News from Multiple Perspectives

De la Q1 directo a la pole en una accidentada clasificación en Brasil. Fabio di Giannantonio dio la sorpresa en el circuito Ayrton Senna de Goiania y se llevó el primer puesto por segunda vez en su carrera, imponiéndose a Marco Bezzecchi, ganador en Tailandia y que se coló en la primera línea tras entrar desde la primera qualy, y un Marc Márquez que se fue al suelo y no pudo mejorar su tiempo . Después de un primer día pasado por agua, los tiempos de la categoría reina bajaron drásticamente en unos segundos entrenamientos que ya avisaron a los pilotos de lo que podían esperar: Álex Márquez, Luca Marini, Toprak Razgatlioglu, Marco Bezzecchi y Franco Morbidelli acabaron en el asfalto en un momento u otro de la sesión, muchos de ellos en la comprometida curva cuatro del trazado . La misma dinámica siguió la primera clasificación, con Marini acabando en el suelo cuando buscaba la Q2. Peleó Joan Mir por entrar, pero nadie fue capaz de arrebatarle el billete a Bezzecchi , el más rápido en parar el crono (1:17.408), y Di Giannantonio , a 123 milésimas de su compatriota. Y ambos volaron juntos a la qualy definitiva, en la que nadie esperaba que diesen la campanada. La segunda clasificación no comenzó demasiado bien para otro italiano, Pecco Bagnaia, que se cayó en su primera vuelta lanzada en la diez mientras su compañero de equipo, Marc Márquez, marcaba el mejor tiempo provisional (1:17.491). No arrancó tan bien el líder del Mundial, Pedro Acosta, que sufrió la curva cuatro en sus carnes al irse al suelo en la tercera vuelta . Eso sí, apenas le afectó, porque no tardó nada en ponerse en pie y salir corriendo hacia su garaje para coger la segunda moto. La felicidad duró poco para el nueve veces campeón del mundo. Como el Tiburón, el '93' se fue en el siguiente giro por los suelos en la curva cuatro y, como el de KTM, no perdió tiempo en regresar a su taller. Por entonces ya lideraba Fabio di Giannantonio en la tabla de tiempos , a 71 milésimas del catalán, que no consiguió mejorar su tiempo al volver a la pista, y con Jorge Martín tercero, pero ya a 347 milésimas de segundo, con algo más de ocho minutos de sesión por delante. Volvió también al trazado Bagnaia, sin un tiempo de clasificación y en la duodécima plaza, para ponerse noveno en su primer intento. Mientras, e n otro punto del circuito Martinator comenzó a marcar parciales de vuelta rápida como para ponerse líder, pero se fue por los suelos en el tercer sector del trazado, lo que le dejó sin posibilidad de mejorar la cuarta plaza que ocupaba por entonces. Tampoco pudo mejorar Fabio di Giannantonio, que 'arañó' 10 milésimas a su mejor tiempo (1:17.410) antes de caerse en la 'temible' curva cuatro , aunque nadie le arrebataría la segunda pole de su carrera deportiva, tras la que logró en Italia en 2022. Por detrás partirán Marco Bezzecchi y Marc Márquez. En segunda línea se situaron un muy competitivo Quartararo, junto a Jorge Martín y Ai Ogura , con Fermín Aldeguer, Alex Márquez y Pedro Acosta en la tercera, y Johann Zarco, Pecco Bagnaia y Toprak Razgatlioglu en la cuarta.

Jornada trágica en los Alpes italianos. Una avalancha en la región de Alto Adige ha dejado este sábado dos muertos y un herido grave , aunque los primeros datos del cuerpo del Socorro Alpino señalan que el desprendimiento afectó a un grupo de unos 10 excursionistas , según el balance provisional. Por el momento, los efectivos de rescate no han informado del estado del resto de personas afectadas, presumiblemente heridas leves, pero temen que una siga desaparecida tras la avalancha, que ha tenido lugar en las montañas del municipio de Val Ridanna, en la región italiana de Alto Adige, cerca de la frontera con Austria, a unos 2.300 metros de altitud. Tras la petición de auxilio de otros alpinistas que formaban parte del grupo, se activó el protocolo de emergencia enviando al lugar a efectivos de la Guardia de Finanza (policía fronteriza italiana) y seis helicópteros medicalizados, explican las fuentes. Además, se ha puesto en guardia a los hospitales más cercanos al lugar : los de las ciudades italianas de Bolzano, Merano y Bressanone y el de la ciudad austríaca de Innsbruck.

El presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump , opinó este viernes que Reino Unido podía actuar "más rápido" en apoyo a su país en la guerra de Irán , una vez que Londres haya autorizado el uso de bases militares británicas para atacar a las fuerzas iraníes que amenazan a los barcos en el estrecho de Ormuz. En declaraciones a la prensa en la Casa Blanca, el mandatario expresó su sorpresa por la lentitud del Reino Unido en ofrecer apoyo, y afirmó que, en su opinión, por tratarse del país que fue "su primer aliado" esperaba una actuación más efectiva. "Bueno, ha sido una respuesta muy tardía. Una sorpresa, porque la relación es muy buena, pero esto nunca había sucedido antes. Fueron prácticamente nuestros primeros aliados en todo el mundo, nuestros primeros aliados, y no querían que usáramos la isla, la supuesta isla , sobre la cual, por alguna razón, renunciaron a los derechos. Para ser sincero, me sorprendió un poco la actuación del Reino Unido. Deberían haber actuado mucho más rápido", ha dicho Trump en concreto. La reacción del estadounidense llega después de que el primer ministro británico, sir Keir Starmer , autorizara a su país el uso de bases como RAF Fairford y Diego García para operaciones defensivas vinculadas al conflicto con Irán. La medida permite a Washington desplegar y operar desde esas instalaciones para interceptar amenazas, mientras Londres insiste en que no implica una participación directa en la guerra. Previamente esta semana, el republicano mostró su descontento por la negativa de sus aliados europeos de la OTAN para formar un frente unido con el fin de liberar el paso en este estrecho estratégico en el golfo Pérsico, cerrado por Irán desde finales de febrero por la escalada del conflicto. Durante esta última intervención, Trump le dio la razón a los legisladores republicanos que creen que Estados Unidos debería retirarse de las bases en España y otros países de la OTAN, que según el, no están colaborando con la seguridad en Ormuz. Un mes de desencuentros Desde el inicio de la guerra en Irán, el desencuentro entre Reino Unido y Estados Unidios ha sido más que patente. En los primeros compases del conflicto, el Gobierno británico decidió no participar en las operaciones ofensivas contra Irán ni se comprometió a hacerlo. No obstante, Londres sí permitió la utilización de sus bases para operaciones defensivas y manifestó que un portaaeronaves británico había elevado su nivel de alerta por si fuera necesario enviarlo a Oriente Próximo. Esta exigua colaboración fue merecedora de las burlas de Donald Trump: "Reino Unido, que una vez fue un gran aliado , quizás el más grande de todos, finalmente está pensando en serio enviar dos portaaeronaves a Oriente Próximo", expresó el presidente estadounidense. "Está bien, primer ministro (Keir) Starmer. Ya no los necesitamos, pero lo recordaremos. ¡No necesitamos a gente que se une a las guerras después de que ya las hemos ganado! ", dijo Trump con su tono sarcástico habitual. A estas declaraciones, Westminster respondió por medio de la ministra británica de Exteriores, Yvette Cooper, quien dijo el pasado domingo que el Reino Unido "no siempre está de acuerdo" con Estados Unidos ni "subcontrata su política exterior". La ministra insistió en una entrevista con la BBC en que la posición del Reino Unido sigue siendo la anunciada el 1 de marzo, cuando autorizó a EEUU a utilizar sus bases de Fairford en Inglaterra y Diego García en el océano Índico para disparar contra posiciones iraníes, pero solo "con fines defensivos". No obstante, poco después, ambos líderes hablaron. El primer ministro Starmer y Trump hablaron de la cooperación militar "mediante el uso de bases de la RAF (Real Fuerza Aérea británica) en apoyo de la autodefensa colectiva de socios en la región", indicó Downing Street en un comunicado. Starmer también transmitió a Trump "sus más sentidas condolencias" por la muerte de seis soldados estadounidenses desde que el 28 de febrero Estados Unidos e Israel empezaron los ataques a Irán. Ya este lunes, Starmer dijo que el Reino Unido mantenía "numerosas conversaciones" para tratar de desescalar la guerra de Estados Unidos e Israel contra Irán así como para mitigar su impacto en la economía. En un acto en Londres, Starmer reconoció que "realmente es necesario hallar una manera de desescalar la situación" y señaló que muchas de las conversaciones con sus aliados tratan de "cómo encontrar una forma de desescalarla y asegurar que no se agrave". Además, el Gobierno británico reconoció este jueves haber derribado "múltiples drones" procedentes de Irán en lo que denomina "operaciones defensivas" en defensa de sus aliados en Oriente Medio, la última de ellas registrada en la noche del miércoles en Erbil, en el Kurdistán iraquí. En su reporte diario, el Ministerio de Defensa del Reino Unido añadió que los pilotos de la fuerza aérea británica han realizado más de 300 horas de vuelo, la mayoría sobre los cielos de Jordania, Catar y Emiratos Árabes Unidos, "en defensa de los intereses y aliados británicos".

The UK says Iran launched ballistic missiles at the joint US-UK Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean.

No leakage of radioactive materials reported in the area in central Iran, Tehran's atomic energy organisation says.

Jury finds that two tweets posted in May 2022 by Musk contained false statements.

In this photo provided by Norton Healthcare, nurse Robin Waldridge administers a Vitamin K shot to a newborn baby at Norton Women's and Children's Hospital on Friday, March 6, 2026, at the hospital in Louisville, Ky. (Jamie Rhodes/Norton Healthcare via AP) 2026-03-21T11:20:42Z One day at an Idaho hospital, half the newborns Dr. Tom Patterson saw didn’t get the vitamin K shots that have been given to babies for decades to prevent potentially deadly bleeding. On another recent day, more than a quarter didn’t get the shot. Their parents wouldn’t allow it. “When you look at a child who’s innocent and vulnerable — and a simple intervention that’s been done since 1961 is refused — knowing that baby’s going out into the world is super worrisome to me,” said Patterson, who’s been a pediatrician for nearly three decades. Doctors across the nation are alarmed that skepticism fueled by rising anti-science sentiment and medical mistrust is increasingly reaching beyond vaccines to other proven, routine, preventive care for babies. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which analyzed more than 5 million births nationwide, found that refusals of vitamin K shots nearly doubled between 2017 and 2024, from 2.9% to 5.2%. Other research suggests that parents who decline vitamin K shots are much more likely to refuse getting their newborns the hepatitis B vaccine and an eye ointment to prevent potentially blinding infections. Rates for that vaccination at birth dropped in recent years, and doctors confirm that more parents are refusing the eye medication. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); “I do think these families care deeply about their infants,” said Dr. Kelly Wade, a Philadelphia neonatologist. “But I hear from families that it’s hard to make decisions right now because they’re hearing conflicting information.” Innumerable social media posts question doctors’ advice on safe and effective measures like vitamin K and eye ointment. And the Trump administration has repeatedly undermined established science . A federal advisory committee whose members were appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a leading anti-vaccine activist before joining the administration — voted to end the longstanding recommendation to immunize all babies against hepatitis B right after birth. On Monday a federal judge temporarily blocked all decisions made by the reconfigured committee. One common thread that ties together anti-vaccine views and growing sentiments against other protective measures for newborns is the fallacy that natural is always better than artificial, said Dr. David Hill, a Seattle pediatrician and researcher. “Nature will allow 1 in 5 human infants to die in the first year of life,” Hill said, “which is why generations of scientists and doctors have worked to bring that number way, way down.” freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Vitamin K and other measures prevent serious problems Babies are born with low levels of vitamin K, leaving them vulnerable because their intestines can’t produce enough until they start eating solid foods at around 6 months old. “Vitamin K is important for helping the blood clot and preventing dangerous bleeding in babies, like bleeding into the brain,” said Dr. Kristan Scott of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, lead author of the JAMA study. Before injections became routine, up to about 1 in 60 babies suffered vitamin K deficiency bleeding, which can also affect the gastrointestinal tract. Today the condition is rare, but research shows that newborns who don’t get a vitamin K shot are 81 times more likely to develop severe bleeding than those who do. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Hill has seen what can happen. “I cared for a toddler whose parents had chosen that risk,” the Seattle doctor said. The child essentially had a stroke as a newborn and wound up with severe developmental delays and ongoing seizures. At a February meeting of the Idaho chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, doctors said they knew of eight deaths from vitamin K deficiency bleeding in the state over the preceding 13 months, said Patterson, who is president of the chapter. Infections prevented by other newborn measures can also have grave consequences. Erythromycin eye ointment protects against gonorrhea that can be contracted during birth and potentially cause blindness if untreated. The hepatitis B vaccine prevents a disease that can lead to liver failure, liver cancer or cirrhosis. Even if a pregnant woman is tested for gonorrhea and hepatitis B, no test is perfect, and she may get infected after testing, said Dr. Susan Sirota, a pediatrician in Highland Park, Illinois. Either way, she risks passing the infection to her child. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Why are parents refusing routine care? Parents give many reasons for turning down preventive measures, like fearing they might cause problems and not wanting newborns to feel pain. “Some will just say they want more of a natural birth philosophy,” said Dr. Steven Abelowitz , founder of Ocean Pediatrics in Orange County, California. “Then there’s a ton of misinformation. … There are outside influences, friends, celebrities, nonprofessionals and political agendas.” Abelowitz practices in an area with about an equal mix of Republicans and Democrats. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); “There’s more mistrust from the conservative side, but there’s plenty on the more liberal side as well,” he said, “It’s across-the-board mistrust.” Social media provides ample fuel, spreading myths and pushing unregulated vitamin K drops that doctors warn babies can’t absorb well. Doctors in numerous states say parents refusing vitamin K shots often also decline other measures. Sirota, in Illinois, encountered a family that refused a heel stick to monitor glucose for a baby at high risk for having potentially life-threatening low blood sugar. Care refusals aren’t a new phenomenon. Wade, in Philadelphia, said she’s seen them for 20 years. But until recently, they were rare. Twelve years ago, Dana Morrison, now a Minnesota doula, declined the vitamin K shot for her newborn son, giving him oral drops instead. “It came from a space of really wanting to protect the bonding time with my baby,” she said. “I was trying to eliminate more pokes.” Her daughter’s birth a couple of years later was less straightforward, leaving the infant with a bruised leg. Morrison got the vitamin K shot for her. Knowing what she does now, she said, she would have gotten it for her son, too. Doctors and parents want ‘the best for their children’ Doctors hope to change minds, one parent at a time. And that begins with respect. “If I walk into the room with judgment, we are going to have a really useless conversation,” Hill said. “Every parent I serve wants the best for their children.” When parents question the need for the vitamin K shot, Dr. Heather Felton tries to address their specific concerns. She explains why it’s given and the risks of not getting it. Most families decide to get it, said Felton, who has seen no uptick in refusals. “It really helps that you can take that time and really listen and be able to provide some education,” said Felton, a pediatrician at Norton Children’s in Louisville, Kentucky. In Idaho, Patterson sometimes finds himself clearing up misconceptions. Some parents will agree to a vitamin K shot when they find out it’s not a vaccine, for example. These conversations can take time, especially since the parents doctors see in hospitals usually aren’t people they know through their practices. But doctors are happy to invest that time if it might save babies. “I end every discussion with parents with this: ‘Please understand at the end of the day, I’m passionate about this because I have the best interest of children in my mind and heart,’” Patterson said. “I understand this is a hot topic, and I don’t want to disrespect anybody. But at the same time, I’m desperately saddened that we’re losing babies for no reason.” ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. LAURA UNGAR Ungar covers medicine and science on the AP’s Global Health and Science team. She has been a health journalist for more than two decades. twitter mailto

This April 4, 2009, file photo, shows a gas production facility at Ras Laffan, Qatar. (AP Photos/Maneesh Bakshi, File) 2026-03-21T05:00:06Z LONDON (AP) — Iran’s attack this week on Qatar’s natural gas export facility threatens to disrupt not just world energy markets but also global technology supply chains because the helium it produces is crucial for a range of advanced industries. Best known as the gas that makes party balloons float, helium is also a key input in chipmaking, space rockets and medical imaging. Qatar supplies a third of the world’s helium, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, but the nation had to halt production shortly after the war erupted three weeks ago. The latest Iranian strikes against the region’s energy producing infrastructure have added to supply worries, with Qatar’s state-owned gas company saying it would crimp helium exports by 14%. Here’s a deeper look at helium’s industrial role: freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Qatar’s role in helium supply Helium is a byproduct of natural gas production, when it’s separated out by cryogenic distillation. Qatar, which sits on the world’s biggest single natural gas field, produces about 30% of global helium supply, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Qatar’s helium is produced at its Ras Laffan facility, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas plant. But state-owned energy company QatarGas halted production of LNG and “associated products” on March 2 because of Iran’s drone attacks and two days later declared force majeure, meaning it’s unable to supply contracted customers due to circumstances beyond its control. After Ras Laffan was hit again by more Iranian strikes on Wednesday and Thursday, QatarGas reported “extensive” damage that will take years to repair and cut annual helium exports by 14%. “It makes the story worse,” said Phil Kornbluth, president of Kornbluth Helium Consulting. “Your best case scenario would be you’re back producing some helium in six weeks or something like that. As it looks right now, that’s highly unlikely.” Helium prices are on the rise Spot prices for helium have doubled since the crisis erupted and will probably rise further, Kornbluth said. But spot trading only accounts for about 2% of the total market in normal times, he said. Helium is a thinly traded commodity and is mostly sold through long-term contracts. Still, contract prices “could go up a lot,” Kornbluth said. “There’s lots of room for price increase if this is an extended outage.” freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Kornbluth said the shortage hasn’t hit yet, because helium containers that would have been filled when the conflict erupted at the start of March would have still taken several weeks to arrive in Asia. “Nobody’s run out of helium yet. But it’s a few weeks out when the shortage really hits.” It’s not just party balloons Helium is essential for manufacturing semiconductors, including the cutting-edge chips used for artificial intelligence models produced in Asian fabrication plants. It’s great at conducting or transferring heat, making it ideal for rapid cooling. Chipmakers use it to cool wafers — the discs of silicon printed with tiny electronic circuits. Helium is used during the etching process, when material that’s been deposited on a wafer is scraped away to form transistor structures, said Jacob Feldgoise, an analyst at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); During the etching process, “you really want to maintain a constant temperature over the wafer. And in order to do that, you need to be able to draw heat away from the wafer that’s being processed,” said Feldgoise. “Helium is an excellent thermal conductor. And so chip fabs will blow helium over the back of the wafer in order to speed heat removal and keep heat removal consistent.” Under current semiconductor manufacturing processes, there’s no viable replacement for helium to cool wafers, said Jong-hwan Lee, a professor of semiconductor devices at South Korea’s Sangmyung University. The medical industry uses helium to cool superconducting magnets powering magnetic resonance imaging machines. And the space industry uses helium to purge rocket fuel tanks, a demand that is expected to grow because of more frequent launches by companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); A complicated supply chain situation Helium’s atomic properties make it tricky to store and transport. In gas form, helium’s tiny molecules can easily escape containers by leaking through even the smallest of gaps. Helium is typically chilled by Qatar’s gas company into liquid form and stored in insulated containers for transport through the Strait of Hormuz . The specialized containers can store helium for 35 to 48 days. Any longer and they start warming up, letting the helium transform into gas that escapes through pressure release valves. About 200 of these containers are stuck in the Middle East, Kornbluth said. They cost about $1 million each, so there aren’t a lot of extra ones sitting around elsewhere. “It’s going to take a fair amount of time to get these containers out of Qatar and to get them somewhere else where they might be able to be filled with helium,” he said. “So this initial period when you lose Qatar supply and have to rejig the supply chain and reposition containers, that’s going to be the worst part of the shortage most likely.” freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Other major suppliers of helium There only are a handful of countries that produce helium. The United States is the biggest producer, accounting for 81 million cubic meters last year. Qatar, Algeria and Russia are the other major producers, but Russian supplies are banned under Under States and European Union sanctions. USGS estimates the United States has 8.5 billion cubic meters of recoverable helium in geologic reservoirs, while the rest of the world has 31.3 billion cubic meters. Asian chipmakers on edge The war highlights the sprawling global supply chains that underpin South Korea’s semiconductor industry , which has seen a surge in global demand for its chips amid the AI boom. Fitch Ratings said in a report this week that the country — home to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the world’s largest memory chip makers — is particularly vulnerable to supply shortages because it imports about 65% of its helium from Qatar. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix likely have several months of inventory, but it’s crucial that they accelerate efforts to secure alternative sources, Lee said, as the war could drag on and potentially disrupt supplies of more materials beyond helium. Helium is among 14 semiconductor supply chain materials the Seoul government has flagged for monitoring due to their heavy vulnerability to the war. “Even disruptions affecting just a handful of materials could destabilize the entire semiconductor manufacturing process as each stage of production depends on the previous one,” Lee said. Still, a full-blown helium crisis is unlikely, experts said. In the event of a shortage, Kornbluth said the helium industry allocates supplies based on importance so critical industries such as chipmaking and medical would be at the front of the line. And because helium is a small part of the overall production cost of a semiconductor, it’s likely that chip fabs “would be willing to pay a higher price” to secure supplies, Feldgoise said. Samsung and SK Hynix declined to respond to questions about inventory or plans to diversify supplies. The Korea Semiconductor Industry Association said short-term supplies are sufficient and companies have been diversifying their supply routes. Chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company also said it does not “anticipate any significant impact at this time” but will continue monitoring the situation. ___ AP writers Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia contributed. KELVIN CHAN Chan covers technology and innovation in Europe and beyond for The Associated Press. twitter mailto

In this image from video circulating on social media, protesters dance and cheer around a bonfire as they take to the streets of Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP, File) 2026-03-21T05:08:51Z BEIRUT (AP) — A 19-year-old star wrestler and two other young men were hanged in Iran this week, raising alarm among rights groups that a wave of executions may be underway as authorities facing relentless attacks from the U.S. and Israel seek to squelch public dissent. The three men are the first to be executed from among the tens of thousands who were arrested during a January crackdown on nationwide protests. Rights groups say more than 100 others could face death sentences. The wrestler, Saleh Mohammadi, was hanged early Thursday morning — along with Mehdi Qasemi and Saeed Davoudi — in Qom, just south of the capital, Tehran, according to state media. They had been sentenced on charges of “moharabeh,” or “waging war against God,” for allegedly killing two police officers during protests in the city. Amnesty International said the convictions of the three, and of others arrested during the protests, came in “grossly unfair trials” that used confessions extracted by torture. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); The executions were “intended to instill fear in society and deter new protests” amid the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based group that has documented detentions. Amiry-Moghaddam said he worries many more “executions of protesters and political prisoners may be imminent.” At least 27 arrested during protests face death sentences Amiry-Moghaddam said his group has documented at least 27 death sentences that have been issued against people arrested during the protests. Another 100 face charges that carry the death penalty, and Iranian state media have aired hundreds of forced confessions to crimes punishable by death, he said. Nationwide protests that began in late December peaked in the first week of January, prompting the deadliest crackdown by Iranian security forces since the Islamic Republic took power in 1979. A complete death toll has been hard to gauge because of internet restrictions by authorities. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists New Agency, which relies on a network of contacts inside Iran, said it confirmed that more than 7,000 were killed and that it was investigating thousands more. It said over 50,000 were arrested in just over six weeks. The government acknowledged more than 3,000 were killed. At the height of the protests, Iranian authorities signaled that fast trials and executions lay ahead. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); At the time, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested military action might be an option to stop the deadly crackdown. But he soon announced that he learned that plans for executions were halted, signaling that a military operation was no longer on the table. Just a month later, Israel and the U.S. launched an intense airstrike campaign against Iran, pounding military installations and targeting the top political and security leadership of Iran. The security agencies believed to be responsible for the deadly crackdown on protesters are also being targeted. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); War has not stopped Iran’s crackdown on dissent Despite the war, Iranian authorities have kept up the crackdown on dissent. Authorities say scores have been detained since the war began on Feb. 28, including some who took part in the January protests. Because of Iran’s internet blackout, there have been scant details about the three men executed Thursday. Amiry-Moghaddam said Davoudi was born on March 20, 2004, meaning he was executed a day before his 22nd birthday. Qasemi’s age was not known, he said. Mohammadi appeared to be a standout in wrestling, a sport that is wildly popular in Iran. In 2024, he won a bronze medal at an international youth freestyle wrestling tournament in the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk. On his Instagram account, Mohammadi posted photos and videos of his matches and his workouts, along with inspirational “no-pain-no-gain” messages. In his last post in late December, he posted a video of himself in the gym and wrote: “We endured beyond our imagination. Back again #bodybuilding #training #wrestling.” “He was full of energy,” said Shiva Amelirad, an Iranian teacher living in Toronto who spoke with Mohammadi in 2022 while he was still in high school. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Amelirad said Mohammadi had participated in anti-government protests that erupted earlier that year when Mahsa Amini died in police custody after being detained for not wearing her headscarf properly. Those demonstrations were also met with a heavy crackdown by authorities. She said Mohammadi told her that workouts and eating ice cream were his only ways “to forget all this catastrophe that we are facing.” “He always tried to show that he was happy,” said Amelirad. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Rights groups say theocracy has forced confessions from protesters Mohammadi, Qasemi and Davoudi were arrested in Qom on Jan. 15, according to multiple human rights groups. The circumstances of their arrests are not known, and it is not clear if they knew each other beforehand. They were charged in the killing of a police officer on Jan. 8 and convicted in early February, according to Amnesty and Iran Human Rights. During his detention, Mohammadi was beaten and one of his hands broken, Amnesty said in a Feb. 19 open letter to Iran’s judiciary criticizing the prosecution of dozens of arrested protesters. Amnesty said Mohammadi denied the charges and retracted his confessions in court, saying they were extracted under torture. “Authorities have systematically subjected those arrested in connection to the protests to enforced disappearance, incommunicado detention, torture to extract forced ‘confessions,’” Amnesty said in the letter. Mizan, the Iranian judiciary’s official news agency, announced the execution of the three on Thursday, showing video of them sitting in prison uniforms in court. It said they had confessed to killing two police officers with “knives and swords,” and showed video of them allegedly reenacting the killings for judicial officials. Amiry-Moghaddam, of Iran Human Rights, said the Islamic Republic is struggling for its survival “and is well aware that the main threat to its existence comes not from external actors, but from the Iranian people demanding fundamental change.” ______ Keath reported from Cairo. Frankel from Jerusalem. LEE KEATH Keath is the chief editor for feature stories in the Middle East for The Associated Press. He has reported from Cairo since 2005. twitter mailto JULIA FRANKEL Frankel, based in Jerusalem, has reported from across Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Her reporting focuses on war, human rights, displacement and criminal justice. twitter mailto SARAH EL DEEB El Deeb is part of the AP’s Global Investigative team. She is based in the Middle East, a region she covered for two decades twitter mailto

Te contamos la increíble historia del payaso multimillonario que escupe fuego y camina sobre zancos, y que cofundó el aclamado Cirque du Soleil.

Two children, aged 11 and 15 were also injured in the attack which took place in Zaporizhzhia.

Some 260,000 fans are expected to watch BTS perform together on Saturday for the first time since 2022.

Brendon died of "natural cases", his family said in a statement, remembering him as "passionate" and "sensitive".

Jetzt soll alles ganz schnell gehen: Justizministerin Hubig will ihr Gewaltschutzgesetz schon nächste Woche vorlegen. In Berlin soll es morgen eine Solidaritäts-Demonstration geben. Und Ulmens Ex-Kollegen äußern sich.

Rangeleien in der Mixed-Staffel haben für bizarre Szenen bei der Leichtathletik-Hallen-WM gesorgt. Nach einem Sturz verlor US-Läuferin Sara Reifenrath ihr Schuhwerk und versuchte es auf Socken – vergebens.

Eine US-Universität wollte dem indischen Doktoranden Aditya Prakash verbieten, sein Essen aufzuwärmen. Er ließ sich das nicht gefallen.

Spionage, Sabotage und Cyberangriffe nehmen in Zeiten geopolitischer Krisen zu. Aktuelles Beispiel: der Iran-Krieg. Die Bundesregierung reagiert mit einer Wirtschaftsschutz-Strategie.

Es soll einen neuen Vorstoß für Verhandlungen geben. Derweil überziehen sich Russland und die Ukraine gegenseitig mit Angriffen - aus der Luft und am Boden.

Die USA sind der Hauptgastgeber der Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft 2026. Allerdings befinden sie sich gerade im Krieg mit WM-Teilnehmer Iran. Die ethischen Konflikte des Turniers werden jede Woche komplizierter.

Die Bundesregierung fördert im Ausland Projekte, um die Republik irgendwann mit der Energiequelle Wasserstoff versorgen zu können. Für afrikanische Länder bietet das Chancen. Deutschland geht ins Risiko.

Kinder und Jugendliche grölen bei einer Teenager-Party in Falkenberg zu „L'Amour toujours“ ausländerfeindliche Gesänge. Ministerpräsident Woidke kritisiert das fehlende Eingreifen.

Innerhalb weniger Jahre sind die Baukosten um 35 Prozent gestiegen. Da stellt sich die Frage, ob sich eine energetische Sanierung überhaupt durch eingesparte Energiekosten amortisiert. WELT zeigt vier konkrete Beispielrechnungen.

"Expresamos nuestra profunda preocupación por el agravamiento del conflicto. Hacemos un llamado a Irán para que cese de inmediato sus amenazas, la colocación de minas, los ataques con drones y misiles, así como otros intentos de bloquear el Estrecho al transporte marítimo comercial"  Leer

La aerolínea de bandera del Líbano continúa volando a la capital del país pese a los bombardeos israelíes, mientras que el aeropuerto de Tel Aviv tiene que reducir el tráfico de aviones tras ser alcanzado por misiles  Leer

La tercera asamblea en tres años de Movimiento Sumar será tras las andaluzas y se promueve para relevar a Hernández y reforzarse tras la marcha de Díaz  Leer

In der Formel 1 läuft es derzeit nicht gut für den viermaligen Weltmeister Max Verstappen. Während die Rennserie pausiert, gewinnt der niederländische Red-Bull-Pilot in einem Mercedes – auf dem Nürburgring.

Nach Venezuela schielt der amerikanische Präsident auch auf Kuba. Profiteure eines Zusammenbruchs des Regimes könnten ausgerechnet die alten kubanischen Eliten sein.

Morddrohungen, Stalker, gefälschte Vergewaltigungsvideos: Moderatorinnen sind einer Flut männlichen Hasses ausgesetzt. Hier erzählen Mareile Höppner und Lola Weippert, wie sie sich seit Jahrzehnten versuchen zu wehren – ohne Erfolg.

Someone was playing possum — or stuffed animal . Among plush kangaroos, dingoes and Tasmanian devils ready to be bought by parents of antsy children, a live brushtail possum waited in a gift shop at an Australian airport this week. The wild animal was first noticed by a shopper in the store on Wednesday, retail manager Liam Bloomfield of Hobart Airport in the state of Tasmania said. "A passenger reported it to …. one of the staff members on shift who couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing," Bloomfield told The Associated Press. "She then called the (airport) management and said we’ve got a possum in the store." TOURISTS IN LAS VEGAS PAY $1,000 FOR DINNER ON THE STRIP WHILE SHARKS EAT LIKE ROYALTY Staff at the airport were able to remove the animal without harming it. "I’m imaging it saw some of the plush animals that were for sale on the shelf and it decided to make its home with those," Bloomfield joked of why the possum was hiding with the stuffed toys. "It wanted to blend in." EXPERT SOUNDS ALARM AFTER STUDY FINDS POPULAR TRAVEL ITEM CARRIES FAR MORE BACTERIA THAN EXPECTED "Can you spot the imposter?" the airport wrote in a Facebook post Thursday that showed the possum curled up in a cubby with its stuffed counterparts. "This cheeky lost possum found a clever hiding place among the Aussie plushies in our retail store," the airport continued. "Luckily it was safely relocated out of the terminal area and the space was cleaned." Bloomfield said the possum not only found a way into the airport but also their hearts. "We’ll have a little shrine to the possum," he revealed, according to The Independent. "There will be a nice little photo; once it gets a name, we will put a nice little post in front of the store to make sure it’s remembered."

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was chased out of the country's largest mosque Friday as Muslims in attendance voiced anger over his stance on the Israeli war against Hamas. Albanese was called several names, including a "putrid dog" and a "genocide supporter" in reference to the deaths of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel, The Telegraph reported. Video footage showed the prime minister standing alongside Tony Burke, the home affairs minister, at the Lakemba Mosque in Sydney as the community marked Eid, the end of the holy month of Ramadan. GRAHAM SAYS AUSTRALIAN PM PUT JEWS ‘AT RISK,’ CALLS WESTERN NATIONS ‘PATHETICALLY WEAK’ AFTER HANUKKAH ATTACK "Why is he in here? Get him out of here!" some shouted. Albanese and his Left Labor government have drawn criticism for its support of a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel's right to defend itself. During the commotion, Gamel Kheir, the mosque’s secretary, pleaded for calm. "Respect the place you’re in," he said. "We must engage and have frank and open dialogue with our political leaders and not shy away and be reclusive." "You called him honorable. He’s responsible for the deaths of 1 million people, 1 million of our brothers and sisters," one person reportedly shouted. AUSTRALIAN PM ALBANESE GETS BOOED DURING BONDI BEACH VIGIL HONORING HANUKKAH ATTACK VICTIMS Albanese was taken into an office inside the mosque by security before he was taken out of the building and into his motorcade. As he was leaving, cries of "shame on you" and the slur "Alba-tizi," a derogatory Arabic play on his surname, referencing buttocks, were shouted. "He wants to come here after shaking hands with the president of Israel, who’s got blood on his hands," said one person who confronted the prime minister. "To come here and act like nothing has happened is a disgrace." Albanese posted photos on X showing him smiling and shaking hands with attendees. "Overwhelmingly, the reception was incredibly positive," he told reporters of his visit. "I walked through the crowd to the mosque, and not a single person heckled. There were a couple of hecklers inside. They were dealt with. "Contrary to what’s been suggested, no one was rushed out," he added. "We just sat there. … It was dealt with by the community themselves because overwhelmingly they did not want that to occur."

Two people were arrested after allegedly unsuccessfully attempting to enter HM Naval Base Clyde in Scotland on Thursday, authorities confirmed to Fox News Digital. One suspect was an Iranian man, while the other was a woman of unknown nationality, The Telegraph reported. "Around 5pm on Thursday, 19 March, 2026, we were made aware of two people attempting to enter HM Naval Base Clyde," Police Scotland said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "A 34-year-old man and 31-year-old woman have been arrested in connection and enquiries are ongoing." The Telegraph reported that the man was Iranian, while the woman's nationality was not immediately known. Citing the Times, the Telegraph said the suspects were turned away from the base because they lacked the correct passes and were later arrested nearby for allegedly "acting suspiciously in the vicinity." IRAN'S NEW SUPREME LEADER LINKED TO PROPERTIES WITH ‘LINE OF SIGHT’ INTO ISRAELI UK EMBASSY A Royal Navy spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital, "Police Scotland have arrested two people who unsuccessfully attempted to enter HM Naval Base Clyde on Thursday 19 March. As the matter is subject to an ongoing investigation, we will not comment further." HM Naval Base Clyde — commonly known as Faslane — is considered the primary base for the United Kingdom's missile fleet. PENCE BACKS TRUMP'S IRAN STRIKES, SAYS PRESIDENT ‘IGNORED’ GOP ISOLATIONISTS The Royal Navy says the base is home "to the core of the Submarine Service, including the nation's nuclear deterrent, and the new generation of hunter-killer submarines." The U.K. Parliament says the Royal Navy currently operates a fleet of nine submarines, with the entire fleet based at HM Naval Base Clyde. "Five of those are conventionally-armed nuclear-powered attack submarines of the Astute class. A further four are ballistic missiles submarines (SSBN) of the Vanguard class that comprise the UK’s submarine-based nuclear deterrent," it added.

Ce passage stratégique, où transite une partie de l'approvisionnement mondial en pétrole et en gaz, est bloqué par l'Iran depuis le début de la guerre, le 28 février.

Le parquet a requis la réclusion criminelle à perpétuité à l'encontre de Lucas Larivée, ce samedi 21 mars, au 6e jour du procès du Corrézien de 24 ans, se basant sur la personnalité "psychopatique" de l'accusé, ses dénégations malgré les preuves et la cruauté de ses actes. Il comparaît depuis lundi devant la cour d'assises de la Corrèze pour le viol et le meurtre de Justine Vayrac, en octobre 2022.

La Casa Macià se museizará como espacio de memoria coincidiendo con el centenario de los 'Fets de Prats de Molló', la tentativa de complot para independizar a Catalunya en plena dictadura de Primo de Rivera.  Seguir leyendo...

No es normal ver tantas teles rebajadas a la vez. Menos aún en tamaños grandes. El Aniversario de AliExpress ha dejado varios modelos de Xiaomi, Hisense o incluso Metz en una posición bastante más interesante de lo habitual. Algunos, directamente, han bajado lo suficiente como para dejar de ser “una opción más” y pasar a ser una compra fácil si estabas esperando el momento. Seguir leyendo...

El ibis eremita, una especie que está al borde de la extinción y que solo sobrevivió en libertad en Marruecos y partes de Siria, ya vuela en libertad en los Aiguamolls de l’Empordà. La reintroducción de esta especie echa a andar gracias a un programa promovido por la Fundació Alive y apoyado por la Generalitat, entre otras instituticiones. La historia de la supervivencia del ibis eremita en la vida salvaje cubre así una nueva etapa. La recuperación de este animal ha sido posible gracias a la técnica de la migración asistida con ultraligero, iniciada con los últimos ejemplares de la especie de zoos de Austria y Alemania. Ahora, en el Empordà podrán volar libres, sin la tutela del ultraligero. Seguir leyendo...

Le Slovène a remporté pour la première fois de sa carrière la Classique des classiques malgré une grosse chute.

L’absentéisme s’est accru parmi eux, à tel point que les files d’attente se sont allongées dans les aéroports américains et qu’il n’est pas rare de devoir attendre plusieurs heures pour atteindre la salle d’embarquement.

Le socialiste Mathieu Hanotin, maire sortant battu, et ses colistiers, ont été copieusement hués et sifflés.

Les fonctionnaires affectés à l’Agence de sécurité dans les transports – environ 50 000 personnes – ne sont plus payés en totalité depuis le 13 mars.

L’exposition réjouissante présente l’œuvre tardive de l’artiste, qui n’a jamais cessé d’expérimenter, avec ses célèbres papiers découpés mais aussi des toiles monumentales.

Après les SMS, les messageries comme WhatsApp se sont largement imposées dans les communications privées des Français. Malgré tout, certains internautes sont restés fidèles au courriel, attachés à l’écriture longue, et à la profondeur de telles correspondances.

Plus de 80 % de la poudre saisie en Europe arrive par la mer, et les organisations criminelles multiplient les routes et les moyens pour l’acheminer. Chercheur à l’Agence européenne sur les drogues, Laurent Laniel analyse cette évolution.

Malgré les saisies en constante augmentation au large ou dans les ports de la façade Atlantique, la voie maritime reste largement privilégiée par les narcotrafiquants. Alors que toujours plus de cocaïne entre en France, «Libé» a embarqué pendant deux jours avec les gardes-côtes de La Rochelle, en première ligne face aux mutations du trafic.

Créées pour les besoins de programmes télé ou de canulars, des formations fictives ont marqué à leur manière l’histoire de la musique.

As South Korea rallies around the much-hyped comeback concert for the global superstars, some are questioning whether too many public resources are being used for a corporate production.

K-pop’s biggest name will perform live in Seoul at 8 p.m. South Korea time (7 a.m. Eastern). The concert will be livestreamed by Netflix.

The move reversed earlier efforts to impose “maximum pressure” on the country and reflected how little success the Trump administration has achieved in calming global markets.

The number of parents and children booked into the country’s only immigrant family detention center, in Dilley, Texas, plummeted in February by more than 75% compared with a month earlier, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement data obtained by ProPublica. Between April 2025, when President Donald Trump started sending families there, and January of this year, the  number of people sent into detention with their families averaged around 600 per month. In February, those so-called books-ins fell to 133. As of mid-March, they dropped again to just 54. This week there were only around 100 people in family detention at Dilley, compared with an average daily population in January of over 900, the data shows. Current and former ICE officials and lawyers with clients in Dilley said they were unable to explain the reason for the sharp decline. However, they said the shift followed weeks of mounting public pressure generated in part by the widespread publication of letters written by several of the detained children in which they described the conditions inside Dilley and their despair at being ripped from their homes and schools. ProPublica published several of those letters on Feb. 9 after visiting the facility — about an hour south of San Antonio — in mid-January. The letters set off a storm of outrage in Washington and across the country. They were raised in congressional hearings and pasted on posters in anti-ICE demonstrations. Rep. James Walkinshaw, a Democrat from Virginia , read the letters aloud to ICE’s acting director, Todd Lyons, during a congressional hearing on Feb. 10, pressing him for answers about whether the children’s detention could cause adverse psychological effects. He pointed to one drawing by a 5-year-old Venezuelan girl named Luisanney Toloza of her family.  “My son’s 5. He can’t write many words, but he can communicate through drawings like this,” Walkinshaw said, making special note of the expressions on the family’s faces. “None of the faces are smiling.” It was another 5-year-old who first triggered public attention to children being detained at Dilley. Liam Conejo Ramos was picked up on Jan. 20 in Minnesota and sent to the facility with his father. A photograph of him at the time of his detention, wearing a blue bunny hat, went viral.  Detainees, emboldened by the attention, organized a protest in a yard at the facility that was captured in an aerial photograph and widely published on social media. Lawmakers demanded multiple visits to push for the release of Ramos and others. Nearly 4,000 doctors, nurses and health professionals sent a letter to the Trump administration calling for the immediate release of all children currently in immigration detention. This month, social media personality Rachel Accurso, an educator better known as Ms. Rachel, who makes popular children’s programming, posted a video conversation with one of the kids detained at Dilley to her 4.9 million Instagram followers, garnering more than 3,700 comments. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas, has been at the forefront of a push by legislators from his party to shut down Dilley and for the administration to find alternatives to family detentions. When told about the drop in the number of families being held at Dilley, he said, “That trailer prison is no place for children, and I’m glad to hear that the numbers continue to decline,” adding, “It’s a reminder that people can make a difference by speaking up.” The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said in a statement that custody decisions are made “daily, on a case-by-case basis,” adding that the “administration does not make immigration decisions based on public opinion. We follow the rule of law.” In the past, the agency has said that Dilley offers families a safe environment equipped with access to educational materials, child care necessities and round-the-clock medical and mental health care. Meanwhile, CoreCivic, the private prison company operating the facility, said in a statement it does not have “any say whatsoever” in whether detainees are deported or released.” In previous statements, it has said that the health and safety of detainees is its “top priority.” Dilley first opened as a family detention facility under former President Barack Obama in 2014, mostly for recent border crossers. Trump kept the facility running during his first term, but President Joe Biden stopped holding families in 2021, arguing the United States shouldn’t be in the business of detaining children. Soon after taking office a second time, Trump resumed family detentions at Dilley. As border crossings have dropped to record lows, more of the families being held there have been arrested inside the United States and have been in the country long enough to lay down roots and build networks of relatives and friends. The children detained there have ranged in age from newborns to older teenagers. The vast majority of adults held at Dilley had no U.S. criminal record.  Following the protests and the publication of children’s letters, detainees and attorneys interviewed by ProPublica said guards took away crayons, colored pencils and drawing paper during recent room searches. This week, ProPublica learned the facility had cut off access to video calls in common areas. The Trump administration said in a recent court filing that personal property had not been destroyed at Dilley and items confiscated during searches were “limited to materials identified as protest-related and not authorized under facility rules.” CoreCivic “vehemently” denied staff confiscated or destroyed children’s personal artwork or supplies. DHS said the restrictions were put in place on video calls following the livestreaming of recorded calls online “that resulted in the unauthorized dissemination of law enforcement sensitive information.” The agency added the video calls are still available in private rooms, as is access to in-person visitation and phones. While a long-standing legal settlement, known as the Flores agreement, holds that children should generally not be detained for more than 20 days, the data ProPublica obtained showed the average days in custody was longer than that for every month since family detentions resumed at the facility last year. In each month between November and February, the average stay in family detention was over 50 days. DHS has said in the past that the Flores agreement, in place since the 1990s, is outdated and should be terminated because newer regulations address the needs of children in detention. One Egyptian family, Hayam El Gamal and her five children ranging in age from 18 to 5-year-old twins , has been at Dilley for nine months. They were taken into custody after the father, Mohamed Soliman, was charged over an alleged antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado, that killed one person and injured 13 others. The family said it had no knowledge of his plans. DHS said it is still investigating. One 13-year-old Guatemalan boy named Edison was released from Dilley with his mom this week. During his 92-day detention, Edison had cried in video calls to his father back in Chicago, saying he felt like he was being treated like a criminal. (His father asked that his son’s last name not be used.) Then in the early hours of Wednesday morning, a guard came to their bunk room and told him and his mom to start packing their belongings. By that night, they were on a plane to Chicago to be reunited with Edison’s dad. “We don’t understand why they were released,” his dad said. “All I can tell you is it was a miracle from God.” As soon as they landed, the family went home to enjoy a seafood dinner, one of Edison’s favorites. The post The Number of Families Being Held at Dilley Detention Center Has Plummeted appeared first on ProPublica .

Last summer, a group of officials from the Department of Energy gathered at the Idaho National Laboratory, a sprawling 890-square-mile complex in the eastern desert of Idaho where the U.S. government built its first rudimentary nuclear power plant in 1951 and continues to test cutting-edge technology. On the agenda that day: the future of nuclear energy in the Trump era. The meeting was convened by 31-year-old lawyer Seth Cohen. Just five years out of law school, Cohen brought no significant experience in nuclear law or policy; he had just entered government through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team. As Cohen led the group through a technical conversation about licensing nuclear reactor designs, he repeatedly downplayed health and safety concerns. When staff brought up the topic of radiation exposure from nuclear test sites, Cohen broke in. “They are testing in Utah. … I don’t know, like 70 people live there,” he said. “But … there’s lots of babies,” one staffer pushed back. Babies, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups are thought to be potentially more susceptible to cancers brought on by low-level radiation exposure, and they are usually afforded greater protections. “They’ve been downwind before,” another staffer joked. “This is why we don’t use AI transcription in meetings,” another added. ProPublica reviewed records of that meeting, providing a rare look at a dramatic shift underway in one of the most sensitive domains of public policy. The Trump administration is upending the way nuclear energy is regulated, driven by a desire to dramatically increase the amount of energy available to power artificial intelligence. Career experts have been forced out and thousands of pages of regulations are being rewritten at a sprint. A new generation of nuclear energy companies — flush with Silicon Valley cash and boasting strong political connections — wield increasing influence over policy. Figures like Cohen are forcing a “move fast and break things” Silicon Valley ethos on one of the country’s most important regulators. The Trump administration has been particularly aggressive in its attacks on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the bipartisan independent regulator that approves commercial nuclear power plants and monitors their safety. The agency is not a household name. But it’s considered the international gold standard, often influencing safety rules around the world. The NRC has critics, especially in Silicon Valley, where the often-cautious commission is portrayed as an impediment to innovation. In an early salvo, President Donald Trump fired NRC Commissioner Christopher Hanson last June after Hanson spoke out about the importance of agency independence. It was the first time an NRC commissioner had been fired. During that Idaho meeting, Cohen shot down any notion of NRC independence in the new era. “Assume the NRC is going to do whatever we tell the NRC to do,” he said, records reviewed by ProPublica show. In November, Cohen was made chief counsel for nuclear policy at the Department of Energy, where he oversees a broad nuclear portfolio. Hundreds of Staff Who Do Work Related to Nuclear Reactors and Their Safety Have Left and Not Been Replaced Source: Weekly Information Reports from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Note: The data is from the week ending Jan. 24, 2025, through Feb. 13, 2026. The aggressive moves have sent shock waves through the nuclear energy world. Many longtime promoters of the industry say they worry recklessness from the Trump administration could discredit responsible nuclear energy initiatives. “The regulator is no longer an independent regulator — we do not know whose interests it is serving,” warned Allison Macfarlane, who served as NRC chair during the Obama administration. “The safety culture is under threat.” A ProPublica analysis of staffing data from the NRC and the Office of Personnel Management shows a rush to the exits: Over 400 people have left the agency since Trump took office. The losses are particularly pronounced in the teams that handle reactor and nuclear materials safety and among veteran staffers with 10 or more years of experience. Meanwhile, hiring of new staff has proceeded at a snail’s pace, with nearly 60 new arrivals in the first year of the Trump administration compared with nearly 350 in the last year of the Biden administration. Some nuclear power supporters say the administration is providing a needed level of urgency given the energy demands of AI. They also contend the sweeping changes underway aren’t as dangerous or dire as some experts suggest. “I think the NRC has been frozen in time,” said Brett Rampal, the senior director of nuclear and power strategy at the investment and strategy consultancy Veriten. “It’s a great time to get unfrozen and aim to work quickly.” The White House referred most of ProPublica’s questions to the Department of Energy, where spokesperson Olivia Tinari said the agency is committed to helping build more safe, high-quality nuclear energy facilities. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, America’s nuclear industry is entering a new era that will provide reliable, abundant power for generations to come,” she wrote. The DOE is “committed to the highest standards of safety for American workers and communities.” Cohen did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The NRC declined to comment. Blindsided by DOGE The U.S. has not had a serious nuclear incident since the Three Mile Island partial meltdown in 1979, a track record many experts attribute to a rigorous regulatory environment and an intense safety culture. Major nuclear incidents around the world have only strengthened the resolve of past regulators to stay independent from industry and from political winds. A chief cause of Japan’s Fukushima accident, investigators found, was the cozy relationship between the country’s industry and oversight body, which opened the door for thin safety assessments and inaccurate projections overlooking the possible impact of a major tsunami. “We knew regulatory capture led directly to Fukushima and to Chernobyl,” said Kathryn Huff, who was assistant secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy during the Biden administration. The U.S. has not had a serious nuclear incident since the Three Mile Island partial meltdown in 1979. Leif Skoogfors/Getty Images The U.S. has barely built any nuclear power plants in recent decades. Only three new reactors have been completed in the last 25 years, and since 1990 the U.S has barely added any net new nuclear electricity to its grid. Though about 20% of U.S. energy is supplied by nuclear power plants, the fleet is aging. Some experts blame the slow build-out on the challenging economics of financing a multibillion-dollar project and the uncertainty of accessing and disposing of nuclear fuels. But an increasingly vocal group of industry voices and deregulation advocates have blamed the slow build-out on overly cautious and inefficient regulators. Among the most powerful exponents of this view are billionaires Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen; both venture capitalists have their own investments in the nuclear energy sector and are influential Trump supporters. Andreessen camped out at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Florida, after Trump won the 2024 election, helping pick staff for the new administration. In late 2024, Thiel personally vetted at least one candidate for the Office of Nuclear Energy, according to people familiar with the conversations. Neither responded to requests for comment. Four months into his second term, Trump signed a series of executive orders designed to supercharge nuclear power build-out. “It’s a hot industry, it’s a brilliant industry,” said Trump, flanked by nuclear energy CEOs in the Oval Office. He added: “And it’s become very safe.” Under those orders, the NRC was directed to reduce its workforce, speed up the timeline for approving nuclear reactors and rewrite many of its safety rules. The DOE — which has a vast nuclear portfolio, including waste cleanup sites and government research labs — was tasked with creating a pathway for so-called advanced nuclear companies to test their designs. The goal, Trump said, was to quadruple nuclear energy output and provide new power to the data centers behind the AI boom. As DOGE gutted agencies , departures mounted in the nuclear sector. Career experts in nuclear regulations and safety departed or were forced out. When Trump fired Hanson, a Democratic NRC commissioner, the president’s team explained the move by saying, “All organizations are more effective when leaders are rowing in the same direction.” In an unsigned email to ProPublica, the White House press office wrote: “All commissioners are presidential appointees and can be fired just like any other appointee.” In August, the NRC’s top attorney resigned and was replaced by oil and gas lawyer David Taggart, who had been working on DOGE cuts at the DOE. In all, the nuclear office at the DOE had lost about a third of its staff, according to a January 2026 count by the Federation of American Scientists, a nonprofit focused on science and technology policy. That summer, Cohen and a team of DOGE operatives touched down at the NRC offices, a series of nondescript towers across from a Dunkin’ in suburban Maryland. He was joined by Adam Blake, an investor who had recently founded an AI medical startup and has a background in real estate and solar energy, and Ankur Bansal, president of a company that created software for real estate agents. Neither would comment for this story. Many career officials who spoke with ProPublica were blindsided: The new Trump officials at the NRC seemed to have no experience with the intricacies of nuclear energy policy or law, they said. One NRC lawyer who briefed some of the new arrivals decided to resign. “They were talking about quickly approving all these new reactors, and they didn’t seem to care that much about the rules — they wanted to carry out the wishes of the White House,” the official said. At one point, Cohen began passing out hats from nuclear energy startup Valar Atomics, one of the companies vying to build a new reactor, according to sources familiar with the matter and records seen by ProPublica. NRC staffers balked; they were supposed to monitor companies like Valar for safety violations, not wear its swag. NRC ethics officials warned Cohen that the hat handout was a likely violation of conflict rules. It betrayed a misunderstanding of the safety regulator’s role, said a former official familiar with the exchange. “Imagine you live near a nuclear power plant, and you find out a supposedly independent safety regulator — the watchdog — is going around wearing the power plant’s branded hats,” the official said. “Would that make you feel safe?” The NRC and Cohen did not respond to requests for comment about the hat incident. Valar counts Trump’s Silicon Valley allies as angel investors. They include Palmer Luckey, a technology executive and founder of the defense contractor Anduril, and Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer of Palantir, the software company helping power Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation raids. It was among three nuclear reactor companies that sued the NRC last year in an attempt to strip it of its authority to regulate its reactors and replace it with a state-level regulator. Before the Trump administration came into office, lawyers watching the case were confident the courts would quickly dismiss the suit, as the NRC’s authority to regulate reactors is widely acknowledged. But new Trump appointees pushed for a compromise settlement — which is still being negotiated. The career NRC lawyer working on the case quietly left the agency. Valar and its executives did not reply to requests for comment. “Going So Fast” The deregulatory push is the culmination of mounting pressure — both political and economic — to make it easier to build nuclear power in the U.S. Over the years, a bipartisan coalition supporting nuclear expansion brought together environmentalists who favor zero-carbon power and defense hawks focused on abundant domestic energy production. Anti-nuclear activists still argue that renewable energy like wind and solar are safer and more economical. But streamlining the NRC has been a bipartisan priority as well. The latest major reform came in 2024, when President Joe Biden signed into law the ADVANCE Act, which went as far as changing the mission statement of the NRC to ensure it “does not unnecessarily limit” nuclear energy development. Some nuclear power supporters say the Trump administration is merely accelerating these changes. They cite instances in which the current regulations appear out of sync with the times. The NRC’s byzantine rules are designed for so-called large light-water reactors — massive facilities that can power entire cities — and not the increasingly in vogue smaller advanced reactor designs popular among Silicon Valley-backed firms. Rules that require fences of certain heights might make little sense for new reactors buried in the earth; and rules that require a certain number of operators per reactor could be a bad fit for a cluster of smaller reactors with modern controls. Advances in sensors, modeling and safety technologies, they say, should be taken into account across the board. The NRC has said it expects over two dozen new license requests from small modular and advanced reactor companies in coming years. Many of those requests are likely to come from new, Silicon Valley-based nuclear firms. “There was a missing link in the innovation cycle, and it was very difficult to build something and test it in the U.S. because of mostly licensing and site availability constraints in the past,” said Adam Stein of the pro-nuclear nonprofit Breakthrough Institute. The regulatory changes are in flux: This spring, the NRC is starting to release thousands of pages of new rules governing everything from the safety and emergency preparedness plans reactor companies are required to submit to the procedures for objecting to a reactor license. “It’s hard to know if they are getting rid of unnecessary processes or if it’s actually reducing public safety,” said one official working on reactor licensing, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from the Trump administration. “And that’s just the problem with going so fast — everything just kind of gets lost in a mush.” Lawyers from the Executive Office of the President have been sent to the NRC to keep an eye on the new rules, a move that further raised alarms about the agency’s independence. Nicholas Gallagher — a relatively recent New York University law school graduate and conservative writer whom ProPublica previously identified as a DOGE operative at the General Services Administration — has been involved in conversations about overhauling environmental rules. He’s working alongside Sydney Volanski, a 30-year-old recent law school graduate who rose to national attention while she was in high school for her campaign against the Girl Scouts of America, which she accused of promoting “Marxists, socialists and advocates of same-sex lifestyle.” NRC lawyers working on the rules were told last October that Gallagher and Volanski would be joining them, and they both appear on the regular NRC rulemaking calendar invite. The White House maintains, however, that “zero lawyers from the Executive Office of the President have been dispatched to work on rulemaking.” Neither Gallagher nor Volanski replied to requests for comment. The administration is routing the new rules through an office overseen by Trump’s cost-cutting guru Russell Vought, a move that was previously unheard of for an independent regulator like the NRC. The White House spokesperson noted that, under a recent executive order, this process is now required for all agencies. Political operatives have been “inserted into the senior leadership team to the point where they could significantly influence decision-making,” said Scott Morris, who worked at the NRC for more than 32 years, most recently as the No. 2 career operations official. “I just think that would be a dangerous proposition.” Morris voted for Trump twice and broadly supports the goals of deregulating and expanding nuclear energy, but he has begun speaking out against the administration’s interference at the NRC. He retired in May 2025 as part of a wave of retirements and firings. At a recent hearing before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board — an independent body that helps adjudicate nuclear licensing — NRC lawyers withdrew from the proceedings, citing “limited resources.” The judge remarked that it was the first time in over 20 years the NRC had done so. Meanwhile, some staff members, other career officials say, are afraid to voice dissenting views for fear of being fired. “It feels like being a lobster in a slowly boiling pot,” one NRC official who has been working on the rule changes told ProPublica, describing the erosion of independence. The official was one of three who compared their recent experience at NRC to being in a pot of slowly boiling water. “If somebody is raising something that they think that the industry or the White House would have a problem with, they think twice,” the official said. Inside the NRC, the steering committee overseeing the changes includes Cohen, Taggart and Mike King, a career NRC official who is the newly installed executive director for operations. The former director, Mirela Gavrilas, a 21-year veteran of the agency, retired after getting boxed out of decision-making, according to a person familiar with her departure. Gavrilas did not respond to a request for comment. Any final changes will be approved by the NRC’s five commissioners, three of whom are Republicans. In September, the two Democratic commissioners told a Senate committee they might be fired at any time if they get crosswise with Trump — including over revisions to safety rules . Draft rules being circulated inside the NRC propose drastic rollbacks of security and safety inspections at nuclear facilities. Those include a proposed 56% cut in emergency preparedness inspection time, CNN reported in March. Even some pro-nuclear groups are troubled by the emerging order. Some have tried to backchannel to their contacts in the Trump administration to explain the importance of an independent regulator to help maintain public support for nuclear power. Without it, they risk losing credibility. “You have to make sure you don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater,” said Judi Greenwald, president and CEO of the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, a nonprofit that promotes nuclear energy and supports many of the regulatory changes being proposed by the Trump administration. Greenwald’s group favors faster timelines for approving nuclear reactors, but she worries that the agency’s fundamental independence has been undermined. “We would prefer that they yield back more of NRC independence,” she said. The Vogtle nuclear power plant in Waynesboro, Georgia, is the largest nuclear power station in the U.S. Kendrick Brinson/The New York Times/Redux “Nuke Bros” in Silicon Valley One Trump administration priority has been making it easier for so-called advanced reactor companies to navigate the regulatory process. These firms, mostly backed by Silicon Valley tech and venture money, are often working on designs for much smaller reactors that they hope to mass produce in factories. “There are two nuclear industries,” said Macfarlane, the former NRC chair. “There are the actual people who use nuclear reactors to produce power and put it on the grid … and then there are the ‘nuke bros’” in Silicon Valley. Trump’s Silicon Valley allies have loomed large over his nuclear policy. One prospective political appointee for a top DOE nuclear job got a Christmas Eve call from Thiel, the rare Silicon Valley leader to back Trump in 2016. Thiel, whose Founders Fund invested in a nuclear fuel startup and an advanced reactor company, quizzed the would-be official about deregulation and how to rapidly build more nuclear energy capacity, said sources familiar with the conversation. Nuclear energy startups jockeyed to spend time at Mar-a-Lago in the months before the start of Trump’s second term. Balerion Space Ventures, a venture capital firm that has invested in multiple companies, convened an investor summit there in January 2025, according to an invitation viewed by ProPublica. Balerion did not reply to a request for comment. A few months later, when Trump was drawing up the executive orders, leaders at many of those nuclear companies were given advanced access to drafts of the text — and the opportunity to provide suggested edits, documents viewed by ProPublica show. Those orders created a new program to test out experimental reactor designs, addressing a common complaint that companies are not given opportunities to experiment. There are currently about a dozen advanced reactor companies planning to participate. Each has a concierge team within the DOE to help navigate bureaucracy. As NPR reported in January , the DOE quietly overhauled a series of safety rules that would apply to these new reactors and shared the new regulations with these companies before making them public. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright — who served on the board of one of those companies, Oklo — has said fast nuclear build-out is a priority: “We are moving as quickly as we can to permit, build and enable the rapid construction of as much nuke capacity as possible,” he told CNBC last fall. Oklo noted that Wright stepped down from the board when he was confirmed. The Trump administration hopes some of the companies would have their reactors “go critical” — a key first step on the way to building a functioning power plant — by July 2026. Then the NRC, which signs off on the safety designs of commercial nuclear power plants, could be expected to quickly OK these new reactors to get to market. According to people familiar with the conversations, at least one nuclear energy startup CEO personally recruited potential members of the DOGE nuclear team, though it’s not clear if Cohen was brought aboard this way. Cohen has told colleagues and industry contacts that he reports to Emily Underwood, one of Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s top aides for economic policy. He is perceived inside government as a key avatar of the White House’s nuclear agenda. In its email to ProPublica, the White House said, “Seth Cohen is a Department of Energy employee and does not report to Emily Underwood or Stephen Miller in any capacity.” The DOE spokesperson added, “Seth’s role at the Department of Energy is to support the Trump administration’s mission to unleash American Energy Dominance.” Cohen has been pushing to raise the legal limit of radiation that nuclear energy companies are allowed to emit from their facilities. One nuclear industry insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said many firms are fixating on changing these radiation rules: Their business model requires moving nuclear reactors around the country, often near workers or the general public. Building thick, expensive shielding walls can be prohibitively expensive, they said. Valar CEO Isaiah Taylor has called limits on exposure to radiation a top barrier to industry growth. A recent DOE memo seen by ProPublica cites cost savings on shielding for Valar’s reactor to justify changing those limits. “Shielding-related cost reductions,” the memo said, “could range from $1-2 million per reactor.” The debate over the precise rule change is ongoing. The DOE has been considering a fivefold increase to the limit for public exposure to radiation, which will allow some nuclear reactor companies to cut costs on these expensive safety shields, internal DOE documents seen by ProPublica show. A presentation prepared by DOE staffers in their Idaho offices that has circulated inside the department makes the “business case” for changing the radiation dose rules: It could cut the cost of some new reactors by as much as 5%. These more relaxed standards are likely to be adopted by the NRC and apply to reactors nationwide, documents show. In February, Wright accompanied Valar’s executive team on a first-of-its-kind flight, as a U.S. military plane was conscripted to fly the company’s reactor from Los Angeles to Utah. Valar does not yet have a working nuclear reactor, and a number of industry sources told ProPublica they viewed the airlift as a PR exercise. Internal government memos justified the airlift by designating it as “critical” to the U.S. “national security interests.” Cohen posted smiling pictures of himself from the cargo bay of the military plane. Cohen told an audience at the American Nuclear Society that the rapid build-out was essential to powering Silicon Valley’s AI data centers. He framed the policy in existential terms: “I can’t emphasize this strongly enough that losing the AI war is an outcome akin to the Nazis developing the bomb before the United States.” As it deliberated rule changes, the DOE has cut out its internal team of health experts who work on radiation safety at the Office of Environment, Health, Safety and Security, said sources familiar with the decision. The advice of outside experts on radiation protection has been largely cast aside. The DOE spokesperson said its radiation standards “are aligned with Gold Standard Science … with a focus on protecting people and the environment while avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy.” The department has already decided to abandon the long-standing radiation protection principle known as “ALARA” — the “As Low As Reasonably Achievable” standard — which directs anyone dealing with radioactive materials to minimize exposure. It often pushes exposure well below legal thresholds. Many experts agreed that the ALARA principle was sometimes applied too strictly, but the move to entirely throw it out was opposed by many prominent radiation health experts. Whether the agencies will actually change the legal thresholds for radiation exposure is an open question, said sources familiar with the deliberations. Internal DOE documents arguing for changing dose rules cite a report produced at the Idaho National Laboratory, which was compiled with the help of the AI assistant Claude. “It’s really strange,” said Kathryn Higley, president of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, a congressionally chartered group studying radiation safety. “They fundamentally mistake the science.” John Wagner, the head of the Idaho National Laboratory and the report’s lead author, acknowledged to ProPublica that the science over changing radiation exposure rules is hotly contested. “We recognize that respected experts interpret aspects of this literature differently,” he wrote. His analysis was not meant to be the final word, he said, but was “intended to inform debate.” The impact of radiation levels at very low doses is hard to measure, so the U.S. has historically struck a cautious note. Raising dose limits could put the U.S. out of step with international standards. For his part, Cohen has told the nuclear industry that he sees his job as making sure the government “is no longer a barrier” to them. In June, he shot down the notion of companies putting money into a fund for workplace accidents. “Put yourself in the shoes of one of these startups,” he said. “They’re raising hundreds of millions of dollars to do this. And then they would have to go to their VCs and their board and say, listen, guys, we actually need a few hundred million dollars more to put into a trust fund?” He also suggested that regulators should not fret about preparing for so-called 100-year events — disasters that have roughly a 1% chance of taking place but can be catastrophic for nuclear facilities. “When SpaceX started building rockets, they sort of expected the first ones to blow up,” he said. The post DOGE Goes Nuclear: How Trump Invited Silicon Valley Into America’s Nuclear Power Regulator appeared first on ProPublica .

States were on notice from the U.S. Department of Justice that if they didn’t fall in line, the federal government would force them into compliance. It wasn’t President Donald Trump’s administration applying pressure. It was the early 1990s, and President Bill Clinton had signed the “motor voter” law requiring states to offer voter registration when someone applies for a driver’s license. Idaho, with its fiercely independent streak, didn’t want to participate. So instead of going along with the federal government’s new National Voter Registration Act, state legislators followed the recommendation of Idaho’s top election officials and scrambled for a way out. Because the federal voter law said states with same-day voter registration could be exempt, Idaho lawmakers passed a bill almost unanimously, with full support from Republicans, to adopt same-day registration. Idaho’s chief deputy secretary of state at the time, Ben Ysursa, described the move as an almost existential response to “an insidious federal intrusion into state election procedures.” The Clinton Justice Department eventually sued three states for not complying with its demands. By then, Idaho’s had a shield against litigation due to its exemption. Three decades later, the exemption and the philosophy that led to it are at the heart of Idaho’s refusal to comply with a very different demand by the Trump Justice Department. The state’s top election official cites the exemption as one reason he will not sign a deal to give the Trump administration all the voter data his office holds, including sensitive personal information like partial Social Security and driver’s license numbers. Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane is one of about a dozen Republicans nationally to resist the administration’s efforts to gather sensitive voter data ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, in the face of litigation threats from the Justice Department. In a state that Trump won in 2024 by one of the largest margins in the country, an effort that the administration touts as essential to weeding out noncitizen voters has tested the limits of what a committed Trump stronghold will tolerate when it comes to privacy and federal power. Lists of voter addresses and party affiliations are often available to the public through an open records request. McGrane provided the government with this version. But state election administrators also keep more sensitive information such as a person’s exact date of birth and partial Social Security number. In Idaho, the law says this information can’t be given out — and that’s what the Trump administration is still after. Among the other five states exempt from the law , three have refused to give up their voters’ sensitive information and have since been sued by the Justice Department. Wyoming handed over its data without a lawsuit. Other states that are not exempt have also been sued. McGrane, who is an attorney, told the Justice Department in letters that he doesn’t see any legal reason why he should honor the government’s request — and that, given the administration’s recent admissions over its handling of sensitive data, he couldn’t be sure the department would keep it safe, which is his duty under state law. The trimmed-down version of voter info he’d already handed over should be enough for “any legitimate inquiry” by the government into how effectively Idaho maintains its voter lists, McCrane wrote. Through a spokesperson, McGrane declined an interview request from ProPublica, citing the possibility of an impending lawsuit from the Justice Department. A spokesperson for the Justice Department also declined to comment. Idaho’s Republican secretary of state, Phil McGrane, is one of about a dozen Republicans nationally to resist the administration’s efforts to gather sensitive voter data ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Kyle Green/AP Photo A Justice Department attorney threatened to sue Idaho in December, in a halting voicemail with McGrane’s office that was obtained by ProPublica and previously reported on by the Idaho Capital Sun . “I need to get some clarification as to what you’re going to be doing. Or not doing. So, again, I need a response from you,” the lawyer says in the recording. “You may have seen in the news that we have sued six states earlier this week for refusing to provide their voter registration lists, and we’re preparing additional lawsuits.” The lawyer then tells the secretary of state’s office he would “like to keep everyone out of that as possible — as much as possible, but I haven’t heard anything back from you.” Ysursa, who served three terms as secretary of state until 2015, said McGrane is “in a much more politically volatile situation than I ever was.” “Going against Trump in Idaho on certain things, that’s a fine line,” Ysursa said. “And I think he’s doing a good job. He’s doing the right thing.” Public policy surveys in Idaho conducted since the 1990s have surfaced a current of “distrust or wariness towards federal control or national control,” said Matthew May, survey research director at the Boise State University School of Public Service. The polling over time has revealed Idahoans’ strong belief in independence, May said. In the months since McGrane’s refusal, more than 130 constituents have called, emailed and sent handwritten cards and letters to his office. Of those, just one person said they wanted McGrane to provide information to the Trump administration. The others were supportive, appreciative or, in some cases, seemingly panicked by the prospect of their private information being released. Although the senders skewed more Democratic than Idaho’s electorate, just over half the messages came from Republicans and unaffiliated voters, based on a review of voter registration data for commenters who left their names. “Mr McGrane has done a masterful job of dancing around the US Justice Dept request for the full voter records of Idaho voters,” wrote one registered Republican. “When the dancing no longer works, I expect Mr McGrane to give them a big fat NO! “Voting is our one sacred right in this country,” the person continued. “DOJ has no legitimate business receiving our PRIVATE voter information. They may threaten to sue, but so will the voters of Idaho if you grant their request. Do not give them our personal voter information. Thank you.” Ysursa told ProPublica that he has urged McGrane to “hold the line,” even amid threats of repercussions. Ysursa is one of nine former secretaries of state who filed an amicus brief in federal court, arguing against the administration’s demands for full voter information. The Trump administration’s creep toward nationalizing elections runs counter to the ethos of “keep your federal hands off Idaho,” Ysursa said. McGrane is a self-described election nerd who worked his way up through elections offices, as opposed to cultivating a resume as a professional politician. He served as a county elections chief and gained a reputation for approaching voting day with a Super Bowl level of enthusiasm. He also became known for his ability to resist the political winds. McGrane was one of seven people featured on the cover of Time magazine in 2022 as “the defenders” of America’s elections. That year, McGrane was the only Idaho Republican candidate for secretary of state who did not back the false claim that fraud was responsible for Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. In perhaps the strongest sign that Trump’s base in Idaho has not been inflamed by McGrane’s pushback on the administration’s demand for voter rolls — which received plenty of media attention locally — he drew no challenger by last month’s deadline to enter the Idaho Republican primary for his position. Voters across Idaho have sent McGrane thank-you notes for not sharing their data. Audrey Dutton/ProPublica While the Constitution gives states the authority to run elections, the National Voter Registration Act gives the federal government an oversight role when it comes to ensuring voter lists are properly maintained. The law says election officials must make a “reasonable effort” to keep ineligible voters off of the rolls, and typical oversight comes in the form of lawsuits claiming that states aren’t doing a good enough job. Under Trump, the Justice Department has gone a step further. The department claims it has the right to seize states’ unredacted voter rolls without proving its case in court, citing in lawsuits the powers that agency officials say they have under the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act and the Civil Rights Act. The Justice Department has privately told states more about its intentions, according to emails obtained by ProPublica through public records requests. In Montana, a federal lawyer told the secretary of state’s legal counsel that the department was requesting voter rolls to “facilitate a review for noncitizens and dead voters,” adding that federal officials would be able to assess whether there are duplicate registrations as well. The demands come as part of the Trump administration’s focus on hunting down noncitizens on the voter rolls, a long-standing preoccupation for the president. He has long claimed, without evidence, that noncitizens have infiltrated the rolls to influence elections. Three judges who have considered the government’s lawsuits fully so far have dismissed them, saying that the federal laws the Trump administration cites as the basis for its demands do not apply — especially not where voters’ private information is concerned. In Oregon, U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai wrote that the Justice Department’s claims were “troubling,” representing federal overreach. In California, U.S. District Judge David Carter said the centralization of the information would have a chilling effect on voter registration, leading to decreased turnout as people worry their data could be used for an “inappropriate or unlawful purpose.” “This risk threatens the right to vote which is the cornerstone of American democracy,” Carter wrote. In Michigan, U.S. District Judge Hala Y. Jarbou echoed that interpretation, writing that “the risk of having one’s personal information misused will deter people from registering to vote.” The Justice Department has appealed all of the courts’ decisions. Leaders in Republican-led states that have held back their voter rolls, meanwhile, have taken pains to show they are making other efforts to keep noncitizens from voting. Idaho started looking for evidence of problems well before the Trump administration’s request. McGrane said in a letter to the Justice Department that his office worked with federal agencies to check the citizenship status of all registered Idaho voters in the lead-up to the 2024 general election. Given what Idaho has already done and the processes already in place, the federal government has “no legal or practical rationale for duplicative review,” McGrane wrote. The tools Idaho employed, he said, included a Department of Homeland Security program known as the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements. Idaho’s search found 11 cases of noncitizens registered to vote — none of whom actually cast votes in 2024 — and state police referred those cases to the Justice Department’s chief prosecutor in Idaho for review. McGrane told the Justice Department that he hadn’t heard anything about those cases since. The post As Trump Demands Voter Data, This Fiercely Independent Red State Says No appeared first on ProPublica .

Police have arrested a woman on suspicion of child abuse after she allegedly hit her 12-year-old son with a rattan cane in a Hong Kong flat. The police force said it received a report at 2.48pm on Saturday from a boy in Wong Tai Sin who complained he had been beaten by his mother. The boy, whose shoulder was red and swollen, was later taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei for treatment after police arrived at the public housing flat on Tsui Fung Street. Officers conducted an initial...

King Harold’s legendary 200-mile march across England to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 is a “myth” that likely never happened, according to research published on Saturday. In arguably the most famous battle in English history, the Anglo-Saxon leader was defeated by William the Conqueror, who became the first Franco-Norman king of England, at Hastings on October 14, 1066. The decisive clash, which marked the start of the Norman conquest of England, is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, set to be...

China has announced major discoveries of various critical minerals, including rare earths and fluorite, bolstering its reserves of the resources essential for the hi-tech, new energy and defence industries. At the Maoniuping mine in Sichuan province’s Mianning county, authorities announced the discovery of 9.7 million tonnes of rare earth oxides, bringing the site’s total proven reserves to 10.4 million tonnes, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday. Surveys also revealed 27.1 million...

Salman Rushdie zeigt sich bei der Lit.Cologne resilient: Seine neuen Erzählungen handeln zwar vom Tod , aber er kann sich durchaus eine Wiedergeburt vorstellen - „als Ferrari“.

Die Aktion für einen besseren Schutz von Frauen vor Gewalt soll am Sonntag in Berlin stattfinden. Zuvor hatte die Schauspielerin sich in den „Tagesthemen“ über die Vorwürfe gegen ihren Ex-Mann geäußert.

In den sozialen Medien tauschen Frauen nach der „Spiegel“-Recherche zu den Vorwürfen von Collien Fernandes ihre Wut über die Geschlechterverhältnisse aus. Zur Bitterkeit und der Frage, wie aus ihr etwas erwachsen könnte.

Die US-israelischen Angriffe auf Iran sollen laut Verteidigungsminister Katz in den kommenden Tagen verstärkt werden. Israel meldet nach iranischem Raketenbeschuss mehrere Einschläge im Raum Tel Aviv - auch ein Kindergarten wurde beschädigt.[ mehr ]

In Norwegen besuchen viele junge Menschen nach dem Schulabschluss eine besondere Art Internat. Dort stehen Gemeinschaft, Eigenverantwortung und praktische Erfahrung im Fokus. Für viele ist das gerade in der aktuellen Krisenzeit attraktiv. Von A. Bartram. [ mehr ]

Iran hat einen Luftangriff auf die Uran-Anreicherungsanlage in Natans gemeldet. Es habe sich um einen US-israelischen Angriff gehandelt, berichten iranische Staatsmedien. Radioaktivität sei nicht ausgetreten. [ mehr ]

Michael Smith, 52, charged after flooding platforms with thousands of AI songs and boosting them with bots Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox A North Carolina man has pleaded guilty to defrauding music streaming platforms and his fellow musicians out of millions in royalties by flooding the services with thousands of AI-generated songs – and using automated “bots” to artificially boost the number of listens into the billions. As part of a deal with federal prosecutors in New York ’s southern district, 52-year-old Michael Smith pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Continue reading...

Footage shows US musician struggling with field sobriety tests he calls ‘really hard’ before his 2024 arrest in New York Justin Timberlake struggled to perform field sobriety tests requiring him to walk a straight line and stand on one leg after the pop star was pulled over in New York ’s Hamptons in 2024 by police officers who suspected him of driving drunk, according to video footage released on Friday. Timberlake tells officers at one point, “these are like really hard tests.” Continue reading...

The SA election result is devastating for the Liberals, but there are warning signs for Labor too in One Nation’s startling rise, which has rocked Australian politics Labor secures overwhelming victory in SA election Rarely – perhaps never – has the winner of an election felt more like a subplot to a bigger and more consequential narrative than in South Australia on Saturday night. The ABC called the result for Peter Malinauskas and his Labor government less than 90 minutes after the polls closed, validating the opinion polls that had long forecast a landslide victory. Continue reading...