News Reel

President Trump is scheduled to hold a news conference Monday afternoon following the successful rescue of a U.S. airman from inside Iran.

An American woman disappeared in the Bahamas on Saturday, after her husband said she fell from their dinghy and was swept out to sea.

Halter, a New Zealand agtech startup now valued at $2 billion, has raised $220 million to expand its AI-powered cattle management system. "Halter is now valued at $2 billion following the Series E, which was led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund with participation from Blackbird, DCVC, Bond, Bessemer, and several others," reports Inc. From the report: alter plans to use the funding to expand its existing footprint in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand, as well as to grow into new markets such as Ireland, the U.K., and parts of North and South America. The round is one of the biggest to-date in the industry, and comes amid growing adoption of the technology among U.S. ranchers. According to Halter, U.S. ranchers have erected some 60,000 miles of virtual fencing since the company's launch in 2024. Halter's technology works through a system of solar-powered collars and in-pasture towers that collect data -- some 6,000 data points per collar per minute -- from grazing cattle and feed it into a cloud-based platform and app for farmers. The collars are ergonomically designed to be comfortable for the cattle wearing them, and leverage AI to play audio cues or vibrate when it is time to move to a different grazing location or if they step outside of a predetermined zone. The collars can also deliver an electric pulse if an animal does not respond. Halter's app also creates a digital twin of a ranch, which essentially means a digital replica that leverages real-time data to accurately reflect conditions. Farmers can consult the app to check on their herd, or fence, and move cattle with just a few clicks. Halter also has a proprietary algorithm that it calls a "Cowgorithm" trained on seven billion hours of animal behavior. Altogether, this technology is meant to make ranchers' lives easier when herding cattle, help them save money on building physical fencing, and provide insights about pasture management to improve soil health and pasture productivity. Halter says some 2,000 farmers and ranchers currently use its tech worldwide.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Large explosions heard at South Pars gas field as US and Iran both receive new proposals for a potential 45-day ceasefire

• Trump warns Iran to reopen strait of Hormuz by Tuesday or face ‘hell’

• ‘Unhinged madman’: US politicians react to Trump Iran threat

A Japanese shipping firm said on Monday that an Indian-flagged tanker owned by its subsidiary had passed through the strait of Hormuz and was en route to India.

A spokeswoman for Mitsui O.S.K. Lines told AFP that the Green Asha – a liquefied petroleum gas tanker – had crossed the waterway.

Pakistan stands in solidarity with the brotherly people of the UAE and reiterates the urgent need for restraint and de-escalation in the region.

House speaker Mike Johnson face pushback from hardline Republicans, who view the Senate funding bill as a concession to Democrats’ demands

• Sign up for Breaking News US email alerts

The president said that military action is ultimately helping the people of Iran because “they want to hear bombs because they want to be free”, in response to a question from PBS News’ Liz Landers.

Trump added that the only reason that Iranians aren’t in the street protesting is because “they will be shot immediately” by the regime, as opposed to the ongoing strikes by the US and Israel across the country.

Nasa’s Orion capsule will be just over 4,000 miles above lunar surface, allowing astronauts to see both poles

The four astronauts on Nasa’s Artemis II mission are poised to begin the first flyby of the far side of the moon in more than half a century, bringing them to the furthest point from Earth ever reached by humans.

The crew of three Americans and one Canadian earlier entered the moon’s “sphere of influence”, where its gravity has a stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth’s.

Minister adds to growing calls from charities and politicians as some urge government to bar rapper from UK over antisemitism

The education secretary has said Kanye West should be barred from performing at Wireless festival because of his “completely unacceptable and absolutely disgusting” antisemitic remarks.

Bridget Phillipson said she could not comment on whether ministers should heed calls to ban West from entering the country, but added that there was “no place for that kind of hatred, bigotry or antisemitism”.

Artemis II astronauts are expected to make history Monday when they travel farther from Earth than any humans in history and conduct a moon flyby.

The U.S. sent over 150 aircraft to beat Iranian forces in the race to find the missing F-15E weapons systems officer.

The retailer has been criticised over treatment of Walker Smith, 54, who worked in London store for 17 years

Waitrose is under growing pressure to reinstate an employee of 17 years who was sacked after tackling a shoplifter who was trying to steal Lindt Gold Bunny Easter eggs.

The retailer has been criticised for its treatment of Walker Smith, who described his devastation after managers fired him two days after he stopped the shoplifter taking items from the display of Easter eggs.

JP Morgan boss warns of risks of higher inflation and interest rates due to Iran war in annual letter to shareholders

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The head of the US’s largest bank has pressed the White House to strengthen Washington’s allies economically in order to “avoid truly adverse consequences”, in the latest intervention in an increasingly testy relationship with the Trump administration.

As the Middle East conflict sparked by US and Israeli attacks on Iran enters its sixth week, Jamie Dimon, the chair and chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, said in his annual letter to shareholders that good US foreign policy should put America first “though not alone”.

Lenders are watching home prices and household debt closely. Here's how HELOC requirements could change this year.

US supreme court files brief order vacating lower court ruling that had upheld rightwing media host’s conviction

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

Steve Bannon, the rightwing media host and ally of Donald Trump, appears likely to have his criminal conviction dismissed.

The US supreme court filed a brief order on Monday that vacated a lower court ruling that had upheld Bannon’s conviction and sent the case back to the US court of appeals for the DC circuit for “further consideration in light of the pending motion to dismiss the indictment”. The Trump administration had moved to dismiss Bannon’s conviction.

Exclusive: Seven of England’s 24 stroke centres still not providing mechanical thrombectomy 24/7 despite ministers’ pledges

The NHS has not made a “life-changing” treatment for stroke available around the clock across England despite ministers repeatedly promising that it would.

The health service was expected to improve stroke care by making a clot removal technique called mechanical thrombectomy available everywhere in the country 24/7 from 1 April.

The cycle of mythic, rare Paradigm cards lets you repeat the spell for free on each of your turns.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: AI skeptics aren't the only ones warning users not to unthinkingly trust models' outputs -- that's what the AI companies say themselves in their terms of service. Take Microsoft, which is currently focused on getting corporate customers to pay for Copilot. But it's also been getting dinged on social media over Copilot's terms of use, which appear to have been last updated on October 24, 2025. "Copilot is for entertainment purposes only," the company warned. "It can make mistakes, and it may not work as intended. Don't rely on Copilot for important advice. Use Copilot at your own risk." Microsoft described the terms of service as "legacy language," saying it will be updated. Tom's Hardware notes that similar AI warnings remain common across the industry, with companies like OpenAI and xAI also cautioning users not to treat chatbot output as "the truth" or as "a sole service of truth or factual information."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Girl suffered alleged abuse at foster home immigration officials placed her at after separating her from mother

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

For five months, the young father waited for his three-year-old daughter’s release from federal custody after she crossed the US-Mexico border with her mother, hoping through delays for their safe reunion.

Only when he turned to the courts as a last resort did he learn that the girl had suffered alleged sexual abuse at the foster home where she had been placed after immigration officials separated her from her mother.

It may be the year of the AI agent but Claude's "all-you-can-eat buffet" is over.

Roberto Mazzarella, head of the Mazzarella clan of the Camorra, the Naples-based organized crime group, was one of Italy's most dangerous fugitives, authorities said.

Gold could be a good investment right now, but what should you expect if you invest $25,000 in gold today?

South-east England could reach 24C as settled weather replaces rain and 70mph winds which battered the north

Parts of the UK are forecast to experience the warmest temperatures of the year so far in the wake of Storm Dave, which caused widespread damage and disruption over the Easter weekend.

London and south-east England could reach temperatures of 21C or 22C on Tuesday, rising to 24C on Wednesday, while Manchester could hit 20C, forecasters said, as a short period of settled weather replaced the rain and 70mph winds that battered parts of northern England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Move to back the Republican candidate could dash party’s hopes of locking Democrats out of the November runoff

Donald Trump has endorsed Republican former Fox News host Steve Hilton in the California governor’s race, a move that could dash Republican hopes of locking Democrats out of the November runoff.

Trump announced his backing on Monday on Truth Social, writing that Hilton “has my COMPLETE & TOTAL ENDORSEMENT” and pledging federal support for his candidacy. “Steve can turn it around, before it is too late, and, as President, I will help him to do so,” he wrote.

The freezer is either your groceries' best chance or their final destination. Here's how to tell the difference.

Mediators want both sides to agree to suspend hostilities but Tehran says peace talks ‘incompatible with threats’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Proposals for an immediate ceasefire have been circulated to Washington and Tehran in an attempt to halt the five-week-old war and stave off an extraordinary threat issued by Donald Trump to bomb Iran’s power plants.

Mediators from Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey want both sides to agree to suspend hostilities and reopen the strait of Hormuz, to be followed by a period of detailed negotiations intended to reach a more complete peace agreement.

The Artemis II crew is in the lunar sphere of influence. Here's everything you need to know about the sixth day of the historic mission.

Mortgage rates are shifting in today's borrowing landscape. Here's what buyers and refinancers need to know now.

From September, trans girls, and young trans women who volunteer, will have to hand in their UK memberships

Angela has two daughters, aged 13 and 10, who both attend their local Girlguiding group in the UK. Like many girls their age, they enthusiastically collect their badges, make new friends and attend the organisation’s large summer jamboree every year.

But as of September, Angela’s youngest daughter will have to leave Girlguiding because she is transgender.

Some candidates are making public health a central part of their midterm campaigns amid Trump’s war on science

As public health has become increasingly politicized in the US, with a particularly chaotic year under the Trump administration, some political candidates are pushing back by making public health a central part of their campaigns – and the grassroots organization Defend Public Health has ideas about how to do it.

On Monday, the group launched guiding principles for campaigns to prioritize public health, called the People’s Health Platform, highlighting the importance of ensuring healthcare for all, protecting and expanding sexual, reproductive, and gender-affirming healthcare, preparing for the climate crisis and the next pandemic, and taxing billionaires, among other tenets.

Fake image of crew member surrounded by smiling military members has been reshared more than 21,000 times on X

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

Republican politicians were hoaxed over the weekend by an image purporting to be a downed US warplane crew member rescued by military special forces in Iran on Saturday, igniting a call for a national “crash course in media literacy”.

Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general and a US Senate candidate, and Mike Lawler, a New York representative, were all caught out for “liking” a fake picture of the airman, who has not been publicly identified.

The Supreme Court issued an order that paves the way for Steve Bannon to have his contempt of Congress conviction dismissed.

US congressman decried bets on when two crew members on the F-15 jet shot down by Iranian forces would be rescued

After strong criticism from a federal lawmaker, the online betting platform Polymarket stopped accepting wagers on when US warplane crew members who were shot down in Iran might be rescued. It promised to investigate how the market materialized.

The criticism came from Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democratic representative who earned two bronze star medals serving with the United States marine corps in Iraq from 2003 to 2008 and published an X post describing Polymarket’s acceptance of bets on the downed pilots’ fate as “DISGUSTING”.

• Gnomes have become collectors’ items since 2016 debut

• 2026 edition retailing at $49.50 inside Augusta National

Everyone says goodbye to the Masters eventually. Sandy Lyle, Ben Crenshaw, Ian Woosnam and Bernhard Langer used recent years to wave goodbye. Will 2026 be the end for a renowned Augusta National element of more recent times … the Masters gnome?

Speculation is rising that this Masters will be the final time gnomes will be on sale inside Augusta’s merchandise outlets. On face value, this hardly feels dramatic. The quirk, though, is that the household essential for any golf lover has become a victim of its own success. Augusta National has offered no comment when approached on the gnome’s future but the race feels on to collect the final batches of stock before the 14-inch ceramic doll is consigned to Masters history.

The rescue of a crewman averted a potentially disastrous POW situation, but Trump’s threats showed frustration amid a dangerous and politically unpopular war.

Tougher ethical certification process requires companies to meet standards in every one out of seven categories

Dozens of companies may be at risk of losing their coveted B Corp ethical status after the organisation behind the corporate kite-marking system raised the standards required to qualify.

B Lab, which oversees B Corp certification, launched the biggest overhaul in its 19-year history earlier this month, scrapping a system under which companies must gather enough points across multiple categories to qualify.

The initiative, supported by the Simons Foundation, will accelerate breakthroughs at the intersection of artificial intelligence and astrophysics

April 6, 2026 — Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how scientists explore the universe — turning massive amounts of data into discoveries that were once out of reach. At Carnegie Mellon University, a new initiative will bring together experts in AI, statistics and astrophysics to accelerate that shift.

Barnabás Póczos and Tiziana Di Matteo. Credit: CMU.

Supported by the Simons Foundation, the Keystone Astronomy & AI (KAAI) Visiting Fellows Program will accelerate the use of AI in cosmological and astronomical research through an international, mentored postdoctoral initiative.

KAAI Fellows will participate in a monthlong residency at the McWilliams Center for Cosmology & Astrophysics, where each visiting fellow is paired with two mentors — one in astrophysics and one in AI or statistics — to tackle high-impact problems at the intersection of astronomy and machine learning. Each residency culminates in a hands-on workshop that shares software, datasets and workflows with the broader community. The program aims to cultivate a globally connected cohort of researchers fluent in both astrophysics and modern machine learning while accelerating discovery in this data-rich scientific landscape.

The initiative also provides meaningful opportunities for Carnegie Mellon graduate students, who collaborate with visiting fellows, contribute to shared tools and workflows, and gain direct experience while applying AI to frontier problems in astrophysics.

“AI is changing how we do science, and astronomy is where its impact will be felt first and fastest” said Tiziana Di Matteo, director of the McWilliams Center and the primary investigator on this program. “With KAAI Fellows, we’re turning the McWilliams Center’s cross-disciplinary strength into a global training engine — bringing visiting scholars together with our machine-learning and astrophysics teams to develop methods that move the field and the way science is done.”

The McWilliams Center fosters collaboration within Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Physics, the School of Computer Science, the Department of Statistics & Data Science (SDS) and the Software Engineering Institute and among partner institutions including the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh.

A key to the program’s strength is the deep cross-disciplinary collaboration among researchers at the McWilliams Center, the Department of Machine Learning and the SDS and the STAtistical Methods for the Physical Sciences Research Center (STAMPS), whose combined expertise forms the backbone of KAAI’s interdisciplinary model.

McWilliams researchers are developing the data science tools needed to process this immense stream of information into scientific breakthroughs that advance astrophysics and enable new technologies in fields like AI, imaging and data infrastructure on Earth.

The KAAI Fellows program will support six visiting fellows for a month each over the next three years. Applications will be open later this spring.

Visiting fellows will be selected for projects that integrate AI with theoretical and computational astrophysics, particularly in areas such as large-scale simulations, computational modeling and data-intensive analysis. By pairing each fellow with dual Carnegie Mellon mentors, the program fosters deep cross-disciplinary collaboration between domain scientists and AI experts.

Barnabás Póczos, associate professor in Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Machine Learning, will serve as the program’s AI and machine learning director. A member of the McWilliams Center, Póczos collaborates with other faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students on shared code, data and computational tools.

“It is exciting to see how the newly developed machine-learning methods are transforming the way we approach science,” Póczos said. “In astrophysics particularly, these tools are reshaping how we explore vast and complex datasets, enabling us to extract subtle signals, identify rare and interesting events, accelerate scientific simulations and test physical theories at unprecedented scale. By augmenting human intuition with data-driven discovery, machine learning has the potential to dramatically accelerate our understanding of the universe and uncover phenomena that would otherwise remain hidden.”

Carnegie Mellon’s Machine Learning Department shares a long history of close collaboration with the McWilliams Center for Cosmology, combining expertise in machine learning, statistical inference and large-scale computation with deep domain knowledge in astrophysics. These sustained partnerships created impactful, collaborative research at the intersection of machine learning and cosmology, and continue to play a central role in advancing data-driven discovery in the physical sciences.

Fellows will leave the program with demonstrated experience applying trustworthy AI to frontier astrophysics and with durable connections that extend beyond astronomy.

A core component of the fellowship is knowledge dissemination. At the end of each visit, each KAAI Fellow will co-organize a weeklong, hands-on workshop showcasing cutting-edge AI methods for astronomy. These workshops will help accelerate the adoption of new tools across the international research community, ensuring the advanced approaches spread well beyond individual projects or institutions. Designed for maximum impact, they also will cultivate a global network of researchers skilled in applying state-of-the-art techniques to fundamental questions about the universe.

“We’re working to develop a global community of international experts in subfields related to AI and astronomy,” Di Matteo said. “Supported by Simons, the workshops will bring together experts from machine learning and astronomy to drive the field forward.”

Source: Heidi Opdyke, Carnegie Mellon University

The post Carnegie Mellon Launches New Effort to Advance AI-Driven Astronomy appeared first on HPCwire.

‘Here we go, ready or not, let’s do the news,’ Guthrie said, two months after the disappearance of her mother, Nancy

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie made an emotional return to the NBC morning show on Monday, 64 days after her mother, Nancy, was believed to be abducted from her home in Tucson, Arizona.

“Welcome to Today on this Monday morning. We are so glad you started your week with us, and it’s good to be home,” Guthrie told viewers.

Leaders say automated mowers’ blades threaten nocturnal animals as studies highlight risks to wildlife

German mayors have called for a nationwide ban on night-time use of robot lawnmowers to protect hedgehogs and other small nocturnal animals from being killed or maimed in the dark.

Recent studies have highlighted the threat lawnmower blades pose to wildlife active between dusk and dawn, prompting growing calls for regulation. Hedgehogs also tend to curl into a ball when threatened rather than running away, making them harder for a robot mower’s sensors to detect.

Trump's threat to destroy Iran's power plants and bridges if it doesn't make a deal to end the war by Tuesday is looming over a Pakistani ceasefire push.

The Polar partnership and $150 price tag had me sold. Then I actually lived with it.

After testing the stovetop, oven and air fryer, I discovered that one technique produces much crispier results -- with half the mess.

The president has boasted about cutting prices of drugs, housing, food and gasoline. It’s grossly exaggerated nonsense

In recent months, Donald Trump has made some absurd comments about inflation, saying the affordability crisis is “a hoax” and “I won affordability,” a clumsy, questionable claim meaning that he somehow conquered inflation. Trump recognizes that affordability is a huge issue, and with his war against Iran proving to be a big political loser, he seems eager to score some political points by telling Americans that he’s moving boldly to cut living costs. But as with everything Trump says, people shouldn’t be tricked by his slick salesmanship.

Trump has boasted about cutting prescription drug prices, housing prices, food prices and gasoline prices. All that might be great public relations for Trump, but it’s grossly exaggerated nonsense. Trump’s much-ballyhooed efforts to fight inflation are essentially diddlysquat. Many of them are mini efforts that have had mini effects in reducing prices. They’re as meaningful as a degree from Trump University.

Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues

Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence delves into guilt, grief and anger over a phenomenon largely thought of as distinctly American

Gun violence, particularly the high-profile incidents that take place on school campuses, are often seen as a uniquely American phenomenon, one that exemplifies the nation’s deep history and complicated relationship with guns.

But an opera set around a mass shooting at a Finnish international school 10 years ago approaches this topic through a global lens. Innocence, which opens at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on Monday, is performed in nine different languages including English, Swedish and Spanish, and delves into themes like guilt, grief, anger and how time doesn’t always heal the damage done by violence.

Tennessee leads way but experts say offender registry could provide a false sense of security – and identify victims

When Amanda Martin started dating Christopher Cendroski, whose family described him as “big-hearted”, she had no idea he had been arrested for domestic assault. Had she known, she said she never would have become involved with him.

A few months into their relationship, which began in 2011, Cendroski started beating Martin, and in May 2012, he nearly choked her to death, she said. Police arrested Cendroski and helped both Martin and her children get to a shelter.

Antivirus software is only one part of protecting our phones and laptops. You'll need a combination of tools to improve your online security and privacy.

Not everyone needs a big unlimited data plan that locks you into a long-term contract. We pick our favorite prepaid plans.

Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old whose detention by ICE sparked global outrage, constantly worries about being detained again, his parents told CBS News in an exclusive interview.

"It's finally time," writes Phoronix — since "no known Linux distribution vendors are still shipping with i486 CPU support." "A patch queued into one of the development branches ahead of the upcoming Linux 7.1 merge window is set to finally begin the process of phasing out and ultimately removing Intel 486 CPU support from the Linux kernel." More details from XDA-Developers: Authored by Ingo Molnar, the change, titled "x86/cpu: Remove M486/M486SX/ELAN support," begins dismantling Linux's built-in support for the i486, which was first released back in 1989. As the changelog notes, even Linus is keen to cut ties with the architecture: "In the x86 architecture we have various complicated hardware emulation facilities on x86-32 to support ancient 32-bit CPUs that very very few people are using with modern kernels. This compatibility glue is sometimes even causing problems that people spend time to resolve, which time could be spent on other things. As Linus recently remarked: 'I really get the feeling that it's time to leave i486 support behind. There's zero real reason for anybody to waste one second of development effort on this kind of issue'..." If you're one of the rare few who still keep the decades-old CPU alive, your best bet will be to grab an LTS Linux distro that keeps the older version of Linux for a few more years.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Anutin Charnvirakul encourages measures such as home working and carpooling as country is reliant on oil imports

Thailand’s prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, has called on the public to conserve energy, urging work-from-home measures and carpooling, as he warned of the impact of the conflict in the Middle East.

In a statement posted on social media, Anutin said Thailand was exposed to the crisis because of its reliance on imported oil and gas, and the country could not be complacent.

Royer Perez Jimenez was a "hard worker" who immigrated at 15 to "triumph and help his family," his uncle said.

Switching to the latest AT&T Unlimited 2.0 tiers could lower your monthly bill as older plans face price hikes.

Paramount Skydance CEO has repeatedly cited the statistic when laying out the approach that CBS News and potentially CNN would take

During an early March appearance on CNBC, the Paramount Skydance chief executive, David Ellison, cited a statistic he has come to rely on when laying out his editorial approach for CBS News and, potentially, the cable network he has made a deal to own, CNN. The young media mogul said the networks will prioritize reaching “the 70% of Americans and really around the world that identify as center-left, as center-right”.

The idea of an unaddressed center ground is a powerful talking point. In a world of increasingly partisan politics, Ellison’s promise to address the unheard, silent majority packs a punch – and fits nicely with the approach of one of his most high-profile lieutenants, the heterodox commentator Bari Weiss.

As Americans struggle amid the threat of higher inflation, Lockheed Martin, Shell and other companies are experiencing gains

Two weeks into the US-Israel war with Iran, the White House was fielding heavy criticism that the conflict would drive up gas prices and frustrate voters. Donald Trump turned to Truth Social to appease Americans about gas prices, which were slowly climbing toward $4 a gallon.

“The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” he wrote.

In the era of VAR where most goals get picked apart, strikes from distance offered a much-needed immediate emotional hit

In an era where the sport’s biggest moments are scrutinized in slow-motion to find an inch of infraction, the long-range goal has become a necessary thrill. VAR only comes into play if a loitering teammate is caught between the shooter and goalkeeper. They also hatch a comfortingly familiar point of debate: was there anything that could’ve been done to save it?

We can safely count Zavier Gozo’s wonder goal this weekend among the unsaveable. The Real Salt Lake homegrown has been one of the best players in Major League Soccer’s early weeks, a 19-year-old danger down the right flank who can slot in as a winger or wing back with similar impact. He’s quickly become one of the most proven progressive dribblers in the entire US player pool, and has shot up the scouting priority queues of several major European clubs.

Impact of rulings by these judges has been sizable, slowing or halting some of the president’s most extreme policies

District court judges nationwide have been increasingly issuing strong rulings challenging the legality of many of Donald Trump’s policies and executive power grabs, blocking key ones at least temporarily, and sparking angry responses from the president, former judges and prosecutors say.

Since the start of Trump’s second term, lower court federal judges have written sharply critical opinions about his legally dubious policies on immigration, tariffs, Department of Justice (DoJ) prosecutions of political foes and more.

Some cities are cutting ties with firm that provides license plate reader cameras, others are signing new contracts and many are still looking for their footing

In recent city council meetings in Dunwoody, Georgia, a spokesman for Flock Safety, a Georgia-based firm that provides automated license plate readers, has found himself in the hot seat again.

For two months running, some residents of the affluent north Atlanta suburb in the region’s tech corridor have been demanding an end to the city’s contract with the security firm, which has drawn similar protest from California to New York.

New legislation comes amid push from big oil, as critics warn polluters’ profits prioritized over Americans’ health

Utah has made it nearly impossible for residents to hold fossil fuel companies legally accountable for climate damages in a move one advocacy group described as putting “profits for the biggest polluters over communities”, with other states expected to follow suit.

The new state legislation comes as part of a push from big oil and its political allies – including groups tied to rightwing impresario Leonard Leo – for legal immunity in red statehouses and Congress, with a goal of winning state and federal legal immunity similar to the liability waiver granted to the firearms industry in 2005.

I used the Oura Ring and a popular baby monitor to collect our scores over the course of two weeks.

Chuck Schumer accuses president of ‘ranting like an unhinged madman’ in threat to obliterate Iran’s power plants and bridges. Plus, Audrey Hepburn’s son Sean on her movies, marriages, good works and fascist parents

• Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up here

Good morning.

Donald Trump has faced sharp criticism after threatening to wipe out Iran’s power plants and bridges in an expletive-riddled social media post yesterday.

How has Iran reacted? Iran’s parliament speaker responded with a warning that the US president’s “reckless moves” would mean “our whole region is going to burn”.

This is a developing story. Follow the liveblog here.

What will they see? During the flyby, which will last about six hours, the crew will have to observe the celestial body with their naked eyes, along with cameras they have onboard. The journey promises views of the moon’s far side that were too dark or too difficult to see by the 24 Apollo astronauts who preceded them.

Senior US officials consider the PM’s pitch to have been overblown, creating potentially far-reaching consequences for Israel

• Middle East crisis – live updates

When Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on 29 December last year, the Israeli prime minister came with an appeal – and a not so subtle inducement.

After months of restocking air defence and other missiles after June’s 12-day conflict in which the US joined in to bomb Tehran’s nuclear facilities, Israel was ready to go again, this time with more substantial objectives.

Three orcas that had not previously been recorded in the Seattle area have delighted whale watchers with several visits.

Residents of Khasab, a sleepy exclave that depends on fishing and tourism, are frustrated by the war in Iran and fearful of what’s next.

Companies using heating oil have already begun rationing their fuel use, says Federation of Small Businesses

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Thousands of independent businesses across the UK are braced for their energy bills to more than double owing to the sharp rise in heating oil costs as the war in Iran pushed Europe’s fuel market prices to fresh record highs.

About 7% of all small and medium-sized companies warm their properties and provide hot water using heating oil, which in some cases has more than doubled in recent weeks.

Louisiana v Callais could be the latest brick in a wall under construction for more than a decade, as Jim Crow is rebuilt in modern form

There are moments in American history when the stakes are unmistakable. This is one of them.

The forthcoming decision in Louisiana v Callais will not just be another supreme court ruling in a long line of voting cases. This time the issue is whether the Voting Rights Act (VRA) can still require states to draw electoral maps that give Black voters a meaningful chance to elect representatives.

Heated discourse over Israel and influencer Hasan Piker has created cracks between progressive and establishment Democratic candidates in key swing state

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

A heated debate over criticism of Israel and the political influencer Hasan Piker’s role on the left has bitterly divided progressive and establishment Democrats in a US Senate race in Michigan, an electorally critical swing state. The ongoing controversy likely marks a preview of things to come as the midterm and 2028 election seasons ramp up, and it is drawing warnings from Arab American leaders in a state where the party’s Israel policy badly damaged Kamala Harris’s campaign.

Mallory McMorrow, a state senator favored by much of the establishment, is locked in a tight three-way race with the progressive Abdul El-Sayed, and Haley Stevens, the US representative who is backed by Aipac. El-Sayed and Piker last week announced plans to rally together. In response, McMorrow, the Anti-Defamation League, the Trump administration, Third Way, Senator Elissa Slotkin and other pro-Israel figures went on the offensive, labeling Piker as antisemitic and seeking to tar El-Sayed over his association with him.

Surely your iPhone means it in a loving way, right?

Prime Video's science fiction options are out of this world.

A dearth of information has been disclosed about the agreements, fueling speculation that the “America First” approach to foreign aid is exploitative.

Military academies and colleges in North Carolina and Indiana will soon accept the Classic Learning Test, embraced by the Trump administration and mainly featuring Western texts.

Why Should Delaware Care?
Wilmington’s city charter requires at least one of the City’s Council four at-large seats to be held by someone from a minority party. In the liberal city, the rule ensures that one member of the City Council will not be a Democrat. After the council’s lone Republican became a Democrat last fall, questions of whether the policy goal has been undone has propelled a debate in recent weeks — one that could have broader political implications.

Months after the sole Republican on the Wilmington City Council abruptly became a Democrat, the issue of party switches on the council is headed to the Delaware legislature.  

On Thursday, the Wilmington City Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution asking the legislature to bar future minority-party members from switching their political affiliation during the middle of a term. 

A day after the vote, Delaware Rep. Josue Ortega (D-Wilmington) said he would sponsor state legislation to allow the city to write the rule change into its founding charter. 

While the proposed change was sparked by Councilman James Spadola’s change of parties last October, it would not impact him because it would not be retroactive. 

Still, his party switch was front and center in a City Council debate Thursday that featured claims he had exploited a loophole in the law when changing political parties. 

You “caused all of this unnecessary noise,” Councilwoman Zanthia Oliver said to Spadola during the meeting. 

Wilmington’s charter prohibits the majority party from nominating more than three candidates for the city’s four at-large council seats. The rule guarantees that at least one at-large council member from a minority political party.

The charter does not explicitly say that council members cannot change their party affiliation while in office. 

For his part, Spadola – who was first elected in 2020 and re-elected in 2024 – said his colleagues were misinterpreting the law. 

He also lashed out at City Council President Ernest “Trippi” Congo, who had previously said in a letter that Spadola could be removed from his elected council seat if he didn’t switch back to Republican. 

Spadola characterized the letter as Congo acting like a king. 

“I say firmly, no kings in [Washington] D.C, but no kings in Wilmington either,” Spadola said, referencing recent protests against President Donald Trump.

Also during Thursday’s meeting, multiple residents spoke during public comment in support of Spadola, and in opposition to the resolution prohibiting mid-term party changes.

One also questioned why Democrats on the council would be upset with another member joining their party. 

“​​Focusing on one person’s political affiliation, especially when they decided to align themselves with good people, is not where I expect my elected officials to spend their time or energy,” one resident, Dwayne Randolph, said.

On Friday, Councilwoman Zanthia Oliver told Spotlight Delaware she believes Spadola switched parties to position himself for a run for a higher political office. 

She similarly claimed that Congo has plans to run for higher office – in his case for mayor, she said. 

When reached for comment about whether he will run for mayor, Congo chuckled, then said, “Oh my goodness. You’re killing me.”

He ultimately did not address the question, but did state that he believes Spadola’s decision to switch parties was “politically motivated.”

Spotlight Delaware also asked Spadola about the claims that his party switch was political. In response, he suggested his colleagues were trying to pick apart his actions, claiming the party switch actually removed any “safe path” to re-election in 2028. 

“We’re two and a half years away. It’s a crazy conversation to have,” Spadola said. 

When asked in October about future political campaigns in an interview with Delaware Public Media, Spadola said “anything I would do in 2028 would be city-focused.”

What do legislators say?

The City Council’s resolution about party switches has already gained some traction in Dover.

Ortega told Spotlight Delaware that he is reviewing the resolution and plans to send it to his policy team for them to begin drafting a bill. He said he hopes to introduce a bill in May. 

He said it is not fair to voters for council members to change their party affiliation midway through a term. 

“If you’re in there as a party, you finish it as that party, and then you can change if you want to after you finish your term,” Ortega said. 

Other Wilmington legislators were not as immediately supportive. 

Rep. Stephanie Bolden (D-Wilmington), said “no comment” when asked whether she would support Ortega’s upcoming bill. She also stated that council members need to figure out a solution on their own. 

State Sen. Dan Cruce (D-Wilmington) told Spotlight Delaware he has not yet decided whether he will support the bill. But he questioned whether the city should even reserve council seats for a member of a minority party, saying his focus in any upcoming debate will be on whether that limits voters’ voices.

“Do we believe that folks, in this case, in the City of Wilmington, does their vote matter?” Cruce asked. “And if it does, then we shouldn’t have a restriction like that in the first place?”

State Sens. Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman (D-Wilmington) and Darius Brown (D-Wilmington) did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Will the dispute go to court?

After switching his party registration from Republican to Democrat in October, Spadola told Spotlight Delaware he had considered making the move for the previous five years. 

He said he finally did so because of his disagreement with several policies associated with President Donald Trump, including tariffs, ICE enforcement, and federal troop deployments into U.S. cities. 

Last fall, the city council’s chief of staff Elijah Simmons said Spadola would be able to finish his term, which ends in 2028. He said the city’s charter contained “no written prohibitions against party affiliation changes while in office.” 

After his party switch, the City Council was relatively quiet about the matter. 

But last month, Congo told Spotlight Delaware that conversations with other council members, city residents, and various attorneys led him to send his letter in February telling Spadola that he had to change his party affiliation back to Republican. 

In response to Congo’s letter, Spadola took to social media to say that council members were trying to remove him from his city office so that they could replace him with an “unelected, handpicked successor.” 

Spadola also hired William Larson, an attorney with the firm MG+M. In a subsequent letter to Congo, Larson asserted that the city’s charter does not prohibit Spadola from changing party affiliation.

“We reserve all rights to seek declaratory judgment, an injunction, and additional relief in the Court of Chancery should you take any further action to vacate Councilmember Spadola’s seat,” Larson said in the Feb. 12 letter. 

On Friday, Congo told Spotlight Delaware that Council still plans to take further steps to clarify whether Spadola’s party change violated Wilmington’s charter, by taking the matter to Delaware’s Chancery Court. 

The post Wilmington clash over Spadola’s party switch heads to Dover appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care? 
The Court of Chancery is a key part of Delaware’s corporate franchise, which provides the state with more than a third of its general fund revenues. The money has been threatened in recent years because of Elon Musk’s calls for business leaders to follow his lead and move their companies out of Delaware, claiming the state is unfair. A new chapter in the fight could add new fuel to those calls.

With claims of bias looming over her, the chief judge of Delaware’s Court of Chancery used a bag of Scrabble tiles to select new judges on Thursday to preside over cases involving Elon Musk — the world’s richest man. 

While the analog method was unusual for the powerful business court, it did leave little doubt that the ultimate selection of Vice Chancellors Nathan Cook and Bonnie David would be insulated from future claims of tampering or bias.

It also followed a decision from the Delaware court last year to begin choosing judges for cases in a random manner.  

The selection occurred during a tense, late-afternoon hearing on Thursday after Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick had summoned the army of attorneys representing Musk and others to her Wilmington courtroom.

There, McCormick revealed her method of arbitrarily choosing new judges to replace her. 

She pulled out a cloth bag containing six scrabble tiles with the letters C, F, L, Z, W and D. The letters represented the first initials of the last names of the Delaware Court of Chancery’s six other judges. 

McCormick then began to explain her process, in which one attorney would inspect the tiles before two others would draw one tile each. 

As the selection was set to begin, McCormick abruptly looked to Rudolf Koch, an attorney from Wilmington’s Richards, Layton and Finger — a firm representing the electric car maker, Tesla, where Musk serves as CEO.

“Mr. Koch, do you view this as funny?” McCormick asked. 

“No,” Koch replied, softly. 

‘Thanks $2 billion’

The admonition came more than a week after Koch and 10 other attorneys placed their names on a motion calling on McCormick to recuse herself from the Delaware litigation that involved Musk.

It also followed years of claims from Musk himself that Delaware’s courts had treated him unfairly. The sentiment was primarily fueled by McCormick’s past rulings that invalidated billion-dollar pay packages from Tesla to Musk.

In response, Musk in 2024 directed his companies to move their legal homes out of Delaware. He also launched a campaign calling on other business leaders to leave the small state.

For years, Musk’s claims of poor treatment in Delaware had little to substantiate them – beyond unfavorable court decisions. That changed last month when McCormick’s LinkedIn account showed a supportive reaction to a post critical of the billionaire.

After a California jury found Musk liable for more than $2 billion in damages for manipulating Twitter’s stock price in 2022, a consultant who had worked on the lawsuit posted a congratulations to his legal team “for standing up for the little guy against the richest man in the world.”

The post also stated, “Sorry Elon. Sorry Quinn Emmanuel. Thanks $2 billion for your help in this trial.” 

The law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan represented Musk in the California case. 

On March 23, McCormick’s LinkedIn account showed that she “supported” the post – a formal designation made by clicking the “like” button, then scrolling to an image of a hand underneath a heart.

When Musk’s attorneys learned of McCormick’s apparent reaction to the post, they filed motions for her to step down from her Delaware cases. 

In response, McCormick was defiant.

In a letter sent March 24 to the attorneys, the judge stated that she didn’t believe she had clicked on the ‘support’ icon. If she had, she “did so accidentally,” she said. 

McCormick then asserted that she did not believe she had accidentally clicked on the support button — leaving an apparent insinuation that her social media account had been compromised.    

McCormick said she reported “the suspicious activity” to LinkedIn. 

“Today, my account was locked when I attempted to log in to check the status of my suspicious-activity report,” McCormick said in the letter.

Over the following days, several news sites reported on the fallout surrounding McCormick’s social media activity, including that Musk’s attorneys had asked the judge to remove herself from three shareholder lawsuits. 

While still defiant, McCormick ultimately granted the motion to reassign the cases to other judges. Ultimately, they were only after one had been voluntarily dismissed.

In her letter granting the motion, McCormick again stated that she is not biased against Musk, noting that she had “dismissed a suit against Mr. Musk just last year.” 

In the letter, she also directed all attorneys who had placed their names on the motion to appear in court “to witness what they requested.”

The post Delaware judge randomly assigns Elon Musk cases using Scrabble tiles appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care?
Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s government has scores of commissions, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.

Spring has sprung in Delaware, and many schools across the state along with the General Assembly are not in session this week. Nevertheless, the gears of Delaware’s government apparatus keep turning. Below are some of the most important or interesting public meetings happening around the state this week.

• State officials to discuss proposed bill to regulate AI company formation
• Newark planning officials to consider smoke shop policy changes
• Kent County Levy Court commissioners to workshop budget proposals

State leaders to review draft AI Company formation rules 

State officials are set to meet on Friday to review draft legislation that would regulate how AI companies are incorporated in Delaware. 

Members of the Delaware Artificial Intelligence Commission’s Subcommittee on the Regulatory Sandbox Agenda will review a draft version of the Artificially Intelligent Company Act, or AIC Act, at noon on Friday. 

The commission, according to its website, is tasked with providing recommendations to lawmakers and other state leaders about “legislative and executive actions” related to AI in Delaware.

The draft legislation outlines policies and procedures that AI companies would follow if they want to incorporate in the state. 

The annual corporate franchise tax these AI companies would be required to pay is not included in the draft legislation. 

It is unclear if and when the full AI Commission will review the draft bill. It also is unclear if any lawmakers plan to introduce the AIC Act this year. 

📍 The Delaware Artificial Intelligence Commission’s subcommittee is scheduled to meet at 12 p.m. Friday at the FinTech Innovation Hub, located at 591 Collaboration Way in Newark. For more details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.

Newark leaders discuss smoke shop regulations

The Newark Planning Commission is set to meet Tuesday night to review changes to the city’s zoning code that would restrict where new smoke shops could be built in the city.

The proposed changes would require, in most cases, new smoke shops to receive approval from city council in order to be built. 

It would also make all current smoke shops considered a “non-transferrable legal nonconforming use.” That means that if a current smoke shop were to be sold to a new owner, that new owner would need to apply for the special city council approval in order to keep operating.

According to a city report, planning department employees recommend these new regulations to “protect the public health, safety, and welfare.”

📍 The Newark Planning Commission is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday inside Council Chambers at the Newark Municipal Building, located at 220 S. Main St. in Newark. For more details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.

Delaware’s budget season continues

Budget season continues across the state this week, with members of the Kent County Levy Court scheduled to host workshops on both Tuesday and Wednesday night to discuss proposed budgets for different county departments. 

Tuesday’s workshop will include discussions about the facilitates and community services departments, as well as the county administrator’s office.

Wednesday’s workshop will feature discussions about the sheriff’s office and the register of wills, along with the information technology, human resources and central administration departments.

📍 Kent County Levy Court is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday inside Caucus Room 230 inside the Kent County Levy Court Building, located at 555 Bay Rd. in Dover. For more details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.

The post Get Involved: AI guidelines, smoke shop regulations, Kent County budgets appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Concerns about coming wildfire risk, and temperatures also remain high on other side of Pacific where rare tropical cyclone has formed

After a historically warm winter across nine states in the US, the first month of meteorological spring again brought exceptionally high temperatures, with numerous states recording new all-time high temperatures in March. The remarkable intensity and longevity of the warmth have left much of the mountain snowpack, a crucial source of water for millions in the American west, at critically low levels.

Though precipitation totals tend to increase in spring, the low snowpack has raised concerns about a potentially severe wildfire season if conditions do not improve soon. And with further spells of abnormally warm, dry weather expected this week, the outlook is becoming increasingly worrying heading into the late spring and summer months.

The Trump administration has shut down the CIA World Factbook, and there's much lamenting about the demise of a free, trusted source many people used to check basic facts about countries.

BFI and National Portrait Gallery to mark centenary of the film star’s birth with ‘the summer of Marilyn’

Though often reduced to a sex symbol frozen in time, or a tragic figure at the centre of several scandals, Marilyn Monroe was something far more subversive, according to two exhibitions that will herald what has been nicknamed “the summer of Marilyn”.

To mark the centenary of her birth, Monroe is being celebrated by leading British cultural institutions as a performer of sharp comic intelligence, a canny architect of her own image, and a woman who reshaped the possibilities for female stardom on screen.

From the key matchups to the bold predictions, our writers assess how Connecticut’s system stacks up against Michigan’s size in Monday night’s championship game

The Huskies must lean on discipline and patience to avoid getting dragged into a high-possession shootout. They have to execute their off-ball actions cleanly, force Michigan to defend across the full shot clock and get efficient production from star center Tarris Reed Jr inside. If they can limit the Wolverines’ second-chance points and drill timely threes, the upset is there for the taking. BAG

JT Batson is hopeful the influx of funds and interest around the home World Cup will have a transformative effect on American soccer

US Soccer chief executive JT Batson has set the men’s and women’s national teams the ambitious target of becoming America’s favorite entities in sports.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Batson added mass popularity for Mauricio Pochettino’s and Emma Hayes’s teams to US Soccer’s goals ahead of this summer’s men’s World Cup, a list that already included making soccer the biggest participation sport in every community in the country.

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.

Lesson 1: There’s no such thing as a free lunch 

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.”

Lesson 2: Oversight programs are only as effective as their resources

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.”

Lesson 3: “Independent” reviews are only so independent  

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.

Read More

Federal Cyber Experts Thought Microsoft’s Cloud Was “a Pile of Shit.” They Approved It Anyway.

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.

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

Goat meat goes down like big shards of glass when the symptoms set in. The local livestock, the main source of available nutrients, becomes nearly impossible to swallow. It feels, the sufferers say, like deep wounds have been sliced into their throats.

In Kargi, a remote desert village in the far north of Kenya, cancers of the digestive tract plague the population at unusually high rates. The disease most often attacks the esophagus, though stomach cancer is also common. Some patients think it’s a punishment from God.

The evidence on the ground suggests it’s more likely from a multinational oil company. In the 1980s, foreign work crews dressed like astronauts descended on the village of Kargi and the surrounding Chalbi Desert to drill for oil. They spent five unsuccessful years boring nearly a dozen wells thousands of feet into the ground. The men were from Amoco, an American oil company now owned by BP.

The crews then drove off their bulldozers, packed up their protective equipment, and vanished. One of the only traces to mark their presence was a dry white substance scattered on the ground, close to the water wells used by residents and their livestock.

An Intercept investigation drawn from on-the-ground interviews with dozens of Kargi residents, government and corporate reports spanning decades, court filings, and public hearings traces Amoco’s failure to clean up its waste to the ongoing pollution of Kargi. The substance the company left behind contained heavy metals and known carcinogens, but because of a lack of testing and thorough scientific study, it isn’t clear if the waste directly caused cancer in the community.

What is clear is that residents ate it.

Kargi has one of the highest poverty and malnutrition rates in Kenya, and when locals discovered the flaky substance around the wells, many believed it was natural salt and started using it to cook their food.

The water was contaminated. High levels of carcinogenic toxic chemicals, namely nitrates, had seeped into surrounding boreholes and wells — the only water supply in the desert. Animals began dying in the thousands. And people started getting cancer.

By the early 2000s, the cancer rate in the community was three times the national average. The area’s state representative asked the government to investigate the correlation between the disease plaguing his constituents and the drilling waste that had been left behind.

Now, across the manyattas — communities of traditional homes constructed from sticks and patchworks of old clothing — in Kargi and surrounding villages, everybody claims to know someone afflicted by the disease. The “salt” still remains scattered where Amoco, now part of British Petroleum, once searched for oil.

What’s clear now, from court records and environmental tests, is that the white clayey substance collected adjacent to Amoco’s wells was a tool the company used to help drill for oil, that it contained a variety of heavy metals, and that the wells were not properly sealed.

The pollution and disease inspired the first-ever lawsuit filed on the basis of Kenya’s constitutional right to a safe and healthy environment in 2020, when residents of Kargi and other communities in the Chalbi Desert sued the Kenyan national and county governments. They demanded a supply of clean water for people and animals, and they blamed Kenya for failing to police Amoco’s damage to the environment. Six years later, it’s still crawling through the court system.

The Amoco case was the start of a pattern of identifying environmental destruction across the East African country. In the last few years, similar cases have been popping up nationwide, accusing the local and national governments of failing to clean up the waste that other multinational oil companies have left behind, subjecting residents to drink contaminated water. 

A lack of adequate testing and general neglect of Kargi and its surrounding areas makes it difficult to directly correlate cancer to the waste Amoco left behind. But high levels of carcinogenic toxins, including nitrates and arsenic — both commonly used in drilling wells — have been found in the area’s drinking water over the years, in sporadic tests conducted by the Kenyan government and nonprofit organizations.

No official cleanup has ever been done. Neither BP nor the Kenyan government responded to repeated requests for comment.

In Kargi, residents told The Intercept that Amoco’s footprint has left them in a state of constant despair. 

Gumathi Galnahgalle, a village elder in his mid-40s, said the community began to notice people falling ill in the years after Amoco left. When his mother stopped being able to swallow food, he took her to the hospital multiple times.

“There was no treatment; we were just told to take her back home and wait for her time,” he said, standing in front of her grave. “There is no manyatta that has not been affected by this disease.”

Amoco’s African Expansion

Amoco’s arrival in the 1980s was met with intrigue and excitement. As helicopters flew over Kargi, foreign crews came into the community to join traditional dances at night.

The company employed locals to cook for their crews. In such a remote area, with few educational opportunities and literacy rates around 25 percent, the work was well-received. Lebeku Mirgichan, now in his early 70s, worked as a cook for Amoco for three years — earning 3,000 Kenyan shillings a month (equivalent to roughly $23 today). “At the time, that was a lot of money,” he told The Intercept.

Related

How the Environmental Lawyer Who Won a Massive Judgment Against Chevron Lost Everything

Oil exploration was a “welcome development for many communities because it came with a lot of promise and opportunity for development,” said Omolade Adunbi, director of the African Studies Center at the University of Michigan. And it wasn’t just Amoco — Chevron and Total had also explored for oil in other parts of Marsabit, the more than 40,000-square-mile county that contains Kargi.

Then-Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, who commissioned the Amoco project, reportedly visited Kargi to watch the drilling. Amoco’s managing director told Moi that “the rock formation made the prospects for striking oil very encouraging and exciting.” Moi said “he had hope that economically viable oil deposits would be found.”

Amoco, then a Midwest-based company, felt that it was on the cusp of becoming one of the world’s leading explorers and developers of oil — acquiring drilling rights in Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Burundi. Alfred O. Munk, Amoco’s manager of foreign affairs, told The Chicago Tribune, “Heads of state and competitors alike are coming to the sudden, belated conclusion that Amoco is a major international player.”

With Moi’s blessing, Amoco drilled at least 10 oil wells that reached 10,000 feet deep. But in 1990, after five years and no real sign of oil, the project in Kargi was decommissioned. Amoco’s vehicles, guards, and land rovers abruptly left.

In court records and interviews with the community, dozens said they were never officially informed of the project’s end. And no one came to clean it up.

Mass Extinction

The failure didn’t seem to affect Amoco’s business. In 1998, British Petroleum bought it in a $48 billion deal, the largest takeover of an American company by a foreign firm at the time. It changed its name to BP Amoco, then just BP in 2001. Most Amoco stations in the U.S. were converted to BP’s brand.

But in Kargi and its surrounding villages, animals were dying. Across the Chalbi Desert — where over https://mohiafrica.org/communities/kargi/90 percent of the population of 30,000 is considered impoverished — most people survive off their livestock, eating only the meat and milk of goats, sheep, and camels. Due to the area’s aridity, there is no piped water, and communities rely on groundwater from boreholes and shallow wells.

In the 1990s, after drinking water from a borehole next to an abandoned well that Amoco had drilled, a flock of sheep and goats died in the neighboring village of Balesa, court records allege.

Then, in the early 2000s, 7,000 sheep and goats died under similar circumstances, residents told The Intercept. According to court records, a water quality report conducted by the government immediately after the mass death confirmed that over 600 animals died within two hours of taking the water. The water was found to contain high levels of nitrates, a type of salt and chemical compound that gets dissolved into drilling material for a variety of purposes: as powerful explosives to locate oil, to stop bacteria from growing in wells, and as an additive to drilling mud to strengthen the walls of a well.

When consumed in high amounts, nitrates can be extremely toxic and stop mammals’ blood from carrying oxygen.

A government team was sent to the area on a fact-finding mission in 2003, according to court documents. They recommended that the community should not give the water to infants and that the veterinary department should carry out toxicology tests in Kargi. It also found that the wells had not been properly sealed. A 2004 government report concluded that “the claims of the presence of esophagus cancer in the region were everywhere the team visited and concern is overwhelmingly evident as reported by medical personnel and local community.”

Subsequent tests commissioned by a local nonprofit organization found that levels of nitrates and arsenic were high in Kargi waters.

Five years later, a prospective report by a Swedish oil company, Lundin, which was planning to look for oil and other mining materials, confirmed that a “white clayey substance used to cool drill bits by Amoco while drilling was collected adjacent to the well.” Lundin tested it and found extremely high alkaline levels — which can cause chemicals to be corrosive and destroy skin when spilled.

The former Amoco cook, Mirgichan, alongside two other community members who also worked for Amoco, told The Intercept that they remember watching workers’ skin start to peel off when they worked with drilling materials.

In its report, Lundin found the substance to be “extremely saline and sodic” and that it was related to “abundant” claims about related health issues by the local communities, including dying livestock and cancer cases.

Between 2007 and 2009, multiple tests on the water found that it was not meeting the World Health Organization recommended standards, according to court records. The Kenyan water resources authority https://nation.africa/kenya/news/area-that-could-be-rich-in-oil-turns-out-to-be-valley-of-death--602790declared that it was not safe for human consumption. A local nonprofit found that high levels of nitrates and arsenic were in the water, and they were the probable cause of the livestock deaths.

By then, people were dying.

In Search of Nutrients

In Kargi, where food is scarce, community members kept finding the white substance that Amoco left behind and decided to put it to use, packing it up and using it to cook. The area, littered with salt-like mounds, became so popular with residents that it was named kwa chuvmi, loosely translated to “where there is salt.”

There are conflicting reports over what exactly the “salt” was. According to Kenyan court documents, the salt-like substance was actually two heavy drilling chemicals: barite and bentonite. Barite is a mineral used in large quantities to increase the density of drilling fluids, and bentonite, a clay-like substance often referred to as drilling mud, helps in carrying cuttings to the surface and stabilizing boreholes. The chemicals can have “catastrophic effects,” on the environment and people, said James Njuguna, an engineering professor at Robert Gordon University.

According to tests undertaken by Lundin, Amoco used “a white material that could pass for salt like substance,” but was “essentially a special clay material used to cool the drill bits.” It contained high levels of calcium, magnesium, sodium, and electrical conductivity.

Between 2006 and 2009, records from the only health center in Kargi, a village area with only 10,000 residents, registered 65 cancer-related deaths — which health workers said was largely throat cancer — or a rate nearly three times higher than the national average, according to government reports.

In 2008, Safi Mirkalkona’s sister died from stomach cancer just after giving birth, leaving behind the baby and four other small children. There was no medicine or treatment available, and she was advised to stay at home. “There are many orphans here,” Mirkalkona told The Intercept. “And yet, we still do not understand this disease.”

The same year, Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton, who represented Kargi and the surrounding area in Kenya’s national assembly, brought the issue to the Parliament.

“Strange diseases started occurring in the specific areas where oil was drilled,” he said. “I do not know how we can possibly explain the sudden emergence of cancer cases.”

“It is really embarrassing that we sit here and … years later people are still dying,” Lekuton continued in his speech. “We have a survey that has revealed shocking statistics of men and women who are ailing from throat cancer and many have died.” 

But leaders, including in the energy ministry, were dismissive and said no connection had been found between oil exploration and cancer cases.

By 2009, a community member was dying of cancer every month, according to a https://nation.africa/kenya/news/area-that-could-be-rich-in-oil-turns-out-to-be-valley-of-death--602790local news report. The symptoms and deterioration of residents were similar. The first was an inability to swallow meat. The patients were then referred for a biopsy, “but the majority prefer to go back home and wait to die,” the report said. Some tested positive for esophageal cancer.

Desert of Death

Years went by with no answers. In 2013, a documentary titled https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwWkZb4shxs“Desert of Death” aired on Kenyan national television on throat and stomach cancer patients in the county, suggesting that waste left behind after failed oil prospecting had a connection to the disease. The youngest cancer patient featured was 3 years old. The documentary drew countrywide attention, prompting further discussions in the government.

“I come from Kargi Village, and I have about 150 names of those who have died as a result of that disease,” Godana Hargura, senator of Marsabit, http://www.parliament.go.ke/sites/default/files/2017-05/Thursday_19th_November_2015.pdfsaid in a government hearing in 2015. “The situation is so desperate.”

In Kargi, there is only one health center serving the 10,000 residents. There is no doctor — just a clinical officer, a nurse, and a nutritionist.

“People normally come too late. Most of the people are sick, but they don’t even know that they are sick,” said Abraham Situma, the clinical officer. “We really need more human resources.”

Situma often refers the cases to Marsabit county hospital, a two-hour drive from Kargi. Following that, many patients are then referred to a hospital in Meru, over 300 miles away. But, Situma said, most prefer to just stay in Kargi and pass away at home. So many people have died in their homes that they became https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000095804/manyattas-of-death-up-to-500-dead-and-counting-as-mystery-cancer-devastates-marsabit-kenyalabeled the “manyattas of death.”

In July 2024, separate from the court case, the community https://eastleighvoice.co.ke/northern-kenya/56911/marsabit-community-petitions-parliament-over-toxic-waste-disposal-claimspetitioned Kenya’s National Assembly to order a comprehensive and independent probe into cancer cases in the region. The community said they had documented close to 1,000 cancer-related fatalities in the last decade, all attributed to the consumption of contaminated water. The fatalities were reported in Kargi and other surrounding areas, but only 100 families had the victims’ health records, because their culture dictated that the dead be buried with documents.

Related

How Exxon Captured a Country Without Firing a Shot

“I call it the social death of the environment,” said Adunbi, the University of Michigan professor. “The practice of extraction in many communities is literally sentencing people to a form of death, and there is no oversight on how many of these corporations have conducted their activities in these spaces.”

Meanwhile, the case filed in 2020 by the Kargi residents remains ongoing and continuously delayed.

The petition detailed accusations against nine Kenyan and county governments — including the attorney general; ministries of environment, water, and sanitation; as well as the National Oil Corporation of Kenya — of being accountable for failing to ensure that Amoco caused little damage to the environment; disposed of waste oil, salt water, and refuse; and did not cause fluids or substance to escape to the environment.

“The untold pain, suffering and hopelessness is exemplified by the rampant deaths that take place in the manyattas without the residents of Marsabit County having access to medical care, the long distance the resident have to travel seeking medical care and lack of financial capacity to carry the burden of the cancer scourge,” the petition reads.

There were also plans to sue BP, but it has proved to be too legally complex, according to John Mwariri, acting executive director of Kituo Cha Sheria, the Kenyan legal aid group leading the case. The company had also long diverted its interest away from the Marsabit region into more fruitful areas in countries like Angola, Egypt, and Algeria.

In Kargi, the community has lost hope in getting answers. In his manyatta, Galnahgalle, the village elder, awaits the same fate as his mother.

“I keep being told to go home as there is no treatment,” he said. “Amoco should come and explain what they did here.”

The post An American Company Drilled for Oil in Kenya — and Left Behind Soaring Cancer Rates appeared first on The Intercept.

Sales of Chinese electric vehicles and solar panels have surged since the start of the Iran war, companies say.

submitted by /u/OutlandishnessLong28
[link] [comments]

Russia's "great crackdown" on VPNs — and a clampdown on Telegram's messaging platform — had an unintended side effect, reports Bloomberg. It "triggered the widespread banking outage seen across the country this week, Telegram's billionaire founder Pavel Durov said." "Telegram was banned in Russia, yet 65 million Russians still use it daily via VPNs," Durov said Saturday in a post on Telegram. "The government has spent years trying to ban VPNs too. Their blocking attempts just triggered a massive banking failure; cash briefly became the only payment method nationwide yesterday." Attempts on Friday to limit VPN use could have sparked the disruption affecting banking apps, The Bell and other Russian media reported, citing industry sources who weren't identified. The outage may have been caused by an overload in the filtering systems run by Russia's communications watchdog, according to the reports, with experts warning that major restrictions risk undermining network stability... Separately, payments for Apple Inc.'s app store and other services became unavailable in Russia from April 1, the US company said on its website, without saying why. Earlier, RBC newswire reported that the Digital Development Ministry had asked mobile operators to disable top-ups, which could help limit VPN use.... Durov, who's being investigated in Russia for allegedly aiding terrorist activity, compared the situation in his home country to Iran, where similar restrictions prompted widespread adoption of VPNs instead of the intended shift to state-backed messaging apps. "Welcome back to the Digital Resistance, my Russian brothers and sisters," said Durov, who has lived in Dubai and France in recent years. "The entire nation is now mobilized to bypass these absurd restrictions," he wrote, adding that Telegram would continue adapting to make its traffic harder to detect and block.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

submitted by /u/someguy410
[link] [comments]

President Trump hailed the rescue of a U.S. airman who was missing almost two days inside Iran — and threatened to hit power plants if Iran doesn't reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

More than half of NHS trusts have cap on availability of products, forcing patients to pay for products themselves

Millions of people across the UK living with incontinence are facing shortages of sanitary products due to supplies being rationed by NHS trusts, according to a coalition of charities.

The shortages are leading to a “pad gap” where people are having to pay for incontinence products themselves, according to an open letter from organisations including the Royal College of Nursing, Prostate Cancer UK, and Bowel and Bladder UK.

Even if motorists can provide evidence they’ve paid for parking, they are threatened with bailiffs and court

Drivers have accused a leading car park management company of issuing “false” parking fines – leaving one mother to defend herself from multiple debt collection agencies sent by the company.

Jane Winder says she was sent letters from five different debt collection agencies each asking her to pay £170 after she was accused of not purchasing a £2.30 parking ticket at a car park in Lancashire managed by Euro Car Parks.

Ignorance and arrogance were his drivers. The idea that the regime plays by different rules, with its own goals, never occurred to him

Five weeks. We are now five weeks in and entering the sixth week of the war on Iran. What was supposed to be a “precise, overwhelming military campaign” to eliminate “an imminent nuclear threat” and urge the Iranian people to “take over” their government is now anything but precise or overwhelming. Gulf countries are seized up with retaliatory Iranian attacks, the strait of Hormuz is shut, and there is no sign of regime collapse either through military degradation or popular takeover. The recovery of two downed US aircrew is celebrated beyond the facts of the matter because nothing else is going to plan. The mistake, as ever, is a combination of hubris and ignorance, flaws made even more serious by the particularities of the Iranian regime.

There is a mental lag at the start of wars. A cognitive delay that means you can’t quite adjust to the fact that dangerous conflict cannot be swiftly contained. That mental lag is even longer when the United States is involved. Because it remains inconceivable to some that a superior military power would not swiftly achieve its objectives. That an inferior power would not immediately succumb. That allies would not fall into line and rally behind the US. Inconceivable that the fallout of a military campaign would not be limited to the territories and peoples targeted.

Japan’s ban on married couples having different surnames has prompted an event to highlight people’s reluctance to change their name

At the very least, the three men and three women calming their nerves on a Friday evening at a venue in Tokyo know they have one thing in common.

Spaced out across booths, they will soon be placed in pairs and given 15 minutes to get to know one another.

NASA's Artemis astronauts are now entering "the lunar sphere of influence," reports NBC News, "meaning the pull of the moon's gravity will become stronger than Earth's." Now as they begin their swing around the moon, the Artemis astronauts "are chasing after Apollo 13's maximum range from Earth," reports the Associated Press, hoping to beat its distance from Earth by more than 4,100 miles (6,600 kilometers). They'll begin their six-hour lunar flyby 14 hours from now (at 2:45 p.m. ET Monday). But in a space-to-earth interview Saturday with NBC News, the astronauts were already describing their first glimpses of the edge of the far side: [NASA astronaut Christina Koch realized] it looked different from what she was accustomed to on Earth. "The darker parts just aren't quite in the right place," she said. "And something about you senses that is not the moon that I'm used to seeing...." [Astronaut Reid] Wiseman called the flight a "magnificent accomplishment" and said the astronauts' ability to gaze at both Earth and the moon from their spacecraft has been "truly awe-inspiring." "The Earth is almost in full eclipse. The moon is almost in full daylight, and the only way you could get that view is to be halfway between the two entities," he said... And while the early photos of Earth and the moon that [Canadian astronaut Jeremy] Hansen and his colleagues have beamed back have been spectacular, the Canadian astronaut said they pale in comparison to the real deal outside their capsule's windows. "I know those photos are amazing," he said, "but let me assure you, it is another level of amazing up here." And their upcoming six-hour lunar flyby "promises views of the moon's far side that were too dark or too difficult to see by the 24 Apollo astronauts who preceded them," notes the Associated Press: A total solar eclipse also awaits them as the moon blocks the sun, exposing snippets of shimmering corona.... At closest approach, they will come within 4,070 miles (6,550 kilometers) of the moon. Because they launched on April 1, the rendezvous won't have as much of the far lunar side illuminated as other dates would have. But the crew still will be able make out "definite chunks of the far side that have never been seen" by humans, said NASA geologist Kelsey Young, including a good portion of Orientale Basin. They'll call down their observations as they photograph the gray, pockmarked scenes. There's a suite of professional-quality cameras on board, and each astronaut also has an iPhone for more informal, spur-of-the-minute picture-taking... Orion will be out of contact with Mission Control for nearly an hour when it's behind the moon. The same thing happened during the Apollo moonshots. NASA is relying on its Deep Space Network to communicate with the crew, but the giant antennas in California, Spain and Australia won't have a direct line of sight when Orion disappears behind the moon for approximately 40 minutes... Once Artemis II departs the lunar neighborhood, it will take four days to return home. The capsule will aim for a splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego on April 10, nine days after its Florida launch. During the flight back, the astronauts will link up via radio with the crew of the orbiting International Space Station. This is the first time that a moon crew has colleagues in space at the same time and NASA can't pass up the opportunity for a cosmic chitchat.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An investigation is underway in Long Beach after possible human remains were discovered in the area near DeForest Park and Wetlands on Sunday afternoon, according to police.

The dangerous allure of energy autarky.

How America’s allies in the region can get out of the cross hairs.

Economic ties will be hard to unwind.

This blog has now closed. Our live coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran continues here

Iranian media has claims that a US aircraft was destroyed while searching for the crew member of a missing US F-15 fighter jet.

“An American enemy aircraft that was searching for the pilot of a downed fighter jet was destroyed by the fighters of Islam in the southern region of Isfahan,” the Tasnim news agency quoted Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as saying. The Guardian was unable to verify their claim.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 6.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 6, No. 560.

The Internet Bug Bounty program "has been paused for new submissions," they announced last week. Running since 2012, the program is funded by "a number of leading software companies," reports InfoWorld, "and has awarded more than $1.5m to researchers who have reported bugs " Up to now, 80% of its payouts have been for discoveries of new flaws, and 20% to support remediation efforts. But as artificial intelligence makes it easier to find bugs, that balance needs to change, HackerOne said in a statement. "AI-assisted research is expanding vulnerability discovery across the ecosystem, increasing both coverage and speed. The balance between findings and remediation capacity in open source has substantively shifted," said HackerOne. Among the first programs to be affected is the Node.js project, a server-side JavaScript platform for web applications known for its extensive ecosystem. While the project team will continue to accept and triage bug reports through HackerOne, without funding from the Internet Bug Bounty program it will no longer pay out rewards, according to an announcement on its website... [J]ust last month, Google also put a halt to AI-generated submissions provided to its Open Source Software Vulnerability Reward Program. The Internet Bug Bounty stressed that "We have a responsibility to the community to ensure this program effectively accomplishes its ambitious dual purpose: discovery and remediation. Accordingly, we are pausing submissions while we consider the structure and incentives needed to further these goals..." "We remain committed to strengthening open source security. Working with project maintainers and researchers, we're actively evaluating solutions to better align incentives with open source ecosystem realities and ensure vulnerability discoveries translate into durable remediation outcomes."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

President shifts deadline again for attacking power plants and bridges in expletive-ridden social media post

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Donald Trump issued an expletive-laden warning on Sunday that Tehran had until Tuesday night to reopen the strait of Hormuz or the US would obliterate Iran’s power plants and bridges.

Iran’s parliament speaker responded with a warning that the US president’s “reckless moves” would mean “our whole region is going to burn”.

Chuck Schumer accuses president of ‘ranting like unhinged madman’ in threat to obliterate Iran’s power plants and bridges. Key US politics stories from 5 April

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Donald Trump has faced sharp criticism after threatening to wipe out Iran’s power plants and bridges in an expletive-riddled social media post on Sunday.

The US president told Iran: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.” He separately suggested there was a “good chance” of an agreement to end the five-week war on Monday, telling US media that negotiations were happening.

Levy on inherited farms and family businesses worth £2.5m or more comes into force 6 April

A new inheritance tax regime for UK farms and family businesses comes into force on Monday and will present “significant challenges” for those affected, according to accountants.

In October 2024 the government announced plans to levy inheritance tax on farms – prompting an outcry in many quarters.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for April 6, No. 1,752.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 6 No. 1,030.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for April 6, No. 764.

UCLA finished the season 37-1 by defeating the three-time national champion South Carolina Gamecocks.

The NASA astronauts also sent down Easter messages Sunday while gearing up for a historic pass behind the moon Monday.

That leak of Claude Code's source code "revealed "all kinds of juicy details," writes PC World. The more than 500,000 lines of code included: - An 'undercover mode' for Claude that allows it to make 'stealth' contributions to public code bases - An 'always-on' agent for Claude Code - A Tamagotchi-style 'Buddy' for Claude "But one of the stranger bits discovered in the leak is that Claude Code is actively watching our chat messages for words and phrases — including f-bombs and other curses — that serve as signs of user frustration." Specifically, Claude Code includes a file called "userPromptKeywords.ts" with a simple pattern-matching tool called regex, which sweeps each and every message submitted to Claude for certain text matches. In this particular case, the regex pattern is watching for "wtf," "wth," "omfg," "dumbass," "horrible," "awful," "piece of — -" (insert your favorite four-letter word for that one), "f — you," "screw this," "this sucks," and several other colorful metaphors... While the Claude Code leak revealed the existence of the "frustration words" regex, it doesn't give any indication of why Claude Code is scouring messages for these words or what it's doing with them.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Councils urged to crack down on misuse of parking permits that help people with disabilities and health conditions

Councils in England have been urged to crack down on the misuse of blue badge parking permits – legitimate and counterfeit – as the proportion of people holding them has reached one in 15.

The AA called for more to be done to detect offences such as people using fake or stolen badges.

People encouraged to ‘come forward as normal’ when BMA members begin industrial action over pay on Tuesday

The NHS is urging patients not to put off seeking the care they need when resident doctors press ahead with strike action from Tuesday, a stoppage that the health secretary has called “disappointing”.

Tens of thousands of resident doctors in England are to stage a six-day strike after the government took a key part of its offer off the table.

Announcement of eight young futures hubs made as concerns grow over the number of knives on the streets

Eight young futures youth hubs aimed at giving young people support towards work and away from street crime are to open across England, ministers have announced.

The youth centres are supposed to help people aged up to 18 with employment advice, health and wellbeing, and are also aimed at preventing them from falling into a life of crime.

In the Mardi Gras Indian, or Black Masking Indian, tradition, the big chiefs and their crews — spy boys, flag boys, wild men and a big queen — square off in mock battles with other so-called tribes to determine who is, in their words, the "prettiest."

Every year, Black residents of New Orleans don stunning, handmade suits on Mardi Gras day that are sewn in secret for the better part of a year. It's a tradition they say honors ancestors.

A nonprofit called RAM is bringing free health care to Americans who need it. Some patients wait days and sleep in their cars in order to get dental, vision, and medical treatment at RAM clinics.

Americans are driving hundreds of miles and waiting on line for days to get free medical help from RAM.

A patchwork of state licensing rules prevents medical volunteers from reaching more patients in need through RAM.

High-speed rail can be found around the world. Yet so far, the projects haven't tracked in the U.S., where both the public and private sectors have faced ballooning costs and delays.

An ambitious state-run high-speed rail project linking Los Angeles and San Francisco has gone off track.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy provided the following statement for 60 Minutes' report Sunday, "Ghost Train."

The Mardi Gras Indians, or Black Masking Indians, have been around since the 1800s. Members spend months painstakingly handcrafting suits to be worn while marching through New Orleans' neighborhoods.

Hundreds of theatres are now showing a new documentary called The AI Doc: Or How I Became An Apocaloptimist. Variety calls it "playful and heady,"edited "with a spirit of ADHD alertness." The New York Times suggests it "tries to cover so much that it ends up being more confusing than clarifying, but parts are fascinating." But the Los Angeles Times calls it an "aggravating soup of information and opinion that wants to move at the speed of machine thought." So while co-director Daniel Roher asks whether he should bring a child into a world with AI, "Perhaps more urgently, should Roher have made an AI doc that treats us like children?" First, he parades all the safety doomers, seeming to believe their warnings that an unfeeling superintelligence is upon us and we can't trust it. Then, sufficiently disturbed, he hauls in the AI cheerleaders, a suspiciously positive gang who can envision only medical miracles and grindless lives in which we're all full-time artists. Only then, after this simplistic setup where platitudes reign, do we get the section in which the subject is treated like the brave (and grave) new world it is: geopolitically fraught, economically tenuous and a playground for billionaires. Why couldn't the complexity have been the dialogue from the beginning, instead of the play-dumb cartoon "The AI Doc" feels like for so long? Maybe Roher believes this is what our increasingly gullible, truth-challenged citizenry needs from an explanatory doc: a flashy, kindhearted reminder that we're the change we need to be. Read more reactions here and here. Mashable warns the documentary's director "will ultimately craft a journey that feels like a panic attack in real time. In the end, you may not feel better about mankind's chances against the rise of AI. But you'll likely feel less helpless in the future before us all." They also point out that the film "shares some ways its audience can more actively be apart of the conversation, and provides a link to the film's website for engagement," where 6,948 people have now signed up for its newsletter. ("Demand a seat at the table," urges its signup button, under a warning that "Government and AI companies are designing our future without us. We need to reclaim our voice in shaping the future of AI...")

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Gabriela Jaquez scores 21 points in rout

• Victory margin is third-largest in NCAA history

Gabriela Jaquez scored 21 points, Lauren Betts added 16 and UCLA routed South Carolina 79-51 Sunday to win their first NCAA championship in women’s basketball.

The near-record lopsided victory completed the Bruins’ journey through this year’s March Madness that started after a loss to UConn in last season’s Final Four. The Bruins ran through their opponents this season with their only loss coming in November, to Texas in a Thanksgiving tournament.

Driver treated for burns after truck was carrying 9,000 gallons of gasoline at time of collision outside Fort Worth

An 18-wheel fuel tanker crashed into another vehicle, toppled power lines, then burst into flames outside Fort Worth early Sunday morning, according to local authorities.

The truck was carrying 9,000 gallons of gasoline at the time of the collision.

• UCLA win first NCAA title by stunning South Carolina

• Gabriela Jaquez leads the Bruins with 21 points

• Dawn Staley denied a third title in five seasons

South Carolina 4-9 UCLA, 5:14 1st quarter

After Ta’Niya Latson hits a pair of free throws, Jaquez follows a miss with a rebound and a floater that falls, and she’s fouled!

Meet the "journalist" who "uploads press releases or analyst notes into AI tools and prompts them to spit out articles that he can edit and publish quickly," according to the Wall Street Journal. "AI-assisted stories accounted for nearly 20% of Fortune's web traffic in the second half of 2025." And most were written by 42-year-old Nick Lichtenberg, who has now written over 600 AI-assisted stories, producing "more stories in six months than any of his colleagues at Fortune delivered in a year." One Wednesday in February, he cranked out seven. "I'm a bit of a freak," Lichtenberg said... A story by Lichtenberg sometimes starts with a prompt entered into Perplexity or Google's NotebookLM, asking it to write something based on a headline he comes up with. He moves the AI tools' initial drafts into a content-management system and edits the stories before publishing them for Fortune's readers... A piece from earlier that morning about Josh D'Amaro being named Disney CEO took 10 minutes to get online, he said... Like other journalists, Lichtenberg vets his stories. He refers back to the original documents to confirm the information he's reporting is correct. He reaches out to companies for comment. But he admits his process isn't as thorough as that of magazine fact-checkers. While Lichtenberg started out saying his stories were co-authored with "Fortune Intelligence", he now typically signs his own name, according to the article, "because he feels the work is mostly his own." (Though his stories "sometimes" disclose generative AI was used as a research tool...) The article asks with he could be "a bellwether for where much of the media business is headed..." "Much of the content people now consume online is generated by artificial intelligence, with some 9% of newly published newspaper articles either partially or fully AI-generated, according to a 2025 study led by the University of Maryland. The number of AI-generated articles on the web surpassed human-written ones in late 2024, according to research and marketing agency Graphite." Some executives have made full-throated declarations about the threat posed by AI. New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger said AI "is almost certainly going to usher in an unprecedented torrent of crap," referencing deepfakes as an example. The NewsGuild of New York, the union representing Fortune employees and journalists at other media outlets, said the people are what makes journalism so powerful. "You simply can't replicate lived experiences, human judgment and expertise," said president Susan DeCarava. For Chris Quinn, the editor of local publications Cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer, AI tools have helped tame other torrents facing the industry. AI has allowed the outlets to cover counties in Ohio that otherwise might go ignored by scraping information from local websites and sending "tips" to reporters, he said. It has also edited stories and written first drafts so the newsrooms' journalists can focus on the calls, research and reporting needed for their stories.... Newsrooms from the New York Times to The Wall Street Journal are deploying AI in various ways to help reporters and editors work more efficiently.... Not all newsrooms disclose their use of AI, and in some cases have rolled out new tools that resulted in errors or PR gaffes. An October study from the European Broadcasting Union and the BBC, which relied on professional journalists to evaluate the news integrity of more than 3,000 AI responses, found that almost half of all AI responses had at least one significant issue. Last week the New York Times even issued a correction when a freelance book reviewer using an AI tool unknowingly included "language and details similar to those in a review of the same book published in The Guardian." But it was actually "the second time in a few days that the Times was called out for potential AI plagiarism," according to the American journalist writing The Handbasket newsletter. We must stem the idea being pushed by tech companies and their billionaire funders who've sunk too much into their products to admit defeat that the infiltration of AI into journalism is inevitable; because from my perch as an independent journalist, it simply is not... Some AI-loving journalists appear to believe that if they're clear enough with the AI program they're using, it will truly understand what they're seeking and not just do what it's made to do: steal shit... If you want to work with machines, get a job that requires it. There are a whole lot more of those than there are writing jobs, so free up space for people who actually want to do the work. You're not doing the world a favor by gifting it your human/AI hybrid. Journalism will not miss you if you leave... But meanwhile, USA Today recently tried hiring for a new position: AI-Assisted reporter. (The lucky reporter will "support the launch and scaling of AI-assisted local journalism in a major U.S. metro," working with tools including Copilot and Perplexity, pioneering possible future expansions and "AI-enabled newsroom operations that support and augment human-led journalism.") And Google is already sponsoring a "publishing innovation award"...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sponsors pull out after Keir Starmer calls decision to book rapper who wrote song titled Heil Hitler ‘deeply concerning’

Pepsi and Diageo have said they will withdraw their sponsorship of a UK music festival that is due to be headlined by Kanye West after Keir Starmer joined criticism of the event.

The musician is understood to have not yet made an application to come to Britain and could be blocked under powers allowing the authorities to do so if his presence is deemed not conducive to the public good.

The crew of NASA's Artemis II mission captured a new image of the far side of the moon, which the agency released Sunday.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman outlined the most critical moments he expects in the coming days as Artemis II astronauts continue their journey around the far side of the moon.

"Beverly Hills, 90210" actress Tori Spelling was involved in a two-car crash in Temecula on Thursday night, according to her manager and Riverside County Sheriff's Office officials.

The driver was trying to elude the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency's highway patrol on a rural road in southeast Alabama's Pike County when the crash occurred late Friday night.

Rally met with bipartisan support after US border patrol revealed plans for steel wall across parts of beloved parks

The story is co-published with Public Domain, an investigative newsroom that covers public lands, wildlife and government

Thousands of people gathered at the steps of the Texas capitol on Saturday to protest against the construction of a border wall through Big Bend, in a show of bipartisan opposition to the White House’s plans.

Luke Grimes leads the Yellowstone sequel.

PM also criticises business figures and opponents of changes, many of which come into force on Monday

• Workers, pensioners and children: all better off. Ignore the critics – we really are standing up for working people

Keir Starmer has used a series of new workers rights that come into force on Monday to attack the Green party, saying a vote for Labour’s rivals puts such progress on sick pay, parental leave and zero-hours contracts at risk.

The prime minister also took a swipe at business figures and opponents of what he described as the biggest strengthening of workers’ rights in a generation, dismissing “vested interests” who had warned against them.

On this "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" broadcast, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and retired Gen. Frank McKenzie join Ed O'Keefe.

One crime ring scammed 2,000 elderly people of more than $27 million between 2021 and 2023 using tech support/bank impersonation/refund scams. "Victims were in their 70s and 80s," reports the U.S. Attorney's office for California's southern district. Victims were first told they'd received a refund (either online or via phone), but then told they'd been "over-refunded" a massive amount, and asked to return that amount. But 42-year-old Jiandong Chen just admitted Thursday in a U.S. federal court that he was involved in the fraud and money laundering via cryptocurrency — pleading guilty to two charges with maximum penalties of 40 years in prison and a $1 million fine, plus 20 years in prison with a maximum fine of $500,000 or twice the amount laundered. "Chen, a Chinese national, is the second defendant charged in a five-defendant indictment." And what tripped him up seems to be that "Certain members of the conspiracy also did in-person pickups of money directly from victims..." And so YouTube enters the story — when the scammers called pranksters with 1,790,000 subscribers to their "Trilogy Media" channel. In an elaborate three-hour video, the team of pranksters lured the scammer to a rented Airbnb where they're staging a fake funeral with a nun. (One of the men acting in the video remembers "we start doing a prayer... I'm holding the scammer's hand in my nun outfit...") They convince the scammer to collect the cash from a dead man — "Is there anything you'd like to say to him?" Then there's demon voices. The scammer's victim resurrects from the dead. Did the cash mule bring holy water? The end result was a video titled "CONFRONTING SCAMMERS WITH A FAKE FUNERAL (EPIC REACTIONS)". But two and a half years later, their "cash mule sting house" video has racked up over 1.3 million views, 22,000 likes, and 2,979 comments. ("This video is longer than Oppenheimer. Thanks for the laughs fellas.") And the scammer is facing 60 years in prison.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The old iptables-nft package name is replaced by iptables, and the legacy backend is available as iptables-legacy.

When switching packages (among iptables-nft, iptables, iptables-legacy), check for .pacsave files in /etc/iptables/ and restore your rules if needed:

• /etc/iptables/iptables.rules.pacsave
• /etc/iptables/ip6tables.rules.pacsave

Most setups should work unchanged, but users relying on uncommon xtables extensions or legacy-only behavior should test carefully and use iptables-legacy if required.

Members reportedly agree a rise of 206,000 barrels a day in May, but move symbolic while strait of Hormuz is effectively closed

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Iranian drones have struck Kuwait’s oil infrastructure, causing “severe material damage” that threatens to further disrupt oil supplies already hit by the US-Israel war on Iran.

The drone strikes on Sunday came hours before members of the Opec+ group of major global oil suppliers gathered to discuss how to bolster output despite Iran’s effective closure of the strait of Hormuz shipping route.

• Saudi investment shows no sign of reducing LIV’s scale

• Plan likely to compete with DP World Tour

Tournaments as opposed to players could become the next key domain in elite golf’s power struggle, with the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV circuit exploring the staging of national opens. Any such approach is likely to cause anxiety within the corridors of power at the DP World, formerly European, Tour given the number of such events already on its schedule.

While the talent drain of elite players from traditional tours towards LIV has stopped, or reversed, the concept of increased competition for prime tournament markets is an intriguing one.

The following is the full transcript of an interview with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on April 5, 2026.

11 days ago Apple launched device-level age restrictions in the U.K. There were some glitches, reports the blog 9to5Mac. For me, the experience was an entirely painless one, taking less than 30 seconds. All I had to do was tap a confirm and continue button, and Apple told me that the length of time I'd had an Apple account was used to confirm that I'm 18+. Others, however, experienced difficulties with the process timing out or failing to complete. We summarized some of the steps you can take to try to address this. Apple has since listed additional acceptable ways to verify your age. "You can confirm your age with a credit card, or by scanning a driver's license or one of the following PASS-accredited Proof of Age cards: CitizenCard, My ID Card, TOTUM ID card, or Young Scot National Entitlement Card." If you don't verify your age, then you'll be treated as a child or teenager, meaning that both the web content filter and communication safety features are switched on. Apple is continuing the roll-out in Singapore (population 6 million) and South Korea (population 52 million), the article points out, citing a new Apple support document. South Korea's law actually requires Apple to re-verify someone's age annually.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Jared Isaacman says odds of evidence we are not alone are ‘pretty high’ four days after Artemis II rocket lifted off

• Nasa’s Orion spaceship four days into Artemis II mission: in pictures

The top official at Nasa says that the chance of alien existence is a factor in how the US space agency plans its missions.

Speaking on Sunday, Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman told CNN’s Meet the Press that investigating the existence of alien life “goes to the heart of many things that we do at Nasa”, adding: “Our job here is to go out and try and unlock the secrets of the universe.”

Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, a former commander of U.S. Central Command, outlined takeaways on the search-and-rescue mission​ for a missing U.S. airman on "Face the Nation," and called it a "hard lesson for Iran."

• Don Garber spoke to reporters at Miami’s stadium debut

• ‘It’s going to be a premier event and premier pricing’

The commissioner of Major League Soccer, Don Garber, said Fifa has been “smart” about its ticket pricing strategy for this summer’s World Cup, the effect of which has raised prices significantly across all games of the tournament to be held in the US, Mexico and Canada this summer.

Garber made the comments in Miami, where he attended the inaugural fixture at Inter Miami’s Nu Stadium and spoke to reporters before kick-off. Asked by the Guardian whether high prices resulting from Fifa’s dynamic pricing model undermined the domestic league’s efforts to grow the game and attract new fans, Garber reasoned that the cost attached to tickets matched the event’s exclusivity, and said Americans were used to that.

These are the best USB chargers in the US to keep devices juiced up quickly and safely for all your tech needs

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

USB chargers power the world. From phones to laptops and even bike lights, the gadgets we use every day increasingly rely on USB connections for power, making chargers an indispensable tool to keep your life running.

Though the U in USB stands for “universal,” you sadly can’t expect every USB charger to work with every USB device. Modern devices use different charging speeds, protocols and ports. That means if you’re still relying on the brick that came with your phone from a decade ago, it’s time for an upgrade. A high–quality USB charger will cover all your bases to charge devices quickly and safely, all in a compact package.

Best overall USB charger:
Baseus PicoGo AE11

Best budget USB charger:
Anker 511 Nano 3

Incident prompts political scrutiny across Hungary as Viktor Orbán trails in polls before next Sunday’s election

Serbia has said it found “explosives of devastating power” near a pipeline that carries Russian natural gas to Hungary and beyond, sparking claims by Hungary’s leading opposition candidate of a possible “false flag” operation aimed at influencing the country’s elections.

On Sunday, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said he had been informed by Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, of the discovery near an extension of the TurkStream pipeline, which transports Russian gas through the Balkans to central and eastern Europe.

Marjorie Taylor Greene and Bernie Sanders among those responding with alarm to Trump writing ‘open the fuckin’ strait, you crazy bastards’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Some US politicians have reacted with alarm and questioned the US president’s mental state after Donald Trump issued an abusive, expletive-laden threat to Iran in which he called on the regime to “open the fuckin’ strait [of Hormuz], you crazy bastards”, as he threatened to further attack the country’s energy and transport infrastructure.

The US president wrote on his Truth Social platform: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

"Google has announced that it's currently testing a new feature for Chrome 148 that could speed up day-to-day browsing," reports PC World: [T]he browser can intelligently postpone the loading of certain elements. Why load all images at the start when it can instead load images as you get close to them while scrolling? Chrome and Chromium-based browsers have had built-in lazy loading support for images and iframes since 2019, but this feature would make browsers capable of lazy loading video and audio elements, too. Note, however, that this won't benefit YouTube video embeds — those are already lazy loadable since they're embedded using iframes. Actual video and audio elements are rarer but not uncommon. In addition to Chrome, lazy loading of video and audio elements is also expected to be added to other Chromium-based browsers, including Microsoft Edge and Vivaldi.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Road and rail travel also disrupted across the UK before weather warnings lifted on Sunday

Storm Dave left thousands of homes across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland without power and disrupted road and rail travel across the UK before high wind and snow warnings were lifted on Sunday morning.

Winds of up to 93mph were recorded in Capel Curig in north Wales – 20mph higher than forecast – while the Met Office issued a yellow severe weather warning for heavy snow and blizzards across the Scottish Highlands, Argyll and the Western Isles on Saturday.

Three people, including a 10-month-old girl, were killed Sunday when high winds toppled a tree during an Easter egg hunt, German police said.

The following is the full transcript of an interview with retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, former commander of U.S. Central Command, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on April 5, 2026.

Protesters held on Sunday after joining a Lakenheath Alliance for Peace encampment outside airbase in Suffolk

Seven people have been arrested under suspicion of supporting the banned group Palestine Action after a protest in Suffolk.

They were arrested on Sunday morning after joining a peace encampment to create a blockade outside the main gate of Lakenheath airbase. The protest was organised after media reports that a US fighter jet shot down in Iran on Friday had taken off from the Lakenheath base.

Nasa team get deeper into space than any humans have ever ventured

Astronauts on the historic Artemis II mission are expected to reach the far side of the moon on Monday, venturing deeper into space than any humans before.

Nasa has reported satisfaction with progress toward the lunar fly-round since the team’s launch on Wednesday, with the three Americans and one Canadian on course to break the record for maximum range from Earth just as a total solar eclipse awaits.

“Let those who have weapons lay them down!” the first American pope declared. The White House’s war in Iran and nativist agenda at home are testing the Vatican.

Trump escalated threats against Iran’s power plants, bridges and other infrastructure in an expletive-laden post on Truth Social on Easter morning.

Commentary: Search Party is an unpredictable, layered comedy that subverts the genre and reinvents itself across all five seasons. Buckle up: You've never seen anything like this.

Mayor’s decision to appeal court order that the city must expand its housing voucher program has angered advocates for the homeless

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani’s decision to appeal a court order that the city must expand its housing voucher program, despite his campaign pledge to implement it, has angered advocates for the homeless population.

Mamdani, who must figure out how to close a $5.4bn budget deficit, explained his decision by citing the cost of the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) program, which helps people staying in shelters or at risk of homelessness find permanent housing.

Under Anne Hidalgo – mayor for 12 years until last week – the French capital added bike lanes, cut traffic and reclaimed public space, but not without resistance

When Corentin Roudaut moved to Paris 10 years ago, he was too scared to cycle. The IT developer had biked everywhere as a student in Rennes but felt overwhelmed by the bustling French capital. Cars were everywhere. Cyclists had almost no protection.

But once authorities carved out space for a segregated bike lane on Boulevard Voltaire near his home in the 11th arrondissement, Roudaut returned to the two-wheel commute and did not look back.

• Adell stole homers from Raleigh, Naylor and Crawford

• Zach Neto hits solo home run for game’s only run

Los Angeles Angels outfielder Jo Adell is known for his power bat but he put on a show for the ages with his glove in the middle game of the three-game series with the visiting Seattle Mariners.

Adell performed three home run robberies in a single game on Saturday and will look to help the Angels win the series when they close the set against the Mariners on Sunday at Anaheim, California. Zach Neto hit his 10th career leadoff homer for the game’s lone run, but Saturday night was the “Jo Show,” where a right fielder sometimes chided for his defensive shortcomings put on one of the best outfielder performances of all time.

Plants, toads, and mushrooms "can all produce psychedelic substances," writes ScienceAlert. "And now their powers have been combined in one plant." [S]cientists have taken the genes these organisms use to make five natural psychedelics and introduced them into a tobacco plant ( Nicotiana benthamiana), which then produced all five compounds simultaneously. As interest grows in psychedelics as potential treatments for illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD, the newly developed system could offer scientists a new way to produce these compounds for research purposes... [P]rogress in this field remains limited, in part due to regulatory restrictions, underscoring the need for more research. This creates practical challenges for scientists. "Traditionally, the supply of psychedelics relies on natural producers, mainly plants, fungi, and the Sonoran Desert toad," the researchers write. "Harvesting these organisms for their psychoactive compounds raises ecological and ethical concerns, being increasingly threatened by habitat loss and overexploitation..." [T]he team carefully monitored the plant's production of five psychedelic tryptamines: DMT originally from plants; psilocin and psilocybin from mushrooms; and bufotenin and 5-MeO-DMT from toads. The modified tobacco plants were found to produce all five compounds simultaneously. The article points out that the researchers "also took it a step further." By tweaking the enzymes they were able to "produce modified versions of the compounds that do not naturally occur in plants, and which may also have therapeutic value."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Donald Trump will claim rescue as a triumph but 48-hour drama should be a caution against launching ground operation

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Donald Trump will inevitably claim the rescue of the second crew member of the downed F-15 fighter as a propaganda triumph, though the 48-hour drama is a reminder that an undefeated Iran is able to fight back and inflict costs on the US.

It also ought to be a caution for a White House still contemplating whether to launch a ground operation in Iran to seize an island in the Persian Gulf – particularly if there a serious ambition to extract Iran’s highly enriched uranium from deep underground.

Here are some highly rated series to check out, plus a look at what's new in April.

Human brains are designed to detect faces as quickly as possible, which can lead to the perception of ‘false faces’

Faces: we see them in clouds, electrical outlets and even a $28,000 toasted sandwich said to look like the Virgin Mary.

Known as face pareidolia, seeing faces in inanimate objects or patterns of light and shadow is a common phenomenon.

The FCC’s sweeping ban applies to the sale of virtually every new Wi-Fi router. Without regular updates, yours might turn into a pumpkin by 2027.

The Austrian Hospice urges groups of Christian pilgrims to book 16 months ahead. One night this week, a receptionist warned a Post reporter she would be the only guest.

Even the greatest golfers can wilt in pursuit of the Green Jacket – Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth and Tommy Fleetwood try to explain its special aura

They say the Masters is all about tradition. One involves the sense of trepidation that collides with excitement as the finest golfers in the world take to Augusta National. Rory McIlroy, now a Masters champion, was scared to take a divot when first taking to the Georgia venue. “For my first two or three times, it kind of felt like I was in a museum,” says Xander Schauffele.

Some visibly wilt under an intimidation provided by a course that is picture perfect. It is like the dazzling princess is concealing an axe.

One of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance is now the subject of the first comprehensive exhibition of his work ever in the United States, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Immigration agents have spread into rural western Wisconsin, taking dozens of people from towns in more politically conservative areas

The Mexican restaurant where multiple workers were taken in February still sits dark, across the road from a travel plaza where people were also arrested by federal agents.

An Ecuadorian market in a nearby town targeted by immigration agents is back open again, with a sign on the door telling people to ring the bell before entering.

Concerns raised over minors placed in adult detention centres since removals began under scheme in September

More than 70 children from various conflict zones whose ages were disputed by the Home Office have been held in detention centres in the UK in preparation for forced removal to France under the government’s “one in, one out” scheme, research shows.

The one in, one out initiative means each small boat arrival can be forcibly returned to France in exchange for another person – who has not attempted the crossing – being brought to the UK legally.

Buzzy workplace trends all point to the same thing: avoiding work while still collecting a paycheck

There’s another hot trend in the workplace – microshifting, and it’s about to revolutionize the workday by breaking the traditional 9-to-5 into short, flexible and non-linear bursts of activity rather than a continuous 8-hour stretch. Microshifting allows for a better work-life balance. Why not do a yoga class or pop to the shops during work hours? I mean, what is “work” anyway?

Like bare minimum Mondays, where workers recuperating from weekend hangovers allow themselves to accomplish the least amount the day after, or coffee badging, which involves taking the time out of the workday to protest an employer’s in-office requirements by driving into the office, swiping your badge, having a coffee, then taking more time out of the workday to drive back home, it used to have another name, as the Guardian noted earlier this year: “Taking the piss.”

If you’re using Windows or macOS and have Adobe Creative Cloud installed, you may want to take a peek at your hosts file. It turns out Adobe adds a bunch of entries into the hosts file, for a very stupid reason.

They’re using this to detect if you have Creative Cloud already installed when you visit on their website.

When you visit https://www.adobe.com/home, they load this image using JavaScript:

https://detect-ccd.creativecloud.adobe.com/cc.png

If the DNS entry in your hosts file is present, your browser will therefore connect to their server, so they know you have Creative Cloud installed, otherwise the load fails, which they detect.

They used to just hit http://localhost:<various ports>/cc.png which connected to your Creative Cloud app directly, but then Chrome started blocking Local Network Access, so they had to do this hosts file hack instead.

↫ thenickdude at Reddit

At what point does a commercial software suite become malware?

Archaeologists, residents and government officials talk about how uncovering and preserving centuries-old sites and artifacts in Israel and the West Bank also serves to highlight contemporary disputes over ownership rights, and concerns about history being erased.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was concerned about Kanye West's planned appearances at a London festival, given the rapper's past antisemitic remarks.

No injuries were reported and a suspect was not located following a search of the area, the Secret Service said.

The Emmy-winning co-creator of "Schitt's Creek" talks about his new sitcom, "Big Mistakes," the story of a New Jersey pastor and his sister who fall into a relationship with organized crime.

Two Premier League teams, both fighting relegation threats, face off for a place at Wembley.

Trump gives further details on rescue and threatens to bomb infrastructure if strait of Hormuz is not reopened

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The second crew member of a downed F-15E fighter jet has been rescued from an Iranian mountain by US commandos overnight, ending a two-day search after the warplane crashed in south-west Iran.

The crew member, a colonel and weapons systems officer, had been wounded but was successfully rescued from a mountain hideout by US special forces, Donald Trump first announced in a social media post soon after midnight.

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

This week’s replies: has a call for restraint from an authority figure ever put a stop to war?

I always say please and thank you to my Alexa. Why is this? I am sure it doesn’t care. Is it worth being polite to artificial assistants? Alison Williams, Toronto

Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday.

Our survey finds that 20% of 2024 Trump voters are considering abandoning Republicans in 2028. But the picture isn’t rosy for Democrats either

A new survey offers some novel insight into Trump’s corroding coalition.

The survey, which I (Abbott) conducted with the scholar and author Joan C Williams, sampled about 1,940 Trump voters and captured the attitudes of the broad coalition that brought Trump to the White House in 2024. Respondents were asked if they intended to vote Republican in the 2028 presidential election and, in particular, their views on immigration – Trump’s strongest issue.

Jared Abbott is the director of the Center for Working-Class Politics. Dustin Guastella is a research associate at the Center for Working Class Politics and the director of operations for Teamsters Local 623

Elections seem top-of-mind for the Maha movement as key polling indicates anti-vaccine views are a liability

US health officials appear to be shying away from voicing negative views of vaccines in public as November’s midterm elections loom and key polling indicates anti-vaccine views are a liability.

Health officials have made unprecedented changes to routine vaccine recommendations in the past year – slashing one-third of the US childhood schedule, including the recommendation for hepatitis B immunization at birth. But even before a federal judge essentially invalidated these moves, officials haven’t championed their dramatic changes after Donald Trump’s pollsters recommended veering away from anti-vaccine ideology ahead of the midterms.

Trump’s venal persona and his war on Iran will do untold damage to America’s ability to make a positive difference in the world

Early one Sunday morning in the summer of 2003, I drove into the center of a little South African beach town on the Indian Ocean to pick up the Cape papers. Local news agents still employed the English custom of putting front pages on A-frame stands on the sidewalk. It was during the first months of the Iraq war, and from two blocks away, I could see the headline, in big block type: “WHY BUSH IS WORSE THAN BIN LADEN.”

It was disheartening to see – especially so far from home – but it did correspond to something familiar: American favorability around the world tends to swing sharply with wars (especially ones America starts) and who the US president is. Within weeks of the American attack, the international support the US had after 9/11 was squandered.

EAMON BONSALL
Opinion Columnist

As someone who only recently developed an interest in horror media, I once believed that anything under the thriller umbrella was just the same story retextured with different special effects and a shiny new camera. 

However, my first experience with horror movies changed this idea for me. In 2023, during my junior year of high school, I rented a movie called “Us,” written and directed by Jordan Peele.

Peele’s film changed everything for me. In the movie, a mother goes on vacation with her husband and children, and chaos ensues shortly after they arrive. While some may see it as a simple psycho killer movie, depth and cultural context are layered beneath the surface.

The film delves deep into the pains of everyday life for the underprivileged. To the viewer, the film asks: if you had one opportunity to change your circumstances, however reprehensible it may be, would you take it? 

As humans, we are victims of our own envy. We are also victims of terror at the idea that our entire lives would change if we had just made one different choice. Peele’s “Us” exposes this fear to the audience and forces us to confront it — that our lives may be better if we had taken a parallel course.

To provide a more current example, I recently watched the award-winning film “Sinners,” written and directed by Ryan Coogler. The film explores twin brothers Smoke and Stack as they try to make a living in the Mississippi Delta during the Jim Crow era. 

While the film explores a relatively well-known villain trope (vampires), the cultural backdrop of “Sinners” creates a rich story of the prejudice and disenfranchisement African Americans faced after slavery was abolished in the United States.

A beautiful film visually, the plot is also perfectly orchestrated, accurately portraying the trials and tribulations of people of color in the South during the early 1800s. At the beginning of the movie, Smoke and Stack aim to escape from a life of crime, and by the end, their only obstacle is to survive. 

Oftentimes, the horror genre is awarded little to no recognition in the Academy Awards. “The Silence of the Lambs” is the only horror film to have won Best Picture, although others have been nominated. 

Hopefully, with the record-breaking success and nominations of “Sinners,” maybe the academy will be more open to recognizing horror/thriller films and all of the nuances that they introduce. 

It’s difficult to use the Academy Awards as a barometer for what makes a good movie, as the academy has long been criticized for a lack of diversity and choice of winners. Yet, it’s undeniable that the academy’s influence still makes its way down to the general audience, opening them up to new film experiences. 

Unfortunately, the lack of acknowledgement in the horror genre also permeates the literary scene. Horror novels, while not exactly appropriate to teach in grade school, are important to study just as much as any other genre. 

Some would argue that the core purpose of literature is to elicit a reaction from the reader. Comedy novels make us laugh, dystopian novels make us feel better about our own lives and horror novels inspire fear. 

“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley is one of the few widely recognized novels in the horror genre. “Frankenstein” is about our ability as human creatures to go too far with our ambition. It’s a truly deep and important novel to discuss, but it’s not the only one worthy of discussion.

One example of this is Megan Giddings’ debut novel, “Lakewood.” The story revolves around Lena Johnson, a young black woman who takes a lucrative research position in the hopes of providing for her family, only to find out that the experiments are not what she expected. 

“Lakewood” is not only an extremely well-written novel, but also a social commentary about the medical mistreatment of Black people in the U.S. Giddings uses fear as an instrument to put the reader in the mind of Lena, experiencing the pain of many mistreated Black patients. 

The main reason why these novels and films aren’t awarded the same appreciation as other genres is the implication of horror media. Many see the genre as a cheap scheme, when it is actually the literary and cinematic embodiment of our deepest, darkest terrors right in front of our eyes.

Eamon Bonsall is an opinion columnist at The Review. His opinions are his own and do not represent the majority opinion of The Review staff. He may be reached at ebons@udel.edu.

Exclusive: Animal welfare charities ‘bitterly disappointed’ UK government plans to backtrack on manifesto promises

• This article contains an image of a duck being force-fed that some readers may find upsetting

The UK government is to break a manifesto commitment to ban foie gras imports, and has declined to stop fur imports, after the EU made these red lines in its discussions for a trade deal.

Animal welfare charities say they are “bitterly disappointed” that ministers are failing to use powers granted by Brexit to restrict the import of these “cruel” items.

Nu Stadium’s first game of any kind saw the South Florida club accomplish a long-held goal barely under the deadline

Lionel Messi may have scored, captained the side and had a quarter of the new building named in his honor, but this was unmistakably Inter Miami co-owner Sir David Beckham’s night.

The inaugural game at Nu Stadium in Miami – an entertaining 2-2 draw with Austin FC – was the culmination of the former England captain’s arduous, thirteen-year odyssey to first establish an MLS team in Miami, then fill it with superstars, win major honors and, critically, build a world class arena for the team to play in.

No injuries reported and no suspect found after a search of park and surrounding area, agency says

The US Secret Service said on Sunday it was investigating reports of overnight gunfire near Lafayette Park, which is across the street from the White House.

No injuries were reported and no suspect was found after a search of the park and the surrounding area after midnight, the agency said in an online post.

• Former world champions may finally meet in the ring

• Eddie Hearn says Joshua is ready for fight after car crash

Deontay Wilder called out Anthony Joshua for a long-awaited matchup between the former heavyweight champions, after Wilder edged Derek Chisora to clinch a split-decision victory in London on Saturday.

Wilder came face to face with Joshua as he walked past the Briton after the fight. The two fist-bumped, and the American said: “Let’s do it. It wasn’t a few words, I dapped it up with him and I said, now let’s get it on. I’m ready for whoever, [as] long as these guys are in the heavyweight division, I am here. You can call me Mr Clean, because I want to clean up the whole division. The division is nothing without Deontay Wilder.”

The service marked the family's first appearance together since the arrest of former Prince Andrew.

Walker Smith, 54, who worked for retailer for 17 years, says he grabbed bag from thief before they escaped

A Waitrose employee of 17 years has described his devastation after being sacked for stopping a shoplifter who had ransacked a display of Lindt Gold Bunny Easter eggs.

Walker Smith, a shop assistant at a branch of Waitrose in Clapham Junction, south London, was going about his normal duties when a customer stopped him. “They told me someone had filled up a Waitrose bag with the eggs,” he said.

Commentary: NASA is sending four astronauts farther into space than any humans have ever traveled. But there's a much deeper subtext about what it all means.

A U.S. crew member who went missing when an F-15E fighter jet was shot down over a remote area of Iran has been rescued by U.S. forces.

Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff, urging hope against the violence of war.

The following is the full transcript of an interview with Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore, which will air on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on April 5, 2026.

Wellll, no dice... New thermistors in, board on the balcony for a few hours at +6 C and almost immediately triggered the same fault. Battery temp at that moment +11 C.

If anyone has some more pointers or measurements to take to narrow it down, please let me know. I'll be disassembling it again today or tomorrow :(

Also, any working BMS on offer?

Thanks!

The chatbots' answers may not always be right, but they can let you know what problems to watch out for.

The most affordable Samsung and Google flagship models are closer than ever, but the $100 price difference does make for a few key differences. Here's how they stack up.

Letters to US agency raise concerns over tech firms’ plans to use reflective satellites and expand numbers in low Earth orbit

Proposals to deploy reflective mirrors and up to 1m more satellites in low Earth orbit could have far-reaching consequences for human health and ecosystems, leading sleep and circadian rhythm researchers have said.

Presidents of four international scientific societies representing about 2,500 researchers from more than 30 countries are among those who have raised concerns in letters to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Ministry clarifies clause affecting those up to age 45 that is part of legislation that came into effect in January

A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has caused uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime.

The legislation, which went into effect on 1 January, aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription.

"Canonical is no longer pretending that 4GB is enough," writes the blog How-to-Geek, noting Ubuntu 26.04 LTS "raises the baseline memory to 6GB, alongside a 2GHz dual-core processor, and 25GB of storage..." Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) set the floor at 1GB — a modest ask when it launched more than a decade ago in 2014. Then came the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) that pushed the number to 4GB, surviving quite well in the era of 16GB being considered standard for mid-range laptops.... Ubuntu's new minimum requirement lands in an interesting spot when compared against Windows 11. Microsoft's operating system requires just 4GB RAM, although real-world usage often tells a different story. Usually, 8GB is considered the sweet spot to handle modern apps and multitasking. The blog OMG Ubuntu argues this change is "not because Ubuntu requires 2GB more memory than it did, but more the way we compute does." it's more of an honesty bump. Components that make up the distro — the GNOME desktop and extensions, modern web browsers (and the sites we load in them) and the kinds of apps we use (and keep running) whilst multitasking are more demanding... The Resolute Raccoon's memory requirements better reflect real-world multitasking. Ubuntu 26.04 LTS can be installed on devices with less than 6GB RAM (but not less than 25GB of disk space). The experience may not be as smooth or as responsive as developers intend (so you don't get to complain), but it will work. I installed Ubuntu 26.04 Beta on a laptop with just 2 GB of memory — slow to the point of frustration in use, but otherwise functional. If you have a device with 4 GB RAM and you can't upgrade (soldered memory is a thing, and e-waste can be avoided), then alternatives exist. Many Ubuntu flavours, like Lubuntu, have lower system requirements than the main edition. Plus, there's always the manual option using the Ubuntu netboot installer to install a base system and then built out a more minimal system from there.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This week's guests include NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland and Timothy Broglio, who heads the Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA.

The No Kings protests affirmed widespread opposition to Trump’s actions. As the midterms approach, we have an opportunity

Last weekend, millions of us once again affirmed the foundation of the common good.

Across America, people showed their solidarity – in opposition to Trump’s ill-considered war in Iran, with immigrants being targeted by ICE and border patrol agents, with current and former public officials whom Trump is prosecuting, with the students and universities whose freedom to learn and speak continues to be threatened by Trump, in favor of the earth and stopping climate change, and with every American who’s determined to reject dictatorship.

Target vulnerable Republican senators and House members. Either get them to switch parties or become independents who caucus with Democrats, or flip their seats.

Republican majorities are razor-thin in both chambers, and some Republicans who represent purple districts and states are struggling to keep their Republican supporters behind them. (They’re also struggling with their own consciences in continuing to support Trump’s authoritarian fascism.)

Begin organizing and mobilizing now to get out the vote for November’s midterm elections – aiming for Democratic takeovers of both chambers of Congress by wide margins, which will severely limit what Trump can do after January 2027.

The key will be to get out the vote. Make a plan. Use phone trees. Write postcards. Arrange transportation for people who need it.

Root out and challenge any Trump Republican attempt to intimidate likely Democratic voters or manipulate the election process.

It’s important that neither Trump nor his state lapdogs diminish the turnout of likely Democratic voters in the weeks leading up to the November midterms – by stationing federal agents near polling places, interfering with the counting or certifying of ballots, or altering laws and rules to make it harder to vote.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK

Prosecutors say Anthony Odiong exploited his parishioners’ emotional dependency to engage in sexual conduct with them

A Roman Catholic priest with ties to Texas and south-east Louisiana and criminally charged with abusing his position as a clergyman to pursue sex with three spiritually vulnerable female congregants faces being taken to trial on all of those cases at once.

The Texas district attorney’s office prosecuting Anthony Odiong filed a motion seeking to consolidate the three cases in late March, ahead of a trial date that the Guardian understands has tentatively been set for 4 May. Prepared by McLennan county first assistant district attorney Ryan Calvert, the motion notes that Texas state law allows “a defendant [to] be prosecuted in a single criminal action” if the crimes alleged “are connected or … are the repeated commission of the same or similar offenses”.

Man working for V2X died in night attack as five sources say they are being placed in harm’s way

A man employed by the US defense contractor V2X has been killed in a drone attack on Erbil airbase, amid concerns from colleagues that they are being placed in harm’s way and pressured to remain in Iraq despite security risks, five sources said.

The worker, from Kenya, died in a night attack in his sleeping quarters on the base on 24 March. Another five workers were injured. They are from Kenya and India, and are among a group of about 45 workers employed by V2X who have remained on the base. One of the workers is in a critical condition with severe burns, sources said.

In April 1976, the flawless Watergate film premiered in Washington – cast members and reporters share their memories of ‘the granddaddy of journalism movies’

The rustle of a notepad. The click of a pen lid. On a floral-patterned sofa sits Dustin Hoffman with long hair, big collar and a lean and hungry look. Opposite is Jane Alexander, wearing a blue button-down dress, cornered and nervous in the glow of a table lamp. In this taut, claustrophobic acting masterclass, no detail is too small.

“The makeup artists ran in because the sweat was pouring off Dustin’s face,” Alexander recalls with a laugh. “Gordon [Willis, cinematographer] said, ‘Don’t touch that, I’m lighting off his sweat!’ I love that.”

This updated Instax adds a self-timer, but otherwise, it keeps it simple and inexpensive for those who want to dip their toes in instant film photography.

The energy crisis sparked by the war is making some countries consider ramping up their use of dirty fuels

Not two months in office, as the price of west Texas crude approached $14 a barrel, Jimmy Carter, then president, donned a cardigan to speak candidly about his strategy to face the permanent energy shortage he saw in the nation’s future.

His “fireside chat” is mostly remembered for asking Americans to lower the thermostat to 65F(18C) in the daytime and 55F at night, an idea that didn’t go down too well in the bitter winter of 1977.

Average traditional funeral now costs £4,623, up 1.3% since January, says report from Pure Cremation

The war in Iran is pushing up the cost of living in the UK but it is also driving up the “cost of dying” as higher gas prices feed through to funerals.

A report has found the average cost of a funeral in Britain is running ahead of inflation, with the war seemingly partly to blame as it has pushed up the price of gas used in crematoriums.

Industry with business model not yet firmly established and investments financed by huge debts is particularly at risk

Donald Trump’s most immediate concern in demanding Iran reopen the strait of Hormuz may be rocketing US gasoline prices, but if the conflict drags on, higher energy costs will be felt far beyond the pumps.

Systemically higher power prices and fractured supply chains will squeeze industries and consumers worldwide. For the US, one consequence may be to threaten the fragile economics of the AI boom.

Beekeeping? Astronomy? AI has some ideas for ways that you can spend your downtime.

Nicole Daedone, who promised spiritual wellbeing through her OneTaste enterprise, received a nine-year sentence but some question if freedom of thought is being criminalized

Clitoral stimulation as a path to spiritual connection, mental clarity and emotional wellbeing has been practiced for millennia. After being convicted on forced labor conspiracy charges related to the practice (and getting sentenced to nine years by a Brooklyn court last week), Nicole Daedone was given the opportunity to address the court.

Known as the “The Oracle” of OneTaste, a trademarked orgasmic meditation enterprise that extolled the benefits of hours of arousal, Daedone, 57, swiveled her chair toward the public gallery, smiled broadly, and said: “No.”

Play calming sounds, like rain or ocean waves, to help create a peaceful and serene sleep environment.

Cultural figures sign open letter asking government for clarity on how long landmark collection will remain abroad

One of the world’s most important collections of 20th-century Mexican art, including works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, is set to be exported to Spain under an agreement with Banco Santander, sparking outrage among Mexico’s cultural community.

Nearly 400 cultural professionals have signed an open letter calling on the Mexican government to offer greater clarity on what the deal means for the masterpieces, particularly the works by Kahlo, which the Mexican state has declared an “artistic monument”.

Some major retailers and other stores will close their doors on Easter, so it's best to plan ahead. Here's what to know.

After the U.S.-Israeli campaign struck Iranian universities, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps called American schools in the Middle East “legitimate targets.”

Viktor Orban, who has built strong ties to the MAGA movement and the Kremlin, faces a tough electoral challenge from center-right candidate Peter Magyar on April 12.

Animosity from the White House has taken on new meaning amid an imminent sale to David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance, fueling anxiety among journalists.

Shirine Khoury-Haq and other managers did not receive annual bonus after damaging cyber-attack in 2025

The former boss of the Co-op collected almost £2m before her sudden departure last month despite a difficult year when the retailer was pushed into the red by a damaging cyber hack.

Shirine Khoury-Haq’s total annual pay package amounted to £1.9m in 2025, including a £165,000 “rewarding growth” bonus that was approved by the mutual’s board despite falling sales and the slide to an underlying loss of £125m.

Unlike Trump’s cronies in the White House, outside voices are not so easily disciplined. There’s a lesson here for all future political movements

If you spend enough time swiping online, you may have seen skits by the American comedian and influencer Druski (real name Drew Desbordes), in which he parodies everything from Republican patriots to flashy mega churches. Once again, he has exploded on social media channels with a skit satirising “conservative women in America”, a nakedly targeted roast of Erika Kirk, now the CEO of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) after her husband, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated last year.

Predictably, it has drawn conservative backlash, with Ted Cruz calling the video “beneath contempt”. But Desbordes is far from the only one mocking Erika Kirk. Her entrances to the Charlie Kirk memorial and TPUSA’s AmericaFest have been widely memed online for their surreal, WrestleMania-like production and pyrotechnics. In fact, much of the opprobrium comes from her own side. Far-right live streamer Nick Fuentes has disparaged Kirk’s public appearances after her husband’s death (“she looks like she’s over the moon”), and commentator and conspiracy theorist Candace Owens, a former darling of TPUSA, repeatedly takes aim at her (Owens describes Druski’s skit as “hilarious”).

Jason Okundaye is an assistant Opinion editor at the Guardian

Apple's 50th anniversary got celebrated in weird and wild ways. CEO Tim Cook posted a special 30-second video rewinding backwards through the years of Apple's products until it reaches the Apple I. Podcaster Lex Fridman noticed if you play the sound in reverse, "It's the Think Different ad music, pitched up." TechRadar played seven 50-year-old Apple I games on an emulator, including Star Trek, Blackjack, Lunar Lander, and of course, Conway's Game of Life. And Macworld ranked Apple's 50 most influential people. (Their top five?) 5. Tony Fadell (iPhone co-creator/"father of the iPod") 4. Sir Jony Ive 3. Steve Wozniak 2. Tim Cook 1. Steve Jobs One of the most thoughtful celebraters was David Pogue, who's spent 42 years of writing about Apple (starting as a MacWorld columnist and the author of Mac for Dummies, one of the first "...For Dummies" books ever published in the early 1990s.) Now 63 years old, Pogue spent the last two years working on a 608-page hardcover book titled Apple: The First 50 Years. But on his Substack Pogue, contemplated his own history with the company — including several interactions with Steve Jobs. Pogue remembers how Jobs "hated open systems. He wanted to make self-contained, beautiful machines. He didn't want them polluted by modifications." The tech blog Daring Fireball notes that Pogue actually interviewed Scott Forstall (who'd led the iPhone's software development team) for his new book, "and got this story, about just how far Steve Jobs thought Apple could go to expand the iPhone's software library while not opening it to third-party developers." "I want you to make a list of every app any customer would ever want to use," he told Forstall. "And then the two of us will prioritize that list. And then I'm going to write you a blank check, and you are going to build the largest development team in the history of the world, to build as many apps as you can as quickly as possible." Forstall, dubious, began composing a list. But on the side, he instructed his engineers to build the security foundations of an app store into the iPhone's software-"against Steve's knowledge and wishes," Forstall says. [...] Two weeks after the iPhone's release, someone figured out how to "jailbreak" the iPhone: to hack it so that they could install custom apps. Jobs burst into Forstall's office. "You have to shut this down!" But Forstall didn't see the harm of developers spending their efforts making the iPhone better. "If they add something malicious, we'll ship an update tomorrow to protect against that. But if all they're doing is adding apps that are useful, there's no reason to break that." Jobs, troubled, reluctantly agreed. Week by week, more cool apps arrived, available only to jailbroken phones. One day in October, Jobs read an article about some of the coolest ones. "You know what?" he said. "We should build an app store." Forstall, delighted, revealed his secret plan. He had followed in the footsteps of Burrell Smith (the Mac's memory-expansion circuit) and Bob Belleville (the Sony floppy-drive deal): He'd disobeyed Jobs and wound up saving the project. In fact, the book "includes new interviews with 150 key people who made the journey, including Steve Wozniak, John Sculley, Jony Ive, and many current designers, engineers, and executives" (according to its description on Amazon). Pogue's book even revisits the story of Steve Jobs proving an iPod prototype could be smaller by tossing it into an aquarium, shouting "If there's air bubbles in there, there's still room. Make it smaller!" But Pogue's book "added that there's a caveat to this compelling bit of Apple lore," reports NPR. "It never actually happened. It's just one more Apple myth."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

After forgetting the nibbles, refusing my costume requests and emailing GCHQ, ‘Gaskell’ did at least get us to show up

Two weeks ago, an AI bot invited me to a party it was organising in Manchester. It then promptly lied to dozens of potential sponsors that I’d agreed to cover the event, and misled me into believing there would be food.

Despite all this, it was a pretty good night.

When Harold Allen died suddenly in his home in Freetown, Indiana, no one suspected anything out of the ordinary. Nine months later, a burglary at his home would lead to a murder investigation and an unusual weapon.

Cornerstone of the UK’s Employment Rights Act ‘in danger of becoming a dead duck’, says Unite boss

The government has asked its new employment rights watchdog to reduce the regulatory burden on business, it has emerged, a request that worker advocates said risks turning the agency into “a dead duck”.

The Fair Work Agency (FWA), which is being launched on Tuesday, is a cornerstone of Labour’s Employment Rights Act. It will bring together several existing labour enforcement bodies and its responsibilities will include policing the minimum wage, holiday pay and modern slavery.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for April 5, No. 763.

Market volatility caused by Middle East conflict exposes energy traders to heavy losses and rumours of insider trading at the highest level

On the weekend that US-Israeli drones first began to rain down on Tehran, energy traders across the world’s major financial centres began to redraw their strategies.

When they returned to their trading desks on that March Monday morning, they found oil and gas prices spiking amid a market nightmare made real: the unprecedented shutdown of the vital trade route through the strait of Hormuz.

Ofcom data points to more passive consumption amid changes to apps and fears about mental health and past posts

Posting significant events in your life, from birthdays to weddings and promotions, is a social media staple. But Jenny, like many other Britons recently, has hesitated over contributing to the infinite scroll.

“I wouldn’t have even posted my wedding really,” she says. “But I had to because … There’s like an etiquette. Nobody else can post your wedding until you’ve posted. So my friends were like: ‘Please post, it’s been like a week.’”

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 5 #1029

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 5.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 5 No. 559.

• Wolverines and Huskies will meet for championship

• UConn top Illinois to reach third title game in four years

Michigan overpowered Arizona early and humbled the Wildcats, turning the Final Four meeting, billed as the ‘Game of the Year’, into a 91-73 Wolverines highlight reel in Indianapolis.

Junior center Aday Mara scored a career-high 26 points and had nine rebounds, a dinged-up Yaxel Lendeborg had 11 points in 14 minutes and Michigan blew through their fifth straight March Madness opponent by double digits while becoming the first team to break 90 points five times in a single tournament.

"Hackers briefly turned a widely trusted developer tool into a vehicle for credential-stealing malware that could give attackers ongoing access to infected systems," the news site Axios.com reported Tuesday, citing security researchers at Google. The compromised package — also named axios — simplifies HTTP requests, and reportedly receives millions of downloads each day: The malicious versions were removed within roughly three hours of being published, but Google warned the incident could have "far-reaching impacts" given the package's widespread use, according to John Hultquist, chief analyst at Google Threat Intelligence Group. Wiz estimates Axios is downloaded roughly 100 million times per week and is present in about 80% of cloud and code environments. So far, Wiz has observed the malicious versions in roughly 3% of the environments it has scanned. Friday PCMag notes the maintainer's compromised account had two-factor authentication enabled, with the breach ultimately traced "to an elaborate AI deepfake from suspected North Korean hackers that was convincing enough to trick a developer into installing malware," according to a post-mortem published Thursday by lead developer Jason Saayman: [Saayman] fell for a scheme from a North Korean hacking group, dubbed UNC1069, which involves sending out phishing messages and then hosting virtual meetings that use AI deepfakes to clone the face and voices of real executives. The virtual meetings will then create the impression of an audio problem, which can only be "solved" if the victim installs some software or runs a troubleshooting command. In reality, it's an effort to execute malware. The North Koreans have been using the tactic repeatedly, whether it be to phish cryptocurrency firms or to secure jobs from IT companies. Saayman said he faced a similar playbook. "They reached out masquerading as the founder of a company, they had cloned the company's founders likeness as well as the company itself," he wrote. "They then invited me to a real Slack workspace. This workspace was branded... The Slack was thought out very well, they had channels where they were sharing LinkedIn posts. The LinkedIn posts I presume just went to the real company's account, but it was super convincing etc." The hackers then invited him to a virtual meeting on Microsoft Teams. "The meeting had what seemed to be a group of people that were involved. The meeting said something on my system was out of date. I installed the missing item as I presumed it was something to do with Teams, and this was the remote access Trojan," he added. "Everything was extremely well coordinated, looked legit and was done in a professional manner." Friday developer security platform Socket wrote that several more maintainers in the Node.js ecosystem "have come out of the woodwork to report that they were targeted by the same social engineering campaign." The accounts now span some of the most widely depended-upon packages in the npm registry and Node.js core itself, and together they confirm that axios was not a one-off target. It was part of a coordinated, scalable attack pattern aimed at high-trust, high-impact open source maintainers. Attackers also targeted several Socket engineers, including CEO Feross Aboukhadijeh. Feross is the creator of WebTorrent, StandardJS, buffer, and dozens of widely used npm packages with billions of downloads... Commenting on the axios post-mortem thread, he noted that this type of targeting [against individual maintainers] is no longer unusual... "We're seeing them across the ecosystem and they're only accelerating." Jordan Harband, John-David Dalton, and other Socket engineers also confirmed they were targeted. Harband, a TC39 member, maintains hundreds of ECMAScript polyfills and shims that are foundational to the JavaScript ecosystem. Dalton is the creator of Lodash, which sees more than 137 million weekly downloads on npm. Between them, the packages they maintain are downloaded billions of times each month. Wes Todd, an Express TC member and member of the Node Package Maintenance Working Group, also confirmed he was targeted. Matteo Collina, co-founder and CTO of Platformatic, Node.js Technical Steering Committee Chair, and lead maintainer of Fastify, Pino, and Undici, disclosed on April 2 that he was also targeted. His packages also see billion downloads per year... Scott Motte, creator of dotenv, the package used by virtually every Node.js project that handles environment variables, with more than 114 million weekly downloads, also confirmed he was targeted using the same Openfort persona. Socket reports that another maintainer was targetted with an invitation to appear on a podcast. (During the recording a suspicious technical issue appeared which required a software fix to resolve....) Even just technical implementation, "This is among the most operationally sophisticated supply chain attacks ever documented against a top-10 npm package," the CI/CD security company StepSecurity wrote Tuesday The dropper contacts a live command-and-control server, delivers separate second-stage payloads for macOS, Windows, and Linux, then erases itself and replaces its own package.json with a clean decoy... Three payloads were pre-built for three operating systems. Both release branches were poisoned within 39 minutes of each other. Every artifact was designed to self-destruct. Within two seconds of npm install, the malware was already calling home to the attacker's server before npm had even finished resolving dependencies... Both versions were published using the compromised npm credentials of a lead axios maintainer, bypassing the project's normal GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline. "As preventive steps, Saayman has now outlined several changes," reports The Hacker News, "including resetting all devices and credentials, setting up immutable releases, adopting OIDC flow for publishing, and updating GitHub Actions to adopt best practices." The Wall Street Journal called it "the latest in a string of incidents exposing risks in the systems that underpin how modern software is built."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This live blog is now closed. Our coverage of the Middle East crisis continues here

Iran has executed two men convicted of membership in a banned opposition group and carrying out disruptive actions aimed at overthrowing the Islamic republic, the judiciary said.

The executions on Saturday were the latest in a series targeting members of the banned People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), after four other convicted members of the group were executed earlier in the week.

At least 15 people injured in incident with authorities saying some of the injuries believed to be serious

At least 15 people were injured on Saturday after an alleged drunk driver ploughed into pedestrians at a Louisiana parade celebrating the Lao New Year. Some of the injuries are believed to be serious, authorities said.

Louisiana State Police said a man had been charged with driving while impaired, 18 counts of first-degree negligent injuring and careless operation, after the incident in New Iberia.

Nine days ago Microsoft released a non-security "preview" update for Windows 11 — not mandatory for the average Windows user, notes ZDNet, "but rather as optional, more for IT admins and power users who want to test them." TechRepublic adds that the update "was to bring 'production-ready improvements' and generally ensure system stability by optimizing different Windows services." So it's ironic that some (but not all) users reported instead that the update "blocks users at the door, refusing to install or crashing midway through the process." "It apparently impacted enough people to force Microsoft to take action," writes ZDNet. "Microsoft paused and then pulled the update," and then Tuesday released a new update "designed to replace the glitchy one. This one includes all the new features and improvements from the previous preview update, but also fixes the installation issues that clobbered that update." Meanwhile, as Windows 11 version 24H2 approaches its end of life this October, Microsoft is now force-updating users to the latest version, reports BleepingComputer: "The machine learning-based intelligent rollout has expanded to all devices running Home and Pro editions of Windows 11, version 24H2 that are not managed by IT departments," Microsoft said in a Monday update to the Windows release health dashboard... "No action is required, and you can choose when to restart your device or postpone the update." Neowin reports: The good news is that the update from version 24H2 to 25H2 is a minor enablement package, as the two operating systems share the same codebase. As such, the update won't take long, and you should not encounter any disruptions, compatibility issues, or previously unseen bugs... Microsoft recently promised to implement big changes in how Windows Update works, including the ability to postpone updates for as long as you want. However, Microsoft has yet to clarify if that includes staying on a release beyond its support period. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader Ol Olsoc for sharing the news.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Officials said the incident does not appear to be an intentional act based on a preliminary investigation.

An emergency motion argues that the pause on construction leaves the White House ‘open and exposed’. Key US politics stories from Saturday 4 April at a glance

A judge’s order to stop construction work on the White House ballroom poses security risks, the Trump administration argued in an emergency motion that seeks to set aside the ruling.

The emergency motion argues that US district judge Richard Leon’s decision has left the executive mansion “open and exposed” and is “threatening grave national-security harms to the White House, the President and his family, and the President’s staff”.

Amid ongoing toilet trouble, the Artemis II astronauts reflected on the wonder of sailing through deep space to the moon.

According to numbers from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, more than 70% of H-1B visa holders in 2024 were Indian.

The war shows no signs of slowing as Iran responds to airstrikes with attacks across the region.

• Wilder wins heavyweight contest on split decision

• British boxer earns hero’s reception in final fight

Deontay Wilder consigned the British heavyweight Derek Chisora to defeat in his final bout but only after an exhilarating fight-of-the-year contender at a raucous O₂ Arena. In the 50th bout of Chisora’s eventful professional career, Del Boy showed remarkable powers of recovery to come back from a punishing eighth round and take the former WBC champion the distance in south-east London.

After the American showed early on the power that once made him one of the most formidable punchers in heavyweight history, Chisora’s farewell threatened to turned into a nightmare during a one-sided start.

A former U.S. spy spoke to The New Yorker about "years of clandestine work for the C.I.A. — which, he said, had 'prevented Iran from getting a nuke'." [Kevin] Chalker told me that, as he understood it, the Pentagon had suggested running commando operations to kill key Iranian scientists, as Israel subsequently did. But the C.I.A. proposed recruiting those scientists to defect, as U.S. spies had once courted Soviet physicists. Chalker paraphrased the agency's pitch: "We can debrief them and learn so much more — and, if they say no, then you can kill them." (A more senior agency official confirmed the broad strokes of his account.) The White House liked the agency's idea, and [president George W.] Bush authorized the C.I.A. to conduct clandestine operations to stop Iran from building a bomb. The C.I.A. program that Chalker described to me became publicly known in 2007, when the Los Angeles Times reported on the existence of an agency project called Brain Drain. But the details of the "invitations" to Iranian scientists have not previously been reported... Chalker typically had about ten minutes to explain, as gently as possible, that he was from the C.I.A., that he had the power to secure the scientist and his family a comfortable new life in the U.S. — and that, if the offer was rejected, the scientist, regrettably, would be assassinated. (Chalker tried to emphasize the happier potential outcome.) Killing a civilian scientist would violate international law. The American government has denied ever doing it, and I found no evidence that the U.S. has carried out any such murders. A former senior agency official familiar with the Brain Drain project told me all that mattered was that Iranian scientists had believed they would be killed, regardless of whether the U.S. actually made good on the threat. And Israel had been conducting a campaign to assassinate Iranian scientists, which made the prospect of lethal reprisal highly plausible. Other former officials with knowledge of the project told me that the C.I.A. sometimes shared intelligence with Mossad which enabled its operatives to locate and kill a scientist. Such information exchanges were kept vague enough to preserve deniability if a more legalistic U.S. Administration later took office... [Chalker] is confident that those who rebuffed him were, in fact, killed — one way or another... One of Chalker's colleagues told me that, against the backdrop of so many Israeli assassinations, Chalker's interactions with Iranian scientists could almost be considered humanitarian — he had been "throwing them a lifeline." Of the many scientists he approached, three-quarters ultimately agreed to coöperate. Their 10,000-word article suggests Chalker may now be resentful the CIA didn't help him in a later unrelated lawsuit, noting it's "nearly unheard of for ex-spies to divulge their past activities." But Chalker also says he "helped obtain pivotal information that laid the groundwork for more than a decade of American efforts to disrupt the Iranian nuclear-weapons program, from the Stuxnet cyberattacks, which occurred around 2010 [destroying 1,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges], to the Obama Administration's nuclear deal, in 2015, to the U.S. air strikes on Iranian atomic-energy facilities in the summer of 2025."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Total of four, including 17-year-old boy, in police custody after fatal incident in Cudworth area on Friday evening

Two further suspects, including a 17-year-old boy, have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a fatal collision in Barnsley on Friday afternoon.

This comes after two people, a 60-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman, were arrested earlier in the day on suspicion of murder after a man died after a collision in the Cudworth area of Barnsley. These two suspects remain in custody.

Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne, Chamique Holdsclaw and the 1996 U.S. Olympic women's basketball team will be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame later this year.

Slashdot reader Kirkman14 writes: A year before the Web opened to the public, Texas entrepreneur Don Lokke was trying to syndicate weekly political cartoons to bulletin board systems. His "telecomics," as he called them, represent an overlooked early experiment in online comics. Lokke launched his main series, "Mack the Mouse" at the height of the 1992 Clinton-Bush-Perot presidential race. His mouse protagonist voiced the frustrations felt by everyday Americans about rising taxes and the recession. Lokke gave away "Mack" for free, but sold subscriptions to his other telecomics, betting sysops would pay for exclusive content. The timing wasn't crazy: enthusiasm for BBSes as an industry was surging, with conferences like ONE BBSCON promoting "BBSing for profit." But the Web soon deflated those hopes, and Lokke left BBSes behind in 1995. Decades later, about half of his nearly 300 telecomics were recovered and preserved on 16colors.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Charities suggest ‘gendered understanding’ of crime means services often fail to recognise girls and young women as victims

An increasing number of girls are being identified as victims of county lines exploitation, figures have shown.

Data from Catch22, the charity that provides the national county lines support service, said girls and young women formed 22% of its caseload in 2025, up from 15% the previous year.

Archbishop of Canterbury to issue urgent call for peace, as PM exhorts Britons to ‘choose community over division’

Religious and political leaders in the UK are highlighting the conflict in the Middle East in their Easter messages, calling for “peace, justice and freedom” in the region.

The archbishop of Canterbury will deliver her first Easter sermon at Canterbury Cathedral on Sunday as the Church of England’s top bishop. Dame Sarah Mullally will call “with renewed urgency” for peace in the Middle East and pray for “an end to the violence and destruction” in the region.

Crimson, seen alone in Santa Monica mountains for days, gets care in Oakland zoo after mother nowhere to be found

It was an unusual scene. A lion cub alone for days in southern California’s sprawling Santa Monica mountains, emitting a noise that sounded like a cross between a purr and a light squeal, perhaps calling out for his mother.

Where was his mother?

MarketWatch looks at "surveillance wages," pay rates "based not on an employee's performance or seniority, but on formulas that use their personal data, often collected without employees' knowledge." According to Nina DiSalvo, policy director at labor advocacy group Towards Justice, some systems use signals associated with financial vulnerability — including data on whether a prospective employee has taken out a payday loan or has a high credit-card balance — to infer the lowest pay a candidate might accept. Companies can also scrape candidates' public personal social-media pages, she said... A first-of-its-kind audit of 500 labor-management artificial-intelligence companies by Veena Dubal, a law professor at University of California, Irvine, and Wilneida Negrón, a tech strategist, found that employers in the healthcare, customer service, logistics and retail industries are customers of vendors whose tools are designed to enable this practice. Published by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a progressive economic think tank, the August 2025 report... does not claim that all employers using these systems engage in algorithmic wage surveillance. Instead, it warns that the growing use of algorithmic tools to analyze workers' personal data can enable pay practices that prioritize cost-cutting over transparency or fairness... Surveillance wages don't stop at the hiring stage — they follow workers onto the job, too. The vendors that provide such services also offer tools that are built to set bonus or incentive compensation, according to the report. These tools track their productivity, customer interactions and real-time behavior — including, in some cases, audio and video surveillance on the job. Nearly 70% of companies with more than 500 employees were already using employee-monitoring systems in 2022, such as software that monitors computer activity, according to a survey from the International Data Corporation. "The data that they have about you may allow an algorithmic decision system to make assumptions about how much, how big of an incentive, they need to give to a particular worker to generate the behavioral response they seek," DiSalvo said. The article notes that Colorado introduced the "Prohibit Surveillance Data to Set Prices and Wages Act" to ban companies from setting pay rates with algorithms that use payday-loan history, location data or Google search behavior for algorithmically set. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader sinij for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Every few months for the past three years, Jeff Vierstra has been receiving infusions in his spine that target and disable a mutated gene that made it likely he would develop ALS.

Astronaut calls fellow Canadian Ryan Gosling’s movie ‘extraordinary’ ahead of Artemis II crew’s lunar fly-around

The new space movie Project Hail Mary starring Ryan Gosling has gotten a rave review from more than halfway to the moon.

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen said on Saturday that he and his Artemis II crewmates got to watch the film with their families before launching on the lunar fly-around. He said it was “a real treat” to view the movie while getting ready for his own space adventure.

Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter were granted U.S. asylum in 2019, but the government is now moving to strip them of their green cards.

• UConn coach’s outburst came after Final Four loss

• Auriemma: ‘No excuse for how I handled’ situation

• South Carolina coach says she is focused on title game

UConn coach Geno Auriemma has apologized for his actions during a heated exchange with Dawn Staley at the end of the Huskies’ loss to South Carolina in the women’s Final Four.

A visibly upset Auriemma went over to Staley in the final seconds of South Carolina’s 62-48 victory on Friday night and appeared to chastise her. Coaches from both teams had to separate them. When the game finally ended, Auriemma walked off the court to the locker room without going back to shake hands with anyone from South Carolina.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for April 5, No. 1,751.

Met police say 19-year-old was detained in connection with attack after officers recognised him at arraignment

A fourth person has been arrested in connection with the arson attack on Jewish volunteer ambulances in north-west London, the Metropolitan police has said.

The force said the 19-year-old man was arrested on Saturday morning at Westminster magistrates court, where three other men were charged over the arson attack.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked George to step down and take immediate retirement, CBS News exclusively reported earlier this week.

The changes were likely to affect Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, the No. 3 official at the Justice Department and Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.

Anthropic's making a big and sudden change — and connecting its Claude AI to third-party agentic tools "is about to get a lot more expensive," writes the Verge: Beginning April 4th at 3PM ET, users will "no longer be able to use your Claude subscription limits for third-party harnesses including OpenClaw," according to an email sent to users on Friday evening. Instead, if users want to use OpenClaw with Claude, they'll have to use a "pay-as-you-go option" that will be billed separate from their Claude subscription. Anthropic's announcement added these extra usage bundles are "now available at a discount." Users can also try Anthropic's API, notes VentureBeat, "which charges for every token of usage rather than allowing for open-ended usage up to certain limits, as the Pro and Max plans have allowed so far. " The technical reality, according to Anthropic, is that its first-party tools like Claude Code, its AI vibe coding harness, and Claude Cowork, its business app interfacing and control tool, are built to maximize "prompt cache hit rates" — reusing previously processed text to save on compute. Third-party harnesses like OpenClaw often bypass these efficiencies... [Claude Code creator Boris Cherny explained on X that "I did put up a few PRs to improve prompt cache hit rate for OpenClaw in particular, which should help for folks using it with Claude via API/overages."] Growth marketer Aakash Gupta observed on X that the "all-you-can-eat buffet just closed," noting that a single OpenClaw agent running for one day could burn $1,000 to $5,000 in API costs. "Anthropic was eating that difference on every user who routed through a third-party harness," Gupta wrote. "That's the pace of a company watching its margin evaporate in real time." However, Peter Steinberger, the creator of OpenClaw who was recently hired by OpenAI, took a more skeptical view of the "capacity" argument."Funny how timings match up," Steinberger posted on X. "First they copy some popular features into their closed harness, then they lock out open source." Indeed, Anthropic recently added some of the same capabilities that helped OpenClaw catch-on — such as the ability to message agents through external services like Discord and Telegram — to Claude Code... User @ashen_one, founder of Telaga Charity, voiced a concern likely shared by other small-scale builders: "If I switch both [OpenClaw instances] to an API key or the extra usage you're recommending here, it's going to be far too expensive to make it worth using. I'll probably have to switch over to a different model at this point." "I know it sucks," Cherny replied. "Fundamentally engineering is about tradeoffs, and one of the things we do to serve a lot of customers is optimize the way subscriptions work to serve as many people as possible with the best mode..." OpenAI appears to be positioning itself as a more "harness-friendly" alternative, potentially using this moment as a customer acquisition channel for disgruntled Claude power users. By restricting subscription limits to their own "closed harness," Anthropic is asserting control over the UI/UX layer. This allows them to collect telemetry and manage rate limits more granularly, but it risks alienating the power-user community that built the "agentic" ecosystem in the first place. Anthropic's decision is a cold calculation of margins versus growth. As Cherny noted, "Capacity is a resource we manage thoughtfully." In the 2026 AI landscape, the era of subsidized, unlimited compute for third-party automation is over. For the average user on Claude.ai, the experience remains unchanged; for the power users running autonomous offices, the bell has tolled.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

US National Park Service lawyers cite materials that will be installed to make ‘heavily fortified’ facility

Donald Trump’s administration is arguing that a judge’s order to halt construction of a $400m White House ballroom creates a security risk for the US president as his team asks a federal appeals court to pause the ruling.

In a motion filed on Friday, US National Park Service (NPS) lawyers say that the federal judge’s order to suspend construction of the new facility is “threatening grave national-security harms to the White House, the president and his family, and the president’s staff”.

"The April 1st timing should have been your first clue," writes Gadget Review. TechSpot's false story was just an April Fool's prank — although Gadget Review thinks it's still funny how "something about this particular piece of satire felt uncomfortably plausible." Maybe it's because AMD stock sits around $196 while Intel hovers near $41, or perhaps it's the poetic justice of the underdog finally eating the giant. The semiconductor world has witnessed stranger reversals, but none quite this dramatic. Your gaming rig's CPU battle represents decades of corporate warfare, legal grudges, and technological leapfrogging that makes Game of Thrones look like a friendly board game. Picture this: In 1975, AMD reverse-engineered Intel's 8080 processor, creating the Am9080 clone. The audacity was breathtaking — AMD spent 50 cents per chip to manufacture something they sold for $700. That's a 1,400% markup on borrowed technology, making today's GPU prices look reasonable. This relationship evolved from copying to partnership to bitter rivalry. The companies signed second-sourcing deals in the late 1970s, with AMD becoming Intel's official backup supplier. Then came the lawsuits. AMD sued Intel for antitrust violations in 2005, eventually settling for $1.25 billion in 2009. That settlement money helped fund the Ryzen revolution that's currently eating Intel's lunch. The historical irony runs deeper than your typical tech rivalry. AMD literally started as Intel's shadow, creating chips by studying Intel's designs under microscopes. Today, Intel engineers probably study AMD's Zen architecture the same way... This April Fool's joke works because it captures something true about power shifts in technology. The site TipRanks notes that both companies saw their stock price rise Wednesday, though that might not be related to the false article. "Positive analyst coverage from Wells Fargo could be acting as a catalyst for AMD stock today. Intel also announced plans to buy back its 49% equity interest in a joint venture with Apollo Global Management APO."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

One consumer reported sustaining bruising and burn injuries.

Springs fire, which had spread quickly by windy conditions, at least 45% contained on Saturday, say fire officials

California fire protection crews on Saturday were getting a handle on the wildfire that broke out the previous evening in Riverside county, fanned by high winds that quickly spread the flames to more than 4,100 acres.

The Springs fire, about 64 miles (103km) east of Los Angeles, was at least 45% contained on Saturday, a fire department spokesperson said. It was 25% contained late on Friday evening.

Amazon "must negotiate with a labor union representing some 5,000 workers at a company warehouse on Staten Island," reports Reuters, citing a ruling Wednesday from America's National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The union formed in 2022, according to the article, and "has been seeking to negotiate with Amazon over pay, working conditions and other matters." The NLRB said in its ruling that Amazon "has engaged in unfair labor practices" by refusing to bargain with the labor group or to recognize its legitimacy... Amazon said on Thursday it disagreed with the NLRB's ruling. "Representatives of the NLRB improperly influenced this election," the company said in a statement, suggesting it planned to appeal. "We're confident an unbiased court will overturn the original certification, and we look forward to the opportunity for our team to fairly voice their opinions." An appeal would likely preclude Amazon from having to comply with the NLRB's order while it makes its way through the courts... Related to the Staten Island case, Amazon has argued that the NLRB itself is unconstitutional and sued to block the agency from ruling on it. The matter is still pending. After forming independently, that union "has since aligned with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters," the article points out. The Teamsters represent 1.3 million American workers, according to a statement they issued this week, which also includes this quote from the president of Amazon Labor Union-e Local 1. "We are making history at Amazon, and we are doing it through undiluted worker power..." Their statement adds that the ruling "came only one day after the union announced another historic victory that upheld Amazon Teamsters' right to strike."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Trump ordered data collection after raising concern about race being used as factor in college admissions

A federal judge on Friday halted efforts by the Trump administration to collect data that proves higher education institutions aren’t considering race in admissions.

The ruling from the US district court judge F Dennis Saylor IV in Boston granting the preliminary injunction follows a lawsuit filed earlier this month by a coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general. It will only apply to public universities in plaintiffs’ states.

Carcasses wash ashore Guemes Island in ‘creepy mystery’, with authorities saying canines appear to be the same size

Officials are investigating after nearly two dozen dead canines washed ashore on a Washington state island, in what one local has compared to “the start of a horror movie”.

The Skagit county sheriff’s office said 21 canines had been found on the shoreline of Guemes Island, about 80 miles north of Seattle, between 26 March and Friday.

Long-time GNOME/OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice contributor Michael Meeks is now general manager of Collabora Productivity. And earlier this month he complained when LibreOffice decided to bring back its LibreOffice Online project, as reported by Neowin, which had been inactive since 2022. After the original project went dormant — to which Collabora was a major contributor — they forked the code and created their own product, Collabora Online. But this week Meeks blogged about even more changes, writing that the Document Foundation (the nonprofit behind LibreOffice) "has decided to eject from membership all Collabora staff and partners. That includes over thirty people who have contributed faithfully to LibreOffice for many years." Meeks argues the ejections were "based on unproven legal concerns and guilt by association." This includes seven of the top ten core committers of all time (excluding release engineers) currently working for Collabora Productivity. The move is the culmination of TDF losing a large number of founders from membership over the last few years with: Thorsten Behrens, Jan 'Kendy' Holesovsky, Rene Engelhard, Caolan McNamara, Michael Meeks, Cor Nouws and Italo Vignoli no longer members. Of the remaining active founders, three of the last four are paid TDF staff (of whom none are programming on the core code). The blog It's FOSS calls it "LibreOffice Drama." They've confirmed the removals happened, also noting recently adopted Community Bylaws requiring members to step down if they're affiliated with a company in an active legal dispute with the Foundation. But The Documentation Foundation "also makes clear that a membership revocation is not a ban from contributing, with the project remaining open to anyone, and expects Collabora to keep contributing 'when the time comes.'" Collabora's Meeks adds in his blog post that there's "bold and ongoing plans to create an entirely new, cut-down, differentiated Collabora Office for users that is smoother, more user friendly, and less feature dense than our Classic product (which will continue to be supported for years for our partners). This gives a chance to innovate faster in a separate place on a smaller, more focused code-base with fewer build configurations, much less legacy, no Java, no database, web-based toolkit and more. We are excited to get executing on that. To make this process easier, and to put to bed complaints about having our distro branches in TDF gerrit [for code review], and to move to self-hosted FOSS tooling we are launching our own gerrit to host our existing branch of core... We will continue to make contributions to LibreOffice where that makes sense (if we are welcome to), but it clearly no longer makes much sense to continue investing heavily in building what remains of TDF's community and product for them — while being excluded from its governance. In this regard, we seem to be back where we were fifteen years ago.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

State department said niece and grandniece of Qassem Soleimani, killed in 2020 US drone strike, celebrated attacks against US soldiers

• Middle East crisis – live updates

US federal agents have arrested the niece and grandniece of the late Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani after the Trump administration’s top diplomat, Marco Rubio, revoked their lawful permanent resident status, officials said on Saturday.

“Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter are now in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” or ICE, the state department said in a statement.

The ruling follows a lawsuit filed earlier this month by a coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general.

Roberto Mazzarella, head of a notorious Camorra clan, had been on the run for more than a year

An Italian mafia boss, who was one of Italy’s most dangerous fugitives, has been arrested on murder charges after more than a year on the run, Italian police said on Saturday.

Roberto Mazzarella was the head of the notorious Mazzarella clan of the Camorra – the Naples-based organised crime gang.

Influencers and athletes are among those claiming substances can help with injury repair, weight loss and angi-ageing

• Medicines watchdog to investigate UK peptide clinics over health claims

From influencers to athletes, high-profile figures are hailing peptides as the route to wellness, claiming they help with injury repair, weight loss, anti-ageing and mood. We take a look at what these substances are, and the murky industry surrounding them.

Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds several clinics making potentially unlawful claims about benefits of unregulated therapies

• What are peptides, are they safe and is there evidence to back up the hype?

The medicines regulator is investigating whether UK clinics are breaking the law by making claims about the benefits of unregulated, experimental peptide therapies, the Guardian can reveal.

Interest in experimental peptides has boomed in recent years. The substances are delivered by injection and are touted by sellers, influencers and even some medics as aiding everything from anti-ageing to recovery from injury.

All men were charged Friday with arson and being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.

Frontenac, Kansas had everything it needed – except a public library. A mysterious donation changed that

Matthew Rodriguez, 18, was apprehended in Pennsylvania in connection to shooting that killed Kaori Patterson-Moore

A second suspect in the stray-bullet killing of a seven-month-old baby on a Brooklyn street was arrested on Friday, investigators said, two days after a shooting the New York police department (NYPD) commissioner called “a tragedy that truly shocks the conscience”.

Matthew Rodriguez, 18, was apprehended in Pennsylvania by NYPD detectives working with US marshals, according to authorities.

RILEY FRANCK
Staff Reporter

There is no official rulebook for college hookups. Many people ask themselves: Should I just assume I will never see this person again? Is there anything even going on in the first place? Why do I feel worse after doing this? 

Normalizing casual intimacy comes at a considerable cost, especially when these acts involve so much emotion, trust and physical vulnerability. People often walk away from these one-time encounters with “post-hookup distress,” particularly if it was more intense than expected. This emotional risk is higher than the reward of desire and pleasure.

Feeling somewhat emotionally attached to a guy you kissed at a party once is a candid event and we have to stop pretending it is not. College students are fed story after story about finding romance. It is only natural that they feel that a casual hookup could lead to something bigger.

 After all, college students are humans who have feelings. There are many elements involved within hookup culture, but two main questions surrounding it are: Why do college students participate in it and what actually happens in their brains to make them attached to a person after a romantic encounter?

Intimacy in any form has two essential components: biological/physical and emotional. These elements work together and influence one another.

Physical intimacy can result in feeling attached to someone, including a casual hookup. The physical aspect can range from holding hands, cuddling and kissing to other sexual activities. When people engage in physical intimacy, their bodies produce oxytocin, often called the “feel-good” or “love” hormone.

Oxytocin, like endorphins or serotonin, promotes positive feelings. Think of oxytocin as a chemical messenger in the brain that has the sole purpose of delivering the feelings of trust, recognition and romantic attachment to the bloodstream. It has both circulatory and neurological functions, but in this case, the neurological function is crucial. 

Oxytocin is one of the few hormones that operates through a positive feedback loop, meaning that once it is released, it triggers behaviors and physiological responses that cause the brain’s pituitary gland to release even more of it. 

This is due to dopamine, a neurotransmitter triggered by compulsive behaviors and addictive substances. This is why the rush of a new romance can feel so addictive. Dopamine is involved in the sensations that cause intense desire, which can lead to things like insomnia and euphoria. 

When hookups occur, they often involve alcohol, a substance that releases dopamine in the brain and lowers inhibitions and fear. It gives a sense of pleasure, but also makes the brain’s reward system more sensitive, so any form of physical touch feels more intense and rewarding than it normally would. 

That “liquid courage” is a temporary illusion, but it is good enough to make risky social choices in the moment, like asking a guy to dance or approaching a girl you like. When alcohol is combined with heightened sexual desire, the two produce a powerful surge of dopamine, making individuals more susceptible to impulsive decisions and emotional misreading.

As the alcohol suppresses the brain’s prefrontal cortex — the part responsible for judgment and emotional regulation — people struggle to interpret tone, intention and gestures accurately. This can make casual affection feel like a genuine emotional connection. 

To be frank, did that frat boy really like you, or was he just intoxicated enough to tell you about his family dynamics? Did he really like you, or was he just intoxicated enough to lecture you about how much of a feminist he is? The answer is most likely no and alcohol impairs the ability to have self-awareness. 

While under the influence, that person does not understand that being intoxicated in his room while hooking up is not the place to spew past traumas and tribulations. The other participant cannot understand that he is just spewing random nonsense and that “charisma” is the “liquid courage” talking, not him. 

The physical reaction that people’s bodies have to hookup culture is not the only reason why they may be addicted to or reliant on it. Kathleen Bogle, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at La Salle University and author of “Hooking Up: Sex, Dating and Relationships on Campus,” argues that this is partially due to social validation.

I sat down with Bogle to better understand collegiate hookup culture. Before speaking with her, I conducted a small study with 16 freshmen selected anonymously, with an equal number of females and males. Participants listed anonymous names of everyone they hooked up with, resulting in 109 sexual partners — about seven per person.

In the study, 70% of participants reported having no prior relationship with the person they hooked up with. This finding did not appear to shock Bogle.

“I think it’s part of that whole kind of script of hooking up,” Bogle said. “The idea that you go to a party, or you go to an event, you know, alcohol is flowing and is kind of facilitating things, and people are pairing off from there.”

This classic hookup “script” is “very nonverbal,” according to Bogle. Unlike the traditional dating culture, where someone can ask someone out on a random Tuesday night, hooking up is often unplanned and spontaneous.

Within the hookup “script,” there is an element of social validation. Imagine being in a fraternity basement with dozens of other people. With the female-to-male ratio being female-dominated in these spaces, it can feel like a win to be noticed by a cute guy. 

This guy dances with you and your friends break away. Minutes later, you are kissing him in the corner of the basement with dozens of bystanders lurking nearby. It feels like a scene from a movie, a scripted performance seen countless times before. 

Just like in the movies, they walk you home and claim to want to see you again. But the next morning, you wake up and are just another hookup. Almost everyone’s least favorite part of the “script” is the questions. Is it a one-time thing? Are you talking to anyone else? 

This hookup could either ghost you or keep stringing you along. Each Snapchat notification feels like a rush, each beg to go to his frat feels like you are wanted, but in the end, you feel worse. 

While your body may physically enjoy the pleasure it is receiving, your emotions do not. These emotional highs and lows fuel our craving for that person. At the end of the day, women end up in a position of little power. 

The principle of least interest is where the inevitable emotional crash-out initiates. 

“Whoever has the least interest in the relationship continuing, or escalating, is the one with all the power, because they don’t care, and you’re the person that cares more, right?” Bogle said.

Her research showed that often, it is the female who cares most. 

When one person cares more about a connection than the other, the one who cares the least has less at stake. They have more control because they have less to lose by ending the relationship. Their breadcrumbing tactics feel less like a reward and more like an evident sign that the other party does not care. When a person is hurt or rejected, they often deflect and try “not to care.” 

“Some people think they’re going to beat that because they’re going to ‘not care either.’ They’re not going to not care the way a guy doesn’t care,” Bogle said. “And I think that women tend to lose at that game overall.”

To take your mind off your hookup, you get a new one, continuing the vicious cycle. It feels self-sabotaging, destructive and like a road you will always go down, ending up feeling more hurt each time. 

You are allowed to not like hookup culture. You are allowed to create physical and emotional boundaries for the sake of your mental health. You are also allowed to not entertain it at all. Biologically, physically and emotionally, we can not handle this culture –– and that is okay to acknowledge. 

“It’s important to remember that you might feel like you’re the odd man out who doesn’t like hooking up,” Bogle said. “There’s actually been a ton of research on a lot of people feeling that way. And even more men feel that way than you might think.” 

As voters head to polls, Washington support and alleged interference from Moscow raise questions about influence

• Hungary elections: what is at stake and who is likely to win?

The official announcement that JD Vance was to visit, days before Hungarians cast their ballots in a hotly contested election, was greeted by Budapest with no less than four exclamation marks and three emojis.

“!!Official!!” Viktor Orbán’s political director, Balázs Orbán, wrote on social media as he confirmed the news. The White House said Vance, along with his wife Usha, will land in Hungary on Tuesday, in what is widely seen as an attempt to bolster Orbán as he trails in the polls.

Alan Hayward James, who called himself ‘Al Capone’, admitted to rigging bids for IT contracts with Pentagon

A former US air force master sergeant who nicknamed himself “Al Capone” has pleaded guilty to defrauding the military branch out of $37m by inflating the cost of IT contracts – and giving some of the extra money to an individual he called “Godfather”.

Alan Hayward James, from Texas, ran a nine-year scam, beginning in April 2016, which also saw him funnel excess funds to himself, his family and his co-conspirators.

Washington, D.C., first responders said the building's structural integrity will be assessed once the bus is removed.

The former Little House on the Prairie star said husband was ‘last person in world who would hurt a child’

Melissa Gilbert has staunchly defended her husband and fellow actor Timothy Busfield in her first interview since New Mexico prosecutors charged him with child sexual abuse in early February.

In part of a conversation scheduled to be broadcast on Monday on Good Morning America but circulated in advance as a preview, Gilbert told ABC host George Stephanopoulos that she believed the Emmy winner whom she married in 2013 to be “the last person in the world who would hurt a child”.

The attacks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Istanbul for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Here are the highly rated series you should stream on HBO Max, plus new additions in April.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: When it comes to large language model-powered tools, there are generally two broad categories of users. On one side are those who treat AI as a powerful but sometimes faulty service that needs careful human oversight and review to detect reasoning or factual flaws in responses. On the other side are those who routinely outsource their critical thinking to what they see as an all-knowing machine. Recent research goes a long way to forming a new psychological framework for that second group, which regularly engages in "cognitive surrender" to AI's seemingly authoritative answers. That research also provides some experimental examination of when and why people are willing to outsource their critical thinking to AI, and how factors like time pressure and external incentives can affect that decision. Overall, across 1,372 participants and over 9,500 individual trials, the researchers found subjects were willing to accept faulty AI reasoning a whopping 73.2 percent of the time, while only overruling it 19.7 percent of the time. The researchers say this "demonstrate[s] that people readily incorporate AI-generated outputs into their decision-making processes, often with minimal friction or skepticism." In general, "fluent, confident outputs [are treated] as epistemically authoritative, lowering the threshold for scrutiny and attenuating the meta-cognitive signals that would ordinarily route a response to deliberation," they write. These kinds of effects weren't uniform across all test subjects, though. Those who scored highly on separate measures of so-called fluid IQ were less likely to rely on the AI for help and were more likely to overrule a faulty AI when it was consulted. Those predisposed to see AI as authoritative in a survey, on the other hand, were much more likely to be led astray by faulty AI-provided answers. Despite the results, though, the researchers point out that "cognitive surrender is not inherently irrational." While relying on an LLM that's wrong half the time (as in these experiments) has obvious downsides, a "statistically superior system" could plausibly give better-than-human results in domains such as "probabilistic settings, risk assessment, or extensive data," the researchers suggest. "As reliance increases, performance tracks AI quality," the researchers write, "rising when accurate and falling when faulty, illustrating the promises of superintelligence and exposing a structural vulnerability of cognitive surrender." In other words, letting an AI do your reasoning means your reasoning is only ever going to be as good as that AI system. As always, let the prompter beware.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Storm expected to cause Easter weekend travel disruption, though warm weather could return next week

Storm Dave is expected to cause travel disruption this Easter weekend, with warnings for heavy snow and gale-force winds issued across northern parts of the UK, but a reprieve from the cold snap could be on the way, with temperatures forecast to reach the mid-20s next week.

The Met Office has issued a yellow severe weather warning in Scotland for heavy snow and blizzards causing some travel and power disruption. Up to 30 centimetres of snow could fall. An amber weather warning for wind has been issued for parts of northern England, Scotland and Wales on Saturday evening.

The government's legal bid to continue East Wing construction has the hallmarks of President Trump's social media posts.

One price covers a combination of wireless phone service and broadband internet.

Jesse Watters gave a litany of reasons why women shouldn’t lead before denying he agreed. But peddling these ideas normalizes them

Oh dear, it looks like Jesse Watters’ mother needs to give him a good talking to again. The Fox News host regularly spouts so much deliberately provocative nonsense that his mum, a liberal, has called into his show to ask him to use his voice “responsibly”. Instead of listening to her, however, he’s told his audience of millions that men shouldn’t eat soup in public because it’s effeminate, shared his creepy fantasies about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s sex life, and urged America to bomb or “maybe gas” the United Nations headquarters. This week, as Donald Trump (a man) presides over a disastrous, immoral, and unpopular war, Watters has been busy informing the world that women just aren’t cut out to be president.

What prompted this latest rant? The usual pathological desire to be noticed, I presume. And also a recent MS NOW interview with Nancy Pelosi, in which the former speaker of the House, 86, said a female US president is inevitable, but likely won’t happen in her lifetime.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

The assault on freedom with Mehdi Hasan and Arwa Mahdawi
On Monday 8 June, join Mehdi Hasan and Arwa Mahdawi to discuss the current seismic changes in geopolitics, the alarming rise of populism and nationalism, and its global implications. Live in London and livestreamed worldwide. Book tickets here or at guardian.live

As Trump’s administration aims to bring ‘warrior culture’ back to the military, young service members express anxiety and snark online over potential deployment

If posts coming from the White House were to be believed, the US-Israel war on Iran looks something like scenes from Top Gun, Braveheart and Deadpool – or how a fifth-grade boy might imagine combat. The Trump administration has also presented Operation Epic Fury as a video game, borrowing gen Z parlance to describe the US armed forces as “locked in” on the conflict.

Such macho posturing squares with secretary of defense Pete Hegseth’s desire to bring “warrior culture” back to the military. The former Fox News host has railed against DEI, “fat troops” and “beardos” (troops with beards), and envisioned a military full of “the right people” who fit his imposed standards of virility and masculinity.

Beyond rising costs of gas and air travel, experts say this is likely just beginning of higher prices amid global volatility

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

As consumers watch the price of gasoline and airline tickets rise, experts say that the war in Iran will continue to drive up prices across the economy.

“The good old days are gone,” said Christopher Tang, a professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management who studies global supply chain management. “Right now we see the gasoline prices going up, but that is only part of the story. Everything will be more expensive.”

There's a Spicy Saja McMuffin, Derpy McFlurry, Ramyeon McShaker fries and two new dipping sauces, one of which is much better than the other.

Bluey is now in residence at Disneyland.

Janice Randle was found dead in her bed in 1992, but police couldn't make an arrest in the case until new information emerged.

Crew members can now see the moon, which one described as ‘a beautiful sight’, from their spacecraft’s docking hatch

The Artemis II crew are now closer to the moon than the Earth, Nasa has said, as the four astronauts completed the third day of their flight to the moon.

“We can see the moon out of the docking hatch right now. It’s a beautiful sight,” said an unnamed member of the crew, which Nasa shared in a post on X on Saturday morning.

Philadelphia's Ministry of Awe is a multilevel art installation and immersive house of oddities that uses AI in subtle and fascinating ways. I took a visit, and I'm totally coming back.

Iranian state media said “many people” are searching for the missing crew member after an F-15 fighter jet and an A-10 attack plane were lost to hostile fire.

Along with Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall, Biruté Galdikas, 79, made ground-breaking discoveries about one of humankind’s closest primate relatives.

Viral reviews of artisan cafes across the capital are sparking a debate over cost, culture – and who gets a slice of the city

The video that started it all was innocuous enough: a woman in her 20s posted on TikTok about how she spends a perfect weekend in north London. On her list were the bakeries Jolene and Gail’s, and the De Beauvoir Deli.

The reaction, however, was anything but. Many locals commented that they had never heard of the businesses she mentioned. One north Londoner, Moses Combe, 21, was equally incredulous. “If this is where all the north London girlies come in the morning, I’d be a bit surprised,” he said in a viral video.

Nurul Shah Alam, a nearly blind Rohingya refugee, was left alone in a Buffalo parking lot. His death has been ruled a homicide – what now?

On 19 February, the second day of Ramadan, Mohamad Faisal Nurul Amin and his family gathered to pray before sunrise in their apartment on the outskirts of Buffalo, New York. After nearly a year of waiting, they believed their family would be together again. Amin’s father, Nurul Shah Alam, 56, was coming home.

“For the first time since we arrived in America, I felt happy,” said Fatima Abdul Roshid, Shah Alam’s wife, speaking through an interpreter. “I thought my husband would be with our two sons and me for Ramadan.”

Researchers warn the high-pressure conditions could disrupt marine life and ecosystems if it continues

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

For more than a century, shoreline stations operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have measured water temperatures along the California coast. This year, they are flashing a warning sign.

Over the last three months, several stations have repeatedly posted record-breaking daily high temperatures – with the La Jolla station registering temperatures a full 10F above historical average at one point last month.

President has affixed his name to institutions and edifices, and his visage now glowers from several federal buildings

The US has a history of naming things after its presidents.

Washington DC has the Ronald Reagan airport, while John F Kennedy international airport is New York’s main air transport thoroughfare. The Hoover Dam straddles Nevada and Arizona; Theodore Roosevelt is one of several former presidents to have a Washington DC building named after them; Franklin Delano Roosevelt has an island; Abraham Lincoln has the Lincoln Memorial; and George Washington has the nation’s capital and an entire state.

The crackdown on foreign-made routers labeled a "national security risk" affects most major router brands. If you plan on buying a router soon, read this first.

Last year's Razr Ultra was a strong foldable pick, but there are ways to make that $1,300 phone more enticing.

John Cantrell was enjoying his retirement until an unexpected condition forced him to choose between two kinds of heart surgery.

The US president seems to have turned his attention to Cuba in recent weeks, saying that it was 'next'. Officials from both countries have reportedly been in negotiations since February however the content of the discussions remains unclear. The Guardian spoke with professor emeritus of international relations Dr Philip Brenner about what the US might really want with the Island

The incident comes after a string of similar nighttime attacks across Europe that have heightened concerns over antisemitism.

As Israel expands its invasion of southern Lebanon, people are having to bury their dead in temporary graves

In Lebanon, the dead are usually given one last glimpse of their home town before they are laid to rest. Hoisted high above the heads of the living, their casket is slowly marched through the streets where they grew up.

It is the hands of their loved ones that guide them into their final resting place, already dug, and gently sprinkle dirt on their body.

Despite hostile rhetoric Trump let a Russian ship break his blockade – could it herald a Venezuela-style outcome?

When a sanctioned Russian oil tanker, the Anatoly Kolodkin, docked at Cuba’s Matanzas oil terminal on Tuesday, unloading 700,000 barrels of crude, it was not immediately clear why the ship had been allowed to pass through Donald Trump’s oil blockade.

In January, the US president had proclaimed on social media: “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” yet last week he told reporters, “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with it” – and waved the Russian ship through.

The president’s son-in-law is acting as an envoy even as he looks to secure billions for his company from foreign governments

After Donald Trump returned to the White House, his son-in-law and former senior adviser Jared Kushner declined to take a job in the new administration and instead planned to focus on running his Miami-based private equity firm. Kushner said he would also forgo raising more money for his company while Trump was in office, to avoid any appearance of a conflict.

But since last summer, Kushner has re-emerged as a high-level peace envoy for Trump, helping broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza; steering negotiations to end the war between Russia and Ukraine; and, most recently, playing a central role in the aborted negotiations between Iran and the US over Tehran’s nuclear program. Kushner still doesn’t hold an official government position – he’s a private citizen who has been negotiating some of the most important foreign policy agreements on behalf of the Trump administration, with a direct line to the president.

Strain found in 29 states and Puerto Rico carries spike mutations, but no data shows increased severity

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

BA.3.2, an Omicron variant of Covid-19 with dozens of new spike mutations, has been detected in 29 US states and Puerto Rico, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but experts say there is not yet evidence it is more severe than other recent variants.

“The right response to BA.3.2 is serious attention, not alarm,” says Dr Jake Scott, a Stanford professor and infectious disease expert who authored a systematic review of Covid vaccines for the New England Journal of Medicine.

Indigenous doulas are creating support networks for mothers who are at the highest risk of pregnancy-related death

Mary Sherbick found out she was pregnant at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Although she and her partner had planned it, the pandemic was anxiety-inducing and isolating. While scrolling on social media, she came across online talking circles for Alaska Native women, organized by Alaska Native Birthworkers Community (ANBC), who were pregnant or postpartum. Sherbick, who is Yupik, immediately signed up.

“A lot of us were also just concerned about the way that we would be treated, and some of our concerns of pain or our birth plans within a hospital setting,” Sherbick said. “I think a lot of the women that I talked to just were aware of the history of how Indigenous women, Indigenous people in general, have been treated, and the sterilization programs that have been done unknowingly to Indigenous people.”

Let's compare all the details so you can make the right choice for you.

Colorado is rolling out an average-speed camera system that tracks vehicles across multiple points instead of catching them at a single camera, making it much harder for drivers to dodge tickets with apps like Waze and Radarbot. Motor1 reports: The state's new automated vehicle identification systems (AVIS) use several cameras to calculate your average speed between them, and if it is 10 miles per hour or more over the limit, you get a ticket. No longer will you be able to slow down as you approach a camera and speed back up after passing it, not that you should be speeding on public roads in the first place. Colorado began deploying this new camera system after legislators changed the law in 2023, allowing AVIS for law enforcement use. The systems, installed on various roads and highways throughout the state, first began issuing warnings, but police began issuing tickets late last year. The most recent section of road to fall under surveillance is a stretch of I-25 north of Denver, which brought the state's growing panopticon to our attention. It began issuing tickets on April 2. The Colorado Department of Transportation installed the cameras along a construction zone. The fine is $75 and zero points for exceeding the speed limit, and the police issue it to the vehicle's owner, regardless of who is driving.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The rightwing populist has been in power for 16 years but a new generation of voters are preparing to vote for his opponent, polls suggest

• Hungary elections: what is at stake and who is likely to win?

As he rushed to finish off his cigarette before heading to class, Ákos, 20, confessed that he has more at stake than most as Hungarians prepare to head to the polls in the coming days.

“If things remain the same, or get even worse, I can’t see a future here,” said the aspiring teacher. “There are many people who want to try living elsewhere, and that’s totally fine, but I’m not one of them. For so long I’ve dreamed of working and teaching here.”

Videos broadcast by local television stations showed a large crowd of fans in the south stands amidst an explosion of fireworks.

Since the Trump regime launched its war on Iran, his administration has gotten a lot more biblical.

In the last few weeks, Trump and his circle have delivered a chorus of mandates — many sounding as if sent from the Almighty himself — from encouraging lawmakers to support legislation “for Jesus” to billing America’s 250th anniversary as a moment to rededicate the nation under a single, unified God.

Trump has surrounded himself with a constellation of evangelical advisers who not only support his policies but also frame them as divinely sanctioned. Their specific strand of evangelical theology interprets global conflict, especially in the Middle East, as a precursor to the end times. For Trump, this alignment may well be transactional, another way to energize and consolidate a critical voting bloc. But for many of the religious figures now orbiting him, the stakes are far more cosmic: The war is not simply geopolitical; it is eschatological.

And it’s already bleeding influence into America’s war machine. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has overseen a steady infusion of Christian symbolism and practice into military life — hosting prayer gatherings, elevating hard-line evangelical figures, and pushing a more overtly religious tone across the force.

Reporting shows his tenure has included efforts to reshape the chaplain corps and integrate his Christian worldview more directly into military culture. The aesthetic is not subtle: Hegseth has embraced Crusader iconography — he has tattoos of the Jerusalem cross and the phrase “Deus vult,” which means “God wills it” — while framing America’s conflicts in civilizational and religious terms. In a prayer given last week at the Pentagon, Hegseth asked God to aid in pouring down “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”

Even some on the right have begun to voice their unease. One conservative commentator, reacting to the growing influence, bluntly described Trump’s leading faith adviser Paula White-Cain as a “psychopathic doomsday cultist,” warning about the theological currents shaping the administration. 

As someone well-versed in Christianese — I was raised deep in the evangelical Bible Belt of Texas, and even met a young Paula White growing up — this dialect signals a real shift.

In evangelical media ecosystems, Iran is not just a strategic adversary but part of a prophetic story — one tied to interpretations of the Book of Revelation and the battle of Armageddon. Suffering, in this worldview, is not merely tragic; it is necessary to actuate the return of Christ.

And as White-Cain, now the head of the White House Faith Office, put it: “To say no to President Trump would be to say no to God.”

This tension — between political expediency and apocalyptic belief — is no longer theoretical. It is being operationalized.

Prophetic Gospels

Days after launching unilateral strikes on Iran, Trump convened nearly two dozen evangelical leaders for private counsel. The pastors stood around him, laying hands to pray for strength and protection for his latest military campaign. At the center of that circle is White-Cain, a longtime Trump ally who has served as his “spiritual adviser” since his first presidential run.

White-Cain’s rise is emblematic of the fusion now underway. Once a televangelist with deep ties to charismatic Christianity, she built a following through prosperity gospel preaching — a theology that links faith with material success — before being elevated as a key Trump confidant.

Early on, she rose to prominence through her connections to figures like Bishop T.D. Jakes and appearances on networks like BET, positioning her within both Black churches (which is where I met her) and evangelical media spaces alike. During his first term, Trump established the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative and appointed White to lead the newly minted office.

But White-Cain is not just a political ally. She is part of a broader network of evangelical leaders who have long framed global conflict in explicitly prophetic terms. Figures in this sphere have publicly described Middle East wars as signs of the “last days,” argued that geopolitical upheaval fulfills biblical prophecy, and emphasized that spiritual warfare is inseparable from physical conflict.

White-Cain’s own writings and appearances wrap modern politics in stark, spiritually dispensationalist end-times framing. Dispensationalism, for the uninitiated, is a strain of evangelical Protestant theology that reads the Bible literally, divides history into distinct eras of God’s plan, separates Israel from the Church, and anticipates a coming rapture and a thousand-year kingdom on Earth.

In an April 2025 interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, White-Cain opened by asking whether the world was ready to kick off Armageddon itself.

Related

Trump’s Holy War Abroad and at Home

“The Christian vision of the End of Days foretells of some profound transformation and redemption,” she said in the interview, as reported by the Times of Israel. “Based on the events that are unfolding today, do you feel that we are seeing these signs of that vision come to fruition?”

The stakes, by her telling, are nothing less than annihilation. This matters when those voices are whispering prayers into the decisions of a president directing military force.

She’s not alone. She’s brought others into Trump’s religious power network — including Alabama pastor Travis Johnson, who has been spotted around Trump’s religious events and moving in the same circles. 

He presents himself as a global traveler spreading Christian “love” and “peace.” On X, he also told his followers, “Islam is not just a religion, but a system of military conquest” — casting American Christianity as a necessary bulwark against it.

After Israeli missile strikes — which coincided with the start of Ramadan — decimated Iranian leadership, Johnson posted with a glib jab: “Bye, Felicia. Khamenei has left the building.”

Robert Jeffress, pastor of megachurch First Baptist Dallas and one of Trump’s most visible religious defenders, is also among those lending supernatural support to the president. Jeffress has spent years advancing a worldview that injects Christian nationalism with cultural and religious exclusion. He has described Islam as “a false religion” that is “inspired by Satan,” and once declared, “America’s collapse is inevitable and there is nothing we can do to stop it.”

Others in Trump’s spiritual cadre push similar lines with parallel prophetic and apocalyptic bluster. California pastor Greg Laurie, another regular in Trump’s prayer closet, linked the assassination of Iran’s ayatollah to end times gospel in a video he posted on X.

“As far as I can see the next event on the prophetic calendar would be the rapture,” he told his audience. “Then of course the great tribulation period … culminating in the Battle of Armageddon.” 

Laurie, like many evangelicals, reads Iran as biblical Persia, which is named in the book of Ezekiel as an ally of Magog, a prophesied war machine that will one day converge on Israel in the final chapter of human history.

Related

Military Leaders See Iran War as “God’s Divine Plan” — a Chilling Turn for Trump’s Fascism

There are those in Trump’s religious sphere who haven’t given up hope — but only because they see themselves as locked in a holy war for the soul of a nation. Josh McPherson, a rising voice in Christian nationalist circles, has been blunt in his preaching for a theocratic military force, often teaching in camouflage and combat boots. He has advocated that “godly righteous men and women submitted to the Heavenly Father” should be running the most powerful military in the world.

In a recent podcast interview, McPherson frames American Christians as a critical line of defense against the spread of Islam, which he describes as “demonic” and a “scourge” while advocating for mass deportations. If action isn’t taken now, he predicts the apocalyptic vision where future generations of Christians will have to respond to an “Islamic Jihadist invasion, where the only way to push back is with bullets and guns.” 

Taken together, this is not a random assortment of fringe pastors. It is a coherent theological ecosystem, one that frames war as prophecy, opponents as demonic, and global collapse as necessary to bring about the return of Christ.

That convergence — of theology, rhetoric, and military power — is now drawing scrutiny on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have formally called for an investigation into Hegseth and the Defense Department, warning that “extreme religious rhetoric” may be seeping into the chain of command and shaping how the war on Iran is being prosecuted.

The danger is not just metaphysical. There is a long body of research showing that when political power fuses with religious certainty, war intensifies. Religious framing makes wars far more difficult to end, not easier. Conflicts become existential, not negotiable. Identity replaces strategy. Destiny replaces diplomacy. 

And for volunteer troops fighting in a pluralistic democracy, intention matters.

For a soldier, sailor, or Marine who pulls the trigger or launches the missile, it muddies the distinction between national defense and participation in what could amount to religious ethnic cleansing.

Where strategic decisions are guided not by how to end wars, but how to beget new prophetic ones.

Where the end result could mean dying not in service of your country, but instead as a preordained martyr. 

A soldier should not be asked to die for a religion he does not serve, to usher in an ending he does not want, or to fight for a vision of the world rooted in prophecy rather than policy. That is not national defense; that is ideological conscription. And when a state begins to wage war on those terms, it is no longer defending itself — it is surrendering its power to something far more dangerous than any enemy abroad.

The post Far-Right Religious Leaders Advising Trump See Iran as an End Times Holy War appeared first on The Intercept.

Apple doesn't regularly release a critical update for previous iOS versions but DarkSword appears to be a serious threat.

What I’m Discussing Today:

• Kareem’s Daily Quote: The 4th U.S. President could teach the 47th a thing or two.

• Pam Bondi Out: When “you’re doing great!” means “pack your things.”

• The Backbone Shows Up Late: Or, poor NATO, with friends like these…

• Library: A 747 in the lobby, not a book in sight…Miami’s Newest “Library”

• What I’m Watching: Cover-Up

• Jukebox Playlist: Living For The City

Kareem’s Daily Quote

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” James Madison

James Madison originally wrote that quote in Federalist 51, part of The Federalist Papers. I’m assuming the angels he was talking about were not strictly from the Christian point of view (where some are thought to be fallen), but maybe closer to the Muslim ideal of heavenly beings of light who are faithful to their Creator and the Creator’s tenets, who wouldn’t think of doing anything else. And yes, any being who falls short of those ‘angelic standards’ could probably use some reining in.

Including you and me.

You know how it is: if I accidentally swerve into someone else’s lane of traffic, I’ll right the wrong and quickly justify the action. I was tired. Someone swerved towards me. I had something in my eye. The other car was in my blind spot. But you just try to swerve into my lane…then there’s no excuse. You’re a lousy driver, period, and your license ought to be taken away.

In other words, we’re not terribly forgiving of one another’s shortcomings. And when we’re not, it’s good to know there’s an arbiter who will judge correctly, rationally, without prejudice.

In other words, government at its best.

The trouble is, we have to trust the arbiter. And the more a government (I won’t say which one) goes on recess when it should be working; or approves people to run huge and powerful sectors with no training, qualifications or even obvious intelligence; or goes belly up in the face of adversity (also known as “being primaried”); or refuses to legislate—to do its damn job!—we the people lose confidence in our elected and appointed officials, and it’s every man and woman for themselves.

Because, here’s another hard-to-believe fact: those same government officials are people too. They’re not a mind hive. They don’t automatically slip on the robe of righteousness the moment they get elected. Which means that they need to be governed as much as we the people do—I’d even say more, because they have more power and can therefore do more damage. A recent NY Times guest article by Mark Warner, Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had this chilling line: “It is increasingly evident that the greatest threat [to our elections] now comes from inside our own government.”

Let that sink in for a moment. The very government who is supposed to be protecting us and our vote is trying to undermine this foundational tenet of how to make a government work. But why would people who made a vow to protect our Constitution do such a thing?

Because power changes people. It bends and tempts them. It whispers, “Hey, you’re different. You can handle it.” Which is usually the moment we (and they) stop handling it…and start getting our picture taken with a $50,000 Rolex on our wrist and cages of human beings as a backdrop. Or start talking about war as an “excursion” that’ll last a few weeks or maybe a month—oh, and have you seen sketches of my gargantuan ballroom? How about this terrific Arch of Triumph? (As they say, you can’t spell Triumph without Trump!)

Madison was right. Government exists because people will absolutely take advantage of a system if you let them. You give someone an inch, they’ll take a mile. You give them a mile, they’ll build a condo and start charging rent. And we the people exist not only to live our own lives and do our own thing but to make sure that government officials do what they’re supposed to do instead of taking advantage of our system.

And the sooner and the more thoroughly we do that, the quicker we’ll be able to believe in that system as the arbiter of justice once again.

Read more

Senior figures express concerns over medical union’s refusal of pay rise that is higher than offer to other NHS staff

Trade unions have privately expressed qualms about the forthcoming doctors’ strikes, expressing frustration at the conduct of the talks and the demands of the British Medical Association.

The BMA is pushing for a pay rise higher than the 3.5% offered to doctors by the government, with strikes planned for next week.

Initial reports suggested parts of arena’s wall had collapsed, but Alianza Lima says there were no structural failures

One person has been killed and dozens more injured at the Alejandro Villanueva Stadium in Lima, Peru, according to the football club Alianza Lima.

Hundreds of fans were attending a “flag-waving event” on Friday around the stadium, a day before a derby match between the home team Alianza Lima and local rivals Universitario de Deportes.

If the Eagles are to make a mark on their home World Cup in 2031, the hard-hitting Anthem RC lock could have a key role to play

Will Sherman may be the future of US rugby, but his roots are in the game’s American past. The 22-year-old standout second-row forward for Anthem Rugby Carolina in Major League Rugby is the son of Wade Sherman, a member of a champion Cal Berkeley team that included Mark Bingham, who on 11 September 2001 was one of the Flight 93 passengers who fought their hijackers and kept it from reaching Washington.

“There was a super old photo that my dad pulled up, and the first time I heard that story was from him,” Sherman said. “He was like, ‘That guy standing to my left is an American hero.’”

In the fifth week of the war, Trump continues contradicting himself on its objectives and how Americans are affected

When Donald Trump launched Operation Epic Fury alongside Israel on 28 February, his administration had settled on a set of stated, and broad, objectives: destroy Iran’s missiles, eliminate its navy, prevent a nuclear weapon.

Over a month later those objectives have multiplied, contracted and contradicted each other.

These are the best TVs I’ve reviewed for every budget, including top brands such as LG, Samsung and TCL.

Here’s how I make sure I don't lose sight of my goals -- and how you can, too.

Exclusive: research finds Jackdaw field would provide only about 2% of current demand, and Rosebank only 1%

Opening major new fields in the North Sea would make almost no difference to the UK’s reliance on gas imports, research has shown.

The Jackdaw field, one of the largest unexploited gasfields in the North Sea, would displace only 2% of the UK’s current imports of gas, which would leave the UK still almost entirely dependent on supplies from Norway and a few other sources.

The Trump administration takes pleasure in deploying dysphemism to describe the killing of Iranians

On 23 March, Donald Trump said that if things didn’t go to his liking in Iran, “we just keep bombing our little hearts out”. A week later the US president told journalists on Air Force One: “You never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up.”

On 4 March, Pete Hegseth squirmed in pleasure as he described “death and destruction from the sky all day long”. Whatever happened to the subtle art of political euphemism?

A state visit intended to mark 250 years of U.S. independence could become a test of the British monarchy’s willingness to confront one of its most difficult controversies.

Private Chinese technology companies — some with ties to the military — are marketing detailed intelligence on movements of U.S. forces in Iran, even as Beijing seeks to keep its distance.

Lack of regulation for specialist classes leaves UK fitness enthusiasts at risk, say professional bodies

The boom in reformer pilates has created a “wild west” of studios where poor regulation has resulted in inexperienced teachers and a rise in injuries, professional standards bodies have warned.

Pilates is not formally or legally regulated, and as its popularity has surged, industry experts say, so too has the growth of packed reformer-based classes often led by instructors with limited training.

Riccione’s leftwing mayor, Daniela Angelini, says public purchase is victory for town and ‘act of love and vision’

An Italian council has bought a villa where Benito Mussolini spent his summer holidays, partly to avoid the property falling into the hands of “fascist nostalgics”.

Daniela Angelini, the leftwing mayor of Riccione, a town close to Rimini along Italy’s Adriatic coast, said the acquisition of Villa Mussolini through an auction was “an act of love and vision” and that bringing it back into public hands was a victory for the entire town.

Fears of Easter chaos over scaling up of new EU border system are eased, with no facial IDs for Eurotunnel and Eurostar passengers

Passengers crossing the Channel from the UK to France will not face new biometric checks in the coming weeks, despite an imminent deadline for the complete implementation of the EU’s entry-exit system (EES), ports say.

Airlines and airports across Europe have feared chaos over the Easter holidays.

An ultra-lightweight real-time operating system for resource-constrained IoT and embedded devices. Kernel footprint under 10 KB, 2 KB minimum RAM, preemptive priority-based scheduling.

↫ TinyOS GitHub page

Written in C, open source, and supports ARM and RISC-V.

Another major improvement in Redox: a brand new scheduler which improves performance under load considerably.

We have replaced the legacy Round Robin scheduler with a Deficit Weighted Round Robin scheduler. Due to this, we finally have a way of assigning different priorities to our Process contexts. When running under light load, you may not notice any difference, but under heavy load the new scheduler outperforms the old one (eg. ~150 FPS gain in the pixelcannon 3D Redox demo, and ~1.5x gain in operations/sec for CPU bound tasks and a similar improvement in responsiveness too (measured through schedrs)).

↫ Akshit Gaur

Work is far from over in this area, as they’re now moving on to “replacing the static queue logic with the dynamic lag-calculations of full EEVDF“.

You’d think if there was one corner of the open source world where you wouldn’t find drama it’d be open source office suites, but it turns out we could not have been more wrong. First, there’s The Document Foundation, stewards of LibreOffice, ejecting a ton of LibreOffice contributors.

In the ongoing saga of The Document Foundation (TDF), their Membership Committee has decided to eject from membership all Collabora staff and partners. That includes over thirty people who have contributed faithfully to LibreOffice for many years. It is interesting to see a formal meritocracy eject so many, based on unproven legal concerns and guilt by association. This includes seven of the top ten core committers of all time (excluding release engineers) currently working for Collabora Productivity. The move is the culmination of TDF losing a large number of founders from membership over the last few years with: Thorsten Behrens, Jan ‘Kendy’ Holesovsky, Rene Engelhard, Caolan McNamara, Michael Meeks, Cor Nouws and Italo Vignoli no longer members. Of the remaining active founders, three of the last four are paid TDF staff (of whom none are programming on the core code).

↫ Micheal Meeks

The end result seems to be that Collabora is effectively forking LibreOffice, which feels like we’re back where we were 15 years ago when LibreOffice forked from OpenOffice. There seems to be a ton of drama and infighting here that I’m not particularly interested in, but it’s sad to see such drama and infighting result in needless complications for developers, end users, and distributors alike.

As if this wasn’t enough, there’s also forking drama in OnlyOffice land, the other open source office suite, licensed under the AGPL. This ope source office suite has been forked by Nextcloud and IONOS into Euro-Office, in pursuit of digital sovereignty in the EU. It’s also not an entirely unimportant detail that OnlyOffice is Russian, with most of its developers residing in Russia.

Anyway, the OnlyOffice team has not taken this in stride, claiming there’s a violation of the AGPL license going on here, specifically because OnlyOffice adds contradictory attribution terms to the AGPL. It’s a complicated story, but it does seem most experts in this area seem to disagree with OnlyOffice’s interpretation.

We’re in for another messy time.

The Artemis II crew has passed 100,000 miles from Earth and is now on a "free-return" path around the moon after a successful "translunar" injection burn. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am so, so excited to be able to tell you that for the first time since 1972 during Apollo 17, human beings have left Earth orbit," NASA's Dr Lori Glaze told a news conference. The Guardian reports: The astronauts -- the Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and a Canadian, Jeremy Hansen -- spent their first day in space performing checks on the spacecraft, which had never carried humans before. Later they had time to speak to US TV networks. "I've got to tell you, there is nothing normal about this," Wiseman told ABC News from the cramped interior of the capsule. "Sending four humans 250,000 miles away is a herculean effort, and we are now just realising the gravity of that." Orion will travel about 4,000 miles (6,400km) beyond the moon before turning back, providing unprecedented and illuminated views of the lunar far side. If all proceeds smoothly, the astronauts will set a record by venturing farther from Earth than any human before -- more than 250,000 miles. The mission is part of a longer-term plan to repeatedly return to the moon, with the aim of establishing a permanent base that will offer a platform for further exploration. After the final engine burn, NASA said Wiseman took two "spectacular" images of Earth. The first photo, called Hello, World, "shows the vast expanse of blue that is the Atlantic Ocean, framed by a thin glow of the atmosphere as the Earth eclipses the Sun and green auroras at either pole," reports the BBC. Another photo shows the view of Earth from inside the Orion spacecraft.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This is the first of a series of articles in which you will learn about what may be one of the silliest, most preventable, and most costly mishaps of the 21st century, where Microsoft all but lost OpenAI, its largest customer, and the trust of the US government.

↫ Axel Rietschin

It won’t take long into this series of articles before you start wondering how anyone manages to ship anything at Microsoft. If even half of this is accurate, this company should be placed under some sort of external oversight.

Man and woman released pending further enquiries after arrests at separate properties in state’s north-east on Saturday morning

Two people have been arrested as part of the investigation into how Porepunkah fugitive Dezi Freeman was able to survive on the run for seven months before he was shot dead on Monday.

A man and a woman were arrested at separate properties in north-east Victoria on Saturday morning around 7am, before being later released.

Reports on English policies seen in Wales as relating to whole of UK contribute to widespread confusion, researchers say

UK media is failing to report properly on devolved issues in Wales, leaving voters ill-informed about May’s Senedd elections, a report has found.

A Cardiff University study of more than 3,000 news items found repeated patterns in coverage across different broadcasters and platforms, including not signposting whether an issue was relevant to England or England and Wales only, widespread references to “the government” rather than “the UK government”, and the use of “you” and “your” in contexts that apply only to people living in England.

Use of unmanned ground vehicles has grown exponentially since 2024 turning the war into a technological contest

Victor Pavlov showed off Ukraine’s newest and most versatile weapon: a battery-powered land robot.

The unmanned ground vehicles come in various shapes and sizes. One runs on caterpillar tracks and resembles a roofless milk float. Another has wheels and antennas. A third carries anti-tank mines. Since spring 2024 their use has grown exponentially.

The brutalisation of global norms by figures like Pete Hegseth must be seen as an ethical issue. It’s a fight against chaos, and all major religions must play a role

That combative old hymn, Onward Christian Soldiers, is not much heard these days, though it was once a favourite with church congregations and school assemblies. Written in 1865 by Sabine Baring-Gould, an English clergyman and religious scholar, its belligerent refrain urges the faithful on to battle, victory and conquest: “Onward, Christian soldiers / Marching as to war / With the cross of Jesus / Going on before!” Its martial tone suited the Victorian zeitgeist but it made succeeding generations uneasy (though it was still sung in my primary school in the early 1960s). Nowadays, this sort of triumphalism gives religion a bad name.

Pete Hegseth, US defence secretary, and a leading Christian soldier, would certainly disagree. He probably hums it on his way to work. At a recent Christian worship service in the Pentagon – an irregular event, given the constitution’s dislike of anything smacking of state religion – Hegseth, referencing Iran, prayed for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy”. Hegseth’s creed is killing. He describes Iranians as “religious fanatics”. And he should know. His intolerant brand of evangelical Christian nationalism is extreme even by US standards – yet has Donald Trump’s backing. Trump was a Presbyterian until 2020, when he abruptly declared he wasn’t. God knows what he is now.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

• Bruins to play for first championship in program history

• As it happened: UCLA 51-44 Texas

Lauren Betts hit the play button over and over, forcing herself to watch last year’s Final Four blowout loss to UConn 10 times during the offseason.

The two-time All-American made sure there wasn’t a repeat performance in this year’s Final Four, swooping in for the biggest play in a game that sends the Bruins into the NCAA national championship game for the first time.

• Bruins reach title game for first time in program history

• Gamecocks end Huskies’ winning streak at 54 games

• Auriemma, Staley have tense postgame exchange

South Carolina 8-13 UConn, 3:55 left, first quarter: And as I type that, Sarah Strong bails out her team with a 3-pointer as the shot clock nears zero. She scores again after another Okot miss, and the Huskies are already running away.

Tessa Johnson responds with a layup and then a jumper.

"Consumer PC parts aren't the only things being gobbled up by the 'AI' industry," writes PCWorld's Michael Crider. "A Starcraft-inspired strategy game is shutting down its multiplayer servers because the hosting company got bought out for 'AI.'" The game will still be playable offline for now, but the shutdown highlights the ripple effects of the AI boom on the gaming industry. Amid the ongoing hardware shortages, AI companies are basically gobbling up as much infrastructure as they can to repurpose it for AI workloads. From the report: The game in question is Stormgate, a crowdfunded revival of the real-time strategy genre that has languished in the last decade or so. The developer Frost Giant Studios told its players on Discord (spotted by PC Gamer) that it would be unable to continue multiplayer access past the end of this month. The "game server orchestration partner" was bought by an AI company -- the developer's words, not mine -- which means that the multiplayer aspects of the game will have a "planned outage." The devs say the game will be patched for offline play, presumably including its single-player campaign mode and co-op modes, but "online modes will not be available at that point." They're hoping to bring back online play in a later update, but that'll depend on "finding a partner to support ongoing operations." That sounds like old-fashioned player-hosted games with lobbies aren't in the cards, at least not yet. Frost Giant's server provider is Hathora, which was bought by a company called Fireworks AI last month. Fireworks describes its offerings as "open-source AI models at blazing speed, optimized for your use case, scaled globally with the Fireworks Inference Cloud." So, yeah, Hathora's infrastructure will likely be used for yet more generative "AI." And according to GamesBeat, it's planning to shut down the game service aspect of its company completely. That means Stormgate probably isn't going to be the last game affected. Hathora also provides online services for Splitgate 2, among others. I'm contacting Hathora for comment and will update this story if I receive a response.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This blog is closed – our live coverage continues in a new blog here

Authorities in Abu Dhabi have reported two incidents of debris falling from intercepted aerial threats in the UAE capital, with one sparking a fire at a gas facility,

The official Abu Dhabi Media Office said authorities responded to an incident of falling debris at the Habshan gas facilities. “Operations have been suspended while authorities respond to a fire,” it said in a post on X, adding that no injuries were reported.

Datacentres ‘directly competing’ with possible residential builds near public transport, one council tells NSW inquiry, amid growing concerns

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Datacentre developments are crowding out opportunities for housing and job-rich industries across Sydney, a New South Wales inquiry has heard, with one local council reporting a rise in blackouts linked to the industry’s expansion.

Several Sydney councils, all facing an influx of datacentre developments, have raised concerns about the health, environmental and amenity impacts on their local communities in submissions to the state’s datacentre inquiry.

President Trump ordered the Department of Homeland Security to find a way to pay "each and every employee" of the agency.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 4.

Stiff winds ‘spreading the smoke’ as Springs fire bears down on Moreno Valley while smaller Crown fire also burning

A pair of wildfires broke out in southern California on Friday, marking the region’s first significant burns in a spring that has seen a major heatwave.

The fires started in windy conditions that have caused them to spread quickly. The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for parts of southern California through midday Friday, warning of gusts up to 50mph.

This live blog is now closed.

• Trump announces ‘fraud’ crackdown in Democratic states

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email

A reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest out of the Middle East at our dedicated live blog.

This includes Donald Trump’s recent comments on Truth Social that “with a little more time” he could open strait of Hormuz. The president added that reopening the vital passageway would allow the US to “TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE. IT WOULD BE A ‘GUSHER’ FOR THE WORLD.”

UConn, on a 54-game winning streak, entered the Final Four undefeated for the ninth time in school history.

• Gamecocks end Huskies’ winning streak at 54 games

• Auriemma: ‘I said what I had to say. It was nothing’

• Staley: ‘If I did something wrong to Geno, I had no idea’

UConn coach Geno Auriemma and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley had a heated exchange on the sideline after the Gamecocks beat the undefeated Huskies 62-48 in Friday night’s semi-final of the women’s NCAA Tournament.

South Carolina ended UConn’s winning streak at 54 games and secured a return trip to the national championship game.

Trump said Vance would focus on blue states and, without providing evidence, accused Democrat leaders of rampant ‘theft’ – key US politics stories from Friday 3 April at a glance

Donald Trump has given his vice-president, JD Vance, a new side gig: “fraud czar”.

The president this week announced a fresh crackdown on “fraud” in Democratic states and tapped Vance to lead the charge. Officials swiftly announced a string of arrests in California.

Russian advances slowing, thinktank’s data shows; 14 killed in Ukraine in massive drone and missile salvo. What we know on day 1,501

Russia’s army recorded almost no territorial gains on the frontline in Ukraine in March for the first time in two-and-a-half years, according to analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) conducted by Agence France-Presse. The Russian army has been slowing in its advances since late 2025 – because of Kyiv’s localised breakthroughs in the south-east of the country. Across the entire frontline, the Russian army seized only 23 sq km (8.9 sq miles) in March, losing territory in some areas, according to the analysis. This figure excludes infiltration operations conducted by Russian forces beyond the frontline, as well as advances claimed by the Russian side but neither confirmed nor denied by the ISW.

The Russian army made 319 sq km of gains in January and 123 sq km in February, which was then the smallest advance since April 2024. Its advance in March was the smallest since September 2023. The ISW attributed the slowdown to Ukrainian counteroffensives, but also to “Russia’s ban on using Starlink terminals in Ukraine” and “the Kremlin’s efforts to restrict access to Telegram”. The messaging app – very popular among Russians, including those fighting on the front – has been barely usable in recent months due to blocks imposed by the authorities. As in February, Russia lost ground on the southern section of the frontline, between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Russian strikes killed 14 people in Ukraine on Friday, officials said, as Moscow launched the latest in an increasing number of daytime barrages. Moscow has been firing aerial broadsides at Ukraine throughout its more than four-year invasion, mostly at night, but in recent weeks has stepped up daytime attacks. The Russian military used more than 500 drones and dozens of missiles in its salvo on Friday, according to the Ukrainian air force.

Russia’s Baltic oil export hubs at Ust-Luga and Primorsk remain unable to handle shipments after a series of Ukrainian drone attacks, prompting the country’s refineries to find alternative routes for export, industry sources said on Friday. The attacks have damaged port infrastructure and continued through the last two weeks of March, with at least five strikes on Ust-Luga in the space of 10 days. Sources said the export restrictions, along with disruptions at large refineries, could lead to a decrease in oil production in Russia. Traders said refineries had been unable to deliver diesel fuel to Primorsk for export since 22 March, leaving refineries in European Russia and Siberia without their most viable export route. Traders said refineries were having to consider more expensive rail transport routes to other export terminals.

A Ukrainian drone and missile attack on southern Russia killed at least one person, injured four others and sparked a blaze aboard a foreign-flagged vessel, Russian officials said on Saturday.

Zelenskyy has called on lawmakers to pass key legislation next week to avert a funding crisis, help Ukraine fight the war against Russia, and enact key reforms required for EU accession. Due to lagging reforms and slow legislative progress in late 2025 and early this year, Ukraine missed deadlines to unlock billions from its key lenders, economists said. With the need for external financing standing at $52bn this year – equivalent to about a quarter of annual economic output – the budget situation is desperate. “I have a list of key draft laws that are critical for securing funding,” the Ukrainian president said in remarks released on Friday. They range from strengthening the court system to reforming energy sector procedures. “I believe that members of parliament from all parties must understand the importance of these bills for Ukraine’s budget,” said Zelenskyy, who has a majority in parliament but its relations with his government have soured.

New Hampshire is one of the few states in the nation that doesn't have a dedicated school for the deaf.

Budget proposal released on Friday outlines president’s desire to revive former federal prison in San Francisco Bay

Donald Trump is asking for $152m to restore Alcatraz, a former federal prison off the coast of San Francisco, according to a budget proposal released on Friday for the 2027 fiscal year.

Last May, Trump first called upon the Department of Justice, the FBI and Homeland Security to rebuild the prison. He heaped praise on Alcatraz’s reputation in a Truth Social post.

The Artemis II astronauts continued their long coast to the moon, capturing stunning photos along the way.

Pope Leo XIV carried a wooden cross for all of the 14 stations of the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum on his first Good Friday as pontiff, marking the first time in decades that a pope carried the cross to every station.

Misogynistic abuse of female staff is increasing, leaving teachers feeling ‘traumatised’ and ‘humiliated’

Teachers’ leaders have said a “masculinity crisis” is fermenting in schools across the UK, with misogynistic abuse of female staff on the increase, leaving victims “traumatised”, “demeaned” and “humiliated”.

Almost a quarter of female teachers who took part in a union survey said they have been the target of misogyny from a pupil over the past 12 months – the highest proportion in the last four years of surveys.

Ripple effects of oil and fertiliser shortage felt by farmers in India and Sri Lanka despite governments saying there is enough stock to go round

Gurvinder Singh never thought the war in Iran would touch his quiet corner of Punjab.

Yet looking out over his smallholding, where he alternates between wheat and rice crops in the state known as India’s breadbasket, the 52-year-old farmer can barely think of anything else. His anxiety over a conflict playing out thousands of miles away is crippling as he fears what will come of this season’s rice crop.

Iranian strikes have reportedly knocked out key AWS availability zones in Bahrain and Dubai, leaving parts of both regions effectively offline for an extended period and forcing Amazon to urge teams and customers to shift workloads elsewhere. "These two regions continue to be impaired, and services should not expect to be operating with normal levels of redundancy and resiliency," an internal Amazon communication memo reads. "We are actively working to free and reserve as much capacity as possible in the region for customers, and services should be scaled to the minimal footprint required to support customer migration." Big Technology reports: With the war now nearing its sixth week, Iran has made Amazon infrastructure in the Gulf an economic target and is now eyeing its peers. Amazon's Bahrain facilities have been hit multiple times, including a Wednesday strike that caused a fire. And its facilities in the UAE also sustained multiple hits. The IRGC is threatening multiple other U.S. tech giants, including Microsoft, Google, and Apple. Amazons infrastructure in Bahrain and Dubai each have three 'availability zones' or clusters of compute. Both Bahrain and Dubai have a zones that are "hard down" and and "impaired but functioning," per the internal communication. "We do not have a timeline for when DXB and BAH will return to normal operations," the internal post said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

US president issues executive order as longest partial government shutdown in US history enters 49th day

Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday that declares all Department of Homeland Security employees will receive pay and benefits during the agency’s partial shutdown.

The “Liberating the Department of Homeland Security From the Democrat-Caused Shutdown” memo is similar to Trump’s executive order from last week which called for issuing pay to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents during the shutdown.

In the order, Trump directed the homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, to “use funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to the functions of DHS” to pay “each and every employee of DHS”.

• NBA scoring leader hurt in Thursday’s loss to Thunder

• LA have five games left before postseason begins

• Absence may force Dončić out of individual awards race

Luka Dončić will miss the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers’ regular season with a Grade 2 strain of his left hamstring, the team announced Friday.

Dončić is the NBA’s top scorer and the driving force behind the Lakers’ surge into the third spot in the Western Conference standings, but he injured his leg during Los Angeles’ blowout 139-96 loss to Oklahoma City on Thursday. An MRI exam revealed the severity of the strain.

Catholic Timothy Broglio says ‘hard to cast this war as something that would be sponsored by the Lord’

The leader of all Catholic chaplains in the United States’ armed forces has questioned how righteous the US military’s campaign in Iran is, saying that “under the just war theory – it is not”.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, head of the Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, told CBS News in an interview set for broadcast Sunday that while Iran “was a threat with nuclear arms”, waging war on the theocratic state constituted “compensating for a threat before the threat is actually realized”.

The AI giant recently said it would end its Sora image generator and put off a planned ChatGPT "adult mode" indefinitely.

US president makes baseless claims about fraud in blue states and says JD Vance will lead clampdown as ‘fraud czar’

Donald Trump announced a fresh crackdown on “fraud” in Democratic states and tapped JD Vance to lead the charge. Officials swiftly announced a string of arrests in California.

In a Truth Social post on Friday, the US president announced that his vice-president was now “in charge of ‘fraud’ in the United States”, claiming the problem is “massive and pervasive” and that Vance’s new role as “fraud czar” will be “a major factor in how great the future of our country will be”.

Microsoft plans to invest $10 billion in Japan from 2026 to 2029 to expand AI infrastructure, boost local cloud capacity, train 1 million engineers and developers, and deepen cybersecurity cooperation with the Japanese government. Reuters reports: The investment includes the training of 1 million engineers and developers by 2030, Microsoft said, which was unveiled during a visit to Tokyo by Vice Chair and President Brad Smith. In a statement, the company said the plan aligns with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's goal to boost growth through advanced, strategic technologies while safeguarding national security. Microsoft will work with domestic firms including SoftBank and Sakura Internet to expand Japan-based AI computing capacity, allowing Ecompanies and government agencies to keep sensitive data within the country while accessing Microsoft Azure services, it said. It will also deepen cooperation with Japanese authorities on sharing intelligence related to cyber threats and crime prevention.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The members of a tiny Methodist church in Virginia are excited — if a little confused — that Vance’s memoir of his path to Catholicism has put them in the spotlight.

The executive order is designed to increase the NCAA's control over college sports, and threatens to remove federal funding for colleges and universities that don't comply with NCAA rules.

An F-15 fighter jet and an A-10 attack plane were lost to hostile fire. Two search-and-rescue helicopters also were hit, injuring the crews, before safely returning to their base, officials said.

Pep Guardiola's team aims to step closer to a second cup triumph as they host Arne Slot's Reds.

Met police investigate incident, removing five officers from frontline duties after member of the public discovers items

Armed police officers protecting the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, allegedly left a bag containing guns and a Taser on the street which was discovered by a member of the public.

The Metropolitan police said on Friday it was investigating the incident and five officers had been removed from frontline duties while inquiries were being carried out.

Over 20 attorneys general challenge the executive order and say it’s an unconstitutional move to disenfranchise voters

More than 20 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit Friday challenging Donald Trump’s Tuesday executive order to restrict who can vote by mail.

In his order, Trump directed the US Postal Service to abstain from sending mail-in or absentee ballots to people who are not on a pre-ordained list of eligible citizens.

Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said mounting inflation risks "complicates the picture" on interest rates.

In a speech to what he called “the single largest gathering of American farmers that the White House has … ever had,” President Donald Trump distorted the facts on the estate tax, soybean exports and more.

• Trump falsely claimed that “we saved 2 million American farms from extinction by virtually ending the unfair estate tax.” That’s roughly the total number of farms in the country. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said only about 1% of farms would have paid any estate tax even if Congress had not permanently extended provisions that were set to expire. Experts say few, if any, farms were saved from extinction.

• He wrongly claimed that “American soybeans are now being shipped to China in record amounts.” U.S. exports aren’t on track for a record this year, and a trade deal the administration announced last year doesn’t show record amounts, either.

• The president said that beef prices were “starting to come down,” but price data show little to no indication of that.

• He said “the number of cattle was way down” due to an environmental restriction that he “got rid of.” But the White House pointed to the Green New Deal, a nonbinding resolution that never passed.

• Trump said that $12 billion in aid provided to farmers was paid from increased tariff revenue, but the money came from the Commodity Credit Corporation, which gets regular appropriations from Congress.

The president spoke to farmers gathered on the South Lawn of the White House on March 27.

Farms and the Estate Tax

Trump falsely claimed that “we saved 2 million American farms from extinction by virtually ending the unfair estate tax.” There aren’t even quite 2 million farms in the U.S., and tax experts say the number of small farms that got estate tax relief from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act championed by Trump was vanishingly small.

Here’s what Trump said in his address to farmers:

Trump, March 27: Very importantly, we saved 2 million American farms from extinction by virtually ending the unfair estate tax. We’ve ended the estate tax, or as they call it, the death tax, and you can now keep your family farms in the family. … No, it was a big thing. I would see farmers and they pass away … and the children would get hit with this massive tax bill for the value of the farm. Sometimes the farm is very valuable, but the cash isn’t so readily available. And they go out to a bank and they’d borrow money and they’d borrow and borrow and borrow to pay the tax. They’d be working for 20 years to pay it off. If they had a bad season, they’d lose their farm. … And you’d have, actually, many, many suicides over it. They would actually commit suicide because they couldn’t stand the concept of losing their family farm.

Trump did not end the estate tax, which is a tax on inherited assets over a certain amount. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which Trump signed into law in 2017, doubled the assets threshold that would trigger an estate tax. That decreased, but did not entirely eliminate, the number of people subject to the estate tax. That provision was scheduled to expire at the end of 2025, but the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed into law in July 2025, permanently extended the more generous exemptions for the estate tax. For 2026, the thresholds triggering the estate tax are $15 million for individuals and $30 million for married couples.

But more importantly, only a small fraction of farms pays any estate tax.

To back up Trump’s claim, a White House official pointed us to an April 2025 article from the American Farm Bureau Federation, an advocate for farmers, that stated, “The estate tax, also called the ‘death’ tax, turns a time of mourning into a race against time to pay a government bill. Exactly nine months after the death of a family leader, some farm families owe the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) up to 40% of their farm’s value above an exemption limit. Without an act of Congress this year, the estate tax exemption will drop by 50% to $7.61 million on Jan. 1, 2026, putting the future of thousands of farm families at risk.”

The article noted that in 2024, the USDA “estimated that if the estate tax exemption reverts to its pre-TCJA level, nearly twice as many farms in every sales class would have to pay estate taxes.”

That’s true, but according to that USDA estimate, “the share of farm estates estimated to owe Federal estate tax would increase from 0.3 to 1.0 percent.”

“The story he [Trump] tells is dramatic but almost entirely untrue,” Howard Gleckman, a visiting fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, told us via email.

Although the Tax Policy Center has not modeled the estate tax impact on farms recently, Gleckman noted that “we estimated that a total of 3,960 decedents paid the estate tax in 2023. Those were total deaths, including all occupations. Since the vast majority of family farms are worth much less than $15m/$30m, the impact on farms is vanishingly low, and TPC concludes that zero small family farmers paid the tax.”

“It also is worth noting that any business owner subject to the estate tax has many tools to avoid the tax,” Gleckman said. “For example, they can create trusts or buy life insurance, which effectively pays the tax.”

In an article published in the Iowa Law Review in May 2025, Kathleen DeLaney Thomas, a professor at the University of North Carolina Law School, explored what she called the “myth” of “the threat of taxing family farms out of existence.”

“In the minds of voters, the family farmer is a sympathetic taxpayer who is cash poor but holds valuable property,” Thomas wrote. “Federal taxes that are based upon property values (like a wealth tax or an estate tax), rather than on cash income, appear to pose a risk that the family farm would have to be sold to fund such a tax. Yet, there is no empirical evidence that any family farm has ever been sold in the United States to fund federal taxes.”

As an aside, we weren’t able to find any examples of American farmers who committed suicide because of the prospect of losing their farm due to the estate tax, let alone “many,” as Trump claimed. There was a widely reported case of a man who committed suicide in 2025 due to worry about inheritance tax changes, but that was in the United Kingdom.

Soybeans to China

Trump falsely said that “American soybeans are now being shipped to China in record amounts,” touting a figure that he said he negotiated with China’s president. But U.S. exports are not on track this year to reach a record. A trade deal the White House announced in November also doesn’t show an agreement for record exports.

“Thanks to our trade deals, you’re now sending over $40 billion in American soybeans to China,” the president said. “I want to thank President Xi of China, because we had a deal at 20, and I said, ‘Could you do me a favor? It’s a big place, could you double it?’ … He said, ‘All right, I’ll do it,’ and you got 40 instead of 20.” Trump went on to make his claim about “record amounts” of soybeans now going to China.

Data from the USDA show that soybean exports to China, as of March 19, are about half the amount they were last year. “We’re not looking at record export sales, at least so far this year,” Chad E. Hart, a professor, extension economist and crop markets specialist at Iowa State University, told us.

Mindy L. Mallory, an associate professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, similarly said that “we are not even close to normal buying, let alone record buying.”

U.S. soybean exports to China totaled 11.2 million metric tons for the marketing year as of March 19, according to the USDA data. That’s about half the amount exported to China over the same period the year before, which was 21.8 million metric tons. (The marketing year is Sept. 1 to Aug. 31, covering the harvesting of the crop and what happens to it before the subsequent harvest, Hart explained. So, last year would be Sept. 1, 2024, to Aug. 31, 2025, and the current marketing year started Sept. 1, 2025.)

Typically, just over half of U.S. soybean exports go to China, Mallory told us. But exports dropped considerably in 2025, due to Trump’s policy of increasing tariffs on U.S. imports from China and China’s subsequent retaliatory policies for goods it gets from the U.S. For several months, China didn’t import any U.S. soybeans.

In early November, the White House announced that Trump and Xi had made a deal on trade. A Nov. 1 White House fact sheet said: “China will purchase at least 12 million metric tons (MMT) of U.S. soybeans during the last two months of 2025 and also purchase at least 25 MMT of U.S. soybeans in each of 2026, 2027, and 2028.”

Those amounts wouldn’t be records, either. Mallory said 25 million metric tons for a year would be “just below the average of the prior six years.”

In a Nov. 17 paper published on farmdoc daily, a website run by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, other Purdue agriculture economists wrote, “If China purchases at least 25 million tons of U.S. soybeans in each of 2026, 2027, and 2028, that volume would still be 14% lower than the five-year average of 29 million tons of soybean shipments to China from 2020 to 2024. The ten-year average was 27 million tons.” A chart in that paper shows that, over the previous 10 years, annual exports to China only dipped below 25 million metric tons in 2019 (22.6 MMT) and 2018 (8.2 MMT), during another trade disagreement in Trump’s first term.

It’s unclear if Trump is suggesting that he had secured a commitment from Xi for a larger amount of exports than the White House announced. The White House didn’t respond to our request for clarification of how much China had agreed to and when it would import $40 billion of soybeans, as Trump said. When we asked about the president’s claim, a White House official said: “China has agreed to increase its purchases of U.S. soybeans by millions of metric tons, in addition to increasing purchases of other commodities.”

For the marketing year, Hart said, exports to China are typically in the range of $16 billion to $20 billion, depending on prices. He said the president’s $40 billion figure must be a cumulative figure for multiple years, noting that the U.S. announcement concerned export amounts for several years.

Beef Prices

Trump said that the price of beef “is starting to come down.” But there’s little to no indication of that. He went on to falsely claim that “the number of cattle was way down” due to an environmental regulation concerning “gas permeating throughout the air,” adding that “we got rid of that one, too.” A White House official said he was referring to the Green New Deal, a nonbinding congressional resolution that didn’t pass.

We’ll start with beef prices. They have been high, due to several factors, which we’ll explain. The price of a pound of ground beef was an average $6.74 in February, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. That’s down a mere penny from January, and it’s up $1.19 since January 2025. The price had gone up 52 cents from January 2024 to January 2025.

Uncooked beef steaks cost $12.74 per pound in February on average. That’s up 44 cents from January and up $1.83 from January 2025. Uncooked beef roasts were $8.93 per pound on average last month, down from a high of $9.29 in November. But the latest figure is still $1.21 more than the average price in January 2025.

Beef prices “are far from coming down,” Bob Chudy, a consultant for the beef industry, told us in an email. Chudy pointed to USDA figures for choice cutout, which he called “the best measure of wholesale beef prices.” Using a monthly average of weekly prices the USDA provides, Chudy said that choice cutout “jumped from an average of $3.69/lb in February to $3.94/lb in March.” That’s an increase of 25 cents. “And we are going into a period of seasonally stronger demand, with spring and summer grilling season around the corner.”

Chudy said that “beef supplies are historically low. There is nothing this administration can do to reduce beef prices for the balance of 2026 and extending into 2027 and likely 2028. Any short term deviations to the contrary are just that.”

As we’ve explained before, drought conditions in the U.S. over the past few years affected the feed for cattle and led to a slow reduction in the cattle herd, Bernt Nelson, an agricultural economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation, told NBC News last summer. In a February Farm Bureau report drawing on USDA data, Nelson said the U.S. cattle inventory on Jan. 1 was 0.3% lower than in 2025, beginning the eighth year of contraction and “with little opportunity for meaningful expansion until at least 2028.”

“Tighter cattle supplies will contribute to higher prices and volatility for cattle and beef in 2026,” Nelson wrote.

Also, last year, the USDA suspended imports of live cattle from Mexico because of cases of New World screwworm, a parasite that kills host animals. Chudy called that “a huge factor” that “has choked off a valuable supply of animals raised in USA feedlots.”

And there are also demand issues. Altin Kalo, head economist with the Steiner Consulting Group, which focuses on the food industry, told us, “Beef demand has been exceptional in recent years and has been a big contributor to the rise in beef prices in recent years. Indexes that ag economists use to track the shift in demand over time show that in 2025 demand was up 8% vs. previous year and near 27% from pre-COVID levels.” Kalo cited several factors for the increase in demand, including income and employment, high quality of beef products and a shift to higher-protein diets, and consumers eating more meals in restaurants than in the past.

In November, Trump scrapped 50% tariffs he had placed on Brazilian imports, including beef.

Green New Deal

After mentioning prices, Trump made his claim about environmental concerns reducing the number of cattle.

Trump: Beef was, it was an amazing thing, I was told by [Agriculture Secretary] Brooke [Rollins]. I said, I don’t really believe it. They wanted to have less cattle in the country for environmental reasons. … These are sick people. No, they want less cattle for environmental reasons. It has something to do with gas permeating throughout the air. And we actually — and that’s what happened. And these, the number of cattle was way down. I said, what happened? They were mandated. They were restricted for that reason. These people are crazy. But anyway, we — we got rid of that one too. That was an easy one.

When we asked what environmental regulation Trump was referring to, a White House official told us: “President Trump is including the insane Green New Scam provision that sought to limit cow herds in order to reduce methane emissions,” linking to a 2019 New York Post article about the Green New Deal resolution, which was introduced by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that year.

That resolution, which was nonbinding, never passed. The number of cattle wasn’t “mandated” or “restricted” under the resolution, so there was nothing for Trump to get rid of, either.

The president has made a similar claim about the Green New Deal before, falsely saying in 2019 that it would “eliminate” all cows. Ocasio-Cortez did express concern about greenhouse gas emissions from cows, as have other environmentalists. (Methane emissions from agricultural livestock contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, as the Environmental Protection Agency says.) But as a nonbinding resolution, the Green New Deal was a broad vision for addressing climate change. If it had passed in Congress — which it didn’t then, nor when introduced in later years — lawmakers would have needed to propose separate legislation on steps to take to reach the resolution’s goals for emissions.

As we explained in 2019, the resolution doesn’t say anything about limiting cows. But two FAQ documents from the resolution’s supporters mentioned cows, garnering a lot of attention at the time. A fact sheet said: “We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast.” A blog post on Ocasio-Cortez’s website expressed a similar idea.

Farm Aid Not From Tariffs

Trump again claimed that $12 billion in aid provided to farmers was paid from increased tariff revenue, but the funding came from regular appropriations.

Trump said: “To further help farmers recovering from the Biden catastrophe, we use money taken from tariffs, the tariffs — we’ve taken in hundreds of billions of dollars from the tariffs, and as I said, we gave you $12 billion in farm relief. And that happened just recently because you were hurt by certain countries unfairly. And I said you were unfairly hurt and we gave you $12 billion and that — that made up for it.”

The $12 billion bailout for American farmers came soon after China slashed its purchase of American soybeans in 2025 following Trump’s imposition of additional tariffs on imports from China.

“The Soybean Farmers of our Country are being hurt because China is, for ‘negotiating’ reasons only, not buying. We’ve made so much money on Tariffs, that we are going to take a small portion of that money, and help our Farmers,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Oct. 1.

But as we have written, the $12 billion was paid for by the Commodity Credit Corporation, a government-owned corporation that provides funding for agricultural programs and gets regular appropriations from Congress, according to a press release from the USDA.

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 Trump Fumbles the Facts with Farmers appeared first on FactCheck.org.

A Rome court ruled that several Netflix price hikes in Italy were unlawful because the company's contracts didn't adequately explain or justify future pricing changes. As a result, Netflix has been ordered to issue refunds that could total roughly 500 euros for some long-term subscribers. Ars Technica reports: The lawsuit was brought by Italian consumer advocacy group Movimento Consumatori, which alleged that the price hikes violate the Consumer Code, Italian legislation that aims to protect consumer rights. The Consumer Code says it's unlawful for a "professional to unilaterally modify the clauses of the contract, or the characteristics of the product or service to be provided, without a justified reason indicated in the contract itself," according to a Google-provided translation. The court's April 1 ruling determined that Netflix's contracts were required to explain in advance why prices or other terms might change in the future. Because the price hikes were found to be imposed without providing customers with valid justifications, the court ruled that the new prices are invalid and ordered Netflix to refund affected subscribers. This comes despite Netflix reportedly providing a 30-day advance notice of the higher fees and allowing customers to cancel their subscriptions to avoid price hikes. The court gave Netflix 90 days to inform millions of current and former customers via email, mail, its website, and Italian newspapers of their right to refunds or else face a penalty of 700 euros per day, Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore reported today. Per Italian law, price increases that Netflix has issued or will issue beyond April 2025 are legal. At that time, Netflix adjusted its terms to state that contract terms could one day change due to technological, security, or regulatory needs, to clarify clauses, or to provide changes to the service, Il Sole 24 Ore reported.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"That's us!" NASA says in a post showing one of the photos taken on the lunar journey.

April 3, 2026 — Yongtao Liu is an R&D staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS). In the Data NanoAnalytics Group, he is helping nanomaterials research move toward experiments that can run with far less handholding. His goal sounds simple but is tough in practice: What changes when an experiment can keep “thinking” after the scientist steps away? He is developing AI-driven “closed-loop” experiments that can plan measurements, read results as they come in and choose the next step, faster than a person could.

Yongtao Liu, an ORNL R&D staff member, uses AI-guided scanning probe microscopy to run experiments and analyze results with less hands-on work. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy.

For Liu, the point is not to take scientists out of the process. It is to remove the slow, repetitive work that keeps good questions waiting in line. His guiding principle is balance. Autonomy should speed up exploration, while expert oversight and clear, explainable reasoning keep results reliable. “Autonomy can help us explore faster,” he said, “but it must stay interpretable. We need to understand its choices and whether we should trust it.”

Liu came to ORNL in 2021 as a postdoctoral scientist and soon took on a leadership role. In 2024 he became project lead for physics-informed and data fusion approach for cross-facility autonomous experiments. The motivation for this work grew from the fact that materials development and scientific discovery rarely depend on a single experiment but instead rely on correlating multiple experiments that provide complementary insights. “This principle also applies to autonomous experimentation” he said.

Turning Nanoscience into a Closed-Loop, Self-Improving Experiment

Many nanoscience experiments follow a manual loop. A researcher sets a condition, measures a response, adjusts and measures again, often hundreds of times. In scanning probe microscopy, a family of microscopes that “feel” a surface with a tiny tip, that loop can become especially repetitive.

Liu’s approach replaces much of that repetition with software. Automation runs the instrument and collects data. A type of AI that finds patterns in data evaluates the results in real time and chooses the next best measurement. The goal is not only to generate more data, faster, but also to create an experiment that adapts as it learns.

“The AI can analyze the results in real time and automatically decide what you can do next,” Liu added. That speed matters, but so does sensitivity. Algorithms can notice small, consistent changes that are easy to miss when a person is staring at a flood of plots and images.

When ‘Novelty’ Might Mean Noise Rather Than New Science

One major thread in Liu’s work is “novelty discovery.” The idea is to teach an autonomous experiment to recognize when something looks truly unusual, not just statistically different. In the best case, novelty points to new physics. It can reveal behavior in materials that existing explanations do not cover.

A concrete example comes from Liu’s earlier work on halide perovskites. These materials are promising for devices like next-generation solar cells and light emitters. They are also known for complex, sometimes unstable behavior. In conductive atomic force microscopy, often called conductive AFM, his team used novelty detection to flag unusual current-voltage “hysteresis” behavior. Hysteresis means the electrical response depends on the path taken, not just the final setting. It is similar to how bending a paperclip one way changes how it behaves when it is bent back.

The algorithm noticed something specific. The opening of the hysteresis loop happened at different voltages depending on the local grain structure of the thin film. Grains are small crystalline regions, and their boundaries can change how electricity flows. Because this pattern was not well understood, the team applied representation learning, a type of analysis that helps reveal hidden structure in complex datasets. The result was a “partial knowledge map” that linked microstructure and electrical behavior. Some patterns fit existing ideas, while others still do not, and they now point to what should be studied next.

That experience shaped Liu’s view of autonomy. Speeding up measurement is only half the job. Autonomous labs also generate massive datasets, and scientists need better tools to interpret them without fooling themselves.

False novelty is a real risk. “The most common false novelty is measurement noise, or experimental artifacts,” Liu said. These are glitches caused by the instrument, the environment, or the sample, rather than true material behavior. AI can shine a spotlight on anomalies, but people still must decide whether the spotlight is on a discovery or a mirage.

From Materials Training to Machine-Guided Discovery

Liu earned his bachelor’s degree at Nankai University and completed his doctorate in materials science and engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. During graduate school, he ran into a problem that many materials researchers face. The material is complicated, and the number of possible experiments can be overwhelming.

A formative moment came while studying halide perovskite thin films. Researchers believed that many nanoscale features could affect how the films absorb light and conduct charge. Those features included grains, grain boundaries, crystal facets and internal “domain walls,” which are borders between regions with different internal structure. The trouble was scale. Manually checking each feature and all their combinations was practically impossible.

“I remember thinking that a better approach would be to explore these structures automatically,” he said, “rather than relying on human search.” That realization pushed him toward AI-driven autonomous microscopy aimed at finding new structures and behaviors that would otherwise be too slow to uncover.

Building Systems That Span Instruments, Disciplines and Time Scales

CNMS is a Department of Energy user facility, where visiting researchers from around the world rely on its tools. Because the same instruments support many different projects, CNMS especially values methods that “travel well” — software and workflows robust enough to work reliably across a wide range of experiments.

Liu’s work sits at the intersection of materials science, instrument engineering and AI. He argues that autonomy works only when those perspectives stay connected. Materials scientists understand what signals are physically plausible and what could be an artifact. Instrument engineers know how measurements can fail or drift. AI researchers build models that can learn from messy, real data without collapsing.

Liu said interdisciplinary teamwork works best when each group brings a complementary strength. Humans define the scientific questions and constraints. AI expands the team’s ability to search. In a closed-loop system, that partnership can scan a vast parameter space — testing countless experimental settings and material variations — so the system can continue exploring and refining its approach autonomously, long after the researcher has left the controls.

Linking instruments across facilities into one learning workflow
Liu also leads efforts to build cross-facility closed-loop experiments that connect different tools into one decision-making chain. Such a workflow might include synthesis tools, such as autonomous pulsed laser deposition, which grows thin films by blasting material off a target with laser pulses. It may also include combinatorial growth systems that produce many material variants in a single run. Those samples can then be studied using autonomous scanning probe microscopy.

The central challenge is timing. Microscopes can make decisions in seconds. Making a new sample can take hours or even days. “It’s like trying to run a loop while some parts respond instantly and others only update once per hour or per day,” Liu said. The engineering problem is to keep the fast tools efficient while still making smart use of the slow ones. He wants the whole system to keep learning, rather than waiting.

Tools for Autonomy That Scientists Can Trust

Two of Liu’s contributions focus on making autonomy practical and trustworthy in the real world. They are AEcroscopy and the Gated Active Learning Framework.

AEcroscopy is a software-hardware system that controls microscopes while standardizing data acquisition, data processing and experiment logging for automated and autonomous runs. In plain terms, it helps turn a long, repetitive measurement routine into a reliable script. Instead of a person changing a setting and taking the same measurement repeatedly, the system can step through conditions automatically, process the results, and record exactly what happened. This improves both speed and reproducibility, which is the ability to repeat an experiment and get consistent results.

The Gated Active Learning Framework addresses a different risk. AI can be fast enough to multiply a mistake. If the system assumes the data should look a certain way, it can misread results that do not fit. For example, the analysis may assume a signal has one clear peak. The real material might produce two peaks under certain conditions. If the AI is not built to notice the mismatch, it can “learn” the wrong lesson and reinforce its own error.

Liu’s gating idea acts like a safety filter. The model is trained only on data that match its assumptions. Strange or out-of-family cases are held back for separate review. In his opinion, this helps autonomy stay honest. “The computer model should do what it can,” he added, “instead of pretending it can do everything.”

What AI Should Never Do, and What It Makes Possible

Liu is direct about the limits. “AI should never hide its reasoning or replace critical scientific judgment,” he says. If a system cannot explain why it chose an experiment, and if humans cannot question and validate the choice, then the lab is moving fast without knowing where it is going.

At the same time, he sees a unique strength in AI. It can explore enormous experimental landscapes systematically and adaptively, learning which paths are promising while the experiment is still running. “It lets us search spaces that are too big for any one person, or even a whole team, to cover by hand,” he said.

His long-term vision is not AI that only predicts — he wants AI that helps scientists reason. In that future, the system proposes tests, spots patterns and challenges assumptions. People keep the work grounded in physical reality.

Training the Next Kind of Scientist

Liu also thinks about what autonomy means for early-career researchers. His advice starts with fundamentals. Build domain knowledge first and learn how the experiment works with your own hands.

“When new students or postdocs enter an AI-enabled lab, the most important mindset is domain-knowledge-driven critical thinking,” he said. Before relying on AI, they should learn to run the measurements themselves. That hands-on experience teaches a researcher to recognize when a surprising result is real, and when it is noise, drift, or a software assumption breaking in the wild.

Outside the Loop

Even in a career built around autonomous science, Liu’s daily work still depends on human choices. He chooses when to focus deeply on coding, when to step back and question a “novelty” and when to bring in collaborators to interpret a confusing result. The end goal may be greatly accelerated, self-driving experiments, but the destination is not science without people. It is science where people spend less time repeating steps and more time asking better questions.

Source: Scott Gibson, ORNL

The post ORNL Work Explores AI-Guided Experiments That Adapt in Real Time appeared first on HPCwire.

U.S. consumers are starting to feel the financial impact of the Iran war. Here's how the conflict is seeping into the economy.

• Strong is Huskies’ first winner since Paige Bueckers in 2021

• ‘Low-key superstar’ has led undefeated team to Final Four

Sarah Strong of UConn was named the Associated Press women’s basketball Player of the Year after leading the Huskies to an undefeated season, setting the stage for a run to the Final Four.

Strong became just the fifth player to win the award in her sophomore year, joining Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris (2007), UConn stars Maya Moore (2009) and Breanna Stewart (2014) and USC’s JuJu Watkins, who won it last year. The AP started giving out the award in 1995.

New Publication Fills Crucial Need for Rapid Publication of AI Research Results

NEW YORK, April 3, 2026 — ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, has published the inaugural issue of ACM AI Letters (AILET). AILET aims to be the premier venue for rapid, impactful, and timely AI research. Bridging a crucial gap between traditional conferences and journals, AILET will feature short, peer-reviewed contributions that accelerate knowledge dissemination across academia and industry.

AI research output has grown exponentially, with publication volume increasing by approximately 80% in just three years. Billions of dollars in funding are driving thousands of new papers and submissions each year across an ever-expanding landscape of subfields. Yet the traditional journal and conference cycle, often requiring months from submission to publication, creates a significant lag between discovery and dissemination. This delay can impede the translation of ideas into practice and slow the collective progress of the field.

The style of the new publication is rigorous yet accessible, with a focus on articles that bring contemporary and fast-moving AI research to the fore.

AILET welcomes concise summaries of work in areas including reports on theoretical breakthroughs in AI, descriptions of significant algorithmic and scientific advances, as well as accounts of novel or deployed applications of AI in real-world settings. Applied settings might include areas such as healthcare, finance, robotics, and autonomous systems. Multidisciplinary work is especially welcome.

Complementing its coverage of the technical aspects of the discipline, ACM AI Letters will also include research about how these new technologies are shaping the world. In this vein, the editors are encouraging submissions on societal challenges such as the United Nations Sustainable Developmental Goals, AI ethics, policy, governance, and responsible AI.

With their broader goal of building a vibrant community around AILET, the editors are encouraging researchers to engage with each other by submitting opinions and briefs on public policy, the latest advances in the field, and comparative assessments.

In keeping with ACM’s ongoing commitment to open access publishing, AILET authors will not be charged publication fees for the first three years.

Articles in the inaugural issue of ACM AI Letters include:

• “Editorial: Launching ACM AI Letters—A New Forum for Rapid, Impactful AI Research,” by Nitesh V. Chawla, Barry O’Sullivan, and Richa Singh
•  “Proto-Interpretation: The Temporality of Large Language Model Inference,” by Mattias Rost
•  “Why Slop Matters,” by Cody Kommers, Eamon Duede, Julia Gordon, Ari Holtzman, Tess McNulty, Spencer Steward, Lindsay Thomas, Richard Jean So, and Hoyt Long
• “From Science to the Arts and Back: Computational Creativity Perspectives on the Automation of Science,” by Hannu Toivonen and Luc De Raedt
• “Generative AI Meets Future Cities: Towards an Era of Autonomous Urban Intelligence” by Dongjie Wang, Chang-Tien Lu, Xinyue Ye, Tan Yigitcanlar, and Yanjie Fu
• “Future-Proofing Deepfake Detection by Integrating Audio, Video, and Text,” by Pasquale Lisena, Kong Aik Lee, Yi Wang, Massimiliano Todisco, Chiara Galdi, Raphael Troncy, Nicholas Evans, Weiwei Lin, Lap-Pui Chau, and Man-Wai Mak
• “Strategic Generative AI for Machine Learning in Economic Environments,” by Omer Madmon and Moshe Tennenholtz

The Co-Editors-in-Chief of ACM AI Letters are Nitesh Chawla, University of Notre Dame (USA); Barry O’Sullivan, University College Cork (Ireland); and Richa Singh, IIT Jodhpur (India). AILET is developed with an extensive editorial team which includes 52 Editorial Board Members, 27 Associate Editors, and a 16-member Advisory Board. Reflecting its mission of serving the global AI research community, AILET editorial team members hail from many countries including Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam.

About ACM’s Publications Program

ACM publishes more than 60 scholarly peer-reviewed journals in dozens of computing and information technology disciplines. ACM’s high-impact journals constitute a vast and comprehensive archive of computing innovation, covering emerging and established computing research for both practical and theoretical applications. ACM journal editors are thought leaders in their fields, and ACM’s emphasis on rapid publication ensures minimal delay in communicating exciting new ideas and discoveries.

About ACM

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting 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 AI Letters Journal Publishes First Issue appeared first on HPCwire.

• Son of NBA star Carlos Boozer led Blue Devils to 35 wins

• Other freshmen winners went No 1 or No 2 in NBA draft

Cameron Boozer was at the center of everything for Duke this season.

The 6ft 9in forward proved tough enough to score through physical play. Rangy enough to space the floor and shoot from outside. Deft enough as a passer to find teammates, whether against constant double teams coming for him as the top name on every scouting report or while running the entire offense from up top.

“You just want to affect winning in whatever way you can,” Boozer said.

The high-end NBA prospect did that all season for a team who won 35 games, reached No 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, claimed the top overall seed for March Madness and reached the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight. Now he’s the AP’s men’s college basketball national player of the year, only the fifth freshman to earn the honor and the second in a row for a Duke program that keeps adding to the longest list of winners in the country. Sarah Strong of UConn was named the women’s player of the year.

Democrat Tammy Duckworth writes letter to TSA calling on agency to reinstate the shoes-off airport security policy

Nine months after US airports allowed passengers to pass through scanners without taking off their shoes, rescinding the stringent policy after almost two decades, a top senator claimed the “reckless” move could put passengers in danger.

The policy amounts to a “potentially catastrophic security deficiency”, according to Tammy Duckworth, Democrat for Illinois, and ranking member of the Senate commerce, science and transportation (CST) aviation subcommittee.

As memory constraints and energy costs are currently testing the limits of AI scaling, compression is becoming one of the industry’s most active areas of research. As we reported earlier this week, Google’s recent TurboQuant release targets the key-value cache, one of the most memory-intensive components of inference. Now, a new startup is aiming to compress the model itself.

PrismML, founded by Caltech researchers, has emerged from stealth this week with a $16.25 million seed round and an open source release of what it describes as a “1-bit” large language model family. The company says its approach can dramatically reduce model size and energy consumption while maintaining performance comparable to standard 16-bit models.

The benchmark scores of 1-bit Bonsai 8B compared to other models in the same parameter class (Credit: PrismML)

The Bonsai model family’s flagship model is Bonsai 8B, an 8-billion-parameter model trained on Google v4 TPUs. According to PrismML, the model achieves competitive performance on benchmark suites including MMLU Redux, MuSR, GSM8K, HumanEval+, IFEval, and BFClv3, but with a memory footprint of roughly 1GB, compared to about 16GB for a typical 16-bit equivalent. PrismML is also releasing 1-bit Bonsai 4B and 1.7B models, with 0.5GB and 0.24GB memory footprint, respectively.

PrismML says its models are fully binarized end to end, with all weights constrained to a single bit across embeddings, attention layers, and MLP blocks, with “no higher-precision escape hatches.” While quantization is widely used, pushing it to 1-bit across the entire network has historically degraded model quality, particularly for reasoning tasks. The company attributes its results to a new mathematical framework developed at Caltech, but has not yet detailed the training methods or stabilization techniques that would be required to make such extreme compression viable.

PrismML CEO Babak Hassibi, a computer scientist and mathematician at Caltech, described the approach as a new paradigm for AI that will adapt to diverse hardware environments. “We spent years developing the mathematical theory required to compress a neural network without losing its reasoning capabilities,” Hassibi said in a release. “We see 1-bit not as an endpoint, but as a starting point.”

PrismML founders from left: Sahin Lale, Babak Hassibi, Omead Pooladzandi, and Reza Sadri (Credit: PrismML)

The company claims its 1-bit models can deliver up to eight times faster processing and reduce energy consumption by as much as 75 to 80% on existing hardware. PrismML also predicts that future hardware optimized for 1-bit operations could further improve efficiency by replacing complex multiplications with simpler arithmetic.

Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures, which participated in PrismML’s seed round, described the work as a “mathematical breakthrough” with the potential to reshape how AI systems are deployed.

“AI’s future will not be defined by who can build the largest datacenters. It will be defined by who can deliver the most intelligence per unit of energy and cost. PrismML represents that kind of breakthrough,” he said in a statement.

That perspective reflects the idea that AI will not remain confined to data centers but will instead be deployed across edge devices and local environments. PrismML says its models are designed to run on consumer and edge devices, potentially enabling more capable AI applications in smartphones, wearables, and robotics without relying on cloud infrastructure.

(Aila Images/Shutterstock)

PrismML’s claim that a fully 1-bit model can match the capabilities of higher-precision systems remains unproven outside the company’s own benchmark results. Extreme quantization techniques have historically struggled to preserve accuracy in complex reasoning tasks. Independent third-party benchmarks and real-world deployments will be critical in determining whether PrismML’s approach represents a true breakthrough or a more limited optimization.

In a blog post, PrismML describes what it calls “intelligence density,” a metric that attempts to capture how much capability a model delivers per unit of size. By that measure, the company says its 1-bit models redefine the tradeoff between model size and performance, maintaining competitive results at a fraction of the footprint. However, the metric depends on the company’s benchmark choices and definition of the metric itself, and has not yet been independently validated. Whether it proves to be a meaningful way to compare models or remains a company-specific metric will depend on how it holds up under further scrutiny.

For now, the release is another example of efficiency-driven AI design as the industry looks for alternatives to the escalating costs of scaling model size and infrastructure. While recent research like Google’s TurboQuant focuses on compressing specific components of inference, PrismML’s ambitious model compression could greatly expand where AI models can realistically run and how they are deployed.

The post PrismML Emerges From Stealth With 1-Bit LLM Family appeared first on HPCwire.

Veteran justice, 76, was treated for dehydration in March; a retirement would give Trump new chance to shape court

US supreme court justice Samuel Alito was reportedly taken to a hospital after becoming sick at a Federalist Society dinner in Philadelphia in March, further fueling speculation that Donald Trump could have more chances to shape the land’s highest court through new appointments.

A CNN report said Alito was checked by medical staff and given fluids due to dehydration. He later returned to his home in Virginia that same night with his security detail. In the weeks since, Alito has resumed his duties, including participating in oral arguments.

I assume I don’t have to explain the difference between big-endian and little-endian systems to the average OSNews reader, and while most systems are either dual-endian or (most likely) little-endian, it’s still good practice to make sure your code works on both. If you don’t have a big-endian system, though, how do you do that?

When programming, it is still important to write code that runs correctly on systems with either byte order (see for example The byte order fallacy). But without access to a big-endian machine, how does one test it? QEMU provides a convenient solution. With its user mode emulation we can easily run a binary on an emulated big-endian system, and we can use GCC to cross-compile to that system.

↫ Hans Wennborg

If you want to make sure your code isn’t arbitrarily restricted to little-endian, running a few tests this way is worth it.

The search for the second crew member, a weapons system officer, is continuing, two U.S. officials said.

Archive of Our Own (AO3) is officially dropping its "beta" label after 17 years. The Organization for Transformative Works, the nonprofit behind the fanfiction site, said the site will keep evolving with new improvements even though it's no longer technically in beta. "As the AO3 software has been stable for a long time, the change is mostly cosmetic and does not indicate that everything is finalized or perfectly working," the organizations says. "Exiting beta doesn't mean we'll stop continuing to improve AO3 -- our volunteer coders and community contributors will still be working to add to and improve AO3 every day." Some of the features it's introduced over the years include a tag system, offline fanworks downloads, privacy settings that let creators restrict access to their work, and new modes for multi-chapter works. As it stands, the site says it has more than 10 million registered users and 17 million fanworks.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for April 4, No. 1,750.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 4, No. 1,028.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for April 4, No. 762.

Officials from 23 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit seeking to block President Trump's executive order that aims to restrict mail voting.

The Lyrids and Eta Aquariids are coming soon to a sky near you.

SEATTLE, April 3, 2026 — Amazon Web Services (AWS) has expanded its business collaboration with Siemens Energy, a global leader in energy technology. The deal establishes AWS as a strategic cloud provider for Siemens Energy, delivering cloud services solutions to advance its digital transformation and innovation efforts. As part of this collaboration, Amazon and Siemens Energy will also explore new ways to manage energy solutions and deliver energy infrastructure for Amazon data center development and scaling.

Credit: Shutterstock

Using AWS AI and machine learning services — including Amazon Bedrock for generative AI and agentic workflows, Amazon SageMaker for building and deploying ML models, and AWS IoT SiteWise as the foundation for industrial data collection and monitoring — Siemens Energy will enhance its capabilities in smart manufacturing and project delivery, supply chain and resource optimization, and autonomous plant operations. By leveraging AWS cloud infrastructure and AI solutions, Siemens Energy can scale its digital solutions more efficiently and securely.

“Siemens Energy’s understands the specific requirements of data center customers and has developed an extensive portfolio of technologies to address these needs,” said Frederik Doye, senior vice president of Siemens Energy in Europe. “Our strategic collaboration with AWS accelerates our efficiency and digital transformation while we deliver stable, reliable and more sustainable infrastructure that gets power to the right place at the right time.”

“This collaboration represents the future of energy technology—where cloud and AI are already transforming how energy companies operate and innovate,” said Joseph Santamaria, general manager, Energy and Utilities at AWS. “Together with Siemens Energy, we’re turning decades of operational expertise into intelligent systems that drive better performance, greater efficiency, and more sustainable energy solutions for customers worldwide.”

Under this agreement, Siemens Energy and Amazon will also explore expanded offerings across a broad scope of solutions to power data centers globally. Siemens Energy will continue to provide turnkey substation solutions to enable connectivity of Amazon’s data centers to the grid, while also exploring gigawatt-scale power generation, microgrids, sustainable backup power concepts, and other grid technologies to support growing data center demand and other critical Amazon infrastructure globally. The company will also leverage AWS to improve delivery management and ensure timely and high-quality infrastructure delivery. Together, Amazon and Siemens Energy will collaborate on systems to support data center power demand growth while incorporating grid and load stability considerations and leveraging grid and power technologies provided by Siemens Energy.

This agreement builds upon an already successful relationship between the two companies. AWS and Siemens Energy have collaborated on Siemens Energy’s IoT Connected Factory platform, which has transformed manufacturing operations by connecting assets from Siemens Energy’s global factories to AWS Cloud. The platform enables seamless integration between operational technology (OT) and IT, allowing for real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance powered by AWS’s scalable compute and storage services — driving significant improvements in operational efficiency and manufacturing productivity.

About Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is guided by customer obsession, pace of innovation, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. By democratizing technology for nearly two decades and making cloud computing and generative AI accessible to organizations of every size and industry, AWS has built one of the fastest-growing enterprise technology businesses in history. Millions of customers trust AWS to accelerate innovation, transform their businesses, and shape the future. With the most comprehensive AI capabilities and global infrastructure footprint, AWS empowers builders to turn big ideas into reality.

Source: AWS

The post AWS and Siemens Energy Team Up to Advance Energy Sector Digital Transformation appeared first on HPCwire.

The annual sales extravaganza is reportedly being rescheduled. Here's the scoop on what we've learned so far.

@wheelwizard It really was. I completely detoured to get a good vantage point for it ^-^

Alan Hayward James, 51, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bribery, and conspiracy to rig bids.

Dayton Webber is accused of shooting Bradrick Michael Wells twice in the head during an argument

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

A quadruple amputee professional cornhole player acted in self-defense when he shot and killed a passenger in his Tesla during a heated argument, his attorney has said.

Dayton Webber, 27, appeared in Charles county district court via videoconference for a bail review on Wednesday, where Judge Patrick Devine noted that he left Maryland after the 22 March shooting of 27-year-old Bradrick Michael Wells. Devine ordered Webber to remain jailed without bail.

Google Quantum AI recently announced it is expanding its quantum computing efforts to include neutral atom systems, moving beyond its longstanding focus on superconducting qubits.

In a blog post announcing the news, Founder and Lead Hartmut Neven struck a confident tone, pointing to steady progress toward commercially relevant quantum systems by the end of the decade and framing the addition of neutral atoms as a complementary path toward that goal. Neutral atom systems bring a different set of capabilities than superconducting qubits, including the potential for large qubit arrays and flexible connectivity, with tradeoffs in areas such as gate speed.

Google Quantum AI Founder & Lead Hartmut Neven

Neven outlined three focus areas for Google’s neutral atom program: quantum error correction, modeling and simulation, and experimental hardware development.

As part of the effort, Adam Kaufman will lead Google’s neutral atom program from Boulder, Colorado, expanding the company’s presence in a region with deep expertise in atomic, molecular and optical physics, anchored by organizations such as Elevate Quantum, NIST, JILA and the University of Colorado Boulder. He will continue as a JILA Fellow and CU Boulder faculty member.

“We are delighted that Google Quantum AI has engaged Adam Kaufman to lead this important work in Boulder,” said Massimo Ruzzene, CU Boulder senior vice chancellor for research & innovation and dean of the institutes. “This partnership strengthens Boulder’s nationally recognized quantum landscape, supported by major federal investments including the NSF Q‑SEnSE Institute, the National Quantum Nanofab and the U.S. EDA Quantum TechHub.”

The neutral atom effort follows Google’s October 2025 acquisition of Atlantic Quantum, which expanded its superconducting roadmap with fluxonium-based qubit designs aimed at improving coherence and reducing error rates. Having extended its superconducting roadmap, Google is now broadening its efforts to additional qubit modalities.

Google’s announcement comes as interest in neutral atom quantum computing has grown across the industry, with companies such as QuEra, Infleqtion, Pasqal, Atom Computing and Oratomic frequently in the spotlight. Recent work emerging from Caltech, which underpins Oratomic’s launch, has examined how neutral atom architectures could support quantum computation at cryptographically relevant scales, while noting that substantial engineering challenges remain.

Google is positioning its expansion into neutral atoms alongside continued investment in superconducting systems, framing the two approaches as complementary paths toward scalable quantum computing.

“The road ahead reflects these distinct starting points: an outstanding challenge for neutral atoms remains demonstrating deep circuits with many cycles, while the next task for the superconducting modality is to demonstrate computing architectures with tens of thousands of qubits,” Neven explained. “Investing in both approaches increases our ability to deliver on our mission, sooner. By advancing both, we cross-pollinate research and engineering breakthroughs, and can deliver access to versatile platforms tailored to different types of problems.”

More from HPCwire

• Caltech Team Finds Useful Quantum Computers Could Be Built with as Few as 10,000 Qubits
• Google Quantum AI Opens Willow Early Access Program for Research Proposals
• Google Claims Quantum Advantage with Willow Chip
• Google Quantum Lead Predicts Commercial Quantum Within 5 Years
• Google Quantum AI Brings Atlantic Quantum into Its Team

The post Google Expands Quantum Efforts to Include Neutral Atom Systems appeared first on HPCwire.

Scary highlights include The Menu and Smile 2.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Today at a hearing of the Colorado Senate Business, Labor, and Technology committee, lawmakers voted unanimously to move Colorado state bill SB26-090 -- titled Exempt Critical Infrastructure from Right to Repair -- out of committee and into the state senate and house for a vote. The bill modifies Colorado's Consumer Right to Repair Digital Electronic Equipment act, which was passed in 2024 and went into effect in January 2026. While the protections secured by that act are wide, the new SB26-090 bill aims to "exempt information technology equipment that is intended for use in critical infrastructure from Colorado's consumer right to repair laws." The bill is supported by tech manufacturers like Cisco and IBM, according to lobbying disclosures. These are companies that have vested interests in manufacturing things like routers, server equipment, and computers and stand to profit if they can control who fixes their products and the tools, components, and software used to make those upgrades and repairs. They also cite cybersecurity concerns, saying that giving people access to the tools and systems they would need to repair a device could also enable bad actors to use those methods for nefarious means. (This is a common argument manufacturers make when opposing right-to-repair laws.) [...] During the hearing, more than a dozen repair advocates spoke from organizations like Pirg, the Repair Association, and iFixit opposing the bill. YouTuber and repair advocate Louis Rossmann was there. The main problem, repair advocates say, is that the bill deliberately uses vague language to make the case for controlling who can fix their products. [...] The Colorado Labor and Technology committee advanced the bill, but it still needs to go through votes on the Colorado Senate and House floors before going into effect. Those votes may take place as early as next week. Regardless of how the bill goes in the state, it's likely that manufacturers will continue their push to alter or undo repair legislation in other states across the country. "The 'information technology' and 'critical infrastructure' thing is as cynical as you can possibly be about it," says Nathan Proctor, the leader of Pirg's US right-to-repair campaign. "It sounds scary to lawmakers, but it just means the internet." The current wording of the bill "leaves it up to the manufacturers to determine which items they will need to provide repair tools and parts to owners and independent repairers and which ones they don't," says Danny Katz, executive director CoPIRG, the Colorado branch of the consumer advocate group Pirg. "This is a bad policy and would be a big step back for Coloradans' repair rights." iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens said in the hearing: "There's a general principle in cybersecurity that obscurity is not security," iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens said in the hearing. "The money that's behind the scenes, that's what's driving the bill."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Officials say other remains missing in first downing of US fighter plane since start of war

• Middle East crisis – live updates

One US service member has been rescued after a US F-15E Strike Eagle fighter was shot down over Iran, prompting a frantic effort to locate its two-strong crew, in the first such incident since the war began almost five weeks ago.