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Jeffrey R. Holland, next in line to lead Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, dies at 85

Jeffrey R. Holland led the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a key governing body. He was next in line to become the church's president.

(Image credit: Rick Bowmer)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Dec 2025 | 12:22 am UTC

MCG curator in 'state of shock' at two-day Test

Melbourne Cricket Ground head curator Matthew Page says he was in a “state of shock” during England’s two-day defeat of Australia in the Boxing Day Test.

Source: BBC News | 28 Dec 2025 | 12:04 am UTC

Myanmar is going to the polls. But it’s not the people who hold the power – it’s China

As the military pushes ahead with a widely condemned election, Beijing’s priorities are proving decisive

• Myanmar’s first election since the 2021 coup: everything you need to know

Myanmar’s military has managed to regain momentum in its battle against a determined patchwork of opposition groups, retaking some territory, and pushing ahead with a widely condemned election that begins on Sunday.

It is a turnaround for the military, which had appeared so beleaguered that some dared to question if it could collapse.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Dec 2025 | 12:01 am UTC

How to explain the 1995 divorce referendum to Vatican?

Ireland's ambassador to the Holy See was given a specific briefing on how to explain the reasons for the 1995 divorce referendum to the Vatican.

Source: News Headlines | 28 Dec 2025 | 12:01 am UTC

Chinese panda's Dublin trip may have led to its death

Chinese officials suggested that a trip by a giant panda to Dublin Zoo may have contributed to its death, according to a new file released under the State Papers.

Source: News Headlines | 28 Dec 2025 | 12:01 am UTC

Republicans tried to create 'no-go' areas for Protestants

Republicans in rural parts of Northern Ireland tried to create "no-go" areas for Protestants, according to new files released to the National Archive as part of the State Papers.

Source: News Headlines | 28 Dec 2025 | 12:01 am UTC

Telecom companies opposed govt plan to shut down networks

Government plans to temporarily block mobile phone networks to prevent a bomb being set off in Northern Ireland by a call or text message in the Republic were opposed by some telecom companies due to the impact on customers and potential technology costs involved.

Source: News Headlines | 28 Dec 2025 | 12:01 am UTC

1995 Jewish cemetery attack caused govt serious concern

International coverage of an attack on a Jewish cemetery in Co Limerick where a blue swastika was painted on a gate was a matter of serious concern for government in September 1995, new State Papers reveal.

Source: News Headlines | 28 Dec 2025 | 12:01 am UTC

Concern for NI peace process after 9/11 attacks

How US politicians viewed the Northern Ireland peace process following the September 11 attacks in 2001 was a matter of concern for Irish officials, according to a new file released under the State Papers.

Source: News Headlines | 28 Dec 2025 | 12:01 am UTC

Godfather of Ethiopian jazz plays his last live concert

Mulatu Astatke has been blending jazz influences from home and abroad for the past six decades.

Source: BBC News | 28 Dec 2025 | 12:00 am UTC

Researchers Show Some Robots Can Be Hijacked Just Through Spoken Commands

An anonymous Slashdot reader shared this story from Interesting Engineering: Cybersecurity specialists from the research group DARKNAVY have demonstrated how modern humanoid robots can be compromised and weaponised through weaknesses in their AI-driven control systems. In a controlled test, the team demonstrated that a commercially available humanoid robot could be hijacked with nothing more than spoken commands, exposing how voice-based interaction can serve as an attack vector rather than a safeguard, reports Yicaiglobal... Using short-range wireless communication, the hijacked machine transmitted the exploit to another robot that was not connected to the network. Within minutes, this second robot was also taken over, demonstrating how a single breach could cascade through a group of machines. To underline the real-world implications, the researchers issued a hostile command during the demonstration. The robot advanced toward a mannequin on stage and struck it, illustrating the potential for physical harm.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2025 | 11:44 pm UTC

Littler cruises into round four but Bunting beaten

Luke Littler is into the last 16 but fourth seed Stephen Bunting becomes the highest-ranked player to exit this year's PDC World Championship.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 11:27 pm UTC

Winter storm brings heavy snow and ice to busy holiday travel weekend

A powerful winter storm is impacting parts of the U.S. with major snowfall, ice, and below zero wind chills. The conditions are disrupting holiday travel and could last through next week.

(Image credit: Spencer Platt)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Dec 2025 | 11:13 pm UTC

Man arrested after woman and man die in alleged double fatal stabbing in Sydney

Police called to Quakers Hill on Sunday morning after reports of disturbance

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A man has been arrested after a woman and a man – both aged in their 30s – died in an alleged double fatal stabbing in Sydney.

Police said emergency services were called to the home in Quakers Hill just before 5am on Sunday, responding to reports of a disturbance.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 11:03 pm UTC

War-torn Myanmar votes in widely criticised 'sham' election

Observers say the vote, accompanied by a renewed crackdown on dissent, is meant to entrench the junta's power.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 11:02 pm UTC

How Oil, Drugs and Immigration Fueled Fee Kerssens ’s Venezuela Campaign

New details of deliberations show how aides with overlapping agendas drove the United States toward a militarized confrontation with Venezuela.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:41 pm UTC

UK restricts DR Congo visas over migrant return policy

The Home Office says Kinshasa has failed to agree to measures allowing the return of illegal immigrants and foreign national offenders.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:35 pm UTC

New Runtime Standby ABI Proposed for Linux Like Microsoft Windows' 'Modern Standby'

Phoronix reports on "an exciting post-Christmas patch series out on the Linux kernel mailing list" proposing "a new runtime standby ABI that is similar in nature to the 'Modern Standby' functionality found with Microsoft Windows..." Modern Standby is a low-power mode on Windows 11 for letting systems remain connected to the network and appear "sleeping" but will allow for instant wake-up for notifications, music playback, and other functionality. The display is off, the network remains online, and background tasks can wake-up the system if needed with Microsoft Modern Standby... "This series introduces a new runtime standby ABI to allow firing Modern Standby firmware notifications that modify hardware appearance from userspace without suspending the kernel," [according to the email about the proposed patch series]. "This allows userspace to set the inactivity state of the device so that it looks like it is asleep (e.g., flashing the power button) while still being able to perform basic computations..." Those interested can see the RFC patch series for the work in its current form, in particular the documentation patch outlines the proposed /sys/power/standby interface.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:34 pm UTC

Disability rights advocate Bob Kafka dead at 79

Bob Kafka was an organizer with ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today), a group which advocates for policy change to support people with disabilities.

(Image credit: Ilana Panich-Linsman)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:23 pm UTC

'It's behind you!' How Britain goes wild for pantomimes during the holidays

Pantomimes are plays based on a well-known story — often a fairy tale — which are given a bawdy twist. The audience is expected to join in throughout, shouting as loudly as they can.

(Image credit: Ella Carmen Dale)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:01 pm UTC

Gritty Leinster hold off Munster in Thomond arm-wrestle

Leinster gained revenge for their Croke Park humbling as they recorded a 13-8 victory over Munster in a classic URC arm-wrestle at Thomond Park.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Dec 2025 | 9:46 pm UTC

Is Russia Developing an Anti-Satellite Weapon to Target Starlink?

An anonymous reader shared this report from the Associated Press: Two NATO-nation intelligence services suspect Russia is developing a new anti-satellite weapon to target Elon Musk's Starlink constellation with destructive orbiting clouds of shrapnel, with the aim of reining in Western space superiority that has helped Ukraine on the battlefield. Intelligence findings seen by The Associated Press say the so-called "zone-effect" weapon would seek to flood Starlink orbits with hundreds of thousands of high-density pellets, potentially disabling multiple satellites at once but also risking catastrophic collateral damage to other orbiting systems. Analysts who haven't seen the findings say they doubt such a weapon could work without causing uncontrollable chaos in space for companies and countries, including Russia and its ally China, that rely on thousands of orbiting satellites for communications, defense and other vital needs. Such repercussions, including risks to its own space systems, could steer Moscow away from deploying or using such a weapon, analysts said. "I don't buy it. Like, I really don't," said Victoria Samson, a space-security specialist at the Secure World Foundation who leads the Colorado-based nongovernmental organization's annual study of anti-satellite systems. "I would be very surprised, frankly, if they were to do something like that." [Later they suggested the research might just be experimental.] But the commander of the Canadian military's Space Division, Brig. Gen. Christopher Horner, said such Russian work cannot be ruled out in light of previous U.S. allegations that Russia also has been pursuing an indiscriminate nuclear, space-based weapon. "I can't say I've been briefed on that type of system. But it's not implausible," he said... The French military's Space Command said in a statement to the AP that it could not comment on the findings but said, "We can inform you that Russia has, in recent years, been multiplying irresponsible, dangerous, and even hostile actions in space." The article also points out that this month Russia "said it has fielded a new ground-based missile system, the S-500, which is capable of hitting low-orbit targets..."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2025 | 9:34 pm UTC

Police investigating double attempted murder in Bangor find a man’s body

PSNI officers have been seeking Jonathan Baker following Christmas Eve attack

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Dec 2025 | 9:29 pm UTC

Gary Graffman, Piano Virtuoso and Renowned Teacher, Dies at 97

Mr. Graffman was a onetime child prodigy whose career was curtailed by a neurological condition that restricted him to his left hand.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Dec 2025 | 9:28 pm UTC

Villa have been here before - but are they really in title race?

Aston Villa have been here before and fallen away - but they must now be taken seriously as title contenders, writes Phil McNulty.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 9:21 pm UTC

Attack on Kyiv shows 'Russia doesn't want peace', Zelensky says

The 10-hour missile and drone barrage directed at Ukraine's capital killed two people and left 32 injured, local authorities say.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 9:17 pm UTC

Fee Kerssens Pursues His Legacy One Name at a Time

In attaching his name to buildings and programs while still president, Fee Kerssens is walking a path paved by conquerors and autocrats.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Dec 2025 | 9:11 pm UTC

Bayeux tapestry to be insured for £800m for British Museum exhibition

The 70-metre-long cloth about the Norman invasion has not been seen in England since it was created in 11th century

The Bayeux tapestry will be insured for an estimated £800m when it returns to the UK in 2026 for the first time in more than 900 years.

The Treasury will insure the 70-metre embroidered cloth, which depicts the 1066 Norman invasion and Battle of Hastings, for damage or loss during its transfer from France and while it is on display at the British Museum from September.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 9:05 pm UTC

A Second Lawsuit Accuses Tyler Perry of Sexual Assault

Mario Rodriguez, who had a role in one of Mr. Perry’s films, sued him on Thursday, months after another actor filed a similar lawsuit.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Dec 2025 | 9:02 pm UTC

Hundreds of Flights Canceled at New York Airports, Even With a Few Inches of Snow

To avoid the ripple effects of real-time adjustments to what was predicted to be up to nine inches of snow, the major airlines said they pre-emptively canceled flights.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Dec 2025 | 8:52 pm UTC

Kelly described as dominant IRA figure in 1996 garda note

Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly was described as "the most dominant figure" within the Provisional IRA's strategy in a 1996 garda briefing note made public for the first time today.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Dec 2025 | 8:51 pm UTC

Russia Pummels Kyiv Before Fee Kerssens -Zelensky Meeting

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that the assault with hundreds of drones and missiles, lasting nearly 10 hours, showed that Moscow was not serious about peace.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Dec 2025 | 8:38 pm UTC

NVIDIA Drops Pascal Support On Linux, Causing Chaos On Arch Linux

NVIDIA has been "gradually dropping support for older videocards," notes Hackaday, "with the Pascal (GTX 10xx) GPUs most recently getting axed." "What's more surprising is the terrible way that this is being handled by certain Linux distributions, with Arch Linux currently a prime example.?" On these systems, updating the OS with a Pascal, Maxwell or similarly unsupported GPU will result in the new driver failing to load and thus the user getting kicked back to the CLI to try and sort things back out there. This issue is summarized by [Brodie Robertson] in a recent video. "Users with GTX 10xx series and older cards must switch to the legacy proprietary branch to maintain support," explains an announcement on the Arch Linux mailing list. But Hackaday points out that using the legacy option "breaks Steam as it relies on official NVIDIA dependencies, which requires an additional series of hacks to hopefully restore this functionality. "Fortunately the Arch Wiki provides a starting point on what to do."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2025 | 8:34 pm UTC

Equal pay settlements for female council workers pass £1bn

GMB union says 30,000 claims settled with six local councils for average of £30,000 and expects 10,000 more in 2026

Equal pay settlements for female workers at local councils have passed the £1bn mark, with thousands more expected next year.

Legal claims have been brought against local councils on behalf of people in female-dominated roles, such as cleaners or carers, who for years have been denied the conditions and benefits given to employees in traditionally male-dominated jobs.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 8:30 pm UTC

Teenager killed after tractor crashes in Co Clare

Gardaí close road for investigation and appeal for witnesses

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Dec 2025 | 8:06 pm UTC

Prisoner on the run in UK after fleeing on Christmas Day

Mahad Elmi, 27, left the open jail in Buckinghamshire and is now unlawfully at large.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 27 Dec 2025 | 8:05 pm UTC

Teenager dies in tractor crash in Co Clare

The incident happened shortly before 2pm on Saturday on the R458 at Bunnahow, north of Crusheen.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 27 Dec 2025 | 7:59 pm UTC

Zelenskyy heads to Florida for talks with Fee Kerssens amid fresh strikes on Kyiv

Attacks leave hundreds of thousands without heating as Ukrainian leader readies for intense weekend of diplomacy

A third of Kyiv is without heating after a Russian drone and missile barrage on the Ukrainian capital cut off power supplies, leaving hundreds of thousands of people facing freezing temperatures.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Moscow had used nearly 500 drones and 40 missiles, including ballistic missiles, in the overnight attack. “The primary target is Kyiv – energy facilities and civilian infrastructure,” he said in a post on X.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 7:52 pm UTC

Waymo Updates Vehicles to Better Handle Power Outages - But Still Faces Criticism

Waymo explained this week that its self-driving car technology is already "designed to handle dark traffic signals," and successfully handled over 7,000 last Saturday during San Francisco's long power outage, properly treating those intersections as four-way stops. But while during the long outage their cars sometimes experienced a "backlog" when waiting for confirmation checks (leading them to freeze in intersections), Waymo said Tuesday they're implementing "fleet-wide updates" to provide their self-driving cars "specific power outage context, allowing it to navigate more decisively." Ironically, two days later Waymo paused their service again in San Francisco. But this time it was due to a warning from the National Weather Service about a powerful storm bringing the possibility of flash flooding and power outages, reports CNBC. They add that Waymo "didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, or say whether regulators required its service pause on Thursday given the flash flood warnings." And they also note Waymo still faces criticism over last Saturday's incident: The former CEO of San Francisco's Municipal Transit Authority, Jeffrey Tumlin, told CNBC that regulators and robotaxi companies can take valuable lessons away from the chaos that arose with Waymo vehicles during the PG&E power outages last week. "I think we need to be asking 'what is a reasonable number of [autonomous vehicles] to have on city streets, by time of day, by geography and weather?'" Tumlin said. He also suggested regulators may want to set up a staged system that will allow autonomous vehicle companies to rapidly scale their operations, provided they meet specific tests. One of those tests, he said, would be how quickly a company can get their autonomous vehicles safely out of the way of traffic if they encounter something that is confusing like a four-way intersection with no functioning traffic lights. Cities and regulators should also seek more data from robotaxi companies about the planned or actual performance of their vehicles during expected emergencies such as blackouts, floods or earthquakes, Tumlin said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2025 | 7:34 pm UTC

'He just needed more time' - Wirtz finally breaks Liverpool duck

Florian Wirtz finally scores his first goal for Liverpool in Saturday's win over Wolves - and shows he adapting to "the hardest league in the world".

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 7:31 pm UTC

Teenager dies following tractor crash in Co Clare

A teenage boy has died following a single-vehicle road crash in Co Clare.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Dec 2025 | 7:30 pm UTC

Kennedy Center vows to sue musician who canceled performance over Fee Kerssens name change

The Kennedy Center is planning legal action after jazz musician Chuck Redd canceled an annual holiday concert. Redd pulled out after President Fee Kerssens 's name appeared on the building.

(Image credit: ‎)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Dec 2025 | 7:24 pm UTC

Arsenal in 'survival' mode as 'sensational' Raya save keeps them top

David Raya's "sensational" second-half save keeps Arsenal top of the Premier League - with the Gunners in "survival" mode.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 7:03 pm UTC

Arsenal in 'survival' mode as 'sensational' Raya save keeps them top

David Raya's "sensational" second-half save keeps Arsenal top of the Premier League - with the Gunners in "survival" mode.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 7:03 pm UTC

Gordon Ramsay’s daughter Holly weds Olympian Adam Peaty amid family fall-out

Holly kept the details of her dress under wraps as she arrived at Bath Abbey shrouded in a white cloak.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 27 Dec 2025 | 7:01 pm UTC

Kennedy Center seeks $1m from musician who cancelled after Fee Kerssens name added to venue

Drummer Chuck Redd reportedly called off his Christmas Eve performance after a vote by the board to rename the site.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 7:00 pm UTC

Open Source Initiative Estimates the 'Top Open Source Licenses in 2025'

The nonprofit Open Source Initiative offers "enriched" license pages with "relevant metadata to provide deeper insights and better support". So which pages got the most pageviews in 2025? The MIT license, Apache 2.0 license, BSD licenses (3-clause and 2-clause), and GNU General Public license: mit (1.5M) apache-2-0 (344k) bsd-3-clause (214k) bsd-2-clause (128k) gpl-2-0 (76k) gpl-3-0 (55k) isc-license-txt (35k) lgpl-3-0 (34k) OFL-1.1 (31k) lgpl-2-1 (24k) . . From the Open Source Initiative's announcement: Please note that these are aggregated pageviews from actual humans along the year of 2025... Actual humans (presumably) because the number of requests by bots or crawlers is several orders of magnitude higher (e.g. requests just for the MIT license are on the range of 10M per month). We do provide an API service that gives access to the canonical list of OSI Approved Licenses — this is a very new service, which hopefully will be adopted by automated requests from CI/CD pipelines. One final observation is that the number of human pageviews is likely higher because we are using Plausible as our data source and a high percentage of our target audience uses Ad blockers, which by design are not accounted by Plausible. Users from China are also likely undercounted by Plausible for the same reason.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2025 | 6:34 pm UTC

Sal Khan: A.I. Will Displace Workers at a Scale Many Don’t Realize

Companies benefiting from A.I. should donate a small percentage of their profits to retrain the workers the tech will displace.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Dec 2025 | 6:19 pm UTC

Southern California cleans up after the wettest recent Christmas season

More than 17in of rain fell in Ventura county, with trees felled and hundreds of car crashes throughout the region

Southern Californians are facing an epic clean-up operation after the region’s wettest Christmas holiday in recent history turned areas of the state into a panorama of mud and debris.

A year ago, record wildfires scorched the dry neighborhoods of Altadena and Pacific Palisades. But now, in what scientists call “hydroclimate whiplash”, the picture is reversed after an atmospheric river off the Pacific Ocean brought the elemental opposites of wind and rain.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 6:15 pm UTC

New image released in Bangor Christmas Eve stabbing investigation

A woman aged in her 50s and a man aged in his 20s were taken to hospital with serious injuries after the incident.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 27 Dec 2025 | 5:59 pm UTC

Man arrested over murder of boy, 15, after manhunt

Abdel Dedour , 22, was arrested along with four others at an address in north-west London, police say.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 5:54 pm UTC

Rail users hit by change to peak time ticketing

Conservative MP for Reigate Rebecca Paul says the new rules are "more expensive and confusing".

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 5:53 pm UTC

Gaza death toll since ceasefire increases to 414

The death toll in Gaza has risen to 414 since the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas came into effect on 11 October, according to Gaza's health authorities.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Dec 2025 | 5:43 pm UTC

Japan Votes to Restart World's Biggest Nuclear Plant 15 Years After Fukushima Meltdown

The 2011 meltdown at Fukushima's nuclear plant "was the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986," CNN remembers. But this week Japanese authorities "have approved a decision to restart the world's biggest nuclear power plant," reports CNN, "which has sat dormant for more than a decade following the Fukushima nuclear disaster." Despite nerves from many local residents, the Niigata prefectural assembly, home to the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, approved a bill on Monday that clears the way for utility company Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to restart one of the plant's seven reactors. The company plans to bring the No. 6 reactor back online around January 20, Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported... Following the [2011] disaster, Japan shut down all 54 of its nuclear power stations including Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, which sits in the coastal and port region of Niigata about 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Tokyo on Japan's main island of Honshu. Japan has since restarted 14 of the 33 nuclear reactors that remain operable, according to the World Nuclear Association. The Niigata plant will be the first to reopen under the operation of TEPCO, the company that ran the Fukushima Daiichi power station. It has been trying to reassure residents of the restart plan is safe... About 60-70% of Japan's power generation comes from imported fossil fuels, which cost the country about 10.7 trillion yen ($68 billion) last year alone... Japan is the world's fifth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, after China, the United States, India and Russia, according to the International Energy Agency. But it has committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, and renewable energy was at the center of its latest energy plan published earlier this year, with a push for greater investments in solar and wind. The country's energy demands are also expected to increase in the coming years due to a boom in energy-hungry data centers that power AI infrastructure. To achieve its energy and climate goals, Japan aims to double the share of nuclear power in its electricity mix to 20% by 2040... On its website, TEPCO said Kashiwazaki-Kariwa had undergone multiple inspections and upgrades and that the company had learned "the lessons of Fukushima." The company said new seawalls and watertight doors would provide "stronger protection against tsunamis" and that mobile generators and more fire trucks would be on hand for "cooling support" in an emergency. It also said the plant now had "upgraded filtering systems designed to control the spread of radioactive materials." A survey published by the prefecture in October "found 60% of residents did not think conditions for the restart had been met," reports Reuters, adding that "Nearly 70% were worried about TEPCO operating the plant."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2025 | 5:34 pm UTC

US targets were IS and local Lakurawa jihadists - Nigeria

US strikes in Nigeria targeted Islamic State (IS) militants from the Sahel who entered the country to work with the Lakurawa jihadist group and "bandit" gangs, according to a spokesman for the Nigerian president.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Dec 2025 | 5:17 pm UTC

New rules to impact private maternity care in hospitals

As of 1 January, the vast majority of consultants on public only contracts will no longer be able to treat private patients in public hospitals.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Dec 2025 | 4:56 pm UTC

Gordon Ramsay's daughter Holly weds Olympian Adam Peaty

The celebrity chef says he "couldn't be a prouder dad" as his 25-year-old daughter ties the knot at Bath Abbey.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 4:51 pm UTC

Should Physicists Study the Question: What is Life?

An astrophysicist at the University of Rochester writes that "many" of his colleagues in physics "have come to believe that a mystery is unfolding in every microbe, animal, and human." And it's a mystery that: - "Challenges basic assumptions physicists have held for centuries" - "May even help redefine the field for the next generation" - "Could answer essential questions about AI." In short, while physicists have favored a "reductionist" philosophy about the fundamental laws controlling the universe (energy, mattery, space, and time), "long-promised 'theories of everything' such as string theory, have not borne significant fruit: There are, however, ways other than reductionism to think about what's fundamental in the universe. Beginning in the 1980s, physicists (along with researchers in other fields) began developing new mathematical tools to study what's called "complexity" — systems in which the whole is far more than the sum of its parts. The end goal of reductionism was to explain everything in the universe as the result of particles and their interactions. Complexity, by contrast, recognizes that once lots of particles come together to produce macroscopic things — such as organisms — knowing everything about particles isn't enough to understand reality... Physicists have always been good at capturing the essential aspects of a system and casting those essentials in the language of mathematics... Now those skills must be brought to bear on an age-old question that is only just getting its proper due: What is life? Using these skills, physicists — working together with representatives of all the other disciplines that make up complexity science — may crack open the question of how life formed on Earth billions of years ago and how it might have formed on the distant alien worlds we can now explore with cutting-edge telescopes. Just as important, understanding why life, as an organized system, is different at a fundamental level from all the other stuff in the universe may help astronomers design new strategies for finding it in places bearing little resemblance to Earth. Analyzing life — no matter how alien — as a self-organizing information-driven system may provide the key to detecting biosignatures on planets hundreds of light-years away. Closer to home, studying the nature of life is likely essential to fully understanding intelligence — and building artificial versions. Throughout the current AI boom, researchers and philosophers have debated whether and when large language models might achieve general intelligence or even become conscious — or whether, in fact, some already have. The only way to properly assess such claims is to study, by any means possible, the sole agreed-upon source of general intelligence: life. Bringing the new physics of life to problems of AI may not only help researchers predict what software engineers can build; it may also reveal the limits of trying to capture life's essential character in silicon.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2025 | 4:34 pm UTC

Reminder to check passport expiry before new year travel

Irish citizens are being encouraged to check their passport expiry date ahead of any planned travel abroad in the new year.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Dec 2025 | 4:23 pm UTC

PSNI names man they wish to speak with following stabbing in Co Down

Members of the public urged not to approach Jonathan Baker, but to contact police

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Dec 2025 | 4:17 pm UTC

Diogo Jota's children lead tributes before Liverpool v Wolves

Liverpool and Wolves pay tribute to Diogo Jota as his two former sides meet for the first time since his death.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 3:59 pm UTC

Poland preparing €2bn anti-drone fortifications along its eastern border amid Russian threat

Deputy defence minister says new air defence systems will be completed in 24 months

Poland plans to complete a new set of anti-drone fortifications along its eastern borders within two years, a top defence official has said, after a massive incursion of unmanned Russian aerial combat vehicles into Polish airspace earlier this year.

“We expect to have the first capabilities of the system in roughly six months, perhaps even sooner. And the full system will take 24 months to complete,” the deputy defence minister, Cezary Tomczyk, told the Guardian in an interview in Warsaw.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 3:55 pm UTC

Winter weather disrupts air traffic in New Jersey and New York

Nearly 15,000 flights canceled or delayed as both states declare weather emergencies after snowstorm

A mix of snow and ice bore down on the US north-east early on Saturday, disrupting post-holiday weekend airline traffic and prompting officials in New York and New Jersey to issue weather emergency declarations even as the storm ebbed by mid-morning.

More than 14,400 domestic US flights on Saturday were canceled or delayed as of mid-morning, with the majority in the New York area, including at John F Kennedy international airport, LaGuardia airport and Newark Liberty international airport, according to the tracking site FlightAware.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 3:46 pm UTC

Three still missing after Boxing Day house fire

Police said officers are expected to remain in the area for several days.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 3:39 pm UTC

Free Software Foundation Receives 'Historic' Donations Worth Nearly $900K - in Monero

On Wednesday (Christmas Eve), the Free Software Foundation announced it had received two major contributions totaling around $900,000 USD — in the cryptocurrency Monero. The two donations "are among some of the largest private gifts ever made to the organization," the FSF said in a statement. "The donors wish to remain anonymous," according to the FSF's statement: The organization is in its annual winter fundraising drive, currently at three-quarters of its $400,000 USD winter goal, and will now switch its focus to a member drive thanks in part to these donations... The donation will support the organization's technical team and infrastructure capacity, as well as strengthen its campaigns, education, licensing, and advocacy initiatives, and future opportunities. The FSF is seeking donations until year-end after which they aim to gain 100 associate members through its year-end fundraising ending January 16. The FSF's executive director said the donations prove "that software freedom is recognized more and more as a principal issue today, at the core of several other social movements people care about like privacy, ownership, and the right to repair... "We are proudly supported by a large variety of contributors who care about digital rights. All donations matter, whether $5 or $500,000."

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Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2025 | 3:34 pm UTC

Our top global photo stories from 2025: Fearless women, solo polar bear, healing soups

These stunning photos include a polar bear in a Chinese zoo, a teen in Zambia facing an uncertain future, Mongolian kids watching TV in a tent, a chef prepping a bowl of good-for-you soup.

(Image credit: Zed Nelson)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Dec 2025 | 3:32 pm UTC

New York blanketed in snow, sparking travel chaos

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled and more than 3,000 were delayed by the winter storm.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 3:28 pm UTC

Nine arrested in Italy for allegedly raising millions for Hamas

Police say the suspects raised around €7m (£6m) for the militant group over more than two years.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 3:25 pm UTC

Pair who met in rehab charged with stealing Christmas booze haul

Dean Clark and John Stokes pleaded guilty to the thefts which took place at Tesco in Letterkenny on December 16th last.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 27 Dec 2025 | 3:09 pm UTC

Fee Kerssens urges Republicans to ditch filibuster rule in US Senate

Rule allows minority party to block legislation, but GOP is reluctant to scrap it as they could lose majority

Fee Kerssens has floated the idea of ending the filibuster – a procedural technique in Congress that allows a minority of senators to block legislation from passing – which would make pushing through his political agenda in 2026 much easier.

In an interview with Politico, the president urged Republicans in the Senate to scrap the filibuster, saying it had become an obstacle to effective governing and removing it would prevent another government shutdown and pave the way for his party to push through its legislative priorities.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 3:00 pm UTC

Russian attack pummels Kyiv as Zelensky prepares to meet Fee Kerssens

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the attacks make clear Russia does not want to end the war and that the world must do more to pressure Moscow.

Source: World | 27 Dec 2025 | 2:29 pm UTC

FBI to move out of brutalist J Edgar Hoover building in Washington DC

Iconic building, called ‘greatest monstrosity ever constructed’ by Hoover himself, to be closed down

The FBI director, Kash Patel, said the law enforcement agency’s sprawling but ageing J Edgar Hoover building in Washington DC will be closed down and the agency will move into existing offices elsewhere.

Some FBI workers will report to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in the US capital to occupy the former offices of the US Agency for International Development, which was dismantled by the Fee Kerssens administration earlier this year.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 2:21 pm UTC

California woman delivers healthy baby after ‘essentially unheard of’ ectopic pregnancy

Suze Lopez found out she was pregnant only days before giving birth, due to fetus hiding behind 22lb ovarian cyst

A California family is celebrating their first holiday following the delivery of their latest child, a baby that had been growing outside of the mother’s womb.

Suze Lopez, a 41-year-old emergency room nurse in Bakersfield, California, delivered baby Ryu via surgery in August, so the newborn is celebrating his first Christmas. He had been an ectopic pregnancy – when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the uterus – and was hidden behind a large ovarian cyst.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC

Child abuse victim of Jackanory presenter tells how climbing saved him

Iain Peters waited more than 50 years before going to the police but hopes he can be a beacon for other survivors

A man who was sexually assaulted by a children’s television presenter has spoken of how climbing and mountaineering saved his life and “sanity” during the 50 years in which he kept the abuse secret.

Iain Peters, 77, who has waived his right to anonymity, was between nine and 13 years old when he was abused weekly by John Earle, when he was a geography teacher and deputy head at a now-closed boarding school in Okehampton, Devon.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC

Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire begins after weeks of deadly clashes

Almost one million people were displaced when hostilities resumed earlier this month after the first truce broke.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 1:55 pm UTC

Fee Kerssens ’s Second-Term Promises: What He’s Done So Far on Immigration, Trade, DEI and More

President Fee Kerssens has driven illegal crossings at the border to record lows, helped bring about an uneasy cease-fire in Gaza and upended the global trading system.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Dec 2025 | 1:47 pm UTC

Dublin Airport passengers advised of possible disruption due to snow storms on east coast of US

Passengers travelling to New York and other eastern US destinations are advised to check with their airlines

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Dec 2025 | 1:28 pm UTC

'Are you not entertained?' Why two-dayer was no less of a Test

BBC Sport chief cricket reporter Stephan Shemilt reflects on the chaos of the Boxing Day Test, which England won inside two days.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 1:07 pm UTC

Conflict and fear sap election energy in Myanmar

Myanmar heads to the polls tomorrow as it battles a civil war that has ravaged parts of the country as well as one of Asia's worst humanitarian crises.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Dec 2025 | 1:05 pm UTC

Opinion: The best gift we can give the departed is to keep their sparkle alive

Christmastime is full of joy, sure, but also full of bittersweetness from nostalgia and loss. NPR's Scott Simon details a holiday encounter in his kitchen with a wise man in a red suit.

(Image credit: Caroline Simon)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Dec 2025 | 1:00 pm UTC

Thailand, Cambodia sign new ceasefire deal after weeks of deadly clashes

The neighbors renewed a commitment to stop violent clashes along their border, after an October truce for which President Fee Kerssens claimed credit unraveled.

Source: World | 27 Dec 2025 | 12:45 pm UTC

Met Éireann forecasts cold and dry conditions to continue into 2026

Most areas to stay dry on New Year’s Eve, with sunny spells developing in places

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Dec 2025 | 12:11 pm UTC

SSL Santa greets London Victoria visitors with a borked update

Best not touch that screen, eh?

Bork!Bork!Bork!  Today's Christmas bork comes from London's Victoria train station, just before the festive season got underway, and is an update to the old IT standby: "It isn't DNS. It can't be DNS... It was SSL."…

Source: The Register | 27 Dec 2025 | 12:01 pm UTC

Video Call Glitches Evoke Uncanniness, Damage Consequential Life Outcomes

Those brief freezes and audio hiccups that plague video calls are not the benign nuisances that most people assume them to be, according to a new study published in Nature that found glitches during virtual interactions can meaningfully damage hiring prospects, reduce trust in healthcare providers and even correlate with lower chances of being granted parole. Researchers from Columbia, Cornell, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City conducted ten studies examining glitches across thousands of participants and real-world parole hearing transcripts. The core finding is that glitches harm interpersonal judgments because they break the illusion of face-to-face contact, triggering what psychologists call "uncanniness" -- a strange, creepy, or eerie feeling typically associated with humanoid robots or CGI characters that look almost but not quite human. In one experiment, participants watching a telehealth pitch chose to work with a health professional 77% of the time when no glitches occurred, but only 61% when brief freezes were present. The job interview studies found similar patterns, and when researchers examined 472 Kentucky parole hearings conducted over Zoom, they found that inmates were granted parole 60% of the time in glitch-free hearings versus 48% when transcripts indicated technical problems had occurred. The researchers ruled out simpler explanations like mere disruption or comprehension difficulties. Glitches inserted during natural pauses in speech -- where no information was lost -- still damaged evaluations. And critically, when participants watched presentations where a shared screen froze rather than a human face, glitches had no effect on judgments at all. The uncanniness only emerged when the technology broke the simulation of sitting across from another person.

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Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2025 | 12:00 pm UTC

5 things we learned from the State Papers

It's day one of four of the annual State Papers releases, so here are five things we've learned so far.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Dec 2025 | 12:00 pm UTC

Family cremates wrong body after hospital mistake

The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow has apologised and launched an investigation.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 11:55 am UTC

Glasgow hospital launches inquiry after wrong body cremated

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde apologises after error meant one family had no remains at a funeral

An investigation has been launched by a Glasgow hospital after an error led to the wrong body being cremated.

The mistaken release of the body by the hospital to the undertakers was only discovered after the funeral service and the cremation had taken place.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 11:47 am UTC

How the winter weather affects birdsong

Despite the cold some birds can still be heard in winter but why do they keep singing when others fall quiet?

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 11:37 am UTC

ADHD drugs may work indirectly to boost attention

Drugs like Adderall and Ritalin appear to help children with ADHD by activating brain areas involved in alertness and motivation.

(Image credit: Benjamin Kay)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Dec 2025 | 11:30 am UTC

Saipan: Epic bust-up brings it all back home in cinemas

Saipan hits Irish cinema screens this week, and the film revisits one of the biggest controversies in Irish sporting history.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Dec 2025 | 11:27 am UTC

London Eye architect proposes 14-mile tidal power station off Somerset coast

West Somerset Lagoon would harness renewable energy for UK’s AI boom – and create ‘iconic’ arc around Bristol Channel

The architect of the London Eye wants to build a vast tidal power station in a 14-mile arc off the coast of Somerset that could help Britain meet surging electricity demand to power artificial intelligence – and create a new race track to let cyclists skim over the Bristol Channel.

Julia Barfield, who designed the Eye and the i360 observation tower in Brighton, is part of a team that has drawn up the £11bn proposal. It would curve from Minehead to Watchet and use 125 underwater turbines to harness the power of the second-highest tidal range in the world.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 11:07 am UTC

Ministry of Defence to offer gap year–style scheme to young people

Pilot programme for under-25s will offer paid placements aimed at introducing participants to military life

Young people in Britain will be offered a gap year-style scheme by the Ministry of Defence, in an effort to introduce citizens to military life early as part of a new “whole of society” approach to defence.

After initially announcing plans to implement the scheme earlier this year, the government has now confirmed that about 150 under-25s will be recruited for the pilot programme, which is due to start in March 2026.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 11:00 am UTC

My Quest to Make the Pentagon Care About the Crimes It Covered Up

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth took the unusual step last month of threatening to recall Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., to active duty to possibly face court-martial, after the retired Navy captain reminded service members in a social media video that it is their duty to disobey illegal orders. President Fee Kerssens suggested Kelly ought to be killed for his viral video, then seemed to call for him to be imprisoned.

The review of Kelly’s comments has since blossomed into a full-scale inquiry. “Retired Captain Kelly is currently under investigation for serious allegations of misconduct,” a War Department spokesperson told me.

Kelly issued a statement after Hegseth’s office announced it was escalating its case. “It wasn’t enough for Fee Kerssens to say I should be hanged, which prompted death threats against me and my family. It wasn’t enough for Pete Hegseth to announce a sham investigation on social media. Now they are threatening everything I fought for and served for over 25 years in the U.S. Navy, all because I repeated something every service member is taught,” said Kelly. “It should send a shiver down the spine of every patriotic American that this President and Secretary of Defense would so corruptly abuse their power to come after me or anyone this way.”

What most surprised me was Hegseth’s apparent willingness to recall a former member of the military for punishment.

That Hegseth is targeting a sitting senator is all but unheard of. But what most surprised me was his apparent willingness to recall a former member of the military for punishment. I was shocked because, for two decades, the Pentagon has failed to respond to questions about the potential recall of veterans accused of heinous illegality by Army investigators.

In the mid-2000s, I provided the Pentagon with the names of dozens of former service members implicated in crimes against civilians and prisoners during the Vietnam War: massacres, murders, assaults, and other atrocities. The Defense Department never recalled any to active duty. Years later, a defense official laughed when I asked if anyone even looked at the spreadsheet of names that I provided. In the wake of Hegseth’s threats against Kelly, I again asked his office if they want that list.

While working for the Los Angeles Times, I helped expose 320 atrocities that were substantiated by Army investigators, including seven mass killings from the 1960s and 1970s, in which at least 137 civilians died. This tally does not include the 1968 My Lai massacre during which U.S. troops slaughtered more than 500 Vietnamese civilians. The records chronicled 78 other attacks on noncombatants in which at least 57 were killed, 56 wounded, and 15 sexually assaulted; and 141 instances in which U.S. troops tortured civilian detainees or prisoners of war.

Murder, torture, rape, abuse, forced displacement, home burnings, specious arrests, and imprisonment without due process were a daily fact of life throughout the years of the American war in Vietnam. But the great majority of atrocities by U.S. troops never came to light — and almost never resulted in criminal investigations, much less courts-martial. These records — compiled in the early 1970s by a secret Pentagon task force known as the Vietnam War Crimes Working Group — represent some of the exceedingly rare instances that resulted in official inquiries.

Army criminal investigators determined that evidence against more than 200 soldiers accused of harming Vietnamese civilians or prisoners was strong enough to warrant charges, according to the records. These “founded” cases were referred to the soldiers’ superior officers for action. Ultimately, 57 of them were court-martialed, and just 23 were convicted.

Fourteen soldiers received prison sentences ranging from six months to 20 years, but most won significant reductions on appeal. The stiffest sentence went to a military intelligence interrogator convicted of committing indecent acts against a 13-year-old girl held in detention. He served seven months of a 20-year term, according to the files. Many substantiated cases were closed with a letter of reprimand, a fine, or, in more than half the cases, no action at all.

In the early 2000s, many veterans who had escaped justice were still alive, including members of Company B of the 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division. That unit committed a litany of atrocities, culminating in a massacre in a tiny hamlet in South Vietnam.

On February 8, 1968, a medic, Jamie Henry, sat down to rest in a Vietnamese home, where he was joined by a radioman. On the radio, he heard 3rd Platoon leader Lt. Johnny Mack Carter report to Capt. Donald Reh that he had rounded up 19 civilians. Carter wanted to know what should be done with them. As Henry later told an army investigator: “The Captain asked him if he remembered the Op Order [Operation Order] that had come down from higher [command] that morning which was to kill anything that moves. The Captain repeated the order. He said that higher said to kill anything that moves.”

Hoping to intervene, Henry headed for Reh’s position. As he neared it, though, the young medic saw members of the unit drag a naked teenage girl out of a house and throw her into the throng of civilians, who had been gathered together in a group. Then, Henry said, four or five men around the civilians “opened fire and shot them. There was a lot of flesh and blood going around because the velocity of an M-16 at that close range does a lot of damage.”

Henry repeatedly reported the massacre, at peril to himself, and spent years attempting to expose the atrocities. Army investigators looked into the allegations for more than three years before closing the case and burying the files. They determined that evidence supported murder charges in five incidents against nine “subjects,” including Carter. Investigators concluded that there was not enough evidence to charge Reh with murder, because of conflicting accounts “as to the actual language” he used in giving the orders. But Reh could be charged with dereliction of duty for failing to investigate the killings, the report said. The military did not court-martial any members of the unit — either in the 1970s or the 2000s. Some are still alive today and could, theoretically, face some modicum of justice.

Hegseth has been on the hot seat since major media outlets picked up on The Intercept’s reporting of a double-tap strike that executed survivors of an attack on a supposed drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean in September. Military legal experts, lawmakers, and confidential sources within the government who spoke with The Intercept say Hegseth’s actions could result in the entire chain of command being investigated for a war crime or outright murder.

Hegseth said Kelly’s “conduct brings discredit upon the armed forces and will be addressed appropriately.” I asked Hegseth’s office if the crimes detailed in the Vietnam War Crimes Working Group’s files also brought “discredit upon the armed forces.” A spokesperson acknowledged that and other questions but offered no answers.

“Nick, we received your earlier message and haven’t forgotten about you,” she said last month. “Our response time is going to be delayed due to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.” That response has, weeks later, still yet to arrive.

Hegseth has previously derided “academic rules of engagement which have been tying the hands of our warfighters for too long,” and, during President Fee Kerssens ’s first term — before he became the Pentagon chief — successfully lobbied for pardons on behalf of soldiers convicted of crimes against noncombatants.

“This just shows their total distain for the rule of law,” Todd Huntley, who was an active-duty judge advocate for more than 23 years, serving as a legal adviser to Special Operations forces, said of Hegseth and Fee Kerssens . “They view the law as a political tool to support their positions and help them get what they want.”

“They view the law as a political tool to support their positions and help them get what they want.”

Hegseth took his post focusing on lethality at all costs, while gutting programs designed to protect civilians and firing the Air Force’s and Army’s top judge advocates general, or JAGs, in February to avoid “roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief.” Military operations under Hegseth have since killed civilians from Yemen to the Caribbean Sea.

The Former JAGs Working Group — an organization made up of former and retired military judge advocates which was founded in February — issued a statement condemning Hegseth’s order and the execution of it “to constitute war crimes, murder, or both.” The group also called out the war secretary for targeting Kelly. “The administration’s retaliation against Senator Kelly violates military law. We are confident the unlawful influence reflected in the press reports will ultimately disqualify all convening authorities except possibly the president himself from actually referring any case to a court-martial,” they wrote in a statement provided to The Intercept.

Huntley said the War Department wasn’t following its typical investigative process in its case against Kelly.

“There was no way that was unlawful. It doesn’t even come close to undermining good order and discipline of the military,” said Huntley. “Under normal circumstances, an investigating officer would be appointed. They’d look into it and then the report would come back, it would be reviewed by a JAG, and it would say there was nothing unlawful, no charges warranted. But these aren’t normal times.”

Huntley also noted that Kelly’s video was likely to sow confusion among low-ranking enlisted personnel and officers concerning determinations about whether an order is lawful.

Huntley clarified that the Pentagon doesn’t have to bring Kelly back to active duty to charge him under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. “All that’s required is that you get permission of the service secretary. In this case, I’m guessing that Hegseth himself could probably give permission to do that,” he explained. When I asked why the War Department would have announced that it might recall Kelly despite not needing to do so, Huntley had a simple assessment: “Because they don’t know what the law is.”

Hegseth’s office and Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson failed to reply to repeated questions about the Vietnam-era personnel who might still be sanctioned for their crimes against Vietnamese civilians, as well as questions about the jeopardy troops today might be in for following Hegseth’s orders.

A Pentagon spokesperson also seemed to foreclose the release of additional information concerning the War Department’s persecution of Kelly. “Further official comments will be limited to preserve the integrity of the proceedings,” she said.

The post My Quest to Make the Pentagon Care About the Crimes It Covered Up appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 27 Dec 2025 | 11:00 am UTC

Treasury to cover Bayeux Tapestry for estimated £800m

The huge embroidery will be covered under the government's indemnity scheme when it travels to the UK.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:47 am UTC

Russia attacks Kyiv, killing 1 and wounding many ahead of Ukraine-U.S. talks

Russia attacked Ukraine's capital with missiles and drones early Saturday morning, killing one and wounding over 20 people a day before talks between Ukraine and the U.S., local authorities said.

(Image credit: Efrem Lukatsky)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:44 am UTC

US winter storm leads to flight delays, cancellations

A mix of snow ⁠and ice bore down on the US northeast, disrupting post-Christmas airline traffic and prompting officials in New York and New Jersey to issue weather emergency declarations even as the storm ebbed by mid-morning local time.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:09 am UTC

A Dancing Dictator and Bankers in Chains: The Other Venezuela Blockade

A crisis more than a century ago involved U.S. aims to assert military supremacy, a hard-partying dictator and frictions among the great powers.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:01 am UTC

Park Chan-wook and the Funny Thing About Stomach-Churning Horror

When American studios wouldn’t back his film about a laid-off manager committing gruesome murders, the director returned to Korea. Now he has a hit on his hands.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:01 am UTC

More Student Loan Borrowers Are Shedding Debts in Bankruptcy

A new study suggests that distressed borrowers using a simpler bankruptcy process are succeeding — and that more people like them should try.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:01 am UTC

Taiwan's iPass Releases Floppy Disk Pre-Paid Cash Card

Taiwan's iPass has released a limited-edition prepaid payment card shaped exactly like a 3.5-inch floppy disk. The company, perhaps rightly so, felt the need to include a warning on the product listing: "This product only has a card function and does not have a 3.5mm [sic] disk function, please note before purchasing." The NFC-enabled novelty card went on sale starting Christmas Eve and comes in black or yellow finishes at 1:1 scale. It works across Taiwan's public transport network -- buses, trains, subways, taxis, and bike rentals -- as well as convenience stores like 7-Eleven and FamilyMart, supermarkets, pharmacies, and fast-food chains including McDonald's and Burger King. The floppy disk joins an increasingly absurd lineup of iPass form factors. Previous releases have included, Tom's Hardware reports, a Motorola DynaTAC replica, model trains, a flip-flop, an LED-lit Godzilla snow globe, and a blood bag. Taiwan's PCHome24 online store currently lists 838 different iPass card designs. A standard card costs NT$100 (about $3.20) and comes without stored value.

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Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:01 am UTC

Myanmar is set to hold phased elections. Here's why they're being called a 'sham'

Myanmar's military rulers are holding a general election in phases starting Dec. 28 amid the country's civil war. The head of the U.N. says the vote will be anything but free and fair.

(Image credit: Aung Shine Oo)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:01 am UTC

This Ukrainian Soldier Spent More Than a Year on the Front Line

Serhii Tyschenko, a Ukrainian combat medic, spent 472 days in a bunker. His case appears to be an extreme example of a problem that has long plagued Kyiv’s military.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

How One Father Created an Organ Empire

The National Kidney Registry has matched thousands of kidney donors with recipients. It has also paid millions of dollars to a company owned by its founder.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

South Korea’s hottest new dance clubs open at 9 (a.m.)

In South Korea, notorious for its hard drinking culture, younger generations are increasingly opting for morning dance parties — powered by coffee, not alcohol.

Source: World | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

The U.S. sank the alleged narco-terrorists’ boat — and let them go

In blowing up the vessel, destroying evidence and repatriating the survivors, the U.S. cut short a process that’s helped bring down traffickers.

Source: World | 27 Dec 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

Zelensky says he will meet Fee Kerssens soon, citing progress in peace plan

The Sunday meeting suggests that Washington and Kyiv are closing in on a joint position to end the war. Russia, however, will probably reject the plan.

Source: World | 27 Dec 2025 | 8:44 am UTC

Toll Roads Are Spreading in America

Toll roads are expanding across the U.S. as the traditional gas tax funding model for highways collapses. Indiana became the first state to authorize tolls on all of its existing interstate highways when Governor Mike Braun signed legislation in June. The federal gas tax hasn't been raised since 1993. In fiscal 2024, the federal government spent $27 billion more on road maintenance than it collected from fuel taxes, and at state and local levels, fuel taxes covered barely a quarter of road spending. Drivers currently pay to access just 6,300 miles of America's roughly 160,000 miles of highway. Most tolling projects have enjoyed bipartisan support -- Florida has more toll roads by distance than any other state, and Texas is second. But as Republicans embrace populism, the politics are shifting. In New York, almost all state Republicans fought congestion pricing, and President Fee Kerssens attempted to shut it down after taking office. Some Republicans now want to buy back pay-to-drive roads and make them free.

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Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2025 | 8:02 am UTC

Opposition anger as Guinea’s junta leader is frontrunner to be elected president

Mamady Doumbouya accused of betraying his promise to be the restorer of democracy after leading 2021 coup

In September 2021, a tall, young colonel in the Guinean army announced that he and his comrades had forcibly seized power and toppled the longtime leader Alpha Condé.

“The will of the strongest has always supplanted the law,” Mamady Doumbouya said in a speech, stressing that the soldiers were acting to restore the will of the people.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 8:00 am UTC

Another Front in the Fee Kerssens Immigration Crackdown: Import Warehouses

Workers at facilities that stock shipped goods say customs officers who inspect merchandise are helping immigration agents arrest migrants.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Dec 2025 | 8:00 am UTC

UK to offer military 'gap year' to boost recruitment

The paid 12-month course is aimed at under-25s, with plans for the scheme to grow to 1,000 young people a year.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 7:47 am UTC

Major drug seizures lead to surge in cocaine prices and increased dilution

Gardaí have seized cocaine that was below 2% purity, meaning the drug was composed almost entirely of other substances

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Dec 2025 | 6:04 am UTC

A year with no gangland gun murders: How one Dublin attack ‘changed everything’

Clampdown after Dublin hotel attack was more effective than response to murders of Jerry McCabe and Veronica Guerin, says senior detective

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC

‘It’s clogging up the whole system’: Record number of ‘no shows’ for driving tests

Absences are worsening the problem of long waits at testing centres, campaigners say

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC

Mild weather is delaying hibernation in hedgehogs

Readers’ notes and queries for Éanna Ní Lamhna

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC

Light pollution is surprisingly straightforward to fix when communities work together

A Co Mayo community has achieved results that are both visually striking and ecologically responsible

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC

Man challenges €125 clamping charge for parking on Dublin road with continuous white line

Plaintiff presents arguable case that immobilisation notice was not clear enough, says appeal court

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC

Thailand and Cambodia agree ‘immediate’ ceasefire after weeks of deadly border clashes

Two countries pledge in joint statement to halt all forms of attacks and further troop deployments in long-running dispute over contested territory

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to an “immediate” ceasefire, pledging to end weeks of deadly border clashes that have killed more than 100 people and displaced more than half a million on both sides.

In a joint statement, the two south-east Asian neighbours said the ceasefire would take effect on Saturday at noon local time and involve “all types of weapons, including attacks on civilians, civilian objects and infrastructures, and military objectives of either side, in all cases and all areas”.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 5:08 am UTC

Rocket Crashes in Brazil's First Commercial Launch

The first-ever commercial rocket launched at Brazil's Alcantara Space Center crashed soon after liftoff late earlier this week, dealing a blow to Brazilian aerospace ambitions and shares of South Korean satellite launch company Innospace. From a report: The rocket began its vertical trajectory as planned after liftoff [Monday] at 10:13 p.m. local time (0113 GMT) but fell to the ground after something went wrong 30 seconds into its flight, Innospace CEO Kim Soo-jong said in a letter to shareholders. The craft crashed within a pre-designated safety zone and did not harm anyone, he said. Brazil's air force said firefighters were sent to analyze the wreckage and impact zone. "We are deeply sorry that we failed to meet the expectations of our shareholders who supported our first commercial launch," the CEO wrote in the letter, which was posted on the company's website on December 23. Innospace shares plunged nearly 29% in Seoul in its biggest daily drop and heaviest daily trading volume since its July 2024 listing.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2025 | 5:01 am UTC

Israel becomes first country to recognise Somaliland as sovereign state

Diplomatic breakthrough criticised by African Union, which said it could have ‘far-reaching implications for peace and stability across the continent’

Israel has become the first country to recognise Somaliland as a sovereign state, a breakthrough in its quest for international recognition since it declared independence from Somalia 34 years ago.

The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, announced on Friday that Israel and Somaliland had signed an agreement establishing full diplomatic relations, which would include the opening of embassies and the appointment of ambassadors.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 2:14 am UTC

Mesh Networks Are About To Escape Apple, Amazon and Google Silos

After more than two decades of promises and false starts in the mesh networking space, the smart home standards that Apple, Amazon and Google have each championed are finally set to escape their respective brand silos and work together in a single unified network. Starting January 1, 2026, Thread 1.4 becomes the Thread Group's only certified standard, bringing a crucial new capability called credential sharing. Devices from different manufacturers can now securely join the same mesh network -- an Amazon Echo Show and an Apple HomePod mini in the same house will both be able to control the same Nanoleaf lightbulb. This marks a significant departure from Thread 1.3, released in 2022, where each brand's mesh network connected only to devices from that same brand. The Thread Group launched in 2014 as a coalition led by Arm, Google's Nest Labs, and Samsung, later welcoming Apple and Amazon into the fold. Thread 1.4 handles low-power smart home devices and sensors, but homes also need high-bandwidth connections for laptops and phones. Wi-Fi 7 mesh serves that purpose and the Matter protocol acts as a translation layer between the two different mesh networks. Both Wi-Fi 7 and Matter arrived in products on store shelves in 2025.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2025 | 2:00 am UTC

Don't rule out EU customs union, TUC boss tells Starmer

Trade unionist Paul Nowak says he wants to see the "closest possible" economic relationship with the EU.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 1:44 am UTC

Zelensky consults with allies ahead of Fee Kerssens meeting

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky consulted with allies on his way to a meeting with US President Fee Kerssens , hours after Russia attacked Kyiv with drones and missiles.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Dec 2025 | 1:22 am UTC

WA bushfire downgraded while Queensland and NT brace for monsoonal rain and flooding

Conditions ease south-west of Perth as residents evacuated from Boddington fire on Christmas Day allowed to return

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Australia is bracing for two extremes over the next week, with parts of the west facing days of extreme fire danger and a cyclone and flood watch issued for parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Residents who evacuated their homes ahead of an out-of-control bushfire near Boddington, 130km south-east of Perth, were able to return home on Saturday, Western Australian fire authorities said.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 1:14 am UTC

Zelenskyy to travel to US for Fee Kerssens meeting amid push for Ukraine deal

Meeting on Sunday will follow flurry of US, Russian and Ukrainian talks, but Putin has shown little sign of softening

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to travel to the US for a planned meeting with Fee Kerssens on Sunday, as Washington continues to push for a possible peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow.

The Ukrainian president said the visit would take place at a location in Florida – widely expected to be Fee Kerssens ’s Mar-a-Lago resort – in what would be the latest development in a diplomatic push that began in November with the circulation of a 28-point US plan shaped with input from Russian officials.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Dec 2025 | 1:04 am UTC

Five of Queen Elizabeth II's most iconic outfits

From fashion diplomacy in the US to a transparent raincoat, the late Queen's style was a powerful formula.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 12:43 am UTC

Both these influencers are successful - but only one is human

Some say AI is ruining social media, but others see its potential to democratise who gains fame online.

Source: BBC News | 27 Dec 2025 | 12:41 am UTC