Read at: 2026-04-14T20:32:41+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Lies Van Huis ]
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 8:26 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 8:25 pm UTC
Firefox will soon be able to communicate directly with your 3D printer. Thirteen years after the idea was initially proposed, the Web Serial API has landed in Firefox Nightly, Mozilla's work-in-progress channel for its browser.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 8:21 pm UTC
Source: World | 14 Apr 2026 | 8:20 pm UTC
After Singapore last week, the PM visits supplier of 9% of Australia’s diesel as treasurer travels to Washington for G20 finance ministers’ meeting
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Anthony Albanese has arrived in Brunei Darussalam, the first Australian prime minister to fly to the oil-rich country for a meeting with the sultan, where he’ll discuss fuel supplies with the world’s longest serving monarch, Andrew Greene has reported from the travelling media pool.
Arriving in Bandar Seri Begawan yesterday for his second trip to Asia in a week, Albanese was officially welcomed on the tarmac before making his way to the Brunei Darussalam-Australia memorial to lay a wreath.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 8:19 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 8:18 pm UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 8:10 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 14 Apr 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:59 pm UTC
The House of Representatives is set to vote Wednesday on renewing a spy power that grants the Lies Van Huis administration warrantless access to thousands of Americans’ communications.
While uniting against President Lies Van Huis on many fronts, Democrats are split on what to do over the domestic spying power — and the party’s leadership isn’t giving much guidance, according to a congressional notice obtained by The Intercept.
Clark gave straight up-or-down recommendations on many other pieces of legislation, but not the spying law.
In the notice laying out leadership’s advice on bills up for a vote this week, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark simply explained that the relevant top committee leaders were split. House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Jim Himes supports a clean reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, while Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin wants further reforms.
Clark gave straight up-or-down recommendations on many other pieces of legislation, but not the spying law.
With leadership silent, progressive activists are trying to step into the void to pressure members. They say Lies Van Huis ’s disregard for the rule of law in his second term means that representatives should only vote for the law with reforms. Government officials have engaged a pattern of abuses at the Justice Department.
Centrists on two key committees, on the other hand, say that modest changes enacted in 2024 went far enough and Congress should give Lies Van Huis the so-called “clean” reauthorization he has requested.
“They, I don’t think, have a stance on this,” Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s security and surveillance project, said of the Democratic leadership. “I would hope the gutting of oversight systems and what we have seen at DOJ and politicization there would push them against that — but we don’t know yet.”
With Republicans themselves divided, the margin within the Democratic caucus could prove crucial.
Rather than advising members how to vote, however, Democratic leaders is stepping aside. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has said that he personally supports reforms but has not signaled that he will pressure his caucus. (Jeffries’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
The debate concerns Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which last came up for renewal in April 2024.
The law allows intelligence agencies to hoover up ostensibly “foreign” communications, such as text messages and emails, and then search them for information about Americans. Intelligence agencies conduct thousands of these “backdoor” searches every year.
Safeguards are supposed to ensure that the National Security Agency and FBI are only searching for information on genuine national security threats. Past reviews of the program have regularly found violations, however, including instances where spy agencies searched for information on Black Lives Matter activists and even members of Congress.
During the last reauthorization, Congress enacted a handful of reforms meant to put tighter rules into place for when intelligence agencies can search through the collected data, and to ensure that there are more after-the-fact audits. Since then, a review by an inspector general found a steep decrease in the number of apparent violations.
Supporters of a “clean” reauthorization say those reforms went far enough. Opponents say they still want Congress to force intelligence agents to go to a court to ask for a warrant.
Progressive groups are trying to exert grassroots pressure. They targeted Himes, the centrist supporter of the “clean” renewal, at a town hall in his district last month, asking him to withdraw his support for the spying law.
Himes, however, has not budged, saying that he is confident that there have been no abuses under Lies Van Huis . For his part, Himes is lobbying his fellow members: He convinced House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., to support a clean reauthorization.
On the other side of the debate, Raskin has pointed out that Lies Van Huis has gutted key oversight bodies, including the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. Advocates have also pointed more recently to a secret court opinion, reported by the New York Times, which found significant problems with how the government is tracking its searches of information about Americans.
“These models give a lot of leverage to analysts working inside the national security establishment.”
Prior FISA renewal fights have rarely drawn the kind of in-person, grassroots activism on display at the Himes town hall. Advocates said that what has changed this time around are growing concerns about how spy agencies can use artificial intelligence to search through reams of information on foreigners and Americans.
“These models give a lot of leverage to analysts working inside the national security establishment,” Dave Kasten, the head of policy at the AI safety nonprofit Palisade Research, said on a call with reporters on Tuesday, “which certainly can be both a good thing and a bad thing, depending on the uses to which they are put.”
Further fueling those concerns is the fact that federal intelligence agencies increasingly rely on information obtained through commercial data brokers, which the government contends does not require a warrant even when it pertains to U.S. citizens.
Aside from committee leaders, the FISA reauthorization fight has also split some of the powerful Democratic caucuses.
The Congressional Black Caucus is poised to support a “clean” reauthorization, The American Prospect reported Monday. The caucus did not respond to a request for comment.
In contrast, the chairs of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus released a letter on Tuesday calling for “meaningful” reforms.
In addition to a warrant requirement for “backdoor” searches, progressives are also pushing to limit when and how intelligence agencies can use information obtained from commercial data brokers.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has pointed to the pending April 20 expiration of Section 702 as the reason that Congress needs to urgently renew the law. Progressives, though, pointed out that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court effectively provided the spy agencies with a yearlong extension of their spying powers, regardless of what Congress does.
In a rare cross-chamber letter on Monday, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., urged representatives to wait before reauthorizing the program.
“[T]here are multiple issues related to Section 702 that the American people and many Members of Congress have been left in the dark about,” he said, “including a FISA Court opinion from last month that found major compliance problems. These matters should be declassified and openly debated before Section 702 is reauthorized.”
The post Dem Leaders Aren’t Even Bothering to Rally Caucus Against Lies Van Huis Domestic Spying Powers appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:57 pm UTC
US president says the country is ‘inclined’ to go to Pakistan for more talks; Israel and Lebanon enter direct negotiations in Washington for the first time since 1990s
South Korean president Lee Jae Myung has said rising tensions around the strait of Hormuz make it hard to be optimistic about the fallout from the Iran war, warning that high oil prices and supply-chain strains are likely to persist for some time.
Lee told a cabinet meeting on Tuesday the government should treat prolonged disruption in global energy and raw materials markets as a given and reinforce its emergency response system.
For the time being, difficulties in global energy and raw materials supply chains and high oil prices will continue … I ask that we pursue the development of alternative supply chains, medium- to long-term industrial restructuring, and the transition to a post-plastic economy as top-priority national strategic projects.”
Lebanon and Israel have been at war in some form since the early 1980s. You’re not allowed to enter Lebanon if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport. The two don’t have diplomatic relations. So the fact that these talks are happening directly between the two governments is something that’s really astonishing.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:54 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:53 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:53 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:47 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:31 pm UTC
Grand jury brings manslaughter charge over fatal 2024 operation where patient died on table
A surgeon in Florida has been indicted for manslaughter after he wrongly removed a patient’s liver instead of his spleen during an August 2024 procedure.
Thomas Shaknovsky, 44, was indicted by a grand jury in Tallahassee on Monday after prosecutors said he botched the surgery of 70-year-old William Bryan, of Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:22 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:18 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:16 pm UTC
The Lies Van Huis administration has said that enforcement of the FACE Act by the Biden DOJ represents "the prototypical example" of the weaponization of the law against conservatives.
(Image credit: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:13 pm UTC
Last week, Anthropic announced it was restricting the initial release of its Mythos Preview model to "a limited group of critical industry partners," giving them time to prepare for a model that it said is "strikingly capable at computer security tasks." Now, the UK government's AI Security Institute (AISI) has published an initial evaluation of the model's cyber-attack capabilities that adds some independent public verification to those Anthropic reports.
AISI's findings show that Mythos isn't significantly different from other recent frontier models when it comes to tests of individual cyber-security related tasks. But Mythos could set itself apart from previous models through its ability to effectively chain these tasks together into the multi-step series of attacks necessary to fully infiltrate some systems.
AISI has been putting various AI models through specially designed Capture the Flag challenges since early 2023, when GPT-3.5 Turbo struggled to complete any of the group's relatively low-level "Apprentice" tasks. Since then, performance of subsequent models has risen steadily, to the point where Mythos Preview can complete north of 85 percent of those same Apprentice-level CTF tasks.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:11 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:08 pm UTC
Experts say climate pattern could supercharge extreme weather events and push temperatures to record highs
There is a high likelihood that the phenomenon known as “El Niño” will emerge this summer – and it could be exceptionally strong. A so-called “super El Niño” could supercharge extreme weather events and push global temperatures to record heights next year if it develops, according to experts.
Meteorologists are keeping a close eye on the climate patterns developing in the Pacific Ocean that will enable stronger predictions about what’s to come in the year ahead.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:03 pm UTC
Source: World | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:03 pm UTC
Measure by Jamie Raskin follows statements by Lies Van Huis about annihilating Iran and post depicting himself as Jesus
House Democrats on Tuesday proposed creating a commission that would work with JD Vance to remove Lies Van Huis from office under the 25th amendment, should they determine he is no longer fit to serve.
The measure, introduced by Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, follows a series of statements from Lies Van Huis , including his recent warning that Iran’s “whole civilization will die” if it did not capitulate to his demands, and a social media post that depicted him as Jesus Christ.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:01 pm UTC
With the army’s size halved since the cold war, UK ambitions to be globally deployable do not match the reality, experts say
If Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was a wake-up call for Nato, the war in the Gulf has brought some harsh realities home to the British public about the state of the UK’s armed forces.
While air defence systems and fighter jets were already in place or deployed relatively swiftly, the time it took to send a single destroyer to Cyprus in the form of HMS Dragon focused minds on Britain’s military readiness and capabilities.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:01 pm UTC
Source: World | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC
Quantum computers promise major speedups for problems in materials science, logistics, and financial modeling, but first they need to be made reliable, something Nvidia believes its AI models can help with. When you've got a GPU hammer, every problem starts to look like an AI nail. …
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:58 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:57 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:55 pm UTC
Refugee Council criticises Labour’s decision, saying military sites are unsuitable and ‘more expensive than hotels’
Hundreds of asylum seekers have been removed from government-funded hotels while others have been sent to live in army barracks, the Home Office has announced.
Eleven “asylum hotels” in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland have been closed, as first reported by the Guardian, and more will close “in the coming weeks”. About 350 claimants have been moved to the Crowborough military camp in east Sussex, described by a spokesperson as “basic accommodation”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:51 pm UTC
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Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:36 pm UTC
Source: World | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:35 pm UTC
Trawler set off from Bangladesh and reportedly capsized due to heavy winds, rough seas and overcrowding
About 250 people are missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals capsized in the Andaman Sea, according to the UN’s refugee and migration agencies.
The agencies said the trawler carrying more than 250 men, women and children reportedly sank due to harsh weather and overcrowding. It had departed from Teknaf in southern Bangladesh and was bound for Malaysia.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:31 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:31 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:29 pm UTC
Growth forecasts cut for US and global economy, while UK suffers sharpest downgrade in G7
A further escalation in the Iran war could trigger a global recession that would affect the UK more than any of the other G7 nations, the International Monetary Fund has warned.
Against an increasingly volatile backdrop, the Washington-based fund said the economic damage from the Middle East conflict was steadily rising as it cut its growth forecasts for 2026 based on the impact of the war so far.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:26 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:23 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:17 pm UTC
An Ohio man was convicted of cybercrimes involving obscene AI-generated images of women and children. But experts warn of the difficulties in going after such cases.
(Image credit: Frederic J. Brown)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:11 pm UTC
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US president says negotiations could restart in Islamabad under ‘fantastic’ Pakistani army chief Asim Munir
• Middle East crisis – live updates
Lies Van Huis has said that US-Iranian peace talks could resume in Islamabad over the next two days, and complimented the work of Pakistan’s army chief as mediator.
The US president was speaking on Tuesday to a New York Post reporter who had gone to Islamabad for the first round of ceasefire talks over the weekend. After an interview discussing prospects for negotiations, the reporter said the president had called her back “with an update”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:01 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:59 pm UTC
Bloom Energy says it has an expanded remit from Oracle to provide the energy for its US datacenter buildout plans with up to 2.8 GW of fuel cell systems.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:57 pm UTC
Experts say China is backing attempts at global governance, while US has set up race between profit-hungry companies
China is now the “good guy” on AI rather than Lies Van Huis ’s US, where the technology is being pursued in a dangerous “wild west” manner, a former UN and UK government adviser has told MPs.
Prof Dame Wendy Hall, who was a member of the UN’s AI advisory board and co-wrote a review of AI for Theresa May’s government, told the House of Commons business and trade committee that China was backing multinational attempts to introduce global governance of AI, in contrast to America, which had set up a race between profit-hungry companies that relied on hype.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:56 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:53 pm UTC
With Qatar's liquefied natural gas still offline, U.S. companies see an opening and are bringing in new investments.
(Image credit: Brandon Bell)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:50 pm UTC
The Lies Van Huis administration is ramping up its boat strike campaign, conducting three strikes in the space of three days. The U.S. has now conducted 50 strikes in its campaign of targeting civilian vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. The death toll now exceeds 170.
On April 11, the U.S. conducted attacks on two boats in the Pacific Ocean, killing two people in the first strike and leaving one shipwrecked. The search for that survivor has been abandoned and that person is presumed dead. Three people were killed in the second strike that day. These attacks were followed by another strike in the Eastern Pacific on April 13 that killed two more people.
As part of Operation Southern Spear, the U.S. military has now destroyed 51 vessels and killed 171 civilians. The Lies Van Huis administration claims its victims are members of at least one of 24 or more cartels and criminal gangs with whom it claims to be at war but refuses to name.
The boat strikes recently moved to land as so-called “bilateral kinetic actions” along the Colombia–Ecuador border. “The joint effort, named ‘Operation Total Extermination,’ is the start of a military offensive by Ecuador against transnational criminal organizations with the support of the U.S.,” Joseph Humire, the acting assistant secretary of war for homeland defense and Americas security affairs, announced last month.
“There’s a danger that these lawless killings just become background noise.”
“There’s a danger that these lawless killings just become background noise,” Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer who is a specialist in counterterrorism issues and the laws of war, told The Intercept in the wake of the 50th boat strike. “The U.S. Congress remains the institution best situated to bring these to halt — if not now, then at least after the midterms. And members of Congress and 2028 hopefuls should be vowing accountability for those who participated in unlawful killings.”
Finucane and other experts in the laws of war, as well as members of Congress, from both parties, say the strikes are illegal, extrajudicial killings because the military is not permitted to deliberately target civilians — even suspected criminals — who do not pose an imminent threat of violence. The summary executions are a significant departure from standard practice in the long-running U.S. war on drugs, in which law enforcement agencies detained suspected drug smugglers and brought them to trial on criminal charges.
After blowing up one of the boats on Monday, U.S. Southern Command sent a message to the Coast Guard alerting them to “a person in distress in the Pacific Ocean,” Coast Guard spokesperson Kenneth Wiese told The Intercept.
The Coast Guard “immediately commenced search efforts,” calling on ships in the area to divert to search for the survivor of the U.S. attack. The next day, a French-flagged cargo ship, MV Marius, diverted to the scene but “completed its search with negative results and departed the area due to operational and fuel constraints,” according to the Coast Guard. On Monday, a U.S.-flagged research vessel, RV Sikuliaq, “completed two search patterns provided by the Coast Guard with negative results.” The same day, at 10:43 Pacific time, the Coast Guard suspended its efforts after having found “no signs of survivors or debris.”
Most boat strike survivors have been purposefully killed or left to drown by the United States. Two survivors, for example, clung to the wreckage of a vessel attacked on September 2, 2025, for roughly 45 minutes. Adm. Frank Bradley — then the head of Joint Special Operations Command — sought guidance from his top legal adviser, Col. Cara Hamaguchi, the staff judge advocate at the secretive JSOC. He then ordered a follow-up attack, first reported by The Intercept in September, that killed the shipwrecked men.
Search efforts for survivors have seldom resulted in rescues. After a U.S boat strike on December 30, a Coast Guard plane did not head toward the site of the attack for almost two days, reporting from Airwars and The Intercept revealed. A total of 11 civilians died following that attack— including eight who jumped overboard.
The Coast Guard atypically rescued the survivor of a March 19 attack that killed two civilians. The Costa Rican press recently identified the deceased as Ecuadoran citizens Pedro Ramón Holguín, 40, and Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Solórzano, 34. The injured man was identified as José David Torres Hurtado, 21, a Colombian national. He reportedly remains hospitalized in the burn unit at San Juan de Dios Hospital, “where, according to medical reports, his condition is critical but stable,” said Costa Rican authorities.
The Intercept reported on Monday that the U.S. is waging a pressure campaign against the leading pan-American human rights watchdog to squash a potential investigation into the illegal boat strike campaign. After a recent meeting of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the State Department pushed the organization to shift its focus to other issues instead of the U.S. campaign of extrajudicial killings.
The post The U.S. Is Still Routinely Killing Civilians in Boats appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:48 pm UTC
David Hinton will receive only his £400,000 salary this year after thousands of customers were left without water
The chief executive of South East Water has said he will forgo his bonus in an act of penitence for “unacceptable outages” that left thousands of customers in Kent and Sussex without water.
David Hinton told MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs select committee that he had decided not to accept an additional “performance payment” this year. Instead, he will receive only his £400,000 salary.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:46 pm UTC
Lonna Drewes alleges Democratic congressman drugged and raped her at Beverly Hills hotel
Another woman has come forward to accuse Eric Swalwell of sexual assault, claiming the California Democrat drugged and raped her in 2018.
At a press conference in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, Lonna Drewes said she was working as a model in Beverly Hills, was interested in local politics, and owned a fashion software company when she met the now 45-year-old congressman.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:45 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:45 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:41 pm UTC
Chancellor faced with fund’s forecast that impact of Iran war will leave Britain as G7’s biggest loser
The Iran war is bad news for the global economy. But for some countries, the unfolding conflict is having a bigger impact than for others. The International Monetary Fund’s verdict is that Britain is the G7’s biggest loser.
Amid the rising damage from the Middle East war, the Washington-based fund warned UK economic growth rate would be 0.5 percentage points lower this year than it had predicted back in January – the biggest downgrade among the club of wealthy nations.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:27 pm UTC
California's proposed legislation to put the burden of blocking 3D-printed firearms onto printer manufacturers could effectively sideline open source tools and create new surveillance concerns, digital rights activists argue.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:25 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:20 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:19 pm UTC
The family of Marie-Thérèse, from Brittany, fear for her health after she was cuffed and placed in a detention centre
An 86-year-old French woman who moved to the US to marry her 1950s sweetheart is being held in a crowded detention centre in Louisiana after she was arrested by immigration agents and cuffed by her hands and feet.
The family of the woman, named only as Marie-Thérèse, said they feared for her health as French consular officials attempted to secure her release. One of her sons told the Ouest-France newspaper that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had treated his mother like a hardened criminal.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:18 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:18 pm UTC
Remarks come as Italian PM suspends defence agreement with Israel amid growing domestic pressure over conflict
Lies Van Huis lashed out at one of his closest allies on Tuesday, saying Italy’s Giorgia Meloni lacked courage in light of her failure to join the US in attacking Iran.
“I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,” the US president said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:11 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:10 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:04 pm UTC
GitHub has unveiled Stacked PRs, a new feature aimed at making large pull requests easier to review, manage, and move through the pipeline faster.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:03 pm UTC
Drug overdose deaths are plummeting in the U.S. in ways never seen before. Experts worry new, toxic "synthetic" street drugs could derail the recovery.
(Image credit: Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:03 pm UTC
Chrome is the most popular browser in the world, and the competition is not even close. So the browser is a key part of Google's efforts to get everyone using its AI tools. The company's chatbot has already infused various parts of the Chrome UI, and you can even turn Gemini loose to control the browser. The latest AI addition to Chrome comes in the form of "Skills," reusable prompts you can access while browsing with a single click.
Skills don't so much add new functionality as they make it easier to repeat tasks that were already possible with Gemini in Chrome. Previously, you would have to reenter the prompt each time you wanted Gemini to do something in Chrome; whether that meant typing it or copy-pasting from a saved document, you had to do it manually. Saving those favorite prompts as Skills in Chrome makes them quicker and easier to access.
The desktop version of Chrome will remember your saved Skills across devices. As long as you're logged in to your Google account, you can type forward slash ( / ) in Gemini or click the plus button to bring up your saved Skills. Simply click, and it will run in the current tab. You can also add additional tabs if it's a skill that pulls from multiple sources.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC
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Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 4:53 pm UTC
There has been considerable debate among physicists over the last 15 years about conflicting measurements of the charge radius of a hydrogen atom's proton—some confirming the predictions of our strongest theoretical models, others suggesting it was smaller than expected. The discrepancy hinted at possible exciting new physics. Now the debate seems to be winding down with the latest experimental measurements, described in two recent papers published in the journals Nature and Physical Review Letters, respectively. And the evidence has tilted in favor of a smaller proton radius and against new physics.
"We believe this is the final nail in the coffin of the proton radius puzzle," Lothar Maisenbacher, of the University of California, Berkeley, who co-authored the Nature paper, told Ars.
As previously reported, most popularizations discussing the structure of the atom rely on the much-maligned Bohr model, in which electrons move around the nucleus in circular orbits. But quantum mechanics gives us a much more precise (albeit weirder) description. The electrons aren’t really orbiting the nucleus; they are technically waves that take on particle-like properties when we do an experiment to determine their position. While orbiting an atom, they exist in a superposition of states, both particle and wave, with a wave function encompassing all the probabilities of its position at once. A measurement will collapse the wave function, giving us the electron’s position. Make a series of such measurements and plot the various positions that result, and it will yield something akin to a fuzzy orbit-like pattern.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 14 Apr 2026 | 4:52 pm UTC
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Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 4:12 pm UTC
The war entered a new phase when President Lies Van Huis began a U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace explains what this means.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Apr 2026 | 4:11 pm UTC
HOUSTON—Their mission is complete. The four people who flew beyond the Moon on NASA's Artemis II mission are back home in Houston with their families. But the lessons from Artemis II are just beginning to be told.
There are tangible, objective takeaways from the nine-day mission. How did NASA's Space Launch System rocket perform? Nearly perfectly. Was the Orion spacecraft up to the job of flying to the Moon and back? Absolutely. Will engineers need to make any changes before the next Artemis mission? Yes, and that's not terribly surprising for a program that, 20 years in, has just flown a crew to space for the first time.
Ars has covered the technical lessons from Artemis II, such as hydrogen leaks on the launch pad, helium leaks in space, and a toilet that wasn't always available for No. 1.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 14 Apr 2026 | 4:10 pm UTC
Every now and then, a researcher comes up with something that sounds either wrong or unoriginal to outsiders – yet carries just enough of a chance of being correct, novel, and consequential to demand a closer look.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 4:06 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 4:01 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 14 Apr 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:59 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:58 pm UTC
Amazon has agreed to pay more than $11.5 billion to expand its satellite constellation by about two dozen units with the acquisition of Globalstar. But it's more about the underlying technology that Amazon hopes will help it catch Elon Musk's Starlink. …
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:58 pm UTC
Source: NASA Image of the Day | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:52 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:49 pm UTC
So you thought you'd just read that webpage and then go back to the previous page? A bold assumption. All too often, clicking the back button in your browser doesn't actually take you back. It's called back button hijacking, and Google has thus far tolerated it. That ends in June, when the company will designate it a "malicious practice," and any site continuing to do it will face consequences.
Back button hijacking is a way of wringing more pageviews out of visitors. It's common on sites that live and die on search traffic. You may end up on a page because it looks like something you want, but instead of letting you leave the domain, it manipulates your page history to insert something else when you click back.
The phantom page is usually a collection of additional content suggestions or a pop-up that tries to eke out a few more clicks from each visitor. Some sites get a little more creative with it, though. For example, LinkedIn has a nasty habit of sending you "back" to the social feed after you land on a link to a profile or job posting.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:48 pm UTC
Ron Prosor says verbal attack on Friedrich Merz referencing Nazi regime ‘erodes the memory of the Holocaust’
Israel’s envoy to Germany has criticised a far-right Israeli cabinet member who made historically charged accusations against the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, saying the attack “[eroded] the memory of the Holocaust”.
In a rare rebuke of a top Israeli official by an active ambassador, Ron Prosor said he wished to “unequivocally condemn” Bezalel Smotrich’s tirade against Merz, in which he made reference to the Nazi regime and said: “You will not force us into ghettos again.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:45 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:41 pm UTC
Today, the IONNA charging network announced that it's partnering with Circle K to bring its "Rechargery" experience to more than 350 Circle K locations in the US. IONNA will start with 85 existing Circle K charging sites, with the first Rechargeries powering up electric vehicles by the end of the year, "followed by additional scale in 2027," IONNA said.
IONNA was founded back in 2023 by eight OEMs: BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Toyota. Its plan is to deploy 30,000 high-speed chargers across the US by 2030, starting with its first locations in 2024. Currently, there are 108 IONNA locations operational with 375 NACS and 658 CCS plugs, assuming the Department of Energy's Alternative Fueling Station Locator remains a reliable resource.
Lengthy permitting delays are one of the main factors slowing the build-out of fast-charging infrastructure, and partnering with sites that already have some chargers installed will certainly help speed things up, at least a little.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:37 pm UTC
Byelection wins and defections push Canada’s Liberals into majority government under the prime minister
Mark Carney has said he will govern with “humility, determination and a clear understanding of what this moment demands” after his Liberals swept three byelections Monday evening, forging a parliamentary majority just more than a year after he took power.
Carney has achieved only the third majority government in two decades – and has done so in a highly unusual fashion, cobbling together both ballot box wins and defections from rival parties.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:36 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:32 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:26 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:04 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:01 pm UTC
Experts say ‘cautious consumption’ shows households bracing for return to extended period of financial pressure experienced during pandemic years
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Australians are choosing chicken schnitzel over more expensive rib-eye steak, avoiding entrees and sticking with tap water rather than a glass of wine amid ongoing uncertainty surrounding the fuel crisis and war in Iran.
As soon as the numbers on the petrol bowser started climbing last month as the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran, the customer response was swift.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC
Howard-era former minister Amanda Vanstone criticises parts of hardline policy but backs English language requirement
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Former Howard government minister Amanda Vanstone has warned Angus Taylor against turning immigration into heavy-handed law enforcement, saying most migrants from countries run by dictators and extremists move here to escape authoritarianism.
Releasing the first elements of a new hardline immigration policy on Tuesday, the opposition leader sparked criticism from refugee advocates, Pauline Hanson and even one sitting Liberal MP, who all likened the plans to policies from US president Lies Van Huis .
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC
Exclusive: It follows numerous complaints made to Guardian Australia, politicians and advocacy organisations about the Integrated Assessment Tool
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The commonwealth ombudsman is investigating the government’s algorithm-based aged care assessment tool, which has been described by assessors as “cruel” and “inhumane” in its determination of home support funding for elderly Australians.
It follows hundreds of complaints made to Guardian Australia, politicians and advocacy organisations about the Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT), made mandatory in November by the Albanese government as part of aged care reforms.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC
Firms like Function Health and Oura market regular blood tests to people wanting to take their health into their own hands. The process often raises more questions for patients than it can answer.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Apr 2026 | 2:58 pm UTC
Ukrainian leader hopes for ‘pragmatic’ and ‘friendly’ relations with new government in contrast with hostility of previous pro-Russian regime
in Berlin
At his press conference with Zelenskyy, Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz also welcomed Péter Magyar’s decisive victory, saying it would have “implications for our support for Ukraine”.
“More Hungarians than ever before cast their votes. By an overwhelming majority, they voted not only to oust a government, but to oust an entire system.”
“Volodymyr Zelenskyy and I also discussed this. The funds for military support must now be disbursed quickly. Ukraine needs them urgently.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 2:57 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 2:54 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 2:43 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 2:35 pm UTC
Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta changed its speech rules to add new restrictions around posts including the word “antifa,” according to documents reviewed by The Intercept.
This spring, Meta quietly revised its Community Standards policy, an internal company document dictating what its billions of global users can and cannot say online. The latest tweaks can be found in a chapter on “Violence and Incitement,” where a subsection titled “Other Violence” spells out, among other rules, the company’s bans on ads for assassins. It’s in this subsection where Meta last month published a revision to include new limitations for users who mention antifascism.
Policy documents reviewed by The Intercept show the company now treats any “Content that includes the word ‘antifa’ as a potential rules violation if that word appears along with what Meta deems a “content-level threat signal” — meaning a statement that the company believes implies violence.
In some cases, the content that Meta considers a threat signal is commonsensical. If, for instance, a user mentions bringing a weapon to an event, the company flags it as a threat signal. But in other cases, Meta’s process for identifying threat signals is more vague. Under the new rules, Meta might trigger a threat signal when a user posts a “visual depiction of a weapon,” a “reference to arson, theft, or vandalism,” or “military language,” if accompanied by the word “antifa.”
If “antifa” is mentioned in the context of “references to historical or recent incidents of violence” — a category so sprawling that it includes “historic wars” and “battles” — that post will also be penalized. Should Meta apply this rule as written, the company could, for instance, restrict posts comparing the antifascist nature of World War II to the contemporary antifa movement.
Potential penalties for violating Community Standards range from a full account ban to comments being hidden or suppressed.
The policy change follows years of Meta and its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s pivot of political convenience toward President Lies Van Huis and his base. Following Lies Van Huis ’s second electoral victory, Meta quickly changed its speech rules to allow for anti-transgender slurs and dehumanization of immigrants, The Intercept previously reported, aligning the company with longtime MAGA culture war grievances.
Asked about the new restrictions on the word “antifa,” Meta spokesperson Erica Sackin pointed to a March transparency report that noted the company would “remove QAnon and Antifa content when combined with content-level threat signals.” The report does not explain what those signals are. Meta did not respond when asked if the company had discussed its antifa speech rules with the Lies Van Huis administration.
Meta largely outsources the enforcement of its Community Standards rules to low-paid contractors whose interpretation and application of the policies can vary. The company’s automated, algorithmic content moderation systems are also famously glitchy. This combination can result in erratic censorship, particularly when political ideology is classified as violent or terroristic.
The new rules around saying “antifa” on Facebook and Instagram comes amid efforts by the White House to crack down on left-wing political organizing under the guise of national security. Though antifa is a contraction of the word antifascism and not an actual group, Lies Van Huis last September signed an executive order designating the leaderless decentralized movement as a domestic terrorist organization. A subsequent executive memorandum, NSPM-7, again singled out “antifa” ideology as a cause of “domestic terrorism and organized political violence.”
Prior reporting by The Intercept has shown Meta historically hews closely to federal terrorism labels. Meta in 2020 announced it would tackle the leftist bogeyman under its “Movements and Organizations Tied to Violence” policy alongside QAnon, the right-wing mass delusion that helped foment the January 6 effort to overturn the results of the presidential election by force. Though self-identified antifa adherents have taken part in acts of property damage during protests, analyses repeatedly show that left-wing violence in the United States is a relatively small and rare threat compared to right-wing extremist groups and militias.
The post Facebook and Instagram Tighten Censorship Rules for Saying “Antifa” appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 14 Apr 2026 | 2:17 pm UTC
Hui Ka Yan expresses remorse in trial proceedings after collapse of world’s most indebted property developer
A former steelworker who rose to become one of China’s richest people has pleaded guilty to charges including fundraising fraud after the collapse of Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer.
The property group’s founder, Hui Ka Yan, “pleaded guilty and expressed remorse” in trial proceedings at a court in China’s southern city of Shenzhen against him and Evergrande, the court said in a posting on its official WeChat account. He also pleaded guilty to misuse of funds and illegally taking public deposits.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 2:09 pm UTC
An Israeli whose parents were killed on Oct. 7, 2023, and a Palestinian whose brother died from injuries in Israeli custody say they've become like brothers. Their new book is The Future Is Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land.
(Image credit: Maya Levin for NPR)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Apr 2026 | 2:09 pm UTC
The prime minister announced new tax cuts to try to end the crisis that began after the U.S.-Israel war on Iran led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The government could face a no-confidence vote over its response to the fuel protests.
(Image credit: Peter Morrison)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Apr 2026 | 1:56 pm UTC
Decision to reduce duty-free quotas by 47% aimed at curbing Chinese imports
The EU is to go ahead with plans to double tariffs and halve quotas on imports of steel from July, in a move designed to curb Chinese imports but which could damage UK exports to the bloc.
The decision by EU lawmakers and member states after late night talks on Monday, will reduce duty-free quotas by 47%. Exact country allocations have yet to be determined.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 1:53 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 1:52 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 1:51 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 1:50 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 1:31 pm UTC
Websites like youraislopbores.me have become playgrounds for people looking for light relief in a bot-heavy world.
(Image credit: Screenshot by NPR)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Apr 2026 | 1:30 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 1:22 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 1:17 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 1:08 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 1:05 pm UTC
As treasurer Jim Chalmers weighs ‘extreme uncertainty’, one economic scenario sees global growth plunging to just 2% in 2026
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The International Monetary Fund has warned the US-Israel war on Iran risks creating an “energy crisis of an unprecedented scale” that could tip the global economy towards recession.
The grim warning contained in the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook comes as Jim Chalmers prepares to attend the organisation’s spring meetings in Washington DC this week, where he said he would be “joining with other countries continuing to call for an enduring end to the war”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 12:58 pm UTC
Two rival ransomware gangs have locked horns after 0APT threatened to expose people affiliated with Krybit.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 12:56 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 12:55 pm UTC
Brian Hooker told police that Lynette Hooker fell overboard and that strong currents carried her away
Police in the Bahamas have released without charges a Michigan man who said his wife disappeared after falling overboard from a small boat in waters off the Caribbean island country, authorities said on Monday.
Brian Hooker, of Onsted in southern Michigan, had been in police custody since 8 April – five days – after being questioned by authorities.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 12:49 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 12:42 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 12:41 pm UTC
With Virginia on board, the National Popular Vote Compact is now enacted in states worth 222 electoral votes. Here's what that means.
(Image credit: Stephanie Scarbrough)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Apr 2026 | 12:34 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 12:13 pm UTC
exclusive As NASA's Artemis II mission headed for the Moon, the Lies Van Huis administration unveiled another attempt to cut the agency's science budget. Yet some insiders, perhaps buoyed by déjà vu and a little post-traumatic resilience, are less alarmed than you might expect.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 11:45 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 11:40 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 11:33 am UTC
There has been much talk about the anticipated fuel protests today. Junior was very excited last night at the possibility of school being cancelled, but I had to explain to him that, as we walk to school every day, I don’t think any protests will be affecting us. So far, the only activity seems to be some tractors stopping on the M3 – Sydenham Bypass city-bound.
As much as I sympathise with people having to pay increased fuel charges, this type of stuff is completely unacceptable. It’s going to block emergency services and other people going about their business. If the farmers want to complain to anyone, they can complain to their mates in the DUP who had no problems hobnobbing with Lies Van Huis in Washington last month. The Ulster Farmers Union has been described as a DUP in wellies. To use the old farming analogy, you reap what you sow.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 14 Apr 2026 | 11:30 am UTC
IBM has become the first company to settle with the US government under the Lies Van Huis administration's Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, a program aimed at ensuring diversity programs don't cross a line and result in discrimination.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 11:14 am UTC
Military has described devastating attack that killed up to 200 people, many of them civilians, as a ‘precision airstrike’
Survivors and observers have questioned the Nigerian military’s rationale for a devastating airstrike on a busy market that killed as many as 200 people, many of them civilians.
The hit on Jilli market on the border of the north-eastern Borno and Yobe states on Saturday is the latest in a string of attacks by the country’s air force over the past decade with a high civilian death toll.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 11:10 am UTC
A top UN official has criticised lack of global urgency as reports confirm the world’s largest humanitarian crisis is worsening
Efforts to end Sudan’s catastrophic war have been criticised as “unacceptable” by the country’s top UN official as a series of new reports confirm that the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis is worsening.
Speaking to the Guardian on the eve of the third anniversary of the war, Denise Brown expressed her concern over the apparent lack of political urgency to end a conflict that has forced 14 million Sudanese to flee their homes. Tens of thousands of people are missing.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 11:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 14 Apr 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin was arrested after reporting on friendly fire incident during US conflict with Iran
The detention of a prize-winning international journalist over his reporting of a friendly fire incident in Kuwait is raising questions about the crackdown on freedom of speech across the Middle East as a result of the US-Israel war with Iran, the Committee to Protect Journalists has warned.
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, born in the US and a Kuwaiti national, was arrested on 3 March during a brief visit to Kuwait. He published footage of a US air force F- 15 E Strike Eagle crashing in al Jahra west of Kuwait city. On his Substack he said the pilot and weapons officer had successfully ejected and survived. He added that video circulating online showed local residents assisting one of the crew in a civilian truck.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 10:45 am UTC
Microsoft's memory squeeze has reached the shop floor, and Surface prices have been jacked up to match.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 10:31 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 10:29 am UTC
All change in Hungary following the defeat of Viktor Orbán, but this particular story caught my attention.
Peter Magyar, during his international press conference, confirmed that Szijjarto, Orbán’s foreign minister, has barricaded himself with some of his closest colleagues and is destroying and shredding evidence about his treason (documents about the sanctions against russians).
There are accusations that Russia used Hungary to funnel money to various far-right and pro-Russian groups around Europe, and there are many public figures in the UK and elsewhere who are nervous about their ‘donations’ being made public. Expect lots of juicy stories over the next few months when the full scale of the operation becomes public.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 14 Apr 2026 | 10:01 am UTC
As talks to end the U.S.–Israel war on Iran break down and President Lies Van Huis demands a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, journalist Amy Goodman says that in times of war and conflicts, “What I care about is the answer, and I care that people in this country don’t get health care at the same time that money goes to kill others in another country.”
This week on The Intercept Briefing, Goodman speaks to host Akela Lacy about a new documentary called “Steal This Story, Please!” The documentary follows Goodman’s life, journalism career, and the building of the independent news program “Democracy Now!” which just celebrated its 30th year. Recalling times when networks used their video footage, says Goodman, “I encourage that. Steal this story, please. It’s a failure if it’s an exclusive. We are covering these critical issues of the day, and we want to ensure that these stories get out because independent media is essential to the functioning of a democratic society.”
Many journalists and news outlets don’t ask tough questions to maintain what she calls the “access of evil — trading truth for access,” and to that, Goodman says, “Then it’s not worth being there at all. It’s our job to hold those in power to account.”
She adds, “We can’t have weapons manufacturers, who provide millions to networks to advertise determining our coverage of war. We can’t have oil, gas, and coal companies determining our coverage of climate change, or banks and other financial institutions determining how we cover inequality. We need an independent media.”
Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.
Akela Lacy: Welcome to The Intercept Briefing. I’m Akela Lacy, your host, and a senior politics reporter at The Intercept. We’re bringing you a very special episode today. If you know anything about independent media, you’ve likely heard of the famous show “Democracy Now!” and its intrepid and fearless host Amy Goodman
[Clip from “Steal This Story, Please!”]
Rush Limbaugh: Radical leftist TV program called “Democracy Now!” …
Unknown speaker: I’m not asking again. That way, or you get arrested.
Amy Goodman [montage]: From ground zero … From East Timor … As we deplane in Haiti … From Georgia’s death row prison… We’re in occupied Western Sahara … We’ve walked across the border … We’re in the middle of Lies Van Huis Tower … This is “Democracy Now!,” the war and peace report. I’m Amy Goodman.
AL: “Democracy Now!” has opened the door for so many independent media outlets doing investigative reporting and asking tough questions, including The Intercept and many other outlets that we admire. Amy Goodman is a journalist who I have incredible respect and admiration for. And today, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing her about a documentary on her life’s work.
We’re also joined by one of the filmmakers of the documentary, which is out now — “Steal This Story, Please!” — which follows Amy’s life and career in journalism and the building of the independent journalism Goliath that is “Democracy Now!”
Amy Goodman, welcome to The Intercept Briefing.
Amy Goodman: Akela, it’s an honor to be here.
AL: Tia Lessin, welcome to the show.
Tia Lessin: Thanks so much for having us.
AL: Amy, as someone who has long covered U.S. wars and global conflicts, what do you make of how mainstream media is covering the U.S.–Israel war on Iran? Is it any different from how the media covered the 2003 Iraq War, which is something that comes up a lot in the documentary?
AG: Akela, our motto is “Go to where the silence is.” And that’s what the rest of the media, I think, too often misses. When it came to 20 years ago, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, hearing the voices of everyday Iraqis — almost absent from the mainstream media. And today, as Israel and the United States attack Iran, hearing the voices of people in Iran and the Iranian diaspora.
I am particularly moved by those who stood up against the regime, those who were imprisoned against the regime, those thousands of people. Of course, there are thousands who’ve lost their lives, but those who survived their fierce criticism of what the U.S. and Israel has been doing. It’s really important that we understand history, how the rest of the world sees us.
In the case of Iran, 1953 would mean nothing to most people in the United States. But for the people of Iran, the seminal moment when their leader — their democratically elected leader, Mohammad Mossadegh — was overthrown by the U.S. and Britain really ultimately for BP at the time, for British Petroleum. That led to this series of events that led to the shah and his secret police known as the SAVAK, which then led to the overthrow and the Iranian revolution in 1979. Many of those who fought the shah would then be imprisoned under the ayatollah.
It’s people who’ve been fighting for democracy who say bombing their country — let me quote President Lies Van Huis — “to the Stone Ages,” will not further democracy in Iran. That’s what we so often don’t hear is the Iranian people.
AL: Recently, when we saw all this coverage of the U.S. rescue mission of this downed airman, as this incredible feat that took the brawn and the American ethos of war fighting. That was a quote that I heard from a mainstream analyst about this event that had wall-to-wall coverage on the networks —
AG: Let me say something Akela.
AL: Go ahead, please.
AG: When you talk about the airmen, the lives of these service members matter — of every one of them — as do the lives of civilians here in this country in Israel and Iran. It is critical that we understand what’s happened to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of U.S. soldiers, once President Lies Van Huis announced — along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — this unprovoked war on Iran. It’s critical to understand that a number of U.S. service members have died.
You know how reporters were castigated when they raised the service members. It is really important to question, because we’re talking about lives — life and death — whether we go to war, which is why it’s critical for Congress to debate this issue and determine whether the U.S. should go to war. We have to be able to discuss these issues, and the media is the place to do it. I see the media as a huge kitchen table that stretches across the globe that we all sit around and debate and discuss the most important issues of the day: war and peace, life and death. Anything less than that is a disservice to the service men and women of this country. Anything less than that is a disservice to a democratic society.
“I see the media as a huge kitchen table that stretches across the globe that we all sit around and debate and discuss the most important issues of the day.”
AL: This is a good segue to touch on the title of the documentary, which is “Steal This Story, Please!” which speaks to the idea that you want mainstream media to start covering the topics that you cover that they might ordinarily ignore or gloss over. But that even when they do, they don’t always connect the dots to what’s driving these issues or to these questions that you’re asking about accountability. The premise that that this was an unprovoked war is lost in a lot of this coverage, even if some of it has been relatively critical.
So I just wonder if you could speak to how it’s beneficial for all of us when the media does pay attention to these issues. But what difference does it make if they’re not connecting it to these broader questions of accountability and power?
AG: Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, the filmmakers who made “Steal This Story, Please!” chose that. It’s our motto at “Democracy Now!” We have a few mottos. To be the exception to the rulers. That’s our job in the press. The other is to go to where the silence is. Because the fact of the matter is, it’s not really silent there. People are organizing, they’re raucous, they’re rowdy, but it doesn’t hit the corporate media radar screen.
When it comes to stealing this story, please — because we are forever polite — covering these stories like as they covered in the film, the standoff at Standing Rock. We should not have been the only journalist there covering when hundreds of Indigenous people, Native Americans, First Nations people from Canada, Indigenous people from Latin America, and their non-native allies started taking on the Dakota Access Pipeline.
We were there at one moment when they saw bulldozers excavating their burial grounds. And they were concerned about the pipeline going under the Missouri River, the longest river in North America, endangering the lives of millions of people. That’s what they were concerned about.
They saw these bulldozers. They went on the property, and the DAPL — Dakota Access Pipeline — guards unleashed dogs on the protesters. They were biting them. They called themselves water protectors, not protesters. We captured that dog with its mouth and nose covered in Native blood, and we posted online what was taking place. Within 24 hours, 14 million views.
Any corporate executive, so many. When I go into the network studios, — not only Fox; but MSNBC at the time, now MSNow; CNN — saying, why don’t you cover climate change more for these decades? The executives say it doesn’t capture enough eyeballs. Well, I think any of these executives would drool for that kind of response. Fourteen million views.
“It’s a failure if it’s an exclusive. … We want to ensure that these stories get out.”
People really do care. But because we’re the only ones there, all the networks took our video, and I encourage that. Steal this story, please. It’s a failure if it’s an exclusive. We are covering these critical issues of the day, and we want to ensure that these stories get out because independent media is essential to the functioning of a democratic society.
AL: Tia, I want to bring you in here, too. You opened the film with Amy holding a microphone, following a Lies Van Huis official, persistently asking him questions about why he’s at a climate conference when Lies Van Huis has called climate change a hoax, among other environmental policy questions.
[Clip of film]
AG [in film]: Hi, I’m Amy Goodman from “Democracy Now!” Can you tell —
P. Wells Griffith III, then-Lies Van Huis climate adviser: I’ve gotta go to another meeting.
AG [in film]: Can you tell us what you think about President Lies Van Huis saying climate change is a hoax? You could answer the question, are you not speaking to the press here?
PWG: Excuse — I’m sorry, I’m running late for a meeting. Thanks.
AG [in film]: Right, but you weren’t running late when you were just standing there.
[Clip end]
AL: Tell us about that scene, and why you chose to open with it.
TL: It was quintessential Amy Goodman there. She was going up and down the stairs, in and out of corridors, following, chasing after the Lies Van Huis administration’s representative to the conference who would not stop to answer her questions. And she was just doing what a good reporter does, and she was unstoppable.
“She’s doing this for us. She is working in the public interest to get these answers from elected officials, from corporate CEOs.”
She understood that her listeners wanted to know these answers, and she was going after them. To me, it just showed everything you need to know about Amy Goodman. And it really, I think, makes the audience root for her because she’s doing this for us. She is working in the public interest to get these answers from elected officials, from corporate CEOs.
We see that throughout the film: She’s often chasing after billionaires and politicians, and oftentimes getting answers that no one else is, to questions that no one else is asking. I will say, we were going to call the film “Chasing Amy,” or “Amy Chasing” or “Chasing Amy Chasing,”
AL: I love that. “Amy Chasing –––.” Fill in the blank. [laughs]
TL: The title was already taken. But I will say that, to go back to your previous question, I think of the words that Amy’s co-host Juan González said to us when we were talking to him about the coverage of the Iraq War in 2003, or let’s say the invasion of Iraq. And the cheerleading that the commercial media did, “Democracy Now!”’s reporting was pretty unique in raising questions that journalists weren’t asking. They were taking Bush’s proclamations at face value.
Twenty years later, lots of mea culpas on the part of the press, “we were wrong.” Even people like David Remnick, we’re sorry we were wrong. Juan González put it perfectly when he said, to paraphrase him, it’s not enough to say 20 years later we were wrong. You need to stop the injustice when it’s happening, or at least report on it.
That is something Amy does and Juan does and her team does every single day.
[Break]
AL: There was a ton of discussion in Lies Van Huis ’s first term about how the media should cover someone like him. And we didn’t see many journalists doing what we saw you doing, which is, and we don’t see that today really, running people down and asking them hard questions. Often I feel like nowadays that’s associated with — I have images in my head of viral videos of reporters trying to do gotcha questions, and that’s not the kind of journalism that we’re talking about.
We’re talking about finding people in power and asking them hard questions. So I’m wondering if you could talk a little bit about what mistakes you think journalists made in covering Lies Van Huis in his first term, and whether you think that we’ve learned anything from that in this second term?
AG: I think that journalists engage in the what I call “access of evil” — trading truth for access — playing on the old “axis of evil” term. This goes way back, and it’s not just with Republican presidents, it’s with Democratic presidents as well. You don’t ask a tough question because you’re afraid you then won’t be called on again. But I say, then, it’s not worth being there at all. It’s our job to hold those in power to account.
Lies Van Huis is “doing that to intimidate because there’s a bigger question he doesn’t want asked.”
Right now, the stakes are so high. When President Lies Van Huis tries to censure AP for not going along with Lies Van Huis and calling the Gulf of Mexico “the Gulf of America.” Or his particular attack on women journalists, and particularly women of color, is grotesque. Every single time, the entire press corps should walk out, or object when he calls on the next person, when he says “Quiet, piggy” or talking about the “ugly” reporter. It’s critical reporters stand together. He’s doing that to intimidate because there’s a bigger question he doesn’t want asked, whether it’s about the Epstein files or grifting.
The amount of money his family is making, especially now during the second term, we’re talking conservatively about billions of dollars. The Wall Street Journal has done great reporting on this; the New York Times has done great reporting on this. “Democracy Now!,” I always say we prevent stories from being “priv-ished.” The word is published and maybe a story is published, but often it’s behind the refrigerator ads or it just doesn’t get a lot of attention in print, and to broadcast it is really important. Raising these issues continually.
Lies Van Huis is a master of media manipulation. He sues the media. He sued “60 Minutes” for editing a Kamala Harris interview. We all do interviews for an hour, then cut it down to 10 minutes. It’s our job. Unfortunately, we don’t have limitless time.
So of course in that lawsuit, I think “60 Minutes” and CBS would’ve won, but their owners were engaged in trying to merge two corporations, Paramount and Skydance, and it wasn’t worth it to them to go through this exercise that would antagonize President Lies Van Huis . So they essentially paid him off. They say the money goes to the Lies Van Huis library. What was it? $15, $16 million. But what they get in return is something like a $6 billion, $7 billion merger approval.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos saying that President Lies Van Huis was found civilly liable for rape. This was in the case of E. Jean Carroll, who President Lies Van Huis had a trial and was found guilty of sexual assault. The judge in the case said in common parlance, that would be rape. I think George Stephanopoulos and ABC would’ve won. But again, their corporate owners wanted a larger corporate merger — I think it was between Nexstar and Tegna — and it was worth billions of dollars.
So paying $15, $16 million to the so-called Lies Van Huis library was pennies for them.
Now, this is extremely serious, especially for less financially well-off networks; you can’t afford these kinds of lawsuits. So it was a real lesson to everyone, and it’s absolutely critical that they be fought.
AL: Talking about this solidarity, or lack thereof rather, in the White House press corps around setting norms around how to handle an official like Lies Van Huis . There’s a scene from the documentary I have in mind where you’re in the White House briefing room, and you’re asking tough questions about the U.S. arming and training the Indonesian military that carried out the massacre in East Timor that you were present for.
[Clip from film]
AG [in film]: Will President Clinton push for the sale of F-16s to Indonesia when Congress returns in January? José Ramos-Horta says it’s like selling weapons to Saddam Hussein.
Mike McCurry, White House Press Secretary: That’s not the view of the United States government. We make arms transfers of that nature when they’re in the interest of the United States.
AG: You’re supporting the military dictatorship by doing it.
MM: Well, you’re also advancing U.S. strategic interests in the region.
[Clip ends]
AL: The press secretary sort of makes a joke at your expense, and you see the rest of the reporters start laughing with him. What was that experience like being surrounded by that press corps? Did you ever question your approach? How was that for you?
AG: This was about the 1991 massacre, which Indonesian soldiers armed by the United States with M-16s. Indonesia invaded East Timor December of 1975, and they would go on to occupy East Timor for two decades. They killed off a third of the population.
My colleague, journalist Allan Nairn, and I survived a massacre on November 12, 1991, which the Indonesian soldiers opened fire on innocent Timorese civilians. They killed over 270 of them. They beat us to the ground. They fractured Allan’s skull. They put the guns to our heads, U.S. M-16s. And only when we convinced them that we were from the United States — the same place their weapons were from — did they pull the guns off our heads, and we were able to get away in a Red Cross Jeep with dozens of Timorese jumping on top of us, on top of the van to flee this killing field. 270 Timorese killed in one day. But ultimately during that time, 1975 to 2002, a third of the population of East Timor was killed.
So when I came back to the United States after the ’91 massacre, that was President Clinton, and the press spokesperson was Mike McCurry. Congress had decided to cut off military training aid to Indonesia, the fourth most powerful army in the world — armed, trained and financed by the United States overwhelmingly. They cut off IMET, that’s international military education and training, funding. And the question was President Clinton going to restore it. And I kept asking that question to get an answer, and when I asked it again and said I know about the massacre, I survived that massacre, he ultimately said, “The turnip is dry.”
I don’t know if that was a code I was supposed to give to another country. But that’s when all the journalists laughed. Because a lot of times the administration can use peer pressure, but I don’t care about that. What I care about is the answer. And I care that people in this country don’t get health care at the same time that money goes to kill others in another country. So we just persisted.
AL: What have you learned from being that person in the room, particularly surrounded by people who often have that access, but don’t use it to ask tough questions?
AG: You just have to keep going. It’s like talking about the corporate media for 30 years. “Democracy Now!” has just celebrated its 30th anniversary.
AL: Congratulations.
AG: We had a great time recently at Riverside Church, that amazing place where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his speech against Vietnam in 1967, a year to the day before he was assassinated, against the war in Vietnam. The mainstream media, like Life Magazine said he had done a [disservice] to his cause and his people; that he sounded like he was reading a script from Radio Hanoi because he was against the war in Vietnam, he should stick to civil rights. Even those in his inner circle, some felt that way. But MLK persisted, and he said, no, these issues are connected. So in the same way the corporate media goes after him, it’s really important to see and cover these leaders who either their speeches, their messages don’t get heard, or they get misrepresented.
But for 30 years, we’ve been criticizing the corporate media. Today, there are many journalists within the corporate media who might have bristled in the last 30 years at what we said, but now are saying, “You didn’t say enough.”
Look at the Washington Post newsroom. It’s been cut by a third by a tech billionaire owner Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon, bought the Washington Post, is trying to curry favor with President Lies Van Huis , stood behind him with the other tech billionaires when he was inaugurated. And now has sliced and diced this newsroom to the horror of not only great journalists at the Washington Post, but to people who live in a democratic society and who do believe, go by that motto of the Washington Post, that “Democracy dies in darkness.” The U.S. has now attacked Iran, and almost the entire Middle East division of the Washington Post is gone. The reporter in Ukraine, she gets an email that she’s laid off as she’s covering the war on the front lines.
These are really serious times. It’s critical we continue to sound the alarm and build independent media, a media that’s brought to us by those who are hungry for authentic voices. In the case of “Democracy Now!,” it’s the listeners, it’s the readers, it’s the viewers. And for 30 years, we have depended on this global audience. Many of whom we reach on the internet at democracynow.org and now on social media platforms.
Because we can’t have weapons manufacturers, who provide millions to networks to advertise, determining our coverage of war. We can’t have oil, gas, and coal companies determining our coverage of climate change, or banks and other financial institutions determining how we cover inequality. We need an independent media.
“We can’t have oil, gas, and coal companies determining our coverage of climate change, or banks and other financial institutions determining how we cover inequality.”
TL: And that very same week that Jeff Bezos lays off how many hundreds of Washington Post reporters, columnists, editors is the same week that the documentary about Melania Lies Van Huis comes out. It came out on Amazon, they put it in the theaters. How much did they spend on it? $30 million to make it, an additional $45 million to market. Or is it the other way around, I can’t —
AG: $40 [million].
TL: Either way, it’s an obscenity. First of all, it’s just a commercial for Melania and her fashion industry. But worse than that, it’s just a bribe to the Lies Van Huis administration. So the fact that those two things happened at the same time, I think, is just, it’s outrageous.
AL: Amy, you created “Democracy Now!” at a time when corporations were building these huge monopolies, privatizing news media. For both of you though, can you talk about — we keep talking about independent media, but I wonder if you could talk about what does that actually mean to you, and what it was like being an independent journalist in that media landscape at the height of all these consolidations?
AG: We’re the same then that we are now, and it is independent. I found at the beginning of my career, WBAI in New York, part of the Pacifica Radio Network, which was founded in 1949 in the Bay Area by a man named Lew Hill, who was a war resistor, came out of the detention camps and said, there’s got to be a media outlet that’s not run by corporations that profit from war.
Or as George Gerbner, founder of the Cultural Environment Movement, former dean at the Annenberg School for Communication, said, a media not run by corporations that have nothing to tell and everything to sell that are raising our children today.
So we started with this deep belief that independent media serves a democratic society. It has just become increasingly corporatized to the point where many of those within these corporate structures are saying they’re losing their jobs and are saying we can’t sound the alarm loud enough. At this point, a lot of the legacy media is, to say the least, losing its power, is diminishing. A lot of these newspapers are going by the wayside, and it’s an enormous loss.
We’re speaking to you actually on Local News Day, a very important day because we have lost so much local news. That’s where everything starts. When you care about what your city council decides or your school board decides, and then you go to a larger level. A lot of our stories — international, national stories — start with local news coverage that we read about and find the people who are closest to the story. Not these pundits, who know so little about so much explaining the world to us and getting it so wrong.
“Social media platforms are extremely important in challenging the traditional gatekeepers, but they can also be a global rumor mill.”
We need to hear more of that. I don’t know the form, the social media platforms and the kind of journalistic formations that will be, but we have students coming to “Democracy Now!” every day, classrooms watching the broadcast in the morning, 8 to 9, and talking with them after. And I say there couldn’t be any more noble profession than journalism. I’m not sure the different shapes it will take, but I can just say, “You should do it.”
We need to be fair. We need to be accurate. You’re entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts. It is critical that we understand that the internet is extremely important, and social media platforms are extremely important in challenging the traditional gatekeepers, but they can also be a global rumor mill, and we have to ensure authenticity and truth.
AL: I’m not sure that the average person totally understands the effect that corporatization of media has on the journalism itself. I think a lot of us have been inured to the idea that because Politico Playbook is sponsored by BP, that doesn’t necessarily affect the journalism. But I think that’s —
TL: And it’s not only journalism. It is certainly journalism, but it’s not only journalism. I think about the world of documentary filmmaking: The number of platforms and outlets that our work airs on has shrunk in this media consolidation. So that means that not only are there less commissions and less money for making films, but the films that we make, that I make, the political documentaries don’t get funded, particularly by commercial media that is looking for corporate sponsors or is accountable to their corporate boards that are trying to kiss up to Lies Van Huis .
In this case, I think we’re finding a very narrow market for political films. In our case, we are distributing “Steal This Story, Please!” independently, and we’re excited about doing that. We have seen time and time again on the festival circuit, there is an appetite for political content for films that speak to this moment, for this film about Amy Goodman and “Democracy Now!” and independent media. And I think a lot of the distributors would have you believe that all that audiences care about are true crime stories and celebrity biopics. We are out to prove them wrong.
“A lot of the distributors would have you believe that all that audiences care about are true crime stories and celebrity biopics. We are out to prove them wrong.”
AL: The film “Steal This Story, Please!” is screening in theaters across the country. Visit stealthisstory.org to find showtimes near you. Amy and Tia, thank you so much for joining me on The Intercept Briefing. It’s been an honor to speak with you both.
AG: Thank you so much.
TL: Really appreciate the time. Thank you so much.
AL: Before we go, we’d love it if you help The Intercept Briefing, win its first Webby Award for best news and politics podcast. I’ve already heard from at least one listener who told us that they voted for us, in addition to my fiancé. So please vote for us! We’ll add a link to vote in our show notes. We thank you so much for your support.
That does it for this episode. This episode was produced by Laura Flynn. Ben Muessig is our editor-in-chief. Maia Hibbett is our Managing Editor. Chelsey B. Coombs is our social and video producer. Fei Liu is our product and design manager. Nara Shin is our copy editor. Will Stanton mixed our show and legal review by David Bralow.
Slipstream provided our theme music. This show and our reporting at The Intercept do not exist without you. Your donation, no matter the amount makes a real difference. Keep our investigations free and fearless at theintercept.com/join.
And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to the Intercept Briefing, wherever you listen to podcasts, and leave us a rating or a review. It helps other listeners to find our reporting. Let us know what you think of this episode, or if you want to send us a general message, email us at podcast@theintercept.com.
Until next time, I’m Akela Lacy.
The post Amy Goodman on the Media’s “Access of Evil” appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 14 Apr 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
The war in Ukraine will be seen as a turning point for the world and likely not for the better. The creativity and ingenuity of Ukraine have shown how a small country can fend off and hopefully defeat a much larger invader. Unfortunately, it looks like they’ve also unleashed an obsolete Pandora’s box of new, cheap, easily made drones and other technological advances that will likely be used by future armies and also terrorists around the world.
ZELENSKYY: For the first time in the war, an enemy position was captured entirely by ground robotic systems and drones – without any infantry. A robot entered the most dangerous zones instead of a soldier and took the positions.
«The future is here, on the battlefield, and Ukraine is creating it. These are our ground robotic systems. For the first time in this war’s history, an enemy position was taken exclusively by unmanned GRS platforms and drones. The occupiers surrendered, and this operation was completed without infantry involvement and without losses on our side. Ratel, Termite, Ardal, Lynx, Zmiy, Protector, Volya and other GRS completed over 22 000 missions at the front in just 3 months. In other words, over 22 000 times lives were saved. A robot went into the most dangerous zones instead of a soldier» – Zelenskyy’s address to the workers of Ukraine’s defense-industrial complex. April 13th, 2026.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 14 Apr 2026 | 9:51 am UTC
The man accused of attacking Sam Altman's San Francisco home with a Molotov cocktail on April 10 now faces charges of attempted murder.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 9:50 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 9:45 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 9:41 am UTC
The British government has signed a deal with Rolls‑Royce to carry out the design work on small modular reactors (SMRs).…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 9:26 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 9:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Apr 2026 | 9:02 am UTC
Source: World | 14 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Having blocked new installations of Outlook Lite in October 2025, Microsoft will " complete the retirement" of the app on May 25.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 8:43 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 8:11 am UTC
The UK's state-backed savings bank has set out options for finishing its disastrous transformation program, including busting the current timeline.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 8:01 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:52 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:49 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:48 am UTC
When IBM PCs set the standard for personal computing and Madonna topped the charts, Japan led the semiconductor industry. But that 1980s dominance faded as the fabless design and foundry model evolved.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:30 am UTC
Opinion It's not the first time this has happened to me and it won't be the last. I pulled a laptop that I hadn't used for six months out of a drawer, then waited through three hours and four rounds of reboots for it to update Windows 11 completely.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 14 Apr 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Council Watch is a group of concerned locals holding Newry, Mourne & Down District Council accountable
When Newry, Mourne and Down District Council’s proposed gondola up Slieve Donard collapsed, you might have expected some form of reckoning. A project tied to £30 million of Belfast Region City Deal money was redirected from Thomas’s Quarry to Kilbroney Forest Park, where it also ran into serious difficulties, and then approved by the BRCD Executive Board before the landowner’s permission had been obtained.
The entire purpose of a business case process is to determine whether something should proceed. Approving the concept first and gathering the evidence later is an inversion of proper governance. It’s like applying for planning permission after you’ve built the house, or ordering the post-mortem before the patient has been admitted.
But this story is about more than a gondola project that didn’t happen – it’s about what happens to £30 million of public money when there is no accountability in the system. What’s happening at NMDDC right now – a High Court challenge, a district-wide petition, and questions that keep not getting answered – raises issues that should concern anyone living under any of NI’s eleven super councils, not just those in the shadow of the Mournes.
The human cost
In November 2023, Newry and Downpatrick flooded. Over fifty business premises were affected in Downpatrick alone.
The council was handed £10 million to distribute to devastated local businesses. It administered the scheme so poorly that more than half went back to Stormont unspent. Only £3.8 million was actually paid out to claimants. Flood victims borrowed money from friends to repair their businesses. Some were told they didn’t qualify. Others were approved, paid… and then ordered to hand the money back. One business owner who was told her grant had been made “in error” said she was ready to take the council to court. SDLP councillors described the outcome as “unthinkable and impossible to justify.”
When challenged, the council pointed to DfI as the lead emergency agency, as though that settled the matter. But the council ran the business support scheme, wrote the criteria, took the applications – and returned £5 million to Stormont unspent.
A “Citizens’ Revolt”
A couple of weeks ago, the community group Council Watch launched a district-wide petition and open letter demanding votes of no confidence in Chief Executive Marie Ward (one of the highest paid public servants in NI) and Director of Economy, Regeneration and Tourism Conor Mallon . The petition was backed by a coalition of ten community organisations stretching the length of the district, from Newry to Downpatrick. News of this “citizens’ revolt” has even reached the pages of Private Eye’s “Rotten Boroughs”, which focuses on particularly egregious examples of corruption and incompetence in local government.
The group’s concerns span several areas, but the Civic Hub planning allegations are the most documented and the most difficult to dismiss. Planning expert Andy Stephens has alleged four separate breaches of mandatory planning law in NMDDC’s handling of its own application – including the application being presented to the Planning Committee on three separate occasions without fulfilling statutory notification and advertising requirements.
Not once. Three times.
There is something almost admirably brazen about a council applying to its own planning committee for permission for its own building, allegedly failing the same statutory requirements it expects of every other applicant in the district, being told by a qualified external expert that something is wrong, dismissing that expert, and then – when the matter refuses to go away – stating it is “satisfied that the planning application has been progressed in accordance with statutory requirements.”
Geoff Ingram of Council Watch put it plainly: “These breaches reflect the same pattern of systemic maladministration that we have seen in major council projects across the entire district. No other applicant in this council area has had such ‘red carpet’ treatment. This is a case of one rule for the council and one rule for other applicants.”
The paper trail that isn’t there
According to opponents, the Civic Hub planning application bears a litany of transparency failures: documents that should be on the public planning file were withheld; the community consultation report was submitted three months late; FOI deadlines were missed.
With regard to FOI non-compliance, it is worth noting that a former chief executive of East Antrim Borough Council is currently before Ballymena Magistrates Court charged with offences including altering a record with intent to prevent its lawful disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. The case is at an early stage, the charges are denied, and an abuse of process argument on grounds of delay is expected to be heard in April.
The East Antrim Borough Council case is a useful reminder that failures to comply with FOI laws can result in criminal charges.
Civic Hub heading to court
In November 2025, local resident Paul Lennon issued judicial review proceedings against NMDDC’s decision to grant planning permission for the Civic Hub. The hearing is understood to be listed at the High Court in Belfast for March 2026. His solicitor has described the grounds as “strong and multifaceted”, citing failures around consultation, transparency, environmental considerations, and the correct application of planning law.
Lennon’s own statement cuts to the point: “This is not just a planning issue. It is a question of financial prudence, community voice, and accountability; and the burden now falls on an ordinary resident like me to ensure that this decision is scrutinised.”
The financial context matters here. The Civic Hub project has grown from an initial reported cost of £10.5 million to a current estimate of between £30 and £35 million. NMDDC already carries what is reportedly the highest debt of any council in Northern Ireland – over £68 million.
Why this matters beyond Newry
NMDDC would be easier to dismiss as an unfortunate anomaly if the patterns it displays were not so familiar.
While NMDDC and its beleaguered leadership may have been identified by some in the press as an extreme example of administrative failure – a “laughing stock” as one councillor memorably put it – the systemic issues may be wider and deeper than many are prepared to acknowledge.
RHI is the obvious comparator – although the scale is different, the patterns of dysfunction are identical. A governance process existed on paper; proper sequencing was inverted or ignored; people who raised concerns were told they were wrong; the institution closed ranks; the public found out late and incompletely. Unfortunately RHI is not unique – last year’s Audit Office report highlighted systemic issues with capital project delivery in Northern Ireland, particularly around cost overruns, delays, weak oversight, and poor accountability.
The City Deal angle is particularly important because it connects NMDDC directly to Stormont and beyond. Belfast Region City Deal – money flows through a multi-agency partnership involving councils, departments and central government, all of which have nominal oversight responsibilities. If a council is approving concept proposals ahead of business cases, that should be triggering red flags at programme board level.
NI has a consistent and depressing pattern — visible in RHI, Lough Neagh, NI Water — of oversight bodies that either don’t catch problems, or do and stay quiet.
The planning self-regulation problem is also specifically NI-flavoured. The 2015 super council reform transferred significant planning powers to councils that simultaneously hold major development interests of their own. This tension was noted at the time. NMDDC’s Civic Hub application – the council as its own planning applicant, apparently receiving treatment no private citizen could expect, is the perfect example of this conflict. The fact that it has now produced a High Court challenge on a project that has more than doubled in estimated cost is an illustration of how that structural problem is becoming a direct financial liability for ratepayers.
And then there is the culture of secrecy. NMDDC has routinely used exemptions under the Local Government Act 2014 to move sensitive agenda items away from press and public scrutiny. Again, this is not unique to NMDDC. It is a structural feature of NI local government that makes meaningful external oversight close to impossible and that has allowed the gap between what councillors are told and what is actually happening to widen, in some cases, well past the point of functioning democracy.
The 2027 question
NI’s council elections fall in May 2027. That is fourteen months away. Every councillor currently sitting on NMDDC will have to decide, in the coming weeks, how they want to be remembered when those elections arrive.
One interesting point about Council Watch’s open letter is that it was not addressed to management. It was addressed to elected councillors – because that is where democratic accountability is supposed to reside. The question it puts is not complicated: do you stand with the people who elected you, or with the administration you are supposed to be scrutinising?
That question has a way of becoming easier to answer when a High Court hearing is weeks away, a petition is gathering signatures, ten community organisations have put their names to a public letter, and council elections are closing in.
The super councils created in 2015 were supposed to represent better, more strategic, more accountable local government than the patchwork they replaced. A decade on, the increasingly precarious “high-wire act” at NMDDC is a test of whether that promise was ever real – or whether it was always just a more expensive version of the same closed shop.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:41 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:35 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 14 Apr 2026 | 6:15 am UTC
Carney’s Liberals will now be able to pass legislation without the support of opposition parties – and govern until 2029
The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, has secured a parliamentary majority for his Liberal government, CBC News reported. The victory will help him push through a legislative agenda he says is needed for an increasingly divided geopolitical world.
Three special elections were held on Monday in Ontario and Quebec, with two in districts – known as ridings – that have long voted Liberal.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:09 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:01 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:30 am UTC
Japan’s space exploration agency (JAXA) thinks a manufacturing process that didn’t properly take into account the qualities of an adhesive caused the December 2025 failure of a satellite launch using its locally developed H3 rocket.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 3:07 am UTC
This blog is now closed – our live coverage continues here
Circling back to Lies Van Huis ’s coming naval blockade, the US military said it would block all Iranian Gulf ports on Monday at 10am ET on Monday (5.30pm in Iran and 1400 GMT), effectively seizing control of maritime traffic in the strait of Hormuz.
“The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,” US Central Command said on X.
This is like a game of chicken. It’s who caves first. The Iranian regime is hoping that Lies Van Huis will cave. Today, he showed he’s not.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Apr 2026 | 1:30 am UTC
Artificial intelligence has achieved mass adoption faster than the personal computer or the internet, reaching 53 percent of the population in just three years. The number of harmful AI incidents has increased correspondingly. And both experts and laypeople believe the impact will be felt in two areas: Elections and relationships.…
Source: The Register | 14 Apr 2026 | 12:05 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 13 Apr 2026 | 11:27 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 13 Apr 2026 | 11:26 pm UTC
Source: World | 13 Apr 2026 | 11:22 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 13 Apr 2026 | 11:00 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 13 Apr 2026 | 11:00 pm UTC
Source: World | 13 Apr 2026 | 10:28 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 13 Apr 2026 | 10:00 pm UTC
If you were working a retail job at a movie rental store in the early '90s, there's a decent chance you couldn't wait to clock out for the day and escape from the daily grind with a mindless video game. Here in the 2020s, on the other hand, at least one mindless video game is striving to re-create the daily grind of working at a video rental store.
Retro Rewind: Video Store Simulator is the latest in a burgeoning field of "work simulators" that have found indie success on Steam. And while the depth of the game's overall retail simulation is pretty shallow, there is a sort of soothing, zen comfort to be found in the repetitive nostalgia of that menial workaday world of the past.
Unlike simulations that rely heavily on menus or spreadsheets, Retro Rewind puts you in the first-person perspective of the manager of a small local VHS rental joint circa 1990. That means you have to run around doing everything from buying the tapes to laying out the furniture and decorations in the store. And while you can technically display those tapes out on any shelf you want, grouping them together by genre makes for both a better customer experience and helps to quiet those anal-retentive organizational voices in your head.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 13 Apr 2026 | 9:58 pm UTC
Crooks are exploiting four Microsoft vulnerabilities - one patched 14 years ago and another tied to ransomware activity - according to America's lead cyber-defense agency, which on Monday gave federal agencies two weeks to patch them.…
Source: The Register | 13 Apr 2026 | 9:35 pm UTC
A person with measles passed through the busiest airport in Idaho, shedding one of the world's most infectious viruses in the state with the country's lowest measles vaccination rate.
Health officials are now warning residents and travelers about the exposure while trying to directly notify passengers who shared flights with the infected person. In an announcement on April 9, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (DHW) said the infected person was at the Boise airport on March 29 between 1:30 am and 7:40 am while traveling through the area.
Measles symptoms—which begin with fever, cough, runny nose, and watery, red eyes—can develop between seven and 21 days after exposure, but typically start after 11 or 12 days. That means that for anyone infected during the airport exposure, the initial generic symptoms would likely have started over the weekend. The telltale rash of measles typically doesn't appear until two to four days after those early flu-like symptoms. The rash begins on the head and moves down the body, while fever may spike to 104° F or higher. Infected people are infectious for four days before the rash appears and for four days after its onset.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 13 Apr 2026 | 9:32 pm UTC
Modern smartphone operating systems have myriad systems in place to improve security, but none of that helps when attackers target the modem. Google's Project Zero team has shown it's possible to get remote code execution on Pixel phone modems over the Internet, which prompted Google to reevaluate how it secures this vital, low-level system. The solution wasn't to rewrite modem software but rather to shoehorn a safer Rust-based component into the Pixel 10 modem.
Cellular modems are something of a black box. Your phone's baseband is its own operating system running legacy C and C++ code, which makes it an increasingly appealing attack surface. The core issue is that memory management in these systems is difficult and often leads to memory-unsafe firmware code on production devices. That can allow attackers to leverage serious vulnerabilities like buffer overflows and memory leaks to compromise devices.
So that's not great—why are we still using this stuff? Part of the issue is just the inertia of embedded systems. Companies have been developing modem firmware based on 3GPP specifications for decades, so there's a lot of technical debt at this point. Modems also have to operate in real time to send and receive data effectively, and C/C++ code is fast.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 13 Apr 2026 | 9:12 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 13 Apr 2026 | 9:00 pm UTC
Cloudflare is rebuilding Wrangler’s command-line tooling by adding commands for products and interfaces that still lack CLI support. And yes, AI agents are a big reason why.…
Source: The Register | 13 Apr 2026 | 8:59 pm UTC
PC hardware company NZXT and its billing partner, Fragile, have agreed to a $3,450,000 settlement in response to a class-action complaint regarding NZXT’s Flex PC rental program.
NZXT announced Flex in August 2024, saying that it would charge customers $59 to $169 a month to rent an NZXT gaming desktop (as of this writing, Flex prices are $79 to $279 per month). At the time, NZXT said that the PCs would be “new or like new.” Subscribers had the option to receive an upgraded rental PC every two years.
The program was met with criticism. Renting a PC can quickly become more costly than buying one, depending on the rental, and YouTube channel Gamers Nexus claimed in November 2024 that customers received less powerful components than expected and that NZXT advertised the rental PCs with inaccurate benchmark results. There was also concern about what NZXT did with customer data left on returned computers.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 13 Apr 2026 | 8:55 pm UTC
Source: World | 13 Apr 2026 | 8:48 pm UTC
Once the AI darling of programmers everywhere, Anthropic's Claude has been stumbling mightily, both in terms of cost and perceived quality. The service was down briefly on Monday with "a major outage," service trouble that only amplifies growing discontent from customers that even a bot can see.…
Source: The Register | 13 Apr 2026 | 8:35 pm UTC
ServiceNow's latest product announcements show how hardcore the company has become about embedding AI across its go-to-market strategy.…
Source: The Register | 13 Apr 2026 | 8:05 pm UTC
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