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Cable company Altice agreed to give Warner and other record labels the names and contact information of 100 broadband subscribers who were accused of pirating songs.

McConnell, the longest serving Senate party leader in U.S. history, said in a floor speech that his "current term in the Senate will be my last."

"Regardless of the political storms that may wash over this chamber ... I assure our colleagues that I will depart with great hope for the endurance of the Senate as an institution," he said.

A large cohort of ambitious Kentucky Republicans has long been angling to succeed the 83-year-old former Senate GOP leader, who has held his seat since 1985.

In the wake of the Second World War, US leaders adopted the view that scientific progress is an “essential key to our security as a nation, to our better health, to more jobs, to a higher standard of living, and to our cultural progress”. And for the next eight decades, government officials on both sides of the political aisle agreed to invest in US science. Just one month into the second administration of Republican President Donald Trump, scientists fear that that long-time consensus is disintegrating.

Acting with unprecedented speed, the administration has laid off thousands of employees at US science agencies and announced reforms to research-grant standards that could drastically reduce federal financial support for science. The cuts form part of a larger effort to radically reduce the government’s spending and downsize its workforce.

President Trump has ordered the shutdown of the first nationwide database tracking misconduct by federal police officers.

The closure, first reported by the Washington Post on Thursday, ends the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database — a resource experts said improved public safety by preventing bad officers from jumping from agency to agency.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Israeli military said Friday it had positively identified the remains of two young hostages, but a third body released by Hamas under a ceasefire deal was not the boys’ mother as the militant group had promised.

The revelation was a shocking twist in the saga surrounding the Bibas family, who have become global symbols of the plight of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, and threw the future of the fragile ceasefire into question.

It is clearest indication that the Bibas children – who were just nine months and four years old, respectively, when they were kidnapped in October 2023 – are indeed dead.

Israel has not yet confirmed their deaths and has not yet commented on Hamas’ announcement.

An Egyptian source with knowledge of the matter confirmed to CNN that talks involving Egyptian, Qatari, Israeli, and American officials had succeeded, and Hamas will release the remaining hostages from phase one of the truce on Saturday.

Hamas claimed in November 2023 that Kfir and Ariel Bibas were killed along with their mother in an Israeli airstrike, and released a video of their father Yarden, who was also held hostage, in which he blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for their deaths.

An Israeli military spokesperson at the time called the video “psychological terror,” but the military has told relatives that they may not be alive, according to a spokesperson for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

The flurry of executive orders from the White House in January included one ordering the State Department to designate “certain international cartels” as foreign terrorist organizations, or FTOs.

In some ways, these cartels do resemble terrorist groups. They terrorize their victims, often innocent civilians. They participate in illicit networks and engage in drug trafficking, just as terrorist groups do, to raise money for their activities.

The difference is their agenda. Terrorists seek political change, while criminals want to make money. To date, the FTO and TCO designations followed the logic of this distinction and were meant to be mutually exclusive. For the first time, the Trump administration is poised to pursue a dual designation—labeling organized criminal groups as terrorist organizations.

The new executive order does not provide any criteria to explain when a TCO will be deemed an FTO. But if major cartels in Mexico and elsewhere are listed, the impact on many U.S. companies and U.S.-Mexico business relations could be considerable. Well before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, banks and payment processors such as PayPal avoided doing business in the West Bank, fearing that their services might be used by terrorist groups—and that they would be held liable for any resulting violence. With the new executive order, U.S. businesses must worry that when they work with a business in Mexico, it might have links to cartels, which are deeply embedded in Mexico’s economy. Banks and payment processors that help transfer remittances to Mexico would be vulnerable to prosecution. All this will make U.S. businesses more cautious, especially about new ventures, given the tremendous litigation risk.

A zealous prosecutor could also use the new material support power to prosecute Americans who purchase drugs—or avocados—from designated cartels. Their crime would no longer be limited to possession of narcotics (or pursuit of the best guacamole); it would count as material support for a terrorist organization. It sounds far-fetched, but the United States has aggressively gone after U.S. residents who aided the Islamic State, including prosecuting a woman who provided packets of hot cocoa as well as a small amount of money to a group member. Justice Department officials in past administrations did not usually take such an expansive view, but such an approach is easier to imagine today. Making America’s drug epidemic a terrorism problem will not solve the drug crisis. Instead, it will dramatically increase the number of Americans prosecuted for drug-related offenses—and lengthen prison sentences for those convicted.

Pope Francis, who remains hospitalized, has bilateral pneumonia, the Vatican said on Tuesday.

The term simply means pneumonia in both lungs, said Dr. James Musser, director of the center for infectious diseases at the Houston Methodist Research Institute. He added that, without examining a patient, he could not say anything specific about his condition.

India has boosted security for the Dalai Lama, adding about 30 police commandos to protect the Tibetan spiritual leader amid reports of potential security threats, according to a person familiar with the matter and Indian media reports.

Video footage of the Dalai Lama in southern India showed armed CRPF commandos around a vehicle carrying the Tibetan spiritual leader.

Citing official sources, the Press Trust of India said the central government enhanced the Dalai Lama’s security because of “potential security threats.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that it's working to reverse the firing of agency personnel tasked with the federal response to the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

The bird flu crisis in the U.S. is in a troubling new phase as the outbreak intensifies and the Trump administration maintains a pause on some external federal health agency communications.

"Several job categories, including veterinarians, animal health technicians, and other emergency response personnel have been exempted from the recent personnel actions to continue to support the HPAI response and other animal health priorities," the USDA said in an emailed statement Tuesday evening.

Remember when movies used to look good?

Rich shadows, bold colors, and depth. But now? A lot of films and shows look flat, dull, and lifeless. In this video, I break down why modern cinematography feels so uninspired, and it’s NOT digital’s fault. Let’s talk about dynamic range, lighting, and why intentional choices matter more than ever.

What you’ll learn: • Why older movies look better than modern ones • How dynamic range & contrast affect the cinematic look • The role of VFX, lighting, and production design in the decline of movie aesthetics

Google Calendar users noticed that references to Hispanic Heritage Month, Pride Month, Jewish American Heritage Month and Holocaust Remembrance Day had all disappeared.

The Calendar controversy followed decisions by Google and Apple to change the Gulf of Mexico’s name to Gulf of America in their map applications after Mr. Trump ordered the name change.