The DOJ said in a court filing that the D.C. pipe bomb defendant's case should not be dismissed and that his actions were not covered by Trump's sweeping pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters.
Tennessee lawmakers passed legislation this week to fix the state’s controversial threats of mass violence law, which had resulted in children being charged with felonies over jokes and misunderstandings.
Gov. Bill Lee is expected to sign the bill, which will require that school officials only report student threats to police if a threat is “credible,” meaning reasonably expected to be carried out. Previously, a school administrator who failed to report any threat of mass violence could be charged with a misdemeanor.
The change comes after pressure from advocates and an investigation by ProPublica and WPLN. Many of the children charged had disabilities and were students of color. One of the youngest children charged with a felony last year was 6.
In one case ProPublica and WPLN investigated, an autistic teenager with an intellectual disability told his teacher that his backpack would blow up if anyone touched it. Police only found a stuffed bunny inside, but they arrested and charged him with making a threat of mass violence. That child’s mother is now suing the school district; the case is ongoing.
Another family ProPublica and WPLN wrote about later won a $100,000 settlement against a Chattanooga public charter school; family members argued in a federal lawsuit that the school wrongly reported their 11-year-old autistic child to the police.
Multiple parents also filed a lawsuit against Williamson County Schools, outside of Nashville, claiming their children were wrongly suspended and arrested after being accused of making threats of mass violence at school. The school board disputed the claims in court records and moved to dismiss the lawsuit. In an initial ruling, the judge said the families had a “plausible claim” and allowed the case to move forward.
Sen. Ferrell Haile, who co-authored this year’s bill, said during a late March committee hearing that he hoped it would prevent students with disabilities from being needlessly arrested for statements “they have no ability to carry out.”
He said he was inspired by the story of a fifth grader with a disability in his district who made a statement out of frustration one day at school. The school police officer told the family he didn’t want to arrest the child but the law required him to, whether or not the threat was credible. His superiors charged the child with a felony.
“In some counties, it has become a standard practice to charge every threat even if it has been deemed not credible,” Haile said at the hearing.
Haile’s current stance is a departure from his prior position and those of most other Tennessee Republicans, who refused to back similar language as recently as last winter. In fact, in 2025, Haile proposed a bill that would extend the felony threats law to more locations, including child care agencies, preschools and churches.
When a Democratic colleague asked him during a hearing to consider only applying the felony charge to people who intended to carry out the threats, Haile said no. Police and district attorneys — not school principals or counselors — should be responsible for determining whether a threat was credible, he said last year.
Haile did not respond to a request for comment.
Advocates are applauding the recent change to the law but warn that it isn’t a panacea. Tennessee law still does not require police to consider whether a threat is credible before charging or arresting youth.
“This is not a total solution to threats of mass violence,” said Zoe Jamail, an advocate for children with the nonprofit Raphah Institute. “It is a huge step forward in terms of signifying an intent by the legislature that noncredible threats shouldn’t be prosecuted.”
The post Tennessee Lawmakers Pass Fix to School Threats Law After Kids Were Arrested for Jokes and Misunderstandings appeared first on ProPublica.
Airlines could start running short of supplies within weeks unless oil flows through the strait of Hormuz resume
Airports have warned that jet fuel could run short within three weeks in Europe if oil supplies do not start to flow through the strait of Hormuz, raising concerns over flight cancellations in the UK and EU going into the summer holiday season.
Jet fuel shortages will become so acute without the resumption of supplies from the Middle East that cancellations across Europe will be inevitable, disrupting travel plans for potentially millions of passengers.
Continue reading...️ Latest news from the second round at Augusta National
️ Official leaderboard | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail Scott
Wyndham Clark’s birdie putt at 6 looks good. A straight roll. But it drifts a little to the right just before reaching the cup, enough to kink out. That really did look like it was going in. So he remains at -3 for both his round and the Tournament overall. He’s no longer the only player out there in red for his round today: Im Sungjae, who finished second on debut in the November Masters of 2020, birdies 7 and 8 to move into credit today – he’s +3 overall – while the old trooper Freddie Couples birdies 2 to get back to +5. Such a shame about that hideous run at 15, 16 and 17 yesterday - quadruple bogey, double bogey, double bogey – but you can forgive a 66-year-old for running out of gas under the heat of the late-afternoon sun.
The Par 3 Contest winner Aaron Rai starts his second round calmly and confidently. Tea Olive found in regulation, and a long birdie putt that shaves the hole. He remains at -1 after yesterday’s 71, a round that promised more after going out in 33. Meanwhile Wyndham Clark’s run of consecutive birdies comes to an end at 5. Just a par, though he’s now landed his tee shot at 6 into the heart of the green, using the slope to bring his ball towards the flag tucked away front left. He’ll have a good look at birdie from 18 feet, a putt not exactly flat and straight, but as flat and straight as they come around here.
Continue reading...Financial industry leaders met to discuss potential cyber risks posed by Anthropic's latest AI model, which has found weaknesses in every major computer operating system.
It would be odds-on that the 39-year-old is the lowest-ranked player ever to qualify for the Masters at Augusta
There are two Masters taking place this year, the one you’re watching, and the one you’re playing in. Well. Maybe not you, exactly, unless you can count your handicap on two fingers, but the best player you know, that guy on the school run who used to play off scratch, that cousin who won the sports scholarship, or the uncle who everyone says could have made it back in the day. His name is Brandon Holtz, and if you haven’t spotted him yet, he is, he says himself, “the old fat guy” who has been playing with two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson this week.
Holtz is 39, and works full-time as a real estate broker in Bloomington, Illinois. He plays as much golf as he can, but, given that he has two kids, a five-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter, it isn’t nearly as much as he’d like. He is currently 3,262 in the world amateur golf rankings. Which of course means he is a hell of a good golfer. And also that he is ranked a full 3,160 places below his nearest competitor among the six amateurs in the field here. And that’s before you even get to the other 10,000 or so professionals in the Official Golf World Rankings, where he is currently unlisted.
Continue reading...Melania Trump made a surprise appearance at the White House on Thursday to announce that she ‘never had a relationship’ with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Her address has seemingly put Epstein back on the political agenda when focus had been firmly on the US and Israel’s war in Iran.
The intervention came at a difficult time for her husband, Donald Trump, as the fragile ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran seemed to be at risk of falling apart, and as US lawmakers are raising the alarm over the president’s mental stability.
Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian US editor, Betsy Reed – watch on YouTube
Continue reading...First lady had called for a public hearing for survivors but a group of those affected say they have ‘done their part’ and reiterate calls for Pam Bondi to be questioned
On Truth Social, Donald Trump issued a cryptic message this morning that appeared to be in reference to the upcoming negotiations in Islamabad, but remains unclear.
“WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL RESET!!!” he wrote.
Continue reading...A creditor with a judgment can hit your paycheck and your account at the same time, causing major financial issues.
Vice-president leading US delegation in negotiations due to take place in Islamabad on Saturday
The streets of Islamabad are on strict lockdown as Pakistan’s capital prepares to play host to historic negotiations between Iran and the US that have dangled the promise of an end to war that has devastated the Middle East.
Even as the US-Iran ceasefire looked increasingly precarious, amid Israel’s continued bombardment of Lebanon and disputes over the terms of the talks, Pakistani officials insist that the make-or-break peace negotiations will be going ahead over the weekend as planned
Continue reading...  | $500, better thermals, better performance than stock, lighter than superflux and easy swap hall and phase wires! Save $25 by using coupon code “renowheel25” [link] [comments] |
Opposition candidate Péter Magyar holds rally outside Budapest as Orbán visits Székesfehérvár ahead of Sunday election
Ashifa Kassam and Flora Garamvolgyi in Budapest
As a child growing up in Budapest, Péter Magyar had a poster of Viktor Orbán – at the time a leading figure in the country’s pro-democracy movement – hanging above his bed.
Continue reading...Amendment calling for step-incest to be included in ban on harmful content passes by just one vote
The government has agreed to ban the production of porngraphy depicting sex acts between stepfamily members following a vote in the House of Lords.
An amendment calling for step-incest to be included in a ban on harmful content was tabled by the Conservative peer Gabby Bertin, who led a review into pornography regulation that was published last year.
Continue reading...The development of the mission mascot and viral sensation Rise began over a year before Artemis II blasted off.
Prime minister says conversation with US president on Thursday night focused on need for ‘practical plan’ to open strait of Hormuz
Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, has joined those saying the government should allow drilling for oil and gas in the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields in the North Sea.
Both applications were approved by the last Conservative government, but then overturned by a court ruling. Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has to make a decision about the revised applications operating in a quasi-judicial capacity, which means he has to follow due process and can’t take the decision purely on political ground.
The current debate [on energy policy] is deadlocked between two incomplete responses. The government argues the answer is to accelerate Clean Power 2030, focusing on decarbonising the electricity system as quickly as possible. The opposition argues that the answer is to expand domestic oil and gas production. Both positions contain elements of truth, but neither addresses the core strategic problem: outside the power sector the UK economy remains overwhelmingly dependent on fossil fuels, and electricity is still too expensive to support mass electrification.
The UK is caught in a self-reinforcing high-cost, low-electrification trap. High electricity costs suppress demand, slowing the uptake of electric vehicles, heat pumps and industrial electrification. Weak demand growth, in turn, means that the fixed costs of the system – from networks to long-term contracts – are spread across a smaller base, keeping prices high. The result is a system that is too expensive to electrify and therefore remains dependent on fossil fuels and exposed to global shocks …
The first of these vital measures will ban anyone from possessing or publishing harmful pornography that shows incest between family members, and sex between step or foster relations where one person is pretending to be under 18.
A further amendment will criminalise the publication and possession of pornography where an adult is roleplaying as a child.
This government is uncompromising in our mission to protect women and girls online, and we have taken action to stop tech firms from publishing this abusive content.
In February, we told platforms that they must remove reported non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours.
I greatly welcome the government’s plans to fully address harmful pornographic content such as incest, step-incest and the mimicking of child sexual abuse. This content that is freely and widely available online is deeply harmful, normalising child sexual abuse and abusive relationships within families …
Today the government has answered our calls for change, and I am delighted that once again the UK is leading the way on regulating this high harm industry.
Continue reading...Inflation rose at an annual rate of 3.3% in March, driven by the sharpest monthly increase in gas prices since 1967.
Credit can be used to offset future bills as full-year losses at UK division widen to £41.3m and it adds 92 stores
Starbucks’s UK retail arm received a £13.7m corporation tax credit last year, even as its sales increased 6% and it added more than 90 stores.
The credit, which can be used to offset future tax bills, comes after losses widened to £41.3m in the 12 months to the end of September – almost matching the £40m it paid in royalty and licence fees to its parent company.
Continue reading...Energy industry experts warn that allowing Iran to charge ships to ensure safe passage through the strait would raise energy costs.
April 10, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Energy’s Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program is now accepting proposals for high-impact, computationally intensive research projects in a broad array of science, engineering, and computer science domains. Proposals must be submitted by June 15, 2026.
Open to researchers from academia, industry, and government agencies, the INCITE program is aimed at large-scale scientific computing projects that require the power and scale of the leadership-class supercomputers at the ALCF and OLCF.
The open call provides an opportunity to access the ALCF’s Aurora supercomputer and the OLCF’s Frontier system.
The INCITE program promotes transformational advances in science and technology for compute and/or data-intensive and/or time-sensitive large-scale research projects such as scientific modeling, simulation, data analytics, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) campaigns. INCITE projects are awarded large allocations of computer time, data capabilities, and supporting resources at the Argonne and Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (LCF) centers, operated by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science.
INCITE seeks research challenges requiring capability computing from diverse areas: production simulations, compute intensive machine or deep learning applications, time-sensitive, or large-scale data analysis that use a large fraction of the LCF systems and cannot be performed on less capable resources. INCITE supports high-impact simulation, data, and AI approaches which require the unique architectural infrastructure, high-performance storage, and networking capabilities available at the LCF centers.
More Information
Preparing for INCITE Submissions
The INCITE program will host informational webinars on April 21 and May 5, 2026. Register here: https://doeleadershipcomputing.org/informational-webinars.
Source: Argonne Leadership Computing Facility
The post DOE INCITE Program Opens 2027 Call for Proposals with June 15 Deadline appeared first on HPCwire.
Celebrities including Annie Lennox and Miriam Margolyes sign letter to force after pro-Palestine march route rejected
Annie Lennox and Miriam Margolyes are among artists who have accused the Metropolitan police of giving preferential treatment to a far-right demonstration led by Tommy Robinson over a pro-Palestine protest in London on the same day.
The pro-Palestine movement has had its preferred route through central London for its annual commemoration of Nakba – the mass expulsion of Palestinians – rejected by the Met, while the “Unite the Kingdom” demonstration will take place on the same date in Kingsway, the Strand, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and Parliament Square. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, posted on X: “London is ours on May 16th.”
Continue reading...This week Jane Pauley hosts "The Money Issue," our annual special broadcast dedicated to the many ways in which money underscores the way we live.
ALIYAH JACKSON
Co-Managing Mosaic Editor
It has been almost a full year since I hit the highly anticipated age of 21 years old. Just like any other milestone, I made sure to count down the days in excitement until the calendar finally hit May 26, 2025 — the day I could legally drink alcohol.
Now, I’m not a saint, so I won’t sit here and pretend that that day was the first time I had an alcoholic drink. However, it was the day that my mindset shifted and my world changed as someone who could now drink at leisure.
If I am being completely honest, I hate the taste of alcohol and always have. I truly think it’s disgusting and it’s very obvious that we probably shouldn’t be putting that into our bodies. But, in college, you can’t escape it. St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween, Cinco de Mayo — they all become excuses to see just how wasted you can get in one weekend.
Despite my aversion to the taste of alcohol, I have participated in many of these events. Definitely not to the same extremes as others, but just enough to feel included.
In college, alcohol builds bonds. It’s a conversation starter. It gives you the courage to talk to that random person standing next to you and it ensures you won’t stand out.
For me, alcohol helped me fit into an environment that I often didn’t feel a part of. It allowed me to feel like I didn’t stick out like a sore thumb at this school, even if just for a few nights out of the year. It wasn’t a matter of being forced or pressured into drinking, but instead, a way that I could use our popular drinking culture to my advantage.
Suddenly, as I am barreling towards 22 years old and have been able to legally drink for almost a year, the activity often loses its novelty. I mean — let’s be real — drinking becomes a lot less exciting when you can just waltz into a bar or liquor store and get whatever you want, whenever you want.
The vibes have shifted from random house parties where, the unknown of what exactly you’re drinking was part of the fun, to formal invites from friends to grab a drink at a local bar, where the drinks taste significantly better. But even that comes with its own challenges.
About a month ago, I went to the infamous “pitchers” night at Deer Park Tavern, which happens every Thursday, with someone whom I considered a potential new friend. It was only my second time going, with the first being the Thursday before Halloween. The reason why the visits were so few and far between is simple — I am not a big drinker.
To make a very long story short, I had a great night and assumed they had the same experience. We even hung out once more a few days later and everything was fine. So, you can imagine my shock when I was ghosted. I could only think one thing: “Did I do something wrong?”
Eventually, I was able to get an answer out of them and it was something along the lines of, “Your drinking made me uncomfortable and I think we just don’t have compatible lifestyles.” Pure confusion — that was all I felt. I replayed the events of the night over and over, wondering if I had missed something.
We both had the same number of drinks. We hung out, laughed and danced all night long. They were even the one who invited me out to drink in the first place. I felt blindsided. I explained that I don’t really drink often and felt that their perception of my “lifestyle” was inaccurate based on one night, but it was no use. They had made up their mind on who I was and were sticking to it.
It was the first time I felt like I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t. It felt like I was going to be punished regardless of whether I participated in the typical college activities or not. A night that I expected to laugh about for years to come suddenly became someone’s entire opinion of me.
Therefore, I hope that this inspires a student out there to remember a simple piece of advice — just do whatever you want. Whether you decide to drink or not, someone will have an opinion. That opinion may or may not be accurate, but at the end of the day, it is your life and your college experience, so make the most of it in whatever way is comfortable for you.
If you choose not to drink, I say good for you for taking a stand against the norm. If you do decide to drink, just remember to be safe and responsible (or else you might get labeled something that you aren’t).
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Drive: An auto dealer software company is pitching AI-powered kiosks designed to replace car salesmen on showroom floors. Automotive News says the industry is "skeptical." But be honest -- would you really rather deal with the average car lot shark than a computer? Epikar, a South Korean company that cooks up digital management solutions for car dealers, has named its new AI invention the Pikar Genie. The idea is that customers can talk to this device, ask it product questions, and basically do everything you'd do with a car salesman except for actually closing the deal and signing paperwork. Renault, BMW, and Volvo are already using some Epikar products at South Korean dealerships, but this new customer-facing AI product is still in its infancy. AN reported that "Renault assigns three salespeople to its Seoul showroom enhanced with Epikar automation compared with six for other Renault showrooms in South Korea," according to Epikar CEO Bosuk Han. The company's now looking to expand into America and is apparently already testing its products at at least one dealership stateside. Car-dealer consultant Fleming Ford (Director of Strategic Growth at NCM Associates) said U.S. dealerships "aren't ready for fully automated showrooms." "The showroom isn't just where you buy a car," Automotive News quoted him saying. "It's where you decide who to trust to help you to choose the right car."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Rebels put forward amendments to courts bill in attempt to stop government plans to cut back on jury trials
Labour MPs are hoping to hijack plans to cut back on jury trials in England and Wales by proposing specialist courts for sexual offences with fixed dates for trial.
Those behind the amendment want to block the wider plan to stop thousands of cases being potentially eligible for jury trials – a measure ministers say is needed to cut court backlogs – and they say the specialist courts alone could still solve much of the problem.
Continue reading...Inflation just hit a nearly two-year high. That could make gold investing one of the smartest moves to make now.
If you want to run FreeBSD on a laptop, you’re often yanked back to the Linux world of 20 years ago, with many components and parts not working and other issues such as sleep and wake problems. FreeBSD has been hard at work improving the experience of using FreeBSD on laptops, and now this has resulted in a list of laptops which work effortlessly with the venerable operating system.
There’s only about 10 laptops on the list so far, but they do span a range of affordability and age, with some of them surely being quite decent bargains on eBay or whatever other used stuff marketplace you use. If you want to use FreeBSD on a laptop, but don’t want to face any surprises or do any difficult setup, get one of the laptops on this list – a list which will surely expand over time.
Want to buy a home or refinance your existing one? Here are the latest mortgage interest rates to know right now.
Body representing European airports reportedly warning of “systemic” shortages if strait of Hormuz is not reopened; petrol demonstrations in Ireland now in their fourth day
The global oil price may have remained below $100 a barrel this week following the two-week ceasefire agreed in the Middle East - but physical deliveries of regional crude have changed hands at much higher prices in a sign of the ongoing strain on the world’s energy supplies.
The price used to value oil deliveries from the North Sea, known as the Forties blend, reached highs not recorded since 2008 at almost $147 a barrel on Thursday as global refineries were forced to vie for fresh cargoes, according to LSEG data.
Global stock markets look set to end a volatile week on a more positive footing, with investor sentiment showing tentative signs of recovery heading into the weekend. The FTSE 100 opened broadly flat this morning, with US markets expected to follow suit later this afternoon.
While the term ‘ceasefire’ is used somewhat loosely, there has been enough perceived de-escalation in the Middle East to ease some of the pressure on risk assets we saw earlier in the week. The prospect of in-person talks between the US and Iran over the weekend is also helping steady nerves, offering hope that diplomatic channels remain open. Taken together, investors are becoming more comfortable that, while risks remain, the broader trajectory is moving in the right direction.
…Although it has not acted as the store of wealth or shock absorber that many might have expected during the recent Middle East tensions. That is largely because interest rate expectations have been the bigger driver of price action, outweighing the typical risk-off demand. This week’s tentative ceasefire, coupled with news of talks over the weekend, has shifted rate expectations into a more favourable position for gold, helping support the latest move higher.”
Continue reading...Fix for quantum ‘curse of dimensionality’ may mitigate advantage versus classical computing
April 10, 2026 — Variational quantum computing is a hybrid quantum-classical approach that has emerged as one of the most promising applications for quantum devices. But this approach is hindered by the “barren plateau” phenomenon, which undermines the approach’s machine learning training capabilities. As a team of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) researchers suggest in a recent perspective piece in Nature Communications, and as they go on to demonstrate with a simulated quantum neural network, the architectures and techniques proposed to mitigate or altogether avoid barren plateaus make them classically simulable.
As proposed and demonstrated by the Los Alamos team, the architectures and techniques proposed to mitigate or altogether avoid barren plateaus in variational quantum computing make them classically simulable. Credit: LANL.
“Barren plateaus typically result from what is known in the field as the ‘curse of dimensionality,’ where models need to navigate very big spaces, and finding the solution is like finding a needle in a haystack,” said Marco Cerezo, Los Alamos physicist and lead author on the perspective. “One avoids barren plateaus and circumvents the curse of dimensionality by restricting the model to a small subspace. But that solution might mean that the model can just as efficiently be simulated classically.”
If the connection between the absence of barren plateaus (for example, by restricting models to small subspaces) and classical simulability holds, the remedy for barren plateaus may prove worse than the problem. The advantage quantum computers have in solving machine learning tasks faster than classical supercomputers would be limited only to those models with no barren plateaus.
Subspaces and Classical Simulability
Variational quantum computing’s hybrid approach aims to solve tasks by classically optimizing the parameters of a quantum circuit, thus extending the advantage of classical neural networks to the quantum realm. However, the too-large space of possible quantum states (i.e., “the curse of dimensionality”) leads to an extremely flat optimization landscape — a barren plateau, upon which the approach’s algorithms fail.
The team’s recent research showed that the presence or absence of barren plateaus is clearly linked to whether the algorithm operates within a small subspace. The team undertook a case-by-case analysis of all known models and techniques, revealing a common pattern hidden in plain sight: Once the effective small subspace was pinpointed and identified, one only needs to emulate what the quantum computer does within it.
That is, the quantum computer’s approach may be simulable by classical computing. From all known barren plateau-free models, the team’s study found that a classical computer could do the same thing that the quantum computer does — a surprising result that undermined the quantum-only case for the promising architectures and techniques for quantum machine learning. The Los Alamos team recently undertook a concrete demonstration with a specific architecture, with results published in PRX Quantum pointing to an end-to-end simulability.
“It really seems the math is out to get us,” Cerezo said. “If you want to make an entirely quantum architecture capable of processing information, you have barren plateaus and the curse of dimensionality, and if you force the model to work in a subspace, then the subspace is always sufficiently small that it can have classical simulability. There seems to be no in-between or intermediate space.”
End-to-End Simulability for Quantum Convolutional Neural Networks
To test their understanding of simulability, the team analyzed widely used variants of quantum convolutional neural networks, an architecture considered by many as one of the most promising models for quantum machine learning.
By identifying the correct subspace where the model acts, the team constructed and trained a purely classical surrogate for quantum convolutional neural networks. The surrogate matched or outperformed standard quantum convolutional neural networks on all benchmark datasets, and they ran simulations on as much as 1,024 qubits. The test suggests that the success of the quantum networks could be attributed to being benchmarked on simple problems, and the insight the team gleaned indicates the need for non-trivial datasets to move forward with quantum machine learning.
The Caveats and the Silver Lining
The team’s study does not imply that quantum computers cannot operate in large spaces. Indeed, successful quantum algorithms, such as those that simulate quantum systems, avoid the curse of dimensionality by being extremely structured and carefully navigating the large quantum spaces.
“Unlike standard quantum algorithms, where every logical operation has a specific purpose, quantum machine learning algorithms follow the learning methodology of classical neural networks, where one seeks to find the right sequence of logical operations by training the algorithm based on data,” said Laboratory postdoctoral researcher Nahuel Diaz. “This means that, by design, they are unstructured and can get lost in the large spaces.”
The researchers show a path forward to beat barren plateaus without classical simulability by emulating how standard quantum algorithms work. An example provided by the team of a trainable but not simulable model may offer inspiration in the building of new quantum learning algorithms.
Finally, the team highlighted that a quantum computer might well be needed to initialize the classical simulation. In this case, the authors proposed a new hybrid paradigm, where quantum devices are used not to train a model, but to acquire data to build an efficient classical algorithm.
Paper: “Does provable absence of barren plateaus imply classical simulability? Or, why we need to rethink variational quantum computing.” Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63099-6
Funding: The work was supported by Los Alamos’ Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program, the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos, and the Laboratory’s ASC Beyond Moore’s Law project.
Paper: “Quantum Convolutional Neural Networks are Effectively Classically Simulable.” PRX Quantum. DOI: 10.1103/8qt9-72ts
Funding: The work was supported by Los Alamos’ Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program and the Laboratory’s ASC Beyond Moore’s Law project.
Source: LANL
The post Los Alamos Researchers Show Some Quantum Learning Models Are Classically Simulable appeared first on HPCwire.
Afrika Bambaataa, a rapper and producer, was best known for breakthrough tracks like 1982's "Planet Rock" and for founding the Universal Zulu Nation art collective.
Hauliers and farmers block motorways and bring parts of Dublin to a standstill in fourth day of action
Protests over fuel prices have caused chaos in Ireland and spread to Norway in a knock-on effect from the conflict in the Middle East.
Hauliers, farmers and other groups blocked motorways and brought parts of Dublin to a standstill on Friday in a fourth consecutive day of action.
Continue reading...New targeted sponsorship effort advances trusted open source infrastructure powering today’s AI ecosystem
WILMINGTON, Del., April 10, 2026 — The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) has announced the launch of its Responsible AI Initiative, a targeted sponsorship effort aimed at strengthening the open source technologies that underpin modern artificial intelligence systems.
Today, dozens of ASF projects form the backbone of the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem. Developers rely on Apache technologies for scalable machine learning, high-volume data storage, real-time distributed systems, analytics, natural language processing, and graph-based computation.
As the adoption of generative AI and agentic development accelerates, The ASF has also introduced guidelines for the responsible use of AI within its projects. These emphasize human oversight, licensing integrity, security, and documentation — core principles rooted in the ASF’s longstanding philosophy of “community over code.” Unlike vendor-controlled platforms, ASF projects are governed by diverse, global communities that are responsible for safeguarding their software against misuse, security vulnerabilities, licensing violations, and other risks.
The Responsible AI initiative is seeded by an initial $1.5-million charitable contribution provided to the ASF by Anthropic, and a $250,000 donation from Alpha-Omega, an organization focused on advancing sustainable security across open source ecosystems through targeted funding and partnerships. The Initiative has a broader funding goal of $10 million, and will run for a minimum of three years.
“AI runs on open infrastructure,” said Sally Khudairi, VP Sponsor Relations, The ASF. “AI systems worldwide depend on critical Apache projects — from data pipelines to distributed systems to machine learning frameworks — and many other foundational technologies. Our new initiative ensures that those ASF projects that are deeply embedded in AI systems have expanded access to the models and resources needed to remain secure, transparent, and governed in the public interest.”
The Responsible AI Initiative will support ASF projects and communities with:
The ASF welcomes additional support for the Initiative in the form of financial contributions and in-kind donations, including access to AI models, platforms, and tools. Additional sponsors — including AI and model providers — are invited to participate, consistent with the ASF’s vendor-neutral and community-first approach.
By investing in the systems that power AI, not just the models themselves, the ASF Responsible AI Initiative aims to ensure that the future of AI is built on infrastructure that is open, secure, and governed for the public good.
Learn more at the ASF Responsible AI Initiative website: https://www.apache.org/foundation/initiatives/ResponsibleAI.
About The Apache Software Foundation
The Apache Software Foundation (The ASF) is the global home for open source software, powering some of the world’s most ubiquitous software projects, including Apache Airflow, Apache Camel, Apache Cassandra, Apache Groovy, Apache HTTP Server, and Apache Kafka. Established in 1999, The ASF is at the forefront of open source innovation, setting industry standards to advance software for the public good. Learn more at https://apache.org.
The ASF’s annual Community Over Code event is where open source technologists convene to share best practices and use cases, forge critical relationships, and learn about advancements in their field.
Source: ASF
The post The Apache Software Foundation Launches Responsible AI Initiative appeared first on HPCwire.
Lee Milne, 40, was sentenced to eight years in prison following his conviction in Glasgow's High Court for culpable homicide and engaging in abusive behavior.
LAGUNA HILLS, Calif., April 10, 2026 — BrainChip Holdings Ltd. has announced the launch of its Radar Reference Platform. This fully validated hardware and AI stack is designed to provide real-time object classification at the edge, solving the critical “identification gap” that limits traditional radar systems.
While standard radar effectively determines an object’s location and velocity, it often fails to identify exactly what that object is—a gap that can lead to false alarm fatigue or mission-critical failures. BrainChip’s new platform adds a sophisticated deep learning layer to traditional radar, utilizing Micro-Doppler signatures to distinguish between targets with similar radar returns, such as a bird versus a drone.
The Radar reference platform aligns with BrainChip’s overall solutions strategy.
“From drone countermeasures in the defense sector to non-invasive health monitoring in MedTech, the versatility of our Radar Reference Platform is transformative,” said Sean Hehir, CEO of BrainChip. “We have moved beyond raw hardware to provide a complete, ‘ready-to-deploy’ technical stack that bridges the gap between raw data and actionable insights explained. While traditional radar has long been a staple of sensing, it has historically struggled with the ‘identification gap’—the inability to distinguish between similar objects in complex environments. By bringing Akida’s neuromorphic intelligence to radar data, we are enabling a new era of classification at the edge. This platform doesn’t just see movement; it understands exactly what it is seeing, providing the mission-critical intelligence required for modern defense and autonomous systems.”
Neuromorphic Intelligence for Constrained Environments
The platform is engineered for environments where Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWaP-C) are paramount. By running natively on the Akida neuromorphic processor, the system delivers:
Target Applications
The Radar Reference Platform is a versatile solution validated for five critical sectors:
A Ready-to-Deploy Technical Stack
To accelerate time-to-market, BrainChip provides a complete, integrated stack:
Live Walkthrough Webinar
BrainChip will host a live technical deep dive of the Radar Reference Platform at 8 a.m. PT on April 20. Principal Product Manager Nick Markovsky and Machine Learning Engineer Amir Naderi will demonstrate the platform’s architecture and live object classification capabilities.
Registration is now open at www.brainchip.com.
About BrainChip Holdings Ltd.
BrainChip (ASX: BRN, OTCQX: BRCHF, ADR: BCHPY) is the worldwide leader in Edge AI on-chip processing and learning. The company’s first-to-market, fully digital, event-based AI processor, Akida, uses neuromorphic principles to mimic the human brain, analyzing only essential sensor inputs at the point of acquisition and processing data with unmatched efficiency, precision, and energy economy.
Source: BrainChip
The post BrainChip Unveils Radar Reference Platform to Bridge the ‘Identification Gap’ in Edge AI appeared first on HPCwire.
Clarence Curtis Jordan was convicted in 1978 but hadn’t had a lawyer for over 30 years
The Texas court of criminal appeals has overturned the death sentence of Clarence Curtis Jordan, a 70-year-old man with intellectual disabilities, who spent nearly 50 years on death row – much of that time without a lawyer.
Jordan was convicted in 1978 for the murder of Joe L Williams, a 40-year-old grocer in Houston, and was sentenced to death. In the years that followed, courts determined that Jordan, who has intellectual disabilities, was “incompetent”, making him ineligible for execution under constitutional standards.
Continue reading...  | Would be nice to have some guard rails while learning to ride the XL :/ Did they forget about the other half of the order, or are these like back ordered? [link] [comments] |
Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are scheduled to return to Earth on Friday. Here's everything that's happened so far.
Exclusive: Dozens of organizations write to Congress after general announced plan to ‘deal with’ those fleeing any humanitarian crisis on the island
Dozens of US and international human rights organizations are decrying the Trump administration’s plans to establish a migrant “camp” for fleeing Cubans at the Guantánamo Bay military base if the island nation’s crisis worsens under pressure from the US, according to a letter to members of Congress on Friday.
The 85 groups plan to submit the joint letter, exclusively shared with the Guardian, to US senators and House representatives, expressing their “profound concern” with comments made last month by a top Department of Defense commander, and describing any prospect of further migrant detention at the base as “deeply troubling and unacceptable”.
Continue reading...SAN JOSE, Calif., April 10, 2026 — Altera, the world’s largest pure play FPGA solutions provider, has announced it is extending product life cycle support for its Agilex, MAX 10, and Cyclone V FPGA families through 2045, underscoring its focused approach as an independent FPGA solutions provider to prioritize long-term customer needs, supply stability, and sustained support for FPGA-based mission-critical applications.
The extension reinforces Altera’s commitment to customers building long-life systems across industrial, communications, aerospace, medical, and transportation markets, where semiconductor platforms must remain available and supported for decades. With this move, Altera enables customers to design with confidence, ensuring long-term supply continuity while reducing the risk of costly redesigns and recertification.
“Customers developing long-life systems need both performance and predictability,” said Mike Fitton, vice president of marketing and enablement group at Altera. “By extending support of these FPGA families through 2045, we’re providing the stability and flexibility required to support systems over decades of deployment.”
Agilex series FPGAs and SoCs, MAX 10 FPGAs, and Cyclone V FPGAs and SoCs are now planned for availability through 2045, reinforcing long-term platform stability for customers across diverse applications.
In production for more than a decade, MAX 10 FPGAs continue to stand out for cost- and power-sensitive designs requiring instant-on capability and integrated functionality. Cyclone V FPGAs and SoCs, widely deployed across a broad range of end markets, remains a proven, trusted platform for customers extending the life of established designs. Altera’s latest Agilex series of FPGAs and SoCs delivers a differentiated range of solutions, from optimized efficiency to leading-edge performance, enabling customers to scale across evolving system requirements.
Altera’s Commitment to Supporting Long-Lifecycle Systems
Long-life systems in many end markets remain in operation for 10 to 20 years or longer, where component obsolescence can drive costly redesigns, recertification, and operational disruption. As an independent FPGA solutions provider, Altera has the flexibility and agility to make decisions focused on the needs of FPGA users. By extending support for many of its most popular FPGA families, Altera helps customers reduce redesign risk, simplify long-term maintenance and support planning, and maintain continuity across deployed platforms.
About Altera
Altera is the industry’s largest pure-play FPGA solutions provider, with an exclusive focus on delivering FPGA innovations to the broad market. The company provides a comprehensive portfolio of programmable hardware, software, and development tools that empower designers of electronic systems to innovate, differentiate, and execute with greater speed and efficiency. With industry-leading FPGAs, SoCs, and design solutions, Altera enables customers to achieve faster time-to-market, greater flexibility, and optimized performance across a wide range of applications, spanning physical AI, industrial automation, audio/video, robotics, aerospace, defense, data centers, telecommunications, and more.
Source: Altera
The post Altera Extends Lifecycle Support for Several FPGA Families Through 2045 appeared first on HPCwire.
Trump has an incentive to strike a deal with Iran, as midterms approach. But at what cost? Expert comment jon.wallace
Foreign policy is a low priority for US voters. But a rushed deal could impact the president’s domestic support in November’s midterm elections.
After days of escalating rhetoric, the ceasefire announced on 7 April pulls the US and Iran back from grave danger and offers a window to assess the appetite for a more durable settlement.
A deal offers the Trump administration a politically appealing off-ramp. Washington’s efforts to present its limited tactical battlefield gains as strategic successes to a sceptical American public hint at a desire to deescalate.
Ending the war would certainly serve the president’s domestic agenda. November midterm elections are fast approaching, and renewed, prolonged fighting risks greater damage to the US economy – always the top American voter priority over foreign policy concerns.
There is a danger now that Washington’s desire to reach agreement swiftly risks creating a bad deal for US national security – or at worst, as President Trump described the JPCOA in 2018, a ‘horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made’.
Deal or no deal, the path ahead is fraught, with fewer options for the US than at the war’s outset and new security and economic risks to confront.
By most measures, the US has not yet succeeded in prosecuting its shifting war aims. The Pentagon claimed destruction of 90 per cent of Iran’s naval fleet and 80 per cent of its air defences. That is an impressive feat across vast territory and against a deeply entrenched military command. US forces also pulled off a complex, daring rescue of two airmen shot down over Iranian territory. But these accomplishments have not neatly translated into tangible strategic gains.
Though degraded, Iran still has the capability to launch ballistic missiles. Though weakened, Iran’s regional proxies can still operate with lethal effect. Its nuclear capabilities endure, in the form of 970 pounds of highly enriched uranium. And the war has likely only accelerated Tehran’s ambitions for a nuclear deterrent.
Perhaps most significantly, the regime is still standing: wounded but emboldened, despite a successful campaign to remove most of its senior leadership. That leaves the US and the world confronted by a potentially more hard-line Iranian leadership exercising uniliteral control over the Strait of Hormuz.
Therefore, while the US-Israeli military campaign has undoubtedly set back some of Iran’s offensive capabilities, it has concurrently enabled a new one in the Strait and deepened the regime’s resolve. US deterrence through threat of force no longer packs the punch it did before the war.
A majority of Americans oppose Trump’s actions in Iran. Democrats condemn the operation almost categorically, independents strongly disapprove, and non-MAGA Republicans are divided.
But MAGA supporters remain bullish, prioritizing loyalty to Trump’s agenda over concerns of US military overreach. And Republicans in Congress continue to give Trump wide latitude on the war.
Criticism from the right has been limited to disaffected MAGA supporters, including former Member of Congress Marjorie Taylor Green, media commentator Tucker Carlson, and Senate moderates like Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. In the short term, therefore, Trump’s domination of his party remains intact. The president may once again weather a political firestorm and gear up to quickly spark the next.
The reckoning is more likely to come at the November midterms.
As the world’s largest oil producer, the US is better insulated from the war’s economic shock than most. But it is not immune to the effects of the conflict. Rising gas prices and concerns about inflation are the two most visible economic consequences of the war today. And analysts believe further delayed financial costs are coming, particularly given the massive damage to oil and gas infrastructure across the Gulf.
Even in a ‘deal’ scenario, elevated costs at the pump and in the grocery aisles could well be stickier than many Americans anticipate, handing Democrats ready attack lines in the months ahead on the issue that matters most to American voters: the economy.
In a ‘no deal’ scenario, the president’s position will be more exposed, as Americans may find commercial goods, produce and holidays increasingly unaffordable, with ships idling in the Gulf, gas prices rising, and global crop yields hit by fertilizer scarcity.
Financial markets may also be less resilient to additional geopolitical shocks, a metric the Trump administration watches closely. Such a scenario would present a real threat to Republican midterm hopes and potentially even begin to erode Trump’s extremely loyal MAGA base.
That context will inform any push by the Trump administration toward a deal.
In Washington, senior officials are now weighing whether the political and economic advantages to maintaining the shaky ceasefire – or at least seeking a series of halting extensions – supersede the value of renewed fighting.
Current US and Iranian negotiation positions are maximalist, long-standing wish-lists that will not be resolved in the next two weeks. None can be achieved solely through an extended US bombing campaign or by the closing of the Strait of Hormuz.
The detail of any negotiations with Iran matters here. It is clear what a bad deal looks like in Trump’s eyes, because he spelled out his criticisms when withdrawing from the JCPOA in 2018: too few limits placed on Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for lifting of sanctions; massive new revenue flowing to the regime; insufficient mechanisms to detect and punish cheating on enrichment levels; failure to address Iran’s ballistic missile programme; and silence on the Islamic Republic’s support for terrorism.
If the US negotiators arrive in Pakistan without a hierarchy of priorities among this wish-list, the talks will collapse before they have begun.
Realistically, a bad deal for the US includes terms that lift sanctions without ensuring meaningful and verifiable constraints on Iran’s nuclear programme, whether by securing the highly enriched uranium or limiting future enrichment.
Addressing the nuclear programme will be more challenging than ever, when dealing with an even harder line regime. The US may have to put more concessions on the table to reach agreement – possibly beyond the sanctions and tariff relief Trump has already promised.
The haste of the talks, and the absence of key international partners who would need to buy into any verification arrangement, make an even minimally credible deal hard to envision. The US and Iran could bring a draft arrangement to the UN Security Council for approval, as Trump did for Gaza. But few will want to invest the resources to enforce the arrangement if doubts remain about the parties’ willingness to adhere to its terms.
Granting Iran the costly concessions it seeks – whether control over Hormuz, withdrawal of US forces from the region, an end to attacks on Iranian proxies, or the release of frozen Iranian assets – risk imperilling US national security in the longer term.
More immediately, any significant concession would hand Democrats a ready hand to play in November.
NICO HART
Staff Reporter
On Feb. 9, the Newark City Council approved plans for a marijuana manufacturing facility to be built at 303 Markus Court.
The facility will be owned by Loud Labs, an American cannabis manufacturer which currently has facilities in Colorado, Michigan and New Jersey.
According to a letter sent to the Newark City Council from Loud Labs Managing Partner Jake Berry, the facility will make products like gummies, vape cartridges and pre-rolled cannabis products.
The facility will not include a subsidiary retail store, nor does Loud Labs anticipate introducing one in the future.
In his discussion with the city council, Berry explained that the facility would take measures to prevent odor and noise issues from arising, which he noted have been successful at their other locations. He invited council members to visit and examine their facilities if they were skeptical.
The permit was approved by the council through a unanimous vote.
While city code requires that special permit applications for properties greater than one acre be referred to the city’s planning commission, the application was initially forwarded straight to the city council without the review from the commission — a practice that Newark has historically followed.
However, an owner of a neighboring property indicated that they would pursue legal action if the permit was not referred to the planning commission.
The council elected to do so in an effort to “[allow] the application to proceed in a transparent and defensible manner,” according to a Dec. 30 report by city officials.
Emile Brown, a city council member for Newark’s 6th district, noted that the city council will still endeavor to be procedurally efficient in the future, so as to ease potential organizational and financial setbacks for developers.
“We’re trying to streamline the process between planning, developments and city council, where the developers don’t have to spend an amount of money on a plan and then have them come to city council, and then we kick it back,” said Brown.
Brown also feels that the facility will support Newark’s economic development plans.
He discussed how historical sources of city revenue, like the Chrysler manufacturing facility near STAR Campus and Curtis Paper Mill, have closed, leaving Newark with a need for a revitalized manufacturing sector.
“I’m not a big advocate of marijuana use,” Brown said. “But as far as a business that can give some revenue to the city, I’m open to the opportunity.”
The request for the Americans’ release may be delayed if the talks between President Donald Trump’s team and Iran prove difficult, according to people briefed on the plans.
In addition to stalled shipping, continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon are threatening the shaky ceasefire.
It may sound unbelievable to some, but not everyone has a datacenter beast with 128GB of VRAM shoved in their desktop PCs. Around the world people tell the tale of a particularly fierce group of Linux gamers: Those who dare attempt to play games with only 8 gigabytes of VRAM, or even less. Truly, it takes exceedingly strong resilience and determination to face the stutters and slowdowns bound to occur when the system starts running low on free VRAM. Carnage erupts inside the kernel driver as every application fights for as much GPU memory as it can hold on to. Any game caught up in this battle for resources will surely not leave unscathed.
That is, until now. Because I fixed it.
↫ Natalie Vock
The solution is to use cgroups to control the kernel’s memory eviction policies, so that applications that should get priority when it comes to VRAM allocation – like games – don’t get their memory evicted from VRAM to system RAM. Basically, evict everything else from VRAM before touching the protected application. This way, something like a game will have much more consistent access to more VRAM, thereby reducing needless memory evictions that harm performance.
It’s a clever solution that makes use of a ton of existing Linux tools, meaning it’s also much easier to upstream, implement, and support. Excellent work.
The culinary intelligentsia would have you believe that gas stoves are the only kind worth considering. Here's my case for induction after making the swap.
The next Apple Watch might look the same, but rumors point to a big new feature hiding under the surface.
Prices were up 3.3% over the year, adding to the unpredictability that first came with Trump tariffs
US inflation soared in March amid the US-Israel war with Iran, with prices up 0.9% compared with last month and 3.3% over the year, according to new data released on Friday.
The spike in the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the price of a basket of goods and services, is the largest in nearly two years and the first official measure of how the conflict has affected US consumer prices, particularly as Iran blocked the strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas would typically pass.
Continue reading...Soaring crime and corruption top voter concerns in highly unpredictable election with 35 candidates for president
Peruvians go to the polls on Sunday hoping to break a cycle of instability that has produced nine presidents in a decade as well as surging violent crime, corruption scandals and overwhelming distrust in institutions and politicians.
About 27 million people who are eligible to vote must choose between a record 35 presidential candidates as well as contenders for the bicameral congress – all from a ballot sheet measuring nearly half a metre, the longest in the country’s history.
Continue reading...You can find great coffee at the grocery store if you know where to look. I put my senses to the test to find five bags of beans worthy of brewing.
The pricey AirPods Max 2 may not seem like much of an upgrade from their predecessor. But the changes are significant and impressed me enough to award the headphones a CNET Editors' Choice award.
The U.S. and Iran are getting ready for talks Saturday in Islamabad, Pakistan, as their tenuous ceasefire held despite key sticking points.
Trump’s missile-rattling isn’t helping anyone. At least that makes it easier to explain the world to my kid
Were you bullied as a child? If so, congratulations. You are probably pretty interesting, or maybe you have an extreme body odor problem. Either way, you were noticeable enough to warrant being picked on by someone with extreme self-loathing or an even worse body odor problem. That’s the nature of bullying, though. The fact that you’re a target at all is a sign that something about you is remarkable. Total feckless duds don’t get bullied; they fade into the background, then become Democratic senators.
The aim of the bully is to bring down someone they’re threatened by, to assert their dominance over a person who reflects their insecurities back on them so that they might feel more powerful while applying a vicious wedgie. I wasn’t bullied so much as teased verbally for being eccentric, biracial, vegetarian and not particularly tough. I also had a lisp thanks to having a gap in my front teeth for years prior to my parents mercifully getting me braces in middle school. I was an easy punchline for anyone looking to score points during lunch in the quad.
Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist
Continue reading...The Bible-thumping US defense secretary is overseeing another strategic disaster in the Middle East. Is this a war or a crusade?
Nine months and six days before a Tomahawk missile tore through the gaily decorated classrooms of the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, Iran, ripping apart the bodies of schoolchildren, teachers and parents, the personal pastor of the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, delivered a sermon at the Pentagon.
“There’s a temptation to think that you’re actually in control and responsible for final outcomes, especially for those who issue the commands and do the aiming and the shooting,” preached Brooks Potteiger, Hegseth’s closest spiritual adviser, at the first of what have become monthly Christian worship services at the Department of Defense. “But you are not ultimately in charge of the world.”
Continue reading...Commentary: After a year of tinkering with the 2025 Razr, Motorola's next lower-cost foldable could steal the show.
The iPhone has been to space a few times now -- in fact, Apple products have a long history of space travel.
Why Should Delaware Care?
Last month, Delaware introduced legislation meant to bolster the state’s primary health care infrastructure and keep patients healthier on the front end. But within that bill are provisions that would cap how much providers, including the state’s powerful and profitable, health systems can charge for care.
As Delaware’s hospital systems claim a primary care reform bill would spell armageddon for their revenues, a state on the West Coast that implemented similar measures in 2017 said it realized massive savings while hospitals only saw minor reductions in revenue.
Oregon applied regulations on its hospitals in a manner similar to proposed legislation in Delaware that would cap how much providers can charge for care at 250% of what the federal government pays providers through Medicare. Oregon set its own cap even lower, at 200% of Medicare’s payout — which typically underpays providers.
Like Delaware’s Senate Bill 1, Oregon’s law focuses on its state employee health plan in an effort to bring down costs. Within a couple years, Oregon officials said the provisions saved the state more than $112 million.
In Delaware, the bill would “conservatively” save the state more than $280 million over the first five years of implementation, the Department of Insurance said in a press release after announcing the bill.
But Delaware’s proposal faces a powerful opposition from the state’s hospital systems that have a history of challenging unfavorable regulations in court, securing a victory earlier this year in a watered down oversight board meant to rein in hospital spending.
As Delaware lawmakers weigh the merits of SB 1, which they introduced last month, Oregon’s model offers a similar framework.
Where Delaware and Oregon differ in their proposals is in their exemptions. Oregon’s price caps exempted rural hospitals and providers that serve primarily Medicare patients. Additionally, Delaware’s bill would implement investments for primary care providers — an effort to reward practices that keep patients healthy and away from costly emergency room visits.
Ali Hassoun, the director of Oregon’s Public Employees Benefit Board, said in an email price caps saved the state more than $112 million in 2021.
Since its price cap legislation passed in 2017, he said one hospital had closed and another applied for a “critical access designation” to receive larger reimbursements from Medicare.
But Hassoun said neither of those hospitals were subject to the state’s price cap regulations, and some are still struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, upcoming cuts to Medicaid and Medicare are slated to have an impact on hospital budgets, he said.
Hassoun also pointed to a research paper that said changes made by Oregon “didn’t meaningfully change hospital revenues or operations during its first two years.”
Roz Murray is one of the authors of that paper and an assistant professor of health services, policy and practice at Brown University. Murray also testified at a hearing in March as one of the Delaware Department of Insurance’s experts on the bill.
Murray said the ratio of Oregon state employees covered under its state health plan is around 15%, which is close to Delaware. And like Oregon, Delaware does not have the power to regulate payment caps for those covered under private insurance plans.
She also said Delaware’s proposal would include some additional commercial plans regulated by the state’s insurance department like the Affordable Care Act and fully insured plans.
In Murray’s paper, published in 2025 she and her team did not observe any cuts to staff or reductions in payments to physicians. The paper also said the program’s “broader impact” on health care employment was unknown.
But should nothing change, the paper said the revenue losses would simply spell minor reductions in hospital budgets.
Sabrina Corlette, founder and co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University, said Oregon and other states implemented health care price caps, known as reference based pricing laws, in reaction to a “breakdown of the free market.”
She said as hospitals have consolidated and strengthened their foothold in their respective regions, they have been able to demand higher reimbursements from insurers. She said that oftentimes, those elevated costs do not actually reflect the cost of care.
Corlette said that passing laws like SB 1 is a “political balancing act” for legislators who have to weigh the impact on hospitals against the already existing cost burdens on patients.
Still, she said the revenue reductions do not always translate to job losses.
“Now it is absolutely true, though, that if you cut revenue to hospitals, they will have to tighten their belts,” Corlette said. “I don’t think it necessarily translates to, ‘Oh, we have to lay people off.’”
Senate Bill 1 is poised to be one the most consequential health care bills in recent memory, if passed in its current form.
One provision in the bill would introduce reference-based pricing to medical services covered under both insurance for state employees and some commercial plans regulated by the Department of Insurance. Essentially, this would limit the amount of money a provider could be reimbursed by insurers, tying that amount to a predetermined benchmark.
Under Delaware’s proposal, that benchmark would cap reimbursement rates at 250% of what the federal government pays providers through Medicare.
For services covered under the state’s health plan that do not have a Medicare rate to compare to, like pediatrics, the state would be able to set those rates through the State Employees Benefits Committee.
By taking aim at how high Delaware health care providers can negotiate their prices with insurers in addition to making those insurers spend 11.5% of their medical costs on primary care, the state hopes to better compensate providers proactively working to improve Delawareans’ health outcomes.
Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro said in an email those investments would apply to 45% of the state’s commercial insurance market with the addition of the state health plan and Medicaid.
In a March interview with Spotlight Delaware, Navarro said the bill would make the state more competitive for private practice and rural physicians.
When it comes to the regulation of rate-setting for some procedures covered under both state and private plans, Navarro said pricing is typically “all over the place” and that some hospitals and providers are reimbursed at much higher rates than others.
With these proposed regulations, Navarro said the state is trying to “level the playing field and spread the wealth” among providers.
Brian Frazee, of the Delaware Healthcare Association, pointed to that Medicare benchmark, saying it was a provision lawmakers tried, and failed, to introduce in previous legislation that led to a year-and-a-half long lawsuit between the state and Delaware’s largest hospital system.
Senate Bill 1 also includes language that would exempt hospitals and other health care providers from the 250% requirement if they use a “global budget model” that is approved by the state insurance department.
Global budget models set annual fixed prices for inpatient and outpatient procedures, meaning hospitals are paid on the front end to deliver services at a cost set by their previous Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements from previous years.
In neighboring Maryland, the state implemented global budgeting for all of its acute care hospitals in 2014, according to a report from Mathematica.
The post As DE debates primary care reform, a similar Oregon law offers insight appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
The Artisan Plus just got a little smarter. Here's what it does (and doesn't do).
Army deployed in Pakistan’s capital as negotiations set to begin. Plus, Melania Trump issues bafflingly timed denial of ties to Jeffrey Epstein
Good morning.
As Pakistan prepared to host negotiations between Iran and the US, the already fragile ceasefire in the conflict showed further strain as Donald Trump accused Tehran of doing “a very poor job” in upholding promises on the strait of Hormuz, and Israel attacked Lebanon – which Iran claimed violated the truce.
What about the strait of Hormuz? The agreement also included Iran lifting its near-total blockade of the strait, which has caused the worst-ever disruption to global energy supplies. Trump posted on Truth Social late Thursday that Iran was being “dishonorable” in not allowing oil to go through the strait. “That is not the agreement we have!” Trump wrote.
This is a developing story. Follow our liveblog here.
Why did she make this speech? The first lady’s surprise address created confusion about why she had chosen to speak out now – or whether her husband knew she was planning to draw attention to a subject he has called for the public to move on from.
What did she ask for? In a final twist, Melania urged Congress to give Epstein survivors a public hearing to help uncover the truth, a call immediately endorsed by the Democrat Ro Khanna and the Republicans Majorie Taylor Greene and Nancy Mace.
Continue reading...The Iran war has been an economic gift for Putin Expert comment thilton.drupal
Higher energy prices and the US decision to ease sanctions on Russian oil have given Moscow a windfall that could help to sustain its war in Ukraine.
The US-Israeli war on Iran has been a welcome gift for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
The war caused an energy crisis as oil and gas prices soared following Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Combined with the US temporarily easing sanctions on Russian oil, surging oil prices have boosted Russia’s budget and export revenues at a time when Western sanctions were hitting Russia’s economy.
This windfall will likely increase Russia’s ability to sustain the war against Ukraine. President Putin has also gained increased leverage through his influence on global energy markets at a time of crisis. He will likely hope that this could encourage US President Donald Trump to push Ukraine – and Europe – to accept a peace deal that favours Moscow.
President Trump’s decision to attack Iran in late February could not have come at a more opportune time for Putin.
In the first months of 2026, Western economic tactics against Russia appeared to be finally working. This was a result of the tightening of sanctions over the course of the past year (with tighter secondary sanctions on those trading with major Russian oil companies), the lowering of the G7 oil price cap to $46 a barrel, and a more muscular response to Russian shadow fleet tankers.
As a result, both Russian budget and export revenues from energy had dropped.
In February 2026, IEA data shows that Russia’s export revenues for oil and petroleum products had fallen by $1.5 billion for the month to just $9.5 billion – the lowest level since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In the same month, Russian oil export volumes declined to 6.6 million barrels per day (bpd), down 850,0000 bpd on the previous month and again the lowest level since 2022.
Volumes of exports appear to have been reduced not only because of the limitations from sanctions, but also due to Ukrainian drone and missile strikes on Russia’s energy sector infrastructure. Recent attacks on the Baltic ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga, alongside attacks in the Black Sea, might have cut the physical volume of Russian oil exports by as much as 40 per cent, according to Reuters.
This impacted Russia’s balance of payments. According to Emerging Market Watch, the merchandise trade surplus in January was just $6.5 billion: down around one third month on month, and over 10 per cent year on year.
It also hit the budget: oil and gas revenues were down by 45 per cent year on year for the first quarter of the year.
The deficit rose to 1.5 per cent of GDP for the first two months alone, close to the full year deficit target of 1.6 per cent of GDP. The government responded by hiking taxes, with VAT rising from 20 to 22 per cent.
Before the Iran war, Putin’s government therefore appeared set to face tightening budget restrictions, with lower revenues, increased demands from the military and reduced buffers.
With spare funds in the National Welfare Fund eroded, the government would need to cover a larger budget deficit from higher debt issuance domestically. This policy would mean higher interest rates and likely higher inflation, which would hurt growth.
The economy had already appeared on the brink of recession. Real GDP contracted in the first couple of months of 2026, and the IMF’s full-year forecast for real GDP growth was just 0.8 per cent.
The Russian economy has increasingly appeared as two-speed. The military-industrial sector is still benefiting from ramped up defence spending and prioritization. But the rest of the economy has been beset by high inflation, debt and interest rates, as well as labour shortages.
This is reflected in bankruptcies rising in 2025 by 31 per cent to 568,000. The Central Bank of Russia introduced new regulations aimed at mitigating credit risks to banks on 1 March – a move it would not take if the outlook was rosy.
But just as the economic downturn appeared set to force Putin to make difficult choices – perhaps having to concede ground in Ukraine peace talks – the US-Israeli war on Iran gifted Putin a huge win.
In the near term, this will serve as a get out of jail card for Putin. Higher oil and energy prices, and the US decision to ease sanctions on Russian oil, will bolster budget and balance of payments inflows to Russia.
Urals oil prices look set to have tripled, and this could easily boost oil and energy receipts to Russia by as much as $10 billion per month, as per Bloomberg calculations. According to Bloomberg, in the week to April 5, Russian oil export receipts had returned to the highest level since June 2022. And according to Reuters calculations, revenue from Russia’s largest single oil tax will double to $9 billion in April as a result of the spike in prices.
All this is a huge windfall gain for Russia, giving Putin more funds to wage the war against Ukraine.
However, there are a couple of important caveats to bear in mind.
First, much still depends on the ability of Ukraine to keep up its attacks on Russian oil energy export infrastructure, highlighted above. While Russian oil may have increased in price, if the physical quantity of exports is constrained, then the benefits to Russia’s overall budget and balance of payments will be limited.
Russia was able to take advantage of the spike in oil prices because it sold down some of the 140 million barrels of oil that had been stuck at sea due to sanctions. It now only has around 100 million barrels of that stock, which will be slow to replenish if Ukraine keeps up pressure on Russian ports.
Second, in these periods of systemic global risk, there are often unclear or unpredictable secondary impacts. For example, gold prices have also dropped around 15 per cent from their January 2026. Russia had benefited from a huge $200 billion windfall from the increase in the price of gold, but will now see much of that gain – around $55 billion – disappear in paper losses, according to calculations based on Bloomberg data.
How to keep the Strait of Hormuz open in the long term Expert comment jon.wallace
Iran will be reluctant to give up the leverage it has gained in the Strait. But options exist to try and change its perspective.
On 7 April the United States and Iran announced a ceasefire, including the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait has been closed since 2 March following the outbreak of the conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran.
Since the late 1980s, the Strait has enjoyed uninterrupted traffic, with no countries charging fees for transit. There have been risks to shipping in that period, from the 1990 Gulf War to threats from Iran in the mid-2010s. But shipping continued through the Strait, albeit with higher insurance costs.
But over the past month, Iran has laid sea mines, bombed ships, and charged fees for transit in order to assert its control over this vital waterway. As part of its 10-point ceasefire plan, Tehran has demanded that its control over Hormuz should continue.
According to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, passage through the Strait will be allowed during the two-week ceasefire, under management by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). After that, Iran and Oman will charge fees on ship transit.
Over the past month, various efforts have been made to secure shipping through the Strait. From 18-19 March, the International Maritime Organization called for a ‘safe passage framework’ to facilitate the evacuation of merchant ships and crew trapped in the Gulf by the Strait closure.
On 2 April, the UK held talks with over 40 countries to discuss options to press Iran to re-open the Strait. A few days later, the United Nations Security Council voted on a resolution from Bahrain and Gulf Cooperation Council countries about using protective measures to re-open the Strait. The resolution ultimately failed.
Meanwhile, very few ships have transited the Strait since the ceasefire was announced. As such, the ceasefire has only created more uncertainty about transit through the Strait, further deterring commercial shipping.
The question remains: how can the Strait be re-opened safely – and kept open for the future? It is a complex challenge, interconnected with negotiation with the US. But options exist that could help influence Tehran’s thinking.
Effective control of the Strait of Hormuz gives Iran an asymmetric advantage that helps shield it from what it views as an existential threat from US and Israeli strikes – and generates significant funds for a country still under sanctions and badly damaged by the war. Iran will not easily give up this leverage.
However, this is not a sustainable long-term strategy for the world – or for Tehran. Iran’s economy is structurally dependent on oil exports, and it imports industrial goods and food through the Strait. Closing the Strait constrains its own revenue stream and undercuts its maritime logistics industry.
Diplomats will need to consider how to shift Tehran’s perception so that the normal operation of the Strait becomes a preferable option.
As such, Iran must be a party to any agreement over the Strait. Mediators should therefore consider options that are palatable to the regime. This does not mean accepting Iran’s terms about maintaining permanent control over the Strait. But it does require making Iran a beneficiary in the process of re-opening. Realistically this may require structured sanctions relief and joint management of the Strait.
Already the Trump administration has demonstrated a willingness to compromise: On 20 March, the US Treasury lifted sanctions on Iranian oil already at sea.
And, when asked about Iran’s plans to charge fees for ship transit, Trump said he is considering a ‘joint venture’ with Tehran to set up tolls in the Strait of Hormuz.
Likewise, any naval convoys designed to escort ships through the region would have to include Iran. The Strait cannot be opened by force. Escorts could pair limited Iranian exports with other commercial ships. Joint transits would deter Iranian attack, because they would include Iranian goods as well. Whether through sanctions relief or not, Iranian exports are still transiting through Hormuz to the exclusion of nearly everyone else.
At present, Iran’s toll-like system requires ships to enter Iranian waters to pass an IRCG verification process. As a confidence-building measure, verification for transit could be put in place – not from Iran, but perhaps with Iran.
This could come in the form of multilateral management or in partnership with countries that can provide complementary escorts and security guarantees. It seems that Oman may be considering such a partnership with Iran over the Strait. This could be expanded to include more regional security partners.
The Gulf lacks comprehensive maritime security frameworks and protocols. Iran, for example, is not a party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS). And the UAE, Bahrain, Iran, and others are not signatories on the 1979 Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue.
Furthermore, the Gulf still faces maritime boundary disputes that preclude the establishment of such legal frameworks. As a result, international law is unevenly applied and enforced. So long as that remains the case, it will be harder to rebuild confidence in Gulf shipping.
Region-specific provisions are needed for basic maritime coordination between littoral states. This could include the establishment of search and rescue zones, traffic management schemes, regional information fusion centres, and law enforcement cooperation to counter piracy and illegal fishing.
In the Gulf, the Djibouti Code of Conduct (DCoC) for East Africa offers a useful model to consider. The DCoC was adopted in 2009 by 20 countries including Djibouti, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen to strengthen cooperation against piracy.
The Code establishes a framework for information sharing, law enforcement, and maritime security operations focused on the Western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden. In 2017, the Code was revised to include broader maritime security issues like narcotics trafficking and illegal fishing.
Such longer-term agreements offer mechanisms to coordinate ship interdictions, facilitate information exchange, develop common threat perceptions, and harmonize legal processes. In an era of grey zone warfare, this may be best path forward.
Previous chokepoint agreements like the Black Sea Grain Deal or the Montreux Convention regarding the Regime of the Straits have been suggested as models for how to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
But these example agreements won’t work in the Gulf. There is no country like Turkey that has the geography, politics, or capabilities to unilaterally guarantee movement through the Strait.
Less recognized practices like the Malacca Straits Patrol (MSP) between Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand offer more realistic models for Hormuz. MSP was launched in 2004 to enhance security in the Malacca Strait and bolster existing bilateral arrangements.
Participating navies conducted coordinated sea patrols and practiced information sharing between ships and naval operation centres. As a result of its success, Lloyd’s Joint War Risk Committee dropped the classification of the Malacca Strait as a ‘war risk area’ in 2006.
Under the International Maritime Organization, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia also established the Malacca Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) and STRAITREP system to enhance safety of navigation in the Malacca Strait and the region. The TSS and MSP are both viable models for future traffic monitoring and verification process in the Gulf region.
I spent several weeks testing under-desk treadmills to see if they could actually help me maintain my step count from the comfort of my home.
Study that reportedly found reduction in ER visits and hospitalizations being reviewed by Jay Bhattacharya
A Trump administration appointee has delayed publication of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that shows benefits related to the Covid vaccine, leading to concerns that the administration is engaging in behind-the-scenes tactics to undermine vaccines.
Research by CDC scientists found that the Covid vaccine cut the likelihood of emergency room visits and hospitalizations for healthy adults last winter by about half, according to reporting from the Washington Post. The acting CDC director, Jay Bhattacharya, reportedly delayed the report’s publication due to concerns surrounding the research’s methodology.
Continue reading...Tania Warner and her daughter were detained in Texas facilities deemed ‘unsafe and degrading’
When Tania Warner and her seven-year-old daughter, Ayla, were released after nearly three weeks of detention by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Canadian mother’s joy at regaining her freedom was tempered by the knowledge of the many families who remained incarcerated.
“They were wonderful people. I just loved them and I cried so hard when I left, I just wanted to take them all with me,” she said.
Continue reading...Meta has started removing ads from law firms seeking clients for social media addiction lawsuits, just weeks after a jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in a landmark case involving harm to a young user. "Lawyers across the country now are seeking new plaintiffs, in the hopes of bringing a class action lawsuit that could result in lucrative verdicts," reports Axios. From the report: Axios has identified more than a dozen such ads that were deactivated today, some of which came from large national firms like Morgan & Morgan and Sokolove Law. Almost all of them ran on both Facebook and Instagram. Some also appeared on Threads and Messenger, plus Meta's Audience Network -- which distributes ads to thousands of third-party sites. One such ad read: "Anxiety. Depression. Withdrawal. Self-harm. These aren't just teenage phases -- they're symptoms linked to social media addiction in children. Platforms knew this and kept targeting kids anyway." A few of the ads still remain active, including some that were posted earlier today. "We're actively defending ourselves against these lawsuits and are removing ads that attempt to recruit plaintiffs for them," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. "We will not allow trial lawyers to profit from our platforms while simultaneously claiming they are harmful."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Despite problems during the unpiloted Artemis I reentry, the Artemis II crew is confident their heat shield will protect them during a fiery descent to Earth on Friday.
Campaigning in Newcastle before next month’s local elections shows the rise of the far right, the climate and cost of living are concerning voters as much as the Middle East
Mohammed Suleman, a self-described “straight-talking Geordie”, doesn’t love politics. The taxi driver and businessman prefers to focus on community initiatives. But when the time came, he voted Labour as the lesser of two evils.
Then came the war in Gaza.
Continue reading...Negotiators of 2015 deal say Tehran has seen how cutting off Hormuz strait can help it counter asymmetry of power
Former US envoys who dealt with Iran have said that the US-Israeli attack on Iran and Tehran’s subsequent closure of the strait of Hormuz have given Iran new tools and resolve to resist pressure to shutter its nuclear programme.
Two senior negotiators for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Obama-era agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief, said the Trump administration’s war had handed Iran a coveted weapon by demonstrating its ability to cut off the strait of Hormuz, an economic chokehold that one negotiator said would help Iran “balance the asymmetry of power” with the US.
Continue reading...Lee Milne sentenced to eight years in landmark case after being found guilty of culpable homicide of Kimberly Milne
A man convicted of killing his wife, who took her own life after repeated domestic abuse, has been jailed for eight years in a case seen as a significant legal milestone.
Kimberly Milne, 28, died when she jumped from a bridge in July 2023. Her estranged husband, Lee Milne, was found guilty of culpable homicide last month after a trial at the high court in Glasgow.
In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
Continue reading...Profiting from Chaos? Russia’s Energy Windfall from a Fragmented Middle East 21 April 2026 — 14:00 TO 15:00 BST Anonymous (not verified) Online
Experts assess how conflict in the Middle East is reshaping energy markets, driving Russia’s gains, and undermining the impact of Western sanctions.
Experts assess how conflict in the Middle East is reshaping energy markets, driving Russia’s gains, and undermining the impact of Western sanctions.The US-Israeli war against Iran has triggered a global pandemonium on energy markets, disrupted key strategic supply chains and reshuffled the cards of the global geopolitical game. Russia thus far clearly emerges as one of the biggest benefiters from the chaos in the Persian Gulf, and is seeing a significant -yet temporary for now- financial reversal of fortune. Just when the synced US-EU sanctions on Russian oil were starting to bear fruit, the sudden strain on global energy markets has bolstered Russia’s geostrategic position as a resilient and indispensable energy supplier, able to ease pressure on global energy prices.
It's also rocking an Intel Panther Lake CPU and is exceptionally thin and light for a 16-inch laptop.
Netflix is fully stocked with epic fantasy shows.
John Feeley says US president was ‘flush with victory’ of Maduro capture and could make same mistake in Cuba
Donald Trump is “reaping the bitter fruit” of erroneously thinking that the capture of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, offered a blueprint for toppling the Iranian regime, according to one of the US state department’s most respected former Latin America experts.
John Feeley, a Marine helicopter pilot who later served as the US ambassador to Panama, believed Trump had been “flush with the victory from Venezuela” when he made the ill-fated decision to attack Iran in February, leaving a trail of destruction across the Middle East and dealing a hammer blow to the global economy.
Continue reading...Trump to attend correspondents’ dinner for first time as president, while some newsrooms ‘wrestle’ with whether to go
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) is surely hoping that Donald Trump will take a more diplomatic tone later this month when he makes his first appearance as president at the organization’s glitzy dinner in Washington DC, an annual event meant to honor and celebrate journalists and press freedom.
On Monday, Trump threatened to imprison a journalist if they refused to reveal the source of information that a second US airman was still missing after being shot down by Iran last Friday, which he claimed put the service member at risk.
Continue reading...The restructuring will close all regional offices, which manages 193m acres of land, roughly the size of Texas
US public lands will “pay the price” of a drive by Donald Trump’s officials to restructure the agency that oversees them, union leaders have warned, accusing the administration of forcing workers to decide whether to relocate or resign.
All regional offices of the US Forest Service, which manages 78m hectares (193m acres) of land – roughly the size of Texas – are set to close as part of an overhaul launched by the Trump administration. The service has already shed hundreds of staff members since Trump returned to power last year.
Continue reading...Apple released the first of these updates in March, but here's how to enable them to download automatically to your device in the future.
Why Should Delaware Care?
In recent years, the unhoused community in Wilmington has grown in size. In response, Mayor John Carney introduced a short-term plan to convert an Eastside park into the only city-sanctioned encampment. But in recent weeks, pushback to city mandates have sparked protests.
Wilmington’s plans to move Christina Park’s unhoused residents into city-issued tents were set back for a second time within a week as protests again disrupted the rollout.
After converging on the park Wednesday, protesters called on city officials to use safer materials for pallets on which tents are placed. They also urged the city not to force residents to stay in the government-provided tents, particularly after some were inundated with water and began to collapse after a storm last week.
But city officials told Spotlight Delaware that there have been no major changes to their plans, and said their initiative to move residents out of their own tents will continue.
“We will maintain safety and order in the park while working with our partners to identify a more permanent solution,” Caroline Klinger, spokesperson for the mayor’s office, said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware.
Still, on one apparent conciliatory note, the officials on Wednesday brought in tarps and a different model of tents, which were larger and appeared to be more durable than the ones the city set up last week.
For residents, the city’s mandate that they move out of their own tents and into city-issued ones has not been well planned. Many noted that last week’s storm soaked their clothes and belongings in those new tents. Two also pointed to an empty pallet where a tent once stood. They said it blew away overnight during the storm.
“I’ve been scared to stay in it,” said park resident Tiffany Lawler, referring to her city-issued tent. Instead, Lawler said she has been staying in a friend’s private tent.
The competing visions for the unhoused community at Christina Park have led to days of tensions. During the late morning on Wednesday, protesters began a demonstration by standing on the wooden pallets that workers were planning to move into the encampment.
They argued the pallets posed a safety risk to residents, citing, among other things, sharp edges that could tear tents.
“Pallets have to go as well. It’s not our fault that they can’t buy the right stuff,” Joe Connor, a resident who joined the protest, said.
Throughout the protest, which lasted a few hours, police maintained a heavy presence, with more than half a dozen officers on site, as well as a police wagon.
By the early afternoon, Wilmington Police Major Anthony Bowers reached an agreement with demonstrators to halt their protest in exchange for the city ending their pallet installations for the day. The agreement echoed a similar one struck the previous week when a police officer convinced protesters then to stand down then.
Throughout the rest of the day, employees of the social services organization, Friendship House, worked with volunteers to replace many of the city’s original tents with new ones.
“We’ll put some tents down for the people who don’t have the tents, with the pallets already there. And then we’ll regroup with public works, and we’ll talk about it,” Bowers said to protesters.
In response to concerns about the pallets, Klinger said repairs can be made by the organization that constructed them. She further stated that tents on pallets is a preferable setup to them being placed directly on the ground.
“As soon as city employees can safely get the pallets unstacked without disruption, the community organization who made them can come out and address any necessary repairs,” Kilinger said.
Wilmington spent more than $50,000 for the construction of the wooden pallets and the labor to set them up. The city spent $4,000 for the initial 105 tents, and then another $4,000 for the additional 28 durable tents.
Last week, housing advocates and University of Delaware students first protested the city’s plan to revamp part of Christina Park into a grid system by placing residents and the uniform, city-provided tents into designated squares.
Officials from Mayor John Carney’s office said then that the decision was made out of concern for the park’s appearance, as well as to make it easier for paramedic crews to respond to emergencies in the community.
Prior to the setup of the first set of tents, residents were told to collect their belongings and keep them inside the new tents. Only one bike and a chair would be allowed outside, according to the city’s rules.
Previously, residents of the encampment had chosen their own spaces, spreading throughout the park with tents, sofas, generators, and grills.
Last week Carney’s chief of staff, Cerron Cade, told Spotlight Delaware that those who refuse to move to city-provided tents would have to leave the encampment entirely.
“We have to have some rules. And if folks don’t want to follow the rules, there’s no doors to the park. They can leave,” Cade said.
Thus far, residents at the park are split on how they feel about the city’s plans. Many residents are still living on the opposite side of the city’s grid in their own tents. And some individuals have multiple tents, one for sleeping and others to keep food and personal belongings.
“I always go back to ‘what if your family was out here in one of those and it collapsed, or it folded?’” said one resident, Ron “Philly” Simmons, who has acted as a de-facto leader of the community during its first few months as a city-sanctioned encampment.
“You want me to give up five tents to move into that? Over my dead body,” he said.
Another resident told Spotlight Delaware that while he accepted a city-issued tent, he agreed with protesters and has quietly continued living in his original tent in opposition to the city’s plan.
“Now that’s the tent they gave me. That’s compliance. That’s the tent I live in. That’s resilience. But you know what? No one’s saying anything to me,” said the resident, who only provided his first name as Greg.
But other residents say they are grateful for the city’s help in providing new tents to stay in.
One resident, Carl, who had been staying at the Sunday Breakfast Mission, said he came to the park after hearing the city was distributing tents. He said having his own tent gives him a sense of personal space and allows him to avoid the shelter’s religious requirements and conflicts with other residents.
Lawler told Spotlight that she’s hopeful the new tents will hold up better and said she’s still in support of the city’s initiative. She only hopes that officials don’t force people who do not want to stay in the tents to be able to stay where they are.
“They got their grid right here, leave them alone,” she said.
The post Protests again stall the Christina Park tent overhaul appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
The former Fox host has misled the public, prayed for violence and clashed with the press. This is not a serious military leader
With his jawline firm and his hair coiffed, Pete Hegseth was a good fit as a Fox News personality.
As the defense secretary – or secretary of war, as his boss, Donald Trump would have it – he’s disastrous.
Continue reading...Democratic representative Yassamin Ansari says the war has only more deeply entrenched the Iranian regime
Donald Trump is an “evil human being” who “wants to be an emperor” and should be removed from office over the war in Iran, Yassamin Ansari, an Iranian American member of the US Congress, has told the Guardian.
Ansari, the daughter of Iranian immigrants who decades ago fled the regime, spoke out after the president threatened to wipe out Iran’s civilisation before backing down and announcing an uncertain two-week ceasefire.
Continue reading...Vice President JD Vance is set to lead renewed negotiations with Iran this weekend to bring an end to the U.S.–Israel war on the country that stretched into a second month. The talks come after a roller coaster of a week, which began with President Donald Trump threatening genocidal war crimes against Iran.
“A whole civilization will die tonight,” he wrote on social media, “never to be brought back again.”
Trump urged Iran to make a deal with the U.S. and fully open the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET. Then, shortly before the deadline, Trump took to social media again to say Iran and the U.S. had reached a two-week ceasefire agreement brokered by Pakistan. Trump said the U.S. received a workable 10-point plan from Iran to begin negotiations on a durable ending to the war. In the meantime, Iran said it would allow for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Israel, however, immediately intensified its attacks on Lebanon, jeopardizing the already tenuous ceasefire. More than 300 people were killed in Lebanon by Israeli airstrikes the day after the ceasefire was announced.
The terms of the plan are not yet clear but there are some key factors for Iran, says Narges Bajoghli, a professor of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
“One is that Iran is asking for non-aggression from the United States into the future. It won’t take the United States’s word for it. It’s already been burned by the U.S. multiple times,” Bajoghil tells The Intercept Briefing. “Then the other big thing is sanctions relief.” But “Iran’s biggest red line is its sovereignty and independence.”
This week on the podcast, Bajoghil speaks to senior Intercept editor Ali Gharib about the path that led the U.S. back to the negotiating table with Iran. This war has proven, Bajoghil says, “both to the decision-makers in Iran, to the Iranian population, and then more importantly to the international world, is that Iran’s real deterrence actually doesn’t come from a potential nuclear bomb, but it comes from the ability to be able to stop or regulate traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.”
She notes, “In many ways, what actually has potentially led to this ceasefire is the fact that Iran is able to create a chokehold over 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas trade. That is an extremely powerful weapon that they have in their hands and in many ways can force shifts to happen geopolitically in a much faster way than a nuclear bomb can.”
Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.
Ali Gharib: Welcome to The Intercept Briefing. I’m Ali Gharib, a senior editor at The Intercept.
Akela Lacy: And I am Akela Lacy, senior politics reporter at the Intercept and co-host of the Intercept Briefing.
AG: Akela, how are you doing? It’s been a pretty wild week. We’ve had genocidal threats. We’ve had ceasefire agreements. Now we have a shaky ceasefire agreement. Traffic opened up in the Strait of Hormuz. It closed back down. How are you viewing all this?
AL: I am struggling to keep up with the fast-changing developments, but my overall takeaway this week has been thinking about what, if any, recourse our institutional democracy provides for this kind of thing, or is supposed to provide? We have a lot of Democrats coming out and talking about invoking the 25th Amendment and instituting articles of impeachment. It feels like we’ve seen all of this before.
So it’s kind of like, yeah, we have a crazy genocidal maniac running the country. People keep telling me the checks and balances are working. I’m not convinced that the checks and balances are working.
AG: Well, tell it to the people in Tehran and all over Iran and in central Beirut that these checks and balances aren’t working, and the madman theory of conducting foreign policy seems like a much bigger gamble when it’s an actual madman.
OK, well, let’s talk a little bit about that. Obviously, we had this last-minute ceasefire agreement on Tuesday night between Iran and the U.S. through Pakistani mediation that came just on the precipice of the deadline expiring for Trump’s threat to, let’s call it what it is, commit genocide against Iran.
Almost immediately, the ceasefire came under strain by a few residual tit-for-tat attacks. The Iranians said that they faced a couple Israeli attacks on energy infrastructure, and the Emirates said that the Iranians were still hitting them with drones and missiles. And in short order, however, those attacks slowed down, and by all accounts, the Americans have stopped bombing Iran.
What seems to be the biggest strain on the ceasefire at this point is an incredible, almost mind-numbing level of assault that the Israelis launched against Lebanon. Can you talk a little bit about what happened there and how this has played out in public bickering between Iran and the U.S.?
AL: Something that I think has been not lost in the coverage, but under-appreciated about this war is that while the U.S. and Israel have been bombing Iran, Israel has been waging war around the world basically since October 7, pretty unchecked. Multiple acts of aggression that we covered on this podcast — obviously the latest of which is razing Southern Lebanon.
On Wednesday, there were more than 200 people killed in just one day. That’s a small fraction of the total number of people who have been killed in all of these strikes that we’re talking about.
But my reaction to this is that it feels like Israel is able to get away with this aggression, particularly against Lebanon, because we write it off because of Hezbollah, or we don’t consider the retaliation against regional countries as part of the war, even though people are being killed every single day with the implicit approval of the U.S.
“People are being killed every single day with the implicit approval of the U.S.”
AG: Yeah, with U.S. bombs as part of the U.S. war. That has been the key sticking point. When the Pakistani prime minister announced the ceasefire, or rather made the request of the Trump administration for a ceasefire — with a tweet that the New York Times later reported had been approved in advance by the Trump administration — we saw that he included Lebanon in the ceasefire. Of course, the Israelis quickly came out and said Lebanon was not involved in the ceasefire and kept going.
JD Vance immediately sided with the Israelis, and now he’s going to be the guy who’s going to be going to Pakistan along with our two favorite real estate agent Trump aides: Steve Witkoff, who was involved in the original Iran talks that were interrupted by this war, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has no official role in the administration, but is extremely close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and could very easily allow Netanyahu and Israeli aggression to play spoiler in these talks.
AL: The other thing that I found maddening was that this week, I mean the day that Trump sent this tweet calling for genocide in Iran, where was JD Vance? In Hungary trying to help Viktor Orbán not lose his election this upcoming weekend.
Then there was this huge puff piece in the Times centering JD Vance as the person who really tried to stop the president from dragging us into war with Iran. Now he’s being put forth as the negotiator in these ongoing talks. I mean, when you have a Cabinet full of evil villainous characters, these are the people who are running the world.
I don’t even know the word to describe it — the fact that he’s being upheld as this person who was trying to keep Trump from going to war with Iran, while he’s halfway across the world trying to save another far-right authoritarian figure from losing because he is so unpopular, and yet we’re praising him at home in the paper of record. The framing of this was that he did something huge and valorous, when really it was showing modest opposition and, at the end of everything, agreeing to go along with it. So what are we celebrating here?
AG: Yeah, there’s a tiny bit of room to be optimistic in a world where every option is like a complete pile of crap. It’s like, maybe this is our one shining pile of crap that we can look to. It might be that he was the only guy that said something. But yeah, it doesn’t inspire much confidence that he has been like every other official who’s gotten anywhere near Trump’s circle of power: a complete sycophant of the president, has gone along and agreed with what the president says, and in the end, we still have this complete madman calling the shots.
So I spoke this week with Narges Bajoghli about the ceasefire, about the 10-point plan, and what this looks like for regional dynamics going forward. Narges is an associate professor of anthropology and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University. She’s written several books including “Iran Reframed” and “How Sanctions Work in Iran.” Her upcoming book is called “Weapons Against Humanity.” It’s about how the Middle East became the physical, political, and moral workshop for the global weapons industry.
AL: That sounds fascinating. Let’s hear that conversation.
AG: Narges, welcome to the Intercept Briefing.
Narges Bajoghli: It’s lovely to be with you.
AG: The pleasure is all ours.
So before we get started, I just wanted to note that we’re speaking on Wednesday morning. This is the day after Iran and the U.S. reached a temporary ceasefire agreement following Trump’s threats to annihilate the whole civilization of Iran. So let’s jump right in from there.
OK, just to quickly recap the week. On Tuesday morning, Trump threatened this genocidal war against Iran. Basically said he wanted to do war crimes and wipe out the whole civilization of Iran. He said, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” The warning came hours before a deadline that Trump had put on Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
That deadline was set for Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. About an hour and a half before that Trump announced this ceasefire. The terms of it aren’t exactly clear, but it does seem that it was brokered by Pakistan. Iran had introduced this 10-point plan. The ceasefire is to last for two weeks. The straits are to be reopened. Those are some basic things we know.
So in this 10-point plan, as far as we can tell, and in the ceasefire agreement, what’s Iran asking for and how likely is it that they can get there from the Trump administration? What does the Trump administration want from them?
NB: Two key things. One is that Iran is asking for non-aggression from the United States into the future. It won’t take the United States’ word for it. It’s already been burned by the U.S. multiple times. This is potentially where China’s involvement in this Pakistan-mediated ceasefire might play a big role. And it’s been reported that it has.
Then the other big thing is sanctions relief. If Iran ends this and goes back to its sanctions pre-war status quo, that’s going to be unacceptable to Iran. So a big component of this is going to be lifting of at least a very large number of sanctions against Iran.
AG: We should just say that this is a sanctions program that’s been on since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, but really kicked into high gear about 15 years ago. Then when Trump came into his first term, started this program of “maximum pressure” that totally crippled Iran — impoverished it.
The sanctions have been over Iran’s nuclear program. That’s also part of what the Trump administration says that it’s getting from Iran as part of this plan, though that didn’t appear in Iran’s readout of the 10-point plan. I saw in the FT on Wednesday morning that a diplomat had told the paper that the version of the 10-point plan that they were getting wasn’t exactly the version that Iran had put out publicly.
How likely is it that Iran would be willing to compromise on its nuclear program? For example, remove it entirely, which has been a red line for them this entire time — especially given as you said, that they’re not likely to trust a U.S. non-aggression guarantee.
NB: Iran’s biggest red line is its sovereignty and independence. Within that, the nuclear program is part and parcel of it. Will it concede to certain kinds of negotiations on the nuclear program? Yes, of course. This was also part of the negotiations that were ongoing prior to the start of this war. But will it give up its high-enriched uranium completely and give it up to the United States? I find that to be a very difficult thing to be happening after this war.
It’s important to note that from the Iranian perspective, in many ways its infrastructure has been really battered. Its residential buildings, its economic hubs have been really battered throughout all of this bombing of the past 40 days.
“Iranians and the Islamic Republic understands that they can continue to withstand extreme amounts of pain in order to sustain Iran’s sovereignty and independence.”
But from Iran’s perspective and many Iranians themselves, they see that they are coming out of this victorious simply because no real regime change has taken place, Iran’s territory has not been shifted, and Iran’s state has not collapsed, nor has Iran fractured. These are all of the things that at different points in time, the Israelis or the Americans were saying were a part of this war effort.
In the face of that, Iranians and the Islamic Republic understands that they can continue to withstand extreme amounts of pain in order to sustain Iran’s sovereignty and independence. They will not give up things, whether it is complete control over the Strait of Hormuz or the nuclear program in order to please Trump at this stage.
AG: This obviously has been one of the hairiest issues here. I want to talk about the government’s resilience in a moment, but just to get back to this nuclear issue.
When we’re talking about the nuclear issue, of course, the U.S. and Israel have maintained for decades that Iran is building nuclear programs. Iran says that this is an energy program, but that terrain seems to be shifting throughout the course of this war with the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who is the cleric in charge of the government, who had issued a fatwa — a religious declaration — saying that nuclear bombs were not permitted. But Iranian officials have seemed to be reconsidering that, according to some news reports.
When we talk about the nuclear program and what Iran’s willing to give up — can you just give us a little brief primer on how that became such a point of tension, and where you think things might be likely to go from this point as far as what Iran might have its eyes on? Is there something to the fact that they think that they might need a nuclear weapon to defend their sovereignty, which as you said is the top priority? Is that going to become a non-starter because of whatever negotiations happen from here forward?
NB: First of all, Iran began developing the infrastructure for nuclear energy prior to even the revolution, during the shah’s time. Then after the revolution, especially after the Iran–Iraq War, it began to invest again in the development of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
As you stated, the main purpose of it was for internal scientific and energy reasons. As I think many people now realize, even though Iran has been under all of these severe sanctions for upwards to close to five decades, investment in science in Iran, investment in medical advancement, in engineering — all of this has been very important for not just the Islamic Republic, but I think the Iranian nation as a whole.
The way that they have talked about the nuclear program and the way that even it has been verified over and over by U.N. agencies and others is that there has not been evidence of it moving toward a weaponization of this. Netanyahu himself has been, obviously, for close to 30 years now, keeps saying that Iran is weaponizing and is just a little while away from the bomb. But all of the inspectors seem to disagree with this.
Now, in this war, as you said, and also during the 12-Day War last June, there has been increased conversations within both Iranian decision-making circles as well as the general population that maybe Iran needs to go for a bomb in order to establish real deterrence against Israel and the United States. That is very much a debate that is alive right now.
However, I think one thing that this war — that currently we are under potentially a ceasefire on — has proven both to the decision-makers in Iran, to the Iranian population, and then more importantly to the international world, is that Iran’s real deterrence actually doesn’t come from a potential nuclear bomb, but it comes from the ability to be able to stop or regulate traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
So in many ways, what actually has potentially led to this ceasefire is the fact that Iran is able to create a chokehold over 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas trade. That is an extremely powerful weapon that they have in their hands and in many ways can force shifts to happen geopolitically in a much faster way than a nuclear bomb can.
“ Iran’s real deterrence actually doesn’t come from a potential nuclear bomb, but it comes from the ability to be able to stop or regulate traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.”
Iran’s decision makers have also studied very, very closely what happened in Iraq and Libya and other countries, Syria, around the region that attempted to go toward building of potential nuclear energy. So Iran, especially from 2003 onward, has utilized the nuclear program as a lever that they could bring onto the international stage, especially with the United States, to negotiate.
So the nuclear program for Iranian decision-makers — yes, it has importance for development of scientific knowledge within the country and energy infrastructure. But more importantly, it was really used as a thing that could bring the United States to the negotiation table.
Today, what is becoming apparent is that, in many ways, the nuclear program before this war hit was a dead end. It actually became a bigger liability for Iran then the ability to be able to bring the United States to the table. Today, what they’re faced with is the fact that actually the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s control over it is what is not only bringing the United States to the table, but has the ability actually to bypass U.S. sanctions and be able to force other countries to deal directly with Iran economically than to even have to worry about the U.S. sanctions.
So I think in many ways the calculation here about the utility of the nuclear program for international diplomacy is beginning to lessen, as Iran is beginning to realize that the biggest card they have in their hands is the Strait of Hormuz.
AG: Fascinating. That also would seem to open the door exactly to a compromise on the nuclear issue in order to get the relief that they’ve been pushing for from this sanctions regime.
Now I want to talk about the idea of the Strait of Hormuz and the regional picture, because you wrote a great piece in Foreign Affairs called “Iran’s Long Game,” about the history of the Islamic Republic over about the past half decade or so, has proven to the country that it’s on its own and that they won’t be able to compete on conventional grounds with foreign militaries.
That’s especially true of course, in this war, we see Israel and the U.S. have this overwhelming firepower. And Iran, after years of sanctions, has been hobbled, both its economy, but also to some extent its ability to large-scale industrial mass production — but that hasn’t affected so much the weapons program. Of course, we’ve seen that one of the goals of this war for Israel and the U.S. has been to degrade Iran’s missile program, and while the amounts of missiles being fired has certainly been reduced, Iran clearly has some material left in its arsenal that have still been hitting Israel, Gulf countries, U.S. installations, and some of that has begun to slip through more and more missile defense systems.
Can you just talk about what the after-effect of this war and whatever has happened to Iran’s industrial capacity might mean for that long game going forward? Is this going to become a thing that becomes more focused on the strait? Or is this going to continue to be the broad-based regional program for Iran that is going to be small missile drone attacks on regional installations to heighten the cost for its neighbors of their alliance with the U.S.?
NB: The lessons Iran took from the Iran-Iraq War was that the way that it was viewed in Iran was that this was a war by the United States and the West using Iraq in order to weaken the new revolutionary state at that time.
AG: We should say this was a nearly a decade[long] war between a young Islamic Republic and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, where Iran was fighting on its own, and Saddam Hussein was backed by the West, basically, had the conventional edge, and Iran, very improbably, with great sacrifices, held on and preserved the Islamic Republic.
NB: Exactly, and that’s really important background to have. So how did Iran fight that war was that it was forced in many ways to fight it asymmetrically. And Iran then made the decision that it could not invest and create an air force that would be equal to Israel or the United States.
“How Iran could move forward in its defense posture was to create asymmetric warfare as central to their defense posture and central to their strategy militarily.”
That in many ways how Iran could move forward in its defense posture was to create asymmetric warfare as central to their defense posture and central to their strategy militarily. That then became tested again once the global war on terror started after September 11, when the United States invaded Iraq. Very famously, they said that next on the book would be Iran.
In order to prevent that attack from happening, Iran’s Quds Forces or the IRGC — the Revolutionary Guards’ extraterritorial forces — which at the time were later led by Qassim Suleimani, they developed also then asymmetric warfare to deal with the Americans in Iraq, later in Syria, later also, and obviously throughout all this time with Lebanon and Israel.
So asymmetric warfare is really cemented within how the IRGC has developed its weapons program, as well as its strategy moving forward. It has realized that these missiles and these drones are an effective way of, yes, Iran will sustain a lot of damage — as it has this past month and moving forward — but it is also able to inflict damage whether to its neighbors or to Israel or, importantly, to America’s military bases.
What it has also done is taken that idea of asymmetrical defense of the country, as we see in like this mosaic defense that they have created throughout the country where they have decentralized decision-making. The way in which, for example, Iran’s electricity — even though Trump was threatening to hit these power plants — the reality is, even if Trump had hit the largest power plants in Iran, that only supplies a little bit above 2.3 percent of the population because they have decentralized how electricity is run in the country. Because they understand that an Iran that demands sovereignty and independence is a threat to the United States and the U.S. posture in the Middle East.
“The way that Iran will fight any of these wars going into the future, if it continues, is that it knows that time is on its hands.”
So it has decentralized and taken that asymmetric warfare across all kinds of planning. That also includes the manufacturing of its drones and its missiles, which are deep underground in Iran’s mountains. So in essence, no foreign intel agency really knows how many missiles and drones Iran has. It doesn’t know where all of the different manufacturing sites of these are in these mountains.
This, again, is something that Iran has developed in order to be able to have a long fight of attrition against the United States and Israel. Because the way that Iran will fight any of these wars going into the future, if it continues, is that it knows that time is on its hands. Time is in its favor. And that by being able to do all of these things in an underground fashion, it has a particular kind of power, in a conventional sense, it would not have.
[Break]
AG: On Tuesday, we had this threat to annihilate Iranian civilization, and leading up to that the threat had been all about these broad-based attacks on power, on bridges, on infrastructure. And as we’ve seen from a decade and a half of these extremely stringent sanctions, and also in the aftermath of last June’s war and the continued Israeli and American pressure put on Iran, that the ones who’ve always seemed to suffer from this were Iranian people before any of the Revolutionary Guard, the government suffered.
Then you had this big [New York] Times story the other day and which had come out in bits and pieces before that about how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu really pitched this war to Trump as, I don’t want to say a cakewalk, but that it would be a relatively assured effort to take out Iran’s nuclear program, its missile program, and especially to foment some revolution that would overthrow the Islamic order. That has not played out.
So if I can ask you with apologies for the two-sided question in two parts, how the government has survived and how they remain so strong despite what Israel and the U.S. had hoped to do? And what that might mean for Iranian people going forward in terms of repression, and what it means to have a government that has now survived this assault?
NB: So one thing to understand is that Iran’s infrastructure, and importantly its governmental systems, have been on the books for a little bit over a century. It predates the Islamic Republic.
You are dealing with an infrastructure and a bureaucracy and systems of power that regenerate and have been regenerating for close to a century now. Many of that has nothing to do with just the political establishment. You are also dealing with a civilizational state here that has a very clear understanding of itself and its history, and that despite the threats that Trump may make of obliterating this civilization, the fact of the reality is it’s millennia long. Iranians know that. They take huge amounts of pride in that.
Now, the Islamic Republic also has been institutionalized very deeply within Iranian society. It has also fought these wars across the Middle East for over four decades now. It knows that one of the biggest ways in which, especially Israel, but also increasingly the United States, fight these wars across the region, is through assassination of leaders at the top. It has watched this happen. It has happened to its own commanders as well. So Iran has established four to five successors for each major role within both its military and political establishment. That’s one part.
The other thing that I think is really important for people to understand is that Iranians have been struggling for over a century now for the independence and sovereignty of the country vis-a-vis both the West and, at the time that the Soviet Union existed, the East. For Iranians writ large, across political and social lines, to have Iran remain sovereign and independent — that is not a demand of the Islamic Republic, that’s a demand of the Iranian population. It has been a demand of the Iranian population for many decades now.
So when we saw this war begin, and also in the June war, many Iranians are extremely angry at their governing establishment for a whole slew of very valid reasons. But they also have seen the way that the United States and Israel have acted these past three years in particular, but also over the past many decades on Iraq, which is their neighbor on Afghanistan, which is their other neighbor, and they do not want to be succumbed to that.
So rallying around the flag is not rallying around the flag of the Islamic Republic. It is rallying around this idea that Iran as a territory and as a nation stays sovereign and independent. That means that in essence, and the Islamic Republic also repeats this often, is that their biggest deterrence is its population.
The fact that the population is resilient and will not give in to saying, “OK, we don’t like our governing establishment, so therefore let’s welcome what comes from the outside” — that is just incongruent with any understanding of modern Iranian history. This is why Bibi Netanyahu’s strategy has failed.
“The Islamic Republic has proved now in three wars … that it is able to defend Iran’s territory.”
This is also why, actually, before we even got Trump and [Pete] Hegseth, much of the top brass of the American military understood this. Both understood any real war with Iran is almost impossible because of Iran’s size and because of its topography; it’s surrounded by mountains. But then the other fact is that you’re dealing with a civilizational state. And that is a very different war to fight than a war that America has been used to fighting in the Middle East, which is with states that have been carved out by colonial powers over just the past century. So that makes it very different.
Then what do we see in the aftermath of all of this moving forward? The Islamic Republic has proved now in three wars — from the 1980s to the 12-day War to today’s war — that it is able to defend Iran’s territory. That means that coming out of this war, it is coming out in a position of victory and in a position of strength. That does not bode well for a lot of civil society actors inside of the country. Because you now have an emboldened military and IRGC, you also have a new generation of them, which has come to power because many of their fathers have now been assassinated throughout this war.
This is one of the reasons why Iranian civil society actors have been so against both sanctions and war because they understand that those only create further internal repression. But at the same time, the same way that I’ve been saying that Iranians have been demanding sovereignty and independence, they’ve also been demanding dignity from their governing establishment for over 150 years. Those demands will continue, but they will shift in how they make these demands now because they are now dealing with, in many ways, a younger and more entrenched and victorious Revolutionary Guard and governing establishment that has come out of this war.
AG: Part of Netanyahu’s plan was to foment this regime change, and it seems that there were some efforts to instigate more street protests and even to arm protesters, and that would seem to, as you said, even give more reason to the security establishment to clamp down on protesters, more propaganda justifications for its internal population, and justifications for the regime to itself for doing this.
“What Iran’s war strategy has done is really shake the Arab Gulf states’ relationship with the world economy and especially with the U.S.”
I also want to talk about this related issue of Iran’s regional push. Part of Netanyahu’s pitch to the Trump administration was to degrade Iran’s ability to project its power. This has been both through its weapons program, obviously its relationships. It seems to me that this has really backfired. What Iran’s war strategy has done is really shake the Arab Gulf states’ relationship with the world economy and especially with the U.S. It’s created fissures in the NATO alliance that even we saw that Israel’s war in Gaza wasn’t able to create.
It’s really broken things up and I don’t know how much we can say it has a direct bearing on it, but a part of that certainly has been this intense online propaganda campaign, which you just wrote about for New York Magazine, fascinating article about these videos that Revolutionary Guard-linked production houses have been putting out that are AI-generated videos.
They often use Lego characters for the main players. There’s been a couple that used AI to project the faces of popular Western actors on American politicians that was like a political suspense movie trailer. And it’s been really fascinating to watch Iran bring out these contradictions — the hypocrisies. One of the themes that they kept hitting was [Jeffrey] Epstein. Certainly they’ve hit a lot on the idea of Israel controlling the U.S., of dragging the U.S. into war. That’s been a narrative that’s really caught on with good reason in U.S. political discourse.
Part of what you wrote about was exactly the concept of, as the more stodgy, older old guard of Islamic Republic figures, especially the IRGC, that had this very reserved demeanor and took everything extremely seriously, has started to pass away, it’s the younger generation that’s come through and recognized that the old propaganda was sort of a flop, and they needed to really be able to speak to the world on the world’s terms. If you could talk about how that happened and the effect that you think it’s had, and what that might mean going forward for how Western populations especially but also in the region view Iran and their own relationships with the U.S.?
NB: Those of us who have studied Iran in the United States very closely, I had hoped this war would never come, but I assumed it would one day come, just because of the trajectory of everything.
But I thought that when this war would happen, the regularly scheduled program was something that was created from 1979 onwards with the Iran hostage crisis and Ted Koppel and “Nightline.” This idea that Iran is this really irrational theocratic state run by these old school mullahs who want to take Iran back to the seventh century. Iran actually broke through that and really went viral across the internet.
For anyone who spends any time on any platform on the internet these past 40 days, they have been seeing Iran’s Lego videos or any other AI content and short-form videos that they’re putting out. It has shifted the way that people are thinking about Iran, and it has also shifted what they think Iran now stands for.
Wars are fought, yes, on the battlefield. Another big part of the way that wars are fought is in the communication sphere and the narrative war. And in the narrative war, Iran has really come out on top.
“For anyone who spends any time on any platform on the internet these past 40 days, they have been seeing Iran’s Lego videos.”
Why and how did this happen? The IRGC has created, for 40 years now, a really robust media sphere. It contains different kinds of production studios, university programs. It’s humongous. But one of the biggest things that I always saw doing field work in these sites was that there was a huge generational clash between older generations of the IRGC and pro-regime media makers, who, as you said, wanted very serious films about what Iran stands for and what martyrdom means, but they didn’t even work within the Iranian population. They definitely did not work internationally.
These younger media makers really wanted to use humor in what they were doing. They wanted to do faster cuts. They wanted to do away with forefronting martyrdom, and their elder generations kept saying no. What we saw happen in this war is, again, because of these decapitation strikes, you had many of that older generation be assassinated. So in that space — in that vacuum — these younger people came in and they began to really fill in what their fathers would not let them do.
Now here’s what the important thing is. These younger folks, they’re millennials, and they’re Gen Z. They have lived their lives online just like many of us who are their generational cohorts around the world. So why has Iran’s stuff gone viral in this moment? It’s because they’re not inventing anything new.
Anyone who spends any time online knows that in order to make your content go viral, you don’t say something new. You add things into the conversation that is already being had, that is already being had online. So when this war started, much of the conversation across the political spectrum and across the world was about the Epstein files. Iran tapped into that; this is not a conversation Iran created. Iran tapped into that by essentially tapping into this idea that Trump is starting this war in order to prevent further Epstein files from coming out. That resonated with the MAGA world very quickly.
It also then began to say, and this again, it picked up from the MAGA world because it’s paying attention — just like anyone else who’s online all the time is paying attention to different discourses. It picked up on the fact that there’s a big contingency within that world that is saying that these are not America’s wars. These are Israel’s wars, and that this is not an America-first presidency, it’s an Israel first presidency. Again, Iran didn’t create this narrative, but it began to play into that narrative and show how this is playing out in this war.
Then most importantly, instead of using real-life people — which Iranians have been depicted and Muslims in general have been depicted in a particular way for about 50 years in America’s political imagination and popular imagination — instead, they chose to use cartoons. They chose to use Lego videos. The Lego movie franchise is all about the creation of a resistance movement against tyrants and oligarchs. So it tapped also into that. These are Gen Z filmmakers in Iran who grew up on these Legos movies just like they did across the world.
So they are now utilizing all of these in order to further their message. Then importantly, their message is not about the importance of Shia martyrdom, which was what their fathers were creating. Their message is about imperialism, it’s about the Epstein class, it’s about the raping of women and children, it’s about a genocidal state — meaning Israel —going forward with settler colonialism, not just across Palestine, but attempting to do so across the Middle East. So it is tapping into a 21st-century language that anyone who has been paying any attention, especially since the genocide in Gaza over the past three years — that is the language of the internet.
Then the way that I really think about this is that the United States and Israel have failed in their communications. Throughout this war, mainly because for the most part, the U.S. and Israel’s legitimacy came through — for many years — traditional media outlets. But traditional media outlets failed Gaza. They failed to be able to really explain what was happening in those past three years, and there was a huge disconnect over mainstream media’s coverage and then what everyone was seeing on their phones through a livestreamed genocide.
Gaza shattered the way in which we understand what is going on in the world and the type of trust that we put into media institutions. Into those cracks is where Iran’s younger media makers came, and then they are now up against, in essence, older forms of media makers from Israel and the United States where that generational shift has not yet taken place. So in my understanding, it’s like 20th-century leaders trying to compete with these young millennials and Gen Z leaders in Iran at this moment in the media war living in 2026. Twentieth-century media just doesn’t work anymore.
“The U.S. and Israel’s legitimacy came through — for many years — traditional media outlets. But traditional media outlets failed Gaza.”
Ali Gharib: Yeah, it’s funny when you watch the Trump administration’s AI-generated, jingoistic movies. It’s still AI-generated, but it’s a totally different language, and they do seem like they’re all made to get the retweet from one guy, which is Donald Trump. In sharp contrast, like the Islamic Republic, these Lego videos are clearly not made for Iran’s ayatollah leadership.
I want to ask about, and this is something that you’ve written about — that is, as an Iranian has been certainly one of my hobby horses — which is the Iranian opposition politics. It’s funny that one of the few audiences with which Netanyahu’s message and his plan have really resonated, which he seems to have vastly overestimated, was that royalist faction in exile and its support inside Iran.
To be fair, the frustrations of living under the Islamic Republic for many Iranians and young Iranians — who, like their IRGC-oriented young counterparts, don’t remember the early days of the Islamic Republic. They don’t remember certainly pre-revolutionary Iran and have this nostalgia for the mini-dresses and cocktails at the Key Club that I know my parents grew up with in Tehran, and really latched on to Reza Pahlavi, who’s the exiled former crown prince of Iran. His father was the last shah. He really is a product of the U.S. He grew up there and has lived there for many years. And only in the past few years when he began meeting with the Israelis was propped up as this potential opposition leader. We have to say that he did gain some support.
I think the Israelis were absolutely way off base when they posited him as a potential leader for a new regime in Iran. Obviously, none of that has anywhere close to come to fruition yet. But one thing you’ve written about a lot was the sentiments of people more so inside Iran, but also I would add that in the diaspora as well, who have also latched onto this royalist fever dream of reinstalling the shah.
We’ve seen reports in the Western media about these views shifting. The New York Times did an article the other day, the FT had a pretty good one a couple weeks ago. So I just wondered how much you’ve been picking up inside Iran on disillusionment with this program? Have people changed their minds now that the war has continued and this gambit has failed? What does this mean for opposition politics inside Iran and in exile going forward?
NB: The first maybe 10 days of the war, there was still hope among those who were supporters of Pahlavi that the Americans and Israelis would hit just military installments or things belonging to the Islamic Republic. They even went so far — similar to what happened early on in Gaza — to say that the strike on the Iranian school in Minab that killed over 170 children at school was IRGC’s doing, which later proved out to not be true. But it began to really shift when Israel hit multiple oil depots surrounding Tehran and it created this really toxic air. It was this mass chemical campaign in many ways because of all the petrochemicals that went up into the air and then there was acid rain the next day. At around that same time, Trump then began to say that Iran’s territory and its map might shift during this war.
Then as the war continued, then Americans and Israelis were hitting critical infrastructure, and really importantly, Iran’s universities. That began to shift folks’ feelings because that then started to become a war against the Iranian nation and not just the Islamic Republic.
It began to brew a certain “We want to change, but this is destroying the country and this is destroying the future of the country.” Then the other fact of the matter is that Reza Pahlavi and all the bets that they were making actually did not turn out to be true. The Islamic Republic turned out to be much more resilient than they thought that it would be. And with now the ceasefire — and we’ll see if it holds — but the fact of the matter is, it seems like the Trump administration wants to have negotiations with the Islamic Republic. You also have the younger son of Khamenei now in charge, and that the Islamic Republic feels that it is coming out of this victorious. So in many ways, in all the ways, I would say the Pahlavi gambit failed.
Then there’s also a bigger story to this. Other forms of Iran’s opposition movements in the 1980s, namely the Mojahedin, which was a big organization at the time, and had a lot of support within Iran in the revolutionary period. Their leadership also sided with Saddam Hussein during the Iran–Iraq War, and that became their death knell within [the] Iranian population. They were seen as being traitors to the country during a time of war.
“No other Iranian leader, especially ones connected to past rule, have ever called for foreign powers to invade Iran.”
The same thing is happening right now, which is that the more that Iranians were getting killed, the more that Iran’s universities and critical infrastructure was being targeted, Pahlavi was not out there condemning this. In many ways, he kept asking for more help from the Israelis and the Americans.
Again, Iran is a civilizational state, and Iranians have a lot of sense of patriotism across the political spectrum. This has nothing to do even with the governing establishment. So now increasingly, Pahlavi is being seen as being a traitor to the nation. No other Iranian leader, especially ones connected to past rule, have ever called for foreign powers to invade Iran. This is a new thing in Iranian history. That stigma is going to stick with him.
What does that mean moving forward? It means that I think any opposition tied to bringing back the former monarchy in essence is done. But I think he has also really done a huge disservice to opposition movements in Iran because now they will be targeted and stamped with this idea that you are playing with or playing good with foreign powers in order to bring change in Iran.
This is something that I think various forms of civil society actors and opposition movements in Iran are going to have to contend with and are going to have to work past. This episode in many ways has pushed back opposition movements in Iran. It’s going to be an uphill battle, unfortunately.
Pahlavi “has also really done a huge disservice to opposition movements in Iran because now they will be targeted and stamped with this idea that you are playing with or playing good with foreign powers in order to bring change in Iran.”
AG: Narges, thanks so much for speaking with us today. I’ve been a fan of your work for a long time. I can’t recommend enough that everybody follow your writings. They’re always fascinating, and you cover so many different topics, and it’s just such an interesting picture of what’s going on in both international relations and the geopolitics of Iran as well as inside the country itself.
Thanks again for joining us on The Intercept Briefing.
NB: Thanks so much for having me, and I love the work that you guys do, so thank you.
AG: We’re going to leave it there.
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And that does it for this episode.
This episode was produced by Laura Flynn. Ben Muessig is our editor-in-chief and Maia Hibbett is the managing editor of The Intercept. Chelsey B. Coombs is our social and video producer, and Fei Liu is our product and design manager. Nara Shin is our copy editor. Will Stanton mixed our show. And the legal review was done by the illustrious David Bralow.
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Until next time, I’m Ali Gharib.
The post Putting Fuel on a Ceasefire: Israel Tries to Kill U.S.–Iran Talks appeared first on The Intercept.
Education reporter Julia Merola and health reporter Nick Stonesifer join “Beyond the Headlines” to talk about their recent investigation into the Rockford Center, a private behavioral health hospital in Newark which has been cited by state regulators in recent years for giving children medications without their or their parents’ consent.
Julia and Nick discuss their more than six month process to develop this report. They share how they connected with the families and employees featured in the article, why investigations like this take so much time, and detail their fact-checking process. Finally, they reflect on how reporting these kinds of stories impacts them personally as journalists.
The podcast was hosted by Director of Community Engagement David Stradley.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
We’re going to spend most of our time today talking about your investigative process rather than the results of that process. But for anyone who hasn’t read this article, can one of you just share the high-level findings?
STONSIFER: Sure. This is a story about the Rockford Center. A larger portrait about some of the medication and sedation practices we had been hearing about in the facility from families of patients, patients and former employees.
What led the two of you to start looking into the Rockford Center? Who found this story?
MEROLA: I had originally seen a Facebook post made by one of the parents who we ended up talking to and including in the story, and it was just detailing her daughter’s experience at the facility. I had sent it to Nick, and I just said, “I think this is a story that looks at both of the things we cover.”
I cover education, but that has to do with children and their families. Nick, he’s our health reporter, so he looks at these facilities all the time. It just seemed like an ideal combination for us to tag team this story.
Nick, in 2025 you worked on several articles detailing problematic experiences at another psychiatric hospital, MeadowWood. How was it different working on this investigation with a reporting partner?
STONESIFER: It’s definitely a lot better. You know, there’s a lot to these stories. A lot of people you have to talk to, a lot of extra research you have to do. So, wherever you can get an extra set of eyes — an extra set of hands — take it.
And I have to imagine these are intense interviews. These are stories about a mother finding her 22-year-old son at a Christiana Care emergency room shortly after he received a powerful sedative cocktail at Rockford. Stories of a mother calling Rockford 45 times within one day to try to get an update about her 8-year-old daughter.
Lots of experiences being shared. Is it helpful to have two sets of ears listening to those stories?
STONESIFER: Yeah, for sure. Not everybody can absorb everything in those longer interviews. You’re absorbing a lot very quickly trying to juggle the questions you put together ahead of time, also trying to think of stuff on the fly. So it’s nice to have somebody who’s not focused on leading the interview, kind of thinking on the fly about those questions.
This investigation took more than seven months to report on. Can you walk us through your reporting process? Why did it take so long?
And Julia, I’ll start with you here, since you’re the one that found this initial person.
MEROLA: Part of it was we’re talking to families that have multiple children. Life in general is hectic for anyone. So just literally scheduling interviews and finding a time that worked for the parent and also both of our schedules took a little bit.
Nick had done a FOIA request before we even started reporting this and he got 30 different files, and each file was at least three pages long. So there were a lot of state reports that we had to look through and take notes on.
One of the things that we felt was really important was speaking with an independent psychiatrist who could tell us, “Hey, these are the typical side effects that you would see if you’re giving a child this medication,” or “This is what the standard of care typically looks like in a psychiatric facility.” But it took us a very long time to actually find a psychiatrist.
And then both of the times when we thought we were just at the finish line, it was during holiday season, which, again, you’re talking to families who have multiple children. Holidays are chaotic for literally anybody.
So I just feel like there’s a few things in there that made the story take longer than it typically would have. But, you know, it was a process that worked out in the end.
You found the first family through a Facebook post. This was Julia Bailey, whose 8-year-old daughter started having hallucinations shortly after her time at Rockford, hallucinations that told her to harm herself.
There were multiple other families, some on the record, some just on background. What was your process for finding those other families who had these experiences?
STONESIFER: Earlier this year, I had put out a post on Reddit soliciting people’s experiences in these facilities, specifically Rockford. And we got a lot of feedback at the time. Actually, so much so it was kind of hard to keep up with.
We had done a lot of off the record and background interviews with people, just to help inform our process. People who did tell me they wanted to go on their record, I had sent lines to, but you go cold sometimes for months and then out of the blue they text you and now you’re hot on the trail again.
With stories like this, it’s not really uncommon. It’s usually why they take so long sometimes – just trying to track people down.
Julia, you found Tia and Darrian Wright, the family that leads the story. Darrian is a 22-year-old who has an intellectual disability that limits his cognitive function. He voluntarily admitted himself to Rockford after telling his mom, Tia, he wanted to die, and woke up in an emergency room less than 48 hours later.
During his short stay at Rockford, he received multiple medications on top of a combination shot meant to subdue patients during outbursts. How did you get connected to Tia and Darien?
MEROLA: Pretty much the same as the process of finding our original family. I feel like I just randomly saw a Facebook post. I reached out to Tia. She gave me her number.
I think I called her and left a voicemail and told her I’m a reporter at Spotlight Delaware. We’ve been looking into this for a few months now. We really just want to talk to you and hear about your son’s experience.
We set up a call from there. But yeah, I just really stumbled upon this Facebook post.
STONESIFER: The work never stops. You’re never off the clock mentally, even when you’re scrolling.
Was part of the duration of this reporting process connected to earning the trust of these families? These are very vulnerable things that they’re talking about. Did you have to earn that or were these people ready to talk and ready to share?
MEROLA: I think it was a mix. There were definitely certain people who did not feel comfortable using their names, or only wanted to talk on background.
But people like Tia Wright and Julia Bailey, they both wanted their stories out there. They didn’t have any hesitation about using their names, and their children’s names. They were just very upfront about what they had experienced.
I think it makes sense considering I’d found them both on Facebook. It wasn’t like they were someone we had posted on Reddit and then they had reached out to us. We found them because they were so upfront about what they were experiencing. But there were definitely certain people who wanted to stay on background.
STONESIFER: Some people have never spoken with journalists before, so it’s good to just give people that runway if they don’t want to be quoted, but still want to help the reporting process. It’s always good to let them do that. And if at some point they come back to us and say, “Okay, I’m going to go on the record,” we’re happy to oblige.
For those parents that were ready to talk, was there any kind of care that you had to structure those interviews with?
STONESIFER: I’d say they were ready. They had already put out stuff on the internet. That’s more than a lot of people do.
When you’re getting ready to talk to a reporter, you know, you’ve already kind of done it in one way, but maybe not been asked questions about it and hadn’t thought about it much deeper than maybe when you first posted.
So sometimes for some people, that gets emotional. We’re careful we don’t push where we don’t have to. If there’s a question somebody doesn’t want to answer, we’re not pushy if it’s not needed.
People want to tell their stories. So it’s not like we have to set up too much care, but we’re respectful where we can be.
MEROLA: I think just to add on to that, they were very open and up front. But like Nick was saying, they’re not used to being asked all these follow up questions. And I think sometimes, there were moments where you could see the mothers getting choked up a little bit because they were talking about experiences with their kids.
We would just say, “It’s okay. Take your time.”
They would take a minute to themselves, and then we just went back into it from there.
In those moments, I would say it is having them guide you and see if that minute needs to turn into a five minute break and you turn off your camera. That’s fine. Like Nick said, we’re not going to push and poke, especially because it’s a more sensitive topic.
If I’m remembering correctly, in about the last month before the article was finally published, you two would show up at our morning editorial meetings and say, “Hey, we thought this piece was just about ready, but we just found someone else. Another patient, another family came out and wants to talk.” How did those sources influence the reporting?
STONESIFER: They were patients themselves. They were also health care workers. So it’s valuable context, it’s valuable additional reporting that otherwise might not have been in it if we had jumped to publish right when we thought we were at the finish line.
Once this article was ready to go, you took the step of sharing it with a media lawyer for their review. Why take that step on this article?
STONESIFER: It is not uncommon for bigger stories like this. A lot of outlets do it. It’s just to make sure our bases are covered.
It’s very impactful. A lot of claims are being made in the story, and we had to make sure stuff was properly attributed. We had to make sure we gave everybody proper runway to comment on stuff, which we did.
It’s not uncommon for reporters to do this, when they have that resource available.
When you talk about giving people runway to comment on the article — in this case that was specifically making sure Rockford had time to comment?
STONESIFER: Yeah, we had been in communication with Rockford for months. They had known the story was on our radar, as early as late last year.
We would come back to them any time there were new claims being made in the story and give them a chance to comment. At the end we’re like, “Hey, this is the last time we’re going to reach out. Anything else you wanna tell us?” Like, this is it.
It’s part of the process. We want to be fair and that’s part of it.
Once the media lawyer had reviewed it, were there any changes that you had to make to the article based on their feedback?
STONESIFER: No, there were no concerns about libel or anything like that. We had strengthened our reporting with other sources.
I would imagine that part of the reason why that media lawyer didn’t have any changes for you all was that you had done your due diligence, had done your fact checking. You hear a lot in the reporting world about fact checking articles. Can one of you talk us through what your process is on an article like this of fact checking?
MEROLA: Basically what we had done — because this is a bigger story in the sense that the topic is heavy, but it also was just a really lengthy story — we split it in half and each of us worked from top to bottom, met in the middle.
We would look at the quotes that we were using and comment the exact minute mark of the audio where that quote took place. If it was a paraphrase, we would say, this is a paraphrase of the quote that started at, like, minute 16 of our August interview with so-and-so.
If we had statements from Rockford, we’d include the whole statement in that comment. When we had our state reports, we would comment the whole section from the state report and the exact page and date of that state report, just so that you know if our lawyer — not that this happened at all — but if anyone had any questions of, “Hey, when did this happen again?” They could easily see this was from an August 19 interview at the 16 minute mark.
But again, like Nick said, there were no questions because we were so diligent. It’s best practice to be that diligent.
It also just helps you sleep better at night knowing that you can pinpoint exactly where every single thing is.
What you end up with is basically what looks like a very heavily notated, almost academic paper of just footnote, footnote, footnote?
MEROLA: Yeah. If you’re familiar with Google Docs comments and you’re putting way too many comments on a document, it’ll almost add pages. We were definitely adding pages because of the amount of comments. There were a lot of comments.
Do you do this for every article you write at Spotlight or is this a unique case?
MEROLA: I think this was a unique case. I mean, we always fact check our articles. When you’re a journalist, especially for simple stories, you know what was said. I don’t always feel the need to go minute by minute.
I always do a quick check of my transcriptions, but I don’t feel the need to comment on minute marks. I know that a typical story, it’s just going to be me looking at that fact check document. But for this one, it’s just best practice to have all of your I’s dotted and your T’s crossed.
It also shows your dedication to reporting, shows that you really care about putting out the most accurate story no matter what it takes.
STONESIFER: You want to point back to what you were able to do when anybody ever has questions about it. You want to be able to explain why every letter was typed the way it was, or every word is in the story. And that’s just part of your responsibility as a journalist.
In addition to the enormous technical reporting challenges in an article like this — creating that massive fact checking document — I have to imagine this reporting process was also emotionally challenging for the two of you. What are the human challenges for you as reporters of spending so much time hearing about these very painful experiences in the interviews?
STONESIFER: Some stuff sticks with you. You end interviews, but it comes back to you out of the blue one time you’re just not thinking about it. I have stuff I still think about from MeadowWood.
But, you find solace in the fact that you’re helping people tell their stories, share their stories, doing good investigative work, where otherwise nobody would’ve said anything. It feels good in that way.
It’s the journalist’s plight. Sometimes it’s thankless in that way. But this story, we got a lot of praise for the work we did, so that also pays off.
MEROLA: I think I would also just add that these are families who want to get their story out there. For some people this is the first time they’ve actually had someone really listen and ask questions.
It’s a human want — to be heard. I think this is something that they recognized — they meaning the families — recognized would help them through whatever kind of healing process they were looking at with their families.
I don’t think this was the type of situation where there needed to be really intense handholding with families. We’re not acting as therapists. We’re acting as people who are listening and asking the powers that be why this was able to happen the way it was.
And I think the families know that, and they see the value in that.
Was this another place where working on this as a reporting team was helpful? I mean, after a particularly intense interview, were you able to just connect with one another and be like, “Huh, that just happened.”
MEROLA: Yeah, I think there were definitely times where Nick and I would do a Slack huddle call after an interview and be like, “I can’t believe I just heard that.”
And it definitely is a little bit of weight off your shoulder to be like, “That was really intense. And I can’t believe we just talked about that for an hour.”
But at the same time, you know what the work is. You know what you have to do next. I feel like you’re not necessarily focusing on how it affects you. You’re more so just looking at how to tell this story accurately.
The night before the story was actually published — what’s going on for the two of you? Are you totally at peace that your reporting work was done to the best of your abilities, or is it a little bit more of a complicated night?
MEROLA: I’m honestly never at peace with the night before any story comes out.
If I’m being completely honest, it can be the simplest, dumbest story in the world, and I’m still freaking out. So I am never at peace. But we were both looking at the document, just reading through and reading through and reading through until probably like 11:00 p.m. We were texting each other, being like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe this is happening.”
So, yeah, definitely not at peace. But when am I ever?
STONESIFER: A very, very healthy dose of skepticism never hurt anybody, especially on stories like this. You’re kind of freaking out until the last minute.
Once it’s out in the world, I usually feel better about it. But it’s kind of right before the buzzer that is usually very nerve wracking.
Once the article is published, once it’s out in the world, what feedback did you hear from people either in the article or just from readers who reached out to let you know what they thought about it?
STONESIFER: People were thankful we had done this story. Kind of a similar thing to when MeadowWood came out last year. People have been talking about this in Delaware for a very long time.
And when they see stories about it, they want to share their experience. They are like, “This is what happened to me when I was there in XY year.”
Just a lot of people have just very positive feedback from the community on stories like this.
MEROLA: I would also say we saw someone who redacted their personal information, but commented their medical documents from when they stayed at the facility. And I just thought that was very jarring in the sense that someone would be so willing to share their medical documents without knowing us or speaking to us. And also putting that on social media. I did not expect to see that.
But yeah, like Nick said, it was just a lot of people sharing their personal experiences and thanking us for putting the story out there.
Seeing the response, seeing somebody being willing to publish their own medical records, does that give you the feeling of, “Hey, we did our job” or is that paranoia still alive and well?
STONESIFER: It feels like we’ve done our job. It feels comforting in a way to know that there are so many other people, this huge outpouring of people that had similar experiences that we didn’t even talk to or weren’t even on our radar. That kind of puts the mind at ease a little.
MEROLA: I would also say it’s kind of validating for us in a way, too, because I feel like when you’re reporting on a story for this long, you’re kind of like, “Is anybody really going to read this?”
But I think after seeing so many people commenting on different platforms and reaching out to us individually and sharing the posts, it just reminds you that these stories are stories that we need to hold people accountable and ask the important questions and figure out why things happen or how things happen.
It was just a reminder that, yeah, this story took forever, and at times I really wondered whether we were going to be able to put it out there. But you know, it’s something that needed to happen.
Thank you both for your thoroughness and care in reporting on the experiences of these patients and for letting us in on your process.
MEROLA: Thanks for having us
STONESIFER: Thank you.
The post ‘Beyond the Headlines’ podcast: Investigating the Rockford Center appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
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Stefano Gabbana left his post as the chair of Dolce & Gabbana at the start of this year, the fashion house he co-founded with his then partner, Domenico Dolce, has said.
The Italian luxury brand said Gabbana had tendered his resignation, effective as of 1 January, “as part of a natural evolution of its organisational structure and governance”.
Continue reading...The price of silence from western politicians and media outlets over Israel’s actions in Palestine is now being paid by Iranian and Lebanese civilians
The president of the United States threatened this week to commit genocide against Iran. As Israel engages in continued bombing in Lebanon, killing more than 200 people in a single day, that fact must never be scrubbed away, not least because there is no guarantee the threat will not be revived. But as we descend towards the abyss, we need to understand where our fall began.
“A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Donald Trump wrote on Tuesday. Just over a year ago, he announced: “A civilisation has been wiped out in Gaza.” The connection is not hard to trace. Trump knew Gaza had been razed by Israel, insisting it was “not a place for people to be living”. When he joined forces with the perpetrator of that genocide in an illegal war on Iran, the apocalyptic rubble of Gaza became a template.
Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Powerful storm brings destruction, while temperatures soar in Vietnam and torrential rain lashes South Korea
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The storm has caused widespread damage across the Solomon Islands, particularly in Western, Choiseul and Isabel provinces, where schools, clinics and homes have been damaged. The government is prioritising humanitarian assistance after about 120 people were displaced and almost 73,000 people affected overall.
Continue reading...As The Super Mario Galaxy Movie storms the box office, we look back at the best forgotten games inspired by Tetris, Lemmings and … vitamins?
It should be no surprise that the latest Super Mario movie is smashing box office records – despite the, let’s say mixed, reviews. Nintendo’s iconic plumber has been a pop culture staple for 45 years, starring in some of the bestselling video games ever made, from the original Donkey Kong through to the joyous Super Mario Bros Wonder and the chaotic Mario Kart World.
But as with any storied showbiz career, there have been some lesser works. Who can forget – or actually remember – Hotel Mario, a door-shutting puzzle game for the doomed Philips CD-i console? Or what about Mario Teaches Typing, a 1992 educational game for the PC in which players navigate the Mushroom Kingdom by … correctly inputting words. Yet there have also been genuine treasures lost along the way. Here, then, are seven of our favourite much-overlooked Mario odysseys.
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Fed chair Jerome Powell reportedly attends meeting in Washington following release of Claude Mythos
The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, summoned major American bank chiefs to a meeting in Washington this week amid concerns over the cyber risks posed by Anthropic’s latest AI model, according to reports.
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Continue reading...Social media giant Reddit has been ordered to appear before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., as part of a federal effort to unmask anonymous online critics of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
According to a subpoena obtained by The Intercept, Reddit has until April 14 to provide a wide range of personal data on one of its users, whom U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been trying unsuccessfully to identify for more than a month.
Attorneys for the Reddit user say their client’s posts and their anonymity are squarely protected under the First Amendment and that ICE’s use of a grand jury marks a disturbing escalation for the agency after seeing its previous efforts to investigate political speech quashed in court. The subpoena was issued by federal prosecutors in the capital after ICE’s effort to identify the same user failed in a Northern California federal court. (The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington declined to comment on the case.)
“We should be very, very, very concerned that they’ve now taken one of these to a grand jury.”
Since President Donald Trump returned to office last year, federal agents have increasingly demanded social media companies reveal the users behind anonymous accounts critical of his immigration crackdown, expressing particular interest in those that identify employees of the U.S. Border Patrol and ICE or share real-time information on enforcement activity. The administration claims the accounts are engaged in doxing and endanger officer safety, but they have also targeted social media users seemingly doing nothing more than expressing anger at the government.
Digital free speech advocates with the Electronic Frontier Foundation have closely tracked the investigations, finding that the government repeatedly folded when challenged in court. A grand jury subpoena, however, is a much different animal, said David Greene, EFF’s senior counsel. Shrouded in secrecy and advantageous to prosecutors, the existence of a federal grand jury, particularly one convened in Washington, could suggest the government is moving toward a significant criminal case.
Greene knew of no examples during the recent wave of immigration enforcement-related investigations in which a leading tech company has been called to appear before one of the secret panels. Free speech protections are at their weakest in the context of a grand jury, he explained: The proceedings are not adversarial; their purpose is to permit a prosecutor to file charges.
“We should be very, very, very concerned that they’ve now taken one of these to a grand jury,” said Greene. “It’s something to be taken very seriously.”
The convening of a federal grand jury presents a considerable challenge for Reddit in particular, a platform that prides itself on protecting the free speech rights of its 121 million daily users. The company declined to say whether it intends to challenge the government’s order.
“Privacy is central to how Reddit operates, and we take our commitment to protecting that seriously,” the company said in a statement to The Intercept. “We do not voluntarily share information with any government, especially not on users exercising their rights to criticize the government or plan a protest.”
When the government seeks data on users, the statement continued, Reddit reviews the commands for “legal sufficiency and routinely object[s] to requests that are overbroad or threaten civil rights.” Users are notified of the requests “whenever possible so they can defend their interests,” the company went on to say, and Reddit provides only the “minimum” data required to satisfy law enforcement demands.
The story of how Reddit became ensnared in an ICE-related grand jury began early last month, when the company received a request to turn over the name, address, phone number, and other data associated with an account belonging to a user identified in court records as John Doe.
The request was what’s known as an administrative summons or administrative subpoena, a powerful legal tool typically associated with serious crimes such as child trafficking. Under Trump, the subpoenas, which do not require judicial approval, have increasingly become a weapon wielded against opponents of the president’s immigration policies.
While it does not disaggregate ICE’s activities from other law enforcement agencies’ requests, Reddit reports that January to June 2025 marked the highest volume of requests the company has ever received in a single reporting period. Sixty-six percent of the 1,179 requests came from agencies in the U.S., including 423 subpoenas and 27 court orders. Reddit disclosed user data in 82 percent of those cases. While most requests concern child safety, the next highest category of data sought by law enforcement agencies falls into what Reddit lists as “other/unknown investigation types.”
In the John Doe case, Reddit received an initial request on March 4 from an ICE agent in Fairfax, Virginia.
“Failure to comply with this summons will render you liable to proceedings in a U.S. District Court to enforce compliance with this summons as well as other sanctions,” the summons read. “You are requested not to disclose the existence of this summons for an indefinite period of time. Any such disclosure will impede the investigation and thereby interfere with the enforcement of federal law.”
Two days later, the social media company alerted John Doe of the federal request for information. Based in the Pacific Northwest, the Reddit user obtained representation from the Oregon-based Civil Liberties Defense Center, an organization that had recently succeeded in beating back ICE’s requests for information on social media users.
The ICE agent wanted more than a month’s worth of electronic data, but offered no information as to what, exactly, caught the agency’s attention. When John Doe’s attorneys later reviewed their Reddit posts, they found nothing to suggest criminal activity or intent.
There was a thread from early January, after news outlets including The Intercept identified Jonathan Ross as the ICE officer who shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis. Commenting on a Minnesota Star Tribune article, another Reddit user posted that Ross might be welcomed as a hero in Florida or Texas. John Doe responded by sharing that Ross had lived in Chaska, Minnesota; grew up in Indiana; and served in the Indiana National Guard — biographical details that were circulating widely at the time. “Hopefully he moves up to Stillwater State Penitentiary,” they wrote.
In another post, a Reddit user asked what they should write on an anti-ICE protest sign. John Doe suggested the lyrics to a song: “Urine speaks louder than words.” In a third instance, Doe wrote, “TSA sucks and we all know it.” According to the Reddit user’s attorneys, these were the most aggressive posts they could find.
In its summons, ICE indicated the basis for its request was a provision of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930.
On March 12, John Doe and their CLDC lawyers filed a motion to quash the summons in the Northern California federal court district where the San Francisco headquarters of Reddit is located.
In its summons, ICE indicated the basis for its request was a provision of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. John Doe informed the court that they had nothing to do with the kind of activities at issue in the near-century-old statute, which governs boat show sales, wild animal imports, forfeited wines and spirits, and cross-border trade in other goods.
“I use this account to post about events and issues local to my region of Oregon and beyond,” the Reddit user said in a sworn declaration. “Neither I nor my Reddit account are associated with importing or exporting any merchandise or any other thing subject to tax or duty into or out of the United States.”
CLDC attorney Matthew Kellegrew argued that ICE’s request well exceeded the scope of the law, and that the First Amendment raised the bar for disclosure considerably in cases where investigative activity “intrudes into the area of constitutionally protected rights of speech, press, association.”
What’s more, Kellegrew noted, federal immigration officials attempted to use the tariff statute to unmask the president’s critics before, during the first Trump administration, and were reprimanded for doing so by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General in a 2017 report.
CLDC had recently prevailed in challenging the feds’ use of administrative subpoenas in California’s Northern District. Last fall, the group intervened on behalf of a Meta user targeted in an administrative ICE subpoena. In October, federal Magistrate Judge Kandis A. Westmore sided with the civil liberties advocates, ordering Meta not to provide the information sought by ICE.
After intervening in the John Doe case last month, CLDC attorneys received an email from an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of California informing them that the government was withdrawing its request. It would not, however, be the last Reddit heard from the federal government about the matter.
On March 31, just four days after ICE’s summons was withdrawn, Reddit received another message from the feds.
This time, instead of requesting information on an individual user, the government ordered Reddit itself to appear before a grand jury — not in California, but in Washington.
The request came not from an ICE field agent but rather from a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in D.C., where Reddit has received the highest number of federal law enforcement information requests. The records sought spanned a period roughly three times longer than what ICE had originally requested.
“They are able to hide what they are doing under the guise of a federal grand jury.”
Lauren Regan, director of litigation and advocacy for CLDC, suspects the success that advocates had challenging ICE’s social media subpoenas in California may explain why the Trump administration is now calling one of the world’s largest tech companies to appear before a secret tribunal in Washington.
“Because they were repeatedly losing those attempts at subpoenaing stuff in court, in what they’re doing is illegal and unconstitutional, they have now switched to this other mode,” she said. “They are able to strong-arm information that they were denied through the courts legally.”
None of the records associated with the grand jury case will be accessible to the public.
“The only valid use of a grand jury is to investigate federal crimes,” said Regan. What crime John Doe’s Reddit posts may have constituted or facilitated is unclear. According to Regan, “They are able to hide what they are doing under the guise of a federal grand jury.”
The post A Redditor Criticized ICE. Trump Is Trying to Unmask Them by Dragging the Company to a Secret Grand Jury. appeared first on The Intercept.
PM appears to draw comparison between Russian and US leaders’ actions and calls for plan to restore Hormuz strait shipping
Keir Starmer has said he is “fed up” with the effect that Donald Trump’s actions in the Middle East are having on the British public, while appearing to draw a comparison between the US president and Vladimir Putin.
Speaking to ITV’s Robert Peston on Thursday, the prime minister said: “I’m fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy, businesses’ bills go up and down on energy because of the actions of Putin or Trump across the world.”
Continue reading...Longtime Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot shares a report from NewScientist: According to quantum chromodynamics (QCD) -- widely considered to be our best theory for describing the strong force, which binds quarks inside protons and neutrons -- even a perfect vacuum isn't truly empty. Instead, it is filled with short-lived disturbances in the underlying energy of space that flicker in and out of existence, known as virtual particles. Among them are quark-antiquark pairs. Under normal conditions, these fleeting pairs vanish almost as soon as they appear. But if enough energy is injected into a vacuum, QCD predicts they can be promoted into real, detectable particles with measurable mass. Now, the STAR collaboration -- an international team of physicists working at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York state -- has observed this process for the first time. The team smashed together high-energy protons in a vacuum, producing a spray of particles. Some of these particles should be quark-antiquark pairs pulled directly from the vacuum itself, but quarks can never exist alone and immediately combine into composite particles. Quarks and antiquarks are born with their spins correlated -- a shared quantum alignment inherited from the vacuum. The researchers found that this link persists even after the quarks and antiquarks become part of larger particles called hyperons, which decay in less than a tenth of a billionth of a second. Spotting these spin-aligned hyperons in the aftermath of the proton collisions allowed the researchers to confirm that the quarks within them came from the vacuum. The findings have been published in the journal Nature.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Whatever outcome of ceasefire talks, the region will have to live with a continuing threat from the regime in Tehran
Gulf nations will seek to add security partners as they rebuild battered economies after the US and Israel’s war on Iran and deal with an emboldened Tehran.
The Gulf will have to live with a continuing threat from the regime in Iran and its remaining missile arsenal. American bases on their soil turned them into targets for Iran, as it retaliated against a joint attack by the US and Israel.
Continue reading...Experts warn lapse could sharply reduce reports of abuse, echoing a 58% drop during a similar legal gap in 2021
The European parliament has blocked the extension of a law that permits big tech firms to scan for child sexual exploitation on their platforms, creating a legal gap that child safety experts say will lead to crimes going undetected.
The law, which was a carve-out of the EU Privacy Act, was put in place in 2021 as a temporary measure allowing companies to use automated detection technologies to scan messages for harms, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM), grooming and sextortion. However, it expired on 3 April, and the EU parliament decided not to vote to extend it, amid privacy concerns from some lawmakers.
Continue reading...Texas city believes loose rules and low taxes will make the US’s biggest banks come running – can it pull it off?
As the warm sun rises over the Dallas skyline, SUVs and pickup trucks whiz past an unassuming construction site that is helping cement the city’s Texas-sized financial ambitions.
Nestled between towers claimed by Bank of America and JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs has cordoned off 800,000 sq ft for a new Dallas campus able to host more than 5,000 staff. But the $700m (£530m) project is more than a regional expansion plan by one of America’s largest banks. It is another win for the lobbyists behind Dallas’s “Y’all Street” – the Texan city’s aggressive push to steal New York’s financial crown.
Continue reading...The Federal Aviation Administration launched an investigation after a Frontier plane nearly collided with two trucks on an LAX taxiway.
Cheng Li-wun’s visit to Beijing has sparked controversy in Taiwan, with critics accusing her of being too close to China
In a rare meeting with Taiwan’s opposition leader, China’s president, Xi Jinping, declared that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait were Chinese and wanted peace.
The meeting in Beijing between Xi and Cheng Li-wun, the chair of Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT), is the first such contact in a decade. The visit has sparked controversy in Taiwan, with Cheng’s critics accusing her of being too close to China, a country that many in Taiwan see as a threat.
Continue reading...Charity advises replacing seed and nut feeders, where birds gather, with small amounts of mealworms, fat balls or suet
Garden birds should not be fed seeds and nuts over the summer months, the RSPB has said, in an attempt to reduce the spread of avian diseases.
Bird lovers are being urged to take down their bird feeders between May and October to help birds such as the greenfinch, whose numbers have plummeted after the spread of trichomonosis, a parasitic disease transmitted more easily when birds cluster around feeders in the warmer months.
Continue reading...President’s post on Truth Social is in keeping with a pattern of using shocking video to sow fear about immigration and justify mass deportation
Besieged by questions about his war on Iran and his wife’s statement on Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump tried to shift the national conversation back to his immigration crackdown by posting a graphic, distressing video of a woman in Florida being killed last week by a man he described as an illegal immigrant from Haiti.
The video, taken by a surveillance camera outside a Fort Myers gas station, showed a man identified by authorities as a Haitian immigrant using a hammer to bludgeon to death the woman, who was reportedly a clerk at the gas station.
Continue reading...I lowered my board without thinking through the part where the tire now pushes up higher into the carbon fiber fender I’ve been using, does anyone know of a good alternative fender, or maybe a modification I could 3D print? I’ve got stock rails.
Thinktank says algorithms are fuelling isolation and division after analysing posts shown to social media users
Reform UK voters are the least likely to see posts from friends and family on social media and most likely to see content from brands and news organisations, a study has found.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank said algorithms were fuelling isolation and division after its research analysing users’ feeds on Instagram, Facebook, X, Bluesky and TikTok found that only 13% of Reform UK voters saw content from someone they knew, compared with 23% of Green party voters.
Continue reading...These household chemicals really can change the color of your orange iPhone.
Former Viktor Orbán loyalist and his Tisza party have enjoyed meteoric rise as opposition movement grows
As a child growing up in Budapest, Péter Magyar had a poster of Viktor Orbán – at the time a leading figure in the country’s pro-democracy movement – hanging above his bed. Orbán was one of several political figures that adorned his bedroom, Magyar told a podcast last year, hinting at his excitement over the changes sweeping the country after the collapse of communism.
Now Magyar, 45, is the driving force behind what could be another momentous political change in Hungary: the ousting of Orbán, whose 16 years in power has transformed the country into a “petri dish for illiberalism”.
Continue reading...The peril and promise of an economic boom in Venezuela.
U.S. tactical successes should give Beijing pause.
As America steps back, four countries will shape the continent’s security.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Women in the U.S. gave birth to roughly 710,000 fewer children last year compared with the nation's peak in 2007, according to preliminary data released (PDF) this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lead researcher Brady Hamilton, a demographer with the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, said the latest one percent drop in "general fertility" from 2024 to 2025 is part of a long-running downward trend. "Since 2007, there's been a decline in the general fertility rate [in the U.S.] of 23%," Hamilton told NPR. The impact of that change in real numbers is sizable: In 2007, there were 4,316,233 babies born. Last year, even though the nation's population as a whole is larger, there were only 3,606,400 newborns. There's no consensus over why women and couples have shifted their behavior so significantly. Some experts point to economic factors, others say cultural influences, and better access to education and contraception for women are driving the change. "We're seeing big drops in fertility rates for young women, teenagers and women in their 20s," said economist Martha Bailey, head of the California Center for Population Research at the University of California, Los Angeles. "What's not yet clear is whether or not those same women will go on to have children later on." "People are having the number of children they want and that they can afford at a time that makes the most sense for them," she said. "What I don't think anyone is in favor of is a Handmaid's Tale type policy regime, where we're trying to talk families into having children they don't want." One silver lining in the data is the 7% decline in teen pregnancies in 2025. Bianca Allison, pediatrician and associate professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, said: "What is actually affecting the birth rates are likely lower rates of teen pregnancy overall, which is in the context of higher use of contraception and lower sexual activity for youth, and then also continued access to abortion care."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
In Pakistan’s capital, the army has been deployed, a public holiday has been declared and the streets are eerily empty
The streets of Islamabad were on strict lockdown as Pakistan’s capital prepared to play host to historic negotiations between Iran and the US that have dangled the promise of an end to war that has devastated the Middle East.
Even as the US-Iran ceasefire looked increasingly precarious, amid Israel’s continued bombardment of Lebanon and disputes over the terms of the talks, Pakistani officials insisted that the make-or-break peace negotiations would be going ahead over the weekend as planned.
Continue reading...This live blog has now closed. Our coverage of the Middle East crisis continues here
The UK foreign minister, Yvette Cooper, has said Lebanon must be included in any ceasefire agreement. In other remarks now being reported by Reuters, Cooper added that shipping through the strait of Hormuz must be toll-free.
Amid ceasefire talks, Tehran has proposed fees or tolls on vessels to safely pass through the strait. Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested the US and Iran could collect tolls in a joint venture, while the White House said the priority was reopening the strait without limitations.
And my principles and values made sure that our decisions were that we wouldn’t get involved in the action without a lawful basis, without a viable, thought-through plan.”
Continue reading...Israeli PM says he will continue to attack Hezbollah ‘with full force’ after attacks that killed more than 300 people
Benjamin Netanyahu has said there is “no ceasefire in Lebanon” and Israel would continue “to strike Hezbollah with full force” as the country’s military launched fresh strikes.
The Israeli prime minister’s remarks and latest attacks on what the IDF called “Hezbollah launch sites” came shortly after Donald Trump said he had asked Netanyahu to be more “low-key” in Lebanon.
Later on Friday, a US state department official said Israel and Lebanon will hold talks in Washington next week. The announcement came as Netanyahu ordered his ministers to seek direct talks with Lebanon focused on disarming Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
Continue reading...Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 10.
Hawaii Volcanoes national park closed due to eruption of one of world’s most active volcanoes, located on Big Island
Amber lava exploded over 200 meters into the air as Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, located on Hawaii’s Big Island, erupted on Thursday.
Lava fountains began to erupt from the volcano after 11 am local time, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). On Thursday evening, plumes of smoke and lava pouring downslope were observable on a livestream camera. So far, the episode has produced 3.6 million cubic yards of lava, USGS said.
Continue reading...Reporters search for answers to why first lady chose to make speech – and whether president knew it was coming
Melania Trump’s surprise statement denying she had any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein sparked confusion about why she had chosen to speak out, and whether Donald Trump knew that the first lady was planning to draw attention to a subject he has called for the public to move on from.
Even normally well-sourced correspondents for rightwing outlets were at a loss to explain why Melania Trump felt the need to issue the seemingly out-of-the-blue statement about her relationship with Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with her husband for nearly two decades, or his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Continue reading...  | Based on the recommendation of some folks here i got the flared foot plates and it’s soooo much better on my feet. Also got the red bumper to distinguish it from my coworkers. [link] [comments] |
SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 9, 2026 — SiFive today announced it has raised $400 million in an oversubscribed Series G financing to accelerate its high-performance data center roadmap. This equity funding round was led by Atreides Management with other investors including Apollo Global Management, NVIDIA, Point72 Turion, and T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Inc., alongside repeat investors Prosperity7 Ventures, and Sutter Hill Ventures. The financing values the company at $3.65 billion and will accelerate SiFive’s RISC-V CPU and AI IP solutions for the data center.
“Hyperscale customers have made it very clear that it is time to accelerate the availability of open standard alternatives for the data center. Their consistent ask is for customizable CPU solutions in IP form, that will enable them to meaningfully differentiate their data center compute solutions,” said SiFive Chairman and CEO Patrick Little. “RISC-V is the only architecture that truly delivers on these requirements. As the industry urgently evolves toward agentic AI, SiFive is doubling down on the data center. By collaborating with our data center customers we are uniquely positioned to capture a substantial portion of the tremendous agentic AI opportunity.”
SiFive is Doubling Down on the Data Center
This financing will enable SiFive to accelerate the development of its next generation data center solutions and expand its global engineering teams to meet the needs of agentic AI workloads.
Investment focus:
The Rise of the Agentic CPU
CPUs are critical in agentic AI systems because they excel at orchestrating complex system level coordination tasks that GPUs and accelerators aren’t designed to handle efficiently. As AI evolves toward more complex agentic models, efficient CPU performance is critical to expanding compute capacity within existing power envelopes. SiFive enables this transition by replacing complex, power-hungry legacy architectures with modern RISC-V CPUs that are inherently lower power. RISC-V integrates scalar, vector, and matrix compute into a single, standards-based interface that helps customers scale rapidly, significantly accelerating hardware development to match the speed of AI innovation.
“For decades, proprietary ISAs have constrained how the world’s most sophisticated chip designers build and differentiate their silicon. SiFive is breaking that paradigm – unleashing the full potential of RISC-V’s open standard exactly when the industry needs it most.” said Gavin Baker, Managing Partner and CIO of lead investor Atreides Management. “As agentic AI redefines the role of the CPU in AI data centers, SiFive’s RISC-V platform delivers the performance, power efficiency, and architectural freedom that hyperscalers are demanding. We believe SiFive is uniquely positioned to be the long-term winner in this shift.”
“The CPU is suddenly exciting again, especially for applications in the data center. SiFive spotted this trend early and is well-positioned to benefit as the industry evolves,” said Dan Newman, CEO and Chief Analyst, The Futurum Group. “While legacy architectures are the current incumbents, we are seeing major chip and hyperscale companies envision a future with RISC-V in the data center. This $400 million investment round signals a pivotal shift toward RISC-V as a primary contender for high-performance computing, offering a flexible, efficient alternative to legacy architectures and bringing the strength of a global ecosystem to drive new solutions.”
Architecting the Future of Open Compute
RISC-V was created by our founders to be similar to other open standards, driven and continually improved by collaboration and cross pollination across a broad community of innovators. This ensures choice and flexibility for customers, and ultimately benefits consumers.
Dave Altavilla, Principal Analyst, HotTech Vision and Analysis said, “The rapid scale and accelerating pace of AI workloads are exposing the limitations of legacy CPU architectures that weren’t originally built with modern AI performance-per-watt requirements in mind. SiFive’s latest funding round suggests the industry’s historical posture around RISC-V is starting to shift. We’re now seeing more direct engagement, with hyperscalers, silicon vendors, and ecosystem partners working with SiFive to develop highly customizable CPU IP. If that momentum continues, and SiFive delivers on its ambitions, they have a clear path to participate in what could become a large $100 billion-plus market opportunity for next-generation AI and agentic data center infrastructure.”
More from HPCwire
About SiFive
As the pioneers who founded RISC-V, SiFive is transforming the future of computing by bringing the power and flexibility of RISC-V to the world. SiFive’s market-leading IP provides the blueprint for high-performance, customizable, and energy-efficient processor cores across the entire computing spectrum, from the intelligent edge to the most advanced AI data centers. SiFive achieved record growth in 2025 and its IP is featured in more than 500 designs, with over 10 billion cores shipped to date, SiFive is the trusted IP partner for the world’s most innovative technology companies.
Source: SiFive
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Company claims law regulating AI systems, set to go into effect in June, infringes on its first amendment rights
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has filed a lawsuit against the state of Colorado over a new AI law set to take effect in June.
The suit seeks to block the state from enforcing the law, which would impose new requirements on AI systems to protect state residents from “algorithmic discrimination” in sectors such as education, employment, healthcare, housing and financial services.
Continue reading...The best of NotebookLM now lives right within Gemini.
Following an executive order from the Trump administration that promotes production of glyphosate, some Democrats have claimed that the herbicide causes cancer. The science, however, is nuanced. While there is some evidence linking glyphosate to cancers in lab animals or to the blood cancer non-Hodgkin lymphoma in agricultural workers, the findings have been inconsistent.
Regulatory agencies around the world, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, have concluded glyphosate is unlikely to pose carcinogenic risks.
In a Feb. 18 executive order, President Donald Trump promoted production of glyphosate-based herbicides — originated in 1974 by Monsanto as the weedkiller Roundup — as necessary for national security. The move was widely viewed as counter to the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement, which generally opposes pesticides, and prominently glyphosate. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, is the only company that makes glyphosate in the U.S., although there are also imported generic versions.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the de facto MAHA leader, has long said that glyphosate causes cancer, although he defended the executive order.
Democrats quickly noted the contradiction — and proceeded to make claims of their own about glyphosate.
“This executive order is a slap in the face to the thousands of Americans who have gotten cancer from glyphosate,” Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, said in a Feb. 19 statement.
Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, meanwhile, brought up glyphosate during the Feb. 25 confirmation hearing for the surgeon general nominee, stating that Trump is “siding with the chemical manufacturing company that is, in fact, causing the cancers.”
Even as he defended Trump’s action, Kennedy has continued to indicate that glyphosate is dangerous. In a Feb. 27 appearance on the “Joe Rogan Experience,” for example, he mentioned the link to NHL, the blood cancer found in some but not other studies of people who apply glyphosate.
Other Republicans, such as Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, have also responded, although she did not make as strong of a claim about cancer, saying only that glyphosate “has been linked” to cancer.
“Glyphosate and other pesticides don’t belong on our food or in our children’s bodies,” she wrote in a March 8 post on X. “We are systematically poisoning ourselves.”
There is little to suggest glyphosate causes cancer in the trace amounts present in food. Some studies have identified associations between glyphosate exposure and cancer, either in humans who used the herbicide or in animals exposed in the lab. But the findings have been inconsistent, and researchers have come to differing conclusions about the overall evidence.
Results from a large National Institutes of Health study assessing exposure in agricultural workers, published in 2017, did not find an association between glyphosate and NHL or other cancers. This lack of a concrete connection has led many regulatory agencies to conclude glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer.
At the same time, a widely cited 2015 report from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer deemed glyphosate “probably carcinogenic to humans,” based on lab animal data and “limited” real-world evidence linking glyphosate to cancer in humans.
“The overall picture with glyphosate is messy,” David Eastmond, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Riverside, who studied genetic toxicology and chemical carcinogenesis, told us. He served on a 2016 committee of the WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that found human dietary glyphosate exposure was unlikely to cause cancer. “The human studies are messy, the animal studies are messy, the mechanistic studies are messy. And so within that messiness, you try and draw conclusions, and different people interpret that in different ways.”
Below, we will walk through the evidence about glyphosate that regulators and others have assessed, as well as more recent evidence being considered.
Glyphosate-based herbicides are the most commonly used weedkillers in the world. As such, wide swaths of people come into at least some contact with them.
Monitoring by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that most people have some detectable glyphosate in their urine, although researchers from the agency have noted that this on its own “does not mean that glyphosate causes disease or adverse effects.” Glyphosate does not significantly build up in the body and is rapidly cleared.
Agricultural workers are likely to have the highest exposures to glyphosate. It can also be found in trace amounts in a variety of foods, particularly grains and legumes. People living near fields while they are being sprayed have been found to have elevated levels in their urine compared with those living farther away.
In addition to being used on farms, glyphosate-based herbicides were historically sold for residential use, although beginning in 2023 Bayer has sold new products that include herbicides other than glyphosate, citing the need to “further reduce future litigation risk.”
Despite such litigation, it’s unclear what impact exposure to glyphosate-based herbicides — designed to interfere with a key pathway shared by plants and some microbes but not humans — has on people and at what level.
Glyphosate is not very acutely toxic. Scientists can test the acute toxicity of a chemical by feeding it to rodents and measuring the dose at which half of the animals have died. It takes more than 4,000 milligrams of glyphosate per kilogram of body weight to kill half of rats; this means glyphosate is less acutely toxic than table salt. However, for cancer, scientists are interested in long-term effects.
Some researchers say the evidence overall does indicate glyphosate can cause cancer. “Glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) harm human health and can cause cancer,” a group of 50 physicians, scientists and others — including the MAHA activist Kelly Ryerson — wrote in a March 27 statement. “The comprehensive evidence supports this conclusion, with the strongest epidemiological evidence linking exposure to increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system.” The statement followed a symposium on the health effects of glyphosate held at the University of Washington, which brought together academic and government researchers, consultants, lawyers, and representatives from nonprofit organizations.
Others have been less convinced, including, as we have said, regulators in a variety of regions and countries, including Canada, Japan and the European Union. Some epidemiologists and health communicators have pointed out that any cancer risks in rodents have generally been shown at doses higher than a person typically would be exposed to via their diet, while allowing that there may be concerns for people with more extreme exposures. And as we have said, a large, rigorous epidemiological study in humans did not show an association between glyphosate and cancer.
Adding complexity to this debate, there is a long history of concern over the influence Monsanto may have exerted over the scientific literature on its product’s safety. (Bayer acquired Monsanto in 2018.) In December, a journal retracted a 2000 review paper on glyphosate’s safety because a Monsanto employee had suggested in an internal email that it was ghostwritten.
A Dec. 4 statement from Bayer said that Monsanto’s role in the 2000 paper “did not rise to the level of authorship and was appropriately disclosed in the acknowledgments.” In a statement shared with us via email, a Bayer spokesperson emphasized the safety and extensive testing of the company’s glyphosate-based products: “The fact is that no health regulator anywhere in the world has ever found glyphosate to pose a threat to human health.”
Meanwhile, following the 2015 designation of glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic” by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, people with NHL, working with lawyers including Kennedy, brought thousands of lawsuits against Bayer alleging harm from Roundup. (An aide for Booker, the senator from New Jersey, told us via email that the “estimate that thousands of Americans have gotten cancer from glyphosate is supported by the lawsuits brought by thousands of people in the United States who developed cancer after using glyphosate-based herbicides.”)
Bayer on Feb. 17 proposed a $7.25 billion settlement of current and future cases. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will hear arguments this month over whether people can bring cases against Bayer under state law alleging failure to warn about harms on the labels for glyphosate-containing products. (The Trump administration filed a Dec. 1 amicus brief supporting Bayer’s position.) Advocacy groups have also challenged the EPA’s conclusions. The EPA is supposed to issue a revised decision by October.
“This year, EPA will undertake a comprehensive, transparent, and rigorous scientific review of glyphosate to evaluate its use and ensure decisions are fully aligned with the best available science as well as human health and environmental protections,” an EPA spokesperson told us via email.
The glyphosate litigation has brought in scientists to serve as expert witnesses for both sides.
“We all have biases to some degree, but some are influenced by external factors,” Eastmond said. He brought up stories about Monsanto’s ghostwriting, as well as the conflicts that can come from testifying as an expert witness. “If you’re working on one side or the other, you tend to study and focus research to support that point of view,” he said. He added that he is not aware of conflicts of interest on his part.
Another possible explanation for varying conclusions between IARC and pesticide regulators is that the groups had different procedures and were assessing different questions. IARC was assessing whether glyphosate is a hazard — i.e., whether it has the theoretical ability to cause harm. Some other groups were assessing glyphosate’s risk, or how likely glyphosate is to be causing harm under certain circumstances, such as under typical exposures.
For example, the 2016 committee from the WHO and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization that assessed glyphosate was tasked with determining whether dietary exposures from very low levels of pesticide residues came with cancer risk, which is different from the question of whether some very high level of exposure could cancer. Regulators also tend to assess risk under realistic levels of exposure.
However, a look at different groups’ and scientists’ arguments also reveals more fundamental disagreements on how to interpret the science, and multiple situations where evaluating carcinogenicity is not cut-and-dried.
The available studies in humans come to differing conclusions about whether glyphosate is associated with cancer in people who apply the herbicide. Meanwhile, there isn’t evidence in humans that low-level exposures in food are associated with cancer. It is challenging to study whether glyphosate causes cancer in humans both because cancer takes many years to develop and because it is tricky to assess how much of the herbicide people have been exposed to over a stretch of time.
At the time that IARC assessed the human evidence of glyphosate’s carcinogenicity as “limited,” there were half a dozen studies assessing glyphosate and NHL in humans, Laura Beane Freeman, an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, explained during a March 25 presentation at the Seattle Glyphosate Symposium. “Most, but not all, of the studies had some evidence of an association with non-Hodgkin lymphoma overall,” she said. “And I’m using that term loosely. It doesn’t necessarily mean statistical significance, it just means some evidence of a positive association.”
The studies that initially raised concerns were case-control studies. This type of study identifies people who developed a type of cancer in a population, as well as controls from the same population who did not have cancer, and then assesses their exposure in retrospect. The studies relied on asking participants or their family members about past glyphosate exposure.
In a review of the evidence published in 2017, the EPA pointed out that not all of the studies took into account whether people were exposed to other pesticides, which could have had their own health effects, and that many studies had small sample sizes. “In epidemiological studies, there was no evidence of an association between glyphosate exposure and numerous cancer outcomes; however, due to conflicting results and various limitations identified in studies investigating NHL, a conclusion regarding the association between glyphosate exposure and risk of NHL cannot be determined based on the available data,” the agency review concluded.
The Agricultural Health Study is a prospective cohort study that enrolled licensed pesticide applicators and has followed them for many years. An advantage of this sort of forward-looking study is that people’s estimates of how much pesticide they used cannot be biased by knowing whether they later went on to develop cancer, unlike in studies that ask people with cancer to look back at their past exposures. In addition, it is easier for this sort of study to look at a greater variety of cancer types.
A 2005 analysis of the study did not find an association between glyphosate and cancer. A 2018 updated analysis of the more than 54,000 participants also found no association between glyphosate use and any cancer type. (For acute myeloid leukemia, there was a numerically higher number of cases in farmers with the highest exposures, but the result was not statistically significant.)
For some, the negative results in the AHS are convincing, particularly given the fact that glyphosate use has increased since it came to market in the 1970s but NHL has slightly fallen overall since its peak in 2007. “The strongest study to date in my understanding is the Agricultural Health Study,” Eastmond said. “They just didn’t see any evidence” for cancer, with the exception of the possible increase in AML.
“That long-term study of agricultural workers, with a relatively well-defined exposure, over now approaching 20 years, shows no evidence of a risk of cancer,” Alan Boobis, an emeritus professor of toxicology at Imperial College London, told us. Boobis led the FAO/WHO committee that evaluated glyphosate in 2016.
Other researchers have been reluctant to interpret the AHS as vindicating glyphosate. “Even though the Agricultural Health Study was largely negative, there are other studies that were strongly positive,” Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician and public health physician at Boston College who signed the Seattle Glyphosate Symposium statement, told us.
At the symposium, he called a 2019 meta-analysis the “most noteworthy” of the newer studies in humans. (Meta-analyses also attempt to make sense of the data overall by combining results from multiple studies.) A spokesperson for Mace, the representative from South Carolina, had highlighted this study when asked about the data behind her concerns about glyphosate.
The study found that groups reporting the highest level of glyphosate-based herbicide exposure had a 41% higher rate of NHL than those who did not report use.
“I actually do think the scientific evidence is really strong” implicating glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides as carcinogens, Luoping Zhang, the first author of the study and an adjunct professor emerita of toxicology at the University of California, Berkeley, told us. Zhang was on a 2016 EPA panel that reviewed glyphosate and was one of the signers of the Seattle Glyphosate Symposium statement. She has been an expert witness for plaintiffs in glyphosate lawsuits.
However, a 2020 EPA review of Zhang’s meta-analysis questioned whether the researchers had a good rationale for zeroing in on the highest-exposure groups. The review emphasized that the updated AHS study — which it called “the largest study and of the highest quality” — found no sign of an increasing risk of NHL in people exposed to higher levels of glyphosate.
Zhang defended her team’s choice to look at high-exposure groups as common sense. “If you are thinking exposure to chemical A can cause cancer, everybody would believe the more you expose, the higher level you expose,” the higher the chance of cancer, she told us.
Scientists often look at data in rodents to better understand whether a chemical is likely to be harmful to humans, as it is possible to expose the mice and rats to precise quantities of the substance and assess its effects over a relatively short period of time. Again, groups diverged in their evaluation of the data on glyphosate, with IARC finding “sufficient” evidence in animals that it could cause cancer and regulators viewing the rodent cancer data more skeptically.
An important factor is that different groups reviewing glyphosate did not rely on exactly the same data, Eastmond said. IARC only considers data that the public has access to. Regulatory agencies consider proprietary data submitted from companies, and the FAO/WHO group also gained access to this data.
Some scientists have contended that IARC did not properly account for the many statistical comparisons in the rodent data. With more comparisons, it becomes more likely that there will be statistically significant results by chance alone. “That’s part of the reason people can interpret things quite differently,” Eastmond said.
In coming to its conclusion on glyphosate’s carcinogenicity, IARC cited an increased rate of a rare form of kidney cancer in a type of male lab mouse exposed to glyphosate and increased cancer of the blood vessels in exposed male mice, as well as increases in some benign kidney tumors.
Other groups interpreted the rodent data differently. “Based on the weight-of-evidence evaluations, the agency has concluded that none of the tumors evaluated in individual rat and mouse carcinogenicity studies are treatment-related,” for various reasons, the EPA concluded in its review. The agency did not find a significant increase in kidney tumors in mice, after a reanalysis found an additional tumor in the control mice that previously had not been seen. The EPA’s review also noted that some mice in the study received atypically high doses of glyphosate.
The European Chemicals Agency, or ECHA, similarly concluded in 2022 that the mouse data “did not demonstrate convincing evidence of glyphosate induced” tumors. The group did find some increased rare kidney tumors in male mice exposed to very high levels of glyphosate but called the relevance to humans “low” due to the high dose.
The FAO/WHO group that Eastmond and Boobis were a part of, meanwhile, “concluded that glyphosate is not carcinogenic in rats but could not exclude the possibility that it is carcinogenic in mice at very high doses,” according to the 2016 report released on its conclusions. However, the group — which was only tasked with assessing the effects of pesticides in food — concluded that “those effects were seen at such high doses that we did not think it was relevant for the decisions we were making about pesticide residues in the diet,” Eastmond said.
Some people with concerns about glyphosate cite a June 2025 study in rats as evidence that the herbicide can be carcinogenic at lower doses. (The aide for Booker, the senator from New Jersey, cited this study, among other sources suggesting glyphosate is carcinogenic.) The study found elevated rates of various cancers in rats exposed to glyphosate or glyphosate-based herbicides beginning in utero and through their lives. This included an increase in early-life leukemia, which is rare in the type of rats studied. The researchers used doses of glyphosate pegged to European regulatory limits for daily exposure.
“What that says to me is that the levels that people are being exposed to today in food … those levels have risk,” Landrigan said, adding that the study establishes that glyphosate causes cancer. “The risk to any one person may be relatively low, but when millions of people are exposed … there are always going to be some people who eat more contaminated food than others, and there are always going to be some people in the population who are biologically more sensitive than others … so across a population if you expose a whole population to a chemical that has the power to cause cancer, then you’re going to push up the risk across the population.”
However, some scientists have criticized the study as using unusual statistical and other methods, while noting that its conclusions contrast with those of other rat studies.
In a July 2025 review, for example, scientists from the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment — the group that led the most recent European Union safety review of glyphosate – wrote that “due to its design, the study is only very limited in its comparability with the many long-term studies on glyphosate that are already available” and “does not refute their findings.” The German review said that prior studies using far higher exposures had not gotten similar results.
The “unusual” study design of the new rat study “doesn’t in itself invalidate the study, but it means that it needs to be open to scrutiny,” Boobis said. “They have been very reluctant to let outsiders access to the raw data, the pathology slides, etc., to do independent evaluation.” He also called the way the study counted the tumors and compared the groups of rats “extremely unconventional.”
The third line of evidence scientists use to evaluate whether a chemical is carcinogenic is whether there is a mechanistic explanation for how it causes cancer. Again, groups have come to divergent conclusions about whether glyphosate leads to cancer-related changes.
IARC found “strong” mechanistic evidence that glyphosate causes cancer, citing evidence that it damages DNA, called genotoxicity. The group also found evidence of oxidative stress, a more indirect measure of possible carcinogenicity. Cells are considered to be under oxidative stress when they fall behind on dealing with reactive oxygen-containing molecules. In the long-term, this can lead to cancer.
In contrast, the EPA review concluded that the available data showed that glyphosate does not cause DNA mutations when consumed by mouth. The FAO/WHO group also did not find genotoxic effects from glyphosate in mammals exposed orally, and the European ECHA evaluation also concluded glyphosate did not cause mutations.
Eastmond, who helped lead the FAO/WHO group’s efforts to weigh the mechanistic evidence, said that people may come to different conclusions about genotoxicity in part because there are so many studies on the topic, with widely varying quality, and because IARC only considered published studies while others had data from the manufacturer. “We focused on what we thought were the most relevant for human risk by the oral route of exposure,” he said. “When we did that, we thought the evidence was clearly pretty overwhelmingly negative for genotoxicity.”
More recently, National Cancer Institute researchers have also taken urine samples from agricultural workers in the AHS and found some signs of increased oxidative stress in urine that had more glyphosate in it.
However, Boobis and Eastmond noted that many substances cause oxidative stress, and that this does not always lead to cancer.
A different recent NCI study found that among agricultural workers in the AHS study, higher self-reported exposure to glyphosate over time was associated with certain chromosomal changes, although the authors said their results would need to be replicated.
Another question is whether there is a difference between exposure to glyphosate on its own versus glyphosate-based herbicides, which contain other ingredients which are in some cases proprietary. Some recent mechanistic studies have suggested that glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer-related changes in cells but raise the possibility that glyphosate-based herbicides, which also include other ingredients, may lead to these changes.
Eastmond acknowledged that despite the large amount of data on glyphosate, there are still potential gaps. He noted that the original court case was brought by a person who was exposed “extensively” via the skin, where most studies are of oral exposure. “You could argue maybe there’s a difference,” he said. He added that he tells people to take precautions while applying pesticides but doesn’t in most cases “worry too much about everything I eat and drink.”
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The post Politicians Say Glyphosate Weedkiller Causes Cancer But Evidence Not Clear-Cut appeared first on FactCheck.org.
Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for April 10, No. 1,756.
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 10, No. 1034.
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for April 10, No. 768.
Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 10, No. 564.
A federal judge blocked a restrictive new Defense Dept. press policy instituted after previously he ruled Pentagon press restrictions issued last year were unlawful.
Brian Hooker exchanged Facebook messages with a friend, which CBS News exclusively reviewed, after his wife vanished in the Bahamas over the weekend.
Few ships passed through the waterway Wednesday and Thursday despite a ceasefire agreement that was supposed to open the waterway key to transiting oil across the globe.
White House aides got an email last month telling them not to place bets on prediction markets with nonpublic information, multiple administration officials told CBS News.
First lady holds press conference, though it was unclear whether she was responding to any specific accusations
Melania Trump says she not did not have relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
Sketch: Melania says her piece about Epstein – doth the lady protest too much?
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte has briefed some capitals that US president Donald Trump wants concrete commitments within the next few days for help securing the strait of Hormuz, two European diplomats told Reuters.
The report appears to confirm yesterday’s report in the German economic daily Handelsblatt, claiming Nato was considering a naval mission to secure the strait in a move to “appease” Trump.
Continue reading...Rory McIlroy made a superb start to his title defence at Augusta and shares the overnight lead with Sam Burns on five under par
While we’re on the subject of blowouts, spare a thought for poor Carlos Ortiz. The 34-year-old Mexican is making just his second start at the Masters, and his first since 2021. A tie for fourth at last year’s US Open at Oakmont shows the man has proper major-championship game, but Augusta National is capable of besting any man, and Ortiz has suffered a nightmare start. A drive into the creek down the left of 2. A fluffed splash out of a fairway bunker at 5. He’s started 5-7-5-4-6, a run of three bogeys and two doubles. At +7 through 5, he’ll already be wishing he was back in the clubhouse, and a par at 6 to snap that disastrous run won’t do much to help his mood.
It’s also the 30th anniversary of this. Oh Greg.
Continue reading...Just wanted to get some input from the community on 3D printed parts for onewheels. I saw someone selling a pint with an PX battery box that was printed and it got me wondering how strong or durable these parts can be? I’ve seen people print out fenders and float fins too. Has anyone used any 3D printed parts on a trail or just had real life experience with them? What material are you printing with or what is recommended?
April 9, 2026 — Anthropic has announced Project Glasswing, a new initiative that brings together Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorganChase, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Palo Alto Networks in an effort to secure the world’s most critical software.
Anthropic formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that could reshape cybersecurity. Claude Mythos Preview is a general-purpose, unreleased frontier model that reveals a stark fact: AI models have reached a level of coding capability where they can surpass all but the most skilled humans at finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities.
Mythos Preview has already found thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major operating system and web browser. Given the rate of AI progress, it will not be long before such capabilities proliferate, potentially beyond actors who are committed to deploying them safely. The fallout—for economies, public safety, and national security—could be severe. Project Glasswing is an urgent attempt to put these capabilities to work for defensive purposes.
As part of Project Glasswing, the launch partners listed above will use Mythos Preview as part of their defensive security work; Anthropic will share what it learns so the whole industry can benefit. The company has also extended access to a group of over 40 additional organizations that build or maintain critical software infrastructure so they can use the model to scan and secure both first-party and open-source systems. Anthropic is committing up to $100 million in usage credits for Mythos Preview across these efforts, as well as $4 million in direct donations to open-source security organizations.
Project Glasswing is a starting point. No one organization can solve these cybersecurity problems alone: frontier AI developers, other software companies, security researchers, open-source maintainers, and governments across the world all have essential roles to play. The work of defending the world’s cyber infrastructure might take years; frontier AI capabilities are likely to advance substantially over just the next few months. For cyber defenders to come out ahead, the community needs to act now.
Cybersecurity in the age of AI
The software that the world relies on every day—responsible for running banking systems, storing medical records, linking up logistics networks, keeping power grids functioning, and much more—has always contained bugs. Many are minor, but some are serious security flaws that, if discovered, could allow cyberattackers to hijack systems, disrupt operations, or steal data.
Over the years there have been serious consequences of cyberattacks for important corporate networks, healthcare systems, energy infrastructure, transport hubs, and the information security of government agencies across the world. On the global stage, state-sponsored attacks from actors like China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia have threatened to compromise the infrastructure that underpins both civilian life and military readiness. Even smaller-scale attacks, such as those where individual hospitals or schools are targeted, can still inflict substantial economic damage, expose sensitive data, and even put lives at risk. The current global financial costs of cybercrime are challenging to estimate, but might be around $500 billion every year.
Many flaws in software go unnoticed for years because finding and exploiting them has required expertise held by only a few skilled security experts. With the latest frontier AI models, the cost, effort, and level of expertise required to find and exploit software vulnerabilities have all dropped dramatically. Over the past year, AI models have become increasingly effective at reading and reasoning about code—in particular, they show a striking ability to spot vulnerabilities and work out ways to exploit them. Claude Mythos Preview demonstrates a leap in these cyber skills—the vulnerabilities it has spotted have in some cases survived decades of human review and millions of automated security tests, and the exploits it develops are increasingly sophisticated.
Ten years after the first DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge, frontier AI models are now becoming competitive with the best humans at finding and exploiting vulnerabilities. Without the necessary safeguards, these powerful cyber capabilities could be used to exploit the many existing flaws in the world’s most important software. This could make cyberattacks of all kinds much more frequent and destructive, and empower adversaries of the United States and its allies. Addressing these issues is therefore an important security priority for democratic states.
Although the risks from AI-augmented cyberattacks are serious, there is reason for optimism: the same capabilities that make AI models dangerous in the wrong hands make them invaluable for finding and fixing flaws in important software—and for producing new software with far fewer security bugs. Project Glasswing is an important step toward giving defenders a durable advantage in the coming AI-driven era of cybersecurity.
Anthropic does not plan to make Claude Mythos Preview generally available, but the eventual goal is to enable users to safely deploy Mythos-class models at scale—for cybersecurity purposes, but also for the myriad other benefits that such highly capable models will bring. To do so, progress needs to be made in developing cybersecurity (and other) safeguards that detect and block the model’s most dangerous outputs. Anthropic plans to launch new safeguards with an upcoming Claude Opus model, allowing the company to improve and refine them with a model that does not pose the same level of risk as Mythos Preview.
Plans for Project Glasswing
This announcement is the beginning of a longer-term effort. To be successful, it will require broad involvement from across the technology industry and beyond.
Project Glasswing partners will receive access to Claude Mythos Preview to find and fix vulnerabilities or weaknesses in their foundational systems—systems that represent a very large portion of the world’s shared cyberattack surface. Anthropic anticipates this work will focus on tasks like local vulnerability detection, black box testing of binaries, securing endpoints, and penetration testing of systems.
Anthropic’s commitment of $100 million in model usage credits to Project Glasswing and additional participants will cover substantial usage throughout this research preview. Afterward, Claude Mythos Preview will be available to participants at $25/$125 per million input/output tokens (participants can access the model on the Claude API, Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud’s Vertex AI, and Microsoft Foundry).
In addition to Anthropic’s commitment of model usage credits, the company has donated $2.5 million to Alpha-Omega and OpenSSF through the Linux Foundation, and $1.5 million to the Apache Software Foundation to enable the maintainers of open-source software to respond to this changing landscape (maintainers interested in access can apply through the Claude for Open Source program).
Anthropic intends for this work to grow in scope and continue for many months, and the company will share as much as it can so that other organizations can apply the lessons to their own security. Partners will, to the extent they’re able, share information and best practices with each other; within 90 days, Anthropic will report publicly on what it has learned, as well as the vulnerabilities fixed and improvements made that can be disclosed. Anthropic will also collaborate with leading security organizations to produce a set of practical recommendations for how security practices should evolve in the AI era. This will potentially include:
Anthropic has also been in ongoing discussions with US government officials about Claude Mythos Preview and its offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. As noted above, securing critical infrastructure is a top national security priority for democratic countries—the emergence of these cyber capabilities is another reason why the US and its allies must maintain a decisive lead in AI technology. Governments have an essential role to play in helping maintain that lead, and in both assessing and mitigating the national security risks associated with AI models. Anthropic is ready to work with local, state, and federal representatives to assist in these tasks.
Anthropic is hopeful that Project Glasswing can seed a larger effort across industry and the public sector, with all parties helping to address the biggest questions around the impact of powerful models on security. The company invites other AI industry members to join in helping to set the standards for the industry. In the medium term, an independent, third-party body—one that can bring together private- and public-sector organizations—might be the ideal home for continued work on these large-scale cybersecurity projects.
Source: Anthropic
The post Anthropic Unveils ‘Project Glasswing’ as Claude Mythos Targets Software Vulnerabilities appeared first on HPCwire.
You might have seen this, one of the strangest and most primitive experiences in macOS, where you’re asked to press keys next to left Shift and right Shift, whatever they might be.
Perhaps I can explain.
↫ Marcin Wichary
It seems pretty obvious to me that’s what it was for, but I guess many normal, regular people have never seen anything but one particular keyboard configuration (ANSI for Americans, ISO for some Europeans, etc.) keyboards. Perhaps they don’t realise that not only are there ANSI keyboards with other layouts, but also entirely different keyboard configurations (mainly ISO and JIS).
Interestingly, my home country of The Netherlands uses a US English layout on an ANSI configuration, but of course, it’s the US International variant, either with deadkeys or using AltGr for the various accented/special characters we use. In my current country of residence, Sweden, they use this utterly wild and incomprehensible ISO layout where Shift unlocks characters on the bottom of keys, while AltGr unlocks characters at the top, the exact opposite of literally every other keyboard I’ve ever used (US Int’l, classic Dutch (no longer used), German, French, etc.). It’s utterly bizarre, but entirely normal to my Swedish wife.
We cannot use each other’s keyboards.
Champion shares lead with Sam Burns after opening 67
McIlroy: ‘I was nervous, I was anxious like I always am’
So this is what Rory McIlroy’s new normal looks like. The defending champion is footloose and fancy-free at Augusta National. He is plainly no longer of a mind to revel in the events of the 2025 Masters. McIlroy returned to Augusta, for so long a place that exacted psychological torture on him, to deliver an emphatic statement. The floodgates are wobbling.
Parallels between McIlroy on day one at this major and his win 12 months ago are valid. In both instances he played swashbuckling, theatric golf (and not always from fairways). Rafa Nadal, anxious to watch every swing from the galleries, must have admired what he witnessed. After round one, McIlroy is firmly on course to become only the fourth man to successfully defend at Augusta. Those who believed the 36-year-old’s history-making concluded with playoff glory over Justin Rose last year may be sorely mistaken.
Continue reading...Leading party figures gather at the National Action Network convention in New York to strategize for midterm elections
Some of the Democratic party’s most prominent figures – and possible 2028 presidential contenders – descended on New York City this week for the annual National Action Network (NAN) convention hosted by the Rev Al Sharpton, where discussions centered around the upcoming midterms, affordability, the war in Iran and the future of the Democratic party.
“Now more than ever, it’s on all of us to stand up for the future of our country, doing some public service – at a minimum, everybody has to go vote in this coming election,” the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, told the crowd on Thursday.
Continue reading..."One of VMware's biggest competitors, Nutanix, claims to have swiped tens of thousands of VMware customers," reports Ars Technica. They said higher prices, forced bundling, licensing changes, and more strained partner relationships have frustrated customers and driven them away from the leading virtualization firm. From the report: Speaking at a press briefing at Nutanix's .NEXT conference in Chicago this week, Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami said that "about 30,000 customers" have migrated from VMware to the rival platform, pointing to customer disapproval over Broadcom's VMware strategy, SDxCentral, a London-based IT publication, reported today. "I think there's no doubt that the customer sentiment continues to be negative about Broadcom," Ramaswami said, per SDxCentral. Nutanix hasn't specified how many of the customers that it got from VMware are SMBs or enterprise-sized; although, adoption is said to be strongest among mid-market customers as Nutanix also tries wooing larger customers, often by starting with partial deployments. During this week's press briefing, Ramaswami reportedly said that some of the customers that moved from VMware to Nutanix during the latter's most recent fiscal quarter represented Nutanix's "strongest quarterly new logo additions in eight years." "Most of the logos came from our typical VMware migrations on to the [hyperconverged infrastructure] platform," he said. During the Nutanix conference, Brandon Shaw, Nutanix VP and head of technology services, said that Western Union has been migrating from VMware to Nutanix for six months, The Register reported. The financial services company is moving 900 to 1,200 applications across 3,900 cores. Shaw said that Western Union has been exploring new IT suppliers to help it become more customer-focused. Despite Broadcom's history of "decent lines of communication" with Western Union, Shaw said that Western Union had "challenges partnering with them." Shaw also pointed to Broadcom's efforts to push customers to buy the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), despite the product often having more features than companies need and at high prices. Since moving to Nutanix, the Denver-headquartered financial firm is also benefiting from having more flexibility around workload locations, which is important since Western Union is in over 200 countries, The Register said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Astronauts prepare for re-entry several miles off coast of southern California after 10-day lunar fly-by mission
The crew of Artemis II is set to return to earth on Friday following its historic 10-day lunar flyby mission, and Nasa leaders have described the precise logistics needed to get them home.
The return will see the Orion capsule traveling at nearly 24,000mph before making a final splashdown several miles off the coast of San Diego. The operation requires multiple teams and careful coordination to safely extract the crew from the spacecraft.
Continue reading...This post aims to be a high level introduction to using USB for people who may not have worked with Hardware too much yet and just want to use the technology. There are amazing resources out there such as USB in a NutShell that go into a lot of detail about how USB precisely works (check them out if you want more information), they are however not really approachable for somebody who has never worked with USB before and doesn’t have a certain background in Hardware. You don’t need to be an Embedded Systems Engineer to use USB the same way you don’t need to be a Network Specialist to use Sockets and the Internet.
↫ Nik “WerWolv”
A bit of a generic title, but the article details how to write a USB driver.
The months keep coming, and thus, the monthly progress reports keep coming, too, for Redox, the new general purpose operating system written in Rust. This past month, there’s been considerable graphics improvements, better deadlock detection in the kernel, improved Unicode support thanks to switching over to ncurses library variant with Unicode support, and much more. Alongside these, you’ll find the usual long list of kernel, driver, and relibc changes, bugfixes, and improvements.
This month also covered three topics we’ve already discussed individually: Redox’ new no-“AI” code policy, capability-based security in Redox, and the brand-new CPU scheduler.
The two companies join forces on a five-city pilot program to track potholes in need of patching.
Paul Friedman grants New York Times’s motion to force implementation of earlier ruling that gutted restrictive new policy
A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the Pentagon has not complied with an order last month that undid much of a restrictive new press pass policy implemented by the Department of Defense, and ordered the return of credentials to seven New York Times reporters.
The newspaper, which sued the Trump administration in December, had urged the judge to compel implementation of his 20 March ruling after the Pentagon responded to the judge’s determination by creating a new press access policy, which the newspaper called an “end-run” around the judge’s ruling. The Pentagon had also announced the closure of the work space known as “correspondents’ corridor”.
Continue reading...The first lady unleashed a barrage of denials – and put one of her husband’s biggest political liabilities back on the agenda
When Donald Trump launched a seemingly random war against Iran, there was a whiff of suspicion of a Wag the Dog ploy to divert attention from how badly the Jeffrey Epstein scandal was going.
So when Trump’s wife Melania made a mysterious appearance at the White House on Thursday to put Epstein front and centre again, was it an elaborate ruse to divert attention from how badly the Iran war is going?
Continue reading...Experts point to economic pressures and delayed marriages as two factors in the downward trend, which has been a political flash point.
AI avatars can even take your place in YouTube Shorts.
“Systems not chips” is the rallying cry for scaling up AI inference, as any individual AI accelerator alone is proving to be insufficient for handling the entire AI inference workload. This is what’s driving the new integration that chipmakers SambaNova and Intel unveiled this week, which eventually will blend SambaNova’s SN50 RDU, Intel Xeon 6 CPU, and GPUs from some unidentified supplier in a cohesive whole.
CPUs suddenly are hot again as organizations realize that GPUs and other accelerators (XPUs) are ill-suited for handling the entirety of the AI inference workload, which includes the prefill and the decode stages. GPUs are good fits for prefill, which is where the trained AI model receives the input prompt, processes it in parallel, and generates the KV cache (or the attention matrix) that’s stored in GPU memory. During prefill, compute is generally the bottleneck while stress on the memory and storage is low.
SambaNova SN50
But GPUs are less ideal for the decode stage, which is where the AI model generates the output tokens from the input and the KV cache, and then serves the result to the user one token at a time in a sequential manner. The bottleneck shifts during the decode to the memory, since the entire KV cache must be stored in GPU memory and the tokens are generated one by one.
CPUs are generally recognized to be a better fit for the AI decode stage, thanks to their lower cost, strong single-threaded performance, and capability to handle a variety of different tasks. Organizations building AI inference clusters can throw thousands (or tens of thousands) of cores of less expensive CPUs at the problem rather than risk letting pricier GPUs go idle. CPUs are also proving a good fit for other AI tasks, such as data pre-processing, AI model orchestration, and scheduling the more computationally heavy tasks among fleets of GPUs.
The necessity of the humble CPU is why Nvidia and AMD are building “superchips” that fuse GPUs with CPUs. It’s also why Nvidia is building huge systems filled with its new Vera Arm CPU, not to mention the Grok language processing units (LPUs) that feature lots of very fast static random-access memory (SRAM). The same “inference king” economics that caught the attention of Nvidia CEO Jensen Haung is driving other recent chip moves, including Arm’s recent launch of its first silicon ever, the AGI CPU, and d-Matrix’s acquisition of the data center business of GigaIO.
Now it’s SambaNova’s turn. The company that developed the Reconfigurable Data Unit (RDU) architecture–which implements a custom processing pipeline that addresses inefficiencies in the traditional instruction set architecture (ISA) architecture used by traditional CPUs and GPUs–is teaming up with Intel to develop a blueprint for building hetergeneous systems specifically for AI inference.
SambaNova chips support a reconfigurable dataflow architecture
The new Intel-SambaNova blueprint combines GPUs (or RDUs) for prefill, RN50 RDUs for decode, and Xeon 6 CPUs to handle coordination, database calls, and tool and API execution. The plan calls for SambaNova RDUs to sit alongside Xeon 6 as the “dedicated inference fabric” for decode. Once the Xeon 6 CPUs have set up the work, SambaNova RN50s are there to generate the tokens.
SambaNova says the combo of its RDUs and CPUs from Intel can deliver better performance than Arm-based CPUs, such as Nvidia’s Vera chips and the new AGI CPU from Arm Holdings. The company says that its tests show Xeon 6 delivered more than 50% faster LLVM compilation times compared with Arm‑based server CPUs, and up to 70% faster vector database performance compared with available x86‑based competition. “This accelerates end‑to‑end coding agent workflows, allowing developers to move from idea to production‑ready agents noticeably faster,” the company says.
It’s unclear what GPU the two companies have in mind for the blueprint. Intel introduced its latest GPU, dubbed “Crescent Island,” last fall. Due in the second-half of 2026, the new GPU will feature 160GB of LPDDR5X memory, utilize the Xe3P microarchitecture, and will be optimized for performance-per-watt, the company says. In any event, an RDU, such as SambaNova’s RN50 (or perhaps prevoius generation chips) can substitute for the GPU in the prefill stage, according to SambaNova’s chart.
Chart courtesy SambaNova
SambaNova’s new SN50, which it unveiled in February and is due later this year, features a tiered memory architecture that combines 64GB of high‑bandwidth memory (HBM), 432 MB of SRAM, and 256 GB to 2 TB of DDR5. SambaNova says this memory architecture allows it to host the largest AI models, including models with up to 10 trillion parameters.
SambaNova says an AI inference cluster with 256 SN50 chips running in 30 kW, air-cooled racks can deliver a “premium AI experience” on an AI model with 1 trillion parameters. The same experience would require more than 2,000 Groq LPUs from Nvidia running in a 1 megawatt data center using liquid cooling, SambaNova claims.
“Agentic AI is moving into production–and the winning pattern we’re seeing is GPUs to start the job, Intel Xeon 6 to run it, and SambaNova RDUs to finish it fast,” stated Rodrigo Liang, the CEO and co‑founder of SambaNova Systems. “Together with Intel, we’re giving customers a blueprint they can deploy in existing air‑cooled data centers, with broad x86 coverage for the coding agents and tools they already use today.”
Intel and SambaNova’s blueprint will become available in the second half of 2026. Intel, which tried to buy SambaNova late last year for $1.6 billion, also participated in SambaNova’s latest $350 million funding round.
Related Items:
Forget About Chips. It’s the System That Matters For AI
SambaNova Eyes 10-Trillion Parameter Models for Agentic AI with New Chip
Intel Unveils New Data Center GPU for Inference, Dubbed ‘Crescent Island’
The post SambaNova and Intel In Latest AI Inference Chip Tie-Up appeared first on HPCwire.
The wireless and home internet bundles give US Mobile a single-bill option for customers.
BrianFagioli writes: Mozilla is accusing Microsoft of stacking the deck against Firefox, arguing that design choices in Windows steer users toward Edge even when they explicitly choose another browser. According to Mozilla, parts of Windows still open links in Edge regardless of the default browser setting, including results from the taskbar search and links launched from apps like Outlook and Teams. Mozilla says this means Firefox often never even gets the opportunity to handle those links, which quietly shifts user activity back into Microsoft's ecosystem. The company also points to Microsoft's aggressive rollout of Copilot as another example of platform power being used to push Microsoft services. Copilot appeared pinned to the taskbar, arrived automatically on many systems with Microsoft 365, and even received a dedicated keyboard key on some laptops. Mozilla argues that when the maker of the dominant desktop operating system promotes its own browser and AI tools at the system level, it becomes far harder for independent browsers like Firefox to compete.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Suspects allegedly bought 14 hospice companies and used stolen identities to fraudulently bill state health plan
California authorities have filed felony charges against 21 people, who they say orchestrated a hospice fraud scheme that cost the state $267m, the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, announced on Thursday.
The suspects allegedly bought personal identifying information for non-California residents from the dark web and used the stolen identities to enroll in Medi-Cal, a state program that gives low-income residents free or low-cost health care.
Continue reading...No longer like a man carrying a vase across a slippery floor, the 2025 winner uses attack as the best form of defence
Can Rory McIlroy win back-to-back Masters titles? Jack Nicklaus will tell you that McIlroy’s already done the hardest part. “Well, the key is to win two years in a row,” Nicklaus said with a grin after hitting the honorary tee shot on Thursday morning, “and I think Rory’s the only one that’s got a chance to do that this year.” Nicklaus did it back in 1965 and ’66. “Rory’s talented enough,” he added. “Now he’s got that monkey off his back, I think he has a very, very good chance to repeat.”
In his first 17 years coming here, McIlroy played Augusta National just about every which way he could think of: he’s attacked it, endured it, and overthought it, played it carelessly, played it cautiously, and played it consideredly. The one thing we had never seen was how he would go about it once he had finally won the thing. Turns out the answer is he would do it with a big grin and a hell of a swing. His very first shot at Augusta as Masters champion, at 10.30am on a bright, blue and dry Augusta morning, was a whistling 332-yard drive that carried the entire hill and shot off into the gallery over the left side of the fairway.
Continue reading...The Bronx born rapper and DJ helped introduce hip-hop to the mainstream and was also accused of child sexual abuse
The American rapper and DJ Afrika Bambaataa has died aged 67. The musician died in Philadelphia at around 3am local time due to complications from cancer, TMZ reported.
The Hip-Hop Alliance, a group headed by musician Kurtis Blow, wrote: “Today, we acknowledge the transition of a foundational architect of hip-hop culture, Afrika Bambaataa. As the founder of the Universal Zulu Nation, Afrika Bambaataa helped shape the early identity of hip-hop as a global movement rooted in peace, unity, love, and having fun.
Continue reading...These are our favorite sleek, small gaming devices that you'll love to bring along on planes, trains and automobiles.
I recently just bought a onewhell gt and was wondering what the customization is like. ive seen people have lights in there wheels and thought that was pretty cool. can anyone point me in the direction?
Argonne research takes next leap in computing by mastering magnetism one atom at a time.
April 9, 2026 — Data is growing at a staggering pace, pushing charge‑based microelectronics, such as smartphones and laptops, to their physical limits.
Credit: Shutterstock
Spintronics — technology that uses electron spin rather than charge — avoids the limits of conventional electronics by switching information with very little energy, holding states without power and enabling extremely dense data storage.
Electrons possess a property called spin, which gives each one a tiny magnetic field that can point up or down, like a miniature compass needle. Because these magnetic orientations encode information, advancing spintronics requires controlling electron spins at the nanoscale — the scale of structures thousands of times thinner than a human hair.
Van der Waals magnets — ultrathin materials that can be peeled into layers only a few atoms thick — are ideal building blocks for spintronic devices, which rely on controlling electron spins and magnetic states at very small scales. Van der Waals magnets offer a powerful new platform for next‑generation electronics and data storage technologies.
In groundbreaking new research, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory reveal how magnetic domains behave inside these 2D van der Waals magnets. This finding provides a roadmap for designing and tuning future spin‑based technologies.
“AI’s growth is pushing the limits of today’s microelectronics. Spintronics could enable faster, smaller, more efficient devices to meet the demand,” said Amanda Petford-Long, materials science researcher emeritus, an Argonne Distinguished Fellow and a co-author of the study published in Advanced Functional Materials.
A key part of the study involved examining the underlying structure of magnetic materials at the domain level.
“Magnetic domains are regions where a material’s magnetization points in one direction or another — like tiny north–south poles. The team examined how these regions align and how they change under different external conditions,” said Charudatta Phatak, interim director and group leader in Argonne’s Materials Science division and a study co-author.
Specifically, scientists sought to understand how changing the thickness of a nanoscale magnetic material affects its domains. This includes how those domains form and switch and how thickness influences their density and size.
“The goal is to identify the parameters that control the spins in the material — specifically sample thickness and applied magnetic field,” said Jennifer Garland, a Northwestern University visiting graduate student at Argonne and a lead author of the study.
“Thickness strongly influences magnetic behavior. That means mapping these changes is essential for predicting and engineering the material’s properties,” said Phatak.
Direct Imaging of Magnetic Patterns at the Nanoscale
Researchers studied Fe3GeTe2 (FGT), a van der Waals ferromagnet known for its strong magnetic properties and potential for spintronic applications. Because FGT is only magnetic at very low temperatures, researchers cooled the sample with liquid nitrogen to about minus 173 degrees Celsius (around 100 Kelvin).
Scientists applied a magnetic field during this cooling process, known as field cooling. This allowed scientists to produce well‑defined magnetic patterns and generate different domain states on demand.
Each domain pattern exposed new details about how spins organize at the nanoscale. Previously, scientists had to infer a material’s domain structure from its overall magnetization. To probe these behaviors in even greater detail, scientists turned to direct imaging of how magnetic patterns evolve inside ultrathin materials using cryogenic Lorentz Transmission Electron Microscopy (cryo‑LTEM) at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne. Cryo-LTEM is a technique that images magnetic structures in materials while they are cooled to cryogenic temperatures.
Researchers imaged a single flake of FGT and tracked its magnetic structures in real time during magnetization reversal.
Scientists discovered how material thickness and applied magnetic fields govern skyrmion size, density and evolution in the FGT magnet. Skyrmions are tiny magnetic whirlpools formed by twisting electron spins. They are incredibly small, remarkably stable and require very little energy to move.
“The overarching goal is to learn how to precisely control skyrmions so they can potentially be used in advanced, high‑density information technologies,” said Garland.
This finding is essential for shrinking skyrmions so they can match the tiny dimensions of today’s electronic components.
Micromagnetic simulations from collaborators at the University of Edinburgh (U.K.) reproduced the flake’s magnetic behavior and closely matched the cryo‑LTEM experimental results. The simulations were performed and analyzed using Argonne’s high performance computing resources.
Argonne Unlocks New Pathways for Spintronics
Essentially, Argonne’s work offers a roadmap that allows scientists to predict the resulting domain patterns and their behavior for any given thickness and cooling conditions.
Mastering magnetism in atomically thin materials brings spin‑based, energy‑efficient computing closer to reality.
“If engineers can reliably tune skyrmion size and density, they can begin building the kinds of spintronic technologies that have long been imagined. Those with ultra‑dense memory, low‑power processors and magnetic storage far beyond the capabilities of today’s hard drives,” said Phatak.
Besides Garland, Phatak and Petford-Long, other study authors are John Fullerton and Yue Li from Argonne; PeiYu Cai from the University of Edinburgh; Elton Santos from the University of Edinburgh and the Donostia International Physics Center (Spain); and Rabindra Basnet, Santosh Karki Chhetri and Jin Hu from the University of Arkansas.
This work, including use of the CNM, was supported by DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Some computing resources were provided on Swing, a high performance computing cluster operated by the Laboratory Computing Resource Center at Argonne. Garland’s work was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
Source: Beth Burmahl, Argonne National Laboratory
The post Argonne Maps Magnetic Domain Behavior in 2D Materials for Spintronics appeared first on HPCwire.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the company may eventually sell its Trainium AI chips directly to outside customers, not just through AWS, which would put Amazon in more direct competition with Nvidia. "There's so much demand for our chips that it's quite possible we'll sell racks of them to third parties in the future," Jassy wrote in his annual shareholder letter Thursday. He also revealed the company's chip business is already running at more than $20 billion annually, with demand so strong that current and even future generations are largely spoken for. Quartz reports: Access to Amazon's chips is currently limited to Amazon Web Services, with customers paying for cloud-based usage rather than owning any physical hardware. Selling to AWS and external customers alike, as standalone chipmakers do, would put annual revenue at around $50 billion, up from the $20 billion the company estimates for the year, Jassy said. The $20 billion figure spans three product lines: Trainium, the AI accelerator chip; Graviton, a general-purpose processor; and Nitro, a chip that helps run Amazon's EC2 server instances. All three are growing at triple-digit rates year over year, Jassy claimed in his letter. Jassy said demand for Trainium has outpaced supply at each generation. Trainium2 is essentially unavailable, with its entire allocated capacity spoken for. Trainium3 started reaching customers in early 2026, and reservations have filled nearly all available supply. Even Trainium4 -- which is not expected to reach wide release for another year and a half -- has substantial pre-orders committed. Jassy argued that a full-scale Trainium rollout could shave tens of billions off annual capital costs while meaningfully widening profit margin.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
In the latest fight to expose the yawning chasm between Democratic Party members and their leaders on Israel, the Democratic National Committee on Thursday shot down symbolic resolutions targeting AIPAC and arms transfers to Israel.
Members of a resolutions committee meeting in New Orleans rejected one symbolic resolution that would have condemned AIPAC’s role in party primaries and tabled a pair of resolutions that called for conditioning military aid to Israel.
Polls show that Democratic Party members are increasingly skeptical of Israel and supportive of Palestinians — a shift that hasn’t been reflected in the party’s official position.
Instead, party leaders rejected the AIPAC resolution and referred the hot-button issue of arms transfers to Israel to a task force created by DNC Chair Ken Martin, which has yet to produce concrete results since it was created in August.
Allison Minnerly, the DNC member from Florida who sponsored the AIPAC resolution, said the votes exposed serious shortcomings on the part of leadership.
“It says that the Democratic Party just isn’t willing to have a hard conversation, isn’t willing to stand up, and just misses the mark when voters need it the most,” she said. “It is an embarrassing display of cowardice.”
The DNC member chairing the meeting, Ron Harris, said the arms transfers resolutions would be better handled by the task force, whose work he defended.
“Just for the record, this isn’t one of those things where you kick it down the line, and a committee where things go to die. These are people working really hard over a very thorny issue, and taking the time that it takes,” he said.
The proposals before the DNC committee on Thursday once again put party leaders in the hot spot after an earlier resolution from Minnerly last August called for a ban on arms sales to Israel.
Minnerly’s latest resolution highlighted the millions of dollars AIPAC spent to influence recent Democratic primaries in Illinois before reaffirming the party’s commitment to “reducing the role of corporate money and large-scale outside spending in Democratic primaries and general elections.”
AIPAC in recent years has dumped tens of millions of dollars into Democratic primaries via a super PAC called the United Democracy Fund. It has taken an increasingly aggressive stance against anyone who questions U.S. support for Israel — including one pro-Israel congressional candidate who said he was open to conditioning military aid on respect for human rights.
The group’s heavy-handed role in recent Illinois campaigns drew fire from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, who blasted AIPAC when he won the Democratic Party primary for the 9th Congressional District.
In response to the growing backlash, AIPAC’s supporters have called its critics “antisemitic,” a charge echoed during the Thursday meeting when one member said that to single out AIPAC would be to “pick on the Jews.”
Separately, another resolution called for pausing weapons transfers to Israeli military units accused of human rights violations and recognizing Palestinian statehood, and a third called for conditioning military aid to Israel in compliance with international law in light of the U.S.–Israeli war on Iran.
Those resolutions were referred to the task force.
The post DNC Shoots Down Resolutions Calling Out AIPAC and Limiting Arms to Israel appeared first on The Intercept.
A politically connected nonprofit animal shelter helped steer Bondi on DOJ's approach on animal cruelty crimes and their prosecution.
Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez was hit by more than six bullets, says lawyer, with ICE facing scrutiny over shooting
A California man shot by US immigration agents said officials have falsely accused him of being a gang member and that officers fired on him without justification during a traffic stop.
Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, 36, was pulled over and shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on Tuesday in Patterson, a rural agricultural town in California’s central valley. Patrick Kolasinski, Hernandez’s attorney, visited him in the hospital on Thursday morning and summarized his client’s comments.
Continue reading...Do No Harm activist group alleges ‘racial discrimination’ in program designed to support under-served communities
Conservative campaigners are targeting a decades-old federal scholarship program designed to provide Native Hawaiian students with funding to pursue healthcare careers and place practitioners in the state’s most medically under-served communities.
Do No Harm, a Virginia-based advocacy group for healthcare clinicians “focused on keeping identity politics out of medical education, research, and clinical practice”, filed its federal lawsuit challenging the US health department’s Native Hawaiian Health Scholarship Program (NHHSP) last week.
Continue reading...Instagram now gives you a 15-minute window to tweak comments.
Argonne National Laboratory together with other DOE labs has launched a new system, called SYNAPS-I, built to process experimental data in real time as it is generated by scientific instruments. That sounds like a performance upgrade, but it is actually a shift in how experiments operate.
Large scale facilities such as synchrotron beamlines generate enormous amounts of imaging data. The standard workflow has not changed much in years. You run an experiment, capture data, store it, and analyze it later. That delay often creates a gap between observation and understanding. If something important was missed or if the setup needed adjustment, you often find out only after the run is complete. That is inefficient – given that enourmous volumes of data that is being generated in labs today.
SYNAPS-I compresses that gap. The system analyzes data as it is being produced, not after it has been collected. That means the experiment can respond to what it is seeing in real time. Instead of waiting for post processing, researchers can adjust parameters, focus on specific regions, or discard irrelevant data while the experiment is still running.
This changes the role of AI in the workflow. It is no longer sitting at the end of the pipeline as an analysis tool. It is part of the experiment itself. The system links AI models directly with high performance computing resources and instrument control systems, creating a continuous loop where data flows in, gets interpreted, and feeds back into the process.
SYNAPS-I is a public-private partnership uniting Argonne with LBNL, Brookhaven, ORNL, SLAC, university researchers and AI leaders with key industry innovators.
Tao Zhou of the CNM explains the capabilities of the 26-ID beamline, jointly operated by CNM and the APS. (Image by Mark Lopez/Argonne National Laboratory.)
“SYNAPS‑I is envisioned not just as a tool for analysis and automation, but as a cognitive partner for scientists — capable of generating hypotheses, detecting subtle correlations and helping turn DOE facilities into truly intelligent, self‑driving laboratories,” said Mathew Cherukara, an Argonne computational scientist, group leader and leader of the Argonne SYNAPS-Iteam.
The implications become clearer when you think about how these experiments actually run. Beamline sessions are limited and expensive. Researchers often have a narrow window to capture what they need. With traditional workflows, they are essentially committing to a plan in advance and hoping it holds up. If something unexpected appears in the data, there is little opportunity to react in time.
With a real time layer, that constraint starts to loosen. The system can surface patterns as they emerge and guide the experiment toward more useful outcomes. It can prioritize what to keep and make the overall process more efficient. The experiment becomes adaptive rather than fixed.
This is where the idea of self driving laboratories begins to move from concept to reality. The term has been used loosely for a while, often referring to automation or iterative testing loops. What is happening here is more direct. The system is not just running predefined cycles. It is reacting to live data and influencing what happens next.
“The use of ptychography is expanding rapidly, driven by major light source advances such as Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) Upgrade and the Advanced Light Source (ALS) Upgrade at Berkeley Lab,” said Alec Sandy, associate director of Argonne’s X-ray Science division.
“Converting raw ptychography data into human and AI-interpretable results in real time maximizes DOE’s investment in these facilities and makes the measurements immediately relevant for technology development.”
Members of the SYNAPS-I team from various national laboratories watch as the AI algorithm generates real-time images from X-ray data. (Image by Mark Lopez/Argonne National Laboratory.)
For years, much of the focus in AI for science has been on improving predictions. Protein structures, materials discovery, climate simulations. Those remain important, but they operate downstream from data collection. What SYNAPS-I suggests is that AI is moving upstream, into the moment where data is created and decisions are made.
“SYNAPS-I is a rapid-analysis method that delivers insights at the pace data is generated, compressing hours or days of analysis into seconds,” said Aileen Luo.
The timing also aligns with a broader push from the DOE to accelerate AI-driven discovery through initiatives such as the DOE Genesis Mission, which aims to build integrated platforms that combine data, compute, and advanced models to speed up breakthroughs across multiple scientific domains. Systems like SYNAPS-I align perfectly with that vision.
Admittedly, there are some unanswered questions. For example, if an experiment adapts itself based on live analysis, how do you document what happened? If data is filtered in real time, how do you ensure nothing important is lost? These are real concerns that will need to be addressed as systems like this become more common.There is also a question of trust. Scientists are used to controlling experimental conditions carefully and understanding each step of the process.
Introducing a system that can adjust parameters on the fly requires confidence in both: the models and the infrastructure behind them. In this environment, reliability becomes just as important as performance.
At BigDATAWire, we have also seen similar patterns emerging outside of scientific research. Industrial systems are beginning to react to sensor data in real time. Software platforms are shifting from batch processing to continuous decision making. Even enterprise analytics is moving toward live operational systems rather than static reports. This underlines the importance of real time data.
SYNAPS-I fits into that broader trend, but with higher stakes. In science, the output is not just operational efficiency, but knowledge itself. Changing when and how decisions are made during experiments has a direct impact on what is discovered and how those discoveries are validated.
It is still early, and systems like this will take time to mature. There will be technical challenges, as well as cultural resistance. However, the direction is clear. The distance between data and action is shrinking, and as that distance closes, the structure of scientific workflows is starting to change.
This article first appeared in BigDATAwire.
The post New Real-Time AI System Closes the Gap Between Data and Discovery at DOE Labs appeared first on HPCwire.
Backers of the 2025 Take It Down Act said the conviction of an Ohio man for producing sexually explicit images and video is proof that the law "has teeth."
The ceasefire announced Tuesday night by President Donald Trump and confirmed by Iranian officials is on life support. If Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu gets his way, it may soon be dead.
Over the first 36 hours of the supposed ceasefire, hundreds have been killed and thousands injured in Israeli strikes on Lebanon. The attacks extended beyond Israeli’s traditional targets in southern Lebanon and Beirut’s outskirts into the central parts of the capital — and may mark the heaviest bombardment of the country since Israel’s 1982 invasion.
Trump suggested the ceasefire remains intact because Israel’s attacks are “a separate skirmish,” but the official announcement of the agreement described “an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon.” The language was put forward by Pakistan’s prime minister, who had brokered the deal and, according to the New York Times, the U.S. had seen the text before it was publicly released.
The words “including Lebanon,” however, lasted no longer than it took for Netanyahu to talk to Trump immediately before the ceasefire announcement. Trump confirmed Thursday that he told Netanyahu to “low-key it,” appearing to give Israel a green light to immediately violate the ceasefire and put it at risk of collapse.
In response, Iran says it will not open the Strait of Hormuz so long as Israel is violating the ceasefire. And planned talks in Islamabad for the U.S. and Iran to hammer out a longer-term agreement during the two-week ceasefire window have been thrown into doubt.
Netanyahu once said, “America is a thing you can move very easily.”
For his part, Netanyahu sought to dispel any notion that the Iran war was ending, emphasizing that the ceasefire is temporary and “a way station on the way to achieving all of our goals.”
When it comes exerting Israeli influence on the U.S., Netanyahu once infamously said, “America is a thing you can move very easily.” Indeed, according to reports, it was Netanyahu who convinced Trump to launch this war in the first place.
Now, potentially upending U.S. efforts to disentangle itself from conflict with Iran, the Israeli prime minister finds himself on familiar footing: playing the role of spoiler against any form of U.S.–Iran détente.
America’s supposed junior partner has worked ceaselessly to prevent any off-ramp from confrontation between the U.S. and Iran. In 1995, when Iran and the U.S. flirted with economic rapprochement by opening the Iran oil industry to American investment and development, Israel and AIPAC lobbied Congress and President Bill Clinton to block it.
In 2002, as Iran worked directly with the U.S. on Afghanistan in the aftermath of September 11, seeking a grand bargain, Israel interdicted a weapons shipment it said was bound for Palestinian forces, making questionable claims about the shipment’s Iranian provenance. The seizure helped tank the exploratory talks on Afghanistan and convinced President George W. Bush instead to infamously cast Iran as part of the “axis of evil.”
Over the course of President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear talks from 2013 to 2015, Israel worked to block a deal — with Netanyahu engaging in unprecedented efforts to sabotage diplomacy. He even addressed a joint session of Congress against a nuclear deal over the White House’s objections. Ultimately, Netanyahu succeeded with Trump’s ascension: Under intense lobbying, Trump tore up the deal and nearly brought the countries to war before his first term ended.
Joe Biden campaigned on reentering the deal, but that aim was prematurely dispatched during Biden’s transition when Israel assassinated Iran’s top nuclear scientist in 2020, prompting Iranian hard-liners to pass legislation that blew up talks. When negotiations finally began in earnest in 2021, Israel launched an attack on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility. Iran responded by announcing it would, for the first time, enrich uranium to nearly weapons-grade. The talks, predictably, failed.
Though Trump has proved to be a willing partner in Netanyahu’s push to increase tensions with Iran, Israel nonetheless now found ways to play the spoiler — much in the same manner it did with Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Biden.
These were not wars to defeat Iran, but rather wars to defeat U.S. diplomatic efforts.
The Israelis successfully turned two round of nuclear talks during Trump’s second term into cover for surprise attacks. Both the war on Iran in June 2025 and the current one were initiated not amid great diplomatic impasses, but when Iran put forward workable proposals. In both cases, U.S. officials said Israel was going to act regardless of the American position — and so the U.S. had to join the wars.
These were not wars to defeat Iran, but rather wars to defeat U.S. diplomatic efforts. They are the kinetic manifestation of Israel’s long efforts to keep the U.S. in a permanent state of war with Iran, sometimes cold, sometimes hot.
If U.S.–Iran talks do move forward and there actually is progress toward hammering out a sustainable cessation of hostilities, Israel will remain a wildcard. Any long-term ceasefire will require Israel’s acquiescence.
If Netanyahu tanks the ceasefire and the U.S. and global economy continues to suffer, Israel’s already plunging support among Americans is likely to falter even further. At this point, however, Netanyahu seems more concerned with his domestic political welfare than his credibility with American voters.
Netanyahu is widely thought to benefit from wars — from Gaza to Iran and now, most critically, in Lebanon — to shore up his political fortunes. He faces an election in October and losing could lead to the revival of corruption charges that might land him in prison.
The question now may unfortunately not be whether Iran and the U.S. can find a compromise. Instead, the fate of the global economy and, not least, Iranians themselves, could rest between Netanyahu and Trump, who faces his own political challenges in midterm elections this year.
It may once again be a question of whether it is America or Israel who blinks first.
The post The Forever Spoiler: Netanyahu Has Been Blowing Up Diplomacy With Iran for Decades appeared first on The Intercept.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has declared a ceasefire in Ukraine over the Orthodox Easter.
Panel’s decision a blow to progressives who are unhappy with group’s involvement in Democratic contests
When it comes to addressing how the party should deal with Israel, the Democratic establishment went to their favorite answer: no thanks.
The Democratic National Committee’s resolutions committee voted on Thursday to kill a measure targeting the pro-Israel lobby group Aipac and deferred two further resolutions on Middle East policy to a working group that critics say exists mainly to avoid difficult decisions.
Continue reading...Advocates warn changes could increase risks of pollutants contaminating water and exposure to toxic waste
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed weakened rules governing the safe disposal of ash produced by burning coal. Those regulations were strengthened under the Biden administration as part of a wider crackdown on pollution from coal-fired power plants.
The Trump administration proposed easing standards for monitoring and protecting groundwater near some coal ash sites, rolling back rules forcing the cleanup of entire coal properties instead of just places where ash was dumped. The revisions would also make it easier to reuse coal ash for other purposes.
Continue reading...The average U.S. property tax bill rose 3.7% last year to $4,427, outpacing inflation even as the typical home lost value.
Kremlin proposes 32-hour ceasefire starting on Saturday afternoon – with Ukraine expected to agree to plan
Vladimir Putin has declared a 32-hour ceasefire in Ukraine over the Orthodox Easter weekend, after an earlier call from Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a pause.
The president’s decree, released by the Kremlin on Thursday, orders Russian forces to observe a ceasefire starting on 4pm Saturday and lasting until the end of Sunday.
Continue reading...The new ChatGPT Pro tier comes with much higher usage limits than the $20 Plus plan.
When mobile networks fail, a landline can keep you connected.
The company previously scrapped efforts at a vehicle in the $25,000 range.
First lady Melania Trump delivered a televised statement denying a relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
California's attorney general filed charges against 21 suspects, accusing the group of defrauding the state of $267 million. Arrests come after a CBS News investigation into hospice fraud.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that his country was ready for direct negotiations amid international calls for Israel to stop its strikes in Lebanon.
You can quickly sign, scan and send official documents with the device that's in your pocket.
JENI NANCE
Co-Managing Mosaic Editor
I’ve always been insecure about my height, standing at a whopping 5-foot negative one (4-foot-11 for those of you who can’t do math). I come from a very short family and grew up around shorter people, but my lack of height became apparent around fourth grade when I befriended a girl who was 5-foot-8. Yes, you read that right — 5-foot-8 in fourth grade.
Despite my genetics — my mother is 5-foot-2 on a good day and my dad is 5-foot — I was convinced I’d at least make it to 5-foot one day. In middle school, I hit a growth spurt, sending me to 4-feet, 11 ¾ inches tall. I was so close — but I never made it. While being so close, it didn’t seem right to round up.
I became more comfortable with my height in middle school because I’d grown up in an area where there weren’t a lot of tall people. Then, I moved to Delaware. When I was going into eighth grade and it felt like I was walking amongst bean stalks on the first day of school.
I don’t know what’s in the water here, but everyone and their mother seemed to be over the average height. As time went on, I got used to people towering over me. I also got used to the jokes people made, which might have had the intention of being lighthearted, but stabbed my ego at times.
This summer was the first time in a while that I received a comment about my height that made me truly unsettled. I was at work when a colleague — a grown man — called me shrimpy. I’ve been called that before, but something about this encounter left me feeling uneasy.
Over winter break, I was at the mall, which has a policy on Saturdays that minors need to be accompanied by adults over 21 after 6 p.m. I had walked outside to wait for my Uber when I was hit by the bitter cold and decided to go back inside to wait.
As I walked in the door, a security guard stopped me, asking if I was 18. I told him I was 21, and he asked for my ID. I said, “Are you serious?” to which he responded by saying if I was really 21, I’d be used to pulling out my ID by now and that I didn’t look older than 17. I whipped it out and watched his expression change, knowing he fully expected me to be a minor. Surely I didn’t look that young, right?
This semester sent me into a full-blown identity crisis. I was standing with a group of my friends at Klondike Kate’s one weekend night when I felt myself being swallowed by people craning over me. Every time I looked to my right or left, or even peeked behind me, I was making eye contact with people’s shoulders and elbows, having to crank my head back to see people’s faces.
Then the thought came: Am I tall enough to be here?
Yes, I became an adult when I turned 18, but I’m turning 22 in April and I feel like I’m reaching a new phase in adulthood. From 18 to 21, I felt like I was in an awkward limbo phase between being a teenager and an adult, like there was still time. But as I approach 22, it feels like time is running out. So where did it go?
This isn’t just a question of whether I’m tall enough to be at the bars or go to the mall alone. Am I tall enough to rent a studio apartment? Am I tall enough to do my own taxes or have a credit score? Am I tall enough to buy a car or insurance? Am I tall enough to be a real adult?
With graduation around the corner, I’m about to be thrust into the real world, having to conquer all of these issues while being shorter than most middle schoolers. So what now? Is moving to Munchkinland an option? I feel like turning 22 while standing under 5 feet tall goes against the laws of nature.
Don’t get me wrong, being short can have its advantages, like being the perfect height for hugging or being able to weasel through crowds. So while I don’t stand very tall, and can’t change the fact that I’m aging, one thing stands true: Being short is a part of who I am.
OpenAI is reportedly preparing a new cybersecurity product for a small group of partners, out of concern that a broader rollout could wreak havoc if it were released more widely. If that move sounds familiar, it's because Anthropic took a similar limited-release approach with its Mythos model and Project Glasswing initiative. Axios reports: OpenAI introduced its "Trusted Access for Cyber" pilot program in February after rolling out GPT-5.3-Codex, the company's most cyber-capable reasoning model. Organizations in the invite-only program are given access to "even more cyber capable or permissive models to accelerate legitimate defensive work," according to a blog post. At the time, OpenAI committed $10 million in API credits to participants. [...] Restricting the rollout of a new frontier model makes "more sense" if companies are concerned about models' ability to write new exploits -- rather than about their ability to find bugs in the first place, Stanislav Fort, CEO of security firm Aisle, told Axios. Staggering the release of new AI models looks a lot like how cybersecurity vendors currently handle the disclosure of security flaws in software, Lee added. "It's the same debate we've had for decades around responsible vulnerability disclosure," Lee said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The U.S. is convening hastily arranged diplomatic talks next week in Washington, D.C., aimed at crafting a ceasefire in Lebanon.
I ordered a gt fender for my gt xl and it doesnt fit lol I feel like an idiot . is there anything I can do to make it fit? like cut it In half or is that a stupid idea
How far can law enforcement go in asking digital companies to turn over data about their customers without violating the Fourth Amendment? This basic question of balancing privacy and public safety interests in the digital age will soon be considered at the Supreme Court, with potentially major implications.
As ratified as part of the Bill of Rights, the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment reads, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
In United States v. Chatrie, a Virginia man claims a detective did not reasonably obtain the search warrants required by the Fourth Amendment to track down his cellphone location data, which was used eventually to convict him of a crime. Law enforcement had asked for a geofence warrant from a magistrate, which sets a distance from a certain physical point from which service providers must provide data to law enforcement about mobile phones users’ activities.
While the Court is only asked in Chatrie to consider the specific execution of the geofence warrant in the case, its decision could expand or limit the Fourth Amendment protections established for cellphone users in Carpenter v. United States (2018). In his 5-4 majority decision in Carpenter, Chief Justice John Roberts held that “the Government’s acquisition of . . . cell-site records was a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. … [T]he Government must generally obtain a warrant supported by probable cause before acquiring such records.”
The basic facts in the case
Okello Chatrie was convicted of bank robbery based on evidence gathered by law enforcement in three different cellphone data requests to Google, based on a protocol developed by Google and approved by a magistrate. Digital services like Google, Apple, and others use location data for mapping applications and other products to provide a customized experience. A detective in Midlothian, Virginia, sought a geofence warrant about a month after the bank robbery.
After receiving the geofence warrant from a magistrate, law enforcement at first received data from within a 300-meter diameter of the crime scene; the detective made requests directly to Google for data related to specific phones and then for a specific user by name.
Chatrie’s attorneys claimed in court that law enforcement needed separate warrants for all three data requests. In his initial hearing, a district court judge agreed with Chatrie’s claims that his Fourth Amendment rights had been violated. But it allowed the evidence to be considered in the case because officers had received the warrant in “good faith.” The lower court cited the Supreme Court precedent in United States v. Leon (1984) that evidence gathered from a mistakenly issued search warrant cannot be excluded at trial.
His attorneys then appealed and the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit split equally 7-7 on the Fourth Amendment question when the chief judge declined to consider it and instead based his decision on the Leon precedent. In their appeal to the Supreme Court, Chatrie’s attorneys cited a circuit split in Fifth Circuit on the same question. The Supreme Court accepted the case on Jan. 16, 2026, limited to the Fourth Amendment question presented by Chatrie.
The Fourth Amendment in a digital context
Chatrie as the petitioner makes several arguments in his appeal. His attorneys believe that Chatrie’s situation goes beyond the issues considered by Chief Justice Roberts and the Carpenter majority. “In Carpenter, law enforcement officials sought information about the movements of a single individual suspected of a crime based on the movements of his cell phone. By contrast, using a geofence warrant, law enforcement may request information regarding all people who were at a sensitive location—an abortion clinic, a protest, a political party’s convention—at a particular time.”
The use of the geofence warrant violates basic constitutional principles, they believe. “The search of petitioner violated the Fourth Amendment. The technology may be novel, but the constitutional problem it presents is not,” Chatrie’s attorneys claim in a brief filed in February 2026. “The Fourth Amendment was born of the Founders’ revulsion for general warrants and writs of assistance—instruments that allowed the government to search first and develop suspicions later.”
After reaching a decision that a search of the petitioner occurred that violated Chatrie’s property rights and his reasonable expectation of privacy, Chatrie’s attorneys are asking the Court to rule that the warrant was defective since it did not require separate warrants for each step in the search process.
“At Steps Two and Three, the government retrieved additional private information and hence conducted additional searches. Those searches were unconstitutional,” they conclude. “Although Google reviewed the government’s Step Two and Step Three requests, Google is not a judge and has no authority to approve warrants.”
The government’s response
In its most recent response to the Court, the federal government makes several counterarguments. It also states that the proper question in front of the Court should be “[w]hether the government violated petitioner’s Fourth Amendment rights by obtaining—pursuant to a judicial warrant—cellphone location information that petitioner sent to Google LLC."
Solicitor General D. John Sauer believes Chatrie forfeited his Fourth Amendment rights when he opted in to Google’s data and location history policy. “He took no steps to protect his location from disclosure, such as pausing the Location History feature, he had enabled or adjusting, deactivating, or forgoing his cellphone during his crime.”
Another argument from Sauer supports the legitimacy of the search warrant from the magistrate. “A magistrate approved a three-step procedure for law enforcement to receive up to two hours of location information—most of it anonymized—from Google about mobile devices that were archiving locations near the bank at that time. That procedure was fully consistent with the Constitution.”
Sauer also cites the precedents in Carpenter as reasonably considering basic privacy rights in the context of a law enforcement investigation. “Even for long-term involuntarily collected location data in which an individual does have a reasonable expectation of privacy, law enforcement can obtain such information through a warrant expectation of privacy claims,” Sauer notes.
The federal government also believes that law enforcement had probable cause for the search since it was “particularized to the information on Google’s servers” that would “identify suspects and witnesses” while minimizing the scope of the information investigators received.
With the case set for arguments on April 27, numerous friends of the court briefs have been filed, including a brief from Google that supports neither party in the case. Also, of great interest will be if the current Court expands the Carpenter precedent or refines it, since only three of the majority votes from Carpenter remain on the Court: John Roberts, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.
Scott Bomboy is the editor-in-chief of the National Constitution Center.
Not all paid AI subscriptions are equal.
Authorities arrest driver and passenger of car after finding large amounts blood and unresponsive man in rear seat
Northern California law enforcement officals pulled over the driver of a Chevrolet Suburban on Easter Sunday morning for a suspected registration violation, and came upon a grisly scene that ultimately led them to two homicide victims.
The California highway patrol said in a statement that two people, the person driving the vehicle and a passenger, had been arrested in connection with the killings. The passenger attempted to flee when officers stopped the SUV in Clearlake, about 100 miles north-east of San Francisco, but was quickly detained, according to CHP.
Continue reading...Trump is on the verge of squandering a ceasefire that serves US interests for the sake of an unreliable ally
When Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, announced that the US and Iran, along with their allies, had agreed to an immediate ceasefire on Tuesday night, he made clear that the truce applied “everywhere including Lebanon”. But hours later, the Israeli government insisted that the deal did not include halting its attacks on Lebanon, which had become one of the deadliest fronts of the regional war instigated by the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran.
By Wednesday afternoon, Israel had launched its largest and most destructive attack on Lebanon in years, killing at least 300 people and wounding more than 1,100. Dozens of Israeli warplanes dropped bombs on 100 targets across Lebanon within 10 minutes, with the Israeli military claiming it was targeting Hezbollah “command centers” in an operation it called “Eternal Darkness”. But Israeli warplanes leveled several buildings in crowded residential neighborhoods of Beirut, spreading panic in the Lebanese capital and overwhelming hospitals with hundreds of casualties. Israel also continued bombing Lebanon’s infrastructure, destroying the last remaining bridge that linked southern Lebanon to the rest of the country.
Continue reading...First lady denies being ‘Epstein’s victim’ and says convicted sex offender did not introduce her to Donald Trump
Melania Trump, the first lady, told reporters on Thursday that she “never had a relationship” with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
It was unclear which specific accusations spurred the first lady to respond publicly. She delivered her scripted remarks at a podium in the same room Donald Trump used to address the nation on the war in Iran last week.
Continue reading...Amazon's Leo is now expected to launch "mid-2026," CEO Andy Jassy admitted.
Expert said federal law bars officials from taking actions in their jobs that benefit their own financial interests
A high-profile US defense department official who oversees the agency’s artificial intelligence efforts made a profit of up to $24m selling a private investment he held in Elon Musk’s AI company earlier this year, according to government ethics records released this month. The value of his stake totaled a maximum of a million dollars when he joined the department.
Emil Michael, who is the Pentagon’s under secretary for research and engineering under the Trump administration, oversees negotiations with AI companies and has been pushing the defense department to rapidly increase the widespread use of AI.
Continue reading...A cosmic lineup is coming: Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune will shine side by side in the night sky.
CD interest rates remain competitive. Here are three of the best rates and terms to consider this April.
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota are being forced to turn over critical information on the shooting of Renee Good by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross in relation to a separate case involving Ross.
Prosecutors have until May 1 to provide a slew of records, including Ross’s personnel file, to a magistrate judge to review and determine which files should be released. The materials could shine light on the killing of Good, an observer who died after Ross shot her during a January 7 confrontation amid a monthslong immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
The order came in response to a motion from the defense attorneys for Roberto Carlos Muñoz-Guatemala, a man who Ross attempted to apprehend in a separate confrontation in June. After Ross broke a window in Muñoz-Guatemala’s car and fired his Taser, Muñoz-Guatemala drove away and was later convicted of dragging Ross with his car.
Muñoz-Guatemala’s defense attorney Eric Newmark praised the ruling as key to defending the rights of his client, but also important for public understanding of what transpired in the shooting of Good.
“My client is entitled to a full hearing and to review these documents to determine whether there’s any basis for a new trial,” Newmark told The Intercept. “Ultimately, we’re seeking dismissal of the charges against my client. This information is important because it will help me provide a full and complete defense.”
Beyond mounting an argument for a new trial or a reduced sentence, Newmark said the information could provide crucial information on Good’s death to Minnesotans hungry for answers.
“As Minnesotans, we’re frustrated with the apparent lack of a full investigation, the lack of prosecution, and the lack of federal cooperation with local authorities,” Newmark said.
In addition to Ross’s personnel and training file, the order issued Thursday in Minnesota federal court by Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan commands prosecutors to turn over records of statements Ross made in the 60 minutes before and during his shooting of Good; records of statements by Ross and other federal officials; witness statements regarding the Good killing; medical records pertaining to Ross’s fitness for duty; cell data that might have been extracted from Ross’s phone; body-worn camera footage of the incident; and more.
Muñoz-Guatemala’s case rose to prominence in January when Ross’s identity as the shooter of Renee Good came to light, in part because both incidents involved Ross confronting a civilian in a car. Ross, a deportation officer based in the ICE field office in St. Paul, was attempting to detain Muñoz-Guatemala during a traffic stop on June 17, when Muñoz-Guatemala attempted to drive away. In the process, he dragged Ross, who had his arm thrust into the window, according to court records.
On December 12, a jury found Muñoz-Guatemala guilty of one count of assault on a federal officer. After Ross’s killing of Good was revealed, Newmark, Muñoz-Guatemala’s attorney, submitted a request for post-conviction discovery, arguing that the facts of the Good case could be grounds for a new trial or support a lesser sentence for his client.
“Even if this Court ultimately determines that Defendant is not entitled to a new trial based on newly discovered evidence, he must still be sentenced,” Newmark wrote. “Given the recklessness of Ross’ decision to step in front of Good’s vehicle, the violence he showed by continuing to shoot at a vehicle that was passing harmlessly by, and the extreme callousness he displayed after it should have been clear that he either killed Good or injured her terribly, it would be reasonable to assume he presented similar danger to Defendant in June of 2025. However, without the full investigative file, Defendant cannot make that conclusion.”
If prosecutors comply with the order, the materials will not immediately be made public. The materials will go first to a magistrate judge who will determine their relevance to the defense team’s case and perform any necessary redactions before handing it over to the defense. At that point, Muñoz-Guatemala’s team would be able to review the material and use it as needed to mount a bid for a new trial or to present as mitigating factors warranting a reduced sentence. Barring a protective order sealing the information, whatever materials submitted as mitigation by the defense could then become a matter of public record.
“This judge is effectively doing the investigation that the United States has turned its back on.”
“This judge is effectively doing the investigation that the United States has turned its back on,” said Shauna Kieffer, a defense attorney in Minneapolis.
But Kieffer, who is not party to the case, expressed reservations about premature celebration of the transparency the order could provide.
“I think because this order is so thoughtful and it’s legally sound, that I think there’s a strong chance that the government will dismiss this case if they’re forced to go forward with complying with the order,” she said.
In a statement to The Intercept, Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., joined the calls for transparency.
“I am glad to see this case finally moving into discovery, but let’s be honest — it should never have taken this long to get here,” said Balint. “Renee Good’s family has been forced to wait for answers while DHS and ICE closed ranks. That’s not how justice works in a healthy democracy. Her family deserves full transparency and accountability, and Americans need to see our government protect them and not just those in power.”
Spokespersons for the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s office and the Hennepin County District Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The post Government Ordered to Turn Over Files on ICE Agent Who Killed Renee Good appeared first on The Intercept.
The windows feature counts and organizes how many windows are hiding, so you don't have to.
Users of the music streaming service should soon be able to opt out of videos, even on the free plan.
Settling credit card debt with little to no money sounds impossible, but some strategies can help you do just that.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: A hacker has allegedly stolen a massive trove of sensitive data -- including highly classified defense documents and missile schematics -- from a state-run Chinese supercomputer in what could potentially constitute the largest known heist of data from China. The dataset, which allegedly contains more than 10 petabytes of sensitive information, is believed by experts to have been obtained from the National Supercomputing Center (NSCC) in Tianjin -- a centralized hub that provides infrastructure services for more than 6,000 clients across China, including advanced science and defense agencies. Cyber experts who have spoken to the alleged hacker and reviewed samples of the stolen data they posted online say they appeared to gain entry to the massive computer with comparative ease and were able to siphon out huge amounts of data over the course of multiple months without being detected. An account calling itself FlamingChina posted a sample of the alleged dataset on an anonymous Telegram channel on February 6, claiming it contained "research across various fields including aerospace engineering, military research, bioinformatics, fusion simulation and more." The group alleges the information is linked to "top organizations" including the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, and the National University of Defense Technology. Cyber security experts who have reviewed the data say the group is offering a limited preview of the alleged dataset, for thousands of dollars, with full access priced at hundreds of thousands of dollars. Payment was requested in cryptocurrency. CNN cannot verify the origins of the alleged dataset and the claims made by FlamingChina, but spoke with multiple experts whose initial assessment of the leak indicated it was genuine. The alleged sample data appeared to include documents marked "secret" in Chinese, along with technical files, animated simulations and renderings of defense equipment including bombs and missiles.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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The Aqara W200 is one of the more affordable smart thermostats and includes Aqara's new presence-sensing tech.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 9, 2026 — The A2A (Agent-to-Agent) Protocol project, hosted by the Linux Foundation, today announced major adoption milestones at its one-year mark, with more than 150 organizations supporting the standard, deep integration across Google, Microsoft and AWS platforms, and active production deployments across multiple industries.
In less than a year, A2A has moved from initial release to a production-ready open standard for seamless agent-to-agent communication. Vertical adoption spans supply chain, financial services, insurance, and IT operations, where organizations use A2A to coordinate autonomous systems across tools, vendors, and environments.
This rapid uptake reflects a broader shift toward agent-based architectures. As software systems operate more independently, coordination becomes the bottleneck. A2A removes that bottleneck by providing a common semantic model and version negotiation that standardize how agents discover, communicate, and transact with each other, without being locked into a single vendor’s ecosystem.
“AI agents are only as useful as their ability to collaborate, and the adoption of A2A by more than 150 organizations underscores the widespread enthusiasm for an open, interoperable protocol,” said Rao Surapaneni, Vice President and General Manager of Business Applications Platform, Google Cloud. “This momentum has quickly moved the project into production-ready use, allowing disparate AI systems to work together across environments and avoid the siloed, custom-built connections that often keep them from scaling.”
Updates and Adoption
A2A’s momentum accelerated with the release of version 1.0, its first stable specification. The update introduced multi-protocol support, enterprise-grade multi-tenancy, modernized security flows, and a defined migration path for early adopters, removing key barriers to production deployment. Features include Signed Agent Cards for cryptographic identity verification and a web-aligned architecture that supports familiar security and load-balancing patterns for high-scale reliability. Additionally, diverse agents built on various platforms, like LangGraph or CrewAI, are now able to work together, delegate sub-tasks, and coordinate complex workflows without sharing internal memory.
Cloud providers have reinforced that momentum by embedding A2A directly into their platforms. Microsoft integrated A2A into Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio and AWS added support through Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime. These integrations position A2A as a default standard for building agent-based systems in the cloud.
The protocol has also expanded beyond communication into economic coordination. The introduction of the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) enables secure, agent-driven transactions, with more than 60 organizations across payments and financial services already supporting the initiative. Additionally, UCP is fully compatible with AP2 via its AP2 mandates extension, enabling it to capture strong cryptographic evidence of the user’s consent to purchase.This extends A2A into high-trust, regulated environments where transactional integrity is required.
Ecosystem Scale
Since April 2025, the number of supporting organizations has grown from more than 50 to over 150 — including AWS, Cisco, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP, and ServiceNow. The core repository has surpassed 22,000 GitHub stars, and the SDK ecosystem has expanded from a single Python implementation to five production-ready languages, including JavaScript, Java, Go, and .NET.
At the standards level, A2A is complementary to the Model Context Protocol (MCP), another Linux Foundation project. A2A defines how agents communicate and coordinate with each other across organizational boundaries, while MCP defines how agents connect to internal tools and data sources. Together, they form a foundational layer for interoperable, multi-agent systems that work across different technology stacks without requiring a single-platform approach.
Looking ahead, the A2A roadmap includes an interoperability specification, consolidation of efforts for registry and expanded testing and tooling, security and deployment best practices.
With a stable specification, embedded cloud support, and growing enterprise use, A2A is shifting from early adoption to becoming a core component of modern AI and distributed system architecture.
About the A2A Protocol
The Agent-to-Agent (A2A) Protocol is an open standard that enables AI agents to discover, communicate, and transact with each other across different frameworks, vendors, and platforms. Originally developed by Google, the project is now hosted by the Linux Foundation. For more information, visit a2a-protocol.org.
About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects, including Linux, Kubernetes, Model Context Protocol (MCP), OpenChain, OpenSearch, OpenSSF, OpenStack, PyTorch, Ray, RISC-V, SPDX and Zephyr, provide the foundation for global infrastructure. The Linux Foundation is focused on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.
Source: Linux Foundation
The post Linux Foundation A2A Protocol Marks One Year with Broad Enterprise and Cloud Adoption appeared first on HPCwire.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 9, 2026 — CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, has announced the launch of CAS Newton, science-smart agentic AI built specifically for scientific discovery. CAS Newton is grounded in published scientific knowledge curated by CAS scientists, drawing on more than 150 years of literature within the CAS Content Collection to ensure accuracy and scientific rigor.
By grounding AI‑generated insights in comprehensive, curated scientific knowledge, CAS Newton delivers reliable answers that help researchers confidently navigate ambiguity, conflicting results, and incomplete evidence to accelerate progress. Early user feedback reinforces the value of this approach, with three out of four respondents rating CAS Newton answers as more trustworthy than those from other AI tools.
“CAS provides the most authoritative, comprehensive, and rigorously curated chemistry data available,” said John Yates, Professor, Scripps Research Institute, speaking in his personal capacity. “Developing intelligent AI agents on top of this foundation will significantly expand access and improve efficiency. CAS Newton will empower users, transforming casual users into highly effective superusers.”
Based on user feedback, CAS Newton is considered the best agentic AI for science because it engages conversationally with complex scientific questions and carries context forward as inquiry evolves, grounded in published scientific knowledge curated within CAS data. Through follow‑up interactions, it refines questions and synthesizes results across multiple steps, lowering the barrier to accessing trusted scientific knowledge and helping researchers move from question to insight more efficiently while maintaining scientific rigor across disciplines.
“The launch of CAS Newton marks a major shift in how scientific knowledge flows through discovery,” said Tim Wahlberg, Chief Product Officer and interim President, CAS. “CAS Newton pairs science‑smart agentic AI with the reliability and governance of the CAS Content Collection so researchers can move from question to grounded answers they can verify. It extends beyond a single interface, meeting teams where they work, including within secure environments that allow organizations to apply CAS Newton alongside proprietary data. This gives R&D leaders and researchers a practical path to innovate faster without compromising trust.”
R&D organizations can deploy CAS Newton within secure environments and integrate it alongside proprietary data through MCPs, APIs, and third‑party AI platforms. This approach enables teams to innovate using their own data while maintaining the reliability, governance, and trusted scientific foundation of CAS data across research workflows. In alignment with the CAS approach to ethical artificial intelligence, CAS Newton operates within a secure application boundary, ensuring no user input is shared outside the solution, and that queries and results are never used for cross-user model training.
Users can now access CAS Newton within CAS SciFinder, CAS BioFinder, and through a standalone CAS Newton interface. To learn more, visit the CAS Newton introduction page on cas.org.
About CAS
CAS connects the world’s scientific knowledge to accelerate breakthroughs that improve lives. We empower global innovators to efficiently navigate today’s complex data landscape and make confident decisions in each phase of the innovation journey. As a specialist in scientific knowledge management, our team builds the largest authoritative collection of human-curated scientific data in the world and provides essential information solutions, services, and expertise. Scientists, patent professionals, and business leaders across industries rely on CAS to help them uncover opportunities, mitigate risks, and unlock shared knowledge so they can get from inspiration to innovation faster. CAS is a division of the American Chemical Society.
Source: CAS
The post CAS Launches ‘Newton’ Agentic AI Built on Curated Scientific Data appeared first on HPCwire.
RENO, Nev., April 9, 2026 — CIQ, the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux, today launched the Academic Research Computing Advantage (ARCA), a complete infrastructure solution for R1 research universities* and HPC centers. University research computing teams get one vendor, one support contract and one escalation path across their entire environment. ARCA packages the complete infrastructure stack into a single, commercially supported platform: RLC Pro, RLC Pro Hardened, RLC Pro AI, Warewulf Pro, Fuzzball, Ascender Pro and Apptainer.
University HPC centers operate some of the world’s most demanding infrastructure on some of the leanest teams in enterprise computing. Most run five, or more, separate vendor relationships just to keep clusters operational. The commercial vendors behind those point solutions have redirected their roadmaps toward enterprise AI. Many stretch their already lean teams to run open source infrastructure without commercial support behind it, absorbing integration, support and troubleshooting themselves. GPU and AI workload growth now exceeds what legacy scheduler-only environments handle. Compliance requirements tie directly to federal grant eligibility.
CIQ delivers ARCA as a single annual site license with customer support, so universities get enterprise-grade infrastructure at a cost and model built for research budgets, not enterprise procurement. One support contract, one SLA and one engineering team accountable for the full stack means fewer hours on vendor triage and more on the work that matters: supporting researchers, maintaining uptime and advancing the institution’s research mission.
ARCA provides university research computing teams with:
“University HPC teams run some of the most demanding research infrastructure in the world on staffing budgets that do not match the complexity they manage,” said Gregory Kurtzer, CEO of CIQ and founder of Rocky Linux. “Their point solution vendors pivoted to enterprise AI. CIQ did not. ARCA is what happens when you build a stack specifically for research computing instead of retrofitting enterprise AI tooling and calling it a fit.”
Research institutions can learn more and connect with the CIQ team at https://ciq.com/verticals/academic/research-computing-alliance.
*R1 institution signifies that a university has achieved the highest level of research activity according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
About CIQ
CIQ is the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux and the leader in enterprise Linux architecture for sovereign AI, high-performance computing and research infrastructure. CIQ delivers a complete software infrastructure stack, from the operating system to orchestration, so enterprises, government agencies, research institutions and supercomputing centers worldwide deploy workloads with strategic independence and operational control. CIQ’s product portfolio includes the Rocky Linux from CIQ Pro (RLC Pro) 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. For more information, visit ciq.com.
Source: CIQ
The post CIQ Rolls Out ARCA Single-Stack Solution for Academic HPC Operations appeared first on HPCwire.
 | Fungineers x7 SUPERCHARGED results im getting riding, this was me riding hard as hell last night, all above 20mph for 85%-90% of the time. All street riding. I didn't try to manage anything or take it easy at all, I was riding around 22mph-28mph damn near the whole entire ride. As you can see I got to 50% & was currently at 13.8 miles. Estimated to have another 10ish miles still available riding at that same level. I'm doing a full whole day ride this Saturday with a friend so that will be where I'm able to really give you guys a full perspective on mileage from full to 5-10%. Again I'm just trying to keep you guys updated as I ride more cause I know mileage has been the most asked question. This board is AMAZINNGGGGGG [link] [comments] |
Singer, 55, said he had broken his sobriety after three ‘devastating’ bereavements and has not drunk alcohol since
Chico Slimani, a memorable X Factor contestant, was found guilty of drink-driving on Thursday, telling the court his arrest came hours after he broke his sobriety.
The singer, 55, whose real name is Yousseph Slimani, reached the quarter-final of the TV talent show in 2005 and later released a No 1 single, It’s Chico Time.
Continue reading...April 9, 2026 — Lenovo Group Limited today announced it has completed the acquisition of Infinidat Ltd., a global provider of high-end enterprise storage solutions. The transaction strengthens Lenovo’s position in enterprise storage and enhances its ability to deliver resilient, intelligent, AI-ready data infrastructure to customers worldwide.
The acquisition brings together two innovation-driven companies committed to delivering powerful, scalable, and secure storage solutions for mission-critical environments. Infinidat’s enterprise storage systems power demanding workloads across industries including financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, and the public sector. By combining Infinidat’s deep storage expertise in high-end enterprise environments with Lenovo’s global scale and comprehensive infrastructure portfolio, Lenovo broadens its enterprise storage portfolio and expands its ability to support data-intensive applications, analytics, and next-generation enterprise workloads.
“This acquisition strengthens Lenovo’s position in enterprise storage at exactly the right moment,” said Ashley Gorakhpurwalla, President, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Lenovo. “With Infinidat, we are significantly enhancing our enterprise storage capabilities and accelerating delivery of resilient, high-performance data infrastructure that powers AI, analytics, and mission-critical workloads.”
“Infinidat’s mission has always been to redefine enterprise storage by delivering exceptional performance, availability, cyber resilience, and efficiency,” said Phil Bullinger, CEO of Infinidat. “Joining Lenovo enables us to scale that mission, accelerate R&D investments, and unlock innovative opportunities for our customers.”
Infinidat will operate as a business unit within Lenovo’s Infrastructure Solutions Group, with a continued focus on product innovation, customer success, and global expansion. Customers and partners can expect continuity of service, expanded solutions, and deeper integration across Lenovo from the combined capabilities.
The acquisition was unanimously approved by the boards of both companies, and all required regulatory approvals have been obtained. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
About Lenovo
Lenovo is a US$69 billion revenue global technology powerhouse, ranked #196 in the Fortune Global 500, and serving millions of customers every day in 180 markets. Focused on a bold vision to deliver Smarter Technology for All, Lenovo has built on its success as the world’s largest PC company with a full-stack portfolio of AI-enabled, AI-ready, and AI-optimized devices (PCs, workstations, smartphones, tablets), infrastructure (server, storage, edge, high performance computing and software defined infrastructure), software, solutions, and services. Lenovo’s continued investment in world-changing innovation is building a more equitable, trustworthy, and smarter future for everyone, everywhere. Lenovo is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange under Lenovo Group Limited (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY).
About Infinidat
Infinidat, a Lenovo company, provides enterprises and service providers with a platform-native primary and secondary storage architecture that delivers comprehensive data services based on InfiniVerse®. This innovative platform delivers outstanding IT operating benefits, support for modern workloads across on-premises and hybrid multi-cloud environments. Infinidat’s cyber resilient-by-design infrastructure, consumption-based performance, 100% availability, and cyber security guaranteed SLAs align with enterprise IT and business priorities. Infinidat’s award-winning platform-native data services and acclaimed white glove service are continuously recommended by customers, as recognized by Gartner® Peer Insights reviews.
Source: Lenovo
The post Lenovo Expands Enterprise Storage Portfolio with Completion of Infinidat Acquisition appeared first on HPCwire.
April 9, 2026 – Giga Computing, a subsidiary of GIGABYTE and a leader in accelerated computing and infrastructure solutions, today announced its portfolio of rack-scale solutions that are optimized and tailored for high-performance workloads where throughput is paramount. These new integrated systems move the discussion from which platforms are best to how many racks are needed to achieve performance goals.
Credit: GIGABYTE
As AI and HPC continue to redefine the boundaries of what is possible, it has become clear that networking, specifically bandwidth and latency, plays a pivotal role in enabling these advancements. Delivering this capability within a predictable, rack-level architecture is now essential. While high-speed interconnects remain critical, overall system performance must be considered holistically. Improving performance per watt continues to drive next-gen processor design; however, these gains have been accompanied by a significant rise in power demands. As a result, data center racks and infrastructure have evolved dramatically, data center racks have moved from 10-20kW configurations to 50-100kW and beyond.
No longer is the focus on the management of an individual server, its now about the rack management and the clustering of resources. This new infrastructure requires compute, storage, and memory resources to be pooled and dynamically allocated in an efficient and highly utilized manner. This system-level approach has unified networking, centralized orchestration, and optimized topology. Racks can be built with a focus on resources such as CPU/memory, GPUs, and storage. So, multiple rack configurations must be created to ensure an optimized and tightly integrated system.
Giga Computing has designed and built rack-scale configurations that include advanced cooling technologies (such as management nodes and manifolds), network switches, CDUs, PDUs, and optional management software.
Sample of the Rack-scale Projects:
Giga Computing’s shift to rack-scale orchestration provides the high-density infrastructure required for modern AI and HPC workloads. By integrating advanced cooling with pooled resource management, these configurations deliver the throughput and efficiency necessary to meet the power demands of next-generation data centers.
For a complete list, visit: https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Enterprise/GIGAPOD-Rack-Scale.
For queries or more information, please contact Giga Computing sales.
Source: Giga Computing
The post Giga Computing Delivers Optimized Rack-Scale Solution Portfolio to Streamline AI Factory Deployment appeared first on HPCwire.
LIVINGSTON, N.J., April 9, 2026 — CoreWeave today announced an expanded, long-term agreement with Meta Platforms, Inc. to provide AI cloud capacity through December 2032 for approximately $21 billion. With this deal, the two companies are continuing their existing relationship, increasing support for Meta’s development and deployment of AI.
The dedicated capacity will be deployed across multiple locations and will include some of the initial deployments of the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform. This distributed approach is designed to optimize performance, resilience, and scalability for Meta’s AI operations.
The new agreement is a clear signal of the industry’s accelerating demand for high-performance infrastructure capable of supporting increasingly complex, large-scale AI workloads.
“This is another example that leading companies are choosing CoreWeave’s AI cloud to run their most demanding workloads,” said Michael Intrator, Co-founder, CEO, Chairman of CoreWeave.
Additional details regarding the agreement are available in CoreWeave’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
About CoreWeave
CoreWeave delivers a platform of technology, tools, and teams that enables innovators to move at the pace of innovation, building and scaling AI with confidence. Trusted by leading AI labs, startups, and global enterprises, CoreWeave serves as a force multiplier by combining superior infrastructure performance with deep technical expertise to accelerate breakthroughs. Established in 2017, CoreWeave completed its public listing on Nasdaq (CRWV) in March 2025. Learn more at www.coreweave.com.
Source: CoreWeave
The post CoreWeave and Meta Announce $21B Expanded AI Infrastructure Agreement appeared first on HPCwire.
Switching banks won't make a garnishment or levy order disappear, but there may be ways to protect what's left.
I joined a small group of reporters granted access to the Artemis crew as they prepare for Friday's splashdown.
Janett and Erika Liriano built a chocolate factory in their parents’ homeland – and gave farmers a stake in the company
Janett and Erika Liriano grew up in Queens, the daughters of Dominican immigrants who pushed them to dream big. Their encouragement paid off: by the time they were in their late 20s, Janett had been named a Forbes 30 Under 30 Listmaker and was the chief of staff at a biopharmaceutical firm; younger sister Erika was making a name for herself in venture capital.
But something was missing. “We were both comfortable but not happy with our jobs,” Janett said. “I felt unfulfilled and anxiously wanted to move forward.” But towards what, she wasn’t sure.
Continue reading...Seniors shouldn't rush to secure a reverse mortgage this April without having the answers to these three questions.
Apple can't protect its users when apps create unreviewed code for them.
New study describes what may be the first case of a unified community of chimps, in Uganda, turning on itself
On a June day in 2015, primatologist Aaron Sandel was quietly observing a small cluster of the Ngogo chimpanzee group in Uganda’s Kibale national park when he noticed something strange. As other members of the chimpanzees’ wider group moved closer through the forest, the chimpanzees in front of him began to display nervous behaviour. They grimaced and touched each other for reassurance, acting more like they were about to meet strangers than close companions.
In hindsight, Sandel said, that moment was the first sign of what would become a years-long bloody conflict between a once close-knit group of chimps.
Continue reading...After nearly 20 years on the platform, The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says it is leaving X. "This isn't a decision we made lightly, but it might be overdue," the digital rights group said. "The math hasn't worked out for a while now." From the report: We posted to Twitter (now known as X) five to ten times a day in 2018. Those tweets garnered somewhere between 50 and 100 million impressions per month. By 2024, our 2,500 X posts generated around 2 million impressions each month. Last year, our 1,500 posts earned roughly 13 million impressions for the entire year. To put it bluntly, an X post today receives less than 3% of the views a single tweet delivered seven years ago. [...] When you go online, your rights should go with you. X is no longer where the fight is happening. The platform Musk took over was imperfect but impactful. What exists today is something else: diminished, and increasingly de minimis. EFF takes on big fights, and we win. We do that by putting our time, skills, and our members' support where they will effect the most change. Right now, that means Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and eff.org. We hope you follow us there and keep supporting the work we do. Our work protecting digital rights is needed more than ever before, and we're here to help you take back control.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Cuba accuses US of ‘extorting’ countries in pushing them to axe deals with Havana to send doctors on medical missions
Cuba’s foreign minister has accused the United States of “extorting” Latin American countries by putting pressure on them to cancel decades-old deals with Havana for the supply of doctors.
Bruno Rodríguez said the United States was trying to “strangle” the economy of the communist island, which earns billions from its foreign medical missions, after several countries stopped deploying Cuban doctors.
Continue reading...The NFL is being investigated for practices that allegedly harm consumers for licensing games to multiple platforms — paid streaming platforms, paid cable networks, and others, sources said.
The artist will follow in the footsteps of Ariana DeBose, Cynthia Erivo and Kevin Spacey this June
The Tony awards have turned to a singer with a reputation for a high-energy, physical live show to be the next telecast host – Pink.
The three-time Grammy award winner will make her debut as emcee for the awards on 7 June at its familiar home of Radio City Music Hall.
Continue reading...There are multiple advantages to locking your money in a CD account now. Here are three for savers to consider.
In article for Guardian, PM also calls for Iran conflict to become watershed moment for future UK security
Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon “shouldn’t be happening”, Keir Starmer has said on his visit to the Middle East, as he called for the Iran conflict to become a watershed moment for the future security of the UK.
In an article for the Guardian, the prime minister said the UK’s response to the crisis must involve a fundamental reset in terms of making the country more resilient, including by boosting defence and having closer links to Europe.
Continue reading...Defeat for Viktor Orbán on Sunday would be celebrated in Brussels, mourned in Washington and Moscow, and would give his country its democracy back
Hungary has a population of less than 10 million and an economy that produces a modest 1.1% of the European Union’s GDP. But on Sunday it will hold the most important election in Europe this year. After 16 years as prime minister, during which he has dismantled the checks and balances customary in a democracy, Viktor Orbán faces the most serious threat to his power in that time. Polls consistently place the centre‑right party led by his main challenger, Péter Magyar, ahead by a substantial margin.
Mr Orbán was once described by Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon as “Trump before Trump”. In his political hour of need, luminaries of the global far right have duly turned up en masse to support him. Last month, Marine Le Pen, Matteo Salvini and Geert Wilders made the pilgrimage to Budapest. This week, the US vice-president, JD Vance, paid a tub‑thumping election-eve visit, as his boss issued apocalyptic threats to have Iran “taken out in one night”. Risibly, given the explicit purpose of his trip, Mr Vance spent much of it inveighing against alleged EU interference in the forthcoming vote.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...The president says the arch will commemorate the nation's 250th anniversary.
Police say case highlights online dangers to children after Carlo Tritta pleads guilty to making indecent images
A man who obsessively groomed a 14-year-old girl he met through the online gaming platform Roblox has been jailed for 28 months.
Carlo Tritta, now 19, kept indecent images of the girl and travelled hundreds of miles from his home in Eastleigh, Hampshire in order to turn up, uninvited, at her home in Manchester.
Continue reading...Get the best desk for your office, gaming space or hobby room with the help of our CNET experts.
Seafarer tells of ‘impossible’ situation, with strait still so unsafe that crew would not cross even if told to sail
‘You can try to minimise the impact that this situation has on your mental health but it’s becoming impossible.” After six weeks stranded in the Gulf, one of the 20,000 seafarers trapped by Iran’s chokehold on the strait of Hormuz is reaching their limit.
Yet with the fragile Middle East ceasefire already fraying, the oil tanker worker – who first spoke to the Guardian a month ago – said any hope they may soon be free to leave had already evaporated, if it ever felt real at all.
Continue reading...Artificial intelligence company cites high energy costs and regulation for putting landmark project on hold
OpenAI has put on hold plans for a landmark UK investment citing high energy costs and regulation, in a blow to the government which has put AI at the centre of its growth strategy.
Stargate UK was a part of the UK-US AI deal announced last September, in which US companies appeared to commit £31bn to the UK’s tech sector, part of a larger series of investments intended to “mainline AI” into the British economy.
Continue reading...Meta is under increased pressure to make its platforms safe for kids after losing a pair of lawsuits on safety and social media addiction.
This link-style band pairs beautifully with my Apple Watch Ultra 3.
Pick out a creepy feature to watch on the streaming service.
Mayor says disinformation, including about London crime rates, is ‘eating away at basic bonds of trust’
Sadiq Khan has called on ministers to take significantly stronger action against social media companies that spread disinformation after a study showed a surge in hostile accounts posting falsehoods about London’s crime rates and integration.
In an intervention on what he called “the outrage economy”, the London mayor, who has also written to social media firms demanding change, said a lack of action could prompt more domestic terrorism by people who believe conspiracy theories they find online.
Continue reading...In December 2023, the U.S. Justice Department sued a Texas land developer it accused of duping tens of thousands of Hispanic residents into predatory mortgages, a landmark case for the Biden administration.
Colony Ridge, which sold plots in massive subdivisions north of Houston, had become a “one-stop shop for discriminatory lending,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit. The developer targeted Hispanic applicants through false advertising and persuaded them to take out high-interest loans that many could not afford, then benefited when it foreclosed on their properties, the lawsuit alleged.
“Our goal at the end of the day is to ensure that victims are compensated for their loss,” Clarke declared.
Three years later, the Trump administration and Colony Ridge are on the verge of resolving the case. But the $68 million proposed settlement provides no money for victims of the alleged scheme. Instead, it sets aside $20 million for policing and immigration enforcement — a provision that may be used to target the very people who were victimized by the developer, according to former government officials who worked on such cases.
“I’ve never seen a settlement like this, with a complete misalignment between what you’re settling and what the resolution is,” said Elena Babinecz, who led fair lending investigations at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for 12 years under the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, before leaving in October.
“It’s a slap in the face to the individuals that were harmed; that the Justice Department acknowledges were harmed,” said Babinecz, who was at the bureau when it joined the Justice Department in filing suit against Colony Ridge. “It’s a complete misjustice, and it’s not at all why these civil rights laws were passed.”
Seven other attorneys and investigators who formerly enforced the federal government’s lending and housing civil rights laws also told ProPublica and The Texas Tribune that they were stunned by the agreement, which a U.S. district judge must still approve. Indeed, Colony Ridge is the largest Justice Department case since at least 2018 in which the settlement includes no monetary compensation for victims. The judge has scheduled a hearing on Friday over the proposal.
A coalition of fair housing and civil rights groups has urged the court to reject the settlement, arguing the lawsuit is the only realistic prospect for many consumers to get recompense because they cannot afford private attorneys.
The Justice Department had built a case against Colony Ridge with “stark and overwhelming evidence,” Clarke told the news organizations. Prosecutors said Colony Ridge repeatedly misled consumers about the condition of lots they purchased, forcing them to spend hundreds or thousands on drainage improvements and utility connections they hadn’t known the land needed. This contributed to consumers defaulting on high-interest loans, according to the lawsuit. Colony Ridge then benefited from the improvements made to the land it foreclosed on and resold the lots at higher prices.
In the end, tens of thousands of victims were exploited through the developer’s predatory practices in a span of eight years, the government argued. Colony Ridge repossessed more than 15,000 lots, many owned by immigrants, a 2023 investigation by the Houston Landing found.
Of the 183 housing and civil enforcement Justice Department settlements since 2018, only 6% did not include money for victims. Each of those cases was smaller in scope than Colony Ridge. They included a suburban Maryland car dealership accused of racial discrimination in loan offers over a seven-month period and a California landlord who allegedly refused to provide handicapped parking to one tenant.
None of the settlements — except for Colony Ridge — includes funding for police or immigration enforcement.
As federal investigators built a case around how Colony Ridge had treated its largely immigrant customers, conservative media and politicians aligned with Trump — who had made immigration enforcement a cornerstone of his campaign — did not focus on how consumers had been harmed. They instead accused the development of being a haven for immigrants.
They claimed, without providing evidence, that the development was a base for Mexican drug cartels and a “no-go” zone for police. Local law enforcement disputed the assertions, saying that violent crime there was no different from other neighborhoods in and around Houston. State legislative panels convened to investigate the allegations also fizzled out after they were unable to substantiate such claims.
Neither the federal government nor a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton months later raised public safety concerns or a need for more policing or immigration enforcement.
The Justice Department declined to comment and did not respond to the concerns raised by former employees and people involved in the case. Paxton’s office did not respond to multiple emails. But while announcing the settlement in February, Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the department’s Civil Rights Division, argued that Colony Ridge had encouraged illegal immigration by targeting Hispanic consumers with the bait of affordable homeownership. “This DOJ will go after all lenders, financiers, and land developers who participate in schemes which ultimately encourage illegal immigration,” she said. In his own news release about the settlement, which would also resolve the Texas suit, Paxton focused primarily on funding set aside for immigration enforcement. “Under my watch, Texas will never be a sanctuary for illegals,” he said.
The focus on immigration makes the lives of those who were harmed more difficult, said Catherine Bendor, a manager in the Justice Department’s Housing and Civil Enforcement Section for eight years until 2024.
“Even if they’re citizens, they’ll likely be hassled by immigration agents who target people based on appearance or accent,” she said.
John Harris, Colony Ridge’s CEO, declined to be interviewed. The settlement does not include an admission of wrongdoing. He has long maintained that his company, which started in 2011 and offered mortgages for as little as a 1% down payment, has not preyed on its customers.
The financing terms helped the development grow rapidly, albeit inconsistently, with neat modular homes, trailers and abandoned or vacant lots across more than 33,000 acres. Matt Rascon, a spokesperson for Colony Ridge, said the company “found success offering a path to land ownership through flexible financing options with no credit checks.” His comments echoed the company’s argument in court that it created a path to homeownership for thousands of lower-income consumers whom risk-averse banks reject.
Offering loans when others wouldn’t is the most common argument predatory lenders make to justify their practices, said Nathalie Martin, a University of New Mexico law professor who has studied high-cost loans.
“You can see from this situation, it doesn’t help people to get them into loans that are more costly than they need to be,” Martin said.
Former federal officials and Colony Ridge property owners acknowledge that the settlement includes some provisions to protect consumers in the future. It would require Colony Ridge to adopt stricter lending standards and allow buyers to back out of purchases without penalty within two months. The developer would also make $48 million in infrastructure upgrades and provide transparent, bilingual marketing and communication.
Another provision bars Colony Ridge from developing new lots to sell for three years. But the agreement exempts 674 acres that the developer has already subdivided.
The concessions are helpful but inadequate because they miss a clear opportunity to help victims recover money they lost, which is a key reason such cases are filed, said Jon Seward, who was principal deputy chief for the Justice Department when he left in May 2023 after 17 years in its Housing and Civil Enforcement Section.
One such victim was Maria Acevedo, who describes herself as a lifelong Republican and U.S. citizen who said she voted for Trump three times.
A former land developer herself, Acevedo took out a high-interest $40,000 loan in 2018 to buy a half-acre of land where she planned to retire. She then spent an additional $60,000 on surveying, engineering and adding dirt to protect against flooding.
Acevedo said she planned to refinance her loan but learned that she couldn’t because the property had a lien from a previous owner. Colony Ridge foreclosed on the property three years later, even though Acevedo said she was making payments. Colony Ridge did not comment on Acevedo’s case or those of other individuals in this story. The foreclosure ruined her retirement plans, Acevedo said, adding that the challenges strained her marriage and eventually led to divorce.
She considered finding a lawyer to sue. But she said she decided to “become a team player” and serve as a government witness after federal investigators pledged to help victims like her recover what they lost.
Now, Acevedo said, she feels betrayed by a settlement that ignores Hispanic consumers like her.
“I know we were targeted. A blind man could see it,” Acevedo said.
She added that the lawsuit was “going smooth, but once the Trump administration came in and took it over, it changed.”
Even if she could now find a lawyer, her window to file a lawsuit has expired because state and federal laws require they be brought within five years.
Since returning to office, the Trump administration has abandoned an $80 million settlement with Navy Federal Credit Union over illegal overdraft fees, which allowed the bank to continue operating without penalty, and halted dozens of investigations, including a case accusing a major Pennsylvania lender of defrauding student borrowers. Both defendants have denied wrongdoing.
The Trump administration and White House budget director Russell Vought have taken aim at the CFPB, which was formed to protect consumers from getting ripped off by businesses. For Vought, the agency was an example of government overreach. It was also one of the first targets for Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency. In April, in response to a lawsuit by bureau employees over the CFPB’s attempt to lay off 90% of its staff, the administration offered a compromise proposal: slashing two-thirds.
The White House and Vought’s office declined to comment, but the administration has argued the agency was needlessly aggressive and wasteful.
The shift away from pursuing consumer protection cases gives the impression that the federal government is no longer serious about protecting regular people from unscrupulous businesses, former Justice Department and CFPB employees said.
Investigators spent months gathering stories and building trust with residents who were wary of cooperating, said Johnathan Smith, a former deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights during the Biden administration, who visited the development before the lawsuit. The team worked to ensure that the community “believed something was going to be different because the Justice Department got involved.”
“It’s just heartbreaking how the settlement failed to meet that mark,” he said.
SuEllen Sanchez and her sister, Keilah Sanchez, were among those who shared their stories with investigators, expecting the government would help them reclaim what they lost. They also provided investigators with hundreds of records from neighbors who said they’d been scammed.
A U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico, SuEllen Sanchez had purchased five lots in Colony Ridge in 2020. She saw it as a way to invest money she’d earned as an aesthetician and perhaps open a business there.
Sanchez said the advertisements and sales representatives for Colony Ridge led her to believe the lots would be ready to build on. They weren’t. Clearing the land for development, acquiring permits and connecting utilities cost her more than $10,000. Colony Ridge foreclosed on one of the lots in 2021, according to Sanchez, who disputes the developer’s claims that she had missed loan payments.
Sanchez wondered if others also believed they’d been scammed. That’s when she and her sister, a web developer who also had purchased Colony Ridge properties, launched a website asking residents to share their experiences with the developer.
Sanchez said she was dismayed that all of their efforts resulted in the proposed settlement.
“These were consumer-based lawsuits, so you would think they’d actually do something for consumers with everything that they stipulated that this company did wrong,” Sanchez said. “There’s no way somebody who has all these violations should still be operating.”
Acevedo feels the same way, and she wants the judge to know it as he mulls the settlement. She doesn’t have a lawyer, but after the Justice Department proposed it, she filed a legal brief in the case demanding compensation as a victim. She offered to testify and present evidence.
“I want the court to hear me directly,” she wrote to Judge Alfred H. Bennett. “I am willing to swear to my experience.”
On Friday, she plans to drive 30 miles to Courtroom 9A in the Houston federal building for the settlement hearing, hoping for the judge to grant her request to be heard.
The post “A Slap in the Face”: Trump’s DOJ Plans to Settle Predatory Lending Case Without Compensating Victims appeared first on ProPublica.
Waymo is launching a pilot with cities and Google's Waze to share pothole data collected by its robotaxis, giving local transportation departments a new way to find and fix road damage more quickly. "We realized, hey, once we're at scale, we can actually share this data with cities, which is something that they've asked for and something that we collect at scale," said Arielle Fleisher, Waymo's policy development and research manager. "And so we figured out a way to make that happen." The Verge reports: Waymo uses its perception hardware, including cameras and radar, as well as accelerometers and the vehicle's physical feedback system, to log every pothole its vehicles encounter. These sensors detect physical changes to the road's surface, such as tilt and movement when the vehicle encounters irregularities. Originally, Waymo knew it needed the ability to detect potholes so it could ensure that its vehicles slowed down to avoid damage or injury to the passenger. Later, the company realized this could be invaluable data for cities, too. Under the new pilot program, that data will now be made available to cities' departments of transportation through a free-to-use Waze for Cities platform, which provides access to real-time, user-generated traffic data that officials can then use to make important decisions -- such as pothole repair. The platform also allows for Waze users to validate pothole locations through their own observations, decreasing the chances that city officials will be led astray by false positives. Currently, many cities rely on a patchwork of non-emergency 311 reports and manual inspections to address their pothole problems. Waymo developed this pilot program after collecting years of feedback from city officials about the state of their highways and surface streets. The company is launching the new pilot in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta, where Waymo says it has already helped the city identify approximately 500 potholes. Fleisher said that Waymo would be open to expanding the project to other street maladies based on further feedback from officials. The company is eager to learn what other types of street condition or safety data might be valuable, she said. "We want to be responsive to cities," Fleisher said. "They are interested in safer streets and potholes are really a tough challenge for cities. So we really wanted to meet that need as part of our desire to be a good partner and to ultimately advance our goal for safer streets."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The best standing desks are here to prevent fatigue and shoulder strain.
Almost 2,000 jobs will be created, with retailer vying to overtake Morrisons as Britain’s fifth largest supermarket
Lidl is to open 50 new UK stores in the year ahead – as well as its first pub – as it aims to overtake Morrisons as the country’s fifth largest supermarket chain.
The German-owned retailer has begun building a pub in east Belfast in response to strict local licensing laws that cap the number of premises that can sell alcohol.
Continue reading...Africa Aware: Emergency Response Rooms: Sudan’s humanitarian lifeline Audio thilton.drupal
Guests discuss the vital role Sudan Emergency Response Rooms play in the humanitarian response to the ongoing war – particularly the less documented contributions of Sudanese women.
Since the war in Sudan began in 2023, grassroots, volunteer-led mutual aid groups – the Emergency Rooms (ERRs) – have delivered vital humanitarian assistance and played a key role in safeguarding civilian life across the country in the face of the devastating conflict. The work of the ERRs is grounded in the Sudanese tradition of ‘nafeer’, an Arabic word meaning collective action.
Less documented is the critical role Sudanese women play in responding to humanitarian needs arising from the conflict. They are at the forefront of providing medical assistance and psychosocial support, creating safe spaces for children and responding to gender-based violence.
In this episode, we are joined by Alaa Hassan Taris and Khalid Gurashi, representatives of the ERRs who were in London to receive the Chatham House Prize in recognition of their crucial role in delivering humanitarian support during the ongoing war in Sudan. Dr Eva Khair, founder of the Sudan Transnational Consortium, also joins the conversation with Alaa and Khalid to discuss how vital grassroots-led responses are within the wider international humanitarian picture and highlight the imperative for continued advocacy on the global stage.
Find more information about the ERRs and how to support their work here.
The Chatham House Prize 2025 was generously supported by Dr Mo Ibrahim, Open Society Foundations and Quadrature Climate Foundation.
Africa Aware is a podcast from the Chatham House Africa Programme bringing together leading international experts to provide in-depth analysis and sharp insights on the political, economic and social issues shaping African countries, their international relations and the continent as a whole.
You can also listen to Africa Aware on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
A man who stole a handbag containing a Faberge egg and watch worth at least $2.8 million from a London pub was jailed for more than two years.
Resolution was expected to fail but introduction signals unease on Capitol Hill about conflict with no clear endgame
An attempt by House Democrats to pass a long-shot resolution on Thursday curtailing Donald Trump’s war powers over Iran failed after the Republican pro forma speaker, Chris Smith, did not recognize lawmakers from the opposite party on the floor.
The vote, scheduled for Thursday morning, used a procedure called unanimous consent, which is a shortcut that allows legislation to pass the chamber instantly, without debate or a formal tally, so long as not a single member objects. Any one lawmaker can kill the resolution by simply objecting, and Republicans were expected to do exactly that.
Continue reading...Israel has intensified its bombing campaign in Lebanon, prompting Iran to warn it could withdraw from the ceasefire agreed with the US. Hundreds have been killed and wounded since the agreement was announced, after Israeli forces launched mass strikes on densely populated areas. Israel says the strikes are aimed at the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, while Iran claims they are a blatant violation of the ceasefire. Iran and Pakistan claim the agreement included Lebanon, but Donald Trump called it ‘a separate skirmish’. Lucy Hough speaks to Beirut-based reporter William Christou
Continue reading...ST. GALLEN, Switzerland and INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. , April 9, 2026 — Terra Quantum AG, a leading quantum technology company, and Mountain Lake Acquisition Corp. II (MLAC II), a special purpose acquisition company, today announced that they have signed a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) to enter into a business combination that values Terra Quantum at $3.25 billion.
The proposed transaction reflects strong confidence in Terra Quantum’s differentiated quantum algorithms, software, quantum security, and hybrid quantum-classical solutions, as well as its commercial traction across multiple industries including defence, finance, pharmaceuticals, and logistics.
Upon completion of the transaction, the combined entity will be publicly listed, providing Terra Quantum with enhanced access to capital markets to support its next phase of growth, including product development, global expansion, and strategic acquisitions.
Strategic Rationale
The contemplated business combination is expected to enable Terra Quantum to:
“This milestone marks a significant step forward in Terra Quantum’s mission to deliver practical quantum solutions on a global scale today,” said Markus Pflitsch, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Terra Quantum AG. “Partnering with MLAC II would enable us to accelerate innovation, deepen customer engagement, and expand our global footprint.”
Paul Grinberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MLAC II, added: “We believe Terra Quantum is uniquely positioned at the forefront of the quantum revolution which also has a management team with distinguished backgrounds in both science and the commercialization of technology. This proposed transaction aligns with our strategy to partner with high-growth, category-defining technology companies that can create significant value.”
Cohen & Company Capital Markets, a division of Cohen & Company Securities, LLC, is serving as exclusive financial and capital markets advisor to Terra Quantum. Heussen Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, together with Kellerhals Carrard, Winston & Strawn, LLP, and Niedermann Rechtsanwälte, are serving as legal counsel to Terra Quantum.
BTIG is serving as financial and capital markets advisor to MLAC II. Lowenstein Sandler LLP and Lenz & Staehelin are serving as legal counsel to MLAC II.
About Terra Quantum AG
Terra Quantum AG is a leading quantum technology company focused on developing cutting-edge quantum algorithms, software, and hybrid solutions designed to solve real-world problems. Headquartered in St. Gallen, the company partners with enterprises and institutions worldwide to unlock the power of quantum computing today.
About Mountain Lake Acquisition Corp. II
Mountain Lake Acquisition Corp. II (Nasdaq: MLAA) is a blank check company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses focused on partnering with innovative, high-growth companies across technology sectors. MLAC II’s management team is led by Paul Grinberg, its Chairman & CEO, and Douglas Horlick, its Chief Financial Officer, Director, and President.
Source: Terra Quantum
The post Terra Quantum Eyes Public Markets Through $3.25B SPAC Deal appeared first on HPCwire.
The new damage hero joins the Overwatch roster next week, swinging around on her drone.
Von der Leyen urged to act over allegations of disinformation and intimidation on behalf of Orbán’s party
The European Commission is being urged to investigate whether Hungary’s elections are being undermined by Russian manipulation, intimidation of journalists and voter coercion by the ruling party.
Three days before decisive parliamentary elections that threaten the 16-year grip on power of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, a group of MEPs have written to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the commissioner responsible for the rule of law, Michael McGrath, calling for action.
Continue reading...HPC sites that may have avoided Amazon’s S3 object store as a data repository may want to take a second look now that it has launched S3 Files, a new offering that gives customers high-performance NFS-based file system access to their data stored in S3 buckets.
Object stores aren’t traditionally used in HPC, as users typically demand read and write access to individual files, as opposed to accessing and changing entire objects. AWS’s Amazon S3 prioritizes reliability and low cost, while HPC sites typically need very fast and low latency access to data, with price and reliability being secondary concerns. POSIX compliance is another factor for HPC sites, many of whom would rather not rewrite their existing Linux apps to use the GET, PUT, and DELETE semantics of S3’s REST API.
This math may need to be reevaluated as a result of AWS’s launch of Amazon S3 Files. According to AWS, the new service launched Tuesday “provides fast, direct access to all of your S3 data as files with full file system semantics and low-latency performance, without your data ever leaving S3.” Data that has already been stored in S3 can now be accessed as a file system, as long as the application supports NFS 4.1.
NFS is the most widely used file system in the HPC community, and was used at 53% of the sites surveyed by Hyperion Research in 2022. NFS (and pNFS) was followed by Lustre, which was the second most popular file system used by HPC sites with a 33% share.
While S3 Files likely won’t be as fast as Lustre (which AWS also offers), S3 Files should be able to offer plenty of speed, with multiple terabytes per second of aggregate read throughput, according to the vendor. Latency is less than 1 millisecond for active data, according to an AWS blog post by Sébastien Stormacq.
S3 Files features a tiered storage system that places the hottest, most randomly accessed data on the fastest storage, while larger, sequential reads are done from the S3 bucket. These different access patterns are implemented automatically, Stormacq writes. “As you work with specific files and directories through the file system, associated file metadata and contents are placed onto the file system’s high-performance storage,” he writes. “By default, files that benefit from low-latency access are stored and served from the high-performance storage.”
The default file size for data reads that are automatically done from traditional S3 is 125 KB. Files smaller than 125 KB may end up in the high-performance storage and made available via NFS if the storage service determines it would be helpful; users can change this setting if they like.
S3 Files supports concurrent access from multiple compute resources using NFS’s close-to-open consistency, the vendor says. That makes it ideal for interactive, shared workloads that mutate data, such as AI agents working with different tools or machine learning algorithms accessing datasets, rather than the types of workloads that generate simultaneous heavy write contention, which would be better suited by a parallel file system like Lustre.
S3 Files may eliminate the need for brittle data transformation pipelines (Image source AWS)
Organizations can centralize their file data on S3 with S3 Files, AWS says, thereby eliminating the need to duplicate data or cycle it between object and file storage. “Now, file-based tools and applications across your organization can work with your S3 data directly from any compute instance, container, and function using the tools your teams and agents already depend on,” the cloud hyperscaler says.
This solution will be particularly beneficial for organizations that use S3 as a data lake. File-based tools, agents, and applications that previously could not directly work with the S3 data can now access it using NFS semantics with S3 Files, potentially eliminating brittle data pipelines.
AWS charges for S3 Files based on how much data customers have on high-performance storage and how often they access it. Reads that are 128 KB or larger are done automatically from S3, while reads that are smaller than that and require low latency may be moved to high-performance storage layer. In US-East-1, AWS charges $0.30 per GB per month for data stored in high-performance storage, reads are billed at $.03 per GB, and writes are billed at $.06 per GB. It charges different fees in different regions.
S3 Files is available now in 34 AWS regions.
The post AWS Delivers High-Performance NFS Access with S3 Files appeared first on HPCwire.
Game Pass Premium subscribers are also getting a handful of games, including the remastered Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.
Colorado State University has released its annual Atlantic hurricane forecast, predicting 13 named storms and six hurricanes may develop during the 2026 season.
Gas prices in the U.S. continued to edge up on Wednesday even as oil prices fell. Here's how long it could take for fuel costs to recede.
COLLEGE PARK, Md., April 9, 2026 — IQM Quantum Computers, a global leader in superconducting quantum computing, and the Capital of Quantum (CoQ) announced today the establishment of IQM’s first U.S. Quantum Technology Center in Discovery District Maryland.
The Discovery District building that will include IQM’s first U.S. Quantum Technology Center as part of Maryland’s growing quantum innovation ecosystem.
This strategic expansion strengthens IQM’s presence in one of the world’s most important quantum ecosystems and furthers the company’s global leadership in the quantum computing industry.
IQM’s new Quantum Technology Center highlights the company’s continued commitment to drive quantum education and research and collaborate with High-Performance Computing (HPC) service providers. By locating in the University of Maryland’s Discovery District, IQM is positioning itself closer to the federal research community, which includes the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), NASA Goddard, and the Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM), as well as the University of Maryland’s Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security and John Hopkin’s Applied Physics Laboratory.
“The United States is one of the world’s most important quantum markets. College Park connects us to the federal research community, and the quantum ecosystem being built around it. This is the right place to grow our U.S. presence,” said Jan Goetz, CEO and Co-founder of IQM Quantum Computers.
Maryland is uniquely situated at the intersection of research, science, commercialization, policy, and national security. The Capital of Quantum is a landmark public-private partnership designed to solidify Maryland’s role as a global leader in quantum information science and technology. This new technology center is directly aligned with the state initiative, supports national policies and will help drive commercialization.
Through this new center, IQM is focused on building local teams and capabilities, capitalizing on Maryland’s robust talent pipeline. The State of Maryland and the University of Maryland (UMD) boast one of the highest concentrations of quantum scientists and researchers in the country, with UMD ranking as a top-five producer of quantum PhDs.
“We are excited to welcome IQM to College Park’s Discovery District as they establish their first U.S. Quantum Technology Center”, said Dr. Corey Stambaugh, Director of the Capital of Quantum. “Maryland is focused on building deep and meaningful partnerships with global leaders like IQM, positioning the Capital of Quantum as a premier destination for quantum innovation and commercialization.”
The new U.S. Quantum Technology Center will serve as a collaborative hub, enabling IQM to work closely with local startups, academic institutions, and federal partners to accelerate the deployment of advanced quantum technologies. Through this partnership, IQM is supporting the U.S. quantum ecosystem and enabling American discovery.
About IQM Quantum Computers
IQM Quantum Computers is a global leader in superconducting quantum computers, delivering full-stack quantum systems and cloud platform access to research institutions, universities, high-performance computing centres, and national laboratories worldwide. IQM’s on-premises deployment model gives customers direct ownership and control of their quantum infrastructure. Founded in 2018, headquartered in Finland, it has over 350 employees. IQM operates across Europe, Asia, and North America and has announced its plans to become the first publicly listed European quantum company on a major U.S. stock exchange with a dual listing on the Helsinki Stock Exchange also under consideration.
About the Capital of Quantum
The State of Maryland’s Capital of Quantum Initiative is a 5-year, $1 billion public-private partnership supported by the State of Maryland, the University of Maryland, and private sector partners. Anchored in Discovery District Maryland, the initiative aims to advance knowledge generation, drive commercial innovation, and build the critical infrastructure needed to accelerate the regional and national quantum economy. Learn more at capitalofquantum.com.
About Discovery District Maryland
Anchored by the University of Maryland, College Park, and home to more than 60 companies, federal agencies, academic research institutes, labs and collaborative spaces, Discovery District Maryland is one of the country’s densest clusters of specialized tech talent and infrastructure. Created to solve the world’s biggest challenges, Discovery District Maryland is evolving to include new housing, expanded transit and vibrant public spaces.
Source: IQM Quantum Computers
The post IQM Announces 1st US Quantum Technology Center in the University of Maryland’s Discovery District appeared first on HPCwire.
SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 9, 2026 — Intel Corporation and Google today announced a multiyear collaboration to advance the next generation of AI and cloud infrastructure, reinforcing the critical role of CPUs and custom infrastructure processing units (IPUs) in scaling modern, heterogeneous AI systems.
Credit: Shutterstock
As AI adoption accelerates, infrastructure is becoming more complex and heterogeneous, driving increased reliance on CPUs for orchestration, data processing and system-level performance. Through this collaboration, Intel and Google will align across multiple generations of Intel Xeon processors to improve performance, energy efficiency and total cost of ownership across Google’s global infrastructure.
AI doesn’t run on accelerators alone – it runs on systems. And CPUs are at the core of those systems.
Google Cloud continues to deploy Intel Xeon processors across its workload-optimized instances, including the latest Intel Xeon 6 processors powering C4 and N4 instances. These platforms support a broad range of workloads—from large-scale AI training coordination to latency-sensitive inference and general-purpose computing.
In parallel, Intel and Google are expanding their co-development of custom ASIC-based IPUs. These programmable accelerators offload networking, storage and security functions from host CPUs – improving utilization, increasing efficiency and enabling more predictable performance across hyperscale AI environments.
IPUs are a critical component of modern data center architectures. By handling infrastructure tasks traditionally managed by CPUs, they unlock greater effective compute capacity and allow cloud providers to scale more efficiently without increasing overall system complexity. Together, Xeon CPUs and IPUs form a tightly integrated platform balancing general-purpose compute with purpose-built infrastructure acceleration to deliver more efficient, flexible and scalable AI systems.
Driving Performance and Efficiency at Scale
“AI is reshaping how infrastructure is built and scaled,” said Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of Intel. “Scaling AI requires more than accelerators – it requires balanced systems. CPUs and IPUs are central to delivering the performance, efficiency and flexibility modern AI workloads demand.”
“CPUs and infrastructure acceleration remain a cornerstone of AI systems—from training orchestration to inference and deployment,” said Amin Vahdat, SVP & Chief Technologist, AI Infrastructure, Google. “Intel has been a trusted partner for nearly two decades, and their Xeon roadmap gives us confidence that we can continue to meet the growing performance and efficiency demands of our workloads.”
Building the Foundation for the Next Wave of AI
The expanded collaboration reflects a shared commitment to advancing open, scalable infrastructure for the AI era. By combining general-purpose compute with purpose-built infrastructure acceleration, Intel and Google are enabling a more balanced approach to AI system design – one that improves utilization, reduces complexity and scales more efficiently.
Together, the companies are strengthening the foundation for the next generation of AI-driven cloud services—supporting continued innovation across enterprises, developers and users worldwide.
About Intel
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) designs and manufactures advanced semiconductors that connect and power the modern world. Every day, our engineers create new technologies that enhance and shape the future of computing to enable new possibilities for every customer we serve. Learn more at intel.com.
Source: Intel
The post Intel and Google Deepen Collaboration to Advance AI Infrastructure with Xeon CPUs and Custom IPUs appeared first on HPCwire.
Economic forecasts show that this week's March Consumer Price Index could show prices climbing at their fastest pace in nearly two years.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: [Five skilled workers aged 50 and older spoke] to the Guardian about how, after struggling to find work in their fields, they have turned to an emerging and growing category of work: using their expertise to train artificial intelligence models. Known as data annotation, the work involves labeling and evaluating the information used to train AI models like Open AI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini. A doctor, for example, might review how an AI model answers medical questions to flag incorrect or unsafe responses and suggest better ones, helping the system learn how to generate more accurate and reliable responses. The ultimate goal of training is to level up AI models until they're capable of doing a job as well as a human could -- meaning they could someday replace some of these human workers. The companies behind AI training, such as Mercor, GlobalLogic, TEKsystems, micro1 and Alignerr, operate large contractor networks staffed by people like Ciriello. Their clients include tech giants like OpenAI, Google and Meta, academic researchers and industries including healthcare and finance. For experienced professionals, AI training contracts can be a side hustle -- or a temporary fallback following a layoff -- where top experts can, in some cases, earn over $180 an hour. But that's on the high end. For some older workers [...], it represents another thing entirely: a last refuge in a brutal job market that is harder to stay in, or re-enter, the older they get. For many of them, whether or not they're training their AI replacements in their professions is besides the point. They need the work now. [...] "There's just a lot of desperation out there," Johnson said. As opportunities narrow, many turn to what Joanna Lahey, a professor at Texas A&M University who studies age discrimination and labor outcomes, calls "bridge jobs" -- lower-paying, less demanding roles that help workers stay financially afloat as they approach retirement. Historically, that meant taking temp assignments, retail and fast-food work and gig roles like Uber and food delivery. Now, for skilled workers -- engineers, lawyers, nurses or designers, for example -- using their expertise for AI data training is becoming the new bridge job. "[AI] training work may be better in some ways than those earlier alternatives," Lahey told the Guardian. AI training can offer flexibility, quick income and intellectual engagement. But it's often a clear step down. Professionals in fields such as software development, medicine or finance typically earn six-figure salaries that come with benefits and paid leave, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to online job postings, AI training gigs start at $20 an hour, with pay increasing to between $30 and $40 an hour. In some cases, AI trainers with coveted subject matter expertise can earn over $100 an hour. AI training is contract-based, though, meaning the pay and hours are unstable, and it often doesn't come with benefits.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Rokid's AI glasses aren't limited to just one AI model, which is how all AI wearables should be. If only Rokid's did more with it.
A developing “super El Niño” may reduce the number of storms in the Atlantic.
Defence secretary says sanctions and warnings that shadow fleet vessels may be boarded are making it harder for Russia to sell oil
In interviews this morning Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, declined to confirm reports that a Russian warship has been escorting two sanctioned Russian ships through the English channel.
Sanctioned Russian ships carry oil being sold to fund the war in Ukraine, and the UK government recently announced that the armed forces have been authorised to board these ships in British waters to stop them.
What I can tell you is that we have given permission now for action to be taken against the Russian shadow fleet. Operational decisions then have to be taken in the right way by the military.
There are indications of the way in which not just the Russian shadow fleet is operating, but also the way in which we are seeing increased Russian threats, not just to the UK, but across Europe as well.
Continue reading...The U.S. and Israel publicly disagree with Iran and Pakistan over whether the country to Israel's north is included in the Iran ceasefire.
Student Finance England tells about 22,000 students their universities wrongly told them they were eligible
More than 20,000 university students in England who received government maintenance loans and grants worth thousands of pounds have been told they will have to pay them back because their universities wrongly told them they were eligible for the money.
About 22,000 students studying for weekend courses at 15 universities and colleges have received letters from Student Finance England, part of the government-owned Student Loans Company, telling them they must hand back the money because their university “made an error when providing your course details to us. Unfortunately, they didn’t tell us you only attended on [sic] the weekend.”
Continue reading...April 9, 2026 — The Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC) Conference is seeking nominations for individuals to serve as the PEARC 2028 Conference General Co-Chairs or as PEARC Steering Committee Members-at-Large. There are currently several Steering Committee positions available for the next term.
Nominations will be accepted through May 1, 2026, until 11:59 pm Pacific Time and can be sent via email to pearc-nominations@pearc.org.
All members of the community are eligible to serve in these roles. Individuals can self-nominate or nominate another person as a potential Steering Committee Member-at-Large or PEARC 2028 Conference General Co-Chairs. A nomination (max 500 words) may be submitted to the current Steering Committee during the nomination period.
All nominations should include:
Steering Committee Member-at-Large obligations
Steering Committee Members-at-Large will provide oversight for the overall PEARC organization, including but not limited to:
PEARC Conference General Co-Chair obligations
The General Co-Chairs oversee all activities of the Conference and Conference Committees. Major activities include, but are not limited to:
Terms for both members-at-large and 2028 conference general chair(s) will begin July 1, 2026, and run for three years through July 31, 2029.
The PEARC Steering Committee coordinates the PEARC Conference series in order to provide a forum for discussing challenges, opportunities, and solutions among the broad range of participants in the research computing community. This community-driven effort builds on successes of the past, and aims to grow and be more inclusive by involving additional local, regional, national, and international cyberinfrastructure and research computing partners spanning academia, government, and industry. The PEARC Conference series is working to integrate and meet the collective interests of our growing community.
Registration is now open for PEARC26 in Minneapolis, July 26–30, 2026.
Source: PEARC
The post PEARC Calls for 2028 Conference Co-Chair and Steering Committee Nominations appeared first on HPCwire.
Falling sales end production of condiment created in 1828 – but London restaurant Simpson’s keeps it on the menu
Fans of traditional British cuisine were heartbroken by news that Gentleman’s Relish was being discontinued by its manufacturer.
But Jeremy King, who last month reopened Simpson’s in the Strand, has instructed his chef to create a version of the pungent anchovy-based condiment almost identical to the real thing for the 198-year-old London restaurant.
Continue reading...This series of profiles features noteworthy people over the past 250 years who have shaped the American constitutional tradition in various ways. In this post, National Constitution Center content fellow Trey Sullivan looks at the pioneering work of W.E.B. Du Bois, whose work on race and justice included co-founding the NAACP.
A scholar and an activist, a poet and an essayist, a classically trained aesthete who died a Marxist––the life of William Edward Burghardt Du Bois defies easy categorization. Yet throughout his kaleidoscopic career, one constant remains: Du Bois’s meditations on race, justice, and democracy have endured as crucial touchstones for generations of Americans long after his death.
Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in 1868, to Mary Silvina Burghardt, a domestic worker, and Alfred Du Bois, who deserted the family when Du Bois was young. Within the supportive white community of Great Barrington, Du Bois was generally well-supported; he thrived in the town’s integrated school system, quickly rising to the top of his class. Yet, Du Bois’s later writings also reflect the moments in which he was made acutely aware of his racial difference. He describes an elementary school gift exchange abruptly ended when “one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card”; in this moment, he realized “with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others.” These early experiences shaped Du Bois’s lifelong commitment to combatting racial prejudice.
After graduating from high school, Du Bois matriculated at Fisk University, a historically Black college in Nashville, Tennessee. After graduating from Fisk in 1888, Du Bois enrolled at Harvard, where he earned a second bachelor’s degree in 1890 and was selected to give the university’s commencement address. In 1895, Du Bois received his doctorate in history from Harvard, becoming the first African American to do so.
While enrolled at Harvard, Du Bois married Nina Gomer, a student at Wilberforce University. The couple remained together until Nina’s death in 1950 and had two children. Following Nina’s death, Du Bois remarried in 1951 to Shirley Graham, an old friend.
In 1896, Du Bois was commissioned by the University of Pennsylvania to conduct a sociological study of the Black population in Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward. For more than a year, Du Bois lived just a few blocks from the National Constitution Center. There, after over 800 hours of interviews in roughly 2,500 households, Du Bois authored his first major publication, The Philadelphia Negro. This exacting study was meant to analyze the “race problem” and identify effective solutions.
Building on these themes, in 1903 Du Bois published what has become the Ur-text in African American social thought, The Souls of Black Folk. The book opens with a simple, but powerful assessment of contemporary life: “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.” Within the book, Du Bois advanced his now-famous formulation of “double consciousness” ––the idea that African Americans constantly wrestle with an inherent tension between “American” and “African” identity.
During this time, Du Bois also emerged as the most prominent counterweight to Booker T. Washington, another well-known Black leader. While Washington advocated a policy of political conservatism, economic self-help, accommodation to Jim Crow policies, Du Bois believed that African Americans should be fully integrated in the political, social, and intellectual life of the broader American community.
Still, Du Bois was not yet the political radical he would later become. At the turn of the century, he was not averse to placing limits on access to the ballot for Black and white voters alike, so long as exclusions were based on educational qualifications rather than race. Indeed, Du Bois generally adhered to a classist mindset, arguing in his controversial Talented Tenth essay that “the best of the race” —that is, the most talented ten percent of African Americans —would uplift the broader community.
Following his success in publishing, Du Bois turned to more grassroots activism. In 1904, Du Bois joined William Monroe Trotter and others to form the Niagara Movement, a civil rights organization advocating full political equality for African Americans. Despite initial excitement, the Niagara Movement ultimately floundered; yet this experience laid the groundwork for Du Bois’s co-founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1910. At the NAACP, Du Bois served as an officer, board member, and editor of its newspaper, The Crisis.
While Du Bois was physically rooted in the United States, his interests in the issues of race and justice were global. In 1900, he attended the first Pan-African Conference, which was held in London. This would be the first of seven gatherings hosted between 1900 and the end of the Second World War. This growing interest in global systems of power and exploitation compelled Du Bois to study Marxist thought. In 1935, Du Bois published his most important historical work, Black Reconstruction in America, which provided a Marxian analysis of Black labor during and after the Civil War. Du Bois’s analysis was so incisive that nearly a century later, Black Reconstruction remains a foundational text among historians.
In the years following World War II, Du Bois became increasingly involved in progressive politics. Du Bois’s political shift coincided with the rise of Communist paranoia during the McCarthy era. Indeed, for most of the 1950s, Du Bois was denied a passport for foreign travel. When the restrictions were lifted, Du Bois relocated to the newly independent Ghana on the invitation of President Kwame Nkrumah. Before leaving the United States for Ghana in 1961, Du Bois enrolled in the American Communist Party, believing it to be the only path towards an equitable future for Black Americans. Explaining his decision, Du Bois wrote, in part, “Capitalism cannot reform itself.” Communism, he concluded, was “the only way of human life.”
Du Bois never returned to the United States. He died on August 27, 1963, one day before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington.
Trey Sullivan is a Content Fellow at the National Constitution Center and a PhD candidate in History at the University of Cambridge, where he is a Marshall Scholar.
The email was the latest in a string of unprecedented expressions of Christian proselytizing by administration leaders.
US vice-president said bloc tried to ‘destroy’ country’s economy, despite it being a net recipient of EU funds
During his visit to Budapest, where he heaped praise on the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, days before the country’s decisive election, JD Vance claimed the EU was responsible for “one of the worst examples of election interference” he had ever seen.
Standing alongside Orbán on Tuesday, the US vice-president said: “The bureaucrats in Brussels have tried to destroy the economy of Hungary. They have tried to make Hungary less energy-independent. They have tried to drive up costs for Hungarian consumers. And they’ve done it all because they hate this guy.”
Continue reading...Estée Lauder Companies claims Zara collaboration with perfumer breaches long-standing naming agreement
The British perfumer Jo Malone has said she is “surprised and very sad” after being sued for more than £200,000 in damages for using her name on fragrances she created for the fashion chain Zara.
It emerged last month that New York-based multinational Estée Lauder Companies, which owns brands M.A.C, Bobbi Brown, Estée Lauder and Jo Malone London, was taking legal action, claiming the fragrance entrepreneur infringed trademarks.
Continue reading...John Healey says warship and aircraft forced Russia to abandon activity in North Sea in month-long operation
A British warship and aircraft tracked and monitored Russian submarines trying to survey vital undersea infrastructure in the North Atlantic, ensuring they fled the area, the defence secretary, John Healey, has said.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Healey said the UK operation lasted more than a month and saw a Royal Navy warship and P8 marine patrol aircraft “track and deter any malign activity” by three Russian submarines.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed.
Donald Trump has taken to his Truth Social platform again on Thursday to renew his criticism of the alliance.
The US president posted that “none of these people” (which people is unclear), including “our own, very disappointing Nato, understood anything unless they have pressure placed upon them!!!”.
Whether that relates to earlier reports (13.28) that Trump told the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, he wanted to see concrete commitments within days from Nato members for helping to secure the strait of Hormuz remains to be seen.
Treatment reset wayward immune system of patient with life-threatening conditions, say scientists, in a world first
A woman who lived with three life-threatening autoimmune diseases for more than a decade has returned to a near-normal life after a cell therapy reset her wayward immune system.
The 47-year-old had had nine different treatments, none of which had a lasting impact, before receiving the therapy last year at University Hospital Erlangen in Germany. At the time, she required daily blood transfusions and permanent blood thinning medication to control her illness.
Continue reading...BrianFagioli writes: Little Snitch, the well known macOS tool that shows which applications are connecting to the internet, is now being developed for Linux. The developer says the project started after experimenting with Linux and realizing how strange it felt not knowing what connections the system was making. Existing tools like OpenSnitch and various command line utilities exist, but none provided the same simple experience of seeing which process is connecting where and blocking it with a click. The Linux version uses eBPF for kernel level traffic interception, with core components written in Rust and a web based interface that can even monitor remote Linux servers. During testing on Ubuntu, the developer noticed the system was relatively quiet on the network. Over the course of a week, only nine system processes made internet connections. By comparison, macOS reportedly showed more than one hundred processes communicating externally. Applications behave similarly across platforms though. Launching Firefox immediately triggered telemetry and advertising related connections, while LibreOffice made no network connections at all during testing. The early release is meant primarily as a transparency tool to show what software is doing on the network rather than a hardened security firewall.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The continental US registered its most abnormally hot month in 132 years of records, according to Noaa data
March’s persistent unseasonable heat was so intense that the continental United States registered its most abnormally hot month in 132 years of records, according to federal weather data. And the next year or so looks to turn the dial up on global warmth even more, as some forecasts predict a brewing El Niño will reach super strength.
Not only was it the hottest March on record for the US but the amount it was above normal beat any other month in history for the lower 48 states. March’s average temperature of 50.85F(10.47C) was 9.35F (5.19C) above the 20th-century normal for March.
Continue reading...Rhun ap Iorwerth launches party’s manifesto and says he is unconcerned by Reform UK threat in Welsh elections
Plaid Cymru’s leader has promised “no more bending to Westminster’s will” as the nationalist party stands on the brink of taking office for the first time in next month’s Senedd elections.
Speaking at Plaid Cymru’s manifesto launch in Wrexham on Thursday – chosen because of its football team, which has showcased Wales’s potential to the world – Rhun ap Iorwerth told a packed room of supporters there would be “no more toeing the London party line, no more defending the status quo and no more saying no to Wales”.
Continue reading...The U.S. Postal Service, which lost $9 billion in 2025, recently warned that it could run out of money within 12 months.
SINGAPORE and COLLEGE PARK, Md., April 9, 2026 — Horizon Quantum Holdings Ltd. and IonQ today announced a strategic agreement. Horizon Quantum will purchase one of IonQ’s first 6th-generation, chip-based 256-qubit trapped-ion systems, in furtherance of Horizon Quantum’s mission to unlock the full potential of quantum computing with its software platform. The acquisition of the 256-qubit system marks a further step in Horizon Quantum’s efforts to enable broad quantum advantage.
A trapped ion system from IonQ.
IonQ’s 256-qubit system is designed to provide researchers and developers significantly more computing capacity to explore complex problems, with its microwave gate operations and 99.99% gate fidelity, while producing more accurate and reliable solutions using Horizon Quantum’s real-world software infrastructure. The forthcoming IonQ system will be designed so all of its qubits can work together efficiently from its “all-to-all connectivity” and parallel operations enabling a broader range of calculations with greater flexibility.
With this technology, Horizon Quantum plans to expand the capabilities of its quantum hardware testbed beyond the initial superconducting system with a second, technologically distinct hardware modality. Horizon Quantum will be among only a few efforts globally to operate commercial systems of multiple modalities, which will allow Horizon Quantum to make further progress towards its goal of building the most capable, hardware-agnostic environment for quantum software development. Horizon Quantum intends to expand support for trapped-ion systems in Triple Alpha, along with enhancing the real-time runtime capabilities within its execution infrastructure. This is expected to enable advanced functionality, including general control flow, dynamic memory allocation, and concurrent classical/quantum function evaluation, empowering developers to go beyond the limits of static circuit execution and create adaptive, expressive quantum programs. By tightly integrating Triple Alpha with frontier quantum computing systems, Horizon Quantum aims to ensure that its software infrastructure provides developers with the most direct path to broad quantum advantage.
“I could not be more delighted to be working with IonQ to bring trapped ion and world-leading gate fidelities to our testbed,” said Horizon Quantum Founder and CEO Dr Joe Fitzsimons. “Bringing a state-of-the-art system with the capabilities of hundreds of qubits will provide an important and cutting-edge resource to bear in our quest to unlock broad quantum advantage for developers.”
More from HPCwire: Horizon Quantum Closes Business Combination with dMY, Secures $120M to Advance Quantum Software Stack
About Horizon Quantum
Horizon Quantum (Nasdaq: HQ) is on a mission is to unlock broad quantum advantage by building software infrastructure that empowers developers to use quantum computing to solve the world’s toughest computational problems. Founded in 2018 by Dr Fitzsimons, a leading researcher and former professor with more than two decades of experience in quantum computing, Horizon Quantum seeks to bridge the gap between today’s quantum hardware and tomorrow’s applications through the creation of advanced software development tools. Its integrated development environment, Triple Alpha, enables developers to write sophisticated, hardware-agnostic quantum programs at multiple levels of abstraction.
About IonQ
IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ) is the world’s leading quantum platform and merchant supplier – delivering integrated quantum solutions across computing, networking, sensing, and security. IonQ’s newest generation of quantum computers, the forthcoming IonQ Tempo, will be the latest in a line of cutting-edge systems that have been helping customers and partners including Amazon Web Services, AstraZeneca, and NVIDIA achieve 20x performance results and accelerate innovation in drug discovery, materials science, financial modeling, logistics, cybersecurity, and defense. In 2025, the company achieved 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity, setting a world record in quantum computing performance.
Headquartered in College Park, Maryland, IonQ has operations in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Washington, Italy, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Toronto, and the United Kingdom. Our quantum computing services are available through all major cloud providers, while we also meet the needs of networking and sensing customers across land, sea, air, and space. IonQ is making quantum platforms more accessible and impactful than ever before.
Source: Horizon Quantum
The post Horizon Quantum Signs Deal for IonQ 256-Qubit Trapped-Ion System, Expands Multi-Modality Testbed appeared first on HPCwire.
The madness is contagious – and nowhere has this been more evident than in the newly minted two-week ceasefire with Iran
The Madness of King Donald. Unless you’ve spent most of the last few years on a silent retreat – and who could blame you? – it can’t have escaped you that the American president is both not that bright and borderline sociopathic. A lethal combination. Posting “Open the Fuckin’ Strait you crazy bastards or you’ll be living in Hell” on his social media account is not the action of a well man. Certainly not when the Middle East is on a knife-edge.
But what you may have missed is that the madness is contagious. It also affects many of those who come in contact with him. Trying to deal with the madness makes them mad too, as they try to behave as if things that are most definitely not normal are all quite usual. All in a day’s work.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Oil prices are still rising this morning, as markets question the durability of the ceasefire deal between the US and Iran.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, is now up by about 3% to $97.88 a barrel.
We’ve obviously had a very big shock in the last month or so, with the conflict breaking out in the Middle East, that has prompted, obviously, much greater market volatility. I mean, we all have to get up in the morning and find out what’s gone on overnight. At least we got up yesterday and found the world was still with us, but it obviously is very volatile. Yesterday was a good day in point to illustrate that.”
It’s a very good environmental argument, don’t get me wrong. But there is also an economic argument here as well, because it’s certainly the case for the UK that we are still reliant on gas quite often, but less than we used to be, as the marginal source of energy.
But the share of renewables has grown, and I know the UK government’s very focused on this question as to what we learn from the events we’re going through at the moment, what’s the right thing to do.”
Continue reading...Uncertainty over US-Iran ceasefire pushes price of Brent crude towards $100 a barrel
The boss of Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil company has said the strait of Hormuz is “not open” despite the US-Iran ceasefire agreed earlier this week, as uncertainty over the truce pushed the price of Brent crude towards $100 a barrel on Thursday.
Sultan Al Jaber, the chief executive officer of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), said passage through the crucial waterway was subject to “permission, conditions and political leverage” by Iran. He said energy security and global economic stability depended on the strait being opened “fully, unconditionally and without restriction”.
Continue reading...Blanche said the top federal prosecutor in California can seek the death penalty for three alleged MS-13 members charged with killing a victim who was cooperating with authorities, according to a memo.
A Washington Post reporter’s doctor in Seoul had a question — how to translate “chicken out,” as in “Trump always chickens out,” into Korean?
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There isn’t much I miss from my pre-Invisalign “gappy teeth” days, but it was far more difficult for food and plaque to get stuck in the gaps – something I took for granted at the time. Using floss between my pre-braces teeth was easy, but ultimately pointless, like using a pipe cleaner to buff the Dartford Tunnel.
With all the gaps closed, that’s no longer the case, and my water flosser has become a welcome part of my dental routine. A water flosser fires an intense jet of water between the teeth to dislodge debris and leave your mouth feeling fresher.
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KAYLA BELFONT
Staff Reporter
A confirmed measles case at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Wilmington this February marked the nearest confirmed case to the university.
The measles, or rubeola as the official medical term, had been officially eliminated from the United States in 2000, meaning that there were no outbreaks or new cases, unless contracted from travelling abroad and then returning to the U.S.
So far, there have been 1,487 confirmed measles cases in 2026 as of March, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Of the confirmed cases, only nine were due to international travel.
Dr. Kelly Frick, the medical director of Student Health Services at the university, said that although measles begins with flu-like symptoms, there are other notable symptoms that develop.
“It’s usually by the time the rash appears when a patient might suspect that they might have measles,” Frick said. “It spreads through coughing and sneezing, like most other respiratory viruses, but it can stay in the air for a longer period of time than most other viruses.”
New vaccine recommendations have impacted vaccination rates in recent years, with spikes of measles cases in 2014, 2018 and 2019. In 2024, there were a total of 285 cases, while in 2025, there were 2,267 — with three confirmed deaths. This number is the highest confirmed case count since 1992.
Dr. Jennifer Horney, a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the CDC’s Center for Preparedness and Response, describes the current CDC recommendation for the measles vaccination and the appropriate age requirements.
“All children should receive two doses of a measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination, so that’s usually called the MMR vaccine, and they get those when they’re one year old and when they’re about 5 years old,” Horney, who is also a professor and founding chair of the university’s epidemiology department, said.
Frick echoed similar sentiments.
“Two doses of the measles vaccine are 97% effective at preventing measles,” Frick said.
College campuses are now faced with challenges they have not worried about in decades: how to prevent a measles outbreak and how to respond if an outbreak happens on campus.
Clemson University was one of the first campuses to experience a positive measles case in January, with reports of 34 cases. The South Carolina Department of Public Health performed contact tracing for anyone who might have been in contact with individuals who tested positive.
In February, Ave Maria University confirmed cases on their campus in Florida, with the total number of infected students reaching 57. A local clinic deployed an outdoor testing station available to individuals who may be experiencing any symptoms, including cough, runny nose, watery eyes or rashes. Ave Maria University provided its own testing on their campus as well.
Adam Cantley, the university’s associate vice president of Student Wellbeing, Support and Advocacy, describes the university’s response in the case of an outbreak amongst the community.
“We would start to send information to our community, to make them aware of that and make sure people had information to educate themselves,” Cantley said.
He also commented that if a case is detected there would be housing and isolation space set aside while working in tandem with Residence Life and Housing, Dining Services, and Emergency Management.
As of now, the Blue Hen flock is safe, but for students, faculty, and the community, the university should be planning in case our health status changes.
Kristalina Georgieva says even ‘most hopeful scenario’ will lead to growth downgrade and cause permanent hit to living standards
The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that the Iran war will permanently scar the global economy even if a durable peace deal in the Middle East can be reached.
In a speech delivered as the ceasefire in the conflict threatened to unravel, Kristalina Georgieva said the “scarring effects” caused by the war to date would mean slower global growth this year than first anticipated.
Continue reading...Joe Bennett says ceasefire presents ‘very opportune moment’ to raise case of his parents, Lindsay and Craig Foreman
The son of a British couple detained in Tehran on espionage charges has called on Keir Starmer to prioritise their case in the “very opportune moment” of a ceasefire in the Iran conflict.
Lindsay and Craig Foreman, from East Sussex, were arrested while on a five-day trip across Iran in January last year and have been held in Evin prison for 15 months.
Continue reading...‘I thought LIV players were supposed to be banned for life’
Player tells Woods to ‘not drive a car and get a chauffeur’
The honorary first drive was not the only shot Tom Watson played on the first morning of the 2026 Masters. Moments after taking part in the ceremony Watson, who won eight majors, lambasted the PGA Tour over its recent decision to allow Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed to return from LIV Golf.
Watson said by reinstating Reed and Koepka the Tour had reneged on the promises it made to the players who had remained loyal to it during the schism. “I thought the LIV players, when they left, were supposed to be banned for life,” he said.
Continue reading...What lessons will China, India and other Asian nations draw from the Iran war? Independent Thinking Podcast Audio sfarrell.drupa…
Whatever the eventual outcome of the US-Israel war on Iran, the geopolitical aftershocks will reverberate across Asia for years, and perhaps decades, to come.
China prepared in advance for a US attack on Iran. But many of its Asian neighbours have been hit hard because their economies were heavily reliant on energy imports from the Gulf.
In the short-term, the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz has triggered rationing, and shortages of diesel, gas and fertiliser. Does that set a negative precedent for other choke points across the world?
In the longer-term the war may force Asian nations into deeper reckonings: to reassess supply chains, economic strategies and whether the US can be trusted as a stable ally.
Why hasn’t China supported Iran more? Will the standoff over Hormuz tempt Beijing to flex its muscles over the Taiwan Strait or the South China Sea? How will Pakistan leverage its status as negotiator? Will the countries of southeast Asia follow through on calls for more regional integration of energy supplies?
To discuss these issues, and more, Ben Bland, Director of the Asia-Pacific Programme, hosts this week’s Independent Thinking podcast, standing in for Bronwen Maddox. He is joined by two of his Chatham House colleagues: Yu Jie, Senior Research Fellow for China; and Chietigj Bajpaee, Senior Research Fellow for South Asia.
Independent Thinking is a weekly international affairs podcast hosted by our director Bronwen Maddox, in conversation with leading policymakers, journalists, and Chatham House experts providing insight on the latest international issues.
More ways to listen: Apple podcasts and Spotify.
Scientists have found evidence that a 300-million-year-old sea creature previously thought to be the world's oldest octopus is actually a nautilus relative.
Israel claims attacks on densely populated residential areas that killed more than 200 people were aimed at Hezbollah
What was the point of Israel’s surprise mass strikes on Lebanon that killed more than 200 people and drew widespread international condemnation?
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials have claimed the largest strike against Hezbollah during the month-long war against Iran was carefully aimed at members of the armed group, but the attacks appeared to be as much a piece of violent spectacle to benefit Netanyahu as militarily useful.
Continue reading...This week’s quarter-finals provided some classic action as this season’s competition hurtles towards its conclusion
Bayern Munich had not won at the Santiago Bernabéu since May 2001, when they beat Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final on their way to becoming European champions. Tuesday night’s match changed all that. The 29th Champions League meeting between the teams lived up to its heavyweight billing, though Bayern, superior on the night, may rue their failure to extend their 2-1 lead. Real Madrid meanwhile could point to Manuel Neuer making nine saves – not bad for a 40-year-old. “We won’t win the competition without more of these kinds of performances,” said Bayern’s manager, Vincent Kompany, of his keeper. Big trophies are rarely won without great goalkeepers and Neuer continues to play like an all-time great. Bayern’s second goal was a trademark finish from Harry Kane, who made the difficult look easy. The goal will also have calmed England fans’ fears that their captain will arrive at the World Cup suffering from his usual summer malaise. A word too for Luis Díaz and Michael Olise, Bayern’s brilliant wingers whose performances brought back memories of the club’s modern greats Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben. Kompany’s team were commanding in Madrid, but may fear the backlash from the 15-times champions, the kings of comebacks.
Continue reading...Is it time to look at your T-Mobile account and see if your plan still works for you? We have recommendations.
TORONTO, CHICAGO and SAN FRANCISCO, April 9, 2026 — BMO (Bank of Montreal) today announced the establishment of the BMO Institute for Applied Artificial Intelligence & Quantum, a new enterprise‑wide Centre of Excellence focused on the responsible innovation, application and governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the development of Quantum capabilities.
BMO’s Institute brings together expertise from across science, policy, ethics and commercialization to build on BMO’s decades-long use of AI while advancing its Quantum ambitions to enhance client experiences, increase productivity and efficiency, and support long‑term growth, while maintaining strong governance and trust.
“BMO is committed to building AI and Quantum capabilities that are innovative, trusted and centerd on our clients,” said Steve Tennyson, Chief Technology & Operations Officer, BMO. “AI is accelerating how we build, modernize, and innovate across the bank and the Institute will strengthen our ability to turn leading edge technologies into meaningful value for BMO clients, while maintaining the discipline required to manage risk, operate at scale and support responsible adoption across global banking.”
Effective April 6, Dr. Kristin Milchanowski has been appointed BMO’s Chief AI & Quantum Officer and will be the Founding Director of the BMO Institute for Applied Artificial Intelligence & Quantum. In this expanded role, she will continue to advance BMO’s AI and Quantum capabilities, serve as a thought leader, and ensure strong, responsible governance across the enterprise.
“BMO has been applying AI across the bank for decades to personalize client experiences, augment our teams and automate our business. These capabilities continue to evolve rapidly, alongside the emergence of Quantum technologies, creating both extraordinary opportunity and significant responsibility,” said Dr. Kristin Milchanowski, Chief AI & Quantum Officer, BMO. “The BMO Institute for Applied Artificial Intelligence & Quantum will help further embed a mature, enterprise-wide AI agenda, while advancing our Quantum strategy across the Bank and beyond, while keeping us accountable and agile in this era of exponential change.”
With establishing the Institute, BMO is building on its significant investments in AI and other advanced technologies. Most recently, BMO became the first Canadian bank to join the IBM Quantum Network, extending its technology leadership in North America. BMO has also been recognized by Evident AI as one of the world’s top 10 banks for AI innovation, received the Commercial Banking Impact Award for Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics from Datos Insights, and was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies.
About BMO Financial Group
BMO Financial Group is the eighth largest bank in North America by assets, with total assets of $1.5 trillion as of January 31, 2026. Serving clients for 200 years and counting, BMO is a diverse team of highly engaged employees providing a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management, global markets and investment banking products and services to approximately 13 million clients across Canada, the United States, and in select markets globally. Driven by a single purpose, to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life, BMO is committed to driving positive change in the world, and making progress for a thriving economy, sustainable future, and stronger communities.
Source: BMO
The post BMO Forms AI and Quantum Institute, Appoints Chief AI and Quantum Officer appeared first on HPCwire.
The 79th edition of the film festival will see work by Pedro Almodóvar, Hirokazu Kore-eda and László Nemes considered for the coveted Palme d’Or
Gillian Anderson, Rami Malek, Cara Delevingne and John Travolta are expected to walk the red carpet at Cannes this year, as the world’s most influential film festival unveiled an auteur-heavy lineup for its 79th edition.
Competing for the coveted Palme d’Or will be new films by heavyweights Pedro Almodóvar, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Paweł Pawlikowski, László Nemes and Asghar Farhadi.
Continue reading...Beirut residents and officials say civilians were main casualties in operation that bombed 100-plus targets in 10 minutes
It took Israel only 10 minutes to carry out one of the worst mass-killings in Lebanon since the end of the country’s civil war in 1990.
Omar Rakha heard the war planes but did not feel the explosions; it was only when he woke up face down on the street, bleeding, that he understood what had happened: the building next to his in the Barbour neighbourhood of central Beirut had been destroyed by two Israeli bombs. He then ran through the flaming wreckage to find his sister, screaming.
Continue reading...April 9, 2026 — Equal1, a leader in silicon-based quantum computing, and Q-CTRL, a global leader in quantum infrastructure software, have announced a first-of-its-kind strategic partnership to integrate Q-CTRL’s infrastructure software for autonomous calibration into Equal1’s Silicon quantum computers, powering the mass deployment of rack-mount quantum computers into enterprise data centers.
As enterprise interest in quantum computing accelerates, improvements in system performance and automation are needed to ensure delivery keeps pace with demand. A primary barrier to broad adoption is the complexity of “booting up” and maintaining quantum hardware, a process typically handled manually by teams of PhD-level experts. When considering quantum computers sitting alongside GPUs and CPUs at scale, this prospect poses an exceptionally difficult challenge.
Now, by integrating Q-CTRL’s Boulder Opal Scale Up into deployable Equal1 quantum computers, users can experience truly autonomous operation, maintaining peak performance without manual oversight.
“Equal1 has already proven that quantum hardware can be compact, rack-mounted, and data-center ready,” said Jason Lynch, CEO of Equal1. “Our partnership with Q-CTRL further accelerates our mission by providing a fully autonomous software stack. With Boulder Opal Scale Up integrated into our Bell-series systems, our customers gain a self-optimizing quantum accelerator that fits seamlessly into existing IT infrastructure.”
Q-CTRL has pioneered the concept of quantum containerization in which infrastructure software can enable the full virtualization of quantum computers, making it possible to deliver a “plug-and-play” experience for high-performance computing (HPC) and data center customers. End-users adopting Equal1’s highly scalable, CMOS-compatible silicon spin qubit architecture can now experience:
“To scale quantum computing, we must transition from manual hardware operation by expert teams of PhDs to autonomous functionality when fully deployed in data centers and HPC facilities,” said Aravind Ratnam, Chief Strategy Officer at Q-CTRL. “Our partnership with Equal1 achieves this by integrating Q-CTRL’s AI-driven autonomous calibration directly into their silicon spin qubit quantum systems. Together, these technologies provide s HPC users with a seamless experience, enabling quantum processors to operate on equal footing with GPUs and CPUs.”
Equal1 customers can now leverage Q-CTRL’s intelligent autonomy software via an integrated platform function to ensure a successful long-term customer experience on all Equal1 systems.
For more information about the Bell-1 system and autocalibration capabilities, contact Equal1 and Q-CTRL.
About Equal1
Equal1 is a global leader in silicon-powered quantum computing technology. Headquartered in Dublin, the company delivers the world’s first rack-mounted, hybrid quantum-classical computer using silicon-spin quantum processors. Our flagship Bell-1 Quantum Server is designed for seamless integration into standard datacenter environments, providing a scalable path to millions of on-chip qubits.
About Q-CTRL
Q-CTRL is a global leader in quantum infrastructure software that makes quantum technology useful. Q-CTRL partners with industry pioneers like IBM, Rigetti, NVIDIA, and AWS to enhance quantum computer performance through AI-driven control solutions, making machines thousands of times more powerful. Q-CTRL also delivers field-deployable capabilities for navigation in GPS-denied environments based on software-ruggedized quantum sensors, with collaborators including Lockheed Martin and Airbus. The company’s breakthroughs have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and recognized by TIME Magazine as transforming both commercial and defense operations. Founded in 2017 by Professor Michael J. Biercuk, Q-CTRL operates globally from offices in Sydney, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berlin, and Oxford.
Source: Equal1
The post Equal1 and Q-CTRL Partner to Deliver Fully Autonomous, Data Center-Ready Quantum Computing appeared first on HPCwire.
Mobile plans that work for one person don't always expand to cover a family. We've narrowed down our list of favorites from Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.
Catch up on this year's Oscar winners and some great titles that are leaving soon.
Housing corporations are adopting rainwater storage in garden fences, reducing pressure during downpours and preserving water for times of drought
Good fences make good neighbours – but rain fences could make even better ones.
That is the hope of housing corporations in the Netherlands, which are adopting rainwater storage in their garden fences.
Continue reading...CHICAGO, April 9, 2026 — Nutanix has announced it will introduce new capabilities in the second half of 2026 for its Nutanix Agentic AI solution that are designed to help a new generation of AI cloud providers, known as neoclouds, to deliver secure, scalable AI services to AI engineers and agentic AI developers.
The agentic AI era has fueled the emergence of neocloud providers offering rapid access to GPUs through flexible, on-demand services. While demand has largely been driven by AI training workloads from a small number of large customers, the next phase of AI will center on scaling inference and running agentic AI applications in production for a large number of enterprise customers. As organizations deploy and scale these agentic AI applications, they increasingly require platforms that deliver enterprise-grade security, performance, control, and self-service capabilities for developers while reducing the cost per token for AI services.
To meet these demands, neocloud providers are evolving from GPU infrastructure providers into full AI service platforms.
Nutanix will enable neoclouds to deliver a broader catalog of AI services including GPU-as-a-service, Kubernetes-as-a-service, and an enterprise-ready AI platform service powered by Nutanix Agentic AI.
The Nutanix Agentic AI solution is a complete software stack purposely designed to help customers accelerate adoption of agentic AI. It reduces complexity, optimizes performance and security, and is designed to enable lower and more predictable token costs. The addition of a multitenant, multiservice portal enables neocloud providers to deliver high value AI services on their GPU infrastructure and support sovereign AI deployments, giving enterprise users greater control over their data, infrastructure, and AI operations.
“Demand for sovereign and specialized AI clouds is accelerating as organizations look for ways to access AI while maintaining control over their data,” said Thomas Cornely, Executive Vice President, Product Management at Nutanix. “The Nutanix Agentic AI solution, with its secure multitenant and AI management portal, is designed to enable neocloud providers to rapidly deliver advanced high value AI services to enterprises and public sector organizations looking for powerful AI capabilities from trusted regional providers.”
Helping AI Cloud Providers Serve Multiple Customers
Nutanix Agentic AI updates will include the next generation of Nutanix’s multitenancy framework, delivered through Nutanix Service Provider Central, which is designed to help neocloud providers securely operate shared AI infrastructure at scale. The framework introduces strong tenant isolation and granular resource management, allowing providers to host multiple enterprises on the same physical GPU infrastructure while maintaining predictable performance, security, and data isolation.
With these capabilities, neocloud builders will be able to allocate GPU and compute resources dynamically across tenants, enforce tenant-specific security and networking policies, and enable independent AI environments for each customer with a comprehensive catalog of GPU-aaS, K8S-aaS, VM-aaS, Notebooks-aaS, VectorDB-aaS, and Models-aaS.
Nutanix Cloud Manager Expands AI Service Operations
Complementing the new multitenancy capabilities, enhancements to Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) help service providers operate and monetize AI infrastructure as a service.
NCM offers monitoring of AI infrastructure and adds usage-based metering, enabling providers to track and bill customers based on GPU usage, API calls, or model consumption.
Together, these capabilities enable providers to manage capacity, monitor tenant usage, and operate distributed AI infrastructure through a unified management interface, helping neocloud builders deliver scalable AI services while maintaining operational control.
Availability
The new multitenant and NCM capabilities for Nutanix Agentic AI are available now for early access partners and are anticipated to be generally available in the second half of 2026.
About Nutanix
Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX) is a hybrid multicloud computing leader, offering organizations a unified software platform for running applications, deploying enterprise AI workloads and managing data anywhere. With Nutanix, organizations can simplify operations for traditional and modern applications, freeing them to focus on business goals. Trusted by more than 30,000 customers worldwide, Nutanix helps empower organizations to transform digitally and power hybrid multicloud environments consistently, simply, and cost-effectively.
Source: Nutanix
The post Nutanix to Extend Nutanix Agentic AI, Empowering Neoclouds to Deliver Higher Value AI Services appeared first on HPCwire.
To keep track of your workouts and health, you'll want a fitness tracker to do the work for you, right from your wrist or finger.
Iran and mediator Pakistan say ceasefire includes Lebanon but Israel and US disagree. Plus, how Korean fried chicken took over the world
Good morning.
The fate of the two-week ceasefire in the Iran conflict looked in peril as both sides gave divergent versions of what had been agreed, Israel intensified its bombing campaign in Lebanon and Iran halted the passage of oil tankers because of an alleged Israeli ceasefire breach.
What has Iran said? In a sharply worded statement, Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Israel and the US had violated several clauses of the provisional ceasefire, and he decried Israel’s aggressive bombing of Lebanon and a US demand that Iran should have no right to enrich its own uranium.
This is a developing story. Follow our liveblog here.
What was said in the video about Mamdani? The videos feature the organization’s founder, Yisrael Yaacob Ben Avraham, describing Mamdani as a “Muslim terrorist” and a “cancer”, and his election as a “harbinger” of “a creeping Islamic takeover of America”.
Continue reading...Finbar Sullivan, who ‘loved movies and making films’, had gone to London park to use new camera, says father
A film student who was stabbed to death in London’s Primrose Hill was a “beautiful, lovely, outgoing, loving” man, his father has said.
Finbar Sullivan, 21, was stabbed in a fight in the north London park in the early evening on Tuesday and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Continue reading...The campaign to change the rules was years in the making, orchestrated in part by two men with close ties to US health secretary RFK Jr
When a federal judge in Mississippi ordered a sweeping rollback of the state’s strict school vaccine rules in 2023, the ruling hit some doctors like “a gut punch”.
Mississippi had for years achieved some of the highest vaccination rates in the US for children – a point of pride in a place that consistently ranks at the bottom of other health measures.
Continue reading...The search for Lynette Hooker is ongoing in the Bahamas, as the U.S. Coast Guard takes the lead on investigative efforts and has launched a criminal investigation, a U.S. official said.
Survivors of an Iranian attack that killed six U.S. service members have disputed the Pentagon's description of events and said their unit in Kuwait was left dangerously exposed.
The moon music tradition started more than 50 years ago, NASA said as it shared the Artemis II crew's playlist this week.
State officials have grown increasingly hostile toward Muslims, creating a challenge for advocates who object to the negative portrayal of their faith in school texts.
Last month was the hottest March on record for the Lower 48 states, by the most for any month ever, federal data shows. And a forecast El Niño could heat Earth even more.
These quick tips will refresh your phone with a fast, basic clean.
After months of wearing both, here's how their strengths and weaknesses stack up.
ETHAN GRANDIN
Editor-in-Chief
ALEX KEATING
Executive Editor
For over a century, The Review has chronicled the student body through unthinkable hardships and milestones as the university’s independent student newspaper. We are honored to have had a small hand in carrying on that storied legacy throughout the past year.
Over the course of our tenure, we have watched The Review continue to flourish. From the beginning of the year, covering the transition of power at the university to the move up into Conference USA for our athletic teams, it has been a busy time documenting the many changes that occurred week by week, day by day and hour by hour.
In a day and age when we are constantly being bombarded with information, we hope The Review’s coverage has helped you to decipher the community and world around us.
Without you — yes, you! — our readers, we would have been unable to fulfill any of our aspirations for the paper this year. By the way, we still do that whole print newspaper thing, through the tariffs and all.
To our staff, we want to say the biggest thank you. None of what we do would be possible without each and every one of you. Your dedication, late nights spent making edits and answering texts, making The Review feel like a family never go unnoticed — especially when it came to showing up to weekly meetings!
A huge congrats and best of luck to those who will be stepping into new leadership roles, and cheers to the new fearless leaders who will be taking over the helm! We have full confidence that The Review will continue to thrive under the more-than capable leadership of Lauren Boyd and Jessica Bassion next year.
Another special thank you is going to the em-dash, which we take great pride in having learned how to properly use, and rescued from the grips of Artificial Intelligence!
This spring, 19 members of our staff are graduating. They have served as section heads, editors, photographers, illustrators, staff reporters — all essential roles in ensuring The Review’s success. Getting to see their achievements and growth over the course of the past year has been nothing short of a privilege, and we are so excited to see what each and every one of them accomplishes in the future.
We both will miss our time at this paper. It has quite literally impacted every part of our lives throughout the past 4 years — for better or worse — psychologically, spiritually and even physically. It is a cold walk to Perkins during the late fall and winter months, trust us we know.
We have spent what feels like a century in the Perkins Student Center, locked away in our tower, otherwise known as The Review’s lovely office space above Denny’s. A space that has seen our highest highs and lowest lows, we know we will both miss it dearly.
From shipping up to Boston to cover a music festival with Dave Grohl, Niall Horan and The Lumineers, or something as simple as getting a hot dog while covering a bomb threat, our experiences at The Review have ranged from miniscule to life changing.
Our goals at the beginning of this year were simple: to provide accurate, fair coverage and give a voice to those too often overlooked. Whether it be on campus, around Newark or beyond, we are incredibly proud that those priorities remained at the forefront of our work this year.
In spite of limited resources, never-ending news cycles, constantly evolving technology and the rapid spread of misinformation, The Review’s track record is proof that this work is meaningful, impactful and invaluable to communities around the world.
Student journalism is an endeavor unlike any other. The journalistic profession has never been at more of a crossroads than it is now, but through it all, The Review has provided a space for students to learn about and practice this work, find their own voices, and grow as students and people.
We have been challenged and humbled more times than we can count, but nothing else in either of our college experiences has been more rewarding than serving in these positions.
Thank you for supporting us, continuing to read the stories that matter, and being the reason why we do what we do.
It’s been an honor and a pleasure!
fin. (CONF.)
Ethan Grandin,
Editor-in-Chief
Alex Keating,
Executive Editor
Iran, Minneapolis, Harvard and other Trump opponents have employed a similar strategy
An hour before Trump said he’d cause the death of a “whole civilization” if Iran didn’t open the strait of Hormuz, an Iranian official said the shipping channel would be reopened for two weeks if the United States stopped bombing Iran. The US has now stopped bombing Iran.
So we’re back to the status quo before Trump began his war. Only now, Iran can credibly threaten to close the strait if it doesn’t get what it wants from Trump – thereby causing havoc to the US and world economies. Trump’s only remaining bargaining chip is his threat of committing war crimes.
Continue reading...Legislative change backed by libertarian president makes it easier to extract metals in frozen parts of the Andes
Argentina’s congress has approved a bill promoted by the libertarian president, Javier Milei, that authorises mining in ecologically sensitive areas of glaciers and permafrost, outraging environmentalists.
The amendment to the “glacier law”, which was already approved by the senate in February, would make it easier to mine for metals such as copper, lithium and silver in frozen parts of the Andes mountains.
Continue reading...Survivors of UK’s mother and baby home scandal welcome news after long campaign for recognition
The Church of England is expected to make a formal apology for its role in forced adoptions and the UK’s mother and baby home scandal.
Survivors of the scandal – in which hundreds of thousands of children were forcibly separated from their mothers – have welcomed the news after years of campaigning for recognition.
Continue reading...British and Norwegian militaries led a weekslong operation to deter Russian submarines in the North Atlantic, the U.K. military said.
Revealed: JDL 613 Brotherhood has platformed a convicted terrorist and its video recordings display an obsessive antipathy to New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani
A man who has been charged with plotting to firebomb a pro-Palestine activist’s home is tied to a group whose leaders support violence against Palestinians and have platformed a convicted terrorist who fundraises for a violent settler movement in the occupied West Bank.
Video recordings by the group, called JDL 613 Brotherhood, also reveal its leaders possess an obsessive antipathy to New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani. They feature the organization’s founder, Yisrael Yaacob Ben Avraham, describing Mamdani as a “Muslim terrorist”, a “cancer”, and his election a “harbinger” of “a creeping Islamic takeover of America”.
Continue reading...A federal appeals court denied Anthropic's bid to temporarily block the Pentagon's blacklisting, meaning the company remains shut out of Defense Department contracts while the case continues, even though a separate court has allowed other federal agencies to keep using Claude for now. CNBC reports: "In our view, the equitable balance here cuts in favor of the government," the appeals court said in its decision. "On one side is a relatively contained risk of financial harm to a single private company. On the other side is judicial management of how, and through whom, the Department of War secures vital AI technology during an active military conflict. For that reason, we deny Anthropic's motion for a stay pending review on the merits." With the split decisions by the two courts, Anthropic is excluded from DOD contracts but is able to continue working with other government agencies while litigation plays out. Defense contractors will be prohibited from using Claude in their work with the agency, but they can use it for other cases. [...] In the ruling on Wednesday, the court acknowledged that Anthropic "will likely suffer some degree of irreparable harm absent a stay," but that the company's interests "seem primarily financial in nature." While the company claimed the DOD was standing in the way of its right to free speech, "Anthropic does not show that its speech has been chilled during the pendency of this litigation," the order said. Because of the harm Anthropic is likely to suffer, the appeals court said "substantial expedition is warranted." An Anthropic spokesperson said in a statement after the ruling that the company is "grateful the court recognized these issues need to be resolved quickly" and that it's "confident the courts will ultimately agree that these supply chain designations were unlawful." "While this case was necessary to protect Anthropic, our customers, and our partners, our focus remains on working productively with the government to ensure all Americans benefit from safe, reliable AI," Anthropic said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Olivia has been detained for months at the sprawling Dilley center in Texas. She has lost 20lb, and wakes up every day with a headache
Each day in detention feels like 48 hours for Olivia.
The 19-year-old asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been at the Dilley Immigration processing center in Texas for more than four months.
Continue reading...Divisions between Washington and European capitals over Iran fuel concerns about US commitment to peace deal
As a ceasefire was declared in the Middle East, Volodymyr Zelenskyy sought to draw attention to the war in his own country, posting on social media that Ukraine had consistently pushed for a ceasefire in the war “being waged by Russia here, in Europe”.
Efforts to end the war in Ukraine have largely stalled since the Iran war began, with trilateral talks between Kyiv, Moscow and Washington, which had already yielded little, frozen since February 2026. The war, meanwhile, has continued, with air attacks on Ukrainian cities and heavy fighting on the battlefields as Russia launches a spring offensive.
Continue reading...
Why Should Delaware Care?
The Port of Wilmington is one of the last anchors of good-paying blue-collar jobs in Delaware. It also has suffered a string of financial blows over a dramatic six-year-period. Now state officials says its future is bright after they obtained federal permits that will accommodate the construction of a new port terminal in Edgemoor.
After more than a year in limbo, Delaware officials announced Wednesday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has re-issued permits for their long-delayed plan to build a new container port along the Delaware River in Edgemoor.
The announcement marks the latest chapter in Delaware’s quest to build a sister facility to the existing Port of Wilmington that state officials have said would unleash rapid economic growth and create thousands of new jobs in New Castle County.
On Wednesday, those officials widely celebrated the reissuance of the federal approvals.
Gov. Matt Meyer said “the permits needed to make that [Edgemoor] dream a reality have finally been granted.”
Sen. Darius Brown (D-Wilmington) and Rep. Frank Cooke (D-New Castle) said in a joint statement that the project is now shovel ready.
But left unsaid in the officials’ prepared remarks were the other permits needed for the contested project that are still under legal dispute. Additionally, the newly reissued federal permits could be subject to further challenges brought by competing port facilities along the Delaware River.
GET INVOLVED: The Delaware Environmental Appeals Board is scheduled to hold a hearing on April 28 to hear an appeal of a state-issued permit for the Edgemoor project. Click here for information about virtual attendance.
Wednesday’s announcement comes a year and a half after U.S. District Judge Mark Kearney halted the ambitious project, planned at the site of a former DuPont chemical plant, by invalidating federal permits to build a seawall, and to dredge the waters of the Delaware River between the proposed facility and the main shipping lane.
In his sharply worded opinion in late 2024, Kearney said the Army Corps of Engineers had disregarded maritime safety hazards when issuing the approvals.
At the time, then-Gov. John Carney’s office expressed frustration with obstacles it attributed to the Port of Wilmington’s regional competitors along the Delaware River.
“Quite frankly, we’re frustrated with the impediments that have been put in place by our competitors in Philadelphia,” Carney’s spokesperson Emily Hershman said in a statement then.
The federal case had been brought by the Port of Philadelphia and by subsidiaries of Holt Logistics Corp., which owns key port terminals in Philadelphia and New Jersey. Their chief complaint was that cargo ships leaving Edgemoor would cause a dangerous marine bottleneck when turning into the river’s main channel.
Highlighting the intense competition among Delaware River ports, the Port of Philadelphia entities also claimed that the marine congestion would impact their ability to see a return on a $140 million investment made into deepening the Delaware River’s main channel.
Kearney’s decision came five months after Carney had committed nearly $200 million to the construction of the proposed Edgemoor port — which would be built to handle the world’s biggest container ships that needed the deeper Delaware River.
Asked Wednesday whether his company may challenge the reissued permits, Holt Logistics President Leo Holt said he would need to examine the new documents and consult with his attorneys.
“Certainly, the door is wide open for us to do that,” Holt said.
He further claimed that Delaware’s advancement of its port expansion plans has been marred by problems of transparency and unfairness. He said will consider his forthcoming decisions “through that lens once all the dust settles.”
“I don’t think that barometer of fairness has come up at all,” he said.
In a statement Wednesday, Delaware Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez said Kearney’s opinion provided a framework for the state to reapply and ultimately regain its federal permits. She also noted that her team had worked with Jacobs Engineering Group — a global contracting firm — to offer an independent analysis in response to the questions around maritime safety.
“This marks a definitive turning point for the [Diamond State Port Corporation’s] expansion project,” Patibanda-Sanchez said in a statement.
As secretary of state, Patibanda-Sanchez also serves as chair of the board of the Diamond State Port Corporation — the state entity that directs the Edgemoor expansion and oversees the publicly owned and privately run Port of Wilmington at its existing Christina River facility.
A spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers declined to comment for this story.
The post Delaware celebrates reissued Edgemoor port permits but legal uncertainty persists appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Wildlife film pioneer has died aged 74 ‘immersed in nature and surrounded by friends’, his representatives said
An award-winning wildlife cameraman renowned for his work with David Attenborough has died aged 74 while trekking in Nepal.
Doug Allan, described as a “true pioneer” of wildlife film-making, won several Bafta and Emmy awards and was principal camera operator on a number of BBC series including Planet Earth, Frozen Planet and The Blue Planet.
Continue reading...The emperor penguin has been declared an endangered species as climate change pushes the icon of Antarctica a step closer to extinction, the global authority on threatened wildlife says.
President Donald Trump recently threatened genocide as political leverage on social media, which begs the question whether there are even more extreme conversations happening in private in the Oval Office, or if anyone in Trump’s orbit is cautioning him against this immoral threat of mass violence.
Access to these discussions is critical not only for accountability, but also for future administrations who want to re-engage in rational diplomacy. That’s why the Department of Justice’s recent opinion that grants Trump, and every president who follows him, a license to steal American history is so dangerous.
In a sweeping new memorandum from the Office of Legal Counsel, the DOJ claims the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional. The department’s edict, which is already facing legal challenges, argues that a president’s records are private, rather than public, property. This is an extreme reinterpretation of executive power that seeks to undo nearly 50 years of transparency.
The PRA was signed into law after the abuses of the Watergate era and established that the records of every president since Ronald Reagan are public property and must be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA, at the end of a president’s term.
This law is the reason the public has insight into the inner workings of everything from President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran and the George W. Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina to records on the nomination of Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh, and other Supreme Court nominees.
That’s because the PRA states that, starting five years after the end of a presidential administration, those records become subject to public release under the Freedom of Information Act.
This history-killer memo attempts to undo this route for public access to presidential records and build a brick wall where there once was a window into the highest office in the land.
By declaring the PRA unconstitutional, the Justice Department is effectively claiming that the presidency has private ownership over the American story.
The timing of this memo adds insult to injury. Just days before its release, Trump’s son Eric unveiled renderings of a “Trump Presidential Library” skyscraper in Miami, which appears to be designed primarily to solicit private investment for the president’s personal foundation. News outlets parroted this branding, even though there’s no indication the Trump foundation will work with NARA to build a proper library. So while there may be a building where the public can go to gaze at a gold statue of Trump, it’s not clear there will be a physical place for journalists and others to file declassification requests and research his administration.
It’s no surprise that a president who spent his first term repeatedly violating the PRA now wants to eviscerate it. But the danger to our democracy cannot be overstated: The president’s decisions are the most consequential in government, and the PRA is the only reason we have a front-row seat to them, even belatedly.
At Freedom of the Press Foundation, we know what is at stake. We have filed more than a dozen FOIA requests for key records from the first Trump term that are currently held at the digital Trump Presidential Library run by NARA (not to be confused with whatever monstrosity is being built in Florida). These include:
If the DOJ succeeds in claiming presidential records are private, these chapters of our history could vanish, and Trump will be able to do whatever he wishes with these records — whether that’s storing them in his bathroom or selling them to the “highest bidder.”
This isn’t just a Trump problem; it is a bipartisan emergency. If the Justice Department’s memo stands, it won’t just be this administration’s secrets that are locked away — it will allow every future president, Democrat or Republican, to operate with total impunity.
We cannot let the presidency be transformed into a black box. Democrats and Republicans must work together, in Congress and in the courts, to ensure that no president has free rein to hide their own corruption or claim that American history belongs to them alone. Because if we lose the right to know what the president has done in our name, we lose the ability to call ourselves a democracy.
The post DOJ Wants to Scrap Watergate-Era Rule That Makes Presidential Records Public appeared first on The Intercept.
Before you link your accounts, you should adjust your visibility settings to prevent strangers from finding you on both platforms.
The feature changes the background for everyone in the chat, as well.
Electric bag sealers promise to keep your chips, cereal and pantry items fresh by resealing bags with heat. I put two top-rated models to the test.
Medical coercion is alive and well in the US healthcare system – especially if you’re a Black patient giving birth
A harrowing recent ProPublica report tells the stories of two Black women in Florida who were forced to have cesarean sections despite clearly stating they didn’t want them – a reminder that medical coercion is alive and well in the American healthcare system.
In the case of Cherise Doyley, the state had filed an emergency petition. The state and hospital wanted to force Doyley to undergo a C-section “in the interest of her unborn child”, ProPublica reported. Doyley, who worked as a birthing doula, had been clear that she didn’t want a C-section unless there was an emergency. At an hours-long online court hearing conducted from her hospital bedside – while she was in labor – a judge ruled she could continue to labor, but if there were an emergency, the hospital could operate whether she wanted it or not. Hours later, she woke up to find herself being wheeled into surgery – doctors said the baby’s heart rate had dropped for seven minutes overnight – and she gave birth via C-section.
Continue reading...Tim Friede put his ‘ass on the line’ to help stop snakebite deaths – whose numbers appear to be rising amid the climate crisis
As we overheat and degrade our planet, more people are likely to come into contact, sometimes fatally, with venomous snakes. One man hopes to provide an unusual solution to this, after subjecting himself to 200 intentional snakebites to his body.
For nearly 20 years, Tim Friede, 58, allowed some of the most lethal snakes in the world to bite him so he could build up an immunity that could one day be developed into a universal antivenom.
Continue reading...
Why Should Delaware Care?
Northern Virginia has the highest concentration of data centers in the world. As Delaware sees an influx of new data center proposals, the state can take lessons from a place that has reaped the massive economic benefits — and faced environmental and quality of life consequences.
For a year, Delawareans have wrestled with the economic question of the time: How would the global boom in the data center industry impact Delaware if it arrived in the state?
Would the electricity-hungry facilities damage the environment and spike energy bills? Or would the industry become an economic savior, supercharging New Castle County’s economy?
For now, those questions are only speculative, as none of the handful of massive data centers proposed in northern Delaware have secured all necessary approvals.
But a data center boom has already happened in a rural county 150 miles southwest of here — and last month, Spotlight Delaware visited that area to see firsthand how the facilities affected local communities.
Northern Virginia is the home to the largest concentration of data centers in the United States. There are 200 data centers in Loudoun County, Virginia alone — an amount beyond what Delaware will likely ever see.
Serving as host for the visit was Buddy Rizer, the economic development coordinator for Loudoun County – and the so-called ‘Godfather of Data Centers’ who facilitated the data center boom in the area.
“We’ve been able to completely remake our community,” Rizer said
Much of Virginia’s data center hub sits in the vicinity of Dulles International Airport where two-story, concrete behemoths line many of the roads. Drivers passing by see one large windowless structure after another, with partially-enclosed diesel generators on the sides of some.
While Rizer pointed to the economic benefits of the structures, Ann Bennett, a local Sierra Club official, listed their environmental costs.
She said that the harm to the local environment comes from heat radiating from thousands of computer servers, from emissions from backup diesel generators, and from water being pumped from rivers to cool the facilities.
And Loudoun County’s data centers are also too close to homes, she said.
“This is full-on industrial development that is happening near people,” said Bennett, the data center issues chair for the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club.
Just beyond the area’s industrial corridor lie large swaths of parkland, brand-new schools and several community centers with pools and a plethora of fitness classes.
Rizer said the county was able to build those amenities while lowering property tax rates because of tax revenue data centers bring to the county.
“From an economic development standpoint, this is a huge win at a time when there are not many opportunities,” Rizer said.
In his conversations with Spotlight Delaware, Rizer also acknowledged that data center companies sometimes pay him to talk about the benefits of their facilities.
For example, Starwood Digital Ventures, the company behind a massive data center project near Delaware City, reimbursed his travel expenses to Dover when he came to speak to the state legislature.
But he also said he wants correct misconceptions people have about the data center industry — and help promote it so the United States can stay competitive in the growing sector.
Standing outside Digital Realty’s 62-megawatt data center in the middle of a Loudoun County industrial park, there was a low, droning sound, like a lawnmower.
“You can hear the airplane, it’s way louder,” Rizer said, as a plane taking off from the nearby Dulles airport flew overhead.
The plane passed, and the hum continued.
The Digital Realty data center is a one-story, concrete building that looks like it could be an office. It is much smaller than some of the modern data centers along the main corridor of Data Center Alley. It also is much smaller than the controversial proposal from Starwood Digital Ventures to build a 1.2 GW data center campus near Delaware City.
Still, the Digital Reality data center serves the same purpose as any other: it stores digital data and hosts computer infrastructure needed to run internet programs.
Any time people search something online, watch a movie on a streaming service or send an email, they are using a data center. The current boom in new data center construction is largely driven by artificial intelligence programs, which need more computing power than traditional search engines.
In the early days of data centers, tech companies built facilities that housed the computer infrastructure behind its own software. But with the advent of cloud computing in the early 2000s, companies could outsource these computing resources to third-party data centers that could be located anywhere in the country.
All that data storage and networking between systems happens in racks of computer servers. Like any computer, they get hot — and that heat is amplified due to the close proximity of all the other servers and their constant operation.
The Digital Realty data center uses reclaimed water from the local sewage treatment plant to cool the servers, causing the constant hum surrounding the building, said Digital Realty Sales Engineer Torbjörn Nyström during a limited tour of the facility.
The only place in the data center open to visitors was its “innovation hub” that showcased the industry’s latest technology, such as direct-to-chip cooling, which uses less energy and water than the traditional method of circulating chilled air through server racks.
Nyström said there are five levels of security clearance in the building, and not even he can get into the actual data halls. Many data centers have tight security because of their critical role in our daily lives — and because they host a vast amount of private data.
In the innovation hub, the hum from the cooling infrastructure became a roar.
The sound registered on a phone sonometer at about 70 decibels — about the same level of noise as a washing machine — but it felt louder. Nyström raised his voice as he explained the complex technology behind the resource-efficient cooling systems on display.
Julie Bolthouse, Director of Land Use at the Piedmont Environmental Council in Northern Virginia, said each type of cooling infrastructure emits different levels of noise, sometimes varying day to day.
“It can really drive folks absolutely nuts, because they can feel it and hear it inside their homes constantly all night long,” Bolthouse said.
But the worst noise in the area, she said, comes from the backup generators at the facilities, or from data centers that generate their own power.
The Trump administration recently encouraged data center companies to use backup generators more often and build their own power supply. For one Virginia data center, the on-site electricity production comes from large, gas turbines located near homes.
While the generators could relieve stress on the power grid or protect the facility during an outage, they could also degrade local air quality. A 2024 study suggested the total annual public health burden from U.S. data centers could reach $20 billion in 2028.
At the beginning of the internet boom, Loudoun County was struggling financially, Rizer said.
The county got 80% of its tax revenues from residential properties. Then the 2008 financial crisis hit, which caused home values to plummet and county tax revenues to dip.
“It was a tough time,” Rizer said. “So I was brought in to try to grow that.”
Rizer decided then to court data center companies. It was the perfect location for the industry, he figured, because of the cheap land combined with a proximity to Washington D.C. and its fiber optic cable network that transmitted internet traffic across long distances.
Almost 20 years later, about 200 data centers cover the industrial side of Loudoun County. And more keep coming even though Rizer’s department stopped courting the industry in 2017 and the county passed laws restricting further development in 2021.
Loudoun County currently gets almost half of its tax revenue just from data centers, amounting to over a billion dollars, Rizer said. The county has been able to lower property tax rates while also building new parks, community centers, schools and roads.
“We’ve doubled the amount of services for our citizens over the last 10 years,” Rizer said.
Whether Delaware could experience a similar windfall is currently a source of debate.
Unlike Loudoun County, Delaware’s counties do not include computer equipment as part of their property tax assessments. Also the state is unlikely to ever host as many facilities as Virginia. Currently, there are five potential data center projects in New Castle County, compared to Loudoun’s 200 data centers.
Still, Rizer said the economic benefits of the industry go beyond the direct tax revenue.
Driving down the industrial corridor, he pointed to a commercial area with a row of about a dozen businesses. He said all of them are dedicated to servicing data centers, from repairing HVAC systems to painting the outside of buildings.
He also noted that data centers continuously upgrade equipment, which brings new jobs to the area. He said the industry could be a lifesaver to places that have seen stagnant economic growth in the past few years.
“If places aren’t growing, they’re dying,” Rizer said.
When asked what he thought about the area’s data center growth, lifelong Loudoun County resident Michael Nash smiled sadly.
“This place used to be beautiful,” he said. “It was very peaceful. People used to come here to retire, so it’s very sad for me to see beautiful fields turn into boxes that look all the same.”
Data center growth has moved beyond Loudoun County’s industrial corridor into neighboring counties.
On a sunny Wednesday afternoon in nearby Fairfax County, three large data centers towered above a soccer field as youth soccer leagues practiced.
Dylan Southland, the director of the local soccer league using the field, said the dust and dirt from the recent construction “crushed them,” but the buildings are not bothering them now.
He said the construction company tried to prevent the dust from blowing into the soccer fields and committed $100,000 over two years to help fund the league.
Bolthouse of the Piedmont Environmental Council said the data centers next to the soccer fields are likely not in operation yet. They were only recently built, and there is a backlog of data centers waiting to join the grid in Virginia. But she said there is no way to know for sure.
Ashley Miller, one of the parents watching the soccer practice, said posts online about the lack of snow around the data centers make her worried about how the heat radiating off of the buildings affects the local environment.
A recent study that has not yet been peer-reviewed suggests that data centers create “heat islands” that could warm the land around them by up to 16 degrees Fahrenheit.
Jeremy, a Loudoun County resident who did not want to provide his last name, said he worried about their impact on energy bills. He said he’s seen his energy bill go up recently, and from what he has read, it’s going to get worse.
“It’s not looking great right now,” he said. “We are supposed to be getting some type of benefit from these tech companies having the data centers here, but I’m not sure what they are.”
Such concerns have sparked debates across Virginia.
Both Virginia and Delaware are part of the same regional electricity grid, which is run by PJM Interconnection, a private regulating entity that is overseen by federal energy officials. Energy prices across the region have gone up recently. Experts say the price spikes have been caused by too few new energy producers coming online while energy demand has skyrocketed — mainly from new data centers.
A 2024 Virginia report concluded that data centers had not increased residential power bills then, but only because the state previously had unused energy capacity, which is now running out.
Virginians could see a $168- to $444-yearly increase to their power bills as a direct result of data centers by 2040, according to the report.
Rizer said it is always tough to balance residents’ concerns with necessary economic growth.
“I’ve done almost $100 billion of businesses since I’ve been in Loudon, and the only thing common across all of them is someone’s been against every single one of the projects,” Rizer said. “That’s just the way it works.”
When asked about Delaware, he said data centers may or may not be the right type of business growth for the state. But, he said, residents should consider all of the benefits and downsides before making a decision.
“Everyone should have their opinions, and then a reasonable decision should be made that is in the best overall interest of the community,” Rizer said.
The post Lessons for Delaware’s future found in Virginia’s Data Center Alley appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
A cap on the amount families can borrow through the federal Parent Plus program has some colleges and universities, especially HBCUs, scrambling for ways to fill the gap.
At least 42 others rescued after incident in strong currents off coast of Boulogne
Two men and two women have died after a small boat sank in the Channel between France and Britain, French local authorities have said.
They died after being swept away by strong currents while trying to board a dinghy, according to François-Xavier Lauch, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais. The dinghy was described as a taxi-boat, which travels along stretches of the northern French and Belgian coasts, picking up refugees and migrants along the shore.
Continue reading...Renault Shirley remembers the first time he was asked to falsify billing reports for Kentucky’s largest drug rehab center.
He had just returned from a church service in 2023 where the company’s founder and owner, a charismatic Christian from Eastern Kentucky, preached about the value of getting sober to hundreds of clients and staff at Addiction Recovery Care.
Shirley, 58, who led recovery group discussions at ARC, said one of his supervisors told him to submit an invoice for the day’s canceled treatment sessions. With it, Shirley said, he was told to fabricate the details of a group discussion, including quotations from clients, as if they had attended a meeting.
“It was fraud,” Shirley told the Lexington Herald-Leader and ProPublica, adding that he refused. But he said he saw others do it often when they gathered to enter their reports into the billing system.
Shirley and ARC were part of a new economy, a boom fueled by misery and addiction and easy money from government officials desperate to curtail the opioid crisis that was devastating rural America. Kentucky’s payouts for drug treatment became so lucrative that companies bused in clients from other states to fill their treatment centers.
ARC reigned above them all, providing more than two-thirds of all treatment beds in Kentucky at its peak in 2024. Between 2019 and 2024 ARC billed the state $1.7 billion, of which it was paid more than $377 million in state Medicaid money for addiction treatment services.
During those years ARC won praise for its programs. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lauded ARC as a model, and Newsweek named the company one of the best addiction treatment providers in the country. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called its founder “an essential partner in our fight against addiction.”
But ARC’s growth was fueled in part by billing practices that federal prosecutors and former employees now allege may have amounted to fraud. FBI investigators were alerted to the case through a whistleblower suit filed in 2023, which alleged ARC fraudulently billed Medicaid for a therapeutic service called psychoeducation. The FBI has asked those who “believe you were victimized by ARC” to fill out a tip form. That investigation is ongoing, according to the FBI.
ProPublica and the Herald-Leader interviewed six people affiliated with the company over the last six years, including former staff members, clients and some who came for treatment and were later hired on. They shared publicly for the first time how they came to ARC seeking help for addiction but became reluctant participants in the company’s alleged billing scheme. Two of them have said they made similar statements to federal investigators.
Part of the fraud, three of them said, was committed at the explicit urging of supervisors who told them they were under pressure to meet billing targets set by ARC leaders — a circumstance exacerbated by a persistent lack of qualified staff, they said.
Those who talked to the news organizations did not keep contemporaneous notes and do not have access to company emails that could support their claims because they no longer work for ARC. But their accounts are corroborated by other clients and referred to in two key documents.
The first was a draft settlement agreement between ARC, the state of Kentucky and the Department of Justice filed by lawyers suing ARC in January as evidence in an unrelated civil suit. That suit, which is pending, alleges that ARC failed to repay at least $8 million it borrowed from two loan companies to pay the DOJ settlement. ARC denied it failed to pay the company.
The draft DOJ settlement document alleges that ARC knowingly falsified some medical records from 2018 to the start of 2024 in order to collect $16 million for group meetings like Shirley described. It allegedly collected millions more by using low-level staff to bill the state for services that under the law must be delivered by a doctor or licensed therapist.
The second document was a 2025 investigative report by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services that has yet to be released but was obtained by ProPublica and the Herald-Leader. That report said state investigators found that ARC had violated so many regulatory standards, lack of staff chief among them, that the conditions posed “an immediate danger to client health, safety and welfare.”
In response to questions for this story, ARC said it “voluntarily disclosed” billing errors to state and federal authorities after the company hired an outside agency to audit its billing practices. The draft settlement with the DOJ, the company said, was not supposed to be made public and therefore it could not comment. The draft settlement was unsigned.
“ARC has never knowingly or fraudulently billed Medicaid for services, and there is no evidence that the organization encouraged employees to falsify group notes for billing purposes,” ARC’s Vice President of Marketing Vanessa Keeton wrote in a March 23 email in response to written questions about the company’s billing practices and employee allegations.
She said that the company could not comment on staff, but that it “maintains a strict, zero-tolerance policy for fraud and non-compliant billing practices.” Keeton added that “any claims from clients or Peer Support Specialists about whether a specific service was billed are based on assumptions and do not accurately reflect actual billing practices.”
Nearly all of the people interviewed for this story credit ARC with playing a key role in their sobriety. But most also said they felt betrayed by an organization that publicly touted a Christian message and a commitment to helping others while internally prioritizing money over the well-being of their clients and staff.
In late 2008, ARC owner Tim Robinson was working as an assistant county attorney near Ashland when he had an epiphany. An evangelical Christian who’d recently gotten sober from alcoholism, Robinson has said God told him to start a “health care ministry” to help his neighbors in the mountains and hollows of Appalachia hit hard by the opioid crisis. There were few treatment centers in the state at the time.
Robinson in 2010 opened the first ARC center in Louisa, a small town on the West Virginia border, 30 miles from his hometown in Martin County. ARC steadily grew across Eastern Kentucky. In 2015, the company was the state’s first drug treatment provider to accept Medicaid patients, which dramatically increased the number of available clients. The following year, ARC unveiled its yearlong “crisis-to-career” program, equal parts drug treatment and job training that ultimately helped clients become staff at ARC.
But it was during the COVID-19 pandemic that ARC exploded in size, thanks in large part to changes to billing rules put in place by the governor. As the global health crisis unfolded, Robinson — a well-connected political donor who has given hundreds of thousands to people from both major parties, including Beshear, a Democrat — emailed the governor and said drug treatment centers needed help to stay afloat amid pandemic restrictions.
In March 2020 Beshear signed an executive order that gave companies providing addiction services new latitude: The seven managed care organizations that controlled Medicaid billing in the state would need to allow providers to bill for an expanded menu of services without prior approval. Beshear said last month that order helped the commonwealth make significant and important progress in the fight against addiction.
“Kentucky has lost far too many children of God to overdose related deaths,” he said, citing the recent decline in overdose deaths in the state.
The decision meant companies could easily bill for what are known as peer support services, which are designed to help clients follow a treatment plan; these can be provided by staff who complete a 30-hour training course. ARC encouraged clients like Shirley to take the course and get credentialed as peer support specialists. Then, once they graduated from ARC’s program, many transitioned to staff and provided services they could bill to Medicaid.
The order also allowed easier billing for psychoeducation, a session during which a clinician talks to a patient about their diagnosis and treatment. The broadly defined service, which at the time could be billed for multiple times a week, is usually provided as part of a clinical therapy session, but Kentucky allows it to be billed as a separate service — which state Medicaid experts opposed because it drives up the cost of treatment.
From 2019 to 2024, ARC billed the state over $400 million for psychoeducation and peer support, earning the company more than $125 million, about a quarter of all reimbursements paid to Kentucky providers during that time. The revenue allowed it to open at least four new centers, including the roughly 700-bed Crown Recovery Center on a former college campus in Springfield, and to purchase a shuttered hospital campus in Ashland that ARC now uses for inpatient, outpatient and psychiatric services.
Psychoeducation soon became ARC’s most lucrative service, accounting for almost half of its reimbursement from Medicaid in 2024. ARC said its billing for the service was in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and followed established billing protocols.
The spike in billing caught the attention of the companies that oversee state Medicaid spending. Liz Stearman, director of behavioral health for Humana, and other Medicaid experts repeatedly warned Kentucky officials that the state’s high spending on lower-level peer support and psychoeducation without the attendant clinical services wasn’t helping people seeking addiction treatment. They said in a letter to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services that evidence showed clients in the state had more emergency department visits and more admissions and readmissions to hospitals and residential drug treatment facilities.
Stearman reminded lawmakers that Kentucky was one of the few states that allowed the service to be billed separately. Psychoeducation “does not have any national standards of clinical criteria that exist anywhere in the country, and the vast majority of states do not actually cover (it) as a standalone service,” she told a state legislative committee on Dec. 3, 2024. “Unfortunately we’re paying a higher amount of Medicaid dollars for less evidence-based services,” she said.
Beshear’s 2020 order and permission from Kentucky Medicaid to bill psychoeducation as a separate service helped create a new revenue stream for providers.
Still, on the surface the expansion of Robinson’s company was a good thing, giving Kentucky more treatment beds per capita than any other state — a fact Beshear and other elected officials touted. “I remember not too long ago when finding a treatment bed meant driving hours away or sitting on endless waiting lists. That’s all changed,” state Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a 2024 press conference.
By that point, ARC was operating as many as 30 facilities in more than 20 Eastern and Central Kentucky counties. That year Robinson announced ARC would expand into Ohio and West Virginia.
During these years staff members said they were repeatedly asked to falsify bills for nonexistent treatment. ARC said it has since invested significant funds to hire a compliance and auditing team.
The half dozen people who spoke to the Herald-Leader and ProPublica said the company sometimes billed when a gathering did not meet the requirements of a meeting, such as when clients watched movies unrelated to recovery or had informal discussions while traveling in ARC vans. Other times clients played board games in lieu of group meetings, or the gatherings simply didn’t happen but were billed for anyway, three former peer support specialists said.
When Shirley was a client at Crown, ARC’s largest center, he said it was common for a peer support specialist to “sometimes walk in, ask me what I was grateful for. I would write it on a piece of paper, then they would leave.” Shirley said from talking with other staff members that this was a strategy often used to submit bills for group meetings that did not occur.
Odell Hager arrived as a client at ARC in 2015, after a judge ordered him to do so for carrying drugs. He ping-ponged between treatment and jail for the next few years until he landed in 2021 at May Hill, one of ARC’s centers in Louisa.
During his time there, first as a client and then as a peer support specialist, Hager saw examples of well-run peer support groups but said they were rare.
“Our peer support group was, ‘All right, you all just sit in the living room and watch a movie,’” while group leaders sat in the office on their phones, he said.
Hager, who worked at three ARC centers during the span of nearly a decade, said those kinds of groups that ARC billed for were the standard and forging group notes was common. Hager’s account was corroborated by an ARC client who overlapped with him. Hager said he also relayed his experience to the FBI in an interview.
“In my mind, it was no different than a prison system,” Hager said. “It was just herding cattle: get them in, get them out, get them in, get them out.”
Individual peer support is intended to be a check-in with a client: “How are you doing, are you having thoughts of relapse, are you feeling good right now?” Hager said.
At the end of the check-in, a peer support specialist sent in quotes from the client to ARC’s billing department to prove the discussion took place so the company could then bill Medicaid for the service. “But we were doing that with people we wouldn’t even see because we were so behind,” Hager said.
Hager said he doesn’t blame low-level peer support specialists for falsely logging group notes. Many peer support specialists, newly in recovery and overworked, were following orders from their supervisors or didn’t know any better, he said. Hager counts himself among them.
“I’m not justifying it,” he said. “When we were doing it we didn’t know it was a bad thing.”
Dustin Cornett, 34, was a client at Crown. After years of addiction, Cornett, who’s from South Eastern Kentucky, admitted himself in 2022 to ARC. He said he was disappointed when he attended peer support groups that largely consisted of watching popular movies. “We never did a damn thing,” he said. “We all knew it was just a money racket, an insurance scam.”
Peer support staff said they were asked to meet billing “quotas” each week. Pressure to meet those expectations sometimes resulted in staff falsely recording group notes, said Hager and Beckie Rose-Bowman, who was initially a client at ARC and later director of Riverplace, a 120-bed ARC facility in Pikeville, which has since closed.
“There were days I had peer support groups booked back-to-back in one- and two-hour increments with no space in between,” Rose-Bowman said. Billing was “100% their emphasis,” she said. ARC supervisors above her monitored peer support group attendance and would “come down” on staff if their attendance was short in the notes they submitted for billing, Rose-Bowman remembered. Other times, if a client was missing from a group, staff would count them as being present, she said.
In addition to denying that ARC encouraged such fraud, Keeton, the company spokesperson, said it had processes in place to ensure appropriate billing. “When issues are identified, for example, a peer support group watching a movie rather than receiving prescribed services, corrective action is taken immediately, and those services are not billed,” she said.
As ARC expanded, its staffing shortage grew more dire.
Lack of staff, including licensed clinicians, was one of several “systemic deficiencies” the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services found during the 2025 investigation of ARC’s operations.
State officials conducted multiple site visits at three of ARC’s largest centers after a client died in July 2025 at Riverplace, where Shirley worked. The probe, which lasted from August to November 2025, was also partly triggered by separate allegations that clients “did not receive timely or appropriate care.” The report did not disclose the source of the allegations.
Keeton said the company was “extremely saddened” by the client’s death and, following an internal review, concluded there was “no indication that the death resulted from any action or inaction on the part of ARC.”
But those Kentucky investigators concluded that ARC operated with an “absence of qualified, licensed clinical personnel,” calling it a “sustained and systemic pattern.” In some instances, state investigators found clients were recording and reporting their own vital signs, a violation of state and clinical rules.
That full report, obtained by the Herald-Leader and ProPublica, shows employees regularly complained to ARC supervisors and administrators with “persistent concerns” that a shortage of staff was putting clients’ health and safety at risk and hamstringing staff’s ability to properly run groups.
ARC staff raised this issue to supervisors and state investigators, according to the report, saying “it feels like we are working around the clock” and “my life is about to become unmanageable because I don’t have enough staff.” Another employee, according to the findings, implied the shortage was so dire, “I am scared to take vacation.”
To help deal with the shortages, the company began sending clients to its own college to get trained as counselors to work at ARC. Roughly 60% of ARC’s workforce is former clients, the company’s spokesperson said.
ARC said it disputed the findings of the report to the state and requested a hearing. It noted that the Cabinet did not suspend or close the facilities and that the company “continues to operate and accept clients across all applicable levels of care with the knowledge and approval of the Cabinet.”
The state said the report has not been released because the investigation was ongoing.
People inside the company said that those newly trained staff were often used when ARC couldn’t provide regular visits with licensed clinical professionals.
Shannon Gray, who started at ARC in 2021 and oversaw all treatment services there until early 2025, said clients rarely saw psychologists and counselors and did not receive enough treatment from more highly trained clinicians. Instead, ARC relied too much on peer-led sessions billed under peer support and psychoeducation, Gray said.
“From a therapeutic value, (that’s) too many services, too many groups,” said Gray, who also wrote the curriculum that Shirley and others used when leading groups. “I argued it many times, but even though I voiced concern, I still stayed there, so I’ll call myself out on this.”
The state’s 2025 investigative report agreed with Gray, saying unlicensed employees at ARC were often asked to do jobs for which they were not qualified, such as medication oversight. This was “despite the lack of licensure, training and clinical competency required by state regulation,” the Cabinet found.
The draft DOJ settlement alleges something similar: Between 2018 and March 2024, ARC “knew or recklessly disregarded” Medicaid rules by allowing unlicensed staff — “practitioners that did not have a professional credential” — to bill for behavioral health services that should’ve been provided by a therapist or professional counselor.
Shirley, who had minimal training, said the company’s computer billing system only allowed him to bill peer support groups under the psychoeducation code, which yielded a higher reimbursement rate, even if a clinician wasn’t present with him when leading a group.
“There was never a discussion about any other code to use,” said Shirley, adding that he didn’t know at the time how lucrative the psychoeducation code was. He only knew “everybody was using it.”
Keeton disputed this allegation, saying that while ARC did receive millions from Medicaid for peer support and psychoeducation, “there was no directive requiring staff to bill exclusively under a single code.”
Today, Robinson’s grand vision has begun to unravel.
In 2024, the seven managed care organizations in Kentucky raised alarms in a letter to the state’s health and welfare agency citing high costs and poor outcomes.
That year Republicans in the Kentucky General Assembly acted, reducing the amount Medicaid would pay for psychoeducation and peer support, and ARC’s major source of income began to decline, state data shows. Republicans also reinstated the requirement that providers seek authorization from insurers before they provide services.
In March of this year, a Kentucky lawmaker introduced a bill that outlawed billing for psychoeducational services in the state. The legislature delivered the bill to Beshear’s desk in late March. It is awaiting his decision.
Kentucky Republican state Rep. Kim Moser, the bill’s sponsor, said the measure is urgent because billing for psychoeducation has grown exponentially.
“We can look at the numbers and see that it’s being overused,” Moser said. “I just think we need to do something about it.”
ARC continues to bill Medicaid and Medicare. But since the state’s cuts to Medicaid payments for certain services, and the launch of the FBI investigation in 2024, ARC has laid off hundreds of employees and shuttered dozens of facilities, leaving some clients homeless.
Last year, ARC’s founder tried to sell off most of the company in part to pay the DOJ’s settlement, according to the creditors’ suit, but that deal fell through in December. When the two loan companies sued ARC in January 2026 for allegedly refusing to pay back millions they were owed, they claimed ARC was in “desperate financial straits” and facing “imminent bankruptcy.”
ARC claimed in a separate filing it needed that money for operating costs and called the demands for repayment “unduly burdensome.” The company is still seeking a buyer.
Even with the recent changes, lawmakers say Medicaid spending on drug treatment is still too high. In part this is because “there’s big money in making sure that addicts don’t actually enter into recovery,” Kentucky state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who co-chairs the legislature’s appropriations and revenue committee, said during a Feb. 24 hearing.
“I’ve never met an industry that can so effectively obfuscate the results of their work as the substance use industry,” he said in the February hearing. “At some point, we have to ask ourselves, how much of Medicaid is about patients, and how much is about profits?”
As for Shirley, he was laid off last year. He now works at a different residential recovery center in Western Kentucky — a move that he said opened his eyes to how poorly clients were treated at ARC and how little clinical care they received.
“Their model is not to help clients,” he said of ARC. “For them, it’s a revolving door. It’s warehousing.”
Keeton said this assessment isn’t reflective of ARC’s mission or the success of the thousands of individuals it serves. “We don’t ‘warehouse’ people,” she said. “We invest in them.”
The post They Needed Treatment for Drug Addiction. The Company They Turned to May Have Used Them to Commit Fraud. appeared first on ProPublica.
Beijing’s powerbrokers are credited with winning Iran over, although one analyst says they were ‘pushing an open door’
As the world struggles to make sense of what, if anything, was achieved by the ceasefire deal announced by the US and Iran on Tuesday, one major power that stands to win regardless is China.
Beijing’s powerbrokers are being credited with pushing Iran towards agreeing to the ceasefire, bolstering its status as a regional mediator. In China’s tightly censored domestic media, articles basking in the glory of China being the grown-up in the room at a time of international crisis were allowed to circulate.
Continue reading...Among coffee professionals, there is a clear favorite way to brew a morning cup.
Those who are able head for second homes, move in with family or stay in hotels. Those who aren’t crowd into cramped shelters, stadiums or parking lots, or worse.
Information on drones and other threats being shared but defence chief confirms crew taking ‘active steps’ to only contribute to defensive actions
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Australian personnel operating a state-of-the-art surveillance plane are filtering information gleaned from the Middle East war to ensure intelligence is not shared with the United States for offensive purposes, the defence force chief says.
As the federal government extended the deployment of the E-7 Wedgetail aircraft on Thursday, the chief of Defence, Admiral David Johnston, said the crew were taking active steps to only contribute to defensive operations.
Continue reading...The 55-mph HushJet Mini Cool can help you beat the heat, even when you're on the move.
The collapse of Prospect Medical, a for-profit hospital chain plundered by private equity and the company’s management, has generated a painful litany of woes.
Amid a debt-fueled acquisition spree that saw the small California company grow to 17 hospitals in six states, Prospect was repeatedly cited for dangerous medical care, poor infection control and unsanitary facilities. The company stiffed state and local governments on more than $135 million in taxes and didn’t pay vendors for equipment, services and supplies. It shuttered four safety-net hospitals in a Philadelphia suburb that it had promised to keep open, laying off thousands.
Now, more than a year after the company filed for bankruptcy in January 2025, a new layer of harm has emerged: Prospect had promised to provide malpractice coverage for its hospitals and many of its doctors, but court filings show it set aside no money to pay those costs — or to compensate injured patients.
As a result, hundreds of people with pending malpractice cases against the company may never have a shot at meaningful redress.
One of them is Pamela Dorn. The lawsuit she filed against Prospect in 2024 has stalled, and it’s now doubtful she’ll ever be able to hold the company accountable for the negligent care she says it provided her husband.
Bob Dorn, 75, suffered from such severe dementia that he couldn’t chew and was on a liquid diet. But when he became aggressive in March 2022 and was taken to Prospect’s emergency room in Waterbury, Connecticut, the medical staff sedated him, then left him unattended with a meal of macaroni and cheese and broccoli, according to Dorn’s lawsuit and an interview with her. Hospital staff later found her husband choking and struggling to breathe. He was intubated and taken to the intensive care unit but never regained consciousness. His death certificate said he died from asphyxia due to food blocking his airway.
“I didn’t want the same thing to happen to somebody else,” Dorn said, explaining why she filed the case. “How a hospital system operates without malpractice insurance is beyond me. It’s irresponsible.” (In court filings, attorneys for Prospect and the ER doctors have denied the negligence allegations.)
Compounding the shock for plaintiffs like Dorn, as well as former Prospect doctors and their lawyers, is that Prospect wasn’t legally obligated to prove it could actually pay its malpractice costs.
Like a growing number of health care companies, Prospect had saved money by “self-insuring” against these claims. Instead of paying premiums to a commercial insurer, the company pledged to pay directly for the legal defense of its facilities and doctors and to cover negotiated settlements or trial awards up to certain amounts — for many cases, up to $7.5 million.
States typically require commercial insurers to file audited statements showing they’ve set aside sufficient funds for malpractice obligations and to contribute to a guaranty fund that pays a portion of claims if an insurer goes belly-up.
But there’s little oversight — and no safety-net fund to tap — when companies self-insure. The problem has also surfaced in the bankruptcies of two other private-equity-backed health care companies, the Steward hospital chain and Genesis HealthCare, once the nation’s largest nursing home company. (Genesis agreed to at least 155 malpractice settlements totalling $58 million but filed for bankruptcy before paying most plaintiffs, KFF Health News reported. The company denied wrongdoing.)
“It seems like a gaping hole,” said Connecticut Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, who co-chairs the state legislature’s public health committee. She called Prospect’s lack of coverage “awful, devastating and infuriating. … What has happened with Prospect is like peeling an onion. The more we peel, the more we cry.”
In emailed responses to questions from ProPublica, insurance regulators in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania said they are troubled by the harm caused by Prospect’s failure to fund malpractice coverage, a problem they hadn’t encountered before. All said they have limited authority to regulate companies that self-insure.
In Connecticut, where Prospect owned three hospitals, a spokesperson for the insurance department wrote that state law allows health systems “to meet malpractice obligations through self-insured options” and the agency has no responsibility for “solvency oversight.” Prospect also owned insurance subsidiaries that provided some coverage for its hospitals. But they were headquartered in Vermont and offshore, in the Cayman Islands — which is legal but puts them beyond Pennsylvania’s reach, a spokesperson for the state’s insurance department said.
Rhode Island requires hospital companies to receive formal approval to self-insure and to submit financial information annually to regulators, but a spokesperson for the state Department of Business Regulation acknowledged Prospect had filed no such documents since 2019, despite self-insuring until 2025 when it filed for bankruptcy. Agency records show the state has taken no action against the company. (Open investigations are confidential, and the spokesperson said he could not comment on whether one is underway.)
Connecticut plaintiff attorney Mike D’Amico, who represents Dorn, has been handling malpractice cases for four decades. The Prospect situation is “a disaster” and “something I’ve never seen before,” he said. “You have a lot of people that have been harmed by negligent conduct that have no recourse.”
Prospect, which ProPublica reported on in 2020, has become a case study on the public harms that can stem from private equity’s growing involvement in health care. In the decade after Leonard Green & Partners bought majority control of Prospect in 2010, the firm and the company’s founders, Sam Lee and David Topper, together extracted $658 million in fees and dividends for themselves and other investors, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings and financial statements. This starved the business of money for staffing, maintenance and critical supplies while loading it up with debt.
Unable to find an outside buyer for the now financially decimated company, Leonard Green finally sold its majority stake back to Lee and Topper in 2021. Prospect’s January 2025 bankruptcy filing came just four days after the release of a bipartisan U.S. Senate Budget Committee investigation into how private-equity ownership affects care. Titled “Profits Over Patients,” the report offered a harsh verdict on Prospect, saying its “primary focus was on financial goals rather than quality of care at their hospitals,” and that it had caused “the collapse of critical health care services in the communities it served.” Prospect, which has denied any misconduct or negligent care, has now sold or closed all of its hospitals.
Leonard Green, which disputed the Senate report’s conclusions, declined to respond to questions from ProPublica. Lee, estimated to have personally received $128 million from the company, could not be reached for comment; an attorney who previously represented him did not respond to a call and email. Topper, who received $94 million from Prospect through a family trust, responded to questions posed by a reporter in a brief phone conversation with “no comment.”
Prospect’s bankruptcy filing placed an automatic hold on more than 300 lawsuits filed against the company, seeking a total of more than $800 million in damages, according to bankruptcy court filings. Some of the malpractice cases awaiting resolution were near settlement or scheduled to go to trial when the hold began. Many alleged egregious harms, including wrongful deaths or debilitating injuries requiring costly care.
The widower of a 39-year-old physician sued the company in state court in Hartford, Connecticut, in 2022, alleging his wife died from negligent care following an emergency cesarean section at the Prospect hospital where she worked. Parents of a 10-month-old boy filed suit in state court in Philadelphia in 2023, claiming he’d required multiple operations (and eventually removal of his esophagus) after ER doctors failed to conduct tests revealing that he’d swallowed a button battery. A 2019 Pennsylvania case claimed a man’s bowel was perforated during a hernia repair, triggering life-threatening complications that required five more surgeries. In court filings in each of these cases, Prospect, its hospitals and its doctors denied the allegations of malpractice, negligence or wrongful death.
The insurance chaos began to surface in late October, after the Texas judge presiding over Prospect’s bankruptcy lifted the initial litigation hold. Her move followed failed efforts to persuade private insurers responsible for covering awards in excess of what Prospect’s self-insurance provided to kick in money for mediated settlements. The private insurers’ reasoning, according to bankruptcy court filings: their “reinsurance” contracts required them to pay only in cases where Prospect had already paid its entire share, similar to an auto insurance deductible.
In Connecticut and Rhode Island, Prospect had promised to pay $7.5 million for each lawsuit before any outside coverage kicked in. In Pennsylvania, Prospect relied on another form of self-insurance: a Vermont-based insurance subsidiary. That business was supposed to pay the first $500,000 of Pennsylvania malpractice costs, but it appears Prospect underfunded the subsidiary. (By exactly how much remains unclear.) Complicating matters further: For Pennsylvania cases filed after October 2020, the subsidiary wasn’t required to contribute until after Prospect had covered the first $250,000.
There are similar problems in California, where Prospect sold its six hospitals in the bankruptcy proceedings to a new for-profit company. Los Angeles attorney Judith Tishkoff, whose firm has represented Prospect for years, last week filed to withdraw from seven malpractice cases, saying Prospect’s general counsel has told her there is no insurance coverage and no money to pay any defense costs or legal fees.
Even those who win court awards or settlements against Prospect seem destined to be treated as unsecured claims in the company’s bankruptcy. Like vendors with unpaid bills for hospital linens and bandages, they’re likely to receive just pennies on the dollar, bankruptcy lawyers told ProPublica. Some plaintiffs lawyers, who get paid on a contingency basis, say they’re declining to take on new malpractice cases involving Prospect, given the difficulty of obtaining any recovery.
Pennsylvania attorney Leonard Sloane is among them. “It’s a gamble to take on a new case,” said Sloane. “To pursue one of these claims is very expensive. There’s gotta be something at the end, otherwise what’s the sense of pursuing on behalf of a client who gets nothing?” Sloane represents the survivors of a 67-year-old woman who died in 2022 after a Prospect surgeon performing a partial lung removal mistakenly cut a pulmonary vein, leading to a cascade of complications. The doctor acknowledged in medical records that he’d made “a technical mistake,” but the lawyer representing him and Prospect has moved to throw out claims for punitive damages, denying his actions met the legal standard of “recklessness.” Sloane, who has been practicing for 50 years, believes the family’s case is strong, “but if there’s no coverage, that’s the end.”
Prospect promised the doctors it employed malpractice coverage, but those facing lawsuits have learned they may have to foot hundreds of thousands in legal costs personally, plus any settlements or court awards.
Dr. John Horan, 69, is a family physician in Rhode Island who has been practicing medicine for 41 years. He sold his practice to Prospect in 2016 and worked for the company until 2022. That year, the family of a patient who died filed a lawsuit blaming him for failing to diagnose her lung cancer. Horan denies he’s at fault. In December 2025, Horan’s lawyer told him Prospect was refusing to defend him or pay any of his costs. “I was nauseous for the next month,” he told ProPublica. Horan and his wife have met with a bankruptcy lawyer.
Paul Galamaga, Horan’s defense attorney, said he was handling 10 Prospect-related cases in Rhode Island when the company filed for bankruptcy. Prospect owes him about $183,000. He’s won court approval to withdraw from seven of the lawsuits but continues to represent Horan and two other physicians, who he says will now have to pay him personally. “There’s no money to pay me or defend any of the doctors,” Galamaga said.
Some defense lawyers have sought to reimpose a freeze on proceedings, citing the uncertainty about Prospect’s ability to pay. In Pennsylvania, attorney Ben Post, whose firm is listed in court filings as defense counsel in 16 Prospect malpractice lawsuits, filed motions late last year seeking to clamp a stay on several malpractice cases. If he didn’t get it, he said, he’d have “no choice” but to withdraw.
In response to one such filing, plaintiffs attorney Francis Curran wrote that his 83-year-old client had been seeking redress for her husband’s death for nine years. “With each additional delay,” he said, “it becomes less and less likely that Plaintiff will receive just compensation during her lifetime.” (Although one of Post’s stay requests has already been denied, a lawyer his firm has retained to help navigate the insurance uncertainty said Post has no immediate plans to withdraw from any cases.)
In February, the Rhode Island legislature approved an $18 million emergency loan guarantee to assure the long-delayed sale of Prospect’s two struggling Providence-area hospitals, Our Lady of Fatima and Roger Williams Medical Center, to a Georgia-based nonprofit. Rep. Charlene Lima took to the floor to talk about the risk to local physicians left without promised malpractice coverage, warning that it could force them into bankruptcy and worsen the shortage of primary care doctors in Rhode Island.
“The state shares culpability in this situation,” Lima said in an interview, adding that she’d support regulations to ensure this doesn’t happen again. “We weren’t looking at this or regulating this. It’s like nobody was watching the henhouse except the foxes maybe.”
The harms of porous insurance oversight have also surfaced in the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care, an even larger hospital chain bankrolled by private equity.
Backed by giant Cerberus Capital Management in 2010, Steward grew to 37 hospitals over a decade. In 2021, Cerberus exited the investment with a reported $800 million in profits, while Steward CEO Ralph de la Torre, a former heart surgeon who reaped more than $250 million from the company, bought himself a $40 million yacht. Three years later, Steward filed for bankruptcy, owing hundreds of millions to vendors and employees and facing accusations of fraud and abysmal patient care.
(Cerberus declined to respond to questions from ProPublica, instead pointing to a public statement in which it said Steward’s problems “appear to be overwhelmingly related to the post-Cerberus ownership period.” A spokesperson for de la Torre, who led the ownership group until he resigned in late 2024, said he “firmly disputes” the allegations against him, “including claims of greed and bad-faith misconduct,” and intends to “vigorously defend himself against them.”)
To cover its malpractice costs, Steward operated a self-insurance subsidiary, called TRACO, which it had relocated to Panama, where it faced little regulatory oversight. According to a Boston Globe investigation, instead of setting aside adequate reserves, Steward treated TRACO like “a piggy bank,” siphoning out hundreds of millions to pay operating costs and buy more hospitals. By 2024, when Steward went bankrupt, TRACO had just $3.5 million left to defend and pay for more than 500 malpractice lawsuits, according to documents cited by the Globe.
Last year, a malpractice case brought against a Steward hospital outside Salt Lake City went before a Utah state judge. It involved allegations that a 19-year-old pregnant woman’s delivery was botched by inexperienced, ill-trained nurses. According to medical records and court testimony, they gave her overdoses of the labor-inducing drug Pitocin, starving her baby of blood and oxygen, then ignored fetal monitoring that signaled distress while an on-call doctor dozed in a room nearby. The baby suffered brain damage that has left her largely unable to speak. She is likely to remain disabled for life.
Steward’s defense lawyers had withdrawn after the company stopped paying and communicating with them, leaving the family and its expert witnesses to present their case. In an emotional 42-minute discourse from the bench, Judge Patrick Corum said what had happened “literally took my breath away.” The family “would have been better off delivering this baby in the bathroom of a gas station, or in a hut somewhere in Africa, than in this hospital,” he declared. In October, he awarded the family $543.2 million in damages, one of the biggest malpractice awards in Utah’s history.
The injured child is now 6 and requires costly care. But because TRACO has no money — and Steward’s “excess” insurers are refusing to step in because TRACO hasn’t paid its share — it’s unclear when, or whether, the family will get anything. David Creasy, the family’s attorney, said the battle to resolve the matter could take years. “We’ve got to be able to find some way to get them the money they need to take care of her,” he said in an interview. “There was absolutely no oversight of TRACO.”
The Steward and Prospect bankruptcies make clear “this is a national issue,” said Stacy Paterno, CEO of the Rhode Island Medical Society. Paterno said she has begun convening regular meetings with her counterparts from a half-dozen states where Prospect and Steward operated hospitals about the risks posed by unregulated self-insurance plans, both to doctors and injured patients.
Steward’s creditors are trying to claw back money from the company’s former leaders. In November, a Steward creditors committee filed a 178-page lawsuit against former CEO de la Torre and more than a dozen other individuals and corporate entities that details the company’s alleged plundering of TRACO’s insurance reserves. The complaint does not name Cerberus as a defendant but suggests Cerberus may be a future target of the creditors’ “ongoing” investigation. (In court filings, de la Torre and other Steward defendants have denied the creditor lawsuit’s allegations.)
Prospect’s creditors are poised to launch a similar effort. The bankruptcy court has approved $10 million to pursue legal claims against former Prospect principals, with Leonard Green and Prospect’s former top executives, Lee and Topper, as the big targets. “We really do believe there are potentially hundreds of millions” that can be recouped from those who “may have contributed to the downfall of this company,” Charles Persons, an attorney for the unsecured creditors committee, told the judge at a Dec. 12 court hearing.
It’s unclear how much might be recovered, but it would likely be a fraction of what the company owes, and malpractice victims would share these funds with thousands of other unsecured creditors.
“The folks who have the lawsuits,” said D’Amico, the lawyer representing Dorn, “essentially go to the bottom of the barrel.”
The post For-Profit Hospital Chain Never Put Aside Money for Malpractice Insurance to Compensate Injured Patients appeared first on ProPublica.
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 9, No.1,033.
Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 9, No. 563.
Some states already don't have enough staff to quickly process Medicaid applications and answer enrollees' phone calls. Researchers say they may not be prepared to handle new Medicaid work rules, predicting people will lose coverage as a result.
Amid fierce disagreements, the dramatic, last-minute decision to halt attacks seems less like an exit ramp than a rest stop for all sides.
I wanted pure blending power in an easy-to-use machine. I found it all in the Obliterator.
Canada tweaks its dual-citizenship rule, allowing far more to apply.
Speaking to a modest crowd of voters inside a Canton brewery on Tuesday evening, Mallory McMorrow, a leading candidate for Senate in the swing state of Michigan, made an anti-war appeal as President Donald Trump’s threats to kill “a whole civilization” hung over Iran and the world.
“This is a moment for people to stand up and to decide who they are actually for — are they for the Constitution, are they for Americans, are they for Michiganders, or are they for Donald Trump?” McMorrow said to applause. She encouraged Democrats to consider invoking the 25th Amendment as an option to counter the president.
Later that evening, 17 miles to the west before a packed auditorium at the University of Michigan, McMorrow’s opponent Abdul El-Sayed also criticized the war — and a key distraction from it.
“Our president is waging a genocidal, illegal, unjustifiable war with Iran that is torching our tax dollars to the tune of $1.5 billion a day,” El-Sayed said. And yet, “apparently the most important thing happening on Twitter was whether or not we were gonna campaign with Hasan.” He was referring to the popular political streamer Hasan Piker, who stood by his side at two 600-attendee university rallies that day, the largest of any campaign events in Michigan so far this year.
The primary contest between McMorrow, a Michigan state senator, and El-Sayed, a physician and former candidate for governor, has turned into a referendum over the future of the Democratic Party and who should lead its insurgent left flank. The two are locked in a three-way race for Michigan’s Democratic Senate nomination with Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate with establishment backing who led the polls early on but has since seen her popularity slip. McMorrow and El-Sayed have both positioned themselves as outsiders to D.C. who promise progressive policies to help Michiganders struggling in an increasingly unaffordable economy — but the finer points, like debates over appropriate language and acceptable surrogates, reveal a deeper source of uncertainty: How far left is too far for the Democrats?
How far left is too far for the Democrats?
“This is almost like a proxy fight for 2028 in the presidential election,” said Adam Carlson, a political consultant and pollster behind Zenith Research. “It’s kind of like an AOC versus ‘insert more progressive center-left politician here.’ I think that whichever side comes out victorious will claim that as a mantle.”
Michigan is a state of key presidential importance. Its voters have backed the winner in every presidential election since 2008, swinging for Trump both times he won and against him the one time he lost. The 2026 general election for Senate is poised to be a close contest between the parties, too: In retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’s last election in 2020, he fended off Republican challenger John James by a slim 1.7 percent margin. Democratic Sen. Elisa Slotkin won her seat by an even slimmer margin, defeating Republican Mike Rogers by less than 1 percentage point in 2024. Rogers is running again this year.
As the Democratic Party seeks to consolidate support against Republicans, the fury over seemingly minor events like Piker’s appearance speaks to a growing gap between its establishment and the younger, more progressive part of its base. Piker, a leftist streamer who commands a massive audience in an online format often dominated by the far right, has been both held up as an essential asset for the left and shunned by centrists for his critical view of the U.S. and Israel’s role on the world stage.
Comparing Piker to the far-right, neo-Nazi podcaster Nick Fuentes, McMorrow told Jewish Insider, “That is not somebody that you should be campaigning with at a moment when there is clearly a lot of pain and trauma across our state,” a reference to a March 12 attack in which a U.S. citizen whose relatives the Israeli military killed in Lebanon rammed his car into a Michigan synagogue and opened fire before killing himself.
A McMorrow campaign staffer told The Intercept that the comments were given to Jewish Insider as a part of a longer feature story about the Temple Israel synagogue attack and her connections to the Jewish community; McMorrow’s husband and daughter are Jewish. But to El-Sayed, who released a lengthy statement decrying the synagogue attack, McMorrow’s comments revealed a disproportionate “hierarchy of pain,” in which the suffering of Jewish people matters more than that of the Arab and Muslim communities to which El-Sayed belongs. Piker, meanwhile, has objected to characterizations of his pro-Palestine politics as antisemitic.
“The south of Lebanon where a lot of communities in Michigan come from has a dire history of being destroyed by Israel,” El-Sayed said. “Israel right now is setting up to annex parts of southern Lebanon. If you have family who are dying or displaced in a war, that is deeply painful. There are a lot of people all over the state who are sad, but certainly, if you got family members who are running for cover because of Israeli bombs, you’re going to be pretty sad.”
That this ideological debate manifested in outrage over Piker — largely driven by the neoliberal think tank Third Way — suggests a fearful response from the party establishment to the surge of younger, progressive candidates, Carlson said. He sees the attacks as an attempt by the establishment to hold on to influence within the party, with the ultimate hope of sending a more moderate candidate into the presidential election.
Rallying with El-Sayed at Michigan State University, Piker criticized Democrats who spent the last several weeks attacking him rather than decrying Trump’s war on Iran, singling out McMorrow and Stevens by name, drawing boos and jeers from the crowd.
“That’s exactly what’s wrong with politics in this day and age, and that’s why all of you came here,” he said, connecting the moment to the student protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. “For two-and-a-half years, they smeared people like myself and people like yourselves, and said that we were radical, said that we were wrong, and yet, we persevered, and we understood the violence that was taking place.”
“Mallory is about representing everybody,” a spokesperson for her campaign told The Intercept. “There’s a way to satisfy people who do have bold, progressive visions of what it is that they want to see in terms of policy, and meeting them there and saying, ‘This is how we get to your goal.’”
This brand of progressivism has put her in a tricky position, seeking to appeal both to voters who want to see a stronger fight out of establishment figures like Stevens and those who view El-Sayed as too radical. Former Bernie Sanders speech writer and founder of The Lever David Sirota labeled her a “clickbait candidate” over a campaign ad against surveillance pricing, pointing out that she had not introduced legislation to halt the practice in the state Senate, and instead voted for tax incentives to build data centers in 2024. (The tax incentives also included environmental and consumer protection measures.)
Such debates over progressive labels may have limited significance to actual voters, experts and analysts told The Intercept.
“A lot of this division is a national Democrat division that regular voters don’t care about and/or are ignorant of,” said Corwin Smidt, a political science professor at Michigan State University.
Amanda Litman, co-founder and president of Run for Something, which backed McMorrow in her successful seat-flipping 2018 state Senate run, agreed that many people don’t vote based on ideological labels.
“This conversation about progressive versus moderate, leftist versus centrist — that’s not how most people think,” Litman said. “They think my housing is really expensive and my child care bills are really high, and why the fuck is Congress fighting about like TSA and why are the lines at the airports long? That’s where voters are.”
El-Sayed and McMorrow diverge in key areas where voters have pushed Democrats to be bolder. McMorrow has called for drastic reforms of Immigration and Customs Enforcement; El-Sayed calls for ICE’s abolition. El-Sayed is running on Medicare for All and co-wrote a book on the policy; McMorrow advocates for a public option, which her campaign said she sees as an initial step toward enacting universal health are. El-Sayed has called for ending all military aid to Israel — in line with a recent high-profile pledge made by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — and McMorrow has said she would halt sending offensive weapons to Israel, while maintaining other weapons, such as the Iron Dome. (Stevens has regularly voted in favor of sending weapons to Israel, called to lower Medicare costs, and pushed for ICE accountability measures.)
“My opponents each have the same policy positions,” El-Sayed told The Intercept. “One of them has better comms and more charisma. The other one has the DSCC establishment behind them.”
McMorrow’s campaign rejected the assertion that her platform is indistinguishable from Stevens, calling McMorrow’s plan a “21st century agenda to bring back the American dream and make it actually work for people.”
She has decried the application of a “political purity test” over how to describe Israel’s genocide in Gaza. El-Sayed was the first among the candidates to use the word, joining the overwhelming international consensus among human rights organizations as well as the independent United Nations commission on Palestine. McMorrow embraced the term in October but maintained, in a January radio interview, that she finds litmus testing over it unproductive. She differentiated between the genocide of Palestinians and the Holocaust, which she said, “does mean something very different and very visceral.”
“If you can’t call that what it is, a genocide, then I’m so sorry, but it’s very difficult to believe that you’re actually going to show up and do the things that you say you’re going to do,” El-Sayed told The Intercept, without mentioning McMorrow by name.
Basim Elkarra, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations Action, which has endorsed El-Sayed, said in places with large Middle Eastern and North African communities, especially swing states like Michigan, these issues will prove critical in elections as Israel continues its wars on Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. The Uncommitted Movement of 2024, which motivated 13 percent of Michigan’s Democratic primary voters to cast protest votes while calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel, began in Michigan’s MENA community and snowballed into a national movement.
“Folks are going to have to go through these communities in order to win in Michigan,” Elkarra said, “so it doesn’t help to alienate this growing voting bloc.”
With nearly four months to go before the August primary, McMorrow is leading El-Sayed in fundraising, pulling in $3 million to his $2.25 million since the start of this year, according to their respective campaigns. The Federal Election Commission has not yet verified the figures.
Both El-Sayed and McMorrow have sworn off corporate PAC money and American Israel Public Affairs Committee support. Yet McMorrow has received criticism over a leaked call reported by Drop Site News in which a donor spoke of an “outstanding” AIPAC position paper she submitted last year, and her candidacy has become ensnared in debate over the political role of self-described progressive Zionist groups like J Street, which backs McMorrow. AIPAC, for its part, has targeted McMorrow with fundraising emails — and is supporting Stevens.
Stevens is additionally backed by the AIPAC-aligned Democratic Majority for Israel and has also received donations through a less traceable money machine known for filtering pro-Israel donations. She appeared on a donation portal on proisraelnetwork.org, which AIPAC donors have used to fund other candidates that have sworn off AIPAC support. Stevens’s support is no secret, however: She has spoken at AIPAC events and released promotional videos for the lobby group.
Stevens, who has not released her fundraising numbers for the most recent quarter, has been running largely on her resume, which includes flipping her historically red congressional district blue in 2018. She did not immediately respond to The Intercept’s request for comment.
Carlson, the pollster, thinks the more Michigan voters see of Stevens, the more support will coalesce around McMorrow and El-Sayed, leaving more space for the two to differentiate themselves. McMorrow has called for five debates before August.
Bill Lewis, a sophomore who helps run Students for Abdul at the University of Michigan, argued that El-Sayed was more captivating for young voters.
“Appealing to moderation is not always a winning strategy,” Lewis told The Intercept. “And if you go on campus and you ask people here, ‘Who are you excited for,’ they’re not saying Mallory, because that imagination, at least to me and to a lot of other people, is not there.”
Mari Manoogian, executive director of the nonprofit The Next 50, which supports Democratic candidates under the age of 50 and has endorsed McMorrow, said McMorrow and El-Sayed are already running in two distinct lanes, differentiated not just by substance, but also by style. She said while both have some populist policies, McMorrow espouses “authenticity,” while other candidate messaging “comes off as stilted and disjointed.”
Manoogian, a former Michigan state representative who also flipped her district blue in 2018 and campaigned alongside McMorrow, credited McMorrow for helping return the state’s Senate to Democratic control for the first time in 40 years in 2022, when McMorrow used the national attention from a viral speech that year to fundraise and campaign for other state candidates.
She also pushed back on the notion that McMorrow is a progressive candidate, favoring the label of “pragmatic.”
“Mallory is not focused on slogans and simplifying policy in the fewest number of words,” Manoogian said. “She’s focused on speaking to voters about something she believes she can actually deliver on.”
El-Sayed frames his criticism of Israel and U.S. foreign policy in pragmatic terms, too. At the Michigan State University rally, El-Sayed countered Islamophobic attacks against him while criticizing the war in Iran, saying he wanted to instead reinvest public funds in services for Michigan.
“A lot of people say it’s because I’m Arab or Muslim,” he said, referring to his anti-war stance. “And I say no, it’s because I’m fucking from Michigan.”
The post The Democrats Don’t Know Who They’ll Be in 2028. Michigan May Offer an Answer. appeared first on The Intercept.
Would appreciate some tips on the process. How should I prep the surface and any paint types that should be avoided?
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says Apple's foldable iPhone is still "on track" for a September unveiling alongside the iPhone 18 Pro lineup. 9to5Mac reports: The report notes that Apple's stock took a hit earlier today after Nikkei Asia indicated the iPhone Fold was having serious production issues. Clearly, sources within Apple were motivated to share positive news via Gurman. Not long ago, Gurman himself said that he was expecting an iPhone Fold release date that was a little bit later than iPhone 18 Pro. That's still very possible, but it sounds like Apple is internally feeling optimistic about its targeted September launch. The report continues: "While the complexity of the new display and materials may limit initial supply for several weeks, Apple is currently operating with a plan to put the device on sale around the same time -- or very soon after -- the new non-foldable models, the people said." Gurman adds an important qualifier: "Still, the release is six months away and production has yet to ramp up. That means the timing isn't final."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Yvette Cooper and John Healey say Israeli strikes should end, widening rift between UK government and US president
Lebanon must be included in the US-Iran ceasefire agreement and the strait of Hormuz must remain free of any tolls, two senior ministers have said, as growing differences emerged between the UK and Donald Trump over implementing a truce.
John Healey, the UK defence secretary, told a press conference in London that Israel should end it attacks on Lebanon, and warned that tolls in the strait, as mooted by Trump, would set a dangerous precedent for international shipping.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: The truce offers a reprieve after weeks of turmoil, but unresolved disputes and competing interpretations of what was agreed, threaten to pull the region back toward crisis at a moment’s notice
Good morning. On Tuesday, just an hour before the deadline imposed by Donald Trump for Iran to reopen navigation in the strait of Hormuz or face a wave of “civilisation-ending” strikes, a two-week pause in hostilities was announced. After weeks of US and Israeli attacks on Tehran, and Iranian retaliation across the region, the news prompted relief among world leaders.
But unanswered questions are piling up. Israel’s assault on Lebanon continues, with Trump describing that conflict as a separate skirmish not included in the deal, despite Iran seeming to think otherwise. Overnight the US president has used social media to warn that “the ‘shootin’ starts,’ bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before” unless Tehran complies with “the real agreement”.
Middle East | The fate of the two-week ceasefire in the Iran conflict looked in peril as both sides gave divergent versions of what had been agreed. Iran halted the passage of oil tankers because of an alleged Israeli ceasefire breach.
Middle East | Israel carried out its largest attack on Lebanon since its war with Hezbollah began, killing at least 254 people and wounding 837.
Middle East | The UK has a “job” to help reopen the strait of Hormuz, Keir Starmer said on arriving in the Middle East, as Iranian reports said the key shipping route was closed again just hours after the supposed US-Iran ceasefire.
Ukraine | The US has ignored compelling evidence that Russia has been helping Iran to target US bases in the Middle East because it misguidedly “trusts” Vladimir Putin, according to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Education | Many English universities are taking excessive financial risks with borrowing and expansion of student numbers, threatening not only their own survival but that of others in the sector, the thinktank Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) has warned.
Continue reading...Lefty’s Alley & Eats, the bowling alley and entertainment center under construction in The Grove at Newark, will open in July, the company announced this week.
With Artemis II astronauts closing out on-board tests, flight controllers are prepping for reentry and splashdown Friday.
Local school closes in Daejeon city as hundreds of emergency service and military personnel scour area around O-World theme park where the wolf escaped from
Authorities are hunting for a wolf after it escaped from a zoo in Daejeon, a South Korean city with a population of 1.5million.
More than 300 people – including firefighters, police and military personnel – are taking part in the search operation, an official from the Daejeon fire headquarters said.
Continue reading...White House says only person committing war crimes is actor ‘for his awful movies and terrible acting ability’
The long-running war of words between George Clooney and the White House has ignited again after the Oscar-winning actor criticised Donald Trump’s threat to Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight”.
On Wednesday, in a speech to 3,000 high school students in Cuneo, Italy, Clooney said the US president had committed a war crime with his threat.
Continue reading...The first Gulf War’s lessons for what to do—and not do—in Iran.
Orban’s mafia state could fall—or cement itself.
Background: bought used pint on marketplace, needed a tire, so I got one and tried to replace it. That went well but in the process of removing the pressure sensor connector my dumb butt sheared all the pins off. I having engineer friends and formerly one myself am determined to fix it ($6 part compared to $300 motherboard. I found the correct connector and am planning on removing the cooked one and soldering the new part in. I’ll include the link incase anyone else has this issue. I’ll update when parts come in and I fix it. Any advice is welcomed.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Drive: Farmers have been fighting John Deere for years over the right to repair their equipment, and this week, they finally reached a landmark settlement. While the agricultural manufacturing giant pointed out in a statement that this is no admission of wrongdoing, it agreed to pay $99 million into a fund for farms and individuals who participated in a class action lawsuit. Specifically, that money is available to those involved who paid John Deere's authorized dealers for large equipment repairs from January 2018. This means that plaintiffs will recover somewhere between 26% and 53% of overcharge damages, according to one of the court documents (PDF) -- far beyond the typical amount, which lands between 5% and 15%. The settlement also includes an agreement by Deere to provide "the digital tools required for the maintenance, diagnosis, and repair" of tractors, combines, and other machinery for 10 years. That part is crucial, as farmers previously resorted to hacking their own equipment's software just to get it up and running again. John Deere signed a memorandum of understanding in 2023 that partially addressed those concerns, providing third parties with the technology to diagnose and repair, as long as its intellectual property was safeguarded. Monday's settlement seems to represent a much stronger (and legally binding) step forward. The report notes that a judge's approval of the settlement is still required but likely to happen. John Deere also faces another lawsuit by the U.S. FTC, accusing the company of forcing farmers to use its authorized dealer network and driving up their costs for parts and repairs.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 9.
This blog has now closed. Follow the latest ceasefire news and updates in our Iran war live blog here.
A genocidal threat, and then the US president, Donald Trump, blinked – without any apparently meaningful concessions from Iran. As in so much concerning the second Trump administration, the two week ceasefire “deal” that will see the strait of Hormuz reopened – if it can be described as such – is maddeningly vague and short on detail, apparently kicking the can on key issues down the road.
Iran’s nuclear issue, Trump said, would be solved “perfectly.” “It was a big day for world peace”, Trump posted on Truth Social. “Iran can start reconstruction” he added. “Big money” could be made. Yada. Yada. Yada.
Continue reading...Federal prosecutors say Courtney Williams divulged classified information to a reporter about her time in Delta Force, according to newly unsealed court documents.
You'll need additional hardware to use the blood pressure monitoring tool on your Samsung Galaxy smartwatch.
Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement announce four shows at Wellington venue Meow Nui from next week – their first gigs since 2018
New Zealand’s self-described “fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo-a cappella-rap-funk-comedy-folk duo” Flight of the Conchords sold out their first shows in eight years in minutes this week, sparking a frenzy among fans.
Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement formed the musical comedy act in 1998, soaring to worldwide fame off the back of their HBO comedy series of the same name with tunes including Business Time and Hiphopopotamus vs Rhymenoceros.
Continue reading...Prosecutors alleged Gerhardt Konig, 47, had planned to kill Arielle Konig during a birthday trip to Honolulu
A Hawaii anesthesiologist who was accused of trying to murder his wife on a cliffside hike last year has been convicted of attempted manslaughter, a lesser charge.
A Honolulu jury returned the verdict against Gerhardt Konig, 47, on Wednesday after a day of deliberations.
Continue reading...Jurors delivered their verdict Wednesday in the trial of an anesthesiologist accused of trying to kill his wife during a cliffside hike in Hawaii.
Courtney Williams accused of sharing material with reporter examining deaths and drugs at US military base
The FBI has arrested a former military special operations employee accused of providing classified information to the media, the agency’s director, Kash Patel, announced on Wednesday.
The US Department of Justice said in a press release that the former employee, identified as Courtney Williams, 40, was arrested on Tuesday and indicted on Wednesday for allegedly sharing classified material with a journalist.
Continue reading...PARIS, April 8, 2026 — The PyTorch Foundation, a community-driven hub for open source AI under the Linux Foundation, today announced that Safetensors has joined the Foundation as its newest foundation-hosted project alongside DeepSpeed, Helion, PyTorch, Ray, and vLLM. Safetensors’ contribution by Hugging Face prevents arbitrary code execution risks and enhances model performance across multi-GPU and multi-node deployments, addressing growing technical needs of the AI era.
As AI model development accelerates, security risks in the production pipeline inherently increase, necessitating secure, high-performance formats that can keep pace with deployment. Safetensors joining the Foundation minimizes security risks associated with model architectures and execution, providing developers with a trusted path to production.
“Safetensors’ contribution to the PyTorch Foundation is an important step towards scaling production-grade AI models,” said Mark Collier, Executive Director of the PyTorch Foundation. “Safetensors ensures secure model distribution and de-risks code execution, all while offering significant speed across complex computing architectures. For security, Safetensors is a crucial piece of the open source AI stack that will drive fast, secure, and technically advanced AI.”
Developed and maintained by Hugging Face, Safetensors has become one of the most widely adopted tensor serialization formats in the open source (machine learning) ML ecosystem. In previous pickle formats, opportunities existed for developers, or bad actors, to execute arbitrary, untrusted code within model files when shared. Acting as a table of contents for an AI model’s data, Safetensors prevents arbitrary code execution and is now one of the most widely used metadata formats for model distribution.
Developers and contributors interested in participating in the PyTorch project ecosystem are encouraged to join the community onsite at upcoming events like PyTorch Conference China (Shanghai, September 8-9) and PyTorch Conference North America (San Jose, October 20-21).
“The new ecosystem and exposure the library will gain from this move will solidify its security guarantees and usability,” said Luc Georges, Co-Maintainer, Safetensors & Lysandre Debut, Chief Open Source Officer, Hugging Face. “Safetensors is a well-established project, adopted by the ecosystem at large, but we’re still convinced we’re at the very beginning of its lifecycle: the coming months will see significant growth, and we couldn’t think of a better home for that next chapter than the PyTorch Foundation.”
“Safetensors joining the PyTorch Foundation promises safer, more interoperable packaging for model artifacts,” said Matt White, Global CTO of AI at the Linux Foundation and CTO of the PyTorch Foundation. “The project has become a de facto standard for open-weight model distribution by halting risk associated with arbitrary code execution while also supporting fast, practical loading workflows. Together with Helion, these contributions to the Foundation solidify the technical future for open source AI.”
About the PyTorch Foundation
The PyTorch Foundation is a community-driven hub supporting the open source PyTorch framework and a broader portfolio of innovative open source AI projects, including DeepSpeed, Helion, PyTorch, Ray, Safetensors, and vLLM. Hosted by the Linux Foundation, the PyTorch Foundation provides a vendor-neutral, trusted home for collaboration across the AI lifecycle—from model training and inference, to domain-specific applications. Through open governance, strategic support, and a global contributor community, the PyTorch Foundation empowers developers, researchers, and enterprises to build and deploy AI at scale. Learn more at https://pytorch.org/foundation.
About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure, including Linux, Kubernetes, LF Decentralized Trust, Node.js, ONAP, OpenChain, OpenSSF, PyTorch, RISC-V, SPDX, Zephyr, and more. The Linux Foundation focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.
Source: PyTorch Foundation
The post PyTorch Foundation Announces Safetensors as Newest Contributed Project to Secure AI Model Execution appeared first on HPCwire.
The model comes from a team of AI leaders and developers poached from other AI companies last year.
This live blog is now closed.
Pete Hegseth repeated Donald Trump’s social media comments that Iran will cease uranium enrichment – a condition that Tehran has previously refused to budge on.
“Any material they should not have, will be removed right now,” Hegseth said. “The president has been clear from the beginning, there will be no Iranian nuclear weapons.”
Continue reading...I'm 6'4, 225lbs, with a size 13 shoe. I'm looking for board recommendations. I've been looking at anything from the XR classic to the GTS XL. I have a feeling the GT or GTS would probably be the sweet spot. With my limited time to ride during the summer I'd much rather go with a Onewheel over learning the ins and outs of a VESC board (maybe for something in the future).
I've been on my friends board a lot over the past year. I think I've personally put on somewhere between 60-70 miles on his board. I don't recall exactly what board he had but I was able to comfortably get up to 20-23 mph before the board started giving me feedback. Mostly looking for something to cruise around on in town almost exclusively on asphalt/concrete. Speed isn't necessarily something I need but I don't mind pushing above 20mph in open areas.
Edit: my town has a couple of decent sized hills if that factors into recommendations.
So, I've been offered what seems like a good price compared to the local market on a Vesc board... I have one worry though that I can't seem to find a solid answer on.
It has a lil focer 3.1, p42 18s2p battery and a xr hypercore motor. I'm a bigger rider (about 220lb). Will this have enough torque to carry my fat ass around? Or will it dump me on the moderate hill on my ride home?
Whether AI or clever 3D-printed mock-up, that's not a real foldable iPhone going around the internet.
 | I got it Monday and put 6 miles of practice on it since. Never been on any kind of board before and I'll be 40 this September. Taking on my first real work commute tomorrow if it's warm enough. Loving this thing so far and looking forward to the morning! [link] [comments] |
If we all hate Future Motion that much, why are we giving them money as opposed to just rotating used ones. These things are way over priced for what they are. I bought my Pint X for $650 which is the going rate. Between $650-750 in the USA. XR's are around $750-850. Not sure about the GT and GTS, but there's a lot of digits in the new price tag.
Is it really all new people buying Onewheels who have no idea about the image of Future Motion? Or do Onewheel owners actually buy new Onewheels too? In a perfect world, we'd be buying new Onewheels b/c we didn't know any better. Then once we figure it out, we'd just buy used ones from our fellow fanatics, right?
It's not like Onewheel has made any new products as of late other than their scooter thing.
US and Iran can’t seem to agree on much of their fragile two-week ceasefire agreement – key US politics stories from Wednesday 8 April at a glance
The two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran, brokered by Pakistan within hours of Donald Trump’s threat of civilization-level destruction, is hanging by a thread – and possibly some key misunderstandings.
Washington and Tehran have given decidedly different versions of what was agreed as the Trump administration and Iranian leaders each claim victory.
Continue reading...The president, long a NATO skeptic, has been especially angry at alliance members in recent weeks for declining to take part in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Mark Rutte praises ‘very frank’ talks but declines to say if president discussed potential withdrawal from alliance
Mark Rutte, the secretary general of Nato, has said Donald Trump was “clearly disappointed” that the US’s allies had refused to join its war against Iran, following a closed-door meeting in Washington on Wednesday.
Speaking to CNN after his private meeting with the US president, Rutte declined to say directly whether Trump raised his threat to withdraw from the military alliance over the Iran war, but described the exchange as a “very frank, very open” discussion between “two good friends”.
Continue reading...A Mexican national living near Newark was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute cocaine and illegal reentry into the United States after removal.
SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 8, 2026 — Rafay Systems, global provider of AI infrastructure orchestration solutions, today announced that Argentum AI has selected the Rafay Platform to power its rapidly expanding AI infrastructure business. The partnership enables Argentum to deliver differentiated, customized compute environments to the world’s largest AI operators, including hyperscalers, neoclouds and enterprise-scale GPU offtakers, through a single unified software orchestration layer.
Argentum AI secures and deploys purpose-built AI infrastructure at scale, with access to data center sites ranging from 10MW to 100MW+ and a total of 3GW+ of power capacity across the U.S., Europe and a rapidly expanding global footprint. The company delivers GPU supply, managed services and enterprise-grade orchestration as a fully integrated, turnkey solution for hyperscalers, frontier AI labs and Fortune 500 enterprises requiring dedicated, sovereign compute at scale. Each deployment is fully financed through an SPV structure, backed by Blackstone, J.P. Morgan, and Goldman Sachs, enabling zero balance sheet exposure for customers and a single counterparty with a unified SLA—from contract to live infrastructure in weeks, not months.
The operational challenge at the heart of this partnership is one that grows with scale. Each provider requires a distinct baseline software stack, and delivering and maintaining those stacks individually across an expanding global portfolio quickly becomes unmanageable. Rafay’s platform resolves this by enabling Argentum to provision, configure and manage a separate software environment for each offtaker through a single control plane, dramatically simplifying operations while preserving the flexibility each customer requires.
The market forces driving demand for this kind of solution are significant. Global AI infrastructure spending is forecast to reach $758 billion by 2029, according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Tracker, which also found that spending on AI compute and storage hardware grew 166 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2025 alone, reaching $82 billion. Separately, Gartner projects worldwide end-user spending on AI-optimized infrastructure-as-a-service to total $37.5 billion in 2026, as GPU-accelerated cloud resources become central to both model training and inference at scale. For infrastructure operators like Argentum, capturing this opportunity requires the ability to serve diverse customer requirements quickly and reliably, which is precisely what the Rafay Platform is built to deliver.
“Rafay has built a strong track record helping organizations deploying AI compute at massive scale bring scalable cloud management to their GPU fleets,” said Haseeb Budhani, CEO and co-founder of Rafay Systems. “Argentum represents an important expansion of that capability portfolio, as they operate at a foundational layer in the stack, connecting data center capacity and power to the largest AI operators in the world. They require the same kind of multi-tenant, configurable software orchestration that we have already perfected for cloud builders, so this partnership demonstrates the breadth of use cases Rafay can serve across the AI infrastructure ecosystem, supporting infrastructure intermediaries who make GPU capacity accessible at global scale just as effectively as we support the token factories building at the top of it.”
The partnership also positions Argentum for its next phase of growth. The company has announced plans to build its own neocloud offering, and the Rafay Platform is architected to support that evolution without requiring a change in software infrastructure. Argentum can grow from infrastructure broker to full-scale cloud service provider on the same platform, eliminating the cost and disruption of a future technology transition.
“Argentum’s mission is to be the fastest, most flexible provider of turnkey GPU and power capacity for the world’s largest AI operators, and Rafay is helping us accelerate our growth,” said Andrew Sobko, CEO of Argentum AI. “We have built a global footprint of high-capacity data center sites and the operational expertise to deliver customized compute environments at scale to each customer, precisely when they need them. What we required was a software orchestration partner capable of matching that ambition, and Rafay gives us the tools to deliver a distinct, tailored software environment to every offtaker in our portfolio without multiplying operational overhead. With Rafay, we can continue leading this market and deliver the scale and precision demanded by the world’s top AI infrastructure buyers.”
About Rafay Systems
Rafay Systems is a leading platform provider for modern infrastructure and AI workloads, delivering Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) capabilities that enable organizations to operationalize compute infrastructure with self-service automation, governance and multi-tenancy. The Rafay Platform helps enterprises, cloud providers and sovereign AI cloud operators transform raw infrastructure into fully operational platforms for AI, Kubernetes and cloud-native applications. By simplifying infrastructure orchestration and lifecycle management, Rafay enables organizations to accelerate innovation while maintaining security, consistency and operational control. For more information, visit rafay.co.
Source: Rafay Systems
The post Argentum AI to Partner with Rafay to Power Global GPU Infrastructure Platform appeared first on HPCwire.
April 8, 2026 — In an effort to meet the rising energy demands of data centers, engineers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) have developed a new chip design that could improve how graphics processing units (GPUs) convert and manage power. The technology demonstrates a more efficient way to perform a critical task in electronics: converting high voltages into lower levels required by computing hardware. In lab tests, a prototype chip performed the type of voltage conversion used in modern data centers with high efficiency.
The new DC-DC step-down conversion chip shown on a U.S. penny for scale.
The advance, published in Nature Communications, could lead to the development of smaller, more energy-efficient systems for advanced computing.
The chip design offers a new approach to improving the performance of a circuit component known as a DC-DC step-down converter, which is found in nearly all electronics. The step-down converter acts as a protective bridge between power sources and sensitive circuits. It transforms a high input voltage into the lower voltage each component in the circuit precisely needs to operate safely. For example, data centers often distribute power at 48 volts, while processors in GPUs need much lower voltages, typically between 1 and 5 volts.
However, converting between these levels efficiently, and within limited space, has become increasingly difficult as computing demands grow.
Traditional step-down converters, for instance, lose efficiency and struggle to deliver enough current when the gap between input and output voltage is large. Most step-down converters rely on magnetic components such as inductors, which, while effective, are approaching their physical performance limits and are growing difficult to scale further. “We’ve gotten so good at designing inductive converters that there’s not really much room left to improve them to meet future needs,” said study senior author Patrick Mercier, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.
To address this challenge, Mercier and members of his research group, including study first author Jae-Young Ko, an electrical and computer engineering Ph.D. student at UC San Diego, explored a promising alternative: piezoelectric resonators, which are tiny devices that store and transfer energy through mechanical vibrations. Piezoelectric-based converters could potentially be smaller, more energy dense, more efficient and easier to manufacture at scale. “They have a lot of room to grow and have the potential to deliver better performance than anything that’s come before them,” Mercier said.
The printed circuit board used to test the new DC-DC step-down conversion chip, shown in the center, surrounded by capacitors. The piezoelectric resonator is mounted underneath the circuit board and electrically connected to the chip.
However, early versions of piezoelectric-based converters have struggled to maintain efficiency and deliver enough power when handling large voltage differences.
In this study, the team developed an improved step-down converter that combines a piezoelectric resonator with small, commercially available capacitors arranged in a strategic way. This new circuit design allows the converter to handle larger voltage conversions more effectively. The team implemented the design in a prototype chip. In tests, it converted 48 volts down to 4.8 volts — a level commonly required in data centers — with a peak efficiency of 96.2 percent. The chip also delivered about four times more output current than earlier piezoelectric-based designs.
There are several advantages with this hybrid circuit design: it creates multiple pathways for power to flow; reduces wasted energy; and eases the workload on the resonator. As a result, it boosts both efficiency and power delivery with only a small increase in size.
Although the technology is still in its early stages, the researchers say it represents an important step toward overcoming the limitations of today’s power converters. Future work will focus on improving materials, circuit design and packaging. Because piezoelectric resonators physically vibrate, they cannot be soldered onto circuit boards using conventional approaches, and will require different strategies to integrate them into electronic systems, Mercier explained.
“Piezoelectric-based converters aren’t quite ready to replace existing power converter technologies yet,” Mercier added. “But they offer a trajectory for improvement. We need to continue to improve on multiple areas — materials, circuits and packaging — to make this technology ready for data center applications.”
Full study: “A Hybrid Piezoelectric Resonator-based DC-DC Converter”
This project was supported in part by the Power Management Integration Center (PMIC), an Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) funded by the National Science Foundation (award number 2052809).
Source: Liezel Labios, UCSD
The post UCSD: New Chip Design Could Boost Efficiency of Power Management in Data Centers appeared first on HPCwire.
SHIRA LERNER
Staff Reporter
The phrase “Mother Earth” invokes images of warmth, comfort and home. As I walk outside, bright autumn leaves glisten at me from all directions and I can smell fresh rain on the earth. The sun illuminates pure white clouds in the sky, the birds sing above my head and the wind whispers softly past my ears.
A mother is a life-giving being. A strong, resilient, powerful figure who reigns over her creations, nurturing and caring for them. Nature has these same qualities, but it repeatedly shows humankind that Mother Earth will only care for us if we care for her in return.
Although women make up about half of the world’s population, we are consistently treated as less than men. Women are taken advantage of and their achievements are devalued. Reproductive rights are constantly questioned in courts.
The destruction of the natural world is currently happening in conjunction with increasing injustices in women’s rights. This is not new, but rather a pattern that has been seen throughout history.
Women’s rights and the treatment of the environment have fluctuated throughout history, as both women and the earth have been objectified, stripped of their autonomy and used for the benefit of those in charge.
With the Industrial Revolution and increased land development came a growing misuse of the earth. The need for fuel and minerals led to a boom in the mining industry. Mother Earth’s mountaintops were shattered and her surface was disfigured by open-pit mines. Forests were cut down to make way for suburban housing developments laced with toxic chemicals.
As Tracy Chapman sang in “Rape of the World,” “She has been clear-cut, she has been dumped on, she has been poisoned and beaten up, and we have been witness to the rape of the world.”
In the United States, women were some of the biggest purveyors of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, an inaugural wildlife conservation act. In the late 1800s, over 40 species of birds were used to decorate hats for high-class American women. This trend caused devastating losses to bird populations.
According to the Audubon Society, the suffrage movement showed women that their voices could finally be heard, so they felt empowered to use them to save the birds. This advocacy led to bluebird pins becoming a popular symbol within the suffrage movement.
For some people, Mother Nature is someone we feel called to respect and treat with kindness, as we would with the mothers in our lives. For others, the additional title of “mother” adds no meaning to Earth, as neither “mother” nor “Earth” are relatable for powerful men.
National government leaders, both currently and throughout history, have viewed women as disposable and undeserving of kindness. As a result, they have treated the environment in the same way.
President Donald Trump launched a coordinated attack on both women and the environment long before stepping into office. His attacks have only strengthened since assuming the presidency.
In March, Trump signed an executive order increasing timber production in the United States, claiming that production of timber, lumber, paper, bioenergy and other wood products is essential for the well-being of our country.
It encouraged workers to use a section of the Endangered Species Act to avoid protections for those species in order to get logging projects approved faster. These actions are stripping nature of her safeguards, taking away Mother Earth’s autonomy. As Mother Earth loses her protections, women are as well.
A couple of months later, in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, the Supreme Court ruled that the “free choice of provider” provision does not allow people who use Medicaid to sue if a state blocks their choice of doctor. In South Carolina, this means patients cannot use their coverage with providers who use public funds to perform abortions. People can no longer use their Medicaid coverage at Planned Parenthood clinics for any medical care.
Although abortions were rarely covered previously, this ruling also blocked those who rely on Medicaid from receiving other essential reproductive services, such as contraceptive care, cancer screenings, or sexually transmitted disease testing from these clinics.
While this ruling applies to Planned Parenthood access in South Carolina, it paves the way for other states to block recipients from Planned Parenthood care. While President Trump was not directly involved with this decision, the Trump administration’s conservative atmosphere has allowed for this to happen.
This is just one of many consequences of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which stripped away women’s autonomy over their own bodies in the same way that current environmental policies are stripping away Mother Nature’s protections.
Ultimately, it comes down to an issue of empathy, or lack thereof.
Trump and the white male leaders of the past do not respect women and lack compassion towards Mother Nature with their purely corporate ties to the natural world. Trump — along with many other powerful figures throughout history — has little empathy towards any group of people or living things he cannot directly relate to. This lack of care is why it is so easy to damage the environment and limit women’s rights.
Shira Lerner is a staff reporter at The Review. Her opinions are her own and do not represent the majority opinion of The Review staff. She may be reached at lernersj@udel.edu.
Abdul El-Sayed's decision to campaign with Hasan Piker has drawn scrutiny from across the political spectrum given comments the popular streamer has made on the Israel-Hamas war.
Customers make hundreds of thousands of dollars as records show substantial bets made before announcement
A group of new accounts on the prediction market Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the US and Iran would reach a ceasefire on Tuesday, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for these new customers.
These bets were made even though, in the hours before a two-week ceasefire was announced on Tuesday, Donald Trump’s rhetoric had escalated sharply and there were few signals that a ceasefire deal was imminent. Early in the day Trump had issued a warning on social media that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran did not meet his demand to open the strait of Hormuz by his 8pm ET deadline.
Continue reading...Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for April 9, No. 1,755.
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for April 9, No. 767.
If there's a book you've been waiting to read on your old Kindle device, make sure you download it before May 20.
It's the latest setback for the Trump administration on the issue, which has sought to terminate the TPS designation for 13 countries as part of the president's crackdown on immigration.
The influencer behind viral allegations against Rep. Eric Swalwell has academic and political connections with UC Irvine Law professor and California governor's race rival Katie Porter.
Families of victims killed in DUI-related crashes are pushing to change how those deaths are recorded on official documents, arguing the term "accident" fails to reflect the reality of what happened.
Prosecutors are seeking Tiger Woods' prescription drug records from a Florida pharmacy.
USC student Tucker Collins’s attorney accuses homeland security of ‘overt act of repression’ at Los Angeles protest
A freshman at the University of Southern California has lost an eye after he was shot last month with a “less-lethal” projectile by a Department of Homeland Security agent at a No Kings march, according to his attorney.
On 28 March, Tucker Collins, 18, took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles to photograph throngs of protesters, who held signs and chanted slogans denouncing the Trump administration’s policies, his lawyer V James DeSimone said in a statement on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Tractive announces two new smart collars armed with GPS tracking, AI-powered health monitoring and other tech tools.
His historic 1963 ascent made him a national hero and helped promote mountaineering in the United States.
An Israeli barrage killed at least 182 people and injured at least 890 across Lebanon, local authorities said, hours after the U.S.-Iran ceasefire took hold.
My roommate rides a electric unicycle, and I hear him talk about vesc all the time. From my understanding, the controller is what keeps you balanced and upright. It looks like some of these boards are going nearly 50 lol I would really like to know how a controller actually works and how reliable they are with the Onewheel.
High levels of borrowing and rapid expansion among dangers identified by Higher Education Policy Institute
Many English universities are taking excessive financial risks that threaten not only their own survival but that of others in the sector, a thinktank has warned.
High levels of borrowing at some institutions and rapid expansion of student numbers are among the dangers identified in a report by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi).
Continue reading...Threat of losing benefits will be lifted but campaigners say more help needed to tackle hostile workplaces
The government has unveiled its plan to allow disabled people to try work without fear of losing their benefits, but campaigners warn the policy does not go far enough to tackle hostile workplaces.
Legislation laid before parliament on Thursday will mean that people who start work or volunteering no longer automatically face a benefit reassessment, a prospect disabled people said was holding them back from trying to gain employment.
Continue reading...A $500,000 "Survivor"-style corporate retreat for 120 Plex employees in Honduras "turned into a week-long disaster involving illness, wild animals, armed guards, and employees stranded on a remote island," reports the Daily Beast. The CEO was bedridden by E. coli, staff were collapsing in brutal heat during Navy SEAL-led drills, there were fire ant attacks, uncooked food, and failing utilities. At one point, a porcupine even crashed through the ceiling of a guest's room. Here's an excerpt from the report: Tech media company Plex flew its 120 employees to a Honduran resort in 2017 for what was billed as a Survivor-style getaway. They called it "Plexcon." The first harbinger of trouble was an email that arrived before the group departed, informing them that the hotel manager and chef had both quit within days of each other. Things went sharply downhill from there. CEO Keith Valory, 54, had flown out a day early, intending to channel his inner Jeff Probst and welcome his staff off the buses like a game show host. Instead, he spent the arrival morning flat on his back. "I got E. coli, which is maybe the worst thing you could get, possibly, ever," Valory told the Wall Street Journal this week. "Just as people were arriving on the buses, I was like, 'Uh oh.' I lost 8 or 10 pounds. They had a doctor come to me, which apparently is pretty standard. They nailed an IV bag to the bedpost." With the CEO incapacitated, chief product officer and co-founder Scott Olechowski, 52, stepped in to run proceedings -- beginning with a forced eating challenge in which one employee had to consume a dead tarantula. [...] Sean Hoff, 42, founder of Moniker Partners, the independent retreat agency that planned the trip, was running himself ragged attempting damage control -- the showers, water, and electricity kept cutting out. [...] Meanwhile, senior software engineer Rick Phillips, 53, was trying to sleep when he heard a crash in his room. He ignored it until morning. "I got up and went over to get in the shower, and there was a porcupine," he said. "It must have climbed a tree and fallen through the ceiling."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Ukraine’s president tells podcast he has tried to draw White House’s attention to collaboration between Moscow and Tehran over strikes on US bases
The US has ignored compelling evidence that Russia has been helping Iran to target US bases in the Middle East because it “trusts” Vladimir Putin, according to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Speaking in an interview with Alastair Campbell on The Rest is Politics podcast, Zelenskyy said he had tried to draw the White House’s attention to the close collaboration between Moscow and Tehran.
Continue reading...Iran accused the U.S. and Israel of violating the truce and threatened to withdraw from negotiations. Israeli attacks in Lebanon were a major point of dispute.
 | So many questions on the X7 lately, love to see everyone getting the message. Just spreading the stoke. Week 3 for me and it’s still a hoot! (Tried posting a video but my plumbers crack is very visible on the landing and Reddit didn’t like that) [link] [comments] |
Google Maps strengthens its crowdsourcing efforts for its 500 million contributors.
Scammers cost more than 12,000 people at least $100,000 each.
“Without copious amounts of energy in a certain quality and a certain type of energy, there is no AI,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Tuesday April 7 at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit. “The only way we’re going to bring AI in to transform so many of our problems is massively more energy.”
That was the gist of Wright’s presentation during the opening session of the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, which is taking place this week just outside of San Diego, California. Thousands of attendees from national labs, universities, and companies around the country are attending the three-day event at the Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center in Chula Vista, California.
You could say that Wright brought a certain amount of energy to the stage, which he also shared with AMD CEO Lisa Su during a fireside chat. Wright is heading up the agency behind Genesis Mission, the ambitious U.S. program to accelerate AI for science and engineering. AMD is helping to build some of the supercomputers that will power the Genesis Mission, which has a three-pronged goal of accelerating scientific discovery, strengthening national security, and securing American energy dominance.
Dozens of data centers are proposed across the U.S. (Source: Dr. Johan Enslin
Program Director ARPA-E)
But even without the costs and benefits of AI looming over the proceedings, Wright’s devotion to accelerating energy for its own sake was clear.
“The absence of energy is poverty, despair, reduced opportunities, and ultimately death,” Wright said. “Energy is the most important industry in the world, ever. And it will always be, because energy is foundational. It’s foundational to everything humans do. Everything our economy does. If you change energy, you impact the world, you expand human possibilities, and you make life improvements possible.”
Wright views AI as parallel to energy. In the same way that the human brain needs a certain amount of energy to function (somewhere between 12 and 20 watts), the human race needs energy to develop and run AI. By fueling AI with (much, much greater amounts of) energy, we’re fueling human creativity and ultimately accelerating human progress.
However, Wright’s views on the paramount importance of energy to human progress is not shared by everyone. For the past two decades, we were headed on a course to a lower energy state because government energy policy “got swept up in climate alarmism” that ultimately hurt people, Wright said.
“I believe it will go down as the greatest malinvestment in history,” he said bluntly. “Don’t get me wrong–climate change is a real thing. I’ve spent 20 years engaging and looking at it. It is a true physical phenomenon. It’s a challenge we’re going to deal with in the future…We shouldn’t forget about it. We shouldn’t ignore it. But we just need to treat it in the right context. We’ve treated it as the only thing. It’s just a thing.”
During the fireside chat moderated by ARPA-E Director Conner Prochaska, AMD’s Su shared some of her host’s views, with a slight twist. Yes, the amount of compute you can muster is dependent on the amount of energy you can harness. But at the end of the day, it’s the efficient use of energy that’s important, Su said.
“It’s not just about raw performance and raw capability. It’s about how can we make computing much more energy efficient. It’s a first-order consideration in everything that we do,” Su said. “We’re constantly looking at how do you optimize every aspect of the compute stack, from hardware to software to algorithms to models, to coming together in full systems and full clusters such that every ounce of energy that we have that we’re using as efficiently as we can.”
The current building boom of AI data centers is stressing the various electrical grids in the United States, as well as driving big changes in how servers are powered and cooled. In 2023, data centers consumed about 4.4% of the total electricity consumed, according to a December 2024 DOE report. By 2028, the amount consumed by data centers is set to nearly triple to about 12% as dozens of massive new data centers that consume upwards of a gigawatt of power–or the equivalent of a large nuclear generating station–are constructed and come online.
AMD CEO Lisa Su (center) during a fireside chat with ARPA-E director Conner Prochaska (left) and Energy Secretary Chris Wright
Unfortunately, the entire electricity sector is not keeping up. Despite a boom in the production (and a corresponding decrease in price) in other forms of energy, such as oil and natural gas, the amount of energy produced and distributed in the U.S. has not increased by much in the past 20 years, Wright said. And since supply is not keeping up with demand, electricity is much more expensive than it previously was, he added. So we’re paying more and future plans are constrained.
Out of the 12 gigawatts of data center that’s expected to come online in 2026, only about one-third of that is currently under construction, according to a recent story by Bloomberg. Nearly half of the data centers slated to open ultimately will be delayed or cancelled, it said.
“We have a problem right now,” Wright said. “Lisa and her colleagues, they want to build data centers really fast [but] we’re slow in building new power infrastructure…The electricity network is massively complicated, massively important. And today it’s run like a giant bureaucracy. ‘You need something new? Well, we’ll get back to you in six years and we’ll hook you up.’ That’s not a good answer.”
Su acknowledged the electricity shortage has the potential to hurt the race to build more compute for AI. “The problem is we just don’t have enough power to do it today. We don’t,” she said. “We project that you need a thousand times more compute than we have today.”
Are we moving fast enough now? Probably not, Su said. “We can always move faster, no question,” she said. “But I can say for sure that this administration has had such a different way of doing things….I feel like everything is on the table.”
“President Trump’s just an entirely different animal,” Wright said. “He’s like, ‘We need to win at AI. Figure it out, figure it out!’ And we need to get out of the way and make it happen. He has been willing to take a risk, willing to do whatever. But he’s like, if the way we’ve done things before haven’t worked, we’ll change it. ‘And why aren’t you changing more and why aren’t you changing faster?'”
Su proposed bringing together experts across semiconductors, systems, and energy to try to find solutions to the power crunch and to boost computer efficiency, while Wright said his number one job is to figure out how we can get more power from the grid as it exists today, as well as to bring “massively more power generation” online so that we’re not constrained by power when AI is ready to go.
“We don’t want to hold back this incredible wave of human advancement that is arriving right here,” Wright said. “And of course, we don’t want to send it overseas. It’s going to go overseas. We’re not against that. But we want America as the leader and dominant player in that. And we only can do that if we have the energy resources here that can be utilized, and we have a permitting environment and a regulatory regime that’s welcoming to the massive investments that need to be made.”
The post ‘Massively More Energy’ Needed To Unleash AI, Energy Secretary Wright Says appeared first on HPCwire.
Inclusion of Lebanon is significant difference in interpretation of truce agreed at 11th hour on Tuesday
The fate of the two-week ceasefire in the Iran conflict looked in peril on Wednesday as both sides gave divergent versions of what had been agreed, Israel intensified its bombing campaign in Lebanon and Iran halted the passage of oil tankers because of an alleged Israeli ceasefire breach.
Iran and Pakistan, which brokered the 11th-hour truce, both asserted that the ceasefire included Lebanon.
Continue reading...AI company says purpose of its Claude Mythos model is to bolster defenses against hacking in common applications
Anthropic on Tuesday said its yet-to-be-released artificial intelligence model called Claude Mythos has proven keenly adept at exposing software weaknesses.
Mythos has laid bare thousands of vulnerabilities in commonly used applications for which no patch or fix exists, prompting the San Francisco-based AI startup to form an alliance with cybersecurity specialists to bolster defenses against hacking and withhold wide distribution.
Continue reading...This iPhone update appears to be focused on bug fixes and system improvements.
The FBI says (PDF) Iran-linked hackers disrupted internet-connected systems used by U.S. oil, gas, and water companies. Even with the recent two-week ceasefire between Iran and the United States and Israel, hackers backing Tehran say they won't end their retaliatory cyberattacks. The Hill reports: The report warned that similar companies across the country should be aware of an increased push by hackers to take over programmable logic controller (PLC) systems, which can be used to digitally control physical machinery from remote locations. Secure internet access for PLCs from one company, Rockwell Automation, were removed by Iran-linked coders who then "maliciously interacted with project files and altered data," according to the report. Hackers first gained access to some of the platforms in January of last year. All access to compromised platforms ended in March, the report said. The FBI said the move resulted in "operational disruption" and "financial loss." [...] Rockwell Automation wasn't the only company to recently face cyberattacks from Iran-linked hackers. Stryker, a major U.S. medical device maker, was targeted by Iran-affiliated coders in mid-March. It was unclear if physical operations were affected by the security breach. FBI Director Kash Patel was personally impacted by hackers who leaked his emails and records related to his personal travels and business from more than 10 years ago. [...] The FBI urged companies to adopt network defenders and multifactor authentication to prevent future attacks. Tuesday's report was published alongside the National Security Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. "Government and experts have been warning about internet connected systems for years, and how vulnerable they are," one source familiar with the federal investigation into the hacks told CNN. Many companies have "ealready removed those systems and followed the guidance," the person added.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to seven counts and admitted guilt in the death of an eighth woman.
 | Now that I got the x7 super charged. I absolutely need a full face helmet. These speeds im getting to worries me that I'm playing with fire, knowing I can't slow my self down & not ride hard. I need you guys to help me. any recommendations? I know I want an ECE certified helmet at least. Thanks in advance everybody! if you can send a picture of the one y'all are recommending as well if you got on. & if you own it how it's been. [link] [comments] |
David Lammy says those affected by a heinous crime cannot be expected to engage with the justice system within the existing 28-day limit
Victims and bereaved families will be given six months to challenge “unduly lenient” sentences handed to criminals, under changes announced by David Lammy.
Relatives of murder victims campaigned for the government to scrap the 28-day time limit to submit a formal request after an offender is sentenced.
Continue reading...
JOSEPH RELLA
Staff Reporter
On March 17, the United States fell to Venezuela 3-2 in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) championship — a disappointing end to the tournament for arguably the best roster on paper.
Pool play was a mixed bag for the U.S., who dominated in their two wins against Brazil and Great Britain. Mexico was bound to be a challenge with their talented team of Major League Baseball (MLB) caliber players, but right-handed pitcher Matthew Boyd’s 3 runs allowed in his only showing was not enough to overcome a five-run third inning for the U.S.
Italy outperformed everyone’s expectations throughout the tournament, but their most impressive performance was against the U.S. Italy’s starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen held the Americans scoreless through 4.2 innings and received eight runs of support before the U.S. responded with anything.
In a game where a win meant automatic qualification to the semi-finals, but a loss meant a scenario where the U.S. was eliminated, the Americans came out flat on both the offensive and defensive fronts throughout the first five innings. The U.S. was lucky that Italy dominated in their next game against Mexico, clinching the Americans a quarterfinal berth.
Against Canada, the U.S. was off to a great offensive start, which allowed the elite pitching staff to go to work and claim a rare easy win against a team with several MLB-caliber starting players.
Before the tournament pools were announced, arguably the most anticipated potential matchup was between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic (D.R.).They ended up dueling in the semifinal game.
Dominican designated hitter Junior Caminero started the scoring with a solo home run off star U.S. pitcher Paul Skenes, but that’s all the D.R. would muster throughout nine innings. Infielder Gunnar Henderson and outfielder Roman Anthony hit back-to-back home runs to put the U.S. on top and didn’t look back.
Throughout the tournament, the umpires calling balls and strikes missed calls that benefited and hurt every squad. It was incredibly apparent in this game in the last at-bat, where Mason Miller struck out Geraldo Perdomo on a pitch seemingly at his knees.
The D.R. squandered several opportunities with runners in scoring position — failing to capitalize on those moments is ultimately what cost them the game. It is still interesting to think about if Perdomo could have kept the rally going for the D.R., had he collected a walk in that at-bat.
Despite several underwhelming offensive performances, the championship game was easily the worst for the U.S. Three hits from the star-studded team in the most important game were unacceptable.
If Bryce Harper didn’t send a middle-middle fastball to the seats in the eighth inning, the U.S. likely put up zero runs in total, putting up a dismal performance.
The championship encapsulated the U.S. performance throughout the whole tournament very well. Despite dominant pitching performances with only a few hiccups, lackluster hitting and an inability to capitalize on scoring opportunities kept them with minimal runs, wasting their great appearances.
The top American performer was Gunnar Henderson, who had a 1.267 OPS but only appeared in four games due to Head Coach Mark DeRosa’s poor lineup construction.
Because of the talented depth, DeRosa opted for a more traditional approach to the lineup with alternating right-left throughout and later platooning the lineup based on the opposing team’s starter.
This does not mean Bobby Witt Jr., who had a great performance overall, should have been taken out of the lineup. But in five games, Alex Bregman had a .578 OPS in this tournament and still started in the championship game.
Roman Anthony, Brice Turang and Pete Crow Armstrong all played in more than six games and carried the load offensively during those appearances. Anthony had multiple go-ahead home runs in this tournament, one each against Mexico and the D.R., making him the team’s most valuable offensive player.
Both Harper and Aaron Judge both had significant moments in this tournament, hitting game-tying home runs against Mexico and Venezuela, respectively, but at the heart of this lineup they failed to consistently propel this team forward.
Bregman, Cal Raleigh and Byron Buxton all had incredibly poor showings at the dish. The three players combined for two hits throughout the entire tournament and none of them had an OPS above .600. The three combined for 15.8 wins above replacement (WAR) in the 2025 MLB season, yet were outshined by many of the younger stars on this team.
A disappointing performance from a supposed star-studded lineup was the ultimate downfall of this U.S. roster. If the bats had better performances throughout, this team likely would’ve been undefeated. Instead, lackluster results at the dish and poor at-bats from several elite players led to one of the most disappointing tournament runs in WBC history.
JJ Rella is a staff reporter at The Review. His opinions are his own and do not represent the majority opinion of The Review staff. He may be reached at jrellajr@udel.edu.
Since its launch in 2007, the Wii has seen several operating systems ported to it: Linux, NetBSD, and most-recently, Windows NT. Today, Mac OS X joins that list.
In this post, I’ll share how I ported the first version of Mac OS X, 10.0 Cheetah, to the Nintendo Wii. If you’re not an operating systems expert or low-level engineer, you’re in good company; this project was all about learning and navigating countless “unknown unknowns”. Join me as we explore the Wii’s hardware, bootloader development, kernel patching, and writing drivers – and give the PowerPC versions of Mac OS X a new life on the Nintendo Wii.
↫ Bryan Keller
And all of this, because someone on Reddit said it couldn’t be done. It won’t surprise you to learn that the work required was extensive, from writing a custom bootloader to digging through the XNU source code, applying binary patches to the kernel during the boot process, building a device tree, writing the necessary drivers, and so much more. Even just setting up a development environment was a pretty serious undertaking.
Especially writing the drivers posed an interesting and unique challenge, as the Wii doesn’t use PCI to connect and expose its hardware components. Instead, components are connected to a dedicated SoC with its own ARM processor that talks to the main Wii PowerPC processor, exposing hardware that way. This meant that Keller had to write a driver for this chip first, before moving on to the device drivers for devices connected to this ARM SoC – graphics drivers, input drivers, and so on.
After a ton more work and overcoming several complex roadblocks, we now have Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah on the Nintendo Wii. Amazing.
PM meets Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia before further visits to regional allies, who may see him as more reliable than Trump
The UK has a “job” to help reopen the strait of Hormuz, Keir Starmer has said, as Iranian reports said the key shipping route was closed again just hours after a supposed ceasefire.
The prime minister met British and local military personnel at an airbase in Taif, Saudi Arabia, at the start of what is expected to be a wider trip to Gulf allies, one billed as a mirror to his efforts to pull together a plan for how a ceasefire might operate in Ukraine.
Continue reading...BARCELONA, Spain, April 8, 2026 — Semidynamics, an advanced computing company developing memory-centric AI infrastructure for large-scale inference, today announced a strategic investment from SK hynix, one of the world’s leading memory manufacturers. The investment reflects a shared conviction that memory architecture, not compute alone, will define the economics of next-generation AI inference, where cost per token is the metric that matters.
As large language models scale, and as agentic, multi-turn workloads demand persistent context across longer inference sessions, system performance is increasingly constrained by memory capacity and data movement rather than raw compute. Semidynamics is capable of delivering multiples of the memory capacity available in conventional HBM-based inference systems, hence supporting larger models, larger KV-caches, and larger contexts. These three features enable more users per rack, directly leading to lower cost per token.
Headquartered in Barcelona, Semidynamics is one of the few processor companies to have designed its proprietary implementation of the open RISC-V architecture from first principles around the memory wall, not as a retrofit to an existing compute architecture, but as its founding thesis. The architecture incorporates Semidynamics’ proprietary Gazzillion memory subsystem technology, supported by a growing patent portfolio, and is engineered to reduce the data movement bottlenecks that constrain today’s AI infrastructure. Gazzillion is Semidynamics’ proprietary latency-tolerance technology, a design philosophy embedded throughout the processor, from the core and tensor unit through to the memory subsystem, that keeps the system productive during the long memory access times that stall conventional AI accelerators.
The company recently completed a 3nm silicon tape-out with TSMC, its first, and one of the first achieved by a European semiconductor company at that process node, marking a significant milestone on its roadmap to deliver high-performance AI inference processors and vertically integrated systems.
Designed for the Memory Wall
This investment reflects the growing importance of tight architectural alignment between processors and advanced memory technologies. Through this collaboration, the two companies will explore opportunities to co-optimize Semidynamics’ architecture with next-generation memory technologies to support increasingly demanding AI inference workloads.
Semidynamics’ memory-centric architecture is designed to handle the workloads placing the greatest pressure on today’s AI infrastructure: agentic reasoning systems that execute multi-step inference over long contexts, maintain stateful sessions, and operate continuously rather than handling discrete requests. These workloads are fundamentally data-movement problems. By optimizing how data flows through the system, the architecture reduces the bandwidth and latency bottlenecks that determine cost per token at scale.
“SK hynix’s investment is a direct reflection of where AI infrastructure is heading, systems where memory architecture is as strategically important as compute,” said Roger Espasa, Founder and CEO of Semidynamics. “We built Semidynamics around that thesis, and this partnership strengthens our position as we bring our inference platform to market at a moment when the industry has recognized that token economics are a memory problem as much as a compute problem.”
“AI workloads are fundamentally memory-bound problems, and the industry has been underinvesting in architecture-level solutions,” said Heejin Chung, SVP, Head of Venture Investment, SK hynix America. “Semidynamics is one of the few companies that has built from first principles around this constraint.”
Funding and Momentum
The investment comes as Semidynamics continues to expand its ecosystem of partners across the AI and high-performance computing landscape. The investment will support future tape-outs and system-level development, including rack platform buildout.
To date, the company has secured €45 million in non-dilutive funding from European and Spanish innovation programs, supporting the development of its AI silicon and infrastructure technologies.
Semidynamics is building a full-stack AI infrastructure platform, encompassing chips, boards, and rack-level systems, designed for data-center-scale inference deployments.
About Semidynamics
Headquartered in Barcelona, Semidynamics is an advanced computing company developing memory-centric AI infrastructure. With a team of more than 150 engineers and specialists, the company designs proprietary silicon architectures and vertically integrated systems optimized for large-scale AI inference workloads. Semidynamics serves a global ecosystem of partners and customers and operates in compliance with applicable export controls and international trade regulations.
Source: Semidynamics
The post Semidynamics Secures SK hynix Investment to Advance Memory-Centric AI Inference Architecture appeared first on HPCwire.
A New York Times investigation by John Carreyrou claims a British cryptographer named Adam Back is the strongest circumstantial candidate yet for being Satoshi Nakamoto. The report citing overlaps in writing style, ideology, technical background, and old posts that outlined key parts of Bitcoin years before its launch. Carreyrou is a renowned investigative journalist and author, best known for exposing the massive fraud at Theranos while at the Wall Street Journal. Here's an excerpt from the report: ... As anyone steeped in Bitcoin lore will tell you, Satoshi was a master at the art of maintaining anonymity on the internet, leaving few, if any, digital footprints behind. But Satoshi did leave behind a corpus of texts, including a nine-page white paper (PDF) outlining his invention and his many posts on the Bitcointalk forum, an online message board where users gathered to discuss the digital currency's software, economics and philosophy. And that corpus, it turned out, had expanded significantly during the impostor's civil trial when Martti Malmi, a Finnish programmer who collaborated with Satoshi in Bitcoin's early days, released a trove of hundreds of emails he had exchanged with him. Emails Satoshi sent to other early Bitcoin adopters had surfaced before, but none came close in volume to the Malmi dump. If Satoshi was ever going to be found, I was convinced the key lay somewhere in these texts. Then again, others must have gone down this road before me. Journalists, academics and internet sleuths had been trying to identify Satoshi for 16 years. During that span, more than 100 names had been put forward, including those of an Irish cryptography student, an unemployed Japanese American engineer, a South African criminal mastermind and the mathematician portrayed in the movie "A Beautiful Mind." The most alluring theories had focused on coincidences that aligned with what little was known about Satoshi: a particular code-writing style, a mysterious work history, an expertise in Bitcoin's key technical concepts, an anti-government worldview. But they had run aground under the weight of an alibi or some other piece of inconsistent or contrary evidence. Each failure had been met with glee by many members of the Bitcoin community. As they liked to point out, only Satoshi could definitively prove his identity by moving some of his coins. Any evidence short of that would be circumstantial. It seemed foolish to think that I could somehow crack a case that had confounded so many others. But I craved the thrill of a big, challenging story. So I decided to try once more to unmask Bitcoin's mysterious creator. Back, for his part, denies being Satoshi, writing in a post on X: "i'm not satoshi, but I was early in laser focus on the positive societal implications of cryptography, online privacy and electronic cash, hence my ~1992 onwards active interest in applied research on ecash, privacy tech on cypherpunks list which led to hashcash and other ideas."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 | Parting with my XRC and was curious how others feel about the 5" hub when buying used? A $700 part does not add $700 to the resale - but what does it add? [link] [comments] |
Benches and bullpens cleared in fifth inning
Players will appeal suspensions and fines
The two had played together on the 2024 Braves
Los Angeles Angels designated hitter Jorge Soler and Atlanta Braves pitcher Reynaldo López each received seven-game suspensions from Major League Baseball on Wednesday, a day after they were ejected following their participation in a brawl.
Michael Hill, MLB’s senior vice-president for on-field operations, also announced that the players received undisclosed fines. The suspensions were scheduled to begin with Wednesday’s game but will be on hold as each player is appealing.
Continue reading...Ultimately need to replace controller on pint. Been wanting to upgrade. Little disappointed in fm with my pint thought it would last longer. Recs and opinions greatly appreciated. Would like to have something that lasts over 2 years for the money I will be spending.
Investors cheered the announcement of a two-week ceasefire, which President Trump said is contingent on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Oil heads for biggest daily fall since pandemic as Iran says it will reopen strait of Hormuz under its management
Oil prices tumbled on Wednesday and global stock markets rallied after the US and Iran agreed a two-week conditional ceasefire.
Investors welcomed the news that Donald Trump had held off on his threat to bomb Iran into “the stone ages”, while Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said passage through the strait of Hormuz would be allowed for the next two weeks under the management of Iran’s military. Wall Street recorded its biggest single-day rally in a year.
Continue reading...Don't rush your old Windows 10 computer to the landfill just yet.
Loyalists rush to defend president for ‘outsmarting the critics’ but others decry deal as ‘a negative for our country’
Donald Trump’s acceptance of a two-week ceasefire in Iran has exposed fresh divisions in his Make America Great Again (Maga) movement, with some supporters expressing vindication and others accusing the US president of betrayal.
The US and Iran both claimed victory after the two countries agreed to pause hostilities following more than a month of war. But the strait of Hormuz remained closed on Wednesday and fighting was still taking place as Israel launched its biggest attacks yet on Lebanon.
Continue reading...Paul Solway ignited explosion that damaged total of six terrace houses in Derby after his partner had kicked him out
A man who blew up a terrace house by causing gas to leak from a pipe and setting fire to a chair after his partner kicked him out has been jailed for 11 years.
Paul Solway was having a “meltdown” when he caused the explosion at his partner Joanne Waterfall’s home in Alvaston in Derby on the evening of 10 June last year.
Continue reading...
As Artemis II sets records for human spaceflight’s farthest distance and captures photos of the moon, some social media users shared out of context and fabricated photos they claimed were from the event.
The Artemis II mission, with a four person crew, launched April 1 with the goal of carrying astronauts farther from Earth and closer to the moon than any human has been in over half a century.
Some photos on social media that claim to be from Artemis II show different angles of the moon, while others showcase the natural satellite full of vibrant colors.
"Stunning high-res Moon images from Artemis II," reads an April 6 X post with over 52,000 views as of April 8. "The lunar mare is surprisingly colorful."
A TikTok user also posted colorful photos of the moon, writing, "The pictures of the moon from #artemis2 are breathtaking! I was today years old when I learned the moon rocks were not just grey."
Another image in an April 7 X post that appears to be taken inside the Artemis II spacecraft shows the Earth rising from the moon's surface with the caption, "What a sight!!!"
PolitiFact found these photos weren’t taken from Artemis II or released by NASA.
We contacted NASA to confirm the veracity of these images, and a spokesperson referred us to this press release that shows NASA’s Artemis II crew official moon flyby photos. None of the photos shown in the social media posts are featured in this press release or in the mission’s website.
"If people are looking for images they are on nasa.gov and at the links provided in the news release," Jennifer Dooren, a NASA spokesperson, wrote in an April 8 email to PolitiFact.
(Screenshot of X post showing clip that has been circulating online since 2024)
The 23-second clip from this X post doesn’t show high resolution images of the moon taken by Artemis II.
When doing a reverse image search, we found the same first clip with the same soundtrack and similar photos to the ones in the X video had been shared on Instagram and Facebook in 2024. The photos are from a photographer who shot multiple photos of the moon in different stages from a telescope and merged the photos and its shadows together.
The photographer said in an Instagram caption that the images show "what the moon looks like if it was a flat disk with mountains on it."
(Screenshot of a TikTok post showing an image from Earth, not taken from Artemis II)
A TikTok user shared photos of the moon with color variations of light pinks, purples and oranges, saying the photos are from Artemis II. But they are enhanced photos of the moon taken by an astrophotographer.
Ildar Ibatullin confirmed to PolitiFact via Instagram that those are his images and they were captured from Earth using a reflector telescope and a DSLR camera, not taken by NASA or from the Artemis II mission.
"These images were processed from 50GB of raw data and have been available on my profile for several days," Ibatullin said. "Unfortunately, they have been misappropriated by various platforms to spread misinformation about the lunar mission."
He said the colors in the image are vibrant because they are a result of "saturation enhancement" to reveal the moon’s "real mineral composition."
(Screenshot of AI-generated image from an X post)
This photo shared on X showing the moon’s surface and the Earth rising was generated with artificial intelligence.
We ran the image through Gemini, Google’s AI model, which showed it contains a SynthID digital watermark. This is an invisible watermark for humans that indicates when an image or content was generated or edited using Google AI tools.
Hours after posting the image, the user also responded to a commenter who asked whether the image was real. The poster said he didn’t think so.
We rate claims that these photos and clips show the moon from Artemis II as False.
In September, Jasveen Sangha pleaded guilty to several federal drug-related charges.
Iran says Israel is violating the ceasefire deal President Trump announced, and Tehran appears to still have control over shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
The defense secretary described the state of hostilities mostly in past tense. The Joint Chiefs chairman noted that the “ceasefire is a pause” in combat operations.
Starting May 20th, Amazon will stop Kindle Store access for Kindle and Kindle Fire devices released in 2012 and earlier. After that date, those devices will "no longer be able to purchase, borrow, or download new content." Owners can still read content already on the device, but if an affected device is reset or deregistered after the cutoff, it can't be re-registered. The Verge reports: The complete list of affected devices goes all the way back to the original Kindle that launched in 2007 with a full keyboard and scroll wheel. [...] Amazon will be notifying affected users over email ahead of May 20th with an explanation of what their older devices can and cannot do. Pre-2012 Kindle Fire devices will be subjected to the same limitations as Kindle e-readers when it comes to books, but other apps and Amazon services on those devices won't be impacted. For longtime users wanting to take the opportunity to upgrade to newer Kindle hardware, Amazon will offer a 20 percent discount on new Kindle devices and a $20 ebook credit that will be added to their accounts after upgrading, valid until June 20th, 2026, at 11:59PM PT. Their older purchases will be available on new devices as long as they log in to the same account they've been using for the past 14 years or more.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Cybersecurity researchers have serious concerns about how the app was built.
One of the great lessons of the Masters is money only goes so far, with strict rules designed to keep out ticket touts
Jeffrey Epstein’s web of influence stretched from European palaces to Ivy League universities and Wall Street banks, but there was apparently at least one little corner of the establishment that seems to have been beyond his reach: Augusta National. In July 2019, Epstein sent an iMessage to Steve Bannon asking for his help with a particularly difficult problem. “Need to work magic to get brad Karp admitted to augusta golf club,” Epstein wrote. “The head of Paul Weiss Brad Karp?” Bannon replied. “Yes.”
Karp, the former chair of the legal firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, stepped down from his position in February because of his ties with Epstein.
Continue reading...Rex Heuermann, who was arrested in 2023, confessed to the serial slayings during a court hearing in Suffolk County, New York.
Many brands are turning to AI to advertise their products. Others are rejecting the technology, pledging to lean into "real" images.
Delo, pardoned by Trump after violating US banking law, describes himself as champion of free speech
A British billionaire convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering controls in his cryptocurrency business has given £4m to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Ben Delo, 42, who is now based in Hong Kong, wrote in the Telegraph that he had made the donation since the start of the year, before the government’s cap on donations to political parties by British citizens living abroad.
Continue reading...SAN JOSE, Calif., April 8, 2026 — SambaNova today announced the next phase of its collaboration with Intel: a heterogeneous hardware solution that combines GPUs for prefill, Intel Xeon 6 processors as both host and “action” CPUs, and SambaNova RDUs for decode to deliver premium inference for the most demanding Agentic AI applications. The design will be made available in H2 2026 to enterprises, cloud providers, and sovereign AI programs that want to run coding agents and other agentic workloads at scale.
Credit: SambaNova
“Agentic AI is moving into production — and the winning pattern we’re seeing is GPUs to start the job, Intel Xeon 6 to run it, and SambaNova RDUs to finish it fast,” said Rodrigo Liang, CEO and co‑founder of SambaNova Systems. “Together with Intel, we’re giving customers a blueprint they can deploy in existing air‑cooled data centers, with broad x86 coverage for the coding agents and tools they already use today.”
“The data center software ecosystem is built on x86, and it runs on Xeon — providing a mature, proven foundation that developers, enterprises, and cloud providers rely on at scale,” said Kevork Kechichian, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Data Center Group (DCG) at Intel Corporation. “Workloads of the future will require a heterogeneous mix of computing, and this collaboration with SambaNova delivers a cost‑efficient, high‑performance inference architecture designed to meet customer needs at scale — powered by Xeon 6.”
Agentic AI moves mainstream
Agentic AI has moved from demos to deployments, as coding agents now compile and run code, call tools and APIs, tap databases, and coordinate workflows on fast, low‑latency large‑model inference. In the process, they are exposing the limits of GPU‑only stacks: GPUs handle prefill, but CPUs and dedicated inference accelerators now decide how fast and efficient real‑world agent workloads are executed, scaled, and optimized in production.
“We are seeing AI Agents code output grow exponentially and as a result, Daytona is seeing the need for more and more sandboxes to run and compile this code, which runs on CPUs like Intel’s Xeon,” said Ivan Burazin, CEO of Daytona, a secure coding infrastructure company for agentic AI.
“Production inference is moving toward heterogeneous hardware — no single chip type is optimal for every stage of an agentic workflow. What makes the Intel and SambaNova blueprint stand out is that it pairs reconfigurable RDUs for fast decode with Intel Xeon CPUs for agent tool execution — delivering premium performance with fewer chips and full compatibility with the software ecosystem enterprises already run on,” said Banghua Zhu, co-founder and CTO at RadixArk.
Why Intel Xeon 6 and SambaNova RDUs
The jointly engineered architecture is centered on Intel Xeon 6 processors and SambaNova RDUs. The SN50 RDU is designed to change the tokenomics of inference, delivering high‑throughput, low‑latency decode for large language models, while Xeon 6 provides the memory bandwidth, PCIe lane density, and on‑die accelerators.
In SambaNova’s measurements, Xeon 6 delivers more than 50% faster LLVM compilation times compared with Arm‑based server CPUs, and up to 70% faster vector database performance compared with available x86‑based competition. This accelerates end‑to‑end coding agent workflows, allowing developers to move from idea to production‑ready agents noticeably faster.
In this new design:
“SambaNova’s collaboration with Intel reflects where Agentic AI infrastructure is heading: Xeon 6 handling control and orchestration, with RDUs focused on decode. One chip no longer does everything. This split of architectures is exactly what enterprises seek, not because it is split, but it aims to provide better performance, efficiency, and a system-level balance for AI in production environments,” said Ian Cutress, CEO and Chief Analyst at More Than Moore.
Designed for the Data Centers That Already Exist
For enterprises, government agencies, and sovereign AI programs operating under strict data residency or security requirements, every component of the inference stack must be colocated inside a controlled environment. Unlike the newest GPU-only architectures that require specialized liquid-cooled facilities with custom power infrastructure, the SambaNova and Intel solution deploys in standard, air-cooled data centers that enterprises, regional cloud providers, and national AI programs already operate worldwide. Organizations in financial services, healthcare, defense, and sovereign AI initiatives can run production-scale agentic AI fully in-house — without exporting sensitive data and without building new facilities.
Accelerating the next phase of AI
This announcement marks a clear progression from partnership to large‑scale commercial deployment, signaling confidence in the technology and offering a strong, competitive solution for enterprises, service providers, and global cloud platforms.
About SambaNova
SambaNova is a leader in next‑generation AI infrastructure, providing a full stack platform that powers efficient AI inference for enterprises, NeoClouds, AI labs and service providers, and sovereign AI initiatives worldwide. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Jose, Calif., SambaNova delivers chips, systems, and cloud services that enable customers to deploy state‑of‑the‑art models with superior performance, lower total cost of ownership, and rapid time to value.
Source: SambaNova
The post SambaNova, Intel Unveil Heterogeneous Inference Design for Agentic AI Workloads appeared first on HPCwire.
Three days. Endless mountains. One line. We set out into the backcountry of the Swiss Alps with a simple idea: find that one perfect line — the kind you don’t plan, you discover. The kind that flows. What we found was more than just a ride. Endless alpine meadows, raw descents, untouched terrain, and the freedom to carve our own path — just like backcountry snowboarding, but on one wheel. No lifts. No trails. Just us, the mountains, and the lines.
CHICAGO, April 8, 2026 — Nutanix, a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, has announced new capabilities to the Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) solution designed to help organizations operate reliably as AI workloads expand, cloud environments grow more complex, and hardware supply constraints drive the need for more flexible infrastructure platforms.
As organizations modernize their infrastructure, many are reassessing longstanding virtualization platforms to ensure they can deliver the flexibility, performance, and cost predictability required for virtual machines, containers, and AI workloads.
NCP enables customers to make better use of existing infrastructure and choose from a broader ecosystem of hardware vendors, hyperscalers, neoclouds, and service providers. NCP also helps organizations run virtualized, modern applications and AI workloads anywhere, helping to keep critical IT projects on track while preserving flexibility and long-term platform choice.
“As organizations continue to modernize their cloud infrastructure in a supply-constrained environment, organizations are having to balance leveraging the flexibility of hybrid multicloud infrastructure and the need to maintain sovereignty of their data and applications,” said Thomas Cornely, Executive Vice President, Product Management, Nutanix. “With the Nutanix Cloud Platform, customers can make better use of existing hardware infrastructure, expand across a growing ecosystem of cloud and infrastructure providers, and maintain choice and control over where workloads run, even as hardware availability and procurement timelines shift.”
Extending the Nutanix Cloud Platform to add Full-Stack Capabilities for Modern Applications and AI Workloads
The NCP solution’s full-stack capabilities continue to be expanded to include new services for AI infrastructure, unified storage, and advanced data services. The updates include:
Strengthening Nutanix’s Global Ecosystem of Cloud and AI Infrastructure Providers
Building on the capabilities that Nutanix has added for the Agentic AI era, Nutanix Service Provider Central (SP Central), currently in Early Access, brings new multitenancy capabilities that enable Nutanix’s service provider partners to more easily deliver a broader range of hosted infrastructure and AI services on NCP while helping to maintain secure, logical isolation between tenants sharing the same infrastructure.
SP Central will be generally available in the second half of 2026 and will help enable service providers to offer scalable hosted infrastructure, cloud native and AI services while helping customers maintain control across distributed environments.
Learn more about how Nutanix is expanding capabilities for service provider partners and enabling the next generation of neocloud providers, both recently announced.
Expanding to be the Broadest Infrastructure Ecosystem in Nutanix History
Nutanix continues to support a broad range of workloads by offering flexible deployment architectures across a wide range of server and storage hardware, enabling organizations to leverage their existing hardware investments when supply chains are constrained.
To enable this approach, Nutanix is strengthening integrations across a global ecosystem of partners, including these capabilities available now:
And coming later this year:
Together, these additions represent the broadest expansion of infrastructure support in Nutanix’s history, offering customers proven deployment options across established enterprise platforms as well as maximum hardware flexibility and choice.
NCP also provides zero-copy migrations, generally available now, from VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes to AHV vDisks, enabling organizations to perform near-instantaneous, in-place workload conversion without data duplication. This capability can accelerate migration timelines and minimize infrastructure overhead and operational disruption.
Delivering Sovereign Control Across Hybrid Multicloud Environments
Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) is being expanded to support more deployment options across hyperscalers including the addition of secure government cloud regions such as AWS GovCloud, generally available now, and AWS European Sovereign Cloud, coming later this year. The introduction of Hyperdisk and C3 bare-metal instance support with NC2 on Google Cloud in the second half of 2026 will provide customers the flexibility to scale storage independent of compute and leverage bare-metal instance types that do not have any local storage.
Customers can run workloads in the cloud in support of regulatory, latency, or procurement needs without refactoring while retaining the flexibility to bring them back on-premises. For organizations facing hardware availability challenges, these options provide the flexibility to continue deploying and scaling critical workloads without lengthy delays.
Unified Cloud Management to Build, Operate, and Govern the Modern Distributed Enterprise Cloud
As infrastructure spans clouds, on‑premises data centers, and sovereign environments, organizations need a consistent way to build, operate, and govern large sites and distributed estates, including highly secure, air‑gapped environments.
Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM 2.0) is generally available now and built on a new architecture that enables customers to manage large numbers of clusters at scale, across multiple Prism Central (PC) instances.
Availability
The NCP news announced this week comprises products that are either generally available now or are expected to be available in the second half of 2026.
About Nutanix
Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX) is a hybrid multicloud computing leader, offering organizations a unified software platform for running applications, deploying enterprise AI workloads and managing data anywhere. With Nutanix, organizations can simplify operations for traditional and modern applications, freeing them to focus on business goals. Trusted by more than 30,000 customers worldwide, Nutanix helps empower organizations to transform digitally and power hybrid multicloud environments consistently, simply, and cost-effectively.
Source: Nutanix
The post Nutanix Delivers Complete Platform for the Agentic AI Era appeared first on HPCwire.
A report claims Samsung's expanding its flagship offerings to four phones.
"All of this was thanks to the work of the dog," said the commander of the Canine Operations Battalion. "It wasn't based on intelligence."
Spaniard is seeking his second Green Jacket at first Masters since 1994 without Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson
Half a mile from the gates of Augusta National, at the foot of Washington Road, sits a keyboard and piano store. It closes on Masters week every year. “Spring has sprung and so have we,” reads a sign in the forecourt. Clearly there is insufficient correlation between golf fans and those with a tendency to tinkle the ivories (or similar) for the business to remain open.
Masters mania is not for everyone. This feels a pity; almost nine months since the last putt dropped on the final major of 2025 and 27 weeks on from the Ryder Cup rumpus of Bethpage, golf is back at the forefront of the sporting world. Another date reference is significant. This Masters, the 90th edition, will be the first since 1994 without either one or both of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on the draw sheet. Rather than cause for a golfing lament, this provides opportunity. The post-Tiger world need not be as scary a place as so many seem to believe.
Continue reading...In the wake of Meta and Google's major court losses over lapses in child safety protections, OpenAI is making a series of recommendations to keep kids safe.
The Pentagon continues to peddle misleading U.S. casualty figures from the Iran war, even after The Intercept reported on what one defense official called a “casualty cover-up.”
Pressed for a more accurate count of U.S. personnel killed or injured during Operation Epic Fury, the Office of the Secretary of War provided a new tally that still undercounts American dead or wounded. This comes after U.S. Central Command ghosted The Intercept after sending lowball and outdated figures last week.
The continued undercount comes amid a fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran in which both sides have claimed victory. Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine noted during a Wednesday press conference that the halt in fighting was only “a pause” in the conflict, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces were “prepared to restart at a moment’s notice.”
When questioned about stale numbers initially sent by CENTCOM, a Secretary of War spokesperson referred The Intercept to the new Operation Epic Fury webpage of the Defense Casualty Analysis System, which generates casualty counts for Congress and the president.
DCAS counts 13 hostile and non-hostile U.S. deaths during the war, listing out their names. Missing from the Pentagon tally is Maj. Sorffly Davius, a signals and communication officer with the New York Army National Guard who was assigned to the headquarters of the 42nd Infantry Division and reportedly died of sudden illness while on duty in Camp Buehring, Kuwait, on March 6, 2026.
“He passed away while deployed to Kuwait in support of Operation Epic Fury,” said Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., during a memorial service for Davius late last month. Caine also recognized him while “honoring our fallen” from the war.
The Pentagon did not reply prior to publication to a request for comment on why Davius was missing from its casualty rolls.
The military’s count of those injured and wounded is even more flawed. Last week, multiple military personnel were injured when a U.S. F-15 was shot down over Iran and an A-10 Warthog crashed near the Straight of Hormuz. One of the Air Force officers from the F-15 who was rescued by U.S. Special Operations forces during a Saturday night mission, for example, was “bleeding rather profusely” and “injured quite badly,” according to President Donald Trump. But CENTCOM has failed to provide The Intercept with updated casualty figures reflecting these and other wounded personnel. (The Pentagon’s DCAS may reflect these wounded, but it’s impossible to know for certain due to the system’s lack of detail.)
CENTCOM has not replied to more than a dozen requests for clarification over the last week since claiming to The Intercept in a March 30 email that “since the start of Operation Epic Fury, approximately 303 U.S. service members have been wounded.”
On its website, the DCAS states that its goal “is to provide as accurate reporting of military casualties as possible.” Yet it posts conflicting counts of troops injured in Operation Epic Fury. On one page titled “Casualty Summary by Casualty Category,” DCAS lists 372 troops wounded in action — a count 23 percent higher than CENTCOM’s claims to The Intercept. On another page titled “Casualty Summary by Month and Service,” DCAS lists an even lower “grand total” of wounded in action: 357. Both counts were updated on April 8.
Putting aside its internal data discrepancies, the way the system defines casualties offers a skewed image of the conflict. Though the DCAS tracks “non-hostile” deaths — meaning individuals killed in accidents or by illness — it doesn’t include “non-hostile” injuries. For example, the DCAS figures show that at least 63 Navy personnel have been wounded in action. What it doesn’t show — and what the CENTCOM casualty figures also exclude — are more than 200 sailors treated for smoke inhalation or lacerations due to a March 12 fire that raged aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford before it limped out of the war zone for repairs. The numbers also don’t include a sailor who suffered a non-combat-related injury aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as it was involved in “strike missions in support of Operation Epic Fury” on March 25.
The Department of War did not reply to a request for comment on why DCAS tracks non-hostile war zone deaths but not non-hostile injuries or illnesses.
It’s impossible to know how many other casualties have been kept under wraps. After an Iranian missile attack on Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq on January 8, 2020, during Trump’s first term, the administration peddled a complete fiction to the public. “No Americans were harmed in last night’s attack by the Iranian regime,” Trump said at the time. “We suffered no casualties.”
Soon, the Pentagon would acknowledge there were, indeed, casualties and proceeded to adjust the figure upward at least five times, with CENTCOM ultimately admitting that 110 troops suffered traumatic brain injuries. An inspector general report released in November 2021 indicated that the number of brain injuries may have been even higher, because “DoD cannot determine whether all Service members are being properly diagnosed and treated for TBIs in deployed settings.”
Trump claimed that “nobody was even injured” in the Saturday rescue mission that involved hundreds of Special Operations troops and other military personnel. During a Wednesday press conference, Hegseth echoed this, claiming there were “zero American casualties.” But blast symptoms — like traumatic brain injuries — can take time to manifest, if the military even bothers to assess them.
“Not a single thing we’ve done has put an American troop in more of a harm’s way,” Hegseth said on Wednesday. But current and former Pentagon officials say the War Department failed to adequately protect U.S. personnel on bases across the Middle East, forcing troops to retreat to hotels and office buildings during Epic Fury.
U.S. bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates have also been targeted by Iranian drones and missiles. Retired Gen. Joseph Votel, a former head of Central Command, recalled that U.S. troops in the region have faced drone attacks for at least a decade. “At that time we identified a need to protect against this threat, and it has taken far too long for the DoD to respond and provide adequate protection for our deployed troops,” he told The Intercept, referencing drone attacks during the campaign against ISIS in the spring of 2016. “It was a known expectation that, if attacked, Iran would retaliate against our bases, installations, and forces, and I agree that we should have anticipated and been prepared for this inevitability.”
While much of the focus on U.S. forces has centered on air and naval power, it is the Army — whose soldiers man the interceptor missile systems on those bases — that has suffered the most casualties: 251, according to DCAS statistics. The Army is only now seeking sensors designed to assess “blast overpressure,” the sudden onset of a pressure wave from explosions from enemy munitions and the blasts from weapon systems employed by soldiers themselves. It can lead to cognitive impairment and adverse effects on brain health, including traumatic brain injuries. Trump has long dismissed brain injuries as “headaches” and “not serious.” CENTCOM claims that the “vast majority” of injuries of the current war have been “minor.”
Of the 13 deaths counted in DCAS, six were killed in a drone strike on Port Shuaiba, Kuwait. A soldier also died due to an “enemy attack on March 1, 2026, at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia.” If the USS Ford injuries were added to the Navy count, that service would take over the top spot with more than 264 wounded. DCAS also counts 39 Air Force personnel wounded in action and 19 Marines.
More injuries are on the horizon. It’s well known that when operations’ tempo increases, such as during a war, troops’ mental and physical health suffers. Last year, even before the war, an article in a professional journal published by Army University Press warned that the “relentless demands from training, overseas rotations, and deployments significantly affect servicemembers’ physical and mental health, leading to wellness issues and influencing military readiness. Continuous operations without adequate recovery intervals worsen stress-related illnesses, causing a hazardous balance between duty and health.”
The Pentagon wants $200 billion in supplemental funds to pay for its war on Iran but money for long-term health care for veterans of the Iran war will likely push the ultimate price tag into the trillions of dollars.
Around 50,000 U.S. troops are deployed around the Middle East where the United States and Israel, as well as Iran and its proxies, have struck fuel depots, oil facilities, and military sites — all of which release noxious substances shown to negatively affect human health. If they file disability claims at the rate of the extremely short 1990 Gulf War — 37 percent of whom receive compensation today — this alone would add around $600 billion in costs over their lifetimes, according to Linda Bilmes, the co-author of “The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict.”
The post We Called Out the Pentagon for Undercounting U.S. Casualties in Iran. They Keep Doing It. appeared first on The Intercept.
Situation still volatile as Tehran and Washington issue conflicting messages about opening of Hormuz channel
A plunge in the oil price, stock market rally and renewed hopes for the global economic outlook. After the announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the Iran war, the relief in financial markets was palpable. But it is far from absolute.
For the past six weeks, the economic damage had been steadily mounting, as the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz by Tehran triggered the worst energy crisis of the modern era.
Continue reading...An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Times: Iran will demand that shipping companies pay tolls in cryptocurrency for laden oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz (source paywalled; alternative source), as it seeks to retain control over passage through the key waterway during the two-week ceasefire. Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran's Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters' Union, told the FT on Wednesday that Iran wanted to collect tolling fees from any tanker passing and to assess each ship. "Iran needs to monitor what goes in and out of the strait to ensure these two weeks aren't used for transferring weapons," said Hosseini, whose industry association works closely with the state. "Everything can pass through, but the procedure will take time for each vessel, and Iran is not in a rush," he added. [...] Hosseini said that each tanker must email authorities about its cargo, after which Iran will inform them of the toll to be paid in digital currencies. He said that the tariff is $1 per barrel of oil, adding that empty tankers can pass freely. "Once the email arrives and Iran completes its assessment, vessels are given a few seconds to pay in Bitcoin, ensuring they can't be traced or confiscated due to sanctions," Hosseini added.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
April 8, 2026 — AWS has announced Amazon S3 Files, a new file system that seamlessly connects any AWS compute resource with Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).
Credit: Shutterstock
S3 Files delivers a shared file system that connects any AWS compute resource directly with your data in Amazon S3. With S3 Files, Amazon S3 is the first and only cloud object store that provides fully-featured, high-performance file system access to data. It provides full file system semantics and low-latency performance, without data ever leaving S3. That means file-based applications, agents, and teams can now access and work with S3 data as a file system using the tools they already depend on.
Built using Amazon EFS, S3 Files gives users the performance and simplicity of a file system with the scalability, durability, and cost-effectiveness of S3. Users no longer need to duplicate data or cycle it between object storage and file system storage. S3 Files maintains a view of the objects in a bucket and intelligently translates file system operations into efficient S3 requests on the user’s behalf. File-based applications run on S3 data with no code changes, AI agents persist memory and share state across pipelines, and ML teams run data preparation workloads without duplicating or staging files first. Now, file-based tools and applications across an organization can work with S3 data directly from any compute instance, container, and function using the tools teams and agents already depend on.
Organizations store their analytics data and data lakes in S3, but file-based tools, agents, and applications have never been able to directly work with that data. Bridging that gap meant managing a separate file system, duplicating data, and building complex pipelines to keep object and file storage in sync. S3 Files eliminates that friction and overhead. Using S3 Files, data is accessible through the file system and directly through S3 APIs at the same time. Thousands of compute resources can connect to the same S3 file system simultaneously, enabling shared access across clusters without duplicating data. S3 Files works with all new and existing data in S3 buckets, with no migration required.
S3 Files caches actively used data for low-latency access and provides up to multiple terabytes per second of aggregate read throughput, so storage never limits performance. There are no data silos, no synchronization complexities, and no tradeoffs. File and object storage, together in one place without compromise.
S3 Files is now generally available in 34 AWS Regions. For the full list of supported Regions, visit the AWS Capabilities tool. To learn more, visit the product page, S3 pricing page, and documentation.
Source: AWS
The post AWS Launches Amazon S3 Files, Making S3 Buckets Accessible as File Systems appeared first on HPCwire.
The chasm between the two sides remains vast. A mega-deal remains the only path to averting a return to full-scale war
Donald Trump styles himself as a peerless tough guy who never backs down. But he doesn’t always make good on his threats. Consider his demand that Denmark hand over Greenland, or his threats to hike tariffs on trade partners. He has even found ways to extend his deadlines for Tehran to reopen the strait of Hormuz, claiming, without evidence, that Iran was “begging” for a deal.
On Monday, Trump outdid himself. He gave Tehran until Tuesday at 8pm ET to reopen the strait – or “a whole civilization will die tonight”. The president’s public threat to commit genocide sent shockwaves through the United States. Some Democratic leaders concluded that “Trump has lost his mind”. More than 70 Democratic members of Congress called for his removal from office. Some politicians and media personalities sympathetic to Maga did the same or roundly rebuked him. Some commentators reminded soldiers that they were required to disobey flagrantly illegal orders. Never in American presidential politics has a spectacle matched this one.
Continue reading...Voters pick Clay Fuller for US House over Democrat who opposes Iran war, but by smaller margin than in the past
Republican Clay Fuller supports the war in Iran. Democrat Shawn Harris opposes it. Voters in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former district in north-west Georgia decided that this distinction was not enough to propel a Democrat into a conservative-leaning House seat on Tuesday night.
But Fuller won with 56% of the vote, against Harris’s 44%, according to the Associated Press, a result that comes after Greene secured the district by 28 points in 2024 and 32 points two years earlier. Democrats claim the swing to the left in the north-western corner of Georgia is a notable shift that’s worth celebrating.
Continue reading...Thinking about selling your gold assets? Taxes, dealer spreads and other fees could cost you more than expected.
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday defended his decision to repeal the legal determination that serves as the basis for federal rules to slow climate change.
Over 70 Democratic lawmakers are calling for amendment to be invoked to remove Trump from office amid war
Democratic party leaders have vowed to renew the effort to curb Donald Trump’s war in Iran after several days of escalating tactics that culminated in a temporary ceasefire on Tuesday evening.
In recent months, several war powers resolutions have failed in Congress after a handful of Democrats voted alongside Republicans. But Trump’s aggressive overtures this week – including a Truth Social post that said “a whole civilization” could be wiped out if Iran did not agree to demands, have pushed some to act.
Continue reading...Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi were arrested 7 March with alleged homemade devices at Gracie Mansion in New York
Two teen alleged Islamic State supporters accused of trying to detonate explosive devices during a protest outside the home of New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, freely discussed how many people they might kill, with one remarking: “I want to start terror, bro,” according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday.
The teenagers, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, were arrested on 7 March for allegedly igniting two improvised explosive devices during an anti-Islam protest outside Gracie Mansion. Authorities claim that Balat, 18, lit one device and threw it in the direction of the protesters.
Continue reading...A HELOC offers homeowners an affordable way to borrow money now. Here's what it can cost at today's interest rates.
Attorney general says court ruling against Chad Bianco ‘reins in the destabilizing actions of a rogue sheriff’
The California supreme court on Wednesday ordered a county sheriff and gubernatorial candidate who seized more than half a million 2025 election ballots to pause his investigation into election fraud allegations while the judges review the legal challenge against it.
The order came after the California attorney general, Rob Bonta, last month asked the court to step in, arguing the sheriff has no authority over election materials. A voting rights group is also challenging the ballot seizure.
Continue reading...With its new Claude Mythos Preview model, the company is pulling together tech giants for a new cybersecurity consortium, Project Glasswing.
Justice department says Bondi will not appear for House deposition since she was ousted as US attorney general
Former US Attorney General Pam Bondi, the former US attorney general, will not appear next week for a scheduled deposition before the House oversight and government reform committee to answer questions about the justice department’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and its release of the Epstein files, the committee said.
In a statement on Wednesday morning shared with the Guardian, a spokesperson for the House oversight committee said: “The Department of Justice has stated Pam Bondi will not appear on 14 April for a deposition since she is no longer attorney general and was subpoenaed in her capacity as attorney general.”
Continue reading...Analysts say Pakistani officials’ efforts led to breakthrough that has helped avert catastrophe, at least for now
Pakistan’s leaders had almost lost hope. After more than two weeks of frantic negotiations, phonecalls and diplomatic summits to try to end the US-Israeli war with Iran, it looked like the conflict might instead be escalating into Islamabad’s worst nightmare.
In a cabinet meeting held at about 5pm on Tuesday, Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, was morose. “We should brace ourselves for the impact of the war,” he told his cabinet ministers. “The situation has really become very bleak. The chance of peace has become dim.”
Continue reading...The Middle East’s best hope may be that the US president continues to rebadge strategic defeat as success
Both the US and Iran claimed victory on Wednesday morning. Both were lying. The two-week ceasefire announced by Donald Trump the night before is not the triumph that he declared. It may not be an end to the war, as welcome as the pause is, or even last the fortnight. Mr Trump said that Iran has gone through regime change. It has not. If anything, less experienced, less readable but more hardline figures are now in charge. He said that the strait of Hormuz would be open; Iran said that ships would pass through with permission, and at a price.
By Wednesday evening, Iranian state media said that the strait was closed after Israel unleashed a brutal assault on Lebanon: about 100 strikes in 10 minutes. Iran had insisted that Lebanon was part of the deal, while Mr Trump disagreed. This conflict has killed thousands in the region, including children, and left many more exhausted, terrified and traumatised, while the aggressors have openly boasted of their intent to commit war crimes.
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Continue reading...Meta has launched Muse Spark, its first major AI model under Alexandr Wang's leadership. The model was built over the past nine months and is being positioned as a significant step up from Llama 4. Axios reports: Muse Spark will power queries in the Meta AI app and Meta.ai website immediately, with plans to expand across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The model accepts voice, text and image inputs, but produces text-only output. [...] Meta plans to release a version of Muse Spark under an open-source license. The model uses a fast mode for casual queries and several reasoning modes. A "shopping mode" highlights how Meta hopes to differentiate itself. It combines large language models with data on user interests and behavior. Over time, the model will also power "features that cite recommendations and content people share across Instagram, Facebook, and Threads," Meta said in a blog post. Wang, the 29-year-old entrepreneur who co-founded Scale AI, joined Meta's "superintelligence" unit last year to help Meta catch up to rival models from OpenAI and Anthropic.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Dozens of dogs were found crammed into single living room space at property in undisclosed location in UK
More than 250 dogs have been found at a property in scenes so shocking that the RSPCA was forced to deny allegations that the images were faked by artificial intelligence.
The animal welfare charity said it took in 87 dogs from the property at an undisclosed location in the UK and the remainder went to the Dogs Trust, another charity.
Continue reading...
The war in Iran has entered its first ceasefire — a two-week break from hostilities brokered largely by Pakistan that all sides have agreed to, with negotiations on a permanent end to the war to follow starting in a few days.
It’s hard to say who has emerged a “winner” in the war so far, but certainly when one examines what has been accomplished and what has not, the U.S. cannot claim a resounding victory, even as it demonstrated formidable military prowess.
It’s hard to say who has emerged a “winner” in the war so far, but the U.S. certainly cannot claim a resounding victory.
Iran may, in fact, be the country that can claim the victory. It’s not just that the Islamic Republic of Iran survived, it’s also that the country demonstrated its control over the Strait of Hormuz — an outcome that establishes Iran’s position as both an influential regional force and a player able to exert sway over the entire world economy.
After the ceasefire announcement, Iran’s first vice president posted on social media: “Today, a page of history has been turned; the world has welcomed a new pole of power, and the era of Iran has begun.”
It sounds like Trumpian hubris, but it can’t immediately be dismissed as a far-fetched fantasy.
First, the regime had to survive. And it did: Despite President Donald Trump’s self-serving claim, the regime in Iran hasn’t changed. In fact, the Iranian government may have become even more hard-line and less accommodating than before.
Iran took a beating. Despite the depletion of some of its strategic assets, however, the country has maintained many of its strategic capabilities.
The war hasn’t, for instance, eliminated the uranium stockpile Iran still possesses, though it is buried deep underground — leaving unmet another of the demands that the Trump administration. It is unclear if any of Iran’s thousands of advanced centrifuges survived the bombings in June of last year, but Iran’s ability to manufacture new ones has not been eradicated, despite the loss of some of its nuclear scientists over the past year.
Neither have Israel and the U.S. eliminated all of Iran’s missile launchers or its production lines, as evidenced by the ongoing attacks against Israel and neighboring Persian Gulf states with direct hits up to the ceasefire taking effect. Iran’s drone supply and production line also don’t appear to have been eliminated.
The war, in other words, hasn’t prevented Iran from being a threat to U.S. allies in the region — a threat that has shaken the Arab Persian Gulf states’ faith in U.S. security guarantees, to say nothing of investors’ confidence in the Emirates as a financial capital.
The Gulf is not the only region where the U.S. will suffer international consequences. The war also stoked tensions between Iran and Western nations — some of which assailed the U.S., while even staunch allies in Europe refused to cave to Trump’s admonishments to join the war.
Iran may remain one of the most geopolitically isolated states in the world, but U.S. isolation is rapidly on the rise as well.
Scoring the war and the previous attack on Iran’s nuclear sites like a boxing match, one might argue that Iran has “won” the second round, despite being bruised and bloodied in the fight.
Surviving intact after more than five weeks of intensive day and night bombing by two nuclear powers, the assassination of its supreme leader and some of its top leadership, and the destruction of infrastructure will itself be viewed by the regime and its supporters as victory.
The regime’s ability to keep fighting against arguably the greatest military power the world has ever seen will be viewed in Tehran and abroad as a remarkable show of strength, potentially establishing a deterrent against future rounds of fighting.
Ultimately, though, it is Iran’s demonstration of its ability to control the flow of oil, gas, and goods through the Strait of Hormuz that would clinch the match. It became evident that Iran’s sway over the strait, creating a toll booth of sorts, was virtually impossible to undo, short of a major ground invasion — something Trump and even his most reckless advisers were loath to authorize.
Leaving aside the bonus Iran received from the jump in prices as it continued to sell oil during the conflict, the toll it began charging — which amounts to about $2 million per ship — will fill its almost empty coffers in short order.
In his remarks to the press, Trump did not seem to be especially concerned with the toll, even suggesting that he, like any mafia boss, would like a piece of it. Iran may, in the event a permanent peace deal is achieved, even agree to pay the protection money if it guarantees the safety of the regime.
From the perspective of many in the West and certainly in Iran, the claim that Iran “won” the second round of the match rings truer than the U.S. claim of having accomplished its goals.
The U.S. and Israel’s assassinations and destruction of military and civilian infrastructure were never contestable; Iran was never a match for the two countries’ conventional forces. To what end, though, was the question.
Whether there is a final peace deal or not, the ends of the war can hardly justify the U.S. and Israel’s means. It may be enough to dissuade military action even absent a deal.
And looking forward, in terms of a longer peace deal and nuclear agreement, Iran is arguably in a stronger position than the days before the war.
At the announcement of the ceasefire, Trump said the Iranian 10-point plan was a workable start to negotiations. Though there are some disputes about whether the proposal Iran presented publicly matched what was transmitted privately, many of the new plan’s pillars matched those presented and what Omani mediators had described as a workable proposal for a diplomatic solution.
By surviving a war and inflicting real pain, Iran can probably extract more concessions from Trump than it could before.
By surviving a war and inflicting real pain — physical and financial — on both the aggressors and their enablers, Iran can probably extract more concessions from Trump than it could before.
With his eye on the markets, the price of gasoline, the unpopularity of the war, and the realization in the wake of his apocalyptic threats that there is universal opposition to actually taking Iran back to the Stone Age, it should be obvious by now that Trump wants to put the Iran issue behind him as soon as possible.
In this way, too, the Iranians have shown that they have the upper hand. While Trump and Israel have demonstrated that they don’t understand the Iranian political system, the Iranians have a solid grasp of U.S. politics. They know about the upcoming midterm elections. Perhaps now they think the survival of the Trump regime is actually what’s at stake.
The post How the War Strengthened Iran’s Hand Against the U.S. and Israel appeared first on The Intercept.
April 8, 2026 — ARQUE Systems, a spin-off from Forschungszentrum Jülich and RWTH Aachen University, aims to bring about a breakthrough in quantum computing with a scalable architecture. A key advantage: the processor is based on conventional semiconductor technology. The first system is currently being set up at Jülich.
Prof. Hendrik Bluhm (right) and Dr. Markus Beckers (left) founded ARQUE Systems GmbH in September 2022 together with two other colleagues. Credit: Martin Leclaire Photography.
All components are already on site. After completion of the testing phase, ARQUE Systems’ first system is set to go into operation at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC). Its quantum computing infrastructure, JUNIQ, provides users from science and industry with access to state-of-the-art quantum computers from various manufacturers.
Quantum computers promise enormous potential for solving societally relevant yet highly demanding computational tasks—for example, the simulation of materials and chemical processes or tackling complex optimization problems that are typically beyond the reach of classical digital computers.
“For most of these applications, stable systems with thousands to millions of qubits would be desirable. We are still a long way from that, but it is precisely this scalability that is the strength of our approach,” explains physicist Prof. Hendrik Bluhm.
With the spin-off ARQUE Systems, which he founded together with colleagues from Forschungszentrum Jülich and RWTH Aachen University, he leverages proven methods from the semiconductor industry.
“This approach has several advantages: we can build on established materials and manufacturing processes. At the same time, our spin qubits are smaller, more robust against disturbances, and can in principle be integrated in large numbers on a single chip,” emphasizes Dr. Markus Beckers, CEO of ARQUE Systems.
“In the long term, millions of qubits could fit on a chip the size of a fingernail – significantly more than with any other approach realized so far,” says the former innovation consultant and mechanical engineer.
Electron Shuttle for Advanced Quantum Processors
A key challenge here is the so-called entanglement of quantum bits, or qubits for short. This coupling of quantum states is an essential prerequisite for the enormous computing power of quantum computers. However, to achieve entanglement of qubits, they must be very close together—which is hardly feasible for large numbers of qubits due to spatial constraints.
On the ARQUE Systems chip, the qubits—which are themselves only about one hundred nanometers in size—can be moved using a patented process. Like on an assembly line, the electrons, which serve as the qubits’ information carriers, can be moved along so-called shuttling paths over distances of tens of thousands of nanometers without losing the sensitive quantum states. This makes it possible to entangle qubits even when they are physically far apart.
The underlying principle was developed in close collaboration between Forschungszentrum Jülich and RWTH Aachen University. The technology is still at an early stage of development. ARQUE Systems’ first quantum processor comprises five qubits – state of the art for semiconductor-based quantum processors.
Other parts of the system are also in-house developments. “All key components come from North Rhine-Westphalia and have been developed here up to the prototype stage,” explains Markus Beckers.
The first prototypes of the processor chip were manufactured at the Helmholtz Nano Facility (HNF) – the Helmholtz Association’s cleanroom complex at Forschungszentrum Jülich. The current version was developed in collaboration with development partner Infineon.
Cryogenic Integrated Circuits for More Qubits
The Peter Grünberg Institute – Integrated Computing Architectures (PGI-4) at Forschungszentrum Jülich is focusing on the scaling bottleneck, the so-called “wiring apocalypse,” since every qubit is currently controlled from the outside via its own individual lines. This should be solved by highly efficient cryogenic control electronics, which will be directly integrated with quantum chips from ARQUE Systems. To this end, researchers at PGI-4 are collaborating with the spin-off IceCirc GmbH to develop special chips similar to those used in smartphones.
More from HPCwire: Jülich Collaborates with ARQUE Systems on Semiconductor Qubit Integration
Source: Forschungszentrum Jülich
The post Jülich-Aachen Start-up Paves the Way for Scalable Quantum Computers appeared first on HPCwire.
I guess I could wait for the restock of the X7, but has anybody done the DIY X7 and been happy with the experience?
And what are the thoughts about the X7 vs the Rally XL?
And lastly, any strong opinions on waiting for the 5” motor to come back in stock vs the 6”?
I’m on an OG XR now, up from a Pint before that.
I really appreciate any thoughts, I’m kind of lost on FM vs alternatives as I look at a new board.
Record high set on Monday and raised on Tuesday, with 14.4GW of electricity generated in sunny spring weather
Britain’s sunny spring weather powered the grid to new solar energy records on two consecutive days this week.
Solar farms in England, Wales and Scotland generated 14.1GW of low-carbon electricity at lunchtime on Monday, surpassing the previous high of 14GW in July last year.
Continue reading...New York Times report claims London-born Adam Back is creator of the cryptocurrency after comparing writings
A British computer scientist has insisted he is not the elusive developer of bitcoin, after a report claimed to unmask him as its creator.
A story in the New York Times details a years-long effort to unmask Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious author of the bitcoin white paper which laid the theoretical foundations for modern digital currencies.
Continue reading...Kseniia Petrova, a Russian who spent four months in detention, is charged with smuggling the embryos into the U.S. in her luggage.
US vice-president says on visit to Budapest ‘we had to show’ support for Viktor Orbán, as opposition leads polls
JD Vance has pushed back against claims that the US is interfering in Hungarian politics, describing the accusations as “darkly ironic”, as a set of polls suggested the opposition Tisza party could win a supermajority in the forthcoming elections.
After spending his first day in Budapest excoriating the EU and accusing it of being behind one of the “worst examples” of foreign interference, the US vice-president spent part of Wednesday morning speaking at a thinktank and educational institution linked to Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orbán.
Continue reading...In just a few easy steps, you can make all Liquid Glass elements on your iPhone appear more solid.
New York architect admits to murdering eight women, whose remains were mostly found along Long Island’s coast
Rex Heuermann, a Long Island architect accused of seven murders known as the Gilgo Beach killings dating back to 1993, pleaded guilty on Wednesday – and added an eighth murder to his gruesome tally.
Heuermann, who has been held in custody since he was arrested on a Manhattan street in July 2023, appeared in court in Riverhead, Long Island, New York, and changed his plea to guilty in the murders of women whose remains were found years after they disappeared.
Continue reading...
RACHEL GEHRMAN
Staff Reporter
Content Warning: This article and Chanel Miller’s memoir contain mentions of sexual assault.
On March 10, Mitchell Hall was swimming with inspiration as Chanel Miller spoke to an audience of students and adults in the community. Miller is now the author of “Know My Name,” along with two children’s books, but in 2015 she was defined by her sexual assault case and known as “Emily Doe.”
In conversation with Zainab Shah, the lecture moderator and assistant director for victim advocacy at the university, Miller spoke about navigating life after a life-altering incident, the journey to reclaim her voice and how her current life has turned out to hold unexpected joys.
Miller began by reading the opening passage of her 2019 memoir, “Know My Name,” which briefly highlights her process of having to gain control over her story and trauma in order to write her memoir.
“I assembled and reassembled 26 letters in ways that would describe what I’d seen and felt,” Miller said. “As I revisited that landscape, I grew more in control.”
She shed light on the discomfort and pain of the process — however, through it, she was able to grow. This was not the only barrier standing between Miller and writing her memoir; she also spent time struggling with self-worth.
“And I also, throughout the trial, I felt like I was the least qualified person to be telling the story, because I had no memory,” Miller said. “There were people in that courthouse with PhDs, law degrees, they had seen more than I had seen.”
Although Miller lived through the assault, she did not feel fit to write about it. She questioned why her audience would choose her memoir over the Wikipedia page with all the facts already laid out.
“And I just feel like I was tasked with this mission I didn’t ask for,” said Miller.
What pulled her through was the belief that her point of view had the right to compete with the facts, media attention and the “Emily Doe” identity that was created without her. It was about the attempt to shout loud enough to overshadow “Emily Doe” and how media coverage defined her.
Miller also speaks to how the prolonged trial eroded something she once felt certain of.
“I was devastated for myself, because at one point in time I had known he was guilty, and over the course of a year and a half, I had forgotten it,” Miller said.
The way that time warped and evolved her mindset jumped out at her while writing the memoir. She voiced questions that had clouded her mind about what she did or did not deserve, and if it was supposed to have happened to her. In the years to follow, this became a point of importance while Miller was advocating for other sexual assault victims.
“I want to ensure that you never become that unaligned, I want you to stay close to what you know,” Miller said.
By the end of writing her book, she realized that she had managed to create what was most true to her — not the other testimonies or the media. The opportunity to reflect became a significant milestone in her recovery.
Miller described the road to reclaiming her voice as being unpredictable.
“But by being public, I’ve learned that life is so wonderfully unpredictable, like you could not have told me I would be on a stage in Delaware with you,” Miller said.
She also spent time speaking about newly opened doors and ways in which she has been able to reach even more people. Through each opportunity, she emphasized the reality of the “light at the end of the tunnel” — the clarity that is so hard to believe in when undergoing misfortune.
At one point during the lecture, Miller talked about a metaphor shared by her editor to help the book-writing process, and it spoke volumes to the process of struggle and recovery.
She called it the undertow, where the ocean’s current is the vast combination of overwhelming emotions, pressure from others and all other factors that take a toll on anyone surfacing from trauma.
“I am pulled out into the ocean, and I was drowned initially, but eventually, after hours and hours, I paddle my way back to shore,” Miller said. “Then I have to tell the story again, and I’m swept out again. I break down in court, but this time I paddle back a little bit faster. The story is about watching you return to shore a little bit faster every time.”
Microsoft has apparently terminated the account VeraCrypt uses to sign its Windows drivers and bootloader, leaving the encryption project unable to publish Windows updates and throwing future releases into doubt. VeraCrypt's developer says Microsoft gave no clear explanation or warning for the move. "I didn't receive any emails from Microsoft nor any prior warnings," Mounir Idrassi, VeraCrypt's developer, told 404 Media. From the report: VeraCrypt is an open-source tool for encrypting data at rest. Users can create encrypted partitions on their drives, or make individual encrypted volumes to store their files in. Like its predecessor TrueCrypt, which VeraCrypt is based on, it also lets users create a second, innocuous looking volume if they are compelled to hand over their credentials. Last week, Idrassi took to the SourceForge forums to explain why he had been absent for a few months. The most serious challenge, he wrote, "is that Microsoft terminated the account I have used for years to sign Windows drivers and the bootloader." "Regarding VeraCrypt, I cannot publish Windows updates. Linux and macOS updates can still be done but Windows is the platform used by the majority of users and so the inability to deliver Windows releases is a major blow to the project," he continued. "Currently I'm out of options." Idrassi told 404 Media the termination happened in mid-January. "I was surprised to discover that I could no longer use my account," he said. On the forum and in the email to 404 Media, Idrassi shared what he said was the only message he received connected to the account shutdown. "Based on the information you have provided to date, we have determined that your organization does not currently meet the requirements to pass verification. There are no appeals available, we have closed your application," it reads. Idrassi told 404 Media the message is concerning his company IDRIX. "As you can read in their message, they say that the organization (IDRIX) doesn't meet their requirements, but I don't see which requirement IDRIX suddenly stopped meeting," he said. Idrassi said he has tried contacting Microsoft support, but he received automated responses that he believes contained AI-generated text.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Nixon’s Vietnam strategy appears at play in Trump’s Iran threats, but he may want to ponder the ex-president’s fate
Donald Trump has made no secret of his admiration for Richard Nixon, Watergate and leaving office in disgrace be damned.
But the president has taken his tribute act to new levels in threatening to erase Iran as a civilization, only to step back from the brink when the Tehran regime agreed – at a price – to reopen the economically vital strait of Hormuz.
Continue reading...The rapper formerly known as Kanye West being denied entry into the U.K. has raised questions over the star's upcoming performance in Italy.
 | loving this rally xl! [link] [comments] |
Taylor defeated conservative rival Maria Lazar, providing another gauge of Democrats’ durability in midterms
Wisconsin voters sent another liberal justice to the state supreme court, with Chris Taylor beating the conservative Maria Lazar and giving liberals a 5-2 edge on the high court.
The retirement of Justice Rebecca Bradley, a conservative, gave liberals a chance to further consolidate their hold on the high court ahead of the next presidential election, when the swing state is sure to see challenges to election results.
Continue reading...Internal secrecy appears to stretch to Augusta chairman
‘It’s not a trivial question … they won’t tell me the answer’
The Masters gnome drama has taken another twist after the chair of Augusta National admitted he is in the dark as to the must-have items’ future. Fred Ridley has repeatedly asked whether 2026 will be the final year for gnomes being on sale – as has been widely speculated – but revealed there is internal secrecy even towards him.
Ridley’s annual Masters media address took an amusing turn when a questioner put what was suggested as a “trivial” poser towards him: are reports of the gnomes’ demise correct? “Number one, the question is not trivial,” he said. “Number two: I’ve been asking that question for several years and they won’t tell me the answer. So I can’t help you.”
Continue reading...Molly Miller and Colt Haynes were last seen on July 7, 2013, and spoke to friends the next morning before vanishing.
The new damage hero joins the roster next week, but lore and gameplay details are still under wraps.
As the deadly federal immigration crackdown fueled by a racist obsession with Somali people kicked into high gear in Minnesota, a right-wing local news site in Maine had a clear message: Bring the chaos here.
The Maine Wire launched in 2011, and for the next decade most of its output was standard libertarian fare. But as the U.S. right took a hard nativist turn — and amid an infusion of cash from some of the most powerful right-wing money men in the country — the site developed a fixation on Maine’s Somali community, a highly visible immigrant population in a state that’s over 90 percent white.
Amid the runaway success of a right-wing YouTuber’s viral video about “Somali fraud” in Minnesota, the site played an enthusiastic role in selling a similar narrative in Maine, spinning nuggets of truth into overstated claims of massive graft. And they got results.
In January, the Department of Homeland Security launched a surge of federal agents into the state, sweeping up hundreds of migrants while also performing showy raids on Somali-owned businesses linked to people who had been mentioned in the Maine Wire. In February, top federal officials, including Donald Trump himself, called for greater scrutiny of the state’s Medicaid system in language that directly targeted Somalis — a tack that closely followed The Maine Wire’s lead.
Editor-in-chief Steve Robinson, a Maine native who spent years producing shock-jock radio in Boston, came to the publication in 2023. The shift in tone was evident almost immediately. “Maine Governor Wants to Resettle 75,000 Foreign-Born Migrants in Maine by 2029,” Robinson warned in a headline that year. Critics blamed the piece for sparking an anti-immigrant rally by neo-Nazis at the state Capitol a few weeks later.
Robinson and his staffers present the website as a plucky upstart fighting for the common Mainer, but their work is not all driven by lobstermen and loggers. In recent years, The Maine Wire and its parent organization, the libertarian-leaning Maine Policy Institute, benefited from millions of dollars in donations from entities associated with Leonard Leo, the judicial activist widely credited with the conservative takeover of the Supreme Court, and Thomas D. Klingenstein, a MAGA megadonor and chair of the ultra-conservative Claremont Institute.
Between 2020 and 2024, the most recent year for which records are available, the Maine Policy Institute saw its annual revenue nearly triple — with a surge in funding from entities linked to Leo and Klingenstein, according to an analysis of tax documents by The Intercept. In 2024, at least $1.2 million of the institute’s $1.9 million budget came from organizations connected to Leo’s dark-money network.
The budget boost came amid a broader push by Leo, Klingenstein, and other conservative bankrollers to inject cash into state-level projects, ensuring their authoritarian, anti-immigrant, and climate-denial efforts have local staying power. (Representatives for Leo and Klingenstein did not respond to The Intercept’s requests for comment.)
Matt Gagnon, the Maine Policy Institute’s CEO, declined to comment on how much of that cash goes into the operations of The Maine Wire. But over the course of those years of plenty, its staff has more than doubled to include three reporters, one “digital media correspondent,” and three editors.
In the process, The Maine Wire has carved out a belligerent presence in the state. Its reach is felt especially on social media, where it boasts some 200,000 followers across Facebook and X, as well as 26,000 subscribers to a spinoff on Substack. (Maine’s population hovers at around 1.4 million.) Gagnon credited Robinson for this growth, praising him for pursuing a web-savvy strategy and a voicey style.
“What we’re trying to do with The Maine Wire is not like a Wall Street Journal,” Gagnon told The Intercept. “It’s not ‘Just the facts, ma’am,’ or completely free of bias or opinion. We try to shake through our bias to make sure we’re reporting accurately, obviously, and to make sure that we’re not engaging in tabloid garbage news, but we’re very open about our perspective.”
“You get one Somali on a jury in Minnesota, you think they’re going to convict anybody?”
That perspective is openly hostile to Maine’s Somali community. While discussing the Minnesota fraud scandal on a podcast, for example, Robinson posed, “You get one Somali on a jury in Minnesota, you think they’re going to convict anybody?” — ignoring the dozens of people indicted and convicted by federal prosecutors under President Joe Biden.
This apparent bias leads to similar distortions at home in Maine. Many of The Maine Wire’s claims of fraud rest on existing state audits from years past in which investigators — employed by the state of Maine — found evidence of improper payments. Without producing hard evidence of equivalent examples that have gone unaddressed, the site presents these as the tip of the iceberg, rather than instances of the state actually doing its job to combat fraud.
“The Maine Wire has a way of telling half-truths and then getting Mainers riled up about it,” said Paige Loud, a social worker running for Congress in the state’s 2nd Congressional District.
After an initial interview fell through, Robinson stopped responding to The Intercept’s attempts to reschedule. When contacted with a detailed list of questions prior to publication, he declined to comment.
On the homepage of The Maine Wire, the reader finds a grim portrait of the state. In between stories hinting at — but hardly proving — extensive fraud in Maine or scaremongering about the security of mail-in ballots, the site’s coverage is a miasma of stock tabloid fare: Tales of small-time drug busts and mugshots of vacant-eyed defendants abound. To take the site at face value, it would seem that Maine is awash in fraud, upcoming elections are in danger, and violence lurks around every corner — often at the hands of immigrants, and specifically members of Maine’s Somali diaspora.
Whenever possible, links to Somali people and institutions are presented as red flags. The term “Somali-linked” appears frequently, suggesting a stain of corruption inherent to anyone of Somali descent; one recent article managed to squeeze the word “Somali” twice into a single headline. In another story, a reporter flagged a business as suspicious in part because it shared an address with a hawala, a type of money-transfer business found in Muslim communities worldwide, which The Maine Wire described as “equipped to funnel taxpayer money back to Africa.”
The fixation on Somalis only recently became the site’s bread and butter. In the first 11 months of 2025, The Maine Wire published approximately 23 articles that included the word “Somali,” averaging about two per month.
Beginning in December, as right-wing audiences frothed over the viral Nick Shirley video in Minnesota, The Maine Wire leapt into action. Its journalists dusted off earlier reporting to suggest the existence of a sprawling conspiracy of Medicaid fraud, protected by a sordid alliance between Democratic political elites and allegedly corrupt Somali-run nonprofits and health care providers. That month, the Maine Wire published at least 31 articles that included the word “Somali” and kept it up with at least 26 in January, at least 14 in February, and at least nine in March. Robinson published still more stories about the issue on his Substack, dubbed The Robinson Report.
Somali Americans in the state are no strangers to nativism, but people who spoke with The Intercept said the past few months have been unusually tense, thanks in large part to The Maine Wire’s obsession with their community, which numbers less than 3,000 people, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data.
“It’s created a lot of stress for me,” said a Somali American resident of Lewiston who has been the subject of reporting by The Maine Wire and harassed by its readers. “The Maine Wire started this rhetoric against Somalis last year, and a lot of people really are saying horrible things on social media that are very, very racist. And that’s just kind of normalized now.”
Still, the site wins praise from readers for reporting on issues they feel are ignored by more mainstream publications. Maine journalists who spoke with The Intercept for this story admitted a grudging respect for some of the work that The Maine Wire has done, including a series on illicit marijuana grow houses owned and operated by Chinese nationals. But they criticized the site for overhyping the idea of widespread fraud.
“Some of the people who work there seem like they actually have the smarts and the talent to be good journalists. It’s just that the whole damn thing is geared towards electing Republicans,” said Steve Collins, a longtime reporter in the state who writes a column for the Portland Press Herald and has been openly critical of the website. “They take information, and instead of using it to report news in some kind of straight, rational way, it’s just a way to bash people and stir up fear.”
Others were blunter.
“The Maine Wire is poison,” said independent journalist and former Maine state legislator Andy O’Brien, who has written critically of Steve Robinson. “When you look at the comments, they are so often violent and racist. It gets scary.”
The “think national, act local” strategy has won The Maine Wire an audience of ever more powerful people, a fact that was made clear in February when Mehmet Oz — the quackery-boosting former television personality who now helms the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — took to Instagram to issue an ultimatum to Gov. Janet Mills.
“You’ve probably heard about Minnesota’s fraud problems. Maine also needs to clean up its act,” Oz wrote. “Somali fraudsters in Minnesota stole millions from a similar program, and we’re seeing all the same red flags in Maine.”
In a February 6 letter, Oz gave Mills 30 days to produce documentation of Maine’s public health funding and the safeguards in place to prevent fraud. The letter included a provision for an extension, but when Mills asked for one, Oz denied it. According to Ben Goodman, a spokesperson for Mills, The Maine Wire knew about the denial before it even hit the governor’s desk.
“Addressing allegations of fraud is — and should be — a collective, professional effort between the State and Federal government, not a political cudgel from a President desperately trying to distract from his failed agenda,” Goodman told The Intercept in a statement. “So let’s be clear about what this is — yet another attempt to attack and intimidate those who dare stand up to Trump’s abuses of power.”
“This is directly connected to the story in Minnesota to demonize Somali communities, which brought about ICE raids there.”
It’s no accident that the events playing out in Maine resemble the playbook used to justify the federal crackdown in Minnesota, according to Graham Platner, a U.S. Senate candidate running against Mills for the Democratic nomination.
“This is a nationwide project. This is directly connected to the story in Minnesota to demonize Somali communities, which brought about ICE raids there,” Platner told The Intercept.
It made sense, Platner added, to see Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rush into Maine after The Maine Wire ramped up its Somali fraud coverage.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to connect the dots,” he said.
For some Mainers who’ve found themselves in the outlet’s crosshairs, its tactics have raised questions about its accuracy.
In February, as part of a series alleging widespread fraud and abuse at group homes in Maine, the site posted a video of a young man with autism who had wandered out of his facility. The article did not say when the video was taken, but Claudia Millett, the man’s mother, told The Intercept it was almost a year old: Her son had escaped from his home in March 2025, and since then, she said, the staff responsible had been fired, and he has been safe and well taken care of.
“My son is non-verbal, with level-III autism,” Millett said. “He did get out that time, but they haven’t had any trouble since, and they have been really great with my son.”
“It’s unethical, because they haven’t even contacted me for comment.”
Millett said she reached out repeatedly to The Maine Wire, but the outlet showed no interest in talking to her.
“I sent them a message on Facebook Messenger about them posting that video, but they haven’t even read it,” she said. “I think it’s unethical, because they haven’t even contacted me for comment.”
Loud, the social worker running for Congress, said she saw firsthand how the state’s byzantine system for documenting Medicaid claims — and an unwillingness by lawmakers to confront the problem — led to worker burnout and frustrated patients. But rather than covering those systemic causes, The Maine Wire’s staff have pushed to dismantle Medicaid and MaineCare and target immigrant-owned businesses.
“Unless Medicaid is abolished all of the fraud hunting will be just a fun exercise for data nerds,” Robinson wrote on X in February. “Abolish Medicaid, deport all foreign recipients and all foreign Medicaid profiteers.”
“Steve Robinson has been able to lock in on a topic that a lot of Mainers are talking about but that the Democratic legislature is unwilling to comment on,” Loud told The Intercept. “I wish it was in good faith, because this population deserves a voice. But unfortunately, the only people giving them a voice are trying to use it against them.”
The Maine Wire has not always been such a combative force for nativism. The Maine Policy Institute first launched the site in 2011, and in the intervening decade, its content stuck mostly to sober articles pushing for libertarian-minded policies. (Allegations of Medicaid fraud have been a constant, but the focus on allegations against Somalis is more recent.) Then known as the Maine Heritage Policy Center, the think tank had an annual revenue hovering just over half a million dollars in the 2010s, tax records show, much of it from relatively modest donations from family foundations linked to its local backers.
The organization was caught flat-footed by Trump’s 2016 victory, according to a former employee who worked there in the latter half of the 2010s, spurring “a wake-up call for the organization.”
“If we wanted to be more successful in the state, not just spreading our ideas, aligning with MAGA in some form might be advantageous,” the former employee said, speaking on condition of anonymity to not jeopardize future job prospects. “It was just a realization that there’s more money to be made and more eyeballs to attract.”
The money began to arrive in earnest in 2021, thanks to the largesse of groups connected with two of the country’s most powerful right-wing donors: Leonard Leo and Thomas D. Klingenstein. Leo, a longtime vacationer in Maine, moved to the state in 2020, and his fingerprints could soon be found on various political campaigns and causes.
Leo, who has been publicly connected with The Maine Wire since at least 2023, has spoken obliquely of his support for the site, including in a lovefest of an interview in 2023 with Robinson in which he told the editor that it had “been a privilege to be able to support your work.”
An analysis by The Intercept of tax documents detailing donations to the organization showed that funds controlled by or linked to Klingenstein and Leo donated at least $2.6 million to the Maine Policy Institute between 2020 and 2024, while a handful of other donor-advised funds — a common vehicle for anonymous donations — provided at least another $390,965 during that period.
In 2021, the Thomas D. Klingenstein Fund contributed $249,000, and overall contributions leapt from $693,536 to $1.07 million. Funding surged yet again two years later, to $1.7 million in 2023, including another $200,000 from Klingenstein’s foundation and a gift of $760,100 from a donor-advised fund that had previously received tens of millions of dollars from a nonprofit linked to Leo.
In 2024, the most recent year for which tax documents are available, the Maine Policy Institute had $1.9 million in total revenue — including $760,000 from the 85 Fund, a Leo-linked nonprofit, and $450,000 from DonorsTrust, a conduit for dark money that has is heavily funded by Leo’s network.
The Maine Policy Institute does not disclose its donors, but Gagnon, the CEO, acknowledged having received support from Leo.
“He has publicly disclosed an association with us, so I’m not going to sit here and tell you that’s not happening,” Gagnon said. “He’s been supportive around the country of many projects which he believes will help the conservative media universe.”
The money being funneled into the Maine Policy Institute might be a drop in the bucket for megadonors, but it’s more than enough to make a real difference in a small state like Maine, said Platner, the U.S. Senate candidate.
“This is a very clear example of what happens when too much wealth gets consolidated in our political system,” Platner told The Intercept. “In a state like Maine, which is not a wealthy state, and there are not a lot of resources around, they can come in and utilize their money as power to drive specific media narratives and to incentivize certain kinds of stories.”
For now, those certain kinds of stories continue to revolve heavily around Somali Americans and other immigrants in Maine.
“They are spewing hate and demonizing an entire population as un-American, as scammers, and the right is just eating that up,” said one Somali American community organizer, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of further targeting by the site and its readers. “The fascist regime we’re under right now, that is one of their tactics — to change the conversation and the public opinion of certain groups in order to destroy democracy.”
The post GOP Megadonor Leonard Leo Is Bankrolling a Website on the Warpath Against Somalis appeared first on The Intercept.
Wednesday's briefing came after President Trump announced late Tuesday that he had agreed to "suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks."
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi will not appear before the House Oversight Committee next week to answer questions about Jeffrey Epstein, the panel said.
Hansi Flick's team is looking to gain an advantage and head to Metropolitano Stadium next week.
Valve has released a native Steam Link beta for Apple Vision Pro, letting users stream their existing Steam games onto a large virtual screen in visionOS. It supports up to 4K resolution and will let you dynamically adjust the curve of the display. The Mac Observer reports: Steam Link does not support VR titles in this beta, and Valve clearly states that the app is limited to 2D game streaming, but this still opens up a large library of games that users can play on a massive virtual screen inside Vision Pro. At the same time, Vision Pro already handles 2D media very well, and this update builds on that strength by turning the headset into a portable gaming display that connects directly to your existing setup without needing extra hardware. You can join the Steam Link beta through TestFlight right now, and this early release shows how Apple Vision Pro continues to expand beyond media into more practical and everyday use cases like gaming.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The defending champs host Arne Slot's Reds in Paris.
Debt collectors have more power than many borrowers realize, but can they try to collect from two directions?
Lee Zeldin opens conference for Heartland Institute, which once compared climate advocates to the Unabomber
Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), gave the keynote speech at a conference on Wednesday morning, one which was hosted by a prominent climate-denying thinktank that previously compared those concerned about the climate crisis to the Unabomber on billboard posters in 2012.
“No longer are we going to rely on bad, flawed assumptions instead of accurate, present-day facts, without apology or regret,” Zeldin said at the Heartland Institute’s conference on climate change in Washington DC, referring to well-established climate science.
Continue reading...The ceasefire is welcome but fragile. Friday’s talks in Islamabad must address Iran’s nuclear programme and avoid sidelining the rest of the region
The ceasefire announcement between the US and Iran has been met with understandable relief. Talks are now set to take place in Islamabad on Friday, offering a chance to step back from the immediate danger of a wider war. This moment should not be mistaken for a resolution – not least as on Wednesday afternoon, fresh news emerged that Iran has not re-opened the strait of Hormuz. It should, more accurately, be understood as a pause – an opportunity to test pathways towards a difficult but necessary political settlement.
Despite claims of success from all sides, the reality is that no party was winning the war. President Donald Trump has framed the conflict as both a military victory and a step towards regime change in Iran. Yet the war was ill-conceived, built on the assumption that it would be quick and decisive. Instead it proved far more costly and damaging to US credibility. It did not produce regime change. Rather, it led to the promotion and consolidation of new, untested harder-line leadership at the head of the same political system. The structure of the Islamic Republic remains intact, demonstrating its capacity to absorb shock and consolidate its authority.
Sanam Vakil is the director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House
Continue reading...Defense secretary spoke to reporters in first press briefing since Trump announced ceasefire deal after 40 days of war
After 40 days and 40 nights of war, Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, on Wednesday pointed to divine providence while telling reporters that Iran’s weapons factories had been reduced to rubble, its military rendered ineffective for years and its supreme leader left wounded and disfigured, all for a temporary ceasefire.
“Iran begged for this ceasefire, and we all know it,” Hegseth said at the Pentagon’s first press briefing since Donald Trump announced a two-week pause in hostilities on Tuesday night. “Operation Epic Fury decimated Iran’s military and rendered it combat ineffective for years to come.”
Continue reading...PM says ban will come into force in January if it is backed by parliament and calls for united action across EU
Greece has announced a social media ban for under-15s from 1 January, with the country’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, citing rising anxiety, sleep problems and the addictive design of online platforms – although he acknowledged it may incur the wrath of some children.
“We have decided to go ahead with a difficult but necessary measure: ban access to social media for children under 15 years old,” he said in a TikTok video intended to address a young audience.
Continue reading...The foldable phone paused its sales in March after selling through its inventory, but Samsung is bringing it back to its online store.
Airline projected a $2bn increase in fuel costs this quarter amid volatility in oil markets sparked by the war
The CEO of Delta Air Lines, Ed Bastian, braced customers for higher fares following the surge in oil prices sparked by the US-Israel war on Iran, amid strong demand from passengers.
Though rising oil prices have cost the company an extra $330m in fuel expenses, and it projected a $2bn increase in fuel costs in the current quarter, Delta forecast that revenue would grow 10% as flyers continue to book flights.
Continue reading...The US and Iran have agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire, thanks to a last-minute diplomatic intervention led by Pakistan.
The conditions include a temporary reopening of the strait of Hormuz, but Israel’s position was left unclear, with airstrikes continuing on the Lebanese capital of Beirut. Both sides have since claimed victory but who, if anyone, is the real winner here? Lucy Hough speaks to senior international reporter Peter Beaumont
Continue reading...What began as a search for one missing woman — Shannan Gilbert — led to multiple bodies and the capture of Rex Heuermann.
PM will meet leaders in the region to discuss diplomatic efforts to support the ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is proposing the extension of the four-day working week, as a response to AI taking over some of the work done by humans. But for the Conservative party the four-day working week, at least in the public sector, is viewed as a menace. Officially, that’s a value-for-money position, but it also overlaps with their opposition to civil servants working from home, which has some of the traits of a culture war obsession.
Today the Conservatives have announced that, if they were in government, they would ban councils from letting staff work a four-day working week on full pay. Explaining why, the Tories say in a news release:
The four-day working week, as introduced by Liberal Democrat-run South Cambridgeshire district council, has left residents with more council tax for less public service. Bin collectors and social housing officials receive 100 per cent of their pay for around 80 per cent of their originally contracted hours.
The Labour government have failed to act. As communities secretary, Angela Rayner scrapped [Whitehall opposition to the South Cambridgeshire policy]. Labour are refusing to legislate against a four-day week, giving councils an effective green light to get away with charging more for less work. Consequentially, Labour-run Cambridge City Council has become the second council to sign up to the four-day week.
Those areas which saw a statistically significant improvement include: the percentage of calls answered by the contact centre; the average number of days taken to update housing benefit and council tax support claims; the average number of weeks for householder planning applications to be decided; the percentage of planning applications (both large and small) decided within target or agreed timescales; the percentage of council house repairs complete within 24 hours; [and] the percentage of complaints responded to on time.
If performance variations caused by Covid are discounted, every single service monitored either got better or stayed the same.
Continue reading...The lawsuit alleges that Amazon bypassed YouTube protections to collect content for its generative AI video system.
Analysts expect only limited increase in shipping as vessels will still need to seek Iranian permission to transit
There will be no “mass exodus” of ships through the strait of Hormuz, shipping analysts say, despite a two-week conditional ceasefire being agreed between the US and Iran with provision for the temporary reopening of the crucial maritime channel.
Tehran said on Wednesday that it would offer safe passage in coordination with its armed forces, though its coastguards said any ship trying to transit without permission would be “targeted and destroyed”.
Continue reading...Vice President JD Vance visited Hungary to show support for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a self-proclaimed proponent of "illiberal democracy."
Anas Sarwar says scheme would be part of overhaul of arts funding in Scotland
Labour has pledged to spend £30m on giving Scottish artists and musicians a living wage, mirroring a similar scheme in Ireland guaranteeing artists a basic income.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said the scheme would be part of a deeper shake-up of cultural funding in Scotland by integrating arts and culture into the Scottish government’s economic strategies if his party won power in next month’s Holyrood election.
Continue reading...Insurance company seeking almost £300,000 for protests at UK offices, during which red paint was daubed on buildings
One of the world’s largest insurance companies is suing six people alleged to have taken part in Palestine Action protests against the company.
Allianz is seeking damages of almost £300,000 for protests at its UK offices in October 2024 and March 2025, in what is believed to be the first civil case brought against people accused of involvement in direct action with the protest group.
Continue reading...NEW YORK, April 8, 2026 — ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, today named Matei Zaharia as the recipient of the ACM Prize in Computing for his visionary development of distributed data systems and computing infrastructure, which has enabled large-scale machine learning, analytics, and AI at global scale.
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, today named Matei Zaharia as the recipient of the ACM Prize in Computing for his visionary development of distributed data systems and computing infrastructure, which has enabled large-scale machine learning, analytics, and AI at global scale.
The ACM Prize in Computing recognizes early-to-mid-career computer scientists whose work has had broad and lasting impact. The award carries a $250,000 prize, with financial support provided by an endowment from Infosys Ltd, a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting.
Zaharia’s work addressed a central challenge in computing: how to work with and analyze rapidly growing volumes of data efficiently, and at a scale previously accessible only to the largest technology companies. Early distributed data systems were limited in speed and poorly suited to emerging workloads such as machine learning and interactive analysis. Through a sequence of open-source systems, each targeting a distinct bottleneck, Zaharia changed what any organization could do with massive datasets.
As a doctoral student at UC Berkeley, Zaharia started Apache Spark, a new approach to distributed computing that reliably leverages memory to accelerate computations. This design made Spark dramatically faster than existing frameworks for the kinds of iterative computations essential to machine learning, while its unified architecture allowed batch processing, streaming, graph computation, and interactive queries to run within a single system. Spark quickly moved from research into widespread use and is now the de facto standard for large-scale data analytics, deployed across tens of thousands of organizations and integrated into major cloud platforms. Zaharia’s doctoral dissertation on Spark received the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award in 2014.
With the shift to the cloud, Zaharia turned to a different problem: the lack of reliability and consistency in sprawling cloud data lakes – or the massive, centralized, and often unmanaged repositories storing vast amounts of raw data. He co-developed Delta Lake to bring transactional guarantees and principled data management to cloud object stores, making data pipelines more dependable and enabling a new class of architecture – the data lakehouse – that combines the flexibility of data lakes with the reliability of traditional data warehouses. Delta Lake is now widely adopted across industries, handling exabytes of data daily.
The growing use of machine learning introduced additional complexity. Zaharia started MLflow, another open-source platform to address fragmentation in machine learning and AI workflows, where teams struggled to track experiments, reproduce results, and deploy models consistently. MLflow provided a structured framework for managing the machine learning lifecycle – from experiment tracking and model versioning to deployment across diverse tools and environments – and has become a leading platform for operationalizing AI at scale. Together, these systems reshaped how data is leveraged in practice.
By building tools that any organization could freely use and extend, Zaharia ensured that the benefits of scalable computing became accessible to researchers, nonprofits, and enterprises across every industry. As investment in artificial intelligence accelerates, the infrastructure he built remains key to how data is processed, managed, and used to train and deploy AI applications and agents.
Today, Zaharia is focusing research on AI development, specifically how to build and scale reliable agents. He is a co-author on recent open source research, including DSPy and GEPA, which focus on auto-optimizing prompts and models to improve agent quality for specific tasks.
“Matei Zaharia’s work has had a lasting impact on how data is used at scale,” said ACM President Yannis Ioannidis. “By addressing key limitations in earlier systems, he developed technologies that quickly became standard tools for data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Matei’s open-source philosophy has been essential: he made these tools accessible to all. His contributions continue to influence both research and industry, and I look forward to seeing where his current work on AI systems takes us next.”
Salil Parekh, Chief Executive Officer, Infosys, said, “Matei Zaharia’s contributions have helped define how organizations work with data and AI today. His systems are widely used across industries and have enabled teams to build, deploy and scale AI applications more effectively. Infosys is proud to support the ACM Prize in Computing since its origination in 2007.”
Biographical Background
Matei Zaharia is an Associate Professor of EECS at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Cofounder and CTO of Databricks. He started the Apache Spark open-source project during his PhD at UC Berkeley in 2009, and has worked broadly on other widely used data and AI software, including Delta Lake, MLflow, Dolly and ColBERT. He currently works on a variety of research projects in cloud computing, database management, AI and information retrieval. Zaharia’s honors include the 2014 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award, an NSF CAREER Award, the SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award, and the US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
Zaharia will be formally presented with the ACM Prize in Computing at ACM’s annual Awards Banquet, which will be held on Saturday, June 13 at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
About the ACM Prize in Computing
The ACM Prize in Computing recognizes an early to mid-career fundamental innovative contribution in computing that, through its depth, impact, and broad implications, exemplifies the greatest achievements in the discipline. The award carries a prize of $250,000. Financial support is provided by an endowment from Infosys Ltd.
About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession’s collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.
Source: ACM
The post ACM Prize in Computing Honors Matei Zaharia for Foundational Contributions to Data and Machine Learning Systems appeared first on HPCwire.
US vice-president has praised Orbán and criticised EU and UK energy policies in speech at private school in Budapest
Oh, you can see where this is going to go.
In his second question, the moderator tries to bait JD Vance into criticising Ukraine, as the chair asks about what he says are “Ukrainian intelligence services attempting to influence” elections in the US or Hungary.
“I’ve also been told that the vice-president of the United States coming and saying that Viktor Orbán is doing a good job and is a helpful statesman to the cause of peace, that’s foreign influence.
But what’s not foreign influence is when the European Union threatens billions of dollars withheld from Hungary because you guys protect your borders; that’s apparently not foreign influence.
“We would never do that because we respect the Hungarian people enough to respect their sovereignty. The fact that so many foreign actors, whether they’re transnational organisations like the bureaucrats in Brussels or whether it’s foreign governments, are literally threatening the Hungarian people vote this way or we’re going to exact our revenge on you – that should make you very angry.”
Continue reading...Anne Mae Demegillo, 20, was charged with murder in death of infant; Anthony was charged with murdering her child in 2008 but acquitted
A 20-year-old woman charged with killing her newborn daughter had images of Casey Anthony on her phone, suggesting “searches on the death of a child and subsequent investigation”, the Flagler county, Florida, sheriff’s office alleged this week.
Anne Mae Demegillo, who was arrested on 6 March, was indicted on Monday on charges of first-degree premeditated murder, aggravated child abuse, and failure to report death of a person with intent to conceal the death or alter the evidence or circumstances surrounding such death, in the death of her infant.
Continue reading...A court-ordered bank levy doesn't disappear just because your balance is zero. Here's what can happen next.
Keeping $10,000 in a traditional savings account instead of a CD is a mistake often worth avoiding now. Here's why.
Earnings at renewable energy division expected to soar to between $200m and $700m in first quarter
Shell is expected to report “significantly higher” profits from its trading desks in the first quarter of this year after weeks of market volatility triggered by the Iran crisis.
The surge in energy commodity markets over recent weeks is expected to drive up trading results at Shell’s chemicals and products unit, which includes its main oil trading desk.
The standfirst of this story was updated to clarify that Shell predicted higher earnings at its renewable energy division
Continue reading...Australian federal police say they are working with tiny nation to respond to threat of online scam centres
Timor-Leste is vulnerable to “infiltration by foreign organized crime”, the country’s president, José Ramos-Horta, has warned.
His comments come as Australian federal police confirmed to the Guardian the force is providing support to local law enforcement in Timor-Leste, including a December 2025 visit from the agency’s digital forensic and cyber experts.
Continue reading...An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Apple earned the lowest grades in a report on laptop and smartphone repairability released today by the consumer advocacy group Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund. The report, which looks at how easy devices are to disassemble and how easy it is to find repairability information, gave Apple a C-minus in laptop repairability and a D-minus in cell phone repairability. For its "Failing the Fix (2026): Grading laptop and cell phone companies on the fixability of their products" report, PIRG analyzed the 10 newest laptops and phones that were available via manufacturers' French website in January. [...] Apple leads the list of laptop repairability losers, largely due to it having low disassembly scores. Apple, along with Dell and Samsung, also lost a full point for being members of TechNet and the CTA. Lenovo had the second-worst grade with a C-minus. Like Apple, Lenovo had low disassembly scores. It also lost 0.5 points for failing to properly post PDFs explaining the French repair scores for some of its newest laptops sold in the region, as required in France. This is especially noteworthy because Lenovo got an F in last year's report for missing this information on at least 12 laptops. At the time, Lenovo director of communications David Hamilton provided a statement to Ars saying that the missing information was "due to a backend web compatibility issue that temporarily prevented the display of repairability scores on our Lenovo France website" that was "widely resolved." However, it appears that over a year later, Lenovo still isn't providing sufficient information to meet France's requirements "While Lenovo has improved somewhat with their compliance with French consumer law by providing more repair score PDFs on their website, we urge the company to resolve this multi-year issue," this year's report says. PIRG's report concluded that "laptops are pretty stagnant in terms of repairability" across many of the eight most popular laptop brands in the US. However, Proctor noted to Ars that consumers' access to parts, tools, and information that vendors have has improved, but improvements around ease of disassembly "take longer to realize." He also praised vendors' efforts to release more repairable designs, such as Apple's MacBook Neo. For its repairability index, PIRG weighed physical ease of disassembly most heavily, while also considering the availability of repair documentation, spare parts, spare-parts affordability, and other product-specific criteria. It then adjusted company grades by deducting points for membership in trade groups that oppose right-to-repair laws and adding small bonuses for manufacturers that supported right-to-repair legislation. Acer stood out as the only laptop vendor that avoided the 0.5-point trade-group penalty, since it was not listed as a member of TechNet or the Consumer Technology Association.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Analysis of six extreme heatwaves found when temperature and humidity were accounted for, all were potentially deadly for older people
Extreme heat is already creating “non-survivable” conditions for humans in heatwaves that have killed thousands and likely many more, according to new research that warns people are more susceptible to rising temperatures than first thought.
Scientists re-examined six extreme heatwaves between 2003 and 2024 and found that when temperature, humidity and the body’s ability to stay cool were accounted for, all were potentially deadly for older people.
Continue reading...Cameras on some Chevrolet Malibus can display blank or distorted images, posing a risk to drivers, according to safety regulators.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn., April 8, 2026 — The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have jointly recruited Deep Jariwala, a nationally recognized leader in quantum materials and next-generation electronic devices, as the UT-ORNL governor’s chair for quantum devices.
Deep Jariwala named UT-ORNL governor’s chair for quantum devices
The recruitment was led by the University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute, which manages the UT-ORNL governor’s chair program and works to align the strengths of both institutions to advance research and talent development in areas of importance to Tennessee and our nation.
Jariwala will hold a joint appointment between UT and ORNL, with his academic home in the nationally ranked Tickle College of Engineering. He joins from the University of Pennsylvania, where he is an associate professor and the Peter and Susanne Armstrong Distinguished Scholar in electrical and systems engineering and materials science and engineering. Jariwala will officially join UT and ORNL in January 2027 and is already connecting with researchers at both institutions, with visits planned in the coming months.
Jariwala is widely recognized for his work at the intersection of novel materials, microelectronics and computing systems. He has published more than 180 journal articles with more than 26,000 citations and holds multiple patents. His research focuses on developing new materials and device architectures that enable next-generation computing, sensing and optoelectronic systems — key building blocks for quantum devices and advanced computing technologies.
“The Governor’s Chair program is truly special in its structure,” Jariwala said. “It gives a scholar the rare chance to wear two hats and experience the best of both worlds — academia and a national lab. On one hand, you have a leading research university with world-class facilities at UT Knoxville. On the other, ORNL is one of the largest Department of Energy national laboratories, with arguably the world’s best infrastructure for novel materials and computing research. Considering my recent research endeavors, national priorities and the global research landscape at the nexus of quantum materials, microelectronics and computing hardware, this truly is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. I’m thrilled to take it and push my research in new and strategically important directions.”
The recruitment marks a significant step in expanding UT-ORNL’s partnership in quantum science and engineering, particularly in quantum devices that bridge materials discovery and computing applications. Jariwala plans to advance this work by establishing a materials deposition and characterization laboratory at UT’s Institute for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing. The lab will be located at the UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm, a hub for collaboration among UT, ORNL and industry partners.
“Deep Jariwala is one of the top emerging leaders in quantum materials and advanced electronics,” said UT System President Randy Boyd. “Recruiting him to Tennessee reflects the strength of the UT-Oak Ridge partnership and our shared commitment to leading in technologies that will define the future economy.”
Jariwala’s expertise will strengthen ORNL’s ongoing work in quantum science and advanced materials.
“ORNL is at the forefront of quantum science and advanced materials, and Deep’s expertise will further strengthen our capabilities in this critical area,” said ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer. “His work will heighten collaboration across UT and ORNL and help accelerate progress in quantum research and applications.”
The hire aligns with UT Knoxville’s efforts to expand research capacity and attract top faculty.
“Recruiting governor’s chairs and other preeminent faculty is central to our efforts to elevate the University of Tennessee, Knoxville,” said Chancellor Donde Plowman. “This appointment strengthens our ability to grow in emerging areas like quantum science while leveraging our partnership with ORNL to create opportunities for students and faculty that no other university can offer.”
The hire also reflects UT-ORII’s strategy to build world-class, joint research teams across UT and ORNL.
“Deep’s recruitment is a major step in building a world-class, joint UT-ORNL capability in quantum devices,” said Brynn Voy, UT-ORII’s interim executive director. “This is exactly the kind of talent that allows us to scale our partnership and accelerate both research and talent development in areas critical to the nation’s future.”
UT and ORNL are building a comprehensive quantum research ecosystem that spans materials discovery, computing and talent development. Researchers from both institutions collaborate through major initiatives such as DOE’s Quantum Science Center, a $125 million effort to develop quantum-accelerated high-performance computing and advance U.S. leadership in quantum technologies. By combining UT’s academic strength in quantum materials with ORNL’s world-leading capabilities in supercomputing, neutron science and large-scale user facilities, the partnership is accelerating discovery and helping position Tennessee at the forefront of next-generation quantum technologies.
The UT-ORNL governor’s chair program, now celebrating its 20th anniversary, has recruited leading scientists to Tennessee for two decades. Jariwala joins 12 other UT-ORNL governor’s chairs working across priority research areas. UT-ORII expects to add at least one other governor’s chair in the near future.
About the University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute
The University of Tennessee–Oak Ridge Innovation Institute (UT–ORII), launched in 2021 by the University of Tennessee System and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, builds on an 80-year partnership to advance joint research and joint doctoral education programs that drive innovation, workforce development and economic growth.
UT-ORII leads five convergent research initiatives: fusion technology and materials for extreme environments; radiopharmaceutical therapies; transportation; circular bioeconomy systems; and advanced manufacturing for affordable building construction. The institute has hired nearly 50 joint researchers, with plans to add 50 more. UT-ORII manages the UT-ORNL governor’s chair program, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary and continues to recruit world-class researchers to Tennessee, including in emerging areas such as quantum devices.
UT–ORII supports nearly 250 Bredesen Center and other UT Knoxville graduate students working alongside UT and ORNL researchers. In addition, the institute is expanding the state’s talent pipeline through STEMOVATE, a statewide initiative delivering hands-on STEM learning to sixth-grade students. Together, these efforts are helping position Tennessee as a national leader in nuclear innovation, quantum science and other critical fields.
To learn more about UT-ORII, please visit www.utorii.com.
About the University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a statewide system of higher education with campuses in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Pulaski, Martin and Memphis; the UT Institute of Agriculture with a presence in every Tennessee county; and the statewide Institute for Public Service. The UT System manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory through its UT-Battelle partnership; enrolls nearly 65,000 students statewide; produces more than 15,000 new graduates every year; and represents almost 497,000 alumni around the world.
Source: University of Tennessee
The post University of Tennessee, ORNL Add Deep Jariwala to Expand Quantum Devices Research appeared first on HPCwire.
As Iran and US agree fragile ceasefire, Israel’s conflict has turned out to be a bust and, say opponents, ‘a political disaster’
In a war where there have been no winners, Israel’s prime minister looks set to be the biggest loser entering a fragile and vague ceasefire with Iran.
After years of Benjamin Netanyahu’s threats against Iran, his stunts at the UN’s general assembly, the dodgy dossiers endlessly wafted under the noses of the world’s media, and diplomatic pressure on successive US presidents to agree to a war against Iran, Israel’s conflict has turned out to be a bust.
Continue reading...Delta, United and JetBlue hiked rates even as Delta announced $1bn pre-tax profit in quarter ending June
Several major US airlines have raised their baggage fees in recent days, blaming ongoing volatility in oil markets caused by the US-Israeli war in Iran that has almost doubled jet fuel prices.
On Tuesday, Delta followed the lead of United Airlines and JetBlue, which announced last week that they were hiking baggage prices because of the ongoing war.
Continue reading...Figures gathered from children’s services and health trusts show 31 deaths were suicides, including six in under-18s
More than 50 young asylum seekers in the UK have died in the past decade, the majority by suicide, according to data compiled for the first time.
Of 54 deaths of unaccompanied children and young people who claimed asylum between 2015 and 2024 in the care system, 31 were suicides, seven were homicides and eight were fatal accidents. Six deaths were due to health issues and in two cases the cause of death was unknown.
Continue reading...With former ministers and party heavyweights being dragged into court, the country is once again confronting the unresolved legacy of political graft and shady backroom deals
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Easter will not have been a particularly celebratory time for Spain’s two biggest political parties. In a quirk of judicial fate, both the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) and the conservative People’s party (PP) are bracing themselves after two high-profile trials involving former senior figures from each party began in Madrid this week.
Though vastly different, both cases have the potential to seriously dent each party’s claims of having zero-tolerance for corruption as voters in Andalucía, Spain’s most populous autonomous community, prepare for next month’s regional election. That will be followed by a general election next year.
Continue reading...Got a pair you swear by? Take our People's Picks survey to help us find a winner.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. military has consumed nearly 1 million gallons of coffee and an unspecified amount of nicotine.
Many employees expect to retire later as mounting expenses strain budgets, while others hunker down at work as part of the "great stay."
Our seasoned traveller braved obstacles and mud to put the best cabin bags to the test – from hard-shell to budget, wheeled to lightweight
• The best travel pillows, tested
Let’s start by saying that if you can avoid taking a flight, that would be best. Aviation accounts for 2.5% of global carbon emissions – and the levels released by aircraft could double or triple by 2050.
Regrettably, you can’t always reach your destination by rail, sea or hot-air balloon. If flying is unavoidable, one way to reduce your carbon footprint is to take a cabin bag, rather than hold luggage. This encourages you to pack less, so your baggage is lighter, and less fuel is required to spirit it through the stratosphere. If that doesn’t move you, consider that you’ll also pay lower fees to the airline.
Best cabin bag overall:
July Carry On luggage
Best budget cabin bag:
Tripp Holiday 8 cabin suitcase
MEGAN MCGRATH
Staff Reporter
Casa Kahlo, a restaurant in the Newark Shopping Center on East Main St., has lost its ability to sell alcohol for 60 days. This suspension comes as a result of a string of violations from the establishment.
The Newark City Council voted to suspend its special use permit to sell alcohol in a hearing on March 9.
After Caffe Gelato in 2018, it is now the second business to break the 2016 ordinance that established a point system to hold disorderly bars accountable.
The system applies to all establishments in Newark that sell alcohol—besides liquor stores. The city tracks violations, and businesses receive points for each infraction. If an establishment surpasses 10 points in 12 months, they meet with the police department and city planning staff to discuss potential punishment.
Each violation has a different point value; for example, serving underage patrons is worth six points, compared to pedestrian issues, which are only worth one point.
Despite Casa Kahlo having accumulated well more than 10 points when police and code enforcement first met with them last summer, no punishment was imposed.
“Since we hadn’t talked to them yet, we wanted to give them an opportunity,” Tom Coleman, Newark city manager, said. “‘Hey, normally we would have caught this sooner, but you got so many so fast that we were a little bit behind the eight ball.’”
Since then, it has only received more. In just under 12 months, Casa Kahlo had accumulated a total of 66 points.
“It was around Halloween that there was another flurry of incidents between then and Christmas,” Coleman said.
On Oct. 31, a 17-year-old female victim reported an assault in the Casa Kahlo bathroom by other female suspects. The victim confirmed that on Halloween, she, along with a friend, were allowed into Casa Kahlo, despite being underage.
Just a month later, on Nov. 30, a sexual assault involving a 19-year-old female victim by a security guard for the establishment, who had previously bought her alcohol, was reported to the police from Casa Kahlo.
In addition to the two assaults, the business received points for a variety of other issues, including two noise violations, six counts of sales to minors and two building and overcrowding infractions.
After this, the police department reported the violations to the city and recommended that the council suspend Casa Kahlo’s permit to serve alcohol. The hearing was repeatedly delayed due to the holiday break and two snowstorms.
In the time between the initial report and the actual hearing on Jan. 23, Casa Kahlo served two underage witnesses alcohol, who were working with the Newark Police Department and the Delaware Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement on a compliance check.
As a result, the council imposed a significant consequence.
“We’re not trying to put anybody out of business,” Coleman said. “But we also can’t have situations where people are being served underage and sexually assaulted.”
Although there was pushback from Casa Kahlo’s attorneys about potential impacts on the business, the council ultimately decided to enforce a 60-day suspension. However, the council permitted the restaurant to serve alcohol at two pre-planned events: a quinceañera and a wedding, both in April.
The restaurant’s owners have already begun to work to make their restaurant safer by buying new ID scanners and hiring and training new staff to follow the rules.
If it has any further infractions, it is likely to face more fines and suspensions. While the highest suspension permitted in Newark is only one year, this could have substantial consequences on the restaurant’s income.
Long term, the council is looking at other options to decrease these kinds of issues, most importantly by creating more entertainment venues in the city.
“When I was in college here, we had the Stone Balloon, and it was a tavern,” Coleman said. “They had a band stage, they had seven bars, there wasn’t any food served really, but it gave somewhere for students to go and do things that they were doing at Casa Kahlo, but in an environment that was designed to do that.”
The council recognizes that a contributing factor to Casa Kahlo’s popularity, and subsequent violations, is the lack of safe, legal options for people under and over 21.
They plan to have further discussions on the matter and have some changes in place, either toward the end of this year or the beginning of next year. This will change the rules, but for students and residents to truly see the change, businesses need to adjust their operations to take advantage of it.
“It could be a little while before we see, you know, another Stone Balloon, for example,” Coleman said. “But we are serious about wanting to do it, and wanting to show that we’re making progress and are taking steps.”
For now, students and residents can still enjoy Casa Kahlo’s food and non-alcoholic beverages, as they continue to closely follow city ordinances.
Looking ahead, the council hopes for Casa Kahlo to begin serving alcohol safely following their suspension, in addition to encouraging other forms of entertainment on Main St.
Casa Kahlo did not provide a comment to The Review.
A highly alarming New Yorker feature on the machinations of Sam Altman drove me to test his AI for myself. The results were, well, highly alarming
A corollary of the truism “don’t sweat the small stuff” is, by implication, “do sweat the big stuff”, but it can be hard to pick which big stuff to sweat. For example: since the 1970s, as the world has worried about inflation and rolling geopolitics, the big stuff we should have been sweating more urgently was the climate crisis. Last year, the top trending search on Google in the US was “Charlie Kirk”, with several terms relating to the threat posed by Donald Trump also popular, when the focus should arguably have been the threat posed by AI.
Or, per my own Googling this week after reading Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz’s highly alarming lengthy piece in the New Yorker about the rise of artificial general intelligence: “Will I be a member of the permanent underclass and how can I make that not happen?”
Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...US–Iran ceasefire: Early analysis from Chatham House experts Expert comment jon.wallace
What does the ceasefire mean for the Islamic Republic, President Trump, Israel, the UK, the region and the world?
The US, Israel and Iran announced a ceasefire on 7 April, leading to an end to attacks by each side and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
The announcement came shortly before a deadline set by US President Donald Trump for Iran to reopen the Strait. The president had previously threatened to bomb Iran ‘into the Stone Ages’ and destroy its ‘whole civilization’ if it did not comply.
Both Washington and Tehran hailed the ceasefire, negotiated by Pakistan, as a victory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the ceasefire did not apply to Israel’s operations in Lebanon.
Here Chatham House experts provide their early analysis on the implications of the ceasefire, for the US, the region and the world.
The ceasefire will be welcomed as a necessary step back from the brink after days of escalating strikes, mounting threats against Iranian and Gulf infrastructure, and continued disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
All of these elements underscored that this had become a war that no side was clearly winning and in which the costs were rising faster than any achievable gains. The most difficult issues will now have to be worked through in detail by negotiators in Islamabad:
Can the United States offer credible assurances against renewed strikes and be trusted to uphold them? And is Iran willing to accept limits on its ability to threaten shipping in the Strait?
Crucial to a lasting agreement is that Tehran demonstrates a willingness to compromise on its nuclear programme, through for instance a new inspection regime. Equally important is that Washington is willing to structure sanctions relief in a way that makes de-escalation politically sustainable on both sides.
Meanwhile, there is a real risk that regional considerations are sidelined. Iran has pushed for the ceasefire to extend to Lebanon, viewing the conflict there as part of the same confrontation. Yet Israel has made clear that its campaign against Hezbollah is not covered by the truce and is prepared to continue operations.
Gulf states, meanwhile, are seeking assurances that they will not remain exposed to repeated pressure on their infrastructure and shipping routes. Israel remains deeply sceptical of any arrangement that leaves Iran’s missile, nuclear and regional capabilities intact.
These are difficult issues that will not be easily resolved in a matter of weeks. With US forces still building up in the region and the risk of renewed escalation never far away, there remains a real possibility that tensions could resurface, whether through further threats, resumed pressure on the Strait, or the need to extend negotiations beyond their initial timeframe.
If the talks in Islamabad focus too narrowly on American and Iranian priorities, they may succeed in stabilizing the immediate crisis while leaving the broader regional order fragile – and exposed to revived escalation.
This ceasefire has been obtained under the threat of a massive attack against Iran’s civilian infrastructure. US President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Iran ‘back to the Stone Ages’ and to permanently erase its civilization.
This may have been a further example of bluster and brinkmanship on the part of the president. Yet the threats raise further, profound questions about the credibility of international law as a tool of constraining the most powerful countries.
US service-members and their commanding authorities who carried out the president’s threats would have exposed themselves to allegations of grave breaches of the law of armed conflict – although Iran, Israel and the US are not subject to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
Crucially, international law develops through the practice of states. When states violate key tenets of the law, or credibly threaten to do so, it is the response of the rest of the world that decides whether this will create a new pattern of practice going against the established rules.
In this instance, once again, there was no immediate chorus of condemnation from other countries in reply to President Trump’s threats, even as they challenged the humanitarian legal order at its core. It was left to Pope Leo XIV, an American, to speak out, declaring the threats against the people of Iran ‘unacceptable’.
The world will need to learn to resist such challenges to the legal order, if it does not want to awake one day in a lawless and dangerous world where others routinely copy such behaviour.
Meanwhile, serious immediate challenges to international law remain: Iran has shown it has the ability to choke off some 20 per cent of the global oil supply by blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
However, instead of fully opening the Strait in exchange for the ceasefire, it insists, at least for now, on maintaining its control. That leaves the risk that Iran may continue to exclude ‘unfriendly’ flag states from passage through the Strait and subject others to inspections, delays and exorbitant fees.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer rightly called the temporary ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran a ‘moment of relief’. The reprieve is welcome, but a conclusive resolution remains out of reach. Iranian proposals for a long-term peace agreement still reportedly include demands the US will find difficult to accept, from Iran controlling or imposing tolls on the Strait of Hormuz, to sanctions on Iran being lifted.
Starmer’s government will continue to be pulled into efforts to resolve the crisis. But they will also need to confront deeper questions about the UK’s alliance with the US – while planning for the likely prolonged economic effects of the war.
Immediately, this is likely to mean continued regional diplomacy. Starmer has travelled to the Gulf on Wednesday to meet regional leaders. And the UK held a meeting of more than 40 countries last week to discuss ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
For the UK, these efforts are intended to manage the effects of the crisis and signal to the US and others it is playing a crucial role. But they are also an exercise in building coalitions with countries who badly need basic international norms – including principles on the use of force and freedom of navigation through international waterways – to hold.
The Trump administration’s erratic behaviour is making the kind of default Atlanticism that has driven UK foreign policy for decades less and less tenable. Decisions about whether to allow the US to use UK bases during the conflict have split UK political debate. And the question of how to build a defence and security architecture which is less dependent on the US has grown more urgent.
For now, Starmer’s cautious position – allowing the use of bases by the US for defensive purposes but not offensive ones – seeks to carefully distance the UK from the conflict while recognizing it still has fundamental interests in defending regional allies, UK bases, and international shipping from the actions of Iran.
In the longer term, the crisis will create new urgency in defence and security cooperation with European nations and with the EU. It should also force greater honesty with the public about the defence spending and planning needed to deal with a world where the UK’s principal defence partner has become unpredictable – and where basic security and diplomatic norms are becoming fragile.
But the potential price shocks at home – from immediate fuel shortages and damage to critical shipping infrastructure in the region – may make exactly these decisions harder to sell to a weary public.
Starmer has seen a very small uptick in his approval ratings during the course of the war – he will need to cling onto that momentum to manage its consequences.
US–Iran ceasefire: What it means for Trump, Tehran, Israel and US allies. Early analysis from Chatham House experts Expert comment jon.wallace
What does the ceasefire mean for the Islamic Republic, President Trump, the Strait of Hormuz and the UK? And how should the world respond to challenges to the humanitarian legal order?
The US, Israel and Iran announced a ceasefire on 7 April, leading to an end to attacks by each side and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
The announcement came shortly before a deadline set by US President Donald Trump for Iran to reopen the Strait. The president had previously threatened to bomb Iran ‘into the Stone Ages’ and destroy its ‘whole civilization’ if it did not comply.
Both Washington and Tehran hailed the ceasefire, negotiated by Pakistan, as a victory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the ceasefire did not apply to Israel’s operations in Lebanon.
Here Chatham House experts provide their early analysis on the implications of the ceasefire, for the US, the region and the world.
The ceasefire will be welcomed as a necessary step back from the brink after days of escalating strikes, mounting threats against Iranian and Gulf infrastructure, and continued disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
All of these elements underscored that this had become a war that no side was clearly winning and in which the costs were rising faster than any achievable gains. The most difficult issues will now have to be worked through in detail by negotiators in Islamabad:
Can the United States offer credible assurances against renewed strikes and be trusted to uphold them? And is Iran willing to accept limits on its ability to threaten shipping in the Strait?
Crucial to a lasting agreement is that Tehran demonstrates a willingness to compromise on its nuclear programme, through for instance a new inspection regime. Equally important is that Washington is willing to structure sanctions relief in a way that makes de-escalation politically sustainable on both sides.
Meanwhile, there is a real risk that regional considerations are sidelined. Iran has pushed for the ceasefire to extend to Lebanon, viewing the conflict there as part of the same confrontation. Yet Israel has made clear that its campaign against Hezbollah is not covered by the truce and is prepared to continue operations.
Gulf states, meanwhile, are seeking assurances that they will not remain exposed to repeated pressure on their infrastructure and shipping routes. Israel remains deeply sceptical of any arrangement that leaves Iran’s missile, nuclear and regional capabilities intact.
These are difficult issues that will not be easily resolved in a matter of weeks. With US forces still building up in the region and the risk of renewed escalation never far away, there remains a real possibility that tensions could resurface, whether through further threats, resumed pressure on the Strait, or the need to extend negotiations beyond their initial timeframe.
If the talks in Islamabad focus too narrowly on American and Iranian priorities, they may succeed in stabilizing the immediate crisis while leaving the broader regional order fragile – and exposed to revived escalation.
This ceasefire has been obtained under the threat of a massive attack against Iran’s civilian infrastructure. US President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Iran ‘back to the Stone Ages’ and to permanently erase its civilization.
This may have been a further example of bluster and brinkmanship on the part of the president. Yet the threats raise further, profound questions about the credibility of international law as a tool of constraining the most powerful countries.
US service-members and their commanding authorities who carried out the president’s threats would have exposed themselves to allegations of grave breaches of the law of armed conflict – although Iran, Israel and the US are not subject to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
Crucially, international law develops through the practice of states. When states violate key tenets of the law, or credibly threaten to do so, it is the response of the rest of the world that decides whether this will create a new pattern of practice going against the established rules.
In this instance, once again, there was no immediate chorus of condemnation from other countries in reply to President Trump’s threats, even as they challenged the humanitarian legal order at its core. It was left to Pope Leo XIV, an American, to speak out, declaring the threats against the people of Iran ‘unacceptable’.
The world will need to learn to resist such challenges to the legal order, if it does not want to awake one day in a lawless and dangerous world where others routinely copy such behaviour.
Meanwhile, serious immediate challenges to international law remain: Iran has shown it has the ability to choke off some 20 per cent of the global oil supply by blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
However, instead of fully opening the Strait in exchange for the ceasefire, it insists, at least for now, on maintaining its control. That leaves the risk that Iran may continue to exclude ‘unfriendly’ flag states from passage through the Strait and subject others to inspections, delays and exorbitant fees.
The agreed ceasefire between the US and Iran is a welcome reprieve for the Middle East and the global community.
But overall the US action has not provided the display of strength the Trump administration hoped for.
It has depleted US ammunition stockpiles in the Middle East and shown the limits of existing US capabilities in terms of being able to intercept missiles and drones, as well as the extent to which the US does not have scalable and affordable anti-drone defences in place at its military bases.
The US has also made a series of serious strategic mistakes: it has overestimated the role of air power in being able to effect regime change and drive outcomes and underappreciated Iran’s organisational and military resilience.
The US use of force has undermined international law and the international order. The Trump administration threatened European allies that did not want to involve themselves in a war of choice by saying that the US might leave NATO, and it raised concerns among Asian allies by moving missile defence equipment to the Middle East.
This has further undermined the credibility of US security guarantees, which will be difficult to recover and may further fuel proliferation dynamics.
Furthermore, Israel’s insistence that its military action in Lebanon is not part of the agreement reveals a key vulnerability and shows the limits of the US ability to manage its allies: the ongoing bombing campaigns in Lebanon could undermine the ceasefire overall and keep the US trapped in a conflict it is now seeking to exit. After weeks of President Trump being furious with European allies for not sufficiently supporting the US, it now appears to be the alliance relationship with Israel that provides more of a risk to US interests in the Middle East.
The 10-point peace plan published by the Iranian government also includes several points that the US has previously rejected, such as ongoing Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz, and a US military withdrawal from the Middle East. It seems difficult to believe that the US can agree to these points and still declare a victory.
While President Trump is celebrating the ceasefire as a US victory, it is looking likely that even the most successful outcome of the negotiations would only be a moderate improvement on the status quo before the war.
It is doubtful that this was worth the costs to US military capability, and more importantly, to US relationships and credibility.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer rightly called the temporary ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran a ‘moment of relief’. The reprieve is welcome, but a conclusive resolution remains out of reach. Iranian proposals for a long-term peace agreement still reportedly include demands the US will find difficult to accept, from Iran controlling or imposing tolls on the Strait of Hormuz, to sanctions on Iran being lifted.
Starmer’s government will continue to be pulled into efforts to resolve the crisis. But they will also need to confront deeper questions about the UK’s alliance with the US – while planning for the likely prolonged economic effects of the war.
Immediately, this is likely to mean continued regional diplomacy. Starmer has travelled to the Gulf on Wednesday to meet regional leaders. And the UK held a meeting of more than 40 countries last week to discuss ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
For the UK, these efforts are intended to manage the effects of the crisis and signal to the US and others it is playing a crucial role. But they are also an exercise in building coalitions with countries who badly need basic international norms – including principles on the use of force and freedom of navigation through international waterways – to hold.
The Trump administration’s erratic behaviour is making the kind of default Atlanticism that has driven UK foreign policy for decades less and less tenable. Decisions about whether to allow the US to use UK bases during the conflict have split UK political debate. And the question of how to build a defence and security architecture which is less dependent on the US has grown more urgent.
For now, Starmer’s cautious position – allowing the use of bases by the US for defensive purposes but not offensive ones – seeks to carefully distance the UK from the conflict while recognizing it still has fundamental interests in defending regional allies, UK bases, and international shipping from the actions of Iran.
In the longer term, the crisis will create new urgency in defence and security cooperation with European nations and with the EU. It should also force greater honesty with the public about the defence spending and planning needed to deal with a world where the UK’s principal defence partner has become unpredictable – and where basic security and diplomatic norms are becoming fragile.
But the potential price shocks at home – from immediate fuel shortages and damage to critical shipping infrastructure in the region – may make exactly these decisions harder to sell to a weary public.
Starmer has seen a very small uptick in his approval ratings during the course of the war – he will need to cling onto that momentum to manage its consequences.
Chatham House experts will continue to provide analysis of developments in the conflict and the ceasefire in the coming days and weeks. Read more of our coverage of Iran and the Middle East.
Marist poll shows that 48% of city residents approve of Mamdani’s performance while 55% view him favorably
As New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, approaches his first 100 days in office, a new survey shows that roughly half of city residents approve of his performance so far.
The poll, conducted by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion and released on Wednesday morning, found that 48% of residents say they approve of the job Mamdani, 34, is doing, while 30% disapprove and 23% remain unsure.
Continue reading...Bonjour la team,
je dois changer le pneu de mon GT pour la seconde fois.
Mais j'ai les 2 vis du bumper, celle de devant, qui tournent dans le vide.
J'ai les Flared Footpads Lowboy GT, et j'ai le sentiment que l'embout femelle en laiton du pad tourne dans le vide.
Avez vous déjà un ce souci, et surtout avez vous une solution ?
The new Firefox VPN is available now. Here's everything you need to know about putting it to use.
New administration reverses expropriation of property founded by ex-Nazi Paul Schäfer, leaving victims in limbo
With its Germanic crosses and colourful toy-town facades, the village square of the tiny Chilean settlement of Villa Baviera gives little indication of the horrors of its past.
Until 1991, this cattle town of a few hundred people was a compound known as Colonia Dignidad. Its leader, Paul Schäfer, a former Nazi and weapons smuggler, bought a swathe of land in the valley in 1961, eventually holding as many as 300 people in a fenced enclave with minimal contact with the outside world. He sexually abused and even tortured the children in the camp.
Continue reading...RIYADH, Saudi Arabia and PARIS, April 8, 2026 — Pasqal, a global leader in neutral-atom quantum computing, today announced a strategic collaboration with True Nexus, a computational intelligence company focused on making protein functionality programmable for real-world food applications. Pasqal recently announced plans to go public through a combination with Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. II.
The collaboration will apply Pasqal’s quantum computing technology to one of the most persistent challenges in the alternative protein and food industries: accurately modeling and predicting protein functionality; particularly gelatin, texture, and overall behavior in complex food systems.
“For decades, the industry has been constrained by a lack of true computational understanding of protein behavior,” said Dominik Grabinski, CEO of True Nexus. “Partnering with Pasqal allows us to model protein functionality at a level of fidelity that simply hasn’t been possible before. This is the breakthrough that can shift the entire sector from trial-and-error to true design.”
As part of the collaboration, Pasqal and True Nexus are working to build the first fully vectorized, dynamic 3D model of protein gelation, one of the most critical functional properties in food systems.
The model integrates multiple layers of data, including:
Pasqal’s neutral-atom quantum processors will enable the model to capture interactions and variables at a level of precision not achievable with classical computing alone.
“Quantum computing allows us to tackle complexity that has limited innovation for decades,” said Wasiq Bokhari, CEO of Pasqal. “Together with True Nexus, we’re helping enable a more scalable, design-driven approach to sustainable protein development.”
The long-term goal of the collaboration is to establish a reference model for protein functionality that food and ingredient companies can use to guide seed development, crop optimization, and precision fermentation when existing proteins fall short.
The inability to consistently match animal-protein functionality has been a major barrier to adoption of alternative proteins. By making protein behavior predictable and programmable, the collaboration between Pasqal and True Nexus addresses a key gap that has slowed industry progress.
About Pasqal
Pasqal is a leader in the industrialization of neutral-atom quantum computing, transforming Nobel Prize-winning research into real-world solutions for industry, science, and governments. Since its founding in 2019, Pasqal has built high-performance quantum systems and cloud-ready software designed to address complex challenges in optimization, simulation, and artificial intelligence.
Pasqal, headquartered in France, employs over 275 people and serves over 25 clients, including CMA CGM, OVHcloud, Thales, IBM (Pasqal is part of the IBM Quantum Network), and Sumitomo. Backed by more than USD 300 million to date in total funding from international investors, Pasqal seeks to accelerate the adoption of scalable, high-performance quantum computing worldwide.
Source: Pasqal
The post Pasqal Partners with True Nexus to Apply Quantum Computing to Next-Gen Food Protein Design appeared first on HPCwire.
Can Viktor Orbán lose Hungary’s high-stakes election? Expert comment jon.wallace
Perhaps, but change will not mean transformation.
Hungary’s parliamentary election on 12 April has implications reaching well beyond Budapest. After 16 years in power, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is facing a sustained, credible challenge from Péter Magyar, whose Tisza Party is ahead in most independent polling (though it is not beyond reach).
The outcome of the contest will shape Hungary’s internal trajectory, the European Union (EU)’s ability to act cohesively, and the balance of influence between Russia and the West in Central Europe. It will also stress test President Donald Trump’s emerging network of like-minded political allies in Europe.
Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Hungary this week, in open support of Orbán, marks an unusually direct form of US political engagement in a European election – and deepening division between Washington and its traditional transatlantic allies.
From a purely domestic perspective, this election is less a simple choice between continuity and change than a test of how deeply a political system has been embedded.
Over the past decade, Hungary has developed a model characterized by strong centralization and an active role for the state in the economy.
This has translated into concrete policies: caps on energy prices, direct support schemes for households, and a state-led approach to strategic sectors. At the same time, economic pressures have become more visible. Inflation has eroded purchasing power, and public finances are tighter than in previous electoral cycles.
Another crucial aspect of Hungary’s model is a political narrative centred on sovereignty and resistance to external constraints. Órban’s relationship with the EU has been one of continuous, deepening dispute: over issues ranging from the rule of law and migration to the war in Ukraine.
Nearly €20 billion in EU funds remain frozen as a result. Delays or conditions attached to EU funding are now visible in Hungary: infrastructure projects have been postponed. Fewer development grants are being issued to businesses. And there is more limited room for public spending.
Having made confrontation with the EU a central point of its project, the Orbán system now sees that strategy turning back on itself – manifesting in delayed funds, tighter budgets, and fewer policy options. The political price could be deadly.
The election matters for the EU’s internal dynamics. Hungary has repeatedly used its position to delay or reshape collective decisions, particularly on financial support for Ukraine. This has created friction within the EU, where unanimity remains necessary on key foreign policy issues.
Election victory for Orbán would likely intensify calls by Germany and others to introduce qualified majority voting in the EU – to minimize Budapest’s spoiling power.
A change in leadership could reduce Hungarian blockages. However, it would not automatically align Hungary with all mainstream EU positions. On migration, for example, popular opinion within the country would likely remain cautious.
On Ukraine and Russia, Hungary has maintained a distinctive position within the EU, combining formal alignment with sanctions and NATO commitments with a more cautious – at times opportunistically pragmatic – approach towards Moscow. This has included continued energy cooperation with Russia, and a more restrained stance on military support for Ukraine.
Recent unverified reports that Orbán told Vladimir Putin, during a 2025 telephone conversation, that ‘I am at your service’, will reinforce concerns in European capitals about Hungary’s relationship with Russia, and its implications for EU cohesion. So too will a Politico report of government efforts to deepen ties with Moscow through a 12 point plan.
A government led by Péter Magyar might recalibrate this balance. But the underlying constraints any Hungarian government will face – geographic, economic, and political – would not disappear overnight.
The prospect of change needs to be framed with caution here. Péter Magyar is not an outsider seeking to dismantle the system from the ground up, but a political insider who understands how it operates.
His campaign has deliberately avoided presenting the election as a clash between two irreconcilable ‘Hungarys’. That positioning matters. It points to a scenario in which any change is likely to be selective and progressive rather than systemic and outright.
Some areas could shift relatively quickly. Relations with Brussels may stabilize, unlocking parts of EU funding. And the tone of foreign policy may adjust, not least towards Kyiv and Moscow.
But other elements are more deeply embedded: the central role of the state in the economy, or more importantly, the significance of large-scale energy projects.
The war in the Gulf brought energy security back to the forefront of the campaign.
Energy policy choices are often presented as purely political, but they are also shaped by structural constraints.
Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant generates around half of the country’s electricity. The construction of new reactors relies on Russian technology and financing through Rosatom, the Russian state energy company. And Hungary’s gas infrastructure has historically been oriented towards Russian supply routes.
Recent events have underlined the vulnerability of this infrastructure. At the weekend, explosives were discovered in Serbia near a pipeline that supplies Russian gas to Hungary.
Ukraine claims the incident may amount to a Russian false-flag operation. Although not improbable, that remains unproven. But the episode illustrates that energy dependence is not only an economic issue, but a strategic one.
Diversifying away from dependence on Russian energy is possible. But it requires years of investment in alternative pipelines, grid upgrades, and regional coordination – limiting any government’s room for manoeuvre in the short term.
EU expectations should be calibrated accordingly. Under a Magyar government the likely trajectory is not a clean break with Russia, but a gradual rebalancing shaped as much by practical constraints as by political intent.
The conduct of the election campaign itself has also attracted attention. Journalists and NGOs have alleged practices that blur the line between policy and political mobilization – particularly in economically vulnerable areas.
The government is accused of distributing material benefits and public employment schemes to secure the votes of key voters, and organizing transport to polling stations to facilitate their support.
This is often described in political debate as ‘vote buying’. But the more substantiated pattern points to localized patronage networks and forms of dependency, rather than systematic cash-for-votes schemes at scale.
This might not be enough to invalidate the electoral outcome. However, it does indicate that competition is taking place on an increasingly uneven playing field, shaped in part by clientelist practices – in which Orbán is likely to mobilize all available resources until the very end
What emerges from all this is a picture of constrained choice rather than clear alternatives. Hungary’s economic policy is shaped by limited fiscal space and conditional external funding. Energy strategy is influenced by long-term infrastructure and existing dependencies. Foreign policy sits at the intersection of EU membership, NATO commitments, and pragmatic considerations.
Earning NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud validation, Vultr demonstrates operational excellence and sophisticated scaling architecture that significantly boosts throughput and efficiency across key AI training benchmarks
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., April 8, 2026 — Vultr has announced that it is among the first to become an NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud, achieving the performance standards of the NVIDIA reference designs on NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. Vultr’s Exemplar Cloud achievement reinforces its position as the company building the infrastructure for the next generation of AI-native applications.
Vultr’s participation in the NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud Initiative entailed a comprehensive examination of its performance on NVIDIA accelerated computing. Tests were run on a 512-node NVIDIA HGX B200 cluster, using benchmarking recipes for AI training workloads, using 11 models including NVIDIA Nemotron-H, Nemotron-4 15B and 340B; Grok-1 314B; Llama 3.1 8B, 70B and 405B; Qwen3 30B and 235B and DeepSeek-v3-TorchTitan 671B.
As organizations and developers across the globe expand their strategic AI initiatives, they require sound guarantees that their cloud providers will reliably support real-world AI workloads. However, architecture varies across providers, creating variance in performance and total cost of ownership (TCO) that can complicate the process of choosing a vendor and, by extension, delay innovation. The NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud initiative was launched to provide rigorous, standardized benchmarking across cloud platforms, ensuring transparency and reproducibility of results, ultimately making it easier for AI innovators to choose the right cloud provider for their needs.
“Our NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud validation confirms Vultr’s ability to deliver industry-leading performance for today’s most demanding AI workloads,” said J.J. Kardwell, CEO of Vultr. “This recognition reflects the strength of our infrastructure design and our commitment to providing enterprises with reliable, production-ready AI compute.”
The Vultr Cloud GPU platform unlocks the raw power of NVIDIA AI infrastructure for cloud-native AI at an affordable price point. Beyond GPUs, Vultr offers a full practical stack that includes Kubernetes enablement, GPU-enabled images, and container repositories and model workflows to accelerate AI development from prototype to production.
To explore Vultr’s NVIDIA-accelerated cloud infrastructure offerings, visit the Vultr Cloud GPU product page.
For more information about Vultr’s full suite of enterprise cloud solutions, go to vultr.com.
About Vultr
Vultr is on a mission to make high-performance cloud infrastructure easy to use, affordable, and locally accessible for enterprises and AI innovators around the world. Vultr is trusted by hundreds of thousands of active customers across 185 countries for its flexible, scalable, global Cloud Compute, Cloud GPU, Bare Metal, and Cloud Storage solutions. In December 2024 Vultr announced an equity financing at a $3.5 billion valuation. Founded by David Aninowsky and self-funded for over a decade, Vultr has grown to become the world’s largest privately-held cloud infrastructure company.
Source: Vultr
The post Vultr Named NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud for Achieving Performance Targets on NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs appeared first on HPCwire.
Erick Valencia Salazar, aka "El 85," formed the Jalisco New Generation Cartel with "El Mencho" who was killed by the Mexican army in February.
Vice President JD Vance made the remarks in Hungary, where he is supporting Prime Minister Viktor Orbán Tuesday ahead of Orbán's reelection bid.
Republican Clay Fuller faced Democrat Shawn Harris in a Georgia runoff election after Marjorie Taylor Greene stepped down from her House seat.
Lynette Hooker's daughter, Karli Aylesworth, described her mother as an experienced swimmer who has been sailing for over 10 years.
Samsung may be gearing up to launch a sequel to its rugged smartwatch this summer. Here's everything we know so far.
The next wave of Razr phones could come in new colors with improved cameras. Here's what we have heard so far.
Jabra's flagship headset leaves off the boom microphone and has a remarkably slim design. A significant upgrade over the Evolve2 Series, it earns a CNET Editors' Choice award.
The companies are starting on-road testing of the autonomous ID Buzz vehicle in Los Angeles.
Lawyers for Robert Morales’s family said chatbot ‘may have advised the shooter’ on how to carry out shooting
The family of a man who was killed at Florida State University last year plans to sue ChatGPT and its parent organization, OpenAI, for allegedly telling the accused gunman how to carry out the mass shooting.
Lawyers for the family of Robert Morales wrote in a statement they had learned the shooter was in “constant communication with ChatGPT” ahead of the shooting, and that the chatbot “may have advised the shooter how to commit these heinous crimes”.
Continue reading...Yes, you should absolutely marathon them.
Iran must negotiate in 'good faith' during the two-week ceasefire, said the US vice-president, JD Vance, as he called it a 'fragile truce'.
The US and Iran agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire on Tuesday evening, which includes a temporary reopening of the strait of Hormuz, after a last-minute diplomatic intervention led by Pakistan, cancelling an ultimatum from Donald Trump for Iran to surrender or face widespread destruction
Continue reading...Executive complaints unit finding relates to broadcast of N-word during awards ceremony
The BBC breached its editorial standards by broadcasting a racial slur during the Bafta film awards ceremony in February, the corporation’s executive complaints unit (ECU) has found.
Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson could be heard shouting the slur as Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the award for special visual effects during the ceremony at London’s Royal Festival Hall.
Continue reading...As real astronauts vanish behind the moon, games have long tried to evoke the fragile quiet of drifting through space
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Last week’s launch of the Artemis II space mission was a stunning spectacle, the 17-storey-high rockets erupting into cacophonous life before wrenching the craft through the Earth’s atmosphere. But the images that have come since hold just as much impact: the tiny Orion craft and its four-person crew drifting silently through space, further and further from home.
In his autobiography, the Apollo astronaut Michael Collins described this feeling perfectly. Left in the command module as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the lunar surface, he wrote: “I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God knows what on this side.”
Continue reading...Expert stresses importance of staying alert for unusual activity, as hackers could ‘take you to fake sites’
Russian hackers are exploiting commonly sold internet routers to harvest information for espionage purposes, the UK’s cybersecurity agency has said.
The hack could allow attackers to obtain users’ credentials, redirect them to fake sites, and potentially access other devices on their home network such as phones and PCs, said Alan Woodward, a professor at the University of Surrey.
Continue reading...A proposal to make Bible stories required reading in Texas public schools is putting the state at the center of another contentious battle over the role of religion in classrooms.
In an act transcending politics, tens of thousands successfully banded together to make the case against executing Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton in Alabama
With all of his appeals exhausted, Charles “Sonny” Burton had already chosen the last meal he would have before being put to death by nitrogen gas at Alabama’s Holman correctional facility: barbecue chicken, banana cake with ice cream, and sweet tea – all things he hadn’t been able to enjoy in years with his diabetes.
The writing seemed to be on the wall. His fate was in the hands of Kay Ivey, Alabama’s governor and a staunch supporter of capital punishment who has presided over more than 25 executions – more than any other Alabama governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Her office had been repeating the same line for weeks: “Governor Ivey has no plans to grant clemency.” But on the morning of 10 March, just two days before Sonny was to be put to death, Ivey commuted his sentence to life without parole.
Continue reading...Investing in a smart home gym? Check out our favorite setups before spending a penny.
alternative_right quotes a report from the New York Post: The CIA used a futuristic new tool called "Ghost Murmur" to find and rescue the second American airman who was shot down in southern Iran, The Post has learned. The secret technology uses long-range quantum magnetometry to find the electromagnetic fingerprint of a human heartbeat and pairs the data with artificial intelligence software to isolate the signature from background noise, two sources close to the breakthrough said. It was the tool's first use in the field by the spy agency -- and was alluded to Monday afternoon by President Trump and CIA Director John Ratcliffe at a White House briefing. "It's like hearing a voice in a stadium, except the stadium is a thousand square miles of desert," a source briefed on the program told The Post. "In the right conditions, if your heart is beating, we will find you." The relatively barren landscape made for "an ideal first operational use" of Ghost Murmur, the first source noted. "Normally this signal is so weak that it can only be measured in a hospital setting with sensors pressed nearly against the chest," the source said. "But advances in a field known as quantum magnetometry -- specifically sensors built around microscopic defects in synthetic diamonds -- have apparently made it possible to detect these signals at dramatically greater distances." "The capability is not omniscient. It works best in remote, low-clutter environments and requires significant processing time," this person added.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
President Trump announced that the U.S. and Iran had agreed to a two-week ceasefire that was contingent on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Average price dips back below £300,000 after higher energy costs have knock-on effect on mortgage rates
UK house prices fell in March, as the housing market lost momentum amid uncertainty over the conflict in the Middle East and the impact on the economy and interest rates.
Figures from Halifax, which is part of Lloyds – Britain’s biggest mortgage lender – showed property prices dipped by 0.5% in March compared with a month earlier. As a result, the average price of a home slipped back below £300,000, to £299,677, after first crossing the milestone in January.
Continue reading...Donald Trump abandons threat for Iran to surrender or face destruction. Plus, why some people are ‘bad texters’
Good morning.
The US and Iran agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire deal on Tuesday evening, which includes a temporary reopening of the strait of Hormuz.
How does the ceasefire affect Israel and Lebanon? The Israel prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel backed the US ceasefire with Iran – but that the deal did not cover fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,500 in Lebanon.
What has Trump said about the Iranian 10-point plan? He has called it a “workable basis on which to negotiate”. Here’s what’s in it.
Follow our liveblog for the latest developments.
How much of a margin do Republicans have in Georgia? The GOP currently holds the state House with a three-vote margin.
Continue reading...Colleagues left anti-Islam leaflet in locker belonging to Parmjit Bassi, who is not a Muslim, and accused him of knife attack
A Network Rail worker has won a race harassment case after his colleagues left an anti-Islam English Defence League [EDL] leaflet in his locker.
Parmjit Bassi, who is not a Muslim, was found to have been the victim of a racist attack when his co-worker stuffed an EDL leaflet in his locker that asked “what individuals were doing to protect their children from Islam”.
Continue reading...Amazon's genre bin has some solid sci-fi treats.
The party establishment rushed to condemn the Twitch streamer after news of his alliance with a Michigan Senate candidate
Gas has topped $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022. The president’s approval rating just fell below 40%. The war in Iran is entering its sixth week, with thousands dead and no end in sight. The strait of Hormuz is blockaded, food prices are climbing and US households are staring down hundreds of dollars in added living expenses.
So naturally, the Democratic party has found something truly urgent to focus on: a Twitch streamer.
Continue reading...Maine family was on vacation when Ryan Jennings died saving his son and daughter from rip current off Juno Beach
A Maine family is grieving after a father died recently saving his son and one of his daughters from drowning off the coast of Florida, where they were on vacation.
The selfless nature of Ryan Jennings’ actions has gained widespread attention online – and inspired his widow, Emily, to write a heartbreaking social media post which read: “His last gift to me was returning my children alive.”
Continue reading...Flock Safety surveillance equipment is appearing in neighborhoods across the country. I spoke with experts about the tech, laws and privacy issues at play.
The eventual ask of Congress is likely to fall to between $80 billion and $100 billion, officials said, less than half the amount of an earlier proposal to offset costs of the conflict.
Announcement of deal met with relief and calls for strait of Hormuz to be reopened and permanent end to hostilities
European leaders have welcomed the US-Iran ceasefire deal while calling for the reopening of the strait of Hormuz and a permanent end to hostilities, including in Lebanon.
The US and Iran agreed a two-week conditional ceasefire on Tuesday, including a temporary reopening of the strait of Hormuz, after last-minute diplomacy from Pakistan. The Israeli military said on Wednesday it was continuing “fighting and ground operations” in its war against the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, despite a statement from Pakistan that Lebanon was included in the ceasefire.
Continue reading...US is in weaker position than before war as Tehran has shown capacity to inflict pain on Trump administration
The announcement of a two-week ceasefire has allowed Donald Trump to hail the reopening of the Hormuz strait as a victorious dawn of a new golden age, but it is Iran that enters peace talks with the stronger hand.
The Tehran regime goes to the negotiations planned for Friday in Pakistan bloodied but intact. It still holds a stockpile of highly enriched uranium (the original crux of the conflict with the US, Israel and allies), and it now claims at least part-control of the strait, having demonstrated its power to close the narrow waterway and hold the world to ransom.
Continue reading...Revelations about a 2024 call offering assistance raise questions about Hungary’s ties to Iran as the Trump administration backs Prime Minister Viktor Orban for reelection.
More than 400,000 Arizonans have lost their SNAP benefits since July — the largest decline in the nation by a wide margin — as an underfunded state agency administered changes called for in President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The drop represents nearly 47% of the state’s participants in the program better known as food stamps and includes about 180,000 children, according to the Arizona Department of Economic Security, which administers the program.
On Wednesday, the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released data through February showing that the reduction in Arizona has far outstripped other states. After Arizona, the largest loss of participants was in Florida, where less than 16% of recipients lost benefits since July, according to the center’s analysis.
Arizona officials attribute the plunging caseload to swift implementation of policy changes forced by the bill, including new work requirements.
But interviews suggest that Arizona’s efforts to comply, combined with cuts to the agency that runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, have contributed to the decline — making it more difficult to apply and causing people who are eligible to be denied. The state’s drop has exceeded previous projections.
“Arizona is just the alarm bell,” said Joseph Palomino, executive director of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress, a nonpartisan advocacy organization. “This is likely going to happen in every state.”
The bill, which places a larger share of the program’s costs onto states, expanded work requirements for some recipients and eliminated work exemptions for others, such as people who are homeless or aging out of foster care.
In addition, the bill mandates that states reduce their payment error rates — which measure the accuracy of eligibility and payment determinations — or face millions in penalties. Although some changes don’t fully take effect until the fall, experts say Arizona’s experience suggests people are already going hungry as a result of the legislation’s changes.
Charisma Garcia, a 25-year-old mother of two, has tried for months to obtain an interview to complete a SNAP application. After weeks calling the agency only to get a recorded message, she woke before sunrise recently to wait in line at an Arizona Department of Economic Security office in south Phoenix.
A security guard told her the agency wasn’t doing in-person interviews, so she headed to a food bank instead. She needed to feed her children, ages 3 and 6.
“I need to do the thing that gets me the food,” she said.
Brett Bezio, a spokesperson for DES, said the agency is focusing on reducing the state’s error rate to ensure “the program remains a stable resource for vulnerable Arizonans.” Although Arizona’s rate of 8.8% is below the national average, the new federal regulations require that it be brought down to 6%. If officials don’t reduce the rate, Arizona could face penalties of $195.4 million in two years, which is more than double the amount it pays to operate the program. The department said it expects participation to stabilize in the months ahead.
The choices Arizona is making are “a reality that every state is facing,” said Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Congress created a “terrible incentive” by requiring states to reduce their error rate and shoulder more of the program’s costs, she said.
Nationwide, SNAP enrollment plummeted 8% from December 2024 to December 2025, according to estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs SNAP. Trump has touted it as a success.
“We lifted 3.3 million Americans off of food stamps,” he said, referencing figures since he took office. “That’s a record.”
The state showed monthly drops after the bill became law on July 4.
Asked about the sharp decline in SNAP participants, Gov. Katie Hobbs’ press secretary, Liliana Soto, blamed Trump administration policies, which have “increased bureaucracy and red tape on states across the country, and forced DES to take difficult but necessary steps to reduce the state’s payment error rate.” Hobbs’ administration is taking these steps “to avoid staggering fines of hundreds of millions of dollars that would further endanger food assistance for vulnerable Arizonans,” Soto said in a statement.
But other factors have aggravated Arizona’s situation. In 2021, the state Legislature and then-Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, passed a flat 2.5% income tax largely benefiting the wealthy, which has forced more than $1 billion in spending cuts and fund swaps to balance the state budget in subsequent years. (Ducey has defended the flat tax as necessary to ensure the state continues to be competitive and “a jobs magnet and generator of opportunity.”)
Last summer, DES also laid off about 500 employees in response to the elimination of federal grants and in anticipation of additional federal cuts. Officials said that about 160 eligibility specialists lost their jobs, a 40% decline since July 2024.
In December, Hobbs, a Democrat, allocated $7.5 million to DES, most of which was used to hire more than 100 workers and increase overtime to handle SNAP cases. A spokesperson said applications are also slowed by “1980s technology” it uses to administer benefits.
Hobbs asked for an additional $48.4 million in her 2027 budget proposal to help the department administer SNAP. The most recent federal data, from 2023, shows that the state spends $70 million to operate the $2 billion program.
Meanwhile, some seeking SNAP assistance told ProPublica that their applications remain in limbo, sometimes for months.
Garcia, the mother of two, said she will keep trying to obtain the benefits. She’s looking for work as a cook after being laid off from a car wash in January. Her family is living with her grandparents, where groceries are shared among six people.
Sometimes, her 3-year-old pats his belly when he’s hungry for his favorite fruits like strawberries. At times, she hasn’t received fruit in the boxes she receives from the food bank.
“I’m in a pinch,” she said. “I’m struggling.
The post “The Alarm Bell”: Arizona’s Drop in SNAP Participation Signals Potential Nationwide Impact of Trump Legislation appeared first on ProPublica.
The Office of Personnel Management is asking insurers that cover federal employees and retirees to hand over details about their medical visits, their pharmacy claims, and more.
“Magawa was one of the best rats we’ve ever had,” said Michael Raine, who works for Apopo, a nonprofit that trains animals to detect land mines.
Israeli military announces further action against Hezbollah, contradicting statements from Pakistan and Iran
Israel has said its military operations in Lebanon will continue despite Donald Trump’s ceasefire announcement, with Israeli forces carrying out strikes and telling civilians in the south of the country to leave the areas they are targeting.
The office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Trump’s two-week pause “does not include Lebanon” amid reports of continued artillery and drone strikes, directly contradicting statements made by Iran and Pakistan, which has been mediating in the conflict.
Continue reading...The president said he had received a 10-point proposal from Iran that formed a “workable basis” for negotiations. But Israel said the ceasefire “does not include Lebanon.”
Footage from inside Iran showed crowds of people celebrating in Tehran after the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire, barely an hour before Donald Trump’s Wednesday deadline to obliterate the country and its infrastructure. Iranian state media announced that the country forced the US 'to accept its 10-point plan'
Continue reading...This model comes with creatively designed stickers and a special look for Pixel's 10th anniversary.
Orla Wates, 19, who died after incident on popular Ha Giang loop, described as ‘beautiful, independent and very funny’
The family of a British teenager have paid tribute to their daughter who died after a motorcycle crash on a popular route in Vietnam.
The incident occurred on the Ha Giang loop in the country’s north, and Orla Wates, 19, died at the Viet Duc university hospital in Hanoi, according to Viet Nam News.
Continue reading...Qarsoq Høegh-Dam aims to use his seat in Danish parliament to shift power from Copenhagen to Nuuk
It’s not the standard motto for a newly elected parliamentarian, but Qarsoq Høegh-Dam is adamant: if he does his job properly, there will soon be no need for it. “I want to make myself as obsolete as possible,” he said.
Last month, Høegh-Dam, a Greenlandic politician, became the first member of the pro-independence Naleraq to be elected to the Danish parliament. The new MP is clear that if all goes to plan, the largely autonomous Arctic territory will be the sole responsibility of the parliament in Nuuk, the island’s capital. And there will no longer be any need for two seats representing Greenland in Copenhagen, its former colonial ruler.
Continue reading...PM to meet regional leaders to discuss effort to ‘support and sustain ceasefire’ and reopening the strait of Hormuz
Keir Starmer is travelling to the Gulf to meet leaders in the region to discuss diplomatic efforts to support the ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran.
The prime minister’s visit on Wednesday comes hours after a two-week ceasefire was agreed on Tuesday evening, canceling a self-imposed deadline by the US president, Donald Trump, for Iran to surrender or face widespread destruction.
Continue reading...BrianFagioli writes: Artificial intelligence has now run directly on a satellite in orbit. A spacecraft about 500km above Earth captured an image of an airport and then immediately ran an onboard AI model to detect airplanes in the photo. Instead of acting like a simple camera in space that sends raw data back to Earth for later analysis, the satellite performed the computation itself while still in orbit. The system used an NVIDIA Jetson Orin module to run the object detection model moments after the image was taken. Traditionally, Earth observation satellites capture images and transmit large datasets to ground stations where computers process them hours later. Running AI directly on the satellite could reduce that delay dramatically, allowing spacecraft to analyze events like disasters, infrastructure changes, or aircraft activity almost immediately. "This success is a glimpse into the future of what we call Planetary Intelligence at scale," said Kiruthika Devaraj, VP of Avionics & Spacecraft Technology. "By running AI at the edge on the NVIDIA Jetson platform, we can help reduce the time between 'seeing' a change on Earth and a customer 'acting' on it, while simultaneously minimizing downlink latency and cost. This shift toward integrated AI at the edge is a technological leap that can help differentiate solutions like Planet's Global Monitoring Service (GMS), providing valuable insights for our customers and enabling rapid response times when it matters most."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
US president abandons threat for Iran to surrender or face destruction with last-minute intervention led by Pakistan
The US and Iran agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire on Tuesday evening, which included a temporary reopening of the strait of Hormuz, after a last-minute diplomatic intervention led by Pakistan, canceling an ultimatum from Donald Trump for Iran to surrender or face widespread destruction.
Trump’s announcement of the ceasefire agreement came less than two hours before the US president’s self-imposed 8pm Eastern time deadline to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges in a move that legal scholars, as well as officials from numerous countries and the pope, had warned could constitute war crimes.
Continue reading...
Why Should Delaware Care?
As Delaware families grapple with rising costs, the House of Representatives members is considering two parallel bill that each would increase the Child and Dependent Care tax credits for those who are income-eligible.
Two pieces of legislation that would each expand tax credits for Delaware parents have seen action in the statehouse in recent weeks.
One is a Democratic bill that proposes to double the amount of money that parents could receive from a Delaware childcare tax credit. The other, which has bipartisan sponsors, would expand the credit for lower-income parents and allow them to redeem more money than they pay in.
The sponsors of each bill says their measure is designed to ease the burden of inflation on working families. Both bills have also received backing from various business groups.
While neither proposal has drawn outright opposition, there is uncertainty around whether either will pass during what is expected to be a hard-fought budget season.
Rep. Melanie Ross Levin (D-Brandywine Hundred) first introduced House Bill 274 in January as a means to ease financial pressure on parents in need of childcare.
Last month, a revised version of her bill – which would increase Delaware’s match of the federal Child and Dependent Care Credit from 50% to 100% – passed the House Revenue and Finance Committee.
The federal Child and Dependent Care Credit allows working parents to reduce their tax liability if they pay for childcare.
During testimony at the committee hearing, Ross Levin noted that her proposal was not in Gov. Matt Meyer’s recommended budget in January. Still, she called the bill “fiscally, potentially doable,” noting that the credits are designed so that taxpayers do not receive more cash from the government than what they pay in taxes.
Ross Levin also said her bill is not a silver bullet to fix rising costs for parents, but noted she has a “few other childcare bills up my sleeve.”
Following the testimony, several lawmakers expressed general support for the bill. None voiced opposition to it. The bill, if passed, would cost the state government more than $6 million annually, according to legislative estimates.
Also awaiting consideration in the same committee is House Bill 284.
Sponsored by Rep. Lyndon Yearick (R-Dover), the bill would double the childcare and dependent care expense tax credit for single individuals with an income of less than $60,000 and would make the credit refundable – meaning beneficiaries could receive payments even if they own little in taxes.
Married couples with an income of less than $120,000 would also be eligible for the increase. The tax credit would remain the same for those who earn more.
But because of its refundability, Yearick’s bill is likely to be more expensive for the state than Ross Levin’s parallel legislation. Delaware’s legislative staff members have not yet publicly posted its estimated cost to the state.
Late last month, Yearick introduced a substituted version of the bill, which now awaits consideration.
In an interview, Yearick said his bill is designed to attract “a qualified workforce” to the state by making childcare more accessible to parents who do not qualify for programs, such as Purchase of Care or Head Start.
Among the additional and co-sponsors of the bill are two Democrats — Rep. Alonna Berry (D-Milton) and Sen. Kyra Hoffner (D-Leipsic).
Both Yearick’s and Ross Levin’s bills have gained support from the Delaware Association for the Education of Young Children. In a statement, the association’s president, Kim Bryda, said she appreciates the bills’ focus on early care and education affordability, but asserted that “families need relief on a daily basis.”
Other leaders in Dover have not yet made their stances publicly known.
A spokeswoman for Democrats in the House of Representatives said lawmakers will examine both bills in a “holistic manner” to ensure the best option is put forward.
“We look forward to continued discussions on both pieces of legislation,” the statement said.
A spokeswoman for Delaware’s Senate Democrats declined to comment for this story.
The post Two bills call for expanding Delaware’s childcare tax credit appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Why Should Delaware Care?
The Delaware LGBTQ+ Commission advises the governor and legislature on policy changes and emerging issues concerning the community. Previously, the commission faced scrutiny over a lack of diversity and what some saw as a lack of advocacy experience. In March, Gov. Matt Meyer appointed six new members to the body to fill that gap.
Delaware’s LGBTQ+ Commission officially welcomed six new members during its monthly meeting on Tuesday — a long-awaited move aimed at addressing what advocates have called a diversity gap within the body.
Gov. Matt Meyer announced the addition of the six new members in March, about nine months after the newly appointed commission faced scrutiny from community members who criticized a lack of diversity and advocacy experience among its members.
“Now more than ever, it is vital that our government institutions reflect and promote the diverse experiences and perspectives of the constituents we serve,” Gov. Meyer said in a statement announcing the new members on March 26.
Meyer previously made nominations to the commission about a year ago — around the time that federal policies impacting the LGBTQ community began to limit of access to gender-affirming care, to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and to cut funding for HIV prevention programs.
“The clock is ticking. We need to be serious, we need to be aggressive, and we need to be ready.” Stephan Browne-Blackman, one of the new commissioners, told Spotlight Delaware.
The commission was first formally created in early 2025, when then-Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, who served a two-week stint as governor, signed an executive order creating the body.
The order directed the commission to advise the governor and the General Assembly on the ways in which state policy could affect the challenges and needs of LGBTQ+ people.
Before she left office, Hall-Long appointed four of the current commissioners. Gov. Matt Meyer then appointed the remaining five members last June to complete the original nine-member commission.
Shortly after the appointments, some LGBTQ+ advocates raised concerns about the makeup of the group. The rollout of the commission also resurfaced tensions between Meyer and Hall-Long over gubernatorial appointments.
Asked about the group’s policy work since then, Cora Castle, chair of the commission, pointed to a letter the commission sent to the General Assembly opposing Senate Bill 215, which would require student athletes to play on sports teams associated with their gender determined at birth.
Vienna Cavazos, vice chair of the commission, noted that the group spent its early months building its structure and operations — a process that they said took time. They also said the commission began turning to substantive policy issues in late fall.
“We had to build from scratch. There wasn’t a specific format that was given to us. So a lot of our early months were spent sort of setting up how we function,” they said.
Most of the commission’s work happens within its subcommittees, which include health and human services; youth and education; justice, labor, and housing; intersectionality; outreach; and the executive subcommittee.
Cavazos told Spotlight Delaware that many of the subcommittees have been receiving testimony from various community organizations about different issues, such as protections for transgender youth and inmates, LGBTQ+ homelessness, and gender-affirming and mental health care access.
Castle stressed that the commission has focused heavily on gender-affirming care after options for youth in Delaware became limited. She said the commission is looking at ways to improve access and identify potential funding sources.
“Aligning all of these things is extremely complicated, but we do think that we have some ideas,” Castle said.
The commission’s executive committee is set to meet within the next 30 days to begin drafting its first budget, which contains $20,000 in state funding, and start work on its first annual report.
The commission’s newest members come from backgrounds in public health, education, advocacy, and community organizing.
Stephan Browne-Blackman, the second youngest commissioner at 24 years old, works on the communications team for Delaware’s House of Representatives. He previously graduated from Delaware State University, where he was involved in organizing and advocacy within the Black community.
Trisha Danah, a Deaf and queer advocate, serves as the state’s programs coordinator for individuals who are Deaf or hearing impaired at the Delaware Office for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. She previously held administrative roles at schools serving students who are deaf or visually impaired in other states.
Sequoia Rent is chief of the Bureau of Health Equity and deputy health equity officer for the Delaware Division of Public Health. She previously served as president of Kent Kids Coalition, a coalition of organizations focused on improving community health in Kent County and nearby areas.
Kaelea Shaner is a law student at Temple University. She previously served as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer for the Delaware Courts.
Dr. Keonna Watson is a mental health therapist and founder of the FreeLee Integrated Health Wealth, who has been advocating for queer rights in the state since 2005.
Zach Workman is president and CEO of Delaware Pride Inc and has been in that role since 2023. He also currently works for Inspire Health, according to his LinkedIn.
The post Following criticism surrounding diversity, LGBTQ+ Commission welcomes new members appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
President Trump said he has agreed to a "double sided CEASEFIRE" with Iran, less than two hours before his deadline for Iran to either cut a deal with the U.S. or face massive strikes on its power plants.
If the president’s first term didn’t inoculate the American body politic against tyranny, there is no guarantee that a second dose will work
Donald Trump is a despot and the US is a democracy. These things can be true simultaneously but not indefinitely. There is now deadlock in the struggle between a president who would be king and a constitution drafted in repudiation of monarchy. But it is a battle to the death. Tyranny will either break the spirit of the republic or be quelled by it.
Since the US is the world’s paramount power, the outcome of this contest has epic consequences for countries, such as the UK, that depend on Washington for security.
Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist
Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink?
On Thursday 30 April, join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss how much of a threat Labour faces from the Green party and Reform UK – and whether Keir Starmer can survive as leader. Book tickets here or at guardian.live
James Sample, Newark’s newest centenarian, says the key to a successful life is simple.
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 8.
Category 3 cyclone is moving south of Fiji towards New Zealand, with winds at centre in excess of 150km/h
Tropical Cyclone Vaianu forming in the Pacific could bring life-threatening winds and heavy rain to New Zealand later this week, forecasters have said, with strong wind watches issued for the entire North Island.
The category 3 cyclone is moving south of Fiji towards New Zealand, with winds around the centre in excess of 150km/h, MetService said on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Students who participate in sports are a third less likely to be chronically absent, according to a study released by the American Enterprise Institute.
More than 33GW of battery capacity approved for Turkish grid since 2022 compared with 12-13GW in Germany
Turkey has given the green light to more batteries to buffer its electricity grid than any EU member state, a report has found, in a further sign of rich countries losing steam in the race to a clean economy.
More than 33GW of battery capacity have been approved in Turkey since 2022, according to the climate thinktank Ember, while the total planned and operational capacity in European frontrunners that started deploying them earlier, such as Germany and Italy, is 12-13GW.
Continue reading...The Iran war risks not just an energy Shock—but also a debt crisis.
A Shared Enemy, but Diverging Views of Its Motives and Character.
Two-week ceasefire comes after Trump spoke to Pakistan’s leaders, with China also believed to be exerting influence over Tehran
The US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday barely an hour before Donald Trump’s deadline to obliterate Iran was set to expire, with Tehran agreeing to temporarily reopen the strait of Hormuz.
Israel also agreed to the ceasefire, the White House said. As Trump announced he was suspending his plans to escalate attacks across Iran, the US president said he had received a 10-point proposal from Iran which was a “workable basis on which to negotiate”.
Continue reading...When it’s hard or impossible to identify trustworthy sources, you can choose to believe whatever you find comforting, invigorating or infuriating
In early March, a week after the first US-Israeli strikes on Iran, the White House posted a video of real American attacks mixed with clips from popular movies, television series, video games and anime.
Iran and its sympathisers responded to the strikes by flooding social media with outdated war footage allegedly from the current conflict alongside AI-generated content depicting attacks on Tel Aviv and US bases in the Persian Gulf.
Continue reading...An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: A group of Russian government hackers have hijacked thousands of home and small business routers around the world as part of an ongoing campaign aimed at redirecting victim's internet traffic to steal their passwords and access tokens, security researchers and government authorities warned on Tuesday. [...] The hacking group targeted unpatched routers made by MikroTik and TP-Link using previously disclosed vulnerabilities according to the U.K. government's cybersecurity unit NCSC and Lumen's research arm Black Lotus Labs, which released new details of the campaign Tuesday. According to the researchers, the hackers were able to spy on large numbers of people over the course of several years by compromising their routers, many of which run outdated software, leaving them vulnerable to remote attacks without their owners' knowledge. The NCSC said that these operations are "likely opportunistic in nature, with the actor casting a wide net to reach many potential victims, before narrowing in on targets of intelligence interest as the attack develops." Per the researchers and government advisories, the Russian hackers hacked routers to modify the device's settings so that the victim's internet requests are surreptitiously passed to infrastructure run by the hackers. This allows the hackers to redirect victims to spoof websites under their control, then steal passwords and tokens that let the hackers log in to that victim's online accounts without needing their two-factor authentication codes. Black Lotus Labs said that Fancy Bear compromised at least 18,000 victims in around 120 countries, including government departments, law enforcement agencies, and email providers across North Africa, Central America, and Southeast Asia. Microsoft, which also released details of the campaign on Tuesday, said in a blog post that its researchers identified over 200 organizations and 5,000 consumer devices affected by these hacking operations, including at least three government organizations in Africa. The Justice Department said Tuesday it neutralized compromised routers in the U.S. under court authorization. As the DOJ put it, the FBI "developed a series of commands to send to compromised routers" to collect evidence, reset settings, and prevent hackers from breaking back in.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
I know it can toggle to red, but when it's white, it's an odd shade and you get some of that kind of chromatic aberration look. Just to be clear: Can you select a color of LED headlight in the app? I didn't see any option for that.
American journalist Shelly Kittleson is being released on the condition that she leave Iraq immediately, an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq says.
 | will this gt fender work on my xrc?? [link] [comments] |
did something happen to Oak City Electrolytes? Every time I try to go to their website it doesn't work and I can't find anything recently about it. I would love to get electrolytes for my GTS but I can't even see the price.
I was dumb (uneducated?) and left my 267 miles-young Pint unused & unplugged for a few months during a chaotic move….so naturally the battery is bricked now.
After a few more months I decided to set aside my resentment with FM and want to ride again. But instead of paying for shipping/repair, I kinda just want to upgrade (yeah yeah I know, fool me twice). Anyway do I just take this thing to the dump, or are has anyone had luck selling units like these for cheap to people who would be down to do the repair?
This blog is now closed. Follow the latest ceasefire news and updates in our Iran war live blog here.
During a press conference in Budapest with Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán, vice-president JD Vance is asked how the military goals in Iran can be achieved if the US continues its attacks on the country.
Vance was also asked about reports about US attacks on Kharg Island. The vice-president said the plan was to hit “some military targets” there and “I believe we have done so.”
Continue reading...  | Anybody got a workaround or something my friend can print to be able to use fenders with dubtails? This is a cut crop top but it’s rubbing. I was gonna try the flightfins with the XL shield and zip tie it secure if needed but won’t see them for a month to try. They would like to be able to use a full fender if there is a way. I saw the older posts with TFL drop top but in the picture it doesn’t look locked in like it would come off during a wipe out and they like to race figured they might be scrambling for it. Hoping someone has come up with something since then? 🤞 [link] [comments] |
Chuck Schumer attacks president’s ‘ridiculous bluster’ while Republicans cast decision as shrewd tactical move
Political leaders and many Americans breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday evening, when Donald Trump announced a provisional ceasefire deal hours after threatening to destroy Iran’s “whole civilization” if Tehran failed to reopen the strait of Hormuz by his self-imposed deadline.
The announcement of the agreement came roughly 90 minutes before the 8pm ET deadline by which Trump pledged to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges in a move legal and military scholars said would be considered a war crime. But a last-minute intervention by Pakistan led Trump to back off, at least temporarily, his ultimatum for widespread destruction.
Continue reading...In his first official visit to a tiny North Carolina town devastated by Hurricane Helene, new Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin reassured locals he intends to reform FEMA — not eliminate it.
Iran bombed US bases and allies’ facilities soon after Russian satellites mapped them, according to Ukrainian assessment. What we know on day 1,505
Russian satellites made detailed imagery of military facilities and critical sites across the Middle East including US bases and other targets that were attacked by Iran soon afterwards, according to a Ukrainian intelligence assessment. Reuters reported that the assessment cited at least 24 surveys of areas in 11 Middle Eastern countries from 21-31 March, covering 46 “objects” including US and other military bases and airports and oilfields. Within days of being surveyed, military bases and headquarters were targeted by Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, the assessment said.
Russian satellites were actively surveying the strait of Hormuz, according to the Ukrainians. Reuters said a western military source and a separate regional security cited their own intelligence in backing up the claims. Reuters said the Iranian foreign ministry had no immediate comment and the defence ministry in Russia did not respond to a request for comment.
Reuters said its regional security source confirmed a specific incident where a Russian satellite imaged Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia days before Iran struck the facility on 27 March, hitting a sophisticated US E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system aircraft. The next day a Russian satellite passed over again to assess the damage, the assessment said. The Ukrainian report also alleges Russian and Iranian hackers were collaborating in the cyber domain.
The Ukrainian military said it had struck Russia’s Ust-Luga oil terminal in the Leningrad region on Tuesday. The general staff said on Telegram it had preliminary confirmation of damage to three storage tanks belonging to the Transneft-Baltika company.
Crude oil exports from Russia’s Sheskharis terminal in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk were suspended after a big drone attack and a fire, two sources told Reuters on Tuesday. The terminal, which typically loads 700,000 barrels a day of crude oil, is Russia’s key oil outlet in the Black Sea. Its suspension will add to the strain on Russian infrastructure, which has been repeatedly attacked.
Moscow’s troops targeted two buses in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, its governor, Oleksandr Ganzha, said on Telegram. A drone smashed into a bus approaching a stop in Nikopol’s city centre, he said, and later another bus was hit in a neighbouring community. Four people were killed in Nikopol and at least 16 injured, officials said. In the southern city of Kherson, a Russian attack on a residential area that lasted half an hour killed four elderly people and injured seven more, said the regional governor, Oleksandr Prokudin. Other deadly Russian strikes took place in Zaporizhzhia and Sumy oblasts, said Ukrainian officials.
Ukrainian drone strikes killed five civilians including a 12-year-old boy and his parents in Russia and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, Russian officials said on Tuesday. Reuters could not independently verify the officials’ statements, and Ukraine denies deliberately targeting civilians.
Continue reading...Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez hospitalized after shooting in rural Patterson as officials say investigation under way
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot a man in a vehicle in northern California on Tuesday.
ICE agents conducted a vehicle stop in Patterson, a rural agricultural town in California’s Central Valley about 80 miles east of San Jose, to arrest Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, ICE director Todd Lyons said in a statement.
Continue reading...I’ve been trying to drive less and take the train more so i got a onewheel to cover the first and last mile of my commute.
It’s such a fun ride but oof my feet and calves are screaming after about half a mile.
Trump announces two-week conditional ceasefire after last-minute diplomatic intervention led by Pakistan – key US politics stories from Tuesday 7 April at a glance
It appears Iran’s whole civilization will not die tonight.
With less than two hours before his self-imposed deadline for Iran to surrender or face annihilation, Donald Trump announced that the US and Iran had agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire after a last-minute diplomatic intervention led by Pakistan.
Continue reading...Use the settlement website to select your preferred payment method, and you may end up $100 richer.
After meeting with Marco Rubio, foreign minister Winston Peters says he made sure US understands ‘significant economic impacts on New Zealand and Pacific’
New Zealand has called on the US to send fuel tankers to the Pacific to help alleviate some of the significant economic and fuel pressure caused by the war in the Middle East.
Winston Peters, New Zealand’s foreign minister, met the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in Washington on Tuesday, where they discussed bilateral relations, the war in Iran and the Pacific.
Continue reading...Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for April 8, No. 766.
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 8, No. 1032.
Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for April 8, No. 1,754.
Republicans in Congress largely stayed silent, while dozens of Democrats called for President Trump to be removed from office after he threatened "a whole civilization will die tonight."
I no longer wish to live in a country where performative cruelty has become the guiding principle of government
When not firing off social media posts threatening potential war crimes against 93 million Iranians, Donald Trump is busy quietly killing the so-called American dream. With gasoline at US$4 a gallon, credit card debt hitting a record US$1.28tn, and stagnating wages, Americans are struggling to detect the prosperity their president promised them. Regardless, Trump plans to spend a record $1.5tn on the military in 2027 – a 40% increase for the Pentagon at a time when farm bankruptcies have increased by 46%.
But if Trump’s illegal war on Iran has taught us anything, it is this: Americans will pay any price for freedom, except if it increases the price of groceries or gasoline. People in the Maga heartlands tolerated the erosion of civil liberties, democracy and the rule of law during the first year of Trump’s second presidency but they will be unforgiving if their standard of living declines.
Continue reading...US president says he will hold off using ‘destructive force’ following talks with Pakistan; Tehran says negotiations with US to start Friday in Islamabad
Trump says ‘a whole civilisation will die’ if Iran ignores demands
Democrats outraged at Trump: ‘A threat to commit a war crime’
Here are some of the latest images coming in from the Middle East as the war continues in week six.
The Israeli military has just warned the people of Iran not to use trains, saying that doing so “endangers your life”.
Dear Citizens, for the sake of your security, we kindly request that from this moment until 21:00 Iran time, you refrain from using and travelling by train throughout Iran.
Your presence on trains and near railway lines endangers your life.
Continue reading...Cepheus-1-108Q validates Rigetti’s proprietary chiplet-based scaling architecture and is now generally available to Rigetti’s customers and partners via the Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services platform and through Amazon Braket.
BERKELEY, Calif., April 7, 2026 — Rigetti Computing, Inc., a pioneer in full-stack quantum-classical computing, today announced the general availability of its 108-qubit quantum computing system, Cepheus-1-108Q, now accessible to customers and partners via the Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services (QCS) Platform and through Amazon Braket, the quantum computing service by AWS.
Cepheus-1-108Q is Rigetti’s highest qubit-count system to date and the industry’s largest modular quantum computing system, based on Rigetti’s proprietary chiplet-based architecture. The system comprises twelve interconnected 9-qubit chiplets, tripling the number of qubits and chiplets from Rigetti’s previous 36-qubit system, Cepheus-1-36Q.
The system is currently performing at a 99.1% median two-qubit gate fidelity with a gate speed of ~60 ns and a 99.9% median single-gate fidelity. Rigetti is releasing Cepheus-1-108Q now in response to growing customer interest, and will continue to improve the system performance throughout 2026 as the Company advances on its roadmap.
“Cepheus-1-108Q is a milestone that validates our ambitious approach to scaling quantum computers,” said Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, Rigetti CEO. “Our proprietary chiplet-based architecture is paving the way toward higher fidelity, higher qubit systems that will ultimately enable fault-tolerant quantum computing.”
“We are proud of the progress we have made in delivering a system at this scale. The innovations we’ve developed while designing this system give us confidence in our vision and approach to building the next generation of quantum computers. We will continue to improve fidelity as we scale to higher qubit counts and deploy new systems as we reach important performance milestones while maintaining gate speeds that are roughly 1,000-10,000 times faster than other modalities such as trapped-ion and neutral-atom systems.”
“The addition of Cepheus-1-108Q to Amazon Braket gives our global customers another choice as they research quantum computing applications in materials science, optimization, and quantum simulation. As the first gate-based device on Braket with over 100 qubits, Cepheus-1-108Q delivers improved fidelities that allow customers to push to wider and deeper circuits,” said Eric Kessler, General Manager, Amazon Braket. “Rigetti was a launch partner for Amazon Braket, and we’re excited to deepen that relationship with this launch. With Cepheus-1-108Q, we bring the third generation of Rigetti devices to our customers, following Aspen and Ankaa. We remain committed to providing researchers and enterprises around the world with access to the latest quantum hardware.”
Key Technical Advancements
The new system features several significant engineering improvements designed to maintain fidelity and performance as qubit counts grow:
During system development, Rigetti refined its architecture to mitigate coupling interactions between tunable couplers that become more pronounced beyond 100 qubits. These design improvements shifted the primary performance limitation from coupler behavior to coherence time, a key factor the Company continues to address through innovations in materials and fabrication.
Roadmap
Rigetti plans to continue to improve the fidelity of its individual chiplets and expects Cepheus‑1‑108Q to reach a median 99.5% two‑qubit gate fidelity later this year. Rigetti intends to update its technology roadmap later this year, once it has incorporated the results of this work, including how the Company plans to reach quantum advantage in about three years.
For more information on Amazon Braket, please visit https://aws.amazon.com/braket.
About Rigetti
Rigetti (Nasdaq: RGTI) is a pioneer in full-stack quantum computing. Rigetti quantum computers are based on superconducting qubits, which are widely believed to be the leading qubit modality given their maturity, clear path to scaling, and fast gate speeds. Current Rigetti quantum computing systems achieve gate speeds of 50-70ns, which is about 1,000 times faster than other modalities such as ion traps and neutral atoms.
The Company operates quantum computers over the cloud through its Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services (QCS) platform, enabling global enterprise, government, and research clients to pursue R&D. The Company’s proprietary quantum-classical infrastructure provides high-performance integration with public and private clouds for practical quantum computing.
Rigetti sells on-premises 9-108 qubit quantum computing systems, supporting national laboratories and quantum computing centers. Rigetti’s 9-qubit Novera QPU supports a broader R&D community with a high-performance, on-premises QPU designed to plug into a customer’s existing cryogenic and control systems.
Rigetti developed the industry’s first multi-chip quantum processor for scalable quantum computing systems. Leveraging this proprietary technology, Rigetti deployed the industry’s largest multi-chip quantum computer in 2025 with Cepheus-1-36Q, based on four 9-qubit chiplets tiled together. The Company designs and manufactures its chips in-house at Fab-1, the industry’s first dedicated and integrated quantum device manufacturing facility. Learn more at https://www.rigetti.com.
Source: Rigetti
The post Rigetti Announces General Availability of 108-Qubit System appeared first on HPCwire.
PARIS, April 7, 2026 — The PyTorch Foundation, a community-driven hub for open source AI under the Linux Foundation, today announced that it has welcomed Helion as its newest foundation-hosted project alongside DeepSpeed, PyTorch, Ray, and vLLM. This contribution by Meta addresses a critical layer of the AI stack, making kernel authoring a first-class part of PyTorch by strengthening custom kernel creation and reducing manual coding effort through autotuning.
Helion joins the Foundation as AI model development expands from training to an inference boom, elevating the importance of serving models at scale. In this landscape, in which hardware, software, and model architectures are shifting simultaneously, engineering teams face significant hurdles in cross-platform compatibility. Helion eliminates bottlenecks associated with model architectures and execution, providing developers with radically simpler kernels, automated ahead-of-time autotuning, and greater hardware performance portability.
“Helion joining the PyTorch Foundation as its newest project reflects where the open AI ecosystem needs to go next: higher-level performance portability for kernel authors,” said Matt White, Global CTO of AI at the Linux Foundation and CTO of the PyTorch Foundation. “Helion gives engineers a much more productive path to writing high-performance kernels, including autotuning across hundreds of candidate implementations for a single kernel. As part of the PyTorch Foundation community, this project strengthens the foundation for an open AI stack that is more portable and significantly easier for the community to build on.”
Helion is a Python-embedded domain-specific language (DSL) for authoring machine learning kernels, designed to compile down to multiple backends for hardware heterogeneity (Triton, TileIR, and more coming soon). Helion aims to raise the level of abstraction compared to kernel languages, making it easier to write efficient kernels while enabling more automation in the autotuning process.
In addition to Helion joining the Foundation, ExecuTorch is becoming part of PyTorch Core. Started at Meta, ExecuTorch continues to extend PyTorch model functionality for on edge and on-device environments under the Foundation, ensuring that ecosystem and technical decisions are made in an open, community-guided manner.
Developers and contributors interested in participating in the PyTorch project ecosystem are encouraged to join the community onsite at upcoming events like PyTorch Conference China (Shanghai, September 8-9) and PyTorch Conference North America (San Jose, October 20-21).
About the PyTorch Foundation
The PyTorch Foundation is a community-driven hub supporting the open source PyTorch framework and a broader portfolio of innovative open source AI projects, including DeepSpeed, Helion, PyTorch, Ray, and vLLM. Hosted by the Linux Foundation, the PyTorch Foundation provides a vendor-neutral, trusted home for collaboration across the AI lifecycle—from model training and inference, to domain-specific applications. Through open governance, strategic support, and a global contributor community, the PyTorch Foundation empowers developers, researchers, and enterprises to build and deploy AI at scale. Learn more at https://pytorch.org/foundation.
About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure, including Linux, Kubernetes, LF Decentralized Trust, Node.js, ONAP, OpenChain, OpenSSF, PyTorch, RISC-V, SPDX, Zephyr, and more. The Linux Foundation focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.
Source: PyTorch Foundation
The post PyTorch Foundation Welcomes Helion as New Project for AI Kernel Development appeared first on HPCwire.
Security agencies say municipalities should watch out for unusual activity, especially in water and energy sectors
Top government security agencies issued a warning of Iran-affiliated cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure across the US on Tuesday. In a joint statement, the agencies said municipalities, especially in the water and energy sectors, should be on the lookout for unusual activity.
“Cyberattacks on drinking water and wastewater systems directly threaten public health and community resilience,” Jeffrey Hall, an assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said in a statement. “A single breach can disrupt treatment or introduce contaminants, damage equipment, and erode public trust.”
Continue reading...Cox Communications and Grande Communications win legal victories in music copyright cases.
If the rumor proves true, the 5G Galaxy Watch Ultra would rival the 5G-enabled $799 Apple Watch Ultra 3 that debuted last fall.
April 7, 2026 — The NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 and NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 systems, featuring NVIDIA Blackwell architecture, are rack-scale supercomputers. They’re designed with 18 tightly coupled compute trays, massive GPU fabrics, and high-bandwidth networking packaged as a unit.
Figure 1. Diagram of NVLink spine that explains the relationships between the NVLink and IMEX domains and NVLink Partition.
For AI architects and HPC platform operators, the challenge isn’t just racking and stacking hardware—it’s turning infrastructure into safe, performant, and easy-to-use resources for end users. The mismatch between rack-scale hardware topology and scheduler abstractions is where most of the operational complexity lives. Left unaddressed, schedulers operate on a flat pool of GPUs and nodes, overlooking the system’s hierarchical and topology-sensitive design.
This is the gap that a validated software stack, such as NVIDIA Mission Control, is designed to bridge. Mission Control provides rack-scale control planes for NVIDIA Grace Blackwell NVL72 systems. With a native understanding of NVIDIA NVLink and NVIDIA IMEX domains, it integrates with workload management platforms like Slurm and NVIDIA Run:ai. These capabilities will also be supported for the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform, including for NVIDIA Rubin NVL8.
This post demonstrates how Mission Control, Slurm, and NVIDIA Run:ai turn advanced GPU architecture concepts—such as NVLink and IMEX domains—into an operational AI factory that is scalable, schedulable, and easy to manage.
The Core Challenge: Rack-Scale Topology Meets AI Workload Scheduling
At a physical level, GB300 NVL72 and GB200 NVL72 systems are powerful, sophisticated systems. Each delivers a dense GPU fabric connected by NVLink switches, supports NVIDIA Multi-Node NVLink (MNNVL) within the rack, and includes IMEX-capable compute trays that enable shared GPU memory across nodes.
Schedulers, however, don’t operate at the level of switches and fabrics. They require:
Figure 2. NVLink core concepts and highlights.
Under the hood, the NVLink topology of a Grace Blackwell NVL72 rack is reflected up the software stack through a pair of system-level identifiers: cluster UUID and clique ID.
These identifiers encode a GPU’s position in the NVLink fabric—across domains or racks—in a way that system software, schedulers, and higher-level tooling can reason about.
The mapping is straightforward:
A shared cluster UUID means that systems—and their GPUs—belong to the same NVLink domain and are connected by a common NVLink fabric. On Grace Blackwell NVL72, this UUID is consistent across the entire rack: all GPUs in the same NVL72 rack report the same cluster UUID.
The clique ID provides a finer-grained distinction. GPUs that share a clique ID belong to the same NVLink Partition within that domain. When a rack is carved into multiple NVLink partitions, the cluster UUID remains the same—because the GPUs live in the same physical NVLink domain—but the clique IDs differ to reflect the logical partitioning of the fabric.
From an operational perspective, this distinction matters:
Figure 3. Example of how NVIDIA Mission Control centralizes the view of cluster UUID and clique ID across a managed environment.
These identifiers form the connective tissue between hardware topology and scheduling logic. They enable platforms like Slurm, Kubernetes, and NVIDIA Run:ai to align job placement, isolation, and performance guarantees with the actual structure of the NVLink fabric, without exposing that complexity directly to end users.
Figure 4. Cluster UUID and cliqueID on a NVIDIA Grace Blackwell compute tray.
Scheduling Multi-Node NVLink Workloads with Slurm
Once you start running multi-node workloads on Blackwell-based NVL72 systems, placement becomes as important as GPU count. A 16-GPU job spread across the wrong nodes can behave very differently from the same job confined to a single NVLink fabric.
This is where Slurm’s topology/block plugin becomes essential, enabling Slurm to recognize that not all nodes are equal.
On Grace Blackwell NVL72 blocks of nodes with lower-latency connections map directly to NVLink partitions—groups of GPUs that share a high-bandwidth NVLink fabric.
Consider a simple example with two NVL72 racks. Both racks may belong to the same Slurm partition (queue), but that doesn’t mean jobs should freely span them. From a performance standpoint, each rack—or each NVLink partition carved from it—is a distinct high-bandwidth block.
Figure 5. NVL racks consumed as blocks in Slurm. Two racks are grouped under a common Slurm partition.
By enabling the topology/block plugin and exposing NVLink partitions as blocks, Slurm gains the context it needs to make better decisions. Jobs are placed within a single NVLink partition (or block) by default, preserving MNNVL performance. Larger jobs can span blocks when necessary, but the tradeoff becomes explicit rather than accidental.
Figure 6. Individual racks that are separate blocks to Slurm.
In practice, this means:
Figure 7. Multiple NVLink partitions within a rack, each mapped to Slurm blocks and partitions.
IMEX Management with Slurm: From Rack-Level Service to Per-Job Isolation
For multi-node NVIDIA CUDA workloads that rely on MNNVL, IMEX enables GPUs on different compute trays to participate in a shared-memory programming model.
Figure 8. How IMEX service runs on compute trays at the OS level, and how NVSwitches enable IMEX to create MNNVL connections.
From an application’s point of view, using MNNVL looks deceptively simple. Under the hood, however, Mission Control ensures a few things line up when running MNNVL jobs with Slurm:
Figure 9. Per-job IMEX in Slurm, where two jobs share an NVL72 rack and NVLink partition but use separate IMEX domains.
IMEX is a system-level daemon running in the host OS of every compute tray. It provides memory-sharing and synchronization mechanisms that CUDA libraries build on. If IMEX is mis-scoped, left running too broadly, or fails noisily, multi-node workloads quickly become fragile.
Extending Multi-Node NVLink Support to Kubernetes and NVIDIA Run:ai
Just as Slurm needs help understanding NVLink fabrics to schedule Grace Blackwell NVL72 jobs optimally, Kubernetes also lacks native awareness of rack-scale high-bandwidth interconnects like NVLink.
To address this, the NVIDIA ecosystem combines ComputeDomains (via the NVIDIA Dynamic Resource Allocation (DRA) GPU driver) and NVIDIA Run:ai integration—lifting NVLink and IMEX concepts into domain-aware, scheduler-ready primitives.
In Kubernetes, dynamic resource allocation (DRA) provides an API for flexible, fine-grained management of specialized hardware.
The NVIDIA k8s-dra-driver-gpu implements this API for GPUs and ComputeDomains. The driver includes separate kubelet plugins for GPU allocation, and for ComputeDomains, and when enabled, manages GPU multi-node NVLink domains—grouping GPUs across nodes into secure, high-bandwidth, memory-coherent domains for HPC and AI workloads.
Kubernetes: From Flat Schedulers to NVLink-Aware Placement
In Kubernetes, the core challenge is similar to Slurm. Kubernetes pods need to be placed on nodes that share high-bandwidth connectivity. Kubernetes by itself doesn’t understand NVLink domains, so workloads might be scattered across nodes that lack the required fabric connectivity for efficient multi-node execution.
The solution is the ComputeDomains concept provided by the NVIDIA DRA driver for GPUs. A ComputeDomain:
By doing this, ComputeDomains make the high-performance fabric first-class in scheduling. ComputeDomains also ensure that underlying resources like IMEX channels are properly instantiated and scoped for the workload.
How NVIDIA Run:ai Simplifies Distributed Workloads on NVLink Domains
NVIDIA Run:ai builds on Kubernetes and ComputeDomains to make Grace Blackwell NVL72 systems usable without exposing users to NVLink topology, IMEX domains, or low-level scheduling mechanics. Users request distributed GPUs. NVIDIA Run:ai handles the rest.
Figure 10. Topology-aware scheduling keeps workload 2 within a single rack by considering resources and job requirements.
Under the hood, NVIDIA Run:ai automates several critical pieces:
Automatic Topology Detection with Topograph
All of these approaches rely on accurate knowledge of the underlying hardware and network topology. For platform engineers, manually defining NVLink domains, rack boundaries, or network hierarchies does not scale in large or frequently changing environments. This is where Topograph, an open source NVIDIA tool, fits into the picture.
Topograph automatically discovers cluster topology by collecting node-level and infrastructure metadata and translating it into scheduler-consumable representations. It can detect how nodes are connected—across racks, switches, or fabric hierarchies—and reveals this structure through APIs that higher-level systems can consume. Instead of assuming a flat cluster, schedulers gain a concrete view of proximity and bandwidth relationships.
When combined with Slurm and Kubernetes—along with ComputeDomains and NVIDIA Run:ai—Topograph enables a fully automated flow. Topology is discovered rather than hand-modeled, nodes are labeled consistently, and topology-aware placement decisions can be made with minimal operator intervention. This closes the gap between physical infrastructure and logical scheduling abstractions.
Learn More About Advanced AI Operations
Check out the Mission Control Administrator Guide or User Guide to learn more about implementation.
Watch an on-demand NVIDIA GTC 2026 session with Eli Lilly & Company and learn how they went from rack-scale hardware to schedulable AI infrastructure with powerful, intelligent software.
Source: Ryan Prout, NVIDIA
The post NVIDIA: Running AI Workloads on Rack-Scale Supercomputers appeared first on HPCwire.
Warning comes as tensions over hostilities in the Middle East boil over.
Global availability, standout titles, live events, gaming and reliability make Netflix a winner.
Apple may have a supply problem on its hands with the MacBook Neo... The laptop reportedly relies on "binned" A18 Pro chips with one GPU core disabled, and demand is so strong that the supply of those cheaper leftover chips could run out before the next model is ready. That leaves Apple choosing between lower margins, shifting production plans, or changing the lineup to keep its $599 hit product in stock. MacRumors reports: The all-new MacBook Neo has been such a hit that Apple is facing a "massive dilemma," according to Taiwan-based tech columnist and former Bloomberg reporter Tim Culpan. [...] In the latest edition of his Culpium newsletter today, Culpan said the MacBook Neo is selling so well that Apple's supply of the binned A18 Pro chips with a 5-core GPU will "run out" before the company is able to fully satisfy demand for the laptop. Apple's initial plan was to have suppliers build around five to six million MacBook Neo units before ceasing production of the model with the A18 Pro chip, he said, but it sounds like demand is so strong that Apple might run out of A18 Pro chips to put in the MacBook Neo before the second-generation MacBook Neo with an A19 Pro chip is ready next year. Apple is unlikely to mark the MacBook Neo as temporarily sold out, so it may be forced to take action, but profit margins might be affected. A18 Pro chips are manufactured with TSMC's second-generation 3nm process, known as N3E, and Culpan said TSMC's N3E production lines are currently operating at maximum capacity. As a result, he said that Apple may have to pay a premium to restart A18 Pro chip production for the MacBook Neo, which would lower its profit margins. Apple would have to disable a GPU core on these chips to ensure that they have only a 5-core GPU, like all other MacBook Neo units sold to date. Alternatively, Culpan said that Apple could reallocate some of its chip production that was originally planned for other devices, but he said the cost would still be higher than what it paid for its initial batch of A18 Pro chips. Culpan speculated that Apple could also opt to discontinue the $599 model with 256GB of storage, leaving the $699 model with 512GB of storage and a Touch ID button as the only configuration available. This is unlikely to happen any time soon, in our view, given how heavily Apple has been promoting the MacBook Neo's affordability. Apple might also be able to move up the release of a MacBook Neo with the iPhone 17 Pro's A19 Pro chip, but that too would be a costlier option, at least until the company achieves a sufficient stockpile of binned A19 Pro chips with a 5-core GPU. In any case, Apple could opt to keep the starting price of current and future MacBook Neo models at $599 and simply accept lower profit margins on the laptop, especially given that it attracts customers to the macOS and broader Apple ecosystem.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Hi all, this will be my third pint (I have a type) and while I've done VnR and battery mods to stock electronics, I've never gone the VESC route until now. Tax returns are a beautiful thing. I am buying a lightly used OG pint for this. My use case is 90% on-road/pavement, 10% offroad (grass). I LOVE the pint, just need a little more speed to keep up with everyone in my group who's rocking GTs.
Proposed parts:
Battery: CHI-VE PINT X 20.1 P50B - $299
BMS: Stoked Stock BMS - $99
PintV Power Kit - $459
OneWheel PintX Box - CNC Aluminum - $165
So, some questions... I see the VESC kit comes with a dumb BMS, is there any way to NOT get that and save some money? I understand the BMS is only good for 15s, and I want to roll with the 20s 21700 pack for the range and speed bump. Also, is there any other option to the battery box? I'm sure the aluminum one is very nice, but frankly my plastic pint battery box has held up for 900 miles and I plan on installing some skid plates too, so it's a bit overkill. Any experience with printed battery boxes, or a lead on where to get used pintX battery boxes? Finally, I'm a bit worried about the motor. Any long term pint V users out there not blowing up the supposedly 750 watt motor after sending 3500+ to it?
Thanks for the help
Exclusive: Former UN climate chief to co-chair Lancet Commission examining how sea-level rise is reshaping health, wellbeing and inequality
What are the health impacts of sea-level rise, and who should pay?
Christiana Figueres: Sea-level rise is a health crisis and we must hold polluters accountable
Countries are being “held hostage” by their reliance on fossil fuels, a former UN climate chief has warned, describing the health impacts of climate change as “the mother of all injustices”.
Christiana Figueres, an international climate negotiator who helped deliver the Paris agreement signed in 2016, made the comments as she was announced on Wednesday as co-chair of a Lancet Commission examining how sea-level rise is reshaping health, wellbeing and inequality.
Continue reading...Two days of deep technical insight on emerging JEDEC memory standards and system designs
ARLINGTON, Va., April 7, 2026 — JEDEC Solid State Technology Association today announced that it is hosting a Mobile/Client/Edge Forum on Tuesday, May 12 and a Server/Cloud Computing/AI Forum on Wednesday, May 13 in San Jose, California. Advance registration is required and space is limited. For more information and registration, visit the JEDEC website.
The Forums offer an impressive lineup of influential speakers covering a diverse range of cutting-edge topics, including keynote presentations from AMD, Dell, Google, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Samsung, and SK Hynix. Speakers from Advantest, Cadence, Eliyan, Everspin, FuturePlus Systems, Keysight, Micron, MIPI Alliance, MPS, Super Micro and Synopsys round out the agenda.
From mobile and client computing to AI, servers, cloud computing and edge technologies, there’s something for everyone looking to stay ahead in this dynamic field. Examples include presentations such as “Unlocking the Potential of Edge AI: Trends, Opportunities, and Growth for Memory”, “AI-Driven Memory, Memory-Driven AI: LPDDR6-PIM’s Journey to Market” and “Navigating System Design Challenges Amid the Rapidly Evolving Memory Landscape”.
Mian Quddus, Chairman of the JEDEC Board of Directors, said: “We are delighted to invite industry professionals to join us for a front-row seat to the future of computing.” He added, “Supporting the industry through educational outreach is an integral part of JEDEC’s mission, and we look forward to welcoming attendees to the JEDEC Forums next month.”
About JEDEC
JEDEC is the global leader in the development of standards for the microelectronics industry. Thousands of volunteers representing over 380 member companies work together with more than 100 JEDEC technical committees and task groups to meet the needs of every segment of the industry, manufacturers and consumers alike. The publications and standards generated by JEDEC committees are accepted throughout the world. All JEDEC standards are available for download from the JEDEC website. For more information, visit www.jedec.org.
Source: JEDEC
The post JEDEC Announces May Forums on Next-Gen Memory for AI, Server, Cloud, and Mobile Computing appeared first on HPCwire.
The emotional moment was streamed by NASA moments after the crew made history.
SAN JOSE, Calif., April 7, 2026 — Cisco today announced the release of its latest annual industrial research report, the State of Industrial AI Report, examining how critical infrastructure like factories, utilities, and transportation systems are accelerating their direct deployments of AI. The report provides a data‑driven view into how industrial organizations are adopting AI, the challenges they face as AI moves into live operations, and the opportunities created as AI becomes embedded in physical systems, infrastructure, and workflows.
State of Industrial AI Report: Two‑thirds of industrial organizations have moved to active AI deployments in live operational environments.
The double-blind global study surveyed more than 1,000 operational technology (OT) decision‑makers across 19 countries and 21 industrial sectors. The findings show that AI is now delivering measurable operational benefits in use cases such as process automation, automated quality inspection, predictive maintenance, logistics, and energy forecasting. However, many organizations are increasingly constrained by readiness gaps in networking infrastructure, cybersecurity, and IT/OT operating models as AI shifts into real‑time, production‑grade use in physical environments.
“Industrial AI is moving from experimentation into production, where AI systems sense, reason, and act in the real world,” said Vikas Butaney, SVP/GM of Secure Routing and Industrial IoT at Cisco. “At this stage, success is no longer determined by models alone, but by whether networks, security, and teams are ready to support AI at the edge, in motion, and at scale. The research shows that organizations confident in scaling AI are those treating infrastructure, cybersecurity, and IT/OT collaboration as foundational, not optional.”
Key Takeaways from the Report
The survey shows industrial AI has moved from a future consideration to active deployment, with 61% of organizations now using AI in live industrial operations where performance, reliability, and security have direct physical consequences, and 20% reporting scaled, mature deployments. Across manufacturing, transportation, and utilities, AI is powering machine vision, robotics, mobility, and safety‑critical operations. Most organizations plan to increase AI spending (83%), and nearly nine in ten expect meaningful outcomes within the next two years (87%). Yet as adoption accelerates, many are struggling to sustain and expand deployments, with readiness across network infrastructure, security, and skills increasingly determining whether AI can scale consistently across core physical environments.
Background:
Additional Resources:
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that is revolutionizing the way organizations connect and protect in the AI era. For more than 40 years, Cisco has securely connected the world. With its industry leading AI-powered solutions and services, Cisco enables its customers, partners and communities to unlock innovation, enhance productivity and strengthen digital resilience. With purpose at its core, Cisco remains committed to creating a more connected and inclusive future for all.
Source: Cisco
The post Cisco Research: Industrial AI Moves into Physical Operations, Readiness Gaps Determine Scale appeared first on HPCwire.
Man born in El Salvador has been fighting removal to series of ‘third’ countries after mistaken deportation last year
US government attorneys on Tuesday told a federal judge the Department of Homeland Security still intends to deport Kilmar Ábrego García to Liberia, despite a new agreement with Costa Rica to accept deportees who cannot legally be returned to their home countries.
The Salvadorian national’s case has become a focal point in the immigration debate after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last year. Since his return, he has been fighting a second deportation to a series of African countries proposed by homeland security officials.
Continue reading...The Chicago-born pope suggested fellow Americans call their congressional representatives and ask for peace, not war.
"Anthropic has unveiled Claude Mythos, a new AI model capable of discovering critical vulnerabilities at scale," writes Slashdot reader wiredmikey. "It's already powering Project Glasswing, a joint effort with major tech firms to secure critical software. But the same capabilities could also accelerate offensive cyber operations." SecurityWeek reports: Mythos is not an incremental improvement but a step change in performance over Anthropic's current range of frontier models: Haiku (smallest), Sonnet (middle ground), and Opus (most powerful). Mythos sits in a fourth tier named Copybara, and Anthropic describes it as superior to any other existing AI frontier model. It incorporates the current trend in the use of AI: the modern use of agentic AI. "The powerful cyber capabilities of Claude Mythos Preview are a result of its strong agentic coding and reasoning skills... the model has the highest scores of any model yet developed on a variety of software coding tasks," notes Anthropic in a blog titled Project Glasswing -- Securing critical software for the AI era. In the last few weeks, Mythos Preview has identified thousands of zero-day vulnerabilities with many classified as critical. Several are ten or 20 years old -- the oldest found so far is a 27-years old bug in OpenBSD. Elsewhere, a 16-years old vulnerability found in video software has survived five million hits from other automated testing tools without ever being discovered. And it autonomously found and chained together several in the Linux kernel allowing an attacker to escalate from ordinary user access to complete control of the machine. [...] Anthropic is concerned that Mythos' capabilities could unleash cyberattacks too fast and too sophisticated for defenders to block. It hopes that Mythos can be used to improve cybersecurity generally before malicious actors can get access to it. To this end, the firm has announced the next stage of this preparation as Project Glasswing, powered by Mythos Preview. Given the rate of AI progress, it will not be long before such capabilities proliferate, potentially beyond actors who are committed to deploying them safely. "Project Glasswing is a starting point. No one organization can solve these cybersecurity problems alone: frontier AI developers, other software companies, security researchers, open-source maintainers, and governments across the world all have essential roles to play." Claude Mythos Preview is described as a general-purpose, unreleased frontier model from Anthropic that has nevertheless completed its training phase. The firm does not plan to make Mythos Preview generally available. The implication is that 'Preview' is a term used solely to describe the current state of Mythos and the market's readiness to receive it, and will be dropped when the firm gets closer to general release.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Attacks on Iran increase and Israel tells Iranians to avoid train travel as deadline to reopen strait of Hormuz looms
Donald Trump has warned that Iran’s “whole civilisation will die tonight” if Tehran did not comply with his demands, as the world braced to see if the president would deliver on his latest threat to order the mass destruction of Iranian power plants and bridges in the absence of a deal by 8pm EDT (1am BST).
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards signalled they were also ready to escalate the war with a threat to retaliate “beyond the region” and “to deprive the US and its allies of oil and gas in the region for years”, suggesting Iran would target oil and gas production facilities in the Gulf and elsewhere, potentially sending the world into a recession.
Continue reading...President says on Truth Social he will annihilate country if government ignores deadline to reopen strait of Hormuz
Donald Trump on Tuesday morning threatened to annihilate the entirety of Iranian civilization should the country’s government ignore his 8pm ET deadline to reopen the strait of Hormuz.
The president’s own words, posted publicly and tied to a specific deadline and set of demands, provide unusually direct evidence of intent to violate international law, and were being met with shock and dismay by Democrats and a growing number of prominent conservatives.
Continue reading...NEW YORK, April 7, 2026 — Today the AI Alliance, a non-profit AI research and open-source technology coalition with more than 200 member organizations, launched Project Tapestry to empower open and sovereign AI development globally. Project Tapestry will build a new open-source platform to enable distributed, globally federated training of frontier open models.
Project Tapestry Architecture
With Project Tapestry, the AI Alliance aims to create a new path for advanced AI development, one in which institutions, industries, and nations can join together to contribute to build more capable open base models, while retaining control of their data and the ability to build on the base to produce sovereign derivative models aligned to their own priorities, industries, culture, laws, and values.
Alongside Project Tapestry, the AI Alliance announced that Yann LeCun, Turing Award laureate, Chairman of AMI Labs, and one of the most influential figures in modern artificial intelligence, will join as Chief Science Advisor to the AI Alliance. In that role, LeCun will help guide the scientific direction of the AI Alliance focusing on Project Tapestry as it advances from initial architecture into technical implementation and global collaboration.
“As AI is fast becoming part of the common infrastructure, there is a need for foundation models to be open so as to enable sovereignty and cultural diversity,” said Dr. Yann LeCun, Chairman of AMI Labs, Professor at NYU, and Chief Science Advisor to the AI Alliance. “As a key component of our information and knowledge infrastructure, AI should not be controlled by a handful of private entities through proprietary products. Some of the most important advances in science and technology have come from open science, open-source software, and open technology platforms at a broad scale. Project Tapestry is an ambitious effort to bring that model to AI — to create the conditions for open, distributed progress on systems of real capability.”
Frontier Open Models Without Centralizing Data and Compute
Today, the development of the most capable AI models is increasingly concentrated within a small number of companies and regions. Open-weight models have expanded access, but core decisions about training data, model objectives, architecture, and evaluation typically remain concentrated within the institutions that originate them. At the same time, many sovereign AI model efforts face steep barriers in compute, funding, data access, and specialized talent.
Project Tapestry offers a more powerful alternative: a collaborative approach to AI model development in which participants can help build a shared open foundation without surrendering their data, strategic autonomy, or downstream control. Its long-term vision is to develop an open global model — a shared open source base foundation model that can draw on broader pools of expertise, compute, and domain knowledge than any single organization can typically assemble alone — while enabling participants to create sovereign derivative models tailored to their own societal, industrial, scientific, or mission-specific needs, and aligned to their own governance frameworks, languages, values, and priorities.
“Until now, many sovereign and sector-specific AI efforts have faced steep barriers in compute, data access, funding, and specialized talent,” said Dr. Christopher Nguyen, Chief Architect of Project Tapestry, Board Member of the AI Alliance, and CEO & Co-Founder of Aitomatic. “Project Tapestry is designed to overcome that constraint through federated collaboration. The idea is simple but powerful: build a shared global base openly, then enable each participant to extend it in ways they fully own and control.”
From Launch to Global Technical Mobilization
Over time, the Alliance expects Project Tapestry to foster a vibrant and enduring ecosystem of collaborative, sovereignty-preserving model and application development. The AI Alliance’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization will serve as the community home for Project Tapestry. It will host and support the Tapestry platform and open source technical assets including models that the AI Alliance develops with the platform. Project Tapestry will be governed by a board of representatives from major contributing organizations globally.
The AI Alliance is convening a workshop in Paris on May 7-8, bringing together technical leaders from around the world to define Project Tapestry’s architecture, roadmap and model development priorities. Additional announcements are expected over the coming months.
“The AI Alliance was founded on the principle that open innovation can produce AI that is more capable, more accountable, and more broadly beneficial,” said Dr. Anthony Annunziata, Chairman of the AI Alliance and Director of AI Open Innovation at IBM. “Project Tapestry is an ambitious step toward making that principle real in infrastructure form: a path for the world to build the most advanced and capable AI collaboratively, but without giving up sovereignty.”
Learn more: https://events.thealliance.ai/tapestry.
About the AI Alliance
The AI Alliance is a global nonprofit research and technology organization dedicated to advancing open, safe, and responsible AI through innovation, collaboration, and advocacy. Operating through both a 501(c)(3) public-benefit organization and a 501(c)(6) industry association, the Alliance brings together more than 200 collaborating organizations across 29 countries spanning industry, academia, startups, research, and government.
The Alliance supports open initiatives across AI data, models, agents, safety, and governance. Its technical projects and community collaborations provide part of the foundation on which Project Tapestry is being developed.
Source: The AI Alliance
The post AI Alliance Announces ‘Project Tapestry’ and Appoints Yann LeCun as Chief Science Advisor appeared first on HPCwire.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said DHS employees affected by the government shutdown will be paid through the recent pay periods by the end of the week.
It's another week and another bunch of rumors about the company's first foldable phone.
Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank said he brought his wife, Annie Ramos, 22, to his base so that she could begin the process to receive military benefits and take steps toward a green card.
Annie Ramos, who came to US from Honduras as a toddler, was detained last week at husband’s base in Louisiana
The wife of a US soldier who was detained last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at her husband’s Louisiana military base was released from federal custody on Tuesday.
“All I have ever wanted is to live with dignity in the country I have called home since I was a baby,” Annie Ramos said in a statement following her release.
Continue reading...The US chipmaker signs on to help SpaceX, xAI and Tesla make hardware in Texas.
"This is a potentially huge market event like no other. It's a known unknown with a clock," one investment adviser said.
UALink Consortium Achieves Key Milestones, Underscoring Industry Momentum for Open AI Scale-Up Interconnect Technology
BEAVERTON, Ore., April 7, 2026 — The UALink Consortium, the industry standards organization developing the open scale-up interconnect for next-generation AI workloads, today announced the ratification of the next UALink Specification, which encompasses three major additions – In-Network Compute, Chiplet Definition, and Manageability. The new specifications support the deployment of UALink solutions in multi-workload environments, while simultaneously helping improve UALink technology efficiency, performance for AI workloads and ease of implementation.
The UALink Consortium provides a standardized foundation for accelerator connectivity at scale, helping drive innovation, increase deployment flexibility and support the rapidly growing performance demands of next-generation AI workloads. The new specification update is facilitated through UALink Consortium’s open governance model, which fosters innovation while enabling a robust, multi-vendor supply chain, providing system designers and cloud providers with the necessary flexibility to deploy interoperable solutions without vendor lock-in.
“As AI workloads continue to outpace traditional interconnect timelines, we are pleased to deliver an essential update to the UALink Specifications,” said Kurtis Bowman, UALink Consortium Board Chair. “The advancements to UALink technology introduced in this release will enable the industry to quickly and efficiently integrate UALink solutions into their architectures. The UALink Consortium remains committed to advancing AI infrastructure through open industry standard technology that facilitates next-generation AI applications to the market.”
New UALink Specifications
All of the UALink specifications are available for public download here.
As UALink technology continues to advance, the Consortium plans to introduce interoperability and compliance programs designed to support a robust, multi-vendor ecosystem. Companies interested in advancing UALink technology and contributing to the development of these programs are encouraged to join the Consortium and help shape future UALink specifications. For membership information or to join, visit www.UALinkConsortium.org or contact admin@ualinkconsortium.org.
About Ultra Accelerator Link Consortium
The Ultra Accelerator Link (UALink) Consortium, incorporated in October 2024, is the open industry standard group dedicated to developing the UALink specifications, a high-speed, scale-up accelerator interconnect technology that advances next-generation AI & HPC cluster performance. The consortium is led by a board made up of stalwarts of the industry: Alibaba, AMD, Apple, Astera Labs, AWS, Cisco, Google, HPE, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, and Synopsys. The Consortium develops technical specifications that facilitate breakthrough performance for emerging AI usage models while supporting an open ecosystem for data center accelerators. For more information on the UALink Consortium, please visit www.UALinkConsortium.org.
Source: UALink Consortium
The post UALink Consortium Publishes 4 Specifications Defining In-Network Compute, Chiplets, Manageability and 200G Performance appeared first on HPCwire.
Chad Bianco of Riverside county obtained warrants to seize ballots cast for state’s successful redistricting referendum
A California sheriff’s decision to seize about 650,000 ballots based on specious allegations of fraud has raised considerable alarm bells that similar efforts to undermine confidence in the electoral system could materialize this fall.
The episode underscores how sheriffs and other officials can transform shoddy claims about voter fraud into law enforcement actions. Executing a warrant to seize ballots disrupts the chain of custody that is critical to maintaining ballot integrity, and also plants the idea in the public’s mind that a crime has occurred.
Continue reading...Chrome is finally adding built-in vertical tabs, "which will move the tabs to the side of the browser window, making it easier to read full page titles and manage tab groups," reports TechCrunch. The company is also introducing an immersive reading mode for a distraction-free, text-focused experience. From the report: The company notes that the new vertical tabs can be enabled at any time by right-clicking on a Chrome window and selecting "Show Tabs Vertically." The company says there's no hard limit on the number of tabs that can be opened (beyond what would be limited already by the user's hardware). The vertical tabs work just as the horizontal tabs do, meaning you can have different Chrome windows with their own set of tabs or tab groups. [...] Alongside the launch of vertical tabs, Chrome is also rolling out a new Reading Mode experience, which will offer a full-page interface to make it even easier to reduce on-screen clutter to focus on the text. This will be the new default experience for Chrome users, and arrives at a time when web pages, particularly those on news sites, have become cluttered with ads and prompts to subscribe to newsletters.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A group of Iranian American women in elected office and civic life released a letter Tuesday calling for an immediate end to the U.S.–Israeli war on Iran as the deadline for President Donald Trump’s macabre threat to kill “a whole civilization” loomed.
“We believe democracy cannot be delivered through missiles, and freedom cannot emerge from destruction and more death of innocent lives,” they said in the previously unreported letter.
The signers included Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, the first Iranian American Democrat elected to Congress.
Women have been at the forefront of demonstrations against the Iranian government in recent years, including the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests of 2022 that were met with a deadly crackdown. The international protest movement was set off by the Iranian government’s killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for allegedly failing to wear the mandatory headscarf properly.
The Iranian government’s suppression of that protest and another anti-government protest wave earlier this year have been cited as justification for the war that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched in February.
“Remember the great women march,” Trump said at an April 6 press conference at the Pentagon, going on to describe government snipers suppressing protests by shooting demonstrators. In a speech justifying last June’s Israeli-led war against Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked the Women, Life, Freedom movement by name in Farsi.
The Iranian American women who signed the letter, however, said that the war is only encouraging further crackdowns.
“The Iranian people must not become casualties of geopolitical rivalry or instruments of foreign agendas,” the signatories wrote. “We refuse the false choice between repression at home and devastation from abroad. Both deny Iranians the right to determine their own future.”
Trump has given mixed signals as to whether he hopes to pursue regime change in the conflict.
The Iranian diaspora is deeply divided over the war, but a recent poll suggests Iranian Americans may be turning against it.
Despite the polarized exile politics, many groups responded with horror to Trump’s threat that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He has also threatened to destroy civilian infrastructure such as bridges and power plants, which would be a war crime; the U.S. and Israel have already launched scores of attacks targeting civilian sites across the country.
Ansari, the letter’s most prominent signer, said Monday that she plans to file articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for “repeated war crimes,” including the bombing of a school that killed scores of young girls.
“As the daughter of Iranian immigrants who fled the brutal Islamic Republic, and the first Iranian-American Democrat elected to Congress, I stand in strong opposition to this illegal war,” Ansari said in a statement. “Iranians deserve freedom and democracy. That cannot be delivered through bombs and destruction of civilian infrastructure. Iran’s future must be determined by Iranians alone — free from war and authoritarian rule.”
The 14 signers of the letter included women serving as city councilmembers, state legislators, and Democratic Party delegates.
The post Iranian Women Elected to Office in U.S. Reject Trump’s Iran War appeared first on The Intercept.
On X, accounts focused on the Iran war shared a video of a supposed U.S. service member crying, with smoke rising and a vehicle stalled in the background.
"An American soldier cries intensely and says: We are tired... we didn't want this and we didn't choose it. I just want to go home," an April 4 X post read. " I don't want this war... I want peace."
"I really, I really miss home. I miss my family every single day," the woman in the video appeared to say. "But I’m still here, serving my country."
Other X accounts also shared the video, as did accounts on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. One X post gained 4.4 million views.
But it’s a fake clip made with artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence is more likely to change the nature of work than to supplant masses of workers, according to researchers.
The budget Neo laptop is proving to be so popular that Apple could face a shortage before next year's update arrives.
Raising a child through age 18 is most expensive in Hawaii, where a family would spend an estimated $412,661 in 2026, LendingTree found.
For the better part of the last two years, we’ve been sold a bill of goods regarding the “AI PC.” Microsoft stood on stage and promised us a revolution, but what they delivered was a glorified search bar and a “Recall” feature that was so poorly executed it became a security nightmare before it even launched. The industry has been flailing, trying to figure out why users aren’t rushing to upgrade their hardware for a chatbot they can already access in a browser tab.
The problem wasn’t the AI; it was the architecture. We’ve been treating the PC as a terminal for cloud AI rather than an autonomous intelligent entity. That changes now. At HP Imagine 2026, HP just dropped HP IQ, and it is the first time I’ve seen a vendor actually understand that the “AI” in AI PC needs to live on the edge, not in a data center in Virginia.
HP IQ isn’t just another Windows app; it’s what HP calls a “workplace intelligence layer.” Think of it as a sophisticated, context-aware interface (branded as Visor) that sits between the user and the operating system. Unlike Microsoft’s Copilot, which effectively functions as a middleman for Azure, HP IQ is powered by a locally-running 20-billion-parameter model.
The genius here is in the NearSense capability. By using proximity-based discovery, your laptop doesn’t just know who you are; it knows where you are and what’s around you. If you walk into a conference room, HP IQ identifies the HP camera and the polycom units and configures them instantly. It’s the seamless “it just works” experience that Apple fans have bragged about for years, finally brought to the enterprise PC.
IT shops are currently bleeding cash on cloud AI tokens. Every time an employee asks a cloud LLM to summarize a 50-page PDF, a meter runs in the cloud. When you multiply that by 10,000 employees, the ROI vanishes.
Endpoint AI implementations like HP IQ save money in three critical ways:
HP isn’t alone in this race. At CES 2026, Lenovo introduced Qira, and the two efforts are remarkably similar in spirit. While HP IQ focuses heavily on the “Workplace Intelligence” and IT management side, Lenovo Qira is more of a personal ambient intelligence that follows you across Lenovo and Motorola devices.
There is a beautiful synergy here. Lenovo is proving that the “Personal” in PC is back, while HP is proving the “Professional” utility. If you’re a multi-vendor shop, the emergence of these “Intelligence Layers” suggests we are moving toward a standard where the hardware vendor provides the local “brain” that manages the OS. I don’t see these two efforts as conceptual competitors even though the companies clearly are so much as two ends of the same bridge over the “Cloud Gap.”
Microsoft tried to build a “Cloud PC” and call it an “AI PC.” They focused on features like Recall – which basically took screenshots of your life—instead of features that actually helped you work. It was invasive rather than assistive, leading to significant security pushback and deployment delays.
Microsoft should have launched with a layer like HP IQ: a tool that manages your local environment, handles your local files securely, and uses the NPU for something other than blurring your background in a Teams call. HP is essentially doing Microsoft’s job for them by fixing the user interface through the Visor overlay. If Windows 11 was the engine, HP IQ is the self-driving system that actually makes the car useful.
Here is the controversial take: Microsoft might be the wrong partner for the future of the AI PC. While Microsoft is bogged down in legacy Windows code, MediaTek and Google are building a leaner, more efficient “Android PC” ecosystem.
MediaTek’s NPUs are arguably more optimized for high-efficiency edge AI than the current X86 offerings. Furthermore, Google Gemini is proving to be a better enterprise fit than ChatGPT. Why? Integration.
In five years, we won’t be “using” AI; we will be working within it. An HP IQ-enabled future means your PC anticipates your needs. You walk into a meeting, and your PC has already pulled up the relevant brief, connected to the room’s display, and started a local, encrypted transcript.
For IT shops, this is a dream. Instead of managing a thousand different AI plugins, you manage one Workplace Intelligence Layer. You gain centralized control over what the AI can see and do, without the nightmare of managing cloud permissions for every individual user.
The era of the “General Purpose AI” is ending, and the era of the “Contextual Endpoint AI” is beginning. HP IQ is the first real evidence that hardware manufacturers are ready to take the reins back from the cloud providers. By focusing on local 20B models, proximity-based connectivity via NearSense, and an enterprise-first management layer, HP has finally given us a reason to care about the NPU in our laptops.
The AI PC isn’t a chatbot in a window. It’s a PC that finally has the IQ to understand its owner.
About the author: As President and Principal Analyst of the Enderle Group, Rob Enderle provides regional and global companies with guidance in how to create credible dialogue with the market, target customer needs, create new business opportunities, anticipate technology changes, select vendors and products, and practice zero dollar marketing. For over 20 years Rob has worked for and with companies like Microsoft, HP, IBM, Dell, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony, USAA, Texas Instruments, AMD, Intel, Credit Suisse First Boston, ROLM, and Siemens.
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The post Beyond the Cloud Hype: Why HP IQ is the Local Intelligence Layer That Finally Makes the AI PC Profitable appeared first on HPCwire.
Alarm among military observers after president says ‘whole civilization will die tonight’ if Iran ignores demands
Donald Trump’s Tuesday morning comments threatening that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” in Iran have raised alarms among military observers and retired officers, who called them “likely war crimes”.
“I have to hope that this is bluster, and a negotiating tactic on his part,” said retired admiral Michael Smith, who commanded a carrier strike group in the US navy. “He must understand that those types of threats themselves are likely war crimes.”
Continue reading...Markwayne Mullin visits Asheville to survey Hurricane Helene recovery in first big trip since Kristi Noem’s ouster
Markwayne Mullin, the US homeland security secretary, used a visit to Asheville, North Carolina to call for a fundamental shift in the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), arguing that states and local governments – not the federal agency – should lead disaster response.
“We shouldn’t look at Fema as being a first responder, but look at Fema as supporting the first responders you already have,” Mullin told reporters at a roundtable discussion.
Continue reading..."It's the greatest honor of a lifetime, and if President Trump chooses to keep me as acting, that's an honor," Blanche said. "If he chooses to nominate me, that's an honor."
The defending champion is a lot more relaxed but ‘just as motivated’ this year after finally winning at Augusta
On the Tuesday of last year’s Masters, Rory McIlroy dined with Justin Rose in the clubhouse at Augusta. He arrived right around the time that all the guests at Scottie Scheffler’s champions dinner were having cocktails on the balcony. “I was pulling up Magnolia Lane,” McIlroy says. “And I’m like, well, do I go and park way over at the parking lot? Because I’m not going to park in the champions parking lot.’”
Not when there’s Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and everyone else looking down. “I didn’t want to get out and use a valet because they were going to see me and it was going to be weird. So I had this really awkward moment,” McIlroy says with a laugh. “Thankfully that was the last time that I needed to do that.”
Continue reading...Benjamin Torres, son of Valerie Mack, files suit before Rex Heuermann reportedly set to change plea to guilty
The accused serial killer Rex Heuermann is being sued along with his former wife and their daughter, by the son of one of his alleged victims.
Benjamin Torres, the son of Valerie Mack, one the alleged victims in the case against Heuermann, claims his mother was “tortured ferociously, and her body dismembered”.
Continue reading...Staley says she has ‘great deal of respect’ for UConn coach
Auriemma had issued apology to South Carolina staff
South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley says it is time to move past her Final Four skirmish with UConn coach Geno Auriemma that became the talk of the tournament.
Staley released a statement on South Carolina’s X account on Tuesday in which she expressed her respect for Auriemma and said the two have spoken since South Carolina’s 62-48 victory in the Final Four on Friday night. The season ended with UCLA’s runaway 79-51 win over South Carolina in Sunday’s national championship game.
Continue reading...The astronauts aboard Artemis II are the first humans to see some parts of the far side of the moon with the naked eye.
These charts track prices consumers pay for groceries and other goods now compared to five years ago.
Kittleson, a freelancer for several U.S. outlets, was seized last week in Baghdad by Kataib Hezbollah, a Shiite militia aligned with Iran.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Following on the heels of the landmark Cox v. Sony ruling, the Supreme Court has vacated the contributory copyright infringement verdict against ISP Grande Communications, ordering the Fifth Circuit to reconsider its decision in light of the new precedent. [...] The order (PDF) effectively removes the case from the Supreme Court docket, urging the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to take another look at its decision in light of the new ruling. Given the similarities between the two cases, it is no surprise that the Supreme Court came to this conclusion. It is now up to the Fifth Circuit to revisit whether Grande's conduct meets the intent threshold that was established in Cox. That is a significantly higher bar than the one applied in the original verdict, which found that continuing to provide service to known infringers was enough to establish material contribution. The music companies previously said they sent over a million copyright infringement notices, but that Grande failed to terminate even a single subscriber account in response. However, without proof of active inducement, these absolute numbers carry less weight now. Whether this translates into a win for Grande on remand remains to be seen. For now, however, the original $47 million verdict is further away than ever.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Lawmakers call for use of 25th amendment after president brazenly threatens to commit war crimes in Iran
As Donald Trump unleashes curse-filled threats against Iran, Democrats are raising alarm over his mental stability and calling for his removal from office – while Republicans remain conspicuously silent.
Democrats are escalating their rebukes as the 79-year-old president delivers rambling, incoherent speeches, hurls puerile insults at US allies and brazenly threatens to commit war crimes. He used an Easter Sunday social media post to warn Iran to “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell”.
Continue reading...Prediction market bets on the fate of U.S. service members are "morally corrupt and completely unacceptable," one lawmaker said.
The US was founded on a pledge to limit the damages of war, even if it has often failed to uphold its commitment
Far from expressing remorse for his threat to bomb civilian infrastructure, Donald Trump is doubling down as we approach his deadline for Iranian submission: 8pm ET on Tuesday.
It’s not enough for the US to achieve a military victory – one that continues to elude him, with his stated goals for the war still unmet. Instead, “a whole civilization will die, never to be brought back again,” as he posted on social media. He then added that we are approaching “one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World”.
Continue reading...After smartphones were cleared by NASA for space missions, the crew members of the Integrity spacecraft are beaming back lots of iPhone photos.
As the US vice-president wades into a heated campaign, Hungary’s leader faces the real possibility of defeat
Even before the plane carrying JD and Usha Vance had landed in Budapest, the Hungarian government had hailed their two-day visit as a new golden age in the relationship between Washington and Budapest.
What came next was a whirlwind of politics in which the US vice-president waded directly into the country’s heated election campaign, just days before Hungarians cast their ballots.
Continue reading...Politicians warn party’s pledge to ‘punish’ countries seeking justice for slavery will harm and isolate Britain
Commonwealth politicians say they will not back down from seeking reparations as UK public figures, including a former Reform insider, warn the rightwing party’s pledge to “punish” countries seeking justice for slavery would harm and isolate Britain.
This week, Reform UK said they would halt visas for nationals of countries formally demanding reparations from Britain if they took power.
Continue reading...PM’s most senior civil servant now has task of rewriting civil service code and ‘making it recognised for improved productivity’
Antonia Romeo, Keir Starmer’s most senior civil servant, has been given a powerful new mandate to deliver his priorities, while Darren Jones, the No 10 chief secretary, has shifted to a role more focused on wider Whitehall reforms.
Romeo, who was promoted last month, took over the job of cabinet secretary and head of the civil service after an unsuccessful year in charge by her predecessor, Chris Wormald, who was not considered effective enough by No 10.
Continue reading...Comments by US president’s son seen as gesture of support for ousted pro-Russian leader Milorad Dodik
Donald Trump’s eldest son has criticised the EU as “a little bit of a mess” during a visit to Bosnia’s Republika Srpska widely seen as a gesture of support for the ousted pro-Russian leader Milorad Dodik.
Donald Trump Jr travelled to the Serb-run region’s de facto capital, Banja Luka, as the guest of Dodik’s son Igor. The visit coincided with remarks by JD Vance in Budapest, who accused the EU of meddling in an election in Hungary, even as the US vice-president said he had travelled to Budapest to “help” Viktor Orbán win Sunday’s vote.
Continue reading...Royal Navy type 45 destroyer deployed to reinforce security around RAF base in Cyprus to undergo short maintenance stop, says MoD
HMS Dragon has docked in the eastern Mediterranean after suffering technical problems with its water systems.
The UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced on 3 March that the type 45 destroyer would be deployed to reinforce security around RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, two days after the base was struck by a Shahed 136 drone.
Continue reading...President Donald Trump threatened to commit genocide in Iran, ahead of warnings of a wave of attacks on civilian infrastructure on Tuesday night. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” he wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. This followed a drumbeat of similar threats of wanton and criminal destruction. “The entire country could be taken out in one night. And that night might be tomorrow night,” he said on Monday, having recently warned he would bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages.”
“President Trump has repeatedly threatened war crimes in Iran and now he is expressing genocidal intent,” said Sarah Harrison, an associate general counsel at the Pentagon’s Office of General Counsel, International Affairs during Trump’s first term. “Every single lawmaker and national security leader needs to stand against this and make clear to the U.S. military that these are unlawful orders and if carried out they will someday face criminal prosecution.”
This interpretation was echoed by Rebecca Ingber, a former State Department lawyer and now a law professor at Cardozo Law School. “The U.S. understanding of the definition of genocide in the Genocide Convention requires a ‘specific intent’ to destroy a group — such as a national or ethnic group as relevant here,” she told The Intercept. “That is an intentionally high bar, and one that explicitly would not cover unintended consequences of armed conflict. If acted upon, the President’s statement would be evidence of that required specific intent.”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to obliterate Iran’s civilian infrastructure should the nation’s leaders not heed his demands. “We have a plan because of the power of our military where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12:00 tomorrow night,” he said on Monday. “Where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again.” This echoed an Easter morning missive. “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!” Trump ranted on Truth Social. “Open the Fuckin’ Strait [of Hormuz], you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.”
Asked on Monday if he was concerned that his threat to bomb power plants or bridges amounts to war crimes, Trump replied “No, not at all,” and said in another interview, “I’m not worried about it.”
“There is no gray area on this under international law.”
“What President Trump is describing as the destruction of ‘a whole civilization’ would be a war crime, plain and simple,” said Sarah Yager, the Washington director at Human Rights Watch and a former senior adviser on human rights to the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. “There is no gray area on this under international law.”
Civilian infrastructure has been a frequent target since the U.S.–Israeli war on Iran began on February 28. “Strikes on critical infrastructure and industrial sites have disrupted basic services including electricity, water and telecommunications, also leading to increasing immediate and longer term environmental and health risks,” wrote the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, in a brief report issued last week. Airports, cultural heritage locations, hospitals, industrial sites markets, residential areas, and schools have also been struck, including the civilian international airport in Tehran, a power plant in Khorramshahr, and water reservoirs in Fars and Khuzestan. Last week, the U.S. attacked the newly constructed B1 highway bridge, which killed 8 people, who were, according to the deputy governor of Alborz province, not military targets but nearby villagers celebrating Nowruz, the Persian new year.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed strikes affected multiple nuclear sites, including Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant. Rafael Grossi, head of the nuclear watchdog, warned on Monday that “continued military activity near the BNPP — an operating plant with large amounts of nuclear fuel — could cause a severe radiological accident with harmful consequences for people and the environment in Iran and beyond.”
Trump claimed that the Iranian people actually want the United States to attack their civilian infrastructure, citing “numerous intercepts” of communications. “‘Please keep bombing,’” Trump said on Monday of these supposed pleas. “And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding. And when we leave, and we’re not hitting those areas, they’re saying, ‘Please come back.’”
In actuality, Iranians have been fleeing from Tehran and other major urban areas under attack. Almost a month ago, UNHCR — the U.N. refugee agency — reported that as many as 3.2 million people were already displaced inside Iran due to the conflict. While casualty counts are fragmentary, more than 2,100 civilians had been killed in the war by the end of last month and around 28,000 injured, according to Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education. This included 216 children killed and 1,881 injured, as of April 3.
Yager noted that Iranians who have already suffered severe government repression, including the mass killings of protesters earlier this year, now face obliteration by America. “They’re being told their entire society could be destroyed by the president of United States, with the power of the U.S. military at his fingertips. His previous threats to bomb their power plants and bridges are threats to the systems that keep people alive, their electricity, water, and health care,” she told The Intercept. “Even before anything happens, that kind of rhetoric creates deep anxiety and fear for millions of civilians who have no control over these decisions but who will bear the consequences.”
Almost 115,200 civilian homes, commercial properties, and other civilian sites have been damaged in the war, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. This includes 763 schools. The highest profile of these strikes was the U.S. attack on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school. The attack killed around 175 civilians, most of them children. A preliminary Pentagon report concluded the strike was conducted by U.S. forces, directly contradicting assertions by Trump that Iran struck the school.
The Iranian Red Crescent also reported that more than 334 medical, health, pharmaceutical, and emergency centers have been damaged, including 18 of its own centers. Twenty-four health workers have been killed and 116 injured, according to Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education.
Around 400,000 people are also facing food insecurity in Tehran alone, according to local authorities. Inflation for groceries is at almost 113 percent, severely curtailing people’s purchasing power, according to OCHA.
The post With Trump Threatening Genocide in Iran, Military Must Disobey His Orders, Former Pentagon Officials Say appeared first on The Intercept.
Game Pass Premium subscribers are getting a handful of games, including the remastered Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.
A New York Times analysis found Google's AI Overviews now answer questions correctly about 90% of the time, which might sound impressive until you realize that roughly 1 in 10 answers is wrong. "[F]or Google, that means hundreds of thousands of lies going out every minute of the day," reports Ars Technica. From the report: The Times conducted this analysis with the help of a startup called Oumi, which itself is deeply involved in developing AI models. The company used AI tools to probe AI Overviews with the SimpleQA evaluation, a common test to rank the factuality of generative models like Gemini. Released by OpenAI in 2024, SimpleQA is essentially a list of more than 4,000 questions with verifiable answers that can be fed into an AI. Oumi began running its test last year when Gemini 2.5 was still the company's best model. At the time, the benchmark showed an 85 percent accuracy rate. When the test was rerun following the Gemini 3 update, AI Overviews answered 91 percent of the questions correctly. If you extrapolate this miss rate out to all Google searches, AI Overviews is generating tens of millions of incorrect answers per day. The report includes several examples of where AI Overviews went wrong. When asked for the date on which Bob Marley's former home became a museum, AI Overviews cited three pages, two of which didn't discuss the date at all. The final one, Wikipedia, listed two contradictory years, and AI Overviews confidently chose the wrong one. The benchmark also prompts models to produce the date on which Yo Yo Ma was inducted into the classical music hall of fame. While AI Overviews cited the organization's website that listed Ma's induction, it claimed there's no such thing as the Classical Music Hall of Fame. "This study has serious holes," said Google spokesperson Ned Adriance. "It doesn't reflect what people are actually searching on Google." The search giant likes to use a test called SimpleQA Verified, which uses a smaller set of questions that have been more thoroughly vetted.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
US vice-president rails against ‘bureaucrats in Brussels’ interfering in Sunday’s vote during Budapest visit
JD Vance has railed against the EU, accusing it of blatantly interfering in Hungary’s upcoming elections, even as the US vice-president said he had travelled to Budapest to “help” Viktor Orbán win Sunday’s vote.
Speaking to reporters shortly after landing in Budapest on Tuesday, Vance’s tone was combative as he alleged that the EU was responsible for “one of the worst examples of foreign election interference” he had ever seen.
Continue reading...Rapper had been booked to play at festival in London, prompting outcry over his past antisemitic remarks
The Wireless music festival has been cancelled after the artist formerly known as Kanye West was banned from entering the UK amid a deepening political row over his previous antisemitic statements.
West, legally known as Ye, was due to headline all three days of the festival in July and made an application to travel to the UK via an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) on Monday, but this was blocked by officials.
Continue reading...You're probably all set, but you should still probably check and update if necessary.
April 7, 2026 — Anthropic has signed a new agreement with Google and Broadcom for multiple gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity expected to come online in 2027. This significant expansion of Anthropic’s compute infrastructure will power frontier Claude models and help the company serve extraordinary demand from customers worldwide.
“This groundbreaking partnership with Google and Broadcom is a continuation of our disciplined approach to scaling infrastructure: we are building the capacity necessary to serve the exponential growth we have seen in our customer base while also enabling Claude to define the frontier of AI development,” said Krishna Rao, CFO of Anthropic. “We are making our most significant compute commitment to date to keep pace with our unprecedented growth.”
Demand from Claude customers has accelerated in 2026. Anthropic’s run-rate revenue has now surpassed $30 billion—up from approximately $9 billion at the end of 2025. When Anthropic announced its Series G fundraising in February, the company shared that over 500 business customers were each spending over $1 million on an annualized basis. Today that number exceeds 1,000, doubling in less than two months.
The vast majority of the new compute will be sited in the United States, making this partnership a major expansion of Anthropic’s November 2025 commitment to invest $50 billion in strengthening American computing infrastructure.
The partnership deepens Anthropic’s existing work with Google Cloud—building on the increased TPU capacity announced last October—as well as Anthropic’s relationship with Broadcom.
Anthropic trains and runs Claude on a range of AI hardware—AWS Trainium, Google TPUs, and NVIDIA GPUs—which means workloads can be matched to the chips best suited for them. This diversity of platforms translates to better performance and greater resilience for customers who depend on Claude for critical work.
Amazon remains Anthropic’s primary cloud provider and training partner, and the company continues to work closely with AWS on Project Rainier. Claude remains the only frontier AI model available to customers on all three of the world’s largest cloud platforms: Amazon Web Services (Bedrock), Google Cloud (Vertex AI), and Microsoft Azure (Foundry).
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About Google Cloud
Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.
About Anthropic
Anthropic is an AI research and development company that creates reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. Anthropic’s flagship product is Claude, a large language model trusted by millions of users worldwide. Anthropic’s flagship product is Claude, a family of foundational AI models purpose-built for business tasks. Visit www.anthropic.com for more information.
Source: Anthropic
The post Anthropic Signs Google, Broadcom Deal to Add Multi-Gigawatt TPU Capacity appeared first on HPCwire.
Parents face child endangerment charge after their kid suffered a minor injury at ZooAmerica in Hersheypark
The parents of a toddler who suffered a minor injury at a Pennsylvania theme park zoo after squeezing through a fence near a wolf enclosure and making contact with one of the animals have been charged with endangering the welfare of children, with police accusing them of paying attention to their cellphones at the time.
In a news release, police said that the parents both walked about 25ft to 30ft (7.5 meters to 9 meters) away from the child to a seating area with benches and appeared to be paying attention to their cellphones when they noticed what was happening Saturday at ZooAmerica in Hersheypark.
Continue reading...Baby was delivered during Caribbean Airlines flight from Kingston to the US; nationality of child to be determined
A routine passenger flight from Jamaica landed at New York’s John F Kennedy international airport with one more person than it took off with after a woman gave birth in midair, potentially setting up a tricky situation over the newborn’s citizenship.
The “medical event” occurred on a Caribbean Airlines flight from Kingston on Saturday, according to a news release from the carrier.
Continue reading...Lib Dems, Greens and some Labour MPs demand UK block US from using its airbases for Iran missions
Keir Starmer is facing increasing pressure to limit US access to British airbases after Donald Trump threatened “a whole civilisation” would die if Iran ignored his demands, comments that Downing Street has not directly criticised.
No 10 has allowed US forces to use UK bases only for defensive missions against Iran, such as targeting missile sites, ruling out involvement in attacks on civilian infrastructure such as power stations, which the US president has threatened.
Continue reading...Freelancer Shelly Kittleson was reportedly held by Iran-backed militia which says she must now leave country
The US journalist Shelly Kittleson, who was kidnapped from a Baghdad street corner last week, has been released, according to an Iraqi official with direct knowledge of the situation.
Kittleson was freed in the afternoon, said the official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. He did not share her current whereabouts but said that before her release, she had been held in Baghdad.
Continue reading...Missing the April tax deadline doesn't have to spiral into a crisis, but you'll want to know what your options are.
Anthropic says its annualized revenue run rate has surpassed $30 billion and disclosed plans to secure roughly 3.5 gigawatts of next-generation Google TPU compute starting in 2027. Broadcom will supply the key chips and networking gear for the effort, the company announced. The Register reports: News of the two deals emerged today in a Broadcom regulatory filing that opens with two items of news. One is a "Long Term Agreement for Broadcom to develop and supply custom Tensor Processing Units ("TPUs") for Google's future generations of TPUs." Google and Broadcom have collaborated to produce custom TPUs. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan recently shared his opinion that hyperscalers don't have the skill to create custom accelerators and predicted Broadcom's chip business will therefore win over $100 billion of revenue from AI chips in 2027 alone. Working on next-gen TPUs for Google will presumably help to make that prediction a reality. So will the second part of Broadcom's announcement: a "Supply Assurance Agreement for Broadcom to supply networking and other components to be used in Google's next-generation AI racks through up to 2031." Broadcom's filing also revealed one user of Google's next-gen TPU will be Anthropic, which starting in 2027, "will access through Broadcom approximately 3.5 gigawatts as part of the multiple gigawatts of next generation TPU-based AI compute capacity committed by Anthropic."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
This is how the four astronauts sleep, use the bathroom and work out during their 10-day mission to the moon and back.
Watchdog finds allegations against City of Sanctuary UK were misleading after complaint from Tory MP
A refugee charity subjected to vicious social media attacks over a migrant welcome project in schools has been cleared of wrongdoing after watchdogs found allegations it encouraged pupils to send Valentine’s Day cards to asylum seekers were misleading and false.
City of Sanctuary UK came under fire last year after rumours spread online that under its schools programme, children were being “forced” to write heart-shaped welcome cards to adult migrants, including cards addressed to “my fiance”.
Continue reading...President Masoud Pezeshkian says 14m people ‘declared their readiness to sacrifice their lives’ for defence of Iran
Iranians officials called on young people to form human chains around the country’s power plants and people in Tehran stocked up on basic provisions, as the clock ticked down on Donald Trump’s deadline for Iran to open the strait of Hormuz or face massive strikes on civilian infrastructure.
Iranian media showed people gathering outside electricity stations, waving Iranian flags and holding up banners, including at the country’s largest power plant, near Tehran, and in Tabriz in the north-west. In Dezful in the south-west, people gathered on a bridge said to be 1,700 years old.
Continue reading...The threat posed by a new space race is real. But so is the wonder of humankind’s reaching for the skies
“Everything we need, Earth provides. And that is somewhat of a miracle, and one that you can’t truly know until you’ve had the perspective of the other.” This is how the US astronaut Christina Koch summed up her experience of travelling to the far side of the moon on Monday. The feeling of a deepened appreciation for home recalls statements by an earlier generation of space travellers. The famous Earthrise photograph, taken on the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, has been credited as one of the drivers behind the environmental movement. Such was the power of the first images of the “blue planet” captured from space.
The hope that such journeys can foster global cooperation and appreciation for life was also the theme of the prize-winning novel Orbital, which is set on a space station among a multinational crew. But if it was ever possible to overlook the darker side of space travel, it definitely isn’t today. In the 1960s, the American and Soviet programmes were projections of the two blocs’ military strength. In the 2020s, the tech billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are key players in a dramatically revived US industry, while a post-terrestrial geopolitical battle between the US and China takes shape. Nasa aims to put a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...After a long wait, Apple has unveiled the AirPods Max 2. Here's my full skinny on all the performance and feature upgrades the new model offers.
Smart rings are popular, but they're not created equally. This is my favorite one so far.
The resulting text will smooth out what you said, removing the inevitable ums and uhs.
Spaniard confident resolution with DP World Tour is close
Rahm paired with Gotterup and Åberg at Masters
Jon Rahm has declared he will play for Europe in next year’s Ryder Cup, with the Spaniard confident of ending his standoff with the DP World Tour by this September. Rahm’s sentiment from Augusta National will raise Luke Donald’s confidence that he will be able to call on one of his key team members for Europe’s Ryder Cup defence.
Rahm has been subject to fines reaching seven figures for participating on the LIV Tour without consent from the DP World Tour, of which he is still a member. Rahm dropped his appeal over the sanctions recently, which leaves him in default to the DP World Tour and unavailable for Ryder Cup selection. He also turned down a deal which would have seen the situation resolved in return for playing six designated DP World Tour events.
Continue reading...A bank levy can disrupt everything, including your ability to cover your bills. So what happens during the process?
Non-profits are scaling back programs, raising fears of worsening violence in historically underserved communities
Sergio Diaz knows how to make people feel comfortable. It is a skill he learned from his years as a salesman selling shoes, cellphones and lawn care hardware in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is no longer a salesman, but relating to others is still crucial in Diaz’s work as a gun violence prevention specialist for the Oakland non-profit Youth Alive.
Every day, the 34-year-old goes to trauma centers, like Highland hospital in East Oakland, and meets with people who are recovering after being shot. He talks with them at their bedsides to figure out what they need to redirect them away from retaliation – whether it’s help applying for medical benefits or getting a driver’s license. Beyond his way with words, he says he is able to build relationships with his clients, many of whom are immigrants from Central America, because he understands their circumstances.
Continue reading...While not revolutionary, these changes give you more freedom to make your browser windows look how you want them.
Cloudflare is accelerating its post-quantum security plans and now aims to make its entire platform fully post-quantum secure by 2029. "The updated timeline follows new developments in quantum computing research that suggest current cryptographic standards could be broken sooner than previously expected," reports SiliconANGLE. From the report: The decision by Cloudflare to move its post-quantum security roadmap forward comes after Google LLC and research from Oratomic demonstrated significant advances in algorithms and hardware capable of breaking widely used encryption methods such as RSA-2048 and elliptic curve cryptography. [...] The company said progress across three key areas -- quantum hardware, error correction and quantum algorithms -- is advancing in parallel and compounding overall capability. Improvements in areas such as neutral atom architectures and more efficient error correction are reducing the resources required to break encryption, while algorithmic advances are lowering computational complexity. [...] Cloudflare has already deployed post-quantum encryption across a large portion of its network and reports that more than half of human traffic it processes now uses post-quantum key agreement. The company plans to expand support for post-quantum authentication in 2026, followed by broader deployment across its network and products through 2028. By 2029, Cloudflare said, it expects all of its services to be fully post-quantum secure, with those services being available by default across its platform, without requiring customer action or additional cost as part of the company's commitment to security upgrades. Google said it plans to accelerate its post-quantum encryption migration target to 2029.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
US vice-president claims ‘the bureaucrats in Brussels have tried to destroy the economy of Hungary’
… and here they are!
JD Vance and Usha Vance off the Air Force Two, welcomed by Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó as they begin their two-day trip to the Hungarian capital.
Continue reading...There is no question that Trump’s threats, if carried out, would amount to war crimes. The international justice system is positioned to act
Donald Trump is openly threatening war crimes in Iran because he apparently thinks he can get away with them. Sadly, the US supreme court has given him reason to believe in his impunity within the United States. But there are international options for prosecution that lie beyond the court’s lawless license. They are not easy to exercise, but the terrible precedent of the world’s most powerful president openly flouting international humanitarian law should compel action.
There is no doubt that Trump is contemplating war crimes. As part of his plan to bomb Iran “back to the stone ages” and wipe out a “whole civilization”, Trump has threatened to destroy such civilian infrastructure as desalination plants, electrical-generating facilities and bridges.
Continue reading...The kea package has moved all services to run as a dedicated kea user (instead of root) for improved security. This change requires permission updates to the runtime files created by the kea services.
Users upgrading from an existing kea installation should therefore run the following commands after the upgrade:
chown kea: /var/lib/kea/* /var/log/kea/* /run/lock/kea/logger_lockfile
systemctl try-restart kea-ctrl-agent.service kea-dhcp{4,6,-ddns}.service
Accounts that need to interact with kea services files (e.g. lease files under /var/lib/kea, log files under /var/log/kea or configuration files under /etc/kea) should be added to the kea group.
Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation has asked a court to halt the separatist push, arguing it would violate their treaty rights
A First Nation in Alberta has said that a separatist push for the province to secede from Canada is “consummately irresponsible and dishonourable” and should be shut down, arguing in court that a proposed referendum would violate their treaty rights.
A minority of residents of the oil-rich province have long argued that the province’s woes are due to the structure of payments to the federal government and a perceived inability to get their vast fossil fuel reserves to market.
Continue reading...First, Spotify let you customize the music its AI recommends. Now, you can discover new podcasts with prompts.
Oil prices swing and stock markets tense on approach to Trump’s deadline for Iran to reopen strait of Hormuz
The oil and gas crisis triggered by the blockade of the strait of Hormuz is “more serious than the ones in 1973, 1979 and 2022 together”, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.
Speaking as Donald Trump’s deadline for Iran to reopen the waterway approached, Fatih Birol told Le Figaro newspaper that the impact of the Middle East conflict on the oil market was larger than the combined force of the twin shocks of the 1970s and the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Continue reading...The vice president traveled to Budapest as Trump’s deadline for an Iran deal loomed Tuesday, backing the administration’s closest ideological ally in Europe.
A pair of organizations filed a lawsuit challenging the Justice Department's determination that a presidential records law is unconstitutional.
The defense secretary’s rosy portrayal of U.S. success in the conflict risks misinforming the public and the president, observers worry.
Gas prices in the U.S. could near a record high later this month if the Strait of Hormuz remains sealed, energy industry experts warn.
Later this year, you'll be able to hail a robotaxi through the Lyft app as well.
 | What are yall using for charge port covers? Loving every minute of this board. [link] [comments] |
Acrobat Student Spaces lets you create custom study guides, flashcards, quizzes, podcasts and video overviews.
Pheap Rom was one of 15 people sent to prison in African kingdom last year despite completing US sentences
A Cambodian man deported by the US said he would have accepted being sent to Cambodia, but instead ended up imprisoned in Eswatini, a country he knew so little about that when he first read the name he thought it was another immigration detention centre in Louisiana.
Pheap Rom, who had been convicted of attempted murder, was one of 10 deportees sent to Eswatini by the US in October 2025. They joined a group of five men, from Cambodia, Cuba, Jamaica, Vietnam and Yemen, who were deported to the small southern African country in July. All were sent to a maximum-security prison. Rom was deported from Eswatini to Cambodia in March.
Continue reading...Donald Trump says the US will bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges if Tehran fails to meet his latest deadline to reopen the strait of Hormuz. The US president says he is ‘not at all’ concerned that such attacks on civilian infrastructure could amount to war crimes and a ‘whole civilisation will die tonight’ if Iran doesn’t agree to a deal.
But will Trump follow through on the threat? And what could it mean for the war in the Middle East? Lucy Hough is joined by senior international correspondent Julian Borger
Continue reading...Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square claims world’s biggest music company has suffered because of delay of US listing
Billionaire Bill Ackman’s hedge fund has offered to buy Universal Music Group (UMG) in a deal that values the world’s biggest music company at about €55bn (£48bn).
Pershing Square, the New-York based hedge fund, has made a bid for the business, which is home to artists including Taylor Swift and Elton John, with a cash and stock deal that would move its stock market listing from Amsterdam to New York.
Continue reading...Heavyweight quarterfinal clash sees Los Blancos host the German giants at the Bernabéu.
It's a lot of money for a camera, but over a year and 40,000 photos later, I'm still glad I bought my Leica Q343.
This series of profiles features noteworthy people over the past 250 years who have shaped the American constitutional tradition in various ways. In this post, National Constitution Center content fellow Anna Salvatore looks at the life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, which launched the movement for women’s rights.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born into a prominent family in Johnstown, New York on November 12, 1815, where she lived with her parents, five siblings, and as many as 12 servants in a mansion on the town square. Her father, Daniel Cady, was a distinguished lawyer and politician, and her mother, Margaret Cady née Livingston, ran the house with what her daughter called “queenly and magnificent sway” and “the soul of independence and self-reliance.” They ensured their daughter had a stronger education than most young women of her era. Elizabeth studied debate, Greek, and mathematics at the Johnstown Academy before attending Troy Female Seminary, where she felt the first stirrings of a lifelong distrust of religious revivalism and its constraining effects on young women.
Her political education took place at her cousin Gerrit Smith’s house in upstate New York. Smith, who would help fund John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, invited a constant stream of abolitionists, temperance advocates, and Native Americans to his stately home on the Underground Railroad. It was there that she met her future husband, Henry Stanton, whom she married just before they visited London for the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840. Though women were forbidden to participate, Stanton watched the proceedings closely and befriended fellow spectator and suffragist Lucretia Mott.
Video: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Women’s Suffrage, and the Legacy of the 19th Amendment
In 1847, at age 31, Stanton moved to Seneca Falls, New York, already the mother of three children. She would go on to have four more between 1951 and 1959. Nearly all of the burdens of housekeeping and childrearing fell to her. Henry, absorbed in his law practice, was also active in the formation of the abolitionist Free Soil Party at the time. Exhausted and isolated by housework, which prevented her from traveling and writing as widely as she would have liked, Stanton expressed her “long-accumulating discontent” to Mott, a Quaker, and other Quaker women in the community in the summer of 1848. They resolved to organize a women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls a few days later.
This gathering, known as the Seneca Falls Convention, took place in the town’s Wesleyan Chapel from July 19–20, 1848. Among the attendees, nearly all of whom were white and female, was the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who defended Stanton’s controversial resolution in favor of women’s suffrage. She was also the principal author of the Declaration of Sentiments, a remodeling of the Declaration of Independence that placed women’s equality at its center. She listed women’s political grievances against men (“he has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice”) in much the same way that American colonists had listed their grievances against King Charles III.
Historic Document: Seneca Falls Declaration (1848)
The Declaration of Sentiments concluded with an urgent demand: “In view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country... and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States.” It was signed by 100 of some 300 attendees to the convention and reprinted in abolitionist newspapers across the country.
Stanton met the women’s rights reformer Susan B. Anthony in 1851, forming an enduring friendship and partnership that would last the rest of their lives. Anthony excelled at organizing, while Stanton excelled at speeches and written pronouncements. Together they began to link the demands of the temperance and suffrage movements, arguing that liberalized divorce laws would allow women and children to escape subordination by alcoholic fathers. They also played leading roles in the New York Anti-Slavery Society in the 1850s while Henry Stanton helped organize the Republican Party in opposition to the expansion of slavery into western territories.
Stanton had long used slavery in her speeches and writings as a metaphor for women’s subordination to men, but during the Civil War, she increasingly referred to slavery as an evil in itself. In 1861, she joined a speaking tour to call for immediate and unconditional emancipation and “no compromise with slaveholders.” She co-authored an “Address to the Women of the Republic” with Anthony that urged northern white women to defend the war’s “ultimate purpose,” and in 1863, they founded the Women’s National Loyal League to campaign for a constitutional amendment to end slavery. It is considered the first national women’s political organization in U.S. history.
After President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, the elections of 1866 brought dramatic wins for Republicans in the House and Senate. Reformers proposed legislation to grant suffrage and the other rights of citizenship to African American men, declaring that it was “the Negro’s hour.” Stanton expressed concern that the 14th Amendment would introduce sex-based distinctions into the Constitution to explicitly exclude women from these rights. In heated debates with other suffragists and abolitionists, she began to display the racism and nativism that would ultimately taint her legacy, declaring boldly that she “would not trust” the Black man with her rights if he were enfranchised first.
In 1870, Stanton and Anthony advanced a legal theory called the “New Departure.” They argued that a constitutional amendment for women’s suffrage was not necessary because the 14th Amendment’s definition of citizenship already implicitly guaranteed women the right to vote. The Supreme Court rejected this strategy in the 1875 decision Minor v. Happersett, ruling that women were citizens, but that suffrage was not one of the rights of citizenship.
In the final years of her life, Stanton collaborated with Anthony on a multi-volume history of the women’s movement. She also published an intensely controversial Women’s Bible, which rewrote and reinterpreted passages of the Bible that had long positioned women as inherently subservient to men. Her activism in this period, she said, was grounded by her understanding of women’s “birthright to self-sovereignty.” Stanton often expressed her resentment that African Americans and immigrants possessed more rights than educated white women, and in the 1890s, she advocated for literacy tests so that “chiefly foreign” labor agitators would not have access to the ballot.
Stanton did not live long enough to see her dreams of enfranchisement fulfilled. She died of heart failure in New York City on October 26, 1902, 17 years before the 19th Amendment was ratified, granting women the right to vote.
Anna Salvatore is a Content Fellow at the National Constitution Center and a graduate of Princeton University.
April 7, 2026 — A key bottleneck in today’s leading approaches to quantum error correction is the need to repeatedly pause and measure the quantum processor mid-computation, a process that is slow, technically demanding, and itself a significant source of errors. Now, a joint team from the University of Innsbruck, RWTH Aachen University, Forschungszentrum Jülich and spin-off Alpine Quantum Technologies (AQT) has demonstrated fault-tolerant quantum computation without any such interruptions.
Credit: kritsak permrit/Shutterstock
In a study published in Nature Communications, the team presents a complete toolbox of fault-tolerant quantum operations that eliminates so-called mid-circuit measurements and feed-forward control entirely. Rather than stopping the computation to read out error information and classically deciding on a correction, the new approach processes error information coherently.
“That happens entirely within the quantum computation itself, using only standard quantum gate operations,” said Friederike Butt. “This makes the method faster and potentially less error-prone than conventional schemes, and particularly well-suited to hardware platforms where measurements are especially costly.”
To put their approach to the test, the researchers implemented Grover’s quantum search algorithm fault-tolerantly on three logical qubits encoded across eight physical qubits of a trapped-ion quantum processor. The experiment clearly identified the correct solutions, providing a compelling proof-of-concept.
“For the first time, we have shown that a complete fault-tolerant quantum algorithm can be executed without mid-circuit measurements with feed-forward control,” said Ivan Pogorelov from the Department of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck.
“This is a new paradigm for quantum error correction, and this experiment is a first, important step toward realizing its full potential,” said team leader Thomas Monz.
The theoretical framework was developed by Friederike Butt and Markus Müller at RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Jülich, while the experimental implementation was carried out by Ivan Pogorelov and others at the University of Innsbruck. Their findings demonstrate the practical feasibility of measurement-free protocols and mark an important first step toward exploring this largely uncharted direction in quantum computation.
The work was supported by the European Union, the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG, the Federation of Austrian Industries Tyrol and other funding bodies.
Publication: Demonstration of measurement-free universal logical quantum computation. Friederike Butt, Ivan Pogorelov, Robert Freund, Alex Steiner, Marcel Meyer, Thomas Monz & Markus Müller. Nature Communications (2026) 17:995. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-68533-x
Source: University of Innsbruck
The post Researchers Execute Fault-Tolerant Quantum Algorithm Without Mid-Calculation Measurements appeared first on HPCwire.
IMF head warns Middle East war will lead to higher inflation and slower global growth while IEA director says oil and gas crisis ‘more serious than the ones in 1973, 1979 and 2022 together’
Brent crude has now fallen 1.8% to $107.86 a barrel.
“For now, the absence of a clear path forward is keeping markets volatile and indecisive,” said Daniela Hathorrn, senior market analyst at Capital.com.
Markets are once again on edge as the US–Iran conflict enters a critical phase, with investors effectively trading against another countdown clock set by the Trump administration. The situation has evolved into a near-term binary outcome: either escalation through direct strikes on Iranian infrastructure, or a last-minute de-escalation that could trigger a sharp reversal in risk assets.
Recent developments suggest that tensions remain high. Despite intermittent headlines hinting at negotiations or potential off-ramps, rhetoric from Washington has remained aggressive, while Iran continues to hold firm on its position, particularly around control of the strait of Hormuz. That chokepoint remains the central issue in the conflict, and neither side appears willing to concede easily. While escalation would be damaging for both, the strategic incentives are misaligned: the US is trying to restore stability and energy flows, while Iran is leveraging disruption as a deterrent. That dynamic keeps the risk of further escalation elevated.
Investors realise that recession is once again on the table.
The attacks on energy infrastructure and disruptions to shipping in the Persian Gulf are weighing even more heavily on people’s minds than they did four weeks ago.
Continue reading...The US constitution should make it possible to remove a president who’s not fit for office. But we’re going to need another way out
For the past few months, I have been waging a cold war with a neighbour who constantly puts out their rubbish on the wrong day. And by “cold war” I mean complaining incessantly to my longsuffering wife while the neighbour goes about their business blissfully unaware that we are mortal enemies. But enough is enough. Last week I decided to end this situation via a strongly worded letter. “Tuesday will be Explosions Day in your house, neighbour!” I wrote. “There will be nothing like it!!! Put out your Fuckin’ Rubbish properly, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
I am sorry to drag Allah into this obviously imaginary exchange, but I’m just channelling the US president. I’m sure you’ve already seen Donald Trump’s profanity-laden Easter Sunday warning to Iran, where he threatened to carry out the mass bombing of civilian infrastructure – but if you haven’t, then go read it and weep. The days where Trump’s outbursts were amusing (remember “covfefe”?) are long gone. There is nothing funny about endless stream-of-consciousness screeds from a man who is not just destroying the US, but dragging the whole world down with it. If a civilian acted like the president routinely does, they’d find themselves fired very quickly.
Continue reading...Elon Musk’s aerospace to AI company will host summer event to try to convince buyers it is worth $2tn
SpaceX will kick off the marketing for its highly anticipated stock exchange debut by hosting an event in June for 1,500 retail investors, as executives set out to convince buyers that the aerospace to artificial intelligence group should be valued at $2tn.
In an unusual move, the company has earmarked a large portion of its shares – potentially up to 30% – for non-professional, non-institutional investors, banking on the popularity of its chief executive, Elon Musk, to help it raise $75bn (about £56bn) in what is expected to be the largest public offering in history.
Continue reading...
Q: I read this on FB. Is it true? The U.S. Treasury just declared the U.S government is insolvent.
A: No. That’s the conclusion of an opinion piece that cited a Treasury report showing the government’s liabilities outweigh its assets. But that’s been the case for decades, and unlike an insolvent business, the government can levy taxes.
Two economists — Steve Hanke at Johns Hopkins University and David Walker, a former comptroller general of the U.S. — published an opinion piece in Fortune last month advocating bills aimed at reining in the national debt. In support of this, they pointed to the U.S. Treasury’s financial report on fiscal year 2025, noting that the liabilities for the U.S. government far outweighed the assets and characterizing the government as “insolvent.”
The headline on the March 23 piece — “The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it” — became a viral claim on social media, suggesting that there’s been a major new development in the government’s financial position.
But there hasn’t been. One reader asked us about a post that suggested President Donald Trump was to blame.
“The U.S. Treasury did not declare the U.S. government insolvent,” said Kent Smetters, faculty director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model, who told us that he agreed with the larger point of the opinion piece — that the government’s fiscal policy is imbalanced and in need of change.
The writers cited the most recent annual report from the Treasury, released in March, that listed the government’s total assets for fiscal year 2025 — including cash on hand, federal land and loans owed — as just over $6 trillion. It listed the total liabilities as almost $48 trillion.
From that, they concluded, “The U.S. government is insolvent. That’s not hyperbole — it’s the conclusion drawn directly from the Treasury Department’s own consolidated financial statements for fiscal year 2025, released last week to near-total media silence.”
The economists likened the federal government to a household with liabilities totaling much more than its assets could cover. “Uncle Sam, by any accounting standard, is insolvent,” they wrote.
But Jessica Riedl, a budget and tax fellow at the Brookings Institution, told us that the economists are using the methodology of a business, rather than a government — which, importantly, has the authority to levy taxes. The Treasury report does, indeed, confirm that the government could not pay off the federal debt and cover its commitments by selling its assets. “If they didn’t have the power to tax, that would be a problem,” Riedl said.
The Treasury report, itself, makes this point, too. “Due to its sovereign power to tax and borrow, and the country’s wide economic base, the government has unique access to financial resources through generating tax revenues and issuing federal debt securities,” it said. “This provides the government with the ability to meet present obligations and those that are anticipated from future operations and are not reflected in net position.”
Smetters said something similar. “The government’s assets are beyond just its holdings of property and buildings and things like that. It’s really the fact that it has access to a tax base that’s still pretty large in present value.”
Steve Ellis, president of the nonpartisan budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense, told us in an email, “I don’t think insolvency is the right term for the federal government. Except for a short time in Andrew Jackson’s presidency the country has always been in debt. Even when there was brief surplus in late 90s, early aughts, there was still debt.”
All three of the experts we spoke to, though, agreed with the larger premise of the opinion piece, which is that the federal budget is unsustainably imbalanced.
The debt held by the public, which excludes money the federal government owes to itself, was $31.4 trillion as of April 3. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the fiscal year 2026 deficit will be $1.9 trillion, and in 2036, the annual deficit will be $3.1 trillion.
“The real problem facing the government,” Smetters said, “is that we currently have a fiscal policy path that is itself imbalanced. Specifically, the present value of future spending far exceeds the present value of future tax revenue. To create balance, we would either need to raise all federal income taxes, including payroll taxes, immediately and forever by 30%, or cut all federal spending, including entitlement programs, immediately and forever by 25%, or some combination.”
But the Treasury has not revealed any new insolvency. The government’s liabilities have been larger than its assets in the Treasury’s annual reports going back decades.
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 The U.S. Treasury Didn’t Declare the Country ‘Insolvent’ appeared first on FactCheck.org.
Scale AI gig workers describe desperation of using people’s personal profiles and copyrighted work to train AI
Tens of thousands of people have been paid by a company part-owned by Meta to train AI by combing Instagram accounts, harvesting copyrighted work and transcribing pornographic soundtracks, the Guardian can reveal.
Scale AI, 49%-controlled by Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire, has recruited experts across fields such as medicine, physics and economics – putatively to refine top-level artificial intelligence systems through a platform called Outlier. “Become the expert that AI learns from,” it says on its site, advertising flexible work for people with strong credentials.
Continue reading...Transcript reportedly details Hungarian leader offering whatever assistance he can to his Russian counterpart
Hungary’s Viktor Orbán offered to go to great lengths to help Vladimir Putin, telling the Russian leader “I am at your service” in an October call, it has emerged, prompting further scrutiny of Budapest’s ties to the Kremlin just as JD Vance arrived in the city.
Air Force Two landed in Budapest on Tuesday morning carrying the US vice-president and his wife, Usha Vance, as Hungary reaches the final, heated days of a hard-fought election campaign that has played out against a backdrop of scandals regarding the relationship between Budapest and Moscow.
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Why Should Delaware Care?
Wilmington is filled with dozens of corner stores and bodegas, giving residents convenient access to necessities when larger grocery stores are out of reach. But concerns over loitering, criminal activity and limited healthy food options have sparked a new city ordinance that could change the city’s future landscape.
New corner convenience stores may soon be prohibited from opening in Delaware’s largest city.
Last week, the Wilmington City Council unanimously passed an ordinance that would place a moratorium on the businesses. The measure now awaits a signature from Mayor John Carney, whose office has not revealed whether he will support it.
Carney’s spokeswoman, Caroline Klinger, said that the mayor is generally supportive of the bill, but his team will still need to look it over before a decision is made.
“As is standard with every piece of legislation, the mayor and members of our team will review the details of the bill in its entirety, and that process will begin once it is delivered to our office by the City Clerk,” Klinger said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware.
Nevertheless, the City Council’s passage of the ordinance reflects growing concerns among city leaders that an overconcentration of corner stores is contributing to issues related to crime and public health.
The concerns add to those around smoke shops in Wilmington, which prompted city leaders to approve a similar moratorium on those businesses in February.
Councilwoman Shané Darby said a moratorium on corner stores would give city officials time to conduct a formal assessment of the societal impacts of corner stores, many of which are located in Wilmington’s lower-income neighborhoods.
Darby — who sponsored the corner store ordinance — asserted that many corner stores attract illegal activity, including groups of people who loiter outside them. She also noted that the stores sell relatively unhealthy products, such as processed foods, alcohol, tobacco, and lottery tickets.
“I think that our focus as a council should be … looking at these properties and saying, ‘how do we create healthy food options, grocery stores, cafes,’” Darby said about the formal “equity assessment” that would be completed if the ordinance is signed into law.
Darby’s ordinance states that policy changes that could result from the equity assessment could include requirements to create buffer zones between stores, capping the number of corner stores in a neighborhood, or prioritizing city approvals for businesses that bring in healthier foods.
Last fall, Spotlight Delaware spoke with several residents and convenience store owners across Wilmington about the corner store proposal. Many echoed the concerns raised by Darby and other members of the council.
“I hope that they never open up another corner store in our neighborhood,” said Joyce Woodlen, a Hilltop resident and local hair boutique owner, who previously dealt with a loitering issue caused by a convenience store across the street from her shop.
Several corner store owners noted that they understand residents’ concerns. Some said they have tried offering healthier options but claimed there was little demand for them. Others noted that they have little control over loitering and public safety issues outside their stores.
“We can’t do anything about it. If we call the cops, cops don’t come—only 30 to 40 minutes later,” said the store manager at Young’s Sub Shop, who provided his name as Muhammad.
The council’s passage of the corner store moratorium comes more than a month after the city approved a similar moratorium on smoke shops.
Like Darby’s ordinance, the smoke shop moratorium was designed to give city officials time to assess the impact of the stores on communities.
Unlike Darby’s ordinance, the smoke shop moratorium does not come with a fiscal note, which is an estimated cost to the city of the proposed legislation.
According to a city estimate, the Wilmington Department of Land Use and Planning would be in charge of completing the corner store “equity impact assessment” at a cost of $250,000.
During Thursday’s City Council discussion of Darby’s corner store legislation, Councilmembers Chris Johnson and Alex Hackett expressed concerns about why it included a fiscal impact while the smoke shop moratorium did not.
In a response during the council meeting, Darby claimed that the steep cost estimate came from the Carney Administration’s dislike for certain council members.
“They use this as a weapon. I’m telling this to the public. They’ll use fiscal impact notes as a weapon so that you can’t get things passed through,” Darby said.
Asked why Darby’s bill carried such a hefty fiscal impact, officials said the city recently updated its process for preparing fiscal notes through a city council ordinance, with the Delaware Office of Management and Budget now responsible for all legislation.
Johnson’s ordinance was completed during that transition period.
Carney spokeswoman Caroline Klinger said with the new process underway with OMB, the city is “committed to ensuring all ordinances are accompanied by a proper fiscal impact statement in accordance with this new law.”
While Carney’s office has not indicated whether the mayor will sign off on the corner store moratorium, Klinger highlighted concerns last fall around the capacity of land use officials to carry out the equity assessment, as well as the potential costs of the measure.
Klinger also asserted that the mayor wants to see healthier food options in the city and is willing to work with city council.
“If these stores are the most accessible food option for residents, making them healthier could be more impactful than eliminating the establishment of new ones,” Klinger said in the city’s statement in September.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include new comments received from Mayor John Carney’s office on April 8.
The post Wilmington City Council passes corner store moratorium appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Experts have been alarmed at the growth of deep misogyny dressed up as self-help on social media. We profile seven men from across the continent who are gaining traction
It is not just Europe and the US that are grappling with a growing landscape of misogynistic influencers online. While Andrew Tate, Myron Gaines, Sneako and other voices grow in toxicity in the manosphere of the west, across Africa – which has more than 400 million people aged between 15 and 35 – several individuals are gaining traction.
The manosphere is a loose network of communities that claim to address men’s struggles such as dating and fitness, but often promote harmful misogynistic attitudes. Sunita Caminha, who leads UN Women on ending violence against women and girls in east and southern Africa, first started noticing its presence in Africa about five years ago, and believes it is on the rise. “Research and data that keeps coming out is very consistent [in] showing this is an alarming issue in different countries and contexts across the continent.”
Continue reading...There’s no shortage of opinions on parking in Newark, and members of the city’s Parking Advisory Committee are trying to hear lots of them as they brainstorm creative solutions to improve downtown parking.
LEUVEN, Belgium, April 6, 2026 — ‘SPINS’ (Semiconductor Pilot Line for Industrial Quantum NanoSystems), one of six European quantum pilot lines, has been launched. Coordinated by imec, the consortium brings together 25 European RTOs, industry partners, and academic research groups to strengthen Europe’s leadership and sovereignty in this strategically important domain. The €50 million SPINS project is co-funded by the European Union’s Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU) and national and regional authorities across participating member states.
SPINS project partner overview. Credit: Fraunhofer IPMS.
Quantum computing is increasingly viewed as a strategic domain, with growing economic and societal relevance. Potential applications range from drug discovery and materials science to secure communications and advanced navigation systems.
However, a gap remains between current research and the ability to manufacture quantum processors at scale. Increasing the number of stable qubits is considered a key step toward building reliable, fault-tolerant quantum computers.
Given the technological complexity of quantum hardware—including cryogenic operation, ultra-precise control electronics, and specialized fabrication processes—and its strategic importance, the EU Chips Act has established six complementary quantum pilot lines. Each focuses on a distinct hardware platform, collectively advancing technologies across quantum computing, communications, and sensing. Within this portfolio, SPINS is dedicated to semiconductor-based spin qubits, with a primary focus on developing quantum chips.
Imec is coordinating the pilot line and leading a European consortium of 25 partners, including RTOs such as Fraunhofer, VTT, and CEA-Leti; industry participants ranging from large enterprises like Infineon and Siltronic to SMEs and startups; and academic institutions including TU Delft and the University of Jyväskylä. The effort aims to translate the EU Chips Act’s strategic framework into concrete actions.
The SPINS consortium’s initial efforts focus on process and design optimization to establish a foundation for scalable, stable, and high-performance spin qubits across three technology platforms: Si/SiGe, Ge/GeSi, and SOI. The project also aims to create a lab-to-fab pathway through Multi-Project Wafers (MPW) and standardized quantum Process Design Kits (PDKs), lowering entry barriers for startups and SMEs working on semiconductor-based quantum technologies and supporting the development of European expertise.
“Scaling qubits requires an extremely controllable environment and solid manufacturing processing, in view of the extreme sensitivity of qubits to environmental noise,” said Kristiaan De Greve, SPINS coordinator. “These challenges require both the accuracy and control that is only present in state of semiconductor cleanroom infrastructure, combined with the research and innovation mentality to adjust such an environment to address these sensitive qubits. At imec, we’ve been creatively addressing complex problems with advanced semiconductor manufacturing for over 40 years. By bundling the expertise of our European consortium partners in this quantum pilot line, we will speed up the development of high-TRL semiconductor qubits and thereby enable larger-scale quantum systems made in Europe.”
Complementary European quantum efforts alongside the semiconductor-based pilot line include photonics for quantum (‘P4Q,’ coordinated by the University of Twente, Netherlands, with imec also contributing), ion-trap qubits (‘CHAMP-ION,’ coordinated by Silicon Austria Labs, Austria), superconducting qubits (‘SUPREME,’ coordinated by VTT, Finland), diamond-based quantum chips (‘DIREQT,’ coordinated by the National Research Council of Italy), and neutral atom systems (‘Q PLANET,’ coordinated by Pasqal, France).
More from HPCwire
About imec
Imec is a world-leading research and innovation hub in advanced semiconductor technologies. Leveraging its state-of-the-art R&D infrastructure and the expertise of over 6,500 employees, imec drives innovation in semiconductor and system scaling, artificial intelligence, silicon photonics, connectivity, and sensing.
Imec’s advanced research powers breakthroughs across a wide range of industries, including computing, health, automotive, industry, consumer electronics, aerospace and security. Through IC-Link, imec guides companies through every step of the chip journey – from initial concept to full-scale manufacturing – delivering customized solutions tailored to meet the most advanced design and production needs.
Imec collaborates with global leaders across the semiconductor value chain, as well as with technology companies, start-ups, academia, and research institutions in Flanders and worldwide. Headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, imec has research facilities in Belgium, across Europe, the USA and the GCC region, and representation on three continents. In 2024, imec reported revenues of €1.034 billion.
Source: imec
The post SPINS Launches €50M EU Pilot Line for Semiconductor Spin Qubit Development appeared first on HPCwire.
U.S. and Iraqi officials say they believe freelancer Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped last week by Kataib Hezbollah, a paramilitary group with links to Iran.
Neither Josh Hartnett nor Ewan McGregor was there, but the way the mainstream media is telling it, they might as well have been. The Sunday morning rescue of a U.S. airman shot down over Iran launched a thousand breathless tick-tock retellings from the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, CBS News, and many, many more — helpful water-carrying for an administration prosecuting a deeply unpopular war without a clear end in sight.
“The rescue had unfolded with near‑perfect precision. Under cover of darkness, U.S. commandos slipped deep into Iran, undetected, scaled a 7,000‑foot ridge and pulled a stranded American weapons specialist to safety, moving him toward a secret rendezvous point before dawn on Sunday,” Reuters’ report on the rescue opens. “Then everything stopped.”
The operation was a “harrowing race against time,” according to the Times. As Politico put it, citing an anonymous senior administration official, it was “the ultimate ‘needle in a haystack’” mission, made possible by a CIA “deception campaign” in the country disseminating the misinformation that the airman had already been located and was being extracted by ground to confuse the Iranians’ search.
The White House frequently hosts widely attended “background briefing” calls for large groups of reporters. Maybe that’s how Axios chimed in with the same evocative “needle in a haystack” line, which it also attributed to a senior administration official.
“This was the ultimate needle in a haystack but in this case it was a brave American soul inside a mountain crevice, invisible but for CIA’s capabilities,” the unnamed source told Axios.
CBS News called locating and extracting the service member, who was aboard a craft known by the call sign “Dude 44,” “a herculean U.S. government effort.” Even The Associated Press characterized the mission as “a daring rescue,” and multiple publications reported that when the airman was able, they radioed the line “God is good” just ahead of Easter Sunday — a plot point that would make even devotees of the show “24” groan.
As government sources are telling the tale to eager reporters at national publications, the F-15E Strike Eagle was the first jet shot down Friday over enemy territory in this war on Iran. After coming under Iranian fire, the two-man crew ejected themselves, and the aircraft’s weapons systems officer was separated from the pilot, who was “quickly” rescued, according to the Journal.
While the initially missing service member’s identity has not been revealed, Trump said he is a colonel who was injured but managed to hide out in a mountain crevice to await rescue. Two Black Hawk helicopters involved in the search were also hit by incoming fire; in another incident, an A-10 Warthog was hit and crashed in a neighboring allied country, where the pilot was rescued.
“A lot of great things happened.”
“When airmen go down, you can’t get them in very tough countries, like in Vietnam,” Trump told the Journal, in a revealing comparison.
“He was able to climb, climb up as wounded as he was, he was able to climb up into a crevice,” Trump went on. “A lot of great things happened.”
To say it would be naive to take the Trump administration at face value is an understatement. Yet the complete lack of any skepticism of this Hollywood story from mainstream news would make even Breitbart writers blush.
Even the timing of the premiere was perfect for the Trump administration, which is acutely aware of how unpopular this war is at home. Is America winning this war? Don’t worry about that, check out this action sequence.
One of the ironies of all this is that it exposes exactly why the Trump administration can’t be trusted. Just two days before the fighter jet was shot down, Trump was blustering about how U.S. strikes had left Iran with “no anti-aircraft” capabilities. The daring rescue, however, is predicated on the very clear fact that Iran absolutely still has the ability to shoot down American planes.
The U.S. can certainly bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age” — a line both Trump and Hegseth deployed — but all that hellfire rained down on civilian targets won’t yield the political dividends they so desperately desire.
It’s all eerily reminiscent of the way the media covered the lead-up to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when papers of record like the Times and The Atlantic and respected broadcast outlets like “Meet the Press” were more than happy to launder the Bush administration’s quarter-baked intelligence to make the case for war to the American public.
Even voices from the emergent, supposedly left-wing media — like the wonks making their name through a new format called “blogs” — were overjoyed to fall in line with the war effort. After all, the logic seemed to go, how could you be taken seriously if you were reflexively anti-war — the province of far-left nuts who are cast into the political wilderness? It was far safer and, in the long term, professionally beneficial to sell out any principles you had to enlist as junior partners in the pro-war coalition.
Even if, in this moment, the media is vaguely more skeptical of the war with Iran, national reporters simply couldn’t resist retelling the story of a Great American Rescue Mission, consequences, or the broader truth, be damned. Americans’ memories, especially for failing wars, are short.
As the fog clears and a fuller picture emerges, maybe we’ll see whether it shakes out the same way these serial liars sold it to huge swaths of the media.
The post The Media Just Can’t Help Turning Iran Fighter Jet Rescue Into “Black Hawk Down” appeared first on The Intercept.
AI experts say we’re living in an experiment that may fundamentally change the model of work
Hundreds of thousands of tech workers are facing a harsh reality. Their well-paying jobs are no longer safe. Now that artificial intelligence (AI) is here, their futures don’t look as bright as they did a decade ago.
As US tech companies have ramped up investments in AI, they have slashed a staggering number of jobs. Microsoft cut 15,000 workers last year. Amazon laid off 30,000 employees in the last six months. The financial-services company Block eliminated more than 4,000 people, or 40% of its workforce, in February. Meta laid off more than 1,000 in the last six months, and, according to a Reuters report, may cut 20% of all employees in the near future. Just this week, the software giant Oracle laid off thousands of workers. Smaller players like Pinterest and Atlassian also made recent cuts, culling about 15% and 10% of their workforces, respectively. Estimates put the total number of tech layoffs in the past year at more than 165,000, according to the tracker Layoffs.fyi.
Continue reading...A Newark man was killed and another was critically injured in a crash south of the city on April 1.
As a cybersecurity reporter at ProPublica, much of my work over the past two years has focused on how the federal government and its IT contractors, like Microsoft, have navigated major technological transitions. The one now in the news every day is artificial intelligence.
This emerging technology has its grip on everyone: Home users, corporations and the federal government are all rushing to use it. President Donald Trump and his Cabinet say AI will transform the nation, making us more prosperous, efficient and secure — if only we can adopt it fast enough.
But this messaging isn’t new. President Barack Obama’s administration used nearly identical language a decade and a half ago as the U.S. barreled into the technological revolution of cloud computing.
I’ve studied how the federal government has handled — and mishandled — this transition over the past two decades, and my reporting offers some cautionary tales and valuable lessons as policymakers encourage the use of AI and federal agencies adopt the technology.
Then: In the early 2020s, a series of cyberattacks linked to Russia, China and Iran left the federal government reeling. The Biden administration called on major tech companies to help the U.S. bolster its defenses. In response, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pledged to give the government $150 million in technical services to help upgrade its digital security. It also offered a “free” security upgrade for government customers.
Now: Last year, the Trump administration announced a raft of agreements with tech companies that were meant to help federal agencies “purchase enterprise AI tools at government-friendly pricing.” Agencies could use OpenAI’s ChatGPT for $1. Google’s Gemini for 47 cents. Grok by xAI for 42 cents. The administration hoped that the low-cost pricing would make it “easier for federal teams to acquire powerful AI capabilities … to enhance mission delivery and operational efficiency.”
The takeaway: Be wary of freebies. Our investigation into Microsoft’s seemingly straightforward commitment revealed a more complex, profit-driven agenda. After installing the upgrades, federal customers would be effectively locked in, because shifting to a competitor after the free trial would be cumbersome and costly. At that point, the customer would have little choice but to pay for the higher subscription fees. The plan worked: One former Microsoft salesperson told me “it was successful beyond what any of us could have imagined.” In response to questions about the commitment, Microsoft has said its “sole goal during this period was to support an urgent request by the Administration to enhance the security posture of federal agencies who were continuously being targeted by sophisticated nation-state threat actors.”
Agencies looking to buy AI tools at discounted rates today must consider how the costs might balloon down the road. The General Services Administration warns that AI “usage costs can grow quickly without proper monitoring and management controls” and advises agencies to “set usage limits and regularly review consumption reports.”
Then: In the Obama era, the federal government shifted its sensitive information and computing needs to data centers owned and operated by private companies. Acknowledging the potential risks, the administration created the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP, in 2011 to help ensure the security of the cloud computing services that it was encouraging U.S. agencies to use.
But in my recent investigation of the program, I found it was no match for Microsoft, which effectively wore down the FedRAMP team over five years as the company sought the program’s seal of approval for a major cloud offering known as GCC High. Despite serious reservations about its cybersecurity, FedRAMP ultimately authorized the product, in part because it lacked the resources to keep going. In response to questions, Microsoft told me: “We stand by our products and the comprehensive steps we’ve taken to ensure all FedRAMP-authorized products meet the security and compliance requirements necessary.”
Now: Today, this tiny outpost within the General Services Administration has even fewer resources to oversee the cloud technology on which the government relies — including AI. FedRAMP says it now operates “with an absolute minimum of support staff” and “limited customer service.” The program was an early target of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The takeaway: FedRAMP, which a 2024 White House memo said “must be an expert program that can analyze and validate the security claims” of cloud providers, is now little more than a rubber stamp for the tech industry, former employees told me. As federal agencies adopt AI tools that draw upon reams of sensitive information, the implications of this downsizing for federal cybersecurity are far-reaching. A GSA spokesperson defended the program and said FedRAMP now “operates with strengthened oversight and accountability mechanisms.”
Then: The government has long relied on so-called third-party assessors to verify the security claims made by cloud service providers like Microsoft and Google. In theory, these firms are supposed to be independent experts that offer a recommendation to FedRAMP on whether a product meets federal standards. But in practice, their independence has an asterisk: They are paid by the companies they are evaluating.
My recent investigation found that this setup creates an inherent conflict of interest. In the case of Microsoft’s GCC High, two assessors recommended the product despite being unable to fully vet it, according to a former FedRAMP reviewer. One of those firms did not respond to my questions and the other denied this account.
FedRAMP, we found, is well aware of how the financial arrangement between the cloud companies and their assessors can distort official findings about cybersecurity problems. The program even created a “back channel” to encourage assessors to share concerns they might not otherwise raise in their official reports for fear of angering their tech clients and losing business.
Now: With FedRAMP reduced to being a “paper pusher,” as one former GSA official put it, these third-party assessment firms have taken on even more importance in the vetting process. In response to questions from ProPublica, the GSA said that FedRAMP’s system “does not create an inherent conflict of interest for professional auditors who meet ethical and contractual performance expectations.” It did not respond to questions about the program’s back channel.
The takeaway: The pendulum has essentially swung back to the pre-FedRAMP era, when each federal agency was individually responsible for vetting the products it used. The GSA told me that FedRAMP’s job is “to ensure agencies have sufficient information to make these risk decisions.” The problem is that agencies often lack the staff and resources to do thorough reviews, which means the whole system is leaning on the claims of the cloud companies and the assessments of the third-party firms they pay to evaluate them.
The post The Federal Government Is Rushing Toward AI. Our Reporting Offers Three Cautionary Tales. appeared first on ProPublica.
A demolition crew is clearing the way for a new Wawa to open on Elkton Road.
State transportation officials are studying two alternatives for redesigning Glasgow Avenue, including one that would bring a “Main Street” feel to a portion of the road near Peoples Plaza.
A senior living facility on Barksdale Road officially has a new name.
Three members of the same family are behind bars, charged with assaulting and robbing someone in the Sparrow Run neighborhood in Bear.
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