A rant by an old-time personal computer user who loathes today's big tech and briefly suggests he might be using a Libre operating system — seems to be completely unaware of the free software movement.
I think he might sympathize with it if he knew it.
Clint Dempsey’s docuseries and Landon Donovan’s memoir show that there is no single path to US soccer stardom
Back in 1993, Bora Milutinović offered a succinct diagnosis of the American men’s soccer player: “This is the problem with these people: they don’t have a problem.”
What the then-US men’s national team head coach meant, presumably, is that making it in soccer wasn’t existential for American players, as it is for many others worldwide. Milutinović and his two brothers had been orphaned by the second world war and clawed their way to the Yugoslav national team and gainful professional careers. The players in the Serb’s care at that time, by contrast, never had to worry about feeding themselves.
Continue reading...The White House correspondents’ dinner has always been a questionable affair. It’s even more worrying under an anti-press administration
Even in the pre-Trump era, I had reservations about the annual black-tie celebration in Washington that some have dubbed “the nerd prom” but is more formally known as the White House correspondents’ dinner.
Was it really a wise idea, I wondered, for Washington DC journalists and their bosses to chum around with the very government officials that they were supposed to be covering? Shouldn’t reporters maintain some critical distance? What about the “optics” of this much-publicized event (and the week of gala festivities surrounding it) that made journalists appear frivolous about holding the government accountable to the public? Given the American public’s rock-bottom trust in traditional media, hasn’t this annual, televised display worsened that problem?
Continue reading...Report from Elizabeth Warren calls Trump administration cuts to Social Security Administration ‘catastrophic’
Cuts to the Social Security Administration have caused “customer service chaos” for millions of older Americans and those with disabilities who rely on the agency’s services, according to a new report from a group of Democratic senators.
An investigation found that phone wait times were more than 10 times higher than what the agency claimed on its website, if the calls were even answered at all.
Continue reading...Analyst who worked on Internet Watch Foundation report says content exists ‘across all social media platforms’ and is ‘very easy’ to find
The number of commercial child sexual abuse websites has doubled in a year as experts say that criminal gangs are making “huge profits” from online sexual exploitation.
According to data collected by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), 15,031 commercial child sexual abuse sites were found in 2025, compared with 7,028 found in 2024, a 114% increase.
Continue reading...Paterna Biosciences says it has determined the set of instructions needed to turn sperm-making stem cells into "normal, mature" sperm.
A series of stunning findings about great apes’ mental capabilities in recent years has transformed how we see our closest relatives
Clear plastic cups and pitchers adorned the wooden table in Des Moines, Iowa. Invisible juice was poured and presented to Kanzi, who enthusiastically chose the fake filled cup, playing along with the man who had come to visit. In many ways, it was the quintessential scene of a children’s imaginary tea party. Only Kanzi, at 44 years old, was a bonobo.
The experiment, carried out at the Ape Initiative facility in 2024, was the first to empirically test and document pretend play in a great ape species, with the results published in the journal Science in February. The study adds to an expansive repertoire of research over the past decade that has uncovered robust similarities between ape and human behaviours, upending long-held beliefs about how we distinguish ourselves from our closest kin.
Continue reading...Our writers take a look at the best prospects coming out of college, and which teams needs to nail their picks over the coming days
Arvell Reese, LB/Edge, Ohio State. He is one of the best pure linebacker prospects in a generation, and he has the athletic traits to become a full-time edge defender. Some teams view him as a linebacker; those at the top of the board prefer him as an edge rusher. In an ideal world, Reese will do a bit of everything. Think Philly’s Zack Baun on Super Soldier Serum. Reese has a rare combination of smarts, speed and power. Whichever role he plays, he will be a force multiplier for a defense. OC
Continue reading...
The US president is making a desperate plea to the one group that seemingly hasn’t deserted him – yet
He has lost the Catholics, the foreign policy isolationists and the millions of people affected by ICE’s immigration raids. But Donald Trump is still counting on the goodwill of one powerful constituency of American voters, to whom he appealed this week by reading a passage from the Bible urging people to repent their “wicked ways”. A lot of thoughts spring to mind in relation to this, but at the very forefront, one question: do the US’s evangelical Christians, who overwhelmingly support Trump, have a red line and if so, can they find it with both hands?
I’m stating the obvious but it’s worth raising again, if only to boggle at the sheer shamelessness of a religious community that has thrown in its lot with Trump: how on earth do the evangelicals work out the maths on this? Let’s remind ourselves of the facts; that the president treating us to a section of the Old Testament as part of a week-long, continuous public reading of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation – separation of church and state, anyone? – is the same president who has, variously, been found by courts to have falsified business records, as part of a hush-money payment scheme to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, and sexually abused and defamed E Jean Carroll. As the president intoned to camera in the Oval Office on Tuesday: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Exclusive: Documents released to campaign group 38 Degrees reveal UK officials briefed on possibility of altering food standards
British officials were briefed on the possibility of allowing chemical-washed chicken into the UK before a meeting with the US embassy, new documents reveal.
The Food Standards Agency is also looking at studies performed in the US on washing chicken with bacteriophages, including chlorine dioxide, to remove pathogens, according to the documents, released to the campaign group 38 Degrees under freedom of information laws.
Continue reading...