A momentary distraction on the road to the pub. Network.
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
bbcnewsworld_feed at 07:27am on 23/03/2026bbcnewsworld_feed at 09:31pm on 22/03/2026guardianworldnews_feed at 07:00am on 23/03/2026Mid-range handset gets chip, storage and MagSafe upgrades to offer more essential iOS features for less
The cheapest new iPhone has been upgraded for this year with a faster chip, double the storage, automatic portraits and MagSafe, providing even more of the core Apple smartphone experience for less.
The iPhone 17e is an upgraded version of the mid-range “e” line launched last year with the first iPhone 16e and is the latest member of the iPhone 17 family. It starts at £599 (€699/$599/A$999), undercutting the iPhone 17 and iPhone 16 by £200 and £100 respectively to be the cheapest new iPhone sold by Apple.
Screen: 6.1in Super Retina XDR (OLED) (460ppi)
Processor: Apple A19 (4-core GPU)
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 256 or 512GB
Operating system: iOS 26
Camera: 48MP rear; 12MP front-facing
Connectivity: 5G, wifi 6, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C, Satellite and GNSS
Water resistance: IP68 (6 metres for 30 mins)
Dimensions: 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.8mm
Weight: 170g
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed at 07:00am on 23/03/2026Ordeal left vulnerable woman living alone cut off from family, friends and doctors
My 90-year-old mother was sent home from hospital to die at the end of last year. Since she lives alone, and I’m her sole carer, it was essential that she get broadband so a personal alarm could be fitted.
BT told her she’d have to have a temporary phone number while Openreach carried out the work.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed at 07:00am on 23/03/2026Criminals extorting money online have created huge businesses, complete with branding and HR
The birth of ransomware was a stunt that got out of hand. In 1989, an evolutionary biologist called Joseph L Popp Jr was working part time for the World Health Organisation on the Aids epidemic. He was a difficult man. When he was denied a permanent job, he decided to punish his peers while shocking them into acknowledging another kind of infection: the computer virus.
Popp wrote a questionnaire promising to help minimise the risk of contracting HIV, duplicated it on to 20,000 floppy discs, and sent them to researchers in 90 countries. Each disc contained a Trojan virus. Once it was inserted, a malware timebomb eventually made the computer unusable until the user paid a “licence fee” of $189 to a PO box in Panama. Popp’s primitive “Aids Trojan” was quickly identified and he was arrested for blackmail. Intending to make a point rather than a profit, he was mortified to learn that some of his targets had overreacted by wiping their hard drives: one Italian Aids organisation lost a decade’s worth of vital data. Popp experienced a psychological collapse and was deemed unfit to stand trial. The criminals who developed his crude innovation into a global business would not be so scrupulous.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed at 07:00am on 23/03/2026It isn’t only climbers who get misty-eyed about the awe-inspiring mountains and ancient pinewoods of Britain’s first national nature reserve, created 75 years ago
The waymarked quartzite path glimmers in the sun, flanked by amber-gold grassland. Beyond, one of Scotland’s finest landscapes opens up before me, a woodland of ancient Caledonian pines leading my eye to the metallic glint of Loch Maree. On the other side of the water, a winding river separates the steep, stacked rocks of Beinn a’Mhùinidh from Slioch, one of the great mountains of Wester Ross, rising to a knuckle ridge of Torridonian sandstone.
I’m walking the four-mile mountain trail looping through Beinn Eighe national nature reserve (NNR), Britain’s first NNR, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. In a crowded list, you’d be hard pushed to find a more soul-stirring landscape in all of Scotland.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed at 07:00am on 23/03/2026While Labour braces for a rout that could see off Starmer, a rising drive to keep out Farage is complicating expectations
Local elections are often regarded as a referendum on the sitting government, with many previous administrations taking a bloody nose from the electorate but successfully fighting back by the next general election.
Senior Labour figures have taken to reeling off a list of midterm results – 1999, 2003, 2012 – to prove that point. “As we get closer to the general election, it will be less about people’s view of the parties generally and more about the actual choice in front of them,” one said.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed at 07:00am on 23/03/2026Discharge delays in England leave patients trapped while youngsters needing hospital care wait for beds, study finds
Hundreds of children are in hospital unnecessarily on any given day because they do not have the right support to go home, according to an analysis of NHS England data.
The discharge delays mean patients affected are missing out on childhood activities and youngsters needing hospital care are waiting for beds, the children’s commissioner’s report found.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed at 07:00am on 23/03/2026Pop culture icons and music legends are explored in a new show that has access to the BBC’s vast archive. Plus, the Guardian delivers a propulsive crime story that asks big questions of the US criminal justice system
Emmanuel Dzotsi had an all-too-brief run on internet culture podcast Reply All, so it’s great to hear him back on a smart and chatty show. He co-hosts this series alongside Kai Wright of WNYC’s Notes from America, with the pair drawing on the BBC’s vast archive to tell the stories of major pop culture figures. First up is actor and activist Jane Fonda, followed by a thoughtful profile of George Michael. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly from Monday 23 March
guardianworldnews_feed at 06:53am on 23/03/2026The regulator has issued a ground stop for all planes and New York’s emergency management authority warned people to expect cancellations and delays
New York’s LaGuardia airport was closed to flights early on Monday after an Air Canada flight and Port Authority vehicle collided.
The New York police department confirmed the collision but could not immediately offer further information. A spokesperson for the New York City Fire Department said firefighters responded to reports of a plane that crashed into a vehicle on the runway at 11:38pm.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed at 06:48am on 23/03/2026Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
The chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest energy company, is reported to have withdrawn from a major energy conference in Houston, as the situation in the Middle East threatens to escalate further.
The oil is relatively calm this morning, so far anyway.
Oil prices are higher this morning as risks build that regional energy infrastructure could suffer further damage, potentially triggering a larger and more prolonged energy shock.
The IEA’s Fatih Birol warned last week that this conflict could be the “greatest threat to global energy in history”—which can also be read as a reminder of the urgency to accelerate alternative energy efforts.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed at 06:45am on 23/03/2026Zack Rogow thought he was ready for love after the end of a long relationship – but not everyone agreed. How did he get over the rejections?
When Zack Rogow’s relationship ended, he joined an online dating site. Aged 66, Rogow prepared for his first date with a mixture of grief at the loss of a love he’d thought would last a lifetime, and euphoria. “I was gaga – ‘Oh, I’m single again. I can meet people!’” In the event, one match led to another and he notched up 75 first dates over 18 months.
Some dates were outdoorsy walks. Others took place in wine bars, in cafes or at the movies. He kept notes, jotting down each woman’s career and family situation so he wouldn’t put his foot in it on a second date. It must have started to feel like a job.
Continue reading...bbcnewsworld_feed at 06:03am on 23/03/2026guardianworldnews_feed at 06:39am on 23/03/2026Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
The oil is relatively calm this morning, so far anyway.
Brent crude is up 1.2% at $113.34 a barrel, some way below the record highs of nearly $120/barrel seen earlier this month.
Oil prices are higher this morning as risks build that regional energy infrastructure could suffer further damage, potentially triggering a larger and more prolonged energy shock.
The IEA’s Fatih Birol warned last week that this conflict could be the “greatest threat to global energy in history”—which can also be read as a reminder of the urgency to accelerate alternative energy efforts.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed at 06:20am on 23/03/2026A two-part documentary looks at the clash between two of our biggest superpowers. Plus: what to do when you’re too busy to cook. Here’s what to watch this evening
9pm, BBC Two
Norma Percy’s documentaries are always immaculately sourced and meticulous reflections on recent geopolitical events, and this two-parter is no exception. It deals with the escalating clash between the world’s two undisputed superpowers since the beginning of Donald Trump’s first term as US president. Expect insight into the trade wars, nuclear pacts and tech manipulation that have ensued, with contributors including Boris Johnson and Nancy Pelosi, while Chinese academics and experts give Beijing’s side of the story. Phil Harrison
guardianworldnews_feed at 06:00am on 23/03/2026What was supposed to be a quick win has become a quagmire, so it now must be reduced to a dopamine hit
The war on Iran, even as it spreads and destabilises the Middle East and the global economy, is not real. This is how it is being portrayed by the Trump administration. The war is a video game, a spectator sport, a social media festival of dunking. The architects of this war have made a virtue out of stupidity, and have been supported in that by a stupefying information ecosystem. The conflict waged by the US feels like the first of its kind in the modern age: distinctly remote and profoundly ignorant.
A week into the war, the White House uploaded a clip on its social media channels featuring montages of Top Gun, Braveheart and Breaking Bad, with the caption “Justice the American way” – itself a repurposing of a Superman motto. In another, entitled Touchdown, NFL players tackle each other and upon contact, boom, footage of a strike explosion tagged “unclassified”. SpongeBob SquarePants also makes an appearance, asking, “Wanna see me do it again?”, and then, an explosion. In another, Operation Epic Fury is rendered as a Nintendo Wii game.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed at 06:00am on 23/03/2026Home secretary’s new ILR rules mean couples such as Felix and Tessa King, from UK and US, face an insecure future
“It’s the sickening stress of never quite feeling like you have roots. My marriage feels like it’s on probation, conditional to whether the government puts a stamp on the next renewal. It’s the constant uncertainty that makes me ill,” Felix King said.
King, 31, an IT worker, wants to adopt a child with her American wife, Tessa, 29. But the impact of the home secretary Shabana Mahmood’s “earned settlement” immigration plan means the couple, who live in Cheshire, fear they will never get the chance.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed at 06:00am on 23/03/2026Gripping documentary examines the Future Forward Party’s unprecedented 2019 election result, and its leader’s aim to break Thailand’s repeated military coups
With his disarming good looks, pro-democracy activist and businessman Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit resembles an actor rather than a typical Thai politician. Heir to the country’s largest car manufacturer, he is blessed not only with personable charisma but also inexhaustible funds. His stunning rise into public consciousness is the beating heart of Aekaphong Saransate and Thanakrit Duangmaneeporn’s debut film, a thrilling documentary about an extraordinary political campaign that shook a nation.
As founder of the progressive Future Forward Party (FFP), Juangroongruangkit’s central message cut through the noise of electoral politics: secure a brighter future by correcting the wrongs of the past. Since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, Thailand has undergone a never-ending cycle of military takeovers, including 12 coups. During its campaign in the 2019 general election, Juangroongruangkit’s party specifically reached out to those whose concerns often go unheard: students, working-class and rural voters. He also explicitly called for reform to the 2017 constitution, enacted by the military junta to deepen authoritarian rule.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed at 06:00am on 23/03/2026Self-saucing and served with orzo or butterflied, bashed and pan-fried – two succulent chicken breast dishes to get your juices flowing
Conjure in your mind the heady hit of warm garlic butter as it spills out of a kiev, then transport that to soft, baked chicken balls and luscious, glossy grains of orzo, which effectively double as both carb and sauce. That’s what today’s first dish is! Then, a method of cooking chicken breast that’s speedy and succulent. It will become a favourite (if it’s not one already). Sage is not typically involved in a piccata, but I like how it imparts its flavours into the cooking fats and, subsequently, the pounded, dredged chicken, too.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feed at 05:46am on 23/03/2026The regulator has issued a ground stop for all planes and New York’s emergency management authority warned people to expect cancellations and delays
New York’s LaGuardia airport was closed to flights early on Monday after an Air Canada flight and Port Authority vehicle collided.
The New York police department confirmed the collision but could not immediately offer further information. A spokesperson for the New York City Fire Department said firefighters responded to reports of a plane that crashed into a vehicle on the runway at 11:38pm.
Continue reading...![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}