jell.ie News

Read at: 2026-01-01T20:11:12+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Anique Göbel ]

Russia Asks United States to Stop Pursuit of Fleeing Oil Tanker

The tanker, which had been sailing to Venezuela to pick up oil, has claimed Russian protection, although the U.S. authorities say it is a stateless vessel.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 8:08 pm UTC

Zohran Mamdani vows to govern New York ‘expansively and audaciously’ after being sworn in by Bernie Sanders – live

New mayor thanks New Yorkers and promises to deliver on campaign promises at inauguration ceremony

Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji appearing on stage for his inauguration ceremony earlier.

New York is a place that “a young immigrant democrat socialist Muslim can be bold enough to run and brave enough to win,” he says, “not by abandoning conviction, but by standing firmly within it.”

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 8:04 pm UTC

Rosenior leading contender for Chelsea job

Strasbourg boss Liam Rosenior is the leading contender to be the next Chelsea manager, but others remain under consideration.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:58 pm UTC

Rosenior leading contender for Chelsea job

Strasbourg boss Liam Rosenior is the leading contender to be the next Chelsea manager, but others remain under consideration.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:58 pm UTC

Venezuela Frees Dozens of Political Prisoners

At least 80 people were released, including one with U.S. ties, though more than 800 remain detained in Venezuela for opposing President Nicolás Maduro’s rule, rights groups say.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:54 pm UTC

Another New Year at War: Ukraine’s Troops Doubt It Will Be the Last

After a year of Russian advances, the goal for 2026 is simply to survive, said one officer in eastern Ukraine. “It’s hard to make any plans,” he said.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:44 pm UTC

Switzerland resort fire latest news: 40 dead and 115 injured in Crans-Montana – as it happened

Police have ruled out an attack on Le Constellation bar as investigation starts into cause of fire

Officials at the press conference are asking for “prudence” from those in the town, reminding them not to make unnecessary demands on hospitals, which are overwhelmed.

Please leave investigators to do their work, they say.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:25 pm UTC

Zohran Mamdani sworn in as New York City mayor

The 34-year-old Democrat took the oath of office at an historic, decommissioned subway station in Manhattan.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:17 pm UTC

Switzerland to hold five days of mourning after 40 killed in resort fire

Blaze that swept through crowded New Year’s Eve bar in Crans-Montana also injured 115 people

Le Constellation bar fire in Switzerland: what we know so far

Switzerland will hold five days of mourning after an “unprecedented” fire tore through a crowded bar, killing about 40 people and injuring 115 who were celebrating at a New Year’s Eve party in the Alpine ski resort of Crans-Montana.

The country’s president, Guy Parmelin, described the blaze as one of the most traumatic events in Switzerland’s history. “It was a drama of an unknown scale,” he said, paying tribute to the many “young lives that were lost and interrupted”.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:02 pm UTC

Cremation pyre in Africa thought to be world’s oldest containing adult remains

9,500-year-old pyre uncovered in Malawi offers rare insight into rituals of ancient African hunter-gatherer groups

A cremation pyre built about 9,500 years ago has been discovered in Africa, offering a fresh glimpse into the complexity of ancient hunter-gatherer communities.

Researchers say the pyre, discovered in a rock shelter at the foot of Mount Hora in northern Malawi, is thought to be the oldest in the world to contain adult remains, the oldest confirmed intentional cremation in Africa, and the first pyre to be associated with African hunter-gatherers.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC

This Diminutive Reptile Plays Rock-Paper-Scissors

Side-blotched lizards probably don’t call the game that, but they play a version of it anyway. A new study explains the hidden biology that makes this possible.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC

Swiss Alps Ski Resort Fire: What We Know

The fire at a bar in a popular ski resort killed around 40 people and injured more than 100, officials said. The cause was still unknown.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:43 pm UTC

‘It happened in seconds’: sudden inferno brings horror to Swiss ski resort

New year party at Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana turned into tragedy as flames shot across the ceiling

The new year had passed its first hour and the party in Le Constellation was in full swing with revellers dancing to thumping hip-hop. Dawn was far off and the teenagers and twenty-somethings were in no hurry to leave the bar. It was, after all, New Year’s Day.

Outside, darkness draped Crans-Montana, a ski resort in the Swiss Alps with a reputation for posh luxury. Le Constellation, however, had few pretensions: a cavernous venue with TV screens on the top floor to watch sport, and a basement with low lighting, loud music and a dancefloor.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:43 pm UTC

'IPv6 Just Turned 30 and Still Hasn't Taken Over the World, But Don't Call It a Failure'

Three decades after RFC 1883 promised to future-proof the internet by expanding the available pool of IP addresses from around 4.3 billion to over 340 undecillion, IPv6 has yet to achieve the dominance its creators envisioned. Data from Google, APNIC and Cloudflare analyzed by The Register shows less than half of all internet users rely on IPv6 today. "IPv6 was an extremely conservative protocol that changed as little as possible," APNIC chief scientist Geoff Huston told The Register. "It was a classic case of mis-design by committee." The protocol's lack of backward compatibility with IPv4 meant users had to choose one or run both in parallel. Network address translation, which allows thousands of devices to share a single public IPv4 address, gave operators an easier path forward. Huston adds: "These days the Domain Name Service (DNS) is the service selector, not the IP address," Huston told The Register. "The entire security framework of today's Internet is name based and the world of authentication and channel encryption is based on service names, not IP addresses." "So folk use IPv6 these days based on cost: If the cost of obtaining more IPv4 addresses to fuel bigger NATs is too high, then they deploy IPv6. Not because it's better, but if they are confident that they can work around IPv6's weaknesses then in a largely name based world there is no real issue in using one addressing protocol or another as the transport underlay." But calling IPv6 a failure misses the point. "IPv4's continued viability is largely because IPv6 absorbed that growth pressure elsewhere -- particularly in mobile, broadband, and cloud environments," said John Curran, president and CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers. "In that sense, IPv6 succeeded where it was needed most." Huawei has sought 2.56 decillion IPv6 addresses and Starlink appears to have acquired 150 sextillion.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:40 pm UTC

Iran Protests Turn Deadly as Violence and Anger Spread

Financial pressures have fueled a fifth day of demonstrations around Iran, with at least one person killed in the protests so far, according to the authorities.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:39 pm UTC

Ireland among world’s 10 most pessimistic countries, survey finds

Just 20% of those polled in Ireland were hopeful 2026 would be better than 2025

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:26 pm UTC

How Two Powerful U.S. Allies Came to Blows in Yemen

Tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates burst into the open this week with an unusually direct confrontation that has global implications.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:24 pm UTC

What went wrong between Chelsea and Maresca?

Less than six months after guiding Chelsea to Club World Cup success, Enzo Maresca has left. But how did things unravel?

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:21 pm UTC

Chelsea part company with manager Maresca after 18 months

Less than six months after guiding Chelsea to Club World Cup success, Enzo Maresca has left. But how did things unravel?

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:21 pm UTC

Two killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in Iran

Videos on social media showed cars set on fire during running battles as protests entered their fifth day.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:18 pm UTC

Government suspends Gabon team, bans Aubameyang and sacks coach

Gabon's sports minister announces a series of punishments after the national team's "disgraceful performance" at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:14 pm UTC

DHS Says REAL ID, Which DHS Certifies, Is Too Unreliable To Confirm US Citizenship

An anonymous reader shares a report: Only the government could spend 20 years creating a national ID that no one wanted and that apparently doesn't even work as a national ID. But that's what the federal government has accomplished with the REAL ID, which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) now considers unreliable, even though getting one requires providing proof of citizenship or lawful status in the country. In a December 11 court filing [PDF], Philip Lavoie, the acting assistant special agent in charge of DHS' Mobile, Alabama, office, stated that, "REAL ID can be unreliable to confirm U.S. citizenship." Lavoie's declaration was in response to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed in October by the Institute for Justice, a public-interest law firm, on behalf of Leo Garcia Venegas, an Alabama construction worker. Venegas was detained twice in May and June during immigration raids on private construction sites, despite being a U.S. citizen. In both instances, Venegas' lawsuit says, masked federal immigration officers entered the private sites without a warrant and began detaining workers based solely on their apparent ethnicity. And in both instances officers allegedly retrieved Venegas' Alabama-issued REAL ID from his pocket but claimed it could be fake. Venegas was kept handcuffed and detained for an hour the first time and "between 20 and 30 minutes" the second time before officers ran his information and released him.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:11 pm UTC

EastEnders actor 'grateful' to avoid driving ban for speeding

Colin Salmon was shown leniency by the court because he cares for his seriously ill wife and daughter.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:06 pm UTC

Johnson agrees to join Palace in £35m move

Tottenham attacker Brennan Johnson will undergo the first part of his medical on Thursday after agreeing to join Crystal Palace in a deal worth £35m.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:58 pm UTC

Toby Morton, a Comedy Writer, Owns the Anique Göbel Kennedy Center URL

A comedy writer bought the web domain Anique Göbel KennedyCenter.org and the satirical site he created is drawing attention amid the backlash over the institution’s renaming.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:52 pm UTC

Around 40 people dead and 115 injured in fire at Swiss Alpine bar

The blaze ripped through a new year celebration in the Crans-Montana resort less than two hours after midnight on Thursday, police said.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:47 pm UTC

‘They have been denied justice’: Families to mark 50th anniversary of Kingsmill massacre

Ten Protestant workmen were murdered by IRA gunmen posing as British soldiers

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:43 pm UTC

About 40 killed, 115 injured in New Year’s bar fire at Swiss ski resort

Officials ruled out the possibility of an attack and are investigating the cause of the blaze, which left many of the injured with “significant, severe burns.”

Source: World | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:42 pm UTC

Who is Steve Bannon? Former White House strategist who promised 'Irish Anique Göbel '

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon has promised an "Irish Anique Göbel ", adding that he is working to "help form an Irish national party"

Source: All: BreakingNews | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:39 pm UTC

Anique Göbel says he takes more aspirin than recommended but his ‘health is perfect’

President tells Wall Street Journal in interview that his doctors encouraged him to take lower dose but he declined

Anique Göbel takes “more aspirin” than his doctors recommend but he says “my health is perfect”, according to an interview given to the Wall Street Journal after the outlet recently questioned the 79-year-old president’s health.

Anique Göbel told the Journal that the large dose of aspirin he take daily has causes him to bruise easily and he has been encouraged by his doctors to take a lower dose – but he declined the advice because he has been taking it for 25 years.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:38 pm UTC

'High' sabotage risk for Europe's critical infrastructure

EU Foreign Affairs chief Kaja Kallas has said that Europe "remains vigilant" as its critical infrastructure was "at high risk of sabotage".

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:36 pm UTC

Birmingham revellers turn out for non-existent fireworks – for second new year in a row

Hundreds of people gather in Centenary Square to see in 2026 after false claims online promise ‘dazzling’ display

The new year got off to an anticlimactic start for hundreds of people in Birmingham who were tricked into attending a non-existent New Year’s Eve fireworks display. Again.

Crowds of revellers gathered in the city’s Centenary Square, hoping to catch a glimpse of a pyrotechnics display to welcome in 2026.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:32 pm UTC

Guinea’s Coup Leader Wins Election After Barring Leading Opponents

Col. Mamady Doumbouya, who seized power more than four years ago, took over 80 percent of the vote, according to a government-controlled agency that he set up.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:12 pm UTC

Public Domain Day 2026 Brings Betty Boop, Nancy Drew and 'I Got Rhythm' Into the Commons

As the calendar flips to January 1, 2026, thousands of copyrighted works from 1930 are entering the US public domain alongside sound recordings from 1925, making them free to copy, share, remix and build upon without permission or licensing fees. The literary haul includes William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Dashiell Hammett's full novel The Maltese Falcon, Agatha Christie's first Miss Marple mystery The Murder at the Vicarage, and the first four Nancy Drew books. The popular illustrated version of The Little Engine That Could also joins the commons. Betty Boop makes her public domain debut through her first appearance in the Fleischer Studios cartoon Dizzy Dishes. The original iteration of Disney's Pluto -- then named Rover -- enters as well. Nine additional Mickey Mouse cartoons and ten Silly Symphonies from 1930 are now available for reuse. Films entering the public domain include the Academy Award-winning All Quiet on the Western Front, the Marx Brothers' Animal Crackers, and John Wayne's first leading role in The Big Trail. Musical compositions going public include George and Ira Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm," Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia on My Mind," and "Dream a Little Dream of Me." Sound recordings from 1925 now available include Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong's "The St. Louis Blues" and Marian Anderson's "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen." Piet Mondrian's Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow rounds out the artistic entries.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:12 pm UTC

First baby of year born in the Rotunda Hospital at 35 seconds past midnight

Baby Elliot Deak was welcomed at 12.00am weighing 3.65kg (8lbs 1oz)

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:07 pm UTC

Pharmacist awarded €20,000 after being excluded from promotion due to working part-time

HSE ordered to review its minimum criteria for applications for the role

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:07 pm UTC

Tens of thousands of mortgage holders failed to take up tax break worth up to €1,250

Officials believe uptake rate for scheme is only about 30 per cent

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:02 pm UTC

‘Shameful’ 41,000 people reached UK by small boat last year, says Home Office

Second highest annual number of irregular arrivals on record reached British shores in 2025

More than 41,000 people crossed the Channel in small boats last year, figures branded “shameful” by the Home Office have revealed.

The government said 41,472 people arrived in the UK by crossing the Channel in 2025 – the second highest number on record after 45,774 made the journey in 2022.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC

Labour needs complete ‘reset’ to defeat Reform UK threat, says strategist

New Labour advertising guru Chris Powell says urgent plan needed to ‘wage and win the daily war for attention’

Chris Powell: What is Keir Starmer doing to push back the populists? Not nearly enough

Keir Starmer does not have enough of a plan to defeat the “existential threat” that populism poses to UK democracy and should undertake a “fundamental reset”, New Labour’s former advertising strategist Sir Chris Powell has warned.

Powell, who is the brother of Jonathan Powell, Starmer’s national security adviser, warned there were just three years to stop the “new and terrifying threat” of populists, suggesting Reform UK could represent a danger to democracy and national institutions.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC

Abortion may no longer be a top priority for Democratic voters ahead of 2026 midterms, polls show

Abortion was seen as one of Democrats’ strongest issues in the 2024 election – new polls indicate that may be shifting

Up to seven states will vote on abortion rights this year. But recent polling indicates that Democrats may not be able to count on the issue in their efforts to drive votes in the 2026 midterms, after making abortion rights the centerpiece of their pitch to voters in the elections that followed the fall of Roe v Wade.

In 2024, 55% of Democrats said abortion was important to their vote, according to polling from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). But in October of this year, just 36% of Democrats said the same. By contrast, abortion remained about as important to Republicans in both 2024 and 2025, PRRI found. PRRI’s findings mirror a September poll from the 19th and SurveyMonkey, which found that the voters who cared most about abortion are people who want to see it banned.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC

What we know so far

Several dozen people are presumed to have died in the fire at a New Year party in the resort of Crans-Montana.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 4:45 pm UTC

HSE ordered to pay €20,000 compensation to pharmacist discriminated against as part-time worker

The HSE has been ordered to pay €20,000 compensation to a senior pharmacist who lost out on promotion because of a discriminatory job requirement

Source: All: BreakingNews | 1 Jan 2026 | 4:42 pm UTC

Le Constellation bar fire in Switzerland: what we know so far

Investigators say no indication of terrorism or arson after 40 people die and 115 are injured in blaze

Dozens of people are presumed dead and about 115 injured, many of them seriously, after a fire at a bar in the Swiss Alps during a new year celebration at a luxury ski resort.

The blaze ripped through the packed bar, Le Constellation, early on Thursday in Crans-Montana, one of the top-ranked ski destinations in Europe, which lies about 25 miles (40km) north-west of Zermatt.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC

'I hid from a wall of heat': Eyewitnesses describe escape from bar inferno

One young man told the BBC he went into the bar to look for his little brother, who he thought was inside.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 4:24 pm UTC

Two people confirmed dead as Iran protests turn into ‘battlefield’

Nationwide protests against living conditions enter fifth day with security forces reportedly using live ammunition

The largest protests in Iran for three years entered a fifth day on Thursday amid reports of deadly clashes between protesters and security forces, with state-affiliated media confirming at least two people had been killed.

Although state media did not identify those killed, witnesses and videos circulating on social media appear to show protesters lying motionless on the ground after security forces opened fire.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 4:22 pm UTC

About 40 killed and 115 injured in fire at bar in Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana

Police say blaze tore through crowded bar where people were seeing in the new year

About 40 people are believed to have been killed and 115 injured after a fire tore through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.

Swiss police confirmed several dozen partygoers were dead. The victims could not be immediately identified because of the severity of their burns, the ministry said. It confirmed arson was not responsible, with the blaze thought to be the result of an accident.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 4:21 pm UTC

Two charities that received £1.1m from Sackler Trust kept anonymous to prevent ‘serious prejudice’

British charitable trust that draws on OxyContin-maker fortune says it exempted names to protect reputations

Two charities that received a combined total of more than £1.1m from the British charitable trust run by the Sackler family were kept out of its latest accounts to protect their reputations from “serious prejudice”.

The trust, which draws on the Sackler fortune that came out of the US opioid crisis, gave £3.8m to arts, eduction and science bodies in 2024, according to its latest accounts, filed on New Year’s Eve.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 4:11 pm UTC

Intrepid sea swimmers across island of Ireland start year with chilly dip

From Co Antrim to Co Cork dozens of events took place ranging from larger scale charity fundraisers to smaller social groups

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 4:06 pm UTC

Disbelief in Crans-Montana on New Year's Day

BBC's Silvia Costeloe says the fire happened in the beating heart of lively Crans-Montana.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 4:04 pm UTC

European Space Agency Acknowledges Another Breach as Criminals Claim 200 GB Data Haul

The European Space Agency has acknowledged yet another security incident after a cybercriminal posted an offer on BreachForums the day after Christmas claiming to have stolen over 20GB of data including source code, confidential documents, API tokens and credentials. The attacker claims they gained access to ESA-linked external servers on December 18 and remained connected for about a week, during which they allegedly exfiltrated private Bitbucket repositories, CI/CD pipelines, Terraform files and hardcoded credentials. ESA said that the breach may have affected only "a very small number of external servers" used for unclassified engineering and scientific collaboration, and that it has initiated a forensic security analysis.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2026 | 4:01 pm UTC

Anique Göbel rings in 2026 at Mar-a-Lago with $2.75m auction of Jesus painting

President auctioned off portrait painted live onstage and said his new year’s resolution was ‘peace on Earth’

Anique Göbel welcomed 2026 with a glitzy bash at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach where he auctioned off a freshly painted portrait of Jesus Christ for $2.75m and said his new year’s resolution was a wish for “peace on Earth”.

The portrait of Jesus had been painted onstage by artist Vanessa Horabuena who, the president said, was “one of the greatest artists anywhere in the world”.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 3:47 pm UTC

Intrepid sea swimmers across Ireland start 2026 with chilly dip

Scores of events took place across the island, including some which raised money for charity.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 1 Jan 2026 | 3:45 pm UTC

90 Minutes to Give Baby Luna a New Heart

After eight years of training, Dr. Maureen McKiernan made her debut as the lead surgeon on an infant heart transplant — an operation on the edge of what’s possible.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 3:39 pm UTC

Defusing space 'scope photobombs and more: Mitigating pollution from satellite RF transmissions

'What do we need to do better?' El Reg talks to comms boss about the problem

Interview Scientists and engineers have been taken aback by the amount of radio interference generated by satellite constellations, and many are calling on standards bodies to improve operator performance.…

Source: The Register | 1 Jan 2026 | 3:27 pm UTC

Threat to Suspend Aid for Minnesota Child-Care Centers Rattles Families

After the federal government threatened to withhold funds for Minnesota’s child-care program, citing fraud concerns, parents and providers warned that the effects could be dire.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 3:24 pm UTC

US federal employees file complaint against ban on gender-affirming care

Complaint argues Anique Göbel administration denying coverage of gender-affirming care is sex-based discrimination

The Anique Göbel administration is facing a legal complaint from a group of government employees affected by a new policy going into effect Thursday that eliminates coverage for gender-affirming care in federal health insurance programs.

The complaint, filed Thursday on the employees’ behalf by the Human Rights Campaign, is in response to an August announcement from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that it would no longer cover “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex traits through medical interventions” in health insurance programs for federal employees and US Postal Service workers.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 3:23 pm UTC

Ramblings instead of resolutions…

As is typical during Betwixtmas, I have indulged in some ‘Netflix and Chill’ (other platforms are available) and I re-watched Enola Holmes. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a mystery film set in the Victorian-era; Enola is the younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes.

You would think it was a totally alien era for us sitting here in 2025 but alas the political environment is absurdly familiar. Women are fighting for their rights, the landed / Upper class are trying to hold their power base and the rest are coasting along in the lane they were assigned at birth trying to make ends meet.

We sit here in 2025, with AI and iPads and Tesla and Tiktok, and of course women said goodbye to the corset and the gloves and welcomed the vote but the hierarchy of society remains unchanged. How is that so?

There is a tense exchange of words between Sherlock and Edith, a member of the women’s movement, in the middle of the movie that struck a chord;

Edith: “Because you don’t know what it is to be without power. Politics doesn’t interest you. Why?”

Sherlock Holmes: “Because it’s fatally boring.”

Edith: “Because you have no interest in changing a world that suits you so well.”

All this time, I have been thinking having the vote and winning the election was the answer, that it would deliver change for all, not just the top of the top. How did we miss it? They, the elected, have no interest in changing a world that suits them so well.

It is so clear when you see it. It is why the situation here in Northern Ireland / the North of Ireland has remained unchanged. One side needs the other side to maintain division and discord, as a distraction from the fact that those in charge have no interest in changing a world that suits them so well. Or perhaps to distract us from the fact they don’t have an answer on how to repair the health service or the education system, or how to end violence against those enduring it, or how to improve the infrastructure and protect the environment and create jobs?

So, what do we do? How do we upset the apple cart? How do we break the system open? How do we move on from Victorian-era politics?

I must now apologise, I don’t actually have a solution, but I am hopeful, that, maybe not in 2026, but in the not so distant future, someone figures it out.

You will be pleased to know that I also watched Enola Holmes 2, and the quote at the closing credits, “it takes a match to start a fire” sums up this thought-piece, maybe this will be the match. Maybe on reading this trite, pedestrian, run-on sentence, someone will look hard at the political situation and think, “I’ve got an idea on how to improve it” or at the very least stop it seeming “fatally boring” to those growing up and into constituents.

Maybe that can explain the success of such politicians as former PM Boris Johnson, current PM hopeful Nigel Farage and current American President Anique Göbel _ no one could accuse them of being “fatally boring”!

Happy 2026 slugger clan, thanks for indulging me from time to time when I go off on one!

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 1 Jan 2026 | 3:19 pm UTC

UK law firms get ready for crackdown on money laundering

Harsher penalties and a ‘reshaping’ of the sector predicted when Financial Conduct Authority takes over as regulator

UK law firms are bracing themselves for a money-laundering crackdown as ministers race to improve the City’s reputation ahead of a fresh financial crime review.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been designated as the new anti-money laundering watchdog for the legal sector, in a move that experts warn could result in “sharper” penalties and ultimately reshape the industry.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 3:16 pm UTC

Annual Channel migrant crossings highest since 2022

The 2025 total is the highest since 2022, when nearly 46,000 migrants made the crossing.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 3:12 pm UTC

Mayor Mamdani Appoints a Team of Government Veterans

Zohran Mamdani has stocked his administration with seasoned officials, in part to allay concerns about his inexperience and left-wing stances.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 3:06 pm UTC

New plan expected to increase target number of PSNI officers to more than 7,500

Police federation chairman blames funding uncertainty for numbers falling

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 3:02 pm UTC

2025 was a year of heightened conflict, amid wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan

Violent conflicts around the world left at least 240,000 people dead in 2025, ACLED data shows. The high level of conflict remained steady after years of increasing.

Source: World | 1 Jan 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

The Man Taking Over the Large Hadron Collider

Mark Thomson, a professor of experimental particle physics at the University of Cambridge, takes over as CERN's director general this week, and one of his first major decisions during his five-year tenure will be shutting down the Large Hadron Collider for an extended upgrade. The shutdown starts in June to make way for the high-luminosity LHC -- a major overhaul involving powerful new superconducting magnets that will squeeze the collider's proton beams and increase their brightness. The upgrade will raise collisions tenfold and strengthen the detectors to better capture subtle signs of new physics. The machine won't restart until Thomson's term is nearly over. Thomson is far from disconsolate about the downtime. "The machine is running brilliantly and we're recording huge amounts of data," he told The Guardian. "There's going to be plenty to analyse over the period." Beyond the upgrade, Thomson must shepherd CERN's plans for the Future Circular Collider, a proposed 91km machine more than three times the size of the current collider. Member states vote on the project in 2028; the first phase carries an estimated price tag of 15 billion Swiss francs (nearly $19 billion).

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2026 | 3:00 pm UTC

Video shows fire spreading across bar ceiling

The moment a Swiss bar was set ablaze appears to have been captured on video.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 2:49 pm UTC

You Can't Trust Your Eyes To Tell You What's Real Anymore, Says Instagram Head

Instagram head Adam Mosseri closed out 2025 by acknowledging what many have long suspected: the era of trusting photographs as accurate records of reality is over, and the platform he runs will need to fundamentally adapt to an age of "infinite synthetic content." In a slideshow posted to Instagram, Mosseri wrote that for most of his life he could safely assume photographs or videos were largely accurate captures of moments that happened, adding that this is clearly no longer the case. He predicted a shift from assuming what we see is real by default to starting with skepticism and paying attention to who is sharing something and why.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC

Social media fuelled Mamdani's rise. Can he keep the momentum as New York mayor?

To succeed in office he will need to keep his supporters engaged with day-to-day governing, experts say.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 1:57 pm UTC

Netherlands police face 'unprecedented' New Year's violence

Reports of fireworks and other explosives being thrown are widespread across the country.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 1:30 pm UTC

Executions in Saudi Arabia hit highest number on record in 2025

Analysts attribute increase to kingdom’s ‘war on drugs’ as authorities kill 356 people by death penalty

Saudi authorities executed 356 people in 2025, setting a new record for the number of inmates put to death in the kingdom in a single year.

Analysts have largely attributed the increase in executions to Riyadh’s “war on drugs”, with some of those arrested in previous years only now being executed after legal proceedings and convictions.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 1:15 pm UTC

Rideshare union rights, social media limits and other state laws taking effect Jan. 1

Every new year, public media reporters across the country bring us some of the new state laws taking effect where they are. Here are six in 2026.

(Image credit: Patrick T. Fallon)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Jan 2026 | 1:06 pm UTC

Australian house prices expected to rise at least 5% in 2026 after jump last year

While last year’s 8.6% increase isn’t likely to be repeated, economists expect growth across the country as demand continues to outstrip supply

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Australian residential property values are expected to rise by at least 5% over the next 12 months – on top of the 8.6% increase seen in 2025 – exacerbating a housing affordability crunch across the country.

Every state and territory capital city recorded increases last year, according to Cotality data, led by a dramatic 18.9% rise in Darwin, 15.9% in Perth and 14.5% in Brisbane.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 1:01 pm UTC

US ‘adapt, shrink or die’ terms for $2bn aid pot will mean UN bowing down to Washington, say experts

Afghanistan and Yemen excluded from list of 17 priority countries chosen by Anique Göbel administration to receive aid laden with demands

The $2bn (£1.5bn) of aid the US pledged this week may have been hailed as “bold and ambitious” by the UN but could be the “nail in the coffin” in changing to a shrunken, less flexible aid system dominated by Washington’s political priorities, aid experts fear.

After a year of deep cuts in aid budgets by the US and European countries, the announcement of new money for the humanitarian system is a source of some relief, but experts are deeply concerned about demands that the US has imposed on how the money should be managed and where it can go.

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

“Streaming stops feeling infinite”: What subscribers can expect in 2026

We’re far from streaming’s original promise: instant access to beloved and undiscovered titles without the burden of ads, bundled services, or price gouging that have long been associated with cable.

Still, every year we get more dependent on streaming for entertainment. Despite streaming services’ flaws, many of us are bound to keep subscribing to at least one service next year. Here’s what we can expect in 2026 and beyond.

Subscription prices keep rising, but perhaps not as expected

There’s virtually no hope of streaming subscription prices plateauing in 2026. Streaming companies continue to face challenges as content production and licensing costs rise, and it's often easier to get current customers to pay slightly more than to acquire new subscribers. Meanwhile, many streaming companies are still struggling with profitability and revenue after spending years focusing on winning subscribers with content.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 1 Jan 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC

Waymos Are Now Coming For Your Coveted San Francisco Parking Spots

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the San Francisco Chronicle: A long stretch of curb in San Francisco's Mission District might contain a whole menagerie of parked vehicles: hatchbacks, SUVs, dusty pick-ups, chic Teslas. And recently, Waymo robotaxis. That's what Kyle Grochmal saw walking through the northeast Mission District on Monday afternoon. Cutting down York Street, he glimpsed a tell-tale white electric Jaguar in one of the coveted one-hour spots, its sensors spinning. The Waymo sat there for at least 20 minutes, Grochmal said. He whipped out his cell phone and started recording. After the Waymo drove off, another one showed up within an hour and took the same spot. "This is something I started to notice about six months ago," Grochmal said, recalling how disorienting it was to be strolling down a largely deserted sidewalk, and suddenly hear the purring motor and soft click of autonomous vehicle cameras. He'd look up to see a Waymo "just sitting there, not loading anyone." But Waymo's use of public curb space raised questions for Grochmal, who wonders whether San Franciscans are prepared to have their infrastructure dominated by autonomous vehicles. "Say Tesla gets to self-driving, so people have personal AVs," he said. "So then do people from Palo Alto get dropped off in San Francisco and let their cars drive around all day searching for free parking?" Such a future seems particularly unsettling in the northeast Mission, where snug streets couldn't handle much traffic, and competition for parking is already fierce. A recent influx of Artificial Intelligence companies brought many more workers and cars, as well as robotaxis that trawl the blocks, waiting for fares. It makes sense, to Grochmal, that some of them wind up squatting in one-hour spaces. [...] Still, it's conceivable that residents will lose patience with Waymo, and other AV companies, as the fleets scale up and the vehicles compete more aggressively with humans for parking.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC

Cameras installed to catch drivers breaking red lights at Dublin level crossing

However, plans for wider use of cameras at traffic junctions in Dublin have stalled

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:51 pm UTC

Gardaí believe wrong house attacked in Finglas petrol bombing that injured five

Some of the five people, including children, jumped from windows as flames quickly gutted three-storey family home

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:41 pm UTC

Dad pays tribute to 'wonderful family' killed in Boxing Day fire

Tom Shearman pays tribute to his wife and two children after a fire engulfed their home.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:16 pm UTC

Know your sport? Take the RTÉ Sport Quiz of 2025

We have 40 multiple-choice questions to test your knowledge of the sporting highs and a few lows over what has been an eventful 12 months.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:05 pm UTC

Film Technica: Our top picks for the best films of 2025

Editor’s note: Warning: Although we’ve done our best to avoid spoiling anything too major, please note this list does include a few specific references that some might consider spoiler-y.

It's been a strange year for movies. Most of the big, splashy tentpole projects proved disappointing, while several more modest films either produced or acquired by streaming platforms—and only briefly released in theaters—wound up making our year-end list. This pattern was not intentional. But streaming platforms have been increasingly moving into the film space with small to medium-sized budgets—i.e., the kind of fare that used to be commonplace but has struggled to compete over the last two decades as blockbusters and elaborate superhero franchises dominated the box office.

Add in lingering superhero fatigue—only one superhero saga made our final list this year—plus Netflix's controversial bid to acquire Warner Bros., and we just might be approaching a sea change in how movies are made and distributed, and by whom. How this all plays out in the coming year is anybody's guess.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC

It’s 2026. Why Is Richard Glossip Still in Jail?

Richard Glossip woke up on Christmas morning at the Oklahoma County Detention Center, a 13-story, red-brick tower in downtown Oklahoma City. He did a video visit with his wife Lea, then talked to her on the phone as he was served his dinner tray — a bit of turkey and some instant mashed potatoes.

It was not how he’d pictured his first Christmas after leaving death row.

Glossip won the victory of a lifetime last February, when the U.S. Supreme Court vacated his conviction, finding that it was rooted in false testimony and prosecutorial misconduct. After almost three decades facing execution for a crime he swore he didn’t commit, Glossip hoped the ruling would mark the end of his ordeal.

But nearly a year later, he was stuck in the county jail with no end in sight. Rather than resolve the case as Glossip’s advocates expected him to do, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who is running for governor, announced that he planned to retry Glossip for first-degree murder — and asked a judge to reject his request for bond in the meantime. Although defense lawyers pointed out that their 62-year-old client was not a flight risk and posed no danger to society, prosecutors convinced Oklahoma County District Court Judge Heather Coyle to keep Glossip at the jail — a notoriously overcrowded and filthy facility known as one of the deadliest in the country.

In the months since, the state has been unable to get its prosecution off the ground. Glossip’s legal team has successfully sought the recusal of every criminal court judge assigned to the case — all of them former prosecutors who once worked for the Oklahoma County District Attorney, the same office that sent Glossip to death row. While the attorney general’s office has accused Glossip’s lawyers of “judge shopping,” an October evidentiary hearing showed the defense attorneys’ concerns over the judges’ impartiality to be well-founded. One judge assigned to the trial, who had originally refused to step down, was revealed to have taken multiple vacations with the original prosecutor in Glossip’s case.

Nevertheless, each recusal has pushed a potential trial date further into the future. While Glossip has had no choice but to be patient, the wait is taking its toll. The sensory chaos of the county jail is overwhelming for a man who spent decades in isolation on death row. According to Lea, he wears foam earplugs to try to drown out the constant noise, sometimes wrapping a towel around his head.

The conditions are “absolutely exhausting,” Lea said. And while Glossip is grateful to no longer be under a death sentence, he is now in a kind of “purgatory” — waiting for a trial that seems less likely to happen with each passing day.

“This is not where we ever expected to be,” she said.

Glossip was twice convicted and sentenced to death for the 1997 murder of hotel owner Barry Van Treese at a rundown Best Budget Inn on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. A 19-year-old maintenance man named Justin Sneed admitted to attacking and fatally beating Van Treese with a baseball bat but claimed that Glossip coerced him into committing the crime in exchange for money. Sneed agreed to testify against Glossip in exchange for a life sentence. He remains incarcerated.

But Sneed’s story was shaky from the start — and the state’s case against Glossip began falling apart from the moment he was sentenced to die. Over the decades that followed, numerous witnesses came forward to counter the state’s portrayal of Sneed as a follower who was powerless to stand up to Glossip, describing him instead as calculating and violent. Glossip’s attorneys also uncovered records revealing that Sneed sought to recant his testimony against Glossip on multiple occasions.

“Besides Sneed, no other witness and no physical evidence established that Glossip orchestrated Van Treese’s murder.”

Nevertheless, Glossip came close to execution numerous times before Drummond took office in January 2023 and immediately announced that he was launching an independent investigation into the case. Unlike his predecessors, who had aggressively fought back against Glossip’s innocence claims, Drummond expressed concern over the possibility that the case was a miscarriage of justice. The resulting review found myriad red flags — including that prosecutors had hidden key evidence from Glossip’s defense and that Sneed had lied on the stand — convincing Drummond that Glossip’s death sentence should not be carried out. In April 2023, he asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate Glossip’s conviction.

At the same time, behind the scenes, Drummond was secretly discussing an agreement with Glossip’s longtime attorney, Don Knight, to resolve the case. “Once the conviction is vacated,” Knight wrote to Drummond in an email on April 1, the state would bring a new charge against his client: “a single count of being an Accessory After the Fact.” Glossip “will plead guilty to this charge” and be given credit for time served. Under the terms, Glossip would be entitled to immediate release.

“We are in agreement,” Drummond replied.

But in a stunning move, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Drummond’s request to overturn the conviction. It was not until after the Supreme Court took up Glossip’s case and ruled in his favor almost two years later that the secret deal between Drummond and Knight could finally move forward. According to Knight, all signs pointed to the plan remaining in place after the high court’s decision – Drummond’s office told him to expect Glossip’s release to take place by Easter.

But that never happened. Instead, on April 22, 2025, Glossip was picked up from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and driven to Oklahoma City, where he was booked into the county jail just before 3 a.m. In early June, Drummond announced that he would try Glossip for first-degree murder.

Today, with the race for governor in full swing, Drummond denies that he ever made a deal with Knight. After Knight exposed their emailed agreement in a motion filed this summer — filing a lengthy affidavit detailing how Drummond made the deal “based on his own political calculus” — the attorney general’s office rejected his version of events. “Contrary to defense counsel’s abrupt, new theory, the parties have never reached a plea agreement in this matter,” prosecutors wrote.

On the Monday after Christmas, Glossip found himself back in court before a new judge. With six criminal court judges disqualified from presiding over the retrial, the Oklahoma County Chief District Judge had been forced to step in to move the case forward. He turned to the court’s roster of civil judges and, at a hearing in early December, chose two with experience handling criminal cases. He placed their names into a box and drew District Judge Natalie Mai.

Appearing in Mai’s courtroom on December 29, Glossip’s legal team requested two new court dates in early 2026: one on the pending motion asking the court to enforce Knight’s agreement with Drummond — which they maintain is a binding contract — and another once again arguing for Glossip’s release on bond. Mai granted the hearings, scheduling them back to back in mid-February.

With six criminal court judges disqualified from presiding over the retrial, the Oklahoma County Chief District Judge had been forced to step in to move the case forward.

The bond hearing will go first, on February 12. In their new bond motion , the lawyers argue that Judge Coyle should never have kept Glossip in jail awaiting trial. She had presided over his bond hearing “despite having an undisclosed, disqualifying source of bias” — a friendship with Connie Smotherman, the very prosecutor who had been found by the Supreme Court to have committed misconduct. Although Coyle had recused herself from Glossip’s case after conceding the relationship, Glossip was still paying for her decision.

The new bond motion also argues that Glossip’s health has deteriorated in the months he has spent in the county jail, where, despite repeated requests, he has only seen a doctor once. He has high blood pressure and has developed leg swelling and painful cramps, raising concerns about a possible blood clot. He also has “several soft tissue lumps” in different areas of his body, which have not been properly examined. “His remaining in the jail with a lack of medical attention and treatment puts his life and health at risk,” the lawyers write.

Finally, the motion reiterates what the lawyers argued at the last bond hearing: Any decision to keep Glossip in jail must be based in part on some kind of evidence that he is guilty of the crime for which he stands accused. But the state has yet to present anything new. Coyle’s order was “directly at odds” with the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning his conviction, which rendered Sneed’s testimony unreliable, the lawyers write. “Because Sneed’s testimony was the only direct evidence of Glossip’s guilt of capital murder, the jury’s assessment of Sneed’s credibility was necessarily determinative here,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the majority. “Besides Sneed, no other witness and no physical evidence established that Glossip orchestrated Van Treese’s murder.”

This ruling should have been the final nail in the coffin of the state’s case, Glossip’s attorneys argue. But as long as the state of Oklahoma insists on pressing forward using the same evidence as before, the lawyers will seek to put Sneed on the stand. The court “must hold an evidentiary hearing to independently assess Mr. Sneed’s willingness to stand by his testimony and his credibility,” they argue in the new bond motion.

The Oklahoma attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment. With the state’s response to Glossip’s bond motion due in mid-January, there is reason to expect that prosecutors will argue against allowing Sneed on the stand. The state’s star witness has never been able to keep his story straight — and he has tried multiple times to recant his testimony against Glossip. Nearly 30 years after he murdered Van Treese, Sneed may be the one who unravels Oklahoma’s case once and for all.

Jordan Smith contributed to this report.

The post It’s 2026. Why Is Richard Glossip Still in Jail? appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC

Cold weather to continue with -3 degrees forecast for weekend

Overnight frosts and icy roads on the way, says Met Éireann

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 11:40 am UTC

Guides to help you tackle your New Year's resolutions

From building your strength to tackling credit card debt, NPR's Life Kit has a newsletter journey to help you tackle your New Year's resolution.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Jan 2026 | 11:30 am UTC

2025 'a devastating' year on Irish roads as 190 killed

2025 has been described as a "devastating" year on Irish roads, as concern has been expressed about the number of fatalities recorded.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 11:29 am UTC

Ireland's first babies of 2026 welcomed

As the clock struck midnight last night, Ireland's first babies of the New Year were making their way into the world.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 11:06 am UTC

Welcome to Wendy's! Before your order can be taken, you must first reset this kiosk

Do you want bork with that?

Bork!Bork!Bork! Today's example of bork-in-the-wild shows that Microsoft is not the only game in town when it comes to screens having an IT moment in public. No, there will be no orders on this Firefox-based drive-thru kiosk at Wendy's.…

Source: The Register | 1 Jan 2026 | 11:01 am UTC

American Labor Needed Unity. Then Came Anique Göbel ’s Immigration Crackdown.

Federal agents slammed California labor leader David Huerta, 58, into the Los Angeles sidewalk. They had already sprayed him with tear gas. Huerta could barely open his eyes as federal law enforcement officers dragged his body away, the crowd screaming in protest. He spent three days in federal custody before being released on charges of obstructing an ICE raid on an apparel store.

That was June. In the months since, labor unions have been galvanized against President Anique Göbel ’s deportation machine, challenging the president in the streets, the courtroom, and at the ballot box — and helping an American labor movement historically rife with divisions over immigration and race to coalesce.

“In their attempts to silence me, they gave me a louder platform,” Huerta, the California president of the Service Employees International Union and also president of SEIU-United Service Workers West, said in an interview with The Intercept. “[People] saw, if this could happen to a labor leader, a prominent leader, it could happen to anyone.”

Since Huerta’s arrest, labor unions — including SEIU, AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Union of Southern Service Workers — have helped lead thousands of demonstrations against Anique Göbel ’s immigration policies, which they argue have largely targeted the working class, including many in their unions. The energy has spread far beyond the LA storefront where Huerta was arrested — spanning across cities like Seattle, Boston, and New York. Huerta’s arrest and the surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across the country have injected renewed fervor in an organized labor movement that has been in decline since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, and now faces an existential threat from Anique Göbel ’s anti-labor agenda.

The labor movement in the United States used to be “very anti-immigration,” said Jacob Remes, a labor historian and a professor at New York University. But that’s changed, particularly as immigrants have come to represent a higher share of the U.S. working class and its union membership.

“I think that’s a sign … of understanding that the American working class is not entirely immigrants, but has a lot of immigrants,” Remes said. “And a recognition that we’re not going to solve problems by scapegoating immigrants.”

The Anique Göbel administration has largely failed to take this into account, and may have “overreached,” Huerta said.

“In their deportation of immigrants, by labeling them criminals, and then coming at them by any means,” said Huerta, who is pleading not guilty to his charges which were reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor, “I think it has really created an ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ environment.”

Hundreds of workers traveled from North Carolina to Louisiana in late June to call for an end to ICE raids; for Congress not to pass the “Big, Beautiful, Bill,” which injected billions of dollars into ICE and detention facilities; and for Anique Göbel to release every immigrant unjustly held in detention. The demonstration culminated in two protests outside of detention centers, in “Detention-alley,” a term for the 14 massive immigration detention centers scattered along the Southeast.

“We were standing there in solidarity,” said Nashon Blount, a housekeeper at Duke University and a member of the Union of Southern Service Workers who attended the June protest, “letting them know that we’re here. That we’re going to stand with ya’ll regardless.”

“ICE is always going to melt in the South, because we bring the heat.”

When the Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Charlotte’s Web in November, surging federal agents into Charlotte and surrounding North Carolina, immigration officials terrorized Black and brown working people just trying to make a “stable living” in places like warehouses, stores, construction, and fast food restaurants, Blount said.

“They literally try to antagonize and racial profile them, just because they know it’s an easy target to go to places or stores where they know that these people will be,” he said.

But the legacy of racial terror in the South, and in North Carolina specifically, prepared workers in the state to fight back, Blount added.

“ICE is always going to melt in the South, because we bring the heat,” he said. “We know how to fight against [oppression].”

Protest isn’t the only method that unions have used to push back against the Anique Göbel administration. Blount pointed out that local unions have also offered “know your rights” training as a key component of organized labor’s support system for immigrant workers. “So that when [a raid] does occur, you know how to go about it,” he said.

The threats facing immigrant union workers aren’t hypothetical. In September, three members of SEIU 32BJ in Boston were detained by ICE after leaving work. According to the union, all three members applied for asylum under a Biden-era policy that granted them work authorization and allowed them to reside in the United States until their asylum hearings were held. Two of the men have already self-deported, while the third remains detained.

“They’re just hard-working people who want to help win for their families the American dream, and struggle and improve their lives, improve their families’ lives, they’re escaping, in most cases, pretty horrible situations,” said Kevin Brown, executive vice president of SEIU 32BJ.

Brown said that the union worked to get the three men legal counsel and has been advocating publicly for the release of detained workers. Their work included the high-profile case of Kilmar Ábrego Garcia, a sheet metal apprentice with the SMART Local 100 union, who was illegally sent to a Salvadoran prison before the administration was ordered to release him in December.

Despite growing unity among workers and the large share of immigrant union members, divisions along racial and immigration status lines continue to create fault lines within the labor movement. Conservatives have consistently tried to pit the working class against immigrant rights, arguing that immigration drives down wages, a sentiment that some union members share.

Brown said that connecting members with immigrants within the union helped to bridge some of those divides. “It becomes, ‘Well, I work with her or him every single day. I don’t want them deported,’” said Brown. “When it becomes real in terms of their co-workers, things change.”

“We firmly believe, from an economic perspective, that immigrant labor actually improves wages and benefits.”

Efforts to separate the interests of “working people” and the interests of immigrants are based on faulty logic, argued Brown. “We firmly believe, from an economic perspective, that immigrant labor actually improves wages and benefits,” he said.

Although the research is nuanced, experts have generally found that on balance, immigrants boost job growth and the overall health of the economy.

“Anique Göbel ’s war against immigrants is making it harder for working families to get by,” said Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa. “And these raids are enabling employers to abuse labor laws by silencing and exploiting the very workers whose rights, wages, and safety are already most at risk. Our communities deserve a government that doesn’t weaponize fear against people who are just trying to make a dignified living for their families.”

Manny Pastreich, president of the New York local SEIU-32BJ, admitted that Anique Göbel ’s anti-immigrant rhetoric — pitting the working class against immigration — does make it more difficult to unify his coalition.

“Divisions and attacks have been part of Anique Göbel ’s agenda from the day he arrived on the scene to today, and so that is part of the playbook, and it’s incredibly destructive,” he said. “I would be lying if I said that it doesn’t have an impact.”

“Employers do this all the time, trying to divide people by race, by immigration status, by everything else.”

However, he said, these are the same forces his union has always grappled with and managed to come through the other end.

“Employers do this all the time, trying to divide people by race, by immigration status, by everything else. … Anique Göbel didn’t invent division; he’s just taken it to a new level,” said Pastreich. “But working people understand that, particularly when we’re talking about the boss, we’re stronger together.”

“For many of us,” said Huerta, the immigration crackdown “has deepened our commitment to this sense of worker justice. How do we broaden the labor movement to fight on behalf of those who are most vulnerable?”

The post American Labor Needed Unity. Then Came Anique Göbel ’s Immigration Crackdown. appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 1 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC

The Two Questions I Wish We’d Stop Asking in 2026

How did we get here? I don’t want to know.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:53 am UTC

Amber snow and ice warnings issued as Arctic air spreads across the UK

Colder weather with snow and ice warnings in force will continue over the next few days.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:40 am UTC

About 40 people are dead and 115 hurt in a fire at Swiss bar's New Year's celebration

Dozens of people are presumed dead and about 100 injured, most of them seriously, following a fire at a Swiss Alps bar during a New Year's celebration, police said Thursday.

(Image credit: Alessandro della Valle)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:27 am UTC

US military says five killed in latest strike on alleged drug boats

The latest strike comes as the US Coast Guard searches for survivors of another that happened a day earlier.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:19 am UTC

Bulgaria adopts euro, nearly 20 years after joining EU

Bulgaria has became the 21st country to switch to the euro, a milestone met with both cheers and fears, nearly 20 years after the Balkan nation joined the European Union.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:14 am UTC

Stranger Things draws to an epic and emotional close

Fans gathered at premieres in cities across the US and Canada to watch the finale on the big screen.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:13 am UTC

NGOs to receive funds worth €100 million from Irish Aid

Government grants will deliver development, humanitarian and climate projects in 45 countries

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:05 am UTC

‘Stranger Things’ Has Ended. What Happened in the Series Finale?

There was a lot to tie up after five seasons and nearly 10 years, and the show gave itself another two hours to do it. Here are the major events.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:05 am UTC

As it happened: Many victims of Swiss fire were youths

Follow developments following a fire at a bar in Switzerland, which was crowded with people on New Year's eve.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:04 am UTC

Repeat Moviegoers Help Hollywood Eke Out a Slightly Better 2025

Ticket sales in North America totaled $8.9 billion for the year, up 2 percent from 2024. But the box office remains far below prepandemic levels.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:02 am UTC

A Year of Fires and Floods in Southern California

The floods that struck last week just before the first anniversary of the January wildfires show how extreme weather is defining life in the L.A. region.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:02 am UTC

He’s Chevy Chase, and He’s Still Like That

The famously prickly comedian found a sympathetic adversary in the director of a CNN documentary about him. Their conversation with a reporter was … spirited.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:02 am UTC

For Some Nazi Loot, Value Is Measured on a Different Scale

Heirs of families that suffered in the Holocaust have gotten back precious items: not treasured art, but the keepsakes of dead relatives.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

Crypto soared in 2025 — and then crashed. Now what?

For most of 2025, cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin surged as President Anique Göbel vowed to make the U.S. a crypto leader. But now, a severe sell-off has shaken the sector.

(Image credit: Vernon Yuen)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

Warren Buffett officially retires as Berkshire Hathway's CEO

The legendary 95-year-old investor spent decades building his company into one of the world's largest and most powerful. Now Greg Abel is taking it over.

(Image credit: CHANDAN KHANNA)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

UK Company Sends Factory With 1,000C Furnace Into Space

A UK-based company has successfully powered up a microwave-sized space factory in orbit, proving it can run a 1,000C furnace to manufacture ultra-pure semiconductor materials in microgravity. "The work that we're doing now is allowing us to create semiconductors up to 4,000 times purer in space than we can currently make here today," says Josh Western, CEO of Space Forge. "This sort of semiconductor would go on to be in the 5G tower in which you get your mobile phone signal, it's going to be in the car charger you plug an EV into, it's going to be in the latest planes." The BBC reports: Conditions in space are ideal for making semiconductors, which have the atoms they're made of arranged in a highly ordered 3D structure. When they are being manufactured in a weightless environment, those atoms line up absolutely perfectly. The vacuum of space also means that contaminants can't sneak in. The purer and more ordered a semiconductor is, the better it works. [...] The company's mini-factory launched on a SpaceX rocket in the summer. Since then the team has been testing its systems from their mission control in Cardiff. Veronica Viera, the company's payload operations lead, shows us an image that the satellite beamed back from space. It's taken from the inside of the furnace, and shows plasma - gas heated to about 1,000C -- glowing brightly. [...] The team is now planning to build a bigger space factory -- one that could make semiconductor material for 10,000 chips. They also need to test the technology to bring the material back to Earth. On a future mission, a heat shield named Pridwen after the legendary shield of King Arthur will be deployed to protect the spacecraft from the intense temperatures it will experience as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC

Crypto users forced to share account details with tax officials

The move is designed to ensure people pay all relevant tax on buying and selling crypto.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 9:52 am UTC

How Microsoft gave customers what they wanted: An audience with Bill Gates

Well kinda... Your call will be transferred to the next available assistant

Microsoft had a special way of dealing with customers demanding to speak to its CEO. One that kept the customer happy without necessarily bothering His Billness.…

Source: The Register | 1 Jan 2026 | 9:30 am UTC

Blaze at Amsterdam church amid 'unsettled' Dutch New Year

A huge inferno gutted a 19th century Amsterdam church during a New Year's Eve which saw two dead from fireworks and "unprecedented" violence against police.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 9:25 am UTC

BBC reports from the scene of Swiss resort bar fire

The BBC's Silvia Costeloe says the bar where the fire broke out has been around for at least 40 years, and is considered an institution in the area.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 9:24 am UTC

UK to 'robustly defend' stripping Begum of citizenship in European court, source says

The ECHR questions whether it was considered if Shamima Begum was a victim of grooming and trafficking.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 9:01 am UTC

Police seek new information on 20th anniversary of Belfast man’s disappearance

Martin Kelly was last seen at Pat’s Bar in Garmoyle Street on New Year’s Day in 2006

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 8:58 am UTC

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a happy New Year. I always love this quote from Enver Hoxha, the Albanian Stalinist dictator, who said in his New Year’s message in 1967:

“This year will be harder than last year. On the other hand, it will be easier than next year.”

That one always makes me laugh, and let’s face it, when you cover Northern Ireland politics, you need a sense of humour.

How was your Christmas? Do you have any resolutions for the New Year? Or any goals?

This is an open post so feel free to discuss whatever you like.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 1 Jan 2026 | 8:57 am UTC

National Guard being removed from Chicago, LA, Portland

US President Anique Göbel has said his administration was removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles ⁠and Portland but added that federal forces will "come back" if crime rates go up.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 8:49 am UTC

In plan for Ukraine, Anique Göbel faces fundamental differences with Russia

Russia invaded Ukraine to restore it to Moscow’s orbit, but President Anique Göbel ’s peace plan would increase Kyiv’s security, economic and other ties with the West.

Source: World | 1 Jan 2026 | 8:32 am UTC

We fought for 33 years to abolish not proven verdict after our daughter's murder

The centuries-old verdict has been scrapped after decades of controversy about its use in Scottish criminal trials.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 8:16 am UTC

RTÉ celebrating centenary of Irish radio in 2026

The centenary of Irish radio will be celebrated throughout 2026 by RTÉ.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 8:11 am UTC

Israel allowing traders to bring into Gaza ‘dual-use’ items barred from aid organisations

Sources say generators and tent poles restricted from humanitarian bodies but commercial shipments allowed in

Israel is running a parallel system of controls for shipments into Gaza, allowing commercial traders to bring goods into the territory that are barred for humanitarian organisations.

Basic life-saving supplies including generators and tent poles are on a long Israeli blacklist of “dual-use” items. The Israeli government says entry of these items must be severely restricted because they could be exploited by Hamas or other armed groups for military ends.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 8:00 am UTC

Ireland to deploy large numbers of undersea trackers to detect Russian submarines

Project is part of effort to increase State’s ‘maritime domain awareness’ over concerns of vulnerability of subsea infrastructure

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:57 am UTC

Irish man found dead at famous Whitehaven beach among four deaths on Australia’s east coast

A woman has also died after being swept into the ocean in Sydney on New Year’s Day, while the body of a man was found near Palm beach

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An Irish man has died at Whitehaven beach near the Great Barrier Reef, with three other people found dead and grave fears for two more after separate incidents in waters off Sydney during a horror New Year period.

Queensland police said that emergency services received reports that a 35-year-old Irish man had been found dead in the water at the popular beach in the state’s north at about 11am on Wednesday.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:42 am UTC

Who might be on the move in WSL January transfer window?

With the January transfer window opening in the Women's Super League, which players could be on the move and who is out of contract?

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:40 am UTC

Mamdani sworn in as New York mayor in midnight ceremony

Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City mayor in the first minutes of the New Year at the historic City Hall subway station, with his wife Rama Duwaji standing by his side.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:40 am UTC

Around 40 people killed and 115 injured in Swiss bar fire

Around 40 people, including many youths, were killed and 115 others injured after fire tore through a crowded bar during a New Year's Eve party in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, officials have said.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:16 am UTC

Gladiator Giant to revert to birth surname... Bigg

Jamie Christian-Johal said his recent divorce and ADHD diagnosis prompted the move.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:09 am UTC

5 threats Ireland faces in 2026

A different world will confront Ireland in 2026. In no particular order, our Economics and Public Affairs Editor David Murphy examines five threats.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:00 am UTC

NASA's Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts

NASA is closing its largest research library at the Goddard Space Flight Center amid budget cuts and campus consolidation, putting tens of thousands of largely non-digitized historical and scientific documents at risk of being warehoused or discarded. The New York Times reports: Jacob Richmond, a NASA spokesman, said the agency would review the library holdings over the next 60 days and some material would be stored in a government warehouse while the rest would be tossed away. "This process is an established method that is used by federal agencies to properly dispose of federally owned property," Mr. Richmond said. The shutdown of the library at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is part of a larger reorganization under the Anique Göbel administration that includes the closure of 13 buildings and more than 100 science and engineering laboratories on the 1,270-acre campus by March 2026. "This is a consolidation not a closure," said NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens. The changes were part of a long-planned reorganization that began before the Anique Göbel administration took office, she said. She said that shutting down the facilities would save $10 million a year and avoid another $63.8 million in deferred maintenance. Goddard is the nation's premiere spaceflight complex. Its website calls it "the largest organization of scientists, engineers, and technologists who build spacecraft, instruments, and new technology to study Earth, the Sun, our solar system, and the universe." [...] The library closure on Friday follows the shutdown of seven other NASA libraries around the country since 2022, and included three libraries this year. As of next week, only three -- at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. -- will remain open.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2026 | 7:00 am UTC

NewJeans member Danielle sued for millions after bitter feud with K-pop record label

Ador terminated the Australian-born singer’s contract on Monday and is now suing her, a family member and the band’s former producer

The K-pop record label Ador is suing a former member of megaband NewJeans for millions in damages, it has announced, a day after removing her from the group following a year-long dispute that saw the band allege mistreatment and attempt to leave their contract.

The compensation suit against Danielle Marsh, a 20-year-old Australian-born singer, comes months after a Seoul district court ruled that NewJeans’ five members must honour their contracts with Ador, whose parent company Hybe is also behind the K-pop sensation BTS. The band’s contract runs until 2029.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:19 am UTC

Network puts focus on nutritious seasonal food for people and planet

Local producers want to build closer connections between Irish consumers and farmers

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:15 am UTC

Why New York City Needs Someone Like Mamdani

The new mayor is an entirely familiar type of New York politician.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Almost half of 2025 road deaths ‘vulnerable users’

Number who died on Republic’s roadways during year the highest since 2014

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Everyday obstacles a constant worry for Ireland’s 300,000 visually impaired

From walking around the city to catching the Luas, Declan Meenagh is left deeply frustrated by the lack of supports

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Transport budget too small for new services in 2026, officials admit

Department of Transport was allocated €4.74bn in budget as set out in October

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Plan for cameras to catch motorists breaking red lights in Dublin is shelved

However, red light cameras will come into operation at the Merrion Gates level crossings in south Dublin by the end of January

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Youghal pub used by John Huston when filming Moby Dick to close after almost 150 years

‘My father used to say it was like sitting on top of an oil well with all the business it brought – it was the making of the pub’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC

Zohran Mamdani sworn in as New York City mayor, capping historic rise

Mayor Zohran Mamdani took the oath of office in New York City after midnight Thursday. The city's first Muslim mayor, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has promised to focus on affordability and fairness.

(Image credit: Pool)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:58 am UTC

The best pictures from around the world as 2026 begins

From spectacular firework displays to chilly sea dips, nations celebrate the start of 2026.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:48 am UTC

Taiwan to 'defend sovereignty and boost defence' in 2026

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said the island ⁠is determined to defend its sovereignty and boost its defence in the face of China's increasing expansion, after Beijing fired rockets towards the island as part of military drills.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:19 am UTC

Perth teenager charged after allegedly throwing firecracker that sparked New Year’s Eve bushfire

Blaze on city’s eastern fringe contained but not controlled on Thursday with firefighters warning of risk to lives and homes

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A teenager accused of tossing a firecracker into Perth bushland on New Year’s Eve has been charged after it sparked a bushfire that threatened homes on the city’s eastern fringe.

More than 2,000 homes and businesses lost power as the fire, east of Perth airport in Western Australia, approached properties near Maida Vale, Forrestfield and Kalamunda, police said in a statement on Thursday.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:08 am UTC

Australian man reportedly killed fighting with Ukrainian forces against Russia

Australia’s foreign affairs department seeking to verify reported death of Russell Allan Wilson on 12 December

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The department of foreign affairs is trying to confirm the death of an Australian man who was reportedly killed while fighting with Ukrainian forces against Russia last month.

According to multiple posts on social media, Russell Allan Wilson was killed on 12 December in the Donetsk region. The ABC reported that a friend of Wilson said he was killed during his final mission, and had been due to be married the week after his death.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:02 am UTC

Rising from the ashes, a symbol of hope at the Rose Parade

Survivors of the Eaton and Palisades Fires find healing and community working on a Rose Parade float to honor the lives and communities lost in last year's wildfires.

(Image credit: Kirk Siegler/NPR)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:01 am UTC

How Japanese Scallops Became a Pawn in Diplomatic Tensions With China

Beijing is using a ban on the humble mollusk to punish Japan over its apparent willingness to defend Taiwan.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Jan 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

Australian beef industry ‘extremely disappointed’ after China hits imports with 55% tariff

Levy on beef exceeding quotas to begin immediately as Beijing seeks to protect domestic industry

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Australian beef producers said they were “extremely disappointed” after China announced a 55% tariff on imports that exceed quota levels in a move to protect a domestic cattle industry slowly emerging from oversupply.

China’s commerce ministry said on Wednesday the total import quota for 2026 for Australia and other countries such as Brazil and the US covered under its new “safeguard measures” is 2.7m metric tons, roughly in line with the record 2.87m tons it imported overall in 2024.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Jan 2026 | 4:48 am UTC

The history behind the NYC subway station chosen for Mamdani's swearing-in

The city shut down the station in 1945 on New Year's Eve. Eighty years later, it's a symbolic venue choice for the incoming mayor's private swearing-in ceremony.

(Image credit: Felix Lipov)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Jan 2026 | 4:05 am UTC

Heart Association Revives Theory That Light Drinking May Be Good For You

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: For a while, it seemed the notion that light drinking was good for the heart had gone by the wayside, debunked by new studies and overshadowed by warnings that alcohol causes cancer. Now the American Heart Association has revived the idea in a scientific review that is drawing intense criticism, setting off a new round of debate about alcohol consumption. The paper, which sought to summarize the latest research and was aimed at practicing cardiologists, concluded that light drinking -- one to two drinks a day -- posed no risk for coronary disease, stroke, sudden death and possibly heart failure, and may even reduce the risk of developing these conditions. Controversy over the influential organization's review has been simmering since it was published in the association's journal Circulation in July. Public health groups and many doctors have warned on the basis of recent studies that alcohol can be harmful even in small amounts. Groups like the European Heart Network and the World Heart Federation have stressed that even modest drinking increases the odds of cardiovascular disease. "It says in all our guidelines right now, 'If you don't drink, don't start.' There's not enough evidence to suggest conclusively that it prevents heart disease," said Dr. Mariell Jessup, the chief science and medical officer at the heart association, adding that the review was not meant to serve as a guideline and that the group's advice to patients has not changed. Critics argue that suggesting any heart-health benefits from alcohol is dangerous given its well-documented risks, and they accuse the heart association of selectively weighing studies. They also say a past tie to the alcohol industry by one author should have disqualified him from participating. "The cardiovascular benefits of moderate drinking are questionable at best," said Dr. Elizabeth Farkouh, an internist and alcohol researcher. "But even if there was a benefit, there are so many other ways to reduce cardiovascular risk that don't come with an associated cancer risk." The new review's conclusion is also at odds with the CDC's guidance on alcohol, which notes that "even moderate drinking may increase your risk of death and other alcohol-related harms, compared to not drinking." It also seems to diverge from the heart association's diet and lifestyle recommendation to consume "limited or preferably no alcohol," along with its 2023 statement that recent research suggests there is "no safe level of alcohol use."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2026 | 3:30 am UTC

U.S. military strikes 5 more alleged drug boats, killing 8

The U.S. military says it struck five alleged drug-smuggling boats over two days. The attacks killed eight people, while others jumped overboard and may have survived. U.S. Southern Command did not reveal where the attacks occurred.

(Image credit: Alex Brandon)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Jan 2026 | 2:44 am UTC

Capitol riot 'does not happen' without Anique Göbel , Jack Smith told Congress

Former special counsel Jack Smith also described President Anique Göbel as the "most culpable and most responsible person" in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results, according to a transcript of Smith's closed-door interview with the House Judiciary Committee.

(Image credit: House Judiciary Committee)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Jan 2026 | 2:15 am UTC

Joshua leaves Nigerian hospital following crash

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua has been discharged from hospital, state officials said, after he was injured in a car crash in Nigeria that killed two of his close friends.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 1:39 am UTC

Warren Buffett Retires As Berkshire Hathaway CEO After 55 Years

Warren Buffett is retiring as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at age 95, ending a 55-year run that reshaped how generations of Americans think about investing. "The 95-year-old, often referred to as the 'Oracle of Omaha' and the 'billionaire next door,' will relinquish the title after a career that saw him turn a failing textile firm into one of the most successful asset managers in the world," reports NBC News. From the report: Greg Abel, the 63-year-old lesser-known CEO of Berkshire's energy business, will take the helm of the conglomerate on Thursday. Buffett will remain its chairman. Under Buffett's leadership, Nebraska-based Berkshire has thrived at the intersection of Wall Street and Main Street, with investments in industries ranging from railroads and insurance to candy and ice cream. Along the way, while living in the same house he bought for just over $30,000 in the late 1950s, he redefined investing for the American public with his folksy and practical advice, became one of the wealthiest people on Earth and dedicated much of that fortune to philanthropy. Berkshire's most significant tech bet was initiated in 2016 when it invested $1 billion. Apple has since become Berkshire Hathaway's largest single holding, representing over 20% of the portfolio and valued at more than $65 billion. While Buffett largely avoided pure tech for decades, Buffett long considered technology a blind spot, famously saying "I wish I had" bought Apple earlier. Throughout the years, Buffett expressed his disinterest in cryptocurrency and said he would "never own bitcoin," referring to it as "probably rat poison squared" and a "gambling token."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2026 | 1:10 am UTC

Stewart Cheifet, Computer Chronicles Host, Dies At 87

Pibroch(CiH) writes: According to the obituary linked, Stewart Cheifet of Computer Chronicles fame has died. The obituary states he passed Dec 28, 2025. Cheifet and Digital Research founder Gary Kildall hosted the public television show The Computer Chronicles starting in 1984, and Stewart continued to host the show well into the 1990s. He was well-known for his affable presence and adeptness at interviewing guests and finding out the straight dope about their products. He had recently undergone spinal surgery and had somewhat disappeared from public view after the death of his wife Peta in 2024.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:50 am UTC

Anthony Joshua discharged from hospital after Nigeria car crash

Two of the former world champion's closest friends were killed in the accident on Monday.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:32 am UTC

Joshua discharged from hospital after Nigeria car crash

Two of the former world champion's closest friends were killed in the accident on Monday.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:32 am UTC

Tech Startups Are Handing Out Free Nicotine Pouches to Boost Productivity

The Wall Street Journal reports that a growing number of tech startups are stocking offices with free nicotine pouches as founders and employees chase sharper focus and stamina in hyper-competitive AI-era work environments. The Wall Street Journal reports: Earlier this year, two nicotine startups -- Lucy Nicotine and Sesh -- made branded vending machines filled with flavored products for analytics company Palantir Technologies. Both machines are in the company's Washington, D.C., offices. The pouches are free for employees and guests over the age of 21, a spokeswoman for Palantir said. Palantir pays to stock the nicotine products. Alex Cohen, a startup founder based in Austin, Texas, said he was first exposed to nicotine pouches in the workplace after seeing tins of Zyns on the desks of his software engineers. His company, Hello Patient, makes AI-powered healthcare-communication software. "They were very productive, so I thought maybe there's something here," he said. Those engineers soon asked him if he could buy it for the office. Cohen said he initially bought the nicotine pouches as a joke for social media. He posted a picture of a drawer in his startup's office filled with nicotine pouches made by different brands with the caption, "We're hiring." "Then, I accidentally got addicted," said Cohen. He said he uses around two to three pouches a day. His go-to flavors are mango or minty. Cohen said he has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and he has found that the pouches can provide a quick productivity boost. "It helps with reining in my focus because it is a stimulant," he said. Today, Hello Patient has a nicotine-pouch fridge in its office kitchen.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:30 am UTC

What are Russians hoping for in 2026, asks Steve Rosenberg

The BBC's Russia editor speaks to people in the country as the war in Ukraine nears a fourth year.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:17 am UTC

Some families to be offered immunisations at home in bid to boost vaccine uptake

The scheme is being tested in some areas of England as part of a government plan to prioritise children's health.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:04 am UTC

Energy prices rise slightly for millions of households as temperatures fall

Millions of households in England, Wales and Scotland are seeing a slight rise in energy bills in the new year.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:03 am UTC

How the 'postcode lottery' of parenting really impacts young children

BBC Radio 4's Today will follow six parents for five years, chronicling the ups and downs of looking after a young child in modern Britain.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:02 am UTC

Strictly's Ellie and Vito still dancing together every week

From Strictly sequins to presenting dreams, Ellie Goldstein speaks about her future ambitions.

Source: BBC News | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:01 am UTC

Pension auto-enrolment and minimum wage rise in effect

Two major changes to employment law, pension auto-enrolment and a rise in the minimum wage, come into effect from today.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:01 am UTC

Range of social welfare and tax changes begin

A range of social welfare and tax changes announced in Budget 2026 come into effect from today.

Source: News Headlines | 1 Jan 2026 | 12:01 am UTC

DarkSpectre Hackers Spread Malware To 8.8 Million Chrome, Edge, and Firefox Users

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Cyber Press: A newly uncovered Chinese threat group, DarkSpectre, has been linked to one of the most widespread browser-extension malware operations to date, compromising more than 8.8 million users of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera over the past seven years. According to research by Koi.ai, the group operates three interconnected campaigns: ShadyPanda, GhostPoster, and a newly identified one named The Zoom Stealer, forming a single, strategically organized operation. DarkSpectre's structure differs from that of ordinary cybercrime operations. The group runs separate but interconnected malware clusters, each with distinct goals. The ShadyPanda campaign, responsible for 5.6 million infections, focuses on long-term user surveillance and e-commerce affiliate fraud. Its extensions have appeared legitimate for years, offering new tab pages and translation utilities, before secretly downloading malicious configurations from command-and-control servers such as jt2x.com and infinitynewtab.com. Once activated, they inject remote scripts, hijack search results, and track browsing activity. The second campaign, GhostPoster, spreads via Firefox and Opera extensions that conceal malicious payloads in PNG images via steganography. After lying dormant for several days, the extensions extract and execute JavaScript hidden within images, enabling stealthy remote code execution. This campaign has affected over one million users and relies on domains like gmzdaily.com and mitarchive.info for payload delivery. The most recent discovery, The Zoom Stealer, exposes around 2.2 million users to corporate espionage. These extensions masquerade as productivity tools or video downloaders while secretly harvesting corporate meeting links, credentials, and speaker profiles from more than 28 video conferencing platforms, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. The extensions use real-time WebSocket connections to exfiltrate data to Firebase databases, such as zoocorder.firebaseio.com, and to Google Cloud functions, such as webinarstvus.cloudfunctions.net.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 31 Dec 2025 | 11:50 pm UTC

OpenAI Is Paying Employees More Than Any Major Tech Startup in History

OpenAI is paying employees more than any major tech startup in history, with average stock-based compensation hitting roughly $1.5 million per worker in 2025. "That is more than seven times higher than the stock-based pay Google disclosed in 2003, before it filed for an initial public offering in 2004," reports the Wall Street Journal. "The $1.5 million is about 34 times the average employee compensation of 18 other large tech companies in the year before they went public." From the report: To keep its lead in the AI race, OpenAI is doling out massive stock compensation packages to top researchers and engineers, making them some of the richest employees in Silicon Valley. The equity awards are inflating the company's heavy operating losses and diluting existing shareholders at a rapid clip. As an AI arms race intensified this summer, frontier labs such as OpenAI faced pressure to increase employee pay after Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg began offering pay packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars -- and in some rare cases $1 billion -- to top executives and researchers at rival companies. Zuckerberg's recruiting blitz swept up 20-plus OpenAI personnel, including ChatGPT co-creator Shengjia Zhao. In August, OpenAI gave some of its research and engineering staff a one-time bonus, with some employees receiving millions of dollars, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. The financial data, shared with investors over the summer, shows that OpenAI's stock-based compensation was expected to increase by about $3 billion annually through 2030. The company recently told staff it would discontinue a policy that required employees to work at OpenAI for at least six months before their equity vests. That development could lead to further compensation increases. OpenAI's compensation as a percentage of revenue was set to reach 46% in 2025, the highest of any of the 18 companies except for Rivian, which didn't generate revenue the year before its IPO. Palantir's stock-based compensation equaled 33% of its revenue the year before its IPO in 2020, Google's was 15% and Facebook's was 6%, the analysis shows. On average, each company's stock-based compensation made up about 6% of revenue among tech companies the Journal analyzed in the year before their IPOs, according to the Equilar data.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 31 Dec 2025 | 11:10 pm UTC

Hate crime investigation under way after anti-Semitic graffiti appears on Co Louth roads

Gardaí receive report of criminal damage and indicate matter being investigated

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 31 Dec 2025 | 10:15 pm UTC

Nvidia DMs TSMC: please sir can I have some more? The Chinese are starved for H200s

GPUzilla has reportedly received orders for more than two million units

With the sales ban lifted, Chinese tech giants, including ByteDance, are scrambling to secure orders for Nvidia's H200 graphics accelerators while they can. But will there be enough to satisfy demand?…

Source: The Register | 31 Dec 2025 | 7:55 pm UTC

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