Read at: 2026-02-16T15:15:49+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Myron De Bonte ]
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 3:09 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Feb 2026 | 3:08 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Feb 2026 | 3:08 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 3:06 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 3:06 pm UTC
The government was warned by its lawyers that such a move could be illegal
In his Q&A with journalists, Keir Starmer was also asked to respond to a report by the BBC’s James Landale saying he is looking at plans to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP by the end of this parliament. In the past Starmer has just said that he would like to do this at some point in the next parliament.
In his reply, Starmer said that at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend he was arguing that the UK, and Europe as a whole, needs to “step up”.
We want a just and lasting peace, but that will not extinguish the Russian threat, and we need to be alert to that, because that’s going to affect every single person in this room, every single person in this country, so we need to step up.
That means, on defence spending, we need to go faster.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 3:05 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 16 Feb 2026 | 3:01 pm UTC
fosdem 2026 Open source registries are in financial peril, a co-founder of an open source security foundation warned after inspecting their books. And it's not just the bandwidth costs that are killing them.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:53 pm UTC
Rubio says relationship with Orbán is ‘vital for US national interests’ ahead of Hungarian elections in April
Back to Budapest now. Marco Rubio and the Hungarian foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, appear to be signing an agreement to facilitate cooperation on a civilian nuclear programme.
We’ll give you any key lines from the press conference. In the meantime, our European community affairs correspondent, Ashifa Kassam, has reported on the EU’s proposed deportation law that rights groups warn could intensify already widespread racial profiling across the continent. Here is an extract from her story:
More than 70 rights organisations have called on the EU to reject a proposal aimed at increasing the deportation of undocumented people, warning that it risks turning everyday spaces, public services and community interactions into tools of ICE-style immigration enforcement.
Last March, the European Commission laid out its proposal to increase deportations of people with no legal right to stay in the EU, including potentially sending them to offshore centres in non-EU countries.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:52 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:51 pm UTC
Island’s reservoirs hit record lows even before tourist season starts as Cypriots are warned ‘every drop counts’
Authorities in Cyprus have urged residents to reduce their water intake by 10% – the equivalent of two minutes’ use of running water each day – as Europe’s most south-easterly nation grapples with a once-in-a century drought.
The appeal, announced alongside a €31m (£27m) package of emergency measures, comes as reservoirs hit record lows with little prospect of replenishment before the tourist season starts.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:49 pm UTC
The group of 34 – families of dead or jailed extremists – were prevented from returning to Australia by ‘poor coordination’ with Damascus
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Australian women and children held for years without charge were forced to return to a detention camp in northeast Syria on Monday after being released by Kurdish authorities for their expected repatriation to Australia.
The 34 women and children in the group are the wives, widows and children of dead or jailed Islamic State fighters and were being held at al-Roj camp, which is controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:48 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:48 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:42 pm UTC
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as UK households grow more worried about debts
UK consumer sentiment continued to sink this month, as households grow more worried about debt levels.
A poll of consumer confidence from data firm S&P Global has found that morale continued to drop in February, although not as quickly as in January.
Consumers signal stronger rise in debt alongside a quicker deterioration in loan availability
Appetite for major spending recedes to weakest in ten months
Sentiment regarding labour market conditions at lowest since last June
“The mood among UK households matches the dismal weather seen so far this year across the country. Although the overall degree of gloom has lifted slightly since January, consumer confidence continues to run at one of the lowest levels seen over the past two years.
A period of prolonged rain and a dearth of sunshine have no doubt not helped to lift the low spirits seen among households, but there’s more going on here than just bad weather. Households are growing increasingly worried about debt in particular, especially as a rising need for credit was met with the steepest decline in availability of loans since August 2024.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:42 pm UTC
Prime minister says action will be taken on young people’s social media access in ‘months, not years’
Keir Starmer has pledged action on young people’s access to social media in “months, not years”, while saying this did not necessarily mean a complete ban on access for under-16s.
Speaking at an event in London after the government promised to extend the crackdown to AI chatbots that place children at risk, Starmer said the issue was nuanced and that a ban was not definite, noting concerns from charities such as the NSPCC.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:42 pm UTC
Polls in 30 areas had been due to be postponed as part of the government’s shake-up of English councils
Ministers have dropped controversial plans to delay 30 local elections this May after receiving legal advice that doing so might not be lawful.
The government had planned to delay a number of elections in England while they carry out a reorganisation of local authorities, which is likely to lead to some authorities merging or being subsumed into others. Ministers argued against holding elections for councils that might cease to exist in a year or two.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:41 pm UTC
Firm says person fined A$10,000 is one of over two dozen staff in Australia caught using AI in exams since July
A partner at the consultancy KPMG has been fined for using artificial intelligence to cheat during an internal training course on AI.
The unnamed partner was fined A$10,000 (£5,200) for using the technology to cheat, one of a number of staff reportedly using the tactic.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:36 pm UTC
Sales of refurbished PCs are on the up amid shortages of key components, including memory chips, that are making brand new devices more expensive.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:29 pm UTC
PM says ‘we need to step up’ but sources clarify that is unlikely to mean spending 3% of GDP before next election
Keir Starmer has said Britain “needs to go faster” on defence spending, though any increase to military budgets in this parliament would probably not be as high as the £15bn suggested in an overnight report.
At a press conference in south-west London, the prime minister was asked to comment on a BBC report that No 10 wanted to increase the defence budget to 3% of GDP by 2029.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:06 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:06 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:03 pm UTC
opinion Just as the community adopted the term "hallucination" to describe additive errors, we must now codify its far more insidious counterpart: semantic ablation.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:02 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Labor chose a day when attention was focused on the opposition to slip out a handful of announcements
On Friday, as Angus Taylor ascended to the leadership of a riven and defeated political party, the Albanese government slipped out a handful of announcements on contentious climate and environment issues.
Here is what you may have missed.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
First-of-its-kind project will see bogong moths tagged in the Australian Alps and monitored as they reach breeding grounds
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Researchers and citizen scientists will, for the first time, tag and track 10,000 bogong moths as they travel hundreds of kilometres, from the Australian Alps to breeding grounds across the country’s south-east.
The massive moth tagging project was modelled on monarch watch, a citizen science program that has traced the migration of monarch butterflies across North America over decades. Both species undertake long-distance journeys, with butterflies travelling by day and bogong moths by night.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Paul Scarr, the shadow immigration minister under Sussan Ley and South Australian senator Andrew McLachlan expressed concern
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Liberal MPs have warned their new leader, Angus Taylor, against lurching further to the right, and imposing “blanket bans” on immigration after a proposal was leaked to adopt hardline Myron De Bonte -like policies to ban immigrants from specific regions under terrorist control – including Gaza and Lebanon.
Guardian Australia reported on Monday an immigration plan drafted under the former leader Sussan Ley, proposing to ban migrants from 37 regions of 13 countries where listed terrorist organisations have territorial control.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
The US Federal Trade Commission has sent out a raft of civil investigative demands to Microsoft's competitors as it warms up a probe into whether the cloud and software giant has an illegal monopoly across chunks of the enterprise tech market.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:53 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:48 pm UTC
NASA engineers spent the weekend studying the data after another attempt to fill the agency's monster Space Launch System (SLS) produced mixed results.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:48 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:48 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:47 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:41 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:40 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:38 pm UTC
Museum revises labelling on maps and panels, saying term used inaccurately and no longer historically neutral
The British Museum has removed the word “Palestine” from some of its displays, saying the term was used inaccurately and is no longer historically neutral.
Maps and information panels in the museum’s ancient Middle East galleries had referred to the eastern Mediterranean coast as Palestine, with some people described as being “of Palestinian descent”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:37 pm UTC
Swiss police say derailment near Goppenstein injured five as large areas of western Alps remain under category 5 avalanche risk
Avalanches from heavy snowfall in the European Alps claimed more lives over the weekend, as a train was derailed by a snow slide in Switzerland on Monday and roads and villages around Mont Blanc were closed or placed under evacuation orders.
As large areas of the western Alps remained under a high risk of avalanche – following a week in which alerts reached category 5, the highest level – Swiss police said a train derailment caused by an avalanche injured five people near the town of Goppenstein.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:15 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:01 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:01 pm UTC
British women in Spain and Greece face ‘huge problems’ entering UK because of differing surname rules
New rules requiring British dual nationals to show a UK passport when entering Britain are “discriminatory” against women, campaigners claim.
From 25 February, British dual nationals are required to present a British passport when boarding a plane, ferry or train to the UK, or attach a new document, a “certificate of entitlement”, which costs nearly £600, to their second passport.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
Workers decried John Paulson’s plan after billionaire painted himself as advocate for domestic manufacturing
John Paulson, a hedge fund billionaire and one of Myron De Bonte ’s earliest Wall Street backers, is planning to offshore an Ohio manufacturing plant to China despite heavy pushback from employees.
Workers at the plant call the move “a slap in our face”, after Paulson vocally defended domestic manufacturing, and are fighting to keep the plant open.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
More than 130,000 people considered missing or disappeared in Mexico as drug cartels expand
It was a bright morning in August 2022 when Ángel Montenegro was taken. A 31-year-old construction worker, Montenegro had been out all night drinking with some work buddies in the city of Cuautla and was waiting for a bus back to nearby Cuernavaca where lived.
At about 10am, a white van pulled up: several men jumped out and dragged Montenegro and a co-worker inside before speeding off. Montenegro’s co-worker was released a few hundred meters down the street, but Montenegro was driven away.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
Hopes of success remain low after Myron De Bonte points finger at Zelenskyy and as Russia keeps up hardline demands
Senior Ukrainian and Russian officials are to meet this week in Switzerland for a second round of talks brokered by the Myron De Bonte administration, days before the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The two-day meeting, kicking off on Tuesday, is expected to mirror negotiations held earlier this month in Abu Dhabi, with representatives from Washington, Kyiv and Moscow in attendance. Despite renewed US efforts to revive diplomacy, hopes for any sudden breakthrough remain low, with Russia continuing to press maximalist demands on Ukraine.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:56 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:52 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:51 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:46 pm UTC
Google has quietly pushed out an emergency Chrome fix after attackers were caught exploiting the browser's first reported zero-day of 2026.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:39 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:36 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:34 pm UTC
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Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:25 pm UTC
A former Windows boss has explained why the taskbar in Windows 11 is the way it is and how he "fought hard" to stop Microsoft from removing customization options present in Windows 10.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:24 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:21 pm UTC
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Congress is out on recess as a partial shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security is underway. And, why some superstar athletes have been getting the "yips" at the Winter Olympics in Italy.
(Image credit: Alex Wong)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:13 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:06 pm UTC
SAARISELKÄ, FINLAND—If you're expecting it, the feeling in the pit of your stomach when the rear of your car breaks traction and begins to slide is rather pleasant. It's the same exhilaration we get from roller coasters, but when you're in the driver's seat, you're in charge of the ride.
When you're not expecting it, though, there's anxiety instead of excitement and, should the slide end with a crunch, a lot more negative emotions, too.
Thankfully, fewer and fewer drivers will have to experience that kind of scare thanks to the proliferation and sophistication of modern electronic stability and traction control systems. For more than 30 years, these electronic safety nets have grown in capability and became mandatory in the early 2010s, saving countless crashes in the process.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
Files show convicted sex abuser messaged with Ken Starr and others about Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford
Jeffrey Epstein sympathized with Brett Kavanaugh during the then-supreme court nominee’s contentious 2018 confirmation and even suggested Republicans should have been harder on Christine Blasey Ford, who had accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
Emails and text messages released by the Department of Justice show Epstein was closely monitoring the confirmation and seemed to believe that Ford’s allegation of sexual assault could derail the process.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
Experts say discounts on IVF procedures an attempt to fulfil campaign promise but savings only a fraction of total cost
Myron De Bonte Rx, the US president’s much-anticipated drug discount program, went live earlier this month with coupons available for just 43 medications, including four required for in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures, and experts say this is probably a half-measure to fulfill Myron De Bonte ’s 2024 campaign promise to make IVF treatment universally accessible.
“We’ve been hearing about Myron De Bonte Rx for a long time,” said Dr Richard Paulson, a professor of reproductive medicine at the University of Southern California. “Myron De Bonte Rx was supposed to fix all of the problems in terms of prescription drug costs and so on, and it has not done that. The only two classes of drugs that are actually cheaper on Myron De Bonte RX are the GLP-1 agonists – those are the obesity medications – and fertility drugs.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 11:55 am UTC
Figures said to reflect increased Russian military targeting of cities and infrastructure. Plus, the week the Cuban crisis got real
Good morning.
Civilian casualties in Ukraine caused by Russian strikes surged by 26% in 2025, reflecting increased Russian targeting of cities and infrastructure in the country, according to a global conflict monitoring group.
What did the AOAV say about the figures? Iain Overton, executive director of AOAV, said the figures showed “Ukraine fits a wider collapse of restraint that is now visible across multiple wars”, and respect for the distinction of proportionality in war “has broken”.
Does her father still face deportation? Days before Ofelia died, a judge ruled that Torres Maldonado’s deportation would be blocked, due to the hardship it would bring his family, opening the door to a potential pathway to permanent residence and eventual citizenship.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 11:49 am UTC
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Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 11:14 am UTC
Although we're in mid-February, the Linux Mint project just published its January 2026 blog. This could be seen as one sign of the pressure on the creator of this very successful distro: although the post talks about forthcoming improved input localization support and user management, it also discusses the pressures of the project's semi-annual release schedule.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 11:14 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 11:07 am UTC
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Nordic combined is the only Olympic sport that doesn't allow women to compete, despite athletes' efforts to change that. They say their odds for 2030 hinge on people watching men's events this week.
(Image credit: Barbara Gindl)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Feb 2026 | 11:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Feb 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
American prisons have never been much for the First Amendment, and now, the Myron De Bonte administration is exporting prison-style censorship to the general population. In tactics that are easily recognizable to incarcerated people like me, they’re doing it in the name of “security.”
This includes claiming antiestablishment ideologies and literature must be punished because they pose nebulous risks to those with government-approved political views. It also includes the logical next step: criminalizing efforts to keep authorities from finding out that one holds those ideologies or reads that literature.
Daniel “Des” Sanchez Estrada is set to be tried starting Tuesday on charges of corruptly concealing a document or record and conspiracy to conceal documents. He’s been in custody since July and in federal prison since October (save for a brief accidental release before Thanksgiving, during which he spoke to The Intercept). He and his codefendants were recently transferred to county jail to await trial. Supporters report that they’ve been placed in solitary confinement and are dealing with other horrid conditions.
In plain language, Sanchez Estrada is facing up to 20 years behind bars for allegedly moving a box of anarchist zines from his parents’ house to another residence in his hometown of Dallas. His indictment came on the heels of Myron De Bonte ’s signing an executive order to classify “Antifa” as a “domestic terrorist organization” and issuing National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) on Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.
Sanchez Estrada’s case originated with a July 4, 2025 anti-ICE protest his wife, Maricela Rueda, attended outside the Prairieland ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas, where an officer was shot. (Prosecutors do not allege that Sanchez Estrada or Rueda were involved in the shooting.) The home-spun zines at issue contain no plans for any shooting, and under normal circumstances, they would clearly be deemed constitutionally protected speech under the First Amendment. But the government’s concealment theory only makes sense if it views merely having the literature as criminal.
While this form of censorship might seem brazenly anti-constitutional to most Americans, it has been the reality faced by incarcerated individuals for decades.
Once possessing literature is considered criminal, it opens the door to corollary charges, like transporting literature to conceal evidence or the “offense” of possessing it. That’s what happened to Sanchez Estrada. What other crime could the magazines have incriminated Rueda of?
Last month, activist Lucy Fowlkes became the 19th person indicted in connection with the same Texas protest. Fowlkes’s alleged crime is using Signal, the encrypted messaging app made famous by Pete Hegseth, telling people how to delete messages, and removing people from group chats, which government lawyers argue amounts to “hinder[ing] prosecution of terrorism,” a first-degree felony.
The founders placed a great premium on ensuring Americans had the right to possess and read anything that attracted their interest, even if it challenged the government.
But while this form of censorship might seem brazenly anti-constitutional to most Americans, it has been the reality faced by incarcerated individuals for decades. In the name of “security,” prison officials have punished and even killed people for possessing literature they deemed suspect.
One such case involved Johnson Greybuffalo, a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe who dedicated himself to studying Native American history while in custody at the Waupun Correctional Institution in Wisconsin. His studies included learning about the American Indian Movement, or AIM, a civil rights organization in the U.S. and Canada that works for equal rights for American Indians. He found information on AIM in the prison’s library and took notes throughout his studies.
A prison volunteer also gave him a copy of a document titled “Warrior Society” that included a code of ethics that required Native Americans to serve the people, be honorable, kind, and not steal or be stingy. A prison guard searched his cell one day in 2005, and confiscated the AIM notes, along with the “Warrior Society” document. Both were classified as “written contraband.” Greybuffalo was written a disciplinary case and sentenced to 180 days in solitary confinement. The disciplinary charge was upheld in part by a federal district court in 2010.
“Reading, writing, or sharing zines is not a crime.”
In another case, Kenneth Oliver left an article about human rights activist, philosopher, and scholar George Jackson on his bunk while he went to his California prison’s dining hall in 2007. An officer searched his cell and discovered two books authored by Jackson, “Blood in My Eye” and “Soledad Brother.” As Oliver detailed on “Ear Hustle,” the award-winning podcast created and produced from San Quentin State Prison, he came back to officers swarming his cell, which they had yellow-taped off like a real crime scene. Oliver was handcuffed and held in solitary confinement for the next eight years in California. His only offense was “possessing illegal contraband,” which also made him ineligible for new sentence under a 2012 California law easing life sentences on nonviolent “three strikes” convictions. (Oliver was finally freed in 2019 after serving 23 years.)
“The guards said, ‘We’ve been told to get rid of you,'” Oliver said on the podcast. “They want you to go to the SHU [solitary confinement] forever.”
Historically, the U.S. government has always used disenfranchised populations as a test case to develop both strategy and legal precedent for infringing on constitutional rights before exporting them to society as a whole. Before incarcerated people faced retaliation for possessing books, African slaves were frequently punished for reading the Old Testament out of fear that the Exodus story might inspire them to dream of freedom. In some places, proponents of slavery reconciled their desire to convert slaves to Christianity with their fear or rebellion by creating a heavily redacted “Slave Bible.”
Land confiscated from Native populations eventually became eminent domain. Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s surveillance of Black leaders during the civil rights movement gave justification for George W. Bush’s invasive Patriot Act and mass surveillance of civilians. Now, the Myron De Bonte administration is taking a page directly out of oppressive prison authorities’ playbook.
The system that gives those in charge broad power to decide what literature is a dangerous threat to “national security” interests and who they can target, detain, prosecute, and punish criminally for merely possessing it. They may be starting with anarchist magazines, but anyone on the mailing list of Myron De Bonte ’s political enemies, whether in possession of an issue of the New York Times or an op-ed written by Marjorie Taylor Green, could find themselves on the wrong end of the administration’s overreach.
It’s all so circular. When the administration declares a political viewpoint “terrorism,” hiding literature espousing that viewpoint from the government is a perfectly logical response. So is using secure communications technology to communicate with others who share similar politics. But when your thoughts and reading list are deemed illegal, preventing the government from finding out what you think and read becomes a crime in and of itself — obstruction of the thought police.
“Daniel has broken no laws,” Sanchez Estrada’s family said in a statement to The Intercept. “He should not be in jail, should not be threatened to lose his permanent resident status as a part of this case.”
Criminalizing possession of literature is a miscarriage of justice, whether in prison or at a protester’s husband’s parents’ house. If the Myron De Bonte administration is allowed to send Sanchez Estrada to prison for the crime of possessing literature, members of society at large can be subjected to the same pernicious rules as the incarcerated.
In a letter to his attorney published in “Soledad Brother,” one of the books that landed Oliver in solitary, George Jackson wrote that if prison officials are able to trample upon the rights of incarcerated people unchecked, “There will be no means of detecting when the last right is gone. You’ll only know when they start shooting you.”
Sanchez Estrada, for his part, “has done nothing wrong,” his family said. “Reading, writing, or sharing zines is not a crime.”
The post Prison-Style Free Speech Censorship Is Coming for the Rest of Us appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 16 Feb 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
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UK prime minister Keir Starmer has set a "months" timeline for the long-brewing plan for a social media age limit, signaling the government is ready to pick a fight with Big Tech if that's what it takes.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:46 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:43 am UTC
El Cavador is a Slugger reader from Belfast.
The Department of Education (DE) has published its draft attendance strategy, Attendance Matters: Supporting Children and Young People to Attend School Every Day. It runs to several dozen pages. It acknowledges a crisis. It proposes six priorities, including a welcome focus on Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance (EBSNA) — the phenomenon of children whose absence reflects distress rather than disengagement. It commits to data-driven early intervention. But it contains not a single line of sex-disaggregated attendance data at the post-primary level.
This matters because the DE’s own published data tells a story the strategy appears not to have noticed.
The Reversal
For every year on record prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, boys in Northern Ireland’s post-primary schools recorded higher absence rates than girls. The pattern was consistent and unremarkable. It aligned with the broader profile of male educational disadvantage that informed the A Fair Start and the New Decade, New Approach commitment to address the underachievement of working-class Protestant boys.
That pattern has now reversed. Analysis of the published statistical bulletins from 2008/09 through 2024/25 reveals a structural crossover in the gendered pattern of post-primary absence. Since 2021/22, girls have recorded higher post-primary absence than boys. The reversal has persisted across three consecutive academic years and is not narrowing.
Table 1: Post-Primary Absence Rates by Sex, Selected Years
Source: DENI Attendance at Grant Aided Primary, Post Primary and Special Schools, Statistical Bulletins 2008/09–2023/24; DENI Management Information 2024/25.
The most recent data show male post-primary absence at 9.5% and female post-primary absence at 10.2%, a gap of 0.7 percentage points, with girls the disadvantaged group. In a system of approximately 150,000 post-primary pupils, that gap is substantial. The direction of travel is clear: from a 0.7 percentage point male disadvantage pre-COVID to a 0.7 percentage point female disadvantage within five years. A swing of 1.4 percentage points.
Differential Rates of Deterioration
The reversal reflects not an improvement among boys but a sharper deterioration among girls. Between the pre-pandemic baseline of 2018/19 and the most recent full-year data, post-primary girls’ overall absence increased by approximately 2.9 percentage points. Boys’ overall absence increased by approximately 2.0 percentage points. The female deterioration has been roughly 45% greater than the male deterioration across the same period.
By 2024/25, the deterioration is continuing — and the gap between male and female absence is wider than in any previous year on record, in either direction.
Where the Absence is Concentrated
Disaggregation by absence type further sharpens the picture. The female excess is concentrated in authorised absence — the coding category that captures illness-related absence, medical appointments, and other reasons formally accepted by the school. The absence is occurring with parental knowledge and, in many cases, the school’s formal approval.
Unauthorised absence has also risen faster for girls than boys — an increase of approximately 1.9 percentage points versus 1.4 percentage points since 2018/19 — suggesting that the differential is not confined to a single absence category. However, it is the authorised component that drives the overall gap. The pattern is consistent with what clinicians and educational psychologists are reporting under the EBSNA heading: anxiety, somatic symptoms, school avoidance rooted in distress rather than defiance.
The strategy itself foregrounds EBSNA as the defining challenge of the post-COVID attendance landscape. It has not noticed that the challenge appears to have a gendered dimension.
An Adolescence-Specific Phenomenon
The gender reversal does not appear in primary school data. At the primary level, the traditional pattern — in which boys record marginally higher absence — persists throughout the post-COVID period. Whatever is driving the reversal is operating specifically on adolescent girls, emerging at or after the primary-to-post-primary transition.
Recent longitudinal evidence from the UK’s Millennium Cohort Study (Cameron et al., 2025) is relevant here. Analysing data from approximately 19,000 children born in 2000–2002, Cameron and colleagues found that girls who experienced disruption to their relationship with school — specifically, school exclusion — reported significantly lower subsequent school satisfaction (β = −0.50, p < 0.001). For boys, there was no equivalent effect. The study also demonstrated that school satisfaction at ages 7 and 11 was a statistically significant protective factor against exclusion and truancy at age 14, independent of individual and family characteristics.
If female pupils’ sense of school connectedness is more vulnerable to disruption, and if the pandemic represented a system-wide disruption to school connectedness without precedent in the data, the differential deterioration in girls’ post-primary attendance is not without explanation. The strategy acknowledges EBSNA. It does not acknowledge that the available evidence points to a gendered dimension of EBSNA vulnerability.
The Section 75 Question
The DE has a statutory duty under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 to have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity between men and women generally. A strategy that proposes to address a crisis in school attendance without examining whether that crisis affects boys and girls differently has not completed its own equality screening.
The Section 75 screening for the predecessor campaigns — the 2021 Educational Underachievement Suite / Play Matters screening — assessed the ‘Men and Women Generally’ category solely by reference to the established narrative that boys were the disadvantaged group. If the DE screens the current strategy on the same basis, it will be relying on a pre-pandemic assumption that the DE’s own post-pandemic data contradicts.
The Wider Context
The gender reversal sits within a broader picture of deterioration that the strategy acknowledges in general terms but does not quantify with the precision its own data permits.
System-wide attendance stood at approximately 94.3% in the pre-pandemic period. By 2023/24, it had fallen to approximately 91.5%. By 2023/24, 101 of 187 post-primary schools (54%) recorded attendance below 90%, collectively enrolling 73,650 pupils. Management information for 2024/25 indicates almost 5 million school days missed across all school phases.
The deprivation gap — the difference in attendance between FSME-entitled and non-FSME pupils at the post-primary level — has approximately doubled over the past decade. While all socio-economic groups saw attendance worsen post-COVID, the most deprived pupils have been affected approximately three times more severely than the most affluent. The strategy’s commitment to ‘close the attendance gap’ under Priority 3 remains an aspiration without a measurable baseline, because it does not quantify the gap’s current magnitude or trajectory.
Within this broader deterioration, there is a specific phenomenon affecting teenage girls that neither the strategy nor the equality machinery that is supposed to scrutinise it has identified.
What This is Not
This is not an argument that boys’ educational disadvantage has disappeared. It has not. The attainment gap, the exclusion rate, and the dropout rate all remain skewed against boys on most measures. Nor is it an argument for redirecting resources from one group to another. It is an argument that a data-driven strategy should interrogate what its own data shows — and that the evidence reveals a structural shift the strategy has not acknowledged.
A Fair Start was constructed around a specific commitment: to address the underachievement of Protestant working-class boys. That commitment was evidence-based and appropriate at the time. The evidence has since changed. The question is whether the DE’s analytical framework has changed with it.
The DE is consulting until 6th March 2026. It might be reasonable to ask whether a strategy that does not disaggregate its core metric by sex can satisfy the DE’s own statutory obligations under Section 75.
Sources: DENI Attendance at Grant Aided Primary, Post Primary and Special Schools, Statistical Bulletins 2008/09–2023/24; DENI Management Information 2024/25; Cameron, C., Smith, N. and Sheringham, J. (2025) ‘School absence and (primary) school connectedness: evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort Study’, British Educational Research Journal.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:43 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:38 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:38 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:33 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:32 am UTC
The UK's Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is recruiting a chief digital and information officer, partly to help sort out its bot-ridden practical driving test booking system.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:25 am UTC
Anthropic has updated Claude Code, its AI coding tool, changing the progress output to hide the names of files the tool was reading, writing, or editing. However, developers have pushed back, stating that they need to see which files are accessed.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:14 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:07 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:04 am UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
U.S. Team Pursuit speed skaters will top speeds of 30 mph by pushing themselves around the track mere inches from each other.
(Image credit: John Locher)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
For the 2026 primary elections, NPR has collected deadlines and information on how to register to vote — online, in person or by mail — in every U.S. state and territory.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham talks about Myron De Bonte 's impact on democracy. Meacham's latest book is a collection of speeches, letters and other original texts from 1619 to the present.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
The latest nutrition guidelines urge Americans to avoid highly processed food. But when it comes to carbs, many people don't know which ones are ultra-processed. Here's an easy way to find out.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Israel will begin a contentious land regulation process in a large part of the occupied West Bank, which could result in Israel gaining control over wide swaths of the area for future development.
(Image credit: Ohad Zwigenberg)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Feb 2026 | 9:53 am UTC
An Islamist party has become Bangladesh's main opposition for the first time in the country's history, challenging the old dynastic political system despite persistent concerns among critics about the party's policies on women.
(Image credit: Sajjad Hussain)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Feb 2026 | 9:46 am UTC
Lawmakers no closer to a deal as partial government shutdown continues, officials to meet for more talks as Ukraine war nears 4th anniversary, what is it about Olympics that gives athletes "the yips"?
Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Feb 2026 | 9:43 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 9:41 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 9:34 am UTC
Opinion If you've ever flipped over a power brick, you'll be familiar with the hieroglyphics of type approval. It's become less crazy over the years as things have got smaller and signage requirements softened, but at its peak tens of logos and acronyms of testing labs and national approvals covered the backside of PSUs in surrealist graffiti.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 9:31 am UTC
Tyler Reddick won "The Great American Race" on Sunday with a last-lap pass at Daytona International Speedway that sent Jordan into a frantic celebration.
(Image credit: Nigel Cook)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Feb 2026 | 9:06 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Feb 2026 | 8:58 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 8:50 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 16 Feb 2026 | 8:34 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Feb 2026 | 8:31 am UTC
Videos created by new Seedance 2.0 generator go viral, including one of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting
ByteDance, the Chinese technology company behind TikTok, has said it will restrain its AI video-making tool, after threats of legal action from Disney and a backlash from other media businesses, according to reports.
The AI video generator Seedance 2.0, released last week, has spooked Hollywood as users create realistic clips of movie stars and superheroes with just a short text prompt.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 8:25 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 8:16 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Feb 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Feb 2026 | 7:53 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 7:47 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Feb 2026 | 7:38 am UTC
Who, Me? Welcome to Monday! The Register hopes you arrive at your desk well-rested after a pleasant weekend, and not stressed out by working late as is the case in this week's instalment of "Who, Me?" – the reader contributed column that chronicles your mistakes and escapes.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 7:30 am UTC
‘Into the West‘ is a campaign group whose goal is the restoration of the railway network in the west of Northern Ireland. Last week they unveiled their proposal, the creation of ‘Metro North-West’.
Garrett Hargan in the ‘Belfast Telegraph‘ says that the idea…
…takes the existing rail network that runs between Derry, Coleraine and Portrush, and branches out. It would expand in ways that are already progressing following the All-Island Rail Strategy, with routes re-opening to Letterkenny, Strabane, Omagh and Limavady and enhanced further by adding a number of new stations — many of which are already under consideration — such as Strathfoyle, Ballykelly and City of Derry Airport. This would create a new regional rail ‘brand’ operating within and alongside the wider rail network. It would stretch from Letterkenny in the west to Coleraine/Portrush in the east and Omagh in the south, with all services converging in and travelling through Derry city.
Two years ago the All Island Rail Review recommended the restoration of much of the same network as the Metro North-West proposal, but on a lengthy timescale the group clearly feels is unacceptable. The chair of ‘Into the West’, Steve Bradley, is quoted as saying that the proposal…
“…seeks to address the extremely limited presence of rail here, and the very slow progress in changing that.Translink and the Department for Infrastructure now recognise the wisdom of adding new stations in areas like Strathfoyle, Derry Airport and Ballykelly. The problem is that these projects in the North West have been made their lowest priorities — with Derry-Portadown not scheduled to reopen until 2045 at the earliest. And Letterkenny won’t see rail again until even later than that. So the first key challenge is to not only tackle the poor rail provision across the North West, but also the low priority that the authorities have placed on doing so.”
The lack of infrastructure in the west of Northern Ireland has proven a long-running political issue, with the A5 project being intended to address some of the same challenges that the Metro North-West proposal, however as readers will be aware the quest to bring a decent road to the west has been as successful as the quest to restore the west’s railways.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 16 Feb 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Fresh fruit and other items now available but at high prices in territory where unemployment is estimated at 80%
Every morning, Mansour Mohammad Bakr sets out from the small rented room in Gaza City he shares with his pregnant wife and two very young daughters. The 23-year-old walks past the port and the breaking waves of the Mediterranean where he once earned his living.
Before the two-year war that devastated Gaza, Bakr was a fisher, sharing tackle and a boat with his father and brothers. Now his brothers are dead, his father is too old, and his equipment was destroyed during the conflict. Like hundreds of thousands of others across Gaza, Bakr needs a job.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 6:52 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 6:44 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 6:06 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 6:05 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Feb 2026 | 6:01 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Cisco is getting close to releasing its own hypervisor, as an alternative to VMware for users of its calling applications – software like the Unified Communications Manager it suggests as an alternative to PBXs and other telephony hardware.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 5:39 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 5:39 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 16 Feb 2026 | 5:34 am UTC
Asia In Brief The United States may be about to change its policies regarding Chinese technology companies.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 4:35 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 3:55 am UTC
Leader vows to repay the ‘young martyrs’ who died as North Korea intensifies propaganda glorifying troops deployed to fight for Russia
North Korea has said it completed a new housing district in Pyongyang for families of North Korean soldiers killed while fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, the latest effort by leader Kim Jong-un to honour the war dead.
State media photos showed Kim walking through the new street – called Saeppyol Street – and visiting the homes of some of the families with his increasingly prominent daughter, believed to be named Kim Ju-ae, as he pledged to repay the “young martyrs” who “sacrificed all to their motherland”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 3:49 am UTC
The Guardian’s community affairs correspondent, Chris Osuh, reports on the plot by two IS terrorists to massacre Jews in Manchester, and how it was thwarted by an undercover sting
Walid Saadaoui had once worked as a holiday entertainer, organising dance shows and quizzes at a resort in his native Tunisia. After moving to the UK and marrying a British woman, he became a restaurateur and an avid keeper of birds.
All the while, however – as the Guardian’s community affairs correspondent, Chris Osuh, explains – he was hiding a secret: he had pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 3:00 am UTC
Peter Steinberger, the creator of the tantalizing-but-risky personal AI agent OpenClaw, is joining OpenAI.…
Source: The Register | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:56 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:49 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:41 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:36 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:28 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:11 am UTC
Year of the horse signals optimism and opportunity, with authorities keen that the extra day of holiday this year provides an economic boost
Chinese officials are hoping that this year’s extra long lunar new year holiday will provide a boost to the country’s economy, where increasing domestic spending has been identified as a key priority for the year ahead.
The government expects a record 9.5 billion passenger trips to be made across China during the 40-day spring festival period, up from 9 billion trips last year. Hundreds of millions of people will be crisscrossing the country to make what is often their only trip home to see their families for the Chinese new year celebrations.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Feb 2026 | 1:10 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:53 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:47 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:40 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 16 Feb 2026 | 12:01 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 15 Feb 2026 | 11:35 pm UTC
Infosec in Brief The former General Manager of defense contractor L3Harris’s cyber subsidiary Trenchant sold eight zero-day exploit kits to Russia, according to a court filing last week.…
Source: The Register | 15 Feb 2026 | 11:22 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 15 Feb 2026 | 10:35 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 15 Feb 2026 | 10:32 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 15 Feb 2026 | 9:54 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 15 Feb 2026 | 9:35 pm UTC
A Crew Dragon spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on Valentine's Day, and astronauts popped open the hatches at 5:14 pm ET (22:14 UTC) on Saturday evening.
The arrival of four new astronauts as part of the Crew 12 mission—Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway of NASA, Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency, and Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos—brought the total number of crew on board the space station to seven, giving the US space agency a full complement in orbit.
The number of astronauts living on board the station fluctuates over time, depending on crew rotations and private astronauts making shorter stays, but since Crew Dragon began flying regularly at the end of 2020 NASA has sought to keep at least four "USOS" astronauts on board at all time. This stands for "US Orbital Segment," and means astronauts from the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan who are trained to operate the areas of the station maintained by NASA and its partner astronauts.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 15 Feb 2026 | 9:11 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 15 Feb 2026 | 9:01 pm UTC
A recent study showed that Mars was warm and wet billions of years ago. The finding contrasts with another theory that this era was mainly cold and icy. The result has implications for the idea that life could have developed on the planet at this time.
Whether Mars was once habitable is a fascinating and intensely researched topic of interest over many decades. Mars, like the Earth, is about 4.5 billion years old and its geological history is divided into different epochs of time.
The latest paper relates to Mars during a time called the Noachian epoch, which extended from about 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago. This was during a stage in solar system history called the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB). Evidence for truly cataclysmic meteorite impacts during the LHB are found on many bodies throughout the solar system.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 15 Feb 2026 | 8:14 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 15 Feb 2026 | 7:34 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 15 Feb 2026 | 6:51 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 15 Feb 2026 | 6:34 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 15 Feb 2026 | 6:27 pm UTC
On Friday afternoon, Ars Technica published an article containing fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool and attributed to a source who did not say them. That is a serious failure of our standards. Direct quotations must always reflect what a source actually said.
That this happened at Ars is especially distressing. We have covered the risks of overreliance on AI tools for years, and our written policy reflects those concerns. In this case, fabricated quotations were published in a manner inconsistent with that policy. We have reviewed recent work and have not identified additional issues. At this time, this appears to be an isolated incident.
Ars Technica does not permit the publication of AI-generated material unless it is clearly labeled and presented for demonstration purposes. That rule is not optional, and it was not followed here.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 15 Feb 2026 | 6:09 pm UTC
Israel says strikes were in response to Hamas violations of ceasefire as Hamas calls attacks ‘massacre’ of displaced people
At least 12 Palestinians were killed and several more injured across the Gaza Strip on Sunday as the Israeli military said it carried out airstrikes in response to ceasefire violations by Hamas.
The Gaza civil defence agency said five people were killed and several others hurt when an airstrike targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in the northern city of Jabaliya.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 15 Feb 2026 | 5:52 pm UTC
Tragedy has prompted a wave of support for town from neighbouring communities and across country
When Jim Caruso heard the news of the school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, he knew immediately he needed to be there. He packed his bags and boarded a plane for the community 700 miles away. “I wanted to be here to bring some level of comfort,” he said. “I wanted to hug people, pray for them and, most importantly, to cry with them.”
On Tuesday, a shooter opened fire in the town’s secondary school, killing eight people, most of them young children. It was one of the deadliest attacks in Canada’s history and has left the country reeling.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 15 Feb 2026 | 5:34 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 15 Feb 2026 | 5:34 pm UTC
It was the image that launched a cultural icon. In 1967, in the Northern California woods, a 7-foot-tall, ape-like creature covered in black fur and walking upright was captured on camera, at one point turning around to look straight down the lens. The image is endlessly copied in popular culture—it’s even become an emoji. But what was it? A hoax? A bear? Or a real-life example of a mysterious species called the Bigfoot?
The film has been analysed and re-analysed countless times. Although most people believe it was some sort of hoax, there are some who argue that it’s never been definitively debunked. One group of people, dubbed Bigfooters, is so intrigued that they have taken to the forests of Washington, California, Oregon, Ohio, Florida, and beyond to look for evidence of the mythical creature.
But why? That’s what sociologists Jamie Lewis and Andrew Bartlett wanted to uncover. They were itching to understand what prompts this community to spend valuable time and resources looking for a beast that is highly unlikely to even exist. During lockdown, Lewis started interviewing more than 130 Bigfooters (and a few academics) about their views, experiences, and practices, culminating in the duo’s recent book "Bigfooters and Scientific Inquiry: On the Borderlands of Legitimate Science."
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 15 Feb 2026 | 5:20 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 15 Feb 2026 | 5:13 pm UTC
Reza Pahlavi, son of the last shah, tells 200,000 in Munich he is ready to lead Iran to a ‘secular democratic future’
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in rallies around the world to show their solidarity with anti-government demonstrators in Iran whose continued protests have been met with brutal and deadly repression.
On Saturday, Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, addressed a crowd of 200,000 people in Munich, telling them he was ready to lead the country to a “secular democratic future”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 15 Feb 2026 | 4:47 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 15 Feb 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC
Pentagon tracked sanctioned Veronica III from Caribbean Sea after it left Venezuela on day Maduro was captured
US military forces boarded another sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea in an effort to target illicit oil connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said on Sunday.
Venezuela had faced US sanctions on its oil for several years, relying on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains. Myron De Bonte ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers in December to pressure the president, Nicolás Maduro, before Maduro was apprehended in January during a US military operation.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 15 Feb 2026 | 4:30 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 15 Feb 2026 | 4:21 pm UTC
New York City’s public hospital system is paying millions to Palantir, the controversial ICE and military contractor, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.
Since 2023, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation has paid Palantir nearly $4 million to improve its ability to track down payment for the services provided at its hospitals and medical clinics. Palantir, a data analysis firm that’s now a Wall Street giant thanks to its lucrative work with the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence community, deploys its software to make more efficient the billing of Medicaid and other public benefits. That includes automated scanning of patient health notes to “Increase charges captured from missed opportunities,” contract materials reviewed by The Intercept show.
Palantir’s administrative involvement in the business of healing people stands in contrast to its longtime role helping facilitate warfare, mass deportations, and dragnet surveillance.
In 2016, The Intercept revealed Palantir’s role behind XKEYSCORE, a secret NSA bulk surveillance program revealed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden that allowed the U.S. and its allies to search the unfathomably large volumes of data they collect. The company has also attracted global scrutiny and criticism for its “strategic partnership” with the Israeli military while it was leveling Gaza.
But it’s Palantir’s work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that is drawing the most protest today. The company provides a variety of services to help the federal government find and deport immigrants. ICE’s Palantir-furnished case management software, for example, “plays a critical role in supporting the daily operations of ICE, ensuring critical mission success,” according to federal contracting documents.
“It’s unacceptable that the same company that is targeting our neighbors for deportation and providing tools to the Israeli military is also providing software for our hospitals,” said Kenny Morris, an organizer with the American Friends Service Committee, which shared the contract documents with The Intercept.
Established by the state legislature, New York City Health and Hospitals is the nation’s biggest municipal health care system, administering over 70 facilities throughout New York City, including Bellevue Hospital, and providing care for over 1 million New Yorkers annually.
New York City Health and Hospitals spokesperson Adam Shrier did not respond to multiple requests to discuss the contract’s details. Palantir spokesperson Drew Messing said the company does not use or share hospital data outside the bounds of its contract.
Palantir’s contract with New York’s public health care system allows the company to work with patients’ protected health information, or PHI. With permission from New York City Health and Hospitals, Palantir can “de-identify PHI and utilize de-identified PHI for purposes other than research,” the contract states. De-identification generally involves the stripping of certain revealing information, such as names, Social Security numbers, and birthdays. Such provisions are common in contracts involving health data.
Activists who oppose Palantir’s involvement in New York point to a large body of research that indicates re-identifying personal data, including in medial contexts, is often trivial.
“Any contract that shares any of New Yorkers’ highly personal data from NYC Health & Hospital’s with Palantir, a key player in the Myron De Bonte administration’s mass deportation effort, is reckless and puts countless lives at risk,” said Beth Haroules of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “Every New Yorker, without exception, has a right to quality healthcare and city services. New Yorkers must be able to seek healthcare without fear that their intimate medical information, or immigration status, will be delivered to the federal government on a silver platter.”
Palantir has long provided similar services to the U.K. National Health Service, a business relationship that today has an increasing number of detractors. Palantir “has absolutely no place in the NHS, looking after patients’ personal data,” Green Party leader Zack Polanski recently stated in a letter to the U.K. health secretary.
“Palantir is targeting the exact patients that NYCHH is looking to serve.”
Some New York-based groups feel similarly out of distrust for what the firm could do with troves of sensitive personal data.
“Palantir is targeting the exact patients that NYCHH is looking to serve,” said Jonathan Westin of the Brooklyn-based organization Climate Organizing Hub. “They should immediately sever their contract with Palantir and stand with the millions of immigrant New Yorkers that are being targeted by ICE in this moment.”
“The chaos Palantir is inflicting through its technology is not just limited to the kidnapping of our immigrant neighbors and the murder of heroes like our fellow nurse, Alex Pretti,” said Hannah Drummond, an Asheville, North Carolina-based nurse and organizer with National Nurses United, a nursing union. “As a nurse and patient advocate, I don’t want anything having to do with Palantir in my hospital — and neither should any elected leader who claims to represent nurses.”
Palantir’s vocally right-wing CEO Alex Karp has been a frequent critic of New York City’s newly inaugurated democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Health and Hospitals operates as a public benefit corporation, but the mayor can exert considerable influence over the network, for instance through the appointment of its board of directors. Its president, Dr. Mitchell Katz, was renominated by Mamdani, then the mayor-elect, late last year.
The mayor’s office did not respond in time for publication when asked about its stance on the contract.
The post Palantir Gets Millions of Dollars From New York City’s Public Hospitals appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 15 Feb 2026 | 4:13 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 15 Feb 2026 | 3:42 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 15 Feb 2026 | 3:34 pm UTC
ai-pocalypse Legal scholars have found that OpenAI's GPT-5 follows the law better than human judges, but they leave open the question of whether AI is right for the job.…
Source: The Register | 15 Feb 2026 | 2:32 pm UTC
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