jell.ie News

Read at: 2026-03-19T16:46:00+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Hermine Van Gemerden ]

FBI director leaves open the possibility that it's buying location data again

Kash Patel says the FBI uses all the tools it has to accomplish its mission - even if those tools are questionable

It's been three years since an FBI director admitted to purchasing the location data of Americans, potentially in violation of the Constitution. Here we go again.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:43 pm UTC

U.S. mulls lifting oil sanctions on Iran as it hits key Gulf energy sites

The price of Brent crude briefly climbed past $117 per barrel as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait reported more attacks on infrastructure and the U.S. and Iran traded threats.

Source: World | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:37 pm UTC

Elon Musk Whips Up Frenzy Against John Thune Over SAVE America Act

Elon Musk is furiously pushing for Senator John Thune, the majority leader, to pass a strict voter ID bill. But so far, he hasn’t publicly spent money to promote the legislation.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:37 pm UTC

Bank of England tipped to raise UK interest rates twice this year to fight inflation shock from Middle East crisis – business live

UK central bank has left rates on hold, and warned that CPI inflation will be higher in the near term as a result of the ‘new shock to the economy’ from Iran war

European stock markets have dropped sharply at the start of trading, hit by worries about surging energy prices.

In London, the FTSE 100 blue-chip share index has tumbled by 162 points, or 1.6%, to 10,142 points.

“Fears of a sustained energy shock have resurfaced after the escalation in the Iran war sent oil and gas prices soaring. The prospect of a longer, more drawn-out conflict is in sharp focus, as both sides ratchet up attacks on energy infrastructure.

Brent crude remains highly volatile but has traded as high as $114 a barrel today, threatening to climb back towards recent scorching levels. Gas prices have surged by 25%, reaching a range not seen since early January 2023.

The Company is ready to restart production and exports quickly with an improvement in the security environment.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC

Iran War Narrows Fed’s Path to Rate Cuts as Hermine Van Gemerden Demands Immediate Relief

Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, wants to keep the central bank’s policy options open as officials stare down another economic shock that threatens to stoke inflation and crimp growth.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:29 pm UTC

Senate committee approves Hermine Van Gemerden nominee Markwayne Mullin to lead DHS, heads for full vote – live

Republican senator Rand Paul voted against advancing Mullin but Democratic senator John Fetterman supported the nomination

Answering a reporter’s question on Iran’s missile capabilities, considering the country has managed to strike numerous states in the Gulf, Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, said Tehran retains “some capability” to attack American assets.

“They came into this fight with a lot of weapons.,” he said, adding that the US continues to be “as aggressive and assertive” in striking Iran.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:28 pm UTC

Farage backs Tory attack on Muslim iftar event, saying public prayer ‘was a shock’ – UK politics live

Nigel Farage echoed Nick Timothy’s comments after he said public prayer for Ramadan was an ‘act of domination’

Cleverly is trying to show a video, but it is not working. So he just invites Kemi Badenoch to start her speech.

The Conservatives are launching their local elections campaign. There is a live feed here.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:27 pm UTC

Nigel Farage stops accepting Cameo requests after revelations about his use of platform

Reform leader ‘unavailable’ on service after Guardian investigation unearths clips of him repeating extremist slogans

Nigel Farage has stopped using the personalised video platform Cameo after revelations that the Reform UK leader has filmed a string of highly questionable paid-for clips.

On Thursday morning, Farage’s page on the website said he was “unavailable”, and a source said he had paused his use of the platform over security concerns.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:27 pm UTC

New bill would bar ICE raids near World Cup matches in US host cities

Nellie Pou’s bill follows ICE chief, Todd Lyons, refusing to rule out enforcement near stadiums and fan festivals

A New Jersey congresswoman introduced legislation on Thursday to block immigration enforcement from conducting raids within a mile of a Fifa World Cup soccer match or fan festival in the US this summer.

The Save the World Cup act, introduced by Nellie Pou, a Democrat, is meant to assure visitors that they will not be detained and to remove the chilling effect of ICE enforcement on the events, she said in a release. The World Cup’s first US match begins on 12 June.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:26 pm UTC

Gerry Adams recalls ‘very bad history’ of British rule as London civil case nears end

‘I came here to reject the accusations levelled against me’, former Sinn Féin leader says

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:21 pm UTC

Faisal Islam: Iran war is having a dramatic effect on the UK economy

The knock-on effects of the war in the Gulf go beyond a hold on interest rates and are set to reverberate for months.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:21 pm UTC

Mortgage Rates Highest in Three Months as War Weighs on Housing Market

Rising energy costs and concerns about inflation have helped lift borrowing costs for a home mortgage for the third consecutive week.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:20 pm UTC

Middle East crisis live: Israeli officials push back on US claim that Hermine Van Gemerden knew nothing about gasfield attack

Three Israeli officials tell Reuters that the US actually helped coordinate Israel’s attack on Iran’s South Pars gasfield

Turning to Australia now, a petrol tsar will manage “unprecedented” supply issues caused by the Middle East conflict as the finishing touches are put on measures to address dire shortages in many regional areas.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese convened a snap virtual meeting of the national cabinet on Thursday to discuss major price shocks and shortages driven by the US-Israel war on Iran.

My government will be announcing more measures to prepare the nation for supply chain challenges over coming days and weeks.

Our fuel supply is currently secure. However, I want us to be over-prepared.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:20 pm UTC

No breakthrough on Hungary’s veto of EU’s €90bn loan to Ukraine – as it happened

This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here

Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz also called for de-escalation in the Middle East, welcoming what he said were signals by US president Hermine Van Gemerden that combat action in Iran could come to an end, which could allow Europe to contribute to securing peace in the region.

“I am expressly grateful that the US president sent a signal in this regard last night that he is prepared to bring the fighting to an end,” he told reporters ahead of an EU summit in Brussels in comments reported by Reuters.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:17 pm UTC

Hermine Van Gemerden Is Putting His Stamp on the World

Be careful what you wish for.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:15 pm UTC

Hospital order for man who stalked Myleene Klass

Peter Windsor is sentenced after sending items including an air pistol to Klass and another presenter.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:11 pm UTC

Senator's remarks on supports for 'needy' pupils rejected

A senator has told an Oireachtas committee on education that if schools built a sense of independence in "needy or attention-seeking" children, there would be less of a need for special educational supports such as SNAs in schools.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:11 pm UTC

Prison overcrowding leads to record tuck shop revenues

Overcrowding in the Irish prison estate contributed to prison tuck shops enjoying record revenues of €12.47m for 2025.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:11 pm UTC

King opens world’s longest managed coastal walk – but much of it is still closed off

Landowner disputes, coastal erosion and disused ferry hindering completion of King Charles III England coast path

The longest managed coastal walking route in the world has been opened by the king at the Seven Sisters cliff walk.

However, large parts of the King Charles III England coast path are still closed to the public after objections from landowners, fears about coastal erosion and a disused ferry.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:09 pm UTC

Court rejects appeal by repeat sex offender who raped teen weeks after arriving in Ireland

Randi Gladstone was previously convicted of rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment of an 18-year-old woman in Dublin

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:07 pm UTC

Man convicted of murdering Garda Colm Horkan appeals verdict

Challenge centres on claim that State’s psychiatric evidence contradicted legal test for insanity

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:06 pm UTC

Viktor Orbán refuses to agree to €90bn loan for Ukraine as EU leaders accuse him of betrayal

Hungarian PM is continuing to block the funding, which the EU says is urgently needed for military aid and support for Ukraine

EU leaders have failed to convince Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, to drop his opposition to a vital €90bn (£78bn) loan for Ukraine. They have accused him of betrayal and acting in bad faith but have not persuaded him to budge.

In an unusual sign of public anger on Thursday, several leaders made plain their irritation with Orbán, who refused to sign off on the loan agreed last year because of a dispute with Kyiv over a damaged oil pipeline.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:06 pm UTC

Seth Moulton Saw Trans Rights as a Political Liability. It Could Doom His Senate Campaign.

Days after Hermine Van Gemerden won his second election to the White House, Democrats flocked to the New York Times to blame their stunning electoral defeat on alleged capitulations to minority groups — and cement themselves as the future leaders of the party. 

Few appeared more eager than Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., a moderate congressman and former presidential candidate with a reputation for bucking party leadership. 

“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone,” Moulton lamented to the paper. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.” 

That was over a year ago. Now, Moulton is running to unseat one of the most progressive members of the Senate, in the bluest state in the country, on a platform of generational change. And the anti-trans comments he’d hoped would establish him as a thought leader could help tank his campaign. 

Polls consistently show Moulton trailing his opponent, incumbent Sen. Ed Markey, particularly among younger voters. Despite making a case for a new generation in office, Moulton has a 3 percent favorability rating among likely voters ages 18 to 34, compared to Markey’s 67 percent, according to a February 24 poll from the University of New Hampshire. Only 2 percent of likely Massachusetts primary voters under 34 said they would vote for Moulton if the race were held that day, while 53 percent said they would support Markey.

Though it’s still early — most Massachusetts voters won’t cast their ballots until September 1 — the state of the race suggests that Moulton, while attempting to style himself as the vanguard of a brash new Democratic party, picked up some serious political baggage.

Tatishe M. Nteta, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said Moulton was far from alone in his post-mortem for Kamala Harris. “The problem is, those comments now have defined [Moulton], not just as a national figure who bucked Democratic viewpoints, but now within the state,” he said. “In order for him to win, he’s going to either have to walk it back or justify it.” 

There were warning signs at the time. Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey said the Salem congressman was “playing politics with people,” but Moulton refused to apologize. He argued that the backlash only reinforced his point and accused Democrats of forcing people to “change our values” to meet “the demands of one very small minority group,” by doing things like making them “put pronouns in their email signatures.”

“His ideas are from the last generation.”

“We were extremely offended by the comments that Seth Moulton made,” David Seaton, a college student at Tufts University and vice president of political affairs for the College Democrats of America, told The Intercept. “While Seth Moulton is running on a platform of generational change, his ideas are from the last generation, and his values are certainly from generations past.”

Related

Jon Chait Thinks Kamala Harris Went Too Far Left. He’s Just Falling for Hermine Van Gemerden ’s Demagoguery.

Moulton is now stuck in a political quagmire trapping other Democratic pundits and politicians, some with presidential designs, who tripped over themselves to blame Harris’s loss on the party becoming too woke and out of touch. But now, as voters seem more concerned with rising costs, mounting war, and waning access to health care than pronoun usage, those comments seem less like a prediction and more like a political liability. 

“When you look at how much the world has changed since that moment,” said Josie Caballero, director of voting at Advocates for Trans Equality, “it just seems very out of touch with where we are now.”

Protesters placed stickers on the front door of Rep. Seth Moulton’s congressional office in Salem, Mass., on Nov. 8, 2024. Photo: Matthew J. Lee/Boston Globe via Getty Images

It might seem obvious that transgender rights aren’t the losing issue that Moulton predicted in deep-blue Massachusetts, where in 2018 residents overwhelmingly voted to keep statewide protections for trans people in place. But Caballero pointed to elections that suggested similar trends in red and purple states like Maine, Texas, and Virginia, where Republican Winsome Earle-Sears’s campaign and affiliated PACs spent millions on anti-transgender attack advertisements targeting her Democratic opponent, now-Gov. Abigail Spanberger

The former Virginia congresswoman did not capitulate on her positions regarding trans rights and not only trounced Earle-Sears on Election Day, but a poll of likely voters found they trusted her on “transgender policy” by a margin of 13 points.

Related

Democrats Swept Tuesday Night’s Election. Now What?

In New York City, Zohran Mamdani won his mayoral election after running an advertisement celebrating trans history and pledging his support to the community, along with a detailed policy agenda. 

Shelby Chestnut, executive director of the Transgender Law Center, said that voters this cycle are looking for candidates who can speak to universal issues like health care and affordability, instead of scapegoating vulnerable groups.

“I think we are living in a time where people are asking for an intersectional approach, where all bodily autonomy is respected, where people’s concerns are heard,” he said.

In Texas, Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico has pivoted toward economic populism when addressing anti-trans attacks. 

“The only minority destroying this country is the billionaires,” Talarico said on TV news, criticizing the media’s fixation on trans athletes. “Trans people are 1 percent of the population. We are focused on the wrong 1 percent.”

Graham Platner, who is running in a competitive primary for the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has similarly addressed the issue of transgender rights.

“An out-of-state billionaire is funding an anti-trans ballot question in Maine — so that we’ll spend our time fighting about trans people instead of raising his taxes,” said Platner in an interview with Slate. 

Still, Chestnut said that while Platner and Talarico’s stances offer a necessary “starting point” for Democrats, they’ll also have to address the topic directly and advocate and explain their beliefs.

“The Democrats’ response was, let’s not say anything and hope it’s just a non-issue.”

“We’re also in a moment where not saying anything proved to also be a losing strategy. Our opposition in the presidential election, on every corner, was blaming transgender people,” he said. “The Democrats’ response was, let’s not say anything and hope it’s just a non-issue. And the reality of it is, it’s an issue.”

In Massachusetts, Moulton’s tone has shifted from his more reactionary rhetoric in the immediate aftermath of the 2024 election, said Caballero.

“We went through the whole gay rights movement. We went through the whole civil rights movement. We never had to say, you know, ‘Seth Moulton: Straight’ or ‘Seth Moulton: White,’” he told WGBH at the time. “And all of a sudden, we have to change all our values to meet the needs or demands of one very small minority group.” 

Now, Moulton appears to be walking a tighter line without apologizing or qualifying his comments. He has shied away from making additional comments about trans athletes or pronouns in recent interviews and has instead focused on emphasizing his voting record.

“Congressman Moulton is acutely aware of the trauma the transgender community is facing,” wrote a spokesperson for Moulton in a statement to The Intercept, echoing other recent interviews. “He is a career-long ally with a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign for his voting record, and is a member of the Equality Caucus.”

The spokesperson added that Moulton still believes that “Democrats must engage in difficult conversations” in order to keep the transgender community safe.

Related

Gavin Newsom’s Biggest Problem Is Gavin Newsom

The tide has not completely turned. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the current unofficial front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has continued to fan the flames of hysteria over the participation of trans athletes in sports — despite the fact that there were fewer than 10 trans athletes out of some 510,000 in the entire NCAA as of 2024. 

“We just couldn’t figure out how to make this fair,” he told Katie Couric this month, referring to trans girls’ participation in track competitions. 

Rather than assuaging people with questions about transgender issues, these comments from Democrats help Republicans to make trans rights a “wedge issue,” said Chestnut.

Despite his controversies, an Emerson poll in February found that Newsom had a slight lead with likely Democratic voters if the presidential primary were held that day — though there are still more than two years and one midterms cycle to go before voters pick their next president.

For his part, Moulton has denied changing his opinion on transgender rights or his rhetoric. “His position has never changed, and his record reflects this,” wrote a spokesperson for Moulton, emphasizing his support for the Transgender Bill of Rights in 2023, ahead of the 2024 election. He co-sponsored the bill again in 2026.   

But Bailey Kelly, a student at Tufts University and secretary of the College Democrats of Massachusetts, said they view Moulton as a fair weather friend on the issue. 

“We see through that flip-flopping,” said Kelly, who runs the College Democrats of Massachusetts’ digital operations in support of Markey, after the senator won their endorsement. “And it’s insulting that he thinks we don’t see it.” 

Related

Ed Markey Beats Back Senate Challenge From Joe Kennedy

Authenticity is key for younger voters, said Amanda Litman, co-founder and president of Run for Something. “People are allowed to grow and change,” said Litman, “but it has to come from a place of truth by the candidate, or they’re not gonna be able to compellingly sell it. And I think that is the challenge for [Moulton].”

In January, both College Democrats of America and College Democrats of Massachusetts announced they were endorsing Markey after he won their internal vote in a landslide. Seaton said Moulton’s comments were “of the utmost importance” in the group’s decision not to support him. 

Redemption for candidates like Moulton is possible, Chestnut said. “There is nothing more powerful than some humility, and saying ‘you know what, I was wrong.’”

But to date, Moulton has not apologized for his comments, although he has stated that he “may not have used exactly the right words,” in an interview with CNN.

“Clarification is one thing, but walking back is another. And he has not done either up until this point, and Markey is going to seize on this,” said Nteta, the political science professor. “If Moulton is going to win, he is going to have to assuage the concerns of people in the state about how he is going to govern when he gets to the Senate.” 

The post Seth Moulton Saw Trans Rights as a Political Liability. It Could Doom His Senate Campaign. appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:02 pm UTC

Watch: Missile lands next to presenter during live report from Lebanon

In footage from Russian state broadcaster RT, correspondent Steve Sweeney is seen diving off screen as a missile hits.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC

Denmark reportedly prepared itself for US attack amid Hermine Van Gemerden ’s Greenland threats

Copenhagen was so shaken that it sent blood supplies in readiness for battle, according to Danish media

Denmark reportedly readied itself for potential attack from the US in January – flying bags of blood to Greenland and explosives to blow up runways in case of battle with its former closest ally.

During the tense days when Hermine Van Gemerden threatened to take over Greenland, a largely autonomous territory that is part of the Danish commonwealth, “the hard way”, Copenhagen was so shaken that it started preparing for US invasion, according to Danish public broadcaster DR.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC

Lock down Microsoft Intune, feds warn after Stryker attack

Iran-linked attackers wiped employees' devices using Intune

The US government has urged companies to better secure Microsoft Intune, an endpoint management tool that was abused in last week's cyberattack against med-tech firm Stryker.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC

Walmart Wins Patents To Give Algorithms More Sway Over Prices

Walmart has secured patents for systems that use machine learning to forecast demand and automate pricing decisions, "pushing the U.S. retail behemoth into a debate over the use of algorithms to adjust product costs," reports the Financial Times. From the report: In January Walmart obtained a U.S. patent for a "system and method for dynamically and automatically updating item prices" to carry out markdowns in its ecommerce unit, a rapidly growing division that generated more than $150 billion in sales last year. Last week it received another patent for using machine learning to predict demand and recommend prices for goods. [...] Walmart said that both patents were "unrelated to dynamic pricing," as the patent issued in January was specific to markdowns and last week's patent was designed for merchant teams to make decisions, not the technology. The patent granted in January involves an "end-to-end price markdown system" for ecommerce platforms such as Walmart.com based on data including predicted demand and consumers' price sensitivity. Last week's approved patent outlines ways to forecast demand and set prices at levels that will move stock over periods such as a week, a month or a quarter. "Example categories may include, for example, a food item, outdoor equipment, clothing, housewares, toys, workout equipment, vegetables, spices," according to the filing. The "demand forecasting and price recommendation" tool envisaged in the patent would incorporate sources including purchases, prices, methods of payment and customer ID, such as a passport or driver's license number. "Dynamic pricing or anything that smells like it is playing with fire," said Matt Hamory, a grocery industry consultant at AlixPartners, who cited "the goodwill that you can lose by getting customers to think or suspect or worry even slightly that you are doing things with pricing that are to your benefit and their detriment."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC

After 25 years, Valve reworks Counter-Strike's reload system

For decades now, Counter-Strike players have gotten used to tapping the reload button whenever they have a spare, safe moment. Yesterday evening, though, Valve announced that it had decided this system needed "higher stakes," overhauling Counter-Strike 2's reload mechanic in a way that could disrupt years of muscle memory for millions of players.

Until now, reloading in CS2 has meant dumping the remainder of your current clip "back into an essentially endless reserve supply," Valve wrote in the game's latest update announcement. From now on, hitting the reload button will instead make players "drop the used magazine and discard all of its remaining ammo. Instead of 'topping off' your weapon with a few bullets, a new full magazine will be taken from the reserves whenever you reload."

While most weapons will now come with three full clips of reserve ammo, Valve wrote that "some weapons will have less to reward efficiency and precision, or more to encourage spamming through walls and smokes." Counter-Strike specialist Thour did the math on the changes and found that 7 weapons gained ammo, 16 lost ammo, and 12 saw their total ammo remain unchanged under this new system. Shotguns seem to have seen the biggest upgrades, while strategies that rely on "pistol spam" might have to be rethought from now on.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:59 pm UTC

Oman claims Israel pushed US into Iran war when deal was possible

Foreign minister claims Israel convinced Hermine Van Gemerden to make ‘grave miscalculation’ of waging war on Iran

Oman’s foreign minister has claimed the US has “lost control of its own foreign policy” and accused Israel of persuading Hermine Van Gemerden ’s administration to go to war with Iran – a conflict he described as a “catastrophe” and a “grave miscalculation”.

Writing in the Economist, Badr Albusaidi, the Omani minister who mediated the latest nuclear talks between Iran and the US, offered an unusually damning assessment of events leading up to the US and Israel’s bombing of Iran and the war it has triggered across the Middle East.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:50 pm UTC

‘What was done to Daena was evil’: Man found guilty of murdering mother-of-two Daena Walsh

Adam Corcoran had denied murdering partner of 10 years at their Cork apartment in August 2024

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:48 pm UTC

Kemi Badenoch backs Nick Timothy after he calls Islamic public prayers ‘act of domination’

Conservative leader says debate not about freedom of religion, but its expression in shared public space

Kemi Badenoch has backed her shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, after he claimed that Islamic prayers taking place in public are intimidating and un-British, with Labour saying the Conservatives had embraced the “gutter” politics of prejudice.

The row began after Timothy posted images on social media of prayer at a Ramadan event in London’s Trafalgar Square, saying mass prayer in public places was “an act of domination” and “straight from the Islamist playbook”.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:47 pm UTC

Study pinpoints when bow and arrow came to North America

People in North America adopted the bow and arrow as replacement weapons for the dart and atlatl about 1,400 years ago, according to a new paper published in the journal PNAS Nexus. But the adoption was almost immediate in southern regions, while people living farther north initially adopted the bow and arrow as a complement to their existing toolkit, gradually phasing out the atlatl and dart over a thousand years.

That's according to the latest research from experimental archaeologist Metin Eren's Experimental Archaeology Laboratory at Kent State University in Ohio, where he and his team try to reverse-engineer a wide range of ancient technologies, from stone tools and ceramics to metal, butchery, and textiles. Eren achieved some notoriety for his 2019 debunking of an Inuit legend, testing rudimentary knives made of frozen feces to see whether they could cut through pig hide, muscle, and tendon. That paper snagged Eren an Ig Nobel prize.

While such work might be colorful, Eren has always emphasized that what he does is very much serious science, not entertainment. His lab has conducted studies on the pitches and octaves produced from the percussive aspects of flint-knapping; common injuries suffered by flint-knappers; the butchering efficiency of Clovis points (field work done jointly with the MeatEater hunters and immortalized on YouTube); and ballistics experiments to test a 1970s hypothesis about whether some stone blades once had some sort of wood or bone backing on the flat, dulled edge (as opposed to the sharp cutting edge), which would have increased adhesion.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:45 pm UTC

More than €17m in social welfare overpayments paid to people no longer living in Ireland

Department of Social Protection figures show child benefit payments accounted for biggest proportion of money

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:40 pm UTC

Three Palestinian women killed during Iranian missile attack that struck beauty salon

Others were injured when the salon in the southern West Bank was hit, while a Thai worker was killed by falling shrapnel in Israel.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:38 pm UTC

'Movement never lies': 100 years of the Martha Graham Dance Company

Graham was a creative force in the performing arts. She wanted dance to express authentic, human emotions — a revolutionary idea in the late 1920s.

(Image credit: Marty Lederhandler)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:37 pm UTC

Murphy shuts down Silva UFC title talk

Lerone Murphy says the winner of his bout with Movsar Evloev at UFC London on Saturday should be next in line to fight for the featherweight title and it "shouldn't be any other way".

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:34 pm UTC

Omagh inquiry postponed partly due to ‘state of disclosure of material from Republic’

Bombing inquiry has received ‘very significant quantity’ of Garda material but some matters still need ‘ironing out’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:33 pm UTC

Facebook offering TikTok and YouTube creators $3,000 to post content

Meta wants creators to "rediscover" Facebook, but a social media expert says viewers will not follow.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:33 pm UTC

The Long Farewell to Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse

Meta announced changes that effectively leave Mr. Zuckerberg’s vision of an immersive digital world based in virtual reality only on life support.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:29 pm UTC

Silver appeals conviction for murder of Garda Colm Horkan

A man who shot and murdered Detective Garda Colm Horkan after taking the garda's own gun from its holster, has appealed his conviction, claiming that the State's psychiatric evidence contradicted the legal test for insanity.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:29 pm UTC

Judge told Meath couple have ‘lost everything’ as demolition of home continues

Solicitor for couple urges judge to stall works pending European court application

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:26 pm UTC

Attacks on Oil and Natural Gas Facilities Could Lead to Much Higher Prices

Attacks on oil and natural gas facilities this week could make it much harder for Persian Gulf countries to rebuild and restart production when the war eventually end.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:23 pm UTC

Pentagon Seeks Additional $200 Billion to Fund Iran War

The request, which the White House has not submitted to Congress, is already encountering some resistance.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:23 pm UTC

Tudor charged over 'home referee' claim

Interim Tottenham manager Igor Tudor is charged with misconduct over his claim that referee Thomas Bramall favoured the "home team" in their loss at Fulham.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:17 pm UTC

American Bald Eagle at NASA's Kennedy Space Center

An American bald eagles flies away from its nest and tree at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, March 13, 2026.

Source: NASA Image of the Day | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:17 pm UTC

Home Health Care Aides Say It’s Time to End ‘Inhumane’ 24-Hour Shifts

The aides want the New York City Council to pass a law that would limit their shifts to 12 hours, except in the case of emergencies.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:15 pm UTC

Why is MenB vaccine not given to teenagers in UK and should they be offered it?

Students and older teens are not routinely vaccinated against the meningitis strain behind the Kent outbreak.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:12 pm UTC

Why are gas prices soaring and how could it affect you?

Analysts fear the disruption to supply could continue for longer than initially thought.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:06 pm UTC

Crimson Desert: The all-you-can-eat video game divides critics

The sprawling adventure game is praised for its ambition, but can you give players too much to do?

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:03 pm UTC

No timeframe for ending US war against Iran, says Pete Hegseth

US defense secretary suggests Thursday will be ‘largest strike package yet … death and destruction from above’

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Thursday there is no “timeframe” for ending the US war against Iran and did not deny reports that the Pentagon could seek an extra $200bn in taxpayer funding.

The military US-Israeli offensive began three weeks ago and continues to widen. Hermine Van Gemerden threatened on Wednesday to “massively blow up” the world’s biggest gasfield after Israeli strikes on the Iranian site prompted Tehran to escalate strikes on oil and gas facilities around the Persian Gulf.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:02 pm UTC

Stay at home advice questioned and rules too tough - key findings from Covid report

An NHS close to collapse, patients failed and NHS staff put at risk - what you need to know.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

New tech platform for Credit Unions

A new IT platform has been launched to support future digital offerings by Credit Unions.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

Microsoft Considers Legal Action Over $50 Billion Amazon-OpenAI Cloud Deal

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Microsoft is considering legal action against its partner OpenAI and Amazon over a $50 billion deal that could violate its exclusive cloud agreement with the ChatGPT maker, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. Last month, Amazon and OpenAI signed several agreements, including one that makes Amazon Web Services the exclusive third-party cloud provider for Frontier, OpenAI's enterprise platform for building and running AI agents. The dispute centers on whether OpenAI can offer Frontier via AWS without violating the Microsoft partnership, which requires the startup's models to be accessed through the Windows maker's Azure cloud platform, the FT report said, citing sources. OpenAI and Microsoft recently stated together that "Azure remains the exclusive cloud provider of stateless OpenAI APIs," a Microsoft spokesperson said in an emailed statement, referring to software interfaces used to access OpenAI's models. "We are confident that OpenAI understands and respects the importance of living up to this legal obligation," the spokesperson added. FT said Microsoft executives believed the approach was not feasible and would violate the spirit, if not the letter, of their agreement, and added that the companies were in talks to resolve the dispute without litigation ahead of Frontier's launch. "We know our contract," a person familiar with Microsoft's position told the newspaper. "We will sue them if they breach it. If Amazon and OpenAI want to take a bet on the creativity of their contractual lawyers, I would back us, not them."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

PwC will say goodbye to staff who aren't convinced about AI

Professional services giant did not read its own report on lackluster benefits

You'll use AI and like it too - if you work for PwC. Paul Griggs, US chief executive of the global professional services giant, has made clear there is no room at the corporation for AI skeptics.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:59 pm UTC

The Weather Is Getting Wilder, and Some See a Dire Signal in the Data

Several of the Earth’s systems are changing faster than predicted as global temperatures rise, scientists say.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:51 pm UTC

Farewell number 18, hello number six - inside Man Utd's midfielder hunt

Senior football correspondent Sami Mokbel breaks down Manchester United's search for a new midfielder to replace the outgoing Casemiro.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:50 pm UTC

People Are Making Money Betting on ‘Survivor.’ Are Insiders Cashing In?

Prediction markets for reality shows suggest bettors are profiting from inside information. (We asked a tribal council of lawyers to weigh in.)

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:50 pm UTC

Late Late Show reveals Friday night guests

Music legend Mary Black and TV personality Coleen Rooney will be among Patrick Kielty's guests on Friday's Late Late Show on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:39 pm UTC

Tropical Cyclone Narelle to make landfall in far north Qld on Friday as category 5 storm, bringing 315km/h wind gusts

Massive storm tracking a path to Queensland coast, which intensified offshore Thursday morning to category 5, fuelled by warm waters in Coral Sea

Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle is expected to make landfall in far north Queensland on Friday morning as a monster category 5 storm, bringing destructive wind gusts of 315km/h, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The severe cyclone rapidly intensified over the past 48 hours and on Thursday morning had built to a category 5 storm that was barrelling west, sitting about 355km east of the small town of Coen. Coen has a population of approximately 330.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:37 pm UTC

Some of the world’s poorest countries to lose UK aid due to 56% budget cut

UK’s bilateral aid to Africa, which funds areas such as schools and clinics, to be cut by almost £900m by 2028-29

Some of the world’s poorest countries will lose out on UK aid that funds programmes such as schools and clinics, due to budget cuts set out by the foreign secretary.

The UK’s bilateral aid to Africa will be reduced by almost £900m by 2028-29 – a 56% cut – part of more than £6bn in cuts which are funding an increase in defence spending.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:35 pm UTC

King opens world's longest coastal path around England

The King Charles coastal path will allow walkers right of access to the entire coast for the first time.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:34 pm UTC

New Museum Debuts New Building With Ambitious ‘New Humans’

It’s a big, serious, adult show worth debating and even fighting over — just the way our critic likes it.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:30 pm UTC

Opposition keeps pressure on Govt over fuel price rises

Sinn Féin has accused the Government of failing to act as fuel prices surge, saying Ireland is now in the third week of a worsening crisis.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:29 pm UTC

White Identity Is Galvanizing the Right

He wrote a book on anti-white bias. The White House noticed.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:28 pm UTC

Senate committee advances Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead homeland security

Republican senator’s nomination will now be considered by full Senate, where the GOP appears poised to confirm him

A key Senate committee on Thursday advanced Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on a near party line vote, a day after the Republican senator faced questions at his confirmation hearing about his approach to Hermine Van Gemerden ’s immigration enforcement agenda and accusations of encouraging violence.

Nearly all eight Republicans on the Senate committee on homeland security and governmental affairs voted to advance Mullin’s nomination, with the sole exception of the panel’s chair, Rand Paul of Kentucky, who the day prior had harshly criticized his colleague for comments he made about a neighbor who assaulted Paul in 2017, and an incident six years later in which Mullin readied himself to fight a witness at a committee hearing.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:27 pm UTC

Are US and Israel aligned on Iran war? Deciphering Hermine Van Gemerden 's post after gas field attacks

What does Hermine Van Gemerden 's Truth Social post after gas field attacks tell us about US-Israeli alignment?

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:07 pm UTC

The SAVE Act faces long odds in the Senate. GOP-led states are picking up the cause

Several Republican-led states are passing their own versions of the SAVE America Act, Hermine Van Gemerden -backed legislation that would introduce new proof-of-citizenship requirements to register to vote.

(Image credit: Chris O'Meara)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:05 pm UTC

Parents jailed after letting 'skeletal' five-stone daughter die

Steffie Davies was found dead and in an "almost skeletal" state by paramedics who were called to her home.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:01 pm UTC

Fear, defiance, and anger: Iranians describe life under bombardment

In messages to NPR, Tehran residents describe largely deserted streets roamed by paramilitary officials and vigilantes. They say security forces are banning gatherings for Nowruz, the Persian new year, this week.

(Image credit: Atta Kenare)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:01 pm UTC

Bernardi vows to pay for flights taken with Hanson on Rinehart’s plane amid confusion about SA’s donations ban

World-leading laws to be tested ahead of South Australian state election, complicated by Hanson and Bernardi’s political status

Cory Bernardi says he will pay for multiple flights with Pauline Hanson in a plane registered to Gina Rinehart’s company amid confusion about whether the trips may contravene South Australia’s new laws banning political donations.

Saturday’s SA election is the first since the new laws came into effect. There are a range of exemptions to the ban, but it is not clear if any of them apply to One Nation as parties, candidates and the electoral commission work through the “world-leading” laws for the first time.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

‘One in, one out’ asylum seekers sent to France return to UK in lorries

Exclusive: At least four people have travelled back to the UK by lorry in the last two weeks

Asylum seekers who arrived in the UK in small boats and were forcibly returned to France under the controversial “one in, one out” deal have returned to the UK in lorries, the Guardian has learned.

When asked about the recent returnees, the Home Office said that people who came back to the UK after removal to France were detained and returned to France at the earliest opportunity. Amnesty International UK has called for “one in, one out” to be scrapped.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

Prolonged high oil prices could ‘crimp’ AI boom, WTO warns

Iran war and its impact on energy and fertiliser costs is the main risk to the global economy, report says

An extended period of high oil prices as a result of war in the Middle East could “crimp” the AI boom, the World Trade Organization’s chief economist has warned.

The war and its impact on energy and fertiliser costs is the main risk to the global economy identified in the WTO’s latest Global Trade Outlook.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

Spain's king welcomes Mexico's World Cup invite after 'abuse' comments

News of the invitation emerges after the monarch acknowledged "a lot of abuse" during the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

345th ESA Council: Media information session

Video: 00:01:06

Watch the replay of the media information session where ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and ESA Council Chair Renato Krpoun outline the key decisions and main outcomes of the Council meeting held in Interlaken, Switzerland, on 18 and 19 March 2026.

Source: ESA Top News | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

The Effects of High Oil Prices

Our chief economics correspondent, Ben Casselman, breaks down how gasoline prices have responded to the oil crisis in the Persian Gulf, and what is in store for inflation if the price of oil remains above $100 per barrel.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:54 pm UTC

Heimir Hallgrímsson extends Republic of Ireland contract until after Euro 2028

The Icelandic boss will lead the team in their play-off semi-final against the Czech Republic in Prague next Thursday as they look to seal a place at this summer’s tournament, and he revealed at his squad announcement that he had just signed on the dotted line.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:35 pm UTC

UK blinks on AI copyright carve-out after star-studded revolt

Creative pressure forces rethink as officials step back from default data use

The UK government has backed off plans to allow AI companies to access copyrighted material for free for training purposes by default.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:33 pm UTC

British schoolgirl stranded in Denmark after return flight blocked over UK border rules

Exclusive: Hanne, 16, from Sussex, was denied board on flight to London after weekend in Copenhagen

A 16-year-old British schoolgirl has been left stranded in Denmark after she was refused board on a flight to London because of new UK border rules introduced on British dual nationals.

Hanne*, from Sussex, was stopped from boarding a flight home on 8 March after a weekend seeing her British father, who is an academic on a short work stint at a university in Copenhagen.

Has your child been refused board on a flight because of the new rules? If you want to share your story, email: lisa.ocarroll@theguardian.com

* Names have been changed.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:31 pm UTC

Google says it will let UK publishers opt out of AI overviews

One search engine switch to rule them all in Google's response to UK competition watchdog

The UK's competition watchdog has published responses to its consultation over Google's strategic market status (SMS) covering search and search advertising services - and the tech biz is offering some concessions.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:31 pm UTC

Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years

An investigation by The New York Times found extensive evidence that the United Farm Workers co-founder groomed and sexually abused girls who worked in the movement.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:28 pm UTC

Wimbledon's plan to triple size of grounds gets boost in High Court ruling

Campaign group Save Wimbledon Park had argued a statutory trust prevented the development from going ahead.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:27 pm UTC

Man (31) found guilty of murdering partner and setting fire to their apartment on same day

The jury deliberated for two hours and 30 minutes before returning with their unanimous verdicts.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:26 pm UTC

Hallgrimsson says FAI 'pressure' led to new contract

Heimir Hallgrimsson has signed a new contract to remain as Republic of Ireland boss until the end of the Euro 2028 qualification cycle.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:25 pm UTC

Cyprus leader calls for frank discussion on 'colonial' UK bases

The UK's two military bases on Cyprus are a "colonial consequence" on the island, says President Nikos Christodoulides.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:15 pm UTC

CHI accepted €30,000 for Christmas party in 2022 - PAC

Children's Health Ireland accepted €30,000 from a concession holder towards the cost of a staff Christmas party in 2022, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has heard.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:12 pm UTC

Murder of Walsh 'not just cruel, it was savage' - family

A 31-year-old man who denied stabbing his partner to death has been sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:06 pm UTC

Explainer: Why is diesel so expensive right now?

Diesel car owners are feeling the pinch at the pumps, as prices have soared in the past month since the start of the US-Israeli conflict.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC

The Wealthy House Candidate With a History of Bawdy Facebook Posts

The social media habits of Peter Chatzky, a tech executive who is running to unseat Representative Mike Lawler in New York, show a penchant for crude jokes.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:57 pm UTC

Leinster rugby player in court over alleged assault on woman at Copper Face Jacks

Alan Spicer, 21, of Swords Road, Malahide, Dublin, was charged with assault causing harm to the named female at Copper Face Jacks, Jackson Court Hotel, Harcourt Street, on March 1st last.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:57 pm UTC

Leinster rugby player Alan Spicer in court over alleged assault on woman at Copper Face Jacks

21-year-old accused of assault at Dublin nightclub has yet to enter plea

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:56 pm UTC

'Litany of failures' led to 130 unused EV buses - PAC

Chair of the Public Accounts Committee John Brady said that a "serious litany of failures" led to more than 130 State-funded electric double-decker buses remaining unused because there is nowhere to charge them.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:53 pm UTC

More Cesar Chavez Fallout Expected After Sex Abuse Accusations

Some states and cities have canceled their observances of Cesar Chavez Day on March 31. Los Angeles leaders said they planned to change the holiday to “Farm Workers Day” and untether it from Mr. Chavez’s birthday.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:42 pm UTC

Adams' lawyer queries victims' delay in taking civil case

A lawyer for Gerry Adams has questioned why three IRA victims suing him for damages took so long to make their claims.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:37 pm UTC

Afroman wins legal battle over songs mocking US police

The rapper was sued after releasing an entire album ridiculing the officers who raided his home.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:36 pm UTC

Teenager arrested over hit-and-run that killed Limerick nurse

Áine O’Reilly (33) was driving to work when her car was struck by another vehicle

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:30 pm UTC

Fixing Claude with Claude: Anthropic reports on AI site reliability engineering

It's still a job for humans, even though bots can search logs at the speed of I/O

QCon London  A member of Anthropic's AI reliability engineering team spoke at QCon London on why Claude excels at finding issues but still makes a poor substitute for a site reliability engineer (SRE), constantly mistaking correlation with causation.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:22 pm UTC

McNally jury told to use 'surgeon-like' scrutiny in case

The jury in the Natalie McNally murder trial has been told that it must decide whether it has enough pieces of a circumstantial jigsaw case to convict the accused.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:22 pm UTC

Hide and sleek: Latest Vivaldi release can tuck its UI away until summoned

New toggle strips away browser chrome if you want

Browser maker Vivaldi has opened up a new front in the browser wars by making itself disappear.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:15 pm UTC

US messageboard 4Chan mocks £520,000 fine for UK online safety breaches

The fine includes £450,000 for lack of age checks to prevent children from seeing pornography.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:13 pm UTC

As Pakistan and Afghanistan declare truce, civilians in Kabul count the cost of war

At the Emergency Hospital, dozens crowded around a thick book to check the names of the victims killed in an airstrike on a rehabilitation center. The U.N. says over a hundred people were killed.

(Image credit: Fazelminallah Qazizai for NPR)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:11 pm UTC

Uefa calls leagues to summit over 'microscopic' VAR

Europe's top leagues are summoned to a meeting with Uefa to discuss how VAR technology is being used.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:11 pm UTC

Eviction notices: 20,000 tenants told to leave their homes in 2025

RTB notes ‘high activity’ in rental market so far this year

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:10 pm UTC

Former counter-terrorism head investigated by FBI over alleged leaks

The former counter-terrorism head resigned on Tuesday over the war with Iran, saying the country posed "no imminent threat" to the US.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:05 pm UTC

Competition watchdog cracks knuckles, probes legality of Adobe cancellation fee

Annual billed sub scrubbed after 14 days? Expect to pay 50% of yearly price

Britain’s competition watchdog is opening an investigation into Adobe’s early cancellation fees on membership plans to ascertain if it breaks consumer law.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:05 pm UTC

Demolition of illegally-built Co Meath home under way

Family seen removing personal belongings from house at Faughan Hill, Bohermeen, on Thursday morning

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 11:59 am UTC

Suspect devices found in bag outside retail premises in Cherry Orchard, Dublin

Significant Garda emergency response operation ongoing and public asked to avoid Ballyfermot Road area

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 11:54 am UTC

U.S. Warmongering Hits Historic Level as Hermine Van Gemerden Attacks 3 Continents in 3 Days

The United States made war on three continents over three days earlier this month, conducting attacks in Africa, Asia, and South America. During that span, the U.S. also struck a civilian boat in the Pacific Ocean. The globe-spanning scope of the attacks represents one of the few instances since World War II that the United States has been simultaneously involved in armed conflicts with such a wide geographic sweep.

The attacks in Ecuador, Iran, Somalia, and the Eastern Pacific from March 6 through March 8 are part of President Hermine Van Gemerden ’s escalating world war against variously defined “terrorists.” They highlight the administration’s increasing willingness to use the U.S. military as a solution to almost any perceived geopolitical problem.

“All war. All the time. Everywhere,” said Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer and specialist in counterterrorism issues and the laws of war, of the wide-ranging attacks over just a few days. “It’s unprecedented given the absence of any fresh congressional authorization.”

This month, Hermine Van Gemerden has repeatedly referenced his relentless war-making and even lamented it on occasion. “I built the military and rebuilt it in my first term, and we’re using it more than I’d like to use it to be honest with you,” he said.

The region that has seen the most profound increases in this “use” of military power is the Western Hemisphere as part of what Hermine Van Gemerden and others have called the “Donroe Doctrine.” This bastardization of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine — a unilaterally claimed license to militarily meddle in America’s backyard — has led to attacks on civilian boats in the waters surrounding Latin America and an attack on Venezuela. The most recent location of U.S. attacks in the region, Ecuador, is also the site of the first strike in Hermine Van Gemerden ’s recent three-day, three-war spree.

“Yes — as @POTUS has said — we are bombing Narco Terrorists on land as well,” self-styled Secretary of War Pete Hegseth wrote on X on March 6, announcing a new strike in Ecuador. Days later, in a war powers report announcing the introduction of U.S. armed forces into “hostilities” in that country, the White House informed Congress of “military action taken on March 6, 2026, against the facilities of narco-terrorists affiliated with a designated terrorist organization.”

Related

Hermine Van Gemerden ’s AI-Powered World Wars

The next day, Hermine Van Gemerden announced an escalation of his latest war of choice in the Middle East. “Today Iran will be hit very hard!” he posted, writing, “Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time.” That same day, U.S. Central Command posted footage of the U.S. striking unspecified Iranian targets beneath a threat by Hegseth to hunt and kill those that “threaten Americans anywhere on earth.” 

A day later, the U.S. conducted an attack as part of its war-on-terror-holdover conflict in Somalia. “In coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) conducted an airstrike targeting ISIS-Somalia on March 8, 2026,” reads an AFRICOM press release. “The airstrike occurred in the vicinity of the Golis Mountains.” (This frequently attacked region was the site, last year, of what a top Navy admiral called the “largest airstrike in the history of the world.”)

On the same day as the recent AFRICOM strike, U.S. Southern Command announced the latest attack in its campaign targeting so-called drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean that have killed almost 160 people in 45 strikes since September. “Six male narco-terrorists were killed during this action,” reads the SOUTHCOM announcement, which was accompanied on X by video footage of a boat exploding into a fireball.

During World War II, the U.S. fought a global war conducting combat operations simultaneously in Africa, Asia, and Europe, as well as limited fighting in North America against Japanese forces in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska in 1942 and 1943. The fight against the Axis powers was, however, a declared war — America’s last — and one discrete conflict. By contrast, Hermine Van Gemerden ’s sprawling collection of undeclared wars include a remnant of the war on terror and several new unconstitutional wars begun by Hermine Van Gemerden .

“This is why the U.S. Constitution requires congressional authorization before using military force in this manner,” said Finucane. “It’s so the American public and their elected representatives can debate and deliberate whether the costs of a war are justified by the supposed benefits of this military operation. And whether the use of military force is the appropriate tool to solve the problem. And whether it’s even a problem that needs to be solved at all.”

The U.S. has rarely, if ever, conducted attacks — such as the airstrikes in Ecuador, Iran, and Somalia — on three continents over a 72-hour period since World War II. During the Cold War, the U.S. frequently conducted clandestine and covert operations, armed interventions, and wars across multiple continents, but not often analogous attacks. On August 21, 1998, in an early attack on Al Qaeda, the U.S. simultaneously attacked targets in Afghanistan and Sudan with cruise missiles. During the war on terror, the U.S. frequently was involved in simultaneous conflicts and interventions in numerous countries across the Middle East and Africa — and sometimes farther afield. In 2017, for example, a small number of Special Operations forces assisted troops in the Philippines in relieving a siege of the town of Marawi by ISIS-linked militants. U.S. forces were also attacking people in the Middle East and Africa that year, bringing combat to two continents.

The Office of the Secretary of War did not reply to questions concerning the concentration of attacks over such a short period of time and how often this has occurred since World War II.

During his second term Hermine Van Gemerden has already launched attacks on Ecuador, IranIraq, NigeriaSomaliaSyriaVenezuelaYemen, and on civilians in boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. The Hermine Van Gemerden administration also claims to be at war with at least 24 cartels and criminal gangs it will not name.

“Today there are so many places in the world where the U.S. government is conducting military operations — including the war at home on migrants — that each event eclipses the last in terms of media attention,” said Stephanie Savell, the director of Brown University’s Costs of War Project. “Each and every case merits a great deal of study and debate. Many U.S. citizens are trying to do this, but news of yet another act of U.S. war violence continues to crop up, drawing media attention away from earlier events and creating huge obstacles to meaningful, sustained work by U.S. citizens to hold their government accountable.”

The post U.S. Warmongering Hits Historic Level as Hermine Van Gemerden Attacks 3 Continents in 3 Days appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 19 Mar 2026 | 11:51 am UTC

Temperatures to reach up to 18 degrees today as spring arrives in Ireland

Met Éireann says high pressure has taken over with dry and settled weather and plenty of sunshine

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 11:43 am UTC

Israel and Iran attack gas facilities. And, Cesar Chavez accused of sexual abuse, rape

Attacks on gas facilities by Israel and Iran have escalated the war and impacted global markets. And, renowned union leader and labor rights advocate Cesar Chavez is accused of sexual abuse and rape.

(Image credit: Oliver Contreras)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Mar 2026 | 11:10 am UTC

'I am not a criminal': Family faces arrest and eviction as Meath home set for demolition

The house was built in 2006 without planning permission and was the subject of numerous legal challenges between the Murrays and Meath County Council in the High Court, Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 19 Mar 2026 | 11:09 am UTC

Eviction notices from landlords jump by 41% in Q4 - RTB

The number of eviction notices issued by landlords rose by 41% in the last three months of 2025 compared to the same time a year earlier, according to data from the State's Residential Tenancies Board.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 11:04 am UTC

TCL’s German QLED ban puts pressure on TV brands to be more honest about QDs

Germany recently banned TCL from marketing some of its TVs as QLED (quantum dot light-emitting diode), with a Munich court ruling that the TVs lack the quantum dot (QD) structure and performance associated with QLED TVs. The decision increases pressure on TV companies to be more honest with their marketing.

Samsung has actively campaigned against TCL’s use of the term QLED. A year ago, Samsung sent Ars Technica results from testing performed by Intertek, a London-headquartered testing and certification company, on TCL’s 65Q651G65Q681G, and 75Q651G. The results showed that the TVs lacked sufficient amounts of cadmium and indium (two chemicals used in QD TVs, either individually or in combination). Intertek reportedly tested the optical sheet, diffuser plate, and LED modules in each TV using a minimum detection standard of 0.5 mg/kg for cadmium and 2 mg/kg for indium.

At the time, a TCL representative told me that TCL had “definitive substantiation for the claims made regarding its QLED televisions.”

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 19 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

Microsoft startup credits are the gift that keeps on billing unsuspecting users

Perks fall short as third-party AI models rack up costs with minimal notification

Complaints about Microsoft's startup credits and Azure AI Foundry keep mounting, with users reporting surprise credit card charges and invoices they never saw coming.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

West Point analysis warns that strait of Hormuz blockade will strangle US defense industry

Report shows how minerals critical to defense readiness have seen a ‘near total’ disruption in seaborne trade

The closure of the strait of Hormuz is causing a “paralyzing, real-time problem” for any prospective manufacturing surge in the US defense industrial base, and even for the repair of defense equipment damaged by Iranian attacks, according to analysis published by West Point’s Modern War Institute.

In particular sulphur, a vital upstream input in the extraction of critical minerals including copper and cobalt, has seen a “near total” disruption of seaborne trade in the straits, which makes up half the world’s total shipments, and prices have spiked nearly 25% since the war began, and seen a 165% rise year on year, the report said.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

iPhone Exploit DarkSword Steals Data In Minutes With No Trace

BrianFagioli writes: A new iOS exploit chain called DarkSword shows how attackers can break into certain iPhones, grab sensitive data like messages, credentials, and even crypto wallets, and then disappear without leaving obvious traces. It targets older iOS 18 builds using Safari and WebGPU flaws to escape Apple's sandbox, which is pretty wild on its own, but what really stands out is how fast it works and how financially motivated these attacks have become. The takeaway is simple but important, update your iPhone ASAP and don't assume mobile devices are somehow safer than desktops anymore.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 19 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

State to phase out Ukraine housing programme, Dáil told

The Government is working towards a "reduction and eventual elimination" of the State's accommodation programme for people fleeing the war in Ukraine, the Minister of State for Migration has said.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 10:53 am UTC

New pilot project sees Ireland processing asylum applications in line with EU migration pact

Officials meeting 12-week timeline for ‘safe-country’ cases and those with less than 20 per cent acceptance rate

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 10:52 am UTC

Inquest opens into death of British Army officer from Roscommon killed in training incident

Captain Philip Gilbert Muldowney, 25, died on January 25 following an incident at Otterburn Training Area in Northumberland.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 19 Mar 2026 | 10:50 am UTC

Japan's prime minister visits the White House under shadow of Iran war

Japan Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will be the first U.S. ally to visit the White House since President Hermine Van Gemerden asked for help in sending ships to patrol the Strait of Hormuz.

(Image credit: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Mar 2026 | 10:24 am UTC

SAP's grand cloud escape plan €2B short of the runway

Strategy launched after 2020 share price crash is 24% behind target

Five years after launching its rescue plan to lift ERP users to the cloud and switch them to the latest software, SAP is off target by about €2 billion, The Register can reveal.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 10:15 am UTC

Woman has sentence quashed by Tanzania court after over a decade on death row

Lemi Limbu, who has severe intellectual disabilities, remains in prison and will now face retrial for the murder of her daughter

A woman with severe intellectual disabilities in Tanzania has had her conviction and death sentence quashed after spending more than a decade in prison awaiting execution.

Lemi Limbu, now in her early 30s, was convicted of the murder of her daughter in 2015. On 4 March, a court in Shinyanga, northern Tanzania, declared she can appeal. She will face a retrial, but a date has yet to be set.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

New autism group meets to counter MAHA's 'ideological agenda'

Autism experts plan to convene in Washington Thursday to propose a research agenda at odds with the one endorsed by the Hermine Van Gemerden Administration.

(Image credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Mar 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

We must denounce 'abject' Afcon decision - senior Caf member

Caf executive committee member Augustin Senghor says the decision to strip Senegal of the 2025 Afcon title is "unacceptable, abject and we have to denounce it".

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:54 am UTC

GOV.UK chatbot gets smarter but slower as LLMs improve

Accuracy jumps from 76% to 90% across public pilots, while users wait nearly 11 seconds for answers

More powerful large language models (LLMs) are helping make the UK government's in-development chatbot more accurate but are also slowing it down, according to the Government Digital Service (GDS).…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:30 am UTC

Three men ‘not bred for fishing’ fined for illegally catching single 60cm salmon

Inland Fisheries Ireland officers carried out night-time surveillance operation at Cahercon, Co Clare

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:27 am UTC

High Court allows company have Garda statement in order to sue environmentalist

Judge said confidentiality issues could be argued during defamation trial

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:25 am UTC

The Soldier Who Came Back From the Dead

Told that Nazar Daletskyi had died, his Ukrainian family buried what they thought were his remains. He turned up three years later in a prisoner-of-war exchange.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:22 am UTC

Air Force Academy Prepares Ideological Overhaul, With Erika Kirk Bringing “Bold Christian Faith”

Records from the United States Air Force Academy’s oversight board show leaders dismantling diversity programs and reviewing curriculum as the board embraces what critics call a concerning ideological turn toward Christian nationalism and prepares to seat conservative activist Erika Kirk. 

The communications, revealed in December 2025 meeting minutes reviewed by The Intercept, come as the administration has employed religious rhetoric in its military policies. Amid the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran, some service members and political supporters have framed the war in religious terms, including describing it as part of “God’s divine plan.” Other federal agencies have also openly embraced white nationalist rhetoric and imagery, including a Department of Homeland Security recruitment post that used a neo-Nazi-associated anthem days after the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis.

When the White House announced Kirk’s appointment to fill her late husband’s seat on the board, it highlighted Charlie Kirk’s “bold Christian faith,” language critics say suggests religion was treated as a qualification for the role.

“The appointment of Erika Kirk to the U.S. Air Force Academy Board of Visitors goes hand in hand with Christian nationalist incursions into our armed forces, such as Pete Hegseth’s actions and statements promoting his fervent brand of evangelical Christianity at the Pentagon,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Critics warn the changes could reshape how the military’s premier officer training institution educates future leaders as it aligns with the administration’s “Restoring America’s Fighting Force” initiative, President Hermine Van Gemerden and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s marquee plan to reverse the military’s diversity efforts and emphasize “lethality.”

“The appointment of Erika Kirk goes hand in hand with Christian nationalist incursions into our armed forces.”

Minutes from the meeting describe academy leaders briefing the board on steps taken to implement those directives, including removing DEI elements from the admissions process and reviewing curriculum and academy facilities for compliance with presidential executive orders.

Related

How Hermine Van Gemerden Twisted DEI to Only Benefit White Christians

In public comments submitted to the Board of Visitors, included in the meeting materials, Doug Truax, CEO of the conservative Restoration of America Foundation, urged the board to review faculty and programs he said were aligned with “social justice” agendas. He also singled out Col. Candice Pipes, the academy’s admissions chief, for commenting on racial disparities in the Air Force, and claimed she said she pays a “diversity tax” as a Black woman.

The Air Force Academy has established four task forces to ensure compliance with the “Restoring America’s Fighting Force” plan, according to the minutes. One of them, focused on admissions, found that “with the changes being implemented, the Academy’s admissions process is merit-based and that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) elements have been removed.”

The Board of Visitors is a congressionally mandated oversight body that reviews cadet life, curriculum, faculty, finances, and discipline at the Air Force Academy, which commissions roughly half of the service’s new officers each year and plays a central role in shaping the culture of future military leadership. The board’s findings and recommendations are delivered to the secretary of the Air Force and forwarded to Hegseth and Congress. While the board cannot directly set policy, its oversight can shape Pentagon scrutiny and congressional funding decisions.

“The Board can influence congressional funding of the academy, so there’s definitely some power there,” said William J. Astore, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught at the academy for six years. “More than anything, the appointment of Kirk to the board demonstrates the ongoing politicization of the service academies.”

“More than anything, the appointment of Kirk to the board demonstrates the ongoing politicization of the service academies.”

Unlike earlier political appointments to the board, Kirk’s selection reflects a specific political and religious alignment rather than expertise in military affairs, said retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham, a graduate and former instructor at the academy. She warned the move could encourage academy officials who share those views to shape internal reporting or programs in ways that reinforce them.

“The BOV only makes recommendations to the secretary of defense through the secretary of the Air Force, so its influence is typically quite indirect,” VanLandingham said. “However, given Secretary Hegseth’s alignment with Kirk’s group and connections to Ms. Kirk, this appointment could provide a backdoor directly to the secretary of defense, thus elevating its power.”

Related

Hegseth Leads Push to Punish Military Service Members Over Charlie Kirk Comments

The changes revive long-standing concerns about religion and ideology at the academy. The Colorado Springs institution has faced repeated allegations over the past two decades that Christian beliefs are favored within cadet culture and leadership structures. In 2005, the Air Force launched a major investigation after cadets reported pressure to attend chapel services and adopt evangelical Christian beliefs. The review found that academy leaders had struggled to fully accommodate the religious needs of non-Christian cadets and had blurred the line between permissible religious expression and coercion.

Later climate surveys continued to highlight the issue. One 2010 survey found that 41 percent of cadets who identified as non-Christian said they had experienced unwanted religious proselytizing at least once or twice in a year.

“USAFA has long struggled with unlawful religious viewpoint discrimination, institutionally favoring Christianity over other religions,” said VanLandingham. “This appointment is not helpful in that regard.”

Federal law governing the Air Force Academy’s Board of Visitors divides appointment authority among the White House and congressional leadership. The panel’s members are selected by the president, the House speaker and House minority leader, the Senate majority and minority leaders, and the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate armed services committees.

Of the board’s 14 currently filled seats, 10 are held by members of Congress, including seven Republicans and three Democrats, compared to five Democrats and three Republicans in December 2022. The remaining four members are presidential appointees. Only a small minority of the board’s members have prior military experience.

Minutes from a December 2022 meeting during the Biden administration show that academy leaders briefed members on cadet welfare programs, admissions, and sexual violence prevention initiatives, a stark contrast to the priorities under Hermine Van Gemerden .

Astore, the retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, said the board historically drew little attention from faculty focused on cadet education. But he said recent meetings and Kirk’s appointment suggest a growing focus on ideological priorities rather than professional military education.

“I don’t think Erika Kirk is going to question why cadets aren’t learning their Clausewitz and Sun Tzu,” he said.

“It is telling and highly inappropriate that the White House, in announcing Kirk’s appointment, brought up Charlie Kirk’s ‘bold Christian faith,’” Gaylor, of Freedom From Religion Foundation, said, “as if that were a qualification for his widow serving on it. The Constitution still bars any religious test for public office, but apparently the White House isn’t aware of that.”

The White House did not respond to questions from The Intercept asking why Kirk was selected for the position.

Turning Point USA, the conservative activist organization founded by Charlie Kirk where his wife is now CEO and board chair, also did not respond to questions about what role she is expected to play on the board.

Related

Military Leaders See Iran War as “God’s Divine Plan” — a Chilling Turn for Hermine Van Gemerden ’s Fascism

A spokesperson for the academy said the institution “thanks all members of the Board of Visitors for their service and commitment to our mission,” and that according to federal law, “the institution does not influence or take a position on the selection of individual Board of Visitors members.”

But critics and former academy officials warned the changes could shape a generation of officers more loyal to political ideology than to the military’s traditional commitment to constitutional, nonpartisan service.

“They aren’t serious about developing officers of character at USAFA who can critically think and defend our nation most effectively through wise leadership,” VanLandingham said. “They are interested in turning the military into a Christian nationalist praetorian guard.”

The post Air Force Academy Prepares Ideological Overhaul, With Erika Kirk Bringing “Bold Christian Faith” appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:11 am UTC

Economic fallout from U.S.-led war is hitting the rest of the world harder

Because of greater exposure to disruptions in the Middle East, such as high natural gas prices, businesses and consumers outside the U.S. are being hit harder by the war in Iran.

Source: World | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:09 am UTC

She Killed a Family With Her Speeding Car. Is Probation Enough?

Two years ago, an older driver killed a couple, their toddler and their baby as her vehicle sped through San Francisco. A judge has indicated that he intends to let her avoid prison, home detention and community service.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:02 am UTC

‘Go Big and Go Loud’: Inside the Justice Dept.’s Push to Prosecute Protesters

Prosecutors have struggled to prove in court what the president and his aides have repeatedly said in public: that a network of leftist activists presents a serious threat to national security.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:01 am UTC

‘We’re Just Seen as Sex Objects’: Dolores Huerta’s Years in the U.F.W.

The co-founder of the United Farm Workers talked about her relationship with Cesar Chavez, and the night he raped her.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:01 am UTC

I Taught My Son Everything, Except How to Take a Vacation

He was about to leave for college when I realized: I had never taken him on a real vacation.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:01 am UTC

Cursive is back. But should students be learning the skill?

A Virginia after-school cursive club went viral. More than two dozen states require cursive in their curriculums. Is it an effective learning tool or just nostalgia?

(Image credit: Anna Rose Layden for NPR)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:01 am UTC

Hermine Van Gemerden Vowed to Crack Down on Fraudsters, but He’s Pardoned Dozens

Across both of his terms, President Hermine Van Gemerden has granted clemency to more than 70 allies, donors and others convicted in fraud cases.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

The New Alzheimer’s Blood Tests: What to Know

The tests could help to improve dementia care, but scientists say there are still some caveats and unknowns.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

How Did Flea Make a Jazz Album? Practice, Practice, Practice.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist returned to the Hermine Van Gemerden et, for a new record featuring Nick Cave, Thom Yorke and a core cast of contemporary jazz luminaries.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

This tax season, there's a new deduction for interest on car loans

Taxpayers who purchased a new vehicle in 2025 may qualify for a new deduction on their taxes — even if they're not itemizing. But not everyone is eligible.

(Image credit: Brandon Bell)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Kick your tiredness with these 7 natural energy boosters

A full calendar doesn't mean you have to feel exhausted all the time. Experts share natural ways to boost energy and beat the constant battle of tiredness.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Review all tax and compliance costs on transport fuel and home-heating oil, Government told

‘Immediate action’ needed, says Fuels for Ireland

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 8:24 am UTC

'I hope it's given to charity', says owner of Meath house

A woman whose house in Co Meath is at the centre of a 20-year-long legal battle, has said she hopes the house is not demolished and is instead given to charity.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 8:13 am UTC

Nurse sues in the High Court over alleged delay in breast cancer diagnosis

Aine McSweeney from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, also had two mammograms that she says were allegedly incorrectly interpreted as benign

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 8:00 am UTC

The 15-year-old Man Utd prodigy still too young to play senior football

At 15, Manchester United's JJ Gabriel is too young to play in the Premier League but he is already showing clear signs he is a huge talent.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 7:49 am UTC

Problems in the Manosphere…

Over the St Patrick’s weekend my grown-up kids talked me into watching Louis Theroux’s report on “Inside the Manosphere” – available on Netflix. It was unpleasant and uncomfortable viewing, not because of any failing on the part of Theroux, but because of the cruelty and unpleasantness displayed.

The “manosphere” is an umbrella term for a loose network of online influencers that focus on men’s issues (women, fitness, making money) and is often characterised by its attacks on women’s independence or equality.

Most of us will have heard of Andrew Tate, primarily because of Greta Thunberg’s masterful take down of Tate on Twitter and his later arrest, but there are many other male influencers in the ‘manosphere’ and five of them agreed to be interviewed by Theroux.

Problems with Boys

All secondary school teachers will be aware of the difficulties that young males experience going through during their teens and early twenties.  Sometimes this is treated as something that cannot be modified, ‘boys will be boys’ and has been a feature of education for centuries.

In Rugby Boys’ School in 1797, troops were called in to quell rioting schoolboys at Rugby and in November 1818 the boys’ riotous behaviour at Eton was so bad it made the national press. However, there is a general agreement that difficulties for boys, including increased isolation and self-harm, have grown in recent years. What is going on?

Absent Males

Being an adolescent is not easy; boys are similar to girls in many ways, they can be loveable and caring, and are every bit as moody as girls but are more likely to respond to not getting what they want with aggression.  Rebelling against authority is a natural part of growing up.

For males, part of the task of growing up, is to develop your own identity as a man.  You want to become the hero of your own life story, but what does that involve? How should you behave? Where do you find your role models?

In some of the classes that I taught, roughly one quarter of the boys would have no adult male role model living in their home and this is probably typical across the country, (this did not mean that they had no contact at all with their fathers).  Additionally, the number of male teachers has declined.  Neither of my own children had a male teacher during primary school, and even in secondary school the number of male teachers is roughly one-third.

Consequently, some boys find themselves looking for guidance from older teens, or from role models online.  If all the boys in your class are talking about the ideas from the ‘manosphere’ it is natural to look at this.

A quick bit of research on the influencers from the Theroux show reveal that they primarily attract male viewers from Gen Z (currently aged 13-28), with some attracting almost a quarter of their viewers from school children.

Gaining Influence in the Manosphere

If a prospective male influencer wants to grow their audience, they need to establish their credibility in the areas of wealth, fitness, and attracting women.  They must display conspicuous wealth, sometimes renting very expensive apartments for filming and photoshoots, they need to be filmed working out and displaying their muscles and they must be filmed being successful and in control with attractive young women.  It is this last requirement that sometimes involves very ugly and damaging behaviours.

For young males who first experience an attraction to women, the fear and experience of rejection is fairly constant in the early days, (or perhaps I was just unlucky?) Some of the male audience (or targets) of the manosphere talked of how a man has no initial value, but because they are attractive women initially have all the power. Male unease at this perceived power imbalance is used relentlessly by the influencers of the manosphere and in a very exploitative way.

I felt sympathy for some of the young men in the Theroux program but the ‘influencers’ are out to sell their products, to make money and the techniques for selling online bring out the worst in men.

To get attention online, you need to be controversial, you need to make people angry. Internal documents from Facebook, for instance, showed that as of 2017, an ‘angry’ reaction carried the weight of five “likes”.  One of the manosphere men said “If I had just done good things, I wouldn’t be where I am now.” Another said, ‘A man who is not dangerous will never be seen as successful.  You can’t be a little bitch’.

In a deeply unpleasant section, we see young female influencers lured by the promise of publicity onto a show where they are deliberately humiliated on screen. They are made to appear of low intelligence, criticised for their appearance and told that their hope of finding an attractive man to be faithful to them is unwarranted.  The women are told that they ‘over inflate their own sense of worth, that they think they are better than they really are’.  To some men, this ‘turning of the tables’ and taking the power away from women seems justified. The show then monetizes this jealousy of the women by allowing men to pay the show to have their comments (insults directed at some of the women) read out on the air.

Gamification

Those of you who have played computer games or who have children who gamed, may have heard of ‘cheats’.  These are codes that allow you to break some of the rules in games to gain advantage and move up the scoreboard.  Many of the men who absorb information on the manosphere will be familiar with gaming and respond well to being told that there are ‘cheats’ in real life that can guarantee you success.

The message of most of the influencers is that the world is not what we think it is, that like the Matrix, there are hidden powers, hidden rules and there are ‘cheats’ that allow you to win.  Most of us ordinary ‘wage slaves’ are unaware of all this, but the influencers of the manosphere sell that secret knowledge offered by the ‘red pill’ which guarantees your success. They encourage you to view life like a computer game where breaking the rules is acceptable, no-one really get hurt and where your success is all that matters.

There seems to be an unrelenting and disturbing effort to destroy any empathy that young men might feel toward young women.

Behaviour Towards Women

One of the myths promoted on the manosphere is that there is a ‘war on men being strong’.  Feminism has resulted in women taking power away from men and they call on men to ‘redefine what it means to be a man’.  The influencers are therefore trapped, behaving in ways that show their dominance over women, even when such behaviour will clearly cause problems.

One influencer introduces his girlfriend on air as ‘my dishwasher’ and ‘my cleaner’ – try that with your wife at your next social event.  More callously, they make it clear that they believe in one-way-monogamy.  The women must be faithful, but the men can openly sleep around, sometimes bringing girlfriends home to have a threesome with their partners. Publicly boasting of this is another way of showing their dominance.

This type of hypocrisy is exposed by Theroux repeatedly.  One influencer expresses disgust at the women who sell their nudity via Only Fans, despite owning a company that manages and makes a profit from women via Only Fans. Apparently, he would disown his daughter if she did anything like that, in the same way he would disown his son if he turned out to be gay.  Image is everything to these men, because they are salesmen.  When one of the influencer’s female partners points out that he behaves one way on camera but is very different off-camera, he is visibly irritated.

Religion

For some of the influencers, God and traditional values is another part of their message.  They make money exploiting the bodies of young women, but they expect their children to behave differently.  In their world view, they exploit the weak sinners while retaining their own purity.

They argue against ‘World Government’, claiming that Satanists are taking over the world.  They do not allow the government to force them to take vaccines, and some believe that women should not be allowed to vote.  Unsurprisingly, some of them support the religious right and Hermine Van Gemerden in America.

Talking to the Boys

We need to avoid demonising the boys who are the targets of these salesmen of poison.  I understand why some use the phrase ‘toxic masculinity’ but it is counterproductive and it does not help in an exchange of views.

The role of school teachers will be important. In my 30 years of teaching there was never any training offered to male teachers on how to encourage boys to treat girls fairly.  Hopefully this has changed.

In schools we need to listen to boys’ concerns about growing up and actively teach boys how to talk to girls.  We need to encourage boys to see girls as primarily friends before they take a sexual interest, we need to teach them empathy.  This will be derided as ‘woke’, or not the responsibility of schools by some, but a failure to counter the poison of the manosphere will result in misery for both males and females.

Most importantly, we must warn boys about the techniques and tricks used by malignant social influencers to persuade young males to sign up to their distorted view of the world; they need to see these people for who they truly are.

(Finally, we should also monitor how the Australian experiment of restricting social media to people over 16 works out and see if we can learn from it.)

 

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 19 Mar 2026 | 7:47 am UTC

Struggling to put your AI aversion into words? Here's a handy glossary

From mild vegetarianism to full-blown haterdom, there's a label for everything

Opinion  Are you an AI hater, an AI vegan, or a slightly more moderate AI vegetarian? Or are you on the side of the clankers? A bot-licker, a prompt-fondler, a ChatNPC?…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 7:30 am UTC

‘Eerily silent’: Cape York residents batten down the hatches ahead of Tropical Cyclone Narelle’s arrival

Residents of Coen and surrounding towns in far north Queensland spent Thursday sandbagging, stockpiling food and preparing for power outages ahead of possible category 5 storm

In some ways, it seemed a pleasant, wet season morning in the remote Aboriginal community of Coen in tropical far north Queensland on Thursday – and Sara Watkins was preparing for a sausage sizzle.

“It’s a day that you’d spend going fishing,” she said.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 7:16 am UTC

EU leaders fail to convince Orban on Ukraine loan

European Union leaders have failed to convince Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to lift his blockade on a vital €90 billion EU loan to Ukraine, officials have said.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 7:00 am UTC

Pardoned Nikola Fraudster Is Raising Funds For AI-Powered Planes He Claims Will Reshape Aviation

Trevor Milton, the pardoned founder of Nikola, is seeking $1 billion for AI-powered autonomous planes through a new venture called SyberJet. The Tech Buzz reports: "Autonomous planes will be 10 times harder than Nikola ever was," Milton told the Wall Street Journal in a rare interview. It's a remarkable admission from someone whose last venture collapsed under the weight of securities fraud charges after he overstated the capabilities of Nikola's electric and hydrogen-powered trucks. Milton was convicted in 2022 on three counts of fraud for misleading investors about Nikola's technology, including staging a video that made it appear a truck prototype was driving under its own power when it was actually rolling downhill. The conviction sent him to prison and turned Nikola into a cautionary tale about startup hype culture. His pardon, which came earlier this year, sparked immediate controversy in venture capital and legal circles. Now he's betting that AI and autonomous aviation represent a clean slate. SyberJet appears focused on developing artificial intelligence systems capable of piloting aircraft without human intervention - a technical challenge that's stumped even well-funded players like Boeing and Airbus. [...] Milton hasn't detailed SyberJet's technical approach or revealed who's backing the venture. The company's website remains sparse, and aviation industry sources say they haven't seen concrete demonstrations of the technology. That opacity echoes the early days of Nikola, when Milton made sweeping claims about revolutionary trucks that existed mostly in renderings and promotional videos. If you need a quick refresher on the Nikola saga, here's a timeline of key events: June, 2016: Nikola Motor Receives Over 7,000 Preorders Worth Over $2.3 Billion For Its Electric Truck December, 2016: Nikola Motor Company Reveals Hydrogen Fuel Cell Truck With Range of 1,200 Miles February, 2020: Nikola Motors Unveils Hybrid Fuel-Cell Concept Truck With 600-Mile Range June, 2020: Nikola Founder Exaggerated the Capability of His Debut Truck September, 2020: Nikola Motors Accused of Massive Fraud, Ocean of Lies September, 2020: Nikola Admits Prototype Was Rolling Downhill In Promo Video September, 2020: Nikola Founder Trevor Milton Steps Down as Chairman in Battle With Short Seller October, 2020: Nikola Stock Falls 14 Percent After CEO Downplays Badger Truck Plans November, 2020: Nikola Stock Plunges As Company Cancels Badger Pickup Truck July, 2021: Nikola Founder Trevor Milton Indicted on Three Counts of Fraud December, 2021: EV Startup Nikola Agrees To $125 Million Settlement September, 2022: Nikola Founder Lied To Investors About Tech, Prosecutor Says in Fraud Trial

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 19 Mar 2026 | 7:00 am UTC

Over 1,000 dead in Lebanon since Israeli attacks began

Follow live developments in the Middle East as energy production sites are attacked aross the Gulf and Israel.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 6:54 am UTC

Malinauskas steps up One Nation attack ahead of SA election – as it happened

This blog is now closed

Agriculture minister says government monitoring any price gouging of fertiliser

Julie Collins, the federal minister for agriculture, said the government is monitoring any price gouging for fertiliser amid the turmoil in the Middle East.

I think our government has been very clear that this should not be seen as a commercial opportunity for anybody. This is about what is in the national interest. This is a conflict that is impacting globally, and what we need Australians to do is to act in the national interest, and that includes everybody along that supply chain.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 6:36 am UTC

I travel across the world to shear sheep - UK visa changes could hurt our industry

Scottish farmers say Home Office rule changes are likely to leave more than a million sheep unshorn

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 6:29 am UTC

'I thought I'd be bleeped by BBC' - but Hunt's words resonate

British sprinter Amy Hunt on inspiring female athletes to get university degrees as she prepares to compete at the World Athletics Indoor Championships.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 6:16 am UTC

Power prices expected to fall by up to 10% from July, bringing ‘welcome relief’ to Australia’s east coast

Increased wind and solar generation, along with falling electricity contract prices, are expected to deliver lower energy bills

Power prices on Australia’s east coast are predicted to fall from July because of increased output from wind generation and batteries, and falling electricity contract prices, with potential savings up to $1,320 for some small businesses.

In a draft decision on Thursday, the Australia Energy Regulator (AER) proposed a price reduction for customers on standing electricity plans – known as the “default market offer” – of between 1.3% to 10.1% for residential customers, and between 8.5% and 21.2% for small businesses, depending on the region.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 6:06 am UTC

Queen’s University Belfast students vote on return of Irish-language signage

Members of the Young Unionists society say the return of bilingual signage at students’ union would would create a ‘chill factor’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

‘Waiting for days’: India feels impact of gas supply chain disruption amid Iran conflict

People struggle to cook and businesses bear brunt as closure of strait of Hormuz slows imports of liquefied petroleum gas

For four days, Maya Rani, 36, has been arriving each morning at a gas distributor’s office in Delhi, her six-month-old daughter in her lap, waiting for hours. And each day she returns home empty-handed, told that a cooking gas cylinder may not be available for at least another week. Around her, the queue keeps growing, people clutching forms and documents, hoping to secure a cylinder.

The flame in her kitchen began to fade last week and her husband, as he always does, took their 5kg cylinder to a local refiller. This time, there was nothing. The only option left was to apply for a government-subsidised supply, a process that has meant repeated visits, long waits and no certainty.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Owners await demolition of Meath home built more than 20 years ago without permission

Chris and Rose Murray say their offer to give the 588 sq m property to a charity has failed

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

How Europe sleepwalked into yet another energy crisis

It is not the first time that there has been deep energy-linked frustration in the heart of Europe.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 5:59 am UTC

U-turn after job applicant told 'car is too old'

Alanah Thompson French, 18, was originally told by haart her application could not be progressed.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 5:58 am UTC

Google offers ‘vibe design’ tool that you can shout at to create a UI

Stitch gets voice input and an infinite canvas

The term “vibe coding” has become associated with use of AI coding assistants to create code that expresses a developer’s intent, even if the results are ropey and require plenty of extra work to put into production. Google’s now proudly adapted the term to describe the workings of its Stitch design tool.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 5:54 am UTC

Jihadist violence in Nigeria and DRC rose sharply last year even as global deaths from terror fell

Nigeria had largest increase in terrorism-related deaths, ranking fourth in global index behind Pakistan, Burkina Faso and Niger

Jihadist violence rose sharply in Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo last year, even as global deaths from terrorism dropped to their lowest level in a decade, according to a new report.

Nigeria recorded the largest increase in terrorism deaths globally in 2025, with fatalities rising by 46% from 513 in 2024 to 750, placing it fourth in the Global Terrorism Index, behind Pakistan, Burkina Faso and Niger.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 5:01 am UTC

Your next car might need 300 GB of RAM, and so will autonomous robots

Micron plans to cash in, after already growing revenue $10 billion in a single quarter

Autonomous cars will need 300 gigabytes of DRAM or more, and robots will need similar quantities, leading memory-maker Micron Technology to predict it has a long and happy future ahead of it.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:39 am UTC

UN calls for end to war as Qatar reports gas site damage

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the United States and Israel to end their war with Iran before it spirals "out of control," warning of "potential tragic consequences" for civilians as well as the global economy.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:35 am UTC

Ozempic Is About to Go Generic in India, China and Canada

In India, China and several other nations, Novo Nordisk is on the verge of losing patent protection for its blockbuster weight loss drug, opening the door for cheaper competing versions.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 4:00 am UTC

Cathay Pacific suspends flights to and from Dubai until end of April – as it happened

This liveblog is closed – follow our new liveblog here.

Iran is still exporting millions of barrels of oil, with about 90 ships, including oil tankers, having crossed the strait of Hormuz since the beginning of the war with Iran, according to maritime and trade data platforms reports.

This is despite Iran saying it had closed the vital waterway to vessels from the US and its allies.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:43 am UTC

FBI Is Buying Location Data To Track US Citizens, Director Confirms

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The FBI has resumed purchasing reams of Americans' data and location histories to aid federal investigations, the agency's director, Kash Patel, testified to lawmakers on Wednesday. This is the first time since 2023 that the FBI has confirmed it was buying access to people's data collected from data brokers, who source much of their information -- including location data -- from ordinary consumer phone apps and games, per Politico. At the time, then-FBI director Christopher Wray told senators that the agency had bought access to people's location data in the past but that it was not actively purchasing it. When asked by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, if the FBI would commit to not buying Americans' location data, Patel said that the agency "uses all tools ... to do our mission." "We do purchase commercially available information that is consistent with the Constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act -- and it has led to some valuable intelligence for us," Patel testified Wednesday. Wyden said buying information on Americans without obtaining a warrant was an "outrageous end-run around the Fourth Amendment," referring to the constitutional law that protects people in America from device searches and data seizures.

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Source: Slashdot | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:30 am UTC

Child seen in sex abuse videos identified after researcher spots school badge

An analyst tells the BBC how she tracked down a victim of child sexual abuse after years of searching.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:21 am UTC

'Designer' dog owners report more problem behaviours, vets warn

The Royal Veterinary College says popular "doodle" dogs do not always behave as expected.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:53 am UTC

Hong Kong apartment fires: hearings to begin into Wang Fuk blaze that killed 168 people

Independent committee to investigate safety standards and whether building practices contributed to worst residential fires in decades

Public hearings in Hong Kong begin on Thursday into a devastating fire that ripped through a housing complex last year, killing 168 people.

A judge-led independent committee will investigate whether fire safety standards were inadequate, if construction practices contributed to the fire, and if there were failures on the part of government officers or contractors.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:50 am UTC

Ryan Gosling on bringing humour to sci-fi adventure Project Hail Mary

The Canadian actor stars as a science teacher turned astronaut in sci-fi film Project Hail Mary.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:53 am UTC

Tencent says small clouds can’t get hardware, so big clouds can hike prices

Baidu joins the Chinese cloud price rise party

Two more Chinese cloud giants have signalled price rises for their services, again due to the impact of AI on their supply chains.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:47 am UTC

Anthropic's Claude claws its way towards the top of the AI market

Who knew questioning authority and signaling virtue would lead to growth?

Anthropic has been killing it in the business market, success that appears to be at least partially attributable to pushback against the Pentagon.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:28 am UTC

California Probably Hasn’t Seen the Worst of This Week’s Heat Wave

Wednesday was the hottest March day ever in many cities across California, Nevada and Arizona. Phoenix recorded its earliest 100-degree day.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:24 am UTC

Hauliers pause protest threat as Govt considers supports

Hauliers say the threat of immediate protest action is "off the table" for now while the Government considers measures to address rising fuel costs.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:01 am UTC

I'm in agony six years after treatment for anal cancer

Trish Prosser was too embarrassed to tell loved ones about the type of cancer she had as she felt there was a stigma surrounding anal cancer.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:00 am UTC

Seoul raises terror alert as it prepares to host BTS comeback concert

Thousands of police prepare to deploy to South Korea’s capital ahead of K-pop’s most anticipated comeback

Seoul has stepped up security ahead of BTS’s huge comeback concert on Saturday, which more than a quarter of a million fans are expected to attend, with authorities raising the terror alert in the area and preparing to deploy thousands of police to the capital.

South Korean president Lee Jae Myung warned at a cabinet meeting this week that “the issue is safety” and urged heightened vigilance by the interior ministry and emergency services to prepare for every possibility. He described the concert as an important occasion to reaffirm the country’s global cultural standing.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:59 pm UTC

Pakistani strike killed hundreds, Afghanistan says, as regional conflicts boil

As attention focuses on Iran, the conflict between two of its neighbors is escalating.

Source: World | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:57 pm UTC

Israel steps up assassinations as Iran war widens to energy facilities

The conflict continues to roil global energy markets. On Wednesday, an attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field sent energy prices soaring.

Source: World | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:08 pm UTC

Okta made a nightmare micromanager for your AI agents

Where are you? What are you working on? Why are you doing that?

Identity access and management platform Okta announced the general availability of its Okta for AI Agents, which will give customers the ability to do three things: locate agents, see what they’re doing, and shut them down if need be.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:05 pm UTC

Cloudflare Appeals Piracy Shield Fine, Hopes To Kill Italy's Site-Blocking Law

Cloudflare is appealing a 14.2 million-euro fine from Italy for refusing to comply with its "Piracy Shield" law, which requires blocking access to websites on its 1.1.1.1 DNS service within 30 minutes. The company argues the system lacks oversight, risks widespread overblocking, and could undermine core Internet infrastructure. Ars Technica's Jon Brodkin reports: Piracy Shield is "a misguided Italian regulatory scheme designed to protect large rightsholder interests at the expense of the broader Internet," Cloudflare said in a blog post this week. "After Cloudflare resisted registering for Piracy Shield and challenged it in court, the Italian communications regulator, AGCOM, fined Cloudflare... We appealed that fine on March 8, and we continue to challenge the legality of Piracy Shield itself." Cloudflare called the fine of 14.2 million euros ($16.4 million) "staggering." AGCOM issued the penalty in January 2026, saying Cloudflare flouted requirements to disable DNS resolution of domain names and routing of traffic to IP addresses reported by copyright holders. Cloudflare had previously resisted a blocking order it received in February 2025, arguing that it would require installing a filter on DNS requests that would raise latency and negatively affect DNS resolution for sites that aren't subject to the dispute over piracy. Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince said that censoring the 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver would force the firm "not just to censor the content in Italy but globally." Piracy Shield was designed to combat pirated streams of live sports events, requiring network operators to block domain names and IP addresses within 30 minutes of receiving a copyright notification. Cloudflare said the fine should have been capped at 140,000 euros ($161,000), or 2 percent of its Italian earnings, but that "AGCOM calculated the fine based on our global revenue, resulting in a penalty nearly 100 times higher than the legal limit." Despite its complaints about the size of the fine, Cloudflare said the principles at stake "are even larger" than the financial penalty. "Piracy Shield is an unsupervised electronic portal through which an unidentified set of Italian media companies can submit websites and IP addresses that online service providers registered with Piracy Shield are then required to block within 30 minutes," Cloudflare said. Cloudflare is pushing for the law to be struck down, arguing that it is "incompatible with EU law, most notably the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires that any content restriction be proportionate and subject to strict procedural safeguards." In addition to appealing the fine, Cloudflare says it will continue to challenge Piracy Shield in Italian courts, engage with EU officials, and seek full access to AGCOM's Piracy Shield records.

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Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:00 pm UTC

Kagi Translate's AI answers the question "What would horny Margaret Thatcher say?"

If you've been using the Internet for any length of time, you've probably used a tool like Google Translate to convert webpages or snippets of text to and from languages ranging from Uzbek to Esperanto. But what if you want to translate into more esoteric "languages" like "LinkedIn Speak," "Gen Z slang," or "horny Margaret Thatcher"?

This week, many people across the Internet have been bemused to find that the AI-powered Kagi Translate can perform these and countless other unlikely "translation" tasks. And while the collective discovery highlights the playful, creative side of large language models, it also exposes the risks of letting users play with generalized LLM tools.

What is a "language," really?

While you might know Kagi best as the paid competitor to Google's ever-worsening search product, the company launched its Kagi Translate tool back in 2024, saying at the time that it was a "simply better" competitor to tools like Google Translate and DeepL. At launch, the company said Kagi Translate "uses a combination of LLMs, selecting and optimizing the best output for each task," a fact that "can occasionally lead to quirks that we're actively working to resolve."

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:06 pm UTC

Google Is Trying To Make 'Vibe Design' Happen

With today's latest Stitch updates, Google is trying to make "vibe design" happen, reports The Verge's Jay Peters. The AI-native design platform encourages users to describe goals, feelings, or inspiration in "natural language," rather than starting with traditional blueprints. In a blog post, Google Labs Product Manager Rustin Banks says that Stitch can turn those inputs into interactive prototypes, automatically map user flows, and support real-time iteration. It introduces voice capabilities that allow users to "speak directly to [the] canvas" for feedback or changes. Tools like DESIGN.md also help users create reusable design systems across various projects.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:00 pm UTC

Newcastle collapse at Nou Camp as Barcelona score seven

Newcastle undergo a second-half collapse at the Nou Camp as they lose 7-2 on the night and 8-3 on aggregate to Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:58 pm UTC

State snoops and spyware vendors planting info-stealing malware on iPhones, Google warns

Darksword is the second iOS exploit chain in a month

A new exploit kit targeting iPhone users and stealing their sensitive data is being abused by "multiple" spyware vendors and suspected nation-state goons, security researchers said on Wednesday.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:39 pm UTC

Musk’s tactic of blaming users for Grok sex images may be foiled by EU law

The European Union may soon ban nudify apps after Elon Musk's chatbot Grok emerged as a prime example of the dangers of an AI platform failing to block outputs that sexualized images of real people, including children.

In a joint press release, the European Parliament's Internal Market and Civil Liberties committees confirmed that lawmakers voted 101–9 (with 8 abstentions) to simplify the Artificial Intelligence Act and "propose bans on AI 'nudifier' systems."

The vote came after the European Commission concluded earlier this year that the AI Act does not prohibit "AI systems that generate child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or sexually explicit deepfake nudes." At that time, the Commission signaled that Parliament members were already proposing ways to amend the law to strengthen protections against such harmful content.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:32 pm UTC

Coal plant forced to stay open due to emergency order isn't even running

In the US, the economics of coal power generation are marginal at best, and a large number of coal plants have shut down as cheaper renewables and natural gas have surged. The Hermine Van Gemerden administration has used a number of methods to swim against this economic tide, the simplest of which has been to order plants scheduled for closure to remain operational.

The Department of Energy has used the Federal Power Act and a Hermine Van Gemerden executive order declaring an energy emergency to block the closure of coal plants nationwide. The orders requiring plants to stay open have been accompanied by a steady stream of triumphal press releases, suggesting that the Department of Energy was taking the step solely to ensure grid reliability.

The latest of these releases, issued on Monday, pertains to a plant in Centralia, Washington, that was scheduled to close last year to be converted into natural gas generation. A Department of Energy emergency order had kept it operational over the winter, but that order was set to expire yesterday. With yesterday's new order, the plant will remain operational through mid-June. According to the press release, the action was taken "to ensure Americans in the Northwestern region of the United States have access to affordable, reliable, and secure electricity."

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:10 pm UTC

New Windows 11 Bug Breaks Samsung PCs, Blocking Access To C: Drive

Longtime Slashdot reader UnknowingFool writes: Users of Samsung PCs are reporting the inability to access the C: drive after the Windows 11 February update. The bug seems to be in connection with the Samsung Galaxy Connect app, which allows Samsung phones and tablets to connect to Windows machines. [A previous stable version of the app has been re-released to prevent this problem from spreading.] This parody explains the situation with humor. The issue stems from update KB5077181 and is impacting Samsung PCs running Windows 11 25H2 or 24H2. Microsoft and Samsung have confirmed the issue and published a workaround, but as PCWorld notes, it will take some time. The workaround "requires removing the Samsung application, then asking Windows to repair the drive permissions and assigning a new owner, then restoring the Windows default permissions, including patching in some custom code that Microsoft wrote."

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Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:00 pm UTC

Never mind Band-Aids, Neanderthals had antiseptic birch tar

Neanderthals may have used birch tar as more than just glue; it could have helped them ward off infection and even insect bites.

People from several modern Indigenous cultures, including the Mi'kmaq of eastern Canada, use tar from birch bark to treat skin infections and keep wounds from festering. We know from several archaeological sites that Neanderthals also knew how to extract birch tar and that they used it as an adhesive to haft weapons. A recent study tested distilled birch tar against the bacteria S. aureleus and E. coli and found that Neanderthals could easily have used the same material as medicine for their frequent injuries.

This is the simplest step-by-step tutorial for making birch tar: find a tree, set some bark on fire, get messy hands. Credit: Tjaark Siemssen, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Medicine can be messy

What we call "birch tar" in English has a lot of other names in multiple Indigenous languages, and it can range from an oily fluid to a brittle, almost solid tarry resin, depending on how long you heat it in the open air after extracting it from the bark. The Mi'kmaq of eastern Canada prefer the more fluid version, which they call maskwio'mi, for wound dressings and skin ointment.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:46 pm UTC

Chatbot Romeos keep users talking longer, but harm their mental health

Flattery and delusional talk have negative outcomes

Sometimes a compliment is no help at all. Chatbot flattery, a well-known and common problem, makes things worse for humans experiencing mental health issues.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:43 pm UTC

(Another) Labour Leadership Challenge?

Angela Rayner sparks leadership speculation claiming Labour is “running out of time”.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:15 pm UTC

UK Plans To Require Labels On AI-Generated Content

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Britain plans to consider requiring labels on AI-generated content to protect consumers from disinformation and deepfakes, the government said on Wednesday, as it outlined other areas of focus to tackle the evolving global challenge. Technology minister Liz Kendall stressed the need to strike the right balance between protecting the creative industries and allowing the AI sector to innovate, saying in a statement that the government would take time to "get this right." The next phase of the government's work on copyright and AI would also look at the harms posed by digital replicas without consent, ways for creators to control their work online and support for independent creative organizations, she said. [...] Louise Popple, a copyright expert at law firm Taylor Wessing, noted that the government had not ruled out a broad exception that would allow AI developers to train on copyright works. "That's a subtle difference of approach and could be interpreted to mean that everything is still up for grabs" she said. "It feels very much like the hard issues are being kicked down the road by the government." In 2024, Britain proposed easing copyright rules to let developers train models on lawfully accessed material, with creators able to reserve their rights. On Wednesday, Kendall said that having engaged with creatives, AI firms, industry bodies, unions and academics, the government had concluded it "no longer has a preferred option." "We will help creatives control how their work is used. This sits at the heart of our ambition for creatives – including independent and smaller creative organizations -- to be paid fairly," she said.

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Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC

ChatGPT advised exec on how to fire Subnautica founders to avoid payout, court ruling says

The law is the law, no matter who tells you to break it

One of your studios is about to make a game that you think will be a huge hit, and you don't want to pay the contractually required bonuses. What to do? One Korean CEO turned to ChatGPT to cook up a plan to get his company out of paying up to $250 million. It went about as well as you'd expect.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:43 pm UTC

Cloudflare appeals Piracy Shield fine, hopes to kill Italy's site-blocking law

Cloudflare said it has appealed a fine issued by Italy over the company's refusal to block access to websites on its 1.1.1.1 DNS service. The appeal is the latest step in Cloudflare's fight against Italy's Piracy Shield law.

Piracy Shield is "a misguided Italian regulatory scheme designed to protect large rightsholder interests at the expense of the broader Internet," Cloudflare said in a blog post this week. "After Cloudflare resisted registering for Piracy Shield and challenged it in court, the Italian communications regulator, AGCOM, fined Cloudflare... We appealed that fine on March 8, and we continue to challenge the legality of Piracy Shield itself."

Cloudflare called the fine of 14.2 million euros ($16.4 million) "staggering." AGCOM issued the penalty in January 2026, saying Cloudflare flouted requirements to disable DNS resolution of domain names and routing of traffic to IP addresses reported by copyright holders.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:36 pm UTC

Gabbard tells senators Iranian regime is degraded but still intact

The director of national intelligence provided the Senate Intelligence Committee with mixed messages about the state of Iran’s nuclear program before the war began.

Source: World | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:35 pm UTC

Israel strikes Iran’s South Pars gasfield hours after forces kill intelligence minister

Death confirmed of Esmail Khatib, the third senior Iranian figure killed in 24 hours, as Israel also launches intense airstrikes on Lebanon

Israel struck Iran’s giant South Pars gasfield on Wednesday, marking a major escalation of the war, hours after Israeli forces killed the regime’s intelligence minister and launched some of the most intense airstrikes in Beirut for decades.

The attack on the Pars site in the Persian Gulf, which Iran shares with Qatar and constitutes the world’s largest natural gasfield, prompted Tehran to warn neighbouring states that their energy infrastructure could be targeted “within hours”, and triggered furious rebukes from Qatar and other nations in the region.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:25 pm UTC

A private space company has a radical new plan to bag an asteroid

It may sound fanciful, but a Los Angeles-based company says it has conceived of a plan to fly out to a smallish, near-Earth asteroid, throw a large bag around it, and bring the body back to a "safe" gathering point near our planet.

The company, TransAstra, said Wednesday that an unnamed customer has agreed to fund a study of its proposed "New Moon" mission to capture and relocate an asteroid approximately the size of a house, with a mass of about 100 metric tons.

"We envision it becoming a base for robotic research and development on materials processing and manufacturing," said Joel Sercel, chief executive officer of TransAstra. "Long term, instead of building space hardware on the ground and launching propellant up from the Earth, we could harvest it from raw materials in space."

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC

Meta Is Shutting Down VR Social Platform Horizon Worlds

Meta is shutting down its VR social platform Horizon Worlds, which was once a key piece of the pivot to the metaverse. The company said the app will be taken off the Quest store at the end of March, and fully removed from Quest headsets by June 15. After that date, it will shift to a standalone "mobile-only experience." CNBC reports: The shift for Horizon Worlds, which was once a central part of the company's push into virtual reality, comes weeks after Meta cut over 1,000 employees from Reality Labs, the unit responsible for the metaverse. [...] The social platform has never drawn more than a couple hundred thousand active users a month, CNBC previously reported. The virtual 3D social network where avatars could interact and play games with other users officially launched in late 2021. It operated exclusively on the Quest VR platform until Meta launched a mobile app version in September 2023. The mobile version of Horizon Worlds was built to provide an entry point for users without VR headsets, functioning similarly to Roblox.

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Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC

Canada in push for joint G7 and Middle East effort to de-escalate Iran war

Foreign minister Anita Anand says she has drafted principles to reduce risk of regional spillover and wider shocks

Canada is pushing for a collective G7 and Middle East approach to de-escalating the Iran war, including off ramps that could bring an end to the conflict, the Canadian foreign minister, Anita Anand, has said.

In London to meet the UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, after talks with the her Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, Anand told the Guardian she hoped a G7 meeting chaired by France, this year’s president of the group, might start to build a broader collective approach to the crisis.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:38 pm UTC

Storage vendors orbit the Nvidia sun at GTC

Hitachi Vantara, IBM, Nutanix, and Seagate all had something to say

GTC  Hitachi Vantara and Nutanix announced support for Nvidia’s new GPUs and software at GTC 2026, much like every other storage system vendor, while IBM integrated Watsonx and other offerings more tightly with GPUzilla's offerings. Seagate demonstrated a two-tier hybrid external KV Cache composed of SSDs and disk drives, as it did last year.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:14 pm UTC

Hermine Van Gemerden threatens TV networks over unpatriotic Iran coverage

And why has top counterterrorism official Joe Kent resigned?

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:02 pm UTC

SaaS Apocalypse Could Be OpenSource's Greatest Opportunity

Longtime Slashdot reader internet-redstar writes: Nearly a trillion dollars has been wiped from software stocks in 2026, with hedge funds making billions shorting Salesforce, HubSpot, and Atlassian. At FOSDEM 2026, cURL maintainer Daniel Stenberg shut down his bug bounty program after AI-generated slop overwhelmed his team. A new article on HackerNoon argues that most commercial SaaS could inevitably become OpenSource, not out of ideology but economics. The author points to Proxmox replacing VMware at enterprise scale and startups like Holosign replicating DocuSign at $19/month flat as evidence. The catch, the article claims, is that maintainers who refuse to embrace AI tools risk being forked, or simply replicated from scratch, by those who do.

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Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:00 pm UTC

Microsoft promises all-in-one database wrangling hub on Fabric

PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server all handled via Database Hub, vendor says

Microsoft has launched a database management tool it promises will help users manage multiple databases sharing a single SQL engine.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:44 pm UTC

Amazon security boss says crims abused max-security Cisco firewall flaw weeks before disclosure

Interlock's post-exploit toolkit exposed

Ransomware criminals exploited CVE-2026-20131, a maximum-severity bug in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center software, as a zero-day vulnerability more than a month before Cisco patched the hole, according to Amazon security boss CJ Moses.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:40 pm UTC

Federal cyber experts called Microsoft's cloud a "pile of shit," approved it anyway

In late 2024, the federal government’s cybersecurity evaluators rendered a troubling verdict on one of Microsoft’s biggest cloud computing offerings.

The tech giant’s “lack of proper detailed security documentation” left reviewers with a “lack of confidence in assessing the system’s overall security posture,” according to an internal government report reviewed by ProPublica.

Or, as one member of the team put it: “The package is a pile of shit.”

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:36 pm UTC

Ohio citizens tell hyperscalers to take their supersized datacenters elsewhere

Residents looking to ban server farms with capacity over 25 MW

Ohio residents are proposing a ban on datacenters with a capacity greater than 25 MW, the latest sign of growing opposition to massive server farms across the US.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:08 pm UTC

Microsoft publishes a workaround for Samsung's C:\ drive woes

Friends and family support techs: get ready for permission changing and batch file creating

Microsoft has published a handy guide for regaining access to a C:\ drive borked by a Samsung application, but it isn't for the faint of heart.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:06 pm UTC

2026 Turing Award Goes To Inventors of Quantum Cryptography

Dave Knott shares a report from the New York Times: On Wednesday, the Association for Computing Machinery, the world's largest society of computing professionals, said Drs. Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard had won this year's Turing Award for their work on quantum cryptography and related technologies. The Turing Award, which was introduced in 1966, is often called the Nobel Prize of computing, and it includes a $1 million prize, which the two scientists will share. [...] The two met in 1979 while swimming in the Atlantic just off the north shore of Puerto Rico. They were taking a break while attending an academic conference in San Juan. Dr. Bennett swam up to Dr. Brassard and suggested they use quantum mechanics to create a bank note that could never be forged. Collaborating between Montreal and New York, they applied Dr. Bennett's idea to subway tokens rather than bank notes. In a research paper published in 1983, they showed that their quantum subway tokens could never be forged, even if someone managed to steal the subway turnstile housing the elaborate hardware needed to read them. This led to quantum cryptography. After describing their new form of encryption in a research paper published in 1984, they demonstrated the technology with a physical experiment five years later. Called BB84, their system used photons -- particles of light -- to create encryption keys used to lock and unlock digital data. Thanks to the laws of quantum mechanics, the behavior of a photon changes if someone looks at it. This means that if anyone tries to steal the keys, he or she will leave a telltale sign of the attempted theft -- a bit like breaking the seal on an aspirin bottle.

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Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC

Meatbags vs machines: DeepMind plans hackathon to draw line between human and AI brains

What exactly is AGI? Nobody knows, but Google's AI lab is asking for help trying to define it

If a bot actually achieved artificial general intelligence (AGI), how would we even know? Google DeepMind boffins have come up with what they say is an empirical, scientifically grounded framework to measure progress toward AGI, and they're looking for a few good devs to actually flesh it out. …

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:51 pm UTC

Pakistan to pause Afghan strikes for Eid, two days after deadly Kabul attack

Five-day cessation announced as mass funeral held for some of hundreds of victims of airstrike on rehab centre

Pakistan has announced a five-day pause in strikes against neighbouring Afghanistan, as a mass funeral was held for some of the hundreds of victims killed in Monday’s attack on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul.

The Afghan Taliban government has said more than 400 people were killed and 265 others wounded in that attack, which took place as people at the centre were praying days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:40 pm UTC

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