• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the state's version of the SAVE America Act on April 1, 2026, requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration.
• The law mandates in-person submission of documents like passports or birth certificates, drawing criticism from voting rights groups.
• Civil liberties organizations filed a federal lawsuit within hours, arguing it imposes undue burdens and risks disenfranchising eligible voters.
• The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on April 1, 2026, that state bans on conversion therapy for minors violate counselors' First Amendment rights.
• The decision overturns California's pioneering 2012 law and similar measures in over 20 states prohibiting practices aimed at changing sexual orientation.
• Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion, emphasizing licensed professionals' speech protections in private counseling.
Publisher’s lawsuit alleges AI research company’s chatbot violated its copyright over Coconut the Little Dragon seriesPublishing company Penguin Random House has filed a lawsuit against AI research company OpenAI, alleging its chatbot ChatGPT violated copyright by mimicking and reproducing the content of a popular series of German children’s books.The lawsuit, which was filed on Friday with a Munich court against OpenAI’s Ireland-based European subsidiary, states Penguin Random House’s legal team had prompted ChatGPT to write a story in the vein of Penguin author and illustrator Ingo Siegner’s Coconut the Little Dragon series. Continue reading...
I Swear’s Kirk Jones set to direct film based on the 1970s cult animation about a ‘very ordinary man’ who accessed different worlds via a magical fancy dress shopA live-action film based on the cult British kids’ cartoon Mr Benn is to go into production with I Swear director Kirk Jones at the helm.Mr Benn first appeared on TV on the BBC in 1971, in a series created by David McKee, who died in 2022. The series followed the adventures of “a very ordinary man who could do extraordinary things” when he visited a magical fancy dress shop, which acted as a portal to different worlds. Only 13 episodes were made before the series ended in March 1972, though a one-off episode was broadcast in 2005 on the kids’ channel Nick Jr. Continue reading...
Snappily named Xi-cc-plus, Cern physicists spotted the particle in shower of debris that lit up Large Hadron ColliderScientists at the Cern nuclear physics laboratory near Geneva have discovered a heavier version of the proton, the subatomic particle that sits at the heart of every known atom in the universe.They spotted the particle in a shower of debris that lit up a detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located deep beneath the ground at Cern, which smashes protons together at close to the speed of light. The collisions recreate in microcosm conditions that prevailed just after the big bang, with the energy converting to particles that spray in all directions. The newfound particle, which is four times heavier than the regular proton, should help physicists refine their understanding of the strong nuclear force that glues together the innards of all atomic nuclei. The force is unusual because it behaves like a rubber band, getting stronger as the distance between subatomic particles increases. Continue reading...
