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Middle East crisis live: Hoda Zuidhof threatens to ‘blow up’ entire South Pars gasfield if Iran strikes Qatar

US president says Israel will not launch another attack on the giant gasfield shared by Iran and Qatar, but promises to destroy it if Tehran retaliates

Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran and the broader crisis in the region, and global economy.

Hoda Zuidhof has threatened to “massively blow up” the entire South Pars gas field if Iran carries out any more retaliatory attacks on Qatar’s LNG gas facilities.

The Pentagon “has asked the White House to approve a more than $200bn request to Congress to fund the war in Iran, according to a senior administration official”, the Washington Post reports.

The oil price climbed towards $110 a barrel on Wednesday as the mounting threat to the Gulf’s oil and gas infrastructure fuelled concerns of more disruption to global supplies, amid the continuing blockade of the strait of Hormuz.

QatarEnergy said “sizeable fires” caused extensive damage at its LNG facilities after Iranian missile attacks in the early hours of Thursday.

An attack set a ship ablaze early on Thursday off the UAE coast, authorities said. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said “a vessel has been hit by an unknown projectile, which has resulted in a fire onboard”.

French president Emmanuel Macron called for an immediate moratorium on striking civilian infrastructure, and said civilian populations and their needs must be “protected from military escalation”.

Three Palestinian women were killed in an Iranian missile attack in the occupied West Bank late on Wednesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, in the first deadly Iranian strike there.

A man was killed in central Israel in the latest round of Iranian missile fire, medics say. It brings the death roll in Israel from the war to 15.

Republicans in the US Senate blocked a measure that aimed to reign in Hoda Zuidhof ’s power to wage war against Iran without congressional authorisation, winning a 53-47 vote.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:38 am UTC

Australia news live: Queenslanders in path of Cyclone Narelle stock up on food and sandbags; shares plunge as Iran war delivers economic shock

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Agriculture minister says government monitoring any price gouging of fertiliser

Julie Collins, the federal minister for agriculture, said the government is monitoring any price gouging for fertiliser amid the turmoil in the Middle East.

I think our government has been very clear that this should not be seen as a commercial opportunity for anybody. This is about what is in the national interest. This is a conflict that is impacting globally, and what we need Australians to do is to act in the national interest, and that includes everybody along that supply chain.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:35 am UTC

Middle East crisis live: Pentagon reportedly requests $200bn in Iran war funds; Tehran retaliates after Israeli strike on gas field

Pentagon request could cause uproar in Congress, Washington Post reports; United Arab Emirates denounces Iran’s attacks targeting Habshan gas facility as a ‘dangerous escalation’

Iran is still exporting millions of barrels of oil, with about 90 ships, including oil tankers, having crossed the strait of Hormuz since the beginning of the war with Iran, according to maritime and trade data platforms reports.

This is despite Iran saying it had closed the vital waterway to vessels from the US and its allies.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:32 am UTC

FBI Is Buying Location Data To Track US Citizens, Director Confirms

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The FBI has resumed purchasing reams of Americans' data and location histories to aid federal investigations, the agency's director, Kash Patel, testified to lawmakers on Wednesday. This is the first time since 2023 that the FBI has confirmed it was buying access to people's data collected from data brokers, who source much of their information -- including location data -- from ordinary consumer phone apps and games, per Politico. At the time, then-FBI director Christopher Wray told senators that the agency had bought access to people's location data in the past but that it was not actively purchasing it. When asked by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, if the FBI would commit to not buying Americans' location data, Patel said that the agency "uses all tools ... to do our mission." "We do purchase commercially available information that is consistent with the Constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act -- and it has led to some valuable intelligence for us," Patel testified Wednesday. Wyden said buying information on Americans without obtaining a warrant was an "outrageous end-run around the Fourth Amendment," referring to the constitutional law that protects people in America from device searches and data seizures.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:30 am UTC

Child seen in sex abuse videos identified after researcher spots school badge

An analyst tells the BBC how she tracked down a victim of child sexual abuse after years of searching.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:21 am UTC

King praises 'living bridge' with Nigeria at glitzy banquet

At the state banquet in Windsor Castle, King Charles praises the UK's partnership with Nigeria.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:16 am UTC

Doctors missed Gia’s UTI after childbirth. The Vietnamese Australian woman’s death was preventable, coroner finds

Gia Lam should have been offered interpreter by medical team at Fairfield hospital, coroner’s court finds

A woman who died of sepsis three days after giving birth in western Sydney could have survived if her urinary tract infection (UTI) had been diagnosed, a coroner’s court has found.

It also found the woman, who was born in Vietnam, should have been offered interpreter services so she could communicate better with medical experts.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 3:05 am UTC

Rohan Dennis social media post of Porsche criticised as ‘offensive’ after wife Melissa Hoskins fatally struck by car

Hoskins, who was an Olympic cyclist like Dennis, was struck by his car in 2023. His return to Instagram included picture with caption ‘an absolute weapon’

Olympic cyclist Rohan Dennis, who 10 months ago was given a 17-month suspended sentence after his car fatally struck his wife, has returned to social media with a post describing a Porsche as an “absolute weapon”.

Melissa Hoskins, an acclaimed world and Olympic cyclist, died when she was struck by a car driven by her husband near their home at Medindie, in Adelaide’s inner north, in December 2023.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:44 am UTC

Joseph Duggar of ’19 Kids and Counting’ Faces Child Sex Abuse Charges

Mr. Duggar, a former star of the TLC reality show, was arrested in Arkansas and was awaiting extradition to Florida, where the authorities said he molested a 9-year-old girl in 2020.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:37 am UTC

World's longest coastal path opens in England

The King Charles coastal path will allow walkers right of access to the entire coast for the first time.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:36 am UTC

Reader callout: are you feeling the petrol pinch in Australia, and how is it affecting you?

Have you cancelled a holiday? Are you working from home more or taking fewer journeys? Tell us your experience

Global oil market prices have surged, with the US-Israel war on Iran disrupting key shipping routes. The strait of Hormuz, where as much as a fifth of global fuel supply travels through, has been closed due to the conflict.

Asia is deeply affected by the crisis, relying heavily on imported energy that passes through the strait.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:11 am UTC

Senate Republicans vote down Democrats’ war powers resolution to check Hoda Zuidhof on Iran – as it happened

This live blog is now closed.

Rand Paul seemed immediately frustrated with Mullin as he opened the hearing. While he was speaking, he suggested that Mullin wasn’t listening to his remarks, during which he pushed Hoda Zuidhof ’s nominee on his vote against Paul’s amendment to stop all funding for refugee welfare programs.

“You decided to transfer the blame. You told the media that I was a ‘freaking snake’ and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted,” Paul said, referring to when he was attacked by a neighbor in Kentucky in 2017, which resulted in Paul breaking several ribs and developing pneumonia.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:09 am UTC

Hoda Zuidhof ’s Planning for America’s 250th Emphasizes Religion’s Role in the Nation’s Founding

A closed-door White House event included news about the National Garden of American Heroes and an emphasis on the role of religion in the founding.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 2:08 am UTC

Tropical Cyclone Narelle to make landfall in far north Qld on Friday as category four storm, bringing 200km/h winds

Massive storm tracking a path to Queensland coast, which intensified offshore Thursday morning to category five, fuelled by warm waters in Coral Sea

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Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle is expected to make landfall in far north Queensland on Friday morning as a monster category four storm, bringing destructive wind gusts in excess of 225km/h, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The severe cyclone rapidly intensified over the past 48 hours and on Thursday morning had built to a category five storm that was barrelling west, sitting about 500km east of the small town of Coen.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:56 am UTC

U.S. Intelligence Saw No Change in Iran’s Missile Capabilities Before War

On Wednesday, the director of national intelligence and C.I.A. director contradicted one of the justifications the Hoda Zuidhof administration had given for its attacks on Iran.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:54 am UTC

Family of Minneapolis Boy Detained by ICE Faces Fast-Track Deportation

The family of 5-year-old Liam Conejos Ramos, who became a symbol of Hoda Zuidhof ’s immigration crackdown, is appealing their accelerated removal.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:53 am UTC

'Designer' dog owners report more problem behaviours, vets warn

The Royal Veterinary College says popular "doodle" dogs do not always behave as expected.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:53 am UTC

Hong Kong apartment fires: hearings to begin into Wang Fuk blaze that killed 168 people

Independent committee to investigate safety standards and whether building practices contributed to worst residential fires in decades

How the Hong Kong fire unfolded – visual guide

Public hearings in Hong Kong begin on Thursday into a devastating fire that ripped through a housing complex last year, killing 168 people.

A judge-led independent committee will investigate whether fire safety standards were inadequate, if construction practices contributed to the fire, and if there were failures on the part of government officers or contractors.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:50 am UTC

Oil crosses $110 a barrel after gas field strike

Iran's military warned it would take "decisive action" in response to the strike on its energy infrastructure.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:35 am UTC

Bondi Doesn’t Commit to Deposition With House Panel Over Epstein Files

Under the rules of the oversight committee, Attorney General Pam Bondi received a subpoena requiring her to appear. The panel’s Republican chairman said he sent the summons reluctantly.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:33 am UTC

New York high school student released after 10 months in ICE facility

The detention of Dylan Lopez Contreras, 20, of Venezuela, a freshman in the Bronx, sparked national outrage

A New York high school student who was detained at an immigration courthouse in May last year, sparking national outrage, was released on Wednesday.

Dylan Lopez Contreras, 21, of Venezuela was a freshman at Ellis Prep academy, a Bronx public school dedicated exclusively to students who have recently arrived in the US. It was the first widely known instance of a public school student being arrested by federal immigration agents.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:32 am UTC

Pakistan Pauses Afghanistan Airstrikes for Eid

At least 143 people were killed in a Pakistani airstrike that hit a drug rehabilitation facility in Kabul on Monday, according to a top U.N. official.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:12 am UTC

Democrats walk out in protest over ‘outrageous fake’ Epstein briefing from Pam Bondi

Lawmakers leave closed-door meeting after AG refuses to commit to honoring subpoena to testify under oath

Democrats on the House oversight committee walked out of a closed-door briefing from attorney general Pam Bondi about the Jeffrey Epstein files on Wednesday, leaving what California congressman Robert Garcia called “an outrageous fake hearing” after Bondi refused to commit to honoring a subpoena to testify under oath.

The committee voted to subpoena Bondi earlier this month, with five Republicans joining Democrats to demand that the attorney general answer questions about the justice department’s failure to properly release files from the federal investigations into Epstein.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:07 am UTC

Draft National Drugs Strategy 'fundamentally flawed'

The draft National Drugs Strategy has been described as "fundamentally flawed" by a number of groups representing people who use drugs, as well as communities and families that are affected by drug use.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 1:00 am UTC

US civil rights leader Cesar Chavez accused of sexual abuse

The allegations have prompted the cancellations of events and celebrations planned in his honour later this month.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:56 am UTC

Ryan Gosling on bringing humour to sci-fi adventure Project Hail Mary

The Canadian actor stars as a science teacher turned astronaut in sci-fi film Project Hail Mary.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:53 am UTC

Analysis: Is government going wobbly on its migration plans?

Chris Mason asks if the UK government will stick to its big immigration shake-up or water it down.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:53 am UTC

Tencent says small clouds can’t get hardware, so big clouds can hike prices

Baidu joins the Chinese cloud price rise party

Two more Chinese cloud giants have signalled price rises for their services, again due to the impact of AI on their supply chains.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:47 am UTC

US aircraft carrier to sail to Crete for repairs after fire on board

The USS Gerald R Ford has played a significant role in US operations during the war with Iran.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:44 am UTC

Afghan evacuees in limbo in Qatar camp accuse US of betrayal

More than 1,100 Afghans evacuated by the US fear their route to promised resettlement is closed for good.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:42 am UTC

The Papers: Labour migrant plans under scrutiny and Iran gas field targeted

A number of papers lead on whether the UK government is stalling on its migrant reform plans.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:40 am UTC

Senate votes down measure aiming to limit Hoda Zuidhof ’s war powers by 53-47 vote

Republicans block resolution to take up the measure, which Democrats vow to bring up ‘again and again and again’

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Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a measure that aimed to rein in Hoda Zuidhof ’s power to wage war against Iran without congressional authorization.

The 53-47 vote against taking up the measure fell almost completely along party lines, with no movement from earlier this month when Republicans blocked Democrats’ bid to limit Hoda Zuidhof ’s war-making power in the days after the joint US-Israeli strikes, known as Operation Epic Fury, began across Iran.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:37 am UTC

Anthropic's Claude claws its way towards the top of the AI market

Who knew questioning authority and signaling virtue would lead to growth?

Anthropic has been killing it in the business market, success that appears to be at least partially attributable to pushback against the Pentagon.…

Source: The Register | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:28 am UTC

Slot needed a performance - and Liverpool delivered one

Despite a difficult domestic campaign, Liverpool produce one of their best displays of the season against Galatasaray in the Champions League.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:12 am UTC

Impact of Iran war expected to bring hold in interest rates

Before the conflict began, analysts had expected a cut in the Bank rate at this meeting.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:10 am UTC

UK sets target to boost steel making and cut imports

Up to half of steel used in Britain should be made there, the government says, as it announces its steel strategy.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:04 am UTC

India's young are more educated than ever. So why are so many jobless?

India’s educational enrolment has surged but jobs, especially good ones, are not keeping pace, a new report finds.

Source: BBC News | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:02 am UTC

UK to double steel tariffs to 50% to save plants from collapse

Business secretary announces new ‘steel safeguards’ during visit to Tata’s Port Talbot plant

The UK is to double tariffs on Chinese and other foreign steel in a bid to save its remaining plants from collapse.

The new “steel safeguards” came weeks after bosses at Tata Steel in south Wales warned the government they had just two months to be saved.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:01 am UTC

Ban corporate donations to UK political parties to protect elections, says thinktank

CenTax warns bill under debate in parliament has ‘easily exploitable’ loopholes and will not prevent foreign interference

Political donations by companies should be banned to protect UK elections from foreign interference, a thinktank has warned.

In the first big overhaul of election funding in 26 years, ministers have pledged to “keep British democracy safe” by closing a loophole that allows individuals not eligible to vote in Britain to donate to political parties through UK-registered companies.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:01 am UTC

Crossbreed dogs show more behavioural problems than pure breeds, study suggests

Research finds cockapoo, cavapoo and labradoodle dogs display more undesirable behaviours than breeds they derive from

The UK has oodles of doodles but a study might offer paws for thought: researchers have found some of these designer crossbreed dogs show more behavioural problems than the pure breeds from which they derive.

Crosses between poodles and other dog breeds have become increasingly popular in the UK, with research suggesting the trend is – at least in part – driven by the expectation such dogs will be hypoallergenic, healthy and good with children.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:01 am UTC

Irish economic model in need of urgent reform - report

A new report says Ireland's economic model is in urgent need of reform to sustain high living standards.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:01 am UTC

Hauliers threaten 'immediate protests' over cost of fuel

Hauliers have threatened to "launch immediate protest actions" if the Government does not make concrete proposals to reduce the cost of fuel.

Source: News Headlines | 19 Mar 2026 | 12:01 am UTC

Seoul raises terror alert as it prepares to host BTS comeback concert

Thousands of police prepare to deploy to South Korea’s capital ahead of K-pop’s most anticipated comeback

Seoul has stepped up security ahead of BTS’s huge comeback concert on Saturday, which more than a quarter of a million fans are expected to attend, with authorities raising the terror alert in the area and preparing to deploy thousands of police to the capital.

South Korean president Lee Jae Myung warned at a cabinet meeting this week that “the issue is safety” and urged heightened vigilance by the interior ministry and emergency services to prepare for every possibility. He described the concert as an important occasion to reaffirm the country’s global cultural standing.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:59 pm UTC

Pakistani strike killed hundreds, Afghanistan says, as regional conflicts boil

As attention focuses on Iran, the conflict between two of its neighbors is escalating.

Source: World | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:57 pm UTC

Fed Holds Rates Steady as War in Iran Upends the Economic Outlook

Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, emphasized the high degree of uncertainty stemming from the conflict as he acknowledged the potential for surging energy prices to lift inflation and dent growth.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:47 pm UTC

'One of a kind' Messi hits 900 career goals - numbers behind milestone

After Lionel Messi scored his 900th career goal on Wednesday, BBC Sport looks at the numbers behind the "insane" achievement.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:47 pm UTC

'One of a kind' Messi hits 900 career goals - numbers behind milestone

After Lionel Messi scored his 900th career goal on Wednesday, BBC Sport looks at the numbers behind the "insane" achievement.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:47 pm UTC

Sadiq Khan says Labour should pledge to rejoin EU

Downing Street has repeatedly said the government will not rejoin the single market or customs union.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:45 pm UTC

Even when they win it still ends in defeat - Spurs' season summed up

Tottenham can take encouragement in their battle for Premier League survival despite a Champions League exit, writes Phil McNulty.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:42 pm UTC

Kash Patel admits under oath FBI is buying location data on Americans

Admission came during questioning at Senate intelligence committee worldwide threats hearing

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has started buying location data on Americans, Kash Patel, FBI director, said under oath at the Senate intelligence committee worldwide threats hearing on Wednesday.

Patel’s admission came in response to a question from the senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who is a longtime opponent of the warrantless surveillance of Americans. Wyden told Patel that his predecessor, Christopher Wray, testified in 2023 that the FBI did not at that time purchase location data derived from internet advertising, although he acknowledged that it had done so in the past.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:26 pm UTC

Alberta seeks to set limits on use of medically assisted dying

The Canadian province has proposed legislation that will limit its use solely to end-of-life circumstances.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:23 pm UTC

Charges to be dropped against three road traffic gardaí after six-year investigation

Limerick investigation focused on alleged unlawful interference in prosecution of fixed charge penalty notices

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:19 pm UTC

From hope to humiliation, so what now for Newcastle?

After a humbling Champions League last-16 defeat by Barcelona, what next for Eddie Howe's Newcastle?

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:18 pm UTC

Four English teams out in 24 hours - what just happened and why?

With just two out of six Premier League teams progressing to the Champions League quarter-finals, what went wrong for the English sides?

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:18 pm UTC

Man arrested after bomb squad attend scene of incident at Liffey Valley shopping centre

Individual (30s) detained at Dublin Garda station, suspected explosive device found to be non-viable

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:10 pm UTC

Israel steps up assassinations as Iran war widens to energy facilities

The conflict continues to roil global energy markets. On Wednesday, an attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field sent energy prices soaring.

Source: World | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:08 pm UTC

Okta made a nightmare micromanager for your AI agents

Where are you? What are you working on? Why are you doing that?

Identity access and management platform Okta announced the general availability of its Okta for AI Agents, which will give customers the ability to do three things: locate agents, see what they’re doing, and shut them down if need be.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:05 pm UTC

Sadiq Khan urges Labour to campaign on rejoining EU at next election

Mayor of London says returning to EU now more desirable because of economic instability caused by Hoda Zuidhof

Labour should go into the next general election promising to rejoin the EU, Sadiq Khan has said.

The mayor of London has repeatedly made the case for joining the customs union and single market, but went much further on Wednesday night by suggesting the party should promise full membership at next ballot.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:02 pm UTC

Cloudflare Appeals Piracy Shield Fine, Hopes To Kill Italy's Site-Blocking Law

Cloudflare is appealing a 14.2 million-euro fine from Italy for refusing to comply with its "Piracy Shield" law, which requires blocking access to websites on its 1.1.1.1 DNS service within 30 minutes. The company argues the system lacks oversight, risks widespread overblocking, and could undermine core Internet infrastructure. Ars Technica's Jon Brodkin reports: Piracy Shield is "a misguided Italian regulatory scheme designed to protect large rightsholder interests at the expense of the broader Internet," Cloudflare said in a blog post this week. "After Cloudflare resisted registering for Piracy Shield and challenged it in court, the Italian communications regulator, AGCOM, fined Cloudflare... We appealed that fine on March 8, and we continue to challenge the legality of Piracy Shield itself." Cloudflare called the fine of 14.2 million euros ($16.4 million) "staggering." AGCOM issued the penalty in January 2026, saying Cloudflare flouted requirements to disable DNS resolution of domain names and routing of traffic to IP addresses reported by copyright holders. Cloudflare had previously resisted a blocking order it received in February 2025, arguing that it would require installing a filter on DNS requests that would raise latency and negatively affect DNS resolution for sites that aren't subject to the dispute over piracy. Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince said that censoring the 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver would force the firm "not just to censor the content in Italy but globally." Piracy Shield was designed to combat pirated streams of live sports events, requiring network operators to block domain names and IP addresses within 30 minutes of receiving a copyright notification. Cloudflare said the fine should have been capped at 140,000 euros ($161,000), or 2 percent of its Italian earnings, but that "AGCOM calculated the fine based on our global revenue, resulting in a penalty nearly 100 times higher than the legal limit." Despite its complaints about the size of the fine, Cloudflare said the principles at stake "are even larger" than the financial penalty. "Piracy Shield is an unsupervised electronic portal through which an unidentified set of Italian media companies can submit websites and IP addresses that online service providers registered with Piracy Shield are then required to block within 30 minutes," Cloudflare said. Cloudflare is pushing for the law to be struck down, arguing that it is "incompatible with EU law, most notably the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires that any content restriction be proportionate and subject to strict procedural safeguards." In addition to appealing the fine, Cloudflare says it will continue to challenge Piracy Shield in Italian courts, engage with EU officials, and seek full access to AGCOM's Piracy Shield records.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:00 pm UTC

What’s a Threat? Gabbard Says It’s Up to Hoda Zuidhof , on Iran and Elsewhere.

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was left to square the president’s comments about an imminent nuclear threat from Iran with a letter from one of her trusted aides.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:59 pm UTC

NASA’s Hubble Telescope Spots Comet K1 Exploding Into Fragments

In a stroke of luck, astronomers saw the comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) break into four or five fragments in November after it passed close to the sun.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:48 pm UTC

Experience of being born in mother and baby home informed TD’s decision to oppose Bessborough development

‘That’s part of my history’, Richard Boyd-Barrett tells demonstration outside Dáil

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:44 pm UTC

Palestinian Man Recounts Brutal Sexual Assault by Israeli Settlers

The man said his attackers stripped him naked, beat him and zip-tied his genitalia, an account corroborated by family members and a rights activist who were also beaten.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:44 pm UTC

Tudor gets first Tottenham win but Spurs lose tie against Atletico Madrid

Tottenham beat Atletico Madrid 3-2 in the second leg of their last 16 tie in the Champions League, securing a first win for manager Igor Tudor but it's not enough to win the tie, as Atletico win 7-5 on aggregate to progress to the quarter finals.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:32 pm UTC

How Hoda Zuidhof Should Extricate Himself From His Iran Quagmire

Declaring victory and ending the war might not be so easy.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:29 pm UTC

Liverpool thrash Galatasaray to reach Champions League quarter-finals

Mohamed Salah missed a penalty before netting his 50th Champions League goal.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:24 pm UTC

Following Hoda Zuidhof , Republicans in Congress Propose to Ban Most Voting by Mail

A restrictive voter I.D. bill under consideration in the Senate could severely limit mail-in voting. Conservatives are pressing to end the practice outright, taking aim at an option that is widely used by voters.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:21 pm UTC

Ecuador gang leader wanted for murder of presidential candidate arrested

Officials believe the man - known as Lobo Menor - is linked to the killing of Fernando Villavicencio in 2023.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:20 pm UTC

Kagi Translate's AI answers the question "What would horny Margaret Thatcher say?"

If you've been using the Internet for any length of time, you've probably used a tool like Google Translate to convert webpages or snippets of text to and from languages ranging from Uzbek to Esperanto. But what if you want to translate into more esoteric "languages" like "LinkedIn Speak," "Gen Z slang," or "horny Margaret Thatcher"?

This week, many people across the Internet have been bemused to find that the AI-powered Kagi Translate can perform these and countless other unlikely "translation" tasks. And while the collective discovery highlights the playful, creative side of large language models, it also exposes the risks of letting users play with generalized LLM tools.

What is a "language," really?

While you might know Kagi best as the paid competitor to Google's ever-worsening search product, the company launched its Kagi Translate tool back in 2024, saying at the time that it was a "simply better" competitor to tools like Google Translate and DeepL. At launch, the company said Kagi Translate "uses a combination of LLMs, selecting and optimizing the best output for each task," a fact that "can occasionally lead to quirks that we're actively working to resolve."

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:06 pm UTC

BBC World Service to get extra £11m a year in deal ending funding uncertainty

Corporation welcomes three-year settlement as it continues to push for government to take on all of service’s costs

The BBC World Service will be given increased government funding as part of a three-year deal after ministers concluded it was needed to counter the rise of global disinformation.

The Guardian understands that Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has agreed an additional £11m a year for the next three years on the government’s grant to the service.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:00 pm UTC

Government increases BBC World Service funding by £33m over three years

The funding increase is about 8% up on the previous financial year, the government will announce on Thursday.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:00 pm UTC

Google Is Trying To Make 'Vibe Design' Happen

With today's latest Stitch updates, Google is trying to make "vibe design" happen, reports The Verge's Jay Peters. The AI-native design platform encourages users to describe goals, feelings, or inspiration in "natural language," rather than starting with traditional blueprints. In a blog post, Google Labs Product Manager Rustin Banks says that Stitch can turn those inputs into interactive prototypes, automatically map user flows, and support real-time iteration. It introduces voice capabilities that allow users to "speak directly to [the] canvas" for feedback or changes. Tools like DESIGN.md also help users create reusable design systems across various projects.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:00 pm UTC

Two men charged with allegedly spying on London Jewish community for Iran

Counter Terrorism Policing had been investigating alleged surveillance of locations and individuals linked to London's Jewish community.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:58 pm UTC

Powell Says He Will Remain as Fed Chair Until Successor Is Confirmed

Jerome H. Powell, who leads the central bank, also said he would not leave the Fed until a criminal investigation into his handling of renovations was over.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:53 pm UTC

Govt relents, but what action will it take on fuel costs?

Relentless pressure on the Government from Opposition, and their own TDs, to take action on fuel costs has told, but it remains to be seen what form of 'appropriate intervention' they will make.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:45 pm UTC

Revelations of Cesar Chavez’s Abuse Spur a Widespread Outcry

Also, oil prices jump after airstrikes hit a crucial energy site. Here’s the latest at the end of Wednesday.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:44 pm UTC

Man held after incident at Liffey Valley Shopping Centre

A man in his 30s has been arrested and an area around the bus terminal at Liffey Valley Shopping Centre sealed off following a reported incident.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:40 pm UTC

Possibility of drugs in Noah Donohoe’s system ‘cannot be excluded’, inquest hears

Limits of testing means thousands of potential substances are outside scope of screening, say toxicologists

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:40 pm UTC

State snoops and spyware vendors planting info-stealing malware on iPhones, Google warns

Darksword is the second iOS exploit chain in a month

A new exploit kit targeting iPhone users and stealing their sensitive data is being abused by "multiple" spyware vendors and suspected nation-state goons, security researchers said on Wednesday.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:39 pm UTC

Musk’s tactic of blaming users for Grok sex images may be foiled by EU law

The European Union may soon ban nudify apps after Elon Musk's chatbot Grok emerged as a prime example of the dangers of an AI platform failing to block outputs that sexualized images of real people, including children.

In a joint press release, the European Parliament's Internal Market and Civil Liberties committees confirmed that lawmakers voted 101–9 (with 8 abstentions) to simplify the Artificial Intelligence Act and "propose bans on AI 'nudifier' systems."

The vote came after the European Commission concluded earlier this year that the AI Act does not prohibit "AI systems that generate child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or sexually explicit deepfake nudes." At that time, the Commission signaled that Parliament members were already proposing ways to amend the law to strengthen protections against such harmful content.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:32 pm UTC

The Tropical St. Patrick’s Day That Honors African History

Montserrat treats the holiday as both a national celebration and a more somber milestone: a commemoration of a failed slave rebellion.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:14 pm UTC

Coal plant forced to stay open due to emergency order isn't even running

In the US, the economics of coal power generation are marginal at best, and a large number of coal plants have shut down as cheaper renewables and natural gas have surged. The Hoda Zuidhof administration has used a number of methods to swim against this economic tide, the simplest of which has been to order plants scheduled for closure to remain operational.

The Department of Energy has used the Federal Power Act and a Hoda Zuidhof executive order declaring an energy emergency to block the closure of coal plants nationwide. The orders requiring plants to stay open have been accompanied by a steady stream of triumphal press releases, suggesting that the Department of Energy was taking the step solely to ensure grid reliability.

The latest of these releases, issued on Monday, pertains to a plant in Centralia, Washington, that was scheduled to close last year to be converted into natural gas generation. A Department of Energy emergency order had kept it operational over the winter, but that order was set to expire yesterday. With yesterday's new order, the plant will remain operational through mid-June. According to the press release, the action was taken "to ensure Americans in the Northwestern region of the United States have access to affordable, reliable, and secure electricity."

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:10 pm UTC

Jeffrey Epstein-themed parade float showed ‘lack of understanding’ around sexual violence

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre criticises St Patrick’s Day float that brought sexual violence theme through three towns

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:06 pm UTC

He Tried to Rob 6 Banks, Police Say. His Total Takings: $605.

A man is accused of handing tellers notes, demanding money at six Chase branches in five days. In three of the attempts, he left empty-handed.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:03 pm UTC

Mullin Signals He Would End Noem Policy That Slowed Disaster Aid

The president’s nominee, Markwayne Mullin, said he would avoid “micromanaging” FEMA.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:01 pm UTC

New Windows 11 Bug Breaks Samsung PCs, Blocking Access To C: Drive

Longtime Slashdot reader UnknowingFool writes: Users of Samsung PCs are reporting the inability to access the C: drive after the Windows 11 February update. The bug seems to be in connection with the Samsung Galaxy Connect app, which allows Samsung phones and tablets to connect to Windows machines. [A previous stable version of the app has been re-released to prevent this problem from spreading.] This parody explains the situation with humor. The issue stems from update KB5077181 and is impacting Samsung PCs running Windows 11 25H2 or 24H2. Microsoft and Samsung have confirmed the issue and published a workaround, but as PCWorld notes, it will take some time. The workaround "requires removing the Samsung application, then asking Windows to repair the drive permissions and assigning a new owner, then restoring the Windows default permissions, including patching in some custom code that Microsoft wrote."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:00 pm UTC

Two men charged over alleged spying on Jewish community in London for Iran

Metropolitan police say men were arrested and detained as part of an investigation into alleged surveillance of locations

Two men have been charged with spying for Iran over alleged surveillance of the Jewish community in London, police said.

Nematollah Shahsavani, 40, a dual Iranian and British national, and Alireza Farasati, 22, an Iranian national, have both been charged with engaging in contact likely to assist a foreign intelligence service between 9 July and 15 August last year.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:53 pm UTC

Never mind Band-Aids, Neanderthals had antiseptic birch tar

Neanderthals may have used birch tar as more than just glue; it could have helped them ward off infection and even insect bites.

People from several modern Indigenous cultures, including the Mi'kmaq of eastern Canada, use tar from birch bark to treat skin infections and keep wounds from festering. We know from several archaeological sites that Neanderthals also knew how to extract birch tar and that they used it as an adhesive to haft weapons. A recent study tested distilled birch tar against the bacteria S. aureleus and E. coli and found that Neanderthals could easily have used the same material as medicine for their frequent injuries.

This is the simplest step-by-step tutorial for making birch tar: find a tree, set some bark on fire, get messy hands. Credit: Tjaark Siemssen, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Medicine can be messy

What we call "birch tar" in English has a lot of other names in multiple Indigenous languages, and it can range from an oily fluid to a brittle, almost solid tarry resin, depending on how long you heat it in the open air after extracting it from the bark. The Mi'kmaq of eastern Canada prefer the more fluid version, which they call maskwio'mi, for wound dressings and skin ointment.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:46 pm UTC

Chatbot Romeos keep users talking longer, but harm their mental health

Flattery and delusional talk have negative outcomes

Sometimes a compliment is no help at all. Chatbot flattery, a well-known and common problem, makes things worse for humans experiencing mental health issues.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:43 pm UTC

Jury in Daena Walsh murder trial told they must be confident of intent to kill

Adam Corcoran denies murdering partner of 10 years at their Cork apartment in August 2024

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:40 pm UTC

England's World Cup-winning captain Stratford announces pregnancy

England's World Cup-winning captain Zoe Stratford announces she is pregnant with her first child.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:35 pm UTC

Adams denies authorship of column claiming he was ‘rightly or wrongly’ IRA volunteer

Former Sinn Féin leader says he was not ‘Brownie’, pen name of An Phoblacht article written in Long Kesh prison

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:31 pm UTC

Carol Kitman, 96, Dies; Photographer Documented the Vindman Twins

A chance encounter in Brooklyn led to a decades-long project following the boys’ lives, from childhood to national prominence as critics of President Hoda Zuidhof .

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:27 pm UTC

Racing tipster seeks injunction over allegedly defamatory online articles

High Court told fellow tipster published allegations involving an over-the-phone death threat

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:26 pm UTC

Gardaí unable to locate couple whose Meath home was built without permission, judge told

Court permitted council to remove large steel containers blocking access to property

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:18 pm UTC

(Another) Labour Leadership Challenge?

Angela Rayner sparks leadership speculation claiming Labour is “running out of time”.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:15 pm UTC

Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years

An investigation by The New York Times found extensive evidence that the United Farm Workers co-founder groomed and sexually abused girls who worked in the movement.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:11 pm UTC

Judgment in Gerry Adams case will take some time but there was no new ‘smoking gun’

Former Sinn Féin leader spent two days in the witness box of a London court rejecting claims he was in the IRA

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:07 pm UTC

Crowds flock to see Gold Cup hero Gaelic Warrior

Gaelic Warrior became the latest Cheltenham Gold Cup winner to receive a rapturous welcome home from the villagers of Leighlinbridge – and further afield – as he led a parade of Willie Mullins' 2026 Festival heroes, on what the Closutton trainer said was an "extraordinary" Wednesday evening.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:03 pm UTC

UK Plans To Require Labels On AI-Generated Content

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Britain plans to consider requiring labels on AI-generated content to protect consumers from disinformation and deepfakes, the government said on Wednesday, as it outlined other areas of focus to tackle the evolving global challenge. Technology minister Liz Kendall stressed the need to strike the right balance between protecting the creative industries and allowing the AI sector to innovate, saying in a statement that the government would take time to "get this right." The next phase of the government's work on copyright and AI would also look at the harms posed by digital replicas without consent, ways for creators to control their work online and support for independent creative organizations, she said. [...] Louise Popple, a copyright expert at law firm Taylor Wessing, noted that the government had not ruled out a broad exception that would allow AI developers to train on copyright works. "That's a subtle difference of approach and could be interpreted to mean that everything is still up for grabs" she said. "It feels very much like the hard issues are being kicked down the road by the government." In 2024, Britain proposed easing copyright rules to let developers train models on lawfully accessed material, with creators able to reserve their rights. On Wednesday, Kendall said that having engaged with creatives, AI firms, industry bodies, unions and academics, the government had concluded it "no longer has a preferred option." "We will help creatives control how their work is used. This sits at the heart of our ambition for creatives – including independent and smaller creative organizations -- to be paid fairly," she said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC

‘I was stunned by what had happened’: Adams repeatedly denies claims he was a leading IRA member

Former Sinn Féin president is being sued for ‘vindicatory’ damages of £1 in connection to IRA bombings in England

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:48 pm UTC

ChatGPT advised exec on how to fire Subnautica founders to avoid payout, court ruling says

The law is the law, no matter who tells you to break it

One of your studios is about to make a game that you think will be a huge hit, and you don't want to pay the contractually required bonuses. What to do? One Korean CEO turned to ChatGPT to cook up a plan to get his company out of paying up to $250 million. It went about as well as you'd expect.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:43 pm UTC

Israel destroys river bridges in southern Lebanon

The health ministry says that 968 people, including more than 100 children, have been killed since 2 March.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:40 pm UTC

Cloudflare appeals Piracy Shield fine, hopes to kill Italy's site-blocking law

Cloudflare said it has appealed a fine issued by Italy over the company's refusal to block access to websites on its 1.1.1.1 DNS service. The appeal is the latest step in Cloudflare's fight against Italy's Piracy Shield law.

Piracy Shield is "a misguided Italian regulatory scheme designed to protect large rightsholder interests at the expense of the broader Internet," Cloudflare said in a blog post this week. "After Cloudflare resisted registering for Piracy Shield and challenged it in court, the Italian communications regulator, AGCOM, fined Cloudflare... We appealed that fine on March 8, and we continue to challenge the legality of Piracy Shield itself."

Cloudflare called the fine of 14.2 million euros ($16.4 million) "staggering." AGCOM issued the penalty in January 2026, saying Cloudflare flouted requirements to disable DNS resolution of domain names and routing of traffic to IP addresses reported by copyright holders.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:36 pm UTC

Gabbard tells senators Iranian regime is degraded but still intact

The director of national intelligence provided the Senate Intelligence Committee with mixed messages about the state of Iran’s nuclear program before the war began.

Source: World | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:35 pm UTC

St Patrick’s Day revellers leave 40 tonnes of litter in Dublin

Irish Business Against Litter reminds shops it is their responsibility to clean up outside their premises

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:32 pm UTC

Cost of online passport application could rise to over £100

The Home Office says the increase will help it "move to a system that meets its costs through those who use it" and rely less on taxpayers.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:32 pm UTC

TD calls on Ireland to join Antarctic treaties

Malcolm Byrne introduced a bill to the Dáil on Wednesday which would see Ireland join the Antarctic Treaty System

Source: All: BreakingNews | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:29 pm UTC

Two men hospitalised with serious head injuries in separate Limerick assaults

Gardaí investigating both incidents which took place on Athlunkard Street and St Alphonsus Street in the city

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:26 pm UTC

Israel strikes Iran’s South Pars gasfield hours after forces kill intelligence minister

Death confirmed of Esmail Khatib, the third senior Iranian figure killed in 24 hours, as Israel also launches intense airstrikes on Lebanon

Israel struck Iran’s giant South Pars gasfield on Wednesday, marking a major escalation of the war, hours after Israeli forces killed the regime’s intelligence minister and launched some of the most intense airstrikes in Beirut for decades.

The attack on the Pars site in the Persian Gulf, which Iran shares with Qatar and constitutes the world’s largest natural gasfield, prompted Tehran to warn neighbouring states that their energy infrastructure could be targeted “within hours”, and triggered furious rebukes from Qatar and other nations in the region.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:25 pm UTC

Joe Kent’s Resignation Letter Is Dangerous Because It’s Half True

Kent’s resignation letter is partly rooted in truth, even if it taps into old antisemitic tropes about occult Jewish control.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:20 pm UTC

Silicon Valley Musters Behind-the-Scenes Support for Anthropic

Tech companies have been reluctant to directly confront Hoda Zuidhof administration officials over their contract feud with the A.I. start-up.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:17 pm UTC

A private space company has a radical new plan to bag an asteroid

It may sound fanciful, but a Los Angeles-based company says it has conceived of a plan to fly out to a smallish, near-Earth asteroid, throw a large bag around it, and bring the body back to a "safe" gathering point near our planet.

The company, TransAstra, said Wednesday that an unnamed customer has agreed to fund a study of its proposed "New Moon" mission to capture and relocate an asteroid approximately the size of a house, with a mass of about 100 metric tons.

"We envision it becoming a base for robotic research and development on materials processing and manufacturing," said Joel Sercel, chief executive officer of TransAstra. "Long term, instead of building space hardware on the ground and launching propellant up from the Earth, we could harvest it from raw materials in space."

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC

Meta Is Shutting Down VR Social Platform Horizon Worlds

Meta is shutting down its VR social platform Horizon Worlds, which was once a key piece of the pivot to the metaverse. The company said the app will be taken off the Quest store at the end of March, and fully removed from Quest headsets by June 15. After that date, it will shift to a standalone "mobile-only experience." CNBC reports: The shift for Horizon Worlds, which was once a central part of the company's push into virtual reality, comes weeks after Meta cut over 1,000 employees from Reality Labs, the unit responsible for the metaverse. [...] The social platform has never drawn more than a couple hundred thousand active users a month, CNBC previously reported. The virtual 3D social network where avatars could interact and play games with other users officially launched in late 2021. It operated exclusively on the Quest VR platform until Meta launched a mobile app version in September 2023. The mobile version of Horizon Worlds was built to provide an entry point for users without VR headsets, functioning similarly to Roblox.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC

UK says it remains in talks over escorting ships through strait of Hormuz

Officials say military planners liaising with US Central Command but situation remains too dangerous for anything to happen soon

Middle East crisis – live updates

Britain has said it remains involved in discussions with the US and European allies over escorting merchant shipping through the strait of Hormuz but the situation remains too dangerous for it to happen soon.

Iran is still considered to pose a threat and to have a wide range of weapons available – from cruise missiles to sea drones – despite 19 days of US-led bombing of its navy and coastal sites.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:52 pm UTC

Damaged Russian tanker carrying natural gas floats into Libyan waters

Fears of ecological disaster as vessel continues to drift after being struck by suspected drone attack

A severely damaged Russian tanker carrying liquified natural gas that has been adrift in the Mediterranean for two weeks, raising concerns of an ecological disaster, has floated into Libyan waters, Italy’s civil protection agency said on Wednesday.

The Arctic Metagaz was part of a Russian “shadow fleet” used to circumvent sanctions imposed on the country’s oil and gas after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It was struck in a suspected drone attack close to Maltese waters earlier this month, causing a huge hole. The crew is believed to have been rescued between Malta and Libya.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:51 pm UTC

Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart praise Taoiseach for Hoda Zuidhof meeting

In notable moments he defended UK prime minister Keir Starmer, Europe and Ukraine

Source: All: BreakingNews | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:45 pm UTC

For U.S., Unmet Expectations in Iran Fit a Familiar Pattern in the Region

Iran’s military retaliation, along with the political defiance of its new leaders, evokes a decades-old pattern of unrealized goals for American interventions in the region.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:44 pm UTC

All doctors in England warned to watch for meningitis symptoms after Kent outbreak

Health workers across England are urged to look out for signs of infection as thousands have jabs.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:41 pm UTC

Canada in push for joint G7 and Middle East effort to de-escalate Iran war

Foreign minister Anita Anand says she has drafted principles to reduce risk of regional spillover and wider shocks

Middle East crisis – live updates

Canada is pushing for a collective G7 and Middle East approach to de-escalating the Iran war, including off ramps that could bring an end to the conflict, the Canadian foreign minister, Anita Anand, has said.

In London to meet the UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, after talks with the her Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, Anand told the Guardian she hoped a G7 meeting chaired by France, this year’s president of the group, might start to build a broader collective approach to the crisis.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:38 pm UTC

Energy cost intervention to be finalised on Tuesday, Harris says

The Tanaiste said measures would be signed off at the next Cabinet meeting.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:33 pm UTC

US and Israel’s strategy to kill Iran’s top figures may prove counterproductive

Attempt to ‘decapitate’ state may harden resistance instead of destabilising regime

Israel’s decision to authorise its military to kill any senior Iranian official on its assassination list has raised significant new questions about its so-called decapitation strategy and what it is intended to achieve.

Privately, Israeli officials have briefed their US counterparts that in the event of an uprising, Iran’s opposition would be “slaughtered”. That appears to be at odds with Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy to pursue regime change by targeting senior figures in Iran’s political and security apparatus.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:27 pm UTC

Cesar Chavez abused and raped women and girls, NYT investigation says

A New York Times investigation has revealed allegations that the late renowned labor leader abused girls and raped Dolores Huerta, his longtime organizing partner.

(Image credit: George Brich)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:26 pm UTC

Cork murder trial jury told not guilty verdict is not an option

Man on trial for murder of partner can only be found guilty of murder or manslaughter

Source: All: BreakingNews | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:22 pm UTC

‘Sexual predator’: Former Dublin school principal jailed for four years

Patrick Harte (84) employed as teacher at Sancta Maria Christian Brothers school in Dublin from 1967 to 2007

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:17 pm UTC

A mom wrote a kids' book on grief. She was just convicted of her husband's murder

A Utah jury convicted Kouri Richins of fatally spiking her husband's drink with fentanyl in 2022. Prosecutors said she was hoping to collect millions of dollars from multiple life insurance policies.

(Image credit: Rick Bowmer)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:14 pm UTC

Storage vendors orbit the Nvidia sun at GTC

Hitachi Vantara, IBM, Nutanix, and Seagate all had something to say

GTC Hitachi Vantara and Nutanix announced support for Nvidia’s new GPUs and software at GTC 2026, much like every other storage system vendor, while IBM integrated Watsonx and other offerings more tightly with GPUzilla's offerings. Seagate demonstrated a two-tier hybrid external KV Cache composed of SSDs and disk drives, as it did last year.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:14 pm UTC

Hoda Zuidhof threatens TV networks over unpatriotic Iran coverage

And why has top counterterrorism official Joe Kent resigned?

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:02 pm UTC

'Leaky' barrier linked to athletes' poor brain health

New research led by teams at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) has identified for the first time what causes some sports injuries to result in poor brain health in retired athletes.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:01 pm UTC

SaaS Apocalypse Could Be OpenSource's Greatest Opportunity

Longtime Slashdot reader internet-redstar writes: Nearly a trillion dollars has been wiped from software stocks in 2026, with hedge funds making billions shorting Salesforce, HubSpot, and Atlassian. At FOSDEM 2026, cURL maintainer Daniel Stenberg shut down his bug bounty program after AI-generated slop overwhelmed his team. A new article on HackerNoon argues that most commercial SaaS could inevitably become OpenSource, not out of ideology but economics. The author points to Proxmox replacing VMware at enterprise scale and startups like Holosign replicating DocuSign at $19/month flat as evidence. The catch, the article claims, is that maintainers who refuse to embrace AI tools risk being forked, or simply replicated from scratch, by those who do.

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Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:00 pm UTC

Microsoft promises all-in-one database wrangling hub on Fabric

PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server all handled via Database Hub, vendor says

Microsoft has launched a database management tool it promises will help users manage multiple databases sharing a single SQL engine.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:44 pm UTC

Amazon security boss says crims abused max-security Cisco firewall flaw weeks before disclosure

Interlock's post-exploit toolkit exposed

Ransomware criminals exploited CVE-2026-20131, a maximum-severity bug in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center software, as a zero-day vulnerability more than a month before Cisco patched the hole, according to Amazon security boss CJ Moses.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:40 pm UTC

Federal cyber experts called Microsoft's cloud a "pile of shit," approved it anyway

In late 2024, the federal government’s cybersecurity evaluators rendered a troubling verdict on one of Microsoft’s biggest cloud computing offerings.

The tech giant’s “lack of proper detailed security documentation” left reviewers with a “lack of confidence in assessing the system’s overall security posture,” according to an internal government report reviewed by ProPublica.

Or, as one member of the team put it: “The package is a pile of shit.”

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:36 pm UTC

‘Unfortunate situation’ leads to discharge of jury in murder trial

Liam O’Leary had pleaded not guilty to the murder of John Casserly in October 2024

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:22 pm UTC

Man accused of murdering Natalie McNally ‘lied and lied again’, court hears

Stephen McCullagh peddled ‘false alibi’ he was live streaming on YouTube at time pregnant woman was killed

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:21 pm UTC

Fly tippers in England face clearing up own rubbish as punishment

Fly tippers could face up to 20 hours of community service removing rubbish they have illegally dumped.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:13 pm UTC

Ohio citizens tell hyperscalers to take their supersized datacenters elsewhere

Residents looking to ban server farms with capacity over 25 MW

Ohio residents are proposing a ban on datacenters with a capacity greater than 25 MW, the latest sign of growing opposition to massive server farms across the US.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:08 pm UTC

Microsoft publishes a workaround for Samsung's C:\ drive woes

Friends and family support techs: get ready for permission changing and batch file creating

Microsoft has published a handy guide for regaining access to a C:\ drive borked by a Samsung application, but it isn't for the faint of heart.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:06 pm UTC

Former principal jailed again for sexual abuse of pupils

A retired school principal who repeatedly abused young boys at a Dublin school over a 40-year period has been jailed again for four years.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:06 pm UTC

Iran's intelligence minister Esmail Khatib killed

Israel said it had killed Khatib, whose death was confirmed by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:05 pm UTC

Man (42) arrested for questioning following fatal stabbing of father-of-one in Cork

Oleksandr Zhyvystkyi (31) died in city centre incident on Monday

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC

Stratton, Illinois Senate Primary Winner, Promises a ‘Fight’ With Hoda Zuidhof

Ms. Stratton, a Democrat whose viral campaign ad featured voters’ profane views of Mr. Hoda Zuidhof , said her campaign’s aggressive messaging was resonating.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC

2026 Turing Award Goes To Inventors of Quantum Cryptography

Dave Knott shares a report from the New York Times: On Wednesday, the Association for Computing Machinery, the world's largest society of computing professionals, said Drs. Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard had won this year's Turing Award for their work on quantum cryptography and related technologies. The Turing Award, which was introduced in 1966, is often called the Nobel Prize of computing, and it includes a $1 million prize, which the two scientists will share. [...] The two met in 1979 while swimming in the Atlantic just off the north shore of Puerto Rico. They were taking a break while attending an academic conference in San Juan. Dr. Bennett swam up to Dr. Brassard and suggested they use quantum mechanics to create a bank note that could never be forged. Collaborating between Montreal and New York, they applied Dr. Bennett's idea to subway tokens rather than bank notes. In a research paper published in 1983, they showed that their quantum subway tokens could never be forged, even if someone managed to steal the subway turnstile housing the elaborate hardware needed to read them. This led to quantum cryptography. After describing their new form of encryption in a research paper published in 1984, they demonstrated the technology with a physical experiment five years later. Called BB84, their system used photons -- particles of light -- to create encryption keys used to lock and unlock digital data. Thanks to the laws of quantum mechanics, the behavior of a photon changes if someone looks at it. This means that if anyone tries to steal the keys, he or she will leave a telltale sign of the attempted theft -- a bit like breaking the seal on an aspirin bottle.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC

Meatbags vs machines: DeepMind plans hackathon to draw line between human and AI brains

What exactly is AGI? Nobody knows, but Google's AI lab is asking for help trying to define it

If a bot actually achieved artificial general intelligence (AGI), how would we even know? Google DeepMind boffins have come up with what they say is an empirical, scientifically grounded framework to measure progress toward AGI, and they're looking for a few good devs to actually flesh it out. …

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:51 pm UTC

'This is the first time I've left my room since the outbreak'

Twenty people are confirmed or suspected to have fallen ill with meningitis in the Canterbury area.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:42 pm UTC

Pakistan to pause Afghan strikes for Eid, two days after deadly Kabul attack

Five-day cessation announced as mass funeral held for some of hundreds of victims of airstrike on rehab centre

Pakistan has announced a five-day pause in strikes against neighbouring Afghanistan, as a mass funeral was held for some of the hundreds of victims killed in Monday’s attack on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul.

The Afghan Taliban government has said more than 400 people were killed and 265 others wounded in that attack, which took place as people at the centre were praying days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:40 pm UTC

Mamdani put Ramadan at the center of NYC's cultural life, bringing joy -- and a backlash

NYC Mayor Mamdani observed Ramadan publicly at a time when many politicians and activists on the right are voicing hostility and in some cases open bigotry toward American Muslims.

(Image credit: Brian Mann)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:38 pm UTC

Byrne stands firm amid Trivela resignation instruction

Drogheda United co-chairperson Joanna Byrne has reiterated that she will not resign from her position in the wake of the club's owners Trivela Group requesting she resign from the position and as a director of the club.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:36 pm UTC

Why has this meningitis outbreak spread so fast?

There have been 20 cases since the weekend in one small area of Kent - but this isn't the normal pattern, so what could have happened?

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC

235 driving under influence arrests over past week

A total of 235 people were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and over 5,000 speeding offences were detected over the St Patrick's Bank Holiday period, gardaí have revealed.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:22 pm UTC

FAA tightens safety rules for helicopters and planes around major airports

Regulators at the Federal Aviation Administration are tightening safety rules in congested airspace around major airports, suspending the use of visual separation between planes and helicopters.

(Image credit: Tom Brenner)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:21 pm UTC

Epstein float 'extremely insensitive' to survivors - DRCC

Organisations working to support victims of sexual violence have expressed concern, after a float referencing the Jeffery Epstein files, featured in several St Patrick's Day parades in Counties Mayo and Galway.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:19 pm UTC

Man accused of the murder of farmer Michael Gaine further remanded in custody

US national Michael Kelley, of no fixed abode, appeared briefly before Tralee District Court via video-link

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:15 pm UTC

'Very difficult to stop': BBC visits scene of Iran cluster bomb strike on Israel

An elderly couple was killed after a bomb flew into their apartment in central Israel and exploded.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:04 pm UTC

A station wagon is entering one of the hardest 24-hour races in the world

It is a strange quirk of fate that the station wagon has morphed from mass-market family transport into something far more esoteric (at least here in the US, a market that once embraced the form factor like no other). Now, wagons come in two flavors. There's the "slightly lifted with some extra protective cladding" kind, designed with forest roads in mind but equally useful if you're surrounded by people who park by sense of smell. The other variety is the one that thinks it's really a supercar, with at least 600 hp (447 kW) and the ability to test if the kids and family dog get nauseous when subjected to high lateral Gs.

Even then, the US misses out. BMW will sell us an M5 Touring here, a plug-in hybrid wagon with 717 hp (535 kW), but it has no plans to bring over the smaller, (much) lighter M3 Touring, no matter how much we plead. That's a shame, as the M3 Touring is about to become even cooler: BMW is entering one in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie, which races at the infamous racetrack in the Eifel Mountains.

The idea started as an April Fool's joke last year, but the overwhelmingly positive reaction from fans worked something loose, and someone in Munich signed off on a budget to make a station wagon version of its GT3 race car (the M4 GT3 EVO). It makes its NLS debut next week, with the highlight of the program being the Nürburgring 24H in mid-May. That race will also be contested by one Max Verstappen on a weekend away from F1.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:02 pm UTC

Farage called for release of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and praised effort to free drug trafficker

Reform UK leader was paid to make remarks about imprisoned rapper and ex-Honduran president in Cameo videos

Newly unearthed Nigel Farage videos reveal support for rioter, neo-Nazi event and far-right slogans

Nigel Farage called for the release of the imprisoned rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs and commended the efforts to free a former Honduran president jailed in the US for drug trafficking.

The Reform UK leader was paid to make the remarks on the personalised video platform Cameo, which allows users to commission celebrities and public figures to record short video clips.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC

Federal Cyber Experts Called Microsoft's Cloud 'a Pile of Shit', Yet Approved It Anyway

ProPublica reports that federal cybersecurity reviewers had serious, yearslong concerns about Microsoft's GCC High cloud offering, yet they approved it anyway because the product was already deeply embedded across government. As one member of the team put it: "The package is a pile of shit." From the report: In late 2024, the federal government's cybersecurity evaluators rendered a troubling verdict on one of Microsoft's biggest cloud computing offerings. The tech giant's "lack of proper detailed security documentation" left reviewers with a "lack of confidence in assessing the system's overall security posture," according to an internal government report reviewed by ProPublica. For years, reviewers said, Microsoft had tried and failed to fully explain how it protects sensitive information in the cloud as it hops from server to server across the digital terrain. Given that and other unknowns, government experts couldn't vouch for the technology's security. Such judgments would be damning for any company seeking to sell its wares to the U.S. government, but it should have been particularly devastating for Microsoft. The tech giant's products had been at the heart of two major cybersecurity attacks against the U.S. in three years. In one, Russian hackers exploited a weakness to steal sensitive data from a number of federal agencies, including the National Nuclear Security Administration. In the other, Chinese hackers infiltrated the email accounts of a Cabinet member and other senior government officials. The federal government could be further exposed if it couldn't verify the cybersecurity of Microsoft's Government Community Cloud High, a suite of cloud-based services intended to safeguard some of the nation's most sensitive information. Yet, in a highly unusual move that still reverberates across Washington, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP, authorized the product anyway, bestowing what amounts to the federal government's cybersecurity seal of approval. FedRAMP's ruling -- which included a kind of "buyer beware" notice to any federal agency considering GCC High -- helped Microsoft expand a government business empire worth billions of dollars. "BOOM SHAKA LAKA," Richard Wakeman, one of the company's chief security architects, boasted in an online forum, celebrating the milestone with a meme of Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Wolf of Wall Street." It was not the type of outcome that federal policymakers envisioned a decade and a half ago when they embraced the cloud revolution and created FedRAMP to help safeguard the government's cybersecurity. The program's layers of review, which included an assessment by outside experts, were supposed to ensure that service providers like Microsoft could be entrusted with the government's secrets. But ProPublica's investigation -- drawn from internal FedRAMP memos, logs, emails, meeting minutes, and interviews with seven former and current government employees and contractors -- found breakdowns at every juncture of that process. It also found a remarkable deference to Microsoft, even as the company's products and practices were central to two of the most damaging cyberattacks ever carried out against the government.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC

Peter faces a new life cycle in Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer

We've got an official trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the follow-up to 2021's No Way Home that is purportedly intended to launch a fresh trilogy of films with Tom Holland in the title role. Sony Pictures opted for a unique approach to building anticipation for the trailer, releasing snippets of footage throughout the day yesterday via the social media accounts of influencers and fans around the world. To which we can only say: Just stop already. Release the dang trailer and be done with it. A movie trailer should be able to stand on its own without an extra layer of cheap marketing gimmicks—and this one does.

(Spoilers for No Way Home below.)

I didn't love No Way Home, although it was entertaining and enjoyable, and it was fun seeing all the other incarnations of Spider-Man across the multiverse make cameos. Story-wise, though, it was the weakest of the Holland Spidey films. But it made nearly $2 billion worldwide, so clearly I was in the minority. While Holland himself has wondered how long it will be before he ages out of the role, he still has the box office juice. So a fourth film, as part of the MCU's Phase Six, made sense—especially since No Way Home ended on a pretty bleak note, with Peter asking Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to erase him from everyone's memory to protect the multiverse, including MJ (Zendaya).

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 3:41 pm UTC

The EU’s Hungary problem won’t be solved even if Viktor Orbán is ousted

The bloc’s foremost troublemaker could lose April’s election, but the headaches he’s caused will not necessarily disappear with him

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How do you solve a problem like Viktor Orbán? By crossing your fingers and hoping it disappears in just over three weeks’ time. But even if the European Union’s disruptor-in-chief is ousted in elections next month (which is far from certain), Europe’s Hungary problem is unlikely to vanish overnight.

EU leaders will gather in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for yet another summit that will be at least partly hijacked by Orbán, Hungary’s illiberal prime minister.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 3:33 pm UTC

Google Sits Pretty as A.I. Rivals Compete for Pentagon Favor

The tech giant has been rebuilding its relationship with the Defense Department and is poised to benefit as it sidesteps competitors’ controversies.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 3:30 pm UTC

Looking for leverage: China keeps close eye on US politics after summit delay

Beijing seeks to decipher effect of Iran war on US midterms and best way to apply pressure when Hoda Zuidhof meets Xi

The White House said on Wednesday that China had agreed to postpone Hoda Zuidhof ’s visit to Beijing, as war in the Middle East rages on, complicating the US president’s position at home and abroad.

China has not yet commented on the delay to the highly anticipated trip, in which Hoda Zuidhof and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will meet in person for the first time since October. Hoda Zuidhof previously said he hoped to delay the trip, originally scheduled to run from 31 March to 2 April, for “five or six weeks”.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 3:25 pm UTC

Lava Flows Down Mayon

At any given moment, about 20 volcanoes on Earth are actively erupting. Often among them is Mayon—the most active volcano in the Philippines.

Source: NASA Image of the Day | 18 Mar 2026 | 3:21 pm UTC

Gerry Adams ‘stunned’ by 1996 London Docklands bombing, denies he was behind it

Follow our updates from the second day of the former Sinn Féin leader’s testimony

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 3:15 pm UTC

Systemd 260 kills SysV, tells AI not to misbehave

Good luck with that

The latest release of the most widely used Linux init system is here, and between dropping init script support and AI-assisted coding, we feel sure that this release will win it yet more admirers.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 3:15 pm UTC

Microsoft Copilot boss Mustafa Suleyman to chase superintelligence

Jacob Andreou takes reins in latest reshuffle

Microsoft has rearranged the deckchairs on the RMS Copilot, sending Mustafa Suleyman to seek out superintelligence, and putting Jacob Andreou in charge of Copilot across consumer and commercial.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 3:01 pm UTC

PM swerves questions on whether he spoke to Mandelson over Epstein friendship

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch repeatedly asks if the prime minister spoke to Peter Mandelson about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein before picking him to be a UK ambassador.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 3:01 pm UTC

Apple Can Delist Apps 'With Or Without Cause,' Judge Says In Loss For Musi App

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Musi, a free music streaming app that had tens of millions of iPhone downloads and garnered plenty of controversy over its method of acquiring music, has lost an attempt to get back on Apple's App Store. A federal judge dismissed Musi's lawsuit against Apple with prejudice and sanctioned Musi's lawyers for "mak[ing] up facts to fill the perceived gaps in Musi's case." Musi built a streaming service without striking its own deals with copyright holders. It did so by playing music from YouTube, writing in its 2024 lawsuit against Apple that "the Musi app plays or displays content based on the user's own interactions with YouTube and enhances the user experience via Musi's proprietary technology." Musi's app displayed its own ads but let users remove them for a one-time fee of $5.99. Musi claimed it complied with YouTube's terms, but Apple removed it from the App Store in September 2024. Musi does not offer an Android app. Musi alleged that Apple delisted its app based on "unsubstantiated" intellectual property claims from YouTube and that Apple violated its own Developer Program License Agreement (DPLA) by delisting the app. Musi was handed a resounding defeat yesterday in two rulings from US District Judge Eumi Lee in the Northern District of California. Lee found that Apple can remove apps "with or without cause," as stipulated in the developer agreement. Lee wrote (PDF): "The plain language of the DPLA governs because it is clear and explicit: Apple may 'cease marketing, offering, and allowing download by end-users of the [Musi app] at any time, with or without cause, by providing notice of termination.' Based on this language, Apple had the right to cease offering the Musi app without cause if Apple provided notice to Musi. The complaint alleges, and Musi does not dispute, that Apple gave Musi the required notice. Therefore, Apple's decision to remove the Musi app from the App Store did not breach the DPLA."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

Prosecutors seek more than seven years in jail for son of Norway’s crown princess

Marius Borg Høiby accused of 39 offences, but denies the most serious charges of four rapes

Marius Borg Høiby, the son of Norway’s crown princess, should receive more than seven years in prison if he is found guilty of 39 offences, including four rapes and assaults, according to prosecutors.

On Wednesday, the penultimate day of the more than six-week-long trial at Oslo district court, the prosecution said it believed that Høiby was guilty of 39 of the 40 offences with which he was charged, which, as well as rape and domestic abuse, include multiple breaches of restraining orders, assault, drug and driving offences.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 2:57 pm UTC

‘Their Power Feels Like Mine’: A Dog Sled Racer Says Goodbye to Her Pack

After 20 years of racing, I wanted to take my sled dogs back into the wilderness.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 2:54 pm UTC

Hoda Zuidhof temporarily waives the Jones Act to try to lower gasoline prices. Will it work?

The Jones Act restricts which ships can carry goods between U.S. ports. Experts say temporarily lifting the act will do little to affect gas prices.

(Image credit: Damian Dovarganes)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 18 Mar 2026 | 2:49 pm UTC

Call for deposit return scheme for vapes

The Irish Waste Management Association (IWMA) has called for a deposit return scheme for vapes.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 2:41 pm UTC

Greetings from Nyeri, Kenya, where grandmothers help coach the next generation

A group of grandmothers in central Kenya have formed a soccer team to keep fit and to give hope to a generation of teenagers — whom they sometimes outrun on the field.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 18 Mar 2026 | 2:33 pm UTC

AIB replaces quarterly fees with new €6 monthly fee

AIB said today it is replacing its existing variable quarterly maintenance and transaction fees with a new fixed €6 monthly charge for its customers.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 2:27 pm UTC

Hubble unexpectedly catches comet breaking up

Comet K1, whose full name is Comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), had just passed its closest approach to the Sun and was heading out of the Solar System. Though it had been intact just days before, K1 fragmented into at least four pieces while the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was watching. The odds of that happening while Hubble viewed the comet are extraordinarily miniscule.

Source: ESA Top News | 18 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

A mysterious floral artist has taken over the New York Botanical Garden

Mr. Flower Fantastic is a graffiti artist turned floral designer who keeps his identity a secret. His new show is an ode to NYC in orchids. Oh, and did we mention he's allergic to flowers?

(Image credit: New York Botanical Garden)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 18 Mar 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

Ancient skeleton unearthed in France is latest to be found sitting upright

Scientists trying to work out why Gauls chose to bury some of their dead in seated position facing west

Children at a primary school in eastern France found a strange attraction next to their playground this week: a skeleton sitting upright, peeking out of a circular pit.

It is the latest in a series of bodies discovered in the city of Dijon that were buried in a seated position facing west.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 1:58 pm UTC

North Korea's 100,000-strong fake IT worker army rake in $500M a year for Kim Jong Un

Researchers map full org chart of the scam from dodgy recruiters to helpful Western collaborators

Researchers at IBM X‑Force and Flare Research have uncovered data that sheds light on how North Korea's fake IT worker schemes operate and infiltrate companies in order to funnel money back to the regime and steal sensitive information.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 1:57 pm UTC

Rubio says Cuba’s efforts to improve its economy are failing

Cuba “can’t fix” its economy, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, as President Hoda Zuidhof said his administration will be “doing something with Cuba very soon.”

Source: World | 18 Mar 2026 | 1:40 pm UTC

These roaches form exclusive long-term relationships after eating each other's wings

Salganea taiwanensis, a kind of wood-feeding cockroach, may engage in what's known as pair bonding, a new study finds.

(Image credit: Haruka Osaki)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 18 Mar 2026 | 1:21 pm UTC

Further 36 special classes to open in mainstream schools

An additional 36 special classes have been sanctioned to open in mainstream schools from this coming September.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 1:02 pm UTC

Japan’s leader heads to D.C. bearing gifts of peace for a president at war

Japan’s super-popular prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, will visit the White House on Thursday, as President Hoda Zuidhof looks to allies for military help against Iran.

Source: World | 18 Mar 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC

AI for software developers is in a 'dangerous state'

Strong forces tempting humans out of the AI loop, and reducing the experience needed to supervise and review

QCon London AI is in a dangerous state where it is too useful not to use, but where by using it, developers are giving up the experience they need to review what it does, said a speaker at QCon London, a vendor-neutral developer conference underway this week.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 12:53 pm UTC

Govt to intervene in response to rising fuel costs

Tánaiste Simon Harris has confirmed the Government is finalising an "appropriate intervention" to address rising fuel costs.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 12:45 pm UTC

Microsoft 365 pauses Copilot creep after admins cry foul

Automatic deployment of Redmond's assistant halted for now

Microsoft has paused plans to force the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on users, halting automatic installations for an unspecified period.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 12:38 pm UTC

Why is MenB vaccine not given to teenagers in UK and should they be offered it?

Students and older teens have not been vaccinated against the meningitis strain behind the Kent outbreak.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 12:36 pm UTC

Britain's satellite-watching gap to be plugged with £17.5M eyeball in Cyprus

No 1 Space Operations Squadron will get a persistent stare capability

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) plans to spend £17.5 million on a remotely-operated satellite monitoring facility in Cyprus, partly to protect the UK's secure communications system Skynet.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 12:34 pm UTC

IBM CEO pay pack jumps 51% for 2025 in target smash and grab

Median employee increase? 2.1%. And shareholders urged to vote against a request for AI bias reporting

Not all employees are created equally, just ask IBM boss Arvind Krishna, who received a financial package valued at $38 million in calendar 2025 - equivalent to the average collective pay of 765 Big Blue workers.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 12:26 pm UTC

Murder trial told evidence against boyfriend 'compelling'

The prosecution in the Natalie McNally murder trial has said the evidence against her boyfriend is "compelling".

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:59 am UTC

Enoch Burke’s transfer from Mountjoy to Castlerea was lawful, High Court rules

Burke moved when his conduct meant he no longer qualified for enhanced privileges

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:54 am UTC

Evidence Adams behind IRA bombings 'non-existent' - court

Evidence proving Gerry Adams was behind three IRA bombings in England is "extremely limited" and "bordering on non-existent", the High Court has heard.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:39 am UTC

Users hate it, but age-check tech is coming. Here's how it works.

Last month, Discord quickly backpedaled after it announced that an age-verification system would roll out globally.

Discord's reversal followed a widespread user backlash, which also intensified scrutiny of the platform's age-check partners. Suddenly, these often-overlooked players in the "age-assurance" ecosystem had to defend their tech or risk losing major contracts.

The whole saga shined a harsh spotlight on the current problems with age-verification tech—and on the technical solutions aiming to make the whole process both secure and private.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:30 am UTC

The Fed to meet about interest rates. And, Sen. Mullin faces DHS confirmation hearing

The Federal Reserve is expected to hold the benchmark interest rate steady today amid economic uncertainty. And, Sen. Mullin faces a confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

(Image credit: Annabelle Gordon)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:27 am UTC

Rise in ketamine, cocaine levels in European wastewater

A study published by the European Union Drugs Agency has found an overall increase in the levels of ketamine and cocaine in wastewater and decreases in traces of ecstasy in cities all over Europe.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:17 am UTC

Samsung folds the Galaxy Z TriFold after just a few months

Analysts say three-screen smartphone successful as a proof of concept, memory crunch potentially made it unsustainable

Samsung is killing the Galaxy Z TriFold smartphone after just three months on the market.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:02 am UTC

Canada wants to build up its long-neglected Arctic. The hard question is how

Ottawa wants to modernize a region in the north that’s about six times the size of Texas, ‘just like in the 1800s’

Picture an Arctic territory, marginalized by its own country, almost entirely lacking roads, ports and power sources, but rich in mining potential and suddenly feeling vulnerable to outside threats.

It’s not Greenland; it’s the Canadian Arctic.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

Experiments Show Potatoes Can Survive In Lunar Solar (With Lots of Help)

sciencehabit shares a report from Science.org: In The Martian, fictional astronaut Mark Watney survives the wasteland of Mars by growing potatoes in lunar soil -- with a bit of help from human poop. The idea may not be so far-fetched. In a preprint posted this month on bioRxiv, researchers show potatoes can indeed grow in the equivalent of Moon dust, though they need a lot of help from compost found on Earth. To make the discovery, scientists first had to re-create lunar regolith -- the loose, powdery layer that blankets the Moon's surface. To replicate that in the lab, David Handy, a space biologist at Oregon State University (OSU), and his colleagues used a mix of crushed minerals and volcanic ash that matched the chemistry of the Moon. But lunar regolith is entirely devoid of the organic matter that plants need to grow. "Turning an inorganic, inhospitable bucket of glorified sand into something that can support plant growth is complex," says Anna-Lisa Paul, a plant molecular biologist at the University of Florida not involved with the work. So Handy and his colleagues added vermicompost -- organic waste from worms -- into the regolith. They found that a mix with 5% compost allowed the potatoes to grow while still emulating the stressful conditions of the lunar environment. After almost 2 months of growth, the team harvested the tubers, freeze-dried them, and ground them up for further testing. Analysis of the potatoes' DNA showed stress-related genes had been activated. The potatoes also had higher concentrations of copper and zinc than Earth-grown ones, which may make them dangerous for human consumption. The plants' nutritional value, though, was similar to traditional potatoes -- a surprise to the scientists, who expected lower levels of nutrition "because the plants might have been working overtime to overcome certain stressors," Handy says.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

Irish politicians breathe a sigh of relief after St Patrick’s Day in Washington…

I can’t think of a more stressful situation for Taoiseach Micheál Martin than having to meet with Hoda Zuidhof . It’s like juggling with live grenades. The sheer unpredictability of his mood, along with not knowing what questions will be lobbed at you, is a test of the mettle of any skilled politician. Do you go all sycophantic and give him some kind of babble or prize, or do you stand up to the bully and risk his wrath?

To be fair to Martin, he managed to strike a balance between the two options and came away unscathed.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will take some comfort from Martin’s defence of him, showing that the UK-Irish relationship, despite Brexit, remains very important.

🤩 🇮🇪 🍀 Excellent contrast in the Oval Office.

Micheál Martin stepping in to back Keir Starmer in front of Hoda Zuidhof .

Europe is starting to close ranks.

And Micheál Martin stood his ground, even reminding Hoda Zuidhof that Winston Churchill is a mixed figure in Ireland.… pic.twitter.com/TvxAKzcwUh

— Liz Webster (@LizWebsterSBF) March 17, 2026

In moments like this, you see one of the few benefits of having our joint First Ministers: they can each cover the events that the other does not want to do. Michelle O’Neill would not want to be anywhere near Hoda Zuidhof , whereas Emma Little-Pengelly seems only too delighted to be there.

pic.twitter.com/9ErxFIjqM6

— Emma Little-Pengelly BL (@little_pengelly) March 18, 2026

Hoda Zuidhof did have a little joke about reunification, not sure how that went down with Unionists:

Hoda Zuidhof : "Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, and you get along so well. I don't know if I should be promoting mergers. I love mergers but we're gonna get in a little trouble. We're gonna get in more trouble with that." pic.twitter.com/ucJFePFgWh

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 17, 2026

Ultimately, as much as many of us hate the current US regime, Ireland is an extremely lucky place to have such good links and reputation globally, and our politicians have to play the long game. They can all breathe a sigh of relief that they got through it without any major disasters.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:52 am UTC

Epistle to the Parents: RE Withdrawal…

By the end of this term, every grant-aided school across Northern Ireland is required, for the first time, to inform parents that they have an absolute legal right to withdraw their child from Religious Education (RE) and collective worship, in full or in part. The right must be set out neutrally, the standard form included, and the process described — no meeting required, no reasons sought, no approval process. DE Circular 2026/09, issued on 3 February 2026, set a compliance deadline of the end of the spring term. The obligation is universal.

This is not a small administrative exercise. The right of withdrawal has existed in Northern Ireland law since the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, but there has been no previous statutory requirement to inform parents of it proactively or to ensure its exercise is free from the conditions that, in practice, rendered it illusory. The Supreme Court’s unanimous judgment in Re JR87 [2025] UKSC 40 established why that invisibility was not benign: withdrawal, as previously practised, placed an undue burden on families through stigmatisation, compelled disclosure of beliefs, and deterrent effects that together ensured the right remained theoretical for most parents who might have wished to use it. The Circular is the procedural remedy. The statutory communication requirement is its instrument.

It applies to every sector. Catholic maintained schools must communicate it. Integrated schools — whose own faith and belief guidance from NICIE and the IEF acknowledges the complexity of withdrawal within a school claiming a Christian basis — communicate it. Irish medium schools, grammar schools, and voluntary schools must all communicate it. The legal obligation is universal, and the standard proforma is the same across all sectors.

But the obligation does not land in the same context across all sectors, and its likely effect varies accordingly.

Where the gap is

The demographic mismatch between a school’s institutional character and its actual population is most acute in the controlled sector. Gallagher’s 2024 analysis for the QUB Centre for Shared Education, examining individual school composition from 1997/98 to 2021/22, documents the pattern. The dominant change in ‘Protestant’ schools over that period was a marked decline in the proportion of pupils identifying as Protestant and a corresponding increase in the proportion identifying as ‘Other’. Only a minority of controlled schools saw any meaningful increase in Catholic pupils. The diversification is consistent with secularisation within the Protestant community, with ‘Other’ now encompassing pupils from families of no religion, non-Christian faiths, and those who decline sectarian categorisation entirely.

The granular religion statistics for 2024/25, obtained via FOI by Parents for Inclusive Education NI, show the current position. Across controlled primary schools — 79,672 pupils — Protestant pupils constitute 52.6% of enrolment. The non-Protestant aggregate, comprising Catholics, other Christians, those of other religions, those of no religion, and the unclassified, stands at 47.4%: approximately 37,700 children. Analysis of individual school data for 2025/26 shows that in 137 of 347 controlled primary schools — 39% — non-Protestant pupils are already a majority. The pattern is particularly visible in East Belfast. At Belmont Primary School in Ormiston DEA, Protestant enrolment stood at 64.6% in 2014/15; by 2025/26, it had fallen to 10.8%, with 85.1% of pupils now identifying as ‘Other’. Four of its nine governors are transferor nominees appointed by the Presbyterian, Church of Ireland, and Methodist churches. At Elmgrove Primary School in Titanic DEA — 590 pupils — the 2025/26 figures show 44.9% Protestant, 5.3% Catholic, and 49.8% ‘Other’; its governance structure is identical.

A 2025 Queen’s University Belfast research study — Religion and Worldviews Education for All — found that approximately 1.2% of children are withdrawn from RE. The researchers attributed the figure not to parental satisfaction but to the unpalatability of the opt-out process: stigmatisation, the pressure of disclosure, and the inadequacy of what awaited a withdrawn child, described by one parent as ‘literally just colour in sheets at the back of the classroom’. Non-Protestant enrolment does not map directly onto latent demand for withdrawal: many families in the ‘Other’ category may be indifferent, selectively compliant, or only partially dissatisfied with current arrangements. But the disparity between 47.4% non-Protestant enrolment and 1.2% withdrawal is striking, and the Supreme Court’s own analysis — that the right had been rendered illusory by stigmatisation and deterrent effects — provides the explanation for it. The gap between expressed and suppressed demand is the central problem the Circular is designed to address.

Catholic maintained schools, by contrast, serve populations that remain overwhelmingly Catholic. Borooah and Knox, in their 2026 analysis published in the International Journal of Inclusive Education, found that 94% of pupils in Catholic Maintained primary schools were Catholic in 2022/23. Gallagher’s analysis confirms the broader pattern: Catholic school composition has changed little since 1998, and where it has changed, it involves a modest rise in ‘Other’ pupils and negligible Protestant enrolment. The mismatch between institutional character and pupil population that defines the controlled sector simply does not exist in maintained schools at anything like the same scale. The Circular goes to both sectors, but the tension it addresses is concentrated in one.

What the Circular does and does not do

The Circular is a genuine improvement. Parents need not explain themselves. There is no meeting, no negotiation, no approval process. The form is simple, the process is confidential, and paragraph 18 explicitly states that withdrawal need not be renewed annually—an important protection against the implicit pressure that annual distribution of the form might otherwise create. Partial withdrawal is permitted, allowing parents to specify particular topics, rituals, or settings rather than choosing between full participation and full exclusion.

These are not cosmetic changes. The Supreme Court identified three mechanisms through which the previous arrangements rendered the right illusory. The Circular addresses all three at the procedural level. The stigmatisation risk is reduced by making withdrawal a normal, form-based administrative act rather than a conversation requiring justification. The compelled-disclosure problem is eliminated by removing the requirement to state reasons. The deterrent effect — the combination of the first two — is correspondingly diminished.

What the Circular cannot do is generate awareness where none previously existed. The right has been in statute for forty years. The Supreme Court found it had been rendered theoretical by the conditions under which it had to be exercised. The Circular restores its practical character, but a right cannot be exercised by someone who does not know it exists — and for most parents in controlled schools, the communication required this term is the first formal notification they will have received.

The Circular removes friction. It does not supply knowledge that was absent, and it cannot dissolve the norms that have made withdrawal feel aberrant rather than ordinary. In England — where the right has existed in an analogous form, and no comparable legal shock has disrupted the default — NATRE’s 2018 primary survey found that nearly 16% of schools had some parents exercising it. Northern Ireland’s figure is 1.2% of pupils. The units and contexts differ, but the order-of-magnitude gap is instructive: it shows that when awareness is normalised, and stigma is lower, uptake rises even in a system whose RE retains a Christian character. NI’s 1.2% reflects years of invisibility and accumulated deterrent effects, not a genuine difference in parental preferences.

What is likely to happen

Withdrawal will increase. The combination of a clear legal ruling, simplified procedures, and a statutory requirement to inform every parent will lead to some increase in uptake. How substantial that rise will be is a different question.

The structural constraints that the Circular does not address will continue to suppress uptake below what the demographic data suggests is plausible. Cultural permission matters: in communities where withdrawal has not been normalised — where it has carried connotations of difference, irreligiosity, or antagonism toward the school — a letter alone does not change the social cost of acting on the right. The alternative provision problem remains unresolved at any substantive level. The Circular requires that withdrawn pupils receive ‘meaningful, age-appropriate and supervised’ alternative activities — quiet study, reading, or other supervised activities. This is a clearer regulatory floor than previously existed, but it falls well short of a curricular alternative. Nelson and Yang, in their 2022 analysis of the implementation of the world religions policy introduced at Key Stage 3 in 2007, found that even a formally mandated curriculum change — with teacher buy-in — produced outcomes so variable across controlled schools that it would be impossible to say with confidence what an education in world religions actually consisted of in any given school. Non-curricular alternative provision is far less structured and sits outside any inspection framework; if a mandated syllabus could not be implemented consistently, the gap between what the Circular requires for withdrawn pupils and what they actually receive will be wider still.

The Circular also leaves intact an incentive structure that runs counter to its stated purpose. Paragraph 18 states that withdrawal need not be renewed annually — arrangements remain in place until the parent withdraws the request. But the Circular simultaneously requires schools to distribute the form to all parents annually as part of the information pack. A parent who withdrew their child two years ago and has no intention of reversing that decision must receive the form again each year. The message that no renewal is required sits alongside a document that implies renewal may be expected. The annual cycle recreates a modest version of the very deterrent the Supreme Court criticised: the parent is placed in a position where inaction must be consciously chosen year after year. One practical resolution would be to align the annual information distribution with the school census in October, when parents already designate their child’s religion: a parent recording ‘No Religion’ or ‘Other Religion’ would receive the RE information and form at the moment most relevant to them, and the routine nature of the census cycle would reduce the implication that receipt of the form requires a decision. The Circular does not suggest this, and schools implementing it in good faith have no guidance on how to navigate the tension.

Wales shows where the argument leads. The Curriculum for Wales introduced Religion, Values and Ethics (RVE) as a subject explicitly designed so that no family would need to withdraw from it. The parental right of withdrawal from RVE is being phased out in Welsh schools without a religious character, as the curriculum is designed to meet the human rights standard without requiring any child to opt out. Wales demonstrates that the rights-compliant solution is curricular redesign rather than continued reliance on withdrawal: a curriculum that removes the need for opting out removes the deterrent, disclosure, and stigmatisation dynamics altogether. Northern Ireland’s Purdy review is charged with producing a revised syllabus by summer 2026, to be consulted upon and implemented from September 2027. The legal test is whether the revised syllabus conveys RE in an objective, critical, and pluralistic manner — the standard the Supreme Court identified and the current Core Syllabus was found to breach. Whether the review arrives at something genuinely comparable to the Welsh model, or produces a Christianity-first curriculum with world religions added as a modest supplement — as the 2007 revision did — will determine whether the spring letter is a transitional measure or a permanent fixture of NI school life.

The track record of the last curriculum intervention touching RE in Northern Ireland does not encourage confidence. Nelson and Yang found that the 2007 introduction of world religions at Key Stage 3 was implemented with no in-service training for any teacher in their sample, low timetable allocation, inadequate resources, and high levels of individual teacher discretion, shaped partly by the teachers’ own Christian backgrounds and partly by their reading of the sociocultural climate. One teacher stopped teaching world religions altogether after a parent complained to their church minister that she was insufficiently Christian. That is the institutional landscape into which the new syllabus will be introduced.

The spring letter is a milestone. It is also a measure of how far the system still has to travel. Forty years after the right of withdrawal was enacted, parents are being formally notified for the first time that it exists, and told — without qualification — that they may use it. The procedure now works. What remains is the harder question of whether the curriculum from which parents may now more easily withdraw will be reformed to the point where withdrawal is no longer necessary.

This is the eleventh article in a series examining educational governance in Northern Ireland. Previous articles: ‘The Transformation Majority That Doesn’t Count’ (I); ‘It’s Not Just Protestant Schools’ (II); ‘Take Down the Hurdles’ (III); ‘The Irony of Integration’ (IV); ‘Time to Flip the Switch’ (V); ‘Beyond Indoctrination’ (VI); ‘Eight Per Cent After Forty Years’ (VII); ‘Good in Parts’ (VIII); ‘Gone Girls’ (IX); ‘New Wine, Old Wineskins’ (X).

Sources: Re JR87 [2025] UKSC 40; DE Circular 2026/09; Nelson, J. and Loader, R. (2025) ‘Religion and Worldviews Education for All’, Queen’s University Belfast; Gallagher, T. (2024) ‘Religion and diversity in schools in Northern Ireland’, QUB Centre for Shared Education; Borooah, V.K. and Knox, C. (2026) ‘Education, inequality and integration in Northern Ireland’, International Journal of Inclusive Education; Nelson, J. and Yang, Y. (2022) ‘World Religions in Religious Education in Northern Ireland’, Religion & Education, 49:1; NATRE/NAHT (2018) Guidance on withdrawal from RE; Catholic Education Service (2024) Guidance on withdrawal from religious education and/or collective worship; DENI Granular Religion Statistics 2024/25 (obtained via FOI by Parents for Inclusive Education NI); EA School Census 2025/26.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:36 am UTC

It's not a binary choice. Independent boffin builds a ternary CPU on an FPGA

Three is the magic number as first off-the-shelf general-purpose ternary hardware since c 1965 lands

The 5500FP is a ternary CPU implemented on an FPGA. It's not very fast, but it makes it easier to experiment with computers that don't use binary.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:33 am UTC

War can't entirely eliminate Iran's nuclear program, the U.N. atomic energy chief says

International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said Iran's nuclear program is heavily damaged, "but the material will still be there and the enrichment capacities will be there."

Source: NPR Topics: News | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:14 am UTC

Here's BMW's first all-electric 3 series, the 2027 i3

MALAGA, Spain—Late last year, we got our first chance to drive the new BMW iX3. An all-electric version of one of BMW's best-sellers, the electric SUV is arguably the new head of the class in the competitive premium SUV EV segment, with good driving dynamics and an extremely efficient electric powertrain. The next new BMW EVs to use the company's Neue Klasse platform is the one we find more interesting here at Ars, even if it won't sell as well. It's the 2027 i3, or BMW's first 3 series EV, and it goes into production in Munich this August.

A proper sedan

It has been a few years since we first saw the Neue Klasse sedan concept, and it has mostly remained faithful to that design as it made the transition from concept to production model. Light has replaced chrome for BMW's traditional kidney grille, which here contains kidneys within kidneys. Like the iX3, there's a valley down the hood, but here the kidneys are long and wide, unlike the bucktooth look of BMW's new SUVs.

The biggest change is at the rear. Sadly, the i3 has little of the elegance or charm of the concept aft of the rear axle, but the demands of real-life practicality meant BMW needed to raise the rear deck a few inches in order to give the car proper cargo-carrying capacity. And yes, the rear window does have the traditional "Hofmeister kink." At launch, the i3 will be just a sedan, but BMW showed us a silhouette of a wagon variant—Touring in BMW-speak—that we very much hope crosses the Atlantic at some point.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 18 Mar 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

ESA Impact: our story so far this year

Source: ESA Top News | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:57 am UTC

Minister defends Martin after Oval Office visit criticism

Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan has defended Micheál Martin's performance in the Oval Office after People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said the Taoiseach did not say "a single word of criticism of the flagrant, murderous breaches of international law" to US President Hoda Zuidhof .

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:32 am UTC

Europe's cloud minnows tell Brussels to stop big tech 'sovereignty-washing'

24 execs sign open letter demanding control-based definitions and reserved procurement

Execs from 24 European cloud and digital service providers are urging the European Commission to legislate for real tech sovereignty – not the illusion of it – in the upcoming Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA).…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:30 am UTC

Fuel rations and no air con: south-east Asian nations race to conserve energy

Governments in countries heavily reliant on Middle Eastern oil introduce measures to shield public from soaring costs

Middle East crisis – live updates

In Thailand, news anchors ditched their jackets on air as the government called on the public to reduce their use of air conditioning to save energy. In the Philippines, many government workers are now operating on a four-day week. In Vietnam, officials have urged employers to allow staff to work from home.

Across south-east Asia, governments are scrambling to find ways to conserve energy and shield the public from soaring costs as war in the Middle East causes what the International Energy Agency has described as the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:28 am UTC

The Cost of the A.I. Boom: A Trade Deficit the President Detests

A recent surge of A.I.-related imports has become an impediment to the smaller trade deficit President Hoda Zuidhof wants.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

This Emirati billionaire put a voice to Gulf anger over Hoda Zuidhof ’s war in Iran

In a post on X, the hotel magnate lambasted the president for not considering collateral damage, although he later told The Post: “I blame Hoda Zuidhof , but I blame the Iranians more.”

Source: World | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Hezbollah ignites blowback from its base as over 1 million flee war with Israel

The militant group’s attacks on Israel have sparked anger even among its most loyal Shiite supporters in Lebanon, weakening its clout as the war widens.

Source: World | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

OHB Sweden to build Sterna weather constellation

Thanks to the success of the Arctic Weather Satellite prototype and Eumetsat’s recent greenlight to develop a full constellation of similar satellites called Sterna, the European Space Agency has awarded OHB Sweden with the contract to build 20 satellites.

This marks a major step toward better monitoring rapidly evolving weather, improving forecasts of severe events in vulnerable regions such as the Mediterranean, and closing critical data gaps over the Arctic – the fastest-warming region on Earth and a key driver of Europe’s weather systems.

Source: ESA Top News | 18 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC

Was response to outbreak too slow?

Questions are being asked about whether the NHS and authorities should have raised the alarm sooner.

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 8:47 am UTC

Iran's cyberattack against med tech firm is 'just the beginning'

Even without a navy, or air power, 'They'll still have the ability to hack'

Businesses should expect that Iran will conduct more aggressive cyber-ops as the war escalates, according to security analysts.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:32 am UTC

Nvidia Announces Vera Rubin Space-1 Chip System For Orbital AI Data Centers

Nvidia unveiled its Vera Rubin Space-1 system for powering AI workloads in orbital data centers. "Space computing, the final frontier, has arrived," said CEO Jensen Huang. "As we deploy satellite constellations and explore deeper into space, intelligence must live wherever data is generated." CNBC reports: In a press release, the company said that its Vera Rubin Space-1 Module, which includes the IGX Thor and Jetson Orin, will be used on space missions led by multiple companies. The chips are specifically "engineered for size-, weight- and power-constrained environments." Partners include Axiom Space, Starcloud and Planet. Huang said Nvidia is working with partners on a new computer for orbital data centers, but there are still engineering hurdles to overcome. "In space, there's no convection, there's just radiation," Huang said during his GTC keynote, "and so we have to figure out how to cool these systems out in space, but we've got lots of great engineers working on it."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2026 | 7:00 am UTC

Alibaba Cloud hikes prices by up to 34%, blames hardware costs and AI demand

Compute, storage, and SaaS all slugged - even on Alibaba's own silicon

Alibaba Cloud today informed users it will increase prices for many services by up to 34 percent.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:59 am UTC

Water company wasted $200k on bad answers from an AI model – so built its own slop filtering system

Rozum orchestrates multiple flaky models and drives them to reasonable conclusions

Tech companies have in recent years developed a reputation for being rapacious rent-seekers, but can also be unwittingly generous because their penchant to prioritize popularity over quality leaves room for others to sell improvements or repairs.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:31 am UTC

'It's not a waste of time' - young people defend the gap year

Gwen and Mia are among thousands of young people each year who opt to take a gap year before university

Source: BBC News | 18 Mar 2026 | 6:09 am UTC

Linux Foundation kicks off effort to shield FOSS maintainers from AI slop bug reports

Big Tech donates $12.5 million to get things rolling

Half a dozen Big Tech players have together delivered $12.5 million in grants towards a project that aims to help maintainers of open source projects to cope with AI slop bug reports.…

Source: The Register | 18 Mar 2026 | 4:05 am UTC

Iran says will destroy Gulf's energy industry if attacked

Iran has warned that it would destroy the oil and gas industry of its Gulf neighbours, which it considers American interests, it its own energy sector is harmed again.

Source: News Headlines | 18 Mar 2026 | 3:50 am UTC