US ambassador to Nato Matthew Whitaker is responding to some of the report’s findings now, saying he “completely rejects everything I just heard,” after the Munich Security Conference report editors warned that the greatest challenge to the liberal international order is “coming from within” through the dramatic shift in the US administration’s thinking about its alliances.

But Whitaker insists the US does not want to dismantle Nato or undermine the existing alliances as implied by the report’s authors, but merely to “balance” the way the defence burden lies on different Nato countries by pushing European allies to “do more and to be capable and strong, because that strength is what guarantees the peace.”

“That’s the first thing I reject; we’re trying to make Nato stronger, not to withdraw or reject Nato, but make it work like it was intended as an alliance of 32 strong and capable allies,” he said.

Whitaker also said that on trade, the US wanted to challenge the “unfair” trade arrangement with Europe, which “turned into Europe taking advantage and running huge trade surplus with the US.”

The government has been urged to re-examine a British company’s contract to export hi-tech machinery to Armenia, after the Guardian uncovered links to the supply chain for Russia’s war machine.

Sanctions experts and the chair of the House of Commons business committee questioned the government’s decision to award an export licence to Cygnet Texkimp.

The engineering company makes machines that produce carbon fibre “prepreg”, a lightweight and durable material that can be used in a wide range of civil and military applications.

The machines are understood to be undergoing final assembly at the company’s warehouse in Northwich, Cheshire, and could be just weeks away from being exported to a newly formed company in Armenia called Rydena LLC.

Rydena was established two years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by former executives of a company that has emerged as one of the Kremlin’s important military suppliers.

Discord announced on Monday that it’s rolling out age verification on its platform globally starting next month, when it will automatically set all users’ accounts to a “teen-appropriate” experience unless they demonstrate that they’re adults.

Users who aren’t verified as adults will not be able to access age-restricted servers and channels, won’t be able to speak in Discord’s livestream-like “stage” channels, and will see content filters for any content Discord detects as graphic or sensitive. They will also get warning prompts for friend requests from potentially unfamiliar users, and DMs from unfamiliar users will be automatically filtered into a separate inbox.

Direct messages and servers that are not age-restricted will continue to function normally, but users won’t be able to send messages or view content in an age-restricted server until they complete the age check process, even if it’s a server they were part of before age verification rolled out. Savannah Badalich, Discord’s global head of product policy, said in an interview with The Verge that those servers will be “obfuscated” with a black screen until the user verifies they’re an adult. Users also won’t be able to join any new age-restricted servers without verifying their age.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is due to brief parliament on Wednesday on the failures in the rail system.

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The union says the rail system is deteriorating and is demanding stronger safety and maintenance guarantees.

In an August letter to rail operator Adif, the union warned of severe wear on several lines, including the site of January's crashes.

"It's a vicious circle," union leader Diego Martin told Reuters. "Track defects damage trains, and train defects further damage the track."

There is also a question of whether maintenance of the network is keeping pace with passenger demand.

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Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is due to brief parliament on Wednesday on the failures in the rail system.

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Jaime Castañeda said he identified the body of his 43-year-old geologist brother on Sunday by viewing photographs presented to him by officials at the federal attorney general's local headquarters in the coastal Mexican city of Mazatlán, in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.

José Manuel Castañeda Hernández was working for Vancouver-based mining company Vizsla Silver Corp. when he was kidnapped on Jan. 23, along with nine other employees, from Concordia, a municipality that sits about 50 kilometres east of Mazatlán.

"In truth, this has been very painful to be here, in a place where we don't want to be," said Jaime Castañeda, in a telephone interview with CBC News.

The identities of two other kidnapped Vizsla Silver Corp. workers, from the state of Zacatecas, were also confirmed by a family member and a federal politician on Sunday.

All three men were found dead late last week by federal authorities near a rural village called El Verde, about 15 kilometres north of Concordia.

As reported by Gematsu: Arc System Works has confirmed to Gematsu the official English title is River City Saga: Journey to the West as initially guessed.

“They are like blind kittens,” a Ukrainian General Staff commander tells POLITICO.

Two days after Elon Musk's SpaceX launched Starlink verification and blocked unverified terminals in Ukraine, the pace of Russia's offensive appears to be slowing, a Ukrainian military official told POLITICO.

“Currently, such a trend is indeed observed. But it will be necessary to monitor further whether it will continue, whether there will be other factors,” said the official, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

“However, at some places, Ukrainian military Starlinks which have not been registered yet have also been disconnected. But the registration process is ongoing,” the official added.

I'm going to break out of here and strike it rich, you'll see!

Need for greater military autonomy also accepted, says report for Munich Security Conference, which takes place this week

Europe has come to the painful realisation that it needs to be more assertive and more militarily independent from an authoritarian US administration that no longer shares a commitment to liberal democratic norms and values, a report prepared by the Munich Security Conference asserts.

The report sets the scene for an all-out ideological confrontation with the Trump White House at the high-level annual meeting of security policy specialists, which starts on Friday.

In a now infamous speech to last year’s MSC, the US vice-president, JD Vance, claimed European elites were suppressing free speech and “opening the floodgates” to mass migration. The address marked the moment Europe realised the Trump administration would no longer be a reliable trading and security partner.

A Meta spokesperson said the EU had "no reason" to intervene over it changing the app in January.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7129092

BBC News Persian has verified the identities of more than 200 of the thousands of people killed during Iran's brutal crackdown on the recent widespread protests.

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Pictures of and information about victims identified by BBC News Persian can be seen in this page on the BBC News Persian site (text in Persian).

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Among those killed were Mansoureh Heydari and her husband, Behrouz Mansouri. A family friend told BBC News Persian that the couple had joined the protests in Bushehr, in south-west Iran, when both were shot dead by security forces on 8 January.

The security forces had opened fire on protesters gathered outside a mosque, they said. Behrouz was struck in the head and fatally wounded. Mansoureh, who had initially been running away, returned to her husband but was later shot as well.

The couple died side by side in the street, leaving behind two children aged eight and 10.

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Many of the faces featured in the project are young men and women, mostly in their late teens to early 30s.

One 17-year-old art student, Ghazal Damarcheli, was shot outside her family home in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, on 9 January.

A source close to the family told BBC News Persian that even after her death, the family faced pressure, as security forces refused to allow them to bury her nearby. Her remains were instead interred in a remote cemetery, far from the family home.

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In a related report, an Iranian photojournalist shares unseen images of Tehran protests.

For days, Iranian photographer Yalda Moaiery tried in vain to reconnect to the internet. It was only on January 23 that she succeeded, thanks to a VPN. She was then able to send around 40 photographs taken during the major demonstration on January 8 in Tehran, as well as the funeral of a 39-year-old man killed by regime forces in the city of Karaj on January 9. These images are among the very few visual accounts, provided by a professional, of this crackdown carried out behind closed doors. - (archived version)

The next system update for Windows 11 could break your printer. Here's what you need to know.

In the race for AI, tech firms are asking for their staff to work long hours. But there are risks, experts say.

Modern cars are packed with internet-connected widgets, many of them containing Chinese technology. Now, the car industry is scrambling to root out that tech ahead of a looming deadline, a test case for America’s ability to decouple from Chinese supply chains.

New U.S. rules will soon ban Chinese software in vehicle systems that connect to the cloud, part of an effort to prevent cameras, microphones and GPS tracking in cars from being exploited by foreign adversaries.

The move is “one of the most consequential and complex auto regulations in decades,” according to Hilary Cain, head of policy at trade group the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. “It requires a deep examination of supply chains and aggressive compliance timelines.”

Carmakers will need to attest to the U.S. government that, as of March 17, core elements of their products don’t contain code that was written in China or by a Chinese company. The rule also covers software for advanced autonomous driving and will be extended to connectivity hardware starting in 2029. Connected cars made by Chinese or China-controlled companies are also banned, wherever their software comes from.

Iran sentenced Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi to over seven more years in prison after she began a hunger strike, supporters said Sunday, as Tehran cracks down on all dissent following nationwide protests and the deaths of thousands at the hands of security forces.

The new convictions against Mohammadi come as Iran tries to negotiate with the United States over its nuclear program to avert a threatened military strike by US President Donald Trump. Iran’s top diplomat insisted Sunday that Tehran’s strength came from its ability to “say no to the great powers,” striking a maximalist position just after negotiations in Oman with the US.

Mohammadi’s supporters cited her lawyer, who spoke to Mohammadi. The lawyer, Mostafa Nili, confirmed the sentence on X, saying it had been handed down Saturday by a Revolutionary Court in the city of Mashhad. Such courts typically issue verdicts with little or no opportunity for defendants to contest their charges.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/47138870

The management of a Chinese-owned gold mine in Zimbabwe is facing legal action from the union after subjecting female workers to mandatory HIV testing before summarily dismissing them. The union describes the management’s actions as a flagrant breach of national laws on privacy, equality and non-discrimination.

At Xiao Honguqiu’s Famona gold mine, three women workers were compelled to undergo HIV tests and subsequently dismissed on 22 December 2025, regardless of the results, while more than 60 male colleagues faced no such requirement. The Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Minerals Workers Union (ZDAMWU), an IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, condemned the practice as a form of sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination.

Zimbabwe’s Constitution and labour legislation safeguard workers’ dignity, equality before the law and protection from gender discrimination. The right to privacy, including the confidentiality of health information such as HIV status, is similarly enshrined. Employers are expressly barred from forcing disclosure of HIV status. The 2021 Cyber and Data Protection Act further criminalises unauthorised disclosure of personal health data by third parties, including online.

The dismissals reportedly followed information obtained from an online platform that exposed one worker’s HIV status. The affected worker has filed a police report at Nyathi Police Station near Bulawayo against the individual responsible for the posting. ZDAMWU has lodged a formal complaint with the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, which is now investigating the matter and weighing potential legal action against the company.

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Web archive link

Photograph, first published by anti-abortion campaigner Joanna Howe, purportedly taken at Townsville hospital

Spotify is tightening the rules for developer access, setting a clear course for its platform in 2026.  The company is adjusting the terms and conditions