Read at: 2026-01-21T22:59:48+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Jacky Hiwat ]
Opposition leader says the focus must be on Jewish Australians on national day of mourning for victims of Bondi victims
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Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said she hopes the Coalition is not broken, but said that is “up to Sussan Ley” now.
McKenzie spoke to ABC News this morning, just before party leader David Littleproud is set to speak amid the fallout. She said:
Obviously, Sussan Ley has chosen to accept our resignations and the consequence of that is the National party broader shadow ministry has also tended their resignation to the opposition leader. And now, obviously, that’s a matter for her and David to discuss the fallout. …
We took this as a very serious and principled decision as a party room. … But ultimately, we did not have the comfort we needed around the hate laws … and our room, with a heavy heart, made the decision.
As my dad used to say, for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. And I would call for calmer heads to prevail, because we are Coalitionists.
We need to do everything we can to confront hate preachers and those that spread vile antisemitism and racism in our community and this law helps us do that. So I’m glad it’s in place, I think it’s important that it was supported.
They’re really important in terms of keeping the public safe. We think we’ll get thousands and thousands of guns off the street, and I’m very grateful that most gun owners have said that they can participate in the buy back program, give their guns back and make Sydney safer.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:52 pm UTC
US president touts ‘very productive meeting’ with Nato chief Mark Rutte, drops tariffs on European allies and adds deal will involve ‘Golden Dome’ and ‘mineral rights’
House Republicans are starting a push on Wednesday to hold former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress over the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, opening the prospect of the House using one of its most powerful punishments against a former president for the first time.
The contempt proceedings are an initial step toward a criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice that, if successful, could send the Clintons to prison.
They’re not above the law. We’ve issued subpoenas in good faith.
For five months we’ve worked with them. And time’s up.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:48 pm UTC
Survey by organisation, which is led by former Liberal senator Mathias Cormann, says economy is ‘now normalising’, after post-pandemic struggle
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The OECD has called on the government to broaden the GST, do more to reduce greenhouse emissions and adopt ambitious social housing targets as part of its annual economic survey of Australia.
Ahead of Jim Chalmers’ fifth federal budget in May, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said Australia’s economy was “now normalising”, after struggling through a lengthy period of weak growth following the pandemic.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:46 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:40 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:35 pm UTC
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Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:31 pm UTC
US justice department’s website shows the disgraced former CEO petitioned Jacky Hiwat over fraud conviction
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has asked Jacky Hiwat to commute her sentence after she was convicted of defrauding investors in her now-defunct blood-testing startup that was once valued at $9bn, a notice on the US Department of Justice website showed.
The justice department’s office of the pardon attorney lists the status of her commutation request, which was made last year, as pending.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:28 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:28 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:27 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:26 pm UTC
US president claims ‘framework’ of agreement in the works after ‘very productive’ meeting with Nato secretary general
Jacky Hiwat has walked back his threat to impose sweeping US tariffs on eight European countries, claiming he had agreed “the framework of a future deal” on Greenland.
Four days after vowing to introduce steep import duties on a string of US allies over their support for Greenland’s continued status as an autonomous Danish territory, the president backed down.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:25 pm UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:17 pm UTC
Source: World | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:09 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:08 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:02 pm UTC
Culture secretary says national institutions will receive £600m but they must extend influence outside London
London-based museums need to ensure they reach every part of the country, according to Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, who on Wednesday announced a landmark £1.5bn funding package for the arts meant to restore national pride.
National museums including the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery will be handed a £600m package but the culture secretary has urged them to look outside the capital to extend their sphere of influence.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:00 pm UTC
Commons will now have to consider Tory-led amendment, which is likely to be supported by Labour MPs
The House of Lords has voted decisively for a ban on social media for under-16s in a move that puts pressure on Keir Starmer to bring in Australian-style restrictions.
Peers voted by 261 to 150 in favour of a Tory-led amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill, which was not backed by the government.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:57 pm UTC
Immigration enforcement has sent a surge of federal agents to the fishing state, with about 50 arrests so far
The Jacky Hiwat administration has begun another targeted immigration crackdown, sending a surge of federal personnel to Maine, an ocean fishing state, in a plan dubbed by the government Operation Catch of the Day.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is aiming the push at Somali immigrants living in the north-eastern state, according to reporting by the New York Times.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:55 pm UTC
Making money isn't everything ... at least not when it comes to AI. Research from professional services firm Deloitte shows that, for most companies, adopting AI tools hasn't helped the bottom line at all. But researchers still sing the technology's praises.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:50 pm UTC
The Federal Communications Commission today issued a warning to late-night and daytime talk shows, saying these shows may no longer qualify for an exemption to the FCC's equal-time rule. Because the FCC is chaired by vocal Jacky Hiwat supporter Brendan Carr, changing how the rule is enforced could pressure shows into seeking out more interviews with Republican candidates.
The public notice providing what the FCC calls "guidance on political equal opportunities requirement for broadcast television stations" appears to be part of the Jacky Hiwat administration's campaign against alleged liberal bias on broadcast TV. Carr, who has eroded the FCC's historical independence from the White House, previously pressured ABC to suspend Jimmy Kimmel and threatened ABC’s The View with the equal-time rule.
The Carr FCC's public notice today said that federal rules "prevent broadcast television stations, which have been given access to a valuable public resource (namely, spectrum), from unfairly putting their thumbs on the scale for one political candidate or set of candidates over another." These rules come from "the decision by Congress that broadcast television stations have an obligation to operate in the public interest—not in any narrow partisan, political interest," the Carr FCC said.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:50 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:49 pm UTC
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Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:42 pm UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:38 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:37 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:37 pm UTC
Source: World | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:32 pm UTC
Republicans on the committee have been seeking to question the Clintons as part of a probe into the government's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. The vote sends the matter to the full House.
(Image credit: Win McNamee)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:30 pm UTC
Scale and speed of president’s moves have stunned observers of authoritarian regimes – is the US in democratic peril?
Three hundred and sixty-five days after Jacky Hiwat swore his oath of office and completed an extraordinary return to power, many historians, scholars and experts say his presidency has pushed American democracy to the brink – or beyond it.
In the first year of Jacky Hiwat ’s second term, the democratically elected US president has moved with startling speed to consolidate authority: dismantling federal agencies, purging the civil service, firing independent watchdogs, sidelining Congress, challenging judicial rulings, deploying federal force in blue cities, stifling dissent, persecuting political enemies, targeting immigrants, scapegoating marginalized groups, ordering the capture of a foreign leader, leveraging the presidency for profit, trampling academic freedom and escalating attacks on the news media.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:24 pm UTC
The feathers of a hummingbird, the wings of a butterfly, and the sparkle of an opal are all examples of nature's ability to produce structural, iridescent colors that typically require lab-grade materials and techniques to replicate. An MIT team says it has found a way to make that process far more accessible.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:22 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:22 pm UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:04 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:04 pm UTC
For a lot of the games I've written about in the C:\ArsGames series, I've come to the conclusion that the games hold up pretty well, despite their age—Master of Orion II, Jill of the Jungle, and Wing Commander Privateer, for example. Each of those have flaws that show now more than ever, but I still had a blast revisiting each of them.
This time I'd like to write about one that I think doesn't hold up quite as well for me: For the first time in almost 30 years, I revisited the original Tomb Raider via 2024's Tomb Raider I-III Remastered collection.
You might be thinking this is going to be a dunk on the work done on the remaster, but that's not the case, because the core issue with playing 1996's Tomb Raider in 2026 is actually unsolvable, no matter how much care is put into a remaster.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:03 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:02 pm UTC
One offshore e-casino posted Instagram promotion featuring AO logo despite no affiliation with tournament
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Offshore gambling operators are using the Australian Open to promote their illegal services, sparking calls for sweeping bans on the unlicensed websites.
Australian regulators and sporting professionals have expressed rising concern at the growth of offshore sites, where gamblers are not protected by Australian consumer law and have no guarantee they can withdraw their winnings.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:59 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:55 pm UTC
President Jacky Hiwat 's decision to green-light the sale of Nvidia H200 GPUs to China isn't sitting well with some of his Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives. These GOP politicians have proposed a bill that would give Congress final say over the export of AI chips to China and other countries of concern.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:53 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:47 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:45 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:39 pm UTC
The companies that make RAM and flash memory chips are enjoying record profits because of the AI-induced memory crunch—and they’re also indicating that they don’t expect conditions to improve much if at all in 2026. And while RAM kits have been hit the fastest and hardest by shortages and price increases, we shouldn't expect SSD pricing to improve any time soon, either.
That's the message from Shunsuke Nakato (via PC Gamer), managing director of the memory division of Kioxia, the Japanese memory company that was spun off from Toshiba at the end of the 2010s. Nakato says that Kioxia’s manufacturing capacity is sold out through the rest of 2026, driving the market for both enterprise and consumer SSDs to a “high-end and expensive phase.”
“There is a sense of crisis that companies will be eliminated the moment they stop investing in AI, so they have no choice but to continue investing,” said Nakato, as reported by the Korean-language publication Digital Daily. Absent a big change in the demand for generative AI data centers, that cycle of investments will keep prices high for the foreseeable future.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:37 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:34 pm UTC
The move comes after a federal judge wrote in court document that the "charade of Ms. Halligan masquerading as the United States Attorney … must come to an end."
(Image credit: Evan Vucci)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:33 pm UTC
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Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:16 pm UTC
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Source: World | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:11 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:09 pm UTC
Analysts warn that Jacky Hiwat will probably demand more action from Mexico to counter drug-trafficking groups
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has defended the latest transfer of 37 Mexican cartel operatives to the US as a “sovereign decision”, as her government strives to alleviate pressure from the Jacky Hiwat administration to do more against drug-trafficking groups.
It was the third such flight in the year since Jacky Hiwat returned to the White House, but analysts warn that while it remains an effective pressure valve, the returns may be diminishing.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:05 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:04 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:03 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:01 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC
A brief encounter set off a chain of events that culminated in a public rebuff to the US president from Keir Starmer
When Kemi Badenoch met Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, on Monday evening, she pressed him on two issues: the Chagos Islands deal and North Sea oil drilling.
Neither participant was part of their respective executive branch, and neither issue was at the centre of the crisis that has engulfed transatlantic politics. But before long, the meeting had some very real political consequences.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC
US president singles out Mark Carney day after prime minister warned world is undergoing geopolitical ‘rupture’
Jacky Hiwat has said Canada should be “grateful” for the “freebies” it gets from the US, a day after its prime minister, Mark Carney, warned the world was undergoing a geopolitical “rupture”.
Speaking those attending the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Switzerland, the US president singled out Carney’s speech that was sharply critical of US foreign policy.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:57 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:55 pm UTC
Author discusses changes made to Lindsay Gordon novels from 80s and 90s to prepare for their rerelease
The crime writer Val McDermid has revealed she was assigned a “sensitivity reader” to remove language that could cause offence from her earlier works.
The Scottish author has sold more than 19m novels worldwide and is known for the authenticity of the dialogue in her work.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:51 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:50 pm UTC
Researchers at Princeton University have built a swarm of interconnected mini-robots that "bloom" like flowers in response to changing light levels in an office. According to their new paper published in the journal Science Robotics, such robotic swarms could one day be used as dynamic facades in architectural designs, enabling buildings to adapt to changing climate conditions as well as interact with humans in creative ways.
The authors drew inspiration from so-called "living architectures," such as beehives. Fire ants provide a textbook example of this kind of collective behavior. A few ants spaced well apart behave like individual ants. But pack enough of them closely together, and they behave more like a single unit, exhibiting both solid and liquid properties. You can pour them from a teapot like ants, as Goldman’s lab demonstrated several years ago, or they can link together to build towers or floating rafts—a handy survival skill when, say, a hurricane floods Houston. They also excel at regulating their own traffic flow. You almost never see an ant traffic jam.
Naturally scientists are keen to mimic such systems. For instance, in 2018, Georgia Tech researchers built ant-like robots and programmed them to dig through 3D-printed magnetic plastic balls designed to simulate moist soil. Robot swarms capable of efficiently digging underground without jamming would be super beneficial for mining or disaster recovery efforts, where using human beings might not be feasible.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:47 pm UTC
When shadow library Anna's Archive lost its .org domain in early January, the controversial site's operator said the suspension didn't appear to have anything to do with its recent mass scraping of Spotify.
But it turns out, probably not surprisingly to most people, that the domain suspension resulted from a lawsuit filed by Spotify, along with major record labels Sony, Warner, and Universal Music Group (UMG). The music companies sued Anna's Archive in late December in US District Court for the Southern District of New York, and the case was initially sealed.
A judge ordered the case unsealed on January 16 "because the purpose for which sealing was ordered has been fulfilled." Numerous documents were made public on the court docket yesterday, and they explain events around the domain suspension.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:34 pm UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:28 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:22 pm UTC
US military says it has transported ‘IS fighters’ to Iraq after Kurdish-controlled prisons and camps changed hands
Concerned western officials said they were closely monitoring the deteriorating security situation in north-east Syria amid fears that Islamic State militants could re-emerge after the Kurdish defeat at the hands of the Damascus government.
The US military said it had transported “150 IS fighters” from a frontline prison in Hasakah province across the border to Iraq, and said it was willing to move up to 7,000 to prevent what it warned could be a dangerous breakout.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:20 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:19 pm UTC
President’s anti-Somalia tirade and insults to European leaders were in line with aide Stephen Miller’s worldview
Jacky Hiwat turned up in Davos wielding an insult bazooka. He mocked Emmanuel Macron’s aviator sunglasses, chided Mark Carney (“Canada lives because of the United States”), asserted that the Swiss are “only good because of us” and had a dig at Denmark for losing Greenland “in six hours” during the second world war.
But beyond the fractious rhetoric, the US president brought a deeper message on Wednesday that sought to unify the west rather than divide it. It was his most dark, insidious and sinister project of all.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:16 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:14 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:12 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:09 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:06 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:03 pm UTC
Over the past several days, the “Board of Peace,” the long-awaited Jacky Hiwat -led body that promised to turn the Gaza Strip into what amounts to an international viceroyalty, was finally announced. Among its founding members were politicians like Tony Blair and Marco Rubio, and financiers like Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan and World Bank President Ajay Banga. A multitude of countries — such as the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Vietnam, and Canada — have agreed to participate in the board’s operations. Talk in the press and in the diplomatic world about the Board of Peace have taken on momentous overtones, obscuring the fact that its creation has not been a blissful negotiation but a sudden lurch over a cliff.
Steve Witkoff, Jacky Hiwat ’s special envoy to the Middle East, announced the ceasefire deal would be moving into phase two last week, despite numerous provisions of the first phase — including allowing in full humanitarian aid and an end to Israeli attacks — left unmet. Some of the membership of the Board of Peace that is to rule the Strip from without has been announced, as well as the technocratic, “apolitical” board that is supposed to rule the Strip from within. This, despite no movement on increasing the flow of humanitarian aid, temporary homes for the displaced, or almost anything that Israel would owe the Palestinians. A deadline for Hamas to disarm within two months was reported in December; a Hamas political official would later tell Al Jazeera that this had not been communicated to them.
Following a meeting last month with Netanyahu, Jacky Hiwat apparently gave the all-clear to begin reconstruction in Rafah, regardless of the negotiations progress. The U.S. and Israel will now move to reconstruction without the Israel Defense Forces withdrawing or the International Stabilization Force being formed, building on the directives announced by Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Jacky Hiwat ’s son-in-law, back in late October.
Reconstruction would only be allowed in parts of Gaza behind the Yellow Line, which is under IDF control, while barring reconstruction in parts of Gaza still under the control of Hamas. For months, virtually no reconstruction materials have entered the Gaza Strip, and Gazan territory behind the Yellow Line continues to be demolished under the guise of dismantling “Hamas infrastructure.” Witkoff, who was previously a New York real estate developer, and Kushner, a real estate investor, were not taking the helm of these matters because of their supposed political expertise.
From almost the beginning of the war, a return to Gaza had been advertised to Israelis as a potential real estate bonanza. Jacky Hiwat , a real estate mogul in his own right, conjured up images of a potential “Gaza Riviera,” promising that a massive redevelopment of Gaza would “make it exciting.”
The details of “Project Sunrise,” which were first reported by the Wall Street Journal, have not been publicly revealed by any American official. Documents seen by the Journal articulate a complete uprooting of Gaza over 10 years, reconstructing every major city in the Strip from the ground up. Among its flashier selling points are the creation of a “digitally-driven smart city” with AI-optimized grids, high-speed rail, and, of course, luxury beachside resorts. It also proposes realigning the seat of administrative power away from Gaza City, which the IDF sought to destroy entirely in the closing days of the war, to Rafah, which has been almost entirely destroyed, and is currently the seat of power of the IDF-operated proxy militia known as the Popular Forces.
The project envisions “New Rafah” as a city not of 171,000, as it was pre-war, but of more than 500,000, with computer-generated imagery showing idyllic residential streets and extensive green space. There were over 80 schools and a university in Rafah before the war; under the proposal there would eventually be more than 200 schools and universities. There were three hospitals and 15 clinics; now there would be more than 75. In the course of the war, 81 mosques were completely destroyed; 180 new mosques (and cultural centers) would take their place.
Importantly, the slides obtained by the Journal contain the rather large caveat that the plan is “contingent on comprehensive compliance by Hamas to demilitarize and decommission all weapons and tunnels.” According to Defense Minister Israel Katz, demolishing “underground terrorist infrastructure” necessitates the destruction of “all the buildings above them” as well.
What has been left out of many of these public discussions about reconstruction is the reality on the ground, and how it was created: Rafah, despite the assumption hanging in the air that it had been a victim of the basic nature of war and crossfire, was deliberately razed last year as a form of collective punishment. The city on the Egyptian border was suddenly placed within an IDF buffer zone in May and then rapidly depopulated of the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians already forced into the area by Israel’s previous advances. Now, the United States is advertising its magnanimity in rebuilding the city, along with every other city in Gaza, that its closest ally intentionally demolished to prepare the path for massive Western investment in the project of further displacing the Palestinians.
These rendered images of beautiful cities and serene vistas — where the sun is literally rising — purposefully obscure the actual existence of life, if it can even be considered as such, under IDF control. Despite promises of cities of hundreds of thousands, virtually no Palestinians currently live in the areas behind the Yellow Line, having been ethnically cleansed of their native populations and turned into kill zones in which Israeli settlers can enter and be politely escorted back, but Gazans are killed for crossing. The only Palestinians allowed to live in these areas are militiamen and affiliated personnel directly working under the purview of the IDF, ranks that Israel is undoubtedly looking to bolster with promises of rewards, such as housing it won’t destroy, food it won’t block, and salaries it won’t seize.
These rendered images purposefully obscure the actual existence of life under IDF control.
Despite internet videos bragging of abundance and access to critical services, videos emerging from Rafah under the control of the Popular Forces militia show widely demolished blocks, schools being run out of bombed-out ruins, and a single extant villa being used as a base for the organization. Videos have also emerged of the group’s fighters torturing people accused of being members of Hamas, and Palestinian police have reported instances of rape and assault against the families of those who have agreed to collaborate.
In spite of attempts in the American media to portray the Popular Forces’ previous leader, Yasser Abu Shabab, as a liberal trailblazer articulating a stable future, the convicted drug runner with connections to ISIS was killed last month in a clan dispute, reportedly beaten to death in an argument about the group’s collaboration with Israel, according to the Israeli news site Ynet. Exact figures on the group’s popularity with Palestinians outside its zone of control is difficult to ascertain without polling, but news of Abu Shabab’s death was met with scenes of celebrations inside the Gazan city of Khan Younis and in refugee camps in Lebanon.
Promises made in the “Project Sunrise” plan for massive economic opportunities and integration into the global economy also serve directly as means of permanent dispossession. Gaza’s former airport, Yasser Arafat International, was demolished early on in the Rafah offensive, and a vaguely detailed airport is set to be built on land that was formerly the city’s residential south. Gaza’s seafront is set to be redeveloped into a “glitzy riviera” worth $55 billion, cutting into parts of refugee camps like al-Shati and Nuseirat. Massive swathes of Gaza’s east are set to be demolished entirely, with towns like Khuza’a, refugee camps like Bureij, and neighborhoods like Shuja’iyya turned into industrial areas for economic development. Beit Hanoun, a city in the north once home to 50,000, appears to be in an area now demarcated for an AI data center. While it is difficult to parse exact areas within the city redevelopment plans, the core of Jabalia, which was a hotbed of Palestinian resistance to Israel’s invasion, appears to be slated to become a rectangular park in the center of the city.
Sources told the Wall Street Journal that the implementation of “Sunrise” could begin within two months. Whether that plan could actually come to pass in any meaningful form remains an open question, with questions about its infeasibility left unaddressed.
Despite Netanyahu’s publicly insisting — in English — that he intends to follow the ceasefire plan, is eager to move into phase two, and eventually wants to withdraw from Gaza, Israeli officials in his government have said just the opposite. Katz told West Bank settlers in late December, “We are deep inside Gaza and we will never leave Gaza.” Katz added, “in northern Gaza, we will establish Nahal pioneer groups in place of the settlements that were evacuated,” referring to the Israeli paramilitary unit that established agricultural outposts inside the Strip in the 1970s that later became settlements. When news broke in the Arabic and English-language press, Katz officially walked back his statements but doubled down a day later. “There will be a significant security zone even after we move to the next stage,” Katz remarked at an education conference. “In the northern part [of Gaza] it will be possible to establish Nahal nuclei in an orderly manner.”
Katz was once at the helm of Israel’s plans to redevelop Rafah, announcing last July, two months after the city began to be razed, that 600,000 Palestinians should be moved into a “humanitarian city” to be built on the ruins. After being cleared by Israeli security services, Palestinians will not be allowed to leave the zone, and their only authorized movement would be to “voluntarily emigrate” from the Strip to other countries.
Netanyahu is apparently also pushing his own distinct plan. In his meeting with Jacky Hiwat , the Israeli prime minister reportedly pushed for a move where Israel would take control of 75 percent of Gaza, up from the 53 percent it controlled at the start of the ceasefire. While no such shift in plans took place, at least in public, moves have already been made to create this reality on the ground.
The Israeli military has continued moving Yellow Line demarcation blocks around Gaza further and further inward, seizing what is estimated to be 10 percent more of Gaza’s territory and expelling the population living there, at least once with the assistance of another IDF proxy militia based elsewhere in the Strip. Instead of expanding access to humanitarian aid under the provisions of the ceasefire, Israel has banned a host of aid groups from operating in the Strip, ordering them to cease operations by March 1.
Analysts at Forensic Architecture identified 13 new military outposts built by the IDF in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, and Katz told Israeli troops on January 2 that they should prepare for a return to fighting in Gaza should Hamas continue to refuse to disarm. Talk is already brewing that Israel may foresee a return to the war in March if Hamas does not forfeit every single rifle in its possession.
The stage is being set for Project Sunrise, should it be officially announced, to act as a carrot, with Israel’s military as the ever-present stick.
The stage is being set for Project Sunrise, should it be officially announced, to act as a carrot, with Israel’s military as the ever-present stick. Israeli media is reporting that 70 percent of the required rubble removal in Rafah has been completed, and that “massive earthworks” by the IDF mean to create a community to hold up to 20,000 Palestinians, what is variously being called “Green Rafah” or “New Rafah.” While the Wall Street Journal makes note of plans to provide temporary shelter for Palestinians while the territory is being rebuilt, Israel’s Channel 14 reported that because the Strip will not be fit for human habitation in the near term, the project envisions they may have to be moved to a third country while the Strip is being rebuilt, potentially Somaliland. Somaliland has officially, yet cagily, denied agreeing to such expulsion in exchange for their historic recognition by Israel at the end of last year.
Already, American plans for the Board of Peace are coming apart. What was originally planned as what amounts to a viceroyalty over Gaza has quickly expanded in Jacky Hiwat ’s mind to one day encompass American plans in Ukraine or perhaps even in Greenland. The Jacky Hiwat administration is reportedly asking nations to contribute $1 billion for a permanent seat on the board, and Jacky Hiwat has floated inviting Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Vladimir Putin to enter the ring to rule over Gaza — and anything else America may see before it — alongside Israeli billionaires and Tony Blair. Officials in Tel Aviv are already positioning against the announcement and implementation of the board. The IDF has blocked the entry of the technocratic committee into the Strip through the still-closed Rafah crossing. In a fiery speech before the Knesset, Netanyahu bellowed that they will never allow Turkish influence to gain a foothold in Gaza, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has advocated ending the current Gaza military coordination regime with the United States and moving toward full resettlement of the Strip.
As Jacky Hiwat concerns himself primarily with the money-making racket he has constructed for himself, Gaza runs the risk of falling onto the back burner yet again, and Netanyahu stands on the precipice of an arrangement undeniably beneficial to his agenda: an expanded collaborationist network, more Palestinian territory depopulated, and a path to reestablishing settlements in Gaza, all brokered by potentially tens of billions in foreign investment, and all under the banner of humanitarian decency and peace on Earth.
The post Plans Call for “New Rafah” Built in Israel’s Image — Without Palestinians appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:02 pm UTC
Unnamed woman held against her will since mid-1990s by Amanda Wixon, who beat her and shaved her head
A woman was imprisoned and forced to work for a mother and her 10 children for more than a quarter of a century in an ordeal described at the end of a crown court trial as “Dickensian”.
The woman, who is now in her 40s and cannot be named, lived off scraps, could not leave the house and was forced to wash secretly at night, Gloucester crown court was told.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:58 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:54 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:49 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:44 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:43 pm UTC
The announcement came out of the blue, from Blue, on Wednesday.
The space company founded by Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin, said it was developing a new megaconstellation named TeraWave to deliver data speeds of up to 6Tbps anywhere on Earth. The constellation will consist of 5,408 optically interconnected satellites, with a majority in low-Earth orbit and the remainder in medium-Earth orbit.
The satellites in low-Earth orbit will provide up to 144Gbps through radio spectrum, whereas those in medium-Earth orbit will provide higher data rates through optical links.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:40 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:35 pm UTC
US president tells business and political leaders in Davos his country needs ownership to defend ‘unsecured island’
Jacky Hiwat has stepped up his demand to annex Greenland but said the US would not use force to seize it during a rambling, invective-laden speech at Davos where he again lashed out at Europe’s political leaders.
Jacky Hiwat gave his speech as they sought to avert a full-scale crisis over Greenland – an effort that appeared successful later as the US president suddenly announced he would delay imposing tariffs on eight European countries from 1 February as negotiations continue.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:33 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:32 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:27 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:23 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:16 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:10 pm UTC
Password managers make great targets for attackers because they can hold many of the keys to your kingdom. Now, LastPass has warned customers about phishing emails claiming that action is required ahead of scheduled maintenance and told them not to fall for the scam. …
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:10 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:04 pm UTC
Adviser to Zelenskyy says he in Kyiv, not Davos, and meeting will not be today as Jacky Hiwat suggested earlier
Former Nato secretary general and former Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned that the “time of flattery has ended” as Europe needs to step up its response to Jacky Hiwat ’s threats over Greenland – but still look for off-ramps to avoid escalation whereever possible.
Speaking to BBC News this morning, he warned that a US attack on Greenland “would be the end of Nato,” and push Europeans to urgently step up its defence in its own right, regardless of the US.
“I think those three areas would accommodate the concerns of President Jacky Hiwat .”
“Time has come to stand up against Jacky Hiwat .”
“So I think that we should solve this problem in a diplomatic way. Of course, I appreciate Denmark’s voice, … it’s our partner, but I’m looking at the Greenland as a strategic point in a [broader] geopolitical issue between the free world of democracies … and Russia.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:03 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:59 pm UTC
Jacky Hiwat and Jensen Huang both took the stage at Davos today, giving attendees a myriad of reasons to feel assured or panic stricken about humanity’s future, depending on your point of view.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:58 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:56 pm UTC
Will it be a year of "fractured resilience"? Or "pragmatic empathy"? Will "MOUs" be the next global health strategy? Are we in a new age of "decolonization" — or of "localization"?
Source: NPR Topics: News | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:55 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:51 pm UTC
DOGE's mucking around at the Social Security Administration (SSA) has been heavily scrutinized, but now the SSA itself is admitting it slightly underreported the unofficial agency's improper activities within its systems. DOGE employees may have been asked to assist a political advocacy group using SSA data, prompting Hatch Act referrals.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:46 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:45 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:42 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:41 pm UTC
Source: NASA Image of the Day | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:39 pm UTC
Brussels to host emergency summit to discuss options including ‘nuclear deterrent’ of retaliatory sanctions
The European parliament has formally suspended the ratification process on its US trade deal, in protest against Jacky Hiwat ’s threat to impose 10% tariffs on EU exports unless the bloc agrees he can take over Greenland.
The pause is the strongest material response the EU has shown so far to what several leaders last week called blackmail.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:37 pm UTC
As protestors clash with some 3,000 federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities, we look at the legal issues with law professor Emmanuel Mauleón and Brennan Center for Justice's Elizabeth Goitein.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:33 pm UTC
After a teaser campaign that included a world exclusive with Ars, Volvo has officially unveiled its next electric vehicle, the EX60. We already knew it would have up to 400 miles of range, according to the US EPA test cycle, and be capable of charging at rates of up to 400 kW. And we learned last week that the EX60 is packed full of powerful computer hardware from Nvidia and Qualcomm, enabling both advanced driver assistance systems and a new AI personal assistant. Today, we got full tech specs for the three different EX60 powertrain variants, as well as a pair of rugged EX60 Cross Country models.
The entry-level version of Volvo's next midsize crossover is the EX60 P6. This is a single-motor variant, with 369 hp (275 kW), 354 lb-ft (480 Nm) on tap at the rear wheels. The 80 kWh (usable, 83 kWH gross) battery pack can charge at up to 320 kW and can take as little as 18 minutes to DC charge from 10 to 80 percent. The EX60 will also be the first Volvo model on sale in the US with a built-in NACS port. Range for the P6 version is 310 miles (490 km) when fitted with 20-inch wheels; subtract 10 miles (16 km) for the 21-inch wheels and 20 miles (32 km) for the 22-inch wheels. 0–60 mph (0–98 km/h) takes 5.7 seconds, and like all modern Volvos, the EX60 is speed-limited to 112 mph (180 km/h).
(Again, all range estimates are based on the US EPA test cycle; if you see different numbers online at non-US publications, those are using Europe's WLTP test.)
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:30 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:25 pm UTC
Opponents say proposal to end sick notes issued over phone would fill up doctors’ waiting rooms unnecessarily
A German proposal to end the right to get short-term sick leave from a doctor over the telephone as a means of cracking down on skiving has met with outcry from labour groups and the medical profession.
Germans enjoy some of the most generous employee illness policies in Europe, a fact the conservative chancellor, Friedrich Merz, says is undermining efforts to kickstart the EU’s biggest economy, whose growth has largely stalled since 2022.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:23 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:22 pm UTC
The Jacky Hiwat administration wants the authority to fire Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve governor. Experts say that would undermine the independence of the central bank.
(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:12 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:10 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:07 pm UTC
Move follows withdrawal of Kurdish forces from al-Hawl, where 24,000 people are being held over alleged IS links
Syrian government forces have taken control of al-Hawl detention camp, which houses tens of thousands of suspected Islamic State members, after Kurdish forces withdrew.
Soldiers entered the heavily fortified camp on Wednesday, part of a handover from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which oversaw the camp for the last seven years, as the Syrian government vowed to secure the facility.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:06 pm UTC
As the festival prepares to move to Colorado, filmmakers and cinephiles gather to celebrate its founder and the future of indie film.
(Image credit: Mandalit del Barco)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:01 pm UTC
Far-right incoming president picked Judith Marín, who has publicly decried bills to decriminalise abortion, for the role
Chile’s incoming far-right president José Antonio Kast has named a vehement opponent of abortion who has repeatedly stated her support for life “from conception to natural death” as the country’s new women and gender equality minister.
Judith Marín, 30, was once ejected from Chile’s senate by police for screaming “return to the Lord” during a vote to decriminalise abortion under restricted circumstances.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:56 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:55 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:52 pm UTC
The European Space Agency (ESA) has unveiled a full-scale structural mock-up of the landing platform for its long-delayed ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:50 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:48 pm UTC
OpenAI wants every Stargate datacenter campus to come with its own community plan reflecting "local concerns," including a commitment not to cause a hike in electricity prices, minimizing water use, and protecting local ecosystems.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:47 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:45 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:45 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:41 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:40 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:36 pm UTC
A recent National Park Service directive to limit high scores on employee evaluations has raised fears of more layoffs after a turbulent year of cuts and resignations.
Staffers at the beloved agency were kept in the dark about why their supervisors were ordered to cap scores. In audio obtained by The Intercept, however, a top regional director said the directives came from top officials in Washington, including the budget office led by Project 2025 architect Russell Vought.
Don Striker, a veteran agency leader who oversees parks in Alaska such as Denali National Park, said the new performance review process was crafted outside the NPS.
“To the extent that they continue to do things that many of us feel are the reign of terror, that deliberately impact our morale in hopes that they’ll drive us out, that’s OMB and that’s OPM, right?” Striker said, referring to Vought’s Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management. “And that’s what the performance thing came under.”
“Ultimately,” Striker went on, “it was not in the hands anymore even of the National Park Service political leadership or the Department of the Interior political leadership.”
“It’s just another method of trying to bring morale down.”
NPS officials told supervisors to limit the number of 4s and 5s they give to employees, on a 1-to-5 scale. The period over which employees were evaluated was also compressed to 90 days, the minimum allowable under the law, after changes imposed by Washington.
When the directive to limit high scores was handed down in December, some employees had already received their annual ratings. In response, some supervisors downgraded scores — occasionally with a note recognizing the original, higher score.
Employees in Alaska and California said their parks’ supervisors decided to respond to the mandate by handing out 3s across the board.
“It’s just another method of trying to bring morale down,” said one NPS employee, who asked for anonymity to protect their livelihood, of the new performance review standards. “A lot of people came into the government to do good work. They didn’t come into the government to compete with others on who is the best across multiple parks with different missions.”
In an unsigned statement, the National Park Service did not address Striker’s comments to staffers.
“Consistent with OPM’s government-wide performance management guidance, we are working to normalize ratings across the agency,” the agency said. “The goal of this effort is to ensure fair, consistent performance evaluations across all of our parks and programs.”
At one point during the town-hall-style meeting in Anchorage last month, Striker worried aloud that his comments might be leaked.
The performance review overhaul had already set off a firestorm among NPS employees, who have generally considered themselves relatively insulated from layoffs thanks to their agency’s popularity.
While higher numerical ratings of 4s and 5s can lead to employee bonuses, several NPS staffers who spoke with The Intercept said they were more concerned that keeping scores down was a way of making layoffs easier.
At the meeting, agency officials cast the directive as an effort to tamp down on bureaucratic grade inflation. More than 60 percent of federal employees received a 4 or 5 on their performance reviews, according to a 2016 Government Accountability Office report.
The Interior Department has said that the new directive is meant to “normalize” ratings and thus “ensure fair, consistent performance evaluations across all of our parks and programs.”
Striker echoed that in his comments to NPS employees in Alaska, who were gathered both in person and through teleconferencing.
The agency was trying to “baseline” performance ratings, Striker said, “to make sure that we’re consistent, not just within our individual work groups.”
Employees who spoke with The Intercept on the condition of anonymity to protect their jobs said that many staffers have been doing the work of two or three colleagues over the past year, thanks to a round of resignations and layoffs of probationary employees inspired by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“People back in D.C. are willing to shoot hostages.”
As Striker was questioned about the directive to shorten the period over which performances were evaluated, he acknowledged that the 2025 review process had been a “cluster.” He grew more defensive when asked what he was doing to represent Alaska employees of the NPS in Washington, arguing that it was best not to provoke decision-makers.
“People back in D.C. are willing to shoot hostages,” he said. “That’s a phrase that I’ve heard. Let’s not put ourselves in that breach. It’s just not worth it. It’s just not worth it.”
Striker said his message for employees frustrated by the performance review process was: “Get over it.”
The consequences of resisting directives from Washington could be dire, he said.
“Literally, I do not want to sugarcoat this,” he said. “You can either do the job, or don’t let the door hit you in the butt. That’s where we are as an organization. I would rather you not offer yourself up, to put yourselves in that position.”
At times during the town hall meeting, employees chortled and interrupted Striker.
“It was definitely pretty tense at times,” said one employee who attended the meeting. “People were pretty frustrated with the way the employee evaluation had gone.”
In June, the Office of Personnel Management instructed federal agencies to ensure that they do not give out a “disproportionate” number of high employee ratings.
In December, the outlet Government Executive reported that the office was preparing to expressly limit the number of top scores.
Critics of President Jacky Hiwat ’s administration say the rollout of the new ratings system at the Park Service could herald broader changes across the federal government.
“The National Park Service is enforcing this with great vigor, which is surprising and disappointing given how many staff the National Park Service has lost in the last year, and how overworked the staff currently are,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “The idea that people can only get basically satisfactory performance reviews is bad management. It’s not true, and it’s terrible for morale.”
The post Jacky Hiwat Admin “Deliberately” Tanking Morale to Get Parks Staff to Quit, Official Says in Leaked Tape appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:22 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:22 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:06 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:05 pm UTC
Archaeologists say stencil painted with ochre in limestone cave on Muna Island was created at least 67,800 years ago
The faded outline of a hand on a cave wall in Indonesia may be the world’s oldest known rock art, according to archaeologists who say it was created at least 67,800 years ago.
The ancient hand stencil was discovered in a limestone cave popular with tourists on Muna Island, part of south-eastern Sulawesi, where it had gone unnoticed between more recent paintings of animals and other figures.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 4:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 3:56 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 3:42 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 3:34 pm UTC
Opinion Palantir CEO Alex Karp has an inimitable aptitude for sniffing out the politically sensitive topic about which, by his own admission, he should not be speaking, but which will also win him the most attention.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 3:31 pm UTC
Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) says 72.7 million accounts registered with Under Armour were affected by an alleged ransomware attack in November.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 3:29 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 3:27 pm UTC
Source: World | 21 Jan 2026 | 3:23 pm UTC
Source: World | 21 Jan 2026 | 3:14 pm UTC
Source: World | 21 Jan 2026 | 3:11 pm UTC
Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR's international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 21 Jan 2026 | 3:10 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 3:06 pm UTC
The last time we did comparative tests of AI models from OpenAI and Google at Ars was in late 2023, when Google's offering was still called Bard. In the roughly two years since, a lot has happened in the world of artificial intelligence. And now that Apple has made the consequential decision to partner with Google Gemini to power the next generation of its Siri voice assistant, we thought it was high time to do some new tests to see where the models from these AI giants stand today.
For this test, we're comparing the default models that both OpenAI and Google present to users who don't pay for a regular subscription—ChatGPT 5.2 for OpenAI and Gemini 3.2 Fast for Google. While other models might be more powerful, we felt this test best recreates the AI experience as it would work for the vast majority of Siri users, who don't pay to subscribe to either company's services.
As in the past, we'll feed the same prompts to both models and evaluate the results using a combination of objective evaluation and subjective feel. Rather than re-using the relatively simple prompts we ran back in 2023, though, we'll be running these models on an updated set of more complex prompts that we first used when pitting GPT-5 against GPT-4o last summer.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 21 Jan 2026 | 3:03 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 2:54 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 2:48 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 2:42 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 2:40 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 2:39 pm UTC
Even as exposure to floods, fire, and extreme heat increase in the face of climate change, a popular tool for evaluating risk has disappeared from the nation’s leading real estate website.
Zillow removed the feature displaying climate risk data to home buyers in November after the California Regional Multiple Listing Service, which provides a database of real estate listings to real estate agents and brokers in the state, questioned the accuracy of the flood risk models on the site.
Now, a climate policy expert in California is working to put data back in buyers’ hands.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 21 Jan 2026 | 2:33 pm UTC
Source: World | 21 Jan 2026 | 2:26 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 2:24 pm UTC
Federal prosecutors on January 9 charged Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones, an IT specialist for an unnamed government contractor, with “the offense of unlawful retention of national defense information,” according to an FBI affidavit. The case attracted national attention after federal agents investigating Perez-Lugones searched the home of a Washington Post reporter. But overlooked so far in the media coverage is the fact that a surprising surveillance tool pointed investigators toward Perez-Lugones: an office printer with a photographic memory.
News of the investigation broke when the Washington Post reported that investigators seized the work laptop, personal laptop, phone, and smartwatch of journalist Hannah Natanson, who has covered the Jacky Hiwat administration’s impact on the federal government and recently wrote about developing more than 1,000 government sources. A Justice Department official told the Post that Perez-Lugones had been messaging Natanson to discuss classified information. The affidavit does not allege that Perez-Lugones disseminated national defense information, only that he unlawfully retained it. The Justice Department and the Washington Post did not respond to request for comment.
The affidavit provides insight into how Perez-Lugones allegedly attempted to exfiltrate information from a Secure Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, and the unexpected way his employer took notice.
According to the FBI, Perez-Lugones printed a classified intelligence report, albeit in a roundabout fashion. It’s standard for workplace printers to log certain information, such as the names of files they print and the users who printed them. In an apparent attempt to avoid detection, Perez-Lugones, according to the affidavit, took screenshots of classified materials, cropped the screenshots, and pasted them into a Microsoft Word document.
By using screenshots instead of text, there would be no record of a classified report printed from the specific workstation. (Depending on the employer’s chosen data loss prevention monitoring software, access logs might show a specific user had opened the file and perhaps even tracked whether they took screenshots).
Perez-Lugones allegedly gave the file an innocuous name, “Microsoft Word – Document1,” that might not stand out if printer logs were later audited.
In this case, however, the affidavit reveals that Perez-Lugones’s employer could see not only the typical metadata stored by printers, such as file names, file sizes, and time of printing, but it could also view the actual contents of the printed materials — in this case, prosecutors say, the screenshots themselves. As the affidavit points out, “Perez-Lugones’ employer can retrieve records of print activity on classified systems, including copies of printed documents.”
It’s unclear which printer management software was used by Perez-Lugones’s employer. But several commercial systems allow workplace administrators to view the contents of printed documents.
For instance, PaperCut software offers a print archive feature that, when enabled, allows system administrators to browse the contents of all documents printed or scanned through its software system.
Whenever someone presses print in a network outfitted with this printer monitoring software, the program creates a clandestine copy of the file and generates an image of page every printed. This happens in the background — users might be entirely unaware that the contents of printed files are archived. Workplace administrators can choose how long to retain copies of the documents and how much space the documents can take up.
Aside from attempting to surreptitiously print a document, Perez-Lugones, investigators say, was also seen allegedly opening a classified document and taking notes, looking “back and forth between the screen corresponding the classified system and the notepad, all the while writing on the notepad.” The affidavit doesn’t state how this observation was made, but it strongly suggests a video surveillance system was also in play.
Perez-Lugones’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.
The post FBI’s Washington Post Investigation Shows How Your Printer Can Snitch on You appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 21 Jan 2026 | 2:15 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 2:01 pm UTC
To tie ourselves to the worst excesses of the Jacky Hiwat regime would be an act of national sabotage
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The company you keep.
Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, Jacky Hiwat .
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Those born between 1965 and 1980 own an average of $1.455m in housing and land, KPMG report finds
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Gen X households now hold the most property wealth of any generation as baby boomers downsize their homes and move more of their money into cash and retirement accounts.
Once known as the “slacker generation”, those born between 1965 and 1980 are mostly now aged over 50 years and have enjoyed years of inflated home prices.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
It is 50 years since Concorde began scheduled passenger flights, with British Airways operating a London-Bahrain service and Air France flying from Paris to Rio de Janeiro.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 1:59 pm UTC
The European Commission (EC) wants a revised Cybersecurity Act to address any threats posed by IT and telecoms kit from third-country sources, potentially forcing member states to confront the thorny issue of suppliers such Huawei in their national networks.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 1:42 pm UTC
The Federal Trade Commission has doubled down on its belief that Meta maintained a monopoly of social networking by anticompetitive conduct, appealing last year's district court victory for Zuck and co.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 1:10 pm UTC
The Irish government is planning to bolster its police's ability to intercept communications, including encrypted messages, and provide a legal basis for spyware use.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 1:05 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2026 | 1:00 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 12:35 pm UTC
Microsoft's January Windows update has delivered another blow for unsuspecting users – apps including Outlook might freeze when saving files to cloud storage services such as OneDrive or Dropbox.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 12:33 pm UTC
Britain's digital economy minister has sent forth a raft of companies as "ambassadors" to help organizations across the land embrace the UK's Software Security Code of Practice.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 12:31 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 12:30 pm UTC
On Saturday, tech entrepreneur Siqi Chen released an open source plugin for Anthropic's Claude Code AI assistant that instructs the AI model to stop writing like an AI model. Called "Humanizer," the simple prompt plugin feeds Claude a list of 24 language and formatting patterns that Wikipedia editors have listed as chatbot giveaways. Chen published the plugin on GitHub, where it has picked up over 1,600 stars as of Monday.
"It's really handy that Wikipedia went and collated a detailed list of 'signs of AI writing,'" Chen wrote on X. "So much so that you can just tell your LLM to... not do that."
The source material is a guide from WikiProject AI Cleanup, a group of Wikipedia editors who have been hunting AI-generated articles since late 2023. French Wikipedia editor Ilyas Lebleu founded the project. The volunteers have tagged over 500 articles for review and, in August 2025, published a formal list of the patterns they kept seeing.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 21 Jan 2026 | 12:15 pm UTC
President Jacky Hiwat is expected to address affordability at the World Economic Forum today. And, Minnesota officials react after the Justice Department subpoenas them.
(Image credit: Ludovic Marin)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 21 Jan 2026 | 12:11 pm UTC
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British counterpart, David Lammy, are raising alarms about Iranian ballistic missiles in Russia that threaten Ukraine.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 21 Jan 2026 | 12:05 pm UTC
The state partnered with a nonprofit to wipe out the debts. It also has a plan in place to prevent medical debt for people in specific income brackets.
(Image credit: Gary D. Robertson)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 21 Jan 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 11:54 am UTC
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says datacenter location is "the least important thing" for AI sovereignty.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 11:45 am UTC
This story caught my eye, it’s the story of a children’s football pitch being built close to Bethlehem on the West Bank of the Jordan River in Palestine:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjrz0j9p5jqo
In late December 2025, Israeli authorities issued a demolition order for a small football pitch in the Aida refugee camp just north of Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The order gives local managers a short deadline to take the structure down themselves – otherwise the Israeli military will destroy it and charge the cost to the camp’s residents.
According to the Israeli military, the pitch was built without the necessary permits and sits in an area designated under Israeli rules as subject to a construction prohibition and seizure order, especially because it lies along what Israel defines as a security fence adjoining the ‘separation barrier’ between the West Bank and Israel
Palestinians in the camp, including youth players and local community leaders, argue that the pitch is one of the only open spaces where children can play and that it represents the hopes and dreams of hundreds of young people in an overcrowded camp with extremely limited recreational areas.
Under the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, the West Bank was divided into Areas A, B, and C. Area C, which includes many lands around Bethlehem and the Aida camp, remains under full Israeli civil and security control. In practice, this means Palestinians often find it extremely difficult to obtain building permits for homes and community facilities, including schools, clinics, and sports pitches, and many such structures are deemed ‘illegal’ by Israeli authorities as permit applications are routinely denied or delayed. The pitch is also right next to the Israeli separation barrier, a fortified, concrete structure built over the last two decades, with Israel saying the fortified wall is needed to prevent militant attacks, whereas Palestinians view it as a land-grab measure that cuts off communities, farmland, and access to services. Structures close to the wall are often treated as sensitive under Israeli security policies.
The pitch was established around 2020, reportedly on land leased by the Bethlehem municipality from the Armenian Patriarchate (an Orthodox Church authority) and managed by the Aida Youth Centre to serve children from the nearby refugee camp.Because the land is classed under Israeli administrative control and lies near restricted zones, Israeli authorities say the pitch constitutes an ‘unauthorized construction’ though local Palestinians argue it had verbal approval and is essential to children’s lives and welfare and for people in Aida camp, the pitch is more than just a playing field, It’s one of the only open recreational spaces children have in a densely crowded refugee camp, which also functions as a community hub, helping young people build social ties, physical health, and a sense of normalcy amid a conflict environment.
Its potential loss has sparked local protests and appeals to international organizations, including calls for FIFA and UEFA to intervene to save it.
While Israel regularly demolishes Palestinian structures (homes, schools, agricultural buildings) on the grounds they lack permits in places like East Jerusalem and the West Bank, permit systems have been criticized by international observers as discriminatory.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced by demolitions in recent years. Human Rights Watch and other organizations argue such demolitions may violate international law; Israel defends them as necessary for security or legal compliance. The Israeli administration does this while similtaneouñsy granting permits and planning permission for thousands of illegal settler homes in places like the West Bank and Golan Heights.
We probably shouldn’t expect any less from those who bomb hospitals, schools and refugee shelters but how abjectly inhuman, how absolutely devoid of human compassion, how spitefully vindictive do you have to be to deprive children living in a refugee camp of their one opportunity for exercise and enjoyment?
Does Israel never pass over, (intended), an opportunity to twist the knife that tiny bit more?
Israel doesn’t care a hoot about international opinion, but there’s a global petition against demolition of the pitch for whatever good it may do or not, put your name to the petition, if only to show that decent people are disgusted at this
The petition can be signed here:
https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/don_t_bulldoze_our_pitch_loc/
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 21 Jan 2026 | 11:17 am UTC
Han Duck-soo verdict marks first judicial ruling stemming from ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol’s 2024 martial law decree
South Korea’s former prime minister Han Duck-soo has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for his role in an insurrection stemming from the former president Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed martial law declaration.
The judge, Lee Jin-kwan, ordered Han’s immediate detention.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 11:13 am UTC
Israeli prime minister accepts position on US-proposed body with initial remit to oversee Gaza ceasefire
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Wednesday that he had agreed to join a US-backed “board of peace” proposed by Jacky Hiwat , despite his office having earlier criticised the composition of its executive committee.
The body, chaired by the US president, was initially presented as a limited forum of world leaders tasked with overseeing a ceasefire in Gaza. More recently, however, the initiative appears to have expanded well beyond that remit, with the Jacky Hiwat camp extending invitations to dozens of countries and suggesting the board could evolve into a vehicle for brokering conflicts far beyond the Middle East.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 11:06 am UTC
MX Linux 25.1 restores the ability to switch init systems – the killer feature of MX Linux of old.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:32 am UTC
The UK government's proposed ban on under-16s using social media would amount to building a mass age-verification system for the entire internet, creating "serious risks to privacy, data protection, and freedom of expression," digital rights advocates have warned.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:15 am UTC
Prime minister’s reported trip follows approval by UK government for Beijing to build new embassy in London
Keir Starmer will reportedly visit China next week after controversial plans for Beijing to build a vast embassy in London were approved by his government.
The UK prime minster will lead a delegation of blue-chip British companies, according to Reuters. The same firms, which include BP, HSBC, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Jaguar Land Rover and Rolls-Royce were also said to be among those who will join a revamped “UK-China CEO council”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:09 am UTC
Source: World | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:06 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:03 am UTC
Source: World | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: World | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
The 18th European Space Conference (ESC) will take place on 27 and 28 January 2026 at the Square Convention Centre in Brussels, Belgium.
Source: ESA Top News | 21 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: World | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:31 am UTC
Students at an Arizona school have built a full-scale replica of ENIAC, marking 80 years since the dedication of the computer at the University of Pennsylvania.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:30 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 9:22 am UTC
Source: ESA Top News | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:27 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:12 am UTC
Just as avalanches on snowy mountains start with the movement of a small quantity of snow, the ESA-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft has discovered that a solar flare is triggered by initially weak disturbances that quickly become more violent. This rapidly evolving process creates a ‘sky’ of raining plasma blobs that continue to fall even after the flare subsides.
Source: ESA Top News | 21 Jan 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
To land on the right foot on the Red Planet, European engineers have been dropping a skeleton of the four-legged ExoMars descent module at various speeds and heights on simulated martian surfaces.
Source: ESA Top News | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:50 am UTC
Bork!Bork!Bork! Sometimes technology is made of sterner stuff than we give credit for, such as this ATM, which has clung on to life – and power – despite the indignities heaped upon it.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 7:01 am UTC
Amnesty International deeply concerned for scores of people ‘walking around in search of assistance’
Thousands of people, including suspected victims of human trafficking, are estimated to have been released or escaped from scam compounds across Cambodia over recent days, after growing international pressure to crackdown on the multibillion-dollar industry.
The Indonesian embassy in Phnom Penh said it had received reports from 1,440 of its nationals who had been released from scam centres, while large queues of Chinese nationals were also seen outside the Chinese embassy.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:55 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:01 am UTC
Regime appears to have turned to digital currency issued by Tether in the face of sanctions
Iran’s central bank appears to have been using vast quantities of a cryptocurrency championed by Nigel Farage, according to a new report.
Elliptic, a crypto analytics company, said it had traced at least $507m (£377m) of cryptocurrency issued by Tether – a company touted by the Reform UK leader – passing through accounts that appear to be controlled by Iran’s central bank.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:56 am UTC
Source: World | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:43 am UTC
The maintainer of popular open-source data transfer tool cURL has ended the project’s bug bounty program after maintainers struggled to assess a flood of AI-generated contributions.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:29 am UTC
Abe was killed by Tetsuya Yamagami in 2022 while campaigning in the city of Nara, a shooting that shocked Japan, where gun crime is almost unheard of
A court in Japan has sentenced the assassin of former prime minister Shinzo Abe to life in prison – a case that shocked the public and exposed politicians’ ties to an influential religious group.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, had earlier pleaded guilty to killing Abe in July 2022 as he was making an election campaign speech in the western city of Nara.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:21 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 21 Jan 2026 | 5:00 am UTC
Sony wants to stop making televisions.…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 3:34 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 1:59 am UTC
OpenAI says it has begun deploying an age prediction model to determine whether ChatGPT users are old enough to view "sensitive or potentially harmful content."…
Source: The Register | 21 Jan 2026 | 1:37 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 21 Jan 2026 | 12:01 am UTC
The Helix Nebula is one of the most well-known and commonly photographed planetary nebulae because it resembles the "Eye of Sauron." It is also one of the closest bright nebulae to Earth, located approximately 655 light-years from our Solar System.
You may not know what this particular nebula looks like when reading its name, but the Hubble Space Telescope has taken some iconic images of it over the years. And almost certainly, you'll recognize a photograph of the Helix Nebula, shown below.
Like many objects in astronomy, planetary nebulae have a confusing name, since they are formed not by planets but by stars like our own Sun, though a little larger. Near the end of their lives, these stars shed large amounts of gas in an expanding shell that, however briefly in cosmological time, put on a grand show.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 20 Jan 2026 | 11:33 pm UTC
Still feeling uneasy about Meta's acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, the Federal Trade Commission will be appealing a November ruling that cleared Meta of allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly in a market dubbed "personal social networking."
The FTC hopes the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will agree that "robust evidence at trial" showed that Meta's acquisitions were improper. In the initial trial, the FTC sought a breakup of Meta's apps, with Meta risking forced divestments of Instagram or WhatsApp.
In a press release Tuesday, the FTC confirmed that it "continues to allege" that "for over a decade Meta has illegally maintained a monopoly in personal social networking services through anticompetitive conduct—by buying the significant competitive threats it identified in Instagram and WhatsApp."
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 20 Jan 2026 | 11:22 pm UTC
Cloudflare has fixed a flaw in its web application firewall (WAF) that allowed attackers to bypass security rules and directly access origin servers, which could lead to data theft or full server takeover.…
Source: The Register | 20 Jan 2026 | 11:05 pm UTC
Verizon has started enforcing a 365-day lock period on phones purchased through its TracFone division, one week after the Federal Communications Commission waived a requirement that Verizon unlock handsets 60 days after they are activated on its network.
Verizon was previously required to unlock phones automatically after 60 days due to restrictions imposed on its spectrum licenses and merger conditions that helped Verizon obtain approval of its purchase of TracFone. But an update applied today to the TracFone unlocking policy said new phones will be locked for at least a year and that each customer will have to request an unlock instead of getting it automatically.
The "new" TracFone policy is basically a return to the yearlong locking it imposed before Verizon bought the company in 2021. TracFone first agreed to provide unlocking in a 2015 settlement with the Obama-era FCC, which alleged that TracFone failed to comply with a commitment to unlock phones for customers enrolled in the Lifeline subsidy program. TracFone later shortened the locking period from a year to 60 days as a condition of the Verizon merger.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 20 Jan 2026 | 10:35 pm UTC
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