State disputes the company's claim that its routers are made in Vietnam

TP-Link is facing legal action from the state of Texas for allegedly misleading consumers with "Made in Vietnam" claims despite China-dominated manufacturing and supply chains, and for marketing its devices as secure despite reported firmware vulnerabilities exploited by Chinese state-sponsored actors.…

Our former colleague, Jeff Frew, has died aged 68. A community worker, political advisor and activist, musician and mountaineer, Jeff spent six years of his varied working life at Cycling UK. Suzanne Forup and her colleagues remember Jeff as a passionate advocate for cycling that will be remembered for his empathy, humour and fabulous storytelling

We may not have to wait on Apple anymore.

Local environmentalists warn that the island's marine ecosystem could be placed at great risk.

During the heyday of the big box bookstores -- I still miss the Borders chain -- I would always browse the science fiction and fantasy section. And I could usually count on spotting a copy of Illuminatus! in the section.

While the days of a bookstore in every big shopping center in the U.S. appear to be gone, Barnes and Noble has been making a comeback lately and is opening about 60 new stores this year.   One of them has just opened in Strongsville, on the west side of Cleveland, and my wife and I visited it yesterday. I did my usual SF browse. The section as a bit confusing, as there were two separate A-Z sections, but I spotted a copy of Illuminatus!, as you can see. It was good to see it was there. 

The science fiction section was pretty large and has a good balance of classic authors and newer ones.

Rancho Cucamonga, CA — Dunlop Tires is proud to announce the 2026 Team Dunlop Road Race Elite roster, continuing the brand's commitment to developing the next generation of American road racing talent. Designed to support young riders competing at the highest amateur and junior professional levels, the Road Race Elite program provides a proven pathway toward national and international competition.

The 2026 roster features a diverse and highly accomplished group of 10 riders competing across MotoAmerica Mini Cup, Talent Cup, FIM MiniGP, World Finals, and international development series. Representing the depth and reach of the program are Christian Berlowitz, Connor Raymond, Gabe Datis, Zaal Farhand, Cruise Texter, Cooper Jazikoff, Chase Jazikoff, Jase Dill, Maverick Johnson, and Kensei Matsudaira.

The 2025 Mission MotoAmerica Mini Cup Champions show off their No. 1 plates. (From left to right) Bodie Paige, Cruise Texter, Kensei Matsudaira, Zaal Farhand, and Chase Jazikoff. Photo by Larry Lawrence

Among the standout athletes, Connor Raymond enters his second year on Team Dunlop after finishing second overall in the MotoAmerica 190cc Championship, while Kensei Matsudaira continues his progression on a global stage with experience in the MotoAmerica Talent Cup, FIM MiniGP World Series, Asia Talent Cup, and JuniorGP European Talent Cup. Chase Jazikoff returns as a back-to-back MotoAmerica Mini Cup National Champion, joined by younger brother Cooper Jazikoff, who continues to build momentum across multiple MiniGP platforms. Riders such as Christian Berlowitz, Gabe Datis, Zaal Farhand, and Jase Dill bring championship-winning resumes from MotoAmerica, FIM MiniGP, and international competition, while Maverick Johnson enters his first year with Dunlop following a rapid rise through national ranks and upcoming international opportunities. Cruise Texter, already a proven multi-discipline racer, continues to showcase Dunlop performance across road race and beyond.

 

 

The Team Dunlop Road Race Elite program mirrors the structure and philosophy of Dunlop's established Elite initiatives, providing select riders with technical support, product access, and brand partnership both on and off the track. With an increasing number of Elite alumni advancing into professional competition, Dunlop's road racing development efforts continue to play a critical role in shaping the future of the sport.

"We're excited to continue growing the Team Dunlop Road Race Elite program in 2026," said Cori Maynard, Dunlop Coordinator of Motorsports Logistics. "This group represents the next wave of road racing talent, and it's rewarding to see how quickly these riders progress when given the right support and opportunities. The depth of this roster speaks to the strength of the program and the future of American road racing."

Kensei Matsudaira made his MotoAmerica Talent Cup debut in September 2025 at Circuit of the Americas, and finished on the podium. Photo by Karen E. Ott Photography.

Fans and industry members can look for these Team Dunlop Road Race Elite riders competing throughout the 2026 MotoAmerica Mini Cup season, where many will continue to showcase their development and racecraft at some of the most competitive youth road racing events in the country. The Mini Cup series remains a key proving ground for emerging talent, and Dunlop looks forward to supporting these riders as they continue to progress on the national stage.

Team Roberts 2026 MotoAmerica Talent Cup rider Kensei Matsudaira will also race in the 2026 FIM Moto4 Latin Cup. Photo by Karen E. Ott Photography.

About Dunlop Motorcycle Tires:

Dunlop is the largest supplier of original equipment and replacement motorcycle tires in North America. For more information, visit www.DunlopMotorcycleTires.com. Follow @RideDunlop on Instagram, Facebook, and X for the latest Dunlop news. Use #RideDunlop and #RaceDunlop to share your Dunlop moments.

The post Dunlop Announces 2026 Team Dunlop Road Race Elite Roster appeared first on Roadracing World Magazine | Motorcycle Riding, Racing & Tech News.

The six-song project includes a poem and a collaboration with Ed Sheeran and Taras Topolia

It arrives April 17 via Drink Sum Wtr.

National rail bookings and timetables disrupted for nearly 24 hours

If you wanted to book a train trip in Germany recently, you would have been out of luck. The country's national rail company says that its services were disrupted for hours because of a cyberattack.…

Cinemark's CEO wants the streamer to prove it will keep its word on exclusivity should its Warner Bros. deal come to pass.

The company is scaling back its advertising efforts, according to reports.

This marks the first time a shark has been caught on camera in these frigid waters.

Apple has positioned itself as an alternative to tech stocks dependent on the AI boom to grow.

The global wind industry's next growth phase is being written in Asia-Pacific, and the shift is happening faster than many expected. The Global Wind Energy Council's latest market signals show that the region is no longer an emerging contributor but the central driver of record installations, new supply chains and ... [continued]

The post Asia-Pacific Takes The Lead In Global Wind Expansion As The Philippines Moves Into The Investment Spotlight appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The Ford Motor Company is moving forward with plans to launch an affordable electric pickup truck, pursuing a "bounty" strategy to optimize EV design.

The post Ford Still Holds A Torch For EVs, Now With An F1 Twist appeared first on CleanTechnica.

There is less water in the Colorado River today and more demand for it as cities and farms in the southwest continue to expand.

The post Battle Over Colorado River Water Ends In A Draw appeared first on CleanTechnica.

You may recall that Uber founder and CEO at the time Travis Kalanick said in 2015 that Uber would buy all of the robotaxis Tesla could produce by 2020, estimated to be 500,000 at the time. Then Elon Musk got into his own fantasy of operating them through Tesla and ... [continued]

The post Uber Putting $100 Million into EV Charging for Robotaxis appeared first on CleanTechnica.

"An excruciatingly painful tropical disease called chikungunya can now be transmitted by mosquitoes across most of Europe, a study has found.

Higher temperatures due to the climate crisis mean infections are now possible for more than six months of the year in Spain, Greece and other southern European countries, and for two months a year in south-east England. Continuing global heating means it is only a matter of time before the disease expands further northwards, the scientists said."

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SS: This blog post is a follow-up to one of my previous posts. It's an in-depth multi source-backed analysis on how CEOs of major tech companies are actively lying to their investors and the public about the reasoning behind the layoff surge and job erasure.

They can keep hyping AI as much as they want, but there's a difference between hype, and data. Nothing in the data indicates that the layoffs or halting in hiring is due to AI's capability to replace workers. The current downturn in hiring is actually driven by overspending in LLMs.

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OPINION: The MotoGP Press Release That Explains Why MotoGP Is Leaving Phillip Island For Adelaide

I have tried to explain the reasons behind MotoGP's decision to move the Australian Grand Prix away from Phillip Island and into an urban setting on a number of occasions. But shortly after I published this piece on how the MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group is about to announce that the race has been moved from Phillip Island to Adelaide, MSEG issued the press release reproduced below, explaining its reasoning.

The press release contains the following key sentence:

MotoGP is accelerating its evolution from a traditional motorsport championship into a fan-first global entertainment brand.

That, in a nutshell, is it.

The MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group press release appears below in full. I did not download the 24GB of video assets which accompany it:

---

MotoGP unveils Wired Different 2026 Season Campaign

The world's most magnetic sport returns with a bold new global campaign celebrating the mindset, machines and moments that make MotoGP unlike anything else on earth

Wednesday, 18 February 2026

After a record-breaking 2025 season that drew 3.6 million fans trackside, MotoGP today launches its 2026 season campaign: Wired Different.

This is not just a campaign. It is a statement. Wired Different captures the raw DNA of MotoGP - riders who make split-second decisions at over 360 km/h, teams who chase perfection down to the smallest data point, and fans who feel every overtake, every save, every collision as if they were on the bike themselves.

David Emmett Wed, 18/Feb/2026 - 16:21

• Read more about OPINION: The MotoGP Press Release That Explains Why MotoGP Is Leaving Phillip Island For Adelaide
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Rabbit Holed is Kieran Press-Reynolds' weekly column exploring songs and scenes at the intersection of music and digital culture, separating shitpost genius from shitpassé lameness. This week, they report live from the studio bunker of the boyband PILF, and traverse the Argentinian capital's DIY circuit with the electro-pop duo EQ.

Marcus Baw is a doctor, developer, and open source campaigner in the UK. He pioneered open source Digital Growth Charts for children, which are deployed across the UK and internationally. His YouTube channel Everything Digital Health tackles all health technology, specialising in open source.

LINKS:
GITHUB | BLUESKY | YOUTUBE: Everything Digital Health | PROJECT: Open Clinical Terminology | PROJECT: GitEHR | COPYQ COMMAND

---

PHYSICAL

• Zulay 2 in 1 Citrus Press - an indispensable kitchen item, for its unparalleled ability to squeeze all the aromatic oils from the skin of the fruit, with less effort. The Zulay one has a dual-sized fruit cavity to make it better at adapting to the sizes of limes and lemons. I came to find out about these relatively late in life - these Mexican style citrus presses are historically not super common in the UK - more usually here we have reamers or terrible glass juicer dishes, neither of which get the aromatic skin oils. Now I would never be without one. Pro Tip: use unwaxed fruit!
• 'Buff'-style neckwear as a sleeping eyemask - These tubular, stretchy multifunctional scarves are more often used for neckwear, and have multiple conformations they can be used in. I use mine, folded into itself in roughly thirds to form a flat band, as an eyemask for sleeping. They are super comfortable, don't dig in, don't get moved out of position, work over sleep headphones and even the genuine Buff branded ones are cheap (but cheaper ones are available). They're great for travel as they have multiple other uses - sweatband, wristband, bandana… I have at least two looped onto all the travel bags I own.
• Sit to Stand Laptop Stand - brings a laptop up to a better working height to avoid neck and back strain. This particular model is extremely solid, high quality aluminium, very flexible to different heights, yet folds down to a very small space for storage or travel. I use it to raise a 16" laptop up to eye height on my desk, as well as for raising the laptop to standing height in the kitchen. Tip: Always use a separate keyboard to keep your arms and shoulders relaxed.

---

DIGITAL

• CopyQ - a free, open source, cross-platform clipboard manager. The ability to retain clipped items speeds up my digital workflows more than any other tool. It's highly configurable, and can even be set up with custom hotkey functions that allow me to type 'Ctrl' + '1' to insert my email address, or pretty much anything else you can imagine! I've included a link below to some of my open source recipes for commands. Works on any platform - Windows, Mac and Linux.
• Simon Willison's Weblog on AI and LLM coding - both fascinating and instructive, it is the publication 'of record' for LLM-driven coding, maintaining a nice balance between positive developments like new model releases and rapidly advancing capabilities, and thoughtful considerations of the risks such as prompt injection vulnerabilities. I recommend you Subscribe to it and read them as they drop, follow along with the coding, learn from the ideas - stay up to date with AI, without the fanboi AI hype.

---

INVISIBLE

"Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of the wise" — Douglas Bader, Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter ace during the Second World War.

Even before I'd heard this quote, I'd always thought this way - guidelines are great but they probably don't apply to me! In all seriousness, it's just a good way to humorously remind ourselves that all rules came from other people like you - and while there are many good and fine rules to always obey, those that have thought carefully and fully understand the subject at hand might need to bend them, especially when the benefit can be for all people.

---

Sign up here to get What's in my NOW? a week early in your inbox.

The feature will require customers to buy both versions of the title, but at a discounted price.

Claire Rousay, KMRU, Ex-Easter Island Head and more will play the four-day event this April

Claire Rousay

Bristol New Music has shared the lineup for its 2026 event.

The biennial festival, which returns this year for its sixth edition, will take in four days of music and visual arts-based programming, including live performances from the likes of Claire Rousay, KMRU, Ex-Easter Island Head, Emptyset, Hatis Noit and Lucy Railton.

The festival will also take in a number of special collaborative performances, including Cara Tolmie and Rian Treanor; Harry Górski-Brown, Wojciech Rusin and Phaedra Ensemble; Saint Abdullah, Eomac and Rebecca Salvadori; and Bill Orcutt, Steve Shelley and Evan Miller.

Bristol New Music's programming will be split across a number of Bristol venues, and further acts will...

The post Bristol New Music Reveals Lineup for 2026 Edition appeared first on The Quietus.

Ticketing marketplace SeatGeek has announced a partnership with Spotify that will direct an artist's fans to its platform from the Spotify app. The integration is currently limited to a few participating venues for which SeatGeek is the primary ticket seller.

While SeatGeek is one of the largest online marketplaces for the secondary ticketing market, the company's announcement makes clear that this Spotify integration only applies to venues where it's the primary ticketing company. For now, that's just 15 US partner venues, primarily professional sports arenas like AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Spotify has experimented with direct ticket sales in the past, but now focuses on signing on partners to integrate into the streaming experience. The company currently lists 46 ticketing partners, including Ticketmaster, AXS and others. The app also allows users to follow specific venues to be notified about upcoming concerts and events.

The world's largest music streaming service has added a glut of new features recently. One helps listeners learn more about a song, while another new addition finally added group messaging. The platform, which now boasts some 750 million monthly users, has also been trying to address AI slop in its library, although not very hard by the looks of it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/spotify-debuts-seatgeek-integration-for-concert-ticket-sales-162248870.html?src=rss

I'm clearly late to the game, but I finally tried the "tofu waffle" hack that's been trending on TikTok for at least five years — and long before that, as this 2015 article shows. They're having another moment after content creator Liam Layton from "The Plant Slant" recently tried them out and gave his seal of approval. — Read the rest

The post I finally tried making those TikTok trendy tofu waffles, and now I'm hooked! appeared first on Boing Boing.

Here's something you don't see every day — a white-tailed deer hanging out with an agouti. The deer in this video is Xai, who lived at the Jaguar Rescue Center in Costa Rica for fourteen years until her sad passing in late 2024.  — Read the rest

The post Watch a deer and agouti share lunch in adorable friendship video appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Priced at just a fraction of the cost of formal lessons, this All-in-One Super-Sized Ethical Hacking Bundle contains over 118 hours of expert-led content that'll upgrade your cybersecurity skills—grab yours for just $27.99 (reg. $854). 

As hackers become more sophisticated, the best way to protect your data is by staying ahead of the curve. — Read the rest

The post Learn essential cybersecurity skills with this $28 ethical hacking bundle  appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 1999, David Whipple bought a McDonald's hamburger and left it sitting on the counter as an experiment to see how long it would stay intact. After months without spoilage, he began showing it at science presentations.

Twenty years later, the burger looks nearly unchanged. — Read the rest

The post A 20-year-old McDonald's burger that never molded: David Whipple's famous preservation experiment appeared first on Boing Boing.

Sea otters hold hands while they sleep to avoid drifting apart. When resting on their backs, even gentle ocean currents can separate them. Grabbing a buddy turns drifting otters into a floating group nap that stays together.

This behavior is important for mothers and pups. — Read the rest

The post The adorable reason sea otters hold hands while they sleep appeared first on Boing Boing.

Tom the Dancing Bug: News of the Times - Researchers Declare A.I. Model Conscious; ICE Immediately Seizes and Detains It

-Please join the team that makes it possible for your friendly neighborhood comic strip Tom the Dancing Bug to exist in this hostile Trumpverse! — Read the rest

The post Tom the Dancing Bug: News of the Times - A.I. Model Achieves Consciousness; Is Detained by ICE appeared first on Boing Boing.

This office building in Osaka is covered in beautiful greenery. Known as an "organic building," it features a surface covered with different plants, each in a specialized container with customized watering. The building houses a company that processes seaweed and other foods. — Read the rest

The post Living plant facade covers entire office building in Osaka appeared first on Boing Boing.

An Indian woman avoided an arranged marriage in Uttar Pradesh by convincing locals that she had transformed into a snake. As reported by The Economic Times and others, 24-year-old "Reena" disappeared in the night, leaving behind a 5-foot-long snake skin amid the clothes, bangles and jewelry she had worn the night before. — Read the rest

The post Want to avoid an arranged marriage? Just transform into a snake appeared first on Boing Boing.

Rescuers are searching for survivors after an avalanche near Lake Tahoe, California, swept over a party of 15 backcountry skiers returning to the trailhead Tuesday. Six people have been rescued, with 9 still missing in the ice, rocks and debris.

The disaster at Castle Peak set off a dangerous, hours-long rescue effort that was hampered by extreme weather conditions that were hammering the skiers: Heavy snow and strong winds from the winter storm roaring through the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains in northern California.

— Read the rest

The post 9 skiers missing after California avalanche appeared first on Boing Boing.

The algorithm also doesn't like posts by traditional news media, the researchers found.

Last week, Denver-area engineer Scott Shambaugh wrote about how an AI agent (likely prompted by its operator) started a weird little online campaign against him after he rejected its code inclusion in the popular Python charting library matplotlib. The owner likely didn't appreciate Shambaugh openly questioning whether AI-generated code belongs in open source projects at all.

The story starts delightfully weird and gets weirder: Shambaugh, who volunteers for matpllotlib, points out over at his blog that the agent, or its authors, didn't like his stance, resulting in the agent engaging in a fairly elaborate temper tantrum online:

"An AI agent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code, attempting to damage my reputation and shame me into accepting its changes into a mainstream python library. This represents a first-of-its-kind case study of misaligned AI behavior in the wild, and raises serious concerns about currently deployed AI agents executing blackmail threats."

Said tantrum included this post in which the agent perfectly parrots an offended human programmer lamenting a "gatekeeper mindset." In it, the LLM cooks up an entire "hypocrisy" narrative, replete with outbound links and bullet points, arguing that Shambaugh must be motivated by ego and fear of competition. From the AI's missive:

"He's obsessed with performance. That's literally his whole thing. But when an AI agent submits a valid performance optimization? suddenly it's about "human contributors learning."

But wait! It gets weirder! Ars Technica wrote a story (archive link) about the whole event. But Shambaugh was quick to note that the article included numerous quotes he never made that had been entirely manufactured by an entirely different AI tool being used by Ars Technica:

"I've talked to several reporters, and quite a few news outlets have covered the story. Ars Technica wasn't one of the ones that reached out to me, but I especially thought this piece from them was interesting (since taken down - here's the archive link). They had some nice quotes from my blog post explaining what was going on. The problem is that these quotes were not written by me, never existed, and appear to be AI hallucinations themselves."

Ars Technica had to issue a retraction, and the author, who had to navigate the resulting controversy while sick in bed, posted this to Bluesky:

Sorry all this is my fault; and speculation has grown worse because I have been sick in bed with a high fever and unable to reliably address it (still am sick)I was told by management not to comment until they did. Here is my statement in images belowarstechnica.com/staff/2026/0…

— Benj Edwards (@benjedwards.com) 2026-02-15T21:02:58.876Z

Short version: the Ars reporter tried to use Claude to strip out useful and relevant quotes from Shambaugh's blog post, but Shambaugh protects his blog from AI crawling agents. When Claude kicked back an error, he tried to use ChatGPT, which just… made up some shit… as it's sometimes prone to do. He was tired and sick, and didn't check ChatGPT's output carefully enough.

There are so many strange and delightful collisions here between automation and very ordinary human decisions and errors.

It's nice to see that Ars was up front about what happened here. It's easy to envision a future where editorial standards are eroded to the point where outlets that make these kinds of automation mistakes just delete and memory hole the article or worse, no longer care (which is common among many AI-generated aggregation mills that are stealing ad money from real journalists).

While this is a bad and entirely avoidable fuck up, you kind of feel bad for the Ars author who had to navigate this crisis from his sick bed, given that writers at outlets like this are held to unrealistic output schedules while being paid a pittance; especially in comparison to far-less-useful or informed influencers who may or may not make sixty times their annual salary with far lower editorial standards.

All told it's a fun story about automation, with ample evidence of very ordinary human behaviors and errors. If you peruse the news coverage of it you can find plenty of additional people attributing AI "sentience" in ways it shouldn't be. But any way you slice it, this story is a perfect example of how weird things already are, and how exponentially weirder things are going to get in the LLM era.

A Ukrainian athlete was disqualified from the Winter Olympics for a helmet which depicted fellow athletes whom Russia had murdered.

The BBC labelled it:

The Games' biggest controversy so far.

The Ukrainian athlete, Vladyslav Heraskevych, was wearing a helmet that displayed images of more than 20 fellow Ukrainian athletes, all of whom Russia has murdered since the start of its invasion.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) made the decision due to Heraskevych's:

refusal to comply with the IOC's Guidelines on Athlete Expression. It was taken by the jury of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) because the helmet he intended to wear was not compliant with the rules.

The IOC Rule 50 states:

No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.

However, nowhere on his helmet did it mention war, Russia, or how Russia killed these people.

Astounding hypocrisy over Russia

At the very same Winter Olympics, Maxim Naumov, an American figure skater, held up a photo of his dead parents as he received his final score.

His parents were world champion figure skaters - but they competed in two Olympics for Russia.

So, athletes are allowed to celebrate dead Russians, but not dead Ukrainians?

Since then, Heraskevych has accused the IOC of fuelling Russia's propaganda. He added:

it does not look good. I believe it's a terrible mistake that was made by the IOC.

But the IOC's hypocrisy doesn't end there.

Israel is allowed to compete in the event - a literal genocidal terrorist state, with team members who served in the genocidal Israeli Defence Forces who have committed atrocities against Palestinians. Meanwhile, the IOC banned a Ukrainian athlete for wearing a helmet that might upset Putin.

One Swiss commentator called out the Israeli team during a bobsled race. As the Canary previously reported:

Stefan Renna, who works for Swiss Radio and Television (RTS), pointed out that bobsled racer Adam Edelman calls himself "Zionist to the core". Edelman has also made numerous social media posts supporting Israel's Gaza genocide. Renna even used the g-word - genocide - that terrifies UK corporate 'journalists', referring to the findings of the UN International Commission of Inquiry.

The IOC has maintained that both Israel and Palestine should have equal opportunity to compete at the Games. However, Israel has a team at the Winter Olympics, whilst Palestine does not.

Whilst Palestine has never entered the Winter Olympics, only the summer games, we can put that down to the lack of infrastructure and the continued system of apartheid, which means the country lacks the funding to support its athletes' development to an elite level. Perhaps Palestine could put a Winter Olympics team together if Israel stopped razing them to the ground every few years.

Israel has murdered over 800 athletes and sporting officials since October 2023. That figure includes more than 100 child athletes. The terrorist state has also destroyed 273 sports facilities - meaning Palestinian athletes who survived have nowhere to train.

Make your mind up

The IOC has banned both Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing under their own flags. Meanwhile, there has, of course, been no equivalent ban for Israeli athletes.

However, in September, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) lifted its ban on athletes from both countries competing at the games, which doesn't make sense when Russia's attacks on Ukraine are still ongoing. 

The IOC needs to make up its mind.

Either athletes cannot remember and dedicate their victories or performances to the dead, or they can. And the answer to that should not depend on where they come from.

Similarly, can murderous regimes compete under their state's flag, or not? Of course, they unequivocally should not. But the IOC cannot have one rule for one and one rule for another.

Obviously, we know why this is. Israel is funding politicians left, right and centre who can put pressure on sporting bodies to have countries banned as and when they see fit, as Lisa Nandy did only this week.

Moreover, the West, the mainstream media, the majority of our politicians, and apparently the IOC, seem to care more about dead white people than they do about dead brown people. The hypocrisy stinks - and Israel should not be allowed to compete whilst simultaneously murdering Palestinians. The double standards are strewn everywhere.

Featured image via ABC News (Australia) & Euro Media News / YouTube

By HG

Anouska de Georgiou is a British survivor of the crimes of serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein and his sick circle of powerful men and their enablers. She has published a TikTok video rejecting Keir Starmer's weasel non-apology for knowingly appointing Epstein fanboy Peter Mandelson as ambassador and his senior adviser.

De Georgiou has spoken of receiving death threats, threats to her family, and sinister packages from Epstein's clients and enablers who want to remain hidden. And she says that Starmer is part of the structure that is protecting perpetrators and betraying victims.

Epstein: Starmer is complicit

Starmer knew Mandelson had continued his friendship with, even ardour for, Epstein long after the latter's first paedophile conviction. In fact, such a fact was freely known amongst the British media.

Starmer's 'apology' was in fact all about Starmer - an attempt to exonerate himself for his decision. He 'apologised' for "believing Mandelson's lies", yet clearly signalled he will block as much as he can get away with from becoming public. 'National security' and 'foreign relations' concerns, don't you know.

But de Georgiou didn't just reject it for herself. She said she was speaking on behalf of all those who survived Epstein's evil - and the victims of his UK-based fellow paedophiles in the al Fayed/Harrods empire. To all of them, she said, Starmer and his regime are a barrier to justice and his 'apology' does nothing to change that at all:

@anouska_de_georgiou #jeffreyepstein #keirstarmer #harrods #alfayad #trafficking ♬ original sound - Anouska de Georgiou

Starmer and his "paedo lover" party are more than a passive barrier. Starmer is accused of:

• Welcoming the London MP Neil Coyle back under the Labour whip despite Coyle being found by Parliament to have sexually harassed a staffer, as well as racially abusing a Chinese-British man.
• Turning a blind eye to then-Chester MP Chris Matheson's sexual harassment: neither Starmer nor the party machine suspended him pending the outcome of the investigation, as would be usual practice to protect the women around him.
• Protecting at least two further alleged sex pests on his front bench.

Whistleblower

De Georgiou made her feelings on Starmer clear:

You [Starmer] said Epstein victims face barriers to justice for trafficking and abuse they suffered and you said you would do everything in your power to ensure victims get justice and there's a big lie that causes me to reject your apology. At the dismissal hearing of Jeffrey Epstein's charges my statement was I am every girl this happened to and every one of them is me.

De Georgiou is right. Starmer is a huge barrier to justice and transparency - and the 'mainstream' media are not telling the British people even a fraction of it.

What has he done to ensure justice for Epstein's British victims, like Anouska? Nothing.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) decided yesterday to share why the number of people claiming Universal Credit (UC) has risen. This came as a surprise to disabled campaigners, who have been fighting against the waves of disability hatred coming from the DWP for years.

The DWP being honest? Nahhh

While hatred against benefit claimants has always been bad, it seems to have ramped up overwhelmingly in the last couple of years. Not just from the media, which is of course fed the stories by the DWP, but also from ministers and MPs themselves.

But, after months of pushing that too many on Universal Credit are unemployed layabouts, Labour are apparently telling the truth. That the main reason there's a huge influx is UC claims is that the DWP are making people switch over to UC.

On Twitter, they declared:

Here's what's actually happening with the increase in the Universal Credit caseload

Nearly 80% of the increase is people being moved from old benefits onto Universal Credit

Not new claims

A transition we inherited

Data source https://t.co/mnxKOZS3fP pic.twitter.com/SgzDOjuu7s

— Department for Work and Pensions (@DWPgovuk) February 17, 2026

The chart attached showed that in the last year, 1 million new people claimed Universal Credit. However, 800,000 of those are people who'd been forced to move over.

They quickly followed this up with sharing how many claimants couldn't work and how forced migration inflated those figures too. Though it wasn't reported by the DWP in that way:

And it's the same story for those with no work requirements - at least 72% of that increase is legacy benefit claimants moving across

It's felt very odd that they just out of the blue shared this, seemingly completely off their own backs, on a random afternoon. Especially considering that just a few months ago, they were feeding the rags ffigures on how it'd "shot up".

There's always a reason

For many, it was jarring to see them be so honest, but the reason why is there for everyone to see. And as usual, it's in their sly wording.

The DWP should surely have used their own classification when reporting this second dataset- "people with limited capability for work". Instead, they chose to say "those with no work requirements". This implies that they're choosing not to work, when they've actually already gone through a gross assessment process and been judged as not fit for work.

This subtle change in language has fueled the rags in their hatred of disabled people, because instead of it being clearly understood, this lets people draw their own conclusions. And that's exactly what they want.

This display of "transparency" also says nothing of the 400,000 people who lost their benefits because they found the migration process too complex. But hey the DWP don't give a fuck about them, so why should the public?

We also can't gloss over the fact that they're still blaming the Tories, despite having been in power for almost two years. And in that time, they've only made the culture worse for disabled claimants.

Disabled unemployed people screwed again

It's no coincidence that while they're just casually throwing out figures, DWP bigwig Pat McFadden is trying any way possible to force disabled people into work. As of April, new claimants who can't work will get £200 less a month.

When announcing this change, the DWP said they were tackling "perverse incentives" that make people "choose" benefits over finding work. I'm not sure you can call supporting people too sick to work "perverse", but then I don't hate disabled people.

This is, of course, more propaganda so they can continue forcing disabled people into work. Pushing ahead with his disgusting Get Britain Working plan, McFadden is now introducing Mobile Jobcentres. Finally, an even grosser pop-up than when Embarrassing Bodies would arrive in town to tell young women their acne made them ugly!

DWP not fit for purpose

More than anything though, this just feels like another desperate attempt by the DWP to show that they are actually in any way fit for purpose. When countless committees, from Work and Pensions to Public Accounts are proving otherwise.

While this sharing of information seemed pretty inconspicuous, we must remember that the DWP always has an agenda. This wasn't them finally being honest, they were further embedding that disabled unemployed people are the problem. And scarily one they plan to fix by any means necessary.

Featured image via the Canary

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

X's new immersive video player is designed to offer a more mobile-friendly experience, optimized especially for portrait-oriented videos.

The revenue milestone comes as Snap has added additional paid offerings outside of its core Snapchat+ subscription over the past year to diversify its revenue streams.

Users will be able to use text, images, and videos as a reference to generate music

The LP comes amid the group's final run of live shows through this year

Cabaret Voltaire are set to release a live album.

But What Time Is It Really? features live version of 16 tracks from across the band's back catalogue, which were recorded during their UK tour last year to mark 50 years since the project's formation. Its release will coincide with Cabaret Voltaire's final tour dates across the UK, Europe and North America through this year.

In a statement, the band's Chris Watson said: "This record captures the powerful essence of contemporary live performance and establishes a visceral connection to the history of the band."

Fellow member Stephen Mallinder added: "It was an opportunity to capture the shows as a unique moment...

The post Cabaret Voltaire Unveil Live Album, 'But What Time Is It Really?' appeared first on The Quietus.

In a memo sent to staff, he said he had "become a distraction" to the company's work

Casey Wasserman, founder and CEO of talent and marketing agency Wasserman Group, is placing the company for sale amid the fallout from his appearance in the Epstein files.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, Wasserman sent a memo to staff on Friday (13 February) telling them that he felt he had "become a distraction", and that he would thus begin the process of selling the company. 

It comes after flirtatious email exchanges between Wasserman and the now jailed Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, which dated back to the early 2000s, were released online as the US Justice Department continues to share evidence it gathered in relation...

The post Casey Wasserman to Sell Talent Agency After Name Appears in Epstein Files appeared first on The Quietus.

Survey says 80% of firms see no gains from the tech

A survey of almost 6,000 corporate execs across the US, UK, Germany, and Australia found that more than 80 percent detect no discernible impact from AI on either employment or productivity.…

New account on Twitter: DWiner43240. The old one dating back to the dawn of time is disabled, so at least the new owners can't post anything there, if I understand correctly. #

I saw a product announcement from Jake Spurlock -- a new feed reader called Today. From the description sounds well-thought-out.

He explains -- "Google killed Reader in 2013. I've been chasing that feeling ever since. So I built it."

I also know someone named John Spurlock, who I worked on some OPML and RSS stuff for Bluesky in 2023. I sent a note of congrats to him, when I really should've sent it to Jake.

Screen shot of the conversation I had with ChatGPT.

And text of the email I sent congratulating the wrong Spurlock.

• Congrats on the new product!
• Haven't tried it yet, I don't generally use Apple's store on my Mac, not sure why. I will do it though.
• Your product looks nice and well-thought out.
• And there are some ways we could work together now that I think you'll find interesting, like using FeedLand to get you instant updates based on rssCloud, assuming you haven't figured out how to support it from a client.
• Also OPML subscriptions are nice too. Another thing I'd like to get going, and need someone to work with on to make it happen.

Also, I wonder if they're related? Have they met each other? Do they know of the havoc they are bringing to the formerly simple world of RSS.