News Reel

A Chevron station just outside downtown charges more than $8 a gallon – nearly $3 more than the city’s average

It’s tempting to think that a gas station charging more than $8 a gallon is a glamorous Los Angeles curiosity. Sort of like shopping at Erewhon, the healthy grocery chain that wows with a premium experience – and commands up to $22 a smoothie.

But there’s no glamour at the 901 N Alameda Street station. It’s just a dingy Chevron on the edge of LA’s Chinatown, regularly featured in news stories to illustrate the high cost of fuel in California. Midday on Tuesday, the station charged $8.31 for a gallon of regular gas.

US president urges nations to deploy vessels to keep key oil shipping route open amid conflict with Iran

Donald Trump has said the UK should send warships to help keep the strait of Hormuz open.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, the US president urged the UK and other countries to deploy vessels to the strait amid the conflict with Iran.

Defense secretary appeared to endorse killing prisoners, a violation of international law, during press briefing

A top Democratic lawmaker with a military background has reacted strongly to US defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s call for “no quarter” for US enemies during a Friday press briefing at the Pentagon, calling such an order – if followed by troops – a potential violation of international law.

The US senator Mark Kelly, of Arizona, posted on Friday on X that “‘No quarter’ isn’t some wanna be tough guy line – it means something. An order to give no quarter would mean to take no prisoners and kill them instead.”

U.S. Navy Seaman 1st Class Clyde C. McMeans, 26, was one of the 103 USS California crewmen killed during attacks on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

The facility was attacked on Friday night, bringing the toll of medical staff to 31 killed in past 12 days

Israel killed 12 medical workers in a strike on a medical centre in south Lebanon on Friday night, bringing the toll of healthcare staff killed in the country by Israel to 31 over the past 12 days.

A primary healthcare facility in the town of Burj Qalaouiyah was struck by Israeli rockets late on Friday, setting it ablaze and causing the structure to collapse on top of the staff inside. The strike killed doctors, paramedics and nurses on duty, according to the Lebanese ministry of health, which said it “violated all international humanitarian laws” in a statement.

"A new study suggests the productivity boost from AI may be far smaller than executives claim," writes Slashdot reader BrianFagioli: According to research cited in Foxit's State of Document Intelligence report, while 89% of executives and 79% of end users say AI tools make them feel more productive, the actual time savings shrink dramatically once people account for reviewing and validating AI-generated output. The survey of 1,000 desk-based workers and 400 executives in the United States and United Kingdom found executives believe AI saves them about 4.6 hours per week, but they spend roughly 4 hours and 20 minutes verifying those results. End users reported a similar pattern, estimating 3.6 hours saved but 3 hours and 50 minutes spent reviewing AI work. Once that "verification burden" is factored in, executives gain just 16 minutes per week, while end users actually lose about 14 minutes.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Kharg Island is a small, heavily fortified, and strategically valuable island off Iran's northern coast.

The strikes destroyed more than 90 military targets, including missile facilities, but preserved oil infrastructure, U.S. Central Command said Saturday.

Motaz Malhees is an actor in The Voice of Hind Rajab, a film about a Palestinian girl killed by the IDF in Gaza in 2024

Palestinian actor Motaz Malhees said a travel ban imposed by Donald Trump is preventing him from attending Sunday’s Academy Awards, whose nominees include a movie in which he has a starring role.

The Voice of Hind Rajab, a film about a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2024, has been nominated for best international feature film.

I thought Wi-Fi 7 routers were overhyped and overpriced. But after personally testing them and analyzing the data, I stand corrected.

Stretching E Ink to the size of a monitor sounds great in theory, but the reality has room for improvement.

It turns out your car's tire pressure monitoring system may be a gold mine for hackers.

President Trump's comments came shortly after he said that the U.S. military had conducted "one of the most power bombing raids" on a vital Iranian oil hub.

Former Oldham East and Saddleworth MP remained in Westminster for New Labour’s entire 13 years in power

The former Labour MP minister Phil Woolas has died of brain cancer, his family and close friends have announced.

Woolas, 66, was elected to parliament to represent Oldham East and Saddleworth as part of Labour’s landslide victory in the 1997 general election. He remained in Westminster for New Labour’s entire 13-year stretch in power.

Founder Jonah Peretti said at SXSW that the goal is to follow Nintendo's model of creating surprising new things with existing tech.

Last June Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in a statement that Texans "have a God-given right to know what's on their plate, and for millions of Texans, it better come from a pasture, not a lab. It's plain cowboy logic that we must safeguard our real, authentic meat industry from synthetic alternatives." But California company Wildtype sells lab-grown salmon — and is suing Texas over its ban on cell-cultivated meat, the Austin Chronicle reported this week. The company's founder says lab-grown salmon eliminates the mercury, microplastic, and antibiotic contamination commonly found in seafood. And one chef in Austin, Texas says lab-grown salmon is "awesome" and "something new"-- at the only Texas restaurant that was serving it last summer: Just two months after the salmon hit the menu, Texas banned the sale of cell-cultivated meat... A lawsuit from Wildtype and one other FDA-approved cultivated meat company [argues] it's anti-capitalism and unconstitutional... This law "was not enacted to protect the health and safety of Texas consumers — indeed, it allows the continued distribution of cultivated meat to consumers so long as it is not sold. Instead, SB 261 was enacted to stifle the growth of the cultivated meat industry to protect Texas' conventional agricultural industry from innovative competition that is exclusively based outside of Texas...." [according to the lawsuit]. It was filed in September, immediately after the ban took effect, and cell-cultivated companies are awaiting judgment. That Texas ban would last two years, notes U.S. News and World Reports, adding that Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Nebraska have also passed bans, some temporary "on the manufacturing, sale or distribution of cell-cultured meat." Meanwhile, a new five-year moratorium on lab-grown meat was signed this week by the governor of South Dakota "after rejecting a permanent ban last month," reports South Dakota Searchlight: The new law bars the sale, manufacture or distribution of "cell-cultured protein" products from July 1 this year through June 30, 2031. Violations are punishable by up to 30 days in jail, a fine of up to $500, or both. "But supporters of lab-grown meat are not going down without a fight," adds U.S. News and World Reports, with another lawsuit also filed challenging a ban in Florida: When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the ban in Florida, he described it as "fighting back against the global elite's plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals." He added that his administration "will save our beef."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Jan ‘Jay’ Carey torched the Stars and Stripes to protest against Trump’s executive order banning flag burning

The prosecution of a man who burned the American flag near the White House in protest of an executive order against flag burning has been dropped by the US Department of Justice.

On Friday, the justice department moved to dismiss charges against Jan “Jay” Carey, 55, a military combat veteran who set the flag on fire in Lafayette Square in Washington DC in August, the day that Donald Trump signed a presidential order to crack down on flag burning.

Closure of strait of Hormuz puts pressure on region’s economies amid growing resentment about conflict started by US and Israel

• Middle East crisis – live updates

An eerie quiet hangs over Ras Al Khaimah’s industrial port. Usually a thriving maritime hub of the United Arab Emirates, now ships stand docked and silent. Not far out along the hazy horizon, a backlog of hundreds of tankers have lined up in recent days, halted along a waterway flooded with danger.

Any vessel heading past Ras Al Khaimah out to the Arabian Sea must traverse the world’s most treacherous strip of water for shipping today: the strait of Hormuz. Just over 20 nautical miles from Ras Al Khaimah, two oil tankers heading for the strait were attacked by Iranian missiles this week, one catching fire.

EU citizens with post-Brexit settlement status in UK will not have to present British passport to airlines

British dual nationals who are EU citizens with post-Brexit settlement status in the UK will not have to use a British passport to return to the UK, the Home Office has said in a significant U-turn on its controversial dual national border rules.

The change, which critics say was “hidden away” on a government web page, comes weeks after controversy erupted over the new rules that came into effect on 25 February. They require British dual nationals to present a British passport or certificate of entitlement, costing £589, before they board a plane to the UK.

Suspect Christian Barrios, 32, shot two people multiple times Friday night, St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick said.

Stanley McChrystal said White House has a ‘we should do because we can’ approach to international relations

The retired US army general who once led Nato forces in Afghanistan says the bellicose foreign policy Donald Trump has pursued during his second presidency can be summed up as “we should do because we can” – invoking the lyrics of the Dolly Parton classic Jolene to emphasize the point.

Stanley McChrystal delivered those remarks on Friday at Tulane University’s New Orleans book festival during a fireside chat hosted by the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, who asked in part about US military strikes Trump has ordered in Nigeria, Venezuela and Iran since Christmas.

The attack hit four districts, damaging residential buildings, educational institutions and critical infrastructure, officials said.

Watch scenes from the performances nominated for best supporting actress at the 98th annual Academy Awards, as well as interviews with the nominees.

• Police find suspect after incident near course

• Third round began on time despite delays

Police have captured a man who they say killed two people on Friday night about a mile from TPC Sawgrass. The incident led the Players Championship to delay opening the gates to the public for the third round by a couple of hours.

The St Johns County sheriff, Rob Hardwick, said the suspect, whom he identified as Christian Barrios, shot two people multiple times about 10:30pm on Friday in the parking lot of Walgreens in a domestic violence situation. The store is located about a mile away from the course.

This report will update

Wife of former PM also says she is mentioned in Epstein files and coverage not focused enough on victims of abuse

Peter Mandelson’s critics should remember that he is “still a human being”, Cherie Blair has said in an interview.

Blair added that the former Labour minister was “entitled to a fair trial” after he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office. He denies criminal wrongdoing and has been released under investigation.

The wild boar sparked a police response that drew in officers and veterinarians equipped with a tranquilizer gun, shields and even a blowgun.

Greenhouse gases dropped just 0.1% last year as environment minister criticises lack of improvement

Greenhouse gas emissions in Germany have again missed targets set by the Climate Protection Act and barely fell at all in 2025.

Emissions decreased by just 0.1% last year compared to the previous year, according to data from the German Environment Agency.

Videos posted by the US president on Truth Social show strikes on the Iranian island of Kharg. The US president said on Friday that US forces had 'obliterated' military targets on the island and that crucial oil infrastructure there could be next

• Middle East crisis – live updates

From wills and guardianship papers to advance healthcare directives, parents are anticipating dying in custody or being deported without warning

She called it the “end times”.

In a quiet living room in south Florida, a 42-year-old South American woman sat at her kitchen table signing her will. Her hands trembled, and the ink smeared when tears fell hard enough that she had to reprint the pages.

Day 2 of South by Southwest delved into the ways creative people deal with fast-changing technology. Here's the latest, and what Day 3 has in store.

Spencer Laird was diagnosed with colon cancer at 26. At 30, he was told it had returned and spread to his lungs, with one tumor the size of a golf ball.

Demonstrators on Sunday will be arrested for expressing support for Palestine Action or for intifada chants, says Met

Police have warned demonstrators that they will be arrested for expressing support for Palestine Action or making intifada chants at a protest in London on Sunday.

About 12,000 people are expected to take part in the annual al-Quds Day rally, an international demonstration of support for Palestinian rights. The event takes its name from the Arabic version of Jerusalem and was created by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after Iran’s 1979 revolution.

Jason Hughes died after falling and being struck by a car driven by a student who had just pranked the teacher

A Georgia prosecutor has decided to drop charges against a teenager who police say was driving the truck that struck and killed a beloved high school teacher when a prank turned deadly, the teen’s lawyer said. The victim’s family had urged authorities not to compound the tragedy by prosecuting the teen driver and his friends.

The 40-year-old teacher, Jason Hughes, died after slipping and falling into the street as the teens started to drive away after participating in a community tradition of pranking teachers by throwing toilet paper on to his front lawn.

Not all meal kits are created equal. We compared recipes from seven leading services against supermarket prices to find out which ones are worth the cost -- and which aren't.

“I always get really emotional when the pebbles go in,” said Rebecca Parr, who works for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland.

The Pixel 10A's cameras are similar to those on the 9A, but it still performs quite well compared to other phones in its price range.

We sifted through the rumors to find the upgrades most likely to make it to Apple's next smartwatch.

Officials sent out repayment letters to about 1,400 people relying on discredited guidance that had been scrapped

Unpaid carers have been issued with demands to repay thousands of pounds for allegedly breaking benefit rules even though officials knew the decisions were based on unlawful and discredited policy guidance.

About 1,400 carers are understood to have been sent letters by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in January asking them to repay sums relating to breaches of carer’s allowance earnings rules that had been scrapped four months previously.

Features woven into the fabric of platforms have been central to landmark social media harm case in US. How do they work?

It was as “easy as ABC”, claimed the lawyer prosecuting a landmark social media harm case against Meta and Google which heard closing arguments this week. The defendants were guilty, said Mark Lanier, of “addicting the brains of children”. Not true, replied the tech companies. Meta insisted providing young people with a “safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work”.

Features such as autoplay videos, infinite scrolling and constantly chirruping alerts woven into the fabric of online platforms were central to the six-week trial in Los Angeles, which has been compared to the cases against tobacco companies in the 1990s. But how do these features work and what are their consequences? Are they creating addicts rather than users or are they just giving consumers more of what they want?

US workers are finding it difficult to afford basic necessities as the president claims ‘the economy is roaring back’

US workers are still struggling with the cost of living despite Donald Trump’s campaign promises to fix the US affordability crisis.

The Guardian spoke to workers as an exclusive poll showed cross-party concerns about the Trump administration’s handling of the US economy.

Race to fill Marjorie Taylor Greene’s seat provides glimpse into midterms with Iran and immigration on voters’ minds

Earlier this week, a steady trickle of voters casting ballots in Dalton at Georgia’s City Hall offered a glimpse into what may be changing fortunes for Democrats in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former congressional district.

The district hasn’t elected a Democrat since it was created after the 2010 Census. But the party’s candidate Shawn Harris drew the most votes district-wide – about 37% – on Tuesday and now faces Clay Fuller, a Trump-endorsed former prosecutor as his opponent in an April runoff election. The winner will finish Greene’s term until November, when a whole new election will take place.

Alexandria airport center would hold migrant families and children inside converted barracks before deportation

The Trump administration is poised to expand immigration detention operations at a controversial site inside a rural Louisiana airport, the Guardian has learned.

The administration is seeking to establish a “first of its kind” short-term facility that would hold migrant families and unaccompanied children next to a runway that has become a central node for the White House’s mass deportation agenda.

The State Department is seeking information on Iran's new supreme leader and nine other "key leaders" in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Filmmaker Mode can automatically adjust your TV's picture to look better with specific content. Here's why and when you should use it.

Apple said it's normal for your iPhone battery to drain after an update. It's also only temporary.

To focus on sculpting, he worked nights at a Pittsburgh post office. At 92, his art career finally took off.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Meta is planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as Meta seeks to offset costly artificial intelligence infrastructure bets and prepare for greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers. No date has been set for the cuts and the magnitude has not been finalized, the people said. Top executives have recently signaled the plans to other senior leaders at Meta and told them to begin planning how to pare back, two of the people said. If Meta settles on the 20% figure, the layoffs will be the company's most significant since a restructuring in late 2022 and early 2023 that it dubbed the "year of efficiency." It employed nearly 79,000 people as of December 31, according to its latest filing. The speculation follows a recent report from The New York Times claiming that Meta has delayed the release of its next major AI model after falling behind competing systems from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

First major study on ‘AI psychosis’ suggests chatbots can encourage delusions among vulnerable people

A new scientific review raises concerns about how chatbots powered by artificial intelligence may encourage delusional thinking, especially in vulnerable people.

A summary of existing evidence on artificial intelligence-induced psychosis was published last week in the Lancet Psychiatry, highlighting how chatbots can encourage delusional thinking – though possibly only in people who are already vulnerable to psychotic symptoms. The authors advocate for clinical testing of AI chatbots in conjunction with trained mental health professionals.

Yara’s Svein Tore Holsether says it would be ‘catastrophic’ if the strait of Hormuz was closed for a year

The boss of one of the world’s largest fertiliser companies has said global food supplies could be badly damaged this year if the Iran war becomes an extended conflict.

Svein Tore Holsether, the chief executive of Norway’s Yara International, has called on global leaders to consider the impact that soaring food prices will have in some of the world’s poorest countries “before it is too late”.

Inside the growing scientific quest to understand what creatures with the extraordinary ability to defy the ravages of time can teach us about making human aging better.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for Tyler Robinson, 22, who is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 shooting of Charlie Kirk.

Forces ‘obliterated’ military targets on Kharg, according to president, who warns oil infrastructure could be next

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Donald Trump said on Friday that US forces had “obliterated” military targets in a raid on the island of Kharg in Iran and warned that crucial oil infrastructure there could be next, in the latest escalation of the war of words between Washington and Tehran.

“For reasons of decency, I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island,” Trump wrote on social media. “However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”

Summer holidaymakers opting for ‘more familiar, easy-to-reach locations’ as travel industry counts cost of Middle East conflict

Holidaymakers who had planned to visit the eastern Mediterranean this summer are moving their trips to the west and the Caribbean because of the US-Israel war on Iran, travel companies have said.

Travellers from the UK and mainland Europe are increasingly swapping their holiday destinations away from Cyprus, Turkey and Greece towards Italy, Spain, Malta and Croatia, as the region around the Middle East grapples with flight cancellations and airspace closures.

What I’m Discussing Today:

• Kareem’s Daily Quote: Good going, Gandhi…whether you said it or not.

• The “Exceptional” Pete Hegseth: He set the standard, then he ignored it.

• The “Real” Big One? A global economy built on fragile ground.

• Food? Drugs? Both? Neither? The choice no family should have to make.

• What I’m Watching: Sidney Poitier is a perfect dinner guest.

• Jukebox Playlist: Sam Cooke on repeat.

Kareem’s Daily Quote

“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi

Let’s get this out of the way first. Historians and quote researchers haven’t found this exact sentence in Mahatma Gandhi’s writings or speeches. What’s been documented is this: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Which I thoroughly agree with, while admitting it isn’t quite the same thing. But he also wrote a lot about uplifting the weakest and most vulnerable among us humans, so it’s at least understandable how those two concepts were shorthanded into one. Beyond that, in 1977 Hubert Humphrey actually said, “The moral test of government is how it treats those in the dawn of life, the twilight of life, and the shadows of life.” A terrific quote, though it didn’t gain as much traction, most likely because Humphrey didn’t cut as romantic a figure as Gandhi did.

The made-up quote and the real one are both reminders that once you peel back all the politics and the noise, it really comes down to how we treat people when no one’s keeping score. It’s not fancy or complicated. It’s the same lesson most of us learned long before we could spell “policy”: you don’t walk past someone who’s struggling and pretend you didn’t see it.

When I was a kid growing up in New York, my parents didn’t have much, but they had this unshakeable belief that you look out for people. My father was a police officer, and he’d come home with stories about folks who were down on their luck—not in a dramatic, movie‑scene way, just regular people trying to get through the day. He never talked about them with judgment. He talked about them with respect. That stuck with me. Later, when I started playing ball and traveling, I saw the same thing in community centers, gyms, and schools, people doing their best in systems that weren’t built with them in mind.

A country can brag about being powerful or wealthy, but if the people at the bottom, the weakest among us, can barely hang on, what does that power really mean?

And “weakest” doesn’t mean lazy or unmotivated. It means the people carrying the heaviest loads: the elderly person choosing between medicine and groceries, the single parent working two jobs and still coming up short, the young person trying to build a future in a system that keeps moving the goalposts. These are the folks who tell you the truth about a country, not the ones on magazine covers.

Yet, it becomes ever easier to look away. We’ve gotten used to seeing struggle as background noise. Sometimes someone can be hurting right in front of us, and we treat it like a passing cloud, something unfortunate, just part of the day. But nothing about it is inevitable. It’s the result of choices. Choices about who gets help, who gets ignored, and who gets blamed for problems they didn’t create.

When I think about greatness, I don’t think about trophies or titles. I think about moments when people stepped up for someone who couldn’t give them anything in return. I think about the older woman I met at a community event who told me she skipped her medication so her grandkids could eat. She didn’t say it with anger, she said it like it was just part of life. And that’s the part that bothered me most. She had accepted a burden that never should’ve been hers to carry alone.

A nation shows its character in those moments. Not in speeches. Not in slogans. In how it responds when someone like her says, “I’m doing everything I can, and it’s still not enough.”

If we really believe greatness is measured by how we treat our weakest members, then the real question becomes simple: Are we building a country where people like her are seen, heard, and supported, or one where they’re left to figure it out on their own?

Read more

He is stuck in a quagmire. His goals are elusive. His bombing does not force a surrender. He has no exit strategy. Good morning, Vietnam

Donald Trump is lost in his fog of war. He compounds confusion with improvised fabrications as his naive expectation of a lightning victory has been sunk in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, he felt certain, would easily follow the “perfect scenario” of Venezuela, accede to naming a leader who would instantly do his bidding, and there would be no disruption of the oil markets – “a strong game plan”, stated Karoline Leavitt, his White House press secretary, who defends each of his changeable excuses with equal ferocity.

There may be few if any facts underlying the delusions upon which Trump constructs his vapid explanations and evanescent strategies. The belief that coherent sense can be made out of Trump’s shuffling words is a weakness of the rational mind that refuses to accept the impulses of the inveterate demagogue for what they are. Searching for reason in the jungle of Trump’s tales may compel hopelessly sensible people to superimpose logic where there is none in order to satisfy the need for some semblance of soundness.

Dr Brian Elmore witnessed a public health crisis unfold at the border near El Paso. He reflects on why it was like a ‘perverse Groundhog Day’

In late spring 2024, Dr Brian Elmore was working out of a mobile clinic, providing medical treatment to migrants in Ciudad Juárez, just south of the US-Mexico border wall. One of his patients, a Venezuelan man with a fractured arm and a detached left chest from his sternum and clavicle, told Elmore that Mexican immigration officials broke his arm when he first got to town, and that rubber bullets fired by Texas national guardsmen had caused his chest injuries.

The man somehow had managed to fashion a shoddily made splint for his arm, but his chest would require surgery. When an ambulance arrived, the criminal group that controlled the riverine area refused to let him leave. The Texas guardsmen looked on from the US side of the river. “It was heartbreaking,” Elmore said of the spectacle.

Erratic rhetoric, shifting goals and mixed signals leave allies, foes and voters unsure what the president wants from war

“Mr President,” said a reporter. “You’ve said the war is ‘very complete’ but your defence secretary says, ‘This is just the beginning’. So which is it?” Donald Trump’s eyes darted left and right then down. “Well, I think you could say both,” he parried.

The confusing answer at a press conference in Doral, Florida this week did not befit a wartime leader armed with stirring rhetoric and a lucid plan. But it was entirely on brand for the 47th US president. The tumultuous style that Trump brings to election campaigns, dealing with Congress and global trade relations has now been imported to the theatre of war.

With oil markets paralyzed by the U.S.-Iran war, the Trump administration says it could escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz — a massive undertaking that experts say could already be in the preparatory stages.

On the day after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey commuted his death sentence, halting his execution two days before he was supposed to die, Charles “Sonny” Burton sat in his wheelchair in a visiting room at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., drinking a Coke and eating a Reese’s peanut butter cup.

He could not stop smiling.

“I’m feeling wonderful,” Burton told me.

Burton, 75, wore white sneakers and a brace on his right hand, his tan quilted jacket and slacks fitting loosely over his thin frame. A tan helmet, given to him by the prison to protect from his occasional falls, sat on the table next to an array of photos taken with family earlier that day, along with a bag of quarters for the vending machines.

Burton identified the people in one of the photos for me. Several were still in the visiting room: his sister Eddie Mae Ellison, his son Charles Burton III, and his grandson Charles Burton IV. No sooner had one group of relatives left the visiting room than another showed up — a rolling family reunion.

Burton had been sitting in that same visiting room with his lawyers 24 hours earlier, on Tuesday, March 10, when his longtime paralegal Nancy Palombi got a phone call in Montgomery, 120 miles away. While the rest of the legal team was at the prison without access to their cellphones, Palombi had stayed behind to field any communications from the U.S. Supreme Court, which had just received their final filings aimed at stopping Burton’s execution.

Instead, she got a call from a reporter she knew. The reporter was screaming, “Have you heard?” The governor’s office had just sent out a press release with the subject line, “Update from Governor Kay Ivey: Charles L. Burton.” And that’s how Palombi learned that her client of 20 years would not be executed.

“I was the first member of the team to find out,” Palombi told me that morning, her voice still trembling with a mix of shock, joy, and relief.

Palombi called the prison and spoke to the warden’s secretary, who entered the visitation room with a smile on her face. She told Burton’s lead attorney, Assistant Federal Defender Matt Schulz, that he should call his paralegal right away. “And I’m like, ‘Oh my god, it happened,’” Schulz said. “But I still didn’t want to let myself believe it, because I didn’t know yet.”

Schulz rushed to his car, drove out of range from Holman’s cellphone blockers, and called Palombi. He then sped back.

Describing the scene the next day, Burton turned and pointed toward the hallway that runs along the perimeter of the visiting room. That’s where prison staff celebrated as the news spread on death row. Nurses and officers waved and gave him thumbs ups through the horizontal window slats. “Guards were saying, ‘Sonny got clemency! Sonny got clemency!’” Burton said.

A day later, everyone was still a bit shellshocked. Burton’s son, who had flown in from New York, got the news while loading up his rental car for the drive to Atmore. Burton’s sister was at the doctor’s office in Montgomery, where she saw a local news alert. She ran outside and dropped to her knees. “And then the tears just flowed,” she said.

For decades, the visiting room had been the site of agonizing goodbyes between the condemned and their loved ones in the hours before an execution. Now it was home to warm hugs and tranquil smiles, no one’s bigger than Burton’s. He invoked the famed blues harmonica player Snooky Pryor: “I’m too cool to move.”

Burton’s commutation was historic: the third time in the modern history of Alabama’s death penalty that a person facing execution received clemency by the governor. Ivey, a staunch Republican, has presided over 25 executions since she took office in 2017. Although she commuted the sentence of Burton’s neighbor, Rocky Myers, last year due to serious doubts over his guilt, few were optimistic that she would exercise such mercy again.

Burton would have been the ninth person executed using nitrogen gas in Alabama in just over two years. The method was adopted following complications carrying out lethal injection, a wider trend that has reshaped the landscape of executions across the country. The state’s last execution prompted a forceful dissent from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who described the psychological torture in visceral detail. “You want to breathe; you have to breathe,” she wrote. “But you are strapped to a gurney with a mask on your face pumping your lungs with nitrogen gas. Your mind knows that the gas will kill you. But your body keeps telling you to breathe.”

Burton’s commutation also came as a searing documentary about the state prison system, “The Alabama Solution,” was in the race to win an Oscar. The film, which was produced using footage from contraband cellphones, forced politicians to acknowledge the deadly conditions and inhumane punishments inflicted on people incarcerated in their state. On the day I visited Burton, lawmakers met in Montgomery to discuss legislation to impose oversight on Alabama’s prisons.

Related

Lethal Illusion: Understanding the Death Penalty Apparatus

It was this kind of public pressure that undoubtedly saved Burton’s life. “I would have 100 percent died without it,” Burton told me. In Montgomery, activists held vigils every Monday for weeks in front of the governor’s mansion, while downtown businesses posted flyers about Burton’s case in their front windows. On the eve of Ivey’s decision, two of Burton’s daughters led a march to the state Capitol to deliver petitions to her office.

The campaign for clemency was launched by Burton’s legal team, who believed they had nothing to lose. They highlighted Burton’s remorse, his advanced age and poor health, and, above all, his lack of culpability for the murder that sent him to death row. “This is one of those cases that shocks people,” Schulz said in a clemency film produced last year. “And it shocks people in a totally different way than most death penalty cases.”

Burton was 40 years old when he led a group of younger men in an armed robbery at an AutoZone in Talladega, Alabama. A 34-year-old father and military veteran named Doug Battle walked in as the crime was underway — and one of the young men fatally shot him in the back.

At first, Burton denied any role in either the robbery or the shooting. His apparent lack of remorse helped convince jurors at his 1992 trial that he should be punished as severely as the man who actually shot Battle, a 20-year-old named Derrick DeBruce, who had already been sent to death row. After a four-day trial, Burton, too, was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to die.

But a federal court eventually threw out DeBruce’s death sentence, finding that his lawyer failed to effectively represent him during the punishment phase of his trial. The Alabama attorney general’s office initially appealed the decision, contending that it would be “arguably unjust” to allow Burton to be executed for his co-defendant’s actions. But in 2015, the state agreed to reduce DeBruce’s punishment to life without parole. He died five years later.

The notion that Burton should now pay with his life for another man’s crime spurred outrage among people in Alabama and beyond. The campaign to save Burton was bolstered by six of the eight living jurors who voted to send him to death row, as well as by Battle’s daughter, Tori Battle, who was outspoken in her opposition to the execution. “What is the execution of Mr. Burton supposed to accomplish or solve?” she asked Ivey in a letter that was submitted as part of Burton’s 88-page clemency petition. “Is it for my father? For me? To deter crime? I honestly do not understand.”

The petition argued, first and foremost, that Burton never killed anyone. “He did not pull the trigger that killed Douglas Battle,” his lawyers wrote. In fact, he didn’t even witness the murder. “Mr. Burton was already outside of the AutoZone building where the shooting took place.” Although Alabama’s felony murder statute allows defendants to be held responsible for the actions of others, Burton was only supposed to be eligible for capital murder if he intended to take somebody’s life — and there was nothing to prove that this was the case.

The state’s star witness against Burton was a teenager named LuJuan McCants who agreed to testify in order to avoid the death penalty. He said that Burton had gathered the group with the intention of committing a robbery — and if something went wrong, “he said let him take care of it.” According to prosecutors, this directive proved that Burton intended to kill anyone who might stand in the way of the robbery. But even this weak evidence was undermined by McCants’s own testimony, as well as by an interrogation video discovered by Burton’s lawyers years after the trial. It showed McCants repeatedly telling investigators that Burton had not wanted anyone to get hurt — and that he’d been upset upon learning that DeBruce shot Battle.

Some of the jurors who spoke out against the execution said they were haunted by their decision. “I have questioned whether death is an appropriate punishment,” one woman wrote in a letter submitted with the clemency petition. “I have often thought about Mr. Burton’s mother, who was no doubt devastated by the sentence.”

But for most, it came down to the obvious unfairness of executing Burton for DeBruce’s crime. “Had I known the shooter would later be taken off death row,” one juror wrote, “I would not have voted for the death sentence.” Another juror wrote that Burton may have been the ringleader, “but if Charles Manson can get a life sentence for leading his group to kill many people, it is fair for Mr. Burton to serve life without parole.”

Like most people living on death row, Burton bears no resemblance to Charles Manson — or to the people Americans picture when they hear the term “worst of the worst.” His early life had many of the familiar hallmarks of those who are put to death in the United States: poverty, racism, childhood abuse, and trauma. By the time Alabama came close to executing him, he’d long since apologized for his actions and was in frequent pain from rheumatoid arthritis, unable to walk on his own.

But he was also lucky, he told me. If there was anything that sustained him during his years at Holman, it was a strong family structure, which many of his neighbors lack. Indeed, Burton’s clemency petition was filled with letters from relatives, pen pals, and advocates who described Burton as a positive and nurturing presence in their lives.

I was supposed to attend Burton’s execution — not as a media witness, but as one of the people placed on his personal list. Burton did not wish for his family to be subjected to his death, and his legal team decided that, should the killing move forward, they wanted the world to know what Alabama had done. They invited me and two other journalists to join them in the witness room.

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“Agony” and “Suffering” as Alabama Experiments With Nitrogen Executions

One of them, Lee Hedgepeth, had already witnessed seven executions in Alabama, including three by nitrogen gas. The last one had been the longest to date, lasting 40 minutes. Schulz had seen two of his clients killed with nitrogen. Their accounts were harrowing: Terror and panic was visible on the faces of the condemned, who gasped and thrashed on the gurney. As Burton’s execution date neared, Schulz wondered how it would compare. Would his elderly client suffer more or less due to his age and poor health? Could his more shallow breathing cause the execution to last longer? Or would the fact that he does not have as much oxygen in his lungs to begin with mean it would be shorter?

What was certain was that executing Burton would have been a horrifying spectacle. Guards would have had to lift him onto the gurney, adjusting the thick black straps to fit more tightly over his withered body, and putting a mask over his face. Witnesses would then have watched as Alabama suffocated an elderly man, who killed no one, in the name of justice.

Instead, Burton is now poised to live out the rest of his days behind bars. On the day after our visit, he was moved out of the prison where he spent more than three decades and driven up to Kilby Correctional Facility outside Montgomery, where newly incarcerated people are housed before being transferred to their designated prisons. The move is sure to be a shock to the system for a man who has hardly begun to process the trauma of his near-execution and who has spent much of the past 10 years between his cell and the prison infirmary. After age 65, Burton told me, he slowed down. “I haven’t been outside in eight years,” he said.

In a less punitive system, it would be obvious that Burton should go home to spend the rest of his life with his family. As he said, “I ain’t got much longer to live.” His relatives harbor some hope that he may some day be eligible for medical release. But for now, according to Schulz, Burton was in good spirits when they spoke on the phone from his new location. “He said he knew many of the nurses there, and that they all were greeting, and treating, him warmly,” he said.

“And he’s alive,” Schulz added. On Thursday at 6 p.m., the hour he had been scheduled to die, Burton planned to eat ice cream at the same time as his attorneys and savor the feeling of gratitude. “God has given me a second chance,” Burton told me. This, he believed, was God’s work. “He put the right people in my path.”

The post In the Room Where Death Row Prisoners Say Final Goodbyes, He Learned He Would Live appeared first on The Intercept.

With membership soaring, the Green party is grappling with logistics, culture shifts and a flood of new activists

It is, as one Green activist put it, a never-ending series of “constantly good problems to have”. But how does a party adapt to the sudden trebling of its membership? And when a majority of people in an organisation are new, is it even the same thing anymore?

The basic facts alone are startling. Before Zack Polanski took over as leader last September, the Greens in England and Wales had around 66,000 members. They are now at 215,000, and still rising at speed.

Amsterdam's mayor said police have CCTV footage of a person placing the explosive device against the school's exterior wall.

The former No 3 overall NBA draft pick opens up about addiction, homelessness and redemption in a candid memoir revisiting basketball’s cocaine era

When the Golden State Warriors drafted Chris Washburn with the No 3 pick in 1986, it should have been a dream come true. Instead, it might have been the worst thing that could have happened for the 6ft 11in NC State prospect.

“I put on a smile because they were paying me to be out there,” Washburn, a former three-time high school All-American, tells rhe Guardian. “But I felt alone.”

As top teams land in New York for world sevens this weekend, the Olympic star discusses her uniquely American story and her sport’s search for the spotlight

On Saturday, World Rugby’s HSBC SVNS lands in New York – well, New Jersey – for two days at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, a short ride from downtown Manhattan. The governing body will be watching keenly, as two days of traditional warm-weather sport are held at the end of a north-eastern winter. In New York/New Jersey on Thursday, it snowed.

The men’s US Eagles are not playing, having lost their place at the top table. But the Eagles women have hopes of a home-soil win after a third-place finish last week in Vancouver, beating France in a thriller after a narrow loss to New Zealand. Coach Emilie Bydwell’s team are third in the season standings, set for Championship tournaments in spring and summer.

On the afternoon of Sept. 9, 2024, Cherise Doyley was in her 12th hour of contractions at University of Florida Health in downtown Jacksonville when a nurse came in with a bedsheet and told her to cover up. A supervisor brought a tablet to Doyley’s bedside. Gathered on the screen were a judge in a black robe and several lawyers, doctors and hospital staff.

“It’s a real judge in there?” Doyley asked the nurse at the beginning of what would be a three-hour hearing. “Now this is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Doyley hadn’t asked for the hearing. The hospital had sought it. Doyley had mere minutes to prepare. She had no lawyer and no advocate — no one to explain to her what, exactly, was going on.

Judge Michael Kalil informed her that the state had filed an emergency petition at the hospital’s behest — not out of concern for Doyley, per se, but in the interest of her unborn child. He described the circumstances as “extraordinary.”

The hospital and state attorney’s office wanted to force Doyley to undergo a cesarean section. Doyley, a professional birthing doula, didn’t want that and had been firm about it. She’d had three prior C-sections, one that resulted in a hemorrhage, and hoped to avoid another serious complication and lengthy recovery. She was aware that doctors were concerned about the risk of uterine rupture, a potentially deadly complication for her and her baby. She would say during the hearing that she understood the risk to be less than 2% and didn’t want to agree to a C-section unless there was an emergency.

But the choice would not be hers. The judge would decide how she would give birth.

Mentally competent patients typically have the right to choose their medical care — or refuse it. But there is one notable exception: pregnant patients. That inconsistency is particularly striking in Florida, a state that has pushed to expand medical freedom for those who wish to avoid vaccines or fluoridated water, while constricting the rights of people in various stages of pregnancy.

“There aren’t any other instances where you would invade the body of one person in order to save the life of another,” said Lois Shepherd, a bioethics expert at the University of Virginia School of Law.

In Florida and many other states, court-ordered medical procedures are just one of the ways pregnant patients’ rights are restricted. The effort to chip away at those rights is rooted in the concept of fetal personhood — that a fetus has equal and, in some cases, more rights than the woman sustaining it.

The link between fetal personhood and court-ordered C-sections dates back to the 1980s, when courts started ruling that hospitals can override patients’ decisions in favor of the health of unborn children.

In the years since, proponents of fetal personhood began to push for even broader legal protections. In 1986, Minnesota was the first state to recognize fetuses as victims in homicide cases. Some states have imprisoned pregnant women for exposing their fetuses to drugs. Nearly 30 states have passed laws that allow hospitals to invalidate pregnant patients’ advance directives, which outline the kinds of life-sustaining treatment a person wants after a catastrophic illness or accident. At least one, Alabama, extended the concept of personhood all the way to the earliest stages of fertilization and conception by giving frozen embryos the same legal status as children, though the Legislature later said the law couldn’t be enforced.

And the fetal personhood movement has accelerated in the past several years, supercharged by the U.S. Supreme Court decision to reverse the abortion rights that had been protected by Roe v. Wade.

Florida has long been at the forefront of fetal personhood policies. The state was one of the first in the country to prosecute a woman for “delivering” drugs to her fetus during pregnancy in 1989, although the Florida Supreme Court later overturned her conviction. And after advocates twice failed to get a fetal personhood amendment on the state ballot, the Legislature is now considering a bill that would enshrine the concept in state law by giving embryos and fetuses the same legal status as people in wrongful death suits.

For women in labor, the potential impact of the bill is clear: Experts anticipate their medical needs could be further diminished in favor of the fetuses’.

Several legal experts told ProPublica they are alarmed by Doyley’s case and the legislation’s potential to allow for more court interventions during childbirth. Lawyers who represent women in fetal personhood cases already have identified a higher number of forced C-sections in Florida than other states.

The state attorney’s office for the 4th Judicial Circuit declined to comment on Doyley’s case, saying a response would violate her medical privacy. But in an email, a spokesperson noted why, in general, the office would intervene: “The courts have held that the State has a compelling interest in the preservation of the life of an unborn child and the protection of innocent third parties who may be harmed by the parental refusal to allow or consent to life-saving medical treatment.”

C-sections account for nearly a third of all deliveries in the United States. They can be necessary when babies are breech, or in the wrong position for birth, as well as in cases of maternal or fetal emergency. But in other cases, such as slow laboring or prior C-sections, the need for the surgery is less clear.

Surveys have found that more than 10% of women feel pressured into C-sections and other procedures by doctors worried about injuries to the baby. Patients generally don’t challenge doctors who say they’re necessary, and it is uncommon for someone to hold out and for the hospital to turn to the courts.

It is so rare, in fact, that advocates for the rights of pregnant women were shocked to discover that the same thing that happened to Doyley had happened to another Florida woman just a year and a half earlier.

The similarities in their cases were striking. Both women had three prior C-sections. They had questioned the need for their previous surgeries and arrived prepared to fight for vaginal births. And both women are Black.

They had argued that compelling them to have C-sections violated their rights to make medical decisions. Hospital staff said their medical decisions threatened the health of the fetus. It would be up to the courts to decide which one mattered more.

Asked to consider the constitutionality of court-ordered C-sections, the U.S. Supreme Court declined in 1994, leaving a patchwork of decisions that vary by state.

In the early 1980s, a hospital in Georgia won a court order to force a woman with a dangerous pregnancy complication to have a C-section. Then, in 1987, a judge in Washington, D.C., approved a request to perform surgery on a pregnant woman dying from cancer without her consent. Later, a higher court reversed that ruling and held that hospitals should not override medical decisions. An Illinois appellate court in 1993 refused to order a woman to undergo a C-section.

Not long after, a patient named Laura Pemberton, who did not want a C-section, left a hospital in Tallahassee, Florida, against medical advice. A local judge sent law enforcement to her house to bring her back. Once she returned to the hospital, the judge ordered her to have a C-section, which doctors carried out. She later sued in federal court and lost. The 1999 decision by a federal district judge found that the state had a right to override her wishes.

“Whatever the scope of Ms. Pemberton’s personal Constitutional rights in this situation, they clearly did not outweigh the interests of the State of Florida in preserving the life of the unborn child,” the decision said. The decision marked a legal turning point in prioritizing fetal rights over the religious freedom and bodily autonomy of the mother.

In 2009, Samantha Burton arrived at the same hospital at 25 weeks pregnant, after going into premature labor. Doctors told her she needed to remain on bed rest, but she wanted to leave and go home to her children. The hospital got a court order for her to remain in the hospital and undergo any treatment doctors deemed necessary to save the fetus. She had an emergency C-section, and the baby was stillborn.

She appealed the ruling granting the emergency order, and a Florida appeals court ruled in her favor. They said the circuit judge should have required the hospital to prove the baby was viable before imposing unwanted treatment, but the court stopped short of saying it was unacceptable to override the medical decisions of pregnant women in all situations.

Pregnancy is the only condition where Florida courts have ruled that a patient can be forced to undergo unwanted treatment. Even a state prisoner on a hunger strike has more rights to make medical decisions.

Those rulings give the state vast control over pregnant women.

“All of it essentially is about the state’s ability to decide that a fetus, at any point during a pregnancy, is more important than the person who’s pregnant,” said Rutgers University law professor Kimberly Mutcherson.

In March 2023, more than a year before Doyley’s court-ordered C-section, Brianna Bennett arrived in labor at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital — the same hospital where the women in the 1999 and 2009 lawsuits had given birth.

Over the preceding years, Bennett had come to question the medical reasoning behind her three prior C-sections. Each recovery had been harder than the last, leaving her so incapacitated after the third that for two weeks she couldn’t even go to the bathroom without help.

At the time Bennett went into labor with her fourth, her mother’s hip problems had gotten so bad that she needed a wheelchair and required some help from Bennett to function. Bennett did not think she could care for all her family members while in recovery from abdominal surgery, so she insisted on trying for a vaginal birth.

Tallahassee Memorial Hospital had specialists on staff and a neonatal intensive care unit equipped to serve critically ill babies. Bennett believed it offered the kind of support she needed to be able to follow her birth plan. The hospital has handled a lot of high-risk pregnancies.

As Bennett’s labor stretched past 24 hours, a doctor confronted her about agreeing to a C-section, Bennett said. She continued to refuse, so the hospital reached out to the state attorney. In an email, Jack Campbell, state attorney for the 2nd Judicial Circuit, responded that the court needed to act quickly.

“I plan to file an emergency motion with the Court to allow TMH to take whatever steps medically necessary to protect the life of the child and mother,” he wrote.

During the hearing, 15 to 20 people squeezed into Bennett’s hospital room. As would later happen with Doyley, she found herself in front of a tablet with a judge on the screen.

Bennett said she found it offensive that so many people were concerned about the method of her delivery without taking into consideration how difficult it would be to take care of both herself and her baby while recovering from a C-section. “Are any of you gonna help me bathe or shower? Are you gonna help change my pad? Are you gonna help lift the baby out of the bed and put me in the bed because I can’t lift my legs? Is anyone going to help me?”

Campbell told ProPublica that he felt the hearing was necessary to save two lives, Bennett’s and her baby’s. “I’m real comfortable with what we did here,” Campbell said. “I hate the fact that she’s upset about it.”

A spokesperson for Tallahassee Memorial Hospital declined to comment on Bennett’s case, even though she signed a waiver allowing the hospital to do so. “We will not be able to discuss specific patients or cases,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. The hospital did not respond to questions about its history of seeking court intervention in multiple women’s medical decisions while giving birth.

Bennett said she tried to remain calm, but inside she was panicking. During the hearing, her baby’s heart rate spiked. The judge ordered her to have a C-section, and doctors wheeled her into surgery. The operation lasted two and a half hours and the surgical team had to cut around existing scar tissue and avoid her bladder. Her incision looked like an upside-down T and required a wound vac, a portable machine that helps incisions close more quickly.

She said a doctor who visited her room during recovery told her she should never get pregnant again, according to a civil rights complaint filed with federal regulators.The complaint is still under investigation, but lawyers for Bennett said they haven’t heard from investigators in more than a year. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not comment on the complaint.

“I cried every single day,” Bennett said. “I felt like I was supposed to be happy. I’m supposed to be thankful that I have a new life and that the Lord has blessed me to see this new baby. And I’m not even happy.”

A year and a half later in Jacksonville, Doyley faced a situation eerily similar to Bennett’s.

She noted as her hearing began that she was the only Black person on the screen. About a dozen faces, most of them white, had gathered to challenge her medical decisions. She said it made her feel as if her race had something to do with the fact that she was thrust into the intrusive hearing.

“I have 20 white people against me, and because I am informed and I am making an informed decision, they are trying to take my rights away from me by force,” Doyley told the people on the screen, requesting a Black nurse or doctor.

“I don’t find that race really has much to do with this, ma’am,” the judge responded.

Dr. Erin Burnett said during the hearing that she did not think Doyley could successfully give birth vaginally because she had a history of stalled labors. A long labor after prior C-sections could increase the risk of uterine rupture, which could kill Doyley and the child, she said.

She said the baby’s heart rate showed some signs of distress and told Doyley it would be better to have a C-section before it became an emergency. If the baby’s heart stopped or if she lost oxygen during delivery, the baby could suffer a brain injury or death.

Dr. John Davis, the chair of the obstetrics and gynecology department, testified that the hospital had been recognized for its low C-section rate and did not perform unnecessary surgeries. Doyley’s condition required intervention, he said.

Burnett and Davis did not respond to requests for comment, and the hospital declined ProPublica’s requests to interview them and others involved in Doyley’s care. Doyley signed a waiver allowing the hospital to discuss her case with ProPublica, but a spokesperson for University of Florida Health in Jacksonville would not comment, citing patient privacy. Nor did the hospital respond to questions about Doyley’s claim that race played a role in the decision to involve the court.

The research on the risks of uterine rupture after prior C-sections is unclear. Studies have found that 0.15% to 2.3% of these labors resulted in a rupture, depending on a number of factors such as body mass, a history of successful vaginal births and whether the labor was spontaneous or had to be induced.

Doyley, who felt comfortable with her odds and wanted to continue laboring, argued during the hearing that C-sections carry their own dangers — including a risk of death.

“A lot of that comes from medical negligence and medical racism, where we have a group of white doctors that think that they know what is best for Black bodies and Black babies,” Doyley said in the hearing.

Both the doctors and Doyley mentioned recommendations from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. However, neither one cited the organization’s stance on court-ordered C-sections, which the group has deemed to be “ethically impermissible.”

After three hours of testimony — all while Doyley lay in her hospital bed — the judge ruled that she could keep laboring unless there was an emergency. If that happened, the hospital could operate, whether she wanted it or not. The judge would reconvene the hearing in the morning.

In response to questions from ProPublica, Kalil wrote in an email that the judicial code of conduct prohibits judges from commenting on cases. “These ethical standards exist to protect the integrity of the judicial process, ensure fairness to all parties, and preserve the Court’s neutrality,” he wrote.

Overnight, doctors said the baby’s heart rate dropped for seven minutes. Doyley woke to her hospital bed being wheeled into surgery. She called out to her sister who was asleep in the hospital room.

“I had to tell her, ‘Hey, wake up,’” Doyley said. “‘Something is going on.’ She’s trying to put on her shoes. I’m like, ‘Girl, leave the shoes. Let’s go.’”

Doyley recalled reciting a short prayer as her sister scrambled into the operating room. The baby was delivered by C-section. Although Doyley’s daughter was initially limp, she perked up and became responsive within a few minutes. Doctors took her to the NICU while Doyley went to recover. And to get ready to face the judge again.

At the 8 a.m. hearing, Doyley looked pained and groggy. She told the judge she still hadn’t been allowed to see her daughter and asked if he could help. A doctor testified that the baby had been brought to the NICU in respiratory distress and placed on a continuous positive airway pressure machine to help with her breathing.

Kalil said he couldn’t order the hospital to do anything. The matter he had been appointed to hear involved only her unborn baby. He had no authority over the child in the nursery.

Kalil wished her well and quickly closed the case.

The post They Didn’t Want to Have C-Sections. A Judge Would Decide How They Gave Birth. appeared first on ProPublica.

The long-running British period gangster series gets its own movie, starring Cillian Murphy and Barry Keoghan.

The Kremlin hopes the Trump administration’s move to contain oil prices sent soaring by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran will lead to further relief.

Some Iranians living in Dubai say their families celebrated the death of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but the war could leave Iran in a worse situation than before.

Lawyers’ pleas for extensions reveal post-DOGE staffing woes at federal agencies’ Freedom of Information Act offices.

Few Chinese laborers have spoken out about the abuses they allegedly suffered while toiling abroad. Until now.

Mayor condemns ‘cowardly act’ on south side of city that caused limited damage and no reported injuries

An explosion has damaged a Jewish school in Amsterdam in what the city’s mayor described as “a deliberate attack against the Jewish community”.

The explosion early on Saturday in a residential neighbourhood on the south side of the city caused limited damage, the mayor, Femke Halsema, said in a press release, as police and firefighters arrived at the scene quickly.

Carmaker’s decision to drop NissanConnect EV app on relatively recent cars fuels warnings from experts

Owners of some Nissan Leaf electric vehicles are angry after the carmaker announced it would shut down an app that lets them remotely control battery charging and other functions.

Drivers of Leaf cars made before May 2019 and the e-NV200 van (produced until 2022) have been told that the NissanConnect EV app linked to their vehicles will “cease operation” from 30 March. This means they will lose remote services, including turning on the heating, and some map features.

High-net-worth residents of UAE heading to Ireland and France to wait out missile attacks before tax year ends

Wealthy UK nationals fleeing war in the Gulf are seeking sanctuary in countries such as Ireland and France to avoid hefty tax bills back home.

In the face of possible demands from HM Revenue and Customs, high-net-worth individuals who had been living in the United Arab Emirates and neighbouring countries are hoping to wait out the missile and drone attacks elsewhere rather than return to the UK.

Longtime Slashdot reader tsuliga writes: Two new episodes of Doctor Who that were previously lost have been found. The original Doctor Who episodes were wiped or deleted by the BBC because they were not aware of the future use of re-runs of these shows. Ninety-five of the 253 episodes from the program's first six years are currently missing. How many more episodes are out there waiting to be rediscovered? "The main broadcasters in the UK in the 1960s, 70s, up to the 80s really, junked quite a lot of content," said Justin Smith, a cinema professor at England's De Montfort University and film archivist. "In some ways finding missing 'Doctor Whos' is the holy grail" of classic TV discoveries, Smith said. The two episodes were "The Nightmare Begins" and "Devil's Planet," both of which aired during the show's third series in 1965. It features William Hartnell as the Doctor in a story involving archvillains the Daleks -- pepperpot-shaped metal aggressors whose favorite word is "Exterminate!" Smith said that for fans of the show, "it's got it all, it really has. It is intergalactic, it's got some great performances. It stands up really, really well."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

Treasury minister Spencer Livermore trails new strategy as chancellor pins hopes on benefits of AI amid global uncertainty

The NHS and Ministry of Defence will be urged to buy British tech, as the government pins its hopes on the benefits of artificial intelligence to kickstart growth in the face of the Iran crisis, Treasury minister Spencer Livermore has said.

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will restate her economic strategy in a high profile lecture on Tuesday, just as rocketing oil prices have raised fears of higher inflation and weaker growth.

Refusal to kowtow to US president has won public backing – and left Badenoch and Farage playing catch-up

It is not often that Keir Starmer’s allies believe he has Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch on the run – but on Iran, they think he is on the right side of history and public opinion.

“It could be the making of him,” said Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee, who was first out of the blocks to say she thought Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran were illegal. “You’ve not had a British prime minister say no to an American president since Vietnam. This is a big deal.”

Datacentre investment boom is one of the biggest infrastructure gambles of this era, and Britain may be uniquely exposed

Stargate was to be the world’s biggest AI investment: a $500bn infrastructure project to “secure American leadership in AI”. Never shy of hyperbole, its key backer, the ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, promised “massive economic benefit for the entire world” with facilities to help people “use AI to elevate humanity”.

Now, OpenAI appears to be dropping out of a part of the deal – the expansion of a flagship datacentre stretching across a swathe of land in Abilene, Texas, which has become one of the most visible manifestations of a frenzy of investment in the chips and power plants required to build and run AI. There has been a breakdown in negotiations over project financing, as well as the timeline of when the expanded capacity might come online.

Iran is trying to create wedges between Gulf states and the US, but Trump is very comfortable on the ‘escalatory ladder’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

In its current phase, the Israeli-US war against Iran and its proxies has become a proving ground for two competing concepts of military escalation, each of which threatens to become a trap.

On one side, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have failed thus far in their ill-defined and shifting strategic aims. Despite killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and other key leaders in the opening salvo of the campaign, the clerical regime remains and Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is unsecured. Airstrikes are intensifying and hitting a greater number of targets.

Iranian military said in a statement that oil and energy infrastructure belonging to firms that cooperated with the US would ‘immediately be destroyed’

• How have you been affected by the latest Middle East events?

Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry is saying that two drones have been intercepted and destroyed in the eastern region.

More now after reports of explosions in Dubai on Friday morning: thick black smoke rose over the financial hub’s skyline after what authorities described as a fire in an industrial area of the city-state.

• Judge keys early surge as US top Canada 5-3

• Americans advance to face Dominican Republic

• Miller fans side in ninth to seal quarter-final

Aaron Judge doubled and Pete Crow-Armstrong and Brice Turang each had two hits as the United States beat Canada 5-3 on Friday night to reach the World Baseball Classic semifinals.

The US squad rebounded after an 8-6 loss to Italy in pool play left them needing help to advance to this round.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: A top Senate administrator on Monday gave aides the green light to use three artificial intelligence chatbots for official work, a reflection of how widespread the use of the products has become in workplaces around the globe. The chief information officer for the Senate sergeant-at-arms, who oversees the chamber's computers as well as security, said in a one-page memo reviewed by The New York Times that aides could use Google's Gemini chat, OpenAI's ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, which is already integrated into Senate platforms. Copilot "can help with routine Senate work, including drafting and editing documents, summarizing information, preparing talking points and briefing material, and conducting research and analysis," the memo said. The document later added that "data shared with Copilot Chat stays within the secure Microsoft 365 Government environment and is protected by the same controls that safeguard other Senate data." It's unclear how widely AI is used in the Senate or how widespread it might become, as individual offices and committees set their own rules. The chamber has also not publicly released comprehensive guidance on chatbots, the report notes. In contrast, the House has clearer policies allowing the general use of AI for limited internal tasks but restricting it from sensitive data or for being used for deepfakes and certain decision-making activities.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Jan Carey was facing two misdemeanor criminal counts in Washington, D.C., federal court.

Sprawling compound, including mock-up banks and police offices, uncovered by Thai military during border clashes

It is as if you have walked into a branch of one of Vietnam’s banks. A row of customer service desks, divided by plastic screens, with landline phones, promotional leaflets and staff business cards. A seated waiting area and a private meeting room. All of it features the OCB bank’s logo, or its trademark green colour.

This is not a genuine bank branch, however. It’s one of various “mock up” rooms inside a sprawling compound on the Thai-Cambodian border, where criminal groups are accused of using elaborate and industrial-scale fraud schemes to trick victims into handing over money.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 14.

This blog has now closed. Follow our Middle East blog here

Both Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine were asked today about energy secretary Chris Wright’s comments to CNBC on Thursday, where he said that the US Navy cannot escort ships through the strait of Hormuz now but it was “quite likely” that could happen by the end of the month.

Gen Caine appeared to agree with Wright’s assessment, calling the waterway a “tactically complex environment”.

Defense secretary offers alternative TV headlines to reporters to more favourably reflect US military campaign in Iran – key US politics stories from 13 March 2026

Pete Hegseth has used a press conference at the Pentagon to criticize journalists over their coverage of the war in Iran, at one point proposing alternative TV headlines.

The US defense secretary claimed Iran had been left without a functioning air force, navy or missile defense network after 13 days of strikes, and said the combined US-Israeli air campaign had hit more than 15,000 targets since the war began.

The suspect, who was killed following the shooting, had previously been imprisoned for several years for trying to support ISIS, the FBI said.

Sources tell Reuters layoffs could affect 20% or more of company as plans reflect broader tensions within big tech

Meta is planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as Meta seeks to offset costly artificial intelligence infrastructure bets and prepare for greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers.

No date has been set for the cuts and the magnitude has not been finalized, the people said.

The analysis by researchers at Oregon State University provides one of the most comprehensive pictures to date of the structures that have been hit since the start of the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran.

The attacker rammed a vehicle into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield and opened fire, but he was the only one killed, law enforcement officials said.

Clinton, New Jersey, is known primarily for its old grist mill, its quaint downtown, and its historic resident, "Dave the Rave."

Nine defendants were on trial on charges related to the July 4 attack on the Prairieland ICE detention center in North Texas.

• Leafs lose American star for rest of NHL season

• Toronto star suffered Grade 3 tear of left MCL

• Radko Gudas could face suspension after hit

Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews has a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee and will miss the rest of the NHL season.

The team provided an injury update Friday night, a little under 24 hours since Matthews was knocked out of a game against Anaheim on a knee-on-knee hit from Radko Gudas.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for March 14, No. 1,729.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 14, No. 1007.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 14, No. 741.

The stolen gun used in the Old Dominion University was sold this week to the shooter for $100, according to a federal law enforcement affidavit.

A security detail has been requested from the federal health department's inspector general for top federal housing official Bill Pulte.

Ayman Mohamad Ghazali made two purchases at a Phantom Fireworks store in Livonia, Michigan. He told the store staff the fireworks were for the end of Ramadan.

The Trump administration's Medicare boss reacts to CBS News investigation into California's hospice fraud problems.

SMF is the illumos system for managing traditional Unix services (long-lived background processes, usually). It’s quite rich in order to correctly accommodate a lot of different use cases. But it sometimes exposes that complexity to users even when they’re trying to do something simple.

[…]

In this post, I’ll walk through an example using a demo service and the svcprop(1) tool to show the details.

↫ Dave Pacheco

Soalris’ system management facility or SMF is effectively Solaris’ systemd, and this article provides a deeper insight into one of its features: properties. While using SMF and its suite of tools and commands for basic tasks is rather elementary and easy to get into – even I can do it – once you start to dive deeper into what is can do, things get complex and capable very fast.

Google has announced that it will release Chrome for Linux on ARM64 in the second quarter of this year.

Launching Chrome for ARM64 Linux devices allows more users to enjoy the seamless integration of Google’s most helpful services into their browser. This move addresses the growing demand for a browsing experience that combines the benefits of the open-source Chromium project with the Google ecosystem of apps and features.

This release represents a significant undertaking to ensure that ARM64 Linux users receive the same secure, stable, and rich Chrome experience found on other platforms.

↫ The Chromium Blog

While the idea of running Linux on Arm, only to defile it with something as unpleasant as Chrome seem entirely foreign to me, most normal people do actually use Google’s browser. Having it available on Linux for Arm makes perfect sense, and might convince a few people to buy an Arm machine for Linux, assuming the platform can get its act together.

The 1960s episodes featuring the first Doctor William Hartnell will air in the UK in April.

President thanks Grenell for ‘outstanding work’ and says Matt Floca, vice-president of operations, will take over

Donald Trump has announced that Ric Grenell, the longtime Republican foreign policy adviser who oversaw far-reaching changes at the Kennedy Center, which prompted many artists to abandon the performing arts venue, will be replaced by Matt Floca, vice-president of operations at the center.

Trump made the announcement on social media that he has replaced Grenell, thanking him for the “outstanding work he has done”. Floca was photographed in December personally overseeing the addition of Trump’s name to the center’s facade. Grenell’s departure comes as the Kennedy Center prepares to close this summer for a two-year renovation.

Former US senator’s admission comes after Heather Ammel sued her under North Carolina’s ‘homewrecker’ law

Kyrsten Sinema, a former US senator, admitted in court filings to having a “romantic and intimate” relationship with a married man who was a member of her security detail during her final year in office – but argues that his estranged wife should not be able to sue her over it.

The admission to the multi-state affair came in response to a lawsuit filed by Heather Ammel, who accused the former Arizona senator in federal court of breaking up her marriage under North Carolina’s so-called “homewrecker” law.

In a first-ever case, most of the nine defendants were convicted of providing support to terrorists. Only one defendant was convicted of attempted murder of a police officer.

I will not pass up an opportunity to make you talk about Plan 9, so let’s focus on Acme.

Acme is remarkable for what it represents: a class of application that leverages a simple, text-based GUI to create a compelling model of interacting with all of the tools available in the Unix (or Plan 9) environment. Cox calls it an “integrating development environment,” distinguishing it from the more hermetic “integrated development environment” developers will be familiar with. The simplicity of its interface is important. It is what has allowed Acme to age gracefully over the past 30 or so years, without the constant churn of adding support for new languages, compilers, terminals, or color schemes.

↫ Daniel Moch

While the article mentions you can use Acme on UNIX, to really appreciate it you have to use it on Plan 9, which today most likely means 9front. Now, I am not the kind of person who can live and breathe inside 9front – you need to be of a certain mindset to be able to do so – but even then I find that messing around with Plan 9 has given me a different outlook on UNIX. In fact, I think it has helped me understand UNIX and UNIX-like systems better and more thoroughly.

If you’re not sure if Plan 9 is something that suits you, the only real way to find out is to just use it. Fire up a VM, read the excellent documentation at 9front, and just dive into it. Most of you will just end up confused and disoriented, but a small few of you will magically discover you possess the right mindset.

Just do it.

As small-scale attacks target houses of worship, law enforcement and religious leaders are prepared but anxious about what’s next.

Meta plans to remove end-to-end encryption (E2EE) from Instagram direct messages by May 8, 2026. "Very few people were opting in to end-to-end encrypted messaging in DMs, so we're removing this option from Instagram in the coming months," says Meta. "Anyone who wants to keep messaging with end-to-end encryption can easily do that on WhatsApp." The Hacker News reports: The American company first began testing E2EE for Instagram direct messages in 2021 as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's "privacy-focused vision for social networking." The feature is currently "only available in some areas" and is not enabled by default. Weeks into the Russo-Ukrainian war in February 2022, the company made encrypted direct messaging available to all adult users in both countries. Last week, TikTok said it would not introduce E2EE, arguing it makes users less safe by preventing police and safety teams from being able to read direct messages if needed.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A suspect in an attack on a synagogue in the Detroit area is dead after ramming a vehicle into the building and being confronted by synagogue security, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.

Arrest of asylum seeker Elvis Joel TE and his two-year-old, without a warrant, had sparked widespread outrage

A federal judge ruled on Friday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) must release a Minneapolis man and asylum seeker who has been unlawfully detained for 50 days.

The man, identified as Elvis Joel TE in court filings, was arrested on 22 January at the height of ICE’s aggressive raids in Minneapolis. The case sparked widespread outrage as Elvis TE was detained with his two-year-old daughter while they were returning home from the store, and ICE quickly flew both of them to Texas despite a court order barring their transfer out of Minnesota.

Iranian drone strikes shut down a major helium facility in Qatar, removing about 30% of global helium supply and raising concerns for the semiconductor industry, which relies on the gas for chip fabrication. "QatarEnergy declared force majeure on existing contracts on March 4, freeing it from supply obligations to customers," reports Tom's Hardware. The industry outlet Gasworld reports that no imminent restart is planned. From the report: Helium consultant Phil Kornbluth, speaking at a Gasworld webinar on March 4, said that if the outage extends beyond roughly two weeks, industrial gas distributors could be forced to relocate cryogenic equipment and revalidate supplier relationships, a process that could stretch over months regardless of when Qatari output resumes. South Korea is among the most exposed countries, which, according to the Korea International Trade Association, imported 64.7% of its helium from Qatar in 2025. The country relies heavily on helium imports to cool silicon wafers during fabrication and is understood to have no viable substitute. The country's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources has reportedly launched an investigation into supply and demand for 14 semiconductor materials and equipment types with high dependence on Middle Eastern sources, Nikkei reported on Wednesday. Bromine, which is used in circuit formation, is another big concern, with South Korea sourcing 90% of its imports from Israel, also party to the ongoing conflict in Iran.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

When one child told the toy, "I love you," it responded, "As a friendly reminder, please ensure interactions adhere to the guidelines provided."

I’m feeling kind of nostalgic today so I thought I’d write Hello, world! in Z80 assembly for the ZX Spectrum! The last time I wrote any Z80 assembly was when I was 14 so around 36 years ago! I may be a little rusty!

↫ Old Man By the Sea

It’s easy to tell the world hello in BASIC, but a bit more involved in Z80 assembly.

A model unit of the T1 seen by The Verge shows specs and pricing that don't match what's advertised on the Trump Mobile website.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle No. 537 for Saturday, March 14.

A federal jury handed prosecutors a mixed victory in the trial of nine protesters for their roles during or after a chaotic demonstration outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility last July, convicting eight defendants of terrorism charges but sparing some of them on attempted murder counts.

The widely watched trial could serve as a bellwether as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to crack down on left-wing groups — and the convictions could encourage prosecutors to bring more such charges. A top FBI official said in December that the agency is now treating “antifa” as a major domestic terror threat.

In a statement posted online, a support group for the defendants said, “Everything about this trial from beginning to end has proven what we have said all along: this is a sham trial, built on political persecution and ideological attacks coming from the top.”

The Trump administration celebrated the verdict.

“Antifa is a domestic terrorist organization that has been allowed to flourish in Democrat-led cities — not under President Trump,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Today’s verdict on terrorism charges will not be the last as the Trump administration systematically dismantles Antifa and finally halts their violence on America’s streets.”

The court case centered on a nighttime July 4, 2025, protest outside ICE’s Prairieland Detention Facility that started with demonstrators shooting fireworks and spray-painting cars in the parking lot.

Signal messages obtained by the government showed that the demonstrators believed that less confrontational protests against ICE — such as one that had occurred earlier in the day at the same facility — were ineffective. Some of the protesters had brought guns, which is legal in Texas. A police officer responding to the scene was shot in the neck by one of the protesters, Benjamin Song, who had brought an AR-15 with a trigger modified for a higher rate of fire.

The defendants said the protest was a peaceful demonstration meant to show solidarity, pointing to the megaphone that one member of the group brought to shout slogans to detainees. Prosecutors pointed to the guns, ballistic vests, and trauma first-aid kits they brought as evidence of malicious intent.

Song was convicted of one count of attempted murder for shooting the officer, but acquitted on two other counts of attempting to shoot at two correctional officers. Song was also found guilty of discharging a firearm during a violent crime. Four other people accused of attempted murder counts were acquitted on those charges. Song faces up to life in prison.

Related

Wearing All Black at Protests Makes You Guilty of Terrorism, Prosecutors Tell Jury

In a significant victory for the government, jurors convicted eight defendants on material support for terrorism charges for wearing black clothes to the late-night demonstration. That use of “black bloc” clothing was an antifa tactic that assisted in the shooting of the officer, prosecutors said during their closing arguments.

The defendants convicted of providing material support to terrorists were Song, Autumn Hill, Zachary Evetts, Savanna Batten, Megan Morris, Maricela Rueda, Elizabeth Soto, and Ines Soto. They face up to 15 years in prison on that count.

The same defendants were also convicted of riot and two explosives charges related to the fireworks. Hill, Evetts, Morris, and Rueda were acquitted on attempted murder charges that would have carried sentences up to life imprisonment.

Rueda and her husband, Daniel Sanchez Estrada, were convicted of conspiracy to conceal documents. That charge centered on Sanchez’s movement of boxes containing radical pamphlets after her arrest. Sanchez was also convicted of corruptly concealing a document.

The prosecution of the Prairieland defendants represented the federal government’s first use of the material support charge against alleged antifa members accused of domestic terrorism.

The verdict came after 10 days of testimony inside a Fort Worth courtroom packed with family members of the defendants, law enforcement officials, and journalists.

Prosecutors called the wounded police officer and detention center guards to describe what it was like on the receiving end of a barrage of bullets, as well as four cooperating defendants who pleaded guilty before trial.

Another significant witness was a researcher at a right-wing think tank who said the tactics used by the demonstrators that night, including “black bloc” clothing and the encrypted messaging app Signal — the latter of which the witness said he also used — were typical of antifa.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The post Anti-ICE Protesters Convicted on Terrorism Charges for Wearing All Black appeared first on The Intercept.

Matt Floca will be the new CEO and executive director of the Kennedy Center, President Trump announced.

Korey LaVergne, 37, of the Lafayette diocese, charged with three counts of felony indecent behavior with a juvenile

A Roman Catholic priest in the south-west Louisiana diocese where the US church’s clergy abuse scandal effectively started decades ago has been formally charged with three counts of felony indecent behavior with a juvenile.

A bill of information from the district attorney for Acadia parish charges 37-year-old Korey LaVergne with three counts of felony indecent behavior with a juvenile who was 15 at the time of the alleged offenses.

In an interview at SXSW, the director of the upcoming sci-fi film Disclosure Day discussed aliens, social media, AI in film and more.

AI services may not stay cheap for long, as companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are currently subsidizing usage to rapidly grow market share. As these companies move toward profitability and potential IPOs, Axios reports that investors will likely push them to increase prices and improve margins. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: Flashback: Silicon Valley has seen this movie before. The so-called "millennial lifestyle subsidy" meant VC money helped underwrite cheap Uber rides and DoorDash deliveries. Before that, Amazon built its base with low prices, free shipping and, for years, no sales tax in most states. Eventually, all of these companies had to charge enough to cover costs -- and make a profit. Follow the money: The current iteration of AI subsidies won't last forever. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are widely expected to go public. Public investors will demand earnings growth and expanding margins. Even as chips get more efficient, total spending keeps rising. Labs need more capacity, more upgrades and more supply to meet demand. The bottom line: The costs of AI will keep going down. But total spend from customers will need to keep going up if AI companies are going to become profitable and investors are ever going to get returns on their massive investments.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Food and Drug Administration on March 10 changed the approval for a version of the prescription drug leucovorin to include people with a very rare genetic condition. FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary had previously implied that the drug’s new label would cover a much broader group of people with autism, saying that “hundreds of thousands of kids” would benefit. 

The condition targeted in the FDA approval is a genetic version of cerebral folate deficiency, caused by mutations in a folate receptor gene. People with CFD — whether from genetic or other causes — have low levels of folate in their cerebrospinal fluid, which leads to reduced folate in the brain. This affects brain development. Patients with genetic CFD can experience developmental delays, movement disorders and seizures. Some behaviors are similar to those with autism.

However, this form of genetic CFD is estimated to occur in 1 in a million people, according to the FDA. That would translate to around 70 kids in the U.S. — far from “hundreds of thousands of kids.” Leucovorin had already been used for decades to treat genetic CFD via off-label prescribing, a common practice when evidence shows a drug approved for one condition improves another.

Despite this limited approval, Makary had initially implied a more substantial change. “Today the FDA is filing a Federal Register notice to change the label on an exciting treatment called prescription leucovorin so that it can be available to children with autism,” Makary said in a Sept. 22 press conference. “We are going to change the label to make it available,” he went on to say. “Hundreds of thousands of kids, in my opinion, will benefit.”

This was the same press conference in which President Donald Trump and others touted an unproven link between autism and the use of Tylenol, or acetaminophen, during pregnancy. 

Makary later referred to a subset of people with autism with antibodies that block their own folate receptors, called autoantibodies. Some researchers have hypothesized that a subset of people with autism have CFD caused by these autoantibodies, but this is not well-established, as we will explain.

The FDA “is approving prescription leucovorin for treatment of autistic children,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said at the same event. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the treatment “may benefit large numbers of children who suffer from autism.” He had previously vowed by September to identify “what has caused the autism epidemic.” 

The Federal Register notice Makary referred to described data on the rare genetic form of CFD, however. The notice also stated that data on leucovorin for people who have symptoms with “autistic features” along with antibodies targeting the receptor “is limited” and that “additional studies are needed.” 

The then-head of the FDA’s drugs division, Dr. George Tidmarsh, also subsequently clarified that the new indication was the rare genetic one. “We’re not proposing to approve leucovorin for [people with] the diagnosis of autism,” he told the autism publication the Transmitter in an interview for a story published Oct. 2.

When asked this week about the discrepancy between Makary’s earlier comments about broad benefits for kids with autism and the ultimate FDA approval for a rare genetic condition, a spokesperson from the Department of Health and Human Services told us that Makary previously had been talking about an antibody-related form of CFD, and not the rare genetic disorder.

“Dr. Makary was referring to cerebral folate deficiency — which can be caused by antibodies blocking folate receptors — rather than cerebral folate transport deficiency, which is caused by a specific genetic mutation,” the HHS spokesperson wrote in an email. 

However, as we’ve said, the idea that a large subset of people with autism have CFD and can benefit from leucovorin has not been well-established.

“There is no substantive evidence that cerebral folate deficiency (CFD) plays a role in the pathogenesis of autism,” two researchers with expertise in folate and cancer treatment wrote in a January perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine. They also said that despite claims that antibodies against folate receptors play a role in autism, most experts consider this conclusion to be “inconclusive.” They added that the presence of the antibodies doesn’t necessarily mean that folate is low in the cerebrospinal fluid, which is the defining feature of CFD.

The new approval was for GSK’s Wellcovorin, a brand-name version of leucovorin that has long been off patent and that is no longer made by the company. Leucovorin remains available in generic versions. It is mainly used for cancer patients alongside certain chemotherapy regimens to reduce toxicity or to improve effectiveness. 

Unsupported Claims About Broad Benefits in Autism

While clarifying that Makary’s remarks about broad benefits applied to a different form of CFD, the HHS spokesperson also said that the rare genetic form of CFD “was the focus of the September announcement about this drug.” 

But during the Sept. 22 press conference and subsequent media appearances, Makary repeatedly emphasized potentially sweeping benefits of the new leucovorin label.

“​​For many kids with autism, it will provide some improvement in their symptoms, and for some subset, marked improvement,” Makary said in a Sept. 22 NewsNation interview, urging people to talk to their doctors. “There are 2.5 million kids suffering, and I hope hundreds of thousands of them will see some improvement with this new treatment that we’re going to approve in about two to three weeks,” he went on to say.

“I think the biggest story today was that the FDA is taking action to make leucovorin available to kids with cerebral folate deficiency,” he told ABC News that same day. “That may be 20% to 50% of kids with severe autism, and they have a clinical improvement in studies.” In a Sept. 25 interview on C-Span, he gave an even larger estimate, saying “we are going to approve a drug called leucovorin for the treatment of autism” and that it “may help 50% or 60% of kids with autism.”

There is very limited evidence to support the assertion that wide groups of kids with autism could benefit, as we wrote in September. David S. Mandell, a psychiatry professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and director of the Penn Center for Mental Health, told us then that the evidence on leucovorin “as a treatment for autism is very weak.”

Other researchers told the Transmitter in September that the literature on autism and leucovorin was “meager” and that it would be “extremely premature” for the administration to recommend the treatment for autism.

“These leucovorin studies are small, lack validated biomarkers or outcome measures, and certainly are not generalizable to all children with autism,” Dr. Shafali Jeste, a neurologist at UCLA, told the Transmitter. “The over-simplified conclusions and media hype from these studies take advantage of vulnerable families who are searching for answers and hope.”

At the time, this evidence included a small collection of studies that looked at the impact of leucovorin on communication and other characteristics in children with autism. One of these studies — among the largest, with 80 participants recruited — has since been retracted due to concerns about its data and statistical analysis, according to a notice on the journal website. Another of the studies had been terminated for “investigator non-compliance,” although the authors still published results.

“Larger, well-designed, multisite trials using objective outcome measures are necessary to determine whether leucovorin is safe and effective in autism and in which subgroups it may be most beneficial for,” says an FAQ page from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Despite these uncertainties and the lack of a broad approval, people appear to have heeded Makary’s advice to talk to their doctors about leucovorin. New outpatient prescriptions of the drug increased by 71% in children ages 5 and older in the first couple of months following the September announcement, according to a study published March 5 in the Lancet.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102. 

The post No Broad Autism Approval for Leucovorin, Despite FDA Commissioner’s Prior Suggestions appeared first on FactCheck.org.

Trump DoJ’s investigation was purportedly about the management of the central bank’s renovation

A federal judge on Friday blocked the justice department from serving subpoenas to Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell in an inquiry purported to be about the management of the central bank’s renovation.

Powell disclosed the surprise investigation on 11 January, and described the move as a threat to Fed independence and part of the Trump administration’s attempts to pressure the Fed to cut rates.

Here's how to tell the old and new AirTags apart, and how the second generation improves on the original.

The site, which features 40 dedicated channels, attracted 10,000 users on its first day.

TSA employees have been working in US airports without pay since the partial shutdown began in February

A rising number of US airports are asking for donations to support employees affected by the partial government shutdown with airport security officials missing their first full paychecks Friday.

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees have been working in airports around the US without pay since a shutdown began in February after Republicans and Democrats failed to reach a funding agreement. Democrats have since refused to support a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, the TSA’s parent agency, without first receiving guaranteed immigration enforcement reforms.

The 2024 lawsuit alleged that Adobe's confusing and costly cancellation process violated consumer protections.

Some airports have been warning fliers to arrive four hours early because of long security lines.

The latest release of oil follows historic withdrawals from the Biden administration to combat gas prices from the Ukraine war.

U.S. gas prices are surging as the Iran war drives up the global cost of oil. But what exactly accounts for what you pay at the pump?

Kenya Chapman was arrested for allegedly selling firearm to Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, who killed one person on Thursday

The US Department of Justice on Friday charged a man who authorities say sold a gun to the Old Dominion University (ODU) shooter despite the gunman’s previous conviction in a terrorism case.

Kenya Chapman is facing federal charges in connection to the sale of the weapon to Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former army national guard member who yelled “Allahu Akbar” before he opened fire in a classroom at the Virginia school on Thursday, according to authorities.

Tehran residents report relentless bombing with US and Israeli planes launching wave of attacks

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Donald Trump has said Iran will be hit “very hard” in the coming days, describing leaders of the regime as “deranged scumbags” who it was a “great honor” to kill, as Tehran residents reported relentless bombing and violence continued to spiral across the Middle East.

The US president’s comments, which signaled an intensification of the US-Israeli campaign, came as Israeli and US warplanes launched successive waves of attacks on the Iranian capital and elsewhere on Friday. One strike reportedly hit close to a square near Tehran University where crowds were gathered in support of Iran’s regime. The area is home to many government buildings.

The Kennedy Center is set to close for two years on July 4.

Richard Kahn, who worked closely with Epstein for more than a decade, testified before the Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

On March 12, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his first press conference since the U.S. and Israel first attacked Iran. Some social media users doubted the authenticity of the video address, and led them to question whether Netanyahu was still alive.

"Rumors swirling that the Prime Minister of Israel - Netanyahu - is dead after this video has been released of him LIVE on TV," one March 13 X post read. "Look at the 6 fingers."

"Breaking: Latest video released by the israeli government shows that it was ai generated because netanyahu has 6 fingers," read another March 13 X post. "Is Netanyahu dead?"

In the image, Netanyahu is pointing with both hands, and social media users said his right hand appears to have six fingers. 

But upon closer look at the video, Netanyahu’s hands looked normal. A trick of light likely made part of his palm appear to be an extra finger.

(Screenshots from the Israeli Government Press Office YouTube video)

The full press briefing can be found here. There are no other indications that it was altered or generated with artificial intelligence. Netanyahu interacted with reporters over video conference. He gestured with his hands a lot and no irregularities appeared.

Several news outlets reported on Netanyahu’s press briefing.

A video of Netanyahu’s press conference doesn’t prove he is dead. We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

sdinfoserv writes: After running a Reddit clone for a couple of months, the Digg beta shut down again. The website is a splash memo from CEO Justin Mezzell, blaming the latest "Hard Reset" on bots. "Building on the internet in 2026 is different," writes Mezzell. "We learned that the hard way. Today we're sharing difficult news: we've made the decision to significantly downsize the Digg team..." The decision was made after struggling to gain traction and an overwhelming influx of AI-driven bots and spam. "When the Digg beta launched, we immediately noticed posts from SEO spammers noting that Digg still carried meaningful Google link authority," says Mezzell. "Within hours, we got a taste of what we'd only heard rumors about. The internet is now populated, in meaningful part, by sophisticated AI agents and automated accounts. We knew bots were part of the landscape, but we didn't appreciate the scale, sophistication, or speed at which they'd find us." "We banned tens of thousands of accounts. We deployed internal tooling and industry-standard external vendors. None of it was enough. When you can't trust that the votes, the comments, and the engagement you're seeing are real, you've lost the foundation a community platform is built on." Despite the setback, Digg plans to rebuild with a smaller team, with founder Kevin Rose returning to work full-time on a new direction for the platform. "Starting the first week of April, Kevin will be putting his focus back on the company he built twenty+ years ago," writes Mezzell. "He'll continue as an advisor to True Ventures, but Digg will be his primary focus." Slashback: The Rise of Digg.com

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A federal judge has quashed a pair of grand jury subpoenas sent to the Federal Reserve Board as part of a criminal probe by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office.

Key Democrats in Congress are, once again, vaguely opposing a war instead of forcefully opposing it on moral or ideological grounds. Just as Democratic leadership slow-rolled a war powers vote for two weeks after President Donald Trump began amassing his armada to attack Iran, and four days after the bombing was underway, Democrats are refusing to speak out clearly against the war, instead resigning themselves to process-based criticism and demands for “more information” and “plans.” 

With strong indications that Trump may soon send ground troops, we are long past the time for begging to see the “plans.” Democrats need to forcefully call for an end to this war now.

Still, this “We need to see Trump’s plans for Iran” talking point has taken hold, either through top-down messaging discipline or a very unfortunate series of coincidences. Democrats in the House and Senate have been echoing some version of this line for the past week:

This messaging often comes after closed-door briefings with Congress, followed by a consternating Democrat in front of a camera lamenting a lack of a “plan” or “exit strategy.” Let us examine this clip, for example, of Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., as he “demands answers” and does a lot of posturing and Plan-Mongering but, strangely, never actually says the war is wrong and should end immediately. 

On Thursday, Democratic Reps. Yassamin Ansari, Sara Jacobs, and Jason Crow released a 1,100-word letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding accountability for war crimes committed in Iran that makes no demand to end the war causing the war crimes.

Similar to the Biden White House’s strategy of demanding Israel “allow in more aid” in Gaza while continuing to arm and fund the destruction of Gaza, there’s a surplus of performative outrage and handwringing over the logical outcome of the war without opposing the war causing the war crimes in question. Countless other Democrats are repeating this script with varying degrees of normative content, but typically without much at all, instead keeping the conversation purely in the realm of process and strategy.

“[President Trump has] not shown us any plans for what he wants to do for the day after,” Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-N.V., told reporters earlier in the week. “We have to have a plan,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said to NOTUS on Tuesday. “I’m still not convinced that the administration has a plan to execute the rest of the war and have an exit strategy.”

Some of those pushing this line may argue that we can make process criticisms and demand an end to the war. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this approach –– and some have done it –– for the vast majority, this is simply not the case. The only message that’s pushed out to the public is the how and when of the war, not the fact of it. 

An extension of this messaging is a call for “hearings” or “investigations” on the war. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is aggressively pushing this line, telling reporters earlier this week that “the story from the administration changes by the hour.”

“When it comes to sending our service members into harm’s way, the American people need to understand why,” he said. “But right now, they don’t even have a ‘why.’ … That needs to change. We need testimony. We need accountability.”

It’s unclear why anyone needs “testimony.” The war is illegal, immoral, killing countless Iranians, and needs to end immediately. The implication in this constant Plan-Mongering is that some brilliant Aaron Sorkin speech from Hegseth or Marco Rubio in front of Congress would somehow change these underlying basic facts. This is a criminal war being carried about by openly violent racists and needs to stop at once. It is not an abstract policy proposal up for debate at the Oxford Union Society that requires further deliberation.

“Senate Democrats vow to force Iran war votes if Republicans don’t hold hearings,” an exclusive from Semafor informed us on Tuesday. “Senate Democrats are threatening to force repeated votes on President Donald Trump’s war with Iran unless Republicans agree to hold committee hearings about the ongoing war,” the report continued.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., did make a clear statement in the Semafor article against the war, saying, “Now is the time for Democrats to use all the leverage we have to try to stop this unnecessary war.” But this is an outlier in these Plan-Mongering PR roll outs. Indeed, the entire premise that Democrats would force more war powers votes unless “Republicans hold hearings” is nonsensical. If the war powers votes are meaningful leverage, why not use them to make a clear, consistent moral case to the public, rather than indulge the idea this is an unsettled debate to be hashed out in drawn-out hearings? What more is there to learn? The war is illegal, unjust, and immoral. What functional purpose would hearings serve, other than to mine for viral content of Dems Owning Trump Administration Officials? 

It’s true that every Democrat in the Senate — save for Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman — supported a war powers resolution on March 4. And while this would have triggered congressional authority to vote for or against war with Iran, it is not, itself, a vote against war — it is an assertion of Congress’s authority to decide the matter. This conditional element, combined with the fact that its failure in both the Senate and House was likely a fait accompli, permitted Democrats to be on the record as appearing to oppose the war without running afoul of the pro-war, pro-Israel lobby.

It’s telling that the Plan-Mongering strategy is being promoted by centrist, corporate, and billionaire-funded groups like Third Way, who released talking points detailing how Democrats should talk about the war on the first day of the bombing, the substance of which is an almost carbon copy of how top Democrats have subsequently spoken about it.

“President Trump is refusing to answer a number of grave and urgent questions,” leads off the memo, which proceeds to lay out the familiar talking points: Is Iran truly an imminent threat? (The answer, one assumes, is TBD.) Why did Trump tell us in an address to the nation in June that Iran’s nuclear assets had been “completely and totally obliterated”? Is this a “Wag the Dog” war? Is this a war for regime change? (Again, the normative substance remains elusive.) Why has Congress been bypassed? The memo ends with this muddled statement of support but skepticism about process: “We strongly support our troops and hope this mission succeeds. But these unanswered questions mean we don’t know what success looks like, and that should deeply worry every American.”

What’s missing is a clearly articulated message against the war, or any demand to end it now. Instead, a “hope the mission succeeds,” and a lot of hand-wringing, deflections, and concerns that Congress is being left out of the war. The influential liberal group National Security Action released similar, if marginally better, process-focused talking points last week in their “messaging guide.” While the guide conditionally opposes new funding, it still makes no demand to end the war immediately, instead suggesting Democrats should refuse to fund it until “Donald Trump makes clear how and when we are getting out of this reckless war.” 

Rather than a clear objection to funding this illegal and immoral war in any form, these talking points continue to leave open the possibility Democrats could support it, if only there was an acceptable “plan.” Central to this incoherent messaging is the implication that there exists a “plan” Trump could proffer that would satisfy Democrats. And if that’s the case, after the 900th demand by Democrats that he produce one, one is left wondering: Why don’t the Democrats provide one, or at least a rough outline? What would a good “plan” for a surprise and unprovoked attack on Iran look like, exactly? What’s to stop Schumer’s office from offering one? What’s left unsaid is that there’s no plan in the universe that would justify this war of aggression that’s already killed over 1,300 civilians, including 200 children. 

Those pushing this argument would likely make a pragmatism defense: These types of process critiques play better with the public, they might insist. But it’s unclear on what basis this could be said, as the war is already historically unpopular. Polls show the public overwhelmingly wants the war to end; they are not asking for more refined “plans” or “explanations” or “hearings.”

Related

It’s a War With Iran, Not an “Intervention”

The real reason why this line is popular is almost certainly because it creates the appearance of unified party opposition while permitting those who soft-support the war to find something to criticize, namely the lack of a sufficiently good “plan.”

This focus on process criticism — which defined Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’s superficial response to the war in the immediate lead-up and first days of the war — does not build any moral narratives, or undermine the logic of regime change, which remains the bipartisan consensus, or run afoul of AIPAC and other major pro-Israel Democratic donors. But it may help placate Democratic voters who are overwhelmingly opposed to the war to the tune of 89 percent. When Democratic message-shapers are tasked with opposing a war without opposing the moral logic of the war, confusing and often contradictory process criticism is all they have left. 

Democrats, as a minority party, could not unilaterally end the war if they wanted to, but this appeal to their powerlessness doesn’t tell the whole story. When the House voted on a separate war powers resolution the day after the Senate’s failed, four Democrats — Reps. Henry Cuellar, Jared Golden, Greg Landsman, and Juan Vargas — broke ranks and opposed it. Had they voted the party line, it would have passed due to two Republicans joining the effort, and the war would have likely ended — at least until a subsequent authorization vote took place.

When is Jeffries, the supposedly anti-war House minority leader, going to discipline these four pro-war Democrats who ruined the party’s nominal opposition to this war? So far, there have been no reports of any such measures, so we’re left to understand that opposing the war is important, but it’s not important-important. A potential upcoming vote on supplemental war funding should be more clarifying, with the potential to differentiate between real opposition and senators Who Just Want to Look Outraged. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., indicated he will oppose any more funding, while others, such as Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., have not ruled out more funding, ostensibly to “support the troops.” Jeffries, true to form as a party leader, refuses to say what he’ll support.

What generic Plan-Monger language does is permit seemingly genuine antiwar voices like Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., to run the same basic script of AIPAC stalwarts like Booker and Schumer. The “No Plan” sandbox provides cover for Democrats with a record of supporting Israel and being “tough on Iran” to appear anti-war without all the mess of saying anything substantive against the war.

A party that built its message around a strong, firm, and unequivocal case to end this war now would very suddenly draw attention to the undoubtedly dozens of congressional Democrats who would not echo this line. So what we get instead is limp process critiques, demanding pointless hearings, and bizarre attacks that Trump is not doing regime change fast enough. Polls repeatedly show the most common criticism of Democrats is not that they are too far left or too anti-war, but that they are too weak, that they don’t stand for anything.

Centering criticism of a deeply unpopular war on those carrying it out for not filling out the right paperwork or producing a satisfactory slideshow — rather than making clear, normative objections to a war of aggression — feeds directly into this perception. But perhaps it’s a perception Democratic leaders, and the pro-war, pro-Israel donors who fund their political careers, would prefer over the alternative.  

The post Why Dems Keep Saying Trump Has “No Plan” Instead of Calling to End the War With Iran appeared first on The Intercept.

Guide to where you can watch CBS News in your area.

President Donald Trump claimed that Iran essentially shutting down the Strait of Hormuz “doesn’t really affect” the United States the way it does “other countries.” It’s true that a small share of U.S. oil imports comes from the Persian Gulf. But the U.S. has been affected by the global increase in the price of oil.

Since the waterway has been effectively closed – significantly reducing crude oil exports from the Persian Gulf region – oil prices have increased by double-digit percentages, which has contributed to a 50-cent-plus spike in the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S.

“The US is definitely affected,” Mark Finley, the nonresident fellow in energy and global oil at Rice University’s Baker Institute, told us in an email. Because it’s a global oil market, “if something goes wrong anywhere, the price goes up everywhere,” he said.

Iran has blocked the flow of oil and other goods through the strait in retaliation for joint U.S. and Israeli airstrikes that began on Feb. 28. Iran has threatened to shoot or bomb vessels that attempt to pass through the narrow body of water that separates Iran from Oman and connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

About 20 million barrels per day of crude and other oil products were transported through the strait in 2025. That has slowed “to a trickle” since the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran began, according to the International Energy Agency.

In a March 9 press conference, Trump talked about offering “risk insurance” to oil tankers operating in the region, possibly by having U.S. Navy ships escort the tankers, “because you have to keep the straits flowing.”

But then he said, “With all of that, it affects other countries much more than it does the United States. It doesn’t really affect us. We have so much oil. We have tremendous oil and gas, much more than we need.” And he added, “I mean, we’re doing this for the other parts of the world, including countries like China. They get a lot of their oil through the straits. So, we’re doing this.”

Compared with some other nations, the U.S. does get just a fraction of its crude oil from Middle Eastern countries for whom the strait is the primary route of exporting oil products.

Last year, the U.S. imported approximately 490,000 barrels of crude oil per day from countries in the Persian Gulf, which include Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. That was about 8% of the almost 6.2 million barrels per day the U.S. imported in total, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. (Canada and Mexico were the source of roughly 70% of U.S. crude imports last year, with Canada alone accounting for a little more than 63%.)

Meanwhile, “About 80% of oil and oil products transiting the Strait in 2025 was destined for Asia,” the IEA has reported – with China, India and Japan being the main importers in the region. China, which Trump mentioned by name, receives between 45% and 50% of its imports through the strait, according to the Center on Global Energy Policy.

But it’s not accurate to claim that Iran’s blockade on the strait “doesn’t really affect” Americans, as Trump claimed. The fact that the U.S. is the world’s leading producer of crude oil, and relatively little of its imports come from the Persian Gulf, doesn’t mean that Americans won’t feel any pain.

“It insulates us in the sense that we’re not going to have a hard time finding supply, but the prices are global, so prices go up anyway,” Abhi Rajendran, director of Oil Markets Research at Energy Intelligence, told us in an interview.

As we’ve reported, the U.S. still relies on some imports because much of the crude oil produced domestically is lighter, or less dense, while many refineries in the U.S. were long ago configured to use the heavier crude oils produced in other parts of the world, such as Canada. That’s also why the U.S. exports a lot of the oil produced in the States.

Trump wrote on social media that higher oil prices are actually a positive thing. “The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” the president said.

In his email, Finley told us that “US oil companies, their employees, and the states where they operate benefit from higher prices.” As for consumers, including households and businesses, he said they “bear the burden of higher prices at the pump” as well as on “everything that uses oil.”

He noted that the price of gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum products in the U.S. “have gone up sharply” since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. 

In a February update, the IEA said, “With around 25% of the world’s seaborne oil trade transiting the Strait, and options to bypass it being limited, any disruption to flows through the Strait would have huge consequences for world oil markets.” It warned that a prolonged disruption of shipments would lead to oil supply shortages and make price increases inevitable.

As we’ve written, most of the cost of gasoline is determined by the price of crude oil, which refiners use to make gasoline and other petroleum products. The price of crude oil is set internationally and is largely based on supply and demand factors around the world.

Since the airstrikes on Iran began, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, has increased about 41% to almost $95 a barrel, and the price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose about 32% to just over $94 a barrel, according to the Energy Information Administration. As a result, as of the week ending March 9, the average U.S. price for regular grade gasoline had increased to $3.50 per gallon – up by about 56 cents, or roughly 19%, since the week ending Feb. 23, which was five days before the fighting with Iran began, EIA data show.

On March 11, “to address disruptions in oil markets stemming from the war in the Middle East,” the 32 nations that are members of the International Energy Agency — which include the U.S. — announced that they collectively would make 400 million barrels from their oil reserves available for purchase “over a timeframe that is appropriate” for each country. 

For the U.S., the Department of Energy said that Trump had authorized the release of 172 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over several weeks.

Experts have said that whether the releases help stabilize oil markets and lower prices depends on how fast the crude can be shipped and how much longer the fighting lasts.

“I think it will help,” Rajendran told us about the planned releases. But he added this caveat: “as long as the conflict doesn’t drag on past early to mid-April.”

Beyond that point, he said, countries would likely have to keep drawing more from their oil reserves or start making other adjustments to address demand.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102. 

The post How Iran Blocking the Strait of Hormuz Affects the U.S. appeared first on FactCheck.org.

Planning a trip? Travel experts recommend booking your flight soon as the Iran war drives up airline and ticket costs.

The Hall County district attorney has dismissed all charges for the five teens arrested in the death of their teacher during a prank gone wrong.

• He shoots 66 to make cut at Players Championship

• Rory McIlroy squeaks into third round with strong finish

Keegan Bradley has admitted to still being “heartbroken” by his American Ryder Cup team’s loss at Bethpage last year. Bradley is also keen to retain the US captaincy at Adare Manor next September, should Tiger Woods knock back the opportunity.

Luke Donald and Europe were set for a Bethpage rout before a rousing US recovery on day three. The visitors still won the trophy for a second time in succession. Bradley, who has returned to playing duties on the PGA Tour, remains wounded by the event and, as is the case with all Ryder Cups, the losing captain has been subject to heavy criticism.

Alicia Keys was on hand to help celebrate.

Concerns with Ozaki Scheme emulation have led AMD chip designers to conclude there’s currently no substitution for raw FP64 performance. To ensure the accuracy of traditional modeling and simulation workloads, AMD Fellow Nick Malaya tells HPCwire the company intends to keep pushing the envelope on native FP64 performance with its upcoming HPC-focused GPU, the Instinct MI430X, which will power the Discovery supercomputer going into Oak Ridge National Lab in 2028.

The Ozaki Scheme is a promising new emulation technique that is intended to enable scientists to perform high-precision matrix multiplication math using lower-precision hardware, traditionally on INT8 cores, but also on FP8 compute, as Katsuhisa Ozaki and two other Japanese researchers showed this week in a new paper. The scheme has been presented as a method to run traditional modeling and simulation workloads that would ordinarily require lots of FP64 performance instead to utilize the lower-precision performance that’s abundant as result of the AI boom.

While Ozaki theoretically sounds good, the current implementations of Ozaki-I and Ozaki-II have limitations that preclude its use in the real world, said Malaya, who is AMD’s technical lead for exascale application performance.

The Ozaki scheme has two main problems, Malaya said. First, the software is not IEEE compliant, and it does not provide the same answer as running the codes on actual FP64 hardware.

“In some cases, that’s okay,” he said. “But in a lot of matrices that are common that we’ve observed, the accuracy implications are pretty profound. In fact, you can give it matrices that differ by a few orders of magnitude in terms of the elements in the matrix…Ozaki has accuracy problems.”

Ozaki emulates higher-precision math using lower-precision cores (Shutterstock)

The second big problem with Ozaki revolves around its expectation for square matrices. If the HPC workload does not have square matrices, then the performance drops below native FP64 hardware, Malaya said.

HPC applications traditionally use vector computations as opposed to the tensor and matrix math that dominates AI. But fewer than 10% of HPC applications in the real world have made the changes to the double-precision general matrix–matrix multiplication (DGEMM) instructions that would let them benefit from Ozaki.

“You can’t, to my knowledge with Ozaki-I or Ozaki-II or any of the methods out there, apply that to the vector instructions,” Malaya said. “That’s a key nuance I think the community is missing, which is they say, ‘Oh, well, there’s a lot of compute in the DGEMM instructions. You can use Ozaki for it.’ Sure. That’s great. We have software that does that as well. There’s limitations to Ozaki, but it doesn’t address 90% of the HPC apps. That’s the big gap.”

AMD is going to support Ozaki emulation on its chips, Malaya said. “There’s no reason not to. It’s software. We can release it and support it. And you can have libraries that allow you to dynamically switch between the native and the Ozaki method and probably estimate it,” he said. “But we’re not finding it compelling as, ‘You can replace all the hardware pipes.’ You need those FP64 pipes to fall back onto.”

At the end of the day, Ozaki does not present a workable alternative to native FP64 performance, Malaya said. “I have serious concerns it is ready for a production-level HPC code,” he said. “I’m not the only one in the community saying that.”

AMD’s FP64 Hardware

Ozaki concerns have led AMD to the conclusion that there’s no substitute for native FP64 performance, at least for the foreseeable future. The company is currently developing the MI430X, which is a specialized version of its next-generation GPU, the MI450, that will feature a significant amount of native FP64 capacity, Malaya said.

AMD expects to ship the MI430X with the launch of Discovery in 2028 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Source: AMD)

Exactly how much FP64 capacity isn’t something that AMD is ready to share yet. However, Malaya said that it will feature substantially more FP64 capacity than its current data-center GPU, the MI355, which delivers 77 teraflops. That is actually down from its previous GPU, the MI325, which delivers 81.7 teraflops of FP64 capacity.

All of these chips–from the MI325 to the MI430–will have more FP64 capacity than Nvidia Blackwell, which offers 40 teraflops, or the upcoming Rubin GPU, which will offer 33 teraflops of FP64. Nvidia is leaning on Ozaki emulation to boost the FP64 capability of Blackwell to 150 teraflops and Rubin to 200 teraflops.

Nvidia justifies its reliance on Ozaki emulation by saying that adding more native FP64 capacity won’t actually speed up scientific applications, since they are bottlenecked by registers, caches, and HBM rather than raw compute.

“A balanced GPU design therefore provisions sufficient FP64 resources to saturate available memory bandwidth, avoiding over-allocation of compute capacity that cannot be effectively utilized,” the company wrote in a January blog post.

Rubin will deliver up to 22 TB per second of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) bandwidth, which is a 2.8x increase from Blackwell, which offers 8 TBps. AMD’s current MI355 GPU offers 8 TBps of HBM bandwidth, while the MI430X will have 19.6 TBps, Malaya said.

While Nvidia is offering much more HBM bandwidth rather than higher FP64 performance, AMD is taking a different approach. According to Malaya, it’s best to increase HBM and flops in lockstep.

ORNL’s Frontier uses AMD EPYC CPUs and MI250X GPUs.

“It’s really the byte-to-flop ratio that matters. From our perspective, we think you need to maintain a much closer ratio to what you’ve seen on current products,” he said. “You’d need to be a lot closer to that ratio in terms of increasing FP64 to keep the roofline profile, as they call it, the arithmetic intensity, the same.”

Since AMD will deliver a 2.5x increase in HBM bandwidth from the MI355 to the MI430X, a similar 2.5x increase in FP64 flops would also be warranted. Some simple arithmetic shows that, based on that 2.5x growth factor, the MI430X could sport anywhere between 192 teraflops and 204 teraflops of FP64 performance, depending on whether the newer MI355 or the faster MI325 is the baseline. This is just speculation, of course, as the company has not yet said how much FP64 capacity it will deliver in the new chiplet-based design.

FP64 Helps AI, Too

FP64 is “very important” to the Genesis Mission, Department of Energy’s Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil said in an interview with HPCwire last month.

“In discussions I’ve had with both [AMD CEO] Lisa Su and with [Nvidia CEO] Jensen [Huang], they have expressed a strong commitment for FP64, that it will continue,” Gil said. “For us, it’s very important, because we don’t view this [as a] substitution.

FP64 is critical to supporting modeling and simulation workloads, not just to further traditional scientific exploration but also to provide the data feedstock for training emerging AI models, Gil said.

“You have the high-fidelity simulation codes that run with high precision. You use those, once validated, as the basis to generate training examples with which you train a surrogate model that you end up running on an AI supercomputer,” Gil said. “You end up with benefits in terms of productivity, in terms of time to solution, often 10x, 20x, 100x.”

AMD Fellow Nick Malaya is the exascale lead for application performance

The new generation of Department of Energy supercomputers, like Discovery, will feature a mix of FP64 and lower-precision capacity, Malaya said. Discovery is the new leadership-class supercomputer that the DOE announced in October. It will be a warm water-cooled HPE Cray GX5000 system that includes MI430X and “Venice” EPYC CPU, use an HPE Slingshot interconnect, and connect to the Cray K3000 storage system, which will use DAOS and Lustre parallel file systems.

“There’s always a balance how much FP64 do you need versus FP16,” Malaya said. “The contention from AMD is we need to support a range of data types based on their needs. It’s not going to just be everyone needs FP64 and that’s enough for everybody. It won’t work.”

While AI generally is happy with lower precision capacity, there are exceptions. Malaya points to AI-based protein folding simulations, like AlphaFold and Openfold, which use FP32. Meanwhile, some traditional HPC workloads, like molecular dynamics, don’t need the double precision of FP64.

But at the end of the day, there is still plenty of unmet demand for FP64, he said.

“For HPC, we think that they’re going to still need a lot of FP64,” he said. “There’ll be some codes that are just totally memory bandwidth [constrained] and they don’t need that much. But there’s ones like computational chemistry codes and some of these others that actually have a lot of arithmetic intensity and they’ll use it.

“It’s definitely something that’s going to depend on the basket of apps you care about,” Malaya continued. “And the thing that we find though is that you can get it wrong. If you under provision compute, you’ll be compute-bound when you’d otherwise not be. And that can really limit your performance.”

Related Items:

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Have You Heard About the Ozaki Scheme? You Will

The post AMD Hints At Big FP64 Increases in MI430X GPU As Ozaki Underwhelms appeared first on HPCwire.

The announcement appeared to tacitly acknowledge a growing body of evidence that U.S. forces, not Iran, were responsible for the deadly attack.

Crisis in the Middle East, Ramadan in Gaza, the Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics and Paris fashion week – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

GINA GRUWELL
Staff Reporter

Iconic artists like Taylor Swift and Shania Twain go from country to pop and make history. In more recent years, there has been a shift in the media, where pop artists are adding a little twang to their traditional tunes.

Freshman cognitive science major Evangelia Papadopoulos feels that artists having a background in country and folk helps strengthen their music because of the powerful lyrics. 

“Normal country songs are like folk songs — telling stories. I feel like now [Swift] is bringing that into her pop music,” Papadopoulos said. 

One artist’s recent change from pop music to country has taken the world by storm. Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album created controversy after winning the most coveted award of the Grammys, Album of the Year. 

Mia Hanson, a freshman communication major, adored the album.

“I think that her take on country [music] was different from what people would have expected, but I loved it and I think it can apply to a lot of different people,” Hanson said. 

She also mentioned that Beyoncé has been doing country for a while. The singer has a history with the Country Music Awards (CMAs), as she was blacklisted from the show after performing with The Chicks, formerly known as The Dixie Chicks, in 2016.

She most recently won Album of the Year at the CMAs with “Cowboy Carter.”

“She had country [music] on ‘Lemonade’,” Hanson said. “‘Daddy Lessons’ is country tones like New Orleans music. She is from Houston, Texas. That is her roots. Winning it at the CMAs was a big deal.”

On the other hand, freshman sports health major Alanorah Kels had a different opinion, believing that Beyoncé’s win was “biased” because of her popularity.

“She just won because she’s Beyoncé,” Kels said.

Not only has Beyoncé made a change in her music, but several up-and-coming artists such as Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan have made country tunes as well. With hits such as “Please, Please, Please” by Carpenter featuring Dolly Parton and “The Giver” by Roan, the pop radios have dialed into guitars and yeehaws. 

Papadopoulos believes that pop artists should be branching out, while remaining true to themselves.

”When someone is an artist, they have their own sound, their own vibe,” Papadopoulos said. “And if they completely change that it’s unethical.”

Several pop artists have also gone out of their way to collaborate with country artists to expand their sounds and their fan bases. Country artist Morgan Wallen recently worked with Tate McRae on a single titled “What I Want.”

According to Billboard, the hit was one of Wallen’s 41 chart-placing titles. The single also reached the No. 1 slot the week of its debut. 

Hanson stated that she has listened to the duet from McRae and Wallen exclusively on the radio.

“I think they were fine because I like Tate McRae, so I’ll listen to the song,” Hanson said. “But I don’t think I would listen if they weren’t collabing with those people.”  

The debate of whether pop is turning into country or vice versa is one for the ages. The question of where music is going in the future is up in the air. 

“I like going back in time,” Papadopolus said. “Do whatever you want to, but the future of music is that it is all out there. People [are taking] influence from the ‘70s and the ‘80s. They’re bringing back the funk.” 

BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz: Cloud storage company Backblaze has partnered with StorageReview to make a massive dataset containing 314 trillion digits of Pi publicly accessible. The digits were calculated by StorageReview in December 2025 after months of heavy computation designed to stress modern hardware. The dataset now hosted in the cloud weighs in at over 130TB, while the full working dataset used during the calculation reached about 2.1PB when intermediate checkpoints were included. The report notes that the Pi digits have been broken into roughly 200GB chunks to make it more practical for researchers or enthusiasts to download. Here's what StorageReview founder Brian Beeler said about the project: "Pushing [Pi] to 314 trillion digits was far more than a headline number. It was a sustained, months-long computational challenge that stressed every layer of modern infrastructure, from high core-count CPUs to massive high-speed storage, and it gave us valuable insight into how extreme, real-world workloads behave at scale. Making this dataset available in the Backblaze cloud takes the project a step further by opening access to one of the largest raw outputs ever generated in a single-system calculation. Hosting multi-petabyte files for the broader community is no small feat, and we appreciate Backblaze stepping up to ensure researchers, developers, and enthusiasts can explore and build on this record-setting achievement."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The U.S. military participated in a multi-national exercise in Alaska and Greenland in the austere conditions that officials say military forces need to train in more regularly for the future.

Trade body attends meeting with Rachel Reeves, hours after saying it was pulling out over suggestions of price gouging

• Watchdog puts UK fuel retailers ‘on notice’ over profiteering from Iran war

The trade body for the UK’s petrol station industry has got into a row with the government after claiming the “inflammatory language” used by ministers to describe rising pump prices may have incited abuse against forecourt staff.

The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) said ministers had for several days suggested that forecourts might be “price gouging” and “ripping off” motorists as global oil markets have surged in response to the war in Iran.

Bolivian interior ministry says Sebastián Marset is being extradited to US, where he’s wanted for money laundering

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Sebastián Marset, an alleged Uruguayan drug trafficker and one of South America’s most wanted criminals, has been arrested in Bolivia.

Marset, 34, is accused of trafficking tonnes of cocaine from South America to Europe, and also of having ordered the murder of a Paraguayan prosecutor who was shot dead as he honeymooned on a Colombian beach in 2022.

German chancellor says decision is wrong and that pressure on Putin over Ukraine war should be increased

• Middle East crisis – live updates

European countries have pushed back against Donald Trump’s decision to ease some US sanctions on Russian oil amid Iran’s blockade of the strait of Hormuz, insisting the international community should maintain pressure on Moscow over its war against Ukraine.

The UK has joined Germany, France and Norway in rejecting the move, with the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, decrying what she said was Russia and Iran’s attempt to “hijack the global economy”.

Exclusive: Chancellor plans help for vulnerable and low-income customers due to conflict in Middle East

Rachel Reeves will set out extra support next week for households across the UK facing a surge in the cost of heating oil due to the conflict in the Middle East.

The chancellor is expected to set out plans to assist those on low incomes or with other vulnerabilities, particularly in rural areas. The help will be delivered in England via councils using the new crisis and resilience fund.

Oscar, Ana and their children fled violence for safety in the US. Now Oscar, afraid and alone, is back in Honduras – ‘at the mercy of God and his will’

As soon as Oscar’s deportation flight landed at the La Lima airport in Honduras, he put on his baseball cap. On the airport shuttle toward the terminal, he pulled his cap even lower – trying to obscure his face at various police checkpoints.

His parents picked him up in a car, and drove him to a lodging they had arranged for him – miles away from his family home. He has hardly stepped outside since. “Because I can’t trust anyone – not the authorities, not the government, not a police officer,” he said. He has visited his mother a handful of times since the US deported him three weeks ago, and only under the cover of night. “They will kill anyone here. There is death everywhere.”

Why Should Delaware Care?
Spotlight Delaware’s Breaking Bread Tour, launched this year, gives residents a chance to speak directly about issues affecting their communities. By bringing neighbors together around the same table, the discussion allows residents to highlight concerns that might not always appear in local government meetings or policy debates.

On Monday evening, more than 75 New Castle County residents gathered in the basement of a Wilmington church to eat a meal and discuss what they thought were the most pressing challenges for their community. 

Their answers spanned a range of recent headline-grabbing issues, including affordable housing and homelessness; education funding; civic engagement and transparency in government; new federal policies under the Trump administration; and tax increases following Delaware’s recent property reassessment. 

The event, hosted by Spotlight Delaware as part of its “Breaking Bread” tour, occurred at the Jefferson Street Center, located within Hanover Church building in Wilmington’s Baynard Village neighborhood.  

The attendees shared a meal of spaghetti and meatballs while chatting in small groups. Each group was then asked to identify the issues that generated the most discussion at their tables.

For a group that included Wilmington resident Thea Lopez, the salient issues up for discussion stemmed from national actions by the Trump administration. She later told Spotlight Delaware that people in the state should break out of their different groups to address those themes. 

“We all understand that there are all these different issues going around, but yet we still work in silos,” Lopez said. 

During the dinner, the structure around Delaware’s schooling system was also discussed. One high school senior said frequent teacher turnover, a lack of challenging Advanced Placement courses and limited opportunities for student input negatively affects their learning environments.

Homelessness and the need for better coordination of services was another major topic. Some participants said that while churches and nonprofits regularly provide meals and shelter for the unhoused, there is no centralized system coordinating those efforts in Wilmington. 

In the past, Wilmington officials have asserted that creating homeless shelters is a job for the state government, stating that the city’s main interventions are “law enforcement-based.” 

Participants also raised concerns about transportation reliability, particularly changing bus routes that make it harder for residents to get to work, as well as challenges facing small businesses in areas such as Wilmington’s Hilltop where parking can limit access for customers.

The Breaking Bread tour aims to encourage community dialogue and identify the issues that matter most to residents. Spotlight Delaware will host additional Breaking Bread events in Kent and Sussex counties later this year.

The post At Wilmington dinner, residents share concerns about housing, schools and government transparency appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Double standards in Europe and elsewhere are laid bare by the muted response to US and Israeli aggression and the killing of civilians

When Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the international condemnation from Europe and elsewhere was loud and clear. Leaders did not expect legal threats to shift Vladimir Putin or end war crimes by his troops. But they understood the importance of naming what had happened as an illegal act of aggression, and of seeking to hold those responsible accountable.

The same countries have been strikingly muted since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran. This too was an act of aggression. Spain’s Pedro Sánchez has been lonely in his forthright condemnation, though Norway and others also pointed to the breach of international law. Meanwhile, Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, offered unreserved support and Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, declared that it was “not the moment to lecture our partners and allies”.

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.

Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to U.S. authorities after his arrest Friday in Bolivia.

Meta has delayed the release of its next major AI model after internal tests showed it lagging behind competing systems from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. The New York Times reports: The model, code-named Avocado, outperformed Meta's previous A.I. model and did better than Google's Gemini 2.5 model from March, two of the people said. But it has not performed as strongly as Gemini 3.0 from November, they said. As a result, Meta has delayed Avocado's release to at least May from this month, the people said. They added that the leaders of Meta's A.I. division had instead discussed temporarily licensing Gemini to power the company's A.I. products, though no decisions have been reached. [...] It takes time to improve A.I. models, and Meta can still catch up to rivals, A.I. experts said. But a longer timeline has set in at the company, with Mr. Zuckerberg tempering expectations for Avocado in the past few months. "I expect our first models will be good, but more importantly will show the rapid trajectory we're on," he said on a call with investors in January. A Meta spokesperson said in a statement: "As we've said publicly, our next model will be good but, more importantly, show the rapid trajectory we're on, and then we'll steadily push the frontier over the course of the year as we continue to release new models. We're excited for people to see what we've been cooking very soon."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

These debt relief companies could help you slash your debt, but there are some things to know before signing up.

White House contends with reality of shoddy preparations for war and unclear conditions for victory

• Middle East crisis – live updates

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As US and Israeli jets descended to deliver the opening salvos of the war in Iran, Donald Trump’s back-of-the-envelope plan for regime change in Tehran was about to run into the reality of the largest US intervention in the Middle East since the start of the Iraq war in 2003.

That reality came quickly.

Trump has warned that Cuba is next in line after Venezuela and Iran, saying that the Havana regime is in its “last moments of life.”

The wrong gold IRA company can cost you more than you bargained for, so make sure you know what to look for.

Saturday quiz | Avoiding AI | Size matters

It was lovely to read Sabrina Olson’s letter (6 March) on the quiz as it has been a family ritual for us for years. It kept us all connected through our children’s time at university, then moving into their own homes, and in some cases working abroad. It kept us going through the enforced separation of Covid and became a rite of passage for any new partners who joined our family group, especially as our winner is expected to do a “creative” dance of victory. Two lovely daughters-in-law are now regular quizzers.
Angela Barker
Rottingdean, East Sussex

• I have found that chatbots are easily circumvented when, asking to state the problem, I write or spout gibberish (The AI assistant was offering me any help I needed. All I wanted was a living, breathing human, 11 March). It seems to be the fastest way to be put in contact with a human being.
Dr Peter Glanvill
Chard, Somerset

Two weeks in, it’s increasingly clear that the US-led war has taken every problem it aimed to solve – and made it worse

It’s not easy, but let’s try to look at this war in the best, most charitable light. Let’s try to see the US-Israel conflict with Iran as its prosecutors and advocates would want us to see it.

They would say that it has two aims, both legitimate. The first is to weaken if not remove a regime that has done terrible evil to its own people. Who could mourn the supreme leader of a government that, according to one report, gunned down 30,000 of its citizens on the streets in just two days on 8 and 9 January? Listen to those Iranians who long ago reached the glum conclusion that the only way they could be rid of their tormentors was through external military action. As one exiled Iranian put it to me this week: “The Iranian people have been begging the world for help for so many years. They tried voting for change in 2009; they were killed. They tried protesting in 2019, 2022 and this year; they were massacred in the tens of thousands … They were out of all other options.”

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

The Israeli government is blocking medical workers from entering or leaving Gaza, twice canceling the departure of seven U.S.-based physicians on a medical mission there, according to a group of doctors in Gaza who spoke to The Intercept. 

The temporary suspension of travel is the latest in a crushing set of restrictions that Israel has used to sever Gaza’s contact with the outside world, compounding food, fuel, and medical care shortages for a population subjected to more than two years of genocide. Large backlogs of patients in Gaza need specialized treatments and surgeries, so volunteer medical specialists come with much-needed supplies to relieve some of the demand.

“When you do something like this, it throws all of that to the wayside and we struggle with our ability to treat those patients,” said Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a Chicago-based physician who has previously volunteered in Gaza. “This continues to have really profound implications on Gaza’s most vulnerable people.” 

Related

With World’s Eyes on Iran, Israel Locks Down the West Bank

Ahmad, who volunteered in early 2024 at Nasser and Al-Aqsa hospitals, has witnessed similar restrictions at other moments of high tension — past Israeli offensives against Iran, the collapse of past ceasefire deals, or the Israeli military’s siege of Gaza City last September. He has been denied entry into Gaza by the Israeli government four times since his medical mission, including in May 2024, when he and other doctors were turned away in Egypt as the Israeli military took over the Rafah border. 

The restrictions in Gaza are set to be lifted next Tuesday, according to messages United Nations aid coordinators sent Wednesday announcing the blockades to dozens of NGOs, two of which confirmed to The Intercept the border closures were affecting their medical teams. Physicians who remain trapped inside the territory have cast doubt on whether the dates will be honored given the multiple postponements. 

“There’s uncertainty around when we’re going to leave, are we going to leave? Are they going to try to push the dates even further?” said Dr. Salman Khan, an infectious diseases physician at Columbia University, who is among the trapped doctors.

Khan and six other American doctors were scheduled to return to the U.S. on March 10 following a two-week medical mission at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The group has been blocked twice from leaving the territory, with Israel’s border security officials citing a “security assessment” without further explanation. The physicians also expressed frustration with the World Health Organization, noting that the international body was partly responsible for coordinating the doctors’ safe passage.

Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, the Israeli military unit that controls the borders between Palestine and Israel, confirmed it had closed crossings into Gaza “due to the ongoing missile threat” and said the restrictions are temporary and meant to protect people’s safety. It refuted claims that it was blocking doctors from leaving Gaza to harm its civilian population.

The World Health Organization did not immediately respond to The Intercept’s request for comment. 

Related

“A Purely Manmade Famine”: How Israel Is Starving Gaza

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, the military has weaponized blockades, preventing aid from entering the Strip, including food and medical supplies. In addition to systematically killing and imprisoning aid and medical workers throughout the war, the Israeli government has also blocked the movement of international medical missions, further straining an already decimated economy and health care system. Palestinians in the West Bank have also seen similar wartime blockades, including the lockdown of entire cities. 

Despite the October deal between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli government has continued to impose limits on food and medical supplies from entering the Strip. In February, the government reopened its Rafah border crossing into Egypt, allowing some Palestinians to seek medical care outside of Gaza. 

Once the U.S. and Israel began their war on Iran, the Israeli government once again shut all aid crossings into Gaza. Food has been allowed through a single border entry point — the Kerem Shalom crossing — but the amount of aid allowed in is well below what is needed, according to the United Nations. The Israeli government had already barred some NGOs earlier this year, such as Doctors Without Borders, from accessing Gaza after the organization refused the government’s new requirements of handing over lists of Palestinian employees due to concerns the government would target the workers. 

Dr. Mimi Syed, an emergency room physician based in Olympia, Washington, also knows these restrictions firsthand. In August 2025, she was prevented from entering Gaza while waiting for approval in Jordan for her third medical aid trip. During her previous medical trips to the Strip, she witnessed entire convoys of international doctors who were barred from leaving Gaza. 

The unpredictable and indefinite nature of the Israeli government’s restrictions hamper future medical missions, Syed said. 

“Healthcare workers like myself have jobs in the US that are full-time and we have to get back to our jobs/families,” Syed told The Intercept. “It creates another form of logistical difficulties and prevents and discourages many of us from returning or even attempting to go in.”

The Palestinian American Medical Association, which is facilitating Khan’s trip to Gaza, and Humanity Auxilium, a Texas-based NGO that also organizes medical missions, told The Intercept the recent border closures have hurt their ability to move medical supplies and teams in and out of the territory.

“It really puts us in a limbo in figuring out when to deploy surgeons who cannot take off for weeks,” said Faiza Hussain, executive director of Humanity Auxilium.

Khan, who remains inside Gaza, said he’s had to cancel his patients’ appointments at Columbia’s Irving Medical Center in New York due to the delays. 

“I was supposed to be back at work at my hospital today,” Khan said. “This is impacting people on the other side of the world.” 

Khan added that some of his colleagues were anxious to return to their children. One of them was running low on their personal medications, having only packed enough for two weeks. The group of doctors includes anesthesiologists Ashraf Abou El-Ezz of Indiana and Anas Rahim of Texas, neonatologist Ahmed Faisal Saleem of Arizona, emergency medicine physician Aizad Dasti of Maryland, and vascular surgeon Asad Choudhry of New Jersey. One other physician did not wish to disclose their identity. They are continuing their volunteer work at Nasser Hospital as they wait out the blockade.

Although Israel’s attacks on Gaza have slowed since the start of the war on Iran, the Israeli military continues to launch strikes in the territory, in violation of the so-called ceasefire deal. In the first week of Khan’s medical mission, he recalled receiving trauma patients from an Israeli bombing on an encampment one mile from Nasser Hospital. A four-year-old girl died at the hospital from her wounds, he said.   

After urging from Khan and advocates, the U.S. State Department had arranged flights for the doctors from Tel Aviv’s airport on Friday, Khan said, but has yet to clear a way for them to leave Gaza to make the flight. 

The State Department did not respond to requests for comment. 

Update: March 13, 2026, 3:15 p.m. ET

This story has been updated to include the names of more doctors stranded in Gaza.

The post Israel’s Deadly Blockade Traps 7 U.S. Doctors in Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.

Trio captured relaxing around a wooden table in photo believed to have been taken on Martha’s Vineyard

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson have been pictured in bathrobes alongside Jeffrey Epstein, in the first known photograph of them together.

The trio were captured relaxing outside at a wooden table with mugs decorated with the American flag in the newly unearthed photograph believed to have been taken on Martha’s Vineyard, an island off Cape Cod in Massachusetts that is favoured by the wealthy.

Here's what to know if you pay to remove ads on Prime Video.

Avocado, code name of Meta's next-generation foundational AI model, might not be released until May.

On stage at SXSW, Spotify Co-CEO Gustav Söderström announced a new feature that lets you shape your own Taste Profile.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Pitchfork: Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Justice and Live Nation reached a settlement in the DOJ's antitrust lawsuit against the concert giant. During the trial, which lasted only a week, representatives for Live Nation had moved to exclude a collection of Slack direct messages from 2022 between two of the company's regional directors from the evidence presented to the jury. Bloomberg and a number of other publications have, as of today (March 12), successfully petitioned New York federal judge Arun Subramanian to release the chats. The conversations are between Ben Baker, now head of ticketing for Venue Nation, and Jeff Weinhold, currently a senior director in the ticketing department. Baker and Weinhold joke about overcharging and price-gouging fans -- "Robbing them blind, baby," Baker brags in one exchange pertaining to a Kid Rock show in Tampa Bay -- as well as being able to raise prices on ancillary services such as parking seemingly at will. "These people are so stupid," Baker writes. "I almost feel bad taking advantage of them BAHAHAHAHAHA." Live Nation described the messages as "off-the-cuff banter, not policy, decision-making, or facts of consequence." In a statement the company has since added: "The Slack exchange from one junior staffer to a friend absolutely doesn't reflect our values or how we operate."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Temple Israel Rabbi Josh Bennett and staff member Cassi Cohen say their security training prepared them to respond quickly when a man rammed a vehicle into their synagogue.

Mayor says he will encourage Met to scale down his official vehicle alongside plans for new charges for big cars

The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has said he would be encouraging the Met to abandon his armoured car in favour of a smaller vehicle as he signalled a clampdown on driving SUVs in London.

Khan and Transport for London are considering options including additional charges on outsize vehicles to tackle the increasing numbers of SUVs on London’s roads, primarily to address road safety but also to address concerns about parking and congestion.

The prime minister issues the statement after a fuel trade body earlier withdrew from a meeting with the chancellor today

Even before Donald Trump’s Operation Epic Fury on Iran unleashed higher oil prices, threatening the outlook for growth and inflation, the UK economy was flatlining.

That’s the bleak message in the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which showed zero GDP growth in January.

The move, which lowers fees to 25%, is a breakthrough for Chinese developers Tencent and ByteDance

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Apple announced late on Thursday it would lower the commission fees collected in its App Store in mainland China. The move follows pressure from regulators in the tech company’s second-largest market, as well as global scrutiny of its payment requirements.

Fees for in-app purchases and paid transactions will be lowered to 25% from 30% starting on Sunday, Apple said in a statement on its blog for developers.

US defense head is eager to frame operation as a success – and slam journalists for not portraying it in a positive light

• Has the pro-Maga media turned on the Pentagon over Iran?

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Pete Hegseth on Friday again claimed the US military campaign against Iran has been an unprecedented success, using a Pentagon press conference to accuse journalists of downplaying Washington’s supposed gains on the battlefield.

Speaking alongside the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, the US defense secretary claimed Iran had been left without a functioning air force, navy or missile defense network after 13 days of strikes, and said the combined US-Israeli air campaign had hit more than 15,000 targets since the war began.

Alireza Askari, 42, sentenced for killing Paria Veisi after she left him, and aunt Maryam Delavary jailed for helping bury her

A man has been jailed for at least 26 years for the “cold-blooded murder” of his ex-wife and the burying of her body in his garden.

Alireza Askari, 42, admitted killing Paria Veisi, 37, at the property they previously shared in Penylan, Cardiff, in April last year.

Every voter would be affected by the Save America act, as people would face more barriers to voting: ‘It’s a recipe for disaster’

Donald Trump has vowed that he will not sign any other legislation until Republicans’ massive voting bill, the Save America act, is passed. The bill would upend voting for all Americans in the middle of a federal midterm election year and create costly, chaotic changes for elections workers.

The Senate is set to consider the legislation next week, though Senate leaders say they don’t have the votes to get over the filibuster hurdle, essentially dooming the bill for failure.

Negotiations aimed to ‘find solutions to the bilateral differences’ between the countries, Miguel Díaz-Canel said

Cuban officials have held talks with the US government, the country’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, confirmed on Friday, amid growing pain inflicted by a punishing US fuel blockade and frequent power failures.

“These talks have been aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences we have between the two nations,” Díaz-Canel said in a prerecorded statement to senior Communist officials.

Gretchen Whitmer says ‘community is on edge’ with fear of increased violence amid escalating US-Israeli war on Iran

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Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan’s governor, said Jewish Americans were “a community on edge” on Friday after security staff thwarted an attack on a Detroit-area synagogue and preschool by a man driving a truck containing explosives.

Whitmer, a Democrat, called Thursday’s assault at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield township the latest episode in the “ancient and rampant evil” of antisemitism, and urged politicians and others to lower the political temperature.

Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, who was born in Lebanon and became a naturalized US citizen, lost two brothers, a niece and a nephew in the airstrike

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The armed suspect who drove a vehicle into the hallway of a large Michigan synagogue complex that includes a school had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon just last week, an official said on Friday.

A potential mass-casualty event was averted when security guards already in place at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township on the outskirts of Detroit killed the driver before any harm could come to the synagogue’s staff, teachers and 140 children at the early childhood center there on Thursday afternoon.

The U.S. military has confirmed that all six crew members were killed when an American KC-135 refueling plane taking part in the Iran war crashed in western Iraq.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine briefed on Operation Epic Fury in Iran Friday.

A look at the features for this week's broadcast of the Emmy-winning program, hosted by Jane Pauley.

While the interest earnings each account offers may be similar, there's more than that for savers to consider now.

Apple will cut its App Store commission in China from 30% to 25% starting March 15, with small-business and mini-app rates dropping from 15% to 12%. AppleInsider reports: Chinese regulators have been back and forth with Apple in recent years over the 30% App Store commission. The latest publicly known pressure occurred after President Trump slammed the country with seemingly random and outrageous tariffs in 2025. While nothing much else has happened in the public eye in the year since, Apple has announced a new commission rate via its developer blog. The new rates go into effect on March 15. The current standard 30% rate is dropping to 25% for in-app purchases and paid app transactions. The Small Business Program and Mini Apps Partner Program will see rates drop from 15% to 12%. That lower rate applies to auto-renewals of in-app purchase subscriptions after the first year. Mini Apps are for transactions found in super apps like those popularized in China. [...] Developers will need to sign the updated terms, but the new rates are applied automatically. It is unclear if these new changes will prevent regulatory action from China.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Candidates in both parties – but mostly Republicans – are seeing cash infusions after merely indicating support

With the first primaries of the US midterm elections now under way, the cryptocurrency industry is injecting millions of dollars into congressional races across the country, with particular emphasis on Illinois, which has attracted the bulk of the campaign financing. Arkansas, Alabama and Texas have also drawn the industry’s donations.

Crypto Pacs, firms and investors have already spent $32m supporting industry-friendly candidates and opposing its detractors, according to Federal Election Commission data, building on the industry’s expansive spending in the 2024 presidential election.

It's a month for every type of gamer, with titles including Dredge Plus, Unpacking Plus and My Very Hungry Caterpillar Plus becoming available.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy can help borrowers reorganize debt, but it also comes with some trade-offs to understand.

Exclusive: Government’s work tsar warns that having young people not in work will create ‘long-term scarring effect’

Mayors across England should be given greater powers to tackle the youth unemployment crisis and avoid the “long-term scarring” of regions outside London, the government’s work tsar has said.

Alan Milburn, who is leading a major review into increasing inactivity among Britain’s young people, said the issue could not be solved by Whitehall alone.

Campaigners welcome Keir Starmer’s backing of ‘Philomena’s law’ to protect payments for those who accept compensation

Survivors of Ireland’s mother and baby homes can continue to receive benefits in the UK after Downing Street agreed to protect payments.

Keir Starmer bowed to pressure from campaigners to back a bill known as Philomena’s law, which would ringfence survivors’ benefits if they accepted compensation from Dublin.

The head of an advocacy group said 21 people were facing charges under the UAE's cybercrime laws as of Thursday, including a 60-year-old British tourist.

Longer sentences, overcrowding and inexperienced staff cited as factors in ‘rising tensions’ in prisons

Notorious prisoners such as the Soham killer Ian Huntley are facing increasingly violent attacks from inmates with “nothing to lose”, the head of the Prison Governors’ Association has said.

Tom Wheatley, the president of the PGA, which represents governors in England and Wales, said those serving lengthy sentences or whole-life tariffs in high-security institutions had “no fear” of being given additional time in prison, and could earn status by singling out famous child murderers and paedophiles.

Last week, a 20-year-old sex offender who had recently moved to my son’s prison was ‘kettled’. In prison, that means boiling water, mixed with a bit of sugar, was thrown into his face. He has been scarred for life.

This is the kind of threat that my son and every sex offender has to live with every day when they are in prison.

With the Iran war prompting oil transport blockages in the Middle East that are pushing up oil and gasoline prices, Energy Secretary Chris Wright has become a public face of the Trump administration’s efforts to calm consumers.

In a March 12 interview on Fox News, Wright downplayed the impact on the U.S. from stalled traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil traffic flows.

"The United States — we produce more oil than we can consume. We’re a net oil exporter," Wright said.

This comment misses some important context. 

Some metrics show the U.S. as a net exporter, but for crude oil — the material that’s refined into gasoline — the U.S. is a net importer. 

Also, a net exporter status wouldn’t help keep gasoline prices down for consumers in a situation like the blockage in the Strait of Hormuz.

Net exporter status "has essentially no impact on the prices Americans pay at the pump," said Clark Williams-Derry, an energy finance analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. That’s because gasoline prices are set internationally, so U.S. consumers inevitably get hit if the price goes up elsewhere, he said.

Is the U.S. a net oil exporter?

In 2020, the U.S. became a net exporter of "crude oil and petroleum products" for the first time in decades, and it has remained that way, with some blips.

This is not the same thing as saying the U.S. is a net exporter of crude oil, which is the material that gets refined into gasoline and that motorists buy at the gas station. Crude oil can be refined into many other products, including kerosene and plastics.

Looking solely at the U.S. trade in crude oil, the balance reverses: The U.S. is a net importer of crude oil. In 2025, the U.S. imported 6.2 million barrels a day in crude oil and exported almost 4 million barrels per day of crude oil.

The reason has to do with a refinery mismatch. Crude is graded by its weight and its "sweetness," a measure of the oil’s sulfur content. Most U.S.-produced oil is "light" and "sweet;" some U.S. refineries can process it, but many cannot. 

These other refineries are built to process heavier, less sweet crude (also called heavy, sour crude) from the Middle East and other overseas suppliers. That’s a holdover from past decades, when the U.S. was primarily importing its crude.

The mismatch keeps the U.S. from simply using its own crude production to serve all its domestic needs. Changing the mix of refineries to accommodate U.S.-produced crude oil would be expensive and take years to complete.

In a statement to PolitiFact, the Energy Department said the distinction between the two statistics isn’t relevant and that Wright didn’t say the U.S. is a net exporter of crude oil only. 

"Oil is consumed in the form of processed crude oil known as crude products, be it jet fuel, diesel, vehicle gasoline, kerosene, etc.," the department said. "When people think of American oil exports, they associate fuels like gasoline into that equation. It doesn’t matter what form the oil is in — America is a net exporter."

Does the U.S. produce enough crude oil to cover its needs?

Even if the refinery mismatch could be solved, it’s not clear that the amount of crude oil the U.S. is producing today would cover the country’s entire needs. 

The U.S. Energy Information Administration does not directly measure U.S. crude oil consumption, which makes it difficult to definitively answer this question.

However, the agency’s "petroleum product supplied" measure offers a rough datapoint. 

Since January 2025, the amount of petroleum product imported to the U.S. has consistently been about 7 million barrels a day higher than the amount of crude oil the U.S. produces. That gap is roughly equivalent to the amount of U.S. crude oil imports, which provides support for this calculation.

"At the very least, I would not say that we produce more oil than we consume," said Hugh Daigle, a University of Texas-Austin petroleum and geosystems engineering professor. 

Why these comparisons aren’t really on point

Even if the U.S. could fulfill its crude oil needs domestically, that would still not keep U.S. motorists from feeling pain from the blockage of oil traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, experts said.

Unlike, say, North Korea — which is largely cut off from global trade — the U.S. has chosen to participate in the global market for crude oil. This enables the U.S. to sell some of its product to other countries, but it also leaves the U.S. dependent on global price-setting for oil. In times of inexpensive oil, this is good; in times of a regional crisis it’s not.

"For decades, the bipartisan consensus among energy policymakers has been to cede production and pricing decisions to ‘the market,’" Clark Williams-Derry, energy finance analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said. "This means, in effect, that oil and gas companies decide how much Americans pay for fuel. We don't have a policy to reserve fuel for domestic markets to keep price spikes in check."

For American consumers worried about how much it costs to fill up the tank, he said, "the focus on our status as a ‘net exporter’ is an irrelevant distraction."

Our ruling

Wright said, "The United States — we produce more oil than we can consume. We’re a net oil exporter."

The U.S. is a net exporter of "crude oil and petroleum products." In the narrower measure of crude oil by itself, the U.S. is a net importer. Crude oil on its own is the most important factor for setting gasoline prices.

The U.S. produces a lot of crude oil, but it’s not clear that the U.S. could meet its own consumption needs. And because the U.S. participates in the international trading system, prices at the pump for U.S. motorists would still be greatly influenced by international events.

The statement is partially accurate but ignores important context, so we rate the statement Half True.

Number of American troops killed in war on Iran after incident in western desert now stands at 13

• Middle East live blog – latest updates

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All six crew members onboard a US military aircraft that crashed in western Iraq were killed, the US military has said.

The KC-135 military refuelling plane crashed in western Iraq on Thursday, in an incident the military said involved another aircraft but was not the result of hostile or friendly fire.

The FBI is investigating the Michigan attack as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”

Since the start of the Iran war, 13 American service members have been killed.

Mr. Dollar Ton shares a report from the Guardian: Angela Lipps, 50, spent nearly six months in jail after Fargo police identified her as a suspect in an organized bank fraud case using facial recognition software, according to south-east North Dakota news outlet InForum. Lipps told the outlet she had never been to North Dakota and did not commit the crimes. Lipps, a mother of three and grandmother of five, said she has lived most of her life in north-central Tennessee. She had never been on an airplane until authorities flew her to North Dakota last year to face charges. In July, U.S. marshals arrested Lipps at her Tennessee home while she was babysitting four children. She said she was taken away at gunpoint and booked into a county jail as a fugitive from justice from North Dakota. "I've never been to North Dakota, I don't know anyone from North Dakota," Lipps told WDAY News. She remained in a Tennessee jail for nearly four months without bail while awaiting extradition. She was charged with four counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information and four counts of theft. According to Fargo police records obtained by WDAY News, detectives investigating bank fraud cases in April and May 2025 reviewed surveillance video of a woman using a fake U.S. army military ID to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars. The officers allegedly used facial recognition software to identify the suspect as Lipps. A detective reportedly wrote in court documents that Lipps appeared to match the suspect based on facial features, body type and hairstyle. Lipps told WDAY News that no one from the Fargo police department contacted her before the arrest. Lipps is now back home but says the experience has had lasting consequences. While jailed and unable to pay bills, Lipps lost her home, her car and her dog, she said. She also told WDAY News no one from the Fargo police department had apologized.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Two Democratic lawmakers are proposing tax reforms that would eliminate federal income taxes for millions of Americans.

Watchdog ‘disturbed’ by president and US political leaders’ use of dehumanising language to target migrants

The “racist hate speech” being used by Donald Trump and other US political leaders, along with the country’s intensified crackdowns on migration, has led to “grave human rights violations,” a UN watchdog has said.

In a non-binding decision issued this week, the UN‘s committee on the elimination of racial discrimination (CERD) called on the US to uphold its obligations as a signatory to the international convention on combating racism and discrimination.

It was a Saturday in February, and I was checking my email inbox on my phone for no particular reason, during a conference. A Mother Jones reporter had written a note, so I opened it.

It’s not so unusual for me to receive press inquiries ­— I am a feminist writer who touches on hot-button issues — but this particular email I never could have predicted. It was about an infamous federal case against people arrested in connection to a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Last July 4, a group of people had gathered for a demonstration against ICE’s Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, Texas. It was a noise demo during which a police officer was shot. Some 18 people were arrested and charged for the protest.

The government’s indictment against the Prairieland protesters stood as a chilling development in President Donald Trump’s war on dissent: It was the first time that terrorism-related charges had been brought against people for allegedly being part of an “antifa cell.”

Did I have any thoughts, the Mother Jones reporter wanted to know, on the prosecution using an essay by me in a terrorism trial?

Excuse me?

The essay in question: a film review I wrote in 2019 about the horror movies “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.”

I blinked twice, rubbed my eyes, and then began digging around on the internet to understand.

To my astonishment, prosecutors had introduced my seven-year-old analysis of feminism’s relationship to horror cinema as “evidence of ideologically driven intent” the previous day.

Although I published the piece in “Commune” magazine, the review had been printed in zine format — and that was what authorities seized from the Dallas home of one of the defendants, Daniel Sanchez Estrada, last summer.

“Guilt by Literature”

The appearance of my review in the trial is a brazen attempt at conjuring “guilt by literature” — just one of the tactics prosecutors have used to criminalize speech and use First Amendment-protected speech as a legal weapon against the Trump administration’s political enemies.

Nobody, by the way, is suggesting that Estrada shot or conspired to shoot the officer. He stands accused of two crimes: attempting to conceal documents “by transporting a box containing numerous Antifa materials” and conspiracy to conceal those zines. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

Related

The Feds Want to Make It Illegal to Even Possess an Anarchist Zine

Estrada isn’t himself facing terror charges, but he being tarred with the label by his association with this so-called “antifa cell.” What Estrada’s case most acutely represents is the way the President Donald Trump conflates antifa and terrorism to do things like criminalize the transportation of zines — in other words, simple First Amendment protected activity.

Trump pulled this off by deeming antifa a “major terrorist organization” — a legal designation that doesn’t even exist for domestic groups — ignoring the fact that antifa is an orientation, not a group.

The feds, as Natasha Lennard notes, tend to try to evidence such charges by collecting circumstantial evidence of individual crimes alleged to have taken place “in the context of” legal protest activity — even when there is no direct link between those charged and the alleged crimes.

The charge may or may not stick — often they don’t — but the lawfare from above serves a terrorizing end in itself, she explains, since “the lengthy prosecutions hamper protest movements and chill dissent.”

Why My Review?

I need to ask: Why my review? And the truth is I don’t really have a great answer.

There is a rich irony here: My little horror movie review was introduced to prove a conception of antifa that — like many of the monsters we scream at in horror flicks — isn’t quite real.

The title of my essay — which is to say, of the zine seized from the accused’s house in Dallas — is “The Satanic Death-Cult Is Real.” It refers to the fictional demon-worshipping ceremony in the final scene of “Hereditary” as well as, at the same time, to the all-too-real, madness-inducing logic of the private nuclear household.

From my ego’s standpoint, it’s painful to assume that anyone is refusing to read beyond my titles before reacting. (It’s a tragically common occurrence: I’m the author, after all, of books about the communization of care with titles like “Full Surrogacy Now” and “Abolish the Family.”)

It seems, though, that the FBI didn’t read beyond the cover of what it calls my “booklet.” That was the description of my review-in-zine-form when it appeared in an itemized receipt for seized property, alongside cellphones, computers, weapons, and other bits of technology — for the sole reason that it is willing to throw anything, no matter how absurd, at anti-ICE activists to paint them as vile terrorists.

When the Mother Jones reporter messaged, I replied immediately, from my phone, in a state of agitation. It ought to be surprising, I pointed out, that possession of a printout of some film criticism could be brandished as evidence of a treasonous conspiracy against the United States government, yet — in 2026 — it is not.

“Perhaps,” indeed, I wrote, “there is an element of truth in the state’s preposterous linking of the mere implication of having read antifascist culture writing about the private nuclear family in [director] Ari Aster’s oeuvre with the alleged crime of belonging to a cell of an organization — antifa — that, as we all know, doesn’t even exist.”

Related

Wearing All Black at Protests Makes You Guilty of Terrorism, Prosecutors Tell Jury

Thankfully, however, organized antifascism does exist. I proudly accept the notion that any of my writings have helped in any small way to stoke the desire to practice antifascism, courageously and practically, as those blocking and protesting the brutality of American stormtroopers are doing all over the world.

If nothing else, I’m grateful that the FBI seized my book review and that prosecutors hauled it out in this ridiculous trial, because it gave me the opportunity to express my full solidarity with the Prairieland defendants.

The post I Wrote a Movie Review. Cops Took It From A Protester’s Home to Make the Case That He’s a Terrorist. appeared first on The Intercept.

Suspected Iranian cyber and drone attacks are already impacting U.S. tech companies, and Iran says a list of American firms are now on its target list.

The KC-135 tanker was involved in an apparent accident with another KC-135. The other aircraft landed safely, officials said.

GDP grew at a sluggish 0.7% pace in the final months of 2025 as the government shutdown hurt economic activity.

Samuel Ramirez Jr., 33, was wanted for his alleged involvement in the murders of two women on May 21, 2023.

Joey Pete of Sunchild First Nation said king seemed ‘committed to learning’ after meeting Indigenous leaders

King Charles has expressed concern over a simmering separatist movement in western Canada, according to Indigenous leaders who met the head of state at Buckingham Palace.

Members of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations travelled to London from their territories in the province of Alberta to raise the alarm over the secessionist movement, arguing that it ignores key agreements signed between First Nations and the crown nearly 150 years ago.

Your paycheck may be more protected from garnishment than you think — but only if you live in the right state.

Synagogues and groups helping displaced people are coming up against hostility driven by conspiracy theories

A leading Jewish refugee advocate has vowed that solidarity work with asylum seekers will continue despite growing harassment from far-right activists targeting Jewish organisations supporting refugees.

Rabbi David Mason, the executive director of the UK Jewish refugee charity HIAS+JCORE, said groups such as theirs had increasingly faced antisemitic abuse and conspiracy theories from far-right activists, most notably online.

Cuban leader Miguel Diaz-Canel confirmed Friday that Cuban officials recently held conversations with the President Donald Trump's administration.

Parts defect affecting Highlander and Highlander Hybrid vehicles can increase the risk of injury, according to a safety notice. Here's what to know.

The path to this reckless war was paved by the collapse of accountability in Washington

Since he reclaimed the White House, Donald Trump loves being compared with a monarch with unprecedented powers. “LONG LIVE THE KING!” Trump said on social media last year, after his administration tried to kill congestion pricing in New York. In October, the US president posted an AI-generated video of himself dumping brown sludge on protesters who participated in a daylong mass protest, known as “No Kings”, against his administration. In the video, Trump wore a crown and was flying a fighter jet labeled “KING TRUMP”.

He has also launched a relentless campaign of self-aggrandizement, plastering his name and face on government buildings, including the Kennedy Center and the US Institute of Peace. Trump demolished the White House’s East Wing and is overseeing plans to replace it with an enormous ballroom; the National Park Service designated the president’s birthday as a free-admission day at national parks; and the US treasury is poised to issue $1 coins featuring Trump’s image to commemorate the 250th anniversary of America’s independence later this year.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Milan prosecutors have requested trial for Amazon's European unit and four of its managers over alleged tax evasion worth around $1.38 billion, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Thursday. The move is unprecedented for a case of this kind in Italy, as Amazon agreed in December to pay 527 million euros, including interest, to Italy's Revenue Agency to settle the tax dispute. In all previous cases involving other international groups, once a settlement was reached and payment made, prosecutors closed related criminal investigations, either through plea deals or by dropping the cases. This time, however, Milan prosecutors did not share the tax authority's approach and decided to press ahead with their probe, leading to a request that the suspects be sent to trial. After December's tax settlement, Amazon said it would "forcefully defend its position on the potential ungrounded criminal case." It added: "Unpredictable regulatory environments, disproportionate penalties, and protracted legal proceedings are increasingly affecting Italy's attractiveness as an investment destination." Under what's described as a "VAT-avoidance algorithm," prosecutors accuse Amazon and four managers of enabling large-scale VAT evasion on goods sold in Italy between 2019 and 2021, allowing tens of thousands of non-EU marketplace sellers to sell goods in the country without clearly disclosing their identities. They allege that this helped the sellers avoid paying value-added tax. "Under Italian law, an intermediary offering goods for sale in Italy is jointly responsible for unpaid VAT by non-EU sellers operating through its platform," notes Reuters.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Witness statements by Laimonas Jakštys ‘were clearly prepared by others’, insolvency judge rules

A claimant was being fed answers through his smart glasses while giving evidence in the high court in London, a judge has found.

Laimonas Jakštys was “untruthful in denying his use of the smart glasses” and his witness statements “were clearly prepared by others”, the insolvency judge Raquel Agnello KC ruled.

The World Cup champion, coming off a second ACL tear in three years, is eager to step back into leadership roles with club and country as the NWSL season begins

One of the most important players on the team that won the 2025 NWSL championship played in just three matches all season. Tierna Davidson, the captain of NJ/NY Gotham FC, went down with a torn ACL on 28 March, and was quickly ruled out for the rest of the year. It was a brutal moment for the center-back, who had torn her other ACL three years prior.

The injuries were low patches in the 27-year-old’s already prolific career. In 2019, she left Stanford to turn pro; she was drafted by the Chicago Red Stars as the No 1 pick in the NWSL college draft. That year, at just 20, she was also named to the USWNT World Cup squad that would win the tournament.

Watch scenes from the performances nominated for best actress at the 98th annual Academy Awards, as well as interviews with the nominees.

Researchers use TACC’s Stampede3 supercomputer to design proteins that self-assemble under extreme conditions

March 13, 2026 — Proteins are the building blocks of life. These biomolecules comprise chains of amino acids that fold into precise shapes to perform specific jobs in nature. But these elegant structures form only under narrow pH and temperature conditions, a property dictated by billions of years of evolution that has limited efforts to develop synthetic, protein-based advanced materials.

Tianren Zhang, Yao Tang and Darrin Pochan of the University of Delaware developed protein-based building blocks, called bundlemers, for advanced materials. The computer screen shows a visualization of two bundlemers stacked end-to-end. Molecular simulations on TACC’s Stampede3 helped provide an atomically resolved understanding of bundlemer structures, fluctuations, and intermolecular interactions. Credit: Kathy F. Atkinson/University of Delaware.

Now, researchers led by the University of Delaware’s Darrin Pochan have designed small protein fragments, or peptides, that can assemble themselves into well-organized structures across an unusually wide range of conditions and scales. The key lies in how positive and negative charges are carefully arranged on the peptides, giving them instructions for how to stick together in extreme conditions. The findings are published in Science.

Protein-based building blocks offer a promising, sustainable platform for materials development. They can potentially be produced biologically, degrade into environmentally compatible components and are well-suited for biomedical applications.

“This work is fundamental research that opens the door to potentially beautiful technology,” said Pochan, a Distinguished Professor of Materials Science at UD’s College of Engineering. “Sustained federal, industrial and university investment in this kind of basic science is essential for real innovation in the long run.”

Pochan’s laboratory focuses on designing molecular building blocks that assemble into novel materials. His advances were recently recognized with his designation as a 2026 Materials Research Society (MRS) Fellow.

Extreme Stability Unlocks New Possibilities

A team led by Pochan, Ph.D. candidate Yao Tang and postdoctoral researcher Tianren Zhang developed computationally designed peptides that come together to form particles they call “bundlemers.”

Consisting of four peptides, each bundlemer is shaped like a tiny barrel, with a carefully arranged pattern of positive and negative charges on its surface. That precise pattern makes the bundlemers extremely stable over the entire pH range, from the strongest acids to the strongest bases. At very low or very high pH, the particles form liquid crystals, while at neutral pH, they assemble into lattice-like clusters.

“Being so stable across the entire pH range is really unique and powerful,” Pochan said. This stability, combined with the ability to switch between different ordered states, paves the way toward new kinds of advanced materials, he explained.

For example, Kevlar, the material used in bulletproof vests, is made by processing liquid crystal polymers into an extremely strong solid. By harnessing the strength and adaptability of bundlemers, researchers may be able to create similar materials with precisely designed properties.

Supercomputing Powers Discovery

Molecular simulations of bundlemers and assemblies of bundlemers in solvated environments are essential for providing an atomically resolved understanding of their structures, fluctuations, and intermolecular interactions.

“TACC’s Stampede3 supercomputer resources are essential for these simulations,” said study co-author Jeffery Saven of the University of Pennsylvania. “The methods involved with this project make use of Stampede3’s versatile capabilities,” Saven added. “In addition to molecular simulations, the resource enables the computational modeling of lattices. High memory nodes facilitate the computational design of bundlemer sequences.”

The researchers were awarded supercomputer allocations on Stampede3 by the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support (ACCESS) program, which provides support for thousands of U.S. scientists.

“By streamlining access to leading-edge computational resources, the NSF ACCESS program empowers researchers to focus on the fundamental scientific questions that computational science can help answer,” Saven said.

Programming Assembly Through Surface Design

“The surface patterning of chemistry is what’s so important about these building blocks,” Pochan noted. “This is something we’re going to explore for the next decade: how we can use that patterning to give these particles very specific behavior.”

In this case, the researchers designed surface charge patterns that allow the peptide particles to assemble into ordered structures across the entire pH range. Even small changes to this surface chemistry can lead to large changes in behavior, shifting how the bundlemers interact with each other and what kinds of structures they form.

This level of molecular precision is common in biology but rare in materials science. Changing a single amino acid on the surface of a protein can completely alter its structure and function. In contrast, conventional soft materials, such as plastics, are inherently disordered, making it difficult to leverage surface chemistry to control their properties.

“Combining tools from biology with materials science allows us to achieve an extraordinary degree of precision,” Pochan said. “Because we have exact control over the surface display of our bundlemers, we can explore in-depth how to direct their assembly into ordered materials.”

From Fundamental Discovery to Real-World Impact

For the current study, Pochan’s team built the bundlemers in the lab using standard chemical synthesis techniques. But because they are protein-based materials, they potentially could be produced inexpensively and at large scale using biological methods.

To explore paths toward scalable production, Pochan is collaborating with Pierre Rouviere, former Dupont scientist and entrepreneur with experience in engineering bacteria to produce protein and peptides for large-scale industrial applications. The collaboration is supported by a Delaware Bioscience Center for Advanced Technology grant for Entrepreneurial Proof of Concept.

Pochan also plans to launch his own startup on UD’s STAR Campus, further embedding this work within Delaware’s growing innovation ecosystem and extending insights that emerged from fundamental research into new directions.

Other UD co-authors of the paper include graduate student Jacob Schwartz and professor Christopher J. Kloxin. Postdoctoral researcher Dai-Bei Yang and professor Jeffery G. Saven, both of the University of Pennsylvania, are also co-authors. Major sources of support include the National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the National Science Foundation through UD’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. UD central facilities and their scientific staff were also critical in performing the research. These include the Keck Center for Advanced Microscopy and Microanalysis, the Advanced Materials Characterization Lab, the Peptide and Protein Materials Center and the Delaware Biotechnology Institute.

The science story featured here was enabled by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s ACCESS program, which is supported by National Science Foundation grants #2138259, #2138286, #2138307, #2137603, and #2138296.

Adapted from a press release by Hillary Hoffman, University of Delaware.

Source: Jorge Salazar, TACC

The post TACC: Designing Protein Building Blocks for Advanced Materials appeared first on HPCwire.

Djidji Ayôkwé was handed to Ivorian officials in Paris earlier this month

A sacred artefact looted by French colonial authorities more than a century ago has been returned to Côte d’Ivoire in one of the most significant cultural restitutions to a former French colony in years.

The Djidji Ayôkwé, a talking drum confiscated in 1916 by French administrators, landed at 8.45am on Friday at the airport in Port Bouët on the outskirts of the economic capital, Abidjan. It was handed over to Ivorian officials in Paris earlier this month after being removed from the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 13, 2026 — Marvell Technology, Inc., a leader in data infrastructure semiconductor solutions, has announced a major expansion of its 1.6T optical DSP platform portfolio, advancing the industry’s transition from 800G into 1.6T next-generation AI data center connectivity.

Marvell has a multi-generational history of industry firsts. The company was the first to introduce 200G/lane 1.6T DSPs in 5nm with Marvell Nova in 2023, followed by the 3nm 1.6T Ara platform in 2024, which increased performance and reduced the power envelope as the demand for 1.6T modules expanded in 2025. Now shipping in mass volume to global customers, Ara is enabling the world’s hyperscalers and cloud providers to deploy 1.6T pluggable connectivity for AI data centers.

Today, Marvell is introducing the next wave of its 3nm 1.6T optical DSP platform portfolio, increasing performance per watt by optimizing separately for each high-volume use case and introducing new capabilities, including:

• Ara T, the first 8x200G transmit-retimed optics (TRO) DSP, delivers improved power efficiency and reduced total cost of ownership in network deployments.
• Ara X, the first 1.6T DSP with advanced link reliability capabilities, enables customers to achieve higher resilience for optical networks.
• Petra, the first 3nm 8x100G to 4x200G gearbox, enables high power efficiency and unlocks new, more flexible infrastructure designs.
• Aquila M, the first O-band-optimized, coherent-lite optical DSP with integrated media access control security (MACsec), adds critical built-in security to next-generation optical links.

As AI infrastructure scales exponentially, connectivity has become the primary bottleneck of the modern data center, and the solution requires more than a “one-size-fits-all” approach. New, dedicated semiconductor interconnect solutions are required to address the increasing performance, power, design, security and application-specific challenges. With these new 1.6T offerings and an unmatched breadth and depth of expertise—and offering a full connectivity stack including industry-first DSPs, advanced SerDes, switching, interconnects, drivers and TIAs, and the Marvell RELIANT interconnect telemetry platform—Marvell is uniquely positioned to address this demand.

“Marvell pioneered PAM DSP technology, and we continue to lead with advanced SerDes and production-proven 800G platforms. We are now extending that multi-generational product leadership into the 1.6T era,” said Xi Wang, senior vice president and general manager, Connectivity Business Unit at Marvell. “With these new products, Marvell will deliver the performance, power efficiency and manufacturing capacity required to keep up with the explosive growth of next-generation AI data centers.”

“The performance of today’s data centers—powered by hundreds of thousands of GPUs, XPUs and other advanced compute engines—depends on the interconnect technologies that link them together,” said Vladimir Kozlov, founder and CEO at LightCounting. “Marvell DSP products are essential to many high-speed links in modern data center infrastructure, enabling compute resources to operate at peak performance and efficiency. The company’s expanded 1.6T DSP portfolio ensures that data centers can fully maximize their compute investments well into the future.”

Broadest End-to-End Connectivity Portfolio

Marvell delivers the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of connectivity platform solutions for scale-up, scale-out and scale-across AI infrastructure, with a vast global installed base across hyperscale and cloud deployments and millions of high-speed lanes deployed worldwide.

The Marvell portfolio spans the full data center connectivity stack, including DSPs, SerDes, switching, interconnects, drivers and TIAs to support all systems, devices, links and nodes across the network. The new offerings announced today extend the company’s existing 1.6T portfolio, which includes Marvell Ara, Alaska and Nova DSPs, its Ethernet PHY platform, the Silicon Photonics Light Engine and the LPO TIA and laser driver chipset.

Marvell also provides supporting system-level technologies such as the Marvell RELIANT interconnect telemetry platform, which helps customers reduce operational complexity and improve network reliability and performance.

Last week, Marvell announced the expansion of its multi-generational 1.6T ZR/ZR+ and coherent DSP technology portfolio, underscoring the company’s commitment to continually deliver the latest scale-up, scale-out and scale-across technologies to drive AI innovation.

Availability

Marvell Ara X, Ara T, Petra and Aquila M DSPs are sampling to customers beginning in Q1 2026.

Marvell will showcase its end-to-end connectivity portfolio at OFC 2026, March 15–19, at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. Visit the Marvell booth #1600 to learn how the company is driving the next generation of data center and AI infrastructure.

About Marvell

To deliver the data infrastructure technology that connects the world, we’re building solutions on the most powerful foundation: our partnerships with our customers. Trusted by the world’s leading technology companies for over 30 years, we move, store, process and secure the world’s data with semiconductor solutions designed for our customers’ current needs and future ambitions. Through a process of deep collaboration and transparency, we’re ultimately changing the way tomorrow’s enterprise, cloud and carrier architectures transform—for the better.

Source: Marvell

The post Marvell Ushers in the 1.6T Era with Expanded Optical DSP Platform Portfolio appeared first on HPCwire.

Drivers in Detroit are unhappy with the spike in gas prices, even if reactions are mixed to the US-Israel war on Iran

On a rainy Detroit afternoon at a gas station off Interstate 75, Victor Rodriguez watched the pump tally tick up as he filled up his F-250 diesel pickup truck for $4.19 per gallon. It totaled $110. “Ridiculous,” he said.

The US-Israel war on Iran has crippled major portions of the oil supply chain, sending gas prices soaring as the conflict enters its third week. Rodriguez said he supports “getting rid of this thug”, referring to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by the US, but the cost is too high.

Under oath, officers said they were told to make eight arrests a day and given special tech to help choose ‘targets’

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US immigration agents in Oregon used a custom-made app to identify neighborhoods and people to target, and had daily arrest quotas they sought to meet during operations, courtroom testimony has revealed.

Details about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers’ surveillance tools and arrest goals in the state have come to light in a federal lawsuit that compelled officers to answer questions under oath, offering a rare window into opaque, internal strategies that are generally kept secret and have been driving mass detentions and chaotic raids.

This popular wearable and baby monitor helped me view our sleep side by side, and what I learned surprised me.

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RUTHIE SHIGON
Staff Reporter

EMMA KARCZ
Staff Reporter

From playing the beloved, yet ditsy, Cat Valentine on Nickelodeon to flourishing into the iconic Glinda the Good Witch, Ariana Grande’s career and image have blossomed over her many years in the spotlight, despite life-altering setbacks.

In 2008, at only 15, Grande made her acting debut in the Broadway musical “Thirteen”  alongside future “Victorious” costar Liz Gillies. “Thirteen” was a show with an all-teenage cast that centered around a new kid at school navigating middle school life. It was later adapted into a Netflix original movie. 

Grande played Charlotte, and her performance in the show earned her a National Youth Theatre Association Award and, later, a breakout role on television.

Her success on the stage landed her the role of Cat in Nickelodeon’s hit show “Victorious”in 2010. 

After the show’s four-season run, viewers still had not had enough of Grande’s beloved character. From goofy commentary to top-notch vocals, they adored her so much that she was given a spinoff show, “Sam and Cat.” The show also starred actress Jennette McCurdy, who played Sam Puckett on Nickelodeon’s “iCarly.” 

With that, Ariana Grande became a household name.

Grande could have continued her promising acting career, but during the filming of “Sam and Cat,”she was offered many opportunities to pursue music. After the show ended, she chose to expand on her music career. 

Her first album, “Yours Truly,” debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and earned her the 2013 American Music Award for New Artist of the Year. In addition to this album’s all-around success, her duet, “The Way,” with Pittsburgh rapper Mac Miller, fostered an almost two-year-long romance. 

Grande also adopted a more mature persona during this period, in an attempt to distance herself from her Nickelodeon image. Her iconic high ponytail and cat ears became her signature style as she strayed away from her bright red “Cat Valentine” hair and more girlish aesthetic. 

Ultimately, “Yours Truly” was a huge stepping stone in kick-starting her celebrated pop music career.

Amidst her stardom, Grande suffered unimaginable loss and tragedy. In 2017, her concert in Manchester was the target of a terrorist attack bombing, which left over 1,000 fans injured. 

Although stunted with grief, Grande expressed apologies and support to her fans and everyone affected. She postponed tour dates and even questioned if her career should continue, but nevertheless, carried on for her supporters. She showed her support to the families by organizing the One Love Manchester benefit concert to raise awareness and funds in solidarity. 

The following year, she lost her former boyfriend and collaborator, Mac Miller, to an accidental overdose. The pair had broken off their two-year relationship months earlier and had just performed together at the One Love Manchester benefit concert. She referred to Miller as her “dearest friend” as she shared her anger and sadness over his loss on Instagram. 

Even after this devastation, Grande bounced back by releasing her album “Thank U, Next,” which broke records on Spotify and the Billboard charts. 

With the successful albums that followed, “Positions” and “Eternal Sunshine,” Grande’s music career seemed unstoppable. However, in 2021, she announced a return to her roots. She shared that she was reentering the acting industry in 2024, starring as Glinda the Good Witch in the silver-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical “Wicked.” 

A dream role for Grande, this chance to portray one of her favorite characters brought back her love for acting. As a musical, “Wicked” allowed Grande to combine her love of music and acting, showcasing to all of Hollywood what she brings to the table as a triple threat.

Along with the movie’s groundbreaking success, Grande formed a close friendship with co-star Cynthia Erivo. Throughout multiple interviews and press tours for the two “Wicked” movies, Erivo and Grande expressed how much the movie meant to them and how important their friendship was. 

However, due to the “Wicked” phenomenon, fans noticed a drastic change in Grande’s appearance. Many of them took to social media to say how they missed the “old Ariana,” and rumors started circulating about her body and whether she had undergone plastic surgery. In response to people criticizing her new look, Grande shut them down in a video posted on Instagram. 

“Glinda’s makeup kinda made me transform my entire look and my entire relationship to makeup. I just love it so much. Love, love, love,” she said in the video.

In an interview, Grande shut down any criticism from fans and the press about her weight or body and said that, contrary to popular belief, she has never felt healthier.

Not only was Glinda her dream role, but it also healed her in many ways and restored her self-confidence.

“I’ve just been taking baby steps towards healing my relationship to music and touring, and I think my time with Glinda and with acting really helped me build the strength to be able to do that,” Grande said in a conversation with Nicole Kidman for “Interview Magazine.” 

Starting in the industry at a young age can be very challenging, and many young actors struggle to find themselves when they are placed directly in the spotlight during the duration of their adolescence. 

From Nickelodeon all the way to the center of a Broadway classic, Grande has seen and done it all. Through adversity, nevertheless, she has found her footing as an artist and an actor. As she gets ready to kick off the Eternal Sunshine Tour in Oakland, California, on June 6, Grande has never seemed more confident and proud of her work.

The art of the heel: if you want a shot at the US presidency, you better be ready to sartorially debase yourself on the world stage

The secretary of state of the United States of America is openly slopping around in a pair of too-big shoes that he has to wear because the president gave them to him. Why? Possibly as a piece of exquisite and complex satire about the size of his penis; possibly because Marco Rubio exaggerated his shoe size because he rightly assumed it would be linked to presidential speculation about the size of his penis.

According to the vice-president, JD Vance, Donald Trump gives all his best boys a particular brand of shoe, either after guessing their size or making them disclose it. “The president, he kind of leans back in his chair,” explained Vance a couple of months ago, “and he says: ‘You know, you can tell a lot about a man by his shoe size.’” Strong words, particularly from a president with such famously tiny hands. Incidentally, Vance casually dropped it into the anecdote that he wore a 13.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Armed groups appear to have increased their firepower as they carry out raids deep in Hamas-controlled territory

Pro-Israel Palestinian militia have launched repeated raids, clandestine assassination and abduction operations deep inside parts of Gaza controlled by Hamas in recent months, with new operations launched recently despite the outbreak of conflict with Iran.

The militia, which are all based in eastern parts of Gaza that are under Israeli control after a ceasefire came into effect in October, have received significant logistic support from Israel since last year but appear to have increased their firepower, allowing new and more aggressive attacks in recent weeks.

Rescue efforts continue for two crew members, while US temporarily lifts sanctions on Russian oil at sea. Plus, how China and the US see each other online

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Good morning.

Four of the six crew members onboard a US military refuelling plane that crashed in western Iraq on Thursday were killed, the US military has said. Rescue efforts were continuing for the remaining two.

What are people reporting from Tehran? A former political prisoner has told the Guardian about the terror of daily life under US and Israeli bombardment.

What do we know about the war’s economic cost? The Pentagon told lawmakers that its costs already exceeded $11.3bn in the first six days – but two sources said the costs is likely far greater.

LEMONT, Ill., March 13, 2026 — A research team led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory developed an innovative AI “adviser” that monitors and optimizes the performance of machine learning algorithms as autonomous experiments progress, enabling faster discovery of advanced electronic materials.

The researchers applied the adviser to Polybot, Argonne’s AI-guided robotic laboratory, to accelerate the investigation of electronic materials called mixed ion-electron conducting polymers (MIECPs), materials promising for wearable electronics and energy storage. Polybot is in the Center for Nanoscale Materials, a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne.

Autonomous platforms typically require large datasets to adapt effectively. The adviser mitigates data scarcity by evaluating algorithm performance in real time, extracting actionable patterns, and communicating those insights to human scientists who refine experimental plans. Integrated with Polybot’s autonomous synthesize-characterize-optimize workflow, the adviser guided adaptive choices that reduced the study to just 64 experiments out of more than 4,300 possible processing-condition combinations.

During the campaign, the adviser observed diminishing performance improvements from one AI optimizer and suggested switching to another AI algorithm for subsequent experiments. The scientists implemented the recommendation, and device performance improved significantly.

The adviser also flagged deposition speed as a key driver of performance, prompting a broader investigation of that parameter that led to further gains.

Researchers performed in-depth characterization of the 10 most representative material samples—including measurements conducted at the Advanced Light Source, another DOE Office of Science user facility at LBNL—to link device behavior to material structure. Two structural features played a crucial role in better performance: wider spaces between layers and thinner fibers. The team also discovered that the material crystallizes into two distinct structures. These significant findings can be leveraged to design higher-performing MIECPs.

“AI algorithms used in autonomous laboratories lack the ability to make adaptive changes to experiments based on small datasets,” said Jie Xu, one of the study’s lead authors. Xu is an Argonne scientist and assistant professor of molecular engineering at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. ​“The AI adviser transformed our robotic laboratory from a relatively static workflow into a highly adaptable one. The results were compelling.”

Xu added, ​“I expect researchers to apply our adviser concept and methods to various materials. This will help accelerate new discoveries.”

The study was published in Nature Chemical Engineering. In addition to Argonne, the research team included the University of Chicago, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Central Florida.

Source: Argonne National Laboratory

The post Argonne-led AI ‘Adviser’ Accelerates Robotic Design of Advanced Electronic Materials appeared first on HPCwire.

The first proper show since Valentino’s death is about the late designer, about beauty – and about Michele’s mother

Valentino Garavani wanted to make beautiful clothes for the women who could afford them. The perpetually tanned designer, whose vision of jet set glamour was matched only by his own yacht-and-pug lifestyle, died in January. So there was an obvious logic in taking the first proper catwalk show since his death off the fashion week schedule and back to Rome, where he lived, worked, and died. Milan and Paris may be the capitals of European style, but Rome looks better.

Garavani left his own brand almost 20 years ago. But his singular approach to beauty has not been without its obstacles for his most recent successor, Alessandro Michele, who took over the fashion house in 2024. “It’s a complicated DNA because beauty is always changing,” he said after the show, which took place in the 17th-century Palazzo Barberini. “This collection is about Valentino. It’s about beauty. But it’s [also] about the tension between me and the brand, a beauty I’m trying to translate.”

An aerial refueling tanker crashed in Western Iraq, U.S. officials said.

The raids come as President Donald Trump ramps up his criticism of Mexico's record on fighting drug trafficking.

The move is likely to be a boon to Russia as the United States tries to stem the economic fallout from its war on Iran as the price of crude has soared.

Apple kicks off its 50th year with a vibe that reminds us tech should be fun and colorful.

With anger stoked by Channel 4’s drama Dirty Business, we look at what has happened to some of the main players

Water companies have been in the public eye for the wrong reasons again recently. South West Water was in the dock pleading guilty to supplying water unfit for human consumption, while the regulator fined South East Water £22.5m for repeated supply failures that affected more than 280,000 people over three years.

As the full scale of the sewage pollution scandal has been revealed to the public over the past six years, key figures working for the regulators and the privatised companies have been heavily criticised. Channel 4’s drama Dirty Business has focused attention on individuals at the heart of the scandal.

Wintzell’s Oyster House has a sign that reads: “Free oysters to any man 80 years old accompanied by his father.”

Fake pictures look authentic – and authentic ones get mistaken for fake. Here are three rules for navigating the war coverage

The videos look authentic – and they are spreading like wildfire on social media. One, for example, shows Iranian missiles exploding upon the airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. Another shows US soldiers being held at gunpoint by Iranian military.

They aren’t real but – often made with the help of cutting-edge AI – they are wildly misleading. They may get debunked, but somehow that doesn’t make a dent.

Rent strikes have become more common in recent years with all-time high increases and more corporate investing

Nadia Langley had been organizing tenants in and around her south Minneapolis neighborhood since 2024, when, two months ago, the fledgling union saw a sudden explosion in interest.

The jump was prompted not by a downturn in housing conditions or a rise in rents, but by the arrival of thousands of federal agents in the city as part of the Trump administration’s recent mass immigration crackdown. Many immigrants and residents of color were afraid of agent run-ins and wouldn’t leave their homes, even to go to work. To protect their neighbors, residents organized group chats to alert their communities about immigration agent sightings and to provide food, aid and more.

TORONTO, March 13, 2026 — Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc., a leading photonic quantum computing company, has partnered with the Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS), an affiliate of the University of Maryland (UMD), in a pioneering new cybersecurity project. Sponsored by the Secretary of the Air Force’s Concepts, Development, and Management Office’s SEQCURE (Securing Experimental Quantum Computing Usage in Research Environments) program, this project aims to define the foundational industry and government security standards for quantum computing.

As quantum computers transition from research laboratories to commercial deployment, establishing robust, forward-looking security protocols becomes critical to protecting national security interests and commercial applications. The ARLIS project directly addresses this need by evaluating the feasibility of implementing a Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA), as defined by the NIST standard SP800-207, within quantum computing environments. The application of ZTA to quantum systems is both a novel and critical step in proactive cyber defense, ensuring that the principle of “never trust, always verify” can be applied to this emerging technology.

“Establishing a trusted, secure operating environment is non-negotiable for the future of quantum computing,” said Christian Weedbrook, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xanadu. “Our work with ARLIS is a commitment to not just developing cutting-edge quantum hardware, software, and applications, but also to pioneering the cybersecurity frameworks necessary to ensure these systems are secure from day one.”

As part of the collaboration, Xanadu is providing ARLIS with a comprehensive overview of its current and future generation quantum computers and the protocols being used to secure them. This includes a holistic security analysis across the entire quantum ecosystem, focusing on six key architectural areas: cloud, hardware, software, facilities, subjects, and data, with special attention paid to how integrated computing resources, custom hardware (including embedded software), and controlling software elements all interact.

“Xanadu is adding substantial value to the SEQCURE program’s mission to understand and protect the quantum ecosystem,” said Paul Lopata, Chief Quantum Scientist at ARLIS. . “By engaging with quantum computing leaders like Xanadu, we gain the crucial, on-the-ground technical data needed to assess the architectural viability of ZTA. The outputs of this study are vital for shaping the guidance that will protect quantum assets deployed across government and industry.”

The launch of this study marks a pivotal inflection point in the quantum industry, moving beyond theoretical discussions of future security risks to establishing practical, deployable security architectures today. By focusing on ZTA, this project is not merely adapting existing IT security models; it is helping to design a set of robust, resilient security standards.

The ultimate outcome of this research will be a foundational report that informs the U.S. Government and the wider industry on the steps needed to secure quantum infrastructure. Xanadu’s contributions aim to ensure that as quantum computing delivers on its promise of profound computational power, it does so within an IT architecture built for security and trust, accelerating the responsible integration of this transformative technology into sensitive environments.

More from HPCwire

• Xanadu and ETRI Partner to Accelerate Fault-Tolerant Quantum Algorithm Design Using PennyLane
• Xanadu and AMD Accelerate Quantum Computing for Aerospace and Engineering

About Xanadu

Xanadu is a Canadian quantum computing company with the mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere. Founded in 2016, Xanadu has become one of the world’s leading quantum hardware and software companies. The company also leads the development of PennyLane, an open-source software library for quantum computing and application development.

Source: Xanadu

The post Xanadu Joins University of Maryland’s ARLIS to Advance the Security of Quantum Computing appeared first on HPCwire.

These safes impressed us the most, not only with their locks but with useful smart features.

Experts warn of ‘attack on Americans’ lungs’ from cuts to health programs, environmental rollbacks and other plans

Donald Trump’s policies are likely to drive soaring rates of lung disease and premature death, according to a wide-ranging new study by pulmonary specialists and public health experts.

The analysis, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, examines policies adopted during Trump’s second term across 10 areas, including healthcare access, environmental regulation, workplace protections and vaccine uptake.

The U.S. is temporarily allowing the purchase of Russian oil that's already at sea, in the Trump administration's latest move to loosen sanctions on Russia's oil industry as the world grapples with high oil prices.

Senate Democrats have filed legislation hat would keep the U.S. from attacking Cuba without congressional approval as they seek to force a vote on President Trump's stated goal of a "takeover" of the Caribbean country.

New pro-Trump press corps has surprised some skeptics with tough questions, though sycophancy fears remain

The question, asked during a 4 March press briefing with Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, and Gen Dan Caine, was a good one: if the US had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities during an operation last June, “what was the intelligence that suggested that somehow they became a threat once again that required us to get involved with Operation Epic Fury?”

It was asked by Heather Mullins, who works for LindellTV, the television network founded by Mike Lindell, the pillow entrepreneur, Trump cheerleader and 2020 election denier.

Why would Trump launch a foreign war when he is so domestically weak? Precisely because he is weak

In the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, members of the George W Bush administration presented the case for war exhaustively, repeatedly, and in public. The then national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, who played a major role in green-lighting waterboarding of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, wrote an editorial in the New York Times claiming that Iraq was lying about its so-called “weapons of mass destruction”.

Meanwhile, Colin Powell, then the secretary of state, went to a meeting of the United Nations security council in New York. There, before America and the world, he held up a tiny vial of substance meant to represent anthrax, a chemical weapon that had terrorized the US in a series of mail attacks just over a year before; Powell claimed that Iraq had the weapon and was willing to use it. Bush himself routinely addressed the American people, making the case for war. They were all lying, it turned out, but the lie served a purpose: it was a concession to the idea that the American people would have a say in whether or not their country went to war.

Dale Steele.

The podcast host and author of The Persian reflects on why Israel’s precision in Iran caught him off guard

As the author of a novel depicting the Mossad’s snatch-and-assassination squads inside Iran, David McCloskey was less shocked than most by the stunning killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the theocratic regime’s most powerful figure, in a strike carried out by Israel.

What caught him more off guard were reports that the up-to-the-minute, pinpoint accurate intelligence essential for its success was provided by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

This feature isn't new but it could still make your calls clearer.

Early benchmarks show the A18 Pro-powered MacBook Neo beating every current x86 CPU in single-core Cinebench performance, including chips from Intel and AMD. Notebookcheck reports: We have performed a couple of benchmarks and were particularly impressed by the single-core performance. Not in the short Geekbench test, but in Cinebench 2024, where a single-core test takes about 10 minutes. The A18 Pro consumes between 3.5-4 Watts in this scenario and scores 147 points. This means it is faster than every other x86 processor in our database, including the two desktop processors Intel Core Ultra 9 285K & AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D. This also means the MacBook Neo beats every modern mobile processor from AMD, Intel and also Qualcomm, even though the upcoming Snapdragon X2 chips should be a bit faster. The A18 Pro is also slightly faster than Apple's own M3 generation in this scenario. Further reading: ASUS Executive Says MacBook Neo is 'Shock' to PC Industry

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Less than a decade ago, Google employees scuttled any military use of its AI. Now Anthropic is fighting Trump officials not over if, but how

The standoff between Anthropic and the Pentagon has forced the tech industry to once again grapple with the question of how its products are used for war – and what lines it will not cross. Amid Silicon Valley’s rightward shift under Donald Trump and the signing of lucrative defense contracts, big tech’s answer is looking very different than it did even less than a decade ago.

Anthropic’s feud with the Trump administration escalated three days ago as the AI firm sued the Department of Defense, claiming that the government’s decision to blacklist it from government work violated its first amendment rights. The company and the Pentagon have been locked in a months-long standoff, with Anthropic attempting to prohibit its AI model from being used for domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous lethal weapons.

Early benchmarks show the A18 Pro-powered MacBook Neo beating every current x86 CPU in single-core Cinebench performance, including chips from Intel and AMD. Notebookcheck reports: We have performed a couple of benchmarks and were particularly impressed by the single-core performance. Not in the short Geekbench test, but in Cinebench 2024, where a single-core test takes about 10 minutes. The A18 Pro consumes between 3.5-4 Watts in this scenario and scores 147 points. This means it is faster than every other x86 processor in our database, including the two desktop processors Intel Core Ultra 9 285K & AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D. This also means the MacBook Neo beats every modern mobile processor from AMD, Intel and also Qualcomm, even though the upcoming Snapdragon X2 chips should be a bit faster. The A18 Pro is also slightly faster than Apple's own M3 generation in this scenario. Further reading: ASUS Executive Says MacBook Neo is 'Shock' to PC Industry

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The rule made famous by Trinity Rodman’s offseason transfer saga had actually been in the works for years.

Sometimes, a rule’s official name is superseded by the player who seemingly inspired it. But sometimes, the origin story is a bit more nuanced.

Contrary to its initial prevailing narrative, the NWSL says it didn’t rush to create the High Impact Player rule (HIP) in reaction to the Washington Spirit’s efforts to sign Trinity Rodman. Stephanie Lee, the league’s vice-president of player affairs, said the NWSL began looking at how it could keep pace with the growing women’s soccer market in the summer of 2023.

Exclusive survey finds negative economic impacts felt across party lines as White House doubles down on tariffs

Seven in 10 Americans say Donald Trump’s tariffs have led to them paying higher prices, according to an exclusive new poll for the Guardian.

The Harris Poll survey presents Republicans with a major problem in the battle for the upcoming midterm elections. The majority of all voters (72%) believe Trump’s tariffs have had a negative rather than a positive impact and 67% said tariffs aren’t the right solution for improving the economy.

64% of Republicans agreed that Trump’s tariffs had led to higher prices compared with 77% of Democrats and 67% of independents who believed the same.

60% of Republicans also said that tariffs had had more of a negative impact on consumers than a positive one, compared with 81% of Democrats and 75% of independents.

Iran's relentless attacks on Gulf states and infrastructure appear to be overshadowing interventions by the U.S. and its allies aimed at easing energy prices.

Traditionally jovial affair poses potential debacle for Irish leader at odds with US over foreign policy, tax and immigration

For Ireland’s leaders, it has long been the highlight of the political calendar: a love-fest in Washington with hosts who sport shamrocks and toast Saint Patrick.

Irish delegations are traditionally received on Capitol Hill and at the White House in a blaze of goodwill and backslapping that has them wishing every day was 17 March.

Figures recorded by Femicide Census in past 12 months indicate highest rate of matricide in 16 years

The names of 19 women believed to have been killed by their sons in the last year were read out in parliament on Thursday, as research showed that almost one in five women killed by men since the last International Women’s Day were suspected victims of matricide.

For the 11th year running, Jess Phillips read out the names of the 108 women killed in the UK by men – or where a man has been charged – in the past 12 months. In keeping with previous years, she had to request special dispensation to speak beyond the time given to each MP in the International Women’s Day parliamentary debate, because reading the names took more than five minutes.

Calls for Alexandra Căpitănescu’s Choke Me to be banned as campaigners say lyrics are ‘dangerous’ and ‘reckless’

Romania’s Eurovision entry Choke Me has been labelled “dangerous” and “reckless” for appearing to glamorise sexual strangulation, an unsafe practice that can lead to brain injury and death.

Campaigners against sexual violence said the entry, in which the words “choke me” are repeated 30 times during the three-minute song, was “playing fast and loose with young women’s lives”.

From war zones and socially virtuous farming to ever-changing boards and role-playing with 167 dice, here’s our pick of the most absorbing table-based entertainment

Video games have long been heavily inspired by physical games, from chess and Scrabble to Dungeons & Dragons. The deck-building collectible card game, for example, has become immensely popular in digital form, thanks to hits such as Slay the Spire, Marvel Snap and Balatro. Now, an increasing number of games are going in the opposite direction, trading pixels for pieces and screens for spinners. Here are six of our favourites.

Company of Heroes 2nd Edition (Bad Crow Games, £119.70)

The 2026 NWSL season kicks off on Friday. Our writers discuss the teams, players and story lines they’re watching this year

How the High Impact Player (HIP) rule evolves the NWSL’s place in the global transfer market. The league has regained some control of the “is the NWSL still the best league in the world” narrative, keeping Trinity Rodman on a deal via this new mechanism. The next transfer window or two will be a fascinating test of the league’s willingness to ease restrictions and let its teams reach as far as they’d like. JR

A state visit is a connecting of people, not governments; of cultures, not commentators – our national bonds should be honoured

Should King Charles’s state visit to the United States next month be cancelled? The case for doing so is powerful. America is waging an unprovoked war on Iran in which more than 1,000 innocent people have already been killed. The collateral damage to the global economy, including Britain’s, is becoming astronomical. All Donald Trump can do is insult Britain’s prime minister as a “loser” and “no Winston Churchill” for failing to join him. Should the monarch honour such a man by attending a Washington banquet?

The call is close. The occasion is the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States with the declaration of independence. Of course this merits celebration. But now? British public opinion is emphatically opposed to the US war on Iran. Many more Britons think the royal visit should be abandoned (46%) than think it should go ahead (36%), with 18% undecided. Just as the war is staged by Trump for personal political gain, so he can be expected to exploit a royal visit.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist and the author of A Short History of America: from Tea Party to Trump

Following Taylor’s death, the US limited no-knock warrants. But the Trump administration has quietly rescinded those limits

The night Breonna Taylor died began quietly.

She had spent the evening at home in Louisville. The 26-year-old was an emergency room technician, someone who worked to prevent other people’s tragedies.

Improve your audio experience with these quality soundbars under $200.

Austrian officials took action after airline ignored court order to pay €890 to unnamed women

Bailiffs have boarded a Ryanair aircraft after the airline refused to pay compensation to a passenger whose flight was delayed.

Austrian officials took action after the budget carrier ignored a court order to pay the unnamed woman €890 (£742) in legal costs and compensation for a delayed flight two years ago.

Why Should Delaware Care?
Community activists often cite traffic congestion concerns as the primary reason to stop controversial projects. Gov. Matt Meyer’s executive order will speed up the construction of in-demand affordable housing by barring state transportation officials from considering those concerns. 

Gov. Matt Meyer removed a traffic regulation last month that he said acted as an obstacle to the development of new apartments, townhomes and other affordable housing in the state.

The new policy, created through an executive order, lifts a state requirement that developers of large affordable housing projects pay to study the impacts of those developments on local traffic. 

Builders of other developments, including commercial buildings or market-rate housing, must still conduct those impact studies. And in Sussex County — where growth and traffic have been at odds for years — local officials say they can still require traffic studies through the county’s land use approval process. 

The state rule change is part of a broader set of reforms outlined in the executive order that Meyer says will speed up “priority projects,” including affordable housing and energy infrastructure developments.

He said that development plans have too often been stuck in a regulatory limbo while waiting for the results of traffic impact studies and other state requirements. 

The policy comes after decades of growth in Sussex County, where large tracts of farmland have been regularly transformed into subdivisions and strip malls. In recent years, critics of the transformation say that growth has brought too many cars onto roads that were built for a more rural landscape.

Asked about Meyer’s reforms, some of the loudest critics responded with ambivalence. While they noted that the county still has the authority to require developers to make road improvements, they also argued that the state for years has treated road upgrades as an afterthought. 

“Transportation infrastructure cannot simply be treated as irrelevant when evaluating new development,” Sussex resident Gary Vorsheim said.

Vorsheim is a member of the advocacy group, Route 24 Alliance, which last year protested plans to build commercial and housing developments on fields that sit inland of Rehoboth Beach.

In January, the group asked a Delaware judge to force the Sussex County Council to deny a proposal to build shops and apartments — some of which will be affordable — at the site of former horse farm. They argued that local officials misunderstood the timing of traffic improvements, among other issues, when approving the development, which is called Belle Mead.

In response to traffic-centered pushback against housing developments, Mike Riemann, former president of the Delaware Homebuilders Association, said the priority of the state should be building affordable housing. 

“Do we not support [an individual’s] ability to find a home because someone has to sit at an intersection for an extra five seconds?” Riemann said. 

Delaware is short almost 20,000 rental units for households that earn less than half the region’s median income, according to a 2023 study prepared for the Delaware State Housing Authority. Many people struggle to find homes that fit their budgets, especially near the Delaware beaches where home values have skyrocketed.

Under Meyer’s new rules, a housing project can avoid paying for a traffic study if at least 15% of its units are affordable to people making either 80% or 120% of an area’s median income, depending on if they are rentals or properties for purchase.

The housing project also has to be in an area that is either already served by public water and sewer infrastructure or that local officials designated for future growth. 

The removal of the traffic study requirements is part of Meyer’s broader edict to state agencies to create a “permitting accelerator” for his priority projects. 

Through the accelerator, he wants the timeline for state approvals for priority developments to go from the current average of 18 to 24 months to under six months. Review delays, he argued, drives up housing and energy costs. 

“Affordability is the defining challenge of this moment in our state, and what we’re doing today is addressing one of the most practical drivers of affordability,” Meyer said at the press conference announcing the order.

The post To push affordable housing, Gov. Meyer eases road upgrade rules appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care? 
A series of Tiny Desk Concert-inspired musical acts in a small Mexican grocery store in New Castle is platforming up-and-coming artists while opening Delaware’s music scene to regional Mexican music. 

The bananas set the tone. 

The bristling piñatas then join the chorus overhead. Next, the humming of the produce fridges follows. 

Then, Carlos Mayo-Jimenez breaks through with his guitar. And Jesus Manuel Beltran Mendez finally joins the symphony with his voice. 

The Wilmington-based band Ilusión is playing a gig — inside a Mexican market nestled off of U.S. Route 13 in New Castle. 

Rows of tomatoes, tortillas and papayas serve as their backdrop. Customers stocking up on their weekly groceries serve as their audience. 

In the vein of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, José Luis Aguilar Garcia created his own monthly series of “Mercadito Concerts” inside his family’s grocery store, Fiesta Fresh Market & Carniceria.  

Aguilar Garcia, the 28-year-old owner of the Wilmington-based independent music label VPS Music, said he hoped the project would spotlight up-and-coming, independent artists while also bringing more business to the market. 

And by bringing more Mexican culture to Delaware, Aguilar Garcia said he hopes people will feel a little bit more at home when they come to the market. 

A ‘fresh’ take on Tiny Desk

Aguilar Garcia first got the idea in 2023 when he attended a Tiny Desk Concert in Washington, D.C., for DannyLux, one of the artists his label represented. Then in 2024, Dariell Cano — a Mexican-American artist whom VPS also represented — was briefly staying in Delaware, and Aguilar Garcia asked him to stop by the shop. 

With an extra employee vest lying around, Aguilar Garcia asked Cano to put it on and pretend he worked at the market for a social media post.

“That’s when it sort of clicked,” Aguilar Garcia said. “What if we start doing live concerts?” 

The series took off from there. 

Delaware’s central position along the Northeast Corridor could work as an incentive for bands traveling between shows in Philadelphia and New York City during their tours, Aguilar Garcia said. 

In May 2025, Julio César, a regional Mexican musician, was traveling as a supporting act with singer-songwriter Ivan Cornejo in a nationwide arena tour. The tour was set to have a concert in New York City before traveling to Florida for their next stop. 

Aguilar Garcia reached out to César’s management and asked if they could stop by the market on their way down to Florida. César agreed. 

Nearly 60 people streamed into the quaint market to watch César’s free concert, Aguilar Garcia said.

“It’s really cool just to open up the scene over here in the East Coast,” Carlos Mayo-Jimenez, a member of Ilusión, said about the Mercadito Concert series. “It’s a really great starting point, in general, for the moment that we’re trying to start here.”

Concerts sprout from family business

Back inside the market, Ilusión is playing their newest song, “Colores,” as they continue their set. The song premiered Thursday night. 

Wires snake from Ilusión’s microphones to the control center that Aguilar Garcia set up near the entrance of the store, near the Coca-Cola cans. Aguilar Garcia periodically checks the focus of the video behind the camera.

Aguilar Garcia — a native of Puebla, Mexico — co-owns the market with his sister and dad. Aguilar Garcia’s father worked at the New Castle Farmers Market down the road for roughly 20 years before establishing his first grocery shop in Carneys Point Township, N.J., in 2019.  

The Fiesta Fresh Market & Carniceria in New Castle then opened in May 2024. 

Aguilar Garcia hopes brands may soon sponsor the series of Mercadito Concerts to help keep them going. For now, Ilusión’s strums and singing taper off, and the atmosphere returns to everyday-market sounds — refrigerators humming, shopping cart wheels turning and bags crinkling. 

Then the next song begins.

The post NPR-style concerts bring fresh Mexican music flair to New Castle market appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Ministers face accusations of carrying out ‘irresponsible deregulation’ as they push through ‘clean energy’ proposals

Ed Miliband has unveiled plans to cut regulations, costs and bureaucracy by the end of next year to speed up the development of nuclear power generation.

The UK government said the changes, to be carried out this year, would deliver a “win-win for building critical infrastructure while protecting nature and the environment”.

Back in 2019, it looked like Oregon lawmakers might finally commit to ending the state’s outlier status on campaign finance.

I had just authored an investigative series for The Oregonian/OregonLive, my previous newsroom, revealing how Oregon’s lack of limits on campaign donations had allowed corporate America to give more to lawmakers, per capita, than anywhere else in the country and led to some of the weakest environmental protections on the West Coast. The state Supreme Court had allowed it to happen by saying campaign donations were protected free speech under the Oregon Constitution.

Lawmakers in Oregon, one of five states without any limits at all, seemed willing to do something about what we’d revealed. They asked Oregonians to change the constitution and explicitly allow contribution limits, something legislators had repeatedly tried and failed to do before. At the ballot in 2020, 78% of voters said yes, one of the widest margins for any ballot measure in decades. All lawmakers needed to do was to write legislation limiting donations.

But for the next four years, no limits were adopted. When lawmakers eventually set caps in 2024, individual donations were restricted to $3,300 per election, well short of caps in the $1,000 to $2,000 range that good-government groups had sought previously. Lawmakers left other avenues for donors to give their time and money. They allowed corporate donations, which many states ban, to continue. They made it so the limits wouldn’t take effect until 2027, after the current race for governor is over.

And now, lawmakers have voted to ratchet the spigot open further — and perhaps, campaign reform advocates say, all the way.

On March 5, Oregon’s Democratic-controlled Legislature approved a bill that supporters described as containing little more than technical fixes to what they’d written two years ago. 

Groups that seek to limit the influence of money in politics said the changes are far more serious than housekeeping. They said the new bill inserted loopholes that, among other things, will allow companies to bypass the limits by giving through corporate affiliates.

Dan Meek, an attorney who for years has been at the center of efforts to curtail money in Oregon politics, labeled it “the bill to destroy campaign finance reform in Oregon.”

Oregon elections haven’t had contribution limits since briefly in the 1990s. Phil Keisling, a former secretary of state who advocated for those caps only to see them overturned in court, described the Legislature’s track record on campaign finance as “one of the most profound public policy failures” in Oregon’s recent history.

“Limits should have been in place decades ago,” he said. “The base problem is that there are powerful forces within both political parties who prefer the system as it is.”

Legislative leaders defended their work.

In a floor speech, House Majority Leader Ben Bowman described the contribution limits the Legislature adopted as delivering on “elections where the voices of everyday people are not drowned out by wealthy and powerful interests making unlimited political contributions.” He described this year’s changes as necessary for the new system to work.

The investigation I worked on seven years ago found that campaign donations in Oregon did more than just help politicians get elected.

They sometimes spent campaign money in ways that benefited themselves, including on luxury hotel rooms, dry cleaning, car washes — even picking up the tabs during dozens of visits to sports bars. One lawmaker used campaign money to buy a new computer three weeks before she left office; another spent it on an Amazon Prime membership, 11 days before resigning.

The money shaped public policy. As a reporter covering Oregon’s environment, I watched the Legislature weaken or stall efforts on climate change, logging practices, industrial air pollution, herbicide spraying, oil spill preparedness and other issues over a decade. One retired regulator told me all it took was a single phone call from a well-connected lobbyist to kill one clean air initiative.

What’s happened since my investigation was published reveals how hard it can be to eliminate this kind of influence when the people expected to rein in donations are the ones whose campaigns have long benefited from them.

After Oregonians overwhelmingly voted to hand lawmakers the power to regulate election money in 2020, lawmakers failed to put restrictions in place in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Tired of waiting, advocates for tight constraints on campaign money gathered tens of thousands of signatures to put a measure limiting donations on the ballot in 2024. Labor unions, a major source of giving to Democrats, responded by threatening to put up their own competing initiative.  A backer of the union measure said recently that it would have encouraged grassroots participation through small donor committees and included public financing for candidates.

Meek, the campaign reform advocate, described the union measure as an effort to create far looser limits, with less disclosure and major loopholes.

Lawmakers stepped in, brokering a deal that was hailed as a historic breakthrough. Unions, the campaign reform advocates and big business produced a bill that Meek described as at least a starting point for controlling Oregon’s political money — albeit with fewer constraints and bigger dollar limits than he and others wanted.

Kate Titus, Oregon director of Common Cause, an advocacy group that was involved in the negotiations alongside Meek, said everyone agreed that some technical fixes to the bill’s language would be needed before the system took effect in 2027. But she said the group, which included House Speaker Julie Fahey, agreed that no substantive changes would be made without everyone’s agreement.

Then came this year’s short, monthlong legislative session — and a surprise.

Titus described seeing Fahey in a state Capitol hallway in early February and asking whether any bills were coming on campaign finance. Fahey’s expression changed to what Titus described as “pure panic.”

“I can’t talk,” Titus said the speaker told her, before hurrying away.

(Fahey’s spokesperson, Jill Bakken, said the speaker was on her way from a floor session to a meeting and didn’t have time for an impromptu hallway conversation, telling Titus she could schedule time through her staff.)

Hours later, Titus said, an 85-page bill was introduced with Fahey’s name on it and a public hearing scheduled early the next morning.

It would push back the deadline that the 2024 legislation set for launching a new website for tracking campaign money, from 2028 to 2032.

The bill would make the $5,000 limit on donations to one type of political committee apply per year, not per two-year election cycle — effectively doubling the amount allowed. A spokesperson for Fahey called the 2024 provision a “typo” that needed correcting because it was inconsistent with limits on other donation types.

The 2024 law prohibited multiple businesses controlled by the same person from each giving as much as the law allows. The 2026 bill would allow it as long as the businesses weren’t created solely to evade limits, a change Fahey’s spokesperson said was needed to avoid a “chilling effect on community-based organizations’ participation in elections.” The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group, called it a loophole that renders Oregon’s contribution limits “illusory.”

On top of all that, the bill would remove a long-standing provision in state law that says that money someone spends in coordination with a candidate is a campaign contribution. A spokesperson for Secretary of State Tobias Read said the provision was “redundant” because the law also says “any other thing of value,” beyond money, is a campaign contribution. But the Campaign Legal Center said the change could leave Oregon functionally with “no contribution limits.”

A representative of the League of Women Voters of Oregon, which was involved in the 2024 negotiations, called the bill “a complete betrayal.”

Bakken, Fahey’s spokesperson, told ProPublica that groups including the league “have been part of this conversation for many years” and that they will have opportunities for input as lawmakers consider future changes.

As for why the Legislature hasn’t done more to stem the flow of money into the system, Bakken said that constraining donors too greatly could push them to divert cash from campaign donations into commercials and mailers in support of candidates, something candidates legally can’t control. These “independent expenditures” have no dollar limit under federal law.

Unhappy as Meek and others were with the proposal, they couldn’t do much. They threatened to go back to the ballot, but without the signatures they’d gathered to do so in 2024, they’d lost their leverage. The bill sailed through the Oregon House by a 39-19 vote and the Senate 20-9.

Sen. Jeff Golden, a Southern Oregon Democrat who opposed the bill, called its passage the biggest surprise of his eight-year tenure. Given the potentially huge loopholes, he said in an interview: “I thought my colleagues wouldn’t pass it. And I was wrong.”

The measure sits on the desk of Gov. Tina Kotek, a Portland Democrat. She has until April 17 to decide on it.

The post Oregon Voters Overwhelmingly Said Yes to Limiting Money in Politics. Then Politicians Had Their Say. appeared first on ProPublica.

Conflict in the Strait of Hormuz is spilling into the Indian Ocean Expert comment thilton.drupal 13 March 2026

The effective blockade of the strait during the US-Israeli war with Iran has increased the chance of accidents and forced ships into alternative routes with their own risks.

The US-Israeli war with Iran has turned the Indian Ocean into a theatre for major maritime confrontations. 

On 2 March, in response to US-Israeli strikes, Iran announced it was closing the Strait of Hormuz, the vital maritime chokepoint that connects Gulf waters and the wider Indian Ocean beyond. On 4 March, a US submarine sunk the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena off the coast of Sri Lanka. Since the outbreak of the conflict, at least 18 vessels have been attacked in Gulf waters.  

The US now claims Iran’s navy is destroyed. Despite this, the Strait of Hormuz remains functionally closed. 

While some analysts argue that Iran lacks the power to fully control the strait, Iran’s strategy does not depend on naval control. If Iran can launch missile or drone attacks from its coast, it can impose enough risk to disrupt shipping. The recent experience in the Red Sea illustrates this dynamic: a relatively small number of Houthi missile and drone attacks caused container traffic in the region to fall by roughly 90 per cent in 2024.

Iran’s ability to essentially close the strait will have a knock-on effect on wider maritime traffic, creating new security risks as ships seek alternative routes. While Iran has vowed to disrupt international trade to inflict pressure on US President Donald Trump, the US may seek to intercept ships bound for Iran, creating dangerous conditions for escalation in the increasingly crowded Indian Ocean and beyond.

Heightened risks of accidents and US seizures 

The current conflict has created a de facto blockade in which the US seeks to deny maritime transit or access to Iran, while Tehran simultaneously seeks to stop all movement through the Strait. 

These competing strategies have created a highly uncertain operating environment for commercial vessels in the Gulf. According to a briefing from Lloyd’s List Intelligence, more than 40 ships disabled their Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals at the start of the conflict – a practice known as ‘going dark.’ Ships typically disable AIS to conceal illicit activity. Many of these vessels are part of Iran’s sanctioned shadow fleet. The number of dark vessels is likely to increase. 

At the same time, several Gulf countries have begun employing GPS jamming to interfere with guided missiles. While intended as a defensive measure, this jamming also disrupts navigation systems used by civilian ships. AIS signals can become scrambled or unreliable, making it more difficult for vessels to communicate with each other and avoid collisions. With maritime search and rescue capabilities already constrained by the conflict, such interference significantly increases the risk of accidents.

Amid this chaos, Iran announced that it would permit Chinese ships to transit through the Strait. In response, some ships are attempting to use their transponders to identify as Chinese. For example, a Liberian-flagged bulk carrier ship called SinoOcean broadcast its destination signal as ‘CHINA OWNER_ALL CREW’ to transit the Strait of Hormuz. 

Related work

How will the Iran war affect the global economy?

While these operations are not necessarily aimed at illicit activity, they do represent a newer category of false flag operations in shipping, which involve the deliberate misrepresentation of a vessel’s flag state to evade oversight. This tactic is most often used by shadow fleet vessels moving sanctioned commodities. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, both false flags and changing a ship’s flag during a voyage are considered illegal.

Taken together, GPS jamming, dark vessels, and false flag signals create significant uncertainty about the identity and activities of ships in the region. This ambiguity complicates attribution for maritime incidents and increases the likelihood that naval forces will misinterpret commercial behaviour. 

In response, it is possible that the US will pursue more ships seizures across the Indian Ocean, especially under the pretext of the ongoing conflict. On 24 February, before the attack on Iran, the US seized an oil tanker allegedly linked to Venezuela’s illicit oil trade off the coast of Sri Lanka. Back in November, the US also seized a cargo ship going from China to Iran across the Indian Ocean. 

Alternative routes in a crowded ocean

The blocking of the Strait of Hormuz will redirect shipping into other routes that pose their own risks. Since 2 March, the volume of traffic around Hormuz has dropped precipitously. Many ships have also decided to avoid the Suez Canal as a precautionary measure. 

This will increase traffic through the Mozambique Channel and Cape of Good Hope as ships attempt to take the long way around Africa. Due to the slowdown, rising costs, and uncertainty about the duration of conflict, many ships may also remain at ports along the Indian Ocean. 

These shifts in maritime traffic will create new security risks. Congested or poorly patrolled routes often attract piracy and other illicit activities. For example, pirates operating from Somalia have historically attacked ships off the coast of Africa in the western Indian Ocean, and piracy is on the rise again.

More than 20% of weekend availability lost in England since 2022, forcing some to turn to A&E, says national association

People who need to obtain medication at the weekend are having to undertake long trips because more pharmacies are cutting their opening hours on Saturdays and Sundays.

One in six pharmacies in England have reduced their hours at weekends since 2022, with some shutting altogether, as a result of “unsustainable” pressures on their budgets.

From a 28-game losing streak to the top of the East, the Pistons have rebuilt themselves the old Detroit way – defense, defiance and a refusal to stay down

In Detroit, the black-eyed Susan grows along lonely highways and in vacant lots. It pushes through gravel and broken glass. It survives heat that cracks the earth and winters that freeze it solid. When the wind bends its stem, it cracks back in place.

Its petals are a grungy yellow, the shade of anxiety, orbiting a bruised center. Black-eyed, signaling it can take a punch. It’s the kind of flower Pistons legend Dennis Rodman would wear in his hair. Hard to kill. Just like the Detroit Pistons.

Nevada regulators have fined three people who played a role in offering peptide injections last year at a Las Vegas anti-aging conference where two women became critically ill following treatment.

Last month, the Nevada Pharmacy Board levied $10,000 fines against a doctor and a pharmacist who are licensed in California but who don’t have permission to practice in Nevada. It imposed a $5,000 fine against a third man who describes himself as an “integrative health coach” but who doesn’t appear to be a licensed health care practitioner.

The pharmacy board also imposed a $10,000 fine against a Texas-based private membership association, which authorities accused of mailing the peptides to Nevada. The group, Forgotten Formula, claims a constitutional right to conduct private transactions with its members and contends those transactions occur “outside the scope” of state commercial regulations.

The citations stem from an incident in July at the Revolution Against Aging and Death Festival, which is put on by an Arizona-based organization that promises pathways to an “unlimited lifespan.” Dr. Kent Holtorf, whose anti-aging medical practice is based in El Segundo, California, operated a booth at the festival offering alternative health therapies, including peptide injections. Peptides are short amino acid chains that have exploded in popularity thanks to claims they can fight aging and chronic disease. 

The board alleged that Forgotten Formula mailed the peptides to the casino resort hosting RAADFest, marking the package “to the attention of Dr. Kent Holtorf.” That shipment constituted “unlicensed wholesaling of drugs,” according to the board’s citation.

A trustee of Forgotten Formula told ProPublica his association was not present at the festival and did not provide peptides to be offered for public use.

After being injected with peptides at Holtorf’s booth, two women left the conference in ambulances, so ill they had to be intubated to assist them in breathing. They have since recovered. 

The pharmacy board was unable to determine why the women became ill — including whether the injections were contaminated or the women reacted to the peptides themselves. Investigators were unable to test the serums.

“We were not able to obtain the product, although attempts were made,” said David Wuest, the board’s executive secretary.

Although the Food and Drug Administration has approved many peptide-based medications to treat serious diseases such as diabetes and cancer, peptide therapies used for anti-aging and regenerative health are largely unregulated. (Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been a strong proponent of peptides.) The FDA allows compounding pharmacies to dispense some peptides, but has listed 19 of some of the most popular peptides as posing “significant safety risks.” Compounding pharmacies are prohibited from dispensing those on the list. As a result, many unsafe peptides are sold on a booming gray market, including directly to consumers by entities in the U.S. and abroad that are skirting FDA rules.

The injections administered to both women at the Las Vegas convention included at least one peptide that the FDA warns poses a safety risk, according to the pharmacy board’s citations. Kennedy said recently that the FDA plans to reclassify 14 of the peptides currently listed as unsafe, which could allow compounding pharmacies to begin dispensing them. 

Holtorf, who did not respond to repeated attempts to contact him, was fined for practicing in Nevada without a state license. Han Bao Nguyen, the pharmacist accused of mixing the peptides for both women and administering the serums to one of them, also was cited for the same violation. Nguyen works at Holtorf’s practice, according to its website. He did not respond to requests for comment.

Michael McNeal, the “integrative health coach” and director of education at Integrative Peptides, a company founded by Holtorf, was accused of prescribing or recommending a peptide cocktail to one of the women. Wuest said McNeal does not appear to hold any health care licenses. McNeal did not respond to requests for comment.

In July, Holtorf told ProPublica he didn’t believe the peptides caused the women’s illnesses, saying he’d asked an artificial intelligence app to analyze the incident. He wouldn’t share what the app had concluded was the cause. He also apologized for the situation and said he was “reassessing everything we are doing” to keep patients safe.

Wuest said the board notified the California boards that license Holtorf and Nguyen of the fines so they may consider additional discipline. The FDA also has been notified, he said.

Michael Blake Fiveash is co-founder and first trustee of Forgotten Formula, which the board accused of unlicensed wholesaling of pharmaceuticals. He said pharmacy board regulations, while necessary for regulating public commerce, don’t apply to his association because it offers services only to members who have signed a contract. He said such member-to-member activity is protected by the First and 14th amendments. In a letter to ProPublica, he said Holtorf, whose peptide company is listed as a partner on Forgotten Formula’s website, was operating at RAADFest under his public medical practice, not as an association member. Nor were the women who became ill members of the association, Fiveash said.

“Dr. Holtorf’s booth at RAADFest was a public commercial activity,” Fiveash said in a letter. The Forgotten Formula Private Member Association “did not supply materials for public commercial use or public distribution. If Dr. Holtorf utilized any materials in his public professional practice, that would represent his individual choice to apply private member resources to his separate public professional activities, which is beyond FFPMA’s control or responsibility.”

Fiveash did not directly answer questions about whether the association mailed the peptides to Holtorf. He also shared a video of testimonials from Forgotten Formula members, including children and adults, suffering serious illnesses such as cancer, Lyme disease, diabetes and cirrhosis who said they were helped by the association’s products. 

Read More

A Las Vegas Festival Promised Ways to Cheat Death. Two Attendees Left Fighting for Their Lives.

He challenged the premise that the women became ill from the peptides. “Without comprehensive toxicology, full medical histories, and analysis of all substances and treatments administered that day, attributing causation to peptides is speculation masquerading as reporting,” he said. “Any adverse event is concerning, and we hope both patients have fully recovered.”

Laura Tucker, the pharmacy board’s lawyer, said this is the board’s first encounter with a private membership association making such legal claims, but emphasized that mailing drugs to the state without a Nevada license is against state law. She added that any of the parties can appeal their citations to the board.

“Of course anyone is free to make any sort of legal argument they would like to try to make in front of the board,” she said.

The post Nevada Regulators Fine Peptide Providers at Anti-Aging Festival Where Two Women Became Critically Ill appeared first on ProPublica.

March 13, 2026 — Prof. Thomas Lippert has been named one of the “People to Watch 2026” by the international magazine HPCwire. Each year, the editorial team highlights individuals who are shaping the field of high-performance computing worldwide and are expected to make a significant impact.

Prof. Thomas Lippert, Director of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre. Credit: Forschungszentrum Jülich/Sascha Kreklau.

Thomas Lippert is Director of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) at Forschungszentrum Jülich. Under his leadership, the JSC became home to Europe’s first exascale supercomputer, capable of performing more than one quintillion calculations per second.

JUPITER is also the most energy-efficient supercomputer in its exascale class worldwide and ranks among the most powerful systems for training large AI models. As such, it represents an important pillar of Europe’s digital and scientific sovereignty.

HPCwire is one of the leading international trade magazines covering high-performance computing (HPC). For Thomas Lippert, this is the third time he has been named to the list, which HPCwire has published annually for the past 24 years. This year, HPCwire honors twelve individuals recognized for their transformative contributions to the impact of artificial intelligence on science and technology.

For more information and an interview with Thomas Lippert, click here.

More from HPCwire

• HPCwire Unveils 2026 People to Watch
• People to Watch 2026 Thomas Lippert
• 35 HPC Legends 2025 Thomas Lippert
• JUPITER: Launching Europe’s Exascale Era

Source: Forschungszentrum Jülich

The post Jülich Supercomputing Centre’s Thomas Lippert Named to HPCwire ‘People to Watch 2026’ List appeared first on HPCwire.

China’s Five Year Plan commits to economic resilience – as the Iran war exposes the fragility of global supply Expert comment jon.wallace 13 March 2026

Beijing is striving for tech self-reliance, aiming to embed intelligent technologies in its economy. But there is a tension in the strategy that could define China’s next decade.

As China concluded its annual National People’s Congress (NPC) this week, the world beyond Beijing’s Great Hall of the People looks unusually unsettled. War and instability in the Middle East are rattling global energy markets and supply chains. And geopolitical rivalries between China and the United States are sharpening competition over technology, minerals and trade. 

Judging from Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s Government Work Report delivered on 5 March, and the latest executive summary of its Five Year Plan, China’s top leadership is sending a clear signal: economic resilience and technological self-reliance are not temporary responses to pressure but long-term strategic choices.

For Beijing, the logic behind this approach is straightforward. Over the past decade, Chinese policymakers have become increasingly convinced that globalization – once the engine of the country’s meteoric growth – is becoming a source of vulnerability. 

Conflicts, geopolitical rivalry and the COVID-19 pandemic have exposed the fragility of global supply networks. And intensifying technology restrictions by advanced economies have underscored how dependence on foreign inputs can constrain national development.

The turmoil in the Gulf will only reinforce Beijing’s conviction. Instability in several of the world’s most important energy suppliers illustrates how quickly geopolitical crises can ripple through global markets. For a country like China, which remains the world’s largest energy importer and a central hub in global manufacturing networks, the war is a stark reminder of the risks inherent in overreliance on external conditions beyond its control.

In that sense, the leadership believes its pivot toward resilience was both prescient and necessary. Policies aimed at strengthening domestic supply chains, boosting advanced manufacturing, and investing heavily in strategic technologies – from semiconductors and 6G connectivity to artificial intelligence – are framed not merely as economic initiatives but as pillars of national security. 

Related work

China’s economic statecraft has been exposed by US attacks on Iran and Venezuela

Some published details of the 15th Five Year Plan – China’s economic blueprint – further underscore this strategic shift. The Plan seemed to offer few surprises and did not catch any global media attention this week. Yet, it showed that Beijing has elevated high-end manufacturing and digital innovation to the centre of its economic agenda. 

The work report states that the Chinese government will increase its overall national research and development spending by around 7 per cent in the next five years compared to the period between 2021 and 2025. And it also proposes to make digital economy industries account for 12.5 per cent of the overall GDP in the following five years.

An intelligent technology economy

China’s government is placing stronger emphasis on fundamental breakthroughs in future industries such as brain-computer interfaces, quantum technology and semiconductor supply chains. Meanwhile policymakers are promoting the ‘AI Plus’ initiative – an effort to integrate artificial intelligence across manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and urbanization. 

The ambition is to move China up the value chain, embed intelligent technologies throughout the real economy and create a more productive and technologically autonomous growth model.

Yet resilience has come with heavy trade-offs. China’s economy is no longer expanding at the rapid pace that defined the previous decades. Indeed China has set its growth target at between 4.5 and 5 per cent. That number will make many advanced economies envious. But it is the lowest target since records were published from the 1990s.

Structural adjustments – particularly in the property sector and local government finance – have weighed on growth. Policymakers insist that slower but higher-quality growth is preferable to the debt-driven expansion of the past. But for many Chinese households and businesses, the transition has been uneven. Despite all the state and enterprise investments in high-end manufacturing, some business sectors and consumers still feel the chill of economic slowdown.   

Unemployment

Perhaps the most persistent challenge lies in China’s labour market. Youth unemployment, which surged as a result of the pandemic and shrinking service sectors, remains troubling. Can the economy generate opportunities for a highly educated generation entering the workforce? 

Even as official statistics fluctuate and measurement methods evolve, the underlying issue is clear. Millions of young graduates are struggling to find jobs that match their skills and expectations.

This dilemma highlights the tension within China’s development strategy. On the one hand, the push toward high-tech industries and strategic manufacturing promises long-term competitiveness. On the other, these sectors are capital-intensive and cannot absorb the vast number of graduates produced each year. The country’s traditional engines of employment – real estate, construction, and low-cost manufacturing – are no longer expanding at the same pace.

Additionally, the latest push to tech self-reliance requires new skillsets in the secondary and tertiary education syllabus. 

Addressing this imbalance will require more than technological breakthroughs. It will demand policies that foster a more dynamic private sector, expand service industries, and encourage entrepreneurship among younger workers. Without such adjustments, the promise of resilience could come at the cost of creating a frustrated generation. 

Within the Plan’s executive summary, there are strong words to support employment generation, including helping skilled labours to acquire basic AI skills. But it is short on detail.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and a constellation of other conservative leaders are the defensive over their ties to President Trump because of his war against Iran.

From violent collision contests to celebrity-backed offshoots, spin-off sports are finding captive audiences. Their spectacle masks something more sinister

A few weeks ago a clip went viral of a strange new contact sport emerging from the antipodes. Two burly men, one of them holding a football, sprint at each other on a kind of catwalk, waiting for the bloop-bloop-bloop of an electronic countdown before they launch into their runs. Neither wears any kind of padding or protective gear. Surrounded by baying spectators, the men collide in the middle of the track, making impact through shoulders, knees, hips, stomachs: in most instances, one of the runners is knocked flat on his back or face from the force of the collision, and the other stands tall in triumph. “We are literally getting dumber as a civilization,” noted one of the many comments on the clip on X.

Run Nation Championship, as this new sport is known, launched in Australia last year, and is now holding combines ahead of RNC03, its third instalment. Many of the competing athletes seem, from the early video evidence, as wide as they are tall; the risk of injury – to their limbs, to their heads, to their brains – is obvious. But this is all part of the pitch. Like all new mixed martial arts and contact sports, RNC owes an obvious debt to UFC in the way it’s named, structured, and promoted; like UFC and UFC boss Dana White’s newer sport, Power Slap, in which two opponents face each other across a table and slap the side of each other’s faces as hard as they can until one collapses, Run Nation is not so much a sport as an exploration of the frontier of sporting violence, a macabre social experiment to see how far athletes will push their bodies in the pursuit of victory and money.

Efforts to apply quantum computing to drug discovery increasingly rely on hybrid workflows that combine classical computing with emerging quantum hardware. Danish quantum software company Kvantify has recently advanced this approach through new funding and research collaborations with Danish universities, following the launch of its Qrunch platform for computational chemistry at SC25 last fall.

Earlier this month Kvantify completed the second close of a €7 million funding round aimed at advancing its hybrid quantum-classical approach to molecular simulation. The financing follows earlier backing, including a $10.8 million seed round announced in 2024, as well as prior support from the European Innovation Council’s Accelerator program and other early funding initiatives that helped the company develop several of its core products. The new funding will support continued development and commercialization of Kvantify’s quantum chemistry software stack.

Alongside its commercial development efforts, Kvantify is also participating in a new research collaboration aimed at improving the usability of quantum computing for drug discovery. The company is part of the ODAQS Project (Optimal Design Automation towards a Performant Quantum Software Stack) led by Aarhus University and supported by Innovation Fund Denmark. The initiative brings together researchers from Aarhus University and Aalborg University to develop software tools that simplify the process of designing and running quantum algorithms for pharmaceutical and chemical applications. A key component of the project focuses on applying advanced learning methods to automate and optimize the development of quantum software.

Credit: Kvantify

“One of the major challenges in quantum software is finding good solutions without using enormous amounts of computational resources,” said Kim Guldstrand Larsen, Professor at Aalborg University. “In ODAQS, we will use reinforcement learning to let software learn how to produce more efficient quantum programs. This makes it possible to make better use of quantum computers, even with the hardware available today.”

Last November, Kvantify introduced Qrunch, a platform intended to help computational chemists build and run hybrid quantum-classical simulations without requiring deep expertise in quantum programming. The platform integrates conventional chemistry methods with hybrid quantum algorithms, allowing researchers to define molecular systems and construct electronic-structure simulations while the software manages the technical complexities of hybrid quantum-classical execution. The platform includes Kvantify’s proprietary algorithms, FAST-VQE, and BEAST-VQE.

Kvantify is also exploring how classical supercomputing resources can support quantum software development. Last year the company became the first dedicated quantum software company to utilize Gefion, Denmark’s national AI supercomputer. Kvantify is using Gefion’s large-scale compute resources to simulate quantum systems and evaluate quantum algorithms. These simulations allow researchers to study quantum chemistry workflows that currently exceed the capabilities of existing quantum hardware.

Building scalable calculations on today’s noisy quantum hardware remains challenging, particularly for the types of molecular simulations required in drug discovery. As a result, much of the near-term progress in quantum computing is occurring in software development, algorithm design and hybrid workflows that combine quantum processors with classical HPC systems. Researchers are exploring ways to make practical use of emerging quantum hardware while relying on classical computing to support the most demanding workloads. Recent demonstrations of Kvantify’s FAST-VQE algorithm on systems approaching 50 qubits suggest that as quantum processors scale, continued advances in hybrid computing and quantum software will be key to enabling more complex chemistry simulations.

The post Kvantify Advances Hybrid Quantum-Classical Software for Drug Discovery appeared first on HPCwire.

Deputy Editor Karl Baker joins “Beyond the Headlines” to mark the beginning of 2026 election season with a discussion about money – specifically how Delaware’s political parties finance their operations.

Two of Karl’s recent articles have taken on the topic through a bipartisan lens: “Longtime court critic quietly funds PAC controlled by House Speaker,” and “Delaware’s GOP projects strength after months of turmoil.” In the podcast, Karl discusses what these two developments say about the state of money in Delaware politics and shares how he tracks these trends. 

The podcast was hosted by Director of Community Engagement David Stradley.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

I’m going to start off with two things that you are famous for at Spotlight Delaware. The first is in our editorial meetings – you like to grill our reporters about their nut grafs. Can you share with our listeners what a “nut graf” is, and then give us the nut grafs for these two articles that you wrote? 

Sure. A nut graf is the paragraph within a story, usually up high – sometimes it’s the first line in the story, sometimes not – that encompasses all of the important themes for the story itself. 

So the nut graf for the story about the House Speaker’s PAC is, effectively, that this company and the company’s CEO, who has waged this campaign in Delaware for a decade now – really assailing the state’s court system and judiciary, specifically – gave some money to a new PAC controlled by the House Speaker. It kind of marks how the CEO, his name is Phil Shawe, has shifted his approach from sponsoring these protests and bringing in celebrities to criticize the courts to one where he is getting more directly political and supporting candidates. 

And the GOP story?

It’s a story about how there had been financial turmoil, confusion and disarray with the state GOP’s finances, particularly after the party’s longtime contracted accountant resigned in January. Now the party says they’ve been able to right the ship and are employing a new fundraising strategy. And they say they’re ready for the launch of the 2026 campaign. 

The other thing you are famous for at Spotlight Delaware is that you are considered our in-house expert in campaign finance, and particularly the institutional knowledge of campaign finance in Delaware.

How did you become interested in campaign finance, and why do you think it’s so important to watch carefully in Delaware? 

How did I become interested? I think just over the years you see how interests align behind candidates, and they align behind candidates through donations to their campaigns.

That can tell you where those companies or other interests think those candidates stand on issues, and that will then tell you potentially where those candidates may sit on certain issues. 

With both of these articles you wrote, why report on them now? 

Well, it’s the beginning of campaign season. It’s a little early, but we’re going to have a stretch where we see lots of fundraising initially, and then lots of spending of that money over the summer.

So it’s good to remind people that this is coming. Also, for the first story about the Speaker’s PAC, we had the year-end state campaign finance reports that came in in January. And then for that particular story, it was an amended report that came in in February that tipped us off. That’s the “why now” of that story. 

For the story about the state GOP, we had done one in December. I’ve been following the subsequent developments in their fundraising since then. I determined that the things that had happened particularly since the new year, it was now time for the new story because it was significant enough that the public should know.

When those campaign finance reports come out, what is your process like? What are you looking for? 

So, there are the reports that are filed with the state, and then there are reports that are filed with the federal government through the Federal Elections Commission.

For the state, at the start of the year in January, there’s going to be a lot of year-end reports filed. And so I just kind of look through every day to see which reports are filed on that day. I like to see how much money they raised for the period, how much money they spent, how much money they’re left with.

The money they’re left with is a good indicator of their war chest, as they call it, for the coming campaign. And then maybe most importantly, who made the donations.

Let’s go into this article about the Democratic finances. For anybody who has not read your article, or who has not been following Delaware politics for the last decade, can you tell us a little bit about Phil Shawe, the first funder of Delaware House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown’s Back on Track PAC?

He has a company called TransPerfect that, according to all the reports, makes a lot of money. Forbes did a feature story of Shawe last year, they called him a billionaire. I think they reported that TransPerfect revenues in recent years were nearing a billion dollars. It’s a company that makes money, and therefore Shawe, as the primary owner, makes a lot of money, too.

In 2015, his company was in a high-profile Delaware court case. He and his ex-fiancee were the co-founders of the company and they weren’t getting along. The reports are that boardroom fights at the company were acrimonious, apparently forging on violent, according to reports.

The judge ultimately said, “You guys can’t get along. There’s nothing I could do other than just sell the company off for the good of the employees and the good of your customers.”

Shawe launched this campaign to criticize not only the judge’s order, but also the subsequent custodianship of the company. Shawe saw that as an affront. He saw that as stripping his company away from him, and it effectively was. 

Shawe’s ex-fiancee agreed to sell him her half of the company, so he got his company back. Still, he continued his campaign. He brought in celebrities. Al Sharpton came frequently to Delaware to speak out against the state’s courts, particularly its lack of diversity.

It was this all-encompassing campaign to tell everybody how bad that Shawe thought the Delaware courts were.

Now, this was all done as an outsider campaign until 2024, or really 2023, before the [Delaware] gubernatorial campaign when things shifted. The TransPerfect public relations organization approached, as far as I understand, the leading candidates for governor and said, “Hey, we want to help you guys. Would you help us?’

At the time, I think they were arguing for what they call wheel spin, an arbitrary appointment of judges in cases. That’s what they wanted. And ultimately they threw their support both directly and indirectly behind Matt Meyer – indirectly in the sense that they spent a lot of money attacking his chief opponent, Lieutenant Governor Bethany Hall-Long.

Ultimately, their spending of over a million dollars in that campaign helped propel Matt Meyer to be the governor, which he is now. So that happened. 

And then last year, they announced, “We’re going to do something similar, maybe not as much money, but in the legislative races.” And now we know at least some of what they’re doing.

You quote Shawe’s spokesperson in your article as saying, “We look forward to working with members of the state legislature to build a more equitable and transparent justice system for both individual Delawareans and companies domiciled there.” 

I read that and think, “A more equitable and transparent justice system?” That sounds like a noble aim. For folks who are suspicious of campaign donations, what’s behind that quote? Is there more there? 

It sounds nice. Transparency is good. 

Frankly, I don’t know. And that’s kind of the story. We know that they wanted wheel spin, right? The random selection of judges on cases. But beyond that, I’m not exactly sure what that means policy wise. 

Now, I would say to readers of any publication, when a story says a statement, especially an emailed statement, especially from a spokesman, you should just generally have a higher degree of skepticism of that statement. 

The reporter is not able to have a back and forth when it’s an emailed statement. You’re not able to prod the person making the statement and say, “Hey, what about this? What about that?” There’s these logical holes in your statement.

That should just be understood with any emailed statement from a spokesperson. 

Is it true? Maybe. What does transparency mean for them? I’m not really sure. Cameras in courtrooms, maybe? I don’t know.

You also quote Speaker of the House Melissa Minor-Brown as saying Shawe’s support “doesn’t mean that I’m for sale, or bought and sold.”

Of course that’s the suspicion for any Delawarean about large campaign contributions: how is this going to impact the representative? 

Are those suspicions justified? Has there ever been a documented instance in Delaware of “Donor X makes this large donation. Politician Y then takes this step to implement policy preferred by donor X.” Or is this just our conspiracy minds at work? 

A couple things. I would start by saying, I think that suspicion is reasonable to have. 

To the question of does this mean that, you know, is she bought and sold? I guess that’s her language. I don’t know. Who knows? Probably not, but that’s not really the question. 

I think the question is, the importance of the news, is that this organization that has narrow interests – or any company or organization that has special interests – is aligning behind this candidate whose interests are broad to her district and, as Speaker, to the entire state. So that’s interesting that the special interest group is supporting this particular candidate. 

Now to your question, is there an example? There’s lots of examples of big contributors giving to a candidate who wins and then forms policy that is in the interest of that donor. The question is, was that candidate, was that politician, did they already believe those things and were they supported by that special interest because the donor knew that they believe those things? Or, I think what your question might be, did they switch their opinions? 

I don’t immediately have any examples in the past in Delaware of a politician changing on something immediately after getting a donation.

If I’m a typical small individual who makes a donation to a political campaign, I’m doing that because I believe in that politician. I think that they’re going to implement policies that I agree with. Ideally you would think a special interest would be functioning in the same way, 

Mostly I think that is how it works. They see somebody that they like and they give money to them. 

Now, their interests might be different from yours. You’re an individual, right? They’re “special interests,” whether it’s a company, a union, or any other interest group. But if they donate to a candidate, it’s because they think that candidate is good for them.

If you donate to a candidate, I imagine you think that candidate is good for you and maybe good for the state. So in a sense, it’s not different. The difference is where their interests lie. 

One thing you pointed out was this press release that Shawe’s advocacy group put out celebrating a new Delaware court policy that he was in favor of, and Minor-Brown provided a quote for that press release.

Is that standard practice, a politician providing a quote for an advocacy group’s press release? 

No, it was fairly unusual and particularly unusual with TransPerfect.

And more than that, I think it was four months before that, TransPerfect had announced after their successful support of Matt Meyer, that they were going to support legislative races. At the time, in that previous announcement, we didn’t know which candidates they were going to support. We could guess, but we didn’t know specifically. 

But then four months later, they put out this press release about this change in the court rules and the speaker is quoted there. That told me, “Oh, okay, that’s a strong indication of somebody that they will likely support in the next election or that person’s allies.”

So did seeing that quote in that press release, when you were looking at these campaign finance reports, were you then looking for anything connecting Shawe and Minor-Brown? 

I mean, I was looking at them all. But yes, I mean, when I saw that, I guess I looked for it.

When you’re looking at campaign finance reports, you’re going to look at the most powerful elected officials first. So, if it’s a governor’s race, you’re going to look at those running for governor. You’re also going to look at, with particular interest, those who are donating to the speaker of the house.

So let’s switch to the GOP. Your article on the current state of Delaware Republican Party finances follows up on reporting you did in December highlighting several financial and personnel challenges in the party. Party chair Gene Truono did not comment for your December article, but gave you two lengthy interviews for this article.

Did you have a sense that he was going to be more willing to talk to you as things were looking better for the state GOP? Why do you think he gave you more information for this article? 

I think that’s probably part of it. It’s easier to talk publicly to a reporter when things look a little bit better.

At the time, I’m not sure if they exactly knew what was going on. He has told me since, he told me during those lengthy interviews, that they weren’t really able to be in a lot of communication with their accountant at the time. So they may not really have had good answers.

I think part of it also is, and this is just me putting myself in his head and speculating, but he might’ve seen that it’s actually better for us when we talk to a reporter. 

Broadly, beyond just this story, I think it is better for folks to talk to reporters, even on a story that’s gonna be scrutinizing. Unless they think they’re going to get sued over something. If their comments might be used in a lawsuit, then maybe don’t talk to a reporter. But short of that, I think it’s generally better. 

Your reporting states that the Delaware GOP federal bank account as of February was $19,000 and that they had a similar amount for their state account.

Help the listeners out. Does that amount of money signal that the GOP is ready to field competitive candidates to take on Senator Coons and Representative McBride in national races, and then also try to chip away at Democratic majorities in the state. Is that a healthy amount of money to help them accomplish their aims? 

On its own? If they didn’t raise any more money, then no. But, it shows that they’ve started  raising a little bit of money. And then also what they’re telling me is this is the start of their new fundraising initiative, that they say will go well beyond their current cash on hand.

You are always looking for signs of what’s going to happen in the future, indicators about what’s going to happen in the future. And I think it is an indicator that things might be turning. The ship is slowly steering the other direction,

Will you be looking at the next campaign finance reports to see if that ship is heading in the right direction still? 

Yes. And, I think with the next campaign finance reports, I’m going to look closely at the donors themselves. Are there any big individual donors or groups, not just people but other groups or companies or anything like that. 

In that article about the GOP, you detail some turmoil in the business relationships with their former accountant and also in Truono “unappointing” GOP Executive Director Nick Miles.

How do you write about these issues – and I guess this goes for the Minor-Brown article as well – how do you write those in a way that doesn’t just seem like total political insider intrigue, but makes clear to everyday Delawareans how this impacts them? 

When you report, you get a whole lot of stuff. You just get a lot of notes, a lot of stuff together, and then you have to synthesize that all and try to just figure out how am I going to write this in a way that takes a hundred pages of notes and puts it into a two-page story.

But to answer your question directly, the most important nuggets from your notes, the most important to the public, to the reader, goes at the top of the story. And that is an editorial decision you have to make. And then you try to make it flow and try to make it interesting, so they’ll read to the bottom. 

I made the decision, for example, to put the information about Nick Miles no longer being with the party, or at least no longer being the executive director, at the very bottom of the story. I think it’s interesting, I think it follows up on what we reported in December, but it wasn’t central to this new story.

I thought it should go on the record and have the public know about it, but I made a decision – let’s put it at the bottom. I imagine a whole lot of people who read the story didn’t actually get that far down to even read it. So maybe they’re listening now and they learned.

And that political insider stuff still relates to – I mean, you talk about that over 200,000 Delawareans are registered with the GOP – that insider political stuff still impacts how those folks see their party.

Yes, it impacts how their party operates, especially in the current moment. There is within the GOP, I think, still this tension, maybe it’s resolving, maybe not, between the traditional GOP folks – the Chamber of Commerce type of folks – and the new MAGA coalition.

And so to see who is in leadership in their party can give the members of the party, and just the public generally, an idea of which of those camps the party is more following or is it a mixture.

And then the second part of it too is, you also have a whole lot of people who donate to the party and a lot of them aren’t super wealthy. A lot of them are just kind of regular people. So there is a level of accountability journalism that’s involved there just to tell people this is how they’re spending your money.

The original plan was to publish both of these articles the same day. That didn’t quite happen. But when you and Jake, our editor in chief, were planning the reporting cadence in our newsletter, why did you want these reports to land close to the same time? 

They were coming around the same time anyway. We were thinking, oh, might as well run them on the same day.

In part because I think it demonstrates to the readers that we go after power bases wherever they lie. The plan was to show that, and frankly a little bit of a public relations for Spotlight Delaware showing people that we’re scrutinizing the Republicans and we’re also scrutinizing maybe the second most powerful Democrat.

Big picture final question here. You’ve said that both of these articles really kind of marked the launch of campaign season. What are the big themes that you are looking for now that this campaign season is starting off, with finance and otherwise? 

So starting with the Democrats  in Dover, you have I think three camps that have emerged, if not more. 

You have the establishment Democrats. They may bristle at that description, but I’m just going to call them that for lack of a better term. You have the more leftist Democrats, the progressive Democrats. And then you have the governor’s office. You have Governor Matt Meyer.

Who aligns with who and who supports who is still a little squishy. But I think as this campaign moves forward, when we look at additional campaign finance reports, when we look at what people are saying, it’ll give us more clarity about what that means for who’s going to support who.

As the election moves forward, the campaigns move forward, I’m going to keep an eye to see whether the governor involves himself in any of these local legislative elections.He probably won’t, but I’d be curious to see if he does.

And then for the Republican side, it seems like we always state that this is a super important election for everybody, but this one will be for them. They can either win a few seats which could then maybe eliminate the Democrats super majority, at least in one of the House. There’s different kinds of super majorities in Delaware. Or they can lose a couple seats and the Democrats super majority could increase to allow them to pass constitutional amendments without any Republican votes. 

So they could either move into a little bit more relevance, because they’re on the fringes now. Or they can move farther into the periphery and become somewhat of an afterthought in Delaware politics. 

So that’s what these elections might tell us – first primary then in general.

Thank you for keeping us up to date on campaign finance. As you’ve noted, there’s going to be plenty more to talk about as we head towards November.

Thanks, David. Appreciate it.

The post ‘Beyond the Headlines’ podcast: Campaign finance ahead of 2026 Delaware midterm elections appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

University of Cambridge study finds AI-powered toys can misread emotions and respond inappropriately to children

It was all going well. Charlotte, five, was chatting with an AI soft toy called Gabbo at a London play centre about her family, her drawing of a heart to represent them and what makes her happy. She even offered a couple of kisses to the £80 toy with a face like a computer screen.

It was when she declared: “Gabbo, I love you”, that the fluent conversation came to an abrupt halt.

A witness in a London High Court case was caught using smart glasses connected to his phone to receive real-time coaching while giving evidence during cross-examination. "In my judgement, from what occurred in court, it is clear that call was made, connected to his smart glasses, and continued during his evidence until his mobile phone was removed from him," said Judge Raquel Agnello KC. "Not only have I held that Jakstys was untruthful in denying his use of the smart glasses and his calls to abra kadabra, but the effect of this is that his evidence is unreliable and untruthful." The BBC reports: The claim arose during a ruling by Judge Raquel Agnello KC in a case brought by Laimonas Jakstys over the directorship of a property development company that owns a flat in south-east London and land in Tonbridge. Jakstys was told to remove the glasses after the court noticed he "seemed to pause quite a bit" before answering questions, and that "interference" was heard coming from around the witness. The judge later found that he had been "assisted or coached in his replies to questions put to him during cross examination" during the January trial. Once the glasses were taken off, an interpreter was still translating a question when Jakstys' mobile phone began broadcasting a voice -- which he later blamed on Chat GPT. Agnello said: "There was clearly someone on the mobile phone talking to Jakstys. He then removed his mobile phone from his inner jacket pocket." He denied using the smart glasses to receive answers, and denied they were connected to his phone. But the judge said multiple calls had been made from his phone to a contact named "abra kadabra," whom he claimed was a taxi driver.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Robert Habeck says world has moved on from weaponising energy to using tariffs, technology and more to inflict harm

The weaponisation of energy when Russia invaded Ukraine has given way to “weaponising everything” since Donald Trump returned to the White House, Germany’s former economy minister has said.

Robert Habeck, the Green politician responsible for keeping the lights on during the last energy crisis, said the belief gas “would never be a political weapon” led successive German governments blindly into Putin’s trap by building the Nord Stream pipelines and selling strategic reserves to Gazprom, which Russia emptied before the invasion.

The Trump administration has launched investigations into dozens of countries accused of failing to crack down on forced labor, flexing a law that lets the federal government impose tariffs.

Trump claims US makes ‘a lot of money’ when oil prices go up, but rising costs could become political liability – key US politics stories from 12 March

Donald Trump on Thursday shrugged off the economic toll the war in Iran is taking on gas prices across the US, writing on social media that “when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money”.

The president’s comment came as the American Automobile Association reports that the average price for a gallon of gas hit $3.60, a week after the beginning of the US-Israel military operation against Iran prompted the largest price spike since the opening days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

How America and Israel solved Iran’s succession problem.

The region’s divisions helped precipitate U.S. intervention.

In the strait, Iran holds the advantage—and America has no good options.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 13.

joshuark shares a report from Reuters: Microsoft has filed an amicus brief on Tuesday in support of Anthropic's lawsuit asking the court to temporarily block the U.S. Department of Defense designation of the AI startup as a supply-chain risk. In an amicus brief filing in a federal court in San Francisco, Microsoft backed Anthropic's request for a temporary restraining order against the Pentagon order, arguing that its determination should be paused while the court considers the case. Microsoft, which integrates the AI lab's products and services into technology it provides to the U.S. military, said that it was directly impacted by the DOD designation. "Should this action proceed without the entry of a temporary restraining order, Microsoft and other government contractors with expertise in developing solutions to support U.S. government missions will be forced to account for a new risk in their business planning," the company said. Microsoft's filing argued the TRO is needed to prevent costly disruptions for suppliers, who would otherwise have to rapidly rebuild offerings that rely on Anthropic's products. The judge overseeing the case must approve Microsoft's request to file the brief before it is officially entered, but courts often permit outside parties to weigh in on important cases.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

NASA's huge Space Launch System rocket has been repaired and is ready for rollout back to the launch pad next week.

But be prepared with something to hold all those screws.

Officials praised the "brave" actions of ROTC students who confronted a gunman Thursday after he opened fire in a classroom​ on the campus of Old Dominion University, killing one person and injuring two others.

In China, one social media trend hangs on the idea that a life in the US is always one step from disaster, while another in the US has gen Z revelling in Chinese lifestyle hacks

Across two online worlds that are normally splintered, over the last few months there has been a mirroring of sorts. On TikTok and Instagram, young people are diving into the joys of Chinese culture – from drinking hot water to playing mahjong – all under the banner of “Chinamaxxing”. On the Chinese internet, however, the US is losing its decades-long grip on soft power, and is instead being replaced by a darker trend: the kill line.

The kill line is a dangerous place to be. In gaming, the term refers to the point at which a player’s strength is so depleted that one more blow could lead to total wipeout. In China, the term refers to the risks that come with daily life in the US.

This blog has now closed – our live coverage of the Middle East crisis continues here

• Follow live for latest news and updates in the Middle East crisis

An Iranian source is denying the country will allow India-flagged tankers to pass through the vital strait of Hormuz, Reuters is reporting.

The news agency a little earlier quoted an Indian source as saying Iran would in fact allow such tankers to pass through the strait, a key artery for global oil trade.

Cuba's government says it will release 51 people from prisons, in an unexpected move that comes as the Trump administration puts immense pressure on the country.

This blog is now closed. Read the latest here

US defense officials told senators on the armed services committee that the cost of the war on Iran totaled more than $11.3bn in the first six days alone, according to multiple reports.

The New York Times was first to break the news about the conflict’s price tag, citing three people familiar with the closed-door briefing on Tuesday.

The dating app says it will launch "chapter-based profiles" and a personal dating assistant.

Meta and YouTube accused of creating harmful products in trial seen as a bellwether for attitudes towards social media

The first-ever jury trial over the potential harms of social media wrapped up on Thursday. Lawyers for Meta and YouTube have argued their platforms are safe for the vast majority of young people, while lawyers for a young woman at the center of the case say the tech companies have designed their products to be addictive, leading to mental health issues in children and teens.

“How did they become such behemoths?” Mark Lanier, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said during closing arguments in Los Angeles superior court on Thursday, according to NBC. “It’s the attention economy. They’re making money off capturing your attention.”

A string of tornadoes touched down in multiple states as severe weather stretched from Texas to Michigan.

Suspect who was convicted in 2016 for supporting Islamic State is dead after attack kills one and leaves two injured

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The suspect who killed one person and injured two others at Old Dominion University on Thursday was identified by authorities as Mohamed Jalloh, a former member of the army national guard who pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State.

Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk field office, told reporters the suspect had attempted to commit an “act of terrorism” and shouted “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire. He was subdued and killed by members of the university’s ROTC program in a university classroom, she said, praising them for demonstrating “extreme bravery and courage” and preventing further loss of life. (ROTC is a college-based program that allows students to train to become a US military officer while also earning a college degree.)

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 13, No. 740.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for March 13, No. 1,728.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 13, No. 1,006.

An Iranian vessel sailed too close to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, and the U.S. fired at the vessel, according to two U.S. officials.

For one week, three New Jersey high schoolers agreed not to take their phones to bed, and to try different tools to reduce screen time.

No serious casualties among those at Temple Israel, and explosives reportedly found in suspect’s vehicle

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A man who rammed his vehicle into a Michigan synagogue and drove through a hallway on Thursday died during the incident, officials said.

There were no other serious casualties at the Temple Israel in West Bloomfield township, a suburb in Oakland county, and the FBI said it was treating the matter as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community”. It was not immediately clear how the driver died, but officials said security staff engaged the suspect and at least one fired shots.

Blake Miguez, 44, not criminally charged over allegation reported to local police but never disclosed to public

A Louisiana congressional candidate endorsed by Donald Trump was the subject of a 2007 rape accusation that was reported to local law enforcement the same day of the alleged assault – but never disclosed to the public or, reportedly, the president’s team as he became one of the rising stars in the state’s Republican party.

That has raised concerns within the White House that Blake Miguez “either wasn’t fully vetted or wasn’t forthcoming about discoverable documents from his past” before securing Trump’s backing, the Atlantic reported on Wednesday, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the endorsement process.

March 12, 2026 — Most materials, especially metals and ceramics, are crystals. Their atoms are arranged in three-dimensional lattices that repeat the same exact pattern, over and over again. But there’s a well-known saying in materials science: “Crystals are like people. It is the defects that tend to make them interesting.”

A grain boundary defect with two phases (green and orange) in a tungsten crystal (blue) at 1848 degrees Kelvin. A new model gradually adds and removes atoms to calculate material structure and properties that were previously impossible to obtain. Graphic: Dan Herchek/LLNL.

In a new study, published in Physical Review Letters, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) created a new model for crystal defects at realistic temperatures. The simulation technique overcomes long-standing challenges in the field to calculate material structure and properties that were previously impossible to obtain. The result points the way toward improved production and performance of materials.

The work focused on two types of defects: point defects and grain boundaries. Point defects arise when atoms are missing in the lattice or when extra atoms are wedged in between the regular structure. Grain boundaries occur where two crystals with different orientations meet. Imagine the latter defect like a patchwork quilt where multiple pieces of fabric are stitched together at the seams.

“Cracks often find it easier to grow along grain boundaries, which can cause materials to fracture,” said author and LLNL postdoctoral researcher Flynn Walsh. “This is just one example of how defects affect the properties of materials ranging from protective walls in fusion energy plants to the magnets that power most electric motors.”

To improve technology based on these materials, researchers need to understand what’s happening to the crystal structure in complex defects like grain boundaries. While it is technically possible to image these defects, the associated experiments are very difficult. Modeling, therefore, is critical.

The new simulation technique advances the field with a simple but powerful idea: It allows atoms to come and go from the simulation. In a real-world defect, nature adjusts by moving atoms around until it finds a stable state. The team wanted to replicate that phenomenon.

“The conventional way to perform these simulations is to directly add and remove atoms, but this doesn’t work in solid crystals because the energy barriers are too high,” said Walsh. “Our approach is instead based on gradually adding and removing atoms. The basic idea is simple but doing it efficiently and correctly was surprisingly difficult.”

Instead of abruptly shoving an atom through a packed crowd of its fellows, the model softly pushes or pulls it into place.

“For the first time, this new technique opens the door to predicting grain boundary structures and phase transitions at finite temperatures,” said Timofey Frolov, LLNL scientist and principal investigator on the project. “This enables more accurate modeling of materials used in extreme environments such as fusion reactors.”

The method is more computationally demanding than traditional approaches and greatly benefited from LLNL’s supercomputing resources. But Walsh emphasized that the most important factor in its success was the research environment at the Laboratory. Much like defects make crystals interesting, the people involved (and their unique quirks and expertise) made this project possible.

“I was able to think deeply about this problem for a year and half with the guidance of experts in different areas of physics and materials science,” Walsh said.

Other LLNL authors included Babak Sadigh and Joseph McKeown. The work was funded by Frolov’s Department of Energy early career project and McKeown’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development Strategic Initiative. The LLNL Institutional Computing Grand Challenge provided computational resources.

Source: Ashley Piccone, LLNL

The post LLNL Researchers Develop Technique to Simulate Crystal Defects in Complex Materials appeared first on HPCwire.

BrianFagioli writes: Google says it will finally release Chrome for ARM64 Linux in the second quarter of 2026, bringing the company's full browser to a platform that has existed for years without official support. Until now, Linux users running Arm hardware have largely relied on Chromium builds or unofficial packages if they wanted something close to Chrome. Google says the new build will include the same features found on other platforms, including Google account syncing, Chrome Web Store extensions, built-in translation, Safe Browsing protections, and Google Password Manager. The timing reflects how ARM hardware is becoming more common across the Linux ecosystem, from developer laptops to AI systems. Google also pointed to NVIDIA's DGX Spark, a compact AI supercomputing device built on the Grace Blackwell architecture, which will support installing Chrome through NVIDIA's package management tools. For many Linux users, the announcement feels like a "finally" moment, as ARM64 Linux systems have been widespread for years despite the absence of an official Chrome build.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Slapping a 2.0 version number on plans makes them sound new, but what's actually changed? Let's check the details.

The federal observer program sends neutral observers to monitor election sites to ensure voters don't experience discrimination at the polls.

The new Sassy style is adults-only with a bit of profanity and a double dose of cringe.

The war is expanding into Lebanon, as an Israeli offensive to dismantle Hezbollah has displaced 800,000 people there, with more than 680 people killed.

Shantanu Narayen announced he will step down as CEO of Adobe once a successor is appointed, ending an 18-year tenure during which he transformed the company from boxed software to the Creative Cloud subscription model. Narayen said he will remain board chair as Adobe continues pushing into generative AI products. CNBC reports: Narayen joined Adobe in 1988 as a vice president and general manager, and he became CEO in 2007. Under Narayen, Adobe pushed from software licenses to subscriptions to its Creative Cloud application bundle, and the company is now working to expand through generative artificial intelligence. He sought to acquire fast-growing design software company Figma, but regulators pushed back, and the companies called off the deal, resulting in Adobe paying Figma a $1 billion breakup fee. [...] Narayen, 62, is lead independent director of Pfizer in addition to his responsibilities at Adobe, where he received $51 million in total compensation for the 2025 fiscal year, according to a filing. He owns $118 million in Adobe shares, according to FactSet. [...] On Narayen's watch, Adobe's stock jumped more than sixfold, while the S&P 500 is up about 350% over that stretch. "What attracted me to Adobe 28 years ago was our leadership in creating new market categories, world-class products, a relentless desire to innovate in every functional area of the company and the people I met during the interview process," Narayen wrote. "We have continued to create new markets, deliver world-class products, drive innovation in everything we do and attract and retain the best and brightest employees."

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Dyson first ever wet and dry robot vacuum is out, and I got to get an early look at it at the Dyson Soho Store.

The leading pro-Israel lobbying group has kept quiet on the race for an open Senate seat in Illinois while pouring its largest investments this cycle into the state’s high-profile House primaries, leaving observers to wonder whether it would really sit out the Senate contest.

But for the top of the ticket in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, more than two dozen donors to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee are quietly backing Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, The Intercept has found. 

At least 27 AIPAC donors have given to Stratton’s campaign to replace retiring Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., according to an analysis of federal campaign data. A former AIPAC president, Lee Rosenberg, is on her finance committee.

While public opinion sours on AIPAC’s brand, the group is backing a multimillion-dollar ad campaign run through other committees with palatable names like “Elect Chicago Women” in at least four Democratic House primaries. Its donors, meanwhile, have been funneling money to its preferred Illinois House candidates. The group has kept an even lower profile in the Senate race, where it’s been less clear how, if at all, the pro-Israel lobby is engaging.

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Neither of the top contenders for the safe Democratic seat have suggested they would champion the Palestinian cause if elected to the Senate. Both Stratton and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, her leading opponent, have declined to call Israel’s destruction in Gaza a genocide or commit to stopping U.S. weapons transfers to Israel, and at least one of Stratton’s pro-Israel donors also gave to Krishnamoorthi’s campaign. AIPAC endorsed Krishnamoorthi, who has received more than $250,000 from the pro-Israel lobby during his decade in Congress, for his 2024 reelection.

Both are running to the right of Rep. Robin Kelly, a relatively progressive Illinois congresswoman currently in a distant third, but even she staked out a more critical position on Israel upon entering the race and has taken some pro-Israel money while in office, much of it from the centrist group J Street.

AIPAC donors have given more than $70,000 to Stratton’s campaign since August, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission — out of just over $4 million she’s raised in total. The 27 donors have collectively given just under $5 million to AIPAC, its super PAC United Democracy Project, and the group Democratic Majority for Israel, which has close ties to AIPAC. Only two of them live in Illinois.

Rosenberg, the former AIPAC president on Stratton’s finance committee, is a leading Democratic strategist in Illinois, longtime adviser to Gov. JB Pritzker, and former adviser to Barack Obama.

In response to questions from The Intercept, a Stratton campaign spokesperson said that AIPAC had not endorsed the lieutenant governor and was not spending in the Senate race. The spokesperson said Stratton has more than 28,000 individual donors and supports a two-state solution for peace between Israel and Palestine.

In the final days ahead of Tuesday’s primary, Stratton has begun to catch up in the polls to Krishnamoorthi, who has largely outperformed his Democratic opponents in fundraising and public opinion surveys. The two candidates’ allies and critics have pointed fingers over fundraising, accusing the other of drawing support from corporate donors.

Krishnamoorthi’s $30 million fundraising haul is supplied in part by a crypto PAC, donors to President Donald Trump, and Palantir’s chief technology officer, among others, the Chicago Tribune reported on Tuesday. Stratton, meanwhile, has said she’s not taking corporate PAC money and hit Krishnamoorthi’s campaign for accepting support from a “MAGA-backed crypto PAC,” but her opponents have also criticized her Senate campaign for still benefiting from corporate donors that fund PACs backing her.

Democrats in Illinois have criticized AIPAC’s efforts to elect pro-Israel Democrats in deep-blue seats in and around Chicago. Pritzker, one of Stratton’s top surrogates and funders (and her boss), is a former AIPAC donor who cut ties with the group and has since denounced it as a “pro-Trump organization” and “significantly MAGA-influenced.”

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AIPAC Is Flooding Illinois With Cash. Pro-Palestine Groups Are Backing Kat Abughazaleh.

Pro-Israel spending “is a moral issue,” said former Rep. Marie Newman, an Illinois Democrat who was ousted from Congress in 2022 after pro-Israel groups spent against her. “AIPAC must be stopped if you believe in democracy.” 

Stratton, who took a trip to Israel in 2019 to meet with an opposition leader, as Politico reported, has been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s destruction in Gaza. She has not said whether she would support legislation blocking U.S. weapons to Israel. 

Criticizing Netanyahu is at odds with taking support from AIPAC and its donors, Newman said.

“AIPAC vigorously supports Netanyahu, a right-wing dictator, best friend to Trump and his authoritarian inhumane government,” Newman told The Intercept. “Israel’s right-wing government has dragged us into multiple unnecessary wars, helped ruin the US’ reputation in the world and is committing genocide.”

While Krishnamoorthi holds the advantage in polling and fundraising, it’s not clear who will win on Tuesday as dueling PACs fight it out in the final days of the race. Another group that has run ads in support of Krishnamoorthi recently launched ads backing Kelly in an apparent effort to peel votes away from Stratton. Kelly, who has raised $3 million, has struggled to keep pace in the polls with Krishnamoorthi and Stratton, and their backers have labeled her a spoiler.

Kelly’s campaign argues that she’s the most principled of the three candidates, particularly on Israel and Gaza.

“Robin pledged not to accept contributions from AIPAC after deciding to sign onto the Block the Bombs bill and meeting with doctors who volunteered on the front lines in Gaza,” her campaign spokesperson Joe Bowen told The Intercept. “She is the only candidate who has pledged not to take their money, the only candidate to support Block the Bombs and the only candidate to call the genocide in Gaza what it is.”

Kelly, who has hit both Krishnamoorthi and Stratton for stopping short of calling Israel’s destruction in Gaza a genocide, adopted that stance shortly before she launched her Senate campaign. Previously endorsed by J Street, she received $14,000 from AIPAC in 2025 and took an AIPAC trip to Israel in 2016. Kelly, now the only major candidate in the race to reject AIPAC support, has said the contributions were from individual donors who gave through AIPAC’s portal. 

The post AIPAC Is Staying Out of Illinois Senate Race — But Its Donors Back Juliana Stratton appeared first on The Intercept.

Two deportees sent to Eswatini were from Somalia, one was from Sudan and another was from Tanzania

The government of Eswatini announced on Thursday it received four more “third country” deportees from the United States, as part of the Trump administration’s multimillion-dollar deal with the small African nation.

Now a total of 19 deportees from the US have been sent to Eswatini even as they hail from other countries, amid the Trump administration’s continued anti-immigrant crackdown and changes to immigration policy.

US already spent more than $11.3bn in first six days of conflict, but price tag does not include all spending

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Pentagon officials told top lawmakers in a closed-door briefing on Tuesday that the cost of the war against Iran has already exceeded $11.3bn in its first six days, but the true cost of the opening days of the conflict is likely far greater, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The estimate, presented during a classified briefing on Capitol Hill, appeared largely limited to munitions expenditures and does not capture the full cost of the opening days of the conflict, one person familiar with the matter told the Guardian. Additional costs to consider include the deployment of forces to the region, medical expenses and the replacement of military aircraft lost in war.

Federal agents raiding the home of two alleged antifa “operatives” seized a telling piece of evidence, a defense attorney said during closing arguments in a landmark trial Wednesday.

A printing press.

That printing press was never presented to jurors. Still, the government has kept it locked away because it hated the pamphlets and zines it published, lawyer Blake Burns said.

Burns represents Elizabeth Soto, one of nine defendants whose fates were in the hands of jurors as deliberations began Thursday. All are accused of roles during or after a late-night noise demonstration outside Prairieland Detention Center, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility near Dallas that ended with a local police officer wounded by gunfire.

The case has become a bellwether for the Trump administration’s crackdown on dissent from the left. The government charged people involved with the anti-ICE protest with a slew of charges, including attempted murder and terrorism counts that defense attorneys said are being used to criminalize protest.

“They’re here asking you guys to put protesters in prison as terrorists,” Burns, the defense lawyer, told jurors. “That’s not happened before. And you are literally the only people in the world who can stop it.”

During 10 days of testimony in a packed Fort Worth, Texas, courtroom, prosecutors bombarded jurors with images of radical zines printed on the press, anti-government internet memes, drawings of burning cop cars, and a video of an unidentified street brawl between far-left and far-right protesters.

Prosecutors acknowledged those materials were protected by the First Amendment but said they showed the roughly dozen people who assembled outside the ICE facility were steeped in antifa tactics.

Eight of nine defendants on trial this month face material support for terrorism charges for wearing “black bloc” clothes at the protest. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have hailed the first-ever use of terrorism charges against alleged antifa members.

Defense attorneys argued Wednesday that prosecutors had wildly overcharged a case that should have centered on the alleged shooter, Benjamin Song, instead of the larger group.

Guilt by Zine

Prosecutors presented much of the evidence that might be expected at an attempted murder trial: ballistics and fingerprint experts, eyewitness police officers, and cooperating witnesses.

They also presented lengthy testimony about radical pamphlets and artwork collected from the defendants arrested that night or in raids during the following days.

Despite labeling the defendants “a North Texas antifa cell” in their indictment, prosecutors have acknowledged that they were at most a loose-knit collection of people from the Dallas–Fort Worth’s small leftist scene of anarchists and socialists.

Two of the scene’s fixtures were Elizabeth and Ines Soto, a married couple who operated the printing press and helped run a local reading group called the Emma Goldman Book Club, named for the early 20th-century anarchist revolutionary.

At one point during testimony Tuesday, a prosecutor spent more than half an hour scrolling through a Twitter account allegedly operated by the Sotos. The Twitter feed included a retweet of a December 2016 post with the words “How to handle fash in your hood” that included a shaky video of a street fight between protesters accompanied by the Flatbush Zombies song “Death 2.”

“I crack your fucking skull and use that as a bowl for cereal. I’m so serial. Ted Bundy, give me money, Son of Sam, gun in hand. Jeffrey Dahmer, with two llamas,” the jury heard in the song’s lyrics.

Defense attorneys objected to the introduction of the video as evidence.

“Yes, it is prejudicial,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Smith told the judge in defense of using the video. “The whole reason we’re putting it into evidence is because it’s prejudicial.”

Though U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, a Donald Trump appointee, allowed the Twitter feed to be presented in court, prosecutors could not definitively establish whether the Sotos had posted the video or what incident it depicted.

The Sotos, however, have not disputed that they were key members of the reading group. In his closing argument, Smith said the group was a front to recruit new antifa members.

“Emma Goldman Book Club,” Smith said. “It sounds very innocuous. It’s camouflage for what it is.”

“Your Body as Camouflage”

To help jurors interpret the book club’s readings and other materials, prosecutors presented a researcher at a far-right think tank as an expert.

Kyle Shideler of the Center for Security Policy once focused his research on the Muslim Brotherhood. After the 2020 George Floyd protests raged, he wrote a book about “black identity extremists.” In recent years he has focused on another right-wing boogeyman: antifa.

Shideler said Monday that he helped write the definition of “antifa” included in the government’s indictment. He walked that testimony back Tuesday, saying that he only conferred on a draft.

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Prosecutors also had Shideler read Trump’s September 22 executive order purporting to designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, in an apparent attempt to suggest that the language was borrowed from the order.

Shideler described what he said were common tactics of antifa, including using the messaging app Signal — which Shideler said he also used — and wearing “black bloc” clothes to obscure identities. The phrase refers to instances where groups of left-wing demonstrators dress in all black to make them less individually identifiable.

The point of that testimony came into focus during the prosecution’s closing arguments. Using Signal and wearing black-bloc clothing were “tactics that assisted in the ambush of a cop,” said Smith.

“Material support. It sounds — I don’t know — nefarious. Complicated. It’s actually very simple,” Smith said.

He said that wearing black clothes at the noise demonstration would be enough to convict the eight defendants accused of material support.

“Providing your body as camouflage for others to do the enumerated acts is providing support,” he said. “It’s impossible to tell who is doing what. That’s the point.”

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The government used Shideler and the antifa talk to try to distract jurors from the defendants’ actual actions on the night of July 4, said MarQuetta Clayton, an attorney for defendant Maricela Rueda. She also warned that the trial served as a larger proving ground for the government’s attempts to criminalize antifa.

“The government’s expert on antifa said his career may be boosted by the outcome of this case,” she said. “This is an experiment for them. But this courtroom is not a laboratory, and Maricela is not a lab rat.”

Charged for Carrying a Box

Rueda’s husband, Daniel Sanchez Estrada, is the only defendant on trial who is not accused of participating in the July 4 protest. Instead, prosecutors have charged him and his wife with conspiring to obstruct justice by moving a box of zines out of Rueda’s house after her arrest.

Free speech advocates say that Estrada’s arrest sets a dangerous precedent that criminalizes the mere possession of anti-government material.

“He is on trial for two things,” said Sanchez’s public defender, Christopher Weinbel. “Carrying a box, and conspiracy to carry a box, of which they try to call evidence.”

Weinbel said the box contained Sanchez’s own possessions, the timeline of his movements disproved the theory that he was acting at the direction of his wife, and that a government agent had also testified that none of the materials were used in the investigation.

Smith, the prosecutor, argued that moving the boxes was part of a larger cover-up in the hours and days after the demonstration.

“What is important to the group is hiding their material,” he said. “This anarchist, insurrectionist, hating-the-government material.”

Song and the Rest

Defense attorneys chose their words carefully when it came to Song, the person accused of shooting an AR-15 rifle at two detention center guards and the Alvarado, Texas, police officer who was hit.

None of the defense lawyers overtly blamed Song for the bloodshed, but several suggested that the government should have distinguished between Song and the rest of the protesters.

“This should have been a three-day attempted murder trial of one person,” Weinbel said.

Prosecutors painted Song as the ringleader that night. Still, they argued that four defendants who are also on trial for attempted murder — Song, Rueda, Autumn Hill, and Megan Morris — could have reasonably foreseen that Song would use violence based on conversations before the demonstration.

The eight defendants who face material support charges gave aid to the attack by wearing black clothes, prosecutors allege. They include the defendants accused of attempted murder along with the Sotos, Savanna Batten, and Zachary Evetts.

Song’s attorney, Phillip Hayes, said during his closing argument that Song was only trying to shoot “suppressive” fire at the ground after police arrived on the scene. Hayes suggested that a ricocheting bullet wounded the officer.

The post Wearing All Black at Protests Makes You Guilty of Terrorism, Prosecutors Tell Jury appeared first on The Intercept.

Apple's new MacBook Neo is "easier to repair than other modern MacBooks," according to Ars Technica's Andrew Cunningham. It introduces a more repairable internal design that makes components like the battery and keyboard easier and cheaper to replace. An anonymous reader quotes an excerpt from the report: Replacements for pretty much any component in the Neo are simpler and involve fewer steps and tools than in the M5 MacBook Air. That includes the battery, which in the MacBook Air is attached to the chassis with multiple screws and adhesive strips but which in the Neo comes out relatively easily after you get some shielding and flex cables out of the way. But the most significant change in the Neo is that the keyboard is its own separate component. For essentially all modern MacBooks, going back at least as far as the late-2000s unibody aluminum MacBook designs, the keyboard has been integrated into the top part of the laptop case and is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to replace independently. [...] Apple hasn't yet listed MacBook Neo components in its parts store, but based on the repair prices it has announced, Neo components should cost quite a bit less than those for higher-end MacBooks. An out-of-warranty battery replacement for the Neo will cost $149, down from $199 for current Airs and $229 for current MacBook Pros; fixing accidental screen or external enclosure damage will cost AppleCare+ subscribers $49 for a Neo, down from $99 for other MacBooks.

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Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle No. 536 for Friday, March 13.

The FBI found only 38 non-citizens may have voted in the 2020 presidential election in the inquiry ordered by Sigal Chattah, Nevada's top federal prosecutor.

Jeff Blair, 55, who was attacked while on duty in Shildon, died in hospital after sustaining serious injuries

A man has been charged with the murder of a court bailiff who was attacked while he was at work.

Jeff Blair, 55, died in hospital after he sustained serious injuries while on duty in Shildon, County Durham on Tuesday.

Even people with six-figure incomes are making financial sacrifices to pay for medical care, a new study finds.

Angela Lipps spent nearly six months in jail after AI software linked her to a North Dakota bank fraud case

A Tennessee grandmother says she is trying to rebuild her life after an incident of mistaken identity by an artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition system tied her to a North Dakota bank fraud investigation.

Angela Lipps, 50, spent nearly six months in jail after Fargo police identified her as a suspect in an organized bank fraud case using facial recognition software, according to south-east North Dakota news outlet InForum. Lipps told the outlet she had never been to North Dakota and did not commit the crimes.

Multiple law enforcement agencies responded on Thursday afternoon to reports in Michigan of a shooter at a synagogue in a Detroit suburb after a driver crashed a vehicle into the building and shots were fired. Michael Bouchard, the Oakland county sheriff, confirmed the attacker had died and that one security officer had been taken to hospital

• Suspected shooter reportedly killed in attack on Michigan synagogue

Energy prices won't ease up until the Strait of Hormuz is secure, experts say. Here's what it will take to get the oil flowing again.

Is the U.S. at “war” with Iran? Americans are getting conflicting messages from the Trump administration and congressional leaders.

“We are not at war. We have no intention of being at war,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a press conference on March 5, hours after Republicans in the House blocked a war powers resolution that would have required congressional approval for any further military action against Iran. Instead, Johnson called the military action a “limited operation.”

But in remarks to reporters on March 7 — and on other occasions — “war” is exactly how President Donald Trump has described it.

“We’re winning the war by a lot,” Trump told reporters on March 7. “The war itself is going unbelievably. It’s as good as it can be.”

While there are varying definitions of war even among academics who study such things, the war-or-not political debate is mostly about the legal definition of war according to the Constitution, and the implications that come with such a designation.

While Article II of the U.S. Constitution designates the president as “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy,” Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress — and only Congress — the power “To declare War.” In other words, the president is obligated to seek authorization from Congress before he initiates a war.

But Congress hasn’t formally declared a war since World War II. And it didn’t happen with the military attack initiated by Trump in Iran. Rather, in accordance with the 1973 War Powers Resolution, Trump provided a report to Congress on March 2 about the administration’s justification for the U.S.-Israeli joint strikes against Iran initiated on Feb. 28.

“So currently, if political leaders were to say that this is a war, they would also be acknowledging that the administration’s actions were unconstitutional,” Stephanie Savell, director of Brown University’s Costs of War project, told us.

In a March 1 post for his Substack, Foreign Exchanges, journalist Derek Davison wrote that Trump had “made a little verbal slip” when referring to the military operation as a war.

“You’re not supposed to refer to these sorts of things as ‘wars’ when you’re the president of the United States, at least not at their outset, because by law wars have to be declared by Congress,” Davison wrote. “Presidents have leeway to engage in military action prior to a congressional vote but only in self-defense, which was plainly not the case here even if one were to stretch that term beyond all comprehension.”

But Trump numerous times has referred to the situation with Iran as a war.

“We have unlimited middle and upper ammunition, which is really what we’re using in this war,” Trump said in remarks on March 3.

“We’re doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly, I would say,” Trump said on March 4.

In his remarks on March 7, when talking about American casualties, Trump commented, “It’s part of war. It’s a sad part of war. It’s the bad part of war.”

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has also repeatedly referred to the armed conflict as war.

“We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it,” Hegseth said in a press conference on March 2. “We set the terms of this war from start to finish.”

Those characterizations are in stark contrast to the way many Republican members of Congress have described the military conflagration.

“Nobody should classify this as war. It is combat operations,” Republican Rep. Brian Mast said on CNN the day the U.S. and Israel initiated airstrikes on Iran.

In a press conference on March 3, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pointed to Trump’s own words to argue that the president “has unconstitutionally and illegally chosen to launch a war.”

“He’s describing it as a war,” Jeffries said. Hegseth “is describing it as a war. Other members of the administration are describing it as a war. And it’s a requirement under the Constitution that it’s members of Congress who make the decision as to whether to get us entangled in this kind of armed conflict.”

As we’ve written before, legal experts have told us that under an originalist interpretation of the Constitution, congressional approval for the use of military force against another country is required. But in practice, several presidents have launched military actions in other countries without congressional authorization.

Robert Johnson, director of Oxford University’s Changing Character of War Center, told us via email, “There is a political reason not to call the campaign against Iran a war. The President must consult Congress and gain approval after 60 days. Until that time, he is permitted to take actions which are in self-defense of the United States, a power the POTUS was granted because [of] the Cold War and the speed at which a nuclear armed attack could be launched.”

“Most scholars and lawyers do not use the term war, even when they should,” Johnson said. “The term in use is armed conflict. This is further defined as an armed attack. A pattern has been set in the last three decades of not declaring war and taking military action, that is, using lethal force to obtain political ends and to neutralise an emergent threat, such as a terrorist attack. Legally, the criteria are that it should be a threat which cannot be dealt with reasonably by any other means and it should be ‘imminent’ as a threat.”

Other Definitions of War

The media and academics, of course, use other definitions of war that have nothing to do with the legal or constitutional considerations.

The Associated Press, for example, decided on March 1 to start using the word “war” to refer to the Israeli-U.S. strikes on Iran and Iran’s retaliation.

“This reflects the scope and intensity of the fighting,” the AP wrote.

The AP noted that the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines war broadly as, “A state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations,” or “a state of hostility, conflict, or antagonism.”

“Even though none of the countries have officially declared war, the attacks by the United States and Israel, combined with Iran’s retaliation, meet those criteria,” the AP noted. “The decision by the Trump administration and Israeli leaders to attack and the subsequent destruction and casualties are enough to call the actions, and Iran’s response, a war. Trump himself has used the word war to describe the conflict.”

Johnson, of the Changing Character of War Center, said, “As a phenomenon, war is a contest of organised polities using lethal armed force at scale. Under this definition, the U.S. is ‘at war.'”

Savell, at the Costs of War project, cited the words of Douglas Fry, an anthropologist of war, in his 2007 book “Beyond War: The Human Potential for Peace.” Fry defined war as: “A group activity, carried on by members of one community against members of another community, in which it is the primary purpose to inflict serious injury or death on multiple nonspecified members of that other community, or in which the primary purpose makes it highly likely that serious injury or death will be inflicted on multiple nonspecified members of that community in the accomplishment of that primary purpose.”

“This fits what the US is doing in Iran,” Savell said.

But there are other definitions used in academia as well.

Scott Wolford, a professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, and Jeff Carter, a professor in the Department of Government and Justice Studies at Appalachian State University, are co-directors of the Correlates of War Project, which provides a “systematic accumulation of scientific knowledge about war” dating back to 1816.

COW defines war as “‘sustained combat’ between belligerents, or what we might call competitive violence used by groups organized for violence against other groups organized for violence,” Wolford and Carter told us via email.

The conflict between the U.S. and Iran meets their definition of “sustained combat,” they said.

“Operationally, though, to enter the COW data as a war (as opposed to lower-level violence) there’s a battle death cutoff of 1000, above which a conflict enters the data as a war,” they said.

Seven American troops have been killed in the military conflict so far, and retaliatory Iranian strikes have also killed nearly two dozen others in the Middle East region, according to a March 8 New York Times report. Iran’s U.N. ambassador said on March 6 that more than 1,300 Iranian civilians have been killed in the conflict.

Those figures from Iran have not been verified, however, and Carter noted that COW’s 1,000 threshold “applies to members of the combatants’ armed forces,” not civilians.

If the military conflict leads to 1,000 battle deaths, it would be categorized as a war in the COW database, regardless of what either Iranian or U.S. leaders call it. (Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, did call the conflict a “war,” telling PBS News on March 9, “This is a war imposed on us.”)

“The virtue of those definitions is that they’re independent of what governments *say* about whether or not they’re at war,” Wolford and Carter wrote.

“But that’s distinct from the political-legal question of whether this is a war,” they said. “Declarations of war are pretty rare, though Congressional authorizations for the use of force aren’t, and the fact that this conflict began and continues with neither is probably what’s at issue in the public argument over the definition.”

But experts told us the political classification of the conflict could change over time, if the number of American casualties rose, if ground troops were deployed, or if the military action continues for a protracted amount of time.

“If there was a specific and limited set of armed attacks, of short duration, the Administration could sustain the argument that they are not yet at war,” Johnson said. “However, the scale, extent, and possibly duration of [counter] attacks would take us beyond purely legal definitions.”

In remarks on March 11, Trump referred to the military action in Iran as “a little excursion.”

A reporter asked, “You just said, ‘It is a little excursion,’ and you said, ‘It is a war.’ So which one is it?”

“Well, it’s both,” Trump said. “It’s both.”

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The post Is the U.S. at ‘War’? Politicians Disagree appeared first on FactCheck.org.

The Senate approved a package of bills aimed at lowering housing costs, the most sweeping housing legislation in decades and a rare point of bipartisan consensus in an election year, with the issue of affordability top of mind for many voters.

Easing the century-old shipping law could help lower fuel prices as the Iran war pushes crude oil near $100 a barrel, experts say.

President Donald Trump has claimed that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was “a road to a nuclear weapon” and the country “would be sitting with a massive nuclear weapon three years ago” if he hadn’t withdrawn the U.S. from the deal in 2018 during his first term. The multilateral deal aimed to restrict Iran’s uranium enrichment program, and experts told us that after the U.S. withdrawal, Iran accelerated it instead.

It’s not possible to predict what would have happened if the agreement, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and negotiated by former President Barack Obama’s administration, had remained in place. In addition to imposing restrictions on Iran’s enrichment of uranium, the deal required international inspections of the country’s nuclear facilities.

On March 3, when speaking about the U.S. airstrikes on Iran that began Feb. 28, Trump said that Obama “made maybe the worst deal I’ve ever seen, because he gave all power in the Middle East to Iran, he went the exact opposite way, and I terminated that. If I didn’t terminate that deal, they would be sitting with a massive nuclear weapon three years ago, which would have been used already on Israel at least, and other countries also. And we wouldn’t be talking about it right now.”

The president went on to say that Obama “was giving them the right to have the path to a nuclear weapon,” saying that deal “expired.”

The next day, Trump said: “If we didn’t terminate the worst deal, one of the worst deals ever made, the Obama nuclear deal … it was a road to a nuclear weapon. Bad things would have happened four years ago, because they would’ve had a weapon four years ago, if I didn’t terminate that deal.”

And during a speech on March 11, Trump said, “But that deal, the Iran nuclear deal gave them the right to have a nuclear weapon as of three years ago.”

But several experts we spoke to disputed Trump’s claim and told us that Iran advanced its nuclear program after Trump’s decision to pull out of the agreement in his first term.

“Iran was able to advance its nuclear programme to the point where it was before the 12 Day War last June not because of the JCPOA, but because President Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA,” Laura Rockwood, senior fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, told us in an email. Rockwood worked for the International Atomic Energy Agency for 28 years, retiring in 2013.

Similarly, Richard Nephew, an international and public affairs senior research scholar at Columbia University who worked as a special envoy for Iran and for the State Department under the Biden administration, told us, “Trump’s decision to withdraw from the JCPOA in 2018 had a significant accelerating effect on the program.”

“The JCPOA would absolutely not have allowed Iran to develop nuclear weapons,” Nephew said. “First of all, there were prohibitions; then there were transparency requirements; and, then, there were the risks of snapback and punishment” if Iran violated the terms.

Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a nonpartisan organization that provides analysis on arms control and national security issues, told us for an earlier story that the 2015 nuclear deal “established an array of limits on Iran’s uranium enrichment and uranium stockpiling” and a rigorous monitoring and verification program. After the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the deal, “Iran began to reconstitute its nuclear capabilities, including by deploying large numbers of advanced centrifuges and stockpiling” highly enriched uranium.

As we’ve explained before, the nuclear agreement, which took effect in 2016 and was signed by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — and Germany, restricted Iran’s ability to enrich uranium for 15 years and required monitoring and inspections of Iranian facilities for the same amount of time.

Under the deal, Iran agreed to do away with much of its nuclear program and, in exchange, the signatories lifted sanctions, the Council on Foreign Relations explained.

Trump announced on May 8, 2018, that the U.S. would withdraw from the deal and reinstitute sanctions. About a year later, in July 2019, Iran had exceeded the limits on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium that had been set in the JCPOA, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported at the time. Iran’s foreign minister said the country would begin to enrich uranium beyond the low level allowed under the deal (3.67%), which was the level needed for civilian nuclear power.

“The JCPOA dramatically restricted Iran’s ability to produce fissile material and, in particular, not only placed a cap on the quantity of enriched uranium Iran could stockpile and on the level of enrichment, but required the dismantlement of 2/3 of its centrifuges and limited its ability to produce advanced centrifuges,” Rockwood said. “Iran simply would not have been able to enrich to the point of possessing over 400 kg of 60% enriched uranium had the JCPOA remained in place.”

Rockwood was referring to the amount of 60% enriched uranium that Iran had stockpiled before the June 2025 U.S. bombing of nuclear program sites in the country. To be weapons-grade, the uranium would need to be enriched to 90%, as we’ve explained.

Of course, Iran could have violated the terms of the nuclear deal and pursued a nuclear weapon.

“No single element blocks Iran’s pathway to nuclear weapons, but taken together, the nuclear restrictions and monitoring form a comprehensive system that will put nuclear weapons out of Iran’s reach for at least 15 years,” the nonpartisan Arms Control Association explained in an August 2015 analysis. “Many of the JCPOA provisions also extend beyond 15 years. Monitoring of centrifuge production facilities continues for 20 years, and monitoring of uranium mines and mills continues for 25 years. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors will have enhanced access indefinitely.”

Critics of the JCPOA — including Trump — have argued that the deal didn’t go far enough, and they objected to the lifting of economic sanctions.

“One of the main arguments used against the JCPOA was that it allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and move closer to nuclear capability while remaining technically in compliance,” the nonpartisan Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation wrote in a June report. “The JCPOA also contained so-called ‘sunset provisions’ on various aspects of the deal such as lifting limits on centrifuges after 10 years or reduced enrichment beyond 3.67% only lasting for 15 years. This led to concerns that the deal would only temporarily delay Iran’s nuclear program while preventing parties from finding a more permanent solution. Additionally, critics worried that lifting sanctions on Iran in return for the JCPOA’s focus on constraining Iran’s nuclear program would diminish the United States’ ability to address other security concerns such as Iran’s missile program or its funding of violent non-state groups in the Middle East.”

In saying that Iran would’ve had a nuclear weapon “three years ago,” Trump may have been referencing one of these provisions, known as “transition day,” which was set to take effect on Oct. 18, 2023, eight years after implementation of the deal. On that day, if Iran had complied with its commitments under the deal, some of the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear and missile programs would have been lifted. However, while U.N. restrictions expired, countries that remained in the JCPOA after the U.S. withdrawal chose to maintain their restrictions, citing Iran’s noncompliance.

We asked the White House about Trump’s remarks, but we didn’t get a response.

While Trump claims that the JCPOA would have brought Iran closer to having a nuclear weapon and his withdrawal stopped that, the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation estimated that the withdrawal sped up the so-called “breakout time,” or the time Iran would need to produce weapons-grade uranium that could then be used for one bomb – if the country chose to do so. The center estimated, as of November 2024, that the breakout time went from two to three months before the deal to 12-plus months during the deal. And then, after the U.S. withdrawal, the breakout time was reduced to just a couple of weeks.

As we’ve explained, it would take more time to actually develop a nuclear weapon. “After this point, once you have the weapons-grade uranium, Iran would then need to manufacture the rest of the weapon. This process would likely take much longer, perhaps months to a year,” Emma Sandifer, program coordinator at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, told us for an earlier story.

She said that last June’s airstrikes likely lengthened the “breakout time,” but the IAEA hasn’t been able to inspect the damaged nuclear program sites since then.

In 2017, several months before withdrawing from the nuclear deal, Trump had claimed that Iran “has committed multiple violations of the agreement.” But as we wrote at the time, the IAEA said in its multiple reports after the deal went into effect that Iran was abiding by it. Trump himself had twice certified to Congress that Iran had complied with the deal, before claiming there had been violations.

In late September 2017, Gen. Joseph Dunford, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress that “Iran is adhering to its JCPOA obligations” and that the agreement “has delayed Iran’s development of nuclear weapons.”

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The post Trump’s Claim About the Obama Nuclear Deal and Iran’s Nuclear Development appeared first on FactCheck.org.

Perplexity AI has introduced a "Personal Computer" agent system that can run on a local machine such as a Mac mini, giving its AI agents access to a user's files and applications to automate tasks. According to CEO Aravind Srinivas, the heavy AI processing runs on Perplexity's "secure servers" but sensitive actions will require user approval. There will also be activity logs and a kill switch available to help ease concerns. AppleInsider reports: Perplexity Computer is, effectively, an AI that is a go-between for other AIs. Instead of issuing specific instructions to multiple AIs, you provide the general outcome of the task to Perplexity Computer. Perplexity Computer then breaks down the task into subtasks, which it then provides to sub-agents to do the actual work. In effect, you're talking to a project manager, who then delegates the task to other AIs, before combining the results and presenting them to you. The managing AI has a lot more freedom in how it orders its subordinates than users may think. While one may create documents while another gathers data, the manager may go as far as to order the creation of software to complete its tasks. Personal Computer is an extension of this, in that it is a locally run app that ideally runs on a Mac mini. The app gives always-on, local access to the Mac's files and apps, which Perplexity Computer and the Comet Assistant can use and alter if required.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

PM has apologised for his handling of Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador, but next tranche of files could contain further damaging details

Keir Starmer could suffer further resignations when ministerial WhatsApp messages are published in the next tranche of the Peter Mandelson files, senior government sources have told the Guardian.

With officials bracing for the subsequent releases – expected to include informal communications alongside formal messages like those in the first batch – Starmer apologised again on Thursday over his handling of Mandelson’s appointment, saying: “It was me that made a mistake, and it’s me that makes the apology to the victims of [Jeffrey] Epstein, and I do that.”

Five soldiers were indicted over alleged violent abuse and rape of Palestinian man at detention centre in 2024

Israel’s top military lawyer has dropped all charges against five soldiers accused of the violent abuse and rape of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza.

The military advocate general, Itay Offir, said prosecutors lacked key evidence after the victim was sent back to Gaza, and that the conduct of senior officials had affected the chance of holding a fair trial.

Gavin Newsom says drone concerns always ‘top of mind’ and it’s about ‘preparedness for worst-case scenarios’

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California leaders said on Wednesday there was no imminent threat to the state from Iran after the FBI sent a warning to local police about a potential plan to strike the west coast, which was based on “unverified information”.

The FBI’s alert caused significant anxiety and confusion in California after it was made public in an ABC News report. State leaders and police officials have since emphasized there was no credible threat from Iran, and FBI and White House officials have also said there was no cause for concern.

Estimates reveal one in five girls aged 16-19 in England and Wales have experienced domestic abuse

Not enough is being done to tackle misogyny among young boys and toxic online influences, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for domestic abuse, as she reacted to data showing 18% of 16- to 19-year-oldgirls are estimated to be victims of abuse.

Louisa Rolfe said: “That’s a huge proportion of young people. And we work very hard in this space to look at where we apply justice outcomes, but we don’t want to criminalise a whole cohort of young people. We absolutely must identify the most harmful behaviour, but also our preference would be to prevent it.”

Defence secretary connects Middle East conflict to plight of Ukraine, sympathy for which remains relatively high

After a week or so of wearing media coverage about the deterioration of the Anglo-American relationship and the belated decision to deploy Royal Navy destroyer HMS Dragon to Cyprus, it was time to move the conversation on.

On a visit to the UK’s permanent military headquarters in Northwood, north-west London, the defence secretary, John Healey, asked two senior British military officers if there was “any sign of a link between Russia and Iran” in the sprawling conflict that has suddenly engulfed the Middle East.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 12, 2026 — The most powerful supercomputer at Harvard is about to get larger and faster. Much faster.

The Kempner Institute’s AI cluster, already one of the fastest AI supercomputers in the world, is undergoing a major expansion, adding more than 500 NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) — the specialized processors that make modern graphics and AI possible — to scale-up its capacity for cutting-edge research on intelligence.

With a total of 1,144 graphics processing units (GPUs), the Kempner’s expanded AI cluster will join an elite league of systems whose performance is measured in exaFLOPS. Photo credit: Anna Olivella.

Once the upgrade is complete in Spring 2026, the enhanced Kempner AI Cluster is expected to join an elite league of systems whose performance is measured in exaFLOPS. One exaFLOP equals a quintillion (that’s a billion billion) mathematical operations per second, which means that in a single minute the cluster will be able to perform a task that would take a personal computer several years to complete.

“There are very few academic institutions on the planet that offer this scale of compute to a research community of our size,” said Kempner Institute Executive Director Elise Porter. “This expansion will allow for research in AI and natural intelligence at Harvard that would not otherwise be possible.”

The expansion will bring 424 of NVIDIA’s top-of-the-line H200 GPUs and 192 RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPUs into the institute’s high-performance computing environment, joining an existing array of 144 A100 and 384 H100 units and bringing the total number of GPUs to 1,144.

All the GPUs will be linked in a single, purpose-built system designed to help researchers train, test, and refine large-scale AI models that support work in machine learning, neuroscience, robotics, biomedical research, and a host of other disciplines.

Redefining What Academic AI Labs Can Do

AI clusters, however powerful they may be, can only draw on a fixed amount of computational power at any given moment, and academic researchers often come up against this reality. In many academic settings, there is a tradeoff between allowing researchers to use the cluster’s power for large-scale, computationally-intensive projects on the one hand, and reserving enough bandwidth for the larger community to run important but smaller projects.

With the expanded cluster, Kempner researchers will have enough computing capacity to undertake large-scale and small-scale projects simultaneously.

“Most institutions would have to stop all other work for months to run a large-scale project,” said Porter. “We’re not going to have to stop everyone so that one project can move forward. That’s what this upgrade enables.”

In particular, the new Kempner cluster now has enough GPUs so that a large-scale project can use the almost four hundred H200s in the cluster without interrupting all the smaller-scale projects already running on the cluster’s other GPUs.

“Being able to offer our community nearly four hundred H200 GPUs [for large-scale reservations] is unparalleled,” said Porter. “Very few universities can match that scale for a single project.”

With the expanded compute resources, the Kempner community is poised for a new and exciting chapter in intelligence research, said Porter. “This upgrade gives our researchers a combination of power and flexibility that was simply not possible before,” she said. “We are about to see research projects that redefine what academic AI labs can do.”

Designed with Speed and Flexibility in Mind

The supercharged power of the Kempner’s expanded AI cluster comes down to two factors: a huge influx of hardware that can perform bigger and faster computations than ever before, and a customized design that links the GPUs together in an efficient, integrated network.

“The upgraded Kempner AI cluster now delivers 1.79 exaFLOPS of performance, enabling much larger and faster AI training runs than before,” said Max Shad, the Kempner Institute’s Senior Director of AI/ML Research Engineering. “The heterogeneous GPU network, combining A100s, H100s, H200s, and RTX Blackwell server GPUs, lets us train larger models in a single, unified cluster.”

The mix of different kinds of GPUs also means the cluster can meet the diverse needs of the Kempner community, said Shad, who led the design of the expanded cluster.

“Some of the projects need the power of a Toyota engine for a day, and some need a Maserati engine for a month,” said Shad, likening the different types of GPUs to the power of different car engines. “With the new cluster, we optimized the InfiniBand network for our researchers’ workflows. Some workflows run for days and use large swathes of the GPU network, while others are quick single-GPU experiments that run independently.”

New Hardware with Specialized Capabilities

With the new RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPUs, Kempner researchers will now have the computational resources for advanced optical and physics-based simulations, as well as the technology for ray tracing, which simulates the behavior of light rays to generate realistic images and virtual worlds. The RTX chips also accelerate physics-based computations that can be used in neuroscience, including high-resolution simulations of electrical activity in the brain.

The RTX GPUs also have built-in support for working with low-precision numerical formats, which allow AI models to run faster and use less GPU memory by sacrificing a degree of mathematical accuracy. At the Kempner, this low-precision capability will support the institute’s current body of work on “quantization,” which is the process of compressing a model’s size, a line of research with implications for advancing model training and performance.

Alongside the RTX GPUs, the new H200s will provide essential horsepower for researchers working on the most computationally intensive AI models, such as large language models (LLMs), which process text, and “multimodal” AI models that process multiple data types, such as text, audio and video.

Yilun Du, a Kempner Institute Investigator, will use the expanded cluster to continue the development of “world models,” which enable robots to understand and respond to their “worlds” or environments.

“By using the Kempner cluster GPUs, we are able to build powerful foundation models that are typically only possible in large industry labs,” said Du, who is also an assistant professor of computer science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). “It allows us to focus on building models with fundamental new capabilities but also to scale them up to industry-level performance.”

The cluster’s expanded computational capacity will also enhance researchers’ ability to work with AI agents, which are AI models that can act independently and solve problems using chains of reasoning steps.

“AI agents are quickly learning to tackle complex tasks — from hard math problems to advanced coding — and a big part of that progress comes from giving them room to reason through ideas,” said Kianté Brantley, Kempner Institute Investigator and assistant professor of computer science at SEAS. “We can finally run large-scale training on models with long reasoning chains, opening the door to studying far more capable AI agents than before.”

About the Kempner

The Kempner Institute seeks to understand the basis of intelligence in natural and artificial systems by recruiting and training future generations of researchers to study intelligence from biological, cognitive, engineering, and computational perspectives. Its bold premise is that the fields of natural and artificial intelligence are intimately interconnected; the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) will require the same principles that our brains use for fast, flexible natural reasoning, and understanding how our brains compute and reason can be elucidated by theories developed for AI. Join the Kempner mailing list to learn more, and to receive updates and news.

Source: Yohan J. John, Kempner Institute

The post Kempner Institute at Harvard Announces Major Expansion of AI Supercomputing Cluster appeared first on HPCwire.

RLC Pro AI delivers more AI output per dollar of infrastructure investment, with validated performance gains and use-cases for any organization with AI-based workloads, at any scale, in any environment.

RENO, Nev., March 12, 2026 — CIQ, the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux, today announced the general availability of Rocky Linux from CIQ Pro AI (RLC Pro AI), an Enterprise Linux distribution purpose-built for AI inference and GPU-accelerated workloads, engineered to deliver more from every GPU in production. RLC Pro AI ships today with PyTorch and the full NVIDIA CUDA and DOCA-OFED stack, with expanded support for additional hardware partners and frameworks on the active roadmap.

AI infrastructure is now core to how enterprises operate. Organizations across every industry are moving GPU-accelerated workloads into production, and the operating system (OS) has become the constraint. The OS underneath AI workloads determines how much performance the hardware actually delivers. For most enterprises, that performance has been left on the table.

RLC Pro AI is purpose-built to maximize that performance, with every layer of the stack validated and pre-configured for AI workloads. The CIQ Linux Kernel (CLK), GPU drivers, libraries and frameworks are tuned and validated together for AI workloads, optimized from bare metal to Kubernetes to sovereign on-premises infrastructure. The result is an Enterprise Linux distribution that runs on the hardware enterprises are buying today, delivers day-one support for current GPU accelerators from NVIDIA and ships production-ready from first boot.

“The OS is where GPU ROI is won or lost, and the industry has ignored it for too long,” said Gregory Kurtzer, CEO of CIQ and founder of Rocky Linux. “Organizations are committing hundreds of millions of dollars to GPU infrastructure and running it on operating systems that were never designed for it. RLC Pro AI simplifies and de-risks AI infrastructure investments while driving cutting-edge performance and simplicity.”

RLC Pro AI delivers:

• More output from existing hardware. CLK kernel, PyTorch flags and CUDA configurations ship pre-configured at first boot. No manual tuning. Organizations running inference at scale see measurably higher throughput gains on the GPUs they already own from day one.
• Infrastructure economics that improve with scale, not against it. More throughput from the same hardware means fewer resources are needed to hit the same output targets. At the node level, at the cluster level, and at the fleet level, the economics of RLC Pro AI get better as deployments grow.
• A complete, validated AI stack with CLK at the foundation. RLC Pro AI is built on CLK 6.12, the upstream kernel.org latest long-term release. CLK delivers GPU hardware support ahead of traditional enterprise distributions.
• Day-one GPU hardware support. RLC Pro AI delivers support for current GPU accelerators from NVIDIA immediately, so organizations can deploy on the latest hardware without waiting for the OS to catch up.
• Consistent performance across every environment. RLC Pro AI delivers the same validated stack and the same performance profile on AWS, GCP, Azure, bare metal and sovereign on-premises infrastructure, across any GPU architecture.

“GPU compute is the most constrained and expensive resource in AI infrastructure today,” said Bjorn Hovland, president of CIQ. “RLC Pro AI gives organizations more from the infrastructure they have already paid for, and those economics hold whether you are a startup running a single GPU node or an enterprise managing a thousand.”

RLC Pro AI is now available for general availability, and soon through the CIQ Portal. RLC Pro AI is part of the Rocky Linux from CIQ Pro product family alongside RLC+ NVIDIA, RLC Pro and RLC Pro Hardened.

To learn more about RLC Pro AI and CIQ’s complete Enterprise Linux portfolio, visit this blog “CIQ launches RLC Pro: redefining the Enterprise Linux standard.”  Also, join Brian Dawson, Director of Product Management (RLC Pro Hardened, RLC Pro AI), for the upcoming webinar “RLC Pro AI: Maximize the throughput of your AI infra” on Thursday, April 2, 2026 at 11am PT / 2pm ET.

About CIQ

CIQ is the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux and the leader in Enterprise Linux architecture for sovereign AI inferencing at scale. CIQ delivers a complete software infrastructure stack, from the operating system to orchestration, enabling enterprises, government agencies, research institutions and supercomputing centers worldwide to deploy AI and high-performance computing workloads with strategic independence and control. CIQ’s product portfolio includes the Rocky Linux from CIQ (RLC) family of enterprise operating systems, Ascender Pro for IT automation, Fuzzball for cloud HPC orchestration, Warewulf Pro for cluster provisioning, and Apptainer, the leading container system for high-performance computing. Together, these products provide the secure, performant infrastructure foundation that modern AI deployments demand.

Source: CIQ

The post CIQ Announces General Availability of RLC Pro AI, Enterprise Linux Built to Deliver More from Every GPU appeared first on HPCwire.

The high-flying storage company VAST Data appears to be topping off its bank account with a sizable Series F round–and allowing certain employees to top off theirs in a secondary tender offer–on its way to a possible IPO.

A spokesperson for the storage company confirmed to HPCwire that it’s raising money as part of a Series F round of funding, but said that it cannot disclose the exact amount due to SEC regulations.

“VAST Data confirms that it has raised primary Series F preferred capital at a $30 billion valuation and concurrently is allowing certain employees and early investors to sell shares in a secondary tender offer,” the spokesperson write. “While the tender offer process is underway, SEC regulations prohibit the company from providing additional information.”

The company’s valuation has increased by more than $20 billion over the past two years. VAST was valued at $9 billion in late 2023 when it rasied $118 million as part of its Series E round. The company had raised $424 million in its previous funding rounds.

On March 9, the Israeli publication Calcalist reported that VAST has raised $1 billion in the latest Series F round. About half of that amount will go to the company and the other half will go to early investors and employees of VAST as part of the secondary tender, the publication reports.

VAST CEO Renen Hallak at VAST Forward in February 2026

VAST doesn’t necessarily need the cash, as the company is already well-funded, profitable, and growing quickly. But it’s not unusual for startups to raise additional cash when the terms are favorable. In this case, it also provided an opportunity for insiders to sell shares.

In a press conference before its recent VAST Forward conference in Salt Lake City, VAST co-founder Jeff Denworth stated that the company had about $1 billion in the bank. In recent years, the company has been tripling its revenues every year, CEO Renen Hallak said in the press conference at VAST Forward. Today the company is “generating more than $100 million of cash per quarter, every quarter,” Hallak said.

The company is proud of its thriftiness and its growth.

“If you think of us in the context of startups throughout history, never have you found a company that’s growing at the pace that we are that isn’t burning mountains of venture capital,” Denworth said at the press conference before VAST Forward. “And we’ve managed to find this very, very unique space where our business is efficient and we’ve still managed this growth trajectory that is very much influenced by the AI buildout that’s happening right now.”

VAST, which has about 700 customers and 1,200 employees (about a third of which are based in Israel), has benefitted greatly from good timing, as well as partnerships with companies like Nvidia, which is also an investor. The company set out in 2016 to build a storage system from scratch that was designed specifically to handle the scale of AI, which Hallak said is its North Star. The fact that the GenAI boom started in late 2022 was pretty much dumb luck, Hallak said.

“There is no way that we could have engineered the world as it has over the last 10 years, and specifically over the last five years,” Hallak said during the press conference at VAST Forward. “We’ve been building towards this, We’ve been hoping that AI happens. But even in our wildest dreams, we weren’t thinking that it would happen this fast and this big. It’s happening way faster.”

VAST develops software for managing the storage of large amounts of data on NVMe drives. VAST has been adopted by AI companies and neoclouds, such as CoreWeave, which inked a $1.17 billion deal with VAST in November, as well as HPC sites like Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas, Austin; the Center for High Performance Computing (CHPC) at the University of Utah, and the Italian supercomputing institute CINECA.

The New York City-based company has taken steps to prepare itself for a possible IPO. In 2024, the company hired its first chief financial officer, Amy Shapero, who guided Shopify through its growth period from $700 million in revenue to $6 billion in less than five years. At VAST Forward, Hallak confirmed to HPCwire that an IPO is a possibility for the company, even if it currently doesn’t need the funding.

The post VAST Tops Off with Series F at a $30 Billion Valuation appeared first on HPCwire.

Amanda Wixon, 56, sentenced to 13 years for keeping victim imprisoned at home in Gloucestershire since 1990s

• ‘She didn’t want me to hug her’: carer of enslaved woman describes her recovery

A woman imprisoned and forced to work for a mother of 10 for more than a quarter of a century in “Dickensian” conditions has said nothing can give her back her lost years as her abuser was sentenced to 13 years.

The woman, who was held by Amanda Wixon in Tewkesbury, said: “For 25 years I lived in fear, control and abuse. I was treated as though my life, my freedom and my voice did not matter. The trauma and the nightmares are something I still carry with me every day.”

Appointment of Matt Brittin as director general would be latest sign of big tech’s power in media world

Google’s former Europe boss is closing in on becoming the BBC’s next director general, the Guardian has been told.

Sources said that Matt Brittin, 57, was very advanced in the appointment process. Some insiders believe that, barring a last-minute development, he will succeed Tim Davie as the broadcaster’s next director general.

sinij shares a report from Car and Driver: Honda is making a monumental shift in its business plans. The automaker is canceling the development and launch of the 0 Series SUV, the 0 Series saloon, and the Acura RSX, and as a result, expects to take a significant financial hit in 2026 [of up to $15.8 billion]. The automaker was blunt in its announcement of the changing plans, citing American tariff policies and the unpredictable nature surrounding American EV incentives and fossil fuel regulations. In its release marking the announcement, Honda made it clear that it expected to incur further financial losses over the long term if it went through with launching the cars. Honda also called out changing customer values in China, with buyers focusing more on software features and less on things like fuel efficiency and cabin space. In its release regarding the changing product plans, Honda was shockingly blunt about its situation, saying that it was simply unable to deliver products that offer a better value than that of newer Chinese manufacturers.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Records could be smashed in southern California as experts warn weather set to be ‘exceptional – and not in a good way’

States across the US west are bracing for a brutal early-season heatwave threatening to cook several cities through the weekend and into next week. Forecasters warned temperatures will spike 20-30F above normal for several days.

Daily records could be shattered in southern California this week, the National Weather Service said, with a possibility that all-time records for March will be broken as well. Following the warmest winter on record across most of the region, the intense conditions are expected to eat into low snowpack levels, deepening drought concerns.

HELOC costs are consistently declining. Here's how much a $60,000 line of credit will cost monthly if opened now.

Your gold IRA is only as safe as where it's stored. Here's what to know about how that process works.

The Senate failed for a fourth time to advance a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, with no deal in sight.

We are in the midst of a seismic shift in wealth. This phenomenon, often referred to as the “Great Wealth Transfer,” describes the unprecedented movement of assets from the Baby Boomer generation to their heirs – an estimated $105 trillion by 2048. And women are poised to inherit most of this. 

J.P. Morgan Wealth Management’s 2025 Investor Study found that women are not only set to receive significant wealth – they’re actively working to build it on their own. Ninety-three percent of women surveyed who are expecting an inheritance aren’t relying on it to reach their goals. 

Here are a few tips for women to consider in their wealth-building journey. 

Create a financial roadmap

A detailed, well thought out plan is important. J.P. Morgan’s study found that 90% of those surveyed with a plan feel confident about reaching their financial goals, compared to 49% without one.

Your plan should reflect your unique goals, priorities and circumstances. Consider your investment horizon and risk tolerance, and remember to revisit your plan regularly as life evolves.

Are you saving up for goals like buying a house, sending your kids off to college or retiring early? Where do you want to be in the next five, ten or twenty years? Everyone’s financial situation is unique, so it’s important to think about these questions and build a plan that is unique to your life. 

Women tend to live longer than men on average. Many take career breaks or care for family members, which can influence long-term planning. It’s important to adjust your strategy with these factors in mind.

Where to start with investing

Don’t let misconceptions hold you back. Starting to invest doesn’t require a large sum, and beginning early can be beneficial. The earlier you start, the more time your money has to potentially grow over the years. Understand your overall financial situation, set clear goals and develop a long-term plan.

It’s important to also make sure you’re covered for unexpected expenses that come up before you start to invest. Build up a cash emergency fund, typically enough to cover three to six months of expenses, and pay down any high-interest debt. 

Taking charge of your finances

The good news is that women are taking charge of their finances. J.P. Morgan’s research found that 75% of women respondents make financial decisions with their partner or take the lead themselves. For those who have a spouse or partner, it’s important for each person in the relationship to play an active role in the process. 

Building wealth can be empowering for many women. The same survey found that 73% of women respondents said money gives them “security,” while 64% of Gen Z and Millennial women associated it with “freedom.” 

The power of having a team

Some people find it helpful to work with a financial advisor, so you don’t have to tackle things alone. An advisor can help you craft a plan tailored to your needs and keep you on track throughout your lifelong financial journey. If you expect to receive an inheritance, you should also consult with estate planning and tax professionals.

No matter where you are on your wealth-building path, education is key. It’s so important to be an informed investor, and there are plenty of resources out there to help. You can find a library of free educational resources at chase.com/theknow.

As the landscape of wealth continues to evolve, women have a unique opportunity to shape their financial futures and those of generations to come. By staying informed and planning ahead, women have the tools to help them confidently navigate the Great Wealth Transfer and set themselves up for financial freedom.

The post Women & Wealth: Tips for navigating your lifelong financial journey appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Former plumber Hannah Spencer, who won Gorton and Denton byelection, also says more MPs from manual working backgrounds are needed

Hannah Spencer, the Green MP who won last month’s Gorton and Denton byelection, has used her first speech in the Commons to call for tolerance and inclusivity, and to argue for more people from manual working backgrounds to be elected to parliament.

Saying she wanted to “make hope normal again”, Spencer used a speech in a debate about International Women’s Day to say she had found out that some children had dressed up for events marking the day at their schools as “Hannah the plumber”, wearing overalls and copying her distinctive hairstyle.

Part of the Genesis Mission, these awards enable Argonne to conduct transformative AI research

March 12, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory was awarded funding for more than a dozen research projects that aim to advance the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to enable scientific breakthroughs.

The primary objective of the onsite Transformational AI Models Consortium (ModCon) Hackathon is to bring together all Consortium members, Model Teams (MTs), and external partners to establish a collaborative foundation that drives delivery toward the March deliverables.

The funding from DOE is part of its investment in the Genesis Mission, a national initiative to use transformative AI capabilities to accelerate discovery science, strengthen national security and drive energy innovation. The Genesis Mission aims to develop an integrated platform that connects the world’s best supercomputers, experimental facilities, AI systems and datasets across every major scientific domain to double the productivity and impact of American research and innovation within a decade.

Argonne was awarded funding to lead the Genesis Mission’s Transformational AI Models Consortium (ModCon). The cornerstone of the Genesis Mission’s AI models and data efforts, ModCon will build and deploy self-improving AI models by harnessing DOE’s unique data, facilities and expertise. Selected teams will develop foundational capabilities needed across multiple scientific and engineering domains. ModCon is led by Rick Stevens, associate laboratory director for Argonne’s Computing, Environment and Life Sciences division. Argonne researchers are involved in a range of ModCon projects.

Argonne is participating in the American Science Cloud (AmSC), the foundation of the Genesis Mission’s integrated platform, which is led by DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge). Argonne is a partner in designing and developing infrastructure to support next-generation AI and simulation workflows. In addition, the computing resources at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility, are supporting Genesis Mission research projects.

Argonne also received funding for research that leverages AI, automation and robotics in scientific experiments and foundational AI projects that curate data and develop AI models.

Following is a list of projects that received funding:

• AI-Assisted Multiscale Modeling of Radiation Damage in Fusion Materials, led by Paul Romano – Research that uses AI to better understand how fusion reactor materials degrade under intense neutron radiation.
• AlphaFold for Microelectronics, led by Subramanian Sankaranarayanan – Just as AlphaFold transformed biology by predicting protein’s 3D shape from its genetic code, this physics-based AI framework will predict how tiny flaws emerge and evolve inside materials and how those changes impact how a device functions.
• Foundation Models Orchestrating Reasoning Agents to Uncover Materials Advances and Insights (FORUM-AI) – A project to develop an AI research planner for materials science papers, capable of breaking down complex scientific questions into actionable steps; a registry of AI reasoning agents to carry out specialized tasks; and a unified framework that grounds AI model predictions in real-world data. Maria Chan is on the team led by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley).
• HEP AmSC IDA Pilot: Knowledge Extraction, led by Katrin Heitmann – An integrated framework to find new physics insights from legacy and varied high energy physics (HEP) datasets. Heitmann, along with Andrew Hearin, is also the Argonne point of contact for an additional HEP project: ​“HEP AmSC IDA Pilot: AI Universe,” led by Berkeley.
• Integrated Agentic AI for Catalysis (ISAAC) – Agentic AI tools that leverage different types of data from scientific user facilities – such as X-ray and neutron measurements and physics simulations – to discover how catalytic reactions happen. Maria Chan is on the team led by DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
• Intelligent Design Assistant for Enzyme Discovery and Biosynthetic Pathway Optimization (IDeA), led by Arvind Ramanathan – An AI ​“co-scientist” that helps scientists discover and design enzymes much faster than today’s trial-and-error methods, enabling cleaner and more efficient bio-manufacturing.
• LAMBDA: A Lakehouse-enabled AI-ready Multi-modal Bioimaging Data Architecture – A cross-facility, standardized data framework for all structural biology and imaging resources supported by DOE’s Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research program. Dion Antonopoulos and Gyorgy Babnigg are on the team led by Berkeley.
• MIRAGE: Microstructure Insights through Reliable/Interpretable AI and Guided Experiments – A multi-lab project that uses AI to understand how materials wear down and even self-heal at the nanoscale. Mathew Cherukara, Jeff Larson and Todd Munson are on the team led by DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories.
• Next-Generation Data Quality Monitoring: AI Solutions for High-Energy Physics Experiments, led by Walter Hopkins – A cross-experiment AI framework that modernizes data quality monitoring for HEP experiments. Hopkins is also the Argonne point of contact and an active participant of an additional HEP project ​“Hunting for TREASURE in HEP Collider Data,” led by DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (Brookhaven).
• OPAL: Orchestrated Platform for Autonomous Laboratories to Accelerate AI-Driven BioDesign – A multi-laboratory initiative to make biological discovery more automated. Argonne is pioneering an approach to protein design that integrates AI with advanced robotics, connecting computer-designed proteins with real-world lab testing. The Argonne project is led by Dion Antonopoulos. Other partners are Berkeley, Oak Ridge and DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
• Preparing QCD Data for Foundation Model – This project is curating complex experimental data from particle accelerator facilities into standardized, AI-ready, machine-readable formats suitable for AI training. Ian Cloet is on the team led by Brookhaven.
• Robot Scientific Assistants for Accelerating Experimental Workflows (RoSA), led by Nicola Ferrier – Aimed at developing a robot scientific assistant, this project collects data from human scientists to train learning models and build a classification of lab tasks, leading to improvements in safety and efficiency.
• STREAMLINE Collaboration: Machine Learning for Nuclear Many-Body Systems – Creating faster, lower-cost computer tools to handle highly complex nuclear physics calculations while also building an AI-capable scientific workforce. Alessandro Lovato is on the team led by Michigan State University.

Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) institutes:

• Frameworks, Algorithms, and Scalable Technologies for Mathematics (FASTMath) – FASTMath will develop mathematical techniques and algorithms to model complex physical systems, leading to faster and more accurate scientific computations that can be used on DOE supercomputers. Todd Munson is FASTMath deputy director and Jeff Larson is the Argonne institutional lead. This project is led by DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
• The RAPIDS3 Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, and Data, led by Rob Ross – This SciDAC institute focuses on making scientific software run faster and use less energy, manage and understand the massive volumes of data from modern simulations and experiments, and speed up discovery using AI and machine learning.

Source: Julie Parente, Argonne

The post Argonne Receives DOE Funding to Advance AI for Science appeared first on HPCwire.

Pilots reportedly adopting Russian tactics as statement in name of new Iranian supreme leader vows continued attacks on US bases

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Vladimir Putin’s “hidden hand” lies behind Iran’s military methods, the UK defence secretary has said, after a night in which drones struck a base used by western forces in Erbil, northern Iraq.

John Healey was speaking after British officers at the UK’s military headquarters in north-west London told him that drone pilots from Iran and Iranian proxies were increasingly adopting tactics “from the Russians”.

Josh Wardle hopes his digital take on the cryptic crossword can be a gradual on-ramp crossing the cultural divide between Britain and the US

In 2021, Josh Wardle became a household name almost overnight. His digital game, Wordle, turned a simple guessing game into a global morning ritual: six guesses, one word, and a grid of coloured squares shared across social media feeds.

It became a cultural phenomenon; bought within months by the New York Times for a seven-figure sum.

The unit formerly known as Google Fiber is spun out and plans to offer wider fiber internet service.

Anthropic updated Claude so it can automatically generate charts, diagrams, and other interactive visualizations directly inside conversations, rather than only in a side panel. The new visualizations are rolling out now to all users. The Verge reports: As an example, Anthropic says a conversation about the periodic table could lead Claude to generate a visualization of it, featuring interactive elements that let you click inside the table for more information. Another example shows how Claude can generate a visual related to a question about how weight travels through a building. Though Claude will automatically determine whether it should generate a visualization in your chat, Anthropic notes that you can also ask the chatbot to generate a diagram, table, or chart directly. [...] Anthropic already allows you to create charts, documents, tools, and apps through Claude's "artifacts" feature, which opens in a side panel where you can interact, share, and download the AI-generated creation. But, as noted by Anthropic, artifacts are persistent, while the visualizations created within Claude's conversations will change or disappear as the conversation progresses. You can also ask Claude to make changes to the visualizations it creates.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

With another Federal Reserve meeting looming this month, homebuyers should avoid these three things in advance.

AI wars: Anthropic battles the Pentagon as China plans ahead. Independent Thinking podcast Audio sseth.drupal@c… 12 March 2026

Our experts discuss what the the US government’s feud with AI firm Anthropic tells us about governance and competition in the AI race.

The US military’s AI provider Anthropic is feuding with the Pentagon after the company tried to impose ‘red lines’ over the use of its artificial intelligence products for lethal autonomous weapons and mass surveillance of Americans.
 
President Trump accused the US firm of being ‘radical left’ and designated it a ‘supply chain risk’ – usually reserved for Chinese or Russian firms who could compromise US security.
 
Our panel discusses the dispute, the battle to control artificial intelligence systems already being used in Iran, Venezuela and Ukraine, and how a public battle between tech and government throws a much-needed spotlight on the wider global issues of AI governance and who is – or isn’t – writing rules for the new era of warfare.
 
They also look at how China is pushing ahead quickly with its plan to integrate ‘AI Plus’ into all aspects of its economy and military.
 
This week’s guest host of the Independent Thinking podcast is Alex Krasodomski, director of Chatham House’s Digital Society Programme. He is joined by Laurel Rapp, director of the US and North America Programme; and James Kynge, a senior research fellow with the Asia-Pacific Programme who has spent years studying China and its high-technology industrial sector.

About Independent Thinking

Independent Thinking is a weekly international affairs podcast hosted by our director Bronwen Maddox, in conversation with leading policymakers, journalists, and Chatham House experts providing insight on the latest international issues.

More ways to listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify.

Programs offer students and recent graduates the opportunity to conduct research and technical projects at DOE National Laboratories

March 12, 2026 — The Department of Energy (DOE) is now accepting applications for the Fall 2026 term of the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) program and the Community College Internships (CCI) program.

Credit: DOE Office of Science

Interns will acquire new skills through hands-on learning while being mentored by scientists, engineers, and technical professionals. They will also be exposed to science and technology careers and expand their professional networks to advance their educational and career goals. Interns will have the opportunity to work with a team of experts to solve real-world problems and contribute to research that supports the DOE mission. Topic areas include the Genesis Mission and new frontiers in artificial intelligence, quantum, nuclear energy and technology, biotechnology, critical minerals and materials, and fusion science and engineering.

SULI is open to full-time students attending 4-year institutions and community colleges or recent graduates within two years of receiving their bachelor’s degree or associate degree. CCI is for community college students, including those who are enrolled part-time. Both programs are stipend-based and offered three times annually in the fall, spring, and summer. Participants residing more than 50 miles away from the host DOE National Laboratory are offered round-trip travel to and from the host lab, and financial assistance with lodging. The application deadline for both programs is May 20, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. ET. A number of workshops, office hours, and technical support will be available to applicants throughout the process.

Workshop Details

Two workshops are planned to introduce the programs, explain the application process, and provide strategies for submitting a compliant application.

• CCI Application Assistance Workshop: March 31, 2026 @ 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET  Register on Zoom for the CCI workshop
• SULI Application Assistance Workshop: April 8, 2026 @ 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET  Register on Zoom for the SULI workshop

Office Hours

The program office invites applicants and letter of recommendation writers to attend office hours. In these office hours, program staff members will answer administrative questions including those related to uploading transcripts and submitting letters of recommendation. Timing and registration details can be found below and posted on the program website.

• SULI/CCI Office Hours: April 29, May 6, May 13, 2026, at 2:00-3:00 pm ET. Please Register on Zoom.

The programs offer a unique opportunity to gain a glimpse into discovery science at the cutting edge of national priorities like the Genesis Mission. Learn more about the internship experience through the many Lab Stories shared by previous participants.

SULI and CCI are managed by the Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) in the Office of Science. More information can be found at https://science.osti.gov/wdts.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy

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PARIS, March 12, 2026 — Atos Group, a global leader of AI-powered digital transformation, today announced the launch of the Atos Sovereign Agentic Studios (Atos SAS), a new operating model designed to help organizations move from agentic AI pilots to production, safely, at scale, and under full sovereign control.

As enterprises accelerate their adoption of agentic AI, the challenge has shifted. It is no longer about creating more agents, but about operating them reliably in live, regulated and mission-critical environments.

“The market is at an inflection point as enterprises seek to scale their AI deployments but wrestle to adapt to the operational realities of production environments,” said Tom Reuner, Principal Analyst at PAC. “As a result, many struggle to realize business value from their investments. By focusing on workforce transformation and by expanding trust to include governed autonomy, Atos Sovereign Agentic Studios provides organizations a pathway to better navigate these challenges, especially in highly regulated industries and projects exposed to the fragility of geopolitics.”

Sovereignty by design, not as a checkbox

Atos approaches sovereignty as an operational discipline not a compliance exercise. With Atos SAS, organizations retain explicit control over where autonomy is applied, how decisions are governed and how data and models are operated across jurisdictions.

Built for production: security and AI governance by design

Unlike experimental AI frameworks, Atos Sovereign Agentic Studios are engineered for real-world deployment. Security, AI governance and human oversight are embedded from the outset, enabling enterprises to progress from high‑value use cases to governed agentic workflows with confidence.

This production‑first approach allows organizations to scale autonomy where it creates measurable value, while maintaining control where risk, regulation or criticality demand it.

Global delivery powered by four Studios and ten delivery centers

Atos Sovereign Agentic Studios operate as a globally integrated delivery model, leveraging Atos’ worldwide delivery capabilities. They are anchored in four flagship geographies and supported by ten Global Delivery Centers combining local sovereignty requirements with industrial‑scale execution.

In the UK (Birmingham), the Studio enables sovereign‑aligned AI for regulated and mission‑critical operations. In the US (Texas), it supports early‑stage engagements around priority use cases. In France, one Studio (Southwest region) focuses on big‑data agents across the full data lifecycle, while another (Paris region) supports large‑scale industrialization across applications and cloud infrastructures. Germany completes this network, strengthening Atos’ sovereign and industrial delivery capabilities in Europe.

In addition, the Group is embedding AI upskilling across its global delivery teams and client environments to ensure agentic systems scale with the right skills, oversight and accountability.

Delivering measurable business value

The Group’s Agentic AI strategy is anchored in tangible business value, supported by Atos Amplify, its unified AI‑powered consulting business unit. Combining deep industry expertise with advanced capabilities across AI, cybersecurity and digital sovereignty, Atos Amplify helps clients prioritize high‑ROI agentic workflows and translate strategy into measurable business outcomes at scale. This approach is already delivering impact.

Paul Mukherjee, CTO, Defra, said: “Defra is delighted to extend its partnership with Atos as a lighthouse customer for their Sovereign Agentic Studio. Our collaboration with Atos has already delivered concrete results, including a 27% productivity gain in the modernization of critical applications for the Animal and Plant Health Agency. We are now progressing several AI‑enabled use cases through structured assessment, with clear expectations of tangible value. This partnership is proving instrumental in applying agentic AI to our mission‑critical work.”

Accelerating AI innovation through a trusted ecosystem of agentic startups

Embedded in the Sovereign Agentic Studios strategy, Scaler, Atos innovation accelerator, connects clients with a curated ecosystem of startups across the agentic AI lifecycle – from process assessment and workforce augmentation to sovereign‑grade execution and continuous performance governance. The current cohort – KYP.ai, Ema, Pay‑i, Klarity, Poolside and Noma Security – strengthens Atos’ ability to combine breakthrough innovation with industrial‑grade delivery standards.

With Poolside, a leader in foundation models and autonomous software agents for enterprises, Atos is building a strategic and unique partnership to deliver sovereign, production‑ready agentic AI across Europe and beyond. This collaboration combines Poolside’s full‑stack AI platform with Atos’ sovereign operating layer, embedding security, governance and control across the full agentic lifecycle and enabling deployment on customer‑owned infrastructure, including regulated and highly secure environments.

A distinctive position for the AI first era

The next three years of AI innovation will shape the next three decades of enterprise transformation. This is why Atos Group is moving toward a fully integrated, agentic AI‑powered operating model, supported globally by the Atos Sovereign Agentic Studios. This transformation is built on three mutually reinforcing tech‑strategic pillars: Agentic AI, Digital Sovereignty and Cybersecurity.

With decades of experience operating complex, regulated and sovereign systems, Atos brings a rare operator’s discipline to Agentic AI, shaped by environments where reliability, accountability and control are non‑negotiable

“Agentic AI will define the next era of enterprise services,” said Florin Rotar, CTO, Atos Group. “But the challenge for enterprises is no longer innovation it is execution. We are already working with clients to deploy agentic AI at scale, in complex environments. By transforming our own operating model first and acting as Client Zero, Atos is industrializing agentic AI as a governed, production‑ready capability —delivering value today, not promises for tomorrow.”

About Atos Group

Atos Group is a global leader in digital transformation with c. 63,000 employees and annual revenue of c. €8 billion, operating in 61 countries under two brands — Atos for services and Eviden for products. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high performance computing, Atos Group is committed to a secure and decarbonized future and provides tailored AI-powered, end-to-end solutions for all industries. Atos Group is the brand under which Atos SE (Societas Europaea) operates. Atos SE is listed on Euronext Paris.

Source: Atos Group

The post Atos Group Launches Sovereign Agentic Studios to Bring AI Safely into Production Across Organizations appeared first on HPCwire.

Latest order comes after Hezbollah and Iran launch attack on more than 50 targets including Israeli military bases

• Middle East live – latest updates

Israel issued a sweeping new displacement order for southern Lebanon, instructing residents up to 25 miles away from their border to head north, and striking the centre of Beirut in a sharp escalation of its fight with Hezbollah.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military on Thursday ordered all residents to head north of the Zahrani River “for their safety”, before it began a bombing campaign against what it said were Hezbollah targets.

The bipartisan bill’s future is uncertain, though, as Trump threatens to stall all legislation until voter-ID law is passed

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The Senate passed a broad bill on Thursday to make US housing more accessible and affordable, a rare bipartisan effort in Congress to address a growing national problem.

The bill, which passed 89-10, would reduce regulations, regulate corporate investors, and expand how housing dollars can be used to build affordable homes and rentals. It will now head back to the House, which passed a similar bill earlier this year.

DENVER, March 12, 2026 — Crusoe today announced Crusoe Edge Zones, powered by Crusoe Spark, a new solution that brings AI compute to virtually any location. Crusoe Edge Zones leverage Crusoe’s proprietary Crusoe Spark modular data centers to provide low-latency infrastructure and sovereign AI deployments for customers globally.

With Crusoe Edge Zones, customers can deploy dedicated Crusoe Spark units in geographically targeted locations, unlocking use cases that traditional hyperscale and neo-cloud providers do not support.

Vertical Integration from Factory to Inference

Crusoe Edge Zones illustrate the value of Crusoe’s vertically integrated approach to AI infrastructure, enabling customers to get more capacity faster. Powered by Crusoe Spark, Crusoe Edge Zones are modular data center units manufactured at Crusoe’s newly announced Spark Factory. By building the entire AI infrastructure stack – from factory assembly to cloud orchestration – Crusoe can stand up new cloud zones in as little as three months, delivering significant cost advantages and providing critical AI capacity in diverse locations where legacy infrastructure is limited.

“Crusoe Edge Zones powered by Crusoe Spark represent the continued expansion of our vertically integrated ‘AI Factory’ vision,” said Cully Cavness, Co-Founder, President, and Chief Strategy Officer of Crusoe. “By optimizing these modular AI factories to run both the Crusoe Cloud platform and our Managed Inference product, we are delivering a high-performance, distributed solution that provides the speed, sovereignty, and quality that the next generation of AI requires.”

Delivering Managed Inference powered by MemoryAlloy

Crusoe Edge Zones are optimized to run the full Crusoe Cloud platform and Crusoe’s Managed Inference service, providing a high-performance cloud environment for production-scale AI. By leveraging Crusoe’s proprietary MemoryAlloy technology – a cluster-wide KV cache fabric – these modular zones can deliver up to 9.9x faster time-to-first-token and 5x higher throughput than standard configurations for inference. This ensures that users at the network edge have access to the ultra-efficient and responsive AI infrastructure.

Key Use Cases

• Low-latency inference: Deploying Crusoe Edge Zones units near business demand to deliver the ultra-low latency required for real-time AI applications where every millisecond matters.
• Dedicated enterprise clusters: Providing customers with dedicated, factory-built clusters for specialized training and inference workloads, combining the control of on-premise infrastructure with the simplicity of a managed cloud.
• Sovereign AI deployments: Enabling government entities and regulated industries with strict data residency requirements to deploy Crusoe Edge Zones within their jurisdiction – ensuring data sovereignty while leveraging Crusoe’s advanced infrastructure.

The launch of Crusoe Edge Zones reflects the company’s conviction that the future of AI infrastructure will include both massive, gigawatt-scale campuses for model training, as well as modular, distributed compute for high-performance delivery at the edge. With this announcement, Crusoe is investing in both. For more details, please see Crusoe’s blog.

Availability

Organizations interested in geographic expansion deployments, low-latency inference, or sovereign infrastructure options are encouraged to contact Crusoe to discuss Crusoe Edge Zones deployment opportunities.

About Crusoe

As the AI factory company, Crusoe is on a mission to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence. The company provides a reliable, scalable, cost-effective, energy-first solution for AI infrastructure. By harnessing large-scale energy sources, building AI-optimized data centers, and delivering a powerful AI cloud platform, Crusoe empowers its customers and partners to build the future faster.

Source: Crusoe

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