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Read at: 2026-04-17T17:55:02+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Oda Mies ]

Police say no evidence of offence found in Epsom rape incident

Reports of alleged crime sparked protests in the Surrey town this week over claims woman in her 20s gang-raped

Police investigating a rape incident in Epsom have said they have “not found any evidence” of the offence as reported. The reports prompted protests in the Surrey town this week.

Sarah Grahame, assistant chief constable at Surrey police, said the force is continuing to investigate a report that a woman in her 20s was raped and attacked by a group of men on 11 April in Epsom after she left the Labyrinth Epsom nightclub. The alleged attack is said to have happened between 2am and 4am outside a Methodist church.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:49 pm UTC

Irish fugitive and alleged crime boss Daniel Kinahan arrested in Dubai

Kinahan, in his 40s, was arrested in Dubai on foot of an arrest warrant issued by the Irish courts.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:48 pm UTC

Rachel Reeves to raise windfall tax on low-carbon electricity generators

Chancellor aims to curb rising household bills as she consults on reforms to weaken link between gas and electricity prices

Rachel Reeves is poised to raise the government’s windfall tax on low-carbon electricity generators to help to limit UK household energy bills, the Guardian understands.

The chancellor is ready to hike the levy introduced in 2022 to target the excess profits made by the owners of older renewable energy and nuclear plants as electricity market prices soared after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:48 pm UTC

Fans feel 'gouged' by £111 World Cup train tickets

The Football Supporters' Association says fans are being "fleeced" and "gouged" by the high cost of train tickets to World Cup games in New Jersey.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:47 pm UTC

New law will undo hundreds of historic gay sex convictions

Dáil debate hears of horrific penal system and climate of fear in which gay men lived or left Ireland to escape

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:45 pm UTC

Amazon won’t release Fire Sticks that support sideloading anymore

The writing was on the wall, and now it's on Amazon’s website. Newly released Fire Sticks will not support the sideloading of Android apps or any other software from outside Amazon’s official app store.

The proof comes from an update to Amazon’s website for developers, which currently reads:

Starting with Fire TV Stick 4K Select [which came out in October], all future Fire TV Sticks will run on Vega.

According to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, the website has included that statement since at least January. But Amazon hasn’t made this declaration so outrightly to consumers, many of whom are just now learning about Amazon’s commitment to its new, proprietary operating system (OS), Vega OS. Amazon declined to comment to Lowpass this week after “multiple sources with knowledge of” Amazon’s plans reportedly told the publication that all future Fire TV sticks would launch with Vega.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:42 pm UTC

Starmer was kept in dark about Mandelson’s vetting by two top civil servants

Exclusive: Officials have spent weeks debating whether or not to release highly sensitive information about the affair

Keir Starmer was kept in the dark about sensitive information relating to Peter Mandelson’s security vetting by two other top civil servants, including the head of the civil service, the Guardian can reveal.

The prime minister said on Friday that it was “unforgivable” and “staggering” that senior officials did not tell him that Mandelson failed a security vetting process weeks before he took up his role as ambassador to Washington.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:40 pm UTC

Ammi and Martina Burke appeal criminal contempt of court finding

Full hearing of the case expected in Court of Appeal in July

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:37 pm UTC

One of Arsenal's greatest unsung heroes - Martin Keown's tribute to Alex Manninger

Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown pays tribute to his old friend and former Gunners team-mate Alex Manninger, who has died at the age of 48.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:36 pm UTC

One of Arsenal's greatest unsung heroes - Keown's tribute to Manninger

Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown pays tribute to his old friend and former Gunners team-mate Alex Manninger, who has died at the age of 48.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:36 pm UTC

Planning permission granted for a third time to Milltown site held up by objections

Development in Dublin 6 to include 556 apartments and six three-bedroom courtyard houses

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:36 pm UTC

Cartel leader Daniel Kinahan arrested in Dubai following covert police operation

Specialist teams launched intensive search and surveillance in UAE on receipt of Irish warrant

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:35 pm UTC

Supreme Court Sides With Oil Companies in Louisiana Coastal Lawsuits

The companies had asked the justices to clear the way to move environmental lawsuits out of state courts, to friendlier federal venues.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:34 pm UTC

Ridley Scott's post-apocalyptic The Dog Stars drops first trailer

Post-apocalyptic scenarios are a longtime staple of science fiction, and director Ridley Scott's latest film, The Dog Stars, falls firmly into that subgenre. Based on Peter Heller's critically acclaimed 2012 novel, the story depicts the aftermath of a deadly flu virus that wiped out most of humanity. The studio released the first trailer at CinemaCon, introduced by a video message from Scott, who said that his adaptation "is particularly tailored for the big screen. Every frame, I hope, will really blow you away."

Per the official logline, the film is "a riveting, epic thriller set in a world where survival is instinct, but humanity is a choice. Scott tells the story of Hig, a young pilot who, together with a military survivalist, Bangley, has carved out an efficient but isolated homestead in a brutal post-apocalyptic world until a mysterious radio transmission spurs Hig to venture into the unknown in search of the hope and humanity he still believes exists."

Jacob Elordi stars as Hig, alongside Josh Brolin as Bangley; Margaret Qualley plays a young medic named Cima; and Guy Pearce is a former Navy SEAL Pops who also happens to be Cima's father. Allison Janney and Benedict Wong will also appear in as-yet-undisclosed roles. (Janney, clad in what looks like a vintage stewardess uniform, briefly appears in the trailer.)

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:32 pm UTC

Is Mandelson vetting scandal the final straw for Starmer? – The Latest

Keir Starmer says it is ‘staggering’ and ‘unforgivable’ that he was not told Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting before taking up the role of US ambassador. The comments follow a Guardian investigation that exclusively revealed Mandelson had initially been denied clearance after a background check by security officials, but that the decision was overruled by the Foreign Office. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s head of investigations, Paul Lewis watch on YouTube

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:32 pm UTC

Riverdeep founder Pat McDonagh left an estate valued at €25.3 million

Trailblazing entrepreneur made his fortune in educational software and property

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:30 pm UTC

India fails to pass bill to boost women’s representation after delimitation row

Opposition accuses Narendra Modi government of using quotas as cover for redrawing electoral map

The Indian government has failed to pass a bill to increase female representation in parliament after being accused of using the plan as a guise to redraw the country’s electoral map.

It was the first time in 12 years in power that a constitutional amendment proposed by Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government was not passed by parliament.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:28 pm UTC

Senate passes short-term extension of surveillance law – US politics live

Senators pass 10-day extension by voice vote after House defeated attempts for five-year and 18-month extensions on Thursday night

In more CDC news, Oda Mies has selected Erica Schwartz to lead the troubled health agency, bringing to an end a months-long search for a permanent director.

Schwartz served as the deputy surgeon general during Oda Mies ’s first term. But before she can officially take over, the president’s pick will require confirmation by the Senate.

IRAN HAS JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THE STRAIT OF IRAN IS FULLY OPEN AND READY FOR FULL PASSAGE. THANK YOU!

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:21 pm UTC

Daniel Kinahan arrested in Dubai

In a statement released on Friday, An Garda Síochána said: "An Garda Síochána is aware of the arrest of an Irish National in the United Arab Emirates.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:19 pm UTC

Midwest Forecast to See Strong Storms on Friday

The Midwest has faced day after day of weather warnings this week. More are expected on Friday.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:19 pm UTC

Middle East crisis live: Iran reopens strait of Hormuz but US blockade remains

Iran reopens the strait of Hormuz during ceasefire negotiations, a move the US president praised on social media

In case you’re just joining us, here are the latest developments in the Middle East to bring you up to speed. It’s 9am in Beirut and Jerusalem, 9.30am in Tehran and 2am in Washington DC.

A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has come into effect, pausing fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 2,100 Lebanese people and displaced more than 2.1 million. The agreement was announced earlier by Oda Mies , who said he had spoken with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, and invited both leaders “for meaningful talks” at the White House. Both leaders welcomed the agreement.

Israel and Hezbollah both maintained their right to defend themselves if the truce is broken – here’s our full report.

Netanyahu called the ceasefire a “historic” opportunity for peace but refused to withdraw his troops from southern Lebanon during the pause in fighting. “We are remaining in Lebanon in an expanded security zone,” he said, due to the “danger of an invasion” and to prevent fire into Israel. “That is where we are, and we are not leaving.”

UN chief António Guterres welcomed the ceasefire, which took effect at midnight on Thursday (2100 GMT) in Lebanon, and urged “all actors” to fully respect it. He hoped the halt in fighting would “pave the way for negotiations”.

The Lebanese army warned people displaced from southern Lebanon about returning home because of intermittent shelling that was reported after the ceasefire came into effect.

The Israeli military warned residents of southern Lebanon not to return south of the Litani River despite the truce.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson welcomed the ceasefire and stressed it was already part of the original Iran-US agreement brokered by Pakistan.

Israel and Hezbollah continued to exchange fire in the hours before the truce took effect.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:18 pm UTC

Bournemouth close to appointing Rose

Bournemouth are close to appointing Marco Rose as Andoni Iraola's replacement as head coach.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:11 pm UTC

Who Are D4vd and Celeste Rivas Hernandez?

The musician is known for creating the anthem for Fortnite. He was touring for his major-label debut when Ms. Rivas Hernandez’s remains were found in his car, officials said.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:09 pm UTC

CISA tells feds to patch 13-year-old Apache ActiveMQ bug under active attack

Bug hiding in plain sight for over a decade lands on KEV list

CISA is sounding the alarm on a newly-exploited Apache ActiveMQ bug, ordering federal agencies to patch within two weeks as attackers circle a flaw that's been quietly lurking for more than a decade.…

Source: The Register | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:09 pm UTC

Unions threaten industrial action as they accuse Government of prioritising business

Workers’ living standards squeezed, Ictu chief says, with Coalition listening to ‘those who shout the loudest’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:08 pm UTC

Stocks Extend Rally as Tensions Ease Over War in Iran

The S&P 500’s rise on Friday caps a striking three-week streak, powered by investors’ optimism about the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and strong corporate earnings.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:03 pm UTC

NJ Transit Confirms It Will Charge $150 for Train Tickets During the World Cup

Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend matches at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey this summer, but most will not be allowed to drive there.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:02 pm UTC

Sex offender convicted of rape after another man wrongfully jailed for 17 years

Paul Quinn, 52, was found guilty by a jury of the sex attack on a young mother.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:01 pm UTC

Questions raised over whether £3.8m government grant awarded to Wrexham AFC was lawful

Exclusive: The club, owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, received the grant without a contract or final state aid assessment in place

Wrexham AFC, the football club part-owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, was given a £3.8m government grant without a contract or a finished state aid assessment in place, raising questions over whether the award was lawful.

The club has received £18m in taxpayer-funded grants – far more than any other in the UK – to help to redevelop its stadium, the Racecourse Ground (Y Cae Ras in Welsh).

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC

Microsoft Increases the FAT32 Limit From 32GB To 2TB

Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo writes: Windows has limited FAT32 partitions to a maximum of 32GB for decades now. When memory cards and USB drives exceeded 32GB in size, the only options were exFAT or NTFS. Neither option was well supported on other platforms at first, although exFAT support is fairly widespread now. In their latest blog post, Microsoft announced that the limit for FAT32 partitions is being increased to 2TB. Of course, that doesn't mean that every device that supports FAT32 will work flawlessly with a 2TB partition size, but at least there is a decent chance that older devices with don't support exFAT will now be usable with memory cards over 32GB.

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Source: Slashdot | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC

Artemis II pilot talks about what it was really like to fly and land in Orion

The crew of Artemis II spoke with the media on Thursday, six days after returning to Earth following their mission around the Moon. After a news conference, the astronauts gave a handful of interviews, and Ars was able to speak with Orion's pilot, Victor Glover.

Glover and Ars first connected nearly a decade ago as part of our homage to Apollo, The Greatest Leap. Glover now stands at the vanguard of our modern Apollo program, named Artemis, which aims to return humans to the Moon and establish a semi-permanent base there.

Glover, an accomplished naval aviator, first went to space in November 2020 as the pilot on the first operational Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station. Two years after he landed back on Earth, Glover was assigned to the Artemis II mission and tasked with a majority of the test piloting of the Orion spacecraft during the outbound and return journey from the Moon.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:59 pm UTC

Kenyan firm sacks more than 1,000 workers after losing Meta contract

Meta paused work with Sama last month after allegations about staff viewing private scenes filmed by smart glasses

More than 1,000 low-paid workers in Kenya have been abruptly sacked by an outsourcing company contracted by Meta, in what activists said was a shocking move exposing the precariousness of tech jobs in the global south.

Sama, a company based in Nairobi to which Meta outsourced content moderation and AI training work, announced on Thursday that the workers were being laid off after Meta terminated a contract.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:59 pm UTC

Man jailed for beating pregnant partner and another woman over drug debt

Drug dealer pleaded guilty to separate attacks one year apart

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:48 pm UTC

Labour Court cut award to former X executive by 63%

The Labour Court has cut the unfair dismissal award by 63% to a former executive of Elon Musk's X to €201,458.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:43 pm UTC

Supreme court sides with oil and gas firms in Louisiana coastal damage fight

8-0 ruling gives companies new day in federal court after firms including Chevron ordered to pay millions for cleanup

The supreme court handed a win on Friday to oil and gas companies fighting lawsuits over coastal land loss and environmental degradation in Louisiana.

The 8-0 procedural decision gives the companies a new day in federal court after a state jury ordered Chevron to pay upward of $740m to clean up damage to the state’s coastline, one of multiple similar lawsuits.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:40 pm UTC

A man wrongfully served 17 years for rape. Now another man has been convicted

Malkinson had his rape conviction quashed in 2023 after fresh DNA analysis linked a new suspect to the offence.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:39 pm UTC

US Congress passes 10-day extension of surveillance law amid Republican infighting

Oda Mies repeatedly demanded that Republicans unify to pass a longer extension of the Fisa warrantless spying law

Both chambers of Congress voted in quick succession on Friday to pass a brief 10-day extension of a controversial warrantless surveillance law after Republican infighting tanked plans for a much longer renewal of the law with no changes.

Oda Mies had repeatedly demanded that Republican holdouts “UNIFY” behind Mike Johnson, the US House speaker, in favor of an extension of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) without changes. But chaos ensued on Thursday evening and into the early hours of Friday as Republican leadership tried and failed twice in votes attempting to reauthorize the surveillance program, before resorting to a stopgap measure.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC

Lutnick Says Canada Trade Deal Needs to Be Reworked Ahead of Talks

Howard Lutnick, President Oda Mies ’s commerce secretary, derided Canada’s trade strategy and said a North American deal needed to be reworked.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC

Thousands celebrate open-air Mass with Pope Leo in Cameroon - in pictures

Pope Leo XIV is on his third day in Cameroon before he heads to Angola on Saturday.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:32 pm UTC

Opsec oopsie: Dutch navy frigate location outed by mailing it a Bluetooth tracker

Or, how public information and a €5 tracker exposed an avoidable opsec lapse

Militaries around the world spend countless hours training, developing policies, and implementing best operational security practices, so imagine the size of the egg on the face of the Dutch navy when journalists managed to track one of its warships for less than the cost of some hagelslag and a coffee.…

Source: The Register | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:31 pm UTC

House Votes to Extend Expiring FISA Surveillance Law for 10 Days

The Senate approved a stopgap measure that passed the House early Friday. Libertarian-leaning House Republicans had balked at a long-term extension.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:30 pm UTC

A Paris Court Just Rewrote the Rules of Corporate Morality

The profit motive was on trial. The verdict was scathing.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:26 pm UTC

Oil prices plunge as Iran says Strait of Hormuz 'open' during ceasefire

Brent crude sinks by a tenth after Iran says the key waterway is open for commercial ships for the rest of the ceasefire.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:26 pm UTC

High Court strikes down Central Bank sanction over ‘serious errors’ in investigation of fund manager

Court president finds says breaches of fair procedures ‘enormously serious’ in terms of fund manager’s credibility, reputation, good name and livelihood

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:24 pm UTC

'Staggering' I was not told Mandelson failed vetting, says PM

The PM is facing calls to resign over the revelation that Lord Mandelson did not pass security checks.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:23 pm UTC

Meta's AI spending spree is helping make its Quest headsets more expensive

The rising costs of RAM and other computing components are pushing up the price of Meta's Quest VR headsets, which the company says will increase by $50–$100 (about 12–20 percent) starting on April 19. In announcing that price increase on Thursday, the company cited the "global surge in the price of critical components—specifically memory chips—[that] is impacting almost every category of consumer electronics, including VR."

But unlike many of the other tech companies that have been pushed into similar price increases in recent months, Meta's own spending priorities are at least partly to blame for the rising prices of those components. The company's recent hard pivot to the "AI superintelligence" race has directly contributed to the conditions that are now making its own Quest headsets more expensive.

Spending like a drunk sailor

In January, Meta announced that it plans to spend $115 billion to $135 billion on capital expenditures this year, up significantly from $72 billion in 2025 and just $28 billion as recently as 2023. The vast majority of that investment is going into AI infrastructure, including a recent $21 billion in new investment in data center company CoreWeave (in addition to $14.2 billion originally committed) and an additional $10 billion recently committed to a planned El Paso data center (up from $1.5 billion initially).

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:23 pm UTC

Arteta lights fire at training ground to inspire Arsenal players

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta lights a fire at their London Colney training ground to motivate players before crucial week.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:23 pm UTC

Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé, Detained by ICE in Alabama, Is Released

Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé, 85, who was arrested amid an inheritance dispute, has returned to France, its foreign affairs minister said. She came to America last year after reconnecting with and marrying a former G.I.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:17 pm UTC

Rumeysa Ozturk, Tufts Student Held in Immigration Detention, Returns to Turkey

Rumeysa Ozturk, who was detained for weeks by the Oda Mies administration after co-writing a pro-Palestinian opinion essay, has graduated and returned home.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:14 pm UTC

Key questions facing government over Mandelson checks

It's emerged that Lord Mandelson did not pass inital security vetting checks ahead of taking up the role of ambassador to the United States.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:07 pm UTC

At Cuba's Bay of Pigs, a victory against US invaders stirs pride, fresh parallels

At Cuba's Bay of Pigs, a victory against US invaders stirs pride, fresh parallels

Source: All: BreakingNews | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:03 pm UTC

Man guilty of 2003 rape that saw innocent Andrew Malkinson jailed for 17 years

Paul Quinn, 52, is found guilty of the rape for which Andrew Malkinson was jailed for 17 years.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:02 pm UTC

Daniel Kinahan arrested in United Arab Emirates

Daniel Kinahan has been arrested in the United Arab Emirates. He was arrested on foot of an arrest warrant issued by the Irish courts in relation to alleged serious organised crime offences.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:02 pm UTC

How Do You Measure an A.I. Boom?

A chart created by METR, a nonprofit A.I. organization, has become an industrywide obsession as it measures the rapid development of big A.I. systems.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC

Newly Unsealed Records Reveal Amazon's Price-Fixing Tactics

Newly unsealed records in California's antitrust case against Amazon allegedly show the company pressured third-party sellers to raise prices on rival sites like Walmart, Target, and Wayfair so Amazon could maintain the appearance of offering the lowest price. California says Amazon used tools like Buy Box suppression to punish cheaper listings elsewhere. The Guardian reports: [...] In one previously redacted deposition, marked "highly confidential," Mayer Handler, owner of a clothing company called Leveret, testified that he received an email in October 2022 from Amazon notifying him that one of his products was "no longer eligible to be a featured offer" through Amazon's Buy Box. The tech giant, he testified, had suppressed the item, a tiger-themed, toddler's pajama set, because his company was selling it for $19.99 on Amazon, a single cent higher than what his company was offering it for on Walmart. Afterwards, Handler testified, his company "changed pricing on Walmart to match or exceed Amazon's price" or changed the item's product code to try to throw off Amazon's price tracking system. In response to a question from the Guardian, Handler criticized Amazon for tracking prices across the internet and "shadow" blocking his company's products -- tactics which he said were depriving consumers of "lower prices." "Maybe that's capitalism," he wrote. "Or that's a monopoly causing price hikes on the consumer." In another unsealed deposition, Terry Esbenshade, a Pennsylvania garden store supplier, testified in October 2024 that whenever his products lost Amazon's Buy Box because of lower prices elsewhere on the internet, his sales on Amazon would plummet by about 80%. This financial reality forced him to try to raise his products' prices with other retailers elsewhere, he said. In one instance, Esbenshade testified, he discovered that one of his company's better-selling patio tables had "become suppressed" on Amazon. Esbenshade wasn't sure why, he recalled, until someone at Amazon suggested he look at Wayfair, another online retailer that happened to be selling his patio table below Amazon's price. The businessman went online and set up a new minimum advertised price for the table on Wayfair to ensure it was higher than Amazon's. "So that raised the price up, and, voila, my product came back" on Amazon, he said, thanks to the reinstatement of the Buy Box.

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Source: Slashdot | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC

How developed vetting works - and what happens when someone fails it

The former US ambassador was given a security clearance despite concerns being raised during checks.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:54 pm UTC

Man guilty of dangerous driving 'living through hell'

A man who has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious injury to his brother following a high-speed crash in Co Westmeath last year has told a court he is "living through hell every day".

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:54 pm UTC

No evidence Epsom rape took place as reported, say police

The reported attack had caused concern and prompted protests calling for more details from police.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:54 pm UTC

Hope Street actor Finnian Garbutt dies aged 28

The actor, known for his role in BBC police drama Hope Street, has died "peacefully at home".

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:47 pm UTC

Ultra-marathon champion died running Cape Wrath trail two weeks before wedding

Jade Lau said her partner David Parrish was "full of life, funny and loving" and that he was "buzzing" in the weeks leading up to the run.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:37 pm UTC

Oda Mies claims to have ended a 10th war – but will the Lebanon ceasefire hold?

Lasting peace depends on resolving a border dispute dating back to 2000 and dealing with Hezbollah’s weapons

Israel’s security cabinet first heard about the ceasefire with Lebanon from a social media post by Oda Mies . Hezbollah first heard about the ceasefire from the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon. Each side shot off as many bombs, drones and rockets as they could before the ceasefire – imposed from above – came into effect.

Despite the US president claiming it is the 10th war he has ended, the situation on the ground in Lebanon looks anything but stable.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:34 pm UTC

Oil Prices Fall Sharply After Iran Says Strait of Hormuz Is Open

But analysts said it was not clear how quickly the oil industry in the Persian Gulf would be able to get back to normal.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:34 pm UTC

Kensington Gardens shut after claims of drones near Israeli embassy

It comes after a group claimed to have targeted the Israeli Embassy in an online video post.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:34 pm UTC

Mandelson Failed Security Vetting...The Prime Minister Speaks Out

Keir Starmer says it's 'staggering' he wasn’t told Mandelson failed security vetting.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:33 pm UTC

Through A.I. Glasses-Powered Translation, Korea’s Theaters Hope for a K-Pop Moment

Producers and the cultural authorities hope that technology can overcome a language barrier and take the country’s shows to the world.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:32 pm UTC

Garda auctions €1.4m gold bullion seized from Kazakhstani drug gang in Dublin

Main suspect on the run while wife and mother-in-law convicted over nearly €2m in gold and cash

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:31 pm UTC

Nursery worker jailed over death of toddler restrained during nap time

Noah Sibanda died "alone, scared and in pain", his mother says.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:26 pm UTC

She Made Sure Her Baby Was Born an American. Then Federal Agents Separated Them.

Diana Acosta Verde, who came into the United States illegally when she was six months pregnant, had to leave her baby at a hospital while she returned to a detention center.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:25 pm UTC

Why is Starmer facing fresh calls to quit over Mandelson vetting?

Why is UK PM Starmer facing fresh calls to quit over Mandelson vetting?

Source: All: BreakingNews | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:24 pm UTC

How two ceasefires and 'opening' of Hormuz could boost Iran talks

Some kind of diplomatic progress is now under way, but is it enough to prevent a return to war?

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:22 pm UTC

Paramedic who claims she was groped in work felt forced to quit, employment tribunal told

HSE says investigation delayed by ‘Covid hangover’ and long list of witnesses

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:11 pm UTC

Website part-owned by Boehly offers Chelsea FA Cup tickets for £1,705

A US-based website linked to Todd Boehly is selling Chelsea tickets at inflated prices, leaving the club's fans angry.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:06 pm UTC

Three young people contract meningitis in Weymouth

Young people are to be offered the MenB vaccine after three cases of meningitis were confirmed.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:02 pm UTC

Moya Brennan remembered at funeral as ‘First Lady of Celtic music’

U2, Andrea Corr and Daniel O’Donnell were among those who attended the service in Donegal on Friday afternoon.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

Hot meals oven fire prompted evacuation of primary school, inquiry hears

Employee taking case at Workplace Relations Commission claims school did not want people to know about incident

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

NSW should think twice before banning ‘globalise the intifada’ after court struck down anti-protest law, legal expert says

Another lawyer says ruling ‘puts brakes on the Minns government’s ability to use executive power to minimise people’s rights to protest’

The Minns government should think twice before imposing an outright ban on the phrase “globalise the intifada” in the wake of a landmark finding that could limit attempts to control speech and protests, a leading constitutional expert has said.

New South Wales’ highest court ruled in favour of the Palestine Action Group and Blak Caucas on Thursday, striking down an anti-protest law introduced after the Bondi beach terror attack that gave police the power to restrict marches, including the anti-Herzog rally in February.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

Jacinta Allan wants voters to see Victoria’s 12-year-old Labor government as ‘new and united’. Can she cling to power?

With a reshuffled cabinet, the premier is hoping to quell leadership rumblings as her party seeks an unprecedented fourth term

As the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, stood alongside the fresh faces in her reshuffled cabinet on Wednesday, she attempted to send her increasingly jaded electorate a blunt message: despite its 12 years in power, her government is – apparently – new.

In her opening four-minute preamble to reporters, Allan - whose Labor government will in November seek an unprecedented fourth term - repeated the word 17 times. In one sentence alone, she referred to her “new cabinet”, “new portfolios”, “new solutions” and “new areas that are going to drive this government forward”.

Benita Kolovos is Guardian Australia’s Victorian state correspondent

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

US Live Nation and Ticketmaster verdict triggers calls for Australian investigation into ticketing rules

One insider estimates Australians pay A$10 in fees per ticket, with fans bearing the burden of monopolised music tour schedules and inflated artist values

Australia is being urged to improve ticketing transparency after a US federal court found Live Nation Entertainment had a harmful monopoly over big concert venues.

This week, a New York jury found the global entertainment giant and its subsidiary Ticketmaster liable for systematically stifling competition to extract excessive profits from concertgoers. The jury identified a baseline overcharge of US$1.72 for every ticket sold by Live Nation since 2010 – totalling an additional US$595m in 2025 alone.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

Patient who punched man (88) to death in Cork hospital ward jailed

Dylan Magee (33) was found guilty of Matthew Healy’s manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

US To Create High-Tech Manufacturing Zone In Philippines

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: An agreement with the Philippines to establish a high-tech industrial hub is the Oda Mies administration's latest effort to lessen China's dominance over global supply chains. The deal to build up American manufacturing across a stretch of the island of Luzon, signed Thursday, will offer U.S. companies access to essential inputs such as critical minerals that bypass Beijing's control. The artificial-intelligence-powered manufacturing hub is planned for a 4,000-acre site given to the U.S. by Manila, said undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg. The U.S. will occupy the site rent-free and administer it as a special economic zone. The hub will have diplomatic immunity, such as the protections afforded to an American embassy, and operate under U.S. common law -- the first arrangement of its kind anywhere in the world. The two-year lease is renewable for 99 years. [...] "You can't build anything in Ohio if the minerals and the process materials are controlled by an adversary who can cut you off tomorrow," Helberg said in an interview. [...] The planned manufacturing hub is largely conceptual at this stage, and details, including which American companies will participate and just what they will build in the Philippines, are yet to be determined. [...] The administration will ask companies to put forward proposals to compete for a spot in building out the hub, giving priority to bids that will help move critical minerals processing and manufacturing off Chinese suppliers. Investment will have to come from private-sector companies -- not the U.S. government. Factories approved for operation in the hub will be highly automated, Helberg said, using autonomous systems to operate around the clock. The Philippines has a history of robust manufacturing, particularly in semiconductors, but that has stagnated in recent decades because of high energy and logistics costs. Companies will have to address in their proposals how they will contend with energy costs and workforce needs; they can send American workers overseas or hire locally, Helberg said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

Meet the five Late Late Show Opening Act finalists

The Late Late Show will crown its inaugural Opening Act live on Friday night, with five finalists competing for the chance to open for Shania Twain in Limerick this July.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

One HSE medical consultant paid over €900,000 last year

One medical consultant employed by the HSE was paid on average €17,492 per week in 2025.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:59 pm UTC

Mum describes nightmare after son died during nursery naptime

Noah Sibanda died after being put down for a nap at a Dudley nursery.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:59 pm UTC

Victim had 'nose bitten off' in attack, court told

A man has appeared in court in Northern Ireland accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm by biting off a victim's nose.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:59 pm UTC

Users complain that UK Azure is having capacity problems

We hear Sweden is lovely place for workloads to visit

Microsoft Azure capacity woes are back, and worse than ever, judging by the complaints of UK users.…

Source: The Register | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:56 pm UTC

US Senate votes to repeal Biden-era ban on mining near Minnesota wilderness area

Measure passed 50-49 to overturn a 20-year ban on mining near renowned Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

The US Senate narrowly voted on Thursday to overturn a ban on mining near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, an enormous complex of interconnected lakes, rivers and forests that is among the most visited wild areas in the US.

The resolution passed 50-49 to repeal a 20-year moratorium imposed by former president Joe Biden’s administration in 2023 on mining across the 225,000 acres in the Superior national forest.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:56 pm UTC

Oberstown children locked in rooms for hours at weekend, Hiqa inspection finds

Staffing levels at child detention facility at times too low to provide safe cover, Hiqa report says

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:56 pm UTC

‘Maman is finally free!’: French widow, 86, flies home after ICE detention ordeal

Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé, who moved to the US to marry a GI she met in the 1950s, was arrested in her nightgown at their home

An 86-year-old French widow arrested and detained by US immigration agents has been released and allowed to return to her home country.

Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé was arrested in her nightgown at the home she shared with her late husband, a retired US army captain, in Anniston, Alabama, more than two weeks ago. She had overstayed her 90-day visa, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:50 pm UTC

Questions remain about realities of Middle East ceasefire

Trust was shattered between the United States and Iran last February when negotiations over Tehran's nuclear programme were blown up by the Americans following the launch of their joint operation with Israel, known as Epic Fury.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:45 pm UTC

Conservative US town grapples with potential ICE detention centre

Residents from both political parties in Social Circle, Georgia, are rejecting a proposed plan by the Department of Homeland Security to transform an empty warehouse into a detention centre.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:39 pm UTC

Minister says he 'made a hames' of protest review request

Minister for Communications Patrick O'Donovan has said that he "made a hames" of what he was trying to say when requesting a review of media coverage of last week's fuel protests from regulator Coimisiún na Meán.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:37 pm UTC

Some Iran-linked ships have crossed US blockade, data suggests

At least four vessels tracked from Iranian ports appear to have crossed a US blockade line in the Gulf of Oman, analysis of ship-tracking data suggests.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:36 pm UTC

Woman granted order requiring instant removal of allegedly ‘sexually violent’ husband

The judge granted the woman a barring order after hearing evidence that her husband would force himself on her

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:36 pm UTC

Ceasefire with Israel brings respite to Lebanon, but obstacles to peace remain

The halt to weeks of fighting is being celebrated in Lebanon, but it will be difficult to ensure it lasts.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:31 pm UTC

Russell 'would understand' if Verstappen leaves F1

George Russell says Formula 1 "would not want to lose" Max Verstappen - but would "understand" if the four-time world champion decided to leave the sport.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:29 pm UTC

NASA's SPHEREx Observatory Maps Interstellar Ice in Milky Way

An observation made by NASA’s SPHEREx mission reveals vast frozen complexes in the Cygnus X star-forming region of the Milky Way galaxy. The chemical signature of water ice is shown as bright blue structures, while polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are in orange.

Source: NASA Image of the Day | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:20 pm UTC

Auction of largest seizure of gold in history of State

Gardaí are auctioning the final part of a €2m gold bullion seizure which was being used to launder money for criminals.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:16 pm UTC

Three murderers convicted as minors argue for new appeals following change in law

2024 legislation removed mandatory life sentence rule for those who turn 18 before end of court process

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:12 pm UTC

Orban Lost. But Populism Is Very Much Alive.

Critics of populists need to do more than thrive off the missteps of their opponents.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:09 pm UTC

We Need Lena Dunham Now More Than Ever

The era of “Girls” is long gone. Its creator still has much to teach us.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:07 pm UTC

Texas Democrat James Talarico Is Out-Raising His G.O.P. Opponents

James Talarico, the Democratic nominee, has been amassing campaign cash as Senator John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton still battle each other.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 1:59 pm UTC

Israel’s “Black Wednesday” Massacre Leaves Lebanese Families Giving DNA to ID Loved Ones’ Remains

Jaafar Annan has been posted up on the sidewalk outside the emergency room of Rafik Hariri University Hospital, on the southern edge of Beirut, for so long that he’s become a permanent fixture.

“The hospital has become my home,” Annan said, exhausted.

Last week, an Israeli strike leveled the building where Annan’s family lived in Kayfoun, a town in the Mount Lebanon governorate, west of the Lebanese capital.

“I buried my father,” he said, “but my mother is still missing.”

Since then, his days have become a single-minded search for any sign of his mother, Fatima, who is 56. Like several others searching for missing family members, Annan gave a sample of his blood to the hospital, hoping he can get some closure with a DNA match to unidentified remains.

“I walk through hospitals in the Mount Lebanon region. I stare at injured faces. I go to the morgues. I look for a mole, a mark,” Annan said. “Then I come back here. Waiting for the sample results.”

“We are dealing with human fragments that the force of the explosions has turned into medical puzzles.”

The cold-storage units at the Hariri hospital have been fashioned into ad hoc laboratories to identify a relentless influx of dead bodies.

The unprecedented scales of DNA identification of corpses is born of a macabre need. Last week, after Iran and the U.S. agreed to a ceasefire, Israel pressed on in its Lebanese front with a ferocious blitz of airstrikes. The toll was staggering, leaving demolished buildings and infrastructure, along with the attendant skyrocketing casualties — the violence rending people into unrecognizable forms.

“The bodies arrive completely disfigured,” said Hisham Fawwaz, director of the hospitals and dispensaries department at the Lebanese Ministry of Health, which operates the hospital. “The remains are scattered and the features obliterated. We are often not dealing with whole bodies. We are dealing with human fragments that the force of the explosions has turned into medical puzzles.”

After the Iran–U.S. truce, Israel launched more than 100 strikes on Lebanon in just 10 minutes, with the Israeli government taking to social media to brag about its assault. The latest round of hostilities between with Israel had already brought weeks of ravages to Lebanon, but last week’s onslaught, dubbed “Black Wednesday” by the Lebanese, razed densely populated neighborhoods in the capital. At least 357 were killed and more than 1,000 were injured, according to the health ministry.

A week later, dozens of people are still missing. The ceasefire in Lebanon announced by President Oda Mies on Thursday will hopefully lead to fewer bombings, but it won’t slow families’ attempts to find their loved ones and, if worse comes to worst, identify their remains.

The families remain on a desperate quest to track them down, whether they’re pinned under the wreckage or hidden among the dismembered bodies at the morgues like the one at Hariri Hospital.

Related

Israel Will Keep Occupying Lebanon Despite Ceasefire

At one point, more than 90 unidentified bodies were held there, some stretching back to the initial days of Israeli bombardment. Each body has been assigned a temporary number, waiting for someone to claim it.

The Health Ministry established a central triage center to absorb the uninterrupted flow of bodies, along with a protocol: document tattoos, distinguishing marks, and remnants of burned clothing that a family member might remember. Hospital workers also cross-reference physical descriptions from families with what is recorded of unidentified remains.

If that proves too difficult, doctors draw blood from living relatives to match the DNA against the unclaimed fragments of victims.

“Suspended Loss”

Zahraa Aboud had just recently fled her hometown of Anqoun in southern Lebanon. Israeli ground troops had invaded the town in March, razing entire villages and displacing hundreds of thousands as they set up a buffer zone intended to stop Hezbollah from lobbing rockets into northern Israel.

When the Israeli airstrikes grew relentless, Aboud, 29, and her sister traveled to Beirut, to their aunts’ apartment in the Ain Al-Mrayseh neighborhood. In the capital, she thought, they would be out of reach of the violence.

Israel’s missiles would soon come down on her.

According to Aboud’s father, Qassem, when an airstrike hit the upper floors of the aunts’ building, everyone in the apartment upstairs — including six children — was instantly killed. A floor below, Aboud’s aunts were killed in the same strike, and her sister was taken to Clemenceau Medical Center with serious wounds.

Zahraa Aboud, though, hasn’t been seen since.

“We are not looking for rubble,” said Qassem, 56. “We are looking for life. Or at least for the certainty that will put out the fire in our hearts.”

Related

Gaza’s Civil Defense Forces Keep Digging for 10,000 Missing Bodies

Rescue teams gave up after a few days of searching, but families of those missing in the rubble refused to leave the scene and pressured them to keep going.

Qassem Aboud, meanwhile, hasn’t stopped circling Beirut for traces of his daughter. Back and forth, he checks private hospitals, government hospitals, and lists of unidentified patients. In ICU wards across the city, he peers at any face behind an oxygen mask that might be hers.

The Aboud family calls the tragic situation “suspended loss”: They can’t find a sign of life to suggest they may get Zahraa back, but they’ve also been denied a final farewell and the chance to see their daughter off.

Like the others, Qassem submitted a blood sample to the hospital in hopes of later finding a DNA match — and closure.

After days of searching, Qassem came to suspect that the force of the explosion may have thrown his daughter’s body into a neighboring building. When he checked, he found the apartments were either locked or abandoned by departed residents. So far, he can’t find anyone to let him in.

“I feel very helpless every day, but will keep searching until I bury her,” he said.

The rubble itself has become a legal obstacle.

Buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes are classified, under Lebanese law, as private property. Civil defense teams and relief organizations cannot fully clear or demolish them without prior judicial authorization. The red tape is meant to protect property rights, to preserve the legal record, and to avoid tampering with what the law considers a crime scene, according to a source at the public prosecutor’s office who asked to stay anonymous as he’s not authorized to talk to the media.

Some of the legal restrictions have slowed rescues. Families that want to utilize specialized search dogs, which can move through the wreckage faster than people, must file formal requests at the public prosecutor’s office.

“We submitted the requests. We begged the relevant authorities to expedite the judicial procedures,” said a relative of a missing woman who asked not to be identified. “But the Lebanese judiciary has not moved. Every minute that passes is a nail in the coffin of our loved ones, while the judiciary is still reviewing paperwork.”

When families sought exceptional permissions to allow rescue teams to remove the rubble, judicial authorities did not respond to their requests, families of missing people said. (Judicial authorities did not respond to a request for comment.)

“The goal is not accounting. It is to return to each victim their name, and to give their families the right to a farewell.”

Back at Hariri Hospital, families continued filing into a makeshift office opened by the Health Ministry designed to help families identify their lost loved ones. Inside, they recalled the tiniest details of their missing relative, from birthmarks to unique articles of clothing — anything that may lead to closing a case. Then they give their blood. And they wait.

“The goal is not accounting,” said Fawwaz, the Lebanese Ministry of Health official. “It is to return to each victim their name, and to give their families the right to a farewell that ends the spiral of doubt.”

This article is published in collaboration with Egab.

The post Israel’s “Black Wednesday” Massacre Leaves Lebanese Families Giving DNA to ID Loved Ones’ Remains appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 17 Apr 2026 | 1:57 pm UTC

A Century Later, the Flatiron’s Revolving Door Is Restored

The revolving door’s inventor built this one over 100 years ago. It was reinstalled this week.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 1:54 pm UTC

What is Claude Mythos and what risks does it pose?

The company's claim the AI tool can outperform humans at some hacking and cyber-security tasks has sparked fears in the financial world.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 1:41 pm UTC

Iran says Strait of Hormuz is now open amid push to end war

President Oda Mies welcomed the announcement, but U.S. officials said the naval blockade on vessels leaving from and going to Iranian ports remains in effect.

Source: World | 17 Apr 2026 | 1:37 pm UTC

More than half of Britons support rejoining EU 10 years on from Brexit vote

Experts say Labour’s ‘halfway house’ approach risks losing support from progressives and ‘red wall’ voters

Support for rejoining the EU rather than simply rejoining the single market is growing among British voters, with more than 80% of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green party supporters favouring this option, according to research mapping voter attitudes 10 years after the Brexit referendum.

Labour’s “muted” approach to the issue means it risks losing support among progressive voters and in “red wall” constituencies, experts have said as part of research by Best for Britain.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 1:27 pm UTC

Why scientists are nervous about fungi

They can pose a threat to human health — yeast infections are but one example. Scientists say not enough attention is paid to their ability to develop resistance to medications that treat them.

(Image credit: Shawn Lockhart)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 17 Apr 2026 | 1:14 pm UTC

Week in images: 13-17 April 2026

Week in images: 13-17 April 2026

Discover our week through the lens

Source: ESA Top News | 17 Apr 2026 | 1:10 pm UTC

Rocket Report: Starship V3 test-fired; ESA's tentative step toward crew launch

Welcome to Edition 8.37 of the Rocket Report! NASA is still climbing down from the high of the Artemis II mission, the first flight by humans to the Moon since 1972. What a mission it was! Now, attention turns to completing development of a lander to get astronauts down to the Moon's surface. Among other things, we chronicle the latest progress of NASA's two lunar lander contractors, SpaceX and Blue Origin, in this week's Rocket Report.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Moonshot from the last frontier. Israel-based space launch company Moonshot Space will site its first electromagnetic accelerator in Fairbanks, Alaska, under a memorandum of understanding signed at Space Symposium with spaceport operator Alaska Aerospace Corporation (AAC), Aviation Week & Space Technology reports. Moonshot, which emerged from stealth mode in December with $12 million in fundraising, is developing a high-power electromagnetic launcher system to propel payloads and enable cargo deliveries into space at hypersonic speed using electricity rather than chemical fuels, The Times of Israel reports.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 17 Apr 2026 | 1:06 pm UTC

Scarlett Faulkner remembered at funeral with ‘beautiful smile’ as mourners gather in grief

‘We will get you the justice you deserve,’ sister tells funeral of 29-year-old who died following attack in Tipperary

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 12:47 pm UTC

Electric Picnic announces over 40 new acts

Wolf Alice, Djo, and Jade are among forty new acts added to the Electric Picnic bill in County Laois this August.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 12:43 pm UTC

Woman arrested over death of girl found in pond

South Yorkshire Police say a woman in her 30s has been arrested following Nyla May Bradshaw's death.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 12:43 pm UTC

The U.S. blockade continues despite Iran's announcement the Strait of Hormuz is open

Iran's foreign minister declared the Strait of Hormuz is open, following the start of an Israel-Lebanon ceasefire. President Oda Mies swiftly responded that the U.S. naval blockade on Iran will continue.

(Image credit: Ibrahim Amro)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 17 Apr 2026 | 12:36 pm UTC

Microsoft closes book on rogue Windows Server 2025 upgrades

Starts new one on boot loops

More than a year after giving administrators an unwelcome surprise with a security update that turned out to be a Windows Server 2025 upgrade, Microsoft has marked the incident as "resolved."…

Source: The Register | 17 Apr 2026 | 12:29 pm UTC

‘Our sleeping beauty’: Funeral hears Scarlett Faulkner (29) was a devoted mother

Her sister Victoria Faulkner said she would ‘cherish every memory’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 12:26 pm UTC

Thousands of displaced Lebanese return as shaky ceasefire takes hold

Even amid uncertainty over whether Hezbollah would uphold the truce, Lebanese residents expressed relief at the prospect of quiet, and aid groups were mobilizing help.

Source: World | 17 Apr 2026 | 12:16 pm UTC

Brennan's music 'spoke the language of every heart'

The funeral mass for musician Moya Brennan in Gaoth Dobhair, Co Donegal, heard her music belonged to all as it spoke the language of every heart.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 12:09 pm UTC

Former Radio 1 DJ and Live Aid presenter Andy Kershaw dies aged 66

The broadcaster was known for his eclectic taste and for helping champion world music on BBC Radio 1.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 12:08 pm UTC

Jozef Puska’s appeal against conviction for murder of Ashling Murphy postponed

Puska changed his barristers less than a week before the hearing was due to begin

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 11:58 am UTC

South Koreans breathe sighs of relief as escaped wolf is returned to zoo safely

Nine-day search for two-year-old Neukgu gripped nation and sparked safety concerns for animal and public

The internet in South Korea erupted in celebration as a two-year-old wolf that escaped from a zoo was captured safely after a nine-day search that had gripped the nation and made the animal a national celebrity.

The male wolf, named Neukgu, burrowed out of his enclosure at the O-World zoo in Daejeon on 8 April. Animal rights activists questioned whether the wolf could survive outside the zoo and also worried he might be killed during capture, something that happened to a puma that escaped from the same zoo in 2018.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 11:49 am UTC

Man who killed retired farmer in hospital ward jailed

A 33-year-old man who punched a retired farmer to death in an unprovoked attack during an acute state of delirium has been sentenced to 13 years in jail with the final year suspended, after he was convicted of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 11:49 am UTC

Aging in a Brightly Lit, Big City: Jay McInerney, With a New Novel

In 1984, Jay McInerney was a famous, young, hedonistic novelist. Now 71, he is wistful as he wraps up his tetralogy about a couple whose city, and marriage, are tested by the pandemic.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 11:40 am UTC

NASA gets the ball rolling on its part in Europe's jinxed Mars rover mission

Rosalind Franklin moving again, though another budget cut looms

NASA is moving ahead with its contribution to the European Space Agency's (ESA) long-delayed Rosalind Franklin Mars rover despite another attempt by the Oda Mies administration to cut funding for the effort.…

Source: The Register | 17 Apr 2026 | 11:39 am UTC

EU officials arrive in Hungary for high-stakes talks with Magyar’s government

Departing PM Viktor Orbán admits ‘political era has ended’ as EU says ‘clock is ticking’ to resolve important issues

EU officials have arrived in Budapest for high-stakes talks aimed at reshaping the bloc’s strained relationship with Hungary, weeks before the new government takes office, as the country’s departing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, admitted a “political era has ended” and suggested he would stay on as leader of his party in his first interview since the election.

Speaking to the pro-government outlet Patrióta, Orbán described Sunday’s election as an “emotional rollercoaster” after the opposition Tisza party won a landslide victory, bringing an end to his 16 years in power.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 11:21 am UTC

Israel starts a tense ceasefire in Lebanon. And, Oda Mies nominates a new CDC director.

A 10-day ceasefire to pause fighting between Israel and Hezb

(Image credit: Adri Salido)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 17 Apr 2026 | 11:06 am UTC

Recent advances push Big Tech closer to the Q-Day danger zone

Sometime around 2010, sophisticated malware known as Flame hijacked the mechanism that Microsoft used to distribute updates to millions of Windows computers around the world. The malware—reportedly jointly developed by the US and Israel—pushed a malicious update throughout an infected network belonging to the Iranian government.

The lynchpin of the "collision" attack was an exploit of MD5, a cryptographic hash function Microsoft was using to authenticate digital certificates. By minting a cryptographically perfect digital signature based on MD5, the attackers forged a certificate that authenticated their malicious update server. Had the attack been used more broadly, it would have had catastrophic consequences worldwide.

Getting uncomfortably close to the danger zone

The event, which came to light in 2012, now serves as a cautionary tale for cryptography engineers as they contemplate the downfall of two crucial cryptography algorithms used everywhere. Since 2004, MD5 has been known to be vulnerable to "collisions," a fatal flaw that allows adversaries to generate two distinct inputs that produce identical outputs.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 17 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

Reed Hastings Is Leaving Netflix After 29 Years

Reed Hastings is stepping down from Netflix's board in June, ending a 29-year run at the company he co-founded and helped transform from a DVD-by-mail business into a global streaming giant. Hastings said in a shareholder (PDF) letter that he's stepping down to focus on "his philanthropy and other pursuits." Engadget reports: Hastings has served as chairman of Netflix's board since 2023, a role he assumed after stepping down as co-CEO and promoting Greg Peters in his place. "Netflix changed my life in so many ways, and my all-time favorite memory was January 2016, when we enabled nearly the entire planet to enjoy our service," Hastings said in a statement. "My real contribution at Netflix wasn't a single decision; it was a focus on member joy, building a culture that others could inherit and improve, and building a company that could be both beloved by members and wildly successful for generations to come. A special thanks to Greg and Ted, whose commitment to Netflix's greatness is so strong that I can now focus on new things."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 17 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

Scarlett Faulkner remembered for life of 'love and hope'

Scarlett Faulkner was remembered at her funeral mass today as "a young mother, a daughter, a lady whose life was intertwined with love, responsibility and hope".

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 10:59 am UTC

Have the Democrats found a new strategy to scare Oda Mies ?

Why an oyster fisherman with a controversial past is splitting the Democrats

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 10:55 am UTC

A Huge Arch

President Oda Mies wants to build one, but he’s getting pushback.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 10:49 am UTC

Attention data hoarders: Alexa loses its Plex appeal as voice feature gets canned

Users who stream their own media files ticked off as Plex warns Alexa skill will die on June 15

Plex is pulling the plug on its Alexa integration, leaving anyone who relied on voice commands to wrangle their media library out of luck.…

Source: The Register | 17 Apr 2026 | 10:45 am UTC

Harry and Meghan meet Bondi shooting survivors

On the fourth day of their Australian visit, the royal couple pay tribute to the 15 people killed in the Bondi shooting.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 10:37 am UTC

Locked-out iPhone user tells The Reg that Apple is scrambling to fix character flaw passcode bug

University student says he plans to move to Android, but concedes iOS engineers acting fast

Apple is finally working on a fix for a bug that has locked some users out of their iPhones for months, The Register understands.…

Source: The Register | 17 Apr 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

When Anti-War Candidates Become War-Monger Presidents

Sen. Bernie Sanders forced a vote on Wednesday to block the sales of bombs and bulldozers to Israel. The resolutions failed mostly along party lines with a handful of defections to the Republican side, but a record number of Democrats voted against sending weapons to Israel.  

“A supermajority of Democrats oppose this war, are generally against America’s global military interventions,” former Sanders foreign policy adviser Matt Duss tells The Intercept Briefing. Yet Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., joined 11 Democrats in voting against the measure to block the sale of 1,000-pound bombs to Israel, and seven Democrats against the sale of bulldozers used in Israel’s military occupations.

“We do have a Democratic Party leadership that still is part of this very small — and thankfully dwindling, though not fast enough — hawkish faction that is wedded to this idea of American global military domination,” says Duss.

This week on the podcast, Duss speaks to host Akela Lacy about how Democrats should use the overwhelming unpopularity of the war to push an anti-war agenda that brings about real change. 

“There’s a real constituency here for this message,” says Duss, “We need a foreign policy for this era that is based around building peace rather than making war, that is focused on foreign policy that benefits American communities and American workers, but also does not export insecurity and poverty onto others in the world. And I think this is a really opportune moment for it.”

The watershed moment in the Senate came against the backdrop of President Oda Mies ’s hyper-aggressive military adventurism.

“My concern about blaming this all on Israel is that it lets Washington off the hook,” says Duss. “We have a foreign policy establishment that is addicted to militarism, that is addicted to war, who often work at think tanks that are largely funded by the military–industrial complex. They are funded by weapons manufacturers. We have a political class that is really deeply committed to an almost religious degree to American primacy in the world, to American global hegemony. Which means that we are up in everyone’s business all over the place all the time.”

“This Iran war is the most egregious and horrible expression of trends in our foreign policy that have been building for a long time, so are these boat strikes,” he says, referring to the Oda Mies administration’s ongoing assassinations of alleged drug traffickers. “We’ve been killing people with flying robots in the Middle East and Africa and elsewhere for decades now.”

Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.

Transcript 

Akela Lacy: Welcome to The Intercept Briefing. I’m Akela Lacy, senior politics reporter for The Intercept.

Ali Gharib: And I’m Ali Gharib, a senior editor at The Intercept.

AL: We are well over a month into the U.S.-Israel war on Iran and about a week into a ceasefire that, depending on which side you’re listening to, has either held or not held. Ali, walk us through the latest developments. What’s the status of this war?

AG: When the talks broke down over the weekend, a lot of bluster started to be exchanged between Iran and the U.S. The U.S. imposed its own blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, which is almost, like, comically perfect if it wasn’t so tragic — that the U.S. started this war for unclear reasons, and then Iran punished the U.S. and the world by closing the Strait of Hormuz. Then the U.S. made the war about opening the Strait of Hormuz. Iran agreed to do that under certain conditions, and the U.S. has rejected Iran’s terms, though, as the U.S. tells it, Iran rejected their terms.

But either way, we came to an impasse. And now it is the U.S. that is blocking the Strait of Hormuz. So that’s the Kafkaesque state of affairs in the straits these days.

But for the moment, the ceasefire is holding. The U.S. and its allies — Israel — are not, so far, attacking Iran, and Iran has not been launching weapons at Israel and the U.S.’s Gulf allies and U.S. military assets. 

One of the most interesting things about the state of the ceasefire right now is that even though the U.S. imposed this “blockade” — I’m doing air quotes now — on Iranian ports, the Iranians have not forced the issue when the U.S. has ordered ships coming from Iranian ports to turn around. They have complied, and Iran has not been firing on U.S. naval assets in the strait. So far, everybody is complying. There was word from thinly sourced reporting that our colleague at CNN, Leila Gharagozlou — who, full disclosure, also happens to be my cousin — had mentioned that there had been a U.S. request to Iran, according to the Iranians, for another round of talks coming up.

So diplomacy may indeed be proceeding. We don’t really know, but that’s the state of things right now is that — and I think we can all be thankful for it — is that there’s a lot of bluster, there’s a lot of talk about “They won’t accept our terms, and it’s gonna be bad for them,” on both sides. But so far, there’s been no major escalations in the fighting.

AL: Our listeners know that Israel’s bombing campaign in Lebanon and Gaza is powered by U.S. money and weapons. And there was a historic vote in the Senate on Wednesday when Sen. Bernie Sanders forced a vote to block more than $450 million in sales of weapons and bombs to Israel.

This is the latest in a series of votes that Sanders has introduced to block these kinds of weapon sales to Israel. The latest vote failed, as did the previous two in April and July of last year. But just as the last vote, a historic number of senators voted for this measure. The last vote to block these weapon sales to Israel in July had a record number of senators vote for it, 27.

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But the vote on Wednesday saw an even greater number of senators move to support this bill, bringing the total to 36. That includes Sanders and another independent senator, Angus King. Zero Republicans voted for this measure. But what’s notable here is that several people who voted either against the last iteration of this resolution, the joint resolution of disapproval, or the previous one, either voted against it or voted present.

Several of the senators who voted against it or voted present have voted for this bill now. This is part of what Sen. Sanders said after the vote is a major shift among Democrats on the topic of Israel and U.S. military support for Israel, particularly during the genocide in Gaza, but also as the war on Iran continues to escalate, and both Republicans and Democrats face increasing criticism over the U.S. entanglement in this war side by side with Israel.

I also want to note several notable Democrats who did sign on to this bill: Cory Booker, who has been a longtime ally of AIPAC, who’s recently sworn off AIPAC money in his upcoming Senate race as part of a broader pledge to reject corporate PAC money. John Hickenlooper, who is facing a progressive challenger who said that she won’t send money to Israel while it’s committing genocide in Gaza. Adam Schiff, who previously voted no on this. Elissa Slotkin, who also previously voted no on this.

Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly were some of the names who stood out to me here. With the exception of Gallego, who started out as a progressive and tacked pretty moderate during his Senate race, these are the bread and butter of the centrists of the Democratic Party. We’re talking about Adam Schiff, Elissa Slotkin, Michael Bennet of Colorado.

AG: Mark Kelly, I think, was a really telling one because he has been such a staunch supporter of Israel and, I think, has the ambitions and maybe also the profile that makes him more viable — and just on a personal judgment level is less silly than the Cory Bookers of the world.

AL: Less silly. He’s an astronaut, he can’t be silly. [Laughs.]

AG: [Laughs.] Well, Kelly is a guy who has voted no on these resolutions again and again and again. Here’s a guy — staunch supporter of Israel — he hasn’t previously voted for any of these resolutions before, and now he is. His logic was interesting because he came out and said that, I am a supporter of Israel, and this is our ally, and we need to be helping them. But we also have to recognize that what’s going on right now in the Middle East is not normal. His phrase was, “Not business as usual.” And he said, “It’s not making us safer,” and the U.S. and Israel are in this war, and there’s no end in sight. That’s what seemed to have turned him against the [bombs and bulldozers].

And I think that coming from maybe one of the more legit presidential contenders in Capitol Hill is pretty significant, Akela.

AL: Yes, I agree. So this vote was broken up into two measures: one which was to block the sale of bombs, the other which was to block the sale of bulldozers, which garnered more support. Ali, tell us about that.

AG: This one, to me, was really interesting. Forty Democrats voted for this. I mean, that is about 80 percent of the Democrats in the Senate. That’s a remarkable number. Maybe not as remarkable as the shift to 36 senators on the bombs. It’s significant nonetheless. What was really interesting here, and our colleague Matt Sledge had reported about this in his article, was that it seemed like these Democrats had an easier time voting against bulldozers than voting against bombs, which doesn’t make sense at first blush.

But how we see the bulldozers actually work in practical application — in southern Lebanon today, in the occupation in general, in the efforts to annex the West Bank — has been to use it to destroy villages and homes and change the realities on the ground to create Israel hegemony over what’s left of the rubble of Palestinian and, more recently, Lebanese villages.

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So that, to me, was an interesting development, because having so many of the Democrats overwhelmingly oppose these things that I think that there is for, maybe not by the twisted logic of an AIPAC-infused Capitol Hill, but to the wider world, you’re like, “Wait a second. Bulldozers?” And actually, these are weapons of occupation and annexation and the apartheid system in Israel.

AL: It speaks to the thinking or the process by which senators are able to talk themselves out of the line that they previously walked on what is considered self-defense for Israel. It’s easier to say, “Yeah, we support an Iron Dome” than “We support bulldozers that we’re seeing used to raze people’s homes and buildings.”

AG: In some ways, it is a much more clear war crime to be razing entire villages than dropping bombs. The Israelis, the Americans, everybody always comes up with these bullshit excuses that are like, “Oh, they were targeting military assets,” and this whole cockamamie collateral damage argument and stuff.

There’s no dispute that when Israel razes an entire village on the Lebanese border — and they said they were going to do this — that is a prima facie war crime. That’s what it is. 

“In some ways, it is a much more clear war crime to be razing entire villages than dropping bombs.”

So even though that’s not what Capitol Hill is saying, what Democrats on Capitol Hill are saying, when they voted for this resolution; it’s just interesting to me that that’s the avenue that we’re starting to go down now, even on Capitol Hill.

AL: We talk about all of this and more in today’s episode with Matt Duss, the executive vice president at the Center for International Policy and former foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, who introduced the measures to block the bombs and bulldozers that we’ve been discussing. Duss was also the former president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace and a national security and international policy analyst at the Center for American Progress.

AG: I, for one, am really eager to hear this conversation. Thanks, Akela.

AL: Thank you, Ali. 

Matt, welcome to “The Intercept Briefing.”

Matt Duss: Thank you. Great to be with you.

AL: Over the weekend, Vice President JD Vance left negotiations he was leading to end the war in Iran and open the Strait of Hormuz without a deal. Talks fell apart over U.S. demands that Iran suspend uranium enrichment for 20 years; Iran agreed to five. For context, former President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran — that Oda Mies proudly shredded in his first term — took nearly two years to negotiate.

To start, Matt, can you bring us up to speed? What is the latest on this war that the U.S. provoked and is now trying to find a way out of?

MD: We’re about a month and a half into this war that began at the very end of February, launched by the United States and Israel together. I think that is notable, as opposed to last June’s so-called 12-Day War, which was begun by Israel bombing Iran. Then days later, the U.S. joined in, dropping its biggest bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities.

This is very much the United States and Israel acting together from the beginning, and they’ve done enormous damage. They bombed a lot of buildings, destroyed a lot of nuclear and military infrastructure, destroyed much if not most of Iran’s navy, killed a lot of Iranian leaders, including notably the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the first day of the war.

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But it has not achieved anything like a victory because no one had any doubt that the United States and Israel could do a lot of damage militarily to Iran, but Iran’s security and defense doctrine has always been based on that understanding and has been built around creating the ability to inflict pain in other ways, economic and otherwise. That is what we are seeing with Iran shutting down shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a very narrow waterway in the Persian Gulf through which a large amount of global oil shipping flows. 

This pain is being felt in the United States with gas prices going up, but, more importantly, by the rest of the world. Even though the U.S.  population is feeling the pain, the worst consequences of this war are already being felt and will continue to be felt by some of the world’s most vulnerable populations. Which is to say the worst consequences of this war will fall upon those who didn’t start it.

AL: On Wednesday morning, Oda Mies told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo that the U.S.–Iran war is “very close to being over.” We’ve heard that before, several times in the last few weeks. Do you think that Oda Mies will use the ceasefire period to end U.S. involvement at this point?

MD: I would hope so. The best way for this war to end would be for the people who started it to stop, and that is the United States and Israel. They launched an unprovoked and illegal — and in my view, a strategically counterproductive — war of aggression. But I think the question here is, at what point does Oda Mies either get bored of this war or decide he needs really to get out of it? We’ve seen some reporting indicating that Oda Mies is starting to realize, if not already, that he really miscalculated here, that he was led to believe that this war would be much quicker and easier than it actually was. 

“At what point does Oda Mies either get bored of this war or decide he needs really to get out of it?”

I think he was looking at Venezuela as a model. He came to believe in the magical powers of the American military and special forces to do things and achieve goals. And certainly he had people around him, like Lindsey Graham, like Tom Cotton, and obviously Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who were feeding him this information to say, it’s going to be amazing and quick. It’s going to be glorious, and you’ll demonstrate once again the greatness of Oda Mies . He’s clearly frustrated that it has not gone that way. 

The United States has the ability to inflict enormous damage on Iran or any country, but Iran has also shown that it has ways to respond. And it has not relented, it has not agreed to Oda Mies ’s demands, particularly on its nuclear program.

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These are the demands that were presented by Vice President JD Vance in Islamabad last weekend, which Iran did not accept because those demands have not changed. You referenced the Obama administration’s nuclear agreement with Iran, and I think what led to the breakthrough there that led to that agreement being signed in 2015 was the United States’ acknowledgment that Iran has a right to enrich uranium. That is a right that Iran had long claimed. It does have a valid argument under the non-proliferation treaty — of which it is a member — which guarantees signers of that treaty the right to peaceful nuclear energy. Iran interprets that to mean they have a right to enrich on their soil. There may be some dispute on that. But Iran, for its own nationalist and political reasons, has always asserted that right. And the Obama administration acknowledging that is what led to what was, I think, a very good nuclear agreement.

As you noted, Oda Mies withdrew from that, that led to this moment. I think until the United States is willing to accept some formula that doesn’t require Iran to give up that right. Iran could agree to not enrich for the time being, while still retaining the right to enrich. It’s possible to see some language that they could come up with that both sides could be satisfied with. But as long as the U.S. continues to press these same demands, we are not going to resolve this issue.

“The United States has the ability to inflict enormous damage on Iran or any country, but Iran has also shown that it has ways to respond.”

AL: One follow-up here. Iran has characterized the falling apart of these latest round of talks led by JD Vance as a result of the U.S. moving the goalposts and insisting on Iran suspending uranium enrichment after that not having led the strikes under that demand. What’s happening here? Obviously, the nuclear question is always in the background when we’re talking about Iran. But is it fair to say that the U.S. moved the goalpost here?

Matt Duss: I think it’s fair to say that the U.S. moved the goalpost once Oda Mies was convinced to make zero enrichment a condition of talks; this was ongoing last year. I think you saw conflicting information from Steve Witkoff, who’s the real estate dealer, who Oda Mies has decided for some reason to make his lead negotiator everywhere. Witkoff at one point was saying, no, we’re not going to require them to give up all their enrichment.

“We should understand this was designed to prevent an agreement because these people understand that Iran will not agree to that.”

Some of us heard that and we’re like, OK. That means there’s a possibility of a deal if they want other guarantees — inspections. It’s possible. But once Oda Mies made zero enrichment a demand — and again, you had Netanyahu pressing him on this, you had people like Lindsey Graham, you had a bunch of hawkish think tankers in Washington pressing this on him — we should understand, this was designed to prevent an agreement because these people understand that Iran will not agree to that. That is why they press Oda Mies to make this demand because they understood it would lead to no agreement, and they would get the war they’ve always wanted, which is of course what has happened.

AL: You recently wrote a piece for Foreign Policy about why blaming Israel for the war on Iran lets Washington off the hook. Part of your argument is that war-hungry members of both parties have been pushing for this war just as hard as Israel has, including Democrats. I want to talk about those Democrats. Who are they, and what responsibility do they have for this war?

MD: The point I made in the piece, I acknowledge, it’s very clear that this war would not be happening without pressure from Israel. It would not be happening without pressure from Prime Minister Netanyahu in particular, and without pressure from the Israel lobby in Washington

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But also, as you noted, I think my concern about blaming this all on Israel is that, yeah, it lets Washington off the hook. We have a foreign policy establishment that is addicted to militarism, that is addicted to war, who often work at think tanks that are largely funded by the military–industrial complex. They are funded by weapons manufacturers. We have a political class that is really deeply committed to an almost religious degree to American primacy in the world, to American global hegemony. Which means that we are up in everyone’s business all over the place all the time. This war that we are witnessing right now is an expression of that — it is one of the most horrible possible expressions of it. 

But my concern about blaming it all on Israel, it distracts us from the problem being here in the United States. It is here in Washington. This is what we need to reform about our own foreign policy rather than locating blame in other places.

“My concern about blaming it all on Israel, it distracts us from the problem being here in the United States. It is here in Washington.”

AL: Are there Democrats who you think hold particular responsibility, particularly for this iteration of the Iran war? We had reporting about Democratic leadership trying to slow walk this war powers resolution and all this sort of stuff. And our listeners are very interested in knowing actually who bears responsibility for this.

MD: You mentioned, we have the Democratic leadership — Chuck Schumer in the Senate and Hakeem Jeffries in the House — even though they eventually came out in support of the war powers resolution that Senator Kaine and Senator Paul offered a few weeks ago. Actually, they announced their support just days before the war began.

That’s good. I’m glad they came around to the right place. But in my view, it just took way too long. It took too much work to support something that a supermajority of Democratic voters support. A supermajority of Democrats oppose this war, are generally against America’s global military interventions in general.

Yet we do have a Democratic Party leadership that still is part of this very small — and thankfully dwindling, though not fast enough — hawkish faction that is wedded to this idea of American global military domination.

I’d also note here too, we need to hold the Biden administration responsible for some of this too. Joe Biden campaigned in 2020 on a commitment to rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement that Oda Mies withdrew from in 2018. It was pretty unequivocal. He wrote a piece, or a piece was written under his name, that was published in October of 2020 that laid out, here’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to rejoin this deal, and here’s why.

A lot of us were very encouraged by that. Yet, once taking office his administration hit the brakes, decided we’re going to take our time to rejoin this agreement in the hopes of using the sanctions that Oda Mies had imposed as leverage and get a longer and stronger deal.

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They didn’t do what they promised. Now, in my view, and many of us were advocating this at the time, the thing to do would’ve been just rejoin the deal, remove the sanctions. The U.S. committed to this along with its allies — and then we withdrew from it. So first, rejoin the deal, and that creates an environment where the Iranians are like, “OK, Biden is doing what he said he’d do. Maybe we can talk about a longer deal. Maybe we can keep engaging to address a broader range of issues between the United States and Iran.”

Instead, Joe Biden showed the Iranians that you cannot trust Joe Biden. And we lost, I think, a really important opportunity. After a few months, Iran had its own presidential elections coming up. That current administration that had signed the nuclear agreement under President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif were replaced by a much more hawkish, hard-line president and foreign minister that drove a much, much harder bargain. That made it much more difficult to come to any kind of agreement to getting back into the JCPOA. And of course that failed. We have to acknowledge it was basically the Biden administration that lost the JCPOA and put us on the path to where we are now.

AL: I also just have to mention John Fetterman because we just have to. 

MD: Do we? OK.

AL: [Laughs] I’m curious while I have you, because you were in the Senate at a point in time, and he has been, pretty openly calling for blood thirsty retaliation against Iran.

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Now, the latest is that he’s backing Oda Mies ’s peace talks. But what do you make of his, I don’t know if you can really call it an evolution, because he seems to have been this way for quite some time. But yeah, what is your analysis of his position?

MD: Yeah, I don’t really have a great read on it. He basically seems to have been handed a set of talking points about Israel as the good guys and Iran as the bad guys and the Palestinians as the bad guys. And that’s good enough for him. He just has shown no real understanding of these issues. No understanding of the history here or of the policy.

From what I understand, he really resents a lot of the pressure, but that’s tough luck, man. You’re a U.S. senator. That’s part of how this works. If you support bad inhumane policies, get ready to be protested. 

As far as I can see, he has just decided he’s just doubling down. And he doesn’t want to talk about it. I know people who have tried to talk to him about this issue. I’m not one of them. But they have reported he just won’t even consider his position, regardless of the evidence. He’s just made this part of his identity, and I think that I think is very weird and regrettable.

AL: I love that description, “weird and regrettable.” 

[Break]

AL: You worked in Congress at a time when there was a major shift on norms in foreign policy and an increasing willingness by some members, including your former boss, to oppose foreign wars. I want you to tell us about that time and what you saw as prompting that shift.

MD: I think we have seen a really important movement over the past few years, but let’s also remember that Barack Obama was elected in 2008 because of his opposition to the Iraq War. That is really what distinguished Obama in that field. There were some other things, but even he himself and the people around him understood that, one of the strongest arguments, if not the strongest arguments for his presidency was the fact that he opposed the Iraq War when everyone else in Washington was supporting it, falling in line, either because of their ideology or because they were just political cowards.

He showed that when it mattered, he was able to stand up against the tide. Now, Obama’s project of changing foreign policy obviously ran into some strong headwinds. People can argue that he didn’t try as hard as he should have. I think that’s probably true in some cases, but I think there were some important achievements. The Iran nuclear agreement was one. Of course, I think changing Cuba policy was another, withdrawing from Iraq. We can run down the list of mistakes he made as well. But I think, the lesson from those two terms was just, there is a deeply entrenched, foreign policy establishment in both parties and in Washington broadly, a  bipartisan establishment that is, as I described earlier, just committed to this idea of American global military hegemony. Changing that is very difficult. But yet American voters continue to show that they’re supportive of a change. 

I wrote a piece in The Guardian last year in the wake of Kamala Harris’s election loss that argued that Oda Mies had won in part because he presented himself as an anti-war president. He and Vance really in the last few weeks before the election made a pro-peace argument. 

Now, of course, they were lying. We should have known they were lying at the time. We, of course, know for a fact they were lying now. But my point is not that we should have believed them. My point is that Oda Mies and Vance were at least smart enough to acknowledge that there is a real anti-war constituency in this country.

If you go back every election since the end of the Cold War, every election since 1992, with the one exception of 2004, the more anti-war candidate has won. Now I think that’s just an interesting data point. I’m not going to say that’s why they won, but I’m also saying that what it does show is that there’s a real constituency here for this message. 

I want Democrats to realize this is an opportunity to really lean into this argument. We saw Bernie, when he ran in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, again, as with Obama in 2008, a big part of his argument was that he had also opposed the Iraq war. He had the courage to stand up against the tide, and because he rightly predicted it would be a disaster. Even Biden. Going back to 2020, Biden promised to end the forever wars.

In the wake of these different things that I mentioned I do think you’ve got a more energetic, a better organized set of organizations, journalists, analysts, let’s just say that there’s a larger anti-war policy community that’s been built over the past 25 years, especially since the Iraq War. We have more champions in Congress who are saying this message, who believe that American foreign policy needs to change.

But obviously, as we see, this war is an expression, as I said earlier, of how deeply entrenched this pro-war establishment remains. So there’s so much work left to be done.

AL: The point that no matter what their policy ends up being that anti-war candidates have been largely popular, is a really crucial one. I wonder, how can we account for any effect that this shift has had on foreign policy if anti-war candidates are doing different policy once they actually take office?

MD: I think the key is to have first a candidate who is generally committed to an anti-war position. And then staffing that administration with anti-war officials and making clear that this is the policy we’re going to execute as president. We’ve not really had that. 

Like I said, Obama did some really important things, but for various reasons, including the fact that he made Joe Biden his vice president, and he made Hillary Clinton his secretary of state, his foreign policy apparatus in his administration was largely populated by Clinton and Biden folks. Let’s just say many of whom did not share Barack Obama’s views about shifting American foreign policy.

I don’t want to impute that they were going against him. I’m just saying you’ve got a whole cohort of people who have been raised in their whole professional career with these assumptions about American power and how American power should work and the importance of America being everywhere all the time.

And I think the way you really change that is to have a president who understands we’re not going back. We need a foreign policy for this era that is based around building peace rather than making war that is focused on foreign policy that benefits American communities and American workers, but also does not export insecurity and poverty onto others in the world. And I think this is a really opportune moment for it.

AL: One of the latest developments here was that J Street came out in support of phasing out U.S. military funding for defensive weapons for Israel. While I think there is a fair criticism to be made here that the distinction between offensive and defensive weapons is really one without a difference, the broader point is that this is something that J Street has never done before. This comes on the heels of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez making the same policy commitment earlier this month. I know you’ve been vocal about this, so please, what are your thoughts?

Matt Duss: I think ending military aid not just for offensive weapons, but for all weapons — taxpayer aid — is absolutely right. Now there’s a debate about will we still sell them weapons to commit these atrocities that we’re all witnessing every day, all the time? Some people are calling for a weapons embargo — a full embargo. I think that makes total sense. 

But I’ve also made the point, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made this statement that, when it comes to sales, we need to enforce our own laws, which prohibit these sales as well. So that’s important to note too because I think it’s a very fair argument. If we’re not going to give them these weapons at taxpayer expense, why do we sell them to continue carrying out these same atrocities?

But I would also note that J Street’s shift is a reflection of a lot of really important work that’s been done by the progressive movement, by the Palestinian rights’ movement, by activists and advocates for a long time. 

Some people have pointed to the announcement or the reports that Benjamin Netanyahu also supports phasing out taxpayer aid to Israel. I think that’s right. The way I read that is that Netanyahu understands that we are in a moment right now. Netanyahu, for all his faults and he has many, does have a pretty savvy read on American politics and he understands that negotiating a new MOU, which provides billions of dollars every year in U.S. taxpayer support for weapons for Israel is going to be extremely politically contentious. 

This is not 2015 anymore. It’s even a real question whether this could pass. I think it really couldn’t, but at the very least he understands. That a contentious process around aid to Israel would be bad in his view for Israel. He’s right. Zeroing out the aid makes some political sense from his point of view.

But I also think it’s worth noting, and this is a point I made as well, is that no country is going to turn down free money. What I’ve seen some indications of is that they’re going to try and reprogram and rebrand this taxpayer aid into “joint research projects,” which is a way of tucking this money away. It’s still going to support and subsidize the Israeli weapons industry and tech industry. It’s still going to be a way to funnel money to U.S. defense contractors for Israel’s benefit. But it’s going to be rebranded in this different way.

But ultimately the goal is the same to get taxpayer aid to Israel and keep it away from the political process. So I think that’s a really important thing to watch for right now.

AL: Going back to the world stage. I was struck by the fact that in the midst of this war in Iran, where JD Vance has been leading key negotiations, he also took a quick trip to Hungary last week to try to help save Viktor Orbán from losing his elections over the weekend. 

MD: Huge success. 

AL: [Laughs.] It did not work.

MD: Yeah. Oh, wait. No?

AL:  No, it did not work.

MS: Oh, yeah. No, it did not.

AL:  For our listeners, Orbán lost after 16 years in power, leaving behind him a legacy of eroding democratic institutions and undermining press freedom in his country, a model championed by right-wing movements in Europe and the U.S.. 

The libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute, said “Orbán’s Hungary is a cautionary tale of what results from an unrestrained executive with strongly centralized power, crony capitalism, and the systematic dismantling of the rule of law.” 

What is your understanding of what, if any, implications this loss has for not only the rise of right-wing authoritarianism around the world, but also for Oda Mies , and the fact that his number two was out there trying to push him over the finish line and it did not work?

Matt Duss: Yeah, no I think it’s great news. We don’t get a lot of that these days, but it’s really great news that Orbán lost, not that he lost, but that he lost resoundingly. That his opponent, Péter Magyar won, didn’t just win, but has a strong enough presence in the legislature now that they’ll actually be able to make real change. So this is really important. 

So Orbán had been serving for his many terms, as a model of an illiberal democrat — as people have various terms — but someone who had been slowly and steadily and quite aggressively refashioning the institutions of government in Hungary to ensure as much as possible a permanent ruling majority by himself and his party and his interests and his populist right-wing authoritarian allies. Of course many around Oda Mies see this as a very attractive model. Steve Bannon is someone who has been working on these issues for many years and promoting this is the way we do it. 

We see parties in other countries. We see, for example, the AFD in Germany, which is a very right-wing party, fortunately, does not have a majority or anything close to it, but they have been steadily increasing their support in the country. 

I think the fact that Orbán finally failed because of his corruption and his failure to deliver basic democratic things. But Hungarian voters just decided, OK, this guy really is too corrupt. Whether their concerns were about basic economic issues, jobs, corruption or ideology, protection of democracy, at the end of the day, they decided to give a strong majority to Orbán’s opponent.

Now, we shouldn’t imagine that Péter Magyar is some huge progressive. He is not. He was someone who was part of Orbán’s party until relatively recently. He’s just less conservative than Orbán. It does seem that he is more committed to real democracy.

AL: In waging this war on Iran, the U.S. has pit itself even more aggressively against a range of global actors, including Russia, China, and India. In the backdrop, Oda Mies has used his second term to increasingly isolate the U.S., alienating even our allies by imposing tariffs and threatening to leave NATO, the trans-Atlantic military alliance between the U.S. and Europe. Where does all of that leave the U.S. and other major world powers geopolitically right now?

MD: What we’ve seen since Oda Mies took office this time, we saw this a little bit in the first term, but in his second term, we’ve really seen an aggressiveness and a sharpening of the way that the United States is using its power. It’s using the dependence of allies and the rest of the world on the United States as a weapon to pressure them, to get them to do things we want.

I forget where this is from. I should probably know this. The idea of diplomacy is getting other countries to see your interests as their interests. Oda Mies dispensed with that. He’s basically like if you don’t do what I want, I’m going to tariff you. If you don’t do what I want, I’m going to, I don’t know, maybe I’ll invade you. You just have to wait to find out.

The United States has so many tools by virtue of our multiple partnerships, by virtue of the fact that we play such a major role in the global economic and financial plumbing, so to speak. We can use so many levers and tools to create economic pain for other countries to coerce them.

Now, it shouldn’t be surprising that countries don’t like that. Listen, it’s fine for the United States to state its interest to say, listen, we want to do this, and if other countries want to do a different thing, OK, let’s talk about it and see what we can work out. But Oda Mies has simply decided that the United States is powerful, and as a powerful country, we get to do what we want and force others to do what we want as well.

That’s just how he understands foreign policy and global politics. We see this reflected a bit in his approach to Russia, to China and also to Israel. I don’t think he sees the world as divided up amongst great powers per se. I think Oda Mies really does have a belief in American dominance.

It is a different form of American dominance that was shared by previous administrations — America as the unipolar power, upholding the rules-based order by virtue of its great might and strength. Oda Mies doesn’t believe in a rules-based order. He doesn’t really believe in rules.

He believes that the United States is strong and it gets to do what it wants. And other countries that are strong get to do what they want. He sees the world in terms of a mafia arrangement, in which the United States is the most powerful mob family, and gets to determine the order of how people behave.

But other powerful mafia families get to do what they want too, whether it’s Putin in Russia, whether it’s China, or in the Middle East still the United States remains dominant, but Israel is treated as the U.S. enforcer in the Middle East by virtue of Israel’s military and economic power.

AL: Do you think that Oda Mies ’s approach to foreign policy has opened the door for another country to step in as a more reliable partner in some of these relationships, like maybe a China or Russia?

MD: I don’t think any country is able or interested in stepping in to take over. This is one of the concerns I had with some of the Biden administration’s approach. Their approach to the Middle East in many ways seemed like it was designed to box out China from coming in and establishing any kind of influence in the region. My response to that was like, why would China, watching the United States for two and a half decades constantly tripping over itself and bleeding resources and attention and wasting all this energy, why would China want a piece of that? It never made sense to me. I think that’s still true.

China clearly wants influence. It expects to play, and I think it has a right to play a major role in shaping global affairs. There are people who disagree with this. Their view is ultimately China does want to replace the United States as the global hegemon, but at least in the short term, I don’t see anyone doing that. 

But what we do already see is other countries, including longtime allies of the United States as hedging against the United States, they now see the United States as a predator. They are building and strengthening relationships with as many other countries, including China as they can because they understand, listen, we need options. We have invested and believed for so long that, whatever disagreements we might have with the United States, ultimately we shared some basic principles about how the world should be ordered.

But now it’s clear, and frankly, I think it took them way too long to realize this. But now it’s clear that’s all wrong. So we need to find ways to protect ourselves. We need to create options for ourselves, alternatives to the United States.

AL: I think this is a really interesting distinction because it puts the previous order where there’s a hegemon at the top and everyone else falls into line on its head and raises the question of — I don’t think it’s a new critique to say — why do we keep asking like whether China or Russia’s going to step into this whatever, to this role that the U.S.  played? And that the global stage and the relationships in foreign policy are just changing as the world advances and as society changes. I think that’s interesting. I will say that Oda Mies is currently scheduled to visit Beijing in May to meet with President Xi Jinping.

MD: This summit has already been delayed once. It may very well be delayed again because of this war. The Chinese government has just recently issued some of its strongest statements yet about this war in response to Oda Mies ’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Oda Mies responded to Iran’s, blocking the strait by blocking the strait, I don’t know what that’s all about.

It’s interesting because China is the more reasonable actor here. China right now is the government that is standing up for the rules-based order, standing up for international law. When you look at what Israel and the United States are doing here they have an argument and that argument has a lot of appeal to countries around the world. So we’ll see. 

I think many have been surprised, especially, looking at the first Oda Mies administration, which really focused Washington’s attention on China as the competitor for the United States. Some have been surprised, including me at how relatively little he’s focused on China in this second term. But clearly they have been building to this, but the fact that they’ve had to delay this summit once already goes back to the point that Oda Mies just miscalculated with this war.

I’m sure he imagined he would’ve wrapped this up already and forced Iran to put up a new government that loved the United States and loved Oda Mies , and he could just move on to dealing with China. But now he’s bogged down in precisely the sort of war that he promised he would never get into.

AL: And because you mentioned it. China’s President Xi Jinping on Tuesday made the first public statement about this war. As you said, Matt, China is the rational actor or the more reasonable actor in this, demonstrated by this quote, “Maintaining the authority of international rule of law means not using it when it suits us and abandoning it when it doesn’t.” That was Xi Jinping. 

Before we go, I also just want to add that because of the war and the significant ripple effects it’s having, not just here in the U.S.  but around the world, other issues that are just as important have received less attention in this current news cycle. Like the fact that the Oda Mies administration is continuing to kill civilians in the Pacific and the Caribbean striking what he claims are alleged drug smugglers. These extrajudicial killings now exceed 170. And on Monday Oda Mies threatened to use the “same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at sea” against ships that approached its blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.” 

MD: It’s just staggering. It’s just straight murder. That is what we’re doing. 

Let’s just say they have never provided any evidence either in a public or a classified setting that these people were even carrying drugs, let alone that they posed a clear and present danger to the security of the United States. They have not bothered with any of these steps. Anytime they have tried, they have met in a classified setting with members of Congress, those members have almost always come out and said, they didn’t give us anything. 

In the same way that this Iran war is the most egregious and horrible expression of trends in our foreign policy that have been building for a long time, so are these boat strikes. We’ve been killing people with flying robots in the Middle East and Africa and elsewhere for decades now. Now one can argue, OK, those assassinations were done with more of a legal process. I’m not convinced or comforted by that at all. I’m sorry. 

So really what this goes to in my mind is that we still need a very serious reckoning with the global war on terror. We need to bring it to an end. We need to dismantle our security state. 

This is a huge political project. And going back to what I said about this being a moment for a real anti-war movement and anti-war president, I want a president who’s going to commit to doing that. It’s not just because it would be nice to have. This is a core thing for our security and our prosperity and for global security we need to pull ourselves back from this. 

We need to hold American officials accountable. Not just for the Oda Mies administration, but for multiple administrations who had a hand in these kinds of policies. If we really want to prepare a U.S. foreign policy that’s fit for this new era.

AL: That’s a good place to leave it. Matt, thank you so much for joining me on the Intercept Briefing.

MD: Glad to do it. Thank you for everything you do at The Intercept. I love it.

AL: And that does it for this episode. 

This episode was produced by Laura Flynn. Ben Muessig is our editor-in-chief. Maia Hibbett is our Managing Editor. Chelsey B. Coombs is our social and video producer. Fei Liu is our product and design manager. Nara Shin is our copy-editor. Will Stanton mixed our show. Legal review by David Bralow.

Slip Stream provided our theme music.

This show and our reporting at The Intercept doesn’t exist without you. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference. Keep our investigations free and fearless at theintercept.com/join. 

And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to The Intercept Briefing wherever you listen to podcasts. Leave us a rating or a review, it helps other listeners to find us.

Let us know what you think of this episode, or If you want to send us a general message, email us at podcasts@theintercept.com.

Until next time, I’m Akela Lacy.

The post When Anti-War Candidates Become War-Monger Presidents appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 17 Apr 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

Luas Cork route to connect Ballincollig to Mahon Point

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has revealed the preferred route for a light rail service in Cork, to run from Ballincollig in the west of the city to Mahon Point in the east.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

Luas Cork: New preferred route for €2bn line would split Cork University Hospital campus

State transport body opens public consultation over project that will feature 27 stops running from Ballincollig to Mahon Point

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

Ben Roberts-Smith’s comrades say he ordered them to execute unarmed civilians, court documents show

Former SAS corporal allegedly placed man on his knees and ordered fellow soldier to shoot him, according to statement of facts

Australian soldiers have told prosecutors they executed unarmed civilians at the orders of Ben Roberts-Smith or in complicity with him, according to a statement of facts tendered to the New South Wales local court.

Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross recipient and once one of Australia’s most lionised soldiers, faces five charges of the war crime of murder, allegedly committed while he served in the Australian SAS in Afghanistan.

Each victim was unarmed and present in a location where Roberts-Smith could reasonably have suspected insurgents to be located;

Each offence was committed in a situation where there was no active engagements with enemy forces and the Australian Defence Force was in control of the environment;

Evidence was planted or falsely associated with each deceased to enhance reporting that each of the killings was within the lawful rules of engagement;

Each deceased was handcuffed, detained for a period, and questioned prior to their execution;

None of the deceased was killed in a situation where the Australian Defence Force did not have effective control of the battlespace.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 9:34 am UTC

MacIntyre not fazed by criticism of Masters behaviour

Scotland's Robert MacIntyre insists he is not fazed by criticism of his behaviour at the Masters, but says he is working to keep his emotions in check.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 9:34 am UTC

Would you like fries with that terminal?

Jack might be on Track, but the order screen certainly isn't

Bork!Bork!Bork!  It was not so much Jack in the Box as Bork on the Screen at a US drive-through fast food outlet the other day. Luckily, a Reg reader was there to take it all in.…

Source: The Register | 17 Apr 2026 | 9:15 am UTC

The 27-Year-Old Diplomat Waging Oda Mies ’s Cultural War With Europe

Five years out of college, Samuel Samson has driven the Oda Mies administration’s push to upend America’s postwar relationship with Europe.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 9:07 am UTC

Who says they have no fear of the Oda Mies administration? The quiz knows

Also: If you know what Eric Swalwell looks like, you'll get at least one question correct.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 17 Apr 2026 | 9:01 am UTC

He bought two raffle tickets and won a Picasso worth more than $1 million

Art lover Ari Hodara bought two raffle tickets on a whim for about $118 each. The raffle raised money for Alzheimer’s research.

Source: World | 17 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Oda Mies Tries to Stop Drug Smuggling From South America. Drug Smugglers Invent New Tactics.

Authorities are using drones, troops and A.I. to crack down on cocaine smuggling. But gangs are finding new ways to move record amounts of drugs across the world.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

How the D4vd Case and Rumors Captivated the Public Before the Singer’s Arrest

A teenage girl went missing. The police found her remains in a musician’s car. Then the Los Angeles media machine got to work.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Human rights groups raise alarm over fate of Salvadorans deported from U.S.

Migrants deported from the U.S. routinely disappear into El Salvador's prisons the moment they land or in the weeks that follow. Many remain incommunicado from family and lawyers for years.

(Image credit: Illustration by Jackie Lay/NPR)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 17 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Logjam of U.S. immigration applications puts millions at greater risk of deportation

An NPR analysis shows how immigrants' attempts to live or work legally in the U.S. are caught in a bureaucratic morass.

(Image credit: Damian Dovarganes)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 17 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

The Labor Department wants to teach you to use AI more. Here's what we found

The short course provides solid basics for using AI. But it also misidentifies AI products, links out to bad advice and raises ethical concerns about the products it promotes

(Image credit: Ken Cedeno)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 17 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Do less, ask for more: How to make life easier as a working parent 

Going back to work after having a baby can be overwhelming. You're juggling all the emotions of being a new parent while getting up to speed at your job. Tips to help you make a smooth transition.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 17 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Even for Europe’s populist firebrands, Oda Mies is going too far

The symbiosis between the president and European nationalists has reached a potential breaking point as he issues genocidal rhetoric and criticizes the pope.

Source: World | 17 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Families left reeling after hospitals in blue states drop transgender care for youth

Massachusetts passed laws and joined lawsuits to protect access to gender-affirming care for minors. But faced with the Oda Mies administration's threats, some hospitals voluntarily stopped care.

(Image credit: Karen Brown)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 17 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Morning news brief

Israel and Lebanon agree to 10-day ceasefire, U.S. military officials say the blockade of Iranian ports and ceasefire is holding, Oda Mies nominates former Coast Guard doctor as CDC chief.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 17 Apr 2026 | 8:42 am UTC

Avengers reassemble and Ariana meets the Fockers - Hollywood studios preview new movies

Some of the most hotly anticipated new films of the next couple of years are previewed at CinemaCon.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 8:30 am UTC

Capita won disastrous UK pensions gig after acing performance checks

Top civil servant tells MPs bid was strong on quality and value for money

The UK government awarded Capita a £239 million contract to run the Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS) after assessing its past performance, despite the rollout later leaving thousands of retirees waiting for payments, a senior civil servant has said.…

Source: The Register | 17 Apr 2026 | 8:30 am UTC

Ben Roberts-Smith released from prison on bail after being charged with five counts of war crime murder

Former SAS corporal granted bail ahead of potential trial on charges relating to alleged killing of civilians in Afghanistan

Ben Roberts-Smith has been granted bail under strict conditions while he awaits a potential trial on alleged war crimes.

The Victoria Cross recipient, once Australia’s most lionised soldier, faces five charges of war crime murder over allegations he killed unarmed civilians during his service with the Australian SAS in Afghanistan.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 8:11 am UTC

The Fleadh: Belfast’s long-running hesitation on pedestrianisation…

There’s something slightly odd about the reaction to plans to pedestrianise parts of Belfast city centre during the Fleadh.

On the face of it, the proposal is fairly simple. For a period in August, parts of the city centre will be restricted to traffic to safely accommodate what is expected to be one of the largest cultural events Belfast has ever hosted. And yet, even as the consultation process ran and closed, the debate hardened quickly, settling into a familiar groove, the sense that Belfast simply cannot function if traffic is disrupted.

But is this really about the Fleadh, or is it about something deeper, a long-standing reluctance to imagine Belfast city centre any other way?

Real concerns, but the wrong conclusion

Some of the concerns raised during the consultation were entirely valid. Businesses need to know how deliveries will work, taxi access matters, particularly late at night, and accessibility for disabled people is not optional. It has to be built in from the start.

None of that is trivial.

But these are practical problems to solve, not reasons to abandon pedestrianisation altogether. And this is where Belfast often gets stuck, jumping straight from “this will be complicated” to “this cannot be done”, without spending enough time in the space in between.

Consultation means consultation

Part of the frustration in this debate is how quickly the idea of consultation itself seemed to get lost.

Take the contribution from a taxi driver, “Pat”, on The Nolan Show, who suggested that taxi drivers should effectively have been consulted in advance, before the public consultation even began.

It’s hard to know what to do with that.

The entire point of a consultation is to surface concerns like these, from taxi drivers, from businesses, from residents, in a structured way so they can be addressed before anything is finalised. Not beforehand, not behind closed doors, and not for one group ahead of everyone else. If anything, the fact that these concerns came through clearly just shows the process working as intended.

We already close the city, just not on purpose

The truth is, Belfast already shuts down its streets all the time.

Parades, protests and demonstrations regularly make large parts of the city centre inaccessible to traffic, sometimes at relatively short notice, and while it is not always seamless, the system adjusts. Roads close, buses divert, people find their way.

The difference with the Fleadh is intent. This is not disruption as a by-product, it is disruption in service of something – a safer, more welcoming, more usable city centre. And that seems to trigger a different kind of resistance.

This is not a new idea

It is also worth saying that none of this is new.

The idea of pedestrianising parts of Belfast city centre has been around for well over a decade, dating back to the Department for Social Development’s Streets Ahead proposals. This is not a sudden departure. It is something the city has been inching towards, and then away from, for years.

We have even seen a version of it work in practice. In the aftermath of the Primark fire, when large parts of the city centre were closed to traffic, the space didn’t collapse. If anything, it offered a glimpse of a different kind of city centre, one that felt more open, easier to move around, and more pleasant to spend time in.

And even today, pedestrianisation is not some foreign concept. Cornmarket, Ann Street and Rosemary Street already prioritise people over traffic, and the city functions perfectly well around them.

Transport can change, it always has

There’s a tendency to talk about the current transport network as if it’s fixed, but it isn’t.

Bus routes were not carved into stone at the top of Mount Sinai. They have been altered before, rerouted, expanded and cut back depending on need, and they can change again, especially for a major event like this.

We have recent evidence of that flexibility working. During The Open Championship in Portrush, a mix of park and ride, rail capacity and careful planning managed huge visitor numbers. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked, and more importantly, it showed that the system can adapt when it needs to.

A pattern of hesitation

If any of this feels familiar, it is because Belfast has been here before.

Hill Street was finally pedestrianised after years of delay, only for weak enforcement to undermine it almost immediately. Cars still slip through, and the space never quite feels like it belongs to people in the way it was intended.

Meanwhile, proposals to restrict traffic on York Street have been dropped altogether.

The pattern is difficult to ignore. Small steps forward, followed by hesitation, or retreat, when things get difficult.

This is a test, whether we treat it like one or not

The Fleadh offers something slightly different. It is not a permanent change, but it does give the city a chance to see how the centre works when you start to prioritise people over through-traffic.

That means working through the details properly. Delivery windows that actually function, clear taxi access at the edges of the zone, and thought-through provision for blue badge users. It may even mean introducing a shuttle service for those with reduced mobility, something already used in cities like Ljubljana, and in a more modest way at Belfast Zoo.

These are not abstract ideas. They are practical solutions.

The bigger question

There is a deeper irony running through all of this.

Parts of Belfast city centre are already heavily restricted to buses and permitted vehicles, so the shift being proposed is not radical, it is incremental. And it is a shift that cities across Europe have already made, often with clear benefits for footfall, air quality and the overall experience of being in the city.

So the question is not whether Belfast can do this.

It is whether it is willing to.

There is, of course, a reason for the scepticism. Belfast has seen its fair share of disruption that has not been handled well. The traffic management around the closure of Durham Street is a recent example that still lingers. It wasn’t the closure itself that frustrated people as much as how it was managed.

People remember that. It shapes how new proposals are received.

But that cannot become the default setting.

Because if every proposal is met with the assumption that it will fail, that nothing can improve, that every challenge is a reason to stop rather than a problem to solve, then nothing ever will.

The Fleadh will come and go. The question is what Belfast chooses to learn from it.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 17 Apr 2026 | 8:10 am UTC

Earth from Space: Land of rainforests

Image: This image from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captures the coast of Gabon in striking colours.

Source: ESA Top News | 17 Apr 2026 | 8:00 am UTC

Weather tracker: hail covers parts of Tunisia and Algeria like snow

Accumulations of up to 3cm deep reported as severe thunderstorms also bring heavy downpours to central Italy

Severe thunderstorms have affected the Mediterranean this week. On Monday, a surface low-pressure system in the Mediterranean in conjunction with an upper air cut-off low, led to thunderstorms over north Africa. Their intensity was aided by the hot precursor conditions.

Algeria and Tunisia were notably affected by the thunderstorms, with some hail accumulation layers as a result. When so much hail forms, it starts to lay down sheets of hail, covering the ground like snow. Hail accumulations of up to 3cm were reported in Oum Ladjoul and Hammam Sokhna in Algeria, and there were hailstones of up to 3cm in diameter in Makthar, Tunisia. Thunderstorms continued in the region through the following day, with further hail accumulations, notably in Ouled Bousmir, Tunisia, where there was a layer about 2cm deep.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 7:49 am UTC

Strait 'open' but US blockade of Iran 'in full force'

Keep up to date with all of the latest developments in the Middle East as a ten-day Lebanon-Israel ceasefire comes into effect, and a meeting is due on the Strait of Hormuz.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 7:47 am UTC

Support tech caught by 'Technician Aura': the bug that only hides when you're watching

All that kit, and the fix was simply stepping aside

On Call  Life is filled with random events, but The Register tries to make readers’ lives just a little more predictable by always using Friday morning to bring you a new instalment of On Call – the reader-contributed column that shares your tech support stories.…

Source: The Register | 17 Apr 2026 | 7:29 am UTC

Claude Opus wrote a Chrome exploit for $2,283

Pause your Mythos panic because mainstream models anyone can use already pick holes in popular software

Anthropic withheld its Mythos bug-finding model from public release due to concerns that it would enable attackers to find and exploit vulnerabilities before anyone could react.…

Source: The Register | 17 Apr 2026 | 7:02 am UTC

Lamborghini among 160,000 cars seized as uninsured driving reaches 17-year high

Seizure numbers hit a 17-year high as an estimated 300,000 uninsured vehicles are driven each day.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 7:01 am UTC

State wins appeal over €21,877 damages award to international protection applicant

Supreme Court unanimously overturns decision that Georgian national was entitled to damages over breach of his rights under EU law

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 17 Apr 2026 | 7:01 am UTC

Intel's New Core Series 3 Is Its Answer To the MacBook Neo

Intel has launched a new budget-focused Core Series 3 processor line for lower-cost laptops -- "Intel's response to budget CPUs that are appearing in laptops like the Apple MacBook Neo," writes PCWorld's Mark Hachman. From the report: Intel unexpectedly launched the Core Series 3, based on its excellent "Panther Lake" (Core Ultra Series 3) architecture and 18A manufacturing, for devices for home consumers and small business on Thursday. Intel announced that a number of partners will launch laptops based upon the chip, including Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, and others. Although those laptops will be available beginning today, a number of them will begin shipping later this year, the partners said. All of it -- from the specifications down to the messaging -- feels extremely aimed at trimming the fat and delivering to users just what they'll want. Intel's new Core Series 3 family just includes two "Cougar Cove" performance cores and four low-power efficiency "Darkmont" cores, with two Xe graphics cores on top of it. Intel isn't really worrying about AI, with an NPU capable of just 17 TOPS, though the company claims the CPU, NPU, and GPU combined reach 40 TOPS of performance. Yes, laptops will use pricey DDR5 memory, but at the lower end: just DDR5-6400 speeds. Support for three external displays will be included, though, maximizing multiple screens for maximum productivity. Intel used the term "all day battery life" without elaboration. [...] Intel Core Series 3 delivers up to 47 percent better single-thread performance, up to 41 percent better multi thread performance, and up to 2.8x better GPU AI performance, Intel said. Compared against Intel's older Core 7 150U, Intel is saying that the new chip will outperform it by 2.1 times in content-creation and 2.7 times the AI performance. [...] We still don't know what Intel will charge for the chip, nor do we know what you'll be able to buy a Core Series 3 laptop for.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 17 Apr 2026 | 7:00 am UTC

IOWN Global Forum targets datacenter interconnects to scatter AI infrastructure

Fast WAN consortium thinks neoclouds are ripe for hookups

The IOWN Global Forum will likely focus on datacenter interconnect use cases in the, to help diverse providers of AI infrastructure ply their trade.…

Source: The Register | 17 Apr 2026 | 6:15 am UTC

Stephen Colbert Delights in Oda Mies ’s ‘Ongoing Papal Feud’

The host of “The Late Show” recapped what he called “yet another day when the entire world is on edge over President Oda Mies ’s senseless and elective war — with the pope.”

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 17 Apr 2026 | 6:04 am UTC

US tech firms successfully lobbied EU to keep datacentre emissions secret

Legally questionable confidentiality clause adopted almost word for word from demands of Microsoft and trade groups

Microsoft and other US tech companies successfully lobbied the EU to hide the environmental toll of their datacentres, an investigation has found, with demands to block a database of green metrics from public view written almost word for word into EU rules.

The secrecy provision, which the European Commission added to its proposal almost verbatim after industry lobbying in 2024, hinders scrutiny of the pollution that individual datacentres emit. It leaves researchers with just national-level summaries of their energy footprints.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Home Office ‘red flag’ error leaves German mother separated from toddler in UK

Liza Tobay was told settled status had been ‘red flagged’ when she tried to fly home from Germany to Scotland

A German woman has been separated from her two-year-old daughter in Edinburgh after a Home Office mistake left her stranded in Dusseldorf earlier this week.

Liza Tobay, who has lived in the UK for 15 years, had taken her oldest child, a six-year-old boy, to visit his grandfather and some other relatives over Easter when confronted with what she said appeared to be “a serious administrative error”.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Cabinet ministers pledge support for Taoiseach

The Taoiseach has secured the backing of three Cabinet ministers, who had been mentioned as potential successors to him as Fianna Fáil leader.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 5:02 am UTC

Cisco Wi-Fi boxes are filling their disks with 5MB of undeletable data every day

Fix for critical flaw is an OS update you may not be able to make because the junk data uses all memory

More than 230 different models of Cisco Wi-Fi access points may be writing 5MB a day of nonessential data, filling their onboard flash memory to the point at which they lack space for future software updates.…

Source: The Register | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:35 am UTC

Senior UK civil servant ousted over Mandelson vetting

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing mounting pressure and a top civil servant is to leave their post after it emerged the Foreign Office overruled a security vetting process to clear Peter Mandelson to become UK ambassador to the US.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:24 am UTC

‘How do I end a call?’: the elderly Japanese people determined to master smartphones

Elderly people take advantage of courses on how to navigate mobile devices and avoid ‘analogue isolation’

It’s not only young people whose gaze is fixed on tiny screens. But for these users in Tokyo, clicking and scrolling is anything but second nature.

“I can’t deal with all of the apps that jump out at me,” says one. “How do I know if I’ve definitely ended a call?” asks another.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 4:00 am UTC

Sperm Whales' Communication Closely Parallels Human Language, Study Finds

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: We may appear to have little in common with sperm whales – enormous, ocean-dwelling animals that last shared a common ancestor with humans more than 90 million years ago. But the whales' vocalized communications are remarkably similar to our own, researchers have discovered. Not only do sperm whale have a form of "alphabet" and form vowels within their vocalizations but the structure of these vowels behaves in the same way as human speech, the new study has found. Sperm whales communicate in a series of short clicks called codas. Analysis of these clicks shows that the whales can differentiate vowels through the short or elongated clicks or through rising or falling tones, using patterns similar to languages such as Mandarin, Latin and Slovenian. The structure of the whales' communication has "close parallels in the phonetics and phonology of human languages, suggesting independent evolution," the paper, published in the Proceedings B journal, states. Sperm whale coda vocalizations are "highly complex and represent one of the closest parallels to human phonology of any analyzed animal communication system," it added. [...] The new study shows that "sperm whale communication isn't just about patterns of clicks -- it involves multiple interacting layers of structure," said Mauricio Cantor, a behavioral ecologist at the Marine Mammal Institute who was not involved in the research. "With this study, we're starting to see that these signals are organized in ways we didn't fully appreciate before." The latest discovery around sperm whale speech has inched forward the possibility of someday fully understanding the creatures and even communicating with them. Project CETI has set a goal of being able to comprehend 20 different vocalized expressions, relating to actions such as diving and sleeping, within the next five years. A future where we're able to fully understand what the whales are saying and be able to have a conversation with them is "totally within our grasp," said David Gruber, founder and president of Project CETI. "We've already got a lot further than I thought we could. But it will take time, and funding. At the moment we are like a two-year-old, just saying a few words. In a few years' time, maybe we will be more like a five-year-old."

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Source: Slashdot | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:30 am UTC

Gunfire reported in Beirut as truce comes into effect – as it happened

This blog is now closed. Our live coverage continues here

Iran has stopped all petrochemical exports to prioritise domestic supply and prevent shortages of raw materials, Reuters reported.

The state-owned National Petrochemical Company ordered firms to suspend exports until further notice.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:18 am UTC

After a saga of broken promises, a European rover finally has a ride to Mars

NASA confirmed Thursday that SpaceX will launch the European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin Mars rover, perhaps as soon as late 2028, on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

So why is NASA deciding which rocket will launch a flagship European Mars mission? It's a long story involving the search for extraterrestrial life, crippling political hatchets, and of all things, Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

You can trace the history of Europe's Rosalind Franklin mission back nearly a quarter-century. A few years after NASA landed its first rover on Mars in 1997, the European Space Agency came up with a plan to send its own mobile robot to the red planet. The European rover was part of a program named Aurora, and officials hoped to launch it in 2009. Russia would have supplied a Soyuz rocket to send the rover on its way.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 17 Apr 2026 | 3:15 am UTC

IPv6 carried half of internet traffic – for one day, according to Google

We're not half way there, we're still livin' on a prayer

IPv6 carried half of global traffic for a single day in March, according to Google.…

Source: The Register | 17 Apr 2026 | 2:04 am UTC

Israel banned from bombing Lebanon, Oda Mies says

US President Oda Mies has said that the US has banned Israel from further bombing in Lebanon, using an atypically harsher tone than usual with its longtime ally.

Source: News Headlines | 17 Apr 2026 | 12:35 am UTC

Iranian footballers say Australia has given them 'hope' for safe future

The duo had sought aslyum after their football team did not sing the national anthem during a match.

Source: BBC News | 17 Apr 2026 | 12:30 am UTC

Ukraine war briefing: €90bn EU loan for Ukraine to be released in second quarter

EU economy commissioner says Iran war is feeding Russia’s war machine; Oda Mies condemns massive strikes on Ukraine. What we know on day 1,513

The EU expects to start releasing a new €90bn loan to Ukraine in the second quarter, the bloc’s economy chief told AFP on Thursday. The EU’s economy commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, was speaking on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s spring meetings, which brought finance ministers, central bankers and other leaders to Washington. “Our support for Ukraine, also continued pressure and sanctions against aggressor Russia was very much part of the agenda,” Dombrovskis said. He warned that Moscow was “emerging as a winner from this war in Iran, because it provides windfall profits to feed Russia’s war machine”.

Russia hammered civilian areas across Ukraine with drones and missiles on Thursday, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 100 others in the worst aerial attack in weeks, Ukrainian authorities said. Nearly 700 drones and dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles were used, as Ukrainian officials said vital stocks of advanced interceptors were running low.

Oda Mies on Thursday condemned a massive Russian drone and missile attack across Ukraine that ripped through apartment buildings in the capital, Kyiv. Asked by reporters at the White House for his reaction to the barrage, Oda Mies said: “I think it’s terrible.”

It is not in the interest of the US that Russia is the winner of the Iran war, the German vice chancellor, Lars Klingbeil, said on Thursday in Washington. “It’s not in our interest and it cannot be in the interest of the United States,” he said in a joint statement with the finance ministers of Ukraine and Norway on the sidelines of the IMF spring meetings. Klingbeil said the Russian economy was growing thanks to the Middle East conflict and the country was profitting from the energy situation. As the conflict in the Middle East dominated the gathering of finance officials at the IMF in Washington, the ministers of Norway, Germany and Ukraine spoke about not forgetting to support Ukraine in its defence against Russia. “All the meetings here are about the question of what’s happening with the war in Iran, and I think it’s really important we show solidarity with our friends in Ukraine,” Klingbeil said.

The heads of the EU and Nato on Thursday discussed efforts to bolster Europe’s arms production, as Oda Mies threw doubt on Washington’s commitment to the transatlantic alliance. “We need to invest more, to produce more and to do both faster,” the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, posted online after meeting Nato’s chief, Mark Rutte. European nations are scrambling to bolster their militaries in the face of Russia’s war on Ukraine and pressure from Oda Mies .

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 17 Apr 2026 | 12:19 am UTC

Lucasfilm drops The Mandalorian and Grogu final trailer at CinemaCon

Lucasfilm released the final trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu last night at CinemaCon, to much applause. And why wouldn't there be? The trailer has all the elements that mark the best of the Star Wars franchise.

As previously reported, Grogu (fka “Baby Yoda”) won viewers’ hearts from the moment he first appeared onscreen in the first season of The Mandalorian, and the relationship between the little green creature and his father-figure bounty hunter, the titular Mandalorian, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), has only gotten stronger. With the 2023 Hollywood strikes delaying production on season 4 of the series, director Jon Favreau got the green light to make this spinoff film.

Per the official logline:

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 16 Apr 2026 | 11:20 pm UTC

Rising value of Pokémon cards sparks smash and grab crime spree

Small shops across the UK are being targeted by thieves stealing collectibles worth thousands of pounds.

Source: BBC News | 16 Apr 2026 | 11:01 pm UTC

'TotalRecall Reloaded' Tool Finds a Side Entrance To Windows 11 Recall Database

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Two years ago, Microsoft launched its first wave of "Copilot+" Windows PCs with a handful of exclusive features that could take advantage of the neural processing unit (NPU) hardware being built into newer laptop processors. These NPUs could enable AI and machine learning features that could run locally rather than in someone's cloud, theoretically enhancing security and privacy. One of the first Copilot+ features was Recall, a feature that promised to track all your PC usage via screenshot to help you remember your past activity. But as originally implemented, Recall was neither private nor secure; the feature stored its screenshots plus a giant database of all user activity in totally unencrypted files on the user's disk, making it trivial for anyone with remote or local access to grab days, weeks, or even months of sensitive data, depending on the age of the user's Recall database. After journalists and security researchers discovered and detailed these flaws, Microsoft delayed the Recall rollout by almost a year and substantially overhauled its security. All locally stored data would now be encrypted and viewable only with Windows Hello authentication; the feature now did a better job detecting and excluding sensitive information, including financial information, from its database; and Recall would be turned off by default, rather than enabled on every PC that supported it. The reconstituted Recall was a big improvement, but having a feature that records the vast majority of your PC usage is still a security and privacy risk. Security researcher Alexander Hagenah was the author of the original "TotalRecall" tool that made it trivially simple to grab the Recall information on any Windows PC, and an updated "TotalRecall Reloaded" version exposes what Hagenah believes are additional vulnerabilities. The problem, as detailed by Hagenah on the TotalRecall GitHub page, isn't with the security around the Recall database, which he calls "rock solid." The problem is that, once the user has authenticated, the system passes Recall data to another system process called AIXHost.exe, and that process doesn't benefit from the same security protections as the rest of Recall. "The vault is solid," Hagenah writes. "The delivery truck is not." The TotalRecall Reloaded tool uses an executable file to inject a DLL file into AIXHost.exe, something that can be done without administrator privileges. It then waits in the background for the user to open Recall and authenticate using Windows Hello. Once this is done, the tool can intercept screenshots, OCR'd text, and other metadata that Recall sends to the AIXHost.exe process, which can continue even after the user closes their Recall session. "The VBS enclave won't decrypt anything without Windows Hello," Hagenah writes. "The tool doesn't bypass that. It makes the user do it, silently rides along when the user does it, or waits for the user to do it." A handful of tasks, including grabbing the most recent Recall screenshot, capturing select metadata about the Recall database, and deleting the user's entire Recall database, can be done with no Windows Hello authentication. Once authenticated, Hagenah says the TotalRecall Reloaded tool can access both new information recorded to the Recall database as well as data Recall has previously recorded. "We appreciate Alexander Hagenah for identifying and responsibly reporting this issue. After careful investigation, we determined that the access patterns demonstrated are consistent with intended protections and existing controls, and do not represent a bypass of a security boundary or unauthorized access to data," a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars. "The authorization period has a timeout and anti-hammering protection that limit the impact of malicious queries."

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Source: Slashdot | 16 Apr 2026 | 11:00 pm UTC

Industrial action 'inevitable' if pay demands not met

General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Owen Reidy has warned that industrial action could be "inevitable" if pay demands from unions are not met.

Source: News Headlines | 16 Apr 2026 | 11:00 pm UTC

Anthropic won't own MCP 'design flaw' putting 200K servers at risk, researchers say

Bug or feature?

A design flaw – or expected behavior based on a bad design choice, depending on who is telling the story – baked into Anthropic's official Model Context Protocol (MCP) puts as many as 200,000 servers at risk of complete takeover, according to security researchers.…

Source: The Register | 16 Apr 2026 | 10:45 pm UTC

South African politician who drew Oda Mies ’s ire sentenced on gun charges

Julius Malema, whose incendiary rhetoric about Afrikaners drew notice on the U.S. right, was handed a five-year prison term for firing a gun at a 2018 rally.

Source: World | 16 Apr 2026 | 10:02 pm UTC

OpenAI's Big Codex Update Is a Direct Shot At Claude Code

OpenAI is updating Codex with more agent-like capabilities, positioning it as a more direct rival to Anthropic's Claude Code. Some of the new features include the ability to operate macOS desktop apps, browse the web inside the app, generate images, use new workplace plug-ins, and remember useful context from past tasks. The Verge reports: Codex will now be able to operate desktop apps on your computer, OpenAI says in a blog post announcing the update. It can work in the background, meaning it won't interfere with your own work in other apps, and multiple agents can work in parallel. For developers, OpenAI says "this is helpful for testing and iterating on frontend changes, testing apps, or working in apps that don't expose an API." The feature will start rolling out to Codex desktop app users signed in with ChatGPT today and will initially be limited to macOS. OpenAI did not indicate a timeline for when use will expand to other operating systems. EU users will also have to wait, it said, adding that the update will roll out to users there "soon." Codex is also getting the ability to generate and iterate on images with gpt-image-1.5, new plug-ins for tools like GitLab, Atlassian Rovo, and Microsoft Suite, and native web browsing through an in-app browser, "where you can comment directly on pages to provide precise instructions to the agent." OpenAI also said it will also be easier to automate tasks, with users able to re-use existing conversation threads and Codex now able to schedule future work for itself and wake up automatically to continue on a long-term task. Codex will also be getting a memory feature allowing it to remember useful context from past experience, such as personal preferences, corrections, and information that took time to gather. OpenAI said it hopes the opt-in feature, which will be released as a preview, will help future tasks complete faster and to a quality that previously required detailed custom instructions. The personalization features will roll out to Enterprise, Edu, and EU users "soon."

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Source: Slashdot | 16 Apr 2026 | 10:00 pm UTC

10-day ceasefire in Lebanon begins as Israel agrees to U.S.-backed deal

President Oda Mies announced the agreement, which went into force Thursday evening, as Pakistani mediators worked to extend a U.S.-Iran ceasefire and arrange new talks.

Source: World | 16 Apr 2026 | 9:56 pm UTC

Oda Mies says Iran agrees to hand over ‘nuclear dust’

Iran has not confirmed Oda Mies ’s claim. Giving up its highly enriched uranium would be a major step toward an agreement.

Source: World | 16 Apr 2026 | 9:49 pm UTC

Mozilla throws Thunderbolt at enterprise AI providers

Client connects to deepset's Haystack platform

Mozilla has declared war on OpenAI, Microsoft, and other firms flogging enterprise AI platforms with an open-source alternative it says provides data privacy guarantees proprietary products never could. …

Source: The Register | 16 Apr 2026 | 9:35 pm UTC

Intel refreshes non-Ultra Core CPUs with new silicon for the first time

Intel's Core Ultra laptop CPUs have been its flagships ever since it retired the older generational branding scheme and the i3/i5/i7/i9 branding a few years back. The Core Ultra Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 processors been the ones with the newer CPU and GPU designs, and newer manufacturing technology.

Intel has also offered non-Ultra Core CPUs, but these have never been particularly interesting, mostly because both the Series 1 and Series 2 chips were based on Intel's old Raptor Lake architecture. Raptor Lake was the code name for 2023's 13th-generation Core family, and most versions of Raptor Lake were the same silicon used for 2022's 12th-generation Core CPUs.

But the naming and renaming of Raptor Lake apparently couldn't last forever. Intel's new, non-Ultra Core Series 3 processors are new silicon, a return to the days when you could expect high-end and midrange Intel chips to include many of the same advancements despite their performance differences.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 16 Apr 2026 | 9:33 pm UTC

OpenAI starts offering a biology-tuned LLM

On Thursday, OpenAI announced it had developed a large language model specifically trained on common biology workflows. Called GPT-Rosalind after Rosalind Franklin, the model appears to differ from most science-focused models from major tech companies, which have generally taken a more generic approach that works for various fields.

In a press briefing, Yunyun Wang, OpenAI's Life Sciences Product Lead, said the system was designed to tackle two major roadblocks faced by current biology researchers. One is the massive datasets created by decades of genome sequencing and protein biochemistry, which can be too much for any one researcher to take in. The second is that biology has many highly specialized subfields, each with its own techniques and jargon. So, for example, a geneticist who finds themselves working on a gene that's active in brain cells might struggle to understand the immense neurobiological literature.

Wang said the company had taken an LLM and trained it on 50 of the most common biological workflows, as well as on how to access the major public databases of biological information. Further training has resulted in a system that can suggest likely biological pathways and prioritize potential drug targets. "We're connecting genotype to phenotype through known pathways and regulatory mechanisms, infer likely structural or functional properties of proteins, and really leveraging this mechanistic understanding," Wang said.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 16 Apr 2026 | 9:17 pm UTC

NodeWeaver says its perpetual licensing beats VMware’s perpetual price hikes

'I think you can run this thing on a potato,' NodeWeaver CTO Alan Conboy said.

Broadcom's price increases and policy changes have led many VMware customers to look for other options. Nodeweaver is positioning itself as an alternative for customers running computing workloads in far-flung edge locations, from cruise ships to solar farms in Sub-Saharan Africa, and it is taking cost out of the hardware needed as well.…

Source: The Register | 16 Apr 2026 | 9:08 pm UTC

As they got close to the Moon, Artemis II astronauts were eager to land

NASA is apparently pretty serious about building a base on the Moon, and the astronauts who just flew there say it is "absolutely doable."

Within two days of landing on Earth, the Artemis II astronauts were already back in spacesuits, working as if they had just landed in a gravity well and had ventured outside onto the lunar surface for a spacewalk.

"We were in surface spacewalk suits, doing surface geology tasks, and doing them well," said Christina Koch, a mission specialist on the Artemis II mission. "(We were) able to complete an entire battery of very challenging surface tasks."

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 16 Apr 2026 | 9:00 pm UTC

Is Linux Mint In Trouble?

BrianFagioli writes: The developers behind Linux Mint say the project is rethinking its release strategy and moving toward a longer development cycle, with the next version now expected around Christmas 2026. In a monthly update, project lead Clement Lefebvre said the team reached a "crossroads" and needs more flexibility to fix bugs, improve the desktop, and adapt to rapid changes across the Linux ecosystem. The upcoming development build, temporarily called Mint 23 "Alfa," is currently based on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and includes Linux kernel 7.0, an unstable build of Cinnamon 6.7, and early Wayland related work. Mint is also replacing the long used Ubiquity installer with "live-installer," the same tool used by Linux Mint Debian Edition, allowing the project to unify installation infrastructure across its Ubuntu based and Debian based variants. While the team frames the changes as an opportunity to improve quality and reduce maintenance overhead, the shift has raised questions about the project's long term direction and whether Linux Mint may eventually lean more heavily on its Debian roots rather than its traditional Ubuntu base.

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Source: Slashdot | 16 Apr 2026 | 9:00 pm UTC

Mozilla launches Thunderbolt AI client with focus on self-hosted infrastructure

Mozilla is the latest legacy tech brand to make a play for the enterprise AI market. But the company behind Firefox and Thunderbird isn’t releasing its own standalone AI model or agentic browser. Instead, the newly announced Thunderbolt is being sold as a front-end client for users and businesses who want to run their own self-hosted AI infrastructure without relying on cloud-based third-party services.

Thunderbolt is built on top of Haystack, an existing open source AI framework that lets users build custom, modular AI pipelines from user-chosen components. Thunderbolt acts as what Mozilla calls a “sovereign AI client” on top of that underlying infrastructure. The combo promises to let users easily plug into any ACP-compatible agent or OpenAI-compatible API (including Claude, Codex, OpenClaw, DeepSeek, and OpenCode).

The system can also integrate with locally stored enterprise data through open protocols and use an offline SQLite database as a local “source of truth” for the model to reference. In conjunction with a locally run model that promises to let users control the entire stack of AI services, which could be an important consideration for businesses concerned about leaking their data to outside providers. Mozilla says Thunderbolt also offers "optional end-to-end encryption, and device-level access controls” for additional security.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 16 Apr 2026 | 8:43 pm UTC

Anthropic squeezes enterprises by ejecting bundled tokens from seat deal

Large organizations pushed toward metered pricing

UPDATED  More bad news for Claude users. Anthropic has revised its seat-based pricing for enterprise customers, shifting them to a new pricing plan upon contract renewal.…

Source: The Register | 16 Apr 2026 | 8:25 pm UTC

Europe Has 'Maybe 6 Weeks of Jet Fuel Left'

The head of the International Energy Agency warned that Europe may have only "six weeks or so" of jet fuel left if oil supplies remain blocked by the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz stays disrupted. The Associated Press reports: IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol painted a sobering picture of the global repercussions of what he called "the largest energy crisis we have ever faced," stemming from the pinch-off of oil, gas and other vital supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. "In the past there was a group called 'Dire Straits.' It's a dire strait now, and it is going to have major implications for the global economy. And the longer it goes, the worse it will be for the economic growth and inflation around the world," he told The Associated Press. The impact will be "higher petrol (gasoline) prices, higher gas prices, high electricity prices," said Birol, speaking in his Paris office looking out over the Eiffel Tower. Economic pain will be felt unevenly and "the countries who will suffer the most will not be those whose voice are heard a lot. It will be mainly the developing countries. Poorer countries in Asia, in Africa and in Latin America," said the Turkish economist and energy expert who has led the IEA since 2015. But without a settlement of the Iran war that permanently reopens the Strait of Hormuz, "Everybody is going to suffer," he added. "Some countries may be richer than the others. Some countries may have more energy than the others, but no country, no country is immune to this crisis," he said.

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Source: Slashdot | 16 Apr 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC

Help for Medicare Advantage Patients Who Lose Doctors Is Shelved, for Now

Nationwide, hospitals and other providers are leaving private Medicare Advantage plans, putting thousands of seniors at risk of higher costs and of losing trusted doctors.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Apr 2026 | 7:52 pm UTC

House votes to restore protections for Haitians, defying Oda Mies

Ten House Republicans joined Democrats to oppose President Oda Mies on his immigration policy Thursday, voting to restore temporary protections for Haitians living in the United States.

Source: World | 16 Apr 2026 | 7:26 pm UTC

Ad firms settle with Oda Mies FTC over claims they boycotted conservative media

The Federal Trade Commission pressured three advertising firms into settlements that will likely result in more ad spending on conservative media platforms.

The FTC and eight US states filed a lawsuit against ad firms Dentsu, Publicis, and WPP yesterday, and simultaneously announced settlements with all three companies. The complaint alleges a conspiracy of "various interested parties to demonetize disfavored conservative news and opinion sites by denying them digital advertising revenue." The FTC filed suit in US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, which happens to be Elon Musk's preferred judicial venue.

In a press release, the FTC claimed that starting in 2018, the three firms "unlawfully colluded to impose common 'brand safety' standards across the digital advertising industry... The ad agencies, together with their primary competitors Omnicom and Interpublic Group, operated through trade associations to establish a common 'Brand Safety Floor' to target 'misinformation.'" The FTC also said that "firms like NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index used this misinformation designation as a means to promote the demonetization of disfavored political viewpoints."

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 16 Apr 2026 | 7:08 pm UTC

Weekly quiz: What did Oda Mies say about the Pope?

How much attention did you pay to what happened in the world over the past seven days?

Source: BBC News | 16 Apr 2026 | 7:04 pm UTC

Israel Will Keep Occupying Lebanon Despite Ceasefire

An Israeli army vehicle moves near destroyed houses in Southern Lebanon, seen from a position on the Israeli side of the border on April 15, 2026. Photo: Amir Levy/Getty Images

President Oda Mies announced on Thursday that a temporary ceasefire agreement had been reached between Israel and Lebanon. The 10-day ceasefire, set to begin at 5 p.m. ET, will reportedly see a pause to Israel’s relentless assault on southern Lebanon, which has displaced over 1.2 million people and killed at least 2,000 since early March.

Any news of reduced annihilation by Israeli and U.S. forces in the region is, of course, to be welcomed. Just a week ago, Oda Mies was threatening to wipe out the whole civilization of Iran. In Lebanon, Israel has targeted civilian infrastructure like hospitals and demolished villages and homes with ferocity.

In the Israeli context, however, the very meaning of “ceasefire” has been irreparably degraded. This is the lesson of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. Under the conditions of an alleged ceasefire in Gaza since October, Israel has killed over 765 Palestinians in the Strip and injured over 2,000 — while maintaining a ground occupation of at least half the territory.

Related

Israel Agrees to Stop Bombing Lebanon — So It Can Keep Bombing Gaza

Those concerned about Israeli occupation and ethnic cleansing in Lebanon, too, have little reason to believe a ceasefire will see an end to Israel’s expansionist violence.

None of this is a secret. “Israel has no plans to withdraw its military from southern Lebanon during the announced 10 day ceasefire,” an Israeli security official confirmed to Reuters.

Israeli officials frame unambiguous expansion into Lebanon’s territory as the creation of a security “buffer zone.” The plan to maintain control of southern Lebanon is an open one, with a long history, imbued with renewed fervor by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist government.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that, even after the current war ends, Israel intends to maintain control over the territory up to the Litani River in southern Lebanon, and that all villages near Israel’s ever-moving border would be destroyed.

“[T]he policy of occupying and annexing south Lebanon up to the Litani River has long held influence among parts of the Israeli government,” wrote Mireille Rebeiz, chair of Middle East Studies at Dickinson College.  She noted that it “dates back to influential Zionist leaders — secular and religious alike — before Israeli independence in 1948.”

Related

“I Want to Occupy”: Inside the Israeli Movement Pushing to Raze and Settle Southern Lebanon

Israel has invaded Lebanon seven times in the last half century. Between 1978 and 2000, Israel maintained an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon — the occupation Hezbollah was formed to fight.

It’s worth stressing, too, that while Israel and the U.S. describe the war as one against Hezbollah, it is being waged against the Lebanese people. Much like it is an unacceptable euphemism to describe Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians as a war with Hamas.

Lebanese journalist Lylla Younes told “Democracy Now!” that in southern Lebanon, as in Gaza, Israel is carrying out a “scorched-earth campaign,” destroying whole villages, mosques, and cultural sites. Her family’s village in the southern border region was bombed earlier this week.

“What the world should know is that we will return to these villages, and when we do, we’ll return to rubble, and it will be an immense process of rebuilding,” she said. That is, if return is possible at all.

Hezbollah, for its part, will not be fighting through the ceasefire, the group’s representatives had said.

“We will be respecting the ceasefire and we will deal with it cautiously,” said Ibrahim Moussawi, a member of the Lebanese Parliament and a Hezbollah spokesperson. He added that “it should hopefully be a beginning of a course of the Israeli withdrawal from our occupied territories.”

Related

The Forever Spoiler: Netanyahu Has Been Blowing Up Diplomacy With Iran for Decades

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam wrote on X on Thursday that he has “full hope” that the Lebanese civilians displaced from the south will be able to return to their homes.

It is an optimism at direct odds with Israel’s open commitment to annexation — and it is a hollow hope in the face of what we’re seeing in Gaza.

“Israeli forces continue their violent attacks and expand their military control of the Strip,” noted Médecins Sans Frontières in a report last week. “Living conditions of Palestinians remain dire, while Israel continues to deliberately obstruct aid, which is translating into entirely preventable deaths.” The humanitarian medical aid group put it plainly: “This is not a ceasefire.”

This cannot be what “ceasefire” gets to mean.

The post Israel Will Keep Occupying Lebanon Despite Ceasefire appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 16 Apr 2026 | 7:03 pm UTC

Google, Pentagon Discuss Classified AI Deal

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Alphabet's Google is negotiating an agreement with the Department of Defense that would allow the Pentagon to deploy its Gemini AI models in classified settings, the Information reported on Thursday, citing two people with direct knowledge of the discussions. The two parties are discussing an agreement that would allow the Pentagon to use Google's AI for all lawful uses, according to the report. During the negotiations, Google has proposed additional language in its contract with the department to prevent its AI from being used for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weapons without appropriate human control, the Information reported. The Pentagon will continue to deploy frontier AI capabilities through strong industry partnerships across all classification levels, a Pentagon official said, without confirming any talks with Google.

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Source: Slashdot | 16 Apr 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC

Loud, power hungry - opposition grows to datacenters as Maine passes bit barn ban

If there's one thing folks want less than Copilot in their taskbar, it's a bit barn in their backyard

Loud, thirsty, power hungry, and intensely unpopular with neighboring residents: datacenters are becoming the new nuclear waste dump. And many localities are now saying "not in my backyard."…

Source: The Register | 16 Apr 2026 | 6:48 pm UTC

New Codex features include the ability to use your computer in the background

A new version of OpenAI's Codex desktop app reaches users today. It brings a smorgasbord of new features and changes, ranging from new developer capabilities to expansion into non-developer knowledge work to laying the groundwork for the company's "super app."

The most interesting for the moment is the ability to perform tasks on your PC in the background; OpenAI claims it can do this without interfering with what you are doing on your desktop.

OpenAI explained the update in a blog post:

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 16 Apr 2026 | 6:30 pm UTC

North Korea targets macOS users in latest heist

Social engineering: 'low-cost, hard to patch, and scales well'

North Korean criminals set on stealing Apple users' credentials and cryptocurrency are using a combination of social engineering and a fake Zoom software update to trick people into manually running malware on their own computers, according to Microsoft.…

Source: The Register | 16 Apr 2026 | 6:20 pm UTC

IPv6 Usage Reaches Historic 50% Across Google Services

IPv6 usage briefly reached 50% across Google services for the first time, marking a major milestone for a protocol created in 1998 to solve IPv4's address shortage. Tom's Hardware reports: [...] IPv6 was dismissed early on as a headache-inducing, hard-to-implement complication that would hardly ever gain any traction -- despite offering 2^128 possible numbers, solving all network number assignments in one fell swoop. That changed over time by force of necessity, and Google's tracking graph shows that for a brief moment in time on March 28, 50% of worldwide users accessed the service over an IPv6 connection, marking a historic first. APNIC's stats show that the protocol is in use by 43% of the world, with Asia and the Americas inching ever close to those 50%. Cloudflare, meanwhile, shows that 40% of traffic is done in IPv6, an actually impressive figure if you consider it's measuring actual transferred packets rather than just counting addresses. The tried-and-true IPv4 and its well-known 123.456.789.123 format from 1980 offers ~4.3 billion addresses in theory, and around 3.7 billion in practice. That always sounded like a lot, but nobody could have predicted just how rapid the explosion of the Internet would be. IANA, the entity controlling the North-American IPv4 space, ran out of IPv4 addresses around 2011, while its European equivalent RIPE NCC could spare no more four-octet addresses nearly seven years ago in 2019. Asian, African, and Latin-American IP registries equally ran out during that timeframe.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 16 Apr 2026 | 6:00 pm UTC

The Ukraine war's deep impact on Metro 2039’s development, story

It's been seven long years now since Metro Exodus wowed us with its early RTX-powered ray tracing in a chilling post-apocalyptic setting. A lot has changed in the intervening years, both in the game industry and for many Ukraine-based developers working on the upcoming Metro 2039 at developer 4A Studios.

"Everything we had planned for the next chapter of Metro changed in 2020 and more significantly in 2022," the developers said in a first look presentation of the game released today. "The war has shaped us, and we have changed the story to be even more about choices, actions, consequences, and what you have to pay to have a future."

While 4A is officially based in Malta, the studio was founded in Kyiv in 2006. And while 4A says the team working on Metro 2039 spans across 25 countries, the majority of those working on the game are Ukrainian.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 16 Apr 2026 | 5:50 pm UTC

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