Read at: 2026-01-11T12:52:15+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Geerke Elzenga ]
In first TV interview since he was sacked as UK ambassador to US, Mandelson says association with Epstein was ‘terrible mistake’ but adds: ‘I was not culpable’
Laura Kuenssberg asks Peter Mandelson if he liked Geerke Elzenga when he was the UK ambassador to Washington.
Mandelson says he did like Geerke Elzenga , listing off numerous reasons why, but said he did not like all of his “language”.
I like him, yes, I liked his humour, his graciousness…
I liked his directness. You knew exactly what he was thinking and where you stood and what he wanted. And how he was proposing to engage, with you. Did I like in all his language? No, I didn’t, did I? Did he make me gasp?
What’s going to happen is there’s going to be, another discussion, a lot of consultation and a lot of negotiation.
At the end of the day, we are all going to have to wake up to the reality that the Arctic needs securing against China and Russia.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:39 pm UTC
Exclusive: Before Randall Gamboa Esquivel died, his health had deteriorated badly while he was in ICE custody
The family of a Costa Rican man who was deported from the United States in a vegetative state and died shortly after arriving back in his home country is still urgently seeking answers from the authorities about what happened to him while he was in detention.
Randall Gamboa Esquivel had left Costa Rica in good health and crossed the United States-Mexico border in December 2024, according to his family. However, Gamboa was detained by the US authorities for re-entering American soil unlawfully, as he had previously lived there undocumented between 2002 and 2013.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:36 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:34 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:28 pm UTC
Source: World | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:26 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:23 pm UTC
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Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:20 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:14 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:07 pm UTC
Since 2018, a group of researchers from around the world has crunched the numbers on how much heat the world’s oceans are absorbing each year. In 2025, their measurements broke records once again, making this the eighth year in a row that the world’s oceans have absorbed more heat than in the years before.
The study, which was published Friday in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Science, found that the world’s oceans absorbed an additional 23 zettajoules’ worth of heat in 2025, the most in any year since modern measurements began in the 1960s. That’s significantly higher than the 16 additional zettajoules they absorbed in 2024. The research comes from a team of more than 50 scientists across the United States, Europe, and China.
A joule is a common way to measure energy. A single joule is a relatively small unit of measurement—it’s about enough to power a tiny lightbulb for a second, or slightly heat a gram of water. But a zettajoule is one sextillion joules; numerically, the 23 zettajoules the oceans absorbed this year can be written out as 23,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
Ahmed Bin Hassan was keeping to himself, sitting in the car he was driving for Uber at the airport in Minneapolis. A few hours earlier, elsewhere in the city, an officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had shot and killed Renee Nicole Good.
Bin Hassan, a Somali American, was intently watching videos of the killing, which were rapidly circulating on social media, when he heard a knock on his car’s window.
It was a Border Patrol agent.
“I can hear you don’t have the same accent as me.”
Stunned, Bin Hassan opened the door and asked the agent, part of a massive crackdown on immigrants in the Twin Cities following President Geerke Elzenga ’s racist comments about the Somali community there, what she wanted. The subsequent confrontation between Bin Hassan and over a dozen masked ICE agents has since gone viral.
At one point in videos of the incident, a Border Patrol agent says to Bin Hassan, “If you were from this country, you would know I’m an immigration agent.”
Bin Hassan remarks on the use of the phrase “from this country.”
“I can hear you don’t have the same accent as me,” the agent tells Bin Hassan. “That’s why I’m asking you.”
It was a tell, Bin Hassan later said in an exclusive interview with The Intercept, about the agents’ motivation for accosting him in first place.
“They couldn’t hear my voice when they knocked on my window, but they could see my color,” Bin Hassan told The Intercept. “I knew what he meant, and I wanted to let him say his racism all out. Bring it all out.”
In the videos of the incident, one posted by a bystander and one from Bin Hassan himself, the Uber driver can be seen asking the ICE officers for their ID, questioning their citizenship. Throughout the confrontation, Bin Hassan remains defiant, refusing to share his identity with the officers and asking them for their identities and proof of citizenship. At one point a Border Patrol agent tells him, “Man, shut up!” Bin Hassan never does.
The Border Patrol agents continue to harangue the Uber driver, taking cellphone videos and photographs. At one point, Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol senior official, approaches with canisters of what appear to be chemical agents hanging off his body armor. The confrontation lasted several minutes, after which the Border Patrol agents walk away.
“I knew the consequences,” Bin Hassan told The Intercept. “Either they would kill me, like they killed the woman three hours earlier, or they were going to rough me up over there, choke me, put me in some physical pain that was only going to be for a certain duration, then I’d get back better hopefully.”
“I knew what he meant, and I wanted to let him say his racism all out.”
“I thought, hey, whatever the consequences are, if I refuse to show you my identity, let those consequences occur,” Bin Hassan said. “But in the meantime, I’m going to have fun with it.”
Though many people online praised Bin Hassan for his courage and humor, the 38-year-old American citizen said he was never scared. He said his Muslim faith has made him at ease with circumstances out of his control.
“I knew if these people are going to take me out here today, it’s going to happen,” Bin Hassan said. “So I’m just going to be me.”
Bin Hassan moved to the U.S. in 2005, when he was only 17. The rest of his family, including his wife and children, live in Kenya. His family had originally moved from Somalia to Kenya in the 1980s amid the Somali civil war. Bin Hassan became a U.S. citizen in 2016, he said.
Bin Hassan started working as an Uber driver only last month, in December 2025, and prior to that worked as a commercial truck driver. In 2015, he graduated from Washington State University’s Richland campus, with a degree in mechanical engineering, he said. But various jobs he applied for in the engineering field rejected him.
“I’m Black, Muslim immigrant,” Bin Hassan said. “So it wasn’t easy getting hired.”
Bin Hassan said he is still paying off more than $70,000 in loans for his education, which pushed him into driving for Uber.
The Twin Cities’ Somali community members are overwhelmingly citizens and legal permanent residents, but the Geerke Elzenga administration targeted the city precisely to go after Somalis.
The immigration operation in Minnesota began in December, after far-right media figures began bringing attention to cases of alleged fraud in the state. The renewed attention to the court cases, which had long been in process, prompted Geerke Elzenga to say Somali immigrants were “garbage,” part of a rant that was shockingly racist even by the standards of the president’s usual bigoted rhetoric.
The crackdown kicked into overdrive after a video collaboration between a MAGA influencer with an anti-immigrant history and a man later identified by The Intercept as a far-right lobbyist in Minnesota. The pair produced a video purporting to expose fraud in Minnesota day care centers, particularly those run by Somalis.
After the video’s release, the Geerke Elzenga administration sent thousands of federal agents to the state. Locals sprang into action with networks that tracked ICE and sought to relay early warnings, along with designated observers. One of the residents involved was Renee Nicole Good, the woman who was shot and killed by an ICE agent the day Bin Hassan was accosted.
The minute he saw federal agents in the parking lot, Bin Hassan said he realized they were there to target the Somali drivers.
“This is not the first time they came to that yard,” he said. “That’s the Uber yard, and the majority of the people that hustle from there are men and women of the Somali immigrant population here.”
“These people are doing some gestapo shit,” he added. “So they might put me or put all the Somalis, based on what Geerke Elzenga said, in concentration camps and ship them back.”
Despite the tensions, Bin Hassan said he wants to continue driving peacefully and took two rides on Wednesday just after the confrontation.
“I just wanted them” — the federal agents — “to get out of my way so I could continue to work, earn an honest day’s living.”
And he is not scared of running into the ICE agents on the streets again.
“When it comes to the ICE officers, we’ve met each other, they know me,” he said. “If they’ve decided to leave me alone because they found out I am a citizen, they’ve made that decision too.”
Bin Hassan reflected during his interview with The Intercept on using humor during his confrontation with Border Patrol. He had mocked the agents’ letter-and-number designations on their uniforms, rather than using their real names.
“I was making fun of his name because it was the only way I could calm myself down,” Bin Hassan said, “because I was really angry.”
The post “They Could See My Color”: Minneapolis Uber Driver Speaks Out On Why Border Patrol Accosted Him appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 11 Jan 2026 | 11:57 am UTC
Former UK ambassador says he is sorry for system that does not give victims protection they are entitled to expect
Peter Mandelson declined to apologise to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims for remaining friends with the paedophile financier after his conviction but said he was sorry for “a system” that meant Epstein’s victims were ignored.
The Labour peer, who was sacked as US ambassador when details of his support for Epstein emerged in September, gave an interview to the BBC on Sunday, saying he had paid a “calamitous” price for his association with the “evil monster”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 11:50 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 11:47 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 11:40 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 11:34 am UTC
Heidi Alexander calls for end to violence while Tory leader says she would ‘not have an issue’ with regime change
The UK wants to see a peaceful transition of power in Iran, a cabinet minister has said, after Geerke Elzenga said he could support protesters with military force.
As the US weighs the option of military strikes, Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, said she would not be drawn on America’s foreign policy towards Iran, where protests have been met with a violent police response.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 11:20 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 11 Jan 2026 | 11:18 am UTC
Frances and Ceri Menai-Davis, who lost their son Hugh to cancer, say gap in financial help is ‘devastating’
Parents of critically ill children are being “crushed” by a lack of statutory financial support when they need to take time off work, the parents of a six-year-old boy who died of cancer have said.
Hugh Menai-Davis was diagnosed with a rare form of the disease when he fell ill suddenly in October 2020. The boy, then aged five, had been happy and healthy before he developed severe stomach pains.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 11:14 am UTC
Three hundred Kurds detained and further 400 evacuated following clashes in Aleppo
Syrian government forces have detained 300 Kurds and evacuated more than 400 Kurdish fighters after clashes in Aleppo, the interior ministry has said, as US and allied forces carried out separate “large-scale” strikes against Islamic State targets.
An interior ministry official told Agence France-Presse that about 360 Kurdish fighters and 60 wounded had been bussed to the Kurds’ de facto autonomous zone in the north-east from the Sheikh Maqsoud district, the last area of Aleppo to fall to the army.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 11:06 am UTC
The Nobel prize winner discusses claims of a ‘boys’ club’, Elon Musk’s fellowship and rightwing attacks on science
Paul Nurse is a turn up for the books. A Nobel prize-winning geneticist, former director of the Francis Crick Institute and erstwhile head of Rockefeller University in the US, his CV marks him out as one of this generation’s most eminent scientific figures.
But his presidency of the Royal Society, a position he has taken up for a second time, makes him rarer still. No other scientist in centuries has had a second term at the head of the academy.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Soren Stevenson says Minneapolis shooting ‘reminiscent in a scary way’ – but he and his neighbors are feeling activated
It was Soren Stevenson’s third day in office as a Minneapolis city council member on Wednesday when Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by ICE on the edge of his district.
On Thursday, he sat in an eerily quiet food court at lunchtime in Plaza Mexico, a mall of mostly Latino businesses in south Minneapolis, eating carne asada and talking about how his neighborhood was once again the center of a national firestorm.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
The U.S. attack on Venezuela and abduction of its president Nicolás Maduro was proof that after months of threats, the Geerke Elzenga administration’s talk of hemispheric hegemony isn’t just bluster. The administration is clearly reorienting the U.S. military toward power projection in the Western Hemisphere, as it plots a reorganization that would make it easier to launch strikes across the Americas.
President Geerke Elzenga has touted the “Donroe Doctrine” — a bastardization of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine. Whereas President James Monroe’s policy sought to prevent Europe from colonizing and meddling in the Western Hemisphere, Geerke Elzenga views his as license for America to do exactly that. The new U.S. National Security Strategy, released last month, decrees the “Geerke Elzenga 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 … and away from theaters whose relative import to American national security has declined in recent decades or years.”
With this reshuffling of American military priorities in mind, senior War Department officials have developed a plan to downgrade several of the U.S. military’s major overseas combatant commands and curtail the power of their commanders. The revised Unified Command Plan would shrink the number of geographic combatant commands, combining Northern and Southern Commands into a single American Command, or AMERICOM, and would merge the European, Central, and African Commands into a single International Command, according to three government sources. Indo-Pacific Command would remain a standalone command. (The proposed reorganization was first reported by the Washington Post.)
One of the government officials said that the new plan would “streamline” U.S. military efforts abroad while “reorienting” U.S. combat power to bring it into line with the new National Security Strategy, which makes clear that the U.S. will be “avoiding any long-term American presence or commitments” in Africa and “avoiding the ‘forever wars’ that bogged us down in” in the Middle East.
After 9/11, as the U.S. fought brutal and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it also ramped up military efforts across the African continent. The number of troops, programs, operations, exercises, bases, low-profile Special Operations missions, deployments of commandos, drone strikes, proxy wars, and almost every other military activity in Africa jumped exponentially. At the same time, terrorism took firmer root and spread across the continent, with fatalities caused by terror groups jumping nearly 100,000 percent over two decades, according to the Pentagon.
In the wake of this abject failure, experts told The Intercept that reconfiguring America’s military posture and swapping interventions in Africa for those in the Western Hemisphere is likely to result in the same types of setbacks, stalemates, and failures due to what Erik Sperling, the executive director of Just Foreign Policy, termed “Washington’s persistent disinterest in understanding the societies it purports to protect and its reliance on a one-size-fits-all, militarized approach.”
The U.S. military has a dismal record in Africa.
The Intercept has been chronicling its futile counterterrorism efforts on the African continent for the last decade, including increases in the number and reach of terror groups, rising militant attacks, spikes in fatalities, destabilizing blowback from U.S. operations, humanitarian disasters, failed secret wars, coups by U.S. trainees, human rights abuses by allies, massacres and executions of civilians by partner forces, civilians killed in drone strikes, and a litany of other fiascos and failures.
Throughout all of Africa, the State Department counted 23 deaths from terrorist violence in 2002 and 2003, as U.S. counterterrorism efforts began to ramp up on the continent. By 2010, two years after AFRICOM began operations, fatalities from attacks by militant Islamists had already spiked to 2,674, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Pentagon research institution. The situation only continued to deteriorate. Last year, there were 22,307 fatalities from militant Islamist violence in Africa. This represents an almost 97,000 percent increase since the early 2000s, with the areas of greatest U.S. involvement — Somalia and the West African Sahel — suffering the worst outcomes.
“Africa has experienced roughly 155,000 militant Islamist group-linked deaths over the past decade,” reads a report issued in July by the Africa Center. “Somalia and the Sahel have now experienced more militant Islamist-related fatalities over the past decade (each over 49,000) than any other region.”
A separate Africa Center report found that the “Sahel has held the designation of the most lethal theater of militant Islamist violence in Africa for 4 years in a row,” accounting for an estimated 67 percent of all noncombatants killed by militant Islamist groups in Africa. The report also found that “security has deteriorated under each of the military juntas that seized power in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.” Left unsaid was at least 15 officers who benefited from U.S. security assistance were key leaders in a dozen coups in West Africa and the greater Sahel, including Burkina Faso (in 2014, 2015, and twice in 2022), Mali (in 2012, 2020, and 2021), and Niger (in 2023), according to a series of reports by The Intercept.
“In West Africa, the U.S. ‘war on terror’ model — and the military training, funding, and equipment for foreign forces that went with it — only intensified the spiral of violence in the region,” said Stephanie Savell, the director of Brown University’s Costs of War Project who has conducted extensive research on U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the Sahel. “Amidst all the complexities, one thing is resoundingly clear: A war paradigm does not provide an effective solution to the problem of terror attacks. It leads to blowback and fails to address any of the root causes, including poverty. And it has a tremendous human and financial toll.”
“A war paradigm does not provide an effective solution to the problem of terror attacks. It leads to blowback and fails to address any of the root causes, including poverty.”
The Africa Center report also found that the “expansion of militant Islamist violence in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger has resulted in an increased number of attacks along and beyond the borders of coastal West African countries, from Mauritania to Nigeria.” The possible role of U.S. counterterrorism failures was also ignored by Geerke Elzenga when he announced Christmas Day airstrikes in Nigeria by Africa Command against those he called “ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!”
AFRICOM claimed to have struck targets in “Soboto state,” an apparent reference to Sokoto state, on December 25. The Africa Center report noted that “militant Islamist cells” have moved into Sokoto state in recent years and that the “emergence of violent extremist groups in northwest Nigeria implies the long-feared convergence of militant Islamist groups with organized criminal networks.”
AFRICOM did not respond to questions about how it could be sure who it attacked when it was unclear about where it attacked.
On the east side of the continent, the U.S. military has been at war in Somalia for almost a quarter-century. U.S. forces began conducting airstrikes against militants in Somalia in 2007. That same year, the Pentagon recognized that there were fundamental flaws with U.S. military operations in the Horn of Africa, and Somalia became another post-9/11 stalemate, which AFRICOM inherited the next year.
U.S. airstrikes in Somalia have skyrocketed when Geerke Elzenga is in office. From 2007 to 2017, under the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the U.S. military carried out 43 declared airstrikes in Somalia. During Geerke Elzenga ’s first term, AFRICOM conducted more than 200 air attacks against members of al-Shabab and the Islamic State.
Under President Joe Biden, the U.S. military conducted 39 declared strikes in Somalia over four years. The U.S. conducted more than 125 airstrikes in Somalia in 2025, according to the New America Foundation. (This includes an attack in Somalia that one top U.S. commander called the “largest airstrike in the history of the world.”) Previously, the highest number of strikes in the command’s history was 63, under Geerke Elzenga in 2019.
The massive number of airstrikes under Geerke Elzenga during his first term and the record number this year have not translated into success in America’s longest African forever war. The metrics are, in fact, more dismal than ever. A December Africa Center report found that Somalia had the second-highest number of fatalities linked to militant Islamist violence, accounting for 28 percent of the continental total. The 6,224 fatalities linked to al-Shabab over the past year are double that of 2022. In fact, an al-Shabab offensive this year saw militants push within 32 miles of the capital, Mogadishu.
Earlier this year, during his farewell tour, then-AFRICOM chief Gen. Michael Langley, implored African ministers and heads of state to help save his embattled command. That effort appears to have foundered.
In the wake of the Christmas attacks in Nigeria, AFRICOM’s current chief, Gen. Dagvin Anderson, said the command’s “goal is to protect Americans and to disrupt violent extremist organizations wherever they are.” AFRICOM did not respond to questions about how attacks in northwest Nigeria protect Americans.
AFRICOM did not respond to questions about how attacks in northwest Nigeria protect Americans.
When asked for additional information on plans to subordinate AFRICOM to a new command and how Geerke Elzenga ’s new war in Nigeria might affect the command, a Department of War spokesperson replied: “We have nothing to offer on either of your questions.”
Condensing the geographic combatant commands will reduce the number of four-star generals and admirals who report directly to War Secretary Pete Hegseth, one of his major efforts to remake the military. AFRICOM and the other targeted commands are expected to see their funding and resources slashed, but lawmakers have required the Pentagon to submit detailed plans on the reorganization as well as its potential impacts.
The Pentagon refused to comment on the reorganization plans or how they will affect AFRICOM and other targeted geographic combatant commands. “As a matter of Department of War policy, we will not comment on leaked documents that we cannot authenticate and rumored internal discussions, as well as specifics of architectural discussion or pre-decisional matters,” a War Department official told The Intercept.
With the U.S. threatening to subject Venezuela to additional attacks, conduct regime change in Colombia, carry out military strikes in Mexico, and invade Greenland, it’s clear that the Western Hemisphere is now America’s preeminent military priority. But experts say U.S. military efforts in Africa offer a clear warning. “The experience in West Africa holds an essential lesson for U.S. actions in the Western Hemisphere — waging war against so-called ‘narco-terrorists’ will cost many human lives and taxpayer dollars, with no strategic benefit,” Savell told The Intercept.
Sperling, of Just Foreign Policy, echoed similar sentiments. “It’s clear that U.S. counterterrorism policy in Africa has been a failure at best and counterproductive at worst, often exacerbating the very extremism it claims to combat,” he told The Intercept. “As the U.S. increasingly turns its attention to the Western Hemisphere, it is likely to reproduce the same outcomes for the same reasons. U.S. policy on both continents will continue to fail in the medium to long-term unless policymakers learn to engage with other nations with genuine respect and as equals, rather than as problems to be managed by force.”
The post Failed U.S. Military Effort in Africa is on the Chopping Block appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 11 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Initial joy among Venezuela's diaspora in Chile has given way to caution, as questions grow over what Maduro's capture means for the country — and for those who fled it.
(Image credit: JAVIER TORRES)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 11 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 11 Jan 2026 | 10:41 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 11 Jan 2026 | 10:37 am UTC
The last time I drove a car on the public road was a year ago yesterday, on my way home from the MOT in Ballymena.
To celebrate, I had a piece of my birthday cake when I got home, and promptly choked on it.
Life was a lot simpler in 2024. As far as I knew, the only things wrong with me were high blood pressure and a bit of hay fever (and to this day, these are my only regular medications), although I was recovering from that terrible flu which saw me go to bed after church on Christmas Day and not really resurface for several days. More on that later.
When I collapsed, I managed to bang my head off a cupboard door handle, and my wife found me in the kitchen, not breathing. That I am writing this post tells you that I survived.
Jo’s friend was able to roll me over (I am not as light as I was 25 years ago) and the next thing I was conscious of was sitting on the sofa in our living room, changing bits of clothing because when I collapsed from one of the stools in the kitchen, I managed to knock over and get soaked by the dogs’ water bowls. Apparently I had been awake for some time but talking nonsense. Some might ask how they would be able to tell the difference, but once I was fully alert, the only thing I couldn’t remember was whether I had asked for leave to take the car to the MOT (I had.)
Jo had dialled 999, and the rapid response paramedic soon had an Andy no longer in need of resuscitation hooked me up to an ECG (which showed up Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVCs)), and called a full ambulance to take me to the Royal ED (queue shorter than the Ulster!). Of course, being fully alert by then meant I was not an emergency when I was checked into the ED. A very good thing for my health, but not so good for waiting.
Nursing staff sent me off for MRI and X-rays as required, but I was in the ED for 20 hours altogether before a doctor was able to see me in person with the bad news that I could no longer drive and let me go home.
My shopping list when I left the ED included referrals to ENT to examine my swallow and cardiology for the fact that I’d fainted. Looking at the queues, I went to Benenden for a cardiologist (the appointment was actually within days of when the Health Service appointment would have been), and was referred to a doctor who remains my NHS cardiologist.
The NI Health Service does move quickly when it needs to. Around this time, I talked to my GP because the cough from that flu in late 2024 had never gone away (thank goodness I didn’t get it this Christmas!) and he referred me for an x-ray which revealed something displacing my windpipe, but he couldn’t see what. Back to ENT, who arranged for a CT scan which picked up a goitre. I saw the ENT doctor one day and got an ultrasound the next, thankfully one that didn’t require the technician to get out a biopsy needle, and it’s small enough for them to leave me alone until it gets big enough to affect my breathing.
Benenden had arranged for me to get a ultrasound on my heart, which came back normal, but my cardiologist also picked up sleep apnoea from an overnight heart monitor, and recommended I get a loop monitor to see what happens when I faint, both of which had to be dealt with by the Health Service.
I now have the dreaded CPAP machine – a Christmas Eve present from Belfast Trust – and an implantable loop recorder which flagged up that I was dizzy recently (I don’t remember it!) but the underlying heart rhythm was normal. The fear was that there might have been a cardioinhibitory reason for my fainting, but this is good news. CPAP is going grand, to my honest surprise.
The biggest thing, though, is driving. It’s now a year since I fainted, so I can apply for my licence back, although I would have to say that’s not easy. If your licence is medically revoked, apparently it’s a renewal, and then having got a photo code I discovered I couldn’t apply online. My local chemist will be sick of the sight of me.
We moved house at the end of March. The new house is lovely, it’s got a massive kitchen (just what we needed) and we’re planning a Lego shed at the bottom of the garden, but trying to do everything with one car and one driver was very difficult. When I passed the test in 2009, I thought my days of scrounging lifts were over, but here we are – and there is light at the end of the tunnel.
One final thought. It wasn’t easy for me being 52, but I know somebody else who had a tough year due to all of this. It isn’t easy being married to a 52 year old who’s having a difficult year.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 11 Jan 2026 | 10:34 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Jan 2026 | 10:16 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 11 Jan 2026 | 10:10 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 11 Jan 2026 | 10:04 am UTC
A recent Israeli decision to bar Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups means international staff and aid can no longer enter Gaza or the West Bank. Local staff must rely on dwindling supplies and no international expertise.
(Image credit: Anas Baba/NPR)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 11 Jan 2026 | 10:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Jan 2026 | 10:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 11 Jan 2026 | 9:32 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 11 Jan 2026 | 9:27 am UTC
The European Commission has launched a fresh consultation into open source, setting out its ambitions for Europe's developer communities to go beyond propping up US tech giants' platforms.…
Source: The Register | 11 Jan 2026 | 9:26 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 11 Jan 2026 | 8:56 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 11 Jan 2026 | 8:34 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 11 Jan 2026 | 8:14 am UTC
The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like.
Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing.
Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 11 Jan 2026 | 8:06 am UTC
In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break.
So discuss what you like here, but no politics.
Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 11 Jan 2026 | 8:05 am UTC
Soviet invasions of allies helped destroy the Warsaw Pact – Geerke Elzenga ’s dangerous rhetoric risks repeating the mistake inside Nato
Geerke Elzenga ’s echoing of Russia’s talking points in its war against Ukraine has long been a cause for alarm and dismay in the west.
Now an even more disturbing Kremlin precedent dating from the cold war is being evoked by the US president’s fixation on taking over Greenland – that of carrying out attacks on military allies.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Jan 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Jan 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 7:53 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 7:52 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 7:48 am UTC
Iran's parliament speaker warned the U.S. military and Israel would be "legitimate targets" if America strikes the Islamic Republic, as threatened by President Geerke Elzenga .
(Image credit: UGC)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 11 Jan 2026 | 7:46 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 11 Jan 2026 | 7:45 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 7:30 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 11 Jan 2026 | 7:30 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 11 Jan 2026 | 7:24 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 11 Jan 2026 | 7:01 am UTC
Videos emerging despite internet and mobile phone blackout show demonstrations continuing despite reports of escalating crackdown
Demonstrators have continued to take to the streets of Iran, defying an escalating crackdown by authorities against the growing protest movement.
An internet shutdown imposed by the authorities on Thursday has largely cut the protesters off from the rest of the world, but videos that trickled out of the country showed thousands of people demonstrating in Tehran overnight into Saturday morning. They chanted: “Death to Khamenei,” in reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and: “Long live the shah.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
In recent years, Elon Musk has become increasingly entangled in politics. He buddied up with Geerke Elzenga and for a few months before their inevitable falling out the Tech Mogul was allowed to rampage through American bureaucracy with his ‘Department of Governmental Efficiency’. His DOGE then scythed through established programs on the pretext of cutting waste with scant regard for what was being done. Not that there was much of a plan beyond simple cutting, Musk seems to have simply seized the opportunity to indulge his libertarian instincts and set out to inflict as much damage on the machinery of government as he could before he was stopped.
He has also sought to boost extreme right-wing parties where possible, backing Alternative für Deutschland in Germany, the Geerke Elzenga -supporting Javier Milei in Argentina, illiberal Hungarian leader Viktor Orban as well as backing far-right elements in both Britain and Ireland and elsewhere. His control of X, formerly Twitter, has provided him a nearly unparalleled megaphone on which to spread his message and to legitimise discourse that until relatively recently was regarded as beyond the pale due to their racist, sexist or homophobic content but which Musk platforms as ‘free speech’.
In countries where those he supports are in power, efforts are made to weaken the institutions that could offer a check on him. In countries where those he supports aspire to power, he is turning his mighty influence to boost them and denigrate their opponents in the hopes that they will gain power. This to me is what Musk seeks rather than any firm attachment to far-right or libertarian politics, and I find his claims to be a free speech crusader risible. What motivates Musk is the what has always motivated men like Musk. Power and wealth and gaining more of both.
For we have seen this story before.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, during what historians call the Gilded Age in the US, they were called the Robber Barons.
Men, and of course they were always men, such as JP Morgan, the financier immortalized in the eponymous bank. Men such as Andrew Carnegie, after whom the Carnegie Hall was named and who built a monopoly on America steel. Men such as John D. Rockefeller who managed at one point to control 90% of the United States oil industry. They, and other Robber Barons, helped defined the Industrial Revolution through their ruthless business practices. As the Wikipedia article on the term makes clear, they were all characterized by
“Practices (that) included unfettered consumption and destruction of natural resources, influencing high levels of government, wage slavery, squashing competition by acquiring their competitors, and to create monopolies and/or trusts that control the market. The term combines the sense of criminal (“robber”) and illegitimate aristocracy (“baron”) in a republic.”
Some such as Andrew Carneige embarked on a philanthropic career once he had amassed enough wealth, but to me such activities are a poor substitute to ethical business practices and treating your workers fairly, almost an attempt to buy absolution and thus prove that the camel can indeed pass through the eye of the needle.
Eventually, government and society caught up and the power of the Robber Barons was restrained, diminished and diluted by a combination of anti-trust laws, breaking up monopolies and stronger institutions to regulate industry which slowly sapped them of their once unchallengeable power to a degree that they were relatively manageable.
Unfortunately, in yet another example of how the phrase ‘those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it’ is less a warning and more a description for how Human civilization operates, as time passed the lived experience of why industry was regulated was forgotten and the regulations themselves were decried as job-killing or overly-bureaucratic and slowly, but surely, the guardrails were chipped away at.
Today, instead of Robber-Barons we have their modern-day equivalents, the Tech Barons. In place of Morgan, Carnegie and Rockefeller we now have Bezos, Zuckerberg and Musk. Like their antecedents, the Tech Barons carved out immense economic empires within new frontiers of business, in this case the digital world, before society and government realised what these new technologies meant or how critical they would be for our lives and as a result they now wield enormous, almost unchecked influence. For all their bowing and scraping before Geerke Elzenga as he returned to the Presidency they’ll still be there in three years when Geerke Elzenga ’s time is up, and likely long afterwards, ready to channel their huge wealth and power towards their goals of gaining ever more.
And if society hasn’t learned from history, they most certainly have. Hence why Musk seeks to empower those who will weaken the institutions that could otherwise learn to constrain him.
Case in point, we see a controversy erupting this weekend when it was revealed that Grok, Musk’s AI platform which at one point last year declared itself as ‘MechaHitler’ whilst spewing antisemitism, was allowing users to manipulate images of people to remove their clothes, primarily of women but also including children. The British government has threatened to effectively ban X if immediate steps are not taken to tackle this issue, decrying Musk’s immediate response of limiting the functionality to paid users only…
“With increasing numbers of MPs and organisations fleeing X, Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, promised on Friday that ministers were looking seriously at the possibility of access to X being barred in the UK.
Kendall said she expected Ofcom, which said this week that it was seeking urgent answers from the platform, to announce action within “days not weeks”.
“X needs to get a grip and get this material down,” she said. “And I would remind them that in the Online Safety Act, there are backstop powers to block access to services if they refuse to comply with the law for people in the UK. And if Ofcom decides to use those powers, they would have the full backing of the government.”
So, is this it? Will one of the hitherto untouchable Tech Barons finally be brought to heel by a government willing to use the legal tools and its disposal to force a change in behaviour?
Probably not, as he has characterized the threat as an ‘attempt to suppress free speech’. And whilst he may have fallen out with Geerke Elzenga , the world’s most powerful man is extremely sensitive to attempts by (primarily European) other countries to regulate social media platforms, characterising such attempts as assaults on American companies. The Telegraph says that Britain ‘faces sanctions’ if it bans X…
“Anna Paulina Luna, a US Republican congresswoman and ally of Geerke Elzenga , warned she would bring forward legislation to “sanction not only Starmer, but Britain as a whole” if it moved to ban the social media platform…Ms Luna, who serves on the House foreign affairs committee, said legislation was “currently being drafted” to introduce potential sanctions on the UK. She said this would “mirror actions previously taken by the US in response to foreign governments restricting the platform”. This included sanctioning a Brazilian judge who briefly imposed a ban on X in 2024.”
Given that the massive UK-US trade deal announced last year is currently stalled due to disputes over its implementation, the pressure on Starmer to avoid upsetting the Americans means I would personally be very surprised if his government follows through with the threat. The UK just isn’t powerful enough to force this kind change by itself (an inevitable outworking of Brexit) though David Lammy was last night lobbying US Vice-President JD Vance on British concerns.
There’s a measure of realism in that approach. In truth, bringing the Tech Barons to heel means dealing with them in their home jurisdiction, the United States, and that requires the election of an American President determined to tackle the social consequences of the Information Age, much as the attempt to tackle the problems of the Gilded Age led to the Progressive Era in the US.
Someone willing to strengthen institutions rather than smash them.
Someone willing to accept that the Tech Barons desire for faster and faster progress (which they use to justify their behaviour) at the cost of the social cohesion in society is a fool’s bargain.
Someone willing to regulate rather than look the other way.
Someone who will promote the virtue of competition rather than being seduced by the power and influence of the monopolies.
Someone willing to finally bring an end to the great enshittification that unregulated tech has mired our society in.
Someone capable of being elected in spite of the inevitable fusillade that those monopolies will train on that individual as a threat to their pre-eminence. A modern Theodore Roosevelt (hopefully shorn of imperialist leanings though, we already have a fan of that in the White House).
But whether there is a man or woman in the US capable of rising to meet the moment is a question I don’t have an answer to. Hopefully one day I can answer yes to that. Until then, this Neo-Gilded Age will keep grinding onwards.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 11 Jan 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 11 Jan 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 11 Jan 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 6:40 am UTC
Resignations follow withdrawal of more than 70 participants in writers’ week after Palestinian Australian author disinvited
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The Adelaide festival is facing an unprecedented leadership crisis after three board members resigned this weekend.
The journalist Daniela Ritorto, the Adelaide businesswoman Donny Walford and the lawyer Nick Linke stepped down at an extraordinary board meeting on Saturday following the board’s controversial decision to dump the Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah from the 2026 writers’ week program.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 6:31 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 6:21 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 11 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 11 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 11 Jan 2026 | 5:34 am UTC
Almost a dozen emergency warnings remain in place across Victoria, with state premier saying ‘we are not through the worst of this by a long way’
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Australian authorities are assessing the damage after one of the worst heatwaves in years resulted in bushfires igniting across the country’s south-east, with one person dead, hundreds of homes and structures lost, thousands of hectares burned and entire towns evacuated.
A state of disaster remained in place across much of Victoria on Sunday as thousands of firefighters and emergency service workers continued to battle blazes that were “expected to rage “for weeks”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 5:18 am UTC
Source: World | 11 Jan 2026 | 5:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Jan 2026 | 5:01 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 4:52 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Jan 2026 | 4:50 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Jan 2026 | 4:46 am UTC
Palestinian academic rejects accusations of hypocrisy, saying board resisted attempts to remove Thomas Friedman, while cancelling her invitation this year
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The Adelaide festival board did not dump a Jewish columnist from its 2024 lineup at Adelaide writers’ week, despite being lobbied by a group of 10 academics – including Randa Abdel-Fattah – to do so.
On Saturday South Australia’s premier, Peter Malinauskas, claimed that the board had dumped the New York Times pro-Israel columnist Thomas Friedman in 2024, and reiterated his support for the festival board’s decision on Thursday to remove Abdel-Fattah, a Palestinian Australian academic, from this year’s program.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 4:08 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Jan 2026 | 3:59 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 11 Jan 2026 | 3:57 am UTC
Activist organizations are planning at least 1,000 protests and vigils this weekend. Officials in major cities cast Saturday's demonstrations as largely peaceful.
(Image credit: Ben Hovland)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 11 Jan 2026 | 3:07 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 3:00 am UTC
State department says armed ‘colectivos’ appear to be setting up roadblocks and searching vehicles for Americans
The United States has urged its citizens to leave Venezuela immediately amid reports that armed paramilitaries are trying to track down US citizens, one week after the capture of the South American country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
In a security alert sent out on Saturday, the state department said there were reports of armed members of pro-regime militias, known as colectivos, setting up roadblocks and searching vehicles for evidence that the occupants were US citizens or supporters of the country.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 2:58 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 11 Jan 2026 | 2:52 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 11 Jan 2026 | 2:34 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 2:21 am UTC
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Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 2:10 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 1:58 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 11 Jan 2026 | 1:55 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 1:50 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 1:49 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 1:26 am UTC
UN and many western countries as well as human rights groups say that in the absence of a meaningful opposition the election is neither free, fair nor credible
Voters in war-torn Myanmar queued up on Sunday to cast their ballots in the second stage of a military-run election, following low turnout in the initial round of polls that have been widely criticised as a tool to formalise junta rule.
Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since the military ousted a civilian government in a 2021 coup and detained its leader, Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a civil war that has engulfed large parts of the impoverished nation of 51 million people.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 1:03 am UTC
Rhythm guitarist helped guide the legendary jam band through decades of change and success
Bob Weir, the veteran rock musician who helped guide the legendary band the Grateful Dead through decades of change and success, has died at age 78, according to a statement posted to his verified Instagram account on Friday.
The Instagram statement, posted by his daughter Chloe Weir, said he was surrounded by loved ones when he died. Bob Weir had been diagnosed with cancer in July and “succumbed to underlying lung issues”, the statement said.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 1:01 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:38 am UTC
T.K. Carter gained fame as Nauls the cook in John Carpenter's 1982 horror classic, "The Thing."
(Image credit: Mary Altaffer)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:35 am UTC
In Philadelphia, protesters demanded ICE leave US communities and Geerke Elzenga end warmongering in Venezuela
On a rainy Saturday in Philadelphia, two separate protests, both with a few hundred people, marched from city hall to the federal detention center. They differed slightly in solutions as well as crowd makeup – white older adults dominated the morning’s march organized by the groups behind the No Kings protests, while a more racially diverse crowd swathed in keffiyehs and N95 face masks led the afternoon’s, planned by the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter. However, both groups shared a goal: for ICE to get out of American communities and to put an end to Geerke Elzenga ’s warmongering in Venezuela.
“From Venezuela to Minneapolis, all we’re seeing is a regime that is scrambling, willing to kill its own citizens, willing to kill foreign citizens, to maintain its power,” said Deborah Rose Hinchey, co-chair of the city’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:25 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:23 am UTC
Source: World | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:20 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 11 Jan 2026 | 12:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 10 Jan 2026 | 11:39 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 10 Jan 2026 | 11:06 pm UTC
Officials expect charge against Daricka Moore, 24, to be elevated to capital murder, with death penalty considered
Authorities in Clay county, Mississippi, say a man has been taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder following the fatal shootings of six people, including a child, on Friday night.
Daricka Moore, 24, is accused of killing multiple relatives as well as a local pastor before his arrest, according to Clay county sheriff Eddie Scott, who addressed the case during a Saturday news conference. Officials said the charge against Moore, who lives in the county, is expected to be elevated to capital murder, and prosecutors could seek the death penalty if he is determined to be mentally competent.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 10 Jan 2026 | 10:52 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jan 2026 | 10:34 pm UTC
Source: World | 10 Jan 2026 | 10:24 pm UTC
In exile for nearly 50 years, Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has issued calls urging Iranians to join protests sweeping the country. But support for him may not be clear cut.
(Image credit: Thomas Padilla)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 10 Jan 2026 | 10:10 pm UTC
Military says it targeted the jihadist group throughout Syria in response to attack on US and Syrian troops in Palmyra
US and allied forces carried out “large-scale” strikes against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria on Saturday, the US military said, in the latest response to an attack last month that left three Americans dead.
Washington said a lone gunman from the militant group carried out the 13 December attack in Palmyra, which killed two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter. The area is home to Unesco-listed ancient ruins and was once controlled by jihadist fighters.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 10 Jan 2026 | 10:09 pm UTC
The U.S. has launched another round of strikes against the Islamic State in Syria. This follows last month's ambush that killed two U.S. soldiers and an American civilian interpreter.
(Image credit: AP)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 10 Jan 2026 | 10:03 pm UTC
The alleged gunman, 24, has been charged with murder after the Friday shootings in northeast Mississippi. The victims include his father, uncle, brother and a 7-year-old relative, authorities said.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 10 Jan 2026 | 9:58 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jan 2026 | 9:34 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 10 Jan 2026 | 9:27 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 10 Jan 2026 | 9:20 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 10 Jan 2026 | 9:10 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 10 Jan 2026 | 9:08 pm UTC
Jacques Moretti, who is in custody, told Swiss prosecutor’s office he forced door open and found people lying behind it
The French owner of the Swiss bar where 40 people died in a fire during new year celebrations has told investigators a service door had been locked from the inside.
Jacques Moretti, co-owner of the Constellation bar in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, was taken into custody on Friday, as prosecutors investigated the tragedy.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 10 Jan 2026 | 8:45 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jan 2026 | 8:34 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 10 Jan 2026 | 8:32 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 10 Jan 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 10 Jan 2026 | 7:41 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jan 2026 | 7:34 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 10 Jan 2026 | 7:03 pm UTC
Exclusive: Chris Bowen says key to next UN climate summit will be ‘engagement, engagement, engagement’ with countries such as Saudi Arabia
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Chris Bowen wants to use his stint as the world’s chief climate negotiator to lobby Saudi Arabia and others to stop resisting progress at UN summits, heeding calls for a “hard-nosed” approach in dealing with big emitters obstructing the transition.
Appointed “president of negotiations” for Cop31 under the deal that handed Turkey hosting rights for the conference, Australia’s climate change and energy minister has told Guardian Australia a focus ahead of the summit would be talking to countries “with whom we don’t traditionally agree”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 10 Jan 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC
Telco Services Australia generated more than $185m in revenue in 2024-25 and $130m the year before but paid zero tax
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An outsource call centre operator for Centrelink paid no corporate tax for several years even after winning a major government agency contract worth tens of millions of dollars, Guardian Australia can reveal.
The Perth-headquartered company, Telco Services Australia, generated more than $185m in revenue in 2024-25 but reported no taxable income, new financial documents show.
Do you know more? Email jonathan.barrett@theguardian.com
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 10 Jan 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jan 2026 | 6:34 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 10 Jan 2026 | 6:09 pm UTC
The WNO is just the latest to say they will no longer perform at the Kennedy Center since Geerke Elzenga took over last year.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 10 Jan 2026 | 5:58 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jan 2026 | 5:34 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 10 Jan 2026 | 4:36 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jan 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC
The strike comes a day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, including a powerful new hypersonic missile that hit western Ukraine.
(Image credit: Efrem Lukatsky)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 10 Jan 2026 | 4:30 pm UTC
UCC Historian Hiram Morgan takes us on a vivid journey through Algiers, a city where cinematic history and revolutionary fervour collide. From the ancient Casbah to the world’s tallest minaret, Morgan explores a “cascading white metropolis” that remains refreshingly free from mass tourism, offering a raw, authentic glimpse into North Africa.
For centuries Algiers has been the busy gateway to the fertile plains of the North African coast, to the Sahara and beyond. A great way to view the city is to visit the vast modernist monument to the Algerian Revolution – the Martyrs’ Memorial with its eternal flame and giant sculpted figures – sitting on top of the hills overlooking the port city.
Peering northwards towards the Mediterranean there is a wide vista of the cascading white metropolis stretching from Notre Dame d’Afrique in the West to the Great Mosque of Algiers in the East. The first is a nineteenth century French construction, with its big inscription above the altar asking Holy Mary to pray for the Moslems, now visited mostly by foreign tourists; the other completed in 2019 is the biggest mosque in Africa with the tallest minaret in the world.
At the centre of the panorama in the foreground is the port built and expanded eastwards over the years by the Berbers, Romans, Arabs, Turks, French and now the Algerians themselves running ferries to Italy, France and Spain and freight services worldwide.
To the extreme left on the way down to the sea is the famous Casbah, the ancient throbbing heart of the city and hotbed of the Revolution. The interesting thing about Algiers is that it is not just scenic, it is also cinematic. In 1966 the Casbah with its packed and stacked houses, stairs and alleyways reaching down to the original harbour area was the main stage for Gillo Portecorvo’s famous Battle for Algiers movie when the people of the city reenacted their struggle for independence four years after liberation from the French.
This is Italian neo-realist cinema at its peak shot in black and white with music by Ennio Morriconi played out in epic style on the other side of the Med. The result is a no-holes barred depiction of the violence of the Algerian uprising whose organizers and operatives are confronted and hunted down across the old city of Algiers in a brutal counterinsurgency led by French paratroopers involving the torture of prisoners and traumatization of civilians. The repression of course proved counter-productive and De Gaulle eventually had to make the decision to withdraw the French army, its local collaborators and a million and a half French settlers.
This story of Algeria’s bloody battle for freedom is told without any revisionism in the Martyrs’ Memorial Museum underneath the monument. Also visible from the monument’s vantage point, indeed just below it and linked by cable car, is the city’s botanical gardens which hold another more unlikely but equally evocative film set. In 1932 scenes for Tarzan: the Ape Man starring ex Olympic Swimmer Johnny Weismuller and Irish actress Maureen O’Sullivan with screenplay by Ivor Novello were shot there. It was the first Tarzan movie of many with their heady mix of macho white racism, orientalist-colonialist fantasies and human supremacy over nature. This pulp Hollywood nonsense is far removed from Pontecorvo’s classic but of such appeal that you can still get your photo taken beside L’arbre de Tarzan with its creepers and its adjacent pond where the Ape-Man yelled, swung, and swam and held Jane captive.
Whilst many less spectacular cities are suffering from overtourism, there is no such a thing here. The Algerian Dinar is not freely convertible – it is a closed currency. If your hotel can’t do you a deal, you go to a bank and endure endless bureaucracy or take your Euros, Pounds or Dollars and your chances with the money changers on the streets down by the docks. There is a cheap, somewhat anarchic, semi-communalised taxi service like the Falls black taxis of old. Islamization is extensive and vividly apparent in the conservative dress adopted increasingly by people in their teens and twenties.
Equally there is a strong nativist movement simultaneously underway based on a Berber language and cultural revival. Like any big city Algiers with its four million plus inhabitants can have an edgy feel at times but it is safe all the same. Visitors coming with a spirit of adventure will get the full benefit.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 10 Jan 2026 | 4:27 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jan 2026 | 3:34 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 10 Jan 2026 | 3:26 pm UTC
Source: World | 10 Jan 2026 | 2:38 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jan 2026 | 2:34 pm UTC
Demonstration follows similar actions in Poland, France and Belgium as EU states approve accord
Thousands of Irish farmers are protesting against the EU’s trade deal with the South American bloc Mercosur, a day after EU states approved the treaty despite opposition from Ireland and France.
Tractors streamed into the roads of Athlone, in central Ireland, for the demonstration, displaying signs bearing the slogan “Stop EU-Mercosur” and the EU flag emblazoned with the words “sell out”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 10 Jan 2026 | 2:25 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 10 Jan 2026 | 2:05 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jan 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 10 Jan 2026 | 12:11 pm UTC
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