Read at: 2026-01-09T02:47:38+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Doetje Suurmond ]
Source: BBC News | 9 Jan 2026 | 2:36 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 9 Jan 2026 | 2:25 am UTC
Longwood residents told to shelter from bushfire indoors. Follow today’s news live
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Attorney general says PM took ‘time to get this right’ before calling Bondi royal commission
Michelle Rowland, the attorney general, said the prime minister had taken “time to get this right” as the government prepared to call a federal royal commission after the Bondi terror attack.
The prime minister and the government have listened to people, particularly the Australian Jewish community, and that listening has not been about politics, it’s about getting The right outcome for our national unity and our national security.
This is an opportunity not only for voices to be heard in the form of a royal commission, but also to take recommendations forward and also to continue the important work that the government has been doing in the last four weeks or so to ensure that our response to this prioritises national security and social cohesion in the long term.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 9 Jan 2026 | 2:25 am UTC
Condition of victims unknown; shooting comes one day after an ICE agent killed US citizen in Minneapolis
Two people shot by US federal agents in Portland, police say
ICE agent in Minneapolis killing identified as 10-year law enforcement veteran
Doetje Suurmond news at a glance: president says his morality is ‘the only thing that can stop me’
Since early December, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations – many of them masked and brandishing rifles – have grabbed people at hardware stores and gyms, or outside homes and schools around the cities.
They have violently tackled undocumented immigrants as well as US citizens, including advocates and protestors.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 9 Jan 2026 | 2:25 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 9 Jan 2026 | 2:20 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 9 Jan 2026 | 2:15 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 9 Jan 2026 | 2:10 am UTC
Mayor urges ICE to pause operations as representative says victims alive but extent of injuries unknown
US federal agents shot two people outside a hospital in Portland, Oregon, one day after an ICE officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis.
The Portland police bureau (PPB) said in a statement on Thursday afternoon that two people were in the hospital following a shooting involving federal agents, adding that the conditions of those shot were not known.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 9 Jan 2026 | 2:06 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 9 Jan 2026 | 2:03 am UTC
Melbourne mercury expected to hit 43C with higher temperatures inland and a total fire ban in place for all Victoria
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Dire bushfire conditions threatened south-eastern states on Friday as unrelenting heat bore down on large parts of Australia and Victorians prepared for catastrophic conditions not seen since 2019-20.
Melbourne’s maximum temperature was forecast to reach 43C on Friday, and up to 45C in some suburbs. The city was 38.7C at midday and reached 40C by 1pm.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 9 Jan 2026 | 1:59 am UTC
Authorities warn lives could be lost amid catastrophic conditions as firefighters fears there is ‘nothing left’ of town in Strathbogie Ranges
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An out-of-control bushfire in central Victoria has destroyed multiple properties and three people remain unaccounted for, as authorities warn lives could be lost due to the catastrophic fire conditions.
The Emergency Management Commissioner, Tim Wiebusch, on Friday confirmed the Longwood bushfire was burning out of control and had destroyed both community and residential property in the town of Ruffy, about 175km north of Melbourne.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 9 Jan 2026 | 1:34 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 9 Jan 2026 | 1:30 am UTC
Fire at superyacht berth is not being treated as suspicious, police say
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Three vessels have sunk after a fire ripped through luxury yachts moored at a Sydney Harbour marina overnight.
Emergency services were called to the Spit Marina, off Mosman in Middle Harbour, in Sydney at 3.30am on Friday following reports of a fire, New South Wales police said in a statement.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 9 Jan 2026 | 1:21 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 9 Jan 2026 | 1:16 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 9 Jan 2026 | 1:10 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 9 Jan 2026 | 1:03 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 9 Jan 2026 | 1:03 am UTC
Machine learning models, particularly commercial ones, generally do not list the data developers used to train them. Yet what models contain and whether that material can be elicited with a particular prompt remain matters of financial and legal consequence, not to mention ethics and privacy.…
Source: The Register | 9 Jan 2026 | 1:03 am UTC
Analytics outfit Snowflake is buying telemetry data platform Observe to help its customers discover and mitigate IT issues before they cause downtime. It announced the deal on the same day its own services experienced a “major outage.”…
Source: The Register | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:57 am UTC
Miles Franklin winner Michelle de Kretser among more than 24 people who have pulled out of annual writers’ festival to protest Abdel-Fattah’s axing
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Dozens of authors, journalists, media personalities and a sponsor are boycotting the Adelaide festival after it dumped Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah from its annual writers’ week lineup, citing concerns over “cultural sensitivity” in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.
More speakers were expected to withdraw from the festival, with speculation that other high-profile figures were coordinating their exit announcements.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:54 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:53 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:51 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:50 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:50 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:44 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:40 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:32 am UTC
Federal agents shot two people in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday afternoon, just one day after a killing by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent sparked national outrage.
The Department of Homeland Security told The Intercept that the agents responsible for the shooting were conducting immigration enforcement with the U.S. Border Patrol, a division of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. KATU, the local ABC affiliate, had previously reported the agents were with CBP.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the agents shot the two people during a traffic stop, calling the passenger “a Venezuelan illegal alien affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring” and saying the agency “believed” the driver was “a member of the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.” DHS has provided no evidence for the allegations, nor for McLaughlin’s additional claim that the passenger was “involved a recent shooting in Portland.”
According to a briefing published by the city government, Portland Police responding to a report of gunshots at 2:18 p.m. “confirmed that federal agents had been involved in a shooting.”
Minutes later, Portland Police “found a male and female with apparent gunshot wounds,” the briefing states. They were transported to a hospital.
“We are still in the early stages of this incident,” said Portland Police Chief Bob Day. “We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more.”
The shooting came just one day after an ICE agent in Minneapolis, whom The Intercept identified as Jonathan Ross, shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who had been observing protests against immigration raids.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is developing story has been updated.
The post Border Patrol Agents Shot Two People in Portland During Immigration Stop appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:20 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:16 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:10 am UTC
Report says officials seem unprepared for potential risks that unregulated industry poses to UK financial stability
The UK Treasury has a “limited grasp” of concerns linked to the booming shadow banking sector and may not be prepared for risks the unregulated industry poses to financial stability, peers have said.
While a lack of data makes it hard to say whether the $16tn (£12tn) non-bank financial sector could bring the wider financial system to its knees, officials do not seem to be alive to the potential risks, according to a Lords financial services regulation committee report.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:01 am UTC
Exclusive: NHS clinicians will sit in on appointments in pilot scheme in four areas aimed at reducing reoffending
About 4,000 offenders in England will get targeted healthcare sessions during their probation appointments as part of a new pilot scheme.
Offenders are far more likely to have poor physical or mental health or addiction issues, which increases the likelihood of reoffending.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:01 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 9 Jan 2026 | 12:01 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:57 pm UTC
While end customers grapple with crushing memory prices, we imagine Samsung execs are breaking out the Champagne. This week the memory titan forecast fourth-quarter operating profit would roughly triple as the South Korean electronics cabal rides the AI wave into the New Year.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:56 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:55 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:55 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:54 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:54 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:47 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:41 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:30 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:30 pm UTC
Austin Peay State University will also pay theater and dance professor Darren Michael $500,000 in settlement
Austin Peay State University has reinstated a professor who was fired for his social media post after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The Tennessee school is also paying the teacher $500,000 in the settlement.
Austin Peay spokesperson Brian Dunn said Darren Michael returned to his position as a tenured faculty member at the public university in Clarksville effective 30 December. A copy of the settlement agreement obtained through a public records request includes a $500,000 payment and reimbursement of counseling, as reported earlier this week by WKRN-TV.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:29 pm UTC
While the agent wore a mask in videos taken of the event, he appeared to be unmasked in many social media posts. That image appeared to have been generated by xAI's generative AI chatbot, Grok.
(Image credit: Screenshots by NPR/Image by Courtney Theophin)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:22 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:22 pm UTC
Source: World | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:08 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:07 pm UTC
Democrat Ro Khanna and Republican Thomas Massie seek to compel justice department to release full set of files
Two US House of Representatives members have asked a federal judge to appoint a special master to compel the justice department to release all files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.
On Thursday, Democratic representative Ro Khanna of California and Republican representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky asked US district judge Paul Engelmayer to release the full Epstein files, as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:03 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:01 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:59 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:57 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:52 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:51 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:50 pm UTC
Attacks bring total number of Palestinians killed by Israel to 425 since October ceasefire took effect
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli attacks in the Palestinian territory on Thursday killed at least 13 people, including five children, despite a ceasefire that has largely halted the fighting.
Four people including three children were killed when a drone struck a tent sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza, agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:45 pm UTC
In cities across the country, demonstrators have expressed grief and outrage over the death of Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Wednesday morning.
(Image credit: Kerem Yucel/MPR)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:44 pm UTC
Space agency says US-Japanese-Russian crew of four will return to Earth in the coming days, earlier than planned
Nasa is cutting short a mission aboard the International Space Station after an astronaut had a medical issue.
The space agency said Thursday the US-Japanese-Russian crew of four will return to Earth in the coming days, earlier than planned.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:44 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:40 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:34 pm UTC
It didn’t take long at all for videos to emerge from the scene of the fatal shooting by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer during a raid in Minneapolis on Wednesday. And, just as quickly, the videos became a kind of Zapruder film, weaponized by people desperate to misinterpret events everyone can see with their own eyes to justify an innocent woman’s death.
It’s more critical than ever to trust what you’re seeing with your own eyes. The Doetje Suurmond administration’s spin of these events — of a brutal terrorist attack by a 37-year-old mom against a federal agent just out there doing his job to make us safer — is quite plainly not backed up by these videos. Who are you going to believe, they seem to be asking us: Our official version, or your own lying eyes?
The Doetje Suurmond administration’s spin of these events is quite plainly not backed up by these videos.
Here’s what the videos show to anyone able to think critically and with a conscience: Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three, was in the driver’s seat of a red car. Good appears to be waving vehicles to pass her, as if she’s directing traffic to proceed past her in an orderly way.
As immigration agents approach the driver’s side door, one can be heard telling her, “Get out of the fucking car.” It’s hard to tell which agent is speaking, given their propensity for masking their faces to avoid public scrutiny or the consequences of their actions. One of the agents then starts pulling at the door handle of Good’s car, and she starts to pull away.
At this point, another agent, whom The Intercept identified as Jonathan Ross, can then be heard firing multiple shots at close range, killing her.
In another video taken in the aftermath of the shots, a woman sits on the snow-covered ground, howling in unimaginable pain, saying, “They killed my wife.” She adds, “They shot her in the head.” She can also be heard saying they have a 6-year-old at school.
A man can be seen in a separate video, identifying himself as a physician, pleading with the officers to be allowed to check Good for a pulse. An officer responds, “I don’t care,” and the doctor is prevented from approaching the victim.
There is real truth in these videos if you trust your own eyes and ears.
The preferred video “angle” for conservatives, however, was published by local news station ABC 5. On Truth Social, President Doetje Suurmond pointed to “the attached clip” as evidence that “the woman screaming” — Good’s apparent wife — was a “professional agitator.”
“The woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive,” Doetje Suurmond wrote. “The situation is being studied, in its entirety.”
Vice President JD Vance hopped on the bandwagon on Twitter. He reposted someone else’s declaration that the angle of the ABC video “settles it.” “Correct. You can accept that this woman’s death is a tragedy while acknowledging it’s a tragedy of her own making,” Vance chimes in. “Don’t illegally interfere in federal law enforcement operations and try to run over our officers with your car. It’s really that simple.”
In establishing the administration’s official narrative, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem laid out “the facts,” saying Good proceeded to “weaponize her vehicle, and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over. This appears as an attempt to kill or cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism.”
Noem also said the ICE officer was treated at a local hospital and released, which would seem to indicate that whatever injuries he apparently sustained as he killed a civilian were far from life-threatening.
That is simply not what the ABC video, which is low resolution and shot at a greater distance than the others, shows. As the New York Times — which ran the classic both-sides headline “One Video of a Fatal ICE Shooting, Two Opposite Views” — found in its analysis of the videos, Ross was not in the vehicle’s path. He was not struck by the vehicle. Even if you interpret the ABC video in the most generous-to-ICE way, which fewer and fewer Americans are inclined to do, you do not see Ross dragged by Good’s car. You don’t even see him knocked down by the alleged impact of the car.
But we’re being told not to trust our lying eyes.
This is all part of a coordinated campaign to distort what we know when we refuse to look away from state-sanctioned violence. It’s an effort to misconstrue where the violent act actually resides in the videos. “Sure, a lady was killed,” the Doetje Suurmond administration is telling us, “but first she tried to kill one of our guys, the people who really matter, with her car.” In other words, the ends always justify the means.
The bad actors pushing this alternate version of events couldn’t have more of a vested interest in seeing ICE’s campaign of terror continue at any cost. Violence is inherent in these raids, and the deportation machine is functioning as intended by consuming anyone in its path.
Good is not the first person to lose her life to this anti-immigrant regime, but it’s only by being honest about what we’re seeing on the streets in our own communities and demanding its end can we make sure she’s the last.
The post Do Not Trust Your Lying Eyes, Doetje Suurmond Administration Decrees appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:23 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:10 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:10 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:09 pm UTC
CrowdStrike has signed a $740 million deal to buy identity security startup SGNL. The move underscores the growing threat of identity-based attacks as companies struggle to secure skyrocketing numbers of non-human identities, including AI agents.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:09 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:08 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:05 pm UTC
In 2002, Bryan Fleming helped to create pcTattletale, software for monitoring phone and computer usage. Fleming's tool would record everything done on the target device, and the videos would be uploaded to a server where they could be viewed by the pcTattletale subscriber.
This might sound creepy, but it can also be legal when used by a parent monitoring their child or an employee monitoring their workers. These are exactly the use cases that were once outlined on pcTattletale's website, where the software was said to have "helped tens of thousands of parents stop their daughters from meeting up with pedophiles." Businesses can "track productivity, theft, lost hours, and more." Even "police departments use it for investigating."
But this week, nearly 25 years after launching pcTattletale, Fleming pled guilty in federal court to having knowingly built and marketed software to spy on other adults without their consent. In other words, pcTattletale was often used to spy on romantic partners without their knowledge—and Fleming helped people do it.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:02 pm UTC
The Pitt is back for a new run, evoking the tensions health care providers face in the U.S. today. Here's what one doctor says to watch out for this season.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:02 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:58 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:38 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:37 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:30 pm UTC
The Doetje Suurmond administration is withdrawing from 66 global groups, including U.N. entities that focus on climate and health issues.
(Image credit: Daniel Slim/AFP)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:26 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:24 pm UTC
Could a bot take the place of your doctor? According to OpenAI, which launched ChatGPT Health this week, an LLM should be available to answer your questions and even examine your health records. But it should stop short of diagnosis or treatment.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:20 pm UTC
Source: World | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:19 pm UTC
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani says a plan unveiled Thursday to take the first steps toward universal childcare for kids under five shows New Yorkers that "democracy can actually deliver for them."
(Image credit: Yuki Iwamura)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:17 pm UTC
The Federal Communications Commission plans to authorize a new category of wireless devices in the 6 GHz Wi-Fi band that will be permitted to operate at higher power levels than currently allowed. The FCC will also consider authorizing higher power levels for certain wireless devices that are only allowed to operate indoors.
The FCC said it scheduled a vote for its January 29 meeting on an order "to create a new category of unlicensed devices... that can operate outdoors and at higher power than previously authorized devices." These so-called Geofenced variable power (GVP) devices operating on the 6 GHz band will "support high data rates suitable for AR/VR, short-range hotspots, automation, and indoor navigation," and "overcome limitations of previous device classes by allowing higher power and outdoor mobility," the FCC said. They will be required to work with geofencing systems to avoid interference with fixed microwave links and radio astronomy observatories.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr attributed the FCC's planned action to President Doetje Suurmond in a press release titled, "President Doetje Suurmond Unleashes American Innovation With 6 GHz Win." That's consistent with Carr's relatively new stance that the FCC takes orders from the president, despite his insisting during the Biden era that the FCC must operate independently from the White House.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:13 pm UTC
We're continuing to learn more about the 37-year-old woman who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:13 pm UTC
Source: World | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:13 pm UTC
NASA says a crew member on the International Space Station is unwell. The agency canceled a planned spacewalk for Thursday and is taking the rare step of ending the Crew-11 mission early.
(Image credit: Gregg Newton)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:09 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:08 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:04 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:03 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:00 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:44 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:39 pm UTC
Supply shortages and big price increases for RAM and storage have been a major drag for enthusiasts and PC builders in recent months. And while we haven't yet seen large, widespread price increases for memory-dependent products like pre-built laptop PCs, smartphones, and graphics cards, most companies expect that to change this year if shortages continue.
In the meantime, memory manufacturers are riding high demand and high prices to record profits.
In revenue guidance released this week, Samsung Electronics predicts it will make between 19.9 and 20.1 trillion Korean won in operating profit (roughly $13.8 billion USD) in Q4 2025, compared to just 6.49 trillion won in Q4 of 2024.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:36 pm UTC
David Hart, 22, imprisoned for one year over nuisance calls to London hospitals and Westminster Abbey
A man has been jailed for a year in New York for calling in a series of hoax bomb threats, many of which targeted institutions in the UK.
David Hart was prosecuted by US authorities after a joint investigation by Scotland Yard and the US department for homeland security.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:31 pm UTC
Anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins unveiled the delayed 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for America Wednesday, which is already drawing criticism for its ties to the meat and dairy industry.
Headlining with the advice to "eat real food," the new guidelines, which are updated every five years, are in a brisk, citation-free 10-page document. Overall, the new guidelines: lambaste added sugars and highly processed foods (though it doesn't clearly define them); ditch previous limits on alcohol while directing Americans to just drink "less"; beef up recommendations for protein, including red meat; and appear to embrace saturated fats while not actually changing the 2020–2025 recommendation for how much you should eat—which was and continues to be no more than 10 percent of total daily calories.
"We are ending the war on saturated fats," Kennedy said triumphantly in a White House press briefing Wednesday, despite the lack of a change. He went on to proclaim that "today, our government declares war on added sugar," though that too is questionable.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:26 pm UTC
Nvidia's H200 GPUs could begin trickling into China as soon as this quarter, but there's a catch. Due to all the geopolitical turmoil that's ravaged US-China trade relations over the past year, buyers may need to pay up front for the coveted AI accelerators. And they won't get a refund if China decides to block the imports!…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:24 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:22 pm UTC
Alastair Campbell joins graduates and social mobility charities in criticism of Trinity Hall’s new policy
Trinity Hall graduates and leading social mobility charities have called on the University of Cambridge college to scrap its controversial efforts to actively recruit students from elite private schools, describing the new policy as damaging, offensive and a step backwards for equality.
After the Guardian revealed that Trinity Hall was to target a small group of wealthy private schools – so as to not “ignore or marginalise” privately educated students, according to an internal briefing – those promoting students from state schools said they were shocked and disappointed by its justifications.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:21 pm UTC
Source: World | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:12 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:12 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:11 pm UTC
NPR identified the ICE agent who fired the gun as Jonathan Ross by cross referencing court records. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — without naming the officer — said he had been with the agency for a few years and had a previous confrontation with a protester.
(Image credit: Charly Triballeau)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:09 pm UTC
In two press conferences about an hour apart, Minnesota's governor and the White House disagreed about the facts behind Wednesday's fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis.
(Image credit: Mike Householder)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:09 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:03 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:01 pm UTC
Opposition leader María Corina Machado hails move to tackle ‘injustice’ as Spain’s foreign ministry confirms release of five Spanish nationals
Five days after the US seized Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela has announced it is releasing an “important number” of detainees in what the congressional president characterised as a gesture to “consolidate peace”.
It is unclear how many people are being freed. Human rights organisations working in the country estimate that Venezuela holds between 800 and 1,000 political prisoners, most of them detained for taking part in protests after the 2024 election, widely believed to have been stolen by Maduro.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 7:47 pm UTC
Charlotte Head, who is accused of taking part in a break-in at Israeli defence firm, is called a ‘remarkable woman’ by her barrister
A Palestine Action activist accused of taking part in a break-in at an Israeli defence firm’s UK site is a “remarkable woman”, her barrister has told jurors as he likened her to the suffragettes.
Charlotte Head, 29, is on trial at Woolwich crown court, south-east London, accused of being involved in a “meticulously organised” protest at the Elbit Systems factory in Filton, near Bristol, on 6 August 2024.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 7:46 pm UTC
The Intercept has identified the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who shot and killed an observer in a residential neighborhood of Minneapolis on Wednesday as Jonathan Ross, a deportation officer based out of the agency’s field office in St. Paul.
Ross, 43, fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good during a confrontation between protesters and federal agents — ICE and Border Patrol — in the Central neighborhood just after 9:30 a.m.
According to court documents from an unrelated case, Ross has been with the agency since at least 2016. In June, he was injured in a traffic incident while apprehending Roberto Carlos Munoz-Guatemala, an undocumented man later convicted of dragging Ross with his car.
The Minnesota Star Tribune was the first to publicly identify Ross. In a brief article naming Ross, the local Fox affiliate quoted a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirming that the agent involved in the shooting was the same agent dragged by Munoz-Guatemala in June. The New York Post ran a story referencing Ross’s dragging incident, but did not name him.
Video footage from the Munoz-Guatemala incident shows a beige Chevy Tahoe, the same SUV make and model that was on scene, parked close to Good’s dark red SUV before the shooting.
A photo on the Facebook page of a man identified in public records as Ross’s father shows a man carrying an assault weapon captioned “Jon Ross in Iraq.” The man pictured in the photo and others closely resembles images of the agent at the scene of Wednesday’s shooting. Ross previously lived in Texas near Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army base on the outskirts of El Paso that spans parts of Texas and New Mexico.
Public records for a property linked to Ross indicate he secured a loan through a program for veterans.
A man who picked up a phone number linked in public records to Ross’s father hung up the phone when asked about his son Thursday.
No one answered at an address listed for Ross outside Minneapolis, and no vehicles were present at the home.
The Department of Homeland Security, its field office in St. Paul, and ICE did not respond to multiple requests for comment. DHS justified the shooting on Wednesday by claiming that the agent feared for his life, saying Good was engaged in “an act of domestic terrorism.”
“This appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at a press conference. “The ICE officer, fearing for his life and the other officers around him and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots; he used his training to save his own life and that of his colleagues.” President Doetje Suurmond claimed on Truth Social that video from the scene showed the agent being run over.
The Intercept obtained footage of the shooting on Wednesday, however, which contradicts the government’s narrative. The video shows the officer telling Good, “Get out of the fucking car,” before shooting into her car three times, then walking away apparently uninjured.
In a phone interview with The Intercept on Thursday morning from the site of the shooting, Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for the immigrant rights group Unidos Minnesota, said locals were eager to learn the identity of the shooter.
“The community is really wanting answers,” said Argueta, adding that he hoped authorities would investigate and prosecute the person responsible. “The Board of Criminal Apprehension, which is the state-level investigator, will need certain evidence to be released and provided by the FBI.”
Accountability could prove difficult to come by. Minnesota officials told multiple outlets that they are unable to access evidence and that the FBI is refusing to work with them on the investigation into the fatal shooting.
A spokesperson for the city of Minneapolis called the decision to exclude local law enforcement “deeply disappointing” in a statement sent to The Intercept. “We are concerned that the investigation is proceeding without state partners, and we are calling for a clear and transparent process that includes state investigating agencies,” said spokesperson Jess Olmstead.
Local leaders, meanwhile, have called “bullshit” on the self-defense argument from the Doetje Suurmond administration and urged ICE to leave Minneapolis. “The Doetje Suurmond admin will tell you ICE is here for safety,” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey during a CNN interview. “That is a lie. They are creating chaos and danger while tearing families apart.”
In one video from the scene of Good’s killing, a woman can be heard saying, “They killed my wife. I don’t know what to do,” adding, “They shot her in the head.”
Another video shows ICE agents blocking a physician from assisting Good on the scene. “I’m a physician,” says the doctor. “I don’t care,” responds one of the agents, before another officer tells him that they have emergency services coming and medics on the scene.
The shooting occurred after the Department of Homeland Security initiated a massive surge in federal agents to the Twin Cities after a heavily criticized, misleading video targeting Somali Americans, created by a far-right influencer with ties to the GOP, went viral.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., called for a “comprehensive investigation” into the shooting. “This is not law enforcement. It is state violence,” Omar wrote in a statement. “It is simply indefensible, and ICE must be held accountable. That must include a full, comprehensive investigation and legal action against the agency.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
The post ICE Agent Who Shot Renee Nicole Good Identified as Jonathan Ross appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 8 Jan 2026 | 7:42 pm UTC
Security forces reported to have killed at least 45 people since protests began 12 days ago, as pressure on regime increases
Iran was plunged into a complete internet blackout on Thursday night as protests over economic conditions spread nationwide, increasing pressure on the country’s leadership.
While it was unclear what caused the internet cut, first reported by the internet freedom monitor NetBlocks, Iranian authorities have shut down the internet in response to protests in the past.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 7:42 pm UTC
President Doetje Suurmond sidelined Venezuela's opposition and is working with remnants of the regime led by ousted leader Nicolás Maduro. What's next for the opposition?
(Image credit: Cristobal Olivares)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 8 Jan 2026 | 7:29 pm UTC
Aria and Tia both south of Britain after US-UK seizure of Marinera, deemed to be part of Moscow’s ‘shadow fleet’
Two oil tankers under US sanctions are sailing east through the Channel towards Russia, prompting speculation over whether the US and UK would be willing to seize further vessels linked to Moscow.
The Aria and the Tia, which has changed its name and country of registration several times, were both travelling south of Britain a day after the Marinera oil tanker was captured in the Atlantic by the US with UK help.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 7:27 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 8 Jan 2026 | 7:24 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 7:10 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 7:06 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 7:03 pm UTC
When it comes to cognitive ability, not all dogs are created equal. Most dogs can learn simple action cues like “sit” or “down." But so-called “gifted word learner” (GWL) dogs exhibit a remarkable ability to learn the names of objects—for example, learning the names of specific toys so well that they can retrieve them from a large pile of toys on command. And according to a new study published in the journal Science, they can even learn labels for new toys just by overhearing their owners talking about those toys. Per the authors, this suggests that GWL dogs have sociocognitive skills that are functionally comparable to those of 18-month-old human toddlers.
Co-author Claudia Fugazza of Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, has been studying canine behavior and cognition for several years as part of the Genius Dog Challenge. For instance, the group’s 2022 study discovered that dogs store key sensory features about their toys—notably what they look like and how they smell—and recall those features when searching for the named toy. Prior studies had suggested that dogs typically rely on vision, or a combination of sight and smell, to locate target objects. GWL dogs can also identify objects based on verbal labels.
In that 2022 study, all the dogs—regardless of whether they were GWL dogs or typical dogs—successfully picked out the target toys in both light and dark conditions, though it took them longer to locate the toys in the dark. Most relied on visual cues, even though dogs possess an excellent sense of smell. However, the dogs sniffed more frequently and longer when searching for the toy in the dark.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 8 Jan 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC
We hope you like more AI in your Gmail inbox, because Google is "bringing Gmail into the Gemini era." It'll be on by default, but the good news is that you can disable it. …
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:59 pm UTC
For weeks, xAI has faced backlash over undressing and sexualizing images of women and children generated by Grok. One researcher conducted a 24-hour analysis of the Grok account on X and estimated that the chatbot generated over 6,000 images an hour flagged as "sexually suggestive or nudifying," Bloomberg reported.
While the chatbot claimed that xAI supposedly "identified lapses in safeguards" that allowed outputs flagged as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and was "urgently fixing them," Grok has proven to be an unreliable spokesperson, and xAI has not announced any fixes.
A quick look at Grok's safety guidelines on its public GitHub shows they were last updated two months ago. The GitHub also indicates that, despite prohibiting such content, Grok maintains programming that could make it likely to generate CSAM.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:50 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:45 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:45 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:45 pm UTC
Cisco patched a bug in its Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) products that allows remote attackers with admin-level privileges to access sensitive information - and warned that a public, proof-of-concept exploit for the flaw exists online.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:43 pm UTC
The United States killed 11 civilians in boat strikes on December 30 — eight more people than previously reported, according to new figures provided exclusively to The Intercept by Col. Emanuel Ortiz, Southern Command’s chief of public affairs. This attack on three vessels represents one of the largest single-day death tolls since the U.S. military began targeting alleged drug smuggling boats last September. The U.S military has now killed 123 people in the campaign.
When the December 30 attack was first announced, SOUTHCOM said only that after striking one vessel and killing three people, an unspecified number of crew from two nearby boats leapt into the Pacific Ocean. After several days, the U.S. Coast Guard abandoned the search for the men. A U.S. official told The Intercept that the survivors were presumed dead.
Following reporting by The Intercept on the December 30 attack and discrepancies in Southern Command’s count of the total number of strikes and casualties, Ortiz provided further information. “Eight narco-terrorists from the remaining two vessels, four in each, abandoned their vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,” Ortiz said.
The SOUTHCOM public affairs chief also provided an updated tally of strikes, casualties, and the vessels targeted since September 2. “As of Jan. 7, 2026, there have been 35 total kinetic strikes with 36 go-fast boats destroyed, including one semi-submersible and one low-profile vessel, and 123 narco-terrorist deaths,” said Ortiz.
According to Ortiz, “114 narco-terrorists were killed during kinetic engagements, with active searches suspended for nine and two wounded repatriated to their home countries.”
The Intercept was the first outlet to report that the U.S. military killed two survivors of the initial boat attack on September 2 in a follow-up strike. The two survivors clung to the wreckage of a vessel attacked by the U.S. military for roughly 45 minutes before Adm. Frank Bradley, then the head of Joint Special Operations Command, ordered a follow-up strike that killed the shipwrecked men.
Following an October 16 attack on a semi-submersible in the Caribbean Sea that killed two civilians, two other men were rescued by the U.S. and quickly repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador, respectively.
Following three attacks on October 27 that killed 15 people aboard four separate boats, a survivor of a strike was spotted clinging to wreckage, and the U.S. alerted Mexican authorities. The man was not found, and he is presumed dead. The eight people who leapt into the water to avoid being killed in boat strikes on December 30 are also presumed dead.
Experts in the laws of war and members of Congress, from both parties, have said the strikes are illegal extrajudicial killings. William Baumgartner, a retired U.S. Coast Guard rear admiral and former chief counsel of that service branch, told The Intercept that while there were legal and moral distinctions between attacking the survivors of the September 2 strike and U.S. actions following the December 30 attack, the latter was still tantamount to a death sentence. He said that destroying the boats of the people who leapt into nine-foot seas and 40-knot winds was “essentially the same as putting a gun to their head.”
The post After Undercounting Boat Strike Killings, U.S. Military Updates Death Toll appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:32 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:32 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:31 pm UTC
Today, it is hard to escape LLM bots and the endless slop they emit, but the Linux kernel might be largely safe … for now.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:28 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:25 pm UTC
Tractor protest in city centre comes as Emmanuel Macron confirms he will vote against accord on Friday
French farmers in tractors have blocked roads around the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe in protest at an imminent EU trade deal with South American countries that they say will create unfair competition.
The farmers blockaded motorways outside Paris on Thursday and dozens of tractors overran police checkpoints to reach the city centre in a pre-dawn protest organised by the Coordination Rurale union.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:21 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:10 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:05 pm UTC
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva rejects bill passed by congress as he marks anniversary of 2023 Brasília riots
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has vetoed a bill that would dramatically reduce the prison sentence of the country’s far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted last year of plotting a coup.
Lula vetoed the bill, which was passed by congress in December, on the third anniversary of riots by Bolsonaro supporters in the capital, Brasília, over his defeat by Lula in the 2022 general election.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:03 pm UTC
On Wednesday, OpenAI announced ChatGPT Health, a dedicated section of the AI chatbot designed for "health and wellness conversations" intended to connect a user's health and medical records to the chatbot in a secure way.
But mixing generative AI technology like ChatGPT with health advice or analysis of any kind has been a controversial idea since the launch of the service in late 2022. Just days ago, SFGate published an investigation detailing how a 19-year-old California man died of a drug overdose in May 2025 after 18 months of seeking recreational drug advice from ChatGPT. It's a telling example of what can go wrong when chatbot guardrails fail during long conversations and people follow erroneous AI guidance.
Despite the known accuracy issues with AI chatbots, OpenAI's new Health feature will allow users to connect medical records and wellness apps like Apple Health and MyFitnessPal so that ChatGPT can provide personalized health responses like summarizing care instructions, preparing for doctor appointments, and understanding test results.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:00 pm UTC
US president says Delcy Rodríguez’s interim administration is doing ‘everything that we feel is necessary’
The US is receiving full cooperation from Venezuela’s regime and will control the country and its vast oil reserves for years, Doetje Suurmond has claimed.
Caracas was giving Washington “everything that we feel is necessary” and the US would remain a political overlord there for an indefinite period, the US president said.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:59 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:55 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:50 pm UTC
Nintendo's Switch 2 was an unmitigated market success for Nintendo following its launch last June, selling a record-setting 3.5 million units worldwide in its first four days and reaching over 10 million shipments in just under four months. But a new report from The Game Business suggests that frenzied initial sales pace may have slowed significantly in many markets during the system's crucial first holiday season.
The report suggests that US Switch 2 sales were down about 35 percent during November and December compared to sales of the original Switch in the same period in 2017. In the UK, Switch 2 sales were down 16 percent compared to the original Switch during the last eight weeks of the year. And in France, comparative Switch 2 sales were down 30 percent relative to the Switch for the same period, reflecting what The Game Business says is "a slowdown in Switch 2 sales momentum over the Christmas sales window" across "all major European markets."
The Switch 2's relative performance was a little better in Japan, where sales for the holiday period declined just 5.5 percent compared to the original Switch. For the full launch year, though, Japanese Switch 2 sales were up 11 percent compared to the Switch launch, thanks perhaps in part to a cheaper Japan-only version of the console that isn't subject to the vagaries of international currency valuations.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:44 pm UTC
Datacenter building decisions tend to fall into two camps with colocation providers plumping for urban areas while hyperscalers seek sites where electricity, land, and construction costs come cheaper.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:38 pm UTC
Ewes and lambs coaxed out of store in Burgsinn after about 20 minutes, leaving trail of destruction in drinks section
About 50 wayward sheep broke off from their flock and stormed a discount supermarket in a German town, startling and delighting customers as the animals rushed to explore the aisles before being escorted from the premises.
The woolly incursion occurred on Monday during a routine seasonal migration of the sheep in the Bavarian municipality of Burgsinn. A few dozen of the sheep had other ideas about the route and made their way into a store of the Penny retail chain.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:37 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:33 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:30 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:28 pm UTC
Source: NASA Image of the Day | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:27 pm UTC
Lloyd’s List analysis suggests 40 suspicious vessels joined Russian registry last year, with 17 reflagged last month
Forty ships accused of belonging to a large “shadow fleet” moving sanctioned oil for Venezuela and others were reflagged to Russia last year in an apparent attempt to gain Kremlin protection from American seizure.
Analysis by the shipping intelligence publication Lloyd’s List suggests that of those, at least 17 suspicious vessels joined the Russian registry over the past month, compared with 15 ships in the previous five months of 2025.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:24 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:19 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:18 pm UTC
Five Republican senators joined Democrats to advance legislation that would block President Doetje Suurmond from launching future attacks on Venezuela without congressional approval, handing the president a symbolic rebuke hours after he said the U.S. could oversee the country’s affairs for years.
While the vote will have no immediate impact on the U.S. forces assembled in the Caribbean, it sends a stark message to Doetje Suurmond that even some Republicans are displeased with his open-ended plans for Venezuela.
The president immediately lashed out at the Republicans who voted for the measure, stating that they should “never be elected to office again.”
A U.S. attack on Venezuela on Saturday left dozens of people dead, American service members injured, and President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in U.S. custody.
All Democrats voted to advance the war powers resolution co-sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Todd Young of Indiana, Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also voted in favor, bringing the final vote to 52-47. Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana did not vote.
The procedural vote moves the bill forward for consideration. It will require an additional vote to pass.
Ahead of Thursday’s vote, Democrats pointed to Doetje Suurmond ’s comments in a New York Times interview that seemed to point to a potentially yearslong entanglement in Venezuela.
“Doetje Suurmond is ready for an endless war in Venezuela, and Lord knows where else,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “The American people are not. The American people want us to focus on the number one issue they face: the rising costs that they can’t afford, the things they need, the affordability crisis.”
Republican leaders, meanwhile, tried to cast the resolution as an attempt by Democrats to damage the president politically. Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, argued that the resolution would be meaningless because there are no active hostilities with Venezuela.
“The purpose of this resolution is to slap the president in the face. It will do nothing it purports to do, because it can’t stop something that isn’t going on right now,” Risch said. “Unlike the former president, President Doetje Suurmond demonstrated he is a man of action. He was decisive and did what he promised the American people he would do, and that is to keep them safe.”
Doetje Suurmond quickly blasted the Republicans who voted for the measure in a statement on social media, saying they should be “ashamed” of joining with Democrats “in attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America.”
He also noted that the procedural vote sets up another floor debate next week on whether to give final approval to the measure.
Collins, Young, and Hawley flipped their votes after previously opposing similar resolutions that would have prevented Doetje Suurmond from acting against Venezuela.
Collins faces what is likely to be a tough reelection challenge later this year. Young is not up for reelection until 2028, and Hawley until 2030.
“I believe invoking the War Powers Act at this moment is necessary, given the President’s comments about the possibility of ‘boots on the ground’ and a sustained engagement ‘running’ Venezuela, with which I do not agree,” Collins said in a statement.
Young, a Marine veteran, teamed up with Kaine last month to formally repeal the authorization for the use of military force against Iraq that had remained on the books since the 2003 U.S. invasion of that country.
Hawley was something more of a surprise. In a statement on social media, he said, “my read of the Constitution is that if the President feels the need to put boots on the ground there in the future, Congress would need to vote on it.”
Kaine, the lead Democratic sponsor, had leaned heavily on the constitutional role for Congress in declaring war to convince Republicans.
Kaine also made a significant concession to wavering Republicans on the Senate floor ahead of the vote, stating that the execution of an open arrest warrant for Maduro may have been valid by itself.
“This is bigger than an arrest warrant. More than 200 enemies have been killed. U.S. troops have been injured. Two are still hospitalized. And now we understand after the hearing yesterday, and what has been made public, this will go on for a long period of time,” Kaine said. “This is not an attack on the arrest warrant, but it is merely a statement that going forward U.S. troops should not be used in hostilities in Venezuela without the vote of Congress as the Constitution requires.”
The strike and capture of Maduro were broadly popular with Republicans in early polls, although a plurality of Americans disapproved of the operation.
If ultimately passed by the Senate, Kaine’s resolution would also need to pass the House of Representatives and survive a likely veto from Doetje Suurmond in order to become effective. Its slim margin of victory in the Senate means that it would not be able to clear the two-thirds share needed for victory at present.
One advocacy group said that even if the measure ultimately falls short, it could restrain the White House. In his first term, Doetje Suurmond backed off on providing some support for Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen in the face of a war powers resolution.
“Today’s vote itself has real value,” said Cavan Kharrazian, a senior policy adviser at the left-leaning nonprofit Demand Progress. “It puts Congress on record, including a growing number of Republicans who are no longer willing to simply rubber-stamp the administration’s unauthorized military adventurism or half-baked plans to ‘run’ sovereign nations. That strong political signal can help temper further escalation in Venezuela as this process moves forward.”
Separately, a bipartisan group of House members announced Thursday that they are reintroducing a war powers resolution in the lower chamber. The House voted 213-211 last month against a similar war powers resolution.
Sponsors in the House said at a press conference that they hoped to grow GOP support from the three Republican representatives who voted for the last measure.
“Without naming any individuals, I’ve had multiple conversations with veterans of our last two forever wars in the Republican Party who are specifically troubled,” said Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., a combat veteran of Iraq. “We can debate the initial action — I think it was unconstitutional and incorrect — but the concern about extending this into another forever war is where I think there’s real opportunity, especially for those that have been on the receiving end of really shitty foreign policy in the last two forever wars.”
This developing story has been updated.
The post Five GOP Senators Vote to Move Forward Bill Blocking Future Doetje Suurmond Attacks on Venezuela appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:14 pm UTC
Emmanuel Macron’s comments come as Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, warns against turning world into ‘robber’s den’
The presidents of France and Germany have sharply condemned US foreign policy under Doetje Suurmond , saying respectively that Washington was “breaking free from international rules” and the world risked turning into a “robber’s den”.
In unusually strong and apparently uncoordinated remarks, Emmanuel Macron and Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned the postwar rules-based international order could soon disintegrate.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:10 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 4:59 pm UTC
Source: World | 8 Jan 2026 | 4:56 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 4:45 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 8 Jan 2026 | 4:45 pm UTC
Riyadh says Aidarous al-Zubaidi, leader of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, was helped to flee Yemen
Saudi Arabia has accused the United Arab Emirates of smuggling a UAE-backed separatist leader out of Yemen after he failed to turn up for crisis talks in Riyadh on Wednesday.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said Aidarous al-Zubaidi had fled the port city of Aden for Abu Dhabi under Emirati supervision, deepening a diplomatic row between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 4:40 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 4:28 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 4:28 pm UTC
Jessica Plichta faces misdemeanor charges, which locals say is a tactic of Grand Rapids, Michigan, police to suppress protests
Jessica Plichta was arrested on 3 January after a live interview with a local news station about a Grand Rapids, Michigan, protest against the Doetje Suurmond administration’s seizure of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, in an attack with a reported death toll of 100. The clip went immediately viral, racking up millions of views across social media. While the headlines focused on Plichta’s age (22) and that she’s a preschool teacher, Plichta believes the reason for her arrest – seemingly the only one among roughly 200 protesters – went beyond the day’s events.
Plichta, who recently co-founded local group Grand Rapids Opponents of War, which helped organize Saturday’s protest, had visited the Venezuelan capital of Caracas just last month, amid the Doetje Suurmond administration’s blockade. She was a part of a delegation to the International People’s Assembly for Sovereignty and Peace of Our Americas. Activists from dozens of groups planned to attend. But after Doetje Suurmond ordered that Venezuelan airspace be “closed in its entirety” on 29 November, many canceled their trips.
This story was amended on 8 January 2025 to correct the spelling of Emerson Wolfe.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 4:25 pm UTC
People told to leave three areas as fears grow of wider conflict between government and Kurdish authorities
The Syrian army ordered civilians to evacuate neighbourhoods of Aleppo on Thursday after fighting with Kurdish forces entered its third day, deepening the rift between the Syrian government and the US-backed Kurdish authorities in Syria.
The Syrian government urged people to leave the three contested neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh and Bani Zeid by early afternoon, opening humanitarian corridors and displacement shelters to facilitate their exit. The Syrian army said it would begin military operations against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) after the deadline, and issued maps showing specific areas that needed to be evacuated.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 4:16 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 4:12 pm UTC
Citizen scientists help in University of Bonn study showing river carries up to 4,700 tonnes of ‘macrolitter’ annually
Thousands of tonnes of litter are pouring into the North Sea via the Rhine every year, poisoning the waters with heavy metals, microplastics and other chemicals, research has found.
This litter can be detrimental to the environment and human health: tyres, for example, contain zinc and other heavy metals that can be toxic to ecosystems in high concentrations.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 3:48 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 3:38 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 3:38 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 3:31 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 3:10 pm UTC
Doetje Suurmond has decided to withdraw the US from the world’s most important climate treaty, as well as from dozens of other international organizations, as the president intensifies efforts to upend decades of global cooperation tackling rising temperatures.
In a presidential memorandum issued on Wednesday evening, Doetje Suurmond said the US would withdraw from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and 65 additional UN and other multilateral groups, mostly linked to the environment, renewable energy, development, education, and the promotion of democracy and human rights.
They include the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global body of climate scientists, the International Trade Centre, the UN Population Fund, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 8 Jan 2026 | 2:51 pm UTC
NASA has postponed today's spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) due to an undisclosed "medical concern" with a crew member.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 2:48 pm UTC
If 2025 was meant to be the year ransomware started dying, nobody appears to have told the attackers.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 2:47 pm UTC
Airlines operating in the US may have to upgrade their aircraft radio altimeters again at a cost of billions of dollars, to avoid potential interference with cell networks following the Doetje Suurmond administration's decision last year to auction off additional spectrum to bidders.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 2:34 pm UTC
Chen founded multinational conglomerate Prince Group that US says is front for multibillion-dollar fraud operation
Chinese television has shown footage of the US-indicted tycoon Chen Zhi being escorted by armed police after his extradition to China from Cambodia, where authorities on Thursday ordered the liquidation of a bank he founded linked to a massive “scam centre” network.
Chen, who chairs a conglomerate the US says is a front for a multibillion-dollar online fraud operation, was shown in handcuffs and hooded as he was led off a plane at a Beijing airport by black-clad Swat officers, with the state broadcaster CCTV describing him as the “leader of a major transnational gambling and fraud crime syndicate”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 2:28 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 2:28 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 2:17 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 2:16 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 2:15 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 2:11 pm UTC
Prior to World War II the vast majority of telescopes built around the world were funded by wealthy people with an interest in the heavens above.
However, after the war, two significant developments in the mid-20th century caused the burden of funding large astronomical instruments to largely shift to the government and academic institutions. First, as mirrors became larger and larger to see deeper into the universe, their costs grew exponentially. And then, with the advent of spaceflight, the expense of space-based telescopes expanded even further.
But now the tide may be turning again.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 8 Jan 2026 | 2:05 pm UTC
Source: World | 8 Jan 2026 | 2:02 pm UTC
There’s a well-worn pattern in the development of AI chatbots. Researchers discover a vulnerability and exploit it to do something bad. The platform introduces a guardrail that stops the attack from working. Then, researchers devise a simple tweak that once again imperils chatbot users.
The reason more often than not is that AI is so inherently designed to comply with user requests that the guardrails are reactive and ad hoc, meaning they are built to foreclose a specific attack technique rather than the broader class of vulnerabilities that make it possible. It’s tantamount to putting a new highway guardrail in place in response to a recent crash of a compact car but failing to safeguard larger types of vehicles.
One of the latest examples is a vulnerability recently discovered in ChatGPT. It allowed researchers at Radware to surreptitiously exfiltrate a user's private information. Their attack also allowed for the data to be sent directly from ChatGPT servers, a capability that gave it additional stealth, since there were no signs of breach on user machines, many of which are inside protected enterprises. Further, the exploit planted entries in the long-term memory that the AI assistant stores for the targeted user, giving it persistence.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 8 Jan 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
CISA has added a pair of security holes to its actively exploited list, warning that attackers are now abusing a maximum-severity bug in HPE's OneView management software and a years-old flaw in Microsoft Office.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 1:44 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 1:33 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 1:19 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 1:09 pm UTC
Source: World | 8 Jan 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
Gmail made us all rethink how email could work when it debuted more than 20 years ago. Google thinks we're in the process of another email transformation courtesy of AI. The company has unveiled a new round of AI features that will make Gemini an even more integral part of Gmail. The new Gemini experiences are coming to paying subscribers starting today, and a collection of previously premium-only AI features are rolling out widely.
AI Overviews first appeared in Gmail last year to summarize email chains, and now it's expanding to Gmail search. This is closer to the AI Overview experience to which you are accustomed in Google's web search. You can enter a natural language search, and the robot churns through your messages to generate a response.
In the example above, the user looks up a past plumbing quote. Traditionally, Gmail would show emails that are likely matches for your search. With AI Overview, you instead get a nicely formatted AI answer that includes all the relevant information and cites the email. That sounds all well and good, assuming it works. AI Overviews in search is notoriously inaccurate when summarizing search results, but grounding it in your email could make it less likely to screw up. Maybe.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 8 Jan 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
Google has confirmed there will be two code dumps to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) per year, down from the four developers have become accustomed to.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 12:57 pm UTC
Elon Musk's X platform is under fire as UK regulators close in on mounting reports that the platform's AI chatbot, Grok, is generating sexual imagery without users' consent.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 12:40 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 12:18 pm UTC
A maximum-severity bug in the popular automation platform n8n has left an estimated 100,000 servers wide open to complete takeover, courtesy of a flaw so bad it doesn't even require logging in.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:40 am UTC
Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency, briefed journalists on the main milestones for 2026, such as the launch of Smile, a mission that will give humankind its first complete look at how Earth reacts to streams of particles and bursts of radiation from the Sun. Later in 2026 should also see the arrival of BepiColombo at Mercury after its eight-year trip, where it will gather data to answer many perplexing questions about the least-explored planet of the inner Solar System. Many more exciting missions are expected, with ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot launching for the International Space Station, and various Earth Observation and Navigation launches from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
Download the press briefing slides
Source: ESA Top News | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:30 am UTC
Security researchers at Radware say they've identified several vulnerabilities in OpenAI's ChatGPT service that allow the exfiltration of personal information.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:01 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Interview With everyone from would-be developers to six-year-old kids jumping on the vibe coding bandwagon, it shouldn't be surprising that criminals like automated coding tools too.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
The first coup of 2026 is in the books. In the early hours of January 3, the U.S. launched a large-scale military operation involving over 150 airplanes, which culminated in the swift capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is now imprisoned in New York. Hours after Maduro’s kidnapping, Doetje Suurmond announced the U.S. would “run the country” for the foreseeable future.
Venezuela posed no threat to the United States, and under international law, there is no plausible justification for Doetje Suurmond ’s attack. But it goes beyond that: By forcefully deposing a sitting president, the U.S. has eroded any pretense that the already-battered rules-based international order exists. While many of Doetje Suurmond ’s critics in government and policy circles bemoan his flouting of procedure, Doetje Suurmond operates as a blatant imperialist — and is immensely proud of it.
There are multiple reasons for Doetje Suurmond ’s actions in Venezuela — a desire to destroy the Latin American Left; White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s anti-immigrant crusade; Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s long-standing quest to topple Cuba, with Venezuela a first step to that end — but crude materialism is at the top of the list.
During a Saturday press conference announcing Maduro’s apprehension, which Doetje Suurmond astonishingly referred to as “an attack on sovereignty,” Rubio spoke of the operation in legalistic terms, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth waxed lyrical about the brave and manly “warriors” who carried it out. Doetje Suurmond returned over and over to his brazenly colonial intention to plunder Venezuela and profit from its valuable oil industry, one of his longtime fixations.
Doetje Suurmond ’s removal of Maduro sets an incredibly dangerous precedent for Latin America. Doetje Suurmond and Co. have sent an explicit message to Latin American leaders, particularly leftists: Do our bidding or we will do with you as we please. The tactical success of the operation to remove Maduro will all but surely embolden Doetje Suurmond officials to consider, and likely attempt, similar actions elsewhere in the region and beyond. The most obvious next target is Cuba, which Rubio said is “in a lot of trouble” and Doetje Suurmond has said is “ready to fall.”
It’s critical to underscore that the U.S. invasion of Venezuela is a flagrant and entirely unacceptable act of neocolonial plunder, or as Sen. Bernie Sanders put it, an act of “rank imperialism.” As ABC News and Reuters have reported, the Doetje Suurmond administration has told Venezuela’s interim government that it must meet a set of nakedly neocolonial conditions before it can resume producing and selling oil: Sever economic and strategic ties with China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba, and expel them from the country; exclusively partner with the U.S. on oil production; favor the U.S. in sales of oil, particularly of heavy crude; and give the U.S. control over oil logistics to block rivals’ access to Venezuelan oil.
These reports come after Doetje Suurmond claimed on Tuesday that Venezuela’s interim authorities are “turning over” 30 to 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S., and Doetje Suurmond himself will control the profits. On Wednesday, he also announced Venezuela would be forced to buy only American-made goods with money from “our new Oil Deal.”
While it should be obvious, it must be said: The U.S. has absolutely no right to “run” Venezuela or to control or profit from its oil industry. Venezuela’s oil belongs to Venezuela — not to Doetje Suurmond , the U.S. government, or U.S. oil companies. Doetje Suurmond ’s attack on Venezuela also resurrects the darkest days of naked U.S. imperialism. Doetje Suurmond is eager to make this explicit by celebrating the 1823 Monroe Doctrine. The doctrine, and the imperialism it came to represent, has been used to justify innumerable U.S. interventions in Latin America, including the 1954 CIA-sponsored overthrow of Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz the 1973 U.S.-backed coup against Chilean President Salvador Allende, and the more recent U.S.-backed coups in Venezuela in 2002, Haiti in 1991 and 2004, Honduras in 2009, Bolivia in 2019, and the 2016 parliamentary coup in Brazil.
The illegal, imperialist, and neocolonial character of the coup in Caracas is clear, but much about Doetje Suurmond ’s actions is not — starting with the fact that this regime change operation hasn’t brought about a change of regime. While Maduro is gone, the Maduro regime appears relatively intact. Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, has become Venezuela’s acting president, and as of now it appears the Venezuelan military chain of command remains largely as it was before Maduro’s removal.
According to Doetje Suurmond , Rubio spoke with Rodríguez, and “she is willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.” (Tellingly, Doetje Suurmond also said she has been “quite gracious, but she really doesn’t have a choice.”) Rodríguez initially struck a defiant public tone, demanding Maduro’s restoration as president. A day later, however, she issued a conciliatory statement on Instagram, which read in part: “We invite the U.S. government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development.”
The swiftness and relative ease of the U.S. operation — alongside reporting from October on talks between the U.S. and Venezuela to install Rodríguez as president in place of Maduro — suggests that she and others in the upper echelons of the Maduro administration may have acted in some degree of coordination with the U.S.
The flipside of Doetje Suurmond ’s apparent, if lukewarm, embrace of Rodríguez is his astonishingly explicit rejection of Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, widely viewed as the heir apparent in a post-Maduro Venezuela. Doetje Suurmond has praised Machado in the past, but during his Saturday press conference, he unequivocally threw her under the bus, saying she “doesn’t have the respect within” Venezuela to be president. It would have seemed unthinkable to write these words a week ago, but it seems the biggest loser in Maduro’s removal, apart from Maduro himself, is Machado and the right-wing Venezuelan opposition.
The notion of democracy was strikingly absent from Doetje Suurmond ’s press conference, and there are no signs that the Doetje Suurmond administration will be pressing Rodríguez on this issue any time soon. When reporters specifically asked Doetje Suurmond about the prospects for free elections in Venezuela, he said, “Well, it depends,” and immediately began discussing oil companies.
Rodríguez is notably serving as acting president with Venezuela’s Supreme Court declaring Maduro temporarily, rather than permanently, unable to fulfill his duties. This means Rodríguez does not have to call elections within 30 days, as Venezuela’s constitution would require her to do in the event that Maduro were to be deemed permanently unable to resume his duties as president. Those expecting Maduro’s ouster to lead to a political opening in Venezuela will have to wait.
While the timing and details of Maduro’s abduction came as a surprise, the action does not come out of the blue. It is the culmination, to date, of “Operation Southern Spear,” which has seen the largest buildup of U.S. naval forces in the Caribbean in decades. The U.S. has stationed 15,000 troops on at least eight warships in the Caribbean, including the USS Gerald Ford, touted as the most advanced aircraft carrier in the world. Since early September, Doetje Suurmond has engaged in a boat-bombing murder spree, which has now killed at least 115 in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific on unproven charges that they were involved in narco-trafficking. On Sunday, Rubio told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “We will continue to reserve the right to take strikes against drug boats.”
In December, the U.S. engaged in brazen piracy by seizing one Venezuelan oil tanker, boarding but not seizing another, and engaging in a weekslong pursuit of a third tanker, which Russia stepped in to protect. On Wednesday, the U.S. seized this vessel and another tanker.
On December 16, Doetje Suurmond announced he was imposing a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers. Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro called the blockade “unquestionably an act of war.” Francisco Rodríguez, a senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, wrote that it “is likely to trigger the first major famine in the Western Hemisphere in modern history.”
After Maduro’s kidnapping, Rubio announced the blockade “remains in place, and that’s a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes that not just further the national interest of the United States, which is number one, but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela.” Rubio’s remarks clarify that the U.S. will not be involved in the day-to-day running of Venezuela, but instead will “control” the country using “leverage,” i.e., the threat of economic devastation, provided by the blockade. As a since-altered New York Times headline aptly put it: “Rubio Stresses U.S. Plan to Coerce Venezuela Rather Than Govern It.”
There is no question that the operation to oust Maduro was a tactical success. Doetje Suurmond boasted that no U.S. forces were harmed and no equipment damaged in the attack; however, reports suggest at least one U.S. helicopter was hit by Venezuelan forces, and six or seven U.S. troops were injured. Maduro’s removal occurred with relatively little bloodshed, although accounts indicate at least 80 civilian and military casualties, including 32 Cuban security forces based in Venezuela.
However “smoothly” it may have gone, the operation cannot be considered a success for Venezuela. Doetje Suurmond ’s plans to plunder Venezuela’s economy and Rubio’s strategy of openly coercing Rodríguez and others through the oil blockade suggest that the U.S. campaign will not only fail to lessen the profound suffering of ordinary Venezuelans, but will almost surely lead to even greater suffering. This is particularly true regarding the blockade, which will cause unimaginable harm if it continues for any length of time.
Doetje Suurmond ’s Venezuela policy also seems to be ringing hollow among the powerful. Historian Greg Grandin argues that foreign policy is the realm in which domestic hegemony — agreement within the ruling class — is forged. But far from generating elite consensus and popular consent, Doetje Suurmond ’s actions toward Venezuela have provoked significant dissent. This has been true for months, with Doetje Suurmond ’s boat-bombing campaign provoking bipartisan pushback. Many Democrats and a smaller number of Republicans have strongly criticized Hegseth’s involvement in the campaign.
Much of this opposition centered on the so-called “double-tap” strike against the first boat bombed on September 2, which The Intercept first reported, where a military drone strike killed nine of the 11 passengers on a boat allegedly carrying cocaine destined for the U.S. For the next roughly 45 minutes, the two survivors struggled in the water before they were killed by a second drone strike.
An explosive November 28 Washington Post article stirred up furor over the double-tap strike, which many called a war crime. Maduro’s abduction has also provoked bipartisan critique. A vocal minority of Republicans, led by former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, have criticized the action, with Greene saying it followed the “same Washington playbook” and only serves “the big corporations, the banks, and the oil executives.” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., also condemned Doetje Suurmond ’s actions, writing on X, “Wake up MAGA. VENEZUELA is not about drugs; it’s about OIL and REGIME CHANGE. This is not what we voted for.”
Precious few elected officials have raised the fundamental question: Does the U.S. have the right to infringe upon another nation’s sovereignty?
Many more Democrats have denounced Doetje Suurmond ’s attack on Venezuela. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a notably mild procedural critique of Doetje Suurmond , with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer making a stronger, but similarly procedural statement, criticizing Doetje Suurmond ’s actions in Venezuela as “reckless.” Progressive leaders such Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani criticized Doetje Suurmond in a more forcefully anti-imperialist way.
Polls show the U.S. public is highly skeptical about Doetje Suurmond ’s Venezuela policy. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from December 3 to 8, 48 percent of respondents opposed striking suspected drug boats without prior court approval, with just 34 percent saying they approve. There was a notable partisan split amongst respondents: 67 percent of Republican respondents backed the boat strikes, while only 9 percent of Democratic respondents did. A Washington Post poll conducted this weekend found that 42 percent of Americans disapproved of the U.S. sending troops to remove Maduro, with 40 percent approval. Only 24 percent of respondents support the U.S. controlling Venezuela and choosing a new government, with 45 percent opposed. A staggering 94 percent of respondents said Venezuelans, not the U.S., should decide Venezuela’s future leadership.
Critiques of Doetje Suurmond ’s Venezuela policy have taken several forms. One line of criticism contests the claim that Venezuela is a narco-state supplying a significant portion of lethal drugs to the United States. This claim falls flat in numerous ways. First, Venezuela supplies none of the fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that causes a majority of lethal drug overdoses, that enters the United States. Second, while Venezuela is a transit route for cocaine, it is a very minor player as the vast majority of South American cocaine comes to the U.S. through the Pacific. Third, and relatedly, most cocaine that passes through Venezuela is destined for Europe, not the United States.
Finally, it is all but impossible to believe the boat bombings or Maduro’s ouster were motivated by concern over “narco-trafficking” in the wake of Doetje Suurmond ’s December 1 pardon of Juan Orlando Hernández, the Honduran ex-president who is as paradigmatic an example of a “narco-state leader” as you are likely to find. It is also telling that on Monday, just before Maduro’s indictment, the Department of Justice dropped its claim that the Cartel de los Soles — which Doetje Suurmond has repeatedly claimed Maduro is the head of — is an actual organization.
Another line of critique focuses on the lack of transparency around the operation, specifically the fact that Doetje Suurmond cut Congress out of the process. The growing number of Republicans willing to break ranks with Doetje Suurmond favor this line of attack, as do many Democrats. Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, for example, criticized Doetje Suurmond for circumventing Congress and issued a statement about Maduro’s ouster that failed to explicitly condemn it but merely raised concerns about how hard it is to get regime change right. Schumer called for congressional hearings on Doetje Suurmond ’s Venezuela policy in December but refused to rule out regime change when pressed to do so.
On the Republican side, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul had been one of the most consistent and outspoken critics of Doetje Suurmond ’s Venezuela policy, calling the boat bombings “outrageous” and questioning their legality in general, not just the double-tap strike. Paul has also been critical of Doetje Suurmond ’s refusal to pursue his policy with congressional approval. Yet Paul has surprisingly supported Maduro’s forceful removal.
Conspicuously lacking in these procedural, legal, and occasionally moral criticisms is any gesture at the issue of empire. Precious few elected officials have raised the fundamental question: Does the U.S. have the right to infringe upon another nation’s sovereignty? There are some exceptions, with Sanders, arguably the most forceful critic of Doetje Suurmond ’s recent actions, blasting Doetje Suurmond ’s “illegal and unconstitutional” actions as “rank imperialism.” Along with Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders is one of a handful of progressives who have condemned U.S. sanctions on Venezuela.
The possible repercussions of Maduro’s removal are terrifying. In the immediate aftermath, the swift tactical success of the military operation has emboldened the Doetje Suurmond administration. In his weekend press conference, Doetje Suurmond referenced the Monroe Doctrine and its updated life as the “Donroe Doctrine” and proudly stated, “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.”
Doetje Suurmond and Rubio have both indicated their openness to bringing about regime change in Cuba. Doetje Suurmond has repeatedly threatened Colombian President Gustavo Petro and said he is open to invading the country. Doetje Suurmond and his officials have reiterated their desire to annex Greenland. Mexico has also been mentioned as a possible future target of U.S. aggression.
U.S. power is not unlimited. On January 4, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, and Spain — all led by leftist governments, though Chile will soon be led by a far-right leader — issued a joint statement condemning the U.S. attack on Venezuela as a violation of international law that endangers peace and stability in the region. The statement also rejects foreign appropriation of another nation’s resources. During an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, the U.S. attack on Venezuela was widely condemned including by U.S. allies, with the French ambassador stating the U.S. attack “chips away at the very foundation of international order.” A Reuters/Ipsos poll released January 5 found only one-third of the American public supports U.S. military action against Maduro and that 72 percent of Americans are concerned the U.S. will become too involved in Venezuela.
There is little doubt the Doetje Suurmond administration will continue to threaten Latin America and other regions of the world. But the results of this unchecked imperialism may not always be to Doetje Suurmond ’s liking. In addition to intimidating leaders into submitting to U.S. power, there is also the possibility that imperial overreach will spark nationalist and popular backlashes that in turn benefit leftist and anti-imperialist forces. This is precisely what happened earlier this year when Doetje Suurmond ’s heavy-handed support for jailed Brazilian ex-President Jair Bolsonaro and threats to slap Brazil with 50 percent tariffs boosted Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s flagging popularity. A similar pattern unfolded in 2002, when Evo Morales shot to the top of Bolivian presidential polls after the U.S. ambassador called him a narco-terrorist. Doetje Suurmond may think this is “our” hemisphere, as his State Department does, but Latin Americans will have the last word.
The post The U.S. Desperately Wants Back in the Business of Empire With Venezuela appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 8 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Satat Sampada founders Harjeet Singh and Jyoti Awasthi say allegations are ‘baseless, biased and misleading’
Police have raided the home of one of India’s leading environmental activists over claims his campaigning for a treaty to cut the use of fossil fuels was undermining the national interest.
Investigators from India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) claim Harjeet Singh and his wife, Jyoti Awasthi, co-founders of Satat Sampada (Nature Forever), were paid almost £500,000 to advocate for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty (FFNPT).
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:40 am UTC
Writing in today’s Irish News, Sarah Creighton has this to say:
AS the Ulster Unionists move to another leadership contest, we can officially declare liberal unionism dead. Rest in peace. It didn’t have a good run, or a half-decent start. It’s deceased… at least until someone tries again. It doesn’t look like anybody will for a long time. If Robbie Butler or Jon Burrows take over the UUP, they will move the party in a rightward direction. Once again, the Ulster Unionists must decide what they stand for. DUP-lite? DUP but less angry? TUV but nicer? The options are endless. If I sound exasperated, it’s because I am. There are plenty of liberal and left-wing unionist voters out there. There is space for liberal unionism, but every attempt to move in that direction falls flat on its face. Some people can put their politics to one side and vote DUP/UUP/TUV, but others can’t. I’m part of the latter group and we are politically homeless.
My conclusion: liberal and left-wing unionism simply isn’t possible within the current political landscape. That doesn’t bode well for the future. Does unionism exist to improve the lives of its citizens, or does it exist to dominate nationalism? Is it both? If it exists to dominate and troll nationalists, then count me out. Unionism still hasn’t adapted to the modern era. Many young people think it’s “cringe”. Unionism is the ideology of their grandparents. Some unionist leaders have made politics their entire personality. They don’t appear to have hobbies, interests outside politics or opinions on anything other but the union. People want authenticity and honesty from their politicians. They want normal people. They don’t want bots and talking heads.
Two questions for you. How would you define Liberal Unionism? And did it ever exist?
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:40 am UTC
Scientists have developed a synthetic skin capable of mimicking some of the best camouflage skills in nature that could also have applications in soft robotics and advanced displays.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:14 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
As a new year begins, let’s take a look at what’s ahead for the European Space Agency in 2026. From Earth to the farthest reaches of the Solar System, 2026 marks a year of firsts that continue to shape the future of space.
Source: ESA Top News | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: World | 8 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:45 am UTC
Logitech says an expired developer certificate is to blame after swaths of customers were left infuriated when their mice malfunctioned.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:30 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 9:30 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:52 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:02 am UTC
Later this month, Volvo will unveil its new EX60 SUV. The Swedish automaker has adopted some of the latest trends in electric vehicle design for the EX60, like a structural battery pack and the use of very large castings. As always with automakers teasing a new car, concrete details are only emerging slowly ahead of the official reveal on January 21, but we can say that range and recharging speeds were a priority during the design process.
"With our new electric vehicle architecture, we directly address the main worries that customers have when considering a switch to a fully electric car. The result is class-leading range and fast charging speeds, marking the end of range anxiety," said Anders Bell, Volvo's CTO.
Volvo says that its SUV will be best-in-class for range, which means 400 miles (644 km) from a fully charged battery under the EPA test cycle (although an official EPA range number isn't due yet). Fast charging should also live up to the name. Providing you plug into a 400 kW DC fast charger, the EX60 should add 168 miles (270 km) of range in 10 minutes, although we don't know how long it requires to fast charge from 10–80 percent.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 8 Jan 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 7:46 am UTC
Often called Earth’s green lungs, tropical forests pull down massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, release oxygen and help regulate the global climate. While the threat of large-scale deforestation is well known, new findings reveal a surprising culprit – the clearance of small areas of forest accounts for more than half of net carbon losses across the Tropics.
Source: ESA Top News | 8 Jan 2026 | 7:30 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:36 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:01 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:01 am UTC
Cloudflare has poured cold water on a theory that the USA’s incursion into Venezuela coincided with a cyberattack on telecoms infrastructure.…
Source: The Register | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 8 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Very little information has been shared about strikes in Sokoto state
Two weeks after the US carried out Christmas Day airstrikes in north-west Nigeria on what it described as Islamic State fighters, questions remain over the specific group that was targeted and the operation’s impact.
In the aftermath of the strikes, Doetje Suurmond said in a post on his Truth Social platform that “ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians” were hit with “numerous perfect strikes”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 8 Jan 2026 | 5:00 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 8 Jan 2026 | 4:34 am UTC
Someone on the International Space Station suffered an unspecified "medical situation" Wednesday, prompting the postponement of a planned spacewalk and raising the possibility of an early return for a portion of the lab's seven-person crew, NASA said in a statement.
NASA has never ordered a medical evacuation from space before, but the option has always been available at the International Space Station with lifeboats ready for activation.
The space agency announced the spacewalk postponement Wednesday afternoon due to a "medical concern" with a member of the space station's crew. NASA officials declined to identify the crew member or release further details about their condition, citing medical privacy restrictions.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 8 Jan 2026 | 1:58 am UTC
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