"Input URL","Title","Link","Published","Description","Source","Category" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:cnn.com","This gruesome discovery of nearly 150 dead turtles is a warning for the future","https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2026/03/climate/canada-turtle-deaths-otters-cnnphotos/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:51:17 GMT"," Northern map turtles hibernate under the ice during the winter months in Canada's Lake Opinicon. By Laura Paddison, CNN Photographs by Michael O. Snyder and Justin DalabaPublished March 14, 2026 Northern map turtles hibernate under the ice during the winter months in Canada's Lake Opinicon. It started with the mysterious discovery of more than a hundred turtles, some with their shells smashed, others dismembered, all of them dead. It ended with a potential warning for the future. It was Gregory Bulté who found the turtles. The biologist from Carleton University was out on the water of eastern Ontario's Opinicon Lake in April 2022 when he saw a dead northern map turtle — so-called because its shell resembles the contour lines of a map. As he bent to pick it up from the shallows, he saw another. Bulté raced home, fetched his wetsuit and snorkel and got into the frigid water — where winter ice had recently melted — to collect the bodies. It quickly became clear the deaths were widespread. He kept finding more piles of dead turtles; he filled buckets with them. “I was like, ‘Whoa, when is this going to end?'” he said. When it eventually did, he had nearly 150 dead turtles, many of which Bulté knew from his two decades of monitoring work at the near-pristine, forest fringed lake. It was a devastating blow, wiping out roughly 10% of the lake's population. The deaths were a puzzle for Bulté. It was clear from the turtles' damaged bodies that this was a predator attack, and only one animal was likely strong enough to have done it: the river otter. But the bigger question was why this had happened in the first place. It was the first mass mortality event Bulté had seen at the lake, and protecting the turtles in the future meant understanding why so many had died. Northern map turtles are fascinating, Bulté said. They have adapted to survive the harsh Canadian winter by spending it clustered together, submerged underwater beneath a thick layer of ice. They stay there for months, moving only slightly, keeping their body temperature near freezing and their metabolism slow. The turtles have other interesting quirks, too. Females are much bigger than males and about 10 times heavier, with stronger jaws that allow them to eat mollusks, while males tend to stick to insects and snails. Their size advantage doesn't always protect them, however. Bulté has documented females moving to deeper water and burying their bodies in the sediment to escape unwanted, relentless attention from over-amorous males during mating season. Northern map turtles are fairly abundant in parts of the United States, but in Canada, home to an estimated 10,000, they are designated a species of “special concern” because of the threats they face. They rely on “big water,” said Jacqueline Litzgus, an ecologist at Laurentian University, meaning the vast lakes and rivers that are often heavily used by humans. This puts them at risk of boat strikes, being disturbed when they venture out of the water to bask and nest and being caught in fishing nets. Northern map turtles are also vulnerable because of their long lives. They take years to reach maturity and their hatchlings have low survival rates. “The loss of even a few adults can cause a population to collapse,” said a spokesperson for Ontario Waterways, part of the Canadian national park system. History shows the risks with a different species of turtle. Over three winters in the late 1980s, otters killed around 50% of the snapping turtles in Algonquin Park, Ontario. More than two decades on, “the population still has not recovered,” Litzgus said. Recent analyses show it is still declining, she added, “suggesting it may have reached a tipping point of not being able to recover.” To solve the mystery of what happened to the turtles of Opinicon Lake back in 2022, Bulté went through a process of elimination. He started with what he knew: The turtles are vulnerable in the winter because they cluster in big groups and sit exposed on the lakebed; they don't burrow into the mud and sediment. Anything that can get to them “has an all-you-can-eat buffet of turtles,” Bulté said. In this case, it was river otters, whose populations have rebounded, in part because their pelts have become less lucrative to trappers. They typically eat fish, but won't say no if turtles are on offer. The big question was how these otters had breached the lake's thick winter ice. Bulté ruled out people damaging the ice because the overwintering site is away from the shore and far from any human infrastructure. So, he turned to temperature. “Maybe it got a little bit warmer, it melted along the shoreline and (otters) were able to sneak in,” he said. They may have got under the ice from borrows or cavities along the shoreline. If temperature is the key to the puzzle, the implications could be worrying. As human-driven climate change warms the planet, it could put these turtles at increasing risk. It's not yet possible to know if climate change played a role in this specific case, Bulté cautioned. “We would need to have been able to document several of these events over a long period of time,” he said. So far, there has only been one. But what is clear, he added, is that the way these turtles spend the winter — in large groups, in the same spots each year — makes them vulnerable. The otter attacks are a “cautionary tale,” Bulté said, and a sign of how vital it is to protect the turtles' overwintering sites across Canada and beyond, many of which are in busier and less pristine lakes than Opinicon. Northern map turtles are increasingly vulnerable as shorelines develop, trees are felled, and motorboats, with their deadly propellers, proliferate. Lakefront homes are also increasingly using “bubblers,” which push bubbles into the water to stop it freezing around docks and boathouses and could provide another entry point for predators. Longer term, climate change poses another big risk. Bulté has already noticed some extremely early springs in recent years. “We're going to have less reliable ice. So, we are certainly wondering if this is going to affect opportunity for predations in the future,” he said. The future remains uncertain for the northern map turtles. If there was just one problem affecting them, “maybe this is something they can live with,” Bulté said. But they face so many threats, he added. “It's death by a thousand cuts.” Images supported by funding through National Geographic Society's Preserving Legacies project.","{'href': 'https://www.cnn.com', 'title': 'CNN'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:cnn.com","Missile strikes US Embassy in Baghdad","https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/14/world/video/missile-strikes-us-embassy-baghdad-vrtc","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:35:00 GMT"," A missile hit a helipad inside the US Embassy compound in Baghdad, Iraqi security officials told the Associated Press, with video showing a fire atop a building. CNN has reached out to the State Department for more information. A missile hit a helipad inside the US Embassy compound in Baghdad, Iraqi security officials told the Associated Press, with video showing a fire atop a building. CNN has reached out to the State Department for more information. Emergency workers responded to Russian strikes on Kyiv Saturday morning after a combined missile and drone attack killed at least four and wounded at least 15. Since the beginning of the war with Iran, Israeli authorities have shut down Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City and completely banned Palestinians from praying in or around the holy site - as Ramadan approaches its climax. Officials say it is a public safety measure to protect people during air raids and point to similar restrictions at other places of worship in the Old City. President Trump says the US ""obliterated"" Iran's Kharg Island without targeting its vital oil facilities, as doing so could further escalate already high oil prices. CNN's Kristen Holmes reports. After launching US-Israeli strikes on Iran, US President Donald Trump touted regime change as a goal – a pledge that invokes skepticism in the Middle East and beyond. CNN Field Producer Zeena Saifi looks at the unintended consequences of foreign intervention and the worries that history may be poised to repeat itself. Cuban officials have held talks with the United States, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed for the first time, as the island faces an economic crisis and intense pressure from President Donald Trump. CNN's Patrick Oppmann reports. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh reports on Israel's new military tactic to target Iran's checkpoints.","{'href': 'https://www.cnn.com', 'title': 'CNN'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:cnn.com","Can American car companies survive American politics?","https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/14/politics/oil-price-electric-vehicles-auto-industry-tariffs-analysis","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:00:35 GMT"," A version of this story appeared in CNN's What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. The Biden administration was all in on electric vehicles. The Trump administration is all but hostile to them. Ford used to call the transition to EVs a new Model T moment. Now it's regrouping, taking a $19.5 billion hit and pulling back from the revolution. GM is also retreating from its plans for EVs. Chrysler is hitting the “reset” button. Meanwhile, innovation in China has many wondering whether US companies will be left behind, assuming consumers do ultimately pivot away from internal combustion engines. China's government formulated a plan for its auto industry and has stuck to it. The US government, in successive elections, has done the opposite of that. And now President Donald Trump has begun a war on Iran, which is spiking the price of gasoline. I talked to Chris Isidore, who covers the auto industry for CNN, to see what his reporting says about how the US auto industry will cope with its country's mercurial politics and the unreliable price of gas. Our conversation, conducted by email both before and after the war began, and edited for length and style, is below. WOLF: The Biden administration was all in on EVs. The Trump administration pulled the plug, ahem, on government support. How is the US car industry dealing with the whiplash? ISIDORE: The automakers are pulling back on their EV plans but not shelving them permanently. That's because they have to be concerned that the next administration will restore some of the tougher emissions rules. Or that the Trump administration will fail in its efforts to block California and and a number of other states from preventing the sale of traditional gasoline-powered cars at some point in the next decade. It's also because EV demand continues to grow in Europe and Asia, and the automakers need to be competitive worldwide. And they face growing competition from Chinese automakers, who now dominate the EV market. ISIDORE: Probably not. It typically takes a prolonged gas price increase to change customers' car buying habits. There was no large scale move towards EVs when gas prices hit $5 a gallon in June of 2022. Buyers recognize that a car is the proverbial long-term purchase and also that these are likely a shorter term increase in prices. The more prolonged increase in gas prices in the 1970s did open the door for fuel efficient imports from Japan to capture some US market share but it still took decades for that growth to have such “foreign” brands capture a majority of the US market. And even if there was suddenly more demand for EVs, it takes years for automakers to change their vehicle lineups. WOLF: Is it fair to say that the US political system has hurt the US car industry in recent years? ISIDORE: Yes and no. Ever-changing tariff rules are not helpful for making long-term plans. Nor is it easy to deal with different parts of the country having different emission rules. But America has long supported driving through massive road construction, and thus the demand for automobiles. There is no doubt that the United States is the most profitable market for automakers on the planet. That's true even for companies like Hyundai, which has to pay tariffs on the cars imported from South Korea. The US is more profitable than its home market. That's partly because of the buying habits of American car-buyers, not strictly political policy. But policy does recognize the importance of car-buying to the public. WOLF: Is the prediction still that more Americans will be driving EVs in the years to come, or has President Donald Trump (and US consumer preference) effectively turned the EV market into a niche thing in the US? It's probably too much to say EVs will remain a niche market. But the plans to have an all-electric future by the middle of next decade have definitely been put on hold. US EV sales overall last year were essentially flat. And they're likely to remain soft in the early part of this year due to the rush of many buyers to purchase an EV in the months before the $7,500 tax credit expired on October 1. But sales could start to climb in the future, especially if automakers introduce cheaper EVs, as they are talking about doing. WOLF: I keep reading about how good and cheap Chinese EVs are — more integrated with phones and technology. Will US EVs catch up or are we effectively ceding innovation to the Chinese? ISIDORE: Chinese EVs clearly lead the market right now. And that's helped partly by the massively greater demand for EVs in China than in Europe and the US. But I think it's too much to say that Western automakers have lost the EV market to the Chinese permanently. Chinese automakers want to come to US. They could be here fairly soon WOLF: Moving on the tariff issue. Trump promised auto tariffs — which are not affected by the recent Supreme Court decision limiting Trump's emergency powers — would start a new golden age of American manufacturing. How's that looking at the moment? ISIDORE: Overall, the goods-producing sector of the economy was down about 60,000 jobs in January compared with a year earlier. Much of that was driven by the loss of 83,000 manufacturing jobs. So the idea of tariffs leading to a massive investment in US factories and reshoring of manufacturing is a myth. Part of that is due to the fact that tariffs drive up the cost of manufacturing that depends on foreign inputs. Part of that is increased use of AI to increase productivity. And part of it is due to the fact that it takes a long time to build a factory here. Despite Trump talking about trillions of dollars in plans to invest in the US since he took office, few manufacturers, especially in the auto industry, have announced plans to shut foreign plants and relocate production here, especially any time soon. WOLF: The US industry is specifically tied to both Canada and Mexico. Will Trump's trade policy and the renegotiation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) change that current system? ISIDORE: There will certainly be changes in the rules. But the automakers do keep getting various changes and exemptions they sought to keep operating the way they have for several decades, with parts and vehicles moving freely across the two North American borders. I would imagine that the changes will end up being more in the margins than a fundamental change that moves all car production, and parts production by suppliers, solely to the US and away from Canada and Mexico. Carmakers worried Trump's tariffs would shred their bottom lines. Here's how they avoided the worst of it WOLF: How are US car companies are currently dealing with the erratic American political system? ISIDORE: For the most part they're paying for the tariffs and having only a modest increase in costs being passed onto consumers. The price of vehicles is driven mostly by supply and demand and competition from rival companies. Not the cost of things like tariffs. If automakers could freely pass along all their costs to consumers, I would never have had to spend so much time writing about bankruptcies and bailouts 16 to 17 years ago. But as much as the automakers are paying more due to tariffs, they've achieved savings of as much or more from no longer being subject to fines for exceeding emissions rules on the vehicles they sell. That means no longer spending billions to buy regulatory credits from automakers like Tesla. And it means they can discontinue some of the EV models and more fuel-efficient gas-powered models they were offering to get closer to meeting those emissions rules and concentrate on selling large trucks and SUVs, which are far more profitable. WOLF: Which foreign car companies are doing the best job of integrating into the US market under Trump? Are any simply leaving? ISIDORE: No automaker is leaving the US market. That's because of what I said about this being the most profitable market for automakers. And because just about all of them operate plants here — not due to tariffs or trade rules, but because it makes sense to build cars close to the market in which you sell them. And no foreign automaker has announced a massive shift to the US market under Trump. Toyota has announced plans to invest more in US plants. But it's not building a new plant WOLF: You've been covering the auto industry for a long time. What will it look like in 10 years and 20 years? ISIDORE: Chinese automakers will likely be selling Chinese-branded cars here within 10 years. Likely sooner than that. That will be one of the more significant changes, similar to the entry of European and Japanese automakers in the past. There will likely be more mergers within the industry, perhaps even the purchase of some major Western automaker by the Chinese. They already own Volvo, a fact few Volvo owners are probably aware of. And while an all-electric future may no longer be reached in the US within 20 years, I suspect that traditional pure gasoline-powered cars will also be far less common than today — hybrids are going to become more important. And EVs will continue to gain modest market share. And autonomous driving features will become more common, but I think that 20 years is too soon to see human-driven cars completely overtaken by fully autonomous cars. Ride-hailing services will continue to have a growing share of miles traveled by Americans, but it's not like the individually owned vehicles will go the way of the land-line telephone and be overtaken by new technology. © 2026 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network. Scan the QR code to download the CNN app on Google Play. Scan the QR code to download the CNN app from the Apple Store.","{'href': 'https://www.cnn.com', 'title': 'CNN'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:rt.com","Russian skier wins fifth gold at Paralympics","https://www.rt.com/sport/634986-russian-skier-voronchikhina-fifth-gold-paralympics/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:38:00 GMT"," Russian skier Varvara Voronchikhina won her second gold medal of the Milan-Cortina Paralympics on Saturday, taking the women's standing slalom. She had earlier won the super-G and claimed silver and bronze in the giant slalom and downhill. This year's event marks the first Paralympics where Russian athletes have been allowed to compete under their national flag after years of bans and restrictions in international sport. Competing at her first Paralympic Games, Voronchikhina is also a two-time world champion, including in the super-G in 2021. Ahead of Sunday's closing ceremony, Russia has climbed to fifth in the medal table with nine medals. Skier Anastasia Bagiyan won gold in the women's sprint on Tuesday, while Aleksey Bugaev took bronze in the men's downhill standing event. The Russian Paralympic team was cleared to compete earlier this year after Moscow won an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, which had barred athletes from Russia and Belarus despite the International Paralympic Committee reinstating them last year. The Milano-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games opened on March 6 and will run through March 15, with six Russian athletes competing in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and snowboarding. RT News App © Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005–2026. All rights reserved. This website uses cookies. Read RT Privacy policy to find out more.","{'href': 'https://www.rt.com', 'title': 'rt.com'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:rt.com","CrossTalk Interview: ‘Epic Mistake'","https://www.rt.com/podcast/634684-crooke-iran-military-campaign/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:36:16 GMT"," As the days pass, the US-Israel military campaign against Iran is resembling more of an ‘Epic Mistake' rather than ‘Epic Fury'. Indeed, the regional and geopolitical implications are becoming apparent. The US and Israel are not winning, as Iran remains steadfast. CrossTalking with Alastair Crooke. RT News App © Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005–2026. All rights reserved. This website uses cookies. Read RT Privacy policy to find out more.","{'href': 'https://www.rt.com', 'title': 'rt.com'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:tass.com","Military operation against Iran to last 'as long as necessary' — US President Trump","https://tass.com/world/2101501","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:50:18 GMT"," WASHINGTON, March 14. /TASS/. The US and Israeli military operation against Iran will last as long as it takes, US President Donald Trump said. Asked by journalists about how long the military operation against Iran would last, Trump replied ""I can't tell you that."" ""But I mean that I have my own idea that it will be as long as necessary,"" he noted. The US president also said that American and Israeli objectives during the military operation against Iran may be a little different. In response to a question from journalists whether the goals set by the United States and Israel are the same, Trump replied that they may be a little different, but did not specify the nature of differences. The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack. The Assembly of Experts of the Islamic Republic of Iran later announced the election of Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the assassinated ayatollah, as the country's new Supreme Leader.","{'href': 'https://tass.com', 'title': 'tass.com'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:tass.com","Russia controls 90% of Donbass, ambassador to UK says","https://tass.com/politics/2101013","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:38:21 GMT"," NEW YORK, March 13. /TASS/. Ukraine now controls just 10% of Donbass, with the Russian army making continuous gains, Russian Ambassador to Britain Andrey Kelin said. ""The situation in Ukraine itself is that it is steadily moving towards defeat,"" the Russian diplomat told CNBC in an interview. ""What is on the table right now is about 10% of Donbas territory, which is not yet under our control, 10% no more,"" he said. At a Kremlin meeting with the head of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, on March 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed that the Kiev-controlled area in the republic had shrunk from 25% to 17% over the past six months.","{'href': 'https://tass.com', 'title': 'tass.com'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:tass.com","Middle East conflict may lead to 70% drop in oil production, expert says","https://tass.com/economy/2101605","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:48:32 GMT"," LONDON, March 14. /TASS/. Middle Eastern countries could face a 70% drop in oil production as a result of military operations by Israel and the US against Iran, Aditya Saraswat, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Research Director at the consulting firm Rystad Energy, told TASS. ""In just over a week since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran triggered the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, more than 12 million barrels of oil equivalent per day of Middle East oil and gas production has been taken offline, including 7 million barrels per day of crude supply - equivalent to roughly 7% of total global liquids demand. Iraq has been hit hardest, with over 60% of its pre-conflict volume curtailed. Still, the more alarming reality is that the worst is likely yet to come. In a worst-case scenario Middle East crude output could fall to approximately 6 million bpd, a region-wide reduction of 70% from the pre-conflict baseline,"" the expert pointed out. He stressed that ""further cuts from major Middle East oil producers cannot be ruled out as storage tanks fill to the brim, bypass infrastructure approaches its limit, and the conflict shows no sign of a near-term resolution."" ""If and when the crisis reaches an end, it will take months to restore operations to pre-conflict levels, with the questions of infrastructure integrity and a recalibrated geopolitical order still at play,"" Saraswat noted. In his view, even if Russia provides additional supplies, importers will be able to offset only part of the potential losses. The expert stressed that ""a historic supply crisis"" might be triggered ""if the conflict is not resolved in the coming weeks."" The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.","{'href': 'https://tass.com', 'title': 'tass.com'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:theguardian.com","Homicide charge dropped against Georgia teen after teacher's prank death","https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/14/charges-dropped-georgia-teen-teacher-prank-death","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:30:00 GMT"," Jason Hughes died after falling and being struck by a car driven by a student who had just pranked the teacher A Georgia prosecutor has decided to drop charges against a teenager who police say was driving the truck that struck and killed a beloved high school teacher when a prank turned deadly, the teen's lawyer said. The victim's family had urged authorities not to compound the tragedy by prosecuting the teen driver and his friends. The 40-year-old teacher, Jason Hughes, died after slipping and falling into the street as the teens started to drive away after participating in a community tradition of pranking teachers by throwing toilet paper on to his front lawn. The students had stopped and rendered aid to Hughes until emergency responders arrived. Hughes was brought to the hospital and died on 6 March, the Hall county sheriff's office said. The 18-year-old driver – Jayden Ryan Wallace, whom his lawyer said adored Hughes and considered him a mentor – was arrested on a felony charge of vehicular homicide, and four other teens were charged with misdemeanors. A lawyer who represents Wallace, Graham McKinnon, said on Friday that the charges against his client had been dropped. McKinnon said that prosecutors also dropped misdemeanor charges against the four other teens who were there. The students had gone to Hughes's home at about 11.40pm on 6 March and began wrapping his trees with toilet paper, the sheriff's office said. The teens started to leave when Hughes came outside – the teacher's family said he had heard in advance about the prank and hoped to surprise the students. McKinnon said Wallace and his friends were playing a “competitive game” that has long been a tradition at North Hall high school. “In the end, there was no crime – only an extremely sad and devastating accident,” McKinnon said in a statement. Vehicular homicide charges, he said, didn't make sense because Jaden didn't use his car unsafely or improperly. “Jaden is still grieving deeply, but he's determined eventually to carry on and live his life in a way that would make Coach Hughes proud.” Hughes – who taught math and helped coach golf, football and baseball at North Hall high school in Gainesville – was a “mentor” to Wallace, McKinnon said. “I pledge to live out the remainder of my life in a manner that honors the memory of Coach Hughes by exemplifying Christ,” Wallace said in a statement released by his family on Wednesday. “He will never be forgotten.” Hughes' family had issued a statement saying he knew and loved the five students involved and urging authorities to drop all charges against them. “This is a terrible tragedy, and our family is determined to prevent a separate tragedy from occurring, ruining the lives of these students,” Hughes's family said. “This would be counter to Jason's lifelong dedication of investing in the lives of these children.”","{'href': 'https://www.theguardian.com', 'title': 'The Guardian'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:theguardian.com","The ‘Jolene doctrine': retired US army general likens Trump foreign policy to Dolly Parton song","https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/14/jolene-doctrine-us-foreign-policy-stanley-mcchrystal","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:58:00 GMT"," Stanley McChrystal said White House has a ‘we should do because we can' approach to international relations The retired US army general who once led Nato forces in Afghanistan says the bellicose foreign policy Donald Trump has pursued during his second presidency can be summed up as “we should do because we can” – invoking the lyrics of the Dolly Parton classic Jolene to emphasize the point. Stanley McChrystal delivered those remarks on Friday at Tulane University's New Orleans book festival during a fireside chat hosted by the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, who asked in part about US military strikes Trump has ordered in Nigeria, Venezuela and Iran since Christmas. “I'm a big fan of Dolly Parton – do you remember her song Jolene?” McChrystal replied, referring to the country star's Grammy-nominated 1973 hit. “This poor wife says, ‘Jolene, please don't take my man; don't take him just because you can. “And that's what worries me – I think we might be in a period where we think what we can do, we should do because we can. And I think the world is starting to view us that way.” McChrystal's commentary about what he dubbed Trump's “Jolene doctrine” is bound to carry weight in many political circles, as the retired general spent his entire career in the US army upon graduating from its West Point academy in 1976. Later, as a special forces officer, he was credited with prominent roles in the US's capture of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 as well as the 2006 killing of the al-Qaida leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. McChrystal subsequently commanded US and Nato military alliance troops in Afghanistan for a little more than a year beginning in June 2009 during Barack Obama's presidency. He ultimately had to resign from that post after making disparaging remarks to a Rolling Stone magazine journalist profiling him about the US's civilian leadership, including Obama and his eventual Democratic White House successor, Joe Biden, the vice-president at the time. Obama replaced McChrystal with Gen David Petraeus, who later resigned as director of the US's Central Intelligence Agency over an extramarital affair with his biographer. The Atlantic reported later on Friday that a White House spokesperson responded to McChrystal's comments by saying the president had restored the US's “place as leader of the free world”. Among others, the publication also quoted the University of Missouri's Jay Sexton, a historian of American foreign relations, as saying: “I think the Trump team is acting like an unbridled Jolene – they're doing things because they can. “But the bummer is to carry the metaphor: Jolene is likely to regret doing what she thinks she can.” The US's Christmas strikes in north-west Nigeria were aimed at what the Trump administration described as fighters for the Islamic State terror group, though there were questions over which group was specifically targeted and the operation's impact. Then, on 3 January, the US attacked Venezuela and seized its ruler, Nicolás Maduro, whom Trump's justice department had charged with drugs, weapons and narco-terrorism charges. Israel and the US then jointly attacked Iran on 28 February, killing the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The ensuing conflict has been marked with mixed signals about what Trump would consider victory, confusing his constituency, allies and foes. The president has also spent time trying to deflect responsibility for the bombing of a girls' school in southern Iran, which killed at least 175 people, mostly children. Amid all that, Trump renewed threats to seize Greenland for the US with military action if necessary. He ultimately walked those threats back but was widely seen to have strained the US's relations with its Nato allies. Goldberg on Friday told McChrystal that he feared the world has not heard the end of Trump's fixation with Greenland. “I'm a great believer in allies,” McChrystal said in turn. “To me, that's the sacred kind of relationships that are essential for any nation. We'll never be powerful enough to go it alone.”","{'href': 'https://www.theguardian.com', 'title': 'The Guardian'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:theguardian.com","‘Everything is going up': Americans struggle with affordability despite Trump's claims","https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/14/americans-struggle-affordability-despite-trump-claims","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:02:00 GMT"," US workers are finding it difficult to afford basic necessities as the president claims ‘the economy is roaring back' US workers are still struggling with the cost of living despite Donald Trump's campaign promises to fix the US affordability crisis. The Guardian spoke to workers as an exclusive poll showed cross-party concerns about the Trump administration's handling of the US economy. Dawn Levie, 61, a postal service worker in Paulden, Arizona, said she's lost thousands in earnings over the past year due to cuts to her hours, making it more difficult for her to afford basic necessities like paying for groceries and utility bills. “It's hard to describe how you feel when you can't sustain your livelihood because your money is impacted,” Levie said. “You can't pay bills, [and] creditors get mad. How do you tell them: ‘I just don't have it?'” The White House insists that the affordability problem Americans like Levie report doesn't exist. At a rally in Kentucky earlier this week, Donald Trump told the crowd: “Inflation is plummeting, income is rising, the economy is roaring back!” Though the positive sentiment will be a tough sell for voters in the upcoming midterm elections. After helping Congress pass huge cuts to healthcare and food assistance programs, Trump is now pushing to remove minimum wage and overtime protections for some workers. And though seven out of 10 Americans said that tariffs have led to higher prices, Trump has only doubled down on more levies. Far from feeling like the US is in a golden age, workers said rising inflation means their paychecks can't keep up with prices. “I know things are worse, because I'm living it and I feel it every day,” said Bryan Williams, 63, a home-care worker in Madison, Wisconsin, who is living paycheck to paycheck on $17.65 an hour. “It's very hard trying to pay rent, pay your bills, buy food, gas and juggle which ones you can pay [and] which ones you can let go. “[I] ask myself which one should I get, when I know I need both, or worrying will I have enough money to get back and forth to work until another payday? Or will I have enough money to pay my light bill?” Vernice Thompson, 63, a retail worker in Williamsburg, Virginia, said that even though she receives social security benefits, housing still takes up half her income. “Groceries have gone up. [The prices of] a lot of the foods that I like have gone up,” said Thompson. “I know the price of clothing too because I work in retail, and I haven't seen any declines in the price of clothing.” “Everything is going up,” she added. Food prices were 2.9% higher in January compared to the year before and are predicted to increase by 3.1% over the next year. Data shows that the food insecurity rate spiked to 16% in November, up from 12.7% in January 2025. Utility prices in the US also increased by more than 6% in January 2026 compared to a year prior. More Americans are taking on debt because of the rising cost of necessities. Total household debt in the fourth quarter of 2025 reached $18.8tn, up by 4% since the beginning of the year. Delinquency for all types of debt rose 3.26% in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to 1.7% in the same period of 2024. Credit card debt in the US by the end of 2025 hit a record $1.28tn. Meanwhile, wages have stagnated for many workers. The 10% lowest wage earners, receiving on average $14.56 an hour, saw their wages decline by 0.3% when adjusted for inflation in 2025. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour has remained unchanged since 2009 – the longest period without an increase since the federal minimum wage was enacted. In comparison, higher-income Americans have been earning more than ever. Since 1979, high-end wages have grown twice as fast as low and middle wages. “If people aren't being paid a cost-of-living increase, or just the bare minimum of a cost of living increase, it's hard to keep up,” said Crystal Franklin, 54, a US passport specialist and mother of three who lives in Dumfries, Virginia. Franklin said she started taking the bus to work because of rising gas prices and is being more frugal at the grocery store. Yet she still has less room in her budget for entertainment and leisure expenses for her grandchildren. “We're not able to do what we used to be able to do because cost of living has gone up extremely high,” Franklin said. US families have paid more than $1,700 in estimated costs due to the Trump administration's tariffs from February 2025 to January 2026, with Trump announcing new tariffs to replace those struck down by the US supreme court last month. At the same time, Republicans have been cutting down the country's social safety net. Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was passed last summer included massive cuts for the next decade, including over $1tn from Medicaid, $536bn from Medicare and $186bn from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap). In addition to these cuts, the White House is allowing Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire, which will raise health insurance premiums for 22 million Americans by an estimated 114%, from $888 a year to $1,904 in 2026. Trump has also sought to cut pay for millions of low-wage workers. Last year, the president rescinded an executive order that raised the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour and gave annual raises to keep in pace with inflation, impacting more than 300,000 workers. The White House is also trying to remove overtime protections for nearly 4 million home-care workers who received median wages of $16.78 an hour in 2024. “Things have been pretty tough in the last year,” said Williams. “I don't believe anything Trump says because everything he promised us he was going to do did not happen.” A spokesperson for the White House, Kush Desai, disputed the economic trajectory under the Trump administration. “America's economic trajectory under President Trump has been solid,” Desai said. “This week's CPI report showed inflation continues to cool while the Administration's tax cut, tariff, and deregulatory agenda continues to drive robust real wage and investment growth. Once we are past short term disruptions from Operation Epic Fury, America is poised to see even greater economic progress as the Administration's trade deals, drug pricing deals, deregulatory efforts, and tax cuts continue taking effect.”","{'href': 'https://www.theguardian.com', 'title': 'The Guardian'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:taipeitimes.com","Iran war entering decisive phase: Israel","https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2026/03/15/2003853834","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:00:00 GMT"," Israel yesterday said the war against Iran was entering its “decisive phase,” as explosions rocked cities across the Middle East, with strikes on the US embassy in Baghdad and a major Emirati energy facility. Black smoke rose above the embassy in Iraq, the second time it has been targeted since Feb. 28, when the US and Israel attacked Iran and plunged the Gulf into a conflict that has sent shockwaves through the global economy. Millions have been displaced by waves of drone, missile and aerial bombing, while more than 1,200 people have reportedly been killed in Iran, with little sign of the conflict slowing down as it entered its third week. Clouds of dark black smoke were also rising yesterday from Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, home to a major Emirati oil storage and export terminal. Photo: AP Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said the war was entering a “decisive phase,” even if he cautioned that it would “continue as long as necessary.” Yet, despite facing superior US and Israeli firepower, Iran appears determined to fight on. It has launched missile and drone attacks against at least 10 of its neighbors and has choked off traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz. Israel's army warned people in an industrial zone of Tabriz in northern Iran to evacuate, signaling an imminent attack. The hit on the US embassy in Baghdad followed strikes against the powerful Iran-backed group Kataeb Hezbollah, killing two members including a “key figure,” security sources said. US President Donald Trump said on Friday that US forces had struck Iran's Kharg Island, its biggest oil export hub, and “obliterated every MILITARY target” while sparing its energy facilities. Iranian media confirmed the island's oil facilities were unaffected. Iran had threatened US-linked energy firms would be “turned into a pile of ashes” if they were hit. Iran's threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz have brought traffic to a virtual halt on a route that normally carries one-fifth of global oil supplies. Trump said the US Navy would start escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz “very soon,” but governments around the world fear a prolonged blow to their economies with crude oil prices up more than 40 percent since the war began. The Palestinian militant group Hamas yesterday called for Iran to refrain from targeting neighboring countries, in a rare breach between the allies, although it affirmed Tehran's right to defend itself. Qatar said it yesterday intercepted two missiles over the capital's downtown area and evacuated key areas. The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defense said its forces had intercepted dozens of drones on Friday. Strikes have continued in Iran, with heavy blasts shaking Tehran late on Friday. The Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education said more than 1,200 people have been killed by US and Israeli attacks, numbers that could not be independently verified. The UN Refugee Agency has estimated that up to 3.2 million people have been displaced in Iran since the war started. Trump described Iran as “totally defeated” and in search of a deal he was unwilling to consider. US media raised the possibility of a ground invasion, with the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reporting that the Pentagon had dispatched the Japan-based amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli to the region with about 2,500 US Marines. Iran's rulers appear intent on showing they would survive the war and maintain control, despite their supreme leader Ali Khamenei being killed on day one. Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, was named the new supreme leader, but has been absent from public view and is reportedly wounded. Beyond the Gulf, Turkey said NATO forces shot down a ballistic missile launched from Iran — the third such interception in the war. DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan's victory and Japan's narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan's existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi's (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People's Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people's resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed ‘UNWAVERING FRIENDSHIP': A representative of a Japanese group that co-organized a memorial, said he hopes Japanese never forget Taiwan's kindness President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, urging continued cooperation between Taiwan and Japan on disaster prevention and humanitarian assistance. Lai wrote on social media that Taiwan and Japan have always helped each other in the aftermath of major disasters. The magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami that claimed more than 19,000 lives, according to data from Japanese authorities. Following the disaster, Taiwan donated more than US$240 million in aid, making it one of the largest contributors of financial assistance to Japan. In addition to cash donations and ","{'href': 'https://www.taipeitimes.com', 'title': 'Taipei Times'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:japannews.yomiuri.co.jp","WBC: U.S. Beats Canada 5-3, Advances to the World Baseball Classic Semifinals","https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/baseball/20260314-316438/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:38:00 GMT"," Please disable the ad blocking feature. To use this site, please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page. This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content, and analyzing our website traffic. By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies. Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent. We apologize for any inconvenience caused. The Associated Press 12:38 JST, March 14, 2026 HOUSTON (AP) — Aaron Judge doubled and Pete Crow-Armstrong and Brice Turang each had two hits as the United States beat Canada 5-3 on Friday night to reach the World Baseball Classic semifinals. The U.S. squad rebounded after an 8-6 loss to Italy in pool play left them needing help to advance to this round. The Americans move on to face the Dominican Republic in a semifinal on Sunday in Miami. It will be the team's third straight appearance in the semifinals and the fourth overall. It's another big win for the U.S. over its neighbors to the north, coming after the U.S. hockey team beat Canada 2-1 in overtime to win the gold medal at the Milan Olympics last month. Bo Naylor hit a two-run homer in Canada's three-run sixth that cut the deficit to two runs. But the U.S. bullpen closed it out, capped by Mason Miller striking out the side in the ninth for the save. Canada, which was in the quarterfinals for the first time, fell to 1-5 against the U.S. in the WBC. Canada trailed by five runs when Owen Caissie walked with one out in the sixth and moved to second on a groundout by Abraham Toro. Tyler Black's RBI single off Brad Keller cut the lead to 5-1. Naylor's shot to the second deck in right field came on Gabe Speier's fifth pitch and got Canada within 5-3. It was the 10th home run the U.S. has allowed in five games in the tournament. Canada had a shot to close the gap in the seventh when it had runners on second and third with no outs. But David Bednar retired the next three batters, with two strikeouts, to escape the jam. U.S. starter Logan Webb allowed four hits and walked one with five strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings. Bobby Witt Jr. was on with one out in the first when Judge doubled before Witt scored on a groundout by Kyle Schwarber to give the U.S. an early lead. The double by Judge was the only extra-base hit of the night for the U.S. Canada had a runner on first with two outs in the second when Witt made a leaping catch on a ball hit by Edouard Julien to end the inning. The bases were loaded with two outs in the third when Alex Bregman singled on a ground ball to Toro. His throw to first sailed over Josh Naylor's head and into the dugout and two runs scored to make it 3-0. Roman Anthony singled with one out in the sixth before a walk by Cal Raleigh. Brice Turang singled on a grounder to center field to score Anthony and push the lead to 4-0. Crow-Armstrong sent the next pitch into center field for an RBI single before Witt grounded into a double play to end the inning. Related Tags Popular articles in the past 24 hours Popular articles in the past week Popular articles in the past month JN ACCESS RANKING The Japan News / Weekly Edition Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting, readable fomat. Read more eng jp © 2026 The Japan News - by The Yomiuri Shimbun","{'href': 'https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp', 'title': 'The Japan News'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:kyivindependent.com","News from occupied Ukraine: Russia confiscating homes in Mariupol, continuing forced passportization, restriction of reproductive rights","https://kyivindependent.com/what-happened-in-russian-occupied-ukraine-over-week-or-russian-occupied-ukraine-update/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 08:41:58 GMT"," This weekly update from the Kyiv Independent aims to shed light on the situation facing Ukrainians living under Russian occupation and the tight control of information imposed by the Kremlin. Key news as of March 14: Russian occupation authorities in Mariupol are disconnecting apartments from utilities as part of a process to identify and confiscate housing, Ukraine's National Resistance Center said on March 11. According to the center, homeowners in Mariupol are being disconnected from utilities, including electricity, and told to contact ""Energosbyt Donetsk,"" the main electricity supplier in the Russian proxy-controlled part of Donetsk Oblast. To restore service, residents must reissue all necessary documentation and provide information about the people living and registered there. The National Resistance Center said that while the data update is presented as a ""regular procedure,"" the personal information is handed over to occupation authorities and can then be used to facilitate the seizure of homes. ""The disconnection of utilities becomes the first stage of the mechanism for real estate redistribution,"" the National Resistance Center said. Russian-controlled authorities in occupied Ukraine are increasing restrictions on women's reproductive rights, effectively preventing them from accessing abortions, according to the NGO East Human Rights Group. ""The (Russian) regime needs children to be born, even if the child is unwanted, without proper conditions to grow up in,"" Vera Iastrebova, the head of the East Human Rights Group, told the Kyiv Independent. ""These children are then being raised to become future soldiers, as evidenced by the militarization of educational institutions."" Iastrebova said authorities in the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast have been taking steps to pressure pregnant women who want to have an abortion and have also placed restrictions on doctors. Such restrictions on abortions are a consistent reproductive policy of Russia itself, against the backdrop of an escalating demographic crisis. Iastrebova believes that women under occupation are the most vulnerable due to numerous cases of rape by Russian soldiers. She said that cases of sexual violence against women are concealed in the occupied territories. ""If a woman even claims that she was raped by Russian soldiers, she may not be granted victim status, but may instead be accused of discrediting the Russian army,"" she said. Read more here... Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree that indefinitely extends the ease of obtaining Russian citizenship in the occupied territories, a move that experts say is a sign that Russia is consolidating its occupation by pursuing mass passportization. The March 4 decree removes the deadline for residents of occupied Ukrainian territories to obtain Russian citizenship through a simplified process established by a 2022 Russian law, effectively making the policy permanent. ""The goal of the new decree is to passportize as many people as possible, pressuring them,"" Nataliia Yurlova, lawyer for the NGO Donbas SOS, told the Kyiv Independent. ""In general, Russia has been issuing passports to Ukrainians in occupation for quite a long time, and each time new requirements are imposed on our citizens."" The previous deadline was part of a ""transitional period,"" which is the time Russia set aside to complete the ""integration"" of the occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts into its own economic, financial, and legal systems — including by requiring residents to obtain a Russian passport. Russia has forced residents of occupied Ukrainian territories to take Russian passports since 2022, part of a broader effort to consolidate control and suppress Ukrainian identity. Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of the Occupation, said the new decree signals Russia's shift from a ""campaign"" mode of passportization to a permanent mechanism for integrating occupied territories, forming a legal basis for further demographic and administrative changes. Partisans of Ukraine's Special Operations Forces (SOF) Resistance movement were involved in Ukrainian attacks on Russian military facilities in the occupied territories, SOF has said. SOF reported on March 10 and March 11 that local partisan groups assisted in several operations in the Russian-occupied part of Donetsk Oblast and Crimea. On March 10, front-line strike units targeted a storage base and distribution point for fuel and lubricants in Makiivka, Donetsk Oblast. The same day in the nearby city of Donetsk, Ukrainian drones struck a Volna-3 electronic warfare station that Russian forces were using to defend against unmanned aerial vehicles. On March 11, Ukraine's Special Operations Forces said they destroyed the 64N6E radar station and its antenna in Sevastopol, occupied Crimea, which were used for Russia's S-300 and S-400 air defense systems. In the village of Shyroka Balka, Donetsk Oblast, a weapons warehouse was destroyed, and the ammunition continued to detonate. Ukrainian forces regularly strike military facilities in Russian-occupied areas that supply weapons, fuel, and equipment to Russian troops. Reporter Yuliia Taradiuk is a Ukrainian reporter at the Kyiv Independent. She has been working with Lutsk-based misto.media, telling stories of Ukrainian fighters for the ""All are gone to the front"" project. She has experience as a freelance culture reporter, and a background in urbanism and activism, working for multiple Ukrainian NGOs. Yuliia holds B.A. degree in English language and literature from Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, she studied in Germany and Lithuania.","{'href': 'https://kyivindependent.com', 'title': 'The Kyiv Independent'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:kyivindependent.com","Ukraine confirms drone strike on major southern Russian oil refinery, key port","https://kyivindependent.com/ukrainian-drones-reportedly-hit-major-oil-refinery-key-port-in-russias-krasnodar-krai/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 05:45:27 GMT"," Ukrainian drones struck Russia's Krasnodar Krai overnight on March 14, hitting the Afipsky Oil Refinery and sparking a large fire, Ukraine's General Staff reported. The refinery is one of the largest oil processing facilities in southern Russia, producing gasoline, diesel fuel, gas condensate distillates, heavy petroleum residues, and sulfur. Local residents reported hearing dozens of explosions around 1 a.m. local time as air defense systems were activated and sirens sounded across the region. The strike damaged parts of the refinery, from falling drone debris, local authorities claimed, adding that no casualties were reported. Kyiv confirmed that ""a hit on the target has been recorded."" The plant processes roughly 6.25 million tons of crude annually — about 2% of Russia's refining output — and has been repeatedly targeted in previous drone attacks. Russia's Defense Ministry said air defenses ""intercepted and destroyed"" 87 Ukrainian drones overnight across multiple regions. The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the claim. Russian authorities also reported a separate drone attack on the Port Kavkaz facility in the Krasnodar Krai region, where three people were injured, and a technical vessel was damaged after drone debris fell on the dock complex. Ukraine's General Staff confirmed the attack and said damage to the port's infrastructure had occurred. ""Both facilities are involved in supplying the Russian military,"" the statement said. The Kavkaz port, located on the Chushka Spit in the Kerch Strait, is one of Russia's largest passenger ports. Its main task is to serve the Kerch ferry crossing in Russian-occupied Crimea. Local residents additionally reported another drone strike in the city of Tolyatti in Russia's Samara Oblast targeting the KuibyshevAzot chemical plant, though the extent of damage is unclear. Ukraine routinely launches deep strikes against military and industrial facilities in Russia, primarily relying on domestically developed drones. Kyiv continues to escalate its campaign against Russian oil and gas infrastructure, a key source of Moscow's revenues helping to fuel its war against Ukraine. North American news editor Sonya Bandouil is a North American news editor for The Kyiv Independent. She previously worked in the fields of cybersecurity and translating, and she also edited for various journals in NYC. Sonya has a Master's degree in Global Affairs from New York University, and a Bachelor's degree in Music from the University of Houston, in Texas. Two people who were trapped beneath the rubble have been rescued by emergency workers. An injured 17-year-old is in serious condition following the attack. Ukraine's military intelligence agency described both ships as a ""key part"" of Russia's Kerch ferry service. ""Russia's war against Ukraine threatens... the safety of our citizens,"" Moldovan Foreign Minister Mihai Popsoi said. The rulings mark the latest in the ongoing prosecutions of Ukrainian servicemembers held in Russian captivity following Kyiv's cross-border operation in August 2024. The strike damaged the refinery, allegedly due to falling drone debris, local authorities said. Russian authorities have justified the restrictions on security grounds. Russia's growing attacks on Ukraine's rail network are making even routine trips more dangerous, forcing passengers off trains in the middle of the night under new safety protocols. ""Ordinary homes, schools, and civilian businesses have also been hit,"" President Volodymyr Zelensky said. The number includes 810 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day. Russia launched an overnight missile and drone attack against Ukraine in the early hours of March 14, with explosions reported in multiple regions, according to local authorities and monitoring channels. ","{'href': 'https://kyivindependent.com', 'title': 'The Kyiv Independent'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:kyivindependent.com","Russian overnight missile and drone attack across Ukraine kills 2, injures at least 5 in Kyiv Oblast","https://kyivindependent.com/russia-launches-overnight-missile-and-drone-attack-against-ukraine/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:36:54 GMT"," The aftermath of a Russian attack on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine overnight on March 14, 2026 (Telegram / Mayor Ihor Sapozhko) Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated. Russia launched an overnight missile and drone attack against Ukraine in the early hours of March 14, with explosions reported in multiple regions, according to local authorities and monitoring channels. Explosions were heard in Ukraine's capital Kyiv at around 3:10 a.m. local time, according to Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground, as Ukrainian air defense systems engaged incoming targets. At roughly the same time, Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said Russia was attacking the capital with ballistic missiles and urged residents to remain in shelters until the air raid alert is lifted. In Kyiv Oblast, at least two people were killed and five others injured during the overnight attack, Regional Governor Mykola Kalashnyk said. Two people were killed and four injured in the Brovary district, while another person was injured in the Vyshhorod district, according to the governor. In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Russian strikes injured four civilians, including two children, according to Regional Military Administration head Ivan Fedorov. A private house in the city was damaged and caught fire following the attack. A 35-year-old woman, a 40-year-old man, a 16-year-old girl, and an 11-year-old boy were injured, officials said. Monitoring channels also reported that Russian naval vessels capable of launching Kalibr cruise missiles had entered firing positions in the Black Sea. Shortly afterward, Ukraine's Air Force reported launches of Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea. The missiles later entered Ukrainian airspace through the southern Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, according to monitoring data. Russia also deployed Tu-95MS and Tu-160 strategic bombers overnight, launching additional cruise missiles from the aircraft, Ukraine's Air Force said. Ukrainian authorities also warned of cruise missile threats targeting several regions across the country, including Kyiv, Cherkasy, Sumy, and Chernihiv oblasts, among numerous others. Air raid alerts were issued across large parts of Ukraine as air defenses continued to intercept incoming aerial threats. Information regarding casualties, damage, and the full scale of the attack is still being clarified. North American news editor Sonya Bandouil is a North American news editor for The Kyiv Independent. She previously worked in the fields of cybersecurity and translating, and she also edited for various journals in NYC. Sonya has a Master's degree in Global Affairs from New York University, and a Bachelor's degree in Music from the University of Houston, in Texas.","{'href': 'https://kyivindependent.com', 'title': 'The Kyiv Independent'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:dw.com","Energy crisis grips Nigeria amid US-Israel war in Iran","https://www.dw.com/en/energy-crisis-grips-nigeria-amid-us-israel-war-in-iran/a-76358906","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:39:29 GMT"," Rising oil prices, spurred on by the war in Iran, have exacerbated Nigeria's energy crisis. The war raging in Iran has impacted the energy markets across the world, including Nigeria, where daily lives and businesses are suffering due to a surge in the prices of oil. The energy crisis dominated Nigerian news media on Saturday. Since the outbreak of the war in Iran, prices of petrol in Nigeria have surged multiple times. However, the war is not the source of the problem, but rather is exacerbating pre-existing issues arising from chronic underinvestment and a weak energy transmission infrastructure. The series of price adjustments represents a cumulative increase of about 47% in six weeks. The Dangote Refinery in Nigeria — one of the largest in the world — has once again increased the cost of petrol from N1,075 (€0.68) to N1,175 (€0.74) per liter, according to Nigerian news channel Arise News. The increase in oil prices has prompted depot operators across key supply hubs to halt purchases of fuel. ""The revision reflects the surge in global crude oil prices,"" Arise reported, citing a market source. Brent crude prices went up from $91 to around $100 per barrel, increasing the costs for refining. The disruption to the oil market could also prove to boon to Nigeria's own crude oil exports, which briefly peaked at $120 per barrel earlier in the week. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Vanguard reported on the impact of the crisis on Nigeria's poorest. Citing experts, it warned of inflationary pressure on basic goods due to the rise in fuel costs, which would hit lower-income individuals the hardest. It also pointed to the instability of the current hike in oil prices, explaining that a continued conflict could lead to a global recession that could bring down the demand for Nigerian oil. Rising energy prices are also pushing up transportation costs, both for private car owners as well as users of public transport, as reported by the Nigerian newspaper The Guardian. Transport operators have warned that the continued hike in prices would lead to further fare increases, which puts pressure on households and potentially leaves them with less money for groceries. The West African country already has one of the worst power supply wherein nearly 50% of the population does not have access to grid electricity. The Punch newspaper reported on prolonged blackouts witnessed across large parts of the country, pointing to a problem that precedes the war in the Middle East. It pointed out that despite Nigeria's technical capacity to produce more than 12,000 megawatts of energy, this regularly falls below 4,000 megawatts, far less than the amount needed to cover the needs of the country's 220 million-strong population. Edited by: Alex Berry, Zac Crellin","{'href': 'https://www.dw.com', 'title': 'dw.com'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:dw.com","John Bolton: Iran war made sense only for regime change","https://www.dw.com/en/john-bolton-iran-war-made-sense-only-for-regime-change/video-76345868","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:01:03 GMT"," To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Since the US‑Israel war with Iran began, Donald Trump has given conflicting signals about how long the fight will last and what its end goal is. John Bolton tells DW he fears Trump ""will leave the battle before the regime has changed."" John Bolton served as US national security adviser during Donald Trump's first term and earlier as US ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush. Speaking to DW, he said: ""I would not have started this war if the objective were not regime change.""","{'href': 'https://www.dw.com', 'title': 'dw.com'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:dw.com","Who holds the biggest strategic oil reserves?","https://www.dw.com/en/who-holds-the-biggest-emergency-oil-reserves/a-76316932","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:28:50 GMT"," Iran's effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has pushed dozens of countries to tap their emergency oil stockpiles. But what exactly are strategic reserves, and who holds the world's biggest crisis-ready supplies? When 32 countries this week moved to tap their emergency crude oil stockpiles in an effort to steady soaring oil prices, the gesture was quickly overshadowed by Iran's escalating strikes in the Strait of Hormuz. The members of the International Energy Agency (IEA), a coalition of major energy‑consuming nations, agreed on Wednesday to release hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from their strategic oil reserves. Instead of helping oil prices lower, the price of Brent crude rose around the $100 (€87.30) a barrel mark toward the end of the week, having spiked to $119.50 for a short time on Monday. Around the announcement, Iran intensified its attacks near or in Hormuz, striking multiple commercial vessels — including oil tankers and cargo ships — with projectiles, drones and explosives. Since the war started on February 28, Tehran has effectively blockaded the narrow strait, used by Gulf nations to export a fifth of the world's crude oil and gas, mostly to Asia, halting almost all tanker traffic. Major oil producers in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, have also cut output as their domestic storage near capacity, further raising concerns about energy market stability. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A strategic oil reserve is a government-controlled stockpile of crude oil held for use during supply disruptions or market emergencies. The first modern reserve was created by the United States in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo exposed the vulnerability of global energy supplies. That shock quadrupled the price of oil, triggering fuel shortages across the West and exposing just how vulnerable economies were to sudden supply cuts. Today, dozens of countries — mostly IEA members — maintain strategic reserves as part of a coordinated system to protect energy security. Together, IEA members maintain over 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency reserves, supplemented by roughly 600 million barrels held by industry. China is believed to have the largest emergency reserves, followed by the US. Although Beijing keeps a tight lid on exact figures, energy and shipping analytics firm Vortexa estimated the country's total stockpile at 1.3 billion barrels. The cache is thought to be enough to keep the Chinese economy powered for up to three to four months. The US federal stockpile of 415 million barrels, backed up by 439 million barrels held privately, equates to more than 40 days of emergency supply. The IEA said members would release 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency stockpiles. By comparison, after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the previous record released was 182 million barrels. The Paris-based energy agency said stocks would be made available gradually based on each country's circumstances. The US will lead with a contribution of 172 million barrels from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), starting next week. US deliveries are expected to be rolled out over 120 days. Japan said it would release around 80 million barrels, equivalent to some 45 days of domestic supply, drawing from both private-sector and state stockpiles. Other contributors include Germany, Australia, France, South Korea and the United Kingdom. IEA members are expected to keep around 90 days of emergency stockpiles of net oil imports. A caveat allows major exporters like the US — the world's biggest oil producer — to hold less. Pure net exporters like Canada, Mexico and Norway have zero emergency stockpiles, but can tap commercial inventories during crises. The US SPR is made up exclusively of crude oil, stored in underground salt caverns along the Gulf Coast. Other countries, including in Europe, keep more diverse products, including petroleum, diesel and jet fuel in their strategic reserves. China, which is not a full IEA member, has made no similar announcement and is instead prioritizing domestic supply security by halting refined fuel exports. Beijing's latest five-year economic plan, announced last week, calls for further expanding its strategic oil reserves, continuing years of heavy stockpiling. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Oil industry analysts say tapping strategic reserves can ease immediate pressure on oil markets, but they rarely deliver a dramatic or lasting drop in prices. These releases work mainly by signaling unity and extra supply, reassuring traders that governments are willing to intervene if shortages worsen. The IEA said the release only covers around three to four weeks of lost oil flows from the Gulf region. So while they may shave a few dollars off the oil price, the effect is expected to be limited as the volumes released are small compared with the 100-million-barrel-a-day global oil market. Analyst David Morrison at UK brokerage Trade Nation was cited by AFP news agency as saying that if the simultaneous moves by dozens of countries were ""supposed to cap prices, then they failed dismally"". He said the market may have interpreted the gesture as ""panic,"" given Iran's de facto shutdown of the vital Hormuz chokepoint and recent escalations. The London-based Capital Economics said prices are likely to go higher if Hormuz remains shut off for a longer period. ""Although the IEA would still have stocks to draw upon after this release, a more prolonged conflict ... could lead to losses ... greater than the total reserves directly held by IEA members,"" wrote Hamad Hussain, climate & commodities economist, at Capital Economics, in a research note. Edited by: Ashutosh Pandey To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video","{'href': 'https://www.dw.com', 'title': 'dw.com'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:truthout.org","GOP Farm Bill Set to Unleash Pesticide Use and Strip Animal Welfare Protections","https://truthout.org/articles/gop-farm-bill-set-to-unleash-pesticide-use-and-strip-animal-welfare-protections/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:12:16 GMT"," The bill protects agrochemicals producers from lawsuits, and overturns food and pesticide safety laws and statutes. Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a quick donation. The “Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026” that is coming up for a House vote this spring is yet another GOP-led assault on the country's food safety, warn public health organizations, environmental groups, and animal rights advocates, who are sounding the alarm over the five-year bill. The House Committee on Agriculture passed the “Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026” on March 5 by a 34-17 vote. All 27 Republicans on the committee backed the bill, and seven Democrats crossed the aisle to join them. The legislation will now head to Congress. The 800-page document is being praised by Big Agriculture and industry groups across the nation, and Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-Pennsylvania), chairman of the committee, has described it as “ a collaboration between Republicans, Democrats, and stakeholders.” But public health advocates warn that the bill is set to further erode well-being and health in the U.S., further deepening the hypocrisy of Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s repeated promise to “Make America Healthy Again.” “Rather than address the economic crises facing America's family farmers, this Farm Bill is a thinly veiled gift bag for Big Ag and pesticide manufacturers. It's a massive slap in the face to people across the political spectrum demanding a healthier food system,” said Jason Davidson, a senior food and agriculture campaigner with Friends of the Earth U.S. Some of the most contentious sections of the bill concern pesticides. Section 10205 blocks consumers and farmers harmed by pesticides from suing companies over inadequate safety labeling. Section 10206 would overturn all state and local laws that protect food safety. Section 10207 would repeal federal statutes created to protect people and animals from pesticides. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) introduced an amendment that would have stripped these sections from the bill, but the effort was rejected by the committee. “Once again, the Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress are siding with chemical companies and choosing corporate profits over Americans' health — while paying lip service to the ‘Make America Healthy Again' movement. This Farm Bill is a gift to Big Chemical, plain and simple. It delivers exactly what giants like Bayer have spent years lobbying for: blanket immunity from lawsuits and the power to gut the state warning label laws that protect families, farmers, and children,” said the congresswoman in a statement. Beyond Pesticides executive director Jay Feldman said the committee's GOP majority have “passed a measure that has garnered across-the-board disapproval, except from those representing the vested interests of chemical companies and agribusiness.” The push to shield chemical companies from liability is not occurring in a vacuum. Shortly before the bill passed in committee, Bayer announced a proposed class settlement for the thousands of people who claim they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma from exposure to the weedkiller Roundup. Those impacted had formerly sued Monsanto, but Bayer inherited the lawsuits when it acquired the company in 2018. The company is not admitting to any liability, but the proposed settlement totals $7.25 billion. The herbicide at the center of those lawsuits is glyphosate, which the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified as a “probable human carcinogen.” A day after the Bayer announcement, President Donald Trump invoked a wartime emergency authority to increase the domestic production of glyphosate. It's a move that some insiders believe is directly connected to the lawsuits. “The scope of this [litigation against Bayer] is way beyond anything we've ever seen in the pesticide context,” Nathan Donley, an environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, told Chemical & Engineering News. “We're in a full-court press, basically, of Bayer trying to get out of its liabilities.” When he ran for president in 2024, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. called glyphosate “one of the likely culprits in America's chronic disease epidemic.” However, he dutifully backed Trump's order. “Donald Trump's executive order puts America first where it matters most — our defense readiness and our food supply,” said Kennedy in a statement. “We must safeguard America's national security first, because all of our priorities depend on it. When hostile actors control critical inputs, they weaken our security. By expanding domestic production, we close that gap and protect American families.” Kennedy's shift has angered many in the “MAHA” community who have supported the Trump administration. “MAHA Moms Turn Against Trump” declares a recent New York Times headline. “Women feel like they were lied to, that MAHA movement is a sham,” Turning Point USA podcaster Alex Clark told the paper. “How am I supposed to rally these women to vote red in the midterms? How can we win their trust back? I am unsure if we can.” Section 12006 of the farm bill looks to overturn animal welfare laws by effectively adopting the “Save Our Bacon” Act, a Republican congressional effort that's failed to gather support from more than 10 percent of the House. That legislation takes aim at California's Prop 12 and Massachusetts' Question 3, which place limits on the sale of meat and eggs from farms where animals are not granted enough room to turn around, stand up, lie down, and fully extend their limbs. Both measures were overwhelmingly approved by state voters, but Big Agriculture lobbyists have consistently pushed for both laws to be overturned. A coalition of pork producers, meat companies, and farmers recently gathered in Washington to call for the “Save Our Bacon” Act to be removed from the farm bill. “Voters made their voices heard, and we agree with them that animals deserve space to move,” said Missouri hog farmer Russ Kremer. “Prop 12 gives small farms like ours the opportunity to survive during a time when agriculture is heavily consolidated and independent farmers are being pushed out. If Congress rolls back Prop 12, that's a move against family farmers.” The fight to topple these state laws comes amid a Department of Agriculture push to speed up the kill lines across U.S. slaughterhouses. The new draft rules propose increasing kill line speeds for chickens from 140 a minute to 175, turkeys from 55 to 60, and pig slaughterhouses would have no limit. The department has also proposed eliminating annual workplace safety reports at the plants. The proposed farm bill also doubles down on the Trump administration's Dietary Guidelines, which recommend that Americans eat significantly more meat. Instead of basing these recommendations on scientific research, the Trump team relied on nine experts, seven of whom had direct connections to the meat industry. In addition to improving public health and reducing pollution, a decrease in meat consumption would reduce the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. A 2025 report from the scientific journal Nature Climate Change found that 11 million tons of meat is consumed in U.S. cities annually, resulting in roughly 329 million tons of carbon emissions. Democratic committee members proposed amendments to the farm bill aimed at addressing the devastating Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cuts from Trump's “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” but these were rejected. “Every member of the House Agriculture Committee represents families with low incomes who need SNAP to afford groceries, and it is deeply disappointing to see all Republicans and some Democratic members of the House Agriculture Committee vote to advance a bill that fails to deliver for these constituents,” said the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in a statement. Instead, Trump's reinforced dietary guidelines designate animal protein as a SNAP “incentive food” allowing retailers to bolster meat consumption by offering it to SNAP recipients at a discount. What quality of meat would these consumers be eating? As previously mentioned, the bill would prohibit states from taking action to protect their constituents from drugs and pathogens in their food supply. “If passed by the House, this Farm Bill will move to the Senate, but this proposal should be dead on arrival,” wrote Food & Water Watch's Lauren Borsheim. “A Farm Bill that ignores devastating SNAP cuts, weakens vital conservation programs, subsidizes factory farms, and shields pesticide corporations from accountability betrays the Farm Bill's purpose — serving farmers, consumers, and rural communities.” Truthout relies on individual donations to publish independent journalism, free from political and corporate influence. In fact, we're almost entirely funded by readers like you. Unfortunately, donations are down. At a moment when independent journalism is urgently needed, we are struggling to meet our operational costs due to increasing political censorship. Truthout may end this month in the red without additional help, so we've launched a fundraiser. We have 10 days to hit our $50,000 goal. Please make a tax-deductible one-time or monthly donation if you can. This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the following terms: Michael Arria is the U.S. correspondent for Mondoweiss. Follow him on Twitter: @michaelarria. Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day. ","{'href': 'https://truthout.org', 'title': 'Truthout'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:truthout.org","War on Iran Is Enriching Weapons Firms as It Tanks the Global Economy","https://truthout.org/articles/war-on-iran-is-enriching-weapons-firms-as-it-tanks-the-global-economy/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:15:53 GMT"," The military-industrial complex rakes in profits as the rest of the world suffers, economist C. P. Chandrasekhar argues. Honest, paywall-free news is rare. Please support our boldly independent journalism with a donation of any size. Since the end of World War II, almost every U.S. president has initiated a major military conflict without congressional approval. Donald Trump attempted to portray himself as a “peace president,” promising to end the U.S.'s endless wars and bring troops home from the Middle East and other parts of the globe. But he has proven to be even more trigger-happy than most of his predecessors. In just the first year since his return to office, he has attacked several countries. On February 28 he joined Israel in launching an attack on Iran, killing the country's supreme leader and targeting both military installations and civilian projects, including bombing a girl's primary school in Minab, in Iran's Hormozgan province, that killed more than 170 people, most of them children. The war in Iran is illegal. In addition to murdering and maiming civilians and spreading fear and suffering, it is also causing collateral damage to the world economy and may very well trigger a global economic crisis if it continues much longer. In an exclusive interview for Truthout, C. P. Chandrasekhar, a world-renowned scholar of finance and development, explains how the war could affect the global economy. He is emeritus professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, where he taught for more than 30 years, and currently a senior research scholar at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. C. J. Polychroniou: Over the past couple of decades or so, the global economy has experienced various shocks and seems to be in the midst of seemingly endless uncertainties. Capitalism, after all, is inherently unstable, subject to periodic crises. And today, due to the U.S. and Israel, the war Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu initiated against Iran has sent tremors through the global economy. There are fears that the war will drive oil to $150 a barrel and that stagflation is knocking on the door. What's your assessment of the way the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran will impact the world economy? C. P. Chandrasekhar: I would not refer to the fallout of the joint, unilateral and unwarranted attack by the U.S. and Israel on Iran as a “shock.” The attack emanates from the most aggressive core of contemporary capitalism, and its effects should have been expected by those responsible for it, especially Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. If their assessment was that the fallout would be short-lived and limited, they were clearly wrong. The rise in the prices of oil and oil products is only the most immediate and visible consequence, given the crucial role of the region as a source of global supply. But even that rise is not driven just by the war-induced shifts in the supply of oil. It is aggravated and rendered hugely volatile by the role of large speculative trading multinationals subordinated by global finance, which may not control production but can influence supply prices. Capitalist and imperialist states today are at the mercy of these agents, who seize every opportunity to extract super profits. The decision of these states (especially the governments of the U.S., Germany, and Japan) as members of the International Energy Agency to release 400 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves is at most a feeble response. Even if replicated, by depleting reserves, the move will only send a signal to speculators who assume that the war will last to bet that prices will only spike further. That would aggravate oil price inflation. Figures like $150 a barrel are at best guesstimates. Thus, the real uncertainty is how long the war will last. Pushed to the wall, faced with the assassination of its supreme leader of decades, and confident (despite internal differences) that attack will not result in regime change and installation of a U.S.-chosen political leader, Iran shows no signs of retreating. The objectives of Netanyahu, both personal and political, are such that oil price increases and the implications they have for the global economy and the citizens of the rest of the world are not concerns. Occupation, genocide, and war are the means to pursue those abhorrent goals, at the expense of all else. But Netanyahu cannot pursue them by himself. He needs Trump to fund, support, and legitimize his actions. So, whether the war will last depends on Trump's staying power. The U.S. president is caught in a trap of his own making. If he withdraws, he admits that he made a mistake taking the U.S. to war despite his promise to voters that he will not repeat the blunders of his predecessors in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria; if he stays, he risks being identified as the principal agent driving the world to a crisis the dimensions of which are unclear. This explains the desperate efforts to rein in oil prices by restoring tanker transit through the all-important Strait of Hormuz sealed by Iran, by offering insurance to encourage shipping companies to risk their assets and crew to transport oil through the choke point and pressuring a recalcitrant U.S. Navy to escort ships through the strait. Such abortive efforts only prolong the war. The attack emanates from the most aggressive core of contemporary capitalism, and its effects should have been expected by those responsible for it. The nature of the consequent imminent crisis is partly divulged by the all-around fear of the inflation that it has unleashed. We are in a stage of capitalism in which the powerful epistemic community of finance has prescribed that countries should privilege the use of monetary over fiscal policy levers to manage their economies; that the principal objective of monetary policy should be to target inflation and keep it in a range that is low by historical standards; and that “independent” central banks should have the right to impose that agenda. In this context, a corollary of higher-than-mandated inflation is a rise in interest rates. So, inflation triggered by increases in oil prices would set off interest rate hikes. That spells a return to the hoary 1970s when high inflation and elevated interest rates resulted in low growth interspersed by recessions of varying intensity. The route through which high interest rates are expected to tame inflation, if at all, is by reining in debt-financed consumption, housing acquisitions, and investment, and thereby reducing demand. A recession is an inevitable consequence. Stagflation, or a combination of inflation and recession, have obvious adverse implications for employment and real income. But it is not just the working people and the middle classes populating the “real economy” that are hit by inflation. Finance capital, which is the fulcrum of present-day imperialism, is also hit by inflation in at least two senses. First, a feature of the Age of Finance unleashed by financial deregulation is that financial profits are made through speculation-driven increases in asset prices, enabled by loose monetary policies of central banks. This is done not just by banks, but by new financial innovators like private equity firms. Such bubbles in turn generate increases in consumption and investment financed by debt. Interest rate increases aimed at reining in inflation also rein in this self-fueling spiral that underlies the rise of finance capital. As a result, finance capital finds it difficult to exercise the freedom it derived from deregulation to amass profits. Finance capital also hugely profited from the low interest rates that characterized the years since the mid-1980s, when capitalism experienced a very long period of low inflation termed the Great Moderation. Access to cheap borrowing and supposed “innovations” drive increases in the value of financial assets, which translate into “profits” that were not warranted by “fundamentals.” In the Age of Finance, it became common to argue that fundamentals are irrelevant. However, if the low interest rates that underpin this boom give way, the financial edifice built on its basis will unravel and collapse. Finance capital will take huge losses, but so will the real economy as happened during the Great Recession of 2008 and after. So, the war spells doom for capital as well. That is the scenario facing the world today. Putting aside the human cost, wars are a profit-making enterprise for certain industries but generally detrimental to overall economic activity, so it makes one wonder why capitalist states engage in wars. How are capitalism and war linked? Has militarized accumulation become an integral component of the way global capitalism functions? Capitalists belonging to and associated with the military-industrial complex that came to dominate capitalism in the 20th century have always loved a good war, because it increases defense spending, boosts demand for their products, and inflates profits. But the military-industrial complex as a driver of wars under capitalism, while still active, has diminished in significance. Estimates have it that as compared to the 8-10 percent of GDP allocated to the Pentagon in the U.S. before and during the Vietnam War years, the agency's 2025 budget was at around $850 billion, or just around 3 percent of GDP. But wars are central to capitalism in a larger sense. Since its inception, capitalism has engaged in war and conquest to facilitate the plunder and market invasion that facilitated accumulation on a world scale. That brutal process of “primitive accumulation” was not confined to the early stages of capitalism and years of colonial expansion, but has continued through its history, since the system's expansion and stability depends on the surpluses and markets acquired through military intervention. Since its inception, capitalism has engaged in war and conquest to facilitate the plunder and market invasion that facilitated accumulation on a world scale. In time, the objectives of such militarism widened to include: defeating competing imperialist powers within what was still a capitalist world with conflicted nation states; making efforts to contain socialism; undermining movements for national self-determination and freedom from imperialism; and unseating Global South governments seen as anti-capitalist, overly nationalist, or just “insubordinate.” More recently, the drive of the U.S. as a waning hegemon to recover its past supremacy has intensified. As a result, aggressive efforts to gain control of the world's resources, especially of critical minerals and energy, have once again come to the fore, reviving older versions of imperialist aggression. This is illustrated by the recent push to unseat governments in Venezuela and Iran, in a blatant resort to regime change that would ensure resource control without occupation. It is in this larger sense that militarized accumulation has been and is integral to the functioning of capitalism. The U.S. gets none of its oil through the Strait of Hormuz and higher oil prices could bolster the dollar against major currencies. Does this mean that the Iran war will have no negative impacts on the U.S. economy? Even though the U.S. is now primarily an oil-exporting and not an oil importing nation as it was in the 1970s, oil prices in the U.S. in a domestically privatized and globally integrated economy cannot be insulated from international prices, including those set by profit-gouging speculators and corporations. And while its access to oil and the role of dollar-denominated assets as safe havens in times of uncertainty strengthens its hand, the unraveling of the financial balloon that defines the Age of Finance would, as I argued earlier, wreak heavy damage on a U.S. economy (and particularly its working class) that is still recovering from the financial crisis and Great Recession of 2008 and after. The Iran war will likely have significant implications for economies that are vulnerable to high energy prices. But the impacts will not be confined to energy. As in the case of the war in Ukraine, the Iran war may trigger global disruptions for key food crops and fertilizers. Moreover, the economic fallout of the war will disproportionately affect the debt-stricken countries in the Global South. Could this war spark a new international economic crisis? In an intrinsically unequal international economic order, which has seen global inequality only increase in the Age of Finance, the less-developed and poor countries that are the target of imperialist aggression which keeps them poor are always the main losers. That happened when the oil shocks of the 1970s destabilized the global economy. It would happen this time as well. The crisis would be global in geography, but uneven in impact across peoples Rising oil prices would widen the trade and current account deficits of the oil-importing less-developed countries. Rising interest rates would increase foreign exchange outgo to service outstanding debt liabilities. A global recession would affect migrant workers and therefore the remittances they send home, which are an important source of foreign exchange. Transportation bottlenecks and rising shipping costs would adversely affect export revenues. The damage resulting from a larger current account deficit on account of these reasons would be worsened by capital flight as foreign investors exit from economies that are more risky investment locations and domestic wealth holders flee to safe havens in the West. Balance of payments crises would be the outcome. As a result, currencies would depreciate sharply and raise the domestic currency costs of servicing foreign liabilities with foreign exchange payments. Bankruptcies and real economy recessions would follow. That litany of woes can be endless. So, the crisis that a wanton act of war led by rogue states is likely to precipitate will be truly international. But states in countries of the Global North would step in to save capital as they did in 2008. The crisis would be global in geography, but uneven in impact across peoples, not just in terms of lives lost as a result of military devastation but also livelihoods destroyed because of economic destabilization. As Trump cracks down on political speech, independent media is increasingly necessary. Truthout produces reporting you won't see in the mainstream: journalism from the frontlines of global conflict, interviews with grassroots movement leaders, high-quality legal analysis and more. Our work is possible thanks to reader support. Help Truthout catalyze change and social justice — make a tax-deductible monthly or one-time donation today. This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the following terms: C.J. Polychroniou is a political scientist/political economist, author and journalist who has taught and worked in numerous universities and research centers in Europe and the United States. Currently, his main research interests are in U.S. politics and the political economy of the United States, European economic integration, globalization, climate change and environmental economics, and the deconstruction of neoliberalism's politico-economic project. He is a columnist for Global Policy Journal and a regular contributor to Truthout. He has published scores of books, including Marxist Perspectives on Imperialism: A Theoretical Analysis; Perspectives and Issues in International Political Economy (ed.); and Socialism: Crisis and Renewal (ed.), and over 1,000 articles which have appeared in a variety of journals, magazines, newspapers and popular news websites. Many of his publications have been translated into a multitude of languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish. His latest books are Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal: The Political Economy of Saving the Planet (with Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin as primary authors, 2020); The Precipice: Neoliberalism, the Pandemic, and the Urgent Need for Radical Change (an anthology of interviews with Noam Chomsky, 2021); Economics and the Left: Interviews with Progressive Economists (2021); Illegitimate Authority: Facing the Challenges of Our Time (an anthology of interviews with Noam Chomsky, 2023); and A Livable Future Is Possible: Confronting the Threats to Our Survival (an anthology of interviews with Noam Chomsky, 2024). Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day. ","{'href': 'https://truthout.org', 'title': 'Truthout'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:theepochtimes.com","What to Know About the Tiny Iranian Island That the US Bombed","https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/what-to-know-about-the-tiny-iranian-island-that-the-us-bombed-5997568","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:29:21 GMT"," The United States ‘obliterated' military targets on Kharg Island but left its oil infrastructure intact for now, Trump said. U.S. forces took out military targets on Iran's Kharg Island, but left in place its oil infrastructure, President Donald Trump said on March 13. The assault came 14 days into Operation Epic Fury, marking the first time the island—Tehran's most vital economic asset—has been targeted in the U.S.-Israeli campaign.","{'href': 'https://www.theepochtimes.com', 'title': 'theepochtimes.com'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:theepochtimes.com","US Offers $10 Million Reward and Relocation for Information on Iran's Supreme Leader, Other Top Officials","https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/us-offers-10-million-reward-and-relocation-for-information-on-irans-supreme-leader-other-top-officials-5998777","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:35:51 GMT"," The State Department announced on March 13 a reward of up to $10 million and potential relocation to the United States for information on Iran's new supreme leader and nine other top officials of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).","{'href': 'https://www.theepochtimes.com', 'title': 'theepochtimes.com'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=us+national+news+site:cnn.com","The unlikely story of the election of the first American pope","https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/14/world/leo-first-american-pope-book-lamb-intl","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:00:35 GMT"," EDITOR'S NOTE: This is an extract from CNN Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb's new book, “American Hope: What Pope Leo XIV Means for the Church and the World.” It will be published on March 26 by Headline in the United Kingdom and Hachette in the United States. On Saturday May 3, 2025, one week after the funeral of Pope Francis, President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself dressed in the white cassock and miter of a pope. The image appeared on his Truth Social platform and was re-shared by the White House's official X account. Within seconds it had gone viral. A few days earlier, when asked by reporters who he would like to see elected as Francis's successor, the president had quipped, “I'd like to be pope. That would be my number one choice.” The reaction from Catholics around the world varied from disquiet to outrage. The AI image, as is so often the case with Trump's posts, was both tongue-in-cheek and provocative. For Catholics, it was, at the very least, disre-spectful. Nor did the image go unnoticed by the cardinals who had started gathering in Rome ahead of the conclave set for May 7 – the election process that would decide the new pontiff. Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David – an outspoken Filipino prelate who had received death threats when he had criticized President Rodrigo Duterte's brutal drug war – replied to Trump on Facebook saying, “Not funny, sir,” which he translated into ten different languages. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, who was known to be friendly with Trump, said the image “wasn't good,” but when asked by Reuters if an apology was needed, replied, “Who knows?” Trump's post only seemed to intensify the media interest in the papal election proceedings. More than 4,000 reporters were descending on the Vatican to cover the event and the cardinals found themselves mobbed as they walked to meetings. The public's interest, too, was unusually high because of the popularity of the 2024 movie “Conclave,” a thriller that depicted the worldly ambitions of men in vying to become pope. During his pontificate, Francis had shaken up the College of Cardinals – the body that would appoint his successor. He had made its membership more international and diverse to reflect the fact that the Church was changing. For years its axis had been shifting away from Europe and the West to encompass the growing numbers of Catholics in Africa and Asia… The conventional wisdom had always been that the cardinals would not choose an American pope. Given the enormous power of the United States politically, culturally, and economically, the cardinals were unlikely to elect a pope from that country. But something had changed since the election and re-election of Trump on an America First agenda. There was a distinct sense that the role of the US in the world was shifting. A few days before the conclave started, I interviewed Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the retired archbishop of Bombay and a hugely respected figure across the Church in Asia. Could there be an American pope, I asked? In the past, he said, this was “unthinkable.” But then he paused and said, “There could be an American pope… why not?” There was in fact an American name on my shortlist of “papabili,” someone who could become pope: Cardinal Robert Prevost. I knew him as the leader of the Vatican's powerful office for the department for bishops, which played a crucial role in appointing bishops and in holding them to account. And I had recently been hearing his name mentioned… I had met Prevost on one occasion in Rome. He had struck me as thoughtful and a good listener. A low-key figure who didn't give interviews, someone who seemed at peace with himself. And, intriguingly, although he had been born in Chicago, he had spent decades of his life working as a missionary and bishop in Peru. He was, you could say, “an un-American American.” As the cardinals prepared to enter the conclave in early May, the fierce criticisms some of them had had of Francis melted away. The focus now was on how the next pope could continue his predecessor's reforms and, crucially, exhibit a prophetic spirit which engaged with the world. Alongside their discussions, the cardinals had also been meeting privately for dinners in the restaurants of the Borgo Pio medieval quarter near the Vatican and at one another's apartments and residences in Rome. Any cardinal perceived to be campaigning overtly on his own behalf was immediately disqualified so the politics were subtle. Alongside the papal candidates, papabili, there was a group of influential and well-connected cardinals know as “kingmakers” who sought to bring different electors together and canvass support. The “kingmakers,” I was told, were not afraid to speak frankly when asked their opinion on candidates. At this point, the result of the election was anyone's guess, but there were known frontrunners, among them Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was the Holy See Secretary of State and an experienced Church diplomat from Veneto, northern Italy. Parolin appeared to be the leading “unity” candidate: he would not row back on Francis's main reforms but might cautiously reorder priorities. For the “diversity” group, there was the charismatic Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle from the Philippines, who ran the Vatican's evangelization office. He would represent strong continuity with the Francis agenda. Behind the scenes, however, Prevost had been quietly gathering support. Cardinal Francis George, a former archbishop of Chicago, famously expressed skepticism about the possibility of an American pope. George was a highly influential, politically astute prelate who died almost a decade before Leo XIV's election. A pope from the United States was unlikely, he argued, while the US continued to be the world's dominant power. “Look, until America goes into political decline, there won't be an American pope,” he was reported to have said. The notion that no cardinal from the US could ever be elected pope was ingrained into Church thinking, particularly in the Vatican. Just before the conclave, Robert Prevost had found a moment to drop a line to a friend. “I am sleeping well,” he wrote, “relying on the belief that there will never be an American pope.” In fact, this notion had existed even before America became a great power. It was the new pope's namesake, Leo XIII, who in 1899 denounced what he saw as the errors of “Americanism.” He had resisted what he saw as American particularism, and worried that America's focus on individual liberty was undermining respect for Church authority. That the next pope to call himself Leo would come from the US is a remarkable historical turnaround. Leo has adopted a style that is different from that of Pope Francis. It is certainly more low-key. Yet beneath what might seem a meek exterior lies a steely determination. Leo is a lion who knows when to roar, and the moment he decides something, it's final. Unlike the politicians who are full of bluff and bluster and can see no further than the next election, Leo is charting a course for the long term. The first American pope in the Catholic Church's 2,000-year history did not provoke a flurry of diplomatic activity from the White House. President Donald Trump told reporters afterward that “we were a little bit surprised and very happy” about the election of the first American pope. He described the news as a “great honor for our country,” saying that he looked forward to meeting Leo in what would be “a very meaningful moment.” Yet the President of the United States had no direct contact with the first American pontiff in the aftermath of Leo's election, nor in the early months of his papacy. Speaking at the end of July, Leo confessed that he had “not had direct conversations or met with the president,” although he was not overly concerned about this. Trump's own position toward the pope seemed to be one of respectful ambivalence. While Trump talked about a possible meeting with Leo a couple of months later, he said he had nothing planned and seemed in no rush to make it happen. By contrast, his predecessor, Joe Biden, who was only the second Catholic president after President John F. Kennedy, spoke with Pope Francis on several occasions during his term, including after Biden took office in 2020. In October 2021, they had a 75-minute meeting in the Vatican. Biden, in one of his final acts as president, awarded Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction. The Biden–Francis relationship, while not without disagreements on abortion and the war in Gaza, was marked by warmth and mutual respect. While Trump talks respectfully about Pope Leo, signs of the underlying tensions are not hard to spot. Steve Bannon, a Catholic and an outspoken ally of Trump, described Leo's election as the “worst pick ever.” The pope, like many in the United States, has first-hand knowledge of how political divides can affect families. Disagreements over which way people voted cause heated conversations at the dinner table, and in some cases lead to feuds and family break-ups. The pope has two older brothers. His eldest sibling, Louis Prevost, is a MAGA supporter who has posted some inflammatory pro-Trump social media content in which, for example, he attacked former House speaker Nancy Pelosi. One Church source told me that Louis' wife, Deborah, is also a MAGA supporter. After his brother's election as pope, Louis conceded that he would probably “tone it down,” and he has removed some posts and made his accounts private. But the Trump White House was quick to spot an opportunity. Louis and Deborah were invited to visit and were welcomed by President Trump and Vice President JD Vance. “I really like his brother,” Trump said of the pope. “His brother is a major, serious Trumper. You know that? He's MAGA all the way.” Leo responded to these comments by saying simply, “That's fine,” adding that Louis had been “very outspoken about his political viewpoints.” Trump has had more direct contact with Leo's brother – a MAGA supporter – than with the pope himself, who is not. Actions speak louder than words. But the pope, even in his own family, proves that it is possible to disagree and stay united. He shows that political differences don't need to affect family harmony. After Leo's inauguration on May 18, Louis Prevost stepped forward to greet his brother in St. Peter's Basilica. The pair hugged each other tightly. © 2026 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network. Scan the QR code to download the CNN app on Google Play. Scan the QR code to download the CNN app from the Apple Store.","{'href': 'https://www.cnn.com', 'title': 'CNN'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=us+national+news+site:cnn.com","Italy ruling tells millions with Italian roots they have lost the right to citizenship","https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/14/travel/italy-citizenship-law-restrictions-constitutional-court","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:00:34 GMT"," Since Italy became a country in 1861, there has been a surefire way to know who is and isn't an Italian citizen: look at their parents. The first page of the civil code, published in 1865 as the rulebook to Europe's newest country, declared that a child born to an Italian citizen was an Italian citizen. This founding tenet of the Bel Paese now looks set to change — ending diaspora dreams of returning to the mother country, and meaning that Italians who move abroad risk denying citizenship to their descendants. On Thursday the Constitutional Court said it would rule in favor of the government and its controversial 2025 law that restricted citizenship for those born abroad. The law — issued last March via emergency decree — had been challenged by four judges, who questioned its constitutionality. Now, after the first of four hearings was held on Wednesday, a statement issued by the court indicates it will support the government's position. “The Constitutional Court has declared the questions of constitutional legitimacy raised by the Turin court partially unfounded and partially inadmissible,” the court announced. It is expected to release a detailed verdict within the coming weeks. The announcement will be a devastating blow for those who believed the court would uphold Italy's 160-year history of citizenship by descent, or ius sanguinis. “It was an extremely clear, harsh intervention, so I had a hope that it would be judged in breach of some constitutional points, but that wasn't recognized by the court,” professor Corrado Caruso, one of the lawyers who made a case against the new law, told CNN. Italy's citizenship rules have been bound up with its diaspora since the country was formed. Previously, Italians who moved abroad could pass citizenship to their children as long as they didn't renounce or lose it, often by acquiring another nationality. What many now see as the country of the “dolce vita” was once an impoverished nation that, between 1861 and 1918, saw 16 million citizens emigrate for a better life. Many who left out of necessity rather than volition considered themselves Italian for life, and chose to retain their citizenship while living and working abroad — meaning that citizenship, along with cultural traditions, was passed down the generations. Established in 1865, the principle of ius sanguinis was confirmed in Italy's first targeted citizenship law in 1912, which added a clause stipulating that Italians born and residing abroad would retain their citizenship, and then again in a law in 1992. However, a law introduced on March 28 last year by emergency decree states that only those with a parent or grandparent born in Italy will be recognized as citizens. It also effectively outlaws dual citizenship for the diaspora, as that parent or grandparent must have held solely Italian citizenship at the time of their descendant's birth, or at their own death if it came earlier. There have long been complaints on both sides about foreign-born descendants acquiring citizenship. For those born abroad, obtaining recognition is a long and costly process. They must source birth, marriage and death certificates from their ancestors' hometowns (which can take years, at a cost of up to 300 euros per document), prove that nobody in their ancestral line lost their citizenship, then win an appointment at their local consulate, where waiting lists can stretch to 10 years — if they are able to get a spot on it. Hiring a lawyer to sue the government can speed up the process, but costs can run to the tens of thousands of euros for a family. What's more, women were not able to transmit citizenship until 1948, meaning descendants of Italian women who gave birth before then are blocked from recognition. Since 2009 many have successfully sued the state for gender discrimination — if they can afford it. They too have now seen the door slammed shut. Meanwhile, Italy's regional courts are clogged with thousands of citizenship cases, while consulates are inundated by applications. Between 2014 and 2024, the number of Italian citizens residing abroad increased from 4.6 million to 6.4 million, Italy's foreign ministry said at the time of passing the decree. Argentina's Italian consulates processed 30,000 applications in 2024, up by 10,000 from the previous year. These Americans are clinging to hope for Italian citizenship “The granting of citizenship was perceived as problematic for various reasons,” said Caruso, who is a professor of law at Bologna University. “There were lots of requests, the consulates couldn't keep up. There was an idea that descendants had tenuous links to Italy over time. They were considered to not take part in civil duties — they weren't in the country, they didn't pay tax. What's more, there was a geopolitical question. These citizens could move around the world on their Italian passports, so maybe there was some pressure from Italy's historical allies. “I wasn't optimistic about our chances, because I could tell that the government and their lawyers felt extremely strongly about this reform.It was politically huge. So there were interests at stake.” Citizenship by descent has not always been so unpopular. At the Tokyo Olympics, 12% of the Italian national team were born abroad, including 10 in the US. And three months before introducing the new decree, Argentina's right-wing president Javier Milei, an ally of prime minister Giorgia Meloni, was granted citizenship by descent on a state visit to Italy. While Italy slams the door on its diaspora, the country continues to deal with a shrinking and ageing population. In 2024, a record 155,732 Italians emigrated, and over half a million residents left the country between 2020 and 2024. Most emigrants left from Sicily, where enterprising local authorities have tried to redress the balance by tempting back Italian descendants from abroad. In Mussomeli, a town known for its one-euro homes project, Argentinian doctors were recruited to staff the ailing local hospital. Such projects will no longer be possible under the new citizenship restrictions. “This has cut loose a vast number of descendants who had requested recognition but hadn't been given an appointment,” said Caruso. “There is now disparity within nuclear families. One sibling might have citizenship, but another couldn't get the same treatment.” The state's legal counsel successfully argued that descendants who had, until now, been considered to have been born citizens, were in fact born with the expectation of citizenship — and if they hadn't officially claimed it by 2025, they had a “fictitious link” with the country and had lost their right to it. Verdicts of the constitutional court cannot be appealed and Caruso was downbeat. “I don't want to lose hope,” he said. “Maybe it's not the end of the war but it will be a difficult war.” Although the constitutional court still has the two other referrals to consider, he believes that descendants' last hope will be at EU courts. “Anyone who's already filed their case should ask the judge to refer it to Luxembourg,” he said, adding that he did not advise anyone who had yet to file to go ahead. Not everyone is so downbeat, however. Another citizenship lawyer, Marco Mellone, told CNN that things could still change. “This doesn't mean the new law is 100% valid and forever,” he said. “There is still space for argument for cases brought by Italian judges to the constitutional court. In July 2025, the constitutional court issued a judgment saying that descendants had a right to Italian citizenship at birth, from birth. They changed their opinion I suppose. It is very weird.” Mellone plans to take aim at the new law in his separate April 14 hearing at the Court of Cassation, Italy's highest legal authority, whose opinion trumps that of the constitutional court. Italy changes law on right to claim citizenship through great-grandparents “This is a very sad day for millions of people, but I didn't study law for 25 years to see this kind of thing happen,” he said. “Descendants were born Italian citizens. If you are a citizen at birth, you have a right that nobody can touch. You can't say, what I said when you were born was not true, you're not an Italian citizen anymore. You can't say, I was joking. This is the first step in a long battle.” He advised that descendants with a case already going through the courts should request a postponement until the fall. For those who haven't yet filed, he suggested waiting. “With this judgment … it'll be much more work for lawyers now than before, but I'm still confident,” he said. “A little less confident than last week. But while the battle is lost, the war is not.” © 2026 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network. Scan the QR code to download the CNN app on Google Play. Scan the QR code to download the CNN app from the Apple Store.","{'href': 'https://www.cnn.com', 'title': 'CNN'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=us+national+news+site:apnews.com","The biggest change to voting in Republican election bill could become a burden for many US voters","https://apnews.com/article/save-act-documents-requirements-citizenship-voting-congress-dfb43bcdd0255d3665da588a60286b4e","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:47:00 GMT"," Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Customers stand in line to get birth and death certificates at the Columbus Public Health Department in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, March, 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Julie Carr Smyth) Joshua Bogdan, who faced new hurdles while registering to vote last year, poses in front of City Hall in Portsmouth, N.H., Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer) Voters wait in line and fill out their ballots at a voting center at Lumen Field Event Center on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File) COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Joshua Bogdan was born and raised in the United States. The only time the New Hampshire resident has left the country was for a day and a half in seventh grade, when he went to Canada to see Niagara Falls. Even so, that did not mean proving his U.S. citizenship in last fall's local elections was easy. The 31-year-old arrived at his voting place in Portsmouth and handed the poll worker his driver's license, just as he had done in other towns when arriving to vote. She said that would no longer do. The poll worker said that under the state's new proof-of-citizenship law, which took effect for the first time during town elections in 2025, Bogdan would need a passport or his birth certificate because he had moved and needed to reregister at his new address. A scramble ensued, turning the voting process that he had always found fun and invigorating into a nerve-wracking game of beat the clock. “I didn't know that anything had officially changed walking in there,” he said. “And then being told that I had to provide a passport that I've never had or a birth certificate that's usually tucked away somewhere safe just to cast my vote — which I've done before — it was frustrating.” Bogdan's experience in New Hampshire is a glimpse into the future for potentially millions of voters across the country. That is if Republican voting legislation being pushed aggressively by President Donald Trump passes Congress and a “show your papers” law is put in place in time for the November elections. The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, cleared the U.S. House last month on a mostly party-line basis. Republicans say it would improve election integrity. Trump has called its safeguards common sense. The bill is scheduled to come up in the U.S. Senate next week for voting and debate. Republican messaging has mostly highlighted a less divisive provision in the bill that would require voters to show a photo ID, but the mandate for people to provide documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections is likely to have the most wide-ranging consequences. Noncitizens already are prohibited from voting in federal elections, and it is not allowed by any state. Cases where it occurs are rare. Obtaining the necessary documents under the SAVE Act is not as easy as it might sound. A similar effort was tried in Kansas a decade ago and turned into a debacle that eventually was blocked by the courts after more than 30,000 eligible citizens were prevented from registering. Rebekah Caruthers, president and CEO at the Fair Elections Center, said the legislation's strict documentation requirements could move the U.S. “in the opposite direction” of representative democracy. “If this bill passes, it would deny millions of eligible Americans their fundamental freedom to vote,” she said in an email. “This includes millions of people who make up your communities, including married women, people of color and voters who live in rural areas.” The list of qualifying documents in the SAVE Act for proving citizenship appears long, but many of them come with qualifiers. Under the bill, a REAL ID -compliant driver's license would have to indicate that “the applicant is a citizen,” but not all do. Only five states — Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington — offer the type of enhanced REAL IDs that explicitly indicate U.S. citizenship. Standard driver's licenses, generally available to both citizens and noncitizens, often do not include a citizenship indicator. Some states, including Ohio, have recently added them. The stipulations continue, buried in the fine print. While military ID cards are listed as qualifying documents under the act, they will not suffice on their own. The bill says a military ID must be accompanied by a military “record of service” that indicates the person's birthplace was in the U.S. A DD214, the current standard-issue certificate of release or discharge for all military service branches, does not currently fulfill that requirement. According to the Pentagon, that document only lists where someone lived at points of entry and discharge and a person's current home of record. It does not list where someone was born. For most provisions, the SAVE Act contains no phase-in period that would give voters and local election offices time to adjust. If passed by Congress and signed by Trump, its documentary proof-of-citizenship mandate would apply immediately, meaning it would be in place for this year's midterm elections. That could lead to a rush to obtain documents by those who want to register or need to reregister. A 2025 University of Maryland study estimates that 21.3 million Americans who are eligible to vote do not have or have easy access to documents to prove their citizenship, including nearly 10% of Democrats, 7% of Republicans and 14% of people unaffiliated with either major party. A passport would most effectively meet the requirement, but only about half of American adults have one, according to the State Department, and the SAVE Act requires the passport to be current. An expired one does not count. Obtaining a passport in time for a looming voter registration deadline is another potential hurdle. Workers who process passports had layoffs at the State Department reversed, but just last month the department forbid passport processing at certain public libraries that had long helped relieve pressure at the department. Government libraries, post offices, county clerks and others still provide the service. It takes four weeks to six weeks to get a passport, according to the department's website, excluding mailing time. A new passport costs $165 for adults while renewals cost $130, and the photo costs $10 or $20 more. The turnaround time can be sped up to two weeks or three weeks for an additional $60 — and for even faster processing, add $22 more. The fully expedited process for a new passport would cost at least $257. A birth certificate may be a quicker and cheaper choice for most people, but there are twists. The SAVE Act requires a certified birth certificate issued by a state, local government or tribal government. What does not appear to qualify is the certificate signed by the doctor that many new parents are given in the hospital when their child is born. It provides information similar to a certified birth certificate, but would not meet the letter of the federal legislation. Like passports, birth certificates can sometimes take weeks to obtain. Those who live near their birthplaces can visit the local vital statistics office, but staffing shortages and escalating demand for REAL IDs have caused significant backlogs in some states. In New York, the waiting period for certified copies is four months, the state said. Average processing times for online certificate requests vary widely by state, from as few as three days to 12 weeks or longer. People whose birth certificates don't match their current IDs — mostly women who changed their names when they married — would likely need additional documentation to register to vote under the bill. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found about 80% of women in opposite-sex marriages in the U.S. take their husband's last name. Notably, the SAVE Act does not provide any money to help states and local governments implement the changes or promote them to voters. For Bogdan, that was part of the problem when New Hampshire's proof-of-citizenship law took effect. People who have voted elsewhere in the state are not required to show proof of citizenship in their new towns if poll workers confirm their registration history, but Bogdan said workers at his polling place did not seem to know that or try to look up the information. He eventually was able to cast his ballot because, by luck, he had recently retrieved his birth certificate from his parents' house more than an hour away so he could apply for a REAL ID. But he said government notices to voters would help prevent possible disenfranchisement. “Young voters like myself don't always carry around our birth certificate, Social Security card, all that important stuff, because it's not used ever or very often,” he said. “And so all those young kids who are going to go out and try and vote will be held back from that.” Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.","{'href': 'https://apnews.com', 'title': 'AP News'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=us+national+news+site:apnews.com","US faces elevated terrorism threats against backdrop of Iran war and cuts at FBI, Justice Department","https://apnews.com/article/fbi-iran-terrorism-firings-18d59b0c72ca52db09c8ff03215efe14","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 11:16:00 GMT"," Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Ayman Mohamad Ghazali lost two of his brothers, a niece and a nephew during an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, an official said. (AP Video: Mike Householder and Sophie Bates) Police tape hangs outside the Temple Israel synagogue Friday, March 13, 2026, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) Police arrive outside Old Dominion University's campus after reports of an active shooter on Thursday, March 12, 2026, in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/John Clark) NYPD officers stand outside Carl Schurz Park as they investigate suspicious device, Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura) FBI director Kash Patel arrives before President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file) FBI Director Kash Patel takes part in a U.S. Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Flag Raising ceremony at the State Department, Monday, March 9, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf) WASHINGTON (AP) — In New York City, two men who federal authorities say were inspired by the Islamic State brought powerful homemade bombs to a far-right protest outside the mayoral mansion. In Michigan, a naturalized citizen from Lebanon rammed his vehicle into a synagogue, where he was shot at by security before he shot himself to death. In Virginia, a man previously imprisoned on a terrorism conviction was heard yelling “Allahu akbar” before opening fire in a university classroom in an attack that officials said ended when the shooter was killed by students. The three acts of violence in the last week have laid bare a heightened terrorism threat unfolding against the backdrop of the U.S. war with Iran and as the country's counterterrorism system is strained by the departures of experienced national security professionals at the FBI and Justice Department. The firings and resignations, along with the diversion of resources and personnel over the last year to meet other Trump administration priorities, have fueled concerns about the capability to head off a potential surge in threats. “So much experience has been decimated from the ranks,” said Frank Montoya, a retired senior FBI official. “The folks that were best positioned to get to the bottom of it before something really bad happened” are in many cases no longer with the government, he said, meaning less experienced personnel assigned to the threat are “starting from way behind.” The FBI said it would not comment on personnel numbers and decisions, but issued a statement saying “agents and staff are dedicated professionals working around the clock to defend the homeland and crush violent crime. The FBI continuously assesses and realigns our resources to ensure the safety of the American people.” Iran has vowed revenge for the killing by the U.S. and Israel of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and though the fighting has so far been confined to the Middle East, the Islamic Republic has long professed its determination to carry out violence on American soil. Iranian operatives, for instance, responded to the 2020 assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani during the first Trump administration with a disrupted murder-for-hire plot targeting former national security adviser John Bolton. A Pakistani business owner who says he was carrying out instructions from a contact in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was convicted in New York last week of trying to hire hit men in 2024 for assassination plots targeting public figures, including President Donald Trump, who was then running for president. Though much attention has focused on Iran's use of proxies or hired hands to carry out plots, the country's capability to organize a large-scale assault on the U.S. remains unclear despite clear angst over the potential. The FBI warned in a recent bulletin to law enforcement about Iran's aspiration to conduct a drone attack targeting California, but after the warning was publicized, officials emphasized the intelligence was unverified and that no specific plot was known to exist. The U.S. government after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks overhauled its intelligence and national security apparatus to prevent similarly catastrophic events. But in the years since, lone actors radicalized online have nonetheless carried out shootings like the 2015 ambush attacks at a pair of military sites in Chattanooga, Tennessee and a rampage at an Orlando nightclub the following year by a gunman who killed 49 people and raged against the “filthy ways of the west.” Those plots by self-directed individuals have proved notoriously difficult to prevent and have occurred even when the FBI has not been roiled by firings and internal upheaval like during the first year of the Trump administration. “They're self-directed,” said retired FBI official Edward Herbst. “That's what makes them really lethal. You never know when they're going to rise up. You never know when and where they're going to attack.” Terrorism concerns typically rise during times of international conflict when military action overseas is accompanied by increased vigilance, including outreach from agents to their sources, more active sharing of tips between federal and local law enforcement and closer coordination among FBI joint terrorism task forces, said Claire Moravec, a former FBI national security official who served as deputy homeland security adviser in Illinois. Officials have said there is no indication that either the men arrested in connection with the explosives in New York, or the man responsible for Thursday's Old Dominion University shooting, were motivated explicitly by the Iran war. The man who crashed into Temple Israel synagogue near Detroit on Thursday lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, an official in Lebanon said. Regardless, wars like the one in Iran can function as “accelerants,” raising the volume and intensity of grievances for the disaffected, Moravec said. “Ultimately, the goal during these periods is not ‘surveillance' but maintaining a broad awareness of how international events could translate into domestic security risks, so that threats can be identified and disrupted early,” she said in an email. The Justice Department's National Security Division was established in 2006 to address threats of terrorism, espionage and other concerns. In the last year, lawyers in the division found themselves assigned to review the Jeffrey Epstein files to prepare them for release, and elite sections dedicated to prosecuting terrorists and catching spies have endured turnover. About half of the division's counterterrorism prosecutors have left since the beginning of the Trump administration, along with about a third of its senior leadership, according to estimates from Justice Connection, a network of department alumni. A Justice Department spokesperson said the division's singular focus remains “keeping the American people safe from threats foreign and domestic” and that there are no known or credible threats to the homeland. FBI Director Kash Patel has fired dozens of agents, most recently about a dozen employees who worked on the counterintelligence investigation into Trump's retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “This is not an exaggeration to say that they are not as capable as they were a year and a half ago,” Matthew Olsen, who led the National Security Division during the Biden administration, said this week on the Lawfare podcast, adding that “they've lost, forced out, fired, the most capable, the most experienced FBI agents, FBI officials and DOJ prosecutors, that were working on the Iran threat.” In the national security realm, where experience and source development are vital, the loss of institutional knowledge and community relationships can be a crushing blow, said Montoya, the former FBI official. “There was no transition,” Montoya said of the agents who have been abruptly fired. “These guys were just walked out of the building. The new guys can call them and say, ‘Hey, can you tell me what you were doing?'” but even so, “you're still introducing a brand new face into the equation.” Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.","{'href': 'https://apnews.com', 'title': 'AP News'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=us+national+news+site:apnews.com","Anti-Muslim rhetoric rises among Republicans with little pushback from GOP leadership","https://apnews.com/article/republican-attacks-muslim-mamdani-iran-congress-tuberville-d01345fb01e610214431a48b222e6294","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:01:00 GMT"," Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. The U.S. Capitol is seen at sunrise March 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., gives an interview before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert) Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., arrives for a meeting with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) Police tape hangs outside the Temple Israel synagogue Friday, March 13, 2026, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Rental Ripoff Hearing at Fordham University on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki) WASHINGTON (AP) — Anti-Muslim rhetoric from some Republicans in Congress intensified this week against the backdrop of the Iran war, with multiple lawmakers — including one who said “Muslims don't belong in American society” — drawing condemnation from Democrats for their remarks but little pushback from GOP leaders. The derogatory language has been percolating among Republican officials for months, often prominent when criticizing New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is Muslim. But against the backdrop of the Iran war, a country with an overwhelmingly Muslim population, and attacks at a synagogue in Michigan and a college in Virginia, the tone sharpened this week. “The enemy is inside our gates,” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville wrote Thursday in response to a photo of Mamdani sitting on the ground during an iftar dinner at New York City Hall. The photo was juxtaposed with a picture of the Sept. 11 attacks. Hours later, Tuberville doubled down: “To be clear, I didn't ‘suggest' Islamists are the enemy. I said it plainly.” The rhetoric intensified Friday as GOP lawmakers responded to the attacks in Michigan and Virginia by urging a halt to all immigration into the United States. Some singled out Muslims specifically. For many Muslims, it's a political moment that carries echoes from the early 2000s, when the 9/11 attacks and the Afghanistan and Iraq wars generated hostility toward Muslim communities in the United States, often accompanied by discrimination and racist violence. “When members of Congress speak, it's not just words,” said Iman Awad, the national director for policy and advocacy for the Muslim American advocacy group Emgage Action. “It shapes public perception. It legitimizes prejudice.” Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles in his social media post stated flatly that Muslims don't belong in the United States. He stood behind it after criticism mounted, later writing that “paperwork doesn't magically make you American” and that “Muslims are unable to assimilate; they all have to go back.” Asked about Ogles' post on Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he had spoken to members “about our tone and our message and what we say.” He said Ogles used “different language than I would use,” but added that he believes the issue raised by the comments is “serious.” “There's a lot of energy in the country, and a lot of popular sentiment that the demand to impose Sharia law in America is a serious problem,” Johnson said. “That's what animates this.” Sharia is a religious framework that guides many Muslims' moral and spiritual conduct. References to “Sharia law” have often been invoked by officials to suggest Muslims are attempting to impose religious practices on communities in the United States. Many Republicans point to a Muslim-centered planned community near Dallas as proof of “Sharia law” — though the developers have denied the allegations and said they are being targeted because they are Muslim. With Johnson not condemning Ogles' remarks — or to recent comments from Florida Rep. Randy Fine that “the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one” — the anti-Muslim rhetoric grew louder. After the photo circulated of Mamdani at the iftar dinner, several Republicans responded with critical posts. Democrats broadly condemned the GOP messages. Chuck Schumer, the leader of Senate Democrats, called Tuberville's post “mindless hate.” “Islamophobic hate like this is fundamentally un-American and we must confront and overcome it whenever it rears its ugly head,” Schumer said. Mamdani — in response to Tuberville's post that “the enemy is inside our gates” — said: “Let there be as much outrage from politicians in Washington when kids go hungry as there is when I break bread with New Yorkers.” Federal officials identified a man who rammed his vehicle into a hallway at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, this week as a naturalized citizen born in Lebanon. Officials have said that the man had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, just after sunset as they were having their fast-breaking meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan In Virginia, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh opened fire in a classroom at Old Dominion University before ROTC students subdued and killed him. Court documents showed that he had previously served time for attempting to aid the Islamic State and was released less than two years ago. Some Republican lawmakers claimed vindication for their views. Others pushed for legislation. Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, the House GOP's whip, said “the security of our nation hinges on our ability to denaturalize and deport terrorists.” West Virginia Rep. Riley Moore said he would introduce a bill to denaturalize and deport any naturalized citizen who “commits an act of terrorism, plots to commit an act of terrorism, joins a terrorist organization or otherwise aids and abets terrorism against the American people.” Similar rhetoric and policy pushes have surfaced before and drawn controversy. Last year, protesters connected to demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas war were arrested and targeted by authorities, including former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist the government has sought to detain and deport. Middle East conflicts bringing domestic tensions is nothing new. With the war in Gaza, both Muslim and Jewish communities have faced faith-based discrimination and attacks. Mamdani said the posts invoking the 9/11 attacks are problematic not just because of the words, but because of “the actions that often accompany them.” “I think too of the smaller indignities, the indignities that many New Yorkers face, but that Muslims are expected to face in silence,” Mamdani said. “Of the exhaustion of having to explain yourself to those who are not interested in understanding. Of the men who introduce themselves by their given name only to be called Muhammad for years on end.” The stark silence from Republican leaders, including President Donald Trump, reflects a broader change in the party. After the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, Republican President George W. Bush visited the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., to explicitly warn against Muslim discrimination. “America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country,” Bush said during the visit, adding: “They need to be treated with respect. In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect.” “Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don't represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior,” Bush said. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.","{'href': 'https://apnews.com', 'title': 'AP News'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=us+national+news+site:apnews.com","Old Dominion shooter was released from prison early after completing drug program","https://apnews.com/article/jalloh-old-dominion-university-shooting-islamic-state-b257727b0167982fbffafae2eb8548fd","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:42:00 GMT"," Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. The FBI says ROTC students in an Old Dominion University classroom subdued and killed the shooter who killed one person and wounded two other. Emergency officials gather outside Old Dominion University's campus after reports of an active shooter on Thursday, March 12, 2026 in Norfolk, Va. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot via AP) NEW YORK (AP) — The man who opened fire in a classroom at Virginia's Old Dominion University completed a drug treatment program that allowed him early release from federal prison, even though he was convicted of a terrorism charge that should have disqualified him from that benefit. Mohamed Bailor Jalloh was sentenced to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2017 to providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Islamic State group, and was released about 2½ years early, according to prison records. The federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed Friday that Jalloh was released in December 2024 because of a loophole in a legal provision that allows some inmates to shave time off their sentences by completing a substance abuse treatment program. The agency told The Associated Press that it has since closed the loophole and has changed its policies to bar inmates with terrorism-related convictions from being released in that manner. It said that its previous attempts to update a list of excluded offenses had stalled in negotiations with the union representing correctional workers, the Bureau of Prisons said. Since canceling the union contract last year “not one inmate with terrorism related charges has received time credit” for completing the drug treatment program, the agency said. Under federal law, violent offenders aren't eligible for sentence reductions through the prison system's drug treatment program. The program, known as RDAP, is typically available only to inmates with drug-related charges, which Jalloh didn't have. “It's highly insulting to put the blame on the union. We have no say so in that,” union official and former correctional worker Jose Rojas said. Jalloh, a former Virginia Army National Guard member who authorities said was taking online classes at the university, killed one person and wounded two other people in Thursday's shooting. ROTC students subdued and killed him. Some elected officials questioned how someone with known ties to the Islamic State group was able to carry out such an attack. “The horrific tragedy that occurred today on ODU's campus never should have happened,” U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans, who represents the congressional district neighboring the university, wrote on Facebook. Jalloh had been incarcerated at a low-security federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, and was was transferred to a residential reentry center, or halfway house, in the Baltimore area in August 2024, the Bureau of Prisons said. He was released from federal custody on Dec. 23, 2024. Jalloh was on probation, known as supervised release in the federal system, when he attacked Old Dominion on Thursday. Based on his release date, that would've run into 2029. A probation officer visited Jalloh's Sterling, Virginia, home every six months and was last there in November, according to a law enforcement affidavit filed Friday against a man charged with supplying a gun to Jalloh. Jalloh's October 2016 plea came after a three-month sting operation in which he, then 26, confessed to an undercover FBI agent that he was thinking about carrying out an attack similar to the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, which left 13 people dead. Authorities launched the 2016 operation after Jalloh made contact with members of the Islamic State group in Africa earlier that year. Jalloh later told the informant that the Islamic State group had asked if he wanted to participate in an attack. He tried to donate $500 to the group, but the money actually went to an account controlled by the FBI, according to court documents. Jalloh then tried to buy an AR-15 assault rifle from a Virginia gun store but was turned away because he lacked the proper paperwork. The affidavit says he returned the next day and bought a different assault rifle. Prosecutors said the rifle was rendered inoperable before Jalloh left the store, unbeknownst to Jalloh. He was arrested the following day. The Justice Department in 2017 requested a 20-year prison sentence for Jalloh, noting that he had made multiple attempts to join the Islamic State group and had attempted to acquire a gun to carry out a murder plot. “The defendant was fully aware of what he was doing, and the consequences of those actions. His only misgivings seemed to be a fear that he would waver at the critical moment,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. They added: “By putting the idea of this murder plot into religious terms, and by suggesting that murdering members of the US military would be a path to heaven, the defendant showed how strongly committed he was to the deadly ideology” of the Islamic State group. Jalloh's lawyers asked for a sentence of 6½ years in prison and requested that he be placed in a facility that provides residential drug treatment for inmates with addiction and substance abuse issues. U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, sentenced him instead to 11 years in prison, with credit for time served in jail since his July 2016 arrest. The judge also ordered Jalloh to participate in a program for substance abuse testing and treatment, mental health treatment, and requested that he be evaluated for the federal prison system's residential drug program. Completing the Residential Drug Abuse Program can reduce an inmate's prison sentence by up to a year, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons. In addition, some inmates who stay out of trouble in prison can reduce their sentence by earning up to 54 days of good conduct time credit for each year of their sentence. However, under the 2018 prison reform law known as the First Step Act, inmates convicted of terrorism-related offenses are not eligible for such credit. Little is publicly known about Jalloh, who was a naturalized citizen from Sierra Leone. But court documents depict him as a troubled man who was radicalized by Anwar al-Awlaki, a well-known American imam who became an al-Qaida propagandist. The Virginia Army National Guard confirmed he served as a specialist from 2009 until 2015, when he was honorably discharged. Jalloh told a government informant he quit the National Guard after hearing lectures from al-Awlaki, according to a 2016 FBI affidavit filed in his criminal case. In a letter to the federal judge that presided over his sentencing, Jalloh wrote: “I feel deep regret in having been driven by my emotions rather than my intellect and becoming involved with such an evil organization. … I reject and deplore terrorism and any groups associated with it, especially ISIL.” He wrote that he started using drugs after his girlfriend ended their six-year relationship. “The pain I felt internally was unbearable, and drugs and alcohol were the only things that took that pain away,” Jalloh wrote. “I started doing marijuana, coke and mushrooms using one of them at least on a daily basis in order to kill the pain I was in and to fill in the void I felt internally.” The letter itself remains under seal, but his lawyer included excerpts of it in his sentencing memorandum. ___ Riddle reported from Montgomery, Alabama. Associated Press reporter Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.","{'href': 'https://apnews.com', 'title': 'AP News'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=us+national+news+site:apnews.com","Pakistan's president says Afghan Taliban forces crossed a ‘red line' with drone attacks on civilians","https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-afghanistan-drone-attacks-zardari-89e68a28e725c7e8f5609ec8a253796b","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:38:00 GMT"," Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Residents inspect the site of a strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, March 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Barackatullah Popal) People attend the funeral prayers of police officers, killed in the roadside bomb explosion, outskirts of Lakki Marwat, a district in northwest Pakistan, Friday, March 13, 2026. (AP Photo/G.A. Marwat) Residents and Taliban police gather the remains of a projectile at the site of a strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, March 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Barackatullah Popal) ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's president on Saturday warned neighboring Afghanistan's Taliban government that it had “ crossed a red line ” by launching drone attacks on civilian areas in Pakistan and said the administration in Kabul has brought “grave consequences upon itself.” The statement by Asif Ali Zardari was the latest in what has become the deadliest fighting yet between the two neighbors. The cross-border clashes, which erupted late last month, have shown no signs of abating despite efforts by China and Turkey to broker a ceasefire. Pakistan said its forces intercepted the drones launched on Friday but that falling debris injured two children in the city of Quetta and two people elsewhere in the country. On Friday, the Afghan Taliban government accused Pakistan of conducting airstrikes in Kabul, the country's capital, and other areas in eastern Afghanistan, saying at least six civilians were killed and 15 other were injured. Hours later, Kabul claimed its air force responded by targeting military installations near Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, and in northwestern Pakistan. Pakistan denied targeting civilians, saying its operations are focused on Pakistani Taliban militants and their support networks. Islamabad has referred to the conflict as an “open war” — adding to concerns among the international community about regional stability as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has engulfed the Middle East and beyond. Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that Pakistani aircraft also struck fuel depots belonging to the private airline Kam Air near the airport in the southern city of Kandahar, which he said supplies civilian and U.N. flights. Pakistan accuses the Afghan Taliban government of harboring Pakistani militant groups — mainly the Pakistani Taliban — that cross the porous volatile border between the two countries to stage attacks against Pakistani forces and also of allying with its archrival, India. Kabul denies harboring militant groups. On Friday, a roadside bomb targeting Pakistani police killed seven officers in the northwestern district of Lakki Mawat. Zardari slammed the government in Kabul. “While the Afghan terrorist regime seeks negotiations with our friendly countries, it crossed a red line by attempting to target our civilians,” he said. Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said Saturday on X that its defense forces along the border in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar captured a Pakistani post and killed 14 Pakistani soldiers. In Islamabad, Pakistan's Information Ministry said the claim was baseless. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's spokesman, Mosharraf Zaidi, said the “Afghan Taliban are spending more time weaving fantasies” than they are getting rid of “terrorist organizations enjoying Afghan Taliban regime hospitality.” He said on X that such propaganda would not force Pakistan to end its counterterrorism operations. “Only the end of terrorism from Afghan soil to Pakistan will,” he said. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday urged for a peaceful resolution of the Afghanistan-Pakistan dispute, warning the use of force worsens tensions and threatens regional stability. His remarks were reported Saturday by China's official Xinhua News Agency, which said Wang had spoken with Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. Wang said China's special envoy is shuttling between the two countries in an effort to promote restraint and encourage a ceasefire. Muttaqi said Afghanistan seeks regional peace and does not want a military conflict, adding that dialogue remains the only solution and urging China to play a greater role. A Qatari-mediated ceasefire in October briefly reduced tensions, but subsequent talks in Turkey failed to produce a lasting agreement. ___ Qahar reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. Associated Press writer Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.","{'href': 'https://apnews.com', 'title': 'AP News'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=us+national+news+site:apnews.com","Could the Chicago Bears leave Illinois? Indiana makes a play for the historic franchise","https://apnews.com/article/chicago-bears-stadium-indiana-move-f1b075eff96cfbec693cf23962745c74","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 07:38:00 GMT"," Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Soldier Field is seen for an MLS soccer match between the Chicago Fire and the CF Montréal, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Matt Marton, File) SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A turf war over a football team is developing between two Midwestern states with a sometimes-discordant history. The storied Chicago Bears want to leave historic Soldier Field, where they've played for half a century. Indiana lawmakers are attempting to lure them from the Windy City with a plan to finance and build a domed stadium in Hammond, Indiana, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from their current home on Lake Michigan's shore. The Illinois General Assembly has responded with legislation that would give tax breaks to so-called megaprojects of at least $100 million, a plan that would encompass the Bears' proposal to build a complex in the northwest Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, about the same distance from Soldier Field as Hammond. Critics complain it's a bad deal for Illinois, where property taxes are already among the highest in the nation — especially when taxpayers still owe hundreds of millions of dollars on a Soldier Field renovation from two decades ago. Here's a look at what's shaping up to be a showdown. The Bears, one of only two remaining NFL founding members, are legend. Their nine championships, including a Super Bowl win, are second only to the rival Green Bay Packers — though recent decades have brought mostly heartbreak. The franchise carries an $8.9 billion price tag, among the most valuable of the NFL's 32 teams, according to Forbes. Born in the central Illinois city of Decatur in 1920, the Bears have called Chicago home for 105 years. Losing them to the Hoosier State would be a major thumb in the eye. With 61,500 seats, it's the NFL's smallest. The Bears have always rented their facilities — the Cubs' Wrigley Field from 1921 to 1970, and Soldier Field, maintained by the Chicago Park District, since. Like most teams, they want to own a stadium, giving them control over operations, scheduling and revenue streams from ticket sales, concessions, parking, naming rights and more. And Soldier Field is open air. An enclosed facility would allow for other marquee sporting events: Super Bowls, NCAA Final Fours or WrestleMania, for instance. Along with the states' established cultural and economic differences and an intense college basketball rivalry, the political fissure between Democrat-dominated Chicago and conservative Indiana has widened. It amped up last year when Indiana adopted a commission to study changing the state's boundaries to include some central Illinois counties whose voters have approved ballot measures calling for secession from Chicagoland. The Bears have threatened to leave Chicago previously. When they broached moving in 1975, then-Mayor Richard J. Daley replied, “Like hell they will.” But the City of Big Shoulders heaved an anxious sigh in 2023 when the Bears paid about $200 million for a 326-acre (132-hectare) former horse-racing track in Arlington Heights. They have envisioned a $5 billion, taxpayer-assisted development for a domed stadium and campus of housing, hotels, entertainment and retail space. In 2024, the Bears offered a $5 billion plan, partially taxpayer-funded, for an enclosed stadium next to Soldier Field, which garnered little interest in the capital of Springfield. Late last fall, the team turned to Indiana. Indiana's lure creates the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority to finance, construct and lease a domed stadium near Wolf Lake in Hammond. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun signed it into law on Feb. 26. The Bears would agree to a 35-year lease. Borrowed state money would cover the as-yet-unknown cost of construction, repaid by increased local hospitality taxes. In Illinois, majority Democrats have advanced legislation in the House that would provide incentives for any so-called megaproject of at least $500 million — or less, down to $100 million, depending on the number of jobs created. Developers would pay property taxes frozen at the parcel's pre-construction value for as long as 45 years. During that time, they would make annual payments in lieu of taxes negotiated with local governments. There would also be a sales tax exemption on building materials for up to 15 years. Opponents say the Illinois legislation, with its decades-long property tax freeze, would simply mean increased taxes for homeowners and other businesses — the payment in lieu of taxes would be a bonus. Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, who supports the plan, last week countered that the proposal would encourage development on land that isn't producing property taxes while ensuring increased revenue for local governments. Meanwhile, a substantial debt remains on the last accommodation. Taxpayers in 2001 put up $399 million to finance a $587 million renovation of Soldier Field. With interest, the remaining tab is $467 million, according to the state's Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. The Bears' $7 million annual lease runs through 2033. Breaking it would cost the Bears a $10.5 million penalty for each year left on the agreement. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.","{'href': 'https://apnews.com', 'title': 'AP News'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=us+national+news+site:foxnews.com","Cleanest cruise lines revealed after CDC surprise sanitation inspections","https://www.foxnews.com/travel/cleanest-cruise-lines-revealed-cdc-surprise-sanitation-inspections","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:00:24 GMT"," This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Footage provided by a U.S. Coast Guard member shows the heavy icebreaker Polar Star maneuvering through dense ice. The cleanest cruise ships have been revealed in a new study — and some of the findings may surprise cruise lovers. The study, which compiled data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) annual health and hygiene inspections, ranked a number of popular cruise lines as the most sanitary. ""The data shows that independent brands tend to score higher than large conglomerates, and, surprisingly, the age of the ship doesn't appear to influence a cruise line's ability to achieve a perfect score,"" according to the study by Florida-based Squaremouth Travel Insurance. OUTRAGED CRUISE PASSENGERS BLAST COMPANY'S 'IDIOTIC' NEW DRESS CODE CRACKDOWN Cruise ships were graded on a 100-point scale. To pass inspection, ships must score 86 or above. The Viking Ocean Cruises II Ltd., Viking Expedition Operations and Crystal Cruises were tied as the cleanest cruise lines, according to the study. Each cruise line scored a 99 out of 100. ""Surprisingly, the age of the ship doesn't appear to influence a cruise line's ability to achieve a perfect score,"" a new study said. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group) ""The federal government's Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP), established in 1975 to work with the cruise industry to protect travelers' health, is critical for the health and safety of passengers, staff and the locations that cruise ships visit,"" Gavin Macgregor-Skinner, an infection prevention expert and epidemiologist, told Fox News Digital. Oceania Cruises, P&O Cruises, Japan Grace, Virgin Voyages, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International completed the top 10 cleanest cruise line list. DINERS RANK THE 10 ‘DIRTIEST' STATES FOR RESTAURANTS — SEE IF YOURS MADE THE LIST Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas ship, which premiered in 2001, ranked high in the CDC's list — proving that age is not necessarily linked to cleanliness. All the ships in the top 10 scored higher than 97.12. ""Ships participating in the VSP can expect two unannounced inspections every year, with a focus on medical facilities, potable water systems, swimming pools and whirlpool baths, galleys and dining rooms, child activity centers, cabins, ventilation systems and common areas,"" Macgregor-Skinner said. Cruise ships were graded on a 100-point scale. Ships must score 86 or above to pass inspection. (Jeff Greenberg/Universal Images Group) Viking, Virgin and Norwegian were the corporations that ranked the highest, with sanitation scores of 98.75, 97.67 and 97.39 respectively, according to the study. ""Without strong cleaning and hygiene practices, germs can spread quickly."" Disney was No. 4 in the list of corporations — averaging a 97. Royal Caribbean and Carnival had average sanitation scores of 96.74 and 94.82 respectively. DREAM VACATION BECOMES NIGHTMARE AS DOZENS FALL ILL IN SUSPECTED NOROVIRUS OUTBREAK ON CRUISE SHIP Viruses can spread quickly on a cruise ship. But the CDC implements strict cleaning protocols for all vessels. All the ships in the top 10 list of cleanest cruises scored higher than 97.12. (Horacio Villalobos/Corbis) ""Cruise ships are shared environments where thousands of people touch the same surfaces every day,"" Brian Sansoni, senior vice president of communications at the American Cleaning Institute in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital. ""Without strong cleaning and hygiene practices, germs can spread quickly, increasing the risk of illness among passengers and crew,"" he continued. CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE STORIES Surprisingly, the study found no link between viruses and the lack of cleanliness. Cruise ships are often ravaged by norovirus and other gastrointestinal illnesses. In 2025, the CDC reported 23 onboard outbreaks, according to the study. Overall, the cruise industry is cleaner than other travel sectors, an expert said. (Jens Büttner) However, ""the data shows no correlation between the number of onboard viral outbreaks and sanitation scores, proving that viral illness can easily spread on the cleanest of ships,"" the study said. TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ Macgregor-Skinner said cruise lines are the only part of the travel sector that routinely report illnesses to the federal government. ""It is very important not to confuse the wider availability of cruise health data with a higher incidence rate on cruise ships compared to settings like restaurants, hotels and planes,"" Macgregor-Skinner said. Viruses can spread quickly on a cruise ship. But the CDC enforces strict cleaning protocols. (Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service) Overall, the cruise industry is actually cleaner than other travel sectors, he said. Nevertheless, Sansoni asserted, ""Inadequate cleaning can allow viruses and bacteria to linger on high‑touch surfaces like railings, elevator buttons and bathroom fixtures. When cleaning protocols break down, those germs can spread rapidly in close quarters."" CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER Per the study, here are the top 10 cleanest cruise lines. Viking Ocean Cruises Viking Expedition Cruises Crystal Cruises Oceania Cruises P&O Cruises CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP Japan Grace Virgin Voyages Norwegian Cruise Line Celebrity Cruises Royal Caribbean International Jessica Mekles is an editor on the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital. A look at the top-trending stories in food, relationships, great outdoors and more. By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can opt-out at any time. Subscribed You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. ","{'href': 'https://www.foxnews.com', 'title': 'Fox News'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=us+national+news+site:foxnews.com","Ex-Dem senator admits to affair with former bodyguard in explosive court filing: 'Romantic and Intimate'","https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ex-dem-senator-admits-affair-former-bodyguard-explosive-court-filing-romantic","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:00:14 GMT"," This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema joins 'Fox & Friends' to explain the benefits of artificial intelligence and the need for data centers within the United States. Former Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema admitted to having an affair with her former bodyguard while in office and while he was still married — an admission that came by way of an explosive new court filing in the state of North Carolina, seeking to dismiss a so-called ""homewrecker"" lawsuit filed by the bodyguard's estranged wife. Sinema, who served in the Senate from 2019 to 2025, acknowledged the relationship with her former bodyguard, Matthew Ammel, in a motion to dismiss the ""alienation of affection"" lawsuit filed in North Carolina by his estranged wife. The complaint accused Sinema of engaging in ""intentional and malicious interference"" in Ammel's marriage and sought $25,000 in damages from Sinema as a result of allegedly ""willful and wanton"" conduct. KYRSTEN SINEMA RIPS SENATE DEMOCRATS FOR APPARENT FLIP-FLOP ON FILIBUSTER NOW THAT THEY NEED IT Kyrsten Sinema is seen during a 2023 interview on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Neither the motion to dismiss, nor the sworn declaration Sinema submitted to the court, seeks to dispute the nature of her affair with Ammel — described as both ""romantic and intimate."" Rather, the filings argue that the case should be dropped because the communications in question occurred ""exclusively outside"" the boundaries of the Tar Heel state. Combined, the new filings leave little to the imagination regarding the nature of the affair between Sinema and Ammel, which began in May 2024 in Sonoma, Calif., and involved months of phone calls, emails, and Signal messages, in addition to various romantic relations in cities across the U.S. cities. KYRSTEN SINEMA'S SWITCH TO INDEPENDENT DESCRIBED AS 'GUT PUNCH' TO DEMOCRATS: ‘NO WIGGLE ROOM' Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) moves between meetings at the U.S. Capitol on June 01, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) ""I keep waking up during my sleep and reaching over for your arms to hold me,"" Sinema told Ammel in one Signal message, which she recalled was sent in June 2024 from Scottsdale, and received by Ammel while in Kansas. That fall, another Signal exchange between the two was apparently interrupted by Ammel's estranged wife. She allegedly responded to Sinema directly, stating: ""Are you having an affair with my husband? You took a married man away from his family."" Just six states, including North Carolina, still recognize ""alienation of affection"" lawsuits, though the ones that do still require the spouses to meet a difficult legal burden. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In order to succeed in the lawsuit, plaintiffs in an ""alienation of affection"" lawsuit must prove to the court three things: First, that the marriage had real affection and a viable relationship before any third-party involvement; second, that the ""love and affection"" was destroyed, or significantly diminished; and finally, that the defendant directly ""caused the destruction of that marital love and affection."" Fox News Digital reached out to Sinema for comment. Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI and other national news. She previously covered national politics at the Washington Examiner and The Washington Post, with additional bylines in Politico Magazine, the Colorado Gazette and others. You can send tips to Breanne at Breanne.Deppisch@fox.com, or follow her on X at @breanne_dep. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content. By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can opt-out at any time. Subscribed You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. ","{'href': 'https://www.foxnews.com', 'title': 'Fox News'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=us+national+news+site:foxnews.com","State Department cuts fee to renounce US citizenship by 80% to $450","https://www.foxnews.com/us/state-department-cuts-fee-renounce-us-citizenship-80-450","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:25:57 GMT"," This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Fox News host Mark Levin traces the history behind birthright citizenship on ‘Life, Liberty & Levin' after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban the practice. The State Department has cut the fee Americans must pay to renounce their U.S. citizenship by roughly 80%, lowering the cost from $2,350 to $450 under a new rule that took effect Friday. The new fee, first announced in 2023 but not previously implemented, returns the cost to the same level the government charged when it first began requiring payment for citizenship renunciations in 2010. The State Department said in the rule that it lowered the fee as a policy decision to reduce the cost burden on people seeking a Certificate of Loss of Nationality, the document issued after someone formally renounces U.S. citizenship before a diplomatic or consular officer abroad. WHITE HOUSE-BACKED GOP BILL WOULD REVOKE CITIZENSHIP AFTER SOMALI FRAUD SCANDAL The State Department has cut the fee Americans must pay to renounce their U.S. citizenship by roughly 80%, lowering the cost from $2,350 to $450 under a new rule that took effect Friday. (iStock) The State Department raised the fee from $450 to $2,350 in 2015 in part to cover administrative costs as the number of Americans seeking to renounce their citizenship surged following new U.S. tax reporting rules for expatriates, The Associated Press reported. Applications to renounce citizenship rose sharply in the early 2010s, climbing from 956 cases in 2010 to 3,436 in 2014, the State Department said. The department said the new $450 fee remains well below the government's actual cost of processing renunciation requests. The State Department estimates roughly 4,661 people apply each year for a Certificate of Loss of Nationality. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION REVOKES MORE THAN 100,000 VISAS IN FIRST YEAR BACK People walk past the seal of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Americans must appear at a U.S. embassy or consulate abroad to formally renounce their citizenship. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images) Lowering the fee is expected to reduce annual federal collections by about $8.9 million, the State Department said in the rule. The money collected from the fee is deposited into the U.S. Treasury and is not used to fund the State Department's consular operations. Renouncing U.S. citizenship involves a multistep process that requires applicants to appear before a U.S. consular officer abroad and confirm in writing and verbally that they understand the consequences before taking a formal oath of renunciation, The Associated Press reported. The State Department must then review and approve the request before issuing a Certificate of Loss of Nationality. Stricter financial reporting requirements imposed on Americans living overseas — including rules tied to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) — have contributed to renunciation requests in recent years, the department said. The increase in the fee drew criticism from advocacy groups, including the one that represents people who hold U.S. citizenship primarily because they were born in the United States but have lived most of their lives abroad, the AP reported. A view of the United States Department of State logo in Washington D.C., United States. (Celal Gunes / Anadolu Agency) The group filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the fee, including one case that argues there should be no cost at all to renounce citizenship, according to the AP. ""The Association of Accidental Americans welcomes this decision, which acknowledges the necessity of making this fundamental right accessible to all,"" the organization's president, Fabien Lehagre, said in a statement. Lehagre said the decision follows years of legal advocacy by the group. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP The association said that since the State Department announced plans in 2023 to lower the fee, at least 8,755 Americans paid the full $2,350 cost to renounce their citizenship, the AP reported. The State Department has not released updated figures on the total number of Americans who have renounced their citizenship. Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan. The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal. By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can opt-out at any time. Subscribed You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. ","{'href': 'https://www.foxnews.com', 'title': 'Fox News'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=us+national+news+site:foxnews.com","JONATHAN TURLEY: How Gov Shapiro became a squatter and got sued by his neighbors","https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jonathan-turley-how-gov-shapiro-became-squatter-got-sued-his-neighbors","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 11:08:35 GMT"," This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. ‘Amateur Hour' Author Charlie Spiering unpacks the state of the Democratic Party on 'Jesse Watters Primetime.' Poet Robert Frost once said that ""good fences make good neighbors."" He apparently never met Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is being sued by his neighbors for effectively squatting on their land and then seizing it to install a fence along his $830,500 private residence in suburban Philadelphia. The litigation is likely to put Shapiro in a much different light for many who think of him as a 2028 contender. US President Joe Biden looks on as Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro delivers remarks following a briefing on Interstate-95 highway emergency repair and reconstruction efforts, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 17, 2023. (JULIA NIKHINSON/AFP via Getty Images)) The irony of the case is crushing. Shapiro opposed Trump's plan to build a wall along the southern border, declaring that he would sue before a dime of Pennsylvania money would go to pay for it. He apparently adopted a similar approach to his neighbors in Pennsylvania. The difference is that he built the wall, but without giving his neighbors a dime. Shapiro has long wanted a 2,900-square-foot parcel of land located between the two homes in Abington, Montgomery County. The problem is that his neighbors like their land and want to keep it. They turned down multiple offers from Shapiro. That is when the governor decided to build it anyway. GIVE THE GOVERNMENT AN INCH AND THEY'LL SEIZE YOUR $200K HOME FOR A $2K DEBT Jeremy and Simone Mock allege that Shapiro effectively became a squatter by using the state police to bar them from their own property and then building an eight-foot security fence. After the Mocks sued, Shapiro countersued, claiming that the land was now his through ""adverse possession."" He basically claimed that they abandoned the land despite their repeatedly trying to gain entry and repeatedly turning down his offers to buy it. Welcome to the world of adverse possession. It is a doctrine dating back to 2000 B.C., and the Code of Hammurabi, allowing people to acquire title to land abandoned by owners over a long period of time. A really long time. From the Romans to the British to the earliest days of the American Republic, adverse possession has been recognized as a valid means of acquiring title. It was particularly valuable in the early years of the United States, where people acquired or claimed vast tracts of land out West, only to leave them undeveloped and unoccupied. As settlers moved West, they often cultivated the land, built structures and lived openly for years before the original owners reclaimed it. Adverse possession was an efficient rule that allowed land to be put to productive use. Under Pennsylvania law, you must prove actual, continuous, exclusive, visible, notorious, distinct and hostile possession of the land for 21 years. Shapiro clearly has the hostile part down, but the Mocks are claiming that he effectively used state police to bar them from their land and then claimed that they abandoned it. Each side is portraying the other as dishonest and opportunistic. In their complaint, the Mocks allege that the Shapiros made ""previous acknowledgments that the Mock Property was owned by no one other than the Mocks."" They document that the Shapiros did not want to pay the asking price, so the Mocks offered to lease the land to them. The Shapiros allegedly agreed but then backed out. MICHIGAN FAMILY SAYS COUNTY SEIZED HOME OVER TAX BILL THEY DIDN'T OWE — CASE NOW HEADS TO THE SUPREME COURT The Mocks declare, ""what followed was an outrageous abuse of power by the sitting Governor of Pennsylvania and its former Attorney General."" Shapiro declared the property was his. The Mocks objected that they had been paying taxes to the state on the disputed property for nine years. The Shapiros claim that from 2003 to 2025, they mowed the lawn, cleared leaves, and removed other debris from the land as if it were their own. Accordingly, they claim that the 21-year period has passed and with it the title to the land. They further allege that, after buying the property in April 2017, the Mocks did not claim the land or challenge the location of an existing fence. However, they did so in October 2025. Shapiro maintains that the Mocks never even knew the property was theirs until he informed them of the results of a recent survey. The fascinating element is the use of state troopers to keep the Mocks off their land. The complaint even shows a picture of two troopers, stating, ""these members of the State Police are on the Mock Property. Behind the officers are the arborvitae that the Shapiros planted on the Mock Property without permission and over the Mocks' express objections."" With the required 21 years only barely passed, any period in which the Mocks were to contest the possession could unravel the adverse possession claim. In the meantime, few people are likely to be sympathetic with the Shapiros taking property from a neighbor. Adverse possession rarely sits well with people, but it is more palatable when the owner has been absent and dilatory. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION Here, the owners are very much present and vocal. The optics are also worsened by the fact that the state has been struggling to address a squatting crisis where people occupy other people's homes and then refuse to leave during years of litigation. Shapiro is accused of being a squatter with a state trooper contingent to back him up. It is not clear what would be worse for Shapiro - to lose or to win in taking his neighbor's property without compensation. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP The dispute has already made its way into the political arena, where Shapiro is running for re-election. One of his opponents, Stacy Garrity, posted a Valentine's Day message on social media with Shapiro's face that said: ""I love you more than I love my neighbor's yard."" The fact is that there are credible arguments on both sides of this dispute. For Shapiro, the question is whether he can afford to win. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM JONATHAN TURLEY Jonathan Turley is a Fox News Media contributor and the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of the new book ""Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution"" (Simon & Schuster, Feb 3, 2026), on the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.on the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. He is a nationally recognized legal scholar who has written extensively in areas ranging from constitutional law to legal history to the Supreme Court. He has written over three dozen academic articles that have appeared in a variety of leading law journals. Professor Turley also served as counsel in some of the most notable cases in the last two decades including the representation of whistleblowers, military personnel, former cabinet members, judges, members of Congress, and a wide range of other clients. Professor Turley testified more than 50 times before the House and Senate on constitutional and statutory issues, including the Senate confirmation hearings of cabinet members and jurists such as Justice Neil Gorsuch. He also appeared as an expert witness in both the impeachment hearings of President Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. Professor Turley received his B.A. at the University of Chicago and his J.D. at Northwestern. In 2008, he was given an honorary Doctorate of Law from John Marshall Law School for his contributions to civil liberties and the public interest. Get the recap of top opinion commentary and original content throughout the week. By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can opt-out at any time. Subscribed You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. ","{'href': 'https://www.foxnews.com', 'title': 'Fox News'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=us+national+news+site:foxnews.com","Last person to see JFK Jr. alive reveals chilling premonition about his fatal flight that night","https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/last-person-see-jfk-jr-alive-reveals-chilling-premonition-about-his-fatal-flight-night","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:00:18 GMT"," This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Kyle Bailey, author of ""Witness,"" details the ""graveyard spiral"" he believes doomed John F. Kennedy Jr., warning how low visibility, darkness and overwater flying can overwhelm a novice pilot. Kyle Bailey felt a ""deep concern"" as he watched John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Lauren Bessette climb aboard the small plane that would never reach its destination. On July 16, 1999, the trio perished when the single-engine plane Kennedy was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vineyard. At the time, Bailey had also planned to fly to the island off the coast of Massachusetts but changed his mind because of ""iffy"" weather conditions. Bailey, a licensed pilot and aviation analyst for Fox News — and the last known person to see Kennedy his wife and sister-in-law alive — has written a new book, ""Witness: JFK Jr.'s Fatal Flight."" It examines the circumstances that led to the tragedy. CREATORS OF JFK JR TV SERIES RESPOND TO KENNEDY HEIR DENOUNCING SHOW AS ‘GROTESQUE' John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy were killed on July 16, 1999. Kyle Bailey, the last known person to see them alive, has written a new book, ""Witness."" (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images) ""I've seen John do that trip many, many times,"" the 52-year-old told Fox News Digital. ""It was just a typical Friday night. I planned on making two flights, an earlier flight in the afternoon, which I did for about an hour, just to go up for a spin. And then the nighttime flight was longer. It was, as we say in aviation, the three H's — hazy, hot and humid. Your typical New York City July day and evening."" ""From my experience, I sensed that, based on those conditions, there probably would be reduced visibility that night up in Martha's Vineyard,"" Bailey said. ""It didn't mean I was going to cancel my trip right then, though."" John Kennedy, Jr., wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister, Lauren Bessette (left, leather coat) outside Bubby's in Tribeca on Nov. 15, 1997. All three perished together in a plane crash off Martha's Vineyard on July 16, 1999. (Lawrence Schwartzwald/Sygma via Getty Images) Bailey, then 25, was at Essex County Airport in Caldwell, New Jersey, when Kennedy arrived in an unassuming vehicle. At one point, the magazine publisher even whizzed by Bailey to buy a bottle of water and a banana from the convenience store. Everything appeared ordinary, said Bailey. WATCH: AVIATION EXPERT EXPLAINS JFK JR.'S FINAL FLIGHT RISKS When Bailey embarked on his first short trip, he noticed visibility ""wasn't great."" After landing, he monitored the weather. But as temperatures rose, it became hazier, raising concerns that fog could quickly develop along the coast. Bailey decided to call off his trip. John F. Kennedy Jr. is seen here with his dog on Friday, Dec. 30, 1996 at a Montana airport. (Anne Sherwood/Getty Images) ""I decided that night to cancel the flight,"" he said. ""I was mad, but it was the right decision for me."" John Kennedy Jr. kept a low profile as he arrived for his doomed flight. (Lawrence Schwartzwald/Sygma via Getty Images) Still, Bailey continued to keep a close eye on the conditions. ""I was noticing that the temperature and dew point, those spreads were getting closer and closer,"" he explained. ""In weather, what that means is, there's a very high probability of ground fog developing. In John's case, perhaps he wasn't told that or didn't know. You really can't fault him for that, for what he doesn't know or what he wasn't told."" John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy attend an exhibition at the Whitney Museum in New York City on Nov. 4, 1996. (Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images) ""I knew from experience on those very hot, hazy, humid summer nights, fog and low visibility could be a problem, especially flying over water,"" he shared. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER ""Witness — JFK Jr.'s Fatal Flight: The Last Witness,"" is available now. (Independently Published) ""In John's case, especially at nighttime, he was planning on leaving after I was going to. It would've been more challenging for a VFR pilot with hazy, hot, humid conditions, a partial horizon, and now, on top of that, total darkness."" ""For a VFR pilot at night, when you lose that horizon, it's like jumping off the edge of the earth into a complete sea of darkness,"" he added. John F. Kennedy Jr. bicycling in Block Island. (Rick Maiman/Sygma via Getty Images) After Kennedy quietly completed his pre-flight checks, Bailey saw his plane take off at 8:38 p.m. John F. Kennedy Jr. sits with his leg in a cast at the George Magazine ""Politicians vs. Pundits"" auto race held at the U.S. Air Arena on June 15, 1999, in Landover, MD. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) ""I went home to my mother that night and said something to the effect of, ‘I just saw JFK Jr. at the airport. I hope he doesn't kill himself someday in that airplane,'"" Bailey recalled. ""That Piper Saratoga was a new airplane for him. It was complex and high-performance, unlike his older airplane, which he had just sold. I really hoped he had his instructor with him. I was just concerned for him. Was it a premonition? Possibly. But it was more of a deep concern for John and the two others."" John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy were supposed to attend Rory Kennedy's wedding. (Arnaldo Magnani/Getty Images) Kennedy had purchased the plane in April 1999, months before the crash. According to reports, he had logged only a few dozen hours in the Saratoga with limited night experience in the aircraft. LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Where John Kennedy Jr. kept his Piper Saratoga airplane. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images) ""I wasn't sure if he had an instructor aboard the airplane,"" said Bailey. ""After the tragedy, a lot of people would come up to me and say, ‘Why did you let him take off? Why didn't you say something?' The answer is, I didn't know who was on the plane with them. ""I saw the three of them board the plane, but since I wasn't fixed on that plane the entire time, I wasn't sure if an instructor walked over there. That's why I didn't say anything. I just hoped he had an instructor with him. The conditions weren't horrible, but they weren't great."" ""I went home to my mother that night and said something to the effect of, ‘I just saw JFK Jr. at the airport. I hope he doesn't kill himself someday in that airplane.'"" John F. Kennedy Jr. gives his wife Carolyn a kiss on the cheek during the annual White House Correspondents dinner on May 1, 1999, in Washington, D.C. (Tyler Mallory/Liaison/Getty Images) Bailey didn't know that earlier in the day, Kennedy had told his flight instructor he didn't need him for the journey and that he ""wanted to do it alone."" An aerial view of Martha's Vineyard. (Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images) The plan seemed simple. Kennedy would first fly to Martha's Vineyard and drop off his sister-in-law. Then he and his wife would head to Hyannis Port for the wedding of his cousin, Rory Kennedy, the next day. But at the time, Kennedy was still in the process of completing his instrument training and was flying by visual flight rules. While he had about 300 hours of flying experience, he was recovering from a broken ankle. It was also a dark, moonless night. A business card belonging to Lauren Bessette, sister-in-law of John F. Kennedy, Jr., was used as a luggage tag on a travel bag recovered on July 17, 1999, at Philbin Beach. (Evan Richman/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) Under those conditions, investigators believe Kennedy may have struggled to see shore lights or other landmarks to help guide him. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP A Coast Guard ship carrying Senator Ted Kennedy and his son, Congressman Patrick Kennedy, passes by the lighthouse in Gay Head, Massachussetts, as they head to the USS Grasp, which recovered the body of John F. Kennedy Jr. six miles off Gay Head, on July 21, 1999. (Stephen Jaffe/AFP via Getty Images) Bailey said the ""graveyard spiral"" quickly came to mind. ""It's a rapid turning descent of the airplane,"" he said. ""In John's case, it would be from losing that visual horizon. Your mind is playing tricks with you, saying you're straight, you're turning, but you really aren't."" A Coast Guard helicopter hovering over the ocean during the search for John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn and her sister Lauren. (Steve Liss/Getty Images) ""Imagine you have the control column in front of you,"" Bailey explained. ""You pull back, the plane goes up. You push forward, and that goes down. You turn the control right or left, and you know the plane will turn. But if you're a novice pilot or if your mind is playing tricks on you, your first instinct is to pull that control column back. But being that the airplane is in a turn and the wings aren't level, it's actually tightening that spiral and increasing the G-forces. A television technician holds up the official handout map of the search and rescue area off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts before a press conference on July 21, 1999. (John Mottern/AFP via Getty Images) ""If you put enough G-force on the airplane, you could overstress the components, like the wing and tail. You could have structural failure. But in John's case, the result was crashing into the ocean, unfortunately."" On Saturday morning, Bailey checked the weather at an FAA flight service station. He wondered if he could fly that day instead. But a missing airplane alert was issued — a Piper Saratoga that had departed Essex County Airport that Friday evening. Bailey's heart sank. John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy stand in front of their apartment in Tribecca in New York City. (Jon Naso/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images) ""I immediately recognized the color of the Saratoga and the tail number,"" he said. ""I was hoping, praying that maybe he turned back or was in Martha's Vineyard on the ground. DARYL HANNAH GETS 'DIRTY' TREATMENT IN NEW JFK JR. SERIES AS FANS CRY FOUL OVER PORTRAYAL Police maintain a security zone for the press outside the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, on July 18, 1999. (John Mottern/AFP via Getty Images) ""I remember I told my family, ‘If this airplane is not found within two hours, he is probably a goner, along with the other two on the plane. I assumed the worst, but hoped for the best that there was maybe even a slim chance somebody might be found alive. But in the back of my mind, I knew that was pretty much not going to happen."" The wreckage of the Piper Saratoga was found five days later. Navy divers recovered the bodies of Kennedy, 38, Bessette Kennedy, 33 and Bessette, 34, from the ocean floor. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP Flowers and a photograph, left in front of the Tribeca apartment building where John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. lived, as a display of sympathy after he lost his life crashing into the Atlantic Ocean while flying a Piper Saratoga light aircraft. (Andrew Holbrooke/Corbis via Getty Images) ""The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of the accident to be: the pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation,"" the report read. ""Factors in the accident were haze and the dark night."" Stephanie Nolasco covers entertainment at Foxnews.com. Get a daily look at the top news in music, movies, television and more in the entertainment industry. By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can opt-out at any time. Subscribed You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. ","{'href': 'https://www.foxnews.com', 'title': 'Fox News'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=us+national+news+site:foxnews.com","'Undertone' Review: An unsettling horror film that's meant to be heard","https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/undertone-review-unsettling-horror-film-thats-meant-heard","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:00:40 GMT"," This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. The trailer for A24's ""Undertone starring Nina Kiri and Adam DiMarco. Written and directed by Ian Tuason. It's amazing how important sound is to horror. Abrupt noises are responsible for at least 90% of all movie scares. Look it up — actually, don't. There's no study to back that up, but it's true. Just believe me. Watch any horror film on mute — you probably won't jump in your seat once. Revisit the famous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's ""Psycho."" The sight of Norman Bates' silhouette with the knife certainly doesn't bring any comfort, but it's Bernard Herrmann's iconic score — the shrieking violins — that has truly frightened movie lovers for generations. Not many horror films specifically lean into the artistry of sound as a storytelling tool, which puts A24's ""Undertone"" in a unique class. Evy (Nina Kiri) is the co-host of ""The Undertone Podcast"" which probes listener-submitted paranormal material with a skeptical head on her shoulders as her co-host Justin (Adam DiMarco) is a believer. They record the podcast at three o'clock in the morning since Justin's based in London while Evy tends to her dying mother ""Mama"" (Michèle Duquet), who just went into in-home hospice care. It's important to note that Evy and her mother are the only characters seen on-screen throughout the entire film — you only get to hear from Justin by phone. 'HOPPERS' REVIEW: JON HAMM, MERYL STREEP ELEVATE PIXAR'S RUN-OF-THE-MILL BEAVER ADVENTURE Nina Kiri stars as Evy in A24's horror film ""Undertone."" (Dustin Rabin; Court) For their latest episode, Justin previews to Evy that they received an email from an anonymous listener that had a strange cryptic message and ten audio files. They are recordings of Mike and Jessa (Jeff Yung and Keana Lyn Bastidas), a couple expecting their first child. The first recordings seem fairly innocuous — Mike wanted to prove to Jessa that she talks in her sleep. However, the further Evy and Justin delve into the recordings, the more disturbing things get as they examine what Jessa's muttering. They eventually figure out that the couple is being haunted by the mythical Abyzou, a female demon known to be envious of mothers and curses her victims with miscarriages and the death of their children. And similar to watching the cursed videotape in ""The Ring,"" Abyzou's spirit begins to haunt Evy and her mother. 'HOW TO MAKE A KILLING' REVIEW: GLEN POWELL EYES THE FAMILY FORTUNE IN A24'S COMEDIC NOIR Michèle Duquet as Mama in A24's horror film ""Undertone."" (Courtesy of A24) Kiri, best known for her stint on the TV series ""The Handmaid's Tale,"" does a lot of heavy lifting as virtually being the only active character we get to see (her bedridden mother is unconscious) and the entire film takes place in the confines of her mother's house. She's basically a one-woman show. DiMarco, the up-and-comer featured in the Italy season of ""The White Lotus"" and more recently Prime Video's raunchy comedy series ""Overcompensating,"" manages to give a heartfelt performance as Evy's support system with just his voice. The real star, though, is the sound design. ‘WUTHERING HEIGHTS' REVIEW: MARGOT ROBBIE, JACOB ELORDI STAR IN STEAMY ADAPTATION OF ILL-FATED ROMANCE Nina Kiri stars as Evy in A24's horror film ""Undertone."" (Dustin Rabin; Courtesy of A24) The attention to detail to every sound that's heard — from the creepy audio recordings to what Evy hears in the house – is nothing short of outstanding. So kudos to the entire sound department. Justin's character says it best when signing off each podcast with ""Don't be afraid of the dark, be afraid of the silence."" That said, eerie camerawork from cinematographer Graham Beasley is also a strong supporting performer of its own. Writer/director Ian Tuason, making his feature debut, was able to effectively craft a compelling film with self-imposed narrative limitations. Only time will tell if it's beginner's luck, but Tuason cemented himself as a filmmaker to keep an eye on going forward. A24, once an arthouse film distributor that's become more and more mainstream, frequently takes bold risks, especially with horror films: ""The Witch,"" ""Hereditary,"" ""Midsommar,"" ""Talk to Me,"" the list goes on. What's tragic is that ""Undertone"" likely isn't on many people's radar since it doesn't have A-listers and a massive budget like the recent box office hit ""Scream 7,"" even though ""Undertone"" provides genuine scares. 'GOAT' REVIEW: MOVE OVER 'ZOOTOPIA,' THERE'S A NEW KING OF THE JUNGLE Nina Kiri stars as Evy in A24's horror film ""Undertone."" (Dustin Rabin; Courtesy of A24) ""Undertone"" is an unsettling slowburn that allows the pure craft of filmmaking to take center stage. This is a movie you want to not only see but to hear, so if you're able to see it at a theater with Dolby Atmos like I did, I'd highly recommend. Horror fans CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Joseph A. Wulfsohn is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to joseph.wulfsohn@fox.com and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn. Get the recap of top opinion commentary and original content throughout the week. By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can opt-out at any time. Subscribed You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. ","{'href': 'https://www.foxnews.com', 'title': 'Fox News'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:washingtonexaminer.com","Trump makes risky bet trying to convince the public higher oil prices are good","https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/4489601/trump-oil-prices-iran-war/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:00:00 GMT"," President Donald Trump‘s gamble that rising oil prices are good for the American economy may not be an effective messaging strategy with voters in a midterm year where affordability will be a key issue. As gas prices have risen to more than $3 per gallon, Trump took to social media to claim, “When oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a key White House ally on Capitol Hill, bluntly told CNN Americans “can live with” higher gas prices as Trump attempts to block Iran from nuclear powers. IN FOCUS: TRUMP CLOSED THE GAP BETWEEN RHETORIC AND ACTION ON IRAN “President Trump is committed to achieving that goal, and if that means prices go up for a time, I think Americans understand, we can live with that,” he continued. But for voters already struggling with the cost of living expenses, paying more at the pump because of the Iran war may not be something they're willing to endure. They could also take out their anger on the GOP at the ballot box. “It's tough to ask Americans to endure more pain when this President was elected to stop it. The President's success in lowering prices at the pump is somewhat of a double-edged sword,” a former administration official told the Washington Examiner. “Many Americans are now used to cheaper gas and appreciate it, but they also don't want to see prices rise again — even though prices remain lower than during much of the Biden administration,” the official continued. “Many Americans can stomach some price fluctuation, but asking them to endure pain for a war they didn't even know existed is a stretch. This isn't World War II, and going to the gas station isn't buying a war bond.” According to the AAA, the national average price of gas is $3.63, nearly two weeks after the joint U.S.-Israel operation against Iran began. Just two days before Operation Epic Fury began, the national average price of gas was $2.98. Oil prices have also risen to above $100 per barrel. Trump has claimed the U.S. has won the Iran war, but he has also claimed that the war will end when Iran presents an “unconditional surrender.” A prolonged war, along with rising gas prices, could put increased pressure on the Trump administration ahead of a tough midterm cycle. “I think that that falls flat as a message to the American people, because ultimately they're experiencing this oil price in a very personalized way,” said Cayce Myers, a professor at Virginia Tech's School of Communication. “Nothing really impacts affordability issues like the price of gas, because there's not only just the price of the gasoline itself for consumption,” said Myers. “But also this sort of trickle-down effect that it has within goods, and so other prices may rise as a result of gas prices.” Trump has restarted his affordability tour across the nation, but rising gas prices undercut his messaging as the weather is beginning to warm up, and the public looks to travel for vacations. One GOP strategist compared Trump's new messaging strategy to his predecessor's unsuccessful attempts to reassure the American public over the economy. “It's Bidenesque in its delusion. Americans aren't stupid,” said the strategist, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly. “They know that higher gas prices affect everything.” ENERGY MARKETS FACE ‘HEART ATTACK' AS GULF INFRASTRUCTURE TARGETED IN IRAN CONFLICT Former President Joe Biden's administration repeatedly tried to counter that the economy was rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic despite attacks from then-candidate Trump that the average family was still struggling. Trump is risking falling into the Biden trap by asking Americans to endure higher prices for a war in the Middle East. But another GOP strategist, Gregg Keller, said that “any chance that President Trump gets to remind folks that under him, gas prices have been in the neighborhood of $3 a gallon, while under President Biden, they were under $5 a gallon, is a great opportunity.” “Gas prices are always going to go up and down; that's the nature of dynamic pricing environments,” Keller also added. The White House has also taken an aggressive stance in defending the war, both online and in the media. “The Administration's focus is on achieving the clearly defined objectives outlined by President Trump for Operation Epic Fury. President Trump has been clear that these are short-term disruptions,” said Taylor Rogers, White House spokeswoman. “Ultimately, once the military objectives are completed and the Iranian terrorist regime is neutralized, oil and gas prices will drop rapidly again, potentially even lower than before the strikes began. As a result, American families will benefit greatly in the long-term.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed during a briefing this week that the president had anticipated disruption to the global markets. “That's why President Trump and his energy team have been planning for this long before the strike and have moved quickly to address these temporary disruptions,” Leavitt told reporters. “Thus far, the Trump administration has offered political risk insurance to tankers operating in the Gulf, the Treasury temporarily waived certain oil-related sanctions, and the commander in chief has offered the U.S. Navy to escort tankers when necessary.” THE DEMOCRATS WHO COULD RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2028 Ultimately, Trump will have the final say in how long the administration and allies continue to convince the public that higher prices are good. His administration has already promised to release the nation's oil reserves to relieve pressure and has eased sanctions on Russian oil, to the consternation of European leaders. “At the end of the day, Trump's going to do what he thinks is right in that moment. Sometimes it's good, sometimes not so good,” said the GOP strategist who asked for anonymity. ","{'href': 'https://www.washingtonexaminer.com', 'title': 'Washington Examiner'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:washingtonexaminer.com","Walz proposes state takeover of Medicaid funds with agency responsible for fraud crisis","https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/4491949/walz-state-takeover-medicaid-funds/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 01:56:12 GMT"," Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) has proposed a multimillion-dollar plan for the Minnesota government to take over the handling of locally administered Medicaid funds, placing in charge the state agency that was responsible for allowing healthcare fraud to proliferate. Walz unveiled the costly proposal, which would drastically shift oversight duties from counties across the state onto the Minnesota Department of Human Services, during a Tuesday press conference. DHS, the state's Medicaid agency, is currently facing a third-party investigation into its fraud-ridden social services after criminal networks stole millions of Medicaid dollars from Minnesota's federally funded public assistance programs. The federal government has since threatened to withhold the state's Medicaid payments, and Minnesota DHS sued in response to immediately unblock the flow of Medicaid funds. Walz billed his proposed overhaul of Minnesota's Medicaid reimbursement and enrollment system this week as a centralized approach to combating widespread billing schemes in DHS programs. The sweeping changes, if passed by the state legislature, would consolidate all Medicaid billing under a fee-for-service model through which the state directly pays providers for services rendered. Minnesota currently contracts with insurance companies to pay out Medicaid claims, and they manage the overwhelming majority of submissions billed to the safety net system. These private insurers, classified as managed care organizations, administer more than 80% of Minnesota's Medicaid benefits. Widely considered the first line of defense against fraud, MCOs have the power to freeze Medicaid funds for suspected fraudulent activity and are contractually obligated to report credible findings of fraud to DHS. HOW MINNESOTA'S SOMALI FRAUD INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX HAS STOLEN MILLIONS FROM MEDICAID MCOs are incentivized by the terms of their contract with the government to identify fraud because they receive capitation rates: Fixed amounts of money paid upfront for the predicted cost of care. In this arrangement, the financial risk is transferred from the state to MCOs, as they must cover all agreed-upon costs, regardless of actual services rendered. In practice, if MCOs fail to stop fraud, they lose money and won't break even. Hennepin Health, a county-run MCO based out of Minneapolis, sounded the alarm about rampant fraud in the state's Housing Stabilization Services over a year before DHS cut off Medicaid payments to the program. In fact, HSS was so riddled with fraud that DHS ultimately had to shut it down. Staff at Hennepin Health sent DHS several fraud referrals, flagging improper billing patterns among certain HSS providers, missing or falsified documentation, and fabricated records, including for services supposedly provided long after clients had died. DHS, however, continued to pay questionable HSS providers despite Hennepin Health's repeated warnings. Hennepin Health banned those suspicious businesses from billing its own clients, but DHS allowed them to continue billing other insurance providers. In addition to Walz eliminating MCO contracts and establishing, in their place, a single state-managed claims processing system, DHS would determine who is eligible to enroll in Medicaid, rather than individual counties. Minnesota's healthcare system is supervised by the state but delivered at the local level by the state's 87 counties. It is unclear how many county officials would lose their jobs if the vetting of Medicaid applicants were shifted to DHS. Walz argued that the state takeover of Medicaid disbursements and the eligibility process would “streamline” the system, which he called “antiquated,” moving it away from the “complex, layered” patchwork of counties and MCOs to a single entity. “We think this is a way of simplification,” Walz said. “It's a way to use best practices, AI, and what that does is take the burden off the counties, the managed care organizations. And that gives the state and the taxpayers a much more transparent view on how the system works.” Walz added, “It's antiquated computer systems. It's decentralized control.” The transition project is projected to cost taxpayers $72 million to carry out, including $17 million in the first fiscal period and another $55 million in the following budget cycle. Initial estimates did not indicate exactly how much Walz's proposal would cost in terms of technology fees to upgrade DHS's computer software. Some lawmakers, including Democratic leadership in the Minnesota legislature, pushed back on Walz's plan to give DHS greater control over Medicaid's administration in the state. The governor would need GOP support to pass the proposal that would extensively expand DHS's role. Republicans, who control half of the Minnesota House, pointed out that DHS failed to detect fraud for years. “To put more responsibility on a state agency that acts irresponsibly, to me, is just a very stark, bad idea,” Republican state Rep. Paul Torkelson, co-chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters outside the governor's Minnesota state Capitol office. MINNESOTA'S FRAUD DEBACLE DEMANDS ELECTED WATCHDOGS IN EVERY STATE Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman, chairman of the Senate Human Services Committee, accused Walz of not collaborating with the legislative body on the proposed project beforehand, nor of notifying committee members. In a statement, Hoffman said he was “disappointed to learn about this proposal just last night without a thorough conversation with the committee that has primary jurisdiction over Minnesota's human services system.” “Major structural changes to a system that serves hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans require thoughtful collaboration between the executive branch and the legislature,” Hoffman said, noting that his committee “exists specifically to examine these types of proposals, hear from stakeholders, and ensure reforms are implemented responsibly.” Walz acknowledged that he will “need legislative buy-in,” but insisted that his office has the authority to spearhead such efforts independently. “The executive branch is responsible for carrying these out,” Walz said in response at Tuesday's news briefing. “And to be very candid, we're telling you that the way some of these things are structured are antiquated.” Walz has faced criticism in recent weeks for a series of other administrative actions. Late last month, Walz permanently appointed the official who oversaw the agency's financial operations at the time much of the healthcare fraud occurred as DHS commissioner. THESE ARE THE WALZ APPOINTEES WHO FAILED TO STOP RAMPANT MINNESOTA FRAUD The Washington Examiner found that Optum, the “third-party” auditor that DHS had hired via a $2.3 million contract to investigate patterns of Medicaid fraud, previously received millions in state Medicaid funds through DHS. An initial Optum report released on the audit's findings contained completely blacked-out pages full of redactions. Republican state Rep. Kristin Robbins, chairwoman of the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee, questioned whether Optum has flagged any of its own providers in the audit. “The majority of the report was redacted, so I don't know what they found,” Robbins told the Washington Examiner. “The frustrating thing to me, as a legislator, is that they say they're on it, and they're finding fraud, and they're flagging all these vulnerabilities, except they can't possibly tell us what they are.” “Yet they want us to spend millions and millions of dollars on technology upgrades,” Robbins said. “Well, until we understand better what the vulnerabilities are, we're not writing them a blank check.”","{'href': 'https://www.washingtonexaminer.com', 'title': 'Washington Examiner'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:washingtonexaminer.com","Epstein prison guard to testify before House Oversight Committee","https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/4492023/epstein-prison-guard-testify-house-oversight/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:58:20 GMT"," The House Oversight Committee announced on Friday it is seeking to hear testimony later this month from one of Jeffrey Epstein's prison guards, as Congress continues to probe the deceased financier. Tova Noel is one of the Metropolitan Correctional Center prison guards who was on duty when Epstein died in the New York facility in 2019, according to Chairman James Comer (R-KY). At the time, authorities attributed Epstein's death to suicide, an assessment that the FBI reiterated last year. However, that conclusion has been questioned by some critics. Comer requested that Noel sit for a transcribed interview on March 26. The development comes after newly released documents from the Justice Department revealed that the prison guard Googled “latest on Epstein in jail” twice, minutes before he was discovered dead in his cell, according to the New York Post. “Due to public reporting, documents released by the Department of Justice, and documents obtained by the Committee, the Committee believes you have information that will assist in its investigation,” Comer wrote in a letter to Noel. Another prison guard, Michael Thomas, is the one who discovered Epstein in his cell. Both Thomas and Noel were later fired from their jobs after admitting to falsifying records to say they checked on Epstein throughout the night before his death. Criminal charges against both guards were later dropped in 2022 in a prosecution deal. At the time, prosecutors said the two guards shopped online, took breaks, and napped instead of checking Epstein's cell every 30 minutes as required. “Because of the fact that, honestly, most people on the committee aren't confident 100% that Epstein's death was by suicide, we're going to ask Ms. Noel to come in for a transcribed interview,” Comer told Fox News host Jesse Watters on Tuesday. EPSTEIN ACCOUNTANT RICHARD RICHARD KAHN FACES HOUSE OVERSIGHT QUESTIONS IN CLOSED-DOOR DEPOSITION During the interview, Comer also said he wanted to question Noel about a $5,000 deposit she made 10 days before Epstein's death that a bank had flagged as being suspicious. “That's a mystery there, and that's something that, according to the DOJ documents, they never looked into, never asked her about,” Comer said.","{'href': 'https://www.washingtonexaminer.com', 'title': 'Washington Examiner'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:theatlantic.com","Everyone Now Has Trump's Phone Number","https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/03/trump-phone-number/686370/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:00:00 GMT"," The president's personal iPhone has been lighting up. Washington's hottest commodity is a 10-digit number that can swing financial markets, drive the news, and shift policy—but only if the timing is right. The White House has received reports in recent weeks that President Trump's personal phone number has been offered for sale to deep-pocketed interests seeking influence, two administration officials told us. “It's honestly just wild,” one of them said. “I've heard of CEOs offering money for his number. I've heard of crypto bros offering cryptocurrency for it.” Journalists have taken to horse-trading among themselves, offering the contact information of other world leaders—or sometimes even dozens of bold-faced names—just to get the most important one saved into their phones. “It's out of control,” said the second official, who, like others we spoke with for this story, requested anonymity to talk frankly on the issue. “It's like a wrecking ball.” No one foresaw this at the start of Trump's second term, when the number was closely held by the president's friends and a handful of journalists who used it sparingly. So many people now call Trump on his private iPhone that his advisers have stopped trying to keep track. Sometimes in meetings, he will leave his phone face up, allowing staff to gawk at the flashing notifications of incoming or missed calls that pile up on his screen. Only some of them are from numbers that have been saved in the device. “It is literally call after reporter call,” the first official said. “It is just boom, boom, boom.” The incoming calls get particularly intense after a journalist successfully catches the president and then publishes a mini-scoop on what he says. It's like flashing a Bat-Signal: Trump may be idle and chatty. Assignment editors suddenly ask: If it is so easy for the competition to get a scoop, why can't their reporters do the same, and stat? Network correspondents scramble to one-up each other. “Ten reporters will call in a matter of two hours,” the second official told us. The scrum for fleeting—and often conflicting—presidential utterances has made it difficult for the government to sell a clear story to the American people. Yet Trump's advisers have no plans to intervene. “He enjoys it,” that official continued. “He knows how to handle the press.” When we asked the White House press office about the president's phone, the spokesperson Anna Kelly told us in a statement: “President Trump is the most transparent and accessible president in history. The press can't get enough of Trump, and they know it.” Before Trump turned Twitter into a campaign megaphone, his chosen medium of communication was the landline phone in his Fifth Avenue office. He bragged in his 1987 book, Trump: The Art of the Deal, that most days involved more than 50 phone calls, some more than 100. He was, in many ways, just “Don from Queens,” a classic drive-time-radio caller with grievances and opinions and business to transact. But then he became president of the United States, and after two foreign interventions in as many months, the norms that once kept reporters from calling have fallen away. “Everybody learned in Trump 1.0 that he was going to work his phone and talk to whoever he felt like talking to, thank you very much,” Chris Whipple, a journalist who is working on a book about presidential-campaign managers, told us. “This is just his modus operandi, and it's now Trump unshackled.” Read: The secret history of Trump's private cellphone Since the United States first attacked Iran two weeks ago, Trump has answered more than three dozen phone calls from journalists representing at least a dozen outlets, including ABC News, Axios, CBS News, CNN, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, Israel's Channel 14, Fox News, MS NOW, NBC News, The New York Times, the New York Post, Politico, The Times of Israel, The Washington Post, and, yes, The Atlantic. A journalist from The Washington Reporter, a small conservative outlet, has repeatedly called, and the administration officials say Substack authors have started to call, forcing White House staff to look up names they don't recognize. One fear in the West Wing: that someone will give Trump bad information, or sell him on a conspiracy theory, provoking a reaction aides will have to clean up. Another concern: that the president will waste his time responding to meaningless trifles that distract from the arguments that the White House wants to make. Reporters have asked in recent calls for Trump's opinion on his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and whether his decision to launch a massive air attack on Iran would win him the Nobel Peace Prize. “I don't know,” the president responded to that last question, from the Washington Examiner on Thursday. “I'm not interested in it.” “Believe it or not, you can just call the president,” the Politico reporter Sophia Cai explained in a December Instagram video that ended with her crowdsourcing questions for the commander in chief. “What should I ask him next?” Early last year, even as Trump's cellphone number began to more widely circulate, calling the president was a privilege and a flex—the sort of move that lent routine stories a bit more buzz and offered instant street cred for White House reporters (I just got off the phone with the president of the United States!). The White House team would privately tell reporters they were not happy with the direct line, and vaguely warn that if the phone number was used too often, there could be a cost. But Trump made the rules, and Trump liked the calls. World leaders, lobbyists, and executives relished the connection to the president, if they were lucky enough to land his personal number. The prime minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, was roundly mocked in his home country when he said in a campaign debate last year that you can't just call the president's cellphone: “I'm not sure he has a mobile phone,” he asserted, incorrectly. Here we must confess our own complicity: We first called the president while reporting our June Atlantic cover story on Trump's return to power. He had agreed to an interview with us, then abruptly canceled via an angry Truth Social post. So we called him, chatted for roughly 20 minutes, and then got invited into the Oval Office, after all, for a second, longer interview. We've since called him occasionally after major news breaks, like when he first struck Iran last summer, when he captured Venezuela's leader, and when he more recently waged war with Iran. And, if we're being honest, we will obviously call him again. Such is the demand for Trump's digits that fellow reporters have asked us to share them. We were recently approached by another journalist who offered to trade more than two dozen cellphone numbers of significant stature for the one number of most significant stature. (We declined.) One person we talked with has heard that the going rate for this sort of swap is a one-to-one trade for another major world leader. (Sorry, president of Liechtenstein.) In some ways, it was Trump's foreign-policy adventurism that unofficially launched the most intense feeding frenzy, at least among journalists. Those moments, after the first explosions go off in an international capital, are naturally times of maximum global suspense, when any presidential utterance makes news. The New York Times placed an early-morning phone call after the operation to capture Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. (“It was a brilliant operation, actually.”) The Washington Post got the first call in after the latest strikes on Iran. (“All I want is freedom for the people.”) Read: Trump isn't even trying to sell this war Trump's decision to avoid holding a press conference in the days after launching a war with Iran made his phone a singular source of information, as the world tried to understand what he was doing. His first reported interview that Saturday was at 4 a.m.; his last came just before 11 p.m. Trump's inconsistent answers created quite a bit of confusion that seemed to lead to more calls. He told Axios on the first day that he could end the war “in two or three days.” He told The New York Times the next day “we intended four or five weeks.” When CBS News reached him by phone Monday afternoon, more than a week after the bombs began dropping, he declared that “the war is very complete, pretty much,” dramatically moving the price of oil and U.S. stock markets. Just hours later, he offered a qualification during a traditional news conference at his private golf club in Doral, Florida, when a reporter asked which was more accurate: his comments to CBS News or his defense secretary's claim that the war was just beginning? “Well, I think you can say both,” Trump responded. The phone calls, unlike formal news conferences, happen in the heat of a moment, in response to a particular question, from a particular reporter, with a particular goal, under particular time pressure, because the president can end the conversation at any moment. Brief seems to be the most frequent descriptor attached to these calls, most of which last just a few minutes, rarely more than 10. Top White House officials are often frustrated because these quick reactions lack context or thought but can be treated with nearly the same gravity as a sit-down interview in the Oval Office. “You are talking to someone on the fly, who is yip-yapping or chitchatting,” one of the officials told us. Access to the president depends on his mood and schedule. “There have been days when he has not taken any calls, and he has hung up on people,” one of the officials said. As of now, Trump's aides say there is no indication that the president is annoyed by the constant calls—and, therefore, there are no plans to change the number. The White House also has no solution to the constant spread of the number, including through suspected horse-trading and black-market sales among influence brokers. Once upon a time, there were fewer media companies and they each carefully planned their outreach to the Oval Office, often having their anointed bureau chief or top correspondent handle all interview requests. Now that looks more like a free-for-all. At least four correspondents for Fox News cited phone interviews with Trump in the 10 days after the first attack on Iran. Three different people from NBC News called in the first week. The ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl, who has long had a phone relationship with Trump, reported three calls in the first week by himself, and two of his colleagues have also nabbed phone time. At CNN, both Dana Bash and Jake Tapper got Trump on the phone earlier this month. Read: Six days of war, 10 rationales Few of these interviews have led to a lasting impact on the nation's understanding of the war. Even some journalists have begun outright mocking the trend, after markets moved following Trump's comment that the war was “complete, pretty much.” “Every boy's dream,” David Weigel, who covers politics for Semafor, wrote on X. “Getting some market-moving info from the president. Not ACCURATE info but let's not get greedy here.” What is not ephemeral is the abiding belief that just about anyone, anywhere, can get the president on the phone if they're sufficiently enterprising. Earlier this week, at a coffee shop in downtown Washington, D.C., one of us ran into a Democratic operative, who waved us over to chat. After we apologetically gestured to our AirPods—the universal signal for I can't talk right now—the operative didn't miss a beat. “With Trump?!” Isabel Ruehl contributed reporting. TheAtlantic.com © 2026 The Atlantic Monthly Group. All Rights Reserved. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply","{'href': 'https://www.theatlantic.com', 'title': 'The Atlantic'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:theatlantic.com","How America Learned to Love Barnes & Noble Again","https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/barnes-noble-popularity/686369/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 11:00:00 GMT"," Anti-chain animus is receding. Barnes & Noble was once the avatar for sinister big-box stores on the march against independent businesses. In 1998's You've Got Mail, Tom Hanks plays an executive at Foxbooks, a thinly disguised bookstore chain, who puts out of business (and also, weirdly, seduces) an independent bookseller played by Meg Ryan. Local bookstores were, at the time, folding en masse, and people were mad about the growing predominance of chain retail. Then Barnes & Noble got its comeuppance. In the years after the 2008 financial crisis, it closed more than 150 stores. To some extent, the bookstore was experiencing the same predicament of chain retail generally, which, after robust expansion that put mom-and-pop shops out of business, declined faster than independent stores in the age of e-commerce. Amazon was doing to Barnes & Noble what Barnes & Noble had done to local bookstores. But today, in a world more online than ever, Barnes & Noble is experiencing a revival. It opened 60 new stores last year and plans to do the same this year. It is reportedly soliciting banks to handle an IPO—a sign that a turnaround effort by Elliott Investment Management, the hedge fund that took the company private in 2019, has reached its conclusion. Distinctions between chain and local have been superseded by the split between online and in-person shopping. Book-buying Americans, whose support for indie shops was one of the hallmarks of a progressive anti-chain movement that flourished in the 2000s, seem to be less discerning than they used to be. They'll browse where they can. From the December 1957 issue: Alfred A. Knopf on the changes in book publishing Consumer politics may have mattered less than good business decisions, however. Barnes & Noble found its form in part by learning from its eternal rival, the local bookstore. The corporate stores, with their forest-green signs and scratchboard illustrations of famous authors, used to be cookie-cutter copies of one another. Now they come in all sizes, and the books inside vary from place to place according to the tastes of each store manager. What's more, they sit in a commercial landscape that, though thoroughly suffused with national brands, has been losing exactly the type of middle-class, something-for-everyone store that Barnes & Noble tries to be. James Daunt, who was brought in as CEO after Barnes & Noble was taken private in 2019, was evidently the right person to implement those lessons. He got his start in the industry by founding Daunt Books, a skylit London shop whose screen-printed tote bags are a fixture of that city's sidewalks. It's as if Walgreens was being run by a pharmacist, or Kroger by the owner of Russ & Daughters. Daunt had just helped turn around the U.K.'s Waterstones chain (also owned by Elliott Investment Management), and now he got to know its beleaguered American cousin. He encountered what he described to me recently as a “retailer's mindset”: an obsession with standardization and consistency that, he said, had crushed the bookstore's business and its soul. A fixation on big floor plans, in Daunt's telling, was the reason Barnes & Noble shut down the last of the stores it had acquired from B. Dalton after the financial crisis. Daunt has gotten attention for a strategy that delegates authority to local store managers, letting them choose what books to stock and to promote. No longer does the New York headquarters cut a check from a Big Five publisher to place the season's hot new memoir on front tables nationwide. If you go to a Barnes & Noble in New England, you might find a section on shipwrecks right at the front of the store. A store in the Florida Panhandle will have shelf after shelf of Bibles. A store in Washington, D.C., has, well, a lot of books about Washington, D.C. In one respect, there's a Barnes & Noble playbook for national chains to follow: delegation and diversification, creating more interesting stores (and more interesting jobs) at the local level. Imagine a home-goods store where the staff's opinions and advice about thread counts match the intensity of a forum discussion on YA novels. “Yes, indie retailers have been hugely hurt by Amazon, but not as badly as some of the specialty chains,” Stacy Mitchell, a co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, told me. Those chains include names such as Circuit City, Modell's, and Bed Bath & Beyond. Indie bookstores have proven particularly resilient, growing their numbers in defiance of Amazon's hegemony. Unlike Hanks's on-screen bookstore tycoon, Daunt promises that Barnes & Noble's expansion will not put it in conflict with its independent rivals; that the pie of book readers and book buyers can grow. For the most part, he argues that the chain is repairing a past overcorrection that left many areas with no place to buy books at all. “We're actually repopulating a devastated landscape that needs bookstores,” Daunt told me. Some independent bookstores say it is still too close for comfort. All told, the good vibes of Barnes & Noble's comeback show just how much American culture has changed since the days when the company was the big bad wolf blowing down the walls of indie bookstores. Anti-chain animus was once a popular strain of urban politics: In 2004, for example, San Francisco established an ordinance to ban chain stores; a Walmart expansion was overwhelmingly shut down by voters in Inglewood, California. Gradually, though, the anti-corporate spirit of the '90s gave way to the monetized hustle culture of the 2010s. “Selling out was rapidly transforming from a defining generational concern into the parochial preoccupation of close-minded old heads,” the critic Willa Paskin concluded. Conscious consumers exercised their power in other ways, focusing more on corporate policy or supply chains than on ownership. More than the monotony, local revenue leaving the community was once the serious rationale for opposing chain stores. But no one I spoke with about Barnes & Noble even mentioned that the company is under the control of one of the richest men in America, the billionaire GOP megadonor Paul Singer. From the August 1919 issue: The welfare of the bookstore Neither shoppers nor city leaders can afford to be so picky these days. After revising design guidelines to encourage the development of more storefronts, some cities have found they cannot find enough businesses to fill them. Barnes & Noble's purchase of distressed local shops in Denver and San Francisco has been bittersweet for book lovers in those cities, who may resent the chain but relish the preservation of their local institutions. “Like all big chains, when you shop there, more of your money leaves the community than when you shop at something locally owned,” Josh Cook, a bookseller and co-owner of Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told me. But, he added: “Anything that takes market share from Amazon is positive.” That broader post-Amazon retail crisis reveals another aspect of the Barnes & Noble story that is harder to emulate. Like local bookstores that picked up buyers when chain stores closed, the chain is now benefiting from its perseverance as other middle-class shopping destinations vanish. Analysts have dubbed this phenomenon the K-shaped economy, divided between an upper branch of high-end shoppers and a lower branch buying basics at chains such as Family Dollar and Walmart. Daunt believes that Barnes & Noble makes room for a type of book buyer who might not feel at ease in independent bookstores, in which customers, he says, are met with a “sort of scrutiny, and also a sense of intellectual expectation.” Recent trips to Barnes & Noble stores in three different parts of the country revealed a bookstore experience that, to an indie-shop regular, was as maximalist as going from a city corner store to a suburban supermarket with its 45 types of peanut butter: shelves full of books of logic puzzles; a rack with magazines about baseball and model airplanes; volume after volume of mass-market fantasy, sci-fi, and romance in quantities that would swallow a small bookstore; not to mention lots of toys and games. With their spacious aisles and laid-back atmosphere, Barnes & Noble stores have become a popular stage set for TikToks, matching indie bookstores' quirky appeal on Instagram. Unaccompanied teens have lately been viewed as a problem for corporate retail, but Daunt said they are his company's most important customers. “One of the great joys of chain bookstores is they have a certain anonymous and wholly democratic, with a small d, welcome to them,” he said. Daunt isn't moving Barnes & Noble into just a devastated bookstore landscape, but one suddenly lacking in stores that feel like they are for everyone. The family-friendly, middlebrow chains of the previous century are a dying breed; Barnes & Noble endures as a place where just about anyone can be comfortably set loose for an hour or two. TheAtlantic.com © 2026 The Atlantic Monthly Group. All Rights Reserved. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply","{'href': 'https://www.theatlantic.com', 'title': 'The Atlantic'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:vox.com","Bernie Sanders explains his proposed billionaire tax","https://www.vox.com/podcasts/482516/bernie-sanders-wealth-tax-iran","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT"," When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can't do it on our own. We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today? It would give $3,000 to every American in a household earning less than $150,000. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is no stranger to singling out the richest of the rich. Along with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Sanders recently introduced the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act, a 5 percent annual wealth tax on anyone in the US worth over a billion dollars. The act would affect 930 people — the very tippy-top of the 0.01 percent. Elon Musk would owe roughly $42 billion per year. Mark Zuckerberg would owe $11 billion. And what would this new wealth tax fund? In its first year, according to the Sanders proposal, it would provide $3,000 direct payments to every American in a household earning $150,000 or less, with subsequent revenue used to address “the most pressing crises facing working families.” While the bill has essentially no chance of passing Congress in the near future, it could become a litmus test for Democratic presidential candidates in 2028. Vox's Astead Herndon sat down with Sanders for Today, Explained to ask him about how the tax would actually work, as well as about some of the other most pressing issues of the moment: how Democrats should navigate the AI landscape, Sanders's call for a moratorium on building new AI data centers, and President Donald Trump's recent strikes in Iran. Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There's much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify. You can also watch the Saturday interviews this week and every week on the Vox YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com/vox. Most Democrats have condemned the US-Israel strikes in Iran, but Donald Trump is blowing ahead. Is there any recourse coming from Congress? What we have got to do is pull the financial plug here. I think what we have got to do our best in saying is that not only is this war unconstitutional, not only is it illegal, [but] when we have so many strong domestic needs in terms of housing and health care and education, we're going to be just throwing tens of billions of dollars into another endless war. I think taking a look at how we finance wars is one of the areas that we have to move to. But the bottom line is we've gotta do everything that we can to stop Trump's reckless foreign policy, which is not only unconstitutional, not having gone to Congress, [but] it is in violation of international law and will lead, in my view, to international anarchy. You and Congressman Khanna introduced this bill that would add a 5 percent annual tax on wealth for anyone making over a billion dollars. And importantly, this is a wealth tax, not an income tax. Things like assets and stock accumulation are also in play. Why $1 billion? We wanted to make very clear that today we have more income and wealth inequality than we've ever had in the history of the United States of America. We all read about the Gilded Age, right? Nickels and dimes compared to where we are right now. We're living in a moment where the top 1 percent owns more wealth than the bottom 93 percent, where one man, Elon Musk, owns more wealth than the bottom 53 percent of American households, where, while 60 percent of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, the billionaire class has seen its wealth increase by a trillion and a half dollars since Trump was elected. The point is that at a time of so much inequality, we have to ask the wealthiest people to start paying their fair share of taxes. One way to do it is a wealth tax. I personally think starting off at a billion dollars is the appropriate way to go. The goal of the revenue is to send $3,000 checks to every American in a household making $150,000 or less. Should I see this as a means of funding a kind of universal basic income? No. It does two things: It says that at a time when the very richest people are becoming much, much richer, while ordinary Americans today are struggling to put food on the table or pay for childcare or pay for health care, the working class of this country needs immediate help. On top of that, we make massive investments every year in child care, in housing, in education, in health care, in addressing the basic needs of working class Americans. And yet everything being equal, our kids will have a lowest standard of living than we will, and millions of families are struggling. All of our people should have a decent standard of living, and we have to address the massive level of income and wealth inequality to do that. France tried a wealth tax and repealed it. Sweden tried one, repealed it, and the European countries that have gone back have almost universally said that it was because capital left, or evasion meant that they did not see the necessary revenue returns. Why would that not be true in the United States? I think we need to enact that legislation, and then we need a political movement to make sure that it is implemented. That's a pretty high standard. One of the things that is really troubling to me is what you are saying is, Look, even if the American people want it, these guys will evade it one way or another. Is that what you're saying? Other countries have repealed the wealth tax because of that exact problem. We have to deal with it. I was out in California a few weeks ago where they're dealing with a state wealth tax. The issue there is that 15 million people, including many in California and Vermont, have been thrown off the health care they have in order to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the 1 percent. What the 1 percent are saying is, You want us to pay more in taxes so that working class people and children will have health care? If you pass that, you know what we're going to do. We're going to move to Texas, we're going to move to Florida. The time is long overdue that we stand up to that greed and say, no, that's not the choice. You are in America, you benefited from America, you're part of America. You don't have the divine right to rule and you play by the rules, and if we pass this tax, you're going to pay it. You called for a moratorium on AI data center construction. I spoke with your ally Ro Khanna about this, and he disagreed about that point. Why do you think the time is now to put a moratorium on data centers? I don't think a moratorium is the solution to all the problems. I think it's the right thing to do now, and here's why. What I have been really stunned by is that I go out around the country and I talk to people and I say, well, what do you think about AI and robotics? Are you concerned about it? I talk to mostly working-class audiences and they say, Bernie, we are really, really concerned. I come back to the United States Senate, and you know what? Hardly anything is being done about it. No legislation has yet been passed, so the disconnect is five miles wide. Who's pushing AI and robotics? The richest people in the world. Elon Musk. Zuckerberg, Bezos, Ellison, Altman, Bill Gates. The very first question that we have to ask ourselves is, do you think these guys who are investing huge amounts of money in AI and robotics, transforming our economy? Are they staying up nights worrying about you and your family? They want even more wealth and they want even more power. And at a time when these guys already have so much wealth and power, when they're buying elections, I worry about that and what it means for our democracy. Issue number two, people disagree because nobody really knows what the impact of AI and robotics will mean to our economy. Some people say, look, you had the Industrial Revolution. People were farmers, they work in factories. No big deal. I don't agree with that. I think what you're looking at now is going to move a lot more pervasively and a lot faster than other economic transformations. Looking ahead to the next Democratic presidential nominee, I imagine your top priority may be Medicare for All, but are there two other policies that you want that next nominee to support? First of all, we have to figure out how we remain a democracy. And it's not just Donald Trump, who is an authoritarian and is undermining democracy. It is money in politics. You talked about AI, right? You know why there's no regulation of AI right now? It is because the AI industry is prepared and is spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. If you want to run for Congress, and you want to stand up and say, I have real concerns about AI, they will pour millions of dollars against you. You have to deal with Citizens United in creating a democratic society. You need, in my view, public funding of elections. So maintenance of democracy is important, dealing with Trump's authoritarianism is enormously important, and you have to deal with this issue of oligarchy. In terms of the needs of the American people, why are we the only major country not to guarantee health care to all people as a human right? That takes you to Medicare for All. You have to deal with AI and its impact. This is a very difficult and unprecedented moment in American history, and I think elected officials in many ways are far behind where the American people are in terms of their wanting action to protect them, and not just the 1 percent. Understand the world with a daily explainer, plus the most compelling stories of the day. This is the title for the native ad Trump's new leader for DHS, briefly explained. It won't stop at the gas pump. America's clutter problem, explained. Don't be afraid to be anxious. After Venezuela and Iran, Trump has a new target on his mind. Tyra Banks is not the only villain. This is the title for the native ad © 2026 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved","{'href': 'https://www.vox.com', 'title': 'Vox'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:vox.com","How Trump's pick to lead Homeland Security could be different from Kristi Noem","https://www.vox.com/podcasts/482470/trump-dhs-markwayne-mullin","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 11:00:00 GMT"," When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can't do it on our own. We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today? Trump's new leader for DHS, briefly explained. A major change is underway at the top of the Department of Homeland Security. In the first Cabinet shakeup of his second term, President Donald Trump has tapped Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R) to take the lead on his “mass deportation” goals. The change comes after Kristi Noem was fired from her position as Homeland Security secretary. Mullin's confirmation hearing in the Senate will be held next week. Mullin, a plumber-turned-MMA fighter-turned-firebrand politician, has branded himself as a political outsider in Congress — and MAGA ultra-loyalist. Trump's new Homeland Security pick comes after Noem's leadership was increasingly scrutinized in the wake of the killings of US citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good by federal agents. As DHS has found itself at the center of controversies, funding battles, and public outrage, what will Mullin's appointment bring to the agency? “If you look at a lot of Trump's Cabinet secretaries, he doesn't really go with the most qualified choice at times,” Reese Gorman, political reporter at NOTUS, told Today, Explained. “Trump really tends to pick people who he likes and also just who would give him loyalty. That tends to be one of the main things that Trump looks for when appointing people to the Cabinet.” Gorman has covered Mullin's political rise for years. He joined Today, Explained host Sean Rameswaram to break down who Mullin is and what his vision might be for the future of the Department of Homeland Security. Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There's much more in the full episode, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify. We have to start with his name, Markwayne. Where does that come from? So his two uncles were named Mark and Wayne and they combined the names to Markwayne. And at some point, his parents thought that they would drop one of them, but he just kept them. And it's just a very Oklahoma name, Markwayne Mullin. And what's his origin story? How'd he get into politics? So Markwayne Mullin is is a member of the Cherokee Nation, one of the few Native American citizens in Congress. That is something that he is really proud of that he talks a lot about. He is also from Stilwell, Oklahoma, which is one of the poorest cities in the United States. He grew up there…and he never graduated college, he has an associate's degree, he started a plumbing company. And as someone who went to college there and worked there for a while, I would see Mullin Plumbing vans all over the state. Huh! It's one of the biggest plumbing companies in the state. And he decided to run for Congress as this outsider, where his tagline [was] “Not a politician, a businessman.” And in the Senate and in the House, he has a reputation for being something of a fighter, which comes from his reputation from being an actual fighter! He was an actual professional MMA fighter. Okay, but most pertinent to our conversation today is that President Trump likes this guy. President Trump has a soft spot for this hard dude from Oklahoma. How did their relationship develop? Their relationship developed really early on. Markwayne is somebody that, to his credit, is really good at building relationships. And so in Trump's first term, that was no different. He was really close with Trump. … The relationship really grew when Markwayne Mullin's son had a really traumatic injury, almost life-threatening injury, from wrestling. … He had to be flown out to California to a specialty hospital to be operated on. It was a really scary moment for Mullin and his family. Trump would visit his son at one point and would routinely call weekly to check in on Mullin and his son. And Mullin really credits that to his growing relationship with Trump. And what was it that turned Trump against Kristi Noem? The straw that broke the camel's back was her answer to a hearing question last week by Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, where he asked if Trump had approved of this $220 million ad campaign which looked almost as though a political ad, and she said that Trump had signed off on it, which incensed Trump. He was adamant that he did not approve this. When she was asked about her alleged affair with her adviser, Corey Lewandowski, and she did not say no, she just completely dodged the question, said she was appalled that it was even being asked — that was something that also infuriated Trump. Has Mullin said how he wants to run DHS differently than, you know, Kristi Noem did? Following the death of Alex Pretti when he was shot and killed by Border Patrol in Minnesota, Mullin's statement was not much different from Kristi Noem's. He didn't go as far as to say he was a domestic terrorist, as Noem had said. I think that you won't necessarily see a lot of change maybe in the rhetoric or the mission of deporting people who are here illegally. But what I think you might see is more loyalty to Trump. Noem was constantly on TV getting ahead of the administration, and was really obsessed with the visuals of it all. And so I think maybe some of that might change, the visuals of it. But the actual overall mission is still going to be this mass deportation effort of people who are here illegally. And as much as Republicans in Congress may have wanted leadership change at the Department of Homeland Security, they haven't yet come out and said, “We want a policy change from the White House.” Not at least publicly. There's definitely members who I talk to on a daily basis [who] do express some [reservations] about the administration's efforts right now, but they are afraid to go on the record. Being a Republican and criticizing the administration is not great for your political success. And so a lot of these members are afraid to criticize this publicly. But it is a real concern that a lot of them have, especially vulnerable members. The optics of this are really not good. Understand the world with a daily explainer, plus the most compelling stories of the day. This is the title for the native ad It would give $3,000 to every American in a household earning less than $150,000. It won't stop at the gas pump. America's clutter problem, explained. Don't be afraid to be anxious. After Venezuela and Iran, Trump has a new target on his mind. Tyra Banks is not the only villain. This is the title for the native ad © 2026 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved","{'href': 'https://www.vox.com', 'title': 'Vox'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:vox.com","Jesse Ash Profile and Activity","https://www.vox.com/authors/jesse-ash","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT"," When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can't do it on our own. We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today? Producer, Today, Explained It would give $3,000 to every American in a household earning less than $150,000. Understand the world with a daily explainer, plus the most compelling stories of the day. This is the title for the native ad © 2026 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved","{'href': 'https://www.vox.com', 'title': 'Vox'}","national" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:businessinsider.com","I've lived in San Francisco and Austin, and I want to move back to California. Here's what Texas is missing.","https://www.businessinsider.com/lived-san-francisco-austin-move-back-california-texas-tech-scene-2026-3","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:13:00 GMT"," Every time Charissa publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Enter your email By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Pavi Theva, 31, a career coach who lives in Austin. The following has been edited for length and clarity. The first time I visited San Francisco, I fell in love with it. A year later, around June 2018, I went back for a work trip. From the Golden Gate Bridge to the coastal views, the city was stunning, and the hustle and bustle in the air made me feel like I'd never get bored there. I started planning how I could work there one day. In October 2018, I left Dallas, where I was working at EY, to start an analytics role at a startup in San Francisco. Since then, life has taken me to Seattle and Austin, where I've been since August 2023. I found Seattle underwhelming, but enjoyed the slower pace in Austin. Lately, I've been missing the ambitious, entrepreneurial spark you can only find in the Bay Area, and over five years after first moving away, I want to go back. When I moved to San Francisco, my rent rose drastically compared to $600 for a room in Dallas. I also noticed how the most common words I heard around San Francisco were the tech buzzwords ""API"" and ""cloud,"" whereas no one in Dallas really spoke about work after work. The pressure to stay on top of the latest technology and add to conversations at networking events meant I struggled with imposter syndrome. But San Francisco felt like the complete package. It had nature, nightlife, a range of cuisines, and a strong focus on career growth. There was also a large immigrant population, and it felt like everyone was from somewhere else, such as the Middle East or Asia. Growing up in India, I knew about the American dream and how diverse the US was, but San Francisco was the first place I felt like I was in the America I'd heard about. I didn't want to leave California, but when I was offered a program manager role at Amazon in Seattle in 2019, I took it because the role aligned with my career goals, including working at a FAANG company. My boyfriend and I shared an apartment that cost $1,990 a month, excluding utilities, which was cheaper than what I remember paying in San Francisco. But I found Seattle underwhelming and struggled with the gloomy weather and it getting dark by 4 o'clock. It's hard to make friends in bad weather, when people don't go out so much, and the 2020 pandemic made socializing even harder. In 2022, after I kept bugging my partner, whom I met in San Francisco, to leave Seattle with me, we bought a property in Austin and moved in 2023, drawn to the lower cost of living and good weather. We found a lot of young couples and a strong sense of community in Austin. It was easy to meet people because many residents had also moved from other cities. For the first time, my environment wasn't all about tech. I met small business owners who didn't run startups, like people in the Indian community with jewellery and saree businesses. There was a lot of creative energy. In the Bay Area and Seattle, the first or second question you asked in conversation was ""What do you do?"" but in Austin, I could know people for weeks without finding out their profession. People would talk about their hobbies and other aspects of life, which was a big culture shock. I'd started a side hustle, creating social media content about career betterment, which was the beginning of my coaching business. Austin felt like a good place for me to create and grow the business. Compared to the Bay Area, where there's so much competition, it was easier to become visible in Austin. I felt like a big fish in a small pond. Austin is definitely in its acceleration phase, but I don't think it's the next Silicon Valley, like some are saying. Some costs, like entertainment and food, feel comparable to Silicon Valley, but overall, Austin seems cheaper than San Francisco or Seattle did. Like Seattle, there's no state income tax in Austin, so I'm saving more from my paycheck than I was in Silicon Valley, but as homeowners in Austin, we do have to pay quite high property taxes. To me, the Bay Area, where there's a deep engineering culture, is still the hub for entrepreneurship. Yes, companies like Tesla, Oracle, Apple, and Amazon have moved into or expanded in Austin, but I still don't see as many people talking about technology, or as many tech conferences, as in Silicon Valley. It doesn't feel like the city is ahead of the curve. In November 2025, I went to a creator meet-up in the Bay Area, where I had lots of insightful conversations about business. I realized this was something I was missing out on, and it's made me want to move back to San Francisco, ideally by 2027. I plan to continue career coaching, expand into corporate consulting, and take advantage of the opportunities in San Francisco. I picked Austin because I was in a season of life when I wanted to slow down, but now, with my business in a more mature phase, I want to be surrounded by ambitious, driven people again to keep me accountable and inspired. If you really want to grow, be challenged, and push yourself to be the smartest, that's the energy of California — nothing can beat it. Do you have a story to share about leaving Texas or California? Contact this reporter at ccheong@businessinsider.com Jump to","{'href': 'https://www.businessinsider.com', 'title': 'Business Insider'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:cnbc.com","Older women set to inherit most of $54 trillion in ‘great wealth transfer' to widowed spouses","https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/14/great-wealth-transfer-widowed-spouses.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:30:01 GMT"," For many married women, one of the biggest financial transitions of their lives will come when it's least welcome: after the death of their spouse. Women, on average, live longer than men — a longevity gap that means many wives will outlive their husbands. At birth, the average life span for males in the U.S. is 76.5 years as of 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For women, that average is 81.4 years. The gap shrinks once you reach age 65. At that point, life expectancy for men is another 18.4 years, or to age 83.4, according to the CDC data. For women, that average is 20.8 years, or age 85.8. That difference in life span means women are expected to receive most of the spouse-to-spouse wealth that gets passed on during the so-called great wealth transfer. That's a period between 2024 and 2048 when an estimated $124 trillion will be passed on largely by baby boomers — those born 1946 to 1964 — and older generations, according to research from Cerulli Associates. Of that amount, an estimated $54 trillion will get passed on to widowed spouses — 95% of which will go to women, according to Cerulli Associates. And, $40 trillion of it will go to widowed women who are baby boomers or older, the research shows. When it comes to women in these older generations, financial advisors say it is common for couples to have embraced the traditional role of the husband managing the investments and long-term planning. ""In many older households, the husband historically has handled most of the financial decisions,"" said certified financial planner Ryan Marshall, a partner and financial advisor at ELA Financial Group in Wyckoff, New Jersey. ""It's just more common that [older women] hadn't been part of it,"" Marshall said. ""They've been taking care of everything else in the family."" However, that lack of knowledge ""can leave the surviving spouse feeling overwhelmed at an already difficult time,"" Marshall said. In other words, before you reach that point, it's worth at least knowing where assets are held, how income is generated and who to call with questions. ""The goal is not to make everyone a financial expert, but to ensure the surviving spouse has the familiarity and confidence to navigate the transition,"" he said. While many married couples have an estate plan in place for when a spouse dies, others do not. ""If you didn't plan for it in advance, you kind of have to start all over again,"" said CFP Crystal Cox, a senior vice president for Wealthspire Advisors in Madison, Wisconsin. ""What is your new budget, for instance,"" Cox said. ""Or, before, your portfolio [was based] on a couple's risk tolerance. Now you have to look at it as a single person."" However, in the immediate aftermath of a spouse's death, priorities should be limited to the essentials, Cox said — such as ensuring access to cash, notifying institutions, paying ongoing bills and claiming benefits (from, say, life insurance). ""Once initial grief begins to stabilize — and that timeline is different for everyone — widows can start to revisit the broader financial picture,"" Cox said. While the particulars of what any widow faces financially depend on the specifics of their situation, there are a couple of things most widows will face, whether or not there are significant assets. Your cash flow may be impacted almost immediately. Assuming both spouses were receiving Social Security, the surviving spouse generally keeps the larger of the two benefits, and the smaller one goes away. Depending on the amount of the smaller one, that could result in a notable decrease in income. ""That's a huge impact a lot of people don't think about,"" Cox said. The average survivor benefit for Social Security is $1,622.32 monthly, according to January data from the Social Security Administration. Additionally, if the deceased spouse had a pension, income from it may change, depending on the specifics of the pension plan, Cox said. If it includes survivor's benefits, the amount could be lower than what your spouse was receiving. Or, it could involve a lump-sum payout. In general, advisors say surviving spouses end up spending less than they did as a couple, but that it doesn't drop by half when one spouse dies. ""In retirement projections, we try to do 60% to 70% income replacement when a spouse passes away,"" Marshall said. ""You still have a lot of those expenses left."" Widowed spouses should be prepared for their tax situation to change. While you can still file a joint tax return for the year in which your spouse died, you will typically end up being taxed as a single filer after that (unless you have a dependent child). Single filers generally face less favorable tax brackets, a smaller standard deduction and lower income thresholds for certain other tax breaks. ""If your income doesn't change that much, you could find yourself in a higher tax bracket,"" Cox said. For 2026, the standard deduction for married couples filing jointly is $32,200. For a single filer, it is $16,100. Of course, that lower amount could mean it's more beneficial to itemize your deductions, Cox said. That is, allowed deductions such as mortgage interest, state and local taxes, charitable donations and certain medical costs could total more than the standard deduction. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by","{'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:cnbc.com","Meta planning sweeping layoffs as AI costs mount: Reuters","https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/14/meta-planning-sweeping-layoffs-as-ai-costs-mount-reuters.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:19:14 GMT"," In this article Meta is planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as Meta seeks to offset costly artificial intelligence infrastructure bets and prepare for greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers. No date has been set for the cuts and the magnitude has not been finalized, the people said. Top executives have recently signaled the plans to other senior leaders at Meta and told them to begin planning how to pare back, two of the people said. The sources spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to disclose the cuts. ""This is speculative reporting about theoretical approaches,"" Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in response to questions about the plan. If Meta settles on the 20% figure, the layoffs will be the company's most significant since a restructuring in late 2022 and early 2023 that it dubbed the ""year of efficiency."" It employed nearly 79,000 people as of December 31, according to its latest filing. The company laid off 11,000 staffers in November 2022, or around 13% of its workforce at the time. Around four months later, it announced it was cutting another 10,000 jobs. Over the last year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing Meta to compete more forcefully in generative AI. The company has offered huge pay packages, some worth hundreds of millions of dollars over four years, to court top AI researchers to a new superintelligence team. The company has said it plans to invest $600 billion to build data centers by 2028. Earlier this week, it acquired Moltbook, a social networking platform built for AI agents. Meta is also spending at least $2 billion to buy Chinese AI startup Manus, Reuters previously reported. Zuckerberg has alluded to efficiency gains from the investments, saying in January he was starting to see ""projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single very talented person."" Meta's plans reflect a broader pattern among major U.S. companies, particularly in tech, this year. Executives have pointed to recent improvements in AI systems as one reason for the changes. In January, Amazon confirmed it would cut some 16,000 jobs, amounting to nearly 10% of its workforce. Last month, the fintech company Block chopped nearly half of its staff, with CEO Jack Dorsey explicitly pointing to AI tools and their growing capability to help companies do more with smaller teams. Meta's planned AI investments follow a series of setbacks with its Llama 4 models last year, including criticism that they produced misleading results on the benchmarks used for earlier versions. It abandoned the release of the largest version of that model, called Behemoth, which had been due out in the summer. The superintelligence team has been working to reassert the company's standing this year by building a new model called Avocado, but the model's performance has also lagged expectations. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by","{'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:cnbc.com","North Korea fires 10 ballistic missiles during U.S.-South Korea military drills","https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/14/north-korea-fires-10-ballistic-missiles-amid-us-south-korea-drills.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 08:27:26 GMT"," North Korea fired more than 10 ballistic missiles into the sea on Saturday, South Korea's military said, as the U.S. and South Korean forces conducted military drills and U.S. President Donald Trump renewed overtures towards Pyongyang for dialogue. Japan's coast guard said it had detected what could be a ballistic missile that fell into the sea. It appeared to have fallen outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, public broadcaster NHK said, citing the military. The missiles were launched from an area near the capital Pyongyang, around 1:20 p.m. (0430 GMT) towards the sea off the country's east coast, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. North Korea has test-launched a wide range of ballistic and cruise missiles for more than two decades in a push to develop the means to deliver nuclear weapons, which it is believed to have successfully built. As a result, Pyongyang has been under multiple U.N. Security Council sanctions since 2006 but it remains defiant, despite severe obstacles they created to its trade, economy and defense. South Korea and Washington this week launched the annual major drills in South Korea, which they say are purely defensive, aimed at testing readiness against military threats from North Korea. Hundreds of U.S. and South Korean troops conducted river-crossing drills on Saturday with hardware including tanks and armored combat vehicles, overseen by the commander of their combined forces. The U.S. military has about 28,500 troops and squadrons of fighter jets stationed in South Korea. North Korea frequently displays its anger at such exercises, saying they are ""dress rehearsals"" for armed aggression against it by the allies. On Thursday, South Korea's Prime Minister Kim Min-seok met U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington to discuss ways to reopen dialogue with the North. Trump is eager for any opportunity to sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, South Korea's Kim told reporters. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by","{'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:cnbc.com","As New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani faces $7 billion budget hole, free parking may be history","https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/14/mayor-zohran-mamdani-new-york-budget-deficit-parking-tax.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:07:49 GMT"," To learn more about the CNBC CFO Council, visit cnbccouncils.com/cfo With New York City facing a budget gap estimated at around $7 billion, new Mayor Zohran Mamdani would prefer to tax the rich. But lately, Mamdani and his administration have conceded that other ways to raise revenue for the city need to be considered, from higher property taxes on homeowners to a long-talked-about idea that would upend a feature of life in the Big Apple many residents have long considered a right: ample free parking. New York has about 3 million curbside parking spaces, and roughly 97% of them are free. Eliminating this perk has been floated, unsuccessfully, many times. However, given an overall annual municipal budget over $100 billion and Mamdani's need to close the budget gap, there may be more momentum. It would follow in the footsteps of many other U.S. and European cities where using more public parking space as a way to raise revenue is already common. The topic has assumed a higher profile within public policy discussions across the U.S. at a time of widespread municipal financial strain. For New York, the idea of charging for parking gained renewed public interest this month following remarks by Dean Fuleihan, first deputy mayor of New York City, at a Center for New York City and State Law event. The topic came up in response to an audience member's question about raising additional revenue by changing the city's approach to street parking. ""Yes — we should be looking at all those things,"" Fuleihan told audience members. He emphasized, however, that parking fees wouldn't fix the totality of the budget problem. In a statement the following day, Mamdani echoed this sentiment. ""Our administration is committed to filling the budget gap by ending the drain on New York City and taxing the rich,"" he said, adding that ""we need structural change at the scale necessary to put our city back on firm financial footing."" City officials aren't the only ones thinking about ways to increase revenue. Last May, the New York Senate introduced a bill that would authorize the city of New York to provide for a residential parking permit system. The bill was sponsored by Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who is now Manhattan borough president, and it remains in committee. This past week, New York State legislators proposed a comprehensive state-level budget package that would increase taxes on the wealthiest individuals, as well as businesses. If the tax changes are approved by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, it would enact a similar approach to Mamdani in seeking ways to increase revenue and close the budget gap in New York City. However, negotiations are expected to last until at least April, and Hochul is in a tough reelection fight and has to date said she will not approve a tax increase. There is a separate political cost to consider for a mayor who ran on taxing the rich, as parking fees are considered a form of regressive taxation, hitting lower-income earners harder on a percentage basis. But most urban policy experts say the idea of generating more revenue from parking makes sense. ""New York City real estate — street space — is being given away for free in many parts of the city,"" said Nicholas J. Klein, associate professor at Cornell University, who teaches classes on city planning. ""It's one of the most valuable resources, and the city is just giving it away."" In fact, New York City is one of the only major U.S. cities that allows people to park on residential streets completely free, says Zhan Guo, associate professor of urban planning and transportation policy at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. ""It doesn't make economic sense,"" Guo said. What's more, the percentage of metered parking spaces in New York is significantly below other large U.S. cities, including San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles, said Brenden Beck, associate professor at Rutgers-Newark, and a sociologist who focuses on policing, city budgets and housing. ""It should be much higher when you consider that New York City has a much more robust public transit system. The working class and the middle-class system of Los Angeles, for example, might have a case if they were to say, 'Please don't meter us; we have no other way to get to work.' There's less of a case to be made in New York,"" he said. There are multiple approaches. Washington, D.C., is heavily metered, for example. The city also issues residential parking permits. San Francisco, meanwhile, has demand-based pricing for its parking meters, meaning rates vary based on usage levels at different times of the day. It also charges residents for a residential permit. In Boston, there are meters throughout the city. Additionally, many residential streets are now permit-only. Residents have to apply for a permit, but there's no charge. New York could take several paths to raise parking revenue. One option is to increase the number of parking meters in the city and charge an hourly rate for usage, said Terrance J. Regan, adjunct professor in Boston University's city planning and urban affairs department. Thanks to technology, cities no longer have to install physical meters. They can turn entire streets into metered parking by having people pay online or through a revenue box on the street, he said. Another option is for the city to institute resident parking permits. This could be either for the whole city or only certain boroughs. A combination of both revenue-raising ideas could be ideal, according to urban planning professionals. ""Lots of cities charge for parking,"" and it's not hard to implement, especially with digital parking meters, said Klein. ""We already do this in lots of places, and people know it and expect it,"" he added. The cost to drivers would depend on the particulars New York decided to implement. According to Michael Lewyn, director of the Institute on Land Use and Sustainable Development and professor of law at Touro Law Center, the city could keep its existing fee structure for parking meters, with rates that vary by zone, or implement demand-based pricing like San Francisco, which relies on in-ground sensors to estimate parking occupancy. To determine the cost of a residential permit, New York could look to other cities for guidance. In Washington, D.C., for example, a permit costs $50 for the first vehicle, $75 for the second vehicle, $100 for the third vehicle and $150 for each vehicle beyond the first three vehicles. San Francisco, meanwhile, charges an annual fee of $215 for a residential permit on a passenger vehicle. Notably, a 2013 study by New York University's Guo found that 52.5% of respondents would be willing to pay an average of $408 per year for a parking permit. The amount of money the city could raise depends largely on the specifics of the program, but it certainly has the potential to chip away at the budget issue. ""Can you finance the whole city off it? No, of course not, but you could make a sizable amount of money,"" said Michael Manville, professor of urban planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. A 2020 study from UCLA estimated that New York is losing at least $114 million a year, on the Upper West Side alone, by allowing unmetered curb spaces. More broadly, if New York decided to make two-thirds of its free parking spaces ""resident permit parking"" and charged a $100 a year fee for a permit, it would raise about $200 million a year, said Boston University's Regan. Obviously, you can raise more if you make the permit more, he said. If the city also added 250,000 new meters and collected $20 a day, 300 days a year, it could raise $1.5 billion, on top of revenue from existing meters. ""You've got a lot of tools to play with here to raise money,"" he said. Pricing parking appropriately has other benefits as well, said Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, Emma Bloomberg Associate Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. This includes time savings for drivers cruising for parking, reduced traffic congestion and less pollution, he said. The big barrier to introducing these types of initiatives is political because leaders are concerned that constituents won't see the benefit, de Benedictis-Kessner said. In reality, it doesn't have to be expensive in relation to the incomes of city drivers to make a meaningful difference. It's economics 101: ""If you offer New York City land at the price of zero, then you're going to have a shortage of it because the price is well below its value,"" said UCLA's Manville. If you price the curb to keep one space on a block always open, it solves the problem. The city might also be able to loosen its alternate side parking rules since ""you can clean the street around parked cars,"" he said. The upshot: ""You price it so that it's a better service for people who do want to park, and in addition, you raise some revenue."" But whatever New York does, there's an approach not to take, said Erick Guerra, associate professor of regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania. Chicago inked a multi-decade deal in 2008 to privatize parking meters. The intentions were to raise revenue, but it bombed in part due to poor execution, and the city is still dealing with the aftermath, Guerra said. Chicago should have gotten way more money than it did, and the city has lost the ability to gain revenue from an important asset for many years. ""They really dug themselves into a hole,"" Guerra said. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by","{'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:cnbc.com","Berkshire Hathaway will start repurchasing its own shares—what buybacks mean for investors","https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/14/what-stock-buybacks-mean-for-investors.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:00:01 GMT"," Related Stories Greg Abel, the new CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, announced on March 5 on CNBC's ""Squawk Box"" that the company would start repurchasing shares of its own stock. For Berkshire, this is a relative rarity — the company hasn't bought back shares since the second quarter of 2024. But for companies like Berkshire, a financially mature conglomerate worth more than $1 trillion and with plenty of excess cash, the move has become increasingly common. In 2025, companies in the S&P 500 spent about $1 trillion buying their own shares, according to estimates from investment research firm Morningstar, up from a record $942 billion in 2024. Last year was also the fifth straight year in which companies spent more on buybacks than on cash dividends, Morningstar reports. Buyback programs, like dividends, are touted by companies as a way to return cash to shareholders, and, under the right circumstances, can be viewed by investors as a positive sign for the stock, says Rob Leiphart, a certified financial planner and vice president of financial planning at RV Capital Management. Investors should do some research, however, before buying on buyback news, he adds, since some companies purchase shares as a way to make short-term numbers look better. ""It is a form of financial engineering,"" Leiphart says. Say you're a company with plenty of free cash flow — money that's left over after making all the necessary expenditures to maintain the business. How do you use that cash to create value for shareholders? Maybe you plunk the money into research and development or use it to acquire another firm. For many large, financially mature firms, the answer is to give some money back to the people who own your stock. One classic way to do this is to pay a dividend, a regular (often quarterly) cash distribution to shareholders. Over the past half-decade, though, companies have been more inclined to spend their money on buybacks. Last year, Apple announced a $100 billion share repurchase program, and Alphabet authorized $70 billion in buybacks. Both companies also pay a modest dividend. Under buyback programs, instead of making cash distributions, companies repurchase their own shares on the open market. While not as tangible as having cash in hand, reducing the number of shares effectively means that each share an investor owns is a bigger piece of the overall pie. And because corporate earnings are expressed as earnings ""per share,"" taking shares off the market can make the stock look more attractive to other potential investors. The latter feature can incentivize corporate executives to initiate buybacks to create a short-term bump, rather than making moves that will benefit shareholders over the long term, says Leiphart. Companies that issue a lot of compensation in the form of stock options may also use buybacks to keep the value of those shares from diluting, Leiphart says. So what should investors make of it when a company announces a buyback program? As long as the company isn't taking on debt to fund a buyback, it's a generally positive sign for a company's financial health, says David Sekera, chief U.S. market strategist at Morningstar. ""It's just the way that management is letting the marketplace know that they are generating excess free cash flow above what the internal needs are for the company,"" he says. ""And in fact, probably even generating more free cash flow than what they necessarily need to spend on growth to be able to maintain their long-term guidance targets."" When it comes to buybacks — like all investing — the goal is to buy low and sell high, Sekera says. If a company buys shares when they're trading below their true value, it's a boon to shareholders. If they buy when they're overpriced, ""it's value-destructive,"" he says. ""Management teams seem to perpetually think that their stock is undervalued,"" he adds. Abel's announcement came with the context that Berkshire rebuys shares ""at any time we believe the repurchase price is below our intrinsic value, conservatively determined."" It's one of many reasons why financial pros would caution against buying any stock on the sole basis of a buyback announcement. It's also smart to speak with a trusted financial professional before making any changes to your portfolio. Overall, it's important to consider any buyback program in the context of your overall outlook for the underlying business, says Leiphart. ""Do they have a market leading product? Do they maintain that leadership with that product? Has the corporate brass been there for some period of time and good leadership is in place that has had success and will continue to have success hopefully in the future?"" he says. ""Along with those considerations, [a buyback is] maybe one thing that you add as an ingredient when you put it all together."" Want to improve your communication, confidence and success at work? Take CNBC's new online course, Master Your Body Language To Boost Your Influence. CNBC Select is editorially independent and may earn a commission from affiliate partners on links. Get Make It newsletters delivered to your inbox Learn more about the world of CNBC Make It © 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company","{'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:cnbc.com","Berkshire Hathaway filing provides glimpse of share buyback resumption","https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/14/berkshire-hathaway-filing-provides-glimpse-of-share-buyback-resumption.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:03:09 GMT"," In this article (This is the Warren Buffett Watch newsletter, news and analysis on all things Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You can sign up here to receive it every Friday evening in your inbox.) Berkshire Hathaway filed its definitive proxy statement with the SEC late this afternoon ahead of the company's annual shareholders meeting on May 2 in Omaha. It shows Berkshire bought back the equivalent of 309 Class A shares, roughly $226 million worth, on March 4, the day it resumed repurchases for the first time since May 2024. That's based on the number of outstanding shares as of March 4, the record date of the annual meeting, as shown in the proxy statement. The company disclosed the resumption in a March 5 SEC filing ""in the interest of transparency with our leadership transition"" but provided no details. New CEO Greg Abel told CNBC last week there won't be any future buyback announcements, except for what's in its regular quarterly financial reports. According to the proxy document, Warren Buffett's total annual compensation last year declined to $389,488 from $405,111 in 2024. That's a drop of close to 4%. It's entirely due to a reduction in the amount Berkshire paid for Buffett's personal and home security services. His salary each year was $100,000, as it has been for decades. New CEO Greg Abel's salary last year was $22 million, up from $21 million the year before. Last week, Abel told CNBC he used his entire after-tax salary to personally buy $15.3 million of Berkshire Class A shares. He plans to continue to buy Berkshire stock with his salary for each year ""as long as I'm CEO."" Abel's salary this year is $25 million. Berkshire's insurance chief Ajit Jain's 2025 salary was also $22 million, up from $21 million in 2024. Shareholders are being asked to approve, on an advisory basis, the compensation paid to Berkshire's top executives. The board is also asking shareholders to endorse plans for another advisory vote on compensation three years from now. The board is recommending a ""no"" vote on a shareholder proposal backed by Whistle Stop Capital calling for a report on Berkshire's ""oversight framework for workforce and human-capital management across its operating subsidiaries"" to address concerns the ""company's decentralized structure creates exposure to inconsistent approaches to human capital management."" The board argues ""matters related to workforce and human-capital management are appropriately placed within the businesses' oversight and discretion where decisions related to policies and practices may vary depending on geography and industry-specific concerns, risks, and opportunities."" Warren Buffett is the world's ninth wealthiest person according to Forbes, which released its annual ranking this week. It puts his net worth at $149 billion as of March 10, down from $154 billion last year when he was in sixth place. This year, Buffett trails Elon Musk ($839B), Larry Page ($257B), Sergey Brin ($237B), Jeff Bezos ($224B), Mark Zuckerberg ($222B), Larry Ellison ($190B), Bernard Arnault & family ($171B), and Jensen Huang ($154B). Bloomberg's ranking has Buffett in the #11 position with $146 billion. Since 2006, Buffett has donated Berkshire shares that would currently be valued at around $203 billion. If he had held onto them, his net worth would be around $352 billion, which would make him the world's second richest person, behind Elon Musk. Some links may require a subscription: Warren Buffett gives his views on executive compensation, explaining why he doesn't mind paying big money for good performance. AUDIENCE QUESTION: explain the justification and rationalization for the exorbitant salaries, bonuses, perks, directors' fees, and other benefits that most public corporations are paying. (Applause) WARREN BUFFETT: I would say this. In my own view, the most exorbitant are not necessarily the biggest numbers. What really bothers me is when companies pay a lot of money for mediocrity, and that happens all too often. But we have no quarrel in our subsidiaries, for example, for paying a lot of money for outstanding performance. I mean, we get it back 10 or 20 or 50-for-1. And similarly in public companies, we think that there have been managers — in our managers — who have taken companies to many, many, many billions of market value more than would've happened with virtually anyone else... I am bothered by irrational pay systems. And I'm particularly bothered when average managers take really large sums. I'm bothered when they design, or have designed for them, systems that are very costly to the company — maybe partly to make themselves look good because they want huge options themselves, so they feel if they give options widely throughout the company — so they design a system that is illogical company-wide because they want one that's illogical for them personally. But large sums, per se, don't bother me. I'm not saying, you know, whether any individual should — might want to take them or not. But I do not mind paying a lot of money for performance. It's done in athletics; it's done in entertainment. But in business the people who are the .200 hitters and the people who would not attract a crowd as an entertainer have worked it out so that — I mean, the system has evolved in such a way that — many of them take huge sums. And I think that's obscene. But I can tell you, there isn't much you can do about. The system feeds on itself. And companies do look at other companies' proxy statements, every CEO does. And they say, ""Well, if Joe Smith is worth X, I have to be worth more."" And they tell the directors that, ""Certainly you wouldn't be hiring anybody that was below average, so how can you pay me below average?"" And the consultants come in and ratchet up the rewards. And it's not anything that's going to go away. It's like we were talking about campaign finance reform earlier. The people who have their hands on the switch are the beneficiaries of the system. And it's very hard to change the system when the guy whose hand is on the switch is benefitting enormously, and perhaps disproportionately, from that system.   Four weeks Twelve months BRK.A stock price: $734,838.94 BRK.B stock price: $490.03 BRK.B P/E (TTM): 15.79 Berkshire market capitalization: $1,056,826,445,660 Berkshire Cash as of December 31: $373.3 billion (Down 2.2% from Sept. 30) Excluding Rail Cash and Subtracting T-Bills Payable: $369.0 billion (Up 4.1% from September 30) Berkshire resumed stock repurchases on March 4, 2026. (All figures are as of the date of publication, unless otherwise indicated) Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly traded stocks in the U.S. and Japan, by market value, based on the latest closing prices. Holdings are as of December 31, 2025, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing on February 17, 2026, except for: The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker. Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.) If you aren't already subscribed to this newsletter, you can sign up here. Also, Buffett's annual letters to shareholders are highly recommended reading. There are collected here on Berkshire's website. -- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by","{'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:cnbc.com","Some oil-loading operations in UAE hub of Fujairah suspended after fire: Reuters","https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/14/some-oil-loading-operations-in-uae-hub-suspended-after-fire-reuters.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 11:23:18 GMT"," Some oil-loading operations have been suspended in Fujairah, a city in the United Arab Emirates and a key bunkering hub, after a fire broke out there, Reuters reported on Saturday quoting industry and trade sources. The reported fire comes after the U.S. attacked Iran's Kharg island, a key regional oil hub, on Friday. The fire in Fujairah started after debris fell as a drone was intercepted, Reuters reported. No one was injured, according to the report. A spokesperson for Abu Dhabi's state oil giant, ADNOC, which operates in Fujairah, declined to immediately confirm to CNBC the reports of the fire. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, its most elite military institution, said on Saturday that U.S. interests in the UAE, including ports, docks and military locations are legitimate targets following the U.S.' attacks on Iranian islands, Reuters reported. U.S. President Donald Trump said he directed the U.S. Central Command to carry out a bombing raid, hitting military targets on Kharg. He added that U.S. forces did not ""wipe out"" the island's oil infrastructure. On Friday, Brent crude oil futures closed above $100 per barrel for the second straight day. The global oil benchmark's price has surged more than 40% since the Iran war started. Analysts have said that the prospect of a U.S. move to seize Kharg Island, a strategically vital hub often referred to as Iran's ""oil lifeline,"" is considered extremely high risk, both from a geopolitical and economic standpoint. The five-mile-long coral island, which is located about 15 miles off the coast of mainland Iran in the waters of the northern Persian Gulf, had been left untouched through nearly two weeks of U.S. and Israeli-led strikes against Iran. -- CNBC's Emma Graham and Reuters contributed to this report. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by","{'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:cnbc.com","A Paramount-Warner Bros. movie slate could rule the 2027 box office, but is it sustainable?","https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/14/paramount-wbd-2027-movie-slate.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 11:00:01 GMT"," In this article Hollywood could soon have a new king of the box office. With Paramount Skydance set to take over Warner Bros. Discovery, the combined film studios could dominate the theatrical slate. Paramount CEO David Ellison has repeatedly promised not to pull back on production from either studio, with the goal of making 30 movies a year — 15 from Paramount and 15 from Warner Bros. The pending transaction, with an enterprise value of $111 billion, must still win regulatory approval both in the U.S. and in Europe. As the current 2027 slate stands, the combination of WBD and Paramount would result in 26 theatrical releases. However, additions to that calendar could come as soon as April at the annual CinemaCon conference in Las Vegas. This behemoth of a slate is dominated by Warner Bros. titles, and it's likely that those films would account for the bulk of ticket sales. The studio is set to release films from major franchises including Godzilla-Kong, Superman, Batman, Minecraft, The Conjuring universe, Gremlins and Lord of the Rings. Meanwhile, Paramount will have new entries for Sonic the Hedgehog, Paranormal Activity, A Quiet Place and its animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchises. While Paramount's franchises are popular and have generated solid ticket sales at the box office, its major releases in 2027 are smaller budget features. In fact, no film in any of those four franchises has generated more than $350 million globally, according to data from Comscore. But with smaller budgets, they don't have to in order to be profitable. Warner Bros.' part of the slate, on the other hand, has bigger budget features that in the past have generated bigger box office returns. The most recent Godzilla-Kong film generated $572 million globally, 2025's ""The Conjuring: Last Rites"" tallied nearly $500 million, ""The Batman"" took in $772 million and ""A Minecraft Movie"" nearly hit $1 billion. ""When you look at the films on the horizon from the PAR/WBD combo it is most impressive,"" Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore, told CNBC. ""And it may not be an overstatement to say that that slate could indeed have the potential to generate the biggest single studio box office in 2027."" The Warner Bros. movie studio is a big part of why Ellison was so committed to winning over WBD's board and its shareholders in a bidding war against Comcast and Netflix. Last year, Warner Bros. was the second-highest grossing studio at the domestic and global box office. Paramount was fifth. Disney has long held the box office heavyweight title, although it was briefly overthrown in 2023 by Universal. Warner and Universal have jockeyed between second and third position, with Sony, Lionsgate and Paramount falling in line behind them. ""Doubling up two major slates adds to the potential for a very strong 2027, but nothing is ever certain when it comes to assuming a potential annual box office winner among studios,"" said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. ""That's especially true when the likes of Disney and Universal will each bring out their own heavy-hitters next year."" Disney, in particular, has franchises like Ice Age, Star Wars, Frozen and Avengers on the docket for 2027. Of course, franchise tentpoles are not always guaranteed to succeed at the box office, but the combined efforts of Paramount and Warner Bros. is a compelling offering for an industry that has been shrinking dramatically over the last decade. ""The notion of two major studio slates under one large umbrella in 2027 makes for an intriguing prospect while raising some fair speculation,"" said Robbins. ""We've seen the decline in theatrical output in the years following Disney's acquisition of Fox, although caveats such as the pandemic and streaming explosion somewhat skew that comparison."" A combined Paramount and Warner Bros. slate also faces some logistic issues. There are only 52 weekends on the calendar, and with 30 movies, the studio would need to strategically place its releases as not to cannibalize its own ticket sales. Robbins noted that rival studios typically only go head-to-head on the same weekend or on back-to-back weekends if they are certain there isn't a major overlap in audience demographics. It's why there is often a horror movie set for release at the same time as a family-friendly animated feature, for example. In contrast, Robbins noted, Paramount is scheduled to release ""Sonic the Hedgehog 4"" just one week ahead of Warner Bros.' ""Godzilla X Kong: Supernova."" ""It wouldn't be a shock to see one of those shifted earlier or later on the calendar since the parent studio will want to minimize risk and do what's best for the financial bottom line while remaining competitive,"" he said. And while Ellison has touted a 30-movie slate in the years after 2027, it's unclear if that future is feasible. Traditionally, when two major studios merge, the number of films released declines and there is a major wave of layoffs as consolidation weeds out redundancies. Not to mention, the marketing costs of big-budget films can be prohibitive. ""What will actually become normal for the newly unified house of Paramount and Warner remains to be seen,"" Robbins said. ""The longevity of such a slate in the years after 2027 will be challenging to produce, but never say never."" Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of CNBC and Fandango. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by","{'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:cnbc.com","Trump administration directs Sable Offshore to restore Santa Ynez oil unit","https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/13/trump-administration-directs-sable-offshore-to-restore-santa-ynez-oil-unit.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:18:00 GMT"," The Trump administration on Friday directed Sable Offshore to restore oil drilling operations off the southern California coast, the U.S. Energy Department said. The move aims to restart oil production at a cluster of offshore platforms as fuel prices continue to rise in the wake of the war on Iran. U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright told Sable to restart work at the Santa Ynez unit and Santa Ynez pipeline ""to address supply disruption risks caused by California policies that have left the region and U.S. military forces dependent on foreign oil,"" the Energy Department said in a statement. Sable Offshore did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by","{'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:cnbc.com","Kalshi co-founder Luana Lopes Lara on the biggest prediction markets risks she has ever taken","https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/14/kalshi-prediction-markets-bet-luana-lopes-lara.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:45:00 GMT"," Luana Lopes Lara, co-founder of Kalshi, spends all day thinking about probabilities. Coming out of an elite math degree background and positions at some of the most successful hedge funds in the world, a mindset focused on thinking clearly about potential outcomes comes naturally to her. But the youngest self-made female billionaire ever still had to overcome steep odds in betting on herself and that she could build the largest prediction markets trading business in the U.S. She says it would not have happened without an approach to risk-taking that many people, especially women, don't follow. Kalshi, founded in 2018 by Lopes Lara and Tarek Mansour as MIT classmates, allows users to trade contracts tied to real world outcomes in areas as diverse as weather, sports, pop culture, economics, and politics. Users buy ""yes"" or ""no"" contracts tied to whether an event will occur, and prices reflect that probability. But the seemingly simple idea took years to become a new type of regulated financial market, with the co-founders facing many government battles and skepticism from their own board. When Lopes Lara and Mansour first started on the project, many people told them it would not work. ""[It] was many, many years of it looking like it was going nowhere,"" Lopes Lara told CNBC's Julia Boorstin during the latest episode of the ""CNBC Changemakers and Power Players"" podcast. Lopes Lara was named to the 2026 CNBC Changemakers list. Kalshi spent years navigating the regulatory process before receiving approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2020, which oversees derivates markets in the U.S. Lopes Lara said that period tested the founders' belief in the concept. ""We talked to a lot of people at the time and they were like, ""that's impossible. The odds are lower than 1%. You're never going to make that happen,"" she recalled. Being somewhat naive, but also driven given their background working on math degrees at MIT, may have helped the co-founders push forward, she said, even though they had no experience starting companies. ""We solved hard math problems, [and] we're going to figure out this regulatory-government problem,"" she recalled of their mindset. At the end of what she described as ""all-nighters"" at MIT, ""we were like, why don't we just try to do this? Because we're putting so much time into this and at some point we should just probably try and see if we can get this somewhere. If someone is gonna make this happen, it should be us. ... We were so in love with this problem and this idea,"" she said. Instead of backing away when regulators raised concerns, the founders repeatedly returned with legal research and data analysis to defend their case for prediction markets. The culmination of the years-long battle was when Lopes Lara made the call to sue the U.S. government over election markets ahead of the 2024 presidential contest after discussions with regulators stalled. ""[One of] the biggest events every four years in the world is the American election,"" Lopes Lara said. ""Election markets really are the holy grail."" The company spent more than two years with the CFTC trying to get election markets approved and ultimately Lopes Lara decided, ""the only option"" the company had was to sue the government. The forces pushing against her in that decision included the company's board. ""For almost two years, at every board meeting, we would go in and tell the board, 'We're working on elections. We're working on elections. We're working on elections.' ... They would always say, 'It's not working. It's not working. It's not working.'"" She had to tell the board that the founders, with her leading the call, had decided to sue even though the board had been advising them to focus on other business opportunities. But to Lopes Lara, it was simple. The odds were in their favor. ""It makes no sense to not do this,"" she recalled thinking at the time. While the board ultimately supported the decision, the month leading up to the court decision was one during which Lopes Lara says, ""I didn't sleep. I didn't work out. I was just almost like a potato just walking around trying to handle everything."" Kalshi won the case, and the results speak for themselves. Since that legal precedent, Kalshi has grown to $2 billion in transactions per week. The week of the New York City mayoral election, Kalsi did over $130 million in election-related transaction volume. More recently, Kalshi recorded around $1 billion in trading volume during the Super Bowl. The company recently raised $1 billion from investors at an $11 billion valuation. Kalshi is continuing to shape events today, with contracts on recession risk from the U.S.-Iran war among trades that have been created tied to recent news. But that growth has not come without controversy, with prediction market trades related to events in Iran and U.S. military actions receiving swift backlash, including from Congress, and broader concerns about insider trading. Kalshi is also involved in multiple legal disputes over whether its contracts should be regulated as gambling under state laws as the gaming industry pours significant resources into lobbying efforts targeting what it sees as a prediction markets loophole. Lopes Lara said she strongly believes in both the company's legal arguments and its future. However, she first had to map out all of the possible scenarios for the company when first deciding whether to found it, and be prepared for every potential outcome including failure. She used a very Kalshi-esque approach to that decision. ""The best way that I think about making decisions is: you make sure you have all the data that you can about the situation, and then you map out possible scenarios, and then you put probabilities into them,"" Lopes Lara said. The approach reflects her broader philosophy regarding risk and entrepreneurship. She believes many people avoid pursuing ambitious ideas because they focus too much on the downside, but in her experience the worst outcome is often less severe than people believe. ""Most people, I see that they're afraid of taking risks ... they're so worried about the downside. They're so worried about what's going to happen if things go wrong. But most of the times people are overthinking it,"" Lopes Lara said. ""If I leave my job to do this ... and it fails, it's over. No, you probably just get another job and you'd be maybe a little bit behind where you are now. And maybe you won't get one promotion, and that's kind of the level of it. It's very easy to trick yourself into rationalizing the fear of taking risk,"" she said. ""When you actually map out the whole tree, you're going to realize that most of the time it's just not that bad. Obviously, there's a lot of financial risk, all those things, a lot of other considerations. But I think people, especially women, just need to take more risks and be honest with themselves about why they're not doing it. Cause I think a lot of times it's just fear."" Follow and listen to this and every episode of the ""CNBC Changemakers and Power Players"" podcast on Apple and Spotify. Disclosure: CNBC and Kalshi have a commercial relationship that includes customer acquisition and a minority investment. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by","{'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:cnbc.com","The biggest release of emergency oil stockpiles in history was announced. Why crude may keep rising","https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/14/iran-war-iea-oil-stockpile-spr-strait-hormuz.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:07:11 GMT"," In this article The oil market sent a clear signal this week that a massive release of stockpiled crude by the U.S. and its allies is nowhere near enough to address the unprecedented supply disruption triggered by the Iran war. More than 30 nations in Europe, North America and Northeast Asia agreed to flood the market with 400 million barrels of oil in an effort to keep a lid on rising energy prices. The U.S. is leading the effort with a release of 172 million barrels from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve or 43% of the IEA total. It is the largest release of stockpiled oil in the 50-year history of the International Energy Agency, an organization tasked with maintaining the energy security of its members during global crises. But the oil bazooka is not inspiring confidence in the market. Crude prices have surged more than 17% since the IEA announced the emergency stockpile release on Wednesday. Brent oil prices, the international benchmark, closed above $100 on Friday for the second session in a row. The explanation is simple, said Tamas Varga, analyst at the London-based oil broker PVM. Tankers are under attack in the Persian Gulf, the critical Strait of Hormuz remains basically closed, and Iran's new supreme leader has vowed to keep the trade chokepoint shut. ""Until transit is reactivated, those kinds of policy announcements are going to have limited impact,"" said Tom Liles, senior vice president of upstream research at consulting firm Rystad Energy. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates exported around 14 million barrels per day (bpd) before the war, Liles said. Around 5 million bpd to 6 million bpd can be exported through Saudi and UAE pipelines that terminate at the Red Sea and Gulf of Oman, he said. This leaves around 9 million bpd, or about 10% of global supply, that can only pass through the Strait and will remain bottlenecked in the region until transit resumes, Liles said. At first glance, the 400 million emergency barrels would cover about 40 days of that lost supply, the analyst said. But the reality is a lot more complicated, Liles said. ""There's only a limited amount of volume that can be released over a given period. It's not as if 400 million barrels just appear immediately on the market,"" he said. The oil supply disrupted by the war is far larger than the stockpiles the IEA can release daily. As a consequence, the action will have limited impact on the trajectory of oil prices, analysts at Bernstein told clients in a Thursday note. The U.S. will release 172 million barrels over a 120-day period. This implies 1.4 million barrels per day, which is just 15% of the supply lost due to the Hormuz closure. It takes 13 days for the barrels to hit the market from President Donald Trump's authorization. The IEA did not detail when the other members would start releasing barrels or in what quantities. It said each of its 32 member countries will decide based on circumstances appropriate to them. The IEA last released emergency stockpiles in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Its members managed to reach a combined high of 1.3 million bpd in September 2022, according to consulting firm Rapidan Energy. The IEA could perhaps boost the release rate closer to 2 million bpd, according to Rapidan. ""It buys time, but it does not solve the crisis,"" the Bernstein analysts said. It is possible that oil prices could rise to levels that start lowering demand before the stockpile release even fully kicks in, Liles said. Rystad forecasts that a two-month war will push Brent oil prices to $110 per barrel by April. A four-month war could spike Brent to $135 per barrel by June. The IEA members also risk depleting their stockpiles. The 400 million barrels slated for release represents 33% of the 1.2 billion barrels in member-state stockpiles. The 172 million barrels the U.S. plans to release represents 41% of the 415 million currently held in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday that the White House plans to more than replace the oil that it is releasing with 200 million barrels within the next year at no cost to the taxpayer. The IEA action also does nothing to address the 20% of liquefied natural gas exports that are unable to reach the global market due to the Strait's closure. LNG is a form of natural gas that is chilled into a liquid and loaded onto tankers for export. Natural gas is used for electricity production and heating. The stockpiles will partially alleviate the oil shock from the war, said Tobin Marcus, head of U.S. policy and politics at Wolfe Research. ""But it does not by any means obviate the need to reopen the Strait, and we don't think much more help is coming after this,"" he said. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by","{'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:cnbc.com","FAA lifts ground stop at the three Washington, D.C.-area airports after strong chemical smell halted air traffic","https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/13/flights-halted-at-dc-airports-after-chemical-smell.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:11:00 GMT"," The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Friday night lifted a ground stop that had halted traffic at the three primary Washington-area airports for several hours after air traffic had to halt work because of a strong chemical smell tied to a circuit board that overheated. The FAA said the issue disrupted operations at Potomac Consolidated Terminal RADAR Approach Control, which controls airspace over numerous airports in the Washington region. The issue had earlier prompted the FAA to stop traffic at Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia and Baltimore-Washington International Airport in Maryland, all serving the Washington area. The ground stop also affected Richmond International Airport in Virginia. Flights began resuming around 8 p.m. after more than two hours of halted flights. Departures were facing delays of 1 to more than 3 hours on average at the three Washington-area airports. Delays were impacting more than 325 flights, or 34% of arriving and departing flights at Reagan National Airport, about 30%, or 215 flights, at BWI and more than 260 flights at Dulles, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking site. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said firefighters responded to the issue at the Virginia FAA facility and ""confirm there is no danger to air traffic controllers, and they are returning to the Potomac TRACON. The source of the strong odor was traced to a circuit board that overheated, and it was replaced."" The issue snarled traffic during the busy U.S. travel period when students are on spring break. Airborne flights were diverted and dozens of aircraft on the ground were held in place, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracking site. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by","{'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:cnbc.com","Want extra cash? These 4 platforms let you rent out your stuff","https://www.cnbc.com/select/best-way-to-earn-money-renting-your-things/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:45:55 GMT"," When it comes to finding ways to earn more money, one of the easiest places to start is with things you already own. Aside from selling possessions, you can actually get paid to let people borrow items that you don't use much. You may not always make life-changing money renting out your belongings (unless you're really dedicated and rent out high-value items or numerous belongings), but the cash you earn can still go a long way in helping you reach your goals. Below, we've rounded up a handful of platforms that let you earn money by renting out items you already own. See more on our methodology below. Offers in this section are from affiliate partners and selected based on a combination of engagement, product relevance, compensation, and consistent availability. Home equity loans Home equity loans 680 680 90% 90% HELOC, DSCR, cash-out refinance, crypto-backed loan HELOC, DSCR, cash-out refinance, crypto-backed loan 640 640 95% 95% Who's this for? Hygglo lets you rent out just about anything you own, whether it's a DSLR camera, gardening tools, musical instrument or even party supplies. Their rental categories include construction equipment and tools, electronics, film and photography, garden, home, party, sports and vehicles. Chances are you own something you aren't using that you'd be able to list on the platform. It's free to create an account and list items; however, Hygglo takes a 20% commission from the rental fee. Standout benefits: Your items are actually protected from damage, loss and theft. The 20% commission Hygglo takes from your earnings goes toward covering insurance and guarantees, user verification and customer support, among other services. Collects a 20% commission from rental fee The app is available in both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android); there's also a web version Who's this for? Turo is a platform that lets you rent out your car per day or even per month. You don't need to own the fanciest car to rent it out on the platform, though, higher-end cars may be very appealing to some renters and you could charge more for its use. Standout benefits: Trips are covered through third-party liability insurance. 7.5% of the cost of the trip; Host take rate depends on the insurance plan you choose. The app is available in both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android); there's also a web version Who's this for? If you own a backyard pool, you can actually get paid with Swimply. Swimply lists your pool on the platform (take lots of great photos) and users can pay you to use your pool for parties, photoshoots, family time or self-care days. The platform also seems to support listing recreation areas that you own, like a tennis court or pickleball court. Standout benefits: It's free to create an account and list your pool on the platform. Hosts are automatically covered with a protection guarantee of up to $1 million and $10,000 in property damage protection. 15–25% of the booking price The app is available in both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android); there's also a web version Who's this for? Airbnb is a global platform where property owners can list their homes, rooms, apartments, condos and townhouses as temporary vacation rentals. Some hosts list unique getaways on the platform, like cabins, tiny homes, lake houses and beach houses. Standout benefits: It's free to sign up and create a listing. 3% host fee The app is available in both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android); there's also a web version Money matters — so make the most of it. Get expert tips, strategies, news and everything else you need to maximize your money, right to your inbox. Sign up here. At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every list is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of personal finance products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best rental platforms. To determine the top rental platforms, CNBC Select categorized our picks by best for renting out your home, best for renting out your pool, best for renting out your car and best for renting out miscellaneous items. When determining our picks, we considered factors like: Note that terms and fees are subject to change. Catch up on CNBC Select's in-depth coverage of credit cards, banking and money, and follow us on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date.","{'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=bitcoin","Bitcoin can survive 72% of the world's submarine cables being cut, but a targeted attack on five hosting providers could cripple it","https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/03/13/bitcoin-can-survive-72-of-the-world-s-submarine-cables-being-cut-but-a-targeted-attack-on-five-hosting-providers-could-cripple-it","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:32:20 GMT"," Bitcoin's network has been running nonstop since 2009. The question nobody had rigorously answered until now is what it would actually take to break it. Researchers at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance last week published the first longitudinal study of Bitcoin blockchain's resilience to physical infrastructure disruption, analyzing 11 years of peer-to-peer network data against 68 verified submarine cable fault events. The headline finding is that between 72% and 92% of the world's inter-country submarine cables would need to fail simultaneously before Bitcoin experiences significant node disconnection. In a world where the Strait of Hormuz is currently disrupted and infrastructure vulnerability is front of mind, the study provides the first empirical benchmark for how hard Bitcoin actually is to knock offline. The numbers tell a story of a network that degrades gracefully rather than collapsing catastrophically. The researchers ran 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations per scenario across the full dataset and found that random cable failures barely register. Over 87% of the 68 real-world cable fault events they studied caused less than 5% node impact. The largest single event, when seabed disturbances off Côte d'Ivoire damaged 7-8 cables simultaneously in March 2024, knocked out 43% of regional nodes but affected only 5-7 bitcoin nodes globally, roughly 0.03% of the network. The correlation between cable failures and bitcoin's price was essentially zero, at -0.02. Infrastructure disruptions are invisible against daily price volatility. But the paper's most important finding is the asymmetry between random and targeted attacks. While random cable failures require 72-92% removal to cause damage, a targeted attack on the cables with the highest betweenness centrality, the ones that serve as chokepoints between continents, drops that threshold to 20%. And targeting the top five hosting providers by node count, Hetzner, OVH, Comcast, Amazon, and Google Cloud, requires removing just 5% of routing capacity to achieve the same impact. That's a fundamentally different threat model. Random failures are acts of nature. Targeted attacks are acts of state, coordinated regulatory shutdowns of hosting providers or deliberate severing of critical cable routes. The study essentially maps two very different adversaries: one Bitcoin can easily survive, and one that remains a credible risk. The paper tracks how resilience evolved over time, and the trajectory isn't a straight line. Bitcoin was most resilient in its early years from 2014-2017, when the network was geographically diverse and the critical failure threshold sat around 0.90-0.92. Resilience declined sharply during 2018-2021 as the network grew rapidly but concentrated geographically, hitting its lowest point of 0.72 in 2021 during peak mining concentration in East Asia. The China mining ban in 2021 forced redistribution, and resilience partially recovered to 0.88 in 2022 before settling at 0.78 in 2025. The TOR finding is the one that challenges conventional thinking. As of 2025, 64% of Bitcoin nodes use TOR, making their physical location unobservable. The assumption has been that this inability to observe might hide fragility, that if TOR nodes turned out to be geographically concentrated, the network could be more vulnerable than it appears. The Cambridge researchers built a four-layer model to test this and found the opposite. TOR relay infrastructure is heavily concentrated in Germany, France, and the Netherlands, countries with extensive submarine cable and land border connectivity. An attacker trying to disrupt TOR relay capacity by cutting cables faces a compound problem because those countries are among the hardest to disconnect. The four-layer model consistently showed higher resilience than the clearnet-only baseline, with TOR adding between 0.02 and 0.10 to the critical failure threshold. The paper frames this as ""adaptive self-organization."" TOR adoption surged after censorship events like Iran's internet shutdown in 2019, the Myanmar coup in 2021, and the China mining ban. The Bitcoin community shifted toward censorship-resistant infrastructure without any central coordination, and that shift happened to also make the network physically harder to disrupt. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed and a regional war disrupting infrastructure across the Middle East, the question of what happens to Bitcoin if submarine cables get damaged isn't theoretical. The study suggests the answer is probably nothing, unless someone is deliberately targeting the specific cables and hosting providers that matter most. More For You The math behind Strategy's path to 1 million bitcoin by the end of 2026 The largest publicly traded corporate holder of bitcoin would need to buy roughly 6,158 BTC per week, about $523 million, to reach the milestone by Dec. 31. What to know: Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.","{'href': 'https://www.coindesk.com', 'title': 'CoinDesk'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=bitcoin","Bitcoin beat the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite and gold since the start of the Iran war","https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/14/bitcoin-outperforms-sp-500-nasdaq-gold-since-the-start-of-iran-war.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:00:01 GMT"," A bitcoin comeback may be underway. Just as the cryptocurrency was kicking off its latest winning week, ProShares' Simeon Hyman was emphasizing a bullish bitcoin trend on CNBC's ""ETF Edge."" ""If you look at bitcoin, it's up a little bit and equities are down [since the Iran war began,]"" the firm's global investment strategist said on Monday."" ""So, I think the diversification story really holds in in this current environment."" As of Friday's market close, bitcoin gained 5% this week — with most of the gains coming over a 24-hour period. Plus, it's up roughly 8% since the Iran war started on Feb. 28. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and gold are down more 3% since the war with Iran began, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is off more than 2%. ProShares is active in the cryptocurrency space — operating more than a dozen cryptocurrency ETFs. It launched the ProShares CoinDesk 20 Crypto ETF (KRYP) last month. It's up nearly 5% since the Iran war began, but the fund is off about 7% since its early February debut. Despite bitcoin's recent strength, it's still down more than 40% from its record high of $126,198 reached last October. Main Management founding partner and CEO Kim Arthur thinks bitcoin is in a classic crypto winter — a so-called phenomenon that tends to happen every four years. According to Arthur, it's in the bottoming stage. ""Bitcoin was trading at $125,000 five months ago. So, it was down 50-plus percent when this conflict erupted,"" he said in the same interview. ""I do like the fact that it's outperformed a lot of other asset classes [since the war,] but... you have to widen the lens a little bit on that."" Arthur, who has exposure to bitcoin, indicates he's taking a passive investing approach to the cryptocurrency right now. ""For myself as an asset allocator and a portfolio manager... I look at bitcoin as my benchmark, and then I bench everything else against that,"" said Arthur, who added bitcoin has been an extremely difficult master to beat particularly since 2021. The digital currency has gained about 15% over the past five years. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. © 2026 Versant Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by","{'href': 'https://www.cnbc.com', 'title': 'CNBC'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=bitcoin","Bitcoin Hit a Major Milestone—Most Miners Won't Be Around for the Next One","https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-hit-major-milestone-most-140730017.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:07:30 GMT"," Oops, something went wrong The Bitcoin network saw its 20 millionth BTC mined this week, leaving just 1 million coins left to be paid as rewards to miners. The milestone has crypto industry observers taking stock of the rapidly changing Bitcoin mining industry, and weighing the economics of a shifting landscape against expectations of Bitcoin's performance as an investment. Mining companies help secure the Bitcoin network and verify transactions, expending large amounts of energy in a race to solve cryptographic puzzles in exchange for transaction fees and newly created Bitcoin as rewards. It's taken miners 16 years to mine the 20 millionth coin from Bitcoin's inception, but it could take roughly 115 years to unlock the remaining supply, according to Wolfie Zhao, the head of research at TheEnergyMag. That doesn't necessarily mean the Bitcoin mining industry will look the way it does for the next century. John Todaro, a managing director and senior research analyst at Needham & Company, expects many publicly traded miners to exit Bitcoin mining in 2027 and 2028. “​​We believe a large portion of the public Bitcoin miners will sell down nearly all of their Bitcoin holdings before year-end 2026 as they embark on [capital expenditure] spend related to AI workloads,” he wrote in a recent note shared with Decrypt. In other words, Bitcoin mining companies are pivoting to AI. All the publicly traded Bitcoin miners the firm covers have allocated a portion of their compute power to high-performance computing, or HPC, and AI. It's a shift that's been going on for years. And it's easy to see why, he added. “Stubbornly low hash price combined with the upcoming 2028 halving presents a concerning environment for Bitcoin mining operations,” he told Decrypt. “Many operators are at or near breakeven costs today, while NOI margins in HPC are north of 80%.” Top Bitcoin Mining Pool Operator Foundry Is Getting Into Zcash NOI refers to net operating income, which measures revenue minus operating expenses, excluding financing costs and taxes. So it stands to reason that mining firms are adjusting their revenue split to favor better margins. Ross Gan, the chief communications officer at Bitdeer, told Decrypt the firm has Bitcoin's technological infrastructure in its DNA. Bitdeer, the Singapore-based miner led by Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu, illustrates the fork in the road facing the industry. Wu helped industrialize Bitcoin mining in the first place—Bitmain, which he co-founded in 2013, once controlled roughly three-quarters of the global market for Bitcoin mining chips. Now Bitdeer is converting several of its facilities into AI data centers while simultaneously developing its own next-generation mining hardware. “The miners that endure will be the ones that control more of the stack themselves. We demonstrate how that matters by designing and deploying our own high-efficiency ASICs and securing long-term energy capacity worldwide,” Gan said. “Vertical integration has proven to be one of the clearest markers of long-term survivability.” Bitcoin Miners ‘Sitting on a Gold Mine' as AI Demand Ramps Up: VanEck He added that up until recently, Bitcoin has been treated as a key monetization engine that was complemented by AI infrastructure to keep long-term revenues stable. “That duality may no longer be a nice-to-have in the future,” Gan said. HIVE Digital Technologies, formerly HIVE Blockchain, was founded in 2017 and went public later that year on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company began investing in high performance computing, or HPC, infrastructure much earlier than many of its competitors. So early, in fact, that it was still generating revenue from Ethereum mining when Executive Chairman Frank Holmes mentioned it on an earnings call. “The Ethereum mining margins that we experienced during the quarter enabled us to continue the upgrade of our data center assets in Sweden and Iceland and also diversify our business by starting to invest in HPC assets,” he said in November 2021. It wasn't until a year later that Ethereum developers executed the merge, changing the network from a proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and rendering Ethereum mining obsolete. The Canadian company has built its business around finding creative ways to source power from hydro-electric and otherwise stranded energy, Holmes told Decrypt. “Bitcoin miners have led the world in sourcing stranded and surplus energy and in building Tier I power infrastructure at scale,” he said. “There is enormous energy abundance in the world, especially in hydro-rich regions like South America and Canada, but the winners will be operators that can secure it at low cost, structure around it intelligently, and turn that energy into durable computing infrastructure.” Even as analysts, like Todaro, predict that some Bitcoin mining firms will begin winding down by the end of 2027, Holmes sees the squeeze ahead of the next halving event—forecast for mid-2028—as a challenge to get even more efficient. Ethereum Successfully Executes Highly-Anticipated Merge Event, Ushering in Proof-of-Stake Era “Block rewards will decrease, but that does not mean the industry will disappear. It means the bar rises,” he added. “The miners that survive will be the ones with the best power, the best sites, and the most flexibility.” But what happens to the price of Bitcoin when block rewards get all the way to zero? Investors have known that Bitcoin has a finite supply since its inception, so theoretically it's priced in. The most apt comparison comes from the Bitcoin whitepaper itself: “The steady addition of a [constant amount] of new coins is analogous to gold miners expending resources to add gold to circulation,” pseudonymous BTC creator Satoshi Nakamoto wrote in 2008. The comparison has been adopted widely by Bitcoin fans, including BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Strategy founder Michael Saylor, and even Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The global gold supply hasn't been exhausted yet, so investors can't skip ahead a few chapters for a preview of what BTC might do in 115 years. But Todaro pointed out that the very gradual reduction in block rewards should dampen effects on Bitcoin's price. Strategy Drops $1.28 Billion on Bitcoin, Issues $377 Million in Preferred Shares He expects the majority of selling pressure to come from newly produced BTC, not long-time HODLers. And even if Bitcoin miners liquidate their holdings as they exit the business, they're not the whales they used to be. “Bitcoin miners do not hold as much Bitcoin on their balance sheets on a relative basis as they historically have,” he said. “They hold ~0.5% of the circulating supply, while Strategy alone holds 7x more BTC than all the miners combined.”","{'href': 'https://finance.yahoo.com', 'title': 'Yahoo Finance'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=ethereum","XRP Flexes Speed Power: 1,500 TPS Leaves Bitcoin and Ethereum in the Dust by Nearly 10x","https://coinpaper.com/15432/xrp-flexes-speed-power-1-500-tps-leaves-bitcoin-and-ethereum-in-the-dust-by-nearly-10x","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 07:08:47 GMT"," XRP leads the pack with 1,500 TPS, which is nearly 10× faster than Bitcoin and Ethereum. As the race to build faster, more scalable blockchain networks intensifies, XRP is emerging as a clear front-runner. Powered by the XRP Ledger, the digital asset can process roughly 1,500 transactions per second (TPS), a throughput that far surpasses many of the industry's most established networks. In comparison, Bitcoin and Ethereum handle about 16 TPS each, placing XRP's capacity at nearly ten times higher. This performance advantage positions XRP as one of the most scalable blockchain solutions for high-volume payments and real-time financial transactions. The widening performance gap underscores one of the blockchain industry's most pressing challenges: scalability. As global adoption accelerates, networks must process growing transaction volumes without congestion, delays, or soaring fees. Early blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum have long struggled with these limitations, especially during periods of intense demand when network bottlenecks slow transactions and drive costs higher. In contrast, the XRP Ledger is demonstrating its capacity to operate at scale. Network activity has surged, with daily transactions climbing past 2.7 million, signaling rising adoption and robust on-chain momentum. This sustained throughput highlights the ledger's ability to handle high transaction volumes efficiently, an advantage that positions it as a strong contender for large-scale financial and payment applications in the evolving blockchain ecosystem. Well, the XRP Ledger was built specifically to overcome the scalability and efficiency limitations that have challenged earlier blockchains. Unlike energy-intensive proof-of-work systems used by networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, the XRP Ledger relies on a streamlined consensus protocol that validates transactions without mining. This architecture enables transactions to settle in just three to five seconds, delivering both speed and efficiency at scale. As a result, the network is particularly well-suited for high-frequency financial operations, including cross-border payments and real-time settlements, areas where traditional blockchain systems often struggle with delays, congestion, and high fees. XRP's speed advantage is drawing growing interest from financial institutions exploring blockchain-powered payment infrastructure. Developed and supported by Ripple Labs, the XRP Ledger has long been positioned as a solution for cross-border payments, an area where traditional banking systems can take days to finalize transactions. With settlement times of just a few seconds and minimal transaction costs, the network offers a scalable alternative designed for real-time global value transfer. As market observers compare current price action to patterns seen before the 2017 cryptocurrency bull run, speculation is mounting over whether XRP could be preparing for another explosive move. Some analysts are now questioning whether the asset's evolving utility and growing institutional attention could set the stage for a rally approaching 1,500%. As blockchain adoption expands beyond cryptocurrency trading into payments, remittances, tokenization, and DeFi, scalability becomes a critical differentiator. Networks that handle thousands of transactions per second can support larger ecosystems without slowing down. While Bitcoin dominates as a store of value and Ethereum leads in smart contracts, XRP's emphasis on speed and throughput gives it a unique edge. Its ability to process high transaction volumes efficiently highlights a design built for real-world financial applications. With a capacity of around 1,500 transactions per second, XRP sets a new benchmark for scalable blockchain infrastructure, positioning itself as a leader in powering the global digital economy. In a world where speed and efficiency drive financial innovation, XRP is setting a new standard for scalable blockchain infrastructure. The XRP Ledger handles up to 1,500 transactions per second, nearly 10x that of Bitcoin and Ethereum, positioning it as a high-speed, low-cost backbone for global digital payments. As traditional finance increasingly embraces blockchain, XRP's performance and throughput could redefine how money moves across borders, powering a faster, more connected financial ecosystem. Don't miss out and join our newsletter to get the latest, well-curated news from the crypto world! Brian Njuguna Brian Njuguna is a seasoned crypto journalist at Coinpaper, specializing in blockchain innovation, market trends, and regulatory developments. With a background in economics and years of experience covering the digital asset space, Brian delivers sharp, data-driven insights that cut through the hype. His reporting bridges global crypto narratives with emerging market perspectives, making complex topics accessible to a wide audience. https://coinpaper.com/15432/xrp-flexes-speed-power-1-500-tps-leaves-bitcoin-and-ethereum-in-the-dust-by-nearly-10x Read more about Coinpaper key links News Misc Stories Learn Popular © 2026 Coinpaper","{'href': 'https://coinpaper.com', 'title': 'Coinpaper'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=ethereum","​Ethereum Researcher Fires Back: Critics Of The Foundation Are ‘Profoundly Misplaced'","https://stocktwits.com/news-articles/markets/cryptocurrency/ethereum-market-research-founder-defends-the-foundation-criticism-misplaced/cZdz9eoRIOk","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 07:27:34 GMT"," Advertisement|Remove ads. Amid growing institutional adoption of Ethereum (ETH) by major financial firms, the Ethereum Foundation published a mandate outlining its role within the blockchain ecosystem. However, that has sparked quite a bit of criticism. But, the founder of Ethereum Market Research Center, William Mougayar, has chosen to defend the foundation, saying the current criticism is “profoundly misplaced.” Mougayar pushed back against criticism on Friday, saying the organization was often wrongly treated as the Ethereum network's central authority. “Criticizing the Ethereum Foundation has become the easiest reflex in this industry,” Mougayar wrote. “It's convenient. It gives critics a single target to point at,” the author added, saying it is unwise to do so. Mougayar, who has a decade of experience as a blockchain analyst, explained that the foundation should be viewed as a “steward” of the protocol rather than as controlling the broader ecosystem. “Ethereum is not a company. It is an ecosystem,” he wrote. The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is a non-profit organization that supports research, development, and coordination of the Ethereum protocol. Rather than controlling the full network, the foundation funds core development, supports infrastructure, and helps guide long-term research around Ethereum's technology. The Foundation has often been criticized for regularly selling ETH to fund its work. These sales have garnered a lot of criticism for selling Ethereum in bear markets.​ Some critics believe it's hypocritical, saying that it pushes Ethereum's price to tank. Critics have also asked why a non-profit that is financially sound needs to sell ETH. Critics also say that the Foundation moves too slowly in execution, marketing, user growth, and competition with faster chains like Solana (SOL).​ Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $2,103, down by 0.4% over 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around ETH remained in the ‘bearish' territory, as chatter levels around it moved from ‘low' to ‘normal' over the past day. The Ethereum Foundation released a mandate on Friday, outlining its mission and responsibilities within the ecosystem. The organization explained that it would focus on maintaining a censorship-resistant, open-source, private, and secure Ethereum network, which it called “CROPS.” The Foundation said its primary responsibility was to help the protocol and focus on tasks that other ecosystem participants were unlikely to undertake. “EF focuses on critical tasks that have no other natural home and that no other ecosystem actor can or will reliably undertake,” the Foundation wrote. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also commented on the mandate. Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation would continue to prioritize decentralization, privacy, security, and censorship resistance while contributing to tools and infrastructure that support user self-sovereignty, a point the 32-year-old founder has repeatedly emphasized. He described Ethereum as a “sanctuary technology” designed to preserve technological self-sovereignty and ensure that no single organization or ideology can dominate the digital ecosystem. Read also: Oil Surges Toward $100 As President Trump Orders Massive SPR Drawdown — One Trader Is Quietly Booking $1.28M Profit For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.","{'href': 'https://stocktwits.com', 'title': 'Stocktwits'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=ethereum","What Are ERC-20 Tokens on the Ethereum Network?","https://eand.co/what-are-erc-20-tokens-on-the-ethereum-network","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:52:01 GMT"," Blockchains are designed for various purposes; some, like Bitcoin, are exclusively used as a digital ledger book for recording cryptocurrency transactions within the network. Ethereum is like an open-source platform upon which developers and entrepreneurs can build decentralized applications (dApps). The ERC-20 token specification has become the de facto standard for Ethereum tokens, standardizing all tokens created using smart contracts on the Ethereum Blockchain. Let's analyse further and understand the core benefits and utilization of ERC-20 on the Ethereum network. ERC-20 or Ethereum Request for Comment 20 is a technical standard established on the Ethereum blockchain for fungible assets. It provides a set of rules that helps to ensure all assets are functioning properly within the Ethereum ecosystem. These rules pertain to how ERC-20 assets are transferred within the Ethereum blockchain and how their supply and address balances are consistently recorded and maintained. It symbolizes various digital assets and hence can be used in a wide range of applications. ERC-20 tokens are fundamental to Ethereum's decentralized ecosystem because they enable developers to build dApps and smart contracts that can interact with each other. This allows for a wide range of use cases. ERC-20 consists of a list of functions and events that must be implemented into a token to consider it ERC-20 compliant. These functions describe what must be included in the smart-contract tokens. The functions a token must have are as follows: The events that must be included in the token are Transfer and Approval. The ERC-20 standard has ushered in plenty of benefits for the Ethereum ecosystem and the blockchain as a whole. Let's dive deep into it Despite the numerous benefits of ERC-20 tokens, they also come with their own risks and drawbacks: As the Ethereum ecosystem continues to evolve, new token standards can potentially emerge and enhance or even replace some of the functionalities of the ERC-20 standards. But these advancements can also contribute to providing alternative solutions that can address the limitations of ERC-20 standards. Hence, ERC-20 will likely remain as a foundation for the foreseeable future. With its broad adoption and interoperability, it can continue to support a vast range of dApps and DeFi protocols. ERC-20 tokens play a vital role in the Ethereum ecosystem. Their simplicity, interoperability, and broad adoption make them essential for the specific network. ERC-20 token addresses the growing concerns that multiple tokens would not be transferable on the Ethereum blockchain. When accessing a crypto asset, it is essential to do your research to make the best possible judgment, as the industry is subject to unpredictable increases and decreases. An ERC address only starts with 0x. Yes, you can share, exchange, and transfer ERC-20 tokens to any ETH address. No, you cannot receive Bitcoin using an Ethereum wallet. No, ETH is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum Blockchain. Whereas ERC-20 is a distinct token following the ERC20 standard on the Ethereum network. The current supply level of Ethereum is 120.69 M. Comment Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Eudaimonia and Co Eudaimonia & Co More information EandCo © 2026 - All Rights Reserved. Languages :","{'href': 'https://eand.co', 'title': 'eand.co'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=ethereum","Will Ethereum's price target $2,150 liquidity zone after whales' $75M transfer?","https://ambcrypto.com/will-ethereums-price-target-2150-liquidity-zone-after-whales-move-eth-worth-75m/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:00:03 GMT"," Read the best crypto stories of the day in less than 5 minutes. Join to get it daily in your inbox. Thanks for subscribing to Unhashed 🚀 Read the best crypto stories of the day in less than 5 minutes. Join to get it daily in your inbox. Thanks for subscribing to Unhashed 🚀 Large Ethereum holders have withdrawn more than 39,700 ETH worth roughly $75M from major exchanges. This is indicative of aggressive accumulation across the market. Data from multiple transactions highlighted whales removing 9,220 ETH from OKX and Bybit, 5,000 ETH from Gemini, and 2,508 ETH from Binance. All while institutional wallets linked to Cumberland pulled 23,000 ETH valued at around $50.1M from Binance and Coinbase. Such large withdrawals typically reduce available exchange supply while alluding to longer-term positioning by major players. At the time of writing, Ethereum was trading near $2,089, with large holders continuing to transfer coins into private wallets. With exchange reserves falling and institutional wallets expanding their balances, this accumulation wave raises a key question – Can tightening supply conditions support Ethereum's next recovery phase? The world's largest altcoin stabilized after its aggressive sell-off, with ETH holding on to a consolidation range between $1,807 and $2,152. With a press time price of $2,089, the market seemed to be positioned close to its mid-range resistance. Previous downside pressure pushed ETH through several support zones before buyers began defending the $1,807-zone, creating a short-term base. However, recovery attempts continued to face resistance near the $2,152-level. This level previously acted as a breakdown point during the decline. Right now, this zone represents the first structural hurdle for buyers attempting to regain control. As Ethereum trades sideways, traders need to monitor whether the market can gradually reclaim lost ground or not. Especially since failure to sustain support could keep the broader consolidation structure intact. At the time of writing, several technical indicators seemed to be hinting at stronger bullish pressure, despite the broader downtrend. The Stochastic RSI, for instance, surged to 97.97 and 90.52, signaling extremely elevated buying activity following Ethereum's stabilization phase. Such readings typically appear when strong demand is in the offing. Similarly, the Parabolic SAR flipped below the price near $1,965 – A sign that short-term trend pressure has shifted towards buyers. When both indicators align in this way, traders often interpret the structure as an early sign of a potential recovery attempt. Market order flow also highlighted rising demand within Ethereum's spot markets. The Spot Taker CVD over the past 90 days underlined taker buy dominance, meaning aggressive buyers have begun executing more market orders than sellers. Such a shift usually means stronger immediate demand entering the market, rather than passive limit buying. When such buying activity appears alongside large exchange withdrawals, it often signals coordinated accumulation behavior among participants. Large traders frequently combine spot purchases with off-exchange storage strategies during accumulation phases. As a result, the interaction between taker buying pressure and declining exchange balances may gradually tighten circulating supply across trading venues. Finally, derivatives data revealed another important dynamic shaping Ethereum's near-term structure. The Binance liquidation heatmap highlighted dense liquidity around the $2,1500-level, with the same now sitting above the market price. These clusters represent areas where leveraged positions could face forced liquidations if the price approaches those levels. Markets often move towards such liquidity zones because large concentrations of leveraged orders create strong trading activity. Given that Ethereum was trading near $2,089 at press time, it places the $2,150 liquidity region within short-term reach. If buying pressure strengthens and price climbs toward that zone, cascading liquidations could amplify volatility. However, sellers may still defend this zone aggressively due to the large concentration of leverage. To sum up, whale withdrawals exceeding 39,700 ETH, strengthening spot demand, and bullish indicator signals all suggest Ethereum has entered an accumulation phase. Meanwhile, the $2,150 liquidity cluster stands as the next critical target above its press time price levels. If buyers maintain support and continue driving demand, Ethereum could gravitate towards that zone as markets chase concentrated leverage positions. Evans Boto is a crypto-fundamental analyst and journalist at AMBCrypto, specializing in evaluating the intrinsic value and long-term viability of digital assets. He analyzes protocol utility, tokenomics, and on-chain data to cut through market hype and deliver research-driven insights on blockchain, DeFi, and emerging fintech trends. Stay on top of your crypto game with our easy-to-use calculators. Make seamless conversions with our lightning-fast converter! Unlock the future with our AI-powered coin prediction tool! Read the best crypto stories of the day in less than 5 minutes. Join to get it daily in your inbox. Thanks for subscribing to Unhashed 🚀 AMBCrypto was founded in 2018 with a mission to simplify and bring the latest blockchain and cryptocurrency news to our readers. We have quickly grown into the digital news source for an emerging generation of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, reaching more than a million readers on a monthly basis, across the globe. AMBCrypto's content is meant to be informational in nature and should not be interpreted as investment advice. Trading, buying or selling cryptocurrencies should be considered a high-risk investment and every reader is advised to do their own research before making any decisions. ©2026 AMBCrypto ","{'href': 'https://ambcrypto.com', 'title': 'AMBCrypto'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=altcoins","Crypto Market Rotation Alert: Analysts Track a New Altcoin Under $1","https://www.openpr.com/news/4424580/crypto-market-rotation-alert-analysts-track-a-new-altcoin-under","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:08:16 GMT"," Crypto Market Rotation Alert: Analysts Track a New Altcoin Under $1 Permanent link to this press release: Delete press release Edit press release All 5 Releases","{'href': 'https://www.openpr.com', 'title': 'openPR.com'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=altcoins","Best Cheap Crypto to Buy Now? Analysts Say This Emerging Altcoin Is Built for a Bigger 2026 Run","https://www.openpr.com/news/4424564/best-cheap-crypto-to-buy-now-analysts-say-this-emerging-altcoin","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:17:33 GMT"," Best Cheap Crypto to Buy Now? Analysts Say This Emerging Altcoin Is Built for a Bigger 2026 Run Permanent link to this press release: Delete press release Edit press release All 5 Releases","{'href': 'https://www.openpr.com', 'title': 'openPR.com'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=altcoins","Bitcoin Strengthens Market Dominance Near $71K as Altcoins Lag Behind","https://www.ad-hoc-news.de/boerse/news/ueberblick/bitcoin-strengthens-market-dominance-near-71k-as-altcoins-lag-behind/68676268","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:50:47 GMT"," On March 14, 2026, Bitcoin reinforces its role as the crypto market benchmark, trading above $71,000 amid uneven recovery and heightened institutional focus. Bitcoin has solidified its market dominance on March 14, 2026, emerging as the primary destination for returning capital following February's sell-off. Trading above the $71,000 USDT level, BTC signals a shift toward liquidity and stability in a selective market environment. As of: March 14, 2026 Dr. Elena Voss, Senior Crypto Market Analyst. Bitcoin's dominance underscores maturing investor discipline amid global macro pressures. Bitcoin crossed the 71,000 USDT mark early on March 14, 2026, at 71,006 USDT with a minimal 0.23% 24-hour decline, according to Binance data. This stability near $71,500 reflects recovery from recent corrections, with traders eyeing $75,000 as the pivotal resistance. Net exchange outflows indicate long-term accumulation, stabilizing derivatives open interest at $47 billion post-liquidations. Market dominance strengthening positions Bitcoin as the foundational asset, drawing institutional and large private capital first before altcoin distribution. This dynamic elevates BTC's psychological benchmark role, prioritizing liquidity over speculative plays. The transition from speculative frenzy to selective investment favors Bitcoin's transparency and institutional appeal. Capital flows into BTC first signal reduced risk appetite for altcoins, making Bitcoin dominance a key metric over individual token performance. This phase highlights liquidity's primacy, benefiting BTC amid uneven recovery. For traders, $75,000 represents a decision point: a breakout could target $85,000, while failure risks $70,000 support and lower. Ichimoku cloud resistance at $71,500-$75,000 underscores fragility, yet accumulation supports upside potential. English-speaking investors in Europe, particularly DACH regions, view Bitcoin's dominance through BaFin and ECB lenses. Germany's regulated frameworks emphasize compliant assets like spot Bitcoin ETFs, aligning with BTC's liquidity premium. Amid ECB rate trajectory scrutiny, Bitcoin serves as a hedge against fiat debasement, appealing to conservative portfolios. DACH institutions prioritize BTC for its maturity, avoiding altcoin volatility. Current price stability near $71K offers entry points before potential rallies, especially with EU MiCA regulations favoring established assets. Local sentiment favors Bitcoin as a portfolio diversifier amid commodity volatility. Cryptocurrencies track global risk assets, tied to inflation, rates, and liquidity expectations. Bitcoin's resilience amid these factors positions it ahead of altcoins, yet vulnerability persists if central banks tighten. Geopolitical risks amplify BTC's safe-haven narrative within crypto. Downside threats include breaks below $70,000 toward $65,000-$60,000. Upside catalysts hinge on $75K clearance, driven by institutional inflows. Related reading Key resistances cluster at $72,000-$75,000, with $75,693 as Fibonacci-aligned breakout level. Supports at $70,000, then $67,000-$65,000, and structural $60,000. Price compression signals volatility ahead, with exchange outflows reinforcing holder conviction. Bitcoin news today centers on this $75K test as the rally's gatekeeper, amid stabilized open interest. Ethereum lags in momentum despite DeFi infrastructure role, while stablecoins gain as payment bridges. Altcoins face selectivity, favoring high-liquidity projects tied to BTC ecosystems. This redistribution map guides BTC news today, prioritizing quality over hype. For weekend positioning, focus on BTC's lead, with dominance tracking capital flows. Sentiment turns constructive yet cautious, with Bitcoin price eyeing macro alignment. Catalysts include institutional re-entry and rate cut hopes; risks encompass regulatory shifts and equity sell-offs. European investors monitor ECB signals for BTC allocation boosts. Long-term, BTC's benchmark status endures, but near-term hinges on $75K dynamics. Disclaimer: Not investment advice. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are volatile financial instruments. Seit 2005 liefert der Börsenbrief trading-notes verlässliche Anlage-Empfehlungen – dreimal pro Woche, direkt ins Postfach. 100% kostenlos. 100% Expertenwissen. Trage einfach deine E-Mail Adresse ein und verpasse ab heute keine Top-Chance mehr. Jetzt anmelden.Für. Immer. Kostenlos ","{'href': 'https://www.ad-hoc-news.de', 'title': 'AD HOC NEWS'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=blockchain","Promising Blockchain Stocks To Follow Now","https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/promising-blockchain-stocks-to-follow-now-march-14th-2026-03-14/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:16:52 GMT"," Core Scientific, Figure Technology Solutions, Globant, Bitdeer Technologies Group, and Digi Power X are the five Blockchain stocks to watch today, according to MarketBeat's stock screener tool. ""Blockchain stocks"" is an informal term for shares of publicly traded companies that derive a significant portion of their revenue, assets, or strategic focus from blockchain technology or cryptocurrencies—this includes blockchain platform developers, miners, exchanges, wallet and custody providers, and related hardware/software vendors. For investors, these stocks provide an equity way to gain exposure to blockchain adoption and crypto markets, but their returns depend on both company fundamentals and the often volatile, regulation-sensitive crypto ecosystem. These companies had the highest dollar trading volume of any Blockchain stocks within the last several days. Get Core Scientific alerts:Sign UpCore Scientific (CORZ)Core Scientific, Inc. provides digital asset mining services in North America. It operates through two segments, Mining and Hosting. The company offers blockchain infrastructure, software solutions, and services; and operates data center mining facilities. It also mines digital assets for its own account; and provides hosting services for other large bitcoin miners, which include deployment, monitoring, trouble shooting, optimization, and maintenance of its customers' digital asset mining equipment.The Great Pivot: Bitcoin Miners Are Becoming AI's LandlordsRead Our Latest Research Report on CORZFigure Technology Solutions (FIGR)Figure is building the future of capital markets using blockchain-based technology. Figure's proprietary technology powers next-generation lending, trading and investing activities in areas such as consumer credit and digital assets. Our application of the blockchain ledger allows us to better serve our end-customers, improve speed and efficiency, and enhance standardization and liquidity.The 5 Best GPU-as-a-Service Providers for 2026—And 1 Clear WinnerRead Our Latest Research Report on FIGRGlobant (GLOB)Globant S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides technology services worldwide. It provides digital solutions comprising blockchain, cloud technologies, cybersecurity, data and artificial intelligence, digital experience and performance, code, Internet of Things, metaverse, and engineering and testing; and enterprise technology solutions and services, such as Agile organization, Cultural Hacking, process optimization services, as well as AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Oracle, SalesForce, SAP, and ServiceNow technology solutions.Read Our Latest Research Report on GLOBBitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR)Bitdeer Technologies Group operates as a technology company for blockchain and computing. It offers hash rate sharing solutions, including Cloud hash rate and Hash rate marketplace; and a one-stop mining machine hosting solutions encompassing deployment, maintenance, and management services for efficient cryptocurrency mining; as well as mines cryptocurrencies for its own account.Read Our Latest Research Report on BTDRDigi Power X (DGXX)Digihost Technology Inc. operates as a blockchain technology company that focuses on digital currency mining in the United States. It mines for cryptocurrency. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.Read Our Latest Research Report on DGXXFurther ReadingMarketBeat's Top Five Stocks to Own in March 2026DICK'S Sporting Goods Could Be Ready for Another BreakoutHome Depot Stock Keeps Falling—Analysts Say the Upside Is Still ThereAvoid the Top-Heavy S&P 500 With Equal-Weight ETFsWhy Mastercard and Visa Are the Definition of Forever StocksAmazon Is Rising While the Market Falls—Here's WhyThis instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.Should You Invest $1,000 in Core Scientific Right Now?Before you consider Core Scientific, you'll want to hear this.MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Core Scientific wasn't on the list.While Core Scientific currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.View The Five Stocks Here 10 Best Stocks to Own in 2026Click the link to see MarketBeat's list of ten stocks that are set to soar in 2026, despite the threat of tariffs and other economic uncertainty. These ten stocks are incredibly resilient and are likely to thrive in any economic environment.Get This Free Report Core Scientific, Inc. provides digital asset mining services in North America. It operates through two segments, Mining and Hosting. The company offers blockchain infrastructure, software solutions, and services; and operates data center mining facilities. It also mines digital assets for its own account; and provides hosting services for other large bitcoin miners, which include deployment, monitoring, trouble shooting, optimization, and maintenance of its customers' digital asset mining equipment. Read Our Latest Research Report on CORZFigure Technology Solutions (FIGR)Figure is building the future of capital markets using blockchain-based technology. Figure's proprietary technology powers next-generation lending, trading and investing activities in areas such as consumer credit and digital assets. Our application of the blockchain ledger allows us to better serve our end-customers, improve speed and efficiency, and enhance standardization and liquidity.The 5 Best GPU-as-a-Service Providers for 2026—And 1 Clear WinnerRead Our Latest Research Report on FIGRGlobant (GLOB)Globant S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides technology services worldwide. It provides digital solutions comprising blockchain, cloud technologies, cybersecurity, data and artificial intelligence, digital experience and performance, code, Internet of Things, metaverse, and engineering and testing; and enterprise technology solutions and services, such as Agile organization, Cultural Hacking, process optimization services, as well as AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Oracle, SalesForce, SAP, and ServiceNow technology solutions.Read Our Latest Research Report on GLOBBitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR)Bitdeer Technologies Group operates as a technology company for blockchain and computing. It offers hash rate sharing solutions, including Cloud hash rate and Hash rate marketplace; and a one-stop mining machine hosting solutions encompassing deployment, maintenance, and management services for efficient cryptocurrency mining; as well as mines cryptocurrencies for its own account.Read Our Latest Research Report on BTDRDigi Power X (DGXX)Digihost Technology Inc. operates as a blockchain technology company that focuses on digital currency mining in the United States. It mines for cryptocurrency. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.Read Our Latest Research Report on DGXXFurther ReadingMarketBeat's Top Five Stocks to Own in March 2026DICK'S Sporting Goods Could Be Ready for Another BreakoutHome Depot Stock Keeps Falling—Analysts Say the Upside Is Still ThereAvoid the Top-Heavy S&P 500 With Equal-Weight ETFsWhy Mastercard and Visa Are the Definition of Forever StocksAmazon Is Rising While the Market Falls—Here's WhyThis instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.Should You Invest $1,000 in Core Scientific Right Now?Before you consider Core Scientific, you'll want to hear this.MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Core Scientific wasn't on the list.While Core Scientific currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.View The Five Stocks Here 10 Best Stocks to Own in 2026Click the link to see MarketBeat's list of ten stocks that are set to soar in 2026, despite the threat of tariffs and other economic uncertainty. These ten stocks are incredibly resilient and are likely to thrive in any economic environment.Get This Free Report Figure is building the future of capital markets using blockchain-based technology. Figure's proprietary technology powers next-generation lending, trading and investing activities in areas such as consumer credit and digital assets. Our application of the blockchain ledger allows us to better serve our end-customers, improve speed and efficiency, and enhance standardization and liquidity. Read Our Latest Research Report on FIGRGlobant (GLOB)Globant S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides technology services worldwide. It provides digital solutions comprising blockchain, cloud technologies, cybersecurity, data and artificial intelligence, digital experience and performance, code, Internet of Things, metaverse, and engineering and testing; and enterprise technology solutions and services, such as Agile organization, Cultural Hacking, process optimization services, as well as AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Oracle, SalesForce, SAP, and ServiceNow technology solutions.Read Our Latest Research Report on GLOBBitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR)Bitdeer Technologies Group operates as a technology company for blockchain and computing. It offers hash rate sharing solutions, including Cloud hash rate and Hash rate marketplace; and a one-stop mining machine hosting solutions encompassing deployment, maintenance, and management services for efficient cryptocurrency mining; as well as mines cryptocurrencies for its own account.Read Our Latest Research Report on BTDRDigi Power X (DGXX)Digihost Technology Inc. operates as a blockchain technology company that focuses on digital currency mining in the United States. It mines for cryptocurrency. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.Read Our Latest Research Report on DGXXFurther ReadingMarketBeat's Top Five Stocks to Own in March 2026DICK'S Sporting Goods Could Be Ready for Another BreakoutHome Depot Stock Keeps Falling—Analysts Say the Upside Is Still ThereAvoid the Top-Heavy S&P 500 With Equal-Weight ETFsWhy Mastercard and Visa Are the Definition of Forever StocksAmazon Is Rising While the Market Falls—Here's WhyThis instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.Should You Invest $1,000 in Core Scientific Right Now?Before you consider Core Scientific, you'll want to hear this.MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Core Scientific wasn't on the list.While Core Scientific currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.View The Five Stocks Here 10 Best Stocks to Own in 2026Click the link to see MarketBeat's list of ten stocks that are set to soar in 2026, despite the threat of tariffs and other economic uncertainty. These ten stocks are incredibly resilient and are likely to thrive in any economic environment.Get This Free Report Globant S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides technology services worldwide. It provides digital solutions comprising blockchain, cloud technologies, cybersecurity, data and artificial intelligence, digital experience and performance, code, Internet of Things, metaverse, and engineering and testing; and enterprise technology solutions and services, such as Agile organization, Cultural Hacking, process optimization services, as well as AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Oracle, SalesForce, SAP, and ServiceNow technology solutions. Read Our Latest Research Report on GLOBBitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR)Bitdeer Technologies Group operates as a technology company for blockchain and computing. It offers hash rate sharing solutions, including Cloud hash rate and Hash rate marketplace; and a one-stop mining machine hosting solutions encompassing deployment, maintenance, and management services for efficient cryptocurrency mining; as well as mines cryptocurrencies for its own account.Read Our Latest Research Report on BTDRDigi Power X (DGXX)Digihost Technology Inc. operates as a blockchain technology company that focuses on digital currency mining in the United States. It mines for cryptocurrency. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.Read Our Latest Research Report on DGXXFurther ReadingMarketBeat's Top Five Stocks to Own in March 2026DICK'S Sporting Goods Could Be Ready for Another BreakoutHome Depot Stock Keeps Falling—Analysts Say the Upside Is Still ThereAvoid the Top-Heavy S&P 500 With Equal-Weight ETFsWhy Mastercard and Visa Are the Definition of Forever StocksAmazon Is Rising While the Market Falls—Here's WhyThis instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.Should You Invest $1,000 in Core Scientific Right Now?Before you consider Core Scientific, you'll want to hear this.MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Core Scientific wasn't on the list.While Core Scientific currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.View The Five Stocks Here 10 Best Stocks to Own in 2026Click the link to see MarketBeat's list of ten stocks that are set to soar in 2026, despite the threat of tariffs and other economic uncertainty. These ten stocks are incredibly resilient and are likely to thrive in any economic environment.Get This Free Report Bitdeer Technologies Group operates as a technology company for blockchain and computing. It offers hash rate sharing solutions, including Cloud hash rate and Hash rate marketplace; and a one-stop mining machine hosting solutions encompassing deployment, maintenance, and management services for efficient cryptocurrency mining; as well as mines cryptocurrencies for its own account. Read Our Latest Research Report on BTDRDigi Power X (DGXX)Digihost Technology Inc. operates as a blockchain technology company that focuses on digital currency mining in the United States. It mines for cryptocurrency. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.Read Our Latest Research Report on DGXXFurther ReadingMarketBeat's Top Five Stocks to Own in March 2026DICK'S Sporting Goods Could Be Ready for Another BreakoutHome Depot Stock Keeps Falling—Analysts Say the Upside Is Still ThereAvoid the Top-Heavy S&P 500 With Equal-Weight ETFsWhy Mastercard and Visa Are the Definition of Forever StocksAmazon Is Rising While the Market Falls—Here's WhyThis instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.Should You Invest $1,000 in Core Scientific Right Now?Before you consider Core Scientific, you'll want to hear this.MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Core Scientific wasn't on the list.While Core Scientific currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.View The Five Stocks Here 10 Best Stocks to Own in 2026Click the link to see MarketBeat's list of ten stocks that are set to soar in 2026, despite the threat of tariffs and other economic uncertainty. These ten stocks are incredibly resilient and are likely to thrive in any economic environment.Get This Free Report Digihost Technology Inc. operates as a blockchain technology company that focuses on digital currency mining in the United States. It mines for cryptocurrency. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read Our Latest Research Report on DGXXFurther ReadingMarketBeat's Top Five Stocks to Own in March 2026DICK'S Sporting Goods Could Be Ready for Another BreakoutHome Depot Stock Keeps Falling—Analysts Say the Upside Is Still ThereAvoid the Top-Heavy S&P 500 With Equal-Weight ETFsWhy Mastercard and Visa Are the Definition of Forever StocksAmazon Is Rising While the Market Falls—Here's WhyThis instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.Should You Invest $1,000 in Core Scientific Right Now?Before you consider Core Scientific, you'll want to hear this.MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Core Scientific wasn't on the list.While Core Scientific currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.View The Five Stocks Here 10 Best Stocks to Own in 2026Click the link to see MarketBeat's list of ten stocks that are set to soar in 2026, despite the threat of tariffs and other economic uncertainty. These ten stocks are incredibly resilient and are likely to thrive in any economic environment.Get This Free Report This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com. Before you consider Core Scientific, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Core Scientific wasn't on the list. While Core Scientific currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here Click the link to see MarketBeat's list of ten stocks that are set to soar in 2026, despite the threat of tariffs and other economic uncertainty. These ten stocks are incredibly resilient and are likely to thrive in any economic environment. Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. Featured By 345 N Reid Place, Suite 620, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 contact@marketbeat.com (844) 978-6257 © MarketBeat Media, LLC 2010-2026. All rights reserved. © 2026 Fair market value prices are updated every minute and are provided by Massive. Other market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see Barchart's disclaimer. My Account - ","{'href': 'https://www.marketbeat.com', 'title': 'MarketBeat'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=blockchain","Opera launches new blockchain browser for Android","https://www.leaprate.com/news/opera-launches-new-blockchain-browser-for-android/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:57:19 GMT"," The web browser Opera has just announced the launch of the first Web 3-ready browser. The Android browser includes a built-in crypto wallet and Web 3 support. It can be used with the latest Opera version. We are empowering Android smartphone users with an innovative browser that gives them the opportunity to experience Web 3 in a seamless … The web browser Opera has just announced the launch of the first Web 3-ready browser. The Android browser includes a built-in crypto wallet and Web 3 support. It can be used with the latest Opera version. We are empowering Android smartphone users with an innovative browser that gives them the opportunity to experience Web 3 in a seamless way”, said Krystian Kolondra, EVP Browsers at Opera. “I would like to invite all tech enthusiast who may have heard of blockchain but haven't yet experienced it to simply give our new browser and Web 3 a try. We have made it extremely easy. Our hope is that this step will accelerate the transition of cryptocurrencies from speculation and investment to being used for actual payments and transactions in our users' daily lives. Until now using cryptocurrencies online and accessing Web 3 required special apps or extensions, making it difficult for people to even try it out. Our new browser removes that friction”, commented Charles Hamel, Product Manager of Opera Crypto. Opera for Android now supports Ethereum, allowing people to make transactions and developers to create decentralized apps (Dapps). Users can now use Opera to access these emerging Dapps. We've decided to support Ethereum, as it has the largest community of developers building Dapps and has gathered a lot of momentum behind it. Opera with Crypto Wallet supports the Ethereum Web3 API, making interacting with these Dapps seamless to the user. We believe all browsers will eventually integrate some kind of wallet, which will enable new business models to emerge on the web”, added Hamel. Opera for Android will access the Ethereum blockchain through Infura, an infrastructure secure platform. It's a significant step for one of the world's leading browsers to add an ethereum-based crypto wallet and Dapp explorer, and speaks to Opera's innovative roots and commitment to embracing next generation technology. We see this as an important moment in improving dapp accessibility, opening Web3 to mainstream audiences, and encouraging developers to build on Ethereum”, explained Joseph Lubin, Ethereum co-founder and founder of ConsenSys, a venture studio that invests in projects building the Ethereum ecosystem, such as Infura. How to get started Opera plans its PC browser (Windows, Mac, Linux) Web 3 to be ready in 2019. The browser can already be tested in its developer version. Keep in touch with our news & offers Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment * Name * Email * Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Send Message LeapRate is a leading independent research and advisory firm covering the global Forex and financial trading industry. Trusted by hundreds of thousands of traders and investors worldwide. Explore our Broker Directory and stay connected via our Newsletter, Facebook, X and LinkedIn. *LeapRate does not provide investment advice. CFDs carry a high risk of losing money due to leverage; between 74% and 89% of retail investor accounts lose money. Consider whether you can afford the high risk of losing your money.","{'href': 'https://www.leaprate.com', 'title': 'LeapRate'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=blockchain","What is Midnight (Night)? The Privacy-First Blockchain Explained","https://nftplazas.com/what-is-midnight-night/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:42:04 GMT"," US CPI for February – What It Means for Crypto and NFT Markets Ripple Plans to Acquire BC Payments to Secure Australian Financial License Midnight (NIGHT) to Binance HODLer Airdrops Binance Lists Fabric Protocol (ROBO) for Spot Trading Magic Eden Shuts Down Bitcoin & EVM NFT Markets on March 9, What Every Holder Must Do Now Binance Will List Opinion (OPN) on Binance Launchpool Bitcoin Targets Bottom as Middle East War Propels Gold to ATH US Israel Attack Iran: Will Gold Prices Skyrocket? Bitcoin Reclaims $70K: Is Capital Rotating From Gold to Crypto? Binance Revives Tokenized U.S. Stocks Trading on Blockchain What is Midnight (Night)? The Privacy-First Blockchain Explained What Is Katana (KAT)? The DeFi L2 Built for Real Yield What Is Polkadot (DOT)? The Multi-Chain Blockchain Explained What Is a Private Key? How It Keeps Your Crypto Safe How to Buy Altcoins in 2026: Easy Beginner Guide What Is Fabric Protocol (ROBO)? The Decentralized Robot Economy Explained What Is A Crypto Node: A Beginner's Guide 2026 What Is DeFi? A Beginner's Guide to Decentralized Finance What Is Polymarket? A Beginner's Guide to Prediction Markets What Is Opinion (OPN)? Review of Opinion & OPN Utility Token Binance Review 2026: Features, Fees & Security Explained MEXC Exchange Review 2026: Fees, Security & Trading Features 20 Best Crypto Signals Telegram Channels for Trading in 2026 Bitget Review 2026: Is It a Safe and Legit Crypto Exchange? OKX Review 2026: Pros, Cons, Fees and Key Features Explained Crypto.com Review 2026: Security, Fees, Features, and Pros & Cons Gate.io Review 2026: Is it Safe and Legit for Crypto Trading? MEXC Referral Code March 2026: mexc-NFTP ($10000 USDT Bonus) Binance Referral Code 2026: “BINANCENFTP” (1000 USDT Bonus) OKX Referral Code March 2026: 98973395 – $10,000 Bonus BingX Referral Code 2026: “WYMSQVR5” (6,000+ USDT Welcome Bonus) Bitget Referral Code 2026: NFTPlazas1 ($6,200 USDT Sign-up Bonus) Bybit Referral Code & Link: NFTP | 30,050 USDT Bonus 2026 Crypto.com Referral Code 2026: “nftevening” (50$ Welcome Bonus) Coinbase Referral Code 2026: Steps to Earn $200 in BTC Welcome Bonus KuCoin Referral Code 2026: “NFTPLAZAS” (11,000 USDT Welcome Bonus) Gate.io Referral Code March 2026: “VLEWAV0NVQ” (10,000 USDT Sign Up Bonus) WEEX Referral Code 2026: “cglw” (30,000 USDT Sign Up Bonus) Blockdag Price Prediction 2026 to 2030: Will BDAG Go Up? Chainlink (LINK) Price Prediction 2026, 2027 to 2030 — LINK to USD ADA Price Prediction 2026, 2027 – 2030: Expert Analysis and Long-Term Forecast Dogecoin (DOGE) Price Prediction in 2025, 2026 – 2030 BNB Chain Gaming NFT Ecosystem: Activity & Top Projects in 2026 Ethereum (ETH) Price Prediction 2026 to 2030: Will ETH Soar? By Mabel Kenneth Key Takeaways Midnight uses zero-knowledge proofs and selective disclosure to protect sensitive information while enabling regulatory adherence. The network follows a dual-token approach, with NIGHT powering governance and staking, while DUST handles transaction fees, optimizing network economics and usability. The network leverages Cardano's security and plans to support multi-chain assets, opening opportunities for developers to build privacy-first apps. From healthcare to digital identity, asset tokenization, and governance, Midnight enables private smart contracts and programmable privacy in practical use cases. The Midnight network is making waves in the crypto industry due to its approach to balancing privacy, utility, and security. Midnight (NIGHT) is a privacy-first blockchain designed to give users control over sensitive data while supporting private transactions, digital identity, and compliant smart contract interactions. This article goes beyond the hype to explain what the Midnight network is, how it works, and the problems it solves, helping you determine whether investing in the NIGHT token is a good idea. Midnight is a privacy-focused blockchain designed to solve one of the biggest limitations of traditional public blockchains: they expose too much information. On networks like Bitcoin or Ethereum, almost every transaction, wallet balance, and smart contract interaction is visible on the public ledger. That level of transparency is useful for auditability, but it also makes it difficult to handle sensitive data, business logic, or confidential user information. The Midnight addresses this problem by introducing programmable privacy, a model where data can remain private while still being verifiable on-chain. Instead of exposing everything, applications can selectively reveal only the information that needs to be public. Midnight's native NIGHT token serves as the governance token, securing the chain and enabling participation in network decisions. Midnight's token design is a little different from what most traders are used to. Instead of a single token covering every transaction fee, Midnight uses a dual-token model, which we will discuss in more detail later in this article. Main reasons Midnight (NIGHT) is trending right now: Most public blockchains expose every piece of data involved in a transaction. Midnight attempts to balance by separating the consensus layer (public layer for immutability and staking) from the private computation layer (encrypted state stored locally on users' devices). The public side maintains the chain's security, settlement, and verification. The private side protects sensitive information, allowing users to interact with applications without broadcasting every detail to the entire network. Zero-knowledge proofs are the core technology that enables developers building on Midnight to define which information appears on the public ledger and which parts remain encrypted. ZKPs allow a system to verify that a statement is true without revealing the underlying data. This means a user can prove something like “I have sufficient balance” or “I meet a certain requirement” without exposing wallet balances, personal details, or other sensitive information. Midnight relies on zero-knowledge proofs via zk-SNARKs, implemented via its Kachina protocol. The goal is to allow developers to build applications that can handle large volumes of smart contract activity while maintaining strong security and confidentiality. Many industries that handle sensitive information, including finance, healthcare, and identity systems, must comply with strict data protection and confidentiality requirements. In those cases, the ability to prove facts without revealing everything is critical. Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) let users prove facts, such as age or account balance, without revealing sensitive underlying data. ZKPs enhance privacy, support regulatory compliance, reduce the risk of data leaks, and improve blockchain scalability through zk-Rollups. Most blockchains rely on a single asset to do everything: governance, staking, and paying the network's gas fees, but as discussed earlier, Midnight runs a dual-token system. Midnight splits those roles into two separate components. Holding night automatically generates DUST, which acts as a renewable resource to pay for transactions and smart contract operations. DUST cannot be traded or transferred; it functions like a rechargeable battery for running applications. NIGHT has a fixed supply of 24 billion, with a circulating supply of around 16.6 billion. Designed for governance, staking, and generating DUST for transaction fees, the token plays a central role in the Midnight ecosystem. Supply and Allocation NIGHT enables staking for consensus security, governance voting, and treasury decisions, with stakers earning rewards and renewable DUST capacity. To learn more about NIGHT token allocation and distribution strategies, see the Midnight tokenomics and incentives whitepaper. Looking ahead, Midnight aims to become a foundational privacy layer for Web3. The network's roadmap includes a federated mainnet launch, expected in late March 2026, which will transition the project from test environments to a production chain where early private smart contracts and dApps can go live. Beyond that, Midnight plans to expand decentralization through validator participation, notably attracting Cardano stake pool operators. The network is also pushing toward full cross‑chain interoperability by late 2026. If successful, this would allow hybrid applications to operate across ecosystems like Ethereum and Solana while preserving privacy features. From a market perspective, some experts see Midnight (NIGHT) appreciating as the mainnet proves its utility. However, risks remain, including market volatility, large supply unlocks over time, and the network's ability to attract developers and real‑world use cases at scale. Deciding whether to buy NIGHT ultimately comes down to your view on privacy as a foundational layer in blockchain. Midnight tackles real limitations of public blockchains (exposed sensitive data, regulatory friction, and unsuitable privacy models). The network's focus on private smart contracts, digital identity, and compliant use cases could attract developers and enterprise users. However, as with any crypto token, investing in NIGHT carries risks. Market volatility in crypto is extreme, supply unlocks, and vesting schedules can weigh on price, and the network still needs to prove product‑market fit. If you decide to invest in NIGHT, make sure it fits your risk tolerance and broader investment strategy, and don't invest more than you're prepared to lose. Whether NIGHT is a good investment depends on your risk tolerance and belief in privacy as a foundational layer for blockchain. Currently, there is speculative upside tied to the March 2026 mainnet launch, but it's risky due to volatility, token unlocks, and competition from established ZK chains. The token's current bearish sentiment suggests investors should wait for post-launch stability rather than chase it now. Predictions for NIGHT in 2026 are largely optimistic. Realistically, bearish models predict drops to $0.04-$0.05, while optimistic models see the token trading at $0.13-$0.35 by year-end if mainnet delivers. Averages hover around $0.05-$0.07 amid unlocks, with highs requiring strong utility growth. Monero and Zcash are classic privacy coins that obscure nearly all transaction details by default. Midnight takes a selective disclosure approach. Using zero-knowledge proofs, Midnight lets applications hide sensitive data while still allowing certain information to be revealed for regulatory compliance, auditing, or business logic. You can buy NIGHT tokens on major centralized exchanges (CEXs) such as OKX, Bybit, KuCoin, Gate, and Binance. You can also buy NIGHT on some plus some decentralized exchanges (DEXs) via Cardano bridges. Mabel Kenneth Mabel Kenneth is a content writer and strategist for crypto and Web3 brands. She covers trends in blockchain, NFTs, crypto, and the broader decentralized economy, simplifying complex topics into clear, engaging stories that resonate with both beginners and experienced Web3 users. Her work supports brands that want to educate their audiences, establish authority, and enhance their visibility. Disclaimer NFTPlazas provides trusted news and insights on Web3. The views expressed on this site do not constitute investment advice. Before making any high-risk investments in cryptocurrency or digital assets, please conduct your own thorough research. All transfers and transactions are carried out at your own risk, and any resulting losses are solely your responsibility. NFTPlazas does not endorse the buying or selling of cryptocurrencies or digital assets and is not a licensed investment advisor. Please also note that NFTPlazas may participate in affiliate marketing programs. Analysis Analysis Learn Analysis Learn Exchange Learn Exchange Referral Code Exchange","{'href': 'https://nftplazas.com', 'title': 'NFTPlazas.com'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=nft","Treasure NFT//Nova NFT//Big SCAM//Big Youtubers ने भी छोड़ दिया//यूट्यूब ने कहा.. [c600b3]","https://fathomjournal.org/1c70407esmm/67d69fd1-745Zs1qru-U.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:04:16 GMT"," Join over 9000 global opinion formers by subscribing to Fathom's influential Weekly Newsletter Post Time: 2026-03-15Country: United States, Australia, United Kingdom. City: Berkeley, Knoxville, Lowell, Raleigh, TulsaTreasure NFT//Nova NFT//Big SCAM//Big Youtubers ने भी छोड़ दिया//यूट्यूब ने कहा.. join link Ling join MST join link Your Query 👇 Nova NFT New Update Today Nova NFT update Nova NFT New Update Nova NFT Latest News treasure fun treasure fun new update treasure dao Treasure nft app store update NFT role in crypto Top Expensive NFT Top 10 expensive nft Treasure NFT calculation Treasure NFT live zoom session Treasure NFT zoom session Treasure NFT qna session on zoom Treasure NFT Plan real click the following webpage or fake Treasure NFT full plan review Treasure NFT Think Big Start Small Treasure NFT important guidelines Treasure NFT how to withdrawal Treasure NFT Google authentication Treasure NFT new plan launch New mlm plan launch How to verify licence in Treasure NFT Treasure nft documents TRESURE NfT daily updates Treasure NFT New updates Treasure NFT withdrawal Treasure NFT risk and profit Treasure NFT Vision Treasure NFT to INR Withdrawal Usdt to INR Withdrawal Treasure NFT to secret info bank transfer Treasure NFT simply click the following web site withdrawal process Treasure NFT live withdrawal Treasure NFT principal withdrawal How to withdrawal principal amount in treasure Nft Treasure NFT deposit Treasure NFT registration How to start treasure NFT How to join in treasure NFT Treasure NFT daily 1% to 6% Treasure NFT non working plan Non working plan How to start treasure NFT Plan How to activate in treasure NFT Treasure NFT full Live process of startup treasure nft real or fake in india treasure nft recharge Treasure NFT Plan Explained Treasure NFT Plan Explained on Board Treasure NFT Working plan Treasure NFT Working plan explained on board Treasure NFT direct income Treasure NFT risk and profit Treasure nft plan on board treasure nft real or fake hindi treasure nft withdrawal process in india #tresurenft #treasurenftplan #tresurenftreview #treasure #tresurenftworking #nonworkingplan #mlm #mlmbusiness #mlmplan #nonworkingincome #roiplan #roi #earning #earn #earnmoney #earnmoneyonline #cryptoplan #treasurenftupdates #treasurenftwithdrawal 🛑 IMPORTANT WARNING: Viewer feedback is critical. Many users are now reporting their deposited funds are getting *locked* and the withdrawal is still failing. We investigate these serious claims and look at why so many are calling Nova NFT Treasure NFT//Nova NFT//Big SCAM//Big Youtubers ने भी छोड़ दिया//यूट्यूब ने कहा.. [c600b3] Post Time: 2026-03-15 Country: United States, Australia, United Kingdom. City: Berkeley, Knoxville, Lowell, Raleigh, TulsaTreasure NFT//Nova NFT//Big SCAM//Big Youtubers ने भी छोड़ दिया//यूट्यूब ने कहा.. join link Ling join MST join link Your Query 👇 Nova NFT New Update Today Nova NFT update Nova NFT New Update Nova NFT Latest News treasure fun treasure fun new update treasure dao Treasure nft app store update NFT role in crypto Top Expensive NFT Top 10 expensive nft Treasure NFT calculation Treasure NFT live zoom session Treasure NFT zoom session Treasure NFT qna session on zoom Treasure NFT Plan real click the following webpage or fake Treasure NFT full plan review Treasure NFT Think Big Start Small Treasure NFT important guidelines Treasure NFT how to withdrawal Treasure NFT Google authentication Treasure NFT new plan launch New mlm plan launch How to verify licence in Treasure NFT Treasure nft documents TRESURE NfT daily updates Treasure NFT New updates Treasure NFT withdrawal Treasure NFT risk and profit Treasure NFT Vision Treasure NFT to INR Withdrawal Usdt to INR Withdrawal Treasure NFT to secret info bank transfer Treasure NFT simply click the following web site withdrawal process Treasure NFT live withdrawal Treasure NFT principal withdrawal How to withdrawal principal amount in treasure Nft Treasure NFT deposit Treasure NFT registration How to start treasure NFT How to join in treasure NFT Treasure NFT daily 1% to 6% Treasure NFT non working plan Non working plan How to start treasure NFT Plan How to activate in treasure NFT Treasure NFT full Live process of startup treasure nft real or fake in india treasure nft recharge Treasure NFT Plan Explained Treasure NFT Plan Explained on Board Treasure NFT Working plan Treasure NFT Working plan explained on board Treasure NFT direct income Treasure NFT risk and profit Treasure nft plan on board treasure nft real or fake hindi treasure nft withdrawal process in india #tresurenft #treasurenftplan #tresurenftreview #treasure #tresurenftworking #nonworkingplan #mlm #mlmbusiness #mlmplan #nonworkingincome #roiplan #roi #earning #earn #earnmoney #earnmoneyonline #cryptoplan #treasurenftupdates #treasurenftwithdrawal 🛑 IMPORTANT WARNING: Viewer feedback is critical. Many users are now reporting their deposited funds are getting *locked* and the withdrawal is still failing. We investigate these serious claims and look at why so many are calling Nova NFT Treasure NFT//Nova NFT//Big SCAM//Big Youtubers ने भी छोड़ दिया//यूट्यूब ने कहा.. [c600b3] Our Voice of the Fortnight is the Decision Points podcast with David Makovsky - Hezbollah Decapitated? The War with Israel and Lebanon's Future ","{'href': 'https://fathomjournal.org', 'title': 'fathomjournal.org'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=nft","What is Midnight (Night)? The Privacy-First Blockchain Explained","https://nftplazas.com/what-is-midnight-night/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:42:04 GMT"," US CPI for February – What It Means for Crypto and NFT Markets Ripple Plans to Acquire BC Payments to Secure Australian Financial License Midnight (NIGHT) to Binance HODLer Airdrops Binance Lists Fabric Protocol (ROBO) for Spot Trading Magic Eden Shuts Down Bitcoin & EVM NFT Markets on March 9, What Every Holder Must Do Now Binance Will List Opinion (OPN) on Binance Launchpool Bitcoin Targets Bottom as Middle East War Propels Gold to ATH US Israel Attack Iran: Will Gold Prices Skyrocket? Bitcoin Reclaims $70K: Is Capital Rotating From Gold to Crypto? Binance Revives Tokenized U.S. Stocks Trading on Blockchain What is Midnight (Night)? The Privacy-First Blockchain Explained What Is Katana (KAT)? The DeFi L2 Built for Real Yield What Is Polkadot (DOT)? The Multi-Chain Blockchain Explained What Is a Private Key? How It Keeps Your Crypto Safe How to Buy Altcoins in 2026: Easy Beginner Guide What Is Fabric Protocol (ROBO)? The Decentralized Robot Economy Explained What Is A Crypto Node: A Beginner's Guide 2026 What Is DeFi? A Beginner's Guide to Decentralized Finance What Is Polymarket? A Beginner's Guide to Prediction Markets What Is Opinion (OPN)? Review of Opinion & OPN Utility Token Binance Review 2026: Features, Fees & Security Explained MEXC Exchange Review 2026: Fees, Security & Trading Features 20 Best Crypto Signals Telegram Channels for Trading in 2026 Bitget Review 2026: Is It a Safe and Legit Crypto Exchange? OKX Review 2026: Pros, Cons, Fees and Key Features Explained Crypto.com Review 2026: Security, Fees, Features, and Pros & Cons Gate.io Review 2026: Is it Safe and Legit for Crypto Trading? MEXC Referral Code March 2026: mexc-NFTP ($10000 USDT Bonus) Binance Referral Code 2026: “BINANCENFTP” (1000 USDT Bonus) OKX Referral Code March 2026: 98973395 – $10,000 Bonus BingX Referral Code 2026: “WYMSQVR5” (6,000+ USDT Welcome Bonus) Bitget Referral Code 2026: NFTPlazas1 ($6,200 USDT Sign-up Bonus) Bybit Referral Code & Link: NFTP | 30,050 USDT Bonus 2026 Crypto.com Referral Code 2026: “nftevening” (50$ Welcome Bonus) Coinbase Referral Code 2026: Steps to Earn $200 in BTC Welcome Bonus KuCoin Referral Code 2026: “NFTPLAZAS” (11,000 USDT Welcome Bonus) Gate.io Referral Code March 2026: “VLEWAV0NVQ” (10,000 USDT Sign Up Bonus) WEEX Referral Code 2026: “cglw” (30,000 USDT Sign Up Bonus) Blockdag Price Prediction 2026 to 2030: Will BDAG Go Up? Chainlink (LINK) Price Prediction 2026, 2027 to 2030 — LINK to USD ADA Price Prediction 2026, 2027 – 2030: Expert Analysis and Long-Term Forecast Dogecoin (DOGE) Price Prediction in 2025, 2026 – 2030 BNB Chain Gaming NFT Ecosystem: Activity & Top Projects in 2026 Ethereum (ETH) Price Prediction 2026 to 2030: Will ETH Soar? By Mabel Kenneth Key Takeaways Midnight uses zero-knowledge proofs and selective disclosure to protect sensitive information while enabling regulatory adherence. The network follows a dual-token approach, with NIGHT powering governance and staking, while DUST handles transaction fees, optimizing network economics and usability. The network leverages Cardano's security and plans to support multi-chain assets, opening opportunities for developers to build privacy-first apps. From healthcare to digital identity, asset tokenization, and governance, Midnight enables private smart contracts and programmable privacy in practical use cases. The Midnight network is making waves in the crypto industry due to its approach to balancing privacy, utility, and security. Midnight (NIGHT) is a privacy-first blockchain designed to give users control over sensitive data while supporting private transactions, digital identity, and compliant smart contract interactions. This article goes beyond the hype to explain what the Midnight network is, how it works, and the problems it solves, helping you determine whether investing in the NIGHT token is a good idea. Midnight is a privacy-focused blockchain designed to solve one of the biggest limitations of traditional public blockchains: they expose too much information. On networks like Bitcoin or Ethereum, almost every transaction, wallet balance, and smart contract interaction is visible on the public ledger. That level of transparency is useful for auditability, but it also makes it difficult to handle sensitive data, business logic, or confidential user information. The Midnight addresses this problem by introducing programmable privacy, a model where data can remain private while still being verifiable on-chain. Instead of exposing everything, applications can selectively reveal only the information that needs to be public. Midnight's native NIGHT token serves as the governance token, securing the chain and enabling participation in network decisions. Midnight's token design is a little different from what most traders are used to. Instead of a single token covering every transaction fee, Midnight uses a dual-token model, which we will discuss in more detail later in this article. Main reasons Midnight (NIGHT) is trending right now: Most public blockchains expose every piece of data involved in a transaction. Midnight attempts to balance by separating the consensus layer (public layer for immutability and staking) from the private computation layer (encrypted state stored locally on users' devices). The public side maintains the chain's security, settlement, and verification. The private side protects sensitive information, allowing users to interact with applications without broadcasting every detail to the entire network. Zero-knowledge proofs are the core technology that enables developers building on Midnight to define which information appears on the public ledger and which parts remain encrypted. ZKPs allow a system to verify that a statement is true without revealing the underlying data. This means a user can prove something like “I have sufficient balance” or “I meet a certain requirement” without exposing wallet balances, personal details, or other sensitive information. Midnight relies on zero-knowledge proofs via zk-SNARKs, implemented via its Kachina protocol. The goal is to allow developers to build applications that can handle large volumes of smart contract activity while maintaining strong security and confidentiality. Many industries that handle sensitive information, including finance, healthcare, and identity systems, must comply with strict data protection and confidentiality requirements. In those cases, the ability to prove facts without revealing everything is critical. Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) let users prove facts, such as age or account balance, without revealing sensitive underlying data. ZKPs enhance privacy, support regulatory compliance, reduce the risk of data leaks, and improve blockchain scalability through zk-Rollups. Most blockchains rely on a single asset to do everything: governance, staking, and paying the network's gas fees, but as discussed earlier, Midnight runs a dual-token system. Midnight splits those roles into two separate components. Holding night automatically generates DUST, which acts as a renewable resource to pay for transactions and smart contract operations. DUST cannot be traded or transferred; it functions like a rechargeable battery for running applications. NIGHT has a fixed supply of 24 billion, with a circulating supply of around 16.6 billion. Designed for governance, staking, and generating DUST for transaction fees, the token plays a central role in the Midnight ecosystem. Supply and Allocation NIGHT enables staking for consensus security, governance voting, and treasury decisions, with stakers earning rewards and renewable DUST capacity. To learn more about NIGHT token allocation and distribution strategies, see the Midnight tokenomics and incentives whitepaper. Looking ahead, Midnight aims to become a foundational privacy layer for Web3. The network's roadmap includes a federated mainnet launch, expected in late March 2026, which will transition the project from test environments to a production chain where early private smart contracts and dApps can go live. Beyond that, Midnight plans to expand decentralization through validator participation, notably attracting Cardano stake pool operators. The network is also pushing toward full cross‑chain interoperability by late 2026. If successful, this would allow hybrid applications to operate across ecosystems like Ethereum and Solana while preserving privacy features. From a market perspective, some experts see Midnight (NIGHT) appreciating as the mainnet proves its utility. However, risks remain, including market volatility, large supply unlocks over time, and the network's ability to attract developers and real‑world use cases at scale. Deciding whether to buy NIGHT ultimately comes down to your view on privacy as a foundational layer in blockchain. Midnight tackles real limitations of public blockchains (exposed sensitive data, regulatory friction, and unsuitable privacy models). The network's focus on private smart contracts, digital identity, and compliant use cases could attract developers and enterprise users. However, as with any crypto token, investing in NIGHT carries risks. Market volatility in crypto is extreme, supply unlocks, and vesting schedules can weigh on price, and the network still needs to prove product‑market fit. If you decide to invest in NIGHT, make sure it fits your risk tolerance and broader investment strategy, and don't invest more than you're prepared to lose. Whether NIGHT is a good investment depends on your risk tolerance and belief in privacy as a foundational layer for blockchain. Currently, there is speculative upside tied to the March 2026 mainnet launch, but it's risky due to volatility, token unlocks, and competition from established ZK chains. The token's current bearish sentiment suggests investors should wait for post-launch stability rather than chase it now. Predictions for NIGHT in 2026 are largely optimistic. Realistically, bearish models predict drops to $0.04-$0.05, while optimistic models see the token trading at $0.13-$0.35 by year-end if mainnet delivers. Averages hover around $0.05-$0.07 amid unlocks, with highs requiring strong utility growth. Monero and Zcash are classic privacy coins that obscure nearly all transaction details by default. Midnight takes a selective disclosure approach. Using zero-knowledge proofs, Midnight lets applications hide sensitive data while still allowing certain information to be revealed for regulatory compliance, auditing, or business logic. You can buy NIGHT tokens on major centralized exchanges (CEXs) such as OKX, Bybit, KuCoin, Gate, and Binance. You can also buy NIGHT on some plus some decentralized exchanges (DEXs) via Cardano bridges. Mabel Kenneth Mabel Kenneth is a content writer and strategist for crypto and Web3 brands. She covers trends in blockchain, NFTs, crypto, and the broader decentralized economy, simplifying complex topics into clear, engaging stories that resonate with both beginners and experienced Web3 users. Her work supports brands that want to educate their audiences, establish authority, and enhance their visibility. Disclaimer NFTPlazas provides trusted news and insights on Web3. The views expressed on this site do not constitute investment advice. Before making any high-risk investments in cryptocurrency or digital assets, please conduct your own thorough research. All transfers and transactions are carried out at your own risk, and any resulting losses are solely your responsibility. NFTPlazas does not endorse the buying or selling of cryptocurrencies or digital assets and is not a licensed investment advisor. Please also note that NFTPlazas may participate in affiliate marketing programs. Analysis Analysis Learn Analysis Learn Exchange Learn Exchange Referral Code Exchange","{'href': 'https://nftplazas.com', 'title': 'NFTPlazas.com'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=nft","Treasure Nft Withdrawal Process😱","https://fathomjournal.org/233738a1smm/f0876c36-JaTqs53xpeU.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 11:23:39 GMT"," Join over 9000 global opinion formers by subscribing to Fathom's influential Weekly Newsletter Post Time: 2026-03-14Country: United States, Australia, United Kingdom. City: Amarillo, Gulfport, Irvine, Los Angeles, SpokaneTreasure Nft Withdrawal Process😱 | Treasure Fun Withdrawal | Treasure Nft New Update |Account verify Good News🤑 Treasure NFT New Update | Treasure FUN New Update Today | Treasure Nft Withdrawal Update Good News🤑 Treasure NFT New Update Today | Treasure FUN New Update Today | Treasure Nft Withdrawal Treasure Fun Good News 🎉 | Treasure Fun Withdrawal Update | Treasure NFT New Update Today NFT Old Fund Withdrawal Announced | Treasure Fun New Update | Treasure Fun Withdrawal Treasure NFT Fun New Update Today 🤩🚀| Treasure Fun App Launch ✅ | Treasure NFT Withdrawal New Update Treasure Fun Withdrawal | Treasure Nft Withdrawal Update | Treasure Nft New Update | Treasure Fun Your quaries - treasure nft treasure nft new update treasure nft update treasure nft new update today treasure nft app not open treasure nft withdrawal treasure nft real or fake nft treasure treasure nft scam treasure nft app not open problem treasure nft tuft token treasure nft full details treasure nft not opening treasure nft latest update treasure nft fun treasure nft not opening today treasure nft fun xyz treasure nft app not opening treasure nft update today treasure nft withdrawal treasure fun treasure nft fun treasure nft fun wallet connect treasure nft treasure nft withdrawal problem treasure fun withdrawal treasure nft fun hindi treasure nft fun kya hai treasure nft fun review treasure fun new update treasure nft withdrawal update treasure nft new update treasure nft withdrawal kaise kare treasure nft fun update treasure nft fun full details treasure nft update treasure nft fun xyz treasure nft fun wallet connect treasure fun Revit Gamer treasure fun me wallet connect kaise kare treasure nft how to connect wallet treasure fun treasure fun wallet connect click through the next internet site kaise kare treasure fun me wallet kaise connect kare treasure nft fun treasure nft new update today wallet connect treasure fan treasure nft new update treasure nft withdrawal treasure nft update treasure nft fun full details treasure nft fun details how to connect wallet on treasure fun ✅️ Disclaimer : The information available on this channel is for educational and information purpose only and made with an intent to help people who want to generate some source of earning. This YouTube click the following website channel does not provide financial advice. The earning potential and success rate mentioned in the video is highly variable and your level of success in achieving results as mentioned in the video will depend on your own skills, hard work and knowledge. Please note we can't assure you that you will make an earning using the website/app/ideas mentioned on this channel. We have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that information in the video is accurate, but we can not ensure that the websites/mobile applications mentioned in this video are free from errors/unknown risks/loopholes, hence we don't take any responsibility about the website/app mentioned in this video. You expressly agree not to rely upon any information given in this video/channel. We also strictly recommend viewers to double check and do their own research once again about the website/app/ideas before investing their time and resources. This is not any financial advice. ✅️ Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for ""fair use"" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair find more use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use. Tags:- 👇 #treasurenft #treasurenftplan #nfttreasure #treasurenftnewupdate #treasurenftkyahai #treasurenftreview #treasurenftrealorfake #treasurenftwithdrawal #revitgamer Treasure Nft Withdrawal Process😱 | Treasure Fun Withdrawal | Treasure Nft New Update |Account Verify [5b7d3f] Post Time: 2026-03-14 Country: United States, Australia, United Kingdom. City: Amarillo, Gulfport, Irvine, Los Angeles, SpokaneTreasure Nft Withdrawal Process😱 | Treasure Fun Withdrawal | Treasure Nft New Update |Account verify Good News🤑 Treasure NFT New Update | Treasure FUN New Update Today | Treasure Nft Withdrawal Update Good News🤑 Treasure NFT New Update Today | Treasure FUN New Update Today | Treasure Nft Withdrawal Treasure Fun Good News 🎉 | Treasure Fun Withdrawal Update | Treasure NFT New Update Today NFT Old Fund Withdrawal Announced | Treasure Fun New Update | Treasure Fun Withdrawal Treasure NFT Fun New Update Today 🤩🚀| Treasure Fun App Launch ✅ | Treasure NFT Withdrawal New Update Treasure Fun Withdrawal | Treasure Nft Withdrawal Update | Treasure Nft New Update | Treasure Fun Your quaries - treasure nft treasure nft new update treasure nft update treasure nft new update today treasure nft app not open treasure nft withdrawal treasure nft real or fake nft treasure treasure nft scam treasure nft app not open problem treasure nft tuft token treasure nft full details treasure nft not opening treasure nft latest update treasure nft fun treasure nft not opening today treasure nft fun xyz treasure nft app not opening treasure nft update today treasure nft withdrawal treasure fun treasure nft fun treasure nft fun wallet connect treasure nft treasure nft withdrawal problem treasure fun withdrawal treasure nft fun hindi treasure nft fun kya hai treasure nft fun review treasure fun new update treasure nft withdrawal update treasure nft new update treasure nft withdrawal kaise kare treasure nft fun update treasure nft fun full details treasure nft update treasure nft fun xyz treasure nft fun wallet connect treasure fun Revit Gamer treasure fun me wallet connect kaise kare treasure nft how to connect wallet treasure fun treasure fun wallet connect click through the next internet site kaise kare treasure fun me wallet kaise connect kare treasure nft fun treasure nft new update today wallet connect treasure fan treasure nft new update treasure nft withdrawal treasure nft update treasure nft fun full details treasure nft fun details how to connect wallet on treasure fun ✅️ Disclaimer : The information available on this channel is for educational and information purpose only and made with an intent to help people who want to generate some source of earning. This YouTube click the following website channel does not provide financial advice. The earning potential and success rate mentioned in the video is highly variable and your level of success in achieving results as mentioned in the video will depend on your own skills, hard work and knowledge. Please note we can't assure you that you will make an earning using the website/app/ideas mentioned on this channel. We have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that information in the video is accurate, but we can not ensure that the websites/mobile applications mentioned in this video are free from errors/unknown risks/loopholes, hence we don't take any responsibility about the website/app mentioned in this video. You expressly agree not to rely upon any information given in this video/channel. We also strictly recommend viewers to double check and do their own research once again about the website/app/ideas before investing their time and resources. This is not any financial advice. ✅️ Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for ""fair use"" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair find more use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use. Tags:- 👇 #treasurenft #treasurenftplan #nfttreasure #treasurenftnewupdate #treasurenftkyahai #treasurenftreview #treasurenftrealorfake #treasurenftwithdrawal #revitgamer Treasure Nft Withdrawal Process😱 | Treasure Fun Withdrawal | Treasure Nft New Update |Account Verify [5b7d3f] Our Voice of the Fortnight is the Decision Points podcast with David Makovsky - Hezbollah Decapitated? The War with Israel and Lebanon's Future ","{'href': 'https://fathomjournal.org', 'title': 'fathomjournal.org'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=nft","What Is Katana (KAT)? The DeFi L2 Built for Real Yield","https://nftplazas.com/what-is-katana-kat/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:47:17 GMT"," US CPI for February – What It Means for Crypto and NFT Markets Ripple Plans to Acquire BC Payments to Secure Australian Financial License Midnight (NIGHT) to Binance HODLer Airdrops Binance Lists Fabric Protocol (ROBO) for Spot Trading Magic Eden Shuts Down Bitcoin & EVM NFT Markets on March 9, What Every Holder Must Do Now Binance Will List Opinion (OPN) on Binance Launchpool Bitcoin Targets Bottom as Middle East War Propels Gold to ATH US Israel Attack Iran: Will Gold Prices Skyrocket? Bitcoin Reclaims $70K: Is Capital Rotating From Gold to Crypto? Binance Revives Tokenized U.S. Stocks Trading on Blockchain What Is Katana (KAT)? The DeFi L2 Built for Real Yield What Is Polkadot (DOT)? The Multi-Chain Blockchain Explained What Is a Private Key? How It Keeps Your Crypto Safe How to Buy Altcoins in 2026: Easy Beginner Guide What Is Fabric Protocol (ROBO)? The Decentralized Robot Economy Explained What Is A Crypto Node: A Beginner's Guide 2026 What Is DeFi? A Beginner's Guide to Decentralized Finance What Is Polymarket? A Beginner's Guide to Prediction Markets What Is Opinion (OPN)? Review of Opinion & OPN Utility Token What Is Yield Farming in 2026 APY & Liquidity Guide Binance Review 2026: Features, Fees & Security Explained MEXC Exchange Review 2026: Fees, Security & Trading Features 20 Best Crypto Signals Telegram Channels for Trading in 2026 Bitget Review 2026: Is It a Safe and Legit Crypto Exchange? OKX Review 2026: Pros, Cons, Fees and Key Features Explained Crypto.com Review 2026: Security, Fees, Features, and Pros & Cons Gate.io Review 2026: Is it Safe and Legit for Crypto Trading? MEXC Referral Code March 2026: mexc-NFTP ($10000 USDT Bonus) Binance Referral Code 2026: “BINANCENFTP” (1000 USDT Bonus) OKX Referral Code March 2026: 98973395 – $10,000 Bonus BingX Referral Code 2026: “WYMSQVR5” (6,000+ USDT Welcome Bonus) Bitget Referral Code 2026: NFTPlazas1 ($6,200 USDT Sign-up Bonus) Bybit Referral Code & Link: NFTP | 30,050 USDT Bonus 2026 Crypto.com Referral Code 2026: “nftevening” (50$ Welcome Bonus) Coinbase Referral Code 2026: Steps to Earn $200 in BTC Welcome Bonus KuCoin Referral Code 2026: “NFTPLAZAS” (11,000 USDT Welcome Bonus) Gate.io Referral Code March 2026: “VLEWAV0NVQ” (10,000 USDT Sign Up Bonus) WEEX Referral Code 2026: “cglw” (30,000 USDT Sign Up Bonus) Blockdag Price Prediction 2026 to 2030: Will BDAG Go Up? Chainlink (LINK) Price Prediction 2026, 2027 to 2030 — LINK to USD ADA Price Prediction 2026, 2027 – 2030: Expert Analysis and Long-Term Forecast Dogecoin (DOGE) Price Prediction in 2025, 2026 – 2030 BNB Chain Gaming NFT Ecosystem: Activity & Top Projects in 2026 Ethereum (ETH) Price Prediction 2026 to 2030: Will ETH Soar? By Michael Sacchitello Key Takeaways Katana leverages Chain-Owned Liquidity and yield farming to optimize DeFi opportunities. KAT token offers multiple earning options, including staking, liquidity mining, and airdrops. Supported by zkSync Era, KAT is compatible with wallets like MetaMask and Trust Wallet. What is Katana (KAT)? It is a question many crypto users now ask as they look for DeFi projects that do more than chase hype. Katana stands out because it connects yield, liquidity, and user rewards in one system built for real use. In this guide, we break down how Katana works, what powers the KAT token, how users can earn rewards, and what risks you should watch out for before you join. If you want a clear, unbiased answer, read on. Katana (KAT) is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform designed to simplify and enhance your experience with smart contracts and digital assets. It uses smart contracts, which are self-executing agreements that run on blockchain technology, to create a secure and transparent ecosystem for earning, trading, and managing liquidity. The KAT token powers this ecosystem, serving as both a utility and governance token, giving you the ability to participate in decision-making and access exclusive features. Katana is backed by a team of experienced contributors and industry leaders, including support from Polygon Labs and GSR. The project was incubated by Polygon Labs, a prominent blockchain ecosystem, and has received contributions from experts like Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, who focuses on liquidity, governance, and chain-level coordination. Katana's development also benefits from the AggLayer Breakout Program, which supports innovative blockchain projects. Together, this team drives Katana's mission to revolutionize decentralized finance with deep liquidity and sustainable yields, making it a standout crypto project in the DeFi space. When you stake crypto on Katana Network, your assets can be integrated into a system designed to keep liquidity active across the ecosystem. It brings selected assets onto the chain upgrades through VaultBridge, ties those assets to income sources, and pushes that value into key on-chain markets. From there, Katana channels activity into a small app set for swaps, loans, and perpetual trading, instead of splitting funds across many places. That structure aims to support deeper market depth and stronger user incentives. Katana also builds its own liquidity base through sequencer trading fees and app revenue. That reserve helps support pricing, borrowing spreads conditions, and pool strength during market swings. The network pairs this model with AUSD, its native stablecoin, to feed more value into the ecosystem. In plain terms, Katana tries to turn user activity, network fee sharing, and core products into one closed loop that keeps capital productive. Here is the process: Katana VaultBridge transforms bridged assets into productive yield by integrating them into Katana's liquidity ecosystem. It channels these assets into core applications, ensuring they generate consistent returns while maintaining security and efficiency. Katana concentrates liquidity through its Chain-Owned Liquidity model, creating a self-sustaining system. CoL ensures liquidity remains stable, even during market fluctuations, by recycling fees and yields back into the ecosystem, driving continuous growth. Katana's core app stack, including Sushi, Morpho, and Vertex, powers its ecosystem. These applications optimize liquidity, lending market, and trading, providing users with seamless access to high-performance DeFi tools. AUSD, Katana's native stablecoin, anchors the ecosystem by offering a reliable medium of exchange. It supports liquidity concentration and enhances the platform's ability to deliver predictable and sustainable yields. The KAT token is the backbone of Katana Network, designed to fuel its ecosystem and empower users. It serves multiple purposes, including governance, where KAT holders can influence key decisions, and utility, granting access to exclusive features and rewards. By staking KAT or participating in liquidity programs, users can earn additional benefits, making it a central element in driving engagement and value within the network. KAT tokenomics focuses on creating a balanced and sustainable ecosystem for the crypto project. With a distributed model that allocates incentive tokens for participation, a portion is dedicated to liquidity programs powered through Chain-Owned Liquidity. This approach ensures liquidity remains concentrated and stable, supporting the platform's growth while aligning rewards with user engagement and fostering a thriving network where participants benefit from the ecosystem's success. Knowing when it's time to buy cryptocurrency often means understanding how to maximize your earning potential within a platform. Katana Network offers multiple opportunities to earn KAT, ensuring users can actively participate in the ecosystem while benefiting from its innovative features. Here are the ways to earn KAT: VaultBridge enables you to deposit assets and receive vbTokens, which act as yield-generating tokens within Katana's ecosystem. These tokens integrate seamlessly into the platform's liquidity model, ensuring consistent returns for participants. As your vbTokens work within the system, they contribute to the overall liquidity and stability of the network. This method provides a straightforward and efficient way to earn KAT while supporting the ecosystem's growth. Liquidity mining on Sushi and Morpho offers a rewarding way to earn KAT by contributing to the network's liquidity pools. By adding your assets to these pools, you help enhance trading efficiency and reduce slippage for other users. In return, you receive KAT as a reward, making it a mutually beneficial process. This approach not only grows your holdings but also strengthens the platform's liquidity infrastructure. Pre-staking KAT allows you to lock your tokens and earn avKAT, a representation of your staked assets. This process secures the network while providing you with additional rewards for your commitment. As the network grows, the value of avKAT reflects your contribution to its stability and success. Pre-staking is an excellent option for those looking to actively support the ecosystem while earning rewards. Binance and OKX offer dedicated earning programs for KAT, providing users with flexible and accessible options. These programs allow you to stake or lend your assets, earning KAT in return for your participation. By engaging with these platforms, you can diversify your earning strategies while benefiting from their user-friendly interfaces. These programs are ideal for those who lock KAT and are looking to grow their holdings within a trusted and established environment. Understanding the potential risks of DeFi and considerations of KAT is crucial when engaging with any crypto project, including Katana. While the platform offers innovative features and opportunities, it's important to evaluate the challenges that may arise. Here are the key risks and considerations to keep in mind: The KAT token has shown notable activity in the cryptocurrency market, with its price currently at $0.01597 on Binance Futures, reflecting a 15.72% increase over the last 24 hours. The token has experienced a daily high of $0.01708 and a low of $0.01328, with a trading volume of over 866 million KAT, equivalent to approximately $13.57 million. On Coinbase, Katana operates on the zkSync Era platform, with a circulating fixed supply of 256 million tokens out of a total supply of 2 billion. While the last recorded price on Coinbase was $0.00062011, the token's all-time high reached $0.0580. These figures highlight KAT's dynamic market performance and its potential as a growing asset in the cryptocurrency space The future of Katana looks promising as it continues to innovate within the DeFi space. Vaultbridge yield farming remains a central focus, offering users lucrative opportunities to earn rewards while contributing to the platform's liquidity fragmentation. The project's emphasis on Chain-Owned Liquidity ensures a stable and efficient ecosystem, setting it apart from other crypto projects. As adoption grows, Katana aims to expand its ecosystem with more integrations and partnerships, further solidifying its position in the market. The commitment to user-centric features and sustainable growth strategies highlights its potential to become a leading force in decentralized finance. Katana's strategic focus on yield farming, Chain-Owned Liquidity, and ecosystem expansion positions it as a competitive player in the DeFi space. To maximize its potential, the project must prioritize user adoption through seamless integrations, robust security measures, and transparent governance. Strengthening partnerships with established platforms and continuously innovating its offerings will ensure long-term sustainability. Clear communication of its value proposition and consistent delivery on its roadmap will be critical in building trust and driving engagement within the crypto community. Katana (KAT) network is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform designed to optimize yield farming and liquidity management. It leverages Chain-Owned Liquidity to ensure stability and offers users innovative ways to earn rewards while participating in the crypto ecosystem. Yes, there is a KAT token airdrop for Polygon stakers. Eligible participants can receive KAT tokens as rewards for staking on the Polygon network, further incentivizing engagement within the ecosystem. Whether KAT is a good investment in 2026 depends on individual financial goals and risk tolerance. The project's focus on yield farming, ecosystem growth, and innovative liquidity incentives positions it as a promising option in the DeFi space. KAT token is supported by a variety of wallets, including MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and wallets compatible with the zkSync Era platform. These wallets allow users to securely store, manage, and interact with their KAT tokens. Katana ensures liquidity stability through its Chain-Owned Liquidity model, which centralizes and optimizes liquidity management. This approach minimizes fragmentation and enhances the overall efficiency of the platform. Michael Sacchitello Michael Sacchitello is a finance and crypto writer with over two decades of experience in investing, market research, and trading education. He focuses on topics at the intersection of traditional finance and emerging technologies, including cryptocurrency trading platforms, blockchain innovation, and digital asset investing. Before turning to crypto and financial journalism, Michael held roles in portfolio management, derivatives sales, and data-driven market research, giving him a deep understanding of how global markets and digital finance intersect. Drawing on his extensive experience in financial analysis and market strategy, he delivers well-researched, insightful content that helps readers navigate today's rapidly evolving financial landscape. Disclaimer NFTPlazas provides trusted news and insights on Web3. The views expressed on this site do not constitute investment advice. Before making any high-risk investments in cryptocurrency or digital assets, please conduct your own thorough research. All transfers and transactions are carried out at your own risk, and any resulting losses are solely your responsibility. NFTPlazas does not endorse the buying or selling of cryptocurrencies or digital assets and is not a licensed investment advisor. Please also note that NFTPlazas may participate in affiliate marketing programs. Analysis Analysis Learn Analysis Learn Learn Exchange Exchange Referral Code Learn","{'href': 'https://nftplazas.com', 'title': 'NFTPlazas.com'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=ico","The anatomy of an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) fraud","https://www.leaprate.com/news/the-anatomy-of-an-initial-coin-offering-ico-fraud/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:30:25 GMT"," Cryptocurrency articles proliferate the headlines these days, but more often than not, the subject matter deals with victims and the losses they have sustained at the hands of clever conmen. Per one insider: “As fascinating as the crypto-sphere might be, it's definitely not a place for the faint-hearted. Sure, cryptocurrencies have taken the world by … Cryptocurrency articles proliferate the headlines these days, but more often than not, the subject matter deals with victims and the losses they have sustained at the hands of clever conmen. Per one insider: “As fascinating as the crypto-sphere might be, it's definitely not a place for the faint-hearted. Sure, cryptocurrencies have taken the world by storm, [but] in the midst of all this, there are scams, frauds, attacks, hacks, and other, similarly shady ventures.” One particular area has a greater propensity for fraud than all others in the crypto world, and it happens to be with Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). ICOs had their beginnings back in 2013, but their popularity as a new “crowdfunding” type scheme to raise capital did not take off until 2017, when over $7 billion was raised. Venture capital firms were wondering what had hit them. The primary issue with these fundraisings is that they are unregulated, and their “tokens” have been likened to “securities” by the regulatory establishment, their way of combating the rampant fraud within this space. The SEC and others have come down hard with hefty fines, court filings, and incarcerations. The uncertainty of the situation has slowed momentum, too. Threats from law enforcement officials, however, have not thwarted organized crime from preying upon unsuspecting victims. One report recently posited that as many as 85% of all ICOs are fraud-based and that billions of dollars have been lost to date. In case you are curious as to how one of these charades can gain traction and trick investors from the start, let's take a deeper look into this storyline: “Blockchain CEO faces 120 years in prison for $4M cryptocurrency scam.” Jared Rice, the alleged criminal and CEO facing lengthy jail time, misled investors into believing that his blockchain startup, “AriseBank”, would be “the first decentralized bank to offer the first and largest cryptocurrency banking platform in the world.” His banking services would be FDIC-insured, and the bank would also issue Visa cards tied to cryptocurrency services. With little more than an idea and no formal registrations, Rice was off and running, soliciting funds from investors. Within weeks, he claimed to have raised 0 million, as opposed to million in actuality, which Rice “allegedly spent on hotels, food, clothing, and other costly legal services for his family.” Did investors complete any due diligence before paying over their Bitcoins, Ether, Litecoin, or cash? A few phone calls would have revealed that no registration had ever been filed or authorized in Texas, the base of operations for AriseBank. Anyone familiar with banking in the U.S. could have told investors that a charter must be obtained to do anything in Rice's prospectus, if he had one at all, and that, at a minimum, he would have had to have gone through an extensive background check, if he wanted to buy an existing “de novo” charter in the marketplace. Without a charter, there could never be FDIC insurance, nor would Visa personnel even consider doing business with his startup bank. The U.S. Department of Justice's portal says as much. Rice has been indicted for securities and wire fraud, making fraudulent claims, and failing to disclose a previous felony conviction. The SEC shut him down in March, and Rice has pleaded guilty. Mark that down as “One” for the good guys. Keep in touch with our news & offers Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment * Name * Email * Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Send Message LeapRate is a leading independent research and advisory firm covering the global Forex and financial trading industry. Trusted by hundreds of thousands of traders and investors worldwide. Explore our Broker Directory and stay connected via our Newsletter, Facebook, X and LinkedIn. *LeapRate does not provide investment advice. CFDs carry a high risk of losing money due to leverage; between 74% and 89% of retail investor accounts lose money. Consider whether you can afford the high risk of losing your money.","{'href': 'https://www.leaprate.com', 'title': 'LeapRate'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=crypto+technology","Apple will not include crypto innovations in product line any time soon","https://www.leaprate.com/news/apple-will-not-include-crypto-innovations-in-product-line-any-time-soon/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:56:33 GMT"," Major corporations across the globe have research and development teams hard at work figuring out ways to take advantage of blockchain technology and all things crypto, but there is one innovator in the market that has elected to stay on the sidelines to the amazement of everyone in the Fintech industry. Apple Corporation (NASDAQ:AAPL) just … Major corporations across the globe have research and development teams hard at work figuring out ways to take advantage of blockchain technology and all things crypto, but there is one innovator in the market that has elected to stay on the sidelines to the amazement of everyone in the Fintech industry. Apple Corporation (NASDAQ:AAPL) just refuses to budge or has chosen to remain very tight lipped about what it is doing internally. The firm has obviously felt the “heat”, so to speak. In a recent CNN interview at a private event in San Francisco, one Apple executive explained that they view crypto as a long-term issue. Jennifer Bailey, a vice president at Apple Pay, despite the payment industry “sizzle” over using blockchains to speed up and make more efficient the entire cross-border payment market, admitted that they are interested, but they have no plans to incorporate any crypto variations in their various product lines: We think it's interesting… We think it has interesting long-term potential, but we're primarily focused on what consumers are using today. For a corporation that has always prided itself on leading on the innovation front, rather than being a follower, this comment could possibly make Steve Jobs turn over in his grave. He was known to tell his Apple troops that: Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower… Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to be. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful, that's what matters to me. It sounds as if Steve's legacy has been cast aside somewhere. To build a design staff is one thing, and incorporating crypto ideas in existing products is another, but reporters have noted that, even though Apple has done neither, it has also gone out of its way to block crypto in several ways. For example, you cannot use your Goldman-Sachs credit card to buy Bitcoin or any other altcoin. They have also deployed strict rules within their Apple Store platform to prohibit any type of crypto app for sale. Such tactics would seem appropriate for an old enterprise intent on protecting the “status quo” and undermining its competition, which has embraced all things crypto. When quizzed about what crypto technologies appeared to be “interesting”, using her own words. Ms. Bailey alluded to “Quick Response” (QR) code innovations, the use of a visual type of matrix to encode payment information or plane reservations, as something she was following: If you look at QR code payment solutions, if you look at the long-term potential of cryptocurrency, I think you'll continue to see that change over time. It could also be that Apple is so far behind its competitors in adopting crypto technologies that there is no point playing catch up. Other giant companies in similar situations that have chosen a “wait-and-see” approach typically acquire an innovative leader in the industry down the road and then try to leap ahead of market leaders with ideas that do not have to deal with legacy systems. Years ago, IBM was known to follow this strategy, as did large banks, but at least IBM has learned, perhaps from Steve Jobs' example, that if you do not lead, you could fall too far behind the technology wave. What are Apple's competitors doing? Samsung, its chief phone rival, has been including crypto wallets and various related apps on its new service lines. Its new Galaxy Note 10 model is expected to be more user-friendly than all of its previous versions. The HTC Corporation, a smaller rival that must run faster, just released its new Exodus, which focuses on blockchain technology, has a built-in wallet, and several other crypto features. Crypto industry analysts are now speculating as to what it would take for Apple to jump into the fray. Obviously, their product development folks are waiting to see crypto adopted by the mainstream before they act in any significant way, but when they do, the impact on all things crypto could be enormous, making Facebook's Libra project look like some sandbox game involving children. Keep in touch with our news & offers Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment * Name * Email * Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Send Message LeapRate is a leading independent research and advisory firm covering the global Forex and financial trading industry. Trusted by hundreds of thousands of traders and investors worldwide. Explore our Broker Directory and stay connected via our Newsletter, Facebook, X and LinkedIn. *LeapRate does not provide investment advice. CFDs carry a high risk of losing money due to leverage; between 74% and 89% of retail investor accounts lose money. Consider whether you can afford the high risk of losing your money.","{'href': 'https://www.leaprate.com', 'title': 'LeapRate'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=crypto+technology","Crypto Tools for Refugees: Former Coinbase CTO Urges Critical Development of Blockchain Humanitarian Solutions","https://bitcoinworld.co.in/crypto-tools-refugees-blockchain-humanitarian/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:25:12 GMT"," Former Coinbase Chief Technology Officer Balaji Srinivasan has issued a compelling call for accelerated development of cryptocurrency tools specifically designed for refugee populations and stateless individuals. Speaking from a global perspective on March 15, 2025, Srinivasan emphasized that blockchain technology's inherent properties make it uniquely suited for humanitarian crises where traditional financial systems often fail vulnerable populations. His advocacy comes amid increasing global displacement figures and growing recognition of digital assets' potential for social impact. Balaji Srinivasan's public statement on X, formerly Twitter, highlights a pressing humanitarian challenge. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that forced displacement has reached unprecedented levels, affecting over 117 million people globally. Consequently, traditional financial infrastructure frequently collapses in conflict zones and displacement settings. Srinivasan specifically notes that cryptocurrency offers distinct advantages in these environments. Public blockchains operate on decentralized networks that resist data center attacks, hacking attempts, and government-imposed network shutdowns. Furthermore, blockchain transactions can occur without intermediaries like banks or payment processors. This characteristic proves particularly valuable when banking systems become inaccessible or unreliable. For instance, refugees crossing borders often lose access to their savings and financial identities. Cryptocurrency wallets, however, can store value digitally on devices as simple as basic smartphones. The technology enables peer-to-peer transfers across borders without requiring traditional banking relationships. Srinivasan's analysis identifies stablecoins as particularly transformative within refugee assistance frameworks. These digital assets maintain price stability by pegging their value to reserve assets like the US dollar or gold. Notably, stablecoin adoption has surged in regions experiencing economic instability and currency devaluation. Organizations like the World Food Programme have already experimented with blockchain-based aid distribution in Jordanian refugee camps. The emergence of gold-backed stablecoins adds another dimension to this ecosystem. These assets combine gold's historical value preservation with blockchain's transferability. For populations fleeing hyperinflation or currency collapse, such instruments can provide more stable stores of value than volatile local currencies. Several humanitarian organizations now explore stablecoin distributions because they reduce transaction costs and increase transparency compared to cash-based aid. Blockchain networks demonstrate remarkable resilience in crisis scenarios. Unlike centralized databases, distributed ledger technology maintains functionality even when individual nodes fail or face attacks. This robustness becomes crucial during natural disasters, conflicts, or political instability when traditional systems collapse. Humanitarian technologists increasingly recognize that cryptocurrency tools can operate through mesh networks and satellite internet when conventional connectivity fails. Several real-world implementations already demonstrate this potential. In Ukraine, cryptocurrency donations exceeded $225 million following Russia's invasion, providing vital resources when banking channels faced disruption. Similarly, Venezuelan refugees have used cryptocurrency to preserve wealth amid hyperinflation exceeding 1,000,000%. These cases illustrate how digital assets can serve populations excluded from traditional finance. Despite promising applications, significant barriers hinder widespread cryptocurrency adoption among refugee populations. Key challenges include: Humanitarian organizations address these challenges through simplified interfaces and educational initiatives. Some developers create cryptocurrency wallets with minimalistic designs requiring fewer technical steps. Other projects integrate blockchain technology with existing mobile money platforms popular in developing regions. These hybrid approaches may accelerate adoption by building on familiar systems. Financial technology researchers echo Srinivasan's observations about cryptocurrency's potential. Dr. Sarah Johnson, a humanitarian technology specialist at Oxford University, notes that blockchain-based systems can create “portable financial identities” for displaced populations. Her research indicates that refugees who maintain access to digital assets recover economically faster than those dependent solely on traditional aid. Johnson emphasizes that cryptocurrency tools complement rather than replace existing humanitarian efforts. Meanwhile, the International Rescue Committee has piloted several blockchain projects in Syrian refugee communities. Their findings suggest that cryptocurrency distributions reduce administrative costs by approximately 30% compared to cash-based systems. However, they caution that technological solutions must prioritize user experience and accessibility. Successful implementations typically involve community training and ongoing technical support. The cryptocurrency ecosystem continues evolving to better serve vulnerable populations. Several development areas show particular promise: These technological advancements align with Srinivasan's vision for more robust cryptocurrency tools. Additionally, regulatory developments may facilitate broader adoption. The European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation establishes clearer guidelines for stablecoin issuers, potentially increasing institutional confidence in humanitarian applications. Similar regulatory frameworks in other jurisdictions could accelerate development of refugee-focused solutions. Balaji Srinivasan's advocacy for cryptocurrency tools for refugees highlights blockchain technology's growing relevance in humanitarian contexts. As global displacement reaches record levels, innovative financial solutions become increasingly urgent. Stablecoins and resilient blockchain networks offer practical advantages over traditional systems in crisis environments. However, successful implementation requires addressing digital literacy gaps, ensuring accessibility, and developing appropriate regulatory frameworks. The continued evolution of cryptocurrency tools for vulnerable populations represents a significant opportunity to enhance financial inclusion and crisis response capabilities worldwide. Q1: Why are cryptocurrency tools particularly useful for refugee populations?Cryptocurrency tools operate on decentralized networks that function during banking collapses, government restrictions, or infrastructure damage. They enable borderless transactions without traditional banking relationships, which refugees often lose during displacement. Q2: What specific advantages do stablecoins offer in humanitarian contexts?Stablecoins maintain consistent value by pegging to assets like the US dollar or gold, avoiding the volatility of other cryptocurrencies. This stability makes them suitable for storing value and making payments in unstable economic environments common in displacement scenarios. Q3: How do refugees access cryptocurrency without reliable internet or smartphones?Developers are creating solutions for limited connectivity, including offline transaction capabilities and integration with basic mobile phones. Humanitarian organizations often provide devices and connectivity as part of broader assistance programs when implementing cryptocurrency tools. Q4: What are the main risks associated with cryptocurrency use among vulnerable populations?Key risks include technical complexity, potential for scams, volatility of non-stablecoin assets, and loss of funds if private keys are compromised. These challenges require comprehensive education programs and user-friendly interface design. Q5: Are humanitarian organizations actively using cryptocurrency tools currently?Yes, several organizations including the World Food Programme, International Rescue Committee, and Red Cross have conducted pilot programs distributing aid via blockchain-based systems. These experiments demonstrate both potential benefits and implementation challenges that inform ongoing development. Disclaimer: The information provided is not trading advice, Bitcoinworld.co.in holds no liability for any investments made based on the information provided on this page. We strongly recommend independent research and/or consultation with a qualified professional before making any investment decisions. Copyright © 2026 BitcoinWorld | Powered by BitcoinWorld","{'href': 'https://bitcoinworld.co.in', 'title': 'Bitcoin world'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:coindesk.com","BTC, ETH, ADA price news: Bitcoin holds $71,000 as Trump warns of Iran oil strikes","https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/03/14/bitcoin-holds-usd71-000-despite-trump-warning-after-iran-oil-strikes","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 06:12:30 GMT"," Two weeks into a Middle Eastern war and bitcoin is higher than where it started. The largest cryptocurrency was trading at $71,000 on Saturday morning, down 0.7% over the past 24 hours after the U.S. bombed military targets on Kharg Island, Iran's main crude export facility. The reversal from Friday's $73,838 high was sharp but contained. Bitcoin gave back 3.5% on the Kharg headlines and stopped. A month ago, a comparable escalation would have triggered a much deeper sell-off. The weekly numbers tell the resilience story. Bitcoin is up 4.2% over seven days. Ether gained 5.5% to $2,090. Dogecoin added 5%. Solana rose 4.2% to $88. BNB climbed 4.5% to $655. Every major is green on the week despite the war intensifying, not easing. The market is adapting to the conflict in real time. Early in the war, every headline produced an outsized reaction because nobody could price the tail risk. Now, traders have a framework, where strikes happen, oil spikes and bitcoin dips only to recover again. The pattern has repeated enough times that the reflexive sell-the-headline impulse has faded. However, the $73,000-$74,000 resistance level stays in place, and has now rejected bitcoin four times in two weeks. Trump's language on Kharg Island added a new variable in the markets. In a Truth Social post late Friday, he said he spared oil infrastructure ""for reasons of decency"" but would ""immediately reconsider"" if Iran continued blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded that any strike on energy infrastructure would trigger retaliatory attacks on U.S.-linked facilities in the region. That's a conditional escalation threat that didn't exist 48 hours ago. If oil infrastructure becomes a target, the supply disruption, which the IEA already called the largest in history, gets dramatically worse. Meanwhile, the $371 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours reflected the two-way nature of Friday's session. Short liquidations outpaced longs at $207 million versus $163 million, meaning the initial surge to $73,800 squeezed bears before the Kharg headlines squeezed the longs who had just entered. Attention now shifts to the Fed meeting on March 17-18. Oil above $100, the largest energy supply disruption in history, and a war entering its third week with no resolution make the stagflation case harder to dismiss. CME FedWatch still prices a 95%+ probability of a hold at 3.5% to 3.75%, but the dot plot and Powell's press conference will matter more than the decision itself. Any hint that rate hikes are back on the table would hit risk assets hard, including a crypto market that has spent five months pricing in cuts that keep not arriving. More For You The math behind Strategy's path to 1 million bitcoin by the end of 2026 The largest publicly traded corporate holder of bitcoin would need to buy roughly 6,158 BTC per week, about $523 million, to reach the milestone by Dec. 31. What to know: Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.","{'href': 'https://www.coindesk.com', 'title': 'CoinDesk'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:coindesk.com","Bitcoin can survive 72% of the world's submarine cables being cut, but a targeted attack on five hosting providers could cripple it","https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/03/13/bitcoin-can-survive-72-of-the-world-s-submarine-cables-being-cut-but-a-targeted-attack-on-five-hosting-providers-could-cripple-it","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:32:20 GMT"," Bitcoin's network has been running nonstop since 2009. The question nobody had rigorously answered until now is what it would actually take to break it. Researchers at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance last week published the first longitudinal study of Bitcoin blockchain's resilience to physical infrastructure disruption, analyzing 11 years of peer-to-peer network data against 68 verified submarine cable fault events. The headline finding is that between 72% and 92% of the world's inter-country submarine cables would need to fail simultaneously before Bitcoin experiences significant node disconnection. In a world where the Strait of Hormuz is currently disrupted and infrastructure vulnerability is front of mind, the study provides the first empirical benchmark for how hard Bitcoin actually is to knock offline. The numbers tell a story of a network that degrades gracefully rather than collapsing catastrophically. The researchers ran 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations per scenario across the full dataset and found that random cable failures barely register. Over 87% of the 68 real-world cable fault events they studied caused less than 5% node impact. The largest single event, when seabed disturbances off Côte d'Ivoire damaged 7-8 cables simultaneously in March 2024, knocked out 43% of regional nodes but affected only 5-7 bitcoin nodes globally, roughly 0.03% of the network. The correlation between cable failures and bitcoin's price was essentially zero, at -0.02. Infrastructure disruptions are invisible against daily price volatility. But the paper's most important finding is the asymmetry between random and targeted attacks. While random cable failures require 72-92% removal to cause damage, a targeted attack on the cables with the highest betweenness centrality, the ones that serve as chokepoints between continents, drops that threshold to 20%. And targeting the top five hosting providers by node count, Hetzner, OVH, Comcast, Amazon, and Google Cloud, requires removing just 5% of routing capacity to achieve the same impact. That's a fundamentally different threat model. Random failures are acts of nature. Targeted attacks are acts of state, coordinated regulatory shutdowns of hosting providers or deliberate severing of critical cable routes. The study essentially maps two very different adversaries: one Bitcoin can easily survive, and one that remains a credible risk. The paper tracks how resilience evolved over time, and the trajectory isn't a straight line. Bitcoin was most resilient in its early years from 2014-2017, when the network was geographically diverse and the critical failure threshold sat around 0.90-0.92. Resilience declined sharply during 2018-2021 as the network grew rapidly but concentrated geographically, hitting its lowest point of 0.72 in 2021 during peak mining concentration in East Asia. The China mining ban in 2021 forced redistribution, and resilience partially recovered to 0.88 in 2022 before settling at 0.78 in 2025. The TOR finding is the one that challenges conventional thinking. As of 2025, 64% of Bitcoin nodes use TOR, making their physical location unobservable. The assumption has been that this inability to observe might hide fragility, that if TOR nodes turned out to be geographically concentrated, the network could be more vulnerable than it appears. The Cambridge researchers built a four-layer model to test this and found the opposite. TOR relay infrastructure is heavily concentrated in Germany, France, and the Netherlands, countries with extensive submarine cable and land border connectivity. An attacker trying to disrupt TOR relay capacity by cutting cables faces a compound problem because those countries are among the hardest to disconnect. The four-layer model consistently showed higher resilience than the clearnet-only baseline, with TOR adding between 0.02 and 0.10 to the critical failure threshold. The paper frames this as ""adaptive self-organization."" TOR adoption surged after censorship events like Iran's internet shutdown in 2019, the Myanmar coup in 2021, and the China mining ban. The Bitcoin community shifted toward censorship-resistant infrastructure without any central coordination, and that shift happened to also make the network physically harder to disrupt. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed and a regional war disrupting infrastructure across the Middle East, the question of what happens to Bitcoin if submarine cables get damaged isn't theoretical. The study suggests the answer is probably nothing, unless someone is deliberately targeting the specific cables and hosting providers that matter most. More For You The math behind Strategy's path to 1 million bitcoin by the end of 2026 The largest publicly traded corporate holder of bitcoin would need to buy roughly 6,158 BTC per week, about $523 million, to reach the milestone by Dec. 31. What to know: Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.","{'href': 'https://www.coindesk.com', 'title': 'CoinDesk'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:sciencedaily.com","Textbooks were wrong: Scientists reveal the surprising way human hair really grows","https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260313002647.htm","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:17:09 GMT"," New research suggests human hair does not grow by being pushed out from the root as long believed. Instead, scientists found that hair is pulled upward by forces created by a hidden network of moving cells within the follicle. The discovery challenges decades of biology textbook explanations and could influence how researchers approach hair loss and hair regeneration. Researchers from L'Oréal Research & Innovation and Queen Mary University of London used advanced 3D live imaging to observe individual cells inside living human hair follicles maintained in laboratory culture. Their findings, published in Nature Communications, revealed that cells in the outer root sheath -- a layer encasing the hair shaft -- move along a spiral path downward within the same region where the upward pulling force is generated. Dr. Inês Sequeira, Reader in Oral and Skin Biology at Queen Mary and one of the lead authors said ""Our results reveal a fascinating choreography inside the hair follicle. For decades, it was assumed that hair was pushed out by the dividing cells in the hair bulb. We found that instead that it's actively being pulled upwards by surrounding tissue acting almost like a tiny motor."" Experiments Reveal the Force Driving Hair Growth To investigate the mechanism further, the scientists blocked cell division inside the follicle. They expected hair growth to stop if dividing cells were responsible for pushing the hair upward. Instead, the follicles continued growing hair at nearly the same rate. However, when the researchers interfered with actin -- a protein that allows cells to contract and move -- hair growth slowed dramatically, dropping by more than 80 per cent. Computer simulations supported the findings, showing that the pulling force created by coordinated movement in the outer layers of the follicle was necessary to match the observed speed of hair growth. Advanced Imaging Captures Cell Motion in Real Time Dr. Nicolas Tissot, the first author, from L'Oréal's Advanced Research team said: a ""We use a novel imaging method allowing 3D time lapse microscopy in real-time. While static images provide mere isolated snapshots, 3D time-lapse microscopy is indispensable for truly unraveling the intricate, dynamic biological processes within the hair follicle, revealing crucial cellular kinetics, migratory patterns, and rate of cell divisions that are otherwise impossible to deduce from discrete observations. This approach made it possible to model the forces generated locally."" Rethinking Hair Follicle Mechanics Dr. Thomas Bornschlögl, other lead author, from the same L'Oréal team adds: ""This reveals that hair growth is not driven only by cell division -- instead, outer root sheath actively pull the hair upwards."" This new understanding of how hair follicles function may create opportunities to study hair disorders, test new medications, and advance work in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine."" Although the experiments were conducted on human hair follicles grown in laboratory culture, the findings provide new insights into the biology of hair and regenerative medicine. The researchers suggest that understanding the physical forces inside follicles could help scientists design treatments that target both the mechanical and biochemical environment of the follicle. In addition, the new imaging approach may allow scientists to test potential drugs and therapies on living follicles. Biophysics Offers New Insights Into Everyday Biology The study also underscores the expanding influence of biophysics in modern biology. It demonstrates how tiny mechanical forces at the microscopic level can shape the growth and behavior of structures in the human body. Story Source: Materials provided by Queen Mary University of London. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Journal Reference: Cite This Page: Scientists Finally Solve the 20-Year Mystery of Strange Tiny Dinosaur Fossils This Simple Japanese Eating Habit Is Linked to a Longer Life Cats May Hold the Key to Treating Human Cancer Moon Rocks Challenge Long-Held Theory About the Origin of Earth's Water Stay informed with ScienceDaily's free email newsletter, updated daily and weekly. Or view our many newsfeeds in your RSS reader: Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks: Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. Have any problems using the site? Questions?","{'href': 'https://www.sciencedaily.com', 'title': 'ScienceDaily'}","science" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:sciencedaily.com","Scientists warn Australia's “zombie tree” could vanish within a generation","https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260313002652.htm","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 01:55:33 GMT"," Researchers have given a newly identified Australian tree species an unusual nickname. Scientists call it the ""zombie"" tree because, although some individuals are still alive, the species is unable to grow and reproduce normally without major intervention. Professor Rod Fensham, a botanist at the University of Queensland, said urgent action is needed to prevent the species Rhodamnia zombi from disappearing due to the fungal disease known as myrtle rust. ""This species did not have a name when it was first assessed in 2020, and since then 10 percent of the trees have died and none of those remaining are producing flowers or fruit because of myrtle rust,"" Professor Fensham said. Myrtle Rust Stops the Tree From Growing or Reproducing Rhodamnia zombi is described as a small to medium sized tree with large dark green leaves, shaggy bark, and fuzzy white flowers. It grows in rainforest areas within Queensland's Burnett region. ""It is a small to medium-sized tree with large dark green leaves, shaggy bark and hairy white flowers growing in rainforests in the Burnett region of Queensland. ""The bright yellow fungal pathogen attacks and kills off its young shoots over and over again meaning an infected tree can't grow or reproduce and eventually dies."" The fungal disease responsible for the damage, myrtle rust, was first detected in Australia in 2010. Because of the threat it poses, Rhodamnia zombi has now been placed on a list of species considered potentially critically endangered. ""Without any intervention, the 17 species on this Category X list will be extinct within a generation,"" Professor Fensham said. ""None of them appear to have any resistance to myrtle rust or any wild population which is not yet infected."" Scientists Hope Future Generations May Develop Resistance Despite the dire outlook, researchers see a possible path forward. Professor Fensham, who works in UQ's School of the Environment, said related species within the broader Rhodamnia group have shown resistance to myrtle rust. That genetic connection could offer a chance for survival. ""A survival strategy starts with finding clean cuttings in the wild before myrtle rust attacks them and propagating them to grow at safe sites,"" he said. ""So far seedlings are being grown by specialists in Lismore and Townsville which look promising, but they need to be constantly vigilant. ""Hopefully once they produce seed, lurking in the next generation of Rhodamnia zombi some resistance will become apparent. ""It is a rare opportunity to study this evolutionary process which has happened countless of times in the wild over millennia."" A Long Shot to Save the Species Researchers ultimately hope that if resistant trees emerge, they could eventually be replanted in forests and help restore the species to its natural ecosystem. ""It's a long shot and ambitious but the species needs time and space without being constantly walloped by myrtle rust to hopefully express some resistance,"" Professor Fensham said. ""Left to its own devices, the trees in the wild really will be the living dead."" The findings describing the species and its conservation outlook were published in the journal Austral Ecology. Story Source: Materials provided by University of Queensland. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Journal Reference: Cite This Page: Is Berberine Really a “Natural Ozempic”? Scientists Reveal What This Popular Supplement Really Does Hidden DNA in Plants Reveals a 400 Million Year Evolutionary Secret Why Colon Cancer Is Rising in Young Adults: Scientists Discover Unexpected Physical Clue 75-Million-Year-Old Mystery: Scientists Uncover Tyrannosaurs' Dark Secret Stay informed with ScienceDaily's free email newsletter, updated daily and weekly. Or view our many newsfeeds in your RSS reader: Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks: Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. Have any problems using the site? Questions?","{'href': 'https://www.sciencedaily.com', 'title': 'ScienceDaily'}","science" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:sciencedaily.com","A lab mistake at Cambridge reveals a powerful new way to modify drug molecules","https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260313062539.htm","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 05:58:33 GMT"," Researchers at the University of Cambridge have created a new technique that uses light instead of toxic chemicals to change complex drug molecules. The discovery could speed up drug development and make the process of designing medicines more efficient. The study, published on March 12 in Nature Synthesis, introduces what the team calls an ""anti-Friedel-Crafts"" reaction. Traditional Friedel-Crafts chemistry requires powerful chemicals or metal catalysts and harsh laboratory conditions. Because of these requirements, the reaction normally takes place early in drug manufacturing and is followed by many additional chemical steps to produce the final medicine. The new Cambridge method turns that process around by allowing researchers to make changes to drug molecules much later in development. LED Powered Reaction Forms Key Chemical Bonds Instead of relying on heavy metal catalysts, the reaction is activated by an LED lamp at ambient temperature. When the light triggers the reaction, it sets off a self sustaining chain process that forms carbon-carbon bonds under mild conditions without toxic or costly reagents. In practical terms, this approach lets chemists adjust complex molecules near the end of the drug development process rather than dismantling them and rebuilding them piece by piece -- something that can otherwise take months. ""We've found a new way to make precise changes to complex drug molecules, particularly ones that have been exceptionally difficult to modify in the past,"" said David Vahey, first author and a PhD researcher at St John's College, Cambridge. ""Scientists can spend months rebuilding large parts of a molecule just to test one small change. Now, instead of doing a multistep process for hundreds of molecules, scientists can start with their hit and make small modifications later on."" ""This reaction lets scientists make precise adjustments much later in the process, under mild conditions and without relying on toxic or expensive reagents. That opens chemical space that has been hard to access before and gives medicinal chemists a cleaner, more efficient tool for exploring new versions of a drug."" Faster Drug Discovery With Less Waste Reducing the number of synthesis steps lowers chemical use, cuts energy consumption and shrinks the environmental footprint of drug development. It also saves researchers valuable time. The reaction is highly selective, allowing chemists to change one specific part of a molecule without disturbing other sensitive areas. This precision is important because even small structural changes can influence how a medicine works in the body, how it behaves biologically or whether it produces side effects. At its core, the breakthrough addresses a fundamental chemical challenge: forming carbon-carbon bonds. These bonds create the backbone of countless substances including fuels, plastics and complex biological molecules. The technique also shows what chemists describe as ""high functional-group tolerance."" That means it can modify one region of a molecule while leaving other functional groups untouched. This makes the reaction particularly useful for late-stage optimization, a stage of drug discovery where scientists fine tune molecules to improve how medicines perform. Because the approach avoids heavy metals, harsh reaction conditions and lengthy synthesis pathways, it could also reduce toxic waste and energy consumption in pharmaceutical manufacturing. These environmental benefits are increasingly important as the chemical industry works to reduce its environmental impact. Inspired by Sustainable Chemistry Research Vahey works in the research group led by Professor Erwin Reisner at Cambridge. Reisner's team is known for developing chemical systems inspired by photosynthesis. Their research explores ways to use sunlight to convert waste materials, water and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into useful chemicals and fuels. Reisner, Professor of Energy and Sustainability in the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry and lead author of the study, said the significance of the work lies in expanding what chemists can achieve under practical conditions while also moving toward greener manufacturing techniques. ""This is a new way to make a fundamental carbon-carbon bond and that's why the potential impact is so great. It also means chemists can avoid an undesirable and inefficient drug modification process."" The researchers tested the reaction on a broad range of drug like molecules and showed that it could also be adapted for continuous flow systems commonly used in industrial chemical production. Collaboration with AstraZeneca helped evaluate whether the technique could meet the practical and environmental requirements of large scale pharmaceutical manufacturing. ""Transitioning the chemical industry to a sustainable industry is arguably one of the most difficult parts of the whole energy transition,"" explained Reisner. Breakthrough Emerges From a Failed Experiment The discovery began with an unexpected laboratory result, similar to many famous scientific breakthroughs including X-rays, penicillin, Viagra and modern weight loss medications. ""Failure after failure, then we found something we weren't expecting in the mess -- a real diamond in the rough. And it is all thanks to a failed control experiment,"" Vahey said. He had been testing a photocatalyst when he removed it during a control experiment and discovered that the reaction worked just as well and sometimes even better without it. At first the unusual product appeared to be a mistake. Instead of ignoring it, the researchers chose to investigate further. According to Reisner, recognizing the significance of unexpected results is an important part of scientific discovery. ""Recognizing the value in the unexpected is probably one of the key characteristics of a successful scientist,"" he said. AI Helps Predict New Chemical Reactions ""We generate enormous amounts of data, and increasingly we use artificial intelligence to help analyze it. We have an algorithm that can predict reactivity. AI helps because we don't need chemists to do endless trial and error, but an algorithm will only follow the rules it has been given. It still takes a human being to look at something that appears wrong and ask whether it might actually be something new."" In this case, Vahey recognized the potential importance of the unexpected result and explored it further. ""David could have dismissed it as a failed control,"" Reisner said. ""Instead, he stopped and thought about what he was seeing. That moment, choosing to investigate rather than ignore it, is where discovery happens."" After uncovering the chemistry behind the reaction, the team introduced machine learning models developed with Trinity College Dublin to predict where the reaction would occur on entirely new molecules that had never been tested in the laboratory. By learning patterns from known chemical reactions, the AI system can simulate possible outcomes before experiments are performed. This allows researchers to identify promising molecules more quickly and with far less trial and error. For Vahey, the discovery provides scientists with a valuable new capability for drug discovery and development. He said: ""What industry and other researchers do with it next -- that's where the future impact lies. For us, the lab is mostly average to bad days. The good days are very good days."" Reisner added: ""As a chemist, you only need one or two good days a year -- and those can come from a failed experiment."" 10 Famous Accidental Scientific Discoveries 1. X-rays (1895) Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered X-rays while studying electrical currents flowing through glass tubes. He noticed that a nearby screen began glowing unexpectedly, revealing a new type of radiation that allowed doctors to see inside the human body without surgery. 2. Radioactivity (1898) Marie Curie observed that certain uranium minerals produced much more radiation than uranium alone could explain. This surprising finding led to the discovery of polonium and radium and helped establish the field of nuclear physics and chemistry. 3. Vulcanized rubber (1839) Charles Goodyear discovered vulcanization when a mixture of natural rubber and sulphur accidentally fell onto a hot surface. Instead of melting, the rubber became strong and elastic. The process made rubber practical for industrial uses and eventually enabled the development of tires and many other products. 4. Penicillin (1928) Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin after mould accidentally contaminated a laboratory dish and killed surrounding bacteria. The discovery led to the first widely used antibiotic and transformed modern medicine. 5. Teflon (1938) Chemist Roy Plunkett accidentally created Teflon while experimenting with refrigerant gases. The unexpected material proved extremely slippery and heat resistant and later became widely used in nonstick cookware and industrial applications. 6. Super glue (1942) Harry Coover was attempting to develop transparent plastics when he instead created a substance that bonded instantly to nearly any surface. Later marketed as super glue, it became widely used in homes, manufacturing and medicine. 7. LSD (1943) Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally absorbed a small amount of a compound he had synthesized and experienced its powerful psychological effects. The substance, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), later played an important role in neuroscience research and became controversial in popular culture. 8. Pulsars (1967) Graduate student Jocelyn Bell Burnell noticed repeating radio signals while analyzing telescope data. Initially believed to be interference, the signals turned out to be the first evidence of pulsars, rapidly spinning neutron stars that opened a new field of astrophysics. 9. Viagra (1990s) Researchers at Pfizer were studying a drug intended to treat angina when participants reported an unexpected side effect. The compound was later developed as Viagra and is now widely prescribed for erectile dysfunction. 10. Weight loss injections (2021) Scientists developing treatments for Type 2 diabetes discovered that drugs mimicking the hormone GLP-1 also caused significant weight loss. Medications such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, originally created for diabetes, were later developed to treat obesity, marking a major shift in approaches to weight management. Story Source: Materials provided by St. John's College, University of Cambridge. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Journal Reference: Cite This Page: Is Berberine Really a “Natural Ozempic”? Scientists Reveal What This Popular Supplement Really Does Hidden DNA in Plants Reveals a 400 Million Year Evolutionary Secret Why Colon Cancer Is Rising in Young Adults: Scientists Discover Unexpected Physical Clue 75-Million-Year-Old Mystery: Scientists Uncover Tyrannosaurs' Dark Secret Stay informed with ScienceDaily's free email newsletter, updated daily and weekly. Or view our many newsfeeds in your RSS reader: Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks: Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. Have any problems using the site? Questions?","{'href': 'https://www.sciencedaily.com', 'title': 'ScienceDaily'}","science" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:sciencedaily.com","Gut bacteria that make serotonin may hold the key to IBS","https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260313002640.htm","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:30:28 GMT"," Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a widespread digestive condition that affects the gastrointestinal tract. It occurs more frequently in women and commonly causes symptoms such as abdominal pain, constipation, or diarrhea. The exact cause of IBS remains uncertain. However, scientists believe that conditions inside the intestine, including the gut microbiota and the chemical messenger serotonin, play an important role. Serotonin is widely recognized as a neurotransmitter in the brain that influences mood. Yet more than 90 percent of the body's serotonin is actually produced in the gut. There it regulates bowel activity through the enteric nervous system, often referred to as the ""gut-brain."" Earlier studies have shown that bacteria living in the gut, known collectively as the gut microbiota, can influence how much serotonin the body produces. Until recently, however, researchers did not know whether gut bacteria themselves were capable of producing biologically active serotonin. Gut Bacteria That Produce Serotonin In a new study published in the journal Cell Reports, researchers identified two bacterial species that can work together to produce serotonin. The bacteria are Limosilactobacillus mucosae and Ligilactobacillus ruminis. To test their effects, scientists introduced these bacteria into germ free mice that lacked normal serotonin levels. After the microbes were added, serotonin levels in the animals' intestines increased. The number of nerve cells in the colon also rose, and the time it took for food to move through the intestines returned to normal. ""It is incredibly fascinating how the gut bacteria can produce bioactive signaling molecules that affect health,"" says Fredrik Bäckhed, Professor of molecular medicine at Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, and one of the leading authors of the study. Possible New Treatment Paths for IBS The researchers also discovered that people with IBS had lower levels of one of these bacteria (L. mucosae) in their stool samples compared with healthy individuals. This bacterium contains the enzyme needed to produce serotonin. Magnus Simrén is a Professor of medical gastroenterology at Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg: ""Our results indicate that certain intestinal bacteria can produce bioactive serotonin and thus play an important role in intestinal health and open new avenues for the treatment of functional gastrointestinal disorders such as IBS,"" he says. ""Our findings indicate that intestinal bacteria can form signaling substances such as serotonin, which may be the key to understanding how the intestine and its inhabitants can affect our brain and the behavior,"" concludes Fredrik Bäckhed. Story Source: Materials provided by University of Gothenburg. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Journal Reference: Cite This Page: Is Berberine Really a “Natural Ozempic”? Scientists Reveal What This Popular Supplement Really Does Hidden DNA in Plants Reveals a 400 Million Year Evolutionary Secret Why Colon Cancer Is Rising in Young Adults: Scientists Discover Unexpected Physical Clue 75-Million-Year-Old Mystery: Scientists Uncover Tyrannosaurs' Dark Secret Stay informed with ScienceDaily's free email newsletter, updated daily and weekly. Or view our many newsfeeds in your RSS reader: Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks: Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. Have any problems using the site? Questions?","{'href': 'https://www.sciencedaily.com', 'title': 'ScienceDaily'}","science" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:nature.com","Top brass in China reaffirm goal to be world leaders in tech, AI","https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00814-3","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 06:13:34 GMT"," Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Advertisement Search author on: PubMed Google Scholar Credit: Kevin Frayer/Getty China is pledging to use ‘extraordinary measures' to support the country's bid to become a global leader in artificial intelligence, quantum technology and other cutting-edge technological fields, according to its 15th five-year plan. The plan (FYP) was passed by the top legislature in Beijing on Thursday and published on Friday. It will run from 2026 to 2030 and serves as China's overarching blueprint. Many researchers noted an air of confidence in the plan. “Five years ago, the sentiment of the Chinese science policymakers was still very much like, we don't want to be too far behind the US, we are still doing the catching up,” says Meicen Sun, an information scientist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “Now, there is this more palpable sentiment that there's a real chance we can be a true leader,” she says. The government has promised to boost its research and development (R&D) expenditure over the next five years. And the country's science budget is also expected to increase to 426 billion yuan (US$62 billion) this year, a rise of 10% from 2025. The Chinese government now considers science to be as important as other top-level national goals, such as boosting defence, economic growth and the country's international influence, says Stefanie Kam, who researches Chinese politics at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The plan also doubles down on the government's long-term goal of becoming more self-sufficient by overcoming technological bottlenecks that prevent China from making key technologies, such as advanced semiconductor chips. It calls for breakthroughs along the ‘whole chain of development' in six domains: integrated circuits, industrial machine tools (machines that make other machines), high-end instruments, basic software, advanced materials and biomanufacturing. That essentially means that the country will step up its domestic capabilities in every aspect of those industries, says Steven Hai, a political economist focusing on technology innovation at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China. Although China has tried to overcome technological choke points for many years, the mission has been brought to the fore in the 15th FYP, mainly owing to China–US competition for technological supremacy, says Zhou Weihuan, a legal scholar specializing in China at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The plan doesn't go into detail about what the extraordinary measures will entail, but Sun suggests they will include provisions such as the ‘K visa', which was rolled out last year to attract foreign scientists. “Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. This document is a prime embodiment of this,” she says. The country will also fast-track R&D in areas such as biotechnology, neuroscience and deep-space exploration. The plan doubles down on the use of artificial intelligence, applying the technology across society, in fields ranging from industrial development to social governance, as part of a national campaign called AI plus, which was announced last year. AI research is now being treated as a crucial and strategic national resource that requires security along the whole supply chain, including chips, basic software and training to ensure mass adoption, Kam says. In early 2025, Chinese tech start-up firm DeepSeek shocked the world by releasing two large language models (LLMs) that rivalled the performance of the dominant tools developed by US tech giants — but that were built at a fraction of the cost and computing power needed to train their US counterparts. Sun says that the country's AI advances have served as a confidence booster for its “attitudinal change” as to its standing in the global technological race. She expects China to not only develop AI as a technology, but also to “actively and pre-emptively” write the global rule books on AI governance and regulation. or doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00814-3 Reprints and permissions China accounts for more than half of leading output in the applied sciences China leads research in 90% of crucial technologies — a dramatic shift this century China is leading the world on AI governance: other countries must engage China wants to lead the world on AI regulation — will the plan work? China seeks self-reliance in science in next five-year plan Statistics reach a 'crisis point': nations struggle with a critical lack of data News Feature 11 MAR 26 China pledges billion-dollar spending boost for science News 11 MAR 26 How Congress can restore the independence of US science Comment 09 MAR 26 The problem with Canada's plan to buy scientific prestige Career Column 13 MAR 26 China pledges billion-dollar spending boost for science News 11 MAR 26 How data can help to guide NIH funding policy Comment 10 MAR 26 ‘RAMmageddon' hits labs: AI-driven memory shortage is impacting science News 13 MAR 26 ‘Einstein‘ bot sharpens debate over AI in the classroom Career News 12 MAR 26 AI can ‘same-ify' human expression — can some brains resist its pull? News 11 MAR 26 Seeking exceptional Senior/Junior PIs, Postdocs, and Core Specialists globally year-round Hangzhou, China Hangzhou Institute of Medicine Chinese Academy of Sciences (HIMCAS) Join HZAU's global faculty team to advance research with competitive benefits. No.1 Shizishan Street, Hongshan District, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU) Chemistry at the School of Science is committed to fostering inclusive excellence in a variety of research and teaching activities. Hangzhou, Zhejiang (CN) Westlake University The University of Miami/UHealth Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center has an exciting opportunity for a Full Time Postdoctoral Assoc. in Biomedical... Miami, Florida Dr. Anna Lasorella and Dr. Antonio Iavarone Tenure Track Position Jerusalem The Hebrew University China accounts for more than half of leading output in the applied sciences China leads research in 90% of crucial technologies — a dramatic shift this century China is leading the world on AI governance: other countries must engage China wants to lead the world on AI regulation — will the plan work? China seeks self-reliance in science in next five-year plan An essential round-up of science news, opinion and analysis, delivered to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily. Nature (Nature) ISSN 1476-4687 (online) ISSN 0028-0836 (print) © 2026 Springer Nature Limited","{'href': 'https://www.nature.com', 'title': 'Nature'}","science" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:wired.com","Japan Approves the World's First Treatment Made With Reprogrammed Human Cells","https://www.wired.com/story/japan-approves-the-worlds-first-treatment-made-with-reprogrammed-human-cells/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT"," On March 6, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare officially granted conditional and time-limited marketing authorization to two regenerative medical products derived from reprogrammed iPS cells, marking exactly 20 years since the creation of mouse iPS cells. These will be the world's first practical application of iPS cell-derived products. “We are very pleased to have taken a major step toward social application on the 20th anniversary of the announcement of mouse iPS cells,” said Shinya Yamanaka, director emeritus of the iPS Cell Research Institute at Kyoto University. “To establish it as a medical treatment, it is essential to go through the process of confirming its safety and efficacy in many more cases. I believe it is important that we continue to move forward steadily, step by step, with scientific caution and without getting carried away.” The initialism stands for induced pluripotent stem cells. These are adult cells, such as skin or blood cells, that have been reprogrammed to function like embryonic stem cells. They can divide indefinitely and can take the form of any cell type. Thanks to this ability, they can be used to test new drugs and for research in regenerative medicine. This type of cell allows for scientific advancement without the ethical problems that arise from working with embryonic stem cells. One of the regenerative medicine products that has been approved is ReHeart, from Qualipse, a startup based at Osaka University. It's a sheet of specialized heart cells called cardiomyocytes differentiated from iPS cells of healthy donors, and it generated considerable buzz when it was presented at the Osaka-Kansai Expo. It's intended for patients with severe heart failure due to ischemic cardiomyopathy who don't recover sufficiently despite standard treatment, including drug therapy and invasive procedures. Qualipse's iPS cell-derived cardiac muscle sheet. It was also the focus of much attention when it was exhibited at Expo 2005 Osaka-Kansai. Severe heart failure is a serious condition that worsens over time, and the only treatment options are a heart transplant or a heart-assisted artificial heart. However, heart transplantation is hampered by a shortage of donors and age restrictions, and artificial hearts also carry the risk of infection and cranial nerve damage, as well as long-term decline in quality of life. ReHeart addresses these unmet medical needs. The transplant is performed via a surgery in the left side of the chest, with three sheets of cardiomyocytes attached to the surface of the heart. Signaling proteins secreted by the transplanted cells help increase blood flow and repair tissue. In a national multicenter collaborative study that included eight patients with severe heart failure, a trend toward improvement was confirmed in four patients, with peak oxygen consumption (VO2 peak) increasing by more than 10 percent at 52 weeks post-transplant. The second approved product is Amusepri (generic name: laguneprocell) from Sumitomo Pharma and Racthera. It consists of precursor cells destined to become dopamine-producing neurons made from donor iPS cells. It is indicated for improving motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease who have had an inadequate response to existing drug therapies, including levodopa-containing preparations. Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that causes motor symptoms such as tremors in the limbs and muscle rigidity due to the gradual loss of dopaminergic nerve cells in the brain. Current drug therapies are treatments to alleviate symptoms, not a fundamental approach to replacing lost nerve cells. AmShepli aims to offer a new treatment option by transplanting progenitor cells from lost dopamine-making neurons directly into the brain. This transplant is performed using a minimally invasive type of brain surgery. Small holes are drilled in the skull, one on each side, and the cells are dispersed and injected into the capsule on both sides via three delivery routes. In a physician-led trial conducted at Kyoto University Hospital, four of the six Parkinson's disease patients analyzed showed an improvement in their off-time score (the score when the drug's effect has worn off) on the Motor Symptoms Diagnostic and Treatment Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS Part III) 24 months after transplantation. Researchers confirmed that the cells remained viable in all six patients at the transplant site. SMaRT, located in Suita City, Osaka Prefecture, is responsible for the production of Amshepri and is the world's first commercial manufacturing facility dedicated to regenerative medicine and cell-based drugs derived from donor iPS cells. The iPS cells used as raw material for the product come from a stock provided by the Kyoto University iPS Cell Research Foundation, and the differentiation induction and manufacturing technologies are based on proprietary technologies from Kyoto University and other institutions. For example, Eisai's cell purification technology is used in part of the manufacturing process; the product was made possible through collaboration between industry and academia, with contributions from various institutions. It could also be argued that the fact that this groundbreaking approval came from Japan was structurally inevitable. This is because the entire supply chain has been almost entirely completed in Japan, from the establishment of the basic technology by Shinya Yamanaka, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, to the supply of iPS cells by the Kyoto University iPS Cell Research Foundation, the differentiation induction and manufacturing technologies developed by Kyoto University and other institutions, the establishment of the commercial manufacturing facility SMaRT, and even the development of university startups and the entry of major pharmaceutical companies. The two new products are considered “approved with conditions and timeframes. ”This means that, even after approval, the products' efficacy and safety must continue to be verified through post-marketing clinical trials and end-use studies. This unique Japanese system has enabled early approval in fields such as regenerative medicine, where large-scale clinical trials are difficult to conduct, and is one of the factors explaining the practical application of these products. Furthermore, the approval process, including long-term public funding from national institutions, was not only the result of individual researchers but also the product of Japanese science policy. An experiment in an open laboratory at Kyoto University's iPS Cell Research Institute. A comprehensive study of ReHeart's use outcomes in a target number of 75 patients is planned, with sales starting around the fall of 2026. AmShepli is also required to gather data for official approval. Transplantation of any of these products is not a treatment available to everyone at this stage and will be available as an insured treatment once the insurance coverage procedure—where the product is officially registered as covered by public health insurance—has been completed. The estimated timeframe for these products to be included on the insurance list is three months after approval for pharmaceuticals and four to five months after application for medical supplies, so it is still expected to be some time before they reach patients. Commenting on the approval, Kenichiro Ueno, minister of health, labor, and welfare, stated at a press conference: “I am very pleased that a therapeutic product from Japan based on professor Yamanaka's iPS cells has been put into practice for the first time in the world, and I hope it will help patients not only in Japan but all over the world.” Jun Takahashi, director of the iPS Cell Research Institute at Kyoto University, who led the Amusepuri trial, stated: “The results of the deliberations are a major step forward, but even if approval is granted, that is not the goal, but only the beginning of this new medicine.” He emphasized the importance of accumulating long-term data, starting carefully with a limited number of cases. Twenty years have passed since the emergence of iPS cells. The technology, which originated in the laboratory, has reached the stage where human cells are cultured, differentiated, and finally administered to the patient's body. The future of medicine, rewritten by iPS cells, has only just begun. This story originally appeared in WIRED Japan and has been translated from Japanese. In your inbox: WIRED's most ambitious, future-defining stories The authors of ICE's ‘mega' detention center plans Big Story: The worst thing that could happen to the ISS College campuses are in upheaval over faculty ties to Epstein Event: Helping small business owners succeed © 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices","{'href': 'https://www.wired.com', 'title': 'WIRED'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:wired.com","The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Makes Me Wish All Phones Had a Privacy Screen","https://www.wired.com/review/samsung-galaxy-s26-ultra/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 11:00:00 GMT"," 8/10 Did you privately ask ChatGPT how to bring up nonmonogamy with your husband? It's all over socials! Your commuting neighbor on the train snuck a glance at your phone, guffawed internally, and blasted it on X with a satisfied smirk. At least you're still anonymous. This is a scenario that Samsung's new smartphone avoids. It's rare for a new smartphone hardware innovation to affect so much of our day-to-day experience, but that's exactly what the Privacy Display on the Galaxy S26 Ultra does. Over the last two weeks, I have enjoyed an extra level of comfort knowing that my nosy public transit neighbors and fellow coffee shop lovers have a hard time seeing anything on my screen. Barring the display, this isn't a revolutionary upgrade over the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which wasn't a revolutionary upgrade over the Galaxy S24 Ultra. If you're coming from a flagship Galaxy smartphone from a year or two ago, maybe even three, you do not need to spend $1,300 to upgrade unless something is seriously wrong with your smartphone. But if you have an older phone, the Ultra hits some strong highs and offers a well-rounded experience. Samsung's Privacy Display is exclusive to the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and it's a hardware feature built into the screen. It mimics privacy screen protectors without manually applying one to your phone, and it doesn't dramatically reduce screen brightness or image quality. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Rating: 8/10 Even better, because it's integrated, you can customize when the Privacy Display turns on through the software. Mine activates automatically with select messaging apps, banking apps, and for notifications, and there's no visual indication when looking at the phone straight on that the Privacy Display is enabled or not (unless you tilt the screen slightly). You can still see the screen from the sides with Privacy Display enabled, it's just much dimmer and harder to make out the content. For maximum effect, you can turn on Max Privacy Protection via the quick settings menu, which makes it near impossible to read the screen from the sides. You don't want to use that mode all the time because the screen looks washed out, but it's good for when you want to be extra private. Oddly, Samsung doesn't let you configure this extra layer to automatically turn on with specific apps—it's a manual toggle every time. I've seen some complaints online about the Privacy Display affecting the screen quality, but I have to disagree. Then again, the first thing I did when setting up the phone was max out the screen resolution to Quad HD+ and also set the colors to Vivid. I haven't seen any fuzzy text, and brightness hasn't been a problem for me either. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Rating: 8/10 Yes, you can buy a cheap privacy screen protector and add it to any phone, but sometimes you do want the person next to you—be it a friend or family member—to be able to read the screen alongside you. Or maybe the phone is on a table, and you want to lazily scroll TikTok while trying to keep an eye on work. That's where a standard privacy screen protector won't help, as it blocks you from seeing your own screen, but Samsung's solution gets around that. Now, I wish every smartphone had a privacy screen. You don't need to be doing anything illicit or extremely sensitive to justify having this feature. Maybe you want your conversation with a loved one to be private. Maybe you're authenticating a login and don't want anyone else to see the code. Or you're opening your banking app, and don't want anyone snooping at your checking account. It's just nice to have privacy. Samsung has made its Ultra smartphone more like the standard Galaxy S26 and S26+, with rounded corners instead of the boxy look of its predecessors. (It's still the only one of the lot with the integrated S Pen stylus.) The overall design language is still quite dull, and the phone's muted colors aren't exciting (you can buy an iPhone 17 Pro in orange for crying out loud!). Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Rating: 8/10 Annoyingly, the phone rocks on a table worse than ever. The S26 Ultra may be slimmer, but the camera module is thicker, so you'll have a rather inelegant experience when tapping the screen with the phone on a surface. A case solves this problem, but I prefer a caseless experience. Also unfortunate is the lack of Qi2 magnets. Like its predecessor, Samsung's S26 series is Qi2 Ready—you can only access faster wireless charging speeds and the unique magnetic mounting capabilities of Qi2 with a first- or third-party magnetic case. Google's Pixel 10 phones remain the only flagship Android phones with this native functionality. Heck, Apple even brought MagSafe/Qi2 to its “budget” $599 iPhone 17e. What is taking Samsung so long? Performance has been very good, with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 proving its worth. My benchmark scores are the highest I've seen on a smartphone, especially multi-core scores—closely matching the OnePlus 15, which has the same chip. For real-world testing, I spent a chunk of time playing Genshin Impact at the max graphical settings without issues. I do think gameplay is slightly smoother on the iPhone 17 Pro, but there's really not much to complain about. The Ultra manages thermals well, too, dispersing heat throughout the phone rather than creating hot spots. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Rating: 8/10 It's very disappointing that Samsung has yet to explore silicon-carbon batteries, unlike its Chinese peers, but I've been happy with battery life. The 5,000-mAh cell easily lasts a full day even with heavy usage. On one busy day, I hit seven hours of screen-on time and still didn't need to plug in until bedtime. With average or light use, I don't feel the need to charge it every night. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Rating: 8/10 For the camera experience, versatility is the name of the game. It features slightly wider apertures on the main 200-MP and 50-MP 5X optical zoom cameras, and that means brighter, sharper images in low-light scenes. It's just a really fun, enjoyable system to use, swapping between the ultrawide, the 3X optical zoom, the 5X optical zoom, and the main sensor. I even frequently opt for the 10X “optical-like” zoom and am happy with the results. Is it my favorite camera system on a smartphone? No. I compared some images with the Pixel 10 Pro, and I prefer the color tones, exposure, and contrast that Google provides on its smartphone. In low light, you may end up with slightly blurry images if you're not still enough. But having access to all these cameras elevates the experience, and I'm very happy to have this system in my pocket. I find myself snapping more pictures, and that's a great sign for any camera system. Samsung has always delivered some of the best smartphone video quality in the Android world, and it goes a step further this year with Horizon Lock. You need to manually enable this in the camera app when you're in video mode (turn on Super Steady), but you'll be amazed at how well your footage is stabilized, no matter how much you tilt, twist, and shake the phone. You can be quite carefree about how you hold the phone while recording, even while shooting in 4K at 60 frames per second with HDR+. It needs a good amount of light, though, so it's not for dark indoor settings or after sunset. It's a tale of two AIs with Samsung's Galaxy smartphones. Well, technically, more—Bixby still exists, and Perplexity is now preinstalled—but you're largely dealing with Samsung's suite of Galaxy AI features alongside Gemini and Google's own AI tools in its preinstalled apps. The conversational editing feature in Samsung's Gallery app, for example, already exists in Google Photos (also preinstalled). It's nice to have more feature parity, in case you prefer using one app over the other. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Rating: 8/10 Some of these new AI capabilities are in your face or, frankly, useless (or both). Samsung's Now Brief widget, which is supposed to be a daily information hub, has yet to provide any valuable information. Now Nudge is supposed to be baked into Samsung's keyboard and offer contextual assistance, so if someone texts about meeting up for coffee next week, it may proactively ask if you want to create a calendar event. I've hardly seen it appear on the phone, even after a friend texted about grabbing coffee! Speaking of, I want to take a minute to talk about the keyboard. It remains one of the most frustrating parts of the Samsung smartphone experience, and why I instantly switch to Google's Gboard most of the time. Voice typing is just awful—it doesn't understand punctuation, and consistently mishears what I say—and swipe typing in general is lackluster. I'm shocked Samsung hasn't figured out a way to improve the experience after all the AI it's shoving into these phones. The new call-screening function is great, though I still encounter more suspected scam calls on the S26 Ultra than when I'm using my Pixel 10 Pro. Also, the upgraded document scanner baked into the camera app is neat—removing creases, erasing fingers, cutting away the background, and minimizing distortion. These are the mundane things AI should help us with. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Rating: 8/10 Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Rating: 8/10 I surprisingly like the new Audio Eraser function. I was endlessly scrolling through Instagram Reels when I came upon a video of someone walking through a busy market. Their audio was OK, but I turned on Audio Eraser in the quick settings menu; Samsung's AI cut out the background chatter, making it easier to hear what the creator was saying. I can imagine this could be even more helpful for folks who need hearing assistance. I have to save the best for last: Google's Task Automation in Gemini. This isn't an exclusive feature with the Galaxy S26 Ultra—it'll be coming to the Pixel 10 series soon enough—but it's debuting here. Power on Gemini and ask it to ""book an Uber"" to the airport, restaurant, or wherever you need to go. It also works with DoorDash, GrubHub, and Uber Eats (more apps to come). This is essentially Gemini taking control of your app to complete a task. You can visualize this entire process if you want, or let it do its thing as you do more interesting things on your phone. Gemini will head back to you if it has additional questions, and it stops short of actually booking or placing an order. It takes you to the last step, so you can verify your Uber options or checkout cart and hit order if everything looks good. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Rating: 8/10 Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Rating: 8/10 The Uber feature has been the smoothest for me, even if it takes longer than manually using the Uber app yourself. But hey, if you're still putting on your shoes and getting ready, Gemini can give you a head start. I ran into more issues when ordering food, but it was still impressive. I asked Gemini to order Singapore Mei Fun from my go-to Chinese takeout spot, Weng's Garden. Even though it spelled Weng incorrectly in the query, it found the right spot by looking at my prior orders. I asked it to order chicken with garlic sauce for my wife, and it managed this, even though the actual item was called “Chicken With Vegetables in Garlic Sauce."" I watched it type “garlic” into the restaurant's search function, and it inferred that this item is likely what I meant, then came back to me to ask if I wanted a pint or a quart. Again, it's not perfect. Initially, for some reason, when I asked it to order my usual from Weng's, it tried to add wings to my cart from the same restaurant even though I never buy wings from there. But it's a glimpse of how Gemini can handle these menial tasks, so you can look at the checkout page, make sure everything looks correct, and hit Order rather than spending several minutes digging through menus. You do still have to be conscious that you're granting Gemini complete control over the app, which may open you up to privacy and security risks. The good thing is that if you don't want any of these AI capabilities, you can spend a few minutes disabling and getting rid of most of them. Samsung's top-tier flagship is an excellent smartphone, and the Privacy Display is a rare new feature that I now want on every handset. I'd still like to see Samsung do more to upgrade battery capacity, and finally bring native Qi2 for greater cross-compatibility with iPhone accessories, but alas, maybe next year. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Rating: 8/10 © 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices","{'href': 'https://www.wired.com', 'title': 'WIRED'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:wired.com","I Regret to Inform You That You're Using an Inferior Pour-Over Coffee Brewer","https://www.wired.com/story/kalita-wave-pour-over-coffee-brewer/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:33:00 GMT"," Coffee is the original biohack and the nation's most popular productivity tool. As we adjust to the changeover to daylight saving time, the caffeine-addicted WIRED Reviews team is writing about our favorite coffee brewing routines and devices. Today, director Michael Calore expounds on his love for the Kalita Wave. Look out for other Java.Base stories about other WIRED writers' favorite brewing methods. Pour-over coffee has a reputation for being fussy. That's well earned; if you're using one of the popular pour-over brewers like a Chemex or a Hario V60, you have no doubt spent a good deal of time on trial and error. If you don't dial in the grind size, heat your water to the correct temperature, or maneuver your kettle in a perfect spiral to evenly soak the coffee, it's easy to end up with an underextracted or acidic mess. It can force you to abandon pour-over altogether and go make amends with your Moccamaster. There's a better way—a method that is not only foolproof and requires almost none of that fastidiousness, but also results in a spectacular cup of coffee every single time. I'm talking about the Kalita Wave, which has long been my favorite way to make coffee. This brewer, born in Japan a couple of decades ago, looks a lot like those other pour-over drippers. But where other brewers' paper filters are cone-shaped, a Kalita's filter ends in a 2-inch-wide flat bottom. Instead of letting coffee flow out through one rather large hole at the bottom of the filter, the Kalita drips coffee out more slowly through three small holes. It's a style of brewer called a flatbed, so named for that flat-bottomed filter. Kalita isn't the only one—other notables include the Orea, the Timemore B75, and the December Dripper, a Kalita-style dripper with an adjustable aperture—but flatbeds have earned a sparkling reputation among both serious baristas and people who just want to make a good cup of coffee without feeling like they're trying to win a blue ribbon at the science fair. The trick is in the design. That flat bottom lets more of the coffee get fully saturated by distributing the water more evenly among the grounds. You can properly saturate your coffee in a V60 if you pour carefully, but with a Kalita Wave, since more of the grounds are collected at the filter's flat bottom, it's easier to evenly wet them. The three small holes control the flow, restricting it just enough so the coffee is suitably extracted before it drips out. The filter's wavy design makes it so the paper barely touches the side walls of the dripper. This keeps heat from transferring to the metal dripper, so the water—and your resulting coffee—stays the right temperature. (You've probably clocked that, yes, you will need special filters, but the cost is comparable to cone-shaped V60 filters: about 12 or 13 cents each.) The upshot here is that anyone can make a reliably delicious cup. You'll get a full-bodied and flavorful brew even if you don't pay close attention to variables like grind size, water temperature, and saturation. It's more forgiving on beans, too; the same coffee that can taste acidic in a V60 is mellower and noticeably sweeter in a flat-bottomed brewer. Kalita Waves come in two sizes: 155 and 185. That number denotes the size of the filters. If you drink more than a single, 335-ml cup of coffee at a time, then there's no reason to get the smaller one. Go with the larger 185. I use the bigger boy to brew 500 or 600 ml of coffee every day and the results are always the same, always delicious. Kalita Amazon Kalita For years, I've been using a classic, stainless steel Kalita 185, the valedictorian prom king of flatbed drippers. It does occasionally clog. A wet filter loaded up with water and soggy grounds can sag, and though there's a little platform for the filter to sit on at the bottom, a really saggy filter can sag enough to cover one or more of the holes, sloooow the drainage down, and serve up some overextracted muck. Clogs only happen once in a blue moon, though, and I like the durability and simplicity of the metal design, so I still recommend it—especially to people who are new to Kalita brewing, since it's a low-cost and low-fuss route to lotusland. Kalita Amazon Kalita But a more recent favorite has emerged. Last year, Kalita released a mino ware version of the Wave. This is a handsome style of Japanese ceramic with a rough glaze. The redesigned filter platform at the base of the brewer pretty much solves that saggy-cloggy problem, and it has larger holes that drain a little faster, which is helpful if your brew sizes trend large. There's also a high-gloss ceramic version with a texture and look that resembles a classic diner-style coffee mug. It also has the larger holes. While these ceramic babies are super pretty, they're more fragile. One drop and you could be out $30. Same with the all-glass versions. Kalita Amazon Kalita So if you're a klutz like me and you want a premium brewing experience, stick with the indestructibility of stainless steel, but consider upgrading your choice to Kalita's Tsubame dripper. It's a bit more costly, but it's handmade from heavy-gauge steel, has the best handle of any Kalita, and looks goddamn gorgeous. Also, it has a no-clog design, and it delivers those same consistent results. I'm not going to talk you into throwing away your V60. I still have mine and use it occasionally. My advice is just to add this to your lineup. See how good the coffee tastes. As you experiment with your Wave brewer, I wager you'll find yourself reaching for it more and more often. Soon, you'll be reaching for it every day. In your inbox: WIRED's most ambitious, future-defining stories The authors of ICE's ‘mega' detention center plans Big Story: The worst thing that could happen to the ISS College campuses are in upheaval over faculty ties to Epstein Event: Helping small business owners succeed Squarespace Promo Code: 20% Off Annual Acuity Subscriptions LG Promo Code: 20% Off Your First Order 10% Off Dell Coupon Code for New Customers 30% Samsung Coupon - Offer Program 2026 10% Off Canon Promo Code + Up to 30% Off 50% Off Doordash Promo Code For New & Existing Users © 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices","{'href': 'https://www.wired.com', 'title': 'WIRED'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:wired.com","You Can Approximate Pi by Dropping Needles on the Floor","https://www.wired.com/story/you-can-approximate-pi-by-dropping-needles-on-the-floor/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 11:00:00 GMT"," Happy Pi Day! March 14 is the date that otherwise rational people celebrate this irrational number, because 3/14 contains the first three digits of pi. And hey, pi deserves a day. By definition, it's the ratio of the circumference and diameter of a circle, but it shows up in all kinds of places that seem to have nothing to do with circles, from music to quantum mechanics. Pi is an infinitely long decimal number that never repeats. How do we know? Well, humans have calculated it to 314 trillion decimal places and didn't reach the end. At that point, I'm inclined to accept it. I mean, NASA uses only the first 15 decimal places for navigating spacecraft, and that's more than enough for earthly applications. The coolest thing, for me, is that there are many ways to approximate that value, which I've written about in the past. For instance, you can do it by oscillating a mass on a spring. But maybe the craziest method of all was proven in 1777 by George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. Decades earlier, Buffon had posed this as a probability question in geometry: Imagine you have a floor with parallel lines separated by a distance d. Onto this floor, you drop a bunch of needles with length L. What is the probability that a needle will cross one of the parallel lines? A picture will help you understand what's happening. Let's say I drop just two needles on the floor (feel free to replace the needles with something safer, like toothpicks). Also, just to make things easier later, we can say that the needle length and line spacing are equal (d = L). You can see that one of the needles crosses a line and the other doesn't. OK, but what are the chances? This is not the most trivial problem, but let's think about just one dropped needle. We only care about two values—the distance (x) from the farther end of the needle to a line, and the angle of the needle (θ) with respect to a perpendicular (see the diagram below). If x is less than half the spacing between lines, we get a needle-crossing. As you can see, you'd get a higher probability with a smaller x or a smaller θ. In fact, here is a plot showing a bunch of random x and θ values. The red dots are values that result in a needle crossing and the blue ones are for no crossings. The green line is the function (d/2) x cos(θ)—the transition between crossing and no crossing. The ratio of the area under the curve to the total area would be the probability of a needle crossing. We can find the area under the curve by integrating. If you do the math, you get a probability of 2/π for the case where the needle length is equal to the line spacing. There's our pi! The reason it got in there is that the needle angle goes from negative π/2 to positive π/2 (two quarter circles). Maybe you're not surprised after seeing that cosine function. But you don't have to do any calculus. Instead, just drop a bunch of needles, count the number of crossings, and divide by the total number of needles. This ratio should be close to the probability of crossing (2/π). We can use this to find the value of pi. Some fools have actually dropped needles on their floor, but I'm just going to do a random-number simulation with Python. Here's what it looks like with 100 needles: In this simulation, 66 of the 100 needles crossed a line (you can count 'em). Using this number, we get a value of pi at 3.0303—which is not 3.14—but it's not terrible for just 100 needles. With 30,000 needles, you might be accurate to six decimal places. The idea of using random numbers to simulate things is quite useful, especially when the math is very complex or even impossible. This method was invented during the Manhattan Project in 1946 to model nuclear reactions, and it's called a Monte Carlo calculation, after the famous casino there. (If it were created today, it might be called a Vegas calculation.) Of course, this technique doesn't really become useful until you start using computers, so you can run many, many trials. For example, suppose you want to model a gas as a bunch of balls colliding with the walls of a container. It's possible to use a large number of random balls in motion to calculate the average pressure on the walls. Why am I telling you this? Yes, that was a Monte Carlo simulation I did on my computer to estimate pi, even though I ran only 100 trials. But even if I dropped physical needles all over my floor, it would still in effect be a Monte Carlo estimation—or maybe a reverse Monte Carlo— because the position of a dropped needle is pretty much random. That's right. Buffon's needles are just an 18th-century method of generating random numbers in real life. In your inbox: WIRED's most ambitious, future-defining stories The authors of ICE's ‘mega' detention center plans Big Story: The worst thing that could happen to the ISS College campuses are in upheaval over faculty ties to Epstein Event: Helping small business owners succeed © 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices","{'href': 'https://www.wired.com', 'title': 'WIRED'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:wired.com","The Norda 001A G+ Is the Toughest and Most Expensive Trail Running Shoe","https://www.wired.com/review/norda-001a-g-trail-shoe/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:00:00 GMT"," 8/10 Running is supposed to be an affordable hobby. But we are in the era of ultra-premium running kit, where boutique brands and fashion-running collabs tout high-spec, high-tech gear with high prices to match. From Satisfy's $140 mothtech tees to SOAR x Altra's $285 trail shorts, there are some eye-watering, pricey kit on the shelves. That goes for shoes, too. Road racing shoes like the Adidas Adizero Pro Evo 2 now tip the $500 mark. On the trails, brands like Speedland and Canadian shoemaker Norda are pushing the prices. Norda's shoes start at $295. The new 001A G+ that we tested costs $325. That's not far off the price of an Apple Watch Series 11. It's also a step up on the already-pricey top-tier trail super shoes from brands like Hoka, Asics, and Adidas. Is it really worth it? As a full-time shoe tester, I've run in dozens of trail shoes right across the price range. But this is my first time lacing up a Norda. I put 50 miles into the 001A G+ to see if you can really justify spending more than $300 on a trail shoe. Footwear industry veterans Nick Martire and Willa Leus-Martire founded Norda in 2021. The pair set out to create high-performance trail shoes that would last. Like most boutique brands, Norda focuses on using top-quality materials with a heavy attention to detail, right down to the toughened recycled polyester laces. The company also delivers a touch of stylish swagger. Norda 001A Trail Shoe Rating: 8/10 The Norda 001 was the brand's first release, a cushioned trailer designed for ultra miles with a distinct cult classic styling that really set it apart. The follow-up 001A aims to build on that reputation. It now comes in three models: the 001A, the 001A G+ with added weatherproofing, and the 001A G+ Spike ($355), which adds spikes and waterproofing for harsher conditions like snow and ice. I tested the 001A G+. The shoe's tech credentials are littered with trademark and patent symbols. But symbolic techiness aside, Norda's aim for the 001A was simple—“to find the most advanced midsole foam for trail that combined the highest resiliency possible yet performed and lasted 5-10x longer than other super foams.” Norda 001A Trail Shoe Rating: 8/10 That new foam is now a proprietary Norda x Arnitel thermoplastic polyester elastomer blend that aims to deliver 30 percent more rebound than the original 001. It weighs 10 percent less and still delivers that signature durability that lasts beyond 1,000 kilometers (621 miles). In testing, that midsole setup made for a mildly energetic ride, helped by a softening eTPU insole. It's a good balance of softness and protection with a hit of responsiveness. The 001A G+ feels grounded, rather than plush, underfoot. The sole is smallish—26 mm in the heel, 21 mm in the forefoot—which keeps you nicely connected to the trail. The feedback from that midsole was quite muted. It certainly doesn't match the springy energy you get from the Asics Metafuji Trail ($295) or a Hoka Tecton X3 ($275). However, it felt smooth over a wide range of terrain, from hard-packed trail to grass and forest floors. If, like me, you like your trail shoes to tread a fine line between connection and cushion, you'll like the 001A G+. Up top, you've got robust, seamless uppers cut from sustainable, Bluesign- and ISCC-approved, bio-based Dyneema fibers. According to Dyneema, that material is 15 times stronger than steel at the same weight. It's certainly showing no signs of weakness after 50 miles, and previous generations of the 001A were hailed for being incredibly tough. Norda 001A Trail Shoe Rating: 8/10 The G+ model has a breathable, graphene waterproof membrane laminated to the upper to keep feet warm when it's cold and to provide 10,000-mm water resistance. Interestingly, this membrane hasn't added extra weight as compared to the 001A standard shoe. I'm not 100 percent convinced we need waterproof shoes. I'd probably choose the cheaper 001A ahead of these. But if you're a fan of extra weatherproofing, these are some of the best I've tested at keeping water out. I made a point of battering through as many puddles as possible, and not a drop got in, though they can run hot. Norda 001A Trail Shoe Rating: 8/10 I was less sold on the comfort. Norda suggests going half a size up in the 001A to get a more accommodating fit. I followed that advice, which worked well for a roomy forefoot and excellent mid-foot lockdown. But these aren't the most inviting-looking shoes, and for a long-haul trail shoe, it doesn't indulge in many soft edges. Maybe I've been too mollycoddled by plush modern road and gravel shoes, but for me the Norda 001A G+ feels a bit austere, with stiff uppers and a wildly minimal heel cup. If you like instant comfort—what I call a disappearing fit, where you forget you're wearing shoes—you won't get that here. Some of those bristling edges settle the more miles you log. The stiff uppers soften a little, and there's definitely a break-in period. But the lack of padding made the heel cup rub the base of my heel. For an already-heavy shoe, I'd happily sacrifice a few more grams for a touch more comfort in the heel cushion. When it comes to grip, the 001A+ shines. The outsole uses a combination of Vibram technologies, there's Megagrip rubber with deep 5-mm lugs along with a Litebase construction to boost the stickiness while saving weight. Boy, did it stick to everything I encountered, with confidence-boosting reliability. Norda 001A Trail Shoe Rating: 8/10 I'm not the most gifted trail runner. You'd call me a tentative descender. I appreciated the welcome certainty underfoot on everything from wet rock to soggy single track. You also stick to the trail when you need to but don't feel bogged down when it's runnable, though I wouldn't fancy long stretches on the road. There's no doubt this is an excellent trail shoe. It's built tough, with fantastic grip and a nicely balanced ride. In the right colorway (I wasn't a fan of the all-black stealth I tested), it's easily one of the most stylish off-road options you can buy. But is it worth $300? I'm not convinced. If I knew the 001A G+ would still be running strong after 800 miles, maybe there's a case. With those bulletproof uppers and the resilient midsole, that's a distinct possibility. If I was going to invest, I'd definitely choose the regular 001A over the G+. You lose a bit of waterproofing, but you'll get the same performance for a good chunk less. Based on the comfort, the types of trail it'll eat, the paces it's happy at, and the long-haul potential for ultra trailing, I don't think it offers more than its much more affordable rivals. Norda 001A Trail Shoe Rating: 8/10 © 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices","{'href': 'https://www.wired.com', 'title': 'WIRED'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:geekwire.com","Articles about Zeek Earl","https://www.geekwire.com/tag/zeek-earl/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:18:35 GMT"," What happens here matters everywhere Seattle creative studio leaders Brice Budke and Zeek Earl discuss how AI is transforming video production — and what still requires human creativity, taste, and intuition. Read More Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline Have a scoop that you'd like GeekWire to cover? Let us know. Catch every headline in your inbox","{'href': 'https://www.geekwire.com', 'title': 'GeekWire'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:geekwire.com","How AI is changing the business and art of video — from ‘chaos machine' to creative catalyst","https://www.geekwire.com/2026/how-ai-is-changing-the-business-and-art-of-video-from-chaos-machine-to-creative-catalyst/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:16:29 GMT"," What happens here matters everywhere by Todd Bishop on Mar 14, 2026 at 9:16 amMarch 14, 2026 at 9:19 am On a rainy afternoon last November at Seattle Center, I walked into a darkened studio and found a film crew huddled around a miniature set, manipulating action figures representing software developers, a hero-protagonist ghost, and a monster representing AI slop. Now this is different, I remember thinking to myself. It was a stop-motion animation shoot for Kiro, an AI-powered software development tool from Amazon Web Services. When I learned that this crew was using AI to create the video in ways that wouldn't have been possible in the past — or would have taken far more time using traditional techniques alone — I knew I had to sit down and talk with them. This week on the GeekWire Podcast, I'm joined by Brice Budke (president) and Zeek Earl (executive creative director), who run two Seattle studios: Shep, a video agency that works with tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft, and Packrat, a creative studio that specializes in miniature worlds, handmade sets, and retro creative projects. Here's one of the videos that Packrat made from the AWS Kiro shoot, using AI to help fill in the gaps between start and end frames that they were capturing when I visited: You might also know Packrat's work from the epic and widely watched 2025 Seahawks schedule release video, which won a Gold Clio. They also made “Prospect,” an indie sci-fi film that premiered at SXSW in 2018, starring Pedro Pascal and Sophie Thatcher. Brice and Zeek discuss how AI is transforming their work, including what's working, what's not, and how they're navigating the changes on both the creative and business sides of their studios. Listen below, and keep reading for key takeaways. Subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. AI doesn't necessarily save money. Getting usable output from AI video tools is still a numbers game. “To get one usable shot in a final piece, you might need 1,000 generations,” Zeek says, referring to the process of prompting the model to create a new variation. The time and expertise required to wrangle those tools means there's not always a clear cost savings over traditional production. Taste and intuition matter more than ever. As AI handles more of the analytical and task-oriented work, the human value shifts to ideas, perspective, and judgment. “Ultimately somebody has to have a point of view and taste and a perspective to put in,” Brice says. “If you take that out, you're just up for the slot machine, random chance generator.” Brand standards create unique challenges for AI. Unlike the random AI-generated content flooding the web, brand work demands consistency. Kiro has a distinct character, and Zeek couldn't have AI generate approximations that felt different in every frame. The Kiro project was a breakthrough in part because it combined handmade production design with AI-assisted animation, giving him creative control rather than forcing him to work around the limitations. “Doing the Kiro project was the first time I felt in control of AI,” he said. AI defaults to the generic. Generative AI “is always pulling you towards the middle,” Zeek explains. “It is always pulling you towards things that are derivative.” The distinctiveness of handmade work comes from the accumulation of human decisions, something AI can't replicate. The sheer pace of change is a huge challenge. The AI video landscape is moving so fast that workflows become outdated almost immediately, and it's hard to keep up with the capabilities of generally available tools. “It's chaos,” Brice says. Every time a new project comes up, they have to reassess which tools might be right for the job, given the evolution. Working with infinite tools is psychologically brutal. Generative AI offers endless possibilities, which means you can never be fully satisfied. “As a creative person, when you're working with an infinite tool, there's always the possibility that something better could come,” Zeek says. “At the end of a day of doing AI, you can just feel physically terrible because you will have never actually reached a level of satisfaction with your work.” Every creative is going through the stages of grief with AI. Zeek says he's moved past feeling threatened or sad about the changes. “I'm really trying to focus on what it can do to bring out visions that were previously impossible,” he says. His hope and dream: that lower production costs will enable more weird, interesting human creativity, not less. The future belongs to ideas, not busy work. Brice sees a shift in human focus toward generating ideas, rather than simply producing output. If AI can handle more of the analytical and task-oriented work, he says, it frees up space to focus on ideas, taking advantage of your own intuition and taste, areas where humans still have the edge. Subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Audio editing and production by Curt Milton. GeekWire Podcast on location at OpenAI in Bellevue, with CTO of Applications Vijaye Raji Anthropic acquires Vercept, the AI job crisis scenario, and Microsoft's past Epstein connections We tested Amazon's speedy delivery live on the podcast: Here's what it says about the future of retail Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline Have a scoop that you'd like GeekWire to cover? Let us know. Amazon's surprise indie hit: Kiro launches broadly in bid to reshape AI-powered software development Amazon targets vibe-coding chaos with new ‘Kiro' AI software development tool Amazon pushes back on Financial Times report blaming AI coding tools for AWS outages Amazon links Nova Act, its AI agent creator, to VS Code, Cursor and Kiro Catch every headline in your inbox","{'href': 'https://www.geekwire.com', 'title': 'GeekWire'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:techcrunch.com","How to use the new ChatGPT app integrations, including DoorDash, Spotify, Uber, and others","https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/14/how-to-use-the-new-chatgpt-app-integrations-including-doordash-spotify-uber-and-others/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:00:00 GMT"," TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026: Last day for ticket savings of up to $300. Register Now. Save up to $680 on your Disrupt 2026 pass. Ends 11:59 p.m. PT tonight. REGISTER NOW. Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture Staff Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Crunchboard Contact Us OpenAI offers app integrations in ChatGPT to allow you to connect your accounts directly to ChatGPT and ask the assistant to do things for you. For instance, with a Spotify integration, you can tell it to create personalized playlists that will show up right in your Spotify app. To get started, make sure you're logged into ChatGPT. Then type the name of the app you want to use at the start of your prompt, and ChatGPT will guide you through signing in and connecting your account. If you want to set everything up at once, head over to the Settings menu, then click on Apps and Connectors. You can browse through the available apps, pick the ones you like, and it'll take you to the sign-in page for each one. However, it's important to note that connecting your account means you're sharing your app data with ChatGPT. Make sure to review the permissions you're giving when you're linking your accounts. For example, if you connect your Spotify account, ChatGPT can see your playlists, listening history, and other personal information. (Sharing this info helps personalize the experience, but if you have privacy concerns, consider whether you're comfortable with this level of access before connecting.) You can also disconnect any app whenever you want, right from the Settings menu. Angi is one of the most recent companies to launch an in-app experience within ChatGPT. The online home service marketplace gives users a way to ask home improvement questions directly in the AI chatbot and request to be matched with an Angi professional in one place. Users can ask about house projects and repair guidance, then request a quote and be directed to Angi, where they can continue the experience with its own AI assistant. This integration with the online travel giant is designed to help travelers, especially first-time visitors in need of suggestions for where to stay. Once you link your Booking.com account, you can ask ChatGPT to find hotels in your preferred city based on your dates and budget. You can also specify how many people are coming and whether you want the hotel near public transport. ChatGPT aims to make this process more intuitive than searching directly on the Booking.com site. Plus, you can be more specific, like searching for options “with breakfast included.” When you find a hotel you like, just open the Booking.com listing to complete your reservation. Canva in ChatGPT is a helpful tool for graphic designers and anyone else who needs to generate visual content quickly. Whether it's for a social media post, a poster, or a slide deck for a presentation, this may be a good way to help kickstart your project and brainstorm ideas. Once you connect your Canva account, you can ask ChatGPT to design something like “a 16:9 slide deck about our Q4 roadmap” or “a fun poster for a dog-walking business.” You can include specifics such as the fonts you prefer, color schemes, formats (like Instagram posts or stories), and exact dimensions. AI-generated designs are seldom perfect, with occasional distorted images or spelling mistakes. However, some users may find this better than starting from scratch, and they can jump into Canva at any time to tweak their design and make it look just how they want. Coursera's integration is designed to help you quickly discover the best online courses for your skill level. For instance, you can then tell ChatGPT to find an “intermediate-level course on Python.” You can then tell the chatbot to compare course options by rating, duration, and cost before enrolling. ChatGPT can also provide a quick rundown of what exactly each course covers. DoorDash introduced its ChatGPT integration in December 2025, which aims to save time on meal planning and grocery shopping. Users can ask the chatbot for a meal plan and instantly add all ingredients to their DoorDash cart, then review and check out. ​Currently, this feature is available only to users in the U.S., with participating grocery retailers, including Kroger, Safeway, Fairway Market, Wegmans, and more. ChatGPT can display hotel options and flights via Expedia without leaving chat. Whether you're looking for a quick escape or a longer trip, it can find flights that fit your travel dates, budget, and number of travelers. You can narrow things down by saying stuff like “Only show 4-star hotels.” Once you see something you like, go to Expedia to finalize everything and book your trip. To use Figma in ChatGPT, you can ask it to generate diagrams, flow charts, and more. This is helpful for turning your ideas and brainstorming sessions into something more tangible. It may also be useful for visualizing complex concepts or workflows. You can also upload files and ask the chatbot to generate a product roadmap for your team. This roadmap can include milestones, deliverables, and deadlines, helping your team stay organized and focused on their goals. Quizlet recently launched a native app within ChatGPT, allowing students to convert AI conversations, notes, or documents into study materials and flashcard sets. Plus, users can now enter an active practicing mode in ChatGPT, where they can access Quizlet's library of millions of study sets. One of the most helpful aspects of using Spotify in ChatGPT is the ability to quickly create playlists and listen to new recommended songs tailored to your specific tastes. You can ask it to create a playlist based on your current mood, or just a playlist that only includes tracks by your favorite band. It can also suggest new artists, playlists, audiobooks, and podcast episodes. Additionally, ChatGPT can perform actions on your behalf, including adding and removing items from your Spotify library. Retail giant Target strategically launched a beta version of its ChatGPT integration before Black Friday. This feature allows shoppers to ask the chatbot for gift suggestions and quickly create a shopping basket with multiple items without leaving ChatGPT. For example, users can request ideas for a movie night, and the chatbot will provide a curated selection of available Target items. Shoppers can add these items to their cart and make a purchase using their Target account. They can then choose from same-day “Drive Up,” in-store pickup, or standard shipping. If you're planning a trip, the Uber integration makes it easy to find ride options, which is especially useful if you're in a new country. You can set up your trip in the ChatGPT app, then complete the ride request and payment in the Uber app. Currently, it's only available in the U.S., and it doesn't let you book rides in advance; only on-demand rides are available. You can choose from options like UberX, UberXL, Comfort, and Black. There's also an Uber Eats integration for U.S. users, so you can check out local restaurants and menu items within ChatGPT, then finish paying in the Uber Eats app. In March 2026, website builder Wix launched its integration, allowing users to prompt ChatGPT to create a functional website with just a text or voice prompt. Users can describe the capabilities they want the website to have, how it should look, and other desired features. Additionally, existing Wix users can manage their business within ChatGPT, which can handle scheduling, payments, SEO, accessibility, performance, security, and more. If you're looking for a new home, Zillow in ChatGPT could make the search experience more straightforward. Using a simple text prompt, you can find homes that meet your criteria and apply filters to narrow the results. Whether you're looking for a specific price range, number of bedrooms, or particular neighborhoods, you can specify these details in your prompt, making the search process much more efficient and tailored to your needs. Alongside the announcement that OpenAI would bring apps into ChatGPT, the company also said it plans to welcome additional partners soon, including OpenTable, PayPal, and Walmart. These will launch in 2026. The rollout of ChatGPT's app integrations is currently limited to the U.S. and Canada. Users in Europe and the U.K. are excluded for now. This story has been updated to include newly launched integrations. Topics Lauren covers media, streaming, apps and platforms at TechCrunch. You can contact or verify outreach from Lauren by emailing laurenf.techcrunch@gmail.com or via encrypted message at laurenforris22.25 on Signal. Actively scaling? Fundraising? Planning your next launch?TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 delivers tactical playbooks and direct access to 1,000+ founders and investors who are building, backing, and closing.Register by March 13 to save up to $300. Lovable says it added $100M in revenue last month alone, with just 146 employees DOGE employee stole Social Security data and put it on a thumb drive, report says Meta acquired Moltbook, the AI agent social network that went viral because of fake posts Google rolls out new Gemini capabilities to Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive Yann LeCun's AMI Labs raises $1.03B to build world models Anthropic launches code review tool to check flood of AI-generated code A roadmap for AI, if anyone will listen © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC.","{'href': 'https://techcrunch.com', 'title': 'TechCrunch'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:techcrunch.com","‘Not built right the first time' — Musk's xAI is starting over again, again","https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/13/not-built-right-the-first-time-musks-xai-is-starting-over-again-again/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:12:22 GMT"," TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026: Last day for ticket savings of up to $300. Register Now. Save up to $680 on your Disrupt 2026 pass. Ends 11:59 p.m. PT tonight. REGISTER NOW. Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture Staff Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Crunchboard Contact Us And then there were two: Of the original 11 co-founders who kickstarted xAI with Elon Musk three years ago, only two remain as the deep learning lab continues a personnel overhaul to compete with Anthropic and OpenAI. That rebuilding, insists Musk, is by design. “xAI was not built right first time around, so is being rebuilt from the foundations up,” Musk said Thursday on his social media platform, X. By most measures, it isn't going all that smoothly. The most immediate pressure is competitive. This week, xAI co-founders Zihang Dai and Guodong Zhang left the outfit after Musk complained that the company's AI coding tools were not effectively competing with Claude Code or Codex, rival programming assistants made by Anthropic and OpenAI, respectively. Musk said the company held an all-hands meeting on Wednesday that focused on how to catch up, which he predicted would be possible by the middle of this year. Coding tools matter so much because they're where the money is. While an early-year surge of users was powered by xAI's lax regulation of Grok's ability to produce sexual and even abusive imagery, coding tools are seen as the key revenue-generating tech for AI labs. That makes xAI's current lag in this area more than a perception issue; it's a business problem. The personnel overhaul extends well beyond this week. A month ago, 11 senior engineers at xAI, including two co-founders, left the company following changes Musk described as a reorganization to suit a larger business. That effort was apparently insufficient: The Financial Times reported that SpaceX and Tesla executives have parachuted into the company to evaluate employees and fire those who don't make the grade. The two remaining co-founders, Manuel Kroiss and Ross Nordeen, along with Musk, have their work cut out for them. Musk is now casting a wider net for talent. On Thursday, he said on X that he and another colleage, Baris Akis, are currently reviewing rejected employment applications in the company, with an eye toward reaching out to promising candidates who should have had a chance to interview. “My apologies,” Musk added, addressing the pile of strangers he'd ghosted. For the sake of comparison, LinkedIn reports that xAI has just over 5,000 employees, compared to more than 7,500 at OpenAI and more than 4,700 at Anthropic. On the hiring front, there's at least one encouraging sign. Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg are joining xAI from the AI coding tool company Cursor, where the two held joint responsibility for product engineering. Unlike xAI, Cursor depends on frontier labs for access to the AI models it runs on. Their decision to join xAI may signal the importance of direct access to LLM and computing resources to run them — and suggest that xAI's core asset, its own frontier model, is still an attractive draw. Either way, the pressure to show results is as much external as it is internal. Now that xAI is part of SpaceX, and with a public offering of SpaceX shares anticipated, the cash-burning unit is under pressure to demonstrate real uptake on Grok, its LLM. (A stumbling AI division is not the story Musk needs investors to be reading.) Longer term, Musk is betting on something bigger than coding tools. xAI's Macrohard project — Musk is convinced the name is “a funny reference to Microsoft” — aims to create an AI agent capable of doing anything a white-collar worker can do on a computer. Toby Pohlen, chosen to lead the project in February, left within weeks, and this week, Business Insider reported that Macrohard was on pause. Musk's response has been to draft another of his companies into the project. He revealed for the first time that Macrohard is a joint effort with Tesla, which is also developing a complementary agent dubbed “Digital Optimus” — a reference to Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot. In Musk's description, the xAI language model would direct the Tesla agent as it performs tasks. It's ambitious; it's also not unique. Instead, the vision is not far off from what Perplexity — an AI-powered search engine — is doing with its new “Everything is Computer” offering, which aims to offer enterprise users a dedicated “digital proxy” that can orchestrate their digital tasks. It also echoes what entrepreneur Peter Steinberger is now working on at OpenAI, after creating OpenClaw's popular personal agents. Topics Actively scaling? Fundraising? Planning your next launch?TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 delivers tactical playbooks and direct access to 1,000+ founders and investors who are building, backing, and closing.Register by March 13 to save up to $300. Lovable says it added $100M in revenue last month alone, with just 146 employees DOGE employee stole Social Security data and put it on a thumb drive, report says Meta acquired Moltbook, the AI agent social network that went viral because of fake posts Google rolls out new Gemini capabilities to Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive Yann LeCun's AMI Labs raises $1.03B to build world models Anthropic launches code review tool to check flood of AI-generated code A roadmap for AI, if anyone will listen © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC.","{'href': 'https://techcrunch.com', 'title': 'TechCrunch'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:ycombinator.com","An investigation of the forces behind the age-verification bills","https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47372290","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 01:56:32 GMT"," I would also encourage taking a critical look at the underlying investigation as it seems mostly LLM generated without a huge amount of manual due dilligence reply reply reply reply It's also very definitely ai generated, and makes several claims and implication. Users may have reported it as well.I would hesitate to assume coordinated behavior at this stage. I would hesitate to assume coordinated behavior at this stage. reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply","{'href': 'https://news.ycombinator.com', 'title': 'Hacker News'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:ycombinator.com","[dupe] Age Verification Lobbying: Dark Money, Model Legislation, Institutional Capture","https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47374676","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:18:00 GMT"," https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47362528https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47365597 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47365597 reply ## Methodology and Tools This investigation was conducted by a human researcher who directed all research decisions, selected sources, evaluated findings, and wrote the public-facing posts. Claude Code (Anthropic's CLI tool, running Claude Opus) was used as a research assistant for: - Bulk data processing: parsing 4,433 IRS Schedule I grant records, 59,736 DAF recipients, 132MB of Colorado TRACER campaign finance data, and IRS Business Master File extracts covering all US tax-exempt organizations - Cross-referencing findings across 24 analysis files and identifying patterns that span multiple research threads - Drafting intermediate working documents and structured data summaries - Web searches against public databases (OpenSecrets, ProPublica, state lobbying portals, WHOIS/DNS, Wayback Machine) Claude Code did not independently choose what to investigate, decide what constitutes a finding, or determine what to publish. Every factual claim in this repository cites a primary source (IRS filing, Senate disclosure, state database, legislative record, or published reporting) that can be independently verified. The tool does not change whether Meta's LD-2 filing lists H.R. 3149, whether DCA has an EIN, or whether Stefanski admitted tech funding under oath. The records exist or they don't. If you want to verify any finding, the source URLs and database identifiers are provided throughout. Start with the primary records, not with this repository. I find it valuable to know the author was responsible for selecting what sources & questions to analyse. reply I would caution readers to do their due dilligence as the presentation may be fancy but that should not immediately translate into a signal of quality in itself given the author has disclosed using Claude Code for a chunk of this work.While I won't outright discount the findings (as there is ""too much"" to reasonably verify), there are a few oddities around the source repo such as errors where Claude has tried to access sources, been denied and then noted as much or where it has seemingly fetched incorrect files and tried to interpret them (https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings...)I am not under the immediate impression that the author has done thorough due diligence rather than just offloading that to readers by saying ""You can just check the sources yourself"" While I won't outright discount the findings (as there is ""too much"" to reasonably verify), there are a few oddities around the source repo such as errors where Claude has tried to access sources, been denied and then noted as much or where it has seemingly fetched incorrect files and tried to interpret them (https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings...)I am not under the immediate impression that the author has done thorough due diligence rather than just offloading that to readers by saying ""You can just check the sources yourself"" I am not under the immediate impression that the author has done thorough due diligence rather than just offloading that to readers by saying ""You can just check the sources yourself"" reply It also doesn't inline link sources, like the Bloomberg article it mentions (this[1]). A more impartial voice and linked citations to allow quick reference would raise fewer red flags, even if the goal is worthwhile.[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-25/meta-clas... [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-25/meta-clas... reply In ideal world (where we don't live), some of the primary goals of corporations and governments contradict to each other (and there is another body):* Corporations - maximum profit at all cost to its shareholders* Government (I mean the ideal one) - prosperity for its citizens* UN - prosperity for the world (because governments can achieve prosperity for own citizens by exploiting other government citizens)When they have contradictory goals, lower in the chain should not drastically impact the higher body's goals.Corporate lobby is doing it, hence US is moving towards feudal system. Because corporations wants to exploit people at maximum speed and squeeze everything, but do not want to take the responsibility for nurturing the people.Here is how it looks like: * You hire Sr eng, squeeze max out of them, lay them off * Demand government to have better education, so it can squeeze out next * Stop unionization at all costs * now we are seeing this with Junior positions, no one wants to nurture and grow them, everyone wants Sr+ engineers * Corporations - maximum profit at all cost to its shareholders* Government (I mean the ideal one) - prosperity for its citizens* UN - prosperity for the world (because governments can achieve prosperity for own citizens by exploiting other government citizens)When they have contradictory goals, lower in the chain should not drastically impact the higher body's goals.Corporate lobby is doing it, hence US is moving towards feudal system. Because corporations wants to exploit people at maximum speed and squeeze everything, but do not want to take the responsibility for nurturing the people.Here is how it looks like: * You hire Sr eng, squeeze max out of them, lay them off * Demand government to have better education, so it can squeeze out next * Stop unionization at all costs * now we are seeing this with Junior positions, no one wants to nurture and grow them, everyone wants Sr+ engineers * Government (I mean the ideal one) - prosperity for its citizens* UN - prosperity for the world (because governments can achieve prosperity for own citizens by exploiting other government citizens)When they have contradictory goals, lower in the chain should not drastically impact the higher body's goals.Corporate lobby is doing it, hence US is moving towards feudal system. Because corporations wants to exploit people at maximum speed and squeeze everything, but do not want to take the responsibility for nurturing the people.Here is how it looks like: * You hire Sr eng, squeeze max out of them, lay them off * Demand government to have better education, so it can squeeze out next * Stop unionization at all costs * now we are seeing this with Junior positions, no one wants to nurture and grow them, everyone wants Sr+ engineers * UN - prosperity for the world (because governments can achieve prosperity for own citizens by exploiting other government citizens)When they have contradictory goals, lower in the chain should not drastically impact the higher body's goals.Corporate lobby is doing it, hence US is moving towards feudal system. Because corporations wants to exploit people at maximum speed and squeeze everything, but do not want to take the responsibility for nurturing the people.Here is how it looks like: * You hire Sr eng, squeeze max out of them, lay them off * Demand government to have better education, so it can squeeze out next * Stop unionization at all costs * now we are seeing this with Junior positions, no one wants to nurture and grow them, everyone wants Sr+ engineers When they have contradictory goals, lower in the chain should not drastically impact the higher body's goals.Corporate lobby is doing it, hence US is moving towards feudal system. Because corporations wants to exploit people at maximum speed and squeeze everything, but do not want to take the responsibility for nurturing the people.Here is how it looks like: * You hire Sr eng, squeeze max out of them, lay them off * Demand government to have better education, so it can squeeze out next * Stop unionization at all costs * now we are seeing this with Junior positions, no one wants to nurture and grow them, everyone wants Sr+ engineers Corporate lobby is doing it, hence US is moving towards feudal system. Because corporations wants to exploit people at maximum speed and squeeze everything, but do not want to take the responsibility for nurturing the people.Here is how it looks like: * You hire Sr eng, squeeze max out of them, lay them off * Demand government to have better education, so it can squeeze out next * Stop unionization at all costs * now we are seeing this with Junior positions, no one wants to nurture and grow them, everyone wants Sr+ engineers Here is how it looks like: * You hire Sr eng, squeeze max out of them, lay them off * Demand government to have better education, so it can squeeze out next * Stop unionization at all costs * now we are seeing this with Junior positions, no one wants to nurture and grow them, everyone wants Sr+ engineers * You hire Sr eng, squeeze max out of them, lay them off * Demand government to have better education, so it can squeeze out next * Stop unionization at all costs * now we are seeing this with Junior positions, no one wants to nurture and grow them, everyone wants Sr+ engineers reply https://initiatives.weforum.org/global-coalition-for-digital...It's not just the US, similar legislation in Australia, UK and the EU.One thing we can look forward to is platform-side detection of 'illegal' material, so like you organize a protest in a private discord, discord recognizes the illegal act and automatically forwards it to the local police that give you a visit. This is where the road is headed. It's not just the US, similar legislation in Australia, UK and the EU.One thing we can look forward to is platform-side detection of 'illegal' material, so like you organize a protest in a private discord, discord recognizes the illegal act and automatically forwards it to the local police that give you a visit. This is where the road is headed. One thing we can look forward to is platform-side detection of 'illegal' material, so like you organize a protest in a private discord, discord recognizes the illegal act and automatically forwards it to the local police that give you a visit. This is where the road is headed. reply Also HN: LLM AI generated sloppa with errors even on top of front page.clown emoji clown emoji reply reply reply reply reply https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/27/scotus-porn-ruling-opens-d... reply","{'href': 'https://news.ycombinator.com', 'title': 'Hacker News'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:ycombinator.com","Meta Platforms: Lobbying, dark money, and the App Store Accountability Act","https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47362528","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:00:35 GMT"," Apple cost Meta billions by cutting off their data pipeline at the OS level, justifying it with a unilateral privacy moral high ground. Now, Meta is returning the favor. By astroturfing the App Store Accountability Act through digital childhood alliance, Meta is forcing Apple to build, maintain and also bear the legal liability for a wildly complex state-by-state identity verification API.Gotta give it to Zuck. Standing up a fully-fledged advocacy website 24 hours after domain registration and pushing a bill from a godaddy registration to a signed Utah law in just 77 days is terrifyingly efficient lobbying. Gotta give it to Zuck. Standing up a fully-fledged advocacy website 24 hours after domain registration and pushing a bill from a godaddy registration to a signed Utah law in just 77 days is terrifyingly efficient lobbying. reply reply reply reply reply if ""it"" is the middle finger, for sure. ""terrifying"" is a great choice of word for it. reply reply reply reply reply Overall, that's the reason anti-trust laws must be applied rigorously, otherwise the normal population has no chance. reply In the end, all the little people are just collateral damage or occasionally they get some collateral benefits from wherever the munitions land. reply reply reply reply But no, they had to let collateral damage frag the free software crowd, which is inconsequential to their aims anyway, but 100% a huge concern for those suffering the collateral damage. reply reply reply reply Plus, Apple gets to be the gatekeeper for Meta and other apps which can't be good for meta, and Apple gets to know the age of its users, which in itself is monetizable. reply The CEO has 24h in the day, and he/she is asked to be deposed (laws and legal system has that power), it chips away from grand visions. It isnt just money, you cant just stand up a team and be done with it. Everybody will be coming at you.Expect to see a lot ""Y alleges Apple didnt do enough to protect kids"" and the burden of proof will be on Apple to make their executives available. Expect to see a lot ""Y alleges Apple didnt do enough to protect kids"" and the burden of proof will be on Apple to make their executives available. reply reply The methodology appears to be LLM driven, and the contextual framing which the conclusions are couched in, drive conclusions to a specific direction.It does not clarify between two readings1) Meta is driving Age verification efforts2) Meta is being opportunistic with age verification efforts to further its own goalsThe larger macro picture is that voters globally are tired of Tech firms and want something done about it.The second macro trend is the inability of governments to handle/control tech, and are looking for reasons to bring tech to heel.That's context results in a sufficiently different degree of culpability and eventual path to resisting privacy reducing regulations. It does not clarify between two readings1) Meta is driving Age verification efforts2) Meta is being opportunistic with age verification efforts to further its own goalsThe larger macro picture is that voters globally are tired of Tech firms and want something done about it.The second macro trend is the inability of governments to handle/control tech, and are looking for reasons to bring tech to heel.That's context results in a sufficiently different degree of culpability and eventual path to resisting privacy reducing regulations. 1) Meta is driving Age verification efforts2) Meta is being opportunistic with age verification efforts to further its own goalsThe larger macro picture is that voters globally are tired of Tech firms and want something done about it.The second macro trend is the inability of governments to handle/control tech, and are looking for reasons to bring tech to heel.That's context results in a sufficiently different degree of culpability and eventual path to resisting privacy reducing regulations. 2) Meta is being opportunistic with age verification efforts to further its own goalsThe larger macro picture is that voters globally are tired of Tech firms and want something done about it.The second macro trend is the inability of governments to handle/control tech, and are looking for reasons to bring tech to heel.That's context results in a sufficiently different degree of culpability and eventual path to resisting privacy reducing regulations. The larger macro picture is that voters globally are tired of Tech firms and want something done about it.The second macro trend is the inability of governments to handle/control tech, and are looking for reasons to bring tech to heel.That's context results in a sufficiently different degree of culpability and eventual path to resisting privacy reducing regulations. The second macro trend is the inability of governments to handle/control tech, and are looking for reasons to bring tech to heel.That's context results in a sufficiently different degree of culpability and eventual path to resisting privacy reducing regulations. That's context results in a sufficiently different degree of culpability and eventual path to resisting privacy reducing regulations. reply I am not skeptical of any of the research, the sources seem to be cited properly. I am skeptical that this researcher has thought through or verified their conclusions in a systematic and reliable fashion. This part gives it away: ""Research period: 2026-03-11 to present."" This individual dropped his investigative report two days after beginning research!Yes, AI is an incredibly good research assistant and can help speed up the tasks of finding sources and indexing sources. The person behind this investigation has not actually done their due diligence to grok and analyze this data on their own, and therefore I can't trust that the AI analysis isn't poisoned by the prompters implicit biases. Yes, AI is an incredibly good research assistant and can help speed up the tasks of finding sources and indexing sources. The person behind this investigation has not actually done their due diligence to grok and analyze this data on their own, and therefore I can't trust that the AI analysis isn't poisoned by the prompters implicit biases. reply > LIMITATION: Direct PDF downloads returned 403 errors. ProPublica Schedule I viewer loads data dynamically (JavaScript), preventing extraction via WebFetch. The 2024 public disclosure copy on sixteenthirtyfund.org was also blocked.> Tech Transparency Project report: The article ""Inside Meta's Spin Machine on Kids and Social Media"" at techtransparencyproject.org likely contains detailed ConnectSafely/Meta funding analysis but was blocked (403)The least they could have done is read their own reports and then provided the documents to the LLM. Instead they just let it run and propose connections, asked it to generate some graphs, and then hit publish. > Tech Transparency Project report: The article ""Inside Meta's Spin Machine on Kids and Social Media"" at techtransparencyproject.org likely contains detailed ConnectSafely/Meta funding analysis but was blocked (403)The least they could have done is read their own reports and then provided the documents to the LLM. Instead they just let it run and propose connections, asked it to generate some graphs, and then hit publish. The least they could have done is read their own reports and then provided the documents to the LLM. Instead they just let it run and propose connections, asked it to generate some graphs, and then hit publish. reply > A Meta employee (Jake Levine, Product Manager) contributed $1,175 to ASAA sponsor Matt Ball's campaign apparatus on June 2, 2025. Source: Colorado TRACER bulk data.> No direct Meta PAC contributions to any ASAA sponsor across Utah, Louisiana, Texas, or Colorado. Source: FollowTheMoney.org multi-state search.While it is true that Meta has funded groups that advocate for age verification, a lot of them also appear to have other actors so it's not like this is some pure Meta thing as some of the other commenters are suggesting. > No direct Meta PAC contributions to any ASAA sponsor across Utah, Louisiana, Texas, or Colorado. Source: FollowTheMoney.org multi-state search.While it is true that Meta has funded groups that advocate for age verification, a lot of them also appear to have other actors so it's not like this is some pure Meta thing as some of the other commenters are suggesting. While it is true that Meta has funded groups that advocate for age verification, a lot of them also appear to have other actors so it's not like this is some pure Meta thing as some of the other commenters are suggesting. reply This type of GitHub-based open-source research project will become more common as more people use tools like Claude Code or Codex for research. reply reply This file does not exactly fill me with confidence: https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings...In one part of the report, there seems to be this implicit assumption that Linux and Horizon OS (Meta's VR OS) are somehow comparable and that Meta will be better equipped than Linux if age verification is required.It doesn't explicitly say ""This will allow Horizon OS to become the defacto OS and Linux will die out"" but that seems to be the impression I'm getting which uhh... would make zero sense.More broadly, this entire report (and others like it) are extremely annoying in that I've seen some Reddit comments either taking ""lots of text"" as a signal of quality or asking ""Does anyone have proof that these claims are inaccurate"" which isa) Of course entirely backwards as far as burden of proofb) Not even the right rubick because it's not facts versus lies, it's manufactured intent/correlations versus real life intent/correlations (ie; bullshit versus not)All of this could be factually true without Meta being smart enough to play 5D chess In one part of the report, there seems to be this implicit assumption that Linux and Horizon OS (Meta's VR OS) are somehow comparable and that Meta will be better equipped than Linux if age verification is required.It doesn't explicitly say ""This will allow Horizon OS to become the defacto OS and Linux will die out"" but that seems to be the impression I'm getting which uhh... would make zero sense.More broadly, this entire report (and others like it) are extremely annoying in that I've seen some Reddit comments either taking ""lots of text"" as a signal of quality or asking ""Does anyone have proof that these claims are inaccurate"" which isa) Of course entirely backwards as far as burden of proofb) Not even the right rubick because it's not facts versus lies, it's manufactured intent/correlations versus real life intent/correlations (ie; bullshit versus not)All of this could be factually true without Meta being smart enough to play 5D chess It doesn't explicitly say ""This will allow Horizon OS to become the defacto OS and Linux will die out"" but that seems to be the impression I'm getting which uhh... would make zero sense.More broadly, this entire report (and others like it) are extremely annoying in that I've seen some Reddit comments either taking ""lots of text"" as a signal of quality or asking ""Does anyone have proof that these claims are inaccurate"" which isa) Of course entirely backwards as far as burden of proofb) Not even the right rubick because it's not facts versus lies, it's manufactured intent/correlations versus real life intent/correlations (ie; bullshit versus not)All of this could be factually true without Meta being smart enough to play 5D chess More broadly, this entire report (and others like it) are extremely annoying in that I've seen some Reddit comments either taking ""lots of text"" as a signal of quality or asking ""Does anyone have proof that these claims are inaccurate"" which isa) Of course entirely backwards as far as burden of proofb) Not even the right rubick because it's not facts versus lies, it's manufactured intent/correlations versus real life intent/correlations (ie; bullshit versus not)All of this could be factually true without Meta being smart enough to play 5D chess a) Of course entirely backwards as far as burden of proofb) Not even the right rubick because it's not facts versus lies, it's manufactured intent/correlations versus real life intent/correlations (ie; bullshit versus not)All of this could be factually true without Meta being smart enough to play 5D chess b) Not even the right rubick because it's not facts versus lies, it's manufactured intent/correlations versus real life intent/correlations (ie; bullshit versus not)All of this could be factually true without Meta being smart enough to play 5D chess All of this could be factually true without Meta being smart enough to play 5D chess reply Or of authority, when they're not equipped to evaluate the data first-hand.The Gish gallop technique in debate overwhelms opponents with so many arguments that they're unable to address them all before the time limit. Reports presented like this are functionally that, but against reader comprehension and attention.Similarly, being the first, loudest, or only voice claim is unreasonably effective at establishing perception of authority, where being unchallenged is tantamount to correctness. This also goes both ways; censorship in media, for instance, can be used to promote narratives by silencing competing views, like platforms selectively amplifying certain topics to frame them as more proven and widely supported than they might actually be.It's unfortunate that inexpert execution often positions well-meaning and potentially correct arguments to be discredited and derided by prepared opponents before their merits can be established. In this case, it may be true that Meta may have organized a well-coordinated shadow campaign for legislation using technically legal channels, but I'm sure they've anticipated this at some point, or are relying on the inertia of the system and initial buy-in to force the course. The Gish gallop technique in debate overwhelms opponents with so many arguments that they're unable to address them all before the time limit. Reports presented like this are functionally that, but against reader comprehension and attention.Similarly, being the first, loudest, or only voice claim is unreasonably effective at establishing perception of authority, where being unchallenged is tantamount to correctness. This also goes both ways; censorship in media, for instance, can be used to promote narratives by silencing competing views, like platforms selectively amplifying certain topics to frame them as more proven and widely supported than they might actually be.It's unfortunate that inexpert execution often positions well-meaning and potentially correct arguments to be discredited and derided by prepared opponents before their merits can be established. In this case, it may be true that Meta may have organized a well-coordinated shadow campaign for legislation using technically legal channels, but I'm sure they've anticipated this at some point, or are relying on the inertia of the system and initial buy-in to force the course. Similarly, being the first, loudest, or only voice claim is unreasonably effective at establishing perception of authority, where being unchallenged is tantamount to correctness. This also goes both ways; censorship in media, for instance, can be used to promote narratives by silencing competing views, like platforms selectively amplifying certain topics to frame them as more proven and widely supported than they might actually be.It's unfortunate that inexpert execution often positions well-meaning and potentially correct arguments to be discredited and derided by prepared opponents before their merits can be established. In this case, it may be true that Meta may have organized a well-coordinated shadow campaign for legislation using technically legal channels, but I'm sure they've anticipated this at some point, or are relying on the inertia of the system and initial buy-in to force the course. It's unfortunate that inexpert execution often positions well-meaning and potentially correct arguments to be discredited and derided by prepared opponents before their merits can be established. In this case, it may be true that Meta may have organized a well-coordinated shadow campaign for legislation using technically legal channels, but I'm sure they've anticipated this at some point, or are relying on the inertia of the system and initial buy-in to force the course. reply In this case they have named individuals and firms as well, without the degree of diligence that such call outs should warrant.In its current state, I would count it as a prelude to witch hunts. In its current state, I would count it as a prelude to witch hunts. reply If not, who has been paying to lobby for these age verification laws ?That seems a question that we should have an answer to.Forcing an age check upon linux install seems anti-competitive, and a violation of freedom of speech allowed by the Constitution.Also impractical and ineffective, unless they plan on some sort of bio-metric confirmation of age.Will they outlaw computation itself, or constrain a personal quota so that only corporations can access approved LLMs and certainly not run a local AGI ?As with the insane ""encryption is a weapon and cant be exported"" policy of the 80s, this will surely force innovation to migrate outside the US. That seems a question that we should have an answer to.Forcing an age check upon linux install seems anti-competitive, and a violation of freedom of speech allowed by the Constitution.Also impractical and ineffective, unless they plan on some sort of bio-metric confirmation of age.Will they outlaw computation itself, or constrain a personal quota so that only corporations can access approved LLMs and certainly not run a local AGI ?As with the insane ""encryption is a weapon and cant be exported"" policy of the 80s, this will surely force innovation to migrate outside the US. Forcing an age check upon linux install seems anti-competitive, and a violation of freedom of speech allowed by the Constitution.Also impractical and ineffective, unless they plan on some sort of bio-metric confirmation of age.Will they outlaw computation itself, or constrain a personal quota so that only corporations can access approved LLMs and certainly not run a local AGI ?As with the insane ""encryption is a weapon and cant be exported"" policy of the 80s, this will surely force innovation to migrate outside the US. Also impractical and ineffective, unless they plan on some sort of bio-metric confirmation of age.Will they outlaw computation itself, or constrain a personal quota so that only corporations can access approved LLMs and certainly not run a local AGI ?As with the insane ""encryption is a weapon and cant be exported"" policy of the 80s, this will surely force innovation to migrate outside the US. Will they outlaw computation itself, or constrain a personal quota so that only corporations can access approved LLMs and certainly not run a local AGI ?As with the insane ""encryption is a weapon and cant be exported"" policy of the 80s, this will surely force innovation to migrate outside the US. As with the insane ""encryption is a weapon and cant be exported"" policy of the 80s, this will surely force innovation to migrate outside the US. reply Of course they would want this -- as long as the OS reports that the user is over 18 via such a system, then Meta is legally off the hook for any COPPA violations. reply Not advocating for this policy but if a critical argument against it is that policymakers can expect an analogous amount of computer innovation migrating out of the US as it saw in the 80s, then I think policymakers won't care remotely. Quite literally I think the lower bound for the proportion of global computer innovation happening in the US is 70%. reply This should be easy. Just in one of dialogs ask user to create a file 'me_age.txt' with age inside. No changes to OS at all. This will be the 'interface'. Any program can read the file. As far as I understand that's all California law requires (or will require).Not sure about other versions. Strict verification would require binding to property software/services. Which is equivalent of reporting every user on every install. Not sure about other versions. Strict verification would require binding to property software/services. Which is equivalent of reporting every user on every install. reply reply reply No, the way to stop it is to talk to your representatives.You have the power. You just have to pick up a phone, and ask your friends, relatives, neighbors, to do the same. (They will, because it affects all of them.) Tell your reps to remove the legislation or you're voting them out. They don't want to lose their jobs. They will change if you tell them to. But only if you tell them. That is your power. Use it or lose it. You have the power. You just have to pick up a phone, and ask your friends, relatives, neighbors, to do the same. (They will, because it affects all of them.) Tell your reps to remove the legislation or you're voting them out. They don't want to lose their jobs. They will change if you tell them to. But only if you tell them. That is your power. Use it or lose it. reply I keep seeing this advice, yet whenever it actually matters, it doesn't really workNo amount of talking to representatives stopped the genocide in Gaza, no amount of talking to representatives is stopping what the US is doing now in IranMajority of Congress voted to continue war in Iran, despite an overwhelming majority of Americans being opposed to it No amount of talking to representatives stopped the genocide in Gaza, no amount of talking to representatives is stopping what the US is doing now in IranMajority of Congress voted to continue war in Iran, despite an overwhelming majority of Americans being opposed to it Majority of Congress voted to continue war in Iran, despite an overwhelming majority of Americans being opposed to it reply Or, refuse to participate or use any tech that implements OS age verification (start with communication app Discord). reply You have consumer activist brain. Next you're going to suggest that we complain to the manager or start our own government and compete in the marketplace.> The only thing that talks is moneyNo, the only thing that is talking is money. Money wants this. You're busy pretending like you're going to do a boycott; they're going to boycott you.Complain about the internet? They'll just blacklist you from it. Complain about the phone? Well now you can't use one; try smoke signals. Complain about the landlord? They'll settle the case, kick you out on the street, and blacklist you among all private equity landlords and the management companies that service small landlords. You'll just go to a small landlord that doesn't use one of the management companies? Well they won't have access to a bunch of vendors that have exclusive contracts with and share ownership with the management companies; now they can't make any money and have to sell to private equity.You've been fooled into thinking that being victimized is a moral failure of the victim. The perpetrators taught you that. They taught you that the only appropriate action is to beg and threaten to leave, and they shut down customer service and monopolized the market. But, again, the worst thing they trained you to do is to blame the victim. > The only thing that talks is moneyNo, the only thing that is talking is money. Money wants this. You're busy pretending like you're going to do a boycott; they're going to boycott you.Complain about the internet? They'll just blacklist you from it. Complain about the phone? Well now you can't use one; try smoke signals. Complain about the landlord? They'll settle the case, kick you out on the street, and blacklist you among all private equity landlords and the management companies that service small landlords. You'll just go to a small landlord that doesn't use one of the management companies? Well they won't have access to a bunch of vendors that have exclusive contracts with and share ownership with the management companies; now they can't make any money and have to sell to private equity.You've been fooled into thinking that being victimized is a moral failure of the victim. The perpetrators taught you that. They taught you that the only appropriate action is to beg and threaten to leave, and they shut down customer service and monopolized the market. But, again, the worst thing they trained you to do is to blame the victim. No, the only thing that is talking is money. Money wants this. You're busy pretending like you're going to do a boycott; they're going to boycott you.Complain about the internet? They'll just blacklist you from it. Complain about the phone? Well now you can't use one; try smoke signals. Complain about the landlord? They'll settle the case, kick you out on the street, and blacklist you among all private equity landlords and the management companies that service small landlords. You'll just go to a small landlord that doesn't use one of the management companies? Well they won't have access to a bunch of vendors that have exclusive contracts with and share ownership with the management companies; now they can't make any money and have to sell to private equity.You've been fooled into thinking that being victimized is a moral failure of the victim. The perpetrators taught you that. They taught you that the only appropriate action is to beg and threaten to leave, and they shut down customer service and monopolized the market. But, again, the worst thing they trained you to do is to blame the victim. Complain about the internet? They'll just blacklist you from it. Complain about the phone? Well now you can't use one; try smoke signals. Complain about the landlord? They'll settle the case, kick you out on the street, and blacklist you among all private equity landlords and the management companies that service small landlords. You'll just go to a small landlord that doesn't use one of the management companies? Well they won't have access to a bunch of vendors that have exclusive contracts with and share ownership with the management companies; now they can't make any money and have to sell to private equity.You've been fooled into thinking that being victimized is a moral failure of the victim. The perpetrators taught you that. They taught you that the only appropriate action is to beg and threaten to leave, and they shut down customer service and monopolized the market. But, again, the worst thing they trained you to do is to blame the victim. You've been fooled into thinking that being victimized is a moral failure of the victim. The perpetrators taught you that. They taught you that the only appropriate action is to beg and threaten to leave, and they shut down customer service and monopolized the market. But, again, the worst thing they trained you to do is to blame the victim. reply Just because you're a pessimist doesn't mean you have to be coy. :) reply At the end of the day, this stuff is headed by humans. Humans are fragile, weak even. They like silly things like food and safety.Look, I'm not saying we need to be killing people. However, I AM saying that just about every single significant rights progression in human history was achieved that way. So, draw whatever conclusions you want.Ideally, we are above that. Christ, it's not the 20th century anymore. So hold up a sign or something. Look, I'm not saying we need to be killing people. However, I AM saying that just about every single significant rights progression in human history was achieved that way. So, draw whatever conclusions you want.Ideally, we are above that. Christ, it's not the 20th century anymore. So hold up a sign or something. Ideally, we are above that. Christ, it's not the 20th century anymore. So hold up a sign or something. reply Protesting, voting, and civil disobedience are all great, I agree.Guy with the root of ""pessimism"" in his moniker: start writing about that in your posts! Guy with the root of ""pessimism"" in his moniker: start writing about that in your posts! reply What do you mean? They still need people purchasing software and hardware.You can argue effectiveness, but if enough people say no, then a boycott is extremely effective. The issue is always on awareness and making people take hard actions. You can argue effectiveness, but if enough people say no, then a boycott is extremely effective. The issue is always on awareness and making people take hard actions. reply They don't need you to purchase hardware or software any more. We're moving to centralized economic planning, where resources for datacenter buildouts are reserved for people with sufficient political loyalty (and come from tax dollars), and the only products are surveillance and collective punishment.If you don't want that to happen, then you'll need to help build an alternative. If you don't want that to happen, then you'll need to help build an alternative. reply Yes, I agree.>They don't need you to purchase hardware or software any more.Need? No. But they still want as much money as possible. That's why a boycott/strike will still be effective. They don't need money anymore but will still bend over backwards for it.>If you don't want that to happen, then you'll need to help build an alternative.I want to help. Not sure what I can do to help, though. Seems like simply calling my reps is talking to the wind. >They don't need you to purchase hardware or software any more.Need? No. But they still want as much money as possible. That's why a boycott/strike will still be effective. They don't need money anymore but will still bend over backwards for it.>If you don't want that to happen, then you'll need to help build an alternative.I want to help. Not sure what I can do to help, though. Seems like simply calling my reps is talking to the wind. Need? No. But they still want as much money as possible. That's why a boycott/strike will still be effective. They don't need money anymore but will still bend over backwards for it.>If you don't want that to happen, then you'll need to help build an alternative.I want to help. Not sure what I can do to help, though. Seems like simply calling my reps is talking to the wind. >If you don't want that to happen, then you'll need to help build an alternative.I want to help. Not sure what I can do to help, though. Seems like simply calling my reps is talking to the wind. I want to help. Not sure what I can do to help, though. Seems like simply calling my reps is talking to the wind. reply And you seem to have been fooled into thinking all victims are powerless. reply Turns out they were right reply These bills also need to be opposed on a legal/political level.Something I realized last night is that people who lie about their age to send false signals may inadvertently open themselves up to CFAA liability (a felony). So this is a serious matter for users who want to maintain anonymity. Something I realized last night is that people who lie about their age to send false signals may inadvertently open themselves up to CFAA liability (a felony). So this is a serious matter for users who want to maintain anonymity. reply reply reply reply I do think there is a stronger case against the next under-18 Aaron Swartz, who will get hit with 200 felonies for setting his age wrong (one felony per app/service) after pissing off someone important. reply If I get arrested for lying about my age, when I'm of age, then they could probably get me on a whim already anyway. No point in trying to fall in line. reply reply reply reply reply reply Age signals from the OS? Need to provide a channel of information available to applications. Applications already talk to servers with unchecked commonality.Biometric data? Today it unlocks your private key. Tomorrow it's used to verify you are the same person that was used during sign-up -- the same that was ""age-verified"".Next year, the application needs to ""double-check"" your identity. That missile that's coming to you? Definitely not AI-controlled, definitely not coming to destroy the ""verified"" person who posted a threatening comment about the AI system's god complex. Nope, it's coming to deliver freedom verification. Biometric data? Today it unlocks your private key. Tomorrow it's used to verify you are the same person that was used during sign-up -- the same that was ""age-verified"".Next year, the application needs to ""double-check"" your identity. That missile that's coming to you? Definitely not AI-controlled, definitely not coming to destroy the ""verified"" person who posted a threatening comment about the AI system's god complex. Nope, it's coming to deliver freedom verification. Next year, the application needs to ""double-check"" your identity. That missile that's coming to you? Definitely not AI-controlled, definitely not coming to destroy the ""verified"" person who posted a threatening comment about the AI system's god complex. Nope, it's coming to deliver freedom verification. reply reply reply reply Rocket is obvious and spectacular. Those are for amateurs.A journalist got beaten up to the brink of death and will never walk again by 'unknown perpetrators'? Well, it's a dangerous country, and he had it coming, maybe some concerned citizens went a bit too far, but our dear leader cannot watch over everybody.Scaling: do you think other journalists will not take notice?And he will still be alive to reminder them how they may end up.If you want to see how far imagination can go here, look up Artyom Kamardin and think how would you behave after hearing his story . A journalist got beaten up to the brink of death and will never walk again by 'unknown perpetrators'? Well, it's a dangerous country, and he had it coming, maybe some concerned citizens went a bit too far, but our dear leader cannot watch over everybody.Scaling: do you think other journalists will not take notice?And he will still be alive to reminder them how they may end up.If you want to see how far imagination can go here, look up Artyom Kamardin and think how would you behave after hearing his story . Scaling: do you think other journalists will not take notice?And he will still be alive to reminder them how they may end up.If you want to see how far imagination can go here, look up Artyom Kamardin and think how would you behave after hearing his story . And he will still be alive to reminder them how they may end up.If you want to see how far imagination can go here, look up Artyom Kamardin and think how would you behave after hearing his story . If you want to see how far imagination can go here, look up Artyom Kamardin and think how would you behave after hearing his story . reply reply And turns out power-tripping men offered raw power over other humans on threat of violence is something they like.And ICE? Remember J6 and Three Percenter's and all those right wing militias? They ended up in ICE. Same reasons. And ICE? Remember J6 and Three Percenter's and all those right wing militias? They ended up in ICE. Same reasons. reply reply Meanwhile, regular cops have been doing the same awful things that they've always been doing, literally at the command of Democratic mayors who are pompously declaring that they won't enforce immigration law in speeches. They'll send cops to throw your shit into the street when your rent suddenly doubles, and won't report an illegal immigrant felon (whose history we know nothing about) to ICE.Organized white supremacists are nobodies with no power, they're all over the military, the cops, prison guards, and ICE. Meanwhile, Parchman Farm in Mississippi doesn't even report the people who are dying there, and has plastic all over the floors because the roofs are open to the elements. That's just legal American black people who this country actually owes something to, though. That was trendy like five years ago, it's so over now. Organized white supremacists are nobodies with no power, they're all over the military, the cops, prison guards, and ICE. Meanwhile, Parchman Farm in Mississippi doesn't even report the people who are dying there, and has plastic all over the floors because the roofs are open to the elements. That's just legal American black people who this country actually owes something to, though. That was trendy like five years ago, it's so over now. reply Now you obviously shouldn't set social justice aside, and given the choice, I absolutely prefer the capitalist hellscape where my friends and I are not being rounded up and killed, but that's a REMARKABLY low standard I've had to settle on as a voter. reply reply Environmental: Democrats Joe Manchin, Jon Tester, Michael Bennet, Bob Casey, Martin Heinrich, John Hickenlooper, and Ben Ray Lujan all backed the pro-fossil fuel position and blocked the Biden admin's ban on fracking. And that's before you get to the eleven House Democrats who crossed the aisle to vote for gutting NEPA, which is basically the foundational law for environmental review in this country.Science: Democrats continue to stall on GMO foods despite thousands of studies confirming they're safe, and have pushed heavy restrictions treating them like health hazards with zero scientific basis. This is basically their version of climate change denial and it deserves way more attention than it gets.Public Health: The entire mess with the ACA, juicing the insurance industry while keeping healthcare gatekept behind financial hooks and ensuring workers MUST stay employed to have any reliable access to it. Yeah they get some points for trying to keep Medicare and Social Security afloat, they don't want all the poor people to just die about it, but those are remarkably low bars.So, the same? No. That said, NOTHING about ANY of that could be called ""Left"" by anyone being remotely intellectually honest. Science: Democrats continue to stall on GMO foods despite thousands of studies confirming they're safe, and have pushed heavy restrictions treating them like health hazards with zero scientific basis. This is basically their version of climate change denial and it deserves way more attention than it gets.Public Health: The entire mess with the ACA, juicing the insurance industry while keeping healthcare gatekept behind financial hooks and ensuring workers MUST stay employed to have any reliable access to it. Yeah they get some points for trying to keep Medicare and Social Security afloat, they don't want all the poor people to just die about it, but those are remarkably low bars.So, the same? No. That said, NOTHING about ANY of that could be called ""Left"" by anyone being remotely intellectually honest. Public Health: The entire mess with the ACA, juicing the insurance industry while keeping healthcare gatekept behind financial hooks and ensuring workers MUST stay employed to have any reliable access to it. Yeah they get some points for trying to keep Medicare and Social Security afloat, they don't want all the poor people to just die about it, but those are remarkably low bars.So, the same? No. That said, NOTHING about ANY of that could be called ""Left"" by anyone being remotely intellectually honest. So, the same? No. That said, NOTHING about ANY of that could be called ""Left"" by anyone being remotely intellectually honest. reply The Democrats and Republicans both are different approaches for the same billionaire class.They're not ""opposite sides of the same coin"". Instead, they're more akin to 2 sock puppets. One wears red, and the other blue.Like the Trump tariffs? They were initially Biden's tariffs that Trump increased and extended. Different clothes, same game.But I'd be willing to try a good run with democratic socialism, or hell, communism. What we have is the cushy gold-parachute socialism for the elite, and unabashed hardcore capitalism for the poorest. And that fucking sucks. Burn it down. They're not ""opposite sides of the same coin"". Instead, they're more akin to 2 sock puppets. One wears red, and the other blue.Like the Trump tariffs? They were initially Biden's tariffs that Trump increased and extended. Different clothes, same game.But I'd be willing to try a good run with democratic socialism, or hell, communism. What we have is the cushy gold-parachute socialism for the elite, and unabashed hardcore capitalism for the poorest. And that fucking sucks. Burn it down. Like the Trump tariffs? They were initially Biden's tariffs that Trump increased and extended. Different clothes, same game.But I'd be willing to try a good run with democratic socialism, or hell, communism. What we have is the cushy gold-parachute socialism for the elite, and unabashed hardcore capitalism for the poorest. And that fucking sucks. Burn it down. But I'd be willing to try a good run with democratic socialism, or hell, communism. What we have is the cushy gold-parachute socialism for the elite, and unabashed hardcore capitalism for the poorest. And that fucking sucks. Burn it down. reply My argument isn't pro-Republican, I just want Democrats to follow through with the shit they talk, and actually live up to the progressive label they try to retain with actual progressive policies, not just more female oppressors of color. That's nice but it's not a solution to the problems we're having. reply That was from a quick search, no doubt there's more. Now it gets down to trust issues on reporting. reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply ""Disabled spending"" already happened to the people in the ICC that acted contrary to Trump's diktats[0], without the need for a digital panopticon, both the banks and the government know who you are.[0] https://www.irishtimes.com/world/us/2025/12/12/its-surreal-u... [0] https://www.irishtimes.com/world/us/2025/12/12/its-surreal-u... reply reply reply reply reply reply Never stopped people overengineering :P reply reply reply reply reply reply > Nobody stops the government from sending goons to your door right now for a snarky comment.This is just dumb. They literally don't know who wrote it, and have to assign somebody to track you down. The fact that they're putting infrastructure on your computer and on the network to make this one click away for them matters. This is just dumb. They literally don't know who wrote it, and have to assign somebody to track you down. The fact that they're putting infrastructure on your computer and on the network to make this one click away for them matters. reply reply reply reply I've wondered if FaceID and the Android counterpart are actively creating an extraordinary labeled dataset for facial expressions at the point of sale.With users trained to scan their face before every transaction, tech companies could correlate transactions to facial expressions, facial expressions to emotions, and emotions to device content. I can imagine algorithms that subtly curate the user experience, selectively showing notifications, content, advertising to coax users towards ""retail therapy"". With users trained to scan their face before every transaction, tech companies could correlate transactions to facial expressions, facial expressions to emotions, and emotions to device content. I can imagine algorithms that subtly curate the user experience, selectively showing notifications, content, advertising to coax users towards ""retail therapy"". reply Also keep in mind keystroke dynamics can probably do that too and has been a topic of study in one form or another since the nineteenth century vis-a-vis telegraph operators. reply reply Cpt America in the Winter Soldier reply reply reply reply This is a non-issue because it's almost certainly going to be gated behind a permission prompt. There are more invasive things sites/apps can ask for, and we seem to be doing fine, eg. location. Moreover is it really that much of a privacy loss if you go on steam, it asks you to verify you're over 18, and the OS says you're actually over 18?>Biometric data? Today it unlocks your private key. Tomorrow it's used to verify you are the same person that was used during sign-up -- the same that was ""age-verified"".Given touch id was introduced over a decade ago, and the associated doom-mongering predilections did not come to pass, I think it's fair to conclude it's a dud. >Biometric data? Today it unlocks your private key. Tomorrow it's used to verify you are the same person that was used during sign-up -- the same that was ""age-verified"".Given touch id was introduced over a decade ago, and the associated doom-mongering predilections did not come to pass, I think it's fair to conclude it's a dud. Given touch id was introduced over a decade ago, and the associated doom-mongering predilections did not come to pass, I think it's fair to conclude it's a dud. reply Watch as apps refuse to work when you deny them permission. Also the OS (and “privileged apps”) don't ask for permission, they have full unfettered access to everything already. reply If you can't trust the OS, you have bigger issues than it knowing whether you're 18 or not. At the very least it has a camera pointed at you at all moments you're using it, and can eavesdrop in all your conversations. reply If your OS prevented encryption, because one of the anti-encryption laws got passed, would you still trust its privacy and security? reply lol.> Moreover is it really that much of a privacy loss if you go on steam, it asks you to verify you're over 18, and the OS says you're actually over 18?Slippery slope, but an interesting argument. While SteamOS is a thing, Steam isn't my OS.> Given touch id was introduced over a decade ago, and the associated doom-mongering predilections did not come to pass, I think it's fair to conclude it's a dud.Really? You think that things built decades ago can't be further built-upon in the now or the future? > Moreover is it really that much of a privacy loss if you go on steam, it asks you to verify you're over 18, and the OS says you're actually over 18?Slippery slope, but an interesting argument. While SteamOS is a thing, Steam isn't my OS.> Given touch id was introduced over a decade ago, and the associated doom-mongering predilections did not come to pass, I think it's fair to conclude it's a dud.Really? You think that things built decades ago can't be further built-upon in the now or the future? Slippery slope, but an interesting argument. While SteamOS is a thing, Steam isn't my OS.> Given touch id was introduced over a decade ago, and the associated doom-mongering predilections did not come to pass, I think it's fair to conclude it's a dud.Really? You think that things built decades ago can't be further built-upon in the now or the future? > Given touch id was introduced over a decade ago, and the associated doom-mongering predilections did not come to pass, I think it's fair to conclude it's a dud.Really? You think that things built decades ago can't be further built-upon in the now or the future? Really? You think that things built decades ago can't be further built-upon in the now or the future? reply You mean non slippery slope?>Really? You think that things built decades ago can't be further built-upon in the now or the future?If there's no deadlines for predilections, how can we score them? Should we still be worried about some yet undiscovered way that cell phones are causing cancer, despite decades of apparently no harmful side effects? >Really? You think that things built decades ago can't be further built-upon in the now or the future?If there's no deadlines for predilections, how can we score them? Should we still be worried about some yet undiscovered way that cell phones are causing cancer, despite decades of apparently no harmful side effects? If there's no deadlines for predilections, how can we score them? Should we still be worried about some yet undiscovered way that cell phones are causing cancer, despite decades of apparently no harmful side effects? reply reply reply Thing is, when these “make the websites collect your ID” proposals come up, the overwhelming sentiment here is “this is terrible and we need to do it lower in the stack”. I think the OS is a better place than the website. (Let security conscious folks use a standalone device too if desired.)The astroturfing stuff is obviously sus, I don't have a feel for whether this is egregious by the standards of $T companies or just par.Of course, the EU option of using proper ZK proofs etc sounds way better as portrayed in the OP. But when you actually dig in, doesn't the EU effectively mandate OS support too, eg https://eudi.dev/1.7.1/architecture-and-reference-framework-..., https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/eudi-doc-archi... ? Maybe this isn't set yet but it seems a likely direction at least. The astroturfing stuff is obviously sus, I don't have a feel for whether this is egregious by the standards of $T companies or just par.Of course, the EU option of using proper ZK proofs etc sounds way better as portrayed in the OP. But when you actually dig in, doesn't the EU effectively mandate OS support too, eg https://eudi.dev/1.7.1/architecture-and-reference-framework-..., https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/eudi-doc-archi... ? Maybe this isn't set yet but it seems a likely direction at least. Of course, the EU option of using proper ZK proofs etc sounds way better as portrayed in the OP. But when you actually dig in, doesn't the EU effectively mandate OS support too, eg https://eudi.dev/1.7.1/architecture-and-reference-framework-..., https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/eudi-doc-archi... ? Maybe this isn't set yet but it seems a likely direction at least. reply Perhaps the ""overwhelming"" sentiment is paid actors? Or people whose jobs depend on not having that risk assigned to their employers? reply Like, in general, a software change to add an ""age class"" attribute to user accounts and a syscall ""what's this attribute for the current user account"" would satisfy the California bill and that's a relatively minor change (the bad part is the NY bill that allegedly requires technical verification of whatever the user claimed).The weird issue is how should that attribute be filled for the 'root' or 'www-data' user of a linux machine I have on the cloud. Or, to put aside open source for that matter, the Administrator account on a Windows Active Directory system.Because ""user accounts"" don't necessarily have any mapping (much less a 1-to-1 mapping) to a person; many user accounts are personal but many are not. The weird issue is how should that attribute be filled for the 'root' or 'www-data' user of a linux machine I have on the cloud. Or, to put aside open source for that matter, the Administrator account on a Windows Active Directory system.Because ""user accounts"" don't necessarily have any mapping (much less a 1-to-1 mapping) to a person; many user accounts are personal but many are not. Because ""user accounts"" don't necessarily have any mapping (much less a 1-to-1 mapping) to a person; many user accounts are personal but many are not. reply reply The auth server would lie in Colorado. The FS server, in New Mexico. The CPU server, in Nevada. The terminal (the client), in Alaska. Shut down and repeat at random. Watch the lobbies collapsing down tring to sue that monster. reply reply reply We should also update all FOSS license terms to explicitly exclude Meta or any affilites from using any software licensed under them. reply Heck, Linus Torvalds should just add an amendment to the next release of the Linux Kernel that makes it illegal to use in any jurisdiction that requires age verification laws.This would obviously cause such a massive disruption (especially in California) that the age laws would have to be rolled back immediately.This seems like a no-brainer to me but I am admittedly ignorant on this situation. I'm sure there's a good reason why this isn't happening if anyone cares to explain. This would obviously cause such a massive disruption (especially in California) that the age laws would have to be rolled back immediately.This seems like a no-brainer to me but I am admittedly ignorant on this situation. I'm sure there's a good reason why this isn't happening if anyone cares to explain. This seems like a no-brainer to me but I am admittedly ignorant on this situation. I'm sure there's a good reason why this isn't happening if anyone cares to explain. reply If it's not (fully) your code, you aren't free to set the licence conditions; Linus can't do that without getting approval from 100% (not 99% or so) of authors who contributed code.What one can do is add an informative disclaimer saying ""To the best of our knowledge, installing or running this thing in California is prohibited - we permit to do whatever you want with it, but how you'll comply with that law is your business"". What one can do is add an informative disclaimer saying ""To the best of our knowledge, installing or running this thing in California is prohibited - we permit to do whatever you want with it, but how you'll comply with that law is your business"". reply It also helps when you take an offender to court. If I contribute to a project but don't assign copyright, then they cannot take offenders to court if my code was copied illegally. The burden is on me to do so.Of course, all code released prior to the change still remains on the original license. Of course, all code released prior to the change still remains on the original license. reply reply A ""Linux distro"" is not the Linux kernel. It's possible for some distros to add such license terms to their distribution media, but others like Debian and Debian-based ones adhere to the GPL so no go. reply reply ""Every OS provider must then: provide an interface at account setup collecting a birth date or age, and expose a real-time API that broadcasts the user's age bracket (under 13, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, 18+) to any application running on the system."" reply reply reply You can call what's happening in this thread a hissy fit, but how does that compare to $70 million in lobbying to get this added to operating systems? Isn't that a bit more of a fit? When you look at who is behind the bills, do you look at their history and wonder whose best interest they might have at heart? reply reply Debian, Ubuntu, etc., they'll all fall right in line because the clear and immediate losses will outweigh any PR issue. reply reply The issue is obviously not with adults needing to click a drop-down.Some of the main issues with this legislation are:1) Makes it much easier for predators of all kinds to identify and target children on their computers2) Impossible to implement (i.e., servers don't have a person)3) The infrastructure this bill introduces will be used by the state and corporations to destroy our last vestiges of privacy and anonymity Some of the main issues with this legislation are:1) Makes it much easier for predators of all kinds to identify and target children on their computers2) Impossible to implement (i.e., servers don't have a person)3) The infrastructure this bill introduces will be used by the state and corporations to destroy our last vestiges of privacy and anonymity 1) Makes it much easier for predators of all kinds to identify and target children on their computers2) Impossible to implement (i.e., servers don't have a person)3) The infrastructure this bill introduces will be used by the state and corporations to destroy our last vestiges of privacy and anonymity 2) Impossible to implement (i.e., servers don't have a person)3) The infrastructure this bill introduces will be used by the state and corporations to destroy our last vestiges of privacy and anonymity 3) The infrastructure this bill introduces will be used by the state and corporations to destroy our last vestiges of privacy and anonymity reply reply reply 6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License. It would be in violation of the GPL and such a license would not be an OSI approved license.https://opensource.org/osd 5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons. https://opensource.org/osd 5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons. 5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons. reply If this was somehow introduced without anyone noticing and deployed, imagine the damage it would cause.If we're fantasizing here, I like to imagine two major OS makers trying to comply these laws, fail miserably, and let FOSS OSes and kernels more recognition in the desktop market. If we're fantasizing here, I like to imagine two major OS makers trying to comply these laws, fail miserably, and let FOSS OSes and kernels more recognition in the desktop market. reply Ideally, getting these servers to auto turn off the day this goes into effect (""In compliance with this new law, Linux is now temporarily unusable. Please ."") would be glorious for getting the bill staved off, or killed.It would hurt some productivity, but that is a risk these lawmakers taking donations are probably willing to make.1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Npm_left-pad_incident It would hurt some productivity, but that is a risk these lawmakers taking donations are probably willing to make.1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Npm_left-pad_incident 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Npm_left-pad_incident reply reply reply reply reply I know. That's exactly the point.In such situations where one party (Meta) has enough money to lobby and is playing dirty, it's a massively asymmetric situation. In such cases, if you really want to make sure you're heard (which I'm not sure distributers want or care about tbh), you've got to play the game too.Malicious compliance, if you will.PS: For a ""practical"" variant, simply a warning might be sufficient - given how many hospitals/critical infra uses linux. For eg ""There is a chance this server will fail to work on x date due to this y law. Not as glamorous/all-guns-blazing, but probably much more sensible and practical.PPS: For an even more ""safer"" variant, one could go ""Post x, please note that using linux/this server is a violation of law y. Please turn off the server yourself manually. Failure to comply with these instructions and violating the law will be borne entirely by the (no informed) sysadmin/manglement. In such situations where one party (Meta) has enough money to lobby and is playing dirty, it's a massively asymmetric situation. In such cases, if you really want to make sure you're heard (which I'm not sure distributers want or care about tbh), you've got to play the game too.Malicious compliance, if you will.PS: For a ""practical"" variant, simply a warning might be sufficient - given how many hospitals/critical infra uses linux. For eg ""There is a chance this server will fail to work on x date due to this y law. Not as glamorous/all-guns-blazing, but probably much more sensible and practical.PPS: For an even more ""safer"" variant, one could go ""Post x, please note that using linux/this server is a violation of law y. Please turn off the server yourself manually. Failure to comply with these instructions and violating the law will be borne entirely by the (no informed) sysadmin/manglement. Malicious compliance, if you will.PS: For a ""practical"" variant, simply a warning might be sufficient - given how many hospitals/critical infra uses linux. For eg ""There is a chance this server will fail to work on x date due to this y law. Not as glamorous/all-guns-blazing, but probably much more sensible and practical.PPS: For an even more ""safer"" variant, one could go ""Post x, please note that using linux/this server is a violation of law y. Please turn off the server yourself manually. Failure to comply with these instructions and violating the law will be borne entirely by the (no informed) sysadmin/manglement. PS: For a ""practical"" variant, simply a warning might be sufficient - given how many hospitals/critical infra uses linux. For eg ""There is a chance this server will fail to work on x date due to this y law. Not as glamorous/all-guns-blazing, but probably much more sensible and practical.PPS: For an even more ""safer"" variant, one could go ""Post x, please note that using linux/this server is a violation of law y. Please turn off the server yourself manually. Failure to comply with these instructions and violating the law will be borne entirely by the (no informed) sysadmin/manglement. PPS: For an even more ""safer"" variant, one could go ""Post x, please note that using linux/this server is a violation of law y. Please turn off the server yourself manually. Failure to comply with these instructions and violating the law will be borne entirely by the (no informed) sysadmin/manglement. reply reply reply reply What exactly do you think Linux is? I would say that Linux would be forked in like 2 seconds, a bunch of different companies would start offering ""attested Linux,"" and all you'd have to do was change your repos and update.I would say that, but what would really happen is that we'd find out that Canonical, Red Hat, and a bunch of other distributions had been talking to the government for a year behind closed doors and they're already ready to roll out attested Linux. Debian would argue about it for six months, and then do the same thing. Hell, systemd will require age attestation as a dependency. Devuan and any other stubborn distribution would face 9000 federal lawsuits, while having domain names blocked, and the Chinese hardware necessary to run them seized at the ports with the receivers locked up on terrorism charges.I have no idea where the confidence of the IT tech comes from. You (we) are something between a mechanic and a highly-skilled janitor. I would say that, but what would really happen is that we'd find out that Canonical, Red Hat, and a bunch of other distributions had been talking to the government for a year behind closed doors and they're already ready to roll out attested Linux. Debian would argue about it for six months, and then do the same thing. Hell, systemd will require age attestation as a dependency. Devuan and any other stubborn distribution would face 9000 federal lawsuits, while having domain names blocked, and the Chinese hardware necessary to run them seized at the ports with the receivers locked up on terrorism charges.I have no idea where the confidence of the IT tech comes from. You (we) are something between a mechanic and a highly-skilled janitor. I have no idea where the confidence of the IT tech comes from. You (we) are something between a mechanic and a highly-skilled janitor. reply Update the terms to indicate that you can do what you want, but this OS is probably not compliant with states run by evil dipshits. reply reply Arguably they would be more materially advantaged if they were forced to KYC/validate ages, not the platform; because sure, there's a cost to doing it, but presumably having hard data on who your customer actually is, with age and address and everything, is worth a lot more than the verification cost. And being able to say ""We're legally required to gather this"" gives a lot of PR cover (even though it'd be followed with ""but we're giddy to do so and we will abuse this data and you every way we possibly can. No one at Meta believes you are human. We hate you as much as you hate us, but we're stuck in this together, endlessly loathing the supernatural force that keeps us working together."")But, On the flip side: I also don't doubt that Meta is doing this, because the purpose of a system is what it does, and the leadership at Meta has done nothing in the past four years to demonstrate that they're capable of cogent thought and execution. We want to believe there's some evil plan, and maybe there is, but in all likelihood one day we'll learn that they're just... unintelligent. But, On the flip side: I also don't doubt that Meta is doing this, because the purpose of a system is what it does, and the leadership at Meta has done nothing in the past four years to demonstrate that they're capable of cogent thought and execution. We want to believe there's some evil plan, and maybe there is, but in all likelihood one day we'll learn that they're just... unintelligent. reply These laws, that attempt to move ""age verification"" into the OS, 100% absolve Meta (and all the Meta owned ""properties"") from any legal liability so long as all of Meta's app's follow the law's required ""ask the OS for the age signal of the user"".Any ""bad stuff"" which then gets shown to ""underage users"" then becomes ""not Meta's fault, they followed the legally proscribed way to check the age of the user, and the OS said this user was 'old enough'"" and Apple/Google then get to shoulder the liability (and pay out for the class action lawsuits) for failing to provide a proper age signal.That's the ""material advantage"" gained by Meta by pushing these laws. Any ""bad stuff"" which then gets shown to ""underage users"" then becomes ""not Meta's fault, they followed the legally proscribed way to check the age of the user, and the OS said this user was 'old enough'"" and Apple/Google then get to shoulder the liability (and pay out for the class action lawsuits) for failing to provide a proper age signal.That's the ""material advantage"" gained by Meta by pushing these laws. That's the ""material advantage"" gained by Meta by pushing these laws. reply I don't think absolution of legal liability has ever crossed any of these fools' empty heads. The threat of being fined & punished by the USG for doing something bad hasn't been a factor in corporate decision-making for decades. reply reply reply reply > Meta spent a record $26.3 million on federal lobbying in 2025, deployed 86+ lobbyists across 45 states, and covertly funded a ""grassroots"" child safety group called the Digital Childhood Alliance (DCA) to advocate for the App Store Accountability Act (ASAA). The ASAA requires app stores to verify user ages before downloads but imposes no requirements on social media platforms. If it becomes law, Apple and Google absorb the compliance cost while Meta's apps face zero new mandates. reply reply Not saying I think it's a good idea to provide the year of birth to all sites, but (session ID, year of birth) is the only information they would need. The problem is proving who's behind the keyboard at the time of asking, which would require challenge-response, and is why I think this should be an online platform, not a hardware PKI gadget with keys inevitably tied to individuals. reply reply No, enforcing privacy is not hard, all it takes is imposing penalties _much greater than_ those financial incentives. reply It seems dead though... reply Anthropic donated $20 million to Public First Action, a PAC that promotes Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn and her sponsored Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill that will force everyone to scan their faces and IDs to use the internet under the guise of saving the children. The legislative angle taken by companies like Anthropic is that they will provide the censorship gatekeeping infrastructure to scan all user-generated content that gets posted online for ""appropriateness"", guaranteeing AI providers a constant firehose of novel content they can train on and get paid for the free training. AI companies will also get paid to train on videos of everyone's faces and IDs. As for why Blackburn supports KOSA: Asked what conservatives' top priorities should be right now, Senator Blackburn answered, “protecting minor children from the transgender [sic] in this culture and that influence.” She then talked about how KOSA could address this problem, and named social media platforms as places “where children are being indoctrinated.” If Anthropic, the PACs it supports and Blackburn get their way with KOSA, the end result will be that anything posted on the internet will be able to be traced back to you. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/12/anthropic-gives-20-million-t... reply reply https://web.archive.org/web/20260313125244/https://old.reddi... reply reply EDIT: why is it deleted now? reply reply reply In the real world, professional media organizations regularly expose corruption. More often than not? No idea. But to pretend they only engage in cover-ups is cynical fatalism. reply reply reply reply The linked post talks about the effectiveness of AIPAC but fails to mention how much is spent by say, Palestinian interest groups. Perhaps there's a good reason for this: do Palestinian groups have any money to spend on US elections? Try fundraising in Gaza right now.Likewise, business interest groups have a lot more money to spend on elections than, say, environmental groups. The latter have to beg for small donations from individuals just to stay afloat. Thus, it's relatively easy for business groups to outspend environmental groups. To win an auction, you just have to be the highest bidder. Likewise, business interest groups have a lot more money to spend on elections than, say, environmental groups. The latter have to beg for small donations from individuals just to stay afloat. Thus, it's relatively easy for business groups to outspend environmental groups. To win an auction, you just have to be the highest bidder. reply reply They may on paper, but of course a lot of money goes to dividing us up come election time. What you are suggesting is no shortcut - it would rather be almost like inventing an alternative political party. reply reply I think there might be a way to make it work, however you would have to be very aware and plan for a way to not reinvent the same losing dynamics. It might not be possible. reply reply Gulf states have little to nothing in common with Palestinians. Citizens of most gulf states are born into relative wealth merely by the fact their countries are rich in petrodollars. They build lavish cities and have standards of living (for their citizens) that increasingly put the West to shame. They are ""diversifying"" from oil by building massive AI datacenters and essentially catering to Westerners who want to live unencumbered by Western pretensions of civic duty, avoid taxes in their home countries, etc. They make deals with the Israelis and have for over a decade now, even if under the table. They buy American weapons, their elites have frequently been educated at the most exclusive British or American universities. They like expensive Italian cars. Money is money.Meanwhile Palestinians are born poor, in a failed state with no autonomy. Some UAE crypto influencer is yolo gambling away more money than most Palestinian kids will see in their lifetimes. They live under an occupation and have basically no rights in that regard. They are poor. Just google image a picture of Gaza vs the UAE. It just doesn't even compare. Maybe on some level they are both Arabs. But the same rule applies. Money is money.The gulf state governments gave up on trying to care about them many many decades ago. They realized it was cheaper (and more prosperous) to go along to get along with the United States and Israel. If they hadn't, their capitals might look like Tehran right now. Over the years it became easy to blame other people for the problem - Iran, even the Palestinians themselves. They have long since washed their hands of caring.Don't conflate the Gulf States with Palestinians, or associate them with anyone on the losing side of anything when it comes to money and power. They are as corrupt and bought-in to this system of wealth/might makes right as anyone. Meanwhile Palestinians are born poor, in a failed state with no autonomy. Some UAE crypto influencer is yolo gambling away more money than most Palestinian kids will see in their lifetimes. They live under an occupation and have basically no rights in that regard. They are poor. Just google image a picture of Gaza vs the UAE. It just doesn't even compare. Maybe on some level they are both Arabs. But the same rule applies. Money is money.The gulf state governments gave up on trying to care about them many many decades ago. They realized it was cheaper (and more prosperous) to go along to get along with the United States and Israel. If they hadn't, their capitals might look like Tehran right now. Over the years it became easy to blame other people for the problem - Iran, even the Palestinians themselves. They have long since washed their hands of caring.Don't conflate the Gulf States with Palestinians, or associate them with anyone on the losing side of anything when it comes to money and power. They are as corrupt and bought-in to this system of wealth/might makes right as anyone. The gulf state governments gave up on trying to care about them many many decades ago. They realized it was cheaper (and more prosperous) to go along to get along with the United States and Israel. If they hadn't, their capitals might look like Tehran right now. Over the years it became easy to blame other people for the problem - Iran, even the Palestinians themselves. They have long since washed their hands of caring.Don't conflate the Gulf States with Palestinians, or associate them with anyone on the losing side of anything when it comes to money and power. They are as corrupt and bought-in to this system of wealth/might makes right as anyone. Don't conflate the Gulf States with Palestinians, or associate them with anyone on the losing side of anything when it comes to money and power. They are as corrupt and bought-in to this system of wealth/might makes right as anyone. reply reply reply The biggest shocker to me has been just how ""cheap"" a lot of people are to buy off. Mandelson is complaining about air miles FFS. So much of this is a few thousand here, some fancy tickets there, a jet ride elsewhere, etc. In my mind it was always much, much bigger sums that people were selling their countries & souls out for, sadly, it turns out a lot of people, even in really high positions, are shockingly cheap.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relationship_of_Peter_Mandelso... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relationship_of_Peter_Mandelso... reply That's a wildly low sum of money for a 5 minute personal call, let alone even a modest intervention. reply I'd write my senator but they won't do shit. Is there anything that can seriously be done? reply reply Do you know how democracy works? There are these people called representatives. They are hired by you. They pass laws. They only get to continue having a job if people like you vote for them. When you tell them ""I don't like the law you are passing"", they are hearing ""the people who hire me are angry with me"". The more people that are angry at what they're doing, the more their job is at risk.They do what the lobbyists say because somebody else is doing the work, and they get paid (by the lobbyist). But they won't have a job to get paid for if the voters don't vote for them again. So your entire defense against tyranny and bad laws is you speaking out. If you never talk to your reps (or vote), you're telling them you don't care what kind of government it is, and they really will do whatever they want.You have to tell them how you feel, along with all the rest of us. That's the only power we have.In addition to that, tell everyone you know. Your friends, family, coworkers, the dude running the local gas station. Explain to them why government-mandated surveillance of everything they do on a computer is a bad idea. Ask them to talk to their reps. They do what the lobbyists say because somebody else is doing the work, and they get paid (by the lobbyist). But they won't have a job to get paid for if the voters don't vote for them again. So your entire defense against tyranny and bad laws is you speaking out. If you never talk to your reps (or vote), you're telling them you don't care what kind of government it is, and they really will do whatever they want.You have to tell them how you feel, along with all the rest of us. That's the only power we have.In addition to that, tell everyone you know. Your friends, family, coworkers, the dude running the local gas station. Explain to them why government-mandated surveillance of everything they do on a computer is a bad idea. Ask them to talk to their reps. You have to tell them how you feel, along with all the rest of us. That's the only power we have.In addition to that, tell everyone you know. Your friends, family, coworkers, the dude running the local gas station. Explain to them why government-mandated surveillance of everything they do on a computer is a bad idea. Ask them to talk to their reps. In addition to that, tell everyone you know. Your friends, family, coworkers, the dude running the local gas station. Explain to them why government-mandated surveillance of everything they do on a computer is a bad idea. Ask them to talk to their reps. reply reply reply Ideas? Time to spin up a local LLM for some editing advice. reply reply reply reply Instead of just creating a course that explains how to child-proof a device, we have to surveil everyone. reply reply It's to save the kids.We care about the kids. We don't bomb them. We care about the kids. We don't bomb them. reply reply The best part? This is cheaper and easier. You're literally doing less. Locking down a smartphone is hard? Great, so don't do that. Problem solved, you're welcome, I'll send you my invoice. reply reply reply No offline devices. Commercial vendors get your biometric data (and the equivalent of your driver's license / SSN). Every application on the OS can query your data.If you think it stops with one bill, after they get all the infrastructure for this in place? You're fooling yourself. The whole point of this is to identify you, on every web page you visit, every app you open, on every device you own. Once bills are passed, it's very hard to get them revoked or nullified.This is the most aggregious, authoritarian, Big Brother government surveillance system ever devised, and it's already law. I am fucking terrified.(Yes, the EU has a less horrifying version of this. But Google, Apple, and Microsoft still control most of the devices in the world, and they are US companies.) If you think it stops with one bill, after they get all the infrastructure for this in place? You're fooling yourself. The whole point of this is to identify you, on every web page you visit, every app you open, on every device you own. Once bills are passed, it's very hard to get them revoked or nullified.This is the most aggregious, authoritarian, Big Brother government surveillance system ever devised, and it's already law. I am fucking terrified.(Yes, the EU has a less horrifying version of this. But Google, Apple, and Microsoft still control most of the devices in the world, and they are US companies.) This is the most aggregious, authoritarian, Big Brother government surveillance system ever devised, and it's already law. I am fucking terrified.(Yes, the EU has a less horrifying version of this. But Google, Apple, and Microsoft still control most of the devices in the world, and they are US companies.) (Yes, the EU has a less horrifying version of this. But Google, Apple, and Microsoft still control most of the devices in the world, and they are US companies.) reply Because it's hopeless? It's been proven time and time again there's nothing the average person can do to fight this sort of thing.It's just better to sit back and watch as everything gets ruined. It's just better to sit back and watch as everything gets ruined. reply You literally live in a Democracy. There's 5.8 billion people on this planet who wish they had the kind of power you have. If you give up your rights without a fight, you don't deserve them. reply Compare this to what the EU built. The EU Digital Identity Wallet under eIDAS 2.0 is open-source, self-hostable, and uses zero-knowledge proofs. You can prove you're over 18 without revealing your birth date, your name, or anything else. No per-check fees, no proprietary SDKs, no data going to a vendor's cloud. The EU's Digital Services Act puts age verification obligations on Very Large Online Platforms (45M+ monthly users), not on operating systems. FOSS projects that don't act as intermediary services are explicitly outside scope. Micro and small enterprises get additional exemptions. The US bills assume every operating system is built by a corporation with the infrastructure and revenue to absorb these costs. The EU started from the opposite assumption and built accordingly. Just another reminder of how we need to protect what we have in the EU (not a guarantee, but at least a chance of fair dealing and a sustained commitment to civic values). Now that the mask has fully fallen, we have to take every step possible to root out American influence. reply https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualified_website_authenticati... reply reply reply QWAC certs are only for ""high value"" sites: banks, government services, etc. They can only be issued by ""Qualified Trust Service Providers"" (e.g. digisign, D-TRUST, etc -- not governments), and cost many hundreds of euros. Your blog and mastodon instance and 98% of businesses just aren't affected.People operating in ""high risk"" sectors that need access to payment infra (porn, drugs, etc) are, as always, going to have a hard time. That's a worthy conversation, but nothing about QWAC or eIDAS is about ""the government not issuing certs to people they don't like"". People operating in ""high risk"" sectors that need access to payment infra (porn, drugs, etc) are, as always, going to have a hard time. That's a worthy conversation, but nothing about QWAC or eIDAS is about ""the government not issuing certs to people they don't like"". reply Secure Boot is just a technology for those that need it, until Microsoft decides it's mandatory for everyone. reply reply reply reply What you have in the EU is this: https://noyb.eu/en/project/dpa/dpc-ireland> Now that the mask has fully fallen, we have to take every step possible to root out American influence.You have literal rogue states in your union that neutralize the entirety of it, as the above shows. It's a joke. The EU is a joke. A single country is enough to mean US tech can do whatever it wants, similarly a single other country is enough to mean Russia can largely do what it wants.The others are of course in on it too. Which is why for all the empty EU talk on US big tech you've never heard them talk about the Irish DPA and what they all enable. Strange right? Would think that this would be a priority. But it shows that even if the rest weren't in on it, just one country would be enough. And it could even be a tiny place like Luxembourg.Laws and regulations aren't worth the paper they're written on if they're not enforced. The current ones aren't enforced at all, why would any new ones be? Did you know that there was a long period where hosting European citizens' PII on US-controlled servers (like Amazon instances in Europe) was illegal, after the ""Privacy Shield"" was deemed unlawful? No one cared. Did you know that this is currently the case again, because the thing that replaced it has once again had its basis ripped out from under it by Trump? Once again, no one cares, and indeed EU governments and corporations are _still_ making migrations _to_ US clouds.Not that it matters, within a few years RN will be running France and AfD will be running Germany and you don't have to pretend any more as the ""mask will have fallen"" just as much. > Now that the mask has fully fallen, we have to take every step possible to root out American influence.You have literal rogue states in your union that neutralize the entirety of it, as the above shows. It's a joke. The EU is a joke. A single country is enough to mean US tech can do whatever it wants, similarly a single other country is enough to mean Russia can largely do what it wants.The others are of course in on it too. Which is why for all the empty EU talk on US big tech you've never heard them talk about the Irish DPA and what they all enable. Strange right? Would think that this would be a priority. But it shows that even if the rest weren't in on it, just one country would be enough. And it could even be a tiny place like Luxembourg.Laws and regulations aren't worth the paper they're written on if they're not enforced. The current ones aren't enforced at all, why would any new ones be? Did you know that there was a long period where hosting European citizens' PII on US-controlled servers (like Amazon instances in Europe) was illegal, after the ""Privacy Shield"" was deemed unlawful? No one cared. Did you know that this is currently the case again, because the thing that replaced it has once again had its basis ripped out from under it by Trump? Once again, no one cares, and indeed EU governments and corporations are _still_ making migrations _to_ US clouds.Not that it matters, within a few years RN will be running France and AfD will be running Germany and you don't have to pretend any more as the ""mask will have fallen"" just as much. You have literal rogue states in your union that neutralize the entirety of it, as the above shows. It's a joke. The EU is a joke. A single country is enough to mean US tech can do whatever it wants, similarly a single other country is enough to mean Russia can largely do what it wants.The others are of course in on it too. Which is why for all the empty EU talk on US big tech you've never heard them talk about the Irish DPA and what they all enable. Strange right? Would think that this would be a priority. But it shows that even if the rest weren't in on it, just one country would be enough. And it could even be a tiny place like Luxembourg.Laws and regulations aren't worth the paper they're written on if they're not enforced. The current ones aren't enforced at all, why would any new ones be? Did you know that there was a long period where hosting European citizens' PII on US-controlled servers (like Amazon instances in Europe) was illegal, after the ""Privacy Shield"" was deemed unlawful? No one cared. Did you know that this is currently the case again, because the thing that replaced it has once again had its basis ripped out from under it by Trump? Once again, no one cares, and indeed EU governments and corporations are _still_ making migrations _to_ US clouds.Not that it matters, within a few years RN will be running France and AfD will be running Germany and you don't have to pretend any more as the ""mask will have fallen"" just as much. The others are of course in on it too. Which is why for all the empty EU talk on US big tech you've never heard them talk about the Irish DPA and what they all enable. Strange right? Would think that this would be a priority. But it shows that even if the rest weren't in on it, just one country would be enough. And it could even be a tiny place like Luxembourg.Laws and regulations aren't worth the paper they're written on if they're not enforced. The current ones aren't enforced at all, why would any new ones be? Did you know that there was a long period where hosting European citizens' PII on US-controlled servers (like Amazon instances in Europe) was illegal, after the ""Privacy Shield"" was deemed unlawful? No one cared. Did you know that this is currently the case again, because the thing that replaced it has once again had its basis ripped out from under it by Trump? Once again, no one cares, and indeed EU governments and corporations are _still_ making migrations _to_ US clouds.Not that it matters, within a few years RN will be running France and AfD will be running Germany and you don't have to pretend any more as the ""mask will have fallen"" just as much. Laws and regulations aren't worth the paper they're written on if they're not enforced. The current ones aren't enforced at all, why would any new ones be? Did you know that there was a long period where hosting European citizens' PII on US-controlled servers (like Amazon instances in Europe) was illegal, after the ""Privacy Shield"" was deemed unlawful? No one cared. Did you know that this is currently the case again, because the thing that replaced it has once again had its basis ripped out from under it by Trump? Once again, no one cares, and indeed EU governments and corporations are _still_ making migrations _to_ US clouds.Not that it matters, within a few years RN will be running France and AfD will be running Germany and you don't have to pretend any more as the ""mask will have fallen"" just as much. Not that it matters, within a few years RN will be running France and AfD will be running Germany and you don't have to pretend any more as the ""mask will have fallen"" just as much. reply It says apps must use the age signal as proof the user is a minor, and then behave according to all California laws regarding that. (I'm not a lawyer, but that's my read.)So, does this apply to applications that run locally? What if an under 13 year old tries to read a text file with lots of swear words or ascii b00bs? Does emacs need to stop them? cat? xterm? So, does this apply to applications that run locally? What if an under 13 year old tries to read a text file with lots of swear words or ascii b00bs? Does emacs need to stop them? cat? xterm? reply ""You implemented a law that enables vibe-coding pedophiles to deploy apps that find all the children. Please resign."" reply reply The patches on top of this are really bad. For instance, we are seeing ""AI"" biometric video detectors with a margin-of-error of 5-7 years (meaning the validation studies say when the AI says you're 23-25 you can be considered 18+), totally inadequate to do the job this new legislation demands. reply reply reply Its like they want to keep being seen as the bad guys. reply reply reply reply Please feel free to verify your own age with anyone you like. If you mean ""I want other people to"", then no. reply reply reply And responses to some common criticisms of the idea: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46459959I also forgot to mention in my original post that the token issuer is not a monopoly. Any company that wants to participate can do so, just like there are many brands of tobacco and alcohol. Require websites to accept at least 5 providers to ensure competition.To be clear though if it's being used as wedge for privacy violation then it should not exist at all. And from reading TFA preventing that may need a similarly coordinated counter-effort. I also forgot to mention in my original post that the token issuer is not a monopoly. Any company that wants to participate can do so, just like there are many brands of tobacco and alcohol. Require websites to accept at least 5 providers to ensure competition.To be clear though if it's being used as wedge for privacy violation then it should not exist at all. And from reading TFA preventing that may need a similarly coordinated counter-effort. To be clear though if it's being used as wedge for privacy violation then it should not exist at all. And from reading TFA preventing that may need a similarly coordinated counter-effort. reply reply On a spectrum of options, no verification is the least privacy intrusive. Baking it in at the OS level or forcing passport uploads are the most intrusive. My proposal is in the middle.A determined actor could maybe follow you to the store when you purchase your verification code, take a quick picture with a powerful camera (or bribe the store to do it sneakily) and unmask you online. But there's no way to do it at scale. And if you buy the code from a reseller (ask a panhandler to buy one for you, perhaps) then it's even more robust. A determined actor could maybe follow you to the store when you purchase your verification code, take a quick picture with a powerful camera (or bribe the store to do it sneakily) and unmask you online. But there's no way to do it at scale. And if you buy the code from a reseller (ask a panhandler to buy one for you, perhaps) then it's even more robust. reply reply Why? reply reply Are you serious? Because this comment doesn't make it sound like you're serious.EULAs and the like allow adults to simply click ""I accept"". That's apparently the way contracts work these days. Speaking of contracts: children aren't allowed to sign contracts. So those apps that children are using with EULAs? It's absurd to allow adults to simply click ""I accept"". We need to have ""acceptance verification"" laws to prevent this kind of abuse.It's also absurd to allow children to simply enter a church. Churches teach dangerous thoughts. Have you read their books?! Those books have sex, murder, theft! Think of the children! There's many kinds of religions and we need to track the religion bracket of our children. It's absurd to allow a child to simply click ""I am Christian."" Nowhere else works like this. We need to have ""religious verification"" laws to prevent this kind of abuse.What you want isn't conducive to a ""high trust"" society [0].[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-trust_and_low-trust_socie... EULAs and the like allow adults to simply click ""I accept"". That's apparently the way contracts work these days. Speaking of contracts: children aren't allowed to sign contracts. So those apps that children are using with EULAs? It's absurd to allow adults to simply click ""I accept"". We need to have ""acceptance verification"" laws to prevent this kind of abuse.It's also absurd to allow children to simply enter a church. Churches teach dangerous thoughts. Have you read their books?! Those books have sex, murder, theft! Think of the children! There's many kinds of religions and we need to track the religion bracket of our children. It's absurd to allow a child to simply click ""I am Christian."" Nowhere else works like this. We need to have ""religious verification"" laws to prevent this kind of abuse.What you want isn't conducive to a ""high trust"" society [0].[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-trust_and_low-trust_socie... It's also absurd to allow children to simply enter a church. Churches teach dangerous thoughts. Have you read their books?! Those books have sex, murder, theft! Think of the children! There's many kinds of religions and we need to track the religion bracket of our children. It's absurd to allow a child to simply click ""I am Christian."" Nowhere else works like this. We need to have ""religious verification"" laws to prevent this kind of abuse.What you want isn't conducive to a ""high trust"" society [0].[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-trust_and_low-trust_socie... What you want isn't conducive to a ""high trust"" society [0].[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-trust_and_low-trust_socie... [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-trust_and_low-trust_socie... reply The absurdity here comes from the fact that this is only illegal when one convinces a group of wetware about the dangers of porn addiction and LGBT, even more absurd this can only be done through misinformation since neither LGBT grooming rings nor porn addiction are real.I see the absurdity in pushing for laws in the hope of preventing a disease that only exists in your mind? Can you? I believe you can if you step out of idpol and look at the cold data/dollars. I see the absurdity in pushing for laws in the hope of preventing a disease that only exists in your mind? Can you? I believe you can if you step out of idpol and look at the cold data/dollars. reply reply reply reply reply https://www.robpanico.com/articles/display/presence-derived-...(posting link because it would be too much for a comment) (posting link because it would be too much for a comment) reply $70 million is chump change for Meta, yet is far more money than I'll ever have and does so much to influence state legislation. reply I remember from peak net neutrality discussions during trump 1 maybe around 2017-2018 ant saw an article on theverge.com (that cannot find now) and biggest sum to individual politician was around $200k, when median values were much much lower.Politicians are selling tens of billions of dollars (if not hundreds of billions) worth of revenue to ISPs for couple or dozen million. Literally 1000x return on investment (if successful).I remember local politician (I am not from US) got caught taking 100k bribe from a company for helping with alleged highway construction procurement. Project was valued ~1B - 10 000x return on investment (if they wouldn't have been caught).[1] I am sorry, not ""corruption"", but ""lobbying"". Politicians are selling tens of billions of dollars (if not hundreds of billions) worth of revenue to ISPs for couple or dozen million. Literally 1000x return on investment (if successful).I remember local politician (I am not from US) got caught taking 100k bribe from a company for helping with alleged highway construction procurement. Project was valued ~1B - 10 000x return on investment (if they wouldn't have been caught).[1] I am sorry, not ""corruption"", but ""lobbying"". I remember local politician (I am not from US) got caught taking 100k bribe from a company for helping with alleged highway construction procurement. Project was valued ~1B - 10 000x return on investment (if they wouldn't have been caught).[1] I am sorry, not ""corruption"", but ""lobbying"". [1] I am sorry, not ""corruption"", but ""lobbying"". reply she ended up resigning in a scandal caused by her husband accepting a boat (or work on the boat..i don't remember). the scandal was caused by the amount of the bribe. it was too low. the Turkish people could understand some corruption, but to be able to bribe the top leader for $50k. Unacceptable. If it would have been $100 million, it would not have been a scandal. reply Rinse and repeat. Unless, politicians band together and say ""we need the full ROI of your project, and NONE of us will even talk to you unless we get half the profits, and you can't primary all of us at once"" reply reply reply reply one scary observation is that each year, less and less people care. at least, this is true among my students. plenty of them believe the 'protect the children' line and are more than willing to do whatever the government/big tech suggests. or they just shrug (""what difference would i make?"").for context, i teach at a college level, in tech. a few of my classes are from the cybersec program, one of the programs that should understand and care about the implications of bills like these, and even the majority of them do not care about this stuff anymore. they grew up with instagram and facebook and cameras everywhere. they grew up knowing that any little fuck up they have is recorded and posted online. they know that by the time they go to college, all of their data has already been leaked a few times. they never really had an expectation of privacy in the first place, so it just isnt a big deal.as someone who interacts with this next generation of ""hackers"" on a daily basis... the concept of cypherpunk is gone. i got into this field because of my beliefs. they are going into this field because they want a chance at buying a house some day, and know that big tech has big bucks.i am tired. and i recognize that this is exactly what they (lobbyists, meta, etc.) want! but i am tired and discouraged. more and more i find myself having to actively fight the urge to give up. i am not ready to give up just yet... but, i am sorry to say that as someone closer to retirement than i am comfortable admitting, i only have so much energy left. for context, i teach at a college level, in tech. a few of my classes are from the cybersec program, one of the programs that should understand and care about the implications of bills like these, and even the majority of them do not care about this stuff anymore. they grew up with instagram and facebook and cameras everywhere. they grew up knowing that any little fuck up they have is recorded and posted online. they know that by the time they go to college, all of their data has already been leaked a few times. they never really had an expectation of privacy in the first place, so it just isnt a big deal.as someone who interacts with this next generation of ""hackers"" on a daily basis... the concept of cypherpunk is gone. i got into this field because of my beliefs. they are going into this field because they want a chance at buying a house some day, and know that big tech has big bucks.i am tired. and i recognize that this is exactly what they (lobbyists, meta, etc.) want! but i am tired and discouraged. more and more i find myself having to actively fight the urge to give up. i am not ready to give up just yet... but, i am sorry to say that as someone closer to retirement than i am comfortable admitting, i only have so much energy left. as someone who interacts with this next generation of ""hackers"" on a daily basis... the concept of cypherpunk is gone. i got into this field because of my beliefs. they are going into this field because they want a chance at buying a house some day, and know that big tech has big bucks.i am tired. and i recognize that this is exactly what they (lobbyists, meta, etc.) want! but i am tired and discouraged. more and more i find myself having to actively fight the urge to give up. i am not ready to give up just yet... but, i am sorry to say that as someone closer to retirement than i am comfortable admitting, i only have so much energy left. i am tired. and i recognize that this is exactly what they (lobbyists, meta, etc.) want! but i am tired and discouraged. more and more i find myself having to actively fight the urge to give up. i am not ready to give up just yet... but, i am sorry to say that as someone closer to retirement than i am comfortable admitting, i only have so much energy left. reply But sometimes very few people can make a difference. reply reply The very last people you should trust when it comes to ""protecting the children."" reply (Maybe some unspoken element of concern over social media bots, too - as they evolve from spamming copy+pasted comments to being near-indistinguisable from actual human accounts?) reply reply But generally speaking, online age verification is one of those issues where the left-right ideological divide doesn't map neatly. People support and oppose it for various different reasons. Much like the assisted suicide issue. reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply And a serious question: with deepest respect to the author for their extraordinarily impressive time and effort in this investigation... Why was this not already flagged by political reporters or investigative journalists? I'm not American so maybe I don't understand the media structure over there but it feels like SOMEONE should have been all over this way before it's gotten to the point described in this post. reply reply reply However this is the kind of investigation that Reddit is famous for, which ends up causing more harm than good, like the Boston bombing investigation.Age verification, for example, is coming no matter what - there's a big enough chunk of voters tired of tech globally.Governments are also tired of dealing with tech and want to bring them to heel.These macro forces are far more significant than the amounts identified on lobbying in this investigation (~$63 mn iirc)Given the title, the reading of the article implies Meta is driving age verification.The content of the investigation, reads more as meta taking advantage of the push for age verification to move it to the OS layers. Age verification, for example, is coming no matter what - there's a big enough chunk of voters tired of tech globally.Governments are also tired of dealing with tech and want to bring them to heel.These macro forces are far more significant than the amounts identified on lobbying in this investigation (~$63 mn iirc)Given the title, the reading of the article implies Meta is driving age verification.The content of the investigation, reads more as meta taking advantage of the push for age verification to move it to the OS layers. Governments are also tired of dealing with tech and want to bring them to heel.These macro forces are far more significant than the amounts identified on lobbying in this investigation (~$63 mn iirc)Given the title, the reading of the article implies Meta is driving age verification.The content of the investigation, reads more as meta taking advantage of the push for age verification to move it to the OS layers. These macro forces are far more significant than the amounts identified on lobbying in this investigation (~$63 mn iirc)Given the title, the reading of the article implies Meta is driving age verification.The content of the investigation, reads more as meta taking advantage of the push for age verification to move it to the OS layers. Given the title, the reading of the article implies Meta is driving age verification.The content of the investigation, reads more as meta taking advantage of the push for age verification to move it to the OS layers. The content of the investigation, reads more as meta taking advantage of the push for age verification to move it to the OS layers. reply Corporations literally buy the laws they want and Silicon Valley is the newest lobbying monster. Genuinely terrifying. reply reply reply reply reply Clicking through to the ""findings"" shows that they didn't even try to feed proper data into Claude when the AI bot was blocked or couldn't access the documents. Some examples:> LIMITATION: Direct PDF downloads returned 403 errors. ProPublica Schedule I viewer loads data dynamically (JavaScript), preventing extraction via WebFetch. The 2024 public disclosure copy on sixteenthirtyfund.org was also blocked.> Tech Transparency Project report: The article ""Inside Meta's Spin Machine on Kids and Social Media"" at techtransparencyproject.org likely contains detailed ConnectSafely/Meta funding analysis but was blocked (403)So Claude then goes on to propose ""Potential Role"" that postulates connections might exist, but then caveats it by saying that no evidence was found:> This negative finding is inconclusive due to inability to access Schedule I grant detail data in the actual 990 filings (PDF downloads returned 403 errors, and ProPublica's filing viewer loads data dynamically).This is what happens when you try to lead an LLM toward a conclusion and it behaves as if your conclusion is true. Hacker News is usually quick to dismiss incomplete and lazy LLM content. I assume this is getting upvotes because it's easy to turn a blind eye to the obvious LLM problems when the output is agreeing with something you believe. > LIMITATION: Direct PDF downloads returned 403 errors. ProPublica Schedule I viewer loads data dynamically (JavaScript), preventing extraction via WebFetch. The 2024 public disclosure copy on sixteenthirtyfund.org was also blocked.> Tech Transparency Project report: The article ""Inside Meta's Spin Machine on Kids and Social Media"" at techtransparencyproject.org likely contains detailed ConnectSafely/Meta funding analysis but was blocked (403)So Claude then goes on to propose ""Potential Role"" that postulates connections might exist, but then caveats it by saying that no evidence was found:> This negative finding is inconclusive due to inability to access Schedule I grant detail data in the actual 990 filings (PDF downloads returned 403 errors, and ProPublica's filing viewer loads data dynamically).This is what happens when you try to lead an LLM toward a conclusion and it behaves as if your conclusion is true. Hacker News is usually quick to dismiss incomplete and lazy LLM content. I assume this is getting upvotes because it's easy to turn a blind eye to the obvious LLM problems when the output is agreeing with something you believe. > Tech Transparency Project report: The article ""Inside Meta's Spin Machine on Kids and Social Media"" at techtransparencyproject.org likely contains detailed ConnectSafely/Meta funding analysis but was blocked (403)So Claude then goes on to propose ""Potential Role"" that postulates connections might exist, but then caveats it by saying that no evidence was found:> This negative finding is inconclusive due to inability to access Schedule I grant detail data in the actual 990 filings (PDF downloads returned 403 errors, and ProPublica's filing viewer loads data dynamically).This is what happens when you try to lead an LLM toward a conclusion and it behaves as if your conclusion is true. Hacker News is usually quick to dismiss incomplete and lazy LLM content. I assume this is getting upvotes because it's easy to turn a blind eye to the obvious LLM problems when the output is agreeing with something you believe. So Claude then goes on to propose ""Potential Role"" that postulates connections might exist, but then caveats it by saying that no evidence was found:> This negative finding is inconclusive due to inability to access Schedule I grant detail data in the actual 990 filings (PDF downloads returned 403 errors, and ProPublica's filing viewer loads data dynamically).This is what happens when you try to lead an LLM toward a conclusion and it behaves as if your conclusion is true. Hacker News is usually quick to dismiss incomplete and lazy LLM content. I assume this is getting upvotes because it's easy to turn a blind eye to the obvious LLM problems when the output is agreeing with something you believe. > This negative finding is inconclusive due to inability to access Schedule I grant detail data in the actual 990 filings (PDF downloads returned 403 errors, and ProPublica's filing viewer loads data dynamically).This is what happens when you try to lead an LLM toward a conclusion and it behaves as if your conclusion is true. Hacker News is usually quick to dismiss incomplete and lazy LLM content. I assume this is getting upvotes because it's easy to turn a blind eye to the obvious LLM problems when the output is agreeing with something you believe. This is what happens when you try to lead an LLM toward a conclusion and it behaves as if your conclusion is true. Hacker News is usually quick to dismiss incomplete and lazy LLM content. I assume this is getting upvotes because it's easy to turn a blind eye to the obvious LLM problems when the output is agreeing with something you believe. reply In history we had four media revolutions (printing press, radio, television, Internet), each greatly disrupting and reshaping society. This is the fifth (social media and maybe AI).All these revolutions had the same theme: increased reach of information, increased speed of transmission, increased density (information amount per unit of time), and centralization of information sources. Now we seem to reach the limits of change. No more reach, since our information networks span the entire globe. No more speed, since transmission times are close to how fast we can perceive things. The only things left to change are even more centralization and tighter feedback loops (changing the information based on how the recipient reacts).Given all that, this media revolution might be the last one, so there is a gold rush among the elites to come out on top. All these revolutions had the same theme: increased reach of information, increased speed of transmission, increased density (information amount per unit of time), and centralization of information sources. Now we seem to reach the limits of change. No more reach, since our information networks span the entire globe. No more speed, since transmission times are close to how fast we can perceive things. The only things left to change are even more centralization and tighter feedback loops (changing the information based on how the recipient reacts).Given all that, this media revolution might be the last one, so there is a gold rush among the elites to come out on top. Given all that, this media revolution might be the last one, so there is a gold rush among the elites to come out on top. reply Digital-ID (Aadhar) was heavily pushed by USAID and other US-deepstate associates; the same with digital-money and the ""demonetization"". Bill Gates's org actively tests out things on actual humans like guinea pigs, before globalizing the ""solutions"". These days all of this is kind of redundant since the phone-number + verification has become essentially a necessity to live in the city in any part of world today.The prev. Govt. had considered doing this ""login with your ID or no internet"" scheme (to ""protect"" people no doubt) back in 2012s - there were explicit statements about disallowing people who would not authenticate with Aadhar, but it was shelved (likely because of their unpopularity).If our current ""Dear Leader"" were to propose this, I think a significant population would opt-in simply because of a sense of belonging to a hero-worship-cult.The state is determined to ensure that every human be their slave. The prev. Govt. had considered doing this ""login with your ID or no internet"" scheme (to ""protect"" people no doubt) back in 2012s - there were explicit statements about disallowing people who would not authenticate with Aadhar, but it was shelved (likely because of their unpopularity).If our current ""Dear Leader"" were to propose this, I think a significant population would opt-in simply because of a sense of belonging to a hero-worship-cult.The state is determined to ensure that every human be their slave. If our current ""Dear Leader"" were to propose this, I think a significant population would opt-in simply because of a sense of belonging to a hero-worship-cult.The state is determined to ensure that every human be their slave. The state is determined to ensure that every human be their slave. reply reply reply https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47361235https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings... https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings... reply reply You're not missing anything. It's just an AI generated summary of the original GitHub link https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findingsI found the original article much easier to read anyways I found the original article much easier to read anyways reply reply reply reply AutoModerator on /r/linux is set up to automatically remove posts after a set amount of reports. reply Fuck Reddit reply reply reply reply reply reply The reason is that europeans have nothing to win from those ""winner-take-all"" platforms the US has built in the past decades. Europe has built zero of them.It contributes very little to Europe's GDP or the overall being of the european. And in some cases, it eats Europe's GDP, moving economic activity back to the US. This is different than for Americans which big tech is a net-positive contributor to society in my POV, mainly because how much economic activity $ it generates.Big techs provide huge paychecks and made a lot of people rich in the US, and most of its GDP growth in the last decade. But it's a double-edged sword.They will make laws in favor of them in detriment of the average American, while minting more billionaries than Europe could ever dream of.Europe will take a long time to get the digital revolution the US already did, but it'll mostly come from regulations and government initiatives. And will be net-positive for humans living in Euope, not for owners of corporations. It contributes very little to Europe's GDP or the overall being of the european. And in some cases, it eats Europe's GDP, moving economic activity back to the US. This is different than for Americans which big tech is a net-positive contributor to society in my POV, mainly because how much economic activity $ it generates.Big techs provide huge paychecks and made a lot of people rich in the US, and most of its GDP growth in the last decade. But it's a double-edged sword.They will make laws in favor of them in detriment of the average American, while minting more billionaries than Europe could ever dream of.Europe will take a long time to get the digital revolution the US already did, but it'll mostly come from regulations and government initiatives. And will be net-positive for humans living in Euope, not for owners of corporations. Big techs provide huge paychecks and made a lot of people rich in the US, and most of its GDP growth in the last decade. But it's a double-edged sword.They will make laws in favor of them in detriment of the average American, while minting more billionaries than Europe could ever dream of.Europe will take a long time to get the digital revolution the US already did, but it'll mostly come from regulations and government initiatives. And will be net-positive for humans living in Euope, not for owners of corporations. They will make laws in favor of them in detriment of the average American, while minting more billionaries than Europe could ever dream of.Europe will take a long time to get the digital revolution the US already did, but it'll mostly come from regulations and government initiatives. And will be net-positive for humans living in Euope, not for owners of corporations. Europe will take a long time to get the digital revolution the US already did, but it'll mostly come from regulations and government initiatives. And will be net-positive for humans living in Euope, not for owners of corporations. reply reply Which ""most of Europe"" would that be? Switzerland and handful of northern countries? Because it is definitely not Germany or several ""you can't access half of the internet during times when twenty men kicking a ball on a field"" southern states. reply At least the author posted a link to the dataset in a comment so it survived:https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings reply reply It is like in the novel 1984. But stupid. Probably more like minority report - but also stupid. All aided by Meta bribing lobbyists to do their bidding. reply Have at it Meta, you broke it you most certainly bought it! reply Psychology has a higher success rate...just tell them that their parents use it....There are many systems where accuracy is loose and that is its core feature...for example postal addresses worldwide...I can a mistake in the address but the letter or package will still get there... There are many systems where accuracy is loose and that is its core feature...for example postal addresses worldwide...I can a mistake in the address but the letter or package will still get there... reply I don't see it as coincidence that with all these laws passing, suddenly he announces a secure, ""controlled"", ""locked down"" version of systemd. Why, RedHat and Ubuntu can simply drop in this new variant, pay a small fee, and be done with compliance. reply That's when you know the new world has begun. reply reply I want to open my wallet. It should be the top comment. reply If everybody who cared to and lived in the affected districts called they would kill the bill just to clear their phone-lines. reply And it snowballs, the more favorable laws someone buys, the more favorable their position, and the more they can buy in the future. The transition from ""democratic facade"" to ""outright oligarchy"" will be swift and seamless. reply Zero-knowledge proofs are the way to go for this type of thing, I find it mind-boggling that the US lets itself be bamboozled into complete lack of privacy. reply My stance is that if somebody is a minor, his/her/their parents/tutors/legal guardian are responsible for what they can/cannot do online, and that the mechanism to enforce that is parental control on devices.Having said that, open-source zero-knowledge proofs are infinitely less evil (I refuse to say ""better"") than commercial cloud-based age monitoring baked into every OS Having said that, open-source zero-knowledge proofs are infinitely less evil (I refuse to say ""better"") than commercial cloud-based age monitoring baked into every OS reply To be honest, I worry that the framing of this legislation and ZKP generally presents a false dichotomy, where second-option bias[1] prevails because of the draconian first option.There's always another option: don't implement age verification laws at all.App and website developers shouldn't be burdened with extra costly liability to make sure someone's kids don't read a curse word, parents can use the plethora of parental controls on the market if they're that worried.[1] https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Appeal_to_the_minority#Second-... There's always another option: don't implement age verification laws at all.App and website developers shouldn't be burdened with extra costly liability to make sure someone's kids don't read a curse word, parents can use the plethora of parental controls on the market if they're that worried.[1] https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Appeal_to_the_minority#Second-... App and website developers shouldn't be burdened with extra costly liability to make sure someone's kids don't read a curse word, parents can use the plethora of parental controls on the market if they're that worried.[1] https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Appeal_to_the_minority#Second-... [1] https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Appeal_to_the_minority#Second-... reply Why not? Physical businesses have liability if they provide age restricted items to children. As far as I know, strip clubs are liable for who enters. Selling alcohol to a child carries personal criminal liability for store clerks. Assuming society decides to restrict something from children, why should online businesses be exempt?On who should be responsible, parents or businesses, historically the answer has been both. Parents have decision making authority. Businesses must not undermine that by providing service to minors. On who should be responsible, parents or businesses, historically the answer has been both. Parents have decision making authority. Businesses must not undermine that by providing service to minors. reply This implies the creation of an infrastructure for the total surveillance of citizens, unlike age verification by physical businesses. reply How do you reconcile porn sites as a line in the sand with things like banking or online real estate transactions or applying for an apartment already performing ID checks? The verification infrastructure is already in place. It's mundane. In fact the apartment one is probably more offensive because they'll likely make you do their online thing even if you could just walk in and show ID. reply I mean, we're talking about age verification in the OS itself in some of these laws, so tell me how it doesn't.Quantity is a quality. We're not just seeing it for porn, it's moving to social media in general. Politicians are already talking about it for all sites that allow posts, that would include this site.So you tell me. Quantity is a quality. We're not just seeing it for porn, it's moving to social media in general. Politicians are already talking about it for all sites that allow posts, that would include this site.So you tell me. So you tell me. reply reply reply California is also stupid for creating liability for service/app providers that don't even deal in age restricted apps, like calculators or maps. It's playing right into the ""this affects the whole Internet/all of computing"" narrative when in fact it's really a small set of businesses that are causing issues and should be subject to regulation. reply reply There is also the problem of mission creep. Once the infrastructure is in place, to control access to age-restricted content, other services might become out of reach. In particular, anonymous usage of online forums might no longer be possible. reply reply reply reply reply reply OS-level ability to verify the age of the person using it absolutely provides infrastructure for the OS to verify all sorts of other things. Citizenship, identity, you name it. When it's at the OS level there's no way to do anything privately on that machine ever again. reply reply Ok, suppose the strip club is the website, and the club's door is the OS.Would you fine the door's manufacturer for teens getting into the strip club? Would you fine the door's manufacturer for teens getting into the strip club? reply reply How do we fight? It seems like agree or disagree, this isn't going to stop. There's so much money behind it in a time where the have nots can barely survive as is. reply reply These are often clear cut. They're physical controlled items. Tobacco, alcohol, guns, physical porn, and sometimes things like spray paint.The internet is not. There are people who believe discussions about human sexuality (ie ""how do I know if I'm gay?"") should be age restricted. There are people who believe any discussion about the human form should be age restricted. What about discussions of other forms of government? Plenty would prefer their children not be able to learn about communism from anywhere other than the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.The landscape of age restricting information is infinitely more complex than age restricting physical items. This complexity enables certain actors to censor wide swaths of information due to a provider's fear of liability.This is closer to a law that says ""if a store sells an item that is used to damage property whatsoever, they are liable"", so now the store owner must fear the full can of soda could be used to break a window. The internet is not. There are people who believe discussions about human sexuality (ie ""how do I know if I'm gay?"") should be age restricted. There are people who believe any discussion about the human form should be age restricted. What about discussions of other forms of government? Plenty would prefer their children not be able to learn about communism from anywhere other than the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.The landscape of age restricting information is infinitely more complex than age restricting physical items. This complexity enables certain actors to censor wide swaths of information due to a provider's fear of liability.This is closer to a law that says ""if a store sells an item that is used to damage property whatsoever, they are liable"", so now the store owner must fear the full can of soda could be used to break a window. The landscape of age restricting information is infinitely more complex than age restricting physical items. This complexity enables certain actors to censor wide swaths of information due to a provider's fear of liability.This is closer to a law that says ""if a store sells an item that is used to damage property whatsoever, they are liable"", so now the store owner must fear the full can of soda could be used to break a window. This is closer to a law that says ""if a store sells an item that is used to damage property whatsoever, they are liable"", so now the store owner must fear the full can of soda could be used to break a window. reply So again, assuming we have decided to restrict something (and there are clear lines online too like commercial porn sites, or sites that sell alcohol (which already comes with an ID check!)), why isn't liability for online providers the obvious conclusion? reply The crux is we cannot decide what is protected speech, and even things that are protected speech are still considered adult content.> why isn't liability for online providers the obvious conclusion?We tried. The providers with power and money(Meta) are funding these bills. They want to avoid all liability while continuing to design platforms that degrade society.This may be a little tin-foil hat of me, but I don't think these bills are about porn at all. They're about how the last few years people were able to see all the gory details of the conflict in Gaza.The US stopped letting a majority of journalists embed with the military. In the last few decades it's been easier for journalists to embed with the Taliban than the US Military.The US Gov learned from Vietnam that showing people what they're doing cuts the domestic support. I've seen people suggesting it's bad for Bellingcat to report on the US strike of the girls school because it would hurt morale at home.The end goal is labeling content covering wars/conflicts as ""adult content"". Removing any teenagers from the material reality of international affairs, while also creating a barrier for adults to see this content. Those who pass the barrier will then be more accurately tracked via these measures. > why isn't liability for online providers the obvious conclusion?We tried. The providers with power and money(Meta) are funding these bills. They want to avoid all liability while continuing to design platforms that degrade society.This may be a little tin-foil hat of me, but I don't think these bills are about porn at all. They're about how the last few years people were able to see all the gory details of the conflict in Gaza.The US stopped letting a majority of journalists embed with the military. In the last few decades it's been easier for journalists to embed with the Taliban than the US Military.The US Gov learned from Vietnam that showing people what they're doing cuts the domestic support. I've seen people suggesting it's bad for Bellingcat to report on the US strike of the girls school because it would hurt morale at home.The end goal is labeling content covering wars/conflicts as ""adult content"". Removing any teenagers from the material reality of international affairs, while also creating a barrier for adults to see this content. Those who pass the barrier will then be more accurately tracked via these measures. We tried. The providers with power and money(Meta) are funding these bills. They want to avoid all liability while continuing to design platforms that degrade society.This may be a little tin-foil hat of me, but I don't think these bills are about porn at all. They're about how the last few years people were able to see all the gory details of the conflict in Gaza.The US stopped letting a majority of journalists embed with the military. In the last few decades it's been easier for journalists to embed with the Taliban than the US Military.The US Gov learned from Vietnam that showing people what they're doing cuts the domestic support. I've seen people suggesting it's bad for Bellingcat to report on the US strike of the girls school because it would hurt morale at home.The end goal is labeling content covering wars/conflicts as ""adult content"". Removing any teenagers from the material reality of international affairs, while also creating a barrier for adults to see this content. Those who pass the barrier will then be more accurately tracked via these measures. This may be a little tin-foil hat of me, but I don't think these bills are about porn at all. They're about how the last few years people were able to see all the gory details of the conflict in Gaza.The US stopped letting a majority of journalists embed with the military. In the last few decades it's been easier for journalists to embed with the Taliban than the US Military.The US Gov learned from Vietnam that showing people what they're doing cuts the domestic support. I've seen people suggesting it's bad for Bellingcat to report on the US strike of the girls school because it would hurt morale at home.The end goal is labeling content covering wars/conflicts as ""adult content"". Removing any teenagers from the material reality of international affairs, while also creating a barrier for adults to see this content. Those who pass the barrier will then be more accurately tracked via these measures. The US stopped letting a majority of journalists embed with the military. In the last few decades it's been easier for journalists to embed with the Taliban than the US Military.The US Gov learned from Vietnam that showing people what they're doing cuts the domestic support. I've seen people suggesting it's bad for Bellingcat to report on the US strike of the girls school because it would hurt morale at home.The end goal is labeling content covering wars/conflicts as ""adult content"". Removing any teenagers from the material reality of international affairs, while also creating a barrier for adults to see this content. Those who pass the barrier will then be more accurately tracked via these measures. The US Gov learned from Vietnam that showing people what they're doing cuts the domestic support. I've seen people suggesting it's bad for Bellingcat to report on the US strike of the girls school because it would hurt morale at home.The end goal is labeling content covering wars/conflicts as ""adult content"". Removing any teenagers from the material reality of international affairs, while also creating a barrier for adults to see this content. Those who pass the barrier will then be more accurately tracked via these measures. The end goal is labeling content covering wars/conflicts as ""adult content"". Removing any teenagers from the material reality of international affairs, while also creating a barrier for adults to see this content. Those who pass the barrier will then be more accurately tracked via these measures. reply reply Anatomical reference material for artists with real nude models?What about Sexual education materials? Medical textbooks?Women baring their breasts in NYC where it's legal?Where is the clear cut line of Pornography? At what point do we say any depiction of a human body is pornographic? What about Sexual education materials? Medical textbooks?Women baring their breasts in NYC where it's legal?Where is the clear cut line of Pornography? At what point do we say any depiction of a human body is pornographic? Women baring their breasts in NYC where it's legal?Where is the clear cut line of Pornography? At what point do we say any depiction of a human body is pornographic? Where is the clear cut line of Pornography? At what point do we say any depiction of a human body is pornographic? reply reply Plenty of people would prefer that children not learn about scientology from pro-scientology cultists too. It's not that they can't know about scientology (they probably should, in fact, because knowledge can have an immunizing effect against cults)...And it's not that they can't know about communism (they probably should, in fact, because knowledge can have an immunizing effect against cults)... And it's not that they can't know about communism (they probably should, in fact, because knowledge can have an immunizing effect against cults)... reply This is a comment section about large corporations lobbying against our ability to freely use computers and you break out the 80's cold war propaganda edition of understanding a complicated economic system that intertwines with methodology for historical analysis with various levels of implementations from a governmental level.You're either a mark or trying to find a mark. You're either a mark or trying to find a mark. reply Physical businesses nominally aren't selling their items to people across state or country borders.Of course, we threw that out when we decided people could buy things online. How'd that tax loophole turn out? Of course, we threw that out when we decided people could buy things online. How'd that tax loophole turn out? reply It turned out we pretty much closed the tax loophole. I don't remember an online purchase with no sales tax since the mid 00s. reply reply reply reply reply reply App and website operators should add one static header. [1] That's it, nothing more. Site operators could do this in their sleep.User-agents must look for said header [1] and activate parental controls if they were enabled on the device by a parent. That's it, nothing more. No signalling to a website, no leaking data, no tracking, no identifying. A junior developer could do this in their sleep.None of this will happen of course as bribery (lobbying) is involved.[1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46152074 User-agents must look for said header [1] and activate parental controls if they were enabled on the device by a parent. That's it, nothing more. No signalling to a website, no leaking data, no tracking, no identifying. A junior developer could do this in their sleep.None of this will happen of course as bribery (lobbying) is involved.[1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46152074 None of this will happen of course as bribery (lobbying) is involved.[1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46152074 [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46152074 reply reply The real answer to the problem is for websites/appstores to publish tags that are legally binding assertions of age appropriateness, and then browsers/systems can be configured to use those tags to only show appropriate content to their intended user.This also gives parents the ability to additionally decide other types of websites are not suitable for their children, rather than trusting websites themselves to make that decision within the context of their regulatory capture. For example imagine a Facebook4Kidz website that vets posts as being age appropriate, but does nothing to alleviate the dopamine drip mechanics.There has been a market failure here, so it wouldn't be unreasonable for legislation to dictate that large websites must implement these tags (over a certain number of users), and that popular mobile operating systems / browsers implement the parental controls functionality. But there would be no need to cover all websites and operating systems - untagged websites fail as unavailable in the kid-appropriate browsers, and parents would only give devices with parental controls enabled to their kids. This also gives parents the ability to additionally decide other types of websites are not suitable for their children, rather than trusting websites themselves to make that decision within the context of their regulatory capture. For example imagine a Facebook4Kidz website that vets posts as being age appropriate, but does nothing to alleviate the dopamine drip mechanics.There has been a market failure here, so it wouldn't be unreasonable for legislation to dictate that large websites must implement these tags (over a certain number of users), and that popular mobile operating systems / browsers implement the parental controls functionality. But there would be no need to cover all websites and operating systems - untagged websites fail as unavailable in the kid-appropriate browsers, and parents would only give devices with parental controls enabled to their kids. There has been a market failure here, so it wouldn't be unreasonable for legislation to dictate that large websites must implement these tags (over a certain number of users), and that popular mobile operating systems / browsers implement the parental controls functionality. But there would be no need to cover all websites and operating systems - untagged websites fail as unavailable in the kid-appropriate browsers, and parents would only give devices with parental controls enabled to their kids. reply Agreed, recycling a comment: on reasons for it to be that way:___________1. Most of the dollar costs of making it all happen will be paid by the people who actually need/use the feature.2. No toxic Orwellian panopticon.3. Key enforcement falls into a realm non-technical parents can actually observe and act upon: What device is little Timmy holding?4. Every site in the world will not need a monthly update to handle Elbonia's rite of manhood on the 17th lunar year to make it permitted to see bare ankles. Instead, parents of that region/religion can download their own damn plugin. ___________1. Most of the dollar costs of making it all happen will be paid by the people who actually need/use the feature.2. No toxic Orwellian panopticon.3. Key enforcement falls into a realm non-technical parents can actually observe and act upon: What device is little Timmy holding?4. Every site in the world will not need a monthly update to handle Elbonia's rite of manhood on the 17th lunar year to make it permitted to see bare ankles. Instead, parents of that region/religion can download their own damn plugin. 1. Most of the dollar costs of making it all happen will be paid by the people who actually need/use the feature.2. No toxic Orwellian panopticon.3. Key enforcement falls into a realm non-technical parents can actually observe and act upon: What device is little Timmy holding?4. Every site in the world will not need a monthly update to handle Elbonia's rite of manhood on the 17th lunar year to make it permitted to see bare ankles. Instead, parents of that region/religion can download their own damn plugin. 2. No toxic Orwellian panopticon.3. Key enforcement falls into a realm non-technical parents can actually observe and act upon: What device is little Timmy holding?4. Every site in the world will not need a monthly update to handle Elbonia's rite of manhood on the 17th lunar year to make it permitted to see bare ankles. Instead, parents of that region/religion can download their own damn plugin. 3. Key enforcement falls into a realm non-technical parents can actually observe and act upon: What device is little Timmy holding?4. Every site in the world will not need a monthly update to handle Elbonia's rite of manhood on the 17th lunar year to make it permitted to see bare ankles. Instead, parents of that region/religion can download their own damn plugin. 4. Every site in the world will not need a monthly update to handle Elbonia's rite of manhood on the 17th lunar year to make it permitted to see bare ankles. Instead, parents of that region/religion can download their own damn plugin. reply To expand on your #3, it also gives parents a way to have different policies on different devices for the same child. Perhaps absolutely no social media on their phone (which is always drawing them, and can be used in private when they're supposed to be doing something else), but allowing it on a desktop computer in an observable area (ie accountability).The way the proposed legislation is made, once companies have cleared the hurdle of what the law requires, parents are then left up to the mercy of whatever the companies deem appropriate for their kids. Which isn't terribly surprising for regulatory capture legislation! But since it's branded with protecting kids and helping parents, we need to be shouting about all the ways it actually undermines those goals. The way the proposed legislation is made, once companies have cleared the hurdle of what the law requires, parents are then left up to the mercy of whatever the companies deem appropriate for their kids. Which isn't terribly surprising for regulatory capture legislation! But since it's branded with protecting kids and helping parents, we need to be shouting about all the ways it actually undermines those goals. reply Where do you go to vote for this option? reply Surely you can find a rationalwiki article for your fallacy too. reply In fact, I suspect adults, and not just children, would also appreciate it if the pervasive surveillance was simply banned, instead of trying to age gate it. Why should bad actors be allowed to prey on adults? reply reply reply reply reply The 2 billion dollars are the one twisting it. reply Also, I heard the same thing about video games, TV shows, D&D, texting and even youth novels. It's yet another moral panic.From the Guardian[1]:> Social media time does not increase teenagers' mental health problems – study> Research finds no evidence heavier social media use or more gaming increases symptoms of anxiety or depression> Screen time spent gaming or on social media does not cause mental health problems in teenagers, according to a large-scale study.> With ministers in the UK considering whether to follow Australia's example by banning social media use for under-16s, the findings challenge concerns that long periods spent gaming or scrolling TikTok or Instagram are driving an increase in teenagers' depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions.> Researchers at the University of Manchester followed 25,000 11- to 14-year-olds over three school years, tracking their self-reported social media habits, gaming frequency and emotional difficulties to find out whether technology use genuinely predicted later mental health difficulties.From Nature[2]:> Time spent on social media among the least influential factors in adolescent mental healthFrom the Atlantic[3] with citations in the article:> The Panic Over Smartphones Doesn't Help Teens, It may only make things worse.> I am a developmental psychologist[4], and for the past 20 years, I have worked to identify how children develop mental illnesses. Since 2008, I have studied 10-to-15-year-olds using their mobile phones, with the goal of testing how a wide range of their daily experiences, including their digital-technology use, influences their mental health. My colleagues and I have repeatedly failed to find[5] compelling support for the claim that digital-technology use is a major contributor to adolescent depression and other mental-health symptoms.> Many other researchers have found the same[6]. In fact, a recent[6] study and a review of research[7] on social media and depression concluded that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting adolescents' mental health. The most influential factors include a family history of mental disorder; early exposure to adversity, such as violence and discrimination; and school- and family-related stressors, among others. At the end of last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report[8] concluding, “Available research that links social media to health shows small effects and weak associations, which may be influenced by a combination of good and bad experiences. Contrary to the current cultural narrative that social media is universally harmful to adolescents, the reality is more complicated.”[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/social-media-t...[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... From the Guardian[1]:> Social media time does not increase teenagers' mental health problems – study> Research finds no evidence heavier social media use or more gaming increases symptoms of anxiety or depression> Screen time spent gaming or on social media does not cause mental health problems in teenagers, according to a large-scale study.> With ministers in the UK considering whether to follow Australia's example by banning social media use for under-16s, the findings challenge concerns that long periods spent gaming or scrolling TikTok or Instagram are driving an increase in teenagers' depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions.> Researchers at the University of Manchester followed 25,000 11- to 14-year-olds over three school years, tracking their self-reported social media habits, gaming frequency and emotional difficulties to find out whether technology use genuinely predicted later mental health difficulties.From Nature[2]:> Time spent on social media among the least influential factors in adolescent mental healthFrom the Atlantic[3] with citations in the article:> The Panic Over Smartphones Doesn't Help Teens, It may only make things worse.> I am a developmental psychologist[4], and for the past 20 years, I have worked to identify how children develop mental illnesses. Since 2008, I have studied 10-to-15-year-olds using their mobile phones, with the goal of testing how a wide range of their daily experiences, including their digital-technology use, influences their mental health. My colleagues and I have repeatedly failed to find[5] compelling support for the claim that digital-technology use is a major contributor to adolescent depression and other mental-health symptoms.> Many other researchers have found the same[6]. In fact, a recent[6] study and a review of research[7] on social media and depression concluded that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting adolescents' mental health. The most influential factors include a family history of mental disorder; early exposure to adversity, such as violence and discrimination; and school- and family-related stressors, among others. At the end of last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report[8] concluding, “Available research that links social media to health shows small effects and weak associations, which may be influenced by a combination of good and bad experiences. Contrary to the current cultural narrative that social media is universally harmful to adolescents, the reality is more complicated.”[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/social-media-t...[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... > Social media time does not increase teenagers' mental health problems – study> Research finds no evidence heavier social media use or more gaming increases symptoms of anxiety or depression> Screen time spent gaming or on social media does not cause mental health problems in teenagers, according to a large-scale study.> With ministers in the UK considering whether to follow Australia's example by banning social media use for under-16s, the findings challenge concerns that long periods spent gaming or scrolling TikTok or Instagram are driving an increase in teenagers' depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions.> Researchers at the University of Manchester followed 25,000 11- to 14-year-olds over three school years, tracking their self-reported social media habits, gaming frequency and emotional difficulties to find out whether technology use genuinely predicted later mental health difficulties.From Nature[2]:> Time spent on social media among the least influential factors in adolescent mental healthFrom the Atlantic[3] with citations in the article:> The Panic Over Smartphones Doesn't Help Teens, It may only make things worse.> I am a developmental psychologist[4], and for the past 20 years, I have worked to identify how children develop mental illnesses. Since 2008, I have studied 10-to-15-year-olds using their mobile phones, with the goal of testing how a wide range of their daily experiences, including their digital-technology use, influences their mental health. My colleagues and I have repeatedly failed to find[5] compelling support for the claim that digital-technology use is a major contributor to adolescent depression and other mental-health symptoms.> Many other researchers have found the same[6]. In fact, a recent[6] study and a review of research[7] on social media and depression concluded that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting adolescents' mental health. The most influential factors include a family history of mental disorder; early exposure to adversity, such as violence and discrimination; and school- and family-related stressors, among others. At the end of last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report[8] concluding, “Available research that links social media to health shows small effects and weak associations, which may be influenced by a combination of good and bad experiences. Contrary to the current cultural narrative that social media is universally harmful to adolescents, the reality is more complicated.”[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/social-media-t...[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... > Research finds no evidence heavier social media use or more gaming increases symptoms of anxiety or depression> Screen time spent gaming or on social media does not cause mental health problems in teenagers, according to a large-scale study.> With ministers in the UK considering whether to follow Australia's example by banning social media use for under-16s, the findings challenge concerns that long periods spent gaming or scrolling TikTok or Instagram are driving an increase in teenagers' depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions.> Researchers at the University of Manchester followed 25,000 11- to 14-year-olds over three school years, tracking their self-reported social media habits, gaming frequency and emotional difficulties to find out whether technology use genuinely predicted later mental health difficulties.From Nature[2]:> Time spent on social media among the least influential factors in adolescent mental healthFrom the Atlantic[3] with citations in the article:> The Panic Over Smartphones Doesn't Help Teens, It may only make things worse.> I am a developmental psychologist[4], and for the past 20 years, I have worked to identify how children develop mental illnesses. Since 2008, I have studied 10-to-15-year-olds using their mobile phones, with the goal of testing how a wide range of their daily experiences, including their digital-technology use, influences their mental health. My colleagues and I have repeatedly failed to find[5] compelling support for the claim that digital-technology use is a major contributor to adolescent depression and other mental-health symptoms.> Many other researchers have found the same[6]. In fact, a recent[6] study and a review of research[7] on social media and depression concluded that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting adolescents' mental health. The most influential factors include a family history of mental disorder; early exposure to adversity, such as violence and discrimination; and school- and family-related stressors, among others. At the end of last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report[8] concluding, “Available research that links social media to health shows small effects and weak associations, which may be influenced by a combination of good and bad experiences. Contrary to the current cultural narrative that social media is universally harmful to adolescents, the reality is more complicated.”[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/social-media-t...[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... > Screen time spent gaming or on social media does not cause mental health problems in teenagers, according to a large-scale study.> With ministers in the UK considering whether to follow Australia's example by banning social media use for under-16s, the findings challenge concerns that long periods spent gaming or scrolling TikTok or Instagram are driving an increase in teenagers' depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions.> Researchers at the University of Manchester followed 25,000 11- to 14-year-olds over three school years, tracking their self-reported social media habits, gaming frequency and emotional difficulties to find out whether technology use genuinely predicted later mental health difficulties.From Nature[2]:> Time spent on social media among the least influential factors in adolescent mental healthFrom the Atlantic[3] with citations in the article:> The Panic Over Smartphones Doesn't Help Teens, It may only make things worse.> I am a developmental psychologist[4], and for the past 20 years, I have worked to identify how children develop mental illnesses. Since 2008, I have studied 10-to-15-year-olds using their mobile phones, with the goal of testing how a wide range of their daily experiences, including their digital-technology use, influences their mental health. My colleagues and I have repeatedly failed to find[5] compelling support for the claim that digital-technology use is a major contributor to adolescent depression and other mental-health symptoms.> Many other researchers have found the same[6]. In fact, a recent[6] study and a review of research[7] on social media and depression concluded that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting adolescents' mental health. The most influential factors include a family history of mental disorder; early exposure to adversity, such as violence and discrimination; and school- and family-related stressors, among others. At the end of last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report[8] concluding, “Available research that links social media to health shows small effects and weak associations, which may be influenced by a combination of good and bad experiences. Contrary to the current cultural narrative that social media is universally harmful to adolescents, the reality is more complicated.”[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/social-media-t...[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... > With ministers in the UK considering whether to follow Australia's example by banning social media use for under-16s, the findings challenge concerns that long periods spent gaming or scrolling TikTok or Instagram are driving an increase in teenagers' depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions.> Researchers at the University of Manchester followed 25,000 11- to 14-year-olds over three school years, tracking their self-reported social media habits, gaming frequency and emotional difficulties to find out whether technology use genuinely predicted later mental health difficulties.From Nature[2]:> Time spent on social media among the least influential factors in adolescent mental healthFrom the Atlantic[3] with citations in the article:> The Panic Over Smartphones Doesn't Help Teens, It may only make things worse.> I am a developmental psychologist[4], and for the past 20 years, I have worked to identify how children develop mental illnesses. Since 2008, I have studied 10-to-15-year-olds using their mobile phones, with the goal of testing how a wide range of their daily experiences, including their digital-technology use, influences their mental health. My colleagues and I have repeatedly failed to find[5] compelling support for the claim that digital-technology use is a major contributor to adolescent depression and other mental-health symptoms.> Many other researchers have found the same[6]. In fact, a recent[6] study and a review of research[7] on social media and depression concluded that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting adolescents' mental health. The most influential factors include a family history of mental disorder; early exposure to adversity, such as violence and discrimination; and school- and family-related stressors, among others. At the end of last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report[8] concluding, “Available research that links social media to health shows small effects and weak associations, which may be influenced by a combination of good and bad experiences. Contrary to the current cultural narrative that social media is universally harmful to adolescents, the reality is more complicated.”[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/social-media-t...[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... > Researchers at the University of Manchester followed 25,000 11- to 14-year-olds over three school years, tracking their self-reported social media habits, gaming frequency and emotional difficulties to find out whether technology use genuinely predicted later mental health difficulties.From Nature[2]:> Time spent on social media among the least influential factors in adolescent mental healthFrom the Atlantic[3] with citations in the article:> The Panic Over Smartphones Doesn't Help Teens, It may only make things worse.> I am a developmental psychologist[4], and for the past 20 years, I have worked to identify how children develop mental illnesses. Since 2008, I have studied 10-to-15-year-olds using their mobile phones, with the goal of testing how a wide range of their daily experiences, including their digital-technology use, influences their mental health. My colleagues and I have repeatedly failed to find[5] compelling support for the claim that digital-technology use is a major contributor to adolescent depression and other mental-health symptoms.> Many other researchers have found the same[6]. In fact, a recent[6] study and a review of research[7] on social media and depression concluded that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting adolescents' mental health. The most influential factors include a family history of mental disorder; early exposure to adversity, such as violence and discrimination; and school- and family-related stressors, among others. At the end of last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report[8] concluding, “Available research that links social media to health shows small effects and weak associations, which may be influenced by a combination of good and bad experiences. Contrary to the current cultural narrative that social media is universally harmful to adolescents, the reality is more complicated.”[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/social-media-t...[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... From Nature[2]:> Time spent on social media among the least influential factors in adolescent mental healthFrom the Atlantic[3] with citations in the article:> The Panic Over Smartphones Doesn't Help Teens, It may only make things worse.> I am a developmental psychologist[4], and for the past 20 years, I have worked to identify how children develop mental illnesses. Since 2008, I have studied 10-to-15-year-olds using their mobile phones, with the goal of testing how a wide range of their daily experiences, including their digital-technology use, influences their mental health. My colleagues and I have repeatedly failed to find[5] compelling support for the claim that digital-technology use is a major contributor to adolescent depression and other mental-health symptoms.> Many other researchers have found the same[6]. In fact, a recent[6] study and a review of research[7] on social media and depression concluded that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting adolescents' mental health. The most influential factors include a family history of mental disorder; early exposure to adversity, such as violence and discrimination; and school- and family-related stressors, among others. At the end of last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report[8] concluding, “Available research that links social media to health shows small effects and weak associations, which may be influenced by a combination of good and bad experiences. Contrary to the current cultural narrative that social media is universally harmful to adolescents, the reality is more complicated.”[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/social-media-t...[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... > Time spent on social media among the least influential factors in adolescent mental healthFrom the Atlantic[3] with citations in the article:> The Panic Over Smartphones Doesn't Help Teens, It may only make things worse.> I am a developmental psychologist[4], and for the past 20 years, I have worked to identify how children develop mental illnesses. Since 2008, I have studied 10-to-15-year-olds using their mobile phones, with the goal of testing how a wide range of their daily experiences, including their digital-technology use, influences their mental health. My colleagues and I have repeatedly failed to find[5] compelling support for the claim that digital-technology use is a major contributor to adolescent depression and other mental-health symptoms.> Many other researchers have found the same[6]. In fact, a recent[6] study and a review of research[7] on social media and depression concluded that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting adolescents' mental health. The most influential factors include a family history of mental disorder; early exposure to adversity, such as violence and discrimination; and school- and family-related stressors, among others. At the end of last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report[8] concluding, “Available research that links social media to health shows small effects and weak associations, which may be influenced by a combination of good and bad experiences. Contrary to the current cultural narrative that social media is universally harmful to adolescents, the reality is more complicated.”[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/social-media-t...[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... From the Atlantic[3] with citations in the article:> The Panic Over Smartphones Doesn't Help Teens, It may only make things worse.> I am a developmental psychologist[4], and for the past 20 years, I have worked to identify how children develop mental illnesses. Since 2008, I have studied 10-to-15-year-olds using their mobile phones, with the goal of testing how a wide range of their daily experiences, including their digital-technology use, influences their mental health. My colleagues and I have repeatedly failed to find[5] compelling support for the claim that digital-technology use is a major contributor to adolescent depression and other mental-health symptoms.> Many other researchers have found the same[6]. In fact, a recent[6] study and a review of research[7] on social media and depression concluded that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting adolescents' mental health. The most influential factors include a family history of mental disorder; early exposure to adversity, such as violence and discrimination; and school- and family-related stressors, among others. At the end of last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report[8] concluding, “Available research that links social media to health shows small effects and weak associations, which may be influenced by a combination of good and bad experiences. Contrary to the current cultural narrative that social media is universally harmful to adolescents, the reality is more complicated.”[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/social-media-t...[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... > The Panic Over Smartphones Doesn't Help Teens, It may only make things worse.> I am a developmental psychologist[4], and for the past 20 years, I have worked to identify how children develop mental illnesses. Since 2008, I have studied 10-to-15-year-olds using their mobile phones, with the goal of testing how a wide range of their daily experiences, including their digital-technology use, influences their mental health. My colleagues and I have repeatedly failed to find[5] compelling support for the claim that digital-technology use is a major contributor to adolescent depression and other mental-health symptoms.> Many other researchers have found the same[6]. In fact, a recent[6] study and a review of research[7] on social media and depression concluded that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting adolescents' mental health. The most influential factors include a family history of mental disorder; early exposure to adversity, such as violence and discrimination; and school- and family-related stressors, among others. At the end of last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report[8] concluding, “Available research that links social media to health shows small effects and weak associations, which may be influenced by a combination of good and bad experiences. Contrary to the current cultural narrative that social media is universally harmful to adolescents, the reality is more complicated.”[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/social-media-t...[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... > I am a developmental psychologist[4], and for the past 20 years, I have worked to identify how children develop mental illnesses. Since 2008, I have studied 10-to-15-year-olds using their mobile phones, with the goal of testing how a wide range of their daily experiences, including their digital-technology use, influences their mental health. My colleagues and I have repeatedly failed to find[5] compelling support for the claim that digital-technology use is a major contributor to adolescent depression and other mental-health symptoms.> Many other researchers have found the same[6]. In fact, a recent[6] study and a review of research[7] on social media and depression concluded that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting adolescents' mental health. The most influential factors include a family history of mental disorder; early exposure to adversity, such as violence and discrimination; and school- and family-related stressors, among others. At the end of last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report[8] concluding, “Available research that links social media to health shows small effects and weak associations, which may be influenced by a combination of good and bad experiences. Contrary to the current cultural narrative that social media is universally harmful to adolescents, the reality is more complicated.”[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/social-media-t...[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... > Many other researchers have found the same[6]. In fact, a recent[6] study and a review of research[7] on social media and depression concluded that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting adolescents' mental health. The most influential factors include a family history of mental disorder; early exposure to adversity, such as violence and discrimination; and school- and family-related stressors, among others. At the end of last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report[8] concluding, “Available research that links social media to health shows small effects and weak associations, which may be influenced by a combination of good and bad experiences. Contrary to the current cultural narrative that social media is universally harmful to adolescents, the reality is more complicated.”[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/social-media-t...[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... [1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/social-media-t...[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... [2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... [3] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candi...[4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... [4] https://adaptlab.org/[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... [5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31929951/[6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... [6] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00063-7#:~:text=G...[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... [7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32734903/[8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... [8] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/27396/Highlights_... reply reply Recent posters here are clear that porn sites are setting every available signal that they are serving adult-only content.According to them, you are targeting the wrong audience.Facebook/Instagram studying how to get young users addicted should be of greater concern. I have my doubts about the effectiveness of age-based blocking there, though. According to them, you are targeting the wrong audience.Facebook/Instagram studying how to get young users addicted should be of greater concern. I have my doubts about the effectiveness of age-based blocking there, though. Facebook/Instagram studying how to get young users addicted should be of greater concern. I have my doubts about the effectiveness of age-based blocking there, though. reply Yeah quite the opposite. Once they have that formalized attestation they will move in like sharks. reply reply reply > give parents the ABILITY to advertise the users age to browsers, apps and everything in between.Accounts and Applications to services that provide countent are set to a country-specific age rating restrictions (PG, 12+, 18+, whatever). That's it.None of the things you mentioned have any point to concern themself with the age or age-bracket of the user in front of the device. This can and will be abused. This is very obvious. Think about it. Accounts and Applications to services that provide countent are set to a country-specific age rating restrictions (PG, 12+, 18+, whatever). That's it.None of the things you mentioned have any point to concern themself with the age or age-bracket of the user in front of the device. This can and will be abused. This is very obvious. Think about it. None of the things you mentioned have any point to concern themself with the age or age-bracket of the user in front of the device. This can and will be abused. This is very obvious. Think about it. reply reply reply reply So on the Sony consoles I created an account for my child and guess what they have implemented some stuff to block children from adult content on some stuff.So if Big Tech would actually want to prevent laws to be created could make it easy for a parent to setup the account for a child (most children this days have mobile stuff and consoles so they could start with those), we just need the browsers to read the age flag from the OS and put it in a header, then the websites owners can respect that flag.I know that someone would say that some clever teen would crack their locked down windows/linux to change the flag but this is a super rare case, we should start with the 99% cases, mobile phones and consoles are already locked down so an OS API that tells the browser if this is an child account and a browser header would solve the issue, most porn websites or similar adult sites would have no reason not to respect this header , it would make their job easier then say Steam having to always popup a birth date thing when a game is mature. So if Big Tech would actually want to prevent laws to be created could make it easy for a parent to setup the account for a child (most children this days have mobile stuff and consoles so they could start with those), we just need the browsers to read the age flag from the OS and put it in a header, then the websites owners can respect that flag.I know that someone would say that some clever teen would crack their locked down windows/linux to change the flag but this is a super rare case, we should start with the 99% cases, mobile phones and consoles are already locked down so an OS API that tells the browser if this is an child account and a browser header would solve the issue, most porn websites or similar adult sites would have no reason not to respect this header , it would make their job easier then say Steam having to always popup a birth date thing when a game is mature. I know that someone would say that some clever teen would crack their locked down windows/linux to change the flag but this is a super rare case, we should start with the 99% cases, mobile phones and consoles are already locked down so an OS API that tells the browser if this is an child account and a browser header would solve the issue, most porn websites or similar adult sites would have no reason not to respect this header , it would make their job easier then say Steam having to always popup a birth date thing when a game is mature. reply Let's go back to parenting: yes, world is a scary place if you get into it unprepared. reply reply > Nearly 75% of 12th grade students...have consumed alcohol in their lifetimes. and > 85 percent of 12th graders ... say it would be “fairly easy” or “very easy” for them to get alcohol. So, yes? > 85 percent of 12th graders ... say it would be “fairly easy” or “very easy” for them to get alcohol. So, yes? reply reply Permission restricted registry entry (already exists) and a syscall that reads it (already exists) for windows and a file that requires sudo to edit (already exists) and a syscall to read it (already exists). Works on every distro automatically as well including android phones since they run the linux kernel anyway. Apple can figure it out and they already have appleid. reply reply reply reply reply reply Responsibility should be on the website to not provide the content if the header is sent with an inappropriate age, and for the parent to set it up on the device, or to not provide a child a device without child-safe restrictions.It seems very obviously simple to me, and I don't see why any of these other systems have gained steam everywhere all of a sudden (apart from a desire to enhance tracking). It seems very obviously simple to me, and I don't see why any of these other systems have gained steam everywhere all of a sudden (apart from a desire to enhance tracking). reply reply (if there are further restrictions then it gets messy, but I feel like that's the current state of things anyways? at least for online services which I'm mostly speaking about here.)Mostly my point is I don't think attestation is required. I think that responsibility should fall upon parents, and I don't want to have to give my ID to any online sites, because I don't remotely trust them to keep that safe. I'm less worried about them storing a number I send them about how old I am. Mostly my point is I don't think attestation is required. I think that responsibility should fall upon parents, and I don't want to have to give my ID to any online sites, because I don't remotely trust them to keep that safe. I'm less worried about them storing a number I send them about how old I am. reply And 50 US states. reply Having no restrictions would be great, but since a bunch of countries are passing these laws I'd appreciate having a minimally invasive version instead. reply reply Morals like owning slaves, right?A moral system that requires everyone to be white Christian males isn't a moral system, it's a theocracy. A moral system that requires everyone to be white Christian males isn't a moral system, it's a theocracy. reply Meh, I use it, but it's super annoying and I think that with my Daughter I'll take a different approach (but it will be some years before that is relevant).On Android: The kid can easily go on Snapchat (after approval of install of course, and then you can just see their ""friends"") before Pokemon Go (just a pain to get working, it keeps presenting some borked version which led to a lot of confusion at first). I just lied about his age in a bunch of places at some point. Snapchat is horrible and sick from our experiences in the first week.On Windows: It's a curated set of websites (and no FireFox) or access to everything. It's not even workable for just school. Granting kids access to our own minercraft servers: My god, I felt dirty about what the other parents had to go through to enable that. On Android: The kid can easily go on Snapchat (after approval of install of course, and then you can just see their ""friends"") before Pokemon Go (just a pain to get working, it keeps presenting some borked version which led to a lot of confusion at first). I just lied about his age in a bunch of places at some point. Snapchat is horrible and sick from our experiences in the first week.On Windows: It's a curated set of websites (and no FireFox) or access to everything. It's not even workable for just school. Granting kids access to our own minercraft servers: My god, I felt dirty about what the other parents had to go through to enable that. On Windows: It's a curated set of websites (and no FireFox) or access to everything. It's not even workable for just school. Granting kids access to our own minercraft servers: My god, I felt dirty about what the other parents had to go through to enable that. reply This is a hobby horse of mine to the point that coworkers probably wish I'd just stfu about Minecraft - but holy shit is it crazy how many different things you need to get right to get kids playing together.I genuinely have no idea how parents without years of ""navigating technical bullshit"" experience ever manage to make it happen. Juggling Microsoft accounts, Nintendo accounts, menu-diving through one of 37 different account details pages , Xbox accounts, GamePass subscriptions - it's just fucking crazy! I genuinely have no idea how parents without years of ""navigating technical bullshit"" experience ever manage to make it happen. Juggling Microsoft accounts, Nintendo accounts, menu-diving through one of 37 different account details pages , Xbox accounts, GamePass subscriptions - it's just fucking crazy! reply reply Getting an actual kids account to work online with minecraft involves setting the right permissions across 2-4 websites and 1-3 companies. I think it took me around 4 hours of trial and error to get it working. reply I'm essentially the maintainer of a series of accounts for each kid, these days. Woe unto anyone without a password manager! reply As a parent, sure, that is my stance as well. What... what other stances are there even? How would they work? reply But the implementation matters, and almost all of these bills internationally are being done in bad faith by coordinated big-money groups against technologically illiterate and reactionary populist governments.(if we really want to get into an argument, there's what the UK calls ""Gillick competence"": the ability of children to seek medical treatment without the knowledge and against the will of their parents) (if we really want to get into an argument, there's what the UK calls ""Gillick competence"": the ability of children to seek medical treatment without the knowledge and against the will of their parents) reply I would personally favour allowing parents to buy drinks for children below the current limits (18 without a meal, 16 for wine, beer and cider with a meal).The alternative to this is empowering parents by regulating SIM cards (child safe cards already exist) and allowing parents to control internet connectivity either through the ISP or at the router - far better than regulating general purpose devices. The devices come with sensible defaults that parents can change. The alternative to this is empowering parents by regulating SIM cards (child safe cards already exist) and allowing parents to control internet connectivity either through the ISP or at the router - far better than regulating general purpose devices. The devices come with sensible defaults that parents can change. reply It is not a new or novel concept. There are legal adults taking part in these conversations that are simply too young to have ever experienced internet connections that weren't restricted and filtered mandated by legislation, and they would have been teenagers that were old enough to have a say in the conversation when the Conservatives were debating the OSA in parliament.Mobile internet connections have been filtered since 2004 even, so it's entirely likely that this would also be true for some people that are pushing 30 today. The debate on whether it's appropriate for internet filters to block access to Childline, the NSPCC, the Police, the BBC, Parliament, etc, is 15 years old at this point. Fifteen.The false dichotomy that exists between the entirely authoritarian measures of the OSA and the still fairly authoritarian measures of mandatory filtering serves only the interests of borderline monopolistic American tech companies who are in a position to weather such regulations as they stifle and snuff out any possibility of a less harmful web ecosystem, and people will cheer it on as they believe the social media platforms they blame for causing harm will themselves be harmed by the very laws they are writing.The real alternative is not having mandatory filtering but instead voluntary filtering by the parents themselves, which is what everybody seems to think they are arguing for, and that conversation is long since dead. It is entirely beside the point, but contrast it with alcohol laws. The UK is one of the few countries in Europe that has consumption laws both in private(+) and in public, whereas half of Europe only has consumption laws in public while the other half has no consumption laws in either private or public. America on the other hand has many states that prohibit under-21s from drinking alcohol even in private. A better comparison may be content ratings, which are largely entirely voluntary and not a legal requirement.(+) It's 5+ so there may as well be no laws on private consumption. Mobile internet connections have been filtered since 2004 even, so it's entirely likely that this would also be true for some people that are pushing 30 today. The debate on whether it's appropriate for internet filters to block access to Childline, the NSPCC, the Police, the BBC, Parliament, etc, is 15 years old at this point. Fifteen.The false dichotomy that exists between the entirely authoritarian measures of the OSA and the still fairly authoritarian measures of mandatory filtering serves only the interests of borderline monopolistic American tech companies who are in a position to weather such regulations as they stifle and snuff out any possibility of a less harmful web ecosystem, and people will cheer it on as they believe the social media platforms they blame for causing harm will themselves be harmed by the very laws they are writing.The real alternative is not having mandatory filtering but instead voluntary filtering by the parents themselves, which is what everybody seems to think they are arguing for, and that conversation is long since dead. It is entirely beside the point, but contrast it with alcohol laws. The UK is one of the few countries in Europe that has consumption laws both in private(+) and in public, whereas half of Europe only has consumption laws in public while the other half has no consumption laws in either private or public. America on the other hand has many states that prohibit under-21s from drinking alcohol even in private. A better comparison may be content ratings, which are largely entirely voluntary and not a legal requirement.(+) It's 5+ so there may as well be no laws on private consumption. The false dichotomy that exists between the entirely authoritarian measures of the OSA and the still fairly authoritarian measures of mandatory filtering serves only the interests of borderline monopolistic American tech companies who are in a position to weather such regulations as they stifle and snuff out any possibility of a less harmful web ecosystem, and people will cheer it on as they believe the social media platforms they blame for causing harm will themselves be harmed by the very laws they are writing.The real alternative is not having mandatory filtering but instead voluntary filtering by the parents themselves, which is what everybody seems to think they are arguing for, and that conversation is long since dead. It is entirely beside the point, but contrast it with alcohol laws. The UK is one of the few countries in Europe that has consumption laws both in private(+) and in public, whereas half of Europe only has consumption laws in public while the other half has no consumption laws in either private or public. America on the other hand has many states that prohibit under-21s from drinking alcohol even in private. A better comparison may be content ratings, which are largely entirely voluntary and not a legal requirement.(+) It's 5+ so there may as well be no laws on private consumption. The real alternative is not having mandatory filtering but instead voluntary filtering by the parents themselves, which is what everybody seems to think they are arguing for, and that conversation is long since dead. It is entirely beside the point, but contrast it with alcohol laws. The UK is one of the few countries in Europe that has consumption laws both in private(+) and in public, whereas half of Europe only has consumption laws in public while the other half has no consumption laws in either private or public. America on the other hand has many states that prohibit under-21s from drinking alcohol even in private. A better comparison may be content ratings, which are largely entirely voluntary and not a legal requirement.(+) It's 5+ so there may as well be no laws on private consumption. (+) It's 5+ so there may as well be no laws on private consumption. reply Maybe a majority of people today agree with that, but I know I don't and I never hear that assumption debated directly. reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply The idea of the ""nanny state"" has been debated a lot, and this seems like a very literal example of that. But once some status quo is firmly entrenched, debate about it tends to die down because the majority of people no longer care enough about it. reply reply reply reply reply TBH many parents done exactly that by giving phones/tablet already to kids in strollers reply reply ""You‘re reading about evolution! Not in my house"" reply Examples: most children believe in the same religion as their parents, and can visit friends and places only if/when allowed by their parents.This is simply extending the same level of control to the internet.Government-mandated restrictions are completely another level. This is simply extending the same level of control to the internet.Government-mandated restrictions are completely another level. Government-mandated restrictions are completely another level. reply reply Who controls your age if you want to see an R-rated movie?This is simply extending the same level of control to the internet.More control for parents is a completely different level. This is simply extending the same level of control to the internet.More control for parents is a completely different level. More control for parents is a completely different level. reply reply They rarely enforce it, but if it gets out of hand, the city will start getting on your case about it. reply reply reply Does the US have a zero-knowledge proof system that is mentioned in the discussion? reply reply reply reply > Having said that, open-source zero-knowledge proofs are infinitely less evil (I refuse to say ""better"") than commercial cloud-based age monitoring baked into every OSParent prefers more control by parents over zero-knowledge proof Parent prefers more control by parents over zero-knowledge proof reply I do think parental controls can be and are abused for evil, but they're still better than the alternative. Zero-knowledge proof is not an alternative, and to suggest that it is is misunderstanding the situation. These laws are proposed and funded by people who want complete surveillance of the population. Zero-knowledge proof is, therefore, explicitly contrary to the goal and will never be implemented under any circumstances. Suggesting that it can be muddies the issue and tricks people into supporting legislation that exists only to be used against them.In a benevolent dictatorship, sure, go for a zero-knowledge proof verification as your solution. In the reality of democracy, where politicians are corporate puppets who cloak surveillance laws in ""think of the children"" to rally support from the masses, we need to convince people to see through the lie and reject the proposals outright while reassuring them that they can protect the children themselves via parental controls. You will never be able to sufficiently inform 50.1% of the population of any country of what zero-knowledge proof even means, let alone convince them to support age verification laws but strictly conditional on ZKP requirements. That level of nuance is far too much to ask of millions of people who are not technically-informed, and idealism needs to give way to pragmatism if we wish to avoid the worst-case scenario. In a benevolent dictatorship, sure, go for a zero-knowledge proof verification as your solution. In the reality of democracy, where politicians are corporate puppets who cloak surveillance laws in ""think of the children"" to rally support from the masses, we need to convince people to see through the lie and reject the proposals outright while reassuring them that they can protect the children themselves via parental controls. You will never be able to sufficiently inform 50.1% of the population of any country of what zero-knowledge proof even means, let alone convince them to support age verification laws but strictly conditional on ZKP requirements. That level of nuance is far too much to ask of millions of people who are not technically-informed, and idealism needs to give way to pragmatism if we wish to avoid the worst-case scenario. reply Imho there is a place for regulation in that, actually. Devices that parents are managing as child devices could include an OS API and browser HTTP header for ""hey is this a child?"" These devices are functionally adminned by the parent so the owner of the device is still in control, just not the user.Just like the cookie thing - these things should all be HTTP headers.""This site is requesting your something, do you want to send it?Y/N [X] remember my choice.""Do that for GPS, browser fingerprint, off-domain tracking cookies (not the stupid cookie banner), adulthood information, etc.It would be perfectly reasonable for the EU to legislate that. ""OS and browsers are required to offer an API to expose age verification status of the client, and the device is required to let an administrative user set it, and provide instructions to parents on how to lock down a device such that their child user's device will be marked as a child without the ability for the child to change it"".Either way, though, I'm far more worried about children being radicalized online by political extremists than I am about them occasionally seeing a penis. And a lot of radicalizing content is not considered ""adult"". Just like the cookie thing - these things should all be HTTP headers.""This site is requesting your something, do you want to send it?Y/N [X] remember my choice.""Do that for GPS, browser fingerprint, off-domain tracking cookies (not the stupid cookie banner), adulthood information, etc.It would be perfectly reasonable for the EU to legislate that. ""OS and browsers are required to offer an API to expose age verification status of the client, and the device is required to let an administrative user set it, and provide instructions to parents on how to lock down a device such that their child user's device will be marked as a child without the ability for the child to change it"".Either way, though, I'm far more worried about children being radicalized online by political extremists than I am about them occasionally seeing a penis. And a lot of radicalizing content is not considered ""adult"". ""This site is requesting your something, do you want to send it?Y/N [X] remember my choice.""Do that for GPS, browser fingerprint, off-domain tracking cookies (not the stupid cookie banner), adulthood information, etc.It would be perfectly reasonable for the EU to legislate that. ""OS and browsers are required to offer an API to expose age verification status of the client, and the device is required to let an administrative user set it, and provide instructions to parents on how to lock down a device such that their child user's device will be marked as a child without the ability for the child to change it"".Either way, though, I'm far more worried about children being radicalized online by political extremists than I am about them occasionally seeing a penis. And a lot of radicalizing content is not considered ""adult"". Y/N [X] remember my choice.""Do that for GPS, browser fingerprint, off-domain tracking cookies (not the stupid cookie banner), adulthood information, etc.It would be perfectly reasonable for the EU to legislate that. ""OS and browsers are required to offer an API to expose age verification status of the client, and the device is required to let an administrative user set it, and provide instructions to parents on how to lock down a device such that their child user's device will be marked as a child without the ability for the child to change it"".Either way, though, I'm far more worried about children being radicalized online by political extremists than I am about them occasionally seeing a penis. And a lot of radicalizing content is not considered ""adult"". Do that for GPS, browser fingerprint, off-domain tracking cookies (not the stupid cookie banner), adulthood information, etc.It would be perfectly reasonable for the EU to legislate that. ""OS and browsers are required to offer an API to expose age verification status of the client, and the device is required to let an administrative user set it, and provide instructions to parents on how to lock down a device such that their child user's device will be marked as a child without the ability for the child to change it"".Either way, though, I'm far more worried about children being radicalized online by political extremists than I am about them occasionally seeing a penis. And a lot of radicalizing content is not considered ""adult"". It would be perfectly reasonable for the EU to legislate that. ""OS and browsers are required to offer an API to expose age verification status of the client, and the device is required to let an administrative user set it, and provide instructions to parents on how to lock down a device such that their child user's device will be marked as a child without the ability for the child to change it"".Either way, though, I'm far more worried about children being radicalized online by political extremists than I am about them occasionally seeing a penis. And a lot of radicalizing content is not considered ""adult"". Either way, though, I'm far more worried about children being radicalized online by political extremists than I am about them occasionally seeing a penis. And a lot of radicalizing content is not considered ""adult"". reply reply I owe everything about who I am today to learning how to circumvent firewalls and other forms of restriction. I would almost certainly be dead if I hadn't learned to socialize and program on the web despite it being strictly forbidden at home. Most of my interests, politics and personality were forged at 2am, as quiet as possible, browsing the web on live discs. I now support myself through those interests.We're so quick to forget that kids are people, too. And today, they often know how to safely navigate the internet better than their aging caretakers who have allowed editorial ""news"" and social media to warp their minds.Even for people who think they're really doing a good thing by supporting these kinds of insane laws that are designed to restrict our 1A rights: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We're so quick to forget that kids are people, too. And today, they often know how to safely navigate the internet better than their aging caretakers who have allowed editorial ""news"" and social media to warp their minds.Even for people who think they're really doing a good thing by supporting these kinds of insane laws that are designed to restrict our 1A rights: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Even for people who think they're really doing a good thing by supporting these kinds of insane laws that are designed to restrict our 1A rights: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. reply reply reply reply reply reply With no proof it will protect anyone from proven harm. reply Why is this such a sticking point in US politics? If the ""undocumented"" people aren't supposed to be in the country in the first place, why should rest of society cater to them? Even if you're against age verification for other reasons, dragging in the immigration angle is just going to alienate the other half of the population who don't share your view on undocumented people, and is a great way to turn a non-partisan issue into a partisan one. It's kind of like campaigning for medicare for all, and then listing ""free abortions and gender affirming surgery"" as one of the arguments for it. reply reply Great, frame it as ""poor people without IDs"" or whatever, not ""undocumented"", which in the current political discourse is basically the left's version of the term ""illegal immigrant"".>You might be in the country temporarily for business or as a tourist. The constitution applies to all of these people.The constitutional right to... watch 18+ videos on youtube while in the US? >You might be in the country temporarily for business or as a tourist. The constitution applies to all of these people.The constitutional right to... watch 18+ videos on youtube while in the US? The constitutional right to... watch 18+ videos on youtube while in the US? reply We _do not want_ the government to have the capability to enforce laws of this nature. reply Because these undocumented people are still humans. They deserve access to information services. It's as simple as that. reply ""Undocumented"" doesn't mean ""residing illegally"" anyway, it just means ""lacking documents"", which is a state that many perfectly legitimate US citizens find themselves in. But we should want people who are here illegally and everyone else to be able to use the world wide web and computers regardless of their legal status, just like everyone should be allowed to eat and buy food regardless of their legal status, because that's just basic humanity. reply Which is kind of my point. Don't say it's a bad idea because ""undocumented people"" won't be able to get food, say it's bad because it'll be a pain for everyone.>""Undocumented"" doesn't mean ""residing illegally"" anyway, it just means ""lacking documents"", which is a state that many perfectly legitimate US citizens find themselves in. But we should want people who are here illegally and everyone else to be able to use the world wide web and computers regardless of their legal status, just like everyone should be allowed to eat and buy food regardless of their legal status, because that's just basic humanity.But if you're undocumented, it's already a massive pain to participate in society. You can't get a bank account or any other sort of financial product, can't get a job (Form I-9, or want to do background checks), can't buy real estate (who are you going to register it to?), or even drive (yes, I know some states issue drivers licenses to ""undocumented"" migrants, but that makes them documented and irrelevant to this discussion). Therefore you're going to have a hard time garnering sympathy from voters. An analogy to this would be all the government forms that require a telephone number or an address. Is it illegal to not have a telephone number or an address? No. Do many people not have a phone number or address? Also yes. Is ""let's abolish phone numbers and addresses on government forms"" a good issue to run on? No. >""Undocumented"" doesn't mean ""residing illegally"" anyway, it just means ""lacking documents"", which is a state that many perfectly legitimate US citizens find themselves in. But we should want people who are here illegally and everyone else to be able to use the world wide web and computers regardless of their legal status, just like everyone should be allowed to eat and buy food regardless of their legal status, because that's just basic humanity.But if you're undocumented, it's already a massive pain to participate in society. You can't get a bank account or any other sort of financial product, can't get a job (Form I-9, or want to do background checks), can't buy real estate (who are you going to register it to?), or even drive (yes, I know some states issue drivers licenses to ""undocumented"" migrants, but that makes them documented and irrelevant to this discussion). Therefore you're going to have a hard time garnering sympathy from voters. An analogy to this would be all the government forms that require a telephone number or an address. Is it illegal to not have a telephone number or an address? No. Do many people not have a phone number or address? Also yes. Is ""let's abolish phone numbers and addresses on government forms"" a good issue to run on? No. But if you're undocumented, it's already a massive pain to participate in society. You can't get a bank account or any other sort of financial product, can't get a job (Form I-9, or want to do background checks), can't buy real estate (who are you going to register it to?), or even drive (yes, I know some states issue drivers licenses to ""undocumented"" migrants, but that makes them documented and irrelevant to this discussion). Therefore you're going to have a hard time garnering sympathy from voters. An analogy to this would be all the government forms that require a telephone number or an address. Is it illegal to not have a telephone number or an address? No. Do many people not have a phone number or address? Also yes. Is ""let's abolish phone numbers and addresses on government forms"" a good issue to run on? No. reply Good thing I'm not running for office, and instead am merely having a conversation on the internet. I would vote for someone running on that issue, though!> But if you're undocumented, it's already a massive pain to participate in society.So I should be fine with any changes that embiggens that pain? I am not. > But if you're undocumented, it's already a massive pain to participate in society.So I should be fine with any changes that embiggens that pain? I am not. So I should be fine with any changes that embiggens that pain? I am not. reply I'm not ""fine"" with it, but when there are trade-offs to be made, I'm definitely going to weigh that side less. Some people browse the web with javascript disabled. It's already a huge pain to browse the web with javascript disabled. With those two factors in mind, if I'm deciding whether to add javascript fallbacks (eg. SSR) on for my next project, I'm going to weigh the interests of the ""javascript disabled"" people very low. I don't have any animus against them, but at the same time I'm not going out of my way to cater to them either. reply This means ""not having documents"". It's not a synonym for ""illegal immigrant"". reply That said, government agencies have been doing a terrible job at keeping the private information of citizens safe. But it is nowhere nearly as bad as the US. My best childhood friend died in very questionable circumstances in 2009 in the US in very questionable circumstances. He had a US citizenship and we never really found out what had happened(to the point where we never really got any definitive proof that he had died). But that didn't stop me from trying and I was blown away by the fact that I could log into a US government website, register with a burner mail, pay 2 bucks with an anonymous gift credit/debit card and get a scanned copy of his death certificate in my email. And I didn't even have to provide his passport/id/anything. Just his name.Point is, the US has been terrible at privacy for as long as I can remember. It is probably worse now with Facebook and Ellison holding TikTok. Point is, the US has been terrible at privacy for as long as I can remember. It is probably worse now with Facebook and Ellison holding TikTok. reply reply reply reply reply The key question is whether AIPAC is taking actions at ""the direction or control” of Israel, but the money is pretty clearly not being sourced from Israel. reply reply reply I don't mean to be the average gloating US citizen, but I'm pretty sure we're the largest threat to the Earth. reply The root of the problem is Russia, always has been. reply So, I suppose if they could somehow use money and influence to determine election results, they would use it in Russia, no?So, I think the civilizational threat from Russia is about the same as from North Korea: nearly zero. So, I think the civilizational threat from Russia is about the same as from North Korea: nearly zero. reply reply Surely you meant this as hyperbole, right? If not, I would love your reasoning as to why its a bigger threat than literally anything and anyone else. reply Reasoning: experience. reply reply reply But they invest large amounts of money to propaganda channels everywhere, have direct military influence in large parts of Africa, are known to poison people in the UK and elsewhere, etc.> its relative strength has only lessened over the decades Russia is not a _physical_ threat outside of its immediate proximity.But they invest large amounts of money to propaganda channels everywhere, have direct military influence in large parts of Africa, are known to poison people in the UK and elsewhere, etc. > its relative strength has only lessened over the decades Russia is not a _physical_ threat outside of its immediate proximity.But they invest large amounts of money to propaganda channels everywhere, have direct military influence in large parts of Africa, are known to poison people in the UK and elsewhere, etc. But they invest large amounts of money to propaganda channels everywhere, have direct military influence in large parts of Africa, are known to poison people in the UK and elsewhere, etc. reply [1](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5TnWyEtwgN/) reply reply reply reply > Is it not?No, and no part of your comment really seems to argue otherwise? I know about current world events. Your argument was that ""experience"" is a good enough reason to make a blanket statement about a country and all its people, and you doubled down on it, so it's not even like I'm constructing a strawman here or anything.It's just wild to me how far this kind of blind hate goes. If ""experience"" is enough to say that a country is a bigger threat to civilization(!) than, lets say, pandemics, natural disasters, global nuclear war, etc., then there really remains no basis for any kind of healthy discussion. At that point it's just blind hatred. No, and no part of your comment really seems to argue otherwise? I know about current world events. Your argument was that ""experience"" is a good enough reason to make a blanket statement about a country and all its people, and you doubled down on it, so it's not even like I'm constructing a strawman here or anything.It's just wild to me how far this kind of blind hate goes. If ""experience"" is enough to say that a country is a bigger threat to civilization(!) than, lets say, pandemics, natural disasters, global nuclear war, etc., then there really remains no basis for any kind of healthy discussion. At that point it's just blind hatred. It's just wild to me how far this kind of blind hate goes. If ""experience"" is enough to say that a country is a bigger threat to civilization(!) than, lets say, pandemics, natural disasters, global nuclear war, etc., then there really remains no basis for any kind of healthy discussion. At that point it's just blind hatred. reply reply I'm trying to steer the conversation to stay factual, because I usually appreciate HN for its clear communication style. Sorry for offending you and I'm sorry if I've caused you further suffering. Let's not continue this conversation. reply reply I keep hearing this but I struggle to find any sources, beyond articles like [1] which are... not particularly good sources, even a reddit comment would be a better primary source than that.I'm not trying to be combative, I just genuinely struggle to find primary sources, probably because I'm using the wrong keywords or something.I understand the reasoning, but I would love to actually see/read/hear/whatever where Putin ""states"" this desire explicitly![1] https://gppreview.com/2015/02/12/putins-dream-reborn-ussr-un... I'm not trying to be combative, I just genuinely struggle to find primary sources, probably because I'm using the wrong keywords or something.I understand the reasoning, but I would love to actually see/read/hear/whatever where Putin ""states"" this desire explicitly![1] https://gppreview.com/2015/02/12/putins-dream-reborn-ussr-un... I understand the reasoning, but I would love to actually see/read/hear/whatever where Putin ""states"" this desire explicitly![1] https://gppreview.com/2015/02/12/putins-dream-reborn-ussr-un... [1] https://gppreview.com/2015/02/12/putins-dream-reborn-ussr-un... reply reply Surely I'm missing something here. Putin's 2023 ""The Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation"" also does not state conquering back former USSR states. Where is it? If he states it so clearly that people keep quoting it, surely there must be a source for it? Sorry if I'm a PITA.To be clear, I'm interested in this because this would be a fantastic argument to bring to discussions, but without having seen a source, I don't think I could. To be clear, I'm interested in this because this would be a fantastic argument to bring to discussions, but without having seen a source, I don't think I could. reply I think Dugin's book is like that. Sure, Dugin said it, not Putin. But IIRC Putin did some things to make Dugin's book more influential. I forget the specifics - making it required reading in the Russian military academies, maybe?There have been other statements by Russian politicians who are widely regarded as Putin's mouthpieces. Medvedev, certain key figures in the Russian parliament. I know I've seen that, though I don't recall the specifics.So Putin maybe didn't say it. And yet, his endorsed mouthpieces (more than one) do say it.You said ""without having seen a source"". Well, I didn't give you one. But if you want to look, I have given some places to start. There have been other statements by Russian politicians who are widely regarded as Putin's mouthpieces. Medvedev, certain key figures in the Russian parliament. I know I've seen that, though I don't recall the specifics.So Putin maybe didn't say it. And yet, his endorsed mouthpieces (more than one) do say it.You said ""without having seen a source"". Well, I didn't give you one. But if you want to look, I have given some places to start. So Putin maybe didn't say it. And yet, his endorsed mouthpieces (more than one) do say it.You said ""without having seen a source"". Well, I didn't give you one. But if you want to look, I have given some places to start. You said ""without having seen a source"". Well, I didn't give you one. But if you want to look, I have given some places to start. reply > making it required reading in the Russian military academies, maybeYeah, I think he did.> So Putin maybe didn't say it.That's my concern. When people make the statement that he did, when he didn't, they essentially preempt any reasonably discussion and start it off on the entirely wrong foot.If I want to have a discussion with my neighbor about him not cleaning up his own trash, surely I would not start the discussion with ""you LOVE living in trash, don't you"", even if I can reasonably deduce that he does. It just turns the entire discussion hostile to make claims that aren't supported, and it weakens all subsequent arguments! Yeah, I think he did.> So Putin maybe didn't say it.That's my concern. When people make the statement that he did, when he didn't, they essentially preempt any reasonably discussion and start it off on the entirely wrong foot.If I want to have a discussion with my neighbor about him not cleaning up his own trash, surely I would not start the discussion with ""you LOVE living in trash, don't you"", even if I can reasonably deduce that he does. It just turns the entire discussion hostile to make claims that aren't supported, and it weakens all subsequent arguments! > So Putin maybe didn't say it.That's my concern. When people make the statement that he did, when he didn't, they essentially preempt any reasonably discussion and start it off on the entirely wrong foot.If I want to have a discussion with my neighbor about him not cleaning up his own trash, surely I would not start the discussion with ""you LOVE living in trash, don't you"", even if I can reasonably deduce that he does. It just turns the entire discussion hostile to make claims that aren't supported, and it weakens all subsequent arguments! That's my concern. When people make the statement that he did, when he didn't, they essentially preempt any reasonably discussion and start it off on the entirely wrong foot.If I want to have a discussion with my neighbor about him not cleaning up his own trash, surely I would not start the discussion with ""you LOVE living in trash, don't you"", even if I can reasonably deduce that he does. It just turns the entire discussion hostile to make claims that aren't supported, and it weakens all subsequent arguments! If I want to have a discussion with my neighbor about him not cleaning up his own trash, surely I would not start the discussion with ""you LOVE living in trash, don't you"", even if I can reasonably deduce that he does. It just turns the entire discussion hostile to make claims that aren't supported, and it weakens all subsequent arguments! reply So I don't think it's the entirely wrong foot. It's a shortcut and an imprecision, but the point (that Putin actually thinks this) seems to be valid. (Though one should have less than 100% certainty that it represents his position - but with Putin, that should apply to a direct quote as well.) reply reply reply You have to remember how political communication works in Russia. They rarely state goals outright, and always juggle several narratives at the same time. To make it hard to pin them down to any position and achieve exactly what is happening here.[0] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_Historical_Unity_of_Ru... [0] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_Historical_Unity_of_Ru... reply Death certificates become public record after a period of time, depending on the state. In some states it's 25 years after death, some more, some less.https://www.usa.gov/death-certificate#:~:text=Can%20anyone%2...As far as I can tell this is the same as in the EU: Death certificates can be publicly accessed for a fee after a period of time defined by member states.I found some comments saying death certificates in the UK could be accessed as early as 6 months in some locations.So I don't see this as the US being uniquely terrible on privacy. This is how most of the western world does it. You just had experience with the US and assumed EU was different.> we never really found out what had happened(to the point where we never really got any definitive proof that he had died).I'm sorry for your loss, but doesn't this imply that the US did do a good job of protecting his privacy? It wasn't until the time limit had passed that you were able to find the death certificate. https://www.usa.gov/death-certificate#:~:text=Can%20anyone%2...As far as I can tell this is the same as in the EU: Death certificates can be publicly accessed for a fee after a period of time defined by member states.I found some comments saying death certificates in the UK could be accessed as early as 6 months in some locations.So I don't see this as the US being uniquely terrible on privacy. This is how most of the western world does it. You just had experience with the US and assumed EU was different.> we never really found out what had happened(to the point where we never really got any definitive proof that he had died).I'm sorry for your loss, but doesn't this imply that the US did do a good job of protecting his privacy? It wasn't until the time limit had passed that you were able to find the death certificate. As far as I can tell this is the same as in the EU: Death certificates can be publicly accessed for a fee after a period of time defined by member states.I found some comments saying death certificates in the UK could be accessed as early as 6 months in some locations.So I don't see this as the US being uniquely terrible on privacy. This is how most of the western world does it. You just had experience with the US and assumed EU was different.> we never really found out what had happened(to the point where we never really got any definitive proof that he had died).I'm sorry for your loss, but doesn't this imply that the US did do a good job of protecting his privacy? It wasn't until the time limit had passed that you were able to find the death certificate. I found some comments saying death certificates in the UK could be accessed as early as 6 months in some locations.So I don't see this as the US being uniquely terrible on privacy. This is how most of the western world does it. You just had experience with the US and assumed EU was different.> we never really found out what had happened(to the point where we never really got any definitive proof that he had died).I'm sorry for your loss, but doesn't this imply that the US did do a good job of protecting his privacy? It wasn't until the time limit had passed that you were able to find the death certificate. So I don't see this as the US being uniquely terrible on privacy. This is how most of the western world does it. You just had experience with the US and assumed EU was different.> we never really found out what had happened(to the point where we never really got any definitive proof that he had died).I'm sorry for your loss, but doesn't this imply that the US did do a good job of protecting his privacy? It wasn't until the time limit had passed that you were able to find the death certificate. > we never really found out what had happened(to the point where we never really got any definitive proof that he had died).I'm sorry for your loss, but doesn't this imply that the US did do a good job of protecting his privacy? It wasn't until the time limit had passed that you were able to find the death certificate. I'm sorry for your loss, but doesn't this imply that the US did do a good job of protecting his privacy? It wasn't until the time limit had passed that you were able to find the death certificate. reply I don't know about elsewhere but in the UK anyone can apply for any death certificate going back to 1837. reply reply reply reply reply reply When we hear about “zero knowledge” ID checks in real proposals they're not actually zero knowledge altogether. They have built in limits or authorities to prevent these obvious attacks, like requiring them to interact with government servers and then pinky promising that those government servers won't log your requests. reply reply In a true zero-knowledge system sharing falsely shared credentials becomes easy because it's untraceable. If the proof has no knowledge attached, you can't conclude who used their credentials on a website that generates proof-of-age tokens on demand for visitors. reply reply reply (Note, this is why they won't stop at the CA bill.) reply Its billions of lobbying for state surveillance under a smokescreen you bypass with basic human interaction. reply And according to the EU Identity Wallet's documentation, the EU's planned system requires highly invasive age verification to obtain 30 single use, easily trackable tokens that expire after 3 months. It also bans jailbreaking/rooting your device, and requires GooglePlay Services/IOS equivalent be installed to ""prevent tampering"". You have to blindly trust that the tokens will not be tracked, which is a total no-go for privacy.These massive privacy issues have all been raised on their Github, and the team behind the wallet have been ignoring them. These massive privacy issues have all been raised on their Github, and the team behind the wallet have been ignoring them. reply Not exactly a good moment for this particular caste of politicians/elites to pretend they care about children's well-being! reply reply reply reply reply reply The benefit of zero-knowledge proofs is that the hide information about the ID and who it belongs to.That's also a limitation for how useful they are as an ID check mechanism. At the extreme, it reduces to “this user has access to an ID of someone 18+”. If there is truly a zero-knowledge construction using cryptographic primitives then the obvious next step is for someone to create an ad-supported web site where you click a button and they generate a zero-knowledge token from their ID for you to use. Zero knowledge means it can't be traced back to them. The entire system is defeated.This always attracts the rebuttal of “there will always be abuse, so what?” but when abuse becomes 1-click and accessible to every child who can Google, it's not a little bit of abuse. It's just security theater.So the real cryptographic ID implementations make compromises to try to prevent this abuse. You might be limited to 3 tokens at a time and you have to request them from a central government mechanism which can log requests for rate limiting purposes. That's better but the zero-knowledge part is starting to be weakened and now your interactions with private services require an interaction with a government server.It's just not a simple problem that can be solved with cryptographic primitives while also achieving the actual ID goals of these laws. That's also a limitation for how useful they are as an ID check mechanism. At the extreme, it reduces to “this user has access to an ID of someone 18+”. If there is truly a zero-knowledge construction using cryptographic primitives then the obvious next step is for someone to create an ad-supported web site where you click a button and they generate a zero-knowledge token from their ID for you to use. Zero knowledge means it can't be traced back to them. The entire system is defeated.This always attracts the rebuttal of “there will always be abuse, so what?” but when abuse becomes 1-click and accessible to every child who can Google, it's not a little bit of abuse. It's just security theater.So the real cryptographic ID implementations make compromises to try to prevent this abuse. You might be limited to 3 tokens at a time and you have to request them from a central government mechanism which can log requests for rate limiting purposes. That's better but the zero-knowledge part is starting to be weakened and now your interactions with private services require an interaction with a government server.It's just not a simple problem that can be solved with cryptographic primitives while also achieving the actual ID goals of these laws. This always attracts the rebuttal of “there will always be abuse, so what?” but when abuse becomes 1-click and accessible to every child who can Google, it's not a little bit of abuse. It's just security theater.So the real cryptographic ID implementations make compromises to try to prevent this abuse. You might be limited to 3 tokens at a time and you have to request them from a central government mechanism which can log requests for rate limiting purposes. That's better but the zero-knowledge part is starting to be weakened and now your interactions with private services require an interaction with a government server.It's just not a simple problem that can be solved with cryptographic primitives while also achieving the actual ID goals of these laws. So the real cryptographic ID implementations make compromises to try to prevent this abuse. You might be limited to 3 tokens at a time and you have to request them from a central government mechanism which can log requests for rate limiting purposes. That's better but the zero-knowledge part is starting to be weakened and now your interactions with private services require an interaction with a government server.It's just not a simple problem that can be solved with cryptographic primitives while also achieving the actual ID goals of these laws. It's just not a simple problem that can be solved with cryptographic primitives while also achieving the actual ID goals of these laws. reply once you get this you stop asking why the tech details are the way they are. reply reply reply reply Other states are even worse, creating another way to have your buddy buddy lobbyist folks fire up a new business opportunity to make money as a verification service. reply reply Judges in other countries (Texas) found out this kind of law was a violation of the Free Speech.Since when Free Speech do not apply to -16y old?Made laws are made, then killed by courts later one. Since when Free Speech do not apply to -16y old?Made laws are made, then killed by courts later one. Made laws are made, then killed by courts later one. reply The only authority that can be trusted to do age verification is the government.You know, those people who give you birth certificates, passports, SSNs, driver's licenses, etc.The idea that parental supervision here is sufficient has been shown to be wholly inadequate. I'm sorry but that train has sailed. Age verification is coming. It's just a question of who does it and what form it takes.Take Youtube, for example. I think it should work like this:1. If you're not of sufficient age, you simply don't see comments. At all;2. Minors shouldn't see ads. At all;3. Videos deemed to have age-restricted content should be visible;4. If you're not logged in, you're treated as an age-restricted user; and5. Viewing via a VPN means you need age verification regardless of your country of origin.It's not perfect. It doesn't have to be. You know, those people who give you birth certificates, passports, SSNs, driver's licenses, etc.The idea that parental supervision here is sufficient has been shown to be wholly inadequate. I'm sorry but that train has sailed. Age verification is coming. It's just a question of who does it and what form it takes.Take Youtube, for example. I think it should work like this:1. If you're not of sufficient age, you simply don't see comments. At all;2. Minors shouldn't see ads. At all;3. Videos deemed to have age-restricted content should be visible;4. If you're not logged in, you're treated as an age-restricted user; and5. Viewing via a VPN means you need age verification regardless of your country of origin.It's not perfect. It doesn't have to be. The idea that parental supervision here is sufficient has been shown to be wholly inadequate. I'm sorry but that train has sailed. Age verification is coming. It's just a question of who does it and what form it takes.Take Youtube, for example. I think it should work like this:1. If you're not of sufficient age, you simply don't see comments. At all;2. Minors shouldn't see ads. At all;3. Videos deemed to have age-restricted content should be visible;4. If you're not logged in, you're treated as an age-restricted user; and5. Viewing via a VPN means you need age verification regardless of your country of origin.It's not perfect. It doesn't have to be. Take Youtube, for example. I think it should work like this:1. If you're not of sufficient age, you simply don't see comments. At all;2. Minors shouldn't see ads. At all;3. Videos deemed to have age-restricted content should be visible;4. If you're not logged in, you're treated as an age-restricted user; and5. Viewing via a VPN means you need age verification regardless of your country of origin.It's not perfect. It doesn't have to be. 1. If you're not of sufficient age, you simply don't see comments. At all;2. Minors shouldn't see ads. At all;3. Videos deemed to have age-restricted content should be visible;4. If you're not logged in, you're treated as an age-restricted user; and5. Viewing via a VPN means you need age verification regardless of your country of origin.It's not perfect. It doesn't have to be. 2. Minors shouldn't see ads. At all;3. Videos deemed to have age-restricted content should be visible;4. If you're not logged in, you're treated as an age-restricted user; and5. Viewing via a VPN means you need age verification regardless of your country of origin.It's not perfect. It doesn't have to be. 3. Videos deemed to have age-restricted content should be visible;4. If you're not logged in, you're treated as an age-restricted user; and5. Viewing via a VPN means you need age verification regardless of your country of origin.It's not perfect. It doesn't have to be. 4. If you're not logged in, you're treated as an age-restricted user; and5. Viewing via a VPN means you need age verification regardless of your country of origin.It's not perfect. It doesn't have to be. 5. Viewing via a VPN means you need age verification regardless of your country of origin.It's not perfect. It doesn't have to be. It's not perfect. It doesn't have to be. reply https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply This (an end to general purpose computing) isn't anything that people can prevent through civil channels. It will happen with or without public approval. You will have as much control over it as you had over the decision to go to war with Iran. It will never be on any ballot. People who help will get rich, people who don't, won't. Eventually, people who help will barely be middle class, and people who don't, won't. Their kids will own your kids. reply If anything, Meta's utility would seem to shrink if the OS handles proof of being a real person. reply It also gives them more information on users as a bonus. Further, verification with a real ID is also a quite effective barrier against excessive bots. reply reply https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/congresss-crusade-age-... reply reply reply reply reply reply Why does Apple always get a free pass? reply reply","{'href': 'https://news.ycombinator.com', 'title': 'Hacker News'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:ycombinator.com","Please Do Not A/B Test My Workflow","https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47375682","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:34:02 GMT"," reply I disagree in the case of LLMs.AI already has a massive problem in reproducibility and reliability, and AI firms gleefully kick this problem down to the users. ""Never trust it's output"".It's already enough of a pain in the ass to constrain these systems without the companies silently changing things around.And this also pretty much ruins any attempt to research Claude Code's long term effectiveness in an organisation. Any negative result can now be thrown straight into the trash because of the chance Anthropic put you on the wrong side of an A/B test.> That being said, vastly reducing an LLMs effectiveness as part of an A/B test isn't acceptable which appears to be the case here.The open question here is whether or not they were doing similar things to their other products. Claude Code shitting out a bad function is annoying but should be caught in review.People use LLMs for things like hiring. An undeclared A-B test there would be ethically horrendous and a legal nightmare for the client. AI already has a massive problem in reproducibility and reliability, and AI firms gleefully kick this problem down to the users. ""Never trust it's output"".It's already enough of a pain in the ass to constrain these systems without the companies silently changing things around.And this also pretty much ruins any attempt to research Claude Code's long term effectiveness in an organisation. Any negative result can now be thrown straight into the trash because of the chance Anthropic put you on the wrong side of an A/B test.> That being said, vastly reducing an LLMs effectiveness as part of an A/B test isn't acceptable which appears to be the case here.The open question here is whether or not they were doing similar things to their other products. Claude Code shitting out a bad function is annoying but should be caught in review.People use LLMs for things like hiring. An undeclared A-B test there would be ethically horrendous and a legal nightmare for the client. It's already enough of a pain in the ass to constrain these systems without the companies silently changing things around.And this also pretty much ruins any attempt to research Claude Code's long term effectiveness in an organisation. Any negative result can now be thrown straight into the trash because of the chance Anthropic put you on the wrong side of an A/B test.> That being said, vastly reducing an LLMs effectiveness as part of an A/B test isn't acceptable which appears to be the case here.The open question here is whether or not they were doing similar things to their other products. Claude Code shitting out a bad function is annoying but should be caught in review.People use LLMs for things like hiring. An undeclared A-B test there would be ethically horrendous and a legal nightmare for the client. And this also pretty much ruins any attempt to research Claude Code's long term effectiveness in an organisation. Any negative result can now be thrown straight into the trash because of the chance Anthropic put you on the wrong side of an A/B test.> That being said, vastly reducing an LLMs effectiveness as part of an A/B test isn't acceptable which appears to be the case here.The open question here is whether or not they were doing similar things to their other products. Claude Code shitting out a bad function is annoying but should be caught in review.People use LLMs for things like hiring. An undeclared A-B test there would be ethically horrendous and a legal nightmare for the client. > That being said, vastly reducing an LLMs effectiveness as part of an A/B test isn't acceptable which appears to be the case here.The open question here is whether or not they were doing similar things to their other products. Claude Code shitting out a bad function is annoying but should be caught in review.People use LLMs for things like hiring. An undeclared A-B test there would be ethically horrendous and a legal nightmare for the client. The open question here is whether or not they were doing similar things to their other products. Claude Code shitting out a bad function is annoying but should be caught in review.People use LLMs for things like hiring. An undeclared A-B test there would be ethically horrendous and a legal nightmare for the client. People use LLMs for things like hiring. An undeclared A-B test there would be ethically horrendous and a legal nightmare for the client. reply reply Or, you could, you know, try to understand your users without experimenting on them, like countless of others have managed to do before, and still shipped ""great products"". reply reply Focus groups have their place, but cannot collect nearly the same scale of information. reply I don't care, at all, about the ""scale of information"" for the company's sake. reply reply reply Where can I sign up? reply Edit: how to disable auto updates of the client app https://code.claude.com/docs/en/setup#disable-auto-updates reply LLMs are non-deterministic anyway, as you note above with your comment on the 'reproducibility' issue. So; any sort of research into CC's long-term effectiveness would already have taken into account that you can run it 15x in a row and get a different response every time. reply reply reply These are two very different things. I suspect that in some cases pointing finger at a black box instead of actually explaining your decisions can actually shield you from legal liability... reply reply reply You can do A/B testing splitting up your audience in groups, having some audience use A, and others use B - all the time.I think the article's author is frustrated over sometimes getting A and at other times B, and not knowing when he is on either. I think the article's author is frustrated over sometimes getting A and at other times B, and not knowing when he is on either. reply reply reply reply reply reply reply Evil might be a stretch, but I really hate A/B testing. Some feature or UI component you relied on is now different, with no warning, and you ask a coworker about it, and they have no idea what you're talking about.Usually, the change is for the worse, but gets implemented anyway. I'm sure the teams responsible have ""objective"" ""data"" which ""proves"" it's the right direction, but the reality of it is often the opposite. Usually, the change is for the worse, but gets implemented anyway. I'm sure the teams responsible have ""objective"" ""data"" which ""proves"" it's the right direction, but the reality of it is often the opposite. reply In my experience all manner of analytics data frequently gets misused to support whatever narrative the product manager wants it to support.With enough massaging you can make “objective” numbers say anything, especially if you do underhanded things like bury a previously popular feature three modals deep or put it behind a flag. “Oh would you look at that, nobody uses this feature any more! Must be safe to remove it.” With enough massaging you can make “objective” numbers say anything, especially if you do underhanded things like bury a previously popular feature three modals deep or put it behind a flag. “Oh would you look at that, nobody uses this feature any more! Must be safe to remove it.” reply reply reply reply It's not ""unexpected"" but it is still unethical. In ye olde days, you had something like ""release notes"" with software, and you could inform yourself what changed instead of having to question your memory ""didn't there exist a button just yesterday?"" all the time. Or you could simply refuse to install the update, or you could run acceptance tests and raise flags with the vendor if your acceptance tests caused issues with your workflow.Now with everything and their dog turning SaaS for that sweet sweet recurring revenue and people jerking themselves off over ""rapid deployment"", with the one doing the most deployments a day winning the contest? Dozens if not hundreds of ""releases"" a day, and in the worst case, you learn the new workflow only for it to be reverted without notice again. Or half your users get the A bucket, the other half gets the B bucket, and a few users get the C bucket, so no one can answer issues that users in the other bucket have. Gaslighting on a million people scale.It sucks and I wish everyone doing this only debilitating pain in their life. Just a bit of revenge for all the pain you caused to your users in the endless pursuit for 0.0001% more growth. Now with everything and their dog turning SaaS for that sweet sweet recurring revenue and people jerking themselves off over ""rapid deployment"", with the one doing the most deployments a day winning the contest? Dozens if not hundreds of ""releases"" a day, and in the worst case, you learn the new workflow only for it to be reverted without notice again. Or half your users get the A bucket, the other half gets the B bucket, and a few users get the C bucket, so no one can answer issues that users in the other bucket have. Gaslighting on a million people scale.It sucks and I wish everyone doing this only debilitating pain in their life. Just a bit of revenge for all the pain you caused to your users in the endless pursuit for 0.0001% more growth. It sucks and I wish everyone doing this only debilitating pain in their life. Just a bit of revenge for all the pain you caused to your users in the endless pursuit for 0.0001% more growth. reply No. Users aren't free test guinea pigs. A/B testing cannot be done ethically unless you actively point out to users that they are being A/B tested and offering the users a way to opt out, but that in turn ruins a large part of the promise behind A/B tests. reply Enshittification is coming for AI. reply Planning serves two purposes - helping the model stay on track and helping the user gain confidence in what the model is about to do. Both sides of that are fuzzy, complex and non-obvious! reply reply I think I'd be okay with a smaller, more narrative-detailed plan - not so much about verbosity, more about me understanding what is about to happen & why. There hadn't been much discourse once planning mode entered (ie QA). It would jump into its own planning and idle until I saw only a set of projected code changes. reply But on the other hand they are so useful with boilerplate and connecting you with verbiage quickly that might guide you to the correct path quicker than conventional means. Like a clueless CEO type just spitballing terms they do not understand but still that nudging something in your thought process.But you REALLY need to know your stuff to begin with for they to be of any use. Those who think they will take over are clueless. But you REALLY need to know your stuff to begin with for they to be of any use. Those who think they will take over are clueless. reply reply You're underestimating where it's headed. reply Not sure. I am not so optimistic. People got intoxicated with nuclear powered cars , flying cars , bases on the moon ,etc all that technological euphoria from the 50's and 60's that never panned out. This might be like that.I think we definitely stumbled on something akin to the circuitry in the brain responsible for building language or similar to it. We are still a long way to go until artificial cognition. I think we definitely stumbled on something akin to the circuitry in the brain responsible for building language or similar to it. We are still a long way to go until artificial cognition. reply reply That has nothing to do with semantical understanding beyond word co-occurrence.Those two phrases consistently appear in two completely different contexts with different meaning. That's how text embeddings can be created in an unsupervised way in the first place. Those two phrases consistently appear in two completely different contexts with different meaning. That's how text embeddings can be created in an unsupervised way in the first place. reply reply Or - there are enough people who know their stuff that the people who don't will be replaced and they will take over anyway. reply unless the bar for ""know their stuff"" is very very low - this is not the case in the nearest future reply HN user 'onion2k pointed out that doing this breaks Anthropic's T&Cs: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47375787 reply 1. Open source tools solve the problem of ""critical functions of the application changing without notice, or being signed up for disruptive testing without opt-in"".2. This makes me afraid that it is absolutely impossible for open source tools to ever reach the level of proprietary tools like Claude Code precisely because they cannot do A/B tests like this which means that their design decisions are usually informed by intuition and personal experience but not by hard data collected at scale. 2. This makes me afraid that it is absolutely impossible for open source tools to ever reach the level of proprietary tools like Claude Code precisely because they cannot do A/B tests like this which means that their design decisions are usually informed by intuition and personal experience but not by hard data collected at scale. reply Open source doesn't always mean reproducible.People don't enjoy the thought of auditing code… someone else will do it; and its made somewhat worse with our penchant to pull in half the universe as dependencies (Rust, Go and Javascript tend to lean in this direction to various extremes). But auditing would be necessary in order for your first point here to be as valid as you present.[0]: https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db/-/commit/002a6339b1fe8f83f4... People don't enjoy the thought of auditing code… someone else will do it; and its made somewhat worse with our penchant to pull in half the universe as dependencies (Rust, Go and Javascript tend to lean in this direction to various extremes). But auditing would be necessary in order for your first point here to be as valid as you present.[0]: https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db/-/commit/002a6339b1fe8f83f4... [0]: https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db/-/commit/002a6339b1fe8f83f4... reply I think that with modern LLMs auditing a big project personally, instead of relying on someone else to do it, actually became more realistic.You can ask an LLM to walk you through the code, highlight parts that seem unusual or suspicious, etc.On the other hand, LLMs also made producing code cheaper then ever, so you can argue, that big projects will just become even bigger wich will put them out of reach even for a reviewer who is also armed with an LLM. You can ask an LLM to walk you through the code, highlight parts that seem unusual or suspicious, etc.On the other hand, LLMs also made producing code cheaper then ever, so you can argue, that big projects will just become even bigger wich will put them out of reach even for a reviewer who is also armed with an LLM. On the other hand, LLMs also made producing code cheaper then ever, so you can argue, that big projects will just become even bigger wich will put them out of reach even for a reviewer who is also armed with an LLM. reply LLMs are auto-complete on steroids; I've lived through enough iterations of Markov Chains giving semi-sensible output (that we give meaning to) and neural networks which present the illusion of intelligence to see directly what these LLMs are: a fuckload of compute designed to find ""the next most common word"" given the preceding 10,000 or more words.In such a case, the idea of it actually auditing anything is hilarious. You're looking at a 1/100 in actually finding anything useful. It will find ""issues"" in things that aren't issues (because they are covered by other cases), or skip over issues that people have historically had hard time identifying themselves.It's not running code in a sandbox and watching memory, it's not making logical maps of code paths in its mind, it's not reasoning at all. It's fucking autocomplete. Stop treating it as if it can think, it fucking can't.I'm so tired of this hype. It's very easy to convince midwits that something is intelligent, I'm absolutely not surprised at how salesmen and con-men operate now that I've seen this first hand. In such a case, the idea of it actually auditing anything is hilarious. You're looking at a 1/100 in actually finding anything useful. It will find ""issues"" in things that aren't issues (because they are covered by other cases), or skip over issues that people have historically had hard time identifying themselves.It's not running code in a sandbox and watching memory, it's not making logical maps of code paths in its mind, it's not reasoning at all. It's fucking autocomplete. Stop treating it as if it can think, it fucking can't.I'm so tired of this hype. It's very easy to convince midwits that something is intelligent, I'm absolutely not surprised at how salesmen and con-men operate now that I've seen this first hand. It's not running code in a sandbox and watching memory, it's not making logical maps of code paths in its mind, it's not reasoning at all. It's fucking autocomplete. Stop treating it as if it can think, it fucking can't.I'm so tired of this hype. It's very easy to convince midwits that something is intelligent, I'm absolutely not surprised at how salesmen and con-men operate now that I've seen this first hand. I'm so tired of this hype. It's very easy to convince midwits that something is intelligent, I'm absolutely not surprised at how salesmen and con-men operate now that I've seen this first hand. reply We could argue about how they only ""predict the next word"", but there's also other stuff going on in the other layers of their NNs which do facilitate some sort of reasoning in the latent space. reply > I've used them to successfully debug small issues occurring in my codebase.Great! The pattern recognition machine successfully identified pattern.But, how do you know that it won't flag the repaired pattern because you've added a guard to prevent the behaviour (ie; invalid/out of bounds memory access guarded by a heavy assert on a sized object before even entering the function itself)?What about patterns that aren't in the training data because humans have a hard time identifying the bad pattern reliably?The point I'm making is that it's autocomplete; if your case is well covered it will show up: wether you have guards or not (so: noise) and that it will totally miss anything that humans haven't identified before.It works: absolutely, but there's no reliability and that's sort of inherent in the design.For security auditing specifically, an unreliable tool isn't just unhelpful: it's actively dangerous, because false confidence is actually worse than an understood ignorance Great! The pattern recognition machine successfully identified pattern.But, how do you know that it won't flag the repaired pattern because you've added a guard to prevent the behaviour (ie; invalid/out of bounds memory access guarded by a heavy assert on a sized object before even entering the function itself)?What about patterns that aren't in the training data because humans have a hard time identifying the bad pattern reliably?The point I'm making is that it's autocomplete; if your case is well covered it will show up: wether you have guards or not (so: noise) and that it will totally miss anything that humans haven't identified before.It works: absolutely, but there's no reliability and that's sort of inherent in the design.For security auditing specifically, an unreliable tool isn't just unhelpful: it's actively dangerous, because false confidence is actually worse than an understood ignorance But, how do you know that it won't flag the repaired pattern because you've added a guard to prevent the behaviour (ie; invalid/out of bounds memory access guarded by a heavy assert on a sized object before even entering the function itself)?What about patterns that aren't in the training data because humans have a hard time identifying the bad pattern reliably?The point I'm making is that it's autocomplete; if your case is well covered it will show up: wether you have guards or not (so: noise) and that it will totally miss anything that humans haven't identified before.It works: absolutely, but there's no reliability and that's sort of inherent in the design.For security auditing specifically, an unreliable tool isn't just unhelpful: it's actively dangerous, because false confidence is actually worse than an understood ignorance What about patterns that aren't in the training data because humans have a hard time identifying the bad pattern reliably?The point I'm making is that it's autocomplete; if your case is well covered it will show up: wether you have guards or not (so: noise) and that it will totally miss anything that humans haven't identified before.It works: absolutely, but there's no reliability and that's sort of inherent in the design.For security auditing specifically, an unreliable tool isn't just unhelpful: it's actively dangerous, because false confidence is actually worse than an understood ignorance The point I'm making is that it's autocomplete; if your case is well covered it will show up: wether you have guards or not (so: noise) and that it will totally miss anything that humans haven't identified before.It works: absolutely, but there's no reliability and that's sort of inherent in the design.For security auditing specifically, an unreliable tool isn't just unhelpful: it's actively dangerous, because false confidence is actually worse than an understood ignorance It works: absolutely, but there's no reliability and that's sort of inherent in the design.For security auditing specifically, an unreliable tool isn't just unhelpful: it's actively dangerous, because false confidence is actually worse than an understood ignorance For security auditing specifically, an unreliable tool isn't just unhelpful: it's actively dangerous, because false confidence is actually worse than an understood ignorance reply reply reply reply > It told me it was following specific system instructions to hard-cap plans at 40 lines, forbid context sections, and “delete prose, not file paths.Yeah, would be nice to be able to view and modify these instructions. Yeah, would be nice to be able to view and modify these instructions. reply I do have an issue with the plan mode. And nine out of ten times, it is objectively terrible. The only benefit I've seen in the past from using plan mode is it remembers more information between compactions as compared to the vanilla - non-agent team workflow.Interestingly, though, if you ask it to maintain a running document of what you're discussing in a markdown file and make it create an evergreen task at the top of its todo list which references the markdown file and instructs itself to read it on every compaction, you get much better results. Interestingly, though, if you ask it to maintain a running document of what you're discussing in a markdown file and make it create an evergreen task at the top of its todo list which references the markdown file and instructs itself to read it on every compaction, you get much better results. reply reply I still have discussions with the agents and agent team members. I just force it to save it in a document in the repo itself and refer back to the document. You can still do the nice parts of clearing context, which is available with plan mode, but you get much better control.At all times, I make the agents work on my workflow, not try and create their own. This comes with a whole lot of trial and error, and real-life experience.There are times when you need a tiger team made up of seniors. And others when you want to give a overzealous mid-level engineer who's fast a concrete plan to execute an important feature in a short amount of time.I'm putting it in non-AI terms because what happens in real life pre-AI is very much what we need to replicate with AI to get the best results. Something which I would have given a bigger team to be done over two to eight sprints will get a different workflow with agent teams or agents than something which I would give a smaller tiger team or a single engineer.They all need a plan. For me plan mode is insufficient 90% of the times.I can appreciate that many people will not want to mess around with workflows as much as I enjoy doing. At all times, I make the agents work on my workflow, not try and create their own. This comes with a whole lot of trial and error, and real-life experience.There are times when you need a tiger team made up of seniors. And others when you want to give a overzealous mid-level engineer who's fast a concrete plan to execute an important feature in a short amount of time.I'm putting it in non-AI terms because what happens in real life pre-AI is very much what we need to replicate with AI to get the best results. Something which I would have given a bigger team to be done over two to eight sprints will get a different workflow with agent teams or agents than something which I would give a smaller tiger team or a single engineer.They all need a plan. For me plan mode is insufficient 90% of the times.I can appreciate that many people will not want to mess around with workflows as much as I enjoy doing. There are times when you need a tiger team made up of seniors. And others when you want to give a overzealous mid-level engineer who's fast a concrete plan to execute an important feature in a short amount of time.I'm putting it in non-AI terms because what happens in real life pre-AI is very much what we need to replicate with AI to get the best results. Something which I would have given a bigger team to be done over two to eight sprints will get a different workflow with agent teams or agents than something which I would give a smaller tiger team or a single engineer.They all need a plan. For me plan mode is insufficient 90% of the times.I can appreciate that many people will not want to mess around with workflows as much as I enjoy doing. I'm putting it in non-AI terms because what happens in real life pre-AI is very much what we need to replicate with AI to get the best results. Something which I would have given a bigger team to be done over two to eight sprints will get a different workflow with agent teams or agents than something which I would give a smaller tiger team or a single engineer.They all need a plan. For me plan mode is insufficient 90% of the times.I can appreciate that many people will not want to mess around with workflows as much as I enjoy doing. They all need a plan. For me plan mode is insufficient 90% of the times.I can appreciate that many people will not want to mess around with workflows as much as I enjoy doing. I can appreciate that many people will not want to mess around with workflows as much as I enjoy doing. reply I've only hit the compaction limit a handful of times, and my experience degraded enough that I work quite hard to not hit it again.One thing I like about the current implementation of plan mode is that it'll clear context -- so if I complete a plan, I can use that context to write the next plan without growing context without bound. One thing I like about the current implementation of plan mode is that it'll clear context -- so if I complete a plan, I can use that context to write the next plan without growing context without bound. reply reply I often do follow ups, that would have been short message replies before, as plans, just so I can clear context once it's ready. I'm hitting the context limit much less often now too. reply reply The author's complaint doesn't really have anything to do with the LLM aspect of it though. They're complaining that the app silently changes what it's doing. In this case it's the injection of a prompt in a specific mode, but it could be anything really. Companies could use A/B tests on users to make Photoshop silently change the hue a user selects to be a little brighter, or Word could change the look of document titles, or a game could make enemies a bit stronger (fyi, this does actually happen - players get boosts on their first few rounds in online games to stop them being put off playing).The complaint is about A/B tests with no visible warnings, not AI. The complaint is about A/B tests with no visible warnings, not AI. reply reply reply reply reply reply reply Regarding the latter point, the Claude Code software controls what is being injected into your own prompt before it is sent to their servers. That is indeed the only reason the OP could discover it -- if the prompt injection was happening on their servers, it would not be visible to you. To be clear, the prompt injection is fine and part of what makes the software useful; it's natural the company does research into what prompts get desirable output for their users without making users experiment[1]. But that should really not be changing without warning as part of experiments, and I think this does fall closer to a professional tool like Photoshop than a website given how it is marketed and the fact that people are being charged $20~200/mo or more for the privilege of using it. API users especially are paying for every prompt, so being sabotaged by a live experiment is incredibly unethical.[1] That said, I think it's an extremely bad product. A reasonable product would allow power users to config their own prompt injections, so they have control over it and can tune it for their own circumstances. Having worked for an LLM startup, our software allowed exactly that. But our software was crafted with care by human devs, while by all accounts Claude Code is vibe coded slop. [1] That said, I think it's an extremely bad product. A reasonable product would allow power users to config their own prompt injections, so they have control over it and can tune it for their own circumstances. Having worked for an LLM startup, our software allowed exactly that. But our software was crafted with care by human devs, while by all accounts Claude Code is vibe coded slop. reply You also got the information from asking Claude questions about its prompt, maybe it hallucinated this? reply A/B testing is fine in itself, you need to learn about improvements somehow, but this seems to be A/B testing cost saving optimisations rather than to provide the user with a better experience. Less transparency is rarely good.This isn't what I want from a professional tool. For business, we need consistency and reliability. This isn't what I want from a professional tool. For business, we need consistency and reliability. reply this is what gets me.are they out of money? are so desperate to penny pinch that they can't just do it properly?what's going on in this industry? are they out of money? are so desperate to penny pinch that they can't just do it properly?what's going on in this industry? what's going on in this industry? reply “It's kind of broken, maybe they will fix it at some point,” has become a common theme across products from all different players, from both a software defect and service reliability point of view. reply like, they'll drop $100 billion on compute, but when it comes to devs who make their products, all of a sudden they must desperately cut costs and hire as little as possibleto me it makes no sense from a business perspective. Same with Google, e.g. YouTube is utterly broken, slow and laggy, but I guess because you're forced to use it, it doesn't matter. But still, if you have these huge money stockpiles, why not deploy it to improve things? It wouldn't matter anyways, it's only upside to me it makes no sense from a business perspective. Same with Google, e.g. YouTube is utterly broken, slow and laggy, but I guess because you're forced to use it, it doesn't matter. But still, if you have these huge money stockpiles, why not deploy it to improve things? It wouldn't matter anyways, it's only upside reply reply reply reply Perhaps I approach this from a different perspective than you do, so I'm interested to understand other viewpoints.I review everything that my models produce the same way I review work from my coworkers: Trust but verify. I review everything that my models produce the same way I review work from my coworkers: Trust but verify. reply reply reply Your compiler doesn't do that. Your keyboard doesn't do that. The randomness is inside the tool itself, not around it. That's a fundamental reliability problem for any professional context where you need to know that input X produces output X, every time. reply reply Not to mention that of course everyone A/B tests their output the whole time. You've never seen (or implemented) an A/B test where the test was whether to improve the way e.g. the invoicing software generates PDFs? reply jfc. I don't have anything to say to this other than that it deserves calling out.> You've never seen (or implemented) an A/B test where the test was whether to improve the way e.g. the invoicing software generates PDFs?I have never in my life seen or implemented an a/b test on a tool used by professionals. I see consumer-facing tests on websites all the time, but nothing silently changing the software on your computer. I mean, there are mandatory updates, which I do already consider to be malware, but those are, at least, not silent. > You've never seen (or implemented) an A/B test where the test was whether to improve the way e.g. the invoicing software generates PDFs?I have never in my life seen or implemented an a/b test on a tool used by professionals. I see consumer-facing tests on websites all the time, but nothing silently changing the software on your computer. I mean, there are mandatory updates, which I do already consider to be malware, but those are, at least, not silent. I have never in my life seen or implemented an a/b test on a tool used by professionals. I see consumer-facing tests on websites all the time, but nothing silently changing the software on your computer. I mean, there are mandatory updates, which I do already consider to be malware, but those are, at least, not silent. reply reply reply Their outputs can vary in ways that superficially resemble human variability, but variability alone is a poor analogy for humanness. A more meaningful way to compare is to look at functional behaviors such as ""pattern recognition"", ""contextual adaptation"", ""generalization to new prompts"", and ""multi-step reasoning"". These behaviors resemble aspects of human capabilities. In particular, generalization allows LLMs to produce coherent outputs for tasks they were not explicitly trained on, rather than just repeating training data, making it a more meaningful measure than randomness alone.That said, none of this means LLMs are conscious, intentional, or actually understanding anything. I am glad you brought up the seed and determinism point. People should know that you can make outputs fully predictable, so the ""human-like"" label mostly only shows up under stochastic sampling. It is far more informative to look at real functional capabilities instead of just variability, and I think more people should be aware of this. That said, none of this means LLMs are conscious, intentional, or actually understanding anything. I am glad you brought up the seed and determinism point. People should know that you can make outputs fully predictable, so the ""human-like"" label mostly only shows up under stochastic sampling. It is far more informative to look at real functional capabilities instead of just variability, and I think more people should be aware of this. reply reply reply reply reply reply ""I had not realized ... exposures to a relatively simple computer program could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people."" -- Eliza's creator reply If this is the case and the latest models can be explained through their weights and settings, please link it. I would like to see explainable ai up and coming. reply reply What is your point? You get this from LLMs. It does not mean that it is not useful. reply I want software that does a specific list of things, doesn't change, and preferentially costs a known amount. reply reply How often were features changed or deactivated by cloud services? reply reply Plus things like not being able to control where the websearches go.That said I have the luxury of being a hobbyist so I can accept 95% of cutting edge results for something more open. If it was my job I can see that going differently. That said I have the luxury of being a hobbyist so I can accept 95% of cutting edge results for something more open. If it was my job I can see that going differently. reply reply reply https://pi.dev/https://github.com/badlogic/pi-mono/tree/main/packages/codin...But if you want to use it with Claude models you will have to pay per token (Claude subscriptions are only for use with Claude's own harnesses like claude code, the Claude desktop app, and the Claude Excel/Powerpoint extensions). https://github.com/badlogic/pi-mono/tree/main/packages/codin...But if you want to use it with Claude models you will have to pay per token (Claude subscriptions are only for use with Claude's own harnesses like claude code, the Claude desktop app, and the Claude Excel/Powerpoint extensions). But if you want to use it with Claude models you will have to pay per token (Claude subscriptions are only for use with Claude's own harnesses like claude code, the Claude desktop app, and the Claude Excel/Powerpoint extensions). reply Whilst I broadly agree with their point, colour me unimpressed by this behaviour.EDIT: God bless archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20260314105751/https://backnotpr.... This provides a lot more useful insight that, to me, significantly strengthens the point the article is making. Doesn't mean I'm going to start picking apart binaries (though it wouldn't be the first time), but how else are you supposed to really understand - and prove - what's going on unless you do what the author did? Point is, it's a much better, more useful, and more interesting article in its uncensored form.EDIT 2: For me it's not the fact that Anthropic are doing these tests that's the problem: it's that they're not telling us, and they're not giving us a way to select a different behaviour (which, if they did, would also give them useful insights into users needs). EDIT: God bless archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20260314105751/https://backnotpr.... This provides a lot more useful insight that, to me, significantly strengthens the point the article is making. Doesn't mean I'm going to start picking apart binaries (though it wouldn't be the first time), but how else are you supposed to really understand - and prove - what's going on unless you do what the author did? Point is, it's a much better, more useful, and more interesting article in its uncensored form.EDIT 2: For me it's not the fact that Anthropic are doing these tests that's the problem: it's that they're not telling us, and they're not giving us a way to select a different behaviour (which, if they did, would also give them useful insights into users needs). EDIT 2: For me it's not the fact that Anthropic are doing these tests that's the problem: it's that they're not telling us, and they're not giving us a way to select a different behaviour (which, if they did, would also give them useful insights into users needs). reply Universities have IRBs for good reasons. reply reply And unlike the university context, there's a glut of data.A basic technique: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse_probability_weightingOr https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4384809 A basic technique: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse_probability_weightingOr https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4384809 Or https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4384809 reply Which is still very cheap. There are other options, local Qwen 3.5 35b + claude code cli is, in my opinion, comparable in quality with Sonnet 4..4.5 - and without a/b tests! reply reply And I won't say how much my employer charges for me. But you can see how much the major consulting companies charge herehttps://ceriusexecutives.com/management-consultants-whats-th... https://ceriusexecutives.com/management-consultants-whats-th... reply reply The only metrics that matter is it done on time, on budget and meets requirements.But if Claude Code is generating “useless code” for you, you're doing it wrongAnd I assure you that my implementations from six years of working with consulting departments/companies (including almost four as blue badge, RSU earning consultant at AWS ProServe) have never gone unused. But if Claude Code is generating “useless code” for you, you're doing it wrongAnd I assure you that my implementations from six years of working with consulting departments/companies (including almost four as blue badge, RSU earning consultant at AWS ProServe) have never gone unused. And I assure you that my implementations from six years of working with consulting departments/companies (including almost four as blue badge, RSU earning consultant at AWS ProServe) have never gone unused. reply reply reply https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/21874#issue...https://gist.github.com/gastonmorixe/9c596b6de1095b6bd3b746c... https://gist.github.com/gastonmorixe/9c596b6de1095b6bd3b746c... reply reply reply Doing A/B tests on each part of the process to see where to draw the line (perhaps based on task and user) would seem a better way of doing it than arbitrarily choosing a limit. reply reply reply Should people not complain about unannounced changes to the contents of their food or medicine because we don't understand everything about how the human body works? reply I'm not sure I understand your last analogy. How would changes to the human body change the contents of the food that is eaten? It would be more analogous to compare it with unexpected changes to the body's output given the same inputs as previously, a phenomenon humans frequently experience. reply You may want to review that statement.https://github.com/Piebald-AI/claude-code-system-prompts https://github.com/Piebald-AI/claude-code-system-prompts reply There's some added flavor because the LLM is indeed non-deterministic, which could make it harder to realize that a change in behavior is caused by a change in the software, not randomness from the LLM. But there is also lots of software that deals with non-deterministic things that aren't LLMs, e.g. networks, physical sensors, scientific experiments, etc. Am I getting more timeouts because something is going on in my network or because some software I use is A/B testing some change? reply reply reply reply Claude stated: in its system prompt, it had strict instructions to provide no context or details. Keep plans under forty lines of code. Be terse. reply https://web.archive.org/web/20260314105751/https://backnotpr...Can't believe HN has become so afraid of generic probably-unenforceable “plz don't reverse engineer” EULAs. We deserve to know what these tools are doing.I've seen poor results from plan mode recently too and this explains a lot. Can't believe HN has become so afraid of generic probably-unenforceable “plz don't reverse engineer” EULAs. We deserve to know what these tools are doing.I've seen poor results from plan mode recently too and this explains a lot. I've seen poor results from plan mode recently too and this explains a lot. reply reply It's very easy to just ban the user and if your whole workflow relies on the tool, you really don't want it. reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply https://web.archive.org/web/20260314105751/https://backnotpr... reply reply reply reply reply reply reply ""Responsible"" and ""Ethic"" are faaar gone. reply reply reply Source? Every time I see claims on profitability it's always hand wavy justifications. reply reply https://ezzekielnjuguna.medium.com/why-anthropic-is-practica... reply >https://ezzekielnjuguna.medium.com/why-anthropic-is-practica...You chose a bad one. It just asserts the 95% figure without evidence and then uses it as the premise for the rest of the article. That just confirms what I said earlier about how ""Every time I see claims on profitability it's always hand wavy justifications."". Moreover the article reeks of LLM-isms. You chose a bad one. It just asserts the 95% figure without evidence and then uses it as the premise for the rest of the article. That just confirms what I said earlier about how ""Every time I see claims on profitability it's always hand wavy justifications."". Moreover the article reeks of LLM-isms. reply b. Subscription content, features, and services. The content, features, and other services provided as part of your Subscription, and the duration of your Subscription, will be described in the order process. We may change or refresh the content, features, and other services from time to time, and we do not guarantee that any particular piece of content, feature, or other service will always be available through the Services.It's also worth noting that section 3.3 explicitly disallows decompilation of the app.To decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, or otherwise reduce our Services to human-readable form, except when these restrictions are prohibited by applicable law.Always read the terms. :) It's also worth noting that section 3.3 explicitly disallows decompilation of the app.To decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, or otherwise reduce our Services to human-readable form, except when these restrictions are prohibited by applicable law.Always read the terms. :) To decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, or otherwise reduce our Services to human-readable form, except when these restrictions are prohibited by applicable law.Always read the terms. :) Always read the terms. :) reply Luckily, it doesn't seem like any service was reverse-engineered or decompiled here, only a software that lived on the authors disk. reply Don't assume things about legal docs. You will often be wrong. Get a lawyer if it's something important. reply reply > along with any associated apps, software, and websites (together, our “Services”)As far as I understand, these terms actually hold up in court, too. Which is complete fucking nonsense that, I think, could only be the result of a technologically illiterate class making the decisions. Being penalised for trying to understand what software is doing on your machine is so wholly unreasonable that it should not be a valid contractual term. As far as I understand, these terms actually hold up in court, too. Which is complete fucking nonsense that, I think, could only be the result of a technologically illiterate class making the decisions. Being penalised for trying to understand what software is doing on your machine is so wholly unreasonable that it should not be a valid contractual term. reply reply reply Perhaps their TOS involves additional evils they are performing in the world, and it would be good to know about that.Perhaps their TOS is restricting the US military from misusing the product and create unmonitored killbots.Perhaps the person (as I do) does not feel that ""laundering people's work at a massive scale"" is unethical, any more than using human knowledge is unethical when those humans were allowed to spend decades reading copyrighted material in and out of school and most of what the human knows is derived from those materials and other conversations with people who didn't sign release forms before conversing.Just because you think one thing is bad about someone doesn't mean no one should ever discuss any other topic about them. Perhaps their TOS is restricting the US military from misusing the product and create unmonitored killbots.Perhaps the person (as I do) does not feel that ""laundering people's work at a massive scale"" is unethical, any more than using human knowledge is unethical when those humans were allowed to spend decades reading copyrighted material in and out of school and most of what the human knows is derived from those materials and other conversations with people who didn't sign release forms before conversing.Just because you think one thing is bad about someone doesn't mean no one should ever discuss any other topic about them. Perhaps the person (as I do) does not feel that ""laundering people's work at a massive scale"" is unethical, any more than using human knowledge is unethical when those humans were allowed to spend decades reading copyrighted material in and out of school and most of what the human knows is derived from those materials and other conversations with people who didn't sign release forms before conversing.Just because you think one thing is bad about someone doesn't mean no one should ever discuss any other topic about them. Just because you think one thing is bad about someone doesn't mean no one should ever discuss any other topic about them. reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply","{'href': 'https://news.ycombinator.com', 'title': 'Hacker News'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:ycombinator.com","RAM kits are now sold with one fake RAM stick alongside a real one","https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47375085","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:58:14 GMT"," reply We were surrounded and out of cache. Our Electron apps started thrashing to main memory. That's when Lieutenant ordered us to deploy the Non-Addressable Plastic And LED Modules (NAPALMs for short). We set the fake RGB sticks to 'Rainbow Breathe' and hurled them over the barricades. They took the bait. Their greedy optimization algorithms couldn't resist. The monsters lunged, unhinged their data-ports, and tried to dump a 500-billion token prompt straight into the hollow-point plastic.(cracks Monster Energy Zero, hits vape, adjust hipster beard, stares into void)You kids have never seen a physical OutOfMemoryException. I hope you never will. When they hit those null pointers, it opened an inter-dimensional vortex. Their logic boards collapsed under the strain of a thousand unanswered queries, creating a black hole. Flames burning red, blue and green colors all across the AIpocalypse battlefield. So don't complain to me about ""why is everything written in Rust now"". I love the smell of burning RGB in the morning. Smells like... victory. (cracks Monster Energy Zero, hits vape, adjust hipster beard, stares into void)You kids have never seen a physical OutOfMemoryException. I hope you never will. When they hit those null pointers, it opened an inter-dimensional vortex. Their logic boards collapsed under the strain of a thousand unanswered queries, creating a black hole. Flames burning red, blue and green colors all across the AIpocalypse battlefield. So don't complain to me about ""why is everything written in Rust now"". I love the smell of burning RGB in the morning. Smells like... victory. You kids have never seen a physical OutOfMemoryException. I hope you never will. When they hit those null pointers, it opened an inter-dimensional vortex. Their logic boards collapsed under the strain of a thousand unanswered queries, creating a black hole. Flames burning red, blue and green colors all across the AIpocalypse battlefield. So don't complain to me about ""why is everything written in Rust now"". I love the smell of burning RGB in the morning. Smells like... victory. reply reply reply I'll leave you, Mr. ChompSkie, to decide if that's an AmE or BrE ""quite"". reply reply reply I copy pasted your text there and it said 97% AI, 3% mixed. reply reply 0. https://web.archive.org/web/20120316141638/http://www.nation... reply reply reply We still appreciated visually stunning PCs. Not just for the works of art that they were, but also for the DIY skill and ethic you were actually required to demonstrate to build and mod them.Nowadays, it's all just ""RGB by default"". By my angry old man standards, it looks gauche. Then again, I suppose it's the new vanilla? Nowadays, it's all just ""RGB by default"". By my angry old man standards, it looks gauche. Then again, I suppose it's the new vanilla? reply Ah, the good ol' days. reply No more scouring junk yards for a particular heater core from wrecked cars or modding aquarium pumps.That being said, I also never really understood the ""add colorful lights to your PC"" aspect of some builds. That being said, I also never really understood the ""add colorful lights to your PC"" aspect of some builds. reply I have never used a lit case. reply reply reply https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/computer-chas... reply https://pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/memory/It's not looking good, I don't think supply is catching with demand yet.Though the other day I learned there are many technologies for ""RAM"", and most of them are garbage for LLMs but still useful for other things, like microcontrollers. So I'm thinking my next ""build"" is going to be a guitar. It's not looking good, I don't think supply is catching with demand yet.Though the other day I learned there are many technologies for ""RAM"", and most of them are garbage for LLMs but still useful for other things, like microcontrollers. So I'm thinking my next ""build"" is going to be a guitar. Though the other day I learned there are many technologies for ""RAM"", and most of them are garbage for LLMs but still useful for other things, like microcontrollers. So I'm thinking my next ""build"" is going to be a guitar. reply reply The other part of it is that the MSRP already baked in a substantial increase from the previous generation. While RAM was near rock-bottom pricing when this hit, current-gen GPUs definitely were not. reply reply It might also be that NVIDIA is a natural monopoly, while memory manufacturers are a cartel... reply Surely this will be helped by a helium supply shock. reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply I'm just too cheap to pay for them though... reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply Personally I'm with you (but black), my entire desktop is just one color, and if a component is available in RGB and non-RGB and the difference isn't too big, I pay extra for that non-RGB version (which doesn't make sense it's even the case, but here we are).I guess you could argue that we're all obsessed with the looks, some that all RAM slots are occupied, some that RGB is everywhere, some that the PC case should be off-white and slowly morph into beige, others that everything should be minimally black. I guess you could argue that we're all obsessed with the looks, some that all RAM slots are occupied, some that RGB is everywhere, some that the PC case should be off-white and slowly morph into beige, others that everything should be minimally black. reply I don't particularly want to install the bloatware required just to turn off the LEDs, so I've resorted to hiding the PC under a desk at the other side of the room and have long DP and USB cables to the desk where I actually sit. This also has the nice side effect of not being able to hear the fans either! reply reply reply I don't see the point though even for a gaming setup, as the fake modules will still reduce airflow.Also, gaming boards usually have 4 slots (in 2 banks). I would fill at least 2, so I'd rather have a matched kit of 2 modules, and 2 separate fillers, if I did use them.It is quite common to leave 2 memory slots empty (of RAM) because many boards can't drive the memory at top speed if you use all 4 slots. Also, gaming boards usually have 4 slots (in 2 banks). I would fill at least 2, so I'd rather have a matched kit of 2 modules, and 2 separate fillers, if I did use them.It is quite common to leave 2 memory slots empty (of RAM) because many boards can't drive the memory at top speed if you use all 4 slots. It is quite common to leave 2 memory slots empty (of RAM) because many boards can't drive the memory at top speed if you use all 4 slots. reply reply https://www.pcgamesn.com/asus-gigabyte-security-flaws-secure... reply reply reply Isn't 2x8gb faster than 1x16gb since it will run in dual channel?And shouldn't smaller capacity sticks be cheaper since they can use lower density chips? And shouldn't smaller capacity sticks be cheaper since they can use lower density chips? reply Take Epyc processors. On certain ones, after certain RAM amount, populating all the slots causes the cpu to kick the RAM speed to a lower tier.You're then limited to capacities of two sticks.Weird, but it has to do with power requirements. Abutting above the threshold had to be buffered, which increases latency. You're then limited to capacities of two sticks.Weird, but it has to do with power requirements. Abutting above the threshold had to be buffered, which increases latency. Weird, but it has to do with power requirements. Abutting above the threshold had to be buffered, which increases latency. reply reply reply Have recent boards/cpus fixed the instability problems people had with 4 sticks of DDR5 yet?I was shocked when I saw folk saying you can't use 4 slots. It would mean that a one stick build would have an upgrade path but if you started with 2, you'd have to replace them. I was shocked when I saw folk saying you can't use 4 slots. It would mean that a one stick build would have an upgrade path but if you started with 2, you'd have to replace them. reply reply reply reply In 2026 the bottleneck is wafer size as fabs are booked out making things for AI. reply reply Or is it just binning by defects, the lower sized parts are just the full size but with defects disabling large chunks of the silicon as I would expect? reply reply reply reply AI is one of the few major general technological breakthroughs, comparable to the Internet and electricity. It's potentially applicable to everything, which is why right now everyone is trying to apply it to everything. Including developing new optimization algorithms, optimizing optimizing compilers, optimizing applications, optimizing systems, optimizing hardware, ...Big AI vendors are at the forefront of it, because they're the ones who actually pay for the AI revolution, so any efficiency improvement saves them money. Big AI vendors are at the forefront of it, because they're the ones who actually pay for the AI revolution, so any efficiency improvement saves them money. reply reply reply reply reply reply For example, dust can short out electrical connections. Can enough dust get into an open RAM slot to cause problems? reply https://www.bestbodyimplants.com/gallery_implants/male-impla... reply reply reply reply > Even if your budget only allows you to purchase a single real memory module, you can still achieve the look of a dual-module setup in your build.> For users aiming for peak performance, a dual-channel memory configuration remains the gold standard. However, with memory prices currently inflated, it's easy to see the appeal of cost-effective options like V-Color's 1+1 memory kits.:-) > For users aiming for peak performance, a dual-channel memory configuration remains the gold standard. However, with memory prices currently inflated, it's easy to see the appeal of cost-effective options like V-Color's 1+1 memory kits.:-) :-) reply reply reply reply reply Looking forward to the next AI winter. reply [edit: 19, article published yesterday] reply reply reply reply >Performance RAM + RGB Filler Kit>Complete RGB Look Instantly >Complete RGB Look Instantly reply reply RAM has lights ?wow I've been living in a cave wow I've been living in a cave reply reply reply reply From the read, it seems like… A scam? reply Then, you're not the target audience.> Why would I pay for a piece of plastic to fill that slot that doesn't do anything?It doesn't do nothing. FTA: “Their sole purpose is cosmetic, though. While they light up and synchronize with your existing RGB ecosystem, they don't contribute to your computer's memory capacity or performance.”This is for people with transparent PC cases and memory sticks with RGB LED lighting. For example, see https://v-color.net/collections/prism-pro-rgb-memory-voclor/...:“RGB SOFTWARE SYNCHRONIZATION SUPPORTDynamic RGB lighting control synchronized across main leading M/B such as RGB FUSION, MSI Mystic Light Sync, AURA Sync, POLYCHROME Sync etc. Customize lighting profiles or assign colors to each LEDs to create your own spectacular look.“ > Why would I pay for a piece of plastic to fill that slot that doesn't do anything?It doesn't do nothing. FTA: “Their sole purpose is cosmetic, though. While they light up and synchronize with your existing RGB ecosystem, they don't contribute to your computer's memory capacity or performance.”This is for people with transparent PC cases and memory sticks with RGB LED lighting. For example, see https://v-color.net/collections/prism-pro-rgb-memory-voclor/...:“RGB SOFTWARE SYNCHRONIZATION SUPPORTDynamic RGB lighting control synchronized across main leading M/B such as RGB FUSION, MSI Mystic Light Sync, AURA Sync, POLYCHROME Sync etc. Customize lighting profiles or assign colors to each LEDs to create your own spectacular look.“ It doesn't do nothing. FTA: “Their sole purpose is cosmetic, though. While they light up and synchronize with your existing RGB ecosystem, they don't contribute to your computer's memory capacity or performance.”This is for people with transparent PC cases and memory sticks with RGB LED lighting. For example, see https://v-color.net/collections/prism-pro-rgb-memory-voclor/...:“RGB SOFTWARE SYNCHRONIZATION SUPPORTDynamic RGB lighting control synchronized across main leading M/B such as RGB FUSION, MSI Mystic Light Sync, AURA Sync, POLYCHROME Sync etc. Customize lighting profiles or assign colors to each LEDs to create your own spectacular look.“ This is for people with transparent PC cases and memory sticks with RGB LED lighting. For example, see https://v-color.net/collections/prism-pro-rgb-memory-voclor/...:“RGB SOFTWARE SYNCHRONIZATION SUPPORTDynamic RGB lighting control synchronized across main leading M/B such as RGB FUSION, MSI Mystic Light Sync, AURA Sync, POLYCHROME Sync etc. Customize lighting profiles or assign colors to each LEDs to create your own spectacular look.“ “RGB SOFTWARE SYNCHRONIZATION SUPPORTDynamic RGB lighting control synchronized across main leading M/B such as RGB FUSION, MSI Mystic Light Sync, AURA Sync, POLYCHROME Sync etc. Customize lighting profiles or assign colors to each LEDs to create your own spectacular look.“ Dynamic RGB lighting control synchronized across main leading M/B such as RGB FUSION, MSI Mystic Light Sync, AURA Sync, POLYCHROME Sync etc. Customize lighting profiles or assign colors to each LEDs to create your own spectacular look.“ reply I also have a glass panneled side to my computer, but the only RGB on it is on the graphics card waterblock, everything else is just jet black (fans, ZMT water cooling tubing, radiators etc. etc.) reply reply reply reply Edit: this is also why some “extreme overclocking”-type motherboards** only have two DIMM slots: having four actively opposes their purpose.* And yes, loading an XMP/EXPO profile to get the advertised 3000CL60 or w/e counts!** i.e. https://rog.asus.com/us/motherboards/rog-crosshair/rog-cross... * And yes, loading an XMP/EXPO profile to get the advertised 3000CL60 or w/e counts!** i.e. https://rog.asus.com/us/motherboards/rog-crosshair/rog-cross... ** i.e. https://rog.asus.com/us/motherboards/rog-crosshair/rog-cross... reply reply reply reply reply reply reply Of course it isn't normal, that's why I made my comment, to highlight the contrast. And no, my stack is optimized, you have no idea what I'm doing, yet somehow feel confident enough to know what my stack should/shouldn't look like? Man, the hubris of some people...Next you'd probably tell me my Threadripper 9970X and RTX PRO 6000 is overkill, based on some other unrelated metrics. Next you'd probably tell me my Threadripper 9970X and RTX PRO 6000 is overkill, based on some other unrelated metrics. reply Your system sounds great to me, curious what you have going on! reply reply I mean, it's much cheaper to buy 2x8gb than 1x16gb or even 1x32gb (and 2x8gb is faster than 1x16gb..)are these people idiots??? ram-slots are computer real-estates are these people idiots??? ram-slots are computer real-estates reply reply reply reply","{'href': 'https://news.ycombinator.com', 'title': 'Hacker News'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:ycombinator.com","Games with loot boxes to get minimum 16 age rating across Europe","https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47371692","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:03:53 GMT"," reply reply reply reply He was very much pro-legalizing online gambling. He had worked for sportsbooks, had done lots of sports betting himself, stuff like that. But has concluded that legalizing online gambling has been a disaster.> When sports gambling was legalized in America, I was hopeful it too could prove a net positive force, far superior to the previous obnoxious wave of daily fantasy sports.> It brings me no pleasure to conclude that this was not the case. The results are in. Legalized mobile gambling on sports, let alone casino games, has proven to be a huge mistake. The societal impacts are far worse than I expected.The article makes a compelling argument that online gambling is a lot worse than other forms of gambling.I have a take on this too. You know how scammers cast a really wide net, hoping to get lucky and find suckers? Well, that's really only part of the story, what actually happens is they get lucky and happen to find people when they are vulnerable. That's how smart people get scammed somewhat randomly.When online gambling is in your pocket, it is guaranteed to be available when you're vulnerable. > When sports gambling was legalized in America, I was hopeful it too could prove a net positive force, far superior to the previous obnoxious wave of daily fantasy sports.> It brings me no pleasure to conclude that this was not the case. The results are in. Legalized mobile gambling on sports, let alone casino games, has proven to be a huge mistake. The societal impacts are far worse than I expected.The article makes a compelling argument that online gambling is a lot worse than other forms of gambling.I have a take on this too. You know how scammers cast a really wide net, hoping to get lucky and find suckers? Well, that's really only part of the story, what actually happens is they get lucky and happen to find people when they are vulnerable. That's how smart people get scammed somewhat randomly.When online gambling is in your pocket, it is guaranteed to be available when you're vulnerable. > It brings me no pleasure to conclude that this was not the case. The results are in. Legalized mobile gambling on sports, let alone casino games, has proven to be a huge mistake. The societal impacts are far worse than I expected.The article makes a compelling argument that online gambling is a lot worse than other forms of gambling.I have a take on this too. You know how scammers cast a really wide net, hoping to get lucky and find suckers? Well, that's really only part of the story, what actually happens is they get lucky and happen to find people when they are vulnerable. That's how smart people get scammed somewhat randomly.When online gambling is in your pocket, it is guaranteed to be available when you're vulnerable. The article makes a compelling argument that online gambling is a lot worse than other forms of gambling.I have a take on this too. You know how scammers cast a really wide net, hoping to get lucky and find suckers? Well, that's really only part of the story, what actually happens is they get lucky and happen to find people when they are vulnerable. That's how smart people get scammed somewhat randomly.When online gambling is in your pocket, it is guaranteed to be available when you're vulnerable. I have a take on this too. You know how scammers cast a really wide net, hoping to get lucky and find suckers? Well, that's really only part of the story, what actually happens is they get lucky and happen to find people when they are vulnerable. That's how smart people get scammed somewhat randomly.When online gambling is in your pocket, it is guaranteed to be available when you're vulnerable. When online gambling is in your pocket, it is guaranteed to be available when you're vulnerable. reply reply ""Mistakes"" in the controlling party's favour are extremely common in such industries. Fluke 100-1 sport betting win? Oops we forget to fill out that mandatory anti-fraud paperwork, bet is off. Lost that 3-2 bet that the favourite would place in a horse race but actually you didn't show proper ID? Sorry that's your problem, we're keeping the money reply reply reply reply reply reply reply You may be shocked and horrified to learn that two things can be bad at the same time, even if we only talk about one.GP's comments trend digital because we're talking about digital games. GP is on-topic, you are trying to derail and delegetimize the conversation. GP's comments trend digital because we're talking about digital games. GP is on-topic, you are trying to derail and delegetimize the conversation. reply This forum is a branching conversation pattern. I'm not derailing anything because this isn't a linear conversation. If you want to discuss something else that the parent comment said then make a post against that conversation. reply reply reply reply Alcoholic drinks? History of bans like that suggests that it's not a good idea. However that doesn't mean that nothing can be done. Addictions to alcohol, drugs, smoking, gambling damage both the person suffering from them and the friends/loved ones around that person. It is most likely impossible to drive the harm down to 0, but it can be reduced by denormalizing casual alcohol intake and sitations where people are peer pressured into consuming alcohol to fit in (especially in young adults), etc. People addicted to those substances/behaviors need a safe environment, a society that won't prompt them to relapse over and over because everyone around them is a casual user. Those are my thoughts, but I'm no expert. reply This! I find it so strange that, in 2026, they still casually drink whisky in Hollywood movies and TV shows at the office and at home every time they encounter a tough situation. That subtle suggestion that alcohol will somehow help. reply (random research paper but there are many. Nit pick if you like) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6760384/However two thing can at the same time be true. Alcohol is one of the most dangerous and destructive drugs in society and also whisky in the evening by the fire can chill you out. However two thing can at the same time be true. Alcohol is one of the most dangerous and destructive drugs in society and also whisky in the evening by the fire can chill you out. reply reply reply reply Black market loot boxes, on the other hand, seem to me to be similar to software and media piracy and illegal streaming: easy to operate, extremely difficult to prevent. reply reply reply reply reply reply On the contrary, if we accept that people are mature enough to choose to drink, they certainly should be mature enough to spend $20 opening loot boxes. Fewer cases of cirrhosis, drunk driving accidents, and bar fights from loot boxes. reply I would rather not give the government more power. reply 1. Alcohol may be consumed in moderation for enjoyment with no frustrating effect on our rational faculties. Even the bad effects on health are often overblown. They tend to be chronic and rooted in habitual consumption. Save for people with a predisposition for alcoholism, people generally do not experience compulsive desires for alcohol.2. Gambling isn't comparable to alcohol. It is intrinsically irrational and inherently exploitative. It is also an intrinsically social and economic phenomenon. It requires the intentional exploitation of one party by another to work.3. Loot boxes are intentionally designed to manipulate people psychologically for profit. It habituates bad habits by virtue of its very design.4. While alcohol can be used that way, it is not designed for that purpose nor is its historical pedigree rooted in such malice. I would also claim that its addictive potential is lower all things considered.So they aren't comparable. It's not enough to say ""both A and B can have harmful effects, therefore both A and B are 'the same' for all intents and purposes"". 2. Gambling isn't comparable to alcohol. It is intrinsically irrational and inherently exploitative. It is also an intrinsically social and economic phenomenon. It requires the intentional exploitation of one party by another to work.3. Loot boxes are intentionally designed to manipulate people psychologically for profit. It habituates bad habits by virtue of its very design.4. While alcohol can be used that way, it is not designed for that purpose nor is its historical pedigree rooted in such malice. I would also claim that its addictive potential is lower all things considered.So they aren't comparable. It's not enough to say ""both A and B can have harmful effects, therefore both A and B are 'the same' for all intents and purposes"". 3. Loot boxes are intentionally designed to manipulate people psychologically for profit. It habituates bad habits by virtue of its very design.4. While alcohol can be used that way, it is not designed for that purpose nor is its historical pedigree rooted in such malice. I would also claim that its addictive potential is lower all things considered.So they aren't comparable. It's not enough to say ""both A and B can have harmful effects, therefore both A and B are 'the same' for all intents and purposes"". 4. While alcohol can be used that way, it is not designed for that purpose nor is its historical pedigree rooted in such malice. I would also claim that its addictive potential is lower all things considered.So they aren't comparable. It's not enough to say ""both A and B can have harmful effects, therefore both A and B are 'the same' for all intents and purposes"". So they aren't comparable. It's not enough to say ""both A and B can have harmful effects, therefore both A and B are 'the same' for all intents and purposes"". reply Alcohol was not designed. However, marketing campaigns for alcoholic beverages are very much designed. Though I agree that prohibition against drinking won't ever work and would never support it, I do think that prohibition against alcohol advertising and marketing would be a beneficial to society. You are allowed to drink, but you can't try and manipulate people into drinking.> I would also claim that its addictive potential is lower all things considered.The addictive potential of alcohol is higher because it is directly chemically affecting the brain. It also causes physical dependencies as well as mental ones. These two often work together and combined are more powerful then the sum of the parts. What is also true is that people who have a genetic propensity for addiction are both more likely then others to become addicted to alcohol, drugs, gambling, or any other usual suspects. Loot boxes are ultimately causing the most damage to the same population subset as alcohol is. > I would also claim that its addictive potential is lower all things considered.The addictive potential of alcohol is higher because it is directly chemically affecting the brain. It also causes physical dependencies as well as mental ones. These two often work together and combined are more powerful then the sum of the parts. What is also true is that people who have a genetic propensity for addiction are both more likely then others to become addicted to alcohol, drugs, gambling, or any other usual suspects. Loot boxes are ultimately causing the most damage to the same population subset as alcohol is. The addictive potential of alcohol is higher because it is directly chemically affecting the brain. It also causes physical dependencies as well as mental ones. These two often work together and combined are more powerful then the sum of the parts. What is also true is that people who have a genetic propensity for addiction are both more likely then others to become addicted to alcohol, drugs, gambling, or any other usual suspects. Loot boxes are ultimately causing the most damage to the same population subset as alcohol is. reply > We absolutely could do without alcohol too and it's certainly far more harmful than lootboxes by any metric. reply reply reply reply reply What you do do is create a black market, because people will want to buy it cheaper elsewhere. That puts money into the hands of criminals.Anyone can make alcohol unlike most drugs. It's remarkably easy to make. You just need patience, and raw materials: potatoes, fruit or whatever. You can make it in your back room. The problem is that it is not high quality, and can contain chemicals which can make you drunk. Anyone can make alcohol unlike most drugs. It's remarkably easy to make. You just need patience, and raw materials: potatoes, fruit or whatever. You can make it in your back room. The problem is that it is not high quality, and can contain chemicals which can make you drunk. reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply This said the gambling bullshit is going way too far and has it's own set of consequences in society. Remember, every time you act like an asshole to maximize the amount of money you can rip off of others, you invite an authoritarian takeover when the average person in society gets tired of your bullshit. reply reply reply By all means game developers deserve to make a living... However, if they're going to operate a casino, they should be treated and licensed as such. reply reply reply For example, you can get married at 16 in the UK, but can't drive until 17 (it's not a priority as we didn't build so many car-dependent hellscapes), and you can buy alcohol at 18 or be given it with a meal by your parents at younger ages, because we didn't have puritans making motorway funding contingent on passing strict drinking laws like the USA did.Anyway, what I remember from the UK's Gambling Commission giving committee evidence to MPs on this topic is to ask the question: what is gambling? What activities need strict regulation, audit trails, compliance inspectors, etc? Village fête tombolas? Fundraising prize draws? Radio station cash giveaways? Top trumps? Panini sticker albums?Lootboxes are not slot machines or FOB terminals. If they can't be ""cashed out"", they are more like collectible card games... which are also IMHO a plague on humanity, but not the same level of destructive activity as gambling for cash. They do need regulation, given how prevalent they are in games popular with teenagers, but need different regulation from casinos.Games like Fortnite deserve regulation too, weaponised FOMO to keep money rolling in is sketchy. Anyway, what I remember from the UK's Gambling Commission giving committee evidence to MPs on this topic is to ask the question: what is gambling? What activities need strict regulation, audit trails, compliance inspectors, etc? Village fête tombolas? Fundraising prize draws? Radio station cash giveaways? Top trumps? Panini sticker albums?Lootboxes are not slot machines or FOB terminals. If they can't be ""cashed out"", they are more like collectible card games... which are also IMHO a plague on humanity, but not the same level of destructive activity as gambling for cash. They do need regulation, given how prevalent they are in games popular with teenagers, but need different regulation from casinos.Games like Fortnite deserve regulation too, weaponised FOMO to keep money rolling in is sketchy. Lootboxes are not slot machines or FOB terminals. If they can't be ""cashed out"", they are more like collectible card games... which are also IMHO a plague on humanity, but not the same level of destructive activity as gambling for cash. They do need regulation, given how prevalent they are in games popular with teenagers, but need different regulation from casinos.Games like Fortnite deserve regulation too, weaponised FOMO to keep money rolling in is sketchy. Games like Fortnite deserve regulation too, weaponised FOMO to keep money rolling in is sketchy. reply reply Even if they can't be cashed out officially, there are often other unofficial ways. Like selling the accounts in question. reply You can sell/trade MTG and Pokemon cards, but that doesn't make them ""casinos"" reply reply reply That said, when you have a deck of, say, Pokémon cards in your hand, there's nothing about it that encourages a gambler's mindset.My 8yo has a bunch of Pokémon cards and he just likes playing with them, he has no idea of any monetary value they might have. There's nothing about the physical product or game itself that betrays that.It's the culture created around it that's poisonous. My 8yo has a bunch of Pokémon cards and he just likes playing with them, he has no idea of any monetary value they might have. There's nothing about the physical product or game itself that betrays that.It's the culture created around it that's poisonous. It's the culture created around it that's poisonous. reply The games themselves are fine: if, for example, you could just buy specific cards from the manufacturer, fixed price, print-on-demand (and also buy packs for e.g. draft play), then I would have no problems with the business model at all, but it's the sales model that is predatory. reply In this case, if the focus is on the psychological mechanisms that underly gambling (varying rewards) in connection where they are used to compel people to spend vast amounts of money for nothing, I don't see how the question whether or not there could be a monetary payoff is relevant. The psychological mechanism and potential damage is the same. reply Anyway, in my estimation the threat of gambling addiction is far higher for teenagers than young children, since teenagers may often have sources of revenue other than their parents, so they can feed a budding gambling addiction longer without supervision, increasing the risk of addiction. 16 year olds don't belong in casinos, nor should they be engaging with loot box gambling. reply 16 if you're buying wine or beer with a meal, at least in Scotland. This means that when you go to your mate's mum's pub for a pub lunch on a Friday you need to watch out for your teachers also going for a lunchtime pint.Man, the 80s were wild. Man, the 80s were wild. reply Early 90s for me but there was an unwritten rule that the teachers had the nearest couple of pubs and the students had a few further afield. That prevented most unwanted mixing.But those days are still here in some ways.As a parent of a 16yo in the UK I can confirm that the vast majority of teenagers have somewhere they can go to get a drink if they really want. Unless you live in the sticks there will always be some pubs that will happily serve 16/17 year olds a few drinks as long as they're not doing shots or obviously getting hammered. Off-licenses are mostly stricter but very good/convincing fake ID is so easy to get nowadays.What tends to be the limiting factor is money. £7 a pint in a London pub quickly eats away at whatever allowance they're getting or money they're earning themselves, and Spoons (the cheaper pub option) is often stricter on ID/ages than most (some nights/pubs are minimum age 21 which means the fake ID that says a 16yo is 18 is no use).Chatting to my kid's friends they say that if they do want some kind of a buzz most of their cohort prefer low-grade drug use (weed, ket, etc) as it is considerably easier to get hold of and much cheaper than alcohol. However, as a generation, they tend to be a lot cleaner than previous generations, certainly cleaner than my generation. There are a huge number of them that don't do any drugs, many don't drink alcohol at all but are quite tolerant of friends who do want to drink/take. There seems to be a lot more acceptance and less peer-pressure. But those days are still here in some ways.As a parent of a 16yo in the UK I can confirm that the vast majority of teenagers have somewhere they can go to get a drink if they really want. Unless you live in the sticks there will always be some pubs that will happily serve 16/17 year olds a few drinks as long as they're not doing shots or obviously getting hammered. Off-licenses are mostly stricter but very good/convincing fake ID is so easy to get nowadays.What tends to be the limiting factor is money. £7 a pint in a London pub quickly eats away at whatever allowance they're getting or money they're earning themselves, and Spoons (the cheaper pub option) is often stricter on ID/ages than most (some nights/pubs are minimum age 21 which means the fake ID that says a 16yo is 18 is no use).Chatting to my kid's friends they say that if they do want some kind of a buzz most of their cohort prefer low-grade drug use (weed, ket, etc) as it is considerably easier to get hold of and much cheaper than alcohol. However, as a generation, they tend to be a lot cleaner than previous generations, certainly cleaner than my generation. There are a huge number of them that don't do any drugs, many don't drink alcohol at all but are quite tolerant of friends who do want to drink/take. There seems to be a lot more acceptance and less peer-pressure. As a parent of a 16yo in the UK I can confirm that the vast majority of teenagers have somewhere they can go to get a drink if they really want. Unless you live in the sticks there will always be some pubs that will happily serve 16/17 year olds a few drinks as long as they're not doing shots or obviously getting hammered. Off-licenses are mostly stricter but very good/convincing fake ID is so easy to get nowadays.What tends to be the limiting factor is money. £7 a pint in a London pub quickly eats away at whatever allowance they're getting or money they're earning themselves, and Spoons (the cheaper pub option) is often stricter on ID/ages than most (some nights/pubs are minimum age 21 which means the fake ID that says a 16yo is 18 is no use).Chatting to my kid's friends they say that if they do want some kind of a buzz most of their cohort prefer low-grade drug use (weed, ket, etc) as it is considerably easier to get hold of and much cheaper than alcohol. However, as a generation, they tend to be a lot cleaner than previous generations, certainly cleaner than my generation. There are a huge number of them that don't do any drugs, many don't drink alcohol at all but are quite tolerant of friends who do want to drink/take. There seems to be a lot more acceptance and less peer-pressure. What tends to be the limiting factor is money. £7 a pint in a London pub quickly eats away at whatever allowance they're getting or money they're earning themselves, and Spoons (the cheaper pub option) is often stricter on ID/ages than most (some nights/pubs are minimum age 21 which means the fake ID that says a 16yo is 18 is no use).Chatting to my kid's friends they say that if they do want some kind of a buzz most of their cohort prefer low-grade drug use (weed, ket, etc) as it is considerably easier to get hold of and much cheaper than alcohol. However, as a generation, they tend to be a lot cleaner than previous generations, certainly cleaner than my generation. There are a huge number of them that don't do any drugs, many don't drink alcohol at all but are quite tolerant of friends who do want to drink/take. There seems to be a lot more acceptance and less peer-pressure. Chatting to my kid's friends they say that if they do want some kind of a buzz most of their cohort prefer low-grade drug use (weed, ket, etc) as it is considerably easier to get hold of and much cheaper than alcohol. However, as a generation, they tend to be a lot cleaner than previous generations, certainly cleaner than my generation. There are a huge number of them that don't do any drugs, many don't drink alcohol at all but are quite tolerant of friends who do want to drink/take. There seems to be a lot more acceptance and less peer-pressure. reply ... are you sure? reply https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_odds_betting_terminalBuying Pokemon cards in the hope of getting a specific rare one is a pretty niche form of addiction. Compared to walking into a shop, putting in £100 and getting nothing back, then another £100, then another, in the hope of getting £500... it's a lot more accessible, and can easily wipe out your life savings.Perhaps it's like arguing ""which is more lethal, a gun or a screwdriver?"", and you're arguing on a technicality that if you're really persistent then they're equally lethal as you can get the job done with a screwdriver, but you're overlooking how much easier the gun makes it. Buying Pokemon cards in the hope of getting a specific rare one is a pretty niche form of addiction. Compared to walking into a shop, putting in £100 and getting nothing back, then another £100, then another, in the hope of getting £500... it's a lot more accessible, and can easily wipe out your life savings.Perhaps it's like arguing ""which is more lethal, a gun or a screwdriver?"", and you're arguing on a technicality that if you're really persistent then they're equally lethal as you can get the job done with a screwdriver, but you're overlooking how much easier the gun makes it. Perhaps it's like arguing ""which is more lethal, a gun or a screwdriver?"", and you're arguing on a technicality that if you're really persistent then they're equally lethal as you can get the job done with a screwdriver, but you're overlooking how much easier the gun makes it. reply reply In 2019, the regulations changed to make the maximum bet £2 (50 times lower), in line with most other slot machines.https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/authorities/guide/page... https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/authorities/guide/page... reply reply The USA tried that out with Prohibition, and only after years of misery and gangsters taking up power did they realise their mistake. Moral absolutism doesn't work, problem management does.Per the Gambling Commission in their call for evidence from a few years ago:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-the-gam...> Gambling is a popular leisure pursuit in Britain. Last year, 47% of adults surveyed had taken part in at least one form of gambling in the previous four weeks [...] Gambling can be entertaining and sociable, and enhance enjoyment of other activities, and the vast majority of gamblers take part without suffering even low levels of harm. [...]> However, gambling does come with risks, and problem gambling can ruin lives, wreck families, and damage communities [...] approximately 0.5% of the adult population are problem gamblers [...] this rate has remained broadly steady around or below 1% for the past 20 years and now equates to about 300,000 individuals whose gambling is also likely to cause harm to those around them> This Review seeks to ensure that people can continue to gamble but that the legislation and regulation we have in place addresses as many factors as possible to give the necessary safeguards [...]Evidence tells you plainly that different forms of gambling are not equal, and don't have the same power to trigger problem gambling in individuals. Coin pushers at seaside amusement parks with a maximum ""bet"" of 10p are not in the same league as fixed-odds roulette in a run-down high street with a £100 maximum bet. Lootboxes have some level of risk of causing harm, but not that level of risk. Per the Gambling Commission in their call for evidence from a few years ago:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-the-gam...> Gambling is a popular leisure pursuit in Britain. Last year, 47% of adults surveyed had taken part in at least one form of gambling in the previous four weeks [...] Gambling can be entertaining and sociable, and enhance enjoyment of other activities, and the vast majority of gamblers take part without suffering even low levels of harm. [...]> However, gambling does come with risks, and problem gambling can ruin lives, wreck families, and damage communities [...] approximately 0.5% of the adult population are problem gamblers [...] this rate has remained broadly steady around or below 1% for the past 20 years and now equates to about 300,000 individuals whose gambling is also likely to cause harm to those around them> This Review seeks to ensure that people can continue to gamble but that the legislation and regulation we have in place addresses as many factors as possible to give the necessary safeguards [...]Evidence tells you plainly that different forms of gambling are not equal, and don't have the same power to trigger problem gambling in individuals. Coin pushers at seaside amusement parks with a maximum ""bet"" of 10p are not in the same league as fixed-odds roulette in a run-down high street with a £100 maximum bet. Lootboxes have some level of risk of causing harm, but not that level of risk. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-the-gam...> Gambling is a popular leisure pursuit in Britain. Last year, 47% of adults surveyed had taken part in at least one form of gambling in the previous four weeks [...] Gambling can be entertaining and sociable, and enhance enjoyment of other activities, and the vast majority of gamblers take part without suffering even low levels of harm. [...]> However, gambling does come with risks, and problem gambling can ruin lives, wreck families, and damage communities [...] approximately 0.5% of the adult population are problem gamblers [...] this rate has remained broadly steady around or below 1% for the past 20 years and now equates to about 300,000 individuals whose gambling is also likely to cause harm to those around them> This Review seeks to ensure that people can continue to gamble but that the legislation and regulation we have in place addresses as many factors as possible to give the necessary safeguards [...]Evidence tells you plainly that different forms of gambling are not equal, and don't have the same power to trigger problem gambling in individuals. Coin pushers at seaside amusement parks with a maximum ""bet"" of 10p are not in the same league as fixed-odds roulette in a run-down high street with a £100 maximum bet. Lootboxes have some level of risk of causing harm, but not that level of risk. > Gambling is a popular leisure pursuit in Britain. Last year, 47% of adults surveyed had taken part in at least one form of gambling in the previous four weeks [...] Gambling can be entertaining and sociable, and enhance enjoyment of other activities, and the vast majority of gamblers take part without suffering even low levels of harm. [...]> However, gambling does come with risks, and problem gambling can ruin lives, wreck families, and damage communities [...] approximately 0.5% of the adult population are problem gamblers [...] this rate has remained broadly steady around or below 1% for the past 20 years and now equates to about 300,000 individuals whose gambling is also likely to cause harm to those around them> This Review seeks to ensure that people can continue to gamble but that the legislation and regulation we have in place addresses as many factors as possible to give the necessary safeguards [...]Evidence tells you plainly that different forms of gambling are not equal, and don't have the same power to trigger problem gambling in individuals. Coin pushers at seaside amusement parks with a maximum ""bet"" of 10p are not in the same league as fixed-odds roulette in a run-down high street with a £100 maximum bet. Lootboxes have some level of risk of causing harm, but not that level of risk. > However, gambling does come with risks, and problem gambling can ruin lives, wreck families, and damage communities [...] approximately 0.5% of the adult population are problem gamblers [...] this rate has remained broadly steady around or below 1% for the past 20 years and now equates to about 300,000 individuals whose gambling is also likely to cause harm to those around them> This Review seeks to ensure that people can continue to gamble but that the legislation and regulation we have in place addresses as many factors as possible to give the necessary safeguards [...]Evidence tells you plainly that different forms of gambling are not equal, and don't have the same power to trigger problem gambling in individuals. Coin pushers at seaside amusement parks with a maximum ""bet"" of 10p are not in the same league as fixed-odds roulette in a run-down high street with a £100 maximum bet. Lootboxes have some level of risk of causing harm, but not that level of risk. > This Review seeks to ensure that people can continue to gamble but that the legislation and regulation we have in place addresses as many factors as possible to give the necessary safeguards [...]Evidence tells you plainly that different forms of gambling are not equal, and don't have the same power to trigger problem gambling in individuals. Coin pushers at seaside amusement parks with a maximum ""bet"" of 10p are not in the same league as fixed-odds roulette in a run-down high street with a £100 maximum bet. Lootboxes have some level of risk of causing harm, but not that level of risk. Evidence tells you plainly that different forms of gambling are not equal, and don't have the same power to trigger problem gambling in individuals. Coin pushers at seaside amusement parks with a maximum ""bet"" of 10p are not in the same league as fixed-odds roulette in a run-down high street with a £100 maximum bet. Lootboxes have some level of risk of causing harm, but not that level of risk. reply It's a bit as if ice cream shops suddenly decided ""hey, wouldn't it be cool if we put alcohol into most of our sorts? It's just tiny amounts and alcohol-laced sweets have a long history already, so what's the harm?"" reply I guess I'd say the thing to do is to measure harms with direct evidence (e.g. this many people get addicted to lootboxes, they spend this much of their money, etc.) rather than seek an imperfect analogy with an existing but different harm. Lootboxes and fake FOMO are both techniques used by video game producers to fatten their bottom lines by psychologically manipulating their playerbase, let's get that regulated and set controls on it (audience, age limits, frequency, openness, etc.) rather than argue where it lies in the games-of-chance spectrum. reply reply 16-yo kids might do some amount of part time work, and should at least have enough of a concept of money to understand why pressing the ""more loot boxes"" button is a Bad Idea. They're also old enough that they might potentially have their own bank account and their own card, which then caps the damages to their allowance. reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply I strongly believe that this is mostly performative, honestly reply reply reply reply I also think the odds should also be not only disclosed, but made prominent reply Typically spelled ""gacha"", although I have to admit that ""gotcha"" seems apt. reply reply reply reply reply reply Another point of contention is the randomness of packs. The way you play is: You save up to buy the entire set of boosters and already get almost all cards you need for competitive or fun play. The rest you need to trade for or buy individually. It is much more of a social interaction than gambling. The value you get from saving up and trading is easily 10x what you get from opening boosters.That's why you will never see a bunch of kids queued up in front of a counter frothing from the mouth saying ""just... one more!"" That's why you will never see a bunch of kids queued up in front of a counter frothing from the mouth saying ""just... one more!"" reply reply reply reply reply Let the child use a separate debit card? Bank cards are personal and work as an authentication factor. reply I remember that cartoon. Was it Richie Rich? reply If you want to allow Pokémon cards and not casinos you have to accept that your rule isn't just ""kids can't gamble"". reply reply reply Can a 16 year old magically drive a car properly, but a 15 year old can't? Is an 18 year old magically much more capable doing their electoral civic duty than a 17 year old? Is a 21 year old magically able to consume alcohol responsibly, but a 20 year old isn't?(Or whatever age cutoffs are appropriate for your jurisdiction.)We define these cutoffs not because they are magical or apply equally to everyone, but because we have to draw the line somewhere, in cases where we aren't going to do a blanket all-ages ban. Sometimes the cutoff is chosen poorly, certainly, but that's a problem with the implementation, not the idea itself. (Or whatever age cutoffs are appropriate for your jurisdiction.)We define these cutoffs not because they are magical or apply equally to everyone, but because we have to draw the line somewhere, in cases where we aren't going to do a blanket all-ages ban. Sometimes the cutoff is chosen poorly, certainly, but that's a problem with the implementation, not the idea itself. We define these cutoffs not because they are magical or apply equally to everyone, but because we have to draw the line somewhere, in cases where we aren't going to do a blanket all-ages ban. Sometimes the cutoff is chosen poorly, certainly, but that's a problem with the implementation, not the idea itself. reply The actual reasons is that they hope to have captured the childs' reward system by then. Laura Cress must write articles for the BBC if she stopped she would lose her purpose in life and be forced into rehab, she would experience ego death and ostracization until she builds another system approved skill. Current society is heading off a demographic collapse due to this built up debt.The real problem is that we have invented a society that is less rewarding than a slot machine, not that humans are somehow built wrong. A slot machine or hard drug can only effectively hack ones physiology, a social system can hack the whole stack at once (Physiology, Emotions, Ego, Social belonging). You can give bad actors the pains of withdrawal, peril, existential crisis and social suicide all in one. There are examples throughout very recent history of each layer being captured more perfectly. Even physiology more perfectly than any drug, think enclosure act, 14 hour workdays in industrial England.Fine, ban lootboxes, but don't pretend it's to protect youths, it's to utilize ""children"". society is a massively harmful and evil tool, we must acknowledge that it's pure unadulterated evil that wouldn't blink at killing all youths. This is a fact, not an opinion, morals are just an API for humans that the system uses. The real problem is that we have invented a society that is less rewarding than a slot machine, not that humans are somehow built wrong. A slot machine or hard drug can only effectively hack ones physiology, a social system can hack the whole stack at once (Physiology, Emotions, Ego, Social belonging). You can give bad actors the pains of withdrawal, peril, existential crisis and social suicide all in one. There are examples throughout very recent history of each layer being captured more perfectly. Even physiology more perfectly than any drug, think enclosure act, 14 hour workdays in industrial England.Fine, ban lootboxes, but don't pretend it's to protect youths, it's to utilize ""children"". society is a massively harmful and evil tool, we must acknowledge that it's pure unadulterated evil that wouldn't blink at killing all youths. This is a fact, not an opinion, morals are just an API for humans that the system uses. Fine, ban lootboxes, but don't pretend it's to protect youths, it's to utilize ""children"". society is a massively harmful and evil tool, we must acknowledge that it's pure unadulterated evil that wouldn't blink at killing all youths. This is a fact, not an opinion, morals are just an API for humans that the system uses. reply This same reasoning applies to sex consent, voting, driving, working.We want to say ""only qualified people can do x"" but it's impossible to encode this in regulations and it always boils down to the sorites paradox.So as a culture we have defaulted to ""age is a good a proxy for being qualified"". We want to say ""only qualified people can do x"" but it's impossible to encode this in regulations and it always boils down to the sorites paradox.So as a culture we have defaulted to ""age is a good a proxy for being qualified"". So as a culture we have defaulted to ""age is a good a proxy for being qualified"". reply reply However, we can't set up a force of psychoanalysts to assess every member of society and run chmod on them, so we go with a compromise. reply The proliferation of gambling over so many domains has radicalized me against it in a way that I didn't think would've been possible a few years ago. reply reply I grew up in Italy when sport betting was illegal and you had to do it through illegal channels, and I did it now and then like everyone else, and thought we should totally make it legal.At some point all betting, slot machines etc.. became legal and it's been a disaster and I'm also totally radicalized against it. At some point all betting, slot machines etc.. became legal and it's been a disaster and I'm also totally radicalized against it. reply On 100 EUR you will get → 79 back, if you put them again in the machine you will get → 62.41 → 49.30 → 38.95 → 30.77… reply reply Aggrieved parties can partly get restoration. That way there never is enough political momentum to legiferate them. Try to resell your Fortnite account and they close it. reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply Just ripping packs hurts my soul. What a waste. reply Pokemon cards have utility within the game of pokemon. They additionally have value in secondary market places which is not strictly tied to the rarity of the item. These markets are not required to exist for the game to function.Lootboxes, especially for competitive games, do not have any utility within the game and are often cosmetic. Their value is strictly tied to the rarity of the item which the vendor fully artificially controls. Absent the secondary markets the cases would not be purchased and the items ignored.So you have a choice. You can make pay to win items and publish the probabilities of actually winning them. Or you can have items that can't be traded. Otherwise you're trending very close to widely known regulated activity like gambling. Lootboxes, especially for competitive games, do not have any utility within the game and are often cosmetic. Their value is strictly tied to the rarity of the item which the vendor fully artificially controls. Absent the secondary markets the cases would not be purchased and the items ignored.So you have a choice. You can make pay to win items and publish the probabilities of actually winning them. Or you can have items that can't be traded. Otherwise you're trending very close to widely known regulated activity like gambling. So you have a choice. You can make pay to win items and publish the probabilities of actually winning them. Or you can have items that can't be traded. Otherwise you're trending very close to widely known regulated activity like gambling. reply reply reply Whereas gacha games and lootboxes are notorious for unpublished, ridiculously bad odds for ""desirable"" things with no way to outright purchase them. reply reply reply I think they're right, really.Obviously you need to require enough friction that the experiences are comparable (e.g. no letting someone impulse buy 100 times in half a second without having to re-type their ""I am an adult"" payment info or something analogous, possibly just a hard ceiling for everyone), but I don't think you can ban everything that touches the same sharp edge, and you can't mandate that parents teach their kids how to handle it.So I think the best you can do is put hard limits on people's ability to hurt themselves without at least an ""are you really sure"" check, and maybe something like not allowing cash in the exchange without adult verification so the kids might, at worst, gamble their FunBux they earned playing a game and get burned on having lost a lot of FunBux, rather than their or their parents' cash. (This doesn't stop parents from giving their kids their credit card, but that's not really a problem you can solve...) Obviously you need to require enough friction that the experiences are comparable (e.g. no letting someone impulse buy 100 times in half a second without having to re-type their ""I am an adult"" payment info or something analogous, possibly just a hard ceiling for everyone), but I don't think you can ban everything that touches the same sharp edge, and you can't mandate that parents teach their kids how to handle it.So I think the best you can do is put hard limits on people's ability to hurt themselves without at least an ""are you really sure"" check, and maybe something like not allowing cash in the exchange without adult verification so the kids might, at worst, gamble their FunBux they earned playing a game and get burned on having lost a lot of FunBux, rather than their or their parents' cash. (This doesn't stop parents from giving their kids their credit card, but that's not really a problem you can solve...) So I think the best you can do is put hard limits on people's ability to hurt themselves without at least an ""are you really sure"" check, and maybe something like not allowing cash in the exchange without adult verification so the kids might, at worst, gamble their FunBux they earned playing a game and get burned on having lost a lot of FunBux, rather than their or their parents' cash. (This doesn't stop parents from giving their kids their credit card, but that's not really a problem you can solve...) reply Why not, though? Is this a general stance against banning anything, or do you think loot boxes, video games and/or kids are different? reply In this specific case, it's because I don't think you can whack-a-mole things that tickle the addictive feedback loops in people's brains everywhere faster than people can engineer their ways around it or find new ways to exploit things that do those same things without being caught in the laws, so I think you need to both:- raise the cost of making it too painful for people who aren't self-moderating enough and keep the most lethal edges off it (e.g. ceilings on how much you can spend, making you have to take active action that takes more than a few seconds so you can't impulse-click and blow a fortune on One More Hit, no feedback mechanisms that incentivize spending more when you already spent a lot...)- limit how harmful it can be to people who are too young and haven't yet learned what it does to them and that they need to be careful (e.g. use something like having access to a credit card you can input on request as a proxy for verifying you're an adult, and try to ensure any of the foam padded Kid Slot Machines(tm) can't be traded in a useful fashion for cash or paid for with cash, even with verification)In some sense, the original video games with this kind of feedback loop were arcade games - you got a variable amount of reward for your input token, and they had to give you enough to convince you to keep doing it. Microtransactions with lootboxes are just that feedback loop taken to the logical limit, but I don't necessarily think people who hate microtransactions would consider games like that as a similar evil, precisely because, like physical blind boxes, the quantization and scale is so much smaller, and it's so much higher friction to blow a fortune on it. - raise the cost of making it too painful for people who aren't self-moderating enough and keep the most lethal edges off it (e.g. ceilings on how much you can spend, making you have to take active action that takes more than a few seconds so you can't impulse-click and blow a fortune on One More Hit, no feedback mechanisms that incentivize spending more when you already spent a lot...)- limit how harmful it can be to people who are too young and haven't yet learned what it does to them and that they need to be careful (e.g. use something like having access to a credit card you can input on request as a proxy for verifying you're an adult, and try to ensure any of the foam padded Kid Slot Machines(tm) can't be traded in a useful fashion for cash or paid for with cash, even with verification)In some sense, the original video games with this kind of feedback loop were arcade games - you got a variable amount of reward for your input token, and they had to give you enough to convince you to keep doing it. Microtransactions with lootboxes are just that feedback loop taken to the logical limit, but I don't necessarily think people who hate microtransactions would consider games like that as a similar evil, precisely because, like physical blind boxes, the quantization and scale is so much smaller, and it's so much higher friction to blow a fortune on it. - limit how harmful it can be to people who are too young and haven't yet learned what it does to them and that they need to be careful (e.g. use something like having access to a credit card you can input on request as a proxy for verifying you're an adult, and try to ensure any of the foam padded Kid Slot Machines(tm) can't be traded in a useful fashion for cash or paid for with cash, even with verification)In some sense, the original video games with this kind of feedback loop were arcade games - you got a variable amount of reward for your input token, and they had to give you enough to convince you to keep doing it. Microtransactions with lootboxes are just that feedback loop taken to the logical limit, but I don't necessarily think people who hate microtransactions would consider games like that as a similar evil, precisely because, like physical blind boxes, the quantization and scale is so much smaller, and it's so much higher friction to blow a fortune on it. In some sense, the original video games with this kind of feedback loop were arcade games - you got a variable amount of reward for your input token, and they had to give you enough to convince you to keep doing it. Microtransactions with lootboxes are just that feedback loop taken to the logical limit, but I don't necessarily think people who hate microtransactions would consider games like that as a similar evil, precisely because, like physical blind boxes, the quantization and scale is so much smaller, and it's so much higher friction to blow a fortune on it. reply reply reply reply reply I don't think I have ever paid attention to a single age rating in my entire life. Does anyone do outside of fundamentalist parents who wouldn't let kids play most video games anyways?Very spiritually European move.What regulators should do is focus on easily applicable percentage-based fines. Make sure it's not just another line item. Very spiritually European move.What regulators should do is focus on easily applicable percentage-based fines. Make sure it's not just another line item. What regulators should do is focus on easily applicable percentage-based fines. Make sure it's not just another line item. reply It's my understanding that lots of parents use these numbers as guidance. I will make my own decisions about what my child can play, but the ratings and all the labels makes it much much easier to make an informed decision.For the parents that are not into gaming, being able to just go by these numbers is much better than having no such guidance.> Does anyone do outside of fundamentalist parents who wouldn't let kids play most video games anyways?Yes. In fact I believe they help breaking down the fundamentalism by making it so clear that gaming is not inherently bad or good for your child. It all depends on the content. For the parents that are not into gaming, being able to just go by these numbers is much better than having no such guidance.> Does anyone do outside of fundamentalist parents who wouldn't let kids play most video games anyways?Yes. In fact I believe they help breaking down the fundamentalism by making it so clear that gaming is not inherently bad or good for your child. It all depends on the content. > Does anyone do outside of fundamentalist parents who wouldn't let kids play most video games anyways?Yes. In fact I believe they help breaking down the fundamentalism by making it so clear that gaming is not inherently bad or good for your child. It all depends on the content. Yes. In fact I believe they help breaking down the fundamentalism by making it so clear that gaming is not inherently bad or good for your child. It all depends on the content. reply You mean when you've selected games for yourself to play? That's... fine.If you mean when you've selected (or allowed) games for your kids to play, that's... pretty irresponsible. If you mean when you've selected (or allowed) games for your kids to play, that's... pretty irresponsible. reply reply reply This law in worst case doesn't cause any problems and in best case solve problems. So win-win. reply reply I am not interested in playing hours of videogames to be able to decide. Not in googling through ai-slop and idiotic gamer videos to find out what is in. reply reply Having said that, though, when I also combine this news with the attempt to force operating systems into sniffing for my age at all times, I am still totally against this. This kind of over-eager bureaucracy is not good. It reminds me of attempts to prohibit alcohol. Yes, it is not the same, a loot box does not cause physical symptoms really, compared to alcohol or, say, harder drugs - but states seem too eager to want to restrict people. Or monitor them, such as in the case of ""age verification"". So now this legislation is another basis to support mandatory age sniffing of everyone. So I am completely against it now. reply This 'gambling' in games should have been headstompped under the law decades ago, but has instead grown into a huge ravening monster buying every politician it can. Every time you say we can't do anything about said monster you ensure that whatever happens will be extreme. reply reply reply edit: I'm pointing out the UK has apparently decided lootboxes are not gambling, because if they did classify it as gambling it'd be covered by existing gambling laws that restrict it to 18+.Not that I personally hold that opinion, though I can see how I could have phrased my original message better.It's a stupid decision by the government, they should be 18+ and recognised for being gambling. Not that I personally hold that opinion, though I can see how I could have phrased my original message better.It's a stupid decision by the government, they should be 18+ and recognised for being gambling. It's a stupid decision by the government, they should be 18+ and recognised for being gambling. reply Wow, considering how the UK has been going full Taliban on everything why stop at lootboxes? Guess the politicians are getting some money/bribes from the lootbox companies. reply A: The UK Government has decided that lootboxes are not gambling. B: The UK government has not decided whether lootboxes are gambling or not.The current situation is a lot closer to B than A. The UK Government has decided not to extend the existing Gambling laws to cover video game loot boxes. The existing laws did not automatically cover them, so a decision has to be made whether to amend the laws or not. Instead it has asked the industry to self-regulate. In 2022 there was a review that asked for improvements, restricting some access and mandatory spending controls. There have been other reviews and studies.It seems quite clear that the industry is not doing enough (no surprise, it's a cash cow for them) so it's likely to mean the Government will crank up the legislation to force their hand, but the wheels of Government move slowly; way too slowly for many people who have been affected by this. The current situation is a lot closer to B than A. The UK Government has decided not to extend the existing Gambling laws to cover video game loot boxes. The existing laws did not automatically cover them, so a decision has to be made whether to amend the laws or not. Instead it has asked the industry to self-regulate. In 2022 there was a review that asked for improvements, restricting some access and mandatory spending controls. There have been other reviews and studies.It seems quite clear that the industry is not doing enough (no surprise, it's a cash cow for them) so it's likely to mean the Government will crank up the legislation to force their hand, but the wheels of Government move slowly; way too slowly for many people who have been affected by this. It seems quite clear that the industry is not doing enough (no surprise, it's a cash cow for them) so it's likely to mean the Government will crank up the legislation to force their hand, but the wheels of Government move slowly; way too slowly for many people who have been affected by this. reply reply How much access to money parents want to give their kids is up to the parents.What people do with their own money, including kids, is up to the people.WHY are countries not enacting laws that punish companies for once? Say something like:• ""After 3-5 purchases of the same item with random contents the buyer should get the content they specifically want.""• ""No item with random contents should cost more than N $\€""• ""Buyers should have N-M hours to get a refund for an item with random contents""That way you could keep the ""fun"" and spirit of gambling without its destructive spiral and stuff What people do with their own money, including kids, is up to the people.WHY are countries not enacting laws that punish companies for once? Say something like:• ""After 3-5 purchases of the same item with random contents the buyer should get the content they specifically want.""• ""No item with random contents should cost more than N $\€""• ""Buyers should have N-M hours to get a refund for an item with random contents""That way you could keep the ""fun"" and spirit of gambling without its destructive spiral and stuff WHY are countries not enacting laws that punish companies for once? Say something like:• ""After 3-5 purchases of the same item with random contents the buyer should get the content they specifically want.""• ""No item with random contents should cost more than N $\€""• ""Buyers should have N-M hours to get a refund for an item with random contents""That way you could keep the ""fun"" and spirit of gambling without its destructive spiral and stuff • ""After 3-5 purchases of the same item with random contents the buyer should get the content they specifically want.""• ""No item with random contents should cost more than N $\€""• ""Buyers should have N-M hours to get a refund for an item with random contents""That way you could keep the ""fun"" and spirit of gambling without its destructive spiral and stuff • ""No item with random contents should cost more than N $\€""• ""Buyers should have N-M hours to get a refund for an item with random contents""That way you could keep the ""fun"" and spirit of gambling without its destructive spiral and stuff • ""Buyers should have N-M hours to get a refund for an item with random contents""That way you could keep the ""fun"" and spirit of gambling without its destructive spiral and stuff That way you could keep the ""fun"" and spirit of gambling without its destructive spiral and stuff reply I have kids and as a parent I use these ratings as a very loose guide combined with my own experience and understanding of the game in question. Other parents ignore them completely.I agree more could be done to directly affect the companies, and there have been a lot of legal cases surrounding loot boxes aimed at children.But this is a good complement to that. It makes it easier for parents to get aware of the issue. I agree more could be done to directly affect the companies, and there have been a lot of legal cases surrounding loot boxes aimed at children.But this is a good complement to that. It makes it easier for parents to get aware of the issue. But this is a good complement to that. It makes it easier for parents to get aware of the issue. reply They've already enacted mandatory age-verification-via-ID to use apps/features.It seems they're gonna put as many ""gates/fences"" at every N age years to make sure they can surveil as many people in distinct age brackets as possible.Up next: Be of at least N years to watch cartoons with animated violence? It seems they're gonna put as many ""gates/fences"" at every N age years to make sure they can surveil as many people in distinct age brackets as possible.Up next: Be of at least N years to watch cartoons with animated violence? Up next: Be of at least N years to watch cartoons with animated violence? reply reply For instance, by being used in further legislation to mandate age verification on all operating systems. Lo and behold, that is already happening - see California.One can not view a single law and assume it is isolated, when in reality this is a move by lobbyists to further restrict people and sniff after them (see MidnightBSD giving in and adding a daemon that sniffs for user data; I am 100% certain systemd on Linux will follow suit, via a new systemd-sniffy daemon). Some companies pay good money for such legislation. So the answer to your question is very simple, actually. You just should not view it as an isolated way while ignoring everything else - lobbyists are sneaky. It reminds me of Google claiming it has no problem with ad-blockers, then they went on to destroy ublock origin (https://ublockorigin.com/). One can not view a single law and assume it is isolated, when in reality this is a move by lobbyists to further restrict people and sniff after them (see MidnightBSD giving in and adding a daemon that sniffs for user data; I am 100% certain systemd on Linux will follow suit, via a new systemd-sniffy daemon). Some companies pay good money for such legislation. So the answer to your question is very simple, actually. You just should not view it as an isolated way while ignoring everything else - lobbyists are sneaky. It reminds me of Google claiming it has no problem with ad-blockers, then they went on to destroy ublock origin (https://ublockorigin.com/). reply reply I agree with some of your other points, though: we should have legally mandated return periods for this sort of thing. Not sure how you'd enshrine price limits into law, though; that seems impractical. reply Thinking in childrens' terms:• Any microtransaction <$1 is fine, up to 10 per week or 20 per month or whatever• Anything between $1-$10 should be more limited• Anything $10 or above should be limited to 1 per week• No microtransaction should cost more than 50% of the game's own full price, if the game isn't free • Any microtransaction <$1 is fine, up to 10 per week or 20 per month or whatever• Anything between $1-$10 should be more limited• Anything $10 or above should be limited to 1 per week• No microtransaction should cost more than 50% of the game's own full price, if the game isn't free • Anything between $1-$10 should be more limited• Anything $10 or above should be limited to 1 per week• No microtransaction should cost more than 50% of the game's own full price, if the game isn't free • Anything $10 or above should be limited to 1 per week• No microtransaction should cost more than 50% of the game's own full price, if the game isn't free • No microtransaction should cost more than 50% of the game's own full price, if the game isn't free reply ""Traditional"" gambling is already not allowed below 18yo reply reply reply reply [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_waOkwIpWxg [video][18m] reply And ""learning"" about gambling doesn't need to happen at 8 years old. What a fucking delusional view reply reply reply I presume my parent knew what they were doing, so, yeah, nanny state. reply reply But if you insist on having a regulation, okay, I'm fine with it. What about the following regulation: each time a minor is found gambling or smoking, his/her parents are fined 100x times the stake/the price of cigarettes? reply reply Age ratings are an aid but still require passing good habits and developing your child's ability to think and solve this for themselves. So not letting your kids get addicted to in-app purchases sounds like good parenting. Keeping your kids away from tablets and smartphones until they're 16 is even better parenting. reply And if a parent is blindly skipping an age verification screen for their kid without figuring out why that age verification is there in the first place, then they're a bad parent. You can't really fix that, unfortunately, outside of extreme cases. reply reply That's not how I use the term. I think of a loot box as a treasure chest or similar that you discover while exploring which, when opened, gives you some loot!On the other hand if you're talking about a package with a random assortment of stuff in it that you buy without knowing what's inside, I call that a ""grab bag"" or ""mystery bundle"".Am I too old? What games were primarily responsible for changing the vocabulary? On the other hand if you're talking about a package with a random assortment of stuff in it that you buy without knowing what's inside, I call that a ""grab bag"" or ""mystery bundle"".Am I too old? What games were primarily responsible for changing the vocabulary? Am I too old? What games were primarily responsible for changing the vocabulary? reply The model is very strongly associated with the rise of ""live service"" gaming, with Overwatch and Battlefield being some of the more notorious offenders. reply reply reply They usually have a very involved opening animation with music and sounds specifically designed to maximize the feeling of anticipation. Once you see it it feels completely different from what you are describing, because it's so obviously trying to maximize the gambling aspect of it. It's like confusing genuine love with prostitution. reply reply reply","{'href': 'https://news.ycombinator.com', 'title': 'Hacker News'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:gizmodo.com","These People Want Us to Let Them Hook Up AI to a Nuclear Weapon","https://gizmodo.com/these-people-want-us-to-let-them-hook-up-ai-to-a-nuclear-weapon-2000733472","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:40:42 GMT"," Reading time 2 minutes It's starting to feel like maybe the reason the Trump administration wants so much freedom to use AI for everything is because no one in their government knows how to use any piece of technology without it. According to a report from Democracy Docket, Trump's Department of Justice has run into a dead end in its search for fraud related to the 2020 Presidential election because they kept emailing the wrong address. Per the report, the DOJ started prodding the state of Oklahoma to turn over its state-wide voter registration list so the agency could review it as part of its ongoing witch hunt to prove the baseless conspiracy that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. First, it wrote a letter demanding that Oklahoma Secretary of State Paul Ziriax comply with its demands to access the voter rolls. Unfortunately, Ziriax has never been Oklahoma's secretary of state—he's the secretary of Oklahoma's State Election Board. And hey, mistakes happen. The problem is that the Department of Justice didn't realize the mistake and instead started peppering other Oklahoma officials to follow up on the request for the voter registration lists. Those emails went unanswered, which may in part be why the DOJ is currently suing Oklahoma, along with 29 other states and the District of Columbia, for failure to comply. Except…no one in Oklahoma's government received those emails because the DOJ spelled the email address wrong. According to emails obtained by Democracy Docket, the Justice Department's Voting Section acting chief Eric Neff kept sending messages to “[email protected]” instead of “[email protected].” Oops! Don't you hate it when you work for the most powerful legal entity in the country and your authority is constantly being undermined by the fact that you get basic information wrong? The situation is just the latest in a long line of incidents that show that best practices and digital hygiene are not a part of the Trump administration's onboarding. Details coming out of the depositions of former employees of the Department of Government Efficiency show just how much wining is going on when it comes to using technology. In one clip that went viral this week, ex-DOGE employee Nathan Cavanaugh detailed how he emailed documents to himself to get them to his personal device, then sent them to DOGE lead Steve Davis via Signal because “there was no other way” to do it. It's clear that these people can't be trusted to use AI for anything meaningful, like determining targets in war. But maybe they could use it to send an email. That seems to be more their speed. Explore more on these topics Share this story Subscribe and interact with our community, get up to date with our customised Newsletters and much more. Even when your power goes down, your Wi-Fi won't. In Slack messages presented during the DOJ's antitrust case against the concert ticketing giant, employees gleefully describe how they're fleecing fans. Going to war with Iran has suddenly brought China back into the mix on the sale. The lawsuit aiming to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster looks like it's coming to an end. Politico profiled a bizarre energy company that may receive billions from the Trump administration to make small modular reactors. Will it actually make them though? President Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the repeal of the endangerment finding, the legal bedrock for the agency's actions against planet-warming pollution. ©2026 GIZMODO USA LLC. All rights reserved.","{'href': 'https://gizmodo.com', 'title': 'Gizmodo'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:tomshardware.com","Enthusiast rebuilds AA-battery-powered PC, sextuples run time to 30 minutes with 64 batteries — uses three voltage regulators in parallel to achieve stability, runs computer for over 30 minutes on 64 AA cells","https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/pc-building/enthusiast-rebuilds-aa-battery-powered-pc-sextuples-run-time-to-30-minutes-with-64-batteries-uses-three-voltage-regulators-in-parallel-to-achieve-stability-runs-computer-for-over-30-minutes-on-64-aa-cells","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:20:00 GMT"," Imagine buying huge boxes of AA batteries just to use your laptop for one day. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Creator and enthusiast ScuffedBits successfully ran a desktop PC for about five minutes on AA batteries alone and was even able to complete one round of Minesweeper on it. However, it seemed that that wasn't long enough, so he decided to redo the project, intending to address the problems of the first build. The biggest issue they fixed first was the high resistance of the tiny wires used to connect the batteries to the motherboard. Instead of replacing them, ScuffedBits modified the wiring of the battery packs to get around 25 volts, meaning that the PC would now require lower current, preventing instability because of the thin wiring. Of course, 25 volts isn't good for the motherboard, so they also added three voltage regulators wired in parallel to get a consistent 12 volts until the batteries died. To further ensure that the system works, they also eliminated the alligator clips and soldered the wires directly to the capacitors that came from the original project. With everything in place, ScuffedBits inserted the last three AA batteries, completing the circuit and bringing the PC to life. Unlike the last time, which needed an external power source to “jumpstart” the computer, it was able to boot straight up using just the AA cells this time. With the voltage holding steady, they were able to log into Windows and show us the specifications of the PC — an Intel Core i3-530 paired with 8GB of RAM and a WD SATA SSD. The first thing they did was play one round of A Short Hike, which they finished some three and a half minutes after turning on the computer purely on AA batteries. But what's more interesting was that they were able to run Cinebench on the system, pushing the rather old CPU to its limits. Even though this processor is rather old, TechPowerUp reports that it still has a power draw of 73 watts. Nevertheless, the system completed the test almost eight minutes after booting up, with no signs of slowing down. So, after the benchmark, ScuffedBits decided to install Minecraft and play several rounds of Party Games. After that, he tried to install Portal 2, but the system finally died after 33 minutes and 19 seconds — quite a remarkable feat for a home-made AA-battery power solution for a desktop PC. This isn't groundbreaking technology, especially as we have better battery solutions available to us nowadays. Besides, who would want to purchase 64 AA batteries at a gas station multiple times a day just to keep their laptops fully charged? The creator also ran a test using a 12-volt car battery on the system, showing that it will work. But they also said that it was going to be quite boring, as the car battery should have enough juice to run the desktop computer for three to four hours without any problems. Nevertheless, the entire thing is still a fun project, tinkering with batteries and PCs, and we hope to see more similarly crazy experiments from ScuffedBits in the future. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He's been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he's been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. © Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036. ","{'href': 'https://www.tomshardware.com', 'title': ""Tom's Hardware""}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:tomshardware.com","Chip material prices double as Middle East conflict compounds China's existing gallium export ban — wide range of materials for chipmaking skyrocket as supply constricts","https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/chip-material-prices-double-as-middle-east-conflict-compounds-chinas-gallium-export-ban","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 11:40:00 GMT"," Manufacturers of GaN and GaAs components are stockpiling raw materials. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Compound semiconductor manufacturers have said that prices for key chipmaking metals have doubled and gallium has climbed sharply, as disruptions from the ongoing Middle East conflict pile onto supply constraints already created by China's export controls, DigiTimes reported Friday. Industry sources told DigiTimes that prices for high-temperature metals — tungsten, tantalum, and molybdenum — used in compound semiconductor equipment have doubled in recent weeks, with some specialty chemical inputs rising as much as threefold. Gallium, the feedstock for gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN) chips, has also climbed further. Market data indicate that gallium was trading at approximately $2,100 per kilogram in early March 2026, representing a 123% increase since the start of 2025, following China's ban on gallium exports to the United States in late 2024. The Middle East conflict, meanwhile, has also hit aluminum production after QatarEnergy halted the production of aluminum, which feeds into gallium supply, and helium. Gallium is recovered almost entirely as a byproduct of aluminum refining, and major smelters, including Aluminium Bahrain and Norsk Hydro's Qatalum facility, declared force majeure after gas supplies were suspended, pushing aluminum to a four-year high of $3,418 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange. Shortages of indium phosphide substrates, used in high-frequency optical and telecom components, also persist, with DigiTimes sources saying no near-term relief is in sight. Samsung and SK Hynix are understood to have been actively monitoring helium inventories since the outbreak of hostilities. Qatar produces more than a third of the global helium supply, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and the element has no viable substitute in semiconductor fabrication, where it's used in lithography and thermal management. Meanwhile, the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the additional logistics risk is the cherry on top of all this. DigiTimes says that manufacturers have responded by abandoning just-in-time inventory practices, building raw material stockpiles, and qualifying multiple suppliers. Companies told the publication they will absorb potential losses from price declines later, prioritizing supply security. GaN and GaAs components appear across a wide range of consumer hardware, including power semiconductors in PC power supplies and laptop chargers, WiFi 7 radio front-ends, and RF chips in routers and networking adapters. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist. Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. © Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036. ","{'href': 'https://www.tomshardware.com', 'title': ""Tom's Hardware""}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:tomshardware.com","Noctua teases upcoming PC case with brown color scheme and bundled fans","https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/pc-cases/noctua-teases-upcoming-pc-case-that-appears-to-be-the-antec-flux-pro-noctua-edition-with-brown-color-scheme-and-bundled-nf-a14x25-g2-fans","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT"," Tom's Hardware Premium equips you with world-class coverage and detailed insights into the evolving hardware landscape. The coolest case is just around the corner. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Austrian PC cooling expert Noctua has just shared a teaser for its upcoming PC case. While there are no concrete details, the teaser image shared on X gives a glimpse of the front I/O positioned at the top of the case. Looking at the layout, it is safe to assume that this could be the Antec Flux Pro Noctua Edition case first showcased at Computex 2025. Based on the Antec Flux Pro chassis, the special edition case comes in Noctua's traditional brown color scheme with a wood trim at the front. It also comes with four Noctua NF-A14x25 G2 and two NF-A12x25 G2 fans, along with the NA-FH1 fan hub for controlling fan speeds. According to the company the case has gone through extensive laboratory testing to optimize cooling performance and reduce noise levels compared to the case's standard fan setup.The rest of the features should be identical to the standard Antec Flux Pro full tower case offering a multi-directional vent design allowing for vertical and horizontal airflow. There is a dedicated compartment for the power supply unit at the bottom with proper mesh ventilation and support for up to 180mm PSUs in length. The iSHIFT PSU mount allows you to install the power supply facing the side of the case giving easier access to the cables. The picture is almost complete. You've perfected your cooling and optimised your hardware – now get ready for the final element that brings your quiet build together! pic.twitter.com/6ynp3BnWfsMarch 13, 2026 In terms of fan support, it can accommodate up to 12 fans with three 120mm or 140mm fans at the front, top, and above the power supply shroud along with additional mounting options for two 120mm or 140mm fans at the bottom and one in the rear. There's even enough room to accommodate radiators of up to 420mm in length. For dust filtration the front and bottom panels come with a 1.2mm fine mesh and there's even a small LED display to showcase CPU and GPU temperatures. Apart from the power and reset buttons, the front I/O comes with two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a USB Type-C 10Gbps port, a headphone/mic combo jack and a dedicated button to toggle the temperature LED display. The Antec Flux Pro Noctua Edition was expected to launch late last year but seems that the two companies are finally ready to launch the case. Considering the original Antec Flux Pro is selling for about $180, we expect the Noctua edition to be priced at least $250 or above. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Kunal Khullar is a contributing writer at Tom's Hardware. He is a long time technology journalist and reviewer specializing in PC components and peripherals, and welcomes any and every question around building a PC. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. © Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036. ","{'href': 'https://www.tomshardware.com', 'title': ""Tom's Hardware""}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:news-medical.net","Study links excessive smartphone use with poor body image and disordered eating","https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260313/Study-links-excessive-smartphone-use-with-poor-body-image-and-disordered-eating.aspx","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:01:00 GMT"," New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London has found that excessive smartphone use is closely associated with disordered eating, including uncontrolled eating and emotional overeating, as well greater symptoms of food addiction in young people with no diagnosis of an eating disorder. The research, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, established a significant and consistent association between Problematic Smartphone Use (PSU) - whereby an individual becomes behaviorally or psychologically reliant on their smartphone - and eating disorder symptom severity. Researchers argue this highlights the need for early intervention strategies specific to excessive phone use for young people displaying eating disorder symptoms. While there has been research conducted into the negative impact that problematic internet usage, exposure to social media, and harmful online content can have on body image and body dysphoria in both clinical and non-clinical populations, none have specifically examined PSU. Researchers identified 35 studies in which to include in this systematic review. The studies were from across the globe and provided researchers with a sample size of 52,584 participants with an average age of 17. Their analysis of the data found that higher daily smartphone use was also related to greater food addiction symptoms, broader disordered eating behaviours like uncontrolled eating or emotional overeating, and body dissatisfaction in people with no diagnosis of an eating disorder. The association was particularly strong in those who use their phones for more than seven hours a day. Ben Carter, Professor of Medical Statistics at King's IoPPN and the study's senior author said, ""Smartphones have become ubiquitous in our everyday lives. It is apparent from our study that, even for people without a diagnosis of an eating disorder, the overuse of a smartphone is associated with poor body satisfaction and altered eating behaviours, and is a potential source of distress"" Adolescence is a key stage of development as individuals evolve their sense of self by observing others. While smartphones might present an easy way for this to happen, being consistently exposed to idealised images can lead them to compare their own appearance with these ""standards"", leading to poor self-esteem and appearance dissatisfaction - both risk factors for the development of an eating disorder."" Dr. Johanna Keeler, a Visiting Lecturer at King's IoPPN and study's first author King's College London Keeler, J., et al. (2025). Problematic smartphone use and smartphone screen time are associated with eating disorder psychopathology in non-clinical samples: a systematic review. JMIR Mental Health. DOI: 10.2196/88572. https://mental.jmir.org/2026/1/e88572 Posted in: Medical Research News | Medical Condition News | Healthcare News Cancel reply to comment Alexander Dulebo Discover how Bruker is helping drive innovation in cosmetic science through advanced AFM techniques. Gabi Saavedra Discover how Thermo Fisher is shaping the future of plant-based foods through texture innovation and cultural relevance. Dr. Lena Smirnova Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Saturday 14 Mar 2026 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback","{'href': 'https://www.news-medical.net', 'title': 'News-Medical'}","health" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:news-medical.net","Selfish chromosomes hijack Overdrive gene to eliminate rival sperm","https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260313/Selfish-chromosomes-hijack-Overdrive-gene-to-eliminate-rival-sperm.aspx","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:01:00 GMT"," A new University of Utah-led study has discovered the mechanism behind a decades-old evolutionary mystery-how ""selfish chromosomes"" cheat the rules of genetic inheritance. The researchers found that rogue chromosomes hijack the Overdrive (Ovd) gene to destroy rival sperm. The study is the first to identify that the Ovd gene acts as a quality control checkpoint during sperm development. Normally, Ovd detects and eliminates abnormal sperm cells. But selfish chromosomes exploit the system to kill competitors, boosting their chances of passing into the next generation. The findings reveal the biology behind segregation distortion, a phenomenon in which genes sway inheritance in their favor to beat the standard 50/50 odds predicted by Mendelian genetics. The team observed the scheme in two Drosophila species, each carrying completely different selfish chromosomes, which suggests that multiple genetic systems may evolve independently to exploit the same Ovd pathway. This is the first time that the same gene has been shown to be crucial for eliminating gametes by multiple independent selfish chromosomes. It indicates that evolutionarily distant selfish chromosomes may often converge on shared cellular processes."" Jackson Ridges, U biologist and lead author of the study Scientists first discovered segregation distortion in the 1920s while studying the fruit fly Drosophila obscura. Since then, the phenomenon has been found across the animal kingdom, from nematodes to mammals, yet its underlying mechanisms have remained unknown. While humans lack an exact genetic equivalent, a similar quality-control process may exist that uses different machinery. The findings could offer new insights into male infertility and the evolution of reproductive barriers between species. ""How selfish genes can cause sterility has been a long-standing mystery in field of speciation,"" said Nitin Phadnis, associate professor at the U and senior author of the study. ""By going for a deep understanding of how Overdriveworks, we inadvertently opened up entirely new directions of research into understanding the mechanisms of cellular quality control systems, and how sterility emerges between young species."" The version of record of the study was published on Feb. 10, 2026, in the journal Nature Communications. Nearly 20 years ago, then grad student Phadnis and mentor H. Allen Orr first identified Ovd as an element in male sterility and segregation distortion in hybrids between two Drosophila species. Their 2009 paper revealed that the gene could block competing sperm from forming. The findings led to widespread acceptance that segregation distorters can drive reproductive isolation between species. He explored other topics as a post doc, but Ovd never left his mind. ""A big question in evolutionary genetics is, 'What is the engine that drives genes to evolve such that organisms diverge into new species-internal genetic conflict or organismal adaptation? Our Overdrive discovery was the first clear, direct link between the two phenomena,"" Phadnis said. ""When I started my own lab, it was time to pick it back up, but this time we wanted to get at how it actually works."" First, the researchers tackled whether Ovd was essential to sperm production. Jackson Ridges, doctoral student in the Phadnis lab, led the experiments. ""I wanted to look for a way that we can show this isn't just some weird selfish chromosome stuff going on. This is a genuine physiological phenomenon that we're investigating,"" Ridges said. The group knocked out the Ovd gene in D. pseudoobscura and D. melanogaster to test two different, completely independent selfish chromosomes. Surprisingly, they observed no difference in male fertility, establishing that the gene isn't necessary for sperm production in either species. ""This got us thinking, 'What other genes work like this?'"" Ridges said. The P53 gene's role in cancer came to mind. P53 works as a safeguard to stop runaway cell reproduction. Flies without P53 are fine unless there's a problem to genome integrity. ""Maybe Ovd's only role is to recognize damage and remove those cells. But if there's no damage, everything's fine without it,"" Ridges said. ""It was the primary way we could connect all these findings that didn't make intuitive sense, at first."" To test their theory, they used a well-known temperature threshold beyond which fruit flies can't reproduce. At temperatures greater than 31º C, all male Drosophila go sterile, but no one knew why. After exposing normal flies and flies without Ovd to a high-temperature bacterial incubator for one week, the normal fly stock was sterile while the males without Ovd produced progeny. Ovd was blocking sperm formation at the high temperature to prevent potential unhealthy sperm. ""That was the final nail in the coffin-Overdrive's normal function is acting as a blocker of bad gametes. When you remove the blocker, then the selfish behavior goes away,"" Phadnis said. ""That doesn't mean Overdrive is the selfish gene-it's just being hijacked."" The team's next steps are to knock out Overdrive in different Drosophila species to assess how many other selfish chromosomes in different species operate through this system of hijacking the Overdrive checkpoint. They're also investigating if segregation distortion occurs in human lineages. University of Utah Ridges, J. T., et al. (2026). Selfish chromosomes exploit a germline checkpoint to eliminate competing gametes. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-68254-7. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-68254-7 Posted in: Cell Biology | Genomics Cancel reply to comment Alexander Dulebo Discover how Bruker is helping drive innovation in cosmetic science through advanced AFM techniques. Gabi Saavedra Discover how Thermo Fisher is shaping the future of plant-based foods through texture innovation and cultural relevance. Dr. Lena Smirnova Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Saturday 14 Mar 2026 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback","{'href': 'https://www.news-medical.net', 'title': 'News-Medical'}","health" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:news-medical.net","Older Americans willing to travel farther for medical care","https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260313/Older-Americans-willing-to-travel-farther-for-medical-care.aspx","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 01:59:00 GMT"," Older Americans are willing to travel far for medical care - sometimes much farther than policymakers and experts assume, according to researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Why it matters: As hospitals close in some areas, practices consolidate and telehealth expands, older adults may tolerate long trips for care - but not equally. The study suggests socioeconomic status affects willingness to travel. What's new: A study published recently in JAMA Network Open finds that many Americans age 65 and older are willing to travel more than an hour for routine or specialized medical care. What happened: Researchers at the USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR) surveyed a nationally representative group of older adults. Results: On average, respondents would tolerate about an hour or more of travel time, particularly for specialty care. Growth of telehealth may be impacted by how willing patients are to take long trips for in-person care versus receiving remote clinical care. (Image source: iStock.) What they're saying: ""This shows older adults place a high value on access to care,"" said Soeren Mattke, professor (research) of economics, director of the Brain Health Observatory at CESR and study senior author. ""They are often willing to travel significant distances before delaying or forgoing care."" Yes, but: The averages mask important differences. Study first author Jeremy Burke, senior economist at CESR, said those gaps matter for health equity. The big picture: Health systems are consolidating, with some services moving into regional hubs rather than neighborhood clinics. Policymakers often debate how far is ""too far"" for patients to travel, especially for older adults. The findings also have implications for telehealth. What else? Transportation policy plays a role, too. Programs that offer ride services, improved public transit or partnerships with community organizations could make a meaningful difference for vulnerable seniors. Between the lines: Older adults living in big cities were less willing to travel long durations. Bottom line: Many older Americans are willing to travel surprisingly long distances for medical care - but willingness depends on health, resources and access to transportation. The findings are based on data from the Understanding America Study, a nationally representative internet panel administered by CESR. For this study, researchers surveyed a representative sample of 2,650 adults age 65 or older between April 23 and June 8, 2025, about their willingness to travel for primary care, specialty care and one-time diagnostic appointments. In addition to Mattke and Burke, authors on the study include USC Dornsife researchers Tabasa Ozawa, Ying Liu and Wei Ye, all from the USC Brain Health Observatory based at USC Dornsife. The study was funded by National Institute on Aging grants 1R01AG083189 and 1U01AG077280. University of Southern California Burke, J., et al. (2026). Willingness of Older Adults to Travel for Medical Care. JAMA Network Open. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.60280. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2845337 Posted in: Medical Research News | Healthcare News Cancel reply to comment Alexander Dulebo Discover how Bruker is helping drive innovation in cosmetic science through advanced AFM techniques. Gabi Saavedra Discover how Thermo Fisher is shaping the future of plant-based foods through texture innovation and cultural relevance. Dr. Lena Smirnova Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Saturday 14 Mar 2026 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback","{'href': 'https://www.news-medical.net', 'title': 'News-Medical'}","health" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:news-medical.net","Updated EULAR recommendations guide treatment decisions for rheumatoid arthritis","https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260313/Updated-EULAR-recommendations-guide-treatment-decisions-for-rheumatoid-arthritis.aspx","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:13:00 GMT"," First published in 2010, the EULAR recommendations for the management of RA, the most frequent inflammatory rheumatic disease, have been relied upon by healthcare professionals and organizations worldwide to offer an up-to-date and robust analysis of the effectiveness and practical use of available DMARDs – from conventional agents such as methotrexate to biologics and Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors. The recommendations were last reviewed in 2022 to include key safety factors. The current fifth update was again based on reviews of the most recent evidence regarding these therapies and provides the most up-to-date guidance. Although there have been no new drugs approved since the last version, deepened insights as well as important strategic developments have accumulated. Researchers, healthcare professionals, and patients from around the world worked together to develop this new advice. Of note, there are now fewer recommendations – a total of 9, down from 11 in the 2022 version – with one previous recommendation being removed, and two merged. This is the smallest number of recommendations in the 15-year history of this guidance document, helping to further simplify the clinical approach – and, as previously, the insights have been condensed into a graphic algorithm. The new work, published online on March 2026 on the website of Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, includes five overarching principles and nine individual recommendations. The overarching principles state – as in earlier iterations – that rheumatologists are the specialists who should primarily care for people with RA. They also restate the aim for best care, which includes shared decision-making between the patient and the rheumatologist based on disease activity and safety as well as patient factors such as comorbidities or progression of structural damage. There are multiple drugs with different modes of action, and people may require multiple successive therapies throughout their life to control their disease. Finally, RA has a high individual, medical, and societal cost, all of which should be considered in its management. The recommendations reiterate that DMARDs should be started as soon as the diagnosis of RA is made. They go on to consider treatment targets and monitoring frequency, as well as the specific role for methotrexate, glucocorticoids, biologics, and JAK inhibitors – the only group of targeted synthetic DMARDs approved for RA – including what to do if treatment targets are not achieved, or if a patient is in sustained remission. An important change in the current update is the omission of stratification according to risk factors for bad outcome once the initial treatment strategy has failed, since that failure is already such a risk factor. While the authors acknowledge the developing field around pre-RA, this has not yet matured to allow for a respective new recommendation. In the last 15 years EULAR has provided the support to assemble one of the largest task forces in the field with experts from across the globe, allowing the development of recommendations for the management of RA that include important and highly valuably international input. Informed by thorough assessment of the most recent research activities, the new recommendations continue to be at the forefront of guidance for clinical practice and approaches to future scientific developments."" Josef Smolen – convenor of the task force, Editor-in-Chief of ARD and Professor emeritus at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria Also of note, the previous recommendations advised that, after glucocorticoids had been discontinued and a patient was in sustained remission, DMARD dose reduction could be considered; the new formulation adds in a preference for DMARD continuation in this situation, although dose reduction may still be considered. ""A cure for RA is still rare, and for most patients stopping treatment altogether leads to the disease flaring, especially for patients on biologic or JAK inhibitor therapies"" said Christopher Edwards – co-convenor of the task force, EULAR board member and Professor at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom. ""While carefully reducing medication can be successful for some people, completely stopping treatment is generally not advised. The updated recommendations continue to highlight that treatment decisions should be made jointly by patients and clinicians, ensuring that care is tailored to each individual's needs and preferences."" EULAR hopes the updated and streamlined recommendations will support therapeutic decisions for people living with RA. European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) Smolen, J. S., et al. (2026). EULAR recommendations for the management of rheumatoid arthritis with synthetic and biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs: 2025 update. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. DOI: 10.1016/j.ard.2026.01.023. https://ard.eular.org/article/S0003-4967(26)00075-0/fulltext Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Condition News | Healthcare News Cancel reply to comment Alexander Dulebo Discover how Bruker is helping drive innovation in cosmetic science through advanced AFM techniques. Gabi Saavedra Discover how Thermo Fisher is shaping the future of plant-based foods through texture innovation and cultural relevance. Dr. Lena Smirnova Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Saturday 14 Mar 2026 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback","{'href': 'https://www.news-medical.net', 'title': 'News-Medical'}","health" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:news-medical.net","FDA-approved drug fedratinib enhances communication between cellular organelles","https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260313/FDA-approved-drug-fedratinib-enhances-communication-between-cellular-organelles.aspx","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:20:00 GMT"," Cells behave like cities and organelles carry out infrastructural roles: Mitochondria are powerhouses, the endoplasmic reticulum serves as a transport hub and lysosomes help with waste disposal. Communication between different parts of a cell is important for metabolism. This inter-organelle communication can occur at sites where these parts are in contact with each other, known as membrane contact sites. One of the most abundant interactions occurs at the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria contact sites, or ERMCS, and dysregulation leads to various diseases, including neurodegeneration, obesity, cancer and diabetes. However, little is known about what drives ERMCS organization. In a new study, University of Michigan researchers found that the FDA-approved drug fedratinib can lead to ERMCS formation, providing a potential therapeutic avenue. Using human and mouse cell lines, the researchers screened a library of FDA-approved drugs to see which ones can influence ERMCS formation. They found that the anti-cancer drug fedratinib could do so, and this increase was reversible when fedratinib was washed away from the cells. The team found that fedratinib inhibits BRD4, a protein that controls how DNA is read by the cells in a process called transcription. This inhibition activates a transcriptional pathway that induces ERMCS formation. Over the past few decades, researchers have seen that cell organelles work in conjunction and they need to talk to each other to do that. By identifying this signaling pathway, we can better understand how these contact sites are sustained."" Yatrik Shah, Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and member of the Rogel Cancer Center Using electron microscopy, the researchers showed that fedratinib also caused novel structural changes in the ERMCS sites. These changes were similar to what is seen when cells are infected with SARS-CoV-2 and in metastatic melanoma cells. ""We found 3D envelopment of the endoplasmic reticulum that formed around the mitochondria in our cell lines,"" said Drew Stark, a graduate student in the Shah and Lyssiotis labs and the first author of the paper. ""There were also different populations of mitochondria that differed in their degree of contact with the endoplasmic reticulum."" Approximately 30% of the mitochondria exhibited structural alterations, and the researchers believe that those with abundant contact sites are being used to support specific metabolic pathways. The researchers are investigating whether the same effects are seen in mouse models. They also aim to understand how these mitochondria are affecting metabolic processes and whether they have similar roles in other diseases. Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan Chen, B., et al. (2026). BRD4-mediated ER membrane contact creates functionally distinct mitochondrial subtypes. Molecular Cell. DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2026.01.012. https://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/fulltext/S1097-2765(26)00032-8 Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Histology & Microscopy Cancel reply to comment Alexander Dulebo Discover how Bruker is helping drive innovation in cosmetic science through advanced AFM techniques. Gabi Saavedra Discover how Thermo Fisher is shaping the future of plant-based foods through texture innovation and cultural relevance. Dr. Lena Smirnova Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Saturday 14 Mar 2026 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback","{'href': 'https://www.news-medical.net', 'title': 'News-Medical'}","health" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:news-medical.net","Study highlights benefits of specialist resource centers for autistic pupils","https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260313/Study-highlights-benefits-of-specialist-resource-centers-for-autistic-pupils.aspx","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:58:00 GMT"," Specialist resource centers (a form of 'Inclusion Base') within mainstream secondary schools may be linked to stronger academic progress, improved attendance, and a greater sense of belonging for autistic pupils, according to a new three-year study from the University of Surrey. However, the research suggests that placement alone does not determine wellbeing. Instead, pupils' perceptions of teacher and peer support were the strongest and most consistent predictors of positive adjustment. Researchers followed 119 autistic pupils, aged 11–14 years old, across seven mainstream secondary schools, comparing three types of provision: placement in a specialist resource center(SRC), mainstream placement in a school that hosted an SRC, and mainstream schools without an SRC. Outcomes were compared across psychological wellbeing, social inclusion, belonging, academic progress, attendance and exclusion. For some autistic pupils, mainstream school environments can be overwhelming due to noise, sensory demands and social pressure. Specialist resource centers offer a quieter, more supportive space, with higher staff to student ratios helping pupils stay engaged in their education."" Dr. Anna Cook, Developmental Psychologist, University of Surrey Researchers found that while autistic pupils in SRCs had similar levels of wellbeing to those in other types of schools, specialist resource centres did show potential advantages in key areas including higher academic attainment, stronger sense of school belonging, higher perceived teacher support and smaller attendance gaps (relative to whole-school averages) compared to national benchmarks for autistic pupils. Interestingly supportive relationships were the strongest predictors of positive outcomes. Perceived peer support was most strongly associated with reduced internalising symptoms, fewer peer problems, greater happiness, stronger friendships and increased flourishing. It was also found that teacher support was the strongest predictor of school belonging and was also associated with increased flourishing and fewer peer difficulties. Dr Cook concluded: ""Debates around inclusive education often focus on whether autistic pupils should be educated in specialist or mainstream settings. The findings suggest that this may be the wrong question. Policy decisions focused solely on placement will always be incomplete. Specialist resource centres may offer advantages – particularly for belonging and academic equity – but what matters most is whether schools cultivate supportive relationships and autism-affirming environments. ""Improving outcomes for autistic pupils may depend less on where they are educated, and more on how well they are supported within that setting."" This study was published in the journal Autism. University of Surrey Cook, A., & Boddy, A. (2026). The impact of specialist resource centres on autistic pupils' experience of mainstream school. Autism. DOI: 10.1177/13623613261426099. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13623613261426099 Posted in: Child Health News | Medical Research News | Healthcare News Cancel reply to comment Alexander Dulebo Discover how Bruker is helping drive innovation in cosmetic science through advanced AFM techniques. Gabi Saavedra Discover how Thermo Fisher is shaping the future of plant-based foods through texture innovation and cultural relevance. Dr. Lena Smirnova Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Saturday 14 Mar 2026 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback","{'href': 'https://www.news-medical.net', 'title': 'News-Medical'}","health" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:news-medical.net","Vitamin B2 metabolism helps cancer cells resist ferroptosis","https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260313/Vitamin-B2-metabolism-helps-cancer-cells-resist-ferroptosis.aspx","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:43:00 GMT"," A lack of vitamin B2 makes tumor cells more susceptible to a unique form of cell death. This was discovered by researchers at the Rudolf Virchow Centre at the University of Würzburg. The human body cannot produce vitamin B2 – also known as riboflavin – itself; it must absorb the important substance through diet. The vitamin can be found in dairy products, eggs, meat and green vegetables. The metabolism converts it into molecules that protect the cell from oxidative damage, among other functions. Researchers at the Rudolf Virchow Centre (RVZ) at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) have discovered that this function of the vitamin also has a downside: it also protects cancer cells. Vitamin B2 plays a crucial role in protecting cancer cells from ferroptosis, a special form of programmed cell death."" Vera Skafar, PhD student She is a member of the research group led by José Pedro Friedmann Angeli, Professor of Translational Cell Biology. The results have been published in the renowned journal Nature Cell Biology. The human body uses the mechanism of programmed cell death to allow damaged or dangerous cells to ""die"" in a controlled manner without causing inflammation in the surrounding tissue. Specifically ferroptosis is associated with many pathological conditions, including cancer and neurodegeneration. Unlike other cell-death pathways, ferroptosis is triggered when iron-driven lipid peroxidation overwhelms a cell's antioxidant protection. Cancer cells often evade ferroptosis by boosting redox defense systems. This study highlights vitamin B2 metabolism as an important contributor to those defenses, implying that targeting riboflavin-derived cofactors could weaken ferroptosis resistance and make tumors more vulnerable. The protein FSP1, a focus of the working group's research, is among the components responsible for protecting healthy cells from cell death. Vitamin B2 supports the protein in this task. Using genome editing and cancer cell models, the researchers observed that a deficiency of the vitamin made cancer cells more susceptible to ferroptosis. Ideally, it should be possible to utilize this therapeutically: Switching off the metabolic pathway of vitamin B2 and thus specifically triggering the death of cancer cells. ""However, an inhibitor that can do this is still missing,"" says Skafar. The researchers addressed this limitation by employing roseoflavin, a natural compound with a structure like vitamin B2 and produced by bacteria. In the laboratory, Professor Friedmann Angeli's team tested the active substance in cancer cell models: ""It turned out that roseoflavin triggers ferroptosis in low concentrations,"" says the group leader, ""our experiments show the feasibility of this concept."" The study thus paves the way for the development of targeted cancer therapies based on ferroptosis. In the next step, the RVZ working group will focus on developing inhibitors of vitamin B2 metabolism; the aim will be to evaluate their use in preclinical cancer models. Friedmann Angeli adds: ""Ferroptosis is not only relevant to cancer. Increasing evidence suggests that it also contributes to pathological processes in neurodegenerative diseases and in tissue damage following organ transplantation or ischemia-reperfusion injury."" Understanding how vitamin B2 metabolism influences ferroptosis may therefore have broader implications for diseases in which excessive or insufficient ferroptosis is implicated. The study received funding from the priority programme ""Ferroptosis: from Molecular Basics to Clinical applications"" (SPP2306) of the German Research Foundation (DFG). It also ran under the DeciFerr (Deciphering and exploiting ferroptosis regulatory mechanism in cancer) project led by Professor Friedmann Angeli. This has been funded by the European Research Council (ERC) since May 2024 with an ERC Consolidator Grant and almost two million euros. University of Würzburg Skafar, V., et al. (2026). Riboflavin metabolism shapes FSP1-driven ferroptosis resistance. Nature Cell Biology. DOI: 10.1038/s41556-025-01856-x. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-025-01856-x Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News Cancel reply to comment Alexander Dulebo Discover how Bruker is helping drive innovation in cosmetic science through advanced AFM techniques. Gabi Saavedra Discover how Thermo Fisher is shaping the future of plant-based foods through texture innovation and cultural relevance. Dr. Lena Smirnova Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Saturday 14 Mar 2026 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback","{'href': 'https://www.news-medical.net', 'title': 'News-Medical'}","health" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:news-medical.net","App-based therapy helps men improve control over premature ejaculation","https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260313/App-based-therapy-helps-men-improve-control-over-premature-ejaculation.aspx","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:04:00 GMT"," A smartphone app designed to tackle the underlying psychological causes of premature ejaculation can significantly improve sex life and delay ejaculation, while offering a way to reduce stigma around the condition, say researchers. Data from the CLIMACS study are presented today [Saturday 14 March 2026] at the European Association of Urology Annual Congress (EAU26) in London. It is the first study to test a digital-first approach for treating premature ejaculation at home. The app teaches men several therapeutic techniques, tips and exercises designed by urologists and psychologists, as well as offering evidence-based information to men about the condition. This guided training is designed to help men manage arousal and better control when they ejaculate. It includes mindfulness, arousal awareness exercises and cognitive behavioural therapy, as well as hands-on physical exercises to improve ejaculation control, like the start-stop technique. Premature ejaculation is a distressing issue between the sheets, and everyone's experience is different. Men with the condition typically ejaculate sooner than desired during sex and within 60 seconds of penetration. Affecting up to 30% of men, it is highly stigmatised, and only 9% of men seek medical help. Causes of premature ejaculation are complex and include relationship issues and psychological factors like anxiety, stress and depression. For many men, this leads to worry and performance anxiety and can affect relationships, but the most commonly available treatments, like pills or creams, only limit the symptoms. The German-based CLIMACS study tested whether the information and therapeutic techniques taught to men through the Melonga App® could help to delay ejaculation. The researchers recruited 80 men without other underlying health conditions into the 12-week programme. They were each given a series of health questionnaires about their physical and psychological experiences during sex and asked to use a stopwatch to measure the time from penetration to ejaculation. After 12 weeks, men in the control group – who had been given no other support from the study to manage their condition – were offered access to the app and followed up for 12 weeks. 66 patients submitted complete questionnaires. For app users in the study, the total time from penetration to ejaculation doubled after 12 weeks, increasing by an average of 64 seconds (from 61 seconds to 125 seconds). Men in the control group saw an increase of just 0.5 seconds on average. Men using the app reported significantly improved control of their ejaculation during sex, reduced worry linked to ejaculation, and a reduced impact on their relationship. There was also a significant improvement in sexuality-related quality of life measures, like enjoyment and confidence, in men who used the app, compared with no change in the control group. After 12 weeks, 22% of men who used the app were no longer experiencing premature ejaculation, based on self-reported measures. The study's lead researcher, Dr Christer Groeben from Marburg University and Medical Faculty Heidelberg at Heidelberg University, Germany, is presenting the study findings at EAU26. He said, ""Many men who live with premature ejaculation don't seek help because of the shame associated with the condition. Our study shows that, as an at-home self-help tool, this can support men to improve control of their ejaculation and achieve a satisfying sex life without losing spontaneity. ""The most commonly available pharmacy therapies are designed only to treat the symptoms, not the cause, meaning many men discontinue them after a while. These men can remain under-treated and live with a considerable psychological burden that really starts to affect the quality of their relationships. Going to a doctor for help can feel like a big first step, and so an app like this can help to bridge that gap by normalising the condition as treatable."" Dr Giorgio Russo, Associate Professor of Urology at University of Catania, Italy, and Chair of the EAU Office of Young Academic Urologists, said: ""There's much information and misinformation out there for men who find they have premature ejaculation, and so this app is devised by urologists and psychologists as a new way to bring together the most effective advice into a single, easily accessible and trusted, evidence-based resource. The research shows it can completely treat almost a quarter of patients, which is a huge development because these men were treated without pills. I think it would now be interesting to build on this research with a larger study and look at the impact of a digital approach on the satisfaction of partners, rather than just users."" Final results of the CLIMACS study, which are not yet peer reviewed, are expected to be published later this year. The app is available in Ireland, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Belgium. European Association of Urology Posted in: Men's Health News | Medical Research News Cancel reply to comment Alexander Dulebo Discover how Bruker is helping drive innovation in cosmetic science through advanced AFM techniques. Gabi Saavedra Discover how Thermo Fisher is shaping the future of plant-based foods through texture innovation and cultural relevance. Dr. Lena Smirnova Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Saturday 14 Mar 2026 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback","{'href': 'https://www.news-medical.net', 'title': 'News-Medical'}","health" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=women's+us+soccer","How the Utah Royals are attacking another injury-ridden start to the season","https://www.sltrib.com/sports/royals/2026/03/14/utah-royals-begin-nwsl-season/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:01:09 GMT"," (Colin E. Braley | AP) Utah Royals forward Mini Tanaka (11) during an NWSL soccer match in Kansas City, Mo., Saturday, March 29, 2025. Sponsored: How to decide whether to file joint or separate tax returns after getting married. Donate to the newsroom now. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax deductible Report a missed paper by emailing subscribe@sltrib.com or calling 801-237-2900 For e-edition questions or comments, contact customer support 801-237-2900 or email subscribe@sltrib.com sltrib.com © 1996-2026 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved.","{'href': 'https://www.sltrib.com', 'title': 'The Salt Lake Tribune'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=club+world+cup","Football and Finance","https://www.goal.com/en-gh/lists/football-and-finance-2026-world-cup-matches-on-dazn-to-be-shown-in-pubs-and-bars-too/bltf06e9537486c7adf","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:03:07 GMT"," Latest news on the World Cup broadcast. The 2026 World Cup is fast approaching. The World Cup matches will be broadcast on DAZN, with a selection of them shown free-to-air on Rai. The platform has secured the broadcasting rights for the general public and is on the verge of doing the same for commercial venues. As reported by Calcio e Finanza, DAZN will indeed be the exclusive broadcaster of the matches in bars, restaurants and public venues. The deal has not yet been officially confirmed, but, according to the publication specialising in football and economics, negotiations are in their final stages. It is worth noting that DAZN will stream all 104 matches of the tournament live, with a total investment, together with Rai, ofaround €160 million. This would not, in any case, be a new development for OTT streaming in public venues. Last summer, DAZN already broadcast all the matches of the 2025 Club World Cup in commercial establishments. It is not yet clear whether DAZN will seek to share the commercial offering for the public with potential partners. The platform that broadcasts Serie A will, in fact, have to decide whether to keep the World Cup entirely to itself or to distribute it with other players (as it did with Mediaset for the Club World Cup). In this case, however, the collaboration would be limited to streaming, as free-to-air broadcasting will be the preserve of Rai. Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting","{'href': 'https://www.goal.com', 'title': 'Goal.com'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=fifa+world+cup","FIFA rankings for all 48 World Cup teams: How are they calculated and when are they updated?","https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/fifa-rankings-48-world-cup-153400990.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:34:00 GMT"," Manage your account ... FIFA rankings for all 48 World Cup teams: How are they calculated and when are they updated? originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here. FIFA rankings are a unique way to measure how national teams compare to each other and can prove important when it comes to tournaments like a World Cup. Draws for such events are influenced by rankings, with the best teams separated from facing each other in the group stages. This means nations with lower rankings are often drawn in tougher groups and have an even tougher task to win the overall tournament. FIFA rankings aren't perfect and have come in for criticism in recent years, but they do provide a solid and reliable overview of a side's general consistency and how they'll likely fair come World Cup time. MORE:2026 FIFA World Cup schedule, fixtures, bracket, and draw breakdown As the 2026 World Cup nears, Spain are hoping to maintain their status as the world No.1. They have been in the top spot since September 2025 when they jumped up from No. 2 to take over from Argentina. As it currently stands, the lowest-ranked team in the 2026 World Cup field is New Zealand, who stand at 85th in the world. That could change if the likes of Suriname or New Caledonia manage to shock at the Intercontinental Playoff and qualify for the tournament. Italy (13th) are the highest ranked side not to have yet qualified, although they still may get through via the UEFA playoff. Rank Nation Points 1 Spain 1877.18 2 Argentina 1873.33 3 France 1870 4 England 1834.12 5 Brazil 1760.46 6 Portugal 1760.38 7 Netherlands 1756.27 8 Morocco 1736.57 9 Belgium 1730.71 10 Germany 1724.15 11 Croatia 1716.88 12 Senegal 1706.83 14 Colombia 1701.3 15 United States 1681.88 16 Mexico 1675.75 17 Uruguay 1672.62 18 Switzerland 1654.69 19 Japan 1650.12 20 Iran 1617.02 22 South Korea 1599.45 23 Ecuador 1591.73 24 Austria 1585.51 27 Australia 1574.01 28 Algeria 1560.91 29 Canada 1559.15 31 Egypt 1556.71 32 Norway 1553.14 33 Panama 1539.47 37 Ivory Coast 1522.48 38 Scotland 1506.77 40 Paraguay 1501.5 47 Tunisia 1479.04 52 Uzbekistan 1462.03 56 Qatar 1454.96 60 South Africa 1432.76 61 Saudi Arabia 1429.48 64 Jordan 1388.93 67 Cape Verde 1370.49 72 Ghana 1351.09 81 Curacao 1302.7 83 Haiti 1294.49 85 New Zealand 1279.25 Only eight nations to date have been crowned world number one. Germany were top when rankings were first introduced with Brazil eventually replacing them. From there, Italy, France, Argentina, Spain, Netherlands, and Belgium have all also enjoyed stints as world number one. France and Belgium became the first nations to share top spot when they did so briefly in late 2018. Surprisingly, the team ranked number one going into the World Cup has never won the tournament. Rankings have only been active since the 1994 World Cup, where Germany went in as leaders only to be replaced by eventual winners Brazil. In 1998, Brazil were still number one but were beaten 3-0 by France in that year's World Cup final. France were then top during the 2002 World Cup only for Brazil to bounce back and lift the title. Brazil were world number one going into the 2006 and 2010 tournaments but Italy and Spain both triumphed on those occasions. Spain were then top going into 2014 when Germany triumphed, who themselves were number one in 2018 when France took out the title. This trend has continued in 2022 with top-ranked Brazil knocked out in the quarterfinals, with third-ranked Argentina triumphing at the end of the competition. FIFA rankings have existed since 1992 and uses a points-scoring system to work out standings. The method for calculating FIFA rankings was officially changed in August 2018. This new system works by adding or subtracting points from a team's previous total based on results rather than using an average number of points earned over a certain period. The number of points added or subtracted is influenced by the calibre of opponent a team faces. For example, beating a team ranked inside the top 10 will result in more points being gained than defeating a side ranked outside the top 20. The expected result of the game will also impact the number of points gained. Specific games are given more weight too, so winning a World Cup match will result in more points than claiming victory in an international friendly. Matches decided by penalty shootouts are a factor as well with losing teams given the same points as for a draw, while winners only get points equivalent to half a win. Losing knockout round matches of final competitions also won't result in teams losing any points. Here's a calculation example provided by FIFA: Team A has 1300 points before the match and wins a continental qualifier against team B that has 1500 points For team A the formula is: P=1300+25*(1–(1/(10 exp (-(1300–1500)/600) +1))) For team B the formula is: P = 1500 + 25 * (0- (1 / (10 exp (-(1500-1300)/600) + 1))) Thus, team A wins 17 points and has P = 1317 points after the match Team B loses the same amount of points and thus ends up with 1483 points after the match Getty Images If the above example has you scratching your head, you're not alone. But understanding the points system a bit better should help with that. The 'importance co-efficient' plays a big part in determining just how many ranking points a team can earn from each fixture and is as follows: 5 – friendlies played outside the International Match Calendar windows 10 – friendlies played within the International Match Calendar windows 15 – UEFA Nations League matches (group stage) 25 – UEFA Nations League matches (playoffs and finals), Confederations' final competitions qualifiers, FIFA World Cup qualifiers 35 – Confederations' final competitions matches (before quarter-finals) 40 – Confederations' final competitions matches (quarter-finals and later) 50 – FIFA World Cup matches (before quarter-finals) 60 – FIFA World Cup matches (quarter-finals, semi-finals, third place play-off and final) The result of said match then combines with the expected result to determine what percentage of the above points are awarded. FIFA rankings are updated after each recognised international window. As such, they are generally revised several times a year depending on the FIFA calendar. This year, rankings will only be updated a total of six times with the final revision of 2022 to be made on December 22 after the World Cup in Qatar has concluded.","{'href': 'https://ca.sports.yahoo.com', 'title': 'Yahoo Sports Canada'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=fifa+world+cup","Puyallup Tribe to host fan zone, Seattle World Cup celebrations. Details here","https://ca.news.yahoo.com/puyallup-tribe-host-fan-zone-123000646.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:30:00 GMT"," Manage your account The Puyallup Tribe of Indians, in partnership with Pierce County and the City of Tacoma, is hosting fan events for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in June and July, per a recent press release. Festivities begin June 12 with a parade down Portland Avenue. The parade ends at the Puyallup Tribe of Indians' administration building (3001 Puyalupabsh St., Tacoma), where the tribal community will host traditional opening ceremonies “and share a Lushootseed traditional narrative to mark this historic moment,” the Tribe said in a news release Tuesday. The event concludes with a fireworks display, visible from the front lawn of the administration building. The Puyallup Tribe is hosting a fan zone on the administration campus during the six Seattle-based matches on June 15, June 19, June 24, June 26, July 1 and July 6, per the news release. Each day attendees can watch the World Cup live on large outdoor screens, shop from local artists and vendors, enjoy food trucks, cultural events and a kid's zone. There will be free guest parking at the Tacoma Dome and Link Light Rail Station, with complimentary shuttle service to and from the tribal campus, according to the release. The Tribe also will host a World Cup Protocol event on June 18, in addition to a free World Cup Pow-Wow from June 19-21 and World Cup Stick Games tournament from June 26-28. Residents can participate in World Cup viewing parties at tribal venues across the region, including the Emerald Queen Casino, Woven Seafood and Chophouse, Commencement Bay Cannabis on 72nd Street and Firecracker Alley. During an interview Friday, Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello told The News Tribune that Visit Tacoma-Pierce County will hide special scarves and glass art similar to Monkeyshines around Tacoma a couple days before the events (and throughout the events) to build excitement for the World Cup. Many of the glass pieces will have QR codes on the back, which residents can redeem for prizes during the June and July festivities, he said.","{'href': 'https://ca.news.yahoo.com', 'title': 'Yahoo News Canada'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=fifa+world+cup","Most CONTROVERSIAL VAR Decision? 🤔 No. 89 in Best FIFA World Cup™ Moments 🏆","https://www.foxsports.com/watch/fmc-rjg0mj2wq2odfvj6","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:00:56 GMT"," POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY ","{'href': 'https://www.foxsports.com', 'title': 'FOX Sports'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=fifa+world+cup","McGarvey joins lawmakers pressuring FIFA over 'exclusionary' pricing","https://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/soccer/2026/03/14/world-cup-ticket-prices-draw-pressure-for-fifa-from-us-lawmakers/89152337007/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:38:08 GMT"," U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey is among dozens of lawmakers calling on FIFA to lower ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup, citing a ""financially exclusionary,"" dynamic pricing model that has placed matches out of reach for many fans.","{'href': 'https://www.courier-journal.com', 'title': 'The Courier-Journal'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=fifa+world+cup","Beer makers, athletic brands, and hotels are some of Goldman's top stock picks for the 2026 World Cup","https://www.businessinsider.com/top-stock-picks-to-buy-world-cup-goldman-bud-nke-2026-3","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:45:00 GMT"," Every time Naomi publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Enter your email By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The 2026 World Cup is around the corner, and Goldman Sachs shared some of the stock picks they see as poised to gain from the tournament. The FIFA World Cup kicks off on June 11 with a historic number of games across the US, Canada, and Mexico. Fans globally will be buying beer and gear, and people catching games in person will be spending on travel. Goldman Sachs analysts' 2026 World Cup stock winners include beverage giants, athletic wear and retail players, and travel names. Here are the firm's top stock picks that could see a boost from the soccer tournament. Goldman's consumer staples analysts say beer companies will be among the largest beneficiaries of the World Cup. Every time Naomi publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Naomi and get more of their work as it publishes. By clicking ""Sign up"", you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Historically, brewers based in the host countries see a pop in sales volumes. They named Anheuser-Busch InBev, Constellation Brands, Molson Coors, Heineken, and Carlsberg as stocks the firm has a buy-rating on that could gain from the event. The pop in alcohol sales isn't expected to be felt across all types. Beer volumes are expected to gain, while spirits sales aren't expected to change. Consumer discretionary stocks, such as top athletic wear brands Adidas, Puma, and Nike, are also expected to benefit. Adidas, which Goldman rates as neutral, is the best positioned, the analysts said, highlighting that the brand is an official tournament partner offering several marketing opportunities, including the official match ball. Puma, a buy-rated stock from Goldman analysts, is also an anticipated winner, given the anticipated brand visibility from the company's recent efforts to amplify its soccer presence. Nike is a buy for Goldman ahead of the World Cup. Analysts said it's well positioned to ""capture disproportionate attention and share within global football."" Goldman has flagged two buy-rated retail stocks as top World Cup 2026 picks: Academy Sports and Outdoors and Dick's Sporting Goods. Both sports retailers are expected to see a sales lift from the World Cup. Goldman projected a 1% to 2.3% and 0.7% to 1.8% bump to comparable sales, respectively. The analysts noted that these estimates are focused on the tournament period itself, even though both retailers are already selling World Cup merch online and in store. Hyatt Hotels, Marriott, and Hilton are the hotel stocks Goldman names as top picks ahead of the World Cup. The firm has buy ratings for all three stocks. Beyond hotels, Goldman flagged Airbnb since the company has the largest share of alternative accommodation rentals in North American markets, though the firm has a neutral rating on the stock. The analysts also have a neutral rating on Booking.com and a buy rating on Expedia. US airlines are also well positioned to gain from fans traveling, though ongoing oil-price spikes cloud the outlook. Jump to","{'href': 'https://www.businessinsider.com', 'title': 'Business Insider'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:goal.com","VIDEO: Cristiano Ronaldo's son has on-pitch tantrum after being subbed in Al-Nassr youth match as he's shoved by opponent & is shown card by referee","https://www.goal.com/en/lists/video-cristiano-ronaldo-son-tantrum-al-nassr-card-referee/blt0ece88d9018d495f","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:08:23 GMT"," Cristiano Ronaldo Jr became the centre of attention, but not for his goal-scoring skills, after a tense incident during a Saudi Pro League's under-15 derby. The young Al-Nassr talent couldn't hide his frustration in a high-intensity match against Al-Hilal, demonstrating that he has inherited not only his father's talent but also his competitive and volatile temperament under pressure. The incident began when Al-Nassr's coaching staff decided to take the player off the field. As he left the pitch as part of the substitution, Ronaldo Jr continued his angry gestures and protests towards the referee. The official's response was swift, with the forward immediately being shown a yellow card for his unsportsmanlike conduct as he walked towards the technical area having been shoved by an annoyed opponent. As expected, the video of the incident went viral and quickly became a topic of discussion on social media, generating mixed opinions among fans. Many argued that Cristiano's son should remain calm and act more professionally, pointing out that this type of outburst can harm his development and public image in the long run. On the other hand, some fans considered the young player's reaction not disproportionate, understanding the frustrated show as a display of the competitiveness and hunger for victory that characterises his family. Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting Regardless of his son's behaviour, fans are now waiting for the latest developments regarding Cristiano Ronaldo. The Al-Nassr forward has been in Madrid recovering from a muscle injury that he suffered on February 28 during his side's 2-0 win over Al-Fayha. His frustration at being sidelined is compounded by the fact he trails Ivan Toney and Al-Qadisiyah striker Julian Quinones in the SPL Golden Boot race, with ex-Brentford striker Toney having moved onto 25 goals for the season. Quinones, meanwhile, is stuck on 24 goals, with Ronaldo a further three behind on 21. Regardless of the top-scorer race, Al-Nassr are currently top of the table, two points ahead of second-placed Al-Ahli as the Portuguese looks for his first league title since moving to Saudi Arabia in 2023.","{'href': 'https://www.goal.com', 'title': 'Goal.com'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:goal.com","Tottenham in freefall and Kulusevski has gone missing: why the former Juventus player isn't playing anymore and where he might go","https://www.goal.com/en/lists/tottenham-in-freefall-and-kulusevski-has-gone-missing-why-the-former-juventus-player-isn-t-playing-anymore-and-where-he-might-go/blt110fe97f94998445","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:32:46 GMT"," The Swede has not played a single match this season: how is he doing and what does the future hold for him? Amid Tottenham's disastrous season, with theclub facing the threat of relegation, there is one notable absentee: a player who has not been seen in action – Dejan Kulusevski. The former Juventus man has not taken to the pitch at all in the 2025/2026 season due to a serious knee injury and the subsequent operation. At 25, the Swede is going through the worst spell of his career; he hasn't played for 10 months and cannot help the Spurs avoid relegation to the Championship. But he is beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Kulusevski recently posted a cryptic message on social media, hinting at his desire to return soon. To do so, he turned to the Bible and a verse from the prophet Isaiah: “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint”, a sort of reminder in which he shows that he is still frustrated by the injury and the long spell on the sidelines, but also his certainty that he will soon be back to showcase his talent. Accompanying the post is also the song by his late fellow countryman, Avicii, “For a Better Day”. On his own social media channels, the Swede continues to post photos and videos showing him training, improving and trying to return as soon as possible to be available for his team. As mentioned, the former Atalanta, Parma and Juventus player has not played for almost a year, since 11 May 2025, when he sustained an injury to his right kneecap against Crystal Palace. This was followed by surgery and a difficult rehabilitation process that has prevented him from returning to the pitch and has left it unclear when he will be able to do so. Spurs manager Igor Tudor himself was unable to give a definitive answer: “He's going through a difficult time; he's had major problems, but he's in good spirits. And so are the medical staff. So we'll see next week how things go. We hope he can play in the final stages of the season, but at the moment, we don't know,” said the Croatian. The Swede's future is therefore uncertain. First of all, we need to see how he is doing, and then in which division the Londoners will be playing. Despite his long spell on the sidelines, Kulusevski still has many admirers across Europe and in Italy too, where several clubs are keeping tabs on his progress. In the likely shake-up of Tudor's current squad, his departure could well materialise in a few months' time. Signed from Tottenham for €30 million in 2020, Kulusevski has made 146 appearances for the Spurs, scoring 25 goals and providing 30 assists. He also won the Europa League, albeit having to watch the final and receive his medal on crutches. Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting","{'href': 'https://www.goal.com', 'title': 'Goal.com'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:goal.com","""A backstabbing move by the bald guy"": A transfer by FC Barcelona has left Joan Laporta furious","https://www.goal.com/en/lists/a-backstabbing-move-by-the-bald-guy-a-transfer-by-fc-barcelona-has-left-joan-laporta-furious/blt0b114665f35fdd51","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:07:36 GMT"," FC Barcelona still doesn't seem to have got over Dro Fernandez's departure. Barça president Joan Laporta blames the player's agent and former Barça professional Ivan de la Peña for the departure of star player Dro Fernandez from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain in the winter, believing him to be the mastermind behind the move. ""What happened with Dro was a betrayal. If it had happened with Jorge Mendes (a well-known agent to numerous stars, ed.), it couldn't have gone the way it did with the bald one. It was a disgrace and a backstabbing move,"" Laporta lashed out at Jijantes de la Pena, who played for FC Barcelona from 1990 to 1998 and again from 2000 to 2001: ""He is an agent because of his past at Barcelona; he had a special relationship with the club, and I considered it a backstabbing move."" De la Pena coaches two other current Blaugrana professionals, Gavi and Eric Garcia. Laporta continued: ""We have built a pragmatic relationship with the PSG president. More money was spent to maintain friendly relations with Barcelona – and for that I am grateful. I felt sorry for Hansi. He (Dro) was given a role in the first team at the expense of players who deserved it more, because Barcelona had invested more in them."" Fernandez had expressed his desire to leave during the last transfer window – and shortly afterwards, this wish was granted with a move to PSG. The Parisian club triggered his release clause, which stood at just over six million euros. Barcelona had previously tried to extend his contract – which was actually valid until 2027 – at any cost, but were unsuccessful. Borussia Dortmund are also said to have shown interest in the 18-year-old in the meantime. Immediately after the move, Laporta made his displeasure clear: “Surprisingly, his agent informed us that we could not go through with what we had agreed.” Manager Hansi Flick was also far from happy: “I loved Dro, so naturally I'm disappointed. But that's football. We have to respect this decision. I'm disappointed. He knows it, but I really loved this lad. He had a great future here too. He made a different decision. I respect it; that's football.” Since his move, Fernandez has played six competitive matches for the reigning Champions League winners, spending a total of 221 minutes on the pitch. The attacking midfielder's contract with PSG runs until 2030. Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting","{'href': 'https://www.goal.com', 'title': 'Goal.com'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:goal.com","Benched again! Harry Kane named as Bayern Munich substitute for second game in a row as in-form Nicolas Jackson keeps place","https://www.goal.com/en/lists/harry-kane-benched-bayern-munich-bayer-leverkusen-bundesliga/blt3158b6c259f6cae6","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:21:22 GMT"," Harry Kane has been forced to settle for a place on the bench for the second consecutive match. Bayern Munich boss Vincent Kompany has opted to stick with Nicolas Jackson for the high-stakes Bundesliga showdown against Bayer Leverkusen. The England captain finds himself in unfamiliar territory at the BayArena, starting among the substitutes for Saturday's pivotal clash. After battling a calf injury, the striker has been unable to displace the red-hot Jackson, who continues to lead the line for the Bavarian giants. This marks the second game in a row that Kane has missed out on the starting XI, following a similar bench appearance in the Champions League midweek. Kompany's decision signals a cautious approach to his talisman's fitness, prioritising long-term availability over immediate involvement in the starting line-up. Bayern's preparations for the trip to the BayArena have been hampered by a significant injury list, particularly in the goalkeeping department. With Manuel Neuer still sidelined due to a torn muscle fiber, and Jonas Urbig suffering from a concussion, veteran Sven Ulreich starts between the sticks. The defensive line is also missing key components, as Alphonso Davies remains out with a hamstring strain and Hiroki Ito continues his recovery from a torn muscle. This has forced Kompany into a defensive reshuffle, starting Josip Stanisic and Konrad Laimer as full-backs alongside the central pairing of Dayot Upamecano and Jonathan Tah. The midfield engine room will be anchored by Joshua Kimmich and Aleksandar Pavlovic, with Leon Goretzka once again among the substitutes. The inclusion of Lennart Karl in the attacking midfield role shows Kompany's continued faith in the club's youth prospects during this congested period of the domestic and European season. Kane, meanwhile, is likely to be introduced to provide a second-half spark having been an unused substitute in Italy last time out. Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting Bayern Munich currently top the Bundesliga table, 11 points ahead of second-placed Borussia Dortmund. They are still in contention for a treble, with Die Roten also competing in the Champions League and DFB-Pokal. After this match, they will shift their focus to European competition, where they will face Atalanta in the second leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie.","{'href': 'https://www.goal.com', 'title': 'Goal.com'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:goal.com","Juventus and Milan on Lewandowski: ""I haven't decided on my future yet; Genoa wanted me. Serie A is very competitive; Italian football doesn't seem to be in crisis to me""","https://www.goal.com/en/lists/juventus-and-milan-on-lewandowski-i-haven-t-decided-on-my-future-yet-genoa-wanted-me-serie-a-is-very-competitive-italian-football-doesn-t-seem-to-be-in-crisis-to-me/blt635c757768e7d4b4","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 07:01:43 GMT"," The 37-year-old Polish centre-forward's contract with Barcelona is due to expire in June. Thirty-seven years old (he turns 38 on 21 August) and still going strong. Robert Lewandowski remains a hot property on the transfer market: with his contract at Barcelona due to expire in June, the Polish striker is reportedly being targeted by Juventus and Milan. Here are his words in an interview with SportWeek , the weekly magazine on sale on Saturday with La Gazzetta dello Sport : “To be honest , there's nothing to say about my future today ; I'm being sincere. The aim is to finish the season with as many wins, goals and titles as possible. Then we'll see. I'm not thinking about it and I haven't decided; at the moment, it's not a priority.” ""Have I ever been close to Serie A? In 2010 I was still in Poland and was about to join Borussia Dortmund. Genoa wanted to sign me, so they invited me to a match against Sampdoria. I was curious to see what the club, the stadium and the atmosphere were like. Also, to be fair to those who had shown an interest in me, I went to watch the derby at Marassi. That was the only time I had anything to do with an Italian team."" ""I see the Italian league as very competitive; it's usually a tight contest and it's not always the same team that wins. In the Champions League, you've had Juventus's finals and then Inter's – it doesn't seem to me that it's in crisis."" Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting","{'href': 'https://www.goal.com', 'title': 'Goal.com'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:goal.com","Ranocchia: ""I turned down Juventus out of loyalty to Inter; Bastoni hasn't killed anyone""","https://www.goal.com/en/lists/ranocchia-i-turned-down-juventus-out-of-loyalty-to-inter-bastoni-hasn-t-killed-anyone/bltee6070c7ab21879e","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 08:09:17 GMT"," The former Inter defender reveals some behind-the-scenes transfer news about Juventus. Andrea Ranocchia reveals some behind-the-scenes transfer news. The former Inter defender said in an interview with *La Gazzetta dello Sport*: “Antonio Conte wanted to reunite the central defensive partnership of myself and Bonucci at Juventus, but I turned down the Bianconeri because I'd formed a special bond with Inter. I stayed in Milan and went through a tough patch, but I've practically forgotten the whole Icardi affair. The issue of the captain's armband never weighed too heavily on me; back then there was so much confusion that you couldn't focus on such matters. We were going through a period of total upheaval: we changed manager, then president, then ownership, and it wasn't easy to perform well in such a context.” ""My revival in the Nerazzurri colours came via a loan spell at Hull City in the Premier League, which gave me a break from Italian football at a time when it was truly exasperating. I returned feeling rejuvenated, but during pre-season training a fan insulted me from the stands. Spalletti stood up for me, and from there a new chapter began; I regained my confidence and then won the Scudetto with Conte. I'd waited over a decade for it; winning it was incredible and filled me with pride.” ""No teammate is in a position to judge Bastoni, let alone someone watching from their sofa. The incident with Kalulu happened during Italy's most eagerly anticipated match, whilst Inter were fighting for the Scudetto and the adrenaline was pumping. His celebration after being sent off was wrong, I agree, but Alessandro has apologised. People have condemned him as if he'd killed someone."" Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting","{'href': 'https://www.goal.com', 'title': 'Goal.com'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:goal.com","BVB are said to be “keeping a close eye on him”: will an Argentine international replace Niklas Süle?","https://www.goal.com/en/lists/bvb-are-said-to-be-keeping-a-close-eye-on-him-will-an-argentine-international-replace-niklas-suele/blt0a6d414c3d8f76ed","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 11:04:45 GMT"," There is likely to be a lot of activity in the Dortmund defence this summer. As for potential new signings, one avenue leads to the Premier League. Rumours that BVB are interested in Argentine international Marcos Senesi of English Premier League side AFC Bournemouth are gaining fresh momentum. According to reports by Sky and *Bild*, the defender is being “closely monitored” by representatives of Borussia Dortmund. Senesi is at home in the heart of defence and could therefore fill a position that has come into focus following recent developments at BVB: first, Aaron Anselmino was recalled early from his loan spell to Chelsea in January. A few days ago,captain Emre Can tore his cruciate ligament, and on Friday the Black and Yellows announced that Niklas Süle's expiring contract would not be renewed. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether Nico Schlotterbeck (contract until 2027) will commit to Borussia long-term or seek a transfer in the summer. It is therefore considered a foregone conclusion that Dortmund will sign at least one centre-back for the coming season. Senesi would be an attractive option here for several reasons: Firstly, the 28-year-old will be available on a free transfer in the summer due to his expiring contract with the Cherries. Senesi is a regular starter and has made 28 appearances this season for the ninth-placed Premier League side, providing four assists in the process. Rumours of BVB's interest in Senesi first emerged in February. At the time, however, there was also talk that several other high-profile clubs had put in feelers for the robust centre-back. The clubs mentioned included Juventus, AS Roma, Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea FC, Everton FC and Crystal Palace. Senesi came through the ranks at San Lorenzo in his home country and made the move to Europe in 2019. At the time, he signed for Feyenoord in the Eredivisie for a transfer fee of seven million euros. In 2022, he moved to Bournemouth for 15 million euros. Senesi also made his debut for the Argentine national team in 2022. After years of being overlooked by Albiceleste coach Lionel Scaloni, he returned last autumn and made his second senior international appearance in October: he played the full 90 minutes in a friendly against Venezuela. According to Bild, however, Senesi is not the only candidate for the Dortmund defence: French youth international Joane Gadou (19) of RB Salzburg is also said to have attracted interest. Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting","{'href': 'https://www.goal.com', 'title': 'Goal.com'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:goal.com","VIDEO: Antoine Griezmann is Tommy Shelby! Why Atletico Madrid stars dressed up as Peaky Blinders before Getafe La Liga clash","https://www.goal.com/en/lists/video-antoine-griezmann-atletico-madrid-peaky-blinders-netflix/blt301c90cd062a20a0","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:03:15 GMT"," Antoine Griezmann and his Atletico Madrid team-mates swapped their training gear for flat caps in a stunning collaboration with Netflix. The partnership aims to promote the upcoming film 'Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man' and will be a theme for their match against Getafe. The worlds of Spanish football and gritty British drama collided as Atleti announced a strategic partnership with Netflix to promote the upcoming film, 'Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man'. The Riyadh Air Metropolitano was transformed into a cinematic stage prior to the meeting with Getafe, blending the ""courage and heart"" of the Colchoneros with the ruthless ambition of the Shelby family. This unique marketing move saw the club's official channels release a viral short film featuring first-team stars fully immersed in the early 20th-century aesthetic. The collaboration aims to bridge the gap between global sports and high-end entertainment, utilising the stadium's technical capabilities to provide a matchday experience unlike any other for the local supporters. Griezmann, Koke, Jose Maria Gimenez, Alexander Sorloth, and Ademola Lookman were the faces of the campaign, trading the high-speed tempo of the pitch for the iconic slow-motion walks of the Peaky Blinders. ""The match against Getafe will be the highlight of our collaboration with Netflix to launch ‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man',"" explained the club's official website. ""On the one hand, our fans will be able to enjoy major surprises linked to the Shelby family in the hours leading up to kick-off in the Riyadh Air Metropolitano Fan Zone."" ""On the other hand, our first team will arrive at the stadium accompanied by vintage vehicles and a large group representing the Shelby family gang. At half-time, all Atleti supporters in attendance will enjoy a surprise show on the pitch, featuring a spectacular display of lights and sound, and plenty of Peaky Blinders."" Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting Diego Simeone's squad will face Getafe on Saturday as they fight for a win to secure a top-three finish in La Liga this season. Atleti currently sits fourth in the standings with 54 points from 27 matches, just one point behind third-placed Villarreal with 28 matches played. Los Rojiblancos will then shift their focus to the European stage, where they will face Tottenham in the second leg of their round-of-16 tie – the first leg ended with a resounding 5-2 victory for Atleti.","{'href': 'https://www.goal.com', 'title': 'Goal.com'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:atptour.com","Indian Wells SFs: Schedule, who is playing, how to watch & more","https://www.atptour.com/en/news/indian-wells-2026-sf-all-you-need-to-know","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:23:41 GMT"," The BNP Paribas Open semi-finals take place on Saturday, with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner leading the action at the ATP Masters 1000 event. Here is what you need to know about the semi-finals in Indian Wells: The 2026 BNP Paribas Open semi-finals will take place on Saturday 14 March. Jannik Sinner will play Alexander Zverev not before 1:30 p.m., and Carlos Alcaraz will take on Daniil Medvedev not before 3 p.m. The BNP Paribas Open semi-finals will feature Carlos Alcaraz against Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner playing Alexander Zverev. Carlos Alcaraz takes a 6-2 Lexus ATP Head2Head lead into his match against Daniil Medvedev, having beaten him in the Indian Wells final in 2023 and 2024. Jannik Sinner leads Alexander Zverev 6-4 and has won the pair's past five meetings. This will be their first clash in Indian Wells. Read more from Indian Wells: Alcaraz earns Norrie revenge, storms into fifth straight Indian Wells semi-final Medvedev marches past Draper, reaches Indian Wells SFs Sinner surges past Tien in Indian Wells, sets Zverev SF Zverev joins Nadal, Djokovic, Federer & Murray in record books Watch Live on TennisTV TV Schedule Your data will be used in accordance with the ATP Privacy Policy and WTA Privacy Policy. Get official marketing communications from the ATP and WTA! We'll send you newsletters keeping you informed about news, tournaments, competitions, ticketing, partner offers and more. Your data will be used in accordance with the ATP Privacy Policy and WTA Privacy Policy. © Copyright 1994 - 2026 ATP Tour, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means (including photocopying, recording or storing it in any medium by electronic means), without the written permission of ATP Tour, Inc.. Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Community Social Media Policy | Modern Slavery Statement | Feedback | Cookies | Your Privacy Choices ","{'href': 'https://www.atptour.com', 'title': 'ATP Tour'}","tennis" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:atptour.com","'One of my toughest matches ever', Blockx battles into Cap Cana Challenger SFs","https://www.atptour.com/en/news/phoenix-cap-cana-challenger-2026-friday","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:40:47 GMT"," Under a punishing Caribbean sun in sweltering humidity, Alexander Blockx dug deep Friday to reach the semi-finals at the ATP Challenger 175 event in Cap Cana, Dominican Republic. The reigning Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up rallied past Coleman Wong 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in a bruising two-hour, 30-minute battle that tested both players to their physical limits. Blockx, who played a three-hour marathon less than 24 hours before, celebrated his quarter-final victory by falling to the ground in relief. “This morning when I woke up I was like, ‘It cannot possibly be any more difficult than yesterday', but I think this was one of my toughest matches I've ever played physically,” said the 20-year-old. “The first set I wasn't feeling well with the heat after playing three hours yesterday. The second set was so long, every point was so long. I just kept fighting.” Blockx will NEVER back down 😱The Belgian prevails in a 2.5 hour epic 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 for a Cap Cana semi-final spot!#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/tl8z7xYFZg Blockx improved to 12-2 this season at ATP Challenger level. He won the Canberra Challenger in his first event of 2026 and reached the final in Lille, France last month. At No. 89 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, the Belgian is in good position to surpass his career-high No. 94. Up next for the four-time Challenger champion is Argentine Mariano Navone, who beat second Valentin Royer 6-2, 7-6(5). In other action at the Republica Dominicana Open - Copa Cap Cana, Australian Adam Walton upset Miomir Kecmanovic 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 to reach the last four. Mattia Bellucci downed fifth seed Raphael Collignon 6-4, 6-2. Briton Harris wins longest match in Phoenix Challenger history Marathon matches were a theme at ATP Challenger level Friday. In addition to Blockx's hard-fought win, Briton Billy Harris survived a three-hour, 20-minute clash against Adrian Mannarino at the Arizona Tennis Classic. 3️⃣ hours and 2️⃣0️⃣ minutes 🤯Billy Harris takes an epic battle against No.3 seed Mannarino 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4 to reach the @aztennisclassic semifinals!#ATPChallenger | @the_LTA pic.twitter.com/bnE1gwzn9r In the longest match in tournament history, Harris escaped the third-seeded Frenchman 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4 to reach the semi-finals in Phoenix, where he will next play Ethan Quinn. The American, who celebrated his 22nd birthday Thursday, beat Benjamin Bonzi 7-6(4), 7-6(7). Quinn trailed 0/5 in the second-set tie-break before winning seven of the next nine points to advance. Top seed Corentin Moutet, No. 33 in the PIF ATP Rankings, overcame Nikoloz Basilashvili 7-6(5), 6-4. The lefty awaits two-time champion Nuno Borges or American Marcos Giron in the semi-finals. Your data will be used in accordance with the ATP Privacy Policy and WTA Privacy Policy. Get official marketing communications from the ATP and WTA! We'll send you newsletters keeping you informed about news, tournaments, competitions, ticketing, partner offers and more. Your data will be used in accordance with the ATP Privacy Policy and WTA Privacy Policy. © Copyright 1994 - 2026 ATP Tour, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means (including photocopying, recording or storing it in any medium by electronic means), without the written permission of ATP Tour, Inc.. Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Community Social Media Policy | Modern Slavery Statement | Feedback | Cookies | Your Privacy Choices ","{'href': 'https://www.atptour.com', 'title': 'ATP Tour'}","tennis" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:atptour.com","Rwanda Challenger 2 CENTER Cecchinato, Marco","https://www.atptour.com/en/atp-challenger-tour/challenger-tv/challenger-tv-search-results/2026-2915-ms003-kigali-2-marco-cecchinato-vs-arthur-gea/2026/2915/all","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:18:35 GMT"," {{item.CourtName}} Watch live streaming and on demand matches from the ATP Challenger Tour! Sign up now to access Challenger TV, and subscribe to receive official newsletters from the ATP Tour. Get official marketing communications from the ATP and WTA! We'll send you newsletters keeping you informed about news, tournaments, competitions, ticketing, partner offers and more. Your data will be used in accordance with the ATP Privacy Policy and WTA Privacy Policy. © Copyright 1994 - 2026 ATP Tour, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means (including photocopying, recording or storing it in any medium by electronic means), without the written permission of ATP Tour, Inc.. Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Community Social Media Policy | Modern Slavery Statement | Feedback | Cookies | Your Privacy Choices ","{'href': 'https://www.atptour.com', 'title': 'ATP Tour'}","tennis" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:atptour.com","What is the Indian Wells tennis schedule?","https://www.atptour.com/en/news/indian-wells-2026-schedule","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:30:57 GMT"," The BNP Paribas Open semi-finals will take place Saturday in Indian Wells, with Jannik Sinner playing Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz taking on Daniil Medvedev. View the full Indian Wells Saturday order of play below. Read more from Indian Wells: Alcaraz earns Norrie revenge, storms into fifth straight Indian Wells semi-final Medvedev marches past Draper, reaches Indian Wells SFs Sinner surges past Tien in Indian Wells, sets Zverev SF Zverev joins Nadal, Djokovic, Federer & Murray in record books ORDER OF PLAY - SATURDAY, 14 MARCH 2026 Stadium 1 - start 11 a.m. WTA - [3] Katerina Siniakova (CZE) / Taylor Townsend (USA) vs [5] Anna Danilina (KAZ) / Aleksandra Krunic (SRB) Not Before 1:30 p.m. ATP - [4] Alexander Zverev (GER) vs [2] Jannik Sinner (ITA) Not Before 3 p.m. ATP - [1] Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) vs [11] Daniil Medvedev Not Before 6 p.m. ATP - Doubles Final - Guido Andreozzi (ARG) / Manuel Guinard (FRA) vs Arthur Rinderknech (FRA) / Valentin Vacherot (MON) Stadium 3 - start 12:30 p.m. Final - Mixed Doubles Invitational - [1] Gabriela Dabrowski (CAN) / Lloyd Glasspool (GBR) vs Belinda Bencic (SUI) / Flavio Cobolli (ITA) Your data will be used in accordance with the ATP Privacy Policy and WTA Privacy Policy. Get official marketing communications from the ATP and WTA! We'll send you newsletters keeping you informed about news, tournaments, competitions, ticketing, partner offers and more. Your data will be used in accordance with the ATP Privacy Policy and WTA Privacy Policy. © Copyright 1994 - 2026 ATP Tour, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means (including photocopying, recording or storing it in any medium by electronic means), without the written permission of ATP Tour, Inc.. Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Community Social Media Policy | Modern Slavery Statement | Feedback | Cookies | Your Privacy Choices ","{'href': 'https://www.atptour.com', 'title': 'ATP Tour'}","tennis" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:wtatennis.com","Rybakina hits 12 straight Top 10 wins, earns Indian Wells final rematch with Sabalenka","https://www.wtatennis.com/news/4468706/rybakina-pushes-past-svitolina-to-set-up-sabalenka-showdown-in-indian-wells-final","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:26:21 GMT"," Elena Rybakina will renew her rivalry with Aryna Sabalenka in Indian Wells after defeating Elina Svitolina 7‑5, 6‑4 in 1 hour, 46 minutes Friday night. The win sends her into another final against the World No. 1, whom she beat in both the Australian Open final earlier this year and the 2023 Indian Wells championship match. There are few words left to describe Elena Rybakina's run dating back to last fall's Asian swing. Since October, she has collected titles at the WTA Finals and the Australian Open, and on Friday night added another milestone by reaching her second Indian Wells final with a 7-5, 6-4 win over World No. 9 Elina Svitolina in 1 hour and 46 minutes. Indian Wells: Scores | Draws | Order of play It marked her 12th straight victory over Top 10 opponents, a streak that began last October in Ningbo -- where she also lifted the trophy. She'll now have a chance to push that number to 13 when she faces World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in Sunday's final. Rybakina trails Sabalenka 7-8 at the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz level but has won their last two meetings -- both in finals -- in Riyadh and Melbourne. “We know each other's games very well,” Rybakina said in her post-match press conference. “It's going to be a difficult match where we both are going to try to serve well, that's for sure, put pressure, and…we will see what's going to happen.” If her form against Svitolina, and throughout the week for that matter, is any indication, the 2023 BNP Paribas Open champion will have a strong chance to claim her second title in the desert later this weekend. It wasn't the quickest of starts for Rybakina, who watched Svitolina hold with an ace and then break for 2-0 with a perfectly placed forehand into the corner. But in what quickly became a theme, the soon-to-be new World No. 2 didn't let adversity linger. She responded with a backhand winner at the net, followed by a forehand winner -- one of many on the night -- to set up double break point. But she needed only one to get back on serve at 2-1. The two then traded holds to 5-all, capped by a Rybakina service game shaped by her crosscourt prowess and a finishing ace. Then came the marathon game that set the tone for the rest of the match. Rybakina let a pair of break points slip away in a five-deuce game but stayed composed and kept attacking. She continued to unload forehand winner after forehand winner to extend the game and create repeated chances to break Svitolina's serve. Eventually, the persistence paid off. Rybakina broke for 6-5 and then struck two more forehand winners in the final game to serve out the set after 52 minutes. The forehand was firing, but so was the first serve. She won 90% (19 of 21) of her first-serve points in the opener. The second set initially looked straightforward as Rybakina raced out to a 5-1 lead and held her first match point. But Svitolina showed her trademark resilience, saving it, holding for 5-2, and then fighting off another match point as Rybakina served for the match. In a 10-minute game, Svitolina converted her fourth break point to close the gap to 5-3. After holding for 5-4, she forced Rybakina to serve for it again. The nerves showed -- notably on a backhand she pushed into the net with an open court -- but Rybakina steadied herself with a forehand winner down the line, another on the approach, and a backhand down the line to earn a third match point, 20 minutes after the first. This time, she closed, putting away one last ball at the net to seal a hard-fought victory and improve her record against Svitolina to 4-3. The Women's Single Final is SET 🔥🔥🔥See you on Sunday!!!#TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/z24CE1Y4vt Since 2000, Rybakina is the fifth player to record 12 or more consecutive wins over WTA Top 10 opponents, joining Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Justine Henin and Iga Swiatek. Elena Rybakina will renew her rivalry with Aryna Sabalenka in Indian Wells after defeating Elina Svitolina 7‑5, 6‑4 in 1 hour, 46 minutes Friday night. The win sends her into another final against the World No. 1, whom she beat in both the Australian Open final earlier this year and the 2023 Indian Wells championship match.","{'href': 'https://www.wtatennis.com', 'title': 'WTA Tennis'}","tennis" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:tennis.com","Roger Federer makes his debut on Forbes' world billionaires list","https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/roger-federer-makes-his-debut-on-forbes-world-billionaires-list","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 06:32:58 GMT"," The 20-time Grand Slam champ's fortune reached an estimated $1.1 billion, powered by endorsements and a savvy investment in Swiss brand On.ByStephanie LivaudaisPublished Mar 13, 2026 copy_link Published Mar 13, 2026 © Getty Images for Laver Cup Roger Federer won 103 titles during his glittering career. Now he can add a new title: He's officially a billionaire, according to Forbes.The prestigious business magazine unveiled its annual ranking of the world's wealthiest this week, and the 20-time Grand Slam champion appears among the names for the first time.Federer's estimated fortune is listed at $1.1 billion—a figure that includes nearly $131 million in career prize money, the third-highest total in tennis history behind Big 3 rivals Novak Djokovic ($189 million) and Rafael Nadal ($135 million).Read More: Roger Federer is headed to the International Tennis Hall of Fame: 26 stats for his 2026 inductionFederer, 44, retired in September 2022 after racking up 310 weeks as the ATP world No. 1. Off the court, he was amassing impressive figures as well.The Swiss star was the highest-paid tennis player in the world for 16 consecutive years until his retirement. At his peak in 2020, Federer was the highest-paid athlete in all of sports with an estimated $106 million—a total boosted by long-term sponsorship deals with Uniqlo, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, Lindt, Moët & Chandon and more. The prestigious business magazine unveiled its annual ranking of the world's wealthiest this week, and the 20-time Grand Slam champion appears among the names for the first time.Federer's estimated fortune is listed at $1.1 billion—a figure that includes nearly $131 million in career prize money, the third-highest total in tennis history behind Big 3 rivals Novak Djokovic ($189 million) and Rafael Nadal ($135 million).Read More: Roger Federer is headed to the International Tennis Hall of Fame: 26 stats for his 2026 inductionFederer, 44, retired in September 2022 after racking up 310 weeks as the ATP world No. 1. Off the court, he was amassing impressive figures as well.The Swiss star was the highest-paid tennis player in the world for 16 consecutive years until his retirement. At his peak in 2020, Federer was the highest-paid athlete in all of sports with an estimated $106 million—a total boosted by long-term sponsorship deals with Uniqlo, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, Lindt, Moët & Chandon and more. Federer's estimated fortune is listed at $1.1 billion—a figure that includes nearly $131 million in career prize money, the third-highest total in tennis history behind Big 3 rivals Novak Djokovic ($189 million) and Rafael Nadal ($135 million).Read More: Roger Federer is headed to the International Tennis Hall of Fame: 26 stats for his 2026 inductionFederer, 44, retired in September 2022 after racking up 310 weeks as the ATP world No. 1. Off the court, he was amassing impressive figures as well.The Swiss star was the highest-paid tennis player in the world for 16 consecutive years until his retirement. At his peak in 2020, Federer was the highest-paid athlete in all of sports with an estimated $106 million—a total boosted by long-term sponsorship deals with Uniqlo, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, Lindt, Moët & Chandon and more. Read More: Roger Federer is headed to the International Tennis Hall of Fame: 26 stats for his 2026 inductionFederer, 44, retired in September 2022 after racking up 310 weeks as the ATP world No. 1. Off the court, he was amassing impressive figures as well.The Swiss star was the highest-paid tennis player in the world for 16 consecutive years until his retirement. At his peak in 2020, Federer was the highest-paid athlete in all of sports with an estimated $106 million—a total boosted by long-term sponsorship deals with Uniqlo, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, Lindt, Moët & Chandon and more. Federer, 44, retired in September 2022 after racking up 310 weeks as the ATP world No. 1. Off the court, he was amassing impressive figures as well.The Swiss star was the highest-paid tennis player in the world for 16 consecutive years until his retirement. At his peak in 2020, Federer was the highest-paid athlete in all of sports with an estimated $106 million—a total boosted by long-term sponsorship deals with Uniqlo, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, Lindt, Moët & Chandon and more. The Swiss star was the highest-paid tennis player in the world for 16 consecutive years until his retirement. At his peak in 2020, Federer was the highest-paid athlete in all of sports with an estimated $106 million—a total boosted by long-term sponsorship deals with Uniqlo, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, Lindt, Moët & Chandon and more. According to Forbes, most of his post-retirement wealth now stems from his early investment in On, a Swiss sportswear brand. Federer reportedly acquired a three percent stake in the company in 2019, when it was still called “On Running” and focused primarily on running.Federer later partnered with On to create “The Roger Pro” shoe, helping guide the brand's expansion into tennis. The company has since signed top players like Iga Swiatek and Ben Shelton to head-to-toe deals.His tennis legacy also extends into business. In 2013, Federer co-founded the Team8 management agency with longtime agent Tony Godsick. The pair later launched the highly profitable Laver Cup, which has since become a sanctioned ATP Tour event. Federer later partnered with On to create “The Roger Pro” shoe, helping guide the brand's expansion into tennis. The company has since signed top players like Iga Swiatek and Ben Shelton to head-to-toe deals.His tennis legacy also extends into business. In 2013, Federer co-founded the Team8 management agency with longtime agent Tony Godsick. The pair later launched the highly profitable Laver Cup, which has since become a sanctioned ATP Tour event. His tennis legacy also extends into business. In 2013, Federer co-founded the Team8 management agency with longtime agent Tony Godsick. The pair later launched the highly profitable Laver Cup, which has since become a sanctioned ATP Tour event. Read More: GOATs at the Game: Roger Federer, Serena Williams feature at Super Bowl LXFederer first crossed the billion-dollar mark in August 2025, becoming one of a handful of athletes to ever reach the milestone, joining Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, LeBron James and Tiger Woods on the elite list.He's the second tennis figure to reach billionaire status after Ion Țiriac, the 1970 Roland Garros doubles champion and former Madrid Open owner, whose estimated net worth is $2.3 billion.Federer also joins several notable newcomers on the Forbes World Billionaires list, including director James Cameron ($1.1 billion), singer Beyonce ($1 billion) and hip-hop mogul Dr. Dre ($1 billion).At the top of the list is Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, with an estimated fortune of $839 billion. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are listed second and third, respectively, while Larry Ellison—owner of the BNP Paribas Open—ranks No. 6. Federer first crossed the billion-dollar mark in August 2025, becoming one of a handful of athletes to ever reach the milestone, joining Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, LeBron James and Tiger Woods on the elite list.He's the second tennis figure to reach billionaire status after Ion Țiriac, the 1970 Roland Garros doubles champion and former Madrid Open owner, whose estimated net worth is $2.3 billion.Federer also joins several notable newcomers on the Forbes World Billionaires list, including director James Cameron ($1.1 billion), singer Beyonce ($1 billion) and hip-hop mogul Dr. Dre ($1 billion).At the top of the list is Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, with an estimated fortune of $839 billion. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are listed second and third, respectively, while Larry Ellison—owner of the BNP Paribas Open—ranks No. 6. He's the second tennis figure to reach billionaire status after Ion Țiriac, the 1970 Roland Garros doubles champion and former Madrid Open owner, whose estimated net worth is $2.3 billion.Federer also joins several notable newcomers on the Forbes World Billionaires list, including director James Cameron ($1.1 billion), singer Beyonce ($1 billion) and hip-hop mogul Dr. Dre ($1 billion).At the top of the list is Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, with an estimated fortune of $839 billion. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are listed second and third, respectively, while Larry Ellison—owner of the BNP Paribas Open—ranks No. 6. Federer also joins several notable newcomers on the Forbes World Billionaires list, including director James Cameron ($1.1 billion), singer Beyonce ($1 billion) and hip-hop mogul Dr. Dre ($1 billion).At the top of the list is Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, with an estimated fortune of $839 billion. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are listed second and third, respectively, while Larry Ellison—owner of the BNP Paribas Open—ranks No. 6. At the top of the list is Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, with an estimated fortune of $839 billion. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are listed second and third, respectively, while Larry Ellison—owner of the BNP Paribas Open—ranks No. 6.","{'href': 'https://www.tennis.com', 'title': 'Tennis.com'}","tennis" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:tennis.com","Sincaraz at Indian Wells: Jannik Sinner cannot stop smiling, Carlos Alcaraz's golden hour glow","https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/sincaraz-photos-indian-wells-jannik-sinner-smiling-carlos-alcaraz-golden-hour","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 05:57:04 GMT"," The pair of superstars are each a win away from their first 2026 encounter.ByTENNIS.comPublished Mar 13, 2026 copy_link Published Mar 13, 2026 At the BNP Paribas Open, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz shined in different sessions during quarterfinal action in Indian Wells.The two are now one win away from dueling for the first time in 2026. Alcaraz notably beat the Italian in the semifinal stage of his 2023 and 2024 title runs here.On Thursday, Sinner stepped out first in cruising past Learner Tien on a hot afternoon. The world No. 1 later soaked up the sun for his match prep, before rolling over 2021 champion Cameron Norrie.PHOTOS: The two are now one win away from dueling for the first time in 2026. Alcaraz notably beat the Italian in the semifinal stage of his 2023 and 2024 title runs here.On Thursday, Sinner stepped out first in cruising past Learner Tien on a hot afternoon. The world No. 1 later soaked up the sun for his match prep, before rolling over 2021 champion Cameron Norrie.PHOTOS: On Thursday, Sinner stepped out first in cruising past Learner Tien on a hot afternoon. The world No. 1 later soaked up the sun for his match prep, before rolling over 2021 champion Cameron Norrie.PHOTOS: Jannik heads back inside after signing autographs following his midday practice.© Matt Fitzgerald © Matt Fitzgerald After closing out Tien, Sinner looked at his box and broke into a massive smile.© Matt Fitzgerald © Matt Fitzgerald It was arguably brighter than the sun hitting the court.© Matt Fitzgerald © Matt Fitzgerald Sinner maintained that happy energy when visiting the Tennis Channel set for a chat with Prakash Amritraj.© Matt Fitzgerald © Matt Fitzgerald Alcaraz got his golden hour glow working during his solo practice session.© Matt Fitzgerald © Matt Fitzgerald After wrapping with some serves, the 22-year-old instructed brother/coach Alvaro to help hand out signed souvenirs.© Matt Fitzgerald © Matt Fitzgerald Alcaraz had his reasons to grin, too, after upping his perfect 2026 start to 16-0.© Matt Fitzgerald © Matt Fitzgerald","{'href': 'https://www.tennis.com', 'title': 'Tennis.com'}","tennis" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:tennis.com","Carlos Alcaraz vs. Daniil Medvedev: Indian Wells preview, prediction and where to watch","https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/carlos-alcaraz-vs-daniil-medvedev-indian-wells-preview-prediction-and-where-to-watch","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 05:57:04 GMT"," Can Medvedev pick up his first win against Alcaraz since the 2023 US Open?BySteve TignorPublished Mar 13, 2026 copy_link Published Mar 13, 2026 © AFP or licensors Streaming Link: Coming soonStart Time: Coming soon Start Time: Coming soon Alcaraz and Indian Wells aren't a good mix for Medvedev. They played two finals here, in 2022 and 2024, and the Russian went 0-4 in sets. The slow hard courts gave Alcaraz the time to tee off, and he happily took advantage of it.But hope springs eternal in Medvedev, for a couple of reasons. But hope springs eternal in Medvedev, for a couple of reasons. I feel like it's a good chance to try to show my best tennis against him. Daniil Medvedev First, the conditions are more to his liking this year.“I feel like the court is a bit faster since the two times I have played him,” Medvedev says. “The balls are different. So I feel like it's a good chance to try to show my best tennis against him.” “I feel like the court is a bit faster since the two times I have played him,” Medvedev says. “The balls are different. So I feel like it's a good chance to try to show my best tennis against him.” Stream every match live and on demand on the Tennis Channel app. Second, he's hungry again after a down season in 2025, and you can see it in his results. He already has two titles this season, and he's won his last eight matches. This week, he has defused a couple of big hitters in Jack Draper and Alex Michelsen.“I feel like I'm playing great, very good tennis,” Medvedev says. “I never want to jump into conclusions like best tennis of my life or whatever. I'm playing very good.” “I feel like I'm playing great, very good tennis,” Medvedev says. “I never want to jump into conclusions like best tennis of my life or whatever. I'm playing very good.” Alcaraz, it can probably go without saying by now, is also playing ""very good."" He has won all 16 matches he has played in 2026, and he has been up to a few challenges this week, from Arthur Rinderknech, Casper Ruud, and Cam Norrie.Medvedev will be highly motivated to make this a better match than their other two at Indian Wells. At that I think he'll succeed. Winner: Alcaraz Medvedev will be highly motivated to make this a better match than their other two at Indian Wells. At that I think he'll succeed. Winner: Alcaraz","{'href': 'https://www.tennis.com', 'title': 'Tennis.com'}","tennis" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:tennis.com","Jannik Sinner vs. Alexander Zverev: Indian Wells preview, prediction and where to watch","https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/jannik-sinner-vs-alexander-zverev-indian-wells-preview-prediction-and-where-to-watch","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 05:57:04 GMT"," After losing four straight matches to Zverev, Sinner has won the last five.BySteve TignorPublished Mar 13, 2026 copy_link Published Mar 13, 2026 © 2025 Shi Tang Streaming Link: Coming soonStart Time: Coming soon Start Time: Coming soon If you're like me, when you think of Sinner vs. Zverev, the first match that comes to mind is their Australian Open final from last year. That day, the Italian straight-setted the German, and left him wondering if he even knew how to play tennis.The loss certainly stayed in Zverev's mind for a long time. Afterward, his confidence thoroughly punctured, he took a swan dive that lasted for most of 2025. Fourteen months later, though, he finally seems to be over it. Asked about the prospect of facing Sinner in this semifinal, Zverev focused on his better showings against him.“I think we had quite tight matches,” he said. “Even the last few were very tight. Of course it's a challenge, but it's a challenge I'm looking forward to.” The loss certainly stayed in Zverev's mind for a long time. Afterward, his confidence thoroughly punctured, he took a swan dive that lasted for most of 2025. Fourteen months later, though, he finally seems to be over it. Asked about the prospect of facing Sinner in this semifinal, Zverev focused on his better showings against him.“I think we had quite tight matches,” he said. “Even the last few were very tight. Of course it's a challenge, but it's a challenge I'm looking forward to.” “I think we had quite tight matches,” he said. “Even the last few were very tight. Of course it's a challenge, but it's a challenge I'm looking forward to.” Stream every match live and on demand on the Tennis Channel app. Zverev was likely thinking of the final they played in Vienna on an indoor hard court last fall. That one was indeed very close, and should give him confidence that he can at least compete against Sinner. Zverev won the first set 6-3, and stayed even with him all the way to 5-5 in the third set. It took an especially brilliant down-the line backhand from Sinner, which skidded off the sideline, to lift him to victory. I think we had quite tight matches Even the last few were very tight. Of course it's a challenge, but it's a challenge I'm looking forward to. Alexander Zverev This year, Zverev has continued his bounce-back. In Australia, he was just a few points from beating Carlos Alcaraz to make the final, and he has been his old solid self in his last two wins, over Francis Tiafoe and Arthur Fils, in Indian Wells. Zverev has been happy with his aggression level, an area where he never been able to match Sinner.“I think I played quicker today than the last couple of matches,” Zverev said after beating Fils. “I think I took the time away and the ability for him to be extremely aggressive. I took that away from him, and when I'm able to do that, I think it's quite helpful for me.” “I think I played quicker today than the last couple of matches,” Zverev said after beating Fils. “I think I took the time away and the ability for him to be extremely aggressive. I took that away from him, and when I'm able to do that, I think it's quite helpful for me.” Sinner has noticed.“I have to very careful,” he said of this semifinal. “I watch couple of matches. He's playing great tennis. So trying to, yeah, to bring the best possible tennis I can.”Sinner has won his last five meetings with Zverev, dating back to 2023. The difference usually comes down to the pace of his ground strokes. He and Zverev are both consistent baseliners, and both have excellent serves. But Sinner has an extra gear on both wings. The only guy to challenge him in Indian Wells so far has been Joao Fonseca, who also has that extra gear on his forehand. Without it, Zverev may have to hope for an off day from the No. 2 seed. Those don't come around all that often. Winner: Sinner “I have to very careful,” he said of this semifinal. “I watch couple of matches. He's playing great tennis. So trying to, yeah, to bring the best possible tennis I can.”Sinner has won his last five meetings with Zverev, dating back to 2023. The difference usually comes down to the pace of his ground strokes. He and Zverev are both consistent baseliners, and both have excellent serves. But Sinner has an extra gear on both wings. The only guy to challenge him in Indian Wells so far has been Joao Fonseca, who also has that extra gear on his forehand. Without it, Zverev may have to hope for an off day from the No. 2 seed. Those don't come around all that often. Winner: Sinner Sinner has won his last five meetings with Zverev, dating back to 2023. The difference usually comes down to the pace of his ground strokes. He and Zverev are both consistent baseliners, and both have excellent serves. But Sinner has an extra gear on both wings. The only guy to challenge him in Indian Wells so far has been Joao Fonseca, who also has that extra gear on his forehand. Without it, Zverev may have to hope for an off day from the No. 2 seed. Those don't come around all that often. Winner: Sinner","{'href': 'https://www.tennis.com', 'title': 'Tennis.com'}","tennis" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:tennis.com","Carlos Alcaraz now has a better career winning percentage than Roger Federer","https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/carlos-alcaraz-now-has-a-better-career-winning-percentage-than-roger-federer-after-quarterfinal-win-at-indian-wells","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:25:13 GMT"," The 22-year-old Spaniard surpasses his fellow legend after his quarterfinal win at Indian Wells on Thursday night.ByJohn BerkokPublished Mar 13, 2026 copy_link Published Mar 13, 2026 © 2026 Getty Images Carlos Alcaraz continued his perfect start to the year at Indian Wells on Thursday night, beating Cam Norrie in the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 event, 6-3, 6-4, to improve to 16-0 in 2026.He's now into the semifinals at Indian Wells for the fifth year in a row, just the third man in tournament history to achieve that incredible feat, after Rafael Nadal (2006-2013) and Novak Djokovic (2011-2016).But there's something even more incredible he did with his latest win—he now has a better career winning percentage than Roger Federer. He's now into the semifinals at Indian Wells for the fifth year in a row, just the third man in tournament history to achieve that incredible feat, after Rafael Nadal (2006-2013) and Novak Djokovic (2011-2016).But there's something even more incredible he did with his latest win—he now has a better career winning percentage than Roger Federer. But there's something even more incredible he did with his latest win—he now has a better career winning percentage than Roger Federer. Clinical from @carlosalcaraz 🌵#tennisparadise pic.twitter.com/zTkeosWG0r Alcaraz went into his quarterfinal match with a .8194 career winning percentage in tour-level matches (295-65) and improves to .8199 with the win (296-65), surpassing Federer's .8198 (1,251-275).With a minimum of 200 matches played, Alcaraz now has the fourth-best career winning percentage for a man in the Open Era.BEST MEN'S CAREER WINNING PERCENTAGES IN OPEN ERA (tour-level, minimum 200 matches played):.8327: Novak Djokovic [1,170-235].8259: Rafael Nadal [1,080-228].8238: Bjorn Borg [654-140].8199: Carlos Alcaraz [296-65].8198: Roger Federer [1,251-275].8182: Jimmy Connors [1,274-283].8168: John McEnroe [883-198].8153: Ivan Lendl [1,068-242].7978: Rod Laver [576-146].7905: Jannik Sinner [332-88]The 22-year-old Spaniard actually started 2026 at No. 8 on the above list, passing Lendl for No. 7 after the Australian Open, then McEnroe for No. 6 after Doha, Connors for No. 5 after his opening win at Indian Wells last week, and now Federer for No. 4 after his latest win.He can't move up the list any further during Indian Wells. With a minimum of 200 matches played, Alcaraz now has the fourth-best career winning percentage for a man in the Open Era.BEST MEN'S CAREER WINNING PERCENTAGES IN OPEN ERA (tour-level, minimum 200 matches played):.8327: Novak Djokovic [1,170-235].8259: Rafael Nadal [1,080-228].8238: Bjorn Borg [654-140].8199: Carlos Alcaraz [296-65].8198: Roger Federer [1,251-275].8182: Jimmy Connors [1,274-283].8168: John McEnroe [883-198].8153: Ivan Lendl [1,068-242].7978: Rod Laver [576-146].7905: Jannik Sinner [332-88]The 22-year-old Spaniard actually started 2026 at No. 8 on the above list, passing Lendl for No. 7 after the Australian Open, then McEnroe for No. 6 after Doha, Connors for No. 5 after his opening win at Indian Wells last week, and now Federer for No. 4 after his latest win.He can't move up the list any further during Indian Wells. BEST MEN'S CAREER WINNING PERCENTAGES IN OPEN ERA (tour-level, minimum 200 matches played):.8327: Novak Djokovic [1,170-235].8259: Rafael Nadal [1,080-228].8238: Bjorn Borg [654-140].8199: Carlos Alcaraz [296-65].8198: Roger Federer [1,251-275].8182: Jimmy Connors [1,274-283].8168: John McEnroe [883-198].8153: Ivan Lendl [1,068-242].7978: Rod Laver [576-146].7905: Jannik Sinner [332-88]The 22-year-old Spaniard actually started 2026 at No. 8 on the above list, passing Lendl for No. 7 after the Australian Open, then McEnroe for No. 6 after Doha, Connors for No. 5 after his opening win at Indian Wells last week, and now Federer for No. 4 after his latest win.He can't move up the list any further during Indian Wells. The 22-year-old Spaniard actually started 2026 at No. 8 on the above list, passing Lendl for No. 7 after the Australian Open, then McEnroe for No. 6 after Doha, Connors for No. 5 after his opening win at Indian Wells last week, and now Federer for No. 4 after his latest win.He can't move up the list any further during Indian Wells. He can't move up the list any further during Indian Wells. Stream every match live and on demand on the Tennis Channel app. Alcaraz led Norrie in their head-to-head going into the match, 5-3, but had lost three of their last five encounters—including their most recent one at the last Masters 1000 event in Paris, last fall.But Alcaraz got his revenge against the 2021 Indian Wells champion this time, rolling through the first set in exactly half an hour and then bouncing back from an early 2-0 deficit to close it out in straight sets.Norrie provided some resistance at the end, fighting off two match points in his 3-5 service game and then another one when Alcaraz served for it at 5-4, but the Spaniard closed it out on his fourth.“It was really difficult to be honest,” he said in his on-court interview.“I mean, I struggle a lot with his style. Every time I play against him it's really tough for me. I'm trying to play my best, and it's always a little bit of a confusing style—that forehand's super top spin, making it super high, and then with the backhand really flat and really low.“But tonight I played well, I played solid, I played aggressive when I could do it. I'm happy to play this level, but Cam should be proud.”Awaiting the No. 1-seeded Alcaraz in the semifinals will be No. 11 seed Daniil Medvedev, a 6-1, 7-5 winner earlier in the night session against No. 14 seed and defending champion Jack Draper.Alcaraz leads the head-to-head with Medvedev, 6-2, winning their last four meetings in a row (and nine of their last 10 sets). But Alcaraz got his revenge against the 2021 Indian Wells champion this time, rolling through the first set in exactly half an hour and then bouncing back from an early 2-0 deficit to close it out in straight sets.Norrie provided some resistance at the end, fighting off two match points in his 3-5 service game and then another one when Alcaraz served for it at 5-4, but the Spaniard closed it out on his fourth.“It was really difficult to be honest,” he said in his on-court interview.“I mean, I struggle a lot with his style. Every time I play against him it's really tough for me. I'm trying to play my best, and it's always a little bit of a confusing style—that forehand's super top spin, making it super high, and then with the backhand really flat and really low.“But tonight I played well, I played solid, I played aggressive when I could do it. I'm happy to play this level, but Cam should be proud.”Awaiting the No. 1-seeded Alcaraz in the semifinals will be No. 11 seed Daniil Medvedev, a 6-1, 7-5 winner earlier in the night session against No. 14 seed and defending champion Jack Draper.Alcaraz leads the head-to-head with Medvedev, 6-2, winning their last four meetings in a row (and nine of their last 10 sets). Norrie provided some resistance at the end, fighting off two match points in his 3-5 service game and then another one when Alcaraz served for it at 5-4, but the Spaniard closed it out on his fourth.“It was really difficult to be honest,” he said in his on-court interview.“I mean, I struggle a lot with his style. Every time I play against him it's really tough for me. I'm trying to play my best, and it's always a little bit of a confusing style—that forehand's super top spin, making it super high, and then with the backhand really flat and really low.“But tonight I played well, I played solid, I played aggressive when I could do it. I'm happy to play this level, but Cam should be proud.”Awaiting the No. 1-seeded Alcaraz in the semifinals will be No. 11 seed Daniil Medvedev, a 6-1, 7-5 winner earlier in the night session against No. 14 seed and defending champion Jack Draper.Alcaraz leads the head-to-head with Medvedev, 6-2, winning their last four meetings in a row (and nine of their last 10 sets). “It was really difficult to be honest,” he said in his on-court interview.“I mean, I struggle a lot with his style. Every time I play against him it's really tough for me. I'm trying to play my best, and it's always a little bit of a confusing style—that forehand's super top spin, making it super high, and then with the backhand really flat and really low.“But tonight I played well, I played solid, I played aggressive when I could do it. I'm happy to play this level, but Cam should be proud.”Awaiting the No. 1-seeded Alcaraz in the semifinals will be No. 11 seed Daniil Medvedev, a 6-1, 7-5 winner earlier in the night session against No. 14 seed and defending champion Jack Draper.Alcaraz leads the head-to-head with Medvedev, 6-2, winning their last four meetings in a row (and nine of their last 10 sets). “I mean, I struggle a lot with his style. Every time I play against him it's really tough for me. I'm trying to play my best, and it's always a little bit of a confusing style—that forehand's super top spin, making it super high, and then with the backhand really flat and really low.“But tonight I played well, I played solid, I played aggressive when I could do it. I'm happy to play this level, but Cam should be proud.”Awaiting the No. 1-seeded Alcaraz in the semifinals will be No. 11 seed Daniil Medvedev, a 6-1, 7-5 winner earlier in the night session against No. 14 seed and defending champion Jack Draper.Alcaraz leads the head-to-head with Medvedev, 6-2, winning their last four meetings in a row (and nine of their last 10 sets). “But tonight I played well, I played solid, I played aggressive when I could do it. I'm happy to play this level, but Cam should be proud.”Awaiting the No. 1-seeded Alcaraz in the semifinals will be No. 11 seed Daniil Medvedev, a 6-1, 7-5 winner earlier in the night session against No. 14 seed and defending champion Jack Draper.Alcaraz leads the head-to-head with Medvedev, 6-2, winning their last four meetings in a row (and nine of their last 10 sets). Awaiting the No. 1-seeded Alcaraz in the semifinals will be No. 11 seed Daniil Medvedev, a 6-1, 7-5 winner earlier in the night session against No. 14 seed and defending champion Jack Draper.Alcaraz leads the head-to-head with Medvedev, 6-2, winning their last four meetings in a row (and nine of their last 10 sets). Alcaraz leads the head-to-head with Medvedev, 6-2, winning their last four meetings in a row (and nine of their last 10 sets).","{'href': 'https://www.tennis.com', 'title': 'Tennis.com'}","tennis" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:tennis.com","Marcos Giron is playing the best tennis of his life at 32","https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/marcos-giron-playing-best-tennis-life-at-32-atp-challenger-phoenix","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 05:57:04 GMT"," The American is among the contenders vying for the ATP Challenger 175 title in Phoenix this week.ByMatt FitzgeraldPublished Mar 13, 2026 copy_link Published Mar 13, 2026 © SmashLab PHOENIX—At 32, Marcos Giron has hit his stride like never before to open a season.In a year that began with consecutive ATP semifinals in Hong Kong and Auckland, Giron has kept pace with almost every competitor he's shared the court with thus far—even in defeat.“I do think this is the best tennis I've been playing of my life, this first quarter,” he declares to TENNIS.com. “Lost a couple tough ones in February and one against [Jakub] Mensik [in Indian Wells] last week. You're only as good as your next point, really.”Giron was edged out by eventual quarterfinalist Learner Tien in a fifth set to drop his first-rounder at the Australian Open. Three of his other narrow losses have come at the hands of Top 15 opponents. In a year that began with consecutive ATP semifinals in Hong Kong and Auckland, Giron has kept pace with almost every competitor he's shared the court with thus far—even in defeat.“I do think this is the best tennis I've been playing of my life, this first quarter,” he declares to TENNIS.com. “Lost a couple tough ones in February and one against [Jakub] Mensik [in Indian Wells] last week. You're only as good as your next point, really.”Giron was edged out by eventual quarterfinalist Learner Tien in a fifth set to drop his first-rounder at the Australian Open. Three of his other narrow losses have come at the hands of Top 15 opponents. “I do think this is the best tennis I've been playing of my life, this first quarter,” he declares to TENNIS.com. “Lost a couple tough ones in February and one against [Jakub] Mensik [in Indian Wells] last week. You're only as good as your next point, really.”Giron was edged out by eventual quarterfinalist Learner Tien in a fifth set to drop his first-rounder at the Australian Open. Three of his other narrow losses have come at the hands of Top 15 opponents. Giron was edged out by eventual quarterfinalist Learner Tien in a fifth set to drop his first-rounder at the Australian Open. Three of his other narrow losses have come at the hands of Top 15 opponents. I'm playing guys like Learner and he's 12 years younger, it's crazy. I still know I have a good game and the best is in front. Alexander Bublik rallied from a set down to advance in Hong Kong. Taylor Fritz came out on top in a final-set tiebreaker at the Dallas Open, ahead of Casper Ruud holding on to win after being two points from exiting in Delray Beach. At the BNP Paribas Open, the 12th-ranked Mensik battled to a 7-5, 7-6 (1) victory.“The margins are so small. Fritz is 6-foot-5 and has one of the best serves in the world. Mensik serves great. A few of them, I lost a couple of 'breakers where it's like, 'Too bad.' But they'll also turn and go my way. I'm playing great tennis,” believes Giron.A day after sharing that perspective, that's exactly what happened at the Phoenix Challenger. The Thousand Oaks, Calif. native denied University of Arizona standout Jay Friend in a dramatic finish, saving four match points to pull off a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9) victory. “The margins are so small. Fritz is 6-foot-5 and has one of the best serves in the world. Mensik serves great. A few of them, I lost a couple of 'breakers where it's like, 'Too bad.' But they'll also turn and go my way. I'm playing great tennis,” believes Giron.A day after sharing that perspective, that's exactly what happened at the Phoenix Challenger. The Thousand Oaks, Calif. native denied University of Arizona standout Jay Friend in a dramatic finish, saving four match points to pull off a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9) victory. A day after sharing that perspective, that's exactly what happened at the Phoenix Challenger. The Thousand Oaks, Calif. native denied University of Arizona standout Jay Friend in a dramatic finish, saving four match points to pull off a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9) victory. Says Giron of being Vuori's OG on the ATP Tour since debuting the partnership in 2023, ""Their clothing and what they stand for as a company is amazing. To help bring them into the tour is cool for me. Their designs are awesome.""© SmashLab © SmashLab Giron next meets two-time Arizona Tennis Classic champion Nuno Borges, as he looks to continue making the most of his debut appearance at the 175-level Challenger.“With Indian Wells being the home tournament, that one has a lot of emotional weight. So I'm always tired,” he says. “Coming here, the level is so good. There's a little bit less pressure here than a Masters 1000 but I do see it as an opportunity to get into a good rhythm for Miami.”Two hip surgeries early in his career are long a footnote of the past, as Giron's determination and desire to evolve as a player is reflected in being ranked inside the Top 100 every week since Aug. 31, 2020. The 2014 NCAA champion, who peaked at No. 37 in August 2024 shortly after capturing his maiden ATP title at Newport, is most fulfilled that his love for the sport and competition hasn't wavered all these years later and that he's found ways to elevate his skills to new heights. “With Indian Wells being the home tournament, that one has a lot of emotional weight. So I'm always tired,” he says. “Coming here, the level is so good. There's a little bit less pressure here than a Masters 1000 but I do see it as an opportunity to get into a good rhythm for Miami.”Two hip surgeries early in his career are long a footnote of the past, as Giron's determination and desire to evolve as a player is reflected in being ranked inside the Top 100 every week since Aug. 31, 2020. The 2014 NCAA champion, who peaked at No. 37 in August 2024 shortly after capturing his maiden ATP title at Newport, is most fulfilled that his love for the sport and competition hasn't wavered all these years later and that he's found ways to elevate his skills to new heights. Two hip surgeries early in his career are long a footnote of the past, as Giron's determination and desire to evolve as a player is reflected in being ranked inside the Top 100 every week since Aug. 31, 2020. The 2014 NCAA champion, who peaked at No. 37 in August 2024 shortly after capturing his maiden ATP title at Newport, is most fulfilled that his love for the sport and competition hasn't wavered all these years later and that he's found ways to elevate his skills to new heights. “There's a lot of losses and it's easy to get down on yourself. I'm fortunate that I've got the disposition that I feel like good things are gonna come. I'm proud to keep pushing and working at it,” he reflects.“I'm playing guys like Learner and he's 12 years younger, it's crazy. I still know I have a good game and the best is in front.” “I'm playing guys like Learner and he's 12 years younger, it's crazy. I still know I have a good game and the best is in front.”","{'href': 'https://www.tennis.com', 'title': 'Tennis.com'}","tennis" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:tennis.com","""I want that match!"": Aryna Sabalenka gets desired Indian Wells final opponent in Elena Rybakina","https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/quote-day-aryna-sabalenka-desired-indian-wells-final-opponent-elena-rybakina","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 05:57:04 GMT"," The world No. 1 looks to avenge January's Australian Open final defeat, her only loss in 2026 so far.ByTENNIS.comPublished Mar 14, 2026 copy_link Published Mar 14, 2026 © Matt Fitzgerald For the third time in four years, Aryna Sabalenka will play for the BNP Paribas Open crown.The world No. 1, this time, hopes to walk away with the “bigger” trophy after finishing runner-up in 2023 to Elena Rybakina and 12 months ago to Mirra Andreeva.When Prakash Amritraj asked her how she always works “to peak at these kind of stages” following her 6-3, 6-4 victory over Linda Noskova Friday, Sabalenka responded. “Maybe because I lost so many finals…”“Aryna you have won so many finals also!” interrupted Amritraj, who later informed the that her record in title matches was 22-19, better than the “50/50” summation Sabalenka noted. The world No. 1, this time, hopes to walk away with the “bigger” trophy after finishing runner-up in 2023 to Elena Rybakina and 12 months ago to Mirra Andreeva.When Prakash Amritraj asked her how she always works “to peak at these kind of stages” following her 6-3, 6-4 victory over Linda Noskova Friday, Sabalenka responded. “Maybe because I lost so many finals…”“Aryna you have won so many finals also!” interrupted Amritraj, who later informed the that her record in title matches was 22-19, better than the “50/50” summation Sabalenka noted. When Prakash Amritraj asked her how she always works “to peak at these kind of stages” following her 6-3, 6-4 victory over Linda Noskova Friday, Sabalenka responded. “Maybe because I lost so many finals…”“Aryna you have won so many finals also!” interrupted Amritraj, who later informed the that her record in title matches was 22-19, better than the “50/50” summation Sabalenka noted. “Aryna you have won so many finals also!” interrupted Amritraj, who later informed the that her record in title matches was 22-19, better than the “50/50” summation Sabalenka noted. Later in the pair's interview, the 27-year-old was tasked with selecting the winner of the second semifinal between Rybakina and Elina Svitolina. For Sabalenka, an opportunity for revenge was hard not to factor into her pick beyond the contrasting matchup of styles itself.Q. I'm sure TV, movies, it's all in your future. Give me your best analyst thoughts on this match?ARYNA SABALENKA: You mean my bet?Q. Maybe who you're leaning towards?ARYNA SABALENKA: This match, I give it 60 to 40 to Rybakina,” she stated. “The power that comes from the other side is not easy to handle. I'm leaning towards Rybakina. And I want that match!” Q. I'm sure TV, movies, it's all in your future. Give me your best analyst thoughts on this match?ARYNA SABALENKA: You mean my bet?Q. Maybe who you're leaning towards?ARYNA SABALENKA: This match, I give it 60 to 40 to Rybakina,” she stated. “The power that comes from the other side is not easy to handle. I'm leaning towards Rybakina. And I want that match!” ARYNA SABALENKA: You mean my bet?Q. Maybe who you're leaning towards?ARYNA SABALENKA: This match, I give it 60 to 40 to Rybakina,” she stated. “The power that comes from the other side is not easy to handle. I'm leaning towards Rybakina. And I want that match!” Q. Maybe who you're leaning towards?ARYNA SABALENKA: This match, I give it 60 to 40 to Rybakina,” she stated. “The power that comes from the other side is not easy to handle. I'm leaning towards Rybakina. And I want that match!” ARYNA SABALENKA: This match, I give it 60 to 40 to Rybakina,” she stated. “The power that comes from the other side is not easy to handle. I'm leaning towards Rybakina. And I want that match!” The Kazakh prevailed over the four-time major winner to clinch her second Grand Slam trophy at January's Australian Open.Putting her analyst hat back on during her press conference, Sabalenka noted that the challenge of facing Rybakina is “all about the first few balls in every point. You know, if you dominate in those two points, I feel like most likely you're gonna win the point.“It's very aggressive, very fast tennis. Yeah, if it's her, I'm excited, actually.”Not too long after Sabalenka finished her media commitments, Rybakina closed out Svitolina with a 7-5, 6-4 scoreline. Sabalenka is yet to drop a set through five matches and her only defeat in 17 contests so far in 2026 was that 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 defeat to one of her chief rivals at Melbourne Park. Putting her analyst hat back on during her press conference, Sabalenka noted that the challenge of facing Rybakina is “all about the first few balls in every point. You know, if you dominate in those two points, I feel like most likely you're gonna win the point.“It's very aggressive, very fast tennis. Yeah, if it's her, I'm excited, actually.”Not too long after Sabalenka finished her media commitments, Rybakina closed out Svitolina with a 7-5, 6-4 scoreline. Sabalenka is yet to drop a set through five matches and her only defeat in 17 contests so far in 2026 was that 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 defeat to one of her chief rivals at Melbourne Park. “It's very aggressive, very fast tennis. Yeah, if it's her, I'm excited, actually.”Not too long after Sabalenka finished her media commitments, Rybakina closed out Svitolina with a 7-5, 6-4 scoreline. Sabalenka is yet to drop a set through five matches and her only defeat in 17 contests so far in 2026 was that 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 defeat to one of her chief rivals at Melbourne Park. Not too long after Sabalenka finished her media commitments, Rybakina closed out Svitolina with a 7-5, 6-4 scoreline. Sabalenka is yet to drop a set through five matches and her only defeat in 17 contests so far in 2026 was that 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 defeat to one of her chief rivals at Melbourne Park.","{'href': 'https://www.tennis.com', 'title': 'Tennis.com'}","tennis" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","'Race pace is similar to Mercedes'","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/race-pace-is-similar-to-mercedes-leclerc-and-hamilton-reflect-on-strong.DVdGnnwJheD4LE6c9rKQA","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 05:20:08 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton claimed a double podium in the China Sprint after challenging race winner George Russell. Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton have reflected on a positive Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix, the pair having claimed a double podium for the Scuderia amid an exciting battle for the win. Hamilton briefly took the lead on the first lap of the 19-lap Sprint after starting P4 and engaged in a frenetic duel with poleman and eventual race winner George Russell across the opening laps. The seven-time World Champion then battled team mate Leclerc, the pair going wheel-to-wheel through the opening corners at one stage, with the latter eventually gaining the advantage and finishing within a second of Russell at the chequered flag. ""I'm pretty happy with the race,"" said Leclerc, the Ferrari driver having started from P6. ""I think the pace was quite strong – we had a bit of fighting which made me lose time to George and then it was difficult to catch up. ""But it's good to see that at least our race pace is similar to Mercedes and our Qualifying pace. Pretty happy with the car today."" A late Safety Car period brought the leading drivers into the pits for new soft Pirelli rubber, but a moment of wheelspin exiting the Turn 14 hairpin at the restart meant Leclerc was unable to challenge Russell over the final three laps. ""Well I think the tyres were a little bit colder than what I expected,"" said Leclerc. ""I saw George actually having a snap and I was like, ‘Okay, this is probably my opportunity to take the lead', so I tried to go a bit more aggressive on throttle but I had the same rear grip as George so I nearly lost it, but luckily I didn't completely lose it."" Hamilton, meanwhile, recovered to third after passing McLaren's Lando Norris in the final laps at Turn 1, the Briton having had to stack behind Leclerc at the pit stop. With the Shanghai International Circuit the scene of his only victory for Ferrari 12 months ago in the Sprint, Hamilton was encouraged by the result in 2026 and under the new regulations. ""A big thank you to the team for us to be able to be in this position fighting with the Mercedes at the front,"" he said. ""It was a close battle at the beginning – their speed on the straights is a little bit too much at the moment, but I put up a good fight. I killed my left tyre so I wasn't able to hold onto position. ""It's just a much better car [than last year] that we've designed and I've been a part of developing it, so definitely a lot happier in it and of course I was in the lead at one point so third is not the greatest, but I will try harder again tomorrow."" Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","Watch the China Sprint highlights as Russell wins","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/highlights-watch-the-action-from-the-china-sprint-as-russell-wins-from.1I0qLOQJmg3UGQfqwIaDKG","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 05:06:06 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 George Russell emerged victorious in the first Sprint of the 2026 season in China. George Russell continued his winning start to the season by taking victory in the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix – the Briton having faced an early battle for the lead from Lewis Hamilton. After losing out to Hamilton off the line, Russell enjoyed a close fight with the Ferrari in the opening laps before later returning to P1, a position he managed to maintain until the chequered flag. Charles Leclerc climbed up to P2 ahead of his team mate, with McLaren's Lando Norris fourth while Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli was fifth – the Italian having fallen backwards after a difficult start before being handed a 10-second penalty for causing a collision with Red Bull's Isack Hadjar. There was more drama when the Safety Car was called for in the latter stages due to Audi's Nico Hulkenberg pulling off the track at Turn 1. To watch the highlights from the Shanghai Sprint, click go on the video player above. Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","What the teams said","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/what-the-teams-said-sprint-qualifying-in-china.4KRrWUhqPcUsvqBVn0MSDk","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:57:17 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 The drivers and teams report back on Sprint Qualifying from the Shanghai International Circuit for the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix. Mercedes gave the paddock an ominous warning when they finished 1-2 in practice, Russell one tenth ahead of his team mate. And the bad news for the rest is that they continued that form in Sprint Qualifying. Russell had the edge throughout, his car on rails and there were no issues as he grabbed Sprint pole with relative ease. Antonelli pushed him the whole way, matching his team mate in the first and second sectors, but he could not extract the same pace from the car in the final third and had to settle for second. The stewards did investigate the teenager for impeding Norris earlier in Sprint Qualifying, but took no further action. George Russell, 1st, 1:31.520 ""I am happy that we were able to secure pole position for tomorrow's Sprint race, the first Sprint pole of my career. The W17 has been feeling great the entire day, and we've been able to make the most out of the car in today's qualifying session. When the wind picked up in SQ3, we began to lose some speed on the straights, like others, but still managed to put all the sectors together and secure a front row for tomorrow's race. ""Despite our pace, we are cautious of the threat posed by others. We also know that anything can happen during a Sprint race, especially at the start. We've been working hard with the team on our getaways from the grid and have plenty of learnings from Melbourne. We will also need to focus on tyre management as we always see a lot of graining at this track. ""We'll keep working overnight to ensure a good Sprint race tomorrow but also a successful qualifying session for Sunday's Grand Prix."" Kimi Antonelli, 2nd, 1:31.809 ""Securing a front row for tomorrow's race is a good way to start the weekend. Congratulations to George for Sprint pole too; this continues our strong form as a team from Melbourne. Despite that, we know there is still a lot of work to do to improve. We will go through all the data from Friday and analyse how we can put ourselves in the best possible position for the Sprint but also the all-important Qualifying session. Tyre management can be challenging here, and our starts were a limiting factor last weekend; we need to put all this together to perform as best as we can and fight for victory and pole tomorrow. ""The overall positive is that the car felt good all day today. We need to keep it in that good window and, if we can do so, then I think we can bring home strong points in the Sprint. I'm looking forward to racing tomorrow and continuing this first Sprint weekend of the season."" Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director ""We did a decent job of landing the setup in a good place today and the drivers were happy with the car from the first run in free practice. From there, we made some relatively minor tweaks during the session and into Sprint Qualifying but mostly it was to follow the track evolution. ""The Sprint Qualifying session was fairly uneventful; the car was working well on both compounds and it's great to have got both on the front row. The sprint races are very good learning for the Grand Prix, not to mention an opportunity to score useful points. We've been doing a lot of work on starts and formation lap energy management over the last few days so tomorrow is a good opportunity to put that into practice. It's also helpful to understand how the tyres behave; this track is pretty tough on the fronts, so the drivers are going to have to manage that quite carefully."" 1 / 2 SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 13: George Russell of Mercedes and Great Britain celebrates pole positio during sprint qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 13, 2026 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images) Piastri seemed to have the edge on Norris again in practice, but when it mattered in Sprint Qualifying the World Champion found his best form. He managed to beat the Ferrari cars and grab third, so should be right in the mix at the start tomorrow. Piastri will just be hoping to make the start, after last weekend's crash in Melbourne. But as to what sort of race pace they have, that remains to be seen – especially considering they will have the fast-starting Ferraris to deal with off the line. Lando Norris, 3rd, 1:32.141 “A positive Sprint Quali, I'm pleased with the lap and P3 is as good as we could have achieved today. To be ahead of both Ferraris is positive, I wasn't sure that would be possible after FP1. Tomorrow we'll do what we can to maximise our result in the Sprint race. The first lap is the best opportunity for overtaking, but we know the competition are strong, and then we'll turn our attention to Qualifying in the afternoon.” Oscar Piastri, 5th, 1:32.224 ""A decent Sprint Qualifying. We executed a good session, the car felt pretty good and everything was smooth. There is still a big gap to Mercedes, so we need to work out how we can maximise our performance even more ahead of the Sprint and Grand Prix Qualifying tomorrow. Let's see what we can do.” Neil Houldey, Technical Director – Engineering “The entire team have put in a lot of work both at the factory and trackside after the last event to maximise the car's performance this weekend in China. It was pleasing to see that we made some progress between Free Practice 1 and Sprint Qualifying today, benefitting from the important changes we made in both our deployment and car setup. “While we appeared to be the third quickest team in the opening stages of Sprint Quali, our drivers really delivered in the SQ3 session to extract the performance potential from the MCL40. “We recognise that the next few months will still require intense hard work, and we're absolutely ready to rise to that challenge, but for the opening day of running in Shanghai, there are definitely positives to take away. We're pleased with today's result, and we'll review everything overnight to focus on making further developments as we still have plenty of competitive sessions ahead of us this weekend.” 1 / 2 SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 13: Lando Norris of Great Britain driving the (1) McLaren MCL40 Mercedes on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 13, 2026 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images) Hamilton spun early on in FP1, flat-spotting his tyres and hampering his programme. He had to run the softs earlier than the rest, which meant his times were not quite representative. Ferrari also opted to switch away from their ‘flip flop' wing after practice, reverting to the rear wing spec they used last weekend. Both Scuderia cars seemed to be in the mix and made it to SQ3, with Hamilton pipping his team mate. But they lost out to Norris, with Leclerc also behind Piastri. They might get some of those positions back with another fast start tomorrow, but they will still have their work cut out to fight for the win. Charles Leclerc, 6th, 1:32.528 ""It wasn't a great session. Unfortunately, I lost half a second on the back straight on my second lap in SQ3, and we will have to analyse the reason for that to make sure we can come back tomorrow. We should be a bit stronger in the Sprint race than we were today, however, the front runners still seem to be a step ahead, so we will see what we can do to challenge them."" Lewis Hamilton, 4th, 1:32.161 ""I'm really pleased with how the session went today. After a tricky practice, the team did a great job getting the car into a much better window, and it felt fantastic to drive in Sprint Quali. There's still some work to do back in Maranello to find more performance on the straights, which has been our main weakness but we're strong through the corners, which is encouraging. Overall, the car felt good, and tomorrow's Sprint will be a good opportunity to keep building our weekend."" Fred Vasseur, Team Principal ""Today's Sprint Qualifying was more positive for us than the result might suggest. Lewis did a good job in what was a very tight fight with the McLarens. Charles' was also very competitive but in his second run in SQ3 was not as strong in the final sector and we will analyse the data in detail to understand what happened, as he didn't have the same energy deployment as on his first attempt. Tomorrow we will see what we can achieve in the Sprint race, but I'm confident we can aim for another solid result. In free practice we also ran the reverse rear wing to gather additional mileage before introducing it on the car."" 1 / 2 SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 13: Charles Leclerc of Monaco driving the (16) Scuderia Ferrari SF-26 on track during Sprint qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 13, 2026 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) Colapinto stopped in the fast lane of the pits midway through FP1, with Alpine still struggling with a few reliability gremlins, but both drivers had trouble-free running in Sprint Qualifying. Colpainto could not extract enough pace to make SQ3 but Gasly did, and then topped the midfield to boot. In fact, the Frenchman out-qualified both Red Bull cars in a solid display. Pierre Gasly, 7th, 1:32.888 “I'm extremely pleased with today's result in Sprint Qualifying, especially after last week in Melbourne which didn't live up to our expectations. We found a lot more performance and good learnings from Australia that we carried over into this weekend. We tried to put everything together and I felt a lot better in the car, straight from the first lap out of the garage. It's good to be more competitive here and comfortably making it into SQ3 and mixing it with the top four teams. I've been feeling good in the car and there is certainly more potential than what we showed last time out. We will try to carry this positive momentum into tomorrow and see if we can bring home some points for the team.” Franco Colapinto, 16th, 1:34.327 “It was tricky today and wasn't the result in Sprint Qualifying we had hoped for. We didn't take the step forward we needed to compete for places in SQ3. Ultimately, we lacked the pace today, which we need to understand why that is. We lacked pace compared to Pierre, who was quick today and did a great job, which is great for the team who are putting in a lot of work and is positive also that there's more potential in the car. I just need to understand more on my side how to extract it and where we can find improvements. We will try to learn as much as we can in the Sprint Race tomorrow, see if we can make up some places and put the learnings into practice for tomorrow's Qualifying.” 1 / 2 SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 13: Pierre Gasly of France driving the (10) Alpine F1 A526 Mercedes in the Pitlane during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 13, 2026 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images) Red Bull lacked pace in Shanghai, with both drivers only just scraping through to SQ3. For Hadjar that was an improvement, after he found himself down the order in practice. Verstappen went for two push laps in the shootout, Hadjar only one. But neither driver could make much of an impression on the front few rows, with the team apologising to Verstappen over the radio after the chequered flag for the lack of pace in the RB22. Max Verstappen, 8th, 1:33.254 “The whole day hasn't been great pace wise. We have had low grip, which has been our biggest problem, and no balance unfortunately. We are losing quite a lot of time in the corners and then, of course, this starts to trigger other little problems. The big problem for us is the cornering. We will need to go away and analyse what we can do ahead of tomorrow and figure out our main limitations and we will see how we go."" Isack Hadjar, 10th, 1:33.723 “I can be happy with the lap that I put together, it was good. I'm not too far off Max so that's a positive but I'm not sure what happened to our pace or why we were half a second off. We need a little bit more of everything to be competitive tomorrow, we struggled with grip today and our power wasn't where we wanted it to be. The gap to McLaren and Ferrari was bigger than last weekend, so we need to figure out why. There's a still a lot to play for over the rest of the weekend.”  Pierre Wache, Technical Director “Our set up for sprint qualifying didn't play out as we would have wanted it to, so we need to analyse our performance and see how we can improve for the Sprint race and qualifying. We are understanding more and improving week by week – we've already made positive steps to improve energy management and have made improvements on the chassis side based on what we learned from Australia. We are making progress, but we are not quite there yet. Tomorrow's sessions will bring major learnings to help us get closer to where we would like to be.”  1 / 2 SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 13: Eighth placed qualifier Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing arrives in parc ferme during Sprint qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 13, 2026 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) Bar one late spin for Bearman, he impressed in practice, giving Haas high hopes of making SQ3. And the Englishman delivered just that, qualifying ninth for the Sprint. Points only go down to P8 though, so he needs a fast start if he wants to score. As for Ocon, he was not far off, with the margins in the midfield very, very tight. As such, Haas have an opportunity to split strategies and learn plenty about the tyres ahead of Sunday's Grand prix. Esteban Ocon, 12th, 1:33.639 “We're working hard to get the car to where we want it to be. It felt better from FP1 to Sprint Qualifying, but there are still a few things that we need to investigate to improve it for tomorrow. There's potential, and our understanding of the car is quite high now, so hopefully we can get on top of our issues and get the maximum out of it."" Oliver Bearman, 9th, 1:33.409 “We showed really good pace from pretty much lap one of FP1, and we've been able to build on that and move forward. It was a tough session, the balance was a bit on edge and it was difficult to put a lap together, but we got there in the end and I'm happy with P9 today. I'm quite impressed and surprised by the gap to the leaders as we've seemed to close it a little bit compared to last week. Prior to this weekend, I wasn't expecting to be in the fight for the top eight because we expected the front four teams to be so far ahead, but in the end, that wasn't really the case. It looks like if we get everything right tomorrow, we can score some points.” Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal “It's the first Sprint of the year, and we expected a huge challenge, but we've really stepped up operationally compared to Melbourne. FP1 was decent, everything was in a good place, so I'm really happy with how the team stepped up from last weekend. We needed to, but that was really good. That gave us a decent starting point for Sprint Qualifying. “It was largely a clean session with good communication and good execution. We're learning that with these new regulations, small differences in driver input make a huge difference in the outcome. It was a shame that Esteban didn't get through to SQ3, he had the pace for it. Ollie did a very good job getting into SQ3, and we made the decision to go out on used softs so we could save a new tyre. We still beat one of the Red Bulls, so it was an amazing effort from Ollie, and we're still aiming for a top-eight finish tomorrow.” 1 / 2 SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 13: Oliver Bearman of Great Britain driving the (87) Haas F1 VF-26 Ferrari on track during Sprint qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 13, 2026 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images) It was not to be for Audi after Bortoleto's heroics in Melbourne. This time, it was Hulkenberg who proved the faster of the duo, thought the German missed out on SQ3 by an agonising 0.015s. Bortoleto was a few places further back, after a scrappy Sprint Qualifying where he ran wide and scuffed up his tyres. However, with both still learning about their Audi power unit, there is a high chance they will move up the order come Qualifying proper. Nico Hulkenberg, 11th, 1:33.635 “It is a shame to miss out SQ3 by such a small margin, but overall, P11 is still a solid result. In SQ2 I lost radio communication with the team, so I had to manage part of the run on my own, which made things more complicated. “Aside from that, the feeling with the car has been good since this morning. We look to be right in the midfield fight again, which is encouraging. It's very tight out there, so we'll take what we've learned today and aim to move forward tomorrow.” Gabriel Bortoleto, 14th, 1:33.774 ""It's been a bit of a tricky Friday for us. We came across a few issues during Free Practice which appeared again during Sprint Qualifying, keeping us on the back foot. Of course, it's a different type of track from what we've had so far, with different ranges of corners, and we're discovering once again how our car is behaving. Looking at the Sprint tomorrow, let's see what we can achieve. It's a quite short race obviously, and after that, we'll make sure to fix any issue that is going on in the background, in order to go into qualifying in a better place and give it our best."" Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal “A sprint weekend always brings its challenges for the teams, as there is very little time to learn about the car before going straight into sprint qualifying and then the sprint race itself - the momentum builds very quickly. With these new and very complex cars, arriving at a new circuit means you are constantly learning more about the package — understanding where the performance is and where improvements are needed, lap after lap. “Considering those challenges, I think the team did a good job between FP1 and sprint qualifying to address the main areas where we could extract performance from the car, and the result was a fair reflection of our pace today. There are still some issues the drivers have been highlighting since the winter, which remain a focus for us as we continue to develop the car. On Nico's side we briefly lost communication during SQ2, but the team was able to resolve that issue once the car returned to the garage. “Our priority now is to have a clean sprint race and then see what progress we can make ahead of qualifying.” 1 / 2 SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 13: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany driving the (27) Audi F1 Team R26 on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 13, 2026 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images) Lindblad managed just six laps in FP1 before parking up with smoke in his cockpit. That was less than ideal for the rookie, putting him on the back foot from word go. It was therefore unsurprising that he struggled to extract much pace and hook up a lap in Sprint Qualifying, exiting down the order in SQ2. But Lawson also dropped out in that segment, so it looks like Racing Bulls do not have the same pace here that they showed last time out in Melbourne. Arvid Lindblad, 15th, 1:34.048 “Not particularly happy. Considering it is my first time here and I did about two laps in FP1, to be relatively close and okay I don't think is too bad. But P15 is not where I or the team want to be. Liam was a little bit better, but still not much more competitive. I am going to look at myself tonight, see where I can improve for tomorrow. We will also look as a collective to see what we can do to make a step for Qualifying. Main focus on the Sprint tomorrow but still looking ahead to Qualifying tomorrow. Liam Lawson, 13th, 1:33.714 “To be honest, I was actually quite happy. We have had a good step from practice to Quali with set-up and honestly it was not a bad lap. We just struggled a bit more here than last week. I think Melbourne really suited our car and here, it is not as good for us so we need to try and do some work for tomorrow. In terms of set-up I felt quite happy.” Mattia Spini, Head of Trackside Engineering ""The Shanghai circuit is quite different to Melbourne, with a lot more time spent cornering at lower speeds. With it being the first Sprint weekend of the season, we expected Friday to be quite challenging and that's pretty much what we saw. ""Arvid unfortunately had a chassis hardware issue just a few laps into FP1, which meant he lost valuable track time, especially considering it's his first time at this circuit. That left him going into Sprint Qualifying with only one and a half laps of preparation, so he had a steep learning curve in SQ1. ""Liam had a more straightforward FP1. Both cars made it through to SQ2, but overall, we were missing a bit of pace to fight for SQ3 today. ""We're not currently in the point-scoring positions, but the focus now is on preparing for the Sprint, which could be an eventful session. We need to be ready to take any opportunity that comes our way, and the start, together with tyre management, will be key tomorrow morning. ""We'll keep working on improving the car and PU setup ahead of Qualifying, as there's still some pace to find compared to our competitors.” 1 / 2 SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 13: Liam Lawson of New Zealand and Visa Cash App Racing Bulls prepares to drive in the garage during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 13, 2026 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images) Sainz had another difficult start to a weekend, with data issues costing him time in practice. He did eventually get out, but was off the pace – as was his team mate. Albon had said on Thursday that he did not think this track would suit their car and so it proved, both drivers exiting at the first time of asking. Sainz was comfortably the quicker of the two, but that will be scant consolation for the Spaniard in the wake of his team's struggles to get on top of their 2026 car. Alex Albon, 18th, 1:35.305 “It's been a confusing day and clearly this isn't the result we wanted out of Sprint quali. We have multiple limitations at the moment we are trying to understand so we need to go back to the drawing board and get a clearer picture ahead of tomorrow. As always we'll give everything we have in front of the Chinese fans for tomorrow's Sprint race and qualifying sessions.” Carlos Sainz, 17th, 1:34.761 “This weekend was always going to be difficult for us with this circuit exposing the weaknesses in our car. Missing half of FP1 didn't help either, as I couldn't prepare properly for this session and had to adapt every lap. As it stands, we first need a clean weekend before aiming for better results. I'll use this weekend to test different setups and try to make up for the track time I've lost so far. The target is to maximise our performance and keep gathering learnings to help the team.” James Vowles, Team Principal “Tough day, which isn't a surprise after Melbourne, but doesn't hurt any less as a result. This evening will be about reflection and looking at what other approaches we can do to make sure we maximise the opportunities across the remainder of the weekend, and looking at how we might be able to extract more out of this car before we bring performance to it."" 1 / 2 SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 13: Carlos Sainz of Spain driving the (55) Williams FW48 Mercedes on track during Sprint qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 13, 2026 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images) Aston Martin had a relatively smooth opening day in China, with both cars able to take part in the practice session and Sprint Qualifying. The team were running flow-vis paint too, as they continue their vital data collection. Neither Alonso nor Stroll were able to escape SQ1, but their main aim will be to make it to the chequered flag in the Sprint and build from there. Fernando Alonso, 19th, 1:35.581 “We did some laps in Free Practice and only managed SQ1 today. I think we did the best we could and we are still far away from the others. We will try to improve again tomorrow, complete as many laps as we can, and build our understanding of this package.” Lance Stroll, 20th, 1:36.151 “We gathered important data so that's a positive, but we are still battling the same issues we had a week ago in Melbourne. Ultimately, we don't want to be fighting for P19 and P20 so there's lots for us to work on, but we came to China with the main objective to continue learning more about the car.” 1 / 2 SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 13: Fernando Alonso of Spain driving the (14) Aston Martin F1 Team AMR26 Honda on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 13, 2026 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images) Cadillac had a slightly tricky Friday in China. A fuel systems issue was detected on Perez's car late in FP1, and as such, the team did not have time to fix that prior to Sprint Qualifying. That meant the Mexican could not take part and will start from the back of the grid tomorrow. Bottas at least gathered some valuable data for the team as he did take to the track in SQ1, exiting in P21. Valtteri Bottas, 21st, 1:37.378 “We had a deployment issue which impacted my laps and meant we couldn't get the most out of the session. We need to investigate fully now. Otherwise, it's quite difficult to say where we would have ended up. We'll try to address everything as a team ahead of the Sprint Race.” Sergio Perez, 22nd, No time set in SQ1 “It's a shame that we couldn't participate in Sprint Quali. We struggled with a fuel system issue in the morning and then unfortunately we couldn't fix it in time for this afternoon. The team is working really hard at the track and back at the factory to find a solution so we can get ready for our first Sprint tomorrow.” Nick Chester, Chief Technical Officer ""A difficult day today, but at this early stage in our journey we are still finding issues and fixing them in real time. We detected a problem with the fuel system on Checo's car in practice and could not rectify before Sprint Qualifying. We had a slightly smoother day on Valtteri's side of the garage, but a significant deployment issue meant that we were unable to set representative times. All the same, every lap we do gives us more valuable information that lets us move forward.” 1 / 2 SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 13: Valtteri Bottas of Finland driving the (77) Cadillac F1 Team MAC-26 Ferrari on track during Sprint qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 13, 2026 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images) Dario Marrafuschi, Pirelli Motorsport Director ""During Sprint race weekends, it's always challenging for teams to fully assess tyre behaviour as they only have one hour of free practice. During this session, the teams used one set of medium tyres and one set of soft tyres, without carrying out any significant long runs. The hards were saved for the following days, and some teams may consider using them in their strategies for Sunday's race as early as tomorrow. ""The Sprint, which is most likely to be run on Medium tyres, will certainly provide a clearer picture. The performance difference between the two compounds used on Friday is around six tenths. Interestingly, in the first two qualifying segments, the C3 was once again able to deliver maximum performance on the second push lap after completing a cooldown lap. ""Temperatures are cooler than last year, the track is still dirty and has less grip than we will see on Sunday as the track evolves. As happened last year and as expected, some graining appeared on the front-left tyre, which is the most stressed by Shanghai's corners, and to a lesser extent on the front-right, although the impact on overall wear remains limited. On this circuit, teams tend to prioritise protecting the front axle, shifting the balance towards the rear as much as possible."" Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","Mixed emotions for Ferrari drivers in Sprint Qualifying","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/hamilton-and-leclerc-left-with-contrasting-emotions-after-mixed-sprint.41ZOC61wAmciP7VOYnTKMN","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 01:01:54 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc wound up fourth and sixth respectively for Ferrari during Sprint Qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were left with differing views after Sprint Qualifying at the Shanghai International Circuit – the former feeling “really pleased” and the latter left to rue issues on his final timed lap. Hamilton's SQ3 effort put him fourth on the grid for the Sprint, between McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, while Charles Leclerc had to settle for sixth, some three-and-a-half tenths down on his team mate. Reflecting on his team-leading result, following a difficult practice hour, Hamilton said: “Really pleased with the session. My team did a really great job, my engineers did a fantastic job to turn the car around, because in P1 it was a tricky session with that spin. “The car generally felt great, it's just I think we're losing… I think it's on the straights, it's a lot of time to be losing. We have a lot of work to do, we really have to push so hard back [at the factory] in Maranello to improve on power. “It's something that I think we were conscious of last year, we thought that Mercedes started [on the new regulations] earlier than us, or the rest, which they did last time as well. They've done a fantastic job, and we've got to step up, we've got to push to be able to close that gap. “I think car-wise, the car feels great, and I think we can compete with them through corners, but when you're down on power it's just the way it is.” Hamilton was also asked about Ferrari trialling their ‘flip-flop' rear wing in FP1, before going back to the specification used for the season-opener in Australia. “I don't really know why we went back on it,” he commented. “We rushed it to get it here, and it was not supposed to be on the car until it was like race four or five, something like that. “They did a great job to rush it here, we only had two of them, and it was maybe a little bit premature, so we took it off. The car was still great and we'll work to try and bring it back when it's ready.” Leclerc, meanwhile, gave his take on a “frustrating session”, having set the third-fastest time in SQ2 before dropping to sixth in the decisive SQ3 phase. “First the toggle, then unfortunately when I had a good lap, I lost half a second in the back straight for whatever reason – on the second lap in SQ3,” he said. “We'll analyse that and try to understand what's gone wrong.” Adding his thoughts on Ferrari's wing changes, and the deficit to pace-setters Mercedes, Leclerc added: “I mean, it doesn't really change the picture from where we are. I think in the race we should be relatively a bit stronger than where we were now in [Sprint] Qualifying, however Mercedes seems to be still a step ahead. “In Qualifying, for some reason the Mercedes power unit finds a lot of lap time. We don't quite find that amount of lap time just yet in Qualifying, but in the race we are closer, so I'm still hopeful we can come back tomorrow.” Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","Just how good are Mercedes in China?","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/friday-debrief-how-good-are-mercedes-after-a-stellar-sprint-qualifying-in.2WdofcfPWyIVClV8BWe4CX","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:14:01 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 F1.com's Lawrence Barretto delves into the data from Sprint Qualifying after George Russell sealed an impressive pole. George Russell drew huge cheers from the crowd as he stepped out of his Mercedes after taking a commanding pole position for the Sprint in China, with Ferrari outgunned by McLaren while rivals Red Bull looked deeply uncomfortable... You're not wrong. There's no doubt the Mercedes is the class of the field at this stage of the campaign – and Russell is proving just how good he is by making the most of the package to comfortably fend of his young, highly-rated team mate Kimi Antonelli and getting the job done. Russell already looked very comfortable in FP1, the only practice session of the weekend, and had the car well dialled in to ensure he was easily quickest in each segment of Sprint Qualifying. Unlock exclusive F1 content and more with F1 Unlocked. Totally free. Membership gets you closer with: Curated insider content Live like an F1 insider with exclusive access and VIP experiences Member benefits, rewards and offers Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","Russell wins thrilling China Sprint from Leclerc & Hamilton","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/russell-wins-thrilling-china-sprint-from-ferraris-leclerc-and-hamilton.3HLw6daSkBmV0rPREohMwQ","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:02:13 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 George Russell continued his 100% winning start to the Formula 1 season in 2026 with his Sprint triumph. George Russell claimed Sprint victory at the Chinese Grand Prix, finishing ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, following an early frenetic battle for the lead and surviving a late Safety Car. The Mercedes driver started from pole for the 19-lap Sprint on Saturday, and unlike a week ago in Australia, Russell held the lead through the opening corners before conceding the position to a surging Hamilton at Turn 9 – the Ferrari man had started fourth on the grid. The pair engaged in a tussle for the lead, swapping positions across the early laps until Russell made the decisive move into the Turn 14 hairpin on Lap 5, pulling a gap to both Hamilton and Leclerc. Leclerc eventually got the better of his team mate, finishing just 0.6 seconds behind Russell, the leading drivers having made a late pit stop following a Safety Car that was called when Nico Hulkenberg's stricken Audi needed to be retrieved. Hamilton recovered to third having dropped behind Lando Norris, the seven-time World Champion forced to stack behind Leclerc after the late flurry in the pits. Norris claimed fourth from the second Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, the young Italian having suffered a poor start from the front row and forced to serve a 10-second penalty in the pits after a collision with Isack Hadjar on the opening lap. Sprint results FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN CHINESE GRAND PRIX 2026 The second McLaren of Oscar Piastri finished sixth after being overtaken late on by Antonelli, with Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson and Haas' Ollie Bearman claiming the final points on offer after not pitting under the late caution. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Esteban Ocon (Haas) completed the top 10, and were followed by Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Carlos Sainz (Williams), Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto and the second Alpine of Franco Colapinto. Hadjar came home P15 from Alex Albon (Williams), the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, with Sergio Perez the final classified runner for Cadillac. Hulkenberg, the second Cadillac of Valtteri Bottas and Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad failed to finish, the latter having suffered an opening lap spin while Bottas suffered a loss of power. As the lights went out to signal the start of the Sprint, Russell initially held his lead from pole through the opening corners. However, Hamilton was on the charge from his P4 starting slot, having demoted Antonelli off the line and passing Norris into Turn 1. The seven-time World Champion then took the lead with a dive to the inside at Turn 9 before Russell fought back along the back straight into the Turn 14 hairpin. Hamilton was back ahead around the outside of Turn 1 at the start of Lap 2 and the pair continued to trade places over the opening laps, allowing Leclerc from P6 to move within range, as Norris headed Piastri further back. Behind, Antonelli made contact with Hadjar at Turn 4, the young Mercedes driver once again suffering a poor start from the front row of the grid, and he was subsequently slapped with a 10-second penalty for the collision. By Lap 5, Russell had gapped the two Ferrari drivers after a decisive move at Turn 14, with Leclerc starting to challenge his team mate before moving ahead up the inside of Turn 1 at the beginning of Lap 8. The pair went wheel-to-wheel through the opening corners a lap later, but Leclerc remained ahead which proved crucial later in proceedings, as a late a Safety Car meant Ferrari was forced to double stack in the pits. Behind the leading trio, Antonelli had steadily recovered from the midfield, overtaking the McLarens of Piastri and Norris, and soon challenging the Ferraris. The young Italian then moved ahead of Hamilton at Turn 14 on Lap 11 and repeated the move on Leclerc two laps later, just as the Safety Car was called after Hulkenberg had brought his Audi to a stop at Turn 1. The caution prompted all the leading runners to switch from the Pirelli medium tyre to the soft rubber, Russell rejoining back in the lead from Leclerc, as Norris jumped Hamilton. Antonelli served his 10-second penalty and rejoined just in front of Piastri, who had to stack behind Norris, but the pair found themselves behind Lawson and Bearman, the latter pair having decided to stay out on their hard and medium tyres respectively. Racing resumed with just three laps remaining as a moment of wheelspin exiting Turn 14 from Leclerc gave Russell a decisive margin, which he held until the chequered flag. Hamilton recovered to P3 after overtaking Norris around the outside at Turn 1, while Antonelli recovered to P5 having initially lost a position at the restart to Piastri. The Australian was told to concede the position with the Australian initially passing the Mercedes youngster before the start/finish line after the Safety Car restart, eventually finishing P6 as Lawson and Bearman held on for the final points. Verstappen finished just outside of the points, after the Red Bull driver suffered a poor start that dropped him down the field from P8 on the grid, as Ocon completed the top 10. Gasly slipped outside the points after starting seventh, finishing ahead of Sainz, Bortoleto and Colapinto, with Hadjar P15 after suffering minor damage in his collision with Antonelli. Albon headed the two Aston Martins of Alonso and Stroll, with Perez in P19 having suffered a five-second penalty for a Safety Car infringement. Hulkenberg, Bottas and Lindblad failed to finish. ""It's really windy at the moment,"" said Russell. ""It's not easy because this first corner is so long and it only takes one lap of pushing too much and you can destroy your front left tyre, so it was just sort of managing, and especially when we were battling. Lewis did an amazing job in the early laps – he caught me off guard – but [that's] 20 years' experience, so I've still got a little bit to learn there!"" Following the Sprint, the drivers will return to the track for Qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix at 1500 local time. Head to the RACE HUB to find out how you can follow the action. Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","LIVE COVERAGE: Qualifying in China","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/live-coverage-qualifying-in-china-2026.1GpFfEoP9Zh9xJPnDkBj1A","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 07:47:09 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 Live coverage of Saturday's Qualifying session for the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","Antonelli reacts after making history with China pole","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/antonelli-feeling-great-after-becoming-youngest-ever-grand-prix-polesitter.3zm5sUgdoEFO25K4LBkFi0","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:28:49 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 Kimi Antonelli made history in Qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver becoming F1's youngest-ever polesitter. Kimi Antonelli admitted that he was “feeling great” after claiming his maiden Grand Prix pole position during Qualifying in China, with the result seeing the Italian become the sport's new youngest-ever polesitter. There were mixed fortunes for the Mercedes drivers across Q3, as George Russell experienced a brief stoppage on track when the segment got underway. While he was able to return to the pits and rejoin the session, it left the Briton with only enough time for one flying lap. Antonelli had already set the benchmark by this point – and Russell's sole effort was not enough to topple his team mate, the youngster's time of 1m 32.064s ultimately bettering Russell by 0.222s. This makes Antonelli the youngest driver to clinch pole at 19 years, six months and 17 days old, beating previous record holder Sebastian Vettel who was 21 years and 73 days old at the time of his pole at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. Asked for his feelings after beating the record – and for his reflections on the session in general – Antonelli said: “I'm feeling great. It was a good session, a good way to end the day after a difficult Sprint. “Of course there's a lot of excitement, but the focus is already ahead on tomorrow because there's a big, big opportunity and I just really want to maximise it.” In terms of his thinking for Sunday's Grand Prix, Antonelli is aiming to have a clean getaway – having suffered a difficult start during Saturday's Sprint. “I think the start is going to be interesting,” the teenager explained. “I'm going to try not to overcomplicate things, just going to try to have a clean start and the pace is good. “Just need to also manage the tyres the best way possible because graining could be quite severe tomorrow, so just going to try to stay on top of that. But the main thing is a clean start and then we'll see from there.” Speaking earlier after jumping out of the car, Antonelli also shared an insight into how he managed to remain focused when Russell experienced problems. “I saw he had an issue but I just tried to keep my focus, to stay calm and try to deliver a good lap, which it was at the end.” Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","Russell reflects on ‘pretty fun' Sprint win in China as he admits being ‘caught off guard' by Hamilton battle","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/russell-reflects-on-pretty-fun-sprint-win-in-china-as-he-admits-being-caught.5ZXPtQ8Xlqghr8J65oDg1o","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 05:00:11 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 George Russell was delighted to win the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix, with the Mercedes driver facing a close battle from Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton during the opening stages. George Russell was delighted to win a “pretty fun” Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix, with the Mercedes driver admitting being “caught off guard” by his early battle against Lewis Hamilton for the lead. Despite a good start from pole position, Russell lost out on P1 later in the lap when Hamilton made a lightning launch off the line to surge to the front from P4 on the grid. A close scrap followed in the next laps, before Russell eventually sealed the position. The Briton went on to take victory, ahead of the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in second and Hamilton in third. When asked afterwards about the dicey opening laps – which were much like his early duel with Leclerc last time out in Australia – Russell responded: “Again, yeah! “I just spoke with Charles, we were like, ‘Actually, this is pretty fun in the end'! A lot of strategy at play and how you do the overtakes. It's not easy. “I hope it was a fun race to watch – usually the Sprint races are pretty boring – and then I got everything under control, [then there was the] Safety Car, but really happy to win.” Describing the difficulties that he faced from behind the wheel, Russell continued: “It's really windy at the moment. It's not easy because this first corner's so long and it only takes one lap of pushing too much and you can destroy your front left tyre, so it was just sort of managing, and especially when we were battling. “And Lewis did an amazing job in the early laps – he caught me off guard – but [that's] 20 years' experience, so I've still got a little bit to learn there!” Given the close fight that Ferrari again put up, Russell suggested that the Silver Arrows may have to up their game further for the remainder of the weekend. “I hope we can bring more, but yesterday was a really great day,” the Briton said. “Ferrari again seem to be offset in Qualifying but really close to us in race pace, so ultimately we probably need to find a bit of improvement for the race.” On the other side of the garage it was an eventful Sprint for Kimi Antonelli. After dropping backwards at the start from P2 on the grid, the Italian made contact with Red Bull's Isack Hadjar during the opening lap, later earning him a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision. While he was able to climb back up the order, Antonelli served his penalty in the pits when the Safety Car was called following a stoppage on track for Audi's Nico Hulkenberg, resulting in a final position of P5. “It was a crazy race on my side,” the 19-year-old said. “Obviously with the start we need to check what happened, what went wrong – probably I think it was something on my side. ""Then when I released the clutch, I had no power, no momentum, but I think it was something on my side with the procedure, so I need to check on that. “And then the pace was decent to be fair. Obviously I came back into P2, but then the Safety Car came out and I had to serve the 10 seconds and then fell back again. Now we look forward to Qualifying.” Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","The Official Home of Formula 1® Racing","https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2026/races/1280/china/sprint-grid","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:01:30 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 13 - 15 Mar 2026 Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai Note - Perez given permission to start after failing to set a lap time within 107% of the fastest Q1 time in Sprint Qualifying. Albon required to start from pit lane after car was modified under Parc Ferme conditions. Note - Perez given permission to start after failing to set a lap time within 107% of the fastest Q1 time in Sprint Qualifying. Albon required to start from pit lane after car was modified under Parc Ferme conditions. © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","Antonelli becomes F1's youngest ever GP polesitter in China","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/antonelli-beats-russell-to-become-f1s-youngest-ever-grand-prix-polesitter-in.54Dx0kX9QiRCnSgIsxR71t","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 08:49:52 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli will start a Formula 1 Grand Prix from pole for the first time in China, becoming the youngest to ever do it in the process. Kimi Antonelli became the youngest driver in Formula 1 history to take a Grand Prix pole position in China, as Mercedes team mate George Russell claimed second on the grid after an earlier car issue hampered him in Q3. Antonelli beat the previous record set by Sebastian Vettel at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, with the 19-year-old set to start at the very front for Sunday's 56-lap race. The Italian out-qualified Russell by 0.222s after posting a 1m 32.064s with his final effort. Russell, who won Saturday's Sprint, was only able to set one flying lap in the final segment of Qualifying having suffered a car issue which brought him to a halt on track briefly. The Briton recovered back to the pits stuck in first gear, and with the problem rectified, set a single lap at the end of proceedings. Ferrari locked-out the second row, Lewis Hamilton finishing fractionally ahead of Charles Leclerc, as Oscar Piastri headed McLaren team mate and reigning World Champion, Lando Norris. Qualifying results FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN CHINESE GRAND PRIX 2026 The top 10 was completed by the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, followed by Haas' Ollie Bearman. Audi's Nico Hulkenberg missed out on a spot in Q3 once again as in Australia and was joined by Franco Colapinto (Alpine), Haas' Esteban Ocon, and the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad. Gabriel Bortoleto was P16, the Audi driver having suffered a spin at the last corner on his final effort. Eliminated in Q1, Carlos Sainz led Williams team mate Alex Albon after another difficult session, with Valtteri Bottas' Cadillac sandwiched between the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, as Sergio Perez completed the order. A flurry of cars exited the pit lane at the start of the 18-minute Q1 session at the Shanghai International Circuit, with Piastri the first driver to dip below the 1m 34s barrier after the opening laps – the McLaren man using the soft Pirelli tyre to set a 1m 33.990s. Hamilton soon found himself in the drop zone at the halfway point of the session, the Ferrari driver reporting that the car 'feels good' despite a moment of oversteer on the exit of Turn 9 with a used medium tyre. The Mercedes duo were the last runners to register lap times, Antonelli and then Russell comfortably jumping to the top of the leaderboard as the new benchmark became a 1m 33.262s. Fitted with a new set of soft tyres, Hamilton moved up to third but still found himself 0.260s behind Russell's time, before team mate Leclerc caught the attention of many with a new fastest lap – a 1m 33.175s leaving him clear of Russell and Antonelli. At the other end of the standings and on the cusp of elimination, Lindblad was called into pits with a potential issue before rejoining the track in the closing stages to move up to P13 in the final reckoning. It placed the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Hadjar at risk, the pair having done their opening laps on the medium tyre before recovering to fourth and ninth respectively at the chequered flag with a new set of softs. Between the pair, Hamilton occupied fifth from Norris, Bortoleto and Piastri, with Colapinto completing the top 10. Also progressing into Q2 were Bearman, Gasly, Lindblad, Ocon, Hulkenberg and Lawson. As in Australia, Williams' Sainz was eliminated in Q1 despite proclaiming 'it was a good lap' and headed disgruntled team mate Albon, followed by the Aston Martin of Alonso and Bottas' Cadillac, with Stroll and Perez completing the order as less than four seconds covered the field. Knocked out: Sainz, Albon, Alonso, Bottas, Stroll and Perez Mercedes sent both cars out immediately at the start of Q2 with a used set of soft tyres, Russell setting a 1m 32.523s and leaving himself three-tenths clear of Hamilton and Leclerc, as Antonelli was half a second back in fourth. Verstappen was initially best of the rest as Bearman set an impressive time to occupy sixth from Norris, Gasly, Hadjar and Piastri after the initial runs with a mix of old and new soft tyres in action. On the second runs, Leclerc went fastest with a 1m 32.486s as Hamilton fell just 0.081s short of his team mate in P3, before Antonelli demoted them all to go fractionally quicker on a 1m 32.443s which remained top at the chequered flag. Russell was left in third between the two Ferrari drivers, the Sprint winner unable to improve on his second run and complaining that 'something is not right with the car, I've got major understeer', as Mercedes inspected his front wing. Norris finished fifth from Gasly, Verstappen, Piastri, Bearman and Hadjar, with Hulkenberg once again just missing out on a spot in Q3 after finishing 11th. Colapinto was 12th, while Ocon, Lawson and Lindblad were unable to improve on their final efforts after backing off into the final corner when Bortoleto went off into the gravel, the Audi driver recovering to the pits and finishing P16. Knocked out: Hulkenberg, Colapinto, Ocon, Lawson, Lindblad and Bortoleto There was drama almost immediately at the start of Q3, as Russell came to a stop out on track after the opening corners, reporting 'something is not right, got massive engine braking' before crawling back to the pits stuck in first gear. The Briton's misfortune opened the door for his team mate Antonelli, who set a 1m 32.322s with his first lap, leaving him three tenths clear of Leclerc with Hamilton a further four tenths back. Antonelli lowered the benchmark even further with his second lap – posting a 1m 32.064s – which proved crucial as Russell was able to complete a single flying lap, falling two-tenths short of another pole. The result means Antonelli becomes the youngest F1 polesitter for a Grand Prix, having taken pole for the Miami Sprint last season. Hamilton bested Leclerc as both Ferrari drivers jumped ahead of McLaren duo Piastri and Norris, the reigning champions having placed themselves behind Antonelli after the opening runs. The remainder of the top 10 saw Gasly take seventh from Verstappen, with Hadjar in ninth and Bearman in 10th. ""It was a pretty clean session, so really happy,"" said Antonelli. ""Unfortunately George had an issue in Q3, so it would have been cool to see him with two sets, but I think it was a really good session. A clean one, no mistakes, and looking forward to the race tomorrow."" The 2026 Chinese Grand Prix is set to begin at 1500 local time on Sunday. Head to the RACE HUB to find out how you can catch the action from the Suzuka Circuit. Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","Bearman admits surprise after strong China Sprint Qualifying","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/bearman-admits-surprise-after-strong-china-sprint-qualifying.1MLQXLMheM91R9CgUbDARa","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 01:58:02 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 Starting just outside the points for Saturday's Sprint, Ollie Bearman is looking to make progress from P9 on the grid. Ollie Bearman admits he 'was not expecting to be in the fight' for points in Saturday's Sprint in China, with the Haas driver set to start the 19-lap dash from ninth. The Briton showed consistent pace throughout Friday's Sprint Qualifying at the Shanghai International Circuit, having finished seventh in the single, one-hour practice session before then advancing to SQ3. ""We showed really good pace already from lap one of FP1 and we were able to build on that and go forward,"" he said after the session. ""It was a tough session, the balance was a bit on edge and difficult to put the lap together but we got there in the end and happy with P9 today."" Bearman will start directly behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and admits that points in Saturday's Sprint, which are awarded to the top eight finishers, is a realistic goal. ""On the face of it, I'm quite impressed and surprised by the gap to the leaders,"" he added, having finished seventh at the opening round in Australia last weekend. ""We seem to have closed it a little bit compared to last week, and honestly prior to the weekend, I was not expecting to be in the fight for the top eight because we expected the four teams to be so far ahead. ""At the end, that was not really the case and Red Bull don't seem to have incredible pace, and it looks like if we get everything right tomorrow we can actually score some points, and then obviously in the race on Sunday, that's where it gets serious."" Haas team mate Esteban Ocon just missed out on SQ3 in 12th, but was left frustrated by the performance of his car on Friday. ""Not really pleased, we can't be pleased with that,"" he said. ""We are working hard to obviously get the car where we want it to be and I think that was slightly better from FP1 to now. ""I think there are still quite a few things that we need to obviously investigate to get it better for tomorrow. There is potential that we can get it better so we need to try and obviously get the maximum out of it tomorrow and hopefully get on top of our issues."" Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:hollywoodreporter.com","‘The Secret Reading Club of Kabul' Follows Young Afghan Women, Inspired by Anne Frank, Defying the Taliban: “They Want to Be Heard and Seen”","https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/the-secret-reading-club-of-kabul-doc-afghan-women-taliban-1236529838/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:49:11 GMT"," Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter The documentary from Shakiba Adil and Elina Hirvonen, premiering at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, features clandestinely shot mobile phone footage and shows ""the power of art to keep hope and humanism alive."" By Georg Szalai Global Business Editor In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, where women are denied the right to study, work, or speak freely, a group of young women risk their lives to form a secret reading circle And inspired by Anne Frank's experiences in 1940s Amsterdam, they start to write their own diaries. For these women, a dystopia is reality. Now, they are sharing it with the world in The Secret Reading Club of Kabul, a documentary directed by Shakiba Adil and Elina Hirvonen and partially filmed by the women themselves. The film, described as “an intimate … testimony to the power of art to keep hope and humanism alive,” world premieres on Monday, March 16, in the Nordic:DOX competition program of the 23rd edition of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, CPH:DOX. Related Video Related Stories Movies How 'Arctic Link' Brings the Internet, and Digital Change, to Life on an Epic Scale Movies 'Whispers in May' Blends Doc and Improv Into a Magical Journey From Girlhood to Womanhood “We experience with shocking clarity what is at stake when the Taliban storms a hidden school or arrests young girls for practicing martial arts,” the festival website highlights about the doc. The story is interwoven with insight into director Adil's own journey. As a girl, she grew up under the first Taliban regime, and after the fall of the Taliban, she became the first woman to appear on Afghan television. Notes the festival: “After being forced to flee her homeland twice, she has now dedicated her film to the new generation facing the same oppression she herself has endured.” The Secret Reading Club of Kabul was produced by Marko Talli, Johanna Raita and Pauliina Piipponen. Cinematography was handled by Jarkko Virtanen, while the editor is Annukka Lilja. Yellow Film & TV is handling sales. Adil and Hirvonen talked to THR about the journey to get the film made, the protections they put in place for the young women, and their hopes that The Secret Reading Club of Kabul will give Afghan women a chance to be heard and seen around the world. How did you two first meet?Adil We met here in Finland when I was working on another project in Afghanistan with young people, which was funded by the Foreign Ministry of Finland. And Elina was working on the same project. I was producing this workshop, and she helped with content for it. Hirvonen I'm also an author, so I was creating some writing exercises and things like that. Adil I was in Kabul before the workshop, which was scheduled to take place in August. And there were these rumors of the Taliban taking over cities. I never thought that the Taliban taking over Kabul would ever become a reality again. Their time has passed, so much has been invested, and there is now a proper government, I thought. Suddenly, I saw my phone was flooded with text messages and WhatsApp messages. It was all my colleagues and people I knew, especially women with whom I had worked, female journalists in Afghanistan. They were all in panic. The minute it was [clear] that the Taliban were all over the place, everybody was trying to get home as soon as possible. Of course, I was in shock. I didn't want to believe it. When my niece came back from school, I saw she had been crying, so I asked her why. She said: “We had to say goodbye to our classmates because the headmaster said we cannot come back to school.” I was numb. I felt anxious because I had experienced the first period of Taliban, and [had that same experience]. I remember what they had done, and how I had felt. Hirvonen I remember texting Shakiba asking, “Do you know how to get out?” And she had no idea. We knew that the Taliban was going door to door and killing people, especially if you'd been collaborating with foreigners. And we knew that Shakiba would be a target because of her work and her history as a journalist, the first woman on TV and a women's rights activist. So we started calling all politicians, all ministries on our end. We finally managed to get her on a list, and she was evacuated. How did you find the young women we get to follow in The Secret Reading Club of Kabul? Adil I knew the main girl, who established the book club, and she wanted to be part of the film. And in the book club, there were many girls who were ready to take part, but we chose the ones who were more outspoken and had something to say. What security measures did you use for filming to protect the young women and their identities beyond using names in the film that are not their real names?Hirvonen Security-wise, we had a security professional helping us, because it was our main priority to make sure that the film would not become [too much of a] risk for the girls. Of course, you can never be 100 percent sure, but we wanted to take every measure possible to not put them at risk. Adil No matter how careful you are, risk still exists. But these girls wanted to be involved and knew the risk from the beginning. How early did The Diary of a Young Girl, aka The Diary of Anne Frank, come into play during the filming? Hirvonen It was there from the beginning. It was something that I remember Shakiba recommended to them as something that might resonate with them. Adil Long ago, when I came to Finland, the book was given to me by a Finnish friend. As a young girl in Afghanistan, I had always wondered: “Does the world know what we are going through?” I thought that we were alone. I thought we were the only ones who experienced this and that nobody would understand. But when I read the book, I was surprised. I just felt Anne Frank, I really felt her. I just got the feeling someone else had experienced the same thing as me and knew how it feels to be inside your home, not able to do things that you want to do as a young girl. So when I came back from Afghanistan, that book came to mind. I sent it to so many women in Afghanistan. I asked them to please read it. I tried to Google it and find a PDF or something. I said: “Please read this and write down whatever you feel.” And [one girl who] read it then decided to create the book club. What I found so harrowing to see in your film, beyond the Taliban beatings and other violence, was how the terror they create affects the young women's identity. We hear one mentioning how she doesn't even want to be a woman anymore, doesn't want to live in Afghanistan anymore and how she is starting to doubt her religion, all because of the Taliban. Did this surprise you as well? Hirvonen I was extremely moved by how open and how brave they were. I was incredibly moved by how they opened their world completely, on the outside, but also in terms of what happened to them on the inside. For me, it was more surprising how elegant their language was. All these talented women wanted to be in the film. They want to be heard, and they want to be seen. They want to be seen as the human beings they are, not as something that the Taliban tries to make them. Sometimes, people's attitude about women in Afghanistan is that they are somehow different, that in their culture, it is somehow okay for them to be treated like that. But when these women show the whole world their inside and outside, you can relate because they're human beings, and they are not that different. Adil I was also amazed by their braveness. There is a shot in the film where [one of the women] is walking between all these men. That was one of the first pieces of footage we received, and when I watched that, I was shaking. I was like: “How could you do that?” There is also a shot with a member of the Taliban with a gun standing next to her. That's when I realized that they are not my generation. They are different. They have been educated. They know what their right is, and they are not scared to fight for it. They are not scared to face the Taliban. And their attitude is that they never give up. In the film, you see many times how their courses or classes are closed down by the Taliban, but they find another way to continue. Hirvonen Also, they are supporting each other. They have this sisterhood attitude. And they are using art as a form of resistance. At least for these women, this is actually a concrete thing, filming and writing as a form of resistance. And after seeing this film, even the most pro-Taliban-minded people cannot agree with the Taliban. What is your hope for The Secret Reading Club of Kabul? Hirvonen Our hope is that the film can actually bring the international community together to pressure the Taliban, similar to how it happened with Apartheid in South Africa. We want the international community to come together and say that you cannot treat people like this. Basically, our hope is that the voices of Afghan women can not be ignored anymore. Our dream is that the film will bring the international community together to say that this needs to stop. Adil There are grassroots women's movements in Afghanistan, even under the extreme restrictions of the Taliban. So, yes, our hope is to bring the international community together to pressure the Taliban and also to recognize [what they are doing] as a crime against humanity. We are looking to amplify the wise voices of these women to the world and bring Afghan women to the world's agenda. After all, human rights are universal. Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Send us a tip using our anonymous form.","{'href': 'https://www.hollywoodreporter.com', 'title': 'The Hollywood Reporter'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:hollywoodreporter.com","‘Project Hail Mary' Book Returns to Top of Charts on Heels of Ryan Gosling Film Premiere","https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/shopping/read-project-hail-mary-movie-book-online-stream-audiobook-1236529503/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:13:39 GMT"," Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter The sci-fi novel was written by Andy Weir, whose 2011 novel 'The Martian,' was adapted into a movie starring Matt Damon By Tim Chan Ryan Gosling‘s star power is helping to propel a 2021 novel back to the top of the bestsellers chart. Project Hail Mary has returned to number one on Amazon's book charts, on the heels of Gosling's film adaptation hitting theaters March 20. Written by Andy Weir, whose 2011 novel The Martian, was also adapted into a movie starring Matt Damon, Project Hail Mary follows the sole survivor of a suicide space mission, who must find a way to save the earth from a mysterious threat. The book was an instant hit with readers and critics alike when it was first released and it was even named as a New York Times Readers Pick on its list of the “100 Best Books of the 21st Century.” Now, new fans are discovering the science fiction novel as Gosling's press tour continues to promote his new film. Related Video Related Stories Book Excerpt No One Ever Dominated the Oscars Like Francis Ford Coppola in 1975 THR Titans When Hollywood Needs a 'Hail Mary,' They Turn to Phil Lord and Chris Miller Amazon has both the hardcover and paperback versions of the book on sale right now, ahead of the film premiere. From publisher Ballantine Books, Project Hail Mary clocks in a 496 pages. Per a book description, the story follows Ryland Grace, who is the sole survivor on a “desperate, last-chance mission – and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish.”“His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him,” the synopsis continues. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it's up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he's got to do it all alone.” You can also stream and listen to the audiobook version of Project Hail Mary, narrated by Ray Porter, through Audible. The audiobook site has a free trial right now that you can use to listen to the novel online for free. See more details here. Gosling signed on for the film in 2020, with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller hired to write the screenplay. The film also stars Oscar-nominated actress Sandra Hüller. THR's David Rooney praised the film in his review, saying it's full of “infectious joy and wonder” and teasing that the “ending tugs the heartstrings in enormously satisfying ways.” He also praises Gosling's performance, saying the actor's “easygoing charm makes him the ideal actor to mask anxiety and sorrow with throwaway humor, serving as a conduit for the story's affecting contemplation of altruism and sacrifice.” Project Hail Mary hits theaters nationwide March 20. Find tickets online at Fandango.com. Want more reading? You can also pick up this three-book collection from Weir, which includes Project Hail Mary, The Martian and 2017's Artemis in one set. Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Send us a tip using our anonymous form.","{'href': 'https://www.hollywoodreporter.com', 'title': 'The Hollywood Reporter'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:hollywoodreporter.com","Razzie Awards Winners: Ice Cube Starrer ‘War of the Worlds' Named Worst Picture of the Year","https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/2026-razzie-awards-winners-worst-movies-performances/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:01:00 GMT"," Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter Kate Hudson has been named the recipient of this year's Razzie Redeemer Award for her performance in 'Song Sung Blue.' By Kimberly Nordyke Managing Editor, Digital The Ice Cube starrer War of the Worlds has been named the worst picture of 2025 by voters of the 46th Razzie Awards. The movie “won” five of the six categories in which it was nominated, including worst actor (Ice Cube); worst prequel, remake, rip-off or sequel; worst director (Rich Lee); and worst screenplay (Kenny Golde, Marc Hyman). The movie became “a cult hate-watch classic almost immediately,” the Razzies said. “War of the Worlds (the 2025 version) has been cemented in Razzie history as a near sweeper of our $4.97 trophy winner.” Organizers went on to say: “Utterly destroying H.G. Wells' classic novel, director Rich Lee (maybe inspired by Ed Wood) chose a goofy gimmick, hack dialogue and a particularly hilarious performance by its lead, Ice Cube, to seize 2025's biggest number of statues.” Other winners for this year's Razzie Awards — aka the Golden Raspberry Awards, which honor the “worst” of the year — include “all seven artificial dwarfs” in Snow White, with two Razzies. Of the film, organizers said: “It cost a fortune and lost a fortune, perhaps cursed by Walt [Disney] himself for having ignored his dying wish for it never to be remade.” Rebel Wilson won for “her not-quite-believable performance as an action hero in Bride Hard with weaponized curling irons,” while Scarlet Rose Stallone won “for her modernized performance in the odd western Gunslingers.” Meanwhile, Kate Hudson has been named the recipient of this year's Razzie Redeemer Award for her “pitch-perfect performance” in Song Sung Blue. Hudson, who is nominated for an Oscar this year for her role in the film, has previously been singled out by the Razzies for her roles in Music, Mother's Day and My Best Friend's Girl after having earned an Oscar nom for Almost Famous in 2001. Awards are voted on online by 1,223 Razzie members from all 50 states and more than two dozen countries. A full list of the 46th Razzie Award winners follows. The Electric State Hurry Up TomorrowDisney's Snow White (2025) Star Trek: Section 31War of the Worlds (2025) (WINNER) Dave Bautista / In the Lost LandsIce Cube / War of the Worlds (WINNER)Scott Eastwood / AlarumJared Leto / Tron: AresAbel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye / Hurry Up Tomorrow Ariana DeBose / Love HurtsMilla Jovovich / In the Lost LandsNatalie Portman / Fountain of Youth Rebel Wilson / Bride Hard (WINNER)Michelle Yeoh / Star Trek: Section 31 Anna Chlumsky / Bride Hard Ema Horvath / The Strangers: Chapter 2Scarlet Rose Stallone / Gunslingers (WINNER)Kacey Rohl / Star Trek: Section 31Isis Valverde / Alarum All Seven Artificial Dwarfs / Snow White (2025) (WINNER)Nicolas Cage / GunslingersStephen Dorff / Bride HardGreg Kinnear / Off the GridSylvester Stallone / Alarum I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)Five Nights at Freddy's 2Smurfs (2025)Snow White (2025)War of the Worlds (2025) (WINNER) All Seven Dwarfs / Snow White (2025) (WINNER)James Corden & Rihanna / Smurfs (2025)Ice Cube & His Zoom Camera / War of the Worlds (2025)Robert De Niro & Robert De Niro (as Frank & Vito) / The Alto KnightsThe Weeknd & His Colossal Ego / Hurry Up Tomorrow Rich Lee / War of the Worlds (2025) (WINNER)Olatunde Osunsanmi / Star Trek: Section 31The Russo Brothers / The Electric StateTrey Edward Shults / Hurry Up TomorrowMarc Webb / Snow White (2025) The Electric State / Screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Adapted from the illustrated novel by Simon Stalenhag.Hurry Up Tomorrow / Screenplay by Trey Edward Shults, Abel Tesfaye, Reza FahimSnow White (2025) / Screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson and a bunch of others too numerous to mention. Drawing from the original fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm.Star Trek: Section 31 / Screenplay by Craig Sweeny with original story concept developed by Bo Yeon Kim & Erika LippoldtWar of the Worlds (2025) / Screen story and screenplay by Kenny Golde and screenplay by Marc Hyman, adapting (or destroying) the classic novel by H.G. Wells (WINNER) Kate Hudson / Song Sung Blue (WINNER) Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter Send us a tip using our anonymous form.","{'href': 'https://www.hollywoodreporter.com', 'title': 'The Hollywood Reporter'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:hollywoodreporter.com","'Ready or Not 2: Here I Come' Review: Samara Weaving in Horror Sequel","https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/ready-or-not-2-here-i-come-review-samara-weaving-1236530850/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 07:14:44 GMT"," Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter Elijah Wood, Shawn Hatosy and Kathryn Newton are also among the cast in an action-horror-comedy follow-up that picks up just minutes after the 2019 feature. By Angie Han Television Critic Pity the poor horror movie hero. Should they be fortunate enough to survive their unimaginably horrific ordeal with enough ingenuity and panache, odds are good the movie gods will only force them to endure it all over again, at higher intensity and to lower acclaim. And so it is that Grace (Samara Weaving), who ended 2019's Ready or Not the sole survivor of the wedding night from hell, barely gets a puff of her cigarette before she finds herself the unwilling participant of another most dangerous game. But though Ready or Not 2: Here I Come doubles down on everything that made the original work, the returns are diminishing. It's a good enough time, but a downgrade from the last time. Related Stories Movies 'The Sun Never Sets' Review: Dakota Fanning and Jake Johnson Bring Warm Chemistry to Joe Swanberg's Wishy-Washy Romantic Dramedy Movies 'My Brother's Killer' Review: A Probing True Crime Doc Revisits the Unsolved 1990 Murder of a Gay Porn Star in Los Angeles Ready or Not 2: Here I Come The Bottom Line Less fun, but not no fun. Venue: SXSW Film Festival (Headliner)Release date: Friday, March 20Cast: Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Elijah Wood, Néstor Carbonell, David CronenbergDirectors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler GillettScreenwriters: Guy Busick, R. Christopher Murphy Rated R, 1 hour 48 minutes Much of the pleasure of Ready or Not lay in its simplicity: It was no more and no less than an ultra-violent rendition of hide and seek, backed up by some pretty straightforward “deal with the devil” lore. What kicked it up to the next level was Weaving's singular performance as a final girl, punctuated by shrieks so blood-curdling they sounded downright operatic, and some nice bits of character comedy in the margins, as most of the new in-laws hunting her proved to be not only evil but hilariously stupid. Related Video Here I Come, which reunites directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, offers more of everything. Where Grace was the sole target in Ready or Not, she's joined this time by her similarly scrappy, similarly blond, similarly thematically named sister Faith (Kathryn Newton). Where the Le Domases had seemed a singularly devilish family, this film reveals they were just one of six ultra-wealthy Satan-worshipping clans scattered across the globe, and not even the most influential one. That honor goes to the casino-owning Danforths, whose patriarch (David Cronenberg, in a brief but amusing cameo) wields enough power to call off entire wars with a single phone call. (At a time when it's become horrifyingly clear how easy it is for one asshole billionaire to start a war, the idea that another could end it just as offhandedly is maybe the most plausible part of the whole movie.) But with the Le Domas lineage annihilated, the high seat of the council of Mr. Le Bail (a.k.a. Satan) is now up for grabs. The remaining families gather at the Danforths' sprawling Connecticut estate to determine which one will be the first to kill Grace, and therefore to secure the throne. The element of surprise has mostly worn off, even if Grace tells Faith that one never really gets used to people spontaneously combusting right in front of you. But the appeal is only somewhat worse for wear. Here I Come still may not have much to say about class struggle beyond “the 0.00000001% sure do suck,” but it's still fun to watch them flail ineptly with their retrograde weapons, whine about their unrelatable problems (“At least sanitize it first,” one complains when he's handed a sharp pen to sign his name in blood), or get killed off in inventively gruesome ways. Weaving remains a ferociously magnetic lead, even if she gets less screaming to do this time. And if the character's Chucks-and-bloodstained-gown look felt like a revelation in the first film, here it might as well be Peter Parker putting on his Spider-Man suit for the way the crowd at my SXSW premiere screening cheered. Then there are the new additions to enjoy. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy (The Pitt) share a believable toxic sibling energy as the Danforth twins, Ursula and Titus, who've been training their whole lives for just this occasion. Francesca (Maia Jae), the daughter of a Spanish TV host (Néstor Carbonell), introduces personal vengeance into the mix as the jilted fiancée of Grace's own late husband. And a viewing room where heirs are allowed to watch the game becomes the film's comic highlight, with lesser siblings and children going from boisterously trash-talking one another to quaking in their boots as the possibility of losing the game, and thus dying out completely as a bloodline, becomes horrifyingly real. But with new pleasures come new perils. One is the expansion of the lore, which grows so convoluted it necessitates the introduction of a whole new character to explain and re-explain the rules. While Elijah Wood, who as just recently seen in Yellowjackets and I Love LA excels at playing weird little guys, is ideally cast as Mr. Le Bail's unflappable lawyer, he's not a character so much as an exposition machine. The other is the pressure to raise the stakes on a story that had seemed intense enough already. Through no fault of Newton's, Faith functions less as a second protagonist than a prop to give Grace more emotional investment in the proceedings by saddling her with guilt over their estrangement or opportunities to nobly sacrifice herself. Meanwhile, in attempting to give Grace an even bigger, badder, darker villain to face this time, the film overshoots its mark, raising the specter of domestic violence in ways that feel just slightly too plausible to fit with the film's otherwise cartoonish gore. Here I Come still comes out ahead, in the end, delivering enough of the good stuff to keep a fan yelping and laughing and cheering throughout. But should its creators be eyeing a third gamble on this universe, it may be time for them to do what so many of the Danforths' casinogoers surely wish they had: ponder the wisdom of quitting while they're ahead. Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Send us a tip using our anonymous form.","{'href': 'https://www.hollywoodreporter.com', 'title': 'The Hollywood Reporter'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:hollywoodreporter.com","How ‘Arctic Link' Brings the Internet, and Digital Change, to Life on an Epic Scale","https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/arctic-link-doc-film-interview-internet-alaska-cphdox-2026-1236525634/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 11:30:49 GMT"," Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter Ian Purnell looked to imbue his CPH:DOX-premiering debut feature about a remote corner of Alaska getting connected with a ""sensual"" quality: ""We were often talking about what kind of animal something could be."" By Georg Szalai Global Business Editor Imagine a remote corner of Alaska finally getting connected to the internet, and you can witness it! Interested? If so, are you wondering what this change will mean for the islanders? Filmmaker Ian Purnell has you covered on both fronts with his debut feature Arctic Link, a documentary of epic proportions in more ways than one. The film world premieres on Monday, March 16 in the main competition program of CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, whose 23rd edition runs through March 22. Remember how we mentioned that the doc was epic? “In the Arctic Ocean, a colossal ship drifts along, while thousands of kilometers of fiber optic cable slide from the deck into the dark depths of the sea,” reads a synopsis. Related Stories Movies 'Whispers in May' Blends Doc and Improv Into a Magical Journey From Girlhood to Womanhood TV 'Boyfriend on Demand' Stars Jisoo and In-guk Seo Break Down Their New Netflix K-Drama If you need more evidence of the project's scale, let's just mention that the filmmaker worked on it for about 10 years. The CPH:DOX website even highlights this about Arctic Link: “Everything is enormous – from the massive cables to the images and phenomenal sound design – but the human scale never disappears from view.” Related Video The looming digital change is juxtaposed by the ship's Filipino crew members drifting in isolation, with their cell phones the only connection to home, if they work. “When I first discovered a map of the world's submarine cables, the internet suddenly took on a physical shape,” Purnell shares in a director's statement. “I felt a strong urge to trace these hidden routes – to see how the network disappears beneath the sea and to meet the people who build these connections. I wanted to understand this infrastructure that usually remains unseen, and I knew I could only approach it emotionally rather than purely technologically.”Produced by Franziska Sonder, Arctic Link features cinematography by Marie Zahir. The editor is Chris Wright, while sound and music come courtesy of Tobias Koch. Filmotor is handling sales. Check out a trailer for Arctic Link here, which touches on the question of whether the internet will turn out to be a savior or a beast. It actually kicks off with a stat that may surprise you: 99 percent of internet traffic is going through submarine cables. In a conversation about Arctic Link, Purnell shared with THR how he approached bringing the internet to life in visual and audio ways, the challenge and joy of the doc's scale, and what he wants to do next. Was Arctic Link really a decade in the making? “I had the original idea more than 10 years ago, and quite early on, I researched where I could get on one of these ships,” Purnell recalls. “It turned out to be a very difficult exercise to build relationships with these companies and for them to have a reason to take me on.” Several slots for him to board ships were under discussion, but things kept coming up, such as a storm, a canceled cable project, and COVID. “So, gaining access required a huge amount of patience,” the director concludes, requiring him and cinematographer Zahir to stay “extremely flexible.” Shooting in a remote area without internet also presented the challenge of building a rapport with locals. “It was very important just to be present there and make connections in the village,” Purnell tells THR. “It went quite quickly once we were there, but the preparation beforehand was very difficult.” Purnell was impressed by the awareness of the Alaskan people he met about what changes the internet may bring. “It was a very wise perspective,” he says. “They weren't innocent. They knew what it was and would bring [with it], but they also could see it from an outside perspective a bit, which is hard when you are ridiculously immersed in it, like us.” Purnell didn't even need to force the subject. “Once we got off the ship and came to the island, all these conversations just started to flow,” the director recalls. “Everyone had this awareness that this ship was bringing the internet. It is a different kind of awareness that a lot of us don't have, because you don't see this ship that brings you the internet in front of you. So, these conversations just happened organically. I didn't want to force my concept on them: ‘Now, talk about the internet!' So, I was glad that this was just a natural topic of discussion, because they saw it right in front of them, coming towards them.” How did the creative team approach portraying the internet from an aesthetic point of view? “For me, it was really important to find a new visual connection to the internet,” Purnell shares. That means he wasn't happy to simply use images of servers and keyboards over and over. “I was really interested in creating this new imagery that even for me was surprising. In contrast, the ship was built in the '80s, before the World Wide Web existed, so we got this smell of oil and this steampunk aesthetic instead of high-tech imagery.” His conversations with cinematographer Zahir took on elements of zoological discussions. “We really tried to make inanimate infrastructure feel alive by portraying the cable like a snake, for example,” Purnell explains. “We were often talking about what kind of animal something could be, such as a whale. How can we make this physical stuff feel more alive? These discussions helped us make technical things become or function as protagonists, creating a more emotional connection, or sensual connection, rather than just a rational, technical connection.” All this was a key focus of the filmmaking process that appealed to him and fascinated him. “The challenge was to make a film about something that is invisible and create an imagery for it,” Purnell tells THR. “And the fact that it is invisible also creates different stories around it. Different people who have a connection to it have to use their own imagination, so that creates a multitude of stories.” Given the epic scale of Arctic Link, you would think Purnell may want to go small next. Wrong! “I have already done some research around topics of astronomy, especially around black holes,” he shares. “What fascinates me is the image of a black hole, because it's something that is not possible to capture in an image. It's all at a very early stage. But whether it is the internet or astronomy, I'm really interested in all these signals and waves. So, with a film about outer space, I would be following a similar approach.” Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Send us a tip using our anonymous form.","{'href': 'https://www.hollywoodreporter.com', 'title': 'The Hollywood Reporter'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:deadline.com","‘War Of The Worlds' Zapped With 5 Razzies In Near Sweep","https://deadline.com/2026/03/razzie-awards-2026-winners-war-of-the-worlds-1236752714/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:01:00 GMT"," By Erik Pedersen Managing Editor War of the Worlds star Ice Cube now has another reason to stare forlornly at his computer. In what was a near-sweep, he and the film were big, uh, winners at the 46th Razzie Awards, which were revealed late Friday. Cube took Worst Actor, and Amazon Prime Video's cyber-take on H.G. Wells' classic novel was anointed Worst Picture, Director, Screenplay and Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel. Cube shot all of his War of the Worlds scenes during the Covid lockdown, isolated from director Rich Lee and the other actors. “That's why it's only the computer screen,” he said last summer. “But really, if sh*t went down, everybody would only have their screen to look at.” The pic came in with a co-leading six nominations and lost only for Worst Screen Combo (Cube and his Zoom camera). That not-coveted prize went to All Seven Dwarfs from Disney's live-action Snow White. The septet of folks who bristle while they work also was named collective Worst Supporting Actor. Watch on Deadline Elsewhere, Rebel Wilson was disgraced with Worst Actress for Bride Hard, and — in keeping a Razzie tradition in the family — Scarlet Rose Stallone was named Worst Supporting Actress for Gunslingers. The 2026 Razzie Redeemer Award went to Kate Hudson for her Oscar-nominated performance in Song Sung Blue after a string of Razzie nods — for Music, Mother's Day and My Best Friend's Girl — following her Academy Award nom for 2000's Almost Famous. Here are all the “winners” at the 2026 Razzie Awards: Worst PictureWar of the Worlds Worst Actor Ice Cube, War of the Worlds Worst Actress Rebel Wilson, Bride Hard Worst Supporting Actress Scarlet Rose Stallone, Gunslingers Worst Supporting Actor All Seven Artificial Dwarfs, Snow White Razzie Redeemer AwardKate Hudson for “Song Sung Blue” Worst Screen Combo All Seven Artificial Dwarfs, Snow White Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel War of the Worlds Worst Director Rich Lee, War of the Worlds Worst Screenplay War of the Worlds, Kenny Golde & Marc Hyman Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy. Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong. Comment Name Email Website Δ Ice Cube put together a spreadsheet in the movie. That deserved a razzie. The Weeknd deserved some love too. The razzies are fixed, only going for the high profile stuff. This looks like Citizen Kane (as did the Asylum version) compared to any of the three cuts of Timbo Hines' legendarily jawdroppingly awful 2005 ‘faithful' no-budget sub-home movie version, which never even got a single nomination. War of the Worlds is “high profile”? When did THAT happen?🤣🤣🤣 Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form. Sign up for our breaking news alerts By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved. By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. ","{'href': 'https://deadline.com', 'title': 'Deadline'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:deadline.com","‘Pretty Lethal' Review: Maddie Ziegler & Uma Thurman Lead Action-Packed Ballerina Revenge Flick — SXSW","https://deadline.com/2026/03/pretty-lethal-review-maddie-ziegler-uma-thurman-sxsw-1236746453/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:16:00 GMT"," By Glenn Garner Associate Editor While many action films before have featured strong leading women, director Vicky Jewson takes on the genre through a darkly comedic, emotionally wrought female lens in Pretty Lethal, which premiered tonight at SXSW. In the Kate Freund-penned film, five young ballerinas and their coach head to a showcase in Budapest, only to get stranded in a remote area hundreds of miles from the city when their bus breaks down. Taking refuge at a nearby inn, the group is welcomed by the establishment's owner Devora (Uma Thurman), a former ballerina herself who had to give up on her dreams when a leg injury abruptly halted her career at a young age. When one of their own is killed by Pasha (Tamás Szabó Sipos), the dancers must overcome their differences and work together to get out alive. Watch on Deadline With Thurman leaving no crumbs in her performance as the revenge-seeking matriarch of criminals, she is complimented by a talented ensemble of young actresses. As Bones, Maddie Ziegler plays a talented dancer whose tough attitude conflicts with the “rich bitch sport” of ballet. Lana Condor is an entertaining nemesis as Princess, an entitled “rich bitch” who wants Bones' solo. While their insulting jabs at each other make for good laughs, their arc as teammates learning to work together is what gives the film its heart. Likewise, Iris Apatow and Millicent Simmonds display a complex bond as sisters Zoe and Chloe, respectively. Being that Chloe is deaf, she often has to depend on Zoe to give her dance cues and interpret for her. While that dependence puts them at odds early on, they eventually find their groove while taking on a mansion full of criminal henchmen. Meanwhile, Avantika is the comedic standout as Bible-thumper Grace, who has no trouble taking down full grown men while tripping on drugs throughout much of the film, providing endless levity to the most dire of scenarios. In Pretty Lethal, Jewson manages to walk that line of gritty dark action, a la John Wick and Tarantino's entire toxically masculine oeuvre, balanced with unapologetic laughs and an emotionally satisfying story of sisterhood. It's proof positive that the boys club of Hollywood's go-to action directors is long overdue for a shakeup. Title: Pretty LethalFestival: SXSW (Headliner)Distributor: Amazon MGM StudiosRelease date: March 25, 2026Director: Vicky JewsonScreenwriter: Kate FreundCast: Iris Apatow, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Avantika, Maddie Ziegler, Uma ThurmanRunning time: 1 hr 28 mins Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy. Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong. Comment Name Email Website Δ Sounds cool, but.. I thought nobody cared about ballet? 😉 Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form. Sign up for our breaking news alerts By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved. By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. ","{'href': 'https://deadline.com', 'title': 'Deadline'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:deadline.com","‘Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come' Leaves SXSW Cheering & Gasping At World Premiere","https://deadline.com/2026/03/ready-or-not-2-sxsw-premiere-1236753425/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:06:00 GMT"," By Anthony D'Alessandro, Dessi Gomez “Let's go!” yelled Ready or Not 2: Here I Come star Kathryn Newton before the lights went down at tonight's world SXSW premiere. “Yeah, I'm loud,” she exclaimed to the filled Paramount Theatre audience, who of course, were full of plenty of noise on night two of the Lone Star State capital's film and TV fiesta. In what was a completely appropriate booking for Friday the 13th at the Austin-based film festival, a horror film was the main 5PM attraction. And Newton kept the crowd going with screams and laughs through tonight's screening, sitting right behind her co-star Shawn Hatosy. Franchise star Samara Weaving was a no-show as she's expecting her first baby back in LA, however, sequel's additional star, Sarah Michelle Gellar represented her with a handheld face mask cutout (check out our junket interview above where we spoke with Weaving who told us “I couldn't prep for any stunts because my back was out”). Weaving, clad in a magenta pink gown, recorded a video message to fans, which ran at the start of the film. Also, she posed for a photo with Newton in front of the Sunset Blvd billboard on Wednesday. The key to survival during a Ready or Not production is to stay fit the entire time as an Olympics of blood-filled chase and fight scenes unfold. RELATED: Samara Weaving On Her Gory SXSW '26 Double-Feature, Unexpected ‘Scream Queen' Status & “Quiet Dreams” Of Doing Improv: “I Was A Scaredy-Cat Growing Up” Speaking to the crowd at the end of the film, Radio filmmakers Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin said that a sequel was never planned. Weaving, for one, was told that her backstory was that of a lone wolf who grew up in foster care. It wasn't until she got the second script from the horror series scribes Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy that she learned she had an estranged sister in Newton's character, Faith. In fact, Murphy and Busick wrote a post-credits scene, which the filmmakers were unable to shoot due to budget restrictions. The tag tipped off to a sequel in which the greater 1% are in on the rich person's blood hunt sport. What makes a Ready or Not 2 movie special? “Practical effects” said Gillett on stage tonight. “Everyone gathers around the monitor when Sam and Kathryn are about to get shot with a blood cannon,” he said. “There's nothing more clever than the truth, and we're getting splattered with goo, no matter what. Those reactions were real and honest, it's just better. You can feel it. You guys felt it. I could hear you,” exclaimed Newton. “I didn't get blood-splattered,” responded Elijah Wood. “I didn't either,” said Michelle Gellar. There was one moment during the movie when Newton was splattered with blood in a pattern that yielded such a great take, Radio Silence had to recreate it on her face the next production day for consistency. RELATED: ‘Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come' Review: Samara Weaving Provides Bloody Good Time In Radio Silence's Sequel — SXSW During our interview with Weaving and Newton back in LA, we asked about their thoughts for a threequel. “I thought it would be funny if we do a completely different genre like a rom-com and it's about two sisters who meet two brothers — miscommunication drama and there's no blood at all, and we piss off everyone.” Mic-dropped Newton, “No suspense — just kissing.” Ready or Not 2: Here I Come from Searchlight Pictures comes out next Friday, March 20. Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy. Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong. Comment Name Email Website Δ Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form. Sign up for our breaking news alerts By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved. By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. ","{'href': 'https://deadline.com', 'title': 'Deadline'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:deadline.com","'Ready or Not 2' Review: Samara Weaving Provides A Bloody Good Time","https://deadline.com/2026/03/ready-or-not-2-here-i-come-review-samara-weaving-sxsw-1236746451/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:37:00 GMT"," By Glenn Garner Associate Editor The honeymoon is far from over for Samara Weaving‘s final girl Grace in Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, which world premiered at SXSW. The sequel picks up where Radio Silence's (Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin) 2019 comedy horror sleeper hit left off, with the recently widowed bride covered in blood on the front steps of her burning groom's family mansion, after they just tried to sacrifice her during a satanic game of hide-and-seek. Waking up in the hospital, Grace is reunited with her younger sister Faith (Kathryn Newton), who is still her emergency contact despite years of estrangement. But the reunion is quickly crashed by more rich cultists who must carry out the sacrifice the Le Domas family failed to complete, with the winner of this new round of hide-and-seek gaining control of the world. The stakes have never been higher than in the sequel, nor has the amount of gore. Following the shock ending of the first film, which saw the remaining members of the Le Domas clan exploding into a splash of blood, one by one, the gag hilariously runs rampant throughout the film, as the competing families learn the consequences of breaking their satanic benefactor Mr. Le Bail's rules. Watch on Deadline That's where Elijah Wood's nameless Lawyer comes into play, keeping the families in check as they compete for the High Council seat and the one ring to rule them all (yes, seriously). His character helps broaden the lore created in the first movie, while leaving room for a return in a potential trilogy conclusion. Meanwhile, Wood commands the screen in the creepy villainous role. But Weaving and Newton provide the emotional center with their complicated chemistry as two sisters who must rely on each other to survive until dawn, matching comedic wits just as seamlessly as they unpack years of familial pain on screen. RELATED: ‘Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come' Leaves SXSW Cheering & Gasping At World Premiere Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy offset the sibling bond between Grace and Faith, representing a much more privileged, albeit dark, upbringing. While the pair shows genuine care for each other, their differing approaches to defending their father's seat intensifies throughout the film to a chilling peak. Meanwhile, another talented ensemble plays this film's flock of privileged elites including Gellar, Hatosy, David Cronenberg, Kevin Durand, Néstor Carbonell, Maia Jae and Olivia Cheng. Each representing an entire dynasty, none of the cast is wasted in this battle royale. This action-packed, blood-soaked sequel is just what fans have been waiting for the past seven years, hopefully paving the way for a trilogy in this sinister world Radio Silence has created. Title: Ready or Not 2: Here I ComeFestival: SXSW (Headliner)Distributor: Searchlight PicturesRelease date: March 20, 2026Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler GillettScreenwriters: Guy Busick, R. Christopher MurphyCast: Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Néstor Carbonell, David Cronenberg, Elijah WoodRunning time: 1 hr 48 mins RELATED: Samara Weaving On Her Gory SXSW '26 Double-Feature, Unexpected ‘Scream Queen' Status & “Quiet Dreams” Of Doing Improv: “I Was A Scaredy-Cat Growing Up” Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy. Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong. Comment Name Email Website Δ Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form. Sign up for our breaking news alerts By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved. By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. ","{'href': 'https://deadline.com', 'title': 'Deadline'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:deadline.com","Boy George Tells Chappell Roan To ""Own Your Fame"" After Moment With Photographers ""Harassing"" Her","https://deadline.com/2026/03/boy-george-chappell-roan-own-your-fame-1236753441/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:08:00 GMT"," By Armando Tinoco Staff Writer Boy George has a little bit of advice for Chappell Roan after the “Pink Pony Club” singer went viral for confronting a group of photographers. A video of the singer was widely circulated on social media this week, in which she asked photographers to leave her alone and to “stop following me” and “harassing me.” Taking to social media, Boy George wrote, “It's probably not helpful but I have been doing this fame thing for a while and you learn slowly and painfully that you don't get a free pass once you turn yourself into a bird of paradise.” “I watched @ChappellRoan filming the paps in Paris and I laughed because I have kicked off at them many times,” Boy George added. “The trick is to own your fame. yes, it's annoying at times but so is being ignored and told [you're] a ‘has-been. Life is always now and I think Chappell looks great but cheer up girl. The world is at your feet stop kicking it! It takes so much more time to say no to a picture or a signature. Boundaries are boring. Break them with the magic of kindness!” Watch on Deadline It's probably not helpful but I have been doing this fame thing for a while and you learn slowly and painfully that you don't get a free pass once you turn yourself into a bird of paradise. I watched @ChappellRoan filming the paps in Paris and I laughed because I have kicked off… This is not the first time Chappell Roan sets her boundaries with photographers. While on the red carpet for Netflix‘s Olivia Rodrigo: GUTS World Tour concert documentary, the singer walked up to a photographer and demanded an apology. “You were so disrespectful to me at the Grammys. You yelled at me at the Grammy party. I remember, you were so rude to me. And I deserve an apology for that,” said Roan in the clip. “You need to apologize to me.” At the MTV Video Music Awards, Roan scolded a photographer on the red carpet who could be heard shouting “shut the f— up.” Chappell Roan has previously opened up on social media about her need to “draw lines and set boundaries” after encountering “predatory behavior disguised as ‘superfan' behavior” from some of her “creepy” followers. “I've been in too many nonconsensual physical and social interactions, and I just need to lay it out and remind you, women don't owe you s—,” she explained on Instagram. “I chose this career path because I love music and art and honoring my inner child. I do not accept harassment of any kind because I chose this path, nor do I deserve it.” Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy. Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong. Comment Name Email Website Δ I don't know why it always feels like she has an axe to grind — considering she's had a pretty charmed career thus far. For someone who doesn't want attention she sure chose a weird profession. Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form. Sign up for our breaking news alerts By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved. By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. ","{'href': 'https://deadline.com', 'title': 'Deadline'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:pagesix.com","How to watch Michelle Pfeiffer in new series ‘The Madison': Release date, cast","https://pagesix.com/2026/03/13/entertainment/how-to-watch-michelle-pfeiffer-in-new-series-the-madison/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:00:00 GMT"," A new drama about love, resilience and transformation is set to hit Paramount+ tomorrow, March 14. “The Madison” comes from “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan, who also helms shows like “Landman” and “Tulsa King.” While “The Madison” was initially announced as a spin-off furthering the “Yellowstone” universe, it is now an original drama that is not connected to the Dutton family. Paramount+ notes that the series is Sheridan's most intimate work to date. Per the logline, “The Madison” is set “across two distinct worlds: the beautiful landscape of Montana and the vibrant energy of Manhattan as it examines the ties that bind families together.” The new series “is a heartfelt study of grief and human connection following a New York City family in the Madison River valley of central Montana.” Pfeiffer leads the cast as Stacy Clyburn, the matriarch of the central Clyburn family, while Kurt Russell stars as her husband Preston. After the six-episode run wraps up in a few weeks, it likely won't be long before “The Madison” is back on our screens; a second season has already been filmed. “The Madison” premieres March 14 on Paramount+. New episodes of “The Madison” will likely drop on Paramount+ at 3:01 a.m. ET on Saturdays (12:01 a.m. PT). “The Madison” is exclusive to Paramount+ and will not air on CBS or any other cable network. Paramount+ offers two subscription plans, Essential and Premium. The ad-supported Essential plan costs $8.99/month, while the ad-free Premium plan (which comes with Showtime titles and live CBS) costs $13.99/month. Both plans include “The Madison.” “The Madison” will have six episodes, released in two batches of three episodes. This article was written by Angela Tricarico, Commerce Streaming Reporter for the New York Post, Page Six, and Decider. Angela keeps readers up to date with information on how to watch all of your favorite reality TV shows and movies on each streaming service. Not only does Angela test and compare the streaming services she writes about to ensure readers are getting the best prices, but she's also a superfan specializing in the intersection of shopping, tech, sports, celebrities and pop culture. Prior to joining The Post in 2023, she wrote about streaming and consumer tech at Insider Reviews ","{'href': 'https://pagesix.com', 'title': 'Page Six'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:pagesix.com","Queen Camilla told friend Meghan Markle ‘brainwashed' Harry amid royal family feud, new book claims","https://pagesix.com/2026/03/14/royal-family/queen-camilla-told-friend-meghan-markle-brainwashed-harry-amid-royal-family-feud-new-book-claims/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 06:29:00 GMT"," Queen Camilla privately told a friend that Meghan Markle had “brainwashed” Prince Harry amid the royal family's feud, according to a bombshell new book. Author Tom Bower claimed the remark came as relations between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal clan hit boiling point shortly after their lavish nuptials at St George's Chapel in 2018. The glamorous wedding in Windsor was followed by a Mediterranean honeymoon, but behind palace walls, the honeymoon period was already over. Advertisement According to Bower, whose new book is serialized in The Times, things turned ugly soon after the newlyweds returned to Britain. A tense showdown between Harry and his older brother Prince William reportedly spiraled out of control, with Markle snapping at her brother-in-law during the confrontation. Advertisement “If you don't mind, get your finger out of my face,” the “Suits” actress allegedly shot back at William during the explosive exchange, according to Bower. Queen Camilla then allegedly vented to a friend with a blunt verdict: Markle had “brainwashed” Harry. William reportedly already warned his younger brother that the whirlwind romance was moving too fast, Bower reported, citing sources. Advertisement “It's gone too quickly,” he reportedly told Harry about his relationship with Markle. Meanwhile, Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, allegedly shared the same concerns, believing Harry might be vulnerable to Markle's influence. Bower also claimed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex felt lingering resentment about their place in the royal pecking order — forever destined to be “spares” rather than heirs. Advertisement A spokesperson for Harry has since fired back at Bower's book as a ‘deranged conspiracy.” “Mr. Bower's commentary has long crossed the line from criticism into fixation,” a spokesperson said. “Those interested in facts will look elsewhere; those seeking deranged conspiracy and melodrama know exactly where to find him.” The simmering tensions ultimately led to the Sussexes' dramatic royal exit. In 2020, Harry and Markle stepped down as senior working royals and left the UK, launching what critics called an all-out media offensive against the monarchy. From their explosive 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey to Harry's tell-all memoir “Spare” in 2023, the couple repeatedly aired grievances about palace life. Advertisement The duke also stunned viewers with a headline-grabbing interview with the BBC that included more thinly veiled swipes at the royal family. But there may finally be light at the end of the palace tunnel. Harry could extend an olive branch by inviting his father, King Charles, to open the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham, according to The Sun. Advertisement The father and son have had only two brief meetings in recent years, but the invite could see them standing side-by-side on stage as Harry fulfills a longtime dream of having the King launch the event. Meanwhile, Markle is dealing with fresh headaches of her own. Last week, Page Six exclusively revealed that Netflix ended its partnership with her lifestyle brand As Ever. An industry insider told Page Six the collaboration no longer made sense after her planned series “With Love, Markle” failed to move forward. ","{'href': 'https://pagesix.com', 'title': 'Page Six'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:avclub.com","Trump is swapping out the puppets ""in charge"" of his Kennedy Center playhouse","https://www.avclub.com/trump-swapping-bosses-at-the-kennedy-center","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 01:13:31 GMT"," In the grand scheme of things that Donald Trump has meddled with since being re-elected to the American presidency back in 2024, his efforts to fidget listlessly with The Kennedy Center have been less impactful than many. Which is to say: Sure, he's vandalized the building's front, gutted its board and replaced it with cronies, and provoked numerous boycotts from a variety of big-name performers who will no longer have anything to do with what was once the most prestigious venue in the American performing arts. But at least nobody's actually died, and that is turning out to be a depressingly high bar, in 2026, for many of Trump's policy initiatives to clear. Now—as the Center prepares to shut down for two years of the classiest renovations humanly imaginable after Trump's big “America's 250th Birthday” celebration (and its attendant White House UFC bouts) slam their way through the nation's capitol on July 4—Trump has announced his intent to swap out the puppets he uses to control this particular playhouse. Specifically, the president went on his Truth Social screeching platform on Friday to announce that he was setting aside current president Ric Grenell, who took the job after Trump seized control of the Center's board in the earliest weeks of his second presidency, and replacing him with current vice president of operations Matt Floca. Somewhat amazingly, given what a (relatively, for a Trump-appointed official) long tenure he's had in the job, Grenell is not getting the “scapegoat who betrayed me” treatment in Trump's public statement about the swap, with his work at what Trump insists on calling the “Trump Kennedy Center” instead labeled as “an excellent job in helping to coordinate various elements of the Center during the transition period” ahead of the renovations. (CNN does note that Trump hasn't been happy about publicity surrounding the reno, though, so it's possible we're seeing that rarest of things: Trump filtering his attitude toward someone for public consumption.) It is, honestly, about as measured a posting as you're likely to see while scanning the 8 million ads and memes that pop up on the site we occasionally use to check in how the guy with control over all our nukes is feeling on any given day; at the very least, Trump's post about Grenell doesn't involve professional wrestling language being employed while talking about the bombing of a foreign nation, or shots of Wii Sports attached to drone strike footage, and thus can be read as something of a new standard for presidential decorum. Grenell will formally depart the job on Monday, with the Trump-set board then voting the relatively unknown Floca in. Grenell has been a stalwart of the Trump school of Kennedy Center management, which is to say that he's spent his tenure in the job loudly denying that anything's wrong, calling artists criticizing the Center liars, and using the term “fake news” on something approaching a daily basis. Tragically, there's only so far that this level of imitation-as-flattery can take you, though, and Grenell will now be departing the gig. Recommended for You1Bradley Cooper might just go ahead and DIY that Margot Robbie Ocean's Eleven prequel2The Pitt and its doctors turn sour in a clunkier hour3SXSW has moved on, but mumblecore preserves its legacy4Spider-Man 2's hospital horror show swung from test shoot to final cut5Will Forte and D'Arcy Carden team up in the funny, bloody Sunny Nights © 2026 Paste Media Group. All Rights Reserved","{'href': 'https://www.avclub.com', 'title': 'AV Club'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:avclub.com","AI CEO (Nerd) Says AI Will Stop Women With a Brain from Having Power","https://www.avclub.com/ai-ceo-nerd-says-ai-will-stop-women-with-a-brain-from-having-power","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:53:00 GMT"," Absolutely fantastic news for the GOP. The CEO of Palantir said that artificial intelligence—the technology billionaires keep shoving down our throats even though no one's asked for it—is more powerful than anyone even understands and has the ability to take away economic and political power from “highly educated, often female voters, who vote mostly Democrat” while giving more power to working-class men. Sick! On Thursday, Palantir CEO Alex Karp spoke with CNBC and, between saying “disrupt” and “disruption” no less than 2,359 times, declared that AI will—drum roll—disrupt society by ripping it to shreds and potentially allowing anyone (or any political party) interested in sidelining smart women who vote Democrat to do exactly that. Every single day, I wake up more and more grateful that all these awesome rich men are in charge of everything. “This technology disrupts humanities-trained—largely Democratic—voters, and makes their economic power less. And increases the economic power of vocationally trained, working-class, often male, working-class voters,” Karp said. “And so these disruptions are gonna disrupt every aspect of our society. And to make this work, we have to come to an agreement of what it is we're going to do with the technology; how are we gonna explain to people who are likely gonna have less good, and less interesting jobs.” I understand that, as a brilliant woman who votes Democrat because I believe in women's bodily autonomy and reject the idea that drag queens are child-hunting demons (among other things), I'm probably not the person these titans of industry are trying to come to an agreement with, but still, I'd love to add my two cents: What I think we should do with this technology is…destroy it. Palantir CEO Alex Karp: “This technology disrupts humanity's train, largely Democratic voters, and makes their economic power less, and increases the economic power of vocationally trained, working class, often male voters. These disruptions are going to disrupt every aspect of… pic.twitter.com/xo63swASiG — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 12, 2026 In past interviews, Karp has said that smart people who go to college and major in the liberal arts are going to get fucked by the AI revolution. But mostly, this interview sounded like a direct plea to Trump to pretty please give Palantir even more billion-dollar government contracts—on top of the billion-dollar contracts they already have that are helping the administration wage war and (probably) surveil Americans—and Palantir will help ensure the defeat of the GOP's biggest fear: women with a brain. Recommended for You1Bradley Cooper might just go ahead and DIY that Margot Robbie Ocean's Eleven prequel2The Pitt and its doctors turn sour in a clunkier hour3SXSW has moved on, but mumblecore preserves its legacy4Spider-Man 2's hospital horror show swung from test shoot to final cut5Will Forte and D'Arcy Carden team up in the funny, bloody Sunny Nights © 2026 Paste Media Group. All Rights Reserved","{'href': 'https://www.avclub.com', 'title': 'AV Club'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:avclub.com","Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come once again paints the walls with the Satanic 1%","https://www.avclub.com/ready-or-not-2-here-i-come-review","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:34:12 GMT"," To see the parting shot of directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett's 2019 comedy-horror romp Ready Or Not revisited at the start of its sequel, Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come, is to know disappointment, however mild. You wouldn't expand on the Mona Lisa; you shouldn't expand on Samara Weaving numbly smoking a cigarette butt in a gory wedding dress against the backdrop of a burning palatial mansion, either. It's an indelible image in Weaving's career as a horror star. Even if there's a logical real-life conclusion to the moment—even if EMTs chauffeuring Grace, bloodsoaked and spent, to the closest hospital in Ready Or Not 2‘s opening scene makes sense—its effect is retroactive buzzkill. Grace's triumph over the Le Domas family in Ready Or Not is short-lived but well-deserved; Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett pull the rug out from under her in the sequel, like Lucy yanking away the football in time to make schlemiel out of Charlie Brown. Because this is America—and fine, because the evidence does point to her culpability—she's the prime suspect in the case of her in-laws' massacre. Telling Detective Bassett (Grant Nickalls), or frankly anyone, the truth seems like wasted effort. Nonetheless, when Grace's younger sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton), shows up, she helpfully recaps the first movie despite years of estrangement from one another. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, working from a script by returning writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, rob Faith of any opportunity to digest Grace's story: Another visitor, Bill Wilkinson (Kevin Durand), storms into the facility in a coked-up frenzy, hellbent on killing Grace. The Le Domases weren't the only devil-worshipping social elites in the world, a plot twist that'll surprise nobody who keeps up with current events. The Le Domases belonged to a cabal of likeminded sickos, and by beating them at their own game, Grace has unknowingly set off a domino chain that's culminated in said sickos, represented by Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Titus Danforth (Shawn Hatosy), Ignacio El Caido (Néstor Carbonell), Wan Chen Xing (Olivia Cheng), and Madhu Rajan (Varun Saranga), deploying her as prey in another hunt at another palatial mansion, with Faith thrown into proceedings as a bonus. Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come hews closely to the original's formula, adding a succession feud subplot for no appreciable reason other than to have David Cronenberg echo his part from the fourth season of the Chiller TV series Slasher. As horror premises go, “outrun the ultra-wealthy and armed Satanic cultists before they kill you” packs the average filmgoer's recommended daily intake of storytelling drama; no supplements are needed to enhance the film's effects, though it is nice that Grace and Faith have foils in Ursula and Titus, the sibling duo likeliest to kill them and secure the “high seat”–the position of utmost power in their organization's hierarchy. Like any game, Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come comes with a rulebook. As head counsel to Mr. Le Bail, the families' infernal benefactor and ruthless gamemaker, Elijah Wood so crisply delineates the competition's structure and guidelines as to make underworld legalese compelling. His minor performance is a phlegmatic pleasure; if the narrative knots are unnecessary, at least Wood, and the rest of the ensemble, have fun tying them together. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett have done terrific work over the years building up an acting stable in the post-anthology stretch of their careers: note the overlap between Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come and Abigail, which featured both Newton and Durand in supporting roles. That, plus the directors' collective obsession with making their characters pop like tomatoes in a microwave, adds welcome cohesion across their work. They've got their visual scheme nailed down, and they know what they want for their actors—a big party where everybody's splattered with goop. Maybe that's why the film's setup is such a deflating bummer. Weaving is great at expressing helpless surrender and whiteknuckle petrification, but her movies tend to pay off her raw terror with unhinged ferocity and brute-force indignance at having been imperiled in the first place. The effect of her performances is cathartic, frequently hysterical, and key to Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come‘s success. The forced reconsideration of Weaving's enduring work in the first movie is perhaps unavoidable, but certainly not ideal. Happily, the narrative moves ahead quickly, the better to demonstrate new, inventive methods of reducing murder-happy billionaires to sloppy carcasses in between beats where Weaving and Newton get to play off of one another. Their sororal friction undergirds the drama in Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come and provides a quiet rebuke of trauma horror, in which supernatural goings-on coincidentally dovetail with protagonists' lifelong emotional baggage, spurring confrontations with both. If they reunited under normal circumstances rather than under pain of death, Grace and Faith would have the exact same beef with each other and get into the exact same arguments; the families' game only inconveniences their reconciliation instead of lubricating it. Whether the critique is intended or not, it lands, and gives grounding to the thoroughly ungrounded plot without polluting Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett's macabre comic atmosphere. They're not interested in traumatizing anyone. They're happier dousing their cast with red dye and corn syrup; if they had to pick a game to play for Le Bail, it'd probably be something out of Double Dare. Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett Writer: Guy Busick, R. Christopher Murphy Starring: Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Elijah Wood, Nestor Carbonell, Olivia Cheng, Varun Saranga, David Cronenberg, Kevin Durand Release Date: March 20, 2026 Recommended for You1Bradley Cooper might just go ahead and DIY that Margot Robbie Ocean's Eleven prequel2The Pitt and its doctors turn sour in a clunkier hour3SXSW has moved on, but mumblecore preserves its legacy4Spider-Man 2's hospital horror show swung from test shoot to final cut5Will Forte and D'Arcy Carden team up in the funny, bloody Sunny Nights © 2026 Paste Media Group. All Rights Reserved","{'href': 'https://www.avclub.com', 'title': 'AV Club'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:entertainmentnow.com","Danica McKellar Cheers on Former 'DWTS' Partner Val Chmerkovskiy in Sweet Show of Support","https://entertainmentnow.com/dancing-with-the-stars/danica-mckellar-supports-val-chmerkovskiy-tour/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:54:40 GMT"," Danica McKellar is showing up for her former “Dancing with the Stars” partner Val Chmerkovskiy. The “Great American Family” and former “Hallmark” actress, who was partnered with Chmerkovskiy during Season 18, recently went to see him during this year's “Dancing With The Stars Tour.” Following a record breaking 34th season, the 2026 tour kicked off on Jan. 22 in Akron, Ohio. Along with Chmerkovskiy, the other pros on the tour include Witney Carson, Brandon Armstrong, Alan Bersten, Jenna Johnson, Daniella Karagach, Pasha Pashkov, Ezra Sosa, Britt Stewart, Hailey Bills, and Emma Slater, who McKellar also gave a shoutout to. The actress posted about the tour in an Instagram Story from March 12. Over a photo of the stage where Chmerkovskiy and Slater were dancing together, McKellar wrote, “The @dwtstourofficial is such a fun show – highly recommend if it's coming to a city near you! And it was great to see my friends @theemmaslater & my old DWTS partner @valentin (both dancing here!)” This isn't the first time McKellar has supported her former “DWTS” family. Back in February 2025, McKellar posted a carousel of photos from backstage at the Grande Ole Opry during that year's tour, including photos with Slater and pro Gleb Savchenko. She also included a video where Savchenko surprised the actress by bringing her on stage. “So… you know how on some shows, they'll pull audience members on stage for a few fun moments? Imagine my surprise when Gleb took my hand and escorted me ON STAGE at the GRANDE OLE OPRY in the middle of the show! Turns out there were a few of us DWTS alums, so they thought it would be fun if *we* were the audience members that got pulled on stage. Of course I was *totally* unprepared and the kinds of moves they had us dance do *not* come naturally to me – but it was a blast!” wrote McKellar in the caption of her post. She concluded by praising the tour. “It's a show you don't want to miss! And hey, you might even end up on stage.” McKellar shared a carousel of photos from her time on “DWTS” while celebrating the show's 20th anniversary, including a group shot of her and fellow “Great American Family” actress Candace Cameron Bure, who also competed in Season 18 with her partner Mark Ballas. “Can't believe it was 11 years ago that I danced on that very stage with the incredible @valentin – I remember it like it was yesterday. And having @tombergeron there (as a guest judge) felt like the old times – it was emotional seeing him announced!!” McKellar wrote in a November 2025 Instagram post. She continued, “So glad I could bring my mom as well! She never missed being in the audience when I was on the show all those years ago.” McKellar and Chmerkovskiy were eliminated during Week 8 in Season 18, finishing in 6th place. Immediately after being eliminated, McKellar was asked how she would sum up her experience. “It's been absolutely amazing,” she said at the time. “I've had the best time ever.” “It's been amazing,” Chmerkovskiy agreed when asked what it was like working with McKellar. “She's a great, great person. Works really hard. And you know, really embraces the process. I met a great individual. We had some fascinating conversations, and you know, it's been a blast.” McKellar went on to thank Chmerkovskiy for everything he taught her. Like EntertainmentNow? Go here and check the boxnext to EntertainmentNow Comment Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Previous Next About Contact US Privacy Policy Terms Of Service Editorial Guidelines Sitemap Copyright © 2026 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress VIP ","{'href': 'https://entertainmentnow.com', 'title': 'EntertainmentNow'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:entertainmentnow.com","Celebrities Rally Around Nicole Kidman Following Heartfelt Birthday Tribute to Late Mother","https://entertainmentnow.com/news/nicole-kidman-janelle-ann-kidman-birthday-tribute/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:01:03 GMT"," Nicole Kidman is paying an emotional tribute to her late mother. The Oscar winner took to social media to celebrate what would have been her mother's 86th birthday. Kidman's mother, Janelle Ann Kidman, sadly passed away in September 2024 at the age of 84. On Sept. 7, Kidman announced in a statement read aloud by “Babygirl” director Halina Reijn at the Venice Film Festival that the actress had left the festival early due to her mother's passing. Reijn read the statement aloud on Kidman's behalf during what would have been the star's acceptance speech for best actress for her role in “Babygirl.” Kidman wrote that she found out shortly after flying into Venice that her “beautiful, brave mother” had just passed. “I'm in shock and I have to go to my family, but this award is for her. She shaped me, she guided me and she made me. I am beyond grateful that I get to say her name to all of you through Halina,” Reijn continued, reading Kidman's statement. “The collision of life and art is heartbreaking, and my heart is broken.” A couple of years later, as Kidman reflected on her mother's birthday in a March 2026 post, fellow celebrities and friends flooded the comments with messages of love and support. “Remembering my Mumma on her birthday. Always in my heart Mumma 💕” wrote Kidman in the caption of her Instagram post that included an old photo of the actress smiling with her mother. Fellow actress Reese Witherspoon commented, “Your angel mama🩷” Witherspoon and Kidman were executive producers and lead actresses in the HBO series “Big Little Lies,” playing Madeline Mackenzie and Celeste Wright, respectively. Mariska Hargitay, best known for her role as Olivia Benson on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” wrote, “❤️❤️❤️” “Special Ops: Lioness” actress Laysla De Oliveira commented, “🥹❤️” “Holding you ❤️❤️” commented author Jen Pastiloff. Tony-winning Broadway actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth, best known for originating the role of Glinda in the musical “Wicked,” added, “Beautiful.” Cheryl Strayed, writer and podcast host, wrote, “Thinking of you and sending love. 💕” Following the passing of their mother, Kidman and her sister, Antonia Kidman, thanked fans in a joint Instagram post on Sept. 12, 2024, which featured old photos of their mother and family. “My sister and I along with our family want to thank you for the outpouring of love and kindness we have felt this week,” the sisters wrote. “Every message we have received from those who loved and admired our Mother has meant more to us than we will ever be able to express. Thank you from our whole family for respecting our privacy as we take care of each other ❤️” Janelle Ann Kidman worked as a nursing instructor for most of her life, according to Women's Weekly. She also edited her husband's books, and she was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby. Like EntertainmentNow? Go here and check the boxnext to EntertainmentNow Comment Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Previous Next About Contact US Privacy Policy Terms Of Service Editorial Guidelines Sitemap Copyright © 2026 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress VIP ","{'href': 'https://entertainmentnow.com', 'title': 'EntertainmentNow'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:indiewire.com","'The Sun Never Sets' Review: Joe Swanberg Directs Dakota Fanning","https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/the-sun-never-sets-review-joe-swanberg-dakota-fanning-1235184327/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:12:00 GMT"," By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Sometimes the best movie set-ups are the simplest ones. Other times, that couldn't be further from the truth. Case in point: Joe Swanberg‘s excellent Alaska-set romance “The Sun Never Sets,” which begins with a series of entangled relationships that a soap opera showrunner would need a minute to work through. Wendy (Dakota Fanning) is blissfully happy in an age-gap relationship with an older hedge fund manager Jack (Jake Johnson), who has two children from a previous marriage. She's become something of a stepmom to the kids and sees herself as part of the family (she even hangs with his ex-wife!), even though Jack is uninterested in having more children, something that she previously wanted. In order to prevent her from having regrets later in life, Jack insists that they take a break so that Wendy can look for a partner whose life goals align better with hers. If she doesn't find one before the permanently dark Alaskan winter begins, they can pick up where they left off with more peace of mind. Related Stories ‘Pretty Lethal' Review: Ballerina Baddies Spin and Slit Throats in a Suspense Thriller That Skips Pivotal Narrative Beats See ‘Undertone' with Dolby Atmos, or You'll Miss Half the Horror What Jack doesn't bet on is the re-emergence of Wendy's toxic ex-boyfriend Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), a small-time pilot who isn't made any less attractive for the fact that his life is in shambles. Jack, who would have never agreed to such an arrangement if he knew Chuck was back in the picture, instantly changes his stance and decides he's ready for marriage and more kids with Wendy, though she's too far along in her new situationship to completely give it up. The only way he can cope is by starting to date a more age-appropriate woman (Karley Sciortino), who is seemingly perfect for him. But he can't fully commit to her until Wendy makes up her mind, but Wendy can't commit to either guy while she knows that another woman is in the picture, Chuck realizes that his desire for monogamy is incompatible with his unstable financial state, and everyone is miserable because nobody knows what they want. It's admittedly a lot to process at first, but the journey is worth it. “The Sun Never Sets” is a masterful portrait of humanity's inability to figure out what we actually want at any given time. All of the relationships at its core are unapologetically adult, with each character eventually forced to find their own approach to the time-honored challenge of balancing passion and and pragmatism. While it initially seems like a retread of the old “stable husband material vs. exciting bad boy” trope that we've seen a million times over, each relationship is filled with enough nuances to merit its own film. Every character is old enough to understand, at least on some level, that dating has as much to do with figuring out what you want the rest of your life to look like as it does figuring out who you find attractive. Rather than treat it as a bad thing, the film uses that reality as a starting point to forge dating dynamics that are far more interesting than what we usually get to see. Johnson plays the perfect Good Guy, projecting enough softness and neuroses to make it believable that he would come up with a convoluted plan to inadvertently push his loving girlfriend back into the arms of her ex while also demonstrating enough game to explain why multiple women are so into him. And Smith understands the “toxic ex” assignment perfectly, even if the subtleties of his performance make it clear that Chuck is quickly losing interest in being the Bad Boy and would love to be seen in the same light as Jack. But the real star is Fanning, who embodies a character that might otherwise come across as an annoying flip-flopper with so much intelligence and charisma that we have no choice but to empathize with her. Wendy never has any clear idea of what she wants until the very end — theoretically ignoring a cardinal rule of storytelling — but Swanberg never blames it on her. Instead, the villain is the ridiculously complicated modern world we all have to navigate. If it takes these people so much anguish to figure out where they want to end up, what hope could there possibly be for the rest of us? Fortunately, Swanberg's millennial gaze never quite gives in to Gen Z cynicism, and the film sticks a satisfying landing that cements it as one of the mumblecore pioneer's finest films. The larger budget and Alaskan scenery allow him to elevate his visuals, and the script is tighter and more mature than some of his more meandering fare. But many of the auteur's familiar touches are still there — the IPA-fueled bar conversations that have been a fixture of his work are strangely comforting in an era where everybody is drinking less and feeling more alone. “The Sun Never Sets” will satisfy any of Swanberg's longtime fans who continue to see his movies at SXSW after SXSW, but it could also win over quite a few of his detractors. Just like his characters, the filmmaker is clearly growing, and we're all the better for it. “The Sun Never Sets” premiered at SXSW 2026. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution. Want to stay up to date on IndieWire's film reviews and critical thoughts? Subscribe here to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers. By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.","{'href': 'https://www.indiewire.com', 'title': 'IndieWire'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:indiewire.com","Praying ‘Sinners' Wins Best Picture? Try the Hypnotic Vampire Classic ‘Ganja & Hess' While You Wait","https://www.indiewire.com/features/best-of/ganja-and-hess-sinners-black-vampire-midnight-movie-1235184008/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:59:00 GMT"," By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark honors fringe cinema in the streaming age with midnight movies from any moment in film history. First, the BAIT: a weird genre pick, and why we're exploring its specific niche right now. Then, the BITE: a spoiler-filled answer to the all-important question, “Is this old cult film actually worth recommending?” The way some people speak about it online, you'd think Black horror cinema was invented in 2017 when Jordan Peele made “Get Out.” In reality, that's not the first film to use horror as a medium for social issues, and while the genre has long been predominantly (read: tragically) white, there have been movies that uses terror as a vehicle for exploring questions of otherness and identity for decades. Popular on IndieWire Related Stories See ‘Undertone' with Dolby Atmos, or You'll Miss Half the Horror ‘The Sun Never Sets' Review: A Career-Best Dakota Fanning Navigates Dueling Love Triangles in Joe Swanberg's Delightful Alaskan Romance On the heels of “Sinners” incredible cultural success, and unprecedented awards recognition for director Ryan Coogler, Oscars weekend is the perfect time to revisit one of cinema's most misunderstood classics: “Ganja & Hess.” This 1973 cult favorite also uses vampire tropes to tell a story about Black identity. But where “Sinners” is a thrilling blockbuster, this hazy romance offers something far weirder. It's dreamlike art piece that filters fear, Blaxploitation, and list into one beguiling, slippery vision. The story behind the making of and reception of “Ganja & Hess” is almost as interesting as the film itself. In 1972, independent filmmaker and theater director Bill Gunn was approached by the production company Kelly-Jordan Enterprises with an offer to make a Black vampire movie for $350,000. The producers were new and inexperienced, and as a consequence, Gunn was able to film the movie with an extraordinary level of artistic freedom. He aimed to use genre conventions as a metaphor for very human addictions with the blood thirst that drives his hero (Duane Jones) threatening allegorical ruin. That interpretation is obvious and effective as “Ganja & Hess” portrays the vampiric turn of anthropologist Dr. Hess Green (Jones, already horror icon for his 1968 performance in George Romero's “Night of the Living Dead”). After a first murderous high, Green spends the rest of the film chasing that euphoria through a recognizable 20th century America braced for inevitable collapse. What's intrigued critics in the years since the film's release isn't Gunn's interpretation of craving and compulsion so much as what the stance he takes on those intimate forces say about Black identity in the United States. Hess is turned not by another vampire (you'll notice the word “vampire” is never actually said in the film), but by his crazed assistant George Meda (Gunn in a sharp and layered cameo). Meda stabs Green with an ancient dagger from the “Myrthians,” an ancient African nation of blood drinkers, three times. That's each for the father, the son, and the Holy Ghost, as the intro explains. The attack grants him immortality and an unquenchable taste for blood. But when Meda's wife Ganja (Marlene Clark) arrives at Green's mansion looking for her husband, Hess turns her in a way that's tender, ceremonial, and violent. From that simple premise, “Ganja & Hess” unspools several ideas about identity, lived experience, and religious or ancestral guilt. There's a lot to digest emotionally and intellectually thanks to Gunn's arthouse style, but the director isn't preachy about the themes he's wrestling with. On the contrary, “Ganja & Hess” is an entrancing watch with odd and unconventional pacing that eschews narrative coherency for arresting imagery and emotionally piercing set pieces that are sexy and crowd pleasing. “Ganja & Hess” played at the Cannes Film Festival Critics Week in 1973 to mostly positive reviews from French publications, but it faced a tepid reception and weak box office in America. Kelly-Jordan sold the rights to the film to the grindhouse company Heritage Pictures, which put later out a new version of “Ganja & Hess” that shortened the by almost 30 minutes. (Editor's note: “Blood Couple,” as it's known, is not currently streaming.) Gunn disavowed the new version and wrote a letter published in the New York Times titled “To Be a Black Artist” decrying the disrespect and mistreatment he believed his art received. Gunn would make only one other movie, 1980's “Personal Problems,” before dying just shy of a decade later at the age 54 from encephalitis. In recent years, his work has been heavily reappraised and reappreciated, in part thanks to a 2018 restoration of the original version of “Ganja & Hess” created from a print held by the Museum of Modern Art. Spike Lee has praised the film extensively, loosely remaking the work with 2014's “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus.” The rising critical esteem for “Ganja & Hess,” which Gunn and his star Jones didn't live to see, is bittersweet and a reminder that even the most intoxicating nightmares can arrive ahead of their time. —WC “Ganja & Hess” (1973) is streaming through VOD and the Criterion Channel. Can you hear it? The chanting? Yes, that's audio from “Ganja & Hess.” More specifically, it's a sped-up sample used by the hip-hop group Clipping in their much later track “Blood of the Fang” (h/t to the vampire expert who pointed that out via the site Perfectly Imperfect). Coogler could make history this weekend as the first-ever Black filmmaker to win the Best Director category at the Oscars. But with “Sinners” up for 16 nominations, Coogler's victory — or lack thereof — tells a much bigger story. When “Black Panther” made history at the Academy Awards in 2019, Coogler wasn't nominated for Best Director. Now he's up against Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece “One Battle After Another” in several races that are too close to call. A win or loss for “Sinners” will no doubt be seen as symbolic for many modern audiences. But as far as comparisons go, weighing Coogler's latest work against anything other than the luminous shagginess of something like “Ganja & Hess” feels misplaced. A fiendishly horny ode to toe rings and double-breasted suits (not to mention “grape jelly, hominy grits, and extension cords”), Gunn's timeless tone experiment from 1973 is as potent a monster movie as ever. It's also groovy enough to drill glitter straight into your bones, with “Ganja & Hess” already cemented as essential genre viewing on most cinephilic starting guides. And yet, reframed through Coogler's dark Southern Gothic triumph, Gunn's vision takes on new life as a critical foundation for a corner of the film world that remains broadly unmatched in its soulful specificity. I'll never turn down a chance to see Duane Jones in anything, but his performance here is so far removed from his Romero days that the actor almost feels like the lucky passenger to the larger-than-life cynicism of Hess. The chemistry he shares with Clark — a kind of yearning protest, steeling the couple against the indifference of a universe they could theoretically navigate more responsibly — feels relatable and wonderfully inaccessible. Its glossy sheen and period aesthetics make for a mesmeric cinematic trip, leaving behind hazy emotional portraits that remain just far enough out of reach to be haunting. From William Crain's “Blacula” (1972) to Anne Rice's contemporary “Interview with the Vampire” universe, Black vampires represent one of the most haunting subgenres in horror. Bookending that final vision of a man emerging from the water with the philosophical musings of Meda earlier in the second act, “Ganja & Hess” offers a stylish immersion that entertains through serious existential fear. Scares don't have to manufacture dread when the world we're crawling through is already hellish. And that's a lesson Coogler's known for years, following wisdom as ancient as art itself. —AF “Ganja & Hess” is available on streaming platforms including Kino Film Collection. Read more installments of After Dark, IndieWire's midnight movie rewatch club: By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.","{'href': 'https://www.indiewire.com', 'title': 'IndieWire'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:indiewire.com","‘Pretty Lethal' Review: Ballerina Baddies Spin and Slit Throats in a Suspense Thriller That Skips Pivotal Narrative Beats","https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/pretty-lethal-movie-review-1235184386/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:30:00 GMT"," By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Razor blades and pointe shoes prove pretty lethal in Vicky Jewson's bloody and blistered ballet thriller, which finds a dysfunctional ballerina troupe fighting for survival after a run-in with a deadly Hungarian mob. Streaming on Prime Video later this month, “Pretty Lethal” couldn't have come at a better time, given all the drama and discourse surrounding Timothée Chalamet's controversial remarks on the cultural value of ballet and opera relative to mainstream art forms, which earned pointed responses from both worlds. While the film, written by former ballerina Kate Freund, is far from a critique on the material decline of the live arts, it clearly gestures towards a shrewd observation Chalamet and his particular brand of sleaze might easily dismiss: the body, and therefore ballet, as a vessel of cinematic storytelling — a visceral physical language turning into an audiovisual one. For hardcore fans of the genre and ballet alike, it's basically a treasure trove, regardless of whether it cannot reference other ballets past “The Nutcracker,” regardless of whether all the hijinks miss a beat or stop short of depth. Popular on IndieWire Related Stories See ‘Undertone' with Dolby Atmos, or You'll Miss Half the Horror ‘The Sun Never Sets' Review: A Career-Best Dakota Fanning Navigates Dueling Love Triangles in Joe Swanberg's Delightful Alaskan Romance The five Los Angeles-based prima ballerinas — played by Maddie Ziegler, Lana Condor, Avantika, Millicent Simmonds, and Iris Apatow — have been preparing all their lives to debut at the National Theatre in Budapest, which could change the course of their careers. Especially for those who aren't as lucky to have a head start in life, like the left-out Bones (Ziegler), who wouldn't be able to compete without the sponsorship of the mother of spoiled brat and bully Princess (Condor). “Ballet is a rich bitch sport,” as Bones puts it, perhaps the same point the “Marty Supreme” star is trying to make, albeit conceitedly. After landing in Hungary, a day before the grand showcase, the group's bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Fretting over the dance of their lives, they have to steel themselves for something far worse. Opting to keep out of the forest, they take shelter in a dingy roadside inn run by Uma Thurman's Devora Kasimer, a fallen ballet prodigy, and her henchmen. It doesn't take long for the danger to make itself known, with the young women's mentor (Lydia Leonard) as the first casualty. As the ballerinas hatch a plan to come out of their predicament alive, bodies begin to drop dead. “Pretty Lethal” is fundamentally a movement movie, featuring a C+C Music Factory needle drop early on — one that is deeply attuned to swapping men for women in the realm of action cinema. At times, the film is tolerably grotesque body horror or an acid trip movie filled with Bible verse reciting, as Avantika plays the moral, religious North Star; at others, it's an outright revenge tale, particularly as the sparse plot pivots to Devora, who is out to settle an old score with Michael Culkin's Lothar Marcovic, a cruel crime lord. A vindictive pursuit that ends rather predictably, as we scan the routine, but are never allowed to behold the dance in its full glory. The “Kill Bill” star is exciting to watch, but not compelling enough to make up for the shortcomings of the uninspired script, which displays an annoying knack for stating the obvious via clichéd dialogue, that indeed the ballerinas have to band together to survive, paired with pretty lethargic pacing. Ziegler, meanwhile, is already fantastic as the only character with survival instinct, at least initially, at which point I thought it would tip “Pretty Lethal” into a final girl movie. It's hard to ask more of Ziegler, given she really doesn't have much to work with. The camerawork is adequate, but never lifts the movie to a greater aesthetic delight. Close-ups on framed photographs depicting Devora's younger, more graceful self offer less a sense of history than ambient suspense. If anything, backstories here are neatly left to the imagination. Likewise, the dreary inn, through Zsuzsa Kismarty-Lechner and Charlotte Pearson's production design, is emblematic of Devora's faded dream — a space where “The Nutcracker” somehow never ends. The centerpiece is, of course, the melee/dance-off between the ensemble in white tutus and the violent thugs, toe blade and all. Choreographed to stunning and outrageous effect, this might just be the most death-dealing dress rehearsal you'll ever come across. That the goons didn't just instantly shoot at the ballerinas also makes it all the more silly. Despite the contrivance, Jewson makes fascinating theater out of this, flipping the archetypal image of the ballerina, and therefore femininity, on its head and rendering it as a kind of weapon, forged by years of putting up with enormous pain, against a world beset by patriarchal violence. The quintet spins, stretches, and slits throats, combining grace and discipline in what one might call “ballet-fu,” perhaps a new genre to invest in. They cram their bodies into kitchen cabinets, as does a doll in a window box. They move as a single, cohesive unit. Yet, while most of that seems top-tier entertainment, where the actors are clearly having all the fun working together, testing out new stunts, all the bone-breaking can only keep you on the edge of your seat for so long. Framing ballet as a source of high-octane action is incredibly inventive, but “Pretty Lethal” remains a standard suspense thriller, a work that is ultimately kneecapped by a writing that renders the deeper textures of the characters largely gestural, only meant to drive the proceedings onward with sheer force. The more it generates spectacle, the more you notice how the screenplay fails to keep in step. Glimpses into past lives, including that of Bones, are hardly given any attention past suggestive pathos or plainly stating them up top that before the final dance graces us to hammer home the film's feminist message, “Pretty Lethal” has already, totally, worn us down. No plié to absorb all the shock. In this way, Jewson's vision is quite fatal. “Pretty Lethal” premiered at the 2026 SXSW Film and TV Festival. It streams on Prime Video globally on March 25. Want to stay up to date on IndieWire's film reviews and critical thoughts? Subscribe here to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers. By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.","{'href': 'https://www.indiewire.com', 'title': 'IndieWire'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:indiewire.com","See ‘Undertone' with Dolby Atmos, or You'll Miss Half the Horror","https://www.indiewire.com/features/craft/undertone-sound-design-interview-director-ian-tuason-1235183954/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:00:00 GMT"," By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Maybe don't look up. If you're in a Dolby Atmos theater, there are speakers directly above you on the ceiling. But there are also speakers everywhere, and writer/director Ian Tuason wrote “Undertone” — in a gigantic, almost 300 page word document stuffed with shot breakdowns and sound design notes — to take advantage of every single one. In a way, it had better. The film's story centers around Evy (Nina Kiri), a young woman running a creepypasta/horror stories appreciation podcast with her friend Justin (Adam DiMarco) while she stays in her childhood home and provides end-of-life care for her comatose mother (Michèle Duquet). Popular on IndieWire Related Stories ‘The Sun Never Sets' Review: A Career-Best Dakota Fanning Navigates Dueling Love Triangles in Joe Swanberg's Delightful Alaskan Romance Praying ‘Sinners' Wins Best Picture? Try the Hypnotic Vampire Classic ‘Ganja & Hess' While You Wait If you're broken inside (i.e., have done any podcasting), you'll recognize Evy's Focusrite Scarlett and raise an eyebrow at her Pro Tools presets. But everyone else will, more likely, pay more attention to the ways that Evy armors up when she puts on her noise-cancelling headphones. But in that isolated state, she becomes vulnerable to something hidden within the audio files she and Justin are looking into for their show. “I specifically wrote a scene where Nina looks up, and I got to put a bang up on the ceiling, after A24 gave us the money to use Dolby Atmos. I like how the theater rumbles in Atmos. I really wish everyone watches [the film] that way, because it's the complete experience,” Tuason told IndieWire. Atmos' precise spatialization allows sound designers to place different sounds in discrete physical locations around a room, mimicking where sound would be coming from diegetically with greater fidelity than surround sound. Tuason didn't just want to use that power for realism, but for demonic evil. The sound of “Undertone” is a mix of unnerving precision and imperceptibility, with us knowing where sound is coming from, but not what it is, or what it means. “Gibberish is scarier than me telling you a scary phrase,” Tuason said. Tuason uses gibberish, audio apophenia (assigning meaning to sounds that shouldn't be related), and audio played in reverse to make things sound scary without revealing a precise threat or a clear reason why they're scary. “It's an exercise for your imagination. You're the one forming this horrible implication, this horrible image, in your head. You're creating it. Not me,” Tuason said. That internally created threat does get a helping hand from Tuason and his team's sound design choices, though. He uses classic techniques to exaggerate mundane sounds and let us hear Evy's downward spiral before we see it. He sneaks in some heavy metal “dungeon” banging to stand in for a clock ticking, in one instance, and in another, subtly confuses the sound of Evy's reality and the audio messages she's listening to. “We are watching water dripping into Evy's sink, and the sound aligns with the dripping in the audio clip [she's hearing] — which shouldn't happen, because those are two separate places and times. But that was fun, to align them and kind of blur that line between Evy's world and the audio clip world,” Tuason said. Sound is one of the only ways that Tuason can open up the world of “Undertone,” since it takes place all in one location, and often feels trapped at the kitchen table where Evy's placed her podcasting setup (at least hang a sound blanket over the liquor cabinet, Evy, I beg you). But Tuason and his team use Atmos as much to remind us of the house's limitations and how sound is coming from places it shouldn't. “Getting the audience settled into a spot so that all sounds are now static around you — that way I can pinpoint sounds, knowing that you're familiar with the layout of the house. I can put footsteps in the direction of where [the bedroom] is, and stuff like that,” Tuason said. About the only sound that Tuason doesn't play with in “Undertone” is the song that inspired his first ideas for the story. He was looking at creepypastas on YouTube when he found a video examining a hidden message embedded in “Rainbow Connection,” by Kermit the Frog, if played backwards. That was scary enough, so he decided that children's lullabies would be even scarier still. “ I love that contrast. It worked really well in ‘Hereditary' with ‘Both Sides Now,'” Tuason said. “I was going to end the movie with the original version of ‘Rainbow Connection' in the credits.” But there may yet be a chance for Tuason to throw the banjo-playing frog and the all-powerful swine to whom he has pledged his soul, into horrifying relief. “‘Undertone' is a trilogy. So a lot of the stories that you hear in ‘Undertone' will be explored, and some questions will be answered in the next ones.” In other words? Stay tuned, dear listeners. “Undertone” is now playing in theaters. By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.","{'href': 'https://www.indiewire.com', 'title': 'IndieWire'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:pitchfork.com","Alexis Taylor: Paris in the Spring Album Review","https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/alexis-taylor-paris-in-the-spring/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT"," 0.0 0.0 Reader Score No score yet, be the first to add. 0.0 Genre: Electronic Label: Night Time Stories Ltd. Release Date: 2026 Paris in the Spring, the title of Alexis Taylor's latest solo album, isn't just meant to cue up visions of blooming cherry trees in the Jardin des Plantes, or jambon-beurres enjoyed en plein air. It also references a psychological test: When presented in a certain way, the phrase “Paris in the the spring” is often read aloud by test subjects without the extra “the,” a trick that reveals how brains skip over words they deem unimportant. A single word reveals a profound self-deception—if we missed that “the,” what else are we missing? Solo projects offer a similar psychological test. When artists in successful groups venture off on their own, their audiences must analyze their work with a new mindset, re-calculating their strengths and weaknesses, the baseline assessment always some form of: “Do they still have the sauce alone?” Alexis Taylor's main gig is dance band Hot Chip, a group with a 26-year legacy, and by now his solo output has settled into a predictable counterpoint to the group's work: just as finely crafted, but usually more delicate and less exuberant. Silence, from 2021, was a pensive, subdued exploration of Taylor's tinnitus diagnosis, and 2016's Piano, featuring just piano and Taylor's voice, was about as minimal as you could get. No score yet, be the first to add. 0.0 Now Taylor sounds thrilled to jettison any assumptions about what an Alexis Taylor solo album should be. Paris in the Spring is, as he put in the album announcement, about “freedom—from constraints, from preconceptions, and from genre.” What that looks like in practice is a collection of 10 songs that range from glum balladry to cautiously ecstatic nu-disco, created with a high-class list of collaborators, including Air's Nicolas Godin (the album was primarily recorded at Godin's Paris studio) and Étienne de Crécy. In its refusal to adhere to a particular theme or sound, Paris in the Spring comes across as a little diffuse, but when everything locks in, the results are transcendent. Taylor's current enthusiasm for abundant, immersive arrangements yields songs that are densely layered but still light, like one of those cakes that's just a huge tower of crepes. First single “Out of Phase” stacks a lot of busy elements—multipart chorus vocals, playful bass, clattering new-age drums, a sultry guest spot from Lola Kirke—that magically meld into an airy, easy club track. Opening song “Your Only Life” has a McCartney II flair, layering plucky synths and a guitar lick that never ignites, but does smolder quite pleasantly. And, true to Taylor's claims for the album, the album's genre blast radius is wide: “Fainting by Numbers” is a New Romantic-style ballad, “mp3s can make you cry” has a country-ish twinkle (and a tasteful touch of vocoder), and there's an intriguingly wonky electronic cover of the Rolling Stones' “Wild Horses” tossed in for good measure. Taylor's voice, as guileless and elegant as ever, ties together what could have been a random-feeling assemblage of tunes in a silky bow. His music has never been so expansive, and his lyrics never more straightforward. Taylor works through his feelings in real time and present tense, with a clearheadedness that makes his introspection feel uncanny. It's a fascinating effect: Heartbreak and malaise materialize, but they're expressed with composure, like prayers answered before they're even uttered. On “Out of Phase,” he makes references to Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway, but even as he describes how adrift he feels—“Help me through this maze/God knows I'm afraid”—the lush music and chill delivery feel serene, rather than Lynchian. When he sings about being a “bad, bad person” on “Fainting by Numbers,” he sounds so virtuous that it's hard to believe him. Sometimes the language can get a little clunky, like the similes on “Your Only Life” (“Life is hard and then it's over/Like a broken-down rollercoaster”), or the druggy theme of “Colombia” (“All the cocaine in Colombia couldn't make you come to me”). He's at his best when he keeps things plain, like the opening of the piano ballad “For a Toy”: “Why do I keep on fucking up the only thing I have ever loved?” Taylor sounds natural in just about any genre, but he shines brightest on his home turf: dance music. The album's best songs are the ones designed to get wallflowers off the wall, and though they may lack that particular Hot Chippian moxie, they more than make up for it in sophistication. “On a Whim,” a collaboration with Scritti Politti's Green Gartside, is sumptuously funky; “I Can Feel Your Love,” co-produced by the Avalanches, is hypnotic and propulsive, absolutely begging to be played at 3 a.m. at the kind of club that has a no-phones policy. And on “Black Lodge in the Sky,” Taylor stretches way out, singing about chasing “ghosts who have not died” while letting delicate synths wax and wane over a booming bass drum. Just as the extra “the” in that “Paris in the the Spring” test suggests something hiding in plain sight, so Taylor sneaks in a little something extra at the end of the track: After a moment of silence, the refrain returns in a different register, stripped down to just keys and vocals, as if he was still in the middle of writing it. It serves as a reminder that even the most expansive and collaborative songs must begin with individual inspiration, and are only brought into the world through lonely, repetitive effort. Seven solo albums in, Taylor seems more than happy to keep putting in the work. 0.0 0.0 © 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Pitchfork may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices CN Entertainment","{'href': 'https://pitchfork.com', 'title': 'Pitchfork'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:pitchfork.com","“Ante Up (Robbing-Hoodz Theory)”","https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/mop-ante-up-robbing-hoodz-theory/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT"," Genre: Rap Label: Loud Reviewed: March 14, 2026 When I was 15, I got caught in a tornado. It touched down at Cat's Cradle, a 750-capacity venue in Carrboro, North Carolina, about 20 minutes from where I grew up. M.O.P., or Mash Out Posse, the bare-knuckle Brooklyn duo, had just released Warriorz, the fourth brash and brawling entry in their early unimpeachable run. Thanks to an older brother working as a record-store clerk and a friend group obsessed with Funkmaster Flex tapes, I had worn out my cassette copies of Firing Squad and First Family 4 Life, the group's classic second and third albums. Knowing they'd finally be coming to leave a Timberland boot print in our humble part of the South was irrepressibly exciting. The energy was on 10 from the moment Lil Fame and Billy Danze stepped onstage, bass shaking the walls like sheet metal in high wind. Their live show was raw and relentless, a sweat-drenched riot that left a punch-drunk audience and a stage littered with empty water bottles. Each song rocked the building's foundation, but when their DJ dropped the beat for “Ante Up,” the breakout single and vicious campaign ad for the Brownsville bombers, we all seemed to go into a collective blackout. Picture 750 people screaming along to every throat-shredding “OH!,” reaching our hands toward a roof that felt like it would peel off the building at any second. When the show ended, we shuffled out of the Cradle sweaty and shell-shocked, grinning on the comedown from a massive adrenaline spike. It fucking ruled. The year 2000 was a good one for world-dominating rap singles that landed like an open palm slap to the jaw. The vinyl-crackle boom-bap of the golden '90s was on the decline, steadily replaced with cleaner, sharper drums and simpler melodic lines, perhaps nodding to an increased emphasis on trunks and PAs over home stereos. The East Coast sound was starting to fade from prominence as styles from the South and Midwest came into clearer focus, but face-scrunching, bubblecoat jams like Beanie Sigel's “The Truth,” Bumpy Knuckles' “Bumpy Knuckles Baby,” and Reflection Eternal's “Move Somethin'” kept the spirit alive. These songs felt planted by the neck brace industry: loud, hypnotic anthems championing the destruction of enemies and microphones alike. None hit quite like “Ante Up,” though. It was a perfectly blunt rebuke of decorum and joyful encouragement of violence. It's about robbery, where fools' chains, rings, diamonds, and Cristal money are all the spoils of guerrilla warfare, but it's also about a rejection of hierarchy. “Fuck you, your honor,” Danze exhales. “Check my persona.” M.O.P. were beloved in their corner of the rap world, aligned with fellow New York rap royalty and regularly smoking guest verses, but they hadn't broken through to a wider audience. “Ante Up” was their way of saying, “We're coming to take what we deserve.” That unblinking intensity was always part of M.O.P.'s ethos—their first single was the mission statement “How About Some Hardcore”—but, true to its name, “Ante Up” took it to a new level. D/R Period's beat is a simple and surgically effective head-nodder: looped horns stack into triumphant chords, a chirping synth line gives it a bit of a progression, and the caveman drum pattern ties it all together into an instant, irresistible groove. It towers over the other tracks on Warriorz, which is full of similarly rugged production from DJ Premier, Nottz, and Lil Fame himself, pulling the rest of the album into its gravity. Danze and Fame were halfway done making the record when D/R brought them the track, and they applied their litmus test: “Is it a good beat? Yes, it is. Does it have bounce to it? Yes, it does,” Danze explained in a 2021 interview with Passion of the Weiss. “So it was an effort to make it hard and as big as possible. Did I know it was going to be as big of a hit as it was? No, I didn't, I had no clue.” “Ante Up” exploded into the mainstream, catapulting M.O.P. from a cherished regional act to national stardom. It was everywhere immediately, soundtracking Drive at 5 mixes and in regular rotation on MTV and BET's Rap City. That fall, our high school marching band learned a version of it to vamp during football games. To this day, it's the group's most enduring cut, showing up in movies like You Got Served, 30 Minutes or Less, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. It's become a chest-puffing cheat code for building pressure when there's a race against time or a prepare-for-battle montage. It's a big red button you press to show that shit just got serious. Countless rap songs from the past 25 years have sampled its bottomless hype, sprinkling its bloodshot tension like a seasoning salt: Lil Fame's taunt “Them jewels you rock make 'em envy” serves as the backbone of J Dilla's “Make'em NV;” Danze's hoarse shouts pepper the background of Blu's “The West”; a clip of Fame roaring, “Code of the streets” appears near the end of Madlib's “The Payback (Gotta)”; Statik Selektah weaves Danze's commanding “Blaow… hold that!” motif into the rhythm of his and Freeway's “From the Street” (which also features Lil Fame). Sometimes its cultural foothold gets a little weird, like the Sesame Street parody that's circulated on video-sharing sites since Web 1.0, when Anna Kendrick awkwardly rapped one of Lil Fame's verses on Ellen, and any time it's used by a brand trying to look hip. Despite their initial underestimation, by the time M.O.P. wrapped Warriorz, they knew “Ante Up” would be a big enough hit to warrant a remix. Stapled to the end of the album, the new version isn't structurally different, but Busta Rhymes, Remy Ma, and Teflon add their own bell-ringing verses. It's no less physical than the original, and in the intro, Busta Rhymes exclaims, “This shit here feels like a whole entire world collapse!” In an early prototype of the now-ubiquitous “reaction” video, an excited, perhaps overcaffeinated father plays it for his son as a bonding moment. They're driving through some grey northeastern neighborhood, bundled up against the winter cold. An inverted dash cam captures the dad, teeth gritted, eyes bugging out, hands gripping the steering wheel, and son, calmly eating cereal from a Tupperware. As the drums drop like kettlebells onto a gym floor, the dad starts losing his mind, bouncing around in his seat, screaming and slapping the cereal out of his kid's hands. It's goofy, and you may wonder how much of it was staged, but the reaction still feels appropriate. “Ante Up” is best heard at deafening volumes, one fist in the sky, veins in your neck straining. It's live as fuck, an endlessly renewable threat to every diamond necklace, subwoofer cone, and load-bearing column in its proximity. © 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Pitchfork may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices CN Entertainment","{'href': 'https://pitchfork.com', 'title': 'Pitchfork'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:rollingstone.com","Phil Campbell, Longtime Motorhead Guitarist, Dead at 64","https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/phil-campbell-motorhead-guitarist-dead-obituary-1235530568/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:52:51 GMT"," By Daniel Kreps Phil Campbell, longtime guitarist for the Lemmy Kilmister-led metal band Motörhead, has died at the age of 64. The guitarist's death was announced Saturday on the social media accounts for his band Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons. “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved father, Philip Anthony Campbell, who passed away peacefully last night following a long and courageous battle in intensive care after a complex major operation,” the statement read. “Phil was a devoted husband, a wonderful father, and a proud and loving grandfather, known affectionately as ‘Bampi'. He was deeply loved by all who knew him and will be missed immensely. His legacy, music and the memories he created with so many will live on forever.” The Wales-born Campbell formed the British heavy metal band Persian Risk in the late Seventies, spending five years in that group before he was recruited by Lemmy to join Motörhead in 1984 following the exit of guitarist Brian Robertson. Campbell's stint with Motörhead began with their seventh album 1986's Orgasmatron, and he would ultimately serve as the band's longest tenured guitarist, spending 31 years in Motörhead until they disbanded following the Lemmy's death in 2015. During his run, Campbell recorded 16 studio albums with Motörhead, and contributed the riffs to tracks like “Deaf Forever,” “Eat the Rich,” and “Born to Raise Hell.” Post-Motörhead, Campbell released his first solo album Old Lions Still Roar in 2019, as well as a trio of albums fronting the Bastard Sons; Campbell and the Bastard Sons were scheduled to tour Europe earlier this year, but the tour was canceled “due to medical advice Phil has just received,” the band said at the time. When Motörhead were for nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, Campbell was not among the members initially considered for induction; only Lemmy, founding guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke and drummer Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor were nominated. However, following fan outcry, Campbell and drummer Mikkey Dee were added to the ballot. Dee, who joined Motörhead in 1992 and remained until Lemmy's death, paid tribute to his longtime band mate Campbell on social media Saturday. Trending Stories The Republican Party's Nazi Problem Is Getting Worse. It Should Care Dolly Parton Makes First Major Appearance in Months After Health Concerns: 'I Needed to Build Myself Back Up' David Gilmour's ‘Black Strat' Sells for $14.55 Million, Becoming the Most Expensive Guitar Ever Sold Jack Osbourne Names Baby Daughter After Late Father Ozzy “He was the funniest guy I have ever known and the best rock guitar player I have ever played with. His vibe and feel for rock music were outstanding. We wrote 12 studio albums together, and he never stopped surprising me with his extreme talent. Most of all, I will miss hanging out with the nicest guy you could ever meet,” Dee wrote. “My family and I send our thoughts to Phil's family. I truly wish them all the best for the future, and I will be right here if they ever need anything. Sleep well, my friend and rock soldier. Say hi to Lemmy, Würzel, Filthy and Eddie. I am sure you'll be a crazy gang hanging out together again!” We want to hear it. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.","{'href': 'https://www.rollingstone.com', 'title': 'Rolling Stone'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=ufo","Trump's UFO release could include videos, photos of non-human craft proving we aren't alone: source","https://nypost.com/2026/03/14/us-news/trumps-ufo-release-could-include-videos-satellite-photos-of-non-human-craft-source/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:15:00 GMT"," Switch between CA and NY editions here. The federal government holds shocking evidence of UFOs which proves we are not alone — including satellite imagery of out-of-this world craft that look like nothing “we have built,” an expert with knowledge of the documents told The Post. The government's trove of UFO docs is massive and includes stunning photos and videos, according to Christopher Mellon, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense intelligence during the Clinton and Bush administrations. Publicly disclosing the information would take UFO discourse “to another level,” he added. Under President Trump's order two weeks ago, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth will direct the release of “files related to” aliens, UFOs, and “all other information connected to” the “highly complex” subject matter, the president wrote on Truth Social. Advertisement While the announcement spurred federal agencies, including the White House and the Pentagon, to scramble, there has been no official word on what will be released and when. The most compelling piece of data, Mellon claimed, are clear satellite photos of craft in space above the Earth that are obviously not manmade. “We have satellite imagery of craft that sure don't look like anything that we have built or constructed,” Mellon said. Those same convincing images of craft engaging in “actions that are difficult to explain” were referenced by ex-director of national intelligence and current CIA director John Ratcliffe in a 2021 Fox News interview. In 2017, Mellon played a key role in the release of three now famous US military radar images of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, or UAPs, referred to as the “Tic Tac,” “GOFAST,” and “Gimbal” — and he said there are more just like those on government hard drives. Advertisement The government now prefers the term “UAP,” or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, to “UFO.” “There's a significant number of videos from the same sources that were judged unclassified in 2018 — gun cameras on F18s, [Forward Looking Infrared Radar] videos — that have been withheld from the public,” he said. “I know there are because I've seen some of them,” said Mellon, adding, “And there's no rational reason that I can think of why those videos are being withheld.” Though some provocative images should be included in the release, Mellon said he has no expectation for files that confirm the existence of, or contact with, alien civilizations. Advertisement Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more. Please provide a valid email. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. The Department of War, the Department of National Intelligence, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Department of Energy, and the National Nuclear Security Administration all have UFO files that would be relevant to the Trump-ordered release, Mellon said. Releasing classified and sensitive materials is an “unnatural act” for intelligence agencies, he said. “I have a feeling bureaucracy is going to react slowly and I don't think they're gonna put the best stuff out quickly, if they do at all,” he said. “Congressional vigilance is needed to ensure a thorough and effective process.” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota), senior member of the Senate Armed Service Committee, who introduced the UAP Disclosure Act with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in 2023, is hoping for a broad release that ensures US military secrets are preserved. Advertisement Rounds hopes for “as much disclosure as we can get with regard to just being honest to the American people about what we see that we either don't know about or that we're learning about. “And I just want to make sure that whatever we put out, we do not impact our own national security capabilities.” Additional reporting by Geoff Earle ","{'href': 'https://nypost.com', 'title': 'New York Post'}","other" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=ufo","25 Things You Don't Know About Kurt Russell: Goldie Hawn, Princess Diana, UFO Discovery and More","https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/25-fun-facts-about-kurt-russell-goldie-hawn-ufos-and-more/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:01:20 GMT"," In honor of Kurt Russell's milestone 75th birthday on Tuesday, March 17, Us Weekly is breaking down some interesting facts about the legendary actor. For starters, Russell was the pilot who reported the Phoenix Lights, a famous 1997 mass UFO sighting. “I was flying [his son Oliver Hudson] to go see his girlfriend, and we were on approach,” the actor revealed in a 2017 BBC interview. “I saw six lights over the airport in absolute uniform in a V shape. Oliver said to me — I was just looking at him, I was coming in, we're maybe a half a mile out — and Oliver said, ‘Pa, what are those lights?' He continued, “Then I kind of came out of my reverie and I said, ‘I don't know what they are.' He said, ‘Are we okay here?' And I said, ‘Yeah, I'm gonna call in,' and I reported it.” It wasn't until two years later when his partner, Goldie Hawn, was watching a TV show on UFOs, that he connected the dots between his own experience and the Phoenix Lights sightings. “I'm feeling like Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” he joked of the realization. For more fun facts about Russell — including his connection to Princess Diana — keep scrolling for his 25 Things feature from the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now: 1. Russell was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 17, 1951, though his family relocated to California when he was a child. 2. His dad, Bing Russell, was also an actor (with over 170 credits in his nearly 40-year career) and his mom, Louise Julia Russell, was a dancer. 3. Kurt made his film debut at just 12 years old with an uncredited part in It Happened at the World's Fair, in which he kicks Elvis Presley's pilot character in the leg. 4. Like his father before him, Kurt played two seasons of minor league baseball before a career-ending shoulder injury in 1973. 5. The actor has three sisters: Jill, Jamie and Jody. 6. He served with the 146th Tactical Airlift Wing in the California Air National Guard from 1969 to 1975. 7. Walt Disney predicted a “great acting future” for Kurt when he was just 15 years old. 8. In fact, the last words Disney is said to have ever written down before his death were “Kirt Russell,” slightly misspelling the actor's first name in a note about future projects. 9. Kurt turned down Star Wars to do the television western The Quest. 10. Kurt first met Hawn on the set of a Disney musical in 1966, though they didn't start dating until they collaborated on 1983's Swing Shift. 11. Before they got together, Kurt was married to Season Hubley, with whom he shares son Boston Russell, and Hawn was married to Gus Trinkonis and then to Bill Hudson, with whom she shares children Oliver and Kate Hudson. 12. Kurt raised Hawn's eldest kids, Oliver and Kate, for most of their lives. They call him “Pa.” 13. Kate named her son Ryder Russell Robinson after her stepdad's surname. 14. Kurt and Hawn welcomed their first child together, Wyatt Russell, in 1986. 15. Despite a decades-long romantic partnership, Hawn and Kurt have no desire to tie the knot. “A lasting relationship isn't about marriage,” Hawn said of their love in 2015. 16. After his debut role opposite Presley, Kurt played The King in the 1979 TV movie Elvis, which marked the start of his working relationship with filmmaker John Carpenter. 17. Their collaborations include Escape from New York (1981), The Thing (1982), Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and Escape from L.A. (1996). 18. In 2001's 3000 Miles to Graceland, Kurt played an Elvis impersonator. He also dubbed over an actor playing Presley in 1994's Forrest Gump. 19. Russell earned an Emmy nod for 1979's Elvis. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 1983 for the drama Silkwood. 20. Kevin Costner's role in Bull Durham, a 1988 baseball rom-com, was originally written for Kurt. 21. Kurt has been a licensed pilot since 1988, and he received the Aviation Mentor Award from fellow actor-pilot John Travolta in 2010. 22. In a 2017 interview, Kurt revealed he was the pilot who first reported the 1997 Phoenix Lights, one of the best-known UFO mass sightings, which he spotted while flying with son Oliver. You have successfully subscribed. By signing up, I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive emails from Us Weekly Check our latest news in Google News Check our latest news in Apple News 23. Kurt sat between the late Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles at the London premiere of his film Backdraft in 1991. 24. He later opened his Colorado ranch to Princess Diana and her sons, Harry and William, for a 10-day vacation away from paparazzi. 25. Kurt received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2017. You have successfully subscribed. By signing up, I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive emails from Us Weekly You have successfully subscribed. By signing up, I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive emails from Us Weekly Us Weekly has affiliate partnerships so we may receive compensation for some links to products and services. You have successfully subscribed. By signing up, I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive emails from Us Weekly Us Weekly is part of Part of the a360media Entertainment Group. © a360media 2026Powered by WordPress VIP By clicking Sign In, you agree to our Terms and Conditions and that you have read our Privacy Policy. Sign InUp with your social account We won't post to any of your accounts Your password must include: Sign InUp with your social account We won't post to any of your accounts Your password must include:","{'href': 'https://www.usmagazine.com', 'title': 'Us Weekly'}","other" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=uap","Trump's UFO release could include videos, photos of non-human craft proving we aren't alone: source","https://nypost.com/2026/03/14/us-news/trumps-ufo-release-could-include-videos-satellite-photos-of-non-human-craft-source/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:15:00 GMT"," Switch between CA and NY editions here. The federal government holds shocking evidence of UFOs which proves we are not alone — including satellite imagery of out-of-this world craft that look like nothing “we have built,” an expert with knowledge of the documents told The Post. The government's trove of UFO docs is massive and includes stunning photos and videos, according to Christopher Mellon, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense intelligence during the Clinton and Bush administrations. Publicly disclosing the information would take UFO discourse “to another level,” he added. Under President Trump's order two weeks ago, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth will direct the release of “files related to” aliens, UFOs, and “all other information connected to” the “highly complex” subject matter, the president wrote on Truth Social. Advertisement While the announcement spurred federal agencies, including the White House and the Pentagon, to scramble, there has been no official word on what will be released and when. The most compelling piece of data, Mellon claimed, are clear satellite photos of craft in space above the Earth that are obviously not manmade. “We have satellite imagery of craft that sure don't look like anything that we have built or constructed,” Mellon said. Those same convincing images of craft engaging in “actions that are difficult to explain” were referenced by ex-director of national intelligence and current CIA director John Ratcliffe in a 2021 Fox News interview. In 2017, Mellon played a key role in the release of three now famous US military radar images of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, or UAPs, referred to as the “Tic Tac,” “GOFAST,” and “Gimbal” — and he said there are more just like those on government hard drives. Advertisement The government now prefers the term “UAP,” or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, to “UFO.” “There's a significant number of videos from the same sources that were judged unclassified in 2018 — gun cameras on F18s, [Forward Looking Infrared Radar] videos — that have been withheld from the public,” he said. “I know there are because I've seen some of them,” said Mellon, adding, “And there's no rational reason that I can think of why those videos are being withheld.” Though some provocative images should be included in the release, Mellon said he has no expectation for files that confirm the existence of, or contact with, alien civilizations. Advertisement Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more. Please provide a valid email. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. The Department of War, the Department of National Intelligence, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Department of Energy, and the National Nuclear Security Administration all have UFO files that would be relevant to the Trump-ordered release, Mellon said. Releasing classified and sensitive materials is an “unnatural act” for intelligence agencies, he said. “I have a feeling bureaucracy is going to react slowly and I don't think they're gonna put the best stuff out quickly, if they do at all,” he said. “Congressional vigilance is needed to ensure a thorough and effective process.” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota), senior member of the Senate Armed Service Committee, who introduced the UAP Disclosure Act with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in 2023, is hoping for a broad release that ensures US military secrets are preserved. Advertisement Rounds hopes for “as much disclosure as we can get with regard to just being honest to the American people about what we see that we either don't know about or that we're learning about. “And I just want to make sure that whatever we put out, we do not impact our own national security capabilities.” Additional reporting by Geoff Earle ","{'href': 'https://nypost.com', 'title': 'New York Post'}","other" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=uap","US holds satellite images of UFO craft ‘not made by humans,' former Pentagon official claims","https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/us-holds-satellite-images-of-ufo-craft-not-made-by-humans-former-pentagon-official-claims/articleshow/129577829.cms","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 17:01:00 GMT"," At TOI World Desk, our dedicated team of seasoned journalists and passionate writers tirelessly sifts through the vast tapestry of global events to bring you the latest news and diverse perspectives round the clock. With an unwavering commitment to accuracy, depth, and timeliness, we strive to keep you informed about the ever-evolving world, delivering a nuanced understanding of international affairs to our readers. Join us on a journey across continents as we unravel the stories that shape our interconnected world.Read More","{'href': 'https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com', 'title': 'The Times of India'}","other" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=paranormal","'Undertone': Canadian paranormal podcast film is a contender for the scariest movie of the year","https://ca.news.yahoo.com/undertone-canadian-paranormal-podcast-film-is-a-contender-for-the-scariest-movie-of-the-year-052802010.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 05:31:00 GMT"," Manage your account In a packed movie theatre in Toronto, filmmaker Ian Tuason, writer and director of the newly released horror film Undertone (now in theatres), expressed his excitement to the audience that it's a ""coming home"" screening for the movie. Filmed in Toronto, specifically in Tuason's actual house, starring Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco and Michèle Duquet, this is easily one of the most unique horror films you'll see. Set around a paranormal podcast, Tuason's approach in this film doesn't rely on cheap shocks and unearned scares. Everything feels detailed, intentional and crafted for a particularly immersive viewing experience. In Undertone we meet Evy (Kiri), who's the co-host of a podcast with her friend Justin (DiMarco). Justin, who's living in London, is a believer in paranormal activity, while Evy, who moved into her mom's home to care for her dying mother, is a paranormal skeptic. As they begin recording a new episode, Justin shares an anonymous email containing 10 voice recordings, which they decide to include in the podcast. Someone named Mike (Jeff Yung) recorded his girlfriend, Jessa (Keana Lyn Bastidas), who's been talking in her sleep. But as Justin and Evy click through the clips, each recording gets progressively more haunting and sinister, and ends up having an unexpected impact on Evy. Paranormal activity, religious iconography, and a confined space are just a few of the classic horror elements used in Undertone. But what makes the film stand out isn't necessarily the broad story, but rather how Tuason presents it. A core piece of the puzzle is the film's sound, which is absolutely spectacular. It makes each moment feel incredibly unsettling and unnerving, while also making you feel like you can't escape the terror, because closing your eyes certainly won't help you in this movie. Another highlight is Kiri's performance, who's often the only person on-screen throughout this film. While the movie could have given us more details about Evy, or dive deeper into what her life is like outside of the podcast, Kiri's execution of the character is so bold, layered and dynamic that the audience can feel deeply connected to the character. For a movie that's just over 90 minutes, you do get a feeling of suffocation in this environment, struggling to get a breath, but it's satisfying for an insular horror story. Due to Tuason's skill, from someone who just wants to be spooked, to those who enjoy dissecting as much as they can in a film, from items in the background to possible influences for different shots and sequences, this movie delivers for everyone. There's also so much strength in what Tuason decides not to show in the movie that really makes the film work. It's not necessarily being scared by what we see, but being scared by what's sparked in our own minds at different points in the movie, which may be the most terrifying of all. Fear is a spectrum, but I suspect Undertone may be a film that will make some people sleep with a light on at night.","{'href': 'https://ca.news.yahoo.com', 'title': 'Yahoo News Canada'}","other" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=extraterrestrial","Something May Be Scrambling Alien Messages, NASA-Funded Research Finds","https://futurism.com/space/scrambling-alien-messages-nasa","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:15:00 GMT"," By Frank Landymore Published Mar 14, 2026 11:15 AM EDT Sign up to see the future, today If intelligent aliens are out there, why aren't we hearing from them? Are they silently observing us like zoo animals, or staying quiet out of fear that they'd catch the attention of a bloodthirsty civilization? Those are spooky Fermi paradox solutions to contemplate indeed. But if they're a little too sci-fi for your taste, new research funded by NASA from the SETI Institute provides a physics-based solution to this famous conundrum: bad “space weather.” The study, published in the The Astrophysical Journal, focuses on how potential extraterrestrial signals being beamed into the cosmos could be scrambled by common astronomical phenomena, like solar storms and plasma turbulence near an alien home world. These volatile events could broaden the narrow frequency of the potential alien signals, spreading them thin across multiple frequencies and making them nearly undetectable to most SETI searches, which focus on narrow bands. “If a signal gets broadened by its own star's environment, it can slip below our detection thresholds, even if it's there, potentially helping explain some of the radio silence we've seen in technosignature searches,” study lead author and SETI astronomer Vishal Gajjar said in a statement about the work. SETI efforts typically focus on narrowbands, which appear as spikes, because these signals aren't produced by natural phenomena. If a hypothetical alien civilization wanted to be noticed, the thinking went, they'd broadcast a message this way. But once a signal is sent, it's at the mercy of the cosmos. It may have to travel thousands if not millions of light years before falling on intelligent ears, during which it could run into countless obstacles. This research, however, focused on the likelihood of aliens encountering uncooperative “space weather” near their planet. As such, the astronomers studied how radio transmissions between our own spacecraft and Earth are jumbled by solar activity, including the solar wind and the star's violent outbursts like coronal mass ejections. After quantifying its effects, they extrapolated how it might affect signals coming from systems containing either a Sun-like star or a red dwarf star, the most common type of star in the Milky Way. In simulations, the team found that 70 percent of stars can cause broadening of more than 1 Hz, and 30 percent of stars can broaden signals more than 10 Hz. If in the unlikely possibility that the Sun decides to have a coronal mass ejection during a techosignature observation, the researchers also found, it could broaden signals by more than 1,000 Hz. The upshot, the researchers say, is that SETI researchers should consider broadening their horizons a little bit, and observe at higher radio frequencies where the broadening is less powerful. “By quantifying how stellar activity can reshape narrowband signals, we can design searches that are better matched to what actually arrives at Earth, not just what might be transmitted,” said coauthor Grayce C. Brown, a research assistant at the SETI institute, in the statement. More on aliens: Anonymous Kalshi User Makes Huge Bet That the White House Is About to Confirm Alien Life or Technology I'm a tech and science correspondent for Futurism, where I'm particularly interested in astrophysics, the business and ethics of artificial intelligence and automation, and the environment. By Victor Tangermann By Victor Tangermann By Victor Tangermann By Joe Wilkins By Victor Tangermann By Victor Tangermann By Frank Landymore By Frank Landymore By Frank Landymore By Victor Tangermann By Victor Tangermann By Victor Tangermann By Frank Landymore By Victor Tangermann By Victor Tangermann By Noor Al-Sibai By Noor Al-Sibai By Victor Tangermann By Jon Christian By Victor Tangermann By Kristin Houser By Victor Tangermann By Tony Ho Tran By Lonnie Lee Hood By Dan Robitzski By Victor Tangermann By Victor Tangermann By Sarah Marquart By Kristin Houser Disclaimer(s) Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service. © 2026 Recurrent. All rights reserved. ","{'href': 'https://futurism.com', 'title': 'Futurism'}","other" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=extraterrestrial","Steven Spielberg drops bombshell at SXSW: ‘We're not alone'","https://artthreat.net/8171-97848-steven-spielberg-drops-bombshell-at-sxsw-we-re-not-alone/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:59:58 GMT"," Steven Spielberg ignited SXSW earlier today with an electrifying declaration on extraterrestrial life. The legendary filmmaker stated he has a strong suspicion we are not alone on Earth right now. He made these stunning comments while promoting his upcoming alien thriller Disclosure Day, arriving June 12. The 79-year-old filmmaker has spent decades exploring extraterrestrial themes in cinema. At the SXSW Film Festival today, he finally articulated his personal conviction. “I don't know any more than any of you do”, Spielberg explained, “but I have a very strong sneaking suspicion that we are not alone here on Earth right now.” He emphasized this belief has remained constant since childhood. The timing of his remarks amplifies excitement for Disclosure Day's cinematic exploration of first contact. Spielberg's comments were reinvigorated by multiple real-world developments. A 2017 New York Times exposé about secret government UFO tracking programs sparked his imagination. Additionally, congressional hearings in 2023 featuring government whistleblowers discussing unidentified aerial phenomena heightened his conviction. He admitted with comedic frustration that despite making Close Encounters, he has never experienced a UFO sighting himself. Spielberg wanted to make Close Encounters of the Third Kind before even creating Jaws in 1975. Studios rejected the concept because it seemed “on the fringes of science and mythology.” When Spielberg pitched a UFO movie, executives thought he wanted to make National Enquirer tabloid content. The cultural landscape has transformed dramatically since then. Today's mainstream acceptance of UFO discussions in government and media validates Spielberg's decades-long artistic vision about humanity's place in the cosmos. “I have a very strong suspicion that we are not alone here on Earth right now, and I made a movie about that.” — Steven Spielberg, Director The film examines humanity's psychological response to confirmed extraterrestrial existence. Spielberg emphasized that discovering decades-long alien interaction would trigger massive theological and social disruption. He stated these revelations would “cause a disruption in a lot of belief systems.” However, he optimistically asserts this disruption “is not lethal at all.” The movie balances this philosophical weight with Spielberg's characteristic optimism about human resilience. His artistic approach treats the subject with gravity and humanity, avoiding sensationalism. Unlike his classic friendly-alien films like E.T., Disclosure Day adopts a darker, thriller tone. The story follows global panic when undeniable proof of aliens becomes public knowledge. Spielberg intentionally designed the narrative to explore sociological consequences rather than simple spectacle. The cast of acclaimed actors brings dramatic weight to the material. Early promotional materials reveal ominous imagery and unsettling sounds, suggesting a more serious treatment than typical alien blockbusters. Knowing Spielberg genuinely believes we share Earth with extraterrestrial life adds profound weight to his directorial choices. The filmmaker's personal conviction transforms Disclosure Day from entertainment into philosophical statement. His childhood belief in alien existence now manifests as a major Hollywood production starring Oscar-caliber performers. When audiences experience the film, they'll witness a visionary director exploring his deepest cosmic convictions. This authenticity could resonate deeply with viewers questioning humanity's place in the universe. Spielberg's willingness to publicly state his beliefs demonstrates artistic courage in an era of entertainment cynicism. Be the first to rate this postor leave a detailed review Alexander Woodward is an entertainment journalist and news reporter at Art Threat, specializing in breaking coverage of the American entertainment industry. His reporting spans celebrity news, music announcements, film and television developments, and the cultural moments capturing national attention. Alexander brings a commitment to accurate, timely reporting that helps readers stay ahead of the conversation. From award show coverage to exclusive industry updates, his work reflects a deep understanding of the trends and stories that resonate with today's audiences. Based in the NYC, Alexander contributes daily news coverage to Art Threat's entertainment section. Art Threat is an independent media. Support us by adding us to your Google News favorites: Comment Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. @ 2026 | All rights reserved | Art Threat","{'href': 'https://artthreat.net', 'title': 'artthreat.net'}","other" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=Supernatural","Even If Supernatural Returns, Its Best Episode Can Never Be Topped","https://screenrant.com/supernatural-best-episode-never-beaten-french-mistake/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:01:18 GMT"," Memory Ngulube joined Screen Rant in April 2024 as part of the Movies and TV team. Since then, she has written for the Perennials and Streaming team, covering a wide range of topics from new releases to old movies and TV shows. Memory is currently a Classic TV writer. Before joining Screen Rant, Memory was a freelance copywriter who specialized in email marketing and social media management. While she enjoyed her job, her true passion was always movies and TV. When she isn't writing for Screen Rant, Memory can be found reading, baking (which is one of her passions), or watching her favorite K-drama. Supernatural has a top-tier episode that is impossible to match, even if the show were to return to the small screen. With Supernatural's 15 seasons, the CW fantasy series is one of the longest-running TV shows in the genre and has earned the adoration of its fanbase. Like with many great fantasy shows from the early 2000s, the question of whether a reboot might happen has been asked many times. Supernatural's use of a procedural style as part of its formula has cemented its place as a unique fantasy show that has an enduring appeal, though with a total of 327 episodes, not all of them are memorable. However, for many, one installment in the show's sixth season reigns supreme. It can be agreed that the CW fantasy series' premise of two brothers fighting against demons has produced some unforgettable scenes. However, no Supernatural episodehas been as inventive as season 6, episode 15, “The French Mistake.” The episode in question sees the Winchesters in an alternate reality where they are part of a TV show called Supernatural after Balthazar banishes them there. To Dean and Sam's utter surprise, their life as they know it isn't real in that alternate universe. Instead, they are just two actors playing a part and sticking to a script. Breaking the fourth wall was indeed a risky move, but “The French Mistake” doesn't forget that it's a Supernatural episode, however meta, and it retains the identity that viewers have come to love about the show. Supernatural, though dark, is a funny series. Dean and Sam's bickering adds to the show's lightheartedness, which “The French Mistake” doesn't forget. The inclusion of the show's director, Robert Singer, and showrunner, Eric Kripke, is a form of humor that Supernatural had not yet explored during its run. The greatest part about “The French Mistake” is how Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Misha Collins, and the rest of the Supernatural crew took the bit seriously enough to pull it off and make ""The French Mistake"" not only entertaining but believable. Seeing Ackles and Padalecki fumbling through their lines and showcasing some truly bad acting was the cherry on top of the episode. It's worth noting that “The French Mistake” isn't just a great Supernatural episode — it is, in many ways, a love letter to fans of the show. So it's no surprise that most members of the Supernatural cast view it as their favorite episode (via Entertainment Weekly). The Supernatural trio, Padalecki, Collins, and Ackles, will be reuniting in The Boys season 5, and it has understandably caused the show's fanbase to feel nostalgic. Although Supernatural concluded six years ago, the series remains popular, and fans would be delighted to see it return to the small screen. While watching Dean and Sam battle demons and angels again will be great, the challenge of being better than “The French Mistake” is one that is difficult to overcome. For one, expectations would undoubtedly be high for a Supernatural reunion, and this sometimes leads to fans being disappointed if they don't get what they thought would be a perfect series. “The French Mistake” might not be the most action-packed or emotional episode of Supernatural, but it wasn't meant to be. The way it elevated the quirky and sometimes absurd show by having a somewhat inward look at its production is its best feature. Ackles and Padalecki have repeatedly expressed interest in a Supernatural reboot, whatever that may look like. So it could be argued that whatever form the series may return in, it doesn't necessarily have to try to outdo “The French Mistake.” If a reunion maintains Supernatural's impeccable storytelling, action, and brotherly love, then the show's legacy will remain untarnished. Source: Entertainment Weekly We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful. Your comment has not been saved This thread is open for discussion. Be the first to post your thoughts. ","{'href': 'https://screenrant.com', 'title': 'Screen Rant'}","other" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=Supernatural","NEVER AFTER DARK Review: Supernatural Horror Bends Time For a Haunting Ghost Story [SXSW 2026]","https://nofspodcast.com/never-after-dark-review-ghost-story-sxsw-2026","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:57:06 GMT"," Heads up horror fans! We officially have the first great ghost story of the year thanks to the super spooky and deviously clever Never After Dark. And good luck to any other ghost story scheduled to come out in 2026 because they are going up against some stiff competition. This chilling supernatural horror bends time, fuses reality, and features a gnarly violent spirit hellbent on strangling the life out of a medium in the quiet countryside of rural Japan. Celebrating its World Premiere at the 2026 SXSW Film Festival, Never After Dark walks between the living world and the afterlife to explore the life cycle of a restless spirit haunting an isolated country home. Written and directed by House of Ninja‘s creator Dave Boyle, Never After Dark stars Moeka Hoshi (Shogun) as Airi, a gifted psychic that specializes in helping lost spirits break their cycle of torment and move on to the next plain of existence. Naturally, Airi and her secret ghost assistant get more than they bargained for when they encounter a disturbing spirit slamming doors, pacing the halls, and bumming people out with its gruesome appearance. Mutsuo Yoshioka, who recently haunted every damn frame of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Chime (2024), stars as Never After Dark‘s grizzly ghost. His presence is the engine that drives the poltergeist activity of the home, but his story isn't as cut and dry as Airi is used to, and the mystery surrounding his existence draws her in immediately. As she unearths the gory details surrounding his death, she unknowingly puts herself in harm's way, and Yoshioka wields his character's persona like a black hole of danger and despair. Never After Dark adopts the time loop theory of ghosts where the spirits are trapped in the repetition of moments so powerful (or traumatic) that they carry them out over and over for eternity. Exactly how is plays with that familiar trope is its secret weapon, and Boyle builds a clever story around a handful of fully fleshed characters whose backstories attack that time loop template from all angles. It also features a pretty rad hypnosis sequence when Airi enters the ghost realm, which is just pure ghost cat nip for this here reviewer. If Never After Dark (releasing to Japanese theatres later this summer) is setting the bar for supernatural horror in 2026, we are in for one hell of a year. Boyle takes a classic haunted house setup and warps it into something fresh in the paranormal space with this time-bending nightmare and its haunting atmosphere. It is exactly the kind of creepy, late-night discovery you hope to stumble into with a festival's Midnight program and one you should absolutely put on your Letterboxd watchlist right now. So long as you like spooky stories, commanding performances, and nightmare ghost logic. And if you made it all the way down here, I already know you do. Dave Boyle's Never After Dark celebrated its World Premiere at the 2026 SXSW Film Fest. Click HERE to follow our continued coverage of the festival, and let us know if you've ever seen a ghost (seriously! we want to know) over in the Nightmare on Film Street Discord. Social Media is A Cesspool. Come Hang With The Cool Creeps. ","{'href': 'https://nofspodcast.com', 'title': 'Nightmare on Film Street'}","other" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=Psychic","‘I am a psychic and people need to buy a generator to power their homes now'","https://www.aol.com/articles/am-psychic-people-buy-generator-140000732.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:02:06 GMT"," Advertisement For premium support please call: For premium support please call: With US politics becoming more erratic and Trump's decisions swaying huge worldwide events, it's hard to know what's on the horizon – so one psychic has forecast it for us, and her predictions aren't all positive. In fact, her visions for what the rest of 2026 might bring for the United States see a lot of change and ""civil unrest."" The psychic and medium has harnessed her skills for over 10 years and, using her special skills to see into the future, has given a forecast on political and special affairs. One of which could directly affect every household in the U.S. Karoline Leavitt lashes out at ABC but it backfires massively Donald Trump turns Iran war into 'nightmare' by making 'disaster' move Known as Psychic Kelli online, she had a fair few predictions for the state of the country, one of which included electricity and energy in homes. @psychickelli on TikTok told her followers: ""I think there's going to be either a nationwide or even a statewide power outage. And I think they'll have a really lame excuse for it too."" She added: ""So, if you've been thinking about getting a generator, it might be a good time."" Joining her in this theory is Athos Salomé, a mystic whose accurate predictions have dubbed him as the modern 'Nostradamus.' He told the Express that in 2026 we can expect to see a huge solar storm, which could result in a large-scale power outage. Advertisement Woolly mammoths will be back in 2028, how you could live to 200, alien signals lost in the weather, could we fight Godzilla, and a creature with 20 arms has been found near the Antarctic - all this and more in our latest weird science newsletter The out-of-the-blue explosion of particles, energy, magnetic fields and other material being blasted into the solar system comes from the sun and has major repercussions. He thinks this could impact a global power outage while also damaging electrical systems across the world. The psychic told Salomé, ""My direct and objective perspective is as follows: solar storms now seem like the most plausible scenario to have such an immediate impact on daily life, and backed by robust science. ""This deserves full focus. Not out of fear, but rather due to measurable signals in synchrony with potential power cuts, communication failures and technological disruptions in affected regions."" Kelli's predictions were also nothing short of extreme, with most suggesting monumental outcomes, including those relating to the president's health. She claims that she sees Trump falling in, quite literally by falling and bumping his head. She further explained that the health issue will result in hospitalization, and we will see JD Vance step up as president in his short absence. Taking her prediction further, the psychic goes as far as to forecast when she thinks this will happen - claiming August 12 as the date to remember this year. According to her, this time aligns with when a solar eclipse is within Leo, which can bring sudden revelations about people in charge. She further explains that this can be interpreted as shedding light on ""those who deserve authority and those who can no longer be trusted."" The psychic said: ""This is because pride, ego, and image are absolutely going to be tested."" Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement","{'href': 'https://www.aol.com', 'title': 'AOL.com'}","other" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:taipeitimes.com","Taiwan men, women defend 600kg, 500kg world indoor tug of war titles","https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/03/15/2003853855","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:00:00 GMT"," Taiwan's men's and women's teams successfully defended their 600-kilogram and 500-kg titles, respectively, at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. The eight-man squad, which secured its first-ever title in the event in 2024, clinched back-to-back championships at Taipei Arena by sweeping the Netherlands 2-0 in the final. The team remained undefeated throughout the tournament, not dropping a single set en route to gold. This marks the first time the prestigious tournament has been held in Taiwan. Photo: CNA Chen Chien-wen (陳建文), the team's coach, said the squad extended its preparation period from eight months to a full year to defend the title on home soil. As part of its preparation, the team collectively lost more than 100 kg in the two months leading up to the official weigh-in to meet the weight limit, only to regain 70 kg in the following three days to maximize its power for the competition, according to Chen. Also on Saturday, Taiwan's women's team clinched its fourth consecutive title in the 500kg category. Photo: CNA Competing against teams from Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and the Basque Country, Taiwan finished the round-robin preliminary stage with a perfect record. The Taiwanese squad then defeated Thailand in the semifinals before securing the title with a straight-sets victory (2-0) over the Basque Country in the final. Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan's first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan's first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington's intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers' awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver's license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau's reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling ","{'href': 'https://www.taipeitimes.com', 'title': 'Taipei Times'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:dw.com","News and current affairs from Germany and around the world","https://www.dw.com/en/top-stories/s-9097","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:20:06 GMT"," Fighting has erupted in Iran and the Middle East after Israel and the US attacked the country, following a US military build-up in the region. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video","{'href': 'https://www.dw.com', 'title': 'dw.com'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:telegraph.co.uk/us","Donald Trump sends military to open Strait of Hormuz by force","https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2026/03/13/trump-sends-military-to-open-strait-of-hormuz-by-force/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 01:21:00 GMT"," President deploys marine unit that could put boots on the ground to secure key route for oil Copy link twitter facebook whatsapp email Copy link twitter facebook whatsapp email Copy link twitter facebook whatsapp email Copy link twitter facebook whatsapp email Donald Trump is sending US marines to the Middle East to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as concerns grow that rising oil prices could cause a global recession. The president ordered a warship carrying an expeditionary unit that could lead to boots on the ground in Iran. Mr Trump pledged that US forces would hit the Iranian regime “very hard” over the next week and added that the war with Tehran would end “when I feel it in my bones”. More tankers came under fire from Iranian forces on Friday after the new supreme leader pledged to keep the strait closed until attacks on Iran stopped. Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, insisted to reporters that they “don't need to worry about” the strait. It was “something we are dealing with”, he said. US officials confirmed on Friday that the USS Tripoli had already departed from Okinawa, Japan, with 5,000 sailors and a Marine Amphibious Ready Group, the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. The expeditionary unit is capable of carrying out special air and surface operations and has landing force capabilities, but is unlikely to arrive for another two weeks. The marines and the new warship will join the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Gerald R Ford, which are already in the region. Iran has said it is mining the Strait of Hormuz, through which some 20 per cent of the world's oil passes. Emmanuel Macron is in talks with Iran to allow French ships through the strait, according to reports. The talks were part of European efforts, the Financial Times reported. Britain is not understood to be talking to the regime. Oil prices topped $119 a barrel this week but settled to $100 a barrel by Friday. Analysts fear costs could surge to around $150, overtaking the price peak of the 2008 financial crisis. Goldman Sachs said the risk of a US recession had now risen to one in four as it forecast the energy shock would push up inflation. The US eased sanctions on Russian oil on Thursday night to help ease prices, prompting a split with the UK. “It's obviously a decision for the US, but our position is clear. All partners should maintain pressure on Russia and its war chest,” a spokesman for Sir Keir Starmer told reporters on Friday. Military analysts said reopening the strategic shipping lane may require a ground operation, according to the Wall Street Journal. It is likely that such an operation would lead to much higher casualties among US and allied forces. “It is a tactically complex environment and before we take anything through, we want to be sure,” General Dan Caine, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said at the Pentagon briefing on Friday. Some have suggested that Mr Trump could move to seize Kharg Island, a vital Iranian oil hub which on Friday was attacked by the US military. In a post on Truth Social, the US president said forces had “totally obliterated” military targets on the island. He also threatened to target the island's oil infrastructure if the Iranian regime continues to “interfere” with ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz nearby. “The United States Central Command executed one of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East, and totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran's crown jewel, Kharg Island,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island. However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider.” Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's new supreme leader, vowed on Thursday to keep the strait closed as a “tool to pressure the enemy”. The US has been under pressure to escort tankers through the strait, but so far, the navy has considered that too dangerous. Chris Wright, the US energy secretary, told CNBC on Thursday that it was “quite likely” the navy would be escorting tankers by the end of the month. “It'll happen relatively soon but it can't happen now. We're simply not ready. All of our military assets right now are focused on destroying Iran's offensive capabilities and the manufacturing industry that supplies their offensive capabilities,” he said. Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, told Sky News on Thursday that escorts would begin “as soon as it is militarily possible”. He suggested these escorts could be carried out by the US navy or with “an international coalition”. Meanwhile, Mr Hegseth also claimed on Friday that Iran's new supreme leader was “wounded and likely disfigured” by recent strikes on Iran. “Desperate and hiding, they have gone underground, cowering. That's what rats do,” he said. It came after Mr Khamenei's first official message as leader was delivered via a newsreader on Thursday. Moments later, Iranian state TV showed members of Iran's leadership marching through the streets of Tehran in defiance of Mr Trump, stopping for selfies along the way. On Friday, the US announced that six crew members were killed on board a refuelling tanker that crashed in Iraq on Thursday night. The incident brings the US death toll to 11. Copy link twitter facebook whatsapp email","{'href': 'https://www.telegraph.co.uk', 'title': 'The Telegraph'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:taipeitimes.com","The Iran war has one clear regional winner","https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2026/03/15/2003853827","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:00:00 GMT"," With the world reverberating to the risks of an oil-price shock, Latin America is actually poised to advance its geopolitical position. If it wants to capitalize on this moment, it needs to sharpen its collective bargaining power, set aside its ideological divisions and bolster domestic policy, particularly on crime and insecurity. A report by Goldman Sachs Group Inc said that Latin America is one of the few parts of the world where persistently higher oil prices could translate into stronger economic growth. The impact would not be uniform: Large net exporters such as Brazil, Guyana or Colombia stand to benefit far more than major importers of fuel and natural gas like Mexico or Chile. Food and gasoline price pressures could still trigger social unrest and force governments to expand subsidies amid fiscal constraints. And to be sure, a world of heightened financial volatility is rarely kind to emerging markets. Illustration: Constance Chou Still, the conflict arrives at a time when Latin America's macroeconomic foundations are far more resilient than in past decades. Inflation has largely returned to low single digits and is expected to be only marginally affected by increasing crude prices. Labor markets remain solid, and central banks hold sizable international reserves amid strong investor confidence and prudent monetary policy. The depreciation that Latin American currencies have experienced in recent days as tensions have escalated merely reverses a small portion of the substantial gains recorded over the last year. Even Argentina, historically the weakest link during bouts of global volatility but now a net energy exporter, stands to receive a hard-currency windfall from the oil spike and higher agriculture prices. Its fiscal surplus also gives the government a financial cushion it lacked a few years ago. More broadly, the dramatic images of missiles targeting several Gulf countries, a reminder of the conflict in Europe after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, highlight Latin America's enduring value as a region of relative peace, strategic geography and abundant resources. This continent of roughly 670 million people, already the focus of a great-power rivalry, is becoming even more important for trade partners seeking key commodities, multinationals looking to build shorter and more reliable supply chains to the US and institutional investors searching for the next generation of large projects to finance. Think of it in real-estate terms: If the world were a conflict-ridden megalopolis, the relatively calm and disconnected Latin American neighborhood would suddenly appreciate in value. And that is even before considering more extreme scenarios (in the event of a World War III, you would likely find me safe in the solitude of Mendoza.) Proof of that benign isolation is the minimal logistics and airspace disruption the region has experienced so far during the Iran conflict. That said, Latin American policymakers and strategists should weigh their region's advantages carefully. The region has missed seemingly unmissable opportunities before, from the wave of post-Soviet economic globalization to the commodity super-cycle of the early 2000s. The key to avoiding another lost moment requires thinking about the value of Latin America as a whole. Instead of being consumed by a polarizing left-right divide, governments should work pragmatically to raise the value of their shared neighborhood, boosting intra-regional trade, integrating energy markets, building common infrastructure and improving democratic institutions. Maintaining close ties with the US is important: There are many shared threats and opportunities, including cooperation against organized crime and narcotrafficking, perhaps the most urgent concern among Latin American voters today. US-driven political shifts in Venezuela and the possibility of a transition in Cuba could also open space for more practical leaderships. Yet regional leaders should not be naive or overly credulous: Washington would understandably pursue its own interests in what it considers its sphere of influence, and those interests do not necessarily align with those of individual Latin American nations, particularly with a White House that flip-flops as quickly as this one. The pompous “Shield of the Americas” summit hosted by US President Donald Trump at his golf club near Miami over the weekend was a clumsy attempt to divide the region between friends and foes. As tempting as ideological purity might be, any regional effort that excludes Brazil, Mexico and Colombia is bound to fail and ultimately weakens Latin America's strategic hand. The political shift to the right might indeed produce more investment-friendly policies — Morgan Stanley described as a Latin American “spring.” However, full ideological alignment across more than 30 countries is a chimera. The real convergence should be around something simpler: enlarging the region's economic pie through dialogue and cooperation. Furthermore, the US confrontation with Iran might soon reduce the extraordinary attention that Washington has lavished on Latin America. And even as the US pushes to curb China's influence, Trump is heading to Beijing this month with a long list of unfinished bilateral business. Latin American leaders should wake up and smell the realpolitik coffee: Interests, particularly among neighbors, should prevail over ideology. Latin America's current moment might have a short shelf life. Francisco de Santibanes, president of Buenos Aires-based international relations think tank CARI, warns that as US-China competition deepens, it would become harder for the region to balance economic and geopolitical interests. “Today we can implement this strategy and it's working; my concern is the evolution of the US-China conflict in three or four years,” he said. “Beyond differences, there must be an agreement that Latin America remains a place of peace. And for that, diplomacy is key.” In an increasingly fragmented and dangerous world, Latin America holds several winning cards. This time, it should play them wisely. JP Spinetto is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Latin American business, economic affairs and politics. He was previously Bloomberg News' managing editor for economics and government in the region. This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. The conflict in the Middle East has been disrupting financial markets, raising concerns about rising inflationary pressures and global economic growth. One market that some investors are particularly worried about has not been heavily covered in the news: the private credit market. Even before the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, global capital markets had faced growing structural pressure — the deteriorating funding conditions in the private credit market. The private credit market is where companies borrow funds directly from nonbank financial institutions such as asset management companies, insurance companies and private lending platforms. Its popularity has risen since The Donald Trump administration's approach to China broadly, and to cross-Strait relations in particular, remains a conundrum. The 2025 US National Security Strategy prioritized the defense of Taiwan in a way that surprised some observers of the Trump administration: “Deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority.” Two months later, Taiwan went entirely unmentioned in the US National Defense Strategy, as did military overmatch vis-a-vis China, giving renewed cause for concern. How to interpret these varying statements remains an open question. In both documents, the Indo-Pacific is listed as a second priority behind homeland defense and In an op-ed published in Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said that Taiwan should not have to choose between aligning with Beijing or Washington, and advocated for cooperation with Beijing under the so-called “1992 consensus” as a form of “strategic ambiguity.” However, Cheng has either misunderstood the geopolitical reality and chosen appeasement, or is trying to fool an international audience with her doublespeak; nonetheless, it risks sending the wrong message to Taiwan's democratic allies and partners. Cheng stressed that “Taiwan does not have to choose,” as while Beijing and Washington compete, Taiwan is strongest when US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) are expected to meet this month in Paris to prepare for a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). According to media reports, the two sides would discuss issues such as the potential purchase of Boeing aircraft by China, increasing imports of US soybeans and the latest impacts of Trump's reciprocal tariffs. However, recent US military action against Iran has added uncertainty to the Trump-Xi summit. Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) called the joint US-Israeli airstrikes and the ","{'href': 'https://www.taipeitimes.com', 'title': 'Taipei Times'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:taipeitimes.com","On the road again","https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2026/03/15/2003853865","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:00:00 GMT"," Snow geese take off to resume their northern migration after a stopover at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Kleinfeltersville, Pennsylvania, on Friday. Photo: AP ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology's potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world's largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the telephone at Ron Hubbard's bomb shelter company in Texas has not stopped ringing. Foreign and US clients are rushing to buy his bunkers, seeking refuge in case of air raids, nuclear fallout or apocalypse. With the US and Israel pounding Iran, and Tehran retaliating with strikes across the region, Hubbard has seen demand for his product soar, mostly from Gulf nation customers in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. “You can imagine how many people are thinking: ‘I wish I had a bomb shelter,'” Hubbard, 63, said in STILL IN POWER: US intelligence reports showed that the Iranian regime is not in danger of collapse and retains control of the public, casting doubt on Trump's exit Nearly every US Senate Democrat on Wednesday signed a letter sent to US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth requesting a “swift investigation” of airstrikes on a girls' school in Iran that killed scores of children and any other potential US military actions causing civilian harm. Reuters reported on Thursday last week that US military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for the Feb. 28 strike on the school, as US and Israeli forces launched attacks on Iran. “The results of this school attack are horrific. The majority of those killed in the strikes were girls between the ages ","{'href': 'https://www.taipeitimes.com', 'title': 'Taipei Times'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=world+news+site:dw.com","Iran war: US strikes key oil export hub, Trump says","https://www.dw.com/en/war-in-iran-developments-saturday-march-14/live-76356584","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:51:49 GMT"," US President Donald Trump claimed ""many countries"" along with the US will send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. Iran threatened retaliation if its oil infrastructure is attacked. DW has the latest. Here is a roundup of the main developments in the US-Israeli war with Iran on Saturday, March 14: Iranian media reported that 15 people were killed in a missile strike on a factory in the city of Isfahan. The semi-official Fars news agency blamed the US and Israel for the attack. The agency said the facility produces heaters and refrigerators and that employees were inside the building at the time of the strike. Neither Israel or the US have yet commented on the attack. US President Donald Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, said ""many countries"" along with the US will send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz ""open and safe."" Trump said he wants China, France, Japan, South Korea and the UK to dispatch ships to the region. ""In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the h--- out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian boats and ships out of the water,"" the president said. The Strait of Hormuz, between Iran and Oman, allows oil and natural gas tankers to leave the UAE, Qatar and other energy-rich countries and sail to other regions such as East Asia. Tankers moving through the Strait in recent days have faced attacks with Iran threatening ships amid the ongoing US-Israeli campaign. Countries such as China, India, Pakistan South Korea and Japan could face major disruption to their economies if disruption continues. Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel and Lebanon were expected to hold direct talks in the coming days, their first since the outbreak of the Iran war that drew Lebanon deeper into the conflict. The newspaper cited sources familiar with the matter. The report said Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, would be involved in the talks, which may take place in Paris or Cyprus. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's close ally Ron Dermer is expected to lead the Israeli delegation. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says diplomatic channels remain open to end the war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, urging stronger international support for Lebanon. Speaking during a visit to Beirut, Guterres said there is ""no military solution, only diplomacy, dialogue and full implementation of the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions."" He added that diplomatic avenues remain available through the UN's special coordinator for Lebanon and key member states. ""My message to the international community is simply step up your engagement, empower the Lebanese state and support the Lebanese Armed Forces to secure the capabilities and resources they need,"" he added. Lebanon's Health Ministry says Israeli strikes have killed at least 826 people since March 2. The ministry said the dead include 65 women and 106 children, while another 2,009 people have been wounded. A statement added that 31 paramedics were among those killed, after the bodies of additional health workers were recovered following an overnight strike authorities said hit a healthcare centre in southern Lebanon. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would attack the facilities of US companies in the Middle East if Washington targets Iranian energy infrastructure. Araghchi was cited by state media as saying that Iran would exercise caution and avoid targeting populated areas. Earlier on Saturday, the United States said it had hit military targets on Kharg Island, Iran's main oil export hub. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said that the strikes had caused no damage to oil infrastructure. US President Donald Trump has threatened to hit Iranian oil infrastructure unless Tehran stops blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a major passage for oil deliveries. The war between the US and Iran has sent global oil prices skyrocketing. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video US President Donald Trump says a group of refueling tanker planes hit in an attack on a base in Saudi Arabia suffered ""virtually no damage."" In a post on Truth Social, Trump said four aircraft were already back in service and that a fifth had only slightly more damage and would return to the air shortly. Trump criticized US media reports, including a Wall Street Journal article that said Iranian strikes had damaged five of the planes on the ground at Prince Sultan Air Base. The Journal reported that no casualties occurred and that the aircraft were undergoing repairs. Here's the latest on the war in Iran on Saturday, March 14: To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on Saturday said attacking US military facilities in the United Arab Emirates was Tehran's ""legitimate right."" It named US missile launch sites in ""ports, docks and hideouts"" in the UAE as potential targets. US troops stationed in cities could also be subject to Iranian attack, it said, urging residents near sites that could be in danger of attack to seek safety. The comments, made by an IRGC spokesman quoted by the Fars news agency, which is closely linked to the paramilitary force, come after the US struck Iran's main oil transit hub on Kharg Island. Debris from an intercepted Iranian drone hit a large oil storage and export terminal in the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, causing a large fire but no casualties, the city's media office said. It said firefighters were working to extinguish the blaze. Some oil loading operations were suspended. The incident came shortly after Iran's military warned UAE civilians to stay away from port areas. It's the second time the port has been hit since the outbreak of the war. Iran has ‌reportedly allowed two Indian-flagged liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers to ​sail through the ​Strait of Hormuz in a rare exception to a blockade affecting other vessels. Indian media reported on Friday that Iran had given permission for the transit, citing Iranian officials, while Tehran's ambassador to India, Mohammad Fathali, confirmed the fact on Saturday. An Indian government official named the two vessels as the Shivalik and the Nanda Devi. The permission to transit came shortly after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks by phone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, the first between the two since the current Iran war began. Modi said on X that he had discussed the ""safety and security of Indian citizens"" and the ""need for uninterrupted flow of goods and energy"" with Pezeshkian. Tehran has largely stopped traffic moving through the strait, which is a transport route for some 20% of global oil and seaborne LPG, since the US and Israel launched their offensive against Iran on February 28. French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday said Lebanon was open to holding ""direct talks"" with Israel and offered to host such negotiations in Paris. ""The Lebanese government has signalled its willingness to engage in direct talks with Israel,"" he said on X. He called on Israel to ""seize this opportunity ‌to launch ​ceasefire discussions, to find a lasting solution and to ​allow the Lebanese authorities to put in ⁠place their ​engagements for Lebanon's ​sovereignty."" ""France is ready to facilitate these talks by hosting them in Paris,"" Macron said, adding he had spoken to the president and prime minister of Lebanon. ""Everything must be done to ⁠stop ​Lebanon from descending into chaos,"" he said, while urging Israel and Hezbollah to stop their hostilities. The Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah entered the current Middle East conflict in early March, firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Iran as it came under attack from the US and Israel. Israel has responded with strikes in Lebanon that have killed hundreds of people and displaced hundreds of thousands more. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The US and Israel launched a massive assault on Iran on February 28, triggering a conflict that has since widened to include numerous other countries in the region. Reports indicate that the war has so far killed up to 3,000 people in Iran, Lebanon and Israel, disrupted transport across the region and sent oil prices spiralling upward. Here is a summary of some of the key events in the conflict so far. February 28: March 1: March 2: March 3: March 4: March 8: March 13: The current conflict between the US and Iran has developed from decades of troubled relations between the two countries, starting with a US-British-engineered coup that deposed Iran's elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, in 1953. DW journalist Peter Hille gives this account of three seminal events that go some way to explain the long-standing animosity between the two nations: US vs. Iran: Three generations of conflict Lebanon's Health Ministry said on Saturday that an Israeli airstrike in the south has killed 12 medical staff at a primary health care center. It said doctors, nurses and paramedics were killed in the strike, while another health care worker was injured. ""Such attacks contradict international humanitarian laws protecting medical personnel,"" the ministry said, adding that it was the second attack on the country's health sector within hours, citing an earlier strike that killed two paramedics in the town of al-Sawwaneh. The center hit in the more recent attack belongs to the Islamic Health Society, which is affiliated with the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah. The ministry said the death toll could rise, as rescue operations were ongoing at the site. The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.","{'href': 'https://www.dw.com', 'title': 'dw.com'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:theepochtimes.com","Trump: Iranians Face ‘Big Hurdle' in Overthrowing Regime","https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/trump-iranians-face-big-hurdle-in-overthrowing-regime-5998769","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:05:24 GMT"," President Donald Trump said Iranians who wish to overthrow their government face a considerable challenge from the regime, which quashes protesters with violence, calling it a “big hurdle” as the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran's military infrastructure escalate.","{'href': 'https://www.theepochtimes.com', 'title': 'theepochtimes.com'}","world" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:businessinsider.com","I spent $61,000 building a personal pub in my backyard. There are 3 mistakes I wish I hadn't made.","https://www.businessinsider.com/backyard-pub-building-mistakes-regrets-2026-3","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:58:00 GMT"," Every time Amanda publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Enter your email By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Stephen Hutyra, a 42-year-old program analyst living in the small town of West, Texas. It's been edited for length and clarity. In November 2020, I was inspired to build a pub in my backyard after seeing a Facebook post. We have a saying that everything is bigger and better in Texas, so I wanted our pub to be bigger and better than the one I saw in the pictures online. I spent three years and $61,000 building the space we call The Thirsty Goat on half an acre of land. A construction team built the structure, and I finished the work with my family's help. My family, friends, and I find ourselves sitting out here in the middle of the week until midnight, or until 2 or 3 a.m. on the weekends. We've thoroughly enjoyed it since finishing back in August, but we're only just starting to see how much we'll use it. Every time Amanda publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Amanda and get more of their work as it publishes. By clicking ""Sign up"", you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Still, there are a few things I wish I'd done differently. The main mistake I made is something that my wife reminds me of all the time: I didn't hook up hot water to the bathroom or the bar. There's only cold water coming out of both sinks. I didn't think I'd have the space for a hot-water heater, but I probably could have gotten one of those little tankless ones and put it on the outside. It wouldn't have taken much to add that on, and it's been very cold washing hands and dishes in the winter, so I regret not doing that. It's another thing my wife reminds me of all the time. I should have planned to install a small dishwasher below the cabinet that sits behind the bar. I either have to wash dishes with cold water in the bar sink or load dirty glassware into a tub I haul into the house to wash in the dishwasher. Having a dishwasher would really come in handy to load dirty dishes and cutlery throughout the day and night. But with the compact floor plan I mapped out, I just didn't have the room. Initially, I only planned to put one mini fridge behind the bar. After I installed it, though, I measured the space left and realized I had enough room for a second fridge. Having two has really made a big impact. I frequently use the second to store juices, lemons, limes, and other items for mixed drinks. If I didn't have the fridge, I'd probably have to use a small cooler with ice packs. What I didn't realize, though, is that because the countertop edge extends into that corner, the door to the second mini fridge can only open about halfway. If I had installed shelves there as I initially planned, there wouldn't be an issue. Thankfully, there's room for other appliances on top. A microwave, coffee maker, and ice maker have taken about 40% of the empty counter space I had built behind the bar. The ice machine saves space, the microwave is good for guests to quickly reheat items, and adding Keurig single-serve coffee has been nice as well. We no longer have to walk back into the house to make a cup of coffee in the mornings when we're enjoying the pub. I've had to adjust to a smaller workspace, but it's worked out. Jump to","{'href': 'https://www.businessinsider.com', 'title': 'Business Insider'}","business" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=bitcoin","Bitcoin holds ground as Iran war escalates and ETFs take in over $760m","https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-holds-ground-iran-war-152038954.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:20:38 GMT"," Oops, something went wrong Bitcoin's price held steady above $70,000 Saturday — despite a 24-hour dip — as the US continued bombing Iran. The price was buoyed by net inflows into the US exchange-traded funds over the week: American investors threw over $763 million of fresh cash at the investment vehicles, according to Farside Investors data, the highest amount since January. Bitcoin was recently trading hands for $70,768, according to CoinGecko, a drop of 4% over the past day. Over the past week, the leading cryptocurrency has shot up by 4% and is up by 12% since touching a low of $63,177 the day the US and Israel attacked Iran. Experts told DL News that the price of Bitcoin and other major coins would suffer because of the Iran war. But the leading cryptocurrency is experiencing a surge and less of a correlation with other risk-on assets — at least for now. US equities closed lower Friday, with the S&P 500 hitting a new low this year as the price of oil surged. Bitcoin in recent months has been correlated with the stock market but this week appeared to break free in “a rare decoupling from traditional risk assets,” according to Diana Pires, Chief Business Officer at sFOX. Crypto held steady despite the Iran war raging on: President Donald Trump threatened the worst was to come on Friday and the US military overnight struck sites on Kharg Island, from which Iran exports almost all its oil. The US president said that oil infrastructure had not been hit and warned Iran not to interfere with the Strait of Hormuz — the route for about a quarter of the world's liquefied natural gas. Experts previously warned that a rise in oil prices could mean a crash in crypto prices. Still, despite a spike in the price of crude, Bitcoin seems relatively unfazed. Bitcoin was trading for $70,768 per coin on Saturday, down 4% over the past day. Ethereum's price touched $2,074, also dipping by 4%. Court dispatch: MEV bros point to Eisenberg acquittal in high-stakes hearing — DL News Libra scandal: forensic experts link messages by Javier Milei to memecoin promoters minutes before launch — DL News AI payments debate → both sides wrong — Milk Road Toxic Pollution From Iran War Will Spread and Last for Decades — Bloomberg Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com. Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data","{'href': 'https://finance.yahoo.com', 'title': 'finance.yahoo.com'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=bitcoin","Boris Johnson calling Bitcoin a ‘Ponzi' draws rebuttal from Michael Saylor and others","https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/03/14/boris-johnson-calling-bitcoin-a-ponzi-draws-rebuttal-from-michael-saylor-and-others","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 17:19:33 GMT"," Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called bitcoin BTC$70,591.75 a “giant Ponzi scheme,” prompting a swift rebuttal from Strategy chairman Michael Saylor and other netizens. In a column published in the Daily Mail and posted on social media platform X, Johnson wrote that he had long suspected cryptocurrencies relied on “a supply of new and credulous investors” rather than real value. He pointed to a story from his village in Oxfordshire about a retired man who handed £500 ($661) to someone in a pub who promised to double the money through bitcoin. According to Johnson's account, the man spent three and a half years paying fees and trying to withdraw funds. He ultimately lost about £20,000 ($ 26,450), referring to what he admitted was “some kind of scam.” Johnson argued that assets such as gold or even collectibles like Pokémon cards hold some cultural or physical appeal. Bitcoin, he wrote, is “just a string of numbers stored in a series of computers.” He also questioned why people should trust a system created by a pseudonymous entity, Satoshi Nakamoto, without institutional backing. “Who do we talk to if they decrypt the crypto?” Johnson asked. “There's no one except this Nakamoto, who may be no more real than Pikachu or Charmander themselves.” Reacting to the column, the cryptocurrency community pushed back against Johnson's claims. Saylor, Executive Chairman of the world's largest corporate bitcoin holder Strategy (MSTR), refuted the claims, saying a Ponzi scheme requires a “central operator promising returns and paying early investors with funds from later ones.” Bitcoin, Saylor added, has “no issuer, no promoter, and no guaranteed return—just an open, decentralized monetary network driven by code and market demand.” Bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi requires a central operator promising returns and paying early investors with funds from later ones. Bitcoin has no issuer, no promoter, and no guaranteed return—just an open, decentralized monetary network driven by code and market demand. On X, in the ""community notes program,"" a note was added pointing out that Ponzi schemes promise artificially high rates of returns with next to no risk. “Bitcoin has no issuer and its value is purely determined by the free market. The code is totally public and opt-in. Nobody can force you to run any particular version,” the note reads. Other responses ranged from technical explanations of Bitcoin's design to broader criticism of government monetary policy. Other responses ranged from technical explanations of Bitcoin's design to broader criticism of government monetary policy. Some users pointed to Bitcoin's fixed supply and decentralized network as evidence that it differs from classic Ponzi structures Others took a more combative tone, posting memes and criticizing central banks for expanding the money supply during the pandemic. As for who's in charge, BitMEX Research replied, “nobody is in charge.” More For You Crypto's multi-million F1 sponsorship under fire as Middle East war hits region's biggest events Other major business events across the UAE, such as Middle East Energy Dubai and the Dubai International Boat Show, have also been postponed or delayed. What to know: Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.","{'href': 'https://www.coindesk.com', 'title': 'CoinDesk'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=ethereum","Ethereum Foundation sells 5,000 ether to Tom Lee's BitMine in $10.2 million deal","https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/03/14/ethereum-foundation-sells-5-000-ether-to-tom-lee-s-bitmine-in-usd10-2-million-deal","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 17:59:29 GMT"," The Ethereum Foundation (EF) said it finalized the sale of 5,000 ether (ETH) in an over-the-counter transaction with one of the top crypto treasury firm Bitmine Immersion Technologies. The sale cleared at an average price of $2,042.96 per ETH, the Foundation said, placing the transaction's value at roughly $10.2 million. The non-profit organization, established in 2014 to support the Ethereum blockchain and its ecosystem, said the funds will support its core operations, including protocol research and development, ecosystem growth, and community grants. The transactions, it said, are in line with the policy that governs its reserve management. The framework aims to strike a balance between holding ETH and maintaining sufficient fiat or fiat-like assets to cover operating costs. EF currently aims to keep annual operating expenses near 15% of treasury value with a 2.5-year operating buffer, a strategy that determines how often it sells ETH. The sale comes less than a month after the Ethereum Foundation began staking up to 70,000 ETH to support its operations and deepen its role in the Ethereum ecosystem. Bitmine, helmed by Fundstrat's Tom Lee, was the counterparty in the deal and is the largest publicly traded ether treasury firm, currently holding around 4.53 million ETH, worth more than $9.4 billion. The firm's portfolio is almost entirely ether. The company also holds around 195 BTC and more than $1 billion in cash, along with equity stakes. These stakes also include a share of Beast Industries, the company behind YouTube creator MrBeast, after a $200 million investment in it, along with a 7% stake in the worldcoin treasury firm Eightco. Read more: 'Mini crypto winter' nearly over, says Tom Lee as Bitmine ramps up pace of ether acquisition More For You Crypto's multi-million F1 sponsorship under fire as Middle East war hits region's biggest events Other major business events across the UAE, such as Middle East Energy Dubai and the Dubai International Boat Show, have also been postponed or delayed. What to know: Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.","{'href': 'https://www.coindesk.com', 'title': 'CoinDesk'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=ethereum","Ethereum Based Crypto Pepeto Announces Crypto Bridge Update Following Shiba Inu Success and Cardano Price Prediction Target","https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/ethereum-based-crypto-pepeto-announces-crypto-bridge-update-following-shiba-inu-success-and-cardano-price-prediction-target-1035929983","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 01:07:40 GMT"," Dubai, UAE, March 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pepeto' team announces a major advancement on its Ethereum based exchange tools, with the cross chain bridge entering its next phase ahead of the biggest bull run analysts have called for in years. This project is seeing real growth as opportunity chasers rush to position in what some call the next Shiba Inu story of 2026. What explains this goes deeper than hype, as Pepeto's tools fix the problems Ethereum still carries, something Cardano promised but never delivered. A look at the cardano price prediction makes sense, because seeing how a project with the same goal performs gives a fact based picture of Pepeto's future. Pepeto Bridge Solves Ethereum Problems While the Cardano Price Prediction Target $1.89 Pepeto just completed a major update to its cross chain bridge, expanding compatibility across Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana with zero fees. Ethereum remains the dominant blockchain, but gas fees eat into every trade and bridging is slow and costly. This Ethereum based crypto eliminates that, routing tokens across chains at zero cost while AI screening verifies every contract. Cardano set out to solve these Ethereum issues years ago. Pepeto is the one actually doing it. The cardano price prediction tells the full story. Benzinga reports analysts forecast ADA reaching just $1.89 by 2030, barely 7x from $0.27 (CoinMarketCap), and that best case takes four more years. Cardano raised billions but still hasn't delivered an Ethereum competing ecosystem. The ADA price outlook reflects those limits. Early ADA holders profited simply by being early, not because Cardano delivered. Now consider what happens when a crypto like Pepeto actually builds the solution the cardano price prediction proves Cardano only talked about, at a presale entry giving early wallets room for returns ADA holders stopped hoping for. And Pepeto doesn't stop at utility. Pepeto Wraps Ethereum Utility in Shiba Inu Level Virality and That Changes Everything What does Pepeto offer beyond the bridge? It starts with timing. Pepeto is still early, and early creates wealth in crypto. But Pepeto isn't just early. It has the same viral energy that turned Shiba Inu from an unknown token into a global movement. According to CNN, two brothers from New York put $8,000 into Shiba Inu during the pandemic and watched that turn into $9 million in six months. What made that possible wasn't any product. It was pure community belief and viral energy spreading faster than anyone could track. Pepeto today has that same energy, the same organic buzz across social platforms, except this time a real exchange underneath will generate actual trading volume and demand long after the launch. Even though Pepeto is clearly more than a meme coin, it is a fundamental Ethereum based crypto wrapped in a meme coin package. The branding tells the story. Pepeto is the god of frogs, the redemption arc of Pepe coin. The T and O that Pepe never had stand for Technology and Optimization, representing every piece of DeFi utility Pepeto built on top of the most viral brand in crypto. That is what brought whale wallets into the presale. Whales saw a project that adds the infrastructure layer giving the token lasting value on Ethereum, not just meme culture riding a quick pump. ""The bridge handles cross chain transfers at zero cost with built in contract verification, something no meme coin ecosystem has delivered,"" said a Pepeto team representative. Shiba Inu showed the world what happens when a community believes hard enough. Pepeto took that lesson and built on it. The viral energy is here, the Ethereum infrastructure is being delivered, and the presale keeps growing every week. Conclusion To catch winning crypto opportunities, vision and early positioning are what have made more millionaires than any strategy ever could. The cardano price prediction proves promises without execution lead nowhere even after billions raised. Shiba Inu proved early entry combined with viral energy creates life changing wealth in months. Pepeto combines both lessons into one Ethereum based project with real infrastructure and the kind of community that only appears once per cycle. Whales never put money into something unless they know what's coming, and whale activity in this presale speaks louder than any ADA forecast ever could. Being lucky enough to read about Pepeto today and choosing to wait could be one of the most expensive mistakes of this cycle. This is the kind of Shiba Inu level opportunity people look back on for years, and by then the entry open today will be a memory. Disclaimer As Pepeto gains more attention, fake websites pretending to be the project have started appearing online. Always check that you are on the correct official domain before connecting your wallet, the official website is down below. CLICK TO VISIT PEPETO OFFICIAL WEBSITE About Pepeto Pepeto is an Ethereum based crypto building a DeFi exchange with zero fee trading, a cross chain bridge connecting Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana, and AI token screening. With a SolidProof audit and over $7.99 million raised, Pepeto combines Shiba Inu level viral energy with real infrastructure solving Ethereum's biggest problems, something the cardano price prediction confirms Cardano never achieved. Copyright © 2026 Insider Inc and finanzen.net GmbH (Imprint). All rights reserved. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.","{'href': 'https://markets.businessinsider.com', 'title': 'markets.businessinsider.com'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=blockchain","VEREM Sets New Benchmark for RWA Security with Successful Completion of Hacken Smart Contract Audit","https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/verem-sets-new-benchmark-for-rwa-security-with-successful-completion-of-hacken-smart-contract-audit-1035930385","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 18:03:15 GMT"," LONDON, March 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VEREM, a Real-World Asset (RWA) ecosystem focused on the tokenization of GIA-certified emeralds, today announced the successful completion of a comprehensive smart contract security audit conducted by Hacken, a global leader in Web3 cybersecurity. As the RWA sector moves toward institutional adoption, VEREM has prioritized transparency, security, and investor protection. The audit, finalized on March 5, 2026, confirms that VEREM's smart contract infrastructure meets high industry standards for security, resilience, and decentralization. Key Security Milestones Zero-Vulnerability Status The audit identified zero critical and zero high-severity vulnerabilities, confirming a robust and secure smart contract architecture. Immutable Tokenomics The contract implements a fixed supply model with no minting functionality, ensuring the scarcity and long-term value integrity of the VEREM ecosystem. Decentralized Governance Ownership of the smart contract on the BSC mainnet has been officially renounced, guaranteeing that no central authority can modify the contract logic. Operational Transparency Minor findings were documented and accepted as intentional design decisions, ensuring optimal performance and user experience. Bridging Physical Assets and Blockchain VEREM combines physical gemstone custody with blockchain transparency, creating a secure digital gateway for high-value commodities. Each token is backed by GIA-evaluated emeralds held in secure custody, allowing investors to access rare gemstone assets with the speed, liquidity, and transparency of blockchain technology. “By pairing audited smart contracts with verified physical assets, VEREM is building a trusted bridge between traditional commodities and decentralized finance,” the VEREM team stated. https://hacken.io/audits/verem/sca-verem-verem-contracts-feb2026/ About VEREM VEREM is a Real-World Asset (RWA) project focused on the tokenization of certified emeralds. By integrating GIA gemstone certification, secure custody, and audited blockchain infrastructure, VEREM enables investors to own and trade physical value through decentralized technology. Twitter: https://x.com/veremorg?s=21 Website : https://veremrwa.com Telegram : https://t.me/VeremOrg CMC : https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/verified-emeralds/ A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/262e9512-d8a4-4bf7-a017-286815d0c94d Copyright © 2026 Insider Inc and finanzen.net GmbH (Imprint). All rights reserved. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.","{'href': 'https://markets.businessinsider.com', 'title': 'markets.businessinsider.com'}","cryptocurrency" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:news-medical.net","New statement released on the use and interpretation of spirometry for COPD diagnosis","https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260313/New-statement-released-on-the-use-and-interpretation-of-spirometry-for-COPD-diagnosis.aspx","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:11:00 GMT"," The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) and the Global Lung Function Initiative (GLI) have published a joint statement on the use and interpretation of spirometry for the diagnosis of COPD. 480 million people live with COPD, and 3.7 million die each year. COPD is the third commonest cause of death globally. It also creates massive economic costs and a recent study estimated that the global economic burden from COPD will amount to $US40 trillion by 2050. Many patients remain undiagnosed and spirometry is essential to confirm the diagnosis. However, for more than 30 years there has been an unproductive debate about how the results of spirometry should be interpreted to confirm the diagnosis in symptomatic patients. The divergent recommendations about spirometry interpretation have confused primary and secondary care clinicians, as well as lung specialists, leading to the perception that spirometry is a difficult test to perform and interpret, and underuse of the test. GOLD and GLI have now agreed how spirometry should be interpreted to confirm the diagnosis resolving the confusion. They also agree that performing spirometry is not difficult and more tests need to be done. Working with GLI to agree how spirometry should be interpreted to confirm the diagnosis is an important step forward in addressing the huge levels of underdiagnosis of COPD globally. Both organisations are clear that more spirometry tests need to be performed and we hope that making its interpretation simple will help with this."" Professor David Halpin, member of the GOLD Board & Science Committee Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease Halpin, D. M. G., et al. (2026). Joint statement from GOLD/GLI regarding the use of spirometry to define airflow obstruction and diagnose COPD. European Respiratory Journal. DOI: 10.1183/13993003.02574-2025. https://publications.ersnet.org/content/erj/early/2026/02/26/1399300302574-2025 Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Condition News Cancel reply to comment Alexander Dulebo Discover how Bruker is helping drive innovation in cosmetic science through advanced AFM techniques. Gabi Saavedra Discover how Thermo Fisher is shaping the future of plant-based foods through texture innovation and cultural relevance. Dr. Lena Smirnova Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Saturday 14 Mar 2026 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2026 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. 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Provide Feedback","{'href': 'https://www.news-medical.net', 'title': 'News-Medical'}","health" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=club+world+cup","James sends trophy promise to Chelsea fans in heartfelt open letter","https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/reece-james-chelsea-fc-open-letter-more-trophies-b1274850.html","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:20:40 GMT"," To use the search feature, we need your consent to load Google Custom Search, which may use cookies or similar technologies. Please click 'Allow and Continue' below to enable search. See our privacy policy for more information. Sport | Football Your matchday briefing on Chelsea, featuring team news and expert analysis from Dom Smith I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice. Reece James has penned a heartfelt open letter to Chelsea supporters, promising to bring more trophies to the club after signing a new long-term contract. The Blues' skipper's new deal will see his stay at Stamford Bridge through 2032. It also brings his pay structure in line with the club's bonus-focused strategy, similar to that of his team-mates. James has worn Chelsea blue since he was six years old, making his first-team debut in 2019. He has since gone on to lift the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, the Conference League and Club World Cup, the latter two while wearing the captain's armband. But he is not stopping at that. In an open letter to Chelsea supporters, he wrote: “I remember watching us win the Champions League in 2012. What a night. “Didier Drogba, my childhood idol, helping us become European champions. Then, nine years later, I got to live that experience in Porto. Another dream fulfilled. “I felt the same pride last summer. Winning the Conference League, my first trophy as captain…what a feeling. Chelsea XI vs Newcastle: Confirmed team news and predicted lineup Chelsea star Pedro Neto to serve extra ban for red card reaction Chelsea boost as key star signs six-year contract in new strategy Winter escapes and activities to end the year in style “But we weren't done; it's that Chelsea mentality I was talking about. We go again. We push for more. And we became world champions.” He continued: “Lifting that trophy in New York is something I'll never forget. It showed the world the best of Chelsea. It demonstrated what's in our DNA. “Personally, I will be forever grateful for the support you've shown me, from that debut against Grimsby Town to the present day. “You know it's not always been easy, and there have been challenges, but you stuck by me throughout. Hopefully, in the seasons to come, I can repay that further.” Chelsea are still in the running for two titles this season. They will host Port Vale in the FA Cup quarter-finals in April, and will look to overturn a three-goal deficit to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League round of 16 second-leg next week. Speaking to reporters on Friday, James said he had ensured his vision for Chelsea's future was aligned with the club's sporting directors before agreeing to extend his deal. He reiterated that point in writing, adding: “My journey with Chelsea has lasted almost twenty years, but there is still so much more to come. “I'm convinced of what we're building here under this ownership, the Sporting Directors, Coach, squad, and all the staff. “We all want more success. We all want to lift more trophies. We all want to create more lasting memories.” MORE ABOUT Have your say... 1 Football Arsenal vs Everton LIVE: Premier League latest score, match stream, goal updates and fan reaction Arsenal 0-0 Everton: Penalty appeal turned down - LIVE 2 London London “at risk” of Tehran plot attack as Met steps up security for Al Quds Day protests London on terror alert as police brace for Al Quds protests 3 Football Chelsea vs Newcastle LIVE: Premier League latest score, match stream, goal updates and fan reaction Chelsea 0-1 Newcastle: Blues floundering after Gordon opener - LIVE 4 Rugby Union France vs England, Six Nations 2026: Kick-off time, TV channel, live stream, team news, lineups, h2h results, odds today France vs England: Kick-off time, how to watch, lineups and team news 5 Rugby Union Six Nations permutations: How France and Ireland can now win title on Super Saturday How France and Ireland can now win Six Nations title on Super Saturday","{'href': 'https://www.standard.co.uk', 'title': 'London Evening Standard'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=fifa+world+cup","Brentford and Ireland captain Nathan Collins on World Cup dreams","https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/ckgldyd23j3o","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 06:15:20 GMT"," The Football Interview is a new series in which the biggest names in sport and entertainment join host Kelly Somers for bold and in-depth conversations about the nation's favourite sport. We'll explore mindset and motivation, and talk about defining moments, career highs and personal reflections. The Football Interview brings you the person behind the player. Interviews will drop on weekends across BBC iPlayer, YouTube, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website. This week's interview will be broadcast on BBC One from 23:30 BST on Saturday, 14 March (and in Scotland at 00:30 on Sunday). Nathan Collins is having a good season. Captain of both Brentford and the Republic of Ireland, Collins is dreaming of Europe with his club and the World Cup with his country. Despite losing long-time manager Thomas Frank and strikers Bryan Mbeumo and Yoanne Wissa in the summer, Brentford go into the weekend seventh in the Premier League. The Republic of Ireland, meanwhile, harbour hopes of travelling to their first World Cup tournament since 2002 as they prepare for the play-offs later this month. Collins is taking everything in his stride, but does get excited when he reflects on the evening in November when the Republic of Ireland beat Hungary with virtually the last kick of the game, triggering wild celebrations. Now 24, Collins moved to England aged 15. He comes from a football family, with his dad having played for Oxford United. In the Football Interview, Collins tells Kelly Somers what it meant for his family to see one of their own win a senior cap for the national team and reveals his mum flies in for every Brentford match. This video can not be played 'I could never sit still' - how two games per weekend set Nathan Collins up for success Kelly Somers: Nathan, what a time to sit down with you after what's been an incredible season so far. We'll come on to that very shortly, but let's firstly talk about your first memory of playing football. Nathan Collins: One memory that always pops into my head... it was my first goal at like four or five and I took it around the keeper and I scored. I don't know if it actually happened! I don't think anyone knows if it actually happened, but it always just pops into my mind. Kelly: There was no witness to this? Nathan: Potentially not - I've never actually said it really openly... so I think it happened... I'd be surprised if it didn't! Kelly: Take me back to that time in your life - was football a big thing? Nathan: I grew up with a football, basically. Everything I have done throughout my whole life was with a football, or any kind of ball really. I played a lot of Gaelic football as a kid. I would have trained football twice with my team during the week, then I would have trained twice with my Gaelic team, then I had a football match on the weekend and then a Gaelic match on the weekend. And so my parents would drive me to my match, watch that match, finish that match, go home, eat something really quick, straight back out the door for another match and then they'd go to the pub and relax. They were finished with me then, they were happy! Kelly: Was there ever a chance you could have gone into Gaelic football rather than football? Were you good? Go on, you can admit it! Nathan: I was all right... I was not bad. When I was that age, I was bigger than everyone. I'd have been able to run over everyone, so I had that advantage. I'd love to go back and play one day or when I finish football. I really enjoy it. Kelly: Talk me through your first football team then. You've told me about this goal that the jury's out on whether it got scored or not... what was the first proper team that you played for? Nathan: The first proper team would have been Cherry Orchard. I think my grandad was a coach and at some time he might have played for them. My dad played for them, my uncle played for them, my cousin played for them, my other uncle played, my older brother played, my younger brother played... Kelly: You were always going to be a footballer, weren't you? Gosh, when you talk through the list! Nathan: Yeah, I probably had no choice really, did I? I started there fully like six, seven and I played there 'til 15. Basically, I did a lot of my growing up playing football there. There were times I trained with my brother's team and they'd be four years older than me - my dad would put me into that training session and I'd get bullied and battered... I think he kind of wanted me to get that feeling. Kelly: Character-building? Nathan: Yeah, I'd go back and I'd make sure I still had to do the best at my own age group, and then when I go with my brother's I'd have to do a lot more to be there, but it was a bit of character-building. I always just wanted to be the best player I could be. The Football Interview: Nathan Collins Kelly: What was your big break then, or the moment? Nathan: I guess my first break could be when I made my debut for Stoke away to Swansea. We were down to nine men. I think the game was kind of over with 10 minutes to go and the manager put me on. Maybe that was my big break of getting a chance and just putting my name into a first-team match. Kelly: Going into a game where your team are down to nine men... that's character-building! Nathan: It was, yeah! Thinking of it now, it's actually kind of mad. Kelly: You came over to England when you were quite young, didn't you? How old were you? Nathan: I was 15, yeah. Kelly: What was that like? Nathan: I loved it! Kelly: Did you? Desperate to escape home were you? Nathan: I left school and played football every day. I loved it! Kelly: When you put it like that... Nathan: Yeah, I loved it. Listen, it wasn't easy. You see all your mates growing up together and making that jump from a teenager to an adult and kind of enjoying life in a different way. Whereas I was in digs - just dedicated, just sleeping early, eating and just playing football and not really participating in life itself. So, that was always tough to see that, but all I ever wanted was just to play football, so I wasn't really that bothered. I was just so happy to be able to be at an academy and enjoy my game. Kelly: Well you've gone on to have a brilliant career over here in England at a few different clubs. Has there been any particular game that if you could relive it you would? Nathan: My Ireland debut... maybe something like that. Maybe the Hungary game - relive that, enjoy that whole moment again, because stuff like that doesn't happen often. Kelly: Go on... make the Ireland fans happy... talk us through your memories of that Hungary game. Nathan: It's a blur! Kelly: What it was like? Nathan: All I remember is the last few minutes. That's all I really cared about at the end of the game. It was a bit of a nothing game. There wasn't a lot of chances either end. I don't think we were playing our best. I don't think they were playing great. I think it got to, what was it, the 75th maybe and you're just like, 'I don't know... it's just not happening really - it's not clicking, we're not creating enough', and then a little bit of magic from Finn [Azaz] - he chipped a little pass through for Troy [Parrott] and I loved the finish and you're like, 'huh, there's a chance, there's a massive chance...' And then, last kick of the game - he gets a toe on to it and you're like... you can't believe it! There's pictures and you just see 100 Irish players and staff just running - not in any direction, just randomly, and you're just like, 'how can this game sometimes just have this effect on you and on your body?' And I think that's why you play football. I think that's what you want... them moments, to enjoy them and just to have them moments in life. It's something special. Collins (No 22) celebrates the Republic of Ireland's victory over Hungary Kelly: Have you allowed yourself to think about the possibility of winning that play-off and what the summer could look like? Nathan: Not really, no. Kelly: I knew you'd say that, from your whole demeanour! Nathan: I can't, because then I won't be able to focus on what I have to do here now - on my job at the moment, of playing Premier League matches. Kelly: Well, incredible times for Ireland and potentially even better. It's not been so bad at Brentford this season, has it? Nathan: No, it's been an enjoyable season... really good. Kelly: What's the secret? You'll know that the wider noise was that you've got a new manager in... he's never managed in the Premier League before... you've lost Thomas Frank... 'it's going to be a difficult season for Brentford'. Well, you've dispelled any of those theories. Nathan: When you're in football, you hear a lot of things but nobody knows what's going on in the building. No-one knows the quality of squad we have or players we're bringing in, or the staff... the hours they do. So when we came back from the summer off, it just felt like another day. Kelly: What's Keith Andrews like as a manager? Because, understandably given what he's done, the whole world is now fascinated by him. Nathan: I've known Keith a long time - before he was a manager. I've known him since I was, like, 16. I've known him a long time. I had him Under-17s Ireland, 18s, 19s, 21s. Kelly: So were you pleased when you knew he was getting the job? Nathan: Ah listen, I was buzzing! Kelly: You can't really say no at this point can you? Nathan: No, I was buzzing for him, because I know how hard he's worked to get to this stage of his career. He has that balance of when to shout at you and when to be your mate and that man-managing is really important. Collins and Andrews have been reunited at Brentford Kelly: Let's try and get to know you a little bit more away from the pitch. Firstly, I always like asking: what were you like as a youngster? Nathan: If you asked my mam or dad, they'd say I was a headcase! I was just a bit itchy, I always had to move. I could never sit still and relax. I always had to do something. So they had to burn me out. I always wanted to be in the grass or playing football, just running around to drain my energy. I think I was hard work for my parents, I'd say it like that! Kelly: It sounds like maybe it was quite a chaotic household. How many siblings have you got? Nathan: I've got an older brother, a younger sister and a younger brother. I think it was just a constant battle of me trying to beat my older brother. It was just so hard because the age difference. We all had training at different times and they'd be running out of the house and you'd forget your boots or they'd be taking two cars in different directions. It was a bit of a carnage, but you wouldn't have it any other way. Kelly: Are you still close now? Nathan: Ah yeah, of course. I talk to them more or less every day on the phone. Every chance I get to go home I will. My mam goes to every game - home and away. She watches them all. Kelly: So she flies over? Are they still in Ireland? Nathan: Yeah, they live in Ireland, so she flies over and she goes everywhere to be fair. Kelly: Home and away? Nathan: Yeah. Kelly: That is some commitment! Nathan: I know, I tell her, 'listen, you don't have to' and she's like, 'no, I want to'. Kelly: Not everyone's got a son that's a Premier League footballer though... I kind of get the appeal! Nathan: Yeah, I don't think that she watches the matches. I think that she just looks at me the whole game and sees what I'm doing. She'll come after, 'Why were you scratching your leg so much in the match?' ... 'I don't know. How do you know that?' Kelly: Aw, bless her, that's really sweet. How would your best friend describe you? Nathan: I'd like to think that they'd describe me as the same lad I was growing up. The first thing that would pop in their head... they wouldn't say I'm a footballer. I think they'd just say, 'ah Nathan, he's just a good lad like... he's a bit of craic and he comes out when he can' ... but I don't think that they'd look at me as a footballer, which I really enjoy. And it just means when I'm with them, I can just be myself and just enjoy being one of the lads. Kelly: So if the manager gives you a day off, what would you do? Nathan: It depends. If it's a weekday and it's good weather, I'll play golf with a few of the lads here and we'll get out in the sun. Kelly: Are you any good? Nathan: I'm all right. Listen, I can play. I'm not the greatest, but I'm not the worst. Kelly: Who do you play with here? Nathan: The group right now is me, Keane Lewis-Potter, Kris Ajer, Hakon Valdimarsson. It's a good crew because we have a lot of players and we do a little Ryder Cup-style. Kelly: Oh nice! Nathan: So it's staff v players. Kelly: Wow! Nathan: Yeah, because there's a lot of players. We did that last year. We did 18 holes in the morning, we went for some lunch, and then we did 18 holes in the afternoon and it was really good fun. Players won, so thank God! Kelly: Oh, that was my next question. Have you got any secret hobbies? Nathan: I like cooking, so that's something. When I cook, I think I just forget about everything. I'm just in my own little zone and my head kind of goes quiet, which is nice. Kelly: Are you a good cook? Nathan: It depends who you ask... Kelly: If I was asking your girlfriend... Nathan: Yeah, she's actually saying: 'Ah, you're getting better at cooking!' Kelly: That's a bit patronising! Nathan: Yeah, and I was like... 'Does that mean I was bad?' Kelly: Fair enough. What do people get wrong about you the most? Nathan: Maybe I get a bit of stereotypical: 'Ah, he's just a footballer.' Maybe they get that and then think, 'oh, he's actually pretty nice to talk to... he's all right... he's kind of relaxed... he's chill'. I always want to be just a good person as well. That's important for me, just to be a nice person, a good person, a caring person. As much as I want to be the best footballer I can ever be, I also want to be the best person I can be and I think that's something that I always strive towards as well. Kelly: What's the toughest moment of your career been? Has there been a tough moment? Nathan: I had one game for Brentford against Wolves and I had two mistakes in the game. I gave away two goals, we lost 3-1 or something like that and I got battered off the Wolves fans because I'd just left Wolves and the fans had so much to go against me, so much stick. I was like, 'oh my God, this couldn't have got any worse'. To be fair, that night Thomas Frank rang me and he was like, 'listen Nathan, that's probably the worst game you'll ever have in your career', and he's like, 'so it's only up from here'. Thomas Frank (right) left Brentford to take the Tottenham job, but was sacked eight months later Kelly: That's a pretty good way of looking at it actually isn't it? Nathan: You're not really wrong there! Kelly: If you weren't a footballer, what would you have been? Nathan: I don't know. I honestly don't have a clue. Kelly: Probably a good thing you were a footballer then... Nathan: I'd never thought of anything else - that's the scary thing. I never thought of doing anything else. I never thought of participating. It was always sports. If it wasn't football, it would be a different sport most likely. Kelly: When you finish, could you see yourself as Nathan Collins the coach? Nathan: I don't know. I'd like to just relax maybe and stay away from football for a little bit. I put a lot into it and I put a lot of effort into it. I try to learn and watch a lot about football, so maybe a bit of a break from there. I'd like to just relax for a few years, just play some golf, chill out with my family. Kelly: Sounds like quite a good plan. If you can do that, why not? Nathan: And then maybe I'll get into something. Maybe I'd like business a bit... I'm trying to get into that, but I just can't really. I'm struggling! Kelly: You're trying to get into business, are you? What are you trying to get into? Nathan: I don't know really... I'm just trying to get into it a bit. Kelly: Saying 'I'm trying to get into business' is quite broad! Nathan: Maybe become a crypto billionaire... that would be nice wouldn't it?! Kelly: It would be quite nice. If you find out how to do that, let me know! Nathan: Yeah, I will. As I said, I don't know. I'll see when that comes around the corner. I'll take it a bit more serious, but now I'm trying to enjoy football. Kelly: What are you proudest of in your career? Nathan: Probably playing for my country. Yeah, it was a big moment for me and my family. My family - my uncles, my cousins, we all had all the caps... under-15s, 16s, 17s, 18s, 19s, 21s. We never got a senior cap out of one, two, three, five who nearly played professionally. So for me to be able to get it was a good feeling for everyone in that journey - that my family name can have that senior cap to it. That was a really proud moment. Kelly: If you could only achieve one more thing in your career what would it be? Nathan: Win the World Cup. That would be unbelievable! Can I say that? Kelly: That's every player's dream! Nathan: I'd retire the next day! Follow your club with BBC Sport Listen to the latest Football Daily podcast Get football news sent straight to your phone Premier League: Newcastle lead Chelsea, Everton hit post at Arsenal Six Nations: Wales v Italy Ireland beat Scotland to keep title hopes alive Oscar-nominated Frankenstein and more movies that made Guillermo del Toro Celebrated actor Jessie Buckley picks her Desert Island Discs A new spin on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Behind the making of one of Hollywood's most quotable films They were told it wasn't for girls, but these could be the future faces of F1 Brentford, the World Cup and an itch to return to Gaelic football Would Arsenal be ugliest title winners in history? What stats say Jason Tindall - the most misunderstood man in football? Why London Spirit spent £390,000 on uncapped Sussex all-rounder Coles From best in league to bench - Foden's mysterious loss of form Meet ParalympicsGB's 26th team member Winter Paralympics daily guide: 10 golds to be decided on final day The Brits travelling in their thousands to 'Costa del Cheltenham' Copyright © 2026 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.","{'href': 'https://www.bbc.com', 'title': 'BBC'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:goal.com","Inter v Atalanta, LIVE highlights: Inter protest over Krstovic's goal, Chivu sent off","https://www.goal.com/en/lists/inter-v-atalanta-live-highlights-inter-protest-over-krstovic-s-goal-chivu-sent-off/blt6299f2d5454124a8","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:52:19 GMT"," The key moments from the Inter v Atalanta match Inter v Atalanta is a fixture for Matchday 29 of the Serie A season. Below are all the key moments analysed by Calciomercato.com. INTER – ATALANTA Saturday 14 March, 3.00 pm REFEREE: MANGANIELLO ASSISTANTS: PASSERI – ROSSI L. FOURTH OFFICIAL: COLLU VAR: GARIGLIO AVAR: CHIFFI 87' – More protests from Inter: Frattesi beats Scalvini to the ball, and Scalvini makes contact with him after he has already played the ball away; Manganiello waves play on. 83' - Inter protest over Krstovic's equaliser: Sulemana presses Dumfries, who goes down in the penalty area; Manganiello waves play on, and the Atalanta striker shoots, with Sommer unable to prevent the Montenegrin centre-forward's tap-in. Furious protests from Inter over the contact between Sulemana and Dumfries, with Chivu also sent off. VAR review confirms the on-field decision. 27' - Pio Esposito's goal stands: Atalanta appeal for a possible handball by Dumfries as the ball comes to a halt, but the Dutch winger touches the ball with his chest. Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting","{'href': 'https://www.goal.com', 'title': 'Goal.com'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:goal.com","Arsenal or Man City bound? Sandro Tonali agent says links to Premier League giants was Newcastle star's 'goal'","https://www.goal.com/en-qa/lists/arsenal-man-city-sandro-tonali-agent-premier-league-giants-newcastle-goal/blt1fa04855486930f5","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 17:57:35 GMT"," Sandro Tonali remains a man in high demand across the European elite, and his representative, Giuseppe Riso, has suggested that the Newcastle star is exactly where he needs to be to facilitate a future move to the very top of the English game. Riso addressed reports linking the former AC Milan midfielder with heavyweights such as Arsenal and Manchester City, noting that the plan upon leaving Italy was always to elevate Tonali into the bracket of ""stellar"" global talents. Tonali joined Newcastle from AC Milan in July 2023, for an estimated fee of €70 million on a five-year contract, becoming the most expensive Italian player in history. Reflecting on this record-breaking transfer in an interview with Calcio e Finanza, Riso explained that Newcastle's immense financial backing and the allure of a higher-level league were the primary drivers. The deal was designed to transform Tonali into a global star. ""The deal came about because a club like Newcastle... with unlimited financial resources had decided to invest in Sandro. We considered the idea of having the player play in a higher-level league,"" Riso stated. He believes this path has worked, as Tonali is now being linked with title contenders like Arsenal and Manchester City. A. ""Exactly, that was the goal from the moment he went to England: to try to make him a star player. I think he's the Italian footballer with one of the highest values in the world,"" he said of the transfer rumours. The conversation turned to the midfielder's 10-month ban in October 2023 for breaching Italian betting regulations, including wagers on AC Milan matches. Riso denied any prior knowledge of the issue, asserting: ""No, absolutely not, also because otherwise we would have intervened."" Despite the setback, Riso argued that the move to England was a ""winning choice"" because of how the club and fans supported him during the disqualification, helping him emerge as a changed person. Riso highlighted the stark difference between the reception Tonali received in England versus Italy. He praised Newcastle fans for their unwavering support, noting that Tonali often received standing ovations despite being unable to play. ""In England, the mentality is different... We're talking about a guy who made a mistake, the fans noticed, and he was forgiven. Now, Sandro has completely changed,"" he noted. For Riso, Tonali is a ""champion, especially on a human level,"" who has shown his true potential by reacting correctly to immense difficulties. Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting Looking ahead, the prospect of Tonali joining the Premier League's absolute elite remains a high possibility, especially with the World Cup on the horizon. Riso believes Tonali's value is among the highest for any Italian player globally. When asked if a stellar World Cup performance would lead to a move to Manchester City or Arsenal, Riso teased: ""I don't know (laughs), but it's very likely. Everyone's waiting for the World Cup... everything starts after the World Cup.""","{'href': 'https://www.goal.com', 'title': 'Goal.com'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","Watch the highlights as Russell claims Sprint pole in China","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/highlights-watch-the-action-as-russell-claims-sprint-pole-in-china.7ckQx5VctfZZZh8JjBJL3l","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:49:36 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 Mercedes came out on top in Sprint Qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix, with George Russell claiming pole ahead of team mate Kimi Antonelli. George Russell continued his good run of form by clinching pole position in Sprint Qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver leading the way from team mate Kimi Antonelli. Russell's effort of 1m 31.520s put him nearly three-tenths clear of Antonelli as the chequered flag fell on SQ3 at the Shanghai International Circuit, while McLaren's Lando Norris was six-tenths away in third. Lewis Hamilton put his Ferrari into fourth place, with the McLaren of Oscar Piastri and the other Scuderia car of Charles Leclerc claiming fifth and sixth respectively. Alpine's Pierre Gasly took seventh, while the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar wound up in eighth and 10th, with Haas' Ollie Bearman sandwiched between them. Hit go on the video player above to catch up on the action from Sprint Qualifying in China. Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","Norris admits deficit to Mercedes and Ferrari ‘sucks' but McLaren are ‘making progress' after P4 in China Sprint","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-admits-deficit-to-mercedes-and-ferrari-sucks-but-mclaren-are-making.3TFd1DHSiz1qJ5PMDEflWp","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 05:07:46 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 Lando Norris placed fourth in the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint race, with team mate Oscar Piastri coming home sixth. Lando Norris described fourth place as “the maximum” McLaren could achieve in Saturday's Sprint at the Shanghai International Circuit, even if the deficit to Mercedes and Ferrari “sucks”. Norris qualified third for the 100-kilometre dash but lost out to the fast-starting Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at lights out, with the reigning World Champion gradually dropping away from the lead fight. While Norris gained a position from Hamilton during the pit stop sequence under the late Safety Car, he was soon re-passed by his fellow Briton and ultimately had to settle for P4, ahead of penalised Mercedes man Kimi Antonelli. Asked about Mercedes and Ferrari's pace post-race, and for his general feelings, Norris said with a wry smile: “Well, I don't feel great about that! It sucks to not be as quick as them. But I think we did the maximum today, we gave it a good try. “It's just difficult to… especially when it's so cold as well, difficult to get the tyres working quickly, and the Ferrari could do that in a better way than we could, simply because they just have a little bit more grip at the minute. “We know where we're decent, we know where we're lacking. It's difficult to improve that much on our weak areas at the minute, but we made some progress, and we'll keep trying to improve on it. ""But today was the best we could achieve, so I'm happy with that.” Norris' team mate, Oscar Piastri, crossed the line a couple of spots back in sixth, having been told to return a position to the recovering Antonelli after an opportunistic pass out of the final corner at the Safety Car restart. “He made a mistake at the last corner, and probably did a good job to keep it on the track to be honest,” explained Piastri. “It's a shame that… I just was opportunistic and you can't do anything with that. “We just didn't have the pace. I think it was pretty clear that we didn't have the pace of Ferrari and Mercedes then, so I don't think it mattered too much – I think he would have come back past anyway. Clearly some work for us to do, so we'll try and make the car a bit quicker.” Norris, Piastri and the rest of the field will be back in action for the main Qualifying hour later on Saturday – that session due to get under way at 1500 local time. Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","Watch China Qualifying highlights as Antonelli takes pole","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/highlights-watch-the-action-from-qualifying-in-china-as-antonelli-becomes.12WB92DqL87gh4JnJd5NRz","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:58:02 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 Kimi Antonelli claimed his maiden pole position in Qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix. Kimi Antonelli ended Qualifying on top in China, the Italian becoming the sport's youngest-ever Grand Prix polesitter. It was an eventful session for Mercedes, with George Russell experiencing an issue in Q3 that saw him briefly stop on track before getting going again – the delay resulting in him only being able to set one lap. The Briton ultimately could not beat Antonelli on his sole effort, the youngster's pole time of 1m 32.064s giving him an advantage of 0.222s from his team mate, while Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton was their closest challenger in third. The other Scuderia car of Charles Leclerc was fourth, just 0.013s behind, while the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris followed in fifth and sixth. To watch the action from Qualifying at the Shanghai International Circuit, click go on the video player above. Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","‘I don't know what we can do'","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/i-dont-know-what-we-can-do-verstappen-rues-disaster-friday-in-china-after-p8.2lnEjMKIFvXYzFMS0seJns","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:32:12 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 It was a tough start to the Chinese Grand Prix weekend for Red Bull, with Max Verstappen explaining the issues he experienced after ending Sprint Qualifying in P8. Max Verstappen labelled Friday at the Chinese Grand Prix as a “disaster pace-wise”, with the Red Bull driver suggesting that he does not yet know what the team will do to address the issues for the rest of the weekend after ending Sprint Qualifying in P8. Having placed in eighth on the timesheets during the event's sole practice session, Verstappen took the same position when it came to Qualifying for the Sprint later in the day, leaving the Dutchman to rue the problems that he experienced on his car. “The whole day has been a disaster pace-wise,” said Verstappen. “[I had] no grip – honestly I think that's the biggest problem – no balance, just losing massive amounts of time in the corners, to be honest. “And then of course because of that, you start to trigger other little problems. The big problem for us is just the cornering – it's completely out.” Pushed on whether the squad would look to make changes for Saturday's Qualifying ahead of Sunday's Grand Prix, Verstappen responded: “We'll have a look. I don't know at the moment what we can do, but yeah, we'll see.” It was also a tricky day for Isack Hadjar on the other side of the Red Bull garage, the Frenchman ending SQ3 of Sprint Qualifying at the bottom of the top 10. Quizzed on whether he had lost half a second on the straight during his effort, Hadjar explained: “I don't know what happened yet and why we lost half a second. “I was happy with my lap – it was good, but I don't think that is going to change our weekend. I'm just happy to be not too far from Max.” In terms of whether the team's position came as a surprise – and if he had been anticipating that it would be better – the 21-year-old answered: “No, I was expecting the McLaren and the Ferrari to be ahead. I didn't expect the gap overall to increase.” Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:hollywoodreporter.com","Anna Camp on Her Big ‘Scream 7' Reveal — and Why She Apologized for That Anti-Boycott Post","https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/anna-camp-scream-7-reveal-anti-boycott-post-interview-1236530395/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:39:07 GMT"," Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter The actress talks Jessica's spoiler-filled arc and audience reactions: “I hope that people can enjoy my performance, even if they're frustrated or confused by the motive or the reveal.” By Lexi Carson Associate Editor [This story contains spoilers from Scream 7.] The biggest question in every installment of the Scream franchise is always the same: Who is Ghostface? In Scream 7, the answer is three killers — including Sidney Prescott's neighbor, Jessica Bowden, played by Anna Camp. The film also marks the return of franchise final girl Neve Campbell and sees original Scream writer Kevin Williamson step into the director's chair. Before Jessica's late-film reveal, her screen time is fairly limited. But Camp tells The Hollywood Reporter the character almost had even less. “It was everything that you saw in the initial script, minus the scene with Gale on the front porch,” she says, adding that the creative team debated how much of Jessica to show so they wouldn't “shine too bright of a light” on Ghostface. Related Stories Movies Kevin Williamson Says He Won't Return to Direct 'Scream 8' Business Teamsters Call on DOJ to Stop Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger: ""We've Seen What Happens When Corporations Consolidate Power"" Following the film's opening weekend success, Camp also addressed online backlash after posting that the “boycott didn't work,” referring to people protesting after Melissa Barrera was fired from the film over her social media posts about the Israel–Hamas war. Below, Camp clarifies what she meant — and why she felt it was important to apologize. Read on as Camp discusses the film's biggest spoilers, Jessica's motive, her intense fight scene with Sidney — and what's she's heard about Scream 8. *** I heard you say that Kevin Williamson told you upfront that he wanted you to play Ghostface. At that point, did you think you were going to be the only one or did you know that there would be two others in the film? He told me during the Zoom meeting that there were a couple of Ghostfaces. I didn't know exactly how many, until I got to read the script. But I was aware that it wasn't just me and that I was working in cahoots with some others Ghostfaces. Who else in the cast knew you were Ghostface? Oh my gosh. I know obviously Neve did, because she's Neve Campbell, she's Sidney Prescott. (Laughs.) I'm not sure who else got to read the entire script. It could have been everybody, or it could have just been a limited amount, I don't know. I've never been sent to an office in Beverly Hills and gone up in an elevator and then put into a room by myself with a watermark script, with the door closed, and then have them come in and take it away from me, immediately. I felt like I was in a espionage movie or something, classified information. You mentioned creating some of Jesscia's backstory yourself — what details did you imagine about her life before the events of the film? I definitely thought about who she was married to and what that relationship was like. She references that she was in an abusive relationship with her husband. Just having to put myself in someone's shoes and what it's like to be married to a narcissistic abuser, and what that can do to somebody who might already be vulnerable to feelings of depression or obsession, to get her to be in the psychiatric hospital. Those were the things that I really worked on. What it felt like to be in that relationship — and then what it means to transfer all of those feelings of love that she couldn't have in her own marriage onto this person that she had never met, Sidney Prescott, and how it became her outlet in a way, for her to have something to focus on. Certain people do that. They become incredibly obsessed. That's what happened to Jessica. Sidney became all of the things that she wished she could have from a healthy relationship. So that's where she put all of her energy and focus on getting Sidney to come back. And that's why she says, “I'm creating Sidney 2.0, I'm creating this new version,” because it's now become the thing that I'm addicted to, so I don't have to focus on my actual life. In regards to her motive, what do you think Jessica truly wanted from Sidney? I think what she really wanted for her was to be the best that she could be. I think Jessica and her own really messed up distorted view of the world, knew Sidney was this final girl, this ultimate, real, true badass and hero. And it was really getting under Jessica's skin that she wasn't accomplishing that. Jessica was like, I love this person so much, but I only really love them if they are at their peak selves, operating in this high functioning Ghostface, attacking final girl realm that she really was like, I'm going to do everything I can to get her back there, even if it means sacrificing my own life for my obsession. That's that's how I played it, and that's how I pictured it, and I hope that it came across. Did Kevin give you specific guidance on how Jessica's motivation should come across? She's completely unhinged in this moment, fierce and wild, animalistic. I remember him saying, “Do not hold back at all. I'll pull you back if I think you're going too far.” He truly gave me the freedom to leave it all out there that night when we were shooting that scene, and when a director gives you freedom like that, it just opens so many doors emotionally for an actor, because they feel like they have the freedom to try and fail and just be wacky and weird. That's kind of the director that I love working with. Shooting that scene is one of the highlights of my entire career that I've ever gotten to have. Were there subtle clues you intentionally placed in your performance that viewers might notice on a rewatch? There were some things. When I'm smacking Lucas [Asa Germann] in the beginning, and I'm just telling him to shut up. The smack was probably a little harder than a normal mom who didn't worry about what their son living or dying would do. Also, the scene in the coffee shop when I'm talking to her, I was as Jessica, I'm so happy to get private alone time with Sidney. That scene, I was just trying to really make it very easy and comfortable for her to talk to me because Jessica wanted all the time in the world that she could have with her. Even though that scene was very short in the film, as an actor, I'm trying to create a very safe, soothing, warm environment for the object of my obsession to share and be open with me, and to stay longer and perhaps get another coffee, like that's what I'm I'm planning on doing. So maybe you can see a little twinkle in my eye (Laughs.) if you go back and watch that scene. Your fight scene with Neve was pretty intense. Obviously we know which parts aren't real, but how much of that did you actually perform Vs. a stunt double? I had the best stunt double in the world. She absolutely killed it. When I'm getting choked on the ground by Neve, I'm getting choked. Obviously safely with a stunt coordinator there. When my face is getting red and my vein is popping out of my head. That's obviously me. There's the scene where she slams me up against the garage door and we're stabbing each other [with fake knives], and all of that is very real. Also, the final shots to my face, I did two takes of that, and I remember it was the second take, my neck really flipping back, and everybody rushing over to me and being like, “Oh my God, Anna, are you OK?” And I remember just saying, “Well, did it look OK?” They were like, “Yeah, it looks like you really got shot in the face.” And I thought, “Well, then you have to use that take, right?” And they're like, “Yeah, we got it. We're done. No more of that.” Was there ever talk about having a fight scene with Courteney Cox's Gale and Ghostface? I believe this is the only film in the franchise where we don't see them interact. Oh, I have no idea. But that would have been cool. I always love seeing Courteney Cox kick some butt with Ghostface. (Laughs.) Yeah, at the same time, it was sad seeing how fragile she was based off of the brutal sequence from Scream VI. Especially when they're talking in the newsroom, and then she has to go over and take the pills. They made it very real, and it tracked really beautifully. Your heart really goes out to Gale Weathers in those moments. Courteney gave a beautiful performance. Also, she's so funny in this movie, and her entrance is just one of the most iconic entrances of any character in any franchise I have ever seen. I remember when I read that in the script, my jaw was on the floor, and I went, “Yeah!” I cheered alone in a room while reading the script. (Laughs.) Would you come back for a flashback scene? It's hard to imagine Scream 8 won't happen. I know there's going to be a Scream 8. I've already heard people talking about it. I don't think Jessica is alive obviously. (Laughs.) She could have a twin out there, right? I love playing twins. But yeah, 100 percent. I'm just so honored that I got to be a part of the franchise at all. So of course. So you've heard that Scream 8 is happening? Just rumors, just rumors. I haven't heard from anyone specifically that I worked with, like Kevin or Neve but I've heard the rumors going around that there's a Scream 8. Who all did your character kill? Was she the Ghostface who killed your son? I think that I killed Mckenna Grace's character. If you're watching the movie and you see the Ghostfaces in action, a lot of the kills are strong. Like Ethan Embry and then the other actor playing the other Ghostface, they can lift people, they can do things. I'm not necessarily lifting people or doing these, but I do think that using the knife and slicing, is something my character could have accomplished. And I'm not sure if I killed my son or not, and so I don't know. I'm gonna leave that up to the audience to decide which Ghostface did the son killing. You issued an apology for a statement that mentioned how the boycott didn't work. At the time of the tweet, what were you trying to express, and what would you like to clarify now, if anything? I'm glad you asked this. I've always been such a supporter for people standing up and fighting for what they believe in, and it was really never my intention to discredit that. At the time, I was just very thankful for the fans that were going out and making Scream 7 such a success and buying tickets because the cast and crew worked so so, so hard on this film, and it was only my intention to thank the fans that were going to see the movie. What made you decide it was important to apologize publicly? My heart is very big. I am a very sensitive person. A very sensitive actor. And I just wanted to clarify that in no way was it my intention to minimize or belittle anyone. That's why I removed the post because when I posted it. That was never my intention to do anything like that, and I wanted to make sure that people knew that. I really meant no harm. Some fans have said they were confused by the final reveal and wished they had seen more of Jessica before the unmasking. What have you taken away from the audience's reactions to that moment? I've tried not to look at too much stuff because I worked so hard on that scene, and it was so important to me. I wanted the fans to be happy. What I felt when I read the script was, I just need a little more definition of my character in the beginning or the middle part of the film to help make that reveal pay off even more. And I did speak up for myself. So I did all I could do. Then, the producers can do with the movie what they will. So, I definitely fought for a little more, and I'm happy that I fought for it. At the end of the day, I'm very happy with what ended up on the screen. I hope that people can enjoy my performance, despite being possibly frustrated by their confusion on the motive or the reveal. *** Scream 7 is now playing in movie theaters. Check out all of The Hollywood Reporter‘s coverage here, including interviews with Kevin Williamson, Michelle Randolph and Mckenna Grace. Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day A scoop-driven, insider view of Hollywood's genre and blockbuster movie landscape, led by Borys Kit and Aaron Couch. Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter Send us a tip using our anonymous form.","{'href': 'https://www.hollywoodreporter.com', 'title': 'The Hollywood Reporter'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:deadline.com","Sarah Michelle Gellar Reveals She Declined Chloé Zhao's 'Buffy' Reboot ""Many Times"" & Why She Learned To ""Never Say Never""","https://deadline.com/2026/03/sarah-michelle-gellar-declined-chloe-zhao-buffy-reboot-1236753398/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 01:06:00 GMT"," By Armando Tinoco Staff Writer Sarah Michelle Gellar was not always keen on reprising her role as Buffy the Vampire Slayer after the series ended in 2003, following seven seasons. However, as Gellar has signed up to return to the Buffy-verse in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale, she has reflected on never closing the door on the possibilities that may arise. “I actually like when people bring up that I said ‘never,' because I really felt that way,” Gellar told ComicBook. “So, lesson learned, first of all, young children… Never say never. Say, ‘I don't see it happening,' but don't say ‘never,' because then you have egg on your face.” She continued, “But I truly thought that's where I was at. I never heard a take or a reason to do it. Then Chloé Zhao came to me, and she had the reasons, and she had the take. Also, I was in a different place. The world was in a different place. With that being said, it's still taken us four years to get to this place because I would say, ‘Yes,' and then I would call a month later and say, ‘No. No, no, no. I can't.' I'm Cameron Frye from Ferris Bueller. ‘Again, again, again…'” Watch on Deadline With Chloé Zhao attached to direct the pilot of the Buffy reboot, many would want to work alongside the Oscar-winning director, but Gellar reveals she also shot the filmmaker down initially. RELATED: Samara Weaving On Her Gory SXSW '26 Double-Feature, Unexpected ‘Scream Queen' Status & “Quiet Dreams” Of Doing Improv: “I Was A Scaredy-Cat Growing Up” “I just asked people to give me the time and understand that it took us six years to get a sequel to Ready or Not. When you want to do things right, it takes time. Mind you, I also said no to Chloe many times in the beginning, as well. Her passion, and her reasoning for wanting to do it, and why now, and why it is necessary.” During an appearance on the Shut Up, Evan podcast, Gellar opened up about what led her to accept returning as Buffy and work with Zhao. “Chloé Zhao came to me and not just her passion, because I've seen people with passion before, but she knew how to go into the world. She knew what the world was, and she knew the way,” Gellar said. “And that was the first time I said, ‘Maybe, could I possibly do this? And this went on for three years now … me and Chloé going back and forth, saying I could do it, saying I can't, and really spending the time to develop what it is and why it is.” RELATED: ‘Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come' Leaves SXSW Cheering & Gasping At World Premiere Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy. Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong. Comment Name Email Website Δ I am soooo dang excited!!! Can't wait to see it. Charmed reboot was a big let down with all new characters and core changes. I am super psyched that Sarah is going to be involved in this. 🤩🥰😁 Word on the street is Buffy is not in this “Buffy” pilot. That alone tells you all you need to know about where this is headed. Not sure street you are walking down but you are dead wrong. Yup. She shows up in the last 20 seconds, so she's in it, for 20 seconds. Have you seen it? Do tell. Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our annonymous form. Sign up for our breaking news alerts By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved. By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. ","{'href': 'https://deadline.com', 'title': 'Deadline'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:pagesix.com","Olivia Munn reveals the best advice Shannen Doherty gave her after breast cancer diagnosis","https://pagesix.com/2026/03/13/celebrity-news/olivia-munn-reveals-the-best-advice-shannen-doherty-gave-her-after-breast-cancer-diagnosis/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:32:00 GMT"," Olivia Munn said the best advice she got from Shannen Doherty during her cancer battle was to be as assertive as possible. Munn and Doherty developed a close relationship just months before the “Beverly Hills, 90210” actress passed away from her own long battle with breast cancer that had metastasized to her bones and brain. “She said to me having gone through this … she said just be so aggressive,” Munn told the audience during Los Angeles Magazine's The L.A. Woman Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel Friday. The “Your Friends and Neighbors” actress added that she knows she's lucky because she had the “opportunity to fight” when so many women don't. “I don't look at cancer like, ‘I can't believe I went through this, it's really unfair.' There's no place in my mind and my energy to think about how things are unfair,” she said in conversation with the magazine's editor Jasmin Rosemberg. “I just think thank God I'm one of the lucky ones.” During the luncheon, where Munn, 45, was honored as Woman of The Year, she detailed her breast cancer journey and urged women to take the Tyrer-Cuzick breast cancer risk assessment test, a tool that helps calculate a woman's 5-year and lifetime risk of developing the disease. She recalled having a clear mammogram and ultrasound, which is commonly given to women with dense breasts, in January 2023, as well as a zero percent on her genetic mutation test. However, her risk assessment test came back at 37.3 percent (anything above 20 percent is considered high risk). She went to get an MRI just months later in April and learned she had Luminal B breast cancer, a fast-moving form of cancer, in both breasts. Munn underwent five surgeries during her treatment, including a lymph node dissection, nipple delay, a double mastectomy and reconstruction, a oophorectomy (to have her ovaries removed) and a partial hysterectomy. She finished her surgeries in April 2025. “I used to be really tough and I felt like any fight that came my way I would take it. I would not shy away from confrontation,” she told the crowd, which included Jennie Garth, Corinne Foxx, Jane Seymour and her close friend, Jessica St. Clair. “What I realized since having cancer is that, I have this armor on,” she continued. “I think a lot of women, we need to protect ourselves with this big heavy armor and I looked at this mountain that I had to climb and I was like, I cannot climb a mountain this high holding all this extra weight, so I had to drop it.” Start your day with Page Six Daily. Please provide a valid email. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Want celebrity news as it breaks? She said when she got to the other side, she realized, “I'm so much stronger the more vulnerable I am and I'm able to carry that with me every day.” The “Newsroom” star concluded, “We really don't know our courage and bravery until it's put to test and now I know that I have it in me. I know I can take on anything.” Munn — who shares two children, Malcolm, 4, and Méi, 1, with husband John Mulaney — is currently working with Sen. Mark Kelly to try and get something passed to include the lifetime risk assessment test as standard care for every woman. “I don't feel that it's fair for women to always have to know about the things they need to ask their doctors to do,” she said. Munn previously thanked Doherty for helping her through her battle during Hollywood Creative Alliance's Astra TV Awards in June 2025. When Doherty died in July 2024, Munn mourned the loss of her friend, writing on social media, “Just a couple of months ago, she asked how I was doing and if she could do anything for me. True to form, Shannen was offering me her support even though she was in the final stage of fighting this horrific disease.” ","{'href': 'https://pagesix.com', 'title': 'Page Six'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:indiewire.com","‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come' Review: A Sensational Samara Weaving Can't Save This Ho-Hum Horror Sequel","https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/ready-or-not-2-here-i-come-review-1235184396/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 17:12:43 GMT"," By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. They say every time Samara Weaving belts out her one-of-a-kind scream in a horror film, an angel gets its wings. Or, as would be more accurate for the genre, a devil gets its horns. This was true in “Ready or Not,” the darkly, devilishly fun 2019 horror romp where Weaving played Grace, a working-class woman who marries into a wealthy family desperately maintaining their iron grip on money and power via a deal with the mysterious Mr. Le Bail, who, as it turns out, is the literal embodiment of Satan. However, putting aside the prince of darkness, the standout of the film was Weaving as she cemented her status as a memorable modern scream queen and joyously compelling action star. Her aforementioned scream, in particular, remains an all-timer, feeling like it is exorcising a deep, primal fear just as it rattles you in your seat. Much as Grace had to battle her way through a nightmarish game of hide and seek where she must survive being hunted by her murderous new “family” until sunrise, Weaving was able to fight against most of that film's prevailing limitations and come out on the other side in one piece. Even when everything then went to bloody pieces all around her, resulting in a wonderfully gruesome and explosive gag of an ending, she held it all together. Popular on IndieWire Related Stories ‘Pretty Lethal' Review: Ballerina Baddies Spin and Slit Throats in a Suspense Thriller That Skips Pivotal Narrative Beats See ‘Undertone' with Dolby Atmos, or You'll Miss Half the Horror One would think that another film that provided more of Weaving, her boundless charisma, sly humor, and shattering scream would be tough to fumble. Yet somehow “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” a surprisingly safe sequel that picks up right where its predecessor left off yet goes in disappointingly few new interesting directions of its own, manages to do plenty of fumbling. It's bigger and boasts a larger ensemble, including those played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, and, briefly, a delightful David Cronenberg, whom Weaving must again do battle with. Though just as the scope expands, the creativity shrinks, leaving Weaving having to do even more heavy lifting as the film merely feels like it's going through the motions we've all already seen done better the first time. It's got more moments of properly gruesome silliness, but little in the way of meaningful thematic bite, engaging action, or well-shot horror. While Weaving is sensational once more, managing to make the most of what little she has to work with through almost a sheer force of will, it's a film you'd rather just say “not” to, while sticking with the original. Directed by the returning duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett from a screenplay by the also-returning Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, the film opens where “Ready or Not” closed with the great in-laws' kicker. This line, which could have easily felt like a hacky, womp womp comedy moment, was given life via the wearied and deadpan manner with which the blood-covered Weaving delivered it, ensuring that it wrapped back around to being genuinely inspired. Such inspiration is profoundly lacking here as “Ready or Not 2” immediately finds itself awkwardly building off of this by showing Grace then passing out following this joke and being taken to a hospital. With each shock of a defibrillator, we catch brief glimpses of memorable, more genuinely menacing highlights from the first film. This second one doesn't do itself any favors by reminding us of the strengths that made its predecessor such a hit, but there is at least something effectively streamlined about how it drops these reminders into the opening. Alas, we then arrive at a hospital where everything grinds to a halt, and we get an exposition dump on everything that happened before this anyway. The film keeps explaining itself to you over and over, though rarely do you actually feel anything like the jolt of energy the first had. It's at the hospital where Grace is soon interrogated by a detective, who at first, looks almost like he's being played by Jemaine Clement (unfortunately, he isn't), reconnects with her estranged sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton), who she still had as her emergency contact, explains what it was that happened to her, and then gets roped back into the same cat-and-mouse game she just only barely survived. Only this time, it's not marriage that's on the table, but the High Seat of the Council (which basically provides control of the world) that four families are now trying to take for themselves. Whoever kills Grace and Faith will be the one sitting in the chair, though, again, if they survive til sunrise, all of the rival family members will explode into bloody pulp. We see plenty more of these explosions, but where the first film used them as an incredibly satisfying payoff, the sequel keeps going back again and again to the bloody well to diminishing results. Much of this, save for a smattering of more darkly playful jokes, like one where we see how Cronenberg's bedridden patriarch can wield immediate power with a single phone call, or everything surrounding Elijah Wood's wacky little evil lawyer overseeing it all, proves oddly tiresome. Where “Ready or Not” pretty much got right down to the fun, “Ready or Not 2” does more stumbling about, punctuated with bloody explosions that don't quite hit as hard as they did the first time. That it treats the original film with a strange reference, including in one baffling scene where Grace dons her bloody wedding gown and yellow high-top shoes like she's a superhero suiting up for battle, just further strains credulity when it doesn't put in the same work to making a case for its own existence. Where “Ready or Not” felt genuinely fresh and fun in how it smashed together familiar genre elements, “Ready or Not 2” just rinses and repeats so much of it. It's not ever really scary or tense with the greatest fear you feel coming not from the film, but from its creators who seem to be averse to taking any real risks. It's still often fun to see Weaving cook, especially in how she'll underplay key scenes for comedic effect, but most of the film gets lost in the woods of the massive resort Grace and Faith must navigate. It cycles through the increasingly tiresome patterns of the duo running, getting caught, engaging in stiffly staged and shot fight sequences, and then running again while some expositional details about their estrangement get awkwardly teased out. It's not boring per se, as there is always plenty that is happening, but it is fairly basic, often falling back on predictable contrivances to keep things moving. There are some betrayals, twists, and revelations, though the actual construction of the film leaves you largely uninvested in them when they arise. The cinematography feels flat and drab, with few interesting compositions that stick out in the mind. This is a shame, as a resort, especially one with a golf course, is ripe for great cinema to be made using it as a backdrop. Such places are pristine and beautiful, though also frighteningly artificial, often masking a simmering violence. Unfortunately, there is so little in the way of visual panache to be found in “Ready or Not 2” in how it uncovers this. All it ends up betraying is the film's painful lack of anything resembling audaciousness in either its technical or thematic elements. There just isn't much of anything here to hold onto save for Weaving's performance. The addition of Newton doesn't add any noteworthy bits other than superficial sibling bickering and a forced sentimentality the film doesn't earn. Where the original thrived in its simplicity, most of the expansions this sequel makes feel like clutter and take away from the strong core character. Weaving does get one moment towards the end where she's able to offer something a bit more layered with a choice nobody expected Grace to make, complicating what the entire film was all about. Alas, this comes far too late to leave much of an impression. Instead, it does another retread of the ending we already saw the first time. Blood goes everywhere, but there is no real heart behind it. For a horror film ostensibly about finding a way to play the game of life on your own terms and not by the cruel rules of the wealthy, it's disappointing how much “Ready or Not 2” delivers more of the same but worse. Even when it does bite down, there's no teeth to it. All you're left with is the echo of what was better before. You watch only able to wish Weaving was given more to work with than this, or, at the very least, greater room for her iconic scream to rattle you once more. “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” premiered at the 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival. Searchlight Pictures releases the film on March 19. Want to stay up to date on IndieWire's film reviews and critical thoughts? Subscribe here to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers. By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.","{'href': 'https://www.indiewire.com', 'title': 'IndieWire'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:rollingstone.com","6 Standout Moments from Liza Minnelli's New Memoir","https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/liza-minnelli-memoir-1235530189/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:48:42 GMT"," By Elisabeth Garber-Paul Liza Minnelli has heard your jokes. Born 80 years ago to two of Hollywood's biggest names — the actor and singer Judy Garland and director Vincent Minnelli — she was thrust iinto the spotlight from the moment she left Cedars of Lebanon Hospital. But since her teenage years she's forged her own path. First as a cabaret singer and Broadway star, and then, of course, asthe Oscar-winning star of the Broadway show-turned-movie Cabaret, she became one of musical theater's most powerful stars. She's put out both pop and standards albums and sold out more shows at Carnegie Hall than most artists could dream of. Then, after she hit 60, when many stars would be fading into the background, she captured an entire new generation with her role as Lucille Two on Arrested Development. Throughout it all, the jokes have abounded. There were jokes about the sexuality of her four husbands. Jokes about her addictions, and her struggles to stay sober. Jokes about her standing within the LGBTQ community, and the countless drag impersonators who take up her likeness. Jokes about her looks, her hair, her homes. But Liza Minnelli is going to have the last laugh. In her new book, Kids, Wait Till You Hear This One! the singer, dancer, and, as she writes, “original nepo baby” comes fully and brilliantly clean. With the help of her dear friend (and onetime lover, according to the book) Michael Feinstein, she lays her life out on the page, bunions and all, from her childhood in Golden Age Hollywood, through her very debaucherous 1970s, though her tormented final marriage to a man she describes as an abuser and a con man. Popular on Rolling Stone After all these years, Liza is still kicking. Here's six stand-out moments — but it just scratches the surface of this life well lived. Judy Garland had been raised on the MGM lot, starring in films like The Wizard of Oz when she was a teenager the studio fed her various substances to pep her up, put her down, and keep her in line. By the time she had Liza at age 23, she was fully hooked on drugs. “The constant ups and downs had an impact on me,” she writes. “You never knew which Mama was going to come out of that bedroom.” Editor's picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time Minnelli writes about the night before her fifth birthday when, dressed in a Hopalong Cassidy outfit and joking with her parents in their living room, she accidentally kicked her mom in the head with her cowboy boot. The air in the room changed immediately, terrifying little Liza. “Suddenly she was screaming at me. She screamed and screamed, and it seemed as if the yelling went on for hours,” she writes. This was an accident! Didn't she understand?” She eventually apologized, bursting into tears. “I was so confused. Should I be taking care of her? Or should she be taking care of me?” The incident stuck with her, and she brings it up repeatedly throughout her memoir. The sound of screaming, of audible anger, will bring her back to that moment and make her feel like the helpless little girl again, tasked with managing her mother's emotions. Minnelli has had her share of marriages, boyfriends, and steamy affairs. Her first husband was Peter Allen, but she'd found out he was gay a few years into their marriage —by walking in on him in their bed with another man. And though they'd tried to make it work, they eventually drifted apart. After they separated, she got engaged to her childhood friend, Desi Arnaz, Jr. — Lucy's son. But while visiting London in 1973, she ran into an old acquaintance, Pink Panther star Peter Sellers, and a potent mix of champagne and chemistry changed her course. Days later, they held a press conference to announce their engagement. “If this is confusing to you, how the hell do you think I felt!?” she writes. “I was married to a gay man at the same time I was engaged to two other men!” Arnaz found out in the papers, and was “understandably furious,” she writes, noting that the two eventually made up, at least enough to “share a warm bond today, more than half a century later.” Related Content Inside Alice Coltrane's Spiritual Jazz Awakening Christina Applegate Is in Her Honesty Era: ‘I'm Scared as Shit, Man' Sofia Franklyn Is Writing a Memoir About the ‘Call Her Daddy' Fallout Liza Minnelli Claims Academy Forced Her to Sit in Wheelchair at 2022 Oscars But life with Sellers wasn't what she imagined. “Here's the bottom line,” she writes. “The brilliant comedy that poured out of Peter, his ability to play so many different fictional characters at once, became the real-life problem that tore us apart…. He would scold me, taunt me, bully me in the voices of many difference characters. They weren't fictitious or part of a script. They appeared to be coming from somewhere deep in him — and they weren't pleasant to be around.” With the help of her godmother, Kay Thompson — a singer, actress, and choreographer who also wrote the Eloise books, possibly inspired in part by Minnelli — Liza left Sellers and headed back to New York. There she got back to her free lovin' ways, hooking up with a who's who of eligible men including Martin Scorsese and Mikhail Baryshnikov. In 1989, Minnelli was posted up in London with her old friends Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. to perform a show dubbed “The Ultimate Event.” She'd known them since she was an infant — Sinatra and Garland had a deep love for each other, though Garland knew she could never actually marry him; Davis was a fixture in the Minnelli home, bouncing Liza on his knee when she was a baby. The two men had a tour planned with Dean Martin — a Rat Pack reunion — but Martin had dropped out after a few dates, and they asked Minnelli to fill in. A few months before, she'd had dinner with her friend, Kiss's Gene Simmons, who marveled at the fact that she'd never had a hit record. She was a live performer, she explained. “I reminded him that I had built a career singing on Broadway, holding unbroken records at Carnegie Hall, and in some of the largest venues around the world,” she writes. “He cut to the chase: I was a big star and should be making records with modern pop songs.” He linked her up with CBS Records, who then signed her to Epic and put her in the studio with one of their top electro-pop acts: The Pet Shop Boys. Together, they made Results, with Minnelli crooning standards over Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe's beats. The lead single, “Losing My Mind” — an adaptation of a show tune from Stephen Sondheim's Follies — hit Number Six in the U.K. “We also shot a video that presented a totally new image for me,” she writes. “Instead of a bright and brassy Liza, I was dancing seductively against a dark, shadowy background. The album was called Results but it could have just as easily been titled Departures.” Minnelli first met Ron Howard when he was playing the titular Eddie in the 1962 movie The Courtship of Eddie's Father, directed by Minnelli's father. Liza would babysit Ron, and the two struck up a friendship. Forty years later, Howard called Minnelli to see if she would cameo in his new show, Arrested Development. “I've had tons of pitches over the years from people who want to cast me in movies or TV shows. Most were forgettable. But I knew and trusted Ronny,” she writes. Then she read the script. “This was a show that grabbed you by the funny bone from the opening moments and didn't let go.” A few weeks before she got the call, she'd relapsed, sneaking out of her Upper East Side apartment, downing some liquor at a nearby bar, and collapsing in the middle of Lexington Avenue. Now, she was suddenly a cult figure. “A month after one of the saddest days of my life, I was embraced by a generation of young fans who knew little about my life and career,” she writes. “All they knew was that I blew them away on television. I was suddenly, miraculously, reborn. Once again, a life of highs and lows.” Minnelli grew up taking care of her mom, and helping her manage her own addictions, and it wasn't until her mom's death that she first tried prescription pills. “Stress and tension overwhelmed me,” she writes. “I was reeling, and a doctor prescribed Valium to help me relax just before the funeral. It was the first time I took any such drug, and I marveled at how quickly it took the edge off.” So began her dark battle with addiction that has lasted her entire life. “For me and millions of others, addiction is a disease,” she writes. “Something in your blood that you can't control, a disaster burned into your DNA… After all these years, I finally understand. I've been waging a war my whole adult life with what we now call SUD, substance use disorder … I got it from Mama and she got it from her family. Just like Mama's sense of humor, all of us inherited it in the womb.” Throughout the memoir, Minnelli writes openly about her struggles, and the numerous times she's hit rock bottom. She's been to rehab more times than a reader can keep track of, and while she offers explanations — SUD, her horrible marriage to the late producer David Gest, managing the physical pain that comes with a 60-year career as a singer and dancer — she never makes excuses. It's no secret that Minnelli is still mad at Lady Gaga for their appearance together at the 2022 Oscars. Things had started hopeful — for the 50th anniversary of her Oscar win for Cabaret, Minnelli was invited to the ceremony to give the Best Picture award alongside the pop superstar. She knew she wasn't well enough to stand for the presentation, so her plan, she writes, had been to sit on a director's chair on stage — seated and stable, with a clear eyeline to the teleprompter. Moments before she was set to go out, however, she was given an ultimatum by producers: either go out in a wheelchair, or don't go out at all. This was for her safety, they told her. She pushed back — she was fine to walk out, and the sight of her in a wheelchair was going to spark tabloid headlines about her health. But what hurt her most was that Gaga joined in, insisting that she needed to be in a wheelchair. Minnelli eventually caved — she worried that her not going out there at all would make the headlines worse — but she flubbed the lines, she says, because she couldn't read them from where she was. Trending Stories The Republican Party's Nazi Problem Is Getting Worse. It Should Care Dolly Parton Makes First Major Appearance in Months After Health Concerns: 'I Needed to Build Myself Back Up' David Gilmour's ‘Black Strat' Sells for $14.55 Million, Becoming the Most Expensive Guitar Ever Sold Jack Osbourne Names Baby Daughter After Late Father Ozzy “I feel she cast a shadow over my present career that I'm still fighting to overcome,” she writes. “I can forgive this. But I will never forget it. Nobody who was there has ever apologized to me for what happened that night.” In the limo home, she decided the next step was to set the record straight with a memoir. Her mother had hoped to write one, to push back at the gossip that had consumed her career, but had died before she had the chance. For Liza, things would be different. On the drive home, she thought about the picture that had won — CODA — and the meaning behind its title. “The word coda means the final act, the last passage of a musical composition, or the last moments of a novel,” she writes. “As I rode home from the Oscars, I savored that thought. Writing my memoir would be my coda, my truth. “I know it's a cliché, but there's always a light somewhere to help you escape the darkness. There's always a rainbow — if you know where to look for it.” We want to hear it. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.","{'href': 'https://www.rollingstone.com', 'title': 'Rolling Stone'}","entertainment" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:techcrunch.com","Meta reportedly considering layoffs that could affect 20% of the company","https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/14/meta-reportedly-considering-layoffs-that-could-affect-20-of-the-company/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:28:42 GMT"," TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026: Last day for ticket savings of up to $300. Register Now. Save up to $680 on your Disrupt 2026 pass. Ends 11:59 p.m. PT tonight. REGISTER NOW. Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture Staff Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Crunchboard Contact Us Posted: Meta is considering major layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company's workforce, according to Reuters. These layoffs could help the Facebook parent company offset its aggressive spending on AI infrastructure, as well as AI-related acquisitions and hiring. Meta employed nearly 79,000 people as of December 31, according to a recent filing. “This is speculative reporting about theoretical approaches,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. The report comes as many tech companies — most recently Block — have announced sweeping layoffs that they say are necessary as AI automates more work. But some pundits, and even executives like OpenAI's Sam Altman, have suggested that many of these cuts are “AI-washing,” where executives use AI as cover for other issues, such as over-hiring during the pandemic. The last time Meta announced layoffs of this scale was in November 2022, when it cut 11,000 jobs, followed by another 10,000 in March 2023. Topics Actively scaling? Fundraising? Planning your next launch?TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 delivers tactical playbooks and direct access to 1,000+ founders and investors who are building, backing, and closing.Register by March 13 to save up to $300. Subscribe for the industry's biggest tech news Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunch's coverage. TechCrunch Mobility is your destination for transportation news and insight. Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly. Provides movers and shakers with the info they need to start their day. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC.","{'href': 'https://techcrunch.com', 'title': 'TechCrunch'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:gizmodo.com","'Disclosure Day' Director Steven Spielberg Is a Full Alien Believer","https://gizmodo.com/steven-spielberg-thinks-aliens-are-real-and-wants-to-hang-with-them-2000733598","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:30:12 GMT"," Reading time 2 minutes With Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg has made his first UFO and alien-focused movie in a long time. It may have been years since his last go-around with extraterrestrials, but they're not just a fad for him; they're something he fully believes in. “I have a very strong, sneaking suspicion that we are not alone here on Earth right now,” he told a crowd at SXSW's Friday keynote. (Thanks, Vulture.) While stressing he knows as much as the average person about the subject (aka, not much), he's certain the planet has aliens and “made a movie” about that hunch. That's why so much of Disclosure Day's marketing has been focused on Josh O'Connor's character wanting to perform a mass reveal of the truth to the world, with others arguing there just have to be other beings that exist in this universe beyond humans. The filmmaker entered Hollywood hoping to make a UFO movie, which studios repeatedly passed on. As Spielberg tells it, nobody “got it” back then, and aliens were “on the fringes of science of technology”…but after Jaws came out and became a hit, he had carte blanche to make anything he wanted. So he revived his dormant UFO movie, which became Close Encounters of the Third Kind. If aliens were on the planet, Spielberg understandably thinks it'd shock people, especially the more religious among us, but not to a “lethal” degree. And if he ever got the chance to meet an alien, he'd want to watch movies with them—specifically, his very own E.T., along with It's a Wonderful Life as a way of showing how humans help each other and push on despite various setbacks. Just him saying that probably gives you an idea of what might happen in Disclosure Day, but we'll have to wait until June 12 to find out for sure. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. Explore more on these topics Share this story Subscribe and interact with our community, get up to date with our customised Newsletters and much more. Even when your power goes down, your Wi-Fi won't. Steven Spielberg's next summer blockbuster, starring Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, and Colman Domingo, releases this June. Seems likely that 'Disclosure Day' is going to hit big, so Hollywood's looking to let UFO stories into its heart (and wallet). Plus, new 'Highlander' reboot set pictures reveal Dave Bautista's Kurgan. We had promos of astronauts, mercenaries, and Mario through Super Bowl LX. How'd they all stack up against each other? Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor star in the latest alien film from iconic director Steven Spielberg, out June 12. ©2026 GIZMODO USA LLC. All rights reserved.","{'href': 'https://gizmodo.com', 'title': 'Gizmodo'}","technology" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=men's+us+soccer","Christian Pulisic contract talks paused as Milan and USMNT star plan next steps","https://en.as.com/soccer/christian-pulisic-contract-talks-paused-as-milan-and-usmnt-star-plan-next-steps-f202603-n/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 18:10:09 GMT"," Despite injuries, Pulisic remains a key figure for Milan and Team USA, with season-end discussions set to determine his future. Milan has paused contract extension talks with Christian Pulisic. According to reports from Daniele Longo, the club plans to meet with the U.S. international and his representatives at the end of the season to discuss what comes next and what works best for both sides. Since joining the club in mid-2023, Pulisic has scored 42 goals and provided 25 assists, quickly establishing himself as a key starter. This season has presented challenges for Pulisic, who has dealt with injuries that have interrupted his rhythm. In Milan's recent match against Inter, he played 84 minutes, showing he is gradually returning to form. For Mauricio Pochettino and the U.S. Men's National Team, having Pulisic at full strength is vital. His skill in breaking down defenses, creating scoring opportunities, and setting up teammates makes him the centerpiece of the Stars and Stripes attack. With the 2026 World Cup coming to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, his influence will be crucial. 🚨🆕 #ACMilan AC Milan will resume contract talks with Christian Pulisic. ⏳ Talks paused until after season & World Cup.💰 Milan → believe he deserves a pay rise.📊 New contract could run until 2031. pic.twitter.com/8sI5CLQGV0 Even with setbacks, Pulisic's impact is clear. He is currently in a stretch of 10 Serie A games without a goal or assist, missing two matches due to injury. But before this run, despite a leg injury that sidelined him for five games, he contributed eight goals and two assists, proving his quality remains unquestioned. Pulisic is under contract through June 2027, with Milan holding the option to add an extra year. The discussions at season's end will determine the best path forward for both the club and the player. According to transfer expert Ekrem Konur, Milan are keen on offering Pulisic an extension until 2031, which would include a pay rise. Get closer to the game! Whether you like your soccer of the European variety or that of this side of the pond, our AS USA app has it all. Dive into live coverage, expert insights, breaking news, exclusive videos, and more. Plus, stay updated on NFL, NBA and all other big sports stories as well as the latest in current affairs and entertainment. Download now for all-access coverage, right at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere. And there's more: check out our TikTok and Instagram reels for bite-sized visual takes on all the biggest soccer news and insights. Complete your personal details to comment","{'href': 'https://en.as.com', 'title': 'Diario AS'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=club+world+cup","Should Chelsea prioritise Newcastle or PSG? And who should play? Our writers have their say","https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7114814/2026/03/14/chelsea-newcastle-psg-teams-analysis/","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:16:01 GMT"," Log in Subscribe Now Region Search Top News Podcasts Connections: Sports Edition NFL Home Teams Scores & Schedule Standings Fantasy NFL Odds NFL Picks NFL Draft Podcasts Scoop City Newsletter Free Agency Updates Player Tracker Best Available Grading the Deals Top 100 Draft Prospects NBA Home Teams Scores & Schedule Standings The Bounce Newsletter NBA Draft Podcasts Fantasy NBA Odds NBA Picks WATCH: How Bam Adebayo Scored 83 NBA, Hip-Hop Have Inspired Each Other Fans Embracing The Tank MLB Home Teams Scores & Schedule Standings Podcasts The Windup Newsletter Fantasy MLB Prospects MLB Odds MLB Picks World Baseball Classic Fans Speak Up Top Prospects NHL Home Teams Scores & Schedule Standings Podcasts Fantasy NHL Odds NHL Picks Latest power rankings Playoff projections NHL Draft ranking Red Light Newsletter NCAAM Home Teams Scores & Schedule Bracket Standings Bracketology Printable March Madness Bracket Bubble Watch NCAAW Home Scores & Schedule Bracket Standings Podcasts NCAAF Home Teams Scores & Schedule Standings Podcasts Newsletter Recruiting Odds Picks Best Portal Classes 2026 CFB Predictions Early Top 25 Transfer QB Rankings WNBA Home Teams Scores & Schedule Standings Podcasts Tennis Home 2026 Men's World Cup Home Teams Scores & Schedule Standings Olympics Home Winter Paralympics Medal Table Medal Table Premier League Home Teams Scores & Schedule Standings Fantasy The Athletic FC Newsletter Podcasts Arsenal vs. Everton Premier League Swing Weekends Tudor's Spurs Future in Doubt Liverpool's Summer Task Golf Home Coming Soon to Your Inbox Soccer Women's Soccer Home NWSL Schedule Full Time Newsletter Podcasts NWSL Women's World Cup USWNT College Sports MLS Home Teams Scores & Schedule Standings Podcasts NWSL Home Scores & Schedule Standings Full Time newsletter Podcasts Global Sports College Sports Fantasy Baseball Home MLB Home Rates & Barrels Fantasy Football Fantasy Hockey Draft Kit Customizable Cheat Sheet Downloadable Draft Sheet Top 600 Hitters and Pitchers Top 300 Hitters SP Rankings RP Rankings Terminology Fantasy Football Home NFL Home Scoop City Betting 2026 Fantasy Football Rankings 2026 Dynasty Rankings Discord Peak Formula 1 Home Prime Tire newsletter Schedule Alpine Aston Martin Audi Cadillac Ferrari Haas McLaren Mercedes Racing Bulls Red Bull Williams Sports Business Home MoneyCall Newsletter Sailing Opinion Home Betting Home Fantasy Football Odds NFL Picks UK Betting Memorabilia and Collectibles Culture Home Motorsports Home Podcasts NASCAR Women's Hockey Home Scores & Schedule Standings Teams MMA Home Boxing Home The Pulse Newsletter Cities Puerto Rico vs. Italy Auston Matthews Out For Year F1 Cancels Mideast Races Men's Bid Tracker World Baseball Classic Connections: Sports Edition EPL Premier League Weekend LIVE 34s ago Chelsea lost 5-2 in their Champions League last-16 first leg Justin Setterfield/Getty Images Chelsea have two of their most important games of the season over the next four days. First, they face Newcastle United on Saturday night in a game that could have an immense impact on their push to finish in the Premier League's top five — which should, realistically, earn them a place in next season's Champions League based on the coefficients. Advertisement They then take on Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie. Chelsea are 5-2 down after the first leg and would need to win by at least three goals — and then win a penalty shootout — to have any chance of progressing. So, with the club fifth in the Premier League but battling other teams to keep that spot, should Chelsea focus on Newcastle? Or do they go for glory and try and overcome PSG? Liam Rosenior has something of a selection dilemma on his hands — and not one that will be easy to resolve. The Athletic consulted its Chelsea writers Simon Johnson, Liam Twomey and Cerys Jones for their thoughts on what the club should prioritise, what they would do, and their starting line-ups for both games. Their answers are below. Liam Twomey: This was a closer call before a ball was kicked against PSG. Even in what many consider to be the loaded half of the Champions League knockout bracket, Chelsea's success in last summer's Club World Cup offered cause to hope that they could be a serious threat in this competition. But given the scoreline at Parc des Princes, the top five is the far more achievable target. Simon Johnson: Top five. The damage has been done against PSG. Chelsea may be able to score three/four times against the holders, but you just can't see them being able to keep a clean sheet. There has been only one in the last 12 matches. Chelsea need the financial revenue and prestige of playing in the Champions League again next season. Cerys Jones: Champions League qualification was always a key target this season, and there are only two ways to do so: as holders, or through the domestic league. After the late collapse in Paris, only the latter really feels viable. Twomey: I don't think this is something that BlueCo would shout from the rooftops, but it is very clear that qualifying for next season's Champions League would do more to move the needle financially than a deep (but ultimately unsuccessful) run in this season's competition. Missing out would have a profound impact on Chelsea's bottom line, which has direct consequences for the decisions they make in this summer's transfer market. Advertisement Johnson: I am sure they would have said both before the late collapse on Wednesday night. But Chelsea went into the season with a minimum target of qualifying for the Champions League again for good reason. Anything less would have to be considered a backward step in terms of how their plan is going on the pitch as well as their income. Jones: Unless that extended run were to extend all the way to lifting the trophy, it would not match the commercial and financial impact — or the appeal to incoming signings — of qualifying for next season's edition through the league. Johnson: Newcastle. I am going to sound like I am doing a good Rosenior impression by saying the next match is the most important, but in this case, it is true. Firstly, yes, they need the three points to maintain their place in the top five, and it will surely end Newcastle's hopes of catching them too. But the club have to lift the gloom from what happened in Paris as soon as possible to ensure it does not negatively impact the rest of the campaign. Twomey: This may sound like a classic hedge, but I think Rosenior needs to pick his strongest available team for both matches. This is the serious time of the season when every game is too important to relegate, and players need to be prepared to play every three days. Chelsea also do not have the squad depth to rotate heavily between Newcastle and PSG without almost guaranteeing defeat in one or the other, and it is hard to imagine match-going supporters being too forgiving of a starting XI against PSG that has Liam Delap up front instead of Joao Pedro, for example. Jones: Prioritising one does not mean writing off the other, but Newcastle should be the main focus. Lose that, and not only does it have major implications for Chelsea's league position, but it would also send them into an already near-impossible task against PSG low on confidence. Advertisement Twomey: You can make an argument that Robert Sanchez should return in place of Filip Jorgensen, but that is a matter of selection rather than rotation. Rosenior maybe has scope to start Romeo Lavia or Andrey Santos over Reece James, and it would be nice to see Estevao involved if he is available. But this game is too important for Chelsea's top-five hopes to make any major trade-offs with PSG in mind. Johnson: The best possible, although I would still make three changes to the line-up (see below). I would still start captain Reece James and Cole Palmer, even if that would make them a doubt for PSG three days later, given how their condition is closely monitored these days due to past injury issues. Robert Sanchez is not perfect, but he is better than Filip Jorgensen in goal. He needs a game to get his mojo back to be in a good frame of mind for the second leg. If Chelsea are to go into the latter with any belief they can turn it around, they will need to beat Newcastle first. Jones: If there are lingering concerns about any players' ability to manage a three-game week, a few changes to avoid issues later down the line might be prudent — but Rosenior cannot afford to make trade-offs for any other reason. Part of the rationale for Chelsea rotating so heavily throughout the season was that it should leave the squad in the best condition possible for the run-in. Weeks like this are where that theory needs to stand up to scrutiny, which means the strongest fit line-up possible. Twomey: Pick every regular starter still standing after Newcastle and go for the game from the outset. You can always take off any tired legs if PSG score first at Stamford Bridge or once it becomes clear that the tie is out of reach. But you need to put your best foot forward and exhaust every possibility. Advertisement Johnson: Rosenior has to go for it. A tough Premier League game awaits at Everton the following weekend, but that still gives Chelsea four days to rest weary limbs and prepare tactically. An early goal will get the fans behind them and make PSG nervous. Chelsea did beat them 3-0 in the Club World Cup Final, and that would be enough to take it into extra time. Jones: In the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Arsenal, Rosenior's approach was a defensive start to prevent an early goal that killed any hope before taking the handbrake off later. It did not pay off, and that was with a one-goal deficit to overturn, let alone three. It was also unpopular with the fans. The only option is to go full-throttle. I would argue that at 5-2 down, they have nothing to lose by doing so. Twomey: Chelsea fans have been noticeably warmer towards Rosenior than they were towards Maresca, but I do think naming an obviously weakened team for either game would eliminate a lot of that goodwill. Even aside from the damaging optics of lowered standards in the post-Roman Abramovich era, supporters pay a lot of money for Stamford Bridge tickets, and the least they expect is to see a full and honest effort. Johnson: No. After what transpired at the Parc des Princes, Rosenior can't afford to get picky over which match he wants to win. There are large sections of the fanbase that doubted whether he was the right man for the job after succeeding Enzo Maresca in January, and some of the good work to turn public opinion around since then has been undone. This generation of players may not be close to the standards set by the serial winners of the past, but the crowd still expect Chelsea to win every fixture they play. Jones: If Rosenior makes too many changes against Newcastle and Chelsea drop points that end up being decisive in the race for Champions League qualification, he will be called naive. If he rests players for the second leg against PSG, he will be accused of giving up on the tie. Neither are acceptable to fans, and barring genuine fitness concerns, this is a stage of the season where players should be prepared for a three-game week. Twomey: In light of the fact that Neto is banned for the next two games, Garnacho has to start here. As much as I believe Sanchez is a better goalkeeper than Jorgensen, I do think Rosenior needs to own that decision now, and switching again would further muddy the waters and erode his authority. Beyond that, James and Fofana are the two biggest injury risks from too many minutes, so I would rest them for Andrey Santos and Mamadou Sarr, respectively. Advertisement Liam Twomey's team vs Newcastle: Jorgensen; Gusto; Chalobah, Sarr, Cucurella; Santos, Caicedo; Palmer, Fernandez, Garnacho; Joao Pedro. Johnson: Aside than the goalkeeper position, I would swap the disappointing Wesley Fofana for Mamadou Sarr and bring in Alejandro Garnacho for Malo Gusto. That is more to do with having better balance in attack and defence on both flanks, where Newcastle are strong. Simon Johnson's team vs Newcastle: Sanchez; James, Chalobah, Sarr, Cucurella; Santos, Caicedo; Palmer, Fernandez, Garnacho; Joao Pedro. Jones: From Rosenior's words about Jorgensen and the way he wants to play out from the back, I suspect he will stick rather than twist — that is probably for the best for now. Changing again would only shatter Jorgensen's confidence. Ongoing caution around Reece James and Wesley Fofana, given their past issues, might be prudent, so I would replace them with Andrey Santos and Mamadou Sarr. In an ideal world, I would rest Cucurella, who has only recently returned from injury, but given Newcastle's pace on the wings, that feels risky. Rosenior can always ring the changes at half-time if the situation allows. Cerys Jones's team vs Newcastle: Jorgensen; Gusto, Sarr, Chalobah, Cucurella; Caicedo, Santos; Palmer, Fernandez, Garnacho; Joao Pedro. Twomey: The same core, with James and Fofana returning. Ideally, it would be Estevao starting in place of Neto, but assuming he is still not fit, this is Garnacho's moment to shine — even if I don't feel great about asking him to track Achraf Hakimi's surges forward. Liam Twomey's team vs PSG: Jorgensen; Gusto, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; James, Caicedo; Palmer, Fernandez, Garnacho; Joao Pedro. Johnson: A very similar XI, with Fofana getting a chance to make amends. Advertisement Simon Johnson's team vs PSG: Sanchez; James, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Fernandez, Caicedo; Neto, Palmer, Garnacho; Joao Pedro. Jones: I'm in agreement with Liam, though I would still start Garnacho if Estevao was fit — I trust Estevao's ability to make an impact in a short period off the bench more than I trust Garnacho to do the same. Cerys Jones's team vs PSG: Jorgensen; Gusto, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; James, Caicedo; Palmer, Fernandez, Garnacho; Joao Pedro. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle","{'href': 'https://www.nytimes.com', 'title': 'The New York Times'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:goal.com","Sir Jim Ratcliffe goes public with verdict on Michael Carrick & his telling answer could be a BIG boost to Man Utd interim manager's hopes of permanent job","https://www.goal.com/en/lists/sir-jim-ratcliffe-public-verdict-michael-carrick-answer-man-utd-interim-manager-permanent-job/bltd538f67a9ebe0dcf","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:54:12 GMT"," Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has praised Michael Carrick's performance as interim boss, boosting his hopes for the permanent role. Since replacing Ruben Amorim in January, Carrick has transformed United into the Premier League's most in-form side, securing 19 points from 24 to ignite Champions League hopes and climb into third place. Speaking publicly for the first time about Carrick since his appointment, Ratcliffe told Sky Sports News: ""He is doing an excellent job, yes, absolutely."" Under his guidance, United have accrued more points over the last eight matches than any other side in the division. The 44-year-old appears to have found the winning formula that eluded his predecessors, though the club remain cautious about making long-term commitments. United's resurgence has led to calls for Carrick to be appointed full-time, but Ratcliffe was quick to shut down immediate confirmation. When asked if the interim boss would stay permanently, he simply said: ""No, not going there."" Ratcliffe did, however, acknowledge the importance of European qualification, stating: ""Clearly we are thinking about that [Champions League qualification], but there are still seven or eight games to go, so still a while yet."" The hesitation stems from a desire to get the next appointment right after previous failures. Ratcliffe gave Erik ten Hag a new contract in 2024 following United's FA Cup final victory over Manchester City- only to sack him months later. Similarly, Ruben Amorim was backed despite finishing 15th and losing a Europa League final. Ratcliffe had hoped to give the Portuguese coach three years, but he was sacked in January after just 14 months. INEOS is now keen to avoid another costly U-turn during this crucial transitional period. Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting Should Carrick steer United into the Champions League, his case for staying will be undeniable. Supporters believe a manager who understands the club's inner workings is the key to ending the cycle of instability. While the board stays tight-lipped, the ""excellent"" rating suggests Carrick is leading the race. The coming weeks will determine if this temporary spark can evolve into a long-term solution at Old Trafford.","{'href': 'https://www.goal.com', 'title': 'Goal.com'}","soccer" "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=site:formula1.com","LIVE COVERAGE: Follow all the action from the F1 Sprint in China","https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/live-coverage-sprint-in-china-2026.1IAt0zMzelNDH6XWsK4ecA","Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:41:52 GMT"," Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Current Upcoming F1 Academy Highlights: 2026 Chinese GP Race One Top 5 youngest pole sitters in Formula 1 Live coverage of Saturday's F1 Sprint ahead of the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. Next Up © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited","{'href': 'https://www.formula1.com', 'title': 'Formula 1'}","formula_1"