cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/45741592

April 9, 2026

As a fragile cease-fire takes hold, Iran is sorting through the wreckage from U.S.-Israeli strikes, which have exacted a heavy toll on its civilian infrastructure. The New York Times has verified damage to 22 schools and 17 health care facilities, a fraction of the devastation in the war so far.

The scale of devastation is likely far greater than The Times’s analysis. The Iranian Red Crescent Society, the country’s primary humanitarian relief organization, said on April 2 that at least 763 schools and 316 health care facilities had been damaged or destroyed in the war.

Former US envoys who dealt with Iran have said that the US-Israeli attack on Iran and Tehran’s subsequent closure of the strait of Hormuz have given Iran new tools and resolve to resist pressure to shutter its nuclear programme.

Two senior negotiators for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Obama-era agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief, said the Trump administration’s war had handed Iran a coveted weapon by demonstrating its ability to cut off the strait of Hormuz, an economic chokehold that one negotiator said would help Iran “balance the asymmetry of power” with the US.

“This administration, to say it more politely, cannot unsoil the bed,” said Alan Eyre, a former diplomat who helped negotiate the JCPOA. “There’s no way to get back to the status quo ante before this war started.”

Access to open source visuals of the current Iran conflict, which has spread to many parts of the Middle East, continues to be sporadic. Videos and photos from within Iran trickle out on social media as the Iranian internet blackout hinders the flow of digital communication.

In past conflicts, satellite imagery has provided a vital overview of potential damage to both military and civilian infrastructure, especially when there are digital black spots or obstacles to on-the-ground reporting. But imagery from commercial providers is becoming increasingly restricted, leaving even those who have access to the most expensive imagery in the dark.

Shortly after the war in Gaza began in 2023, Bellingcat introduced a free tool authored by University College London lecturer and Bellingcat contributor, Ollie Ballinger, that was able to estimate the number of damaged buildings in a given area. This helped monitor and map the scale of destruction across the territory as Israel’s military operation progressed.

Bellingcat is now introducing an updated version of the open source tool — called the Iran Conflict Damage Proxy Map — focused on destruction in Iran and the wider Gulf region.

It can be accessed here.

The download links for HWMonitor and CPU-Z were redirected to compromised versions of the files.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/45434604

"Other recent departures have included global head of creators, Kim Farrell, who left earlier this year after almost six years, and Blake Chandlee, who departed in 2025 after leading advertising and marketing for six years.

Michael Beckerman, a public policy executive who helped lead TikTok’s fight against a U.S. ban, also exited last year, as did music chief Ole Obermann. And Erich Andersen, who served as U.S.-based general counsel for TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd., left that role in 2024."

Did they quit or did they DeTikTok? ;)

European airports have said jet fuel shortages could hit the summer holiday season, if oil supplies do not start to flow through the strait of Hormuz within the next three weeks.

Airports Council International (ACI) Europe wrote to Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the EU transport commissioner, saying the bloc is three weeks away from shortages.

The warning will raise concerns of a risk of flight or holiday cancellations if the US and Israel’s war on Iran continues. Oil prices have soared since the start of March after Iran effectively closed the strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for exports from the Gulf, in retaliation.

“If the passage through the strait of Hormuz does not resume in any significant and stable way within the next three weeks, systemic jet fuel shortage is set to become a reality for the EU,” the letter said.

Access to open source visuals of the current Iran conflict, which has spread to many parts of the Middle East, continues to be sporadic. Videos and photos from within Iran trickle out on social media as the Iranian internet blackout hinders the flow of digital communication.

In past conflicts, satellite imagery has provided a vital overview of potential damage to both military and civilian infrastructure, especially when there are digital black spots or obstacles to on-the-ground reporting. But imagery from commercial providers is becoming increasingly restricted, leaving even those who have access to the most expensive imagery in the dark.

Shortly after the war in Gaza began in 2023, Bellingcat introduced a free tool authored by University College London lecturer and Bellingcat contributor, Ollie Ballinger, that was able to estimate the number of damaged buildings in a given area. This helped monitor and map the scale of destruction across the territory as Israel’s military operation progressed.

Bellingcat is now introducing an updated version of the open source tool — called the Iran Conflict Damage Proxy Map — focused on destruction in Iran and the wider Gulf region.

It can be accessed here.

The order came in response to a motion from the defense attorneys for Roberto Carlos Muñoz-Guatemala, a man who Ross attempted to apprehend in a separate confrontation in June. After Ross broke a window in Muñoz-Guatemala’s car and fired his Taser, Muñoz-Guatemala drove away and was later convicted of dragging Ross with his car.

Muñoz-Guatemala’s defense attorney Eric Newmark praised the ruling as key to defending the rights of his client, but also important for public understanding of what transpired in the shooting of Good.

“My client is entitled to a full hearing and to review these documents to determine whether there’s any basis for a new trial,” Newmark told The Intercept. “Ultimately, we’re seeking dismissal of the charges against my client. This information is important because it will help me provide a full and complete defense.”

Don't threaten me with a good time!

asked for a certain

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/45433349

Progressive Democrats eyeing a 2028 campaign – like AOC and California Rep. Ro Khanna – are taking a new stance on Israel: no more military aid for offensive or defensive systems, including the Iron Dome.

Rep. Ro Khanna joins Mehdi Hasan for a for a wide-ranging interview where Mehdi challenges him in a back-and-forth on the Iron Dome, asking why send any aid to an apartheid state.

This interview was published a week earlier exclusively on Zeteo.com. If you want early access to hard-hitting journalism like this, subscribe to our Substack here: zeteo.com/subscribe

Watch the full video to see Khanna also speak to Mehdi about whether Trump should be impeached for his threats against Iran, whether he thinks there's a cover up around allegations that Trump abused a minor in the Epstein files, and taking credit for Pam Bondi being fired.

NOTE: This interview was recorded before the 2-week ceasefire was announced.

#us #news #politics

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...Previously, a creative design engineer would develop a 3D model of a new car concept. This model would be sent to aerodynamics specialists, who would run physics simulations to determine the coefficient of drag of the proposed car—an important metric for energy efficiency of the vehicle. This simulation phase would take about two weeks, and the aerodynamics engineer would then report the drag coefficient back to the creative designer, possibly with suggested modifications.

Now, GM has trained an in-house large physics model on those simulation results. The AI takes in a 3D car model and outputs a coefficient of drag in a matter of minutes. “We have experts in the aerodynamics and the creative studio now who can sit together and iterate instantly to make decisions [about] our future products,” says Rene Strauss, director of virtual integration engineering at GM...

“What we’re seeing is that actually, these tools are empowering the engineers to be much more efficient,” Tschammer says. “Before, these engineers would spend a lot of time on low added value tasks, whereas now these manual tasks from the past can be automated using these AI models, and the engineers can focus on taking the design decisions at the end of the day. We still need engineers more than ever.”

L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez warned this week that Los Angeles could face bankruptcy if it doesn't make an airtight deal with Olympics organizers over how it will be reimbursed for its expenses during the coming 2028 Summer Games.

The Olympics have long been promoted as a "no cost" deal for taxpayers that will be hosted by the city, but funded and orchestrated by private organizing committee LA28.

But a key agreement outlining what city services Los Angeles will provide for the Games – like policing and traffic control – and how the cash-strapped city will be reimbursed for its extra work is now more than six months late.

In a letter to LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover sent Tuesday, Rodriguez warned that if it isn't changed, the current draft agreement could leave L.A. vulnerable to spending hundreds of millions even if LA28 turns a profit.

...

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/44754242

In the seven days after Ansari and Stanton told ICE they would be visiting the facility — members of Congress are allowed to inspect facilities, but ICE policy requires they give seven days’ notice before arriving — the number of detainees began to decrease to some of the lowest numbers the facility had seen all year. 

Almost immediately after the inspection, those numbers began to climb again. 

The facility, first exclusively reported on by the Arizona Mirror, is a 25,000-square-foot facility at the Mesa-Gateway Airport. It opened in 2010 to little fanfare and can house up to 157 detainees and 79 ICE employees, according to an ICE press release announcing its completion.

It is one of many temporary hold facilities across the country, meant to house detainees for short periods of time before they are shipped to longer-term facilities or removed from the country.

But a Mirror analysis of data of ICE detention records that the Deportation Data Project obtained via the Freedom of Information Act showed that, in some cases, detainees have stayed for longer than the 12 hours ICE has said the facility is meant for. 

Newly released data now shows that the facility, which in previous years has stayed below the 157 capacity of the facility, has been surging well above that number — and detainees are staying for longer.

I'm still on my little adventure of pulling my crap off the cloud and realized my calendar is still blowing around out there. What do people use for their personal calendars nowadays?

So I get ads are terrible, obviously. I run ad-blockers all the time. But people also get angry at paywalls. So that leaves me wondering, if not through ads or subscriptions, how is a news publisher supposed to sustain itself?