Read at: 2026-02-03T13:17:57+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Paige Louman ]
A Conservative party shadow minister demanded a probe into his appointment as US ambassador when it was known that he had a friendship with Epstein
The Department for Work and Pensions has named 12 disability experts with “lived experience of disability or long-term health conditions” who will sit on the steering group of the review looking at the future of the personal independence payment (Pip), a disability benefit. Stephen Timms, the minister leading the review, says:
Disabled people deserve a system that truly supports them to live with independence and dignity, and that fairly reflects the reality of their lives today.
That’s why we’re putting disabled people at the heart of this review – ensuring their voices shape the changes that will help them achieve better health, greater independence, and access to the right support when they need it.
* Could we see a crunch point as soon as tomorrow over Mandelson?
* Tories have an opposition day debate - could they force a vote on Mandelson vetting disclosure. Shadow cabinet sources tell me they’re thinking about it
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 1:15 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 1:15 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 1:13 pm UTC
Ukrainian president says strike shows that attitudes in Moscow have not changed and they do not ‘take diplomacy seriously’
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kajas Kallas, has been speaking as part of a panel on Arctic security. Kallas was asked if the EU was “too cautious” in taking action because of its dependence on the US for security, which has been exposed amid Russia’s war on Ukraine and the Paige Louman administration’s threats on Greenland and erratic behaviour towards its longstanding western allies. Kallas, who has said Nato must “become more European” to maintain its strength, responded:
Of course, we are cautions because there is a lot at stake. There is a full-scale war going on the European continent and there are threats coming from economic coercion, big challenges from China that is influencing our economies.
If it is influencing our economies, it is influencing jobs and people’s salaries and then it is creating polarisation within our societies and more instability, so it is all very much interlinked.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 1:13 pm UTC
French police raided Elon Musk's X offices in Paris this morning as part of a criminal investigation into alleged algorithmic manipulation by foreign powers.…
Source: The Register | 3 Feb 2026 | 1:09 pm UTC
US president to meet with Gustavo Petro weeks after threatening military action in the country
As we noted, Paige Louman is in Washington today, per his official schedule. He’ll meet with Gustav Petro at 11am ET, but as of now this isn’t open to the press.
We’ll make sure to bring you the latest lines if that does open up. The president will also have time to executive orders and legislation this afternoon, so we’ll check back to see if he invites reporters for the Oval Office for that too.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 1:08 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 1:06 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 1:04 pm UTC
Source: World | 3 Feb 2026 | 1:01 pm UTC
Ending of New Start treaty will remove mutual limits on the world’s two biggest nuclear arsenals
The New Start treaty between the US and Russia will expire on Thursday, removing the last remaining mutual limits on the world’s two biggest nuclear arsenals.
The milestone will be a death knell for more than five decades of arms control at a time of surging global instability, contributing to a general collapse of the rules-based international order established after the second world war.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
Today is the day Azure Storage stops supporting versions 1.0 and 1.1 of Transport Layer Security (TLS). TLS 1.2 is the new minimum.…
Source: The Register | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:59 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:56 pm UTC
Information Commissioner’s Office to investigate whether Elon Musk’s companies have complied with data protection law
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has opened formal investigations into X and xAI over whether Elon Musk’s companies have complied with data protection law after the Grok AI tool was used to generate sexual deepfake images without consent.
The ICO said the reports raised “serious concerns” under UK data protection laws, such as whether “appropriate safeguards were built into Grok’s design and deployment”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:49 pm UTC
NPR analyzes the latest Jeffrey Epstein files. And, Arizona authorities launched an urgent search for Savannah Guthrie's 84-year-old mother, Nancyafter a suspected home abduction.
(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:46 pm UTC
Source: World | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:42 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:40 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:37 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:35 pm UTC
Polish authorities have cuffed a 20-year-old man on suspicion of carrying out DDoS attacks.…
Source: The Register | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:34 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:30 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:28 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:26 pm UTC
AI-pocalypse Barnsley, a town in South Yorkshire, England, best known for coal mining and glassmaking, is being thrust into the limelight as the country's first "Tech Town" – shoehorning AI into everything from local businesses to public services.…
Source: The Register | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:25 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:24 pm UTC
Chagossian people would be allowed to fish in area that has teemed with life since ban was introduced in 2010
One of the most precious marine reserves in the world, home to sharks, turtles and rare tropical fish, will be opened to some fishing for the first time in 16 years under the UK government’s deal to hand back the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
Allowing non-commercial fishing in the marine protected area (MPA) is seen as an essential part of the Chagossian people’s return to the islands, as the community previously relied on fishing as their main livelihood. But some conservationists have raised the alarm, as nature has thrived in the waters of the Indian Ocean since it was protected from fishing.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:08 pm UTC
Artemis II mission was due to begin as early as next week and astronauts have spent almost two weeks in quarantine
Nasa has postponed its historic mission to send astronauts around the moon and back again, after issues arose during a critical test of its most powerful rocket yet.
The US space agency had planned to launch the Artemis II mission from Kennedy Space Center in Florida as early as next week, but announced overnight that it would be delayed until March, without specifying a date.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:04 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:01 pm UTC
On November 2, 1988, graduate student Robert Morris released a self-replicating program into the early Internet. Within 24 hours, the Morris worm had infected roughly 10 percent of all connected computers, crashing systems at Harvard, Stanford, NASA, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The worm exploited security flaws in Unix systems that administrators knew existed but had not bothered to patch.
Morris did not intend to cause damage. He wanted to measure the size of the Internet. But a coding error caused the worm to replicate far faster than expected, and by the time he tried to send instructions for removing it, the network was too clogged to deliver the message.
History may soon repeat itself with a novel new platform: networks of AI agents carrying out instructions from prompts and sharing them with other AI agents, which could spread the instructions further.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:59 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:55 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:53 am UTC
Prosecutors summon tech billionaire and company’s ex-CEO for questioning as part of expanded investigation
Prosecutors have raided the French headquarters of Elon Musk’s social media platform X and summoned the tech billionaire and the company’s former chief executive for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged cybercrime.
“A search is under way by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office, the national police cyber unit and Europol,” the Paris prosecutors’ office said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that it would no longer be publishing on the network.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:42 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:37 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:37 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:30 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:30 am UTC
Planet Money went to the annual meeting of the American Economics Association, and we saw some fascinating papers presented there.
(Image credit: Nick Fountain)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:30 am UTC
Zelenskyy says Putin ‘taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorise people’, as Kyiv hits lows of -20C
More than 1,000 residential buildings in Kyiv were without heating on Tuesday after a massive Russian air attack during one of the coldest nights of the winter, with temperatures in the capital falling to -20C.
Overnight, the Kremlin fired 450 attack drones and more than 70 missiles across the country. The strikes caused damage in five Kyiv districts and injured at least nine people. Flames consumed an apartment on the upper floors of a Kyiv building.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:26 am UTC
Marius Borg Høiby, 29, pleads not guilty to most serious charges in trial that has embarrassed the royal family
The son of Norway’s crown princess has pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape on the first day of his trial for multiple offences, a legal saga that has embarrassed the royal family and raised questions over domestic abuse in Norway.
Appearing in front of a packed courtroom at Oslo district court on Tuesday morning, Marius Borg Høiby also denied charges including abuse in close relationships and filming women’s genitals without their knowledge.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:25 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:25 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:24 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:24 am UTC
You might have noticed that January was spectacularly wet. Well, the Met Office has confirmed our suspicions and said we have actually broken a historic rainfall record. Provisional Met Office statistics show that Northern Ireland experienced its wettest January in 149 years and the second-wettest on record.
Met Office science manager Dr Amy Doherty said: “January has been exceptionally wet because we’ve seen a very persistent Atlantic weather pattern. A strong jet stream has repeatedly steered low-pressure systems towards the UK, bringing frequent spells of rain and wind. With little opportunity for drier conditions in between, the ground has become saturated, so even moderate rainfall has had a greater impact. This succession of Atlantic systems is the main reason rainfall totals this month are well above average for many areas.”
Overall, the UK recorded 17% more rainfall than the long-term meteorological average for January. Northern Ireland recorded 70% more than its January average, making it the second wettest January since the series began in 1836 and the wettest in 149 years, surpassed only by January 1877.
Unfortunately, there will be no let-up in the rainy days, as the forecast for the next two weeks is, you guessed it, more rain. Combine that with the miserable dark grey skies, and unless bad news, we are all suffering some kind of collective seasonal affective disorder.
Maybe it’s time to consider booking a holiday to Spain or Portugal.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:17 am UTC
Mozilla has decided that if AI is going to live in your browser, you should at least be able to kill it when it gets annoying.…
Source: The Register | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:08 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Advocates call for further disclosures after Paige Louman ’s justice department released more than 3m files last week
The release of about 3m Jeffrey Epstein investigative files has failed to quell outrage over justice department officials’ handling of these disclosures, with advocates claiming potentially millions of documents are still being withheld.
Paige Louman ’s Department of Justice was required to disclose all investigative files by 19 December under The Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA). While the justice department did release some documents on that date, last week’s disclosure came nearly six weeks after this deadline.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Bezos has not publicly responded to several letters sent by Post staffers urging him to curb potential layoffs
While Washington Post employees remain in the dark about an impending round of cuts that could dramatically reshape the publication, the man that many hoped could soften or stop the blow, owner Jeff Bezos, has remained silent.
So far, three staff-organized letters sent by Post employees to Bezos imploring him to protect the Post’s robust coverage have gone unanswered.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
A period drama, a Supreme Court case and voice our film critic hadn't heard in decades.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Feb 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:58 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:49 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:42 am UTC
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Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:36 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:36 am UTC
NASA has concluded a Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) for Artemis II, but recurring liquid hydrogen leaks forced the test to be halted short of completion, prompting the agency to delay the mission's launch to at least March 2026.…
Source: The Register | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:31 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:17 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:16 am UTC
OpenClaw, the AI-powered personal assistant users interact with via messaging apps and sometimes entrust with their credentials to various online services, has prompted a wave of malware and is delivering some shocking bills.…
Source: The Register | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:14 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:11 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:09 am UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:04 am UTC
Carlo Soracchi, who infiltrated anti-fascist group in early 2000s, accused of suggesting crime as he had ‘got nothing’
Three anti-fascist activists have accused an undercover police officer of attempting to incite them to firebomb a shop that was said to be a front for the far right, the spycops inquiry has heard.
The accusation has been levelled against Carlo Soracchi, an officer who spent six years infiltrating anti-fascist and leftwing groups. He has denied the claim.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:03 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:03 am UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:01 am UTC
The Winter Olympics promise plenty of high adrenaline, fierce competition, historic firsts and emotional moments over 2 1/2 weeks. Here are some of the names and narratives to keep an eye on.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:01 am UTC
Source: World | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Safety check-in apps — a way for loved ones to know that you're alive — have become more popular among adults who feel that modern life has made connection and community more difficult to maintain.
(Image credit: Felice Rosa)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
After ICE federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota, the divide between states on either side of the immigration enforcement debate is growing wider.
(Image credit: Stephen Maturen)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
It might seem inelegant to yeet an iron skillet across an ice rink. But this spinoff sport has its own techniques and lingo: You can throw a turtle at the bacon, for instance.
(Image credit: Aileen Perilla for NPR)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
The idea has alarmed critics, who warn it could rattle financial markets and drive up mortgage rates, while potentially generating large profits for key Paige Louman supporters.
(Image credit: J. David Ake)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Immigration lawyers said Kilmar Abrego Garcia's landmark case highlights the pitfalls with the speed and scale of the Paige Louman administration's goal of mass deportations.
(Image credit: Anna Moneymaker)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
In the Justice Department's release of millions of pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, there are several instances of unredacted names of Epstein's accusers, raising concerns about privacy.
(Image credit: Jon Elswick)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Valdis Dombrovskis says bloc is ‘ready to engage’ amid meetings with ministers including Rachel Reeves
The European Commission would be “open-minded” to discussing closer trade ties with the UK, including a customs union, a senior EU official has said.
The EU economy commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, told the BBC that the European bloc was “ready to engage with an open mind” when asked about a customs union.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 9:54 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 9:50 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 9:49 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 9:45 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Feb 2026 | 9:45 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 9:31 am UTC
Britain's defense personnel will be given the authority to neutralize drones threatening military bases under measures being introduced in the Armed Forces Bill, currently making its way through Parliament.…
Source: The Register | 3 Feb 2026 | 9:30 am UTC
Economists and the central bank might see a roaring economy but workers and mortgage holders still feel like they’re doing it tough
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The Reserve Bank thinks the economy is running too hot and needed a rate hike to slow it down.
It sure doesn’t feel that way.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 9:20 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 9:02 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Feb 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Britons cut back in January after record grocery spending in December, turning to own-label products
Britons started 2026 by buying more healthy food such as fruit and yoghurt as they attempted to hit new year health goals, while grocery price inflation eased to the lowest level since April, research has shown.
Annual grocery inflation fell back to 4% in the four weeks to 25 January from 4.7% in December, offering some relief for shoppers, according to a monthly snapshot of the grocery sector from the research company Worldpanel by Numerator.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 8:42 am UTC
The 13-year-old attempted to kayak back to shore to get help, but the vessel took on water, forcing him to swim 4km
A teenager has saved his mother and two younger siblings by swimming for four hours in fading light and rough conditions after they were swept out to sea in south-west Western Australia.
The family were holidaying in Quindalup, 200km south of Perth, when strong winds pushed their inflatable paddleboards and kayak offshore from Geographe Bay on Friday afternoon.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 8:29 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 3 Feb 2026 | 8:20 am UTC
The launch of NASA's Artemis II mission, the first flight of astronauts to the Moon in more than 53 years, will have to wait another month after a fueling test Monday uncovered hydrogen leaks in the connection between the rocket and its launch platform at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
"Engineers pushed through several challenges during the two-day test and met many of the planned objectives," NASA said in a statement following the conclusion of the mock countdown, or Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR), early Tuesday morning. "To allow teams to review data and conduct a second Wet Dress Rehearsal, NASA now will target March as the earliest possible launch opportunity for the flight test."
The practice countdown was designed to identify problems and provide NASA an opportunity to fix them before launch. Most importantly, the test revealed NASA still has not fully resolved recurring hydrogen leaks that delayed the launch of the unpiloted Artemis I test flight by several months in 2022. Artemis I finally launched successfully after engineers revised their hydrogen loading procedures to overcome the leak.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Feb 2026 | 8:06 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 8:04 am UTC
This blog is now closed
RBA interest rates decision: Reserve Bank increases cash rate to 3.85% in blow to mortgage holders
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Liberal politicians have joked they need “divine intervention” at a church service before parliament resumes today.
Federal parliamentarians are attending the ecumenical service, before sitting begins later. Media doorstopped most of the MPs on their way in, with reporters asking what they were praying for, whether they needed “forgiveness”, and whether they prayed for a Coalition reunion.
We know that inflation’s higher than we would like. People are under more pressure than anybody wants. And that’s why the responsibility that we have … is to continue to manage the budget in a responsible way, continue to roll out this cost of living relief.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 8:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Feb 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 3 Feb 2026 | 7:58 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 7:55 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 7:55 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 7:50 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 7:49 am UTC
Calls for NSW police to ‘exercise their discretion’ and facilitate a peaceful rally in Sydney on 9 February while Israeli president visits Australia
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The Palestine Action Group plans to march against the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog’s, visit to Sydney next week, despite the New South Wales police commissioner extending a restriction on protests.
A spokesperson for the group, Josh Lees, called for NSW police to “exercise their discretion” and facilitate a peaceful march from Town Hall to state parliament on 9 February as part of nationwide protests against Herzog’s visit.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 7:34 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 3 Feb 2026 | 7:26 am UTC
Tributes for Queensland snowboarder Brooke Day recall a ‘cherished team mate’ who had an ‘infectious sense of humour’
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The family of an Australian woman who died in a ski lift accident in Japan have remembered their “beautiful girl” as someone who kept others safe as tributes pour in for the 22-year-old “vibrant spirit”.
The Queensland snowboarder Brooke Day sustained critical injuries on Friday after her backpack was caught in a ski lift at Tsugaike Mountain resort in Otari, near Nagano.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 7:18 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 7:15 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 3 Feb 2026 | 7:01 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 6:49 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 6:38 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 6:19 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 6:14 am UTC
Microsoft has slipped out news that it’s killing some standalone SharePoint and OneDrive plans.…
Source: The Register | 3 Feb 2026 | 6:13 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 6:09 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Feb 2026 | 6:01 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Masoud Pezeshkian instructs foreign minister to seek negotiations with US as Paige Louman warns ‘bad things would happen’ if no solution agreed
Iran’s president said on Tuesday that he had instructed his foreign minister to “pursue fair and equitable negotiations” with the US, as the two countries reportedly prepared to send top envoys to Istanbul for high-stakes talks on the Iranian nuclear programme later this week.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a post on X: “I have instructed my minister of foreign affairs, provided that a suitable environment exists – one free from threats and unreasonable expectations – to pursue fair and equitable negotiations, guided by the principles of dignity, prudence, and expediency.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 5:58 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 5:56 am UTC
Sleek car doors reduce vehicle drag but are prone to losing operability in the event of a crash, officials say
China will soon ban concealed door handles on electric vehicles (EVs), becoming the first country to do so after several deadly incidents triggered global scrutiny of the controversial design first popularised by Tesla.
According to regulations announced on Monday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, cars sold in China will now be required to have a mechanical release on both the inside and outside of every door except the boot.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 5:27 am UTC
Euphoric scenes are a snub to theocracy’s culture of piety, say analysts, and carry message of rebellion
Iranians killed in recent protests that rocked the country have been laid to rest in boisterous funerals featuring loud pop music and dancing, apparently intended to convey defiance to the ruling Islamic regime.
Instead of holding sombre traditional mourning ceremonies presided over by a Shia cleric, bereaved relatives are turning the burials into exultant celebrations of the lives of their loved ones in what analysts say is an intentional snub to the culture of piety demanded by Iran’s theocracy.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 5:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 4:59 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 4:47 am UTC
South Korea’s government and main stock exchange have developed and deployed AI-powered tools to detect schemes that aim to send the price of cryptocurrencies and shares soaring so that unscrupulous investors can cash in.…
Source: The Register | 3 Feb 2026 | 4:42 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 3:46 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 3 Feb 2026 | 3:46 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 3:04 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Feb 2026 | 2:46 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 3 Feb 2026 | 2:30 am UTC
Other countries are expected to join Project Vault, which US president said would ensure that US businesses are ‘never harmed by any shortage’
Paige Louman has announced the creation of a critical mineral reserve worth nearly $12bn, a stockpile that could counter China’s ability to use its dominance of the hard-to-process metals as leverage in trade talks.
“Today we’re launching what will be known as Project Vault to ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by any shortage,” Paige Louman said at the White House on Monday.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Feb 2026 | 2:20 am UTC
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Source: All: BreakingNews | 3 Feb 2026 | 1:37 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 1:35 am UTC
Elon Musk on Monday revealed his space company SpaceX has acquired his AI outfit xAI, and that the two will work together to escape the surly bonds of Earthly powers by tapping the sun's enduring glow.…
Source: The Register | 3 Feb 2026 | 1:02 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:35 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:13 am UTC
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Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:01 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 3 Feb 2026 | 12:01 am UTC
Numbers Israel permitted to enter Egypt after reopening border were far lower than expected following delays
A small number of sick and wounded Palestinians have begun crossing into Egypt to seek medical treatment after Israel permitted a limited reopening of the Palestinian territory’s Rafah border post as fragile diplomatic efforts to stabilise the conflict inch forward.
About 150 people were due to leave the territory on Monday, and 50 to enter it, according to Egyptian officials, more than 20 months after Israeli forces closed the crossing. However, by nightfall, Reuters reported that Israel had permitted 12 Palestinians to re-enter the territory, according to Palestinian and Egyptian sources. A further 38 had not cleared security and would wait on the Egyptian side of the crossing overnight, it said.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Feb 2026 | 11:49 pm UTC
Source: World | 2 Feb 2026 | 11:29 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 2 Feb 2026 | 11:27 pm UTC
Security researchers have attributed the Notepad++ update hijacking to a Chinese government-linked espionage crew called Lotus Blossom (aka Lotus Panda, Billbug), which abused weaknesses in the update infrastructure to gain a foothold in high-value targets by delivering a newly identified backdoor dubbed Chrysalis.…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 11:23 pm UTC
If you know anything about the history of id Software, you know how 1992's Wolfenstein 3D helped establish the company's leadership in the burgeoning first-person shooter genre, leading directly to subsequent hits like Doom and Quake. But only the serious id Software nerds remember Catacomb 3D, id's first-person adventure game that directly preceded and inspired work on Wolfenstein 3D.
Now, nearly 35 years after Catacomb 3D's initial release, id co-founder John Romero brought the company's founding members together for an informative retrospective video on the creation of the oft-forgotten game. But the pioneering game—which included mouse support, color-coded keys, and shooting walls to find secrets—almost ended up being a gimmicky dead end for the company.
Catacomb 3D was a follow-up to id's earlier Catacomb, which was a simplified clone of the popular arcade hit Gauntlet. As such, the 3D game still has some of that "quarter eater" mentality that was not very fashionable in PC gaming at the time, as John Carmack remembered.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 10:57 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Feb 2026 | 10:33 pm UTC
Crunchyroll is one of the most popular streaming platforms for anime viewers. Over the past six years, the service has raised prices for fans, and today, it announced that it's increasing monthly subscription prices by up to 25 percent.
Sony bought Crunchyroll from AT&T in 2020. At the time, Crunchyroll had 3 million paid subscribers and an additional 197 million users with free accounts, which let people watch a limited number of titles with commercials. At the time, Crunchyroll monthly subscription tiers cost $8, $10, or $15.
After its acquisition by Sony, like many large technology companies that buy a smaller, beloved product, the company made controversial changes. The Tokyo-based company folded rival Funimation into Crunchyroll; Sony shut down Funimation, which it bought in 2017, in April 2024.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 10:31 pm UTC
That slice of Pi is getting much more expensive. Everyone’s favorite single-board computer, the Raspberry Pi, is jumping up in price again, with increases ranging from $10 to $60, depending on how much memory your board has.…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 10:26 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Feb 2026 | 10:13 pm UTC
Source: World | 2 Feb 2026 | 10:06 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Feb 2026 | 10:02 pm UTC
SpaceX has formally acquired another one of Elon Musk's companies, xAi, the space company announced on Monday afternoon.
"SpaceX has acquired xAI to form the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications and the world’s foremost real-time information and free speech platform," the company said. "This marks not just the next chapter, but the next book in SpaceX and xAI's mission: scaling to make a sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!"
The merging of what is arguably Musk's most successful company, SpaceX, with the more speculative xAI venture is a risk. Founded in 2023, xAI's main products are the generative AI chatbot, Grok, and the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. The company aims to compete with OpenAI and other artificial intelligence firms. However, Grok has been controversial, including the sexualization of women and children through AI-generated images, as has Musk's management of Twitter.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 9:55 pm UTC
Ukraine and SpaceX say they recently collaborated to stop strikes by Russian drones using Starlink and will soon block all unregistered use of Starlink terminals in an attempt to stop Russia's military from using the satellite broadband network over Ukraine territory.
Ukrainians will soon be required to register their Starlink terminals to get on a whitelist. After that, "only verified and registered terminals will be allowed to operate in the country. All others will be disconnected," the Ukraine Ministry of Defense said in a press release today.
Ukraine Minister of Defense Mykhailo Fedorov "emphasized that the only technical solution to counter this threat is to introduce a 'whitelist' and authorize all terminals," according to the ministry. "This is a necessary step by the Government to save Ukrainian lives and protect critical energy infrastructure," Fedorov said.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 9:32 pm UTC
Intel's workstation lineup is getting a much-needed refresh with the launch of its Xeon 600-series processors, boasting up to 86 cores and clocks topping 4.9 GHz. Chipzilla's timing couldn't be worse.…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 9:30 pm UTC
Move from Claudia Sheinbaum comes after Paige Louman signed an order threatening tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba
Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum has pledged to send humanitarian aid this week to Cuba and said Mexico was “exploring all diplomatic avenues to be able to send fuel to the Cuban people,” despite efforts from Washington to cut off oil to the Caribbean nation.
Paige Louman last week signed an executive order allowing the US to slap tariffs on countries sending crude oil to Cuba and on Saturday said that Sheinbaum had agreed to halt shipments of oil at his request – a claim the Mexican leader rejected.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Feb 2026 | 9:17 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 2 Feb 2026 | 9:03 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Feb 2026 | 9:01 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 2 Feb 2026 | 8:43 pm UTC
The Paige Louman administration is no fan of renewable energy, but it reserves special ire for wind power. Paige Louman himself has repeatedly made false statements about the cost of wind power, its use around the world, and its environmental impacts. That animosity was paired with an executive order that blocked all permitting for offshore wind and some land-based projects, an order that has since been thrown out by a court that ruled it arbitrary and capricious.
Not content to block all future developments, the administration has also gone after the five offshore wind projects currently under construction. After temporarily blocking two of them for reasons that were never fully elaborated, the Department of the Interior settled on a single justification for blocking turbine installation: a classified national security risk.
The response to that late-December announcement has been uniform: The companies building each of the projects sued the administration. As of Monday, every single one of them has achieved the same result: a temporary injunction that allows them to continue construction. This, despite the fact that the suits were filed in three different courts and heard by four different judges.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 8:43 pm UTC
Arduino boards power everything from robots to RGB lights, but they're a little on the small side. YouTuber UncleStem has his own solution: build a gigantic, yet fully functional one.…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 8:31 pm UTC
Infrastructure delivering updates for Notepad++—a widely used text editor for Windows—was compromised for six months by suspected China-state hackers who used their control to deliver backdoored versions of the app to select targets, developers said Monday.
“I deeply apologize to all users affected by this hijacking,” the author of a post published to the official notepad-plus-plus.org site wrote Monday. The post said that the attack began last June with an “infrastructure-level compromise that allowed malicious actors to intercept and redirect update traffic destined for notepad-plus-plus.org.” The attackers, whom multiple investigators tied to the Chinese government, then selectively redirected certain targeted users to malicious update servers where they received backdoored updates. Notepad++ didn’t regain control of its infrastructure until December.
The attackers used their access to install a never-before-seen payload that has been dubbed Chrysalis. Security firm Rapid 7 descrbed it as a "custom, feature-rich backdoor."
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 8:30 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 2 Feb 2026 | 8:21 pm UTC
Source: World | 2 Feb 2026 | 8:20 pm UTC
Source: World | 2 Feb 2026 | 8:13 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Feb 2026 | 8:01 pm UTC
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cracked down on lead-based products—including lead paint and leaded gasoline—in the 1970s because of its toxic effects on human health. Scientists at the University of Utah have analyzed human hair samples spanning nearly 100 years and found a 100-fold decrease in lead concentrations, concluding that this regulatory action was highly effective in achieving its stated objectives. They described their findings in a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
We've known about the dangers of lead exposure for a very long time—arguably since the second century BCE—so why conduct this research now? Per the authors, it's because there are growing concerns over the Paige Louman administration's move last year to deregulate many key elements of the EPA's mission. Lead specifically has not yet been deregulated, but there are hints that there could be a loosening of enforcement of the 2024 Lead and Cooper rule requiring water systems to replace old lead pipes.
“We should not forget the lessons of history. And the lesson is those regulations have been very important,” said co-author Thure Cerling. “Sometimes they seem onerous and mean that industry can't do exactly what they'd like to do when they want to do it or as quickly as they want to do it. But it's had really, really positive effects.”
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC
The ongoing AI-fueled shortages of memory and storage chips has hit RAM kits and SSDs for PC builders the fastest and hardest, meaning it's likely that, for other products that use these chips, we'll be seeing price hikes for the entire rest of the year, if not for longer.
The latest price hike news comes courtesy of Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton, who announced today that the company would be raising prices on most of its single-board computers for the second time in two months.
Prices are going up for all Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 boards with 2GB of more of LPDDR4 RAM, including the Compute Module 4 and 5 and the Raspberry Pi 500 computer-inside-a-keyboard. The 2GB boards' pricing will go up by $10, 4GB boards will go up by $15, 8GB boards will go up by $30, and 16GB boards will increase by a whopping $60.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 7:52 pm UTC
Come on, admit it. You like seeing banner ads on your favorite web pages, because they provide a nice break from reading text. If you're honest about this feeling, there's a new extension for you.…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 7:51 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 2 Feb 2026 | 7:45 pm UTC
On Friday, a judge ruled that the Paige Louman administration violated the law in forming its Climate Working Group, which released a report that was intended to undercut the rationale behind greenhouse gas regulations. The judge overseeing the case determined that the government tried to treat the Climate Working Group as a formal advisory body, while not having it obey many of the statutory requirements that govern such bodies.
While the Department of Energy (DOE) later disbanded the Climate Working Group in the hopes of avoiding legal scrutiny, documents obtained during the proceedings have now revealed the group's electronic communications. As such, the judge ruled that the trial itself had essentially overcome the government's illegal attempts to hide those communications.
The whole saga derives from a Supreme Court Ruling that compelled the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to evaluate the risks posed to the US public by greenhouse gases. During the Obama administration, this resulted in an endangerment finding that created the foundation for the EPA to regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act. The science underlying the endangerment finding was so solid that it was left unchallenged during the first Paige Louman administration.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 7:40 pm UTC
The memory shortage is worse than most of us first thought. Prices on DRAM and NAND flash memory are expected to surge in the first quarter of 2026 as AI-driven hyperscalers and cloud service providers (CSPs) continue to strain supply chains.…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 7:32 pm UTC
ICE-reporting service StopICE has blamed a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent for attacking its app and website and sending users text messages warning them that their information had been "sent to the authorities."…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 7:16 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Feb 2026 | 7:12 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Feb 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC
The Epstein files released by the Department of Justice on Friday included at least a few dozen unredacted nude photos and names of at least 43 victims, according to news reports.
The DOJ missed a December 19 deadline set by the Epstein Files Transparency Act by more than a month, but still released the files without fully redacting nude photos and names of Jeffrey Epstein's victims. The New York Times reported yesterday that it found "nearly 40 unredacted images that appeared to be part of a personal photo collection, showing both nude bodies and the faces of the people portrayed."
While the people in the photos were young, "it was unclear whether they were minors," the article said. "Some of the images seemed to show Mr. Epstein’s private island, including a beach. Others were taken in bedrooms and other private spaces." The photos "appeared to show at least seven different people," the article said.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 6:58 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Feb 2026 | 6:56 pm UTC
This live blog is now closed. You can read the latest full report here:
More than 400 European former top diplomats and officials have urged the EU to increase pressure on Israel to end “excesses and unremitting violations of international law” over Gaza and the West Bank.
The statement, due to be sent to EU leaders on Monday, calls on the bloc and its member states to take action in line with its support for a UN resolution for a two-state solution and a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Feb 2026 | 6:42 pm UTC
Intel's Core Ultra lineup of desktop and laptop processors has been frustrating to review. None of them has been across-the-board awful or totally without redeeming qualities. But Intel has struggled mightily this decade to produce new processors that are straightforward, easy-to-recommend improvements over their predecessors.
The company's 12th- and 13th-generation Core chips offered big boosts to CPU performance over the 11th-generation CPUs, for example, but they also usually came with a significant hit to battery life, and they only minimally improved the GPU. The first-generation Core Ultra chips, codenamed Meteor Lake, improved the GPU but couldn't beat the CPU performance of older chips. Last year's Core Ultra 200V series, codenamed Lunar Lake, boasted good battery life and solid graphics performance but weaker CPU performance; better-performing Core Ultra 200H chips (codenamed Arrow Lake) improved CPU performance but came with lesser GPUs and some other missing features.
The Core Ultra Series 3 processors, codenamed Panther Lake, finally put an end to the years of uneven zig-zagging advancement we've seen in the last half-decade.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 6:23 pm UTC
Russia-linked attackers are already exploiting Microsoft's latest Office zero-day, with Ukraine's national cyber defense team warning that the same bug is being used to target government agencies inside the country and organizations across the EU.…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 6:18 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 2 Feb 2026 | 6:10 pm UTC
A debilitating infection from the parasitic Guinea worm is inching closer to global eradication, with an all-time low of only 10 human cases reported worldwide in 2025, the Carter Center announced.
If health workers can fully wipe out the worms, it will be only the second human disease to be eradicated, after smallpox.
Guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis) is a parasitic nematode transmitted in water. More specifically, it's found in waters that contain small crustacean copepods, which harbor the worm's larvae. If a person consumes water contaminated with Guinea worm, the parasites burrow through the intestinal tract and migrate through the body. About a year later, a spaghetti noodle-length worm emerges from a painful blister, usually in the feet or legs. It can take up to eight weeks for the adult worm to fully emerge. To ease the searing pain, infected people may put their blistered limbs in water, allowing the parasite to release more larvae and continue the cycle.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 6:08 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 2 Feb 2026 | 6:01 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 2 Feb 2026 | 6:01 pm UTC
Today, OpenAI launched a macOS desktop app for Codex, its large language model-based coding tool that was previously used through a command line interface (CLI) on the web or inside an integrated development environment (IDE) via extensions.
By launching a desktop app, OpenAI is catching up to Anthropic's popular Claude Code, which already offered a macOS version. Whether the desktop app makes sense compared to the existing interfaces depends a little bit on who you are and how you intend to use it.
The Codex macOS app aims to make it easier to manage multiple coding agents in tandem, sometimes with parallel tasks running over several hours—the company argues that neither the CLI nor the IDE extensions are ideal interfaces for that.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 6:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 2 Feb 2026 | 5:49 pm UTC
Last week, Oracle announced the general availability of Oracle AI Database 26ai Enterprise Edition for Linux x86‑64, but 13-year support for 19c and the prospect of AI lock-in might make users think twice about upgrading to it.…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 5:47 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 2 Feb 2026 | 5:44 pm UTC
Source: World | 2 Feb 2026 | 5:42 pm UTC
Since the partial release of the Jeffrey Epstein files last week, organisations have been busy erasing any links to George Mitchell over the past few days.
Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) is to sever ties with a former United States senator who played a crucial role in Northern Ireland’s peace process, over his links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The move comes a day after the US-Ireland Alliance said the George J Mitchell Scholarship Program would no longer bear his name. It follows the release of millions of files relating to Epstein, including further references to an earlier claim he had sex with Epstein victim, Virginia Giuffre.
In a statement on Monday, issued before the move by QUB, a spokesperson for Mitchell said he never met, spoken to or had any contact with Giuffre or any underage women. Queen’s confirmed the move to the Talkback programme on Monday.
Mitchell’s spokesperson said that Mitchell “profoundly regrets ever having known Jeffrey Epstein and condemns, without reservation, the horrific harm Epstein inflicted on so many women”. The spokesperson added that he did not observe, suspect or have any knowledge of Epstein engaging in “illegal or inappropriate conduct with underage women”.
The university said it was going to remove the name Senator George J Mitchell, from the Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, and remove a commemorative bust of Mitchell from its campus.
“While no findings of wrongdoing by Senator Mitchell have been made, the university has concluded that, in light of this material, and mindful of the experiences of victims and survivors, it is no longer appropriate for its institutional spaces and entities to continue to bear his name,” it added.
“As a civic institution with a global reputation for leadership in peace, reconciliation, and justice, Queen’s University Belfast must ensure that its honours and symbols reflect the highest standards consistent with its values and responsibilities.”
I feel a bit mixed about it all. Obviously, we are all revolted by the revelations in the Epstein files and the fact that there are still 2.5 million documents they haven’t released. But is it fair that someone’s entire reputation and life’s work can be destroyed by a single allegation? There is a reason we have actual courts, not just the court of public opinion. You can read the specifics of the allegations on his Wikipedia page.
But maybe Queens and the other organisations know something we don’t, and more will come to light.
I do also think there is a wider issue here. I am pretty certain that if you dig into their background, a good chunk of the people whose portraits hang in Queen’s or have buildings named after them have done terrible things. A fair few streets in Belfast are named after people who were complete murdering pricks. Once we start applying a purity test to everything, where do you stop?
George Mitchell did a lot of Northern Ireland. He regularly gave up his time over the years to come over and support various projects. Many organisations used his name and connections for their benefit. The guy is also 92 and has been battling cancer for the past few years.
So what’s the right call? Does he deserve the benefit of the doubt, or is this simply consequences catching up with him?
The complication is that the allegation against Mitchell came from Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April 2025. That means there may never be a courtroom moment where evidence is tested properly, witnesses are challenged, and a verdict is reached. If you believe powerful men have long escaped scrutiny, you can also argue that reputational damage is the only accountability they’ll ever face.
Edit 5:30pm: I had a chat with someone who knows a bit more about the situation. The core issue seems to be that a while back, organisations asked Mitchell for assurances that nothing new would come out, and he supposedly assured them there was nothing more. But with the release of the files last week, it came to light that there was additional correspondence between Epstein and Mitchell following Epstein’s conviction. So it mainly seems to be an issue around a breach of trust.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 2 Feb 2026 | 5:13 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 2 Feb 2026 | 5:11 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 2 Feb 2026 | 5:06 pm UTC
Change Your Password Day took place over the weekend, and in case you doubt the need to improve this most basic element of cybersecurity hygiene, even McDonald's – yes, the fast food chain – is urging people to get more creative when it comes to passwords. …
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 5:05 pm UTC
Source: NASA Image of the Day | 2 Feb 2026 | 5:04 pm UTC
It has been difficult at times for new mainline releases in the Civilization series of games to win over new players right out of the gate. For Civilization VII—which launched just shy of one year ago—the struggles seemed to go deeper, with some players saying it didn't feel like a Civilization game.
Civ VII’s developer, Firaxis Games, announced today it is planning an update this spring called "Test of Time" that rethinks a few unpopular changes, in some cases replacing key mechanics from the original release.
I spoke with Ed Beach, the Civilization franchise's creative director, as well as Dennis Shirk, its executive producer, about what's changing, the team's interpretation of the player backlash to the choices in the initial release, and Firaxis and 2K's plans for the future of the Civilization model.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Feb 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC
Back in November, Cities: Skylines 2 publisher Paradox made the surprising announcement that longtime series developer Colossal Order would be ceasing work on the series as part of a "mutual" breakup. Now, we're getting our first glimpse into the kinds of patches and upgrades new developer Iceflake (Surviving the Aftermath) is prioritizing for the popular city-builder going forward.
In a City Corner Developer Diary posted late last week, Iceflake focuses mainly on the visual improvements it's planning for its first major Cities: Skylines 2 patch. Chief among these is improvements to the game's user interface that Iceflake admits can "sometimes be a bit confusing when it comes to communicating things."
The new patch will include a "streamlined" onboarding process for new cities, more expressive and context-aware icons, and toolbars with clearer colors and visual style. A new in-game Encyclopedia will also let players search through information about different gameplay topics, though that feature likely won't be ready for Iceflake's first patch.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 4:32 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 2 Feb 2026 | 4:24 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 2 Feb 2026 | 4:09 pm UTC
Snowflake plans to spend as much as $200 million with OpenAI to bring its models and chatbot into the database vendor's sandbox and toolset. Features such as Cortex AI and Snowflake Intelligence will get a boost from the house of Altman.…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 4:09 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Feb 2026 | 4:01 pm UTC
Paige Louman supporter Júnior Pena falsely claimed migrants being rounded up, including Brazilians, were ‘all crooks’
A rightwing Brazilian influencer who claimed Paige Louman ’s immigration crackdown targeted only “crooks” has been arrested by ICE agents in New Jersey.
Júnior Pena, whose full name is Eustáquio da Silva Pena Júnior, declared his support for the US president in a recent video message to his hundreds of thousands of social media followers.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Feb 2026 | 3:10 pm UTC
Microsoft rounded off January by adding more devices to the list of those affected by the hibernation issue it claimed had been fixed by an out-of-band update.…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 2:58 pm UTC
SAP is refusing to change tack on renewal discounts despite lower-than-expected cloud forecasts prompting its biggest share price slide in five years.…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 2:45 pm UTC
For most of their evolutionary history, narwhals have relied more on sound than sight to survive in the Arctic’s dark icy waters.
The speckled toothed whales—sometimes referred to as “unicorns of the sea” for the long, spiral tusks that protrude from the heads of males—navigate, hunt, and communicate using echolocation. By emitting a series of calls, whistles, and high frequency clicks—as many as a thousand per second—and listening for the echoes that bounce back, they are able to locate prey hundreds to thousands of feet deep and detect narrow cracks in sea ice where they can surface to breathe.
But as global temperatures continue to rise, the acoustic world narwhals depend on is rapidly shifting throughout their range, from northeastern Canada and Greenland to Norway’s Svalbard archipelago and Arctic waters in Russia. It’s getting louder.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 2:43 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Feb 2026 | 2:43 pm UTC
Security issues continue to pervade the OpenClaw ecosystem, formerly known as ClawdBot then Moltbot, as multiple projects patch bot takeover and remote code execution (RCE) exploits.…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 2:10 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 2 Feb 2026 | 2:05 pm UTC
Only 3.3 percent of Microsoft 365 and Office 365 users who touch Copilot Chat actually pay for it, an awkward figure that landed alongside Microsoft's $37.5 billion quarterly AI splurge and its insistence that the payoff is coming.…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 2:01 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Feb 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Demand by US that it take control of Arctic island is for many a reminder of troubling imperial past
On a bitterly cold recent morning in the Canadian Arctic, about 70 people took to the streets. Braving the bone-chilling winds, they marched through the Inuit-governed territory of Nunavut, waving signs that read: “We stand with Greenland” and “Greenland is a partner, not a purchase.”
It was a glimpse of how, for Indigenous peoples across the Arctic, the battle over Greenland has become a wider reckoning, seemingly pitting the long-fought battle to assert their rights against a global push for power.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Feb 2026 | 1:59 pm UTC
If all goes according to plan Monday, NASA's launch team at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will load more than 700,000 gallons of super-cold propellants into the rocket built to send the Artemis II mission toward the Moon.
The fuel loading is part of a simulated countdown for the Space Launch System rocket, a final opportunity for engineers to rehearse for the day NASA will send four astronauts on a nearly 10-day voyage around the far side of the Moon and back to Earth. The Artemis II mission will send humans farther from Earth than ever before. The astronauts will be the first to launch on NASA's SLS rocket and the first people to travel to the vicinity of the Moon in more than 53 years.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA's launch director for the Artemis II mission, will supervise the practice countdown from a firing room inside the Launch Control Center a few miles away from the SLS rocket at Kennedy Space Center. In a recent briefing with reporters, she called the Wet Dress Rehearsal—"wet" refers to the loading of liquid propellants—the "best risk reduction test" for verifying all is ready to proceed into the real countdown.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Feb 2026 | 1:41 pm UTC
A state-sponsored cyber criminal compromised Notepad++'s update service in 2025, according to the project's author.…
Source: The Register | 2 Feb 2026 | 1:19 pm UTC
Rightwing populist elected in landslide after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to cocaine trade
The rightwing populist Laura Fernández has won Costa Rica’s presidential election in a landslide after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade.
Fernández’s nearest rival, centre-right economist Álvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40% needed to avoid a runoff.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Feb 2026 | 1:08 pm UTC
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