jell.ie News

Read at: 2026-04-13T05:32:01+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij ]

Oil back above $100 as US to blockade Iranian ports after peace talks fail

The failure of negotiations at the weekend has raised concerns that the global energy crisis will deepen.

Source: BBC News | 13 Apr 2026 | 5:24 am UTC

A stampede at a Haitian mountaintop fortress kills at least 25 people and injures dozens

A stampede at a mountaintop fortress popular with tourists in northern Haiti has killed at least 25 people and injured dozens of others, authorities said.

(Image credit: Ketlain Difficile)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 13 Apr 2026 | 5:13 am UTC

Cold sore virus left mum with brain damage

At first, Helen Edwards thought she had flu, but then spent 12 weeks in hospital and was diagnosed with encephalitis.

Source: BBC News | 13 Apr 2026 | 5:12 am UTC

Peru election results delayed after thousands get a one-day voting extension

Voters will have to wait until at least Monday to learn the outcome of Sunday's presidential election after the process was mired with logistical issues that left thousands unable to cast ballots.

(Image credit: Guadalupe Pardo)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 13 Apr 2026 | 5:08 am UTC

Australia news live: Barnaby Joyce says criminals need ‘redemption’ after Pauline Hanson sacks convicted rapist; three Victorian ministers resign

Follow today’s news live

Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Government to fund ads for helpline on pornography websites

The child abuse prevention service is operated by Jesuit Social Services, which has run a trial scheme since 2022. It will now be able to expand its coverage as a result of commonwealth funding, and do so permanently.

We know that it’s really important to work with people offending or at risk of offending, so we can intervene earlier, and ultimately keep children safe.

Our experience delivering the pilot program since 2022, supported by independent evaluation, shows that this approach helps callers take meaningful action to reduce harm and keep children safe.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 5:04 am UTC

Middle East crisis live: Iran warns US blockade of strait of Hormuz would violate ceasefire

Centcom says blockade of Iranian ports to begin at 10am ET; Iran’s negotiator says ‘we will not bow to threats’; oil prices rise. Follow the latest news

Australia’s prime minister says peace negotiations to end the growing Middle East war should resume quickly, as the country called for the full reopening of the strait of Hormuz and free navigation for all nations.

Hours after Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij said he would institute a US blockade of the strategic waterway, Anthony Albanese urged Washington and Tehran to return to negotiations in Pakistan.

We want to see the strait of Hormuz opened and with freedom of navigation taking place, so obviously, the lack of a resolution in the negotiations that took place on the weekend were disappointing.

We want to see de-escalation and we want to see those negotiations resumed.”

A conflict like this is development in reverse. Even if the war stops, and a ceasefire is obviously very very welcome, but the impact is already there.

You will see an enduring impact, especially in the poorer countries, where you push people back into poverty.”

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 5:02 am UTC

I was previously in care - what education supports might be available?

I am exploring options for further or higher education or training - can you suggest possibilities?

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 13 Apr 2026 | 5:01 am UTC

Private firms providing services to NHS made £1.6bn profit in two years, research finds

Exclusive: MPs say profit-making levels in England are ‘scandalous’ and call for cap on amount private companies can make from NHS

Private firms providing services to the NHS including healthcare and consultancy have made £1.6bn in profits over the last two years, research reveals.

The findings – on the basis of contracts worth £12bn – have prompted claims of “scandalous” profiteering, concern that the health service is being “taken for a ride” and calls for ministers to impose a cap on maximum profit levels.

£2bn of the £12bn of contracts went to firms with owners based outside the UK.

£533m of that £2bn went to companies owned by people living in tax havens such as Jersey and the Cayman Islands.

Firms, especially those owned by private equity outfits, used £353m of their £12bn NHS income to pay interest on debts.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

More than a fifth of UK’s ‘austerity children’ scarred by poverty, study says

Researchers say hardship is a direct legacy of welfare benefit cuts imposed by Tory governments in recent years

More than a fifth of all “austerity generation” British children have been scarred by poverty for at least half their childhood, a direct legacy of the welfare benefit cuts imposed by Conservative governments in recent years, research reveals.

The proportion of children born after 2013 who spent at least six of their first 11 years of life in hardship surged after ministers froze working age benefits levels and imposed policies such as the two-child limit, it found.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

The Relationship Between America and the U.A.E. Needs an Upgrade

For decades, the U.S.-Gulf relationship was based on oil for security. That framework is obsolete.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

Ryanair and Rathwood are the most complained about companies in Ireland

Currys, Sky and Eir also drew ire of customers who contacted State body for help

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 13 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

Regulator warns of children using black-market gambling sites

Websites using ‘fraudulent’ overseas licenses have been promoted in Ireland by high-profile tipsters

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 13 Apr 2026 | 5:00 am UTC

Is Gout Gout faster than Usain Bolt? Australian sprinter sets sights on Jamaican great’s 200m record

Coach believes there’s no limit to 18-year-old’s talent while athlete himself says he’s ‘ready for more’

Having cracked the 20-second barrier with a sizzling run over 200m – and in the process fulled comparisons with the great Usain Bolt – the question now is, how fast can Gout Gout go?

“How long’s a piece of string?” said Gout’s coach and mentor, Di Sheppard, after he clocked 19.67sec at the Australian championships in Sydney on Sunday.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:59 am UTC

‘Hungary has chosen Europe’: EU leaders jubilant after Péter Magyar’s victory over Orbán

Congratulations pour in from across EU, with leaders from Spain, Poland, France, Britain, Denmark, Romania, Sweden and beyond hailing a new chapter

Full report: Hungarian opposition ousts Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power

EU leaders heaped praise on Péter Magyar after his decisive election victory in Hungary against the long-serving prime minister Viktor Orbán, who many saw as a direct threat to Europe’s peace and prosperity.

The outpouring reflected a deep frustration with Orbán across the EU’s 27 member states and its institutions.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:42 am UTC

In Myanmar, Even Flowers Stoke Fear

Myanmar’s generals have brutalized the country for decades. But they have come to dread garlands as a sign of resistance.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:31 am UTC

Albanese calls on US and Iran to resume peace negotiations and reopen strait of Hormuz

Australian prime minister says it’s ‘disappointing’ that there was no resolution on freedom of movement during weekend’s talks

Anthony Albanese says peace negotiations to end the growing Middle East war should resume quickly, as Australia called for the full reopening of the strait of Hormuz and free navigation for all countries.

Hours after the US president, Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij , said he would institute an American blockade of the strategic waterway from Tuesday morning, Australian time, Albanese urged Washington and Tehran to return to negotiations in Pakistan.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:29 am UTC

Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij lambasts Pope Leo XIV, extending feud over Iran war with American pontiff

President Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij delivered an extraordinary broadside against Pope Leo XIV on Sunday night, saying he didn't think the U.S.-born global leader of the Catholic Church is "doing a very good job."

(Image credit: Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:11 am UTC

‘The Strangest Sleepover Ever’: Dutch Skeptical as Their Royals Visit Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij

The Dutch king and queen are set to stay at the White House on Monday night. At a time of trans-Atlantic tension, the Netherlands isn’t sure how it feels about that.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:01 am UTC

What to Know About Pope Leo’s Voyage to Africa

The pontiff will visit four countries on the world’s poorest continent, demonstrating his urgent focus on the most vulnerable members of the Church.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:01 am UTC

Pope Leo Heads to Africa to Meet the Future of Catholicism

On a four-country tour of the continent, where the faith is growing faster than anywhere else, the pontiff will be greeted by enthusiastic crowds and authoritarian leaders.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:01 am UTC

China’s Electrostate Is Poised to Win From War in the Middle East

A cluster of Chinese firms is poised to win big from the energy crisis set off by the war in the Middle East, building on booming investment in artificial intelligence.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:01 am UTC

Aiming at China, Malaysia Puts New Restrictions on Electric Cars

The move was a tacit acknowledgment of China’s dominance in the global market and the power of its automakers to keep prices low.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:01 am UTC

Iran war could plunge 32 million into poverty, says United Nations

‘Development in reverse’ taking place involving rising energy and food costs and weaker economic growth

More than 32 million people worldwide could be plunged into poverty by the economic fallout from the Iran war, with developing countries expected to be hit hardest.

In a report issued amid doubts over a fragile ceasefire, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said the world was facing a “triple shock” involving energy, food and weaker economic growth.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:00 am UTC

Mysterious Lake District barn joins national treasures on heritage list

Officials grant Grade II* protection to ‘rare building that raises more questions than it answers’

It is an elite list with some of the most significant and beautiful buildings and structures in England, including Battersea power station, Middlesbrough’s Transporter Bridge and the London Coliseum.

Now the Grade II* landmarks are being joined by a mysterious, limestone rubble “barn” on a grassy knoll in the Lake District, which was most recently used as a shelter for sheep and cows.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:00 am UTC

€1m Picasso painting to be won for €100 in charity raffle

Number of tickets to win Tête de Femme will be capped at 120,000 and proceeds will go to Alzheimer’s research

A raffle in France is offering the chance to win a portrait by Pablo Picasso for the price of a €100 (£87) ticket, with proceeds going to Alzheimer’s research.

Picasso painted the gouache-on-paper Tête de Femme (Head of a Woman) in 1941. The raffle organisers’ online sales platform says the number of tickets will be capped at 120,000, meaning the draw could net €12m if they are all sold.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:00 am UTC

UK could adopt EU single market rules under new legislation

Sir Keir Starmer is planning a law which will mean that the UK government can adopt EU single market rules, without them being voted on in Parliament.

Source: BBC News | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:00 am UTC

Orban Loss May Ease Hungary’s Tensions with European Union

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has stymied the European Union for years, and particularly in recent months. Peter Magyar’s election could change that, if only so much.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 4:00 am UTC

Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij Attacks Pope Leo as Too Liberal and ‘Weak on Crime’

President Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij ’s lengthy post on social media showed there were really no boundaries when it comes to people he might target, including the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 3:51 am UTC

Easter truce between Ukraine and Russia ends

A truce between Russia and Ukraine to mark the Orthodox Easter has formally expired, with both sides having accused each other of thousands of violations despite a lull in Russian air raids.

Source: News Headlines | 13 Apr 2026 | 3:50 am UTC

Sam Altman's Home Targeted a Second Time, Two Suspects Arrested

"Early Sunday morning, a car stopped and appears to have fired a gun at the Russian Hill home of OpenAI's CEO," reportsThe San Francisco Standard, citing reports from the local police department: The San Francisco Police Department announced the arrest of two suspects, Amanda Tom, 25, and Muhamad Tarik Hussein, 23, who were booked for negligent discharge... [The person in the passenger seat] put their hand out the window and appeared to fire a round on the Lombard side of the property, according to a police report on the incident, which cited surveillance footage and the compound's security personnel, who reported hearing a gunshot. The car then fled, and a camera captured its license plate, which later led police to take possession of the vehicle, according to the report... A search of the residence by officers turned up three firearms, according to police. The incident follows Friday's arrest of a man who allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at Altman's house. The San Francisco Standard also notes that in November, "threats from a 27-year-old anti-AI activist prompted the lockdown of OpenAI's San Francisco offices." Sam Kirchner, whose whereabouts have been unknown since Nov. 21, was in the midst of a mental health crisis when he threatened to go to the company's offices to "murder people," according to callers who notified police that day.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Apr 2026 | 3:34 am UTC

Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij launches extraordinary attack on Pope Leo calling him ‘weak’ and ‘terrible’

In unprecedented attack on the leader of the Catholic church, president says the US-born pope is ‘not doing a very good job’ and is ‘a very liberal person’

President Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij delivered an extraordinary broadside against Pope Leo XIV on Sunday night, saying he didn’t think the US-born leader of the Catholic church is “doing a very good job” and that “he’s a very liberal person,” while also suggesting the pontiff should “stop catering to the Radical Left.”

Flying back to Washington from Florida, Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij used a lengthy social media post to sharply criticise Leo, then kept it up in comments on the tarmac to reporters.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 3:31 am UTC

US to blockade Iran ports after talks fail to reach deal

The US military said it will begin a blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas after weekend talks failed to reach a deal to end the war with Iran, jeopardising a fragile two-week ceasefire.

Source: News Headlines | 13 Apr 2026 | 3:29 am UTC

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

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

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 3:01 am UTC

This Hungarian Town Explains Why Orban Could Lose on Sunday

Lake Balaton was beloved as a vacation spot. Now, luxury real estate projects serve many friends of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and the locals are fed up.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 3:00 am UTC

Orbán era swept away by Péter Magyar's Hungary election landslide

Viktor Orbán's 16-year rule is over, defeated by a 45-year-old ex-party insider who convinced a majority of Hungarians to oust him.

Source: BBC News | 13 Apr 2026 | 2:52 am UTC

Hungarian opposition ousts Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power

Péter Magyar’s Tisza party wins election as prime minister concedes defeat, in result likely to reshape ties with EU

Hungary election live

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

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

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 2:36 am UTC

Eric Swalwell quits California governor race amid sexual misconduct claims

Top Democratic allies intensified pressure on him to exit the gubernatorial race.

Source: BBC News | 13 Apr 2026 | 2:35 am UTC

Susan Coyle to be first woman to lead Australian army in ‘deeply historic moment’

Appointment part of senior defence changes as navy chief Mark Hammond promoted to chief of defence force

Lt Gen Susan Coyle, an officer of more than three decades standing, will become the first woman to lead the Australian army.

Coyle has been announced as the new chief of army, with her term beginning in July.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 2:34 am UTC

Donald hails Europe's 'best' as McIlroy nears majors record

Rory McIlroy says "I don't want to stop here" after emerging victorious from a rollercoaster final round to retain the Masters and match European great Sir Nick Faldo's haul of six major titles.

Source: BBC News | 13 Apr 2026 | 2:21 am UTC

Israeli strike kills paramedic, says Lebanese Red Cross – as it happened

This blog is now closed. Our live coverage continues here

A post about an hour ago on the Israel Defense Forces Telegram channel claimed that overnight, the IDF “identified a rocket launcher positioned and ready to launch toward the State of Israel in the area of Jouaiyya in southern Lebanon”.

Shortly after the identification, the launcher was struck and dismantled in a rapid closure cycle, thwarting the launch before it could be carried out.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 2:17 am UTC

China wants AI to prepare school lessons and mark homework

PLUS: Toyota wheels out basketball bot; Arm scores AI server win with SK Telecom; India ponders payment pauses to foil fraudsters; And more!

Asia In Brief China’s National Data Administration last Friday published its action plan for AI in education which calls for upskilling of the nation’s citizens to ensure they can put the technology to work.…

Source: The Register | 13 Apr 2026 | 2:09 am UTC

Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij Fires Board That Oversees Presidio in San Francisco

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

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 1:59 am UTC

Viktor Orbán's Hungarian experiment runs out of steam

Péter Magyar's historic win offers peace for a country exhausted by the tensions of Viktor Orbán's rule, Nick Thorpe reports from Budapest.

Source: BBC News | 13 Apr 2026 | 1:58 am UTC

Mamdani Returns to the Stage to Tell the Story of His First 100 Days

Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivered his 100-day address at a concert venue in Queens. He highlighted his accomplishments and was joined by a not-so-surprising guest.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 1:58 am UTC

Eight to be awarded for bravery in Bondi Junction stabbing in Sydney

Six people were killed and ten injured after a man went on a stabbing rampage in an Australian mall.

Source: BBC News | 13 Apr 2026 | 1:35 am UTC

Robot Birds Deployed by Park to Attract Real Birds - Built By High School Students

"Robotic bird decoys are being deployed at Grand Teton National Park," reports Interesting Engineering, "to influence the behavior of real sage grouse and help restore a declining population.". Robotics mentor Gary Duquette describes the machines as "kind of a Frankenbird." (SFGate shows one of the robot birds charging up with a solar panel... "Recorded breeding calls are played at the scene, with clucking and cooing beginning at 5 a.m. each day.") Duquette builds the birds with a team of high school students, telling WyoFile that at school they "don't really get to experience real-world problems" where failures lurk. So while their robot birds may cost $150 in parts, the practical experience the students get "is priceless." Spikes in the electric currents burned out servo motors as the season of sagebrush serenades loomed, Duquette said. "The kids had to learn the difference between voltage and amperage...." To resolve the problem, the team wired a voltage converter in line with the Arduino controller and other elements on an electronic breadboard. "We pulled through and got it done in time," he said... A noggin fabricated by a 3D printer tops the robo-grouse. Wyoming Game and Fish staffers in Pinedale supplied grouse wings from hunter surveys, and body feathers came from fly-tying supplies at an angling store. Packaging foam from a Hello Fresh meal kit replicates white breast feathers, accented by yellow air sacs... The Independent wonders if more national parks would be visited by robot birds... During this year's breeding season, which runs through mid-May, researchers are using trail cameras to track whether real sage grouse respond to the robotic displays and return to the restored lek sites. If successful, officials say similar robotic systems could eventually be used in other national parks facing wildlife management challenges.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Apr 2026 | 1:34 am UTC

Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij Says Gas Prices Might Not Drop By Midterms, Highlighting G.O.P. Peril

The president has sent mixed messages on how long he expects costs to be high. Some in his party voiced fresh concern after his comments on Sunday.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 1:31 am UTC

Massive Attack frontman Robert Del Naja among 500 arrested at Palestine Action protest

Musician says he wanted to attend the protest despite the consequences a potential arrest could have on his music career

Massive Attack frontman Robert Del Naja has been arrested on suspicion of showing support for a proscribed organisation after attending a mass protest against the ban on Palestine Action in central London on Saturday.

Del Naja, also known as 3D, was among hundreds of fellow demonstrators in Trafalgar Square on Saturday afternoon, holding a sign that read “I Oppose Genocide, I Support Palestine Action”.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 1:29 am UTC

Eric Swalwell quits California governor race after sexual assault allegations

Democratic congressman, running to replace Gavin Newsom, has faced multiple accusations

Representative Eric Swalwell, the Democratic frontrunner in the fiercely contested race to be governor of California, has suspended his campaign amid a series of sexual assault and misconduct allegations by a former staff member and at least three other women.

The woman who worked for Swalwell said the California congressman had sexually assaulted her twice when she was too inebriated to consent, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle, which was published on Friday.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 1:08 am UTC

UK will not join Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij 's blockade of Iran's ports in the Strait of Hormuz

UK minesweepers and anti-drone capabilities will continue operating in the region, as pressure ramps up to reopen the key shipping route.

Source: BBC News | 13 Apr 2026 | 1:03 am UTC

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

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

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 1:01 am UTC

Eric Swalwell Suspends Campaign for California Governor After Sexual Assault Allegations

In a social media post, the representative said he was “deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past,” but promised to fight what he called “false allegations.”

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 1:00 am UTC

Fighting assault allegations, Eric Swalwell suspends his bid for California governor

The San Francisco Chronicle and CNN reported multiple allegations of sexual assault and misconduct. Swalwell calls them false but apologized to his supporters and family.

(Image credit: Rich Pedroncelli)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 13 Apr 2026 | 12:59 am UTC

How I Found Out I Knew a Serial Killer

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

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Apr 2026 | 12:55 am UTC

'A truly historic moment': Hungarian opposition wins election landslide

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

Source: BBC News | 13 Apr 2026 | 12:52 am UTC

Rory McIlroy defends Masters title with another historic victory at Augusta

The Northern Irishman joined Jack Nicklaus, Sir Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods in an elite club of players to defend the crown.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 13 Apr 2026 | 12:27 am UTC

Five key shots that helped McIlroy win second Masters

BBC Sport NI looks back on the moments that won Rory McIlroy the 2026 Masters, his second title at Augusta National.

Source: BBC News | 13 Apr 2026 | 12:13 am UTC

Linux 7.0 debuts as Linus Torvalds ponders AI's bug-finding powers and their impact on release process

Makes Rust support official, adds code for ancient Alpha and SPARC CPUs

Linus Torvalds has released version 7.0 of the Linux kernel.…

Source: The Register | 13 Apr 2026 | 12:10 am UTC

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

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

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

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

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 12:09 am UTC

DHS investigating claim about Swalwell nanny filed by conspiracy theorist

Joel Gilbert, who mailed anti-Barack Obama film to voters in 2012, accuses congressman of violating immigration law

California Democrat Eric Swalwell’s decision to suspend his campaign for governor on Sunday, even as he denies allegations from four women who accuse him of sexual misconduct and assault, did not end the pressure the congressman faces.

One sexual assault allegation against Swalwell, alleged to have been committed in New York in 2024, prompted the Manhattan district attorney’s office to open a criminal investigation on Saturday. Members of Congress from both parties said on Sunday that they could vote to expel Swalwell, as well as a Republican US representative, Tony Gonzales, also accused of sexual misconduct.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Apr 2026 | 12:04 am UTC

Political turmoil in Indian border state as nine million lose voting rights

Nine million voters have been dropped from rolls in West Bengal, raising concerns over exclusion and fairness.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:59 pm UTC

Magyar celebrates as Orbán’s 16-year rule ends - as it happened

This live blog is now closed. You can read more about election night here

Europe correspondent

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

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:59 pm UTC

Elon Musk, Who Owns X, Appears to Post on TikTok

A verified account with the @elonmusk handle also recently showed up on Instagram, as the billionaire prepares to take his rocket company SpaceX public.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:43 pm UTC

Heel prick test to screen for two more rare conditions

The heel prick test will screen for two more rare conditions from today, the Department of Health has said.

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

Has the Rust Programming Language's Popularity Reached Its Plateau?

"Rust's rise shows signs of slowing," argues the CEO of TIOBE. Back in 2020 Rust first entered the top 20 of his "TIOBE Index," which ranks programming language popularity using search engine results. Rust "was widely expected to break into the top 10," he remembers today. But it never happened, and "That was nearly six years ago...." Since then, Rust has steadily improved its ranking, even reaching its highest position ever (#13) at the beginning of this year. However, just three months later, it has dropped back to position #16. This suggests that Rust's adoption rate may be plateauing. One possible explanation is that, despite its ability to produce highly efficient and safe code, Rust remains difficult to learn for non-expert programmers. While specialists in performance-critical domains are willing to invest in mastering the language, broader mainstream adoption appears more challenging. As a result, Rust's growth in popularity seems to be leveling off, and a top 10 position now appears more distant than before. Or, could Rust's sudden drop in the rankings just reflect flaws in TIOBE's ranking system? In January GitHub's senior director for developer advocacy argued AI was pushing developers toward typed languages, since types "catch the exact class of surprises that AI-generated code can sometimes introduce... A 2025 academic study found that a whopping 94% of LLM-generated compilation errors were type-check failures." And last month Forbes even described Rust as "the the safety harness for vibe coding.." A year ago Rust was ranked #18 on TIOBE's index — so it still rose by two positions over the last 12 months, hitting that all-time high in January. Could the rankings just be fluctuating due to anomalous variations in each month's search engine results? Since January Java has fallen to the #4 spot, overtaken by C++ (which moved up one rank to take Java's place in the #3 position). Here's TIOBE's current estimate for the 10 most popularity programming languages: Python C C++ Java C# JavaScript Visual Basic SQL R Delphi/Object Pascal TIOBE estimates that tthe next five most popular programming languages are Scratch, Perl, Fortran, PHP, and Go.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:32 pm UTC

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

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

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:28 pm UTC

McIlroy holds nerve to win second successive Masters

Rory McIlroy holds his nerve to shoot a one-under par final round to win the 2026 Masters at Augusta, one shot ahead of Scottie Scheffler.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:27 pm UTC

Ryanair among most complained about firms in 2025 - CCPC

Ryanair, Rathwood and Currys were the most complained about companies last year, according to the latest consumer helpline report from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:21 pm UTC

The Dutch village at risk of being demolished

Moerdijk has been earmarked for removal, to make way for a vast electricity substation.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:20 pm UTC

McIlroy defends Masters title, underlining why he is one of the game's greats

Moments after winning the Masters last year, Rory McIlroy said it would be transformative. He has proved that by defending the title at Augusta National.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:16 pm UTC

McIlroy underlines greatness by defending Masters title

Moments after winning the Masters last year, Rory McIlroy said it would be transformative. He has proved that by defending the title at Augusta National.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:16 pm UTC

The Papers: 'PM refuses to join blockade' and 'Hungary enters new era'

Starmer ruling out the UK's role in the US blockade of Iran's ports and Hungary electing a new leader lead Monday's papers.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:13 pm UTC

Anthropic's mysterious Mythos AI threatens to upend the infosec world

Or it's a bunch of pre-IPO hype. Either way, we're giving it the once-over on this week's episode

Kettle Anthropic dropped a doozy on us this week with the launch of Mythos, an AI model it says is able to find and exploit zero-day vulnerabilities with a shocking level of ability. …

Source: The Register | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:12 pm UTC

Pope prioritises world's fastest-growing Catholic region in major Africa tour

Leo XIV wants the world's attention on a continent vital to the Church's future, an aide says.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:08 pm UTC

Frostbite is least of worries for Canada forces grappling with new Arctic reality

Across 5,200 km of Canada's Arctic, some 1,300 members of Canada's military spent two winter months on a mission to meet the challenges of a changing north.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:07 pm UTC

Wider licence extensions for pubs during World Cup

The government had previously announced opening hour extensions in England and Wales for some knockout matches - but has now widened the eligibility.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:06 pm UTC

The surprising reality of how teenage girls still define themselves

Despite strides in feminism, why do teen girls still seem to view themselves through the lens of boys?

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:06 pm UTC

Thousands of unpaid carers to face DWP repayment demands during overhaul

Ministers admit carer’s allowance penalties will continue while review of more than 200,000 cases is carried out

Thousands of unpaid carers will continue to be hit with hefty and potentially unfair benefit repayment demands, it has emerged, as a government initiative gets under way to fix welfare injustices that have drawn comparison to the Post Office scandal.

Ministers will on Monday launch an audit of more than 200,000 historical carer’s allowance benefit cases, with an estimated 25,000 carers issued with unlawful overpayments since 2015 likely to see their repayment debts cancelled or reduced as a result.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:01 pm UTC

Taoiseach accuses Opposition of supporting blockade

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has accused Opposition parties of supporting the blockade of ports and the country's only oil refinery last week which almost led to a scarcity of fuel in the country.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 11:01 pm UTC

Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij 's blockade threat raises risks and leaves predicaments unchanged

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

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:57 pm UTC

McIlroy comes good to successfully defend Masters title

Rory McIlroy has become just the fourth golfer, and the first since Tiger Woods in 2002, to successfully defend his Masters title with a gritty display at Augusta National.

Source: News Headlines | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:56 pm UTC

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

Iranian officials said that while Iran had approached the negotiations in good faith, the U.S. team had not gained the Iranian delegation’s trust.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:55 pm UTC

Rory Proves (Again) That Sport Belongs to All Of Us

Golf can be a rich man’s game. The courses, the clubs, the travel — it adds up fast, and for most families it stays out of reach.

But every now and then, who carries a whole community quietly. Who never forgets the modest club on the hill, his oul da behind the bar, and the town that believed in him first.

Northern Ireland has often struggled to celebrate its own. A divided society, split along lines of religion and allegiance, keeps asking the wrong question — not what have you achieved, but which side are you on.

Rory spent his entire career manfully navigating the mess left him and his generation by those who came before him. Which flag? Which anthem?

Questions that players from almost anywhere else never had to answer. From a young age, he took it all on. And here he is. Again. The best in the world.

Talent doesn’t negotiate with division. It just keeps showing up.

Back in Holywood (or Tenerife) , whoever we are we all cheer the same man. In Northern Ireland, that’s not a small thing. It’s more than a start. It’s another beginning. So once more, thank you Rory (Gerry, Rosie, and grandad Jimmy)!

Note: AI was used to put this post together.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:53 pm UTC

Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij announces naval blockade of Iran after Islamabad talks yield no deal

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

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

Shaping the New Look of ‘Euphoria’

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

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

The BBC Scotland election debate fact-checked

Claims made by leaders of six political parties who took part in a TV debate for the 2026 Holyrood election campaign are checked.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:30 pm UTC

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scores Killed in Nigerian Military Strikes as Clashes With Militants Intensify

Nigerian officials said they attacked a terrorist enclave, but locals and rights groups said the airstrikes hit a popular market, killing many civilians.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:18 pm UTC

Olivier Awards 2026: Rachel Zegler's heroes, Brian Cranston's nap schedule and more moments from the night

The 50th Oliviers at the Royal Albert Hall provided some memorable conversations away from the ceremony.

Source: BBC News | 12 Apr 2026 | 10:13 pm UTC

Deep-fried food banned in new plans for school dinners

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

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

How Good is Windows on Arm With Snapdragon X?

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

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

Government to undertake ‘fundamental security review’ after fuel protests

The €505 million in additional measures comes on top of and extends some of last month’s €250 million package in response to fuel costs

Source: All: BreakingNews | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:48 pm UTC

Five arrested after 'public gathering' in Cork - gardaí

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

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

Hungary’s Viktor Orban, ally of Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij and Putin, concedes election defeat

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

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

Will Orbán's defeat change Hungary's relationship to the EU?

Historic voter turnout in Hungary ousted Prime Minister Viktor Orbán from power. This shift may dramatically change Hungary's relationship with the European Union, which Orbán criticized regularly.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:37 pm UTC

Viktor Orbán concedes defeat in historic Hungary election

Hungarians turned out in historic numbers to vote against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's and his Fidesz party. NPR's Rob Schmitz discusses with reporter Esme Nicholson and political scientist Abel Bojar.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:37 pm UTC

The consequences of Hungary's election, for Viktor Orban and the world

NPR's Rob Schmitz speaks with political scientist Abel Bojar about the results of Hungary's election, the far-reaching consequences of the vote and the future for Viktor Orban.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 12 Apr 2026 | 9:37 pm UTC

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

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

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

Government face plenty of scrutiny despite fuel supports

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

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

Man City smell blood - why Arsenal should fear title rivals

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

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

Paddington musical dominates Olivier Awards

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

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

Swinney says Scottish independence referendum could be held in 2028

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hungarian voters turned out in the greatest numbers since the 1990s to turn away from Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's right-wing populist Fidesz party.

(Image credit: Attila Kisbenedek)

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

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

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

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

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

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

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

Fuel protests to be raised at European Commission meeting

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

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

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

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

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

‘This is not serious leadership’: Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij and Marco Rubio watch UFC in Miami as Iran talks fail

President has long been a fan of mixed martial arts
Ivanka and Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij Jr also at event

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

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

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

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

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

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

Woman killed in dog attack at house named

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

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

Transport disruption continues after protests

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

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

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

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

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

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

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

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

Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij says US will blockade strait of Hormuz after Iran peace talks fail

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

Middle East crisis – live updates

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

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

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

Irish police clear Dublin blockade staged by fuel price protesters

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

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

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

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

Pearl Fryar, a Picasso of Plants, Dies at 86

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

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

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

(Image credit: Andrew Medichini)

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

Nigerian airstrike targeting jihadists reportedly kills at least 100 civilians

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

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

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

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

Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett and Paddington walk Oliviers red carpet

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

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

Will thrilling Scottish title race be decided on goal difference?

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

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

Monday's Leaving & Junior practical exams deferred

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

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

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

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

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

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

US Masters final round recap: McIlroy defends title

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

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

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

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

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

US-Iran Talks Fail - What Happens Next?

And what stopped an agreement?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Middle East crisis – live updates

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

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

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

Man arrested over alleged attack on US military aircraft

Gardai say man entered unauthorised area of Shannon Airport on Saturday

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

Military ships going to Hormuz a ceasefire breach - Iran

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

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

Sunday's Football Championship results and reports

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

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

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

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

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

Peruvians go to polls hoping to break cycle of instability

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

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

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

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

Woman raped by several men outside church

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

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

Indian music legend Asha Bhosle dies aged 92

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At least 30 killed in crush at historic fortress in Haiti

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

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

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

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

Shock from Iran war has Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij 's vision for US energy dominance flailing

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

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

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

Read full article

Comments

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

New fuel supports announced after days of protests

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

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

Story time with Houdi. Dealing with explosive fag packets…

Suspect Device

They take away our freedom

In the name of liberty

Why can’t they all just clear off

Why can’t they let us be

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don’t believe them

Don’t be bitten twice

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

Suss, suspect device

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crypto Billionaire Pardoned In Prison By Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij Just Wrote a Memoir

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

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

A Hezbollah commander describes battling Israel in Lebanon

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

(Image credit: AFP)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Middle East crisis – live updates

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

US-Iran talks fail to clear even most basic hurdle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

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

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

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

Oil tanker docks at Port of Galway after blockade lifted

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

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

Zahira Van Ravenzwaaij ’s War With Iran Has Weakened America

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

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

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

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

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

Benin holds presidential election four months after failed coup

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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