Iran's neighbors rage over Iran's response to the U.S.-Israeli war, and Israel launches a new incursion in Lebanon on day 4 of the Mideast conflict.

US president to meet Friedrich Merz in first face to face talks with an ally since Iran war began; Trump claims US munitions stocks ‘have never been higher’

• People in the US: share your views of the Iran conflict

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

In a late night post on Truth Social, Donald Trump said that the US munition stockpiles “at the medium and upper medium grade” have “never been higher or better”.

He added that the US has a “virtually unlimited supply of these weapons”, meaning that “wars can be fought ‘forever’”.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, her first appearance since the recent immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

Colin Gray, 55, faces a maximum of 180 years in prison after a Barrow County jury found him guilty of 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder.

Spring forecast show UK unempoyment to peak higher than feared, as tax take heads for a record, but headroom against fiscal rules has increased

• Spring forecast: Reeves insists Labour has ‘right economic plan’ as 2026 growth downgraded

UK grocery price inflation has risen, showing that people are being hit in the pocket even before the surge in energy prices feeds through to the economy.

Data provider Worldpanel by Numerator has reported that annual grocery inflation rose to 4.3% in February, after four consecutive months of falls, in a blow for households. That’s up from 4% in January.

Sentiment towards BP and Shell has strengthened significantly off the back of oil price spikes. But it’s a complex picture. Neither company has production in Iran. But BP’s significant production in Iraq and Abu Dhabi risks being bottlenecked through disruption to the Strait of Hormuz. For Shell the same applies to its LNG facilities in Qatar and the Emirates. If a moderate sustainable regime is established in Iran, there is the potential for substantial derisking, and for prices to be rebased downwards. If sanctions are removed, it also opens the door for investment into Iranian oil fields.

But uncertainty remains high. This could prove to be highly profitable for both Shell and BP’s trading arms with Shell’s optimisation capabilities in LNG transit likely to be in particularly strong demand. Shell’s balance sheet strength also leaves it better placed to deal with any prolonged volatility and while BP’s buybacks remain on pause, we’re expecting Shell’s generous payouts are likely to continue this year.

1,500 Exhibitors and 6,000 Booths Position the Show as a Global AI Benchmark — Visitor Pre-Registration Now Open

TAIPEI, Taiwan, March 3, 2026 — COMPUTEX 2026 will take place from June 2–5 in Taipei, spanning four venues — TaiNEX 1 & 2, TWTC Hall 1, and the Taipei International Convention Center (TICC). Stretching across Taipei’s Nangang and Xinyi districts—two interconnected innovation and business hubs—the exhibition forms one of the world’s largest multi-venue technology showcases dedicated to AI and next-generation computing.

COMPUTEX showcases a comprehensive range of exhibits spanning the AI supply chain, advanced communications, key components, and smart solutions, fully demonstrating the commercialization of AI technologies and emerging industry trends.

This year’s show reaches a new milestone, bringing together 1,500 exhibitors from around the globe across 6,000 booths. From semiconductor design and advanced computing infrastructure to robotics systems and real-world AI applications, COMPUTEX presents a vertically integrated technology ecosystem spanning R&D, manufacturing, and deployment. Visitor pre-registration is now open to industry professionals worldwide.

AI Together: Mapping the Global AI Value Chain

As a global benchmark for AI and startups, COMPUTEX 2026, themed “AI Together,” highlights three cores: AI & Computing, Robotics & Mobility, and Next-Gen Tech. The exhibition captures a pivotal phase of AI commercialization and infrastructure scaling, spanning the value chain from chip design and high-performance computing to smart infrastructure and industry applications.

Major international brands including ASUS, Acer, MSI, GIGABYTE, BenQ, and ASRock will showcase integrated AI systems and computing platforms. Global manufacturing leaders Foxconn, Compal, Pegatron, and Wiwynn will demonstrate system integration and scalable production capabilities that underpin worldwide AI deployment. Technology leaders including MediaTek, Intel, Vertiv Taiwan, and Delta will showcase end-to-end solutions — from AI processors and data centers to intelligent power and sustainable infrastructure — highlighting the convergence of performance, efficiency, and scalability in the next phase of AI growth.

Robotics and Smart Applications Take Center Stage

Responding to surging global demand for automation and intelligent systems, COMPUTEX 2026 introduces new highlight zones at TWTC Hall 1, including the Robotics Zone and the TechXperience Zone.

Participating companies such as Intel, YUAN, Texas Instruments, Solomon, and E Ink will present advancements in AI robotics, machine vision, embedded systems, and smart applications. These zones demonstrate how robotics is rapidly expanding beyond manufacturing into healthcare, logistics, retail, and everyday environments—signaling the next frontier of AI-driven productivity.

Meanwhile, InnoVEX will continue to connect global startups, venture capital firms, accelerators, and national pavilions. Recognized internationally as a gateway to Asian innovation markets, InnoVEX fosters cross-border collaboration and emerging technology commercialization.

Expanded COMPUTEX Keynote & Forum and Upgraded On-site Activities

Highly anticipated COMPUTEX Keynote and Forum will return with an expanded scale, connecting technology leaders across the AI supply chain—from upstream semiconductor innovators to downstream application developers. Discussions will focus on AI scalability, infrastructure readiness, sustainability challenges, and long-term market direction.

Co-organizer TAITRA will also integrate a wide range of resources to deliver diverse featured events, including sourcing meetings, guided tours, ESG Go sustainability initiatives, and startup pitch contest. Global media and technology influencers will be invited to Taiwan to amplify global engagement and industry dialogue.

COMPUTEX 2026 will demonstrate Taiwan’s strong R&D capabilities while connecting global enterprises, innovative startups, and professional buyers to create unlimited technology opportunities.

Visitor registration is now open: https://www.computexonline.com.tw/?userlang=en.

About COMPUTEX

COMPUTEX was founded in 1981. It has grown with the global ICT industry and become stronger over the last four decades. Bearing witness to historical moments in the development of and changes in the industry, COMPUTEX attracts more than 40,000 buyers to visit Taiwan every year. It is also the preferred platform chosen by top international companies for launching epoch-making products. Taiwan has a comprehensive global ICT industry chain. Gaining a foothold in Taiwan, COMPUTEX is jointly held by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council and Taipei Computer Association, aiming to build a global tech ecosystem. COMPUTEX has become a global benchmark exhibition for AI and startups, connecting global pioneers and enabling new sparks of breakthrough technology.

Source: COMPUTEX

The post COMPUTEX 2026 Brings the Global AI Ecosystem to Taipei appeared first on HPCwire.

Glasgow high court found Lee Milne, from Dundee, guilty of the culpable homicide of Kimberly Milne, 28

A man has been convicted of killing his wife after she took her own life following a campaign of domestic abuse, in what is the first prosecution of its kind in Scotland.

Kimberly Milne, 28, died after jumping from a motorway bridge in July 2023. Her husband Lee Milne, 39, from Dundee, had denied culpable homicide and a separate charge of domestic abuse, but was found guilty following a trial.

A map created by the CBS News data team shows the strike locations across Iran, including the capital and the site of a major nuclear facility.

U.S. diplomatic outposts in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were closed on Tuesday as Israel struck Iran and Lebanon and war spread into the fourth day.

State department urged US citizens in 14 countries to leave, but many flights have been canceled

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

Americans across the Middle East are scrambling to leave the region after the US state department late on Monday urged US citizens in 14 countries there to depart immediately as the conflict with Iran widens.

Mora Namdar, the US assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, issued the advisory on Monday, urging Americans to “DEPART NOW” from more than a dozen countries, citing “serious safety risks”.

To take advantage of today's cooler mortgage rate climate, buyers should consider the answers to these questions.

Crude oil prices are surging due to the Iran war, pushing up prices at the pump across the U.S., according to AAA.

Beijing’s foreign ministry urges ‘all parties’ to avoid escalation as spot rate for tankers reaches $424,000 a day

• How escalating Iran conflict is driving up oil and gas prices – a visual guide

• Business live – latest updates

The Chinese government has called for vessels passing through the strait of Hormuz to be protected by all sides in the escalating Iran conflict, as shipping freight rates soared.

Maritime traffic through the strait – a narrow channel on Iran’s southern border that connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman – has effectively been closed since the US and Israel launched missile attacks on Iran at the weekend, prompting a retaliation from Tehran.

Commentary: Something that's compact but still lets me shoot pro-grade video sounds like the dream for a YouTuber like me.

Trump long promised to end ‘endless wars’, but the US has joined Israel in attacking Iran. We want to hear how people in the US are reacting

Hundreds of people thought to have died in Iran following the strikes by US and Israeli forces on Saturday with the numbers expected to rise. Six US service members have been killed since the conflict began on Saturday.

For the last decade Donald Trump has denounced US military intervention in other countries; back in December 2016 the then president elect said; “We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with.”

Gold has soared past $5,100 an ounce, but the metal's impressive price run doesn't mean it's risk-free for investors.

AI might help social media pros be more productive, but it also means higher expectations.

French president will make his speech this evening; first wave of European travellers arrive home, but hundreds of thousands remain stuck in region

• Airlines in Middle East rule out services resuming before Thursday

Ahead of von der Leyen’s call with Zelenskyy later today, the European Commission was also asked about Ukraine’s 2027 target for joining the bloc.

A spokesperson for the commission said that it was Ukraine’s ambition, but the EU “cannot have it as our reference” as it needs to go through the formal process and get the political agreement of all other member states.

Jack Dorsey to cut 4,000 workers at Block amid AI advances – but specters such as weak crypto market haunt company

Jack Dorsey cited AI as the driving force behind cutting 40% of his company’s employees, but other factors such as a weak crypto market, overstaffing and a declining stock price may also have motivated the move.

Last week, the financial technology company Block announced that it would lay off 4,000 of its 10,000 workers. Dorsey, Block’s CEO, said in a letter to shareholders that advances in AI “have changed what it means to build and run a company”.

The Supreme Court of the United States declined to review a case challenging the U.S. Copyright Office's stance that AI-generated works lack the required human authorship for copyright protection, leaving lower court rulings intact. The Verge reports: The Monday decision comes after Stephen Thaler, a computer scientist from Missouri, appealed a court's decision to uphold a ruling that found AI-generated art can't be copyrighted. In 2019, the U.S. Copyright Office rejected Thaler's request to copyright an image, called A Recent Entrance to Paradise, on behalf of an algorithm he created. The Copyright Office reviewed the decision in 2022 and determined that the image doesn't include "human authorship," disqualifying it from copyright protection. After Thaler appealed the decision, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled in 2023 that "human authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright." That ruling was later upheld in 2025 by a federal appeals court in Washington, DC. As reported by Reuters, Thaler asked the Supreme Court to review the ruling in October 2025, arguing it "created a chilling effect on anyone else considering using AI creatively." The U.S. federal circuit court also determined that AI systems can't patent inventions because they aren't human, which the U.S. Patent Office reaffirmed in 2024 with new guidance. The UK Supreme Court made a similar determination.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Multiple sources say the deployment of HMS Duncan is under consideration; Yvette Cooper says flight will take off from Muscat this week

• UK considers sending Royal Navy destroyer to Cyprus

• UK will charter flights from Oman to evacuate Britons from region

Ellie Chowns, the Green party’s foreign affairs spokesperson, has said she has tabled an “armed conflict (requirements) bill’” which would require any UK military intervention to have a lawful basis, viable objective and approval from MPs.

In a letter addressed to the prime minister, which she shared to X, Chowns, who is the Green’s MP for North Herefordshire, wrote:

In recent days we have seen a deeply concerning escalation in conflict in the Middle East following a series of illegal and dangerously irresponsible airstrikes on Iran by the United States and Israel.

You have now confirmed that UK bases will be used by the US for their operations in the area. This is a significant concession to President Donald Trump and one which risks drawing the UK into a dangerous conflict.

The jury has found Colin Gray, the man whose teenage son is accused of killing two students and two teachers in a shooting at Georgia's Apalachee High School, guilty of second-degree murder and all other charges.

Watchdog upholds complaint it breached code with article about impact of VAT on banker who did not exist

The Telegraph has been reprimanded by a press standards watchdog after it published an entirely fabricated story about a wealthy banker complaining of the impact of school fee increases.

Ian Fraser, a freelance journalist and author, complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) that the Telegraph had breached the editors’ code of practice in an article headlined: “We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can’t go on five holidays.”

Attempt to project calm in spring forecast may be short-lived if living costs and unemployment keep climbing

• Reeves insists Labour has ‘right economic plan’

• Business live – latest updates

“This government has restored economic stability,” Rachel Reeves told the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Yet the chancellor was speaking just moments after MPs had been hearing from the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, about plans to evacuate British nationals from the escalating conflagration in the Middle East.

Nepal’s general election will test the political power of Gen Z Expert comment thilton.drupal 3 March 2026

Young people are playing a leading role in the election that they made happen. But they may struggle to translate protest fervour into concrete policy change.

On 5 March, Nepal takes to the polls for a general election unlike any it has previously experienced. Triggered by the mass protests that rocked the country in September 2025, this election will be crucial not only for the future of youth politics in Nepal, but in other democracies across the Global South, where Nepal’s youth movement has helped to inspire similar ‘Gen Z’ protests.

Nepal’s elections are taking place six months after protests triggered by corruption, unemployment and wealth disparity led to the resignation of K.P. Sharma Oli as prime minister and the subsequent dissolution of Parliament on 12 September 2025. The former Chief Justice of Nepal, Sushila Karki, was chosen as interim prime minister on the online communication platform Discord.

Now, six months on, Gen Z will play a significant role in shaping the next phase of Nepal’s political process. More than 800,000 new voters have registered to vote – over two thirds of whom are ‘Gen Z’.

The stakes are high, especially after the world’s first ‘Gen Z-inspired election’ in Bangladesh. Nepal’s September protests took place as part of a wave of youth movements across the world, from Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines to Morocco, Madagascar, Peru and Bulgaria. Nepal’s elections are therefore a testbed for a critical question: can the energy of Gen Z protests translate into electoral success?

Yet whoever wins in the elections, Nepal’s youth have already shown themselves to be successful drivers of their political process. In demanding an alternative to corrupt government and shaping Nepalese politics, Gen Z protesters have demonstrated at least a short-term success for a nascent movement. This election is the beginning, rather than the end, for youth politics in the nation and beyond.

Out with the old, in with the new?

Gen Z – and the issues they protested against in September 2025 – are central to campaigning politicians this election cycle.

Around 120 political parties have registered for the 5 March election, the most parties to participate in an election in Nepal since the country’s democracy was restored in 2006. More than a third of the competing parties were formed after the Gen Z protests, including many parties formed by protesters themselves.

While some confusion will no doubt be sown by the wave of new politicians in the mix, it also offers the chance for Gen Z protesters to solidify and formalize their role in a new Nepal.

Related work

Bangladesh election reveals a transformed political landscape

The relatively young and popular mayor of Kathmandu, Balen Shah, is considered by many to be the frontrunner for the prime minister role. Formerly an independent candidate, Shah recently joined the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), a party which came fourth in the general election in 2022. But despite this new allegiance, Shah has signaled he is still a member of the anti-establishment youth.

The former rapper has long attacked Nepal’s ruling class in his music, and has largely shunned the mainstream press in favour of using social media to disseminate campaign messages. His image as a digital native, and his vocal adoption of platforms such as Facebook, suggests an understanding of Gen Z as his most important audience.

Social media battlegrounds

Nepal’s Gen Z protests were triggered, if not defined by, the ban on several key social media platforms in the country. Protesters’ subsequent use of platforms such as TikTok and Discord to shape the movement revealed the importance of these tools to young Nepalis.

Social media is also playing a significant role in this election. Traditional analogue election material, such as pamphlets, flags, and banners, have reportedly been largely replaced by primarily digital campaigns.

Nepal’s Election Commission is also taking steps to discourage the spread of misinformation on social media platforms, and has announced stricter monitoring of election-related advertising on social media. This process involves the flagging of harmful or false content to regulators, and the commission said it was working with platforms such as Meta and TikTok to remove such posts.

In this sphere, Nepal’s establishment has learned its lesson from the September protests and has opted for a vigilant yet less repressive approach to social media moderation. The new approach now seeks to promote safety rather than curb speech.

Its execution has likely been challenging – social media firms are typically under-resourced on moderation in languages other than English. But the establishment of election-specific content moderation nevertheless signifies a commitment to moderate without shutting down freedom of expression, representing a different approach to Nepal’s neighbours in China and India, which have opted for stricter approaches to social media.

Sustaining a movement

For perhaps the first time, young people are at the forefront of political campaigns in a Nepali general election. But Gen Z protests will not necessarily translate neatly into polling victory. The September 2025 protests coalesced around anti-corruption and anti-government themes – they were a reaction against the current state of Nepal, rather than a demonstration for a specific leader or party.

These are necessarily broad and simple narratives for a mass movement, but may be too vague for a politician to build a platform on. Even an elected leader sympathetic to – or part of – the Gen Z movement may find it challenging to translate protest fervour into concrete policy change. Many issues that brought Nepal’s youth to the streets are long-term challenges without easy solutions; for example, the high rates of unemployment and poverty in the country. 

At least 169 killed in raid near Sudan border as clashes between government and opposition forces intensify

South Sudan is reeling from an escalating conflict between the government-aligned army and opposition forces and allied groups that observers say risks returning the country to a full-blown civil war.

Violent confrontations in the world’s youngest country between the military, which is loyal to President Salva Kiir, and insurgents believed to be allied to the suspended vice-president, Riek Machar, have increased in recent weeks.

If you're still keeping wine on top of the fridge, these wine experts would like a word.

Investors are recoiling as the war in Iran intensifies, driving up global oil prices. "Global financial markets are in disarray," one Wall Street analyst said.

Versant, an NBCUniversal cable spinoff, says MS NOW is growing as its stock falls about 27% in 2026

The US’s biggest liberal-leaning network, MS NOW, has seen double-digit viewership gains since rebranding from MSNBC, the company’s CEO claimed on Tuesday.

“Since the rebrand to MS NOW in the fourth quarter, that momentum has not only held, it has accelerated with double-digit growth in total viewers since November,” said Mark Lazarus, CEO of MS NOW parent company Versant.

Stockpiles of the most advanced US-made weapons are limited – while few know how large Iran’s arsenal is

• Middle East crisis – live updates

• The war in the Middle East in maps, video and photos

The outcome and duration of the war in the Middle East may be decided by a grim calculus based on the size of Iran’s drone and missile stocks v vital air defence munitions held by the US, Israel and Gulf states, analysts and officials say.

Since Saturday, Iran and its proxies have sought to counter the intensive joint US and Israeli offensive with more than 1,000 strikes against targets across almost a dozen countries spread over 1,200 miles. With its antiquated air force unable to compete with those of Israel and the US, Tehran has relied on its arsenal of missiles and drones.

The first American service members to die in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran were killed in an apparent Iranian drone attack on a makeshift office space in Kuwait, sources told CBS News.

Shortly before CNN’s launch in 1980, founder Ted Turner — displaying what could politely be described as impressive foresight – instructed that a special video be prepared. The tape, which was leaked online by a former CNN intern in 2015, portrays members of the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine bands performing a melancholy rendition of the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” As the legend goes, this somber sign-off was meant to be the last thing broadcast by CNN should the end of the world become assured. In light of recent events, CNN employees may be considering digging it out of the archives.

CNN has beheld a pale horse; the rider’s name is David Ellison, and Bari Weiss follows closely behind. After confirmation last week that Warner Bros. Discovery, of which CNN is a subsidiary, would accept Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion takeover bid, the network is set to be swallowed by the father-and-son oligarch duo of Larry and David Ellison, whose naked alignment with the Trump administration predicated their earlier absorption and regime-friendly retooling of CBS News. (Larry, the Oracle CEO, was also pivotal earlier this year in the purchase of TikTok’s U.S. operations from its Chinese owner, installing a new CEO who earlier took credit for the app designating the term “Zionist” as “hate speech.”) Many now look to CBS as a preview of what is to come. Speaking to the Daily Beast, a senior CBS News staffer said, “It can — and will — always get worse,” and added CNN staffers were right to be fearful, as “it is hell over here.”

Related

“CBS Evening News” With Tony Dokoupil Is a Right-Wing Show for Absolutely No One

When it became apparent that the Ellisons’ bid for Warner Bros. would win out after Netflix declined to further raise its offer, Weiss was attending a Free Press debate between Ross Douthat and Steven Pinker on God — an event that would move even the most militant atheist to sympathize with the Almighty — but giggled trollishly on X: “I hear there’s some news?” At CNN, reports indicate the mood is less chipper. “No one wants to work for the Ellisons,” one CNN employee told NBC News. “If Bari is going to be running CNN, expect people to leave.”

This is further proof that there is seemingly no amount of money or power that can force any journalist not married to her to like or respect Weiss, a tool in every sense of the word, whose blatantly ideological interventions and ham-fisted incompetence since being installed at CBS have repeatedly provoked contempt from her underlings. But competence was never part of Weiss’s job description — her role was to act as sugar in the gas tank of a news network against which Donald Trump has long held a grudge. Now, CNN — which has long been even higher on Trump’s enemies list — also faces being press-ganged into a circus where a clown is also the ringleader.

Still, this would not be the first time CNN employees have been forced to tolerate an idiot boss, and if the Ellisons plan to copy their CBS blueprint and disfigure another network into something less objectionable to the average American fascist, they will find some of the work has already been done.

Prior to CNN’s then-CEO Jeff Zucker’s forced resignation in 2022, the Warner Bros. Discovery board was already grumbling about the network’s perceived liberal bias and brought in Chris Licht as Zucker’s replacement. Licht entered the job determined to tone down CNN’s anti-Trump coverage and win back Republican viewers. The latter of these ambitions has been a spectacular failure — as of March 2023, CNN’s prime-time ratings had tanked by 61 percent compared to the previous year — while the former led to an infamous CNN town hall with Trump himself, ahead of which Licht reportedly told the president to “have fun.” The result was a ritual humiliation which obliterated what little support Licht had among CNN staff and presaged his departure after little more than a year in the job.

Writing in The Nation in 2023, Jeet Heer observed that “whether out of genuine conviction or out of a desire to please the plutocrats who own Warner Bros. Discovery, Licht has mastered the art of deploying centrist rhetoric for reactionary ends.” This strategy — of attempting to meet MAGA where it is, or at least nearer to halfway — is bafflingly popular, not just with establishment media organizations but among prominent mainstream Democrats, despite the fact it has never been shown to work. After all, why would Trump and the Ellisons tolerate media that is merely amenable when they can force it into groveling supplication?   

The Warner Bros. deal now must get past antitrust regulators, but any challenge would be at the discretion of the courts and Trump’s Justice Department. Anyone putting their faith in this possibility should remember the Justice Department’s erstwhile antitrust chief Gail Slater was forced out of her role last month after frustrating the Trump administration with her resistance to corporate mergers. This may account for why Paramount, even before the deal was closed, declared its “confidence in the speed and certainty of regulatory approval for its transaction.”

Always right on time, numerous Democrats are now expressing grave concerns over what this next major act of consolidation would mean for the media landscape. But if America genuinely had a problem with such monopolies, media empires from Rupert Murdoch to William Randolph Hearst would never have come into being; instead, American capitalism operates on the belief that a cyberpunk dystopia ruled over by vast, unaccountable mega-corporations constitutes an environment of healthy competition, provided there is more than one mega-corporation at any given time.

Related

Bari Weiss Is Doing Exactly What She Was Installed at CBS to Do

You do not need to be a fan of CNN to consider its embattled future a grim prospect, any more than you need to be a fan of the Washington Post to be dismayed by its gutting at the hand of boorish gazillionaire Fauntleroy Jeff Bezos. Both are indicative of a prevailing philosophy shared by the uber-wealthy and the far right. If media has influence, they want to control it. If media no longer has influence — or worse, has the kind of influence they don’t care for — it can and must be destroyed, or else reshaped in their own image and for their own ends.

This all raises the question of what a healthy media landscape should look like, and what, if anything, can be done to bring it about. Transcending cable news’ version of ideological diversity — a spectrum that runs from Tucker Carlson to Anderson Cooper and treats anything further to the left the same way local news reports on wild bear attacks and UFO sightings — might be a start, but most immediately, it would require breaking the ability of the billionaire class to buy, control, or dismantle media on a national or international scale.

Achieving this, however, would require a political class with the will and the desire to do so. If CNN staffers and Americans at large aren’t holding their breath, it is hard to blame them.

The post CNN Could Be Next Up for a Right-Wing Reboot Thanks to the Ellisons appeared first on The Intercept.

BOISE, Idaho, March 3, 2026 — Micron Technology, Inc. today extended its leadership in low-power server memory by shipping customer samples of the industry’s highest-capacity LPDRAM module — 256GB SOCAMM2. Enabled by the industry’s first monolithic 32Gb LPDDR5X design, this milestone represents a transformational step forward for AI data centers, delivering low-power memory capacity that can unlock new system architectures.

Credit: Micron

The convergence of AI training, inference, agentic AI and general-purpose compute are driving more demanding memory requirements and reshaping data center system architectures. Modern AI workloads drive large model parameters, expansive context windows and persistent key value (KV) caches, while core compute continues to scale in data intensity, concurrency and memory footprint.

Across these workloads, memory capacity, bandwidth efficiency, latency and power efficiency have become primary system level constraints, directly influencing performance, scalability and total cost of ownership. LPDRAM’s unique combination of these attributes position it as a cornerstone solution for both AI and core compute servers in increasingly power and thermally constrained data center environments. Micron is collaborating with NVIDIA to co-design sophisticated memory for the needs of advanced AI infrastructure.

“Micron’s 256GB SOCAMM2 offering enables the most power-efficient CPU-attached memory solution for both AI and HPC. Today’s announcement highlights Micron’s technology and packaging advancements to deliver the highest-capacity, lowest-power modular memory solution with the smallest footprint in the industry,” said Raj Narasimhan, senior vice president and general manager of Micron’s Cloud Memory Business Unit. “Our continued leadership in low-power memory solutions for data center applications has uniquely positioned us to be the first to deliver a 32Gb monolithic LPDRAM die, helping drive industry adoption of more power-efficient, high-capacity system architectures.”

Designed for Capacity, Power Efficiency and Workload Performance Optimization

Micron’s 256GB SOCAMM2 delivers higher memory capacity, substantially lower power consumption and faster performance for a variety of AI and general-purpose computing workloads.

• Expanded memory capacity for AI servers: With one-third more capacity than the prior highest capacity 192GB SOCAMM2, 256GB SOCAMM2 provides 2TB of LPDRAM per 8-channel CPU for larger context windows and complex inference workloads.
• Lower power consumption and smaller footprint: SOCAMM2 consumes one-third of the power compared with equivalent RDIMMs, while using only one-third of the footprint, improving rack density and reducing the total cost of ownership.1
• Improved inference and core compute performance: In unified memory architectures, 256GB SOCAMM2 improves time to first token by more than 2.3 times for long context, real-time LLM inference when used for KV cache offload compared to currently available solutions.2 In standalone CPU applications, LPDRAM delivers more than 3 times better performance per watt than mainstream memory modules for high-performance computing workloads.3
• Modular design for serviceability and scalability: The modular SOCAMM2 design improves serviceability, supports liquid-cooled server architectures and enables future capacity expansion as AI and core compute memory requirements continue to grow.

“Advanced AI infrastructure requires incredible optimization at every layer to maximize performance and efficiency for demanding AI reasoning workloads,” said Ian Finder, head of Product, Data Center CPUs at NVIDIA. “Micron’s achievements in delivering massive memory capacity and bandwidth using less power than traditional server memory with 256GB SOCAMM2 is enabling the next generation of AI CPUs.”

Driving Industry Standards and Accelerating Low-Power Memory Adoption

Micron continues to play a leading role in the JEDEC SOCAMM2 specification definition and maintains deep technical collaborations with system designers to drive industry-wide improvements in power efficiency and performance for next-generation data center platforms.

Micron is now shipping customer samples of its 256GB SOCAMM2 and offers the industry’s broadest data center LPDRAM portfolio, spanning 8GB to 64GB components and 48GB to 256GB SOCAMM2 modules.

More from HPCwire: Micron Celebrates Opening of India’s 1st Semiconductor Assembly and Test Facility

About Micron Technology, Inc.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) is an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions, transforming how the world uses information to enrich life for all. With a relentless focus on our customers, technology leadership, and manufacturing and operational excellence, Micron delivers a rich portfolio of high-performance DRAM, NAND and NOR memory and storage products. Every day, the innovations that our people create fuel the data economy, enabling advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and compute-intensive applications that unleash opportunities — from the data center to the intelligent edge and across the client and mobile user experience.

Source: Micron

The post Micron Ships 256GB SOCAMM2 Customer Samples for AI and HPC Servers appeared first on HPCwire.

Ted Lasso star and Celebrity Traitors finalist will take the helm at Royal Albert Hall ceremony in London next month as special award recipients are announced

Nick Mohammed has been named as the host for this year’s Olivier awards, which take place at the Royal Albert Hall in London next month.

The comedian, writer and actor, who recently found a new fanbase as a Celebrity Traitors finalist, will follow in the footsteps of his Ted Lasso co-star Hannah Waddingham, who presented the Oliviers in 2023 and 2024. Last year, they were co-hosted by Beverley Knight and Billy Porter. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the awards, which recognise achievements in theatre, dance and opera.

Echinus Geyser is about 66 feet wide and is surrounded by rocks that resemble sea urchins.

Target reported another quarter of lower sales and profits as the discounter struggles to regain its footing in an environment where it has faced still-high inflation and shopper boycotts.

A political advertisement claimed that one of North Carolina’s most powerful legislators "killed" a bill that would’ve banned sex-reassignment surgeries for minors. 

The video ad, paid for by the Guilford-Rockingham Alliance political action committee, is airing in North Carolina’s 26th Senate District. That’s where state Sen. Phil Berger, the Senate leader,  is hoping to fend-off a Republican primary challenge from Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. 

Here’s a transcript of the ad: 

"Phil Berger claims he supports Trump, but in Raleigh he acts like a Democrat. 

Phil Berger worked with Roy Cooper to repeal the law that kept men out of women’s bathrooms. 

And in 2021, Phil Berger killed a bill banning sex-change surgeries for minors. 

Phil Berger even voted with open-border Democrats, creating a loophole that let illegal immigrants stay in America for longer."

Berger and other Republican legislators did strike a deal in 2017 to repeal North Carolina’s 2016 bathroom law, known as HB2, which banned transgender people from using the bathroom of the gender they identify as in all city, county and state buildings. And in 2013, Berger and other Republican legislators passed a law allowing farmers to hire seasonal workers for longer periods of time without undergoing a background check. 

But did Berger really block a bill that would’ve banned sex-reassignment surgeries for minors?

No. The ad misrepresents what happened with a failed 2021 bill and overlooks the fact that Republican legislators — including Berger — enacted a ban on sex-reassignment surgeries for minors just two years later. 

Failed 2021 bill 

The ad refers to Senate Bill 514, introduced by three Republican legislators on April 5, 2021. The bill would have banned sex-reassignment surgery for people under age 21. Medical professionals who violated the law could have had their license revoked and faced civil fines of up to $1,000 per occurrence.

A day after the bill was introduced, it was referred to the Committee on Rules and Operations of the Senate — where it never received a hearing. Every bill proposed in the state Legislature is referred to one or more committees. When they’re sent directly to the rules committee, as this bill was, that’s an unofficial way for chamber leadership to indicate the idea is dead-on-arrival and won’t get attention during the session.

To back up the ad’s claim, the alliance cited Associated Press articles published by Courthouse News Service and WFAE. The article published on the WFAE website April 6, 2021, describes the bill when it was introduced. The April 20, 2021, article on the CNS website explains why the bill didn’t become law. 

The AP reported that the Senate wouldn’t hold a vote on the ban.

"We do not see a pathway to Senate Bill 514 becoming law," Berger spokesman Pat Ryan told the AP at the time. He added that "the bill will not be voted on the Senate floor."

Ryan, who now runs a public relations firm, told PolitiFact that the Senate didn’t take up the bill because Republicans didn’t have enough votes in the Senate and House to override a likely veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. To override a veto, Republicans would’ve needed Democrats to also vote for the bill, which Ryan said was an unlikely proposition at the time. 

As Senate leader, Berger wields immense power over which bills make it to the floor, though there are procedural avenues senators can take to advance a bill against his wishes.

PolitiFact asked the Guilford-Rockingham Alliance why the group believes Berger "killed" the bill. In an email, a spokesperson for the group said Berger allowed votes on other bills that were destined to be vetoed. "The decision not to allow a vote in 2021 therefore reflects a discretionary leadership choice, not a procedural inevitability," the alliance’s statement said. 

Former state Sen. Jim Perry, who served as the Republican majority whip in 2021, told PolitiFact that legislative leaders consider multiple factors when deciding whether to vote on a bill: Can it become law? If not, should legislators hold a vote anyway to put pressure on the opposition? Will the opposition use news of the vote to raise money for their party?

Perry said he didn’t remember exactly why Berger decided not to hold the vote. But he agreed with Berger’s assessment that it was doomed, saying it’s "absurd" for the alliance to suggest Berger "killed" the legislation. 

"The fact that it was passed in the near future should make his position very clear," Perry said.

State Sen. Ralph Hise, a Mitchell County Republican and top Berger lieutenant who sponsored the 2021 bill, called the alliance’s ad a lie. "The reason North Carolina now bans sex change surgeries and hormones for minors is because of Sen. Berger’s leadership," Hise told PolitiFact. 

PolitiFact asked the alliance if it had evidence that the bill would’ve become law if Berger had allowed a vote. The alliance said: "The fact that Phil Berger wouldn't allow the people's representatives to decide is the point."

Bill passes in 2023 

By 2023, the landscape had changed: Republicans had enough legislative seats to override gubernatorial vetoes without needing help from Democrats. 

That June, the House and Senate passed House Bill 808 — which, like the 2021 bill, prohibited medical professionals from performing surgical sex-reassignment procedures on minors under threat of losing their license. That July, Cooper vetoed the bill. And that August, the bill became state law after both chambers voted to override Cooper’s veto. No Democrats voted for the bill in the Senate.

The Guilford-Rockingham Alliance said Berger’s support for the 2023 bill, "does not negate the consequences of his decision not to advance the bill in 2021," adding that "individuals were affected" because Berger didn’t allow senators to vote on the bill.

Our ruling

The Guilford-Rockingham Alliance said Berger "killed a bill banning sex change surgeries for minors."

That’s a misrepresentation of what happened. Berger was Senate leader in 2021 when he referred such a bill to the rules committee, stalling its progress. Berger’s spokesperson at the time said the measure did not have the votes needed to make it law should the Democratic governor, Cooper, veto the measure, as he was likely to do. 

Two years later, that landscape changed when Republicans secured enough seats to override any vetoes the Democratic governor might issue. Republican legislators — including Berger — enacted a ban on sex-reassignment surgeries for minors, passing it into law over Cooper’s veto.

The ad mentions none of that. Its statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. That’s our definition of Mostly False.

Drones struck two facilities in the United Arab Emirates directly, and damaged a data center in Bahrain, Amazon said.

• ‘I don’t know what game they’re trying to play,’ says Rahm

• Spaniard’s stance has put Ryder Cup place in peril

Jon Rahm’s dispute with the DP World Tour has escalated after the Spaniard accused the organisation of “extorting” golfers over fines for competing on the LIV circuit. Rahm’s Ryder Cup future remains in peril with no resolution to the matter in sight, with insiders at the DP World Tour and Europe’s Ryder Cup fans baffled by his stance.

Rahm incurred fines and suspensions as a DP World, formerly European, Tour member playing on what are regarded as competing Saudi-backed LIV events. Rahm signed for LIV in 2023 in a deal reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

After OpenAI announced a partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. uninstalls of ChatGPT surged 295% in a single day. Meanwhile, rival Anthropic "gained enough popularity to earn the number one spot on the App Store's Top Free Apps leaderboard," reports Engadget. TechCrunch reports: This data, which comes from market intelligence provider Sensor Tower, represents a sizable increase compared with ChatGPT's typical day-over-day uninstall rate of 9%, as measured over the past 30 days. [...] In addition, ChatGPT's download growth was impacted by the news of its DoD partnership, with its U.S. downloads dropping by 13% day-over-day on Saturday, shortly after the news of its deal went public. Those downloads continued to fall on Sunday, when they were down by 5% day-over-day. (Before the partnership was announced, the app's downloads had grown 14% day-over-day on Friday.) [...] Consumers are also sharing their opinions about OpenAI's deal in the app's ratings, where 1-star reviews for ChatGPT surged 775% on Saturday, then grew 100% day-over-day on Sunday, Sensor Tower said. Five-star reviews declined during the same period, dropping by 50%. Other third-party data providers back up Sensor Tower's findings.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Case involved Trump orders targeting major law firms for representing clients or causes the president did not like

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The US justice department has dropped legal proceedings against four law firms that stood up to retaliatory executive actions by Donald Trump for representing clients or causes the president did not like.

A number of other law companies made settlements with Trump’s administration in the months after his second presidency began to avoid consequences, including being stripped of security clearances and having access to government buildings terminated.

Formula One’s newest team liken their effort to the Apollo moon landings and join the grid with the aim of becoming a championship-winning force

When the new Formula One season begins on Sunday in the usual fever of excitement and anticipation, consider amid the maelstrom the Cadillac team. Before the lights go out in Melbourne, F1’s newest entrant will have a deserved chance to take a breath and savour for but a moment, their remarkable achievement of simply having made it to the grid.

The US team backed by General Motors has been built, aside from those involved in the pre‑planning, from scratch in what will be a year and a day since its entry was formally approved. As their team principal, Graeme Lowdon, explained, that process had begun in an empty room with a screwdriver and an A4 sheet of paper.

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2026 – Phasecraft today announced it has commenced work on the University of Maryland’s Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security’s (ARLIS) new contract to support the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) ongoing Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI).

QBI’s goal is to assess if it is possible to achieve utility-scale quantum computing by 2033. Phasecraft joins the contract as a technical expert and will leverage its proprietary software and quantum algorithms to develop optimized estimates of resource requirements for quantum applications to inform the U.S. Government (USG) verification and validation efforts.

Evaluating Progress Towards Quantum Utility

While the cutting-edge quantum hardware selected for QBI inches closer to commercial utility, ultra-efficient quantum algorithms like those Phasecraft develops are required to unlock the full potential of any quantum hardware. The company’s hardware-agnostic algorithms, which in some cases are millions of times more efficient than the best previous work, enable the company to provide unique value to ARLIS, DARPA, and the USG.

Specifically, Phasecraft’s work will focus on two application areas: 1) materials and molecular modeling; and 2) hard optimization problems. In both cases, Phasecraft’s algorithms have pushed the boundaries of what was thought possible, and radically shortened the timeline to quantum advantage – the point at which quantum computers will outperform classical methods. This enables the company to produce far more accurate estimates of when quantum will deliver true utility to users across application areas.

“The team at DARPA has long understood the strategic importance of quantum computing, and we are thrilled at the opportunity to collaborate on this vital work, working alongside ARLIS,” said Ashley Montanaro, co-founder and CEO of Phasecraft. “For all the emphasis we see on hardware in the field, it is gratifying to have a government partner like DARPA appreciate the importance of quantum algorithms in the race to achieve industrially useful quantum computing. Our quantum algorithms are delivering meaningful results today, and we’re excited to join the impressive QBI team.”

Building on Momentum

A preferred research partner for all the leading hardware companies like Google Quantum AI, IBM, Quantinuum and QuEra, Phasecraft prioritizes making quantum useful in the near term. In October, Phasecraft unveiled Mondrian, its first-of-a-kind quantum-enhanced software platform designed to speed up classical optimization algorithms and apply them to hard optimization and constraint satisfaction problems across several industries. Mondrian demonstrates how classical and quantum computing can work together to tackle some of the most complex optimization problems facing industries such as energy, finance, and logistics.

This contract comes on the heels of the company’s recent $34 million Series B fundraising announcement. The new funding brings the total raised to over $50M – including grant and contract funding – and will allow the company to double down on its R&D breakthroughs and expand industrial efforts, building real-world solutions for end users.

More from HPCwire

• DARPA Selects 11 Participants for Quantum Benchmarking Initiative Stage B
• Phasecraft Launches Mondrian to Apply Quantum-Enhanced Optimization Across Industries
• Phasecraft Secures $34M to Scale Quantum R&D and Industrial Partnerships

About Phasecraft

Phasecraft is the UK and U.S-based quantum algorithms company whose mission is to accelerate the practical application of quantum computing by redesigning quantum algorithms for the imperfect quantum computers of today. Phasecraft was founded in 2019 by Toby Cubitt, Ashley Montanaro, and John Morton, expert quantum scientists who have spent decades leading top research teams at UCL and the University of Bristol. Phasecraft works in partnership with leading quantum hardware companies, including Google, IBM, Quantinuum, and QuEra, academic and industry leaders, to develop high-efficiency algorithms to move quantum computing from experimental demonstrations to useful applications.

Source: Phasecraft

The post Phasecraft Joins DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative appeared first on HPCwire.

The refined architecture of the new chips brings the usual performance increases across the board and improved battery life.

From robots doing backflips to video game cars that can drive on real roads, this year's show has had a lot going on.

HAMBURG, Germany, March 3, 2026 – ISC High Performance is pleased to announce that Amanda Randles, a pioneer in extreme-scale biomedical simulation, will return to ISC 2026 as the Midweek Keynote speaker on June 24. The keynote continues ISC’s tradition of spotlighting visionary leaders whose work expands the boundaries of scalable computing and its real-world applications.

Amanda Randles

Randles, the Alfred Winborne Mordecai and Victoria Stover Mordecai Associate Professor at Duke University, gained widespread recognition at ISC as the recipient of the Jack Dongarra Early-Career Award in 2024. After serving as the ISC Research Paper program chair last year, she returns to demonstrate how HPC is moving medicine from reactive treatment to a new era of proactive, patient-specific care in a keynote titled “HPC for Vascular Digital Twins.”

Over the last few years, Randles’ work has become synonymous with extreme-scale biomedical simulation. In her keynote address, she will demonstrate how HPC enables the creation of patient-specific vascular digital twins. These models integrate medical imaging, physiological data, and large-scale blood flow simulations into dynamic, high-fidelity representations of the human circulatory system.

In her abstract, Randles explains that this technology could reshape healthcare by moving beyond “snapshot” analyses. Unlike static models, vascular digital twins capture the dynamic nature of physiology. This requires sustained simulation across thousands to millions of cardiac cycles, the management of massive multimodal datasets, and rapid analysis needed for clinical work.

Randles will discuss how GPU-accelerated supercomputing and extreme-scale parallelism make this kind of modeling feasible.

Her talk will further explore the convergence of:

• Wearable Sensors: Coupling continuous data streams with large-scale twins.
• Immersive Visualization: Using advanced interfaces to support early detection and risk assessment.
• Multiscale Simulation: Advancing models for diseases ranging from cardiovascular conditions to cancer.

About Amanda Randles

Amanda Randles is the Director of the Duke Center for Computational and Digital Health Innovation. Her research integrates HPC, machine learning, and biophysical simulation to advance patient-specific care. Her contributions have been recognized with numerous distinctions, including the ACM Prize in Computing, the NIH Pioneer Award, NSF Career Award and the ACM Grace Hopper Award. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a software engineer at IBM on the Blue Gene supercomputing team.

Randles received her Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard University, an M.S. in Computer Science from Harvard, and a B.A. in Computer Science and Physics from Duke. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a software engineer at IBM on the Blue Gene supercomputing team.

Join ISC High Performance 2026 in #ConnectingTheDots

ISC 2026 returns to the Congress Center Hamburg from June 22 – 26 for its 41st edition. Since its inception in 1986, it has been recognized as the world’s oldest and Europe’s most attended event for the HPC community, and increasingly for AI and quantum professionals interested in performance, energy efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.

More from HPCwire

• ISC 2026 Selects Jack Dongarra to Deliver Closing Keynote
• ISC 2026 Taps Martin Schulz for Opening Keynote on Post-Moore HPC Architectures
• Duke University’s Amanda Randles Receives ACM Prize for Advancements in Computational Health
• People to Watch 2025 – Amanda Randles

Source: ISC

The post ISC 2026: Amanda Randles to Deliver Keynote on HPC for Vascular Digital Twins appeared first on HPCwire.

If POTUS can really bomb peace, stability and women’s rights into the Middle East, I’ll take my hat off to him. Judging by his role in Gaza, I won’t hold my breath

Donald Trump says Keir Starmer has damaged the special relationship by not helping him more in the US-Israel war on Iran. But you have to remember that when you do help, Trump pretends you didn’t anyway, and also pisses on your war dead. Still, what could be more enticing than the Americans trying to sell you a timeshare on a war in the Middle East?

And so to Iran. “War is the realm of uncertainty,” said Carl von Clausewitz, who – and not to be a bitch – I still think of as a more impressive military theorist than Pete Hegseth. Certainly, Carl had fewer Crusades tattoos than the US defence secretary. Hegseth is 100% certain about all his nailed-down positions, even the ones in apparent conflict with each other. And it feels like a great sign that he, Marco Rubio and JD Vance already seem to have different rationales for why this war was launched. This is an administration that came to power on an explicit “no more wars” ticket – but look, as Pete keeps saying, this isn’t a regime-change war. If that seems confusing, given he first said it about 10 minutes after US-Israeli strikes had just cratered the ayatollah’s compound, Hegseth has since been on hand to scoff that what’s going down in Iran is “no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise”.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Along with Apple's latest M-series processor, the 13- and 15-inch Air models also offer more storage but at a higher starting price.

Researchers hope restoring the original song will improve breeding prospects for birds released into the wild

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Scientists have rescued the lost song of the critically endangered regent honeyeater – one of Australia’s rarest birds.

Regent honeyeaters were once seen in vast flocks across south-eastern Australia, with a distribution that ranged from Queensland to Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

The lesson here isn’t that one AI company is more ethical than another. It’s that we must renovate our democratic structures

OpenAI is in and Anthropic is out as a supplier of AI technology for the US defense department. This news caps a week of bluster by the highest officials in the US government towards some of the wealthiest titans of the big tech industry, and the overhanging specter of the existential risks posed by a new technology powerful enough that the Pentagon claims it is essential to national security. At issue is Anthropic’s insistence that the US Department of Defense (DoD) could not use its models to facilitate “mass surveillance” or “fully autonomous weapons,” provisions the defense secretary Pete Hegseth derided as “woke”.

It all came to a head on Friday evening when Donald Trump issued an order for federal government agencies to discontinue use of Anthropic models. Within hours, OpenAI had swooped in, potentially seizing hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts by striking an agreement with the administration to provide classified government systems with AI.

March 3, 2026 — NVIDIA today announced that GTC, the world’s premier conference on AI and accelerated computing, will take place March 16-19 this year in San Jose, California. More than 30,000 attendees — spanning developers, researchers, business leaders and AI-native companies — will gather from over 190 countries to explore how AI is becoming essential infrastructure, powering a new industrial era.

Huang’s Keynote, 1,000+ Sessions and Breakthroughs Across the AI Stack Headline the World’s Leading AI Conference

“GTC is the epicenter of the AI industrial era,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “AI is no longer a single breakthrough or application — it is essential infrastructure. Every company will use it. Every nation will build it. From energy and chips to infrastructure, models and applications, every layer of the stack is advancing at once, and you’ll see that all come to life at GTC.”

What to Expect at GTC 2026

Keynote: Huang will deliver the keynote from SAP Center on Monday, March 16, at 11 a.m. PT. The keynote will outline NVIDIA’s latest advancements across the full AI stack, from accelerated compute and AI factories to open models, agentic systems and physical AI, setting the industry’s direction for the year ahead. The keynote will be livestreamed and available on demand at nvidia.com. Registration is not required to view the keynote online.

AI Is a Five-Layer Cake: GTC will showcase every layer of AI spanning energy, chips, infrastructure, models and applications. Through keynotes, sessions and demos, attendees will see how each layer has its own ecosystem of partners, technologies and skilled jobs, and how the coordination of these layers is driving one of the largest infrastructure expansions in history.

1,000+ Sessions: From AI factories and large-scale inference to robotics, digital twins, scientific computing, quantum computing and enterprise AI deployments, GTC sessions will dive into building, scaling and optimizing every layer of the AI stack and how they interconnect in real-world production environments. Huang will host a discussion on the state of the art in open frontier models and what comes next with industry leaders from A16Z, AI2, AMP Coalition, Black Forest Labs, Cursor, Reflection AI and Thinking Machines Lab.

GTC Live Keynote Pregame Show: The pregame show will feature industry leaders discussing accelerated computing beyond AI as well as the five-layer stack behind the largest infrastructure buildouts in human history — in addition to the ecosystem required to deliver it worldwide. Virtual attendees can catch the pregame show live online on Monday, March 16, at 8 a.m. PT. Notable speakers include Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, LangChain CEO Harrison Chase, Skild AI CEO Deepak Pathak, OpenEvidence CEO Daniel Nadler and Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch.

Hands-On Training and Certification: Developers and engineers can gain in-demand skills across AI, accelerated computing, networking, data science and physical AI through nine full-day workshops, 60+ hands-on labs and onsite certification opportunities. Self-paced courses, educator programs and one-on-one training consultations will also be available, helping grow the workforce needed to support the expanding AI infrastructure buildout.

Startups, Investors and the AI Ecosystem: More than 240 NVIDIA Inception startups will showcase technologies spanning physical AI, robotics, generative AI and enterprise applications. Dedicated startup and venture programming, AI Day with leading venture firms and NVentures engagement sessions will connect founders and investors building across every layer of the AI industrial stack.

Developer and Research Tracks: At GTC, developers can learn directly from NVIDIA engineers and partners, and plug into the global ecosystem building the next wave of AI applications. Technical deep dives, CUDA® sessions and infrastructure workshops will explore large-scale model training, inference optimization and deploying AI services across cloud, edge and sovereign environments.

More than 150 poster presentations will highlight cutting-edge research from the global AI community, spanning model innovation, robotics, systems architecture and new AI applications.

AI Across Industries and Around the World: GTC will turn downtown San Jose into an AI campus, spanning 10 venues. Cesar Chavez Park will host a Day and Night Market featuring food, entertainment and live programming. The All-In Podcast will host interviews from the show floor on Wednesday, March 18. Student and Community Day on Thursday, March 19, will open GTC to the broader community at a discounted rate.

Virtual programming with customized regional content and programming is also available through the online session catalog.

A Global Lineup of Leaders: Representatives from organizations building every layer of the AI industrial system — including cloud platforms, model labs, application developers and robotics companies — will share how AI is driving productivity and transformation across every industry.

Participating organizations include Adobe, Agile Robots, Agility Robotics, AI2, AMP Coalition, Black Forest Labs, Canva, CodeRabbit, Cohere, Crusoe Energy Systems, Cursor, Dassault Systèmes, Decagon, General Motors, Genspark, Google DeepMind, Hugging Face, IBM Research, idealworks, Inception Labs, Johnson & Johnson, Kimi (Moonshot AI), L’Oréal, Lucid Motors, Magic AI, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Poolside, Physical Intelligence, Reflection AI, Runway, Siemens, Shopify, Snap, Tesla, Together AI, Thinking Machines Lab, Uber Technologies, Universal Robots, the U.S. Department of Energy, Vention and others.

NVIDIA Financial Analyst Q&A

NVIDIA will hold a Q&A session for investors and analysts on Tuesday, March 17, at 9 a.m. PT. The webcast will be available at investor.nvidia.com.

Source: NVIDIA

The post NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Global Tech Leaders to Showcase Age of AI at GTC 2026 appeared first on HPCwire.

An anonymous reader shares a CTech article with the caption: "A brilliantly executed operation." From the report: Years before the air strike that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israeli intelligence had been quietly mapping the daily rhythms of Tehran. According to reporting by the Financial Times (paywalled), nearly all of the Iranian capital's traffic cameras had been hacked years earlier, their footage encrypted and transmitted to Israeli servers. One camera angle near Pasteur Street, close to Khamenei's compound, allowed analysts to observe the routines of bodyguards and drivers: where they parked, when they arrived and whom they escorted. That data was fed into complex algorithms that built what intelligence officials call a "pattern of life," detailed profiles including addresses, work schedules and, crucially, which senior officials were being protected and transported. The surveillance stream was one of hundreds feeding Israel's intelligence system, which combines signals interception from Unit 8200, human assets recruited by the Mossad and large-scale data analysis by military intelligence. When US and Israeli intelligence determined that Khamenei would attend a Saturday morning meeting at his compound, the opportunity was judged unusually favorable. Two people familiar with the operation told the FT that US intelligence provided confirmation from a human source that the meeting was proceeding as planned, a level of certainty required for a target of such magnitude. Israeli aircraft, reportedly airborne for hours, fired as many as 30 precision munitions. The strike was carried out in daylight, which the Israeli military said created tactical surprise despite heightened Iranian alertness. The Financial Times reports that the assassination was a political decision as much as a technological feat. Even during last year's 12-day war, when Israeli strikes killed more than a dozen Iranian nuclear scientists and senior military officials and disabled air defences through cyber operations and drones, Israel did not attempt to kill Khamenei. The capability to do so, however, had been built over decades. Former Mossad official Sima Shine told the FT that Israel's strategic focus on Iran dates back to a 2001 directive from then-prime minister Ariel Sharon instructing intelligence chief Meir Dagan to make the Islamic Republic the priority target. What distinguishes the latest operation, according to the FT, is the scale of automation. Target tracking that once required painstaking visual confirmation has increasingly been handled by algorithm-driven systems parsing billions of data points. One person familiar with the process described it as an "assembly line with a single product: targets." Further reading: America Used Anthropic's AI for Its Attack On Iran, One Day After Banning It

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Michael Sockwell, one of Alabama's longest-serving death row inmates, could soon receive a new trial.

US county attorney is ‘confident’ her office will be able to pursue charges in cases which led to criticisms of use-of-force policies

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A Minnesota state prosecutor announced an investigation on Monday that may lead to charges against federal officers, including Greg Bovino, for misconduct during an immigration enforcement crackdown.

The Hennepin county attorney, Mary Moriarty, said in a news conference that her office is already looking into 17 cases, including one in which Bovino, a border patrol official, threw a smoke canister at protesters on 21 January.

Shark's new robot vacuum is going to reveal your embarrassing secrets. It uses a UV light to detect old, dried-up stains.

China calls it unacceptable to ‘kill leader of sovereign state’, while South Africa questions ‘pre-emptive’ justification

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The US-Israeli war on Iran has been condemned as illegal across much of the global south, with China saying it was unacceptable to “blatantly kill the leader of a sovereign state”.

Many countries objected that negotiations between the US and Iran over its nuclear programme and missile capability were not given a chance to succeed before Washington and Israel began bombing, and analysts often saw the war in terms of a colonial-style exercise of might.

In dorm rooms and dining halls, students at University of Maryland and elsewhere train future guide dogs.

Israeli airforce attacking cities simultaneously with a ‘wave of extensive strikes’ as soldiers are deployed on the ground in southern Lebanon

• US strikes on Iran triggered by Israel’s plan to launch attack, Rubio says

• Anger with Hezbollah boils as war returns to weary Beirut

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has claimed the US attacked Iran after learning that Israel was going to strike, which would have meant retaliation against US forces.

“We knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” he told reporters

The Air Force is now attacking Tehran and Beirut simultaneously

The Air Force has now begun a wave of extensive strikes against the Iranian terror regime and the Hezbollah terror organization.

President Trump on Monday listed four reasons why the U.S. launched its attack on Iran, initiating what he said he expects to be a weeks-long war.

The State Department urged Americans to "depart now" from countries including Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Cosa Nostra leader, who controlled most of eastern Sicily, dies while serving multiple life sentences for murder

Benedetto “Nitto” Santapaola, a Sicilian mafia boss and one of the most dangerous figures in Italian criminal history, has died aged 87.

Santapaola, who was widely believed to have been the architect of a campaign of bloodshed that scarred Italy in the 1980s and 1990s, died on Monday in a Milan prison where he was serving multiple life sentences. An autopsy has been ordered.

• Point guard argues with official during team’s loss

• Four-time All-Star arrived in January trade

Trae Young has managed to earn an ejection before even stepping on the court for his new team.

The four-time NBA All-Star guard, who was acquired by the Washington Wizards from the Atlanta Hawks in early January, is not set to make his debut for the Wizards on Thursday night against the Utah Jazz. However, he still found a way to be ejected for leaving the bench area in Washington’s 123-118 loss at home to the Houston Rockets.

NIK ANNA
Photographer

BEATRICE AQUAVIA
Associate Visuals and Layout Editor

Managing Visuals and Layout Editor Beatrice Aquavia and Photographer Nik Anna capture Delaware Baseball versus La Salle.

MATTHEW MCKAY
Staff Reporter

NICO HART
Staff Reporter

On Feb. 16th, passersby noticed a bid day banner, part of decorations for sorority recruitment, depicting the New York City skyline outside the university’s Alpha Phi chapter’s sorority house. 

The location of Alpha Phi’s house made the banner easily visible to those traversing South College Avenue. 

The banner depicted the New York City skyline in its pre-Sept. 11th, 2001 form, with the twin towers of the World Trade Center prominently displayed beside the text, “Alpha Phi or Nowhere.” 

YikYak, a social media app that operates on some college campuses like the university and requires anonymity of all of its users, captured initial reactions from the student body. 

Users were quick to point out the inclusion of the towers, with one user writing, “Y’all could have done lady liberty, the empire state building, Trump Towers (fitting), but THE TWIN TOWERS???”

The sentiment was not uncommon. 

“It was just stupid,” Gardner Hall, a freshman environmental engineering major, said. “You got different stuff in New York, you got the Statue of Liberty, why’d you not use that?” 

Another post, which received over 800 upvotes — or likes — read, “the fact MULTIPLE PEOPLE on their exec board had approved of a rush banner where they put their letters over an image that is associated with so much pain and death is genuinely disgusting. Do better APhi.”

“I think it was just a very ignorant thing to do,” Alexandria Bowden, a sophomore elementary education major, said. “I hope they didn’t know what they were doing because if they did, that’s kind of messed up.”

Most comments adopted a less serious outlook and tone on the matter. 

One post included a picture of the Christiana Towers on North Campus, with the caption asking, “Has anyone checked on our own twin towers?” 

According to the Rolling Stone, there is a wider trend among younger generations to view the Sept. 11 attacks as a cornerstone of modern dark humor, rather than a sensitive, off-limits topic. 

Recent YikYak posts seem to support what the Rolling Stone describes.

“I thought the memes were pretty funny,” Hall said. “I don’t think anyone really cares, I think they’re just making fun of it.” 

Gabriel Molina, a freshman political science major, agreed. 

“You gotta understand that we’re young and stuff so when we see s— like this, obviously we’re going to react explosively and be like, ‘Oh my God, this is hilarious,’” Molina said. “It seems like a lot of people got laughs out of it.”

Shortly after the online backlash began, the banner was taken down and replaced with another that notably did not feature the towers, which was labeled by one YikYak user as “damage control.”

Instead, the new banner featured a large New York City map with the caption “Alpha Phi, I have so much to thank you for.” 

Most students seemed to think that the reaction from both the student body and Alpha Phi was overblown or exaggerated.

“How are we cancelling aphi for putting a picture up when everyone is making insensitive edits of the actual 9/11?? baffled by the hypocrisy,” one YikYak user said.

Some since-deleted YikYak posts featured AI-generated images and videos that become sources of controversy for many students.

One of these posts depicted a group of girls wearing Alpha Phi merchandise in an airplane cockpit with the caption reading “Final moments in the cockpit.”

Others included racially inflammatory images and stereotypes.

The posts quickly spread outside of the university, with an X (formerly known as Twitter) user posting screenshots of the banner and a frame from one of the AI with accompanying text, “wtf goin on at udel aphi”, which currently has almost 1 million views on the platform. 

“I guess to other sororities, don’t do what [Alpha Phi] did. Don’t put the Twin Towers on your banners,” Molina said.

Alpha Phi did not reply to a request to comment. All contacted members of Panhellenic sororities, both within and outside of Alpha Phi, declined interview requests.

sizzlinkitty shares a Reuters report detailing how drone strikes in the Middle East conflict with Iran damaged AWS data centers in the UAE and Bahrain, disrupting core cloud services and causing "prolonged" outages. Following the initial report, where Reuters said "objects" had triggered a fire at the data centers, the article was updated with additional information: A strike on the UAE facility marks the first time a major U.S. tech company's data center has been disrupted by military action. It raises questions around Big Tech's pace of expansion in the region. "In the UAE, two of our facilities were directly struck, while in Bahrain, a drone strike in close proximity to one of our facilities caused physical impact to our infrastructure," Amazon's cloud unit Amazon Web Services (AWS) said in an update on its status page. "These strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage," AWS said. "We are working to restore full service availability as quickly as possible, though we expect recovery to be prolonged given the nature of the physical damage involved," it added. Financial institutions that use AWS services have been affected by the outage, one person with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. "Even as we work to restore these facilities, the ongoing conflict in the region means that the broader operating environment in the Middle East remains unpredictable," AWS said. The AWS outage disrupted a dozen core cloud services and the company advised customers to back up critical data and shift operations to servers in unaffected AWS regions. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank said its platforms and mobile app were unavailable due to a region-wide IT disruption, although it did not directly link the outage to the AWS incident. "In previous conflicts, regional adversaries such as Iran and its proxies targeted pipelines, refineries, and oil fields in Gulf partner states. In the compute era, these actors could also target data centers, energy infrastructure supporting compute, and fiber chokepoints," Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies said last week.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

From the ghostly Shutter Story to road trip adventure Outbound and strategy puzzler Titanium Court, here are the titles we enjoyed the most from this year’s Steam Next Fest showcase

These days, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that every new indie game is either a co-op extraction shooter or a roguelike deck-builder – fortunately that’s not quite the case. Each February, the week-long Steam Next Fest is a vast and varied showcase of forthcoming titles, all with downloadable demos, and only a minority of them adhere to those dominant genres. It’s a lovely chance to dig into the sometimes bewildering Steam store and pick out interesting treats – and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Here are five of my favourites.

As hundreds of schools implement an automated monitoring tool, educators say that students can find talking to chatbots ‘more natural’ than confiding in a human

• Produced in partnership with EdSurge

The alert came around 7pm.

Brittani Phillips checked her phone. A middle school counselor in Putnam county, Florida, Phillips receives messages from an artificial intelligence-enabled therapy platform that students use during nonschool hours. It flags when a student may be at risk for harming themself or others based on what the student types into a chat.

The league and its players, locked in a contentious 17-month standoff, must agree to new CBA terms by 10 March or threaten not starting the season on time

It’s not dramatic to say the labor negotiations between the WNBA and its players feel like an old-timey western standoff. The opposing sides have been holding in a quick-draw stance over a new collective bargaining agreement for the past 17 months, passing proposals back and forth that contain what each side envisions for the future of the league. But with less than 70 days until the 30th WNBA season is supposed to tip off, there’s still no resolution.

The two sides blew past the original deadline of 31 October 2025 and the 9 January extension, entering a “status quo” period. The league said that if a term sheet hasn’t been agreed to by 10 March, the 2026 season is at risk of not meeting its planned 8 May start.

British institutions can keep politicians somewhat in check. But in the US, shamelessness has become contagious

It is both sad and ironic that, 250 years after the revolt against George III, the British monarchy is teaching its former colony lessons about accountability. While elite impunity is rampant in the US – from a president who conspired to steal an election, to the “Epstein class” – the man formerly known as Prince Andrew is facing both shame sanctions and legal consequences. The same is true for a towering member of the British establishment, the man still known as Lord Mandelson. Just what explains the difference?

Being shamed is not the same as being convicted in a court of law – a difference that those pushing back against #MeToo and other supposedly woke movements never failed to emphasize. But both can be crucial for upholding norms of decency as well as democracy. Successful shaming depends on someone credibly accused of misconduct being part of groups whose approval matters to them. Larry Summers might well be resigning from Harvard because it would just have been too uncomfortable to face students and colleagues who might have voiced their disapproval of the attitudes revealed in the Epstein files. By contrast, certain Republicans appear to feel utterly unashamed, no matter how cruel or racist their utterances, because constituents do not seem to mind or because they can safely keep away from any unpredictable encounters (after all, GOP congressmen systematically cancel town halls).

Nominees for key Senate seat to be set while voters choose in congressional contests reshaped by GOP gerrymander

The first votes of the 2026 midterm cycle will be cast on Tuesday, with a pair of high-stakes US Senate primaries in Texas that will test both parties’ appetite for political change in the Trump era.

Voters across the state will decide their nominees for a critical Senate seat, as well as for several key congressional contests reshaped by a mid-decade gerrymander sought by Donald Trump to preserve the GOP’s fragile House majority.

FTSE 100 on track for its worst day in 11 months, while Japan’s Nikkei and South Korea’s Kospi also fall

• Business live – latest updates

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The war in the Middle East has plunged financial markets into turmoil for a second day, with oil and gas prices surging and global stock markets plummeting days after the US-Israel attack on Iran.

After a calm Monday, US stocks fell sharply on Tuesday morning, with the Dow dropping more than 1,000 points as concerns over higher gas prices started spooking investors.

Trump says the war could last weeks or ‘far longer’. Plus, what a high schooler detained by ICE for 10 months wants you to know

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Good morning.

Iranian drones hit the US embassy in Riyadh as Tehran continued to launch waves of retaliatory strikes at the Gulf and Israel, while Israeli soldiers began operating in southern Lebanon on the fourth day of an increasingly regional war in the Middle East.

What is the legality of the attacks on Iran? The Guardian spoke to legal experts, who were in consensus that the initial strikes were unlawful under international law. “There doesn’t seem to be any evidence of an imminent threat by Iran,” said Susan Breau, a professor of international law and a senior associate research fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. The US constitution also enshrines the power to formally declare war exclusively to Congress, but the president did not seek congressional approval beforehand.

What has the US said about the war’s justification? It keeps shifting. Donald Trump initially said there were “imminent threats” to Americans, and that the US wanted to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, as well as urging Iranians to rise up and topple the regime. Then Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, said on Monday that Israel’s determination to attack Iran – and the certainty that US troops would be targeted in response – had forced the Trump administration to take pre-emptive strikes.

Are European countries joining? Spain denied the US permission to use jointly operated military bases on its territory for its “unjustified” assault on Iran, while Trump criticized the UK for taking “far too long” to approve American use of its airbases.

What are the implications of disrupting the strait of Hormuz? The strait, which Iran controls, is a key global shipping route, with a fifth of global seaborne oil passing through it. It is now effectively closed and the price of oil has jumped, triggering fears of a new wave of global cost-of-living pressures.

This is a developing story. Follow our live coverage here, and see the war in maps, video and photos here.

ECB says Middle East war could cause higher inflationary pressure and warns of potential ‘sharp drop in output’

• Business live – latest updates

Shoppers faced a surprise jump in grocery inflation last month, as experts warned there was worse to come if there was prolonged war in the Middle East and the odds of a UK interest cut fell sharply.

In a blow to households struggling with the cost of living, grocery price inflation rose to 4.3% in the four weeks to 22 February, after falling to 4% in January from 4.7% in December, according to the market research company Worldpanel by Numerator.

Rights groups and experts say situation is unclear as ruling that quashed ban faces challenge from home secretary

Human rights organisations, academics and writers have called on Ofcom to clarify what the high court ruling that the ban on Palestine Action was unlawful will mean for online platforms pending the home secretary’s appeal against the judgment.

The Metropolitan police have said that officers will no longer arrest people at protests who express support for the direct action group. But the signatories of a letter to Ofcom say it is unclear what it will mean for platforms which have duties to remove terrorist content under the Online Safety Act.

The rare earths race risks environmental disaster Expert comment LToremark 3 March 2026

Rare earth elements are essential for the green transition but the accelerating geopolitical race to reduce dependence on China carries great environmental risks.

Rare earth elements are essential for the green transition. Rare earth magnets are used in a wide range of green technologies, including wind turbines and electric vehicles (EVs). But their extraction and processing also have significant environmental impacts, including toxic waste, water pollution and ecosystem destruction.

In the global race to secure rare earth elements and reduce dependence on China’s dominance in mining, refining and magnet production, countries are increasingly turning to more remote and technically challenging frontiers. Nothing illustrates this more vividly than Japan’s latest feat of extracting rare earth-rich seabed mud from the Pacific Ocean – 5,700 metres below the surface. It’s the world’s first attempt to raise rare earths from such extreme ocean depths. 

But attention is also turning to land-based deposits in remote and ecologically sensitive regions such as the Amazon in Brazil. The Amazon has an estimated 21 billion tonnes of rare earth reserves, the second-largest reserves after China, according to the US Geological Survey. But the region is also home to some of the world’s richest biodiversity that play a critical role in regulating the global climate, and located on or nearby Indigenous community territories.

Related work

The race for Greenland’s rare earth minerals is heating up. The UK should work with Europe for a sustainable strategy

Other ecologically sensitive regions where rare earth exploration is advancing include Greenland, the grasslands of Mongolia, and the biodiverse island ecosystems of Madagascar. 

As rare earth exploration expands into these new frontiers, it highlights a growing tension between the geopolitically driven need to secure rare earth supply chains and the arguably more important need to protect the planet’s most vulnerable ecosystems.

It also raises a fundamental question: are efforts to secure these materials worth the risk of creating a new generation of environmental legacies?

Every tonne of rare earth mined generates up to 2,000 tonnes of toxic waste, including radioactive waste. It also generates millions of tonnes of wastewater annually. Exposure to rare earth elements has been linked to severe health impacts, including lung diseases, neurological damage, cardiovascular dysfunction, reproductive harm, and increased risks of cancer and genetic damage. 

China’s toxic rare earths legacy

The severe environmental damage caused by decades of rare earth extraction in China offers a stark cautionary lesson for countries now seeking to develop their own supplies. 

Ganzhou in Jiangxi Province – also known as the Rare Earth Kingdom – is a major global hub for so-called in-situ leaching of rare earth elements that causes severe soil acidification and water contamination. As far back as 2011, estimates by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology highlighted ¥38 billion (approx. $5.5 billion) worth of environmental damage, which has since multiplied.

In China’s Inner Mongolia province, the Bayan Obo mining sites have caused severe environmental degradation. For decades, rare earth processing facilities in the region discharged large volumes of chemically contaminated waste into tailings reservoirs, most notably the Weikuang Dam. These waste streams contain a mixture of toxic chemicals used in processing, as well as heavy metals and radioactive elements such as thorium. Over time, pollutants have seeped into surrounding soils and groundwater, affecting agricultural land, causing social disruptions for local herder communities, and raising concerns about long-term ecosystem and human health impacts. 

What can be done to mitigate environmental risks?

As countries seek to diversify rare earth supply chains away from China, there are options for how to do this without repeating the same toxic legacies.

Mitigating the environmental impacts of rare earth mining must begin well before extraction starts. Pre-mining processes are critical, particularly meaningful community consultation and engagement with Indigenous peoples in line with the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as articulated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. For companies and governments alike, embedding robust consultation frameworks at the outset is a prerequisite for long-term project stability and social licence to operate. It also reduces the risk of social conflict delaying or derailing projects.

Related work

China’s new restrictions on rare earth exports send a stark warning to the West

Tailings and chemical management represent some of the most significant environmental risks. While industry standards exist, notably the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management, compliance is lacking. According to Benchmark’s rare earth ESG assessment from 2024, only 17 per cent of rare earth producers currently comply with the standard. This gap highlights the need for stronger enforcement and alignment of public financing and offtake agreements with internationally recognized standards.

Radioactive waste management is another defining challenge in rare earth value chains. Certain rare earth ores contain thorium and uranium, requiring secure, long-term storage solutions to prevent contamination. The only reliable way to avoid radioactive leakage is through properly engineered, monitored, and permanently managed storage facilities in line with safety standards issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The creation of a new international pricing system which incorporates environmental costs into rare earth prices is gaining momentum and is actively being explored by the G7 and other governments. This would ensure prices more accurately reflect the true cost of responsible production while incentivizing mining and refining companies to apply the highest environmental standards. 

An international price floor system for rare earth elements is another option discussed by policymakers and industry actors. During the recent Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington, D.C., the US announced its intention to create a preferential trade zone that would maintain an international price floor for critical minerals. Linking it to verified environmental performance would help reduce environmental impacts and costs that were previously externalized, ensuring that future rare earth supply chains are not only more secure but also less destructive.

Why Should Delaware Care?
Delawareans debating the impact of data centers often cite nearby Virginia as an example of the benefits they could bring and a cautionary tale of overdevelopment. Last week, two Virginia leaders spoke for themselves to Delaware lawmakers. 

As Delaware debates whether an embrace of the data center industry will put too big of a toll on the electricity supply, two officials from Virginia testified to state legislators that their region has benefited greatly from the high-tech facilities.

The lawmakers on the Senate Environment, Energy and Transportation Committee listened politely to the comments made on Friday, but revealed little about whether they were persuaded in what has become one of the state’s biggest economic development debates in years. 

Buddy Rizer — Loudoun County, Virginia’s economic development director — recounted how his region was in a tough spot in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Officials there, he said, had to raise taxes and cut staff as the economy struggled to regain its full output. 

Then came a proliferation of data centers into his region, which would eventually become known as “Data Center Alley.” And with them came hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue for Loudoun County, Rizer said.

Now the county can build new schools, create new parks and dedicate funds to affordable housing, he said. It also lowered the residential tax rate.  

“Today’s economy is based on the infrastructure that data centers bring. It’s not a matter of if data centers [will come], it’s where and how,” Rizer said to lawmakers. 

Rizer’s testimony, and that from another Virginia official at the center of that state’s data center boom, highlighted what they called the “transformative” economic impact of data centers.

The state was first to capitalize on the boom in the industry sparked by investors seeking the financial windfalls of the artificial intelligence.

But whether that could occur in Delaware from five proposed data centers is unclear. 

In Delaware, the tax structures are different.

Unlike Virginia, Delaware does not have a sales tax or a personal property tax, meaning that local counties could not levy an annual tax on the valuable servers within data centers. 

And the recent property tax reassessment controversy in New Castle County has demonstated that assessors only consider the building as rentable space, and not its current use — likely limiting the assessed value. 

During Friday’s committee hearing, Rep. Frank Burns (D-Pike Creek) indicated that the tax structure acts as an incentive for developers.

“In a sense, we already have pretty much all the tax breaks that anyone has ever wanted to give to a data center developer,” Burns said.

But members on the other side of the aisle — including Republican Reps. Jeff Hilovsky (Long Neck, Oak Orchard) and Richard Collins (Millsboro) — argued that Delaware needs to attract the industry.

“We either use AI or we’re going to be in the backwaters of history,” Collins said.

Tax revenue with few jobs

Also testifying to the state legislators Friday was Glenn Davis, Virginia’s former director of its Department of Energy, who argued that the relatively small number of jobs that data centers create is actually a benefit. 

Additional workers, he said, would require better roads, more schools and other amenities that the county would have to pay for. Data centers provide a tax base for those services without requiring as much investment as other industries. That allows municipalities to use the tax revenue to spur economic growth in other sectors, he said. 

“I don’t want to call it free tax revenue, but essentially, to a locality, it’s free tax revenue,” Davis said. 

He later told Spotlight Delaware that he thinks Delaware could still benefit economically from data centers despite its low taxes because the industry’s valuations are skyrocketing.

Davis also touched on what many view as the most salient critique of data centers. 

He acknowledged that it is possible for data centers to raise energy prices locally, which could offset some benefits. But he said that could be prevented by imposing rules that ensure energy infrastructure upgrades are paid for only by the data center companies. 

Delmarva Power recently created a proposal for a “large-load tariff” with the goal of doing just that. But during a public comment session Wednesday for the proposal, several residents said the proposal did not go far enough to stave off high energy bills. 

The post Virginia officials pitch benefits of data centers to Delaware lawmakers appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

How the US-Israeli war against Iran exploded into a regional conflict, as Tehran retaliated with strikes across the Middle East

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

A US-Israeli war against Iran that began on Saturday with bombing and missile attacks that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has exploded into a regional conflict, with Tehran retaliating by launching strikes across the Middle East.

On Tuesday, Israel’s military launched a ground invasion of Lebanon, where it has been carrying out intense strikes after Iran’s ally, Hezbollah, fired rockets across the frontier.

The president needs a quick win to avoid a quagmire – but he needs a long war to justify potential emergency powers

Donald Trump has trapped himself in his war with Iran by announcing that his intention is regime change. That uncertain objective is linked to his most urgent objective at home. While pursuing regime change in Iran, he is desperately attempting to stop regime change through the midterm elections. He needs a swift victory in Iran to avoid a quagmire, but he needs a long war to attempt the assertion of unconstitutional emergency authority over the electoral process.

Plunging into war followed Trump’s signature style: he negotiated in bad faith, turned to bombing when the sides were making “significant progress”, according to Oman’s foreign minister, was heedless of international law, and shut out congressional consultation. He offered as his imperative Iranian “imminent threats”, which the Pentagon briefed congressional staffers after Operation Epic Fury began was simply without basis in fact. There was no intelligence suggesting an “imminent threat”. Where’s the WMD?

The world’s most popular podcaster seemingly disapproving of ICE does not mean he has soured from the administration

Joe Rogan, the world’s most popular podcaster, is struggling to sleep. In an interview last week, he complained that the “madness” of the news cycle – from the release of the Epstein library, to US military strikes on Iran – has him “overwhelmed”. For some, this admission is just the latest sign that the world’s most popular podcaster might be regretting his role in cheerleading Donald Trump back into office.

It follows seemingly scathing criticism of ICE after the killing of Renee Nicole Good. Rogan compared ICE to the Gestapo in a short clip that quickly went viral. It led this newspaper to reasonably ask “Has Joe Rogan fully soured on Trump’s presidency?”, with ABC, Bloomberg and CNN all recently reporting on Rogan’s apparent disapproval of ICE.

Democratic rematch in Durham-area district draws focus to fight over AI datacenters increasingly shaping US elections

A North Carolina congressional primary on Tuesday is an early test of datacenter politics – a fight increasingly shaping elections nationwide.

In the Durham-area fourth district, Congresswoman Valerie Foushee is seeking her third term against progressive challenger Nida Allam, a Durham county commissioner she defeated in 2022.

Trump administration accused Luis Muñoz Pinto of being part of the Tren de Aragua gang. Now living in Colombia he hopes to clear his name and study engineering in the US

It was the busiest hour of the evening in Bolivar Square, one of the most iconic spots in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital. Amid the buzz of smiling tourists, however, Luis Muñoz Pinto sat very still, his head in his hands, as memories of his deportation from the United States to a Salvadorian prison flooded back.

Muñoz Pinto, 27, was one of more than 250 Venezuelan men accused by the Trump administration of being part of the dangerous Tren de Aragua gang and deported from the US to the brutal terrorism mega-prison called Cecot in El Salvador last March.

You deserve to wear the right earbuds and headphones during your workouts. These are our favorites.

Today's home cameras can dazzle with powerful LEDs: These are the models that impressed me the most.

Authorities were initially skeptical of the reported find but had caught the elusive reptile by Sunday night.

Netanyahu’s biggest gamble Expert comment jon.wallace 3 March 2026

Regime change in Iran could secure election victory. But much depends on President Trump. And the risks for Israel’s diplomatic position – and even its US alliance – are high.

If there is an issue that unites the vast majority of Israelis, it is that Iran poses an existential threat to the Jewish state. Moreover, most believe there is only a military solution to this danger, not a diplomatic one. Hence the joint US-Israeli military campaign against the Islamic Republic is not only a response to recent developments. It has been brewing for more than two decades and has its roots in the 1979 Iranian Revolution. 

What is somewhat novel on this occasion is the candour with which the leadership of Israel has stated that the war’s objective extends beyond eliminating Iran’s military threat to pursuing regime change in Tehran. That position was immediately and unequivocally endorsed by opposition leader Yair Lapid, along with the rest of the Zionist opposition parties. 

Over the past few weeks, there has been a growing sense of inevitability about an imminent US-Israeli attack on Iran. The suspicion was that negotiations in Geneva, and reports about progress made, were a mere smoke screen, part of a deception and psychological war to lull the Iranian leadership into a false sense of security. 

It largely worked, at least for the open gambit of this war, which saw Iranian leadership, as was the case in the 12-day war last June, caught by surprise – with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed in the first wave of Israeli strikes.

Israel’s position

Israel entered this war in a complex geopolitical position. Since the disaster of 7 October 2023, it has regained much of its military credibility but equally lost political and moral ground. 

It has considerably weakened the military capabilities of most of Iran’s proxies, the so-called Axis of Resistance, whether Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen. And unlike his predecessor, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is no friend of the regime in Tehran. Moreover, following the 12-day war with Iran, the Israeli air force has gained complete supremacy in the air, if at a heavy price on the home front: Israel’s vulnerabilities have been exposed, due to its geography and high population concentration in a relatively small area. 

However, Israel’s political position has been badly undermined. Its use of excessive force, with little regard for civilian lives, especially in Gaza, has put a strain on relations with much of the region, including those countries with which it has normalized relations. Close allies in Europe and beyond have grown increasingly critical of its operations. 

A major feature of Israel’s conduct under Netanyahu is its inability (one suspects also unwillingness due to domestic political pressure) to translate military successes into diplomatic achievements. All the fronts it opened over the last two and a half years remain unresolved as the Israeli government constantly repeats the need for ‘absolute’ or ‘total’ victory.  Such objectives are bound to result in never-ending wars, yet similar terminology is again surfacing regarding Iran in the current campaign. This causes deep concern among the Gulf countries now under Iranian attack.

Rather surprisingly, the administration of President Donald Trump, which prides itself on rapidly settling conflicts rather than starting them seems, when it comes to Israel, to subscribe to the Netanyahu version of events on most fronts.  

In the case of Iran, US negotiators insisted that all demands regarding uranium enrichment, limits on ballistic missile development, and an end to support for proxy groups be accepted in full. 

Chief negotiator Steve Witkoff, speaking to Fox News about the negotiations, said that Trump had wondered why the Iranians didn’t simply capitulate to his demands – revealing that from the start, there was no room for compromise, only a military option. This approach was naïve at best, demonstrating inexperience and a lack of understanding of how the Iranian leadership thinks and operates. It would definitely not have led to a deal.

The triumphalist statements by both Trump and Netanyahu at the end of the first day of the war encouraged Iranians to topple their regime. That is likely to make countries in the region, especially in the Gulf, extremely concerned, regardless of what they think about the regime, as it might end in Tehran intensifying attacks on them, and the nightmare scenario of chaos spreading across the region. 

Iran’s almost instant response to the US-Israeli airstrikes was to attack Gulf states, which now find themselves caught in a war they tried hard to prevent and paying a heavy price. In the long run, they are very likely to ask themselves whether close relations with Israel are more of a liability than an asset. 

If the war – which is already expected to last for weeks – drags on with no resolution, with the Strait of Hormuz and much of the Gulf’s airspace closed, both the US, but mainly Israel, will be held responsible. The fallout will be even worse should the conflict fuel radicalism and further animosity between Sunni and Shia, as concerns some analysts.

Many Iranians and much of the international community would not mourn the brutal regime in Tehran, if it falls. But Israel, already extending its operations to Lebanon, again finds itself in the spotlight for acting under US protection with disregard for international law and lacking any legal basis for its military adventure. 

Netanyahu’s bet

Netanyahu has taken a bet that embarking on this war will boost his chances of political survival. More concerning, he is also gambling with his country’s long-term security and international standing. 

It is an election year in Israel, and Netanyahu is desperate to stay in power. For the gamble to pay off there must be minimum casualties at home. Both Israel and the US are operating, thus far, on such a best-case scenario. 

Netanyahu is also betting that Trump’s support will last until Iran’s nuclear programme and military threat are removed and regime change is delivered. That is risky. 

Related work

The contest of will between Trump and Iran

It is not beyond President Trump to declare a victory while there is neither a military nor a political resolution. Furthermore, if this war goes wrong and it costs the Republicans the mid-term elections in the US, the blame will be put on Israel’s doorstep, with long-term implications for the alliance between the two countries. This is at a time when there is also growing scepticism among Democrats about associating the US with Israel’s policies in the region.

By the end of last year’s June war with Iran, the Israeli prime minister declared that the Iranian existential threat of ‘annihilating’ Israel had been removed. In his words, this ‘historic victory’ would prevail for generations. Only 8 months later, the country is embroiled in another, and even more intense war with its main nemesis in the region. And the reason given is exactly the same as back then.

MPs and campaigners had warned law imposed by Tories could be used by future leaders to ‘undermine democracy’

• UK politics live – latest updates

Ministers are to repeal powers imposed by the Conservatives that allowed them control over the elections watchdog, after warnings they could be abused by a future government with authoritarian ambitions.

Steve Reed, who as communities secretary is overseeing a new elections bill, announced the move to MPs, saying he would “repeal in full the power for government to impose a strategy and policy statement on the Electoral Commission”.

ChatGPT owner’s CEO says it will bar its technology being used for mass surveillance or by intelligence services

• Business live – latest updates

OpenAI is amending its hastily arranged deal to supply artificial intelligence to the US Department of War (DoW) after the ChatGPT owner’s chief executive admitted it looked “opportunistic and sloppy”.

The contract prompted fears the San Francisco startup’s AI could be used for domestic mass surveillance but its boss, Sam Altman, said on Monday night the startup would explicitly bar its technology from being used for that purpose or being deployed by defence department intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA).

Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes' killing set off retaliatory violence by the cartel, killing more than 70 people.

Spectre of military upheaval will hang over annual meetings where Beijing’s five-year plan will be launched

The standing committee of China’s top political advisory body has voted to remove three generals from its ranks as a sweeping purge of the military continues before this week’s annual Two Sessions gathering.

The advisory body will meet on Wednesday, while China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC) – which removed nine generals last week – will start its annual session on Thursday. Collectively the concurrent meetings are referred to as Two Sessions, one of the most important events in China’s political calendar when thousands of delegates arrive in Beijing.

Don't let retro tech clutter your space. Here's how and where you can dispose of it without paying a dime.

A note to my readers: The U.S. is in a new conflict or war with Iran. (President Trump has called it a war, and—to quote Annie Lennox—who am I to disagree?) Though it might blow over in a few days or weeks, it could also last for years, altering not only Iran and the Middle East but our country as well. For this reason, I’ve decided to dedicate this Tuesday newsletter to an overview of how we got here. I think it’s worth it—and hope you do too.

Kareem

The Islamic Republic and How We Got Here

Before I get into this story, I need to say something about where I’m coming from as a Muslim man. My introduction to Islam, the way I learned it and lived it, has nothing to do with the version that dominates today’s headlines. It wasn’t about chanting hatred, smuggling drugs, stripping women of their rights, or promising heaven through destruction.

The Islam I grew up with is about love, peace, and harmony. This is the Islam I connected to, not these fanatics.

The story of The Islamic Republic begins the way many tragedies do: with hope disguised as justice.

On December 31, 1977, at a New Year’s Eve state dinner, President Jimmy Carter praised Iran as “an island of stability.” One year later, Iranians poured into the streets against a monarchy that had grown distant, corrupt and violent. The Shah’s police force, SAVAK, had broad powers to suppress opposition, using its vast surveillance network to control universities, unions and even Iranian communities abroad, and the Iranian people had had enough. They wanted a voice that felt like it belonged to them.

Into that moment stepped Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a cleric who played the Islam card with the poor and the pious, who promised freedom from tyranny and independence from foreign powers. This was strange, in that Iran had a very fine working relationship with both the U.S. and Russia. Still, many believed they were trading one form of oppression for a more righteous order. What they got instead was a new kind of cage.

From the beginning, the Islamic Republic defined itself by measuring itself against the United States. The takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979 was not just a stunt; it was a founding ritual. Fifty‑two American diplomats and staff were held hostage for 444 days. The regime used them as props in a morality play about imperialism and resistance, broadcasting the images of blindfolded Americans to cheering crowds. That crisis shattered any remaining trust between Washington and Tehran and set the tone for the next four decades: the Islamic Republic would build its legitimacy by manufacturing enemies and then claiming to stand bravely against them.

As the new regime consolidated power, it created the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an ideological army believing that the U.S. is the great Satan and that our death is their ticket to paradise. The IRGC would become the long arm of the revolution, reaching far beyond Iran’s borders. In Lebanon in the early 1980s, Islamic Republic helped nurture and arm Hezbollah, a militant group that would become its most important proxy. In 1983, a suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American servicemen. Another bombing hit the U.S. Embassy that same year, killing dozens, including American personnel. U.S. investigations and court rulings later tied these attacks to Hezbollah, which had been backed, trained, and funded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. For the families of those Marines, the revolution in Tehran was no longer an abstract geopolitical shift: it was a hole in their lives that would never close.

The pattern continued. In 1996, a massive truck bomb exploded outside the Khobar Towers housing complex in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. Air Force personnel and wounding hundreds. Years later, U.S. indictments and intelligence assessments pointed to Saudi Hezbollah, again linked to Iran’s IRGC, as responsible. The Islamic Republic had found a way to hurt Americans without ever firing a shot directly under its own flag. It preferred shadows: proxies, militias, deniable operations. But the funerals in the United States were real.

After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iran saw an opportunity and a threat. American troops were suddenly on both its eastern and western borders. The IRGC’s Quds Force moved quickly to shape the battlefield. They supplied Shi’a militia with money, training, and a particularly deadly weapon: explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs. These were sophisticated roadside bombs designed to punch through armored vehicles. U.S. military reports and later public statements by American officials attributed hundreds of American deaths and thousands of life‑altering injuries in Iraq to Iranian‑supplied EFPs and training. Young Americans who thought they were fighting insurgents in Iraq were, in many cases, facing the long reach of the Islamic Republic.

Even outside active war zones, the regime’s hostility toward the United States has been a constant drumbeat. Plots to assassinate diplomats, cyberattacks, harassment of U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf, rocket and drone attacks on bases housing American troops in Iraq and Syria—these are all part of the same strategy: keep pressure on, never fully cross the line into open war, and always maintain plausible deniability. The Islamic Republic has made a habit of treating American lives as expendable pieces on a regional chessboard.

But if the regime has been ruthless toward Americans, it has been even more brutal toward its own people.

In the early years after the revolution, the new rulers moved quickly to eliminate rivals. Former officials of the Shah’s government were executed after show trials. Leftists who had helped topple the monarchy were imprisoned, tortured, or killed once they outlived their usefulness. In 1988, near the end of the Iran‑Iraq War, thousands of political prisoners were executed. Many were young people who had been arrested years earlier for handing out leaflets or attending protests. Human rights organizations estimate that several thousand were killed and thrown into unmarked graves. Families were never told where their children were buried. The message was clear: the revolution belonged to the clerics, and dissent would not be tolerated.

Over the decades, the Islamic Republic built a system of control that reached into every corner of life. Women were forced to wear the hijab by law. Morality police patrolled the streets. Journalists, writers, and artists who stepped out of line were arrested. Ethnic and religious minorities were discriminated against and persecuted. Iran’s prisons became synonymous with torture, rape and forced confessions. Executions, often after unfair trials, became a grim routine. By many measures, Iran has consistently ranked among the world’s top executioners per capita.

And yet, despite the fear, Iranians have never stopped resisting.

In 1999, students took to the streets after a reformist newspaper was shut down. Security forces and plainclothes thugs attacked dormitories, beat students, and arrested hundreds. The protests were crushed, but a new generation was on a mission to face arrest, torture, rape and execution but to continue the fight.

In 2009, millions of Iranians poured into the streets to protest what they believed was a stolen presidential election. The Green Movement, as it came to be known, was one of the largest mass mobilizations since 1979. People marched peacefully, chanting “Where is my vote?” The regime responded with beatings, mass arrests, rape, show trials, and killings. The death of Neda Agha‑Soltan, a young woman shot during a protest, was captured on video and spread around the world. Her face became a symbol of a generation betrayed.

In 2017 and 2019, protests erupted again, this time driven by economic hardship and anger at corruption. In November 2019, demonstrations over a sudden hike in fuel prices spread rapidly across the country. The response was ferocious. Security forces opened fire on protesters in multiple cities. Reports from journalists and human rights groups, citing sources inside Iran, suggested that more than a thousand people were killed in a matter of days. The government shut down the internet to hide the scale of the crackdown. Once again, the regime treated its own citizens as enemies to be subdued, not people to be heard.

Then, in 2022, the death of a young Kurdish woman named Mahsa (Jina) Amini in the custody of the morality police ignited something deeper. She had been arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly.” Her death became the spark for the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement. Women burned their headscarves in the streets. Schoolgirls chanted against the Supreme Leader. Men joined them, recognizing that the fight for women’s freedom was a fight for everyone’s dignity. Again, the regime responded with live ammunition, mass arrests, rape and executions. But something fundamental had shifted: the fear barrier, at least for many, had cracked.

The regime’s contempt for human life was also on display in the skies above Tehran in January 2020. In the tense hours after Iran fired missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, a Ukrainian passenger jet, Flight PS752, took off from Tehran’s airport. Minutes later, it was shot down by two missiles fired by the IRGC, killing all 176 people on board, many of them Iranian citizens or people of Iranian origin. IRGC’s plan was to blame the U.S. for shooting down the plane, but there was no satellite or in-ground evidence to back up their accusations.

When you step back and look at the full arc of the Islamic Republic, a pattern emerges. This is a regime that has survived by manufacturing enemies abroad and crushing dissent at home. It has used religion as a shield and a weapon, not as a source of compassion or justice. It has turned a country with immense human and natural resources into a place where young people dream of leaving, where talent is exported and fear is imported into every home.

The cost, both to Iran and the United States, has been staggering. Americans have lost loved ones in bombings and wars shaped by Ayatollah’s hand. Iranians have lost children to bullets, prisons, and gallows. The region has been destabilized by proxy wars in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Millions of refugees have been created by conflicts in which the Islamic Republic has played a central role. And inside Iran, generations have grown up under a government that treats their aspirations as threats.

Iran is an ancient civilization with poetry, music, science, and philosophy that have enriched humanity for centuries. The problem is not Iran; the problem is a regime that has hijacked Iran’s name and used it to justify violence and repression.

A world without the Islamic Republic as a governing system would be a world where American families wouldn’t have to learn the names of distant cities only because their sons and daughters died there in attacks planned in Tehran. It would be a Middle East where one of its largest, most educated populations could participate openly in building regional stability instead of being used as cannon fodder in ideological battles.

And yet, in spite of all that, the U.S. cannot be the country that begins wars, or even conflagrations. We cannot become the world’s attack dog. We cannot simply march into a sovereign nation and take out their leader or system of government. Have we done that in the past? Have we begun and even sustained conflicts without going through the proper channels, also known as congressional support?

Yes we have. And it has never, ever turned out well.

Whether or not we intervene, the fall of a regime is never guaranteed. The Islamic Republic has spent 45‑plus years trying to convince Iranians that they are weak and isolated, and trying to convince the world that it is strong and permanent. The courage of ordinary Iranians, students, workers, women, retirees, ethnic minorities say otherwise. Every protest, every act of civil disobedience, every refusal to bow quietly is a reminder that the regime’s power is not the same as legitimacy.

The rise of The Islamic Republic is a matter of historical record. Its fall, whenever and however it comes, will be a matter of human dignity finally catching up with power. I’m sorry that this administration made the choice it did: I think it’s anti-democratic and therefore anti-American.

But I hope the Iranian people finally have a say in their own destiny.

Jukebox Playlist: Bob Marley, War

When Bob Marley recorded “War” for his 1976 album Rastaman Vibration, he didn’t write a single word of the lyrics. Every line came from a speech Haile Selassie I delivered to the United Nations in October 1963, a direct address to world leaders demanding an end to racism and colonial rule. Selassie laid out conditions: meet them, or there would be war.

What I find remarkable is the structure of the argument. Every time Marley sings “war,” he delivers a ruling, the way a judge reads a verdict aloud. He calls out Angola, Mozambique, South Africa by name. These are real places where real people were living under colonial rule and apartheid in 1976. For Marley, a Rastafari believer who regarded Selassie as a holy figure, singing these words was both a political act and an act of faith. I put it on this playlist because some songs age gracefully. This one ages with urgency.

TO BE GOOD, YOU MUST DO GOOD. WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER.

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This is a war without a plan, without a strategy, and without any clear understanding of where it leads or how it ends

I’ve spent the last several days checking with foreign policy experts, analysts and specialists in the Middle East for their understanding of Donald Trump’s real goal in Iran, and how anyone (including him) will know he’s achieved it.

Several told me that Trump is seeking the kind of “war” that the US executed in Venezuela – an abduction of a leader by special forces or, as in June, surgical airstrikes on locations where Iran appeared to be building nuclear bombs.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and on 15 March in the UK

Democrat Roy Cooper and Republican Michael Whatley lead polls for their respective primaries for US Senate seat

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The marquee matchup for the open US Senate seat in North Carolina will begin to resolve into focus Tuesday, with a well-known former Democratic governor and a Donald Trump-endorsed but untested Republican appearing to lead the field.

In the Democratic primary, former two-term governor Roy Cooper is ahead in recent polling against the slate of other candidates who have never held elected office. Cooper is widely seen among North Carolina’s Democrats as their best chance at flipping a Republican-controlled seat, now held by retiring US senator Thom Tillis, a conservative who has turned hard against the Trump administration on its handling of healthcare, defense and the Epstein file disclosures.

At a meeting this week, the National Capital Planning Commission will be hearing from about 100 people who are expected to register their dismay over Trump's plans for a White House ballroom addition.

The president and top aides have offered varying justifications for attacking Iran — from regime change to preemption to eliminating its nuclear program and ballistic missiles.

Previously unreported records also offer new details about what was cut from ICE’s basic training program. Concerns about the quality of ICE agents’ training have mounted for months.

The U.S. military said Monday that the number of Americans killed during the ongoing conflict with Iran now stands at six. Follow live updates on Day 4 of the war.

After the league gathered for the combine, we look at the plots that will dominate the news cycle in the coming weeks and months

Barring a gas mask situation, we know who will be the No 1 overall pick in the draft. The Raiders need a viable long-term solution at quarterback after Geno Smith flamed out last year. Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner and national champion, is the top quarterback on the board and will be the first named called on 23 April. After Mendoza, the real intrigue begins.

The technology most people use only as a chatty tool for daily tasks is reportedly aiding US military aggression. And there is not much we can do about it

There are a lot of things that AI can do. It can sort out your shopping list, and it can keep your kids entertained when they’re mutinous by spinning up a tailor-made bedtime story for them. It can make you more efficient at work, and can help our government operate more effectively.

What is written less about, and what we need to shout louder about now, are the risks inherent in the militarisation of AI. In the last three months Donald Trump’s White House has reportedly used AI twice to effect regime change, or to – in the most recent case in Iran – get as close to doing so as possible, and leaving it up to rank-and-file Iranians to finish the job.

Chris Stokel-Walker is the author of TikTok Boom: The Inside Story of the World’s Favourite App

Republicans and Democrats in Texas will start the process of choosing their candidates in what has become an expensive and divisive primary.

Some Republican state lawmakers and health associations are pushing back against spending plans under the Trump administration's $50 billion federal rural health fund.

Why Should Delaware Care? 
Dover leaders denied a funding request by the People’s Church, one of the few homeless shelters in the city, at a recent committee meeting. The denial comes on the heels of extended controversy over the state of panhandling, drug use and homelessness in Delaware’s capital city. 

In the midst of continued debate over panhandling and homelessness in Dover, city leaders have turned their ire toward the People’s Church Community Center, a homeless shelter in the heart of the city. 

Dover City Council’s Committee of the Whole – a committee made up of all nine council members and two additional community members – voted unanimously at a meeting on Feb. 26 to deny the church’s request for $47,000 in city funds to be spent on workforce development programs at the shelter. 

The shelter, considered to be one of the few homeless service centers in the resource desert that is Kent County, has served nearly 500 people since October 2025 alone, director Teresa Campbell Harris told Spotlight Delaware. The church, which Harris described as “low barrier,” serves daily meals and operates as a Code Purple overnight shelter in the winter months. 

But city council members and residents in attendance at last week’s meeting waged a series of criticisms against the shelter, including that it is a “magnet” for individuals doing drugs or engaging in prostitution outside the building.

City Council President Fred Neil railed against the shelter during the meeting, saying the city received 17 “articulate letters” complaining about the People’s Church. He also said the city has received threats of a lawsuit over the shelter, but did not say from whom.

“The services offered at the center have become a magnet for individuals whose actions are systematically destroying the quality of life and devaluing the property of residents,” Neil said at the meeting. 

But leaders of the People’s Church rebuked these attacks, saying at the meeting that council members have “factual misunderstandings” about the way the shelter is run.

The shelter, officially known as “The People’s Community Center,” is housed in the same building as the People’s Church of Dover at 46 S. Bradford St. That address is a mere 800 feet away from the properties where the city is currently undertaking a large-scale downtown revitalization project, including building a parking garage and apartment complex. 

Neil drew an explicit connection between the downtown revitalization efforts and his concerns with the People’s Church, saying people are moving out of “stately homes” on New Street, Bradford Street and Governor’s Avenue due to the conditions outside the shelter. 

He also said the city has received a complaint from the State Department of Health that the sanitation in the shelter’s kitchen is violating state code.

According to food establishment inspection reports published on the Department of Health website, the shelter has had a number of violations between February 2024 and January 2026, including improper cleaning of tools and cross contamination concerns.

Cameron Llewellyn, who runs a construction company with an office next door to the church, wrote one of the 17 opposition letters. He gave an impassioned public comment at last week’s meeting about the impact the church has on his business. 

“People that show up at that center, we find them in the bushes behind our building,” Llewellyn said. “And the next day we have to call the paramedics because they have a needle hanging out of their arm and they look like they’re dead.”

The church responds 

While city council members and residents in attendance were aligned in their opposition to the shelter’s operations, organizers of the People’s Church defended their efforts both at the meeting and in a follow up interview with Spotlight Delaware. 

Derrick Hodge, the lead pastor at the People’s Church, attended the council committee meeting and spoke in response to the accusations waged against the shelter. 

Hodge said the center is “perfectly compliant” with relevant codes, and that he believes the organization has the same goals as the city council, to improve the quality of life “for all Dover residents and all of our neighborhoods.” 

In a follow up interview, Campbell Harris, the shelter director, and Sue Harris, a coordinator for the shelter, said they, like council members, are upset by the people that gather on Bradford Street near their facility. 

But the people congregating outside are not using the shelter’s services, they said. 

“We are victims, just like the neighborhood,” Harris said. “The people standing like zombies around the streets, they don’t come to us. We don’t let them inside.” 

Harris added that these people used to hang around other areas downtown, like Governor’s Avenue and Queen Street, but they were “squeezed” out of those areas, so now they happen to gather in the alleys near the People’s Church. 

She acknowledged that the shelter has gotten some criticism in the past for not requiring sobriety to use their services, but she feels committed to being “low barrier.” 

Harris added that many of the people utilizing the shelter’s meals and overnight housing already have a job, or are working toward other goals, like getting mental health counseling. 

While Campbell Harris and Harris said receiving the $47,000 grant from the city would have been helpful, the pair said they will be able to stay afloat with other funding sources, including a $350,000 grant they are slated to receive from the next round of Prescription Opioid Distribution Settlement Commission funds. 

Brad Owens, director of the opioid settlement commission, said his committee is working to ensure there is a “rigorous budget and oversight framework” in place before they allocate the funds to the shelter. 

Harris said the People’s Church is already working on ways it can set the record straight with the city, including filming a documentary about the shelter and bringing “hundreds and hundreds of supporters” to testify in front of the city council. 

“There’s so much misinformation,” she said, “and people do not understand all sides.”

The post Dover leaders deny downtown homeless shelter funding, express concerns appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

The Library of Congress has restored Gugusse et l'Automate, an 1897 short by Georges Melies that likely features the first robot ever shown on film. Long thought lost, the reel was discovered in a box of decaying nitrate films donated from a Michigan family collection. NPR reports: The film, which can be viewed on the Library of Congress' website, depicts a child-sized robot clown who grows to the size of an adult and then attacks a human clown with a stick. The human then decimates the machine with a hammer. In an Instagram post, Library of Congress moving image curator Jason Evans Groth said the film represents, "probably the first instance of a robot ever captured in a moving image." (The word "robot" didn't appear until 1921, when Czech dramatist Karel Capek coined it in his science fiction play R.U.R..) "Today, many of us are worried about AI and robots," said archivist and filmmaker Rick Prelinger, in an email to NPR. "Well, people were thinking about robots in 1897. Very little is new."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you’re among the more than 1 million people who make Nike’s sneakers and apparel around the world, the company says you should be able to support your family. You should earn enough to pay your living expenses and have some discretionary money left over. If your factory wages don’t cut it, your employer should have a plan to get you there.

But Nike’s expansion in Indonesia over the last decade has directly undermined these goals, an analysis by ProPublica and The Oregonian/OregonLive found.

Over the last decade, employment at factories supplying the world’s largest athletic apparel brand expanded dramatically in regions of Indonesia where, according to one leading estimate, the minimum wage is less than the amount workers need to live on. Meanwhile, Nike’s supply chain shrank overall in places that pay this estimated living wage, our analysis found.

The trend shows how the movement of multinational corporations to countries with ever-lower labor costs is being replaced, in some cases, by movements within a country that can achieve major savings and improve the bottom line.

Nike’s suppliers employ 280,000 people in Indonesia, the company’s second-largest production center.

From 2015 through last year, these suppliers shed around 36,000 jobs in places where the monthly minimum wage exceeds or comes close to a living wage. In these high-wage areas, which include the capital of Jakarta, the minimum typically equates to about $300 a month.

By contrast, the company’s supplier workforce grew by nearly 112,000 in parts of Central and West Java with local minimum wages that are typically about $165 a month — far from what’s considered enough to live on. Dozens of workers employed by Nike suppliers in Indonesia told the news organizations the minimum is about all they make.

“If it’s very labor intensive, then you go where labor is cheapest,” said Nurina Merdikawati, a lecturer in the Indonesia Project at Australian National University. In Indonesia, she said, “that’s going to be Central Java.”

Other brands have also moved to Central Java and other low-wage regions of Indonesia in recent years and continue expanding there, local news organizations have reported.

For Nike, the trend threatens the jobs of the existing factory workforce elsewhere in the country. Last October, more than 2,000 workers were laid off by Victory Chingluh, one of Nike’s longtime suppliers near Jakarta. In 2024, another 1,500 workers were cut by a Nike shoe supplier nearby, Adis Dimension, according to local news reports.

Labor advocates say the geographic shift is concerning because the Jakarta area has a stronger union presence that ensures working conditions and wages get closer attention than in less-developed places like Central Java.

At Victory Chingluh, three employees told the news organizations that the fear of more job cuts hangs over their work. They said the company is building a new factory in Cirebon, in West Java, where the minimum wage is 45% lower.

Over the Past Decade, Nike’s Workforce Ballooned in Areas Where Workers Do Not Make a Living Wage

Factory employment shrank in the areas near Jakarta where the minimum wage is considered enough to meet basic needs.

Employees said when they were offered a choice between keeping their jobs and accepting severance packages during layoffs last year, workers were willing to take the buyout, fearing that they wouldn’t get anything if the factory closed altogether.

That happened in 2018 when one Nike supplier near Jakarta, Kahoindah Citragarment, shut down without paying workers their full severance after Nike pulled its orders, an investigation by the Worker Rights Consortium found. The factory’s South Korean parent company, Hojeon, eventually agreed to pay workers $4.5 million after labor advocates argued they were legally owed separation pay. Hojeon did not respond to requests for comment.

At Victory Chingluh, two union leaders said in December that they anticipated another 5,000 layoffs at a company that once employed about 15,000.

“Almost all employees here are worried about that,” one of them said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions from talking to reporters.

The leaders said they’ve been told the factory being built in Cirebon could be ready by 2027. They said they’ve been told it’s for an expansion — even though their factory recently lost thousands of jobs.

Victory Chingluh did not respond to questions. Nike said in a statement that it works closely with suppliers during layoffs to minimize disruptions. “We mandate that suppliers pay all statutory severance, social security, and other separation benefits required by local law and often assemble working groups — which may include civil society, unions, and local governments — to aid in proper execution,” the company said.

Business leaders near Jakarta have voiced concern about the wage disparity between their region and Central Java, more than 150 miles away, saying that mandated pay increases around Jakarta could lead to mass layoffs and cause manufacturers to shift production.

“There is a real possibility that many labor-intensive industries will move to other regions,” Herry Rumawatine, the head of a local employers association, told the Jakarta Globe in January.

Asked whether the geographic shifts in Nike’s Indonesian supply chain were aimed at improving the bottom line, the company said that creating “operational efficiencies” is part of doing business in a competitive environment.

However, the company said treating Nike’s geographic shift primarily as a move to save money “creates an incomplete picture” and cited “other plausible drivers” such as automation or changing production needs.

Less-developed regions shouldn’t be excluded from opportunities for economic growth, Nike said, and it expects its suppliers everywhere to meet its code of conduct.

“Growth and progress go hand in hand,” Nike wrote, “and we remain committed to investing in ways that expand opportunity while strengthening labor standards and worker protections where we operate worldwide.”

Nike suggests that people who work for its foreign suppliers are well paid. In particular, the company says most workers for which it has data earn nearly double the local minimum wage.

As The Oregonian/OregonLive reported in partnership with ProPublica in January, Nike does not pay workers anywhere close to this amount in Indonesia. In interviews across three regions of the country, roughly 100 workers said they made the minimum wage or a little bit more.

Nike told the news organizations that its figure is a global average and variations naturally exist. But the company also told the news organizations that it’s important not just to compare what its suppliers pay relative to the minimum wage. Nike’s focus, one company official said, is on whether workers make a living wage and, if not, whether their employers are trying to get there.

Although Nike does not explicitly require its suppliers to pay this amount, it says every worker “has a right to compensation for a regular work week that is sufficient to meet workers’ basic needs and provide some discretionary income.” The company reported that two-thirds of its key suppliers — it did not say which ones — paid above living wage benchmarks in 2022.

Jason Judd, executive director of the Global Labor Institute at Cornell University, said living wage pledges from companies like Nike are so flexible that they’re almost meaningless. Only asking factories to be working toward living wages, as Nike does, “could go on for 20 years,” Judd said, “until you’ve found yet another lower-wage province.”

Nike’s recent move to Central Java is notable because while wages are far lower there than in urban Jakarta, food and housing are not dramatically cheaper, according to estimates from the WageIndicator Foundation, a Dutch nonprofit. The foundation says a living wage in Central Java starts around $245 a month; in the parts of the province that are home to Nike suppliers, the local minimum wage ranges from only $136 to $215.

Workers in Central Java said second jobs are common, including selling fish and gasoline. One said workers covertly sold snacks inside the factory, out of sight of managers who might fire them if caught.

“At its core, this is about cost reduction and power,” Wiranta Ginting, deputy international coordinator for the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, a labor group, said in an email.

It isn’t clear exactly how much Nike may have saved on labor by growing aggressively in low-wage regions. But some rough calculations are possible, based on addresses Nike has published for its suppliers, the numbers it says they employ and the minimum wage they must pay in each municipality.

If each factory worker made exactly the minimum wage and worked only on Nike products, then the company’s shift into lower-cost areas would have saved about $200 million on labor in 2025 alone. The estimate is based on what Nike’s suppliers paid last year versus what they would have paid in labor costs had the company expanded uniformly across regions where it had factories in 2015.

It’s only a broad indicator of potential savings.

Nike said the analysis “rests on a series of oversimplified assumptions that limit the reliability of its conclusions.”

For example, the company said that to assume the workforce could have grown where suppliers were located in 2015 “does not reflect the realities of manufacturing operations, which are constrained by factors such as facility capacity, workforce availability, skills, technology, and changes in product mix.”

The geographic shift into lower-wage regions of Indonesia shows one way Nike can try to wring more profit from its vast supply chain. The company, which reported $46.3 billion in revenue last year, is struggling with declining annual sales and profits, problems compounded by uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which Nike had estimated would cost $1.5 billion a year before a recent Supreme Court decision struck them down. Its stock has dropped more than 60% from a 2021 peak.

“Margin expansion is a top priority for me and my leadership team,” CEO Elliott Hill told Wall Street analysts in a December earnings call.

Officials in low-wage Central Java have welcomed the industrial expansion. The province’s then-governor said in 2022 that 97 factories had opened there. Another 10 garment and footwear factories were under construction last year, according to local news reports, with 17 more expected to be built this year.

Nike’s explanation of its move into the region was in keeping with assertions decades ago by its co-founder, Phil Knight, that Nike’s arrival was a positive force for local economies and workers in developing countries.

“Increased manufacturing in Central Java is not an accident and, in many ways, is something to be celebrated,” Nike told The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica. “The Indonesian government has taken meaningful, intentional steps to transform Central Java into an industrial hub, with an eye toward extending the economic growth that has benefited other regions of the country for more than 30 years.”

The company added that “manufacturing growth in regions with lower prevailing wages can lead to raised standards, increased worker skills, and positive contributions to local communities.”

Nike’s move has ripple effects around relatively high-wage Jakarta, Indonesia’s biggest city, where the company has sourced sneakers since 1988. Factory workers and union officials there said they’re reluctant to demand wage increases.

They said they fear better pay will mean fewer jobs.

“It’s clear that every company will expand where it’s cheaper,” a union official at a Nike supplier near Jakarta said.

The differences between Indonesia’s well-established urban production centers and the less-developed areas where Nike has expanded employment go beyond wages.

“Greater Jakarta is an older industrial region with a long history of unionization and collective bargaining, reflected in higher minimum wages won through years of worker organizing and mass mobilization,” Ginting, the Asia Floor Wage Alliance representative, said in his email.

By contrast, he said, factories in the new apparel hot spots of Central Java often recruit younger workers, have less union representation and face less scrutiny from labor inspectors.

Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, said problems on the factory floor are more prevalent in this region. Nova’s international watchdog group has conducted investigations at the region’s apparel factories for the past five years.

Despite some recent progress, Nova said by email, workers at many factories “suffer gender-based violence and other abuses at higher rates than in the country’s older production centers.”

“Because unions have a tenuous foothold in the region and face harsh employer resistance,” he added, “workers often cannot fight back.”

An investigation by Nova’s group found that women at a Central Javanese factory producing Nike-licensed goods for Fanatics, a privately owned brand, had been sexually harassed for years. The labor rights group told Fanatics in 2022 it had heard from women who said they had to endure unwanted touching and verbal harassment by supervisors.

After the factory owner pledged to fix the problems, the consortium found even more egregious abuse in 2023 at another Central Java factory owned by the same company, South Korea-based Ontide. The company struck a binding deal with labor unions in 2024 called the Central Java Agreement for Gender Justice, which mandates harassment training and monitoring.

Ontide did not respond to a request for comment. However, Ontide sustainability director John Yoon said in a press release announcing the gender justice agreement that it would protect workers. “As part of our commitment to our workers’ safety and well-being, we are pleased to be seeing initial results,” the release said.

Fanatics said in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica that there has been “excellent progress” in implementing the agreement. “We are proud of this work, which has been recognized by the Agreement signatories, and which will continue into 2026,” the company said.

Nova, of the Worker Rights Consortium, called the outcome at Ontide “a ray of hope.”

But workers told the news organizations that problems have persisted at other factories in Central Java. Ten workers at one supplier said many women’s toilets hadn’t been working for months. Two workers at other factories said they received written reprimands after they told their employers they were injured on the job.

Asked about these workers’ accounts, Nike said that a “safe and healthy work environment is a fundamental human right” and that it audits factories annually for compliance with its code of conduct. It said it has not found more problems at suppliers in Central Java than in other parts of Indonesia. The company added that it works quickly with its suppliers when needed to put improvement plans in place.

At Selalu Cinta, a Central Java factory that employs 18,000 people and has made Nike Burrow slippers, Blazer Mid ’77 sneakers and other shoes, hundreds of workers signed petitions asking the factory to remove a manager they said repeatedly screamed at and intimidated workers.

Leaders at the factory have failed to remove him, 10 workers told the news organizations.

Nike said it required Selalu Cinta to engage in an independent third-party investigation and is overseeing corrective actions in consultation with unions. Nike said it plans follow-up verification. Selalu Cinta officials did not respond to requests for comment.

A woman who worked for the manager said in an interview last summer that her parents depended on her wages, forcing her to keep her job despite what she described as her boss’ frequent tantrums.

“Working like that,” she said, “feels like you’re in hell.”

How We Tracked Nike’s Factories

Overall employment at Nike suppliers in Indonesia grew by 39% from 2015 to 2025. To see where in Indonesia that growth occurred, we used factory-level data self-reported by Nike in November 2015 and November 2025.

Because Nike said it began working to increase its disclosure of materials and components factories in 2021, we excluded any factories of this kind that appeared on Nike’s list in 2025 but not in 2015, to avoid counting Nike’s expanded disclosure as employment growth. This eliminated 12 materials factories from 2025, removing about 3,500 workers from the analysis.

ProPublica and The Oregonian/OregonLive assigned minimum and living wages to each factory based on their locations. Wage and location data was manually reviewed, and when information was incomplete or inconsistent, classification was based on the data that appeared to be the most reliable.

The city or regency of each factory was identified using factory addresses and verified against Google Maps, factory websites, shipping records and other public disclosures.

We assigned minimum wages at the municipal level based on 2025 government decrees. Some municipalities specify a single minimum wage across all sectors. Others specify wages by sector (in which case we used the sectoral wage that best matched what each factory produces) and/or by nature of the work and employer (in which case we used the rate for labor-intensive multinational companies).

Unlike minimum wages, which are defined by law, living wage estimates can vary. We used estimates from the WageIndicator Foundation, an independent Dutch nonprofit. While the group calculates living wages as a range, we used the group’s lowest estimate for 2025 of what a worker would need to provide a decent standard of living for a typical family.

Factories were classified as “at or above living wage” if the applicable minimum wage was at least 95% of WageIndicator Foundation’s lowest living wage estimate for the province.

Wages were converted from Indonesian rupiah to U.S. dollars using the mean of monthly average daily USD/IDR exchange rates for 2025 from the Federal Reserve.

For the graphic, factory coordinates were manually reviewed, then grouped when multiple factories were close to one another. Factories were grouped when located within 15 kilometers of at least one other factory, forming density-based clusters that were represented on the map as the geometric center of those points. We verified that factories in different wage classifications were not lumped together. For municipalities without a Nike factory, we assigned the highest 2025 minimum wage that could apply if a Nike factory was located there.

To estimate potential savings based on where Nike expanded production between 2015 and 2025, we compared actual 2025 supplier payroll (based on reported number of factory workers and municipal minimum wages) to a counterfactual scenario in which employment grew proportionally across the same municipalities where Nike had factories in 2015. The calculation reflects what Nike’s suppliers would have paid in labor costs under each scenario if all workers earned the applicable minimum wage and factory employment were dedicated to Nike production. Because suppliers can produce for multiple brands and some workers earn above minimum wage, the estimate merely provides a broad sense of potential savings rather than a precise measure of how much the company and its suppliers actually saved in labor costs.

The post Nike Wants Factory Workers to Earn a Decent Living. In Indonesia, It’s Moved Into Areas Where Workers Don’t. appeared first on ProPublica.

Why Should Delaware Care?
Delaware’ Department of Health and Social Services is the second largest state agency behind the Department of Education. Its budget is nearly $2 billion and growing each year as the state ages and health care costs rise. 

Delaware’s state health department, which last year received $1.7 billion from state taxpayers, requested an additional $200 million on Monday during a committee hearing before state legislators responsible for crafting the state’s final operating budget later this year. 

During the Joint Finance Committee hearing, legislators also expressed concerns with a new medical school proposed by Gov. Matt Meyer, which he intends to fund for the next five years using federal dollars meant to bolster rural health across the country. 

One of the largest line item increases for Fiscal Year 2027’s proposed budget was an additional $128.5 million for the state’s Medicaid program, as eligibility changes at the federal level have upended programs across the country. 

If passed as is, the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) budget would reach nearly $2 billion in the next budget cycle, maintaining its position as the second largest state agency behind the Department of Education. 

DHSS Secretary Christen Linke Young addressed members of the committee, saying her office had three priorities going into 2027: responding to federal changes, innovating services and working to bring down health care costs. 

“DHSS, like businesses and families across the state, struggles with the high and rising cost of health care services,” she said at the hearing. 

Medical school concerns 

During the hearing, lawmakers and DHSS Secretary Young sparred over the impact a proposed four-year medical school would have on the state’s health care workforce. 

One of those lawmakers, State Sen. Trey Paradee (D-Dover), who also chairs the Joint Finance Committee, questioned the cost of building and sustaining a medical school when the Delaware Institute of Medical Education and Research (DIMER) already places medical students in nearby medical schools like Thomas Jefferson University and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. 

Young replied that the goal of the medical school is to keep young, learning physicians within the communities they train and to “greatly reduce the friction it takes to lure people” back to Delaware if they study out of state. 

Paradee also expressed concerns about sustainably funding the school long term, when the state already funnels hundreds of millions of dollars to multiple public universities. 

At the end of 2025, the federal government awarded Delaware $157 million as part of a national program aimed at bolstering rural health care across all 50 states. The initial award represents the first batch of funding Delaware hopes to receive over the next five years.

Delaware budgeted more than $100 million to fund medical school construction and operations for the duration of the grant, but that amount is subject to change depending on how much the state receives between now and 2031.

“Once these rural health dollars go away in a few years the question becomes, what is the state’s commitment?” Paradee said. 

State Sen. Eric Buckson (R-South Dover) said he also supports the current DIMER system used to place Delawareans in nearby medical schools. If that program does not have enough seats, he said it would make more sense to invest in a DIMER expansion rather than a new school. 

Still, Buckson said if the state does pursue the medical school, he hopes it is “highly successful.” 

Separately, Rep. Krista Griffith (D-Fairfax) questioned how the state intends to keep young physicians in the area following their training. 

Young pointed to a scholarship program the state hopes to award with the federal grant money, which would require medical students to commit to practicing in rural Delaware five years after their residency. 

Medicaid costs rise with long-term care 

Andrew Wilson, the director of the Delaware Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance (DMMA), pointed to long-term care for seniors and people with disabilities as one of the main cost drivers for Medicaid going into the next fiscal year. 

In an interview with Spotlight Delaware, Wilson called long-term care the “top line” driver for Medicaid costs to the state, but he said it is not the only factor causing the spike. Wilson also pointed to pharmaceutical prices, as well as the cost of health care as reasons for the requested increase. 

Other factors like an increasing and aging population have contributed to more people using long-term options like home or community care, Wilson said. While the increases in Delaware’s population may not be dramatic, retirees and those seeking long-term care cost more to the state than people not using those services. 

“We spend almost seven times the amount of funds on one of those individuals versus somebody in our mainstream Medicaid program,” Wilson said.

Separately, President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed last year, would impose new work requirements for those on Medicaid. 

A work requirement itself is not entirely new, but universal ones imposed under the OBBBA set a new precedent for the social safety net. 

During Trump’s first term, he approved waivers for a handful of states implementing work requirements. But during the Biden administration, those waivers were pulled, KFF reported in 2024. 

Wilson said that people in states with work requirements prior to the OBBBA were often compliant with employment rules, but would become ineligible for the program because of the paperwork demands. 

And in Delaware, he said he expects those same paperwork woes to manifest themselves here with the new requirements. However, he said the department’s aim is to keep as many people from falling through the cracks as possible.  

“Our goal is to keep as many people as we can on the program,” Wilson said.

The post Lawmakers debate medical school, hear $200M budget increase ask from DHSS appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Iran continues to target American bases and Hezbollah fires at Israel as conflict spreads across Middle East

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

Iranian drones hit the US embassy in Riyadh as Tehran continued to launch waves of retaliatory strikes at the Gulf and Israel, while Israeli soldiers began operating in southern Lebanon on the fourth day of an increasingly regional war in the Middle East.

The drone attack on the US embassy in Riyadh caused a minor fire, prompting the diplomatic mission to tell Americans to distance themselves from the compound. The attack followed an earlier Iranian drone strike on the US embassy in Kuwait, as Iran continued to target US bases, facilities and personnel in Arab Gulf states.

Google's showcase is like a tech-centric block party with demos and upcoming products. Here's what I tried out.

US president says ‘relationship is not what it was’ after PM defends decision not to allow use of British bases

• Middle East crisis – live updates

• US-Israel war on Iran: what we know on day four

Donald Trump has criticised Keir Starmer again over the UK’s refusal to aid the offensive strikes on Iran, saying the “relationship is obviously not what it was”.

Starmer had issued his strongest rebuke yet of Trump’s action in Iran, saying the UK did not believe in “regime change from the skies” and defended his decision not to allow the use of British bases to conduct the strikes.

Six American service members have been killed. Trump doesn’t rule out ground troops to Iran if ‘necessary.’

alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: According to a study of 38 adult human brains donated to science, superagers -- people who retain exceptional memory as they age -- have roughly twice as many immature neurons as their peers who age more typically. Moreover, people with Alzheimer's disease show a marked reduction in neurogenesis compared to a normal baseline. [...] Led by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago, the team set out to examine a variety of postmortem hippocampal tissue samples to see if they could identify markers of neurogenesis -- and if different groups had any notable differences. The brain samples were donated from five groups: eight healthy young adults, aged between 20 and 40; eight healthy agers, aged between 60 and 93; six superagers, aged between 86 and 100; six individuals with preclinical Alzheimer's pathology, aged between 80 and 94; and 10 individuals with an Alzheimer's diagnosis, aged between 70 and 93. The young healthy adult brain tissue was first analyzed to establish the neurogenesis pathways in the adult brain. Then, they analyzed 355,997 individual cell nuclei isolated from the hippocampus, searching for three different stages of cell development: Stem cells, which can develop into neurons; neuroblasts, which are stem cells in the process of that development; and immature neurons, on the verge of functionality. The results were striking. "Superagers had twice the neurogenesis of the other healthy older adults," [says neuroscientist Orly Lazarov of the University of Illinois Chicago]. "Something in their brains enables them to maintain a superior memory. I believe hippocampal neurogenesis is the secret ingredient, and the data support that." That's an interesting result on its own, but the data from the individuals with preclinical Alzheimer's pathology and Alzheimer's diagnoses is where the real meat of the study sits. In the preclinical group, subtle molecular changes hinted that the system supporting new neuron growth was beginning to falter. In the Alzheimer's group, a clear drop in immature neurons was evident. A genetic analysis of the nuclei also showed that superager neural cells have increased gene activity linked to stronger synaptic connections, greater plasticity, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a critical protein for neural survival, growth, and maintenance. Taken together, these three things can be interpreted as resilience. The research has been published in the journal Nature.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

With 46% of Nepal’s population under the age of 24, the election will be a test of whether their hopes and frustrations are being taken seriously

In the unassuming, dusty lanes of the Nepali city of Damak, an unprecedented political showdown is unfolding. Pitting an old political heavyweight against a rapper-turned-politician with a penchant for dark sunglasses and sharp suits, the battle is one that could completely reshape the country’s politics.

As Nepal heads into its most gripping election in years, at the forefront stands Balendra Shah, the 35-year-old known simply as Balen. He rose to fame as a popular rapper whose songs criticised the ruling elite, before pivoting to politics and winning a resounding victory to become the mayor of Kathmandu in May 2022.

Speed and scale of US military’s AI war planning raises fears human decision-making may be sidelined

The use of AI tools to enable attacks on Iran heralds a new era of bombing quicker than “the speed of thought”, experts have said, amid fears human ­decision-makers could be sidelined.

Anthropic’s AI model, Claude, was reportedly used by the US military in the barrage of strikes as the technology “shortens the kill chain” – meaning the process of target identification through to legal approval and strike launch.

None of the prime minister’s critics engages with the hard strategic dilemmas arising from Britain’s perilous dependency on US power

It is not easy being a friend of Donald Trump, but it is a lot less dangerous than being his enemy. There isn’t a huge range of options in between. War in the Middle East is exposing how limited the choices are for a British prime minister.

The US president doesn’t see alliances as long-term relationships based on mutual advantage, but as rolling transactions on a mafia model. The boss offers protection in exchange for tribute and loyalty.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink?
On Thursday 30 April, ahead of the May elections, join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss how much of a threat Labour is under from both the Green party and Reform and whether Keir Starmer can survive as leader of the party. Book tickets here

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

I was a newcomer, negotiating all of usual classroom difficulties for the first time. Throwing AI into the mix felt like downing a coffee in the middle of a panic attack

Two years ago, at the age of 39, I began training to be a school teacher. I wanted to teach English – to help young people become stronger readers, writers and thinkers, with a deeper connection to literature. After 15 years of working as a freelance writer and as a novelist, I felt confident that I had something to offer. But the further I progressed in my training, the more uncertain I felt. One particular question taunted me for my lack of an answer. What to do about artificial intelligence?

The immediate dilemma: what does it mean for English instruction that all pupils now have access to free online chatbots that can produce fluid, fairly complex prose on demand? This question sits atop a teetering pile of timeless pedagogical quandaries: What are we actually trying to do in school? How should we go about doing it? How do we know if we’ve succeeded? I was a newcomer, negotiating all of this for the first time. Throwing AI into the mix felt like downing a coffee in the middle of a panic attack.

He lasted just 11 days as White House communications director, before being fired from the Trump administration. The financier and broadcaster discusses working for the president – and becoming his biggest critic

‘If somebody walks into your office and says they’re friends with Donald Trump, they’re either exaggerating the relationship, or they don’t understand the relationship,” says Anthony Scaramucci. “Because nobody is friends with Donald. You’re a transaction in this guy’s field of vision.”

Scaramucci should know. He has been non-friends with Trump for more than 30 years, though these days he’s more an outright enemy. Just as the attention-devouring president once stalked Hillary Clinton on the debate stage, Trump looms large in Scaramucci’s story. The two men seem to haunt each other. When we meet in London during a stopover in his hectic schedule, the conversation rarely drifts away from Trump for more than a few minutes. Conversely, the 62-year-old financier and broadcaster has become one of Trump’s most vocal and penetrating critics. “We fight like New Yorkers,” Scaramucci says. “He doesn’t really come back at me, because he knows I’m going to come back at him.” Unlike Trump’s presumptive friends, Scaramucci does understand Trump, he claims. “There’s something called ‘Trump derangement syndrome’; I think I have ‘Trump reality syndrome’. I know what he is, I know what he does, I know what he’s capable of and I know the danger of him.”

Cross-strait peace requires working with both Beijing and Washington.

How constraints on the U.S. president’s war-making authority eroded—and how to restore them.

Change is coming, but It won’t be fast.

Beijing can again leverage its critical minerals dominance over an increasingly busy US military, as Taiwan slides further down the White House list of priorities

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

As the US and Israel opened a new chapter of chaos in the Middle East, China stands to benefit from a Washington establishment that does not have the political or physical resources to focus on Asia.

Officially, China has condemned the attacks. Wang Yi, the foreign minister, called them “unacceptable” and called for a ceasefire, rhetoric that is typical of Beijing in response to Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic foreign policy moves.

The gunman who killed 3 and wounded 13 at a bar in Austin also wore a hoodie that said "Property of Allah."

AI-guided approach takes over manual steps in powerful X-ray technique

March 2, 2026 — Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming nearly every branch of science. And researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are helping lead the way.

Artistic rendering shows new AI-guided approach capturing absorption edge from atomic structure of material analyzed by XANES at a light source. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory.

“There is a lot of hype around AI today in the media,” said Mathew Cherukara, a computational scientist and group leader at Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility. ​“Yet there is no question that AI can help researchers at APS and other light sources make breakthroughs in advanced chemical processes critical to American industry.”

As proof, the Argonne team has developed an AI-guided method that dramatically speeds up a widely used X-ray technique known as X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. It does so with far less risk of human error or damage to the sample from the X-ray beams.

This powerful analytical tool reveals the hidden chemistry inside materials important to modern life, such as batteries, catalysts and materials through which electricity flows without resistance. The team’s AI approach cuts the number of measurements previously needed by as much as 80%, with no loss of accuracy. The result is a dramatic shortening of data acquisition duration, allowing researchers to capture fast chemical changes in real time.

Here’s how XANES works: Scientists shine X-ray beams with increasing energy onto a material. Each X-ray beam is a tiny packet of energy. When the energy is high enough to knock a tightly bound electron out of an atom, the material suddenly absorbs more X-rays. This sharp jump in absorption is called the absorption edge.

By tracking how X-ray absorption changes before, during and after this edge, researchers can watch the chemistry of a specific element unfold within a material, from how a metallic catalyst reacts with other chemicals to how the charge state of a battery element changes during cycling.

“XANES is incredibly powerful, but until now, scientists had to make dozens or even hundreds of choices about where to measure and how long to measure at each X-ray energy level,” said Shelly Kelly, an APS physicist and group leader.

Some regions of X-ray energy are rich with chemical information, calling for numerous measurements. Other parts are not, meaning far fewer measurements are needed. ​“It is often not easy for experimenters to set the optimal number of measurements to make in a given energy region,” Kelly said. ​“AI is helping us take the guesswork out of XANES.”

The team’s new approach replaces the manual measurement process with an AI algorithm that automatically selects the most useful measurement points. The algorithm identifies where the absorption edge is likely to occur, which regions hold the most chemical detail and which regions offer little added information.

“Our AI method measures only where needed,” said Ming Du, a computational scientist and lead author on the paper. ​“It’s smarter, faster and more efficient, and it lets researchers focus on the big picture.”

The system also enables something new: AI-directed experiments. By comparing a sample’s evolving spectrum against known starting and ending states (for example, a fully charged electrode versus fully discharged), the AI can tell researchers in real time the state of the chemical progress, when enough information has been collected, and when it’s time to move on.

“It’s not just speeding up the measurement,” Kelly said. ​“It’s making decisions during the experiment — decisions a human used to make.”

The work points toward a future in which X-ray beamlines, such as those at the APS, are more autonomous and better able to track complex chemical reactions as they happen.

“This brings us closer to intelligent X-ray stations that make the most of every photon,” Cherukara said. ​“Argonne plans to continue developing AI-driven tools for next-generation X-ray science, especially as the upgraded APS delivers beams up to 500 times brighter than before.”

The team demonstrated the method using beamlines 25-ID-C, 20-BM and 10-ID at the APS. The project was supported by the DOE Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

The research first appeared in npj Computational Materials. In addition to Du, Kelly and Cherukara, contributors include Mark Wolfman and Chengjun Sun.

Source: Joseph E. Harmon, Argonne National Laboratory

The post Argonne Applies AI to Speed Chemical Analysis at DOE’s Advanced Photon Source appeared first on HPCwire.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 3.

The satellite images show damage to sites including the Choqa Balk-e drone facility and former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's compound​.

Linn County, Iowa has adopted what may be one of the nation's strictest local zoning ordinances for data centers, requiring detailed water studies, formal water-use agreements, 1,000-foot residential setbacks, noise and light limits, and infrastructure compensation. "But seated beneath a van-sized American flag hanging from the rafters of the drafty Palo Community Center gymnasium, residents asked for even stronger protections," reports Inside Climate News. "One by one, they approached the microphone at the front of the gym to voice concerns about water use, electricity rates, light pollution, the impacts of low-frequency noise on livestock, and the county's ability to enforce the terms of the ordinance. Some, including Dorothy Landt of Palo, called for a complete moratorium on new data center development." Landt asked: "Why has Linn County, Iowa, become a dumping ground for soon-to-be obsolete technology that spoils our landscape and robs us of our resources? While I admire the efforts of the Board of Supervisors to propose a data center ordinance, I would prefer to see all future data centers banned from Linn County." From the report: The county is already home to two major data center projects, operated by Google and QTS. Both are located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa's second-largest city, and are therefore subject to its laws. The new ordinance would apply only to unincorporated areas of the county, which make up more than two-thirds of its geographic footprint. [...] In drafting the ordinance, [Charlie Nichols, director of planning and development for Linn County] and his staff drew on the experiences of communities nationwide, meeting with local government officials in regions that have seen massive booms in data center development, including several counties in northern Virginia, the "data center capital of the world." As data center development balloons, many communities that initially zoned the operations as warehouses or standard commercial users are abandoning that practice, Nichols noted. The extreme energy and water demands of data centers simply cannot be accounted for by existing zoning frameworks, he said. "These are generational uses with generational infrastructure impacts, and treating them as a normal warehouse or normal commercial user is just not working." [...] The Linn County, Iowa, ordinance goes one step further than tightening existing zoning rules. Instead, it creates a new, exclusive-use zoning district for data centers, granting county officials the power to set specific application requirements and development standards for projects. No other counties in the state have introduced similar zoning requirements, said Nichols. In fact, few jurisdictions nationwide have. [...] From its first reading to final adoption, the ordinance has expanded to include language setting light pollution standards, requiring a waste management plan, including the Iowa DNR in the water-use agreement to address potential well interference issues and requiring an applicant-led public meeting before any zoning commission meetings. "I am very confident that no ordinance for data centers in Iowa is asking for more information or asking for more requirements to be met than our ordinance right now," said Nichols at the final reading. The Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance has said that it strongly supports current and future data center development in the area. The new ordinance is not an effective moratorium, Nichols said. He said he "strongly believes" that a data center can be built within the adopted framework.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This live blog is now closed.

• Trump news at a glance: president offers goals but no end date for military offensive against Iran

• Hegseth says US won’t get ‘bogged down’ in Iran

• What is the legality of the US and Israeli attacks on Iran?

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While speaking today, Pete Hegseth acknowledged the fourth US service member killed in Iran’s counterattacks.

“War is hell and always will be,” he said. “Our grateful nation honors the four Americans we have lost thus far and those injured – the absolute best of America.”

Democrats disturbed by rationale that Trump ordered pre-emptive strikes out of concern about Tehran retaliation

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

Israel’s determination to attack Iran and the certainty that US troops would be targeted in response forced the Trump administration to take pre-emptive strikes, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said, in a new explanation for Washington’s surprise entry into the conflict.

The rationale drew divided reviews from top members of Congress who on Monday evening received the first briefing by the Trump administration since it ordered the air campaign to begin over the weekend.

• Club is popular with athletes and rappers

• Kornet says night helps objectify women

San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet has called on the Atlanta Hawks to abandon their collaboration with a famous strip club.

Magic City is an Atlanta institution and been mentioned in a string of hip-hop records, as well as hosting rappers such as Drake, Lil Yachty, Migos, Jack Harlow and Future. It is also popular with athletes: past visitors have included Michael Jordan, while MLS’s Atlanta United celebrated their title at the club in 2018. The club gained widespread attention in 2020 when the Los Angeles Clippers’ Lou Williams visited the club after leaving the NBA’s quarantine bubble during the Covid pandemic.

Virginia State Police were called to Interstate 495 southbound near exit 52 in Annandale, Virginia, around 1:20 p.m. on Sunday for a reported road rage incident.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for March 3, No. 526.

Trump said military campaign could ‘go far longer’ then initial four-to-five week projection as violence and chaos ripple across Middle East – key US politics stories from Monday 2 March at a glance

Donald Trump has laid out four goals in Iran and said the US campaign had been projected to last four to five weeks but could “go far longer than that”.

On Monday, the US president offered his most extensive comments yet about the war, going beyond two video messages and a series of brief phone interviews with reporters that offered sometimes conflicting objectives.

US first lady Melania Trump has chaired a meeting of the United Nations security council on children and education in conflict, two days after her husband, Donald Trump, and Israel launched attacks on Iran that prompted a UN warning about child safety. The UN event happened days after Iranian state media reported that an airstrike killed at least 165 people at a girls’ school in southern Iran. Melania Trump did not comment on reports of strikes on the Iranian school. 'The US stands with all of the children throughout the world. I hope soon peace will be yours,' she said

• Melania Trump urges protecting children’s education at UN after Iran school strike

• Death toll from school bombing in southern Iran reportedly rises to 165

• Middle East crisis updates

• US politics updates

State laws had limited sharing of information with parents about gender identity of trans students in public schools

The US supreme court has decided to block a series of California laws that can limit the sharing of information with parents about the gender identity of transgender students in public ​schools. This ruling marks a victory for parents who challenged these protections on religious and due process grounds.

The emergency request was granted on Monday and the decision was made along party lines, with the three liberal justices dissenting.

Four different district court judges found President Trump's executive orders targeting the law firms were unconstitutional.

The Iran war is renewing concerns about the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. A prolonged closure could sharply drive up oil prices, experts said.

Eclipse will feature a deep, coppery-red full moon on 3 March. From Sydney to New York, use our guide to find out when the eclipse will be visible and the best time to see it tonight.

North America, Australia and New Zealand will be treated to a rare total lunar eclipse on Tuesday known as a “blood moon”.

As the full moon dips into the planet’s shadow tonight it will change colour to a “deep and coppery red”, says astrophysicist Dr Rebecca Allen of Swinburne University.

After a Washington Post investigation, congressional Democrats are asking tech giants how they handle administrative subpoenas targeting DHS’s critics.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC.ca: The B.C. government says this Sunday will be the last time British Columbians have to change their clocks. The province will be permanently adopting daylight time and the March 8 "spring forward" will be the last time change, Premier David Eby announced Monday. "We are done waiting. British Columbia is going to change our clocks just one more time -- and then never again," Eby said. Residents will have eight months to prepare for Nov. 1, 2026, when the clocks would have been turned back one hour, but will now remain the same. B.C.'s new time zone will be called "Pacific Time," according to the province. Further reading: Permanent Standard Time Could Cut Strokes, Obesity Among Americans

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A new CBS News poll finds most Americans say nationwide ICE operations should be decreased.

Donald Trump says the war could go on for four-five weeks, adding US has ‘capability to go far longer’

• What is the legality of the US and Israeli attacks on Iran?

• Have you been affected by events in the Middle East?

Bahrain has said that one person was killed by shrapnel from an intercepted missile. The death of a foreign worker at Salman Industrial City, working on a boat there, marks the kingdom’s first reported fatality in the war.

Bahrain, home to the US navy’s 5th fleet, said it intercepted 61 missiles and 34 attack drones launched against it. It said some shrapnel had gotten through, striking buildings and the naval base.

The Supreme Court order blocks for now a California law​ that bans automatic parental notification requirements if students change their pronouns or gender expression at school.

Nvidia is helping to accelerate the silicon photonic era with today’s revelation that it’s investing $4 billion across two photonics companies, Coherent and Lumentum. The investments come as Nvidia looks to meet the burgeoning demand for compute capacity driven by the big AI boom.

As system makers reach the physical limits of copper, they’re looking to alternative technologies to move data between chip components. With advantages over copper in bandwidth, latency, power, heat, and resilience, silicon photonics has a lot to offer. Nvidia is adopting co-packaged optics (CPO) with photonic switches for its Infiniband and Ethernet switches for scale-out clusters, but has yet to announce the adoption of photonics for NVLink, its switch and interconnect for scale-up systems.

The investments in Lumentum and Coherent could indicate that Nvidia is gearing up for a photonic push for scale-up systems, which is the preferred architecture for AI inference workloads that are dominating the AI conversation these days. The news focuses on 1.6T lasers and optics that delivers data at a 1.6 terabit rate.

Lumentum is a publicly traded San Jose-based company (NASDAQ: LITE) that designs high-performance indium phosphide lasers, fiber-optic transceivers, and 3D sensing products for data center, communication, and industrial purposes. The company, which was founded in 2015 as a spin-off from JDS Uniphase, is positioning its external laser source form factor pluggable (ELSFP) as a standard for CPO architectures for next-gen data centers.

An optical circuit switch from Coherent

Coherent is a global supplier of lasers, optics, and transceivers that are used in data center, industrial, communications, electronics, and instrumentation markets. The publicly traded Saxonburg, Pennsylvania-based company (NYSE: COHR) was previously called II-VI Incorporated, and took the name Coherent  after it acquired a company by that name in 2022 to become a major player in photonics.

Nvidia and the two photonics firms issued nearly identical press releases this morning announcing nearly identical deals. The announcement state that, as part of a nonexclusive agreement, Nvidia has made a “a multibillion purchase commitment and future capacity access rights for advanced laser” and optical components. The deals also call for Nvidia to invest $2 billion in both Lumentum and Coherent “to support R&D, future capacity, and operations as the company builds out its U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities.”

In the case of Lumentum, the announcement stated that the investment would be for building a new fab. “In support of this collaboration, we are also investing in a new fabrication facility to increase capacity and accelerate innovation,” stated Lumentum CEO Michael Hurlston. “We’re excited to work together to expand what’s possible for the AI optical architectures of tomorrow.”

Lumentum’s ELSFP laser for CPO

Jim Anderson, CEO of Coherent and apparently the highest paid CEO in the United States, said the new deal with Nvidia “underscores Coherent’s role as a key enabler of next-generation AI data center infrastructure. We are proud to expand our 20-year relationship with Nvidia by increasing their access to include multiple product families to help them build the AI data centers of the future,” he stated in a press release.

These aren’t the only stakes Nvidia has taken in photonic companies. Nvidia has also invested in Scintil Photonics, a French firm that’s developing a multiplexing laser technology that can be used with next-gen CPO gear going into scale-up systems.

Investors approved of the deals. Lumentum’s stock closed up 11.75% at a $50.0 billion market cap while Coherent was up 15.44% at a $48.5 billion market cap.

The post Nvidia Invests $4B In Two Silicon Photonics Companies appeared first on HPCwire.

Trump boycotted the dinner in 2017 and has not attended any in either of his terms as president

Donald Trump said Monday he will attend the White House correspondents’ association dinner for the first time as president.

Writing in a social media post, Trump said: “In honor of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these ‘Correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many, it will be my Honor to accept their invitation, and work to make it the GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER, OF ANY KIND, EVER!”

Ruling retains boundaries for 2026 elections despite state court ruling it was unfair to Black and Hispanic residents

The supreme court on Monday sided with Republicans in ruling that the boundaries of the only GOP-held congressional district in New York City do not need to be redrawn for the 2026 elections, despite a court ruling that the district is unfair to Black and Hispanic residents.

Over the dissent of the court’s three liberal justices, the conservative majority halted the state court ruling that had ordered New York’s redistricting commission to redraw the district held by Nicole Malliotakis that covers Staten Island and a small piece of Brooklyn.

Latest research based on animal model trials shows GLP-1 drugs may prevent problem of ‘no-reflow’ in recovery

Weight-loss drugs could help people who have had a heart attack avoid suffering potentially fatal complications afterwards, research has found.

Drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy reduce the risk of the tissue damage that affects up to half of the 100,000 people a year in the UK who suffer a heart attack, according to the study.

As President Donald Trump launched air attacks on Iran Feb. 28, skeptics quickly argued that ousting a foreign country’s government — as the U.S. may be pursuing in Iran — takes more than airstrikes.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said creating an improved political system is unlikely unless there are boots on the ground.

"There is no history … that shows an air campaign alone will result in positive regime change," Murphy said in a March 1 interview on CBS News’ "Face the Nation." "In fact, there's not a single example of it in the entirety of American history. An air campaign without at least the threat of a ground invasion, which the administration is ruling out, never results in a democratic rebirth in an authoritarian country."

Most of the seven military experts and historians we interviewed for this article agreed with Murphy. 

"Airpower can have devastating effects, but without ground troops — or the clear threat of invasion — we have not seen regime change," said Barbara Slavin, a fellow at the Stimson Center, a foreign policy think tank.

A few experts cited a case or two that could undercut Murphy’s argument, but other experts pushed back against their interpretation.

On March 2, Trump declined to rule out ground troops. "Every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it," Trump told the New York Post in an interview.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also didn’t take ground troops off the table when asked about it at a press conference. 

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

The limits of air power

In World War II, the U.S. and its allies achieved regime change in Germany, Japan and Italy through a combination of air power and extensive use of ground troops over several years, resulting in more than 400,000 U.S. military deaths.

Many of the U.S. military interventions since then have involved U.S. ground troops, including the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the post-9/11 Afghanistan War and the Iraq War.

But other military campaigns in recent years have involved air warfare without significant numbers of U.S. ground troops. They include a 1986 airstrike that unsuccessfully targeted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi; two campaigns in the Balkans in the 1990s, in Bosnia and Kosovo; a continuing conflict in Yemen; allied airstrikes against Libya in 2011; Israel’s 12 day war against Iran in 2025; and the January 2026 U.S. mission to capture Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro. 

"Airpower is extraordinarily effective at destroying infrastructure and eliminating individuals," Robert Pape, a University of Chicago political scientist, recently wrote. "It is far less reliable as a tool for reshaping political systems."

Pape wrote, "Removing a central figure is not insignificant. But in practice, regimes are networks: security services, political elites, patronage structures, ideological institutions. When an external power kills a leader, those networks often consolidate rather than fragment." 

Pape wrote that although the 2011 airstrikes in Libya did oust Gadhafi, "The resulting chaos was deadly for Americans as the country spiraled out of control."

Murphy’s framing is a high bar, and it’s possible to achieve more modest goals with airstrikes, said David Silbey, a Cornell University military historian.

"The Libyan intervention of 2011 did not have democratic results, but it did achieve the American strategic goal of overthrowing Gaddafi and ending Libya’s support of terrorism," Silbey said. "So that seems a successful use of airpower, if not quite in the way" that Murphy framed the issue.

Italian soldiers under NATO command deployed to Albania on April 25, 1999, to help with the care of displaced Kosovar refugees. (AP)

Do Bosnia and Kosovo meet Murphy’s standard?

Experts said the examples that come closest to achieving beneficial regime change through air warfare are Bosnia and Kosovo. But their support for his argument is far from foolproof.

Bosnia did have troops on the ground — United Nations troops to support humanitarian convoys with peacekeeping. 

"In Bosnia, the August 1995 air campaign helped bring the Bosnian Serb Army and the Milosevic regime to Dayton, Ohio, for peace negotiations," said Gerard Toal, a Virginia Tech political science and international affairs professor. But it wasn’t just airstrikes in this case; local ground forces, the Croatian army and Army of Bosnia, were on the ground taking territory, he said.

After various twists and turns, the talks themselves became the catalyst for a more durable settlement, said Susan L. Woodward, a political scientist at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.

As for Kosovo a few years later, an air campaign was eventually "combined with the threat of a ground campaign, though that threat was just beginning to take shape when the Serbs gave in," said Mark F. Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a national security think tank.

In addition, the Kosovo Liberation Army, a separatist militia, was active on the ground in Kosovo.

In any case, the Kosovo bombing did not achieve a full regime change, Woodward said. "The eventual decision on regime change was declared by Kosovar parties in 2008 — nine years later, and unilaterally, not a result of the bombing," she said.

Our ruling

Murphy said, "There is no history … that shows an air campaign alone will result in positive regime change. In fact, there's not a single example of it in the entirety of American history."

Although some U.S. airstrikes have helped improve political conditions, airstrikes alone are generally not sufficient to achieve regime change, especially regime change that produces a lasting political improvement. Usually, airstrikes combined with ground troops have a better likelihood of success.

The statement is accurate but needs additional context, so we rate it Mostly True.

Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman contributed to this article.

President Trump is a central figure for both Democrats and Republicans, going into the primary season, ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

We'll spring forward and lose an hour of sleep, but we'll gain more daylight.

More than 100 people, including children, were killed in a missile strike on a girls’ school in southern Iran, the Iranian government reported. The Feb. 28 strike in Minab happened the day the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran, accusing it of building nuclear weapons that threaten the U.S. and its allies.

Some social media users said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s armed forces, took responsibility for the attacks.

"The regime in Iran has now confessed that the IRGC mistakenly bombed an Iranian school yesterday, killing many children," a March 1 X post said. It had been viewed 5.6 million times by the afternoon of March 2. 

Another X post with 2.3 million views as of March 2 said, "Iran admits — It was an IRGC missile that killed 148 school-girls… The regime in Iran has now officially confirmed that the IRGC mistakenly bombed an Iranian school yesterday, killing many children."

The posts include screenshots of a Telegram account called Radio Gilan.

"An IRGC aerospace missile hit a school in Minab County, Hormozgan Province," a translation of the Feb. 28 Telegram post said. "The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that this was an inadvertent mistake and that serious action will be taken against those responsible for this action."

Neither the U.S. nor Israel have taken responsibility for the strike, and there is no evidence that Iran’s government has either. Iran’s government described the attack as perpetrated by U.S.-Israeli strikes.

Iran’s government didn’t claim the attack

Immediately after the strike and in the days since, Iran’s government and state-run media blamed the U.S. and Israel. 

"The US & Israel launched an egregious, unwarranted act of aggression against Iran by indiscriminately targeting Iranian cities," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in a Feb. 28 X post. "In just one single case, they targeted a primary school in #Minab, Hormozgan Province, killing and maiming tens of innocent young girls. This is a blatant crime."

In a March 2 post, Baghaei again described the school strike as caused by "American and Israeli missiles."

Hossein Kermanpour, an Iran health ministry spokesperson, also said in a Feb. 28 X post that there had been "an enemy's missile strike on a girls' elementary school."

PolitiFact found no official statements, state media reports or news stories that said Iran’s government took responsibility for the attack.

U.S. Central Command did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment, but provided a statement to The New York Times: "We are aware of reports concerning civilian harm resulting from ongoing military operations. We take these reports seriously and are looking into them."

We rate claims that the Iranian regime confessed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps bombed an Iranian school False.

Law Society says home secretary’s review of refugee status after 30 months is in tension with UK’s legal obligations

Shabana Mahmood’s decision to tell every person applying for asylum from Monday that their status is temporary could undermine the refugee convention, the Law Society has said.

The body representing solicitors in England and Wales said the home secretary’s move to review every refugee’s status after 30 months was “in tension” with the UK’s legal obligations.

Dublin, Helsinki, Stockholm and Tallinn among port cities more choked by sulphur oxides from ferries, analysis shows

Fume-belching ferries spew more sulphur pollution than cars in several EU capitals, analysis has found.

Dublin, Helsinki, Stockholm and Tallinn are among 13 of Europe’s 15 biggest port cities choked more by sulphur oxides (SOx) from ferries than road vehicles, data shared exclusively with the Guardian shows.

Apple has reportedly asked Google to look into "seting up servers" for a Gemini-powered upgrade to Siri that meets Apple's privacy standards. The Verge reports: Apple had already announced in January that Google's Gemini AI models would help power the upgraded version of Siri it delayed last year, but The Information's report indicates Apple might lean even more on Google so it can catch up in AI. The original partnership announcement said that "the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google's Gemini models and cloud technology," and that the models would "help power future Apple Intelligence features," including "a more personalized Siri." While the announcement noted that Apple Intelligence would "continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute," it didn't specify if the new Siri would run on Google's cloud. Apple's Private Cloud Compute is not only underpowered but it's also underutilized in its current state, notes 9to5Mac, "with the company only using about 10% of its capacity on average, leading to some already-manufactured Apple servers to be sitting dormant on warehouse shelves."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

AI glasses accounted for 88% of smart glasses shipments in the second half of 2025.

Have you bought and set up a new phone for someone else lately, especially someone less technologically savvy? It’s a bit of a nightmare, with an endless list of confusing steps and dark patterns trying to trick you into signing up for all kinds of services. Joel Chrono (he took his username from the best game ever made) just went through this experience, with new Samsung phones for his parents, and it wasn’t great.

Without me, my parents would have ended up creating at least one extra Samsung account. Cloud services like OneDrive or Google Photos would be sucking up files and copying them to their servers, getting filled up with the data and then asking them to subscribe to unlock more storage a couple of months down the line.

Left on their own, my parents may be seeing ads popping up constantly in OneUI, as well as browsing the web without an adblocker, they would be using default applications that don’t work as reliably, that track whatever they do to a certain degree.

And of course, all of those AI assistants would be listening in in the background. It really is a nightmare out there, and it’s not only affecting my parents, it affects all of those unaware of the dangers that these practices bring. It’s a mess all around.

↫ Joel Chrono

In this particular case it involves Samsung phones, but the same applies to phones from other brands and even with other operating systems. Do you want to login with these accounts? Please add your credit card and all your personal information! Set up tap-to-pay so we can see where you buy what! Do you want to subscribe to our music service? Do you want access to our streaming service? What about the premium versions? Need more online storage? You’re only getting 5GB for free, so if you don’t want to lose those priceless pictures of your grand kids you should really upgrade to 1TB! Have you checked out our application store yet? And don’t worry, if you say no to any of these questions we’ll keep pestering you about them with notifications, fullscreen interstitials and banners in the settings application until your brain dissolves to mush!

I have a collection of about a million PDAs, from the early days up until the very fanciest models from right around when the iPhone and Android started taking off. Of course, they’re in storage so virtually always out of battery, but when I do turn any of them on, their onboarding process couldn’t be simpler. Tap a few locations on the screen to calibrate the touch layer, set the date and time, and that’s it – you’re at the home screen ready to go. I wish modern smartphones were similar. I wish the greedy bean counters were told to pound sand and the user interface specialists took over again.

My wife and I have two young boys, 3 and almost 5. One day, I’ll be the out-of-touch dad or grandpa and I’ll need their help to set up my brain implant chip or whatever. I hope it won’t involve upsells for streaming services.

As US-Israeli airstrikes hit their cities, people tell of how the authorities are warning them off the streets

At least 200 civilians have been killed since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran last weekend, according to rights groups, as people inside Iran told the Guardian they were fearful of a rising death toll.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that at least 555 people had been killed across Iran. However, in its latest update, the Norway-based human rights group Hengaw said the death toll on day three had reached at least 1,500, including 200 civilians and 1,300 members of the Iranian forces.

The first lady’s UN security council speech came days after Iranian media reported an airstrike killed 165 people and injured 96 others at girls’ school

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Melania Trump became the first spouse of a sitting world leader to preside over the UN security council on Monday, calling on member states to protect children’s access to education days after Iranian state media reported that an airstrike killed at least 165 people at a girls’ school in southern Iran.

The meeting, titled Children, Technology and Education in Conflict, had been scheduled before the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday.

Stocks recovered on Monday after tumbling earlier in the day over concerns that the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran could drive up energy costs.

US military also says three US fighter jets were shot down in ‘friendly fire’ incident, all six crew members survived

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

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Six US service members have been killed in the US military operations against Iran, the US Central Command said on Monday afternoon.

The announcement comes one day after the military confirmed the deaths of three US service members on Sunday, which marked the first known US fatalities since the strikes against Iran began on Saturday, and just several hours after the Central Command had reported that a fourth US service member had been killed.

Commentary: The iPad Air just got a chip bump. Meanwhile, the most affordable iPad remains cut off from AI and is another year older.

STOCKHOLM, March 2, 2026 — Ericsson and Intel are pooling their next-generation technology leadership to help accelerate ecosystem readiness for seamless transition to AI-native 6G deployments and use cases.

The collaboration, an extension of a decades’ long relationship, was announced at Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2026. It will span mobile connectivity, cloud technologies, and compute capabilities across AI-driven RAN and packet core use cases, and platform level-security and network capabilities to help enhance ecosystem enablement and time-to-market for cloud-native solutions.

Börje Ekholm, President and CEO, Ericsson, said: “6G is not merely an iteration of mobile technology. It is the infrastructure that will distribute AI across devices, the edge and the cloud. Ericsson’s long history of network innovation and large-scale operator deployments positions us to lead practical integration across the value chain and move 6G from research into commercial reality.”

Lip-Bu Tan, CEO, Intel, said: “Intel’s ambition is to be the undisputed technology leader in unifying RAN, Core and edge AI to enable a seamless transition to AI-native 6G environments. Together with Ericsson, we will continue to demonstrate that the future of network connectivity is open, power-efficient, secure and grounded in intelligent AI inference. With future Ericsson Silicon, powered by Intel’s most advanced process nodes, ongoing multi-year research plans, and flexible AI-RAN ready Cloud RAN powered by Intel Xeon, we are well on our way to delivering the future performance, efficiency, and supply security that the world’s leading operators require.”

A Shared Commitment

As 6G transitions from the research phase to commercial reality, the industry needs a collaborative, well-prepared ecosystem-aligned with global standards bodies and industry organizations to help turn innovation into deployable infrastructure.

The collaboration will advance future high-performance, and energy-efficient compute architectures designed for both AI for networks and Networks for AI.

AI-native 6G will combine intelligent and programmable networks with advanced compute and real-time sensing, creating a stronger foundation for more responsive, efficient and capable services. Over time, that evolution could bring sensing and compute closer together across the network.

Collaboration Results on Show

Ericsson and Intel have collectively achieved important milestones across cloud RAN, 5G Core and open network infrastructure. That momentum continues at MWC 2026, where multiple demonstrations – across Ericsson (Ericsson Pavilion, Hall 2), Intel (Hall 3, Stand 3E31) and various ecosystem partner event spaces – showcase innovative collaboration.

About Ericsson

Ericsson‘s high-performing networks provide connectivity for billions of people every day. For 150 years, we’ve been pioneers in creating technology for communication. We offer mobile communication and connectivity solutions for service providers and enterprises. Together with our customers and partners, we make the digital world of tomorrow a reality.

About Intel

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) is an industry leader, creating world-changing technology that enables global progress and enriches lives. Inspired by Moore’s Law, we continuously work to advance the design and manufacturing of semiconductors to help address our customers’ greatest challenges. By embedding intelligence in the cloud, network, edge and every kind of computing device, we unleash the potential of data to transform business and society for the better.

Source: Ericsson

The post Ericsson and Intel Collaborate to Accelerate Path to Commercial AI-Native 6G appeared first on HPCwire.

Zinke, interior secretary during Trump’s first term, cites health problems and declines to run again in Montana

Ryan Zinke, a Montana Republican who served as interior secretary during Donald Trump’s first administration, said he would not seek re-election to a fifth term in the US House, citing health concerns.

The decision gives Democrats an outside chance to pick up a House seat in a state that has veered to the right politically over the past decade.

The war in the Middle East triggered by the joint US and Israeli attack on Iran expanded dramatically on Monday, with casualties and destruction reported across at least nine countries, including major strikes on Tehran.

Since the US and Israel first struck Iran with bombing and missile attacks over the weekend, the speed at which this war has exploded into a regional conflict is ‘dizzying’, says the Guardian’s Oliver Holmes. Tehran swiftly retaliated to the attacks, which killed the country’s supreme leader, by launching strikes across the Middle East.

• A visual guide to the US-Israeli war on Iran and Tehran’s response

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

Macron says his nation will bring European neighbors into nuclear military drills and may let them host nuclear-capable fighters planes for the first time.

If Democratic voters wanted party leaders to give a strong, unanimous condemnation of President Donald Trump’s war on Iran, they would probably be disappointed. Leaders of the liberal party have instead sought to criticize the process leading up to Trump’s multiday onslaught, rather than the onslaught itself.

Soon enough, however, primary elections will give voters their say on that approach.

Starting Tuesday, a series of primaries will serve as referenda on candidates who have either given ambivalent responses to the war or who have drawn past support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying flagship that backed Trump’s strikes.

The first big test will come in North Carolina, where Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee-backed incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee is under attack from challenger Nida Allam over prior ties to AIPAC.

Allam, a Durham County commissioner hoping to topple Foushee in the 4th Congressional District, chose to make the U.S. strikes on Iran the subject of her final pitch to voters in a video ad where she condemned the war.

“I will never take a dime from defense contractors or the pro-Israel lobby,” Allam said. “I have opposed these forever wars my entire career, and I hope to earn your vote to be your proudly uncompromised pro-peace leader in Washington.”

Taking heat from Allam, Foushee says she also opposes the war.

“I will go on record right now: I do not support Trump’s illegal war with Iran and will do everything I can in Congress to support War Powers Resolutions to stop it,” Foushee said on social media Saturday morning, hours after the bombs began dropping.

A super PAC affiliated with AIPAC gave Foushee crucial support during her 2022 race. With the lobbying group’s brand becoming increasingly toxic within the Democratic Party, she has sworn off support from the organization this time around — but a group tied to an AIPAC donor has nonetheless flooded the race with ads on her behalf.

The North Carolina candidates’ stances reflect the overwhelming sentiment of Democratic voters, according to a pair of polls conducted over the weekend. Only 27 percent of Americans and 7 percent of Democrats approve of the attacks, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that lined up with the results of a Washington Post survey.

Avoiding the Underlying Issue

Democratic leaders in Congress have taken a different tack. Before the strikes, they dragged their feet on forcing a vote on a war powers resolution meant to block launching strikes without congressional approval.

Related

Democrats Finally Get Around to Forcing Iran War Powers Vote

After the attack, many top Democrats criticized Trump’s decision to launch the war without congressional approval, while being vague on the substantive question of whether it was right to go to war.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., for instance, tied the attacks to the Democratic campaign theme of affordability and blasted Trump for failing to ask Congress for approval.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has also stopped short of directly criticizing the idea of attacking Iran. In his statement, he invoked the threat of Iran attaining nuclear weapons, cited the public’s fear of “another endless and costly war,” and called on Congress to pass a war powers resolution.

Those positions allow Democratic leaders to focus their criticism on Trump’s violation of the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress the sole power to declare war, rather than the underlying issue of whether the war is warranted.

Democrats should be doing more than merely criticizing the process leading up to the war, said Hannah Morris, the vice president of government affairs for J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group that is lobbying members of Congress to support a war powers resolution that blocks Trump from launching further attacks without congressional approval.

“Process plus. This is not just about process, this is about a reckless war by choice, and it completely flies in the face of what President Trump ran on,” Morris told the Intercept.

One congressional candidate was blunt in her critique of the response from Democratic leaders.

“As we plunge headlong into another catastrophic war, Sen. Schumer and Rep. Jeffries’ throat clearing and process critique only serves Trump and the war machine. Democrats should speak clearly and with one voice: no war,” said Claire Valdez, a state assembly member who is running in New York’s 7th Congressional District with the blessing of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Only a few Democratic members of Congress have given their outright support to the war — most notably Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.

Even in congressional races where none of the candidates have given the war their blessing, however, there have important distinctions in whether they focus Trump’s wrecking ball approach to the Constitution or the wisdom of the war itself.

In Illinois, a Democratic primary election in the 9th Congressional District on March 17 will give voters a test on whether they want candidates more forthrightly opposed to the conflict.

State Sen. Laura Fine, a top candidate in that race who has drawn the backing of AIPAC donors, supported Israel’s attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities last year. She was one of the candidates centering Trump in her response to the attack over the weekend.

“Donald Trump is leading us into another military conflict to distract from his own failures that puts American lives at risk and threatens to send the Middle East into further chaos,” she said. “He simply cannot be trusted and must be impeached.”

Two candidates vying for the progressive vote, Daniel Biss and Kat Abughazaleh, have both come out against the war. Biss called it “reckless and illegal.” Abughazaleh, a social media influencer, also called out Democrats who were willing to go along with the attacks in a video post.

Related

Trump’s Iran Attack Was Illegal, Former U.S. Military Officials Allege

“The problem is that many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle love playing into the idea of Iran as a boogeyman, and so they’re willing to bomb them to hell. Especially if it lines their pockets or gets them more donors from the military–industrial complex,” she said.

In Maine, firebrand oyster fisher Graham Platner was far ahead of popular two-term Gov. Janet Mills in a recent primary poll.

Platner, a Marine combat veteran, called an emergency protest over the weekend and called the war “tragic, stupid, ill-conceived.”

In her statement, Mills criticized Trump’s “unilateral” decision to go to war while adding that Iran could not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.

“The American people have had enough of forever wars,” Mills said, “that put the lives of American servicemembers and civilians in danger, that do not protect the American people, that hurt our alliances and escalate global tensions.”

The post Democratic Leaders Avoid Criticizing Trump’s Iran War. Now Voters Will Have a Say. appeared first on The Intercept.

A gunman killed two people and wounded 14 others during a March 1 attack on an Austin, Texas, bar, and officials are exploring whether the shooting could be connected to U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.

As investigators sought information about the shooter’s motive, an X post with more than 662,000 views shared footage of the attack and an unfounded theory about his background. 

"BREAKING: Israeli shooter opened fire inside an Austin bar," the March 1 X post said, adding disparaging comments about Jewish people.

This claim conflicts with early reporting about the suspect. No credible evidence of an Israel connection has emerged as of early evening March 2.

Austin police identified the suspect, who was killed by police, as Ndiaga Diagne, 53. 

PolitiFact asked multiple agencies — the Department of Homeland Security, the Austin Police Department and the FBI — about the suspect’s country of origin, but received no replies. Diagne was a native of Senegal, according to multiple news outlets that quoted unnamed U.S. officials.

Diagne entered the U.S. on March 13, 2000, on a B-2 tourist visa, a DHS spokesperson said. In June 2006, he became a lawful permanent resident based on marriage to a U.S. citizen. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen on April 5, 2013. 

DHS said Diagne was arrested in Texas in 2022 for a collision with vehicle damage, without specifying the arrest’s location. PolitiFact searched Texas’ public database for Diagne’s possible convictions, but found none. 

The FBI is investigating whether the shooting was a terrorist attack. Photos obtained by news outlets showed the suspect wearing a hoodie that said "Property of Allah" over a bloody shirt with a design of the Iranian flag. 

The investigation is ongoing.

Based on currently available information, we rate the X post’s claim that the shooter was Israeli False.

After spending taxpayers’ money, Florida governor will likely be left holding bill for $608m promised by Trump administration

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Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, spent $1.2m of taxpayers’ money per day to open and operate the notorious immigration jail known as Alligator Alcatraz, court records obtained by the independent investigative news website the Florida Tributary reveal.

A switch in position by Donald Trump’s administration also now looks likely to leave Florida on the hook for at least $608m spent on the harsh Everglades detention and deportation facility and other immigration jails, the outlet said. That was despite gloating by DeSantis in September that the state would be reimbursed from federal funds.

Lawmakers are raising concerns that prediction market users are engaging in insider trading to wager on U.S. military actions.

Paramount Skydance plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single streaming platform following its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. "As we said, we do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers," said David Ellison, the company's CEO. "We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space." The deal still needs regulatory approval. The Washington Post reports: He added that Paramount didn't want to make changes to the HBO brand. "Our viewpoint is HBO should stay HBO," Ellison said, noting that his favorite HBO product is "Game of Thrones." If Justice Department regulators allow the deal to go through, it would place recent HBO Max hits, such as "The Pitt" and "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," alongside Paramount offerings including "South Park" and "Yellowstone." "They built a phenomenal brand," he said. "They are a leader in the space, and we just want them to continue doing more of it." The deal to buy Warner Bros., valued at about $110 billion, will almost surely attract regulatory scrutiny from the Justice Department because -- without divestments -- it places major swaths of the film, television and news industries under one roof: Warner Bros. and Paramount studios, HBO Max and Paramount+, and CBS and CNN would all have the same parent company. Ellison expressed confidence on the call that the deal wouldn't face hurdles with regulators.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Pentagon announced Monday that six American service members have been killed in Operation Epic Fury.

Bill and Hillary Clinton last week faced hours of questioning from lawmakers about the convicted sex offender

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Videos of Bill Clinton, the former US president, and Hillary Clinton, the former US secretary of state, answering questions about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released on Monday by a House committee investigating the late financier.

The recordings of the depositions, which spanned hours over two days last week, show how both Clintons distanced themselves from Epstein. Bill Clinton told the committee that he had ended his relationship with Epstein years before the financier entered a guilty plea in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

Major US indexes recover after falls earlier in the day amid concerns of rising gas prices

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US stocks see-sawed on Monday as investors tried to keep abreast of the news on the first day of trading since the US and Israel attacks on Iran began.

After dipping down over 1% across the board, the major indexes recovered most of their losses even after global markets saw heftier drops earlier in the day. At Monday’s closing, the Dow was down 0.15%, while the S&P 500 was 0.04% up. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 0.36% for the day.

BARCELONA, Spain, March 2, 2026 — NVIDIA has announced a commitment — together with Booz Allen, BT Group, Cisco, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, MITRE, Nokia, OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation, ODC, SK Telecom, SoftBank Corp. and T-Mobile — to build the world’s next generation of wireless networks on AI-native, open, secure and trustworthy platforms.

Credit: Shutterstock

The initiative represents a shared commitment to ensure 6G infrastructure — the foundation for the world’s future connectivity — is open, intelligent, resilient and accelerates innovation and safeguards global trust.

Beyond traditional connectivity, 6G wireless networks will become the fabric for physical AI, enabling billions of autonomous machines, vehicles, sensors and robots and significantly increasing demands for security and trust. Legacy wireless architectures were not designed to meet these requirements, creating challenges as networks increase in complexity.

To address this, NVIDIA is bringing the industry together to advance AI-native, software-defined wireless platforms built on open and trusted principles. By embedding AI across the radio access network (RAN), edge and core, 6G networks must enable secure integrated sensing and communications, intelligence and decision-making while supporting interoperability, supply-chain resilience and faster innovation.

“AI is redefining computing and driving the largest infrastructure buildout in human history — and telecommunications is next,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Together with a global coalition of industry leaders, NVIDIA is building AI-RAN to transform the world’s telecom networks into AI infrastructure everywhere.”

Uniting on Openness and Trust for the AI-Native, Software-Defined Era of Connectivity

6G will be AI-native and software-defined, enabling wireless networks to advance at the pace of innovation. 6G networks, built on AI-RAN architecture, will continuously evolve through software, enabling real-time intelligence and rapid advancement. This transformation opens the door for a diverse ecosystem of participants — from global operators and technology providers to startups, researchers and developers — all contributing through open and programmable platforms.

Allison Kirkby, chief executive of BT Group, said: “Connectivity is the backbone of economic growth, and with this collaboration, we’re helping lay the foundations for a future ecosystem that is intelligent, sustainable and secure. By building on open and trustworthy AI native platforms, we can simplify future technologies like 6G, ensuring they build upon the strengths of today’s 5G networks while still unlocking powerful new capabilities at scale.”

Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG, said: “Best network, best customer experience — that remains our promise. With an open, intelligent and trusted 6G infrastructure, we are laying the foundation for the era of physical AI and unlocking new value for our customers, for industry and for society.”

Arielle Roth, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, and Administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said: “America’s 6G leadership will be critical to our nation’s economic prosperity, national security and global competitiveness. Today’s announcement demonstrates that the United States and our allies and partners around the world are leading in this next-generation technology. We look forward to the next steps from this international industry coalition as they advance and implement their shared 6G vision.”

Jung Jai-hun, president and CEO of SK Telecom, said: “SKT is evolving telco infrastructure to serve as the foundation for the AI era, where connectivity serves as a platform for intelligence and innovation. Together, we can build open, trusted infrastructure that drives a global ecosystem of AI innovation.”

Hideyuki Tsukuda, executive vice president and chief technology officer of SoftBank Corp., said: “Al-native 6G will transform wireless networks into secure, software-defined infrastructure that supports the next wave of global innovation. SoftBank Corp. is driving this innovation with NVIDIA by advancing open and trusted platforms that enable interoperability, resilience and continuous evolution at scale.”

Srini Gopalan, CEO of T-Mobile, said: “We’re at a pivotal moment. In the U.S., we’ve laid the foundation with 5G Advanced and AI-native networks where intelligence lives inside the network. As 6G becomes the backbone of the AI era, telecom will serve as the nervous system of the digital economy, enabling autonomous systems and intelligent industries at scale and unlocking new value for customers and businesses alike. T-Mobile is proud to help define what’s next through deep ecosystem collaboration and sustained innovation.”

A Shared Vision for 6G: Open, Software-Defined, AI-Native

NVIDIA participates in global private and public initiatives to advance 6G innovation, contributing open source software, accessible platforms and joint research and development projects:

• In the United States, NVIDIA has joined the FutureG Office-led OCUDU Initiative, aligning with government and industry partners to accelerate open, software-defined and AI-native 6G architectures.
• NVIDIA is a founding member of the AI-RAN Alliance, which now has over 130 participating companies driving AI-RAN innovation.
• NVIDIA, along with Booz Allen, Cisco, T-Mobile, MITRE and ODC, in October launched the AI-Native Wireless Networks (AI-WIN) project, an all-American AI-RAN stack to accelerate the path to 6G.
• In Korea, NVIDIA is collaborating with an industry consortium to help shape intelligent, secure, programmable 6G networks from the ground up.
• In the U.K., NVIDIA is collaborating with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to advance applied research, ecosystem development and trusted AI-native network design.
• Across Europe and Japan, NVIDIA is actively engaged with public and industry programs aimed at strengthening open innovation, interoperability and trusted infrastructure.

Together, these collaborations represent a unified commitment — supported by like‑minded governments, operators and technology partners — to shape secure, intelligent and trusted global connectivity for the next generation of wireless technology.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in AI and accelerated computing.

Source: NVIDIA

The post NVIDIA and Global Telecom Leaders Commit to Build 6G on Open and Secure AI-Native Platforms appeared first on HPCwire.

The Fifa president’s sycophancy towards the US president has left the organisation facing a new nadir, but any reckoning seems a distant prospect

Mr President. Fellow exco members. We’re going to need a bigger Board of Peace. How many mini‑pitches are we up to now? Gaza got 50 of them last month. What will it take to football-fix the global conflict being set in train by Fifa’s own Peace Prize Boy? A hundred mini-pitches? Four billion mini-pitches? All the mini‑pitches in the universe?

In a more sane version of what we must, out of habit, call the real world, it would seem absurd to talk about sports administration in the context of the US, Iran and the airborne conflict being played out across the borders of their allies.

The first U.S. casualties of the war with Iran occurred among American personnel based in Kuwait.

• US captain scored in final despite dealing with injury

• Knight says she has been overwhelmed by fans’ support

Hilary Knight revealed on Monday that she led the US women’s ice hockey team to gold at last month’s Olympics while suffering from a torn medial collateral ligament (MCL) in one of her knees.

“I’m not walking around the best, and I’m missing a few games for the [PWHL’s] Seattle Torrent,” Knight said on CBS Mornings. “To be able to play through injury was definitely a mental sort of gymnastic challenge for myself and also physical, but we’ve got some amazing support staff that did their best to get me out there and perform at my best – as best as I could.”

President is using ‘very common cream’, personal doctor Sean Barbarella says without giving details

Donald Trump was seen with a rash on the side of his neck during the Medal of Honor Ceremony on Monday, fueling more speculation about the state of the president’s health.

In a statement, Trump’s personal doctor said that the rash was caused by a cream that the president was using as a “preventative skin treatment”.

The White House announced first lady Melania Trump would preside over the meeting last week before the U.S. and Israel launched a joint U.S.-Israeli military mission in Iran.

The DNC is announcing Monday that the 2028 national convention will be held from Aug. 7 to Aug. 10, CBS News has learned.

The House Oversight Committee released recordings of last week's depositions with former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

President Trump said he expects the bombing campaign to last four to five weeks, but "we have [the] capability to go far longer than that."

From the president's usual opponents in his party to some of his most stalwart supporters, the U.S. actions in Iran have prompted strong pushback in pockets of the GOP.

The Pentagon is bracing for more casualties as it wages a massive campaign to eliminate Tehran’s arsenal but acknowledged that U.S. forces cannot intercept all incoming fire.

In less than three days, the conflict ricocheted beyond the original targets in Iran, Israel and Iraq to threaten some 300 million civilians across more than a dozen nations.

Meta's messaging app calls out Swedish- and Cyprus-based virtual private networks.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 3 #996

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for March 3, No. 1,718.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 3, No. 730.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Charter Communications, operator of the Spectrum cable brand, has obtained Federal Communications Commission permission to buy Cox and surpass Comcast as the country's largest home Internet service provider. Charter has 29.7 million residential and business Internet customers compared to Comcast's 31.26 million. Buying Cox will give Charter another 5.9 million Internet customers. The FCC approved the deal on Friday, but the companies still need Justice Department approval and sign-offs from states including California and New York. Opponents of Charter's $34.5 billion acquisition told the FCC that eliminating Cox as an independent entity will make it easier for Charter and Comcast to raise prices. But the FCC dismissed those concerns on the grounds that Charter and Cox don't compete directly against each other in the vast majority of their territories. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's primary demand from companies seeking to merge has been to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and policies. In a press release (PDF), the Carr-led FCC said that "Charter has committed to new safeguards to protect against DEI discrimination," and that Charter's network-expansion plans will bring "faster broadband and lower prices" to rural areas. The merger was approved one day after Charter sent a letter to Carr outlining its actions to end DEI. Charter offers broadband and cable service in 41 states, while Cox does so in 18 states.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

March 2, 2026 — Researchers at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory have successfully trapped and manipulated ions using in-vacuum cryoelectronics, allowing for reduced thermal noise and improved sensitivity. This proof-of-principle experiment marks an important advancement toward building large-scale ion-trap quantum computing systems.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory researchers Lucy Gray Shamel, left, and Will Setzer, are members of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory trapped-ion team. They used optics and electronics in recent proof-of-principle experiments demonstrating ion-trap-potential control with a compact-form-factor application-specific integrated circuit. Photo credit: MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

The co-integration of ion traps and deep cryogenic control circuits project was made possible through collaboration between two DOE National Quantum Information Science Research Centers — the Quantum Science Center, led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Quantum Systems Accelerator, led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This particular effort within the Quantum Systems Accelerator was led by Sandia National Laboratories in collaboration with MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Recognizing the complementary expertise of Fermilab and MIT Lincoln Laboratory, leaders from both centers jointly supported the demonstration.

“This remarkable research integrates state-of-the-art capabilities in quantum technologies to deliver an exciting new direction for scalable ion trap quantum computing using cryoelectronic control chips,” said Travis Humble, director of the Quantum Science Center.

At the heart of the effort were Fermilab-developed cryoelectronics — specialized circuits designed to operate at the extreme cold temperatures required for quantum computers. These cryoelectronics were integrated into MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s ion-trap platform to test whether they could reliably perform key functions: moving individual ions, holding them at set positions and measuring the effects of electronic noise.

Why Ion Traps?

Ion-trap quantum computers use charged atoms confined by electric or magnetic fields as qubits. Such systems are prized for their long coherence times and high-fidelity operations.

However, scaling them to millions of qubits, as needed for advanced applications, is a major challenge. Today’s systems rely on lasers and extensive wiring between room-temperature electronics and cryogenic ion traps — a setup that becomes increasingly impractical as the number of ions grows.

By placing ultra-low-power cryoelectronics near the ion traps, the Fermilab–MIT Lincoln Laboratory team realized a promising path forward. Their redesigned system replaced some of the room-temperature controls with a chip mounted inside the cryogenic environment. The researchers successfully demonstrated this hybrid approach could move and control ions.

“In addition to demonstrating feasibility, we learned a lot,” said Farah Fahim, head of Fermilab’s Microelectronics Division. “By showing that low-power cryoelectronics can work inside ion-trap systems, we may be able to accelerate the timeline for scaling quantum computers, bringing closer into reach what seemed decades away. This approach could ultimately support systems with tens of thousands of electrodes or more.”

Future work will directly connect the electronics with the ion-trap chips, further increasing efficiency and performance and enabling scaling of ion-trap arrays for larger systems.

Lessons Learned

The experiment also surfaced new insights that will guide future chip designs. For instance, transistors that behaved well in Fermilab’s setup did not perform as well in MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s significantly colder environment, impacting the control circuit performance and operation range.

Also, the circuits initially held voltages for milliseconds. Though modifications extended the hold times, further modifications will be required to further extend them to the minutes or hours large systems require. Addressing these and other challenges will be central to the next round of development.

Robert McConnell, a technical staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, said that “while there are still significant challenges to establishing the technology needed to control ion arrays of a practical scale, this demonstration of small-form-factor, low-noise electronics lays the foundation for hybrid-integrated systems we hope to develop in the near future.”

The successful integration highlights the value of cross-center collaboration, in addition to marking a concrete step toward realizing scalable quantum computing technologies for science and beyond.

Source: Fermilab

The post Fermilab and MIT Lincoln Laboratory Demonstrate Cryoelectronic Control of Ion-Trap Qubits appeared first on HPCwire.

• Team previously beset by sexual misconduct claims

• Team was sold to new ownership in 2023

The Washington Commanders have agreed to pay $1m to the District of Columbia to settle a lawsuit from 2022 that alleged the team’s previous owners lied to fans about an inquiry into sexual misconduct and a persistently hostile work environment.

DC attorney general Brian L Schwalb announced the settlement on Monday.

Dan Snyder owned the team at the time of the lawsuit, before selling to Josh Harris’s group in 2023 for $6.05bn. The league fined Snyder $60m after an independent investigation found he sexually harassed a team employee and oversaw executives who deliberately withheld millions of dollars in revenue from other clubs.

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

The Supreme Court seemed likely Monday to loosen a federal law that bars marijuana users from owning guns in a case that crossed typical political lines.

Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana announced Monday he will not run for reelection, becoming the latest Republican to retire.

Claude climbs to top of app store charts in US and UK after being blacklisted by Pentagon over ethics concerns

The AI model Claude has surged in popularity after being blacklisted by the Pentagon last week over ethics concerns.

Claude climbed to the No 1 spot on Apple’s chart of top free apps on Saturday in the US – dethroning OpenAI’s ChatGPT, just one day after the Pentagon tapped OpenAI to supply AI to classified military networks. The bot’s app climbed the iPhone app charts in the UK but did not beat out ChatGPT. Claude also raced up the Android charts in the US and UK, though ChatGPT reigned supreme, according to data from Sensor Tower.

Prime minister does not believe US has a plan beyond ‘shock and awe’ stage, as some MPs dread what lies ahead

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

• What we know so far on day three of the Iran war

• A visual guide to strikes on Iran and Tehran’s response

Tony Blair’s support for the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 has long loomed like a spectre over the Labour party.

It was present in 2013 when Ed Miliband as opposition leader voted to block UK military action against the Syrian regime.

Microsoft is pushing “AI” hard in Windows, Office, and in their other products, and it’s earned them a cute new nickname: Microslop. It turns out the company really doesn’t like it when you use this nickname, however, and its official Copilot Discord server – yes, there is an official one – has gone into a complete meltdown over people using the nickname. First the company started banning the word “Microslop” in its Discord server, but after people started circumventing the ban with alternative spellings. That’s when all hell broke loose.

What started as a simple keyword filter quickly snowballed into users deliberately testing the restriction and posting variations of the blocked term. Accounts that included “Microslop” in their messages first got banned from messaging again.

Not long after, access to parts of the server was restricted, with message history hidden and posting permissions disabled for many users.

↫ Abhijith M B at Windows Latest

People don’t like “AI”. They don’t like being forced to use it at work, they don’t like it shoved in their face in their operating systems, they don’t like every new product being plastered with nonsensical “AI” marketing. It’s absolutely no surprise that one of the companies pushing “AI” in the most visible way, a company few people like anyway, gets a nice new nickname.

I love that this happened. I hope their brand suffers as much as possible.

Bulky and noisy Iran-made unmanned attack drones have hit buildings in Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE and elsewhere

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

• A visual guide strikes on Iran and Tehran’s response

Iran’s noisy $50,000 delta-winged Shahed 136 drones have long been an unwanted sight over the skies of Ukraine.

Now, over the last 48 hours, hundreds of the distinctive weapons have struck Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE and across the Gulf as Tehran tries to intimidate and impose costs on regional allies of the US.

Civil rights leader will get final full honors from state where, in 1960, he led Black students into segregated library

After a long career of fighting for civil rights, the Rev Jesse Jackson Sr is visiting his home for one last time to lie in state at the South Carolina capitol on Monday.

The final full honors from the state where he was born is a far cry from his childhood in segregated Greenville, where in 1960 he couldn’t go inside the local library’s much better-funded whites-only branch to check out a book he needed.

The man who opened fire in the deadly shooting also had photos of Iranian leaders in his home, a source said.

Over the weekend, Windows Latest noticed that Microsoft's official Copilot Discord server began automatically blocking the term "Microslop." As shown in a screenshot, any message containing the word is automatically prevented from posting, and users receive a moderation notice explaining that the message includes language deemed inappropriate under the server's rules. From the report: Windows Latest found that sending a message with the word "Microslop" inside the official Copilot Discord server immediately triggers an automated moderation response. The message does not appear publicly in the channel, and instead, only the sender sees the notice stating that the content is blocked by the server because it contains a phrase deemed inappropriate. Of course, the internet rarely leaves things there. Shortly after Windows Latest posted about Copilot Discord server blocking Microslop on X, users began experimenting in the server with variations such as "Microsl0p" using a zero instead of the letter "o." Predictably, those versions slipped past the filter. Keyword moderation has always been something of a cat-and-mouse game, and this isn't any different. What started as a simple keyword filter quickly snowballed into users deliberately testing the restriction and posting variations of the blocked term. Accounts that included "Microslop" in their messages first got banned from messaging again. Not long after, access to parts of the server was restricted, with message history hidden and posting permissions disabled for many users.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

State-of-the-art site in Sanand, Gujarat, expands Micron’s global footprint and advances India’s semiconductor ecosystem

SANAND, India, March 2, 2026 — Micron Technology, Inc. recently celebrated the grand opening of its semiconductor assembly and test facility in Sanand, Gujarat, India. The state-of-the-art facility converts advanced DRAM and NAND wafers from Micron’s global manufacturing network into finished memory and storage products. Once fully ramped, the first phase of Micron’s Sanand operation will feature more than 500,000 square feet of cleanroom space, making it one of the world’s largest single-floor assembly and test cleanrooms. The site serves customers worldwide to meet the growing global demand for memory and storage fueled by AI.

The facility represents a combined investment of approximately $2.75 billion by Micron and its government partners, advancing semiconductor manufacturing capabilities in India. Micron Chairman, President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra and other executives witnessed the opening ceremony with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat Bhupendra Patel, Union Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics & IT Ashwini Vaishnaw, U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor and other distinguished government officials and guests.

“Today is a proud moment for Micron and India’s growing semiconductor industry,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, Chairman, President and CEO of Micron Technology. “This pioneering facility, the first assembly and test site of its kind in the country, helps build a resilient ecosystem that underpins the global AI economy. We are deeply grateful to the government of India, the Gujarat government and all of the partners involved for their steadfast support in making this achievement possible.”

The Sanand site is ISO 9001:2015 certified and has begun commercial production. To mark the grand opening of the site, Micron presented its first shipment of made-in-India memory modules to Dell Technologies for its laptops made in India for India. Micron expects to assemble and test tens of millions of chips at Sanand in 2026, scaling to hundreds of millions in 2027. The expansion of conventional assembly and test operations in India complements Micron’s planned development of advanced manufacturing and packaging capabilities in the United States and strengthens the company’s global assembly and test network.

“The inauguration of Micron’s semiconductor facility in Sanand marks a historic milestone as Bharat begins its first commercial semiconductor chip production,” said Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. “This is a decisive step towards building a trusted, resilient and self-reliant semiconductor ecosystem under the leadership of Hon’ble PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji. India is now moving from being a consumer of chips to becoming a global hub for semiconductor manufacturing and innovation.”

Micron is building India’s next generation of semiconductor talent to support its operations in India. Through partnerships with Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU), Namtech, leading universities nationwide and government-sponsored skills development programs, Micron is supporting STEM education, specialized training, workforce readiness for advanced manufacturing roles and community initiatives, including digital and AI literacy programs across the region.

Micron built and is operating the assembly and test facility in accordance with the company’s sustainability goals, rigorous health and safety standards, and with local and global environmental commitments. The facility is designed to meet or exceed Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standards. Additionally, the facility uses advanced water-saving technologies to enable zero liquid discharge.

About Micron Technology, Inc.

Micron Technology, Inc. is an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions, transforming how the world uses information to enrich life for all. With a relentless focus on our customers, technology leadership and manufacturing and operational excellence, Micron delivers a rich portfolio of high-performance DRAM, NAND and NOR memory and storage products. Every day, the innovations that our people create fuel the data economy, enabling advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and compute-intensive applications that unleash opportunities — from the data center to the intelligent edge and across the client and mobile user experience. To learn more about Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), visit micron.com.

Source: Micron

The post Micron Celebrates Opening of India’s 1st Semiconductor Assembly and Test Facility appeared first on HPCwire.

President says he ordered attacks to thwart Tehran nuclear aims – and abruptly pivots to talk up White House ballroom

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

Donald Trump has laid out four goals in Iran and said the US campaign had been projected to last four to five weeks but could “go far longer than that”.

On Monday, the US president offered his most extensive comments yet about the war, going beyond two video messages and a series of brief phone interviews with reporters that offered sometimes conflicting objectives.

After the U.S. launched a military strike against Iran, social media users shared videos claiming Iran retaliated by attacking the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

"Iranian missiles have sunk USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf," read one X post that gained 8 million views as of midday March 2.

Another X post read, "Iranians are circulating a video showing the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on fire. The authenticity of the video cannot be verified."

The clips appear to show smoke and fire billowing from the carrier. 

But these videos are fake. Iranians claimed they targeted the carrier with ballistic missiles, but there are no credible reports the ship was struck. 

In a March 1 X post, U.S. Central Command said, in part, "The Lincoln was not hit. The missiles launched didn’t even come close. The Lincoln continues to launch aircraft."

Robert Farley, University of Kentucky senior lecturer on diplomacy and national security, told PolitiFact that if such an attack occurred, people onboard the carrier and neighboring vessels would have witnessed it. There have been no such witness reports. 

The first video shows ship details inconsistent with the real USS Abraham Lincoln. Posts resharing it contain the Instagram logo and username "96_W6," but that account is no longer available.

In the first video, planes on the water have unrealistic shapes, and the vessel’s details do not match legitimate photos of the USS Abraham Lincoln. The real photos show there are empty spaces on both sides of the painted lines on the aircraft carrier’s deck. However, in the video clip, there is no empty space on one side of the lines. There’s no sign that any such space was taken out by a strike, as the ship edges are clean.

(Screenshot on the left is from X, images on the right are from The Associated Press. The red lines represent the painted runway lines, and the green lines represent empty spaces.)

The second video does not show current events; it was first posted online in June 2025, during the 12-Day War between Iran and Israel. It might have originated from video game footage, fact-checker Lead Stories found.

Sinking a carrier such as the USS Abraham Lincoln would be "extremely difficult," Farley said.

"Any US carrier will have several layers of defenses against ballistic missiles, including escort warships and close-engagement weapons," he wrote in an email to PolitiFact. 

Recent news reports say the USS Abraham Lincoln had been in the Arabian Sea.

Social media posts claimed to show footage of the USS Abraham Lincoln damaged by an Iranian attack. We rate that claim Pants on Fire!

With gold at $5,400 an ounce, it's important to choose the right gold assets to invest in. Here's what to consider.

Hundreds of thousands of passengers remain stranded, with key air hubs in Middle East closed amid fallout from US-Israeli strikes on Iran

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

• Business live – latest updates

Thousands more flights were cancelled on Monday as the turmoil in global air travel caused by the US-Israel war on Iran continued, with hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded.

Gulf airports and airlines have suspended normal operations until at least 10.00 GMT on Tuesday. However, a limited number of special services were due to depart from the UAE on Monday evening.

Web-based phishing and spoofing reports increased by over 85% year over year.

French president says Paris could deploy nuclear-capable fighter jets to countries such as Germany and Poland

France will increase the size of its nuclear arsenal for the first time in decades and significantly intensify nuclear weapons cooperation with eight European allies including the UK as part of a “major” strengthening of its deterrence doctrine, Emmanuel Macron has said.

Amid growing concern among European leaders about wavering US commitments to help defend the continent, the French president said on Monday that Paris could deploy nuclear-capable Rafale fighter jets to partner countries such as Germany and Poland.

BARCELONA, Spain, March 2, 2026 — Red Hat today announced that Telenor has chosen Red Hat’s cloud-native and AI platforms to power its sovereign AI factory, powered by NVIDIA. This latest Telenor AI Factory offering provides high performance hardware and innovative AI models while maintaining national control over data and processes. With this collaboration, Red Hat and Telenor AI Factory intend to make it faster and easier for organizations to realize AI business value by smoothing the flow from AI blueprints to actual production.

“Telenor AI Factory is leading the way in rolling out sovereign cloud for the enterprise and Red Hat is excited to bring our experience of open innovation and flexible platforms to support delivery of these diverse and complex services,” said Rich Stephens, vice president, EMEA Telecommunications, Red Hat. “With the pace of change in the AI market, Red Hat and Telenor AI Factory are catering for today’s greatest strategic need: The freedom to choose any model, on any accelerator, across any environment. Together we are delivering support for sovereignty, governance and enhanced systems security so that customers can scale AI efforts to drive value, with control and autonomy over data.”

Addressing the Sovereign AI Opportunity

As the demand for AI grows, Telenor is tapping its decades of experience in operating critical infrastructure to help meet the stringent national and EU requirements around data controls and digital resilience. Telenor AI Factory provides a highly scalable, security-focused infrastructure optimized for AI and other compute-intensive tasks able to process sensitive data in-region. Its architecture of GPUs, low-latency networking and high-performance storage is based on NVIDIA’s reference architecture.

Accelerate Time to Value with a Cloud-Native Foundation

Telenor AI Factory selected Red Hat OpenShift AI as the core environment for building, training and deploying AI-based agents and applications, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and agentic workflows with LlamaStack. Red Hat Consulting supported Telenor AI Factory in designing and implementing an architecture capable of delivering AI services to external companies, from resource provisioning to multi-tenancy to data sovereignty. OpenShift AI pairs with Red Hat OpenShift Platform Plus to form the common cloud-native foundation for Telenor AI Factory, and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform automates the creation, management and scalability of operations.

Scaling AI Through Freedom of Choice and Operational Consistency

Red Hat’s support for any model, on any hardware, across any environment gives Telenor AI Factory and its customers extensive flexibility to deploy applications and workloads with their preferred tools, libraries and hardware, fulfilling many of the demands for sovereign AI. This choice and control also enables Telenor AI Factory and its customers to optimize performance by improving GPU utilization and potential profitability for demanding AI workloads.

Additionally, Red Hat Confirmed Sovereign Support for European Union offers dedicated technical support from within the EU, providing new levels of operational sovereignty when it comes to supporting critical operations. Red Hat’s commitment to delivering enhanced security capabilities on day one as well as its trusted software supply chain approach supports Telenor AI Factory’s ability to handle sensitive workloads.

By standardizing on Red Hat technologies, Telenor AI Factory and its customers gain a vendor-neutral foundational layer of technology that abstracts away hardware complexity and eases portability. This provides sovereignty across the spectrum of enterprise IT, starting with the transparency and auditability of open source. As the crux of Red Hat’s technology stack, open source software delivers freedom of choice, enabling organizations to see the code, verify it and readily understand it.

Red Hat OpenShift AI streamlines AI model lifecycles, bringing together data scientists, AI engineers and app developers on the same platform. This promotes collaboration, operational consistency and production scalability. Telenor AI Factory’s IT teams can manage both traditional applications and AI workloads side-by-side, helping avoid operational silos, reduce costs and improve overall agility.

Telenor’s AI Factory has two sites so far in Norway, running on renewable energy. The Red Hat-based infrastructure hosts several multi-tenant customers, both within the Telenor group and external customers with use cases dealing with sensitive and critical data within the public and private sector.

About Red Hat

Red Hat is the open hybrid cloud technology leader, delivering a trusted, consistent and comprehensive foundation for transformative IT innovation and AI applications. Its portfolio of cloud, developer, AI, Linux, automation and application platform technologies enables any application, anywhere—from the datacenter to the edge. As the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, Red Hat invests in open ecosystems and communities to solve tomorrow’s IT challenges. Collaborating with partners and customers, Red Hat helps them build, connect, automate, secure and manage their IT environments, supported by consulting services and award-winning training and certification offerings.

Source: Red Hat

The post Red Hat and Telenor AI Factory Bring Scale, Sovereignty and Control to Production AI appeared first on HPCwire.

The Guardian's senior international correspondent, Julian Borger, explains the implications within US and international law of Donald Trump ordering a joint attack with Israel against Iran

A man was arrested for a stabbing incident in Edinburgh, Scotland, after a standoff with police in which he was photographed leaning out a window with a menacing grin.

SAN JOSE, Calif., and BARCELONA, Spain, March 2, 2026 — Supermicro, Inc. is announcing expanded support for infrastructure solutions powering sovereign AI platforms and Artificial Intelligence – Radio Access Networks (AI-RAN). At Mobile World Congress Barcelona (MWC), the world’s largest event for the telecom industry, Supermicro and its ecosystem partners are featuring the latest real-world use cases that bring together performance, efficiency, and scalability.

AI-RAN and Sovereign AI solutions

“Delivering AI to the RAN at scale requires infrastructure optimized for telecom networks,” said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. “As operators embed intelligence across their networks and advance sovereign AI strategies, Supermicro’s flexible Data Center Building Block Solutions (DCBBS) and deep ecosystem collaborations enable rapid deployment of high-performance, energy-efficient solutions that help ensure data sovereignty and long-term scalability.”

The adoption of AI in telecom networks is growing rapidly as operators seek greater efficiency and automation. AI-RAN embeds intelligence into the Radio Access Network to optimize spectrum, energy, and performance, while simultaneously creating a distributed network that powers AI solutions for operators and end users.

AI-RAN requires infrastructure solutions that are designed to meet the unique requirements of telecom networks in a scalable, cost-efficient way. Supermicro is expanding its broad range of AI-RAN systems, in line with NVIDIA Aerial RAN Computer (ARC) design, to support the latest technologies including NVIDIA Blackwell architecture, with upcoming products using the latest NVIDIA ARC-Pro.

• ARS-111L-FR is a short-depth, 1U system designed for distributed RAN workloads. The system features NVIDIA Grace CPU C1 and is compatible with NVIDIA ConnectX Ethernet adapters for high-speed networking. Additionally, the server has space for up to 2 low-profile GPU cards, such as the NVIDIA L4 for AI workloads.
• ARS-221GL-NR is a high-performance 2U Grace Superchip system with up to 2 double-width NVIDIA GPUs. Supermicro has improved the system to support NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs, enabling it to run demanding AI workloads throughout the telecom network.
• ARS-111GL-NHR is Supermicro’s 1U GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip system with integrated GPU and 900GB/s NVLink interconnect between CPU and GPU. The high-speed chip-to-chip bandwidth together with support for NVIDIA BlueField data processing units (DPUs) and ConnectX Ethernet adapters makes NVIDIA Grace Hopper a powerful and versatile system for research as well as AI inferencing at the network edge.

Sovereign AI refers to an enterprise’s ability to develop, deploy, and govern artificial intelligence within its own controlled infrastructure, data environments, and compliance frameworks. Increased demand for sovereign AI platforms represents a strategic opportunity for telecom operators, by offering secure, in-country AI infrastructure as a service, and unlocking new revenue streams in the digital economy.

Delivering sovereign AI at scale requires infrastructure that is powerful, scalable, and energy efficient. Supermicro’s innovative DCBBS are designed to enable organizations to rapidly deploy and expand AI data centers. Modular architectures simplify scaling, while advanced thermal and power designs improve operational efficiency.

At MWC, Supermicro is collaborating with leading industry players to demonstrate real-world deployments and practical use cases that advance AI acceleration.

• Telenor, a leading Nordic telecom provider, has launched Telenor AI Factory, Norway’s first sovereign AI cloud platform. Designed for enterprises, startups, and public sector organizations, it provides NVIDIA GPU-accelerated infrastructure entirely within Norway, ensuring data never leaves national borders. By combining security, scalability, and sustainability, Telenor AI Factory lowers barriers to AI adoption, shortens time-to-market, and supports sensitive data compliance. This positions Telenor not just as a telecom operator, but as a strategic provider of sovereign AI services.
• SK Telecom, South Korea’s leading telecom provider, has built the Haein Cluster, a sovereign AI infrastructure platform designed for large-scale AI workloads and national competitiveness. The cluster features over 1,000 Supermicro AI servers equipped with NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, forming one of the country’s highest-performance AI GPU clusters. Hosted at SK Telecom’s Gasan AI Data Center, it delivers GPU-as-a-Service for training, inference, and model development. Haein supports enterprises and national AI initiatives securely within South Korea, expanding service opportunities.
• Nokia, global leader in telecommunications, network infrastructure, and technology innovation, is showing several solutions based on Supermicro hardware. AnyRAN is Nokia’s software suite designed to give mobile operators and enterprises flexibility in building radio access networks (RAN) by allowing them to deploy cloud-native software on any infrastructure. Supermicro’s 1U Grace Hopper system ARS-111GL-NHR has been validated to run AnyRAN. Additionally, Nokia is introducing a validated infrastructure design for hybrid AI/ML training and inference based on Supermicro AS -8125GS-TNMR2 servers.
• Viettel High Tech, Vietnam’s top 5G network infrastructure solution provider, has built a large 5G network based on Open RAN standards. The adoption of open, disaggregated infrastructure has enabled Viettel High Tech to speed up the implementation of new technologies and applications, in addition to delivering substantial cost savings. One of the systems used in Viettel High Tech ‘s infrastructure is the Supermicro short depth 1U edge server. These systems provide flexibility, performance, and innovation, ensuring optimal support for 5G and advanced wireless networks.

For more information about Supermicro’s solutions for AI-RAN and Sovereign AI Networks, visit our booth 2D35 at MWC 2026, March 2-5 in Barcelona.

About Super Micro Computer, Inc.

Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI) is a global leader in Application-Optimized Total IT Solutions. Founded and operating in San Jose, California, Supermicro is committed to delivering first-to-market innovation for Enterprise, Cloud, AI, and 5G Telco/Edge IT Infrastructure. We are a Total IT Solutions provider with server, AI, storage, IoT, switch systems, software, and support services. Supermicro’s motherboard, power, and chassis design expertise further enables our development and production, enabling next-generation innovation from cloud to edge for our global customers. Our products are designed and manufactured in-house (in the US, Asia, and the Netherlands), leveraging global operations for scale and efficiency and optimized to improve TCO and reduce environmental impact (Green Computing). The award-winning portfolio of Server Building Block Solutions allows customers to optimize for their exact workload and application by selecting from a broad family of systems built from our flexible and reusable building blocks that support a comprehensive set of form factors, processors, memory, GPUs, storage, networking, power, and cooling solutions (air-conditioned, free air cooling or liquid cooling).

Source: Supermicro

The post Supermicro Expands Support for AI-RAN and Sovereign AI Solutions appeared first on HPCwire.

Billionaire Paramount Skydance chief announces plan days after winning takeover battle for Warner Bros Discovery

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Paramount Skydance plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into one streaming service, chief executive David Ellison announced during a call with investors, days after the company said it would acquire HBO parent company Warner Bros Discovery.

The deal would allow major HBO Max titles, such as The Sopranos, Sex and the City, and Succession, to sit alongside Paramount offerings including Yellowstone and Survivor. Ellison said combining the two platforms would give the company more than 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers.

Workplace Gender Equality Agency report shows a slight increase in number of women in highly paid roles, which are still dominated by men

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Men are nearly twice as likely as women to be making $220,000 a year, with minimal progress made on closing Australia’s gender pay gap in the past 12 months.

The federal government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) published its gender pay gap results for 10,500 employers on Tuesday. It revealed there was a slight increase in the number of women in highly paid roles, but men were still 1.8 times more likely to be in the upper quartile of earners on an average salary of $221,000.

Make billionaires pay their fair share act would apply to those with a net worth of $1bn or more

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Senator Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna, a representative, on Monday introduced legislation that would impose a 5% annual wealth tax on America’s billionaires.

The proposal, titled the make billionaires pay their fair share act, would apply to individuals in the US with a net worth of $1bn or more, of which Sanders’s office estimates there are 938 people who meet that threshold.

TOKYO, March 2, 2026 — Today, NTT, Inc., NTT DOCOMO, Inc., and NTT DATA Group Corporation announced that they will exhibit at MWC Barcelona 2026, the world’s largest connectivity exhibition, in Barcelona, Spain, from March 2 to 5. At the event, NTT, Inc. will showcase and promote initiatives centered around the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN)‘s ability to meet the rising demands of networking, computing and AI workloads.

With its high bandwidth and extremely low latency, IOWN accelerates the development of advanced solutions by replacing electronics with photonics in communication infrastructure, creating distributed and efficient networking and AI architecture for a sustainable, low power future. NTT’s exhibition and executive keynote presentations will highlight how photonics-based technologies, distributed computing and 6G integration are enabling energy-efficient, high-performance infrastructure designed to power a sustainable, AI-driven future.

Redefining Intelligence in the 6G Era: Supercharging AI Video Inference and AI Agents

Ahead of MWC, NTT announced two key initiatives around the advancement of AI to meet data processing needs of 6G use cases. The first is a joint project between The University of Tokyo, NTT and NEC Corporation (NEC), integrating 6G and IOWN technologies to achieve high-capacity data communication and optimization of computation processing required for AI agents.

The successful integration affirms the establishment of infrastructure for next-generation ICT systems to enable AI agents to act autonomously, processing and transmitting massive amounts of data with low latency and high reliability. To control computational resources used, reduce end-to-end delay and maintain AI inference accuracy, this approach combines small, specialized AI distributed in a network and external information sources, streaming semantic communication technology and selective media control technology.

The second announcement surrounded a successful demonstration by NTT and NTT DOCOMO of low latency and high-speed AI video analysis using In-Network Computing (INC) Edge. Traditionally, AI inference processing has been controlled by application and servers and data transfer controlled by the network. The proposed method uses INC edge to connect commercial 5G networks and IOWN All-Photonics Networks (APN) and enables distributed GPU resources to be used as part of the 5G network, reducing communication delays.

Experts anticipate that networks in the 6G era will control communication, data processing and inference to ensure high quality of service for data-intensive applications such as AI and robotics. This signals that INC Edge will form a fundamental component for 6G networks to effectively maintain high inference performance; the experiment illustrates that this robust result can be achieved even with geographically distant GPUs, maximizing the value of AI systems.

Photonics Innovation for an AI-Driven Society

Throughout MWC, the NTT Group booth will showcase a range of initiatives that leverage optical technologies to support the growing adoption of AI and drive global transformation of data center and compute infrastructure. These exhibitions will be structured around technologies that leverage IOWN to build energy-efficient infrastructure for an AI-driven society – “AI-Resilient Infrastructure with Photonics” – and real-world use cases for AI – “AI-Powered Services and Solutions.”

NTT will highlight IOWN technologies, including the photonics-electronics convergence (PEC) devices that will be spotlighted in NTT President and CEO Akira Shimada’s keynote, and how they improve energy efficiency in data centers and optical quantum computing to enable large-scale computation with lower power consumption, lower costs and high speed. NTT will also present recent advancements in the integration of AI within 6G mobile networks, inclusive of Network for AI, a concept envisioning seamless coexistence between humans, AI and robots.

Additional technology offerings across NTT operating companies that will be on display at the NTT Group booth will feature initiatives and solutions that drive global transformation across corporate activities and industries such as NTT DATA’s Edge AI solutions for enterprise as well as NTT DOCOMO’s platform that enables remote robot operation and autonomous control through Physical AI, new personal AI agent and AI-driven solutions under development for immersive entertainment experiences.

Akira Shimada Keynote: Reimagining the Possibilities of Digital Infrastructure

As part of the event, Shimada-san will deliver a keynote speech titled, “Photonics Unlocks an Intelligent Power-Optimized Future,” on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. His presentation will emphasize the transformational power of IOWN to reduce power consumption, challenging the status quo in the AI era. In his presentation, Shimada-san will introduce key IOWN initiatives including the commercialization of PEC devices and the development of optical quantum computers.

Shimada-san notes, “As AI adoption accelerates the rate at which power consumption is rising, IOWN has become a strategic foundation aiming to address both the explosive growth in data use and the global need for lower energy consumption. IOWN will support AI scaling through sustainable connectivity, helping to transform bold ideas into tangible impact.” He added, “By replacing electronics with photonics, we will give people and businesses the capacity to move beyond the limits of conventional internet infrastructure and redefine what we can achieve.”

About NTT

NTT is a leading global technology innovator, providing a broad range of services to both consumers and businesses. As a mobile operator and provider of infrastructure, networks, and services, NTT is dedicated to promoting a sustainable future through cutting-edge innovations. Our portfolio includes business consulting, AI-powered solutions, application services, global networks, cybersecurity, data center and edge computing, all supported by our deep global industry expertise. Generating over $90 billion in revenue and employing 340,000 professionals, we allocate 30% of our annual profits to fundamental research and development. With operations spanning more than 70 countries and regions, our clients include over 75% of Fortune Global 100 companies, alongside thousands of enterprises, government organizations, and millions of consumers.

Source: NTT

The post NTT Unveils Tech to Enhance AI Performance for 6G and Next-Gen Computing appeared first on HPCwire.

Tecno's modular camera phone concept at MWC 2026 is a neat idea, especially if you're passionate photographer.

More employees are clinging to their positions in a trend known as "job-hugging." That's making it harder for job-seekers to find work.

A halt to shipping in strait of Hormuz and attacks on Middle East refineries are threatening supplies and stoking inflation

• Nils Pratley: A gas shock – not an oil shock – looks more threatening

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

Iran has responded to US and Israeli attacks by launching a series of counterstrikes against states across the Middle East, with serious consequences for the oil and gas industry and the global economy.

Tehran has attacked oil facilities in neighbouring countries, while shipping traffic through the strait of Hormuz – the crucial bottleneck at the mouth of the Gulf – has all but ground to a halt.

Whoops, he did it again.

We need to adjust our language for President Donald Trump’s so-called regime-change efforts. Let’s call them “regime adjustments.”

Trump was fresh off his successful regime-adjustment operation in Venezuela when he decided to double down on his newly interventionist streak. Along with Israel, Trump attacked Iran with one of the largest military operations in at least a decade. The war — and that’s what it is — came only days after a gathering in Washington of Trump’s “Board of Peace,” which includes Israel, marking, ironically, the board’s first war.

Unlike Venezuela, though, this time it’s hard to imagine what success, even by Trump’s loose standards, will actually look like — if there can be any measure of success at all.

In a somewhat rambling video message posted on Truth Social announcing the new Iran war, Trump offered no evidence as to why a preemptive or preventative attack was necessary at this time. Iran, after all, was in the middle of negotiations with the U.S. over its nuclear program, with negotiations set to continue the following week and, according to insiders, making solid progress. Unlike the U.S., Iran had made no moves that could be interpreted as aggressive or preparatory for initiating military action against either Israel or the U.S.

No Reasoning, No Goals

Instead of articulating any reasoning or goals for his strikes, Trump declared a decapitation strategy and exhorted the people of Iran to rise up and “take control” of the government: DIY regime change.

Related

Israel Is Cynically Capitalizing on the Iranian Protests for Its Own Ends

He demanded that the security services and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “lay down” their arms and join the people — presumably the same people they had been brutally cracking down on only a month ago. There were no instructions on how the people were supposed to “take control” or who might be the leader to guide them. Nor did Trump give instructions to the security forces on how exactly they were supposed to lay down their arms and join the people. Hand over their arms to whom? Or did he have in mind a depot that would be set up somewhere IRGC personnel could drop off their AK-47s and assorted other weaponry?

Reza Pahlavi, the former shah’s son, pretender to the throne, and the most visible and possibly popular among opposition leaders, also exhorted his fellow Iranians to rise up at this opportunity to change the regime — in his own favor, of course.

It has been telling, however, that neither the U.S. nor even Israel — Pahlavi’s most ardent booster — have been promoting him as the replacement for the regime that they’re in the process of decapitating.

There has been no plan, at least none apparent or even hinted at, to have Pahlavi brought to Tehran in the hope that millions will, like Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s arrival from Paris in 1979, greet him at the airport and escort him to a palace.

The clearest endorsement Pahlavi has won to lead Iran was a probing interview on “60 Minutes” on the second day of the war — best understood as an expression of Bari Weiss and David Ellison’s hope for an Israeli-backed regime in Iran, not as a vouch of support from the Trump administration.

Assassination Building

In the first moments of the first day of the war, Israel was able to — reportedly with intelligence assistance from the CIA — assassinate Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his daughter and grandson, and a number of senior military commanders, including the powerful secretary of Iran’s newly established Defense Council, Ali Shamkhani. The top regime figures had gathered to meet in the morning in an aboveground building in the leader’s complex, assuming any threat against them would appear only under the cover of darkness.

Confirmation from the government of the assassination of the head of state — a shocking development in the 47-year history of the Islamic republic — resulted in both nationwide mourning by supporters of the ayatollah and simultaneous celebration by those who held him responsible for the deaths of thousands of citizens in the early January crackdown on massive protests across the country.  

What came next, though, was not the people “taking control” of the government. Instead, there was a rather ordinary constitutional move: A council of three was formed the next day that took over the duties of the supreme leader until a new one could be elected by the Assembly of Experts, the body that oversees succession.

Related

Fool Me Twice: The Case for War With Iran Is Even Thinner Than It Was for Iraq

Then on the second day of the war, with bombs falling on Tehran, Trump announced that “they” — presumably the council — “want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them.”

Hoping for an Iranian Delcy Rodríguez? Our “Whoops, he did it again” moment.

So, it wasn’t regime change the U.S. was after, as Trump claimed when launching his war, but regime adjustment. Perhaps the deaths of three U.S. service members in Iraq — by any measure, their blood on the hands of the person who ordered a war of choice — gave him pause and inspiration to find an alternative to continuing the violence.

Willy-Nilly War

What is increasingly apparent is that a war was launched, almost willy-nilly, with no actual, achievable objective. Trump, whose cellphone number it seems most journalists in Washington have, admitted to Jonathan Karl of ABC News in a phone call on Sunday that he didn’t know what came next for Iran.

“The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,” Trump reportedly told Karl. “It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.”

In other words, Trump doesn’t even have a Delcy Rodríguez in waiting.

Related

Trump’s Iran Attack Was Illegal, Former U.S. Military Officials Allege

The war with revolving goals entered a third and more violent day for the very Iranian people who were supposed to take over from the regime and become friends with Israel and the United States. Bombing in Tehran took on an indiscriminate flavor, with buildings, a hospital, and other infrastructure unrelated to the military being struck, according to videos and witnesses, including my own cousin who managed to leave me a voice message on WhatsApp despite the internet cuts.

With the death of at least three U.S. service members, hundreds of Iranian schoolgirls, and dozens of other innocent Iranians; with destruction across the Persian Gulf countries; with the loss of so far three U.S. fighter jets costing Americans anywhere between $250 and 300 million; and with the billions of dollars being otherwise spent on the war, the “Keystone Cops” flavor the war has taken on would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.

We can’t predict how the war will end. It is certain, however, to end with unnecessary death and destruction, and misery and trauma for survivors.

The only other certainty it seems, is that no matter the war’s result nor how incompetently it is carried out, the man who started it will declare that he has brought about peace with a glorious victory.

The post The Regime Change President Who Won’t (or Can’t) Actually Change Any Regimes appeared first on The Intercept.

Are we best friends now?

The US president laid out four objectives for the US and Israel-led operation, including destroying Iran's missile capabilities, annihilating its navy and preventing it from gaining a nuclear weapon. The US and Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iran on Saturday, killing several top Iranian leaders including the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

U.S. motorists could soon see higher prices at the pump as oil prices surge following the attacks in Iran.

The interest earnings on a $10,000 CD remain substantial, but that's not the only reason why you should open one now.

At MWC 2026, Motorola announced a partnership with the GrapheneOS Foundation to bring the hardened, Google-free Android variant to future devices. Until now, the OS had been designed exclusively for Google Pixel phones. "We are thrilled to be partnering with Motorola to bring GrapheneOS's industry-leading privacy and security-focused mobile operating system to their next-generation smartphone," a GrapheneOS statement reads. "This collaboration marks a significant milestone in expanding the reach of GrapheneOS, and we applaud Motorola for taking this meaningful step towards advancing mobile security." GrapheneOS is a privacy and security focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility developed as a non-profit open source project. It's often referred to as the "de-Googled OS" because Google apps are not available by default. However, users can install them via a sandboxed version of Google Play Services.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Gold prices have more than doubled since 2020. Here's exactly what one gram of 24K gold will cost you right now.

The car was designed for Gran Turismo, but the company built a real one. I got to see it in the flesh.

If you're looking for a new game to add to your collection, this one is down to just $33 -- a record-low price.

As for Keir Starmer, even when he tries to make a reasonably sound judgment he somehow ends up losing both sides of the argument

Maybe we should have just had done with it back in December. Instead of offering a polite reservation, every western country should have sent a full, state delegation to Norway. Begging, imploring the Nobel Committee to award Donald Trump the peace prize. We could all have chipped in a couple of billion just to make it even more worth winning.

And if that wasn’t enough, we could have twisted the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, to upgrade his “Peaceiest Ever President” award to the “Makes Jesus Look Second Rate” prize. A large solid gold statue of The Donald would have done the trick. There’s more than enough in the Fifa slush funds.

In a combative press conference, the Pentagon chief dodged questions about the goals of the US military’s Iran operation

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Leave it to Pete Hegseth, the ex-Fox News host now leading the Pentagon, to reframe the massive US-Israeli military operation in Iran as an act of resistance against political correctness: the first based regime-change war of the Maga era.

In a combative press conference at the Pentagon on Monday, Hegseth brought his anti-PC ethos to defend exactly what Donald Trump has said he did not want: to embroil the US in a major intervention in the Middle East with no clear timeline for exit.

An internal government database reviewed by The Washington Post demonstrates the vast scope of the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to revise or remove information on African American history, climate change and other topics at hundreds of national park sites.

As you scale your AI workload, one of the problems you’ll run into is the KV cache exhausting HBM memory, which restricts how much your AI app “remembers” and leads to a degraded user experience. A potential answer to this problem is the new Context Memory Storage (CMX) platform that Nvidia and its partners are developing. Representatives from Nvidia and VAST Data demonstrated how CMX can blast through the memory wall at the inaugural VAST Forward conference last week in Salt Lake City, Utah.

KV cache is an intrinsic component of the modern AI stack. Instead of requiring your users to reload all the context they fed into their AI models at 7 o’clock every morning, the KV cache allows users to maintain that context–from day-to-day and month-to-month–as a simple key-value store that resides in HBM, on-chip memory, and eventually storage. As one of the main user-facing components of the AI stack, the KV cache naturally is subject to human wants and needs. In other words, it fills up fast as your employees use AI, whether that’s generating cat videos or searching for new nucleotides.

Expanding KV caches are straining memory (Source: Nvidia and VAST presentation”Breaking Through the GPU Memory Wall” at VAST Forward 2026)

“A key problem with KV cache is it grows with the context menu and batch sizes that you work with,” said Nvidia Senior Research Scientist Vikram Sharma Mailthody in a session at the VAST Forward conference last week. “Assuming we have the same model for inference…the cost of computing cache grows quadratically as the context length increases. As you can see, this increases the amount of burden that you have when you have longer context windows that you have to work with, which is very true in the case of agentic workflows.”

This has become one of the key bottlenecks in scaling AI inference systems today. In addition to the rate at which you can move data between HBM and GPUs, the amount of data you can store in HBM is a big determinant of how much useful work you can get out of AI. As HBM fills up, the KV cache starts spilling over into system memory. When that fills up, it spills over into local storage. However, at that point, the latencies start punishing users. Who wants to wait five minutes for an agentic AI system to generate answers?

“The key takeaway is simple: The farther inference context goes away from the GPU, the more expensive and inefficient the inference becomes,” Mailthody said. “This is why existing memory and storage hierarchies are not designed to scale for the AI that is coming. And this is why we have to really envision how the storage is being built and how it has to be built for the inference context management.”

Nvidia near-term answer to the context window-GPU wall problem is the CMX platform, which it unveiled in January as part of the launch of BlueField-4  data processing units (DPUs). Nvidia is working with its storage partners, including VAST Data, to dramatically expand the KV cache to enable customers to do more work with agentic AI.

CMX is designed to expand customer KV caches without hurting performance (Source: Nvidia and VAST presentation”Breaking Through the GPU Memory Wall” at VAST Forward 2026)

CMX brings several components. At an infrastructure level, it will use Nvidia’s upcoming Rubin GPU systems and utilize BlueField-4 DPUs deployed in storage clusters managed by storage vendors like VAST. BlueField-4 will help manage metadata, reduce data movement, and isolate the Rubin GPUs from the burdens of data management. It will also utilize Spectrum-X Ethernet switches to implement an RDMA over converged Ethernet (RoCE) fabric for sharing KV cache data at high speeds. On a software front, CMX will utilize Nvidia’s DOCA software development kit for BlueField-4, as well as Nvidia’s Inference Transfer Library (NIXL), which is an open source library for accelerating data movement within Dynamo, Nvidia’s open source AI inference framework for AI inference.

The combination of CMX and VAST storage will deliver a next-generation gigascale inference architecture that delivers up to a 20x improvement in time-to-first-token (TTFT) latency, 90% better GPU utilization, and 70% lower storage power consumption, Mailthody said.

By building upon CMX’s key value block manager, VAST can “fundamentally change the math,” said VAST Director of AI Architecture Anat Heilper during the VAST Forward session. “We turned the slow I/O heavy process into a high throughput network bound one,” she said. “Essentially, this means that the storage can scale with the network for this workload.”

During benchmark tests on a Llama 3 model, VAST was able to achieve near line-rate utilization of a 200 GbE network connected to an eight H100 GPU setup.

VAST and Nvidia are working together on CMX (Source: Nvidia and VAST presentation”Breaking Through the GPU Memory Wall” at VAST Forward 2026)

“The results show that 20x performance boost in time to first token when fetching the KV cache from VAST systems, compared to forcing the GPU to recalculate it,” Heilper said. “It’s…something that you can feel as a user. Instead of 65 seconds of waiting for the GPUs to calculate it, we fetch it by three seconds. That’s fundamental change. This speedup, along with 90% saving in GPU time, demonstrates a massive gain in efficiency.”

The gains could be even higher on a faster network, as VAST was able to (almost) saturate the 200 GbE line. In a real-world setting, VAST estimates a 60% to 130% increase in profit by spilling the KV cache over to VAST NVMe storage via CMX and the BlueField-4 DPUs. (VAST also last week announced its new CNode-X, which integrates Nvidia GPUs, Bluefield-4 DPUs, and SpectrumX silicon photonic switches directly into VAST storage cluseters).

“We assume the conservative cache hit rate of between 40% to 60% for enterprise AI flows. For agentic flows and cognitive tasks [the increase] may be even higher,” Heilper said. “The principle is clear: We’re not making the GPU faster. That’s Nvidia’s job. But we are making it available more often and turning the storage into compute force multiplier.”

VAST shared a sizing guide for achieving optimal KV cache sizes for employees working with agentic systems. For an organization with 10,000 users, each of whom would have a 32 GB KV cache size per conversation, VAST estimates customers would need a 320 TB system to deploy CMX to support “instant resume,” which would maintain the users’ current session. To keep the last five sessions for each user (or a daily backup), it would require a 1.6 PB system. To keep the past 15 sessions, which VAST says would be useful for maintaining weekly caches for power users, such as coders, researchers and layer, it would need a 4.8 PB system. To achieve “agentic memory,” or the equivalent of 150 sessions for each of those 10,000 systems, would require 48 PB of storage.

“CMX is a new type of storage designed for KV cache,” Mailthody said. “Does it replace all storage here or is it for everyone or for every cluster? No, it is not. CMS is designed for inference and KV cache management. If your workloads have large model and needs large cache, CMX is made for it. If you have use cases requiring long input sequence length, say in the AI or chat bots or reasoning model, then this provides very large memory capacities to serve them very efficiently. If you have large content reuse in your access pattern or have large GPU cluster sharing shared across multiple continents, CMX makes it easy to enable and increase your operational efficiency.”

The post Blasting Through the GPU Memory Wall with Nvidia’s New CMX Platform appeared first on HPCwire.

The exploding cost of RAM may contribute to a rise in PC prices, eliminating the category of computers under $500.

Sir Keir Starmer draws a narrow legal distinction. But if British bases enable a wider US-Israeli campaign, the UK risks sliding into an unlawful conflict

In the Commons on Monday, Sir Keir Starmer was clear that Britain will not join offensive action against Tehran. It is wise not to join an illegal attempt at “regime change from the skies”. Sir Keir will, however, permit US use of British bases for limited defensive strikes aimed at stopping Iranian missile attacks. That is a legally clear line, but it may be politically and militarily tricky to stick to.

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions are reckless and unlawful. But so are Iran’s strikes – hitting hotels, airports and energy infrastructure – across the Gulf. Where Britain’s allies have asked for support, or where UK nationals are at risk, the UK is legally entitled to act in collective self-defence. But this holds only as long as the action is restricted to halt Tehran’s barrage.

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

The Supreme Court ruled last month at President Trump did not have the authority to issue his sweeping tariffs under a federal emergency powers law.

Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed and vessels rerouted, sending some freight costs surging

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

Leading maritime insurers have cancelled war risk cover for vessels operating in the Gulf as the escalating Iran conflict disrupted shipping and sent some freight costs surging.

At least 150 vessels including oil and liquefied natural gas tankers have dropped anchor in the strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters, and at least three tankers were damaged and one seafarer killed over the weekend.

National Cyber Security Centre urges increased vigilance over risk of indirect attack by hacktivists amid conflict

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

UK businesses with a presence in the Middle East have been urged to step up vigilance against cyber threats from Iran after US-Israeli attacks.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said there was “almost certainly” a heightened risk of an indirect cyber threat for organisations that had offices, or supply chains, in the Middle East.

Olympian Hilary Knight, who won gold with the U.S. women's hockey team, spoke to "CBS Mornings" about the support the team has received following controversial comments from President Trump and her future in the sport.

A higher-end mixed reality headset coming later this year wants to be a work device to rival the Apple Vision Pro and Samsung Galaxy XR. It's got the power for it.

QatarEnergy says it has halted production of liquefied natural gas after attacks on Ras Laffan and Mesaieed sites

• Nils Pratley: A gas shock – not an oil shock – looks more threatening

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

Gas prices surged on Monday and oil rose sharply as an escalation in the US-Israel war on Iran caused major disruption to production and supplies.

QatarEnergy, the state-owned energy company, said it had halted production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) after attacks on facilities in Ras Laffan and Mesaieed.

Former Oxford professor Tariq Ramadan did not appear in court as he was in a Geneva hospital, according to lawyers

The prominent Swiss academic and Islam scholar Tariq Ramadan has not appeared in court for the first day of his trial in Paris on charges of raping three women in France between 2009 and 2016.

The head judge in the case adjourned proceedings until Wednesday and ordered a medical report on Ramadan’s health, after his lawyers said he was in hospital in Geneva because of his multiple sclerosis.

These are the best laptops my colleagues and I have reviewed from basic models to high-powered gaming systems and everything in between.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Washington Post: The Plain Dealer, Cleveland's largest newspaper, has begun to feature a new byline. On recent articles about an ice carving festival, a medical research discovery and a roaming pack of chicken-slaying dogs, a reporter's name is paired with the words "Advance Local Express Desk." It means: This article was drafted by artificial intelligence. "This article was produced with assistance from AI tools and reviewed by Cleveland.com staff," reads a note at the bottom of each robot-penned piece, differentiating it from those still written primarily by journalists. The disclosure has done little to stem the backlash that caromed across the news industry after the paper's editor, Chris Quinn, published a Feb. 14 column lamenting that a fresh-out-of-college job applicant withdrew from a reporting fellowship when they found out the position included no writing -- just filing notes to an AI writing tool. "Artificial intelligence is not bad for newsrooms. It's the future of them," Quinn wrote, adding that "by removing writing from reporters' workloads, we've effectively freed up an extra workday for them each week." [...] Quinn, for his part, says his paper's use of AI to find, draft and edit stories is a success story that others must emulate if they want to survive. "It's a tool," he said in a phone interview last week. "If AI can do part of our job, then why not let it -- and have people do the part it can't do?" He added that the paper's embrace of technology -- including using AI to write stories summarizing its reporters' podcasts and its readers' letters to the editor -- is already boosting its bottom line, helping it retain staff at a time when other newspapers are shrinking or even shutting down. Just 130 miles east of Cleveland, the 240-year-old Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said in January that it will close its doors this spring. Quinn, who has led the Plain Dealer's newsroom since 2013, said its newsroom has shrunk from some 400 employees in the late 1990s to just 71 today. Over the past three years, Quinn has implemented a suite of AI tools with various purposes: transcribing local government meetings, scraping municipal websites for story leads, cleaning up typos in story drafts, suggesting headlines and helping reporters draft follow-ups to articles they've already written. He said he is particularly pleased with an AI tool that turns podcasts by the paper's reporters into stories for the website, which he said generated more than 10 million page views last year. He has documented those efforts in letters to readers and sought their feedback. But the paper's latest experiment -- using AI to turn reporters' notes into full story drafts -- has aroused indignation online and anxiety within the paper's ranks.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Fifa regulations vague on issue of replacing any teams

• Withdrawal would be first since France and India in 1950

Iraq and the United Arab Emirates are viewed as the most likely beneficiaries should Iran withdraw from the World Cup. Fifa’s general secretary, Mattias Grafström, said on Saturday that “our focus is to have a safe World Cup with everybody participating”, but the president of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, has raised doubts over his country’s participation by saying: “After this attack, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope.”

Fifa has not commented since Grafström spoke and remains determined to ensure the World Cup, which starts on 11 June, goes ahead as planned, but several sources have said that if its hand were forced by Iran’s withdrawal the replacement will probably come from the Asian Football Confederation.

Paramount CEO David Ellison revealed that a single streaming service is in the plans.

Two more drones intercepted on Monday, authorities say, in what appears to be sustained targeting of base

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

A one-way attack drone – said to have been launched by Lebanon’s Hezbollah – struck the UK’s RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus at about midnight on Sunday, prompting a partial evacuation of the military facility.

Two more drones were successfully intercepted on Monday morning, the Cypriot authorities said, as part of what appears to be a sustained targeting of the base on the third day of the war in the Middle East.

Look to the skies on March 3 for a total eclipse of the full blood moon.

Many early-stage crowdfunders left empty-handed as Tilray acquires beer company’s UK and Irish assets

• Business live – latest updates

The UK and Irish assets of BrewDog, the Scottish self-styled “punk” brewer, have been sold to the US cannabis and drinks firm Tilray for £33m, in a deal that will cost nearly 500 jobs and leave legions of the company’s early-stage crowdfunders empty-handed.

Tilray agreed a deal to buy BrewDog’s brand, intellectual property, UK brewing operations and 11 “strategic” bars in the UK and Ireland, the two companies confirmed, preserving 733 jobs. The remaining 38 bars will close immediately, at a cost of 484 jobs.

Video of Chris Kempczinski trying new ‘product’ the Big Arch burger criticized for feeling forced and corporate

Business leaders are increasingly placing themselves in front of the camera, in an effort to appear more relatable to a social media-first audience. When it goes well, it can be a huge hit. When it doesn’t, you risk becoming the subject of online ridicule.

In the recent case of Chris Kempczinski, McDonald’s CEO and president, it’s the latter.

Plus, a new update on Avengers Campus as it doubles in size.

US-China: What are the two superpowers competing for? 18 March 2026 — 3:45PM TO 4:45PM Anonymous (not verified) 2 March 2026 Chatham House and Online

Ahead of the upcoming meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, this event examines what defines the US–China struggle for global influence — and what is at stake.

Exploring what defines – and what’s at stake in – the contest for global influence.

French president says deterrent needs to be ‘strengthened’ in recognition of new challenges

A Cypriot government spokesperson has just confirmed that two unmanned drones headed to RAF Akrotiri were intercepted before reaching the base.

“Two unmanned aerial vehicles that were moving towards the direction of the British Bases at Akrotiri were confronted in time,” Konstantinos Letymbiotis said.

Officials continue to investigate Sunday shooting in Texas amid fears of further attacks following US airstrikes on Iran

• Austin bar shooting leaves three dead, including suspect, and 14 wounded

Officials in Texas are continuing to investigate a weekend mass shooting at an Austin bar by a man wearing a “Property of Allah” hoodie as an act of potential terrorism, as fears rise over the possibility of further attacks following US airstrikes on Iran.

Police shot and killed Ndiaga Diagne, 53, a Senegalese national and naturalized US citizen, early on Sunday after he reportedly opened fire at the downtown bar popular with university students. Two people were killed, and another 14 wounded, some of them seriously.

Air travel chaos intensified as the war with Iran stretched into a third day — keeping airspace and airports in the Middle East closed and leaving travelers stranded.

The war in the Mideast has effectively halted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to push up gas prices and raise the cost of other goods.

Apple today announced the iPhone 17e with support for MagSafe and an upgraded A19 chip. The base model also gets a bump to 256GB of storage at $599, and Apple is equipping the device with its new scratch-resistant Ceramic Shield 2 glass that's supposedly 3x more durable than the 16e. Macworld reports: MagSafe would normally mean significantly faster wireless charging speeds too: the 16e is capped at 7.5W, whereas recent iPhones can wirelessly charge using MagSafe at up to 22W or even 25W. Unfortunately the iPhone 17e has not been given access to the full extent of MagSafe's powers in this regard, and has a limit of 15W. That's the same as MagSafe on the iPhones 12 through 15, and remains an improvement on the 16e, but is still disappointing. [...] It was also expected that the 17e would get a new processor, as this is a standard upgrade for almost every refresh of almost every Apple product. The iPhone 16e came with an A18 chip; the 17 has an A19, which, according to Apple, "delivers exceptional performance for everything users do." Of course that depends on the user and their needs, and it's important to point out that, just like last year, Apple has chosen to use "binned" units of the chip in order to save money. Binned chips have failed manufacturing tests in some minor way and don't have the full complement of cores. [...] And although the cameras are still disappointingly few in number -- one on the front and one on the back -- the wording for the portrait mode has been updated from "Portrait mode with Depth Control" (the same as on the iPhone 12) to "Next-generation portraits with Focus and Depth Control" (same as on the iPhone 17). This appears to highlight the fact that you can change the focus point. The 17e is available in white, black, and soft pink starting at $599.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

US-Israel war with Iran hits shares in travel companies, and the pound, although oil producers and weapons makers are rallying

• Oil prices rise as Iran war threatens shipping through strait of Hormuz

Over in New Delhi, India and Canada have agreed deals covering critical minerals and uranium supply.

The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after talks between India’s prime minister Narendra Modi and Canada’s Mark Carney.

“Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust, and positivity.”

“This is not merely the renewal of a relationship. It is the expansion of a valued partnership with new ambition, focus, and foresight, a partnership between two confident countries charting our own course for the future.”

BARCELONA, Spain, March 2, 2026 — At MWC Barcelona 2026, Huawei unveiled its latest SuperPoD product Atlas 950 SuperPoD, TaiShan 950 SuperPoD and a series of computing solutions to the global market. This embodies the company’s latest endeavor to open source and open collaboration with the aim of building a resilient computing foundation and creating a new option worldwide.

Huawei is showcasing SuperPoD products at MWC Barcelona 2026.

With AI technologies evolving rapidly and models now using trillions of parameters, agentic AI is beginning to penetrate into core production processes in many industries. This is driving up demand for larger computing scale and lower latency. However, these massive models are beyond the reach of conventional horizontal scaling; larger clusters often suffer from lower utilization and frequent training interruptions.

Huawei has tacked these challenges with its innovative UnifiedBus interconnect for SuperPoDs. The groundbreaking “cluster + SuperPoD” system architecture is tailormade for growing computing demands and driving AI progress. At MWC, Huawei debuted its latest SuperPoD offerings on a global arena, including the Atlas 950 SuperPoD and Atlas 850E. Built on UnifiedBus, these products are fit for a diverse range of AI training and inference scenarios. The Atlas 950 SuperPoD, for instance, connects up to 8,192 NPUs via UnifiedBus, delivering ultra-high bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and unified memory addressing. It operates as a single, logical computer for learning, reasoning, and processing.

Huawei also exhibits TaiShan 950 SuperPoD—the industry’s very first general-purpose computing SuperPoD—alongside next-generation servers like the TaiShan 500 and TaiShan 200. These provide flexible computing options for computing workloads on a scale of high to low intensity.

Open Source and Open Collaboration Foster a Symbiotic Ecosystem

Huawei continues to champion open source and open systems in vision of accelerating developer innovation and ecosystem prosperity. The company plays a pivotal role in advancing openEuler, which has rapidly risen as one of the world’s leading open source operating system communities. Huawei has fully open-sourced its CANN heterogeneous compute architecture. Through layered decoupling, all software components—from operator libraries, acceleration libraries, and graph computing to programming languages—are openly available for developers. CANN also supports open source communities and projects typified by Triton, TileLang, PyTorch, vLLM, and verl, which tangibly facilitates developers in terms of accessibility and efficiency.

As intelligence transforms industries, Huawei remains dedicated to building a resilient computing foundation and a symbiotic ecosystem to create a new option for the AI era.

Source: Huawei

The post Huawei’s SuperPoD Portfolio Creates New Option for Global Computing at MWC Barcelona 2026 appeared first on HPCwire.

ProPublica has sued the U.S. Department of Education in federal court in New York, accusing it of withholding public records about how it’s enforcing civil rights protections for millions of American students.

The Education Department has failed to provide public records related to its investigations, communications and other work that ProPublica sought through four Freedom of Information Act requests filed last year.

The Education Department’s civil rights arm for decades has investigated allegations of discrimination in schools. It historically has kept an online list of its open investigations and posted the findings of completed inquiries. But under Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, the Office for Civil Rights has been decimated and the work of its remaining investigators is largely cloaked in secrecy.

ProPublica submitted three FOIA requests — the first of them more than a year ago — seeking records about civil rights investigations that have been opened or closed, notices sent to institutions being investigated and previous findings of discrimination that have been reversed under the Trump administration. A fourth request sought communication between top Education Department officials and conservative groups that have criticized public schools. Some of the groups have urged the OCR to investigate specific school districts and have met often with McMahon.

The department has not responded to the requests other than to acknowledge that it received them.

“Actions by the Department of Education have real consequences for millions of students and families,” said Alexandra Perloff-Giles of the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, which is representing ProPublica.

“The public deserves to understand how executive authority is being exercised so that it can hold government accountable,” she said. “Congress enacted FOIA to offer the public that necessary transparency, and we’re asking the court to enforce it.”

Spokespeople for the department did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit. The department has not yet responded to the complaint in court.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, argues that since Trump took office, the work of the OCR — once one of the federal government’s largest enforcers of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — has become significantly more opaque. Though each presidential administration has its priorities, OCR has consistently worked to uphold constitutional rights against discrimination based on disability, race and gender.

But the focus of the OCR under Trump has shifted to investigations relating to curbing antisemitism, ending participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports and combating alleged discrimination against white students. Complaints about transgender students playing sports and using girls’ bathrooms at school have been fast-tracked while cases of racial harassment of Black students last year were ignored.

And although some documents that detail how cases were resolved are being posted online, some older resolution agreements have been terminated. Those terminations have not been disclosed to the public.

“The public interest in this information is substantial and ongoing. Since there are approximately 49.6 million students in the U.S., changes to the ED and its policies affect millions of families,” the lawsuit says.

Trump has been working to shutter the department. Hundreds of department workers have been laid off and official employee counts at the OCR went from 568 in 2024 to 403 as of December 2025. McMahon closed seven of the 12 regional OCR offices that handled discrimination complaints across the country. Amid the staffing difficulties and the shift in priorities at the OCR, families’ discrimination complaints have piled up.

When President Joe Biden left office, about 12,000 investigations were open; by December 2025, there were nearly 24,000. ProPublica reporting has found that new complaints as well as older ones included in the backlog often are dismissed without investigation. OCR workers have said they feel as if they’re working in a “dismissal factory.”

In the past year, ProPublica has filed several other lawsuits seeking to force transparency in courts and the federal government. That includes a lawsuit filed in May against the State Department. ProPublica also has joined other media organizations in lawsuits.

The post ProPublica Sues Education Department for Withholding Records About Discrimination in Schools appeared first on ProPublica.

Exclusive: Schemes worth hundreds of millions of pounds to protect biodiversity and oceans likely to be substantially reduced

UK programmes to protect nature and the climate in developing countries are suffering swingeing budget cuts despite ministers’ promises, the Guardian has learned.

The cuts belie the government’s claims to be fulfilling international obligations on climate finance and are veiled behind a system that experts have slammed as opaque.

The cutting and partial closure of the £100m Biodiverse Landscapes Fund, intended to protect nature in vital ecosystems in poor regions overseas. Six regions were originally targeted, in Africa, South America and Asia, but this has been reduced to two.

Coast – a project for Climate and Ocean Adaptation and Sustainable Transition – and Pact (Prepare and Accelerate Climate Transitions) are having substantial cuts.

The future of the £500m Blue Planet Fund has been thrown into doubt despite its successful operation.

Other schemes have been reduced in scope, for instance by allowing only one year’s funding where years were expected.

Requests for data under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed spending has been slashed among the departments responsible for international climate finance (ICF).

Women and children were among the dead, in addition to dozens of combatants, officials said.

Fifty-two percent of Americans oppose the strikes, and two-thirds say the Trump administration hasn’t clearly explained the goals of the military action.

Three U.S. fighter jets involved in the offensive against Iran were shot down mistakenly by Kuwait’s air defenses, the U.S. military’s Central Command said.

PM defends use of UK bases for defensive action but says Britain has ‘learned the lessons from Iraq’ on need for ‘thought-through plan’

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

Keir Starmer has said the UK will not join offensive strikes by Israel and the US on Iran, saying the UK does not believe in “regime change from the skies”.

But the prime minister defended the use of UK bases for defensive action, saying that was “the best way to protect British interests and British lives”.

The prime minister is explaining his decision to allow the US to use British bases for military attacks after initially refusing

• ‘Simply not true’ UK is being dragged into Iraq-style conflict, says foreign secretary

After an unmanned drone struck the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus overnight – and two more drones heading toward the base were struck down on Monday – Greece will send two frigates and two F-16 fighter jets to Cyprus “to contribute to its defence against the threats it faces,” said Greek defence minister Nikos Dendias, who will also travel to Cyprus tomorrow.

For the latest on Europe’s response to US-Israel war on Iran, follow The Guardian’s live coverage here.

The follow-up to the 2025 iPhone 16E comes with double the base storage of last year's budget device.

Defense secretary refuses to establish timeline for how long operation will continue in first public remarks since strikes

The US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, has called the joint US-Israeli strikes in Iran the “most lethal and precise air power campaign in history”, indicated the US did not plan to effect a democratic transition in Iran – and refused to establish a clear timeline for how long the US operation will continue.

In the first public remarks by an administration official since the war began on Saturday, Hegseth also said that the US did not have “boots on the ground” in Iran but that he wouldn’t speculate what “we will or will not do”. He also said that four US service members had been killed by a ballistic missile that managed to penetrate allied air defenses.

Banner has sparked criticism as Kirk was a polarizing figure who made incendiary and often racist and sexist comments

The US Department of Education has hung large banners outside its building in Washington DC, including one featuring an image of the late far-right commentator, Charlie Kirk.

Kirk, who was shot and killed last September while speaking at a campus event a Utah Valley University, co-founded the conservative non-profit organization Turning Point USA, which advocates for and promotes conservative politics among young people, particularly on college campuses.

The company started seeing increased errors with its flagship AI service Monday.

South Korean tax authorities lost millions in seized cryptocurrency after publishing high-res photos of Ledger hardware wallets that clearly displayed the wallets' seed phrases, allowing an unknown party to drain the funds. Gizmodo reports: South Korea's National Tax Service seized crypto assets during recent enforcement actions against 124 high-value tax evaders, but now, a large chunk of that crypto cash has been lost. The operation originally resulted in the confiscation of crypto holdings worth about 8.1 billion won, or roughly $5.6 million. However, officials later issued a press release to showcase these efforts in recovering delinquent taxes, and the release included photographs of Ledger hardware wallets taken into custody along with handwritten notes that displayed the wallet seed phrases. Those images attached to the press release turned out to be the critical error. High-resolution photos clearly showed the mnemonic recovery phrases, which serve as the master key for accessing the wallets. This exposure eliminated any protection provided by the offline cold storage on the Ledger devices. Possession of the seed phrase allows complete control, and anyone who knows the phrase can import it into software or another hardware wallet and initiate transfers without the original device. In this case, an unknown individual who saw the photos published by law enforcement first added a small amount of ether to one of the addresses to cover Ethereum network gas fees necessary for outbound transactions. From there, they executed three transfers to move approximately 4 million Pre-Retogeum, or PRTG, tokens. At the time, those tokens carried a value of $4.8 million, but reporting from The Block indicates liquidating that much value from the holdings would have proven difficult due to market dynamics.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Should you buy a new MacBook now or wait for the rumored updates? See our favorite MacBooks from Apple’s current lineup and find out when we expect to see new models announced (hint: soon).

Hydrolysis uses alkaline and water to break down body in a few hours and is part of demand for more sustainable funerals

Scotland has become the first part of the UK to legalise hydrolysis, an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation or burial, reflecting increasing demand for more sustainable funeral arrangements.

Also known as water cremation or aquamation, the process is already available in many parts of the world, and regulations approved by the Scottish parliament on Monday mark the most significant change to funeral law since cremation was introduced in 1902.

The price of gold has seen remarkable growth over the past year. Here's where it sits as of March 2, 2026.

Commentary: At a time when companies are using AI to alter images, it's refreshing to see a phone that embraces the best aspects of traditional photography.

The rapid rollout of datacenters across the US is creating a divide between municipal governments and residents

Wilmington, Ohio, resident Quintin Koger Kidd was so concerned last June with his local public officials’ alleged misdoings – open meeting violations and other discrepancies – that he filed a complaint in court to have the mayor and city council members removed from their posts.

When Koger Kidd later heard that the city supported plans by Amazon Web Services to build a $4bn datacenter on 500 acres (200 hectares) south of town, he was aghast. Amazon has sought a tax abatement that would see its datacenter exempt from paying property taxes for 30 years in exchange for the funding of local schools and infrastructure projects.

Japan will effectively ban the in-flight use of power banks starting in mid-April after a "recent series of alarming incidents," reports the Asahi Shimbun. From the report: Currently, mobile batteries in Japan are classified as "spare batteries" and are prohibited in checked luggage. For carry-on bags, those exceeding 160 watt-hours are banned, while passengers are limited to two units for those over 100 watt-hours. There is no quantity limit for batteries of 100 watt-hours or less. The new rule will limit passengers to a total of two spare batteries, including power banks. While there is no limit on the number of spare batteries below 100 watt-hours, carrying power banks exceeding 160 watt-hours will remain prohibited. Power banks will be capped at two units regardless of power capacity. Additionally, charging them on board will be prohibited, and it will be "recommended" that passengers not use them at all. As a result, domestic airlines are expected to require passengers to stop using power banks, cementing the effective ban on in-flight use.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Refusal to allow use of bases in Rota and Morón follows Pedro Sánchez’s condemnation of US-Israeli action

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

• What we know so far on day three of the Iran war

Spain has denied the US permission to use jointly operated military bases on its territory to attack Iran as Madrid stepped up its criticism of the “unjustified and dangerous military intervention”.

Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has explicitly condemned the US and Israel’s “unilateral military action” against Iran, warning that it is contributing to “a more hostile and uncertain international order”. The rebukes have been reinforced by his government’s refusal to allow the US to use bases in Rota and Morón for the continuing strikes against Iran.

Footage circulating on social media appears to show a military aircraft falling from the sky in Kuwait. US Central Command (Centcom) said on Monday that three US F-15 fighter jets flying in Iran-related operations had mistakenly been shot down by Kuwait air defences and that the cause of the incident was under investigation. The US and Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iran on Saturday, killing several top Iranian leaders including the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

SANTA CLARA, Calif. and SAN JOSE, Calif., March 2, 2026 — NVIDIA today announced multiyear strategic agreements with Lumentum Holdings Inc. to accelerate innovation in advanced optics technologies, including research and development, to enable next-generation AI infrastructure and systems designs.

Credit: Shutterstock

The nonexclusive agreement includes an NVIDIA multibillion purchase commitment and future capacity access rights for advanced laser components. In addition, NVIDIA is investing $2 billion in Lumentum to support R&D, future capacity and operations as the company builds out its U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities in a new fab.

Optical interconnect technology and package integration are critical for the continued scaling of AI factories, improving the energy efficiency and resiliency of large-scale AI networks. This expanded collaboration will draw on the strengths of NVIDIA’s leadership in AI, accelerated computing and networking, and Lumentum’s leadership in optics and advanced manufacturing. The investment enables Lumentum to scale its manufacturing capacity and R&D to meet the needs of future AI data centers.

“AI has reinvented computing and is driving the largest computing infrastructure buildout in history,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Together with Lumentum, NVIDIA is advancing the world’s most sophisticated silicon photonics to build the next generation of gigawatt-scale AI factories.”

“This multiyear strategic agreement reflects our shared commitment to advancing the optics technologies that will power the next generation of AI infrastructure,” said Michael Hurlston, CEO of Lumentum. “In support of this collaboration, we are also investing in a new fabrication facility to increase capacity and accelerate innovation. We’re excited to work together to expand what’s possible for the AI optical architectures of tomorrow.”

More from HPCwire: NVIDIA and Coherent Announce Strategic Partnership to Develop Optics Tech

About Lumentum

Lumentum (NASDAQ: LITE) is a global leader in optical and photonic technologies that power the networks and infrastructure behind AI, cloud computing, and next-generation communications. Built on decades of photonics innovation, Lumentum delivers high-performance lasers, modules, and optical subsystems that enable scalable, energy-efficient data center connectivity, advanced telecom networks, industrial manufacturing, and sensing applications. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company operates R&D, manufacturing, and sales facilities worldwide. Learn more at www.lumentum.com.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in AI and accelerated computing.

Source: NVIDIA

The post NVIDIA Signs Multiyear Optics Agreement with Lumentum appeared first on HPCwire.

AUSTIN, Texas, March 2, 2026 — Flex today announced the expansion of its strategic collaboration with AMD to manufacture the AMD Instinct platform in the United States, marking a significant milestone in strengthening domestic production of advanced AI and high-performance technologies.

As part of the collaboration, manufacturing of AMD Instinct MI355X platform is now underway at Flex’s headquarters in Austin, Texas, with volume ramp expected next quarter. The collaboration extends beyond the current generation; Flex will also support the next generation of AMD Instinct platforms to meet surging demand for large‑scale AI deployments across data centers.

Flex manufactures the complete AMD Instinct platform, assembling eight AMD Instinct GPUs along with surrounding components — including PCIe Gen 5 interfaces, high-bandwidth memory, and high-speed interconnect fabric — into a single, high-density system design. Each platform undergoes rigorous factory testing and validation, including using advanced liquid-cooling hardware from JetCool, a Flex company.

“Partnering with AMD to manufacture AMD Instinct platforms in the U.S. marks an important milestone in advancing domestic AI infrastructure,” said Rob Campbell, President of Communications, Enterprise and Cloud, Flex. “By combining Flex’s advanced manufacturing capabilities, resilient supply chain, and U.S. footprint with AMD’s leadership in high-performance computing, we’re enabling customers to scale AI faster and with greater reliability.”

“Expanding our U.S. manufacturing presence with Flex for AMD Instinct platforms is an important step in strengthening how we build and deliver for customers,” said Keivan Keshvari, senior vice president, Global Operations & Quality, AMD. “By growing a resilient, agile, and diverse supply chain, we are better positioned to meet AI demand and deliver at scale.”

Flex’s Austin, Texas headquarters spans 1.4 million square feet and is designed to support complex, high-volume production with sustainable manufacturing practices. The site is part of Flex’s expansive U.S. footprint, which encompasses more than seven million square feet across 17 facilities.

To learn more about Flex’s end-to-end portfolio of data center infrastructure products and services, visit: https://flex.com/industries/data-center.

About Flex

Flex (NASDAQ: FLEX) is the manufacturing partner of choice that helps leading brands design, build, and manage products that improve the world. With a global footprint spanning 30 countries, Flex delivers advanced manufacturing and supply chain solutions, innovative products and technology, and lifecycle services that support customers from concept to scale. In the AI era, Flex is helping customers accelerate data center deployment by solving power, heat, and scale challenges through cutting-edge power and cooling technology and scalable IT infrastructure solutions.

SourcE: Flex

The post Flex Announces US Manufacturing Collaboration with AMD to Accelerate Domestic AI Infrastructure appeared first on HPCwire.

The contest of will between Trump and Iran Expert comment jon.wallace 2 March 2026

Iran is operating from the principle that if it goes down, it will bring down others with it. 

History is replete with examples of smaller and less militarily endowed nations achieving victories over much larger and better equipped adversaries because they employed smarter strategies. 

Can Iran today survive a war with the United States – the world’s most powerful military – by employing the right kind of strategy? It all starts with Iran being able to understand its opponent’s own strategy and devise a plan to counter it. 

US objectives

President Donald Trump is employing a strategy of shock and awe. He wants a quick and decisive outcome, and he has deployed a massive amount of firepower to the region for that objective. 

He wants to keep the military confrontation with Iran geographically limited, minimizing repercussions for regional stability and the international economy. He wants Iran to concede on its nuclear and conventional capacities, and even topple its regime, before it mounts an effective resistance, retaliates and kills Americans.

He has pursued these goals by applying a tremendous amount of military pressure on the regime, attacking a range of military and security targets across the country – for now, exclusively from the air – and decapitating much of its leadership structure. In short, Trump is on the offensive.

Iran’s response

Iran, on the other hand, is on the defensive. It is doing, quite rationally, the exact opposite of everything Trump is trying to do. As always, it is playing the long game.

Given the overwhelming military superiority of the US, Iran knows that it cannot ensure regime survival – its top priority – by engaging in a shooting war. There is no way it can inflict enough military damage on the US to make Trump stop. Iran’s capabilities are far weaker, and its resources limited compared to its American and Israeli adversaries. 

Instead, Iran’s strategy is to exact a high enough political price on Trump to compel him to discontinue military operations. So, the core element of Iran’s response is political and psychological in nature, not military. Its ultimate weapon is its much greater tolerance for casualties. This is where it holds a clear, and possibly the only, advantage over the US. 

Tehran wants to extend and expand this conflict because it knows that Trump may not have the patience for a long conflict. Nor does the president’s domestic constituency, which opposes open-ended American interventions abroad – Trump has campaigned promising to be the ‘peace president’. 

Democrats are gearing up for a fight with the president in Congress. The longer the war lasts and the more American soldiers are killed (four so far with five seriously wounded), the more effective they will be.

Iran is trying to regionalize and possibly even internationalize the conflict by dragging other countries, most notably the wealthy Gulf Arab states, into it.

The regime is operating from the principle that if it goes down, it will bring down others with it. It is messaging to Washington and the world that attempts to kill it will lead to chaos and serious economic pain.

Related work

The Iran war exposes the limits of Russia’s leverage in a fragmenting regional order

It’s no accident that after it was hit by the US and Israel, Iran immediately struck oil fields, airports, and civilian buildings across the Arabian Peninsula. It’s hoping that this will rattle the international energy markets and compel the fragile Gulf Arabs states to push Trump to stop shooting. Their livelihoods and very political stability are at stake.  

Iran also has struck various areas in Israel and instructed Hezbollah to open a military front from southern Lebanon. 

In addition, the Houthis have threatened to resume strikes against Israel and in the Red Sea. Pro-Iran Iraqi militias have vowed to get involved, too. The activation of Iran’s regional network serves its strategy. 

To stoke greater international fears, Iran also might close or disrupt commercial ship traffic near the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most vital maritime chokepoints. According to reports, traffic has already slowed considerably due to regional uncertainty caused by the war.

Limitations on strategy

Both Iran and Trump’s strategies have important limitations. On the American side, air power alone is unlikely to bring down the Iranian regime. Boots on the ground are needed to accomplish that mission. Trump’s plan of helping the Iranian people rise up again and topple the theocracy sounds more like hope than a real strategy. There are no signs, yet, of any effective domestic opposition, or of defections from the regime. 

On the Iranian side, attacking the Gulf Arab states could backfire. Those countries could reverse their policy of refusing the US permission to strike Iran using weapons based on their soil. They could even join the fight alongside the US. Beijing also won’t be enthusiastic about Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz. The Chinese import much of their oil from the Middle East. 

NATO allies are staying on the sidelines for now, but a serious degradation of the global security environment might push some, including the British and the French, into action. (France and the UK have military bases in the Gulf). 

Limited resources will challenge both Trump and Iran considerably. Of course, the US and its regional partners have more than Iran, but the latter is using cheaper missiles and drones which the US military is spending millions of dollars to intercept.

Gregory Caulier has attempted to quash rumours that Mask actor was replaced by a heavily made-up impersonator for his appearance picking up an honorary award in Paris

The organiser of the César awards has sought to debunk reports that a lookalike stood in for Jim Carrey at last week’s ceremony.

In a statement sent to Variety on Monday, Gregory Caulier, general delegate of the Césars, said the controversy was a “non-issue” and testified to Carrey’s investment in the event, which had been in the planning since last summer.

FREMONT, Calif., March 2, 2026 — Penguin Solutions, Inc. today announced the appointment of Ian Colle as senior vice president and chief product officer. He will be responsible for leading product strategy, roadmap development, and lifecycle execution for Penguin’s AI Factory Platform. Colle brings 25 years of experience to Penguin Solutions, joining from Amazon Web Services (AWS) where he most recently served as general manager of advanced computing and simulation. At AWS, he helped build a global HPC and AI infrastructure business from the ground up and scale it into a multi-billion-dollar portfolio, leading globally distributed teams across product management, engineering, go-to-market, and operations.

Penguin Solutions announced the appointment of Ian Colle as Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer. Colle will lead product strategy, roadmap development, and lifecycle execution for Penguin’s AI Factory Platform.

“We are thrilled to welcome Ian to the Penguin Solutions team as we continue to deliver AI Factories for enterprises at scale, so they can accelerate the deployment of agentic AI workflow automation and unlock new AI-driven revenue streams,” said Kash Shaikh, CEO of Penguin Solutions. “His appointment strengthens our executive leadership team and reinforces our commitment to product innovation and customer obsession.”

Prior to AWS, Colle held senior engineering leadership roles at Red Hat and Intel, where he led global teams through periods of rapid growth and acquisition, and at various startups. He will draw on that experience to support growth for Penguin Solutions AI Factory Platform.

“Penguin Solutions has the experience and expertise to deliver innovative AI Infrastructure including hardware, software, and services designed to drive the next generation of AI innovation,” said Ian Colle. “I look forward to working closely with our customers to help them harness the power of AI to achieve their business goals.”

Colle holds a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois, an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, an MS in Telecommunications and Computer Information Systems from the University of Denver and an MA in Philosophy from the Denver Seminary.

About Penguin Solutions

The most exciting technological advancements are also the most challenging for companies to adopt. At Penguin Solutions, we support our customers in achieving their ambitions across our AI infrastructure, computing, memory, and LED lines of business. With our expert skills, experience, and partnerships, we turn our customers’ most complex challenges into compelling opportunities. For more information, visit https://www.penguinsolutions.com.

Source: Penguin Solutions

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Another iPad Air appears, right on schedule. M4 chip and some wireless improvements are on tap.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. and SAXONBURG, Pa., March 2, 2026 — NVIDIA and Coherent Corp. today announced a multiyear strategic agreement to advance the frontier of advanced optics technologies, including manufacturing capacity and research and development, to enable next-generation AI infrastructure.

Credit: Shutterstock

The nonexclusive agreement includes an NVIDIA multibillion-dollar purchase commitment and future access and capacity rights for advanced laser and optical networking products. In addition, NVIDIA is investing $2 billion in Coherent to support research and development, future capacity and operations as Coherent builds out its U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities.

Optical interconnects and advanced package integration are foundational to the next phase of AI infrastructure, as they unlock ultrahigh-bandwidth, energy-efficient connectivity across AI factories. This expanded partnership harnesses NVIDIA’s leadership in AI, accelerated computing and networking, and Coherent’s expertise in optical innovation and advanced manufacturing, enabling Coherent to scale its R&D and manufacturing capacity to support the global buildout of next-generation AI data centers.

“Computing has fundamentally changed. In the age of AI, software runs on intelligence with tokens generated in real time by AI factories for every interaction and every context,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “With Coherent, NVIDIA is pioneering next-generation silicon photonics to enable AI infrastructure at unprecedented scale, speed and energy efficiency.”

“This strategic relationship underscores Coherent’s role as a key enabler of next-generation AI data center infrastructure,” said Jim Anderson, CEO of Coherent. “We are proud to expand our 20-year relationship with NVIDIA by increasing their access to include multiple product families to help them build the AI data centers of the future.”

More from HPCwire: NVIDIA Signs Multiyear Optics Agreement with Lumentum

About Coherent

Coherent is the global photonics leader. We harness photons to drive innovation. Industry leaders in the datacenter, communications, and industrial markets rely on Coherent’s world-leading technology to fuel their own innovation and growth. Founded in 1971 and operating in more than 20 countries, Coherent brings the industry’s broadest, deepest technology stack; unmatched supply chain resilience; and global scale to help its customers solve their toughest technology challenges. For more information, please visit us at coherent.com.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in AI and accelerated computing.

Source: NVIDIA

The post NVIDIA and Coherent Announce Strategic Partnership to Develop Optics Tech appeared first on HPCwire.

At the inaugural meeting of his self-styled Board of Peace earlier this month, Donald Trump declared peace in the Middle East while simultaneously threatening to plunge the region into devastating conflict by again attacking Iran. Within 10 days, Trump followed through on that promise, teaming up with Israel to unleash a widespread campaign of deadly airstrikes in Iran that have thrust the Middle East into regional war.

It was one of numerous incongruities that surfaced during the bizarre first meeting of Trump’s Temu United Nations.

“In terms of prestige, there’s never been anything close because these are the greatest world leaders, almost everybody has accepted, and the ones that haven’t will,” Trump proclaimed before he grasped a diminutive gold-colored mallet and gaveled out the conclave to strains of the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a member of the group’s executive board, could be seen standing alone in the background as Trump glad-handed some of the assembled world leaders. Rubio skulked off before Laura Branigan’s 1982 hit “Gloria” began to play.

An Intercept analysis finds that every member state of the Board of Peace has been rebuked for human rights violations, including many by Rubio’s own State Department. Those not currently on the State Department list after a 2025 whitewash of countries’ human rights reports shielding Trump’s allies from honest assessments were previously cited by the department.

Originally conceived as a means to oversee the shaky Gaza peace plan, Trump has recast the Board of Peace as an international body under his control and direction, ostensively devoted to ending or preventing wars. “We’re also going to maybe take it a step further where we see hot spots around the world,” Trump decreed. “We will help Gaza, we will straighten it out, we’ll make it successful, we will make it peaceful, and we will do things like that in other spots.” 

Trump even suggested his group would provide oversight of the U.N. “The Board of Peace is going to almost be looking over the United Nations and making sure it runs properly,” Trump said.

As chair of the Board of Peace, with a lifetime appointment, Trump determines the council’s membership, chooses the executive board, and has the final say on all things since “decisions shall be made by a majority of the Member States present and voting, subject to the approval of the Chairman,” according to the Board’s charter. As chair, Trump is also the “final authority regarding the meaning, interpretation, and application” of the charter. Any amendments to the charter also must have Trump’s stamp of approval.

Trump controls the Board’s finances as chair, creating what looks to be a slush fund of international proportions. A $1 billion contribution secures permanent membership on the Board instead of a three-year appointment, which requires no payment. Trump said he also exacted promises of more than $7 billion from nine countries, although Board of Peace documents show only eight countries formally signed a pledge of their “intention to contribute funds to the Board of Peace.” For his part, Trump promised to siphon U.S. tax dollars — at least $10 billion — into the Board’s coffers. The Board of Peace, in turn, announced “more than $15 billion in funding commitments” for “humanitarian relief and reconstruction activities” in Gaza.

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Plans Call for “New Rafah” Built in Israel’s Image — Without Palestinians

The Board’s charter states that it can acquire and dispose of “immovable and movable property, institute legal proceedings, open bank accounts, receive and disburse private and public funds, and employ staff.” As chair, Trump has “exclusive authority to create, modify, or dissolve subsidiary entities as necessary or appropriate to fulfill the Board of Peace’s mission.” It remains unclear how all of the Boards’ funds will be spent and if there will be any meaningful supervision of the Board’s finances. The executive board — which Trump chooses and controls — provides “oversight mechanisms with respect to budgets, financial accounts, and disbursements,” according to the charter.

The Board says that the World Bank-administered Gaza Reconstruction and Development Fund “will operate under defined fiduciary controls, aligned with global best practices” and that an “AI-enabled digital infrastructure backbone will support procurement transparency and transform Gaza into a modern economy, reducing corruption risk and ensuring responsible stewardship of reconstruction capital for the benefit of Gaza’s residents.”

Traditional U.S. allies like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, and Ukraine have all declined to join the Board of Peace. But the U.K., Italy, the European Union and 20 other nations did attend the inaugural Board of Peace meeting as observers.

In addition to Trump, Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, White House chief of staff Susan Wiles, Trump son-in-law and diplomatic consiglieri Jared Kushner, and Kushner’s negotiating partner and Trump friend Steve Witkoff, numerous world leaders joined the inaugural meeting as their countries’ Board representatives. They included Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Argentine President Javier Milei, both staunch Trump allies and noted authoritarians. They and other leaders were gifted red MAGA-style hats emblazoned with “USA.” 

Trump said other “great boards” were “peanuts” because unlike other governing bodies, almost all members of his Peace Board were “the head of a country.” While the executive board — which includes Trump, Rubio, Kushner, and Witkoff, among others — is made up of individuals, the Board of Peace itself is made up of member states. They constitute a veritable who’s who of global bad actors.

Longtime U.S. adversaries Russia and China, both consistent gross human rights abusers, have been invited to join. While those powers have yet to sign on, there are currently 28 members of the Board of Peace, according to its new website.

All member states have been cited for human rights abuses in the State Department’s two most recent annual human rights reports, including for some of the gravest possible violations.

Last year, Rubio’s State Department issued sanitized human rights reports that soft-peddled abuses. But the analyses still cited allegations that 23 of the 27 foreign Board of Peace member states for arguably the worst crimes: unlawful or arbitrary killings or torture. Including the last Biden-era reports, the number rises to 25. Members of Trump’s Board are, in fact, among the worst human rights violators on the planet, chief among them Belarus, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.

The State Department and White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Board of Peace did not reply to a request on X for public affairs’ contact information.

A report issued last summer by Rubio’s State Department took the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to task for “significant human rights issues” including credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings; disappearances; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; and arbitrary arrest and detention; among many other violations. “The government did not take credible steps or action to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses in a verifiable way,” according to that report.

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The Incredible Disappearing Human Rights Reports

Even Rubio’s State Department referenced reports that Israel conducted “arbitrary or unlawful killings” as well as “serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom.” A United Nations commission investigating the war in Gaza went further and established that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians. “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention,” said Navi Pillay, the chair of the commission, last September. “The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons who have orchestrated a genocidal campaign for almost two years now with the specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza.”

Belarus is another wildly oppressive Board of Peace member-nation. Freedom House — a nongovernmental organization that advocates for human rights and gets the bulk of its funding from the U.S. government — calls that country “an authoritarian state in which elections are openly rigged and civil liberties are severely restricted.” The group noted that the Eastern European nation’s security forces “have violently assaulted and arbitrarily detained journalists and ordinary citizens who challenge Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s regime.” Last year, the State Department also called out Belarus for a raft of abuses including “torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; involuntary or coercive medical or psychological practices; [and] arbitrary arrest or detention.”

“War is peace” was one of the slogans on the facade of the Ministry of Truth, in George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.” Trump’s Board of Peace exemplifies this same Orwellian doublethink in which contradictory ideas are cast as true. Israel’s and Belarus’s inclusion on the Board, for example, puts a spotlight on the startling disconnect between Trump’s league of rogue nations and its stated purpose.

“What we’re doing is very simple. Peace. It’s called the Board of Peace and it’s all about an easy word to say, but a hard word to produce — peace, but we’re going to produce it,” said Trump at the February 19 meeting. But the Peace Board is filled with warmakers called out even by Rubio’s State Department. For instance, it accused Belarus of crimes of war including “serious abuses in a conflict, related to Belarus’ complicity in Russia’s war against Ukraine”; Indonesia for “arbitrary or unlawful killings” in “counterinsurgency operations against armed separatist groups”; Israel for “continued large-scale military operation in densely populated Gaza”; Pakistan for “serious abuses in a conflict”; and Turkey for “unlawful recruitment or use of children in armed conflict by government-supported armed groups outside of the country.”

The greatest offender to peace on the Board, however, be the United States. While Trump said “there’s nothing more important than peace” at the inaugural meeting, during his second term he has already launched attacks on Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, civilians in boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean — and, over the weekend, Iran.

The Trump administration also claims to be at war with at least 24 cartels and criminal gangs it will not name and has also threatened Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, Iceland, and Mexico.

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Trump’s Iran Attack Was Illegal, Former U.S. Military Officials Allege

“We have peace in the Middle East right now,” Trump declared in his rambling speech, during which he also threatened to again attack Iran to knock out a nuclear program that he said had already been “totally decimated.” 

A 2025 survey of 25 nations around the world found that the publics in 17 of them saw the United States as the first or second greatest international threat to their country, including America’s neighbors, Canada (59 percent) and Mexico (68 percent). Just this month, a poll by the Allensbach Institute, a market research firm, found Germans see the U.S. as the second-greatest threat to world peace, surpassing China and edging closer to Russia.

The post Trump’s Orwellian Board of Peace Consists Entirely of Human Rights Abusers appeared first on The Intercept.

A new batch of A24 films including The Zone of Interest, Aftersun and Midsommar are available this March on free streaming services.

Ken Henry leads push for federal government to do more to protect animals as biodiversity declines

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Labor is being pushed to introduce tough new national rules for protecting threatened species exposed to disasters including bushfires and floods, with the former Treasury boss Ken Henry among advocates warning that risks to wildlife could reach a point of no return.

Months after a major rewrite of environment laws passed parliament, a consortium of animal protection and campaign groups want the Albanese government to standardise rescue, treatment and rehabilitation processes and help fund organisations working to protect species including endangered koalas in the May federal budget.

The narrow shipping route on Iran’s southern border carries one fifth of global seaborne crude oil, one fifth of LNG shipments and one third of the most widely used fertiliser

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Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the Iranian government by force could trigger a new wave of cost-of-living pressures that embattled governments and central banks around the world will struggle to deal with.

The US-Israel attack on the Middle Eastern country at the weekend is the latest in a long series of global economic shocks.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: One day not long ago, a founder texted his investor with an update: he was replacing his entire customer service team with Claude Code, an AI tool that can write and deploy software on its own. To Lex Zhao, an investor at One Way Ventures, the message indicated something bigger -- the moment when companies like Salesforce stopped being the automatic default. "The barriers to entry for creating software are so low now thanks to coding agents, that the build versus buy decision is shifting toward build in so many cases," Zhao told TechCrunch. The build versus buy shift is only part of the problem. The whole idea of using AI agents instead of people to perform work throws into question the SaaS business model itself. SaaS companies currently price their software per seat -- meaning by how many employees log in to use it. "SaaS has long been regarded as one of the most attractive business models due to its highly predictable recurring revenue, immense scalability, and 70-90% gross margins," Abdul Abdirahman, an investor at the venture firm F-Prime, told TechCrunch. When one, or a handful, of AI agents can do that work -- when employees simply ask their AI of choice to pull the data from the system -- that per-seat model starts to break down. The rapid pace of AI development also means that new tools, like Claude Code or OpenAI's Codex, can replicate not just the core functions of SaaS products but also the add-on tools a SaaS vendor would sell to grow revenue from existing customers. On top of that, customers now have the ultimate contract negotiation tool in their pockets: If they don't like a SaaS vendor's prices, they can, more easily than ever before, build their own alternative. "Even if they do not take the build route, this creates downward pressure on contracts that SaaS vendors can secure during renewals," Abdirahman continued. We saw this as early as late 2024, when Klarna announced that it had ditched Salesforce's flagship CRM product in favor of its own homegrown AI system. The realization that a growing number of other companies can do the same is spooking public markets, where the stock prices of SaaS giants like Salesforce and Workday have been sliding. In early February, an investor sell-off wiped nearly $1 trillion in market value from software and services stocks, followed by another billion later in the month. Experts are calling it the SaaSpocalypse, with one analyst dubbing it FOBO investing -- or fear of becoming obsolete. Yet the venture investors TechCrunch spoke with believe such fears are only temporary. "This isn't the death of SaaS," Aaron Holiday, a managing partner at 645 Ventures, told TechCrunch. Rather, it's the beginning of an old snake shedding its skin, he said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

All six crew members ejected safely in apparent ‘friendly fire’ as Kuwait launches investigation into incident

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

Three US fighter jets were mistakenly shot down over Kuwait early Monday in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, military officials said. All six crew members ejected safely.

According to a statement from US Central Command (Centcom), Kuwait’s air defences fired on the F-15 war planes during a combat mission on the third day of conflict following Saturday’s launch of US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran.

If you’re following KDE Plasma development, you’ve most likely run into something called Union, a project KDE is working on to unify their various ways of theming their applications. The problem KDE is facing right now is that after so many decades of development and changes in how people want to develop applications, they ended up with various different ways of writing applications, each with their own theming method. The end result has been that for a while now, theming on KDE is kind of broken.

Broken in what way? Most long-time KDE users will be aware that ever since KDE 4, the KDE shell (Plasma using SVG for theming) and KDE applications (QtWidgets using QStyle for theming) use separate theme engines. While this has always been annoying, it’s at least manageable in that most theme designers tended to create both a Plasma SVG theme and a QStyle theme that matched. However, things got more complicated when KDE introduced QtQuick, its modern way of creating applications with QML. QtQuick has its own theme, qqc2-desktop-style, to make QtQuick applications look and feel like Breeze, KDE’s current theme.

Not only do all of these have to be kept in sync manually, QtQuick applications also do not properly inherit all the elements of the QStyle theme you set, leading to many modern KDE applications looking broken when using a non-default theme (and the same applies when using Kvantum; it also cannot properly theme QtQuick applications). In other words, there is currently no way to theme the entire KDE desktop for a consistent look, and if you try, many applications will simply look broken.

Union is KDE’s answer to this set of problems. Union is a new style engine that takes CSS and processes it into consistent themes for both QtWidget and QtQuick applications. It’s quite flexible, and can potentially even be extended to generate GTK themes from that same CSS. Sadly, since the KDE Pasma shell SVG stuff is entirely different, it won’t be styled by Union, but KDE might simply retire the SVG stuff entirely and move the Plasma shell to QtQuick’s qqc2-desktop-style to address that issue.

Union has been in development for a long time, as it’s a difficult effort, but progress is definitely being made. KDE is currently already at the stage where they’re adapting the current Breeze QStyle to better match the Union Breeze’s style, to make the future transition from the separate QStyle/qqc2-desktop-style to the unified, single Union Breeze as seamless as possible. These changes are currently available for testing in the master branch, and will be part of Plasma 6.7 or 6.8.

As a KDE user who likes to have a more classic, late ’90s theme, but who also values consistency above all else, Union is something I’m very much looking forward to. While it certainly won’t fix every single issue right away, it will definitely address the biggest issues with theming on KDE. I’m incredibly happy that KDE’s developers still consider theming and user choice and agency over what pixels appear on their screen important enough to undertake an effort like Union.

Since 2016, the cosy, inclusive, non-heteronormative escapism of the beloved farming sim has inspired a community of devoted fans, and helped it shift 50m units

When farming sim Stardew Valley first came out back in 2016, most of us saw it as a modest indie hit, offering charm, wit and a beautiful little world. Ten years later, this tiny indie has sold nearly 50m copies. If you haven’t played it yourself, you’ve probably seen someone playing it on the train (or, in the case of one of my musical theatre castmates, in the dressing room between scenes). As we discussed on the Tech Weekly podcast shortly after its launch, this calming game about tending crops and animals and relationships with neighbours rejuvenated the entire farming/life sim genre. To this day, I still get press releases promising that some upcoming cosy game or another is the next Stardew Valley.

While developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone now has a small team to help with periodic updates, the original game – his first – was all his own work, from the distinctive pixel art and animations to the soundtrack that has since toured the world in concert. Unable to get a job after university, he’d started his own project inspired by the Harvest Moon series (now called Story of Seasons). One notable addition was the inclusion of queer romance options. The ability to pursue a romantic relationship with other townsfolk is a key part of the game’s popularity – as demonstrated by the thousands who tuned in to a video from Barone revealing the identities of two new marriage candidates – and the fact that all potential spouses are available to the player character regardless of gender has helped the game garner a dedicated queer fanbase.

The Iran war exposes the limits of Russia’s leverage in a fragmenting regional order Expert comment jon.wallace 2 March 2026

The war will not affect Russian plans in Ukraine – but it will likely force a rethink of long-held Russian strategic concepts.

In a diplomatic note to the Iranian government dated 29 March 1944, Vyacheslav Molotov, then foreign minister of the Soviet Union, noted that ‘the Soviet Union [couldn’t] remain indifferent to the fate of Iran’. That statement crystallized a perennial tenet of Soviet foreign policy – one that still synthesizes much of Moscow’s approach to the Middle East today: Iran is not a dispensable peripheral actor. It is a structural node on the southern flank of the Russian Central Asian zone of influence.

The current military confrontation between Iran on the one side, and the United States (US) and Israel on the other, might well push this logic to its limits. Moscow may be forced to navigate a new and possibly perilous geometry of utility, ideology, and strategic restraint. 

Depending on the war’s outcome, the Kremlin might see its already wobbly strategic architecture in the Middle East so badly undermined that it is compelled to reassess its regional calculus.

Russia’s reckoning 

Russia’s public posture in response to the military action against Iran has been one of sharp rhetorical condemnation. Moscow has labelled the strikes ‘unprovoked acts of armed aggression’ and warned of regional and global instability unless diplomacy is restored. 

But Russia will obviously not enter into any kind of military confrontation with the US and Israel. Nor has it sent Tehran the least sign that it may provide any form of support. 

The Kremlin’s next steps will likely be calibrated to uphold its credibility as a counter-Western partner but avoid being drawn into a second high-intensity conflict. It will also seek to preserve bargaining space with Washington on other issues – not least the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

Until the situation in Iran is clarified, the keywords for Moscow will be ‘strategic hedging’. In other words, it will seek to make the most of the US distraction in the hope of depriving Kyiv of media oxygen and pushing the war on Ukraine into the background.

The nuclear dimension: From energy cooperation to strategic risk

But the current developments in Iran are not without deeper implications for Moscow, particularly relating to the nuclear question. 

Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), enrichment levels and stockpiles were embedded in a negotiated framework in which Russia was an instrumental participant. That framework is now gone. 

US and Israeli strikes during June’s so-called ‘Twelve-Day War’ had already significantly degraded elements of Iran’s enrichment infrastructure. The ongoing war is now moving to the next level, shifting the nuclear issue from managed diplomacy and short-term surgical strikes to outright coercive force with a clear longer-term ambition of regime change.

For Moscow, this changes the calculus in three ways. First, a weakened, yet unresolved nuclear file preserves Iran’s strategic relevance while increasing the volatility surrounding the country. Any engagement with an Iranian regime that has now struck at almost every country across the Arabian peninsula won’t go without a political risk. 

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With Iran attacks, President Trump is making the use of force the new normal – and casting aside international law 

This reflects a deeper structural irony: the very cooperation that once bound Russia and Iran economically and technologically may now expose Moscow to reputational and operational dilemmas. 

Second, the normalization of preventive strikes against nuclear infrastructure erodes the diplomatic architecture that Russia once used to project influence and political legitimacy in the region. 

Third and certainly not least, if Tehran emerges either significantly enfeebled or forced into a coercive settlement with Washington, Moscow will lose leverage in a region where its room for manoeuvre has already significantly narrowed after the fall of Assad in Syria. 

Ukraine war dependencies: Diminished but still relevant

The death of Iran’s Supreme Leader and the heightened military pressure from a growing number of countries could indicate that Moscow’s influence in the region may be waning. 

But the situation in Iran is unlikely to hinder Moscow’s plans in Ukraine, or to tilt the battlefield. Russia’s need for Iranian support in sustaining its war has already declined, as Moscow has internalized production of weapons systems that it once sourced from Tehran.

As part of a structural rebalancing, Iranian Shahed drones and components, once critical stopgaps, have been integrated into Russian production lines. Russia now produces substantial quantities of similar systems domestically, making continued Iranian deliveries less essential. 

This reduces the short-term operational risk to Moscow should the conflict in Iran become protracted. Russia can absorb Iranian instability without immediate capability collapse. 

But that insulation comes with a cost. The partnership could grow less reciprocal and even more transactional that it had already become in recent months. 

The asymmetry creates leverage for Tehran (which has been providing Moscow with strategic expertise on sanctions circumvention) but reduces incentives for the Kremlin to defend a partner under existential pressure.

The risk of sequential attrition

Russia’s Middle Eastern posture was historically supported by layered and strategically complementary partnerships – with Syria as a western anchor and Iran as an eastern axis. But Russian influence in Damascus has eroded over the past decade, leaving Tehran’s role more conspicuous and, paradoxically, more fragile in Moscow’s strategic calculus.

If Iran becomes consumed by war, and if its capacity to act as a regional balancer wanes, Russia faces a sequential attrition of strategic depth. The wider geopolitical architecture could shift, from a multipolar balance where Moscow plays off rivals against each other, to a more fragmented environment in which Russia is reactive rather than proactive.

This is significant because regional power projection relies as much on predictability and stability in adjacent zones as on the mere presence of partner regimes. A war-consumed Iran introduces new uncertainties along Russia’s southern arc, from the Caucasus to Central Asia, where Moscow’s standing has also eroded.

Ideological positioning and the narrative of multipolarity

‘Russia will seek the formation of a multipolar world’, remarked Yevgeny Primakov, Russia’s prime minister and foreign policy grand strategist, in 1998. That would become the cornerstone of the Kremlin’s foreign policy narrative: a drive for a multipolar world in which powers like Iran, China, and Russia balance the perceived hegemony of the US and the ‘collective West’.

In this framework, Primakov treated Iran’s capacity as a structural counterweight within a broader Eurasian balance – one that blurs the boundary between Europe and Asia and challenges the idea that Europe is institutionally and strategically Western. 

In today’s context, however, that thesis is under strain. If the US and Israel succeed in degrading Iran’s strategic position, the narrative of a resilient multipolar order loses ideological traction.

The war’s trajectory therefore impacts not just material balance but also the normative legitimacy of Moscow’s grand strategic conception.

Risk spill-over, regional alignment, and Russia’s options

A prolonged war raises critical questions about spill-over effects – from refugee flows to the proliferation of arms and militant networks. For Russia, whose southern flank security strategy has historically relied on internal and regional stability, this is not peripheral.

At the same time, Russia’s options are constrained. It cannot militarily balance the US–Israel coalition in the Middle East. And it lacks the economic weight to fully underwrite Tehran if Iran is isolated post-conflict. 

Moscow must also navigate the China variable, since Beijing – not Moscow – might well come out as a more consequential external actor in a post-war Iran than one might think. 

Thus, Russia is faced with a strategic dilemma: should it prioritize managed distancing and diplomatic leverage, or entrench deeper into a partnership that exposes it to systemic risk and greater regional geopolitical volatility?

Strategic resilience in a fragmented landscape

In some regards, Molotov’s insight about Iran’s strategic salience for Moscow remains relevant today. But the context has shifted dramatically. Russia is not operationally dependent on Iran for its war in Ukraine – that helps in the short term. But Russia is exposed to the broader geopolitical turbulence that Iran’s war with the US and Israel creates.

The war tests Russia’s strategic patience, ideological narrative, and capacity to maintain agency in a rapidly fragmenting region. The partnership of convenience that once served as a buffer is now a variable in a much larger equation – one where Russian influence is neither pre-eminent nor entirely optional. It is contingent, negotiated, and increasingly vulnerable to shifts far beyond Moscow’s direct control. And loss of control sits uneasily with Kremlinology…

17th-century Dutch master’s Vision of Zacharias in the Temple to go on display this week

It hung unrecognised on the wall of a private home for decades but now a 17th-century painting has been revealed as a Rembrandt, taking its potential value from thousands to millions of pounds.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam announced on Monday that it had rediscovered an early biblical scene by the Dutch master that was once thought lost, thanks to hi-tech scanning and two years of expert analysis.

Rachel Reeves’s upcoming spring forecast has not led to slowdown, as property tax rumours did in November

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House prices in the UK increased in February, avoiding a repeat of the “negative speculation” that depressed the market before last November’s budget, as Rachel Reeves prepares to present the spring forecast on Tuesday.

The average price of a home rose to £273,176 last month, up by 0.3% from the month before, according to Nationwide, the UK’s biggest building society. It matched January’s monthly increase, and was above analysts’ forecasts of a 0.2% gain. The annual growth rate remained steady at 1%.

Regulator looks into claim Hilton, InterContinental Hotels and Marriott could be sharing ‘competitively sensitive’ information via analytics tool

• Business live – latest updates

The UK competition watchdog has opened an investigation into three of the world’s biggest hotel chains – Hilton, InterContinental Hotels (IHG) and Marriott – amid suspicions they could be sharing “competitively sensitive” information with each other.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating allegations that the businesses, which together operate more than 25,000 hotels worldwide, could be sharing information through the data analytics tool STR. CoStar, the real estate data firm that owns STR, is also under investigation.

The world's largest mobile tech show kicks off today and CNET is on the ground covering announcements from Samsung, Xiaomi, Honor, Google, Huawei and more.

Three American fighter jets were "mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses," CENTCOM said in a statement ​Monday, as the war with Iran continued for a third day.

Israel said Sunday that it launched another wave of strikes on Iran, and Tehran retaliated across the region.

Effects of extended conflict between US and Iran could also lead to higher interest rates and hit economic growth

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

The impact of the deadly and unpredictable conflict in the Middle East on the global economy will be felt most immediately, and keenly, through the rising cost of oil.

Prices jumped on Monday, as markets had their first opportunity to digest the weekend’s tit-for-tat attacks. A barrel of Brent crude oil was trading at about $79 (£59) by lunchtime in London, up about $6 or 8.5% on the day.

Trump cited debunked claims in video address that Iran was on verge of nuclear weapons to justify US casualties. Plus, the teacher who exposed Putin’s primary school propaganda

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Good morning.

Donald Trump recorded a new video address yesterday, vowing to avenge three American deaths after the joint US-Israel strikes on Iran and accusing the Iranian regime of “waging war against civilization itself”.

What is Trump’s plan? It’s unclear but he is under pressure to spell out his vision for Iran. Trump’s critics are demanding that the White House provide greater clarity about what comes next. Opponents and analysts say the lack of a clear plan outlined so far has created a danger of the US being sucked into a long-lasting conflict of the sort that Trump repeatedly vowed to avoid.

This is a developing story. Follow our liveblog here.

How many flights have been cancelled? Early on Monday, 1,239 flights had already been cancelled. Emirates, based in Dubai; Etihad Airways, based in Abu Dhabi; and Qatar Airways, based in Doha, have collectively cancelled hundreds of flights. Almost 2,800 flights were cancelled on Saturday, and 3,156 were cancelled on Sunday, according to the tracking platform FlightAware.

This Switch 2 exclusive might be its biggest killer app yet. I'm lost and in love with the cozy apocalypse.

The days of the retirement league trope appear to be ending, while Inter Miami’s star had an outstanding – and amusing – game against Orlando City

Even before David Beckham swapped Madrid for Los Angeles, MLS had harbored a reputation as a “retirement league.” The notion is well worn in banter circles. It’s tired, and also at least a little bit true.

Robbie Keane. Kaká. David Villa. Andrea Pirlo. Didier Drogba. Wayne Rooney. Zlatan Ibrahimović. All of them – and many others – enjoyed late-career stops in the United States. Today, three of the 11 players named to Fifa’s Dream Team after the 2014 World Cup play in the league: Lionel Messi (Inter Miami), Thomas Müller (Vancouver Whitecaps) and James Rodríguez (Minnesota United). When Son Heung-min (33 years old) joined Los Angeles FC after his decade with Tottenham, he reunited with longtime Spurs teammate Hugo Lloris (39), and ensured derby days against the LA Galaxy’s Marco Reus (36).

The weather phenomenon known as El Niño could form later this year, potentially pushing global temperatures to record heights, researchers say.

The photos showed "the last moments" of 200 men executed at an Athens shooting range on May 1, 1944, Greece's the culture ministry said.

"At its peak in early 2014, Stack Overflow received more than 200,000 questions per month," notes the site DevClass.com. But in December they'd just 3,862 questions were asked — a 78 percent drop from the previous year. But Stack Overflow's blog announced a beta of "a redesigned Stack Overflow" this week, noting that at July's WeAreDevelopers conference they'd "committed to pushing ourselves to experiment and evolve..." Over the past year, on the public platform, we introduced new features, including AI Assist, support for open-ended questions, enhancements to Chat, launched Coding Challenges, created an MCP server [granted limited access to AI agents and tools], expanded access to voting and comments, and more. However, these launches are not standalone features. We have also been rethinking our look and feel, how people engage with Stack Overflow, and how content is created and shared. These new features, along with the redesign, represent how we are bringing Stack Overflow's new vision to life and delivering value that developers cannot find elsewhere. Our goal is to build the space for every technical conversation, centered on real human-to-human connection and powered by AI when it helps most. To support this, we are introducing a redesigned Stack Overflow to best reflect this direction... During the beta period, users can visit the beta site at beta.stackoverflow.com and share feedback as we build towards a new experience on Stack Overflow. They've updated their library of reusable UI components (buttons, forms, etc.), and are promising "More ways to share knowledge and ask any technical question." ("Alongside looking for the single right answer to your question, you can now find and share experience-based insights and peer recommendations...") They're launching all the planned features and functionality in April, when "More users will automatically redirect to the new site." (Starting in April users "can continue to toggle back to the classic site for a limited time.")

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Exclusive: National Film and Television School introduces fully accessible accommodation and bursary scheme at its Beaconsfield campus

For a long time, physically disabled students who dreamed of studying at the UK’s most prestigious film and TV production school had nowhere to stay in the local area. And when they commuted, they would encounter hundreds of inaccessible areas on campus.

In an industry where just 12% of TV employees are disabled, compared with 18% in the labour market as a whole, something had to change.

Before you drop hundreds of dollars on a Vitamix, read what cooking professionals have to say about the lauded blenders.

Our new free course AI for the People will show you practical ways to work with AI –without giving up judgment, privacy or your humanity

• Sign up for AI for the People, a six-week newsletter course, here

AI is transforming our world. Accepting independent oversight is the least companies can do to protect our rights

The speed with which AI is transforming our lives is head-spinning. Unlike previous technological revolutions – radio, nuclear fission or the internet – governments are not leading the way. We know that AI can be dangerous; chatbots advise teens on suicide and may soon be capable of instructing on how to create biological weapons. Yet there is no equivalent to the Federal Drug Administration, testing new models for safety before public release. Unlike in the nuclear industry, companies often don’t have to disclose dangerous breaches or accidents. The tech industry’s lobbying muscle, Washington’s paralyzing polarization, and the sheer complexity of such a potent, fast-moving technology have kept federal regulation at bay. European officials are facing pushback against rules that some claim hobble the continent’s competitiveness. Although several US states are piloting AI laws, they operate in a tentative patchwork and Donald Trump has attempted to render them invalid.

Heads of AI platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini say they care about safety. But owning the future of AI means pouring billions into models that not even their creators fully understand, and making choices like adding ads – and the capabilities that the Pentagon is now seeking from Anthropic – that raise risk. Anthropic, which styles itself as the most conscientious frontier AI company, says its model is trained to “imagine how a thoughtful senior Anthropic employee” would weigh helpfulness against possible harm. The directive echoes criticisms levied years ago over Silicon Valley companies that shaped the lives of users worldwide from insular boardrooms. Consumers don’t believe they are in good hands. Fully 77% of Americans surveyed last year think AI could pose a threat to humanity.

In contrast with the takedowns of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson, US consequences have been limited to resignations and apologies

Weeks after justice department officials released more than 3m investigative documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, there have not been any arrests in the US, prompting questions about whether any potential co-conspirators will be held accountable on American soil.

Indeed, consequences in the US for the sex trafficker’s associates have largely been limited to a handful of sombre resignations and public apologies of late – not high-level criminal prosecutions that victims and advocates have long demanded.

Lawmakers from Sanders to Mark Kelly offer mixed feelings on Trump’s action and killing of Iranian supreme leader

As Republicans celebrated the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with praise for Donald Trump’s decisive action, Democrats faced their own divisions and a reckoning over how to present a united front.

Most were quick to condemn the US president for sidelining Congress to launch an illegal and unconstitutional war and demanded a swift vote on a war powers resolution that would restrain his military onslaught.

Activists who dispute safety of vaccines are pushing to limit immunization requirements in schools

As South Carolina grapples with a measles outbreak that has infected nearly 1,000 people, groups with ties to the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, are pushing to eliminate immunization requirements that protect children.

Activists are targeting vaccine mandates in states trying to tamp down measles as communities across the country struggle to stop the worst spread of the illness since the early 1990s. The Guardian found anti-vaccine groups are encouraging their followers to organize opposition to vaccine mandates in more than 20 states, including at least six with current measles outbreaks.

U.S. officials said they were negotiating with Iran in good faith, even if hours later they joined Israeli military strikes that targeted the Iranian government.

The war has already become regional: Iran is attacking American-aligned Arab states in the hope that they will pressure Trump to sign a ceasefire

Last week, during his State of the Union address on Tuesday and again on Friday, just before launching Operation Epic Fury, Donald Trump laid out his case for attacking Iran.

The US president offered a lengthy bill of indictment against Iran’s Islamic Republic, stretching back to the 1979 revolution: the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran, support for terrorism, brutality towards its citizenry, and support for proxies that have killed Americans.

Commentary: I'm not a fan of tech-loaded spectacles, but a demo at Mobile World Congress may have swayed me.

Local emergency managers, the behind-the-scenes coordinators who mobilize help during disasters, have raised the same point time and again: We need adequate resources to protect people in harm’s way — before the harm arrives. 

In some notable cases, resources didn’t come soon enough. It wasn’t until after Hurricane Helene devastated Yancey County, North Carolina, in 2024 that commissioners there hired additional emergency management staff, which the former emergency manager said he’d requested for years. City officials in St. Louis, Missouri, were in the process of upgrading their faulty outdoor warning system when a tornado killed four people and injured dozens of others in May 2025. 

We wanted to know more about the cracks in the systems meant to keep communities safe when disasters strike. To do that, we reached out to dozens of emergency management agencies and wound up hearing from more than 40 current and former emergency managers in 11 states. They described common concerns. 

Some said their agencies have been saddled with an ever-growing list of responsibilities. In Saluda County, South Carolina, the emergency management director said his team of six is responsible for everything from the county’s IT department to a spay and neuter program. In San Bernardino County, California, the emergency manager said that she has had to help respond to new challenges like a lithium battery fire and, at a previous agency, was tasked with responding to busloads of immigrants arriving from other states.

Funding for additional staff was the most pressing issue they cited. One North Carolina emergency management director said an internal study from about three years ago recommended their agency have more than 20 staffers, but they still only have 10. Across the country, more than half of the 1,689 local emergency management agencies that responded to Argonne National Laboratory’s July 2025 emergency management survey have either one or no permanent full-time employees, and a “notable percentage” of local emergency managers who responded are volunteers.

Given the wide-ranging responsibilities and increasing risk due to climate change, part-time or volunteer emergency management positions shouldn’t exist, said Samantha Montano, an emergency management associate professor and researcher at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. 

“To expect somebody to understand how to mitigate cyber risks and also recover from a tornado, I mean, these are different skill sets,” Montano said. “So to think that one person is going to be capable of doing all of those things, especially working part time or as a volunteer, is ludicrous.” 

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s administration has caused delays in emergency management funding to state and local agencies and issued an executive order to shift more of the weight of disaster preparedness to state and local governments. 

Kelly McKinney, the vice president of emergency management at NYU Langone Health and a former deputy commissioner at the New York City Emergency Management office, said that over the years states have become “overly dependent” on funding administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But there is no clear plan for alternative funding streams, according to McKinney.

“This crisis-management system in the United States is itself in crisis,” he said.

“There’s Only So Much You Can Do” 

Several emergency managers we heard from said one of the only times they’re able to draw attention to their agency’s needs is in the aftermath of a wide-scale disaster. Wike Graham, the emergency management director for the Charlotte-Mecklenberg area of North Carolina, said the first question the media typically asks following such a disaster is: “Did emergency management do what they were supposed to do?”

According to Graham, that’s almost always the wrong question. He instead asks: “Did you properly fund emergency management staff? And did you provide them with the resources that they need? Did you make emergency management a priority for your community?” 

Unlike firefighters, EMTs or law enforcement, emergency managers face a “public identity issue” that can result in agencies receiving smaller budgets, Montano said. 

Several emergency managers told ProPublica that because people in their field operate mostly behind the scenes or as part of larger departments, they often find themselves competing for funding with better-recognized agencies, and they say elected officials frequently don’t have a clear understanding of their role. Some said it’s simply difficult to get people to care about a disaster that hasn’t happened yet.

Several others told ProPublica they are also seeing an uptick in the frequency and intensity of disasters, which makes it difficult to manage recovery (which can take years) while preparing for the next storm or fire. In St. Louis, for example, emergency management commissioner Sarah Russell was still in the midst of managing recovery efforts from 2022 flash flooding when the 2025 tornado hit.

During the St. Louis tornado, the sirens — which the city was in the early process of upgrading — weren’t activated, in part due to a miscommunication between Russell and a fire alarm dispatcher, according to an external investigation commissioned by the city. Russell, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, told ProPublica that the fire department was responsible for sounding the sirens. 

But even if the activation button had been pressed, more than a third of the sirens weren’t working, and a later test showed that the button at the fire alarm office wasn’t either. 

Russell was terminated in August 2025, in part due to their management of the tornado response, according to their termination letter. But Russell, who is appealing the termination, said the incident highlights the need to proactively invest in emergency management. 

Russell had made several requests for additional staff who specialize in emergency management to help with core responsibilities, like updating the city’s outdated plan for responding to emergencies.

“There’s always things that you would do different with hindsight,” Russell said. “But there’s only so much you can do with so little resources and support.”

St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer, who had been in office for a month at the time of the tornado and who was an alderwoman for the decade prior, told ProPublica that she was aware of the agency’s requests for additional funding, but that most city departments make such requests. After the tragedy, the city fully automated the tornado sirens and issued an executive order declaring that the fire department would have primary authority over the sirens, replacing an unclear protocol. 

A city spokesperson said the new emergency management commissioner has “implemented several improvements” to the emergency operations plan. 

“Recognizing that budget restraints are unfortunately the reality across many aspects of government,” Spencer said via email, “I’m incredibly proud of the improvements this team has been able to implement with almost no additional funding.”

“This Isn’t a Quick Fix”

Strained budgets for local emergency management agencies aren’t a new issue. But in recent months, federal funding has become uncertain. 

In April 2025, the Trump administration cut federal grants that pay for local disaster-preparedness projects — but a judge later halted the administration’s efforts to shutter the grant program. In May 2025, federal officials delayed grants that help fund local and state emergency managers’ salaries. 

In December, the FEMA Review Council, which Trump created to advise on ways to reform the agency, was expected to vote on a long-awaited report that would outline the agency’s future. But after a draft was leaked to CNN, the meeting was abruptly canceled. The work of the review council has been extended until late March. 

Several emergency managers told ProPublica they would welcome change at FEMA. But many voiced concerns about the federal government shuttering grant programs — which fund salaries, upgrades to equipment and disaster-mitigation efforts — or drastically reducing reimbursement for local agencies responding to large-scale disasters without alternative funding in place. They said such actions would be detrimental, especially in small, rural regions with limited local budgets. 

In North Carolina, one emergency manager said that without federal emergency management performance grants, which can be used to pay 50% of an emergency manager’s salary, “we are looking at the loss of preparedness and response capabilities.” Another called the grant “vital” to daily operations. 

FEMA did not respond to requests for comment. 

Claire Connolly Knox, who directs the University of Central Florida’s master’s program for emergency and crisis management, has been studying what a “decentralized FEMA” could mean for state agencies. She said it could take several legislative cycles before states are prepared to fill in the gaps that changes to FEMA might create. Many states, Knox said, are not closely tracking spending across multiple departments and multiple phases of emergency management, meaning “we don’t know the true cost” of mitigating, preparing for, responding to and recovering from disasters. 

“When you start breaking that down,” Knox said. “You start seeing that this isn’t a quick fix.”

The post What Emergency Managers Say They Need More Than Ever appeared first on ProPublica.

We know disasters are a matter of where and when, not if. And just like you, our reporting team at ProPublica wants to be prepared well in advance.

If you are a local, state or federal emergency manager, former emergency manager, emergency management researcher, or a part of the broader network of disaster response and recovery partners, we want to hear your concerns. Dozens of current and former emergency managers working everywhere from large cities to rural counties have already told us about the growing challenges they face amid more frequent disasters and uncertain federal funding.

Now we need your help to build a comprehensive picture of the real conditions across the country. What resources do you need to feel prepared for the next gray-sky day? How have or will changes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency impact the work you’re doing? How are alerts and warning systems working in your region? Have you been hit by multiple large-scale disasters in recent years? What new hazards are on your radar?

We know that emergency managers are critically important but aren’t often thought about until after tragedy strikes. We are building this source network to fuel in-depth coverage of the nation’s emergency preparedness and disaster response and recovery infrastructure that goes far beyond breaking news and brings attention to important issues across the country. As with all ProPublica journalism, our goal is impact.

Fill out the brief form below to tell us what we should be covering, or to stay in touch as changes unfold. You may hear from our team as we report on major overhauls to the emergency management system, develop emergency preparedness guides or provide crucial information to communities that have just experienced their worst day.

The post Emergency Managers: Help ProPublica Prepare to Report on the Next Disaster appeared first on ProPublica.

Local crews rescued Andrew Giddens, 36, near a borrow pit after he faced freezing weather without food or water

A Florida man who had been missing since Valentine’s Day was found over a week later trapped in mud up to his shoulders, authorities said.

Andrew Giddens, 36, had reportedly gone several days without food or water by then, and officials ultimately rescued him in dramatic fashion to end his nightmarish ordeal.

For the fourth year, ProPublica will invite up to 10 news editors from media companies across the country to participate in a yearlong investigative editing training program, led by the newsroom’s award-winning staff.

Applications are now open for the ProPublica Investigative Editor Training Program. Submissions are due Monday, March 30, at 9 a.m. Eastern time.

As the nation’s premier nonprofit investigative newsroom, ProPublica is dedicated to journalism that changes laws and lives and to advancing the careers of the people who produce it. The goal of this program is to address our industry’s critical need to broaden the ranks of investigative editors. Building a pipeline of talent is a priority that serves us and our industry.

“Journalism is vital to a healthy democracy, and it is clear that our world needs more investigative journalism at this moment, not less,” Managing Editor Ginger Thompson said. “We see the Editor Training Program as an indispensable training ground to ensure the future of investigative journalism. Where others are contracting, we are investing in the future of our industry, and that of talented journalists across the country.”

This year’s program will begin with a weeklong boot camp in New York that will include courses and panel discussions on how to conceive of and produce investigative projects that expose harm and have impact. The editors will also get training in how to manage reporters who are working with data, documents and sensitive sources, including whistleblowers, agency insiders and people who have suffered trauma. The program also includes virtual continuing education sessions and support from a ProPublica mentor.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is this?

The ProPublica Investigative Editor Training Program is designed to help expand the ranks of editors with investigative experience in newsrooms across the country, to help better reflect the nation as a whole.

What kind of experience can you expect?

The program kicks off with a five-day intensive editing boot camp in New York, which includes a series of courses and panel discussions led by ProPublica’s senior editors, veteran reporters and other newsroom leaders. The boot camp will include hands-on editing exercises and opportunities for participants to workshop projects underway in their own newsrooms.

Afterward, participants will gather virtually for seminars and career development discussions with their cohort and ProPublica journalists. Each of the participants will also be assigned a ProPublica senior editor as a mentor for advice on story and management challenges or on how to most effectively pursue their own professional aspirations.

What skills should I expect to learn?

• How to evaluate story ideas and determine the right scope, length and time for getting the work done.
• How to manage a reporter through a complicated accountability story and communicate feedback in ways that build trust and confidence.
• How to edit investigative drafts, spot holes in reporting logic, organize a narrative and guide the reporter through the fact-checking process.
• How to work collaboratively with research, data and multimedia teams to elevate an investigative project.

When is the boot camp?

The five-day, all-expenses-paid boot camp will be held May 31 to June 4, 2026, in New York, with remote sessions via Google Meet throughout the year.

Is there a virtual option for the boot camp?

This boot camp will be held in person and will not have a virtual option.

Will I be responsible for my expenses in New York?

ProPublica will cover participants’ expenses for meals, travel and lodging during the boot camp.

How many participants will be selected each year?

Up to 10 journalists.

Who is eligible?

The program is open to all. The aim is to help broaden our industry’s investigative editing ranks to include journalists from a wide array of backgrounds. We encourage everyone to apply, including those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds and rural news organizations, as well as women, people of color, veterans, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities. Past participants have come from a wide range of news outlets across the country.

The ideal participants will have: 

• A minimum of five years of journalism experience, either as an editor or as a reporter primarily doing work with an investigative or accountability focus. 
• A strong grasp of the basics of editing, storytelling, structure and framing.
• Experience managing a team of journalists or a complicated multipronged reporting project.
• An accountability mindset: You don’t have to have been on the investigative team, but we are looking for people with an eye for watchdog reporting and editing.

Am I eligible if I live outside of the United States?

No.

How do I apply?

The application period is now open and closes Monday, March 30, at 9 a.m. Eastern time. You can find the posting to apply at propublica.org/jobs.

What if I have other questions?

Send an email to Assistant Managing Editor Talia Buford at talent@propublica.org.

The post Applications Open for 2026 ProPublica Investigative Editor Training Program appeared first on ProPublica.

The U.S. has a fraught track record of toppling autocratic regimes and securing peaceful democracies — even when it has vision for the day after.

Why Should Delaware Care?   
New Castle County Police is the latest law enforcement department in Delaware to embrace new technologies that can create additional records of police interactions. But it also comes during a lean year for finances and officials are not saying exactly how they will fit into their budget.

The New Castle County Police Department signed a $50 million contract late last year to purchase new technology, including drones, tasers, and body cameras for officers.

Police officials say the investment improves their effectiveness and reduces safety risks for civilians and officers. But some county officials and residents have questioned how the local government will pay for the upgrades. 

With a tough budget season weeks away, Spotlight Delaware asked New Castle County officials how they will pay for the ongoing contract into the future. They did not provide a direct answer.

Asked whether the county will raise taxes to pay for the contract, County spokeswoman Natalie Criscenzo said officials from County Executive Marcus Henry’s administration “are actively in the budget-building process.”

Henry will present a budget address to the County Council at the end of March. 

Criscenzo also noted that Henry is in support of the police technology initiative.

“One of his top priorities in this job is public safety,” she said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware. 

‘The settlement numbers’

In December, New Castle County police officials publicly presented to the County Council their initiative to purchase the drones, body cameras, and other technologies. They said then that the initiative aims to “bring officer safety and accountability” through the use of surveillance tools and cameras. 

During the meeting, the county’s police chief — Col. Jamie Leonard — also noted that initial conversations about the new tech upgrades were sparked by the department’s lack of body cameras for every officer.

“Currently, we don’t have enough deployable body cameras to put them on the entire 411 of us,” Leonard said. 

But during the meeting, Council members David Tackett, George Smiley, and Jea Street expressed concern over unanswered questions about where the money for the contract would come from.  

“How many times in the last year have we borrowed out of reserve? To me, you can’t afford it, and that’s a major problem,” said Street, who was the sole council member to vote against authorizing the police department to make an initial $750,000 payment for the new technology.

Later during the presentation, Leonard indicated that the technology, including body cameras, could save the county money in legal settlements involving the police department’s deadly force cases. 

He said that such technologies “exponentially reduces the risk.”

“I mean, you guys have seen the settlement numbers and what they are,” Leonard said. 

Following the December meeting, Henry approved the initial payment of $750,000 for police to use the technology package during the current fiscal year.

The payment went to Arizona-based Axon Enterprise, the nation’s largest producer of Tasers and body cameras.

New contract replaces previous deal

While Tackett and Smiley joined Street in questioning how the county would pay for the technology, they were supportive of the initiative, as were the rest of the council members except Street.

“Technology is moving forward, with or without New Castle County,” Councilman Penrose Hollins said. “It’s going to move forward. We can be part of it, or we can watch it go by.”

To purchase the technology, New Castle County will pay Axon a total of $50 million over the next 10 years, according to contract documents.

But Criscenzo said some of those costs are already baked into the existing budget because the contract is an upgrade from an existing one the police had. As a result, she said the county will actually pay an average of about $1.78 million extra each year over the decade.  

“This is different from what you’re looking at because it’s the delta between the new contract and what we’re paying now,” she said. 

The police department was previously under a seven-year contract with Axon that was then replaced by the new 10-year contract in December. 

New Castle police first started wearing body cameras in 2015 as part of a pilot program the department started for certain units.

That was six years before then-Gov. John Carney signed the law that mandated that all police officers wear body cameras during interactions with the public. 

The new Axon contract will provide the department with 450 new tasers and 450 body cams for the department. 

The department will also have access to what they call a Real Time Crime Center, an online hub to integrate police data into one system. This hub will allow officers to monitor feeds, such as drone footage, live body camera and dash camera video.

Another major piece of the contract includes the Drone First Responder (DFR) program, which would allow police to deploy drones from pre-established launch sites to scenes before officers.

The department will deploy 24 drones over the next six years and will start with 12 in the first year. Police have said the drones could reduce unnecessary ground responses by about 25%, citing an example of an abandoned car where a license plate number would need to be run.

The post Drones, tasers & body cameras: NCCPD gets $50M tech upgrade appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care?
As the legal home for more than 2 million companies, the rules that Delaware sets for corporate governance shape how much of global capitalism gets done. Delaware’s positions as a leading corporate home also provides the state’s General Fund with more than a third of its annual revenues.

A Delaware law passed last year in the wake of escalating assaults on the state’s corporate brand shielded powerful company leaders from facing certain lawsuits brought by smaller investors. 

What it didn’t do was violate the Delaware Constitution, the state Supreme Court ruled on Friday. 

More than three months after hearing arguments, the justices ruled that the corporate law reform – known as Senate Bill 21 – did not strip Delaware’s prominent Court of Chancery of its constitutional authority to decide when a business deal is fair.

“The General Assembly’s enactment of SB 21 falls within the ‘broad and ample sweep’ of its legislative power,” the justices stated.

The ruling ends a bruising fight in Delaware over when the state’s business court should allow small-time investors to interrogate insider deals struck within companies by founders or other business leaders.

The ruling also averts what could have been an embarrassment for the state’s legal and political establishment had the high court overturned the law. 

More than a year ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk — the world’s richest person — was calling on business leaders to move their companies’ legal homes out of Delaware. Musk had launched the campaign, which became known as “DExit,” after a Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled that he could not accept a multibillion-dollar pay package from Tesla.  

Just as the campaign appeared to be gaining a foothold, Gov. Matt Meyer, legislative leaders, and Delaware attorneys who represent corporations threw their collective heft behind SB 21.

They argued then that the legislation amounted to a “course correction” that would bring the state’s business courts back into alignment with rulings from a decade ago. Many also said the bill was needed to pacify executives who were considering following Musk’s calls to move their companies’ legal homes out of Delaware.

In response, a cadre of critics — which included national law professors, pension fund attorneys, and a handful of progressives within the Delaware legislature — derided SB 21 as a “billionaires bill.” 

Some also argued that the legislation was the latest in a string of recent changes to Delaware corporate law that have shifted the state away from protecting shareholder rights and toward giving greater deference to powerful executives.

Meyer and others SB 21 supporters rejected those characterizations last year. And on Friday, he celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling.

In a statement, he said the decision affirms that “Delaware is the gold standard locale for global companies to do business.” He also stated that the number of companies that maintain their legal home in Delaware had increased throughout 2025 despite the DExit campaign.

“In short, SB 21 is working, and I’m glad it will continue to be the law,” Meyer said.  

The legal arguments for SB 21

When arguing against SB 21 in front of the Supreme Court last fall, one attorney asserted that the new law removed the Chancery Court’s time-honored and constitutional duty to say what is fair – or equitable – in a business dispute.  

The attorney, Gregory Varallo, argued that by removing a shareholders’ ability to sue their company, the law reduced what he described as the immutable power of the Court of Chancery to oversee a “complete system of equity.”

During his arguments, Varallo also offered the justices an unusual acknowledgement, stating that he knew that his stance was unpopular — and that he understood “well the pressures on this court.”

The comments were a likely reference to the consensus of big business groups and the state’s political establishment that believed SB 21 was necessary for Delaware to remain the world’s preeminent corporate domicile. 

Following Varallo, Washington, D.C.-based attorney Jonathan C. Bond defended SB 21, in part, by characterizing his opponents arguments as unprecedented. If adopted, he said they would imperil several existing Delaware laws that go back decades. 

He also argued that changing the rules of corporate law – as SB 21 did – “is the same as wiping out jurisdiction merely because it makes some plaintiff’s claims harder.”

Also arguing in favor of SB 21 during the hearing was William Savitt, an attorney with the  Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz – among the most prominent corporate law firms in the country.

Last spring, Meyer hired Savitt’s firm to represent the state in the legal defense of SB 21 for a budget rate of $100,000. By comparison, Wachtell Lipton charged Twitter $90 million in 2022 to ferry that company through its arduous, four-month-long acquisition by Elon Musk.

Wachtell’s client list also includes Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta executives and board members, who last summer settled a seven-year-long, multibillion-dollar shareholder lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court.

During his arguments on SB 21, Savitt said equity as determined by judges must follow the statutes created by the legislature, and “not displace the law.” 

“No natural reading of the words (of the Delaware Constitution) support plaintiff’s position,” he said. 

The post Delaware Supreme Court upholds SB 21 reforms designed to counter ‘DExit’  appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Hartlepool leaders ‘furious and appalled’ after meeting with Steve Reed about growing cost of social care

The housing, communities and local government secretary has been accused by a Labour council of showing “arrogance, indifference and moral bankruptcy” towards children in social care.

In an unusually forthright attack, Labour leaders of Hartlepool council said they were “furious and appalled” at Steve Reed after a meeting with him last week. A cross-party delegation had asked the secretary of state for £3m to help alleviate the growing cost of social care.

"Saturn and some of its 274 moons are pretty weird," writes Smithsonian magazine: [Saturn moon] Titan has strangely few impact craters, Hyperion is tiny and misshapen, and Iapetus has a tilted orbit. What's more, planets tend to wobble along their rotational axes as they spin, like an off-kilter spinning top in the moments before it topples over. Formally called precession, scientists have long thought that Saturn's wobble rate should match Neptune's because they're probably gravitationally linked. However, data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which studied the ringed planet from 2004 to 2017, revealed that Saturn's precession rate is slightly speedier than Neptune's. In 2022, some researchers suggested that the destruction of a hypothetical moon, called Chrysalis, around 160 million years ago may have knocked Saturn out of sync and formed the pieces that became the planet's rings. But this work implied that Chrysalis probably would've crashed into Titan, posing a major problem, study co-author Matija Äuk, an astronomer at the SETI Institute, tells New Scientist's Leah Crane. In that case, Chrysalis' debris couldn't have become the rings, he says. So, Äuk and his colleagues used computer simulations to investigate what would happen if Chrysalis did smack into Titan. If that happened around 400 million years ago, they found, the crash would've wiped away Titan's craters and made its orbit more elliptical. The altered path may have slowly pushed the trajectories of other moons, which then scraped against one another and left chunks of ice and rock that now make up Saturn's rings. The timing seems to align with the rings' estimated age of roughly 100 million years. Additionally, one piece of kicked-up debris may have formed the weird moon Hyperion, which may have subsequently tilted the orbit of the moon Iapetus, according to the analysis. The scenario could also resolve Saturn's unexpected wobble, which is currently "a little bit too fast," Äuk tells Jacopo Prisco at CNN. The study has been accepted for publication in the Planetary Science Journal, and is already available on the preprint server arXiv.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Fears that decision to strike could be open-ended as Trump comes under pressure to spell out his vision for the country

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Donald Trump is under pressure to spell out his vision for Iran amid the ongoing attacks on the country and reports of the first American casualties since the launch of unprovoked US and Israeli military strikes.

Trump’s critics are demanding that the White House provide greater clarity about what comes next. Opponents and analysts say the lack of a clear plan outlined so far has created a danger of the US being sucked into a long-lasting conflict of the sort that Trump repeatedly vowed to avoid.

Snapdragon Wear Elite is built to be on camera-enabled watches, pins, pendants and even glasses, according to Qualcomm. And it could mean a wave of devices that can also work as car keys and more.

Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon Wear Elite platform, which will be integrated into the next Galaxy Watch, at MWC in Barcelona.

Funding uncertainty is main concern, despite Labour’s pledge to revitalise construction, survey shows

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Almost two-thirds of senior council officers have said they are seeing construction projects delayed, despite the key role of local authorities in creating the wave of new housing and infrastructure promised by Labour.

Before Rachel Reeves’s spring forecast on Tuesday, a survey of senior council officers showed that 40% do not think the local authority they work for is well placed to follow through on its construction plans.

Grenade-throwing contests replaced PE and ‘denazification’ speeches became homework. Pavel Talankin’s undercover film about his school’s indoctrination drive won a Bafta and is tipped for an Oscar, but has left him in exile

In order to watch the Oscar-nominated documentary in which many of them have starring roles, pupils at Karabash School No 1 have had to source bootlegged copies, viewing the film in private, on their phones or their laptops.

Last week’s Bafta best documentary win for Mr Nobody Against Putin has been studiously ignored by Russian state media, and the prize the film won at Sundance last year was also met with silence. Staff at the school and government officials in the Kremlin seem united in their desire to pretend that they know nothing about the film.

FBI official says evidence found on the suspect and in his car indicated a ‘potential nexus to terrorism’

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The FBI’s joint terrorism taskforce has been called in to help investigate a deadly mass shooting in downtown Austin, Texas, on Sunday morning in which a gunman opened fire in front of a bar popular with university students, killing two people and injuring 14 others before being fatally shot by police.

An FBI official, Alex Doran, told reporters at a press conference that it was too early to determine the shooter’s motivation. But he added that evidence found on the suspect and in his car indicated a “potential nexus to terrorism”, while an intelligence group said the shooter had expressed “pro-Iranian regime sentiment”.

As the Mobile World Conference begins in Spain, Lenovo brought a new attachable accessory for their laptops — an AI agent. CNET reports: The little circular module perches on the top of your Lenovo laptop display, attached via the magnetic Magic Bay on the rear. The module is home to an adorable animated companion called Tiko, who you can interact with via text or voice... [I]t can start and stop your music, open a web page for you or answer a question. You can also interact with it by using emoji. Give it a book emoji, for example, and it will pop on its glasses and sit reading with you while you work... The company wants to sell the Magic Bay accessory later this year — although it doesn't know exactly when, or how much it will cost. It even comes with a timer (for working in Pomodoro-style intervals) — but Lenovo has also created another "concept" AI companion that CNET describes as "a kind of stationary tabletop robot, not dissimilar to the Pixar lamp, but with an orb for a head." With a combination of cameras, microphones and projectors, the AI Workmate can undertake a variety of tasks, including helping you generate and display presentations or turn your written work or art into a digital asset... It's robotic head swivelled around and projected the slides onto the wall next to me. Lenovo created a video to show this "next-generation AI work companion" — with animated eyes — "designed to transform how modern professionals interact with their workspace." It bridges the physical and digital worlds — capturing handwritten notes, recognizing gestures, summarizing tasks, and proactively helping you stay ahead of your day. The moment you sit down, Lenovo AI Workmate greets you, surfaces priority tasks, and keeps your work organized without switching apps or losing context. From turning sketches into presentations to projecting information for instant collaboration, [it] brings on-device AI intelligence directly to your desk — secure, responsive, and always ready... It's not just software. It's a smarter way to work. It looks like Lenovo once considered naming it "AI Sphere" (since that name still appears in its description on YouTube). Lenovo also showed another "concept" laptop idea that PC Magazine called "futuristic": The ThinkBook Modular AI PC looks like a traditional laptop at first glance, but a second, removable screen fastens onto the lid. You can swap that screen onto the keyboard deck (in place of the keyboard, which can then be used wirelessly), or use it alongside the laptop as a portable monitor, attached via an included cable.... While Lenovo is still working on this device, and it's very much in the concept phase, it feels like one of its best-thought-out prototypes, one likely to make it to store shelves at some point. Another "concept" laptop is Lenovo's Yoga Book Pro 3D Concept, ofering directional backlight and eye-tracking technology for the illusion of 3D (playing slightly different images to each of your eyes). It offers gesture control for 3D models, two OLED displays, and some magical "snap-on pads" which, when laid on the display — make the GUI appear on the screen for a new control menu to "provide quick-access shortcuts for adjusting lighting, viewing angle, and tone".

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

US president signals potential willingness to engage with surviving leadership as violence intensifies across region

• US-Israel war on Iran – latest updates

Donald Trump said on Sunday he was prepared to talk to what was left of the Iranian leadership after the killing of the country’s supreme leader by US-Israeli airstrikes aimed at overthrowing the regime.

Trump was speaking as a second day of intense bombing of Iranian cities and Tehran’s missile counterattacks sent tremors across the region and through the global economy. On Monday the conflict spread to Lebanon as Israel began striking Hezbollah targets, after the group launched missiles and drones towards Israel’s north in retaliation for the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Tufan Erginbilgiç says decision is for the government but German participation remains a possibility

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The boss of Rolls-Royce has said he would welcome Germany helping to build Britain’s next-generation fighter jet, arguing it would bring in more business for the project.

The aircraft, designed to replace the Eurofighter Typhoon, is a joint effort between the UK, Italy and Japan. Rolls-Royce is building the engine for the jet, which has attracted fresh attention as plans for a rival Franco-German warplane edge towards collapse.

At Mobile World Congress, the company shares more details about its upcoming book-style foldable.

The PLA’s tech strategy is working.

Iran, Venezuela, and the end of the Powell Doctrine.

Sporadic clashes reported in several provinces in Afghanistan as both sides give conflicting death tolls

Afghanistan has said it had thwarted Pakistan’s attempted airstrikes on Bagram airbase, the former US military base north of Kabul, as cross-border fighting between the two countries stretched into a fourth day.

Months of clashes have flared up again since Thursday, when Afghanistan launched attacks along the frontier and Pakistani forces hit back on the border and from the skies. Pakistan has declared it is in “open war” with Afghanistan.

Authorities say capture of bull and tiger sharks necessary to protect lives as environmentalists launch urgent legal challenge

Some beaches in areas of New Caledonia are closed to swimming and the authorities have begun shark culling off the capital, Nouméa, after a fatal attack in the popular tourist spot – prompting a legal challenge to stop the operation and reigniting debate over public safety and marine conservation.

The culling operation began on 23 February, after a man from New Caledonia riding a wing foil in a recreational area was attacked and killed. Preliminary investigations indicate the victim was attacked by a tiger shark that measured at least three metres.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 2.

• Ponder loses control of Tesla on Sunday morning

• Coach Sanders mourns ‘one of my favorites’

Colorado quarterback Dominiq Ponder died early Sunday morning in a single-car crash in Boulder County, police said. He was 23.

Ponder lost control of his Tesla on a curve and hit a guardrail, according to the Colorado State Patrol. The car then struck an electrical line pole and rolled down an embankment before it caught fire. Ponder was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said a preliminary investigation “shows that speed is suspected as a factor”.