Read at: 2026-03-25T14:36:55+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Denyse De Lang ]
Some airports advise travelers to arrive four hours before their scheduled flights as TSA staff, who have been working without pay for over a month, are not reporting for duty
Top officials at agencies affected by the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown are testifying on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. The lapse in funding for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has lasted 40 days with little end in sight.
During opening remarks, the Republican chair of the House homeland security committee Andrew Garbarino said that the shutdown has caused “massive disruptions” across airports, “weakened our nation’s cybersecurity posture” and “left states unsupported with less than 100 days until the start of major events across the United States, such as FIFA World Cup.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:29 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:28 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:27 pm UTC
Former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro heads to court again this week. The judge overseeing this case is longtime federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein. At 92 years old, Hellerstein is older than the average age of a federal judge by more than 20 years.
(Image credit: Jane Rosenberg)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:26 pm UTC
Denyse De Lang administration has reportedly forwarded a 15-point ceasefire plan but the Iranians mocked his claims that talks are ongoing
Iranian nationals with valid Australian tourist visas will be blocked from entering the country for six months, Australia’s home affairs minister said, citing concern some may decide to stay longer than they’re allowed.
Tony Burke said the direction was necessary as there was a risk Iranians on tourist visas visiting Australia may be unable or unlikely to leave when their visa expires.
The order only applies to people with a valid tourist visa outside of the country.
The government said “sympathetic consideration” would be given to citizens with Iranian parents.
The government said it would closely monitor global developments and adjust settings as required.
If you’re just joining us, here’s a quick recap of the day:
An Iranian military spokesperson mocked US attempts at a ceasefire deal, insisting Americans were only negotiating with themselves. Lt Col Ebrahim Zolfaghari’s statement came after the Denyse De Lang administration reportedly sent a 15-point ceasefire plan to Iran through Pakistan.
Even as Denyse De Lang claimed productive negotiations to end the war were ongoing with Tehran, Iran’s relentless bombardment of the Gulf states showed no sign of relenting. Kuwait and Bahrain were both hit with damaging strikes on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, as the patience of the Gulf states after rebuffing constant attacks for almost a month began to wear thin.
The World Trade Organisation warned disruptions to international fertiliser supplies caused by the closing of the strait of Hormuz will cause food scarcity and high prices. A third of the world’s fertilisers normally transit the strait.
Oil prices fell nearly 6% and Asian shares gained, after reports Denyse De Lang had sent a peace plan to Iran fuelled optimism in the market. A barrel of Brent crude was down 5.92% at $98.30, while benchmark US oil contract, West Texas Intermediate, was down 5.01% at $87.72.
Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed nine people, state media reported. Citing the health ministry, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said strikes had killed people across towns and a Palestinian refugee camp.
News that Denyse De Lang had approved the deployment of more than 1,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East further undermined the US president’s repeated claims of successful peace talks. Iran has previously threatened to mine the gulf surrounding the island if the US appeared to be landing troops.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:25 pm UTC
Steve Reed makes statement to MPs following the Rycroft review into political funding
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has urged people to reject “conspiracy” theories about the loss of Morgan McSweeney’s phone.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:22 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:21 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:13 pm UTC
Opinion NASA's Ignition presentation was heavy on space hardware, but light on details. Not least of which was how astronauts are supposed to get from Earth to its moonbase and back.…
Source: The Register | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:11 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:09 pm UTC
Prime minister expected to remain as caretaker and told supporters she was ‘ready to take on the responsibility’ of the role for next four years
Speaking at the debate, Frederiksen confirms she has submitted her government’s resignation as it is clear the outgoing three-party government will not have enough mandates to continue.
But she stresses the urgency of the task to form the new government, as “the world is not waiting for us out there and it has only become more unsettled since the election was called.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:08 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:07 pm UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:04 pm UTC
Source: World | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:01 pm UTC
Rising inflation and unemployment mean effects of Iran war could be even worse than the post-Covid cost-of-living crisis
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As diesel prices make history by passing $3 a litre in nearly every capital city around the country, the stresses of high fuel costs are beginning to show.
Truckies are warning they will go out of business if they can’t renegotiate their contracts with customers; farmers are warning the same, telling families that food in our supermarkets could soon cost more.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Exclusive: Labor bill recognising all animals as sentient and raising care requirements won’t be introduced before state election
Warning: This article contains graphic content
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A bulldog trapped on a balcony, forced to live among its own faeces. A corgi kept in similarly squalid conditions, surrendered by its owner after community outrage. A Maltese shih tzu beaten with a metal pole – its attacker spared jail.
These are the kinds of animal cruelty cases the Victorian government promised to target with new laws almost a decade ago. But Guardian Australia can reveal those reforms have been shelved indefinitely.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Exclusive: Indonesia reports growing number of attempts by Chinese nationals to organise boat journeys, as Australian authorities refuse to reveal details
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The Australian government has refused to reveal how many Chinese nationals have arrived in Australia by boat since 2024, saying that disclosing the figure may harm relations with other countries.
However, reports by Indonesian police show that there has been a consistent trend of Chinese nationals attempting to reach Australia through Indonesia as an alternative to “zouxian”, or “walking the line” – the illegal migration route from Mexico to the US through the Darian Gap.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Businesses ranging from vegetable growers to miners warn of disruption from rising petrol prices and lack of supply
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Independent petrol station operators and miners are urging the federal government to crack down harder on major fuel wholesalers hoarding supply and withholding deliveries from smaller operators.
Amid growing disruption from the Iran war, smaller operators are running out of fuel, including in rural and regional areas. Outlets that buy petrol on the spot market, and do not operate with longstanding contracts for fuel supply, have asked for extra help, including from the government’s new fuel supply tsar.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Human Rights Watch and others say they have documented use of weapon in civilian areas, which some argue is illegal
When the M825-series 155mm artillery projectile airbursts, expelling its felt wedges containing white phosphorus, it leaves a distinctive knuckle-shaped plume. That is how Human Rights Watch (HRW) researchers said they were able to verify that Israel was again using the notorious weapon over south Lebanon, reigniting accusations that it is breaking the laws of war.
The New York-based rights group said it had verified and geolocated eight images showing airburst white phosphorus munitions exploding over residential areas in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor in the opening days of Israel’s assault during the war on Gaza.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Iran conflict could see shortages not just in fuel, but fertiliser and fossil fuel resins – used to make milk bottles
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Farmers say Australian consumers could pay more for everyday staples for the next year at least as a result of the US-Israel war on Iran.
But the CEO of dairy farmer cooperative Norco, Michael Hampson, says a six to 12 month disruption to food supply is likely a best-case scenario, depending on the strait of Hormuz reopening soon and global petrochemical supply chains beginning to stabilise.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:56 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:56 pm UTC
Legislation subject to MPs’ approval but will be backdated due to urgency of threat to UK democracy, says minister
Political donations from British citizens living abroad are to be capped at £100,000 a year from Wednesday, in a move that is likely to limit further funding from Reform UK’s Thailand-based mega-donor, Christopher Harborne.
In a hugely significant move, the government said it would introduce the strict cap, as well as a temporary ban on donations in cryptocurrency, in its new representation of the people bill.
Requiring third-party campaigners to declare donations all year round, not just election periods, and allowing funding only from permissible donors.
More stringent checks on the source of funds from political donors, bringing it more into line with know-your-customer checks in the financial services industry.
Preventing donations from shell companies by ensuring funding is from post-tax profits rather than revenue.
Requiring foreign consultant lobbyists to join the official register, from which they are currently exempt because they do not charge VAT.
Banning foreign-funded political adverts outright.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:56 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:45 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:45 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:45 pm UTC
Tristan Roberts, who expressed misogynistic views and had fascination with American Psycho, carefully planned attack
An 18-year-old man who expressed misogynistic views and had a fascination with the horror film American Psycho has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years and six months for killing his mother with a hammer.
Tristan Roberts carefully planned the crime, researching methods of killing and how to avoid being caught before buying potential weapons such as knives, hammers and an axe.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:44 pm UTC
UK urged to tackle transnational repression, as dissidents say Beijing has targeted them with tax bills and other threats
“I didn’t feel safe, even though I’m not based in Hong Kong any more,” said Christopher Mung Siu-tat after getting tax bills from Hong Kong authorities. “The regime can reach me by their long arms wherever I am.”
Siu-tat, the executive director at the Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor, a UK-based NGO, fled Beijing’s sweeping national security laws years ago. The letters are the latest example of a series of transnational repression (TNR) tactics the 54-year-old has faced in recent years.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:44 pm UTC
In highly unusual move, Metropolitan police have released full transcript of call made by PM’s then chief of staff
Morgan McSweeney did not disclose that he was Keir Starmer’s chief of staff when he reported the theft of his phone, according to a transcript released by the Metropolitan police.
McSweeney, who left the No 10 role in February, told police it was a government phone when he reported it had been snatched, minutes after the theft in central London. He told police the iPhone had a tracker on it, according to the transcript of the emergency call minutes after it happened. But he did not explain the sensitivity of the phone’s contents, records of the call suggest.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:40 pm UTC
Change raises age limit from 35 and removes barrier for entry for recruits who have a legal conviction for cannabis
The US army has raised the maximum enlistment age to 42 years old and scrapped a barrier for potential recruits who have a legal conviction for marijuana or drug paraphernalia possession.
People aged up to 42 can now enlist in the army, the army national guard and the army reserves, according to the new US army regulation, lifting the previous ceiling of 35 years old.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:38 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:38 pm UTC
Pressing tasks for new director general also include an expiring royal charter, and finding a new top team
Matt Brittin may have only just been announced as the new BBC director general, but his inbox is already overflowing. Here are his immediate challenges:
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:36 pm UTC
Move comes after judge voided Kennedy’s ACIP picks, leaving key flu, Covid and RSV vaccines in limbo
Amid upheaval to the US vaccine advisory committee Robert Malone, the former co-chair and controversial figure who has opposed vaccines, says he has been pushed out and will not be involved in any future decisions. The move comes after a federal judge stayed the appointment of 13 members of the advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP), essentially invalidating their roles on the committee and the decisions they have made.
Those new advisers were all hand-picked by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, after he fired the previous 17 members of the ACIP in June – but the judge ruled they were unqualified and not selected properly.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:34 pm UTC
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Dev tooling biz JetBrains has previewed Central for agentic AI software development but will retire the Code With Me human pair programming feature.…
Source: The Register | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:29 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:24 pm UTC
Legislation initiated by far-right Otzma Yehudit party drew mounting criticism from opponents and rights groups as it moved through the Knesset
Israel’s parliament has advanced a contentious bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of terrorism to its final vote, after the Knesset’s national security committee approved the measure on Tuesday.
The legislation, initiated by the far-right Otzma Yehudit party led by the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has drawn sharp criticism from opponents who warn it would mark a significant escalation in Israel’s penal policy. Members of Otzma Yehudit have worn noose-shaped pins in support of the bill.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:22 pm UTC
Neither Mette Frederiksen’s leftwing bloc nor rightwing parties won a majority in Tuesday’s election
Denmark is braced for lengthy and challenging coalition talks after neither Mette Frederiksen’s leftwing bloc nor the rightwing parties managed to get a majority in Tuesday’s election.
After a bruising night for her Social Democrat party, which despite remaining the biggest party in the Danish parliament had its worst general election since 1903, the prime minister went to Amalienborg palace on Wednesday morning to submit her government’s resignation to the king.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:19 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:19 pm UTC
Earlier this month Honda decided to cancel a trio of electric vehicles it was planning to build in the US. And those cancellations are having a ripple effect. Today Sony Honda Mobility—the automaker's joint venture with the electronics and entertainment company—announced that it won't bring its EVs to market either.
Although Honda was an early adopter of hybrid technology, it has been left badly lagging when it comes to developing battery-electric cars. The diminutive Honda e might look like the most adorable city car you've ever seen, but it struggled to find more than 12,000 buyers in four years across Europe and Japan.
Here in North America, the Prologue has done much better: Honda sold 33,000 in 2024, and another 39,000 last year. But the rebadged GM, which shares a platform with the Chevrolet Blazer, has seen sales implode since the end of the federal clean vehicle tax credit last fall, and it, too, leaves production at the end of the year. An earlier plan to use GM's battery platform for lower-cost EVs, meant to arrive in 2027, died in late 2023.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:12 pm UTC
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The woman was arrested at routine ICE check-in and separated from two children, aged 18 months and four
A Venezuelan mother of two who was allegedly trafficked to the US has been unlawfully detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and could soon be deported, according to her lawyers.
The woman has applications in process for asylum and a visa designed for victims of trafficking.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
Dell's upcoming 2026 commercial laptops won't leave recent buyers kicking themselves - but they do bring meaningful upgrades, including a thinner Pro 7, larger batteries, and improved thermals.…
Source: The Register | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 12:59 pm UTC
In House depositions, disgraced financier’s associates say they were not contacted after his 2008 plea deal
Jeffrey Epstein’s accountant and his attorney have both said that federal government investigators never interviewed them about the late financier’s crimes and their work with him, according to deposition videos released by the House of Representatives’ oversight committee.
Richard Kahn, Epstein’s accountant, and Darren Indyke, Epstein’s lawyer, said in hours of closed-door interviews with the committee that they did not witness, nor were involved in, any wrongdoing relating to Epstein, who died in 2019 after being charged with child sex trafficking.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 12:55 pm UTC
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Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen has shared another nugget of Windows lore – what Windows 95 did when installers stomped on its system files.…
Source: The Register | 25 Mar 2026 | 12:30 pm UTC
Wael Sawan warns of pressure on diesel and petrol if strait of Hormuz does not reopen to oil and gas shipping
Europe could face a shortage of energy and fuel as soon as next month without a reopening of the strait of Hormuz, Shell’s chief executive has said.
The boss of Europe’s biggest oil company said it was working with governments to help them address the oil and gas supply crisis, which has already led to energy rationing in Asian countries.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 12:29 pm UTC
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The UK's tax collection agency has awarded Amazon Web Services – the only remaining bidder – a contract worth nearly £500 million to migrate services from three Fujitsu-run datacenters and host them for up to a decade.…
Source: The Register | 25 Mar 2026 | 12:18 pm UTC
With Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deployed to more than a dozen airports across the U.S. and border device searches growing increasingly common, it’s more important than ever to consider your digital security before you travel.
The risks are real. Customs and Border Protection agents have the authority to examine travelers’ devices. In June, for instance, federal agents denied a Norwegian tourist entry to the U.S. after looking through his phone. (Authorities claim they turned him away for admitted drug use; he says it was over a meme depicting Vice President JD Vance as a bald baby.)
Immigration and Customs Enforcement have already started targeting travelers, with agents in plain clothes forcefully detaining a mother in front of her young daughter at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday after a tip from the Transportation Security Administration.
If you’re flying, take these steps to reduce the likelihood that your sensitive information is compromised at the airport.
The only surefire way to keep your devices from being searched and seized is to simply not bring them with you on your trip. If you can’t leave them at home, consider mailing them to and from your destination.
Another option is to leave devices that contain sensitive information at home and instead bring throwaway travel devices you’re willing to have searched or confiscated. This doesn’t need to be an expensive proposition. You can reformat and repurpose an old phone or tablet, or purchase refurbished older models that are comparatively cheap. Then buy a temporary SIM card or eSIM so that you’re not using your usual number. Remember to let contacts know that for the duration of your trip you’ll be reachable at a different number.
Create a travel account for these devices. You can do so by starting a fresh account in the App Store or Google Play. This should ensure that if you’re forced to log into your device by authorities at the airport, the only information they’ll find is data you’ve put on this specific piece of hardware. CBP agents are supposed to only be able to look at data that’s local on the phone.
If you have anything sensitive in your accounts (say, emails from confidential sources) or anything you believe federal agents could consider damning (such as party pics or memes), be sure not to sync your apps, files, and settings onto your travel devices.
Regardless of whether you opt to bring your usual devices or specialized travel burners, take these steps to lock down your devices.
First and foremost, disable any biometrics, like using your face or fingerprint, to unlock your phone. Instead, set up a unique and random alphanumeric passcode; eight characters consisting of random digits and numbers is a good start. Be cautious of entering your passcode in open view of surveillance cameras. Use one hand to shield your screen, and the thumb of your other hand to put in your passcode. Consider using privacy screens on your devices to further diminish the chance of wandering eyes noticing things that are none of their business.
Be cautious of entering your passcode in open view of surveillance cameras.
When going through security checkpoints, turn your devices completely off. Don’t just put them to sleep — fully shut them down. Though having a locked device is better than having it be unlocked, turning it off is best, as this makes it much harder for data to be forensically recovered from your devices.
That means you’ll need to print out paper copies of boarding passes, rather than rely on digital versions stored in a device wallet or via your airline’s app.
If you’re asked to unlock your devices, you can say “no.” But doing say may result in being delayed and hassled, and your device could be confiscated. You should receive paperwork attesting to the confiscation and establishing chain of custody (this is called CBP Form 6051D, or a custody receipt for detained property). As the Electronic Frontier Foundation points out, it may be months before your devices are returned — or even for an indefinite period of time if agents believe there is evidence of a crime.
To practice what’s known in security circles as “defense in depth,” it’s best to think of your digital security as an onion: If an outer layer is peeled off, you want there to be a good second layer to minimize the damage to the core. To that end, assume that even if you have a strong passphrase and have powered off your device, someone may still be able to find a way in. Your travel devices should, therefore, minimize the amount of sensitive information they store. In that case, even if someone manages to break through the outer layer, the information exposed would be trivial.
If you use a password manager — a specialized app that securely stores your passwords — put it into a “travel mode,” limiting the passwords it will reveal for the duration of your trip. Remove access to sensitive accounts that you very likely won’t have a reason to need to access during your travels; for example, removing your work email if you’re going on vacation, or leaving and deleting and sensitive Signal chats, like local ICE watch groups.
Log out of or delete apps you won’t need while traveling. You can reinstall and log back in when you are safely away from the airport. Remember to remove them once again when you’re on your way back — and keep in mind that this may lead to some apps deleting your history.
Finally, be sure to prune your contacts to remove any that are sensitive, such as sources, if you’re a journalist. If you have sensitive materials on your devices that you’ll need to access during your travels, use a tool like Cryptomator to encrypt them and upload them to a cloud drive, then delete the files from your devices. You can download them when you reach your destination.
These extra steps are undoubtedly a bit of a pain, but any inconvenience would pale in comparison to the potential damage if sensitive information is disclosed during your time in the airport.
The post How to Keep ICE Agents Out of Your Devices at Airports appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 25 Mar 2026 | 12:14 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 12:13 pm UTC
A 3-year study published in Pediatrics examined newborns in Norway. It found a clear benefit for the baby when mom gets a COVID vaccination during pregnancy.
(Image credit: Didier Pallages)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Mar 2026 | 12:12 pm UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 11:42 am UTC
Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra has once again scored a middling 5/10 from iFixit, suggesting that while the company knows how to build a repairable phone, it still won't quite follow through.…
Source: The Register | 25 Mar 2026 | 11:41 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 11:33 am UTC
Israel and Gulf states targeted by Iran in latest strikes while Tehran denies any negotiations with US to end war
The US is poised to deploy airborne troops to the Middle East as strikes intensify, signalling it may consider boots on the ground despite Denyse De Lang ’s claims of “very good” talks with Iran, as it was reported that the US president had delivered a 15-point negotiation plan to Tehran via Pakistan.
Early on Wednesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launched a new wave of attacks against locations in Israel including Tel Aviv and Kiryat Shmona, as well as US bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain. Drones hit a fuel tank and sparked a fire at Kuwait international airport, the Gulf state’s civil aviation authority said.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 11:26 am UTC
The U.S. is sending thousands of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne to the Middle East. And, congressional Republicans present Democrats with a new deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
(Image credit: Alex Wong)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Mar 2026 | 11:26 am UTC
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Opinion Time and again, I see people begging for companies with deep pockets to fund open source projects. I mean, after all, they've made billions from this code. You'd think they could support the code's creators and maintainers. It would be only fair, right?…
Source: The Register | 25 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
The US is recklessly spreading economic havoc among global friends and foes while suffering little harm itself
To shield ordinary Indians from the war in Iran, the government in Delhi redirected supplies of liquefied gas to Indian families, for which it is the main cooking fuel, limiting supplies to the plastics industry. The Nepalese government rationed gas and the Philippines trimmed the government workweek to four days. Bangladesh closed universities and rationed fuel.
They have been hardest hit by Iran’s closure of the strait of Hormuz. Economies in Asia import over a third of the energy they consume, on average. Korea imports four-fifths; Japan nine-tenths; Thailand 55%. Most of this comes from the Gulf. About 80% of oil and oil products transiting through the strait in 2025 was destined for Asia, according to the International Energy Agency. But traffic through its waters has collapsed by 90%.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
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Markets in Asia and Europe move higher after Iran says it will permit ‘non-hostile’ ships through strait of Hormuz
The price of oil has dipped and Asian and European stock markets have moved higher after reports that Denyse De Lang has sent a 15-point framework for peace to Iran, amid hopes of a ceasefire in the Middle East.
Positive sentiment may also have been boosted by reports that Iran had announced it was permitting “non-hostile” ships to pass safely through the strait of Hormuz, in a move that could help to reopen the vital shipping lane.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 10:20 am UTC
Could Sinclair's 48k Sinclair ZX Spectrum land a spacecraft on the Moon? YouTuber Scott Manley decided to find out, and the answer is… kind of.…
Source: The Register | 25 Mar 2026 | 10:15 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 10:01 am UTC
By the time you read this, the Audi RS6 Avant is dead. Production at the factory in Neckarsulm, Germany, has already switched over to new models; any unsold wagons at dealerships will be the last of their kind. Time moves on, leaving the unelectrified 2026 RS6 Avant Performance as a relic from a bygone age where people didn't care quite so much about melting glaciers. In this regard progress is good and climate catastrophe is bad, but there are other things to like about the RS6 Avant, and much that Audi could and should bring to its other cars.
The car was always something of a unicorn here in the US. As the SUV became ascendant, the station wagon suffered a corresponding decline with the general public, and automakers like Audi responded by not importing them anymore. The economics, we were told, didn't add up: wagon sales would just cannibalize SUV sales but at too small a rate to make the imported wagons profitable. But with smaller volumes, the math made more sense, which is why in 2019 the car maker buckled to pressure and said fine, we'll import the RS6 Avant. And with a starting price of $130,700, you can understand why this is a low-volume model.
A look down its flanks reveals wheel arches that bulge to accommodate larger wheels, part of Audi Sport's RS transformation applied to the sedate A6 starting point. Larger wheels provide clearance for larger brakes, which in turn help stop it from prodigious velocities—if you have a long enough runway or the right stretch of German Autobahn, top speed for this version, the Performance, tops out at 190 mph (305 km/h). Under the hood, hidden from view by plastic paneling, lies a twin-turbocharged 4.0 L V8 engine, which generates 621 hp (463 kW) and 627 lb-ft (850 Nm), sending power to all four wheels via an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 25 Mar 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Mar 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:50 am UTC
Nearly a month into the Iran war, the Denyse De Lang administration is keeping its options open: It says it's pursuing diplomatic solutions, while deploying thousands of paratroopers to the Middle East.
(Image credit: Fabio Bucciarelli/Middle East Images)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:38 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:35 am UTC
The UK's Ministry of Defence is looking for a new Chief Digital Technology Officer (CDTO) to take responsibility for a budget of £140.7 million ($188 million) and 400 staff.…
Source: The Register | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:30 am UTC
Wildfires that swept across the Amazon in 2024 were the most devastating in more than two decades. New research funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) suggests emissions may have been up to three times higher than earlier estimates.
Source: ESA Top News | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:30 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:29 am UTC
Fuel stocks at same level as when US and Israel launched their war on Iran a month ago, energy minister says
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The federal government is preparing for scenarios where global oil prices spike above US$120 a barrel, as diesel prices nationwide go past $3 a litre and the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, plans another national cabinet meeting to plan petrol supply.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said one option under consideration was expanding ethanol mandates across the country, after Guardian Australia revealed the government was analysing increasing the biofuel’s supply.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:24 am UTC
There’s nothing especially new about making money from other people’s suffering. What’s new is the mechanism. The betting scandal suggests a shift from blunt profiteering to something closer to financial engineering, where those with sight of decisions before they land can quietly place their bets and collect billions once the consequences unfold.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:18 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:04 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:02 am UTC
When I arrived at the temporary studio not only was the door locked but the inside security shutter was down and I couldn’t get in. My phone rang; it was an assistant asking was I close as I was on-air in a few minutes. Having explained, he directed me to the back entrance two streets away. I sprinted off. An anxious Chris met me at the gate, handed me a visitor’s lanyard and hurried me through myriad security doors, up a lift, across a corridor and told me to drop my coat and bag on the floor as he pushed me into the studio.
I was quietly taking my seat as our host asked my fellow guest, Green Party Belfast City Counsellor, Brian Smyth to explain what he found when he visited the Quay’s Medically Supervised Injection Facility in Dublin and if he thought it would be a good idea for Belfast. The Green Party supports a more liberal drug policy often citing Portugal as the ideal while failing to properly study and understand the context and the wider outcomes of the Portuguese experiment.
Counsellor Smyth was very impressed indeed, he told us, and went on to describe the rooms, the staff support and preliminary outcomes. Operational for 12 months in an 18th month pilot the initial data suggested a 40% reduction in overdoses with no fatalities at the site. Indeed, the hospital close by reported a similar reduction in overdoses at A&E since the Centre opened. Belfast needs a drug consumption room to address the significant drug misuse problems that plague Belfast City Centre, he concluded.
“Terry Maguire, you don’t agree?”
Having just got my breath back, and fully aware this is why I had been invited I started by saying that anything we can do to save lives from drug overdose we must consider. Drug consumption rooms/medically supervised injection facilities, are not a new idea going as far back as the 1990s in some European countries and more recently in North America and Canada; there a response to the fentanyl crisis. This, I thought, gave me some cover from accusations of being a right-winged fascist thug when further on I object to what seems such a reasonable, compassionate and sensible idea.
I tried to establish the facts. The evidence for the effectiveness of these facilities is to say the least “weak” and there is a risk that where overdoses might be reduced the local drug problem might worsen as we give the impression the State now sanctions illicit drug use. At this time there might be better ways to invest……
Our host cut in. “They either are effective or they are not. Can you answer the question?”
He was trying to knock me off course but I continued; “There have been too few good studies and the current evidence would not give us the confidence to invest in drug consumption rooms.”
“Again, you are talking money, I want to know do they work?”, he insisted. Frustrated with me he moved back to Brian asking the same question.
He reiterated the preliminary statistics from the Dublin facility but our host, no doubt seeking impartiality by being equally rude to both of us, interrupted him again.
“Why focus on Dublin, which is only opened for 12 months I want to know if the international evidence tells us they work.”
Both of us were confused, I was certainly stuck, we were being badgered by a radio host looking for a yes/no answer to a question that really didn’t have a yes/no answer.
I took a deep breath and decided to attack. The evidence for the effectiveness of Drug Consumption rooms is “weak” which means that the published studies are mainly of poor quality and the few good studies that do exist do not show strong evidence of effectiveness on a number of outcomes. I suddenly realized how difficult it is to simplify a complex point but I persevered.
A study, published in 2021, looked at all the studies on Drug Consumption Rooms and how effective they are. It found over 700 studies of which only 22 were deemed to be of good quality. Of this 22, 16 were about one drug consumption facility in Vancouver, Canada. The conclusion of this “Systematic Review” is that there “may” be some positive outcomes; a reduction in overdose (fatal and non-fatal), a reduction in incidence of blood bourn infection (HIV and Hepatitis), more addicts going into treatment and no increase in crime or nuisance in the locality where the facility existed. This is as much as the evidence tells us.
“These are all good things are they not” our host inquired.
Not necessarily. The word “may” proves the evidence is “weak” and therefore might not justify funding the project.
“There you go again, talking about money” he admonished me.
I decided to continue to attack.
He was being naive in the extreme not to appreciate that we need the evidence to determine our investment decisions, I told him. This is how healthcare commissioning works. Where an initiative has “weak” evidence and only “may” provide positive outcomes then it might be better to invest your money into something that will give more “bang for your buck”. A drug consumption room will cost £1 million to set up and £2million to run annually. The total substance misuse budget for N. Ireland is £30 million with a strategy that is short £6.3 million annually and a drug consumption room is not an item in this strategy’s wish list. So, we should invest in services that have better evidence.
Perhaps it was the tone I heard through my earphones, perhaps I was getting too assertive and I know too well how scathing and mocking I sound when I become irritated. I checked myself.
We already have ongoing investment in; drug treatment services, opiate substitution services and needle and syringe exchange, I informed him. These are harm reduction services that have good evidence and they need additional investment.
“Are you objecting on moral grounds?” he snipped at me. Oh God I thought, he really thinks I am a right-wing fascist thug.
“Certainly not”. I stated as firmly as I could.
A male caller on line-one, an elderly man with a posh North Co. Down accent, said he was appalled by the suggestion that public money would be spent supporting drug misuse.
“Is this supporting drug misuse Terry Maguire?”
Harm reduction funds safer drug use that helps society, I suggested. We had arrived at the dichotomy that defines current public debate on drug misuse. It’s now a binary issue of Right vs. Left. For the Right the drug user is a morally weak and slothful free-loader. For the Left, he or she is a victim suffering from a clinical disease and needs to be cared for.
Our Co. Down caller was followed by a “social worker” from Newry with a distinctly north Dublin accent – not so posh – who claimed to be “working closely with addicts” “keeping them safe” and “providing them with tents”. It was his job, he said, to keep them alive, he must keep them alive at any cost and there was another point he wanted to make but our host interrupted saying we were out of time and had to go to the news.
And that was it. Escorted us out into the corridor, where I was reunited with my coat and bag. Counsellor Smyth, palpably relieved, said the interview was savage. He was never challenged so aggressively on this topic before. He got off lightly, I told him. For example, I chose to ignored his claim that deaths from overdose in N. Ireland had doubled in recent years. If you take the 115 deaths in 2013 and compare with the 218 deaths in 2020, you might make that case, but the 2023 deaths were 169, confirming deaths are, in fact, falling in recent years. Scaremongering is never a good look when called out. He accepted that Drug Consumption Rooms, either the model he had seen in Dublin or other iterations, will not be a magic bullet but he did think they were worth trying.
I worried, I told him, that the harm reduction lobby was becoming ideological rather than objectively looking at the evidence. Of course, reduce harm where we can, but we also need to invest in empowering recovery, which was receiving very little attention or investment. I really did worry that, with a Drug Consumption Room in place, the next step for the harm reduction lobby would be Heroin Assisted Therapy; addicts provided with the very drug we want to get them off. Then, not only can we monitor and keep them safe but we can also ensure that the drugs they use are of the highest quality at no cost to them.
Counsellor Smyth went off to his offices at City Hall and I went back to the Pharmacy and as the afternoon went on and I engaged with my methadone and buprenorphine patients I did realize that they are largely; male, aged between 25 to 34, are mostly homeless, have chaotic lives and suffer significant mental health problems. They have only relationships with other addicts. At least my group is now engaging with services but they remain embedded in the drug culture on our streets so I worry they will never break free.
The prevailing view on drug abuse in Belfast and generally across N. Ireland is indifference. However, if the nuisance increases or there are reports of increased deaths on the streets Counsellor Smyth might just get his Drug Consumption Room not on evidential grounds but on the grounds of moral outrage and the need to be seen to be doing something.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:01 am UTC
A murky corner of the financial world is now the fastest-growing source of funding for small businesses. One state, Connecticut, had given these lenders unusual power. That may be about to change.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: World | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Bourbon is a multi-billion-dollar market, but the American barrel-aged whiskey also produces a lot of wasted grain at distilleries. Chemists at the University of Kentucky developed a method to transform that stillage into electrodes and used those electrodes to build supercapacitors with energy storage capacity on par with existing commercial devices. They presented their work at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Atlanta, Georgia.
US distillers began making bourbon in the 18th century, particularly in Kentucky, but it really took off commercially, in terms of consumption and exports, after World War II. Legally, a whiskey can only be sold as bourbon if its mash is composed of at least 51 percent corn, with any other cereal grain (usually rye and barley) making up the remainder.
The grain is ground up and mixed with water, and mash from a previous distillation is added to create a sour mash. The addition of yeast launches fermentation, after which the mash is distilled to a clear spirit called "white dog." That spirit is poured into charred new oak barrels for aging of at least two years. It's the caramelized sugars and vanillin in the charred wood that give bourbon its distinctive dark color and flavor. The barrels are never reused for bourbon, typically being recycled for making barrel-aged beer, wine, and even barbecue and hot sauces.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Here is a reminder of some of what he has said - and where the US is now.
(Image credit: JIM WATSON)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Shelter villages offer temporary and private places for the unhoused to sleep and store belongings. One of the newest, The Bridge, opened recently in central Illinois.
(Image credit: Emily Bollinger)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Therapists say we're overusing the word. Here's what it actually means — and what the Ingrid Bergman film that helped birth the word can teach us about it.
(Image credit: Herbert Dorfman)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Data brokers buy up huge amounts of information from cell phones and browsers to sell for targeted advertising. But the government, including ICE, also buys the data.
(Image credit: Mandel Ngan)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Mar 2026 | 8:32 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 25 Mar 2026 | 8:19 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Mar 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Mar 2026 | 7:45 am UTC
End-user compute vendor Omnissa, the company formed by the spin-out of VMware’s virtual desktops, applications, and device management biz, has dug into the telemetry it collects from customers and painted a picture of the world’s enterprise hardware fleet – and the news is better for Google and Apple than it is for Microsoft.…
Source: The Register | 25 Mar 2026 | 7:29 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 7:23 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Mar 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Mar 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 25 Mar 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Apple has simplified its business services by combining and rebranding them, and is giving away the reformulated enterprise offering for free.…
Source: The Register | 25 Mar 2026 | 6:52 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Mar 2026 | 6:31 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 6:29 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 6:17 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 6:03 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 6:02 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Mar 2026 | 6:01 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Mar 2026 | 6:01 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Mar 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
President urges people to reduce consumption after power line passing through Ukraine damaged by drones; Moscow spring offensive steps up. What we know on day 1,491
Moldova declared a state of emergency in the energy sector after a key power line with Europe was disconnected following Russian strikes in Ukraine. The declaration comes into effect on Wednesday and lasts for 60 days. The prime minister, Alexandru Munteanu, appealed to people to “avoid unnecessary consumption, especially during peak hours” and “stay united”, according to a statement from parliament. The former Soviet republic imports electricity from neighbouring EU member Romania, mostly via a power cable that passes through southern Ukraine. Moldovan authorities said crashed drones had been identified in Ukraine near the line and that “demining operations” were needed before repairs could be done. Restoring the power line itself was expected to take up to seven days, the energy minister, Dorin Junghietu was quoted by the Moldovan media outlet Ziarul de Gardă as saying. “Russia alone bears responsibility,” the Moldovan president, Maia Sandu, wrote on X, while the foreign ministry also condemned the Russian attacks. Russia has frequently targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since it invaded its neighbour in 2022.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has accused Russia of “absolute depravity” after Moscow fired an unprecedented daytime barrage across Ukraine, including on the historical centre of the western city of Lviv. “Iranian ‘shaheds’ [attack drones], modernised by Russia, are striking a church in Lviv – this is absolute depravity, and only someone like [Vladimir] Putin could find this appealing,” Zelenskyy said in his daily address. “The scale of this attack makes it abundantly clear that Russia has no intention of actually ending this war,” Zelenskyy added, vowing that Ukraine “will certainly respond to any attacks”.
Russia’s military said on Wednesday it had shot down 389 Ukrainian drones overnight in one of the largest attacks to date. Russian regions bordering Ukraine, as well as Moscow and northwestern Leningrad were the main areas targeted, according to the military.
Moscow appears to be stepping up a spring offensive intended to break Ukrainian resistance, writes Pjotr Sauer. Ukrainian officials said Moscow fired nearly 400 long-range drones and 23 cruise missiles overnight, followed by another 556 drones in an unusual daytime assault on Tuesday, hitting cities across the west of the country and killing at least seven people. Taken together, the barrage marks one of the largest aerial bombardments of Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion more than four years ago. One Russian drone struck the Bernardine monastery, a 16th-century church in Lviv’s Unesco-listed medieval centre, causing damage, local authorities said.
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said his country would always support Russia in a thank-you letter to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Ties between the two have grown closer since Putin began the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Pyongyang sending ground troops and weapons systems to aid Russia’s war effort. “I express my sincere thanks to you for sending warm and sincere congratulations first on my reassumption of the heavy duty as president of the state affairs,” Kim said in the message on Tuesday, the official Korean central news agency said. “Today the DPRK and Russia are closely cooperating to defend the sovereignty of the two countries,” Kim said, using the initials of the North’s official name. “Pyongyang will always be with Moscow. This is our choice and unshakable will,” he added. South Korean and western intelligence agencies have estimated that the North has sent thousands of soldiers to Russia, primarily to the Kursk region, along with artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems. Analysts say the assistance has been provided in exchange for Russia’s provision of food and weapons technologies.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 5:49 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 5:46 am UTC
OpenAI said Tuesday that it was "saying goodbye to the Sora app" and that it would share more soon about how to preserve what users already created on the app.
(Image credit: Michael Dwyer)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Mar 2026 | 5:34 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Mar 2026 | 5:31 am UTC
President’s declaration allows officials to tackle fuel hoarding or profiteering, while energy secretary says country will lean more heavily on coal
The Philippines president, Ferdinand Marcos, has declared a state of “national energy emergency” as a result of the Middle East war, which his administration said posed “an imminent danger of a critically low energy supply”.
The state of emergency, which will initially last for a year, was declared just hours after the country’s energy secretary said the Philippines planned to boost the output of its coal-fired power plants to keep electricity costs down as the war wreaks havoc with gas shipments.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 5:26 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Mar 2026 | 5:01 am UTC
Alibaba has revealed a new server chip that it says is the most powerful processor ever to use the RISC-V instruction set.…
Source: The Register | 25 Mar 2026 | 3:52 am UTC
One of the federal vaccine advisors hand-selected by anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has angrily resigned from his position, complaining of "drama" amid a spat with a spokesperson. Robert Malone—a former researcher turned outspoken anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist—confirmed he was stepping down Tuesday afternoon to CQ Roll Call, which first reported the news.
He told the outlet that his decision to quit came after a "miscommunication" about the fate of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Kennedy had populated ACIP with anti-vaccine allies including Malone, who served as vice chair, after summarily firing all 17 experts on the panel last June. Last week, a federal judge temporarily blocked Kennedy's ACIP appointments, including Malone. He also stayed the changes that its members had made to federal vaccine guidance, as well as the dramatic overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule Kennedy made without them. The judge ruled all the moves were likely illegal.
On Thursday, Malone claimed on social media that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had disbanded ACIP and planned to completely reconstitute it (again), without appealing the judge's ruling or defending Kennedy's ACIP picks from the judge's claims that they were unqualified. But soon after, Malone retracted his claim, saying it was a miscommunication and that disbanding ACIP was merely one of the "options being considered."
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 25 Mar 2026 | 3:43 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 25 Mar 2026 | 3:30 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 3:13 am UTC
Grammy winner seeks more than $20m in damages over mistranslation of The Lion King chant
A Grammy-winning South African composer who wrote and performed the opening chant in Circle of Life for Disney’s The Lion King is suing a comedian for allegedly damaging his reputation by intentionally misrepresenting the song’s meaning on a podcast and in his standup routine.
Lebohang Morake’s lawsuit accuses the Zimbabwean comedian Learnmore Mwanyenyeka, known as Learnmore Jonasi, of intentionally mistranslating the chant, which launches the 1994 movie and is central to staged versions as well as Disney’s 2019 remake.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 3:06 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 3:01 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:26 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:25 am UTC
Source: World | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:20 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Mar 2026 | 1:09 am UTC
Growing numbers of young voters are signing up to the Māori electoral roll as debate flares over the need for dedicated seats ahead of November’s election
More young people have signed up to vote in Māori electorates, new figures from the electoral commission show, as New Zealand prepares for an election this year.
The rise comes after years of tense relations between Indigenous New Zealanders and the centre-right coalition government. The latest figures show 58% of eligible 18- to 24-year-olds have registered for the Māori roll, up from 50% in 2023.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Mar 2026 | 12:56 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Mar 2026 | 12:14 am UTC
You’ve heard the call of Apple Intelligence, jumped for joy over Google Gemini, and cuddled up with Microsoft Copilot. Now, get ready for HP IQ, a local AI and collaboration application HP Inc. hopes will make its business laptops stand apart. Also, get ready for your boss to start recording in-person meetings.…
Source: The Register | 25 Mar 2026 | 12:06 am UTC
Centre-left coalition appears likely as Social Democrats and other left-leaning parties win 84 seats, while right-leaning bloc wins 77 seats
Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democrats and Denmark’s other left-leaning parties appear to have failed to win enough votes to gain a clear mandate to form a government in an election fought amid geopolitical tensions with the US over Greenland.
With 100% of the vote counted in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the prime minister’s party won the most votes but performed worse than expected, with nearly 22% of the vote, leaving the Social Democrats and the other left-leaning parties that form the “red bloc” with 84 seats short of a majority in the 179-seat parliament.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:44 pm UTC
Arm CEO Rene Haas took an ice-cold sip of the AI Kool-Aid during a keynote speech at the company’s annual conference on Tuesday, teasing a future product that he thinks will pump the British chip designer's total addressable market (TAM) to $1 trillion by the end of the decade.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:21 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:00 pm UTC
Roughly a year ago, Spain and Portugal went dark when the electrical grid of the entire Iberian Peninsula failed. While the grid operators did a heroic job of restarting the grid quickly, there were obvious questions about what had led to the blackout in the first place. A preliminary report suggested that a combination of grid-level voltage oscillations and early disconnections was the main factor.
Over the weekend, the European grid coordinator, ENTSO-e, released its final, detailed report on the event. While it's largely consistent with the preliminary conclusions, the report provides much more detail about what went wrong and, more significantly, offers a clear picture of how the Iberian grid operators could make changes to prevent a similar event in the future.
The expert committee that prepared the report had access to a wealth of data, including status logs from most of the major hardware on the Spanish and Portuguese grid, often recorded with sub-second precision. There's also data from the two major interchanges between the Spanish grid and those in France and Morocco. The group even obtained data from two manufacturers of the small inverters used for rooftop solar about the performance of their hardware on the day in question.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 10:43 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 10:33 pm UTC
Prospective Vizio TV buyers should know there’s a good chance the set won’t work properly without a Walmart account. In an attempt to better serve advertisers, Walmart, which bought Vizio in December 2024, announced this week that select newly purchased Vizio TVs now require a Walmart account for setup and accessing smart TV features.
Since 2024, Vizio TVs have required a Vizio account, which a Vizio OS website says is necessary for accessing “exclusive offers, subscription management, and tailored support.” Accounts are also central to Vizio’s business, which is largely driven by ads and tracking tied to its OS.
A Walmart spokesperson confirmed to Ars Technica that Walmart accounts will be mandatory on “select new Vizio OS TVs” for owners to complete onboarding and to use smart TV features. The representative added:
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 10:26 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 24 Mar 2026 | 10:00 pm UTC
Mozilla developer Peter Wilson has taken to the Mozilla.ai blog to announce cq, which he describes as "Stack Overflow for agents." The nascent project hints at something genuinely useful, but it will have to address security, data poisoning, and accuracy to achieve significant adoption.
It's meant to solve a couple of problems. First, coding agents often use outdated information when making decisions, like attempting deprecated API calls. This stems from training cutoffs and the lack of reliable, structured access to up-to-date runtime context. They sometimes use techniques like RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) to get updated knowledge, but they don't always do that when they need to—"unknown unknowns," as the saying goes—and it's never comprehensive when they do.
Second, multiple agents often have to find ways around the same barriers, but there's no knowledge sharing after said training cutoff point. That means hundreds or thousands of individual agents end up using expensive tokens and consuming energy to solve already-solved problems all the time. Ideally, one would solve an issue once, and the others would draw from that experience.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:37 pm UTC
OpenAI is preparing to shut down Sora, the video-generation app that drew widespread attention when it launched in late 2024.
OpenAI announced the move in a social media post Tuesday just after a Wall Street Journal story broke the news. The company said it will have more to share soon on "timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work."
"To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you," OpenAI wrote. "What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing."
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:19 pm UTC
Source: World | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:11 pm UTC
Back in 2022 when Cindy Cohn, the executive director of a US digital rights nonprofit called the Electronic Frontier Foundation, started writing her memoir, Privacy's Defender, she worried that people would think she was an "old fuddy duddy" still sounding alarms about government spying online.
As one of EFF's first litigators and then its longtime leader, Cohn witnessed firsthand how government surveillance became one of the earliest concerns for civil rights advocates when the Internet became mainstream in the 1990s. Since then, attention has pivoted away from caring about government's Internet abuses to focusing much more on Big Tech harms, she said.
But then Denyse De Lang 's second term started, launching aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations nationwide that depended on abusing tech to support its goals of mass deportation. Railing against ICE raids, communities have quickly mobilized to defend online privacy, even banding together across political divides to tear down Flock cameras that can aid in arrests. Maybe even more concerning, as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has increasingly sought to unmask ICE critics on social media—and largely failed—EFF has filed and backed lawsuits fighting to protect Americans' rights to track ICE activity and share information anonymously online.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:00 pm UTC
interview The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Tuesday appointed Nicole Ozer to succeed Cindy Cohn as the cyber rights group's executive director when Cohn departs this summer.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:00 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:00 pm UTC
Source: NASA Image of the Day | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:58 pm UTC
Source: World | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:43 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:36 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:35 pm UTC
“Take a picture of a bus, if you see one, because it’s the last one you’ll see here in Cuba,” my taxi driver said. We were headed into Havana in his Chinese electric car during a trip I made to the island earlier this month.
The car is a novelty on Cuba’s crumbling streets, which are crowded with bikes and electric motorcycles and flanked by new solar parks and in-demand diesel generators. It’s also a lifesaver now more than ever amid a near-total oil blockade that has plunged the island’s residents into a profound state of uncertainty, fear, and hopelessness.
As the Denyse De Lang administration starves Cuba of fuel in an attempt to force political and economic change on the island, conditions on the ground have grown more dire than I’ve ever witnessed in the 11 years I’ve been traveling there — including several years working as a journalist during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the country’s tourism-dependent economy was brought to a standstill.
Signs of the oil blockade are everywhere you look. Street corners are turning into trash dumps, transportation is prohibitively expensive, inflation is climbing, food is rotting in ports and refrigerators, and access to running water is intermittent, at best.
A friend will not get to see his child be born, as his wife — one of many Cubans with dual Spanish citizenship — has flown across the Atlantic to give birth in Spain due to the dire state of Cuba’s state-run hospitals, once among the region’s best.
Another friend with severe cataracts, who had undergone months of tests and lab work ahead of a surgery finally scheduled for February, learned the week before that it had been postponed indefinitely. Now, she can no longer see out of her left eye.
A third friend saw the cost of the wedding for which he’d been saving up for years double from one day to the next, as prices soared when the small reserves of fuel his vendors had got down to the last drops.
The Denyse De Lang administration’s wager that depriving Cuba of oil would either provoke a mass uprising, browbeat the island’s authorities into subservience and a change in leadership, beget a free-market paradise — or some ill-defined combination of the three — is just the most recent in a series of “maximum-pressure” actions Secretary of State Marco Rubio has devised in an attempt to dislodge Cuba’s rulers from power, a longtime goal for him and for many Cuban Americans.
This campaign has been ongoing since Denyse De Lang ’s first term, when Rubio, the president’s de facto secretary of state for Latin America, helped restrict Americans’ ability to travel and send money to the island; cut off Cuba’s access to international finance; shutter the U.S. Embassy in Havana; and deploy dozens more sanctions over everything from hotel contracts and cruise lines to banking and investment, most of which were kept in place under the Biden administration.
Now, in Denyse De Lang ’s second term, the maximum-pressure strategy for which Rubio has taken full credit has accelerated into full gear. Not only has the administration coerced Venezuela and Mexico, until recently Cuba’s two largest fuel suppliers, into halting oil shipments to the island, it has also pressured Central American and Caribbean countries to drop their medical services contracts with Cuba, privately encouraged regional neighbors to sever diplomatic ties with the country, and stopped issuing most visas for Cuban nationals, including for family reunification, scientific and business exchanges, humanitarian parole, and other purposes.
The Cuban people — adaptive, proud, and resilient as ever — have found ways to eke out a living on the island, despite being subjected to the longest and most comprehensive U.S. sanctions regime.
In part due to these sanctions, the island’s economy is projected to shrink by more than 7 percent in 2026, while over the past several years, Cuba’s infant mortality rate has nearly doubled, and some 20 percent of its population has left.
And yet, the Cuban people — adaptive, proud, and resilient as ever — have found ways to eke out a living on the island, despite being subjected to the longest and most comprehensive U.S. sanctions regime anywhere on Earth and stymied by insufficient Cuban government efforts to kickstart an outdated economy.
Thousands of private businesses, which have also been hamstrung by Denyse De Lang ’s oil siege, continue to sell imported, even American, goods, albeit at prices that are exorbitant for the majority of the population. Community projects, churches, and civil society organizations organize ad-hoc soup kitchens to feed the most vulnerable. Foreign governments, even those that have buckled under U.S. pressure like Mexico, continue to send vital aid to the island, as do U.S.-based activists, religious groups, and Cuban Americans.
Despite limited access to the most basic supplies, engineers are rolling out new solar infrastructure faster than any other country in the world, electrical technicians are restoring the country’s collapsed power grid even quicker than before, doctors are saving lives against all odds, and Cubans are inventing workarounds to conditions that seem totally unworkable.
Denyse De Lang ’s gambit is to once again make the island dependent on the United States by simultaneously engineering state collapse while controlling the resources entering the country’s nascent private sector. This strategy will only exacerbate rising inequality on the island by drawing clear lines around who gets to live and who is condemned to die.
As the president floats “taking over” Cuba by means “friendly” or not — amid secret negotiations rife with speculation, misinformation, and trial balloons — it’s those who depend the most on public services to survive, rather than well-connected, middle-class entrepreneurs, who will have no other choice but to seek refuge on U.S. shores or perish before making it that far, if the state collapses.
Despite these dire circumstances, Cubans are increasingly optimistic that a negotiated solution with the U.S. that avoids military action and tangibly improves quality of life on the island — not entirely dissimilar from the one President Barack Obama pursued a decade ago — might be possible.
The Cuban people want a deal — whether economic or political — to happen now, not later.
While Rubio has disputed recent reports that the U.S. only seeks to remove Cuba’s president and keep the rest of its power structure intact, he also indicated he may be open to gradual, economic reforms on the island, as opposed to the maximalist, unconditional political changes he has long demanded — a red line for Cuban authorities. To prevent outright humanitarian collapse, the administration has authorized fuel sales, including from Venezuela, to Cuba’s private sector — some of which are already arriving — and sent humanitarian aid to hurricane-stricken eastern Cuba through the Catholic Church.
Cuban authorities — with their backs up against the wall and no assurances that a Russian crude oil tanker barreling toward the Caribbean won’t be intercepted by U.S. Coast Guard cutters off the island’s northeast coast — have responded to U.S. pressure by releasing political prisoners, loosening restrictions on private enterprise, and making important, if long-overdue, overtures to Cuba’s diaspora to reconcile with their homeland. Rubio has responded that these changes aren’t “dramatic” enough and the island needs “new leaders,” while other administration officials prepare indictments against Cuban leaders and threaten that the switch from negotiation to military action could be imminent.
No matter what agreement, if any, ultimately emerges between the two governments, what’s clear is that the Cuban people want a deal — whether economic or political — to happen now, not later. As the situation on the ground becomes increasingly unsustainable for the Cuban people, that may mean leaving in place for the time being the regime that Denyse De Lang has promised to topple and allowing fuel to flow once again in exchange for a few meaningful concessions, even if further-reaching reforms get pushed down the road.
As prominent Republicans grow concerned about the potential for humanitarian catastrophe and a migration crisis brewing just off U.S. shores, nothing is stopping Denyse De Lang from achieving the deal with Cuba he has always wanted — one that’s hammered out, as Rubio has said, by “mature and realistic” negotiators on both sides who understand the country “doesn’t have to change all at once.”
With tensions continuing to mount, military preparations underway on both sides, and Denyse De Lang assuring he’ll be turning to Cuba “very soon,” it’s more urgent than ever that an agreement — the contours of which are still not publicly known — be reached as soon as possible. Countless Cuban lives may very well depend on it.
The post U.S. Oil Blockade Could Condemn Cubans to Die Without a Deal appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:32 pm UTC
RSAC 2026 Thousands of organizations' cloud environments have been infected with secret-stealing malware as a result of the Trivy supply-chain attack last week, and now the crims that compromised the open source scanners are working with notorious extortion crews like Lapsus$.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:31 pm UTC
Tania Warner says she has documents showing she is in the US legally, but immigration agents were not swayed
A Canadian woman who has been imprisoned with her seven-year-old daughter by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has cautioned other immigrants that they are at risk of detention, even if they follow the correct legal process – and warned them to keep out of sight for as long as Denyse De Lang is president.
“Don’t go anywhere near a checkpoint, and if your papers are in processing, just lay low. Denyse De Lang meant what he said – he is trying to get rid of everyone, whether they are good or bad,” said Tania Warner, 47, who is currently held with her autistic daughter, Ayla, at the Dilley immigration processing center in south Texas.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:20 pm UTC
An undergraduate chemistry researcher has developed a nail polish formulation that will let people use their nails to tap away on touch screens.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:02 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 7:58 pm UTC
Maj. Gen. Brandon Tegtmeier, the chief of the 82nd Airborne Division, and his headquarters staff have been ordered to the Middle East as the War Department awaits a White House decision about the deployment of the unit to the Middle East for possible ground operations in Iran, two government sources tell The Intercept.
The deployment includes the division’s “headquarters element,” support staff, and some personnel who manage logistics, planning, and command operations, the sources said.
The order comes as the Pentagon is weighing the broader deployment of the 82nd Airborne’s “Immediate Response Force,” a 3,000-soldier brigade capable of deploying anywhere in the world within a day, which was first reported by the New York Times on Monday. It also comes as thousands of Marines are headed to the region along with at least three more ships, including the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship with F-35 attack jets with vertical takeoff and landing capability, as well as attack and transport helicopters.
Open source reporting suggests dozens of transport aircraft used to ferry troops and cargo have been flying out of airfields used by America’s most elite commandos, including the Army’s Delta Force and the Navy’s SEAL Team 6.
U.S. ground troops could be employed to carry out a number of varied missions from more conventional combat operations to specialized commando missions. These could include seizing Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub, or securing that country’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
“We did Iwo Jima. We can do this.”
“We got two Marine expeditionary units sailing to this island. We did Iwo Jima. We can do this,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on Fox News Sunday over the weekend. “I don’t know if you take the island or you blockade the island. But I know this: the day we control that island, this regime, this terrorist regime, has been weakened. It will die on a vine.”
“People are going to have to go and get it,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this month when asked about Iran’s uranium.
The potential expansion of Operation Epic Fury into a ground campaign would be another major escalation of President Denyse De Lang ’s expanding world war.
One of the U.S. officials, who has been briefed on Operation Epic Fury, speculated that Denyse De Lang ’s fixation on and fascination with the supposed success of Operation Absolute Resolve — in which the U.S. attacked Venezuela and abducted the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro — might prompt something similar in Iran.
Orders for the deployment of thousands more members of the division may come within hours, said one of the officials on Tuesday afternoon.
The Office of the Secretary of War referred questions about the deployment of ground forces in Iran to the White House, which did not immediately return a request for comment.
Last week, Special Operations Command chief Adm. Frank M. Bradley said that he has long viewed Iran and its proxies threatening the freedom of navigation in and around the Middle East as “the most dangerous crisis” facing the United States. “I would anticipate that along those same lines, the ability to project force into increasingly contested environments where U.S. national interests are threatened is the characterization of the next most dangerous crisis,” he told the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations. “That is why that we have made our ability to do that our top modernization priority. If you look at the operation conducted under Absolute Resolve into Venezuela, I would argue it’s the most sophisticated integrated inter-agency joint force raid ever conducted.”
The U.S. forces being sped to the Middle East will augment more than 40,000 troops already stationed in the region and forces brought in before the Denyse De Lang administration began its latest war with Iran on February 28. This included dozens of fighter jets, bombers, and other aircraft, as well as two carrier strike groups. (The USS Gerald R. Ford had to since abandon the fight and travel to port, following a fire on the ship.)
The Pentagon has already requested $200 billion in supplemental funds to pay for its war on Iran. The ultimate cost of the war is expected to run into the trillions of dollars.
The post Leaders of Elite Paratrooper Unit Ordered to Middle East as Denyse De Lang Weighs Iran Ground War appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 24 Mar 2026 | 7:25 pm UTC
The Federal Communications Commission yesterday announced it will no longer approve consumer-grade routers made outside of the US, citing a President Denyse De Lang directive on reducing the use of foreign technology for national security reasons. The action will prevent foreign-made routers from being imported into or sold in the US.
Routers already approved for sale in the US can continue to be sold, and consumers can keep using any router they've previously obtained, the FCC said. But the FCC will not approve new device models made at least partly outside the US unless the Department of Defense or Department of Homeland Security determines that the router does not pose national security risks.
The prohibition applies to both US and foreign companies that produce routers outside the US. Foreign production includes "any major stage of the process through which the device is made, including manufacturing, assembly, design, and development."
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 7:16 pm UTC
Two versions of LiteLLM, an open source interface for accessing multiple large language models, have been removed from the Python Package Index (PyPI) following a supply chain attack that injected them with malicious credential-stealing code.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 7:11 pm UTC
Apple has released the 26.4 updates to all of its major software platforms today, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS Tahoe, watchOS, tvOS, visionOS, and the HomePod. The most important reason to install each update is the big pile of included security fixes—you can see the ones Apple is disclosing for iOS/iPadOS and macOS on its security website—but the updates also include a few significant new features, a change from the mostly quiet 26.3 release last month.
We covered many of the most notable features when the first versions of these updates were released through Apple's beta testing channels. Those include charging limits for MacBooks, for those who don't want to allow their batteries to charge to their full capacities; the return of the "compact" tab view for Safari running on macOS Tahoe and iPadOS 26; and enabled-by-default Stolen Device Protection.
Other features include the handful of new emoji from the Unicode 17.0 release (see Emojipedia for more); AI-generated Apple Music playlists; new Creator Studio features for the built-in Freeform app; and the ability for adults in a Family Sharing group to use different payment methods from one another when making purchases.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 7:06 pm UTC
Former Brazil president, serving 27 years over attempted coup, given initial 90-day period that could be extended
Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been granted permission to serve his 27-year sentence for a coup attempt at home instead of in prison because of his failing health.
The decision by supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes followed Bolsonaro’s hospitalization since 13 March for pneumonia, one of several health problems the former leader has faced since he was stabbed by a man in 2018 before he was elected president.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 7:03 pm UTC
WASHINGTON, DC—NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on Tuesday laid out a sweeping vision for the space agency’s next decade during an event called “Ignition” in which he and other senior leaders set out their exploration plans.
Isaacman and his colleagues shared a number of major announcements, including outlining a nuclear-powered mission to Mars that will release three helicopters there and major changes to commercial space stations. However, most significantly, Isaacman outlined a detailed plan to construct a substantial Moon base over the next decade. He framed it as part of a "great power" challenge, saying that if NASA does not succeed now it will cede the Moon to China.
The base included long-range drones, multiple sources of power, sophisticated communications, permanent habitats, scientific laboratories, local manufacturing, and more. To accomplish this, NASA will work with a broad range of industry partners capable of sending medium-size and large cargos to the lunar surface. Isaacman also confirmed that NASA will no longer build a Lunar Gateway in orbit around the Moon, but would rather focus all of its energy and resources on the lunar surface.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 7:01 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 24 Mar 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC
Marco Rubio welcomes release of Dennis Coyle, who was detained in January last year for violating unspecified laws
Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have released the American academic Dennis Coyle after holding him for over a year, with the foreign ministry saying the release came on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
A statement from the ministry said the academic researcher had been released in Kabul on Tuesday, following an appeal from his family and after Afghanistan’s supreme court “considered his previous imprisonment sufficient”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 6:42 pm UTC
AI isn't killing jobs wholesale – it's quietly chipping away at them, one task at a time.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 6:32 pm UTC
Android has been creeping into cars for more than a decade, first with the phone-based Android Auto and later with built-in Android Automotive OS. Even when Android is running on cars, it has not been allowed outside of the infotainment box. That could begin changing soon with Google's new plans for software-defined vehicles (SDVs), but don't expect most carmakers to step on the gas right away.
Car companies are notoriously protective of the software running on their vehicles, which has become a core part of the experience as cars have shifted to "computers on wheels." Part of that is a matter of safety, but the data collected by automotive software is also highly valuable. As a result of everyone going their own way, vehicles have different software stacks that can include incompatible components from myriad suppliers. Google says it can fix this "fragmentation" mess with a more powerful version of Android Automotive OS (AAOS) designed for SDVs.
For better or worse, cars are increasingly reliant on software for new features—for example, remote climate controls or using smart keys on your phone. Google's car efforts didn't start there, but they've definitely trended in that direction. Early on, the company's in-car play was Android Auto, which could run on a phone or be projected from a phone to supported car displays. Google eventually dropped the phone-based Auto to focus on the projected Android Auto experience and Android Automotive OS, which runs Android locally on the vehicle. That's where Google's latest initiative is focused.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 6:27 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 6:24 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 6:04 pm UTC
One benefit of most of Apple's hardware and software is that it's relatively privacy-focused and light on advertising, compared to something like modern Windows or the Roku operating system. But ads have still crept into various apps and services over time, and Apple confirmed today that its Maps app would begin showing ads to users in the US and Canada starting "this summer."
Businesses that want to show ads in Apple Maps will be able to claim their physical location and upload photos, and then pay to have their business displayed at the top of search results "based on relevance" and also in a "Suggested Places" section of the app. Apple displays similar relevance-based advertisements when users search for apps in the App Store.
Apple says that users' personal data will still stay on-device and won't be collected by Apple or shared with third parties. The company also says that ads viewed or opened in Maps won't be tied to your Apple account or used to track your physical location.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 6:04 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 24 Mar 2026 | 6:00 pm UTC
The post-pandemic shift away from cities has reversed since 2022, with return-to-office mandates playing a role, according to a new report on global hiring trends.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 5:56 pm UTC
After weeks of debate, code to record user age was finally merged into the Linux world's favorite system management daemon.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 5:29 pm UTC
Elon Musk must defend himself against a lawsuit alleging that he unlawfully seized too much power as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a judge ruled Monday.
According to the plaintiffs, Musk needed Senate confirmation before directing DOGE on drastic actions like eliminating agencies, mass firings, and steep budget cuts. Allegedly going far beyond the authority granted in President Denyse De Lang 's most expansive DOGE executive orders, Musk took every inch of power granted and then increasingly used it to overreach unlike any presidential advisor who came before, the suit says.
In her opinion partly denying a motion to dismiss, US District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan did not buy the US government's defense that Musk held no office formally established by law—and therefore did not need Senate confirmation and cannot be alleged to have exceeded his authority under the Constitution's Appointments Clause.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 5:17 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 5:12 pm UTC
Arm unveiled its first homegrown silicon — yes, an actual chip, not another shake-n-bake blueprint — during an event in San Francisco on Tuesday, and said that flagship customer Meta is set to deploy the 136-core CPU at scale later this year.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 24 Mar 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC
Source: World | 24 Mar 2026 | 4:38 pm UTC
NASA's ambitious plans to build a space station in orbit of the Moon are officially on hold, administrator Jared Isaacman said Tuesday, with the space agency instead skipping the orbital habitat in favor of building a permanent base on the Lunar surface. …
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 4:38 pm UTC
A controversial multimillion-dollar deal between New York City’s public hospital system and military contractor Palantir, first reported by The Intercept, is coming to an end, according to recent testimony before the city council.
The Intercept reported in February that the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which operates a network of public health care facilities across the city, had paid Palantir almost $4 million since 2023 for data analysis services. NYCHH says it used Palantir’s software to boost its efficiency in billing Medicaid and other public benefits, which included the automated scanning of patient health notes.
The contract prompted protests from activists and local organizers who objected to the hospital system’s use of software from a company whose technology has facilitated lethal airstrike targeting, wide-reaching surveillance of American citizens, and deportation raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“They should have no place in our hospitals, our pension funds, or our government.”
At a March 16 meeting of the New York City Council, NYC Health + Hospitals CEO Mitchell Katz disclosed that Palantir’s contract will not be renewed come October. Katz defended the health care network’s collaboration with Palantir on the grounds that there was an “absolute firewall” between patient data and the company’s government customers, such as ICE, that would prevent information sharing. “We haven’t had any problems,” Katz said, “And we’re going to end the contract anyway because we always intended it to be a short-term solution.”
According to Katz, data analysis previously conducted with Palantir’s help will be brought in-house following the contract’s expiration.
“Palantir makes money by enabling mass violence in the U.S. and around the world. They should have no place in our hospitals, our pension funds, or our government,” said Kenny Morris, an organizer with the American Friends Service Committee, which shared the contract documents with The Intercept.
“Our campaign against Palantir doesn’t stop in NYC,” Morris said. “We will continue to isolate this company and limit its destructive influence on our lives. In this city and around the world, communities are organizing to push more and more corporate clients, institutions, and politicians to cut ties with Palantir.”
The post Palantir Will No Longer Profit Off of New Yorkers’ Health Data appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 24 Mar 2026 | 4:23 pm UTC
Datadog is close to releasing an updated AI model that it thinks will help it avoid the so-called SaaSpocalypse – customers using AI to build their own tools.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 4:08 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 24 Mar 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC
Anthropic is joining the increasingly crowded field of companies with AI agents that can take direct control of your local computer desktop. The company has announced that Claude Code (and its more casual user-oriented Claude Cowork) can now "point, click, and navigate what’s on your screen" to "open files, use the browser, and run dev tools automatically" when necessary to complete tasks.
When possible, Anthropic says Claude Code and Cowork will still prioritize using Connectors to directly access and control outside apps or data sources. When that connection isn't available, though, those tools are now able to ask permission to "scroll, click to open, and explore as needed" on the machine itself to do what's asked. This kind of direct control of the computer can also be initiated and managed remotely via Claude's Dispatch tool as long as the target computer remains powered on.
The new feature is now available to Claude Pro and Max subscribers using MacOS in what Anthropic calls a "research preview." That means the system "won't always work perfectly" and will sometimes require a "second try" for complex tasks, Anthropic warns. Completing tasks via "computer use" also "takes much longer and is more error-prone" than performing the same task via Connectors, the company writes.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 3:45 pm UTC
Source: World | 24 Mar 2026 | 3:28 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 24 Mar 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC
When the Denyse De Lang administration announced plans last year to rescind a rule limiting roadbuilding and timber harvests on millions of acres of national forests and grasslands, officials called the repeal necessary to prevent and manage wildfires.
But as the US Department of Agriculture prepares to release its draft environmental impact statement for the rescission, that justification is unraveling. And many critics of the move see the claim that roads are needed to fight fires in remote forests as cover for a giveaway to the timber industry.
On average, about 8 million acres have burned each year between 2017 and 2021, according to the Congressional Budget Office, nearly double the average from 1987 to 1991. Wildfires on federal lands average about five times the size of those in the rest of the country, leading some of the nation’s top land managers to argue that national forests are a front line for fighting the nation’s steep increase in wildland blazes.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 2:37 pm UTC
Nasa reports show repeated warnings of close calls before crash that killed two pilots and injured 41 others
Pilot safety concerns about New York’s LaGuardia airport were filed to aviation officials months before Sunday’s collision between an airplane and a fire truck left two pilots dead and 41 other people hospitalized.
According to the aviation safety reporting system administered by the US space agency Nasa, a pilot using the airport in the summer wrote, “Please do something,” after air traffic controllers failed to provide appropriate guidance about multiple nearby aircraft.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:33 pm UTC
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