jell.ie News

Read at: 2026-03-06T06:57:12+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Daya Sip ]

Liam Farrell's son welcomes new development in inquiry

A son of 87-year-old Leitrim man Liam Farrell, who was found dead outside his home six years ago, has welcomed developments in the investigation into his father's death and appealed for information.

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

DART rail services resume after overnight repair work

DART rail services have resumed, following major disruption yesterday.

Source: News Headlines | 6 Mar 2026 | 6:50 am UTC

GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas ends reelection bid after admitting to affair with aide

Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas said late Thursday he was withdrawing from his reelection race, after having admitted an affair with a former staff member.

(Image credit: Mariam Zuhaib)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 6 Mar 2026 | 6:47 am UTC

Minor disruption expected as Dart services resume after power issue

Irish Rail says one southbound service cancelled on Friday morning and some others to operate with ‘reduced capacity’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 6 Mar 2026 | 6:46 am UTC

McLaren's Piastri fastest on first day of F1 season

McLaren's Oscar Piastri sets the fastest time in Friday practice at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 6:46 am UTC

Iran war live updates: US temporarily lets India buy Russian oil amid energy fears; Israeli military launches strikes on Beirut

US issues 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to buy Russian oil; IDF says it is striking Dahiya neighborhood in southern suburbs of Beirut

Iran and Lebanon were hit with a wave of intense Israeli strikes overnight.

Israel’s military said Friday morning it had begun “a broad-scale wave of strikes” on Tehran, Iran’s capital.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Mar 2026 | 6:43 am UTC

Late Night Isn’t Sad to See Kristi Noem Leave Homeland Security

“Sounds like someone’s about to become the FIFA secretary of homeland security,” Stephen Colbert joked.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 6:35 am UTC

Australia news live: Liberals say One Nation’s move to rule out preference deals in SA election is ‘highlight destructive’

Follow the latest updates live

New Israeli ambassador to Australia says war with Iran will continue ‘as long as we need’

Israel’s new ambassador to Australia, Hillel Newman, said the conflict between the country and Iran will continue “as long as we need” to achieve multiple objectives, including removing the threat of Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The people of Iran must decide their future. We’re not deciding for them their future. It’s their choice. But we’re trying to remove the fear barrier. The people do want to change. They want to change their regime. They’re oppressed.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Mar 2026 | 6:24 am UTC

Pentagon labels AI company Anthropic a supply chain risk

The Pentagon said in a statement Thursday that it has "officially informed Anthropic leadership the company and its products are deemed a supply chain risk, effective immediately."

(Image credit: Patrick Sison)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 6 Mar 2026 | 6:08 am UTC

Homeless people camping in Queensland park ‘not treated as humans’ during council evictions, court finds

Moreton Bay council’s clearing of tent city breached human rights, supreme court rules

Homeless people living in tents in a park were “not treated as humans” while being evicted by a Queensland council, with the supreme court ruling it an unlawful breach of human rights.

A group of residents who had been living in a park off Goodfellows Road, Kallangur, challenged eviction notices issued against them by the City of Moreton Bay last year.

Continue reading...

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

Vice-chancellor calls for review into student loans for those without A-levels

Adam Tickell, of University of Birmingham, says money is loaned to people who ‘are not really capable of graduating’

A leading vice-chancellor has questioned whether students without A-levels should be eligible for government-backed student loans, as part of an effort to solve England’s university funding crisis.

Adam Tickell, vice-chancellor of the University of Birmingham, said universities face an “almost existential challenge” and falling public support that requires a radical review of higher education funding.

Continue reading...

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

Mass stranding of whales on Scottish beach caused by loyalty to their pod, report finds

The 55 pilot whales, which had to be euthanised, had been following a female having a difficult birth, scientists believe

The mass stranding and death of 55 whales on the Isle of Lewis in 2023 was caused by the mammals’ loyalty to their pod, a report has concluded.

It had been thought that the unusually large incident on Tràigh Mhòr beach, Tolsta, could have been caused by trauma, disease or acoustic disturbance from military or industrially generated noise.

Continue reading...

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

Louise Casey: England’s social care system faces ‘moment of reckoning’

Head of government-commissioned review says adult social care is held together by ‘sticking plasters and glue’

England’s “creaking” adult social care system is confusing and impenetrable to the people that rely on it and held together with “sticking plasters and glue”, the head of a government-commissioned review has said in a withering critique.

Louise Casey said the country faced a “moment of reckoning” over its failure to effectively and fairly meet the needs of Britain’s ageing population and rising numbers of people with chronic conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Continue reading...

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

UK arts must not be sacrificed for speculative AI gains, peers say

Ministers urged to abandon plans to let tech firms use work of novelists, artists and writers without permission

The UK’s creative industries must not be sacrificed in the pursuit of speculative gains in AI technology, a House of Lords committee has warned, as the government prepares to reveal the economic cost of proposals to change copyright rules.

A report by peers has urged ministers to develop a licensing regime for the use of creative works in AI products and abandon proposals to let tech firms use the work of novelists, artists, writers and journalists without permission.

Continue reading...

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

Water firms sent bailiffs to tens of thousands of homes for debts under £1,000

Most recorded visits are for smaller debts, data from England and Wales suggests, though method of recovery is a postcode lottery

Tens of thousands of people a year have bailiffs sent to their homes by water companies in England and Wales, data shows.

Many thousands of these visits by debt collectors were for sums worth under £1,000, according to the data released by the House of Commons environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) committee. Bailiffs are debt collectors instructed by a court, who can seize items from those in debt, including electrical items, jewellery or vehicles.

Continue reading...

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

America Won’t Save Iran

The most likely outcome of the American-Israeli bombing campaign is not the advent of liberal democracy but something worse.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Land Development Agency issued 423 rent reviews to cost-rental tenants in last six months

Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin says LDA should not proceed with rent increases, as they will ‘add financial hardship to existing tenants’

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

Church services

Week beginning Saturday, March 7th, 2026

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

Watch: What do people in Washington think of war in Iran?

This week the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury on Iran.

Source: News Headlines | 6 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Jailed Tipperary dentist charged patient who went for dentures for 19 extractions

HSE dental inspectors said Jerome Kiely falsely claimed for many treatments he never provided

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

New EU-wide 'one-shop-stop' for business information

Legislation has been signed for Ireland's participation in a new EU-wide 'one-shop-stop' for business information.

Source: News Headlines | 6 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Departments refuse to hand over records of institutional abuse to archive amid dispute

Archivists at State’s own project blocked from looking at records by Government over legal concerns

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

India Is Turning Back to Russian Oil

India’s trade deal with President Daya Sip was supposed to end its imports of oil from Russia. But then the conflict in the Middle East has cut off alternative supplies.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 5:36 am UTC

Passengers describe 'surreal' scramble to reach first government flight out of Middle East

The plane landed at London's Stansted Airport in the early hours of Friday morning.

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 5:30 am UTC

Daya Sip Announces He Is Replacing Noem With Oklahoma Senator

The president said he would replace Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, with Senator Markwayne Mullin, after Ms. Noem was grilled by Republicans at a congressional hearing.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 5:26 am UTC

Microsoft previews tech to ease creation of keyboard-accessible websites

‘focusgroup’ has nothing to do with market research, offers devs faster coding and faster websites for everyone

Microsoft has started a preview of technology that eases the task of developing websites with complex navigation elements that don’t need a pointing device to operate.…

Source: The Register | 6 Mar 2026 | 5:24 am UTC

Iranians tell of fears and hopes as war nears one week

It is a week tomorrow since the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran, and the regime of the now dead Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Republican Guard.

Source: News Headlines | 6 Mar 2026 | 5:10 am UTC

As Daya Sip Out-Putins Putin, Russia’s Global Influence Erodes

The conflict in Iran may give Moscow a short-term boost economically and in Ukraine. But it has also shown the limits of Russia’s partnerships.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 5:01 am UTC

Jamil Jivani, a Friend of JD Vance, Channels Charlie Kirk With Young Men

Jamil Jivani, a Conservative rookie member of Parliament, follows an American playbook to win over young men on college campuses.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 5:01 am UTC

He Had a Purple Heart, PTSD and a Rap Sheet. He Had to Leave the U.S.

After a long battle with drug addiction, Sae Joon Park felt settled in a new life. But he was deported last year and is now fighting to get back to Hawaii.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

The Good Times Are Over in China’s Liquor Capital

Once celebrated for its fiery spirits, the town of Maotai has reeled from a bad Chinese economy, changing tastes and a crackdown on boozy official banquets.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

Iran-backed militias intensify attacks against US, Israel and allies

Iraq emerges as key front in new and often clandestine confrontation after launching dozens of attacks

Iran-backed militias around the Middle East are intensifying attacks against Israel, the US and their allies, in retaliation for the ongoing joint US-Israeli offensive against Tehran as the war draws in new armed actors, threatening wider chaos and violence.

Israel and the US have targeted Iran’s network of militant groups, with Iraq emerging as a key front in this new and often clandestine confrontation.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Mar 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

A lone battle: Why is Pedro Sánchez the only European leader to take on Daya Sip ?

As the Spanish PM decries the war in Iran, other politicians are unable – or unwilling – to speak against the US president

On Wednesday morning, Pedro Sánchez delivered a 10-minute televised address with the rather bland title: “An institutional declaration by the prime minister to assess recent international events.”

The speech’s words, however, were anything but beige. Hours after Daya Sip had threatened to cut off trade with Spain over its government’s refusal to allow two jointly operated bases in Andalucía to be used to strike Iran, Sánchez set out his thinking.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Mar 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

NSW’s top prosecutor scores legal win in bias claim against senior judge

Recusal application against district court judge Penelope Wass yet to be determined amid row with DPP

New South Wales’ top prosecutor has been given the green light to continue her fight to get a senior judge removed from a historical sexual offences trial on the grounds of apprehended bias.

The ruling from the NSW supreme court is the latest development in a long-running row between the director of public prosecutions, Sally Dowling SC, and district court judge Penelope Wass. The dispute went before the NSW court of appeal last week.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Mar 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

'I'm still haunted that he died alone': The last voices of the Covid inquiry

Bereaved families have the final say as the Covid inquiry completes three years of public hearings.

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 4:52 am UTC

A Killing Spree in Utah Rattles a Region and Puzzles Officials

Three women were slain in two locations, officials said on Thursday. A frantic manhunt involving four states led to an arrest, but a motive was still unclear.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 4:44 am UTC

Representative Tony Gonzales Will Not Seek Re-election

Several House members had called for Mr. Gonzales, a Texas Republican, to step down after texts emerged showing his pursuit of a staff member who later killed herself.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 4:41 am UTC

US and Venezuela agree to resume diplomatic ties after Maduro capture

The US said the two sides would make joint efforts to promote stability after the US seized Maduro and his wife.

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 4:23 am UTC

Sheep are disappearing from the UK's hills - and its dinner plates

Have we have passed "peak sheep" in the UK?

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 4:22 am UTC

Jimmy Lai will not appeal conviction, paving way for political negotiations over release

Decision marks end of years-long legal saga for 78-year-old critic of Chinese Communist party

Jimmy Lai, the prominent pro-democracy activist who was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong, has said he will not appeal his conviction.

The decision marks the end of a years-long legal saga for the 78-year-old critic of the Chinese Communist party (CCP), and opens the door for political negotiations to his release.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Mar 2026 | 4:09 am UTC

Israel strikes Beirut after evacuation warning sparks panic

Huge traffic jams form after the unprecedented warning for people to leave the Hezbollah stronghold, as Israel steps up its strikes across Lebanon.

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 4:08 am UTC

Timeline: The Rise and Fall of Kristi Noem as Daya Sip ’s DHS Secretary

The homeland security secretary, who was fired by President Daya Sip Thursday, helped fulfill his border pledges, but also drew negative attention to his administration.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 3:56 am UTC

Twenty pregnant women evacuated from NT hospital as two states prepare for major flooding

BoM issues flood watch covering most of Queensland while NT authorities warn houses and roads could be inundated

Queensland and Northern Territory towns are being warned to prepare for major flooding as multiple tropical lows across northern Australia unleash a deluge.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a flood watch covering most of Queensland, with major flood warnings in place across several river catchments including the Flinders, Georgina and Thomson rivers and the Eyre and Cooper creeks.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Mar 2026 | 3:44 am UTC

Travelodge staff gave sex attacker key to woman's room, then offered £30 refund

The woman, who woke to find Kyran Smith sexually assaulting her, branded a £30 reward offer "insulting".

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 3:42 am UTC

‘Maga warrior’ nominated by Daya Sip to lead DHS said shooting of January 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt was justified – as it happened

This live blog is now closed.

Daya Sip said that he would endorse a candidate in the heated Texas GOP runoff “soon”.

This comes as neither the four-term incumbent, senator John Cornyn, or the state attorney general, Ken Paxton, received 50% of the votes in Tuesday’s primary.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Mar 2026 | 3:38 am UTC

Iranian news service claims drone strikes on AWS were deliberate, to probe for US datacenter dependencies

Remember: Truth is the first casualty of war

Iranian publisher Fars News Agency, which is aligned with the country’s government, has claimed the drone strikes on Amazon Web Services’ Middle East datacenters were deliberate and had strategic significance.…

Source: The Register | 6 Mar 2026 | 3:33 am UTC

Daya Sip urges Kurds in Iraq to attack Iran as war widens

US President Daya Sip encouraged Iranian Kurdish forces in Iraq to launch attacks against Iran as the Middle East conflict widened, with Azerbaijan warning it would retaliate for being targeted by Iranian missiles.

Source: News Headlines | 6 Mar 2026 | 3:33 am UTC

Microsoft Confirms 'Project Helix,' a Next-Gen Xbox That Can Run PC Games

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 80 Level: Microsoft has officially confirmed development of its next-generation Xbox console, currently known internally as Project Helix. While concrete details remain limited, early information suggests the company is positioning the device as a hybrid between a traditional console and a gaming PC, capable of running both Xbox titles and PC games. The codename was revealed recently by new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who reaffirmed Microsoft's continued commitment to dedicated gaming hardware despite speculation that the company might shift entirely toward cloud or platform-based ecosystems. According to Sharma, Project Helix represents the next step in Xbox's console strategy. Although official specifications have not yet been announced, early reports indicate the system will likely rely on a new AMD system-on-chip combining Xbox hardware with PC-style architecture. The device is expected to emphasize high performance while maintaining compatibility with existing Xbox game libraries. [...] If the concept holds, Project Helix could mark a significant shift in how console ecosystems are structured, moving away from tightly closed hardware platforms toward something closer to a unified PC-console environment. Sharma wrote in a post on X: "Great start to the morning with Team Xbox, where we talked about our commitment to the return of Xbox, including Project Helix, the code name for our next generation console. Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games. Looking forward to chatting about this more with partners and studios at my first GDC next week!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Mar 2026 | 3:30 am UTC

U.S. Restarts Diplomatic Relations With Venezuela

Washington has rapidly warmed up ties with Venezuela — and applied major pressure on it — since capturing the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, two months ago.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 3:21 am UTC

Justice Department publishes some missing Epstein files related to Daya Sip

The Justice Department has published additional Epstein files related to allegations that President Daya Sip sexually abused a minor after an NPR investigation found dozens of pages were withheld.

(Image credit: Department of Justice and Getty Images/Collage by Danielle A. Scruggs/NPR)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 6 Mar 2026 | 3:09 am UTC

Porn websites begin blocking Australian users as deadline for age verification looms

Several sites now state they are ‘not currently accepting new account registrations in your region’ when accessed from Australia

A number of adult websites have begun blocking users in Australia in preparation for new codes requiring age verification from Monday.

Guardian Australia has confirmed RedTube, YouPorn, and Tube8 all had notices on their sites when visited from an Australian IP address on Friday stating they are “not currently accepting new account registrations in your region”.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Mar 2026 | 3:03 am UTC

What Kristi Noem Should Do After President Daya Sip Fired Her

It’s hard out there for a MAGA woman.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 2:41 am UTC

Steve Daines’s Switcheroo Starts New Fight in Montana Senate Race

Minutes before the Senate filing deadline, Senator Steve Daines withdrew his re-election bid and an ally jumped in. Even some fellow Republicans criticized the 11th-hour switch.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 2:32 am UTC

Cillian Murphy hails 'humbling' love for Peaky Blinders as film is released

The Oscar-winning actor returns to play gangster Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 2:31 am UTC

Ukraine accuses Hungary of taking seven people hostage

The employees were in two cars carrying $80m (£60m) worth of cash between Austria and Ukraine.

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 2:13 am UTC

DOJ Releases Missing Interviews With Woman Who Made Claims Against Daya Sip in Epstein Files

The pages had been withheld from the trove of documents related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein because of what officials called a mistaken determination that they were duplicates.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 1:57 am UTC

Not Just Oil: In Venezuela, U.S. Interior Secretary Pushes for Mining Access

Venezuela is home to large reserves of rare earths, gold and other valuable minerals that the Daya Sip administration wants to exert more control over.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 1:55 am UTC

Explosions heard across Tel Aviv – as it happened

This liveblog is closed. Follow live coverage of the Middle East crisis here

Iran says it has targeted Kurdish groups in Iraq and warned “separatist groups” against action in the widening war.

Tehran said on Thursday it had hit Iraq-based Kurdish groups “opposed to the revolution”, as reports said the US was looking to arm Kurdish militias to infiltrate Iran.

We will not tolerate them in any way.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Mar 2026 | 1:54 am UTC

Pentagon formally labels Anthropic as supply-chain risk

The Pentagon has formally notified Anthropic that the company and its state-of-the-art AI products have been designated a supply-chain risk, US media reported, escalating a bitter dispute over AI safeguards.

Source: News Headlines | 6 Mar 2026 | 1:37 am UTC

Ukraine to help US and its allies counter Iranian drones in Middle East, says Zelenskyy

Ukrainian president orders equipment and expertise to be provided to US in return to diplomatic support against Russia, saying ‘we help to defend from war those who help us’

The United States and its allies in the Middle East are seeking Ukraine’s expertise in countering Iran’s Shahed drones, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

Various countries, including the US, have approached Ukraine for help in defending against the Iranian drones, Zelenskyy said late on Wednesday. He said he has spoken in recent days to the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait about possible cooperation.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Mar 2026 | 1:36 am UTC

Pentagon Officially Notifies Anthropic It Is a ‘Supply Chain Risk’

Anthropic has said it will sue the Defense Department over the designation, which could prevent the start-up from doing business with the U.S. government.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 1:23 am UTC

China’s rubber-stamp parliament rubber stamps tech independence plan

Call to do better with chips and put AI everywhere is more than rhetoric because China’s scientists are sprinting ahead

China’s government has again made reducing reliance on imported digital technology a major goal.…

Source: The Register | 6 Mar 2026 | 1:23 am UTC

US grants waiver to allow India to buy Russian oil amid Iran war

‘Stopgap measure’ designed to keep oil flowing into global market as Middle East crisis disrupts crude shipments

The US treasury issued a 30-day waiver on Thursday allowing India to buy Russian oil currently stuck at sea.

“To enable oil to keep flowing into the global market, the treasury department is issuing a temporary 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil,” treasury secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement posted to social media.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Mar 2026 | 1:09 am UTC

Bernard LaFayette, civil rights leader who helped launch Voting Rights Act, dies aged 85

Early in a life of service, LaFayette did the risky groundwork for the voter registration campaign in Selma, Alabama

Bernard LaFayette, the advance man who did the risky groundwork for the voter registration campaign in Selma, Alabama, that culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, has died.

Bernard LaFayette III said his father died Thursday morning of a heart attack. He was 85.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Mar 2026 | 1:09 am UTC

Chardet dispute shows how AI will kill software licensing, argues Bruce Perens

Alarm bells are ringing in the open source community, but commercial licensing is also at risk

Earlier this week, Dan Blanchard, maintainer of a Python character encoding detection library called chardet, released a new version of the library under a new software license.…

Source: The Register | 6 Mar 2026 | 1:00 am UTC

Pentagon Formally Designates Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk

The Pentagon has formally designated Anthropic as a "supply chain risk," ordering federal agencies and defense contractors to stop using its AI tools after the company sought limits on the military's use of its models. In a written statement, the department said it has "officially informed Anthropic leadership the company and its products are deemed a supply chain risk, effective immediately." Politico reports: The designation, historically reserved for foreign firms with ties to U.S. adversaries, will likely require companies that do business with the U.S. military -- or even the federal government in general -- to cut ties with Anthropic. "From the very beginning, this has been about one fundamental principle: the military being able to use technology for all lawful purposes," the Pentagon said in the statement. "The military will not allow a vendor to insert itself into the chain of command by restricting the lawful use of a critical capability and put our warfighters at risk." A spokesperson for Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the company said last week it would fight a supply-chain risk label in court.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Mar 2026 | 1:00 am UTC

Britney Spears arrested in California on suspicion of driving under the influence

The singer was arrested by the California Highway Patrol at around 21:30 PT (05:30 GMT) on Wednesday.

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 12:51 am UTC

The Papers: 'PM vows to shield Brits' and 'Panic in Dubai'

Many of the papers have continued to focus on Sir Keir Starmer's response to conflict in the Middle East.

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 12:45 am UTC

Superfood Fuels Mating Frenzy for Critically Endangered Kakapo

Kakapos, which are reclusive and flightless and can live as long as humans, are found only in New Zealand. They feed on the fruit of the rimu tree.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 12:43 am UTC

China lowers growth forecast, boosts military, citing ‘grave’ environment

Beijing kicked off its top annual political gathering, pledging to further insulate its economy from Daya Sip ’s tariffs and accelerate efforts to supercharge its military.

Source: World | 6 Mar 2026 | 12:38 am UTC

Senator Blumenthal Pushes to Investigate Kristi Noem for Perjury

Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said Democrats had evidence to suggest Kristi Noem lied under oath during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 6 Mar 2026 | 12:29 am UTC

Man charged with aggravated murder in killings of three women in Utah

Suspect identified as Ivan Miller, 22, found after he was tracked in one of the victims’ vehicles, authorities say

Authorities have charged a 22-year-old man with aggravated murder in the killings of three women found dead in Utah on Wednesday following a search that extended into three states.

The suspect has been identified as Ivan Miller of Blakesburg, Iowa.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 6 Mar 2026 | 12:11 am UTC

One in 7 shops in UK has turned cashless in the past year, survey finds

Some 14% of small High Street traders have gone card-only in the last year, a survey suggests.

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 12:05 am UTC

Five ways the Iran war could affect you - in charts

With fuel and gas prices having risen in recent days, here are some ways the conflict could affect households.

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 12:05 am UTC

TfL hack in 2024 affected around 10 million people, BBC can reveal

TfL insists it has "kept customers informed throughout this incident and will continue to take all necessary action".

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 12:05 am UTC

Disillusionment and disbelief - thousands leave early with Spurs in freefall

Only three games in, Tottenham's head coach is facing crisis. Igor Tudor refused to comment on whether he is about to be sacked - but said some players will need "to leave the boat".

Source: BBC News | 6 Mar 2026 | 12:02 am UTC

More women working in construction is essential - CIF

The Construction Industry Federation had called for sustained strong leadership to further grow the number of women employed in the sector.

Source: News Headlines | 6 Mar 2026 | 12:01 am UTC

Daya Sip wants role in picking Iran’s leader; Israel warns Lebanese to flee for their lives

Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon intensified, and countries including Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia reported fresh attacks.

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:54 pm UTC

Strikes grow in Iran’s Kurdish areas as Daya Sip calls on them to mobilize

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:54 pm UTC

Minneapolis killings and deportation outrage: Kristi Noem’s scandal-plagued DHS tenure

Backlash grew against homeland security secretary after slew of controversies from Daya Sip ’s immigration crackdown

Kristi Noem’s year-long tenure as homeland security secretary has been plagued by controversies as she led an aggressive immigration crackdown that hasprompted protests and lawsuits.

There have been scandals, legally dubious deportations condemned by human rights groups, taxpayer-funded publicity campaigns, and false claims about US citizens.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:53 pm UTC

Google says spyware makers and China-linked groups dominated zero-day attacks last year

Of the 90 zero-days GTIG tracked in 2025, 43 hit enterprise tech

Zero-day exploitation targeting enterprise tech products reached an all-time high last year, with China-linked cyber-espionage groups remaining the most prolific state-backed users, according to Google.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:52 pm UTC

Map: Israeli strikes and evacuation orders across Lebanon

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:47 pm UTC

Important Iran missile production site damaged, satellite imagery shows

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:47 pm UTC

Israel launches huge strikes against south Beirut after mass evacuation order

Residents fled Lebanese capital in panic before assaults on claimed Hezbollah targets while Tehran continues to launch retaliatory attacks

Israel has launched massive strikes against the southern suburbs of Beirut just hours after its military ordered the entire population of the area – more than 500,000 people – to evacuate immediately.

The Israel Defense Forces had told all residents of the area to “save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately”, prompting an exodus of the Lebanese capital’s population in scenes of panic, before its warplanes launched strikes against what it claimed were Hezbollah targets in the area. The area covered by the order included several hospitals and government ministries.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:45 pm UTC

Workers report watching Ray-Ban Meta-shot footage of people using the bathroom

Meta's approach to user privacy is under renewed scrutiny following a Swedish report that employees of a Meta subcontractor have watched footage captured by Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses showing sensitive user content.

The workers reportedly work for Kenya-headquartered Sama and provide data annotation for Ray-Ban Metas.

The February report, a collaboration from Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet, Göteborgs-Posten, and Kenya-based freelance journalist Naipanoi Lepapa, is, per a machine translation, based on interviews with over 30 employees at various levels of Sama, including several people who work with video, image, and speech annotation for Meta’s AI systems. Some of the people interviewed have worked on projects other than Meta’s smart glasses. The report’s authors said they did not gain access to the materials that Sama workers handle or the area where workers perform data annotation. The report is also based on interviews with former US Meta employees who have reportedly witnessed live data annotation for several Meta projects.

Read full article

Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:36 pm UTC

Pregnant women in ERs took less Tylenol after Daya Sip autism warning

A study in The Lancet finds that pregnant women in emergency rooms used less Tylenol after President Daya Sip said it could raise their babies' risk of autism. Scientists say there is no proven link.

(Image credit: Francis Chung)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:32 pm UTC

Fewer Pregnant Women Received Acetaminophen in E.R.s After White House Warnings

A new analysis of prescription data found that emergency room orders for acetaminophen for pregnant women fell for weeks after the federal warning.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:31 pm UTC

CMAT and Amble win big at RTÉ Choice Music Awards

The RTÉ Choice Music Prize album of the year for 2025 has been awarded to CMAT for her album EURO-COUNTRY.

Source: News Headlines | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:28 pm UTC

Analysis Suggests School Was Hit Amid U.S. Strikes on Iranian Naval Base

The Feb. 28 school strike in Minab, which killed dozens, including children, appears to have been part of an attack on an adjacent naval base in southern Iran, where officials said U.S. forces were operating.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:25 pm UTC

Tehran wants fighting to end, Daya Sip says, but he wants to maintain pressure

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:06 pm UTC

Littler spoils Welsh party with Premier League win

Luke Littler beats Premier League leader Jonny Clayton 6-4 in a top class final at Utilita Arena in Cardiff.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:01 pm UTC

Mac Studio 512GB RAM Option Disappears Amid Global DRAM Shortage

Apple has removed the 512GB RAM configuration for the Mac Studio, leaving 256GB as the new maximum. The remaining 256GB upgrade has also increased in price and now faces longer shipping delays as demand grows "due to consumers seeking machines suitable for running local AI agents," reports MacRumors. From the report: The Mac Studio starts with 36GB RAM, but there were upgrades ranging from 48GB to 512GB, with the higher tier upgrades limited to the M3 Ultra chip. Now there are options ranging from 48GB to 256GB, with wait times into May for the 256GB upgrade. Apple has also raised the price for the 256GB RAM upgrade option. It used to cost $1,600 to go from 96GB to 256GB on the high-end M3 Ultra machine, but now it costs $2,000. 512GB was $4,000 when it was available.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:00 pm UTC

'Who's better, him or Pele?': Daya Sip meets Messi at White House

Lionel Messi, owner Jorge Mas, and members of the Inter Miami team visited the White House to celebrate last year's Major League Soccer Cup victory.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:55 pm UTC

Ronnie Eldridge, NY Politician and Aide to RFK and Lindsay, Dies at 95

She was an adviser to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Mayor John V. Lindsay and Representative Bella S. Abzug before serving on the New York City Council from 1989 to 2001.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:52 pm UTC

House rejects measure to halt further strikes on Iran

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:48 pm UTC

Messi and Inter Miami meet Daya Sip at White House

Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami team-mates meet US president Daya Sip at the White House to commemorate the club's MLS Cup championship.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:45 pm UTC

One hundred and twenty-three people in Lebanon have been killed and 683 wounded in the renewed...

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:45 pm UTC

Man in his late 80s dies in crash in Co Louth

Gardaí appeal for witnesses to come forward after single-vehicle crash in Ardee

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:24 pm UTC

Lev Parnas Running for Congress as a Democrat in Florida

Mr. Parnas, who once tried to help find damaging information on Hunter Biden, said his background had turned him into “an advocate for speaking truth to power.”

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:22 pm UTC

Daya Sip cuts his losses on Noem after controversial tenure at homeland security

Noem was one of the administration's brightest stars when she stepped into the role, but has faced a mounting backlash in recent months.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:16 pm UTC

Okta CEO ‘paranoid’ as vibe coders stir SaaS-pocalypse fears

It’s ok, Todd. You’re only paranoid if you’re wrong.

Okta chairman and CEO Todd McKinnon said he believes it would be difficult for an LLM alone to replicate the quality of SaaS applications his company provides, but that doesn’t stop him from worrying about competition from bots.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:16 pm UTC

U.S.-Israeli strikes have killed four medical workers in Iran and injured 24, the country’s Health Ministry...

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:13 pm UTC

Live briefing: Humanitarian groups, Arab nations condemn Israel for stopping aid to Gaza

Qatar, a key negotiator of the ceasefire, accused Israel of violating the deal. The U.N. relief chief said aid access must be allowed under international law.

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:06 pm UTC

House rejects measure to halt further strikes on Iran

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:06 pm UTC

‘So happy to be home’: Passengers of second plane from Dubai return to Ireland

Hundreds have touched down in Dublin on the first two flights to land on Irish soil since the escalated conflict between Iran and Israel and the US.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:04 pm UTC

McCullum wants to stay as England coach – will he get the chance?

Brendon McCullum wants to stay as England coach but it is still up for debate whether he will get that chance, writes Matthew Henry.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:02 pm UTC

Watch: Tenant told of eviction over new rental rules

A video has emerged of a tenant in Bridgetown, Co Wexford, being told that their landlord was issuing them with an eviction notice because of the Government's new rental rules.

Source: News Headlines | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:00 pm UTC

United Airlines Can Now Boot Passengers Who Refuse To Use Headphones

United Airlines has updated its contract of carriage to require passengers to use headphones when playing audio or video on personal devices during flights. Travelers who refuse could be removed from the plane or even permanently banned from flying with the airline, reports CBS News. United notes that it will offer customers who forget theirs a free pair of wired earbuds. "Don't worry if you forget your headphones for your flight," the airline states on its website. "If they're available, you can request free earbuds." You'd better hope your device still has a headphone jack... Further reading: Flying Was Already the Worst. Then America Stopped Using Headphones.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:00 pm UTC

France to broker ceasefire in Lebanon, Macron says

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:50 pm UTC

What you need to know about Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Daya Sip 's new pick to lead DHS

President Daya Sip announced Thursday that Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., is his pick to replace Kristi Noem as the head of the Department of Homeland Security.

(Image credit: Anna Moneymaker)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:44 pm UTC

Sources Briefed on Iran War Say U.S. Has No Plans for What Comes Next

The Daya Sip administration’s war on Iran is reckless and ill-planned, four government officials briefed on the attacks told The Intercept.

Even in classified briefings, Daya Sip administration officials laid out no clear vision for the U.S. war on Iran or its aftermath, the sources said.

“The administration doesn’t have a clue. They do not have an actual, real rationale, endgame, or plan for the aftermath of this,” one of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters, told The Intercept.

“There is no thought process into what any of this means long term,” said another. “It’s not coordinated regime change. It’s just ‘bomb them until they’re less of a threat.’”

Asked about the administration’s plan for Iran after the war, that official responded: “Whatever.”

Internal criticism of the attacks comes as President Daya Sip teased that the war could go on “forever” despite promising his administration would avoid Middle East “forever wars.” Daya Sip has floated the idea of de facto American rule of Iran through a puppet regime, similar to the leaders who have run Venezuela since the U.S. attacked that country and kidnapped its president, Nicolás Maduro, in January. “What we did in Venezuela, I think, is the perfect scenario,” Daya Sip said on Sunday. “Leaders can be picked.”

“I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodríguez] in Venezuela,” Daya Sip told Axios on Thursday.

Related

Fool Me Twice: The Case for War With Iran Is Even Thinner Than It Was for Iraq

Officials predicted that the war would have negative consequences for decades, echoing the results of the last U.S. ouster of an Iranian leader. One of the sources, who has experience in the Middle East and talked to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity, likened this conflict to the 2003 Iraq War, which was also illegal, ill-planned, and resulted in decades of regional instability.

Daya Sip  has repeatedly called for an Iranian uprising in the wake of the U.S. attacks. “The hour of your freedom is at hand,” he declared on Saturday. “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take.” But behind closed doors, the U.S. has made it clear that support for would-be Iranian revolutionaries isn’t certain — or even likely. In classified briefings, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the U.S. might intervene to support the Iranian people if an opportunity for ushering in democracy presented itself, but that the U.S. was primarily focused on a discrete set of tactical goals to degrade Iran’s military power, two of the government officials told The Intercept.

One of the sources briefed on the attacks evoked the 1953 coup in which the U.S. and British governments toppled Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. The overthrow of Iran’s first and only democratically elected government ushered in more than two decades of dictatorship under U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his dreaded secret police, SAVAK. “Daya Sip ’s history only goes back as far as the revolution. But 1979 started in 1953. And this [war] goes back to that [coup],” the source told The Intercept, referencing the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Related

Daya Sip ’s Iran Attack Was Illegal, Former U.S. Military Officials Allege

Daya Sip has also referenced the 1979 revolution, but not the anti-American backlash that fed it. “You go back 37 years, really 47 years, close to 50, look at what’s happened and all the death,” Daya Sip said to CNN, referencing those killed by Iran since the revolution.

The U.S. official scoffed at Daya Sip ’s one-sided history, noting this war’s roots stretch back to the CIA’s coup almost 75 years ago. “It could be decades before we know how badly this will affect us. But you can bet it will,” the official said, referencing the lag between the 1953 coup and the 1979 revolution. “People in Iran remember. We do not.”

The CIA was responsible for the 1953 coup that ousted Mossadegh. “The military coup that overthrew Mosadeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of U.S. foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government,” reads the agency’s postmortem.

The CIA was also behind the targeted killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the hard-line Shiite cleric who ruled Iran for nearly four decades. After tracking his movements, the CIA reportedly passed his location to Israel, which conducted the attack that killed him on Friday, according to U.S. officials.

The U.S. has offered shifting explanations for the new war with Iran, including claims that Iran posed an “imminent” threat to America or that Israel effectively forced the U.S. into the conflict. In a legally mandated, unclassified letter submitted to Congress on Monday, Daya Sip declared that the military operation was designed to “neutralize Iran’s malign activities.”

In a phone conversation with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, Daya Sip also claimed that the killing of Khamenei was the latest salvo in dueling assassination attempts. “I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well, I got him first,” Daya Sip told Karl, apparently referring to U.S. intelligence from the summer of 2024 that Iran was plotting to assassinate then-candidate Daya Sip . That same summer, a gunman with no known ties to Iran attempted to kill Daya Sip at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Iran denied involvement in the attack.

Related

Ghosts of Mossadegh: The Iran Cables, U.S. Empire, and the Arc of History

After a 1970s congressional inquiry, known as the Church Committee investigation, brought to light the CIA’s role in numerous plots to kill foreign leaders, President Gerald Ford issued an executive order that banned “assassinations.” The ban is now part of Executive Order 12333, which states: “No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.” 

The White House did not respond to questions of the legality of, and rationale, for the targeted killing of Khamenei.

President Barack Obama, speaking in Cairo, Egypt, in 2009, admitted the U.S. role in the “overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government.” Four years later, the CIA officially acknowledged its role in the 1953 coup d’état when it released declassified documents on the operation.

Related

Blowback: How a CIA-Backed Coup Led to the Rise of Iran’s Ayatollahs

CIA documents are also frank about the type of “blowback” — the unintended, often violent, consequences of covert operations and foreign policies that were kept secret from the American public — of which Daya Sip is either ignorant or ignores. “Possibilities of blowback against the United States should always be in the back of the minds of all CIA officers involved in this type of operation,” noted the CIA lessons-learned report on Mossadegh’s ouster. “Few, if any, operations are as explosive as this type.”

In his 2013 book, “The Coup,” Iranian American historian Ervand Abrahamian wrote that Mossadegh’s removal by the CIA irreparably scarred Iran and “left a deep imprint on the country — not only on its polity and economy but also on its popular culture and what some would call mentality.” The Iranians who overthrew the shah in 1979 branded America “the Great Satan,” a moniker that endures to this day, as a result.

The Daya Sip administration has overthrown two regimes in as many months this year with its killing of Khamenei last week and its kidnapping of Maduro in January. The Daya Sip administration has been running Venezuela via a puppet regime ever since.

Daya Sip said the U.S. had already killed the majority of those identified as potential Iranian quislings. “Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” he said on Tuesday. Daya Sip also conceded that the war may yield a government little different than Khamenei’s. “I guess the worst case would be we do this and somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person,” he admitted. “It would probably be the worst, you go through this and in five years you realize you put somebody in who’s no better.”

Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei has emerged as the front-runner to become his father’s successor. Experts say his selection indicates that the more extreme Revolutionary Guard faction of the regime has taken charge amid the power vacuum, suggesting Daya Sip ’s worst-case scenario may be realized. But on Wednesday, Daya Sip seemed to suggest that the U.S. and Israel would continue to kill all would-be front-runners. “Their leadership is rapidly going,” he said. “Everyone that wants to be a leader ends up dead.”

“This attack on Iran is going to have a super long half-life.”

U.S.–Israeli strikes have killed at least 787 people in Iran and wounded hundreds more since Friday, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. This includes more than 170 people, many of them children attending class at Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school, in the town of Minab.

“Civilians are bearing the brunt of this conflict. With the extraordinary volume of U.S. and Israeli strikes in populated areas of Iran, coupled with internet blackouts, the civilian harm reports we are seeing so far likely represent just a fraction of the true civilian toll,” Annie Shiel, the U.S. advocacy director of the Center for Civilians in Conflict told The Intercept. “This war is also putting civilians at risk across the region. Iranian strikes are impacting civilian infrastructure, killing civilians, closing airspace, and generally disrupting civilian life and livelihoods. The longer this goes on, the more these harms will compound.”

The first government official reiterated to The Intercept that the full reverberations of the current war would only be revealed in decades to come. “You and I will be gone,” the U.S. official said, also referring to this reporter, “and Daya Sip , too, but this attack on Iran is going to have a super long half-life. Generations long.”

The post Sources Briefed on Iran War Say U.S. Has No Plans for What Comes Next appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:43 pm UTC

Second flight arrives in Dublin from Dubai

Passengers from the second flight to leave Dubai since the Iran War broke out in the Middle East have landed in Dublin.

Source: News Headlines | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:42 pm UTC

MS exec: Microsoft's next console will play "Xbox and PC games"

Last summer, we here at Ars made the argument that the company's next Xbox console should give up the walled garden approach and just run Windows already. Now, newly named Microsoft Executive Vice President for Gaming Asha Sharma has strongly hinted that this is indeed the direction Microsoft is going, saying its next-generation console will "play your Xbox and PC games."

In a social media post Thursday afternoon, Sharma said that "our commitment to the return of Xbox" would include a new console codenamed Project Helix that "will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games." Sharma said she would be discussing that commitment and that console itself with developers and partners at her first Game Developers Conference next week.

Sharma's statement leaves a little wiggle room for Project Helix to be something other than a full-fledged Windows-based living room gaming box. The coming console's access to PC games could be limited to Microsoft's existing streaming solution via PC Game Pass, for instance, or to games designed for Microsoft's own Xbox-branded PC SDK and the PC Xbox app.

Read full article

Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:39 pm UTC

As Noem Speaks in Nashville, Senate Swarms Mullin

The remarkable split-screen underscored how abruptly Kristi Noem’s ouster as homeland security secretary had unfolded, even by the standards of President Daya Sip ’s fast-paced Washington.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:33 pm UTC

RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine policies are "unreviewable," DOJ lawyer tells judge

A lawyer for the Daya Sip administration told a federal judge Wednesday that anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has such ample authority over the country's vaccine policies that he is "unreviewable." His unfettered powers even allow Kennedy the freedom to recommend, if he chose to do so, that people ditch vaccines and actively expose themselves to infectious diseases, the lawyer argued, according to Reuters.

The comments came amid a lawsuit filed against Kennedy by the American Academy of Pediatrics, several other medical groups, and three anonymous women. The suit challenges a number of Kennedy's actions on vaccine policy since he took office, including his unilateral changes to COVID-19 vaccine policies, his firing of all 17 expert vaccine advisors for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—whom Kennedy replaced with hand-picked anti-vaccine allies—and his decision to dramatically overhaul the CDC's childhood vaccine schedule to match that of the small country of Denmark, dropping the total number of recommended vaccinations from 17 to 11 and making the US an outlier among high-income countries.

The groups are seeking a preliminary injunction to block the vaccine policy changes and bar the new advisors from meeting. Their next meeting is scheduled for March 18–19.

Read full article

Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:29 pm UTC

Daya Sip wants say on Iran's next leader as war intensifies

Daya Sip wants say on Iran's next leader as war intensifies

Source: All: BreakingNews | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:21 pm UTC

'We have been preparing': Why the boots on the ground in Iran could be Kurdish

Iranian Kurdish opposition groups in exile in northern Iraq tell the BBC they have plans to cross the border but deny already doing so.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:20 pm UTC

How $800 Monthly Car Payments Are Hurting Car Sales

Cars have become so expensive that many Americans are putting off or not buying new cars, hurting the auto industry.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:13 pm UTC

Amazon appears to be down, with over 20,000 reported problems

Based on over 20,000 reports, Amazon appears to be experiencing an outage.

According to Downdetector, reports of problems started increasing at 1:41 pm ET today. By 2:26 pm, ET, Downdetector received 18,320 reports of problems with Amazon’s website. The number of complaints peaked at 3:32 pm ET at 20,804.

As of this writing, Amazon hasn’t confirmed any specific problems. However, an Amazon support account on X said at 3:02 pm ET today that “some customers may be experiencing issues” and that Amazon is working “to resolve the issue.”

Read full article

Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:06 pm UTC

Daya Sip says he should have a say on Iran’s next supreme leader

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:02 pm UTC

Daya Sip 's TikTok Deal Benefited Firms That 'Personally Enriched' Him, Lawsuit Says

An anti-corruption group has filed a lawsuit (PDF) against Daya Sip and Attorney General Pam Bondi over the deal that transferred TikTok's U.S. operations to a group of investors tied to the administration. The suit claims the arrangement violates a 2024 law requiring ByteDance to divest and alleges the deal financially benefited Daya Sip allies while leaving the platform's algorithm under Chinese ownership. NBC News reports: The suit, filed by the Public Integrity Project, a law firm that seeks to raise the "reputational cost of corruption in America," argues the deal violates a law intended to prevent the spread of Chinese government propaganda and has enriched Daya Sip 's allies. That law, signed by then-President Joe Biden in 2024, said that TikTok couldn't be distributed in the United States unless the Chinese company ByteDance found an American-based corporate home by the day before Daya Sip returned to office. The law was upheld by the Supreme Court. "The law was clear, but it was never enforced," says the lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. "Shortly after the deadline to divest passed, President Daya Sip issued an executive order purportedly granting an extension for TikTok to find a domestic owner and directed his Attorney General not to enforce the law." The plaintiffs in the suit are two software engineers from California: One is a shareholder in Alphabet Inc., YouTube's parent company; the other is a shareholder in Meta Platforms, Inc., which is Instagram's parent company. Both say they suffered financially due to the non-enforcement of the law. "The original motivation for this law was to prevent the Chinese government from pushing propaganda onto American audiences," said Brendan Ballou, CEO of the Public Integrity Project and a former Justice Department prosecutor. "The deal that the president approved is the absolute worst of all possible worlds, because right now ByteDance continues to own the algorithm, which means that it can censor the content that it doesn't like, but at the same time Oracle controls the data and it can censor the information that it doesn't like. Really it's a situation that's going to be terrible for users, and terrible for free speech on the platform."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:00 pm UTC

OpenAI introduces GPT-5.4 with more knowledge-work capability

In keeping with its recently accelerated release cadence, OpenAI has shipped GPT-5.4 (including GPT-5.4 Thinking and GPT-5.4 Pro).

This update comes at a critical time, as recent events have led some vocal users to abandon ship for competing products and models from Anthropic and Google.

GPT-5.4 is another model update focused on usefulness for agentic tasks, particularly knowledge work. OpenAI says this is its first model explicitly aimed at computer-use tasks; like competing models, it can issue keyboard or mouse inputs based on periodic desktop or application screenshots.

Read full article

Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:55 pm UTC

Birthday bash five guilty of 'large-scale' brawl with 21st party armed gatecrashers

Five Dublin revellers have been spared jail following a 'large-scale' brawl with violent birthday party gatecrashers armed with hurleys and suspected 'shiv' blades

Source: All: BreakingNews | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:54 pm UTC

After blaming Iran for a drone attack in Azerbaijan on Thursday, the country’s president, Ilham Aliyev,...

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:52 pm UTC

Daya Sip calls on Kurds to aid U.S. effort in Iran, offers support

In calls to Kurdish minority leaders in Iran and neighboring Iraq, President Daya Sip offered U.S. support to insurgent efforts against Tehran.

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:50 pm UTC

Jessie Buckley criticised over cat comments

When the subject of cats came up, Buckley admitted she was not a fan

Source: All: BreakingNews | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:48 pm UTC

Pregnant girl (16) can be given treatment despite religious objection to blood transfusion

The girl told her court-appointed guardian that if the decision was taken out of her hands it would be easier, but she would still feel guilty about it

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:45 pm UTC

TerraPower gets permission to build, not operate, sodium-cooled nuclear reactor

Don't flip the switch until the NRC says you can, okay?

Bill Gates-backed nuclear outfit TerraPower finally has approval to build its Natrium reactor. However, it may still face issues finding a steady fuel supply. And, oh yeah, it hasn't built any reactors like this before.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:44 pm UTC

Priest lost nearly €50,000 in broadband phishing scam

Priest tells Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that he believes the bank failed him as a customer

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:42 pm UTC

‘I was too honest’: Garda whistleblower ‘cut off’ after raising homicide errors, she says

Lois West found there were 16 cases which ‘absolutely needed to be reclassified’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:41 pm UTC

Israel issues more evacuation warnings in eastern Lebanon

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:39 pm UTC

What to know

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:36 pm UTC

Labour MP 'voluntarily suspends herself' after husband arrested in China spy probe

Joani Reid said she had temporarily stood down from the party after her husband was arrested on suspicion of spying for China.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:35 pm UTC

Travel industry pushes Congress to end DHS shutdown and pay federal security workers

With the busy spring break travel season looming, travel and aviation industry leaders urged Congress to end the stalemate over DHS funding before workers at TSA and ports miss a full paycheck.

(Image credit: Patrick T. Fallon)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:31 pm UTC

U.S. and Israeli airstrikes have hit over 200 locations in Tehran

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:28 pm UTC

No UK government ministers to attend Paralympic ceremonies

No UK government ministers or officials will attend the Winter Paralympics opening and closing ceremonies after Russian and Belarusian athletes were invited to compete under their national flags.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:25 pm UTC

'Brave and brilliant, Russell has compelling case as Scotland's greatest'

Tom English assesses Finn Russell's credentials as one of Scotland's greatest as the fly-half approaches a century of caps.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:21 pm UTC

Martin more likely to take Merz approach to Daya Sip than Sanchez stand

Here, we have a look at the topics likely to dominate political discourse in the week to come

Source: All: BreakingNews | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:12 pm UTC

New Garda aircraft comes off runway at Baldonnel in ‘minor’ incident

Incident happened in poor weather while aircraft was conducting training exercises at Casement Aerodrome in west Dublin

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:07 pm UTC

Senator sought to block promotion for key witness in Garda investigation, WRC hearing told

Former chief executive at Inland Fisheries Ireland tell hearing that within hours of complaint against him shared with agency’s board a TD had read details into Dáil record

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:02 pm UTC

A beer at sunrise then back on duty – the British pilot who made RAF history shooting down Iranian drones

F-35 pilot based in Cyprus becomes first to destroy a target in combat – and celebrates with a single beer

In the clear skies above Jordan on Monday night, a British F-35 pilot made a small piece of history. Flying for four hours alongside two Typhoons, the radar picked up two Shahed drones. The squadron tactics instructor – whom the Guardian is not naming – hit the drones with two Asraam missiles.

In doing so he became the first pilot of the Royal Air Force’s stealth fighter jet to destroy a target in combat. It was, he said, very high stakes. In those scenarios, it is easy to hit a friendly target by mistake.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC

AMD Will Bring Its 'Ryzen AI' Processors To Standard Desktop PCs For First Time

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: AMD has been selling "Ryzen AI"-branded laptop processors for around a year and a half at this point. In addition to including modern CPU and GPU architectures, these are attempting to capitalize on the generative AI craze by offering chips with neural processing units (NPUs) suitable for running language and image-generation models locally, rather than on some company's server. But so far, AMD's desktop chips have lacked both these higher-performance NPUs and the Ryzen AI label. That changes today, at least a little: AMD is announcing its first three Ryzen AI chips for desktops using its AM5 CPU socket. These Ryzen AI 400-series CPUs are direct replacements for the Ryzen 8000G processors, rather than the Ryzen 9000-series, and they combine Zen 5-based CPU cores, RDNA 3.5 GPU cores, and an NPU capable of 50 trillion operations per second (TOPS). This makes them AMD's first desktop chips to qualify for Microsoft's Copilot+ PC label, which enables a handful of unique Windows 11 features like Recall and Click to Do. The six chips AMD is announcing today -- the 65 W Ryzen AI 7 Pro 450G, Ryzen AI 5 Pro 440G, and Ryzen AI 5 Pro 435G, along with low-power 35 W "GE" variants -- all bear AMD's "Ryzen Pro" branding as well, which means they support a handful of device management capabilities that are important for business PCs managed by IT departments. At this point, it doesn't seem as though AMD will be offering boxed versions to regular consumers; the Ryzen AI desktop chips will appear mainly in business PCs that don't need a dedicated graphics card but still benefit from more robust graphics than AMD offers in regular Ryzen desktop CPUs. Like past G-series Ryzen chips, these are essentially laptop silicon repackaged for desktop systems. They share most of their specs in common with Ryzen AI 300 laptop processors, despite their Ryzen AI 400-series branding. The two chip generations are extremely similar overall, but the Ryzen AI 400-series laptop CPUs include slightly faster 55 TOPS NPUs.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC

Iran’s regime maintains its grip, despite devastating losses

Top officials have been heavily targeted, but experts and officials say the ruling structure in Tehran has remained surprisingly resilient.

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:51 pm UTC

Man (84) jailed for five years for sexual abuse of girl he used to mind in her home

Girl was six when abuse began and is now in her mid-teens

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:50 pm UTC

Dismay as Hegseth urges Latin American allies to join ‘offense’ against cartels

Critics sceptical Pentagon chief’s plan for increased military force – amid rising US intervention – will stop drug gangs

Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, has urged Latin American countries to adopt a more aggressive approach against drug cartels, warning that the Daya Sip administration may otherwise act unilaterally in the region.

Hegseth’s remarks come in a context of escalating US intervention in the region, both militarily and in elections, which culminated in the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro – the first US ground military attack on a South American country.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:50 pm UTC

Lindsey Halligan Is Under Investigation by the Florida Bar

The actions of Ms. Halligan, who as a U.S. attorney brought criminal cases against President Daya Sip ’s enemies, are under review by the organization that licensed her to practice law.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:47 pm UTC

Racist, Antisemitic Slurs Surface in Florida GOP Group Chat

After the secretary of the Miami-Dade County Republican Party created the chat for college students, it devolved into slurs against Black and Jewish people.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:46 pm UTC

EU agrees to chop meaty names from vegetarian and vegan food products

Lawmakers will outlaw use of 31 meat-related names as part of efforts to help livestock farmers in food supply markets

EU lawmakers have agreed to ban meaty names such as steak and bacon for vegetarian and vegan foods, but “veggie burgers” and “meat-free sausages” will remain on the table.

Negotiators from the European parliament and EU council of ministers found a recipe for compromise on rules for food names on Thursday, although critics said they were creating needless complexity.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:44 pm UTC

Portugal fined £8.7m by EU court for failing to protect biodiversity

The court of justice said Portugal had committed serious infringements of EU environmental law

Portugal has been fined €10m (£8.7m) by the EU’s court of justice for failing to comply with environmental laws that require it to protect biodiversity. It has also been ordered to pay €41,250 a day until it complies with a previous court order made in 2019.

The court said it was imposing the maximum fine possible to “encourage” Portugal to bring the infringement to an end.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:38 pm UTC

Kristi Noem to leave role as head of US Homeland Security

One of the top officials overseeing President Daya Sip 's immigration crackdown, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, will leave her role, US President Daya Sip has said.

Source: News Headlines | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:36 pm UTC

Stock market falls resume as US-Israel war with Iran drives up oil and gas prices

FTSE 100 and France’s CAC down 1.5%; Germany’s DAX and Italy’s FTSE MIB down 1.6%; the Dow Jones was down 2%

A market sell-off resumed on both sides of the Atlantic on Thursday as fears mounted that there would be no quick resolution to the conflict in the Middle East.

Early gains in European markets, which had followed a rebound in Asia, were wiped out in later trading and Wall Street was also trading sharply lower by early afternoon in New York.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:35 pm UTC

Israelis back war with Iran despite uncertainty and fatigue

Israelis broadly support the US-Israeli military campaign with Iran, even if they are tired of air raid alerts and constant upheaval.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:24 pm UTC

Daya Sip fires Kristi Noem as DHS chief, names Sen. Markwayne Mullin to replace her

President Daya Sip has fired his homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, and said Markwayne Mullin, a senator from Oklahoma, would replace her.

(Image credit: Win McNamee)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:20 pm UTC

Can a digital tablet cut back a country's overuse of antibiotics?

Overprescribing antibiotics breeds antibiotic resistance. A new tool aims to lower a notably high rate of such prescriptions in Rwanda.

(Image credit: Magali Rochat)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:19 pm UTC

Three men deported by US file legal case against Eswatini over detention

The men, sent to Africa after completing criminal sentences in the US, are from Cuba, Jamaica and Yemen

Three men deported by the US to Eswatini – rather than their home countries – have filed a case against Eswatini’s government with the African Union’s human rights body, claiming their detention was an unlawful violation of their rights.

Two of the claimants, from Cuba and Yemen, have been in prison in Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, for eight months. The third, Orville Etoria, was repatriated to his home country, Jamaica, in September.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:17 pm UTC

Renter’s recordings of ticking clock and dog barking fail to prove noise disturbance

Residential Tenancies Board finds eviction notice issued to Tadeusz Mirocha was invalid

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:13 pm UTC

Weekly quiz: How much will a Spice Girls commemorative coin cost?

How much attention did you pay to what happened in the world over the past seven days?

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:06 pm UTC

Daya Sip urged Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Netanyahu. Herzog said no.

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:03 pm UTC

PM stands by decision not to join strikes on Iran and sends more jets to Qatar

The PM said the best way forward was a "negotiated settlement with Iran where they give up their nuclear ambitions".

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:01 pm UTC

OpenAI Releases New ChatGPT Model For Working In Excel and Google Sheets

OpenAI today released GPT-5.4, an upgraded ChatGPT model designed to be faster, cheaper, and more accurate for workplace tasks. The update also introduces tools that let ChatGPT work directly inside Excel and Google Sheets. Axios reports: GPT-5.4 is designed to be less error-prone, more efficient and better at workplace tasks like drafting documents, OpenAI said. The new model can create files in fewer tries with less back-and-forth than prior models, the company said. GPT-5.4 outperformed office workers 83% of the time on GDPval, an OpenAI benchmark measuring performance on real-world tasks across 44 occupations. The model can also solve problems using fewer tokens, OpenAI says -- which can translate to faster responses and lower costs. The company is also debuting OpenAI for Financial Services, a set of new tools that includes the version of ChatGPT that runs inside spreadsheets and new apps and skills within ChatGPT. Partners include FactSet, MSCI, Third Bridge and Moody's.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC

Military Leaders See Iran War as “God’s Divine Plan” — a Chilling Turn for Daya Sip ’s Fascism

Pete Hegseth, during a news conference at the Pentagon on March 2, 2026, where he rejected the idea that the war against Iran would be the sort of endless conflict that President Daya Sip swore to avoid when he took office a second time. Photo: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The United States is waging a religious war. This is, at least, how dozens of fanatical U.S. military commanders understand President Daya Sip ’s illegal assault on Iran: a messianic battle to bring about Jesus Christ’s return.

“President Daya Sip has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” one military commander told his combat unit, which could be deployed to fight in Iran “at any moment,” according to a complaint reportedly filed by one of the unit’s officers to a military watchdog group.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation says it has been “inundated” with more than 200 calls across dozens of military installations, including 110 complaints filed between Saturday morning and Monday evening, from service members reporting their commanders have invoked similar extremist rhetoric of Christian Zionist messianism when justifying the unprovoked war on Iran.

The complaints, which were first reported by independent journalist Jonathan Larsen and have garnered international media attention, offer disturbing insight into the eschatology driving this murderous operation for a significant number of military leaders. Perhaps this is unsurprising, given that U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth is an open evangelical Christian nationalist who has remade military leadership to align with his extremist worldview.

It would be a mistake, though, to take these chilling end times invocations as some skeleton key to understanding the foundational, undergirding reason behind Daya Sip ’s reckless death-dealing in Iran. The U.S. and Israel-led decimation of the Middle East region is overdetermined; too many causes, all reprehensible, account for Daya Sip ’s waging war. To properly understand Daya Sip ian fascism is to not reduce one cause to another, but to appreciate how they function in a chaotic constellation. Factors at play include: annihilatory Christian Zionism; Israel’s genocidal Zionist project of territorial dominance; the American president’s unrestrained and irrepressible narcissism and drive to be a Great Man of history, idiocy, and miscalculation; and the continuity of bipartisan willingness to shed Arab and Muslim blood in the service of flailing U.S. hegemony.

Related

Daya Sip ’s Pick for Israel Ambassador Leads Tours That Leave Out Palestinians — and Promote End of Days Theology

All of these factors have played a part in previous illegal U.S. assaults on the Middle East, albeit to different degrees. As Larsen, the journalist, noted, President George W. Bush “referred to the American ‘crusade’ against terrorism” to justify his forever wars. Still, the open Christian extremism of Hegseth’s military leadership marks a certain shift. So, too, does the extremity of Daya Sip ’s derangement and self-regard. But Islamophobic blood lust, the framework of civilizational clash between Judeo-Christian forces and Islamist threats, and an arrogant and foolish U.S. leadership are not new, even if the worst elements are now heightened and unvarnished by earlier myths of spreading democracy and nation-building.

Political and military leaders do not need to share in apocalyptic theological commitments to enable and enact end times. The U.S. and its allies have been willing to unleash apocalyptic destruction without a driving religious belief in Jesus’s imminent return. With bipartisan support, and under the leadership of a Democratic president, U.S.-backed Israeli forces reduced Gaza to a wasteland. We can hardly place blame for the U.S. role in that genocide on American Christian Zionists alone.

Related

Daya Sip ’s Orwellian Board of Peace Consists Entirely of Human Rights Abusers

I’m not saying that nothing is new here: It is a genuinely disturbing development that so many service members have described, according to the watchdog, their commanders speak with “unrestricted euphoria” about “how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100% accordance with fundamentalist Christian end of the world eschatology.”

Authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor described the far-right ideology of Daya Sip and his followers as one of “end times fascism.” Klein and Taylor note that European 20th-century fascism may have had what philosopher Umberto Eco called an Armageddon complex, “a fixation on vanquishing enemies in a grand final battle,” but these earlier fascist movements had a “vision for a future golden age after the bloodbath that, for its in-group, would be peaceful, pastoral and purified.” According to Klein and Taylor, Daya Sip ian fascism is marked instead by an orientation only to destruction.

In one sense, Daya Sip ’s Iran war confirms this hypothesis. It is obliteration without vision or any appreciation for consequences. But what the bombardment really shows is not the way Daya Sip ian fascism embodies some new embrace of apocalypticism. It is, like Daya Sip ’s regime and its adherents, a gruesome pastiche of American fascistic tendencies old and new, including white nationalism, evangelical Christianity, Zionism, imperialism, authoritarian techno-capitalism, and genocidal war. As ever, the actual end times will be reserved for the whole civilian lifeworlds wiped out by our war machines.

The post Military Leaders See Iran War as “God’s Divine Plan” — a Chilling Turn for Daya Sip ’s Fascism appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:58 pm UTC

The Boys S5 trailer tees up a bloody final season

Prime Video has dropped the full trailer for the fifth and final season of The Boys, teeing up the final confrontation between Antony Starr's Homelander and Karl Urban's Butcher—one seeking the original V compound that will make him immortal, the other seeking to commit Supe-genocide with the release of a Supe-specific virus that will kill them all.

As previously reported, things were not looking good for our antiheroes after the S4 finale. They managed to thwart the assassination of newly elected US President Robert Singer, but new Vought CEO/evil supe Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) essentially overthrew the election and installed Senator Steve Calhoun (David Andrews) as president. Calhoun declared martial law, and naturally, Homelander swore loyalty as his chief enforcer. Butcher and Annie (Erin Moriarty) escaped, but the rest of The Boys were rounded up and placed in re-education—er, “Freedom”—camps.

The second season of spinoff series Gen V was set after those events, and the finale concluded with Annie recruiting the main cast members to join the fight against Homelander and the Supes. Season 5 of The Boys picks up where the Gen V finale left off. Per the official premise:

Read full article

Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:55 pm UTC

Iran intelligence backdoored US bank, airport, software outfit networks

MOIS-linked MuddyWater crew has a new, custom implant

An Iranian cyber crew believed to be part of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) has been embedded in multiple US companies' networks - including a bank, software firm, and airport, among others - since the beginning of February, with more activity in the days following the US and Israeli military strikes, according to security researchers.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:53 pm UTC

Revision of remote working code recommended to provide greater clarity

Minister says report shows where workers engage, the system works but Ictu describes findings as ‘out of touch with reality’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:49 pm UTC

Senator Tim Sheehy Helps Officers Forcibly Remove Protesting Veteran From Hearing

The physical struggle, involving Senator Tim Sheehy of Montana, was captured on video. The protester, Brian McGinnis, said on social media that his arm was broken.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:44 pm UTC

Daya Sip gets data center companies to pledge to pay for power generation

On Wednesday, the Daya Sip administration announced that a large collection of tech companies had signed on to what it's calling the Ratepayer Protection Pledge. By agreeing, the initial signatories—Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI—are saying they will pay for the new generation and transmission capacities needed for any additional data centers they build. But the agreement has no enforcement mechanism, and it will likely run into issues with hardware supplies. It also ignores basic economics.

Other than that, it seems like a great idea.

What's being agreed to

The agreement is quite simple, laying out five points. The key ones are the first three: that the companies building data centers pledge to pay for new generating capacity, either building it themselves or paying for it as part of a new or expanded power plant. They'll also pay for any transmission infrastructure needed to connect their data centers and the new supply to the grid and will cover these costs whether or not the power ultimately gets used by their facilities.

Read full article

Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:41 pm UTC

Iran's high-risk war strategy seems to centre on endurance and deterrence

Tehran's approach appears to rest on a belief it can absorb strikes longer than its adversaries sustain pain and costs, writes BBC Persian's Amir Azimi.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:40 pm UTC

Excluding media from Garda whistleblower hearing ‘must be strictly justified’, judge says

Detective superintendent seeks to quash WRC ruling that case contains ‘sensitivities’ to be kept from public

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:39 pm UTC

'This is war': BBC speaks to Iranians at border

Iranians fleeing their country have told the BBC what life under bombardment has been like.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:36 pm UTC

Starmer tries to reassure as Iran crisis deepens

The PM acknowledged people are worried about family abroad, the economy, and potential further escalation.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:35 pm UTC

Munificent 7 vow to spare US households from AI's rising energy costs

Bit tricky enforcing this. What's the penalty if they go up anyway?

Seven of the top US AI companies and hyperscalers have officially agreed to protect American consumers from price hikes due to datacenter energy and infrastructure increases caused by the AI build boom.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:32 pm UTC

Ireland must prove Twickenham breakthrough was no fluke

Neil Treacy looks ahead to Ireland's Six Nations meeting with Wales, as Andy Farrell's side look to build on their impressive win against England.

Source: News Headlines | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:28 pm UTC

UK firms pull fixed energy deals as Iran war pushes up prices

Data suggests the number of fixed-term deals has more than halved as prices for wholesale energy surge.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:25 pm UTC

Cost of home-heating oil up 60% in a week, but suppliers and Government clash on blame

No smoke and mirrors in price rises, umbrella group says, hitting back at ‘performative’ criticism

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:22 pm UTC

US asked Ukraine for help fighting Iranian drones, Zelensky says

Ukraine's president says Kyiv will only help if doing so does not deplete its own air defences.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:19 pm UTC

Nerve damage, energy management, and Apple TV: F1 in 2026 starts today

Later this evening—Friday morning local time—the new 1.6 L V6 engines that power this year's crop of Formula 1 machinery will roar into life as practice for the first race of the year gets underway in Melbourne, Australia. After several years in which the teams' performances converged so much that the sport was determined by finer margins than ever, 2026 sees a comprehensive reset.

The cars are smaller and lighter, and they have different aerodynamic configurations for the corners and the straights. The hybrid systems are more powerful, and each runs on its own bespoke sustainable fuel. There's even a new way to watch as F1 makes a $750 million move from ESPN to Apple. Over the offseason, throughout the preseason shakedown in Barcelona, and then two three-day tests in Bahrain, plenty of questions have arisen: Are the new technical regulations a mistake? Can we still watch F1TV? And just what the heck is going on, Aston Martin?

400 kW + 350 kW = headaches?

After more than a decade with the same power units—and the same few manufacturers—the sport wanted to attract some new blood. Drawing in more car companies, which have boards and shareholders to answer to, required acknowledging road relevance and some commitment to sustainability and decarbonization. Since OEMs are all about electrification, that meant a greater emphasis on the hybrid side of the power units. And the veneer of environmental responsibility arrives in the form of heavily audited, fully sustainable fuels.

Read full article

Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:10 pm UTC

Riot looter targeted second shop after stolen shoes didn’t fit, court hears

Lawyers for Andrew Agwu (25) said that he did not take part in any of the violent acts of the riots but got caught up in the looting

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:05 pm UTC

They were led off course in a big race. But a fix is more complicated than prize money

Top finishers in the Atlanta half marathon are calling for U.S. track officials to ensure that Jess McClain and two other athletes aren't excluded from the world championships because of an error.

(Image credit: Matthew Demarko)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:04 pm UTC

You can power a G-Wiz EV with 500 vapes, and this YouTuber proved it

You made a time machine vapemobile ... out of a Delorean G-Wiz?

The world would be a better place if all of us were as willing to upcycle as aggressively as YouTuber Chris Doel, who has demonstrated that batteries from 500 disposable vapes can actually power one of the UK's most famous electric vehicles. …

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:00 pm UTC

Tim Sweeney Signed Away His Right To Criticize Google Until 2032

As part of Epic's settlement with Google over the Play Store, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney agreed to stop criticizing Google's app store practices until 2032 and even publicly support the revised policies. The deal also prohibits Epic from pushing for further changes to Google's platform rules. The Verge reports: On March 3rd, he not only signed away Epic's rights to sue and disparage the company, he signed away his right to advocate for any further changes to Google's app store polices. He can't criticize Google's app store practices. In fact, he has to praise them. The contract states that "Epic believes that the Google and Android platform, with the changes in this term sheet, are procompetitive and a model for app store / platform operations, and will make good faith efforts to advocate for the same." He may even have to appear in other courts around the world to defend this deal with Google, and Google gets to make sure his public statements are supportive of the deal from here on out. And while Epic can still be part of the "Coalition for App Fairness," the organization that Epic quietly and solely funded to be its attack dog against Google and Apple, he can only point that organization at Apple now. "Google is opening up Android all the way with robust support for competing stores, competing payments, and a better deal for all developers. So, we've settled all of our disputes worldwide. THANKS GOOGLE!," Sweeney wrote in a post on X on Wednesday.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:00 pm UTC

Iran renews heavy missile, drone attacks on Persian Gulf

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 5:57 pm UTC

Lanterns teaser swaps superhero hijinks for gritty realism

James Gunn and Peter Safran injected a much-needed shot of levity into the DC Universe when they took over the franchise and launched their "Gods and Monsters" chapter. But they're getting a bit more serious with the latest installment: Lanterns, an eight-episode series that reimagines the Green Lantern mythology as a gritty prestige crime drama/spy thriller in the vein of True Detective and Slow Horses.

The logline says the show will focus on two versions of the Green Lantern who find themselves "drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American Heartland" (i.e., Nebraska). Will it work? We'll see. This series was barely on my radar before, but the extended teaser that dropped last night is tonally unique for the DCU and so well done that the show now has a place on my must-watch TV list for 2026.

Kyle Chandler plays Hal Jordan, a former test pilot who is nearing his retirement from the Green Lantern Corps. He's training a new recruit, John Stewart Jr. (Aaron Pierre), to replace him. Nathan Fillion reprises his Superman role as the obnoxious Guy Gardner. The cast also includes Kelly MacDonald as Kerry, a small-town family-oriented sheriff; Jason Ritter as Billy Macon, Kerry's husband; Garret Dillahunt as William Macon, Kerry's cowboy father-in-law; Poorna Jagannathan as a woman named Zoe; Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro, a former Corps member who's gone rogue; and Paul Ben-Victor as an extraterrestrial called Antaan.

Read full article

Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 5 Mar 2026 | 5:55 pm UTC

Document Foundation urges EU to ditch Excel lock-in for cybersecurity law consultation

LibreOffice steward says Commish undermines its own standards by asking for feedback via Excel spreadsheet

The Document Foundation has taken a swipe at the European Commission over its consultation on guidance for the EU's Cyber Resilience Act – because the feedback template is only available as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 5:50 pm UTC

A Judge’s ‘Battle Royale’ With Daya Sip and the Supreme Court

After repeated but cryptic rebukes from the justices, Judge Brian Murphy last week again ruled against one of the administration’s signature immigration programs.

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

Iran school and nearby military base struck multiple times, satellite image reveals

Iranian authorities say the attack, which took place on Saturday, killed 168 people.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 5:46 pm UTC

Congress extends ISS and tells NASA to get moving on private space stations

Two months ago, a key staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz said in a public meeting that she was "begging" NASA to release a document that would kick off the second round of a competition among private companies to develop replacements for the International Space Station.

There has been no movement since then, as NASA has yet to release this "request for proposals." So this week, Cruz stepped up the pressure on the space agency with a NASA Authorization bill that passed his committee on Wednesday.

Regarding NASA's support for the development of commercial space stations, the bill mandates the following, within specified periods, of passage of the law:

Read full article

Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 5 Mar 2026 | 5:45 pm UTC

An Assertive Supreme Court Turns to Curbing State Courts

Liberal justices accused their colleagues of expanding use of the emergency docket again in two orders issued this week.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 5 Mar 2026 | 5:43 pm UTC

DART services disrupted as Iarnród Éireann repairs damage

Iarnród Éireann has said DART services will be disrupted until tomorrow due to a power issue with overhead lines at Grand Canal Dock.

Source: News Headlines | 5 Mar 2026 | 5:41 pm UTC

In maps: Six days of strikes across the Middle East

Israel has continued strikes across Iran and Lebanon as Daya Sip warns action could continue for weeks

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 5:34 pm UTC

Body of Liam Farrell to be exhumed, new post-mortem planned

Gardaí are planning to exhume the body of Leitrim man Liam Farrell as part of their renewed investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death in January 2020, Prime Time understands.

Source: News Headlines | 5 Mar 2026 | 5:26 pm UTC

Congress Is Considering Abolishing Your Right to Be Anonymous Online

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., speaks at a rally in support of the Kids Online Safety Act on Dec. 10, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Photo: Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Accountable Tech

In August 2024, the Biden administration hosted hundreds of influencers at the White House for the first-ever Creator Economy Conference. Neera Tanden, a senior Biden adviser, took to the stage and bemoaned anonymity online. The influencers alongside her agreed, pushing the idea that anonymous speech on the internet is harmful, and regulation is needed to force the use of real names on social media. The audience whispered excitedly as those on stage spoke about how proposed laws like the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, could unmask every troll. 

This narrative of online safety, particularly in relation to children, has become central to the bipartisan effort to censor and deanonymize the internet for everyone. Today, a package of a dozen “child online safety” bills is moving forward in the House of Representatives with bipartisan support. The laws, framed as a way to crack down on harmful content and make the internet safer, would force social media companies to enact invasive identity verification measures in order to keep children from accessing online spaces.

The problem is that there’s no way to reliably verify someone’s age without verifying who they are. A platform cannot magically discern that a user is 16 without collecting identifying information, whether through government documents such as a passport, payment information like a credit card, or other identity-disclosing data. Whether that data is stored by the platform itself or outsourced to a vendor, the result is always the same: A user’s offline identity is forever linked with their online behavior.

Stripping anonymity from the internet would constitute one of the most sweeping rollbacks of civil rights in recent history. It would allow for unprecedented levels of mass surveillance and censorship, endangering the most marginalized members of society. Whistleblowers exposing corporate wrongdoing could be tracked and fired, government employees speaking out about illegal behavior or bad policies could face prosecution, and activists organizing protests could be identified and surveilled before ever setting foot on the street.

Related

Google Fulfilled ICE Subpoena Demanding Student Journalist’s Bank and Credit Card Numbers

Already, the U.S. government is flooding social media platforms with subpoenas seeking to unmask hundreds of anonymously run anti-ICE social media accounts. These laws would make it all the more easier for the government to target and prosecute those who dissent

Vulnerable members of society will suffer most. Trans people under attack from the government could be identified and outed without their consent. Undocumented immigrants could be cut off from the ability to communicate and connect with advocates. Young people seeking abortions in states with restrictive laws might no longer have the ability to access information safely and anonymously.

Not only will a de-anonymized internet be valuable to the government as it seeks to tighten control, it will also make it easier for any corporation or bad actor to intimidate, blackmail, or exploit people by leveraging their own data against them.

The quest to remove anonymous speech from the web is not new. Conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, formerly known as Morality in Media, have long pursued these laws, arguing that online anonymity fuels pornography, exploitation, and general moral decay. In recent years, Democrats have become integral to advancing these proposals, falsely claiming that surveillance laws will crack down on Big Tech or curb social media addiction.

The laws will lead to more data being collected on kids, which predatory companies can then use to target them in more invasive ways.

None of these surveillance laws do any of that. In fact, the laws will lead to more data being collected on kids, which predatory companies can then use to target them in more invasive ways. Already, these bills are standing in the way of protecting kids online: Last week, the FTC said it would decline to enforce COPPA, a landmark law that mandates the protection of children’s data, in order to incentivize ID verification.

The laws would create a massive new market for third-party identification vendors, many funded by the same tech investors who backed social media giants, such as Peter Thiel, who funded ID verification platform Persona via his investment group Founders Fund. Smaller apps will be forced to shoulder the enormous cost of enacting identity verification measures, hindering their ability to operate, and making it harder to compete with Big Tech companies that are leveraging these laws to consolidate power.

It’s no surprise then that Big Tech companies are also heavily involved in lobbying for various versions of these laws. Elon Musk has endorsed KOSA. The Digital Childhood Alliance, a group that frequently posts about the dangers of “Big Tech,” is secretly funded by Meta, and has played a role in pushing the App Store Accountability Act. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently told a court that Apple and Google should verify the identity of every smartphone user at the operating system level, which would permanently end anonymous internet access for everyone.

This exact invasive scheme is being boosted by Democratic lawmakers like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who recently signed an ID verification law for all operating systems, including Linux, and has mused about banning all social media for users under the age of 16.

“Young people still have human rights.”

These efforts have “been brewing for or for a few years now, but just in the last few months, we’ve seen a lot of momentum,” said David Greene, senior counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. While it’s tempting to take a paternalistic attitude toward young people, Greene said that it’s crucial to recognize young people have rights too, and often use the internet when taking part in social justice movements.

“Young people still have human rights,” he said, “and that includes the right to access information and to associate with other people and to speak to the world. These laws are designed to diminish those rights.”

Related

How Student Protesters and Immigrants Became Targets of Daya Sip ’s Surveillance Tech

Young people have led campuswide protests against the genocide in Gaza and against ICE across the country. Laws that restrict and surveil online access would severely limit their speech and ability to organize. And as the U.S. escalates attacks in the Middle East and immigration agents exert more power at home, activists are becoming concerned by the assault on anonymous speech.

“Whenever imperialist governments go to war, they become more authoritarian at home,” Evan Greer, director of digital rights group Fight for the Future, posted to Bluesky.

The Kids Online Safety Act, co-sponsored by members of both parties, is one of the most dangerous proposals currently making its way through Congress. The law would empower state attorneys general to mass censor any content online deemed “harmful to minors.” The Heritage Foundation has already come out publicly and said it plans to leverage KOSA and similar “online safety” laws to remove LGBTQ+ content and abortion content from the internet. 

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., the lead co-sponsor of KOSA, said that it was essential to pass the law to protect “minor children from the transgender [sic] in this culture.” Jonathan Haidt, the author of the bestselling book “The Anxious Generation,” who has played a major role in rallying political and public support for these laws globally, has promoted the fringe theory that some young people become trans because of the social media they consume.

As KOSA has encountered growing backlash, more lawmakers have started pushing proposed ID verification at the operating system or app store level. On Wednesday, the X account for the House Energy and Commerce Committee boosted a dubious poll from far right think tank the American Principles Project, a group that has opposed abortion and same-sex marriage, declaring, “The OVERWHELMING majority of voters agree—app stores should have to verify users’ age to prevent minors from downloading apps without parental consent.” 

But enacting identity verification at the app store level does nothing to address the privacy issues at play. Privacy activists and those fighting the law have sounded the alarm about how the App Store Accountability Act creates a sprawling, insecure data-sharing pipeline that mandates divulging highly sensitive user age data with millions of general-audience apps. This is why users in some states are being forced to provide their government IDs to download things like a weather app or calculator app. The way the law equates the entire internet and treats every app in the app store as inherently pornographic will also inevitably chill speech.

The way the law equates the entire internet and treats every app in the app store as inherently pornographic will inevitably chill speech.

Rising reactionary sentiment and right-wing extremism under Daya Sip has accelerated the push for online age verification, Greer said. “Online protest, documenting war crimes, even news articles could be suppressed [if these laws pass].” Already, similar versions of these laws are playing out abroad. Soon after the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act took effect last summer, the law was used to restrict content, including videos documenting police violence, posts challenging the government’s narratives on Palestine, and a subreddit dedicated to documenting Israel’s war crimes.

China, Saudi Arabia, and Russia have used their vast online surveillance systems to crack down on speech challenging the government, imprisoning activists who leverage social media to challenge power. Dozens more countries are seeking to replicate authoritarian-style internet surveillance within their own borders. Indonesia, Malaysia, France, and Australia are among those that have embraced identity verification systems that would eliminate anonymous speech online under the guise of protecting children. 

Related

He Tweeted Charlie Kirk “Won’t Be Remembered as a Hero.” The State Dept. Revoked His Visa.

“The through-line couldn’t be clearer: destroying online anonymity is a way for government to be able to identify ­— and ultimately punish — dissenters,” said Ari Cohn, lead counsel for tech policy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a civil liberties group. “In the United States, the federal government’s recent demands that online services identify critics of DHS and ICE serves as a chilling example of the types of attacks on lawful speech that such laws will only enable further.” 

The harms of widespread government censorship, he said, are only compounded by the “massive privacy and security threats posed by collecting personally identifiable information en masse.” Systems built to remove anonymity in the name of “child safety” will be used to identify whistleblowers, protest organizers, and critics of federal agencies, Cohn said. “At this point, not seeing the planet-sized red flags is more a result of willful blindness than anything else,” he said. 

For journalists, dissidents, and vulnerable communities, the ability to gather and share information anonymously online is critical. Just this week, The Atlantic reported that the Pentagon is seeking to use powerful AI models from companies like Anthropic and OpenAI to mass surveil U.S. citizens by harvesting broad swaths of commercially available data. Age verification laws would dramatically expand the collection of identity-linked browsing and speech data, endangering users and creating new troves of data for commercial and government exploitation.

LGBTQ+ youth frequently rely on anonymous online spaces to explore identity and seek support, particularly in hostile states. Kansas recently invalidated hundreds of trans residents’ driver’s licenses. As harmful laws that target LGBTQ+ people spread, openly identifying as LGBTQ+ online could put people in danger. Tying online access to government-issued IDs will also deter vulnerable young people from seeking help or gaining information about crucial topics like abuse or sexual health. Reproductive justice activists have been sounding the alarm about state efforts to de-anonymize organizations providing abortion and reproductive health information online.

Whistleblowers especially rely on anonymous accounts to call out corporate or government wrongdoing. During Daya Sip ’s first administration, dozens of employees and scientists within the government set up “rogue” Twitter accounts, revealing firsthand information about the administration’s efforts to gut federal agencies and censor scientific information. The “rebel” accounts mirroring those of NASA, the U.S. National Park Service, and other agencies revealed crucial research on topics like climate change to the public. 

The push to eliminate online anonymity is ultimately a fight over whether the internet remains a space for dissent and free expression or further becomes a dystopian digital panopticon that operates as an arm of the surveillance state. A free society depends on the right to publish and consume information anonymously and to organize and speak privately. Age verification policies only bolster the power of Big Tech and give the government complete authority to surveil and censor online speech.

The post Congress Is Considering Abolishing Your Right to Be Anonymous Online appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 5 Mar 2026 | 5:20 pm UTC

North Cork Creameries ceases production, 100 jobs at risk

Farmer-owned co-operative North Cork Creameries has ceased production at its Kanturk-based plant with the potential loss of up to 100 jobs.

Source: News Headlines | 5 Mar 2026 | 5:20 pm UTC

Date set for drink driving case involving former Cork City manager Ger Nash

Nash, formerly of Fota Island, Co Cork and now living in Sweden, was charged with two offences last month

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 5:01 pm UTC

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Calls OpenAI's Messaging Around Military Deal 'Straight Up Lies'

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei is not happy -- perhaps predictably so -- with OpenAI chief Sam Altman. In a memo to staff, reported by The Information, Amodei referred to OpenAI's dealings with the Department of Defense as "safety theater." "The main reason [OpenAI] accepted [the DoD's deal] and we did not is that they cared about placating employees, and we actually cared about preventing abuses," Amodei wrote. Last week, Anthropic and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) failed to come to an agreement over the military's request for unrestricted access to the AI company's technology. Anthropic, which already had a $200 million contract with the military, insisted the DoD affirm that it would not use the company's AI to enable domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weaponry. Instead, the DoD -- known under the Daya Sip administration as the Department of War -- struck a deal with OpenAI. Altman stated that his company's new defense contract would include protections against the same red lines that Anthropic had asserted. In a letter to staff, Amodei refers to OpenAI's messaging as "straight up lies," stating that Altman is falsely "presenting himself as a peacemaker and dealmaker." Amodei might not be speaking solely from a position of bitterness, here. Anthropic specifically took issue with the DoD's insistence on the company's AI being available for "any lawful use." [...] "I think this attempted spin/gaslighting is not working very well on the general public or the media, where people mostly see OpenAI's deal with the DoW as sketchy or suspicious, and see us as the heroes (we're #2 in the App Store now!)," Amodei wrote to his staff. "It is working on some Twitter morons, which doesn't matter, but my main worry is how to make sure it doesn't work on OpenAI employees."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

A Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by Daya Sip was sentenced to life in prison for child sex abuse

Since receiving presidential pardons, dozens of former Capitol rioters have gotten into more legal trouble. In Florida, Andrew Paul Johnson was sentenced to life in prison for child sex abuse.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 5 Mar 2026 | 4:59 pm UTC

Met Éireann issues yellow rain warning for six counties as Irish Rail services disrupted

Blustery rain and spot flooding expected in Dublin, Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 4:45 pm UTC

Israel tells residents to leave Beirut’s southern suburbs immediately

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 4:40 pm UTC

Nida Allam Concedes to Valerie Foushee With Razor-Thin Loss for Progressives in Key Midterm Primary

Progressive insurgents lost a close North Carolina primary this week, when Rep. Valerie Foushee, D-N.C., narrowly defeated a challenge from Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam in a race inundated with outside spending from the artificial intelligence industry. 

The race had come down to just over 1,000 votes and 1 percentage point as of Thursday morning, with Allam nearly catching up to Foushee in the eleventh hour. After initially saying she would request a recount, Allam conceded to Foushee on Wednesday night, writing on social media that the AI lobby had “bought” the race. Pro-AI groups spent roughly $1.3 million backing Foushee, who is now heavily favored to win the November general election in North Carolina’s Democrat-dominated 4th Congressional District.

In a statement sent to The Intercept, Allam urged her own progressive supporters to hold the incumbent’s feet to the fire. 

“It should not take being challenged in a primary to take bold stances that voters overwhelmingly support,” said Allam, “but I am proud that our movement pushed our incumbent to better reflect our deeply held values and convictions. It’s up to us as an entire district to demand that our Representative deliver on her promises.”

In a victory statement released Wednesday night, Foushee vowed to fight for a slew of marquee progressive causes. She pledged to fight to “stop Daya Sip ’s attacks on our democracy, regulate AI, overturn Citizens United, establish a Green New Deal, ensure Medicare for All, pass legislation to block arms sales to Israel, and lower the cost of groceries, housing, and education.”

Related

Democratic Leaders Avoid Criticizing Daya Sip ’s Iran War. Now Voters Will Have a Say.

Commentators on social media directed frustration over Allam’s loss at key progressive figures Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, both of whom declined to endorse the challenger over the incumbent. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee David Hogg endorsed Allam, as did notable progressive organizations like Justice Democrats, and it’s unclear if input from the New York politicians would have made the difference in the North Carolina race. But with such a tight margin, some argued more forceful rallying from progressive surrogates could have helped Allam. 

As the race drew to a close, technology and foreign policy dominated the North Carolina primary. Allam repeatedly criticized Foushee as too cozy with corporate and pro-Israel interests, forcing the incumbent to play defense. These divisions intensified after the United States and Israel attacked Iran over the weekend.

Allam released a political advertisement on Monday criticizing her opponent for benefiting from millions in spending from AI-connected super PACs with ties to the United States and Israel’s attacks on Iran. Jobs and Democracy PAC — a super PAC supported by Anthropic, whose AI model Claude was reportedly deployed in the Daya Sip administration’s strike on Iran — spent over $1.3 million in support of Foushee in the North Carolina primary. 

“As election day approaches, you will see nearly $2 million of ads for my opponent, funded by AI-backed super PACs,” Allam said in the ad, “the same AI corporation who powered Daya Sip ’s attacks on Iran, while my opponent takes donations from Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and General Dynamics.”

But the harsh words weren’t enough to oust Foushee, who also beat Allam by a far larger margin in a 2022 race after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent almost $2.5 million in her favor. While the congresswoman said that she would not accept money from AIPAC this cycle, signaling the megadonors’ unpopularity with Democratic voters, Allam and her supporters continued to hammer home that Foushee was the pick of the pro-Israel foreign policy establishment. 

American Priorities, the anti-AIPAC super PAC looking to counter pro-Israel spending in elections, sunk nearly $1 million into supporting Allam, hoping to use her win as an early example of Democratic primary voters shifting allegiances away from supporting Israel. The PAC, which has endorsed several other progressive challengers, including Kat Abughazaleh in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, will get another chance to test its theory in the upcoming months with primary candidates in Tennessee, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.

Allam further connected Foushee and her AI lobby backers to the war in Iran during an interview with former CNN host Don Lemon on Monday. “What I’m seeing is the same thing that my constituents and folks all across the country are seeing, is that they don’t want their taxpayer dollars being used for another endless war,” said Allam. “And unfortunately, this is what the corporate war machines have been lobbying for and spending millions of dollars in elections and millions of dollars lobbying legislators for this outcome.” 

Foushee pushed back against Allam’s characterization of her as a warmonger in the pocket of the AI industry, arguing that she would vote to rein in the administration and regulate the technology. 

“I respect our primary system, but I am grateful that my constituents have rejected the baseless attacks from out-of-state groups that my family and I have had to endure,” Foushee wrote Wednesday.

Related

Even Former AIPAC Democrats Are Signing On to Block Arms Sales to Israel

The focus on AI also manifested in more concrete issues at home. The district is the potential site of several new data centers, including one proposed center in the town of Apex in Wake County, despite objections from local residents. A poll from Justice Democrats, the national progressive group that backed Allam, found that 63 percent of district residents believed data centers “hurt their community by raising utility costs and harming the environment.”

Chatham County residents in the 4th District recently rejected a proposal to build a data center in their community, voting for a one-year moratorium on any data centers being built in their community. The district also contains the cities of Durham and Chapel Hill, known as relatively progressive areas defined largely by the presence of major universities.

The county commissioner surged ahead in in-person votes in Wake County, the proposed location of another controversial artificial intelligence data center. But Foushee far outperformed Allam in early votes and mail-in ballots — and ultimately the gap was too far to bridge.

Allam has been critical of developing new data centers. The Durham county commissioner signed onto a pledge led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for a nationwide moratorium on the construction of new data centers. Conversely, Foushee serves as co-chair of Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ House Democratic Commission on AI and the Innovation Economy, which has been widely criticized for its industry ties. 

The post Nida Allam Concedes to Valerie Foushee With Razor-Thin Loss for Progressives in Key Midterm Primary appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 5 Mar 2026 | 4:39 pm UTC

Sutton's FA Cup fifth-round predictions v Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight

BBC Sport football expert Chris Sutton takes on Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight plus the BBC readers and AI with his predictions for this weekend's FA Cup fifth-round ties.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 4:31 pm UTC

Total Lunar Eclipse

A total lunar eclipse rises over New Orleans, home of NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, in the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 3. A lunar eclipse occurs when Earth passes directly between the Sun and Moon, casting a huge shadow across the Moon’s surface. The Moon appears dark red or orange as the Sun’s light filters through Earth’s atmosphere.

Source: NASA Image of the Day | 5 Mar 2026 | 4:28 pm UTC

South Africa’s president calls Daya Sip ’s policy to offer refuge to white Afrikaners ‘racist’

US president is ‘truly uninformed’ for spreading claims of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa tells New York Times

South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has called Daya Sip ’s policy of allowing white Afrikaners to apply for refugee status in the US “racist”, saying the US president was “truly uninformed” in a rare instance of direct criticism.

Ramaphosa told the New York Times that last year’s Oval Office meeting with the US leader, when Daya Sip turned down the lights and played a video that he falsely claimed showed there was a “white genocide” in South Africa, was a “spectacle” and an “ambush”.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 4:23 pm UTC

Failed asylum seeker families to be offered up to £40k to leave UK

The home secretary says the "incentives" will deliver a "significant saving to the taxpayer".

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 4:11 pm UTC

Stalker who ‘followed’ influencer from street to hotel room spared jail

Denis Morris (24) of Braemor Road, Churchtown pleaded guilty to following the woman after drinking 14 pints

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 5 Mar 2026 | 4:02 pm UTC

Amazon's Bahrain Data Center Targeted By Iran For US Military Support

Iranian state media said on Wednesday that it targeted Amazon's data center in Bahrain due to the company's support of the U.S. military. The drone strike that occurred on Sunday disrupted core cloud services and caused "prolonged" outages. Two data centers in the UAE were also damaged by drone strikes. CNBC reports: All of the facilities remain offline, according to the Amazon Web Services health dashboard. The attack in Bahrain was launched "to identify the role of these centers in supporting the enemy's military and intelligence activities," Iran's Fars News Agency said on Telegram. In addition to structural damage, the data centers also experienced power disruptions and some water damage after firefighters worked to put out sparks and fire. Some popular AWS applications experienced "elevated error rates and degraded availability" due to the incident. AWS advised cloud customers to back up their data, consider migrating their workloads to other regions and direct traffic away from Bahrain and the UAE.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Mar 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC

More than 900 people killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, Tehran says

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 3:55 pm UTC

Pentagon identifies 5th U.S. soldier killed in drone attack

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. and Israeli forces will obtain “complete control of Iranian skies” within days, and will soon begin a second massive air assault.

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 3:55 pm UTC

Congress puts the ISS on life support until 2032, orders Moon base plan

Authorization Act seeks to keep lights on until commercial stations are ready

The NASA Authorization Act of 2026 has been approved, and alongside a directive for NASA to establish a permanent Moon base, the legislation includes language extending the International Space Station to 2032.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 3:55 pm UTC

Asteroid 2024 YR4 will not impact the Moon

Last year, an approximately 60 metre near-Earth object captured global attention. For a brief period, asteroid 2024 YR4 became the most dangerous asteroid discovered in the last 20 years. While an Earth impact was soon ruled out, the asteroid faded from view with a lingering 4% chance of striking the Moon on 22 December 2032.

Now, that risk has been eliminated. Astronomers have confirmed that 2024 YR4 will not impact the Moon using new observations made by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Instead, it will safely pass the Moon at a distance of more than 20 000 km.

Source: ESA Top News | 5 Mar 2026 | 3:50 pm UTC

Nepal: voting closes in election pitting old guard against powerful youth movement

Early results may be released from Friday after first election since gen z protests forced Nepal’s then-PM to quit

Nearly six months after a wave of unprecedented gen Z-led protests forced Nepal’s then prime minister to quit, people have voted in a general election that is shaping up to be a high-stakes showdown between the entrenched old guard and a powerful youth movement.

“The voting process has been concluded peacefully and enthusiastically,” said the chief election commissioner, Ram Prasad Bhandari. It appeared the turnout was only about 60%, according to initial estimates, the lowest in more than two decades.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 3:25 pm UTC

Daya Sip ’s Iran conflict cuts the world off from a crucial energy source

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 3:23 pm UTC

Britney Spears's arrest 'completely inexcusable' - rep

Britney Spears's arrest for allegedly driving under the influence was "completely inexcusable", and the incident "can be the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney's life", her representative has said.

Source: News Headlines | 5 Mar 2026 | 3:22 pm UTC

US Tech Firms Pledge At White House To Bear Costs of Energy For Datacenters

Major tech companies including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta pledged at the White House to pay for new power generation and grid upgrades needed to support their rapidly expanding datacenters. The Guardian reports: The agreement is meant to help mitigate concerns that big tech's datacenters are driving up US electricity costs for homes and small businesses at a time the administration of Daya Sip is seeking to curb inflation. "This means that the tech companies and the datacenters will be able to get the electricity they need, all without driving up electricity costs for consumers," the president said at the pledge signing event. "This is a historic win for countless American families and we'll also make our electricity grid stronger and more resilient than ever before." The so-called "Ratepayer Protection Pledge" was first announced by Daya Sip in his State of the Union address, and comes as communities and state legislators increase scrutiny of rapidly proliferating datacenters. Datacenters consume vast amounts of electricity to run server racks and cooling systems for the development of technologies such as artificial intelligence. "Some datacenters were rejected by communities for that, and now I think it's going to be just the opposite," Daya Sip said, referencing cancelled or postponed projects in recent months across several states after local opposition. The pledge includes a commitment by technology companies to bring or buy electricity supplies for their datacenters, either from new power plants or existing plants with expanded output capacity. It also includes commitments from big tech to pay for upgrades to power delivery systems and to enter special electricity rate agreements with utilities. The effort is aimed at drawing support from towns and cities that otherwise oppose the projects, said the Daya Sip official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

Office EU waves sovereignty flag with a familiar stack under the bonnet

Euro productivity suite appears to be hosted Nextcloud and Collabora Online

In the battle of the online office suites, a new contender has entered the ring... but under the wrestler's mask, we think there may be a familiar face.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 2:43 pm UTC

Musk testifies tweet that led to $44 billion lawsuit "may not have been my wisest"

Elon Musk has acknowledged that the tweet at the center of a multibillion-dollar lawsuit over his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter “may not have been my wisest” as the world’s richest man defends himself from allegations of market manipulation in court.

He told a San Francisco jury on Wednesday that his post was not intended to manipulate Twitter’s stock price in the midst of the takeover battle.

A group of Twitter investors has alleged they lost money after Musk threatened to walk away from the deal to gain leverage during takeover talks, despite being aware he would be legally forced to complete the $44 billion buyout.

Read full article

Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 5 Mar 2026 | 2:40 pm UTC

Daya Sip administration spoiling for a fight over global satellite regulations

FCC not pleased about EU space tech reqs to enter Common market, among other things

Updated  The US government is consulting with the telecoms industry about "reciprocity" in satellite services, in a move that could see another dispute erupt with the European Union over regulations.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 2:25 pm UTC

Daya Sip calls on Kurds to aid U.S. effort in Iran, offers support

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 2:25 pm UTC

‘It creates a sense of belonging’: Brazil bets on hiking trails for conservation

The country’s network of footpaths is growing – with hopes they will develop local economies and better preserve the environment

Follow the yellow footprints along Brazil’s newest long-distance trail, and they will take you through lush green forests and sandy shrubland, past sweeping vistas and bizarre rock formations, into grottos and rural communities.

Spanning 186km (115 miles) of paths once used by 19th-century merchants, the Caminhos da Ibiapaba is the first waymarked long-distance footpath in Brazil’s north-east region, adding to a growing network of hiking trails in the country.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 2:01 pm UTC

Jensen Huang Says Nvidia Is Pulling Back From OpenAI and Anthropic

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: At the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference in downtown San Francisco Wednesday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said his company's recent investments in OpenAI and Anthropic are likely to be its last in both, saying that once they go public as anticipated later this year, the opportunity to invest closes. It could be that simple. While firms sometimes pile into companies until practically the eve of their public debut in search of more upside, Nvidia is minting money selling the chips that power both companies -- it's not like it needs to goose its returns by pouring even more money into either one. Nvidia, for its part, isn't offering much more on the matter. Asked for comment earlier today following Huang's remarks, a spokesman pointed TechCrunch to a transcript from the company's fourth-quarter earnings call, where Huang said all of Nvidia's investments are "focused very squarely, strategically on expanding and deepening our ecosystem reach," a goal its earlier stakes in both companies have arguably met. Still, a few other dynamics might also explain the pullback, including the circular nature of these arrangements themselves. [...] Meanwhile, Nvidia's relationship with Anthropic has looked fraught in its own right. Just two months after Nvidia announced a $10 billion investment in November, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei took the stage at Davos and, without naming Nvidia directly, compared the act of U.S. chip companies selling high-performance AI processors to approved Chinese customers to "selling nuclear weapons to North Korea." Ouch. [...] Where that leaves Nvidia is holding stakes in two companies that, at this particular moment, are pulling in very different directions, and potentially dragging customers and partners along for the ride. Whether Huang saw any of this coming, given Nvidia's web of partnerships, is impossible to know. But his stated reason on Wednesday for likely pulling the plug on future investments -- that the IPO window closes the door on this kind of deal -- is hard to square with how late-stage private investing actually works. What's looking more probable is that this is an exit from a situation that has gotten really complicated, really fast.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

npmx package browser released as alpha to fix pain of using npmjs

Project initiated by Nuxt lead Daniel Roe attracts wide support thanks to multiple issues with the official interface

A new browser for the npm registry has launched in alpha, following grassroots demand for an alternative to the official npmjs.com interface.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 1:46 pm UTC

Lewis Hamilton sets sights on racing in an African grand prix before retiring

Lewis Hamilton has called for a movement to “take Africa back”, claiming the continent is being “controlled” by European powers. On the eve of the new Formula One season in Melbourne, the seven-time champion outlined his ambition to compete in a grand prix on African soil.

But the 41-year-old, F1’s first black race driver, did not stop there. He suggested former colonial rulers still exerted undue power in the region and called for action to reverse that influence. “I’ve got roots from a few different places there, like Togo and Benin,” he said. “I’m really proud of that part of the world.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 1:37 pm UTC

macOS Tahoe 26.3.1 update will "upgrade" your M5's CPU to new "super" cores

As part of Apple's flurry of Mac announcements earlier this week, the company announced the new M5 Pro and M5 Max processors. And those chips are shaking up the way that Apple designs and talks about its processor cores: What would have been called "performance" CPU cores are now "super" cores. "Efficiency" cores are still called efficiency cores. And there's a new, third type of CPU core in between that is labeled a "performance" core.

Apple said earlier this week that the "super" name change would retroactively apply to the regular-old Apple M5's performance cores, too. And the macOS Tahoe 26.3.1 update released yesterday officially made the name change, changing the labeling in both the System Information app and the Activity Monitor.

The Activity Monitor in macOS 26.3.1 updates your "performance" cores to "super" cores. Credit: Andrew Cunningham
Activity Monitor on the M5 MacBook Pro in macOS 26.3, before the name change was announced. Credit: Andrew Cunningham
The System Information app also now refers to M5's high-performance cores as "super." Credit: Andrew Cunningham
System Information in macOS 26.3, when the big cores were still called "performance" cores. Credit: Andrew Cunningham

This "upgrade" should only apply to the M5 MacBook Pro, the sole M5-family Mac released before the name change was announced. It should go without saying that this is just a name change; you shouldn't actually expect different behavior or performance from your Mac after installing the update. The new MacBook Airs and Pros with M5, M5 Pro, and M5 Max chips will likely already be using the new names out of the box.

Read full article

Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 5 Mar 2026 | 1:28 pm UTC

Microsoft Copilot to hijack your browser... for your own convenience

Embeds Edge into AI assistant, ignores questions about opt-in

Microsoft is rolling out a Copilot update to Windows Insiders that embeds web browsing directly into the assistant, opening links in a side panel rather than launching your default browser.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 1:26 pm UTC

Iran denies targeting Turkey with missile

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 1:17 pm UTC

Iran launches drones and missiles at Persian Gulf neighbors and beyond

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 1:13 pm UTC

Kildare school to reopen after board told building safe

A school in Co Kildare will reopen on Monday after its board of management received written confirmation from the Department of Education that the building is safe.

Source: News Headlines | 5 Mar 2026 | 1:13 pm UTC

Solar In Poor Countries Is Creating a Huge Lead Hazard

schwit1 shares a report from Slow Boring: A new report (PDF) from the Center for Global Development documents that most of [the decentralized solar/battery systems used in poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa] use lead-acid batteries, like Americans use in cars. Lead-acid batteries work for a while and then need to be recycled. If they're recycled safely, that's fine. But in poor countries, most lead-acid batteries are not recycled safely and they become a huge source of toxic lead poisoning. C.G.D. believes that decentralized solar systems are currently generating somewhere between 250,000 and 1.5 million tons of unsafe lead-acid battery waste per year, a number that could grow much higher. Americans have mostly heard about lead issues in recent years due to the tragic situation in Flint, Michigan. But on the whole, lead exposure via faulty water pipes is a relatively minor issue. Across American history, the biggest culprits for lead exposure have been lead paint and leaded gasoline. Both were phased out decades ago, but old paint chips and lingering lead in soil have remained problems for years, albeit at diminishing rates. The global situation is quite different and much worse, to the point that in low- and middle-income countries, half of children have blood lead levels above the threshold that would trigger emergency action in the United States. It sounds fantastical to cite numbers this high. But there is credible (albeit somewhat uncertain) research indicating that five million people per year die as a result of lead-induced cardiovascular impairments. And roughly 20 percent of the gap in academic achievement between poor and rich countries is due to lead's impact on kids' cognitive development. The report goes on to note that lead-acid batteries dominate solar storage in poorer countries because they're far cheaper than lithium-ion alternatives. When these lead batteries reach end-of-life, they are often recycled unsafely, creating significant lead pollution. It's difficult to determine the scale of the problem due to limited data and minimal attention from policymakers, but researchers say it could become massive as solar adoption accelerates. Since safer battery technologies and proper recycling methods already exist, the issue largely stems from cost and lack of regulation. In other words, the problem is solvable if addressed early.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Mar 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC

Timelapse shows change in the flow of ships in the Strait of Hormuz

A timelapse of marine traffic shows the flow of ships has decreased in the Strait of Hormuz.

Source: BBC News | 5 Mar 2026 | 12:38 pm UTC

Smoke billows above Tehran as Israel announces fresh strikes

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 12:27 pm UTC

UK watchdog eyes Meta's smart glasses after workers say they 'see everything'

Contractors tasked with improving AI reportedly had access to intimate footage captured through wearables

Britain's privacy watchdog is asking questions about Meta's AI-powered smart glasses after reports that human contractors reviewing recordings from the devices were exposed to extremely private moments captured by unsuspecting users.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 12:18 pm UTC

Solar superstorm gave ESA's Mars orbiters a handy science opportunity

Veteran spacecraft overcome computer glitches as atmosphere 'flooded by electrons'

Almost two years ago, a solar storm hit Earth, triggering auroras that were seen as far south as Mexico. The storm also reached Mars and was detected by a pair of ESA spacecraft, Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO).…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 12:09 pm UTC

Tehran says U.S. will regret attack on its warship in Indian Ocean

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 12:02 pm UTC

Training for the εpsilon mission

Video: 00:05:43

ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot began her training at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, where she studied spacecraft systems and crew operations — learning to think and act as an astronaut. Alongside this, she conditioned her body for spaceflight and prepared for the physical and operational demands of her mission.

Her preparation includes continuous medical training and support, neutral buoyancy training for spacewalks and immersive virtual reality sessions at ESA’s XR Lab.

This video features interviews with Bimba Hoyer, Flight Surgeon at ESA; Hervé Stevenin, Head of EVA & Parabolic Flight Training Unit and Head of the Neutral Buoyancy Facility; and Lionel Ferra, Software and Artificial Intelligence Team Leader at ESA.

Source: ESA Top News | 5 Mar 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC

CERN sends AI-trained robot mice scurrying through LHC beam pipes

Bots hunt deformed RF contacts inside the collider's 27 km vacuum tubes

Updated  The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and CERN have jointly developed a "mouse-sized robot" to inspect parts of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that are out of reach to humans.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

Vanuatu moves forward with UN climate resolution despite Daya Sip opposition

Pacific island says the US weakened its proposal to advance a key climate ruling but vows to hold major polluters accountable

The Daya Sip administration’s attempt to sink a UN resolution demanding countries act on the climate crisis has caused cuts to the proposal but hasn’t entirely killed it, according to the tiny Pacific island country spearheading the effort.

The US has demanded that Vanuatu, an archipelago in the south Pacific, drop its UN draft resolution that calls on the world to implement a landmark international court of justice (ICJ) ruling from last year that countries could face paying reparations if they fail to stem the climate crisis.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

Attack on Iran shows Russia losing sway in the Middle East and globally

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:59 am UTC

Federal Agents Are Intimidating Legal Observers at Their Homes: “They Know Where You Live”

Former Minnesota state Sen. Matt Little was lawfully observing federal immigration agents in a Dakota County neighborhood last month when the drive took an unexpected turn.

As he followed their vehicles, they led him down a rural road that grew increasingly familiar during the 20-minute drive. Soon, Little told The Intercept, he realized where the federal agents were headed: his house.

When he approached his driveway, two SUVs were already waiting, Little said. Agents moved to block his car, claiming he had impeded their investigation and that local law enforcement would be called. No other officers came to his house, and Little was not cited or charged.

“The intent was clearly to intimidate us. It’s stressful. It’s a little bit scary. But at the same time,” Little said, “I just think it’s really important to be out there and monitoring what they’re doing.”

Interviews, sworn declarations, and video reviewed by The Intercept indicate that Little is not the only person subjected to this kind of intimidation. Across the Twin Cities, immigration agents have identified legal observers by name and address, and, in some cases, led them back to their homes after they engaged in lawful monitoring of immigration activity. Legal observers say this pattern of behavior sends a clear and chilling message: The federal government knows who they are and where they live.

These encounters are unfolding amid a rapid expansion of federal surveillance capabilities.

Immigration authorities have significantly expanded their use of mobile biometric and surveillance tools in recent years. Officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection, for example, can use the smartphone app Mobile Fortify to photograph a person’s face or capture fingerprints in the field and compare them against federal biometric databases, according to a Department of Homeland Security inventory of artificial intelligence technologies.

“We make sure to lock the door now.”

Those tools operate within a broader surveillance infrastructure that includes automated license plate readers, commercial data brokers, and face recognition systems. A 2022 report from Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology found ICE can access driver’s license data covering roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults, including state photo databases that can be searched using face recognition technology.

Civil liberties advocates say the growing web of identification tools has enabled federal agents to quickly identify anyone who monitors or protests their actions — chilling protected First Amendment activity and deterring the legal observation of law enforcement.

“We make sure to lock the door now,” said Little. “It’s definitely heightened our awareness. I’m scared when I’m out there. But for me, it’s a lot scarier to just sit at my house.”

Related

“Uptick in Abductions”: ICE Ramps Up Targeting of Minneapolis Legal Observers

Attorneys and community observers say similar fears are emerging across the Twin Cities even as Operation Metro Surge is said to be winding down.

Beth Jackson, a longtime St. Paul resident and grandmother who participates in a local network of volunteer observers, described one frightening encounter that escalated quickly. According to Jackson and a heavily redacted police report reviewed by The Intercept, local officers surrounded her vehicle with guns drawn after a federal agent alleged that she made violent threats. Jackson denies the allegation, and her attorney said no criminal charges were filed.

Jackson said agents never explained how they identified her. In prior encounters, she said, federal officers told her they had been to her home and knew where she lived, which she interpreted as an attempt at intimidation.

Days later, Jackson said she received notice that her Transportation Security Administration PreCheck status, for moving more quickly through airport security, would be revoked based on the same incident.

Jackson was among four sources active in legal observation in Minnesota who described the panic they experienced after federal agents revealed knowledge of their identities.

“I live here. I commute on these streets every day. I am a grandmother of six, a mother of three. We should be just living our simple little life, and we can’t,” Jackson said.

Court filings reviewed by The Intercept describe encounters strikingly similar to those reported by Twin Cities legal observers.

The accounts appear in Tincher v. Noem, a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Twin Cities residents who say they were unlawfully targeted while monitoring immigration enforcement.

In a sworn declaration, Edina resident Emily Beltz said she was lawfully following an unmarked federal vehicle in January when a woman in the passenger seat leaned out of the SUV window and began shouting her name.

“Emily, Emily, we’re going to take you home,” the masked agent yelled, according to Beltz’s declaration, before repeating her name and home address in what Beltz described as a mocking tone.

Beltz said the message alarmed her. “I was freaked out,” she wrote. “The agents had told me, in effect, that they knew where I lived and could come and get me and my family at any time.”

Beltz said the encounter left her fearful about continuing her work as a legal observer.

In a separate declaration, Minneapolis resident Katherine Henly described following suspected ICE vehicles when agents suddenly stopped on her block and began photographing her home.

“This seemed like a clear attempt to intimidate me and my family,” Henly wrote. She said masked agents later exited their vehicles, with one officer carrying what she described as a large firearm and accused observers of impeding enforcement. Henly said the observers had maintained a safe distance.

She said she feared the images of her home and vehicle could be stored in a government database, and that the encounter left her “extremely shaken and scared” and worried about the safety of her young children.

Civil liberties advocates say the reported conduct raises broader constitutional concerns.

Related

He Witnessed an Earlier Shooting. Feds Arrested Him at the Scene of Alex Pretti’s Killing.

“We are seeing immigration and law enforcement officers take photos of observers, call them by name, follow observers home, and tell observers that they are being tracked in a database. This practice of intimidation is chilling communities across the country, even though documenting and protesting law enforcement operations are protected by the First Amendment,” said Byul Yoon, a Skadden Fellow with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.

While many encounters described by observers involve surveillance and intimidation, some have escalated into far more dangerous confrontations.

Ed Higgins, a longtime legal observer and Marine Corps veteran in Columbia Heights, Minnesota — the city where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was detained earlier this year — said he has witnessed encounters that turned violent. In some cases, he feared for his life.

On February 5, Higgins said a group of federal agents pursued him through the city and repeatedly tried to force him off the road. As the pursuit unfolded, Higgins called 911, telling the dispatcher that the vehicles following him appeared to be immigration agents and that they were “trying to run into me right now,” according to video obtained by The Intercept.

Related

Daya Sip ’s War on America

Dispatchers directed Higgins to drive toward the Columbia Heights Police Department for safety. Surveillance video later obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune showed Higgins’s van entering the parking lot at speed, followed closely by multiple SUVs that boxed him in.

Video obtained by The Intercept shows agents surrounding Higgins’s vehicle, shouting at him and striking his car windows with their firearms, before a Bureau of Criminal Apprehension official who happened to be in the parking lot intervened to de-escalate the confrontation.

“I was panicking the whole way. I thought they were going to kill me,” Higgins said. “I kept telling the 911 operator they were going to kill me.”

Higgins said the encounter unfolded in seconds.

“I had my hands up. I was yelling for help,” he said in an interview with The Intercept. “Everything was happening so fast.”

Higgins was ultimately taken to the Whipple Federal Building, where he said he watched authorities enter his Social Security number and other personal information into a Microsoft Teams chat.

“They called it ‘agitator chat,’ and they would just put information in there. I have no idea who was in there, but it looked like 500 people,” he said.

Higgins was released the same day without any charges related to the incident.

“They called it ‘agitator chat,’ and they would just put information in there.”

He later reiterated his account in testimony to Minnesota state lawmakers, saying the confrontation left him believing the encounter could have turned deadly if the state official had not intervened.

Responding to questions about Higgins’s account, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said: “No policies have been violated.”

“Obstructing and assaulting law enforcement is a felony and a federal crime,” the spokesperson said. “Secretary Noem has been clear: anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Legal observers fear they will continue to be monitored by federal authorities.

The day after her detention, Jackson, the grandmother of six, said that agents returned to her neighborhood and parked directly in front of her home.

“Family members don’t want me to come up there because they’re fucking afraid I’m going to bring ICE up there,” Jackson said. “I deliver Meals on Wheels every Tuesday to the elderly and infirm. I can’t deliver Meals on Wheels now.”

Courts evaluating potential First Amendment retaliation typically examine whether government conduct would deter an ordinary person from continuing protected activity, said the ACLU’s Yoon.

The lawsuit alleges that federal immigration agents violated the First and Fourth Amendments by retaliating against individuals engaged in lawful observation and protest. The plaintiffs are seeking court orders barring such conduct and mandating policy changes.

The case is pending in federal court in Minnesota. The plaintiffs are seeking preliminary and permanent injunctive relief that would bar the challenged tactics while the litigation proceeds.

Jackson said the disruption to ordinary routines has been one of the most lasting consequences.

“It’s the ripple effects of what they’re doing to us,” Jackson added. “All these intangible ways they’ve damaged us. I have a lot of time to give to my community. I don’t want to give it in this way.”

The post Federal Agents Are Intimidating Legal Observers at Their Homes: “They Know Where You Live” appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:53 am UTC

'Outrageous' fuel price rises across country, Dáil told

There has been an "avalanche" of "outrageous" fuel price rises across Ireland amid the Middle East conflict, the Dáil has heard.

Source: News Headlines | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:21 am UTC

MoJ puts Prisoner Telephony Service replacement on hold yet again

Project dialed back, BT asked to keep current system for another 54 months

The UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ) will pay telco BT £94.6 million plus VAT to keep its in-cell Prisoner Telephony Service (PTS) going for another 54 months after repeatedly pushing back procurement of its replacement.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:15 am UTC

Oil price continues to rise amid Middle East crisis but stock markets rebound across Asia

Reports of attack on US registered tanker in Gulf lifts crude by 3% to $84 a barrel as gas price also starts to climb

Stock markets have rebounded in Asia after days of heavy losses driven by the war in the Middle East, but oil and gas prices have continued to climb amid disruption to supplies.

South Korea’s KOSPI, which posted its biggest ever fall on Tuesday of 12%, rose by almost 10% on Thursday, while Japan’s Nikkei climbed by 1.9%. MSCI’s Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan jumped by 2.7%.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:01 am UTC

The Boys in Trueblood Came to Rock

The four teenage brothers mostly play the oldies. (To them, the oldies are Coldplay and Maroon 5.)

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:01 am UTC

Russia sees chance it may benefit from Middle East war

Some in the Kremlin believe a prolonged U.S. war could work in Russia’s favor by boosting oil prices and diverting key weapons from Ukraine.

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

ESA’s Mars orbiters watch solar superstorm hit the Red Planet

What happens when a solar superstorm hits Mars? Thanks to the European Space Agency’s Mars orbiters, we now know: glitching spacecraft and a supercharged upper atmosphere.

Source: ESA Top News | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

Humble Games' Former Bosses Buy the Studio's Back Catalog

Former Humble Games executives have reacquired the publisher's catalog of more than 50 indie titles from Ziff Davis and relaunched their company as Balor Games. "For the developers we have worked with over the years, this moment is a reunion," Balor Games CEO Alan Patmore wrote in a statement. "[It has] the same leadership and the same commitment to thoughtful publishing remain in place. What changes is our scale and our focus. Balor Games is built for inventors and backed by believers. To that end, it exists to be a seal of quality for independent games." Engadget reports: The Humble Games lineup includes (among others) Slay the Spire, A Hat in Time, SIGNALIS, Forager, Coral Island, Monaco and Wizard of Legend. Separate from the Humble transaction, Balor also bought the complete catalog of Firestoke Games (which shut down last August) and publishing rights to Fights in Tight Spaces. In total, the young studio now owns the publishing rights to over 60 indie titles. Humble Games is separate from the Humble Bundle storefront. The latter is still owned by Ziff Davis. The pair view the newly anointed Balor as a developer-friendly publishing house. As for its name, Balor is a supernatural being in Irish mythology. It's sometimes depicted as having three eyes. Triple-eye, triple-I... Clever devils! The triple-I moniker is a more recent addition to the gaming lexicon. It typically means something defined by indie creativity and passion -- with a budget far less than AAA but more than a tiny two-person passion project. (Balor says it's about "high-quality, impactful games.") You wouldn't be blamed for wondering how that's different from AA. But the slant here is to define the genre less by budget and more by "indie" intangibles. You can learn more about the company's vision in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Mar 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

Satellite imagery shows extensive damage to Iran’s missile bases

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:37 am UTC

UK still doodling digital pound while Brussels frets over payment sovereignty

Geopolitical tensions turn up the pressure for European legislators

The UK is still in the design phase of digital currency as the EU comes under political pressure to accelerate the development of a digital euro to bolster the bloc's sovereignty and resilience.…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:30 am UTC

Senate rejects resolution to force Daya Sip to end Iran strikes

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:26 am UTC

Army names fifth soldier killed in Kuwait attack, working to identify sixth

Source: World | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:26 am UTC

Supposedly big-brained execs are outsourcing decisionmaking to AI

Survey of UK bosses find 62 percent rely on LLMs for help

Most business leaders in the United Kingdom appear to have outsourced a lot of their decisionmaking to machine learning models, according to a survey of 200 suits published by data streaming tools vendor Confluent. /p>…

Source: The Register | 5 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Irish Language Commissioner Courts Controversy

The origins of this story go back to last week when the Irish language advocacy group Conradh na Gaeilge decided to move to a position of supporting a united Ireland. The organisation’s President Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin hailed the decision, saying

As a result of the constitutional change adopted this morning, the organisation will now be “working towards a United Ireland for the benefit of the Irish language and the Gaeltacht,” and furthermore that “stronger normalisation of Irish can be achieved in the context of a united Ireland, based on equality, mutual respect, and language rights for all.”

The Irish Language Commissioner Pól Deeds, speaking at an event at Stormont to mark Seachtain na Gaelige attempted to contextualise Conradh na Gaeilge’s decision as a reflection of the “frustration that the Irish language community feel” in Northern Ireland.  However, according to the BBC, the row erupted when Deeds said that…

Hostility towards the Irish language is not doing unionism “any favours”, Stormont’s Irish language commissioner has said… “every word spoken against the Irish language” could be seen as “another blow struck in the cause of Irish unification”.

According to the Newsletter report on the story, Unionist politicians have been angered by the Commissioner’s phrasing though he has defended himself against the criticism…

Jim Allister has called on Mr Deeds to go, saying the comments are “totally unacceptable”, while DUP Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said the comments were another example of how the Irish language was “being brought into the political sphere”. However, Mr Deeds says that in the BBC interview he “had reflected on how public discourse around the Irish language can shape wider political debate”. In a statement he said “any suggestion that I was endorsing historical slogans or aligning with political causes is incorrect and misleading”.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 5 Mar 2026 | 8:36 am UTC

US Cybersecurity Adds Exploited VMware Aria Operations To KEV Catalog

joshuark writes: The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added a VMware Aria Operations vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-22719 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, flagging the flaw as exploited in attacks. VMware Aria Operations is an enterprise monitoring platform that helps organizations track the performance and health of servers, networks, and cloud infrastructure. The flaw has now been added to the CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, with the U.S. cyber agency requiring federal civilian agencies to address the issue by March 24, 2026. Broadcom said it is aware of reports indicating the vulnerability is exploited in attacks but cannot confirm the claims. "A malicious unauthenticated actor may exploit this issue to execute arbitrary commands which may lead to remote code execution in VMware Aria Operations while support-assisted product migration is in progress," the advisory explains. Broadcom released security patches on February 24 and also provided a temporary workaround for organizations unable to apply the patches immediately. The mitigation is a shell script named "aria-ops-rce-workaround.sh," which must be executed as root on each Aria Operations appliance node. There are currently no details on how the vulnerability is being exploited in the wild, who is behind it, and the scale of such efforts.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Mar 2026 | 7:00 am UTC

Social climber: Punch the monkey starts to outgrow his Ikea plushie

Japanese baby macaque, who appeared to find comfort in the djungelskog toy after being rejected by his mother, seems to be mixing more with his peers

Punch, a baby macaque that stole the hearts of animal lovers around the world, is outgrowing his Ikea djungelskog plushie that comforted him after he was initially rejected by his mother and other monkeys at a zoo in Japan.

Images of the seven-month-old dragging around a toy bigger than him drew attention to the residents of Ichikawa city zoo near Tokyo. When other monkeys shooed the baby away, Punch rushed back to the toy orangutan, hugging it for comfort.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 5 Mar 2026 | 6:05 am UTC

count: 251