.

The deal also would have required numerous regulatory sign-offs in both states, pitting potential hurdles to completing the deal. That included a review by attorneys general in Delaware and New Jersey because both systems are not-for-profits.

At ChristianaCare, Schwartz was hired as the health system’s chief legal officer in 2018, only holding that position for a year before being promoted to chief strategy officer. Schwartz held that position for nearly seven years before the hospital promoted her again to serve as executive vice president. 

In the press release announcing the leadership transition, Schwartz said she looks forward to stepping into the role and advancing the mission of the hospital. 

“This is an organization where purpose and performance are inseparable, and where caregivers bring our values to life in meaningful ways every day,” Schwartz said. 

A changed ChristianaCare

Originally from England, Nevin came to Delaware as a teenager to attend the prestigious St. Andrew’s School in Middletown.

She later graduated from Harvard University and began her medical career at Thomas Jefferson University Medical College in Philadelphia. She moved to ChristianaCare in 2002 to become chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine.

Nevin would later serve as executive director of ChristianaCare’s Wilmington Campus, where she led a $210 million transformation of the site. In 2014, she was named the first female CEO in the health system’s history.

Over the last decade, Nevin has changed the system in small and big ways, including removing the space in its name from Christiana Care to ChristianaCare and acquiring its first out-of-state hospital in Elkton, Md.

She also was a significant voice during the COVID pandemic, requiring that ChristianaCare staff be vaccinated to work with the public and encouraging the public to follow suit while also discussing the mental toll that the pandemic played on her workforce. The hospital famously was where then-President-elect Joe Biden received his first dose of the COVID vaccine on live TV.

By the time COVID ended, however, relationships had strained, and ChristianaCare became the first health system in Delaware to host a unionization movement among physicians. Nearly two years after the union won its vote, the health system has yet to ratify its first contract with them.

A legacy of expansion

At the end of the summer, Nevin will step down having left a legacy of regional expansion. But she also will leave ahead of a slew of challenges likely to upend hospital revenues statewide. 

In recent months, the hospital has announced expansions both in and out of the state after saying last summer it would spend $865 million on new health facilities in the coming years. 

In February, the health care giant announced it aims to open a new $65 million campus in Georgetown. Months before that, it said it was building a health center dedicated to treating cancer in Middletown.

The health care system expects its new Georgetown facility — which would offer emergency beds, behavioral health care, specialty care and primary care — to open by 2028. It is partnering with health care-focused developer Emerus Holdings to build the facility at 20769 DuPont Blvd., just south of the Bridgeville Road intersection. 

After the failed bid to merge with Southern New Jersey’s Virtua Health, the Georgetown plans could indicate that ChristianaCare sees more opportunity in its own backyard, and is willing to disregard the loose geographic monopolies that health care systems have enjoyed in Delaware for decades. 

“This new campus will help close gaps in access by bringing high-quality, equitable and more convenient care directly into the community that needs it most,” Nevin said in a statement in February. “Our goal is simple: ensure that every Delawarean can access the care they need, in the right place at the right time.”

ChristianaCare’s new facility would also come as federal funds begin to flow into Delaware’s southern counties to support rural health, and the hospital system continues its expansion both in and outside the state.

Last month, ChristianaCare announced it is building a new $75 million inpatient rehabilitation facility for patients in need of physical, speech and occupational therapy near its Newark hospital.

The new 92,000‑square‑foot facility would open in the summer of 2028, offering 73 beds for rehabilitation services and creating 122 new jobs.

Its Middletown cancer center, which is slated to open in May 2027, would solidify its foothold in the suburbs south of the C&D Canal. The $92 million health center would bring primary care, behavioral health, pediatrics, neurology and cardiovascular care, among others.

Since 2020, ChristianaCare also has ventured deeper into the suburban Philadelphia health market, purchasing defunct hospitals and building its own in the surrounding towns. The hospital system announced last year it would partner with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, better known as CHOP, leaving Delaware’s chief pediatric hospital, Nemours Children’s Health, on the sidelines.

Political fights

Nevin and ChristianaCare recently pulled away with a political win after a lawsuit they filed in 2024 to strip a hospital oversight board of its most powerful enforcement mechanism yielded a change to the law, watering down the power of that board. 

Still, the system has another fight ahead before Nevin’s retirement. 

In March, Delaware legislators introduced Senate Bill 1, a primary health care reform bill with price cap provisions. Soon after the state introduced the bill, the state’s hospital systems began their opposition campaign in force. 

If the law passes as is, it would put a ceiling on how high hospitals can charge patients covered by state-regulated insurance plans for care. The bill is currently awaiting a hearing in the Senate Finance Committee. 

Nevin and the state’s hospital apparatus at large will likely continue to press ahead with their lobbying efforts against the bill in the coming months.

The post ChristianaCare CEO Nevin to retire, hospital names successor appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Six in 10 Americans say they pay more than their fair share in taxes, recent polling shows. Only one-third believe they pay the right amount.

A majority of investor-owned utilities surveyed by PowerLines said data centers are a top driver of capital spending.

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales officially submitted their resignation letters to the House clerk on Tuesday.

The AI boom first came for GPUs, and that was followed by a surge in demand for memory. Now the AI boom is impacting the market for CPUs, which is facing supply shortages and price hikes that could impact organizations looking to build and launch AI products, as well as anybody else who requires a CPU.

“Over the last six months we’ve seen the entire cloud market run out of CPUs,” SemiAnalysis Founder Dylan Patel said recently. “There’s no capacity anywhere, and that’s causing a lot of instability.”

For instance, Microsoft’s GitHub version control website has become unstable lately, and developers who use it are running into errors, Patel said. That’s because “Microsoft sold all the CPUs that they had spared to other people, either internally used for their lab, but more so for external labs,” he said. “They’ve signed deals with Anthropic and OpenAI, so they have no CPUs left.”

AWS is also feeling the CPU crunch, even though it has increased the volume of CPUs by 3X over the past year, Patel said. In his annual letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Andy Jassey wrote: “…[T]wo large AWS customers have already asked if they could buy *all* of our Graviton instance capacity in 2026 (Graviton is our widely-adopted custom CPU chip)—we can’t agree to these requests given other customers’ needs, but it gives you an idea of the demand.]”

“There is no capacity anywhere,” SemiAnalysis Founder Dylan Patel said in an interview

Patel made his comments during an on-stage interview with Ivan Burazin at the Daytona Compute Conference last month. During the interview, which you can view here, he elaborated on the causes of the CPU shortage.

CPUs have always played a role in AI,, and have been used for tasks like storage, data pre-processing, pre-training, and checkpointing during AI training runs, Patel said. “But it was pretty light,” he said.

Then in early 2025, something changed: the emergence of reasoning models. Suddenly, we had much more capable AI models, and that capability is driving demand for CPUs.

Instead of using regex to do a simple check of a model, customers are now running much more elaborate checks on models, he said.

“You’re doing code unit test and compilation,” he said. “You’re running agentic flows where it’s actually calling databases and stuff. Or you’re interfacing with some environment that is heavy on CPU, like a physics simulation or a biology simulation.

“You just kept stepping into more and more complicated things, where the model outputs to check it, this reinforcement learning environment, and then goes back and trains on it,” Patel continued. “And this loop has gotten tighter and tighter over the last couple of years.”

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang poses with his “inference king” belt from SemiAnalysis at GTC 26

We’ve been tracking this trend of CPUs becoming cool again here at HPCwire. We’ve watched the processing demands of AI evolve, as AI inference overtook AI training in importance. We’ve seen new server stacks emerge for the two stages of AI inference, prefill and decode stages, which have significantly different requirements.

We’ve seen Nvidia respond to these changing dynamics by delaying the launch of the Rubin CPX GPU, which it announced just seven months ago for AI inference, and instead pile its chips on other processor types, including the Groq LPU that it spent $20 billion to acquire the IP rights to, as well as its new Vera ARM CPU, both of which the company is counting on to drive “inference king” economics.

We’ve watched as Arm Holdings emerge from the sidelines last month with its very first piece of silicon, the AGI CPU, which it co-designed with Meta to serve the booming AI inference market. We saw chipmaker d-Matrix buy GigaIO’s data center business earlier this month to extend its reach beyond its PCI-attached AI accelerator, and just last week we watched as SambaNova and Intel hooked up last week to create a new blueprint for building massively scalable systems for AI inference.

While GPUs and other AI accelerators dominated the first stage of the AI boom, leading to GPU giant Nvidia becoming the most valuable company in the world, the current stage of AI requires oodles of CPUs to handle the wide variety of computing tasks that come with running AI inference at scale.

Intel and AMD have nearly sold out of server CPUs for the entire year and are considering a 10% to 15% priced hike, KeyBanc analysts John Vinh and Ryan Rosumny wrote in a January report.

Intel’s stock is up 211% over the past 12 months, while AMD’s stock is up 169%. While Intel’s Xeon CPU still control’s the lion’s share of the server market, AMD’s EYPC CPU has made big strives and now accounts for 41% of the server market.

Demand for server CPUs is bleeding over into other segments. PC makers like Dell and HP reportedly are struggling to get CPUs for home and office computers, as the lead time for CPUs has jumped from two weeks to six months.

In some cases, there just aren’t any CPUs to be had. “If money can solve the problem, that would be great,” an executive for a gaming PC brand told Nikkei Asia. “What we worry about is that even if we pay more, we still cannot get more. The CPU shortage is getting more serious day by day, no less than the memory chip situation.”

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The post Need Some CPUs? Good Luck With That appeared first on HPCwire.

Grand jury brings manslaughter charge over fatal 2024 operation where patient died on table

A surgeon in Florida has been indicted for manslaughter after he wrongly removed a patient’s liver instead of his spleen during an August 2024 procedure.

Thomas Shaknovsky, 44, was indicted by a grand jury in Tallahassee on Monday after prosecutors said he botched the surgery of 70-year-old William Bryan, of Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

The upcoming iOS update could also bring end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging to your device.

Experts say climate pattern could supercharge extreme weather events and push temperatures to record highs

There is a high likelihood that the phenomenon known as “El Niño” will emerge this summer – and it could be exceptionally strong. A so-called “super El Niño” could supercharge extreme weather events and push global temperatures to record heights next year if it develops, according to experts.

Meteorologists are keeping a close eye on the climate patterns developing in the Pacific Ocean that will enable stronger predictions about what’s to come in the year ahead.

Studio and television business, ESPN, certain corporate functions and more to see workforce reduced, source says

Walt Disney’s new chief executive, Josh D’Amaro, announced layoffs in an email to employees on Tuesday, as he looks to streamline the company’s operations.

About 1,000 positions will be eliminated, according to a person familiar with the development.

With the army’s size halved since the cold war, UK ambitions to be globally deployable do not match the reality, experts say

• Middle East crisis – live updates

If Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was a wake-up call for Nato, the war in the Gulf has brought some harsh realities home to the British public about the state of the UK’s armed forces.

While air defence systems and fighter jets were already in place or deployed relatively swiftly, the time it took to send a single destroyer to Cyprus in the form of HMS Dragon focused minds on Britain’s military readiness and capabilities.

Measure by Jamie Raskin follows statements by Trump about annihilating Iran and post depicting himself as Jesus

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

House Democrats on Tuesday proposed creating a commission that would work with JD Vance to remove Donald Trump from office under the 25th amendment, should they determine he is no longer fit to serve.

The measure, introduced by Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, follows a series of statements from Trump, including his recent warning that Iran’s “whole civilization will die” if it did not capitulate to his demands, and a social media post that depicted him as Jesus Christ.

Google is rolling out a Chrome feature called "Skills" that lets users save Gemini prompts as reusable one-click workflows they can run across multiple tabs. The feature also includes preset Skills from Google. It's launching first for Chrome desktop users set to US English. The Verge reports: Once you have access to the feature, it can be managed by typing a forward slash ( / ) in Gemini and clicking the compass icon. AI prompts can be saved as Skills directly from your Gemini chat history on desktop, where they'll then be available to reuse on any other desktop devices that are signed into the same Google account on Chrome. The aim is to spare Chrome users from having to manually retype frequently used Gemini prompts or having to copy and paste them over from a saved list. Some of the Skills made by early testers include commands for calculating the nutritional information of online recipes and creating a side-by-side comparison of product specifications while shopping across multiple tabs, according to Google. The company is also launching a library of preset Skills that you can save and use instead of making your own. These ready-to-use Skills can also be customized to better suit your needs, providing a starting point without requiring you to create your own from scratch.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Colorado regulators announced on Monday that they plan to crack down on companies that illegally sell cheaper and potentially hazardous hemp products as marijuana.

The state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division said it had detected “regulatory compliance issues” that threaten to unravel the marijuana industry in the nation’s first legal retail market.

These issues “present serious risks to public safety, market integrity and the tax revenue framework that supports Colorado’s regulated cannabis industry,” the agency stated in an industry bulletin.

A Denver Gazette and ProPublica investigation in January reported that, despite Colorado being one of the first states to ban the sale of intoxicating hemp products, the legislature and regulators failed to adopt many regulations that other states have employed to keep hemp products off marijuana dispensary shelves.

Creating the liquid distillate for vapes and edibles from hemp is much cheaper than using marijuana, giving companies a competitive advantage.

But regulators say they’re worried because manufacturers rely on toxic and potentially hazardous chemicals to convert the nonintoxicating compound CBD that is prevalent in hemp into THC, the psychoactive compound that makes people feel high. Regulators have banned such chemical synthesis because they say they fear chemical residues could remain in finished products, imperiling consumers.

Colorado manufacturers have exploited gaps in the state’s testing and enforcement system to continue using hemp to make products marketed as marijuana, even though doing so is against state law, according to regulatory investigations, previous agency bulletins and testimony and lab results contained in several lawsuits.

In 2024, state investigators found that one popular brand of marijuana vapes sold in dispensaries was not only derived from hemp, but also contaminated with methylene chloride, a chemical often used to convert CBD from hemp into THC. It is prohibited by Colorado’s marijuana regulators and banned for most uses by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because it can cause liver and lung cancer and damage the nervous, immune and reproductive systems.

Read More

Smoke and Mirrors: How Intoxicating Hemp Seeped Into the First Recreational Marijuana Market in the Country

Ware Hause, the company that manufactured those vapes, surrendered its marijuana license in response to the investigation. Ware Hause’s owner, Thanh Hau, and the company’s lawyer have declined to comment.

Congress passed a law last November banning nearly all intoxicating hemp products throughout the country starting this fall, but it’s unclear how the government will implement that ban, and hemp manufacturers are pushing to overturn it.

In December, President Donald Trump issued an executive order telling his aides to work with Congress on developing regulations that could allow some hemp products.

Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division announced in the Monday bulletin that agency officials had “identified and investigated evidence” indicating marijuana businesses are using illicit practices and banned methods to manufacture products instead of relying on marijuana, which is supposed to be tracked for safety.

The Colorado Hemp Association and the Colorado Hemp Education Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Beyond the safety issues, the bulletin also noted that some marijuana manufacturers and cultivators are avoiding marijuana tax obligations through “a pattern of noncompliance” in the sales transactions they report to the state’s “seed-to-sale” tracking system, which follows marijuana from initial planting to the sale of pot, vapes and other products in dispensaries.

Companies are misreporting their bulk marijuana sales at nominal prices, in some cases as low as $1 a pound for unprocessed marijuana material, the bulletin stated. Those products typically fetch as much as $600 a pound on the open market, depending on the category of marijuana, according to industry insiders.

Such fraudulent reporting has robbed the state and local governments of millions of dollars in marijuana tax revenue, industry insiders say, though there’s no official estimate.

The agency said it would pursue emergency rules to address such problems. Suspicious and anomalous transactions and inventories the state detects will prompt investigations, the bulletin stressed. Companies caught using hemp or other illicit material they pass off as marijuana face “immediate product embargo, license suspension or revocation, significant monetary penalties and referral to law enforcement,” the regulators warned.

The Denver Gazette and ProPublica have attempted to track anomalous transactions, but the Marijuana Enforcement Division has maintained that the sales transaction records, even those that don’t identify companies, are not public. 

Marijuana industry representatives met with division regulators late last month to press for a more aggressive response to hemp substitution from the agency, even though it could affect some companies in the industry. The representatives argued that bad actors are unfairly driving down prices and shifting the tax burden to manufacturers and cultivators who are trying to follow the rules. The bulletin was released a couple of weeks after that meeting.

“The division is also exploring additional modifications to its testing and screening protocols to detect” illicit products and banned methods, and it may require additional lab testing “of products throughout the supply chain as needed,” the agency’s bulletin stated.

The post Colorado Marijuana Regulators Pledge Crackdown on Intoxicating Hemp appeared first on ProPublica.

The company refines its dual-refresh esports monitor, the InZone M10S 2, with speed bumps and other tweaks.

April 14, 2026 — DARPA has launched the Heterogeneous Architectures for Quantum (HARQ) program, an effort aimed at overcoming one of the most persistent barriers in quantum computing: how to move beyond single-technology systems to achieve and scale practical, high-impact applications.

Despite rapid progress across the quantum ecosystem, most current approaches are built around a single type of quantum bit (qubit), which is the basic unit of quantum information. This constraint forces researchers to design entire systems around the limitations of one technology. The resulting homogeneous model stands in stark contrast to classical computing, which derives its power from heterogeneity through the integration of specialized processors such as CPUs, GPUs, and ASICs, each optimized for specific tasks. HARQ is challenging the quantum community to take a similar approach.

At its core, HARQ seeks to establish a new paradigm: heterogeneous quantum computing architectures that combine different qubit types, each selected for what it does best, into a single system.

“Qubit technologies each have their own distinct advantages, but no single approach can deliver everything needed for large-scale, high-performance quantum systems. HARQ is asking the community to shift away from a ‘one-qubit-to-rule-them-all’ mindset,” said DARPA Program Manager Justin Cohen. “We aim to define what a truly heterogeneous quantum architecture looks like and to develop the interconnects that make those systems possible. If successful, this approach could provide a far more efficient path to scaling quantum computing and unlock applications that remain out of reach today.”

To realize this vision, 19 performer teams* from 15 organizations will work on one of two parallel workstreams:

• Multi-qubit Optimized Software Architecture through Interconnected Compilation (MOSAIC) is centered around developing software frameworks and circuit compilers that can optimize a quantum algorithms’ performance and resources by using diverse qubit types. As its name suggests, the goal is to create compiled “mosaics” of physical circuits that are significantly more efficient than those produced by single-platform systems.
• Quantum Shared Backbone (QSB) is focused on the hardware challenge of creating high-fidelity interconnects that support communication between different types of qubits. These efforts aim to enable technologies that link disparate qubit platforms within a single system.

From Experimentation to Application at Scale

For quantum developers, HARQ represents a call to rethink system design beyond a single qubit type. For prospective users across industry, government, and national security, it signals a path forward from experimentation to operational capability.

Over the next 24 months, HARQ performers will collaborate through intensive technical interchange and co-design efforts to develop the architectural principles, tools, and components needed for these systems. By demonstrating the feasibility and scalability of a heterogeneous approach, HARQ aims to lay the groundwork for larger-scale demonstrations and future quantum infrastructure investments, and pave the way for a new generation of quantum machines with the power to accelerate discoveries in materials science, chemistry, medicine, and beyond, providing a decisive advantage for national security.

Performer Teams

Mosaic

• Infleqtion
• MemQ
• Q-CTRL
• University of Michigan
• University of Pennsylvania

QSB

• Australian National University
• Carnegie Mellon University
• École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
• Harvard University
• IonQ
• Stanford University
• University of California Berkeley
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

*17 of the 19 teams are on contract; two are still in negotiation. DARPA will update this announcement once those agreements are signed.

More from HPCwire: DARPA Details HARQ Effort to Advance Heterogeneous Quantum Systems

Source: DARPA

The post DARPA Launches HARQ Program to Advance Heterogeneous Quantum Architectures appeared first on HPCwire.

Refugee Council criticises Labour’s decision, saying military sites are unsuitable and ‘more expensive than hotels’

Hundreds of asylum seekers have been removed from government-funded hotels while others have been sent to live in army barracks, the Home Office has announced.

Eleven “asylum hotels” in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland have been closed, as first reported by the Guardian, and more will close “in the coming weeks”. About 350 claimants have been moved to the Crowborough military camp in east Sussex, described by a spokesperson as “basic accommodation”.

At $200, they're pricey if all you want is a basic wired model. But the open-back design has its benefits.

The lead U.S. negotiator, Vice President JD Vance, has sought a moratorium on uranium enrichment of at least 20 years. Tehran’s offer would last up to five.

Trawler set off from Bangladesh and reportedly capsized due to heavy winds, rough seas and overcrowding

About 250 people are missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals capsized in the Andaman Sea, according to the UN’s refugee and migration agencies.

The agencies said the trawler carrying more than 250 men, women and children reportedly sank due to harsh weather and overcrowding. It had departed from Teknaf in southern Bangladesh and was bound for Malaysia.

A total of 150 candidates have submitted paperwork, but here are the frontrunners for the election

The race is on to succeed Gavin Newsom, the California governor with presidential ambitions whose term runs out this year – and it’s off to an unexpected and messy start.

On 13 April, the early frontrunner, congressman Eric Swalwell, suspended his bid for the role, following allegations of sexual misconduct. With less than two months until election day, it’s unclear whether another Democrat will race to the top in reliably blue California.

Growth forecasts cut for US and global economy, while UK suffers sharpest downgrade in G7

• Reeves arrives at IMF with little leeway to prove its UK downgrade wrong

A further escalation in the Iran war could trigger a global recession that would affect the UK more than any of the other G7 nations, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

Against an increasingly volatile backdrop, the Washington-based fund said the economic damage from the Middle East conflict was steadily rising as it cut its growth forecasts for 2026 based on the impact of the war so far.

Nearly two dozen Samsung phones and tablets are now more expensive. And this is just the beginning.

Brookhaven Lab researchers built superconducting quantum devices using a new material and a technique adapted from electronics manufacturing processes

April 14, 2026 — Beginning in the 1950s, silicon transformed the electronics industry by enabling smaller and faster devices that could be reliably manufactured at scale. More than six decades later, silicon-based semiconductors remain at the heart of many modern technologies, including so-called “classical” computers.

This scanning electron microscope image shows a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) made with a silicon-compatible class of materials called transition metal silicides. Built upon a silicon substrate, the SQUID includes two layers of superconducting platinum silicide connected by a constriction junction. Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory.

In pursuit of new quantum technologies, scientists and engineers have turned to specialized materials for building qubits — the fundamental components of quantum systems. For example, many qubits are made from superconducting materials deposited on sapphire substrates. But transitioning from laboratory demonstrations to scalable systems will require scientific and manufacturing infrastructure capable of supporting robust and reliable qubit fabrication.

Marking a milestone toward bridging that gap, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have built superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) using a silicon-compatible class of materials called transition metal silicides. The research was conducted as part of the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA), a recently renewed National Quantum Information Science Research Center led by Brookhaven Lab.

“Making quantum devices with transition metal silicides is an approach that’s designed to feed right into the engine that’s been used for semiconductor technology,” said Charles Black, C2QA director, deputy associate laboratory director for Brookhaven’s Energy and Photon Sciences Directorate, and co-lead author on the paper that recently published in Nano Letters.

The researchers collaborated closely with NY Creates, a C2QA partner, to develop a fabrication process informed by advanced microelectronics manufacturing techniques. Using the lithography and etching capabilities available in the nanofabrication facility at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) — a DOE Office of Science user facility at Brookhaven Lab — the researchers adapted a technique that is regularly used to synthesize the transition metal silicides used in microprocessors.

“We took this manufacturing-friendly approach so that, in the future, we could implement it at larger scales in the NY Creates facility,” explained Mingzhao Liu, a senior scientist at CFN, C2QA researcher, and co-lead paper author.

In this work, the researchers fabricated each SQUID with two superconducting constriction junctions, rather than using more conventional Josephson junctions, which have two superconducting layers separated by an insulator. The authors previously proposed that this architecture, in which the superconducting layers are connected by a thin wire, has potential to make transmon qubits more amenable to mass production. This new work marks their first experimental demonstration of constrictions in functioning quantum devices.

The SQUIDs served as a diagnostic tool, offering insights into how the constriction junctions were operating. Using CFN’s low-temperature measurement capabilities, the researchers cooled the devices to ultracold temperatures as low as 350 millikelvin and measured how current flowed through the SQUIDs under different applied magnetic fields.

“We learned that the design of the device as a whole can dampen the performance of the constriction junction,” Liu said. “But overall, the experiments showed us that the constriction junctions exhibit key properties, like nonlinearity, that are required for high-performing qubits.”

This transmission electron micrograph with false color shows a cross section of a platinum silicide nanowire. Researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory fabricated the sample by depositing platinum (not shown) on a silicon substrate (blue), which is partially covered by silicon dioxide (green). When heated, platinum and silicon react only where they are in direct contact to form platinum silicide (black), and any remaining platinum is removed with an acid. Credit: NY Creates Metrology Department.

From Nanoscale Measurements to Center-Wide Collaboration

Advances like this are enabled by the integrated, multidisciplinary approach inherent to C2QA. By uniting expertise and infrastructure from national laboratories, universities, applied research and development organizations, and industry, the Center is accelerating progress toward high-performing qubits made from manufacturable, silicon-based materials.

Ekta Bhatia, NY Creates research scientist in quantum technologies and co-author on the paper remarked, “This publication reflects the power of our strong partnership with Brookhaven under C2QA and accelerates the development of scalable quantum computing. We look forward to building on this work with Brookhaven to drive quantum innovation together.”

Beyond the Brookhaven-NY Creates collaboration, other C2QA researchers continue to deliver breakthroughs in silicon-based quantum devices. In November 2025, for example, C2QA researchers at Princeton University reported record-breaking coherence times in superconducting qubits built on top of silicon substrates, demonstrating that silicon-based platforms can rival and surpass more traditional sapphire platforms.

By approaching the scaling problem from several perspectives — including device design, materials science, and large-scale manufacturing — C2QA researchers are delivering a synergistic impact that is greater than the sum of their individual achievements.

Black said, “We’re developing a pipeline to take advantage of the strengths of each C2QA partner — and making strides toward scalable quantum systems.”

C2QA is supported by the DOE Office of Science.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.

Source: Danielle Roedel, Brookhaven National Laboratory

The post Brookhaven Lab: A Silicon-Compatible Path Toward Scalable Quantum Systems appeared first on HPCwire.

With an e-reader, you can have entire library at your fingertips anywhere you go. We've tested and picked the top e-readers available to deliver the best reading experience.

• Uzbek grandmaster wins Candidates with round to spare

• Sindarov, 20, to face India’s Gukesh for world title in fall

Javokhir Sindarov will challenge for Gukesh Dommaraju’s world chess championship this fall after clinching the Candidates tournament with a game to spare on Tuesday afternoon in Cyprus.

The 20-year-old Uzbek grandmaster closed out an emphatic victory in the 14-game double round-robin with a tame 58-move draw playing with the black pieces against Dutch star Anish Giri, moving to 9½ points and leaving the world No 9 two adrift with one round remaining.

In the US, the birth rate for 15- to 19-year-olds dropped 7% last year. But what seems like good news for society has been lamented by some leading Maga figures

Teenagers these days, eh? Instead of having unprotected sex and popping out babies, they’re wasting their time on TikTok, or something. According to a recent report, the teenage birth rate in the US fell by 7% in 2025. While this might seem like a positive development, it has been a cause of dismay among the Maga-adjacent crowd.

Take Fox News, which ran a segment framing the drop in teen pregnancies as alarming. “We still have 3.6 million births a year,” noted the medical analyst Marc Siegel. “But the problem is teens and young adults. From ages 15 to 19, the fertility rate is down 7%, and it’s down 70% over the last two decades, meaning we’re telling people that are young not to have babies, to wait until they’re in a more stable life situation.” I’m sorry, that’s a problem?

A former Nato chief demands more cash while fixing Britain’s global role. Before billions are spent, ministers must define the purpose of its military

George Robertson’s claims about the prime minister’s “corrosive complacency” over Britain’s safety made headlines. But it is a howl of pain, not a sober security analysis. The former Nato secretary general and author of the government’s strategic defence review (SDR) wants Downing Street to back his view of Britain’s role in the world – as Robin to America’s Batman – with billions of pounds of cash. But his argument takes for granted what should be under scrutiny: Britain’s global military role itself.

Donald Trump’s threats over Greenland, his disregard for international law and his U-turn over the Chagos deal expose the fragility of Britain’s defence assumptions. Before spending billions, those commitments must be re-examined. Lord Robertson’s claim of a £28bn black hole assumes that the current strategy is the correct one. But if that strategy – with its emphasis on global deployment and alliance commitments – is open to question, then the funding gap may reflect overstretch rather than insufficient spending.

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.

ARLINGTON, Va., April 14, 2026 — To help secure the backbone of U.S. energy and defense, Accenture Federal Services will lead a high-velocity engineering and integration sprint to deliver an early capability for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Genesis Mission. This sprint will focus on advancing the Critical Mineral and Materials to Unlock Supply (CM2US) initiative, which is led by DOE’s National Laboratories in partnership with Accenture.

In a powerful alliance with all U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratories and commercial leaders like Databricks Federal, Accenture Federal Services is building a scalable digital infrastructure to accelerate the delivery of the American Science and Security Platform.

This early capability will operationalize AI-powered workflows together with DOE mission data for the Genesis Mission’s Critical Mineral Supply Challenges, allowing CM2US scientists and engineers to collaborate on real-world data and research challenges – using advanced technologies – as soon as early summer to secure the nation’s most vital supply chains.

“The Genesis Mission is a generational opportunity that demands bold action and Accenture Federal Services is well-positioned to deliver it,” said Ron Ash, CEO of Accenture Federal Services. “Together with our partners, we are rapidly turning vision into reality—standing up a live, secure, AI‑ready environment where researchers can detect risks, model scenarios, and strengthen America’s critical mineral supply chain with unprecedented velocity. When world‑class science becomes real‑world mission advantage at speed and scale, the nation wins.”

“Databricks Federal is proud to support the Genesis Mission and the Department of Energy’s goal to double the pace of American scientific discovery,” said Rory Patterson, Chairman of the Board of Databricks Federal. “As a company founded by researchers, we understand that breakthroughs require more than just compute—they require an open, unified data and AI platform. By bringing data engineering, analytics, and AI into a single governed environment, we are helping the DOE National Laboratories turn massive datasets into mission-critical insights at the speed of innovation.”

“We are laying the groundwork for a scalable solution that will power scientists across the U.S. to deliver insights and outcomes at a pace that I never thought possible. What we have been able to achieve in weeks is something that I didn’t think possible in years—until now,” said Frank Alexander, Senior AI Scientist at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.

This rapid progress reflects the power of a unified ecosystem of DOE’s National Labs together with top commercial innovators collaborating to build a common platform that advances the Genesis Mission challenge at mission scale to meet the program’s ambitious timelines.

“Energy security starts with visibility, speed and strategic partners,” said Angie Sheffield, Director of AI Strategy for Energy at Accenture Federal Services. “By empowering researchers to connect DOE’s world-class instruments and peerless scientific datasets with commercial AI technologies in an integrated platform, CM2US moves beyond automation to intelligence – so we can discover, decide, and deliver faster on a supply chain that powers American industry.”

These efforts mark a decisive step toward delivering the Genesis Mission’s Initial Operating Capability and securing America’s critical mineral future, bringing a new model for American scientific leadership and energy security closer to reality.

About Accenture Federal Services

Accenture Federal Services is a US subsidiary of Accenture LLP that government agencies choose to drive impactful change. Our 15,000 people are committed to powering reinvention for the federal government with the same commercial technology, competitive drive and technical edge that is transforming global industry—ensuring that federal enterprises can be as modern, fast, and efficient as the country it serves. See how we reinvent at www.accenturefederal.com.

About Accenture

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) is a leading solutions and services company that helps the world’s leading enterprises reinvent by building their digital core and unleashing the power of AI to create value at speed across the enterprise, bringing together the talent of our approximately 786,000 people, our proprietary assets and platforms, and deep ecosystem relationships. Our strategy is to be the reinvention partner of choice for our clients and to be the most client-focused, AI-enabled, great place to work in the world. Through our Reinvention Services we bring together our capabilities across strategy, consulting, technology, operations, Song and Industry X with our deep industry expertise to create and deliver solutions and services for our clients. Our purpose is to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity, and we measure our success by the 360° value we create for all our stakeholders. Visit us at accenture.com.

Source: Accenture

The post Accenture Federal Services to Deliver Early Operating Capability for DOE’s Genesis Mission CM2US appeared first on HPCwire.

Is a CD or high-yield savings account better for savers combating rising inflation now? Here's what to consider.

Kimberlee Williams, who lived in Oklahoma, was jailed after being accused of crimes in Maryland, a state she told investigators she had never visited.

A Chicago concert superfan Aadam Jacobs who has recorded more than 10,000 shows since the 1980s is working with Internet Archive volunteers to digitize the collection before the cassettes deteriorate. "So far, about 2,500 of these tapes have been posted on the Internet Archive, including some rare gems like a Nirvana performance from 1989," reports TechCrunch. From the report: For many of these recordings, Jacobs was using pretty mediocre equipment, but the volunteer audio engineers working with the Internet Archive have made these tapes sound great. One volunteer, Brian Emerick, drives to Jacobs' house once a month to pick up more boxes of tapes -- he has to use anachronistic cassette decks to play the tapes, which get converted into digital files. From there, other volunteers clean up, organize, and label the recordings, even tracking down song names from forgotten punk bands. The archive is available here.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

DETROIT, April 14, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Argonne National Laboratory have selected 20 universities to participate in the EcoCAR Innovation Challenge and announced the two vehicle platforms chosen for the program.

Credit: EcoCAR Innovation Challenge

Managed by Argonne, the EcoCAR Innovation Challenge is the 15th installment of DOE’s Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions (AVTC) series, which challenges university students to design and build intelligent mobility solutions and innovative products using emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence for engineering tools, machine learning, and exascale computing.

Two industry leaders, General Motors (GM) and Stellantis, have joined the Challenge as sponsors, along with technology partner MathWorks, forming a coalition of government and industry partners focused on cultivating the next generation of auto-industry innovators. This is the first collaboration between two major automakers in the same series in more than 25 years.

“The Innovation Challenge is an investment in the next era of the American workforce,” said Assistant Secretary of Energy (EERE) Audrey Robertson. “This unprecedented collaboration between GM and Stellantis underscores the importance of building a skilled US workforce and promoting innovation. We hope to fast-track technological breakthroughs, improve the competitiveness of the American auto industry, and expand the range of options available to American consumers.”

In addition to their use of emerging technologies, participating teams will explore modifications to the vehicle propulsion system to optimize efficiency through the design and integration of electric motor systems and team-built, high-voltage batteries. GM and Stellantis will each sponsor one of the two competition tracks, which provide distinct engineering challenges and vehicle platforms that reflect the choices available to North American customers.

“EcoCAR develops engineers who understand how to integrate software, controls, advanced powertrains, and the customer experience into a single system,” said Ken Morris, Senior Vice President of Product Programs, Product Safety, Integration and Motorsports at General Motors. “We’re proud to support this competition and to help students build the practical expertise that the auto industry needs right now and we are excited to announce GM has selected the 2026 Chevy Blazer EV to provide to teams.”

“Tomorrow’s mobility solutions will be shaped by teams who can take on real-world challenges, innovate across disciplines and provide practical, intelligent results for our customers,” said Micky Bly, Senior Vice President, Global Propulsion Systems Engineering – Stellantis N.V. “EcoCAR gives students that experience, and we’re excited to support their development by providing the 2026 Jeep Cherokee hybrid, which will offer meaningful technical and learning engagement for the teams.”

“Students learn best by building, and EcoCAR lets them build using the same Model-Based Design and simulation workflows widely used in industry,” said Lauren Tabolinsky, Senior Manager, Student and Academic Global Programs at MathWorks. “We’re proud to support a program that helps bridge academic learning with engineering practices that translate directly to the workplace.”

The Universities Selected to Participate in the EcoCAR Innovation Challenge:

1. California State University, Los Angeles – Stellantis Track
2. Colorado School of Mines – Stellantis Track
3. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – General Motors Track
4. Georgia Institute of Technology – General Motors Track
5. Louisiana State University – Stellantis Track
6. McMaster University – General Motors Track
7. Mississippi State University – General Motors Track
8. The Ohio State University – Stellantis Track
9. Pennsylvania State University – General Motors Track
10. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology – Stellantis Track
11. Texas A&M University – Stellantis Track
12. The University of Alabama – General Motors Track
13. University at Buffalo – Stellantis Track
14. University of North Carolina at Charlotte – Stellantis Track
15. University of Tennessee, Knoxville – Stellantis Track
16. University of Waterloo – Stellantis Track
17. University of Wisconsin-Madison – General Motors Track
18. Virgina Polytechnic Institute and State University – General Motors Track
19. Western Michigan University – General Motors Track
20. West Virginia University – General Motors Track

Additional EcoCAR Innovation Challenge sponsors announced today include Caterpillar, Siemens Digital Industries Software, dSPACE, Bosch, Altec, Hesse, and Volta Foundation.

About EcoCAR Innovation Challenge

The EcoCAR Innovation Challenge is a DOE-sponsored Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition managed by Argonne National Laboratory. The program challenges university teams to apply cutting-edge engineering to real vehicles while developing the technical, leadership, and project management skills needed for careers in automotive engineering, transportation, and advanced manufacturing.

Media Contacts

Kimberly DeClark, Argonne National Laboratory, kdeclark@anl.gov, 202-441-0096
Dale Jewett, Stellantis, dale.jewett@stellantis.com, 586-201-1247
Jack Crawley, General Motors, jack.crawley@gm.com, 248-219-4969
Tim Morin, MathWorks, timmorin@mathworks.com, 508-647-3048

Source: EcoCAR Innovation Challenge

The post DOE and Argonne Join GM, Stellantis and MathWorks to Launch EcoCAR Innovation Challenge appeared first on HPCwire.

CHEYENNE, Wyo., April 14, 2026 — Microsoft Corp. today announced its intent to purchase approximately 3,200 acres of land to develop a datacenter in Cheyenne, Wyoming. This expansion builds on Microsoft’s existing datacenter footprint in Cheyenne, strengthening Southeast Wyoming’s role as a growing hub for technology-driven economic activity, innovation and job creation.

Credit: Shutterstock

“Since the development of our first datacenter in 2012, Microsoft has been working to strengthen, not strain, the community of Cheyenne,” said Bowen Wallace, Corporate Vice President, Datacenters-Americas Region, Microsoft. “We’re excited to continue our growth in the state bringing more investment, opportunity and tax revenue to the community we’ve been a part of for more than 14 years.”

The future expansion is made up of two parcels, approximately 200 acres located in Bison Business park on Wapiti Trail east of S Greeley Highway, and 3,000 acres in Southeast Cheyenne, adjacent to the 200-acre parcel accessible through Wapiti Trail, both located southeast of downtown Cheyenne.

Today’s announcement represents the start of what the company expects to be a multiyear planning and development process. There are many steps in that process, including several that require public hearings. Microsoft welcomes these formal opportunities to engage with the community and looks forward to additional informal opportunities to hear directly from residents, and ultimately ensure development plans, operations and community investments are aligned with local values, aspirations, strengths and needs.

Microsoft has committed over $68M in completed and future off-site infrastructure improvements across Cheyenne. Projects like roadway and storm sewer improvements, trail roadway and greenway improvements, new pump stations, and improved municipal water infrastructure are critical for datacenter operation, but they also make up the infrastructure systems that Cheyenne residents use every day.

“This is the latest in a long line of investments that Microsoft has brought to the city of Cheyenne as a member of our community since 2012,” said Mayor Patrick Collins. “Microsoft recognizes the strength of our city’s workers, infrastructure and economy. This expansion represents the next decade of opportunity and tax revenue that secures the quality of life that residents of our city enjoy.”

In any future development, the community of Cheyenne can expect the following:

Microsoft will pay its way to ensure datacenter development doesn’t increase electricity prices. Microsoft and Black Hills Energy have developed an innovative utility partnership in Wyoming, in which power acquisition is guided by the Large Power Contract Service (LPCS) tariff. The tariff requires Microsoft to directly pay for all the infrastructure upgrades and power procured by the utility necessary to serve its load.

“We have been a proud partner with Microsoft for more than a decade in Cheyenne, providing energy solutions and mission‑critical electric reliability to its data center operations,” said Wes Ashton, Black Hills Energy Vice President of Utilities in Wyoming and South Dakota. “That partnership supports economic growth in Wyoming, and our flexible and innovative tariff provisions allow us to meet Microsoft’s expanding energy needs while protecting base retail customers from rate impacts.”

Microsoft will continue to work to bring additional wind and other carbon-free electricity to the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), ensuring that every kilowatt hour the company’s operations consume that comes from a fossil fuel source is matched one for one with carbon-free energy the company procures.

Microsoft will minimize its water use and replenish more water than what is used. The chips housed within a datacenter produce heat. Microsoft’s existing facilities in Wyoming leverage direct evaporative cooling to cool those chips. This design uses water for cooling less than 10% of the year, with the latest datacenter designs going even further, in some cases eliminating the need for ongoing access to water for cooling after an initial fill. At the same time, Microsoft will continue to work to replenish water in the Mississippi-Missouri and Colorado River Basins. This work will build on both existing and future replenishment projects Microsoft has funded in Cheyenne that are expected to restore an estimated 566M gallons of water with the help of partners like Trout Unlimited, Frog Creek Partners, the Laramie County Conservation District and the U.S. Forest Service.

Microsoft will create jobs for residents. This infrastructure build-out will require thousands of skilled tradespeople during construction. For more than a decade, nearly 2,000 of them have already played a part in building Microsoft’s existing datacenter footprint, and this expansion represents years of additional work. Electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, carpenters, structural iron and steel workers, concrete workers, and earth movers will build a career developing the next generation of infrastructure in Cheyenne.

In addition to careers in construction, this expansion represents hundreds of full-time opportunities in areas like information technology (IT), security and maintenance to operate these facilities. Microsoft is working to make sure that members of the local community are prepared to step into these full-time roles. In 2019, Microsoft launched a Datacenter Academy in partnership with Laramie County Community College (LCCC). On the campus of LCCC, the Academy includes a working laboratory and has trained over 1,000 students.

This expansion isn’t just about the over 220 full-time Microsoft employees currently working in Cheyenne, or the hundreds more expected in the years ahead. It’s about the broader opportunity that this investment can help unlock across the region with jobs in other industries like power generation and transmission, retail, maintenance and repair, real estate, and other local industries and careers that will benefit from Microsoft’s presence for the next decade and beyond.

Microsoft will add to the tax base. One of the most tangible benefits from datacenter development, but invisible to those driving nearby, is improvements to community schools, hospitals and services due to property taxes paid by datacenter operators to the local municipality. In 2025, Microsoft datacenters contributed over $11M to the Laramie County tax base, supporting the budgets for local hospitals, schools, parks and libraries. Last year, Microsoft was the No. 1 taxpayer in the city of Cheyenne and No. 2 taxpayer in Laramie County. This property tax revenue will continue to grow with the envisioned development on these new sites.

Microsoft will strengthen the community by investing in local IT training and nonprofits. Microsoft’s commitment to Cheyenne is reflected in sustained, multiyear community investment. Since 2018, Microsoft has supported 56 community projects from 28 local organizations supporting education, workforce development and community services. Collectively, Microsoft has already donated $4.7 million to local organizations and nonprofits, including through programs like Microsoft TechSpark. Working with Laramie County Community College, and local organizations like Rooted in Cheyenne, the Boys and Girls Club of Cheyenne, the Wyoming Community Foundation, and many others, Microsoft will continue to invest in the Cheyenne community and support high-impact opportunities that advance prosperity in Wyoming.

Microsoft is committed to being a good neighbor and active community member anywhere that it builds, owns or operates facilities. Today’s announcement may not provide all  the answers to the questions residents of Cheyenne will have. More specific information will be shared during the multiyear planning and development process. We look forward to growing together.

Source: Microsoft

The post Microsoft Eyes New 3,200-Acre Datacenter Development in Wyoming appeared first on HPCwire.

Experts say China is backing attempts at global governance, while US has set up race between profit-hungry companies

China is now the “good guy” on AI rather than Donald Trump’s US, where the technology is being pursued in a dangerous “wild west” manner, a former UN and UK government adviser has told MPs.

Prof Dame Wendy Hall, who was a member of the UN’s AI advisory board and co-wrote a review of AI for Theresa May’s government, told the House of Commons business and trade committee that China was backing multinational attempts to introduce global governance of AI, in contrast to America, which had set up a race between profit-hungry companies that relied on hype.

If you have a question about women's health, Oura's new AI model can answer it. This is what you need to know about privacy and access.

The unpopular war with Iran and stubborn affordability issues have given Democrats cause to be more hopeful about their chances of flipping key seats — and maybe even winning control of the Senate.

The Trump administration is ramping up its boat strike campaign, conducting three strikes in the space of three days. The U.S. has now conducted 50 strikes in its campaign of targeting civilian vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. The death toll now exceeds 170.

On April 11, the U.S. conducted attacks on two boats in the Pacific Ocean, killing two people in the first strike and leaving one shipwrecked. The search for that survivor has been abandoned and that person is presumed dead. Three people were killed in the second strike that day. These attacks were followed by another strike in the Eastern Pacific on April 13 that killed two more people.

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Trump Calls His Enemies Terrorists. Does That Mean He Can Just Kill Them?

As part of Operation Southern Spear, the U.S. military has now destroyed 51 vessels and killed 171 civilians. The Trump administration claims its victims are members of at least one of 24 or more cartels and criminal gangs with whom it claims to be at war but refuses to name.

The boat strikes recently moved to land as so-called “bilateral kinetic actions” along the Colombia–Ecuador border. “The joint effort, named ‘Operation Total Extermination,’ is the start of a military offensive by Ecuador against transnational criminal organizations with the support of the U.S.,” Joseph Humire, the acting assistant secretary of war for homeland defense and Americas security affairs, announced last month.

“There’s a danger that these lawless killings just become background noise,” Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer who is a specialist in counterterrorism issues and the laws of war, told The Intercept in the wake of the 50th boat strike. “The U.S. Congress remains the institution best situated to bring these to halt — if not now, then at least after the midterms. And members of Congress and 2028 hopefuls should be vowing accountability for those who participated in unlawful killings.”

Finucane and other experts in the laws of war, as well as members of Congress, from both parties, say the strikes are illegal, extrajudicial killings because the military is not permitted to deliberately target civilians — even suspected criminals — who do not pose an imminent threat of violence. The summary executions are a significant departure from standard practice in the long-running U.S. war on drugs, in which law enforcement agencies detained suspected drug smugglers and brought them to trial on criminal charges.

After blowing up one of the boats on Saturday, U.S. Southern Command sent a message to the Coast Guard alerting them to “a person in distress in the Pacific Ocean,” Coast Guard spokesperson Kenneth Wiese told The Intercept.

The Coast Guard “immediately commenced search efforts,” calling on ships in the area to divert to search for the survivor of the U.S. attack. The next day, a French-flagged cargo ship, MV Marius, diverted to the scene but “completed its search with negative results and departed the area due to operational and fuel constraints,” according to the Coast Guard. On Monday, a U.S.-flagged research vessel, RV Sikuliaq, “completed two search patterns provided by the Coast Guard with negative results.” The same day, at 10:43 Pacific time, the Coast Guard suspended its efforts after having found “no signs of survivors or debris.”

Most boat strike survivors have been purposefully killed or left to drown by the United States. Two survivors, for example, clung to the wreckage of a vessel attacked on September 2, 2025, for roughly 45 minutes. Adm. Frank Bradley — then the head of Joint Special Operations Command — sought guidance from his top legal adviser, Col. Cara Hamaguchi, the staff judge advocate at the secretive JSOC. He then ordered a follow-up attack, first reported by The Intercept in September, that killed the shipwrecked men.

Search efforts for survivors have seldom resulted in rescues. After a U.S boat strike on December 30, a Coast Guard plane did not head toward the site of the attack for almost two days, reporting from Airwars and The Intercept revealed. A total of 11 civilians died following that attack— including eight who jumped overboard.

The Coast Guard atypically rescued the survivor of a March 19 attack that killed two civilians. The Costa Rican press recently identified the deceased as Ecuadoran citizens Pedro Ramón Holguín, 40, and Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Solórzano, 34. The injured man was identified as José David Torres Hurtado, 21, a Colombian national. He reportedly remains hospitalized in the burn unit at San Juan de Dios Hospital, “where, according to medical reports, his condition is critical but stable,” said Costa Rican authorities.

The Intercept reported on Monday that the U.S. is waging a pressure campaign against the leading pan-American human rights watchdog to squash a potential investigation into the illegal boat strike campaign. After a recent meeting of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the State Department pushed the organization to shift its focus to other issues instead of the U.S. campaign of extrajudicial killings.

The post The U.S. Is Still Routinely Killing Civilians in Boats appeared first on The Intercept.

David Hinton will receive only his £400,000 salary this year after thousands of customers were left without water

The chief executive of South East Water has said he will forgo his bonus in an act of penitence for “unacceptable outages” that left thousands of customers in Kent and Sussex without water.

David Hinton told MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs select committee that he had decided not to accept an additional “performance payment” this year. Instead, he will receive only his £400,000 salary.

Lonna Drewes alleges Democratic congressman drugged and raped her at Beverly Hills hotel

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Another woman has come forward to accuse Eric Swalwell of sexual assault, claiming the California Democrat drugged and raped her in 2018.

At a press conference in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, Lonna Drewes said she was working as a model in Beverly Hills, was interested in local politics, and owned a fashion software company when she met the now 45-year-old congressman.

Traeger's premium pellet grills typically cost $1,000 or more. The Westwood Series is the brand's most approachable line to date.

Trump Mobile now features a third design of the T1 phone, alongside images and videos of Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. There's still no release date.

Chancellor faced with fund’s forecast that impact of Iran war will leave Britain as G7’s biggest loser

• Iran war escalation could trigger global recession, IMF warns

The Iran war is bad news for the global economy. But for some countries, the unfolding conflict is having a bigger impact than for others. The International Monetary Fund’s verdict is that Britain is the G7’s biggest loser.

Amid the rising damage from the Middle East war, the Washington-based fund warned UK economic growth rate would be 0.5 percentage points lower this year than it had predicted back in January – the biggest downgrade among the club of wealthy nations.

• Mascherano coached one full season with Messi in Miami

• Inter Miami have been off to a slow start in 2026

Javier Mascherano has stunningly stepped down as Inter Miami’s manager, just months after leading the team to their first MLS title.

In the club’s announcement of the move, Mascherano said he was leaving for “personal reasons,” though later on the announcement specifies that his coaching staff will also depart the club.

The family of Marie-Thérèse, from Brittany, fear for her health after she was cuffed and placed in a detention centre

An 86-year-old French woman who moved to the US to marry her 1950s sweetheart is being held in a crowded detention centre in Louisiana after she was arrested by immigration agents and cuffed by her hands and feet.

The family of the woman, named only as Marie-Thérèse, said they feared for her health as French consular officials attempted to secure her release. One of her sons told the Ouest-France newspaper that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had treated his mother like a hardened criminal.

Virginia signs national popular vote bill into law, joining interstate compact with 17 other states and District of Columbia

A national majority vote for president is one step closer to reality after the Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, signed the national popular vote bill into law, joining an interstate compact with 17 other states and the District of Columbia.

Under the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, states would assign their presidential electors to the winner of the popular vote, regardless of the results within the state. The compact takes effect when states representing a majority of electoral votes – 270 of 538 – pass the legislation and thus would determine the winner of the presidential contest. With Virginia, the compact now has 222 electors.

Remarks come as Italian PM suspends defence agreement with Israel amid growing domestic pressure over conflict

Donald Trump lashed out at one of his closest allies on Tuesday, saying Italy’s Giorgia Meloni lacked courage in light of her failure to join the US in attacking Iran.

“I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,” the US president said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Flock Safety is setting up camears and drones across the country. I spoke to cities fighting back against the AI surveillance, privacy advocates and Flock itself.

Thousands face power outages and a number of schools close across region as forecasters warn of hail and flooding

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A day after severe storms damaged communities in the Plains and the midwest, forecasters warned that storms could bring giant hail, tornadoes and severe wind gusts to the regions again on Tuesday afternoon and evening.

Authorities in Kansas reported several people with minor injuries after storms passed through on Monday. Three people were left with minor injuries in rural Franklin county, about 50 miles (80km) south-west of Kansas City, according to the sheriff’s office. In the town of Ottawa, officials said there was structural damage, but no deaths or injuries. A National Weather Service survey team will assess damage in the Ottawa area on Tuesday to determine whether a tornado passed through there, according to Chelsea Picha, a meteorologist with the weather service’s office in Topeka.

Several state houses have introduced bills that would heavily curtail your use of 3D printing. We want to know how you feel about that.

Google is launching a new feature, Skills in Chrome, that allows you to save and reuse your go-to AI prompts.

KAYLA BELFONT
Staff Reporter

LAUREN BOYER
Opinion Columnist

Fools in the Sun formed on the university’s campus last October. The band already has more than 2,500 followers on Instagram and has celebrated their one-year anniversary. 

“What’s kind of ridiculous is the amount of growth we’ve had,” Tyler Urie, the band’s drummer, said. “Like, if I’m being completely honest, I never thought we’d really play more than three shows a semester, right?”

Urie, a senior at the university, has been making electronic dance music (EDM) for as long as he can remember. Ever since he was a child, Urie could recall being surrounded by instruments to play with.

Other band members include Stephen Oneto, Andy Stefancik, Nicole Koehler, Dylan Ngo and Coleman Walsh. 

In addition to a variety of musical genres, the band’s wide range of experiences and interests also influenced the unique sound they create.

“As for the music that we write, I think it’s kind of a blend of all of the different music genres that have influenced us growing up,” Oneto said.

Oneto, a senior majoring in entrepreneurship, plays guitar and piano for the band. Stefancik, who also plays the guitar and piano, started playing the saxophone in middle school and picked up the piano during the pandemic. Now a senior, he is pursuing degrees in meteorology and climate science.

Koehler, who sings for the band, is a public relations communication major. She began her musical career in musical theater. Ngo sings, plays guitar and is a senior majoring in liberal studies with a medical scholars concentration at the university. 

Like Koehler, he has experience in musical theater, along with Walsh, who is a senior majoring in cognitive science and computer science and plays bass and piano for the band. 

After Ngo’s freshman year, the idea for a band was planted. 

“It was more just something fun to do,” Ngo said. “I actually taught Stephen guitar during the summer after freshman year of college and he started getting really good and we started playing together where we would hang out back at home,” Ngo said. “And that kind of became like, a routine thing whenever we would hang out. 

Stefancik, whom Ngo met in college, was already in a band, and they initially considered joining him. Instead, Ngo and Oneto formed their own group, with Stefancik later joining them. 

“We started one ourselves, just out of pure creativity and interest,” Ngo said.

Urie joined the band at Stefancik’s invitation, as the two knew each other through their fraternity. Oneto said Walsh was brought on after they reached out to him, while Koehler, a high school classmate of both Oneto and Ngo, joined a few months later. 

“Our dynamic works really well with all of us,” Khoehler said. “We all genuinely like it. So if it gets to a point where it’s obtainable to continue, then we would love to.”

According to Koehler, writing music is something they do as a group. Urie added that he keeps a journal of song ideas. Despite having different majors and interests outside of the band, they all have a lot in common musically, making the band a fun outlet for all of them. 

Regarding their inspiration, many band members got their start at home. 

Urie shared that his parents are not musical people, yet they always encouraged him to play music.

“My dad played guitar,” Stefancik said. “He bought me, like, this little ukulele I had, and I bang around on that when I was, like, four. So I was always kind of around music, but I didn’t really start thinking seriously about it.”

Oneto shared that his mom got him into piano lessons as a kid, and despite complaining about it at the time, he is grateful that the experience led him to becoming a member of the band.

Their music takes inspiration from The Backseat Lovers and Kings of Leon, according to Koehler.

“Probably if those two had a baby,” Oneto said. “But the main theme is it doesn’t really matter the genre. It’s more about, do people know the words and do people want to sing along to it and dance to it when they’re hanging out with their friends, having a good time?”

The band members shared that their participation in Fools in the Sun has transformed their outlook on life.

Urie originally planned to major in music, then changed his mind. He regrets that decision, as he feels that his current major, cybersecurity engineering, is not as fulfilling, but he is grateful that the band allowed him to get back into doing music.

“I’m happy that I can provide that kind of enjoyment to people because at the end of the day, I love playing music and I think everyone else here, we really don’t do it for ourselves,” Urie said. “We can just do it because people really like it. I mean, I’d love to continue after college.”

Oneto was on the same page.

“The goal is for all of our free time to be spent working towards making this our career,” Oneto said. “So this is just going to be the side gig, side hobby until it doesn’t have to be that anymore, and it can be our full-time job.”

Urie believes that the band is the best thing that has happened to him during his time in college and thinks that without the band, he would not know what he wanted to do post-graduation.

“The closer I get to having a job, the more I’d rather do this as a job,” Oneto said. “Every day that passes makes me want to make the band work professionally even more.” 

“We actually have something here that we could turn into something special and take it and run with it,” Oneto said. For now, Fools in the Sun is planning on staying in the area and releasing an EP. 

In the long run, the band hopes to expand, even if that means relocating.

“We are about hitting our peak of how much … we can grow at this point,” Urie said.

Luckily, it seems their original music will soon be available digitally. Despite their many other time commitments, the band remains strongly committed to its work and its future together. The band plans to release an EP soon, which will include original work.

“I just think it’s a really cool thing to do what you love and share it with other people that love it as well,” Oneto said. “And that was the initial motivation behind wanting to play live, whether it was in a band or just me and him playing guitar and singing, like, just being able to share our passion with other people and rope people into what we love.”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said social media platforms should remove addictive infinite-scroll features for young users as Britain considers new child-safety measures. "We're consulting on whether there should be a ban for under 16s," Starmer told BBC Radio. "But I think equally important, the addictive scrolling mechanisms are really problematic to my mind. They need to go." Reuters reports: Britain, like other countries, is considering restricting access to social media for children and it is testing bans, curfews and app time limits to see how they impact sleep, family life and schoolwork. Social media companies had designed algorithms that were intended to encourage addictive behavior, and parents were asking the government to intervene, Starmer said. [...] More than 45,000 people had already responded to its consultation on children's online safety, the UK government said, adding that there was still time to contribute before a deadline of May 26. "We want to hear from mums and dads who are worried about the amount of time their children spend online and what they are viewing," Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said on Monday. "We want to hear from teenagers who know better than anyone what it is like to grow up in the age of social media. And we want to hear from families about their views on curfews, AI chatbots and addictive features."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Parent company of non-profit news website Baltimore Banner announces it acquired paper for undisclosed sum

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has roots that date back to 1786, was set to close next month, in a major blow to the city and a sign of the distressed state of local news. Not any more.

On Tuesday, the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, the parent company of the Baltimore Banner non-profit news website in Maryland, announced it had acquired the Post-Gazette for an undisclosed sum.

PARIS and DUBLIN, April 14, 2026 — Bull, a leader in advanced computing and AI, and Equal1, a global pioneer in silicon-powered quantum computing, today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to advance the next generation of hybrid quantum-classical technologies with European solutions.

Credit: Bull

At a time when quantum computing is transitioning from promise to practical reality, Bull and Equal1 share a common objective to accelerate the adoption of quantum‑enhanced computing for industrial and scientific applications. By enabling seamless hybridization between classical HPC and quantum computing, the partnership aims to lower the barrier for industrial and scientific adoption of quantum-accelerated workloads.

The partnership brings together Bull’s world-class supercomputing infrastructure and quantum emulation expertise with Equal1’s breakthrough silicon-spin quantum computers. By interfacing Equal1’s hardware directly with Bull’s Qaptiva platform, the companies offer quantum computing capabilities in existing AI and HPC data centre environments, enabling users to develop, test and optimize quantum algorithms and use cases while mitigating the uncertainty and error rates of current‑generation quantum hardware.

The collaboration focuses on three core pillars:

• Technical Integration: Developing a seamless connector between Equal1’s rack-mounted quantum servers and Bull’s Qaptiva software stack to enable high-speed hybridization between classical supercomputers and quantum processors.
• Joint R&D: Advancing research in silicon-spin qubit characterization and physics to drive the development of scalable, energy-efficient quantum-on-chip technology.
• Sovereign European Projects: Collaborating on European Union-led quantum initiatives to strengthen the continent’s technological sovereignty in the global quantum race.

Bruno Lecointe, SVP, Global Head of HPC, AI and Quantum at Bull, said: “The convergence of high-performance computing and quantum technologies is redefining how we address the world’s most complex challenges, Ten years after launching the first quantum emulator of the market, innovation has always been part of Bull’s DNA and we remain committed to designing hybrid architectures that help translate emerging technologies into operational capability By integrating Equal1’s silicon-spin quantum servers into our Qaptiva ecosystem, we are enabling a seamless bridge between HPC, quantum emulation and quantum execution. This alliance ensures our customers can leverage quantum-centric supercomputing to achieve real-world outcomes with unprecedented efficiency and performance.”

Jason Lynch, CEO of Equal1, commented: “By building quantum processors on standard silicon, we are turning quantum from bespoke laboratory hardware into deployable infrastructure. This collaboration with Bull is a vital step in bridging the gap between breakthrough hardware innovation and industrial workloads. Together, we are positioning our joint solutions as the standard for high-performance computing, enabling seamless integration into existing data centers and driving a more sustainable digital future.”

Under the terms of the MoU, the parties will establish a framework for technical exchange and joint project evaluation, initially focused on advancing physics-based simulations and large-scale datacenter infrastructure.

About Bull

Leveraging nearly a century of innovations, Bull is a global leader for High-Performance Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Quantum technologies with c.720m€ in revenue and 3,000 professionals operating in 32 countries. Built on an open, end-to-end and trusted approach, Bull designs, deploys and operates hardware, software and strategic services that unlock enterprise value, accelerate scientific research and advance society. Driven by world-class R&D, backed by 1,600 patents, manufacturing excellence and data sciences expertise, Bull enables nations and industries to fully control their AI and data and to drive progress for the benefit of the planet.

About Equal1

Equal1 is a global leader in silicon-powered quantum computing technology. Headquartered in Dublin, the company delivers the world’s first rack-mounted, hybrid quantum-classical computer using silicon-spin quantum processors. Its flagship Bell-1 Quantum Server is designed for seamless integration into standard datacenter environments, providing a scalable path to millions of on-chip qubits.

Source: Bull

The post Bull and Equal1 Partner to Accelerate Hybrid Quantum-HPC Integration in Europe appeared first on HPCwire.

County officials review whether ICE’s warrantless raid and forced transport of a St Paul US citizen broke law

Authorities in Minnesota are investigating the detention by federal immigration officers of a US citizen as a possible kidnapping, burglary and false imprisonment.

The arrest of ChongLy “Scott” Thao, 56, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in January became symbolic of Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s brutal crackdown in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul.

Warsh's wealth far outstrips that of outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose most recent disclosure shows he is worth at least $19.5 million.

With the ejection of Trumpian hero Viktor Orbán, Hungarians demanded a restored democracy. Now, Europe must support them

To be in Budapest last Sunday evening was to see history again being made on the Danube. As rapturous crowds gathered on the riverbank opposite the brightly illuminated parliament building, chanting “Ria-ria Hungaria!” and “Hungary-Europe!”, we all knew that the implications of the dramatic election victory for the Tisza party of Péter Magyar go far beyond this one central European country. The result is very good news for Ukraine and the European Union. It’s correspondingly bad news for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the US president, Donald Trump, those twin backers of Viktor Orbán’s regime. The critical question now is whether Hungary can be the first country in the world to emerge from such a far-reaching populist erosion of democracy – the “Orbánisation” Trump is trying to emulate in the US – and whether Europe has the political will and imagination to enable it to succeed.

Already on Friday evening, standing amid a huge crowd of young people at a “system-changer” concert on Heroes’ Square, I felt the energy for change. In the very square where, back in 1989, I watched a fiery young student leader named Viktor Orbán call for the end of the weary old communist regime and for the Russians to go home, I now saw a new generation of Hungarians calling for the end of a weary old regime led by this same Orbán and his Fidesz party. “Filthy Fidesz!” they cried and, yes, “Russians go home!” For everyone knows that today’s Orbán is Putin’s man in Brussels.

Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist. His book The Magic Lantern contains an eyewitness account of the young Orbán’s 1989 appearance in Heroes’ Square

Meg O’Neill to return to upstream and downstream divisions after shift away from low carbon push

BP’s new boss has set out plans to reinstate the company structure the fossil fuel supermajor ditched six years ago as part of its failed attempt to reorganise the business to pursue a green agenda.

Meg O’Neill told staff that the 117-year-old company would return to a “simpler, stronger” two-business arrangement including an upstream oil and gas production unit and a downstream business focused on refining and distributing fuels and retail activities.

The US blockade of ships using Iranian ports has come into force but several Iran-linked tankers have passed through the strait of Hormuz since it began. The blockade is designed to put pressure on Iran, whose economy is dependent on oil and gas exports. It comes after peace talks between Washington and Tehran at the weekend ended without a deal.

Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour

Deal, subject to regulatory approval, would give Bezos firm access to Globalstar’s network of two dozen satellites

Amazon said on Tuesday it would acquire a satellite company in an $11.57bn deal, bolstering its own fledgling space business as it looks to take on Elon Musk-led bigger rival Starlink.

The deal gives Amazon access to Globalstar’s network of two dozen satellites, boosting the tech giant’s ambitions to challenge SpaceX unit Starlink, which currently has about 10,000 units in orbit.

COLLEGE PARK, Md., April 14, 2026 — IonQ today announced it has achieved a foundational technical milestone by photonically interconnecting two independent trapped-ion quantum systems. This achievement marks the first demonstration of connected, commercial quantum computers, a critical step toward scaling quantum computation beyond a single processor.

By successfully linking two remote quantum systems, IonQ has validated the generation, transmission, and detection of photons used to enable quantum entanglement between two commercial IonQ computers at a distance for the first time. This major commercial result reinforces prior lab demonstrations and the theory of using photonic links to interconnect separated trapped-ion platforms while preserving the coherence necessary for advanced quantum operations.

“Achieving this photonic interconnect milestone is a pivotal moment in our roadmap as we move from individual quantum processors to distributed, networked architectures,” said Niccolo de Masi, IonQ’s CEO. “Scaling quantum computation beyond the limits of a single chip is essential for realizing a future quantum internet. This demonstration proves that our trapped-ion platform is uniquely suited for the high-fidelity networking required to solve the world’s most complex problems.”

The successful demonstration of these network qubits underscores the repeatability and reliability of IonQ’s hardware as the company transitions toward fault-tolerant, modular systems.

This research was, in part, funded by the U.S. Government through an agreement with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The project highlights IonQ’s ongoing engagement with federal and defense partners to advance national security and scientific research capabilities including its advancement to Stage B of DARPA’s quantum benchmarking initiative; the launch of its IonQ Federal division; the appointment of former Chief of Space Operations for the U.S. Space Force, General John Raymond to its Board of Directors; and its world record achievement in quantum computing performance – 99.99% two-qubit gate performance.

About AFRL

The Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace forces. With a workforce spanning across nine technology areas and 40 other operations around the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development. For more information, visit www.afresearchlab.com.

About IonQ

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ) is the world’s leading quantum platform and merchant supplier – delivering integrated quantum solutions across computing, networking, sensing, and security. IonQ’s newest generation of quantum computers, the IonQ Tempo, is the latest in a line of cutting-edge systems that have been helping customers and partners including Amazon Web Services, NVIDIA, and AstraZeneca achieve 20x performance results and accelerate innovation in drug discovery, materials science, financial modeling, logistics, cybersecurity, and defense. In 2025, the company achieved 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity, setting a world record in quantum computing performance.

Source: IonQ

The post IonQ Demonstrates Photonic Interconnect Between Two Quantum Systems appeared first on HPCwire.

You can also celebrate the start of the NHL playoffs with EA Sports NHL 26.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg launched a criminal contempt inquiry after he said officials defied an order to turn around flights of Venezuelan migrants bound for El Salvador.

Mark Meadows is asking the Justice Dept. to reimburse him for legal fees he incurred in multiple federal and state investigations of President Trump, sources said.

Body camera video shows a St. Louis police officer shoot Emeshyon Wilkins in the back of the head as he fled, contradicting an earlier police statement.

Brian Hooker, whose wife disappeared during a nighttime boat ride​ in the Bahamas, said he wants to believe his wife is still alive and plans to go back out to look for her as soon as possible.

The chairs of three GOP-led House committees say ActBlue "may have deliberately" withheld some documents from their probe into fraudulent political donations.

Before you file your 2025 tax return, make sure you know the changes that could put more money back in your pocket.

Arne Slot's Reds need to overturn a two-goal deficit at Anfield.

Hansi Flick's team needs to overturn a two-goal deficit at the Metropolitano Stadium.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Alphabet's Google is facing billions of dollars in potential damage claims as part of mass arbitration tied to the company's online search and advertising technology businesses, which courts have ruled were illegal monopolies. Advertisers are banding together to seek payouts through mass arbitration proceedings. While many companies that displayed ads purchased through Google -- including USA Today Co. and Advance Publications -- have sued for damages since the rulings in 2024, advertiser contracts with the search giant require mandatory arbitration over legal disputes. In arbitration, legal disputes are handled by a mediator, a process that tends to favor companies in individual claims. Mass arbitration -- where 25 or more claims against the same company are pooled together -- have become more common and provide a greater likelihood of settlement awards for claimants. Ashley Keller, a Chicago lawyer whose firm has handled mass arbitrations against DoorDash, Postmates and TurboTax-maker Intuit, said he's already signed up a "significant number" of advertisers to participate in claims against Google. The first of those are expected to be filed this week. "Two federal judges have already adjudicated Google to be a monopolist," Keller said in an interview with Bloomberg. "It seems sensible to seek redress." Keller, who is also representing Texas and other states in a lawsuit against Google for monopolization of advertising technology, estimates potential claims for online search and display ads could reach $218 billion or more, based on calculations from an economist his firm has hired. Similar mass arbitrations have lasted 12 to 24 months between the filing of claims and resolution, he said. "Given the nature of these matters, we cannot estimate a possible loss," Google said in a recent corporate filing. "We believe we have strong arguments against these open claims and will defend ourselves vigorously."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Congressman says keeping gas supplies at home could lower costs for Americans amid price hikes sparked by war

Amid historic jumps in gas prices triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran, the California congressman Ro Khanna is to introduce legislation on Tuesday that would ban the export of gasoline during price spikes.

“The country is crying out for a new energy policy,” said Khanna in an interview with the Guardian, “that doesn’t have us subject to the whims of the profits of big oil companies.”

For the fifth and final time, The Boys are back.

Critics warn of ‘absolute disaster for the flying public’ if two air travel giants try to combine

The CEO of United Airlines is said to have pitched a blockbuster merger with American Airlines during a meeting with Donald Trump, floating the combination of the world’s two largest carriers.

Scott Kirby, who leads United, raised the prospect during an encounter with the US president in late February, Reuters reported, citing two unnamed sources. Such a deal would overhaul the global air travel industry – and would likely face intense competition scrutiny.

Ron Prosor says verbal attack on Friedrich Merz referencing Nazi regime ‘erodes the memory of the Holocaust’

Israel’s envoy to Germany has criticised a far-right Israeli cabinet member who made historically charged accusations against the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, saying the attack “[eroded] the memory of the Holocaust”.

In a rare rebuke of a top Israeli official by an active ambassador, Ron Prosor said he wished to “unequivocally condemn” Bezalel Smotrich’s tirade against Merz, in which he made reference to the Nazi regime and said: “You will not force us into ghettos again.”

The contest to replace Gavin Newsom was already bizarre – now after the downfall of its apparent frontrunner, the state’s Democrats are scrambling

Democrats were already fretting about the California governor’s race – a tangle of candidates with strong resumes but little star power all vying to lead the country’s most populous state – and the world’s fourth largest economy.

Then on Sunday, the closest claim the Democrats had to a frontrunner in the unsettled governor’s race, Eric Swalwell, suspended his campaign, amid allegations of sexual assault and misconduct, which the US representative forcefully denied and vowed to fight. On Monday, Swalwell, facing the threat of an expulsion vote, announced he would resign his seat in Congress.

Byelection wins and defections push Canada’s Liberals into majority government under the prime minister

Mark Carney has said he will govern with “humility, determination and a clear understanding of what this moment demands” after his Liberals swept three byelections Monday evening, forging a parliamentary majority just more than a year after he took power.

Carney has achieved only the third majority government in two decades – and has done so in a highly unusual fashion, cobbling together both ballot box wins and defections from rival parties.

Chancellor ‘frustrated and angry’ at the effect on UK firms and families and says US went into war without a clear exit plan

Q: Why are you calling for an inquiry into Nigel Farage’s investment in a bitcoin firm?

Davey said that, in investing in crypto, Farage, the Reform UK leader, seemed to be copying Donald Trump. He said he thought MPs should be banned from promoting financial services or products.

[Farage is] now promoting this business. The question is, is he persuading people to put money into a risky business?

And the conclusion I draw from this example is that we need to change the rules for MPs. MPs should not be allowed to promote specific financial services or products in the way we’re seeing Nigel Farage doing.

We need to get together as a country. The defence challenges for our country are so serious, with war on our continent for the first time for a long time, with Russia invading Ukraine, surely that’s been the wake up call that we needed. The government hasn’t gone as fast as it should have given those circumstances.

Considering borrowing from your home equity? Here are the home equity loan and HELOC interest rates to know first.

Expansion of funding, workforce and commercial engagement demonstrate increasing market and ecosystem maturity

WASHINGTON, April 14, 2026 — The global quantum technology industry made a significant stride toward maturity in 2025 and will continue its rapid growth trajectory, with revenues on track to double by 2028, according to the State of the Global Quantum Industry 2026 report released by the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C).

In 2025, the global quantum market reached $1.9 billion to include quantum computing at $1.4 billion and quantum sensing at $470 million, the global pure-play quantum workforce grew 14%, and private venture capital investment more than doubled.

According to the report, measurable technical progress, increased public and private investment, and a growing base of commercial and institutional participants were the key drivers of growth last year. Unlike previous years, industry momentum is no longer confined to research milestones alone, but is reflected in investment, workforce growth, and a sustained increase in revenue across regions and technology segments.

“Global public and private funding grew significantly in 2025, with governments and venture capital investors increasing commitments and companies hiring more workers,” said QED-C Executive Director Celia Merzbacher. “This year’s report underscores that the quantum technology industry is growing and maturing and is viewed around the world as strategically important.”

Market Growth Projection

The quantum computing market is projected to grow at a 30% annual rate to reach $3 billion by 2028, with a higher growth trajectory anticipated once quantum advantage is demonstrated for business-relevant problems. Quantum sensing is similarly expected to grow at a 32% annual rate, reaching $1.1 billion by 2028. Markets for quantum communications and security products are at an earlier stage. The total global market for quantum technologies is expected to double, exceeding $4 billion by 2028.

Composition

The QED-C report identified 7,418 quantum-engaged organizations worldwide at the end of 2025, including 556 pure-play quantum companies. The number of new pure-play companies founded in 2025 is up slightly from 2024, with mergers and acquisitions continuing as a means to expand capabilities: addressing gaps in market access, enabling technologies, or products. The quantum computing segment exhibits an increasingly multinational character.

Revenue

Overall, revenue at quantum computing-related companies is expected to accelerate. More than half of companies anticipate at least an 11% increase in revenue from 2025 to 2026, doubling from 2024 to 2025, with 37% of companies surveyed projecting more than 25% increase in revenue.

Investment

Public funding commitments for quantum research and innovation increased by more than $12.7 billion over the past year, reaching an estimated $56.7 billion total. Private venture capital investment in the quantum industry was $4.9 billion in 2025, more than doubling last year’s record high. Most global venture capital remains concentrated in the United States. U.S.-headquartered quantum companies raised more than $2.7 billion in venture capital in 2025, about $1 billion more than last year.

Workforce

Workforce expansion further underscores the sector’s evolution toward broad commercial scale. SGQI estimates that the global pure-play quantum workforce reached nearly 16,500 professionals in 2025, an increase of 2,000 workers in a single year, alongside sustained growth (11%) in job and internship openings. ​ There was also a shift toward business-oriented roles, indicating a focus on commercialization and scalable execution. ​

Patents

While the U.S. leads in virtually all other survey categories globally, including new quantum startups with 19 in 2025, China led global quantum-related patent filings with 54% of the total filed last year. ​Total patent filings grew by 31% from 2024 to 2025, suggesting an intensified focus on innovation and commercialization. The U.S. remains the second-largest jurisdiction for patent filings.

The QED-C State of the Global Quantum Industry 2026 report provides a data-driven perspective on the industry’s composition, investment, market size, workforce, and intellectual property. The data on which the report is based was current as of the end of 2025, with historical and forward-looking comparisons made where possible. The full report can be downloaded here.

About QED-C

The Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C) is the world’s premier  association of pioneers in the quantum technology marketplace. Members of QED-C  enable the real-world application of quantum technology, and, in turn, grow a robust  commercial industry and supply chain. Sitting at the intersection of tech, academia, business, entrepreneurship, and  policymaking, QED-C is uniquely able to foster the collaborations the industry needs.  QED-C is where experts and organizations share knowledge and collectively shape how quantum technology will grow. QED-C is managed by SRI. More information: https://quantumconsortium.org.

Source: QED-C

The post QED-C Report: Global Quantum Computing Market to Double by 2028, Reaching $3B in Revenue appeared first on HPCwire.

From Destruction to Recovery: Building Ukraine’s Future Prosperity 14 May 2026 — 14:00 TO 19:15 BST Anonymous (not verified) 14 April 2026 Chatham House

Half day conference on the war-time recovery of Ukraine and necessary policies to support its long-term prosperity building on the experience and analysis of both Chatham House and the EBRD.

Half day conference on the war-time recovery of Ukraine and necessary policies to support its long-term prosperity building on the experience and analysis of both Chatham House and the EBRD.

Chatham House in partnership with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is convening a high-level conference to discuss the roadmap for Ukraine’s economic recovery. The destruction caused by the Russian invasion is staggering. After four years of war the total cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine is almost $588 billion. Sustaining economic stability in war time and preparing for the most ambitious economic recovery project of the century, require effective collaboration of Ukrainian state, western donors, private sector and wider civil society. Ukraine’s integration with the EU and deep structural reforms could catalyse economic growth and enable social recovery and industrial reconstruction.

• How can Ukraine and its international partners develop security arrangements that provide credible long term assurances and strengthen regional stability?
• Which reforms could strengthen Ukraine’s economic growth and support a more predictable and competitive business environment? How to sustain momentum on the way to full membership in the EU?
• How can Ukraine position itself competitively in emerging European value chains?

The MoD shows little sign of learning from its mistakes – no wonder the Treasury is reluctant to agree to its demands

George Robertson, Tony Blair’s first defence secretary, a former Nato secretary general and an author last year of the latest in a series of evasive strategic defence reviews, accused Keir Starmer on Tuesday of a “corrosive complacency towards defence”. He said the prime minister was not willing to make the “necessary investment”.

Lord Robertson could have directed his fire elsewhere. He must know that no government department has been so complacent in the face of years of devastating evidence of waste, profligate contracts, and policy decisions that have avoided confronting new but increasingly clear security threats to Britain and other western countries.

While Samsung's OLED is still the king of picture quality, Micro RGB has its own perks.

Researchers at the University of Southern California say they've developed a memristor memory device that continued operating at 700 degrees Celsius. "And crucially, 700 degrees was not the limit, it was simply as hot as their testing equipment could go," adds ScienceAlert. "The device showed no signs of failing." From the report: The device is called a memristor and it's a nanoscale component that can both store information and perform computing operations. Think of it as a tiny sandwich with two electrode layers on the outside and a thin ceramic filling in the middle. The team built theirs from tungsten, the metal with the highest melting point of any element, combined with a ceramic called hafnium oxide, and with a layer of graphene at the bottom. Each material can withstand enormous heat. Together, they turned out to be extraordinary. What makes graphene the key ingredient is the way it interacts with tungsten at the atomic level. In a conventional device, heat causes metal atoms to drift slowly through the ceramic layer until they bridge the two electrodes, short circuiting everything and leaving the device permanently broken. Graphene stops that process dead. Its surface chemistry with tungsten is ... almost like oil and water. Tungsten atoms that drift toward the graphene find they simply cannot take hold, no anchor, no short circuit, no failure. The team used advanced electron microscopy and quantum level computer simulations to understand exactly why, turning a single lucky result into a repeatable principle. The findings have been published in the journal Science.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ukrainian leader hopes for ‘pragmatic’ and ‘friendly’ relations with new government in contrast with hostility of previous pro-Russian regime

in Berlin

At his press conference with Zelenskyy, Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz also welcomed Péter Magyar’s decisive victory, saying it would have “implications for our support for Ukraine”.

“More Hungarians than ever before cast their votes. By an overwhelming majority, they voted not only to oust a government, but to oust an entire system.”

“Volodymyr Zelenskyy and I also discussed this. The funds for military support must now be disbursed quickly. Ukraine needs them urgently.”

• Crocker hired Emma Hayes and Mauricio Pochettino

• Sporting director duties to be split in the meantime

US Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker is leaving his post with less than two months to go until the 2026 World Cup, US Soccer announced on Tuesday. The Guardian can also confirm Fox Sports’ earlier reporting that Crocker is taking up a similar role with the Saudi Arabia football federation.

US Soccer said Crocker’s duties will be shared by chief operating officer Dan Helfrich, assistant sporting director Oguchi Onyewu, women’s youth national team head of development Tracey Kevins, and “the broader sporting leadership team.”

Zack Coughlan accused of killing fellow student Jamie Collins, who was found dead at property they shared in Filton

A man has been charged with stabbing his university housemate to death at their house share in Bristol last week.

Jamie Collins, 21, a robotics student at the University of the West of England, was found dead in the rear garden of a property in Filton with “a number of stab wounds” in the early hours of 9 April.

Video shot in the town of Fallon showed shattered glass and food scattered on the floor in the aisles of a grocery store

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A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck a rural part of Nevada east of the state’s capital of Carson City on Monday.

The temblor hit just before 6.30pm, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. It was centered 12.9 miles (21km) east of the town of Silver Springs at a depth of 3.1 miles (5km).

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 14, 2026 — NVIDIA today announced the world’s first family of open source quantum AI models, NVIDIA Ising, designed to help researchers and enterprises build quantum processors capable of running useful applications.

Leading quantum enterprises, academic institutions and research labs adopting Ising include Academia Sinica, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Infleqtion, IQM Quantum Computers, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Advanced Quantum Testbed and the U.K. National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Credit: NVIDIA.

To achieve useful quantum applications at scale, significant breakthroughs are needed in quantum processor calibration and quantum error correction. AI is key for turning today’s quantum processors into large-scale, reliable computers. Open models empower developers to build high-performance AI while maintaining total control over their data and infrastructure.

Named after a landmark mathematical model that dramatically simplified the understanding of complex physical systems, the NVIDIA Ising family provides high-performance, scalable AI tools for quantum error correction and calibration — two of the most critical challenges in building hybrid-quantum classical systems.

Ising models run the world’s best quantum processor calibration and enable researchers to tackle much larger, more complex problems with quantum computers by delivering up to 2.5x faster performance and 3x higher accuracy for the decoding process needed for quantum error correction.

“AI is essential to making quantum computing practical,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “With Ising, AI becomes the control plane — the operating system of quantum machines — transforming fragile qubits to scalable and reliable quantum-GPU systems.”

The quantum computing market is expected to surpass $11 billion in 2030, according to analyst firm Resonance. This growth trajectory is highly dependent on continued progress in addressing critical engineering challenges, such as quantum error correction and scalability.

NVIDIA Ising includes state-of-the-art customizable models, tools and data that accelerate quantum processors:

• Ising Calibration: A vision language model that can rapidly interpret and react to measurements from quantum processors. This enables AI agents to automate continuous calibration, reducing the time needed from days to hours.
• Ising Decoding: Two variants of a 3D convolutional neural network model — optimized for either speed or accuracy — to perform real-time decoding for quantum error correction. Ising Decoding models are up to 2.5x faster and 3x more accurate than pyMatching, the current open source industry standard.

Ecosystem Adoption

Leading enterprises, academic institutions and research labs are adopting Ising for quantum computing development.

Ising Calibration is already in use by Atom Computing, Academia Sinica, EeroQ, Conductor Quantum, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Infleqtion, IonQ, IQM Quantum Computers, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Advanced Quantum Testbed, Q-CTRL and the U.K. National Physical Laboratory (NPL).

Ising Decoding is being deployed by Cornell University, EdenCode, Infleqtion, IQM Quantum Computers, Quantum Elements, Sandia National Laboratories, SEEQC, University of California San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, University of Chicago, University of Southern California and Yonsei University.

In addition, NVIDIA is providing a cookbook of quantum computing workflows and training data along with NVIDIA NIM microservices, equipping developers to fine-tune models for specific hardware architectures and use cases with minimal setup. The models can also run locally on researchers’ systems, protecting proprietary data.

NVIDIA Ising complements the NVIDIA CUDA-Q software platform for hybrid quantum-classical computing and integrates with the NVIDIA NVQLink QPU-GPU hardware interconnect for real-time control and quantum error correction, providing researchers and developers with a full suite of tools needed to turn today’s qubits into tomorrow’s accelerated quantum supercomputers.

Get Started with NVIDIA Open Models

NVIDIA Ising joins NVIDIA’s open model portfolio, which includes NVIDIA Nemotron for agentic systems, NVIDIA Cosmos for physical AI, NVIDIA Alpamayo for autonomous vehicles, NVIDIA Isaac GR00T for robotics and NVIDIA BioNeMo for biomedical research.

These open models, data and frameworks are available on GitHub, Hugging Face and build.nvidia.com.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in AI and accelerated computing.

Source: NVIDIA

The post NVIDIA Debuts ‘Ising’ AI Models for Quantum Calibration and Error Correction appeared first on HPCwire.

COLLEGE PARK, Md., April 14, 2026 — IonQ announced that it has been awarded a contract in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s Heterogeneous Architectures for Quantum (HARQ) program.

As a part of HARQ, IonQ plays a critical role in enabling a new class of networked quantum computers that combine distinct qubit types—such as trapped ions, neutral atoms, and/or superconducting qubits—into an interconnected, high-performance architecture taking advantage of each modality’s strengths. This effort seeks to leverage advances in photonic integration and quantum interconnects for reliable communication between diverse qubit species.

“We’re pleased to be selected for DARPA’s HARQ program. IonQ’s pioneering quantum interconnect technology can enable modular scalability not only for ion traps, but for a wide range of quantum technologies,” said Niccolo de Masi, Chairman and CEO of IonQ. “We look forward to collaborating with DARPA to strengthen national security by developing the quantum platform which can serve as a backbone for networking and scaling quantum systems – across qubit types – for advanced public and private sector applications.”

IonQ’s contribution to the HARQ program focuses on quantum memories, which are the core chips around which IonQ’s quantum interconnect systems are built. Fabricated out of quantum-grade synthetic diamond, IonQ’s memories are field-leaders in networking applications ranging from datacenter-scale interconnects to advanced long-distance entanglement distribution networks, and are well-suited to supporting HARQ’s ambitious ultimate speed and fidelity targets.

IonQ’s involvement in HARQ supports the company’s mission to deliver on its aggressive commercial and technical goals. In 2025, the company achieved a world record 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity and reached the #AQ 64 milestone on its IonQ Tempo system three months ahead of schedule. In 2025, IonQ also achieved the first qubit to photon frequency conversion in a field deployable system, ensuring real-world quantum networks on existing standard fiber optic commercial infrastructure.

More from HPCwire: DARPA Details HARQ Effort to Advance Heterogeneous Quantum Systems

About IonQ

IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ) is the world’s leading quantum platform and merchant supplier – delivering integrated quantum solutions across computing, networking, sensing, and security. IonQ’s newest generation of quantum computers, the IonQ Tempo, is the latest in a line of cutting-edge systems that have been helping customers and partners including Amazon Web Services, NVIDIA, and AstraZeneca achieve 20x performance results and accelerate innovation in drug discovery, materials science, financial modeling, logistics, cybersecurity, and defense. In 2025, the company achieved 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity, setting a world record in quantum computing performance.

Source: IonQ

The post IonQ Selected for DARPA’s HARQ Program appeared first on HPCwire.

Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta changed its speech rules to add new restrictions around posts including the word “antifa,” according to documents reviewed by The Intercept.

This spring, Meta quietly revised its Community Standards policy, an internal company document dictating what its billions of global users can and cannot say online. The latest tweaks can be found in a chapter on “Violence and Incitement,” where a subsection titled “Other Violence” spells out, among other rules, the company’s bans on ads for assassins. It’s in this subsection where Meta last month published a revision to include new limitations for users who mention antifascism.

Policy documents reviewed by The Intercept show the company now treats any “Content that includes the word ‘antifa’ as a potential rules violation if that word appears along with what Meta deems a “content-level threat signal” — meaning a statement that the company believes implies violence.

In some cases, the content that Meta considers a threat signal is commonsensical. If, for instance, a user mentions bringing a weapon to an event, the company flags it as a threat signal. But in other cases, Meta’s process for identifying threat signals is more vague. Under the new rules, Meta might trigger a threat signal when a user posts a “visual depiction of a weapon,” a “reference to arson, theft, or vandalism,” or “military language,” if accompanied by the word “antifa.”

If “antifa” is mentioned in the context of “references to historical or recent incidents of violence” — a category so sprawling that it includes “historic wars” and “battles” —  that post will also be penalized. Should Meta apply this rule as written, the company could, for instance, restrict posts comparing the antifascist nature of World War II to the contemporary antifa movement.

Potential penalties for violating Community Standards range from a full account ban to comments being hidden or suppressed.

The policy change follows years of Meta and its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s pivot of political convenience toward President Donald Trump and his base. Following Trump’s second electoral victory, Meta quickly changed its speech rules to allow for anti-transgender slurs and dehumanization of immigrants, The Intercept previously reported, aligning the company with longtime MAGA culture war grievances.

Related

A Redditor Criticized ICE. Trump Is Trying to Unmask Them by Dragging the Company to a Secret Grand Jury.

Asked about the new restrictions on the word “antifa,” Meta spokesperson Erica Sackin pointed to a March transparency report that noted the company would “remove QAnon and Antifa content when combined with content-level threat signals.” The report does not explain what those signals are. Meta did not respond when asked if the company had discussed its antifa speech rules with the Trump administration.

Meta largely outsources the enforcement of its Community Standards rules to low-paid contractors whose interpretation and application of the policies can vary. The company’s automated, algorithmic content moderation systems are also famously glitchy. This combination can result in erratic censorship, particularly when political ideology is classified as violent or terroristic.

The new rules around saying “antifa” on Facebook and Instagram comes amid efforts by the White House to crack down on left-wing political organizing under the guise of national security. Though antifa is a contraction of the word antifascism and not an actual group, Trump last September signed an executive order designating the leaderless decentralized movement as a domestic terrorist organization. A subsequent executive memorandum, NSPM-7, again singled out “antifa” ideology as a cause of “domestic terrorism and organized political violence.”

Prior reporting by The Intercept has shown Meta historically hews closely to federal terrorism labels. Meta in 2020 announced it would tackle the leftist bogeyman under its “Movements and Organizations Tied to Violence” policy alongside QAnon, the right-wing mass delusion that helped foment the January 6 effort to overturn the results of the presidential election by force. Though self-identified antifa adherents have taken part in acts of property damage during protests, analyses repeatedly show that left-wing violence in the United States is a relatively small and rare threat compared to right-wing extremist groups and militias.

The post Facebook and Instagram Tighten Censorship Rules for Saying “Antifa” appeared first on The Intercept.

I did the math to see how much a new fridge saves compared to a 10-year-old model, and how long it'll take to pay back the upfront cost.

Party says plan for ‘radical change’ will be funded in part through higher taxes on aviation, gambling and landlords

• UK politics live – latest updates

The Scottish Greens have called for free bus travel, thousands of extra teachers and doctors and a universal basic income among hundreds of uncosted manifesto pledges.

The party is enjoying a bounce in Scottish opinion polls, with some putting it ahead of Labour, driven partly by the surging support for the Green party of England and Wales under the leadership of Zack Polanski.

CHICAGO, April 14, 2026 — memQ, an industry leader in quantum networking solutions for distributed quantum computing, announced today that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected the company to develop a hardware- and network-aware quantum compiler as a part of its Heterogeneous Architectures for Quantum (HARQ) program. Announced via a program solicitation last year, HARQ aims to “assess the plausibility of heterogeneous [quantum computing] architectures and test whether they are inherently more scalable than homogeneous architectures”. memQ believes this effort can transform how quantum computing systems are designed and scaled by enabling qubit-agnostic, multi-modality, scale-out configurations that are modular, scalable, and optimized for real-world deployment.

“The entire memQ team is honored to be selected for participation in this critical program,” stated Manish Singh, Chief Product Officer at memQ. “Much as DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative was key to ensuring a path to utility scale for quantum computers, the HARQ program will catalyze the modularity, scale, and resource optimization needed to realize the full potential of quantum computing.”

The DARPA HARQ program solicitation highlights the facts that “present-day roadmaps focus on homogenous architectures where the entire system is designed around a single qubit species,” and “no known qubit excels at all compute functions.” While different qubit modalities have different strengths, today’s quantum compute architectures largely limit the objectives of commercial scale, utility, and feasibility. Instead, HARQ teams are expected to leverage a multi-modality, ‘right qubit type for the right task’ approach to address the program’s two core focus areas: developing heterogeneous compiler tools to potentially cut resource demands by a factor of 1,000; and engineering high-fidelity, high-speed quantum interconnect components.

memQ will lead a multi-organization team to deliver a heterogenous quantum compiler that provides an optimized mapping and partitioning of logical circuits over heterogenous quantum processors connected with quantum networking links. The compiler will develop logical and physical qubit-level interfaces between qubit modalities that are hardware- and network-aware, and will assign the workload in an optimized manner, leveraging the hardware platform heterogeneity to enable scale and performance beyond the reach of monolithic and homogeneous quantum processors. The team includes members from qBraid, as well as researchers from MIT, Yale, and the University of Chicago.

“qBraid was founded to democratize quantum computing in order to drive both innovation and adoption across government and industry,” said Kanav Setia, CEO of qBraid. “Working with memQ – a leader in qubit-agnostic quantum networking – and leading researchers from MIT, University of Chicago, and Yale fits perfectly with our mission and our platform.”

“Heterogeneous quantum processors require careful design of logical-level interfaces that bridge differences between qubit platforms while preserving the computational advantages each modality offers,” said Liang Jiang, Professor at the University of Chicago. “Quantum error correction is central to making these interfaces practical, and I look forward to bringing that perspective to the HARQ program through our collaboration with memQ.”

This work will complement and build upon memQ’s xDQC efforts announced earlier this year, as well as the company’s experience in producing their xQNA portfolio for quantum networking, which includes chip-scale solutions for quantum network interface controllers (QNICs), quantum memory modules (QMMs), and quantum control systems (QCS).

More from HPCwire: DARPA Details HARQ Effort to Advance Heterogeneous Quantum Systems

About memQ

Founded in 2021 as a technology spin-out from the University of Chicago, memQ is dedicated to enabling the scalable implementation of quantum computing through standards-based connectivity across optical connections between quantum computers anywhere. The company’s portfolio provides secure connectivity and control across local, campus, metro, and wide-area quantum compute resources with high-fidelity and low-loss, regardless of qubit structures employed. More information is available at www.memq.tech.

Source: memQ

The post DARPA Selects memQ for Quantum Compiler Work Targeting Heterogeneous Systems appeared first on HPCwire.

Regan Prater admits to setting blaze at Highlander center and bid to aid Hezbollah. His sentencing is set for September

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A man linked to white supremacist movements pleaded guilty on Monday to setting a fire that destroyed an office at a historic social justice center in Tennessee with ties to champions of the US civil rights movements, a court document shows.

Regan Prater also pleaded guilty to attempting to aid a foreign terrorist organization for efforts to provide the militant group Hezbollah “a list of personally identifiable information for individuals purportedly affiliated with the government of Israel”, according to a criminal information filed in February.

Bambu Lab's latest 3D printer isn't about chasing the fastest prints. It's about making smart choices.

Workslop refers to AI-generated work that seems polished but is flawed and in need of heavy corrections

Ken, a copywriter for a large, Miami-based cybersecurity firm, used to enjoy his job. But then the “workslop” started piling up.

Workslop is an unintended consequence of the AI boom. It’s what happens when employees use AI to quickly generate work that seems polished – at least superficially – but is in fact so flawed or inaccurate that it needs to be heavily corrected, cleaned up or even completely redone after it’s passed on to colleagues.

The National Guard soldiers in desert camo piled out of unmarked vans in East Los Angeles last June, cordoning off East Sixth Street, a residential street lined with single family houses, and blocking a nearby road leading to an elementary school.

A squad of federal agents moved in flinging flash-bang grenades — explosives designed to disorient — into a small home before storming inside. They’d come for Alejandro Orellana, a Marine Corps veteran and UPS employee accused of being a central figure in a secret confederacy of insurrectionists. A news video had shown the 30-year-old distributing water, food and face shields to people protesting the Trump administration’s immigration roundups in Los Angeles.

Bill Essayli, a former state legislator who leads the federal prosecutor’s office in Los Angeles, joined the raid along with a Fox News crew.

With cameras rolling, Orellana, his parents and brothers were led out in handcuffs as agents searched their home.

On Fox News, Essayli, sporting a blue FBI windbreaker, hyped the arrest of Orellana, a quiet, wiry man with a long mane of coal-black hair. “It appears they’re well-orchestrated and coordinated, and well-funded,” he said. “And today was one of the first arrests — first key arrests — that we did.”

Essayli would charge Orellana with conspiracy — under a federal statute typically used to build cases against drug traffickers and organized crime — and with aiding and abetting civil disorder.

Within weeks, the prosecutor’s marquee case would quietly fall apart. Agents who searched Orellana’s house found little that could be considered incriminating, and prosecutors never charged anyone else as part of the supposed conspiracy. By late July, they moved to have the charges dismissed.

It wouldn’t be the only such case.

Over the past 10 months, President Donald Trump’s administration has made much of its success in sweeping through U.S. cities, capturing unauthorized immigrants and arresting people who publicly oppose the operations, routinely accusing dissenters of being domestic terrorists or extremists. Federal agents have arrested hundreds of U.S. citizens like Orellana — including protesters, activists observing the immigration enforcement operations, bystanders and, in some cases, the family members of people targeted for deportation.

Less clear to the public is what has happened to those charged.

To find out, ProPublica and FRONTLINE combed through social media, court records and news stories. Reporters identified more than 300 protesters and bystanders who were arrested by federal agents during immigration sweeps and were accused of crimes such as assaulting or interfering with law enforcement. 

But over and over those accusations fell apart under scrutiny. Our reviews of court files found that statements made by the arresting officers were repeatedly debunked by video footage. In more than a third of the cases, prosecutors quickly dismissed charges that couldn’t be substantiated, refused to file charges at all, or lost at trial. The tally of cases that end this way will likely climb as many of the arrests remain unresolved.

“What’s happening now is not comparable to anything that’s happened in the past,” said

Cuauhtémoc Ortega, the chief federal defender for the Central District of California, who personally represented Orellana and other protesters. “We’ve never had a situation where it seems like you arrest first and then try to justify the reasons for the arrests later.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which includes Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the arrests and declined to answer detailed questions from ProPublica and FRONTLINE.

But in a statement in response to an earlier story, DHS said, “The First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly — not rioting. DHS is taking reasonable and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers.”

Given the unprecedented nature of the urban sweeps, it is difficult to compare the rate of failed cases to another time period or context. But current and former federal prosecutors and other legal experts said having that number of arrests come to nothing is particularly striking in the federal system, where U.S. attorneys usually secure convictions or guilty pleas in more than 90% of the cases they bring; only 8.2% of federal criminal cases were dismissed in 2022, according to data compiled by that court system.

The failures highlight the challenges of sending large numbers of federal agents into major cities to conduct roving immigration sweeps: They aren’t accustomed to dealing with crowds of angry protesters 

Border Patrol agents are typically stationed at the border where their day-to-day work entails scooping up people who have crossed illegally. ICE agents, who often work in urban settings, had little prior experience handling hostile crowds. And FBI agents, who have aided in the immigration sweeps, would normally spend months or years painstakingly amassing evidence before making arrests.

That lack of experience in street policing and crowd control, coupled with the Trump administration’s demand for huge numbers of deportations, led agents to make a wave of unjustified arrests, legal experts say.

To be sure, protesters have often engaged in hostile behavior, hurling expletives, getting in agents’ faces and occasionally becoming violent. A woman in Minnesota is accused of biting off part of an agent’s finger during a scuffle after the killing of Alex Pretti in late January; in Los Angeles, an officer outside an immigration detention facility suffered a dislocated finger after a protester allegedly grabbed his bulletproof vest and shook him. 

But the agents’ conduct has also frequently been violent. As ProPublica and FRONTLINE reported last year, they have routinely shot pepper balls or tear gas at protesters in ways that violate their own rules, causing severe injuries to demonstrators in several cities. 

“The agents, they don’t know how to operate in these situations,” said Christy Lopez, a former Justice Department attorney who spent years investigating misconduct by law enforcement. Their behavior, she said, “is on par with the worst protest policing and just law enforcement that I’ve seen from any department, even in their worst days.

In its earlier statement, DHS said that “rioters and terrorists” have repeatedly attacked immigration agents, but ICE and Customs and Border Protection personnel “are trained to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve dangerous situations to prioritize the safety of the public and themselves.”

The arrests are not without consequence. Even unsuccessful prosecutions can be costly and emotionally taxing for defendants, said Jared Fishman, a former career prosecutor in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The aggressive tactics of the agents and the gleeful social media posts by DHS accusing protesters of serious crimes, Fishman said, affect people’s willingness to publicly challenge the mass deportation policies. 

“If the goal of the Trump administration is to keep people out of the streets, then it doesn’t matter if the people are getting convicted,” said Fishman, now the executive director of the Justice Innovation Lab, a nonprofit focused on creating a more equitable and effective justice system. “I’m sure it’s having a chilling effect.”

After reviewing data and some court records for ProPublica and FRONTLINE, Fishman said, “The numbers seem to indicate a pattern and practice of illegal arrests.”

“We Must Identify Him”

The crackdown on protesters began in June of 2025, when the Department of Homeland Security launched its wave of major immigration sweeps in Southern California. The campaign was led by Gregory Bovino, a veteran Border Patrol chief who normally presided over a remote stretch of sand and scrub deep in the state’s Imperial Valley.

Bovino from the start encouraged his agents to shut down or arrest protesters.

“Arrest as many people that touch you as you want to. Those are the general orders, all the way to the top,” Bovino told his officers, footage from an agent’s body-worn camera shows. “Everybody fucking gets it if they touch you.”

He went on to remind them that their actions should be “legal, ethical, moral” while encouraging them to use so-called less lethal weapons on protesters.

“We’re gonna look at shipping tractor trailers full of that shit in here,” he said. 

Bovino’s forces repeatedly fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at the heads and faces of demonstrators and journalists. 

Bovino’s aggressive tactics sparked intense opposition from Angelenos, including those gathered in the streets in front of the sprawling federal office complex in downtown Los Angeles on June 9. 

That day Orellana drove his Ford F-150 pickup truck loaded with bottled water, snacks and cardboard boxes containing Uvex brand face shields — clear plastic masks designed to protect industrial workers from flying debris and chemical splashes — to the protest.

When he arrived in front of the federal building, another person hopped into the bed and began handing out the supplies to protesters gathered outside the entrance.

Orellana told FRONTLINE and ProPublica that he decided to help distribute the supplies after watching federal agents fire tear gas and rubber bullets into crowds at an earlier demonstration.

“A bunch of us took it upon ourselves to, you know, go downtown and give out these resources — the food, water and of course the PPE,” he said, referring to personal protective equipment.

Video and photos quickly made their way onto social media. An X user with more than 30,000 followers posted a photo of Orellana. “A photograph of the man delivering boxes of gas masks to the rioters has emerged,” wrote the poster. “We must identify him, so we can track down who is funding this coordinated attack.”

From there the thread was picked up by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has a vast audience on the platform. Jones, who repeatedly claimed that financier and philanthropist George Soros was funding the protests, eventually named Orellana as the driver of the pickup. More than two million people saw the post. 

Within 48 hours, the soldiers and federal agents arrived to arrest Orellana.

Over the next five months, they arrested more than one hundred U.S. citizens in Los Angeles and other cities in Southern California — most of them demonstrators — charging them with assaulting federal law enforcement personnel or interfering with agents’ activities. Others were accused of damaging government property. At least 16, like Orellana, were charged with conspiracy, which can carry a sentence of up to six years in prison.

ProPublica and FRONTLINE found that more than a third of those cases crumbled. In eight instances, juries acquitted defendants at trial. But more frequently, prosecutors dropped charges when the claims made by immigration officers and agents didn’t match video evidence or other inconsistencies emerged. In several cases, prosecutors declined to file charges at all. 

There have been some successful prosecutions: 32 of the 116 people whose arrests in California we reviewed have been convicted, many pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges. And in late February, jurors convicted two activists on stalking charges after they livestreamed themselves following an immigration agent to his home; the pair were acquitted of conspiracy.

Today 38 cases are still pending.

Essayli has stated on social media that his office brought more than 100 cases and secured convictions in more than half of them. When asked about the discrepancy between his claims and the data compiled by ProPublica and FRONTLINE, he declined to comment. 

“The U.S. attorney’s office does not lose cases because they’re bad lawyers,” said Carley Palmer, who spent eight years as a federal prosecutor in the office Essayli now runs. “They are excellent trial attorneys. So if they’re losing a case, it may mean that the evidence isn’t there, or it may mean that the community doesn’t believe it should be a federal crime.”

Palmer, who is now in private practice, said the glut of protest and low-level criminal immigration cases have shifted resources away from the complex prosecutions the DOJ is uniquely equipped to handle: environmental crimes, public corruption, financial fraud, cyberscams, civil rights violations.

Essayli declined to be interviewed for this story or an accompanying FRONTLINE documentary set to air Tuesday. He was appointed by the Trump administration in early 2025, but he has never been confirmed by the Senate, raising ongoing questions about the legality of his role as top prosecutor for the region. His office did not respond to detailed questions sent by email.

Like Orellana, Julian Pecora Cardenas, 31, was charged with conspiracy last summer after following a convoy of federal agents in his car.

On the morning of July 5, Pecora Cardenas followed vans full of Border Patrol agents after they left a Coast Guard station in San Pedro, south of Los Angeles, livestreaming their movements on Instagram. “It’s every citizen’s duty to conduct oversight of their government,” he said. “I was within my First Amendment rights.”

After roughly 30 minutes, the agents stopped, pulled Pecora Cardenas from his Hyundai and slammed him to the pavement. “I honestly thought it was going to be like a George Floyd moment,” Pecora Cardenas recalled in an interview, alleging that multiple agents pinned him to the asphalt with their knees. He suffered a concussion, needed stitches over his left eye and wore an orthopedic collar to stabilize his injured neck.

Federal prosecutors charged Pecora Cardenas and another activist with conspiracy to impede the federal agents, saying that they “were illegally maneuvering their vehicles through traffic, stop lights, and stop signs to stay behind the agent’s vehicles,” that they tried to block the Border Patrol vehicles, and that they created “hazardous conditions on the road.”

Pecora Cardenas’ own video of the day’s events told a different story. The footage, which ProPublica and FRONTLINE have reviewed, contradicts the claims that the men had interfered with the agents. Within days of seeing the images, Essayli’s office jettisoned the charges “in the interest of justice.”

Pecora Cardenas hasn’t tried to observe federal agents or participate in a protest since his arrest. “I don’t want to be assaulted again. I don’t want to wind up back in federal prison for something that I didn’t do.”

“They Were Just Randomly Grabbing People”

When Bovino, the Border Patrol chief, left California and took his forces to Illinois last fall, their focus on protesters intensified.

In roughly one month, federal agents arrested more than a hundred American citizens, many of them activists participating in demonstrations or documenting the movements of immigration agents as their convoys of rented SUVs rolled through the streets of Chicago and surrounding communities.

But Justice Department prosecutors in Chicago had less success prosecuting those arrested than their peers in California.

On the morning of Oct. 3, 2025, about two hundred demonstrators gathered near the ICE facility in Broadview, a small town in the western suburbs of Chicago. Tucked away in a quiet industrial park, the nondescript building had become the locus of ongoing protests since Bovino and his forces had arrived in Illinois.

Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, accompanied by a DHS video team, was on site that day wearing a baseball cap and a black ballistic vest.

Also present was Benny Johnson, a prominent podcaster and online influencer who is close to the Trump administration. Johnson, who had brought his own camera crew to shoot video for his YouTube channel and other social media accounts, was effectively embedded with Noem, Bovino and the immigration agents.

At about 9 a.m., Bovino and a phalanx of heavily armed agents in combat gear began striding down Harvard Street toward the protesters. “Walk slowly,” Bovino told his men.

Without a bullhorn or any sort of amplification, Bovino informed the crowd that they were being dispersed. Then he and his colleagues began shoving people to the ground and arresting them.

In a matter of minutes, a dozen protesters had been handcuffed. Three arrestees interviewed by ProPublica and FRONTLINE told us they were confused because they’d been standing in a “free speech zone” set up by state officials. 

“I felt somebody grab my shoulder and pull me to the ground,” said Juan Muñoz, a business owner and elected leader in nearby Oak Park Township. “And once I fell onto my back, that’s when I saw it was Greg Bovino.”

Kyle Frankovich, a Harvard data scientist and Chicago resident, was also arrested. “They were just randomly grabbing people,” he recalled. “There was nowhere to go, people were falling all over the place, and several of the people they arrested simply had the misfortune of tripping over all of the other protesters” as federal agents surged into the crowd.

Frankovich said FBI agents who questioned him asked who had paid for him to participate in the demonstration and who “covered the transportation cost for you to be here today.”

Johnson’s video team and a DHS camera crew filmed the arrested protesters as they were lined up outside the ICE building, while Noem looked on. DHS posted photos of Frankovich in handcuffs on X and Facebook with the message, “We will NOT allow violent activist to lay hands on our law enforcement.”

Johnson, who has more than more than 4 million followers on X and more than 6 million subscribers on YouTube, posted a video on X panning across the arrested protesters and wrote: “I saw dozens of Democrat domestic terrorists arrested today for VIOLENT ASSAULT on federal law enforcement. Every activist here attacked ICE agents in broad daylight just for enforcing American law.” He made the same claim in a nearly 13-minute-long YouTube video.

Such social media content had become a central feature of the Trump administration’s deportation campaign. DHS, Border Patrol and a raft of allied social media influencers regularly produced slick videos showing agents in action: riding in helicopters, striding through city streets clutching rifles, breaking down doors, and apprehending immigrants and activists. 

But on that day in Chicago, DHS had strayed far from the facts. And so had Johnson, a 38-year-old former journalist who turned to social media after being embroiled in plagiarism scandals at BuzzFeed and the Independent Journal Review. 

After about eight hours in custody, Frankovich, Muñoz and nearly all the others were released without charges. In the end, only one person would be prosecuted.

Neither DHS nor Johnson have taken the posts down. Johnson did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

The lone person charged with a crime that day was Cole Sheridan, who was accused of attacking Bovino and sending him to the hospital with an injured groin muscle.

Sheridan spent three and a half days in jail — “probably the most unpleasant thing I’ve ever had to experience,” he said in an interview with FRONTLINE and ProPublica — before being released.

In court, a prosecutor said that Sheridan had thrown a punch at Bovino and pushed him, transcripts show.

The evidence presented by the Justice Department, though, was slim. Bovino didn’t wear a body camera, so prosecutors relied on video from the body camera of Border Patrol agent Jason Epperson. But it didn’t show Sheridan assaulting anyone — though he did call Bovino “a fucking idiot.” In statements to investigators, Bovino and Epperson had offered conflicting accounts of the encounter.

About a month after Sheridan was arrested, prosecutors moved to dismiss the case after a bystander video surfaced showing clearly that Sheridan hadn’t assaulted Bovino.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced something truly that bizarre and absurd as, like, seeing a law enforcement agent concoct a narrative to arrest me, to press charges against me,” said Sheridan, who describes himself as intensely private and was initially reluctant to talk publicly about his arrest. “That was extremely unnerving.”

He remains worried that he’ll be harassed or even physically attacked because of the inflammatory social media posts about him. “What a farce. Every element of it felt staged,” he said. 

In a statement to ProPublica and FRONTLINE, Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros said, “Our willingness to be open-minded and dismiss cases — or not file charges in the first place — reflects our commitment to do the right thing even in those cases where a crime was committed and the conduct in question clearly falls outside any protected First Amendment activity.” He declined to comment directly on Sheridan’s case.

FRONTLINE and ProPublica showed video of Sheridan’s arrest to Lopez, the former Justice Department attorney. “It’s just a gross abuse of power,” she said. “And we’ve almost normalized that this is how federal law enforcement behaves now. They just arrest people.”

Of the 109 arrests that ProPublica and FRONTLINE documented in the Chicago area, federal prosecutors dropped charges in at least 75 cases.

Felony Charges Downgraded

When Bovino and his forces arrived in North Carolina last November, they were greeted by protesters opposed to the deportation sweeps, as they had been in previous cities.

Heather Morrow was one of them. She had joined a small group of demonstrators, chanting and banging on metal dishes outside an immigration facility in Charlotte when ICE officers confronted the group. 

They handcuffed Morrow, 45, and another activist, stuffed them in the back of a federal vehicle and, according to Morrow, kept them there for hours before finally taking her to jail.

“I was so traumatized,” Morrow, a school bus driver and dog boarder, said in an interview. “I didn’t expect them to be so overly aggressive. I really showed up there expecting conversation, making them come to their senses.”

After a full day and night in custody, she was released to face federal felony assault charges. A Department of Justice press release accused her of attacking an ICE officer just as he showed up for his work shift, grabbing his shoulders and trying to jump on his back.

But a shaky phone video circulating on social media showed what appeared to be a very different scene. In it, an officer comes from behind and abruptly tackles Morrow to the pavement. The video doesn’t show her assaulting anyone.

When prosecutors saw the video, they dumped the felony charges. But they promptly filed a new misdemeanor case against Morrow and the other activist, alleging the pair impeded ICE officers and failed to follow their orders. It took a month for Morrow to get her phone back from federal custody, while her other confiscated possessions, including her keys, have been lost, Morrow’s attorney said. Because she’s on pretrial probation, the federal government has seized her passport. Morrow has pleaded not guilty, and her case is ongoing.

In Handcuffs and Intimidated

In early January, Bovino arrived in Minneapolis with his social media team. Within weeks, two activists — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — were shot and killed by immigration agents. The Trump administration immediately portrayed Good as an extremist; Bovino claimed that Pretti was planning to kill federal personnel when he was shot to death.

The killings, which sparked national outcry, would prompt the administration to recalibrate. By Jan. 26, Bovino had been demoted and sent back to his home station in the California desert. 

But immigration agents continued to roam the Twin Cities, and activists continued to get arrested.

Civil rights attorneys from around the country gathered in a Minneapolis conference room on Jan. 30 to discuss those arrests.

During a break for lunch, Jon Feinberg, president of the National Police Accountability Project, stepped out of the room and spoke to reporters. “To be charged with a federal crime is something that is life-altering,” said Feinberg, who is based in Philadelphia. “The consequences of being accused and possibly convicted of a federal offense are devastating, especially when people have not engaged in criminal conduct from any reasonable person’s perspective.”

ProPublica and FRONTLINE have identified nearly 80 arrests stemming from the Minnesota immigration sweeps. Most of the cases are still ongoing, though a handful have been dismissed. 

Daniel Rosen, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, did not respond to requests for comment.

One of those arrested was Rebecca Ringstrom, who lives in Blaine, a quiet suburb north of Minneapolis.

Ringstrom, 42, is a member of an activist group that tracks immigration agents as they move around Blaine. “There was a vehicle with four agents inside that I could see. All four were in tactical gear,” she said in an interview with ProPublica and FRONTLINE. “I was able to look at the plate and see that it was a confirmed ICE vehicle.”

Behind the wheel of her Kia, she began following them; Ringstrom insists her driving was safe and lawful. But in a matter of minutes, she’d been arrested and accused of interfering with federal law enforcement.

Ringstrom said an agent at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, where she was briefly held after her arrest, said he wished he’d arrested her — because he would’ve made the experience more unpleasant and violent. “There was no reason to say that. I’m already here. I’m in handcuffs. It’s just a way to intimidate,” she recalled.

She was charged with interfering with a federal agent and issued a notice of violation — essentially a ticket — for the misdemeanor offense. Since then, Ringstrom has lined up a pro bono lawyer, but she has also lost her job, “likely due to the ongoing coverage” of her arrest.

She is scheduled to make her first court appearance later this month. 

The post Caught in the Crackdown: As Arrests at Anti-ICE Protests Piled Up, Prosecutions Crumbled appeared first on ProPublica.

Oprah Winfrey chose Maria Semple's book "Go Gentle" as her latest book club pick. Read a free excerpt here.

Here's a reader's guide for "Go Gentle" by Maria Semple

Decision to reduce duty-free quotas by 47% aimed at curbing Chinese imports

The EU is to go ahead with plans to double tariffs and halve quotas on imports of steel from July, in a move designed to curb Chinese imports but which could damage UK exports to the bloc.

The decision by EU lawmakers and member states after late night talks on Monday, will reduce duty-free quotas by 47%. Exact country allocations have yet to be determined.

Catholic vice-president effectively tells Leo to stay in his lane after pope criticized the White House over the Iran war

JD Vance has weighed in on Donald Trump’s feud with Pope Leo, effectively telling the pontiff to stay in his lane after the head of the Catholic church criticized the White House over the Iran war.

“It would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of what’s going on in the Catholic church and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” the vice-president – a Catholic convert himself – said in an interview on Fox News on Monday night.

An 18-year-old attacker, armed with a shotgun, fired randomly inside a vocational high school, wounding 10 students, four teachers, a canteen employee and a police officer, the local governor said.

Looking to buy a home? Want to refinance your existing home? These are the mortgage interest rates to know today.

Kevin Warsh, seeking to replace Fed chair Jerome Powell, had to file financial disclosures for Senate approval

Kevin Warsh, the former Federal Reserve governor chosen by Donald Trump to lead the central bank, has submitted financial disclosures that suggest he holds assets worth well over $100m.

The document is required for his nomination to advance through the Senate, beginning with a yet-to-be-scheduled hearing.

Nonstick pans have their place in the kitchen, but certain foods are better served by a different surface. Here are five things a cooking instructor says to avoid.

New six‑country study offers solutions to bridge higher education and the workforce.

HOBOKEN, N.J., April 14, 2026 — Pearson and Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) have announced the launch of new global research revealing the misalignments between higher education and employers that are slowing progress in building an AI-ready workforce.

The report, AI Readiness: Building the Bridge from Higher Education to Work, draws on more than 2,700 survey responses from learners, higher education leaders, and employers across six countries, including the U.S., U.K., Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Malaysia, and is supplemented by in-depth interviews with higher education leaders. The findings provide rare insight into the perceptions from all along the learning‑to‑work continuum.

Key findings include:

• 53% of employers say their primary challenge is finding graduates with the right AI skills.
• 78% of higher education leaders believe they’re meeting employer expectations.
• 14% of current graduates report they have achieved a high level of proficiency in applying AI tools to a professional workflow.

This data comes at a moment when artificial intelligence is reshaping entry‑level roles, the durability of skills is rapidly decreasing, and workforce readiness is at risk worldwide. While AI adoption is accelerating across industries, the research shows that AI readiness is breaking down at the point of execution, where learning must translate into applied workplace capability, rather than from a lack of ambition or access.

“This AI readiness research with Pearson reveals that our primary opportunity is to help translate AI tool engagement into real workplace capability. AWS is committed to working alongside our education partners to ensure every learner develops AI literacy, in addition to the judgment, adaptability, and hands-on experience employers need,” said Kim Majerus, Vice President of Global Education and U.S. State & Local Government at AWS.

“It is clear that basic AI literacy is no longer enough. Schools that lead in AI readiness today will shape the future of workforce readiness tomorrow. Building an AI-ready workforce depends on structured, shared systems that amplify human skills and connect curriculum to real work. Pearson and AWS are working together to bridge the gap between higher education and employers and help prepare the workforce of tomorrow,” said Tom ap Simon, President of Higher Education and Virtual Learning at Pearson.

AI readiness doesn’t emerge by accident. It depends on structured, shared systems that connect curriculum to real work. Readiness is built where learning and work connect.

To help leaders across education and enterprise move from diagnosis to action, the report introduces the AI Readiness Friction Framework, a practical tool that identifies six compounding frictions that slow progress across the education‑to‑work pathway. The report also provides concrete actions to be taken to remediate each friction point:

• Pace Friction: The widening gap between the speed of AI-driven workplace change and the slower cadence of curriculum and institutional decision-making.
• Connection Friction: Weak feedback loops between education and employers, reducing alignment between workforce needs and learning design.
• Capability Friction: Uneven faculty and instructor AI capability, limiting consistent integration of AI into learning experiences.
• Governance Friction: The absence of clear, practical guidance translating AI access into responsible, governed practice, resulting in shadow AI use that carries risk into the workplace.
• Experience Friction: A disconnect between access to AI tools and structured opportunities to practice, apply, and demonstrate real-world capability.
• Skills Friction: Misalignment between the capabilities graduates demonstrate and the applied judgment, adaptability, and collaboration employers require in AI-enabled roles.

By combining Pearson’s expertise in education systems, assessment, learning science, credentialing, and workforce skills with AWS’s deep insight into how AI is built, deployed, and governed in modern organizations, the report offers a shared framework to help institutions and employers align around a common definition of AI readiness and a clearer path forward.

AI Readiness: Building the Bridge from Higher Education to Work is available beginning today. Pearson and AWS are hosting a launch event at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit.

About Pearson

At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to help people realize the life they imagine through learning. We believe that every learning opportunity is a chance for a personal breakthrough. That’s why our c. 18,000 Pearson employees are committed to creating vibrant and enriching learning experiences designed for real-life impact. We are the world’s lifelong learning company, serving customers in nearly 200 countries with digital content, assessments, qualifications, and data. For us, learning isn’t just what we do. It’s who we are. Visit us at plc.pearson.com.

About Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is guided by customer obsession, pace of innovation, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. By democratizing technology for nearly two decades and making cloud computing and generative AI accessible to organizations of every size and industry, AWS has built one of the fastest-growing enterprise technology businesses in history. Millions of customers trust AWS to accelerate innovation, transform their businesses, and shape the future. With the most comprehensive AI capabilities and global infrastructure footprint, AWS empowers builders to turn big ideas into reality.

Source: Pearson

The post New Pearson and AWS Global Research: 53% of Employers Struggle to Find AI-Ready Graduates appeared first on HPCwire.

Sitting between Sonos's larger Move 2 and the smaller Roam 2, the $299 Play is the Goldilocks of Sonos portable speaker options, earning a CNET Editors' Choice award.

The Deebot X12 OmniCyclone uses pressurized water sprayers to pretreat dried-on stains and to clean its roller mop scrubber.

The new Mission 1 series goes hard on slo-mo, low-light performance and cinematic shooting.

These goodies just might become your air fryer's new besties.

What are some of your biggest laundry faux pas? We asked an expert.

As treasurer Jim Chalmers weighs ‘extreme uncertainty’, one economic scenario sees global growth plunging to just 2% in 2026

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The International Monetary Fund has warned the US-Israel war on Iran risks creating an “energy crisis of an unprecedented scale” that could tip the global economy towards recession.

The grim warning contained in the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook comes as Jim Chalmers prepares to attend the organisation’s spring meetings in Washington DC this week, where he said he would be “joining with other countries continuing to call for an enduring end to the war”.

Trump’s EPA chief Lee Zeldin’s presence shows how much influence climate deniers now have, experts say

As scientists confirmed that March was the United States’ most abnormally hot month in recorded history, dozens of climate deniers gathered to promote misinformation and tout their newfound influence on federal policy.

At a conference hosted by the prominent science-denying thinktank the Heartland Institute last week, a crowd of mostly middle-aged men in suits claimed the world is finally waking up to the idea that the climate crisis does not exist.

LOUISVILLE, Colo., April 14, 2026 — Infleqtion, a global leader in quantum computing and quantum sensing powered by neutral-atom technology, announced it will host leaders across the quantum ecosystem in Colorado this week to accelerate collaboration and commercialization of quantum technologies. Timed to follow World Quantum Day, the one-day event titled, “Next Level: The Intersection of Quantum, Capital, Supply Chains and Open Source,” will convene engineers, supply chain experts, security professionals and investors to explore the critical building blocks needed to scale quantum from research to real-world impact.

“World Quantum Day is a reminder that we are living through one of the most consequential technological transitions in history. Quantum is reshaping how we compute, communicate, secure and power the world, and much of that work is happening right here in Colorado,” said Mathew Kinsella, CEO of Infleqtion. “Bringing together this community of founders, investors and technologists is essential as we keep moving quantum from scientific promise to lasting economic impact.”

As the quantum industry enters a new phase of maturity, collaboration across the ecosystem, from hardware and software to capital formation and supply chains, is essential. Infleqtion has positioned itself at the center of this shift, leveraging its full-stack approach and growing global footprint to help unify stakeholders across the quantum value chain.

Infleqtion’s neutral atom quantum computing systems, along with its quantum sensing and networking technologies, currently serve governments, enterprises and research institutions worldwide. The company’s integrated hardware and software platform is designed to accelerate the path to commercially viable quantum computing.

The Colorado event will feature panel discussions and networking opportunities focused on:

• Capital and commercialization: How investment is shaping the next phase of quantum growth
• Supply chain readiness: Building the infrastructure required for scalable quantum systems
• Open-source innovation: Enabling broader access and faster development across the ecosystem
• Cross-industry collaboration: Aligning stakeholders to unlock real-world applications

Confirmed speakers include leaders from across the quantum and investment communities, including Max Perez, vice president of strategic initiatives at Infleqtion.

The April 16, 2026 event is sponsored by GadellNet and Boulder Associates, and hosted in partnership with the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Savills and Startup Grind Denver.

For more information or to register, please visit the Next Level: The Intersection of Quantum, Capital, Supply Chains, and Open Source website.

About Infleqtion

Infleqtion, Inc. (NYSE: INFQ) is a global leader in quantum technology, delivering neutral-atom solutions for quantum computing, networking, sensing, and security. With a product portfolio spanning quantum computers, quantum optical clocks, RF receivers, and inertial sensors, Infleqtion’s full-stack approach combines high-performance hardware with the company’s proprietary Superstaq quantum computing software platform. Infleqtion’s systems are already in use by the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, the U.K. government, and in multiple collaborations with NVIDIA. Infleqtion, in collaboration with NVIDIA, published the world’s first demonstration of a materials science application using logical qubits. With operations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, Infleqtion meets the demands of government and commercial customers across the space, defense, energy, finance and telecommunications sectors.

Source: Infleqtion

The post Infleqtion to Host Colorado Quantum Event Focused on Commercialization and Collaboration appeared first on HPCwire.

New damage hero Sierra is the headliner, but she's only the tip of the iceberg in terms of fresh new stuff for season 2.

Brian Hooker told police that Lynette Hooker fell overboard and that strong currents carried her away

Police in the Bahamas have released without charges a Michigan man who said his wife disappeared after falling overboard from a small boat in waters off the Caribbean island country, authorities said on Monday.

Brian Hooker, of Onsted in southern Michigan, had been in police custody since 8 April – five days – after being questioned by authorities.

The Middle East on fire, a spat with the pope – and he posts himself as Potus Almighty. Will his disciples now see that their messiah has feet of clay?

You hear such a lot from Maga Republicans about how liberals think Trump voters are stupid. But not nearly enough about the far more salient point: that Donald Trump thinks Trump voters are stupid. Naturally, nobody deplores his own people as passionately as a populist, but even by those exacting historical standards Trump really does regard his supporters as a honking great throng of halfwits. How else to explain his seemingly retrofitted claim yesterday that the AI picture he posted of himself as Jesus was “me as a doctor”. Er, no. After it incensed leading figures in the Christian right, which makes up a large part of his voter base, the US president later deleted it, lamenting of these idiots that he “didn’t want anybody to be confused. People were confused.” Yeah, people are stoopid.

Alas, as you’ve no doubt seen, controversy still attends this image Trump shared on his Truth Social/True Sociopath platform. It depicts Trump in Jesus robes and holding a glowing orb of something – presumably heavenly light or radioactive material he omitted to tell Congress about – which he is transmitting restoratively into the forehead of some midwestern Lazarus. I’m sure we’d all love to know how the AI prompt for it could be “show me Donald Trump as a doctor”, or indeed how the LLM of choice would react when called out on its subsequent error. “You’re right – I overstated that. I shouldn’t have implied the US president is a benign deity who can raise the dead. To clarify – he’s a malignant narcissist and a tumour on the world. Thanks for catching that.”

Loss of closest European ally will force Kremlin to consider whether non-autocratic states can ever be reliable partners

• Europe live – latest updates

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it was pleased that Hungary’s prime minister-elect, Péter Magyar, appeared open to pragmatic dialogue, as Moscow adopts a wait-and-see approach after the election loss of its closest partner in Europe, Viktor Orbán.

“For now, we can note with satisfaction, as far as we understand, his [Magyar’s] willingness to engage in pragmatic dialogue,” said the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. “In this instance, there is mutual willingness on our part, and we will then proceed to take our cue from the specific steps taken by the new Hungarian government.”

Iran says Americans will be hit with higher fuel prices due to the blockade. Plus, summers are growing longer globally

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Good morning.

The US has begun blocking ships from using Iranian ports in the Gulf, transforming the US-Israeli war against Iran into a test of economic endurance.

How could Centcom enforce the blockade? It is unclear, but as a missile strike on a tanker attempting to break the blockade could cause an environmental disaster, it is possible that US forces could try to board and seize any vessel not obeying their instructions.

Follow the latest updates on our live blog.

Did Swalwell also face expulsion? Yes, there were bipartisan calls for it. Swalwell acknowledged the threat of removal from office, saying: “Expelling anyone in Congress without due process, within days of an allegation being made, is wrong. But it’s also wrong for my constituents to have me distracted from my duties. Therefore, I plan to resign my seat in Congress.”

If your smartwatch or smart ring is giving you health anxiety or hypochondria, these are the steps experts recommend you take.

Hui Ka Yan expresses remorse in trial proceedings after collapse of world’s most indebted property developer

• Business live – latest updates

A former steelworker who rose to become one of China’s richest people has pleaded guilty to charges including fundraising fraud after the collapse of Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer.

The property group’s founder, Hui Ka Yan, “pleaded guilty and expressed remorse” in trial proceedings at a court in China’s southern city of Shenzhen against him and Evergrande, the court said in a posting on its official WeChat account. He also pleaded guilty to misuse of funds and illegally taking public deposits.

The best time to see Earthshine is a few days before and a few days after each new moon during the spring.

The report claims the Justice Department under Merrick Garland "violated the rights of Americans" by only applying the law to support those in support of abortion rights, not those who worked at anti-abortion rights facilities.

Even with a U.S. blockage, geography gives Iran an edge in the Strait of Hormuz, shaping control of a vital global chokepoint.

The owners of Camp Mystic, where 27 campers and counselors died, want to reopen. The family of Cile Steward, 8, the only girl whose body wasn’t found, sued to stop them.

Anthropic’s Claude Mythos AI is said to be frighteningly capable, but we shouldn’t get carried away by the hype

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, the Guardian’s US tech editor, writing to you from my happy village in Pokopia.

Tech companies are cutting jobs and betting on AI. The payoff is far from guaranteed

‘There’s a lot of desperation’: skilled older workers turn to AI training to stay afloat

‘It has your name on it, but I don’t think it’s you’: how AI is impersonating musicians on Spotify

‘It feels as if I’ve made a new best friend’: my experiment with AI journalling

‘Irresponsible failure’: Google, Meta, Snap and Microsoft slam EU over child sexual abuse law lapse

‘Abhorrent’: the inside story of the Polymarket gamblers betting millions on war

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home targeted with molotov cocktail

Large language models aren’t trained on real-life conversations. As we encounter their language, it could affect our own

Because of the way they are trained, large language models capture only a slice of human language. They’re trained on the written word, from textbooks to social media posts, and our speech as captured in movies and on television. These models have minimal access to the unscripted conversations we have face to face or voice to voice. This is the vast majority of speech, and a vital component of human culture.

There’s a risk to this. The increased use of large language models means we humans will encounter much more AI-generated text. We humans, in turn, will begin to adopt the linguistic patterns and behaviors of these models. This will affect not just how we communicate with one another, but also how we think about ourselves and what goes on around us. Our sense of the world may become distorted in ways we have barely begun to comprehend.

Child killer attacked at workshop at HMP Frankland with metal bar and died in hospital

An inquest into the death of the Soham murderer, Ian Huntley, has heard he was struck over the head multiple times with a metal bar in prison.

Huntley, 52, was an inmate in the maximum security prison HMP Frankland in Durham, where he was allegedly attacked in a workshop on 26 February.

United CEO Scott Kirby​ floated the idea to Trump administration officials of United merging with American Airlines, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Lisa Nandy says there are no grounds to refer Axel Springer deal to Ofcom, ending almost three years of uncertainty for titles

• Business live – latest updates

The culture secretary has cleared Axel Springer’s £575m takeover of the Telegraph, paving the way for the end of almost three years of uncertainty over the ownership of the titles.

Lisa Nandy said that she does not believe there are grounds to intervene and refer the deal to the media regulator, Ofcom, for an in-depth regulatory investigation.

Why Should Delaware Care? 
A Dover YMCA expansion is intended to reach more youth in Delaware’s capital city. It remains to be seen, however, whether the new programming will provide enough support as city leaders face growing resident concern about youth gang activity and calls to address frequent shootings. 

As local elected officials stood together last week to celebrate the Dover YMCA’s youth programming expansion, some are skeptical about the community center’s ability to adequately serve the capital city’s most vulnerable kids.

YMCA leaders unveiled last Thursday a new “Discovery Center” — a renovated kids’ area featuring a ninja warrior course, a “makerspace” for art projects and room for expanded summer camp offerings — which they said will help the organization double the number of kids it serves daily this summer. 

The expansion comes at a time when advocates are sounding the alarm about gun violence and youth gang activity in Dover. The YMCA will now be able to more than double the number of children it serves in its summer camp programs.

But some community organizers are skeptical the initiative will reach those who most need it. 

Despite an expansion of the YMCA’s financial assistance program as a part of its new youth-focused initiative, activists say monetary and transportation barriers will make getting buy-in from at-risk communities difficult. 

“These programs happen, and they don’t get to those kids that really need the resources,” Kaligah Parker, a community organizer who works on gun violence prevention, told Spotlight Delaware. 

City leaders like Mayor Robin Christiansen, however, say they are less worried about the specifics of who will use the YMCA’s expanded programming and more hopeful about the opportunities it will provide for bridging community divides. 

“The kid over on the West Side who hates the kid on the East Side, can come here and swim and say, ‘Hey, he’s just like me,’” the mayor said. “Programs like these change hearts and minds.” 

The Dover Police Department did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s request for data on the number of gun violence deaths in recent months, but community organizers said the YMCA’s new offerings come as they anticipate a summertime uptick in crime and gun violence. 

Chelle Paul, an activist who works with at-risk youth in Dover, has sent emails to city officials at least once a week since February about shootings in the city, calling on the government to take action. 

“These shootings have continued as projected, and residents are frustrated by the lack of visible, proactive action,” Paul wrote in an email to city leaders on April 2. “Many feel the city is responding reactively rather than preventing incidents before they occur.” 

Christiansen, however, said he believes the city has the problem under control through its “fluid, rapid response, reactive and proactive” policing approach — and with programs like the YMCA youth offerings. 

The YMCA’s youth programming expansion follows a separate initiative earlier this year geared toward kids in Delaware’s capital city.

Dover’s Opioid Use Disorder Task Force, which met in the fall and winter to discuss how the city should use its portion of the state’s opioid settlement funds, recommended directing the $250,000 it will receive this year toward a youth-focused campaign. 

Discovering the Discovery Center

A group of YMCA leaders, city officials and state legislators convened on April 9 to unveil the new childrens’ space and promote the broadened summer camp programming. 

John Rice, director of the Dover YMCA, said his goal with the Discovery Center concept is to serve more families and provide innovative and engaging activities for kids in Kent County. 

The organization will now be able to serve 60 kids a day during its after-school and summer camp programs, compared to a 25-child capacity before the expansion, he said.

A spokesperson for the YMCA of Delaware declined to say how much money the organization spent on the Discovery Center expansion, but noted that the funds came from a mix of “private and public donor support,” including the Draper Holdings Charitable Foundation, an offshoot of the local media conglomerate family, and Bally’s Casino in Dover. 

Rice added that the funding from Bally’s will allow about 30 kids whose families might not have been able to otherwise afford it to now attend its summer camps.   

A number of Dover-area lawmakers spoke at the Discovery Center ribbon cutting, including State Sen. Trey Paradee (D-Dover) and House Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn Harris (D-Dover), who said they are drafting legislation aimed at making summer camps more affordable and accessible for working families. 

Paradee, who is a co-chair of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, told Spotlight Delaware they are aiming to file that bill — which will propose using money from the state’s purchase of care childcare subsidy program to fund kids’ summer camp participation — within the next week. 

“We have to support organizations like the Y that provide other outlets for kids besides playing video games, besides being on their phone, and besides being on the street and getting into trouble,” he said. 

The community responds

While elected officials are applauding the YMCA expansion as a valuable step toward providing more youth activities and resources in Dover, community organizers have more questions about the best ways to reach vulnerable youth. 

Parker, the gun violence advocate, said he has been working to inform Dover families about summer camp opportunities and other places they can send their kids outside of school, but many of the families he works with do not even know of the opportunities. 

“A lot of kids and families in those urban communities will never even know that the YMCA is doing a camp,” Parker said. 

Raphael Travis, an education and human development professor at the University of Delaware, said programs like the Dover YMCA’s new expansion are valuable to the community, but the challenge is getting the word out to the most vulnerable individuals.

Getting the information out, Travis said, can sometimes be done effectively through “credible messengers,” or trustworthy adults in the community. 

“The challenge comes when it is so externally driven – not out of ill-intent – but if the people leading those efforts are too removed, and they don’t have that relationship,” Travis said. 

Paul, the local activist who works with at-risk youth, said she thinks spaces like the Dover YMCA have great potential to get kids off the streets and engaged in other activities. 

But she is not convinced the YMCA’s financial assistance is enough to make its programs accessible to many families. She said some parents also may face transportation barriers to getting their kids to the community center. 

The YMCA of Delaware spokesperson said the organization does not currently offer transportation for kids to get to camp and after school programs, but it is “exploring that for the future.” 

Maggie Reynolds is a Report for America corps member and Spotlight Delaware reporter who covers rural communities in Delaware. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://spotlightdelaware.org/support/.

The post Dover YMCA expands programming amid calls to address youth violence appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Alexandre Ramagem was sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in the coup attempt by supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Military has described devastating attack that killed up to 200 people, many of them civilians, as a ‘precision airstrike’

Survivors and observers have questioned the Nigerian military’s rationale for a devastating airstrike on a busy market that killed as many as 200 people, many of them civilians.

The hit on Jilli market on the border of the north-eastern Borno and Yobe states on Saturday is the latest in a string of attacks by the country’s air force over the past decade with a high civilian death toll.

A top UN official has criticised lack of global urgency as reports confirm the world’s largest humanitarian crisis is worsening

Efforts to end Sudan’s catastrophic war have been criticised as “unacceptable” by the country’s top UN official as a series of new reports confirm that the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis is worsening.

Speaking to the Guardian on the eve of the third anniversary of the war, Denise Brown expressed her concern over the apparent lack of political urgency to end a conflict that has forced 14 million Sudanese to flee their homes. Tens of thousands of people are missing.

First the administration sought to defund Title X. Now it’s reimagining what it stands for

The Trump administration, dominated by religious anti-abortion conservatives and reeling in money from a new wave of pronatalist tech reactionaries, has long been considering ways to persuade, pressure and cajole women into having more babies. The Dobbs decision overturning Roe v Wade in 2022, in which Donald Trump’s three first-term supreme court appointees cast decisive votes, was a first step; later, after he returned to office, Trump reportedly fielded proposals for $5,000 “baby bonuses” – not quite enough to raise a child, one notices – and “motherhood medals” for fertile women that are similar to awards dispensed by the Nazi regime.

Now, it’s seeking out a new tactic: removing birth control access. This month, the Trump administration renewed its attacks on Title X, the federal reproductive health program that provides birth control to an estimated 2 million low-income Americans. In the White House’s proposed budget, funding for the program was eliminated altogether. Then, the Title X administrators at the Department of Health and Human Services announced new guidance to the program’s partner providers, the clinics and medical practices that actually dispense the medication and care. The program was changing, the providers were told. For decades, Title X had been a contraception program. Now, it was going to be reimagined as a pro-conception one.

Experts say any short-term financial benefit will be outweighed by long-term health costs related to obesity

Faced with high demand for GLP-1 drugs, some American cities and states that previously covered the cost of the weight-loss medication for low-income residents and public employees have now started to restrict or eliminate coverage.

The pullback stems from the dramatic increase in public spending on drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy in recent years.

This year’s conference had plenty of newsworthy aspects, but it’s a mystery why the press fails to talk about it

The 72nd meeting of the Bilderberg group, the elite and secretive policy conference that is the longtime subject of endless conspiracy theories, was held at the weekend in Washington DC. A security cordon went up around the opulent Salamander hotel for the notoriously media-shy summit, which was packed as ever with prime ministers, military leaders, tech billionaires and the heads of giant investment companies.

Bilderberg, which since the 1950s has been the intellectual engine room of Nato, took place this year at a time of immense crisis and uncertainty for the alliance. In recent weeks, with Trump threatening at every turn to withdraw from the “paper tiger” of Nato, the “Trans-Atlantic Defence-Industrial Relationship” (as it’s called on the agenda) has reached a strained breaking point.

You just need the right cooking gadgets to set yourself up for success, whether you want to lose weight or gain muscle.

J. Allen Hynek started as an Air Force consultant brought in to help explain away early UFO reports, but over time he grew frustrated with what he saw as the government's effort to minimize unexplained cases rather than seriously investigate them. Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares an article from Popular Mechanics, in collaboration with Biography.com, that argues Hynek's shift from skeptic to advocate helped shape modern ufology, and that the Air Force's attempts to control the narrative may have deepened the public distrust and conspiracy thinking that followed. From the report: Do you think the U.S. government is hiding, and possibly reverse-engineering, extraterrestrial technology? Think again. Or better yet, don't think about it at all. Nothing to see here. That's the underlying message of a report released in 2024 by the Department of Defense. The 63-page "Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) " concludes that the DoD's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) "found no evidence that any [U.S. Government] investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology." The AARO, as The Guardian summarizes, is "a government office established in 2022 to detect and, as necessary, mitigate threats including 'anomalous, unidentified space, airborne, submerged and transmedium objects.'" This report came on the heels of, and in contradiction to, what was arguably the most high-profile hearing on UAPs -- formerly known as unidentified flying objects, or UFOs -- in decades: the August 2023 testimony of "whistleblower" Dave Grusch. [...] The 2024 AARO report stated that during the time Hynek was working with Project Blue Book [the U.S. Air Force's best-known UFO investigation program], "about 75 percent of Americans trusted the [US government] 'to do the right thing almost always or most of the time.'" But, the report noted, since 2007, that number has never risen above 30 percent. "This lack of trust probably has contributed to the belief held by some subset of the U.S. population that the USG has not been truthful regarding knowledge of extraterrestrial craft." Ultimately, the Air Force's efforts to stifle Hynek -- pressuring him to offer the public standard responses to questions he wasn't even allowed to ask -- appears to have backfired. Ironically, the Air Force's attempts to quiet suspicions only fueled them, leading to more conspiracy theories and distrust. People came to believe that the government was hiding the truth, contrary to Hynek's actual revelation: that, in reality, the people at the top may not care much about finding the answers after all.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Rising temperatures and extreme drought are driving more destructive spring fires across the Great Plains. This year, forces aligned to create the perfect storm in Nebraska

In a normal year, the vast grasslands that roll across the American Great Plains would be starting to green. But at the center of the US, where most of the nation’s beef producers graze their herds, this spring brought fire instead of moisture, leaving more than a million acres black and barren.

Multiple blazes raged across Nebraska, where the records for the annual acreage burned were obliterated in a single month. The state logged the largest blaze ever recorded when the Morrill fire cascaded across more than 642,000 acres (260,000 hectares) before it was contained in March.

Our Place's new rice cooker comes in five colors, including a limited-edition pistachio.

A Los Angeles Unified School District strike​ has been avoided and schools are open Tuesday after the district and the Service Employees International Union reached an agreement.

Pedro Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, and two others charged after investigation triggered by group with far-right links

Begoña Gómez, the wife of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been charged with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of funds at the end of a two-year investigation by a judge in Madrid.

Gómez, 55, has been accused of using her influence as the wife of the socialist prime minister to secure and manage a post at Madrid’s Complutense University, and of using public resources and personal connections to further her private interests.

The price of U.S. crude rose to $104.24 a barrel following the blockade announcement and Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose to $102.29.

Adam Mitula is acting as election agent for Reform candidates in three wards in Tameside area for 7 May polls

• UK politics live – latest updates

A Reform UK activist in the Gorton and Denton byelection who was suspended over racist and antisemitic comments has been named as the election agent for three of the party’s candidates in Manchester ahead of polls on 7 May.

Adam Mitula, an interim campaign manager in the Tameside area, confirmed in February that he had been suspended as a party member “pending investigation”.

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin was arrested after reporting on friendly fire incident during US conflict with Iran

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

The detention of a prize-winning international journalist over his reporting of a friendly fire incident in Kuwait is raising questions about the crackdown on freedom of speech across the Middle East as a result of the US-Israel war with Iran, the Committee to Protect Journalists has warned.

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, born in the US and a Kuwaiti national, was arrested on 3 March during a brief visit to Kuwait. He published footage of a US air force F- 15 E Strike Eagle crashing in al Jahra west of Kuwait city. On his Substack he said the pilot and weapons officer had successfully ejected and survived. He added that video circulating online showed local residents assisting one of the crew in a civilian truck.

Annika Albrecht, Ally Sammarco and influencer Cheyenne Hunt, who helped get their stories out, spoke with CBS News about the unraveling of the Democratic congressman's political career.

What I’m Discussing Today:

• Kareem’s Daily Quote: When opportunity doesn’t come a’ knockin’

• A Negotiation That Fell Apart Before It Began: Playing the same game

  while hoping for a different outcome.

• The Pressure to Stay Silent: And the choice to speak up.

• The Wellness Industry: Sorry, we’re not a one-size-fits-all country.

• What I’m Watching: Outcome

• Jukebox Playlist: Darling, You Know I Love You

Kareem’s Daily Quote

“Poverty is not a lack of character. It is a lack of opportunity.” — Attributed to Muhammad Yunus

“Attributed” because, in fact, Muhammad Yanus didn’t say it—though his philosophy could excuse us for thinking that he did, since his mantra was that poverty is system-created and not a personal failing. Then in 2017, Dutch historian Rutger Bregman wrote a book, Utopia for Realists, in which he said that “Poverty is not a lack of character. It’s a lack of cash.” Which I think is an excellent way of saying the same thing.

But whoever said it and however they said it, the point remains. In spite of the stories we love to tell about “character,” grit, hustle, the whole “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” thing, the poor always seem to be right there in the wings, ready to mar this Pollyanna view. The comforting idea of success—that it’s a reward for being a good, hardworking person—falls apart the second we spend five minutes with someone who is doing everything “right” but still can’t catch a break.

The fact that poverty might not be a lack of character but a lack of opportunity is so obvious that it could be on a poster in a high school hallway. But the older I get, the more I realize that the most obvious-sounding things are usually the most accurate.

If you scratch the surface, do you really see want as a lack of character? Is that what you see in the single mom pulling double shifts and still making it to the school play? Is that what you see in the kid studying on a city bus because her apartment is too loud to think? Is that what you see in the guy at the warehouse who’s up at 4 a.m. every single day, not because he’s “crushing his goals,” but because the rent is due on the first and the electric company doesn’t care if he’s exhausted? If success was actually measured by character, these people would be running the world.

But opportunity? That’s a different story. Real, structural opportunity is handed out pretty unevenly, and that’s the part we hate talking about. It’s much easier to praise someone’s “resilience” than to actually fix the systems that are forcing people to be resilient in the first place.

Think about how early the deck gets stacked. If you’re born into a stable home with great schools and parents who have the time to help you with your math homework, you’re starting the race miles ahead of a kid born into a zip code where the school is crumbling and the rent takes up 60% of the family income. Or with parents who are functionally illiterate and couldn’t help with homework if they tried. Both kids might be just as smart and just as driven, but one is running a clear track while the other is running through a swamp with a backpack full of bricks.

And yet, when things go wrong, we’re so quick to judge. We talk about “poor choices” or “lack of discipline,” as if the entire global economy is just one big self-help seminar. We treat poverty like a personal failing instead of the predictable result of things like stagnant wages, insane housing and food costs, and massive wealth gaps. It’s a convenient story to tell because it lets the rest of us off the hook. If poverty is your fault, then I don’t have to do anything to help you, or to help change the system that allowed this disparity. The medical bills that wiped out five years of savings in one afternoon. Childcare that costs more than the job pays. Your fault, not mine.

The truth is that for most people, the line between “doing okay” and a total crisis is paper-thin. One bad transmission, one layoff, one sick kid…and the whole house of cards comes down. Poverty isn’t a personality trait. It’s usually just timing.

The irony is that people living in poverty often have plenty of character. They have to be experts at stretching a dollar, improvising, and finding a way to keep moving when the world keeps saying “no.” If you could pay the rent with “grit,” they’d all be millionaires. But character doesn’t pay the bills; opportunity does. And opportunity isn’t something you get just by being “virtuous.”

That’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s also hopeful. Because if poverty isn’t a personal failure, then we don’t have to wait for people to “fix themselves.” We can start by fixing the system. We can choose to build opportunity instead of just telling people to work harder. The world doesn’t have a shortage of character; it has a shortage of people who care enough about their neighbors to decide that we’re all in this together.

Read more

Want to change your iPhone's Liquid Glass design or curious about what could land on your device next? Look no further.

Tired of your cringy old Gmail username? You aren't stuck with it forever anymore.

The 11-time Grammy winner had a net favorability of 65%, Obama came second with 14%, while Zelenskyy had 12%

For the US public, the feeling that Dolly Parton expressed in her country music chart-topping 1974 classic I Will Always Love You is clearly mutual.

A poll of Americans’ opinions about more than 20 international luminaries established as much, with the 11-time Grammy winner and philanthropist leaving her two closest competitors – Barack Obama and Volodymyr Zelenskyy – in the dust by more than 50 percentage points.

Crews from Morengo fire and rescue built a makeshift raft to get Troy, who was stuck in 15ft deep creek, safely to shore

A horse in Illinois swept from a barn in a fast-moving flood has been reunited with his owner after firefighters joined a local veterinarian in a unique, daring deep-water rescue.

Crews from the Marengo fire and rescue districts constructed a makeshift raft to move Troy, who was stranded about 600ft from the nearest shore and surrounded by a strong current of water in Coon Creek, about 60 miles north-west of Chicago.

We've been testing Echos and Alexa devices for years, up through the Alexa Plus AI. Here are the gadgets that work best with the Amazon voice assistant.

As talks to end the U.S.–Israel war on Iran break down and President Donald Trump demands a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, journalist Amy Goodman says that in times of war and conflicts, “What I care about is the answer, and I care that people in this country don’t get health care at the same time that money goes to kill others in another country.”

This week on The Intercept Briefing, Goodman speaks to host Akela Lacy about a new documentary called “Steal This Story, Please!” The documentary follows Goodman’s life, journalism career, and the building of the independent news program “Democracy Now!” which just celebrated its 30th year. Recalling times when networks used their video footage, says Goodman, “I encourage that. Steal this story, please. It’s a failure if it’s an exclusive. We are covering these critical issues of the day, and we want to ensure that these stories get out because independent media is essential to the functioning of a democratic society.”

Many journalists and news outlets don’t ask tough questions to maintain what she calls the “access of evil — trading truth for access,” and to that, Goodman says, “Then it’s not worth being there at all. It’s our job to hold those in power to account.” 

She adds, “We can’t have weapons manufacturers, who provide millions to networks to advertise determining our coverage of war. We can’t have oil, gas, and coal companies determining our coverage of climate change, or banks and other financial institutions determining how we cover inequality. We need an independent media.”

Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.

Transcript

Akela Lacy: Welcome to The Intercept Briefing. I’m Akela Lacy, your host, and a senior politics reporter at The Intercept. We’re bringing you a very special episode today. If you know anything about independent media, you’ve likely heard of the famous show “Democracy Now!” and its intrepid and fearless host Amy Goodman

[Clip from “Steal This Story, Please!”] 

Rush Limbaugh: Radical leftist TV program called “Democracy Now!” …

Unknown speaker: I’m not asking again. That way, or you get arrested.

Amy Goodman [montage]: From ground zero … From East Timor … As we deplane in Haiti … From Georgia’s death row prison… We’re in occupied Western Sahara … We’ve walked across the border … We’re in the middle of Trump Tower … This is “Democracy Now!,” the war and peace report. I’m Amy Goodman.

AL: “Democracy Now!” has opened the door for so many independent media outlets doing investigative reporting and asking tough questions, including The Intercept and many other outlets that we admire. Amy Goodman is a journalist who I have incredible respect and admiration for. And today, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing her about a documentary on her life’s work.

We’re also joined by one of the filmmakers of the documentary, which is out now — “Steal This Story, Please!” — which follows Amy’s life and career in journalism and the building of the independent journalism Goliath that is “Democracy Now!”

Amy Goodman, welcome to The Intercept Briefing.

Amy Goodman: Akela, it’s an honor to be here.

AL: Tia Lessin, welcome to the show.

Tia Lessin: Thanks so much for having us.

AL: Amy, as someone who has long covered U.S. wars and global conflicts, what do you make of how mainstream media is covering the U.S.–Israel war on Iran? Is it any different from how the media covered the 2003 Iraq War, which is something that comes up a lot in the documentary?

Related

Donald Trump, Iran, and the Gulf of Tonkin Redux

AG: Akela, our motto is “Go to where the silence is.” And that’s what the rest of the media, I think, too often misses. When it came to 20 years ago, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, hearing the voices of everyday Iraqis — almost absent from the mainstream media. And today, as Israel and the United States attack Iran, hearing the voices of people in Iran and the Iranian diaspora.

I am particularly moved by those who stood up against the regime, those who were imprisoned against the regime, those thousands of people. Of course, there are thousands who’ve lost their lives, but those who survived their fierce criticism of what the U.S. and Israel has been doing. It’s really important that we understand history, how the rest of the world sees us.

In the case of Iran, 1953 would mean nothing to most people in the United States. But for the people of Iran, the seminal moment when their leader — their democratically elected leader, Mohammad Mossadegh — was overthrown by the U.S. and Britain really ultimately for BP at the time, for British Petroleum. That led to this series of events that led to the shah and his secret police known as the SAVAK, which then led to the overthrow and the Iranian revolution in 1979. Many of those who fought the shah would then be imprisoned under the ayatollah.

It’s people who’ve been fighting for democracy who say bombing their country — let me quote President Trump — “to the Stone Ages,” will not further democracy in Iran. That’s what we so often don’t hear is the Iranian people.

AL: Recently, when we saw all this coverage of the U.S. rescue mission of this downed airman, as this incredible feat that took the brawn and the American ethos of war fighting. That was a quote that I heard from a mainstream analyst about this event that had wall-to-wall coverage on the networks —

AG: Let me say something Akela. 

AL: Go ahead, please. 

AG: When you talk about the airmen, the lives of these service members matter — of every one of them — as do the lives of civilians here in this country in Israel and Iran. It is critical that we understand what’s happened to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of U.S. soldiers, once President Trump announced — along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — this unprovoked war on Iran. It’s critical to understand that a number of U.S. service members have died. 

You know how reporters were castigated when they raised the service members. It is really important to question, because we’re talking about lives — life and death — whether we go to war, which is why it’s critical for Congress to debate this issue and determine whether the U.S. should go to war. We have to be able to discuss these issues, and the media is the place to do it. I see the media as a huge kitchen table that stretches across the globe that we all sit around and debate and discuss the most important issues of the day: war and peace, life and death. Anything less than that is a disservice to the service men and women of this country. Anything less than that is a disservice to a democratic society.

AL: This is a good segue to touch on the title of the documentary, which is “Steal This Story, Please!” which speaks to the idea that you want mainstream media to start covering the topics that you cover that they might ordinarily ignore or gloss over. But that even when they do, they don’t always connect the dots to what’s driving these issues or to these questions that you’re asking about accountability. The premise that that this was an unprovoked war is lost in a lot of this coverage, even if some of it has been relatively critical. 

So I just wonder if you could speak to how it’s beneficial for all of us when the media does pay attention to these issues. But what difference does it make if they’re not connecting it to these broader questions of accountability and power?

AG: Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, the filmmakers who made “Steal This Story, Please!” chose that. It’s our motto at “Democracy Now!” We have a few mottos. To be the exception to the rulers. That’s our job in the press. The other is to go to where the silence is. Because the fact of the matter is, it’s not really silent there. People are organizing, they’re raucous, they’re rowdy, but it doesn’t hit the corporate media radar screen. 

When it comes to stealing this story, please — because we are forever polite — covering these stories like as they covered in the film, the standoff at Standing Rock. We should not have been the only journalist there covering when hundreds of Indigenous people, Native Americans, First Nations people from Canada, Indigenous people from Latin America, and their non-native allies started taking on the Dakota Access Pipeline.

We were there at one moment when they saw bulldozers excavating their burial grounds. And they were concerned about the pipeline going under the Missouri River, the longest river in North America, endangering the lives of millions of people. That’s what they were concerned about.

They saw these bulldozers. They went on the property, and the DAPL — Dakota Access Pipeline — guards unleashed dogs on the protesters. They were biting them. They called themselves water protectors, not protesters. We captured that dog with its mouth and nose covered in Native blood, and we posted online what was taking place. Within 24 hours, 14 million views.

Any corporate executive, so many. When I go into the network studios, — not only Fox; but MSNBC at the time, now MSNow; CNN — saying, why don’t you cover climate change more for these decades? The executives say it doesn’t capture enough eyeballs. Well, I think any of these executives would drool for that kind of response. Fourteen million views.

People really do care. But because we’re the only ones there, all the networks took our video, and I encourage that. Steal this story, please. It’s a failure if it’s an exclusive. We are covering these critical issues of the day, and we want to ensure that these stories get out because independent media is essential to the functioning of a democratic society.

AL: Tia, I want to bring you in here, too. You opened the film with Amy holding a microphone, following a Trump official, persistently asking him questions about why he’s at a climate conference when Trump has called climate change a hoax, among other environmental policy questions.

[Clip of film]

AG [in film]: Hi, I’m Amy Goodman from “Democracy Now!” Can you tell —

P. Wells Griffith III, then-Trump climate adviser: I’ve gotta go to another meeting.

AG [in film]: Can you tell us what you think about President Trump saying climate change is a hoax? You could answer the question, are you not speaking to the press here?

PWG: Excuse — I’m sorry, I’m running late for a meeting. Thanks.

AG [in film]: Right, but you weren’t running late when you were just standing there. 

[Clip end]

AL: Tell us about that scene, and why you chose to open with it.

TL: It was quintessential Amy Goodman there. She was going up and down the stairs, in and out of corridors, following, chasing after the Trump administration’s representative to the conference who would not stop to answer her questions. And she was just doing what a good reporter does, and she was unstoppable.

She understood that her listeners wanted to know these answers, and she was going after them. To me, it just showed everything you need to know about Amy Goodman. And it really, I think, makes the audience root for her because she’s doing this for us. She is working in the public interest to get these answers from elected officials, from corporate CEOs.

We see that throughout the film: She’s often chasing after billionaires and politicians, and oftentimes getting answers that no one else is, to questions that no one else is asking. I will say, we were going to call the film “Chasing Amy,” or “Amy Chasing” or “Chasing Amy Chasing,”

AL: I love that. “Amy Chasing –––.” Fill in the blank. [laughs]

TL: The title was already taken. But I will say that, to go back to your previous question, I think of the words that Amy’s co-host Juan González said to us when we were talking to him about the coverage of the Iraq War in 2003, or let’s say the invasion of Iraq. And the cheerleading that the commercial media did, “Democracy Now!”’s reporting was pretty unique in raising questions that journalists weren’t asking. They were taking Bush’s proclamations at face value.

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Twenty years later, lots of mea culpas on the part of the press, “we were wrong.” Even people like David Remnick, we’re sorry we were wrong. Juan González put it perfectly when he said, to paraphrase him, it’s not enough to say 20 years later we were wrong. You need to stop the injustice when it’s happening, or at least report on it.

That is something Amy does and Juan does and her team does every single day. 

[Break]

AL: There was a ton of discussion in Trump’s first term about how the media should cover someone like him. And we didn’t see many journalists doing what we saw you doing, which is, and we don’t see that today really, running people down and asking them hard questions. Often I feel like nowadays that’s associated with — I have images in my head of viral videos of reporters trying to do gotcha questions, and that’s not the kind of journalism that we’re talking about.

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We’re talking about finding people in power and asking them hard questions. So I’m wondering if you could talk a little bit about what mistakes you think journalists made in covering Trump in his first term, and whether you think that we’ve learned anything from that in this second term?

AG: I think that journalists engage in the what I call “access of evil” — trading truth for access — playing on the old “axis of evil” term. This goes way back, and it’s not just with Republican presidents, it’s with Democratic presidents as well. You don’t ask a tough question because you’re afraid you then won’t be called on again. But I say, then, it’s not worth being there at all. It’s our job to hold those in power to account. 

Right now, the stakes are so high. When President Trump tries to censure AP for not going along with Trump and calling the Gulf of Mexico “the Gulf of America.” Or his particular attack on women journalists, and particularly women of color, is grotesque. Every single time, the entire press corps should walk out, or object when he calls on the next person, when he says “Quiet, piggy” or talking about the “ugly” reporter. It’s critical reporters stand together. He’s doing that to intimidate because there’s a bigger question he doesn’t want asked, whether it’s about the Epstein files or grifting. 

The amount of money his family is making, especially now during the second term, we’re talking conservatively about billions of dollars. The Wall Street Journal has done great reporting on this; the New York Times has done great reporting on this. “Democracy Now!,” I always say we prevent stories from being “priv-ished.” The word is published and maybe a story is published, but often it’s behind the refrigerator ads or it just doesn’t get a lot of attention in print, and to broadcast it is really important. Raising these issues continually. 

Trump is a master of media manipulation. He sues the media. He sued “60 Minutes” for editing a Kamala Harris interview. We all do interviews for an hour, then cut it down to 10 minutes. It’s our job. Unfortunately, we don’t have limitless time.

So of course in that lawsuit, I think “60 Minutes” and CBS would’ve won, but their owners were engaged in trying to merge two corporations, Paramount and Skydance, and it wasn’t worth it to them to go through this exercise that would antagonize President Trump. So they essentially paid him off. They say the money goes to the Trump library. What was it? $15, $16 million. But what they get in return is something like a $6 billion, $7 billion merger approval. 

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos saying that President Trump was found civilly liable for rape. This was in the case of E. Jean Carroll, who President Trump had a trial and was found guilty of sexual assault. The judge in the case said in common parlance, that would be rape. I think George Stephanopoulos and ABC would’ve won. But again, their corporate owners wanted a larger corporate merger — I think it was between Nexstar and Tegna — and it was worth billions of dollars.

So paying $15, $16 million to the so-called Trump library was pennies for them. 

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Now, this is extremely serious, especially for less financially well-off networks; you can’t afford these kinds of lawsuits. So it was a real lesson to everyone, and it’s absolutely critical that they be fought.

AL: Talking about this solidarity, or lack thereof rather, in the White House press corps around setting norms around how to handle an official like Trump. There’s a scene from the documentary I have in mind where you’re in the White House briefing room, and you’re asking tough questions about the U.S. arming and training the Indonesian military that carried out the massacre in East Timor that you were present for.

[Clip from film]

AG [in film]: Will President Clinton push for the sale of F-16s to Indonesia when Congress returns in January? José Ramos-Horta says it’s like selling weapons to Saddam Hussein.

Mike McCurry, White House Press Secretary: That’s not the view of the United States government. We make arms transfers of that nature when they’re in the interest of the United States.

AG: You’re supporting the military dictatorship by doing it.

MM: Well, you’re also advancing U.S. strategic interests in the region.

[Clip ends]

AL: The press secretary sort of makes a joke at your expense, and you see the rest of the reporters start laughing with him. What was that experience like being surrounded by that press corps? Did you ever question your approach? How was that for you?

AG: This was about the 1991 massacre, which Indonesian soldiers armed by the United States with M-16s. Indonesia invaded East Timor December of 1975, and they would go on to occupy East Timor for two decades. They killed off a third of the population. 

My colleague, journalist Allan Nairn, and I survived a massacre on November 12, 1991, which the Indonesian soldiers opened fire on innocent Timorese civilians. They killed over 270 of them. They beat us to the ground. They fractured Allan’s skull. They put the guns to our heads, U.S. M-16s. And only when we convinced them that we were from the United States — the same place their weapons were from — did they pull the guns off our heads, and we were able to get away in a Red Cross Jeep with dozens of Timorese jumping on top of us, on top of the van to flee this killing field. 270 Timorese killed in one day. But ultimately during that time, 1975 to 2002, a third of the population of East Timor was killed.

So when I came back to the United States after the ’91 massacre, that was President Clinton, and the press spokesperson was Mike McCurry. Congress had decided to cut off military training aid to Indonesia, the fourth most powerful army in the world — armed, trained and financed by the United States overwhelmingly. They cut off IMET, that’s international military education and training, funding. And the question was President Clinton going to restore it. And I kept asking that question to get an answer, and when I asked it again and said I know about the massacre, I survived that massacre, he ultimately said, “The turnip is dry.”

I don’t know if that was a code I was supposed to give to another country. But that’s when all the journalists laughed. Because a lot of times the administration can use peer pressure, but I don’t care about that. What I care about is the answer. And I care that people in this country don’t get health care at the same time that money goes to kill others in another country. So we just persisted.

AL: What have you learned from being that person in the room, particularly surrounded by people who often have that access, but don’t use it to ask tough questions?

AG: You just have to keep going. It’s like talking about the corporate media for 30 years. “Democracy Now!” has just celebrated its 30th anniversary.

AL: Congratulations. 

AG: We had a great time recently at Riverside Church, that amazing place where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his speech against Vietnam in 1967, a year to the day before he was assassinated, against the war in Vietnam. The mainstream media, like Life Magazine said he had done a [disservice] to his cause and his people; that he sounded like he was reading a script from Radio Hanoi because he was against the war in Vietnam, he should stick to civil rights. Even those in his inner circle, some felt that way. But MLK persisted, and he said, no, these issues are connected. So in the same way the corporate media goes after him, it’s really important to see and cover these leaders who either their speeches, their messages don’t get heard, or they get misrepresented.

But for 30 years, we’ve been criticizing the corporate media. Today, there are many journalists within the corporate media who might have bristled in the last 30 years at what we said, but now are saying, “You didn’t say enough.”

Look at the Washington Post newsroom. It’s been cut by a third by a tech billionaire owner Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon, bought the Washington Post, is trying to curry favor with President Trump, stood behind him with the other tech billionaires when he was inaugurated. And now has sliced and diced this newsroom to the horror of not only great journalists at the Washington Post, but to people who live in a democratic society and who do believe, go by that motto of the Washington Post, that “Democracy dies in darkness.” The U.S. has now attacked Iran, and almost the entire Middle East division of the Washington Post is gone. The reporter in Ukraine, she gets an email that she’s laid off as she’s covering the war on the front lines. 

These are really serious times. It’s critical we continue to sound the alarm and build independent media, a media that’s brought to us by those who are hungry for authentic voices. In the case of “Democracy Now!,” it’s the listeners, it’s the readers, it’s the viewers. And for 30 years, we have depended on this global audience. Many of whom we reach on the internet at democracynow.org and now on social media platforms.

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Because we can’t have weapons manufacturers, who provide millions to networks to advertise, determining our coverage of war. We can’t have oil, gas, and coal companies determining our coverage of climate change, or banks and other financial institutions determining how we cover inequality. We need an independent media.

TL: And that very same week that Jeff Bezos lays off how many hundreds of Washington Post reporters, columnists, editors is the same week that the documentary about Melania Trump comes out. It came out on Amazon, they put it in the theaters. How much did they spend on it? $30 million to make it, an additional $45 million to market. Or is it the other way around, I can’t —

AG: $40 [million].

TL: Either way, it’s an obscenity. First of all, it’s just a commercial for Melania and her fashion industry. But worse than that, it’s just a bribe to the Trump administration. So the fact that those two things happened at the same time, I think, is just, it’s outrageous.

AL: Amy, you created “Democracy Now!” at a time when corporations were building these huge monopolies, privatizing news media. For both of you though, can you talk about — we keep talking about independent media, but I wonder if you could talk about what does that actually mean to you, and what it was like being an independent journalist in that media landscape at the height of all these consolidations?

AG: We’re the same then that we are now, and it is independent. I found at the beginning of my career, WBAI in New York, part of the Pacifica Radio Network, which was founded in 1949 in the Bay Area by a man named Lew Hill, who was a war resistor, came out of the detention camps and said, there’s got to be a media outlet that’s not run by corporations that profit from war.

Or as George Gerbner, founder of the Cultural Environment Movement, former dean at the Annenberg School for Communication, said, a media not run by corporations that have nothing to tell and everything to sell that are raising our children today.

So we started with this deep belief that independent media serves a democratic society. It has just become increasingly corporatized to the point where many of those within these corporate structures are saying they’re losing their jobs and are saying we can’t sound the alarm loud enough. At this point, a lot of the legacy media is, to say the least, losing its power, is diminishing. A lot of these newspapers are going by the wayside, and it’s an enormous loss. 

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We’re speaking to you actually on Local News Day, a very important day because we have lost so much local news. That’s where everything starts. When you care about what your city council decides or your school board decides, and then you go to a larger level. A lot of our stories — international, national stories — start with local news coverage that we read about and find the people who are closest to the story. Not these pundits, who know so little about so much explaining the world to us and getting it so wrong. 

We need to hear more of that. I don’t know the form, the social media platforms and the kind of journalistic formations that will be, but we have students coming to “Democracy Now!” every day, classrooms watching the broadcast in the morning, 8 to 9, and talking with them after. And I say there couldn’t be any more noble profession than journalism. I’m not sure the different shapes it will take, but I can just say, “You should do it.”

We need to be fair. We need to be accurate. You’re entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts. It is critical that we understand that the internet is extremely important, and social media platforms are extremely important in challenging the traditional gatekeepers, but they can also be a global rumor mill, and we have to ensure authenticity and truth.

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AL: I’m not sure that the average person totally understands the effect that corporatization of media has on the journalism itself. I think a lot of us have been inured to the idea that because Politico Playbook is sponsored by BP, that doesn’t necessarily affect the journalism. But I think that’s —

TL: And it’s not only journalism. It is certainly journalism, but it’s not only journalism. I think about the world of documentary filmmaking: The number of platforms and outlets that our work airs on has shrunk in this media consolidation. So that means that not only are there less commissions and less money for making films, but the films that we make, that I make, the political documentaries don’t get funded, particularly by commercial media that is looking for corporate sponsors or is accountable to their corporate boards that are trying to kiss up to Donald Trump. 

In this case, I think we’re finding a very narrow market for political films. In our case, we are distributing “Steal This Story, Please!” independently, and we’re excited about doing that. We have seen time and time again on the festival circuit, there is an appetite for political content for films that speak to this moment, for this film about Amy Goodman and “Democracy Now!” and independent media. And I think a lot of the distributors would have you believe that all that audiences care about are true crime stories and celebrity biopics. We are out to prove them wrong.

AL: The film “Steal This Story, Please!” is screening in theaters across the country. Visit stealthisstory.org to find showtimes near you. Amy and Tia, thank you so much for joining me on The Intercept Briefing. It’s been an honor to speak with you both.

AG: Thank you so much.

TL: Really appreciate the time. Thank you so much.

AL: Before we go, we’d love it if you help The Intercept Briefing, win its first Webby Award for best news and politics podcast. I’ve already heard from at least one listener who told us that they voted for us, in addition to my fiancé. So please vote for us! We’ll add a link to vote in our show notes. We thank you so much for your support. 

That does it for this episode. This episode was produced by Laura Flynn. Ben Muessig is our editor-in-chief. Maia Hibbett is our Managing Editor. Chelsey B. Coombs is our social and video producer. Fei Liu is our product and design manager. Nara Shin is our copy editor. Will Stanton mixed our show and legal review by David Bralow. 

Slipstream provided our theme music. This show and our reporting at The Intercept do not exist without you. Your donation, no matter the amount makes a real difference. Keep our investigations free and fearless at theintercept.com/join.

And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to the Intercept Briefing, wherever you listen to podcasts, and leave us a rating or a review. It helps other listeners to find our reporting. Let us know what you think of this episode, or if you want to send us a general message, email us at podcast@theintercept.com.

Until next time, I’m Akela Lacy.

The post Amy Goodman on the Media’s “Access of Evil” appeared first on The Intercept.

Decisions at the latest Democratic National Committee meeting emphasized the disconnect between the party’s leadership and its base

When the Democratic party’s governing body adjourned its meeting on Saturday in New Orleans, supporters of Palestine and an end of the genocide in Gaza had few reasons to celebrate. The Democratic National Committee had refused to give any ground to the large majority of the party’s voters with distinctly negative views of Israel.

Last summer, a Quinnipiac Poll found that 77% of Democrats agreed that “Israel is committing genocide”. Last month, an NBC poll found that 67% of Democrats felt more sympathetic to Palestinians than Israelis, compared with 17% who felt more sympathetic to Israelis.

Hungary election: Orbán has been defeated – but will Orbánism survive? Expert comment LToremark 14 April 2026

Péter Magyar and his Tisza party have won a landslide victory, ending 16 years of Viktor Orbán’s rule. But to what extent voters have also rejected Orbán’s model remains to be seen.

In Sunday’s election, Péter Magyar’s Tisza party won nearly 70 per cent of the seats in Hungary’s parliament, putting an end to Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule. This landslide victory is not just a change of government, but a historic rejection of the most entrenched political system in the European Union (EU). The political model of Orbán and his Fidesz party had looked durable because it successfully fused political authority, institutional control and a powerful national narrative. 

So why did voters turn against Orbán? While his campaign asked voters to think geopolitically (and not always in the most honourable fashion) – war or peace, Brussels or sovereignty, Ukraine or Hungarian stability – voters were more concerned with issues closer to home, such as economic stagnation, inflation and falling living standards. This shows that Orbán may have lost his populist touch because he clearly lost sense of his voters’ concerns. His defeat sends a warning to populists across Europe that even systems built to last can be beaten when economic concerns drown out their grand narratives.

Will Orbán’s model survive?

While it is clear that Viktor Orbán has been rejected by Hungarian voters, it is less clear that his political model, or Orbánism, has. Over more than a decade, Orbán profoundly reshaped Hungary’s political order, but the system he built also rested on wider political reflexes and deeply rooted social preferences: a strong state, scepticism of external constraint, transactional politics, and sovereignty as a governing method. These traits are deeply embedded in Hungarian political culture and do not vanish on election night. 

That matters even more because Orbán is not leaving politics but will continue to serve from the opposition. That means Magyar will have to confront a defeated, wounded and still highly organized adversary. Fidesz remains embedded in local networks, institutions and media ecosystems; Orbán, for his part, is one of the most skilled political operators in Europe. This was also not Orbán’s first electoral defeat: he stepped down as prime minister in 2002, only to come back stronger in 2010. So, this is not a clean break with the Orbán era. It is the beginning of a new phase in which Orbánism may yet survive in opposition as a source of resistance, political sabotage and narrative warfare.

Relief in Brussels 

For the EU, the election result is plainly good news. Hungary under Orbán had become a chronic point of friction on sanctions, Ukraine and rule-of-law disputes. A Magyar government is likely to be less obstructive, more predictable and more interested in repairing ties with Brussels. That could ease decisions on Ukraine and improve the atmosphere around frozen or conditional EU money – although Brussels is waiting to see reforms by the Magyar government before releasing such funds. 

Hungary will likely remain cautious on migration, focused on sovereignty, and approach Mario Draghi’s ‘pragmatic federalism’ with circumspection. But the result is still good news for the EU’s centre-right European People’s Party (EPP). While it does not change the balance of seats in the European Parliament overnight, it strengthens the EPP politically: it gives the group a major national-level victory, reinforces its claim to represent the EU’s governing centre-right, and weakens one of its most powerful illiberal rivals. 

This all points to easier European coordination on the horizon. It could also help to improve conditions for a UK rapprochement with the EU. 

Ukraine and European defence

For Ukraine, the result matters significantly and immediately. Orbán had kept Hungary formally within the Western camp while also using his position to slow, dilute or politicize support for Kyiv – not least during the campaign. A Magyar victory should mean a less ambiguous Hungarian stance on Ukraine and fewer internal EU headaches. For Moscow, this is clearly a setback: Orbán had become, if not an ally, then certainly a useful outlier inside the EU. The result does not remove Hungary’s structural dependencies, but it does make Budapest less useful to Moscow as an internal point of leverage within Europe. 

Defence, of all crucial areas for the EU, is where a Magyar government could bring visible change. Tisza has pledged to raise defence spending to NATO’s 5 per cent of GDP benchmark by 2035. But the balancing act is here to stay: Magyar ruled out both troop deployments to Ukraine and a return to conscription. However, plans to reduce Russian energy dependence by 2035 and review the Paks nuclear project – largely built and financed by Russia – points to a Hungary that would be less obstructive inside NATO and the EU, and therefore more useful to Europe’s wider security posture.

A warning for European populists

Related work

Can Viktor Orbán lose Hungary’s high-stakes election?

The wider European significance is hard to miss. In recent weeks, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni has suffered a clear setback with the referendum defeat on proposed judicial reforms, while France’s National Rally failed to convert its national standing into control of major cities in the municipal elections. Hungary now sends an even stronger signal: not stagnation, but outright reversal. The lesson is not that populism is finished but that even well-entrenched systems are reversible when they stop delivering materially and become too closed, too tired or too self-serving.

Meanwhile, Magyar’s victory shows that there is still room for a centre-right politics that is conservative without being illiberal, and pro-European without being politically anaemic.

Washington’s wager – and its failure

For Washington, Magyar’s victory comes as a significant blow. The election was monitored closely in the Oval Office and US Vice President JD Vance even came to Budapest days before the vote to boost Orbán’s chances of victory, denouncing supposed EU ‘interference’ and praising Orbán as an ally of Donald Trump. That intervention now looks more like a political own goal. More broadly, it undercuts an idea in Trump-aligned circles that strengthening European sovereigntists would weaken the EU from within and make Europe more pliable. If anything, Hungary suggests the opposite. Several European far-right parties have already begun distancing themselves from Trump over his more erratic foreign-policy moves and this result may further accelerate a trend towards greater autonomy from MAGA. The question now is whether Washington adjusts its methods of influence in Europe or simply doubles down.

Why Should Delaware Care? 
Dover City Council voted to fire its top administrative employee Monday night, capping off the latest chapter of local government controversy in Delaware’s capital city. A public hearing about City Manager Dave Hugg’s removal brought to light disagreements between city departments and friction between city employees and elected officials. 

The Dover City Council officially ousted Dave Hugg from his position as city manager Monday night, ending a standoff between elected officials and the top administrative employee in Delaware’s capital city. 

Council members voted to fire Hugg nearly a month after Spotlight Delaware first reported about city council’s move to place Hugg on paid leave — and the long-simmering tensions between him and council members that had finally boiled over.

Elected officials pointed to responsibilities not being carried out in a timely manner, such as failing to communicate constituent concerns efficiently, and Hugg’s alleged violation of executive session privacy rules as reasons for his termination. 

Five council members voted in favor of firing Hugg. One councilwoman, Donyale Hall, abstained from voting. Two councilmen — Andre Boggerty and Roy Sudler — did not attend Monday’s meeting.

Boggerty and Sudler did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s request for comment about why they were absent. 

The vote came after a first-of-its-kind public hearing for the city of Dover. Hugg — and the lawyer he hired to represent him — conducted an hours-long, trial-like display to make the case that the former city manager should keep his job.

Anthony Delcollo, Hugg’s lawyer, made statements, provided documents and called in a list of witnesses that included state lawmakers and Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen to testify about Hugg’s character and job performance. 

No council members spoke during the hearing, but Dover City Solicitor Dan Griffith interjected periodically to correct what he described as inaccuracies in Delcollo’s arguments.

“I want to express my very deep disappointment that allegations were made about my performance that I was never consulted about, I had no chance to defend against, and that resulted in council somehow being convinced that the only answer was to basically tell me where the door was,” Hugg said during his testimony. 

In the motion made to remove Hugg from his position, Council President Fred Neil said his termination would be “effective immediately.”

Sharon Duca, the assistant city manager under Hugg, has been filling in for him since his leave began in early March. It is unclear whether Duca will be appointed the permanent city manager, or if the city will conduct an external search for a permanent replacement.

An unprecedented public hearing

Dover’s charter outlines that a city manager must be given a public hearing and a written statement of the reasons for their removal before the city council can take a vote to remove them from the position.

But a number of Dover leaders told Spotlight Delaware in the weeks leading up to Hugg’s hearing that they did not know what it would actually look like. Dover had never held this type of public hearing, they said. 

At the hearing’s outset, Griffith, the city solicitor, read from a prepared statement. Hugg could have chosen not to have a hearing at all, or to have one behind closed doors, Griffith said. But Hugg elected to have the discussion be held publicly. 

Griffith’s speech was consistent with sentiments that Delcollo, Hugg’s attorney, shared with Spotlight Delaware last month.

“As Mr. Hugg was not provided any information regarding purported wrongdoing or performance issues prior to being advised that the City felt it was time to move on from his employment, our client looks forward to the opportunity to present his position in this hearing,” Delcollo said at the time. 

Laying out the arguments

The hearing was the first time the city council’s written statement of reasons for ousting Hugg was shared publicly — and the first time since he was placed on leave that Hugg defended his job performance. Delcollo used the document as a roadmap for his presentation, attempting to undercut council members’ reasoning along the way.

One of Delcollo’s main arguments was the statement contained a “glaring dearth of information.” 

He said the letter lacked specific details, like when council members were claiming Hugg withheld information from them, or when he violated public meeting laws by disclosing information that had been discussed in executive session. 

Delcollo also homed in on the 17 complaint letters about the People’s Church that Hugg allegedly never shared with city council. City officials cited those letters to Spotlight Delaware in March as a reason for Hugg’s removal. 

Hugg testified that has never seen those complaint letters. He never would have kept vital information like that from city council, he said. 

Delcollo also called five witnesses to answer questions about Hugg’s character and professional abilities. He read six letters from other witnesses also in support of Hugg. 

Most of the witnesses were Kent County-area leaders who have worked with Hugg in various capacities, including Levy Court President Joanne Masten, State Rep. Bill Bush (D-Dover) and former State Parks Director Charles Salkin. 

Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen also testified, along with Downtown Dover Partnership leaders Diane Laird and Ken Anderson, who work closely with the city government on its revitalization plan.

Delcollo brought Hugg up to the witness stand for about an hour of the hearing. Together they went through all the allegations included in the statement of reasons. 

In addition to refuting the claim about the People’s Church letters, Delcollo and Hugg also rebuffed claims the former city manager fostered a hostile work environment, allowed for the misallocation of city funds and violated both executive session and HIPAA rules by disclosing sensitive information about a former city employee. 

Hugg said he reviewed his city personnel file after being placed on leave. None of these allegations were listed there, leading him to believe that council members came up with the incidents when they decided they wanted him out. 

He said he was called into a meeting on Feb. 9, in which Neilm the council president, and Council Members Boggerty and Gerald Rocha told him they wanted him to either retire, resign or be fired. 

“It’s pretty obvious to me that there was an effort being made to push me out the door, get me to leave and claim it was my decision,” Hugg said. 

Hugg added that he asked the city council members present at that meeting why they wanted him gone. They pointed to his age as the driving factor — Hugg is 83.

When casting his vote to remove Hugg, Neil denied the claim that age played a role. Neil himself is 92, he said from the dais, so “age was not a factor.” 

How did we get here?

City council members provided limited insight into their reasons for ousting Hugg during Monday’s public hearing. 

While Neil gave a brief statement arguing it was Hugg’s performance, not his age, that led to this decision, other council members said their votes were based on the arguments outlined in their statement of reasons.

Despite their vague explanations at Monday night’s vote, multiple city officials told Spotlight Delaware in mid-March that long-simmering tensions between Hugg and city council members boiled over in recent months, leading to council’s decision to remove him. 

The officials — who spoke at the time on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations — said council members had grown tired of Hugg not properly communicating with them about relevant issues, leaving city council “blindsided” when matters were brought to their attention months later. 

Two officials specifically referenced a recent controversy surrounding city council’s decision not to allocate money to the People’s Church homeless shelter as illustrative of the dynamic with Hugg. 

The officials said Hugg failed to inform council members for months about a series of complaint letters the city received about the shelter, along with a threat of legal action from a neighboring resident. 

Delcollo said during his closing statement that he took serious issue with city officials giving information to Spotlight Delaware about the reasons for Hugg’s removal before Hugg himself had been provided any explanation, and before the public hearing was conducted. 

He said he would look into “why it seemed appropriate for whomever did provide those comments to opine publicly about a matter the hearing for which had not yet been conducted,” if “this matter has to proceed further.” 

Delcollo did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s comments following the hearing about what the “matter having to proceed further” might look like, and whether he plans to sue the city over Hugg’s firing.

Hugg served as the Dover City Manager for about four years, beginning in early 2022. He first joined the city’s planning department on a contracted basis in 2017, but ended up staying on and rising the ranks to the role of city manager over the next five years. 

Before taking the contracted role with the city of Dover, Hugg served as Smyrna’s town manager for 14 years, and was said to be retiring when he stepped down from that position in late 2016, according to reporting from the Daily State News.

The post Dover City Council fires city manager following tense public hearing appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

A shallow plot and advert-adjacent cameos justify the critics’ condemnation of Nintendo’s latest film. But there’s sincere affection for the universe here, too

I was bracing myself for the worst when I headed into the cinema with my children to watch the new Super Mario Galaxy movie over the Easter break. The reviews have been memorably dire. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called it worse than AI; Empire deemed it a “humourless, hysterical trudge”. It’s been vilified even more than the first Mario movie, which film critics also hated.

I am a lifelong Nintendo fan, though – I literally wrote the book on the company – so even if it was terrible, there was a possibility that the Mario-loving child within me might temporarily take over my critical faculties and get me through it. That’s what happened with the first Mario movie, which I found to be perfectly OK. I was not actively offended by it, as the film critics seemed to be; audiences seemed to land mostly in my camp, if the huge discrepancy between its audience ratings and review ratings were any indication. Could the sequel really be that much worse?

Judgment will rule on whether spoils of some of Hancock Prospecting’s iron ore projects must be shared with family of her father’s business partner

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Gina Rinehart faces the possibility of losing billions of dollars in riches from her Pilbara iron ore empire and her mantle as Australia’s wealthiest person when a long-awaited court verdict is delivered in Perth on Wednesday.

The Western Australian supreme court judgment will rule on whether Rinehart must share the spoils of some of Hancock Prospecting’s most lucrative iron ore projects with the family of her late father’s business partner.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 14 No. 568.

A new book looks at how an eccentric shipping magnate ushered in a long run of success for the New York Yankees

George Steinbrenner could be quite the pitchman – whether selling New York to free agents or starring in Pepto-Bismol TV ads alongside Billy Martin. And now a new book remembers the late Yankees owner and the dynasty he founded.

The Bosses of the Bronx: The Endless Drama of the Yankees Under the House of Steinbrenner flows from the pen of sports journalist and author Mike Vaccaro. As the New York Post’s lead sports columnist for more than two decades, Vaccaro has witnessed the Steinbrenner dynasty from a rarefied perspective – the journalistic equivalent of a seat along the third-base line.

Legend has it that Fatou was brought from Africa to France in the late 1950s by a sailor who then traded her to settle a bar bill.

Lower courts blocked the effort to send home Haitian immigrants, part of an already shrinking workforce in nursing homes. The Supreme Court will hear the case this month.

The attack at the San Francisco home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman led some Silicon Valley figures to accuse AI critics of inspiring political violence.

BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz: For years pop culture has treated April 25 as the "perfect date," thanks to the famous Miss Congeniality line about needing only a light jacket. But new analysis from WeatherBug suggests that idea does not actually hold up when you look at the numbers. After reviewing U.S. weather data from 2018 through today, the company concluded that October 8 delivers the most reliable combination of comfortable temperatures and low rainfall nationwide. According to the analysis, the average conditions on that day land around 66F with just 0.0573 inches of precipitation. The study used population weighted weather data drawn from roughly 20 million daily WeatherBug users across the United States. When the company compared all days of the year, April 25 ranked only 80th, averaging about 60F and roughly 0.1297 inches of rain. The broader dataset also shows July dominating the hottest days of the year while January owns the coldest, with January 20 averaging just 33F nationally. While no single date guarantees perfect weather everywhere in a country as large as the U.S., the numbers suggest early October may quietly offer one of the most reliable windows for comfortable outdoor conditions.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 14.

Carney’s Liberals will now be able to pass legislation without the support of opposition parties – and govern until 2029

The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, has secured a parliamentary majority for his Liberal government, CBC News reported. The victory will help him push through a legislative agenda he says is needed for an increasingly divided geopolitical world.

Three byelections were held on Monday in Ontario and Quebec, with two in districts – known as ridings – that have long voted Liberal.

With two new council members being sworn in Wednesday, Newark City Council will reconsider three tax proposals that were previously rejected.

And yes, it will be rated R.

Regime hopes to capitalise on deepening transatlantic split by briefing previously sidelined European countries

In a move designed to increase pressure on the US to make compromises in its conflict with his country, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi has been briefing European capitals on the nature of the offer Iran had been willing to make about its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and future stewardship of the strait of Hormuz during the weekend talks in Islamabad.

After the inconclusive talks, Araghchi held phone briefings with the French and German foreign ministers, Jean-Noël Barrot and Johann Wadephul, as well as the Saudi, Omani and Qatari foreign ministers.

Overconfidence could draw America and China into a war.