Activists accuse Iran’s regime of crackdown on civil society as whereabouts of Nasrin Sotoudeh are unknownIs Iran using the war to hide a surge in executions?The prize-winning Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been arrested in Tehran, according to her family, as activists accused the regime of cracking down on civil society under cover of the war with Israel and the US.Sotoudeh’s daughter Mehraveh Khandan said her mother was taken from her home in Tehran late on Wednesday and that her whereabouts were unknown. Khandan suspected the arrest may be related to recent interviews about the war, in which Sotoudeh criticised the government. Continue reading...
• Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International released coordinated reports on Thursday documenting alleged extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and torture by Bangladeshi security forces during recent political unrest, affecting approximately 340 individuals since January 2026.
• The organizations called for immediate international investigations and threatened to recommend sanctions if Bangladesh fails to establish independent accountability mechanisms within 60 days.
• The US State Department issued a statement expressing "deep concern" and indicated potential implications for bilateral aid flows and military cooperation, affecting approximately $89 million in annual assistance.
• The United Nations humanitarian coordinator reported on Thursday that drought conditions across East Africa have intensified, affecting approximately 24 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia with critical water and food shortages.
• The organization is requesting $3.2 billion in emergency humanitarian assistance for 2026, warning that without immediate intervention, malnutrition rates could exceed 2022 levels when the region experienced famine conditions.
• US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced an additional $450 million in emergency aid packages, representing a 40% increase from the previous fiscal year allocation for East African relief operations.
Department says it’s received 834 requests for a review of tool’s assessments since it launched in NovemberGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThere appears to be no legal barrier for a human to override a controversial algorithm that determines financial support for elderly Australians, a Senate inquiry has heard, despite government assessors being banned from doing so.The Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT), introduced in November as part of aged care Support at Home reforms, is used to assess eligibility and assign funding levels for aged care services. Continue reading...
• US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield introduced a resolution on April 1 demanding safe access for aid in Sudan, where 8.2 million face famine amid civil war.
• Russia and China vetoed the measure, citing 'US imperialism,' blocking $2.5 billion in emergency funding pledges.
• The impasse exacerbates the crisis, with 500,000 displaced last week alone, drawing condemnation from humanitarian groups like MSF.
In her first print interview since release, the Palestinian immigrant says after year in custody, she sees it as her duty to denounce ICE detention in the USA Palestinian woman who was released last month after spending a year in a Texas immigration detention center told the Guardian in an exclusive interview that she sees “a lot of similarities” between the treatment of people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and that of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.Leqaa Kordia, who was detained by ICE following her arrest at a protest against Israel’s war in Gaza, says that she will continue to speak up about the rights of Palestinians, but that she now also sees it as her duty to denounce the “human tragedy” of immigration detention in the US. Continue reading...
DNA testing confirmed bones found on Salmon Creek beach belonged to Walter Karl Kinney, a man last seen in 1999Human remains discovered in the summer of 2022 on a beach in California recently were identified as those of a former banker who disappeared in 1999.The DNA Doe Project (DDP) on Thursday announced that bones found on Salmon Creek state beach in northern California in June 2022 – by a family searching for seashells – belonged to 59-year-old Walter Karl Kinney, a former banker who lived in nearby Santa Rosa. Continue reading...
• TD's second annual U.S. AI Insights Report shows 78% of Americans use AI tools daily, up significantly, released March 31, 2026 from Mount Laurel, NJ.
• 67% report improved proficiency year-over-year; Gen Z at 90% usage across generations.
• Only 18% trust AI alone for financial recommendations; 62% trust it for info but prefer humans, family (90%), banks (85%).
Exclusive: Research finds sharp rise in models evading safeguards and destroying emails without permissionAI models that lie and cheat appear to be growing in number with reports of deceptive scheming surging in the last six months, a study into the technology has found.AI chatbots and agents disregarded direct instructions, evaded safeguards and deceived humans and other AI, according to research funded by the UK government-funded AI Safety Institute (AISI). The study, shared with the Guardian, identified nearly 700 real-world cases of AI scheming and charted a five-fold rise in misbehaviour between October and March, with some AI models destroying emails and other files without permission. Continue reading...
Navy searching for two boats that left Isla Mujeres last week bound for Havana with nine crew members of different nationalities on boardMexico’s navy said on Thursday it had activated a search-and-rescue operation in the Caribbean to locate two sailboats carrying humanitarian aid to Cuba after the vessels failed to arrive in Havana as scheduled.In a statement, the navy said the two boats left Isla Mujeres, in the Mexican Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, last week bound for Havana with nine crew members of different nationalities on board. Continue reading...
European parliament votes in favour of sending refused asylum seekers to offshore hubs, in ‘historic setback for refugee rights’People with no right to stay in the EU could be detained for up to two years or sent to offshore centres described by experts as possible “human rights black holes” under plans voted for by the European parliament on Thursday.An alliance of mostly centre-right and far-right lawmakers voted for a proposal to increase returns of undocumented migrants to their home countries, in a further sign of strain on the grand coalition of centrist political forces that has traditionally driven EU lawmaking. Continue reading...
• Rice University's Baker Institute released a commentary by Rachel A. Meidl examining scientific evidence linking microplastics exposure to fertility issues amid sensational headlines.
• The review highlights current peer-reviewed studies on human microplastics exposure levels, absorption mechanisms, and potential reproductive health effects in the US population.
• Findings underscore gaps in long-term data, urging cautious interpretation of preliminary animal studies while calling for more rigorous human trials to assess real-world risks.
• First Lady Melania Trump appeared with Figure AI's Figure 03 humanoid robot at a White House education and technology summit on March 25, 2026.
• The Sunnyvale-based startup's third-generation robot is designed for household tasks like laundry, cleaning, and dishwashing.
• CEO Brett Adcock hailed it as the first humanoid robot in the White House, spotlighting AI's role in education and innovation.
UN calls for reparatory justice as landmark resolution aims for ‘political recognition at the highest level’The United Nations has voted to describe the transatlantic chattel slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and called for reparations as “a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs”.The landmark resolution passed on Wednesday was backed by the African Union (AU) and the Caribbean Community (Caricom), and proposed by Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, who said: “Let it be recorded that when history beckoned, we did what was right for the memory of millions who suffered the indignity of slavery.” Continue reading...
Research suggests hunter-gatherers were feeding dogs and giving them ritual burials as early as the last ice ageThey are humankind’s best friend, and now ancient DNA analysis has revealed that the enduring bond between dogs and humans dates back more than 15,000 years.The groundbreaking research, published in the journal Nature, pushes back the oldest genetic evidence for domestic dogs by 5,000 years, revealing that hunter-gatherers were feeding the animals and giving them ritual burials long before the emergence of agriculture. Continue reading...
• Georgia Tech researchers developed SAIL (Speed Adaptation for Imitation Learning), allowing robots to learn and execute complex tasks like stacking cups, folding cloth, and food packing significantly faster than human demonstrations.
• SAIL robots completed tasks three to four times quicker across 12 evaluated scenarios in simulation and on physical platforms, while preserving precision, control, and safety.
• The breakthrough addresses speed barriers in imitation learning, advancing general-purpose robots capable of any human-hand task for industrial and household use.
Monte Verde, thought to be 14,500 years old, had cast doubt on earlier idea for how humans came to western hemisphereA groundbreaking new study may have once again upended our understanding of human prehistory in the Americas.For years, the predominant theory of how humans arrived in the western hemisphere centred around the Clovis culture, which crossed the Beringia land bridge from Asia between 13,400 and 12,800 years ago, and spread south. Continue reading...
Chair Heather Hallett says pandemic had devastating impact due to NHS being in ‘parlous state’ at timeThe NHS “teetered on the brink of collapse” during the Covid pandemic, and only just coped thanks to the “superhuman” efforts of healthcare workers, an official inquiry has concluded.In a damning assessment of how the UK’s healthcare systems coped with the pandemic, the Covid-19 inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, said the impact was “devastating” due to the NHS being in a “parlous state” before the outbreak of the virus.The NHS entered the pandemic with low bed numbers, high numbers of staff vacancies and high bed occupancy, meaning it was already in a “precarious position” and ill-prepared to deal with a pandemic.There was not enough PPE at the start of the pandemic, meaning healthcare workers had to put themselves and their families at risk to care for patients.Infection control in the early stages of the pandemic was flawed as it assumed Covid-19 was spread by physical contact, rather than being airborne.The “stay home, protect the NHS, save lives” public message may have inadvertently led to a decline in hospital attendance of life-threatening emergencies such as heart attacks.80% of healthcare professionals said they acted in a way that conflicted with their values during the pandemic, with some saying they felt they were “playing God” as they were unable to give everyone the treatment they needed. Continue reading...
• A UC Riverside-led study analyzing thousands of samples from unrelated studies found that no places in the ocean remain completely untouched by human chemical impacts.
• Researchers combined consistent, high-resolution mass spectrometry methods across multiple laboratories with computational tools to create a unified dataset revealing the extent of human chemical alterations to marine environments.
• The study reveals significant data gaps, with heavy concentration in North America and Europe while the Southern Hemisphere and regions like Southeast Asia, India, and Australia remain largely understudied, limiting full understanding of global ocean impacts.
• Creative Biolabs announced an upgraded next-generation drug discovery pipeline integrating AI-driven antibody engineering in Shirley, New York.
• The platform accelerates development of CAR-T therapies and antibody humanization using advanced deep learning techniques.
• This innovation targets faster drug discovery in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, enhancing precision medicine applications.
Wife of former PM also says she is mentioned in Epstein files and coverage not focused enough on victims of abusePeter Mandelson’s critics should remember that he is “still a human being”, Cherie Blair has said in an interview.Lady Blair added that the former Labour minister was “entitled to a fair trial” after he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office. He denies criminal wrongdoing and has been released under investigation. Continue reading...
An analysis of ancient and modern DNA suggests the extent of convergent evolution in different peoples around the world is even greater than we thought
Feedback is excited to learn that University of Maryland researchers are measuring farts in a bid to build a Human Flatus Atlas, a project that seems destined for an Ig Nobel
Neuron-powered computer chips can now be easily programmed to play a first-person shooter game, bringing biological computers a step closer to useful applications
Shaped by a different biology or culture, other intelligent civilisations – if they’re out there – might understand the universe in a completely different way than we do. Physicist Daniel Whiteson explores what that could tell us about physics and ourselves
