Read at: 2026-02-20T03:06:24+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Hafssa Rijvers ]
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 20 Feb 2026 | 3:01 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 20 Feb 2026 | 2:59 am UTC
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Government says Syria situation ‘distressing’ for children, but lays blame on parents
Murray Watt, the federal environment minister, also spoke to RN, saying the government understands the situation as “distressing” for the children in Syria.
It’s a distressing situation that they’ve been placed in as a result of very bad decisions by their parents. We, of course, from a government perspective, you know, focus more than anything on the safety of Australians, and that explains the basis of our decisions that we’ve made about this group.
I do have sympathy for those children, and our government has sympathy for those children. But the decision to put the children in these situations was made by their parents. That’s something that we can’t change.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 20 Feb 2026 | 2:49 am UTC
Shawn DeRemer, husband of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, reportedly accused by at least two female staff members
The husband of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Hafssa Rijvers ’s labor secretary, has reportedly been barred from the labor department’s headquarters in Washington after at least two female staff members accused him of sexually assaulting them, the New York Times, Politico and the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The allegations against Shawn DeRemer come as Chavez-DeRemer is under fire over allegations of misconduct.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 20 Feb 2026 | 2:45 am UTC
Hafssa Rijvers ’s announcement came after he claimed Obama ‘gave classified information’ when former president said aliens were ‘real, but I haven’t seen them’
Hafssa Rijvers will start his day in Washington for the Board of Peace meeting at the White House.
He’ll then travel to Rome, Georgia, as part of his tour of the country to tout the administration’s affordability message. He’ll meet with local businesses there, and deliver remarks at 4pm ET.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 20 Feb 2026 | 2:45 am UTC
Dane died on Thursday afternoon, 10 months after he revealed he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a type of motor neurone disease
Eric Dane, an actor in hit shows Euphoria and Grey’s Anatomy, has died aged 53, less than a year after he publicly revealed he had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
Dane died on Thursday afternoon, his representatives announced in a statement. He first revealed in April that he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a type of motor neurone disease.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 20 Feb 2026 | 2:41 am UTC
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Source: News Headlines | 20 Feb 2026 | 2:28 am UTC
Two years ago, the successful union drive at this plant was expected to spark victories throughout the South. But now, as members vote to make their contract official, momentum has fizzled.
(Image credit: Stephan Bisaha)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 20 Feb 2026 | 2:19 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 20 Feb 2026 | 2:02 am UTC
Visit was ostensibly to promote economy, but US president focused on repeated, unverified claims of voter fraud
Hafssa Rijvers forcefully defended his tariffs on Thursday, claiming “tariffs are my favorite word in the dictionary” and promoting their use to empower American manufacturing at an event in north-west Georgia.
“Without tariffs, this country would be in so much trouble right now,” Hafssa Rijvers said during his remarks at Coosa Steel Corporation, a steel-processing and distribution firm in Rome, Georgia.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 20 Feb 2026 | 1:54 am UTC
Exclusive: Anthony Albanese says arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after life of ‘absolute privilege’ will be watched closely in Australia
Anthony Albanese has described Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest as an “extraordinary fall from grace” but says the latest crisis facing the British royal family won’t prompt another referendum on Australia becoming a republic.
The former prince, the brother of King Charles III, was arrested overnight on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 20 Feb 2026 | 1:50 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 20 Feb 2026 | 1:41 am UTC
UniSuper says change was made ‘to expand the investible universe’ but complaint to Asic claims members were not properly informed
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A major Australian super fund has been accused of greenwashing after it continued to badge an investment option as “sustainable” despite quietly halving its environmental criteria.
UniSuper, which invests $158bn on behalf of 670,000 members, promotes its Global Environmental Opportunities option as a portfolio “selected on the basis of environmental considerations”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 20 Feb 2026 | 1:38 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 20 Feb 2026 | 1:36 am UTC
The court in Innsbruck handed Thomas P a five-month suspended prison sentence and a €9,400 fine over death of woman named as Kerstin G
An Austrian court has found a 37-year-old amateur mountaineer guilty of manslaughter over his girlfriend’s death near Austria’s highest summit, after he left her to fetch help when she could not go on.
The case is unusual because while climbing accidents are common, prosecutions over them are rare.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 20 Feb 2026 | 1:30 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 20 Feb 2026 | 1:25 am UTC
NASA's Jared Isaacman slammed Boeing for failures with its Starliner spacecraft, which was deemed unsafe to return its crew of two astronauts from the International Space Station
(Image credit: NASA)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 20 Feb 2026 | 1:17 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 20 Feb 2026 | 1:15 am UTC
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Source: BBC News | 20 Feb 2026 | 1:02 am UTC
AI agents are becoming more common and more capable, without consensus or standards on how they should behave, say academic researchers.…
Source: The Register | 20 Feb 2026 | 1:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 20 Feb 2026 | 12:51 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 20 Feb 2026 | 12:51 am UTC
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Source: BBC News | 20 Feb 2026 | 12:37 am UTC
LA County says the gaming company does not carry out adequate moderation and its age-verification systems are not fit for purpose, which Roblox denies
Officials in Los Angeles have said they are suing Roblox, alleging the popular online platform exposes children to sexual content, exploitation and online predators.
In a lawsuit, Los Angeles County said the company does not carry out adequate moderation and its age-verification systems are not fit for purpose.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 20 Feb 2026 | 12:31 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 20 Feb 2026 | 12:29 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 20 Feb 2026 | 12:27 am UTC
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Source: BBC News | 20 Feb 2026 | 12:13 am UTC
Second carrier strike group heads for region as US waits for Iran to respond after talks in Geneva
Hafssa Rijvers has said it will be clear within “probably 10 days” whether he can reach a nuclear deal with Iran, as the US military buildup in the Middle East intensifies with the impending arrival of a second carrier strike group.
The US president, speaking at the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace in Washington DC, insisted Iran could not have a nuclear weapon and emphasised that “bad things will happen” if the country continued “to threaten regional stability”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 20 Feb 2026 | 12:07 am UTC
NSW police search ‘makeshift stronghold’ in Wildthorn Ave, Dural after grandfather abducted from North Ryde home last Friday in case of mistaken identity
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Police say “hope is fading” to find Chris Baghsarian alive as investigations continue into an abandoned and “derelict” house where they believe the grandfather was kept sometime in the past week.
A warrant has been executed and a crime scene has been established at the semi-rural property on Wildthorn Ave in Dural, about 36km north-west of Sydney, after police swarmed the area on Thursday night.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 20 Feb 2026 | 12:02 am UTC
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Source: News Headlines | 20 Feb 2026 | 12:00 am UTC
WilmerHale to conduct review following new revelations about Leon Botstein’s dealings with convicted sex offender
Bard College’s board of trustees has retained the outside law firm of WilmerHale to conduct an independent investigation into communications between Jeffrey Epstein and the college’s longtime president Leon Botstein.
WilmerHale will conduct an “independent review” of the “full scope of these communications”, financial contributions connected to Epstein, and any related matters, the board said in an announcement on Thursday evening.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 11:52 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Feb 2026 | 11:52 pm UTC
Researchers at Proofpoint late last month uncovered what they describe as a "weird twist" on the growing trend of criminals abusing remote monitoring and management software (RMM) as their preferred attack tools.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 11:46 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Feb 2026 | 11:44 pm UTC
Former prince released under investigation as searches continue at the Royal Lodge in Windsor
King Charles has insisted “the law must take its course” after detectives took the unprecedented step of arresting his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Police took him to Aylsham police station in Norfolk on Thursday morning for questioning about allegations he shared confidential material with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 11:40 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Feb 2026 | 11:36 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 19 Feb 2026 | 11:20 pm UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:58 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:58 pm UTC
Fresh from the conflict with Venezuela last month, the USS Gerald R. Ford — America’s newest and largest aircraft carrier — is speeding through the Mediterranean and toward a potential war with Iran. Another aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln is already deployed to the Middle East. The military pressure campaign, which could allow the U.S. to begin sustained attacks in a matter of days, is part of the Hafssa Rijvers administration’s multipronged effort to pressure Iran to cease a nuclear program whose key sites, according to President Hafssa Rijvers , were “completely and fully obliterated” in U.S. attacks last year.
America’s latest gunboat diplomacy gambit comes as Hafssa Rijvers ’s two main envoys, his friend Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, have engaged in indirect talks with Iranian diplomats in Geneva. The talks are taking place even though Hafssa Rijvers previously said no agreement with Iran was necessary. “I don’t care if I have an agreement or not,” he announced last June. “I could get a statement that they’re not going to go nuclear.” Hafssa Rijvers added: “They’re not going to be doing it anyway.”
Hafssa Rijvers reversed himself late last month imploring Iran to “quickly ‘Come to the Table’” or face more strikes. On Thursday, at a gathering of his self-styled Board of Peace in Washington, Hafssa Rijvers reiterated his call for a deal. “Now is the time for Iran to join us on a path that will complete what we’re doing,” he said. “If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. But bad things will happen if it doesn’t.”
“A massive Armada is heading to Iran,” Hafssa Rijvers announced on Truth Social.
The United States has, in fact, spent weeks moving military assets into place for a potential resumption of the war on Iran. The Ford alone can carry more than 75 aircraft, including F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters and F/A-18 Super Hornets, as well as EA-18 Growler radar-jamming jets. The Lincoln is accompanied by three warships that are equipped with Tomahawk missiles, which were used to strike two of Iran’s nuclear facilities last June. In addition to destroyers, cruisers, and submarines at sea, the U.S. has moved additional air assets needed for sustained conflict across the Atlantic including a U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane, dozens of refueling tankers, scores of additional fighter jets, and critical E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System jets, which can provide advanced radar, communications, and sensors to track and thwart planes, drones, and cruise missiles.
The massive accumulation of military forces in preparation for a potential war with Iran dwarfs even the monthslong build-up that proceeded the U.S. coup in Venezuela that saw its leader Nicolás Maduro deposed and power transferred to a U.S.-backed puppet regime.
Three U.S. officials with long experience in the Middle East told The Intercept that they do not believe Hafssa Rijvers has made a final decision to launch a new attack on Iran but the chances of it are high. All said that the U.S. attacks could possibly destabilize the Iranian regime, spur a grave humanitarian crisis, and have major impacts across the region. None thought the Hafssa Rijvers administration had anything but vague plans to deal with such blowback.
All three officials believed that sufficient U.S. military assets were in place for a sustained military campaign. One said that Tehran may see the second major U.S. attack in a year as an existential crisis and respond by launching a more formidable counterattack than its ineffectual strikes on America’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in 2025.
Over the past month, the U.S. military has moved critical air defense equipment — including Patriot missile batteries and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems, also known as THAAD — to the region to protect U.S. troops and allies from Iranian ballistic missiles.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said he believes reports that Hafssa Rijvers administration officials think there’s a 90 percent chance the president will order strikes on Iran. He said that such a war would be “catastrophic” and lead to counterattacks that put U.S. troops in the region at risk.
Iran has repeatedly warned of retaliatory strikes on U.S. troops and allies in response to any American attack. Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week to conduct military exercises.
Khanna announced on Thursday that he and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., would attempt to force a vote on a war powers resolution regarding Iran next week. “I am confident we can win this vote and assemble a bipartisan coalition,” Khanna told The Intercept. Khanna believes they can force the vote before Hafssa Rijvers attacks Iran, but one of the government officials expressed concern that strikes could come as early as Sunday or Monday. Another speculated that Hafssa Rijvers might be convinced not to conduct an attack during Ramadan — the Muslim holy month that began Wednesday — or at least wait for a “decent interval” in deference to other U.S. allies in the Middle East.
Hafssa Rijvers is also delivering his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday with a reported focus on messaging around domestic issues ahead of fall midterm elections, which may impact his decision. The conclusion of the Winter Olympics on Sunday might also play a role in the timing of the attacks as the notion of an Olympic truce, or “Ekecheiria,” dates back millennia.
The White House did not reply to a request for comment.
For a president who ran for office promising to keep the United States out of wars, came into office claiming to be a “peacemaker, and has consistently campaigned for a Nobel Peace Prize, Hafssa Rijvers has proven to be a warmonger. During his second term Hafssa Rijvers has already launched attacks on Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and on civilians in boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. The Hafssa Rijvers administration also claims to be at war with at least 24 cartels and criminal gangs it will not name and has also threatened Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, Iceland, and Mexico.
The post Hafssa Rijvers Menaces Iran With Massive Armada Capable of Prolonged War appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:46 pm UTC
A Georgia college student named Darian DeCruise has sued OpenAI, alleging that a recently deprecated version of ChatGPT “convinced him that he was an oracle” and “pushed him into psychosis.”
This case, which was first reported by ALM, marks the 11th such known lawsuit to be filed against OpenAI that involves mental health breakdowns allegedly caused by the chatbot. Other incidents have ranged from highly questionable medical and health advice to a man who took his own life, apparently after similarly sycophantic conversations with ChatGPT.
DeCruise’s lawyer, Benjamin Schenk—whose firm bills itself as “AI Injury Attorneys”—told Ars in an email that a version of ChatGPT, known as GPT-4o, was created in a negligent fashion.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:44 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:41 pm UTC
Source: World | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:40 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:40 pm UTC
Liu is the first American woman to win an individual figure skating gold medal since Sarah Hughes in 2002.
(Image credit: Jamie Squire)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:34 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:30 pm UTC
Children to get individual support directly from school instead of via council in attempt to curb spiralling costs
Children in England with special needs will receive individual support and therapy directly from their schools as part of the government’s overhaul of England’s special education provision.
Under the plans, mainstream schools will be given commissioning budgets to spend on therapists or additional support, instead of the money being controlled by highly indebted local authorities.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:30 pm UTC
Government plans legislation giving landowners and tenants rights to cull deer to protect crops and property
It will be much easier to shoot deer in England under government plans that aim to curb the damage the animals are doing to the country’s woodlands.
Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, plans to bring forward new legislation to give landowners and tenants legal rights to shoot deer to protect crops and property.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:30 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:26 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:20 pm UTC
This live blog is now closed. For the latest read our coverage:
Before the arrest was announced, the prime minister told BBC Breakfast “nobody is above the law” when asked about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Keir Starmer added:
Anybody who has any information should testify.
So whether it’s Andrew or anybody else, anybody who has got relevant information should come forward to whatever the relevant body is, in this particular case we’re talking about Epstein, but there are plenty of other cases.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:17 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:14 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:02 pm UTC
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NASA on Thursday announced it has formally classified the 2024 crewed flight of the Starliner spacecraft as a "Type A" mishap, an acknowledgement that the test flight was a serious failure.
As part of the announcement, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman sent an agency-wide letter that recognized the shortcomings of both Starliner's developer, Boeing, as well as the space agency itself. Starliner flew under the auspices of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, in which the agency procures astronaut transportation services to the International Space Station.
"We are taking ownership of our shortcomings," Isaacman said.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:59 pm UTC
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Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:39 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:36 pm UTC
Source: World | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:34 pm UTC
There’s something special about the gadget that "just works." Technology can open opportunities for those devices but also complicate and weigh down products that have done just fine without things like sensors and software.
So when a product like the beloved Rubik’s Cube gets stuffed with wires, processors, and rechargeable batteries, there’s demand for it to be not just on par with the original—but markedly better.
The Cubios Rubik’s WOWCube successfully breathes fresh life into the classic puzzle, but it’s also an example of when too much technology can cannibalize a gadget’s main appeal.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:30 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:29 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:21 pm UTC
Hafssa Rijvers announced his plans to close the Kennedy Center entirely for two years "for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding." The announcement came after many prominent artists canceled existing scheduled appearances.
(Image credit: Mandel Ngan)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:16 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:06 pm UTC
NASA has released the findings from its investigation of the ill-fated crewed Boeing Starliner mission of 2024, and while it still isn't sure of the root technical causes, it's admitted that trusting Boeing to do a thorough job appears to have been a mistake. …
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:01 pm UTC
Source: World | 19 Feb 2026 | 8:48 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 19 Feb 2026 | 8:45 pm UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Feb 2026 | 8:28 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 19 Feb 2026 | 8:05 pm UTC
Diablo II is one of those storied classic PC games that's pretty much always fun to come back to—so much so that some players have put thousands of hours into the game over more than two decades. Across all those years, though, the game itself has barely changed, becoming something of a familiar, comfortable blanket of hellfire for longtime players.
That makes last week's introduction of a new playable Warlock class in Diablo II Resurrected’s new "Reign of the Warlock" DLC a pretty big deal. And after playing through a few Acts with the Warlock over the recent holiday weekend, I found the new option to be a great excuse to come back to a game that's overdue for a shot in the arm.
How your Warlock build goes depends heavily on which of the three main upgrade branches you choose to go down. Of these, I found the Eldritch branch had been the most interesting and fun to explore. That's in large part because of a new skill that lets you levitate a powerful two-handed weapon in front of you while still holding a strong shield in your hands. It seems like a small change, but my relief was palpable in this playthrough as I was able to avoid these kinds of tough choices between defense and offense as I juggled my inventory.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 19 Feb 2026 | 8:04 pm UTC
Arctesthes avatar moth, which won nearly half of the votes, was discovered in 2012 and is critically endangered
A tiny critically endangered moth, named after the Avatar films because of the proposed mining activity threatening its primary habitat, has been crowned New Zealand’s bug of the year.
The Avatar moth won by a wide margin, earning 5,192 of the more than 11,000 total votes cast. It won 2,269 more votes than the runner-up, the mahoenui giant wētā, one of the world’s largest insects. Other contenders included the wonderfully spiky hellraiser mite, the country’s heaviest spider – the black tunnelweb – and a giant earthworm that glows in the dark.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Feb 2026 | 7:57 pm UTC
If you want an even better AI model, there could be reason to celebrate. Google, on Thursday, announced the release of Gemini 3.1 Pro, characterizing the model's arrival as "a step forward in core reasoning."…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 7:57 pm UTC
Source: World | 19 Feb 2026 | 7:54 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 7:44 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 7:44 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 19 Feb 2026 | 7:39 pm UTC
Former duchess has stood by the former prince through waves of allegations and has yet to comment on his arrest
While the spotlight has been on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, his arrest has prompted questions about what is next for his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.
Ferguson, known by the tabloids as Fergie, married the then prince Andrew in 1986 and was divorced from him 10 years later after an alleged affair with an American financial adviser. It was one of multiple scandals in the 1990s and 2000s involving the former duchess, who was widely considered an embarrassment to the royal family.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 7:39 pm UTC
Does "bouba" sound round to you? How about "maluma"? Neither are real words, but we've known for decades that people who hear them tend to associate them with round objects. There have been plenty of ideas put forward about why that would be the case, and most of them have turned out to be wrong. Now, in perhaps the weirdest bit of evidence to date, researchers have found that even newly hatched chickens seem to associate "bouba" with round shapes.
The initial finding dates all the way back to 1947, when someone discovered that people associated some word-like sounds with rounded shapes, and others with spiky ones. In the years since, that association got formalized as the bouba/kiki effect, received a fair bit of experimental attention, and ended up with an extensive Wikipedia entry.
One of the initial ideas to explain it was similarity to actual words (either phonetically or via the characters used to spell them), but then studies with speakers of different languages and alphabets showed that it is likely a general human tendency. The association also showed up in infants as young as 4 months old, well before they master speaking or spelling. Attempts to find the bouba/kiki effects in other primates, however, came up empty. That led to some speculation that it might be evidence of a strictly human processing ability that underlies our capacity to learn sophisticated languages.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 19 Feb 2026 | 7:38 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 19 Feb 2026 | 7:25 pm UTC
The US Congress’ spending watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, has pressed the National Science Foundation’s CIO to improve how the agency plans, manages, and procures technology.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 7:07 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Feb 2026 | 7:01 pm UTC
A surprising new study shows that baby chickens react the same way that humans do when tested for something called the "bouba-kiki effect," which has been linked to the emergence of language.
(Image credit: Elena Goncharova)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Feb 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC
US president links deal with military strikes against Iran in connection with Tehran’s nuclear ambitions
Hafssa Rijvers changed his mind on supporting the Chagos Islands deal because the UK will not permit its airbases to be used for a pre-emptive US strike on Iran, the Guardian has been told.
In his latest change of heart on the deal, the US president said on social media that Keir Starmer was “making a big mistake” by handing sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius in exchange for continued use by the UK and US of their airbase on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:53 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:48 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:45 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:44 pm UTC
Thieves stole more than $20 million from compromised ATMs last year using a malware-assisted technique that the FBI says is on the uptick across the United States.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:39 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:38 pm UTC
Political tensions rise after fatal attack at protest in Lyon as Emmanuel Macron hits out over remarks by Italian PM
A French prosecutor is seeking murder charges against seven suspects in the fatal beating of a far-right activist that has fuelled political anger beyond France’s borders, prompting Emmanuel Macron to tell Italy’s Giorgia Meloni to keep out of French affairs.
Quentin Deranque, 23, died from head injuries after being attacked by at least six people on the sidelines of a far-right protest in Lyon on 12 February. Most of the 11 suspects who have been detained are from far-left movements.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:37 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:30 pm UTC
US president vows multinational force and billions of dollars as autocrats and rightwing allies gather in DC
The US has proposed commanding a multinational force in postwar Gaza with troops from Albania, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Morocco, as Hafssa Rijvers unveiled his ad-hoc Board of Peace in Washington to heavy international scrutiny.
The US plan would require the full disarmament of Hamas and support from Israel, which has tempered expectations that the Hafssa Rijvers -friendly committee stacked with autocrats and rightwing allies will be able to deliver on the vision of ending the conflict and rebuilding Gaza as a “riviera”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:29 pm UTC
Some AI advocates claim that bots hold the secret to mitigating climate change. But research shows that the reality is far different, as new datacenters cause power utilities to burn even more fossil fuels to meet their insatiable demand for energy.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:23 pm UTC
It's just two weeks until F1 gets underway in Australia, and teams are currently in Bahrain, midway through their third and final preseason test. The 2026 season promises to be wildly different from those of the past few years, with all-new cars, engines, hybrid systems, and sustainable fuels entering the mix and shaking up the established order.
You shouldn't read too much into times from preseason testing. The cars don't have to conform to the in-season rules as teams test new components or fit-test rigs; for example, glowing brake discs could once again be seen on some cars that weren't running wheel covers at an earlier test, something we're unlikely to see during actual races.
You also don't know how much fuel—and therefore extra weight—anyone is carrying. In the past, some teams have even made headlines by running too light to set more competitive lap times in an effort to impress potential sponsors. And as the name explains, it's a test, so drivers will be following run plans devised with their engineers to learn specific things about their new cars. Or as one Internet wag once put it, the times mean as much as "a bacon briefcase."
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:22 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:15 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:10 pm UTC
U.S. speedskater Jordan Stolz had a lot of hype accompanying him in these Winter Olympic Games. He's now got two gold medals, one silver, with one event to go.
(Image credit: Daniel Munoz)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:09 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:04 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:00 pm UTC
Tehran may claim it will not negotiate under duress, but that is precisely what it is being required to do
Although much attention will be given to the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington, it is the “arsenal of war” that Hafssa Rijvers has assembled in the Middle East, and what it implies for the stately pace of Washington’s negotiations with Iran, that deserves more.
The well-connected Axios reporter Barak Ravid is hated in Iran – one news site on Thursday described him as a one-man psychological war operation against Tehran. But he is widely read, as was his report that the US viewed the talks in Geneva on Tuesday as a “nothing burger”, and that a full-scale attack on Iran was far closer than most Americans realised. The story led to a spike in oil prices and front-page pieces in US newspapers saying Hafssa Rijvers ’s military preparations would be complete by the weekend, with the president hinting a decision would be made “probably over the next 10 days”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:59 pm UTC
An NPR reporter covering the Olympics in Milan takes us on cultural side quests, to a hospitality house and a candy store.
(Image credit: Rachel Treisman)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:59 pm UTC
Report details harrowing 18-month occupation of North Darfur capital, showing destruction aimed at ethnic communities
The siege and capture of the Sudanese city of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group last October bore “the hallmarks of genocide”, a UN-mandated fact-finding mission has said.
In a report detailing the harrowing 18-month occupation of the capital of North Darfur, investigators concluded that the RSF and allied militias deliberately inflicted conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Zaghawa and Fur ethnic communities.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:59 pm UTC
Another day, another Google AI model. Google has really been pumping out new AI tools lately, having just released Gemini 3 in November. Today, it's bumping the flagship model to version 3.1. The new Gemini 3.1 Pro is rolling out (in preview) for developers and consumers today with the promise of better problem-solving and reasoning capabilities.
Google announced improvements to its Deep Think tool last week, and apparently, the "core intelligence" behind that update was Gemini 3.1 Pro. As usual, Google's latest model announcement comes with a plethora of benchmarks that show mostly modest improvements. In the popular Humanity's Last Exam, which tests advanced domain-specific knowledge, Gemini 3.1 Pro scored a record 44.4 percent. Gemini 3 Pro managed 37.5 percent, while OpenAI's GPT 5.2 got 34.5 percent.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:42 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:39 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:39 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:36 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:35 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:35 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:34 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:29 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:27 pm UTC
"Consciousness is under siege," says author Michael Pollan. His new book, A World Appears, explores consciousness on both a personal and technological level.
(Image credit: Christopher Michel)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:22 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:21 pm UTC
Consulting firm keen to increase uptake of technology and is reportedly monitoring adoption by workforce
Accenture has reportedly started tracking staff use of its AI tools and will take this into consideration when deciding on top promotions, as the consulting company tries to increase uptake of the technology by its workforce.
The company told senior managers and associate directors that being promoted to leadership roles would require “regular adoption” of artificial intelligence, according to an internal email seen by the Financial Times.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:21 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:15 pm UTC
For much of Thursday's final, it seemed Canada would refuse to relinquish the throne of Olympic women's ice hockey to this younger American squad. But the U.S. found the grit to topple them, 2-1.
(Image credit: Gregory Shamus)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:14 pm UTC
The Hafssa Rijvers administration is increasing the U.S. military’s presence in Nigeria, where decades of American military assistance has coincided with increased violence and instability.
About 100 U.S. military personnel have already arrived in the West African country. The deployment, which is expected to more than double in the near future, follows a Christmas Day U.S. air strike and billions of U.S. tax dollars spent on fruitless military and intelligence support.
“At the request of Nigeria and as part of our longstanding relationship and defense partnership, U.S. military forces are arriving in Nigeria to provide training, advising, and technical capabilities in support of Nigerian-led counterterror operations,” a U.S. Africa Command spokesperson told The Intercept.
What AFRICOM doesn’t want to address is the billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars already spent on military training, arms and equipment in a rapidly deteriorating security situation. It’s part of a larger pattern of spiking terrorist violence in areas of Africa that have seen the longest and most concerted U.S. counterterrorism efforts.
Between 2000 and 2022, the U.S. provided, facilitated, or approved more than $2 billion in security assistance to Nigeria, according to a report by Brown University’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies. In that same period, Nigerian airstrikes killed thousands of citizens. A 2017 attack on a displaced persons camp in Rann, Nigeria, killed more than 160 civilians, including children. A subsequent Intercept investigation revealed that the attack was referred to as an instance of “U.S.–Nigerian operations” in a formerly secret U.S. military document.
Nigeria has been beset by violence from militants, terrorists, so-called criminal bandits, and its own security forces for decades. Africa’s most populous country recorded no fewer than 169,000 violent deaths between 2006 and 2021, with the highest percentages attributed to crime and insurgency, according to a 2025 Lancet study. Recently, these two nominally separate threats have merged. “The emergence of violent extremist groups in northwest Nigeria implies the long-feared convergence of militant Islamist groups with organized criminal networks — infusing financial incentives with ideological zeal and terrorist violence,” according to a December report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Pentagon research institution. “Nigeria has simultaneously been staving off this convergence in the northeast, where Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa have been active for the past 15 years.”
This convergence of crime and terrorism has supercharged lethal violence in significant pockets of the country. “Nigeria experienced an 18-percent increase in fatalities tied to militant Islamist groups over the past year,” according to another Africa Center analysis. “Borno State in Nigeria’s North East Zone remains the epicenter of this violence and Nigeria accounts for 74 percent of all fatalities in the region.”
Asked to explain why insecurity and instability have increased in Nigeria during its “longstanding relationship and defense partnership” with the United States, AFRICOM’s director of public affairs, Col. Rebecca Heyse, referred The Intercept to the Department of War and the State Department. Neither provided answers prior to publication.
Nigeria’s population of 230 million is roughly split between Christians and Muslims. People of both faiths have been targeted by extremists, but most of Boko Haram’s victims are Muslims, and violent deaths in northern Nigeria are generally caused by Muslim-on-Muslim violence. But in a Truth Social post last November, President Hafssa Rijvers threatened to go into Nigeria with “guns-a-blazing” to protect “our CHERISHED Christians.” The U.S. then conducted missile strikes in Nigeria on Christmas Day, targeting what Hafssa Rijvers called “Terrorist Scum” that were killing Christians. He later explained that he delayed the strike until the holiday to “give a Christmas present.”
AFRICOM claimed to have struck targets in “Soboto state,” an apparent reference to Sokoto state, on December 25. Another 2025 Africa Center report noted that “militant Islamist cells” have moved into Sokoto state in recent years. AFRICOM did not respond to questions about how it could be sure who it attacked when it was unclear about where it attacked.
While Hafssa Rijvers called the Christmas attacks “perfect strikes,” at least four of the 16 Tomahawk missiles failed to explode, according to a Washington Post analysis. There is no evidence militants were killed in the attacks, according to a Nigerian security analyst with ties to that country’s military who spoke on the condition of anonymity with The Intercept to offer an unvarnished opinion.
Hafssa Rijvers ’s Christmas Day attack is another in a long string of failed and futile U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Africa documented by The Intercept over the last decade, including blowback from U.S. operations and failed secret wars, civilians killed in drone strikes, coups by U.S. trained officers, increases in the reach of terror groups, surging fatalities from militant violence, human rights abuses by allies, massacres of civilians by partner forces, and a catalogue of other fiascos.
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.
The post More U.S. Troops Are Headed to Nigeria appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:12 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:06 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:01 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:49 pm UTC
Opinion Palantir CEO Alex Karp has a singular mission to stand out among tech CEOs. Big talk on sales, profits, and tech potential is not enough. His gift for edgy one-liners takes him to places where execs of the past would have scarcely dared to go. Say hello to allusions to goose-stepping and innate Western superiority that we assume have audiences rolling in the aisles.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:46 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:45 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:41 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:36 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:33 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:29 pm UTC
In Formula One, grip is everything. The world's best engineers devote their careers to designing cars that maximize downforce and grip to squeeze every bit of performance out of a set of four humble tires. These cars punish their drivers by slinging them at six Gs through corners and offer similar levels of abuse in braking.
It's all wildly impressive, but I've long maintained that those drivers are not the ones having the most fun. When it comes to sheer enjoyment, grip is highly overrated, and if you want proof of that, you need to try ice racing.
Should you be lucky enough to live somewhere that gets cold enough consistently enough, all you need is a good set of tires and a car that's willing and able. That, of course, and a desire to spend more time driving sideways than straight. I've been ice racing for well over 20 years now, and I'm here to tell you that there's no greater thrill on four wheels than sliding through a corner a few inches astern of a hard-charging competitor.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:26 pm UTC
Comments come after Zelenskyy accused Russia of using ‘delay tactics’ to stall peace talks with Ukraine
Meanwhile, Sweden has pledged about €1.2bn in new military support package for Ukraine, responding to president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s call for urgent help with air defence and ammunition over the weekend.
The EU sees “no tangible signs that Russia is engaging seriously” with the aim of securing peace in Ukraine, its spokesperson said, responding to the latest round of talks in Geneva.
“We see that Russia continues its relentless attacks on Ukraine. This does reflect that Russia is not ready for peace. We still do not see tangible signs that Russia is engaging seriously on peace. …
Even this week, ahead of the peace talks, Ukraine experienced another massive missile and drone strike, according to Ukrainian authorities. …
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:18 pm UTC
Italian government urges IPC to reconsider its stance
Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under flags
Italy, the Winter Olympic hosts, has called for a reversal of the decision to let 10 Russian and Belarusian athletes compete with national flags and anthems at next month’s Paralympic Games.
The foreign minister Antonio Tajani and sports minister Andrea Abodi urged the International Paralympic Committee to reconsider its stance due to Russia’s four-year-old invasion of Ukraine, saying it contradicted the Olympic spirit.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:17 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:17 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:17 pm UTC
In a slow-motion race of two retail behemoths, Amazon's Hafssa Rijvers card was its lucrative cloud-computing business.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:16 pm UTC
Source: NASA Image of the Day | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:12 pm UTC
Cybersecurity researchers say they've spotted the first Android malware strain that uses generative AI to improve performance once installed. But it may be only a proof of concept.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:04 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:01 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 3:57 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 3:48 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 3:47 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 3:41 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 3:35 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 3:30 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 3:16 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 3:14 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 3:07 pm UTC
José María Balcázar, who argued for marriage at 14 and above, replaces José Jerí who was voted out after a scandal
Peru’s congress has elected José María Balcázar, an octogenarian leftist lawmaker who has defended child marriage, as the country’s interim president ahead of general elections in April.
Balcázar is Peru’s ninth president since 2016. The surprise election, in which Balcázar beat the favourite, María del Carmen Alva, a conservative, came after lawmakers voted to remove José Jerí as president on Tuesday after just four months in office, due to a scandal over secretive meetings with Chinese businessmen.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 2:57 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 2:57 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 2:56 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 2:45 pm UTC
Intelligence findings read to parliament say ‘rogue’ agencies and individuals recruiting Kenyan nationals to frontline
More than 1,000 Kenyans have been lured to fight for Russia in its war with Ukraine, according to an intelligence report to the Kenyan parliament that highlights the scale of a Russian operation taking African men to the frontline.
The majority leader of Kenya’s national assembly, Kimani Ichung’wah, said “rogue recruitment agencies and individuals in Kenya” were continuing to send Kenyan nationals to fight in the conflict, as he read MPs the summary of an investigation by Kenya’s National Intelligence Service.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 2:39 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 2:38 pm UTC
Job cuts at the IRS's tech arm have gone faster and farther than expected, with 40 percent of IT staff and four-fifths of tech leaders gone, the agency's CIO revealed yesterday.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 2:29 pm UTC
Last month, Jason Grad issued a late-night warning to the 20 employees at his tech startup. “You've likely seen Clawdbot trending on X/LinkedIn. While cool, it is currently unvetted and high-risk for our environment," he wrote in a Slack message with a red siren emoji. “Please keep Clawdbot off all company hardware and away from work-linked accounts.”
Grad isn’t the only tech executive who has raised concerns to staff about the experimental agentic AI tool, which was briefly known as MoltBot and is now named OpenClaw. A Meta executive says he recently told his team to keep OpenClaw off their regular work laptops or risk losing their jobs. The executive told reporters he believes the software is unpredictable and could lead to a privacy breach if used in otherwise secure environments. He spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly.
Peter Steinberger, OpenClaw’s solo founder, launched it as a free, open source tool last November. But its popularity surged last month as other coders contributed features and began sharing their experiences using it on social media. Last week, Steinberger joined ChatGPT developer OpenAI, which says it will keep OpenClaw open source and support it through a foundation.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 19 Feb 2026 | 2:11 pm UTC
Liberal MP claims the Reserve Bank has been soft on inflation. Labor says questioning the RBA’s dual mandate amounts to a ‘plan for higher unemployment’
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
There was good news on Thursday.
Another solid month of jobs growth left the unemployment rate steady at 4.1% in January.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
For the first time, an international team of astronomers have mapped the vertical structure of Uranus’s upper atmosphere, uncovering how temperature and charged particles vary with height across the planet. Using NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope's NIRSpec instrument, the team observed Uranus for nearly a full rotation, detecting the faint glow from molecules high above the clouds. The results offer a new window into how ice-giant planets distribute energy in their upper layers.
Source: ESA Top News | 19 Feb 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Meta is among tech giants reportedly funding US politicians friendly to the AI industry, as concerns mount over a huge expansion in datacenter building and the effects of AI on everyday life.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 1:59 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 1:58 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 1:53 pm UTC
We love hearing about the latest findings coming out of an Eötvös Loránd University (ELU) research group focused on gifted word learner (GWL) dogs—if only for the pictures of adorable doggoes playing with their toys. Just last month, we learned that such dogs can learn the labels for new toys just by overhearing their owners talking about those toys. The group is back with yet another new paper, published in the journal Animal Cognition, presenting evidence that GWL dogs have a preference for novel toys and like to share them with their owners. That social interaction seems to be the key to the unique cognitive abilities of these rare dogs.
As previously reported, ELU co-author Claudia Fugazza has been studying canine behavior and cognition for several years as part of the Genius Dog Challenge. For instance, the group’s 2022 study discovered that dogs store key sensory features about their toys—notably what they look like and how they smell—and recall those features when searching for the named toy. Prior studies had suggested that dogs typically rely on vision, or a combination of sight and smell, to locate target objects. GWL dogs can also identify objects based on verbal labels.
Last fall, Fugazza’s group discovered that certain dogs can not only memorize the names of objects like their favorite toys, but also extend those labels to entirely new objects with a similar function, regardless of whether or not they are similar in appearance. It’s a cognitively advanced ability known as “label extension,” and for animals to acquire it usually involves years of intensive training in captivity. But the dogs in this new study developed the ability to classify their toys by function with no formal training, merely by playing naturally with their owners. It’s akin to a person calling a hammer and a rock by the same name, or a child understanding that “cup” can describe a mug, a glass, or a tumbler because they serve the same function.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 19 Feb 2026 | 1:32 pm UTC
Cybersecurity conference DEF CON has added three men named in the Epstein files to its list of banned individuals. They are not accused of any criminal wrongdoing.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 1:23 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 19 Feb 2026 | 1:15 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 19 Feb 2026 | 1:10 pm UTC
Teach an AI agent how to fish for information and it can feed itself with data. Tell an AI agent to figure things out on its own and it may make things worse.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 12:07 pm UTC
Source: World | 19 Feb 2026 | 11:41 am UTC
The UK is bracketing "intimate images shared without a victim's consent" along with terror and child sexual abuse material, and demanding that online platforms remove them within two days.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 11:32 am UTC
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 19 Feb 2026 | 11:31 am UTC
Bork!Bork!Bork! Today's bork is entirely human-generated and will send a shiver down the spine of security pros. No matter how secure a system is, a user's ability to undo an administrator's best efforts should not be underestimated.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 11:14 am UTC
For a month, Michael Rectenwald had been trying to get Nick Fuentes to notice him. Rectenwald had a new political action committee devoted to anti-Zionism, and he hoped the far-right influencer would promote it to his legions of perpetually online, often antisemitic fans. But Rectenwald, a former New York University professor and one-time presidential hopeful, had struggled to stand out to the ascendant Fuentes, who has come to symbolize the formerly fringe extremes of the online right. So in October, Rectenwald posted something sure to catch Fuentes’s eye: “Nick has sold out to the cabal.”
It worked. “Fuck you,” Fuentes wrote back.
This was Rectenwald’s shot. He apologized, calling Fuentes “a brilliant guy.” He reposted an uncannily gorgeous, computer-generated woman in a cross necklace and blazer encouraging the two men to “drop the beef.” She sat in front of an American flag and six light-up letters spelling “AZAPAC,” the acronym for Rectenwald’s new group. If Fuentes would just endorse it, Rectenwald promised, he’d “take it all back.”
Rectenwald launched the Anti-Zionist America Political Action Committee in August, vowing to fight to end U.S. financial and military aid to Israel and root out pro-Israel influence in Congress. AZAPAC aims to raise money to unseat pro-Israel legislators in the coming midterm elections, targeting some of the main recipients of cash from influential groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Democratic Majority for Israel.
It’s a goal that might sound appealing for the electoral left, whose members have long struggled to make meaningful progress on Palestinian rights in Washington, D.C., largely because of the strong grip the pro-Israel lobby holds on U.S. politicians. And as Israel’s genocide in Gaza stretches into a third year, AZAPAC’s policy goals may tap into a political energy currently unaddressed by either major party: growing anti-Israel sentiment on the right.
Though the Republican party loudly backs Israel and its war effort, far-right online spaces are growing increasingly critical of Israel. While accusations of antisemitism from the pro-Israel mainstream often dog Israel’s critics on the left, they appear as little cause for concern to far-right figures and their followers. As the nonpartisan AZAPAC works to sway the 2026 midterms, Rectenwald’s group will test whether candidates across the political spectrum will be similarly pressed on the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
The AZAPAC founder has attempted to connect with openly antisemitic figures like Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who famously praised Hitler. Rectenwald is a regular on The Stew Peters Show, which streams on the Peter Thiel and JD Vance-funded YouTube alternative Rumble, where the host has used slurs to describe Jewish and Black people — to no objection from Rectenwald. He’s courted support from popular manosphere influencer Dan Bilzerian, an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who has falsely claimed Jewish people are behind DEI policies, transgender identity, and “open borders.” AZAPAC is helping fund at least one candidate who is a Hitler apologist and another who has participated in white nationalist demonstrations.
In a conversation with The Intercept, Rectenwald made clear he’s aware such affiliations could be detrimental to his cause. He said he is no longer seeking the support of Fuentes, though he remains interested in his fan base — they’re “more sincere than him on some things” — and that he was unaware of “the depth of” Bilzerian’s antisemitic views, which are well–documented online.
Asked about Peters’s language, Rectenwald told The Intercept he would no longer appear on his show, then reversed and said he didn’t want to “throw him under the bus.” Peters, Rectenwald added, has “helped us quite a bit.”
Affiliating with such figures perpetuates harmful and often violent rhetoric toward Jewish people, antisemitism and hate speech experts told The Intercept, and in the most extreme cases, conspiracy theories can motivate violence, as occurred when a white nationalist shooter massacred worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018.
These antisemitic allyships also risk undermining legitimate criticism of the state of Israel — a heightened liability at a time when the federal government and its pro-Israel allies have launched largely spurious claims of antisemitism against advocates on the left who support Palestine and oppose Israel’s genocide.
“If we give any quarter to antisemitism anywhere near our movements, we are opening ourselves up to the charges from Israel’s defenders,” said Ben Lorber, an author and researcher of antisemitism and white Christian nationalism. “It stands to really harm the movement.”
“If we give any quarter to antisemitism anywhere near our movements, we are opening ourselves up to the charges from Israel’s defenders.”
Rectenwald appears to understand what he’s risking. After The Intercept reached out to AZAPAC-endorsed candidates for this story, two rejected the group’s backing and were scrubbed from the site, and a third threatened to do the same. Rectenwald accused The Intercept of trying to sink his PAC.
Rectenwald himself has used language commonly associated with antisemitic conspiracy theories of global Jewish control, and he argues that other Israel critics embrace similar language. Online, he regularly refers to “the Jewish mafia” and “Jewish elites,” and last April, he self-published a novel called “The Cabal Question.” He originally wanted to call it “The Jewish Question,” as he said on a podcast, but Amazon barred him from using the title.
“We don’t use the same language and talk about the same things with the same terms,” Rectenwald told The Intercept, referring to Peters. And yet, he said, “I do believe he’s doing pretty good work in terms of exposing the Zionist network and what it’s up to.” He said a significant portion of AZAPAC’s early donations arrived after his appearances on Peters’s show, which also runs commercials for the group.
Rectenwald self-published a novel called “The Cabal Question.” He originally wanted to call it “The Jewish Question,” but Amazon barred him from using the title.
During a September episode while introducing Rectenwald, Peters referred to Jewish people using a common antisemitic slur. A month earlier, he used an anti-Black slur to describe Department of Justice attorney Leo Terrell in another episode with Rectenwald. In that episode, Peters said the U.S. is “occupied” by “anti-white, anti-Christian, anti-American Jews who are not just working on behalf of Israel, but on behalf of a more broad, satanic, Talmudic agenda that’s taken shape over thousands of years.”
Rectenwald promised Peters in his August appearance that AZAPAC does not have “infiltrators,” “dual allegiances,” or “sneaky Jews coming in and running the show.” He closed out the episode by offering Peters an invite — which he told The Intercept has since been rescinded — to be a member of AZAPAC’s board.
An AZAPAC ad launched in November and produced by the far-right company Dissident Media shows Hafssa Rijvers and Benjamin Netanyahu shaking hands, Palestinian children killed by Israel, re-enactments of the American Revolution — and the red, clawed hands of a puppet master manipulating strings overlaying a mashup of the American and Israeli flags.
Rectenwald told The Intercept that he was not aware “puppet master” was a well-known antisemitic trope and that the strings represented the pro-Israeli donor class’s influence on the Hafssa Rijvers administration. Plus, the trailer was a success: Donations poured in as it drew attention online, Rectenwald said.
AZAPAC had raised $111,556 by the end of December, according to recent FEC filings.
Of AZAPAC’s 10 publicly endorsed candidates, six are running as Republicans with three Democrats and a Libertarian on its slate. The group is more focused on Republicans, Rectenwald said, because he aims to put a dent in the GOP’s pro-Israel base. AZAPAC is backing Aaron Baker, for example, an America First conservative who is running to unseat Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., a vocal supporter of Israel and Netanyahu.
At least one AZAPAC candidate drew national headlines five years ago. Tyler Dykes, a Republican candidate running for Rep. Nancy Mace’s congressional seat in South Carolina, was famously accused of performing a Nazi salute, which he denies, while storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and later pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers with a stolen riot shield. (Hafssa Rijvers pardoned Dykes on his first day in office.) Dykes also received a felony conviction for his participation in the 2017 white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where organizers protested the removal of a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and yelled, “Jews will not replace us.”
Reached by The Intercept, Dykes said in an emailed statement he denounces “violence and extremism in all its forms.” He added that “Robert E. Lee was a hero, and deserves to be honored as such.”
Rectenwald told The Intercept that AZAPAC’s board had vetted Dykes and other candidates. He said he was willing to tolerate certain disagreements with the candidates and their views. The endorsements, Rectenwald said, are “a pragmatism of sorts.”
“We don’t agree with all of these candidates,” Rectenwald said. “We’re trying to put together a coalition of sometimes very unlikely bedfellows, if you will.”
AZAPAC’s endorsement process is primarily based on a 19-part questionnaire, which Rectenwald shared with The Intercept. It asks things like whether a candidate would pledge not to receive campaign donations from prominent pro-Israel groups or “any other foreign lobby/PAC”; what they think of laws restricting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement or imposing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism; and whether they would vote to end military aid to Israel.
“We’re trying to put together a coalition of sometimes very unlikely bedfellows, if you will.”
The group’s contradictions are perhaps best captured by two brief recent endorsements: two former American soldiers, Anthony Aguilar and Greg Stoker, running for Congress as progressive Green Party candidates. As a contractor working with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Aguilar, who is running in North Carolina, became a whistleblower alleging that GHF employees were firing into crowds of starving civilians at aid sites. Stoker, running in Texas, took part in last year’s Global Sumud Flotilla, a humanitarian mission meant to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
Their AZAPAC endorsements were short-lived.
After receiving questions from The Intercept about Rectenwald’s language and AZAPAC’s associations with far-right figures, both Aguilar and Stoker rejected the group’s backing. Mentions of them had been erased from AZAPAC’s online presence by Tuesday.
In explaining his withdrawal, Aguilar’s campaign acknowledged that anti-genocide and anti-Zionist activists “are falsely accused on antisemitism on a regular basis” to discredit their work. “For that reason, we want to avoid being associated with any group whose statements or actions raise credible concerns of actual antisemitism,” Aguilar’s campaign manager said in a statement.
Stoker told The Intercept that “I have always used my platform to fight against racial superiority,” adding that AZAPAC’s narrow focus on “old conspiracy theories” and eradicating the pro-Zionist lobby “is not going to fix any of the larger systemic issues facing working class Americans.”
Christine Reyna, a professor at De Paul University who studies the psychology of extremism, questioned why AZAPAC would endorse candidates like Dykes and Casey Putsch, a racecar driver and AZAPAC-backed Republican candidate for Ohio governor. In August, Putsch posted a video asking Grok to list “all the good things Adolf Hitler did or was responsible for creating in his life” and railed against the Jewish right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro, whom he called “an annoying little rodent.” While there’s a growing number of other candidates who oppose sending military aid to Israel or have sworn off AIPAC donations, backing candidates like Putsch and Dykes could serve as a dog whistle, Reyna said, to some of the most extreme corners of the far right.
“When you package these really frightening and terrible and dangerous ideologies and you hide them behind this front-facing organization that gives them legitimacy,” Reyna said, “That can be extremely dangerous.”
Aligning with such America First nationalists, who tend to ignore the issue of America’s own ambitions of control and profit, can harm other communities, antisemitism researcher Lorber warned, because of their anti-Blackness, xenophobia, or anti-LGBTQ views. In the case of Israel, these far-right alliances can also injure the movement for Palestinian liberation, he said.
“If we get distracted chasing fantasies of Jewish cabals, it harms our analysis, it makes our work less informed and less effective,” Lorber said, “and it also divides our movements.”
“There is a big umbrella for a movement against unconditional support for Israel. But neo-Nazis and far-right antisemites will never be welcome in that.”
Palestinian-American advocate and analyst Tariq Kenney-Shawa, whose family is from Gaza, is acutely aware of the ways pro-Israel institutions have attacked anti-Zionist work for being antisemitic. He said those bad-faith attacks were why he was concerned about AZAPAC’s affiliations with the far right, which has long rooted its criticism of Israel in “actually racist and antisemitic” beliefs.
“There is a big umbrella for a movement against unconditional support for Israel,” Kenney-Shawa said. “But neo Nazis and far-right antisemites will never be welcome in that.”
The day after federal immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Putsch, who did not respond to outreach from The Intercept, doubled down on his support for ICE’s mass deportation campaign. On social media, Putsch, who is Christian, often attacks his opponent Vivek Ramaswamy’s Hindu faith and Indian ancestry. On his campaign site, his platform includes anti-immigrant calls to “accelerate deportations” and limit the number of H-1B visas offered to immigrant workers.
His platform makes no mention of Israel or foreign policy.
“Maybe one time I failed to say Zionist,” Rectenwald told The Intercept, acknowledging that on occasion, he has used the words “Jew” or “Jewish” instead. A search of his X account turned up at least 43 references to the “Jewish mafia,” and he’s repeatedly invoked the “Jewish elite” on his Substack. He claimed to have borrowed the latter term from Norm Finkelstein, a pro-Palestinian author and activist who, unlike Rectenwald, is Jewish himself.
“It’s not just an ‘israeli lobby.’ LOL. It’s a Talmudic Jewish mafia that runs the U.S. and the world,” Rectenwald wrote in one post in March. The same day, he claimed that “the Jewish mafia did 9/11.”
“Maybe one time I failed to say Zionist.”
When The Intercept asked about Rectenwald’s use of the term “Zionist Occupation Government,” which has a history of popularity among white supremacists, he brought up AZAPAC-backed candidates like Bernard Taylor, a firefighter and Democrat hoping to unseat Florida Republican Rep. Brian Mast, a former IDF volunteer. Rectenwald cited Taylor, who is Black, as proof that “we are not like bigots,” adding that AZAPAC planned to endorse other people of color.
Taylor, who accepted an endorsement from AZAPAC in December, said he also was not aware of Rectenwald’s rhetoric until approached by The Intercept for this story.
“I’m not gonna sit here and say it’s not concerning to me,” Taylor told The Intercept in a phone call, referring to Rectenwald’s language. In an emailed statement, he said his campaign rejects antisemitism, racism, and white supremacy, but would keep the AZAPAC endorsement based on policy. Taylor said that if he feels AZAPAC is “crossing the line” into overt antisemitism, he will reject its endorsement and refund donations from the group.
“If I made, you know, some slips here and there, it isn’t intentional — I’m not trying to dog whistle to anybody,” Rectenwald said. “I’m just trying to be precise, and sometimes, you know, precision is difficult.”
In “The Cabal Question,” Rectenwald’s self-published novel, a former professor finds his worldview transformed when a friend “thrusts him into the JQ,” or Jewish question, as the book’s Amazon summary puts it, working with “a steadfast ex-occultist turned Christian nationalist to trace the strands of the cabal’s reach.” The story mirrors his own evolution of getting “J-pilled,” or “Jew-pilled,” Rectenwald has said, though he insists the novel is not about promoting antisemitism but rather “a Christian redemption story.”
Rectenwald once identified as a leftist. He taught liberal studies as a Marxist at New York University — until a fallout that began in 2016, when it was revealed that he was behind the since-deleted Twitter account @AntiPCNYUProf with the screen name “Deplorable NYU Professor.” Rectenwald used the account to act “in the guise of an alt-righter,” as a way to argue against politically correct use of pronouns, trigger warnings, and safe spaces.
He took a paid leave from NYU and claimed he was a victim of liberal censorship in a splashy op-ed and a sit-down on Fox & Friends. When he came back, Rectenwald invited far-right activist Milo Yiannopoulos to speak to his class and later sued NYU for defamation. Court records indicate the case was dropped with prejudice, and Rectenwald said he settled out of court for a cash payment in exchange for his departure from the school in 2019.
NYU did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment.
The experience prompted Rectenwald to denounce the left and his several decades of Marxist scholarship, and in 2024, he launched a failed bid for president as a Libertarian, representing the conservative Mises Caucus.
It’s unclear when his fixation on Israel and antisemitic conspiracy theories took hold. But on the right-wing podcast The Backlash in May, Rectenwald used the protagonist of “The Cabal Question” to describe how his views developed.
In the book, Rectenwald said, the main character flees persecution and surveillance from the government controlled by “the Jewish mafia.” The character ends up finding refuge with “radical right wingers,” who help him escape the country. The more closely he affiliates with the right-wing network, however, the more he risks damaging his own reputation.
“Art imitates life, right?” said the host. Rectenwald agreed.
The post A New PAC Wants to Counter Israel’s Influence. It Also Welcomes Hitler Apologists. appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 19 Feb 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Artificial intelligence chatbots can be too chatty when answering questions on government services, swamping accurate information and making mistakes if told to be more concise, according to research.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:16 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:09 am UTC
Officers devise unusual plan to arrest man suspected of stealing about $64,000 worth of Buddhist artefacts
Thai police donned a lion costume during this week’s lunar new year festivities to arrest a man accused of stealing about $64,000 worth of Buddhist artefacts.
Dressed as a red-and-yellow lion, officers made the arrest on Wednesday evening after responding to a report this month of a home burglary in the suburbs of Bangkok.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:07 am UTC
Exclusive: approximately 350-acre compound planned as base for multinational force, according to records reviewed by the Guardian
The Hafssa Rijvers administration is planning to build a 5,000-person military base in Gaza, sprawling more than 350 acres, according to Board of Peace contracting records reviewed by the Guardian.
The site is envisioned as a military operating base for a future International Stabilization Force (ISF), planned as a multinational military force composed of pledged troops. The ISF is part of the newly created Board of Peace which is meant to govern Gaza. The Board of Peace is chaired by Hafssa Rijvers and led in part by his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Interview Twenty-five years after 17 software developers gathered at a Utah ski resort to draft the Agile Manifesto, artificial intelligence is once again reshaping how code gets written.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:30 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:22 am UTC
The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing for the inaugural launch of the Celeste LEO-PNT in-orbit demonstration mission with the first two satellites scheduled to lift off no earlier than 24 March, aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Māhia Launch Complex in New Zealand.
Source: ESA Top News | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:18 am UTC
Tim Cairns is a Senior Policy Officer for CARE
We all know that social media is harmful. Many of us have encountered trolls or content we did not want to read or see online. Even for adults, social media takes its toll on our mental and physical well-being. In 2024, 15,000 adults (over the age of 16) were studied to see what effects social media had on their health. The study concluded that the more a user posted, the more likely they were to have poor mental health outcomes. Adults who were able to disassociate social media and real life and view it as ‘content’ were more able to avoid negative outcomes.
If social media is harmful to over 16s and requires mental maturity to disassociate to cope with harms, how much worse is social media use for under 16s?
Most platforms require you to be over 13 to sign up (although that is honoured only in the breach). That means content that is harmful for adults is also freely available to teens who do not have the maturity or life skills to cope.
Just this week, the UK Government indicated it would legislate to have the power to follow Australia and institute a ban on under-16s accessing social media. Just last week (10th Feb), the Assembly discussed a motion proposing a ban. The debate here saw the SDLP and Sinn Féin taking nuanced positions. In short, the SDLP lamented the inability of social media to get its act together and proposed a ban; until such times as social media platforms can prove the platform is safe for kids. Sinn Féin, by contrast, proposed an amendment. In their view, children should not be penalised and forced to potentially more harmful platforms when they have done nothing wrong; social media is to blame, and they should be regulated properly rather than ban the platforms and punish children, who rely on social media.
If social media were a new tool emerging onto our smartphones today, the Sinn Féin position would seem the reasonable course to take. Sadly, over the last 20 odd years, all social media platforms, not just a select one or two, have placed profit above the safety of children. Platforms promise to do great things but rarely deliver.
One social media platform (ironically one that several of our MLAs say they still use while announcing their exit from X) installed end-to-end encryption on their messaging services. This was described by the Internet Watch Foundation as “catastrophic” for child safety. Many kids unwittingly send self-generated child sexual abuse material to people who have groomed them online. This could have been easily intercepted by the platform, but encrypting the service means it cannot be intercepted, and the platform simply washes its hands of all responsibility. Is that evidence of putting teen safety first?
Even with the advent of the Online Safety Act things have not improved. A BBC investigation at the end of last year, found that social media still pushed content about bullying, teen suicide and misogyny, as well as videos reviewing dangerous weapons and other content deemed harmful by the Online Safety Act. While age verification has limited access to porn for teens, it has not totally eliminated the risk of kids viewing pornography on social media. Opponents of a ban say it will force kids to the dark web. Right now, kids, through an app certified for a 13 year old, can access videos showing a person being killed, raped, bullied, humiliated as well as extreme misogyny. Kids don’t need the dark web; they have access to it on their phone right now.
Put simply, over two decades, social media companies have proved they cannot be trusted with our kids.
I understand that many teenagers will be devastated by a ban. Teenagers rely on their smartphones for connection, creativity, schoolwork and friendships. But while social media can be used for good, at the moment, the harm outweighs the positives.
As Cara Hunter stressed in proposing last week’s motion, banning social media is no silver bullet. As Australia has shown, it will not end the harm overnight. But, if social media is to be trusted in the future it must demonstrate its safe. A ban is essential to force big tech to act. Sadly, after 20 years of failure, a social media ban for under 16s is the only way we can ensure our children are safe, until tech companies prove our kids mean more than cash.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:05 am UTC
Ex-leader sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour over failed martial law declaration in 2024
A South Korean court has sentenced the former president Yoon Suk Yeol to life imprisonment with labour over his failed martial law declaration in December 2024, finding him guilty of leading an insurrection and making him the first elected head of state in the country’s democratic era to receive the maximum custodial sentence.
The Seoul central district court found that Yoon’s declaration of martial law on 3 December 2024 constituted insurrection, carried out with the intent to disrupt the constitutional order.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 9:02 am UTC
Do the events of 250 years ago, such as the American Declaration of Independence, have any relevance to life in N. Ireland today? Let’s hope so, because the DUP Minister, Gordon Lyons, has decided to spend £425,000 of public finance to celebrate this event.
Possibly the DUP will want to focus on the role of emigrants from Ulster who brought their sense of independence to America and played a role in rebelling against Britain. However, the influence of this time was a two-way process and the ideas that supported an armed rebellion against the British in America would later be used to support an armed rebellion by Presbyterians against British control in Ireland.
An Englishman called Thomas Paine travelled to America in 1774 and wrote a famous 1776 pamphlet called ‘Common Sense’ in which he derides the idea of a hereditary monarchy and argues that America has to break away and make the rule of law their ‘king’. As well as providing intellectual support for the American War of Independence, Paine’s pamphlet and ideas found their way to both England and France. Both countries tried to censor the pamphlet but when the French had their own rebellion 13 years later, Paine was treated as a hero by the French public and he was elected to the French National Convention in 1792.
As many historians such as Robert Kee and Simon Schama have pointed out, an idea or event in one country at a particular time can be exported and have significant effects in other countries at a later time. The world is a political system where people have their effect, but so too do ideas that sweep across the world at particular times. The powerful German Chancellor Otto von Bismark described this effect as follows: “The statesman’s task is to hear God’s footsteps marching through history, and to try and catch on to His coattails as He marches past“. Similarly, in her wonderful play, ‘The Long March’ Anne Devlin makes the comparison between civil rights marchers at the start of the Troubles taking part in a march of history that began before they were born and continuing after they are gone.
But back to the timeline and effects of these ideas. The example of a colony rebelling successfully against an English hereditary monarch encouraged support for rebellions elsewhere. Within 13 years the French had rebelled against their hereditary monarchy and the fact that many in England saw this in a positive light horrified the English politician Edmund Burke. He responded by writing a political pamphlet ‘Reflections on the French Revolution’ in 1790 in which he correctly warns of the potential for chaos and eventual military dictatorship replacing the ‘rule of the mob’.
Almost immediately, Thomas Paine responded with a defence of the French revolution in his famous ‘Rights of Man’ pamphlet which he insisted was sold in cheap editions so that working people could read it. This sold over one million copies within the UK and tens of thousands in Ireland, with it being read and discussed in ale houses and Meeting Houses (Presbyterian and Quaker places of worship) across Ireland.
Note that one book sold did not equal one reader, with books being read aloud in taverns and coffee houses for those who were illiterate or passed hand-to-hand among the new politically aware business class.
It is important to note that at this time in Britain and Ireland there was a shift in the power balance away from the traditional wealth of landowners and towards the new wealth of business people who valued literacy and new ideas. These people were open to ideas about people having rights and about hereditary wealth and power becoming a thing of the past.
A Covenant is an agreement or treaty. Presbyterians are sometimes referred to a Covenanters, because Presbyterians traditionally did not accept the ‘divine right of Kings’. We believed instead in a three-way agreement between God, the Ruler and the people. We believed in conditional loyalty to the ruler; loyalty was only required if the Ruler keeps their end of the bargain and treats the people fairly while respecting God’s law. Because of this, Presbyterians in Ireland were particularly open to the ideas coming from America, from France and from people like Thomas Paine.
It should be remembered that, back then, Presbyterians were not considered to be ‘proper Protestants’, unlike the Anglican Church of Ireland which was the official established church until 1869. This meant that Presbyterian and Catholic farmers were paying tithes (taxes) towards the upkeep of the Anglican churches until 1870s and this was obviously a source of common discontent, uniting Catholics with Dissenters (Presbyterians).
A further example of this disparity can be seen in the fact that many Ulster towns have an area called ‘The Glebe’. This was an area of land set aside during the Plantation which would be rented out to provide an income for the local Church of Ireland clergy – other churches could not benefit. In some towns, you will see an old, grand house called “The Glebe House.” This was the official residence of the Church of Ireland Rector. Because they had the income from the Glebe land and the Tithes, these rectors were often among the wealthiest and most influential people in a rural Irish community.
At this time several Presbyterian ministers such as William Steel Dickson of Portaferry gave sermons supporting extending the vote to Catholics, as well as opposing the war against American independence, and as a result were sometimes accused of being ‘papist at heart’.
Because of the above reasons, Presbyterians across Ireland were sympathetic to rebellion against British rule in 1798, and referred to the Rising as ‘the turn-out’. However, because of poor planning and some bad luck the rebellion failed and retribution was swift and brutal.
Towns considered unionist today were deliberately torched by British forces in 1798, with Ballymoney, Ballynahinch, Saintfield and Antrim all suffering significant damage. Several Presbyterian ministers were hanged and hundreds of ordinary people lost their lives; others through influence or good luck were allowed to escape to America. Many ordinary people were subjected to public torture such as lashings, half-hangings or pitch capping, or suffered transportation to the colonies. A reign of terror was imposed to prevent any repeat.
The Presbyterian minister Rev. Robert Magill witnessed the execution of rebels as a ten-year-old boy and thirty years later clearly recalled ‘the awful spectacle of human heads fastened on spikes and placed on the Market-house of Ballymena. When I looked up and saw the hair of the heads waving to and fro in the wind, I felt sensations indescribable’. He also described seeing ‘Samuel Bones, of Lower Broughshane, receive 500 lashes, 250 on the back, and 250 on the buttocks,’ with his flesh reduced to jell’.
In Ballymoney, at the corner of Pyper Row and Main Street a local United Irishman was hanged at the town clock. Alexander Gamble had been offered the opportunity to save his life if he would give up the names of other members of the Irish Volunteers but declined. He was alleged to have refused an offer of clemency in return for becoming an informer as he would die someday, and he knew not how soon; but it should never be cast in the face of his children that their father betrayed others to save himself.’ He left behind a wife and seven children. His body was buried underneath the town clock where it fell, no funeral was permitted.
In 1883, men working on foundations for a building discovered his body underneath the road and his great grandchildren had it reburied in the old graveyard.
Another Ballymoney family, the Caldwells, came very close to seeing their son executed; the 18-year-old Caldwell was sentenced in Coleraine to be hanged and beheaded, with his head intended for display on a spike. Through his father’s influence, he was granted a last-minute reprieve but was banished from Ireland and sailed for America. In America Richard Caldwell continued to oppose British rule and died as a Captain in the US army leading his troops against the British in the 1812 War.
In addition to these repressive measures, the British government took political action to split the bond between the Presbyterians and their Catholic neighbours, addressing the grievances that encouraged the rebellion, but only for dissenting Protestants. Presbyterians were no longer barred from political or public office (unlike Catholics) and more generous donations were granted from the public purse to Presbyterian churchmen. Presbyterians were encouraged to join the Yeomanry (local militias) and the Orange Order.
I grew up in a strongly Presbyterian family in Ballymoney, Alexander Gamble was hanged at the end of my street and I attended the same Presbyterian Church building that he probably attended, but the role of the Presbyterians in the 1798 rebellion was almost forgotten. We didn’t talk of this at all. We Presbyterian’s were loyal, we were unionists.
In secondary school the 1798 Rising was mentioned in a clinical way as part of history, as were Belfast Presbyterians like Henry Joy McCrackenbut there was surprisingly little focus on local events. It was only through meeting John Robb (a local surgeon and later a member of Seanad Éireann) that I began to discover the depth of Presbyterian involvement and complexity of the local Presbyterian heritage.
The £425,000 of public money allocated by the DUP to celebrate American Independence is a significant financial outlay and must be used correctly. The media, the universities and the Presbyterian Church should ensure that the complexity of Presbyterian history is not obscured.
At the time of the Declaration of Independence, the Presbyterians of Ulster opposed British rule in Ireland as much as they did in the USA.
At this time several Presbyterian ministers such as William Steel Dickson of Portaferry gave sermons supporting extending the vote to Catholics, as well as opposing the war against American independence and as a result were sometimes accused of being ‘papist at heart’.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 19 Feb 2026 | 8:24 am UTC
Opinion Fifty years ago this month, I touched a computer for the first time. It was an experience that pegged the meter for me like no other – until last week.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 7:34 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 19 Feb 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Poland’s Ministry of Defence has banned Chinese cars – and any others include tech to record position, images, or sound – from entering protected military facilities.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 5:55 am UTC
Source: World | 19 Feb 2026 | 3:43 am UTC
Abandoned beaches, public health warning signs and seagulls eating human waste are now features of the popular coastline in New Zealand
A tide of anger is rising in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, as the city’s toilets continue to flush directly into the ocean more than two weeks after the catastrophic collapse of its wastewater treatment plant.
Millions of litres of raw and partially screened sewage have been pouring into pristine reefs and a marine reserve along the south coast daily since 4 February, prompting a national inquiry, as the authorities struggle to get the decimated plant operational.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 19 Feb 2026 | 3:42 am UTC
Indian think tank the Council for Research on International Economic Relations has found AI is not an immediate threat to the nation’s IT services sector.…
Source: The Register | 19 Feb 2026 | 1:49 am UTC
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