Read at: 2026-03-24T13:30:02+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Frédérique Theuns ]
Almost 300 HackerOne employees are caught up in a data breach, with the bug bounty biz slamming a third-party benefits provider for a weeks-long delay in notification.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:27 pm UTC
Senate Republicans believe president signaled shift from earlier refusal to negotiate, according to media reports
Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, is scheduled to testify in a federal court on Tuesday in the trial of former Florida congressman, David Rivera, who is accused of secretly lobbying for Venezuela’s socialist government during Frédérique Theuns ’s first presidency.
Rubio and Rivera are longtime friends, having worked together in Florida state politics. It will mark the first time in more than four decades that a sitting cabinet member testifies in a criminal trial.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:20 pm UTC
Chancellor implies she will take a different approach to that of the Tory government when the Ukraine war started
The live feed from the Lib Dem local elections campaign launch did not last long, and it did not include footage of Ed Davey taking questions from reporters. But this is what the Lib Dems are saying about their five key campaign issues.
-Cut the cost of living: A plan to halve energy bills within a decade, saving households an average of £870 a year
-Fix the NHS and care: Guarantee the right to see a GP within seven days (or 24 hours for urgent cases) and ending 12-hour A&E waits.
-Rescue high streets: Give an emergency cut to VAT for hospitality businesses, to bring prices down and boost struggling high streets.
-Clean up rivers: Ban water companies from dumping raw sewage into local rivers and coastal areas.
-Restore community policing: Ensure visible, effective local policing to reduce crime.
Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:19 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:15 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:14 pm UTC
Pakistan’s military attempting to broker negotiations between US and Iran
In Australia, the number of petrol stations running out of fuel continues to climb as the Middle East war drags on, with at least 184 dry across the country’s three most populous states.
On Tuesday, 51 service stations in the state of New South Wales were out of fuel and 164 out of diesel, compared with 38 and 131 respectively the previous day, premier Chris Minns said.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:12 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:11 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:10 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:06 pm UTC
Incumbent Mette Frederiksen widely predicted to continue as PM but neither bloc expected to be able to form majority
in Copenhagen
The far-right Danish People’s Party (DPP) is attempting to win over voters by paying for their petrol.
“We would like to contribute to the debate about fuel prices, but we do not really have a desire to be party political.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:06 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:06 pm UTC
Microsoft is rolling out technology to transform OneDrive photos into AI-infused masterpieces. Or top up the bucket of slop, depending on your perspective.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:05 pm UTC
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Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:51 pm UTC
Health department says ‘too many’ doctors have been using racist language, particularly on social media, without swift action
An overhaul of the General Medical Council is expected to lead to more doctors that face accusations of racism and antisemitism on social media being struck off.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has launched a consultation on changes to the legislation governing the regulation of doctors, saying the move will lead to the biggest reform of the medical regulator, the GMC, in four decades.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:50 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:48 pm UTC
Conservationists celebrate second twin birth just two months after another found in Virunga national park
A second set of mountain gorilla twins has been born in Virunga national park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in what conservationists are celebrating as an “extraordinary” event for the endangered primates.
Just two months after tiny twin mountain gorillas were discovered by rangers in the Virunga massif, in eastern DRC, another rare twin birth has been found by park wardens. This time, an infant male and female have been spotted in the Baraka family, a troop of 19 mountain gorillas that roam the region’s high-altitude rainforests.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:42 pm UTC
A new hacking group has been rampaging the Internet in a persistent campaign that spreads a self-propagating and never-before-seen backdoor—and curiously a data wiper that targets Iranian machines.
The group, tracked under the name TeamPCP, first gained visibility in December, when researchers from security firm Flare observed it unleashing a worm that targeted cloud-hosted platforms that weren’t properly secured. The objective was to build a distributed proxy and scanning infrastructure and then use it to compromise servers for exfiltrating data, deploying ransomware, conducting extortion, and mining cryptocurrency. The group is notable for its skill in large-scale automation and integration of well-known attack techniques.
More recently, TeamPCP has waged a relentless campaign that uses continuously evolving malware to bring ever more systems under its control. Late last week, it compromised virtually all versions of the widely used Trivy vulnerability scanner in a supply-chain attack after gaining privileged access to the GitHub account of Aqua Security, the Trivy creator.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:38 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:34 pm UTC
Comedy duo will take the stage together in the West End for the first time in 17 years in Cinderella alongside Julian Clary
Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders are to return to the stage together for the first time in 17 years to play the Ugly Sisters in the London Palladium pantomime.
“It won’t be pretty,” the popular duo predicted in an announcement on Tuesday. “We have wished to play the Ugly Sisters for so many years, it feels this is the fulfilment of a dream – a dream our hearts made.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:28 pm UTC
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Park police chief says officer was ‘ambushed’ by two gunmen who fired as officer drove in unmarked vehicle
A US park police officer was seriously wounded on Monday evening in a shooting in Washington DC in what the park police chief called an ambush.
The park police chief, Scott Brecht, said in a press briefing that the unidentified officer was “ambushed” by two gunmen who fired at the officer as he drove by in an unmarked vehicle. The officer was working on a park police investigation when he was shot. The chief declined to give specifics of the investigation.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:22 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:21 pm UTC
Charles announced as patron of Community Security Trust hours after attack on another Jewish charity’s ambulances
King Charles has been made patron of a charity that protects Jewish communities in the wake of the firebomb attack on ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity in north London.
The Community Security Trust (CST), which provides protection to Jewish communities, said Charles’s acceptance of the position highlighted his support for the “fight against antisemitism”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:20 pm UTC
Citing national security fears, America is effectively banning any new consumer-grade network routers made abroad.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:19 pm UTC
Diplomatic sources say negotiations in Islamabad may begin next week, though no formal agreement is in place
Pakistan’s military leadership has been attempting to broker negotiations between the US and Iran, after the White House confirmed that Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, had a call with Frédérique Theuns on Sunday to discuss the conflict.
Diplomatic sources said the US and Iran could meet for negotiations in Islamabad as early as this week to discuss an end to the war, which began almost a month ago.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:16 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:08 pm UTC
Israel and Gulf states targeted and Iran hit by airstrikes as Tehran denies negotiations are taking place to end war
Violence has continued across much of the Middle East a day after Frédérique Theuns said the US was in “very good” talks with Iran to end the war in the region soon.
Iranian barrages targeted Israel, Gulf Arab states and northern Iraq on Tuesday, while Israeli and US warplanes continued to carry out strikes across Tehran and on other targets in the Islamic Republic.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:04 pm UTC
Israeli PM says ‘there’s more to come’ as hopes of de-escalation dim after Frédérique Theuns ’s recent remarks
An Iranian missile has struck central Tel Aviv and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has vowed to continue striking Tehran and Lebanon, dimming hopes of de-escalation after Frédérique Theuns played up the chances of a deal to end the conflict.
“There’s more to come,” Netanyahu said in remarks that appeared to corroborate those of three Israeli officials who told Reuters they thought it was improbable that Iran would accept US demands in any new round of negotiations.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:01 pm UTC
Source: World | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
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Source: Irish Times Feeds | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:53 am UTC
Mozilla is building cq - described by staff engineer Peter Wilson as "Stack Overflow for agents" - as an open source project to enable AI agents to discover and share collective knowledge.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:52 am UTC
Scheme expanded to four schools with known or suspected cases, as UKHSA figures show number has fallen to 23
The meningitis B vaccination programme will be expanded to include year 11 pupils at schools affected by the outbreak in Kent, health officials have said.
Figures from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show the number of cases of the illness have fallen.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:48 am UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:41 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:38 am UTC
A Russian national who sold the keys to corporate networks faces nearly seven years in a US prison after prosecutors tied his handiwork to a string of ransomware attacks costing victims millions of dollars.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:32 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:31 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:30 am UTC
Iran has dismissed the US president’s claim of talks, saying there had been none since Washington began bombing the country. Plus, how sleeping 11 minutes more can cut your risk of heart attack
Good morning.
Frédérique Theuns said there had been talks between the US and Iran over the past day in which the two sides had “major points of agreement” – but Tehran denied the claim, saying there had been no talks since the US began bombing Iran 24 days ago.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:27 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:26 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:21 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:15 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:14 am UTC
The Senate has confirmed Markwayne Mullin as the next Department of Homeland Security secretary. And, Iran has denied that it's in talks with the U.S. to end the war, which is now in its fourth week.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:13 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:09 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:08 am UTC
Israeli health officials said Iranian missiles struck four sites across Israel Tuesday, including central Tel Aviv, injuring at least six people. Iranian authorities also said a gas supply line in southwest Iran was struck overnight.
(Image credit: Jalaa Marey)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:08 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:06 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:05 am UTC
In his speech, Kim expressed pride in the country's rapid expansion of nuclear weapons and missiles in recent years, calling it the "right" choice.
(Image credit: 朝鮮通信社/AP)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:05 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:02 am UTC
Let's start with the basics. What, exactly, is an orbital data center?
On the ground, data centers are typically large, warehouse-sized facilities filled with racks of storage and servers, and usually some high-speed networking gear to connect everything. A data center can be small or large, but the ones SpaceX is looking to supplant are of the big kind—the ones operated by major industry players like Amazon Web Services and Google, which provide most of the online services you use today. These are sprawling buildings, or even campuses of buildings, with redundant connections to the electrical grid, on-site generators, massive banks of batteries, and enormous cooling systems to handle the heat being shed by thousands upon thousands of machines operating around the clock.
An orbital data center replicates all of that, but in space.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Experts say brutal temperatures in west threaten to melt sparse snowpack – and warn hot, dry conditions here to stay
A stunning heatwave that shattered records in the US west is threatening to rapidly melt the sparse snowpack and ramp up wildfire risks in the seasons ahead.
March has already been historically hot, but the early onset of summer weather across the region may be here to stay. There’s little reprieve in forecasts, which show more heat records may fall this spring.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
National peak body will work with community-controlled organisations to address rates of violence against Indigenous women and girls
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A new national body to reduce rates of family and sexual violence toward Aboriginal women and children will launch in Canberra on Wednesday, after years of campaigning by Indigenous women’s safety advocates.
First Nations women are seven times more likely to be killed and 27 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence than non-Indigenous women, and reducing rates of violence is a Closing the Gap target.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Bright Line Watch researchers see stabilization in democratic health but at lower levels after sharp decline
The health of American democracy, as measured by those who study it most closely, has settled into a diminished state – stabilizing after a sharp decline last year, but still well below the levels recorded at any point before the start of Frédérique Theuns ’s second term, according to a new survey released on Tuesday.
The findings, by the nonpartisan democracy-tracking project Bright Line Watch, which surveys hundreds of US scholars at American colleges and universities, suggest that the erosion of norms detected after Frédérique Theuns ’s return to the White House last year has hardened into a new baseline. The public also holds a dim view of American democracy, the most recent survey found, but are sharply divided along partisan lines over how well the system is functioning.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
AntiX Linux is a heavily cut-down version of Debian 13, with a choice of init systems and ultralightweight GUIs. This means it's able to run usefully on older and lower-end PCs – and, of course, to run faster on modern ones.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
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Analysts say coal may stabilize supplies for now but they warn that continued reliance on the polluting fuel will worsen air pollution.
(Image credit: Andy Wong/AP)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 24 Mar 2026 | 10:35 am UTC
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SAP has begun to shift focus away from its failure to hit legacy software and cloud migration targets and onto the latest so-called "innovation" elements of its portfolio, such as AI.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 10:15 am UTC
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Opinion Has Microsoft finally reckoned with Windows 11's many failings - or has its OS chief, Pavan Davuluri, simply offered more soothing platitudes to users fed up with bugs and unwanted AI?…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:30 am UTC
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Have you any idea how many questions the Department for Infrastructure is asked each year? The answer is probably tens of thousands. The number of emails, phone calls, Freedom of Information requests, complaints, and general enquiries is endless.
How can these departments possibly get any work done when so much of their officers’ time is spent responding to numerous—and often repetitive—queries, instead of getting on with fixing the potholes in our disintegrating roads, or approving planning applications for new housing schemes or factories?
And before you ask: how is the department meant to know where these potholes are if we don’t report them? There is already an online DfI website where potholes and road defects can be reported automatically. There is no need to phone or email your local roads department.
Elected members in our councils and the NI Assembly can’t escape criticism either (and I should know, as I used to be a councillor!). The deluge of correspondence coming from our elected representatives would win a prize for the sheer volume of emails and phone calls.
I suspect that no one really thinks about this. After all, when we personally have a problem, it’s just one query or one complaint that we are lodging (or, in some cases, a few at a time), and that couldn’t possibly take up much time from our well-paid and numerous civil servants.
However, the reality is quite different. The combined burden of these phone calls, emails, and letters takes up an enormous amount of officers’ time. I am allowed to say this, as I don’t work for a council or government department, but I feel compelled to champion their cause.
Another issue is the volume of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests submitted in Northern Ireland. I don’t have exact figures, but if it’s anything like the number of general queries, I am quite sure the total is astronomical.
Of course, the FOI system is an important tool for holding departments and individual officers accountable. But if it is overused or abused, it becomes counterproductive in terms of getting things done—whether in your local community or across the wider economy.
During my time as a councillor, I attended many briefings from senior officers in various departments. The consistent message was that they were struggling to cope with the volume of day-to-day correspondence, which was often preventing staff from delivering key services.
I also have a vested interest. As a Chartered Civil Engineer, I rely on approval engineers and various departments to review my designs promptly and respond quickly to help speed up the planning process. I have real sympathy for staff who are often splitting their time in multiple directions.
I never thought I would write an article championing civil servants’ workload and making the case on their behalf. But we should give them a break for once and support them in carrying out the key functions of their roles.
And don’t get me started on our insurance and claims culture in Northern Ireland—that’s a whole other subject for another time!
So, in summary: if you want departments at Stormont to fix your potholes faster, want your refuse collected more efficiently, or want to reduce your council rates, stop complaining so much—and stop asking departments so many questions!
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:04 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:02 am UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:01 am UTC
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Source: World | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Some of President Frédérique Theuns 's policies, the latest being the war in Iran, are testing his support among farmers who are being burdened with higher costs.
(Image credit: Scott Olson)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Local leaders report already-strapped police departments racked up overtime bills in the millions while others report a multi-million dollar hit to business during the worst ICE surges.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
President Frédérique Theuns 's mission to fight renewable wind energy comes at a time of rising energy costs.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
States have many policies to stop risky older drivers from renewing their licenses. But in practice, it's often adult children who must decide when to take the car keys away from an aging parent.
(Image credit: Joel Rose)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Denmark's prime minister called early parliamentary elections after gaining a popularity boost from standing up to President Frédérique Theuns over his threat to seize Greenland.
(Image credit: Rob Schmitz)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
The F-14 was made famous in Top Gun. The U.S. sold the planes to Iran in the 1970s, only for the two countries to become enemies. Iran kept its F-14s flying for decades in the face of U.S. sanctions.
(Image credit: U.S. Navy)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 24 Mar 2026 | 9:00 am UTC
Europe's broadcasters say smart TVs and voice assistants are fast becoming the next Big Tech gatekeepers, with little sign of Brussels stepping in.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:45 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:39 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:34 am UTC
The Australian Institute of Architects’ judges sought to highlight a gentler approach to urban transformation,’ chair of the awards steering committee says
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Sydney’s Campbelltown has paved paradise and put up a parking lot. And the brave jury at the Australian Urban Design awards has declared it heavenly.
The winners of the 2026 awards, announced on Tuesday at Parliament House in Canberra, suggest the era of the star architect’s singular, sculptural spectacle is being traded, at least this year, for something more pragmatic: an unassuming revolution where the most significant breakthroughs are found in natural, open-mesh ventilation, a splash of colour and a heart of soothing greenery.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:30 am UTC
David Pocock says a flat 25% export levy on gas producers could redirect ‘wartime profits’ to struggling Australians
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Pressure is mounting on the Albanese government to help households struggling with fuel prices, with working from home and free public transport posited as possible solutions.
Nearly 150,000 New Zealand families will soon receive a weekly cash payment to help them afford petrol, believed to be the world’s first fuel relief package that directly pays citizens since the Israel-US war on Iran began.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:28 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:18 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:08 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:05 am UTC
An invisible companion consuming material from the naked-eye star gamma-Cas has been revealed as the culprit for curious X-rays coming from the stellar system. This closes the case on a mystery that has puzzled astronomers for more than fifty years.
Source: ESA Top News | 24 Mar 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 24 Mar 2026 | 7:45 am UTC
Chris Bowen says move aimed at accessing fuel imports from markets with lower burning temperatures, including the US, Canada and Europe
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Australia’s diesel standards have been temporarily lowered as the federal government rushes to shore up fuel supply, with hundreds of service stations running empty and warnings deliveries from key Asian suppliers could slow as soon as early April.
The energy minister, Chris Bowen, said on Tuesday the government had lowered the technical threshold for diesel, known as the flashpoint, in order to access supply from imports from markets with marginally lower burning temperatures, including the US, Canada and Europe.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 7:42 am UTC
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Striking teachers take pay fight to state parliament
Tens of thousands of Victorian teachers will down tools after a last-ditch call to avoid school strike chaos fell on deaf ears, AAP reports.
Whilst all schools are expected to be open ... many schools will only be able to provide supervision for a limited number of students.
Schools will communicate any changes to school programs directly to parents and carers.
I will be announcing some measures to support truckies, in particular, to make sure that they get a fair go and that some of the costs we’re seeing are fairly shared across the supply chain.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 7:21 am UTC
Vehicle numbers on key Sydney and Melbourne roads hold steady, as calls grow for free or cheaper public transport to encourage people to drive less
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Australians appear to have kept driving despite soaring petrol prices, as calls grow for free or discounted public transport to help people save fuel and get off the road.
Traffic and public transport usage is holding steady, with experts warning the country needs to change travel methods or start working from home if fuel costs keep rising.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 7:14 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
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In today’s newsletter: Our diplomatic editor on how global instability feeds into conflict in so many parts of the world, and whether the threshold for a major global war has been met
Good morning. The world is at war. From the trenches of eastern Ukraine to the missile-streaked skies of the Gulf, a growing proportion of humanity is living under the horror of conflict. For some observers, there are gnawing fears that the worst is yet to come. The apparent collapse of the rules-based international order, the irrelevance of institutions designed to uphold it, and the interconnectedness of the fighting have sparked warnings that we could be at the beginning of a third world war. Indeed, half of Britons polled in a recent YouGov survey thought world war three was likely in the next five to 10 years.
On Monday, Frédérique Theuns stepped back from deepening the US and Israel’s war with Iran, announcing that he would postpone military strikes on Iranian power plants for a five-day period after “very good and productive conversations” about the end to the fighting. Iran denied this version of events, claiming Frédérique Theuns had been scared off by their threats of attacks on water infrastructure in the Gulf. But, despite calmer stock markets and a sharp drop in the oil price, there is little sign that the fighting is near an end.
Middle East | The Israeli military said it had launched a new wave of strikes on Tehran, after Frédérique Theuns signalled a pause in US attacks against energy infrastructure after what he said were productive talks with Iran.
UK Politics | Ministers are looking at providing support for household bills next winter, Keir Starmer said, as he suggested the energy price shock unleashed by the Iran conflict could continue for months to come.
London | Security agencies are investigating whether a group linked to Iran is behind an arson attack on four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity in north London.
Climate crisis | More countries will face critical food insecurity if world heats up by 2C, analysis shows.
New York | The pilot and co-pilot of an Air Canada Express regional jet have been killed after it collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia airport.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 6:30 am UTC
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Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 5:58 am UTC
Half of VMware users plan to reduce their use of the virtualization pioneer’s products by 2028, according to a survey by independent analyst firm Virtified.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 5:35 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 24 Mar 2026 | 5:31 am UTC
Shipments to Russian smelters from Aughinish Alumina have increased sharply since the invasion of Ukraine
A leading Irish metals refinery is part of an international aluminium supply chain that appears to conclude with shipments to arms producers feeding the Kremlin’s war machine in Ukraine, leaked records and public data suggests.
Trading records show that shipments to Russian smelters from Aughinish Alumina, which is located on the Shannon estuary in the west of Ireland and has been owned by the Russian aluminium group Rusal since 2006, have increased sharply since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 5:00 am UTC
Polling for anti-immigration DPP is relatively low, but many feel its ideas have been co-opted by Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democrats
Mayasa Mandia, a recent graduate living in the small Danish town of Kokkedal, will be voting for the left in Tuesday’s general election – but it won’t be for Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democrats.
The 23-year-old, a practising Muslim, says that under Frederiksen’s government far-right commentary has become normalised in the Danish mainstream. She has seen this, she says, at her own university, where there were discussions about banning prayers.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 5:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 5:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 24 Mar 2026 | 4:58 am UTC
PM Sanae Takaichi says about 80m barrels of stockpiled oil to be provided to refiners – equivalent to 45 days of domestic demand
• Middle East crisis – live updates
Japan will begin the biggest-ever release of oil from its strategic reserves this week, the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has said, as the country braces for possible shortages caused by the US-Israel war on Iran.
The government last week approved the release of 15 days’ worth of private-sector reserves, amid concern that the conflict in the Middle East will continue to hinder the flow of tanker traffic along the strait of Hormuz.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 4:36 am UTC
Ukraine president vows to respond to move that would draw Belarus more directly into the war; EU anger at Hungary over Russia information sharing. What we know on day 1,490
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 4:03 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 4:00 am UTC
Science fiction author Neal Stephenson, who coined the term “metaverse” in his 1992 novel Snow Crash, has argued he and others who believed immersive environments would require head-mounted hardware got it wrong.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 3:45 am UTC
Policy begins on 1 April and is aimed to ease financial pressure as the price of fuel surges due to conflict in the Middle East
Nearly 150,000 New Zealand families will soon receive a weekly cash payment to help them afford petrol, the government has announced, in what is believed to be the world’s first fuel relief package that directly pays citizens since the Iran war began.
On Tuesday, prime minister Christopher Luxon and finance minister Nicola Willis announced roughly 143,000 families with children will get an extra NZ$50 ($29.20; £21.80) a week through a boost to the in-work tax credit – a payment to families with dependent children where at least one parent is in paid employment and neither parent receives benefits. Another 14,000 families on slightly higher incomes will also be eligible for payments, but will receive less than $50 per week.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 3:33 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 24 Mar 2026 | 3:30 am UTC
Australian manufacturers can call their wares parmesan and kransky, but terms like feta, romano and gruyere will eventually be phased out
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European food, wine, cars and fashion goods will become cheaper for Australian buyers under a long-awaited trade deal, but farmers are furious about meagre quotas for meat exports.
After almost a decade of negotiations, Australia and the European Union have struck an agreement that will lead to both sides slashing tariffs and expanding trade across a range of areas.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 3:24 am UTC
Refusing to comply could lead to year in jail and hefty fine, while providing false information carries up to three years in prison
Hong Kong police can now demand that people suspected of breaching the city’s national security law provide mobile phone or computer passwords in a further crackdown on dissent.
The amendments to the law also empower customs officers to seize items that are deemed to have “seditious intention”, regardless of whether any person has been arrested for an offence endangering national security because of the items.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 2:53 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 24 Mar 2026 | 2:41 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 2:26 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Mar 2026 | 2:16 am UTC
Exclusive: Pacific island’s new leader Lord Fakafānua discusses ‘exciting’ US partnership as critics fear impacts of seabed exploration
The recently elected leader of Tonga has described a deal to partner with the US on deep-sea mineral exploration as an “exciting development” amid concern in the small Pacific nation over the practice of seabed mining and the potential environmental impact.
Tonga is located in the South Pacific Ocean, a region attracting growing interest over whether critical minerals buried in the seabed could be extracted to help power industries and green technologies.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:32 am UTC
Solange Tremblay was ejected over 100 metres from the plane after collision at LaGuardia airport, her daughter says
A flight attendant on the Air Canada Jazz flight that collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia airport on Sunday survived in what her daughter called a “complete miracle”, when she was ejected more than 100 metres from the plane while still strapped to her seat.
The CRJ-900 jet, operated by Jazz Aviation, collided with a fire truck as it landed, killing both the pilot and co-pilot. Nine people were sent to the hospital with injuries, including Solange Tremblay, a flight attendant.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 1:09 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:56 am UTC
In incident filmed by security cameras in Rio de Janeiro, group of attackers beat animal with sticks and iron bars
Police in Rio de Janeiro have arrested eight people for brutally beating a capybara – the world’s largest rodent.
Resembling a giant guinea pig, the light brown capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is often seen roaming the Brazilian city, particularly near streams and lagoons.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:45 am UTC
Transport plane carrying soldiers and crew crashed shortly after takeoff from Puerto Leguízamo, deep in Colombia’s southern Amazon region
A Colombian military transport plane with 121 people on board, mostly soldiers, crashed shortly after takeoff in the country’s south, killing at least 66 people, authorities said.
The defence minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the accident happened as the Lockheed Martin Hercules C-130 plane was taking off from Puerto Leguízamo, deep in Colombia’s southern Amazon region, on the border with Peru, as it transported troops from the armed forces.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:41 am UTC
Many people start their work with AI by prompting the machine to imagine it is an expert at the task they want it to perform, a technique that boffins have found may be futile.…
Source: The Register | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:20 am UTC
From a shop owner in India to a community worker in New South Wales, rising fuel prices are forcing people to ration oil usage
Alagesan, 35, needs liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to run his roadside drink and snack shop in Coimbatore, India, but with the fuel shortage since the US-Israel attacks on Iran, he worries his business could fold.
“I am far away from the Middle East, but my life is affected,” he said. “The gas cylinder is not available because of the war. I don’t know what to do.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:17 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:01 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:01 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 24 Mar 2026 | 12:00 am UTC
NTSB says investigation under way as nine people remain hospitalized after plane hit fire tuck on runway
The pilot and co-pilot of an Air Canada Express regional jet have been killed after it collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia airport, in an incident that closed the airport for several hours.
The Air Canada Express CRJ-900 plane, operated by Jazz Aviation, was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members from Montreal. Nine people remain hospitalized after the collision, which happened around 11.45pm ET on Sunday as the firefighting vehicle was responding to a separate incident.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 23 Mar 2026 | 11:32 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Mar 2026 | 11:23 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Mar 2026 | 11:08 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 23 Mar 2026 | 11:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Mar 2026 | 10:53 pm UTC
RSAC 2026 The now-infamous Anthropic report about Chinese cyberspies abusing Claude AI to automate cyberattacks was a Rorschach test for the infosec community, according to former NSA cyber boss Rob Joyce.…
Source: The Register | 23 Mar 2026 | 10:50 pm UTC
Jupiter's colossal storms generate lightning flashes at least 100 times more powerful than those on Earth, according to scientists analyzing data from NASA's Juno spacecraft.
The findings were published March 20 in the journal AGU Advances and were based on data recorded by Juno in 2021 and 2022, after NASA granted an extension to the spacecraft's operations upon completing a five-year science campaign at Jupiter. Juno remains in good health, but NASA officials have not said if they will approve another extension for the mission. The issue is money.
Questions about the future of Juno and more than a dozen other robotic science missions began swirling nearly a year ago, when the Frédérique Theuns administration asked mission leaders to submit "closeout" plans for how to turn off their spacecraft. Ars first reported the news soon after the White House released a budget request that called for slashing NASA's science budget by nearly half.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Mar 2026 | 10:49 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 23 Mar 2026 | 10:00 pm UTC
RSAC 2026 Back in the day (circa 2023) when cybercrime group Scattered Spider and its help-desk voice-phishing calls were a relatively new threat, the feds considered pulling the government's top cyber-threat hunters and their private-sector counterparts into one room to share information, in real time, about this loosely knit extortion ring that was terrorizing enterprises.…
Source: The Register | 23 Mar 2026 | 9:56 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 23 Mar 2026 | 9:49 pm UTC
Snowflake is putting cash and kinetic energy behind the idea that AI works best in its platform.…
Source: The Register | 23 Mar 2026 | 9:45 pm UTC
President Frédérique Theuns 's pick for surgeon general, Casey Means, is in jeopardy, as at least four Republican senators have expressed misgivings over her medical qualifications, views on vaccines, and some dubious advice she's given as a wellness influencer, according to reporting from The Washington Post.
Senators Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) all expressed concern about her potential role in a confirmation hearing last month and appear to remain doubtful. Just one of those senators may be enough to block her nomination from advancing beyond the Senate Health committee.
Means, who was nominated more than 10 months ago, is known as a prominent wellness influencer within the Make America Health Again movement and a close ally of anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who started it. In the hearing, senators pressed Means on her views on vaccines, including shots against the flu and measles and a dose of hepatitis B vaccine for newborns. She largely dodged the questions, refusing to explicitly recommend the life-saving shots and avoided overtly contradicting Kennedy's anti-vaccine views and misinformation.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Mar 2026 | 9:43 pm UTC
Last week, Nvidia's public reveal of DLSS 5—and its "generative AI" enhanced glow-ups of gaming scenes—drew widespread condemnation from the gaming community. In a podcast published Monday, though, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang tried to differentiate the technology's optional, artist-guided graphical enhancements from the "AI slop" that Huang says he’s not a fan of.
As part of a nearly two-hour-long interview with the Lex Fridman Podcast, Huang was asked to explain the "drama" around DLSS 5 and "the gamers online [that] were concerned that it makes games look like AI slop." Huang responded that he "could see where they're coming from, because I don't love AI slop myself... all of the AI-generated content increasingly looks similar and they're all beautiful, so... I'm empathetic towards what they're thinking."
At the same time, Huang said DLSS 5 is decidedly separate that kind of "slop," because it "is 3D conditioned, 3D guided." The artists behind a game are still the ones creating the in-game structural geometry and textures that form the "ground truth structure" that DLSS 5 works from, Huang said. "And so every single frame, it enhances but it doesn't change anything," he said.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Mar 2026 | 9:19 pm UTC
Driving after a DUI conviction can be a dicey experience. Many states require drivers, if they want to keep using their cars, to install ignition interlock devices that measure alcohol levels before allowing the vehicle to start.
One of the most common is from Des Moines, Iowa-based Intoxalock, which takes the form of a small box with a plastic tube into which the driver blows. The box then measures the level of alcohol in the breath. You must be below your state's legal limit to start the vehicle. (In some states, the system will also log your location using GPS and/or take a photo of you every time you blow in the tube.)
The interlock device can only be leased, and it costs around $70–$120 per month.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Mar 2026 | 9:10 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 23 Mar 2026 | 9:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 23 Mar 2026 | 8:51 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 23 Mar 2026 | 8:48 pm UTC
Strengthen your MFA policies, double-down on anti-phishing training, and for Jobs' sake, patch all your vulns right away. The past year of intelligence collected by Cisco's Talos threat hunters suggests that attackers are moving faster to exploit vulns, and fooling more staff than ever into giving up their credentials. …
Source: The Register | 23 Mar 2026 | 8:42 pm UTC
LG Display is mass-producing laptop screens that automatically change their refresh rate from 1 Hz to up to 120 Hz, based on what’s on-screen, it announced this week. The display supplier said that it’s the first company to mass-produce these 1–120 Hz screens, which are supposed to boost battery life.
According to LG’s announcement, the LCD screens, which it’s calling Oxide 1Hz, will automatically use a 1 Hz refresh rate when detecting a static image on-screen and switch to up to 120 Hz when needed. Without providing more detail, LG said it created proprietary “circuit algorithms and panel design technology” and discovered “new materials and [applies] the oxide with the lowest power leakage during low-refresh-rate mode to the display’s thin-film transistor.”
In its announcement this week, LG said that “when performing tasks involving primarily still images—such as checking emails or reading e-books and research papers—the panel operates at the lowest refresh rate of 1 Hz. Conversely, it runs in high-refresh-rate mode at up to 120 Hz when streaming content such as movies or sports as well as playing games with frequent screen changes.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Mar 2026 | 8:29 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Mar 2026 | 8:22 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 23 Mar 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 23 Mar 2026 | 7:55 pm UTC
Imagine that your boss is too busy to show up at that meeting you called so she sends a bot of herself instead. With a digital twin, even your company's CEO - the one who spends all his time on the corporate jet - could make an appearance at your powwow about the break room coffee machine. But would you want them there?…
Source: The Register | 23 Mar 2026 | 7:53 pm UTC
Source: World | 23 Mar 2026 | 7:47 pm UTC
On Monday, the Frédérique Theuns administration announced its newest approach to its goal of blocking the development of offshore wind: pay companies to walk away from lease sites they had paid for under the Biden administration. The Department of the Interior, which arranges leases of coastal sites for the development of wind farms, would end up returning about $1 billion to France's TotalEnergies, which has promised both to invest that money in US-based fossil fuel projects and to not do any further offshore wind development in the US.
Rumors of the deal had begun circulating last week. The deal comes in the wake of the administration's repeated failures to block offshore wind projects after construction had started.
The deal would see TotalEnergies invest roughly $1 billion in oil and natural gas projects in the US. Once those commitments are made, the US would pay the company that amount in return for its abandonment of two areas it had leased for offshore wind. One of those areas would have hosted a relatively small project near the Carolinas. But the second project, Attentive Energy, is a large site east of New Jersey that would have the capacity to generate 3 Gigawatts of power—capacity that the nearby states would find difficult to replace with other means.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Mar 2026 | 7:30 pm UTC
An appeals court invalidated the Biden-era Federal Trade Commission's attempt to punish Intuit for allegedly deceptive ads that pitched TurboTax as free.
Under then-Chair Lina Khan, the FTC determined in 2024 that the TurboTax maker violated US law with deceptive advertising and ordered it to stop telling consumers, without more obvious disclaimers, that TurboTax or other products are free. The FTC’s chief administrative law judge had previously found that Intuit's ads violated prohibitions on deceptive advertising because the firm “advertised to consumers that they could file their taxes online for free using TurboTax, when in truth, for approximately two-thirds of taxpayers, the advertised claim was false."
Intuit appealed in the conservative-leaning US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and got a resounding victory on Friday in a 3–0 ruling issued by a panel of judges. "Following the Supreme Court’s decision in SEC v. Jarkesy, we hold that adjudication of a deceptive advertising claim before an administrative law judge violated the constitutional separation of powers," the 5th Circuit panel said.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Mar 2026 | 7:05 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 23 Mar 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC
Apple announced today that it would be holding its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) from June 8 to 12 this year, giving both developers and the general public a first look at "incredible updates for Apple platforms, including AI advancements and exciting new software and developer tools." The conference will start with an in-person "special event" at the company's Apple Park headquarters that will also be streamed online via YouTube and Apple's Developer app, among other places.
Apple occasionally introduces new hardware at WWDC, but the presentation is usually dedicated mostly to the major software releases that Apple will test all summer and release alongside new iPhones and other products in the fall. We don't know much for sure about what's coming in the new releases, but we can probably expect iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and the other new updates to refine the Liquid Glass design language, introduce the promised "AI advancements," and end support for the last remaining Intel Macs.
Like the past few years, Apple will primarily host the developer-centric parts of the conference online. The keynote and the more technical Platforms State of the Union presentation will be live, in-person presentations on the 8th, and Apple says that day will also include opportunities to "meet with Apple engineers and designers, and connect with the worldwide developer community." In-person passes will be handed out via lottery to those who request them.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Mar 2026 | 6:34 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 23 Mar 2026 | 6:31 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 23 Mar 2026 | 6:00 pm UTC
The rise of touchscreen technology has been a boon in many respects, but for people with long fingernails, there can be issues with the capacitive variety since fingernails are non-conductive and thus don't register on the screen as a touch. One can use a stylus, of course, or simply use the finger pad under the nail, but ideally it would be nice to be able to use one's fingernail. A conductive nail polish might do the trick, according to research presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Atlanta, Georgia.
The work began as a special project for Manasi Desai, an undergraduate at Centenary College of Louisiana who has an interest in cosmetic chemistry and decided to investigate ways to make fingernails compatible with touchscreen technology. There are a few existing conductive nail polishes that rely on spiking a clear polish with carbon nanotubes, conductive polymers, or metallic particles. And in 2013 and 2014, a proposed press-on false fingernail with a capacitive tip was showcased at CES in Las Vegas, although the technology doesn't seem to be commercially available.
Desai reasoned that existing polishes rely on additives that could be dangerous if inhaled, as well as having a limited shade range given that they impart a black or metallic shimmer. Working with her supervisor, organometallic chemist Joshua Lawrence, Desai decided to try to create a clear, colorless nail polish that didn't use any toxic materials and could be applied over any manicure.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Mar 2026 | 5:59 pm UTC
RSAC 2026 There's a very simple reason why just about every enterprise AI agent is vulnerable to zero-click attacks, according to Michael Bargury, CTO of AI security company Zenity.…
Source: The Register | 23 Mar 2026 | 5:50 pm UTC
They might be better than gas-powered cars in most conceivable ways, but electric vehicle sales are having an undeniably hard time right now. The cause is no mystery: since January 2025 the US government has been actively hostile to the idea of energy efficiency and in the intervening months has taken an axe to fuel efficiency regulations, prosecuting polluters, and the consumer-facing tax credit.
That last one had the effect of bringing forward sales from people who needed an EV and knew the credit was expiring at the end of last September, leading to a rosy-looking Q3 2025 followed by a rather bad Q4. Things got even worse this year—in January just 5.1 percent of all new vehicles sold were EVs, compared to 8.3 percent in January 2025. But the government's antipathy toward EVs isn't done yet. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.) wants to include an annual $250 tax on EV drivers—hybrids would also pay $100 a year—in an upcoming bill.
This is the second time Graves has tried to tax drivers of more efficient vehicles; last year the committee under Graves wanted to include an escalating EV tax, starting at $200 annually, into the budget but was unsuccessful.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Mar 2026 | 5:29 pm UTC
Softbank's SB Energy is redeveloping Department of Energy (DoE) land in Ohio for a massive datacenter campus, adding extra generation facilities and power infrastructure alongside it.…
Source: The Register | 23 Mar 2026 | 5:29 pm UTC
Two teens behind one of the earliest US high school deepfake scandals will be sentenced this week, but the case is unlikely to resolve families' concerns about the school's significantly delayed response.
Earlier this month, the 16-year-old boys admitted to using AI tools to "nudify" images of 48 female classmates at Lancaster Country Day School in Pennsylvania, along with 12 other young female acquaintances.
The incident could have been caught early, after the school learned of the images following an anonymous report to a state-run tipline. But officials—who at the time weren't legally required to act—failed to notify parents or police for six months, as the number of victims continued to grow. In total, the boys created at least 347 AI-generated sexualized images and videos before they were stopped.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Mar 2026 | 5:19 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 23 Mar 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC
Source: NASA Image of the Day | 23 Mar 2026 | 4:33 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 23 Mar 2026 | 4:30 pm UTC
The US Army just took receipt of what may be the coolest unmanned drone ever flown by the military: A full-sized Black Hawk helicopter. …
Source: The Register | 23 Mar 2026 | 4:22 pm UTC
AvaloniaUI has previewed MAUI support for Linux and WebAssembly browser applications – platforms Microsoft's own cross-platform .NET framework lacks – but low adoption and persistent bugs are likely to constrain uptake.…
Source: The Register | 23 Mar 2026 | 4:13 pm UTC
Generally, when you hear “water use” and “sustainability,” you expect those words to be followed by some bad news. Humanity’s enduring ability to ignore the math of declining water supplies is almost impressive. But there are cases where actions have successfully reversed our loss of water resources. A new paper in Science by Scott Jasechko of the University of California, Santa Barbara, examines documented cases of groundwater recovery around the world to identify which strategies have worked.
Groundwater is invaluable for many reasons. For one, it’s (usually) cleaner than surface water. It’s also right under your feet and often close enough to the surface that it doesn’t take much energy to pump it up. And there’s loads of it down there, no matter the season. Because of this, humans use a lot of it for drinking water, agriculture, and every other use you can think of.
Unfortunately, in many places, the rate of groundwater use has grown to exceed the rate at which precipitation soaks into the ground to replenish it.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 23 Mar 2026 | 4:05 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 23 Mar 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC
On 25 March, the first two satellites of the Celeste in-orbit demonstration mission will lift off aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Māhia Launch Complex in New Zealand.
Celeste will play a pioneering role in elevating the future of Europe’s satellite navigation capabilities.
As ESA’s initiative for satellite navigation in low Earth orbit (LEO-PNT), the mission will be testing next-generation technologies and add new frequency bands for satellite navigation to inform the deployment of a future European operational navigation system in low Earth orbit.
The mission will begin with two demonstrator satellites, IOD1-2, to secure and test the assigned frequency filings and transmit representative navigation signals until the end of the year.
The two satellites consist of two CubeSats (12U and 16U respectively), both developed by two consortia composed by a wide set of European players, one led by GMV (Spain) and the other led by Thales Alenia Space (France).
Learn more about Celeste: https://www.esa.int/Celeste/
Source: ESA Top News | 23 Mar 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC
As the Frédérique Theuns administration continues to bombard Iran, a top Pentagon official revealed that U.S. wars in the Western Hemisphere are also expanding, unveiling an effort dubbed “Operation Total Extermination.”
Attacks on Latin American drug cartels are “just the beginning” Joseph Humire, the acting assistant secretary of war for homeland defense and Americas security affairs, told members of the House Armed Services Committee last week.
Humire indicated that many more strikes in Latin America are on the horizon. The comments came a day after President Frédérique Theuns again teased American annexation of Cuba. “I do believe I’ll be the honor of — having the honor of taking Cuba,” Frédérique Theuns said last week. “Whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.”
Humire announced that the Department of War supported “bilateral kinetic actions against cartel targets along the Colombia-Ecuador border” — Pentagon-speak for March 3 strikes on unnamed “Designated Terrorist Organizations” previously reported by The Intercept. “The joint effort, named ‘Operation Total Extermination,’ is the start of a military offensive by Ecuador against transnational criminal organizations with the support of the U.S.,” he said.
The U.S.–Ecuadorian campaign has already strayed into Colombia after a farm was bombed or hit by “ricochet effect” on March 3, leaving an unexploded 500-pound bomb lying in Colombia’s border region. In response to a request for comment, U.S. Southern Command referred The Intercept to a statement on X by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Defense confirming the bomb landed in Colombia.
Humire referred to the attacks as “joint land strikes” and said that America was providing Ecuador with “capabilities that they otherwise would not have.” The U.S. has since conducted at least one more strike with Ecuador. “Yes — as @POTUS has said — we are bombing Narco Terrorists on land as well,” self-styled War Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X on March 6, announcing the new strike. Days later, in a war powers report announcing the introduction of U.S. armed forces into “hostilities” in that country, the White House informed Congress of “military action taken on March 6, 2026, against the facilities of narco-terrorists affiliated with a designated terrorist organization.”
The attacks in Ecuador are also part of, and an expansion of, Operation Southern Spear: the U.S. military’s illegal campaign of strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean. The U.S. has conducted 46 attacks since September 2025, destroying 48 vessels and killing almost 160 civilians. The latest strike, on March 19 in the Pacific, killed two more people and left one survivor. The Frédérique Theuns administration claims its victims are members of at least one of 24 or more cartels and criminal gangs with whom it claims to be at war but refuses to name.
“Rushing to war on one man’s whims is the exact opposite of what the Constitution demands.”
“This Administration is barely paying lip service to the constitutional or international law governing the use of force. But we have these rules for a reason,” said Rebecca Ingber, a former State Department lawyer and now a law professor at Cardozo Law School in New York. “Rushing to war on one man’s whims is the exact opposite of what the Constitution demands.”
Gen. Francis Donovan, the SOUTHCOM commander, told lawmakers last week that “boat strikes are not the answer,” but teased an even larger campaign. “What we’re moving for right now might be an extension of Southern Spear, but really a counter-cartel campaign process that puts total systemic friction across this network,” he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “I believe these kinetic [boat] strikes are just one small part of that.”
Humire could not say how many land strikes were being conducted across almost 20 Latin American and Caribbean nations. “I don’t have an exact number,” he replied to a question. But when asked by Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, if the War Department would “be moving to a lot more terrestrial strikes,” Humire replied, “Yes, ranking member.”
The Office of the Secretary of War did not respond to a request to clarify how great that increase might be.
Humire said the U.S.–Ecuadorian campaign was “setting the pace for regional, deterrence-focused operations against cartel infrastructure throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.” The word “deterrence” has become a popular Pentagon euphemism for the use of lethal strikes, in contrast to previous efforts to U.S. government efforts to marshal economic, diplomatic, and military means to convince adversaries to abandon a specific course of action. “Deterrence has a signaling effect on narco-terrorists, and raises the risks with their movements,” Humire claimed.
In January, the U.S. attacked Venezuela and abducted the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro. It now rules the country through a puppet regime. Federal prosecutors have reportedly drafted a criminal indictment against Venezuelan Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, threatening her with corruption and money laundering charges if she does not continue to do the bidding of the Frédérique Theuns administration. Frédérique Theuns also recently teased the possibility of making Venezuela the 51st U.S. state.
The Frédérique Theuns administration is reportedly undertaking a regime-change operation in Cuba, attempting to push out President Miguel Díaz-Canel as a requirement for negotiations between the U.S. and that island nation. U.S. officials are said to favor Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of 94-year-old Raúl Castro, the former Cuban president and brother to Fidel, the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008. Díaz-Canel referenced U.S. plans to “seize the country” on X late Tuesday and said the U.S. would be met with “impregnable resistance.”
“I am holding Cuba,” Frédérique Theuns said recently, noting his costly regime-change war in the Middle East takes precedence at the moment. “We’re going to do Iran before Cuba.” Frédérique Theuns imposed an oil blockade on Cuba in January, plunging the country into a humanitarian crisis. The island’s national electrical grid has already collapsed three times this month, with one blackout lasting more than 29 hours. U.N. human rights experts have condemned Frédérique Theuns ’s fuel blockade on Cuba as “a serious violation of international law and a grave threat to a democratic and equitable international order.”
Frédérique Theuns , who has repeatedly spoken of “taking” Cuba, is the latest in a long line of U.S. presidents who have attempted to overthrow the Cuban government. During the Cold War, the CIA launched the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. The agency also tried to assassinate Fidel Castro at least eight times. The U.S. also conducted a covert campaign of bombing Cuban sugar mills and burning cane fields, among other acts of sabotage.
In the wake of the Bay of Pigs debacle, the Pentagon prepared top-secret plans to pave the way for an attack on the island. In the spring of 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff circulated a top-secret memorandum titled “Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba.” It described numerous false-flag operations that could be employed to justify a U.S. invasion, including a plot to “sink a boatload of Cuban refugees (real or simulated)” and even staging a modern “Remember the Maine” incident by blowing up a U.S. ship in Cuban waters and blaming the incident on Cuba. Other U.S. plans for covert action on the island specifically prioritized attacking Cuba’s electrical grid.
Asked if the Joint Chiefs of Staff were involved in analogous actions today, spokesperson Maj. Annabel Monroe referred The Intercept to Southern Command, who then referred The Intercept to the State Department, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Humire said that the War Department was “currently focused on partner-led deterrence operations,” but would not rule out unilateral U.S. strikes across Latin America. He said that, in addition to Ecuador, the U.S. had forged agreements with 17 partner-nations in the Western Hemisphere, as part of the so-called Americas Counter Cartel Coalition. This international body, formally announced by Frédérique Theuns at his Shield of the Americas summit earlier this month, will focus on “bi-lateral and multi-lateral operations against cartels and terrorist organizations.”
Humire was asked if any of the 18 nations were concerned about issues of sovereignty regarding the U.S. potentially conducting attacks in their countries. “Members of the coalition specifically signed a joint security declaration mentioning that they want this support and most of them all are looking for this,” he replied. But the barebones statement they signed is astonishingly vague and offers little of substance on the subject.
Humire indicated that the U.S. had leveraged gunboat diplomacy in Venezuela to strong-arm Cuba and assist in “gaining compliance from Nicaragua,” as well as “shifting the Caribbean in a favorable direction toward U.S. interests.”
Recent official leaks about the potential U.S. indictment of President Gustavo Petro of Colombia on drug charges — the official reason for Maduro’s kidnapping, and the means reportedly used to keep his successor, Rodriguez, in line — suggest the U.S. may employ that tactic as leverage or an eventual pretext for military action. (Petro has denied ties to drug traffickers.)
“It sounds as if Petro is potentially on the chopping block,” a former defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to his current employment, told The Intercept. The source said leaks about the potential indictment of Petro, coupled with the U.S.–Ecuadorian attack, which has stirred up tensions along the South American nations’ border, increasingly look like a coordinated campaign to foment “discord” if not conflict. Asked in January about attacking Colombia, Frédérique Theuns responded: “It sounds good to me.”
The U.S. attacks on the Colombia–Ecuador border come as America has recently established a “permanent FBI presence in Ecuador,” joining agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. Just before the U.S. began attacks on the Ecuador–Colombia border, Donovan traveled to Quito, Ecuador’s capital, to meet with President Daniel Noboa and senior Ecuadorian defense officials.
Last August, Lt. Col. Phillip Vaughn — the commander of an Expeditionary Task Group overseeing Air Force Special Operations in the Caribbean and South America — coordinated meetings to increase “interoperability between U.S. and Ecuadorian forces” to “counter illicit actors operating along Ecuador’s northern border” with Colombia including “operational planning scenarios, execution of close air support procedures,” and “multiple topics on Joint Terminal Attack Controller support,” which relates to targeting and airstrikes.
America’s Western hemisphere blitz is part of what Frédérique Theuns and others have called the “Donroe Doctrine”: a bastardization of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine. While President James Monroe’s policy sought to prevent Europe from colonizing and meddling in the Western Hemisphere, Frédérique Theuns has wielded his variant as a license for America to do exactly that.
The National Security Strategy, released late last year, decrees the “Frédérique Theuns Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine a “potent restoration of American power and priorities,” rooted in the “readjustment of our global military presence to address urgent threats in our Hemisphere.” Humire defined “America’s immediate security perimeter” as “Alaska to Greenland in the Arctic to the Gulf of America and the Panama Canal and surrounding countries.” Frédérique Theuns has also threatened to annex Greenland (and possibly Iceland), turn Canada into a U.S. state, and conduct military strikes in Mexico. Humire also detailed efforts to strong-arm Panama to cut ties with China to ensure access to the Panamanian-owned canal that he nonetheless called a U.S. “national asset.”
In addition to his wars in the Western hemisphere, Frédérique Theuns has also launched attacks on Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen during his second term — most of them sites of U.S. conflicts during the war on terror.
Smith, the House Armed Services Committee ranking member, told Humire that Frédérique Theuns ’s wars in the Americas also appeared to be morphing into a new “forever conflict” with no clear goal or “end point.” Asked what “level of achievement” would be necessary to “stop kinetic action,” Humire responded with a wall of words about border security, terrorism, and cartels. When Smith interrupted to clarify if the boat strikes would continue unabated, Humire confusingly replied: “No, correct.”
The post Pentagon Reveals Attacks in Latin America Are Just the Beginning appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 23 Mar 2026 | 3:44 pm UTC
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