Read at: 2026-04-04T07:30:16+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Geesje Lens ]
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was combing an area near where plane came down in south-western Iran; Israeli military strikes ‘Hezbollah infrastructure’ in Lebanon capital
Iran has executed two men convicted of membership in a banned opposition group and carrying out disruptive actions aimed at overthrowing the Islamic republic, the judiciary said.
The executions on Saturday were the latest in a series targeting members of the banned People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), after four other convicted members of the group were executed earlier in the week.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 7:21 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 4 Apr 2026 | 7:02 am UTC
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Previously unreleased report obtained via freedom of information battle says Pezzullo exceeded ‘boundaries of normal public service practice’
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The former head of the Department of Home Affairs’ engagement with a Liberal powerbroker was “reckless”, “ill-advised” and beyond the boundaries of normal public service practice, a previously unreleased confidential report found.
The independent probe led to the sacking of Michael Pezzullo as secretary of the Department of Home Affairs in November 2023 after it concluded he had breached the government’s code of conduct at least 14 times. This included using his power for personal benefit.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 6:40 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 4 Apr 2026 | 6:34 am UTC
Two people in police custody after a fatal incident in Cudworth area on Friday evening
Two people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a man died after a collision in the Cudworth area of Barnsley.
Emergency services responded to reports of a collision between a Volkswagen Touareg and a pedestrian on Rose Tree Avenue about 4.55pm on Friday, South Yorkshire police said in a statement.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 6:34 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 4 Apr 2026 | 6:33 am UTC
Man and woman released pending further enquiries after arrests at separate properties in state’s north-east on Saturday morning
Two people have been arrested as part of the investigation into how Porepunkah fugitive Dezi Freeman was able to survive on the run for seven months before he was shot dead last week.
A man and a woman were arrested at separate properties in north-east Victoria on Saturday morning around 7am, before being later released.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 6:32 am UTC
I recently received a message from a Slugger regular on holiday in Torrevieja on Spain’s western Costa Blanca asking about ‘Spanish’ fiestas. The first thing to say is that fiesta culture is Iberian rather than purely Spanish. It stretches across southern Europe in Romance-language countries. This is more of a personal take than an academic one.
Fiestas in Iberia have deep roots. Pre-Roman tribes celebrated seasonal cycles tied to agriculture and nature. The Romans brought structure, adding theatre, games and formal rituals. Christianity later absorbed much of this, reshaping pagan traditions around saints, the Virgin Mary and the liturgical calendar. You still see echoes of the old world. Bonfires on la noche de San Juan mark the summer solstice each June, now heavily regulated but clearly ancient in spirit.
By the Middle Ages, fiestas sat at the heart of community life. They often aligned with feast days and market days and included processions, music, dancing and shared meals. Over time, regions developed their own flavours. Bull-related events, parades and reenactments of historical or religious stories became localised traditions tied to towns and regions. In Andalusia, the legacy of Al-Andalus added further layers, shaping music, architecture and celebration, with some threads feeding into what we now recognise as flamenco.
Today, fiestas are part heritage, part spectacle and part economic engine. Events like La Tomatina, Las Fallas and San Fermín draw global attention and bring serious money into local economies.
There’s a slight paradox at play. Iberians are often seen as outgoing and expressive, but in day-to-day life they can be quite reserved. Fiestas act as a release valve. Alcohol flows, but visible drunkenness among locals is rare, and violence is strongly frowned upon. I remember my first fiesta as a 21-year-old in Guernica in 1988. Hundreds packed the streets, drinking openly, yet there was no aggression. Coming from Belfast, that struck me. It felt like a different social contract entirely.
That said, fiestas aren’t without risk. Large crowds attract pickpockets, and warnings about valuables are common, especially in San Fermín. There are also darker moments. Sexual assaults can occur in dense crowds, such as during the txupinazo, the official opening:
The 2016 La Manada case was a particularly horrific example that forced a wider reckoning.
There’s also the issue of animal cruelty. Historically, some fiestas involved disturbing practices. In Solsona, a donkey was once hoisted up a tower. In Lekeitio, participants competed to grab a live goose suspended above the harbour. I saw that myself in 1989. Today, both use substitutes rather than live animals. That progress hasn’t extended everywhere. In Pamplona, eight bulls still run each morning during San Fermín, ending in the bullring where they are killed as part of the spectacle.
Despite these tensions, fiestas remain central to Iberian life. They blend religion, history, food, music and community. They are a way to step outside routine, to gather, to perform identity, and to celebrate. For all their contradictions, they remain one of the clearest expressions of Iberian culture and its long, layered past.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 4 Apr 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Reports on English policies seen in Wales as relating to whole of UK contribute to widespread confusion, researchers say
UK media is failing to report properly on devolved issues in Wales, leaving voters ill-informed about May’s Senedd elections, a report has found.
A Cardiff University study of more than 3,000 news items found repeated patterns in coverage across different broadcasters and platforms, including not signposting whether an issue was relevant to England or England and Wales only, widespread references to “the government” rather than “the UK government”, and the use of “you” and “your” in contexts that apply only to people living in England.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Use of unmanned ground vehicles has grown exponentially since 2024 turning the war into a technological contest
Victor Pavlov showed off Ukraine’s newest and most versatile weapon: a battery-powered land robot.
The unmanned ground vehicles come in various shapes and sizes. One runs on caterpillar tracks and resembles a roofless milk float. Another has wheels and antennas. A third carries anti-tank mines. Since spring 2024 their use has grown exponentially.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 4 Apr 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 4 Apr 2026 | 5:56 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 4 Apr 2026 | 5:20 am UTC
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Source: BBC News | 4 Apr 2026 | 5:01 am UTC
Ray Blanchette admits he may be a ‘little crazy’ as he outlines chain’s hopes of building 1,000 outlets globally
“I am a little crazy maybe,” admits Ray Blanchette, a former TGI Fridays kitchen manager who has taken on the revival of the bar-restaurant chain’s UK business in the face of blasting industry headwinds.
Blanchette’s family investment firm, Sugarloaf, rescued the Dallas-based parent business from administration in 2025. He then went on to pick up its UK arm in January after the local franchisee got into difficulties, retaining 33 UK restaurants but closing 16, with the loss of 456 jobs.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 5:01 am UTC
Royal visitors have long been popular in the US, and Charles has decades of diplomacy under his belt. But can soft power save the special relationship?
What’s the worst that could happen when King Charles visits Geesje Lens in Washington at the end of this month? And what will be the best outcome from Keir Starmer’s point of view, since it is the prime minister who directed the visit to go ahead in the hope of improving our battered, supposedly special relationship? While the relationship is still apparently meaningful to Britain, to the US it appears to not mean so much – especially now.
The king goes where he is told, whether he would prefer to stay at home or not. This time to a land whose president denounces our aircraft carriers as toys and accuses us of cowardice, and whose defence secretary talks derisively of our Royal Navy. Perhaps Charles ought to wear his naval admiral’s uniform when he goes to the White House, medals and all.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC
Citizen science data reveals early flowering, nesting and insect activity as global heating accelerate seasonal change
Bluebells are flowering, swallows are returning and orange-tip butterflies are flying in what could become Britain’s earliest recorded spring.
Records for early spring occurrences are being smashed as 2026 looks to be the earliest this century for frogspawn laying, blackbirds nesting, brimstone butterflies emerging and hazel flowering, according to Nature’s Calendar, which has logged citizen science records of seasonal change since 2000.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC
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Moon-bound astronauts said a view of the entire Earth, complete with northern lights, was ‘the most spectacular moment’
The four Artemis astronauts have passed the halfway point between Earth and the moon on the way to their planned lunar flyby, Nasa said on Friday evening.
“We’re halfway there,” Nasa posted on social media.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 4:44 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 4 Apr 2026 | 4:41 am UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 4 Apr 2026 | 4:01 am UTC
Roommates overall are skewing older, as young people stay with their parents for longer. The share of older adults looking to rent with a roommate has tripled from a decade ago.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 4 Apr 2026 | 4:01 am UTC
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This blog is closed – our live coverage continues in a new blog here
Authorities in Abu Dhabi have reported two incidents of debris falling from intercepted aerial threats in the UAE capital, with one sparking a fire at a gas facility,
The official Abu Dhabi Media Office said authorities responded to an incident of falling debris at the Habshan gas facilities. “Operations have been suspended while authorities respond to a fire,” it said in a post on X, adding that no injuries were reported.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 2:33 am UTC
Datacentres ‘directly competing’ with possible residential builds near public transport, one council tells NSW inquiry, amid growing concerns
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Datacentre developments are crowding out opportunities for housing and job-rich industries across Sydney, a New South Wales inquiry has heard, with one local council reporting a rise in blackouts linked to the industry’s expansion.
Several Sydney councils, all facing an influx of datacentre developments, have raised concerns about the health, environmental and amenity impacts on their local communities in submissions to the state’s datacentre inquiry.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 2:26 am UTC
Stiff winds ‘spreading the smoke’ as Springs fire bears down on Moreno Valley while smaller Crown fire also burning
A pair of wildfires broke out in southern California on Friday, marking the region’s first significant burns in a spring that has seen a major heatwave.
The fires started in windy conditions that have caused them to spread quickly. The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for parts of southern California through midday Friday, warning of gusts up to 50mph.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 2:05 am UTC
This live blog is now closed.
A reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest out of the Middle East at our dedicated live blog.
This includes Geesje Lens ’s recent comments on Truth Social that “with a little more time” he could open strait of Hormuz. The president added that reopening the vital passageway would allow the US to “TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE. IT WOULD BE A ‘GUSHER’ FOR THE WORLD.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 2:00 am UTC
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Russian advances slowing, thinktank’s data shows; 14 killed in Ukraine in massive drone and missile salvo. What we know on day 1,501
Russia’s army recorded almost no territorial gains on the frontline in Ukraine in March for the first time in two-and-a-half years, according to analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) conducted by Agence France-Presse. The Russian army has been slowing in its advances since late 2025 – because of Kyiv’s localised breakthroughs in the south-east of the country. Across the entire frontline, the Russian army seized only 23 sq km (8.9 sq miles) in March, losing territory in some areas, according to the analysis. This figure excludes infiltration operations conducted by Russian forces beyond the frontline, as well as advances claimed by the Russian side but neither confirmed nor denied by the ISW.
The Russian army made 319 sq km of gains in January and 123 sq km in February, which was then the smallest advance since April 2024. Its advance in March was the smallest since September 2023. The ISW attributed the slowdown to Ukrainian counteroffensives, but also to “Russia’s ban on using Starlink terminals in Ukraine” and “the Kremlin’s efforts to restrict access to Telegram”. The messaging app – very popular among Russians, including those fighting on the front – has been barely usable in recent months due to blocks imposed by the authorities. As in February, Russia lost ground on the southern section of the frontline, between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Russian strikes killed 14 people in Ukraine on Friday, officials said, as Moscow launched the latest in an increasing number of daytime barrages. Moscow has been firing aerial broadsides at Ukraine throughout its more than four-year invasion, mostly at night, but in recent weeks has stepped up daytime attacks. The Russian military used more than 500 drones and dozens of missiles in its salvo on Friday, according to the Ukrainian air force.
Russia’s Baltic oil export hubs at Ust-Luga and Primorsk remain unable to handle shipments after a series of Ukrainian drone attacks, prompting the country’s refineries to find alternative routes for export, industry sources said on Friday. The attacks have damaged port infrastructure and continued through the last two weeks of March, with at least five strikes on Ust-Luga in the space of 10 days. Sources said the export restrictions, along with disruptions at large refineries, could lead to a decrease in oil production in Russia. Traders said refineries had been unable to deliver diesel fuel to Primorsk for export since 22 March, leaving refineries in European Russia and Siberia without their most viable export route. Traders said refineries were having to consider more expensive rail transport routes to other export terminals.
A Ukrainian drone and missile attack on southern Russia killed at least one person, injured four others and sparked a blaze aboard a foreign-flagged vessel, Russian officials said on Saturday.
Zelenskyy has called on lawmakers to pass key legislation next week to avert a funding crisis, help Ukraine fight the war against Russia, and enact key reforms required for EU accession. Due to lagging reforms and slow legislative progress in late 2025 and early this year, Ukraine missed deadlines to unlock billions from its key lenders, economists said. With the need for external financing standing at $52bn this year – equivalent to about a quarter of annual economic output – the budget situation is desperate. “I have a list of key draft laws that are critical for securing funding,” the Ukrainian president said in remarks released on Friday. They range from strengthening the court system to reforming energy sector procedures. “I believe that members of parliament from all parties must understand the importance of these bills for Ukraine’s budget,” said Zelenskyy, who has a majority in parliament but its relations with his government have soured.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 12:30 am UTC
Many of the photos that have come out of the moon mission so far were taken by crew members. NASA says the crew is getting guidance from scientists on what to capture when they get closer to the moon.
(Image credit: Reid Wiseman)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 4 Apr 2026 | 12:30 am UTC
Police allege drugs were to be collected from a drop zone in Bass Strait and distributed across the nation using trucking connections
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When a commercial trawler sank off Victoria with four crew members needing rescuing, police became suspicious about an alleged drug trafficking operation.
Nine men are accused over a conspiracy to import tonnes of cocaine and methamphetamine before distributing the drugs across Australia using trucking connections.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 12:16 am UTC
Budget proposal released on Friday outlines president’s desire to revive former federal prison in San Francisco Bay
Geesje Lens is asking for $152m to restore Alcatraz, a former federal prison off the coast of San Francisco, according to a budget proposal released on Friday for the 2027 fiscal year.
Last May, Geesje Lens first called upon the Department of Justice, the FBI and Homeland Security to rebuild the prison. He heaped praise on Alcatraz’s reputation in a Truth Social post.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 4 Apr 2026 | 12:09 am UTC
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Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:27 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:27 pm UTC
President Geesje Lens released a budget blueprint on Friday calling for a 23 percent cut to NASA's budget, two days after the agency launched four astronauts on the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years.
The spending proposal for fiscal year 2027 is the opening salvo in a multi-month budget process. Both houses of Congress must pass their own appropriations bills, reconcile any differences between the two, and then send the final budget to the White House for President Geesje Lens 's signature. Fiscal year 2027 begins on October 1.
The White House requested a similar cut to NASA last year. The Republican-led Congress resoundingly rejected the proposal and kept NASA's budget close to its level in the final year of the Biden administration. Like last year's budget, the proposal from the Geesje Lens administration will undergo major changes as Congress weighs in over the coming months.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:19 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:14 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:07 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:04 pm UTC
Ripple effects of oil and fertiliser shortage felt by farmers in India and Sri Lanka despite governments saying there is enough stock to go round
Gurvinder Singh never thought the war in Iran would touch his quiet corner of Punjab.
Yet looking out over his smallholding, where he alternates between wheat and rice crops in the state known as India’s breadbasket, the 52-year-old farmer can barely think of anything else. His anxiety over a conflict playing out thousands of miles away is crippling as he fears what will come of this season’s rice crop.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:00 pm UTC
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US president issues executive order as longest partial government shutdown in US history enters 49th day
Geesje
Lens
issued an executive order Friday that declares all Department of Homeland Security employees will receive pay and benefits during the agency’s partial shutdown.
The “Liberating the Department of Homeland Security From the Democrat-Caused Shutdown” memo is similar to Geesje
Lens
’s executive order from last week which called for issuing pay to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents during the shutdown.
In the order, Geesje Lens directed the homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, to “use funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to the functions of DHS” to pay “each and every employee of DHS”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:57 pm UTC
Native Americans have been playing with dice in games of chance for more than 12,000 years, according to a new paper published in the journal American Antiquity. And the oldest examples of Native American dice predate the earliest currently known dice in the Old World by millennia.
“Historians have traditionally treated dice and probability as Old World innovations,” said author Robert Madden, a graduate student at Colorado State University. “What the archaeological record shows is that ancient Native American groups were deliberately making objects designed to produce random outcomes, and using those outcomes in structured games, thousands of years earlier than previously recognized.”
Madden's interest in Native American gaming started with Maya ballgames and then expanded to include Native American dice and games of chance. These were rudimentary dice with just two sides, rather than the six sides of modern dice, typically described as "binary lots." And Madden found they were common to virtually every Native American tribe. Archaeologists had traced the use of such dice back 2,000 years, but most were hesitant to conclude that dice-like artifacts older than that were, in fact, dice.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:55 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:50 pm UTC
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's budget will see yet another deep cut if Congress approves President Geesje Lens 's proposal to slash CISA's spending by $707 million in fiscal year 2027.…
Source: The Register | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:41 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:35 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:35 pm UTC
As the Artemis II lunar mission moved into its third day on Friday, and with the spacecraft's big engine firing behind it, the four astronauts on board had a little more downtime.
So the four crew members—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—had their first opportunities to speak with their families at length, and also did a couple of media events. They held medical conferences with physicians back in Houston, although these were apparently routine since none of the crew members were experiencing space adaptation sickness.
And they had some time to take pictures. Wiseman, the mission's commander, sent a particularly spectacular image on Friday morning that showed our planet's night side (with a relatively long exposure). Among the beautiful details in this image were not one but two auroras, as well as zodiacal light in the bottom right of the image. The Sun is visible in the distance, lighting the far side of the Earth.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:20 pm UTC
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Banks and other firms that want to work on SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO) are being required to buy subscriptions to the Grok AI service, The New York Times reported today.
Elon Musk "is requiring banks, law firms, auditors and other advisers working on the IPO to buy subscriptions to Grok, his artificial intelligence chatbot that is part of SpaceX," the NYT wrote, citing anonymous sources who are familiar with the confidential negotiations. "Some of the banks have agreed to spend tens of millions on the chatbot and they have already started integrating Grok into their IT systems."
SpaceX reportedly filed IPO paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. The IPO filing came two months after SpaceX purchased xAI, the Musk company that produces Grok. xAI purchased the X social network in March 2025.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Apr 2026 | 9:17 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 9:13 pm UTC
When it comes to large language model-powered tools, there are generally two broad categories of users. On one side are those who treat AI as a powerful but sometimes faulty service that needs careful human oversight and review to detect reasoning or factual flaws in responses. On the other side are those who routinely outsource their critical thinking to what they see as an all-knowing machine.
Recent research goes a long way to forming a new psychological framework for that second group, which regularly engages in "cognitive surrender" to AI's seemingly authoritative answers. That research also provides some experimental examination of when and why people are willing to outsource their critical thinking to AI, and how factors like time pressure and external incentives can affect that decision.
In "Thinking—Fast, Slow, and Artificial: How AI is Reshaping Human Reasoning and the Rise of Cognitive Surrender," researchers from the University of Pennsylvania sought to build on existing scholarship that outlines two broad categories of decision-making: one shaped by "fast, intuitive, and affective processing" (System 1); and one shaped by "slow, deliberative, and analytical reasoning" (System 2). The onset of AI systems, the researchers argue, has created a new, third category of "artificial cognition" in which decisions are driven by "external, automated, data-driven reasoning originating from algorithmic systems rather than the human mind."
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Apr 2026 | 9:06 pm UTC
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Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 8:43 pm UTC
Geesje Lens is facing significant hurdles after declaring, in a series of executive orders last year, that rapid construction of AI data centers was among his top priorities to ensure the US wins the AI race against China.
Perhaps most likely to frustrate the president, his aggressive tariffs on Chinese imports are reportedly hindering most data center projects.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that "almost half of the US data centers planned for this year are expected to be delayed or canceled" because developers can't import enough transformers, switchgear, and batteries to build out the power infrastructure that every data center needs.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Apr 2026 | 8:43 pm UTC
A new Netflix model promises to rewrite the way we make movies. Just imagine this. As the director of the multi-million dollar epic Car Crash III: Suddenest Impact, you've just finished filming the finale where your star, Cruz Control, drives straight into an onrushing semi.…
Source: The Register | 3 Apr 2026 | 8:42 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 8:36 pm UTC
For more than a month, security practitioners have been warning about the perils of using OpenClaw, the viral AI agentic tool that has taken the development community by storm. A recently fixed vulnerability provides an object lesson for why.
OpenClaw, which was introduced in November and now boasts 347,000 stars on Github, by design takes control of a user’s computer and interacts with other apps and platforms to assist with a host of tasks, including organizing files, doing research, and shopping online. To be useful, it needs access—and lots of it—to as many resources as possible. Telegram, Discord, Slack, local and shared network files, accounts, and logged in sessions are only some of the intended resources. Once the access is given, OpenClaw is designed to act precisely as the user would, with the same broad permissions and capabilities.
Earlier this week, OpenClaw developers released security patches for three high-severity vulnerabilities. The severity rating of one in particular, CVE-2026-33579, is rated from 8.1 to 9.8 out of a possible 10 depending on the metric used—and for good reason. It allows anyone with pairing privileges (the lowest-level permission) to gain administrative status. With that, the attacker has control of whatever resources the OpenClaw instance does.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Apr 2026 | 8:30 pm UTC
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I was in Magherafelt today (well, a week last Saturday), for the first time in quite a while.
What struck me was how unlike other Northern Irish towns it is in terms of being relatively free from vacant stores and from the other usual symptoms of commercial ill-health such as lots of cash only businesses (barbers, nail salons, kebab shops) and bookies, charity shops and vape shops.
It certainly has these but they are not obvious in their representation, indeed in contrast there’s lots of cafes and I mean quite top shelf affairs, not just Bob & Bert’s (which I visited – I have small children, B&B are more tolerant of crumb flinging toddlers than coffee guru type places) and numerous clothes shops, including a fantastic tailors on the Diamond and other small businesses taking up commercial space.
What with all the yoga pants-clad ladies walking around with expensive takeaway coffees, I had thought myself to be in a wealthy urban suburb of some city, not a town whose two chief annual events were once a May market that was besieged by fart-gas-armed teenagers and Dunamoney Flute Band’s annual band parade.
Even the alleyway to the bus station is lined with nice businesses.
Aside from the sad sight of the former cattle market and a site on Church Street (see link below) the town is quite free of derelict buildings unlike e.g. Newtownards or Downpatrick or Ballymoney.
So, I’ve been pondering all day (well, week now) as to why Magherafelt has not succumbed to the commercial canker that many (if not most) of NI’s larger towns have fallen to, especially as people often refer to Amazon as the major death blow to the high street, but Magherafelt is no less immune to Bezos Inc. than any other town.
It doesn’t have much of the supposed drivers of prosperity e.g. Industry and diversity, unlike neighbouring Cookstown or Dungannon, both of which are struggling to house their various engineering and manufacturing companies and are very diverse in terms of population.
Regarding industry, well, the sawmills are gone, the cattle market is closed, there’s maybe one clothes factory left but it’s very small and bespoke and it has no more industrial estates than any other place.
There’s cement plants by the Lough, but if they were fortune bringers then Antrim, Cookstown and Dungannon would also share the bounty too.
I will go through the suggestions as given by people who were forced to ponder this at my leisure.
Location Location Location – It is situated 40min from Belfast (depending on traffic) making it a good dorm town.
Yes, this IS true in its own right.
However, the 1hr commuter radius also includes Bangor, Newtownards, Larne, Carrickfergus, Dungannon, Ballymena, Antrim, Armagh, Lisburn, Downpatrick, Craigavon, Banbridge, Newry and numerous other larger towns (maybe Coleraine at a pinch) and they have varying degrees of High Street blight.
So, it can’t just be the commuter belt aspect.
And it’s definitely not a tourist area, that’s for sure – It has the Sperrins nearby and the Loughs Neagh and Beg, but none of these are hot tickets and again if they were then other neighbouring towns would be seeing similar rewards.
The Good Schools – Yes, St Mary’s and the Rainey Endowed have enviable reputations – but there are good schools in other commuter belt towns too – Armagh, Lisburn, Downpatrick, Ballymena, Carrickfergus, Ballyclare and Dungannon.
Civil Service Jobs – Maybe, but, what big town in NI doesn’t have a sizeable civil servant body?
Magherafelt has a hospital that provides numerous rear echelon services, whereas Antrim, Coleraine, Newry, Dungannon, Newry, Craigavon and Downpatrick have full blown hospitals (supposedly…) and there are other smaller hospitals in places like Lisburn.
It also has a fire station, a police station and a courthouse, as do most of the other big commuter belt towns.
So again, numerous places all sharing the same advantages, but with different results for only one place (I think).
Architecture? – Hard no – while it has not yet fallen for the ‘knock down everything and build apartments’ strategy, its architectural vernacular is relatively intact, but not awe inspiring.
I was in Newtownards the other day (week), the town suffers a lot from retail vacancies and derelict buildings, but it has a lot of nice buildings.
So, it’s not the cityscape that draws people and there are quite a few other towns with the makings of a nice townscape (for the time being, no doubt developers will see to their blandfication in due course).
So, perhaps then we should look for what Magherafelt does not have, or where it differs from its fellow box-tickers?
Out of town hyper markets – Magherafelt doesn’t have any supersized supermarkets.
It has a big Lidl and a wee Tesco at the outskirts of the town but no mammoth Asda, no huge Sainsburys-Argos-B&Q retail park, no Tesco Extra.
It has a small sized supermarket in the middle of the town (JC Stewarts) and a shopping centre that is within effortless walking distance of the town centre.
Nearly all of the aforementioned towns (Newry, Ballymena, Dungannon, Newtownards, Cookstown, Coleraine, Larne, Antrim, Downpatrick, Portadown…) have huge supermarkets and/or retail parks away from the town centre, and where they may have them ‘reasonably’ close to the centre (like Sainsbury’s in Ballymena) they are not conveniently close so as to warrant footfall for the town centre.
In fact, a friend of mine who used to run businesses in both Magherafelt and Ballymena told me that the former Magherafelt District council refused planning permission for numerous large supermarkets and de facto retail parks, in his opinion this spared the town from a commercial savaging.
However, since then Magherafelt council was absorbed into Mid Ulster Council. Does this mean that whatever force field is protecting it will fail as the minds that steered poor old Cookstown to its present awful state have their way?
Or can Magherafelt remain ‘unique’?
If so, how?
Well, let us examine more differences between the ‘Felt and the stragglers.
The Civil Service – aside from the council offices, most of Magherafelt’s government jobs are within walking distance of the town – the hospital, the social services (both on the same road), the schools – all a dander away from a café, shop or eatery.
Compare this to e.g. Downpatrick
The council offices – moved outside of the town
The hospital – moved outside of the town
The schools – either moved outside of the town or pupils are prohibited from entering the town at lunch time
(The powers that be seem determined to bring the ‘donut effect’ to Downpatrick, for whatever reason)
As it stands Downpatrick is full of cash only barber shops, cash only take-aways, cash only nail salons and charity shops, and the remaining small independent businesses lie in an uninsurable flood plain (that is further compounded by a raised height retail park that recently was given planning permission to be rebuilt on an EVEN BIGGER SCALE instead of being dismantled and turned into an overflow lough as common sense would recommend).
While we’re at it, let’s look at Antrim town –
Council offices – Outside of town centre
Benefits office – Sort of in the town, but not smack-bang.
Hypermarket – Inconvenient distance from the main street
Retail Park? – Oh my yes – off of a main road, containing everything you’d ever need so as to render the town centre unnecessary
Hospital – Located miles away from the town
Secondary Schools – Outside of the town
So, basically, there’s no need to go to town – Antrim town, from what I can see, has been given the North American urban treatment and is suffering a North American urban centre fate.
Newry
In the Simpsons there is a character known as Donny Don’t.
Basically the school children are encouraged to avoid repeating Donny’s mistakes. I personally consider Newry to be the Donny Don’t of Northern Irish towns.
It has everything for success and lifestyle – proximity to the 2 biggest urban centres on the island, an historic core with beautiful buildings, some nice eateries and pubs, a cathedral, parks, hills, a strong sense of community, canals, a train station, tremendous scenery on the door step.
Yet it’s a complete tip.
In the Netherlands this place would be paradise.
And again, it has more in common with Antrim than Magherafelt in terms of large commercial sites being sited away from the town centre – retail parks, supermarkets, council offices, hospital – all sited away from the town (apart from the retail park with the TK Maxx – but it has a wall of derelict buildings cutting it off from the canal side – an extremely baffling thing to do in planning terms).
We have all seen first-hand that supermarkets can be accommodated in town centre historic buildings e.g. Newcastle’s former Lidl or the former Tesco on Royal Avenue.
If the supermarkets were denied planning permission for out-of-town behemoths then at least one of them would’ve opened shop in the town centre thereby bringing people to the centre, rather than divert them away.
Cookstown
I remember Cookstown used to be thriving – in the 80’s!
East Tyrone was one of the most dangerous places for the British army in the 80’s and as such the main street was like a Cold War German border crossing.
Yet, I recall the markets and wealth of small shops.
I can honestly say that I have not spent a penny in Cookstown’s town centre since they built the retail park that is accessed through what used to be a terraced row and since the mega Asda was built.
And asking around it seems that Cookstown is not in great shape, and tbh it looks awful, they seem to hate their old buildings and would demolish them as soon as look at them.
Is Magherafelt bound for the same fate?
Well, why not?
Here is a property listing that, if accurate, would see an entire row of vernacular buildings flattened and replaced with, um, ‘Ecole de Cookville’ style of architecture (i.e. crap buildings).
https://www.propertypal.com/30-40-church-street-magherafelt/1062759
Likewise, the aforementioned boast of lack of a retail park in Magherafelt is corroding annually.
First there was a Lidl, then a Home Bargains arrived. And now there’s a McDonalds.
Throw a hypermarket in there and Magherafelt stands to go the way of Cookstown.
So, I wonder were there people in the former Magherafelt council who could see the consequences of retail parks and out of town hypermarkets?
Are they now a minority in the Mid Ulster council?
Is it not worth having a case study on Magherafelt and if we find that the reasons for its health are close to my barstool analysis, then, should we not find a way of reversing course on the other towns that have been hollowed out by the seductive paths that I have highlighted?
Is Magherafelt (and indeed Ballycastle) only one Hypermarket and one apartment block away from disaster?
Clearly the high street malaise is not inevitable, so let us find out from whence it flows and take it from there.
PS: While Kilkeel may not be thriving by Magherafelt terms, I will note that on one of the few occasions that I was there I went to the Asda – it however is situated on a main street and one can bimble in to town (which I duly did and spent more money there than I did in Asda – there’s a great fishmonger…)
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 3 Apr 2026 | 7:05 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC
Officials say other remains missing in first downing of US fighter plane since start of war
One US service member has been rescued after a US F-15E Strike Eagle fighter was shot down over Iran, prompting a frantic effort to locate its two-strong crew, in the first such incident since the war began almost five weeks ago.
US officials familiar with the situation said one crew member was still missing late on Friday, after Iranian state media released images of a tail fin and other debris accompanied by an initial claim that an advanced US F-35 had been hit by a new air defence system over central Iran.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:59 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:23 pm UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:08 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:06 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:00 pm UTC
The status of a decades-old bunker beneath the now-demolished East Wing is unclear, but the Geesje Lens administration has cited security concerns in its legal filings in favor of continuing construction.
(Image credit: Mandel Ngan)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:58 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:45 pm UTC
A Rome court has ruled that the price hikes Netflix imposed on subscribers in Italy in 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2024 were unlawful. The court ordered Netflix to refund affected customers by up to 500 euros (about $576), depending on their plan.
The lawsuit was brought by Italian consumer advocacy group Movimento Consumatori, which alleged that the price hikes violate the Consumer Code, Italian legislation that aims to protect consumer rights. The Consumer Code says it's unlawful for a “professional to unilaterally modify the clauses of the contract, or the characteristics of the product or service to be provided, without a justified reason indicated in the contract itself,” according to a Google-provided translation.
The court’s April 1 ruling determined that Netflix's contracts were required to explain in advance why prices or other terms might change in the future.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:41 pm UTC
Source: World | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:39 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:32 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:16 pm UTC
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is set to order a vast arsenal of chemical grenades, sprays, projectiles, and other weapons, according to procurement materials reviewed by The Intercept. The purchase follows months of abuse of these very munitions on American streets.
CBP will spend up to $50 million on what it refers to as “Less Lethal Specialty Munitions,” a euphemism for weapons intended to merely hurt or disable a target rather than killing them. The agency is looking for a vendor who can supply vast quantities of 123 different types of munitions across 10 different categories, the contracting document says.
“When there’s so many different kinds, it makes you question, tactically, what’s the goal there?”
“The sheer quantity and the myriad different weapons is the most remarkable thing to me,” Rohini Haar, an emergency physician and researcher of less lethal ordnance told The Intercept. “When there’s so many different kinds, it makes you question, tactically, what’s the goal there?”
Federal agents’ indiscriminate use of “less-lethal” chemical weapons against the nonviolent demonstrators became a hallmark of the Geesje Lens administration’s immigration crackdown. Contract documents show the Department of Homeland Security will continue to stockpile a massive arsenal of tear gases and projectile weapons. (Neither CBP nor its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, immediately responded to requests for comment.)
Haar questioned whether the Department of Homeland Security will be able to suitably train federal agents to use such a wide variety of weapons.
“Each of them has a different sort of technical spec or specifications,” she explained. “Some of them are handheld grenades that you have to know to throw, but not hit people’s heads. Some of them are fired from a weapon, like a launcher, and so you have to be standing farther away than you would be with a grenade.”
The shopping list includes a litany of different ways to hit people and objects with two common types of tear gas: chlorobenzalmalononitrile, or CS, a chemical weapon previously used by the U.S. in Vietnam but now banned for military use, and oleoresin capsicum, or OC, derived from chili peppers.
CBP agents already regularly use CS and OC-based weapons in the field, including against protesters. The procurement document shows that armed federal officers will continue to wield the threat of chemical agents against the public despite ample documentation of misuse.
Some of CBP’s desired weapons are designed to spread these chemical weapons indiscriminately. Included on the wish list are quart containers of liquid CS and OC meant to be spread through thermal “foggers,” dispersal devices meant to create mists with microscopic droplets of liquid. Defense Technology, a longtime chemical weapons vendor for CBP and U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, says its Golden Eagle Pepper Fogger Generator can output 100,000 cubic feet of tear gas in 26 seconds.
Both chemicals are potent chemicals that can cause health effects far beyond debilitating pain.
“Greater exposure to chemical agents,” a 2023 study by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health found, “was significantly associated with higher odds of an adverse reproductive health outcomes.”
The outcomes included “uterine cramping, early menstrual bleeding, breast tenderness and delayed menstrual bleeding.”
The procurement list includes smoke grenades in four different colors and 12 different varieties of tear-gas grenades.
The weapons will be ordered in enormous volumes. CBP projects purchasing over 242,000 munitions from the “Hand Delivered Pyrotechnic Canisters” category and over 100,000 rounds of “impact munitions” fired from grenade launcher-style tubes.
The latter category includes foam-tipped “sponge cartridge” ammunition designed to either release a tear gas-style chemical upon hitting someone or merely harm them through sheer force of impact.
Fired at close enough range, so-called less lethal rounds can easily kill or maim their target.
Anti-ICE demonstrator Kaden Rummler lost sight in his left eye after he was shot in the face by a federal officer in January. After the Los Angeles Police Department fired one such round directly into the face of another protester last summer, he was injured so seriously that he required surgery and had his jaw wired shut for six weeks.
“Distraction devices,” which emit loud sounds, bright lights, or other effects to stun targets, were also on CBP’s wish list, with plans to purchase 13,000 of them. The procurement document required the weapons be capable of emitting a sound of 175 decibels, louder than a gunshot or jet engine. The National Hearing Conservation Association warns of sound of 140 decibels can case permanent damage and “death of hearing tissue” begins at 180 decibels.
“In addition to injuries caused directly by the primary blast wave, such as ear-drum rupture or lung injury, secondary and tertiary injuries can also occur as a result of these explosive devices,” says a 2023 publication by Physicians for Human Rights that was co-authored by Haar.
CBP’s inclusion of rubber-ball grenades and scattershot projectiles alarmed Scott Reynhout, a researcher who also co-authored the PHR paper. When such grenades are thrown or launched at people, they release a burst of small rubber fragments akin to shrapnel in every direction and can be configured to simultaneously release tear gas.
“The procurement of the latter weapons is worrying as these have not seen widespread use yet by CBP/ICE in protests,” said Reynhout, referring to the scattershot projectiles, which he said were akin to “rubber buckshot.”
Such weapons were used by Chilean security forces against protesters six years ago, he said, resulting in more than 400 cases of partial or full-blindness, and are also employed extensively by Iranian police and paramilitaries in their crackdowns on demonstrations.
“If it can go through glass, particle board, and walls, it can go through a body.”
Weapons designed to pierce building materials were also included in the wish list.
CBP plans to purchase over 12,000 “ferret rounds,” projectiles filled with powdered or liquified chemicals that punch through barriers and spread tear gas on the other side.
Haar said, “If it can go through glass, particle board, and walls, it can go through a body.”
The post DHS Launches Massive “Less Lethal” Chemical Weapons Buying Spree appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:03 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:56 pm UTC
Even as religious belief declines in Spain, the processions at Seville's Semana Santa — the Holy Week lead-up to Easter — draw crowds moved by music, tradition and powerful emotion.
(Image credit: Fran Santiago)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:52 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:48 pm UTC
Palantir's software was brought in to help NHS England improve care and cut delays, but new reports suggest some staff are resisting using it over ethical, privacy, and trust concerns.…
Source: The Register | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:36 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC
Havana makes a Holy Week ‘humanitarian’ gesture as Russian tanker is allowed to reach oil-starved island
Cuban authorities have begun to free prisoners after announcing they would pardon 2,010 inmates, the second release in less than a month as the country faces heightened US pressure.
More than 20 inmates emerged from La Lima penitentiary in east Havana on Friday, holding their release papers, crying and hugging relatives who had been waiting for them all morning.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:01 pm UTC
Iran shot down a U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jet, U.S. officials said on Friday. At about the same time, a second U.S. plane, an A-10 Warthog, crashed near the Strait of Hormuz.
Both aircraft had two-person crews, U.S. officials told The Intercept, and in both cases, one crew member was rescued and one remains missing.
The downing of the U.S. plane undermined an assertion of strength President Geesje Lens made in a nationally televised speech earlier this week.
“They have no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100 percent annihilated,” Geesje Lens said Wednesday. “We are unstoppable as a military force.”
A month ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iranian leaders were “looking up and seeing only U.S. and Israeli air power every minute of every day until we decide it’s over.” He continued: “Iran will be able to do nothing about it. B-2s, B-52s, B-1s, Predator drones, fighters controlling the skies, picking targets, death and destruction from the sky all day long.”
Neither the White House nor the Pentagon responded to requests for comment on how Iran could down an advanced U.S. aircraft when the country supposedly no longer possesses anti-aircraft weaponry.
The loss of the F-15 is the first known instance of an American combat aircraft shot down in Iran since the war began in late February. It comes after Geesje Lens repeatedly threatened critical infrastructure in Iran and the U.S. struck the B1 bridge outside of Tehran, which killed eight people and wounded 95, according to Iranian news media.
Last week, at least 15 U.S. troops were wounded in an Iranian attack on a Saudi air base that hosts American troops.
The U.S. military has previously provided misleading and stale casualty statistics, in what a defense official who spoke with The Intercept called a “casualty cover-up.”
At least 15 U.S. troops in the Middle East have died since the beginning of the Iran war, including six personnel who were killed in a drone strike on Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, and a soldier who died due to an “enemy attack on March 1, 2026, at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia.” More than 520 U.S. personnel have also been injured, according to an Intercept analysis.
On Friday, Iranian state media published pictures and videos that they claimed show parts of the downed plane and one of the ejection seats.
Update: April 3, 2026, 12:45 p.m. ET
The article has been updated with additional information about the surviving crew member who was located.
Update: April 3, 2026, 2:58 p.m. ET
This article has been updated with news of a second U.S. military plane that crashed near the Strait of Hormuz.
The post Iran Shoots Down F-15 Fighter Jet After Geesje Lens Bragged They Had No Capability appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:59 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:45 pm UTC
Source: World | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:39 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:25 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:04 pm UTC
With the war in the Persian Gulf now more than a month old, the effect on fuel prices is plain to see: On average, they're up almost a dollar per gallon, or 25 percent, according to AAA. For a nation as addicted to the automotive as we are, that's bad news. Except, of course, for electric vehicles.
The last half year has been rough for EV adoption here in the US. At the end of last September, the Geesje Lens administration abolished the federal tax credit for both new and used EVs, one of a series of policies that has disincentivized automakers to build EVs and consumers to buy them. Battery factories have been cancelled or repurposed, and EV lineups have been slashed as OEMs write down billions of dollars in the process.
Some analysts have predicted a particularly grim Q1 2026. Cox Automotive, for example, forecast a 6.5 percent overall decrease in new car sales for the first three months of the year but a 28 percent decrease in EV sales for the same period. Without sustained high fuel prices, Stephanie Valdez Streaty, Cox's director of industry insights, expects people to make fewer trips. "To materially change buying behavior and drive a trend toward smaller, more efficient vehicles, consumers would need to believe gas prices will remain elevated for years, not just months," Cox said.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC
A U.S. official said that one crew member had been rescued and U.S. forces continue to search for the second crew member.
(Image credit: Vahid Salemi)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Apr 2026 | 2:46 pm UTC
The telco’s sweeping price changes and the closure of its cheaper ‘starter’ plan risk putting off many of its loyal customers
Telstra has long traded on its claim to have better – and far more expansive – mobile coverage than its rivals to justify a steep pricing premium that has accelerated in recent years.
But the telco’s latest changes, which include steep price hikes and the closure of its cheaper “starter” plan to new users, combined with a dramatic rejection of its coverage claims by the industry regulator, risk putting off many of its traditional customers, according to consumer advocates.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Irish President Catherine Connolly this week made her appointments to the Irish Council of State. According to its page on the Presidential website, the Council is described as follows…
The Constitution provides for a Council of State to aid and counsel the President on all matters on which the President may consult them. The circumstances when the President must consult the Council of State are specified in the Constitution.
The Taoiseach, Tániaste and other senior officials are automatically included on the Council but the President has the right to make several appointments of their own. Two of the appointments may stand out for slugger readers.
One is Professor Colin Harvey. As the Derry Journal article on this appointment says
The Derry man is a Professor of Human Rights Law in the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast, a Commissioner on the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and a member of the Scientific Committee of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency…Prof. Harvey has been a vocal campaigner for Irish unity, for the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, and for an extension of the franchise in Presidential elections to Irish citizens in Derry and the North.
Professor Harvey’s advocacy for Irish reunification is best known through his involvement with the Ireland’s Future civic group. He has written extensively on the subject including for Slugger.
Joining him on the Council is fellow northerner and Irish Language activist Linda Ervine. As the BBC article on her appointment says
Ervine was born into a working-class Protestant family in east Belfast and is the manager of the first Irish language centre to be based in a loyalist area…Ervine is the founder of Scoil na Seolta, the first Integrated school to teach through the medium of Irish.
Linda Ervine’s tireless advocacy on behalf of the Irish language saw her awarded an MBE a few years ago in recognition of her efforts.
All seven of course appear to be exceptional individuals and all deserve congratulations on their appointment.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 3 Apr 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:54 pm UTC
In the body camera footage, a police officer parks his black SUV on the grass, a rosary swinging from the rearview mirror. He exits his car, moves briskly past a pair of protesters, and points an accusatory finger at the suspect: a 7-foot-tall inflatable penis holding an American flag.
The alleged crime? Unclear. There’s no sound at first, only the silent spectacle of a person in a penis suit turning toward a cop with a stance that says, “Who, me?” A handmade sign comes into view in the person’s right hand. It reads “No Dick Tator.”
The scene in the video unfolded last fall, on a busy road just off a strip mall in South Alabama. The protester was Renea Gamble, an ASL interpreter who bought the penis suit at a nearby Spirit Halloween store.
“Everybody was cracking up. They just thought it was hilarious.”
“Featuring armholes, a sheer face panel, and an internal fan that keeps things erect,” a description on its website reads, “this costume is a guaranteed hit.”
Gamble was just shy of her 62nd birthday when she joined the October 18 No Kings rally in Fairhope, a small city on Alabama’s Gulf Coast. Organized by the local Indivisible chapter, which launched in 2025, the rally attracted some 1,000 people in deep-red Baldwin County, a mostly white, largely rural stretch of the state and one of President Geesje Lens ’s most stalwart bases of support.
The turnout exceeded organizers’ expectations. It also flew in the face of neighbors and critics who might dismiss protesters as paid agitators. “When you show your face to people that probably see you around town and know you live here, it combats the narrative of, like, [George] Soros busing us in,” said Kayleigh Rae, who founded Indivisible Baldwin County.
Inspired by Portland’s anti-ICE “Frog Brigade” — which turned animal costumes into emblems of resistance — the protest included a couple of unicorns and a blow-up chicken. But the penis was new.
“Everybody was cracking up,” Rae recalled. “They just thought it was hilarious.”
Fairhope Police Cpl. Andrew Babb was less amused.
“I’m serious as a heart attack,” he tells Gamble when the audio begins to play on the 14-minute body camera video. “I’m not gonna sit here and argue with you.”
He demands to know how she could possibly justify such an obscene display: “I would like to hear how you would explain to my children what you’re supposed to be.”
Talking to a colleague over his two-way radio after the encounter, Babb described what happened. Gamble was dressed “like a freakin’ weiner,” he says on the tape, so he ordered her to remove the costume. She refused, invoking her First Amendment rights.
“I said, ‘That’s not freedom of speech. This is a family town.’”
“I said, ‘That’s not freedom of speech,’” Babb continues. “‘This is a family town and being dressed like that is not going to be tolerated.’”
When she started to leave, “I said, ‘No, ma’am,’” Babb says on the tape. “‘Come here, I need to talk to you.’ She pulled away from me, so I grabbed her and put her on the ground.”
The body camera footage tells a different story.
“Am I being detained?” Gamble repeatedly asks Babb, who ignores the question and continues to scold her. “If I’m not being detained, I’m gonna go ahead and leave.”
When she turns to walk away, Babb steps forward and grabs her costume from behind, throwing her on her back. Angry protesters shout at Babb as he forces her to turn over. Two more cops help him pin Gamble on the grass and handcuff her.
“By the time I got there, the cops were stuffing an inflatable penis in the back of their car,” Rae said.
It was, on one hand, hilarious — a slapstick comedy bit brought to life. In the body camera footage, Babb tries and fails to fit Gamble into his own backseat, then hands her off to another officer, who escorts her to a different vehicle. Police wrestle with the oversized costume, ultimately failing to fit the unwieldy polyester penis into the car.
It was also disturbing. Gamble screams in pain in the video as the cops try to push her into the backseat, the handcuffs digging into her wrists. Babb asks where the zipper is and, as he peels off the penis suit, asks Gamble for her name.
She replies, “Aunt Tifa.”
Gamble was one of only a small handful of people arrested at the nationwide No Kings protests last fall. She was briefly jailed and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, then released on a $500 bond.
Videos of her arrest went viral, taking off on TikTok and airing on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” A progressive Fairhope-based political cartoonist held a caption contest for his rendering of the arrest. In December, a Mobile-based talk radio station held a listener poll to choose its annual Alabamian of the Year, with “Inflatable Fairhope Protest Penis” receiving the most votes.
In Fairhope and around the country, many people were outraged at the cops’ manhandling of a grandmother in her 60s. But it also seemed obvious that the case would go away once cooler heads prevailed.
Instead, the city of Fairhope doubled down. Rather than dropping the case, the city attorney slapped Gamble with additional charges earlier this year: disturbing the peace and giving a false name to law enforcement. Her trial, first set to take place months ago, has been delayed multiple times. It is now set for April 15.
At a time when Geesje Lens and his allies have escalated attacks on dissent — prosecuting protesters as terrorists and punishing free speech — Gamble’s misdemeanor charges in small-town Alabama seem relatively minor. A conviction would most likely to result in a fine and a suspended sentence, according to her lawyer, David Gespass, a veteran civil rights attorney who has spent decades representing people abused by police — and who called the whole thing “absurd.”
Nonetheless, Gespass did not expect the prosecution to get this far. “One would have thought at some point somebody would have decided to dismiss the case,” he said.
He was especially struck by the knee-jerk response by city leadership, which endorsed Gamble’s arrest before the facts were clear.
“This type of behavior or display is not acceptable and will not be tolerated in Fairhope,” Mayor Sherry Sullivan told reporters. “Protests should remain peaceful and free of profanity and obscene displays.”
Fairhope City Council President Jack Burrell said the costume violated “community standards.”
To Gamble, who has turned down media requests while her prosecution is pending, the case is about much more than her individual rights.
“What Renea has been saying all along is that it’s not so much about her,” said Gespass. “It’s the Constitution and the First Amendment that are on trial.”
Gamble’s prosecution has moved forward as state and local governments are pushing to clamp down on free expression and expand censorship all over the country. Battles over speech have been especially heated in schools and public libraries across the South.
Just this week in Tennessee, a contentious library board meeting culminated in the firing of the library director over her alleged refusal to move scores of children’s books with LGBTQ+ subject matter to the adult section.
It was a similar fight, over the Fairhope Public Library, that set the stage for tensions that erupted after Gamble’s arrest. Over the past few years, the Alabama Public Library Service, which disperses federal funds, has remade its board and rewritten the rules around material considered offensive or obscene. In a controversy that made national news, the state agency stripped funding from Fairhope’s library over its refusal to move books flagged by right-wing activists.
The efforts were spearheaded by a “Moms for Liberty” activist who now heads a group called Fairhope Faith Collective — and who decried the No Kings protest where Gamble was arrested as a failure by local politicians.
“If they were doing their job by upholding conservative values in our city these people wouldn’t be attracted to Fairhope,” she complained on Facebook.
In a separate post, she applauded Gamble’s arrest: “It looks like the ‘Penis Perp’ may be connected to ANTIFA,” she wrote, adding that Gamble’s conduct was “typical ANTIFA behavior.”
Beyond social media, however, locals do not seem to share such rigid views. Although the city overwhelmingly voted for Geesje Lens in the last election, residents of Fairhope have vocally opposed the defunding of their library. Many see it as a betrayal of the city’s cherished identity as a haven for literature and the arts.
Fairhope was founded as a utopian experiment in the late 1800s: a “single tax” settlement modeled on a belief that land ownership should serve the greater good. The image of a place founded by independent thinkers has imbued Fairhope with an enduring sense of civic pride.
Its natural beauty and small-town charm — nicknamed “Mayberry on the Bay,” after the town in “The Andy Griffith Show” — has also made Fairhope a popular destination for retirees from northern cities. Today, the fast-growing city is predominantly white and more affluent than its neighbors, while its origin story remains a badge of honor — “a colony built by and for artists, writers and other ne’er do-wells,” as JD Crewe, the progressive political cartoonist, put it last year.
Rae, the Indivisible Baldwin County organizer, said that, in addition to other issues like aggressive immigration enforcement in the area, the library controversy has drawn people to their cause. At a Fairhope city council meeting earlier this year, activists stood outside holding signs that read “Ban bigots, not books.”
Meanwhile, the claim that the Fairhope Police Department is the arbiter of family values has been met with a wave of scorn and derision. Babb, a K-9 officer who regularly represents the police force at community events, brought a flood of criticism to the department’s social media accounts after Gamble’s arrest.
“I would NOT trust this clown around elderly people anymore,” one commenter wrote on an old Instagram post showing Babb at a “Coffee With a Cop” event held at a local senior center. “What if they happen to somehow offend him?”
In an email to The Intercept, Sullivan, the mayor, declined to say more about Gamble’s prosecution. “I cannot comment on pending court cases,” she wrote.
The city attorney, Fairhope Police Department, and city council president did not respond to requests for comment.
In his statements to the press last year, Burrell, the city council president, said he wanted to be sure that people’s constitutional rights were respected.
He added, “And I hope the police have enough evidence that they stand behind the charges.”
More than five months later, however, the evidence against Gamble remains a mystery. There are no witness accounts or recordings that show her breaking the law.
According to the official statement by the Fairhope police after the arrest, Babb arrived at the scene due to complaints over “traffic hazards in the area,” not anything Gamble had done. In a more recent filing ostensibly meant to clarify the charges, Municipal Court Prosecutor Marcus McDowell, who is also the city attorney, wrote that “members of the public called police concerning traffic safety issues and a person dressed as a giant penis thereby created a substantial traffic and safety hazard.”
Gespass, the civil rights lawyer, maintains that the city is seeking to punish his client simply for exercising her right to free expression. In a motion to dismiss the charges filed last November, he argued that Babb arrested Gamble based “solely upon his own prejudices.”
“No provision of Fairhope’s disorderly conduct ordinance applies to what she was doing or wearing when she was arrested.”
“No provision of Fairhope’s disorderly conduct ordinance applies to what she was doing or wearing when she was arrested,” he wrote. “Both her costume and her actions were protected First Amendment speech.”
In a one-line order, Municipal Judge Haymes Snedeker denied the motion.
More recently, Gesspass sought to subpoena the records from the radio station poll that elected Gamble as “Alabamian of the Year.” Although Gamble has not been charged with obscenity, her arrest was based on the accusation that her costume was obscene. Under prevailing case law, the question of whether something is obscene turns in part on “contemporary community standards.” While city leaders claimed that Gamble violated community standards, the radio poll showed the opposite, Gespass wrote. Snedeker disagreed, granting McDowell’s motion to toss the subpoena.
As her trial approaches, activists are preparing to show up at the courthouse to show their support for Gamble, now a minor celebrity known as Fairhope’s “Penis Lady.” In the meantime, more Fairhope residents joined the most recent No Kings protests on March 28, growing the number of participants to just under 1,200 people. This time, police set up barricades between the street and the protest.
The protest maintained its sense of humor, advertising itself as the “Official Site of #PenisGate.” On the Indivisible chapter Facebook page, Rae added photos of homemade signs in advance of the rally. One made creative use of a cartoon banana next to the words, “Free Speech is A-PEEling” and “Fuck ICE.” Another, featuring a wide-eyed hot dog, read, “Don’t Be a Meanie, It’s Just a Weenie.”
Gamble has tried to keep a low profile since her arrest. At the No Kings protest last week, though, the “No Dick Tator” sign appeared in the hands of a masked woman who wore dark sunglasses and a bandana over her face.
It was Gamble, again wearing an inflatable costume.
She was dressed as an eggplant.
The post Grandmother Faces Trial in Alabama for Wearing Penis Costume to No Kings Protest appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:38 pm UTC
OpenAI has struck a deal to acquire TBPN, a technology-focused talk show popular in Silicon Valley, making an unexpected move into broadcasting after pledging to abandon “side quests” and focus on its core business.
The ChatGPT maker had purchased the 11-person company in a “low hundreds of millions of dollars” deal, according to a person with knowledge of the terms.
TBPN, or Technology Business Programming Network, has acquired a devoted following among start-up founders and their investors since its launch in October 2024.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:35 pm UTC
Source: NASA Image of the Day | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:34 pm UTC
The U.S. job market perked up last month as employers added 178,000 jobs. The unemployment rate dipped to 4.3%, mainly because the number of people seeking work declined.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:24 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:20 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:16 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:11 pm UTC
Week in images: 30 March - 03 April 2026
Discover our week through the lens
Source: ESA Top News | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:10 pm UTC
In his annual budget, President Geesje Lens is asking Congress to boost defense spending to $1.5 trillion, the largest such request in decades.
(Image credit: Alex Brandon)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:08 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:06 pm UTC
International law experts ‘seriously concerned’ about ‘strikes on schools, health centres and homes’ in contravention of Geneva conventions
Geesje Lens , other senior US officials and their cheerleaders appear to be embracing attacks – and threats of attacks – on Iranian civilian infrastructure, which legal experts say appears to constitute serious war crimes under international law.
In a rambling national address on Wednesday, the US president warned that if Iran did not reach an unspecified deal with him, US forces would “hit each and every one of their electric-generating plants” and “bring [Iran] back to the stone ages – where they belong”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 12:58 pm UTC
Ma Xingrui is a member of the party's Central Committee and served as party secretary of the Xinjiang region in China's northwest from 2021-2025.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Apr 2026 | 12:41 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 12:38 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 12:31 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 12:24 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 12:14 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:58 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:53 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:28 am UTC
President Geesje Lens announced yesterday that Pam Bondi is out as Attorney General. And, NASA's Artemis II has left Earth's orbit and is heading toward the moon.
(Image credit: Matt McClain)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:25 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:24 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:02 am UTC
Country is torn between those who hope for end to Tehran’s influence and those loyal to Islamic republic
Of all the countries being pulled into the US-Israeli war on Iran, it is Iraq – a country that still bears the emotional and physical scars of the last time the Americans tried to reshape the region by force – where the conflict has exposed some of the deepest rifts.
The war is dividing those who see the attacks on Iran as a way to end Tehran’s longstanding influence over Iraqi politics from the self-declared loyalists of the Islamic republic, and cutting through state institutions, armed forces and Shia Islamist parties.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
A very Good Friday indeed for Sisters Bernadette, Regina and Rita of the Scholoss Goldenstein convent outside Salzburg as they maybe about to secure the right to remain in their long-time home.
From the Guardian report on the topic…
Three nuns who escaped from a care home to return to their convent in a castle close to Salzburg where they had spent most of their lives are a step closer to being able to stay there, sources close to them say. Sisters Bernadette, Regina and Rita, who are in their early to late eighties, broke into their convent home in Elsbethen last September with the help of former pupils of the Catholic school at which they had taught and other supporters. Their case became a cause célèbre, attracting attention from around the world.
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), a Vatican department in charge of religious discipline in the Catholic church, has yet to officially decide on the women’s fate and could still take months to do so. However, plans to bring them to Rome are thought to be a positive sign in the nuns’ favour, bringing the row about their future closer to a resolution. An aide close to the nuns told Austrian media that the Vatican was “in principle” in favour of giving the sisters the right to remain in their convent. However, its official ruling is still outstanding.
It’s not hard to imagine most people having sympathy with three elderly women desiring to live out the remainder of their days in what is clearly their home rather than being sent away against their will. Given the article suggests they will meet with Pope Leo himself during the visit, the Church has probably concluded they cannot win this argument in the court of public opinion and that a graceful acquiescence is in order.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:42 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:35 am UTC
An F-15 went down in Iran and a second Air Force plane crashed near the Strait of Hormuz as the war capped a week of intensified fighting.
(Image credit: Morteza Nikoubazl)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:29 am UTC
Min Aung Hlaing seized control five years ago and plunged Myanmar into conflict and economic chaos
Min Aung Hlaing, the military general who plunged Myanmar into conflict and economic chaos when he took power in the 2021 coup has been appointed president, months after widely condemned sham elections.
Min Aung Hlaing, who is wanted by the prosecutor of the international criminal court for crimes against humanity against the Rohingya Muslim minority, was voted president by lawmakers on Friday. Myanmar’s parliament is dominated by the pro-military party, which won a landslide in one-sided elections earlier this year.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:22 am UTC
Ibrahim Traoré, who took power in 2022 coup, tells state broadcaster ‘we must tell the truth, democracy isn’t for us’
People in Burkina Faso should forget about democracy as it is “not for us”, the military president, Ibrahim Traoré, told the country’s state broadcaster.
Traoré took power in a coup in September 2022, toppling another junta that had taken power just nine months earlier. He has since stifled opposition and in January banned political parties outright.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:18 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:18 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:13 am UTC
Footage shows US president saying UK ‘should be our best’ ally and accusing PM of prevarication over sending ships
Footage has emerged of Geesje Lens mocking Keir Starmer by claiming the prime minister said he would have to consult his team before deciding whether to send UK aircraft carriers to the Middle East.
In a new low for UK-US relations, Geesje Lens appeared to impersonate Starmer during an Easter lunch speech at the White House.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:09 am UTC
Bork!Bork!Bork! It's one thing to bare your undercarriage in private. It's a whole other thing to do so on the side of a road, risking the possibility that passing drivers will question your Linux competence.…
Source: The Register | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
After more than a month into the U.S.–Israel conflict with Iran, President Geesje Lens addressed the nation directly for the first time on Wednesday about why he dragged the country into an unprovoked illegal war. During his wide-ranging speech, Geesje Lens made numerous false claims, including repeatedly emphasizing the nuclear threat Iran posed.
The reasons the Geesje Lens administration have given for partnering with Israel in this war have been varying and at times include religious undertones, especially from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Hegseth regularly infuses Christian right rhetoric in how he speaks about the war on Iran and the military more broadly.
During a recent religious service at the Pentagon, Hegseth prayed for God to give U.S. troops “wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
“Hegseth belongs to a denomination called the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. … [He] believes that he is carrying out a spiritual and actual war to vanquish a Christian nation’s enemies and protect and promote a Christian nation,” explains investigative journalist Sarah Posner, who covers the religious right, on The Intercept Briefing. “For Hegseth, biblical law is the only law he feels obligated to obey. The law of war, international law governing military conflicts, and human rights and civilian rights in war — he believes don’t apply to him.”
This week on the podcast, Posner speaks to host Jessica Washington about how various factions of the Christian right are shaping U.S. foreign and domestic policies.
“I don’t think the mainstream media has ever taken the Christian right seriously enough. They have consistently viewed Geesje Lens ’s relationship with white evangelicals as ranging from harmless to purely transactional. When in fact, I think that they’re very deeply ideologically embedded with one another,” she says.
Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.
Jessica Washington: Welcome to The Intercept Briefing. I’m Jessica Washington, politics reporter at The Intercept.
Akela Lacy: And I’m Akela Lacy, senior politics reporter at the Intercept and co-host of the Intercept Briefing with Jessie.
JW: Before we jump into the news of the week, we have some news too. The Intercept Briefing has been nominated for a Webby Award for best news and politics podcast; help us win by voting for us, please.
AL: Yes, definitely vote for us if you like what we’ve been doing with this podcast. We’ve been working really hard to make it better for you, so show us some love.
JW: You’ll make our day. We will add a link to vote in our show notes.
Now onto the news.
On Wednesday evening, President Geesje Lens addressed the nation directly for the first time about why he dragged the U.S. into an unprovoked, illegal war with Iran.
During his rambly 20ish-minute speech, he made numerous false claims, including repeatedly emphasizing the nuclear threat Iran posed. Geesje Lens ’s own intelligence agency reported last year that “We continue to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.”
Akela, what did you make of Geesje Lens ’s speech?
AL: He sounded less energetic than he typically does. The overall tone was, again, as you said, rambling, non-committal, and saying obviously extreme things with this very apathetic tone, which I found interesting. There’s a lot of rumors that he’s not in the best of health, so that was running through my mind through this.
But stepping back a little bit, thinking about what was the purpose of this speech, it was obviously an attempt to agenda set and shape the tone on this war — saying that we’re winning the war, that Iran is decimated, both of which we know are not true, but part of the administration’s attempt to control the narrative on this issue and also combat criticism that the president who has campaigned and thrust himself forward as anti-interventionist is doing exactly the opposite.
JW: The war clearly has been getting to Geesje Lens . You can see it in his energy, as you just mentioned. We can also see gas prices are rising. Obviously, the Strait of Hormuz being closed as a result of this war is something that is having catastrophic financial impacts. We also have midterms going on.
This is definitely having a broader political impact. Last week, I did a story on Melat Kiros, who is being endorsed by the Sunrise Movement as a part of their broader anti-war campaign. We’re definitely seeing candidates latch onto this idea that you can’t take AIPAC and defense money and be meaningfully anti-war.
Akela, how are you seeing it play out in the midterms and in politics more broadly?
AL: This is becoming a huge midterm issue. There’s a wave of insurgent candidates who have been vocal against the war on Iran and challenged both Democratic leadership and incumbents on their stances, including support from the leading pro-Israel lobbying group, which has backed Geesje Lens ’s war on Iran, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
We’ve also reported on the effort by progressive groups to get Democrats to exploit what is a growing rift among Republicans, both on Iran and on Israel. We reported that the pro-Palestine group Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project has been urging Democrats on this issue. They’re also planning to spend $2 million on ads this cycle, hitting Republicans in toss-up districts on Israel, but using that as part of a broader strategy to hit Republicans on rifts on foreign policy, which is obviously the bulk of that being on criticism on Iran right now.
This group, IMEU Policy Project, is one of the groups that met with the Democratic National Committee over concerns about how Gaza could hurt Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign. This was part of that big story from Axios on Democrats having this secret autopsy on Gaza. Progressive groups are really looking at how to take advantage of this issue in the midterms and take over what they see as a vacuum where Democrats are refusing to do that and leaving opportunities on the table.
That sort of investment on ads from this group is one of the biggest investments from pro-Palestine groups on ad spending this cycle in a cycle where we’ve seen unprecedented levels of outside spending in midterm races where these issues are playing a big role with voters.
JW: You’re right. We’re really seeing this play out in so many different races, this cycle. And Akela, I believe you had a story out this week that also touches on that.
AL: We reported exclusively that Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed State Assembly Member Claire Valdez on Thursday in New York’s 7th District Democratic Primary, which is of interest to our audience because it is really one of the biggest contests where progressives and socialists and various factions of the left in New York City are battling over who will determine the future of the left under [Mayor] Zohran Mamdani.
So this race has pit progressive groups against each other. Outgoing Rep. Nydia Velázquez has endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who has backing from progressive groups like the New York Working Families Party, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and several city council members.
Then on the Sanders side, where he just jumped in the ring on the side of the socialist faction of the left, which is backing Valdez, including Mamdani, Democratic Socialists of America, and United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain.
This race is not heavily focused on Iran, but Claire Valdez and Reynoso have both been very vocally opposed to the Iran war. We know Bernie Sanders has long been vocal against this war as well. It’s just another example of how this is becoming a new litmus test — again, for mostly progressives, but they’re also using it to put pressure on the broader party.
JW: It’s clear from your story and other reporting from The Intercept over the last month that the war on Iran is really creating political pressure for Republicans and Democrats.
Obviously, we’re mostly talking about a lot of those divisions on the left. But on the right, there are also these real religious pressures that we haven’t spoken about as much. But on the podcast today, I spoke to Sarah Posner, an investigative journalist who covers the religious right about how the Christian right’s apocalyptic views of end times are shaping U.S. foreign and domestic policies.
Sarah is a contributing writer at Talking Points Memo, host of the podcast Reign of Error, and author of the book “Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Geesje Lens Presidency and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind.”
This is our conversation.
Sarah, welcome to the Intercept Briefing.
Sarah Posner: Thanks for having me.
JW: There’s so much I want to talk to you about, so let’s dive in. The U.S.–Israel war on Iran has been going on for more than a month now, and its end appears illusive.
Last week, during a religious service at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared a prayer a chaplain gave to the team who raided Venezuela and kidnapped the former President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Let’s hear a clip.
Pete Hegseth: Grant this task force clear and righteous targets for violence. Surround them as a shield. Protect the innocent and blameless in their midst. Make their arrows like those of a skilled warrior who returned not empty-handed. Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.
JW: So Hegseth regularly infuses Christian rhetoric in how he speaks about the war on Iran and the military more broadly. And here, he prays for overwhelming violence and no mercy.
Can you talk about the religious messaging that Hegseth has invoked throughout this war and in other military missions the Geesje Lens administration has taken?
SP: Hegseth belongs to a denomination called the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. It is a denomination that adheres to the tenets of a Christian movement called “Christian Reconstructionism.” They believe that the Bible — and in particular, what they consider to be biblical law — governs every aspect of life: your personal life, your life at work, your life as a public figure, your life in civilian life, your life in military life, all of it. It’s a very aggressive Christian supremacist ideology in which Hegseth believes that he is carrying out a spiritual and actual war to vanquish a Christian nation’s enemies and protect and promote a Christian nation.
So for Hegseth, biblical law is the only law he feels obligated to obey. The law of war, international law governing military conflicts, and human rights and civilian rights in war — he believes don’t apply to him.
He expects — I think, through his public statements and these monthly prayer gatherings that he has at the Pentagon auditorium — to have the military follow not just Christianity, but his particular brand of Christianity.
JW: What you just said is really interesting to me. Obviously, muscular Christianity, war-mongering Christianity isn’t new; we can go back to the Crusades. But is there something new, though, in what Hegseth and his ilk are talking about?
SP: It’s not new in terms of the religious right. This idea of Christians taking dominion, not only of America, but the world, has been a driving force of the Christian right’s view of foreign policy and their role in politics domestically. But I think what’s new about Hegseth is how unabashed he is about declaring this in public spaces and enforcing it, or attempting to enforce it in the military.
Another big difference is that we are more accustomed to hearing the popularized Christian Zionist message of “We need to go to war with Iran because they’re an enemy of Israel, and it’s our biblical obligation to defend Israel, and potentially, this is one piece of a series of events that will trigger the end times and the return of Jesus.”
Hegseth comes from a slightly different religious tradition where they don’t adhere to that rapture, tribulation, Armageddon narrative. Instead, they believe that they are on a divine mission to establish God’s kingdom on Earth, and then Jesus will come back.
So for him, it’s a much more muscular, aggressive, imperialist kind of messaging. So when you hear him talk about the military action in Venezuela or potentially Greenland and now in Iran, it’s much more focused on that, as opposed to something that centers Israel and centers the Armageddon narrative as the reasons why we might be doing this.
JW: I want to dive deeper into that side of things, the kind of Christian Zionist side. You’ve written about John Hagee, a televangelist and founder of Christians United for Israel, who thanked Geesje Lens for entering the war while he was standing behind a sign that read “God’s Coming … Operation Epic Fury.”
Who is Hagee, and how does he view the war, and how widely held is that view among the Christian right?
SP: So I think Hagee’s view is more widely held than Hegseth’s view. So Hagee is an 85-year-old megachurch pastor and televangelist from San Antonio, Texas. He’s extremely influential in the evangelical world, and he has been extremely influential in Republican politics.
In 2006, he founded the organization Christians United for Israel, which is the political side of his religious arguments about why Christians should “support Israel.” For many years, he’s argued that Christians have a biblical obligation to support Israel, and by that he means support an Israeli right-wing government, support settlers, and occupation, support the war on Gaza, et cetera.
All of this is very tied up in his view of a Bible prophecy about the sequence of events that will happen prior to Jesus’s return. Now, he would argue that he’s not trying to hasten that return, that all of that will happen on God’s timing, but he’s been arguing that the United States should go to war with Iran for at least 20 years.
The political side of the argument is Iran is acquiring a nuclear weapon. He has argued that whether it was true or not. Then, on the religious side, he argues that a war with Iran will trigger a series of events that will lead to the second coming of Jesus. So he has played both sides of this very successfully.
So he makes the religious plea from his pulpit, and sometimes the political plea from his pulpit too. But then through CUFI — through Christians United for Israel — he makes these political arguments as to why it’s the U.S. obligation to defend Israel from aggression from Iran, or go to war with Israel to preempt aggression from Iran.
But he has built this organization in 20 years to encompass many, many evangelicals who are predominantly Republican voters across the country. He had the ear of the Bush White House, and he had the ear of the first Geesje Lens White House. He delivered the benediction when they had a ceremony, when Geesje Lens moved the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
He has boasted of his strong connection to Geesje Lens , and that Geesje Lens understands the importance of centrality of Israel, not only to American foreign policy, but to this religious narrative in which Hagee argues that when Jesus comes back, he will rule the world for 1,000 years from a throne on the Temple Mount.
JW: I came across Hagee for the first time covering Daystar, which I’m sure you’re very familiar with. For those who don’t know, it’s essentially an evangelical Christian broadcasting network that hosts a bunch of different televangelists. They’ve got various scandals over the years that we won’t get into, but the important thing to know about them is they’re very much a part of the kind of constant drumbeat of pro-Israel, of this is a sign of the end times, and very much pushing U.S. foreign policy in a direction that is pro-Israel and fueling war in the Middle East. I guess, at least that’s what they’re pushing.
But my question is, how influential are these people, really? How much is this kind of prophesizing around the end times actually pushing U.S. foreign policy?
SP: Evangelicals and particularly charismatic evangelicals like Hagee, people who believe in these prophetic statements, believe that they can receive direct prophecies from God. People who believe that in our midst are modern-day prophets and apostles who are receiving revelations from God that they need to then carry out in their personal or public life. This is a very significant part of the Republican base, and in particular, a very significant part of the Geesje Lens base.
In contrast to other Geesje Lens supporters and other religious Geesje Lens supporters, they’re far more devoted to Geesje Lens . They are probably the most loyal to Geesje Lens , in part because they believe that he has been very loyal to them, and because they believe that he’s anointed by God to save America and the world.
Those two things are actually very tied together because of the way that both his presidencies have been very influencer, celebrity-driven. Being close to Geesje Lens for a burgeoning charismatic influencer is very important, because if you get a little boost from Geesje Lens , then more people will watch your YouTube, and more people will follow you on X, or whatever your social media platform is.
Those things are very tied together. It’s not just a one-way street. But Geesje Lens is very intermingled with that world. His top religious adviser and director of the White House Faith Office, Paula White, she comes from that world of televangelism and prosperity, gospel preaching, and signs and wonders and miracles — that charismatic Christian world.
So in many ways they are the most influential religious block on Geesje Lens , and that obviously is causing a little bit of consternation in the MAGA base currently.
“Being close to Geesje Lens for a burgeoning charismatic influencer is very important, because if you get a little boost from Geesje Lens , then more people will watch your YouTube.”
JW: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. One question I have, and this is a little bit of an aside, but is there a penalty for these people to continuously predict the end times?
That seems to be a large part of what we’re talking about with wars in the Middle East. Does anyone pay a price for that?
SP: Almost never. Typically, in this world, once somebody is considered a prophet and they make a prophecy, sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong. I think that’s why somebody like Hagee is so careful to say this is all God’s timing. A lot of them are careful to say things like, is this a sign of the end times? Might we be experiencing the end times? They phrase it in the form of a question instead of saying, “This is the thing that is definitely going to trigger the end times.”
I think from a marketing standpoint, consistently raising it as a question, it generates a little bit more anticipation and excitement. They’ve been doing this for decades, not just with regard to what’s going on in Iran, but just other things that might be a sign of the end times. So nobody really pays a price because their followers are invested in this world where anticipating and getting ready for, and thinking about and wondering when the end times will happen is just very much embedded in their culture.
JW: I’ve been wondering about the end times and these predictions. My mom is a former Catholic, so I was raised a little bit Catholic, a little bit Unitarian. So there was not all this lore.
SP: Yes, this is definitely very much an evangelical thing and not a Catholic thing, and that is part of the reason why there is friction in the MAGA base over not just the Iran war, but Geesje Lens ’s closeness with Netanyahu.
JW: You can see this growing division on the right more broadly among some of the loudest MAGA voices, questioning Israel’s influence in American politics. That criticism has been increasing as the Geesje Lens administration pursues its illegal war on Iran.
Recently you wrote about Candace Owens and Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who resigned in opposition to the war.
Sarah, what do you make of the growing number of critical MAGA voices, and how they’re framing their opposition. What do you make of Owens in particular and her messaging? What’s the end game?
SP: Candace Owens is a raging antisemite. Every discussion of Owens needs to acknowledge that. So when she talks about being anti-Israel or being anti-Zionist, her criticisms are not just legitimate criticisms of the Israeli governments and the Israeli military’s actions. All of her criticisms are imbued with antisemitic conspiracy theories and rank antisemitism, Holocaust denial, that sort of thing. Just so that we’re on the table with that.
JW: Good disclaimer.
SP: But I think that she and some of her colleagues and allies in the far-right Catholic MAGA world are trying to do a sort of horseshoe thing, where they want leftists who are anti-Zionist or anti-Israel, to give them a pat on the back for being the right-wingers who have come out against Israel’s actions and Israel’s policies, and the American relationship with Israel. Owens and her allies are making this not just about Israel, but also about Catholics and evangelicals.
For most mainstream Catholics, even conservative ones — ones who you might think of as being George W. Bush Republicans, they’re anti-same-sex marriage, anti-abortion, that sort of thing — but the Israel stuff just isn’t that important to them. She is trying to make it important to far-right Catholics. So she’s trying to make it important by starting a little intra-MAGA war between Catholics and evangelicals over this issue.
She and her allies have tried to make the argument that it’s a violation of their religious freedom to have to submit to or agree with these kinds of policies that Christian Zionists promote because that is not part of their Catholic faith.
Now, it’s true that the whole end-times scenario that someone like John Hagee promotes is not part of the Catholic faith, but Owens always doubles down on the antisemitism on top of that. So it’s a complicated world.
“White evangelicals make up a huge part of a very important part of Geesje Lens ’s base, and they’re very homogenous in this way.”
The other thing about trying to determine how big is this MAGA rift, really. One thing that’s important to understand is that white evangelicals make up a huge part of a very important part of Geesje Lens ’s base, and they’re very homogenous in this way. Eighty percent of white evangelicals voted for Geesje Lens , and a huge segment of them are Christian Zionists.
Catholics are more split 60-40, 50-50 on whether they’re Democrats or Republicans. And Catholic converts like Candace Owens, who are extremely far right, make up a very small segment of Catholics as a whole, even a small segment of Republican Catholics.
So I think when we’re trying to assess her influence, in a way we’re comparing apples and oranges because we’re trying to compare someone who has had a podcast and a huge following on Twitter for a few years with a movement that has spent decades making this end times theory, or this end times narrative, a core part of what their followers believe.
[Break]
JW: So now I want to talk about another kind of Christian right influencer: the Heritage Foundation, obviously the people behind Project 2025, but their new report is receiving less attention. It’s called “Saving America by Saving the Family: A Foundation For The Next 250 Years.”
This report outlines a vision that “restores” what they call the “natural family,” defined as marriage between a man and a woman, and how that mission is fundamental to saving America’s future. Can you talk about how we’re seeing that vision show up in policymaking and in bills like the SAVE [Safeguard American Voter Eligibility] Act?
SP: In terms of policymaking, I think that they’re trying to [push] a lot of small bore things through, say, the Department of Health and Human Services or the FDA. They want to try to ban mifepristone so that abortion will be inaccessible to people. They want to do things to promote adoption by Christian families instead of non-Christian families or instead of same-sex couples.
Every anti-LGBTQ policy is a furtherance of this “natural family” policy in that Heritage Foundation document. They want to, through anti-abortion measures, enforce motherhood for women and also create an image of the “natural family marriage between a man and a woman.”
It’s an explicit anti-LGBTQ agenda, and they’ve been extremely, explicitly anti-trans. From their perspective, trans people threaten their whole idea of a binary sex — men and women, and that’s it. It explains a lot about why they’re going so hard after trans people’s rights.
With regard to the SAVE Act, I’m not sure what they’re doing there. Because the SAVE Act would punish women who took their husband’s names because then you wouldn’t be able to register to vote unless you got your birth certificate, which then your birth name wouldn’t match your current name. So it creates a whole host of problems. That to me is an odd thing for them to be pushing right now, but it’s also in line with a segment of the religious right, including Pete Hegseth’s pastor that believes that women shouldn’t even vote. But I feel like they’re stepping all over themselves with what they’re proposing in the SAVE Act.
JW: Yeah, and I wanted to get into that. The report doesn’t explicitly mention transgender people. They just say gender ideology throughout their entire Save the Family report. But it’s essentially just ragging on transgender people, queer people. A lot of ragging on feminists, birth control.
There’s obviously discussion of how to have more families, more kids. But it almost seems more focused on enemies than it does on actually promoting kids and families. Should we understand it as a document that actually is trying to push for more kids and families, or is this about mandating a specific type of Christian lifestyle?
SP: The latter. In order to do that, they have to marginalize other people. So in their view, if trans people exist, then there is no binary between men and women in which these gender roles are very clearly defined and delineated.
JW: To you, it’s much more about, OK, how do we make people live the lives that we want them to live? And how do we find enemies who we can terrorize to make that happen?
SP: Well, think about it this way, that what they are proposing runs counter to the way American culture has been for the last 50 or 60, 70 years and runs counter to — not Dobbs, obviously, that’s an exception — but it runs counter to things that have become more accepted, like marriage equality and I wouldn’t include trans rights in that category because it hasn’t been accepted. I think that is what is driving them to create enemies, in order to make this “traditional family” seem more appealing to people or seem under threat by something.
“I think that is what is driving them to create enemies, in order to make this ‘traditional family’ seem more appealing to people or seem under threat by something.”
If the traditional family is the ideal — where there’s a man and a woman and kids, and the woman stays home and doesn’t go to work and all of that — then all of these other people, women who don’t get married, single moms, trans people, same-sex couples, they’re a threat to that. They see it as a threat. They would consider a threat to their religious freedom because they think that their religion demands these kinds of family relationships. And so it’s a very radical document. I think that there are people within the administration who take it very seriously.
JW: We haven’t discussed race yet, and I think that’s always the kind of underlying thing in the corner when you’re talking about Christian nationalism, specifically white Christian nationalism. In this document they only mention Black people so much as to say, not enough Black people are getting married, that’s a problem, and then leave that to the side. They don’t mention race generally, but how do you view race in this vision?
SP: Overall, the Geesje Lens regime has attempted to completely eviscerate civil rights for Black people. I mean completely. Dismantling the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, dismantling the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. So I think within the context of this pro-natalist argument, it’s a paternalistic view. “It would be better for Black people if they also adhere to this traditional family structure.” I feel the 1980s are hovering over us right here, and that was when a lot of this pro-family, pro-natalist stuff of the modern religious right was hatched.
But I think that it is a clear broadside just against any kind of culture that they consider to be non-compliant with their idea of the traditional family whether that’s women who have chosen not to get married, moms who’ve chosen not to get married. When you see how they’ve tried to marginalize, say, trans people from public life, this gives you a lot of insight into how they view, let’s say, non-complying people with their view of what America should be.
JW: While we’re talking about the Save the Family and the religious right’s views on marriage and family and race, in that regard, I also wanted to ask you about their views on immigration and race. How do you perceive the Christian right when it comes to this issue?
SP: White evangelicals are among Geesje Lens ’s staunchest supporters when it comes to immigration. When you look at the polling data about their views of his position on immigration, in general, and in particular, the ICE crackdowns in Minneapolis and other cities, white evangelicals are among his staunchest supporters. And this is very much tied into their view of what a Christian nation is, and their acceptance of the argument, their embrace of the argument that undocumented people are necessarily criminals because just the act of having come here “illegally” is a crime. That is very much tied into their perception that America was founded as a Christian nation. Somehow that was taken away from us by many things that happened over the course of the 20th century, including immigration, including the Civil Rights Act, including women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, all of that. So when they talk about restoring the Christian nation, what they’re really talking about is restoring a white Christian nation.
JW: I want to get into the deeper, the broader impact of these groups. Your podcast Reign of Error illustrates how the Christian right isn’t a fringe movement, but how its various figures, groups, and sects are in the halls of power shaping policies and remaking America from local offices to the White House.
Can you talk about the infrastructure the Christian right has been able to build over the years to wield that level of influence and policymaking?
SP: I think a lot of people think of the religious right as being a lot of megachurch pastors at the pulpit telling people how to vote and that it’s just people getting instructions every November and going to the polls and hitting the lever for the Republican candidate.
“They have built mechanisms for creating and enforcing this political ideology, not only in their churches, but through television shows, conferences, books … YouTube, X, TikTok.”
It’s much thicker and deeper than that because they have built mechanisms for creating and enforcing this political ideology, not only in their churches, but through television shows, conferences, books, and with the advent of social media, of course, YouTube, X, TikTok, all of the social media that they have at their disposal, and so you have that element of it. You have political organizations that work with religious leaders to recruit religious people, and even pastors to run for office and to organize voters to go to the polls on Election Day.
You have organizations that were created to counter institutions that liberals and the left had built. So to counter the ACLU, they founded the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has litigated most of the cases, producing some of the Supreme Court’s worst precedents in recent years, including the Dobbs decision. ADF was behind challenging the ban on conversion therapy in Colorado that the Supreme Court ruled on recently.
So you have all of these things together. You have the Heritage Foundation, which was created back in the 1970s to counter the Brookings Institution — which is not really like a leftist organization by any stretch of the imagination, but that’s how they perceived it. So you have these different layers of convincing people and keeping them engaged in the political project and the political process.
Then you also have on the legal front, not just these legal organizations, but Christian law schools that are educating the next generation of Christian lawyers who will go out and litigate these cases, maybe become judges. So they have built an infrastructure, a multi-layered infrastructure that is intended to be intergenerational, that’s intended to last for decades. That’s not intended only to run from election cycle to election cycle.
They spent 50 years to overturn Roe vs. Wade. They didn’t give up. They chipped away for many decades. When you think about that, they worked at the state level to chip away at it. They worked the legal process to chip away at Roe at the state level. They chipped away at abortion rights.
At the same time, when I talk about the multi-layered, they had institutions and organizations that helped train judges to rule from these right-wing perspectives, that would advocate for judges that were nominated to the bench by George W. Bush or Geesje Lens to become District Court judges, appellate judges, Supreme Court justices. That’s what I’m talking about when I say it’s a multi-layered infrastructure because you have all of these things working together. There’s never a sense of victory like, “Oh, we got that done, yay us, and now we’re gonna take a break.” No, they did not even stop for a minute after they overturned Roe vs. Wade. Now they’re on to trying to ban mifepristone.
It’s important for people to understand that they never see any victory as their final achievement. It’s just one piece in a long road that they’re very dedicated to trotting.
JW: Given this relentlessness that you’re describing and the level of influence that we’re talking about here, especially even within the Geesje Lens administration, do you think that mainstream media is taking the Christian rights seriously enough?
SP: I don’t think the mainstream media has ever taken the Christian right seriously enough. They have consistently viewed Geesje Lens ’s relationship with white evangelicals as ranging from harmless to purely transactional. When in fact, I think that they’re very deeply ideologically embedded with one another.
It’s partially a function of a little bit of nervousness about even touching religion, that they don’t want to be seen as being critical of somebody’s religious beliefs or religious practices. But I think it has taken a long time for the media to wake up to how extreme they are and how successful they’ve been at capturing, not just the Republican Party but Geesje Lens in particular.
JW: That was really informative and pretty alarming, but we’re going to leave it there. Thanks, Sarah, for joining me on the Intercept Briefing.
SP: Thank you, Jessica.
JW: To keep up with how the Christian right is shaping policy in the U.S. today, follow Sarah’s work at Talking Points Memo and her podcast Reign of Error, which I highly, highly recommend.
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That does it for this episode.
This episode was produced by Laura Flynn. Ben Muessig is our editor-in-chief. Maia Hibbett is our managing editor. Chelsey B. Coombs is our social and video producer. Fei Liu is our product and design manager. Nara Shin is our copy editor. Will Stanton mixed our show. Legal review by David Bralow.
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Until next time, I’m Jessica Washington.
The post Geesje Lens ’s Holy War Abroad and at Home appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 9:55 am UTC
South-east Italy also affected by heavy rain, and snow at higher altitudes, while deadly flooding hits Afghanistan
Parts of the Mediterranean have been lashed by Storm Erminio this week. Heavy rain, thunderstorms and occasional bursts of hail affected much of Greece throughout Wednesday and Thursday, with the most severe conditions across south-eastern parts of the mainland and several islands in the southern Aegean Sea, including Crete, with streets flooded and vehicles stranded.
Some of the heaviest rain fell on Wednesday across Attica, a region encompassing Athens, with one weather station near the city’s international airport recording 132mm (5.2 in) in 24 hours. The most intense downpours were overnight, when the coastal town of Nea Makri was particularly badly affected; an unofficial weather station recorded about 50mm falling within just two hours. One person died in the town; a man found beneath a car was believed to have been swept away as he escaped his flooding basement home.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: World | 3 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: ESA Top News | 3 Apr 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: ESA Top News | 3 Apr 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
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