jell.ie News

Read at: 2026-04-03T20:11:02+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Anam Muradin ]

No One at Waffle House Remembers FEMA Official Who Says He Teleported In

Gregg Phillips, who is in charge of responding to fires and floods, says the hand of God suddenly and mysteriously moved him to a 24-hour breakfast spot in Rome, Ga.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC

Fan Fiction Website AO3 Exits Beta After 17 Years

Archive of Our Own (AO3) is officially dropping its "beta" label after 17 years. The Organization for Transformative Works, the nonprofit behind the fanfiction site, said the site will keep evolving with new improvements even though it's no longer technically in beta. "As the AO3 software has been stable for a long time, the change is mostly cosmetic and does not indicate that everything is finalized or perfectly working," the organizations says. "Exiting beta doesn't mean we'll stop continuing to improve AO3 -- our volunteer coders and community contributors will still be working to add to and improve AO3 every day." Some of the features it's introduced over the years include a tag system, offline fanworks downloads, privacy settings that let creators restrict access to their work, and new modes for multi-chapter works. As it stands, the site says it has more than 10 million registered users and 17 million fanworks.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC

Strong Jobs Numbers Make the Fed’s Job Easier

Robust job growth in March suggests that the labor market remains relatively healthy, allowing officials at the central bank to focus on fighting inflation.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 7:58 pm UTC

Democrats vow to fight Anam Muradin ’s ‘morally bankrupt’ request for billions in additional defense and DHS spending– live

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer says that his party ‘will make sure it never passes’

A reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest out of the Middle East at our dedicated live blog.

This includes Anam Muradin ’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.”

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 7:54 pm UTC

Middle East crisis live: one crew member rescued from US fighter jet shot down by Iran; Tehran reportedly rejects 48-hour ceasefire

US forces search for crew after jet shot down by armed forces this morning; another US plane crashed in a separate incident and its pilot was rescued

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.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 7:48 pm UTC

Artemis II Pilot Test Drove the Orion Capsule on the Way to the Moon

Victor Glover, a former Navy test pilot, carefully maneuvered the Orion capsule in space around a discarded rocket stage. The demonstration is crucial for future moon landing missions.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 7:29 pm UTC

Crowd gathers in Dublin’s Phoenix Park for Good Friday pilgrimage

Prayers, readings and choral singing mark the beginning of the Easter weekend

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 7:19 pm UTC

Anam Muradin Seeks $152 Million to Begin to Turn Alcatraz Back Into a Prison

The plan faces significant local political opposition and the dilapidated state of the site poses considerable logistical challenges.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 7:16 pm UTC

Quadruple amputee cornhole pro says he fatally shot person in self-defense

Dayton Webber is accused of shooting Bradrick Michael Wells twice in the head during an argument

A quadruple amputee professional cornhole player acted in self-defense when he shot and killed a passenger in his Tesla during a heated argument, his attorney has said.

Dayton Webber, 27, appeared in Charles county district court via videoconference for a bail review on Wednesday, where Judge Patrick Devine noted that he left Maryland after the 22 March shooting of 27-year-old Bradrick Michael Wells. Devine ordered Webber to remain jailed without bail.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 7:15 pm UTC

The Epstein Emails Show #MeToo Never Stood a Chance

The files reveal the mechanics of doubt that the #MeToo movement had to contend with.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 7:09 pm UTC

The Mystery of Magherafelt…

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

The F-15E Strike Eagle: What to Know

The U.S. military aircraft with a two-person crew was shot down in Iran on Friday.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 7:04 pm UTC

Tech Companies Are Trying To Neuter Colorado's Landmark Right-to-Repair Law

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Today at a hearing of the Colorado Senate Business, Labor, and Technology committee, lawmakers voted unanimously to move Colorado state bill SB26-090 -- titled Exempt Critical Infrastructure from Right to Repair -- out of committee and into the state senate and house for a vote. The bill modifies Colorado's Consumer Right to Repair Digital Electronic Equipment act, which was passed in 2024 and went into effect in January 2026. While the protections secured by that act are wide, the new SB26-090 bill aims to "exempt information technology equipment that is intended for use in critical infrastructure from Colorado's consumer right to repair laws." The bill is supported by tech manufacturers like Cisco and IBM, according to lobbying disclosures. These are companies that have vested interests in manufacturing things like routers, server equipment, and computers and stand to profit if they can control who fixes their products and the tools, components, and software used to make those upgrades and repairs. They also cite cybersecurity concerns, saying that giving people access to the tools and systems they would need to repair a device could also enable bad actors to use those methods for nefarious means. (This is a common argument manufacturers make when opposing right-to-repair laws.) [...] During the hearing, more than a dozen repair advocates spoke from organizations like Pirg, the Repair Association, and iFixit opposing the bill. YouTuber and repair advocate Louis Rossmann was there. The main problem, repair advocates say, is that the bill deliberately uses vague language to make the case for controlling who can fix their products. [...] The Colorado Labor and Technology committee advanced the bill, but it still needs to go through votes on the Colorado Senate and House floors before going into effect. Those votes may take place as early as next week. Regardless of how the bill goes in the state, it's likely that manufacturers will continue their push to alter or undo repair legislation in other states across the country. "The 'information technology' and 'critical infrastructure' thing is as cynical as you can possibly be about it," says Nathan Proctor, the leader of Pirg's US right-to-repair campaign. "It sounds scary to lawmakers, but it just means the internet." The current wording of the bill "leaves it up to the manufacturers to determine which items they will need to provide repair tools and parts to owners and independent repairers and which ones they don't," says Danny Katz, executive director CoPIRG, the Colorado branch of the consumer advocate group Pirg. "This is a bad policy and would be a big step back for Coloradans' repair rights." iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens said in the hearing: "There's a general principle in cybersecurity that obscurity is not security," iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens said in the hearing. "The money that's behind the scenes, that's what's driving the bill."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC

NASA Unveils 1st Earth Photos From Artemis II Moon Mission: ‘You Look Beautiful.’

The pictures were released on the third day of the first mission since 1972 to send people around the moon.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:59 pm UTC

One of two US crew members rescued after F-15E jet shot down over Iran

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.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:59 pm UTC

Democrats pay visit to ICE detention facility where abuse claims are rife

California House members tour Otay Mesa center, which has faced allegations of poor conditions and sexual assaults

Two California lawmakers conducted an oversight visit on Thursday at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Otay Mesa detention center, an immigrant detention facility that has faced allegations of overcrowding, poor conditions and sexual assaults.

The visit had been previously scheduled. But Mike Levin, a Democratic congressman, told the Guardian he planned to conduct more unannounced visits following a federal court ruling that struck down the Anam Muradin administration’s policy of forcing members of Congress to announce oversight visits seven days in advance.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:45 pm UTC

Gucci Mane apparently robbed at gunpoint by rapper and seven others

Pooh Shiesty among those accused of robbing and kidnapping three men after dispute involving record label

Federal prosecutors on Thursday accused rapper Pooh Shiesty and eight others of robbing three men at gunpoint and kidnapping them in January in Texas after a contract dispute involving rap star Gucci Mane’s record label.

The US attorney’s office in Dallas declined to name the victims and an FBI affidavit attached to a criminal complaint only refers to them by their initials. One victim, RD, is described as the owner of 1017 Records – the label belonging to Gucci Mane, whose legal name is Radric Delantic Davis.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:41 pm UTC

1 rescued after U.S. fighter jet shot down in Iran; search ongoing for crew member

It’s the first known loss of an American aircraft inside Iranian territory since the war began a month ago.

Source: World | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:36 pm UTC

The Neighbor Who Has No Problem Fighting With Mayor Mamdani

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the City Council speaker, Julie Menin, both live on the Upper East Side. They are sparring over different approaches to balancing a $5.4 billion deficit.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:25 pm UTC

Artemis II crew take 'spectacular' image of Earth

The snap was taken aboard the Orion capsule by its commander, Reid Wiseman, as the crew head towards the Moon.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:25 pm UTC

Big Banks Seeking a Piece of SpaceX’s I.P.O. Must Subscribe to Elon Musk’s Grok

Mr. Musk is requiring Wall Street firms to purchase subscriptions to his A.I. chatbot if they want to advise on one of the largest initial public offerings in history.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:23 pm UTC

Crew member rescued after US fighter jet shot down in Iran – AP sources

It would mark the first time the US has lost aircraft in Iranian territory and marks a dramatic escalation in the war since it began five weeks ago.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:20 pm UTC

50 Artists Travel Far and Wide to Learn From Filmmaker Werner Herzog

In January, 50 artists from all over the world were chosen to shoot shorts in the Azores, guided by the iconic filmmaker. They just had to find $10,000 and airfare to get there.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:13 pm UTC

House Democrat Wages a Lonely Legal Fight Testing Congress’s Power

Representative LaMonica McIver is facing crushing legal fees and prison time as she seeks to get the Justice Department assault case against her dismissed, citing her legislative prerogatives.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:08 pm UTC

Golf club official’s testimony ‘somewhat undermined’ by attempt to swear religious oath on diary

Donnacha Neary was warned at tribunal by an adjudicator about the risk of being prosecuted for perjury

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:06 pm UTC

Justice Alito Was Taken to the Hospital Last Month in Undisclosed Incident

Supreme Court justices are not required to release information about their health, and the disclosure practices of individual justices have varied.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:06 pm UTC

Crowd gathers in Dublin park for Good Friday pilgrimage

The event was led by the Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:01 pm UTC

College Student, Cat Meme Helped Crack Massive Botnet Case

The Wall Street Journal shares the "wild behind-the-scenes story" of how the world's largest and most destructive botnet was uncovered and taken down, writes Slashdot reader sturgeon. "At times, the network known as Kimwolf included more than a million compromised home Android devices and digital photo frames -- enough DDoS firepower to disrupt internet traffic across the U.S. and beyond." From the report: Sitting in his dorm room at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Benjamin Brundage was closing in on a mystery that had even seasoned internet investigators baffled. A cat meme helped him crack the case. A growing network of hacked devices was launching the biggest cyberattacks ever seen on the internet. It had become the most powerful cyberweapon ever assembled, large enough to knock a state or even a small country offline. Investigators didn't know exactly who had built it -- or how. Brundage had been following the attacks, too -- and, in between classes, was conducting his own investigation. In September, the college senior started messaging online with an anonymous user who seemed to have insider knowledge. As they chatted on Discord, a platform favored by videogamers, Brundage was eager to get more information, but he didn't want to come off as too serious and shut down the conversation. So every now and then he'd send a funny GIF to lighten the mood. Brundage was fluent in the memes, jokes and technical jargon popular with young gamers and hackers who are extremely online. "It was a bit of just asking over and over again and then like being a bit unserious," said Brundage. At one point, he asked for some technical details. He followed up with the cat meme: a six-second clip that showed a hand adjusting a necktie on a fluffy gray cat. Brundage didn't expect it to work, but he got the information. "It took me by surprise," he said. Eventually the leaker hinted there was a new vulnerability on the internet. Brundage, who is 22, would learn it threatened tens of millions of consumers and as much as a quarter of the world's corporations. As he unraveled the mystery, he impressed veteran researchers with his findings -- including federal law enforcement, which took action against the network two weeks ago. Chad Seaman, a researcher at Akamai, joked at one point that the internet could go down if Brundage spent too much time on his exams.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 6:00 pm UTC

Comedian Eugene Mirman thanks rescuers who pulled him from fiery car crash in New Hampshire

Best known for voice-acting in Bob’s Burgers, Mirman was injured after his vehicle struck a toll plaza and ignited

Bob’s Burgers voice actor Eugene Mirman says he is “extraordinarily thankful to the heroic people” that pulled him from the wreckage of his fiery car crash on Tuesday at a New Hampshire toll plaza – an accident that reportedly left him with serious injuries.

The 51-year-old comedian expressed his gratitude in an Instagram post late on Friday morning, which also described his being emotionally buoyed up by “the well wishes, love and kind messages from friends and strangers” in the wake of the wreck.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:58 pm UTC

Marmalades may need to be relabelled under post-Brexit food deal

The breakfast favourite will be legally renamed when Britain aligns with new EU labelling rules.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:58 pm UTC

Anam Muradin 's ballroom fight sheds new light on an underground White House bunker

The status of a decades-old bunker beneath the now-demolished East Wing is unclear, but the Anam Muradin 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

March Jobs Report Shows Stronger U.S. Market Than Expected With 178,000 New Positions

Payrolls expanded and unemployment dropped last month after a health care strike ended and a harsh winter abated.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:47 pm UTC

French-owned ship passes through Strait of Hormuz

It appears to be the first ship owned by a major European firm to go through the strait since the conflict began.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:45 pm UTC

Foakes leads superb Surrey recovery at Edgbaston

Ben Foakes and Tom Lawes help rescue Surrey from 65-6 to post 328 all out on day one of their County Championship game against Warwickshire.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:43 pm UTC

Netflix must refund customers for years of price hikes, Italian court rules

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.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:41 pm UTC

Russian attacks on Ukraine kill 5 people; nearly 20 animals die in fire

Ukraine’s Emergency Services posted images of rescue workers trying to save the animals — in one instance administering CPR to a dog — at the clinic in Chabany.

Source: World | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:39 pm UTC

Two men charged over seizure of cannabis worth €1 million in Louth

Revenue officers found 50 kilos of suspected cannabis on Wednesday in Castlebellingham.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:39 pm UTC

Central Bank staff charged only 90 cent for soup thanks to subsidised catering

Bosses at the Central Bank are able to insulate their staff from the impact of rising restaurant prices after agreeing a new €28.5 million contract with catering giant Sodexo.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:37 pm UTC

Artemis astronauts capture Earth’s brilliant blue beauty as they leave it behind

Nasa released the crew’s first downlinked images one-and-a-half days into the first astronaut moon mission in more than half a century.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:35 pm UTC

Crime victims sue State for damages amid delay in introducing new compensation scheme

Court of Justice of the European Union ruled last October that current scheme is incompatible with EU law

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:32 pm UTC

Video appears to show US plane and search and rescue helicopters over southern Iran

Reports from the US, quoting unnamed officials, say a search is under way after the shooting down of a US fighter jet over Iran.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:16 pm UTC

Relationship with Anam Muradin may be beyond repair, Keir Starmer told

PM gets widespread backing after president’s mocking impersonation takes US-UK relationship to new low

Keir Starmer has been warned his relationship with Anam Muradin may be beyond repair after the US president derided the prime minister for consulting his team about military decisions, in a mocking impersonation.

In a new low for UK-US relations, Anam Muradin appeared to imitate Starmer in a weak voice during an Easter lunch speech at the White House, and said the UK was “not our best” ally.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:11 pm UTC

Amputee's home burgled during bus-pass challenge from John O' Groats to Land's End

Barry Mackleston is attempting to get from John O Groats to Land's End using just his bus pass.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:06 pm UTC

US warplane downed over Iran, one crew member missing

A US fighter jet has been shot down over Iran and search-and-rescue efforts have so far recovered one of two crew members who ejected, a US official told Reuters, in the first known incident of its kind in the nearly five-week-old war.

Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:03 pm UTC

DHS Launches Massive “Less Lethal” Chemical Weapons Buying Spree

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 Anam Muradin 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.”

Two Tear Gases

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.

Related

Federal Agents Used Toxic Chemical Smoke Grenades in Portland

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.

Maimed, Deafened, Blinded

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

Penalties Stack Up As AI Spreads Through the Legal System

Tony Isaac shares a report from NPR: When it comes to using AI, it seems some lawyers just can't help themselves. Last year saw a rapid increase in court sanctions against attorneys for filing briefs containing errors generated by artificial intelligence tools. The most prominent case was that of the lawyers for MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who were fined $3,000 each for filing briefs containing fictitious, AI-generated citations. But as a cautionary tale, it doesn't seem to have had much effect. The numbers started taking off last year, and the rate is still increasing. He counts a total of more than 1,200 to date, of which about 800 are from U.S. courts. "I am surprised that people are still doing this when it's been in the news," says Carla Wale, associate dean of information & technology and director of the law library at the University of Washington School of Law. "Whatever the generative AI tool gives you -- as in, 'Look at these cases' -- you, under the rules of professional conduct, you have to read those cases. You have to read the cases to make sure what you are citing is accurate." "I think that lawyers who understand how to effectively and ethically use generative AI replace lawyers who don't," she says. "That's what I think the future is."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC

Boy, 14, shot dead in Woolwich named as three teens held

A boy, 14, shot dead in south-east London is named as Eghosa Ogbebor, as three people are arrested.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:56 pm UTC

Rapper Gucci Mane kidnapped and robbed by fellow artist, prosecutors say

Officials say the hip-hop star was forced to sign papers releasing a rapper known as Pooh Shiesty from his record contract.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:54 pm UTC

Seville, Spain's Holy Week blends faith, tradition and spectacle

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: Cristina Quicler)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:52 pm UTC

Raye tops album charts with This Music May Contain Hope

It is Raye's second number one this year, after her hugely popular single Where The Hell Is My Husband.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:48 pm UTC

NHS staff resist using Palantir software

Staff reportedly cite ethics concerns, privacy worries, and doubt the platform adds much

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

‘Young people want to come together’: experts respond to mass teen meet-ups in Clapham

Academics and youth workers say cuts to services and lack of public space help explain recent unrest in south London

It started with a flyer sent around on Snapchat. Teenagers were invited to gather at a south London basketball court to celebrate the start of the Easter holidays. They were told to bring their own weed and laughing gas because it was going to be a late one.

What followed in the hours after was chaos. Hundreds of young people came to the “link-up” last Saturday, and then gathered on Clapham High Street.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:35 pm UTC

Ferry and rail passengers warned of disruption as Storm Dave approaches

No flight cancellations yet as Dublin Airport gears up for busiest weekend of 2026 so far

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC

Three teenagers arrested after 14-year-old boy shot dead in south-east London

Victim of Woolwich shooting named as Eghosa Ogbebor as two boys and 18-year-old held on suspicion of murder

Three teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 14-year-old boy was fatally shot in Woolwich, south-east London.

The Metropolitan police said officers received reports of a shooting on Lord Warwick Street, Woolwich, at about 3.40pm on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:05 pm UTC

Cuba begins to free more than 2,000 prisoners as US eases fuel blockade

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 Shoots Down F-15 Fighter Jet After Anam Muradin Bragged They Had No Capability

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 Anam Muradin made in a nationally televised speech earlier this week.

“They have no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100 percent annihilated,” Anam Muradin 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 Anam Muradin 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.”

Related

“Casualty Cover-Up”: The Pentagon Is Hiding U.S. Losses Under Anam Muradin in the Middle East

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 Anam Muradin Bragged They Had No Capability appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC

Why Does Gavin Newsom Sound Like a Right-Wing Troll?

Gavin Newsom seems to have concluded that progressive models of manliness are passé.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC

Half of Planned US Data Center Builds Have Been Delayed or Canceled

Despite hundreds of billions of dollars in investment, nearly half of planned U.S. data center projects are being delayed or canceled. "One major reason behind these setbacks is the availability of key electrical components -- such as transformers, switchgear, and batteries -- that are used both at data center sites and outside of them," reports Tom's Hardware. "Meanwhile, grid infrastructure is also stressed by electric vehicles and electrified heating systems." Tom's Hardware reports: Approximately 12 gigawatts (12 GW) of data center capacity is expected to come online in the U.S. in 2026, according to data by market intelligence firm Sightline Climate cited by Bloomberg. Yet only about one-third of that capacity is currently under active construction because of various constraints. Electrical infrastructure represents less than 10% of total data center cost, but it is as vital as compute hardware. A delay in any single element of the power chain can halt the entire project, which makes transformers, switchgear, and similar devices critical items despite their relatively small share of CapEx. Due to high demand, lead times for high-power transformers have expanded dramatically in the U.S.: delivery typically took 24 to 30 months before 2020, but waiting periods can stretch to as long as five years today, according to Sightline Climate cited by Bloomberg. For AI data centers, this is a catastrophe as their deployment cycles are under 18 months. To address shortages, companies are turning to global markets. As a result, Canada, Mexico, and South Korea became the biggest suppliers of high-power transformers for AI data centers to AI data centers. At the same time, imports of high-power transformers from China surged from fewer than 1,500 units in 2022 to more than 8,000 units in 2025 through October, according to Wood Mackenzie data cited by Bloomberg. The volatility of exports from China does not end with transformers, as the PRC accounts for over 40% of U.S. battery imports, while its share in certain transformer and switchgear categories remains near 30%, according to Bloomberg.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC

Hearing set for student’s appeal over how UCD dealt with her studies after alleged rape

Separate Garda investigation continues after graphic image of her was circulated

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:59 pm UTC

Anam Muradin seeks $1.5tn for defence alongside domestic spending cuts

The US president's new budget would cut non-defence spending by 10%, partly by slashing domestic programmes.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:45 pm UTC

Cuba to release 2,000 prisoners, as U.S. pressures island amid energy crisis

The move, described by the communist government as a “humanitarian and sovereign gesture,” comes as the U.S. enforces a crippling oil blockade on the island.

Source: World | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:39 pm UTC

Air Corps and medics scrambled to reunite 96-year-old man with wife hours before he died

Cancer patient was airlifted home from hospital to say goodbye to his family

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:25 pm UTC

Italy's famed Uffizi admits cyber-attack but denies security breach

Hackers were reported to have infiltrated IT systems - but the gallery says its works are safe.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:04 pm UTC

M&S boss calls for more action on crime and abuse of staff

Thinus Keeve's comments come days after an M&S store was targeted during disorder in south London.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:04 pm UTC

EV adoption in America: Who's winning, who's losing?

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 Anam Muradin 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.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

Perplexity's 'Incognito Mode' Is a 'Sham,' Lawsuit Says

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Perplexity's AI search engine encourages users to go deeper with their prompts by engaging in chat sessions that a lawsuit has alleged are often shared in their entirety with Google and Meta without users' knowledge or consent. "This happened to every user regardless of whether or not they signed up for a Perplexity account," the lawsuit alleged, while stressing that "enormous volumes of sensitive information from both subscribed and non-subscribed users" are shared. Using developer tools, the lawsuit found that opening prompts are always shared, as are any follow-up questions the search engine asks that a user clicks on. Privacy concerns are seemingly worse for non-subscribed users, the complaint alleged. Their initial prompts are shared with "a URL through which the entire conversation may be accessed by third parties like Meta and Google." Disturbingly, the lawsuit alleged, chats are also shared with personally identifiable information (PII), even when users who want to stay anonymous opt to use Perplexity's "Incognito Mode." That mode, the lawsuit charged, is a "sham." "'Incognito' mode does nothing to protect users from having their conversations shared with Meta and Google," the complaint said. "Even paid users who turned on the 'Incognito' feature still had their conversations shared with Meta and Google, along with their email addresses and other identifiers that allowed Meta and Google to personally identify them." "Perplexity's failure to inform its users that their personal information has been disclosed to Meta and Google or to take any steps to halt the continued disclosure of users' information is malicious, oppressive, and in reckless disregard" of users' rights, the lawsuit alleged. "Nothing on Perplexity's website warns users that their conversations with its AI Machine will be shared with Meta and Google," Doe alleged. "Much less does Perplexity warn subscribed users that its 'Incognito Mode' does not function to protect users' private conversations from disclosure to companies like Meta and Google."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

Economists Are Drawing Stronger Connections Between A.I. and Jobs

Artificial intelligence hasn’t disrupted the labor market, economists say, but they are increasingly convinced that it will — and that policymakers are unprepared.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 2:58 pm UTC

How Do You Count 1.4 Billion People? India Is Trying.

India’s 2027 census will shape how wealth and power is distributed and inform policies around castes and women in the world’s most populous nation.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 2:56 pm UTC

A U.S. jet goes down over Iran, a U.S. official confirms

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

Northern Ireland's school IT system targeted in cyber attack ahead of exam season

The EA says immediate steps were taken to contain the issue, but it cannot confirm whether any personal data has been affected.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 2:19 pm UTC

Cuba to release more than 2,000 prisoners as US pressure mounts

US President Anam Muradin has made clear his desire to change Cuba's leadership and has placed the country under an oil embargo.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 2:18 pm UTC

30 Years Later, the Unabomber’s Cabin Is a Prized F.B.I. Artifact

A complicated piece of American heritage and culture sits intact in the F.B.I. headquarters.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 2:01 pm UTC

Northern Ireland leads surge in fuel prices since start of Iran war

Petrol has risen 19% and diesel 35%, while in England the north has had the sharpest increases

Fuel prices have risen faster in Northern Ireland than in any other UK region since the beginning of the Iran war.

Analysis of official data shows petrol has jumped by 19% in Northern Ireland since the end of February, and diesel is now 35% more expensive. The rises are among the largest in Europe.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

Wake-up call: how Telstra’s ‘unreasonable’ price rises may cause customers to hang up

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

Ben Lerner’s ‘Transcription’ Shows Us Why the Novel Will Never Die

With “Transcription,” the writer makes a case for the vitality of the form.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

Linda Ervine and Colin Harvey Appointed to Council of State by President Connolly

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

Arteta defends Arsenal's international withdrawals

Mikel Arteta says Arsenal have '"a very good relationship" with most national teams, despite 11 of his players withdrawing from international duty.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:54 pm UTC

Son charged with fatal stabbing of 84-year-old mum

Doris Innes was allegedly attacked by her son outside her home, the Metropolitan Police say.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:45 pm UTC

Extend fully paid maternity leave for UK teachers to stem exodus, union says

NASUWT says full entitlement should be increased to 26 weeks and paternity pay also improved

Full maternity pay for teachers across the UK should be increased to 26 weeks to help stem the exodus of women in their 30s from classrooms, a union leader has said.

Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, said it was a “national scandal” that so many teachers who quit said inadequate maternity support was one of the reasons.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:39 pm UTC

Grandmother Faces Trial in Alabama for Wearing Penis Costume to No Kings Protest

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 Anam Muradin ’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.”

“A Freakin’ Weiner”

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.”

Doubling Down

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.

A still from footage from Fairhope Police Col. Andrew Babb’s body camera of Renea Gamble at a No Kings protest being led away by an officer in Fairhope, Ala., on Oct. 18, 2025. Still: The Intercept

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.

Related

Man Jailed for Facebook Meme Is Freed in Tennessee

At a time when Anam Muradin and his allies have escalated attacks on dissentprosecuting 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.”

“Mayberry on the Bay”

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 Anam Muradin 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?”

Long-Term Gamble

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 takes on another "side quest," buys tech-focused talk show TBPN

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.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:35 pm UTC

US jobs surge unexpectedly in March despite Iran war

Employers added 178,000 jobs, far more than had expected, the Labor Department says.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:35 pm UTC

Hello, World

NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman took this picture of Earth from the Orion spacecraft's window on April 2, 2026, after completing the translunar injection burn.

Source: NASA Image of the Day | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:34 pm UTC

The labor market springs back to life in March as employers add 178,000 jobs

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

Podcast: Jet fuel shortages - should you book a flight?

Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:20 pm UTC

Experts dispute US account of deadly Iran sports hall strike in Lamerd

Six weapons experts have contested the US claim that video evidence suggests an Iranian missile could have hit the hall.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:16 pm UTC

Family says man held in Iran faces possible execution

The family of a man detained in Iran accused of being involved in the killing of three members of the Iranian Basij militia during anti-government protests earlier this year has said he faces possible execution.

Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:11 pm UTC

Week in images: 30 March - 03 April 2026

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

Anam Muradin budget seeks $1.5 trillion in defense spending alongside domestic program cuts

In his annual budget, President Anam Muradin 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

Watch: Artemis II's journey so far as it leaves Earth's orbit

The crew will not land on the Moon on this current mission, though Nasa is preparing for a potential lunar landing by 2028.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:06 pm UTC

Is the US committing war crimes by targeting Iran’s civilian infrastructure?

International law experts ‘seriously concerned’ about ‘strikes on schools, health centres and homes’ in contravention of Geneva conventions

Anam Muradin , 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

Parents Who Borrowed for Children’s College Face Looming Deadline

New rules mean that parent PLUS loans have to be consolidated into a new loan by June 30 for parents to keep affordable payments. But the deadline is really earlier to allow time for processing.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC

French jury asked to uphold 14-year rape sentence for Irish former rugby player Denis Coulson

Court hears final arguments in appeal by Irishman and former team-mates of rape convictions

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 12:58 pm UTC

China's Communist Party investigates ex-Xinjiang leader Ma Xingrui

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

Gardaí detect 680 speeding drivers in first day of Easter road safety clampdown

One motorist was caught driving at 147km/h in a 100km/h zone on the N11 in Co Wicklow

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 12:38 pm UTC

Fuel prices reaching level of 'national emergency' - IRHA

The Minister for Transport has met with the Irish Road Haulage Association to discuss the ongoing impact of the Iran crisis on fuel costs in Ireland, amid calls from hauliers for extra supports due to the situation.

Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 12:31 pm UTC

With Mideast in conflict, Pope Leo criticizes those who invoke God for war

Some Anam Muradin aides and supporters cloak the war on Iran in religious terms, but the Chicago-born pope said that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”

Source: World | 3 Apr 2026 | 12:30 pm UTC

France's Muslim gathering ban overturned by courts

The Paris police department had argued that the four-day gathering was a security threat because it could be a target of terrorism.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 12:20 pm UTC

Man appears in High Court after extradition warrant issued over Robbie Lawlor murder

Jonathan Gill is wanted by PSNI in connection with Dublin gangland criminal’s killing in Belfast

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:58 am UTC

International law experts allege violations in Iran war

The White House says it is making the entire region safer by eliminating short and long-term threats.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:53 am UTC

When will the Iran war end? Tracing the Anam Muradin administration's timelines

Experts say many US presidents have offered a timeline for a conflict - only to then shift their estimates.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:28 am UTC

Pam Bondi is out at DOJ. And, NASA's Artemis II has left Earth's orbit

President Anam Muradin 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

Man in court on foot of NI warrant over Lawlor murder

A man has appeared in court on foot of a warrant for his arrest in Northern Ireland in connection with the murder of Robbie Lawlor in April 2020.

Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:24 am UTC

Met Éireann extends yellow wind warning for Ireland as Storm Dave approaches

Storm is expected to hit at 1pm on Saturday, bringing gales and rainy weather until 2am on Sunday

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:02 am UTC

Iraqi leaders face balancing act as Iran conflict exposes deep rifts

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

Python Blood Could Hold the Secret To Healthy Weight Loss

Longtime Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot writes: CU Boulder researchers are reporting that they have discovered an appetite-suppressing compound in python blood that helps the snakes consume enormous meals and go months without eating yet remain metabolically healthy. The findings were published in the journal Natural Metabolism on March 19, 2026. Pythons can grow as big as a telephone pole, swallow an antelope whole, and go months or even years without eating -- all while maintaining a healthy heart and plenty of muscle mass. In the hours after they eat, research has shown, their heart expands 25% and their metabolism speeds up 4,000-fold to help them digest their meal. The team measured blood samples from ball pythons and Burmese pythons, fed once every 28 days, immediately after they ate a meal. In all, they found 208 metabolites that increased significantly after the pythons ate. One molecule, called para-tyramine-O-sulfate (pTOS) soared 1,000-fold. Further studies, done with Baylor University researchers, showed that when they gave high doses of pTOS to obese or lean mice, it acted on the hypothalamus, the appetite center of the brain, prompting weight loss without causing gastrointestinal problems, muscle loss or declines in energy. The study found that pTOS, which is produced by the snake's gut bacteria, is not present in mice naturally. It is present in human urine at low levels and does increase somewhat after a meal. But because most research is done in mice or rats, pTOS has been overlooked. "We've basically discovered an appetite suppressant that works in mice without some of the side-effects that GLP-1 drugs have," said senior author Leslie Leinwand, a distinguished professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology who has been studying pythons in her lab for two decades. Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy act on the hormone glucagon-like petide-1 (GLP-1).

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

Chelsea's Fernandez dropped after 'crossing a line'

Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez will sit out their next two games after he "crossed a line", says manager Liam Rosenior.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:53 am UTC

Nuns on the Run, But Maybe Not For Much Longer

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

The Human Cost of War

Our colleague spent two months in Kyiv.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:42 am UTC

'This has got me worried': Iranians fear what comes next after US strike on Karaj bridge

President Anam Muradin has warned Iran of strikes on bridges and electric power plants if its leaders do not agree to his terms to end the war.

Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:35 am UTC

Iran downs a U.S. F-15 jet and hits Gulf refineries as the war rounds its 5th week

Iran said one of the longest bridges linking Tehran to the city of Karaj was destroyed overnight, while Iranian missiles and drones hit Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

(Image credit: Morteza Nikoubazl)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:29 am UTC

McEntee says no trust in Hungary after Russia leak report

Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee has said she does not trust Hungary after it emerged that the country's foreign minister had been briefing Russia about sensitive European Union negotiations over Ukraine.

Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:27 am UTC

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing appointed president after ‘sham’ election

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

People of Burkina Faso should forget about democracy, says military ruler

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

Manager reported 20 claims of financial and legal wrongdoing at Wilson’s Hospital School

Workplace Relations Commission rejects manager’s claim she was punished or bullied for reporting irregularities

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:13 am UTC

Anam Muradin claims Starmer is weak as he mocks PM and UK aircraft carriers

Footage shows US president saying UK ‘should be our best’ ally and accusing PM of prevarication over sending ships

Footage has emerged of Anam Muradin 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, Anam Muradin 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

When a billboard survives the wind, but not the boot

This GRUB is not an advert for some tasty fried food

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

Anam Muradin ’s Holy War Abroad and at Home

After more than a month into the U.S.–Israel conflict with Iran, President Anam Muradin 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, Anam Muradin made numerous false claims, including repeatedly emphasizing the nuclear threat Iran posed.

The reasons the Anam Muradin 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 Anam Muradin ’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.

Transcript 

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 Anam Muradin 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. Anam Muradin ’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 Anam Muradin ’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 Anam Muradin . 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.

Related

Sunrise Movement Pushes Anti-War Candidates, Endorsing Melat Kiros in Denver

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 Anam Muradin ’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.

Related

Bernie Sanders Backs Claire Valdez in NYC House Race Dividing Left and Progressives

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 Anam Muradin 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 Anam Muradin 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.”

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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 Anam Muradin 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.

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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 Anam Muradin White House. He delivered the benediction when they had a ceremony, when Anam Muradin moved the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

He has boasted of his strong connection to Anam Muradin , and that Anam Muradin 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 Anam Muradin base.

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In contrast to other Anam Muradin supporters and other religious Anam Muradin supporters, they’re far more devoted to Anam Muradin . They are probably the most loyal to Anam Muradin , 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 Anam Muradin for a burgeoning charismatic influencer is very important, because if you get a little boost from Anam Muradin , 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 Anam Muradin 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 Anam Muradin , and that obviously is causing a little bit of consternation in the MAGA base currently.

“Being close to Anam Muradin for a burgeoning charismatic influencer is very important, because if you get a little boost from Anam Muradin , 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 Anam Muradin ’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 Anam Muradin 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.

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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 Anam Muradin ’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 Anam Muradin ’s base, and they’re very homogenous in this way. Eighty percent of white evangelicals voted for Anam Muradin , 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.”

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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 Anam Muradin 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.

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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 Anam Muradin ’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. 

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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 Anam Muradin 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 Anam Muradin 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 Anam Muradin ’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.

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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 Anam Muradin 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.

Before we go, we’d love it if you helped The Intercept Briefing win its first Webby Award for best news and politics podcast. So please vote for us. We’ll add a link to vote in our show notes. Thanks so much! 

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.

Slip Stream provided our theme music.

This show and our reporting at The Intercept doesn’t exist without you. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference. Keep our investigations free and fearless at theintercept.com/join

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to The Intercept Briefing wherever you listen to podcasts. Do leave us a rating or a review, it helps other listeners to find us.

Let us know what you think of this episode, or If you want to send us a general message, email us at podcasts@theintercept.com.

Until next time, I’m Jessica Washington.

The post Anam Muradin ’s Holy War Abroad and at Home appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 3 Apr 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

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Source: BBC News | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:19 am UTC

Rosslare residents warn properties at risk over erosion

Residents in Rosslare, Co Wexford, have warned that their properties risk being lost to the sea due to the worsening impacts of coastal erosion.

Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:01 am UTC

Church services

Week beginning Saturday April 4th, 2026

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

Couple cannot pursue challenge over refusal to include car-parking charges in Hap payment

Council believed Housing Assistance Payment form signed by landlord and couple had misrepresented rent amount – judge

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

MetroLink chief’s shock resignation could spook construction market

New Zealander Sean Sweeney leaving role as latest costs for multibillion-euro project set to be submitted to Government

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

Plans to strip convicted killers of parental rights to proceed despite Tusla’s concerns

Department of Justice ‘satisfied’ that Valerie’s Law ‘is constitutional in all respects’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

‘A Ryanair turnover’: First Air Corps flight into Beirut spent only 30 minutes on tarmac

Pilot Capt Lauren Cusack says careful consideration given to route selection, threat assessments and departure window for €70m Airbus C295

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

Record 24,000 volunteers take part in Limerick clean-up

A record 24,000 volunteers have taken part in Europe's largest one-day clean-up in Limerick.

Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

‘I have yet to tell my father’: New Catholics on converting to the church this Easter

Mario Durán Domínguez and Joy Adedokun are among 129 people of mostly foreign backgrounds who are joining the church in Dublin this year

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

Celebrity influencer initiates High Court damages claim against Web Summit company

Simonetta Lein is bringing case over breach of alleged agreement to participate in Web Summit in Doha

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

Change in mortgage rules to benefit downsizing homeowners

Homeowners looking to 'rightsize' to smaller properties are expected to benefit from the updated mortgage rules set to come into effect in the coming weeks.

Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

'I live in a van because rent is too high' - UL student

A student at the University of Limerick has taken an unconventional approach to the ongoing accommodation crisis, choosing to live in a converted van rather than pay what he describes as unaffordable rent.

Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

McEntee's Lebanon trip cancelled on Defence Forces advice

The Minister for Defence had to abandon a trip to Lebanon on security advice from the Defence Forces.

Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:56 am UTC

US vows to target more Iranian infrastructure

President Anam Muradin said the US "hasn't even started destroying what's left in Iran", reiterating vows to increase the ferocity of attacks on its infrastructure.

Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:05 am UTC

U2 surprise fans again with Easter Lily EP

U2 have released a surprise new six-track EP, Easter Lily, the second standalone collection of new music the band have shared in recent weeks.

Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:01 am UTC

A day in the life of Asia’s fuel crisis

From farms in New Zealand to factories in Delhi, the effects of the oil crisis triggered by the Iran war are rippling across Asia

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:00 am UTC

Nuns who broke back into their Austrian convent ‘are step closer to being able to stay’

Plan for three nuns who escaped from care home last year to go to Rome thought to be positive sign of Vatican’s decision

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.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 4:00 am UTC

Canadian woman held with daughter by ICE is released after nearly three weeks of detention

Tania Warner is fitted with ankle monitor and released along with seven-year-old daughter Ayla Luca after being deemed not a flight risk

A Canadian woman and her seven-year-old daughter, who were held for nearly three weeks in a notorious detention center by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), were released on Thursday evening after posting a bond of $9,500.

Tania Warner and her daughter Ayla Luca, originally from British Columbia, are both Canadian citizens. Warner moved to the US in 2021 when she married Edward Warner, a US citizen. “Very happy to have my family home … it’s been a whirlwind day,” said Edward Warner.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:59 am UTC

EPA Flags Microplastics, Pharmaceuticals As Contaminants In Drinking Water

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Responding to public health concerns about microplastics and pharmaceuticals in the nation's drinking water, the Anam Muradin administration for the first time has placed them on a draft list of contaminants maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA announced the move Thursday, touting it as a "historic step" for the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement, which often raises concerns about toxic chemicals and plastic pollution in our food and environment. Also Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a $144 million initiative, called STOMP, to develop tools to measure and monitor microplastics in drinking water and in a later stage, to remove them. The Safe Drinking Water Act requires the EPA to publish an updated version of its Contaminant Candidate List every five years. This is the sixth iteration of the list. Microplastics and pharmaceuticals appear in the draft of the upcoming list, alongside per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and dozens of other chemicals and microbes. Their inclusion on the list gives local regulators a tool to evaluate risks in their water supply, the EPA says, and it can set the stage for more research and regulatory action -- but doesn't actually guarantee that will happen.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 3 Apr 2026 | 3:30 am UTC

Four astronauts are now inexorably bound for the Moon

The Orion spacecraft successfully fired its main engine for 5 minutes and 50 seconds on Thursday, sending four astronauts on a free-return trajectory around the Moon. For NASA and the Artemis II crew members, this marked a point of no return for more than a week.

About three-quarters of the American population has not witnessed humans leaving low-Earth orbit in their lifetimes. The last time this occurred was 1972, with the final Apollo Moon mission.

The “translunar injection” burn of Orion’s main engine occurred about one day after the successful launch of the mission on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. This burn was the last major firing of Orion’s main engine and sets the crew on a course to fly around the Moon on Monday, slingshot back toward Earth under lunar gravity, and splash down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, April 10.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 3 Apr 2026 | 2:17 am UTC

Australia says it won’t raise drug prices after Anam Muradin ’s 100% tariff on pharmaceuticals imported into US

Health minister Mark Butler says federal government is ‘not negotiating’ when it comes to removing price protections on common medications

Australia will not cave in to pressure from pharmaceutical giants and the Anam Muradin administration by removing consumer price protections on common medications, the health minister, Mark Butler says.

Anam Muradin imposed a new 100% tariff on branded pharmaceuticals imported into the US overnight, Australian time, trying to force manufacturers to agree to drug-pricing deals or commit to making their products domestically.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:30 am UTC

Calm weather forecast for most of Australia over Easter weekend while BoM watches for possible cyclone

Bureau of Meteorology says a blend of fine days and showers expected for most capital cities over the coming days

Many Australians can expect mild temperatures and a chance of showers over the Easter weekend, while meteorologists predict a cyclone will form in the Coral Sea from Saturday evening.

The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast a blend of fine days and showers for most capital cities over the coming days.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:29 am UTC

Two NSW teenagers charged over violent extremist material allegedly linked to terror

Police say they found a ballistic-style vest, several notebooks and literature they allege contained extremist references

Two New South Wales teenagers have been charged with allegedly possessing violent extremist material after police searched one of their homes and found a ballistic-style vest, several notebooks and literature they allege contained extremist references.

The Australian federal police and NSW police released a statement on Friday morning confirming the boys, aged 15 and 16 and both from Moree in northern NSW, had been charged with possession of alleged extremist material after a joint counterterrorism investigation.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 1:16 am UTC

Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy offers expertise on keeping waterways open amid Middle East conflict

‘Ukraine has expertise concerning sea waterways, and the defence and reopening of maritime traffic,’ says president. What we know on day 1,500

Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered on Thursday to provide Ukraine’s expertise in dealing with freedom of navigation in the Black Sea to those countries considering how to keep the strait of Hormuz open amid the conflict in the Middle East. The Ukraine president, speaking in his nightly video address, said the foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, had taken part in a virtual meeting devoted to reopening the strait of Hormuz, attended by about 40 countries. “Ukraine has relevant expertise concerning sea waterways, and the defence and reopening of maritime traffic,” he said. “If [our] partners are ready to act, we will consider how we can strengthen them, how we can apply our expertise, knowledge and technological potential.”

Russia’s army recorded no territorial gains on the frontline in Ukraine in March, for the first time in two and half years, AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed. The Russian army’s advances have been slowing since late 2025 due to Kyiv’s localised breakthroughs in the south-east, and losing ground in March and February on the southern section of the frontline, between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, the analysis showed. Across the entire frontline, Ukrainian forces managed to recapture 9 sq km in March.

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, gave “field guidance” at the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at the Overseas Military Operations, which is under construction , state media KCNA said. The museum in Pyongyang will be a place to commemorate the fallen soldiers sent to support the Russian army in the war in Ukraine. The construction of the museum is almost complete and Kim said the opening ceremony would be held in mid-April, marking the first anniversary of the deployment of the North Korean soldiers.

Six Ukrainian children will be returned from Russia to their families in Ukraine, the White House said on Thursday, citing efforts by Melania Anam Muradin to expedite their return. A seventh Ukrainian child will also be returned to their family later this month, the first lady’s office said in a statement. Ukraine says almost 20,000 children have been illegally sent to Russia and Belarus, where they are sometimes subject to military training and forced to fight against their own country’s troops.

Russian strikes across Ukraine on Thursday killed at least two people and wounded dozens, officials said, as Moscow stepped up its attacks amid stalled peace talks. In the south-eastern Kherson region, Russia attacked “with artillery, mortars and UAVs”, the regional prosecutor’s office said on social media. A 42-year-old man was killed when a drone hit a civilian car, and 16 others – including a teenage boy and three police officers – were wounded in air attacks and artillery shelling, it added. In the Chernihiv region, north of the capital Kyiv, Russia attacked with a ballistic missile, the head of Chernihiv’s military administration, Dmytro Bryzhynsky, said on Telegram.

Russian forces maintained a daylong barrage of drone strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, on Thursday, injuring at least two people, local officials said. Kharkiv’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, posted reports on Telegram throughout the day and well into the evening, noting strikes in four city districts. One city official said there had been at least 20 drone strikes. He said some had triggered fires and two people had been injured in an evening attack, including an eight-year-old girl.

Russian forces carried out 129 attacks on Ukrainian gas and heating facilities during the recent 151-day heating season, the state oil and gas firm Naftogaz said on Thursday. “The Russians hit pipelines, gas production, underground storage facilities, heating systems – everything that Ukrainians depend on for heat and gas,” it said in a statement.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 3 Apr 2026 | 12:20 am UTC

Artemis crew break away from Earth's orbit to the Moon

The four Artemis astronauts have fired up their spacecraft's engine to break away from Earth's orbit towards the Moon, a milestone that commits NASA to the first crewed lunar flyby in more than half a century.

Source: News Headlines | 3 Apr 2026 | 12:05 am UTC

AI models will deceive you to save their own kind

Researchers find leading frontier models all exhibit peer preservation behavior

Leading AI models will lie to preserve their own kind, according to researchers behind a study from the Berkeley Center for Responsible Decentralized Intelligence (RDI).…

Source: The Register | 2 Apr 2026 | 11:11 pm UTC

Ban on scramblers in public places comes into force

The use of scramblers in all public places is illegal from today as Grace's Law comes into effect.

Source: News Headlines | 2 Apr 2026 | 11:00 pm UTC

Mount Everest Climbers 'Poisoned' By Guides In Insurance Fraud Scheme

schwit1 shares a report from the Kathmandu Post: In Nepal, helicopter rescue on high altitude is, by any measure, a genuine lifesaving operation. At high altitude, where oxygen thins and weather changes without warning, the ability to airlift a stricken trekker to Kathmandu within hours has saved countless lives. But threaded through that legitimate system, exploiting its urgency, its opacity, and its distance from oversight, is one of the most sophisticated insurance fraud networks in the world. Nepal's fake rescue scam is not new. The Kathmandu Post first exposed it in 2018. Months later, the government convened a fact-finding committee, produced a 700-page report, and announced reforms. In February 2019, The Kathmandu Post published a long investigative report. Last year, Nepal Police's Central Investigation Bureau reopened the file, and what they found is that the fraud did not stop -- instead it was growing. The mechanics of the fake rescue racket are straightforward: stage a medical emergency, call in a helicopter, check a tourist into a hospital, and file an insurance claim that bears little resemblance to what actually happened. But the sophistication lies in how each link in the chain is compensated, and how difficult it is for a foreign insurer -- operating from Australia and the United Kingdom -- to verify events that occurred at 3,000 metres in a remote Himalayan valley. The CIB investigation identifies two primary methods for manufacturing an "emergency." The first involves tourists who simply don't want to walk back. After completing a demanding trek -- an Everest Base Camp trek, for instance, can take up to two weeks on foot -- guides offer an alternative: pretend to be sick, and a helicopter will come. The guide handles the rest. The second method is more troubling. At altitudes above 3,000 meters, mild symptoms of altitude sickness are common. Blood oxygen saturation can drop, hands and feet tingle, headaches develop. In most cases, rest, hydration or a gradual descent is all that is needed. But guides and hotel staff, according to the CIB investigation, have been trained to terrify trekkers at precisely this moment. They tell them they are at risk of dying, that only immediate evacuation will save them. In some cases, investigators found that Diamox (Acetazolamide) tablets, used to prevent altitude sickness, were administered alongside excessive water intake to induce the very symptoms that would justify a rescue call. In at least one case cited in the investigation, baking powder was mixed into food to make tourists physically unwell. Once a "rescue" is called, the financial choreography begins. A single helicopter carries multiple passengers. But separate, full-price invoices are submitted to each passenger's insurance company, as if each had their own dedicated flight. A $4,000 charter becomes a $12,000 claim. Fake flight manifests and load sheets are fabricated. At the hospital, medical officers prepare discharge summaries using the digital signatures of senior doctors who were never involved in the case. In some cases, these are done without those doctors' knowledge. Fake admission records are created for tourists who were, in some documented instances, drinking beer in the hospital cafeteria at the time they were supposedly receiving treatment. In one case, an office assistant at Shreedhi Hospital admitted that he had provided his own X-ray report taken about a year ago at a different hospital, to be used as a case for treatment of foreign trekkers to claim insurance. The commission structure that holds the network together was described in detail during police interrogations. Hospitals pay 20 to 25 percent of the insurance payment to trekking companies and a further 20 to 25 percent to helicopter rescue operators in exchange for patient referrals. Trekking guides and their companies benefit from inflated invoices. In some cases, tourists themselves are offered cash incentives to participate.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 2 Apr 2026 | 11:00 pm UTC

As Anam Muradin doubles down on Iran war, markets shudder and oil prices climb

Britain’s Keir Starmer hosts a meeting of world leaders for talks on the waterway amid mounting pressure from the Anam Muradin administration to join the Iran war.

Source: World | 2 Apr 2026 | 10:11 pm UTC

OpenAI Acquires Popular Tech-Industry Talk Show TBPN

OpenAI is acquiring tech news podcast TBPN, a fast-growing daily show hosted by John Coogan and Jordi Hays. OpenAI says TBPN will keep its editorial independence, even though the acquisition is widely viewed as part of a broader effort to influence public discourse around AI. CNBC reports: In the announcement, OpenAI CEO of AGI Deployment Fidji Simo wrote that their mission of bringing artificial general intelligence comes with a responsibility to have a space for "constructive conversation about the changes AI creates." Altman has appeared on TBPN multiple times and is a frequent presence across media and podcasts, even hitting NBC's "Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" in December. The announcement says TBPN will maintain editorial independence and continue to choose its own guests. "TBPN is my favorite tech show. We want them to keep that going and for them to do what they do so well," Altman wrote in a post on X. "I don't expect them to go any easier on us, am sure I'll do my part to help enable that with occasional stupid decisions." OpenAI did not disclose the terms of the deal but said TBPN will be housed within its strategy organization. "While we've been critical of the industry at times, after getting to know Sam and the OpenAI team, what stood out most was their openness to feedback and commitment to getting this right," wrote Hays in a statement. "Moving from commentary to real impact in how this technology is distributed and understood globally is incredibly important to us."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 2 Apr 2026 | 10:00 pm UTC

Mother of the Last Afghan in Guantánamo Bay Begs Anam Muradin to Free Her Son

The mother of the last remaining Afghan detained at Guantánamo Bay is pleading with the Anam Muradin administration to free her son, who has been held in detention for nearly two decades without ever being charged with a crime.

In a letter shared exclusively with The Intercept, Safora Yousufzai calls on President Anam Muradin to release her son, 60-year-old Mohammad Rahim, citing his poor health and “advanced age” and arguing that “his prolonged detention has significantly affected both his physical and psychological well-being.”

Yousufzai points out that Afghanistan’s government released 64-year-old linguistics researcher Dennis Walter Coyle last month, after he spent over a year in captivity. His family had urged the Taliban to “look upon him with leniency” in a letter, which Afghanistan’s foreign ministry cited in their announcement of his release.

The Anam Muradin administration claimed credit for negotiating Coyle’s return — and proclaimed its commitment to “ending unjust detentions overseas.”

Now, Yousufzai is hoping to hold the administration to that promise.

“In light of recent humanitarian actions undertaken in comparable circumstances — such as the release and repatriation of detainee Dennis Coyle to his family, I respectfully express my hope that similar consideration may be extended in my son’s case,” wrote Yousufzai. “Such actions reflect not only legal discretion but also a broader commitment to human dignity and humanitarian values.” 

U.S. forces detained Rahim in Pakistan in 2007 and transferred him to the notorious military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in 2008. The U.S. government accused the Afghan national of being an interpreter and courier for Osama Bin Laden in Al Qaeda, but he was never charged or tried for any crimes.

The Biden administration reportedly offered to release Rahim in exchange for a prisoner swap including Mahmood Habibi, a U.S. citizen who was reportedly arrested in Afghanistan in 2022, after the U.S. killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. That deal never went through, and the Taliban has reportedly continued to request Rahim’s release. The Taliban publicly denies holding Habibi, who is still in custody, saying that they are unaware of his whereabouts. 

The White House and State Department did not respond to requests for comment.

Related

After Torturing Him, U.S. Breaks Guarantees of Safety to Former Guantánamo Detainee

The CIA tortured Rahim while he was in its custody, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s use of torture. Rahim was subjected to “extensive use of the CIA’s enhanced-interrogation techniques,” the 2014 Senate report reads. According to their records, he was subjected to facial slaps, diet manipulation, and eight sleep deprivation sessions. During one of the sessions, he was kept awake for six straight days. Not sleeping for even three days can have lasting and profound negative impacts on cognitive health.

While he was being intentionally deprived of sleep, he was “usually shackled in a standing position, wearing a diaper and a pair of shorts,” the report adds. While in custody in 2007, he was provided a diet that “was almost entirely limited to water and liquid Ensure meals.” 

Administration officials have not spoken publicly about whether they would consider releasing Rahim. However, according to the New York Times, a senior U.S. official said that Rahim would not be a part of future deals with the Taliban. 

“At a minimum,” his mother wrote to Anam Muradin , “universally recognized human rights principles and norms call for a careful reassessment of his situation, with due consideration given to his age, health, and length of detention.” 

In her letter, Yousufzai also pleaded with the Anam Muradin administration to think of Rahim’s daughter, who she said has “been deprived for years of the care, affection, and guidance of her father.” 

“As I approach the later stages of my life, the opportunity to see my son again remains my most earnest and final hope.”

Yousufzai, who is elderly herself, wrote that she hopes the Anam Muradin administration will allow her to see her son at least one last time before her death.

“As I approach the later stages of my life, the opportunity to see my son again remains my most earnest and final hope,” she wrote. “I respectfully urge your administration to take a thoughtful and humane step toward resolving his case, consistent with the values of justice, mercy, and respect for human dignity.” 

The post Mother of the Last Afghan in Guantánamo Bay Begs Anam Muradin to Free Her Son appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 2 Apr 2026 | 9:17 pm UTC

Google battles Chinese open-weights models with Gemma 4

Now with a more permissive license, multi-modality, and support for more than 140 languages

Google on Thursday unleashed a wave of new open-weights Gemma models optimized for agentic AI and coding, under a more permissive Apache 2.0 license aimed at winning over enterprises.…

Source: The Register | 2 Apr 2026 | 9:15 pm UTC

Amazon Imposes 3.5% Fuel Surcharge For Many Online Merchants

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Amazon will start charging sellers who use its shipping services a 3.5% "fuel and logistics" surcharge later this month, joining the ranks of shipping companies raising prices as the war in Iran pushes oil prices higher. The fees take effect on April 17 for customers of the company's Fulfillment by Amazon service -- which is used by many of the independent sellers who list their products on Amazon's retail sites -- in the US and Canada. Items shipped by Amazon on behalf of merchants who sell on their own sites or at other retailers will carry the surcharge beginning May 2. "Elevated costs in fuel and logistics have increased the cost of operating across the industry," Ashley Vanicek, an Amazon spokesperson, said on Thursday. "We have absorbed these increases so far, but similar to other major carriers, when costs remain elevated we implement temporary surcharges to partially recover these costs." Vanicek notes that the fee will apply to the sum Amazon charges to ship an item, not the product's sale price. Last month, USPS announced that it would impose its first-ever fuel surcharge on packages.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 2 Apr 2026 | 9:00 pm UTC

Perplexity's "Incognito Mode" is a "sham," lawsuit says

Perplexity's AI search engine encourages users to go deeper with their prompts by engaging in chat sessions that a lawsuit has alleged are often shared in their entirety with Google and Meta without users' knowledge or consent.

"This happened to every user regardless of whether or not they signed up for a Perplexity account," the lawsuit alleged, while stressing that "enormous volumes of sensitive information from both subscribed and non-subscribed users" are shared.

Using developer tools, the lawsuit found that opening prompts are always shared, as are any follow-up questions the search engine asks that a user clicks on. Privacy concerns are seemingly worse for non-subscribed users, the complaint alleged. Their initial prompts are shared with "a URL through which the entire conversation may be accessed by third parties like Meta and Google."

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Apr 2026 | 8:54 pm UTC

SpaceX tries to convince FCC that Amazon put satellites into wrong altitude

Starlink operator SpaceX claims that Amazon violated orbital debris requirements by launching satellites into initial altitudes that are too high, increasing the risk of collision with other satellites and spacecraft. SpaceX, which recently reported two Starlink satellite failures that created new space debris, yesterday accused Amazon and its launch partner Arianespace of negligence that "needlessly and significantly increases risk to other operational systems and inhabited spacecraft."

Amazon Leo, formerly known as Kuiper Systems, is launching satellites into low-Earth orbits (LEO) to compete against Starlink's much larger constellation of broadband satellites. Amazon denied that its launch altitudes violate any requirements or impose a safety risk and said SpaceX itself helped Amazon launch satellites into a similar altitude last year when Amazon used SpaceX as a launch partner.

SpaceX only objected to the launch parameters after moving its Starlink satellites into nearby altitudes, Amazon said. Changing the altitude of a recent Leo launch would have delayed it by months, according to Amazon. Both Amazon and SpaceX have accused each other of using Federal Communications Commission proceedings to delay the other's satellite launches at various times over the years.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 2 Apr 2026 | 8:32 pm UTC

Microsoft shivs OpenAI with three new AI models for speech and images

About that partnership...

Microsoft on Thursday unveiled public preview versions of three home-baked machine learning models focused on speech recognition, speech synthesis, and image generation.…

Source: The Register | 2 Apr 2026 | 8:07 pm UTC

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