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WORLD   US   POLITICS  
Intense Israeli strikes hit Iran and Lebanon as US warns the bombardment will 'surge dramatically'
- DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut and Tehran on Friday as Iran launched another wave of retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf countries. There was no sign of the war letting up on its seventh day, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned the US air campaign against Iran would "surge dramatically." The strikes in Lebanon were the heaviest since a 2024 ceasefire ended the ...

Source: bostonglobe.com
US   POLITICS  
Why did Trump fire Kristi Noem as DHS secretary; who is Markwayne Mullin?
- United States President Donald Trump has announced that Kristi Noem will be replaced as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), marking the first major change to his cabinet since his re-election. Noem, who has overseen Trump's controversial immigration crackdown, will instead serve as a special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, a newly created security initiative. Her removal follows a tense, ...

Source: aljazeera.com
US   POLITICS  
Tech industry is in tariff hell, even if refunds are automated
- Trade groups urge court to create a simple blueprint for tariff refunds. It has been two weeks since the Supreme Court blocked Donald Trump's emergency tariffs , but an estimated 300,000 US businesses still have no idea if or when they will receive refunds. Economists have estimated that more than $175 billion was unlawfully collected, and the US could end up owing substantially more than that the longer the refund ...

Source: arstechnica.com
US   POLITICS  
Rep. Tony Gonzales drops re-election bid after admitting affair with staffer
- Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. Swipe for next article Gonzales admitted Wednesday to having an affair with Regina Santos-Aviles, who worked in his Uvalde office Representative Tony Gonzales has dropped his bid for re-election after admitting to having an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide. The Texas Republican wrote in a ...

Source: independent.co.uk
US   POLITICS  
Epstein files with claims against Trump released by US Justice Department
- The United States Justice Department has published additional FBI documents, describing interviews with a woman who said President Donald Trump sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager after she was introduced to him by late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein . The documents had not been made public under previous congressionally mandated file releases related to Epstein, the disgraced financier, because ...

Source: aljazeera.com
US   POLITICS  
Contributor: The stars align for Democrats in Texas. Trump is helping them
- If Democrats expect to flip a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, they'll need all the stars to align. This almost never happens, because politics has a way of scrambling the constellations. But on Tuesday, the first star blinked on. I'm referring to state Rep. James Talarico's victory over Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary. Most political prognosticators agree that Talarico, an eloquent young Democrat who ...

Source: news.yahoo.com
US   MARKETS  
Lenders lift mortgage rates as Iran war hits borrowing costs
- UK lenders have begun raising mortgage interest rates as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has raised fears that inflation will rise and curb further Bank of England rate cuts. Nationwide has increased rates some of its products by up to 0.25%, while HSBC UK and Coventry Building Society have also said they will increase rates. The increases come after changes to the financial market's view of what the Bank ...

Source: bbc.com
POLITICS  
Pentagon labels Anthropic a supply-chain risk
- And Anthropic says it will fight back in court. The US Department of War has issued the first such designation ever applied to an American company, demanding that defence contractors certify they do not use Claude. Anthropic says the action is unlawful and retaliatory. For months, the conversations between Anthropic and the US Department of War were framed, at least publicly, as a negotiation. The San Francisco AI ...

Source: thenextweb.com
WORLD  
Ukrainian troops say their hard-won lessons on Iranian Shaheds apply far beyond their war at home
- The drones Iran is launching at US forces are the same ones Ukraine has fought for years. Ukrainian soldiers say their battlefield experience offers lessons that matter in this fight. Alex Eine, the commander of a small Ukrainian drone unit , said it was "surprising" to see reports out of the Middle East of multimillion-dollar interceptors being used to combat cheap Iranian one-way attack drones. "When long-range ...

Source: businessinsider.com
BUSINESS  
OpenAI releases GPT-5.4 with Pro and Thinking variants - TechBriefly
- The latest API update introduces a massive 1 million token context window, allowing the model to process significantly more data while using fewer tokens than previous versions. OpenAI released GPT-5.4 on Thursday, introducing a standard version alongside GPT-5.4 Thinking and GPT-5.4 Pro variants. The company described the model as its most capable and efficient frontier model for professional work. The API version ...

Source: techbriefly.com
WORLD   POLITICS  
How Iran and Venezuela strikes transform the Trump-Xi trade talks
- The U.S. and Israeli war on Iran has drawn opposition from China and stoked tensions between Beijing and Washington. The military action will set the "mood music" for a high-stakes meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in China, experts say. Before the Trump-Xi summit, top U.S. and Chinese trade officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, are expected ...

Source: cnbc.com
POLITICS  
Trump Straight-Out Says Which Country Could Be Next For Regime Change
- With the administration challenging the Court and Congress, independent reporting is the only thing standing between you and the noise. Your membership funds the courage to ask the hard questions. Don't let the truth be sidelined. Already a member? Cuba appears to be next on Donald Trump 's hit list. But not just yet. The president appeared to suggest U.S.-assisted regime change in the communist-run Caribbean ...

Source: huffpost.com
MEDICINE  
Weight-loss drugs may help treat addiction to multiple substances
- Follow Earth on Google Addiction affects millions of people worldwide, yet treatments often target only one substance at a time. A medication that could reduce cravings for several addictive substances would mark a major shift in addiction treatment. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report that GLP-1 receptor agonists, a group of medicines used to treat type 2 diabetes and ...

Source: earth.com
Top tech companies sign Trump's pledge to provide their own power for AI data centers
- By In a ceremony at the White House on Wednesday, executives from seven major tech companies signed a pledge with President Trump to supply their own power for artificial intelligence data centers. Leaders from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Oracle and OpenAI agreed to the " ratepayer protection pledge " Trump first announced during last week's State of the Union address . The president said the plan will ...

Source: miamiherald.com
US   BUSINESS  
Elon Musk defends tweets in lawsuit alleging they caused Twitter stock to fall before acquisition
- Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... By BARBARA ORTUTAY SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk continued to defend his actions in the months leading up to his 2022 purchase of Twitter in court Thursday as he faces a class action lawsuit claiming he misled investors and caused them to lose millions of dollars. The civil trial in San Francisco centers on a class-action lawsuit filed just before Musk took control ...

Source: orlandosentinel.com
TECHNOLOGY  
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney Agrees to Put on a Muzzle Until at Least 2032
- Epic and Google have called a truce in their years-long legal battle, with Sweeney promising to stop criticizing Google's app store policies. Reading time 3 minutes Google has finally managed to quiet one of its loudest haters, at least for now. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney and Google appear to have squashed their years-long legal beef over the company's mobile app store policies, including rules around third-party ...

Source: gizmodo.com
RFK Jr. Pushes Medical Schools to Expand Nutrition Education
- Home » » Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a new initiative on Mar. 5, 2026, to encourage medical schools to expand their nutrition education programs in the upcoming fall as part of an agreement with the Trump administration. Secretary Kennedy and Education Secretary Linda McMahon reached the agreement as part of the Trump administration's "Make America Healthy Again" initiative . Prior ...

Source: floridianpress.com
WORLD  
Iran denies its drones hit airport in Azerbaijan's exclave as war widens
- President Ilham Alliyev of Azerbaijan has sought Iran's apology after a drone attack targeted the autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, opening yet another front in the ongoing war launched by the United States and Israel and the retaliation from Tehran. Alliyev on Thursday said those responsible must be held accountable after Nakhchivan was "subjected to cowardly fire". Two people were injured in Thursday's drone attack ...

Source: aljazeera.com
BUSINESS  
Everything Apple Announced This Week, From iPhone 17E to MacBook Neo
- The $599 iPhone 17E kicked off Apple's latest round of product announcements, and the $599 MacBook Neo concluded the flurry. In between, we saw updates to both the MacBook Air and Pro lines, a couple of overdue Studio Display monitor refreshes and a new iPad Air . Whew! It's a lot to keep track of, so I've collected all the news in one place. In reverse chronological order, here are all the new products that Apple ...

Source: cnet.com
A Technology for a Low-Trust Society
- Technology A Technology for a Low-Trust Society Polymarket and Kalshi promise the wisdom of the crowds. They deliver something very different. Illustration by Lucy Naland. Source: Alamy. March 5, 2026, 3:06 PM ET Save Listen − 1.0x + Seek 0:00 11:39 A few hours before Donald Trump gave his State of the Union address, Republican sources told the PBS correspondent Lisa Desjardins that the speech would break ...

Source: theatlantic.com
United Airlines introduces new rule for passengers listening to music, videos
- (NEXSTAR) – United Airlines is happy to leave you to your own devices during the flight. They just don't want anyone else to hear them. The Chicago-based airline recently updated its contract of carriage to include a requirement that passengers "use headphones while listening to audio or video content." The new mandate, first reported by CBS News, was added on Feb. 27, according to a spokesperson for United. ...

Source: wfla.com
WORLD  
Key takeaways from China's new 5-year economic blueprint and growth target
- BEIJING (AP) — China on Thursday set its lowest economic growth target since 1991 at the opening of its annual national congress, in what some economists interpreted as a reflection of pragmatism as a weak domestic economy bites. Beijing also released the full draft of its five-year plan up to 2030 outlining its economic and political policy priorities, with a focus on boosting self-reliance in areas like ...

Source: apnews.com
US  
Trader Joe's and Ralphs recall some frozen foods amid glass contamination concerns
- By Iris Kwok, Los Angeles Times Trader Joe's, Ralphs and others have recalled some frozen food products amid concerns they may be contaminated with glass. The recalls come weeks after Monrovia, California-based Trader Joe's recalled batches of its private-label chicken fried rice with best-by dates between Sept. 8 and Nov. 17 due to glass. Trader Joe's on Tuesday expanded the recalls to include vegetable fried rice ...

Source: miamiherald.com
US   POLITICS  
Judge slams DeSantis' 'unconstitutional coercion,' reins in his 'terror org' executive 'decree'
- A federal judge blocked Florida's Republican Gov. from enforcing his executive "decree" against the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), concluding that the order to designate the group a "terrorist organization" violated the First Amendment and "bears all the hallmarks of unconstitutional coercion." In a 30-page order on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a preliminary injunction, writing ...

Source: lawandcrime.com
Forget iPhone 17e: Nothing's Phone 4a Pro costs less and looks a whole lot better
- The Phone 4a series brings fun and thoughtful design, plus camera upgrades and seriously useful features, to Nothing's lineup. Follow ZDNET:  Add us as a preferred source  on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways  Phone highlights include the Glyph Interface, colors, and camera.  The Phone 4a isn't available in the US. The Phone 4a Pro is.  On Thursday morning, there was much ado about Nothing. The ...

Source: zdnet.com
Cisco Issues Patches for 48 Vulnerabilities
- Networking giant Cisco has released 25 joint security advisories covering security patches for 48 vulnerabilities in across its Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA), Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC), and Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) software products. The security advisories were published on March 4 and are included in a bundled publication . The most critical flaws, CVE-2026-20079 and ...

Source: infosecurity-magazine.com
Legendary college football coach Lou Holtz dead at age 89
- Legendary college football coach Lou Holtz, who led the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to their last national championship in 1988, has died, the school announced Wednesday. He was 89. Holtz had been in failing health in recent months, with his family announcing he'd been moved to hospice care in Orlando, Florida. In 33 seasons on the college sidelines, Holtz went 249-132-7, with much of that work coming in South Bend, ...

Source: nbcnews.com
Lawsuit: Google Gemini sent man on violent missions, set suicide "countdown"
- Gemini allegedly called man its "husband," said they could be together in death. A man killed himself after the Google Gemini chatbot pushed him to kill innocent strangers and then started a countdown for the man to take his own life, a wrongful-death lawsuit filed against Google by the man's father alleged. "In the days leading up to his death, Jonathan Gavalas was trapped in a collapsing reality built by Google's ...

Source: arstechnica.com
Sprawling investigation finds decades of sexual abuse among Catholic priests in Rhode Island
- Catholic priests in Rhode Island preyed on hundreds of children for decades, and were protected by bishops more concerned with the church's reputation than the victims, according to a new report on clergy sexual abuse that echoes findings elsewhere . The report, released Wednesday by Attorney General Peter Neronha, follows a multiyear investigation into the Catholic Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island. Neronha said ...

Source: nbcnews.com
Patriots are reportedly releasing WR Stefon Diggs after 1 season
- By releasing Diggs, New England is saving nearly $17 million in cap space this offseason. The New England Patriots are reportedly looking for a new top wide receiver. According to The Athletic's Dianna Russini , the Patriots are releasing veteran wideout Stefon Diggs , parting ways with the four-time Pro Bowler after just one season. ​Diggs made the most of his one year in Foxborough — serving as Drake ...

Source: boston.com
Harry Styles on Liam Payne's death: 'It's so difficult to lose a friend who is so like you in so many ways'
- The musician reflected on the death of his former One Direction bandmate in an interview with Zane Lowe to promote his new album Harry Styles has reflected on the death of his One Direction bandmate Liam Payne in a new interview with Zane Lowe. "It's so difficult to lose a friend," Styles said. "It's difficult to lose any friend, but it's so difficult to lose a friend who is so like you in so many ways." Styles was ...

Source: theguardian.com