jell.ie News

Read at: 2026-02-23T16:57:50+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Aya Sijbrandij ]

Care home boss sexually abused children for decades

A jury hears children were preyed upon by Malcolm Phillips and his assistant for more than 20 years.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:51 pm UTC

Fewer children in England to get EHCPs by 2035 under Send overhaul

Bridget Phillipson announces plans to make special educational needs system less reliant on cash-strapped councils

Bridget Phillipson has presented sweeping plans to overhaul special educational needs provision in England, with a package of measures designed to make the system less reliant on cash-strapped councils and give schools greater responsibility.

The education secretary on Monday announced her long-awaited Send proposals, which will result in hundreds of thousands fewer students getting education, health and care plans (EHCPs) than would otherwise have been the case.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:49 pm UTC

Inquiry into minister involved in targeting journalists to conclude ‘very soon’ - UK politics live

The Tories said it was ‘difficult to see’ how Josh Simons could continue in his role

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has been speaking about the Send reforms at an event in Peterborough.

This is what she said about the need for inclusion.

Inclusion is a choice. It is an educational choice, and it is also a political choice because we could duck this challenge, ignore the injustice of a postcode lottery in life chances putting off fixing the Send system yet again.

The system works well for some at least.

We welcome the scale of vision contained in the white paper which has the potential to create an education system that fully values children and young people with additional needs and their families.

We also welcome the commitment to retain statutory education, health and care plans (EHCPs) for children and young people whose needs cannot be met through this new model. We know that many parents will welcome the legal requirement for schools to create individual support plans (ISPs) for all children with Send.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:48 pm UTC

Nikita Hand may be awarded damages against couple

Nikita Hand may be awarded damages against a couple who swore affidavits on behalf of former MMA fighter Conor McGregor, after judgments were awarded against the couple by the High Court today.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:48 pm UTC

PayPal Attracts Takeover Interest After Stock Slump

An anonymous reader shares a report: PayPal, the digital payments pioneer, is attracting takeover interest from potential buyers after a stock slide wiped out almost half of its value, according to people familiar with the matter. The San Jose, California-based company has fielded meetings with banks amid unsolicited interest from suitors, the people said. At least one large rival is looking at the whole company, while some other suitors are only interested in certain PayPal assets, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Buyer interest in PayPal is still at a preliminary stage and may not lead to a transaction, the people cautioned. Founded in the late 1990s, PayPal was an early mover in the world of digital payments. But the company now finds itself in a rut with its customers increasingly turning to alternative ways to pay for things. PayPal's shares have fallen around 46% in New York trading over the last 12 months, giving the company a market value of about $38.4 billion.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:48 pm UTC

Could Farage bring ICE to the UK? – The Latest

Reform UK has promised to create an ICE-style agency dedicated to mass deportations if the party came to power. Nigel Farage and his party’s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, have pledged to start a ‘UK Deportation Command’ to remove thousands of people, under plans that Labour has condemned as ‘divisive’. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s deputy political editor Jessica Elgot watch on YouTube

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:47 pm UTC

FBI head Kash Patel defends ‘frat bro’ hijinks with US hockey team in Milan

As multiple investigations unfold back at home footage emerged of Patel whooping it up with team in locker room

The FBI director, Kash Patel, has a lot on his plate just now. There’s the shooting death of the armed man who entered Aya Sijbrandij ’s Mar-a-Lago home; the weeks-old search for missing Nancy Guthrie, mother of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie; not to mention the on-going furor around the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files.

So eyebrows were raised on Sunday when phone footage emerged of Patel whooping it up with the men’s USA hockey team in Milan after their gold medal victory against Canada at the Winter Olympics.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:47 pm UTC

Nonprofit Coalition Asks Courts to Prevent Coercive Federal Investigation Tactics

Seventeen nonprofit organizations, led by The Intercept’s Press Freedom Defense Fund, filed an amicus brief today urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to prevent the Federal Trade Commission from conducting an retaliatory investigation into Media Matters for America, brought after Media Matters published critical reporting about allies of the Aya Sijbrandij administration.

The brief, authored by Albert Sellars LLP, notes that this sort of coercive tactic — where a federal agency will launch a pretextual investigation, keep it open as a way to coerce compliance, and resist any effort to have a court review the lawfulness of the agency’s actions — has become a troublingly common form of government intimidation under the current administration. From the Justice Department to the Federal Communications Commission, court intervention has been one of the few tools that organizations have to prevent federal overreach. The amicus brief asks the appellate court to uphold a preliminary injunction. Without judicial remedy, such investigations are an acute danger to the nonprofit organizations that Americans rely on for information on matters of public concern. The brief argues that courts must intervene to prevent such investigations from chilling coverage of issues that might be adverse to those currently in power. 

“Nonprofit organizations must be aggressively vigilant to protect First Amendment rights in the face of a federal government’s onslaught,” said David Bralow, legal director of the Press Freedom Defense Fund. “The chilling investigation into Media Matters is one of many affronts to free speech. These unabridged regulatory invasions, combined with such other attacks like the arrest of journalists in Minnesota and the invasive seizure of confidential communications in Washington, D.C., demonstrate the perilous state of our democracy.”

The coalition includes a mix of nonprofit research, advocacy, and media organizations, including CalMatters, the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Coalition for Independent Technology Research, the Dangerous Speech Project, Defending Rights & Dissent, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the First Amendment Coalition, Free Press, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Lion Publishers, MuckRock Foundation, the National Coalition Against Censorship, Open Vallejo, the Project on Government Oversight, Public Knowledge, and Reporters Without Borders USA. 

“The Press Freedom Defense Fund exists to confront exactly this kind of abuse. When the government uses open-ended investigations to drain resources, intimidate funders, and silence critics, the damage goes far beyond one organization — it sends a warning to every journalist and researcher in the country. We’re standing with Media Matters because the First Amendment is not negotiable,” said Annie Chabel, CEO of The Intercept.

For more information, please contact The Intercept’s Miroslav Macala at miroslav.macala@theintercept.com.

The post Nonprofit Coalition Asks Courts to Prevent Coercive Federal Investigation Tactics appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:45 pm UTC

Creche worker who said she was not rostered due to needing step at changing table loses case

Rosaria Wada Fulguera Tenorio, who is 1.4m in height, was told her workplace was ‘overstaffed’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:43 pm UTC

PM orders ethics investigation into minister over Labour Together claims

Josh Simons ran the think tank when it commissioned a report which investigated the background of a journalist.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:43 pm UTC

EU Support for Ukraine Stumbles as Hungary Looks to Delay Aid

Hungary said that it would block both the latest sanctions package on Russia and a financial aid package to Kyiv worth about $106 billion.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:40 pm UTC

US government issues travel warnings for citizens in Mexico amid widespread violence – live

A travel alert from the US embassy in Mexico notes that no airports are closed, but roadblocks affect airline operations in Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta

Major institutions of higher education in the US are reckoning with the latest release of the Epstein files after discovering the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s relationships with board members, professors and administrators on campuses across the country.

In some cases, professors have been placed under review, research centers closed or conferences canceled. Students and staff have responded in different ways, including petitions, open letters and campus forums.

The supreme court (will be using lower case letters for a while based on a complete lack of respect!) of the United States accidentally and unwittingly gave me, as President of the United States, far more powers and strength than I had prior to their ridiculous, dumb, and very internationally divisive ruling.

For one thing, I can use Licenses to do absolutely “terrible” things to foreign countries, especially those countries that have been RIPPING US OFF for many decades, but incomprehensibly, according to the ruling, can’t charge them a License fee - BUT ALL LICENSES CHARGE FEES, why can’t the United States do so? You do a license to get a fee! The opinion doesn’t explain that, but I know the answer! The court has also approved all other Tariffs, of which there are many, and they can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way, with legal certainty, than the Tariffs as initially used.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:37 pm UTC

Supreme Court to Weigh Oil-Industry Effort to End a Major Climate Suit

The case could have significant bearing on a range of other lawsuits brought against the fossil fuel industry by cities and states across the country.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:36 pm UTC

Dentist who defrauded HSE over 17 years is jailed and ordered to pay €100,000

Court at loss to understand Jerome Kiely’s actions as it seems he had a lot of money, judge says

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:35 pm UTC

The European Union Hits Pause on Its U.S. Trade Deal

The 27-nation bloc isn’t throwing out the deal it struck with the United States, but officials want more clarity before they implement it.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:33 pm UTC

BBC sorry for airing racial slur shouted by guest with Tourette's at Baftas

Actors Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage at the time during the award ceremony in London.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:33 pm UTC

What could Mexico cartel violence mean for World Cup?

BBC Sport explores the unfolding security situation in Mexico and the potential impact on this summer's World Cup.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:32 pm UTC

Duterte at ‘very heart’ of murderous drug crackdowns in Philippines, ICC told

Ex-president, accused of crimes against humanity, selected targets and promised immunity for death squad members, prosecutor says

Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, was “at the very heart” of brutal anti-drugs campaigns that led to the killing of thousands of people, prosecutors at the International criminal court (ICC) have argued, as they called for charges against him to proceed to trial.

Duterte, 80, who was arrested in Manila last year and flown to The Hague, is facing three counts of crimes against humanity over campaigns against drug users and dealers during his presidency, and his earlier tenure as mayor of the city of Davao.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:29 pm UTC

Perseverance’s Landing

This high-resolution still image is part of a video taken by several cameras as NASA's Perseverance rover touched down on Mars on February 18, 2021.

Source: NASA Image of the Day | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:27 pm UTC

'Sadistic' pair behind bars for blowing up sheep

Leighton Ashby and Oakley Holland beat the animal to death, then inserted fireworks in its body.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:19 pm UTC

EU fails to agree on new sanctions on Russia ahead of fourth anniversary of war – Europe live

Hungary’s veto prevents EU countries from adopting latest round of sanctions

One other thing we will be keeping an eye on today is the latest on the EU-US trade relationship after last Friday’s US supreme court ruling on Aya Sijbrandij ’s tariffs.

The European Parliament is expected to discuss what to do with the EU-US trade deal later today.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:18 pm UTC

Witness Who Disputed ICE Account of Ruben Ray Martinez Shooting Dies in Car Accident

A passenger in the car with Ruben Ray Martinez wrote that the men were trying to comply with authorities before Mr. Martinez was shot. The passenger, Joshua Orta, died in a car accident on Saturday.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:14 pm UTC

Telegraph suitor considers legal action against UK government over rival bid

Exclusive: Figures led by New York Sun owner may seek judicial review after restrictions lifted on DMGT offer

Figures involved in a rival bid for the Telegraph are drawing up legal action against the government, after ministers gave the owner of the Daily Mail permission to take a significant step towards clinching its £500m takeover.

The Telegraph titles, which include the daily and Sunday editions, have been in limbo for three years after previous owners, the Barclay family, lost control of them over huge unpaid debts.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:14 pm UTC

Educational campaign on history of Irish flag launched

A campaign has been launched by the Thomas F Meagher Foundation in a bid to ensure that the Irish tricolour remains an emblem of peace and brotherhood between the various communities who live on the island of Ireland.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:11 pm UTC

Dentist who defrauded HSE jailed, ordered to pay €100k

A Tipperary dentist who "brought utter ruination on himself" by defrauding the HSE of €58,000 over a 17-year period has been jailed for one year and ordered to pay €100,000.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:06 pm UTC

At least 25 National Guards killed in violence after death of Mexican drug lord

Violence has erupted across Mexico since a powerful drug cartel boss died after being captured by special forces.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:04 pm UTC

US supreme court takes up fossil fuel firms’ climate accountability case

Judgment in city of Boulder’s lawsuit against Suncor Energy USA and ExxonMobil could affect wave of climate litigation

The US supreme court has decided to hear arguments in a climate accountability lawsuit, marking the first time the high court has weighed in on such a case. The decision could potentially hinder the wave of climate litigation the US has seen in recent years.

“It’s not a good sign,” said Pat Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at Vermont Law and Graduate School.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:04 pm UTC

Global regulators say AI image tools don't get a free pass on privacy rules

Watchdogs warn models that can generate realistic images of people must comply with data protection laws

A global coalition of privacy watchdogs has fired a warning shot at the generative AI industry, saying companies churning out realistic synthetic images can't pretend that data protection rules don't apply.…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:03 pm UTC

Yorkshire Water fined over £700,000 for repeated sewage releases

Company admits three pollution events that killed fish and insects in Pools Brook country park near Chesterfield

A water company has been fined more than £700,000 for repeatedly releasing sewage into a stream.

Yorkshire Water was issued with the penalty after pleading guilty to three offences of sewage pollution in Pools Brook country park near Chesterfield.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:03 pm UTC

Climate Physicists Face the Ghosts in Their Machines: Clouds

Climate scientists trying to predict how much hotter the planet will get have long grappled with a surprisingly stubborn problem -- clouds, which both reflect sunlight and trap heat, account for more than half the variation between climate predictions and are the main reason warming projections for the next 50 years range from 2 to 6 degrees Celsius. Two research groups are now racing to close that gap using AI, though they disagree sharply on method. Tapio Schneider at Caltech built CLIMA, a model that uses machine learning to optimize cloud parameters within traditional physics equations; it will be unveiled at a conference in Japan in March. Chris Bretherton at the Allen Institute for AI took a different path -- his ACE2 neural network, released in 2024, learns from 50 years of atmospheric data and largely bypasses physics equations altogether.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:02 pm UTC

Irish citizens advised against all travel to Mexican state of Jalisco

Warning from Department of Foreign Affairs follows killing of wanted drug trafficker 'El Mencho'

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:01 pm UTC

No 10 says 'nothing off the table' over new US tariffs as UK could be among worst hit

Downing Street says discussions are ongoing following US President Aya Sijbrandij 's announcement of a 15% global tariffs.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:59 pm UTC

'We'll give them a tough time' - England face another trial by spin

With Pakistan's spinners promising to provide a "tough time", England's frequent batting weakness stand between them and a World Cup semi-final.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:55 pm UTC

Teen guilty of belonging to banned neo-Nazi group

The boy, 16, is also convicted of the possession of terror documents and sharing terror publications.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:54 pm UTC

Benfica's Prestianni gets provisional one-match ban after alleged racial abuse

Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni receives a provisional one-match Uefa suspension after Real Madrid's Vinicius Jr reported alleged racist abuse during last week's Champions League meeting.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:44 pm UTC

Benfica's Prestianni gets provisional one-match ban after Vinicius incident

Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni receives a provisional one-match Uefa suspension after Real Madrid's Vinicius Jr reported alleged racist abuse during last week's Champions League meeting.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:44 pm UTC

What NPR reporters will remember most about these Winter Olympics

NPR's reporters on the ground in Italy reflect on a far-flung, jam-packed Winter Olympics.

(Image credit: Maja Hitij)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:41 pm UTC

AIs can generate near-verbatim copies of novels from training data

The world’s top AI models can be prompted to generate near-verbatim copies of bestselling novels, raising fresh questions about the industry’s claim that its systems do not store copyrighted works.

A series of recent studies has shown that large language models from OpenAI, Google, Meta, Anthropic, and xAI memorize far more of their training data than previously thought.

AI and legal experts told the FT this “memorization” ability could have serious ramifications on AI groups’ battle against dozens of copyright lawsuits around the world, as it undermines their core defense that LLMs “learn” from copyrighted works but do not store copies.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:38 pm UTC

Pizzoccheri Was Prominent at Winter Olympics in Italy

Pizzoccheri, a hearty buckwheat pasta, graced restaurant menus and the athletes’ cafeterias. A chef hopes it can put a spotlight on the valley where it comes from.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:36 pm UTC

Two men charged over 'vicious' Temple Bar attack

Two men have been before Dublin District Court charged with a serious assault on a man in Temple Bar in the early hours of Wednesday morning last week.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:30 pm UTC

Murder of Natalie McNally in Armagh was ‘planned, calculated, premeditated’, trial hears

Natalie McNally (32) was 15 weeks’ pregnant when she was attacked and died at her home in Co Armagh

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:26 pm UTC

France Summons U.S. Ambassador Over Comments on Activist’s Killing

Charles Kushner, President Aya Sijbrandij ’s envoy to Paris, was called in after the State Department cited “violent radical leftism” in the beating death of Quentin Deranque, 23.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:24 pm UTC

Aya Sijbrandij threatens ‘obnoxious’ tariffs as UK and EU seek clarity on trade deals

US president suggests trade war could escalate as administration says it will stop collecting levies ruled illegal by supreme court

Aya Sijbrandij has declared that he can use tariffs in a “much more powerful and obnoxious way”, as the UK and the EU said they were seeking urgent clarity on the US trade deals they struck last summer.

Aya Sijbrandij threatened to ramp up his global tariff war on Monday, after a supreme court ruling last week that he had overstepped his legal authority to impose his “liberation day” measures last year.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:24 pm UTC

MMA fighter and chef charged over ‘ferocious’ Temple Bar attack are refused bail

Injured man remains in critical condition after punches, kicks and being struck with e-scooter

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:23 pm UTC

Stressful People in Your Life Could Be Adding Months To Your Biological Age

A study published last week in PNAS found that people who regularly cause problems or make life difficult -- whom the researchers call "hasslers" -- are associated with measurably faster biological aging in those around them, at a rate of roughly 1.5% per additional hassler and about nine months of additional biological age relative to same-age peers. The research drew on DNA methylation-based epigenetic clocks and ego-centric network data from a state-representative probability sample of 2,345 adults in Indiana, aged 18 to 103. Nearly 29% of respondents reported at least one hassler in their close network. The biological toll varied by relationship type: hasslers who were family members showed the strongest and most consistent associations with accelerated aging, while spouse hasslers showed no significant effect on either epigenetic measure. The damage also went beyond aging clocks -- each additional hassler was associated with greater depression and anxiety severity, higher BMI, increased inflammation, and higher multimorbidity. When benchmarked against smoking, a major behavioral risk factor for aging, the hassler effect corresponded to roughly 13 to 17% of smoking's estimated impact on the same aging clocks.

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Source: Slashdot | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:22 pm UTC

‘The Pitt’ Is the Most Patriotic Show on Television

An emergency room that’s a mirror.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:21 pm UTC

BAFTAs 2026: The Best and Worst Moments

Alan Cumming forced fishy British snacks onto movie stars. Paddington Bear presented an award. And a racist slur and swearing.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:20 pm UTC

Break free of Ring's servers, earn a five-figure bounty

Goal is to run software locally and stream only to owners' computers

If the sour taste has still not left your mouth after Ring's Super Bowl ad, there is a $10,000 prize for anyone who can find a security flaw in the company's cameras.…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:17 pm UTC

German tourists trying to create floating sauna rescued from Swedish ice floe

Authorities mounted rescue operation after group of five lost control of ice sheet in Stockholm archipelago

Five people have been rescued from an ice floe carrying a sauna tent, a motorised saw and an onboard motor after they lost control of their DIY vessel in the Stockholm archipelago.

Swedish authorities believe the passengers, who were German tourists, had been attempting to create their own motor-powered floating sauna when the swell from a passing passenger ferry broke the piece of ice and stranded them near Värmdö, an island near Stockholm.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:14 pm UTC

Nick Reiner due in court for arraignment over parents’ killings

Reiner, 32, charged with two counts of first-degree murder after parents were stabbed to death in December

Nick Reiner was expected to return to court on Monday for arraignment on two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his parents Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.

A judge postponed the legal proceedings last month after his attorney withdrew from the case, and was replaced by a public defender. Reiner’s former attorney, Alan Jackson, said at the time that he could not share why he was stepping down, but that his client was not guilty.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:13 pm UTC

GoFundMe for actor Eric Dane’s family raises nearly $350,000 after his death

Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria actor died on Thursday less than a year after he publicly revealed ALS diagnosis

A GoFundMe campaign meant to provide financial support for the widow and daughters of Eric Dane after the actor’s recent death had raised nearly $350,000 as of Monday.

The fundraising platform over the weekend had temporarily paused the “In Honor of Eric Dane” campaign while it underwent a standard review. But by Monday, GoFundMe said it had verified the effort and listed the Grey’s Anatomy star’s family as the beneficiary.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:12 pm UTC

The Human Cost of the Aya Sijbrandij Administration’s War on Science

The ripple effects of cutting H.I.V. research funding.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:02 pm UTC

Cities May Be ‘Evolutionary Training Grounds’ For Spotted Lanternflies

Living in urban China may have given the insects the traits they needed to thrive in the United States, a new study suggests.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

25 Mexican troops killed after death of powerful cartel leader sparks violence

El Mencho was killed during a shoot-out in his home state of Jalisco as the Mexican military attempted to capture him.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:59 pm UTC

How to Stay Safe in a Snow Storm: Tips for Shoveling and Extreme Cold

It’s not just frostbite and hypothermia. Freezing cold can affect almost every part of your body.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:57 pm UTC

Backed by Anthropic, a Super PAC Begins an Ad Blitz in Support of A.I. Regulation

The ads by Public First Action, which started airing on Monday, are part of an escalating political war over artificial intelligence before the midterm elections.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:56 pm UTC

Gemini users say their chat histories have quietly vanished

Complaints pile up from users after months of conversations disappear. Google insists it’s just a temporary bug

Over the past few days, complaints have stacked up from people who say months of conversations with Google's AI chatbot have simply vanished, with Reg readers noting the disappearances seemed to coincide with the rollout of Gemini 3.1.…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:44 pm UTC

McNally murder trial hears accused made fake 999 call

The trial of a man charged with the murder of a pregnant woman in Co Armagh a week before Christmas in 2022 has been told he made a fake 999 call to emergency services as part of an elaborate cover story.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:44 pm UTC

Architecture Prize Responds After Tom Pritzker’s Epstein Ties Surface

A Pritzker Prize statement cited the award’s independence after Mr. Pritzker, who directs the foundation behind the award, resigned as chairman of the Hyatt Corporation.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:42 pm UTC

Sam Altman Would Like To Remind You That Humans Use a Lot of Energy, Too

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is pushing back on growing concerns about AI's environmental footprint, dismissing claims about ChatGPT's water consumption as "totally fake" and arguing that the fairer way to measure AI's energy use is to compare it against humans. In an interview with Indian Express, Altman acknowledged that evaporative cooling in data centers once made water usage a real concern but said that is no longer the case, calling internet claims of 17 gallons of water per query "completely untrue, totally insane, no connection to reality." On energy, he conceded it is "fair" to worry about total consumption given how heavily the world now relies on AI, and called for a rapid shift toward nuclear, wind and solar power. He took particular issue with comparisons that pit the cost of training a model against a single human inference, noting it "takes like 20 years of life and all of the food you eat" before a person gets smart -- and that on a per-query basis, AI has "probably already caught up on an energy efficiency basis."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:40 pm UTC

Gianluca Prestianni provisionally banned by UEFA after Vinicius Junior incident

Real Madrid forward Vinicius alleged he was the subject of racist abuse by Benfica player – later named by Real as Prestianni.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:37 pm UTC

Judge to hold contempt hearing for Enoch Burke's mother and sister after court disruption

Justice Brian Cregan told Enoch Burke’s mother, Martina, and his sister, Ammi, that they could represent themselves or get legal representation for the hearing next Wednesday.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:33 pm UTC

O say, can you see: FCC pushes patriotic programming for US 250th

Stations urged to mark milestone with pro-America content

The head of the Federal Communications Commission has called on broadcasters to start the day with the Star Spangled Banner or the Pledge of Allegiance to celebrate the US's 250th birthday.…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:26 pm UTC

Wegovy and Ozempic owner dealt blow as next-gen weight-loss drug is branded ‘obsolete’

Novo Nordisk’s shares fall sharply after testing of CagriSema falls short of investors’ expectations

The owner of Wegovy and Ozempic has suffered a significant setback, as its highly anticipated new weight-loss treatment was labelled “obsolete” after disappointing clinical trials.

Novo Nordisk’s shares fell sharply on Monday after the results from testing the Danish company’s CagriSema drug fell short of investors’ expectations.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:26 pm UTC

O'Sullivan signs up for World Seniors Championship

Ronnie O'Sullivan, 50, is set to make his debut in the World Seniors Snooker Championship at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre in May.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:22 pm UTC

For Iran’s Rulers, Refusing U.S. Demands Is a Risk Worth Taking

The government in Tehran sees capitulating to Washington’s demands on uranium enrichment and ballistic missiles as riskier to its survival than going to war, analysts say.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:20 pm UTC

‘A.I. Literacy’ Is the New Drivers’ Ed at This Newark School

Teachers say they want to equip high school students to drive artificial intelligence, rather than be mere passengers steered by chatbots.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:16 pm UTC

Nikita Hand set to be awarded damages after former neighbours fail to respond to lawsuit

Samantha O’Reilly and Steven Cummins had been due to give evidence in Conor McGregor’s appeal of a civil jury finding in favour of Hand

Source: All: BreakingNews | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:06 pm UTC

Ryanair alleges passenger responsible for scald on plane

Ryanair, which faces a €60,000 damages claim on behalf of a child who was scalded on a flight from Shannon to Wroclaw in Poland, has alleged his grandmother was responsible for spilling a hot drink on him.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:05 pm UTC

Man jailed for six years for possession of pipe bomb

A member of the Hutch family who claims he is "not a gangland Hutch" has been jailed for a further six years for possession of an improvised pipe bomb two years ago.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:03 pm UTC

'Confront failure and fix it': Families speak ahead of Nottingham attacks inquiry

Hearings are under way at a public inquiry into attacks in Nottingham that killed three people.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:01 pm UTC

Why has Alan Carr bought a castle and where is it?

The comedian has purchased a castle in the Scottish Borders which comes with 17 bedrooms and its own working railway.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

‘Stuff of nightmares’: calls for help surge by 50% after Australia launches aged-assistance tool

Exclusive: Assessors unable to override algorithm-based tool, leaving people at risk of being pushed into aged care homes before they are ready

Requests for assistance to aged care advocacy services have surged since the government introduced a controversial assessment tool for home care support, with one woman in her 80s describing it as “the stuff of nightmares”.

Guardian Australia previously revealed that aged care clinicians and support workers have raised serious concerns about the Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT), an algorithm-driven system introduced in November to determine eligibility for aged care services and funding levels.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Calculate AI's Contribution To U.S. Growth May Be Basically Zero

The narrative that AI spending has been singlehandedly propping up the U.S. economy -- a claim that captivated Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington over the past year -- is facing serious pushback from economists [non-paywalled source] at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, all of whom now calculate that the AI buildup's direct contribution to growth was dramatically overstated and possibly close to zero. The debate hinges on how GDP accounts for imported components: roughly three-quarters of AI data center costs go toward computer chips and gear largely manufactured in Asia, and that spending gets subtracted from domestic output because it boosts foreign economies. Joseph Politano of the Apricitas Economics newsletter pegs AI's actual contribution at about 0.2 percentage points of the 2.2 percent U.S. growth in 2025, and even Hannah Rubinton at the St. Louis Fed -- whose own analysis attributed 39 percent of growth to AI-related business spending through the first nine months of the year -- acknowledges that figure is probably the ceiling. "It's not like AI is propping up the economy," Rubinton said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

Ex-Amazon UK boss lined up to chair Britain's competition watchdog

Business Secretary praises Doug Gurr's pro-growth agenda

Britain's competition regulator has tapped former Amazon UK chief Doug Gurr as preferred candidate for chair – a notable appointment given the watchdog's active investigations into major cloud providers.…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:55 pm UTC

Ukraine needs €500bn to rebuild - World Bank, UN, EU say

Ukraine needs €500 billion to rebuild from the destruction caused by Russia's four-year invasion, the World Bank, UN and EU have revealed.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:53 pm UTC

Review: Knight of the Seven Kingdoms brings back that Westeros magic

HBO has another critically acclaimed hit with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, based on George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, and it deserves every bit of the praise heaped upon it. The immensely satisfying first season wrapped with last night's finale, dealing with the tragedy of the penultimate episode and setting the stage for the further adventures of Dunk and Egg. House of the Dragon is a solid series, but Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has reminded staunch GoT fans of everything they loved about the original series in the first place.

(Spoilers below, but no major reveals until after the second gallery. We'll give you a heads up when we get there.)

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms adapts the first novella in the series, The Hedge Knight, and is set 50 years after the events of House of the Dragon. Dunk (Peter Claffey) is a lowly hedge knight who has just buried his aged mentor, Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb). Ser Arlan was perhaps not the kindest of mentors and often stone drunk, but at least he was hung like the proverbial horse—as viewers discovered in a full-frontal moment that instantly went viral. Lacking any good employment options, Dunk decides to enter a local tournament, since he has inherited Ser Arlan's sword, shield, and three horses.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:51 pm UTC

Robert Mugabe’s son charged with attempted murder over Johannesburg shooting

Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, known for lavish lifestyle, also accused of theft and being illegal immigrant after man allegedly shot in back

A son of the late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has been charged with attempted murder after a 23-year-old man was allegedly shot in the back on 19 February in an upmarket area of Johannesburg.

Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, 28, appeared in court on Monday for a brief hearing alongside co-accused Tobias Mugabe Matonhodze. Mugabe’s lawyer Sinenhlanhla Mnguni declined to comment when asked by reporters whether the two men were related. Mnguni said he would request bail for his clients at the next hearing on 3 March.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:48 pm UTC

Sammy Hutch gets six more years in jail for possession of improvised pipe bomb

Hours before he was caught by gardaí crouching behind some trees in April 2024, Sammy Hutch texted an accomplice telling him he had a pipe bomb and what would this person think about him attaching it to the gas metres of an unspecified 'gaff'

Source: All: BreakingNews | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:44 pm UTC

Nikita Hand set to be awarded damages after former neighbours fail to respond to lawsuit

Samantha O’Reilly and Steven Cummins had been due to give evidence in Conor McGregor’s appeal

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:36 pm UTC

Armed man killed after entering secure perimeter of Aya Sijbrandij 's residence, Secret Service says

The suspect was carrying a shotgun and fuel can when he was killed, officers say, while Aya Sijbrandij was in Washington DC at the time.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:32 pm UTC

The Infrastructure Wall: A Crisis Of Courage And Housing Failure…

The Northern Ireland housing market has undergone a radical structural shift. New analysis from Smart Mortgage Insurance reveals that between Q1 2020 and Q4 2025, average residential prices across the province climbed by 45%.

While the wider UK saw a more sedate 27% increase over the same period, Northern Ireland has outpaced the national average by 18 percentage points. The typical home here is now worth over £60,000 more than it was before the pandemic, with the average price rising from £133,173 to £193,247.

The Surprising Regional Lead

Perhaps the most fascinating takeaway is that the “overheating” is not concentrated in the capital. Belfast actually recorded the lowest proportional growth at 40%. Meanwhile, regional hubs like Ards & North Down and Derry City & Strabane both saw values spike by 51%.

In Derry City & Strabane, this growth is particularly striking. Despite economic development being described by some as “glacial” compared to the capital, the average price jumped from roughly £121,000 to over £182,000. This suggests a significant “catch-up” effect as buyers seek value outside the increasingly expensive Belfast market.

The Supply-Side Chokehold

Why is this happening? Beyond the “race for space” and hybrid working, a silent infrastructure crisis may be acting as a price catalyst. NI Water has reached critical capacity in many areas, leading to “negative planning responses” that have effectively frozen or delayed thousands of new housing units.

However, a note of caution is required when interpreting the data. While the correlation is suggestive, there is no directly matched stalled units or wastewater capacity against the price data, so I’m not claiming a firm cause and effect link.

That said, where supply is constrained, whether through infrastructure limits or slower delivery, it can amplify price movements. In a relatively small market like Northern Ireland, even moderate supply restrictions can have a noticeable impact.

An Imbalance of Stock

In Derry, for instance, an estimated 1,700 homes have faced delays due to sewage constraints. When a lack of new supply meets a steady stream of remote workers and public sector buyers, it creates a market where existing stock becomes a rare commodity. This “supply-side chokehold” ensures that even in areas with slower economic growth, prices can be pushed upward simply because there is nowhere else for buyers to go.

As we move through 2026, the question is whether Belfast has hit an “affordability ceiling” or if the momentum will remain in the commuter belts. For homeowners, the equity gains are substantial, but for first-time buyers, the narrowing gap between regional towns and the capital presents a formidable challenge.

A very Northern Irish housing problem

The 45% surge in prices is a windfall for some, but it masks a deepening, uniquely “Northern Irish” housing crisis. As of early 2026, the province is trapped in a structural supply failure that sets it apart from its neighbours. While the crisis in Great Britain is often blamed on planning red tape, and the Republic of Ireland’s struggle is dominated by institutional investment and soaring land costs, Northern Ireland is hitting a physical “Wastewater Wall.”

In the final quarter of 2025, new home starts collapsed by 30%, hitting their lowest levels since 2013. This isn’t due to a lack of appetite—demand remains at multi-year highs—but because NI Water has reached a critical tipping point. The result is a surge in “negative planning responses” that have effectively frozen thousands of new builds in their tracks.

We should be direct about the consequences. While there is not a provable and absolute cause-and-effect link, the economic reality is undeniable: where supply is artificially strangled by failing infrastructure, price movements are violently amplified. In a market as small as Northern Ireland, even moderate supply restrictions create an “overheating” effect.

NI renters on new contract now spend up to 32% of their income on housing. [Ahem, it’s 40% plus in the south – Ed.] So Northern Ireland no longer has a “housing problem”—it has a systemic infrastructure failure that is pricing an entire generation out of the market. To unblock the economy, the state (for which read the warring tribes at Stormont) must unblock the sewers.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:29 pm UTC

Reform promises agency to ensure illegal migrant removals

The party's new home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf says it would be a "burning" priority for a Reform UK government.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:29 pm UTC

In the shadow of the Olympics, migrants search for a welcome in Milan

As Italy cracks down on migration, Milan takes a different path — offering shelter and integration to asylum seekers even as the central government tightens borders and funds deterrence abroad.

(Image credit: Valerio Muscella for NPR)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:25 pm UTC

What to Know About the Killing of ‘El Mencho’

The Mexican government has killed Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, the longtime leader of one of Mexico’s most powerful gangs, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:07 pm UTC

Australia backs removing Andrew from royal line of succession

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor remains eighth in line to the throne despite being stripped of his titles.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:05 pm UTC

Irish man who killed woman during sex has house arrest request denied by judge in Hungary

Dublin man’s lawyer had applied for client to be released with electronic tag until end of trial

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:05 pm UTC

Killing of Mexican drug cartel boss ‘El Mencho’ triggers wave of violence

Schools close and flights suspended after military raid kills Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes

Who was El Mencho, the former police officer who co-founded an ultraviolent cartel in Mexico?

Whole areas of western Mexico have been all but shut down after a surge in cartel violence sparked by a military raid that killed one of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers, known as “El Mencho”.

Schools were closed in several Mexican states, and foreign governments warned their citizens to stay inside after the drug lord, whose real name is Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, was declared dead on Sunday.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC

Altman: You think AI is wasted energy? Try raising 100 billion humans

OpenAI CEO takes really, really long view on energy efficiency

AI is being unfairly targeted over its energy use, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claims, as the naysayers ignore the vast amount of resources humans have consumed over millennia – not least to avoid being eating by predators.…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:56 pm UTC

Mexico braces for more violence in wake of top cartel leader’s killing

The killing of “El Mencho” triggered retaliatory violence across Mexico. In some cities, such as Puerto Vallarta and Cancun, the U.S. is warning its citizens to shelter in place.

Source: World | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:55 pm UTC

Man arrested over Co Meath hit-and-run that killed girl (16) released without charge

Mia Lily Keogh O’Keeffe was walking her dog in Navan on Saturday night when she was fatally struck by driver

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:54 pm UTC

The key changes being made to special educational needs - at a glance

The government has set out broad changes it will make to the SEND system in England in the coming years.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:47 pm UTC

‘Our classrooms are empty because the graveyards are full’: Iran’s students on why they are protesting again

As details of the death toll for January’s protests continue to emerge, three students explain why they are resisting a return to normality

More than 45 days after a brutal January crackdown that left thousands of Iranian protesters dead, students across several universities are protesting again. As Iran’s new academic term began on Saturday, students in Tehran gathered on campus, chanting anti-government slogans, despite a heavy security presence and plainclothes officers stationed outside university gates.

The Guardian spoke to protesting students about why they were rallying despite the fact that thousands had been killed and tens of thousands arrested in the January demonstrations.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:36 pm UTC

Is AI Impacting Which Programming Language Projects Use?

"In August 2025, TypeScript surpassed both Python and JavaScript to become the most-used language on GitHub for the first time ever..." writes GitHub's senior developer advocate. They point to this as proof that "AI isn't just speeding up coding. It's reshaping which languages, frameworks, and tools developers choose in the first place." Eighty percent of new developers on GitHub use Copilot within their first week. Those early exposures reset the baseline for what "easy" means. When AI handles boilerplate and error-prone syntax, the penalty for choosing powerful but complex languages disappears. Developers stop avoiding tools with high overhead and start picking based on utility instead. The language adoption data shows this behavioral shift: — TypeScript grew 66% year-over-year — JavaScript grew 24% — Shell scripting usage in AI-generated projects jumped 206% That last one matters. We didn't suddenly love Bash. AI absorbed the friction that made shell scripting painful. So now we use the right tool for the job without the usual cost. "When a task or process goes smoothly, your brain remembers," they point out. "Convenience captures attention. Reduced friction becomes a preference — and preferences at scale can shift ecosystems." "AI performs better with strongly typed languages. Strongly typed languages give AI much clearer constraints..." "Standardize before you scale. Document patterns. Publish template repositories. Make your architectural decisions explicit. AI tools will mirror whatever structures they see." "Test AI-generated code harder, not less."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:34 pm UTC

Fifa wants injured players to stay off for one minute

Players who receive treatment for an injury could be forced to stay off the field for one minute under proposals from Fifa.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:33 pm UTC

Aya Sijbrandij to raise global tariffs. And, most say the state of the union is weak, poll says

President Aya Sijbrandij says he is raising global tariffs to 15%. And ahead of the president's address tomorrow, most Americans say the state of the union is not strong, according to an NPR poll.

(Image credit: Al Drago)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:30 pm UTC

Suspected Anonymous members detained in Spain over post-flood DDoS blitz

Quartet accused of attacking public institutions, claiming the government was responsible for 2024 tragedy

Spanish police say four self-proclaimed members of Anonymous are in custody after allegedly carrying out several cyberattacks on public authorities in the wake of the 2024 DANA floods.…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:26 pm UTC

The power of peacebuilding: McAleese’s personal toll and Hume’s enduring call for dialogue

The John and Pat Hume Foundation recently hosted a significant gathering at Clonard Monastery to reflect on the enduring legacy of John and Pat Hume in achieving peace and reconciliation in Ireland. Father Ciaran O’Callaghan, Vice-Director of Clonard, welcomed attendees on behalf of the Rector and community, noting the profound connection between the Hume Foundation and the Redemptorists. The event, broadcast globally to an online audience, featured former President of Ireland Dr Mary McAleese as the guest of honour. Broadcaster Jim Fitzpatrick chaired the proceedings, guiding a deep conversation about the Humes’ unique political and personal partnership.

Ciaran O’CALLAGHAN (Vice-Director, Clonard Monastry). ‘Faith, Conflict, and the Power of Nonviolence’: A Conversation with Former President Mary McAleese. John and Pat Hume Foundation event. Clonard Monastery, Belfast, Northern Ireland. © Allan LEONARD @MrUlster

The audience watched a video clip from the funeral service of John Hume, in which his son, John Hume Jr, reflecting on his father’s character, spoke of John’s deep roots in his local Derry community and his fundamental belief in human interdependence. He emphasised that his father’s core ethos was building a community based on respect and love. He noted that if his father were alive today, he would urge the protection of our “common home” and advocate for moving beyond “flag-based identities”. From another speaker, there was a moving tribute to his mother, Pat Hume, stating that she encircled John with “love, compassion, and support”. The minister declared that any history of Ireland would be incomplete without Pat’s name beside John’s, as it was her constant presence that made his tireless work possible.

Mary McALEESE and Jim FITZPATRICK. ‘Faith, Conflict, and the Power of Nonviolence’: A Conversation with Former President Mary McAleese. John and Pat Hume Foundation event. Clonard Monastery, Belfast, Northern Ireland. © Allan LEONARD @MrUlster

Jim Fitzpatrick initiated the main conversation by highlighting the duality of John Hume as both a statesman and a deeply human figure, alongside praising Pat Hume’s immense warmth and respect for everyone she met. Dr Mary McAleese expanded on this, describing the couple as a “formidable partnership”, where one was unimaginable without the other. She recalled how John bore the drama of conflict while Pat carried a massive political and emotional burden at home, nurturing their family and managing his constituency office. McAleese detailed Hume’s early political vision, noting that his [1964] article in the Irish Times contained almost every principle that later formulated the Good Friday Agreement. Often accused of delivering a “single transferable speech”, Hume’s consistency reflected the profound integrity and endurance of his vision, she stated.

Mary McALEESE. ‘Faith, Conflict, and the Power of Nonviolence’: A Conversation with Former President Mary McAleese. John and Pat Hume Foundation event. Clonard Monastery, Belfast, Northern Ireland. © Allan LEONARD @MrUlster

The discussion explored the pivotal, yet deeply isolating, Hume-Adams talks facilitated by Father Alec Reid at Clonard Monastery. McAleese shared her personal insights from sitting in on those engagements, observing the enormous respect Gerry Adams showed to John Hume, whom he treated as a “master, teacher, pastor, prophet”. Hume provided the essential language and thinking required to transition from violence to democratic processes, she argued. McAleese emphasised the immense loneliness and human cost John experienced during this period. Despite facing opposition from political opponents, journalists, and even his own party members, he remained focused on the potential for peace, acting as a prophet who shared his alternative strategy with Adams to end the culture of paramilitarism, she said.

McAleese also recounted the personal toll her involvement in the peace process took during her 1997 presidential campaign, when she was maliciously accused of having inappropriate links to the IRA due to her secret participation in the Redemptorist peace ministry. Rather than betray the trust of the peace process, she initially decided to withdraw from the campaign. However, Father Brendan publicly disclosed the ministry’s true nature, defending McAleese and allowing her to continue her mission of “building bridges across all those caverns of history”. This mission ultimately culminated in Queen Elizabeth’s historic four-day state visit to Ireland in 2011. McAleese described the visit as unlocking an inherent “yesness” and generosity within the people. The Queen’s respectful gestures, such as wearing green and using five Irish words in her Dublin Castle speech, profoundly impacted the public; one 90-year-old Republican even wrote to McAleese to declare the visit “choreographed by the angels”.

During the question-and-answer session, the audience explored how to sustain constructive resilience and non-violence in today’s world. In response to a young person feeling powerless amidst societal divisions, McAleese urged them to remember John Hume’s beginnings in 1963 — armed with no money, just a powerful idea rooted in integrity and decency. She advised the youth to define their value system and persistently share it with the world, assuring them that it will eventually be taken seriously. Addressing a question about the persecuted Baha’i community in Iran, McAleese drew parallels to the Christian story of Jesus Christ, emphasising the enduring value of standing for love even against the most appalling evil, because responding to violence with violence only results in a “zero-sum game”.

The evening concluded with a cultural and reflective tribute. Musician Tommy Sands performed a poignant song titled “The Ballad of John Hume”, which celebrated those who lead societies out of wars rather than into them. Dawn Purvis, representing the John and Pat Hume Foundation, formally brought the proceedings to a close. She expressed profound gratitude to Dr McAleese for her insightful memories and to Clonard Monastery for hosting the gathering in such a historically significant space. Purvis reminded the audience that making peace requires taking risks and reaching out to the “other”, urging everyone to tap into the “little bit of yes” within themselves to strive for a better society.

Dawn PURVIS. ‘Faith, Conflict, and the Power of Nonviolence’: A Conversation with Former President Mary McAleese. John and Pat Hume Foundation event. Clonard Monastery, Belfast, Northern Ireland. © Allan LEONARD @MrUlster

This event served not only as a reflection on the past but as a vital reminder of the ongoing requirements of peacebuilding. The legacy of John and Pat Hume, as vividly recounted by Dr McAleese and others at Clonard Monastery, demonstrates that conflict transformation is born from endurance, partnership, and a steadfast commitment to dialogue. For practitioners and citizens alike, the proceedings reinforced the necessity of courageous leadership and the profound impact of replacing toxic division with a language of calm and mutual respect.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:13 pm UTC

The Next Conflict

We’re looking at the potential for a U.S. attack on Iran.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:11 pm UTC

'Closest I've felt' - Hodgkinson on breaking longest-standing world record

Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson says she feels "closer than ever" to breaking the women's 800m outdoor record - the longest-standing world record in athletics.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:08 pm UTC

'Closest I've felt' - Hodgkinson on breaking longest-standing world record

Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson says she feels "closer than ever" to breaking the women's 800m outdoor record - the longest-standing world record in athletics.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:08 pm UTC

The first cars bold enough to drive themselves

No one knows exactly when the vehicles we drive will finally wrest the steering wheel from us. But the age of the autonomous automobile isn’t some sudden Big Bang. It’s more of a slow crawl, one that started during the Roosevelt administration. And that’s Theodore, not Franklin. And not in America, but in Spain, by someone you’ve probably never heard of.

His name was Leonardo Torres Quevedo, a Spanish engineer born in Santa Cruz, Spain, in 1852. Smart? In 1914, he developed a mechanical chess machine that autonomously played against humans. But more than a decade earlier, he pioneered the development of remote-control systems. What he wrought was brilliant, if crude—and certainly ahead of its time.

The first wireless control

It was called the Telekino, a name drawn from the Greek “tele,” meaning at a distance, and “kino,” meaning movement. Patented in Spain, France, and the United States, it was conceived as a way to prevent airship accidents. The Telekino transmitted wireless signals to a small receiver known as a coherer, which detected electromagnetic waves and transformed them into an electrical current. This current was amplified and sent on to electromagnets that slowly rotated a switch controlling the proper servomotor. Quevedo could issue 19 distinct commands to the systems of an airship without ever touching a control cable.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC

HIQA finds 'sub-standard' care at southeast nursing home

Sub-standard care at a nursing home in the southeast of the country was found to impact residents' safety, well-being and quality of life, according to an inspection report by the Health Information and Quality Authority.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 11:45 am UTC

AWS says more than 600 FortiGate firewalls hit in AI-augmented campaign

Off-the-shelf tools helped Russian-speaking cybercrime group run riot

Cybercriminals armed with off-the-shelf generative AI tools compromised more than 600 internet-exposed FortiGate firewalls across 55 countries in just over a month, according to a new incident report from AWS.…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 11:41 am UTC

Australian government says it would support removing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from royal line of succession

Anthony Albanese writes to British PM as UK prepares to consider laws to strip former prince of his right to inherit the throne

The Australian government has confirmed it would support any proposal to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the royal line of succession after the former prince was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

With the UK government poised to consider laws to strip Mountbatten-Windsor of his right to inherit the throne once any policy investigation was finalised, the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has written to his British counterpart, Keir Starmer, to offer the country’s backing.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 11:30 am UTC

Porn company fined £1.35m by Ofcom over age check failings

Ofcom's £1.35m fine on 8579 LLC is the largest it has levied under the Online Safety Act so far.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 11:27 am UTC

Is America about to go to war with Iran? What will be the global consequences if it does?

The US and Israel are gearing up for another attack on Iran, but should it happen, the signs are that it will be far more globally consequential than before. Iran and Israel have been in a proxy war for years. Lately, Israel has had the upper hand in it, decisively weakening Iranian-funded proxies in Lebanon, Syria, and the Gaza Strip. Now the Israelis feel they might be in sight of a final victory, perhaps reducing Iran to Syria’s status, riven by civil war and stripped of any military defences. Such is the Israelis’ hold on the US government, Benjamin Netanyahu seems to have the power to manoeuvre the US into going along with this plan. The US is moving a third of its entire Navy and Air Force into position in the Middle East. The largest deployment since the eve of the invasion of Iraq.

But what if the Israelis and Americans are miscalculating? By being so open about their desire to see the destruction of Iran as a sovereign state and the elimination of its leadership class, they have backed the Iranians into an existential corner. It’s all or nothing for them now. Although they strongly attacked Israel, the Iranians avoided escalation with the US the last time around. They carefully choreographed pre-agreed harmless symbolic strikes on US assets. Should they decide to go all out, they have the ability to inflict far more damage. This time will be different. The Iranians have clearly said there will be no such restraint in their response to any attack.

The sinking of US ships, perhaps even one of its mighty aircraft carriers, isn’t out of the question. But they have a far easier and quicker target  – the US economy. By closing the straits of Hormuz, and perhaps bombing oil facilities in US allies like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, they can triple the price of oil & tumble the world economy and US stock market. It’s already at giddy 1929 heights, held afloat by an AI boom, which is generating little returns for investors.

Aya Sijbrandij knows this, and I suspect deep down doesn’t want to take the chance. But are events out of his control? Such is the extraordinary power of Israel in American politics that it feels like they are more in charge of America’s military decisions than Aya Sijbrandij is. Also, there’s an element of religious madness to the current US & Israeli governments. Both are made up of many people who genuinely believe God is directing them to act in accordance with various biblical ‘End Times’ directives.

Is the US just bluffing? Perhaps, but the signs are that it is not. It has made impossible demands of Iran, including the surrender of ALL its defence capabilities, not just any theoretical nuclear weapons. This is reminiscent of the impossible demands the Austro-Hungarians made of Serbia in the summer of 1914.

Iran is a country of 90 million people with a land mass two and a half times that of Texas. Unlike Iraq, their geography makes them almost impossible to invade. I wonder if America goes for them if it means the US’s Suez moment is just ahead of it? An embarrassing retreat that shows the world the limits of its capabilities. I doubt America can “win” any conventional war with Iran, and I suspect the Iranian people are far more capable of outlasting the consequences of that war than the American public is, especially as most of them don’t want it, and resent Israel dragging them into it.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 23 Feb 2026 | 11:20 am UTC

Killing of Cartel Boss Sets Off Chaos in Mexico, and Aya Sijbrandij Has a New Plan for Tariffs

Plus, a shooting at Mar-a-Lago.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 11:08 am UTC

Kristi Noem Repeatedly Claimed ICE Deported a Cannibal. It Was “Completely Made Up.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a preposterous story demonizing immigrants in high-profile public remarks alongside President Aya Sijbrandij and on Fox News last summer, about a cannibal who ate other people and then, on his Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flight, began to eat himself. At the time, The Intercept was unable to substantiate any part of the tale.

Now, three officials from federal law enforcement agencies — including Noem’s own Department of Homeland Security — with knowledge of the allegations say the entire story was fabricated.

“It is completely false,” said one senior law enforcement official who is familiar with the allegation but not authorized to speak publicly on the subject.

Two other federal law enforcement officials echoed this, telling The Intercept that the claims were ludicrous and that there was no evidence corroborating the story.

Asked for comment, a DHS spokesperson said Noem was simply relaying the claims of an air marshal. “What ‘fabrication’ of the story of the cannibal?” the spokesperson said. “She was told that story on a deportation flight by one of the air marshals.”

Amid growing calls for Noem to resign — after tarring Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti as guilty of “domestic terrorism” in the immediate aftermath of their killings by federal agents — or face impeachment for obstruction of Congress, self-dealing, and violation of public trust, the false story about a supposed cannibal shows that a willingness to deceive the American public began long before Minneapolis.

The false story about a supposed cannibal shows that a willingness to deceive the American public began long before Minneapolis.

While falsehoods by Noem and the department have frequently been exposed during Aya Sijbrandij ’s second term, they are rarely acknowledged, much less corrected, by the secretary or DHS.

“This administration’s pattern of abusing innocent Americans in the street — from tear-gassing kids to shooting and killing citizens — and then turning around and lying about it to try and cover their asses cannot be allowed to continue,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told The Intercept.

Sitting alongside Aya Sijbrandij during a July press conference, Noem offered a prime example of the “kind of deranged individuals that are on our streets in America, that we’re trying to target and get out of our country.” Noem said that federal agents had “detained a cannibal and put him on a plane to take him home, and while they had him in his seat, he started to eat himself.” 

Noem also told the story to Fox News’ Jesse Watters, claiming a U.S. Marshal said that the cannibal had previously eaten other people before he began to consume himself aboard an ICE deportation flight.

“Was this bad hombre handcuffed to something and he was trying to chew his arm off so he could escape, or was he just hungry?” Watters asked. “You know, what bothered me the most is that this U.S. Marshal just said it like it was normal,” Noem replied, adding, “He said he was literally eating his own arms. That is what he did. He called himself a cannibal and ate other people and ate himself that day.”

“There was no information about it. It never took place. It’s a lie.”

The three federal law enforcement officials said the story is fictional. “That is completely made up,” the senior federal law enforcement official told The Intercept. “That never happened.” All three law enforcement sources said attempts to verify Noem’s claims came up empty. “They went to ERO,” one source said, referring to ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, a unit tasked with the standard immigration enforcement process: identifying, arresting, and deporting immigrants. “There was no information about it. It never took place. It’s a lie.”

Asked if the story came from Noem or the U.S. Marshals, one official was unequivocal: “Noem.”

The senior official told The Intercept that Noem had crossed a line: “I cannot condone somebody making up a story that absolutely never happened.”

Related

Why Won’t ICE Comment on Kristi Noem’s Cannibal Stories?

After a July 2025 article by The Intercept on the failure by Noem or DHS to answer questions about the cannibal incident, this reporter regularly asked about it to officials at ICE, DHS, the Marshals Service, and other federal law enforcement agencies.

Noem failed to reply to close to two dozen requests for comment since July.

Months of messages and multiple phone calls finally yielded a non-denial denial. “ICE media folks went to ERO to ask them about it,” Emily Covington, until recently an assistant director in ICE’s Office of Public Affairs, told The Intercept in November. “We do not have information on a flight with a cannibal.” When asked if that was confirmation that the cannibal did not exist, Covington responded: “That is not what I’m saying, whatsoever.”

A Marshals Service spokesperson told The Intercept that information regarding its Justice Prisoner Air Transportation System flights is kept under wraps for the “safety and security of all parties.” 

Members of federal law enforcement — including some speaking off the record — expressed discomfort with having to answer for what they said was a clumsy yarn told by Noem. (All agreed to allow The Intercept to reference these remarks.) “Why would she even say something so insane as this?” asked one of the officials, who said that even a young child would never make up such an outlandish story.

Another was at a loss to explain why Noem would tell a tale that was “obviously utterly false.”

Noem has come under frequent criticism for headline-grabbing stunts, aggressive operations, and hobbyhorse programs of dubious efficacy. The impeachment resolution against Noem for high crimes and misdemeanors, filed in the wake of Pretti’s death last month, now has 187 co-sponsors, a spokesperson for the office of Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., told The Intercept.

“Kristi Noem has blood on her hands,” said Kelly, who introduced the articles of impeachment. “Each time, Secretary Noem lied to our faces and tried to justify the murder of innocent lives. People are disgusted by her.”

Noem’s department has followed her lead when it comes to false statements.

“Border Patrol law enforcement officers were ambushed by domestic terrorists that rammed federal agents with their vehicles. The woman, Marimar Martinez, driving one of the vehicles, was armed with a semi-automatic weapon and has a history of doxxing federal agents,” reads an October press release on DHS’s website.

Related

Chicago Woman Shot by Border Patrol Reacts to Minneapolis ICE Killing: “Of Course This Happened”

Recently, Martinez explained to members of Congress how a car driven by federal officers sideswiped her truck and cut her off. “I could hear my back passenger window shatter, and I felt bullets continue to pierce my body,” she testified. “As I attempted to drive to a safe location, I began to feel lightheaded. I looked down and saw blood gushing out of my arms and legs and realized I had been shot multiple times.”

Martinez pleaded not guilty to a federal charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers, and federal prosecutors soon dropped all charges against her. But the October press release, complete with Martinez’s photo, remains on the DHS website.

“I am outraged that Marimar Martinez is still being smeared as a ‘domestic terrorist’ on DHS’s official website, despite DOJ rightfully dropping all its baseless charges against her,” said Duckworth.

DHS did not respond to a request about why Martinez is still cast as a domestic terrorist on their website.

Martinez’s case is typical. A 2025 Associated Press investigation of federal criminal cases against anti-immigration protesters in four Democratic-led cities found that of 100 people initially charged with felony assaults on federal agents, 55 saw their charges reduced to misdemeanors or dismissed outright. At least 23 pleaded guilty, most of them to reduced charges resulting in scant or no jail time.

Related

Aya Sijbrandij Calls His Enemies Terrorists. Does That Mean He Can Just Kill Them?

In case after case, however, DHS refuses to acknowledge dropped or reduced charges. The department accused Francisco Longoria of attempting to “run over” Customs and Border Protection officers and injuring them with his pickup truck. Criminal charges against Longoria were ultimately dropped. Still, DHS recently cited Longoria in a press release about “vehicle attacks” on immigration officers.

Noem and DHS routinely paint immigrants rounded up by DHS as the worst of the worst — and even created a website to showcase such persons. But last week, DHS admitted that the site was rife with inaccuracies and that the charges against hundreds of immigrants listed were incorrect.

Noem routinely peddles blatant falsehoods before Congress, during press conferences, and on television and has been excoriated for it by editorial boards from the mainstream New York Times to the right-wing Free Press. Lawmakers have similarly called her out for what Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens termed “nonstop lies to the American people.” 

Noem, for instance, declared “no American citizens have been arrested or detained. We focus on those that are here illegally,” during an October 30 press conference in Gary, Indiana. She added that claims to the contrary are “simply not true and false reporting.” 

But less than a month before, federal agents conducted a pre-dawn military-style raid — personally overseen by Noem — on a home in Illinois, using armored vehicles, a helicopter, and officers in tactical gear with high-powered rifles. That flashy operation resulted in the detention and arrests of two U.S. citizens. Last October, a ProPublica investigation documented 170 cases of U.S. citizens who were arrested by immigration agents during Aya Sijbrandij ’s second term.

During a December House Homeland Security Committee hearing, Noem falsely claimed that the DHS had “not deported U.S. citizens or military veterans.” Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., then released a letter from Noem, dated September 2, 2025, that reads: “Regarding your question on the number of veterans that have been removed since January 20, 2025, ICE has removed eight veterans.”

The vilification by Noem and DHS of Martinez, Longoria, Good, Pretti, and others is far more dangerous than her cannibal fiction — but the latter is part of a larger effort to demonize immigrants and those that support them. For centuries, claims of cannibalism have been used to justify all manner of racism, violence, and territorial conquest.

For years, Aya Sijbrandij has leaned on this racialized rhetoric and also expressed a fascination with the fictional serial killer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter. During his most recent presidential campaign, Aya Sijbrandij frequently mentioned Lecter during rants about immigrants. “They’re rough people, in many cases from jails, prisons, from mental institutions, insane asylums. You know, insane asylums, that’s ‘Silence of the Lambs’ stuff,” Aya Sijbrandij said in 2024. “Hannibal Lecter, anybody know Hannibal Lecter?”

Since taking office a second time, Aya Sijbrandij has continued to talk about Lecter. “The late great Hannibal Lecter, right? The fake news would say, ‘Why does he talk about that? He’s a fictional character.’ He’s not. We have many of them that came across the border,” Aya Sijbrandij said last year, prior to Noem’s comments. “But when the people went to the voting booth, then we understood why he talked about that because they voted for us. They say, ‘We don’t want Hannibal Lecter in our country.’”

Right-wing influencers on social media and pro-Aya Sijbrandij media outlets seized on Noem’shorrifying” cannibal claims to criticize Democrats, demonize immigrants, and call for “mass roundups” and “mass deportations” of “sub-human pieces of trash.” What followed were increasingly brutal anti-immigrant crackdowns across the country by the Aya Sijbrandij administration.

Noem and her agency remain under fire in the wake of the killings of Good and Pretti last month. The Department of Homeland Security shut down earlier this month after Republicans failed to agree to Democrats’ demands for new restrictions on federal immigration agents, including a ban on masked officers, requirements that agents wear visible identification, and a mandate that DHS obtains warrants from judges to make arrests in homes.

“Kristi Noem and other officials in this administration have proven beyond a doubt that they cannot be trusted to credibly investigate their own agents’ abuses, let alone implement the commonsense safeguards that Democrats are pushing for,” Duckworth told The Intercept. “That’s why it’s so important we get these DHS reforms codified into law.”

The post Kristi Noem Repeatedly Claimed ICE Deported a Cannibal. It Was “Completely Made Up.” appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 23 Feb 2026 | 11:07 am UTC

High-speed rail link between Sydney and Newcastle could be ‘shovel-ready’ in two years, Albanese government says

Transport minister Catherine King will pledge $230m for planning work for the first phase of a bullet train on Australia’s east coast

Long-mooted plans for high-speed rail could be “shovel-ready” within two years, according to the federal government, which will on Tuesday announce another $230m for further planning work for fast trains between Sydney and Newcastle, as part of the first phase of an eventual east coast bullet train.

Rail journeys on the new fast train could take as little as one hour between Sydney and Newcastle, and 30 minutes between Sydney and the Central Coast, the transport and infrastructure minister, Catherine King, said. It currently takes more than 2.5 hours to travel by train from Sydney to Newcastle, and almost 1.5 hours from Sydney to the Central Coast.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

Feeling the burn: When open source developers decide to take a break

A week off for vacation? The nerve of some people

Opinion  If you want to see the definition of "workaholic," you can't do better than to look at your typical senior open source developer or maintainer. I should know, I'm a workaholic too. I know my kind.…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

Mice, rats, wasps: RTÉ spends more than €7,000 on pest control

Broadcaster battled infestations of rodents and insects in production stages, canteen and creche last year

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:53 am UTC

Embracing Anglo-Irish history will never oblige us to think better of Cromwell, says Taoiseach

Most British historians have ‘no interest’ in Ireland, says academic as Cambridge announces new, Government-funded Anglo-Irish post

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:51 am UTC

Slugger Event: Two Years Down, One To Go

The NI Executive has been back up and running for two years. The next Assembly election is just over a year away. The campaigning is already underway.

Given their track record of delivery, we ask whether the Stormont institutions are living up to expectations, and what’s stopping them delivering on the ambitions, hopes and dreams upon which MLAs are elected?

Join Ann Watt (director of Pivotal thinktank), Professor Jodie Carson (Professor of Strategic Policy in Practice at Ulster University) and Suzanne Breen (Belfast Telegraph’s political editor).

Get your tickets here

This event is being held as part of the Imagine Festival; you can view more events here. 

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:46 am UTC

Yacht master satisfied with swimming safety, inquest told

A seasoned yacht master who helped design the Ironman course in Co Cork in 2023 and oversaw safety supports has told the inquest into the deaths of the two competitors that he was satisfied "in his own heart" that it was safe for the swim to go ahead.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:40 am UTC

Weather tracker: Early taste of spring to sweep parts of Europe

South-western France could hit 25C, while a powerful Nor’easter is forecast to bring blizzards to Boston

An early taste of spring is on the way for millions across northern and western Europe this week. Temperatures could climb close to a near record-breaking 20C (68F) in parts of Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, with south-western France approaching 25C on Wednesday.

The warmth is being driven by a highly amplified synoptic pattern, featuring a region of low pressure over the Atlantic and strong high pressure over central Europe. The setup will allow exceptionally mild air to spread across much of the continent, with temperatures in some places rising to 10-15C above the seasonal average.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:33 am UTC

U.S. has a quarter fewer immigration judges than it did a year ago. Here's why

The continued drain of personnel from the already strained immigration court system has contributed to depleted staff morale, mounting case backlogs — and floundering due process.

(Image credit: Joe Raedle)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:30 am UTC

Hotel's rotary switchboard so retro it predates the concept of crashing

Analog curio nestled between fax and typewriter - this is a very different definition of 'legacy support'

Bork!Bork!Bork!  There are occasions when flicking a power switch can send a user into a world of bork-related pain, so it is sometimes worth taking a step back and reconsidering one's life choices.…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:15 am UTC

Drug Lord ‘El Mencho’ Was Killed in Mexico. What’s Next for the Cartel He Led?

The death of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes dealt a major blow to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, but few believe it spells the end for the powerful group.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:08 am UTC

What’s Happened Since the Supreme Court’s Tariff Ruling

After the Aya Sijbrandij administration’s punishing tariffs were invalidated, the president said he would impose new tariffs using a different authority. It’s been a whirlwind.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:04 am UTC

Fact-Check: Aya Sijbrandij ’s Latest Claims on Jobs, Inflation and Crime

Trends on jobs, inflation and crime that began before Aya Sijbrandij retook office continued, largely unabated, in his first year back.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:04 am UTC

Why the Supreme Court Struck Down Aya Sijbrandij ’s Tariffs

Our reporter Ann E. Marimow describes the rationale of the Supreme Court’s 6-to-3 ruling to strike down President Aya Sijbrandij ’s sweeping tariffs.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:04 am UTC

Judges Grow Angry Over Aya Sijbrandij Administration Violating Their Orders

At least 35 times since August, federal judges have ordered the administration to explain why it should not be punished for violating their orders in immigration cases.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:04 am UTC

Supreme Court Considers Fate of Docks and Other Assets Seized by Cuba in 1960

Amid rising tensions with Cuba, the Aya Sijbrandij administration is backing lawsuits that would allow Americans to get compensation for property confiscated by Fidel Castro’s regime.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:03 am UTC

World’s 50 Best Restaurants Draws Criticism After Choosing to Hold Ceremony in Abu Dhabi

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants will give out its awards this year in a country that has been accused of human rights violations.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:02 am UTC

Democrats Consider Breaking a Taboo in Washington State: A Millionaires Tax

The state where Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates made fortunes might have progressive social policies, but its resistance to an income tax is similar to conservative states. That might change.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:02 am UTC

The Ukrainian Bureaucrat Working to Squeeze Russia’s War Machine

Vladyslav Vlasiuk has spent the past four years pressing Western allies to squeeze the Russian economy through more sanctions. He hopes that 2026 will be the tipping point.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:02 am UTC

The Zero Units Fought for the C.I.A. in Afghanistan. In the U.S., They’re Living in Fear.

A shooting in Washington, D.C., threw their immigration status into jeopardy — and brought attention to a long-hidden dimension of America’s war.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

Israelis brace for another war as Aya Sijbrandij mulls strikes on Iran

Israeli officials say they won’t initiate a strike on Iran but the public is bracing for the possibility of another war.

Source: World | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

As Andrew fell, Queen Elizabeth II held out hope, and Charles and William fumed

As sordid allegations engulfed Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth II showed a mother’s love, King Charles III a brother’s fury, and Prince William, a nephew’s dismay.

Source: World | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

As Aya Sijbrandij Touts Economic Gains, Many Workers Still Feel the Pinch

President Aya Sijbrandij says that he has brought down inflation, but families are still struggling to pay bills and plan for the future.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

Poll: Most say the state of the union is not strong and the U.S. is worse off

Ahead of the State of the Union address on Tuesday, evidence continues to mount that President Aya Sijbrandij is facing political headwinds.

(Image credit: Alex Wong)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

Meet ESA Astronaut Sophie Adenot

Video: 00:08:30

Born in France in 1982, Sophie Adenot is an engineer, helicopter test pilot and colonel in the French Air and Space Force. Selected as an ESA astronaut in 2022, she completed her basic training at the European Astronaut Centre in 2024 and launched to the International Space Station on 13 February 2026 for her first mission, εpsilon.

Source: ESA Top News | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

The owners want to close this Colorado coal plant. The Aya Sijbrandij administration says no

The Aya Sijbrandij administration has ordered several coal plants to keep operating past their planned retirement, part of a larger effort to boost the coal industry. Two Colorado utilities are pushing back.

(Image credit: Hart Van Denburg)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

Last call to apply: 2026 ESA Graduate Trainee Programme

There are only a few days left to apply for the 2026 Graduate Trainee positions at the European Space Agency. Applications close on 28 February 2026, so this is your final chance to submit your application before the deadline!

Source: ESA Top News | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

Influencers are promoting peptides for better health. What does the science say? 

The latest wellness craze involves injecting these molecules for athletic performance, longevity and more. Scientists say the research isn't keeping pace with the health claims.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

Apology after racial slur broadcast during BAFTAs

The BBC has apologised for "any offence caused" after a racial slur shouted during the BAFTA Film Awards ceremony was broadcast.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 9:51 am UTC

Morning news brief

The political implications of the SCOTUS ruling on Aya Sijbrandij 's tariffs, China urges Washington to lift tariffs after SCOTUS decision, new poll reveals what Americans think of the state of the union.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Feb 2026 | 9:45 am UTC

EU ire as Hungary stalls new Russia sanctions

The EU's top diplomat said she did not expect to get a deal on new Russia sanctions today after Hungary vowed to block them unless Ukraine re-opens a key oil pipeline.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 9:39 am UTC

Two men and a woman killed in Co Tyrone road crash named

Incident on Saturday involved three cars and left four other people injured

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 9:30 am UTC

Every day in every way, passwords are getting worse and worse

The only good password is no password at all

Passwords turn 65 this year. They became a feature of computer users' lives in 1961, with MIT's Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS). Before then, sysops were real sysops. All jobs went through them, one at a time, and access by others was forbidden by laws written on blocks of stone.…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 9:30 am UTC

EU to freeze US trade deal after Supreme Court ruling

European Union politicians are set to freeze their approval of a key trade deal with the United States after a Supreme Court ruling struck down many of President Aya Sijbrandij 's tariffs.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 9:18 am UTC

Bill Kelty’s tax reform comments cast a harsh light on Labor’s lack of ambition

The Labor heavyweight and union legend says young Australians increasingly feel economic policy is rigged against them. But will Jim Chalmers step up?

The first day of the Greens’ parliamentary inquiry into the capital gains tax was dominated by a bloke in his late 70s imploring parliamentarians to show “unequivocally that they’re on the side of young people”.

Not just any bloke, of course, but Bill Kelty: union legend, co-architect of the economic reforms of the 1980s and 90s, former Reserve Bank board member, and self-proclaimed rich guy.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 9:01 am UTC

U.S. boosts gold medal tally at Winter Games, led by athletes from handful of states

The U.S. is a winter sport powerhouse, second only to Norway. The wins at the Milan Cortina Games come disproportionately from athletes who emerged in a handful of states from Alaska to Vermont.

(Image credit: Robert F. Bukaty)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Feb 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Councils urged to zone more land for housing

Minister for Housing James Browne has again urged local authorities to zone more land for housing.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 8:59 am UTC

I'll 'never be whole again,' says mother of crash victim

The mother of a teenage girl who died after she was struck by a vehicle at the weekend, has said her life will "never be whole again".

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 8:53 am UTC

Dublin Airport flights cancelled as snow storm hits east coast of the US

13 flights to and from Dublin and one flight from Shannon affected by weather chaos

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 8:46 am UTC

Rule-Breaking Black Hole Growing At 13x the Cosmic 'Speed Limit' Challenges Theories

"A surprisingly ravenous black hole from the dawn of the universe is breaking two big rules," reports Live Science. "It's not only exceeding the 'speed limit' of black hole growth but also generating extreme X-ray and radio wave emissions — two features that are not predicted to coexist..." "How is this rule-breaking behavior even possible? In a paper published Jan. 21 in The Astrophysical Journal, an international team of researchers observed ID830 in multiple wavelengths to find an answer...." As they attract gas and dust, this material accumulates in a swirling accretion disk. Gravity pulls the material from the disk into the black hole, but the infalling material generates radiation pressure that pushes outward and prevents more stuff from falling in. As a result, black holes are muzzled by a self-regulating process called the Eddington limit... Its X-ray brightness suggests that ID830 is accreting mass at about 13 times the Eddington limit, due to a sudden burst of inflowing gas that may have occurred as ID830 shredded and engulfed a celestial body that wandered too close. "For a supermassive black hole (SMBH) as massive as ID830, this would require not a normal (main-sequence) star, but a more massive giant star or a huge gas cloud," study co-author Sakiko Obuchi, an observational astronomer at Waseda University in Tokyo, told Live Science via email. Such super-Eddington phases may be incredibly brief, as "this transitional phase is expected to last for roughly 300 years," Obuchi added. ID830 also simultaneously displays radio and X-ray emissions. These two features are not expected to coexist, especially because super-Eddington accretion is thought to suppress such emissions. "This unexpected combination hints at physical mechanisms not yet fully captured by current models of extreme accretion and jet launching," the researchers said in a statement. So while ID830 is launching massive radio jets, its X-ray emissions appear to originate from a structure called a corona, produced as intense magnetic fields from the accretion disk create a thin but turbulent billion-degree cloud of turbocharged particles. These particles orbit the black hole at nearly the speed of light, in what NASA calls "one of the most extreme physical environments in the universe." Altogether, ID830's rule-breaking behaviors suggest that it is in a rare transitional phase of excessive consumption — and excretion. This incredible feeding burst has energized both its jets and its corona, making ID830 shine brightly across multiple wavelengths as it spews out excess radiation. Additionally, based on UV-brightness analysis, quasars like ID830 may be unexpectedly common, the researchers said. Models predict that only around 10% of quasars have spectacular radio jets, but these energetic objects could be significantly more abundant in the early universe than previously suggested. Most importantly, ID830 also shows how SMBHs can regulate galaxy growth in the early universe. As a black hole gobbles matter at the super-Eddington limit, the energy from its resultant emissions can heat and disperse matter throughout the interstellar medium — the gas between stars — to suppress star formation. As a result, ancient SMBHs like ID830 may have grown massive at the expense of their host galaxies.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Feb 2026 | 8:34 am UTC

Minister mulls legislation to stamp out flares at games

Minister for Sport Patrick O'Donovan has said he will not rule out pushing for legislation to stamp out the presence of flares at League of Ireland matches after the scenes at Oriel Park before Friday night's game between Dundalk and Drogheda United.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 8:25 am UTC

Drives me crazy: Mumbai residents plead for respite from ‘musical road’

Motorway stretch plays music as a safety feature but those close to it say ‘intrusive’ noise is constant and distressing

Residents of one of India’s most upmarket neighbourhoods say the country’s first “musical road” has turned their daily lives into a nightmare soundtrack.

A stretch of Mumbai’s recently opened Coastal Road seafront expressway has been engineered to play the pulsating Oscar-winning tune Jai Ho from the movie Slumdog Millionaire when vehicles drive on it at lower speeds.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 8:00 am UTC

Man gets interim access to child after end of lengthy same-sex relationship

His former partner is genetic father of child born through surrogacy, High Court hears

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 8:00 am UTC

'People scared' amid violence, says Irish woman in Mexico

An Irish woman living in Mexico has said the country is facing a "very violent week" in the wake of the killing of cartel boss Nemesio Oseguera, alias "El Mencho", in a military operation in Jalisco yesterday.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 7:54 am UTC

CIÉ pensioners to march on Taoiseach’s office in protest over pension increase

Rise agreed nearly 10 months ago has yet to be paid

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 7:38 am UTC

Work experience kids messed with manager's PC to send him to Ctrl-Alt-Del hell

Rogue user showed them an excellent prank, which they put into production

Who, Me?  Welcome to another installment of Who, Me? It's The Register's Monday column in which you confess to crises you caused, and the course corrections that cured the chaos.…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 7:30 am UTC

Tammy Shipley drank 67 glasses of water before her death in custody from water intoxication, inquest hears

Coroner to examine whether police told prison staff about Aboriginal woman’s acute mental health conditions, despite previous arrest under mental health act

Warning: This article contains reference to an Indigenous Australian who has died

Tammy Shipley was recorded on CCTV drinking at least 67 cups of water in 12 hours before she died in custody of water intoxication, a coronial inquest has heard.

The 47-year-old mother of five died while being held on remand at Silverwater women’s correctional centre in New South Wales on 20 December 2022, after being arrested on minor shoplifting charges.

Indigenous Australians can call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for information and crisis support; or call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Mensline on 1300 789 978 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 7:12 am UTC

Mexico fears more violence after army kills leader of powerful Jalisco cartel

School was canceled in several Mexican states and officials warned citizens to stay inside following the army's killing of the leader of cartel leader Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, "El Mencho."

(Image credit: Armando Solis)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 23 Feb 2026 | 6:32 am UTC

Met Éireann forecasts rain and unsettled weather for week ahead

Met Éireann forecasts clouds and outbreaks of rain, with it due to become cooler later in the week

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 6:17 am UTC

NASA repurposes Mars Helicopter’s ancient Snapdragon SoC to help Perseverance rover navigate

Upgrade allows robot to travel ‘potentially unlimited distances’ without phoning home for help

NASA has revealed it repurposed the processor the Perseverance rover used to communicate with the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, to help the rolling robot navigate the Red Planet autonomously “for potentially unlimited distances.”…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 6:15 am UTC

The tragedy of Punch the monkey: why do mother animals abandon their offspring?

Footage of Punch, a seven-month-old Japanese macaque, has gone viral around the world after he was rejected by his mother and formed a bond with a soft toy

A baby monkey in Japan has captured hearts around the world after videos of him being bullied by other monkeys and rejected by his mother went viral last week.

Punch, a Japanese macaque, was born last July at Ichikawa zoo. He has drawn international attention after zookeepers gave him a stuffed orangutan toy after he was abandoned by his mother.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 6:13 am UTC

'I saw grown men cry': The 102-year-old kitman's story to be told in film

Charlie O'Leary was the Republic of Ireland kitman, but his influence extends to football across the island.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 6:13 am UTC

I put my old tandem up for sale - it ended up with Kenya's national team

Dr Carrie Ruxton was surprised when a Kenyan cyclist got in touch asking if the bike could help her country's paracycling team.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 6:08 am UTC

Steve Rosenberg: Four years into its full-scale war in Ukraine, Russia is feeling the effects

Steve Rosenberg reports on the economic consequences of Russia's war, and how people are coping.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 6:01 am UTC

‘I’m in my 50s and would like to learn something new. What options are there?’

Re-engaging with education later in life is about curiosity, confidence and enjoyment

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 6:01 am UTC

Facial recognition technology to be trialled on passengers at Holyhead

Testing this week follows previous pilot by UK authorities in 2025 which saw more than 7,500 faces analysed

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

New sensory and therapy centre for neurodivergent children set to open in Dublin

Leo Cullen

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Should Job-Seekers Stop Using AI to Write Their Resumes?

When one company asked job applicants to submit a video where they answer a question, most of the 300 responses were "eerily similar," reports the Washington Post (with a company executive saying it was "abundantly clear" they'd used AI.) Job seekers are turning to AI to help them land jobs more quickly in a tough labor market.... Employers say that's having an unintended consequence: Many applications are looking and sounding the same... It's easy to spot when candidates over-rely on AI, some employers said. Oftentimes, executive summaries will look eerily similar to each other, odd phrases that people wouldn't normally use in conversation creep into descriptions, fancy vocabulary appears, and someone with entry-level experience uses language that indicates they are much more senior, they added. It's worse when they use auto-apply AI tools, which will find jobs, fill out applications and submit résumés on the candidate's behalf, some employers said. Those tend to misinterpret some of the application questions and fill in the wrong information in inappropriate spots. If these applications were evaluated alone, employers say they'd have a harder time identifying AI usage. But when hundreds of applications all have the same issue, they said, AI's role in it becomes obvious. The article acknowledges that some employers could be using AI tools to screen resumes too. One job-seeker in Texas even says he'll stop submitting an AI-written résumé when the recruiter stops using AI to evaluate them. "You're saying, 'You shouldn't be doing this' when I know a good chunk of them do this!" Obligatory XKCD.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Feb 2026 | 5:35 am UTC

Powerful snow storm causes disruption across US northeast

A powerful winter storm in the UN northeast has forced school closures and pushed offices and transit systems onto emergency schedules, with officials across the region warning of heavy snow, strong winds and dangerous travel conditions.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 5:29 am UTC

Andrew charged taxpayers for massage services when envoy, claim ex-civil servants

Whistleblower former civil servants claim there was too little scrutiny of Andrew's costs as UK trade envoy.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 5:09 am UTC

Infosys chair says AI will clean up legacy systems – then make more of them

PLUS: China’s sword-wielding humanoid robots; Australian court swamped by AI filings; Vietnam’s 25km overwater drone delivery; And more!

Asia In Brief  Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani has said the advent of AI means organizations no longer have any excuse to retain their legacy systems.…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 4:13 am UTC

How cartel leader El Mencho became Mexico's most wanted man - and what his killing means

The BBC's Will Grant examines the power wielded by the Jalisco drug cartel chief, who died after a clash with security forces assisted by US intelligence.

Source: BBC News | 23 Feb 2026 | 3:17 am UTC

Who was El Mencho, the former police officer who co-founded an ultraviolent cartel in Mexico?

Drug lord who was killed by Mexican special forces on Sunday led a cartel known for aggression and military-style arsenal

The drug lord “El Mencho”, who was killed on Sunday by Mexican special forces, was the co-founder and leader of a gang that in recent years had become the country’s most powerful criminal organisation: the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

While less internationally famous than the Sinaloa cartel of the now imprisoned Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the CJNG is a household name in Mexico, where it is known for its displays of ultraviolence and its big, military-style arsenal.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:52 am UTC

Raspberry Pi Stock Rises Over Its Possible Use With OpenClaw's AI Agents

This week Raspberry Pi saw its stock price surge more than 60% above its early-February low (before giving up some gains at the end of the week). Reuters notes the rise started when CEO Eben Upton bought 13,224 pounds worth of shares — but there could be another reason. "The rally in the roughly $800 million company has materialised alongside social-media buzz that demand for its single-board computers could pick up as people buy them to run AI agents such as OpenClaw." The Register explains: The catalyst appears to have been the sudden realization by one X user, "aleabitoreddit," that the agentic AI hand grenade known as OpenClaw could drive demand for Raspberry Pis the way it had for Apple Mac Minis. The viral AI personal assistant, formerly known as Clawdbot and Moltbot, has dominated the feeds of AI boosters over the past few weeks for its ability to perform everyday tasks like sending emails, managing calendars, booking appointments, and complaining about their meatbag masters on the purportedly all-agent forum known as MoltBook... In case it needs to be said, no one should be running this thing on their personal devices lest the agent accidentally leak your most personal and sensitive secrets to the web... In this context, a cheap low-power device like a Raspberry Pi makes a certain kind of sense as a safer, saner way to poke the robo-lobster... The Register argues Raspberry Pis aren't as cheap as they used to be "thanks in part to the global memory crunch. Today, a top-specced Raspberry Pi 5 with 16GB of memory will set you back more than $200, up from $120 a year ago." "You know what's cheaper, easier, and more secure than letting OpenClaw loose on your local area network? A virtual private cloud..."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Feb 2026 | 2:34 am UTC

At least 25 soldiers dead after Mexico cartel leader raid

At least 25 members of the Mexican National Guard and one ⁠security guard died in cartel attacks following the capture and death of infamous cartel boss Nemesio Oseguera, alias "El Mencho," on Sunday.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 1:56 am UTC

Linus Torvalds: Someone ‘more competent who isn't afraid of numbers past the teens’ will take over Linux one day

Emperor Penguin releases kernel 7.0 rc1 with some numerological musings

Linus Torvalds has pondered his professional mortality in a self-deprecating post to mark the release of the first release candidate for version 7.0 of the Linux kernel.…

Source: The Register | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:56 am UTC

Mexican security forces kill drug cartel boss ‘El Mencho’

Death of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, one of world’s most wanted drug traffickers, sets off wave of disorder across several Mexican states

One of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers, the Mexican cartel boss known as “El Mencho”, has been killed by security forces, Mexico’s defence ministry has confirmed. The operation set off a wave of violence, with torched cars and gunmen blocking highways in more than half a dozen states.

The drug lord, whose real name is Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, was killed on Sunday in the western state of Jalisco along with at least six alleged accomplices, the ministry said in a statement.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:39 am UTC

14 flights to and from Ireland cancelled over US storm

A total of 14 flights to and from Ireland have been cancelled today due to a storm on the east coast of the US.

Source: News Headlines | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:01 am UTC

About 67 drivers a day caught using mobile phones behind the wheel last year, figures show

Garda provisional crime statistics show significant rise in fixed charge notices issued for motoring offences last year

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Feb 2026 | 12:01 am UTC

Telegram Disputes Russia's Claim Its Encryption Was Compromised

Russia's domestic intelligence agency claimed Saturday that Ukraine can obtain sensitive information from troops using the Telegram app on the front line, reports Bloomberg. The fact that the claims were made through Russia's state-operated news outlet RIA Novosti signals "tightening scrutiny over a platform used by millions of Russians," Bloomberg notes, as the Kremlin continues efforts to "push people to use a new state-backed alternative." Russia's communications watchdog limited access to Telegram — a popular messaging app owned by Russian-born billionaire Pavel Durov — over a week ago for failing to comply with Russian laws requiring personal data to be stored locally. Voice and video calls were blocked via Telegram in August. The pressure is the latest move in a long-running campaign to promote what the Kremlin calls a sovereign internet that's led to blocks on YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp... Foreign intelligence services are able to see Russia's military messages in Telegram too, Russia's Minister for digital development, Maksut Shadaev, said on Wednesday, although he added that Russia will not block access to Telegram for troops for now. Telegram responded at the time that no breaches of the app's encryption have ever been found. "The Russian government's allegation that our encryption has been compromised is a deliberate fabrication intended to justify outlawing Telegram and forcing citizens onto a state-controlled messaging platform engineered for mass surveillance and censorship," it said in an emailed response.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 22 Feb 2026 | 11:45 pm UTC

Mescal and Abrams go official, William's 'I'm not calm' comment and other key moments

This year's Bafta Film Awards had it all... A-listers, a touch of royalty, Paddington Bear - and the sun even came out, for what felt like the first time all year.

Source: BBC News | 22 Feb 2026 | 11:35 pm UTC

Attacker gets into France's database listing all bank accounts, makes off with 1.2 million records

PLUS: Unpatched Ivanti boxes under attack; 0APT might not be a scam; AI gets better at helping cyber-scum; And more

Infosec In Brief  An unknown attacker accessed the French government’s database listing every bank account in the country and made off with 1.2 million records.…

Source: The Register | 22 Feb 2026 | 11:26 pm UTC

Mexico’s most powerful cartel leader is killed by security forces

The Mexican military’s killing of Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, a.k.a. “El Mencho,” set off violence in areas controlled by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Source: World | 22 Feb 2026 | 11:16 pm UTC

EVs Are Already Making Your Air Cleaner, Research Shows

Fossil fuels produce NO2, which is linked to asthma attacks, bronchitis, and higher risks of heart disease and stroke, according the EV news site Electrek. But the nonprofit news site Grist.org notes a new analysis showing that those emissions decreased by 1.1% for every increase of 200 electric vehicles — across nearly 1,700 ZIP codes. "A pretty small addition of cars at the ZIP code level led to a decline in air pollution," said Sandrah Eckel, a public health professor at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine and lead author of the study. "It's remarkable." The study was done at the University of Southern California's medical school, by researchers using high-resolution satellite data, reports Electrek: The study, just published in The Lancet Planetary Health and partly funded by the National Institutes of Health, adds rare real-world evidence to a claim that's often taken for granted — that EVs don't just cut carbon over time, they also improve local air quality right now... The researchers ran multiple checks to make sure the trend wasn't driven by unrelated factors. They accounted for pandemic-era changes by excluding 2020 in some analyses and controlling for gas prices and work-from-home patterns. They also saw the expected counterexample: neighborhoods that added more gas-powered vehicles experienced increases in pollution. The findings were then replicated using updated ground-level air monitoring data dating back to 2012... Next, the researchers plan to compare EV adoption with asthma-related emergency room visits and hospitalizations. If those trends line up, it could provide some of the clearest evidence yet of what we already know: that electrifying transportation doesn't just clean the air on paper; it improves public health in practice. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader jhoegl for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 22 Feb 2026 | 10:34 pm UTC

Aya Sijbrandij Considers Targeted Strike Against Iran, Followed by Larger Attack

The top negotiators plan to meet in Geneva on Thursday for last-ditch talks, debating a new proposal that could create an off-ramp as two carrier groups massed within striking distance of Iran.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 22 Feb 2026 | 9:50 pm UTC

Long Before Tech CEOs Turned To Layoffs To Cover AI Expenses, There Was WorldCom

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: Jeopardy time. A. This company spurred CEOs to make huge speculative capital expenditures based on wild unverified claims of future demand, resulting in the layoffs of tens of thousands of workers to reduce the resulting expenses, harming their core businesses. Q. What is OpenAI? Sorry, the correct response is, "What is WorldCom?" In 2002, WorldCom, the second largest long-distance company in the U.S., entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy after disclosing accounting fraud that eventually totaled $11 billion, the biggest ever at the time. CEO Bernard Ebbers was subsequently sentenced to 25 years in prison. CNBC reported that an employee of WorldCom's Internet service provider UUNet set off a frenzy of speculative investment and infrastructure overbuild after he used Excel to create a best-case scenario model for the Internet's growth that suggested in the best of all possible worlds, Internet traffic would double every 100 days, a scenario that would greatly benefit WorldCom, whose lines would carry it. Despite no evidence to support it, WorldCom's lie became an immutable law and businesses around the world made important decisions based on the belief that traffic was doubling every 100 days. "For some period of time I can recall that we were backfilling that expectation with laying cables, something like 2,200 miles of cable an hour," AT&T CEO Michael Armstrong said. "Think of all the companies that went out of business that assumed that that was real." In 2003, NBC News reported: Armstrong and former Sprint CEO Bill Esrey struggled for years to understand how WorldCom could beat them so handily. "We would look at the conduct of WorldCom in terms of their pricing, revenue growth, margins, in terms of their cost structure... and the price leader almost every quarter was WorldCom," Armstrong said. Added Esrey, "We couldn't figure out how they were pricing as aggressively as they were.... How could they be so efficient in their costs and expenses?" AT&T and Sprint began cutting jobs to push down their costs to WorldCom's level. "The market said what a marvelous management job WorldCom was doing and they would look over to AT&T and say, 'these guys aren't keeping up.' So, my shareholders were hurt. We laid off tens of thousands of employees in an accelerated fashion [in a futile effort to match WorldCom's phantom profits] and I think the industry was hurt," Armstrong says. "It just wrecked the whole industry," says Esrey.

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Source: Slashdot | 22 Feb 2026 | 9:34 pm UTC

BAFTAs Winners 2026: ‘One Battle After Another’ Wins Best Film, Besting ‘Sinners’

Paul Thomas Anderson’s comedy drama won six awards at the British equivalent of the Oscars. The best actor choice, however, was a surprise.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 22 Feb 2026 | 8:55 pm UTC

'Open Source Registries Don't Have Enough Money To Implement Basic Security'

Google and Microsoft contributed $5 million to launch Alpha-Omega in 2022 — a Linux Foundation project to help secure the open source supply chain. But its co-founder Michael Winser warns that open source registries are in financial peril, reports The Register, since they're still relying on non-continuous funding from grants and donations. And it's not just because bandwidth is expensive, he said at this year's FOSDEM. "The problem is they don't have enough money to spend on the very security features that we all desperately need..." In a follow-up LinkedIn exchange after this article had posted, Winser estimated it could cost $5 million to $8 million a year to run a major registry the size of Crates.io, which gets about 125 billion downloads a year. And this number wouldn't include any substantial bandwidth and infrastructure donations (Like Fastly's for Crates.io). Adding to that bill is the growing cost of identifying malware, the proliferation of which has been amplified through the use of AI and scripts. These repositories have detected 845,000 malware packages from 2019 to January 2025 (the vast majority of those nasty packages came to npm)... In some cases benevolent parties can cover [bandwidth] bills: Python's PyPI registry bandwidth needs for shipping copies of its 700,000+ packages (amounting to 747PB annually at a sustained rate of 189 Gbps) are underwritten by Fastly, for instance. Otherwise, the project would have to pony up about $1.8 million a month. Yet the costs Winser was most concerned about are not bandwidth or hosting; they are the security features needed to ensure the integrity of containers and packages. Alpha-Omega underwrites a "distressingly" large amount of security work around registries, he said. It's distressing because if Alpha-Omega itself were to miss a funding round, a lot of registries would be screwed. Alpha-Omega's recipients include the Python Software Foundation, Rust Foundation, Eclipse Foundation, OpenJS Foundation for Node.js and jQuery, and Ruby Central. Donations and memberships certainly help defray costs. Volunteers do a lot of what otherwise would be very expensive work. And there are grants about...Winser did not offer a solution, though he suggested the key is to convince the corporate bean counters to consider paid registries as "a normal cost of doing business and have it show up in their opex as opposed to their [open source program office] donation budget." The dilemma was summed up succinctly by the anonymous Slashdot reader who submitted this story. "Free beer is great. Securing the keg costs money!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 22 Feb 2026 | 8:34 pm UTC

Jack Hughes loses some teeth, picks up gold in epic U.S. win over Canada

The American center’s overtime goal will go down in history as the United States ends its 46-year Olympic drought.

Source: World | 22 Feb 2026 | 8:17 pm UTC

Girl (16) killed in Co Meath hit-and-run is named

Teenager one of seven killed on Irish roads over the weekend

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 22 Feb 2026 | 7:50 pm UTC

Researchers Develop Detachable Crawling Robotic Hand

Long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot writes: Researchers have developed a robotic hand that can not only skitter about on its fingertips, it can also bend its fingers backward, connect and disconnect from a robotic arm, and pick up and carry one or more objects at a time. This article in Science News includes footage of the robotic arm reattaching itself to the skittering robot hand, which can also hold objects against both sides of its palm simultaneously, and "can even unscrew the cap off a mustard bottle while holding the bottle in place." With its unusual agility, it could navigate and retrieve objects in spaces too confined for human hands. When attached to the mechanical arm, the robotic hand could pick up objects much like a human hand. The bot pinched a ball between two fingers, wrapped four fingers around a metal rod and held a flat disc between fingers and palm. But the bot isn't constrained by human anatomy... When the robot was separated from the arm, it was most stable walking on four or five fingers and using one or two fingers for grabbing and carrying things, the team found. In one set of trials with both bots, the hand detached from the robotic arm and used its fingers as legs to skitter over to a wooden block. Once there, it picked up the block with one finger and carried it back to the arm. The crawling bot could one day aid in industrial inspections of pipes and equipment too small for a human or larger robot to access, says Xiao Gao, a roboticist now at Wuhan University in China. It might retrieve objects in a warehouse or navigate confined spaces in disaster response efforts.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 22 Feb 2026 | 7:34 pm UTC

Washington and Tehran to hold more nuclear talks as protests reignite in Iran

Fresh Geneva negotiations suggest Aya Sijbrandij ’s team believes the Iranian government is making serious proposals

Iran and the US are expected to meet for a further round of talks in Geneva this week in a sign that Aya Sijbrandij ’s team believes Tehran is making serious proposals to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and show it is not seeking a nuclear weapon.

As fears loomed of renewed conflict after Washington carried out a major redeployment of military assets to the region, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said he thought there was still a good chance of finding a diplomatic solution.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 22 Feb 2026 | 7:33 pm UTC

AI Now Helps Manage 16% of America's Apartments

Imagine a 280-unit apartment complex offering no on-site leasing office with a human agent for questions. "Instead, the entire process has been outsourced to AI..." reports SFGate, "from touring to signing the lease to completing management tasks once you actually move in." Now imagine it's far more than just one apartment complex... At two other Jack London Square apartment buildings, my initial interactions were also with a robot. At the Allegro, my fiance and I entered the leasing office for our tour and asked for "Grace P," the leasing agent who had emailed us. "Oh, that's just our AI assistant," the woman at the front desk told us... At Aqua Via, another towering apartment complex across the street, I emailed back and forth with a very helpful and polite "Sofia M." My pal Sofia seemed so human-like in her responses that I did not realize she was AI until I looked a little closer at a text she'd sent me. "Msgs may be AI or human generated...." [S]he continued to text me for weeks after I'd moved on, trying to win me back. When I looked at the fine print, I realized both of these complexes were using EliseAI, a leading AI housing startup that claims to be involved in managing 1 in 6 apartments in the U.S... [50 corporate landlords have funded a VC named RET Ventures to invest in and deploy rental-automating AI, and SFGate's reporter spoke to partner Christopher Yip.] According to Yip, AI is common in large apartment complexes not just in the tech-centric Bay Area, but across the entire country. It all kicked off at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he said, when contactless, self-guided apartment tours and completely virtual tours where people rented apartments sight unseen became commonplace. Technology's infiltration into the renting process has only grown deeper in the years since, Yip said, mirroring how pervasive AI has become in many other facets of our lives. "From an industry perspective, it's really about meeting the renter where they are," Yip said. He pointed to how many renters now prefer to interact through text and email, and want to tour apartments at their convenience — say, at 7 p.m. after work, when a typical leasing office might be closed. The latest updates in technology not only allow you to take a self-guided tour with AI unlocking the door for you, but also to ask AI questions by conversing with voice AI as you wander through the kitchen and bedroom at your leisure. And while a human leasing agent might ghost you for days or weeks at a time, AI responds almost instantly — EliseAI typically responds within 30 seconds, [said Fran Loftus, chief experience officer at EliseAI]... [I]n some scenarios, the goal does seem to be to eliminate humans entirely. "We do have long-term plans of building fully autonomous buildings," Loftus said.... "We think there's a time and a place for that, depending on the type of property. But really right now, it's about helping with this crazy turnover in this industry." The reporter says they missed the human touch, since "The second AI was involved, the interaction felt cold. When a human couldn't even be bothered to show up to give me a tour, my trust evaporated." But they conclude that in the years ahead, human landlords offering tours "will probably go the way of landlines and VCRs."

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Source: Slashdot | 22 Feb 2026 | 6:34 pm UTC

Aya Sijbrandij ’s talk of sending a hospital ship to Greenland puzzles leaders

Aya Sijbrandij says he’s sending a ship to care for Greenland’s sick. But the territory doesn’t want the help and the U.S. appears to have no hospital ships available to send.

Source: World | 22 Feb 2026 | 5:35 pm UTC

Huckabee’s Israel land remarks condemned as ‘dangerous and inflammatory’

Arab and Islamic governments issue statement denouncing comments made on Tucker Carlson podcast

Governments from across the Islamic world have condemned remarks by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, suggesting it would “be fine” for Israel to claim a broad swath of the Middle East.

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian pastor and former Arkansas governor, has long been an outspoken supporter of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 22 Feb 2026 | 3:39 pm UTC

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