Dorna Sports, S.L., the company which has run grand prix motorcycle racing since 1992, has been renamed. From now on, the company will be known as MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group, though much of the current organizational structure will remain intact.
Renaming the company is a commercial decision, and one aimed at giving the company a more global appeal. In a commercial environment, the name Dorna Sports always needed an explainer as to what they did. MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group does exactly what it says on the tin.
According to the press release issued on the name change, this is the next step in the rebranding process started back in 2024. That was before the takeover by Liberty Media, and part of a growing awareness that the growth of MotoGP had plateaued, was stuck at its current level and needed to find a new impulse to grow. Liberty has since picked up that objective and is pushing it forward.
David Emmett Mon, 16/Feb/2026 - 13:49
Sales of refurbished PCs are on the up amid shortages of key components, including memory chips, that are making brand new devices more expensive.…
Texas-based pet microchip registry Save This Life abruptly shut down earlier this month, potentially leaving hundreds of thousands of pets unprotected.
Microchipping is vital for protecting pets. Pets run away or get lost, and collars and tags can fall off. A microchip can be the difference between getting a pet back and losing them forever. — Read the rest
The post Pet microchip company went out of business and took your pet's info with it appeared first on Boing Boing.
A few days ago I asked Manton Reece if he could add a feature that gave me a feed of replies to me on his service, micro.blog.
- I post a lot of stuff to micro.blog via my linkblog RSS feed. Every one of those items can be commented on. But unless I visit micro.blog regularly, I don't see the comments. I guess people have mostly figured out that I'm an absent poster, and don't say anything. Even so, there are some replies. Wouldn't it be great if the responses could show up in my blogroll. And of course if there was an RSS feed of the replies, I would see them when I was looking for something possibly interesting, one of the main reasons I have a blogroll, and keep finding new uses for it.
The feed is there now, I'm subscribed and new comments are posted in the feed and Murphy-willing I will see them. Bing!
It's a killer feature for sure. But the best part of it is this -- here are two developers working together. This is how the web works when it's working.
BTW a suggestion. Right now the title on my feed is:
- Micro.blog - dave mentions
That's a problem in the limited horizontal space in the blogroll. A more useful title would be:
- "dave" mentions on micro.blog
For most adventure games, the long-term goal can often focus on solving a grand mystery or chasing a lost artifact of the past. But for the upcoming Mixtape, from publisher Annapurna Interactive, it sets its sights on the misadventures of young friends enjoying their last days together before moving on. It's the type of narrative adventure game that shines a light on how good music can bring people together, and how much fun getting into trouble can be.
From developer Beethoven and Dinosaur, the Australian creative team behind The Artful Escape, Mixtape is, in many ways, a tribute to classic '90s Americana and an ode to the rebellious youth of the average suburb. I recently got to play the latest build of Mixtape and spoke with game director Johnny Galvatron about the making of their latest game. Along with sharing his favorite '80s and '90s films that helped shape his vision, he also explained how tough yet rewarding it is to make "idleness" in video games compelling.
"Idleness is hard to explore as a video game, and one of the interesting things about being a teenager is you just hang out a lot, and sometimes it just sucks," said Galvatron. "So I love that we made a game that shows that idleness."
"I think it can be a really hard balance to make something that is based on what is really a hangout film, something like Wayne's World or Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, but to have that be paced well and to be exciting for a video game was a real challenge."
Set in the 1990s, Rockford and her friends Slater and Cassandra prepare for one last hurrah before heading into adulthood. With Rockford deciding to make a daring move to New York City to hopefully connect with her music idol, the crew reminisces on the good times they had going for late-night fast food runs, evading the police in shopping carts, and first kisses with their crushes - and all to the tune of their favorite songs.
On the surface, Mixtape is an interactive coming-of-age story about a crew of rebellious teens, with memories serving as playable mini-games and interludes that capture their feelings at the time. But that's actually what makes this interactive trip down memory lane so compelling. These segments are presented as exaggerated memories of the past, fueled by the music of Devo, Joy Division, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. They're emotional, poignant moments for these characters, tapping into the idea of how moments from our youth seemed bigger and grander than they actually were.
One section I enjoyed playing was an interactive head-bobbing segment where the crew drove across town to get fast food. Different buttons corresponded to fist-pumping and head-bobbing actions, but there were no specific directions, so I just had to go with the flow. This scene was a great bit of comedy that showed off how goofy Rockford and her friends could get while vibing, but it was also a fun callback to films like Pulp Fiction, which used rear-projection sets to simulate car driving scenes (the memory even plays out on a film set). Another segment focused on a photo booth with Rockford and Slater, which put them in a position to capture the best or funniest shots.
But it's not all fun and games with the crew. One segment focused on the friends tossing toilet paper rolls around their school principal's home, which quickly takes a turn for the worse when one of them decides to take the blame to spare Rockford from expulsion. It's a surprisingly heartfelt and sad moment, but it also foreshadows a simmering conflict for these characters.
It's clear that Mixtape seeks to capture the experiences of a particular era, and that the developers themselves had a particular fondness for American movies and pop culture of the time. It captures the feeling of the so-called MTV generation and the intersection of media and the emotional expression of youth during this period. This is also evident in the game's use of a "mixed media, liquid television" editing style, which intercuts clips from TV shows and movies to emphasize emotional and comedic beats.. Rockford even does a Ferris Bueller-style narration for the players.
Given that video game-to-movie adaptations have never been more popular, game director Johnny Galvatron has also had some talks about a potential movie adaptation.
"Obviously, Annapurna is also a film company, and they have those kinds of connections, and let me tell you, those meetings are fun as fuck," said the director. "When people pitch you stuff, it's super cool. I would just say that, yes, I can see it coming. I would probably be totally hands-off on it."
"When you develop video games, you should be changing them to work better within the medium," he continued. "I think when they try to adhere too closely to the way a game works, that can sometimes break down. But yeah, I think if there were to be some adaptation stuff for Mixtape, probably, and I will stay clear of it."
Mixtape feels like a heartfelt tribute to the '90s. While nostalgia bait is increasingly common these days, I felt there's a much deeper message under the hood, and getting to take part in these larger-than-life days of being a young adult has really got me excited for what's to come. I'm hoping the final game will deliver an adventure where I can really savor those listless hangouts with friends.
Mixtape is set to be released on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S later this year.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-creators-of-mixtape-want-to-make-a-great-hangout-video-game-140026928.html?src=rss
The Government of the Canary Islands has declared a state of pre-alert for the whole archipelago due to an imminent weather phenomenon which poses a health risk.
submitted by /u/Big_Statistician2566[link] [comments]
opinion Just as the community adopted the term "hallucination" to describe additive errors, we must now codify its far more insidious counterpart: semantic ablation.…
The US Federal Trade Commission has sent out a raft of civil investigative demands to Microsoft's competitors as it warms up a probe into whether the cloud and software giant has an illegal monopoly across chunks of the enterprise tech market.…
NASA engineers spent the weekend studying the data after another attempt to fill the agency's monster Space Launch System (SLS) produced mixed results.…
If you haven't been convinced that bats are adorable or that some look like smaller, slightly misshapen doggos, here's your final evidence. Meet Duchess, a Western mastiff bat—the largest bat species in the United States. Duchess is simply gorgeous. Look at her giant floppy ears, sweet expressive eyes, and little piggy nose! — Read the rest
The post Here's a Western mastiff bat that I swear is as cute as a doggo! appeared first on Boing Boing.
Even though raw milk can cause sickness and death — see this tragic story of a New Mexico baby who died from listeria after its mother drank raw, unpasteurized milk while pregnant — raw milk enthusiasts, including many in the Make America Health Again (MAHA) movement, continue hyping the potentially dangerous beverage. — Read the rest
The post Raw milk parties make me want to barf appeared first on Boing Boing.
By now you've seen clips from Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing and Attorney General Pam Bondi's pathetic "but the record Dow!" response to questions about the Trump administration's mishandling of the Epstein files. CNBC explains:
Attorney General Pam Bondi chastised House Democrats for ignoring stock market gains under President Donald Trump as they grilled her on the Epstein files .
The post The Gregory Brothers revive "Auto-Tune the News" for the Pam Bondi hearing appeared first on Boing Boing.
The 12-inch MacBook, discontinued long ago, was my favorite laptop. I kept mine well into the Apple Silicon era, and when it died, I went on eBay and bought another one. Microsoft's 12.5-inch Surface Laptop Go 3 feels closest, all told, but it has a low-resolution 1024-line display and comes with Windows 11. — Read the rest
The post Rumored new low-cost Macbook coming in "fun colors" appeared first on Boing Boing.
Courts have held that police can book people on DUI even if they pass field sobriety tests and blow under the limit on a breathalyzer. The predictable result is an explosion of false DUI charges. In Tennessee, 41 DUI arrests made by a single Highway Patrol officer were dismissed; local media found that 22 of the cases involved drivers with no alcohol or drugs in their systems. — Read the rest
The post Cops' new weird trick: fake DUI charges for everyone they pull over appeared first on Boing Boing.
In Drummer, when I get too many tabs open from things I haven't looked at in a while, this is what I do.
- I choose Add Bookmark from the Bookmarks menu
- The menu opens with the new bookmark at the top of the list
- If it's the first time I press Return and enter "Tabs I Closed Recently"
- Then I drag the new bookmark under that headline.
- Close the Bookmarks tab.
- Remove the tab I just bookmarked.
- Voila! Clutter Reduced.
JD Vance is seeking to create a 'trading bloc' as shortages and climate crises mean a kaleidoscope of rare earths are increasingly jealously guarded
The announcement by the US vice-president, JD Vance, that the country is seeking to create a new critical minerals "trading bloc" is a final, exotic, nail in the coffin of the old global trading system. The era of mass abundance, as supplied by unfettered free trade and global markets - "neoliberalism" - is over. We live in a new world of strategic competition between states over scarce but essential resources, with shocks to supplies from human activity and natural disasters an ever-present risk.
This means recalibrating how we think about our economy: the new economic fundamentals today are resource constraints and climate and nature crises, and these, rather than human activity, will increasingly shape the world we inhabit. Flows of finance and stocks of wealth will matter less than stocks and flows of real material resources.
Continue reading...
Hamburg-born producer, composer and pianist David August has announced his fifth studio album, HYMNS - a deeply personal work centred around piano improvisation, conceived during the
Continue Reading
The post David August announces fifth album HYMNS and Listening Session in London appeared first on Inverted Audio.
This cybersecurity book is badly written, contains multiple offensive stereotypes, is technically inaccurate, and spends more time focussing on the author's love affair with the New York Times than almost anything else. Seriously, if you take a drink every time the book mentions the NYT, you'll spend most of the chapters drunk. Which, to be fair, is probably the best way to experience it.
The epilogue pre-emptively complains that "the technical community will argue I have over-generalized and over-simplicifed". I don't have a problem with that; it is essential to write about cybersecurity for the lay audience. But this book just gets things wrong. As a quick sample:
Some pushed to have his cybersecurity license stripped.
Does anyone know where I can get one of these fabled licenses?
Jobert would send discs flying out of Michiel's hard drive from two hundred yards away.
If you can make a disc fly out of an HDD, something has gone very wrong!
It does become moderately interesting when the author stops gushing about the NYT and describes some of the implications behind the hacks which changed our world. The descriptions of Stuxnet, EternalBlue, and other cyberweapons are well done. But it quickly lapses back into lazy clichés.
For example, hackers are variously described thusly:
Every bar, at every conference, was reminiscent of the Mos Eisley cantina in Star Wars. Ponytailed hackers mingled with lawyers,
Their diet subsisted of sandwiches and Red Bull.
These young men, with their sunken, glowing eyes, lived through their screens.
hackers—pimply thirteen-year-olds in their parents' basements, ponytailed coders from the web's underbelly
Germans don't do small talk, and they don't do bullshit.
Then there's this:
To any woman who has ever complained about the ratio of females to males in tech, I say: try going to a hacking conference. With few exceptions, most hackers I met were men who showed very little interest in anything beyond code. And jiujitsu. Hackers love jiujitsu.
I don't even know where to start! Sure, the gender ratios are skewed, but every hacker I know has multiple interests and I don't think any of them include jiujitsu!
It's also sloppily edited. There are multiple odd typos and weird inconsistencies. For example:
Leonardo famously labeled himself with the Latin phrase senza lettere—without letters—because, unlike his Renaissance counterparts, he couldn't read Latin.
He used the phrase "sanza lettere" - not "senza" - see Codex Atlanticus.
not the testosterone-fueled "boo-rah" soldier Hollywood had conditioned us to.
I can't find any reference to boo-rah outside of Hallowe'en articles.
Panetta told an audience on the USS Intrepid in New York. "They could derail passenger trains, or even more dangerous, derail passenger trains loaded with lethal chemicals..
That's not what he said. The author has cribbed a incorrect transcription from - of course! - the New York Times.
Do passenger trains tend to carry lethal chemicals? No, obviously not. It took me less than 5 minutes to find the original video. At 1h 8m 22s, Panetta clearly says "derail trains loaded with". No "passenger".
Littered throughout attackers' code were references to the 1965 science fiction epic Dune, a Frank Herbert science fiction novel set in a not-too-distant future
I'm not a big enough nerd to have read Dune. But most scholars agree it is set in the far future.
A century and a half earlier, in 1949, he reminded the crowd, a dozen countries had come together to agree on basic rules of warfare.
This book was written in 2020. While 1949 is a long time ago, it isn't a century ago. Perhaps this is a reference to the original 1864 convention?
I'll begrudgingly admit that the book does a good job of explaining some of the problems facing the world as cyber-warfare takes hold of industries and nations. But it is hidden behind so much American hegemony and basic mistakes that I found it borderline unreadable. On the rare occasions that the author stops unnecessarily inserting themself (and the New York Bloody Times) into the story, it can be rather interesting.
This is too important a story to be written up this badly.
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santypan/ShutterstockImagine someone has chronic pain. One doctor focuses on the body part that hurts and keeps trying to fix that single symptom. Another uses a more comprehensive brain-body approach and tries to understand what's keeping the nervous system stuck in alarm mode - perhaps stress, fear of symptoms or learned triggers. Because they're looking at the problem differently, they'll resort to completely different treatments.
Something similar happens in environmental debates. Experts sometimes argue about which solutions work best and often disagree about priorities and trade-offs. But my colleagues and I recently published a study suggesting that the divide may start even earlier: economists and environmental scientists have different perceptions of which environmental issues are most relevant.
In a global survey of 2,365 researchers who publish in leading economics and environmental science journals, we asked them to list up to nine environmental issues they think are most relevant today. The answers show two fields looking at the same planet through different lenses.
The environmental issues that researchers notice are linked to the solutions they recommend. If they mainly recognise climate change, they are more likely to see potential in conventional, market-based solutions (such as introducing a carbon tax). If they recognise further environmental issues such as biodiversity loss or pollution, they are more likely to see potential in broader, more systemic solutions.
Climate change was by far the most often mentioned issue category across the entire sample. About 70% of respondents listed it. The second most common category mentioned by 51% was biosphere integrity, which is essentially the loss of nature.
Several environmental pressures that are critical for our planet's stability were mentioned by far fewer researchers. Novel entities, which include synthetic chemicals and plastics, were listed by about 43%. Biogeochemical flows, which include fertiliser, were at about 9%. Ocean acidification was about 8%.
Economists and environmental scientists have different problem maps. When we compared fields, environmental researchers listed more and broader issue categories than economists.
Economists and environmental scientists see the world from different perspectives.
World pieces/Shutterstock
Both were equally likely to mention climate change and other closely related issues like greenhouse gas emissions or air pollution. The gaps appeared for issues less directly tied to carbon such as biodiversity, land system change, novel entities and pollution.
One possible reason for these differences is that distinct disciplines are trained to notice different things. Like photographers, we tend to focus on what our field puts in the frame. Economists often study prices, incentives and policies around carbon emissions, so climate change is a natural centre of gravity.
Different solution preferencesWe also asked respondents to rate the potential of seven approaches for mitigating environmental issues. All approaches were rated with at least moderate potential.
Overall, technological advances were rated highest and non-violent civil disobedience lowest. Economists rated market-based solutions and technological advances higher than environmental researchers. Environmental researchers rated degrowth of the global economy and non-violent civil disobedience higher than economists.
Then, we looked at whether researchers who named a broader range of environmental issues also tended to favour different kinds of solutions, even after accounting for things like political orientation and research field.
A pattern emerged: naming more categories was associated with higher perceived potential for more systemic approaches such as environmental regulation, degrowth and non-violent civil disobedience. Naming more issues was also associated with lower perceived potential for technological advances.
Economists and environmental scientists often advise governments, sit on expert panels and shape what counts as a solution. If two influential expert groups are starting from different shortlists of what the problem is, it's no surprise they end up championing different fixes.
It also helps explain why some debates feel stuck. If climate change is the only relevant issue you see, it's easier to put your faith in cleaner tech and market incentives. If you also see biodiversity loss, chemical pollution and land system change as problems, it no longer looks like an engineering issue. It starts to look like lots of connected pressures that need changes in how we produce, consume and organise the economy.
That topic comes up in our related work on green growth, the idea that countries can keep increasing GDP while reducing environmental harm. Using data from our survey, we found that researchers across disciplines were far from convinced that societies can keep growing GDP while cutting emissions and resource use fast enough.
Economists were generally more optimistic than Earth, agricultural and biology scientists. Those differences lined up with faith in technology and markets.
You can't agree on the route if you don't agree on the map. A more shared picture of the environmental crisis, beyond carbon alone, might not magically solve it. But it can lead to more fruitful research and discussions about trade offs and widen the scope of solutions being considered.
Don't have time to read about climate change as much as you'd like?
Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation's environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 47,000+ readers who've subscribed so far.
Manuel Suter receives funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (Postdoc Mobility Fellowship: P500PS_225579) and is a member of the organisation "Degrowth Switzerland".
- Dorna Sports, S.L. will be officially renamed MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group, introducing a refreshed identity aligned with the future direction of the sport.
- The new name signals the organisation's global ambition, expanding MotoGP's position as a world leading sports entertainment platform built on world innovation.
Dorna Sports, S.L. today announced that the company will officially be known as MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group, reflecting the ongoing evolution and continuous growth of the organisation, which has served as the exclusive commercial and broadcast rights holder of MotoGP since 1992.
The new company name represents a clear vision for the future of MotoGP and reflects the evolution of the sport from a premier racing championship into a global sports entertainment platform with worldwide cultural impact and resonance.
The renaming follows the brand refresh in 2024 and captures the organisation's ambition to expand beyond traditional motorsport boundaries embracing digital innovation, immersive fan engagement, global storytelling, and new forms of entertainment that complement the on track spectacle.
Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group: "The company name change is much more than a new identity - it is a statement of intent. MotoGP has grown far beyond just a championship; it has become a global entertainment property followed passionately around the world.
"As MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group, we are building on years of continuous growth to accelerate innovation and global expansion, while always preserving the spirit and values that define our sport."
The transition aligns with long term strategic initiatives designed to strengthen MotoGP's reach across continents, broaden its appeal to younger and more diverse audiences, and elevate the fan experience on-and-off the track.
The group will continue to lead the commercial, sporting, and fan engagement development of MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3, the Road to MotoGP programmes, the World Superbike Championship, and the newly created Harley Davidson Bagger World Cup - strengthening its role across every level of elite motorcycle sport.
The post Dorna Sports Becomes MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group appeared first on Roadracing World Magazine | Motorcycle Riding, Racing & Tech News.
A group of Muslims, Jews, Christians and people of no religious faith will display placards outside the Supreme Court and the Home Office, in an act of peaceful civil resistance to injustice. They are calling for an end to the Genocide and an end to the government's appeal of the judicial review ruling that the proscription of Palestine Action was illegal and disproportionate.
They stand as a group outside the Supreme Court at 1pm and the Home Office at 2pm on Monday 16 February.
Unity Against GenocideAs a multi-faith group, Unity Against Genocide stands in solidarity with the people of Gaza and the West Bank. Unity Against Genocide is standing in part to counter a narrative that seeks to divide us and silence opposition to the genocide.
Participants also continue to stress that the UK's complicity in the continuing genocide of Gaza and annexation of the West Bank and Jerusalem must stop.
They support the thousands of people arrested after displaying signs in the Defend Our Juries campaign for the de-proscription of Palestine Action.
The Judicial Review ruled in favour of Palestine Action on 13 February. However the government has stated that it will appeal this decision.
Unity Against Genocide will stand outside the Home Office to send a clear message to Shabana Mahmood, that this appeal will be met by continued and escalated protest against the proscription of Palestine Action, and the unwarranted curtailment of free speech and for our right to jury trials.
Unity Against Genocide is separate from the group Defend Our Juries, which has taken regular action since the ban on Palestine Action was enforced. But the activists have taken a stand in solidarity against increasingly oppressive government legislation.
Holding the UK government accountableUnity Against Genocide demands that the government:
- Drops the appeal against the judicial review which ruled in favour of Palestine Action.
- De-criminalises support for the rights of the Palestinian people.
- Issues immediate bail for the Filton 24.
- Stops foreign interference in government & institutions.
- Refuses to participate in Trump's "Board for Peace" in Gaza.
Unity Against Genocide acts to hold the UK government accountable for war crimes. And it demands an end to the corrupting influence of Israeli lobbyists and their proxies on UK government policy.
Since 7 October 2023, over 71,000 Palestinians have been killed; some estimates give a far higher figure. While Hamas has released all hostages, Israel continues to detain nearly 10,000 Palestinians, including children and medical workers, most without charge.
Israel has violated the ceasefire more than 1,200 times, reduced Gaza to rubble, and escalated illegal settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, displacing thousands and killing dozens.
Anti-Zionism is not antisemitismIn the UK, those who speak out against the gross human rights violations being committed by Israel continue to face growing censure. Journalists, academics, healthcare workers, teachers, and authors, among the many Jewish critics of Israel and Zionism, have been disciplined, dismissed, surveilled, and criminalised.
Criticism of Israel, or of the settler colonialist ideology pursued by its leadership, is being increasingly conflated with antisemitism by those seeking to silence dissent and erase legitimate political debate.
Dishonestly conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism is clearly being deployed as a means of weaponising antisemitism and creating a tool to silence legitimate criticisim and condemnation of atrocities being committed by Israeli operatives.
Groups like Unity Against Genocide and Defend Our Juries are not the cause of increased antisemitism and Islamophobia; it is due to the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.
There is a significant and growing number of Jewish people who define themselves as non- or anti-Zionist. They do not believe that Israel's systematic commission of crimes against humanity have anything to do with Israel's right to self-defence or protecting Jews in the diaspora.
Why take action?The Jewish people taking part in this action say, loudly and clearly, "Not in our name!" To suggest, as some seek to do, that there is but one Jewish community and that community is composed entirely of supporters of Zionism, settler colonialism, illegal occupation, illegal annexation, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland, infanticide, and genocide is, in itself, anti-Semitic.
Muslim people taking part in the action are standing in solidarity with those who have for decades in the UK been disproportionately stigmatised and targeted by terrorism legislation, being subjected to mass surveillance, 'Prevent' referrals, and policing that treats whole communities as inherently suspect. Presented as neutral security measures, these laws have normalised Islamophobia and caused lasting harm to Muslim communities.
We are witnessing a terrifying erosion of civil liberties in the UK. The continued imprisonment of the Filton 24, prolonged detention without trial, and the criminalisation of peaceful protest, mark a ratcheting up of authoritarianism and repression by the state.
Participants explain their motivationNasreen Ahmed:
As a Muslim I feel a strong responsibility to stand to stand against the genocide, especially when my government is complicit. If we do not continue to speak up, there is a real danger that all Palestine solidarity activism in the UK will be criminalised.
Mike Laywood:
It is so important as a Jew to not only be supporting Palestine Action and opposing genocide, but to be acting together with Muslims and Christians.
Rajan Naidu (75, Quaker):
It is our responsibility, as people who want justice and peace for all, to do all in our power, peacefully and determinedly, to end the genocide being inflicted on the Palestinian people of Gaza and the West Bank by the occupying forces of the State of Israel.
I concur with this statement, re Palestine Action, from Quakers in Britain.
The proscription of a direct-action protest group continues a worrying trend of state repression against dissent including the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023. The UK is the only country in western Europe to have its civic freedom classed as "obstructed" by Civicus.
Featured image via Defend Our Juries
By The Canary
I need to say something that might make CS leaders uncomfortable: most of what your team does before a renewal is valuable, but it's listening to only one channel. Your EBRs, your health scores, your stakeholder maps. They capture what your customer is willing to tell you directly. What they don't capture is the conversation […]
This story continues at The Next Web
Google has quietly pushed out an emergency Chrome fix after attackers were caught exploiting the browser's first reported zero-day of 2026.…
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December's auto market saw plugin EVs at 34.5% share in Germany, up from 23.4% year on year. Full year 2025 saw EVs at 30.0% share, decently up from 20.3% YoY. Overall December auto volume was 246,439 units, up some 10% YoY. Full year 2025 auto volume was 2,858,591 units, up ... [continued]
The post 2025 EVs At 30.0% Share In Germany - Volkswagen ID.7 Best-Seller appeared first on CleanTechnica.
Published yesterday on BBC, this article covers an ongoing environmental catastrophe. As if it isn't bad enough to be born a Welshman, now their rivers and streams are being polluted with wanton abandon and unprecedented flooding is overwhelming sewers, leaving many people quite literally up shit creek. Energy bills are skyrocketing as most homes in the area were not designed to withstand this wild climate.
Collapse related because even modern, developed nations (and also the Welsh) are struggling to adapt to the unraveling climate, much less capable of fighting it.
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Local activists have prevented supporters of Israel's genocide and French purveyor of mass murder Thales from giving a talk at a Queen's University Belfast (QUB) conference. The weapons manufacturer had been set to give a talk at the NI Blockchain event at the university's Computer Science building. However, around 25 anti-genocide campaigners stormed the room and ensured the presentation could not take place. Embarrassed organisers swiftly ushered attendees out, leaving activists free to hang up Palestine flags and plaster the place with 'boycott Israeli apartheid' stickers.
Thales are well known to have links to the 'Israeli' military. Until very recently, they produced various drones through its then subsidiary UTacS, which was jointly owned by Elbit Systems. Elbit is the backbone of the genocidal settler-colony's weapons industry. Thales recently sold UTacS to the Zionist arms firm.
Strong links between Thales and IsraelIn a report entitled "Exposed: The UK firms supplying Elbit Systems", the always excellent Declassified UK reported on how:
Thales in Crawley has exported radar components to Elbit in Haifa. On 6 November 2025, the company also sent an "I-Master airborne surveillance radar" to Israel.
The I-Master "delivers all-weather surveillance, pattern of life monitoring, change detection and wide area-coverage", according to Thales. "It detects and locates moving and stationary targets at long stand-off ranges over land and sea".
It was exported under the ML5b licence, according to the shipping document, which covers "target acquisition, designation, range-finding, surveillance or tracking systems".
Thales claim the materials it sends to the settler-colony are:
…intended for re-exporting purposes to a European end user.
Declassified UK point out how meaningless this is, as the British government does not have a means of checking whether Israeli Genocide Forces use anything sent to so-called 'Israel'.
This shipment seems to directly contradict a statement Thales gave in December 2025, in which they said:
Thales has not delivered any defence equipment, or any equipment enabling the operation of a defence system, to the Israeli armed forces or to Israeli manufacturers.
Thales has not exported any weapon or any lethal system to the Israeli armed forces, either directly or through third-party manufacturers.
This was in the wake of opposition from parents who opposed local schools partnering with the criminal company to boost its recruitment. Thales also has a factory in East Belfast which is a regular target for pro-Palestine protesters.
Students call for QUB to end its complicityThe protest at QUB was led by Connolly Youth Movement activists. In a statement, they said:
Anti-imperialists from the Connolly Youth Movement, QUB Palestine Assembly and BDS Belfast, disrupted Thales' talk at the conference and the war criminals immediately packed up and left. These arms manufacturers raise millions in profits off the back of genocide and have no place on our campuses.
This shows the power of collective, direct actions which ensure that these vultures have no room to breathe. This action is part of a long-running campaign to pressure QUB to sever all its links with Zionism and arms manufacturers, driving them off our campus and divesting from all complicit institutions.
The university continues to partner with these vile merchants of death. At a protest in October 2025, students highlighted its ongoing relationship with BAE Systems, which helps to manufacture the F-35 warplane used to murder innocent Palestinians. They said:
Queen's boasts of "Partnering with BAE Systems on video based semantic analysis of crowd behaviour" and provides placements for students.
They also highlighted similar arrangements with Caterpillar, notorious for supplying the bulldozers used to wreck Palestinian homes. QUB also insists on maintaining indirect investments in 'Israeli' companies.
But we're still not done - despite cutting ties with Epstein associate and alleged rapist George Mitchell, the university persists in keeping fellow Epstein fraterniser Hillary Clinton as chancellor. The former US secretary of state is a perpetual warmonger and committed Zionist. QUB's continued backing of Clinton, and its support for 'Israel' - a practitioner of mass sexual abuse - shows it does not care about basic morality, truth, or even its own reputation.
It is instead an institution that cares only about money and proximity to power, even if it's done on the backs of rape victims and dead Palestinians.
Featured image via the Canary
Clean Up Britain have come up with a new way to make claimants' lives hell. The national campaign announced on Twitter that they think unemployed people on Universal Credit should be forced to clean up litter - or else lose their benefit.
Litter picking MD talks utter rubbish about Universal Credit claimantsIn the video, Clean Up Britain managing director, John Read, stands in a fly-tipping site. He talks the same amount of shit as he's stood in when he says:
people who are recieving Universal Credit should be required to do at least four hours litter picking every single month.
He clarifies in the video that he just means unemployed Universal Credit claimants.
This is bad enough, but within Clean Up Britain's 10 point action plan comes the real kicker. They think anyone who refuses to pick up rubbish should lose their benefits.
This, of course, is a vague as fuck soundbite that doesn't contain any nuance. So it ignores many factors.
The first being that this is already (or should be) a paid job. People are paid to be litter pickers by councils. But with council budgets stretched, this would give them an excuse to cut jobs and make people do it for free. It's a very slim possibility, but if this happened, someone could lose their job as a litter picker, have to claim Universal Credit, and then be forced to do their old job for free.
Using unemployed people as slave labourIn the video, Read says that if all the job seekers in the city did this, this city could be transformed. The important context here is that the city he's talking about is Birmingham. The reason those streets are full of rubbish is that the bin collectors have been on strike for the past 11 months. They're striking against pay cuts and for better pay progression.
So to propose that people work for free to clean up Birmingham is not only an insult to unemployed people, but to striking workers too.
Finally, unemployed people shouldn't be expected to work for fucking free. There's the argument from many that they're working for free, they're working for their benefit. But that's not the gotcha my right-wing Twitter trolls think it is. The whole point of unemployment benefits is to support people while they're out of work, looking for gainful employment. This could be employment, but instead it will be used to punish poor people.
And that's the biggest problem with this: many of the British public would see this as something unemployed people deserve. And the government, which is already using the media to turn the public against claimants, would run with it. This would be used as a threat and punishment to further shame people who can't find work.
Punishing the wrong peopleMissing from this is, of course, disabled people. Would those who struggle in cold temperatures, can't do physical tasks or have neurodivergent and mental health issues be forced to make their conditions worse? There'd probably be some clause in about "severe disabilities", but this would miss out many disabled people. Especially if the way they're trying prove many conditions aren't real is anything to go by.
Litter picking has long traditionally been a part of community service sentenced after someone has committed crimes. So this would put unemployed people in the same category as literal criminals. Which isn't that much of a stretch considering the DWP already treats claimants worse than criminals.
There's also the fact that once again, we are blaming the wrong people for the destruction of the country and making them suffer the consequences. As well as their bullshit plan, Clean Up Britain also tweeted some stats about the national debt
BRITAIN is a three-quarters bankrupt country (at least). We can't afford to be spending £1 BILLION a year on cleaning up litter.
We owe £2.9 TRILLION
We pay £275 million a day just in interest repayments
EVERY person in Britain owes £42,000 as their share of the national debt
Whilst we do have a huge national debt, it's completely untrue that we all owe the same amount. The rich undoubtedly owe much more than a minimum wage worker. When the average minimum wage worker earns around £23,000 a year, and CEOs are on around £97,000 a year, how is this possibly fair?
Nobody deserves to work for freeMore than anything, this is showing what the rich really think of unemployed people. That they don't deserve real opportunities, so they should be forced to clean up the trash like them.
At the end of the day, people on Universal Credit are already made to feel shit about themselves at a time when they're at their most vulnerable. Nobody should be forced into unpaid work all because they're struggling to survive. And nobody should be made to feel that this is all they're worthy of.
Featured image via the Canary
Meta, the parent company for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, plans to introduce new face scanning tech while people are distracted by current political turbulence. The Trump-adjacent corporation plans to package the feature in new smart glasses. An internal Meta document seen by the New York Times (NYT) says:
We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.
The media outlet provides further info on what the tech would allow:
The feature, internally called "Name Tag," would let wearers of smart glasses identify people and get information about them via Meta's artificial intelligence assistant.
Smart glasses are typically paired with AI, enabling voice activated interaction with the specs. Users can instruct the device to send a text message, take a photo or record a video. Some models feature an LED that changes colour to indicate the wearer is recording.
Meta: disaster capitalism following in ICE's wakeThe cynical internal memo likely references the tumult currently sweeping the US amidst the mass criminality carried out by the brownshirts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Trump's personal paramilitary goons have been violating laws left and right as they beat and kill their way around the US, under the pretext of an immigration crackdown.
ICE have already made extensive use of face scanning tech. Meta's glasses would represent another privacy violating move, capturing massive amounts of personal data which may ultimately find its way into the hands of an authoritarian state. Meta has form when it comes to handing over info about customers to governments.
Metadata - which shows who called who and when - has been used by authorities, including seemingly by so-called 'Israel' for its genocide in Gaza. WhatsApp records are one means used by the terrorist entity to determine which Palestinians are marked for death in its genocidal AI programs Lavender and Where's Daddy. Paul Biggar of Tech for Palestine put a series of questions to Meta about how they should be policing rogue regimes like 'Israel' using its data. These included:
How will Meta prevent private information being used by governments to kill WhatsApp users and their families?
Will Meta immediately rescind access to any WhatsApp information from the Israeli government, army and law enforcement?
It appears no answer was forthcoming. Meta's plan to roll out the tech during politically chaotic times has echoes of the 'shock doctrine' described by author Naomi Klein. It outlines a process of 'disaster capitalism' in which natural disasters or political upheaval are seized upon by corporations to ram through major changes that benefit them.
It represents another example of practices first deployed by hegemonic powers abroad, only to be revisited upon a population at home. Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been an eager licker of the Trump boot, and clearly sees this as an opportune time to introduce the privacy violating tech.
Corporate and state surveillance powers must be opposedA previous version of the glasses were able to successfully identify faces and reveal huge amounts of personal info about those it scanned. Two Harvard students paired the specs with a smartphone app they created, enabling them to almost instantaneously identify strangers.
The scan was then sent to the app, which trawled the internet for information about people, bringing back details like their job and home address within seconds. A built-in version of this tech would be even more powerful, creating even greater privacy concerns.
The British government intends to extend its use of facial recognition tech, going from 10 vans with the system, to 50. Civil rights groups are challenging this in the courts, describing it as "stop and search on steroids". The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) are looking into its use, which would be a disaster in a region where violation of rights by state authorities has previously had devastating consequences.
Fascism is often described as the fusion of corporate and state power. Both these power centres are ramping up their ability to surveil us, enabling them to amass enormous power. The prospect of them uniting to utterly crush dissent will be an ever more tempting prospect. Their efforts to advance spying powers must therefore be snuffed out in their infancy.
Featured image via the Canary
The library is seen through a window at the Rensselaer County Jail in Troy, N.Y., Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011. Photo: Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union via Getty Images
American prisons have never been much for the First Amendment, and now, the Trump administration is exporting prison-style censorship to the general population. In tactics that are easily recognizable to incarcerated people like me, they're doing it in the name of "security."
This includes claiming antiestablishment ideologies and literature must be punished because they pose nebulous risks to those with government-approved political views. It also includes the logical next step: criminalizing efforts to keep authorities from finding out that one holds those ideologies or reads that literature.
Daniel "Des" Sanchez Estrada is set to be tried starting Tuesday on charges of corruptly concealing a document or record and conspiracy to conceal documents. He's been in custody since July and in federal prison since October (save for a brief accidental release before Thanksgiving, during which he spoke to The Intercept). He and his codefendants were recently transferred to county jail to await trial. Supporters report that they've been placed in solitary confinement and are dealing with other horrid conditions.
In plain language, Sanchez Estrada is facing up to 20 years behind bars for allegedly moving a box of anarchist zines from his parents' house to another residence in his hometown of Dallas. His indictment came on the heels of Trump's signing an executive order to classify "Antifa" as a "domestic terrorist organization" and issuing National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) on Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.
Sanchez Estrada's case originated with a July 4, 2025 anti-ICE protest his wife, Maricela Rueda, attended outside the Prairieland ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas, where an officer was shot. (Prosecutors do not allege that Sanchez Estrada or Rueda were involved in the shooting.) The home-spun zines at issue contain no plans for any shooting, and under normal circumstances, they would clearly be deemed constitutionally protected speech under the First Amendment. But the government's concealment theory only makes sense if it views merely having the literature as criminal.
While this form of censorship might seem brazenly anti-constitutional to most Americans, it has been the reality faced by incarcerated individuals for decades.
Once possessing literature is considered criminal, it opens the door to corollary charges, like transporting literature to conceal evidence or the "offense" of possessing it. That's what happened to Sanchez Estrada. What other crime could the magazines have incriminated Rueda of?
Last month, activist Lucy Fowlkes became the 19th person indicted in connection with the same Texas protest. Fowlkes's alleged crime is using Signal, the encrypted messaging app made famous by Pete Hegseth, telling people how to delete messages, and removing people from group chats, which government lawyers argue amounts to "hinder[ing] prosecution of terrorism," a first-degree felony.
The founders placed a great premium on ensuring Americans had the right to possess and read anything that attracted their interest, even if it challenged the government.
But while this form of censorship might seem brazenly anti-constitutional to most Americans, it has been the reality faced by incarcerated individuals for decades. In the name of "security," prison officials have punished and even killed people for possessing literature they deemed suspect.
One such case involved Johnson Greybuffalo, a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe who dedicated himself to studying Native American history while in custody at the Waupun Correctional Institution in Wisconsin. His studies included learning about the American Indian Movement, or AIM, a civil rights organization in the U.S. and Canada that works for equal rights for American Indians. He found information on AIM in the prison's library and took notes throughout his studies.
A prison volunteer also gave him a copy of a document titled "Warrior Society" that included a code of ethics that required Native Americans to serve the people, be honorable, kind, and not steal or be stingy. A prison guard searched his cell one day in 2005, and confiscated the AIM notes, along with the "Warrior Society" document. Both were classified as "written contraband." Greybuffalo was written a disciplinary case and sentenced to 180 days in solitary confinement. The disciplinary charge was upheld in part by a federal district court in 2010.
"Reading, writing, or sharing zines is not a crime."
In another case, Kenneth Oliver left an article about human rights activist, philosopher, and scholar George Jackson on his bunk while he went to his California prison's dining hall in 2007. An officer searched his cell and discovered two books authored by Jackson, "Blood in My Eye" and "Soledad Brother." As Oliver detailed on "Ear Hustle," the award-winning podcast created and produced from San Quentin State Prison, he came back to officers swarming his cell, which they had yellow-taped off like a real crime scene. Oliver was handcuffed and held in solitary confinement for the next eight years in California. His only offense was "possessing illegal contraband," which also made him ineligible for new sentence under a 2012 California law easing life sentences on nonviolent "three strikes" convictions. (Oliver was finally freed in 2019 after serving 23 years.)
"The guards said, 'We've been told to get rid of you,'" Oliver said on the podcast. "They want you to go to the SHU [solitary confinement] forever."
Historically, the U.S. government has always used disenfranchised populations as a test case to develop both strategy and legal precedent for infringing on constitutional rights before exporting them to society as a whole. Before incarcerated people faced retaliation for possessing books, African slaves were frequently punished for reading the Old Testament out of fear that the Exodus story might inspire them to dream of freedom. In some places, proponents of slavery reconciled their desire to convert slaves to Christianity with their fear or rebellion by creating a heavily redacted "Slave Bible."
Land confiscated from Native populations eventually became eminent domain. Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's surveillance of Black leaders during the civil rights movement gave justification for George W. Bush's invasive Patriot Act and mass surveillance of civilians. Now, the Trump administration is taking a page directly out of oppressive prison authorities' playbook.
The system that gives those in charge broad power to decide what literature is a dangerous threat to "national security" interests and who they can target, detain, prosecute, and punish criminally for merely possessing it. They may be starting with anarchist magazines, but anyone on the mailing list of Trump's political enemies, whether in possession of an issue of the New York Times or an op-ed written by Marjorie Taylor Green, could find themselves on the wrong end of the administration's overreach.
It's all so circular. When the administration declares a political viewpoint "terrorism," hiding literature espousing that viewpoint from the government is a perfectly logical response. So is using secure communications technology to communicate with others who share similar politics. But when your thoughts and reading list are deemed illegal, preventing the government from finding out what you think and read becomes a crime in and of itself — obstruction of the thought police.
"Daniel has broken no laws," Sanchez Estrada's family said in a statement to The Intercept. "He should not be in jail, should not be threatened to lose his permanent resident status as a part of this case."
Criminalizing possession of literature is a miscarriage of justice, whether in prison or at a protester's husband's parents' house. If the Trump administration is allowed to send Sanchez Estrada to prison for the crime of possessing literature, members of society at large can be subjected to the same pernicious rules as the incarcerated.
In a letter to his attorney published in "Soledad Brother," one of the books that landed Oliver in solitary, George Jackson wrote that if prison officials are able to trample upon the rights of incarcerated people unchecked, "There will be no means of detecting when the last right is gone. You'll only know when they start shooting you."
Sanchez Estrada, for his part, "has done nothing wrong," his family said. "Reading, writing, or sharing zines is not a crime."
The post Prison-Style Free Speech Censorship Is Coming for the Rest of Us appeared first on The Intercept.
If you've been meaning to get a better handle on your finances, now might be a good time to try one of our favorite budgeting apps without paying full price. Monarch Money is offering new users 50 percent off an annual subscription when you use the code MONARCHVIP at checkout, bringing the cost down to $50 for a full year of access instead of the usual $100.
Monarch regularly earns a spot in our guide to the best budgeting apps thanks to its detailed tracking tools, flexible budgeting systems and collaborative features. The app lets you connect unlimited accounts, track spending and investments, set financial goals and share access with a partner, all across web, mobile and tablet apps.
Monarch Money is the kind of budgeting app that can feel a little overwhelming at first, especially when you're setting up categories, rules and recurring transactions. There's a bit of a learning curve, and some of the finer details are easier to manage on the web than in the mobile app. But once you're past that initial setup, it starts to make a lot more sense and becomes a powerful tool for keeping tabs on your finances.
Where Monarch Money really shines is in the level of detail it offers. It's built for people who want a clear, structured view of their money, not just a running list of transactions. In the budgeting section, you can see budgets versus actual spending by category, along with forecasts by month or by year. Recurring expenses can also be defined using more than just merchant names, which helps keep things accurate with less manual cleanup.
Beyond day-to-day budgeting, Monarch does a good job of showing the bigger picture. It includes visual reports and charts that make it easier to spot trends over time, plus tools for tracking net worth, investments and financial goals. Monarch can even factor in non-cash assets like your home or vehicle, pulling in estimates automatically so they appear alongside your accounts.
All of that depth won't be for everyone, but if you're willing to spend a little time getting set up, Monarch Money offers a lot of control and insight. With the current deal bringing the price down to $50 for a full year, it's a solid opportunity to try one of our favorite budgeting apps at a discount of 50 percent off and see if it fits how you like to manage your money.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/monarch-money-deal-get-a-50-percent-off-one-of-our-favorite-budgeting-apps-120000712.html?src=rss
ByteDance promises to tighten up its new AI video generator after viral Cruise vs. Pitt clip [ 16-Feb-26 11:29am ]ByteDance released Seedance 2.0 less than a week ago and enraged artists everywhere with a viral clip AI-generated clip of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting. Unsurprisingly, the AI video-making tool has reportedly already received multiple cease-and-desist letters around copyright infringement. Now, it appears ByteDance is going to curb the new media generator's use of prohibited content.
In a statement to the BBC, ByteDance said, "We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users." It added that the company "respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0." However, when pressed for more information on exactly how they would do this, ByteDance didn't respond.
ByteDance's vague pledge follows a cease-and-desist letter from the Walt Disney Company on Friday. Disney claimed that Seedance 2.0 uses "a pirated library of Disney's copyrighted characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and other Disney franchises, as if Disney's coveted intellectual property were free public domain clip art." Disney included example videos that included its copyrighted characters, such as Spider-Man and Darth Vader.
Paramount Skydance has also reportedly issued a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance to stop Seedance 2.0 from using its materials, according to the BBC.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/bytedance-promises-to-tighten-up-its-new-ai-video-generator-after-viral-cruise-vs-pitt-clip-112941384.html?src=rss
Peter Steinberger joins OpenAI [ 16-Feb-26 10:31am ]
Not long ago, Peter Steinberger was experimenting with a side project that quickly caught fire across the developer world. His open-source AI assistant, OpenClaw, wasn't just another chatbot; it could act on your behalf, from managing emails to integrating with calendars and messaging platforms. Today, that project has a new chapter: Steinberger is joining OpenAI […]
This story continues at The Next Web
