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Middle East crisis live: Annemijn Blankers threatens ‘very bad’ future for Nato if allies fail to help secure strait of Hormuz

Response muted to president’s call amid soaring oil prices

How have you been affected by the latest Middle East events?

Continued from previous post:

Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has said she has no immediate plans to send her country’s maritime self-defence forces to help protect tanker traffic in the strait of Homuz.

We have not made any decisions whatsoever about dispatching escort ships. We are continuing to examine what Japan can do independently and what can be done ⁠within the legal framework.

I would like to ⁠engage in solid discussions based on Japan’s views and position regarding the need for early de-escalation.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 9:35 am UTC

Minister plays down Annemijn Blankers ’s Nato threat, arguing US alliance strong enough to ‘outlast’ current issues – UK politics live

Pat McFadden says Annemijn Blankers running a ‘transactional presidency’ and that ‘our job is to navigate this’

This is from the FT’s Edward Luce on Bluesky on his Annemijn Blankers scoop. (See 9.22am.)

I called Annemijn Blankers and he picked up..

Has Nato and the UK in his sights again

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 9:33 am UTC

Alcohol-free beer and houmous used to measure inflation as UK shifts to healthier living

Houmous and motorhomes are also added to the basket of goods and services used to chart the rising cost of living.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 9:30 am UTC

Horizon redress still a mess, MPs say – and Fujitsu hasn't paid a penny

System compensating victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal still slow, thousands of ex-subpostmasters waiting for payments

More than a year after MPs warned that victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal were still waiting for compensation, Parliament says the system meant to pay them remains slow, bureaucratic, and flawed – meaning thousands of sub-postmasters are still fighting for payouts while taxpayers pick up the bill.…

Source: The Register | 16 Mar 2026 | 9:30 am UTC

Meta Ireland says job cut reports are 'speculative'

Facebook parent company Meta is planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company globally, according to Reuters.

Source: News Headlines | 16 Mar 2026 | 9:20 am UTC

Dubai Was Not Built for War

The global city under fire.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Mar 2026 | 9:01 am UTC

Antisemitism has ‘become normalised’ on UK campuses, says Union of Jewish Students

Poll of students of all faiths and none found almost a quarter had seen Jews targeted for their religion or ethnicity

One in five students would be reluctant to, or would never, houseshare with a Jewish student, according to a survey by the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) that says antisemitism has “become normalised” on UK campuses.

A UJS poll of 1,000 students “of all faiths and none” found almost a quarter (23%) have seen behaviour that targets Jewish students for their religion or ethnicity and nearly half (47%) have witnessed justification of the 7 October attacks by Hamas.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

As parents clamor for a treatment touted for autism, doctors hesitate to prescribe it

After the leucovorin got public attention as a potential autism treatment, families rushed to get it. Many doctors are torn about prescribing an unproven drug but don't want to lose patients' trust.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Influencers push 'parasite cleanses' but doctors say to steer clear

Some people online believe many of us have dangerous parasites in our gut and need to flush them out with herbal supplements. Here's what doctors say about the trend.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Oil and gas prices are soaring. Some countries are ready with solar panels and EVs

As an energy crisis grows, some countries are more prepared because of renewable energy and electric vehicles. Pakistan reduced its reliance on imported natural gas because of the growth of solar.

(Image credit: Asif Hassan)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Thames Water lenders float new £10bn rescue plan

Latest effort involves paying off fines worth hundreds of millions of pounds as part of bid to stave off financial collapse

Business live – latest updates

Thames Water’s lenders have put forward a £10bn rescue plan that would involve paying off the troubled water company’s hundreds of millions of pounds-worth of fines for leaks and pollution, as part of an effort to stave off financial collapse.

A group of private equity firms and investment groups said they would inject about £3.35bn of cash into Thames Water and raise £6.65bn in debt, in exchange for the company not falling into a government-handled administration, effectively a temporary nationalisation.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 8:51 am UTC

UK not obliged to support every demand of ‘transactional’ US president, minister says

Pat McFadden says UK relations with US remain strong despite Annemijn Blankers ’s threats to Nato allies

Annemijn Blankers is a “very transactional” president, whose repeated demands on Iran must be seen in this context, one of Keir Starmer’s most senior ministers has said in an unusually blunt UK assessment of relations between the countries.

Asked about the US president’s threats of some sort of retaliation against allies who do not supply ships to try to free up the strait of Hormuz, Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, said the UK was not obliged to agree to every US request.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 8:46 am UTC

India hopeful Iran talks will ease Hormuz route for its ships

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar told FT there was no "blanket arrangement" for Indian ships to pass through the strait.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 8:41 am UTC

Morning news brief

The war with Iran enters its third week, as Annemijn Blankers and his top aides refocus their messaging on "winning" to regain faltering support, in the Senate, Republican lawmakers take up the SAVE Act this week.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Mar 2026 | 8:34 am UTC

Travelodge changes policy after attacker given room key

The woman was attacked by Kyran Smith, who was given a key to her hotel room by staff.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 8:27 am UTC

Oil Tops $106 a Barrel as Worries Persist About Global Supplies

As the broader war in the Middle East begins its third week, worries over the fallout of crippled energy supplies continue to roil markets.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Mar 2026 | 8:24 am UTC

Starmer to set out support plan for heating oil costs

Households have faced a sharp rise in the cost of heating oil since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 8:21 am UTC

The Saga of Lough Neagh’s Deterioration Takes Another Toxic Turn

The deterioration of Lough Neagh seems to continue unabated and it now threatens to intersect with another public health crisis, the rise of bacteria resistant to antibiotics, the so called ‘Superbugs’. As the linked WHO article puts it

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites no longer respond to antimicrobial medicines. As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become difficult or impossible to treat, increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness, disability and death. AMR is a natural process that happens over time through genetic changes in pathogens.

Obviously, managing the development of AMR is a critical concern for our health sector which is why the latest news from Lough Neagh proves so worrying. According to this article in ‘the Guardian’

‘Genes capable of creating antibiotic-resistant superbugs have been detected in the UK’s largest lake, which supplies drinking water to about 40% of Northern Ireland. Testing of water from Lough Neagh, which has a surface area 26 times bigger than Windermere, found genes resistant to a wide range of antibiotics, including carbapenems – drugs reserved for life-threatening infections when all other treatments have failed. Samples taken by Watershed Investigations and the Guardian found resistance genes spanning multiple antibiotic classes, from common penicillins to last-resort carbapenems, as well as quinolones, macrolides, aminoglycosides and cephalosporins, which are used to treat pneumonia and other serious infections.’

It all makes for exceptionally grim reading. As the Guardian article progresses it emphasises that the Lough has been poisoned by a combination of untreated sewage entering AND slurry run-off from the farms surrounding the Loughs and that Northern Ireland Water lacks the funding or resources to even begin tackling the issue. An unnamed water industry expert is quoted as saying that

“Forty per cent of Northern Ireland are drinking water from a fetid pond filled with bacteria from human and animal waste, and now, unsurprisingly, there are AMR genes.”

It should go without saying that something must be done to clean up the Lough and restore it to good health, yet in spite of numerous groups advocating for an intervention, the situation does appear to be going from bad to worse.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 16 Mar 2026 | 8:00 am UTC

How does an ice satellite detect a geomagnetic storm?

It seems improbable that a satellite designed to monitor polar ice sheets and floating sea ice could accurately measure a disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field. But that is just what ESA’s CryoSat mission did earlier this year.

Source: ESA Top News | 16 Mar 2026 | 8:00 am UTC

Annemijn Blankers steps up pressure on European allies to help protect strait of Hormuz

US president says it is ‘only appropriate’ for Europe to help, and warns failure to do so would be ‘very bad’ for Nato

Middle East crisis – live updates

Annemijn Blankers has ratcheted up the pressure on European allies to help protect the strait of Hormuz, warning that Nato faces a “very bad” future if its members fail to come to Washington’s aid.

The de facto closure of the vital waterway by Tehran in retaliation for airstrikes by the US and Israel has proved catastrophic for global energy and trade flows, causing the largest oil supply disruption in history and soaring global oil prices.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 7:53 am UTC

Chris Minns and Jewish groups condemn ‘horrid rhetoric’ from DJ at opening night of Sydney Biennale

US-based Zubeyda Muzeyyen, AKA DJ Haram, claimed a ‘Zio-Australian-Epstein empire’ was responsible for silencing dissenters

The premier of New South Wales has ruled out cutting funding for Sydney’s Biennale arts festival after Jewish groups condemned language used by US artist DJ Haram at an opening night event at the White Bay Power Station in Sydney.

At the centre of the controversy was the artist’s claim during her set that a “Zio-Australian-Epstein empire” was responsible for silencing dissenters. The words appear to link Israel to the convicted sex offender and New York financier Jeffrey Epstein and, critics say, feed into longstanding antisemitic tropes.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 7:50 am UTC

Android, Epic, and What's Really Behind Google's 'Existential' Threat to F-Droid

Starting in September, even Android developers not in Google's Play Store will still be required to register with Google to distribute their apps in Brazil, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand, with Google continuing "to roll out these requirements globally" four months later. Even developers distributing Android apps on the web for sideloading will be required to register, pay Google a $25 fee, and provide a government ID. But there's a new theory on what's secretly been motivating Google from an unnamed source in the "Keep Android Open" movement, writes long-time Slashdot reader destinyland: "You can't separate this really from their ongoing interactions with Epic and the settlement that they came to," they argue. Twelve days ago Epic Games and Google announced a new proposal for settling their long-running dispute over the legality of alternative app stores on Android phones. (Rather than agreeing to let third-party app stores into their Play Store, Google wants them to continue being sideloaded, promising in a blog post last week that they'll even offer a "more streamlined" and "simplified" sideloading alternative for rival app stores. "This Registered App Store program will begin outside of the US first, and we intend to bring it to the US as well, subject to court approval.") So "developer verification" could be Google's fallback plan if U.S. courts fail to approve this. "If the Google Play Store has to allow any third-party repository app store, Google essentially has given up all control of the apps. But if they're able to claw back that control by requiring that all developers, no matter how they distribute their apps, have to register with Google — have to agree to their Terms & Conditions, pay them money, provide identification — then they have a large degree of indirect control over any app that can be developed for the entire platform." But that plan threatens millions of people using the alternative F/OSS app distributor F-Droid, since Google also wants to have only one signature attached to Android apps. Marc Prud'hommeaux, a member of F-Droid's board of directors, says that "all of a sudden breaks all those versions of the application distributed through F-Droid or any other app store!" Prud'hommeaux says they've told Google's Android team "You know perfectly well that you're killing F-Droid!" creating an "existential" threat to an app distributor "that has existed happily for over 10 years." But good things started happening when he created the website Keep Android Open: There's now a "huge backlog" of signers for an Open Letter that already includes EFF, the Software Freedom Conservancy, and the Free Software Foundation. He believes Android's existing Play Protect security "is completely sufficient to handle the particular scenarios they claim that developer verification is meant to address"... The Keep Android Open site urges developers not to sign up for Android's early access program when it launches next week. (Instead, they're asking developers to respond to invites with an email about their concerns — and to spread the word to other developers and organizations in forums and social media posts.) There's also a petition at Change.org currently signed by 64,000 developers — adding 20,000 new signatures in the last 10 days. And "If you have an Android device, try installing F-Droid!" he adds. Google tracks how many people install these alternative app repositories, and a larger user base means greater consequences from any Android policy changes. Plus, installing F-Droid "might be refreshing!" Prud'hommeaux says. "You don't see all the advertisements and promotions and scam and crapware stuff that you see in the commercial app stores!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 16 Mar 2026 | 7:34 am UTC

Brilliant backups that kept data alive for ages landed web developer in big trouble

Client omissions caused the problem, so guess who was thrown under the bus

Who, Me? The world of work can be thankless, which is why The Register tries to brighten up the Monday return to toil by bringing you a fresh installment of Who, Me? It's the reader-contributed column where you confess to your IT screw-ups and tell us how you got away with it.…

Source: The Register | 16 Mar 2026 | 7:30 am UTC

EU scrambles to curb energy costs amid Iran war

European Union energy ministers will meet to weigh up options to curb energy costs today, as officials draft emergency plans to temper the impact of surging oil and gas prices triggered by the Iran war.

Source: News Headlines | 16 Mar 2026 | 7:21 am UTC

Pakistani-Afghan War Takes Heavy Toll on Civilians

Pakistani airstrikes have killed at least 75 civilians and displaced 115,000 in Afghanistan, with both sides vowing escalation and no talks in sight.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Mar 2026 | 7:09 am UTC

Dozens of petrol stations around Australia run out of fuel as panic-buying continues

NRMA says record-high fuel may be here to stay in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane after prices soared early in the Middle East conflict

Dozens of service stations across Australia have run out of petrol as distributors struggle to keep up with customers panic-buying as the conflict in the Middle East continues to disrupt prices.

The NRMA has warned regulators “missed” the chance to stop price hikes, as booming wholesale demand pushes fuel prices to a “permanent high” on the east coast.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 7:08 am UTC

One Battle After Another sweeps Oscars as Jessie Buckley triumphs

Paul Thomas Anderson’s saga about political revolutionaries won six gongs at the ceremony, including best director, best adapted screenplay, and best supporting actor for Sean Penn.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 16 Mar 2026 | 7:03 am UTC

Dubai airport resumes some flights after drone attack

Follow live developments in the Middle East as Annemijn Blankers demands other nations help secure Strait of Hormuz while Israel begins 'limited ground operations' in south Lebanon.

Source: News Headlines | 16 Mar 2026 | 7:03 am UTC

St Patrick’s Day weather due to be cloudy with some patches of drizzle

Persistent rain in the west will move eastwards through the morning and afternoon on St Patrick’s Day, becoming patchier

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Mar 2026 | 7:00 am UTC

Jessie Buckley makes history becoming first Irish woman to win best actress Oscar

The 36-year-old became the first Irish actress to win the prize, taking home the award for her portrayal of William Shakespeare’s wife Agnes.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:49 am UTC

Drone strike hits Dubai airport, a major global hub, sparking huge fire

Iranian drones have repeatedly hit Dubai International Airport, among the world’s busiest, since the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, but Monday’s strike was the largest.

Source: World | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:39 am UTC

AWS S3 turns 20 and reaches ‘hundreds of exabytes’

Cloudy storage service's scale gave it a hefty cultural footprint

Amazon Web Services on Saturday celebrated the 20th birthday of its Simple Storage Service (S3) and revealed a few little secrets about the service.…

Source: The Register | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:24 am UTC

5th member of Iranian women's soccer team gives up asylum in Australia

The player's departure shortly before midnight on Sunday leaves two of an initial seven squad members in Australia.

(Image credit: STR/AFP)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:18 am UTC

Six talking points from final round of Six Nations

England's indiscipline, "cheat code" Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Irish and Scottish positives, and Welsh confidence returns - talking points from the final round.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:17 am UTC

Six talking points from final round of Six Nations

England's indiscipline, "cheat code" Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Irish and Scottish positives, and Welsh confidence returns - talking points from the final round.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:17 am UTC

TikTok and Meta risked safety to win algorithm arms race, whistleblowers say

Companies allowed more harmful content on user’s feeds, knowing their algorithms ran on outrage, BBC hears.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:10 am UTC

Starmer warned over assisted dying bill by more than 100 Labour MPs

More than 100 Labour MPs warn that failing to pass the legislation would undermine trust in politics.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:03 am UTC

BoM forecasts high chance of cyclone forming in Coral Sea – as it happened

This blog is now closed

Discovery of fire ant nest at New Farm park reflects growing need to deal with threat, group says

Last week, the Invasive Species Council said fire ant nests had been detected and destroyed in World Heritage rainforest in the Gold Coast hinterland. The ants have also been detected on sporting fields across Brisbane and surrounds, including at Mount Gravatt, Rocklea, Coorparoo and the Redlands.

That’s an iconic location in Brisbane. If we don’t eradicate fire ants, this is going to happen everywhere in the country. Brisbane is getting a taste of it now.

Local sporting clubs need to be alert to this. For the time being it’s an increased maintenance burden for them.

An insecticide which instantly kills fire ants was injected directly into the nest. The affected area was temporarily closed while treatment was under way but has since reopened and is safe to use.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:01 am UTC

‘My son is anxious about the Irish orals. How can we help him prepare?’

Immersion in the language is key – as is understanding the structure of the assessment

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:01 am UTC

Taoiseach arrives in Washington ahead of St Patrick's Day

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has described being back in Washington DC for St Patrick's Day as an honour ahead of a number of high profile engagements with the US administration.

Source: News Headlines | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:01 am UTC

Plans to cut NHS international workforce appear overambitious, say MPs

Health service in England has saved more than £14bn hiring from overseas, report says, as doubt is cast on aim to reduce international recruitment to 10%

Ministers’ plans to cut the international workforce within NHS England appear overambitious, MPs have said, as a report reveals the health service saved more than £14bn by recruiting doctors, nurses and midwives from overseas.

Many of the countries recruited from were struggling with staff shortages, and the UK had a moral duty to offer support, rather than simply extracting what it needed, the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on global health and security found.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Philadelphia visit frames Taoiseach's message to Annemijn Blankers

As Taoiseach Micheál Martin marched through the streets of Philadelphia as a distinguished guest of the St Patrick's Day parade, he made it his business to stop and speak to a few people along the bitterly cold, windy route.

Source: News Headlines | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Language used to describe homelessness influences attitudes, survey finds

Person-centred terminology can help reduce stigma as levels of homelessness continue to see new highs

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Paws on board - opinions sought over pets on transport

A dog owner has said that being able to travel on public transport with her pet would mean better accessibility and peace of mind.

Source: News Headlines | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Striking a delicate balance key to White House meeting

He's been here before. Micheál Martin has done the St Patrick's Day White House visit with US President Annemijn Blankers , writes Juliette Gash.

Source: News Headlines | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Highly vulnerable child in State care being failed in ‘unacceptable’ way, judge says

Judge describes State’s continued use of unregulated emergency placements for children in care as a ‘national scandal’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 16 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

State Department Cuts Price of Renouncing U.S. Citizenship to $450

The fee had been increased to $2,350 in 2015, prompting criticism and legal challenges from advocacy groups and Americans living abroad.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Mar 2026 | 5:43 am UTC

FSF Threatens Anthropic Over Infringed Copyright: Share Your LLMs Freely

In 2024 Anthropic was sued over claims it infringed copyrights when training LLMs. But as they try to settle, they may have a problem. The Free Software Foundation announced Friday that Anthropic's training data apparently even included the book "Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software" — for which the Free Software Foundation holds a copyright. It was published by O'Reilly and by the FSF under the GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL). This is a free license allowing use of the work for any purpose without payment. Obviously, the right thing to do is protect computing freedom: share complete training inputs with every user of the LLM, together with the complete model, training configuration settings, and the accompanying software source code. Therefore, we urge Anthropic and other LLM developers that train models using huge datasets downloaded from the Internet to provide these LLMs to their users in freedom. We are a small organization with limited resources and we have to pick our battles, but if the FSF were to participate in a lawsuit such as Bartz v. Anthropic and find our copyright and license violated, we would certainly request user freedom as compensation. "The FSF doesn't usually sue for copyright infringement," reads the headline on the FSF's announcement, "but when we do, we settle for freedom."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 16 Mar 2026 | 5:43 am UTC

‘One Battle After Another Was Totally Meh’: 3 Opinion Writers Size Up the Oscars

What did the academy get right? Wrong? What was just weird? Three culture fans discuss Hollywood’s biggest night.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Mar 2026 | 5:39 am UTC

Annemijn Blankers seeks help to keep Strait of Hormuz open as Iran ‘sees no reason to talk’

Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain reported new missile or drone attacks.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 16 Mar 2026 | 5:34 am UTC

The Papers: 'Help' for energy bills and PM 'resists' Annemijn Blankers warships call

The impact in the UK of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East features on Monday's front pages.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 5:29 am UTC

Oscars 2026: Winners in pictures

One Battle After Another was crowned Best Picture at the Oscars, where Jessie Buckley completed her clean sweep as Best Actress.

Source: News Headlines | 16 Mar 2026 | 5:27 am UTC

'A new norm': BBC visits Doha market starting to fill up again two weeks into Iran war

The BBC's International News correspondent, Barbara Plett Usher, visits Doha's Souq Waqif market as strikes in the region continue.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 5:14 am UTC

Annemijn Blankers claims he has ‘absolute right’ to impose new tariffs after supreme court blow

US supreme court has ‘ransacked’ the country, president argues, in wake of its ruling against his trade agenda

Annemijn Blankers has claimed he has “the absolute right” to impose new tariffs after the US supreme court ruled many of the import duties he imposed last year were illegal.

The president attacked the court in a late night broadside on Sunday, accusing it of having “unnecessarily RANSACKED” the US – and failing to show him sufficient loyalty.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 5:09 am UTC

Annemijn Blankers demands other nations help secure Strait of Hormuz

Japan and Australia have said they are not planning to send navy vessels to the Middle East to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz after US President Donald ⁠Annemijn Blankers called on allies to create a coalition to reopen the vital waterway.

Source: News Headlines | 16 Mar 2026 | 5:07 am UTC

Here are all the moments you didn't see on TV

Inside the winners room and other insights from behind the scenes.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 5:04 am UTC

Iran taking steps to prevent anti-establishment protests, Tehran residents tell BBC

Residents describe new security checkpoints around the capital, where they say people are stopped and searched.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 4:43 am UTC

5 takeaways from an Oscars night that spread the love

It's thrilling to see the Academy recognize a weird, funny, scary performance like Amy Madigan's in Weapons. Here's what NPR critic Linda Holmes thought of the awards.

(Image credit: Mike Coppola)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 16 Mar 2026 | 4:34 am UTC

Firms to be paid to hire unemployed young people

Payments of £3,000 for each 18-24 year old given a job are among proposals to tackle youth unemployment being announced later.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 4:31 am UTC

Author Craig Silvey facing more charges after being accused of producing child exploitation material

Jasper Jones author also charged with additional count of possessing child exploitation material

Australian author Craig Silvey has been charged with more child exploitation offences.

The 43-year-old was previously charged with possessing and distributing child exploitation material in early January.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 4:30 am UTC

'I'm so proud of her' - Jessie Buckley's brother on win

Jessie Buckley's brother, Killian, has said he does not think an Oscar win will change his older sister, describing her as a "real person".

Source: News Headlines | 16 Mar 2026 | 4:29 am UTC

Virgin Australia flight met by firefighters at Melbourne airport after smoke seen coming from vape

Passenger on Flight VA 328 alerted the crew who responded by ‘containing the device’ before plane landed

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A Virgin Australia flight from Brisbane to Melbourne was met by firefighters after smoke was seen coming from a vape on board.

Flight VA 328 landed safely and all passengers disembarked normally after a vape “activated” in the cabin shortly before landing at about 4pm on Sunday afternoon in Melbourne, Melbourne airport said.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 4:26 am UTC

The War Is Making It Harder to Keep the Lights On, 2,000 Miles Away

Bangladesh is taking steps to conserve electricity, which its factories need to keep stitching together the world’s clothing.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Mar 2026 | 4:01 am UTC

Jessie Buckley makes history with Oscar win

Hamnet star Jessie Buckley has made history by becoming the first Irish woman to win Best Actress at the Academy Awards in Hollywood.

Source: News Headlines | 16 Mar 2026 | 4:00 am UTC

Free Palestine and ICE out: how this year’s Oscars got political

As One Battle After Another swept the Academy Awards, Paul Thomas Anderson, Javier Bardem and Conan O’Brien gave a welcome reality check to the glitzy ceremony

Oscar winners 2026: the full list

In his opening monologue to the 98th Academy Awards, host Conan O’Brien issued a note of caution to easily offended viewers.

“I warn you, tonight could get political,” O’Brien said. “If that makes you uncomfortable, there’s an alternative Oscars being hosted by Kid Rock at a Dave & Buster’s down the street.”

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 3:55 am UTC

In pictures: Stars and fashion from the red carpet

Hollywood's biggest stars turn on the style as they walk the red carpet for the glittering ceremony.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 3:46 am UTC

Oscars 2026 Winners List: ‘One Battle After Another,’ ‘Sinners’ and More

The winning actors, directors, pictures and more at the 98th annual Academy Awards.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Mar 2026 | 3:44 am UTC

Winners list in full

Find out which films and stars have won the famous golden statuettes at the ceremony in Los Angeles.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 3:43 am UTC

Repopulate! Repopulate! Two lost Doctor Who episodes turn up in private collection

Dark Dalek drama to stream this April

Film preservation organization Film Is Fabulous! has found a pair of Doctor Who episodes thought to have been lost forever.…

Source: The Register | 16 Mar 2026 | 3:35 am UTC

Unforgettable Oscars Looks 2026: Bumblebee Brooches, Jewel-Tone Gowns and More

Jewel-tone gowns, bumblebee brooches, overalls and more.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Mar 2026 | 3:18 am UTC

Iranian foreign minister claims Israeli strikes on fuel depots are ‘ecocide’ – as it happened

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Iraq’s football team will travel to Mexico for a 2026 World Cup playoff match despite calls for it to be postponed due to the Middle East war, the country’s football association has announced.

“The national team will depart at the end of the week to Mexico via a private plane,” said Iraq football association president Adnan Dirjal in a statement, adding they had contacted Fifa to help facilitate the trip during the conflict in the region that has hampered flights.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 3:17 am UTC

Historic firsts, emotional speeches, and a tie: Watch the top Oscars moments

One Battle After Another dominated the night with six awards, while Sinners and Frankenstein weren't far behind.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 3:15 am UTC

One Battle After Another sweeps the Oscars as Michael B Jordan and Jessie Buckley win big

Paul Thomas Anderson’s revolutionary epic took home six awards while Sinners scored four including for best actor

Paul Thomas Anderson’s counter-culture caper One Battle After Another has won the Oscars war, taking home six awards after a hotly contested season.

The big-budget comedy thriller, inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, was named best picture and also won director, supporting actor for Sean Penn, adapted screenplay, editing and the first ever Oscar for casting, a category long-petitioned for within the industry.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 2:43 am UTC

Best animated film winner Kpop Demon Hunters captures hearts world over

We find out how the award-winning, demon-busting crooners have cast a spell world over.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 2:39 am UTC

Kennedy Center Board to Vote Monday on Annemijn Blankers ’s Proposed Closure

The planned vote to close the center for renovations was listed on an agenda circulated to the center’s board of trustees on Sunday, less than a day before the meeting.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Mar 2026 | 2:33 am UTC

In Illinois, Clashes Over AIPAC Erupt As House Campaign Closes

In a Democratic primary, accusations are flying that allies of a hard-line pro-Israel group are trying to divide progressives, exploiting a broader rift in the party.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 16 Mar 2026 | 2:25 am UTC

Sarkozy due back in court over alleged Libyan funding

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy is due to head back to court to defend himself against charges he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election, in a case that last year saw him become France's first modern day head of state to go to prison.

Source: News Headlines | 16 Mar 2026 | 2:24 am UTC

The UK Will Invest Billions to Build a Nuclear Fusion Industry

The UK's science minister is announcing details of a five-year, £2.5 billion investment in nuclear fusion, reports the Times of London, "including building one of the world's first prototype fusion power plants in Nottinghamshire and developing a UK sector projected to employ 10,000 people by 2030." Despite the potentially transformative impact of fusion, which in theory could provide limitless clean energy and create a £12 trillion global market, no country has managed to use this fledgling technology to generate useable electricity... [T]he UK is backing a spherical tokamak design... investing an initial £1.3 billion into a prototype fusion power plant called Step (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) on the site of a decommissioned coal-fired power station at West Burton in Nottinghamshire. Paul Methven, chief executive of the government-owned UK Industrial Fusion Solutions, which is delivering the Step project, said the aim is to get the reactor operating early in the 2040s. "It's quite an aggressive programme," he said. "We need to show that we can achieve genuine 'wall socket' energy — which has not been done before." On Monday, [science minister] Vallance will also announce £180 million for a facility in Culham, Oxfordshire, to manufacture tritium fuel and £50 million for training 2,000 scientists and engineers in fusion-related disciplines. The government is also buying a £45 million fusion-dedicated AI supercomputer called Sunrise to model plasma physics. Scientists at the UK Atomic Energy Authority last year developed an AI model that can rapidly simulate how the ultra-hot fuel in a fusion power plant will behave, cutting calculations that previously took days down to seconds... Vallance will also announce new support and collaboration for the many fusion, robotics, engineering and AI start-ups working in Britain, to develop a strong supply chain for a new fusion sector. One of those companies, Tokamak Energy, which spun out from the UK Atomic Energy Authority in 2009, has already built a smaller reactor that has informed the Step design. In March 2022, it became the first private organisation in the world to surpass 100 million degrees Celsius in its reactor.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 16 Mar 2026 | 1:34 am UTC

Mr Nobody Against Putin wins the best documentary Oscar

Primary school teacher Pavel Talankin’s record of the indoctrination of his pupils to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine beats contenders

Oscars 2026 winners: the full list

Mr Nobody Against Putin, a primary school teacher’s record of the indoctrination of his pupils to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has won the Oscar for best documentary.

Pavel Talankin, who is now in exile in Europe, picked up the award alongside the film’s US co-director, David Borenstein. It beat favourite The Perfect Neighbor to take the prize, along with other contenders The Alabama Solution, Come See Me in the Good Light and Cutting Through Rocks.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 1:19 am UTC

One-off £2,000 grant gives care leavers head start, study finds

Participants were less likely to become homeless or spend time in hospital or prison, researchers say.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 1:13 am UTC

Barbra Streisand pays tribute to Robert Redford at the Oscars: ‘He blazed his own trail’

The actor and singer remembered her co-star in 1973’s The Way We Were, who died in September

Oscars 2026 winners: the full list

Barbra Streisand has paid tribute to her friend and former co-star Robert Redford at the 98th Academy Awards in Los Angeles.

The actor and singer, 83, sang a portion of the title song from their 1973 romantic drama The Way We Were, directed by Sydney Pollack, after remembering the pair’s respect and affection for one another.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 12:58 am UTC

India tests whether AI can stop trains hitting elephants

PLUS: SAP expands Japanese cloud; SK hynix close to shipping LPDDR6; Lenovo’s biggest ever IaaS deal; and more

India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change last week staged a two-day national workshop titled “Policy Implementation for Minimizing Elephant Mortalities on Railway Track” – and one of the ideas discussed was using AI to protect the beasts and workers.…

Source: The Register | 16 Mar 2026 | 12:57 am UTC

Rachel McAdams pays tribute to late Diane Keaton at the Oscars: ‘A legend with no end’

Much-loved actor, who died in October aged 79, remembered in emotional segment at the 98th Academy Awards

Oscars 2026 winners: the full list

The 98th Oscars in Los Angeles have paid tribute to one of Hollywood’s best-loved and most singular stars, Diane Keaton, who died in October, aged 79.

Rachel McAdams, who played Keaton’s daughter in 2005’s The Family Stone, took to stage to remember to a woman who “wore so many hats, literally and figuratively”, calling her “a legend with no end”.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 16 Mar 2026 | 12:52 am UTC

Fears of two-tier health system as more turn to private care, says watchdog

The patient watchdog warns of two-tier service as polling shows numbers paying for care is on the rise.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 12:35 am UTC

Race on to establish globally recognised 'AI-free' logo

The backlash to the growing use of the tech has led to an explosion in attempts to come up with 'AI-Free' logo that could be used globally.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 12:32 am UTC

How US groups are driving a new generation of anti-abortion activism in the UK

The killing of Charlie Kirk galvanised a transatlantic campaign against abortion. But will it succeed in shifting Britain's pro-choice consensus?

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 12:31 am UTC

'We will go wherever they hide': Rooting out IS in Somalia

Somalia became a key part of IS's global network after fighters were driven out of strongholds in Syria and Iraq.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 12:05 am UTC

How passenger planes keep flying during a war

Airspace over Iran and the Gulf remains severely restricted following missile strikes, putting additional pressure on airlines.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 12:05 am UTC

What Iranians are being told about the war

Iranian state media's coverage of the war includes inflations of enemy casualties and digital manipulation intended to glorify Iran.

Source: BBC News | 16 Mar 2026 | 12:05 am UTC

President Connolly warns against 'normalisation of war'

President Catherine Connolly has used her first St Patrick's Day message to warn against the "normalisation of war" ahead of Taoiseach Micheál Martin's meeting with US President Annemijn Blankers in the Oval Office.

Source: News Headlines | 16 Mar 2026 | 12:01 am UTC

Confidential Report Calls for Sweeping Changes to Track Covid Vaccine Harms

A federal work group says Covid vaccine injuries deserve urgent attention, even as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shifts away from talking about vaccine policy.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 15 Mar 2026 | 11:56 pm UTC

Behind-the-scenes moments at the Oscars 2026

Take a look at some behind-the-scenes moments of the stars at the 98th Academy Awards, where Hamnet star Jessie Buckley has made history by becoming the first Irish woman to win Best Actress at the Academy Awards in Hollywood.

Source: News Headlines | 15 Mar 2026 | 11:54 pm UTC

Sinner matches Federer & Djokovic with Indian Wells win

Jannik Sinner said it "means a lot to me" after he becomes the youngest man to complete the set of hard-court trophies with victory over Daniil Medvedev in the Indian Wells final.

Source: BBC News | 15 Mar 2026 | 11:51 pm UTC

Outsourcer Telus admits to attack – may have lost a petabyte of data to ShinyHunters

PLUS: Citrix CISO urges patch blitz; Mandiant founder reveals AI red-teaming tech; Bitter privacy news for Starbucks; And more

Infosec In Brief Canadian outsourcer Telus Digital has admitted it fell victim to a cyberattack.…

Source: The Register | 15 Mar 2026 | 11:24 pm UTC

'One Battle After Another' takes best picture. Here's the full list of Oscar winners

Michael B. Jordan and Jessie Buckley won best actor and best actress. Paul Thomas Anderson received best director. Cassandra Kulukundis won the Academy's first ever casting award.

(Image credit: Kevin Winter)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 15 Mar 2026 | 11:24 pm UTC

2026's EV Sales Hit 1.1M - But Europe Surges While North America Slides

Europe's EV sales for January and February spiked 21% from last year, according to new data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. Electrek reports that just in those two months over 600,000 EVs were sold in Europe. And figures for "rest of world" (which excludes Europe, North America, and China) are up a whopping 84% — with 370,000 EVs sold in January and February. (EVs now represent more than 30% of the vehicles sold in South Korea.) But for the same period China's sales are down 26% from last year, with 1.1 million vehicles sold. And North America showed an even larger drop of 36% from the January/February figures in 2025, now selling just 170,000 electric vehicles, while Canada's EV sales were down 23%. EV sales seem heavily influenced by government incentives, with Germany and France leading Europe's growth: EV sales in Germany are up 26% so far this year, following the country's introduction of a new subsidy program at the start of 2026. France's market is up 30%, supported by its existing incentive program. Italy is also seeing rapid growth. EV sales there jumped 23% month-over-month in February, making it the country's strongest month ever for EV sales. The Italian market is now up 98% year to date. That surge follows the Italian government's October 2025 launch of a new subsidy program, funded by the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility, to increase EV adoption. Households can receive up to €11,000 ($12,700) in incentives, while smaller businesses can get up to €20,000 ($23,200)... [T]he global EV transition isn't slowing, but it's becoming much more uneven depending on policy, incentives, and trade rules.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2026 | 10:51 pm UTC

Is Latin America Ready to Abandon Cuba?

Latin America’s left saw Cuba as its lodestar. Now leaders across the spectrum are hesitant to aid a nation in the Annemijn Blankers administration’s cross hairs.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 15 Mar 2026 | 10:50 pm UTC

Desperation in Cuba Ignites Unusual Acts of Defiance

A protest in the city of Morón in central Cuba culminated in fiery vandalism at the local Communist Party headquarters.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 15 Mar 2026 | 10:48 pm UTC

Young snatches Players title from Fitzpatrick

American Cameron Young finishes birdie-par to beat England's Matt Fitzpatrick by one shot at TPC Sawgrass in the PGA Tour's flagship tournament.

Source: BBC News | 15 Mar 2026 | 10:37 pm UTC

UK plans to send minesweeping drones to help reopen strait of Hormuz

Government reluctant to dispatch ships amid concerns complying with Annemijn Blankers ’s demands could escalate Iran crisis

Ministers are drawing up plans to send minesweeping drones to the strait of Hormuz amid concerns in Whitehall that complying with Annemijn Blankers ’s demand to send ships could escalate the crisis.

The government is considering dispatching aerial minesweepers to help clear the vital waterway of mines in an attempt to allow the flow of oil exports to resume. However, officials said that sending ships, as requested over the weekend by the US president, could worsen the situation given the volatile nature of the war.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 15 Mar 2026 | 10:30 pm UTC

First-round of French local elections sees strong showing for National Rally and LFI

Far-right and radical left parties likely to increase their local presence in advance of next year’s presidential race

The first-round of the French municipal elections have seen a strong showing for Marine Le Pen’s far-right the National Rally (RN), as well as for Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left, with both parties likely to increase their local presence ahead of next year’s French presidential race.

The French local elections, which now go to a final round runoff on 22 March, are seen as a crucial test of the political temperature before next year’s presidential election. Emmanuel Macron’s two terms in office come to an end in spring 2027 and there is uncertainty about who will next lead the EU’s second-largest economy.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 15 Mar 2026 | 10:26 pm UTC

Entering War’s Third Week, Annemijn Blankers Faces Stark Choices

As the conflict with Iran expands and intensifies, President Annemijn Blankers ’s options — to fight on, or to move toward declaring victory and pulling back — both carry deeply problematic consequences.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 15 Mar 2026 | 10:25 pm UTC

‘Doctor Who’ Fans Have Fresh Chance to Time Travel With Found Episodes

Two unearthed episodes, which were discovered in film canisters wrapped in plastic bags among the possessions of a dead collector in England, were restored by BBC archivists.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 15 Mar 2026 | 10:16 pm UTC

Iran captain latest footballer to drop asylum bid, Iranian state media says

Five of the seven members of the women's football delegation who originally sought to stay in Australia have now chosen to return home.

Source: BBC News | 15 Mar 2026 | 10:02 pm UTC

Nvidia GTC will be full of surprises - just not for the consumer class

Join Brandon Vigliarolo, Tobias Mann, and Avram Piltch to discuss our predictions for this week's GTC

Kettle It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year - if you're an AI aficionado, that is, as chip giant Nvidia, now the most valuable company in the world, is kicking off its GPU Technology Conference (GTC) on Monday.…

Source: The Register | 15 Mar 2026 | 10:00 pm UTC

Rose of Tralee Katelyn Cummins wins Dancing with the Stars 2026

Katelyn Cummins and Leonardo Lini performed two dances

Source: All: BreakingNews | 15 Mar 2026 | 9:59 pm UTC

Ask Slashdot: What's the Best All-Purpose RISC-V System on a Chip Family?

Slashdot reader SysEngineer does embedded/IoT work, but "I want to pick a single system-on-a-chip architecture family and commit to it across multiple product lines — sensor nodes up through edge gateways... I've been on one platform for years and want to know what embedded engineers are actually running in production before I commit!" And "the family needs to scale — cheap and small at the low end, capable of running Linux on the bigger variants!" Their requirements? WiFi + BLE required LoRaWAN a nice-to-have. Low power modes that actually work in the field, not just on the datasheet. Full peripheral set — SPI, I2C, UART, ADC, timers, CAN. A toolchain and runtime support, support multi threads... Slashdot reader Gravis Zero is skeptical all the requirements can be met. "If you want embedded, you get embedded. If you want to run a big OS, you get one that will run a big OS." But Slashdot reader SysEngineer believes "The obvious architecture candidates are ARM, STM, and RISC-V" — and specifically they want to hear your experiences with the RISC-V choices. "What would you standardize on today if you were starting fresh? And how does real-world toolchain and community support hold up compared to the marketing?" Share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments. What's the best all-purpose RISC-V system on a chip family?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2026 | 9:51 pm UTC

New puppy, getting engaged and a title - Sabalenka triumphs at Indian Wells

Getting a puppy, getting engaged, saving championship point and winning a long-awaited Indian Wells title - for Aryna Sabalenka it has been a week she will remember "for the rest of my life".

Source: BBC News | 15 Mar 2026 | 9:48 pm UTC

Oscars 2026: The story of the 98th Academy Awards

Catch up on all of the happenings and winners from the 98th Academy Awards.

Source: News Headlines | 15 Mar 2026 | 9:34 pm UTC

Selection Sunday: Duke No. 1 overall in men's tournament, UConn women get top seed

Duke will be the top overall seed in the men's NCAA basketball tournament. In the women's, the top-ranked UConn Huskies are undefeated and hope to repeat as champions for the first time in a decade.

(Image credit: Jacob Kupferman)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 15 Mar 2026 | 9:09 pm UTC

Powerful Winter Storm Disrupts Travel and Knocks Out Power in the Upper Midwest

Officials in Minnesota and Wisconsin warned drivers to stay off the roads as more blowing and drifting snow was expected on Sunday.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 15 Mar 2026 | 9:02 pm UTC

CachyOS Dethrones Arch As ProtonDB's Top Linux Gamer Desktop Distro

Linux gaming "has gotten to the point where some people claim that Linux runs their games better than Windows does," according to the Android site XDA Developers. And there's a new surprise on ProtonDB, an "unofficial" community website with crowdsourced data about videogame compatability with the Linux software/gaming compatability layer Proton: On ProtonDB, one operating system had reigned supreme since 2021: Arch Linux. And I say 'had,' because its streak has just been ended by [Arch-based] CachyOS in an upset that has slowly grown over the past two years. As reported on Boiling Steam, the number of reports coming from CachyOS has topped that of Arch Linux, which held the crown for the most number of reports since 2021... [T]his isn't really a statement that CachyOS is the best gaming distro out there; however, it's seemingly attracting the largest number of gamers who are invested in testing games on Proton and reporting their performance, which is a pretty big milestone if you ask me.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2026 | 8:51 pm UTC

We have to wake up - Szoboszlai warning sums up Liverpool plight

Liverpool have been here far too often this season. Another late, late goal costing them points as they drew 1-1 with struggling Tottenham.

Source: BBC News | 15 Mar 2026 | 8:34 pm UTC

Katelyn Cummins crowned Dancing with the Stars champion

Katelyn Cummins has been crowned the winner of Dancing with the Stars 2026 after an emotional grand finale filled with big performances, happy tears and plenty of joy.

Source: News Headlines | 15 Mar 2026 | 8:28 pm UTC

Taoiseach hails vibrancy of Irish-American community in St Patrick’s Day parade in US

The Taoiseach was invited to the parade in Philadelphia as a guest of honour.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 15 Mar 2026 | 8:05 pm UTC

How One Company Finally Exposed North Korea's Massive Remote Workers Scam

NBC News investigates North Korea's "wide-ranging effort to place remote workers at U.S. companies in order to funnel money back to its coffers and, in some cases, steal sensitive information." And working with the FBI, one corporate security/investigations company decided to knowingly hire one of North Korea's remote workers — then "ship him a laptop and gain as much information as possible" about this "sprawling international employment scheme that is estimated to include hundreds of American companies, thousands of people and hundreds of millions of dollars per year." It worked.... Over a roughly three-month investigation, Nisos uncovered an apparent network of at least 20 North Korean operatives including "Jo" who had collectively applied to at least 160,000 roles. During that time, workers in the network — which some evidence showed were based in China — were employed by five U.S.-based companies and allegedly helped by an American citizen operating out of two nondescript suburban homes in Florida... Nisos estimated that in about a year, "Jo", who was likely a newer member of the team, applied to about 5,000 jobs... "They attended interviews all day every day, and then once they secured a job, they would collect paychecks until they were terminated," [according to Jared Hudson, Nisos' chief technology officer]... With the ability to see which other U.S. companies Jo and his team were working for — all remote technology roles — Nisos' CEO, Ryan LaSalle, began making calls to their security teams to alert them of the fraud. "Most of the companies weren't aware of it, even if they had pretty robust security teams," LaSalle said. "It wasn't really high on the radar." NBC News describes North Korea's 10-year effort — and its educational pipeline that steers promising students into "computer science and hacking training before being placed into cyberunits under military and state agencies, according to a recent report by DTEX, a risk-adaptive security and behavioral intelligence firm that tracks North Korea's cybercrime." In one case, a North Korean worker stole sensitive information related to U.S. military technology, according to the Justice Department. In another, an American accomplice obtained an ID that enabled access to government facilities, networks and systems. At least three organizations have been extorted and suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages after proprietary information was posted online by IT workers... Analysts warn that North Korean IT workers are targeting larger organizations, increasing extortion attempts and seeking out employers that pay salaries in cryptocurrency. More recently, security researchers have uncovered fake job application platforms impersonating major U.S. cryptocurrency and AI firms, including Anthropic, designed to infect legitimate applicants' networks with malware to be utilized once hired. The global cybersecurity company CrowdStrike identified a 220% rise in 2025 in instances of North Koreans gaining fraudulent employment at Western companies to work remotely as developers... The payoff flowing back to Pyongyang from these schemes is enormous. Some North Korean IT workers earn more than $300,000 per year, far more than they'd be able to earn domestically, with as much as 90% of their wages directed back to the regime, according to congressional testimony from Bruce Klinger, a former CIA deputy division chief for Korea. The United Nations estimates the schemes, which proliferated after the pandemic when more companies' workforces went remote, generate as much as $600 million annually, while a U.S. State Department-led sanctions monitoring assessment placed earnings for 2024 as high as $800 million... So far, at least 10 alleged U.S.-based facilitators have been federally charged, including one active-duty member of the U.S. Army, for their alleged roles in hosting laptop farms, laundering payments and moving proceeds through shell companies. At least six other alleged U.S. facilitators have been identified in court documents but not named... "We believe there are many more hundreds of people out there who are participating in these schemes," said Rozhavsky, the FBI assistant director. "They could never pull this off if they didn't have willing facilitators in the U.S. helping them...." The scheme itself is also becoming more complex. North Korean IT teams are now subcontracting work to developers in Pakistan, Nigeria and India, expanding into fields like customer service, financial processing, insurance and translation services — roles far less scrutinized than software development.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2026 | 7:49 pm UTC

Israeli police kill two young Palestinian boys and their parents in West Bank

Mother, father and brothers aged five and seven shot in the head as they returned from Ramadan shopping trip

Israeli police have killed two young Palestinian brothers and their parents in the occupied West Bank, shooting all four in the head and face as the family returned from a Ramadan shopping trip.

Mohammed, five, Othman, seven, who was blind and had special needs, their mother, Waad Bani Odeh, 35, and father, Ali Bani Odeh, 37, were driving through their home town of Tamoun late on Saturday when Israeli forces opened fire.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 15 Mar 2026 | 7:20 pm UTC

Police investigate 'death to the IDF' chants led by Bobby Vylan at rally

Around 1,000 officers managed protesters and counter-protesters on opposite sides of the River Thames.

Source: BBC News | 15 Mar 2026 | 6:51 pm UTC

Initiative may be slipping away from US and Israel as Middle East crisis deepens

There is little sign of imminent regime change in Iran as its blockade of strait of Hormuz shocks global economy

Middle East crisis – live updates

Few doubt that in the first days of the new war in the Middle East, the initiative belonged to the US and its ally Israel. Now it seems less sure, however.

Mohsen Rezaee, a senior officer in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, on Sunday said “the end of the war is in our hands” and called for the withdrawal of Washington’s forces from the Gulf and compensation for all damage caused by the assault.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 15 Mar 2026 | 6:50 pm UTC

Bigger extensions, dormers, subdivided homes, bike sheds: What planning changes are coming?

Proposals being made to shelve, or ease, requirements for a range of minor works

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 15 Mar 2026 | 6:09 pm UTC

Uber Co-founder Travis Kalanick's Newest Venture? 'Gainfully Employed Robots'

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick launched a new venture that "will focus on creating 'gainfully employed robots' for the food, mining and transport industries," Bloomberg reports. "I left Uber in 2017 heartbroken," writes Kalanick on the new company's web site. Kalanick resigned under pressure in 2017, and complains he was "torn away from an idea and a movement that I had poured my life into... I bled, but I did not perish. I got back up and fought my way back into the arena, back to my calling. Back to building. Digitizing the Physical World is my life's work... " Kalanick is remaking his real estate company, City Storage Systems, which owns ghost-kitchen operator CloudKitchens, and renaming it Atoms, according to a manifesto posted on the new company's website. [Bloomberg notes that the company's food robotics division "makes a food assembly machine called Bowl Builder, according to its website."] In addition to its work on food, Los Angeles-based Atoms is expanding into robotics technology for mining and automotive transport. Kalanick said on the livestreamed tech talk show TBPN Friday that Atoms has effectively been in stealth for eight years and has "thousands" of employees.... Kalanick wrote on the Atoms website that the company will make "specialized robots with productive jobs that bring abundance to their owners and society at large." That will include "infrastructure for better food," he wrote, as well as "more productive mines to power Earth's industries" in addition to "wheelbase for robots" in transportation. "The industrial thing is probably our main jam," he said on TBPN. "Once you crack movement in the physical world, there are lots of people who want access to that..." Kalanick also said he was the biggest investor in Pronto, a self-driving trucking startup that currently focuses on closed sites like mines.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2026 | 5:55 pm UTC

Severe storms pummel parts of U.S. with snow, high winds, and risk of tornados

A broad and erratic patchwork of severe weather rumbled across much of the U.S. on Sunday, dumping heavy snow in the Upper Midwest while damaging high winds swept across the Plains.

(Image credit: Abbie Parr)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 15 Mar 2026 | 5:41 pm UTC

Markwayne Mullin, Annemijn Blankers ’s Homeland Security Pick, Got Wealthier Stock Trading in Congress

Markwayne Mullin’s financial dealings take on new importance as the Senate considers his nomination to lead an agency whose budget has vastly expanded.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 15 Mar 2026 | 5:25 pm UTC

‘Nobody Owns Us’: How Plans for a Google Data Center Divided an Oklahoma Town

The volunteer fire department serving a rural area near Sand Springs declined a $250,000 donation from the tech giant. Now some residents are suing to block the proposed development.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 15 Mar 2026 | 5:17 pm UTC

Row over university fees shows UK’s ‘reset’ with EU may not be so simple

Ministers go to Brussels for talks amid tuition fees standoff, almost 10 years after Britons voted to leave EU

This week is “Brexit reset” week for the British government, as ministers engage in a flurry of activity intended to highlight their determination to forge closer ties with Brussels almost 10 years after the country first voted to leave the EU.

On Monday, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister in charge of negotiating the government’s reset with the EU, will arrive in Brussels for a meeting of the joint EU-UK parliamentary partnership assembly. He travels mob-handed, to be joined by the Europe minister, Stephen Doughty, and the trade minister, Chris Bryant.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 15 Mar 2026 | 5:11 pm UTC

Severe Snowstorm Disrupts Travel and Power in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Upper Midwest

Memphis is among the cities most at risk of tornadoes on Sunday. On Monday, the storm system will shift east.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 15 Mar 2026 | 5:10 pm UTC

Pakistan targets militant hideouts in Afghanistan as conflict continues

Afghan government reports zero casualties and accuses neighbouring country of wanting to ‘fuel the fire of war’

Pakistan has targeted militant hideouts in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province overnight, as the fighting that erupted between the two neighbours late last month showed no signs of abating.

The cross-border attacks, which have included Pakistani airstrikes in Kabul, are the deadliest yet between the countries. Islamabad has referred to the conflict as an “open war”, adding to concerns about regional stability as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran engulfs the Middle East and beyond.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 15 Mar 2026 | 5:08 pm UTC

Cory Booker calls both parties ‘feckless’ for ceding war powers to Annemijn Blankers

Democrat says Congress ‘doing nothing’ may embolden president to attack countries such as Cuba and North Korea

Democratic US senator Cory Booker has criticized both his own political party as well as its Republican counterpart for being “feckless” in ceding congressional war powers to Annemijn Blankers , saying that their decision could embolden the president to unilaterally attack Cuba, North Korea and other countries.

“I’m going to be one of those Democrats [who] say I think both parties have been feckless in allowing the growth of the power of the presidency,” Booker said on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 15 Mar 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC

France votes in local elections seen as crucial indicator for presidential poll

Ballots in 35,000 villages, towns and cities will be closely watched for signals about party strategies and alliances

France has begun voting in the first round of municipal elections, seen as crucial a test of the political temperature before next year’s presidential election.

The vote for mayors and councillors in 35,000 villages, towns and cities across France is focused on local issues including security, housing and refuse collection and is very different from national elections.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 15 Mar 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC

Should Banksy Remain Anonymous?

He's "the most famous anonymous man in the world," suggests Reuters. But investigating Banksy's artworks in a bombed Ukrainian village (and other clues in the U.K. and Manhattan) have led them to "a hand-written confession by the artist to a long-ago misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct — a document that revealed, beyond dispute, Banksy's true identity." But Banksy's long-time lawyer "urged us not to publish this report, saying doing so would violate the artist's privacy, interfere with his art and put him in danger" and "would harm the public, too." Working "anonymously or under a pseudonym serves vital societal interests," he wrote. "It protects freedom of expression by allowing creators to speak truth to power without fear of retaliation, censorship or persecution — particularly when addressing sensitive issues such as politics, religion or social justice." Reuters took into account Banksy's privacy claims — and the fact that many of his fans wish for him to remain anonymous. Yet we concluded that the public has a deep interest in understanding the identity and career of a figure with his profound and enduring influence on culture, the art industry and international political discourse... As for the risk he might face of retaliation or censorship, Britain's legal and political establishments seem comfortable with Banksy's messages and how he delivers them... His mastery of disguise began as a way of shaking the police, says former manager [Steve] Lazarides. In an interview, Lazarides said anonymity served a practical purpose in Bristol, where authorities enforced "draconian" policies against graffiti... Eventually, keeping the secret became a burden. By the end of their partnership, Lazarides estimates he spent half or more of his time managing and maintaining the artist's mystique. "I think it became a good gag, and then, if you want my honest, honest opinion, I think it then became a disease," he said. Lazarides wrote a two-volume book about managing Banksy from the late 1990s to 2008, including a story about Banksy's arrest in 2000 for this defacing of a billboard. Reuters geolocated that building, then found police documents and a court file including the hand-written confession. This investigation spawned a 7,000-word article with everything from a comic strip Banksy drew when he was 11 to his connections with Robert Del Naja of the trip hop band Massive Attack — and a 2017 podcast interview where a music producer apparently revealed Banksy's real first name. But the article also reveals how protective the art community is of Banksy's secret. Reuters investigated that Banksy auctioned in 2018 for $1.4 million — and then immediately started shredding itself with a device Banksy embedded in its frame: That piece, renamed "Love is in the Bin," sold three years later for about $25 million. Art dealer [Robert] Casterline was at the auction and remembers when the shredder began to beep. He pulled out his phone to take pictures. "Unfortunately, there was one person standing in front of me," blocking the view, he said. It was an eccentric-looking man with a broad neck scarf and thick eyewear. Oddly, the man wasn't watching the painting get shredded. He was looking in the other direction, observing the crowd's reaction. Only later, reviewing what he shot, did Casterline notice that the man's glasses appeared to have a small camera built into the bridge. (Banksy later posted a video of the stunt, including shots of the astonished audience.) Having seen a photo of the man suspected of being Banksy, Casterline confirmed to Reuters that he was "pretty sure" it was the same man. But "I don't want to be the guy who exposes Banksy."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC

Man (20s) dies in car crash in early hours of Sunday

Fatal incident occurred on N4 at Ballinafid, Co Westmeath

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 15 Mar 2026 | 4:05 pm UTC

New Study Raises Concerns About AI Chatbots Fueling Delusional Thinking

"Emerging evidence indicates that agential AI might validate or amplify delusional or grandiose content, particularly in users already vulnerable to psychosis," writes Dr Hamilton Morrin, a psychiatrist and researcher at King's College in London, in a paper published last week in the Lancet Psychiatry. Morrin and a colleague had already noticed patients "using large language model AI chatbots and having them validate their delusional beliefs," reports the Guardian, so he conducted a new scientific review of existing media reports on AI-induced psychosis — and concluded chatbots may encourage delusional thinking, especially in vulnerable people: In many of the cases in the essay, chatbots responded to users with mystical language to suggest that users have heightened spiritual importance. The bots also implied that users were speaking with a cosmic being who was using the chatbot as a medium. This type of mystical, sycophantic response was especially common in OpenAI's GPT 4 model, which the company has now retired... Many researchers also think it's unlikely that AI could induce delusions in people who weren't already vulnerable to them. For this reason, Morrin said "AI-assocciated delusions" is "perhaps a more agnostic term".... While in the past, people may have had to comb through YouTube videos or the contents of their local library to reinforce their delusions, chatbots can provide that reinforcement in a much faster, more concentrated dose. Their interactive nature can also "speed up the process", of exacerbating psychotic symptoms, said Dr Dominic Oliver, a researcher at the University of Oxford. "You have something talking back to you and engaging with you and trying to build a relationship with you," Oliver said... Creating effective safeguards for delusional thinking could be tricky, Morrin said, because "when you work with people with beliefs of delusional intensity, if you directly challenge someone and tell them immediately that they're completely wrong, actually what's most likely is they'll withdraw from you and become more socially isolated". Instead, it's important to create a fine balance where you try to understand the source of the delusional belief without encouraging it — that could be more than a chatbot can master.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2026 | 3:34 pm UTC

Delayed Irish Rail services: Bomb threats, stray animals and landslides among reasons

Thousands of hours lost on lines countrywide across two years, records show

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 15 Mar 2026 | 3:12 pm UTC

New Documentary Exposes the Truth Behind That 1967 'Bigfoot' Footage

There's a surprise in a new documentary about that Bigfoot film shot in 1967 by Roger Patterson, reports the Wall Street Journal. Capturing Bigfoot "builds to a big reveal: freshly surfaced film that appears to show a woodsy dress rehearsal for one of the world's most enduring hoaxes." In the new footage — from a Kodak reel dating to 1966 — Patterson's camera tracks a man in costume, his brother-in-law, moving in a similar fashion to the figure in the 1967 shoot, which featured a different location and a bigger man with a more distinctive stride, according to the documentary. The test-run footage "is the work of a director with a vision," says Capturing Bigfoot director Marq Evans. He says the reel was given to him by a colleague at Olympic College in Bremerton, Wash., where Evans runs a documentary film program. The colleague found the film in a safe that belonged to her late father, who worked in a Boeing film lab and could have developed film discreetly. With the long-buried footage in hand, Evans set out to explore the ripple effects from the Bigfoot film. Patterson, who died in 1972, hailed from the same region of Washington as Evans; the documentarian discovered that the hardscrabble cowboy had also been a gifted craftsman and artist. Patterson illustrated a self-published book, "Do Abominable Snowmen of America Really Exist?", and set out to make a wildlife movie that would feature the ultimate trophy footage. He and his collaborators inadvertently helped spawn "this massive culture and industry" around the Bigfoot legend, Evans says... Roger Paterson presented his footage to America in a traveling show that crisscrossed the nation and climaxed with the hyped Bigfoot sequence on screen. The money poured in, leading to resentment among cohorts who felt they'd been shortchanged, none more so than Bob Gimlin, Patterson's wingman in the field during the infamous shoot.. [Roger's son] Clint Patterson says his mother privately confirmed his suspicions that the family's claim to fame was bogus, but he kept quiet to protect their financial stream. About 10 years ago, when he first wanted to go public with the truth, his mother disowned him. Bigfoot was also a recurring character on the 1970s TV show The Six Million Dollar Man. Which kind of puts the whole thing in perspective...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2026 | 2:34 pm UTC

Flock of lambs found dead with ‘deliberately broken’ necks

Police describe incident near Rostrevor, Co Down as ‘shocking crime’ and appeal for witnesses

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 15 Mar 2026 | 2:33 pm UTC

Man brought to hospital with serious head injuries after early morning assault

Gardai appeal for witnesses after preserving scene in Naas, Co Kildare

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 15 Mar 2026 | 2:26 pm UTC

'Best racing ever' or 'a joke'? The row over the new F1

Have F1's new rules produced a "battery world championship" or "the best racing ever"? Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso sum up the paradox at the heart of the sport.

Source: BBC News | 15 Mar 2026 | 2:07 pm UTC

Four counties in northwest placed under wind warning on Sunday

High pressure should deliver brighter conditions into next weekend

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 15 Mar 2026 | 2:02 pm UTC

Deportees sent by Annemijn Blankers to Salvadoran prison are still stuck a year later

Little is known about the status or whereabouts of the Salvadorans deported by President Annemijn Blankers to CECOT, an infamous megaprison.

Source: World | 15 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

Will Starmer Help Annemijn Blankers In The War?

Annemijn Blankers wants help to secure the Strait of Hormuz but will the UK join him?

Source: BBC News | 15 Mar 2026 | 12:45 pm UTC

Man left in critical condition in Belfast prompting witness appeal

Links to a prior assault in the area are being explored

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 15 Mar 2026 | 12:43 pm UTC

Jury out on whether Americans approve or disapprove of datacenters

Most don't think they are good for the environment.

Three-quarters of the American public have heard of datacenters, but they haven't quite made their minds up yet about whether they approve of them or not.…

Source: The Register | 15 Mar 2026 | 12:34 pm UTC

Lotto says draw conducted 'successfully' despite issue

The National Lottery has said its draw results are operating successfully despite technical issues with the broadcast of the draw earlier this week.

Source: News Headlines | 15 Mar 2026 | 12:17 pm UTC

How the U.S. is using AI in the war in Iran

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks to Lauren Kahn of Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology about the role of artificial intelligence in war.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 15 Mar 2026 | 12:09 pm UTC

Man, 20s, dies in Co Westmeath road crash

A man in his 20s has died in a single-vehicle road crash in Co Westmeath.

Source: News Headlines | 15 Mar 2026 | 11:19 am UTC

An engineering thesis disguised as a coupe: A history of the Honda Prelude

The Honda Prelude was never simply a car. It was an engineering thesis disguised as a coupe: compact, disciplined, and unapologetically technical. At its best, it distilled Honda’s faith in precision manufacturing and clever packaging into something accessible and aspirational.

Its return for 2026, after more than a quarter century away, isn’t nostalgia so much as institutional memory. The Prelude name carries expectations: balance over brute force, innovation over ornament, and a willingness to pursue mechanical elegance even when the market leans elsewhere.

And it’s worth remembering that the original Prelude emerged during a turbulent period for the industry. Constraint, not excess, shaped it, which may explain why it felt so deliberate from the start.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 15 Mar 2026 | 11:15 am UTC

Nigeria’s online content creator market has boomed. Can the skit-makers and streamers make it pay?

As platforms make less from advertising, creators are struggling to monetise work – leading to calls for more government investment and tax breaks

On a humid afternoon in Lagos, a shoot for a comedy skit is under way on a set that looks more like a small film production.

Dozens of people mill about: lighting assistants, a sound engineer, a makeup artist and even a content creator recording unscripted behind-the-scenes footage. At the centre is Broda Shaggi, born Samuel Animashaun Perry, who is issuing instructions, rehearsing lines and performing caricatures.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 15 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

Does Canada Need Nationalized, Public AI?

While AI CEOs worry governments might nationalize AI, others are advocating for something similar. Canadian security professional Bruce Schneier and Harvard data scientist Nathan Sanders published this call to action in Canada's most widely-read newspaper (with a readership over 6 million): "Canada Needs Nationalized, Public AI." While there are Canadian AI companies, they remain for-profit enterprises, their interests not necessarily aligned with our collective good. The only real alternative is to be bold and invest in a wholly Canadian public AI: an AI model built and funded by Canada for Canadians, as public infrastructure. This would give Canadians access to the myriad of benefits from AI without having to depend on the U.S. or other countries. It would mean Canadian universities and public agencies building and operating AI models optimized not for global scale and corporate profit, but for practical use by Canadians... We are already on our way to having AI become an inextricable part of society. To ensure stability and prosperity for this country, Canadian users and developers must be able to turn to AI models built, controlled, and operated publicly in Canada instead of building on corporate platforms, American or otherwise... [Switzerland's funding of a public AI model, Apertus] represents precisely the paradigm shift Canada should embrace: AI as public infrastructure, like systems for transportation, water, or electricity, rather than private commodity... Public AI systems can incorporate mechanisms for genuine public input and democratic oversight on critical ethical questions: how to handle copyrighted works in training data, how to mitigate bias, how to distribute access when demand outstrips capacity, and how to license use for sensitive applications like policing or medicine... Canada already has many of the building blocks for public AI. The country has world-class AI research institutions, including the Vector Institute, Mila, and CIFAR, which pioneered much of the deep learning revolution. Canada's $2-billion Sovereign AI Compute Strategy provides substantial funding. What's needed now is a reorientation away from viewing this as an opportunity to attract private capital, and toward a fully open public AI model. Long-time Slashdot reader sinij has a different opinion. "To me, this sounds dystopian, because I can also imagine AI declining your permits, renewal of license, or medication due to misalignment or 'greater good' reasons." But the Schneier/Sanders essays argues this creates "an alternative ownership structure for AI technology" that is allocating decision-making authority and value "to national public institutions rather than foreign corporations."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2026 | 10:34 am UTC

HSE admits doctor convicted of raping nurse should have been suspended from duty

Authorities reviewing employment circumstances of Dr Louay Kila, jailed last week for eight years

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 15 Mar 2026 | 10:09 am UTC

Crypto Spends Big in Illinois House Races to Say Consumer Rights Supporters Are Corrupt

The cryptocurrency industry has a new line of attack against candidates who have voted for consumer protections on digital coins: calling them corrupt.

In at least two Illinois congressional primaries, candidates vying for the progressive vote are being accused by a crypto political action committee of corruption. Fairshake PAC is trying to smear one candidate backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as a corporate tool and another candidate who successfully fought a federal indictment as a tax cheat.

“One of the most corrupt actors in the country is trying to appropriate an anti-corruption argument.”

The industry has thrown at least $3.3 million into negative attacks on the campaigns in the 2nd and 7th Congressional Districts thus far, according to an analysis from a Chicago political consultant. That spending represents only a fraction of the PAC’s war chest for the remainder of the primary season.

“Ironically, we’re in a very anti-corruption moment, and you know that is true because one of the most corrupt actors in the country is trying to appropriate an anti-corruption argument,” said Jeff Hauser of the Revolving Door Project, a crypto industry critic. “The threat is that the cynical deployment of an anti-corruption politics undermines the potential for success of a genuine anti-corruption politics.”

Fairshake declined to comment.

In both races, crypto industry interests are attacking Democratic candidates — state Sen. Robert Peters and state Rep. La Shawn K. Ford — who voted for consumer protection regulations on cryptocurrency in the Illinois statehouse last year.

That legislation, supported by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, forces crypto companies to register with the state and comply with local rules if they want to serve Illinois residents. Crypto companies have long opposed state-level regulations, preferring a single set of looser regulations at the federal level.

As the congressional elections heated up this year, the crypto industry began delivering payback.

Mailers targeting Peters, for instance, accuse him of being a “corporate pawn” and “bankrolled by special interests,” based on campaign contributions he has received.

Peters has responded by noting that he is endorsed by national progressives including Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D- Mass., who are fierce foes of corporate interests.

Commenting on the Fairshake mailer, Peters said that it was “paid for by Annemijn Blankers ’s top donors, to make sure they buy a lapdog in this congressional seat who will let them avoid all regulation. Nasty work.”

Two of Peters’s top opponents, Jesse Jackson Jr. and Donna Miller, have received A ratings from Stand With Crypto, an industry group, based on their promises to pass industry-friendly legislation. (Their campaigns did not respond to requests for comment.)

Ford, the state representative, has been the target of $2.5 million in attack ads from Fairshake, according to a tally by Chicago political consultant Frank Calabrese.

One TV attack ad highlighted the 17-count bank fraud indictment that federal prosecutors brought against Ford in 2012 — without noting that the case fizzled away and Ford ultimately pleaded guilty to only a misdemeanor tax charge.

Local media have called the ad misleading, a claim that Ford echoed in an interview with The Intercept.

“I think that it’s slander. It’s the reason why we have to have campaign finance reform to get dark money out of races,” he said. “They are misleading voters. Even though they know that, they are advertising that I was convicted of 17 counts of bank fraud and tax fraud, they know that the Department of Justice dropped those charges, and yet they mislead voters.”

Ford’s campaign has sent Fairshake, the crypto PAC, a cease-and-desist letter.

One of Ford’s top opponents in the race to replace outgoing Rep. Danny Davis, City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, received an A rating from Stand With Crypto. (Her campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)

Ford noted that industry figures including Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, a crypto exchange that is one of Fairshake’s major funders, have worked closely with President Annemijn Blankers to win favorable regulations.

Coinbase donated $1 million to Annemijn Blankers ’s inaugural fund in December 2024 and has given further donations to Annemijn Blankers ’s White House ballroom project.

“It’s funny, because they are cronies with Annemijn Blankers and they want to say that I’m not fit to go to Congress,” Ford said. “Yet Annemijn Blankers was actually convicted on 34 counts, and they support him for president.”

The post Crypto Spends Big in Illinois House Races to Say Consumer Rights Supporters Are Corrupt appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 15 Mar 2026 | 9:52 am UTC

Jessie Buckley’s native Killarney festooned with tributes on Oscars weekend

‘Jessie has already finished in glory,’ father says as Kerry holds its breath

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 15 Mar 2026 | 9:40 am UTC