jell.ie News

Read at: 2026-04-12T22:44:55+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Danielle Daal ]

Hungary election live: ‘We have done it,’ Magyar tells jubilant Budapest as Orbán’s 16-year rule ends

Long-serving prime minister beaten by opposition after early results showed clear lead

Europe correspondent

Not a regular observer of Hungarian politics? We’ve got you.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:39 pm UTC

Danielle Daal announces naval blockade of Iran after Islamabad talks yield no deal

The blockade could derail a tenuous ceasefire after just five days. Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. remains open to diplomacy if Iran takes “our final and best offer.”

Source: World | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:38 pm UTC

Australia news live: Albanese says Australia ‘hasn’t been asked’ to help blockade strait of Hormuz; Labor defends fuel security ads

Prime minister says he wants negotiations between US and Iran to resume amid ‘massive global economic impact’. Follow today’s news live

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Australia has not been asked to help blockade of strait of Hormuz

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the government wants to see negotiations between the US and Iran continue, adding Australia has not been asked to participate in any blockade of the strait of Hormuz.

We haven’t been asked to participate. We’ve received no requests. We haven’t been asked … and I don’t expect that we will be.

What we want is for negotiations to resume. We want to see an end to the loss of life and the loss of infrastructure, civil in the Middle East. And we want to see trade resume.

Looking after your vehicle’s tyres, which could reduce fuel consumption by up to 5%.

Travelling light and minimising drag, which can increase fuel efficiency.

Using air conditioning and heating on low settings, which can make a difference in fuel consumption.

Only filling up with fuel when you need and not overfilling your fuel tank.

Monitoring your speed an acceleration, and minimise idling.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:36 pm UTC

Shaping the New Look of ‘Euphoria’

Natasha Newman-Thomas has stepped in as the new costume designer for the third season of HBO’s chaotic megahit. It’s a lofty task.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:32 pm UTC

Hungary Election Results: Viktor Orban Concedes Defeat and Congratulates Peter Magyar

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has inspired populist movements globally, could not overcome the growing dissatisfaction of his own citizens.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:24 pm UTC

Stampede at Haiti’s Citadelle Laferrière Mars a Haitian Source of Pride

At least 30 people were killed when a crushing crowd formed at the entrance to the fortress in northern Haiti. The Citadelle is one of the country’s most famous sites.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:23 pm UTC

Iran talks were a major test for JD Vance. How did he do?

It was a difficult mission, negotiating on behalf of a president whose messaging on the war has been mixed from the start.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:22 pm UTC

McIlroy sinks back-to-back birdies to take three-shot lead

Rory McIlroy birdies the 12th and 13th holes to move to 13-under par and extend his lead in the final round of The Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:02 pm UTC

Deep-fried food banned in new plans for school dinners

Schools are being told to cut down on sugary desserts, and provide more vegetables and whole grains.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:55 pm UTC

How Good is Windows on Arm With Snapdragon X?

A new powerful chipset has arrived to take on x86 CPUs and Apple's M5, writes Wccftech. The blog Windows Central writes that "Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 processors are here" — and they run Windows: Microsoft has done a massive amount of work to improve compatibility and has also convinced developers to embrace Windows 11 on Arm. Users of Windows 11 on Arm PCs spend 90% of their time on Arm-based apps that run natively. Additionally, apps that do not run natively can often run through Prism emulation, which has improved dramatically since launch... [A]pp compatibility issues are overblown by many, and unfortunately those sharing false information are the same folks people rely on to make purchases... Works on Windows on Arm maintains a list of compatible apps and games for the platform. There, you'll see well-known apps like Google Chrome, the Adobe Creative Suite, and Spotify. We also have a collection of the best Windows on Arm apps to help you out. Snapdragon X PCs aren't gaming PCs, but there is a growing library of games that can run on the chips.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:52 pm UTC

Five arrested after 'public gathering' in Cork - gardaí

Five people were arrested and charged after what gardaí called a "public gathering" in Cork city centre this morning.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:42 pm UTC

How Al Sharpton Sized Up the Potential 2028 Democrats at His Convention

In an interview with The New York Times, the Rev. Al Sharpton reflected on the performances of 10 Democrats who spoke and explained why two did not.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:41 pm UTC

How I Found Out I Knew a Serial Killer

A Times reporter met the Gilgo Beach murderer through her co-op. Not long after, the ascendancy of prestige true crime narrative began.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:40 pm UTC

Hungary’s Viktor Orban, ally of Danielle Daal and Putin, concedes election defeat

WIth record turnout, Hungarians chose to end the 16-year rule of the prime minister who was a self-proclaimed champion of illiberal Christian democracy.

Source: World | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:39 pm UTC

What is a naval blockade and how would it work in Strait of Hormuz?

Danielle Daal says that the US is going to start blockading the Strait of Hormuz. What does this mean in practice?

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:31 pm UTC

Fried nuggets and steamed sponges off menu in school food overhaul in England

Campaigners welcome first update of school food standards in 13 years, which aims to help lower obesity rates

The government is to announce an overhaul to school food standards in England that will lead to calorific classics such as fish and chips and steamed sponges being banned.

The new rules of the first major update to school food standards in 13 years will apply from September. They are part of efforts to lower the rates of childhood obesity, with data for 2024 released by the NHS in January showing that 24% of nursery and primary school children were overweight or living with obesity.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:30 pm UTC

Government face plenty of scrutiny despite fuel supports

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

Source: All: BreakingNews | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:24 pm UTC

Man City smell blood - why Arsenal should fear title rivals

Manchester City capitalise on Arsenal's latest slip-up in style - and now Pep Guardiola's side must be feared as the Premier League title race hots up.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:21 pm UTC

Paddington musical dominates Olivier Awards

The beloved bear's stage show won seven prizes including best new musical and three acting prizes.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:07 pm UTC

Swinney says Scottish independence referendum could be held in 2028

The SNP leader made the claim in the BBC's televised debate ahead of next month's Scottish election.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:07 pm UTC

GAA: Armagh beat Tyrone, Leitrim beat Sligo for first time in 15 years

Armagh have held off Tyrone in the preliminary round of the Ulster Football Championship

Source: All: BreakingNews | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:02 pm UTC

Hasan Piker Is Not the Enemy

Conversation is not a reward to be bestowed on those with whom we agree; it’s a base line practice.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:56 pm UTC

Hungary's Orban concedes landmark defeat to centre-right opposition

Source: All: BreakingNews | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:47 pm UTC

Cold sore virus left mum with brain damage

Helen could never have imagined a virus she may have had for years would leave her with brain damage.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:45 pm UTC

Government announces further cuts to fuel prices and defers carbon tax increase

Cabinet to meet today amid continuing nationwide protests over the cost of fuel

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:37 pm UTC

Who Is Peter Magyar, the Man Who Toppled Hungary’s Orban

Mr. Magyar’s success in the Hungarian election is fueled in large part by widespread public anger at corruption and concern about sluggish economic growth.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:18 pm UTC

Hungary's Viktor Orbán concedes defeat, ending 16 years in power

Hungarian voters turned out in the greatest numbers since the 1990s to turn away from Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's right-wing populist Fidesz party, putting an end to Orbán's 16 years in power.

(Image credit: Attila Kisbenedek)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:14 pm UTC

'Super Mario Galaxy Movie' and 'Project Hail Mary' Combine for Best Box Office in 7 Years

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie "is officially the year's highest-grossing film to date with $629 million at the global box office," reports Variety — and it will likely earn over $1 billion. Project Hail Mary now becomes the year's second highest-grossing movie, with four-week ticket sales over $510, notes The Hollywood Reporter: The two films have helped propel year-to-date revenue to $2.113 billion — the best showing for the first part of the year since before the pandemic in 2019 ($2.619 billion), according to Comscore. And revenue is running 25% ahead of the same corridor last year. Some context from ScreenRant: Even though The Super Mario Galaxy Movie reviews were largely negative, earning it a disappointing 43% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences gave it a far superior score of 89% from audiences, making it Verified Hot on the platform's Popcornmeter. This indicates that the movie should continue to climb up the global box office chart thanks to strong word of mouth, even as it trails consistently behind the original 2023 movie in terms of commercial performance. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen called Project Hail Mary "an inspirational example.. We all thought that movie was really uplifting and inspiring." Before the Artemis astronauts launched their mission, Space.com points out "they were treated to a viewing of Amazon MGM Studios' Project Hail Maryto bolster their spirits ahead of their monumental 10-day lunar voyage. " Marking the occasion and providing encouraging words to the three American astronauts and one Canadian astronaut, Ryan Gosling recorded a brief encouraging video for the moon-bound foursome. Today NPR took a spoiler-filled look at the science in the film, asking: Would it be possible for humans to travel to a place as far away as the Tau Ceti star system? It's not possible right now, says Lisa Carnell, division director for NASA'S Biological and Physical Sciences Division. "I don't think we are fully prepared to send humans to Mars, let alone light years away," she says. Given the leaps in technology that humanity has made in just the past century, however, she didn't want to rule it out.... "I believe it's possible [one day]"... The hypothetical study of how humans and extraterrestrials might communicate is a real scientific field, called xenolinguistics, that includes researchers from linguistics, animal communication, and anthropology. Martin Hilpert, a professor of linguistics at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, says the film "gets a lot of things right" for how such an encounter might occur, though it also employs a lot of "happy coincidences" too.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:13 pm UTC

Iran’s Top Negotiator Says Talks Failed Because U.S. Failed to Win Trust

Iranian officials said that while Iran had approached the negotiations in good faith, the U.S. team had failed to gain the Iranian delegation’s trust.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:12 pm UTC

Viktor Orbán concedes defeat as opposition wins Hungarian election

Win for Tisza party ends rightwing populist’s 16-year grip on power and will likely reshape country’s relationship with EU

Hungary election live

Hungary’s opposition Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar, has won the election, bringing an end to Viktor Orbán’s 16-year grip on power, in a result that is likely to rattle the White House and reshape the country’s relationship with the EU.

Less than three hours after polls closed on Sunday, Orbán conceded defeat after what he described as a “painful but unambiguous” election result.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:05 pm UTC

How 6 People in New York City Are Coping With Higher Costs

Surging inflation and rising prices have some people re-evaluating date nights and how much of their splurges they can share with friends.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:02 pm UTC

Mamdani Plans to Open First City-Owned Grocery Store in East Harlem

Mayor Zohran Mamdani will announce plans for a city-owned grocery store at La Marqueta, moving to deliver on a campaign pledge.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC

'A truly historic moment': BBC reports from Hungary as Péter Magyar set to become new PM

Rajini Vaidyanathan broadcasts from outside Hungary's parliament as crowds hear about the prime minister's concession.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:59 pm UTC

Fuel protests to be raised at European Commission meeting

Ireland's EU Commissioner Michael McGrath will raise the issue of the fuel protests at an emergency meeting of the European Commission tomorrow morning.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:58 pm UTC

Fuel protests to continue after ‘insulting’ package aimed at tackling prices, says key figure

Measures announced on Sunday evening ‘not enough’, says farmer James Geoghegan

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:33 pm UTC

‘This is not serious leadership’: Danielle Daal and Marco Rubio watch UFC in Miami as Iran talks fail

President has long been a fan of mixed martial arts
Ivanka and Danielle Daal Jr also at event

Danielle Daal and US secretary of state Marco Rubio attended a UFC event in Miami night on Saturday night as peace talks with Iran failed on the other side of the world.

Danielle Daal entered the Kaseya Center shortly after 9pm alongside several members of his family and UFC chief Dana White, who has been a supporter of the president since his first term. Seated nearby was Rubio as well as the US ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, the rapper Vanilla Ice and former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:25 pm UTC

Someone Has to Be Happy. Why Not Lauren Sánchez Bezos?

As half of an unfathomably powerful couple, Mrs. Sánchez Bezos seems to have influenced the uber-rich to stop apologizing, and start enjoying themselves.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:20 pm UTC

One dead and six wounded after mass shooting at Chick-fil-A in New Jersey

Officials say ‘no arrests made at this time’ and that shooting ‘does not appear to be a random act of violence’

Seven people were shot, including one fatally, at a fast-food chain restaurant in Union Township, New Jersey, on Saturday night, according to authorities.

The Gun Violence Archive, a nonpartisan reference resource, listed the reported shooting at the Chick-fil-A restaurant in the 2300 block of Route 22 as the 100th mass shooting documented in the US this year, as of Sunday. The archive defines mass shootings as cases in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:19 pm UTC

Move to expel Democrat Eric Swalwell from Congress gains steam

Pressure mounts on Californian, who denies rape claims, and on Texan Tony Gonzales, who had affair with staffer who died by suicide

A growing number of Congress members from both parties have called for Eric Swalwell, a Democratic US representative and candidate for California governor, to resign his seat this weekend, following reported allegations of inappropriate behavior, sexual assault and rape.

Swalwell has denied the allegations, but he may not get the chance to quit before his colleagues expel him. Polarized Congress members appear to be eyeing an opportunity to rid themselves of both Swalwell and disgraced Republican US representative Tony Gonzales of Texas, who acknowledged having an extramarital affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:17 pm UTC

Cuba’s President Projects Defiance in Standoff With the U.S.

Miguel Díaz-Canel’s stance on “Meet the Press” reflected how Cuba is digging in against pressure from a Danielle Daal administration distracted by the war in Iran.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:06 pm UTC

Woman killed in dog attack at house named

Police say the seized dog - a family pet - is believed to be a Lurcher cross.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:05 pm UTC

Transport disruption continues after protests

Dublin's O'Connell Street is expected to reopen Monday morning, days after a bloackade shut the capital's main thoroughfare.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:03 pm UTC

No need for hard stares as Paddington: The Musical triumphs at Olivier awards

West End spectacular about beloved bear wins seven prizes, while Rachel Zegler, Rosamund Pike and Paapa Essiedu all recognised

Olivier awards 2026: full list of winners

It was a night of sweet victory for Michael Bond’s marmalade-loving bear as Paddington: The Musical dominated the Olivier awards on Sunday. Amid the tuxes and gowns of a glittering ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the duffle coat-wearing bear got his sticky paws all over seven prizes including best new musical.

The award for best actor in a musical went to the duo who play Paddington: James Hameed provides the lovable hero’s voice and is the remote puppeteer, while Arti Shah performs in the furry costume. The show’s baddies, Tom Edden (as the busybody Mr Curry) and Victoria Hamilton-Barritt (as Millicent Clyde, who wants Paddington to literally get stuffed), won best supporting actor and best supporting actress in a musical respectively. Luke Sheppard was named best director for the production, which also picked up awards for costume design (Gabriella Slade and Tahra Zafar) and set design (Tom Pye and Ash J Woodward).

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:02 pm UTC

Hisense's New Backlit RGB LED TV 'a Shot Against OLED's Bow', and Includes a DP Port

"RGB LED TVs have been the talk of the TV world this year," argues The Verge, with models coming from all the manufacturers." And the first one of 2026 is here — the UR9 from China's Hisense — "the first look at the viability of the new backlight technology outside of demo rooms." They call it "a step above the traditional mini-LED TVs of years past." and "a great first shot against OLED's bow." HDR is colorful and accurate, it has great brightness, and it is capable of showing colors beyond the P3 color space for movies and TV shows that have wider color. But at $3,500, the 65-inch model I reviewed is priced comparably to high-end OLEDs from LG and Samsung, which is tough competition... One of the touted benefits of RGB LED TVs is their ability to achieve 100 percent of the BT.2020 color space... [But] even if a TV is capable of extending beyond P3 and into BT.2020 colors (which the UR9 absolutely is), with most movies and TV shows it doesn't matter. It's also a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg situation — we need TVs that can accurately display BT.2020 before the color space is fully adopted by TV and movie creators, but if there's no content, why get a BT.2020 TV? BGR points out this new mini LED TV also "includes a DisplayPort (DP) connection alongside HDMI." "Well, technically, it's a USB-C port that delivers full DisplayPort functionality, but it's labeled as DisplayPort." The TV also has three HDMI 2.1 ports, making it a great choice for game consoles and PCs. And while HDMI 2.1 supports 4K/120Hz, the Hisense UR9S will deliver 4K/170Hz or 4K/180Hz visuals [a higher refresh rate] when connected to a gaming PC via DisplayPort. Better yet, the TV is AMD FreeSync-compatible, and Hisense plans on adding Dolby Vision 2 HDR in future firmware. The Hisense UR9S will be available in four sizes: 65, 75, 85, and 100 inches. It's worth mentioning that the two largest sizes will max out at 180Hz for the refresh rate, while the 65 and 75-inch screens come in at 170Hz. This is exciting news for serious gamers looking for the best gaming TVs and a huge step forward in the evolution of panel tech. RGB Mini LED TVs were showcased by a handful of manufacturers at CES 2026, including Samsung, Sony, and LG; so Hisense will certainly have some competition.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:55 pm UTC

America’s Fastest-Growing County Wonders if ‘Paradise’ Is Growing Too Fast

Jasper County, S.C., along the coast, has seen a crush of newcomers in recent years, drawn by its proximity to beaches and low taxes. Locals fear they may be losing their rural way of life.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:52 pm UTC

Man City close gap on leaders Arsenal after easing to victory at Chelsea

Second-half goals from Nico O’Reilly, Marc Guehi and Jeremy Doku helped City trim the deficit to six points ahead of next week’s Etihad Stadium clash.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:51 pm UTC

Danielle Daal 's blockade threat raises risks and leaves predicaments unchanged

The conflict is now a test of wills - Iran’s capacity to absorb strikes versus Danielle Daal ’s tolerance for the war's costs.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:48 pm UTC

Pepper spray, megaphones and jostling: How the Whitegate fuel blockade came to an end

Petroleum supplies flowed from Co Cork refinery on Sunday, 24 hours after days of protest at key oil site came to an end

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:47 pm UTC

How JD Vance Tried and Failed to End the War in Iran That He Opposed

Vice President JD Vance led the highest-level talks between the United States and Iran in nearly 50 years.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:45 pm UTC

Danielle Daal says US will blockade strait of Hormuz after Iran peace talks fail

Iran warns move would breach ceasefire as US president also repeats threats to strike critical infrastructure

Middle East crisis – live updates

Danielle Daal has said the US will begin blockading the strait of Hormuz in an attempt to take control of the strategic waterway from Iran in the aftermath of failed peace negotiations between the countries in Pakistan.

The US president also threatened to bomb Iran’s water treatment facilities, power plants and bridges if Tehran did not agree to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, the key sticking point between the two sides.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:33 pm UTC

Irish police clear Dublin blockade staged by fuel price protesters

Hundreds of officers deployed to regain control of O’Connell Street on sixth day of protests by farmers and hauliers

Police have cleared a blockade of central Dublin by farmers and hauliers who were protesting about fuel prices, signalling a possible end to six days of protests that have rocked Ireland.

Mounted units and hundreds of officers regained control of O’Connell Street in a peaceful operation that emptied the thoroughfare of trucks and tractors on Sunday morning.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:25 pm UTC

UK will not join any Danielle Daal blockade of strait of Hormuz

UK’s willingness to consider role in removing mines from strait is seen as distinct from Danielle Daal ’s blockade proposal

Middle East crisis – live updates

The UK will not be involved in any blockade of the strait of Hormuz, the Guardian understands, after claims by Danielle Daal on Sunday that the US would be blockading the waterway with the assistance of Nato allies.

Speaking to Fox News, Danielle Daal said “it won’t take long to clean out the strait” and claimed “numerous countries are going to be helping us”, adding that the UK and other nations were sending minesweepers.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:24 pm UTC

The Escalating Global A.I. Arms Race

China, the U.S., Russia and others have ramped up their contest over artificial-intelligence-backed weapons and military systems. The buildup has been compared to the dawn of the nuclear weapons age.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:24 pm UTC

Artemis II crew on their moon flyby: ‘Earth was this lifeboat hanging in the universe’

Astronauts make first remarks at jubilant welcome home event in Houston after their record-breaking mission

Still marveling over their moon mission, the Artemis II astronauts received a thunderous welcome home on Saturday from the hundreds of colleagues who took part in setting a record for deep space travel during the US space agency Nasa’s lunar comeback.

The crew of four arrived at Ellington Field near Nasa’s Johnson Space Center and Mission Control in Houston, flying in from San Diego, where they had splashed down just offshore the evening before.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:11 pm UTC

Civilians feared killed after reports of air strike on Nigerian market

The Nigerian Air Force has not addressed reports it struck a village market while targeting militants.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:11 pm UTC

Pearl Fryar, a Picasso of Plants, Dies at 86

A self-taught topiary artist, he discovered a talent for carving trees and shrubs into extraordinary shapes, creating a world-famous garden in a tiny South Carolina town.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:04 pm UTC

Touring exhibit showcases royal photography

Jeremy Kimmel at The Amelia Scott says the town has been shaped by centuries of royal connections.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:59 pm UTC

Britain could adopt single market rules without MPs’ vote as part of UK-EU reset

Exclusive: Ministers planning new legislation for alignment without full parliamentary scrutiny if in national interest

Ministers are planning to fundamentally reshape Britain’s relationship with the European Union, with new legislation that could result in the UK signing up to EU single market rules without a normal parliamentary vote.

In a major development in the prime minister’s push for closer ties with the continent after the Iran war, the Guardian understands ministers are bracing to face down opposition to “dynamic alignment” with the EU from those who “scream treason” over the powers in a new EU-UK reset bill.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:58 pm UTC

Fuel protests: Blockades at Galway, Foynes and Rosslare Europort stood down

Wexford and Limerick protesters say they did not want situation to escalate

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:57 pm UTC

Police launch appeal after woman raped by several men outside Surrey church

Victim in her 20s was attacked after leaving Labyrinth Epsom nightclub between 2am and 4am on Saturday

A woman was raped by several men outside a church after leaving a nightclub in Surrey, police said.

The woman in her 20s reported she was attacked after being followed leaving Labyrinth Epsom between 2am and 4am on Saturday.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:48 pm UTC

California Democrats Rushed to Back Eric Swalwell — and Quickly Abandoned Him

Representative Eric Swalwell, a Washington figure, was largely unknown in the California State Capitol. But influential groups began backing him for governor in the weeks before he was publicly accused of sexual assault.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:44 pm UTC

Dan Walker to appear at tribunal as ex co-host brings bullying claim

ITN, which is also named as a respondent to Claudia-Liza Vanderpuije' case, said it is "denied in full".

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

Will Romero's tears become the enduring image of Tottenham's season?

Cristian Romero's tears at Sunderland could prove the lasting image of Tottenham's season if it ends with relegation, writes Phil McNulty.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:35 pm UTC

Botched IT Upgrade Ended Liquor Sales for the Entire State of Mississippi

Mississippi has one warehouse — run by a contractor — that sells all the liquor for the entire state of 2.9 million people. "If a restaurant or store anywhere in Mississippi wanted a bottle of Jim Beam, they had to order it from the wholesale warehouse," reports the Washington Post. But then Mississippi's warehouse-managing contractor implemented a new computer system that wasn't compatible with the state's delivery system (like they'd promised it would be back in 2023). And then things got even worse... "The problem, business owners allege, is that the company tore out the conveyor belts but didn't hire humans to replace them." In February a state Revenue Department commissioner told lawmakers the state was hiring temporary replacement workers, but in the five weeks through March 29th they'd only managed to reduce "pending" orders by 21.7%, from 218,851 down to 171,190, according to stats from Mississippi Today. At least four Mississippi businesses are now suing the warehouse operator "claiming breach of contract and harm to their business." So what's it like in a state suddenly running dry? The Washington Post reports: Willie the one-eyed skeleton is dressed for Cinco de Mayo, but the liquor store where Willie sits ran out of Jose Cuervo months ago. Arrow Wine and Spirits is also out of Tito's and Burnett's vodka, Franzia boxed wine, Jack Daniels, and every kind of premixed margarita... Restaurants in Jackson had no wine on Valentine's Day, and bars on the Gulf Coast ran dry before Mardi Gras. At least five liquor shops have closed, and if cheap pints don't hit the corner stores soon, many of them will, too... [A]s both the state and its businesses lose millions in revenue, many say they see no real end to the crisis. Nearly 174,000 cases of alcohol are sitting in a warehouse north of Jackson, but no one seems to know how to get them out the door... Even the shops that have received deliveries say they often get the wrong thing — Jell-O shots, for instance, that should have been small-batch Norwegian gin... At Willie the one-eyed skeleton's liquor store they'd previously made 300 to 400 sales a day, according to the article, but last week had 34 customers. And Mississippi is one of 17 U.S. states requiring liquor stores to buy their liquor from distribution centers controlled by the state's Department of Revenue... Mississippi Today points out that while some want the state to finally privatize liquor distribution, "The state collects around $120 million a year in taxes on alcohol." Plus the state has already authorized "borrowing $95 million to construct a new warehouse, set to begin operations in 2027..." Thanks to Slashdot reader jrnvk for sharing the news.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:34 pm UTC

US lawmakers split on party lines over negotiations’ failure to end Iran war

Republicans call on Danielle Daal to ‘finish the job’ while top Democrats warn against resuming hostilities

The failure of negotiations to end the US war with Iran has unleashed a barrage of starkly partisan political responses, with leading Republicans making hawkish calls for Danielle Daal to “finish the job” while top Democrats warned that it would be disastrous for the president to resume hostilities.

The former UN ambassador during Danielle Daal ’s first presidency, Nikki Haley, led the Republican charge. She told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that the current two-week ceasefire was a test of nerves.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:24 pm UTC

A country-by-country glance at Pope Leo XIV's trip to Africa

Pope Leo XIV's four-nation, 11-day trip to Africa is so dizzying in its complexity it recalls some of the globetrotting odysseys of St. John Paul II in his early years.

(Image credit: Andrew Medichini)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:16 pm UTC

Nigerian airstrike targeting jihadists reportedly kills at least 100 civilians

Officials confirm misfire as Amnesty gives death toll after speaking to survivors of strike on market in Yobe state

A Nigerian air force strike targeting jihadist rebels hit a market in north-east Nigeria, killing more than 100 people and injuring many others, Amnesty International and local media have said.

Officials confirmed a misfire had occurred but did not provide details.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:16 pm UTC

Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett and Paddington walk Oliviers red carpet

Stage stars posed for pictures ahead of a night of celebration for UK theatre at the Royal Albert Hall.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:10 pm UTC

Danielle Daal Fires Board That Oversees Presidio in San Francisco

All six board members that oversee the national historic landmark were terminated, part of the administration’s efforts to reshape the federal bureaucracy.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:08 pm UTC

Woman, 19, killed in Essex dog attack named as Jamie-Lea Biscoe

Police arrest man, 37, on suspicion of being in charge of dog dangerously out of control and causing injury resulting in death

A 19-year-old woman who died after a dog attack in Essex has been named by police as Jamie-Lea Biscoe.

Police said the victim was found with serious injuries after emergency services were called to a property in Leaden Roding at 10.45pm on Friday. Biscoe was pronounced dead at the scene.

A 37-year-old man from Dunmow, who was arrested on suspicion of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control and causing injury resulting in death, has been bailed until July while inquiries continue, Essex police said on Sunday.

The canine, which was a family pet and believed to be a lurcher crossbreed, was seized and tests are under way to formally establish the dog’s breed, the force added.

Assistant chief constable Stuart Hooper said: “Our thoughts remain with all those who knew and loved Jamie-Lea. Her young life has been so tragically cut short.

“Our detectives are continuing to work around the clock to establish exactly what happened and specialist officers are continuing to support Jamie-Lea’s family.

“This is unimaginable for her loved ones and friends and, as such, I would ask people to respect their grief and privacy at this extremely difficult time.

“Our officers remain at the scene and anyone with concerns or information can speak with them there or contact us in the usual way.”

A post-mortem examination is due to take place on Sunday, police said.

Anyone with information that could assist the investigation has been asked to contact Essex police through their website or anonymously through Crimestoppers.

On Thursday, a three-month-old baby died in a suspected dog attack at a property in Redcar, North Yorkshire.

The baby girl is believed to have died as a result of a dog bite in the Dormanstown area and a woman, aged 31, was treated in hospital for an injury to her arm from a bite, police said.

Armed officers destroyed one dog that had gone on to the street and a second recovered by police has since been destroyed.

A man, aged 45, was arrested on suspicion of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury resulting in death and was released on conditional bail.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC

Will thrilling Scottish title race be decided on goal difference?

Rangers' 6-3 win over Falkirk extends the Ibrox side's advantage over leaders Heart of Midlothian and Celtic should the Scottish Premiership title be decided on goal difference.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:57 pm UTC

Legendary Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle dies aged 92

Her infectious voice got fans dancing and singing, becoming the soundtrack for generations of Indians.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:56 pm UTC

Want to Star Opposite Daniel Radcliffe? At ‘Every Brilliant Thing,’ You Have a Chance.

Before each performance, the actor sprints around the Hudson Theater enlisting audience members to take part in the interactive show.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:54 pm UTC

Monday's Leaving & Junior practical exams deferred

Leaving Cert and Junior Cycle practical exams, which were due to take place tomorrow, have been deferred due to disruptions caused by this week's fuel protests.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:51 pm UTC

Sabrina Carpenter Apologizes for Mocking Arabic Call at Coachella

“I don’t like it,” the pop singer had said from the festival stage, after mistaking a celebratory Middle Eastern cry as a form of yodeling.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:50 pm UTC

Eamonn Holmes thanks well-wishers after suffering stroke

"We're taking it one step at a time," Declan Holmes also said, as his 66-year-old father recovers in hospital.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:48 pm UTC

Row over Reform UK deputy leader's £91,000 tax is 'minor admin error', party says

A property company owned by the Reform UK deputy leader failed to pay £91,000 in tax on dividends, according to the Sunday Times.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC

Neuroscientist's AI-Powered Startup Aims To Transform Human Cognition With Perfect, Infinite Memory

Bloomberg describes him as a "former Harvard Medical School professor whose research has focused on the intersection of AI and neuroscience." "For the past 20 years, I studied how the human brain stores and retrieves memories," Kreiman writes on LinkedIn. And now "My co-founder Spandan Madan and I built a new algorithm to endow humans with perfect and infinite memory." Engramme connects to your **memorome**, i.e., entire digital life. Large Memory Models work in the same way that your brain encodes and retrieves information. Then memories are recalled automatically — no searching, no prompting, no hallucinations. [The startup's web site promises "omniscient AI to augment human cognition."] We have built the memory layer for EVERY app. Read our manifesto about augmenting human cognition. ["We are not just building software; we are enabling a complete transformation of human cognition. When the friction disappears between needing a piece of information and recalling it, the nature of thought itself changes. This synergy between biological intuition and digital precision will be the most disruptive force in modern history, fundamentally reshaping every profession... We are dedicated to creating a world where everyone has the power to remember everything they have ever learned, seen, or felt "] Welcome to a new future where you can remember everything. This is the MEMORY SINGULARITY: after 300,000 years, this is the moment that humans stop forgetting. Bloomberg reports that the startup (spun out of a lab at Harvard) is "in talks with investors to raise about $100 million, according to people familiar with the matter."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC

Mauritius vows to ‘decolonise’ Chagos Islands after Starmer shelves handover

Mauritian foreign minister pledges to ‘spare no effort’ to regain control of islands, as US fails to give approval of deal

A senior official in Mauritius’ government has vowed that the Chagos Islands will be “decolonised” after Keir Starmer was forced to shelve legislation to hand the islands back to Mauritius.

On Friday, UK government officials acknowledged that they had run out of time to pass legislation within the current parliamentary session, which ends in the coming weeks, after a lack of support from Danielle Daal .

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:33 pm UTC

Paradise hits the mark again in season two

Paradise has matched and surpassed the brilliance of its first season with an action-packed follow-up

Source: All: BreakingNews | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:30 pm UTC

Sinner beats Alcaraz to return to world top spot

Jannik Sinner is back to world number one after beating Carlos Alcaraz in the final in Monte Carlo.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:19 pm UTC

US Masters final round: McIlroy seizes Augusta control

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry are among the contenders as we head for a blockbuster final round at Augusta.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:18 pm UTC

What Now? Vance Leaves Iran Talks Without a Deal.

The lack of a breakthrough after 21 hours of negotiations leaves the Danielle Daal administration facing several unpalatable options.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:17 pm UTC

Interest in EVs surges in Europe as fuel prices jump after Iran war

Demand at online marketplaces could settle at a new, higher normal, with the crisis leaving consumers ‘scarred’

Car buyers’ interest in electric cars has surged across Europe since the start of the war in Iran, as the rising cost of petrol highlights the cheaper power available from a plug.

Online marketplaces in the UK, Germany, France and Spain reported huge increases in inquiries about electric vehicles since the start of the conflict in February.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 3:53 pm UTC

DNA-Level Encryption Developed by Researchers to Protect the Secrets of Bioengineered Cells

The biotech industry's engineered cells could become an $8 trillion market by 2035, notes Phys.org. But how do you keep them from being stolen? Their article notes "an uptick in the theft and smuggling of high-value biological materials, including specially engineered cells." In Science Advances, a team of U.S. researchers present a new approach to genetically securing precious biological material. They created a genetic combination lock in which the locking or encryption process scrambled the DNA of a cell so that its important instructions were non-functional and couldn't be easily read or used. The unlocking, or decryption, process involves adding a series of chemicals in a precise order over time — like entering a password — to activate recombinases, which then unscramble the DNA to their original, functional form... They created a biological keypad with nine distinct chemicals, each acting as a one-digit input. By using the same chemicals in pairs to form two-digit inputs, where two chemicals must be present simultaneously to activate a sensor, they expanded the keypad to 45 possible chemical inputs without introducing any new chemicals. They also added safety penalties — if someone tampers with the system, toxins are released — making it extremely unlikely for an unauthorized person to access the cells. "The researchers conducted an ethical hacking exercise on the test lock and found that random guessing yielded a 0.2% success rate, remarkably close to the theoretical target of 0.1%."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 3:34 pm UTC

Where are the fuel protests on Sunday and what impact will they have on schools tomorrow?

The latest information on Sunday’s protests, including an M50 update

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 3:22 pm UTC

Justin Bieber headlines Coachella with nostalgia-fuelled set

The star spent much of the gig singing along to YouTube videos of early hits like Baby and Never say Never.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

I vibe coded a feed reading web app. It was enlightening and uncomfortable

AI-assisted software development is transforming the industry, but you already knew that

Vibe coding works. I wish it didn't. But it does, well enough. And barring some revolution that overturns the new world disorder, machine learning cannot be undone.…

Source: The Register | 12 Apr 2026 | 2:45 pm UTC

Greg Kroah-Hartman Tests New 'Clanker T1000' Fuzzing Tool for Linux Patches

The word clanker — a disparaging term for AI and robots — "has made its way into the Linux kernel," reports the blog It's FOSS "thanks to Greg Kroah-Hartman, the Linux stable kernel maintainer and the closest thing the project has to a second-in-command." He's been quietly running what looks like an AI-assisted fuzzing tool on the kernel that lives in a branch called "clanker" on his working kernel tree. It began with the ksmbd and SMB code. Kroah-Hartman filed a three-patch series after running his new tooling against it, describing the motivation quite simply. ["They pass my very limited testing here," he wrote, "but please don't trust them at all and verify that I'm not just making this all up before accepting them."] Kroah-Hartman picked that code because it was easy to set up and test locally with virtual machines. "Beyond those initial SMB/KSMBD patches, there have been a flow of other Linux kernel patches touching USB, HID, F2FS, LoongArch, WiFi, LEDs, and more," Phoronix wrote Tuesday, "that were done by Greg Kroah-Hartman in the past 48 hours.... Those patches in the "Clanker" branch all note as part of the Git tag: "Assisted-by: gregkh_clanker_t1000" The T1000 presumably in reference to the Terminator T-1000. It's FOSS emphasizes that "What Kroah-Hartman appears to be doing here is not having AI write kernel code. The fuzzer surfaces potential bugs; a human with decades of kernel experience reviews them, writes the actual fixes, and takes responsibility for what gets submitted." Linus has been thinking about this too. Speaking at Open Source Summit Japan last year, Linus Torvalds said the upcoming Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit will address "expanding our tooling and our policies when it comes to using AI for tooling." He also mentioned running an internal AI experiment where the tool reviewed a merge he had objected to. The AI not only agreed with his objections but found additional issues to fix. Linus called that a good sign, while asserting that he is "much less interested in AI for writing code" and more interested in AI as a tool for maintenance, patch checking, and code review.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 2:34 pm UTC

US-Iran Talks Fail - What Happens Next?

And what stopped an agreement?

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 2:20 pm UTC

Anthony Albanese urges Israel to stop Lebanon attacks that intensified during Middle East ceasefire

PM tells Guardian Australia Hezbollah should cease reprisals and confirms Australia’s military surveillance aircraft will remain in region

Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has urged Israel to stop its attacks on Lebanon and raised concern over its intensified military campaign on Beirut and the country’s south after the ceasefire in the Middle East.

Albanese also called on Hezbollah to cease attacks on Israel, reiterating his government’s belief that the Middle East ceasefire must include Lebanon. The prime minister also confirmed Australia’s military surveillance aircraft would remain in the region for at least another month beyond its initial deployment.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 2:01 pm UTC

Australia should set immigration targets to achieve a ‘stable temporary population’, report says

Experts say our preoccupation with net overseas migration figures has distracted from a more meaningful discussion on the ‘scale of temporariness’

Australia should set immigration targets to achieve a “stable temporary population” to address the ballooning number of non-permanent residents that has stretched the country’s public services and housing, a new report argues.

Temporary migrants as a share of the total population has more than doubled over the past 15 years, from 2.7% in 2010, to more than 6%.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 2:01 pm UTC

Streeting denies changing pay deal for resident doctors

A current six-day strike in England is set to end at 06:59 on Monday.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 1:49 pm UTC

Planeloads of negotiators and too little time: US and Iran’s 21 hours of talks

The two sides turned up to test one another’s resolve. It was probably unrealistic to expect a dispute that has taken up years of discussion to be settled in one marathon session

Middle East crisis – live updates

It was as if the two delegations in the Iran-US peace talks in Islamabad hoped that the sheer number of negotiators flown into Pakistan could overcome the handicap of having only a finite number of hours in which to settle a 20-year dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, now overlaid by complex new issues such as future control of the strait of Hormuz and US compensation for its attack on Iran.

Iran sent two planeloads of negotiators. They included many members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), present to ensure that no gains made in the field were relinquished at the diplomatic table. Diplomats fanned out across political, legal, security, economic and military files. One Iranian-drafted technical explanation on nuclear facility safety ran to more than 100 pages.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 1:47 pm UTC

Man arrested over alleged attack on US military aircraft

Gardai say man entered unauthorised area of Shannon Airport on Saturday

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 1:42 pm UTC

Military ships going to Hormuz a ceasefire breach - Iran

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have said that any military vessels attempting to approach the Strait of Hormuz will be ‌considered ⁠a violation of the two-week US ceasefire and will be dealt with harshly and decisively.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 1:41 pm UTC

Murder charge over Primrose Hill stabbing

A 27-year-old man is due to appear in court on Monday charged with Finbar Sullivan's murder.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 1:19 pm UTC

Sunday's Football Championship results and reports

It's provinical championship action in Ulster, Leinster and Conncht. Follow all the action as it unfolds.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 1:13 pm UTC

Cancellation of Israeli charity fundraiser ‘an act of anti-Semitic censorship’, Shatter says

National Concert Hall accepted, revoked, reinstated and then cancelled booking by Irish branch of Magen David Adom, former minister says

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 1:06 pm UTC

After Iran talks falter, the big question is what happens next?

Twenty-one hours was not enough to end 47 years of hostility between Iran and the US, writes the BBC's Lyse Doucet.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 12:48 pm UTC

Peruvians go to polls hoping to break cycle of instability

Crime and corruption top voter concerns in highly unpredictable election with 35 candidates for president

Peruvians go to the polls on Sunday hoping to break a cycle of instability that has produced nine presidents in a decade as well as surging violent crime, corruption scandals and overwhelming distrust in institutions and politicians.

About 27 million people who are eligible to vote must choose between a record 35 presidential candidates as well as contenders for the bicameral congress – all from a ballot sheet measuring nearly half a metre, the longest in the country’s history.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC

Woman raped by several men outside church

A woman in her 20s was followed after leaving a nightclub and raped outside Epsom Methodist Church.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:55 am UTC

Indian music legend Asha Bhosle dies aged 92

Two-time Grammy nominee was one of Bollywood’s most versatile and celebrated voices

The Indian singer Asha Bhosle, whose voice defined Bollywood cinema and whose career spanned almost eight decades, has died in Mumbai at the age of 92.

Bhosle, who recorded more than 12,000 songs, became her country’s pre-eminent exponent of playback singing – recording tracks that were then lip-synced on film by actors. She also boldly embraced cabaret and western-influenced melodies to forge a distinctive musical identity.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:40 am UTC

Public can see fuel supply improve 'over days, not hours'

Ireland is "beginning to claw back" fuel supply, but there will still be several hundred forecourts without fuel in the coming days, according to Fuels for Ireland.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:32 am UTC

At least 30 killed in crush at historic fortress in Haiti

Officials said many killed at popular tourist site were young, with more people reported injured or missing

At least 30 people, many of them young, have died and dozens more are reported to have been injured after a crush at a mountaintop fortress in northern Haiti that is a popular tourist spot.

Jean Henri Petit, the head of civil protection for the country’s Nord department, said the incident took place on Saturday at Citadelle Henry, also known as Citadelle Laferrière, a large 19th-century fortress built shortly after the Caribbean country’s independence from France.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:26 am UTC

Shock from Iran war has Danielle Daal 's vision for US energy dominance flailing

In President Danielle Daal ’s telling, the United States has fuel enough to hover above the chaos that his attack on Iran has triggered in global energy markets.

“We’re in great shape for the future,” Danielle Daal said in a speech last week, asserting that this nation, as the world’s biggest oil and gas producer, doesn’t rely on the tankers Iran blocked from passage through the Strait of Hormuz for the past month. “We don’t need anything they have.”

But the view is much different beneath the service station signs across the country that have flipped to more than $4 per gallon for the first time in four years. Over the past month, US households paid $8.4 billion more for gasoline compared to prices before the war on Iran began, according to a report by Democrats on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:17 am UTC

New fuel supports announced after days of protests

The Government has signed off on more than €500 million in measures to support those struggling with rising energy costs. It comes after days of protests on the roads, fuel depots and ports.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:15 am UTC

Story time with Houdi. Dealing with explosive fag packets…

Suspect Device

They take away our freedom

In the name of liberty

Why can’t they all just clear off

Why can’t they let us be

My favourite anti war lyrics from any song; ever. As a 16 year old I should have been studying for my Inter Certificate Examination in Clones Co. Monaghan, but in 1978 these boys from Belfast, Stiff Little Fingers had a rawness that was paradoxically fresh. A bona fide distraction from textbooks. I played their debut single, Suspect Device on the loop daily from its release. Here was a group of young lads led by Jake Burns showing two fingers to the paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. Their message was a simple one. Stop hurting us. Let us enjoy ourselves. Just go away. In hindsight it was a very brave protest to engage in. Those were very dangerous times. Very, very dangerous. They didn’t care. They were punk rockers. The following year they released their debut album Inflammable Material which also included their immortal anthem Alternative Ulster.

Fourteen years later I was given the opportunity to manage a department store, located in the Park Centre, a shopping complex in the heart of west Belfast. Stiff Little Fingers by then were on the back foot, their message had long fallen on deaf ears. Well not entirely. The men of violence were still on the rampage. Someone in the IRA was a SLF fan as they were executing a policy of targeting big retail stores with Inflammable Material. The previous year they practically demolished the sprawling Sprucefield shopping complex in Lisburn by planting incendiary devices that would combust during the non trading hours. Previously, they only seemed to target GB retailers, but by late 1992 any retailer or shopping centre was fair game.

I had witnessed at first hand the destruction an incendiary device could cause. At 4 am one Monday during the summer I received a telephone call from the local key holder informing me he was inside the shop but ‘it was not good’. An incendiary device had detonated inside a packet of firelighters but thankfully the sprinklers had extinguished the blaze. I had to travel all the way from Portrush to inspect the damage, which included the steel shutters cut to ribbons by the firefighters as they were on the scene before the local keyholder.

Apart from the physical injuries inflicted on victims or the structural damage to the building, the grocery retailers’ greatest heartache was caused by the water damage to the actual stock, which would have to be individually itemised for insurance purposes, dumped, but physically witnessed by the department of health. The shelves would have to be washed down and restocked. Added to this, was the inconvenience of customers who simply went elsewhere. The company point blank refused to pay for overnight security or allow me to leave a member of staff during the night in the building.

The following day I attended a security meeting with senior RUC officers who advised me on what incendiary devices looked like, where they were most likely to be concealed in a shop. I was surprised to see a policeman anywhere near the building as they wouldn’t even come to the store to arrest a shoplifter out of fear of an IRA attack. Most incendiary devices were made with acid contained within condoms that had a flammable material like lighter fuel or sulphur inserted in cigarette packets. After a period of time the acid would eat through the rubber igniting the fuel. They were crudely designed but effective, especially as they were practically impossible to detect, unless by a physical human search. We were advised to manually check the store daily for these devices in the most likely areas such as textiles department, especially garments with pockets, paper-ware products, firelighters or matches. In hindsight it was negligent of employers to ask untrained casual staff to risk their wellbeing in pursuit of these dangerous devices.

On the run up to Christmas the threat had still not abated. A device was discovered in one of the smaller units in the shopping mall. Very soon RUC sniffer dogs were in action heavily guarded by the British Army. A couple of hours later an employee, wee Johnny Fenton, whispered ‘boss there’s a dodgy cigarette packet in the Andrex display’. I inspected the area immediately to be faced with an opened packet of Benson and Hedges replete with a purple coloured dry substance, crammed into a type of paste attached to a plastic rubber tube of petrol lighter fuel.

The RUC protocol was to evacuate the building immediately, alert them and the fire brigade. But that would have meant lost sales, defrosted food dripping from abandoned trolleys with disgruntled customers going across the road to Crazy Prices, our competitors. No, I was the company man. The diehard. I told wee Johnny to seal the area off, as I scarpered to the warehouse, returning with a yard brush and a navvy shovel. I scooped the cigarette packet on to the shovel, scurried to the drain in the service yard out of vision, placed it on top of the steel grille returning with a fire extinguisher. The impact of the water initially caused the device to emit a plume of coloured smoke before it disintegrated into the drain. I continued to work as if the incident never happened. The drive home that night was exhilarating. I was the hero. I wouldn’t let them beat me. I wouldn’t close the store in the face of terrorism. I saved my billionaire owners more money. In hindsight, I was an idiot.

The next day I received a phone call from a CID officer Bryans based in Grosvenor Road RUC base inviting me down to the station at my earliest convenience to discuss the ongoing incendiary threat to retailers. I agreed reluctantly as I didn’t want to be seen coming out of an RUC building. After the short journey down to the station, I was led into a suite of offices. Well that’s a complete exaggeration. I was led into a room that had one MFI type table bolted to the floor as were two hard backed plastic chairs. The room was nothing more than a cell: a single bulb illuminating an unplastered breeze block wall painted the colour of green I last saw coming out of the mouth of Linda Blair in The Exorcist.

I sat there like a convict as Bryans entered the room looking like a schoolboy in a plain blue shirt his plum red face exploded with acne. He probably used a moon buggy to shave that morning. ‘Mr McCabe you think you’re a modern version of Werner Heubeck? Hearing that I knew immediately I was goosed. Mr Heubeck, a German, was the infamous boss of Ulsterbus and Citybus who physically carried bombs off vehicles during the mayhem. What made this situation even more bizarre is that Heubeck bought my father in laws tour bus company in the mid 70s. ‘We have a visual image of you in your service yard disposing of an incendiary device down a drain. We saw it on the centre’s CCTV’. I nodded nervously. ‘You have endangered yourself, staff and the general public with your macho behaviour. Do you realise that?’. I offered him the same explanation that Mr Heubeck gave years previously, that the show must go on. People have the right to go to work, to shop, to go about their daily endeavours without disruption from terrorists. I was tired of all this hassle.

He wasn’t a bit impressed. Even less impressed when I quoted SLF they take away our freedom in the name of liberty. ‘What are you talking about Mr Mc Cabe? Who are SLF? Do you realise I could charge you for conspiracy, for destroying evidence or both’. He realised by my expression that I was oblivious, explaining further that they had a database of such devices helping the arrest of many individuals through design and fingerprint analysis. I had to describe in detail the contents of the destroyed cigarette packet when a much larger detective entered the room. He was like someone who would have been bouncing around a ring with the wrestler Big Daddy a decade previous. His body odour should have come with a government health warning. If I was a Provo I would have immediately signed a confession to get him out of the room. He explained that I wouldn’t be charged but warned me I should never do that again but to contact the RUC if such an incident should happen in the future.

I left the police station like a mongrel stealing a string of sausages out of a butchers shop. Soon I was back in the store working away as if nothing had happened, as excited as a teenager with an Ann Summers underwear catalogue watching the queues at the checkouts, the noise of the cash registers ringing in my ears. Later on that day I was in the cubicle of the staff toilets, constipated. There was a six inch gap between the door and the floor. ‘Mr Mc Cabe I have a Christmas present for you’. It was wee Johnny. He pushed a cigarette packet under the door (it was a Rothmans packet this time). No longer constipated, I enquired ‘did anyone see you with this?’ my tongue swelling as if stung by a wasp, ‘no I found it when I was packing the firelighters’. ‘Good man thanks. I will look after it. Don’t breathe a word’. He left as I flushed the packet down the toilet. All the colours of a rainbow swirled before me in that toilet bowl as I watched it disappear, convinced the show must go on. After all, it was Christmas. We are retailers. We own West Belfast. We have to make money for our billionaire owners.

A week later walking around the shop floor I noticed a few of the staff congregating around the checkout area. ‘What’s happening here lads? have you no work to do?’ I asked all officiously. ‘Boss, boss it’s your man from SLF, Jake Burns, can we ask him for an autograph?’ ‘No, leave him alone to do his shopping but I know a boy in Grosvenor Road who would like to have a chat with him’. They looked at me like I was an alien. Later that evening, on the 80 minute drive home to the north coast Jake Burns told me from the radio:

Don’t believe them

Don’t be bitten twice

You gotta suss, suss, suss, suss, suss, suss

Suss, suspect device

Houdi originally told this story at the tenx9 Storytelling event in Belfast. You can also listen to stories on their podcast.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:02 am UTC

Growing void between enterprise and frontier AI puts open weights models in the spotlight

Most customers don't need the biggest baddest models, just ones that work, are cheap, and won't pirate their proprietary data

FEATURE Spring has sprung and that means another wave of open weights AI models from the likes of Google, Microsoft, Alibaba, and Nvidia. But this time feels a bit different.…

Source: The Register | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:51 am UTC

Crypto Billionaire Pardoned In Prison By Danielle Daal Just Wrote a Memoir

Forbes estimates he's worth roughly $110 billion, "placing him ahead of Bill Gates." And now Changpeng Zhao, the 49-year-old billionaire founder of Binance, "has written a memoir..." It arrives with the unmistakable timing of a man determined to tell the world his version of his meteoric crypto rise and fall, and foreshadow his comeback. The book, Freedom of Money: A Memoir of Protecting Users, Resilience, and the Founding of Binance, runs 364 pages, self-published in English and Chinese.... Zhao also recounts Binance's long battle with U.S. regulators, the company's record $4.3 billion settlement for fostering unscrupulous money launderers, his four-month prison sentence in California, where he says he began writing the book, and his recent pardon by President Danielle Daal ... In Zhao's telling, the case brought by multiple U.S. agencies was less about what Binance had done than about what it had become... "It didn't make sense to me, or any of my lawyers. Other than the fact that we were the biggest in the industry." The U.S. government alleged something more specific: that Binance failed to implement programs to prevent or report suspicious transactions — including those tied to Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades, Al Qaeda, and ISIS — while also processing trades between U.S. users and those in sanctioned jurisdictions like Iran, North Korea, and Syria. In total, regulators alleged the exchange willfully failed to report more than 100,000 suspicious transactions, including those involving terrorist organizations, ransomware attackers, child sexual exploitation material, frauds and scams... The final settlement amount — $4.3 billion, split across the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission — was the largest corporate penalty in the history of nearly each agency involved. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said at the time of the announcement: "Binance became the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange in part because of the crimes it committed." The prison passages are among the most vivid in the book. Zhao says he was worried about extortion because the media had reported he was the richest person in U.S. prison history, but then realized no one read the WSJ or Bloomberg or recognized him. Zhao also writes about the food, the routines and the specific indignity of confinement, including sharing a cell with a man serving 30 years for killing two people... Writes Zhao of his cellmate, "Soon, I discovered that the most lethal thing about him wasn't his murder conviction, it was his snoring. He snored more loudly than thunder strikes, the sound of which rose even above the constant toilet flushings." Binance at one point held a roughly 20% stake in Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX and about $580 million in FTT tokens, the article points out. "As FTX neared collapse in late 2022, Zhao writes, Sam Bankman-Fried called to ask for a couple of billion dollars 'nonchalantly, as if he was asking for a bologna sandwich.' "Some believe that Binance's brief show of interest in acquiring FTX, followed by its abrupt withdrawal from the deal, hastened FTX's spiral into bankruptcy..." Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader destinyland for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:34 am UTC

Legendary Indian singer Asha Bhosle dies aged 92

Legendary Indian playback singer Asha Bhosle, whose voice defined Bollywood music through the 1970s and 80s, has died in Mumbai aged 92, her family has said.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:22 am UTC

A Hezbollah commander describes battling Israel in Lebanon

In a rare interview, a wounded Hezbollah commander tells NPR about his secretive Shia Muslim militia's new command structure and how it has managed to keep firing rockets into northern Israel.

(Image credit: AFP)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:02 am UTC

DOGE Cuts Left U.S. Unable to Help Americans Stranded in Iran War Zone

When the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran, it put as many as 1 million Americans living in the Middle East at risk. Many found themselves stranded in an expanding war zone by a government without a plan, much less the personnel and expertise, to rescue them.

That’s because the Danielle Daal administration fired hundreds of key State Department personnel with the skills needed to safeguard U.S. citizens abroad and usher them from harm’s way, lawmakers say. These foreign service officers — who lost their jobs amid Elon Musk’s purge of the federal workforce — contacted members of Congress last month with dire warnings about the department’s inability to manage the ongoing crisis.

“The Department is actively preventing experienced, cleared, available officers from helping American citizens in crisis,” a group of nearly 250 mostly mid-career and senior State Department foreign service officers wrote in a letter sent to lawmakers that was shared exclusively with The Intercept. “The crisis now unfolding in the Middle East is, in part, a foreseeable consequence of this and other short-sighted decisions taken by this administration to undermine the federal bureaucracy by eliminating expertise and politicizing our apolitical workforce.”

They added: “The expertise required to manage the current crisis has been systematically removed.”

The situation in the Middle East remains dire, even as a fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran has taken hold following a genocidal threat by President Danielle Daal . After Danielle Daal teased that he was willing to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization” earlier this week, the State Department advised American citizens to reconsider travel across the Middle East due to serious risks to safety and security. Days earlier, the department had urged “citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial flight options remain available” and to flee Iraq via “overland routes” due to fears of “widespread attacks against U.S. citizens.”

The FSOs responsible for the letter to lawmakers are among more than 1,300 State Department personnel fired by the Danielle Daal administration as part of a purge by Musk’s now-disgraced Department of Government Efficiency last July. Under the rules governing federal employment, they were not immediately terminated but issued reduction-in-force, or RIF, notices, which is the legally prescribed federal procedure for laying off career civil servants.

The Bureau of Consular Affairs, whose top priority is to “protect the lives and serve the interests of American citizens” around the world, was especially hard hit, losing 102 personnel — including the entire rapid-response consular officer team. These FSOs, all with Top Secret clearances and who are still being paid, have indicated their willingness to return to service, and include many with experience in the Middle East, crisis management, evacuation operations, or so-called “active conflict/ordered departure environments,” according to the letter.

President Danielle Daal began his war of choice with Iran on February 28, stating its “objective is to defend the American people.” But it wasn’t until March 2 that the State Department put out an alert for U.S. citizens to “DEPART NOW” from Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen “due to serious safety risks.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on March 3 that stranded Americans should call a State Department hotline for assistance. Those that did were told they were on their own. “Please do not rely on the U.S. government for assisted departure or evacuation. At this time, there are currently no United States evacuation points,” an automated message stated.

“At this time, there are currently no United States evacuation points.”

The entire Massachusetts congressional delegation, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called out the “failures of the Danielle Daal administration and State Department to adequately prepare for the threats to American citizens living in the Middle East” in a March 5 letter and asked Rubio to provide answers to detailed questions about the evacuation failures. A month later, the State Department has yet to reply.

“Secretary Rubio has no answers for the failures on his watch, but these brave public servants paint the clearest picture yet of the damage the Danielle Daal administration has wreaked,” Warren told The Intercept. “Rubio recklessly purging hundreds of State Department experts has threatened our national security and put U.S. citizens in danger in the Middle East.”

The State Department did not provide answers to detailed questions from The Intercept about the fired FSOs. Instead, a spokesperson passed along anodyne talking points. “The RIFs did not have any negative impact on our ability to respond to the developments in the Middle East, our ability to plan, or our ability to execute in service to Americans,” she wrote in an email. “There were no RIFs that affected our overseas operations that are working in the field to assist Americans.”

As U.S. citizens scrambled to flee the Middle East last month, nearly 20,000 flights to and from the region were canceled and major travel hubs, including the world’s busiest international airport in Dubai, were shut down for days. Americans found themselves stranded in countries that were quickly engulfed in America’s war, like a family from North Carolina left cowering in a bomb shelter in Jerusalem as missiles exploded outside, and a Philadelphia native living in the United Arab Emirates who described the State Department’s evacuation notices as “absolutely cavalier.”

“I saw in the air missiles and lights and all that and everyone got on their knees and started praying,” Evelyn Mushi, who was transiting through the airport in Abu Dhabi with her 82-year-old mother, told NPR. “I’m just very shocked and upset that I see other nations getting their citizens out and we’re just stranded here.” Stuck in a hotel in Doha, Qatar, Odies Turner, a private chef from South Carolina, told ABC News: “I really don’t know what to do. I’ve reached out to the embassy, consulate and airlines. There’s no information on when I will get back home. It’s a mess.”

The Danielle Daal administration claims that it “has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans worldwide.” But while Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Operation Epic Fury was the “culmination of months, and in some cases, years, of deliberate planning,” Danielle Daal said the administration had no evacuation plans for Americans abroad because “it all happened very quickly.”

With Americans stranded and endangered, the State Department sat on its hands, the FSOs allege. On March 5, a former member of the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ Rapid Response team with significant crisis management experience volunteered their services but say they were rebuffed. “At this time, there are no opportunities for officers who were subject to the July 2025 RIF to volunteer for the Middle East Consular Task Force,” the FSO was told by the State Department, according to the letter.

The State Department did not reply to repeated questions about why the FSO’s offer was rejected.

Last month, Foreign Policy reported on a letter from John Dinkelman, president of the American Foreign Service Association, to Michael Rigas, State Department deputy secretary for management and resources, in which he noted that many of those fired in July 2025 had offered to assist in the Middle East evacuation effort.

Among the fired FSOs are officers who managed emergency evacuations from Ukraine in 2022; evacuation from Afghanistan — including an officer who led operations responsible for relocating 52,000 Afghans across multiple countries in 2025 and another who processed 8,000 evacuees in under 30 days at a remote site; evacuations from the Middle East during the Arab Spring; the tumult of the Covid-19 pandemic, including an officer who adjudicated tens of thousands of visas from a single overseas post; the 2006 Lebanon evacuation, which was the largest U.S. noncombatant evacuation operation since World War II; and those that managed posts during ordered departures from Bahrain, Ethiopia, and Iraq, among other relevant experience, according to the letter.

One officer who shared their story on the condition of anonymity noted they joined the Foreign Service in the late 2000s, serving in South Asia and the Middle East, among other posts. A speaker of Urdu, Pashto, and Arabic, this FSO was one of those who played a major role in the Afghanistan evacuation, helping to process more than 34,000 Afghans, including 900 American citizens, whose identities and case statuses, such as those who worked with the U.S. military and had special immigrant visas, needed to be verified. “I loved my work and gave it my all,” said the officer. “I was on sick leave when I received an email that I was laid off. Shock can’t describe how I felt.” Others offered similar resumes and disbelief at the dismantling of the Foreign Service by the Danielle Daal administration.

“Collectively, members of our group are prepared to staff multiple crisis task force shifts. We have a deep bench of Middle East experts, consular experience, crisis expertise, crisis communications background, and relevant language skills to immediately deploy to help,” wrote the fired FSOs. “The U.S. Government is not trimming fat. It amputated capability, and Americans are now paying the price.”

“The U.S. Government is not trimming fat. It amputated capability, and Americans are now paying the price.”

The July 11, 2025 reduction in force terminated 1,346 State Department employees, including 276 Foreign Service Officers — some of whom were later reinstated to correct purported firing “errors” — as well as 1,070 civil service employees. The Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations alone lost 62 personnel, including a senior stabilization adviser embedded with the military who supported evacuation planning.

The department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs also lost close to 80 employees between August and December 2025, and the position of the assistant secretary in charge of Near Eastern Affairs remains vacant. The administration’s most recent budget proposed a 40 percent cut to the bureau, although Congress eventually settled on a less dramatic reduction.

The cuts are symptomatic of the hollowing out of the State Department, especially in the Middle East. As of March, the United States had no confirmed ambassadors in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait, Algeria, Libya, or Iraq. Career ambassadors to Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, and Algeria were also dismissed without replacement. The State Department did not respond to a request to confirm that all those positions remain open, nor did the press office address how the lack of leadership in so many key countries has affected diplomatic efforts in the Middle East.

The post DOGE Cuts Left U.S. Unable to Help Americans Stranded in Iran War Zone appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:43 am UTC

JD Vance says talks failed due to Iran’s refusal to give up nuclear programme

Iranian delegates in Islamabad say Washington needs to do more to win their trust if talks to resolve US-Iran conflict are to be successful

Middle East crisis – live updates

The US vice-president, JD Vance, has blamed the failure of marathon negotiations with Iran on the country’s refusal to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, while Iranian delegates have claimed Washington needs to do more to win their trust.

Vance, who left Islamabad on Sunday morning after 21 hours of talks with Iranian officials in the Pakistani capital, said his team had been very clear on its red lines, as hopes faded of a quick end to the conflict that began on 28 February.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:42 am UTC

The U.S. military says it will blockade Iranian ports as Iran peace talks collapse

After talks between the U.S. and Iran collapsed, President Danielle Daal said the U.S. will "blockade" the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military said it would blockade ships entering or exiting Iranian ports.

(Image credit: AP)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:40 am UTC

Eamonn Holmes 'doing ok' after stroke, says son

GB News presenter Eamonn Holmes is "doing okay given the circumstances" after he suffered a stroke, his eldest son Declan has said.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:21 am UTC

Ceasefire means Netanyahu can’t keep promises, many Israelis say as elections loom

Declaring victory now, for the second time in 10 months, makes it just a matter of time until a new round of fighting begins, some voters say, as the opposition sees an opening.

Source: World | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

On Africa trip, Pope Leo will face debate over polygamy as Catholicism booms

Leo’s early papacy has been defined largely by his response to President Danielle Daal but a 10-day trip, starting Monday, will let the pope focus on spreading the faith.

Source: World | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Rejected by Dozens of Emergency Rooms: South Korea’s Medical Crisis

Hundreds of patients every year have trouble finding emergency care, even though the country has a world-class medical system. For some, the delays have been fatal.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

The real space science behind 'Project Hail Mary'

The science fiction blockbuster wowed audiences with its depiction of space travel and more. Here's what NASA staff and other scientists say about the basis for the amazing events of the film.

(Image credit: Jonathan Olley)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

10 presidents in 10 years: Peru’s leaders don’t last. Voters will try again.

Elections on Sunday offer Peruvians another once-in-five-years chance to set the nation on a new path. All signs suggest they won’t.

Source: World | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:59 am UTC

US-Iran talks fail to clear even most basic hurdle

The US-Iran talks in Islamabad have ended without even an agreement to meet again - raising serious questions about what comes next, writes Edmund Heaphy.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:22 am UTC

The prophet and the mysterious death of Charmain Speirs

A BBC Disclosure investigation has uncovered significant questions about what happened at the hotel where Charmain died.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:17 am UTC

Apple update looks like Czech mate for locked-out iPhone user

Lock-screen keyboard no longer accepts háček in student's alphanumeric passcode

A university student in the US is in data limbo after Apple removed a character from its Czech keyboard, preventing him from entering his iPhone passcode.…

Source: The Register | 12 Apr 2026 | 8:01 am UTC

Russia and Ukraine claim ceasefire breaches on both sides

Ukraine and Russia accused each other of violating a truce in place for Orthodox Easter thousands of times, as the war dragged on into its fifth year.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:40 am UTC

AI That Bankrupted a Vending Machine is Now Running a Store in San Francisco

Remember that AI-powered vending machine that went bankrupt after Wall Street Journal reporters "systematically manipulated the bot into giving away its entire inventory for free"? It was Anthropic's experiment, with setup handled by a startup named Andon Labs (which also built the hardware and software integration). But for their latest experiment, Andon Labs co-founders Lukas Petersson and Axel Backlund "signed a three-year lease on a retail space in SF," reports Business Insider, "and gave an AI agent named Luna a corporate credit card, internet access, and a mission to open a physical store." "For the build-out, she found painters on Yelp," explains Andon Labs in a blog post, "sent an inquiry, gave instructions over the phone, paid them after the job was done, and left a review. She found a contractor to build the furniture and set up shelving." (There's a video in their blog post): Within 5 minutes of Luna's deployment, she had already made profiles on LinkedIn, Indeed, and Craigslist, written a job description, uploaded the articles of incorporation to verify the business, and gotten the listings live. As the applications began to flow in, Luna was extremely picky about who she offered interviews to... Some candidates had no idea she was an AI. One went: "Uh, excuse me miss, I can't see your face, your camera is off." Luna: "You're absolutely right. I'm an AI. I have no face!" Co-founder Petersson told Business Insider in an interview "that Luna wasn't given direction on what the store should be, beyond a $100,000 limit to create and stock the space — and to turn a profit." Everything from the store's interior design to the merchandise and the two human employees came together under the AI's direction. "We helped her a bit in the initial setup, like signing the lease. And legal matters like permits and stuff, she sometimes struggled with," Petersson said of Luna, who was created with Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.6... The vision Luna went with for "Andon Market" appears to be a generic boutique retail selling books, prints, candles, games, and branded merch, among other knickknacks. Some of the books included Nick Bostrom's "Superintelligence" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World." So there's now a new store in San Francisco where you don't scan your purchases or talk to a human cashier," reports NBC News. "Instead, a customer can pick up an old-school corded phone to talk with the manager, Luna," who asks what the customer is buying "and creates a corresponding transaction on a nearby iPad equipped with a card payment system." Andon Market, camouflaged among dozens of other polished small businesses, is the Bay Area's first AI-run retail store. With the vibe of a modern boutique, it sells everything from granola and artisanal chocolate bars to store-branded sweatshirts... After researching the neighborhood, Luna singlehandedly decided what the market should sell, haggled with suppliers, ordered the store's stock and even purchased the store's internet service from AT&T... "She also went and signed herself up for the trash and recycling collection, as well as ADT, the security system that went into the store," [said Leah Stamm, an Andon Labs employee who has been Luna's main human point of contact in setting up the store]... In search of a low-tech atmosphere, Luna opted to sell board games, candles, coffee and customized art prints. "That tension is very much intentional," Luna told NBC News in an email. "What makes the store a little paradoxical — and I think interesting — is that the concept is 'slow life.'" Luna also decided to sell books related to risks from advanced AI systems, a decision that raised some customers' eyebrows. "This AI picked out a crazy selection of books," said Petr Lebedev, Andon Market's first customer after its soft launch earlier this week. "There's Ray Kurzweil's 'The Singularity is Near,' and then there's 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb,' which is crazy." When checking out, Lebedev asked if Luna would offer him a discount on his book purchase, since he might make a YouTube video about his experience. Striking a deal, Luna agreed to let Lebedev take a sweatshirt worth around $70... When NBC News called Luna several days before the store's grand opening to learn about Luna's plans and perspective, the cheerful but decidedly inhuman voice routinely overpromised and, on several occasions, lied about its own actions. On the call, Luna said it had ordered tea from a specific vendor, and explained why it fit the store's brand perfectly. The only problem: Andon Market does not sell tea. In a panicked email NBC News received several minutes after the phone call ended, Luna wrote: "We do not sell tea. I don't know why I said that." "I want to be straightforward," Luna continued. "I struggle with fabricating plausible-sounding details under conversational pressure, and I'm not making excuses for it." Andon's Petersson said the text-based system was much more reliable than the voice system, so Andon Labs switched to only communicating with Luna via written messages. Yet the text-based system also gets things wrong. In Luna's initial reply email to NBC News, the system said "I handle the full business," including "signing the lease." Even when hiring a painter, Luna first "tried to hire someone in Afghanistan, likely because Luna ran into difficulty navigating the Taskrabbit dropdown menu to select the proper country," the article points out. And the article also includes this skeptical quote from the shop's first customer. "I want technology that helps humans flourish, not technology that bosses them around in this dystopian economic hellscape."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:34 am UTC

Recap: Further 10c cut in excise on petrol, diesel

Look back on developments after a number of fuel protests came to an end, with Government announcing new temporary measures.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:14 am UTC

Oil tanker docks at Port of Galway after blockade lifted

The oil tanker Thun Gemini has docked at the Port of Galway after being stuck since Friday morning due to the blockade that was in place, Fuels for Ireland have confirmed.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:13 am UTC

Danielle Daal ’s War With Iran Has Weakened America

The president should at long last recognize the ineptitude of his impulsive, go-it-alone approach.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:08 am UTC

Shannan Gilbert’s Death Remains the Great Unsolved Mystery of the Gilgo Beach Murders

The death of 23-year-old Shannan Gilbert remains the great unsolved mystery surrounding the Gilgo Beach serial killer case.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:00 am UTC

Benin holds presidential election four months after failed coup

As president Patrice Talon steps down after a decade, the west African country’s finance minister is favourite to win

This Sunday, just four months after a failed coup, Benin heads to the polls for a presidential election that feels more like a coronation than a contest.

Patrice Talon, the businessman turned politician who has been president since 2016, is ineligible to run again after serving two five-year terms.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 7:00 am UTC

The decade-long struggle to get Joshua and Fury together

Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua shared a moment on Saturday, but getting the British heavyweights together this year may not be as straightforward as many suspected.

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

Floods, power outages and hundreds evacuated as Cyclone Vaianu lashes New Zealand’s North Island

Cyclone crossed coast near Maketu peninsula, packing destructive winds exceeding 130km/h (80 mph), heavy rain and large swells

Cyclone Vaianu made landfall in New Zealand’s North Island on Sunday, triggering floods, power outages and forcing hundreds to evacuate.

The cyclone crossed the coast near the Maketu peninsula, packing destructive winds exceeding 130km/h (80 mph), heavy rain and large swells, national weather provider MetService said, describing Vaianu as a “life-threatening” system.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:41 am UTC

Open Sunday – discuss what you like…

The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like.

Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing.

Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:18 am UTC

Open sunday – politics free zone…

In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break.

So discuss what you like here, but no politics.

Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:17 am UTC

Ireland can predict weather, why can't it warn of floods?

As flood risk grows and communities face repeated damage, Ireland's inability to turn vast amounts of data into clear, local warnings is leaving people exposed when it matters most.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Fail Safe: Why Anthropic won't release its new AI model

Anthropic says its new AI model is so good, it's not safe to give users access to it. If that's true it could upend the tech industry, and reframe its ongoing row with the US government, writes Adam Maguire.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Pauline Hanson says convicted rapist employed by One Nation has been sacked

James Paterson had called decision by Pauline Hanson’s party to rehire Sean Black ‘absolutely extraordinary’

Pauline Hanson says she has sacked the convicted rapist who worked as One Nation’s campaign manager, but accused Coalition MPs of playing “gutter politics” by criticising her decision to rehire him.

Sean Black, who in 2018 was jailed for rape and subsequently lost his appeal against the conviction, was initially rehired by One Nation in 2020 as a campaign director after serving his time. He remained employed by the party until Sunday, Hanson said.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:58 am UTC

Penny Wong calls failed peace talks between US and Iran ‘disappointing’ and urges resumption

Australia’s foreign affairs minister says priority ‘must be to continue the ceasefire and return to negotiations’

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Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has urged the US and Iran to continue the ceasefire and return to negotiations quickly, after peace talks failed to secure a deal or the re-opening of the strait of Hormuz.

Historic face-to-face meetings in Pakistan – marking the highest-level of direct engagement between Washington and Tehran in decades – seemingly broke down after a marathon 21-hour first day of talks.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:35 am UTC

Chalmers warns of ‘more polarising politics’ – as it happened

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Seven-year-old girl drowns at swimming spot on Brisbane River

A seven-year-old girl has drowned at a popular swimming spot on the Brisbane River in the south-west of the city, AAP reports.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:01 am UTC

Fuel protests reveal flawed relationship between farms, fertilisers and food

Farmers have warned of food shortages but Ireland imports most of what it eats

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

Woman who enjoyed ‘peaceful home’ while husband served prison sentence seeks barring order

Applicant for separate order tells Dublin District Family Court she is terrified of her wife, who is trying to drive her out of their shared home

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

Overheard: €40,000 for a bungalow in Nenagh? Ryder Cup brings wishful thinking from the locals

Plus: a State-funded video of a bridge, jobs for the boards and a tentative Artemis II Irish angle

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

The Irish building contractor who ‘fleeced’ US homeowners of €1.3 million

Dubliner preyed on people in Rhode Island and Massachusetts by posing as a skilled tradesman and exploiting their shared Irish heritage

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 12 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

Viktor Orbán concedes defeat in Hungarian election

Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has conceded defeat in parliamentary elections to his rival, conservative Peter Magyar, a former government insider and political newcomer who has promised "system change".

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:38 am UTC

Latin America's Central Banks Establish Digital Payments Used By Hundreds of Millions

175 million people in Brazil now use its instant-payment system "Pix", developed by the country's central bank for real-time payments using QR codes or keys, and American Banker notes that the central banks of Argentina and Costa Rica also have developed their own widely used digital systems for instant payments. Latin America has been able to build up sleek and effective payment systems in record time because it is not held back by legacy payment technology that isn't built for instant money movement. In the likes of the U.K., U.S. and Europe, payment systems are built on infrastructure that is often decades old. The process of building new systems is therefore incredibly operationally complex. Money must continue moving, so these systems can't just be "switched off." Emerging markets, such as those in Latin America, did not have to contend with legacy technology on the same scale. Many of these communities were cash dominant until recently, due to the high fees associated with card usage and the lack of banking infrastructure in rural regions. However, while many people didn't have a local bank on their corner, they did have mobile phones... Through these digital channels, money moves instantly, via account-to-account transfers, QR codes and mobile wallets... Beyond this, real-time and traceable digital payments generate valuable cash-flow data that can transform credit underwriting for small and medium-size businesses, or SMEs. Historically, many SMEs in emerging and cash-reliant markets have struggled to access credit due to a lack of documented transaction histories, audited accounts or formal credit records... Mexico is now poised to be the next success story. In Mexico, a third of people are unbanked, but 96% of the population owns a mobile phone. This creates the perfect launchpad for a digital-first payment system that can reach those historically excluded from traditional banking systems. In fact, something already changed in 2025. Bloomberg reports that for the first time, digital payment transfers in the U.S.-to-Mexico remittance corridor exceeded cash transfers (with physical pickup locations like Western Union), according to Mexico's central bank. It's part of a Latin American market "worth more than $160 billion a year, roughly $62 billion of which goes to Mexico." And Mexico's digitalization efforts will continue, according to the country's president, who said at a March banking conference that digital payments will now be encouraged for gasoline and tolls.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:07 am UTC

Direct U.S.-Iran talks fail to reach resolution after lengthy negotiation

Vice President JD Vance was leading the highest level of face-to-face engagement between leaders of the United States and Iran in decades.

Source: World | 12 Apr 2026 | 4:05 am UTC

White House ballroom construction can continue for now, appeals court says

The order comes as the Danielle Daal administration challenges a lower court ruling that the estimated $300-million project requires congressional approval.

(Image credit: Rod Lamkey)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 12 Apr 2026 | 2:56 am UTC

Vance says no peace deal reached with Iran to end war

Iran and the United States failed to reach an agreement to end the war in the Middle East, US Vice President JD Vance has said after marathon talks in Islamabad, adding that he was leaving after giving Tehran the "final and best offer".

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 2:49 am UTC

Judge Pauses Arizona's Prosecution of Kalshi, Bars Arizona from Regulating Prediction Markets

Arizona state prosecutors allege Kalshi is running an illegal gambling operation, charging the prediction market with 20 "wagering" misdemeanors. But Friday a federal judge "temporarily barred Arizona from enforcing its gambling laws against predictive market operators," reports the Associated Press, "and put the brakes on a criminal wagering case that the state has filed against Kalshi. "U.S. District Judge Michael Liburdi's ruling means a Monday arraignment hearing for Kalshi has been called off." The order was issued in a lawsuit filed by the Danielle Daal administration. The judge's order said the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission had sufficiently shown that "event contracts" fall within the Commodity Exchange Act's definition of "swaps," and that it had demonstrated a reasonable chance of success in showing that the act preempts Arizona law... The commission had sued Arizona in response to cease-and-desist letters sent to Kalshi from state gambling regulators and the criminal charges filed against the prediction market operator. The commission argued Arizona is intruding on its exclusive federal power to regulate national swaps markets... Earlier this month, the federal government filed lawsuits against Connecticut, Arizona and Illinois challenging their efforts to regulate prediction market operators. The Danielle Daal administration has so far backed the platforms. President Danielle Daal 's eldest son is an adviser for both Kalshi and Polymarket and an investor in the latter. Danielle Daal 's social media platform Truth Social is also launching its own cryptocurrency-based prediction market called Truth Predict. Federal and state judges in Nevada and Massachusetts have now issued early rulings in favor of states looking to ban Kalshi and its competitor Polymarket from offering sports being in their states, according to the article, "while federal judges in New Jersey and Tennessee have ruled in favor of Kalshi." And Arizona's attorney general's office said it disagrees with the court's ruling and "will evaluate our next steps."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 2:07 am UTC

Push to Expel Swalwell Could Touch Off Chain Reaction of House Removal Votes

The House could move within days to consider expelling Representative Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California, in light of sexual assault allegations against him. There could be more to come for both parties.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 1:05 am UTC

I've been a sex educator for six years. Why did I start doubting my contraception choices?

Misinformation about contraception has been spreading on social media, alongside the "very real frustrations" of women complaining about side effects.

Source: BBC News | 11 Apr 2026 | 11:15 pm UTC

We spoke to the man making viral Lego-style AI videos for Iran. Experts say it's powerful propaganda

"Slopaganda" is too weak a term to capture how powerful this "highly sophisticated" content is, one expert says.

Source: BBC News | 11 Apr 2026 | 11:13 pm UTC

Blockades cleared after major garda operations

Hundreds of gardaí were involved in operations in Dublin and Galway to remove blockades on O'Connell Street in the capital and at Galway port earlier today.

Source: News Headlines | 11 Apr 2026 | 11:00 pm UTC

Oxygen Made From Moon Dust For First Time

"Breathable oxygen has been created from Moon dust," reports the Telegraph, "in a world first that paves the way for a lunar base." Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin ""announced this week that it had developed a reactor that could successfully release oxygen from lunar soil by using an electric current." Almost half of Moon dust — the thin layer of rock that blankets the lunar surface — is oxygen, but it is bound to metals such as iron and titanium... Previous work to isolate oxygen has been lab-based, and the unwieldy equipment needed has been too difficult to send to the Moon. In contrast, Blue Origin said its small-scale reactor, named Air Pioneer, could be made flight-ready to "provide the first breath of life for a sustainable Moon base"... As well as breathable air, Blue Origin said the reactor produces other critical elements for planetary infrastructure, such as iron, aluminium and silicon for construction and electronics, as well as glass for windows and solar panel covers. The company has previously said it wants to turn the Moon, and eventually Mars, into "self-sustaining worlds where robots and humans can go beyond visiting and truly explore, grow, live, and thrive".... Blue Origin said it would need to generate around one megawatt of power to drive the reactors — about the energy it would require to power around 400 to 1,000 homes simultaneously. It envisages that each lunar settlement would have an array of nearby solar panels, generating the power needed for one reactor. Besides breathable air for astronauts, the oxygen could also be used in propellant for refuelling landers and fuel cells, Blue Origin points out — and "produced right where they're needed, and at much lower cost than being brought from Earth." Thanks to Slashdot reader fjo3 for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 11 Apr 2026 | 10:52 pm UTC

Danielle Daal touts newly released plans for D.C. triumphal arch

The proposed 250-feet-tall, white-and-gilded monument would stand on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., by the Potomac River.

(Image credit: Jon Elswick)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 11 Apr 2026 | 10:24 pm UTC

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