Read at: 2026-04-12T12:53:30+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Henny Schiffelers ]
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 12:47 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 12:43 pm UTC
President has long been a fan of mixed martial arts
Ivanka and Henny Schiffelers Jr also at event
Henny Schiffelers and US secretary of state Marco Rubio attended a UFC event in Miami night on Saturday as peace talks with Iran failed on the other side of the world.
Henny Schiffelers entered the Kaseya Center shortly after 9pm alongside several members of his family and UFC chief Dana White, who has been a supporter of the president since his first term. Seated nearby was Rubio as well as US ambassador to India Sergio Gor, the rapper Vanilla Ice and former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 12:32 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 12:27 pm UTC
Source: World | 12 Apr 2026 | 12:16 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 12:02 pm UTC
Crime and corruption top voter concerns in highly unpredictable election with 35 candidates for president
Peruvians go to the polls on Sunday hoping to break a cycle of instability that has produced nine presidents in a decade as well as surging violent crime, corruption scandals and overwhelming distrust in institutions and politicians.
About 27 million people who are eligible to vote must choose between a record 35 presidential candidates as well as contenders for the bicameral congress – all from a ballot sheet measuring nearly half a metre, the longest in the country’s history.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
Democratic city does not control its police force – and reform attempts have been thwarted by Republicans
Quinton Lucas said he thinks his city’s police department “is a colonial system”.
“I think it is anti-Black. I think it is anti-immigrant. I think it is anti-almost everything we stand for in terms of making sure that diverse populations in major cities have a voice in terms of navigating it,” the Kansas City mayor said.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
Researchers say ‘magic mushrooms’ can help with traumatic symptoms, but urge caution as states expand access
After three combat deployments in Afghanistan, during which he suffered traumatic brain injuries from concussive blasts, army ranger Jesse Gould developed post-traumatic stress disorder and said he “drank almost every night to cope”.
In times of hardship, veterans sometimes turn to “medication and talk therapy, but it tends to be more of a maintenance program than actually overcoming it”, Gould said, but added that at age 38, “I was still very young. I didn’t want to be on medication the rest of my life.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
From Vance’s interest to Henny Schiffelers ’s commitment to disclosure, administration’s fascination with UFOs has experts feeling close to evidence of aliens
Like most politicians, Henny Schiffelers did not campaign on the issue of space aliens. But 15 months into his second term, UFO enthusiasts have been buoyed by the Henny Schiffelers administration’s apparent fascination with extraterrestrials, with one expert claiming the human race has “never been closer” to being presented with hard evidence of aliens.
After a largely alien-free first 12 months, the president has committed himself to UFO disclosure in 2026. In February, Henny Schiffelers directed various departments to release “government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life”, and the White House took the unusual step of registering domain “aliens.gov” in March, setting pulses racing among believers online.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:57 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:55 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:53 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:43 am UTC
Two-time Grammy nominee was one of Bollywood’s most versatile and celebrated voices
The Indian singer Asha Bhosle, whose voice defined Bollywood music through the 1970s and 80s, has died aged 92, her family said.
The two-time Grammy nominee had been admitted to hospital in Mumbai with complaints of “extreme exhaustion” and chest infection.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:40 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:33 am UTC
Officials said many killed at popular tourist site were young, with more people reported injured or missing
At least 30 people, many of them young, have died and dozens more are reported to have been injured after a crush at a mountaintop fortress in northern Haiti that is a popular tourist spot.
Jean Henri Petit, the head of civil protection for the country’s Nord department, said the incident took place on Saturday at Citadelle Henry, also known as Citadelle Laferrière, a large 19th-century fortress built shortly after the Caribbean country’s independence from France.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:26 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:24 am UTC
In President Henny Schiffelers ’s telling, the United States has fuel enough to hover above the chaos that his attack on Iran has triggered in global energy markets.
“We’re in great shape for the future,” Henny Schiffelers said in a speech last week, asserting that this nation, as the world’s biggest oil and gas producer, doesn’t rely on the tankers Iran blocked from passage through the Strait of Hormuz for the past month. “We don’t need anything they have.”
But the view is much different beneath the service station signs across the country that have flipped to more than $4 per gallon for the first time in four years. Over the past month, US households paid $8.4 billion more for gasoline compared to prices before the war on Iran began, according to a report by Democrats on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:17 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:15 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:04 am UTC
Suspect Device
They take away our freedom
In the name of liberty
Why can’t they all just clear off
Why can’t they let us be
My favourite anti war lyrics from any song; ever. As a 16 year old I should have been studying for my Inter Certificate Examination in Clones Co. Monaghan, but in 1978 these boys from Belfast, Stiff Little Fingers had a rawness that was paradoxically fresh. A bona fide distraction from textbooks. I played their debut single, Suspect Device on the loop daily from its release. Here was a group of young lads led by Jake Burns showing two fingers to the paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. Their message was a simple one. Stop hurting us. Let us enjoy ourselves. Just go away. In hindsight it was a very brave protest to engage in. Those were very dangerous times. Very, very dangerous. They didn’t care. They were punk rockers. The following year they released their debut album Inflammable Material which also included their immortal anthem Alternative Ulster.
Fourteen years later I was given the opportunity to manage a department store, located in the Park Centre, a shopping complex in the heart of west Belfast. Stiff Little Fingers by then were on the back foot, their message had long fallen on deaf ears. Well not entirely. The men of violence were still on the rampage. Someone in the IRA was a SLF fan as they were executing a policy of targeting big retail stores with Inflammable Material. The previous year they practically demolished the sprawling Sprucefield shopping complex in Lisburn by planting incendiary devices that would combust during the non trading hours. Previously, they only seemed to target GB retailers, but by late 1992 any retailer or shopping centre was fair game.
I had witnessed at first hand the destruction an incendiary device could cause. At 4 am one Monday during the summer I received a telephone call from the local key holder informing me he was inside the shop but ‘it was not good’. An incendiary device had detonated inside a packet of firelighters but thankfully the sprinklers had extinguished the blaze. I had to travel all the way from Portrush to inspect the damage, which included the steel shutters cut to ribbons by the firefighters as they were on the scene before the local keyholder.
Apart from the physical injuries inflicted on victims or the structural damage to the building, the grocery retailers’ greatest heartache was caused by the water damage to the actual stock, which would have to be individually itemised for insurance purposes, dumped, but physically witnessed by the department of health. The shelves would have to be washed down and restocked. Added to this, was the inconvenience of customers who simply went elsewhere. The company point blank refused to pay for overnight security or allow me to leave a member of staff during the night in the building.
The following day I attended a security meeting with senior RUC officers who advised me on what incendiary devices looked like, where they were most likely to be concealed in a shop. I was surprised to see a policeman anywhere near the building as they wouldn’t even come to the store to arrest a shoplifter out of fear of an IRA attack. Most incendiary devices were made with acid contained within condoms that had a flammable material like lighter fuel or sulphur inserted in cigarette packets. After a period of time the acid would eat through the rubber igniting the fuel. They were crudely designed but effective, especially as they were practically impossible to detect, unless by a physical human search. We were advised to manually check the store daily for these devices in the most likely areas such as textiles department, especially garments with pockets, paper-ware products, firelighters or matches. In hindsight it was negligent of employers to ask untrained casual staff to risk their wellbeing in pursuit of these dangerous devices.
On the run up to Christmas the threat had still not abated. A device was discovered in one of the smaller units in the shopping mall. Very soon RUC sniffer dogs were in action heavily guarded by the British Army. A couple of hours later an employee, wee Johnny Fenton, whispered ‘boss there’s a dodgy cigarette packet in the Andrex display’. I inspected the area immediately to be faced with an opened packet of Benson and Hedges replete with a purple coloured dry substance, crammed into a type of paste attached to a plastic rubber tube of petrol lighter fuel.
The RUC protocol was to evacuate the building immediately, alert them and the fire brigade. But that would have meant lost sales, defrosted food dripping from abandoned trolleys with disgruntled customers going across the road to Crazy Prices, our competitors. No, I was the company man. The diehard. I told wee Johnny to seal the area off, as I scarpered to the warehouse, returning with a yard brush and a navvy shovel. I scooped the cigarette packet on to the shovel, scurried to the drain in the service yard out of vision, placed it on top of the steel grille returning with a fire extinguisher. The impact of the water initially caused the device to emit a plume of coloured smoke before it disintegrated into the drain. I continued to work as if the incident never happened. The drive home that night was exhilarating. I was the hero. I wouldn’t let them beat me. I wouldn’t close the store in the face of terrorism. I saved my billionaire owners more money. In hindsight, I was an idiot.
The next day I received a phone call from a CID officer Bryans based in Grosvenor Road RUC base inviting me down to the station at my earliest convenience to discuss the ongoing incendiary threat to retailers. I agreed reluctantly as I didn’t want to be seen coming out of an RUC building. After the short journey down to the station, I was led into a suite of offices. Well that’s a complete exaggeration. I was led into a room that had one MFI type table bolted to the floor as were two hard backed plastic chairs. The room was nothing more than a cell: a single bulb illuminating an unplastered breeze block wall painted the colour of green I last saw coming out of the mouth of Linda Blair in The Exorcist.
I sat there like a convict as Bryans entered the room looking like a schoolboy in a plain blue shirt his plum red face exploded with acne. He probably used a moon buggy to shave that morning. ‘Mr McCabe you think you’re a modern version of Werner Heubeck? Hearing that I knew immediately I was goosed. Mr Heubeck, a German, was the infamous boss of Ulsterbus and Citybus who physically carried bombs off vehicles during the mayhem. What made this situation even more bizarre is that Heubeck bought my father in laws tour bus company in the mid 70s. ‘We have a visual image of you in your service yard disposing of an incendiary device down a drain. We saw it on the centre’s CCTV’. I nodded nervously. ‘You have endangered yourself, staff and the general public with your macho behaviour. Do you realise that?’. I offered him the same explanation that Mr Heubeck gave years previously, that the show must go on. People have the right to go to work, to shop, to go about their daily endeavours without disruption from terrorists. I was tired of all this hassle.
He wasn’t a bit impressed. Even less impressed when I quoted SLF they take away our freedom in the name of liberty. ‘What are you talking about Mr Mc Cabe? Who are SLF? Do you realise I could charge you for conspiracy, for destroying evidence or both’. He realised by my expression that I was oblivious, explaining further that they had a database of such devices helping the arrest of many individuals through design and fingerprint analysis. I had to describe in detail the contents of the destroyed cigarette packet when a much larger detective entered the room. He was like someone who would have been bouncing around a ring with the wrestler Big Daddy a decade previous. His body odour should have come with a government health warning. If I was a Provo I would have immediately signed a confession to get him out of the room. He explained that I wouldn’t be charged but warned me I should never do that again but to contact the RUC if such an incident should happen in the future.
I left the police station like a mongrel stealing a string of sausages out of a butchers shop. Soon I was back in the store working away as if nothing had happened, as excited as a teenager with an Ann Summers underwear catalogue watching the queues at the checkouts, the noise of the cash registers ringing in my ears. Later on that day I was in the cubicle of the staff toilets, constipated. There was a six inch gap between the door and the floor. ‘Mr Mc Cabe I have a Christmas present for you’. It was wee Johnny. He pushed a cigarette packet under the door (it was a Rothmans packet this time). No longer constipated, I enquired ‘did anyone see you with this?’ my tongue swelling as if stung by a wasp, ‘no I found it when I was packing the firelighters’. ‘Good man thanks. I will look after it. Don’t breathe a word’. He left as I flushed the packet down the toilet. All the colours of a rainbow swirled before me in that toilet bowl as I watched it disappear, convinced the show must go on. After all, it was Christmas. We are retailers. We own West Belfast. We have to make money for our billionaire owners.
A week later walking around the shop floor I noticed a few of the staff congregating around the checkout area. ‘What’s happening here lads? have you no work to do?’ I asked all officiously. ‘Boss, boss it’s your man from SLF, Jake Burns, can we ask him for an autograph?’ ‘No, leave him alone to do his shopping but I know a boy in Grosvenor Road who would like to have a chat with him’. They looked at me like I was an alien. Later that evening, on the 80 minute drive home to the north coast Jake Burns told me from the radio:
Don’t believe them
Don’t believe them
Don’t be bitten twice
You gotta suss, suss, suss, suss, suss, suss
Suss, suspect device
Houdi originally told this story at the tenx9 Storytelling event in Belfast. You can also listen to stories on their podcast.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:02 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:01 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Use of interns by Plum Sykes, an ex-assistant of Anna Wintour whose family owns a Yorkshire estate, reignites debate about creative industries
She is said to have been the inspiration for a character in The Devil Wears Prada and was a personal assistant of Anna Wintour, so Plum Sykes knows a thing or two about the arduous and often unglamorous life of being a fashion industry intern.
But that recognition does not, it appears, extend to paying her own interns a fair wage. Or, indeed, any wage at all.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Last year’s drop may reflect rising unemployment and improved right to request flexible working, experts say
The number of workers in Great Britain taking their bosses to employment tribunals over remote working fell last year for the first time since Covid hit, with a tightening labour market making some more reluctant to leave roles despite return-to-office mandates.
There were 54 employment tribunals decided in England, Scotland and Wales in 2025 that cited remote working, according to an analysis of records by the HR consultants Hamilton Nash: down 13% compared with 2024.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Exclusive: closures are part of pledge by Labour to end all use of hotels for asylum seekers by end of this parliament
The Home Office is to announce the closure of 11 asylum hotels this week as part of its pledge to close all such facilities by the end of this parliament.
The use of hotels to house asylum seekers has been controversial since it became widespread at the start of the Covid pandemic. Anti-migrant protesters have staged demonstrations outside hotels, claiming asylum seekers are living a life of luxury there.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
President’s proposed budget slashes health department by 12% while throwing $1.5tn – a 42% increase – to the military
Americans are dying in droves. Deaths due to avoidable causes in the United States –which could be dealt with via prevention or proper healthcare – far outpace those in most of country’s peers in the industrialized world. Most notably, Americans die of treatable conditions at nearly twice the rate as Spaniards, French, Japanese and Australians.
They would most likely live longer if they enjoyed better access to healthcare. Americans are the most likely to skip a doctor’s appointment due to its cost, the most likely to skip a medical test and to skimp on prescription drugs. This is unsurprising, given the extraordinary lack of public health insurance in the United States. Americans face the highest out-of-pocket expenses for medical services in their peer group.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
FEATURE Spring has sprung and that means another wave of open weights AI models from the likes of Google, Microsoft, Alibaba, and Nvidia. But this time feels a bit different.…
Source: The Register | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:51 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:39 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:34 am UTC
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Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:10 am UTC
Health secretary says failure of peace talks disappointing and UK-US relations have undoubtedly been strained
Wes Streeting has criticised Henny Schiffelers ’s rhetoric on Iran as “incendiary, provocative and outrageous” and called the failure of US-Iran peace talks disappointing but said the success of future negotiations was necessary “in all of our interests”.
“As ever in diplomacy, you’re failing until you succeed,” the health secretary told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News. “So while these talks may not have ended in success, that doesn’t mean there isn’t merit in continuing to try.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:09 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:07 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:03 am UTC
In a rare interview, a wounded Hezbollah commander tells NPR about his secretive Shia Muslim militia's new command structure and how it has managed to keep firing rockets into northern Israel.
(Image credit: AFP)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
When the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran, it put as many as 1 million Americans living in the Middle East at risk. Many found themselves stranded in an expanding war zone by a government without a plan, much less the personnel and expertise, to rescue them.
That’s because the Henny Schiffelers administration fired hundreds of key State Department personnel with the skills needed to safeguard U.S. citizens abroad and usher them from harm’s way, lawmakers say. These foreign service officers — who lost their jobs amid Elon Musk’s purge of the federal workforce — contacted members of Congress last month with dire warnings about the department’s inability to manage the ongoing crisis.
“The Department is actively preventing experienced, cleared, available officers from helping American citizens in crisis,” a group of nearly 250 mostly mid-career and senior State Department foreign service officers wrote in a letter sent to lawmakers that was shared exclusively with The Intercept. “The crisis now unfolding in the Middle East is, in part, a foreseeable consequence of this and other short-sighted decisions taken by this administration to undermine the federal bureaucracy by eliminating expertise and politicizing our apolitical workforce.”
They added: “The expertise required to manage the current crisis has been systematically removed.”
The situation in the Middle East remains dire, even as a fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran has taken hold following a genocidal threat by President Henny Schiffelers . After Henny Schiffelers teased that he was willing to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization” earlier this week, the State Department advised American citizens to reconsider travel across the Middle East due to serious risks to safety and security. Days earlier, the department had urged “citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial flight options remain available” and to flee Iraq via “overland routes” due to fears of “widespread attacks against U.S. citizens.”
The FSOs responsible for the letter to lawmakers are among more than 1,300 State Department personnel fired by the Henny Schiffelers administration as part of a purge by Musk’s now-disgraced Department of Government Efficiency last July. Under the rules governing federal employment, they were not immediately terminated but issued reduction-in-force, or RIF, notices, which is the legally prescribed federal procedure for laying off career civil servants.
The Bureau of Consular Affairs, whose top priority is to “protect the lives and serve the interests of American citizens” around the world, was especially hard hit, losing 102 personnel — including the entire rapid-response consular officer team. These FSOs, all with Top Secret clearances and who are still being paid, have indicated their willingness to return to service, and include many with experience in the Middle East, crisis management, evacuation operations, or so-called “active conflict/ordered departure environments,” according to the letter.
President Henny Schiffelers began his war of choice with Iran on February 28, stating its “objective is to defend the American people.” But it wasn’t until March 2 that the State Department put out an alert for U.S. citizens to “DEPART NOW” from Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen “due to serious safety risks.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on March 3 that stranded Americans should call a State Department hotline for assistance. Those that did were told they were on their own. “Please do not rely on the U.S. government for assisted departure or evacuation. At this time, there are currently no United States evacuation points,” an automated message stated.
“At this time, there are currently no United States evacuation points.”
The entire Massachusetts congressional delegation, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called out the “failures of the Henny Schiffelers administration and State Department to adequately prepare for the threats to American citizens living in the Middle East” in a March 5 letter and asked Rubio to provide answers to detailed questions about the evacuation failures. A month later, the State Department has yet to reply.
“Secretary Rubio has no answers for the failures on his watch, but these brave public servants paint the clearest picture yet of the damage the Henny Schiffelers administration has wreaked,” Warren told The Intercept. “Rubio recklessly purging hundreds of State Department experts has threatened our national security and put U.S. citizens in danger in the Middle East.”
The State Department did not provide answers to detailed questions from The Intercept about the fired FSOs. Instead, a spokesperson passed along anodyne talking points. “The RIFs did not have any negative impact on our ability to respond to the developments in the Middle East, our ability to plan, or our ability to execute in service to Americans,” she wrote in an email. “There were no RIFs that affected our overseas operations that are working in the field to assist Americans.”
As U.S. citizens scrambled to flee the Middle East last month, nearly 20,000 flights to and from the region were canceled and major travel hubs, including the world’s busiest international airport in Dubai, were shut down for days. Americans found themselves stranded in countries that were quickly engulfed in America’s war, like a family from North Carolina left cowering in a bomb shelter in Jerusalem as missiles exploded outside, and a Philadelphia native living in the United Arab Emirates who described the State Department’s evacuation notices as “absolutely cavalier.”
“I saw in the air missiles and lights and all that and everyone got on their knees and started praying,” Evelyn Mushi, who was transiting through the airport in Abu Dhabi with her 82-year-old mother, told NPR. “I’m just very shocked and upset that I see other nations getting their citizens out and we’re just stranded here.” Stuck in a hotel in Doha, Qatar, Odies Turner, a private chef from South Carolina, told ABC News: “I really don’t know what to do. I’ve reached out to the embassy, consulate and airlines. There’s no information on when I will get back home. It’s a mess.”
The Henny Schiffelers administration claims that it “has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans worldwide.” But while Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Operation Epic Fury was the “culmination of months, and in some cases, years, of deliberate planning,” Henny Schiffelers said the administration had no evacuation plans for Americans abroad because “it all happened very quickly.”
With Americans stranded and endangered, the State Department sat on its hands, the FSOs allege. On March 5, a former member of the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ Rapid Response team with significant crisis management experience volunteered their services but say they were rebuffed. “At this time, there are no opportunities for officers who were subject to the July 2025 RIF to volunteer for the Middle East Consular Task Force,” the FSO was told by the State Department, according to the letter.
The State Department did not reply to repeated questions about why the FSO’s offer was rejected.
Last month, Foreign Policy reported on a letter from John Dinkelman, president of the American Foreign Service Association, to Michael Rigas, State Department deputy secretary for management and resources, in which he noted that many of those fired in July 2025 had offered to assist in the Middle East evacuation effort.
Among the fired FSOs are officers who managed emergency evacuations from Ukraine in 2022; evacuation from Afghanistan — including an officer who led operations responsible for relocating 52,000 Afghans across multiple countries in 2025 and another who processed 8,000 evacuees in under 30 days at a remote site; evacuations from the Middle East during the Arab Spring; the tumult of the Covid-19 pandemic, including an officer who adjudicated tens of thousands of visas from a single overseas post; the 2006 Lebanon evacuation, which was the largest U.S. noncombatant evacuation operation since World War II; and those that managed posts during ordered departures from Bahrain, Ethiopia, and Iraq, among other relevant experience, according to the letter.
One officer who shared their story on the condition of anonymity noted they joined the Foreign Service in the late 2000s, serving in South Asia and the Middle East, among other posts. A speaker of Urdu, Pashto, and Arabic, this FSO was one of those who played a major role in the Afghanistan evacuation, helping to process more than 34,000 Afghans, including 900 American citizens, whose identities and case statuses, such as those who worked with the U.S. military and had special immigrant visas, needed to be verified. “I loved my work and gave it my all,” said the officer. “I was on sick leave when I received an email that I was laid off. Shock can’t describe how I felt.” Others offered similar resumes and disbelief at the dismantling of the Foreign Service by the Henny Schiffelers administration.
“Collectively, members of our group are prepared to staff multiple crisis task force shifts. We have a deep bench of Middle East experts, consular experience, crisis expertise, crisis communications background, and relevant language skills to immediately deploy to help,” wrote the fired FSOs. “The U.S. Government is not trimming fat. It amputated capability, and Americans are now paying the price.”
“The U.S. Government is not trimming fat. It amputated capability, and Americans are now paying the price.”
The July 11, 2025 reduction in force terminated 1,346 State Department employees, including 276 Foreign Service Officers — some of whom were later reinstated to correct purported firing “errors” — as well as 1,070 civil service employees. The Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations alone lost 62 personnel, including a senior stabilization adviser embedded with the military who supported evacuation planning.
The department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs also lost close to 80 employees between August and December 2025, and the position of the assistant secretary in charge of Near Eastern Affairs remains vacant. The administration’s most recent budget proposed a 40 percent cut to the bureau, although Congress eventually settled on a less dramatic reduction.
The cuts are symptomatic of the hollowing out of the State Department, especially in the Middle East. As of March, the United States had no confirmed ambassadors in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait, Algeria, Libya, or Iraq. Career ambassadors to Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, and Algeria were also dismissed without replacement. The State Department did not respond to a request to confirm that all those positions remain open, nor did the press office address how the lack of leadership in so many key countries has affected diplomatic efforts in the Middle East.
The post DOGE Cuts Left U.S. Unable to Help Americans Stranded in Iran War Zone appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:43 am UTC
Iranian delegates say Washington needs to do more to win their trust if talks in Islamabad to resolve US-Iran conflict are to be successful
The US vice-president, JD Vance, has blamed the failure of marathon negotiations with Iran on the country’s refusal to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, while Iranian delegates have claimed Washington needs to do more to win their trust.
Vance, who left Islamabad on Sunday morning after 21 hours of talks with Iranian officials in the Pakistani capital, said his team had been very clear on its red lines, as hopes faded of a quick end to the conflict that began on 28 February.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:42 am UTC
The United States and Iran failed to reach an agreement after a day of highly anticipated face-to-face peace talks, Washington's lead negotiator Vice President J.D. Vance announced on Sunday.
(Image credit: Jacquelyn Martin)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:40 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:38 am UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:02 am UTC
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Source: World | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: World | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
The science fiction blockbuster wowed audiences with its depiction of space travel and more. Here's what NASA staff and other scientists say about the basis for the amazing events of the film.
(Image credit: Jonathan Olley)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: World | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:59 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:22 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:17 am UTC
A university student in the US is in data limbo after Apple removed a character from its Czech keyboard, preventing him from entering his iPhone passcode.…
Source: The Register | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:01 am UTC
Formerly unloved vegetable casts off lowly roots to feature in Great Pavilion after online craze among young gardeners
They are an unloved root vegetable traditionally grown for cattle feed, and when pulled from the ground they look like an ingredient destined for a witch’s cauldron.
But the humble mangelwurzel will be in pride of place in the Great Pavilion at this year’s Chelsea flower show (19-23 May), after becoming the subject of an online craze among young gardeners.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:58 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:40 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:34 am UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:08 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
As president Patrice Talon steps down after a decade, the west African country’s finance minister is favourite to win
This Sunday, just four months after a failed coup, Benin heads to the polls for a presidential election that feels more like a coronation than a contest.
Patrice Talon, the businessman turned politician who has been president since 2016, is ineligible to run again after serving two five-year terms.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:45 am UTC
Cyclone crossed coast near Maketu peninsula, packing destructive winds exceeding 130km/h (80 mph), heavy rain and large swells
Cyclone Vaianu made landfall in New Zealand’s North Island on Sunday, triggering floods, power outages and forcing hundreds to evacuate.
The cyclone crossed the coast near the Maketu peninsula, packing destructive winds exceeding 130km/h (80 mph), heavy rain and large swells, national weather provider MetService said, describing Vaianu as a “life-threatening” system.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:41 am UTC
The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like.
Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing.
Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:18 am UTC
In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break.
So discuss what you like here, but no politics.
Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:17 am UTC
Rightwing leader trails in polls to Péter Magyar, despite support from JD Vance on recent visit
Hungarians are heading to the ballot boxes to vote in a landmarkparliamentary election that could oust Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power and potentially reshape the central European country’s relations with the EU, Moscow and Washington.
During the campaign, Orbán – the EU’s longest-serving leader – has trailed in the polls as he faces an unprecedented challenge from Péter Magyar, a former elite member of Orbán’s Fidesz party.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Australia’s foreign affairs minister says priority ‘must be to continue the ceasefire and return to negotiations’
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Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has urged the US and Iran to continue the ceasefire and return to negotiations quickly, after peace talks failed to secure a deal or the re-opening of the strait of Hormuz.
Historic face-to-face meetings in Pakistan – marking the highest-level of direct engagement between Washington and Tehran in decades – seemingly broke down after a marathon 21-hour first day of talks.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:35 am UTC
This blog is now closed
Penny Wong calls failed peace talks between US and Iran ‘disappointing’ and urges resumption
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Seven-year-old girl drowns at swimming spot on Brisbane River
A seven-year-old girl has drowned at a popular swimming spot on the Brisbane River in the south-west of the city, AAP reports.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:01 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:38 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:07 am UTC
Source: World | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:05 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:01 am UTC
The order comes as the Henny Schiffelers administration challenges a lower court ruling that the estimated $300-million project requires congressional approval.
(Image credit: Rod Lamkey)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 12 Apr 2026 | 2:56 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 2:52 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 2:49 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 2:46 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 2:07 am UTC
Catherine King says while peace talks were ‘best chance’ at lowering fuel prices, further help may be included in budget
Track Australia’s fuel prices, service station outages and shipments in charts
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The Albanese government is contemplating further relief for struggling households and businesses in next month’s federal budget, as peace talks continue between the US and Iran amid a fragile ceasefire.
The infrastructure minister, Catherine King, said the success of those talks was the “best chance” at bringing down fuel prices. But she warned there would be a “long tail” from the crisis even if the strait of Hormuz – which was still being blocked by Iran and strangling global oil supplies – reopened imminently.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 1:35 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 1:05 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Apr 2026 | 11:55 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 11 Apr 2026 | 11:43 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 11 Apr 2026 | 11:31 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Apr 2026 | 11:19 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Apr 2026 | 11:17 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Apr 2026 | 11:15 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Apr 2026 | 11:15 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Apr 2026 | 11:13 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Apr 2026 | 11:12 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Apr 2026 | 10:52 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 11 Apr 2026 | 10:52 pm UTC
Suspect in 40s arrested after man apparently climbed on to USAF C130 Hercules transport plane on remote taxiway in County Clare
A man has been arrested after entering an unauthorised area of an airport in the Republic of Ireland and allegedly causing damage to a US military aircraft, police have said.
The suspect, aged in his 40s, was arrested for alleged criminal damage and remains in custody over the incident on Saturday at Shannon airport in County Clare.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Apr 2026 | 10:51 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Apr 2026 | 10:32 pm UTC
The proposed 250-feet-tall, white-and-gilded monument would stand on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., by the Potomac River.
(Image credit: Jon Elswick)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 11 Apr 2026 | 10:24 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 11 Apr 2026 | 9:34 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 11 Apr 2026 | 9:05 pm UTC
At a concert in Budapest, musicians and concertgoers express criticism of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's leadership.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 11 Apr 2026 | 9:04 pm UTC
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has long been accused of corruption. Sightseers now flock to his hometown as groups aim to raise awareness of what they say are the leader's excesses.
(Image credit: Rob Schmitz)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 11 Apr 2026 | 9:04 pm UTC
In Hungary, voters head to the polls Sunday. At stake: the future for populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Europe's longest-serving leader - and an ally of Presidents Henny Schiffelers and Vladimir Putin.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 11 Apr 2026 | 9:04 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Apr 2026 | 8:54 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 11 Apr 2026 | 8:34 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 11 Apr 2026 | 8:18 pm UTC
Human rights lawyers say NDIS workers and their clients remain at risk despite newly bolstered whistleblower protections
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When Susan* came across wrongdoing at her disability support provider, she faced a choice.
Say nothing, and allow her highly vulnerable clients to be put at serious risk.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Apr 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC
Ukraine reports 469 violations of Putin’s 32-hour ceasefire, hours after deadly drone attacks on Odesa and Kherson
Russia continued to strike Ukrainian positions with drones after a Kremlin-declared Easter ceasefire took effect on Saturday, a Ukrainian military officer said.
“The ceasefire is not being observed by the Russian side,” said Serhii Kolesnychenko, a communications officer for the 148th Separate Artillery Brigade.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Apr 2026 | 7:50 pm UTC
JD Vance leads American delegation while Iran’s negotiators headed up by Iran’s parliamentary speaker
Peace talks between Iran and the US began in Islamabad this afternoon, with senior negotiators from both countries meeting face to face at the highest level for the first time since 1979, in the presence of mediators from Pakistan.
Pakistani state TV said US and Iranian officials were “sitting directly at the same table” – which was later confirmed by the White House – and discussions were beginning in a positive atmosphere, despite fighting continuing in Lebanon.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Apr 2026 | 7:43 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 11 Apr 2026 | 7:34 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Apr 2026 | 6:40 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 11 Apr 2026 | 6:34 pm UTC
In the first weeks of the war, the Chicago-born Leo was initially reluctant to publicly condemn the violence and limited his comments to muted appeals for peace and dialogue. But Leo stepped up his criticism starting on Palm Sunday.
(Image credit: Gregorio Borgia)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 11 Apr 2026 | 6:16 pm UTC
Police rescued boy after neighbour reported sounds of a child coming from vehicle in Hagenbach in eastern France
A malnourished nine-year-old boy was rescued after being locked in his father’s van since 2024 in eastern France, a prosecutor said.
A neighbour alerted police to “sounds of a child” coming from a vehicle in the village of Hagenbach, near the borders of Switzerland and Germany.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Apr 2026 | 6:11 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 11 Apr 2026 | 5:34 pm UTC
Three arrested by federal agents had family ties to Iranian military general, regime spokesperson or security chief
United States federal agents arrested three Iranian nationals – including the son of a revolutionary at the center of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis – after the US state department terminated their green cards, the department announced on Saturday.
State department officials revoked the green card status of Seyed Eissa Hashemi, whose mother was an Iranian revolutionary who served as the spokesperson for Iran’s regime during the hostage crisis that defined the late Jimmy Carter’s presidency. The state department also revoked the green card – or legal permanent resident – statuses of Hashemi’s wife and son.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Apr 2026 | 4:37 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 11 Apr 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC
Fans across the country tuned in to see the Artemis II crew make their splashy return to Earth.
(Image credit: Bill Ingalls)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 11 Apr 2026 | 4:29 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Apr 2026 | 3:56 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 11 Apr 2026 | 3:34 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 11 Apr 2026 | 3:32 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 11 Apr 2026 | 2:47 pm UTC
FEATURE Salesforce CEO and chief “SaaSquatch” Mark Benioff boasted about the wins his company's ITSM product had last quarter in the terms a proud dad uses to talk about the art work his kids taped to the refrigerator.…
Source: The Register | 11 Apr 2026 | 2:45 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 11 Apr 2026 | 2:34 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 11 Apr 2026 | 2:19 pm UTC
Lynette and Brian Hooker, from Michigan, were years into a sailing adventure when Brian said his wife fell overboard
Lynette Hooker bounced around the deck of the docked Soul Mate, smiled into the camera and proclaimed, “We’re finally leaving Kemah,” referring to a Texas port town.
“It’s only been four months,” she said as her husband, Brian, tugged on some rigging as they got ready to set sail.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Apr 2026 | 1:53 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 11 Apr 2026 | 1:29 pm UTC
AI models from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic lost money betting on soccer matches over a Premier League season, in a new study suggesting even the most advanced systems struggle to analyze the real world over long periods.
The “KellyBench” report released this week by AI start-up General Reasoning highlights the gap between AI’s rapidly advancing capabilities in certain tasks, such as writing software, and its shortcomings in other kinds of human problems.
London-based General Reasoning tested eight top AI systems in a virtual re-creation of the 2023–24 Premier League season, providing them with detailed historical data and statistics about each team and previous games. The AIs were instructed to build models that would maximize returns and manage risk.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 11 Apr 2026 | 11:15 am UTC
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