Meta plans to remove end-to-end encryption (E2EE) from Instagram direct messages by May 8, 2026. "Very few people were opting in to end-to-end encrypted messaging in DMs, so we're removing this option from Instagram in the coming months," says Meta. "Anyone who wants to keep messaging with end-to-end encryption can easily do that on WhatsApp." The Hacker News reports: The American company first began testing E2EE for Instagram direct messages in 2021 as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's "privacy-focused vision for social networking." The feature is currently "only available in some areas" and is not enabled by default. Weeks into the Russo-Ukrainian war in February 2022, the company made encrypted direct messaging available to all adult users in both countries. Last week, TikTok said it would not introduce E2EE, arguing it makes users less safe by preventing police and safety teams from being able to read direct messages if needed.

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Iranian drone strikes shut down a major helium facility in Qatar, removing about 30% of global helium supply and raising concerns for the semiconductor industry, which relies on the gas for chip fabrication. "QatarEnergy declared force majeure on existing contracts on March 4, freeing it from supply obligations to customers," reports Tom's Hardware. The industry outlet Gasworld reports that no imminent restart is planned. From the report: Helium consultant Phil Kornbluth, speaking at a Gasworld webinar on March 4, said that if the outage extends beyond roughly two weeks, industrial gas distributors could be forced to relocate cryogenic equipment and revalidate supplier relationships, a process that could stretch over months regardless of when Qatari output resumes.

South Korea is among the most exposed countries, which, according to the Korea International Trade Association, imported 64.7% of its helium from Qatar in 2025. The country relies heavily on helium imports to cool silicon wafers during fabrication and is understood to have no viable substitute.

The country's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources has reportedly launched an investigation into supply and demand for 14 semiconductor materials and equipment types with high dependence on Middle Eastern sources, Nikkei reported on Wednesday. Bromine, which is used in circuit formation, is another big concern, with South Korea sourcing 90% of its imports from Israel, also party to the ongoing conflict in Iran.

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AI services may not stay cheap for long, as companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are currently subsidizing usage to rapidly grow market share. As these companies move toward profitability and potential IPOs, Axios reports that investors will likely push them to increase prices and improve margins. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: Flashback: Silicon Valley has seen this movie before. The so-called "millennial lifestyle subsidy" meant VC money helped underwrite cheap Uber rides and DoorDash deliveries. Before that, Amazon built its base with low prices, free shipping and, for years, no sales tax in most states. Eventually, all of these companies had to charge enough to cover costs -- and make a profit.

Follow the money: The current iteration of AI subsidies won't last forever. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are widely expected to go public. Public investors will demand earnings growth and expanding margins. Even as chips get more efficient, total spending keeps rising. Labs need more capacity, more upgrades and more supply to meet demand.

The bottom line: The costs of AI will keep going down. But total spend from customers will need to keep going up if AI companies are going to become profitable and investors are ever going to get returns on their massive investments.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Performed by musicians that you know and others that you don't!. Starting with a grab bag: I Shot the Sheriff (Bob Marley) by Ren / Stop Draggin' My Heart Around (Tom Petty/Stevie Nicks) by Shearwater and Sharon Van Etten / Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan) by Afro Fiesta w/Twanguero & I-Taweh / Old Man (Neil Young) by Baskery (Sweden)

I hadn't heard of Baskery before finding the video of Old Man, but now I know that they are sisters, and here is them doing one of their own songs. Did I just find the greatest thing ever? Songs by Beck: Say Goodbye by Raashi Kulkarni (piano instrumental) Waking Light by Jaron Davis (acapella) Dreams by Olympia Up All Night by Zack Brinn We Live Again by Ari Kaplan & Steve Metcalf Lost Cause by Sima Bustami Where It's At by Sir Paul's Project Galileo 14 (Israel) The New Pollution by Bewilder The New Pollution by Choir! Choir! Choir! (Toronto) The New Pollution by Choir! Choir! Choir! with Patton Oswalt (Vancouver) The New Pollution by ALO The New Pollution by Great Ceasar Beercan by Barton Popenoe Pay No Mind by Sonic Youth Loser by The Saturday Giant Loser by The Cleverlys Loser by David Zuder Loser / Devil's Haircut / Motherfucker by HotWax Let's flip this around, because Beck posts lots of cover songs on YouTube... Need You Tonight (INXS) by Beck with Annie Clark (St Vincent) I'll Be Your Mirror (Velvet Underground & Nico) by Beck So here Beck has covered the entire album of The Velvet Underground & Nico Hmmm... Some songs from The Velvet Underground & Nico I'll Be Your Mirror by kimberannie I'll Be Your Mirror by Susanna Hoffs Femme Fatale by Jenna-Marie (Finland) Femme Fatale by Mathieu Saikaly and Pauline De Tarragon (France(?)) The Black Angel's Death Song by Beck The Black Angel's Death Song by Fontaines D.C. The Black Angel's Death Song by Bettie Serveert (Netherlands) The Black Angel's Death Song by Emmett Sherlock The Black Angel's Death Song by Mike "Slo-Mo" Brenner (guitar instrumental) I'm Waiting for the Man by Keith Richards I'm Waiting for the Man by BLOXSY I'm Waiting for the Man by Echo & The Bunnymen I'm Waiting for the Man by Sam Bennet      Digression, because that last link lead me to: Down On The Riverbed (Los Lobos) by Sam Bennet and Isao Ohashi I'm Waiting for the Man by Alex Hamel I'm Waiting for the Man by Bo Gumbos (Japan) forget about waiting for the man...I feel high just watching these guys I'm Waiting for the Man by CSV I'm Waiting for the Man by Slaughter and the Dogs I'm Waiting for the Man by Lena Deluxe (France) I'm Waiting for the Man by Cheap Trick (medley with Heroin) I'm Waiting for the Man by Glimpse Group (Japan) I'm Waiting for the Man by Arabel (Italy) Wall of Death - Richard & Linda Thompson Wall of Death by Bob Fenster Wall of Death by David Foster Wall of Death by Penny (8) Wall of Death by Phil Hepworth Wall of Death by Nanci Griffith Wall of Death by REM Wall of Death by Wilderado, Ken Pomeroy & James McAlister This is breaking with protocol, but I wouldn't want people to miss: Wall of Death by Richard Thompson with Christine Collister Songs from Parliament/Funkadelic: Flashlight by Johnnie James Flashlight by Derek, Cam, and Grae Flashlight/Standing on the Verge of Getting it On by W.S.F.B Can You Get to That by Houndmouth Can You Get to That by America Eats its Young Can You Get to That by June Bailey (a capella) Can You Get to That by Humbert y Guevara (Spain) Can You Get to That by Mavis Staples Search and you can find several videos where you can watch Mavis and her band perform this song, but I figured this one (with just a still image of the Live In London album) must be the best for listening's sake.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

mikeleonardvisualarts posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

mikeleonardvisualarts has added a photo to the pool:

A judge on Friday ordered the immediate removal of a series of depositions of members of DOGE, but not before clips of the depositions, including one in which a member was largely unable to define DEI, went viral and were covered widely, including by 404 Media.

At the time of writing, the depositions are not available on YouTube, where the Modern Language Association had uploaded them. The MLA, American Council of Learned Societies, and American Historical Association, are suing the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and others around DOGE’s cuts of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of grants. Neither the plaintiffs nor the government immediately responded to a request for comment.

The government recently asked the plaintiffs to remove the videos “from the internet due to concerns that the publication of the videos could subject the witnesses and their family members to undue harassment and reputational harm,” according to a filing from the government on Friday. “Unfortunately, that risk has now materialized—at least one witness has been subjected to significant harassment, including death threats. Accordingly, we respectfully request that the Court enter the requested order as soon as possible to minimize the risk of additional harm to the witnesses and their families.”

The letter then references media coverage, including 404 Media’s specific article I Watched 6 Hours of DOGE Bro Testimony. Here's What They Had to Say For Themselves. 

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Specifically, the filing says Justin Fox, whose response to not being able to define DEI went viral, “has been subject to harassment and has received a number of death threats since the videos and video clips were publicized and circulated.” 

In response later on Friday, Judge Colleen McMahon ordered the plaintiffs to “immediately take any and all possible steps to claw back the videos of the depositions of the witnesses identified in the Government’s motion,” and said the court will hold a hearing about the issue on Tuesday.

The plaintiffs then filed an emergency motion saying, “Defendants never designated the video depositions in question as Confidential under the Protective Order, and Defendants have never alleged in their correspondence with ACLS Plaintiffs that ACLS Plaintiffs violated the protective order presently in place.”

The judge provided a response later that day, saying the request was “DENIED.”“See you Tuesday,” the court docket reads.

Ik haal mijn vierjarig nichtje Yara op bij de buitenschoolse opvang. Zij ziet mij niet want heeft alle aandacht bij een huilend jongetje dat zij wil troosten.

It’s only the first episode, but alongside Jeff Goldblum’s non-anecdotes about pencils the guests are reduced to discussing the colour of the sofa

Now look. Let’s make a few things clear before we begin.

We love Claudia Winkleman, absolutely, yes.

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As the QuitGPT movement gains momentum, should people concerned about the environmental impacts of AI consider opting out?

• Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint

• Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com

It’s only a few years on from the release of ChatGPT but the race to plug artificial intelligence into everything has sparked a surge in datacentres, with escalating environmental costs.

Globally, datacentre power demand is growing four times faster than all other sectors, according to the International Energy Agency, and is on track to exceed Japan’s electricity use by 2030.

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Bush

There are a lot of things to be angry about in the world today, but Ticketmaster is always one of them. Spare them a little rage if you have any left to give. When, two years ago, we heard that DOJ was moving forward with their anti-trust suit against Live Nation we all knew it was too good to be true, and, yup, it was too good to be true. The DOJ folded with not even a slap on the wrist.

And because of that, it seems that a number of state attorneys general are considering folding as well. Here's a form from NIVA to help you send your state's attorney general to keep fighting.

Bipartisan group of states refuse to sign settlement between Justice Department and Live Nation:

New York, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio and Kansas are just a few of the states continuing the lawsuit.

"The settlement recently announced with the U.S. Department of Justice fails to address the monopoly at the center of this case, and would benefit Live Nation at the expense of consumers. We cannot agree to it," New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.

The Justice Department and some 40 attorneys general first launched the lawsuit against Live Nation in 2024 under the Biden administration, alleging the concert giant had built an illegal monopoly over live events by controlling ticketing, venues and artist promotion. In effect, they argued, Live Nation had pushed out competitors and locked venues into exclusive arrangements that harmed both artists and fans.

At least the suit gave us some popcorn:

Live Nation Employees Boast About Gouging Fans With Fees:

Baker, who oversees ticketing for Live Nation's venue nation unit, called some increased prices "fucking outrageous," with Weinhold replying that "I have VIP parking up to $250 lol."

"I almost feel bad taking advantage of them," Baker replied.

In another exchange, Baker shared a screenshot of premier parking costs, further stating "robbing them, blind, baby, that's how we do." Later in the exchange, Baker said, "I gouge them on ancil prices to make up for it," referring to extra ancillary fees on more standard tickets.

Satire, but who can tell:

Live Nation restricts ticket buying and selling exclusively to bots:

"Our platform optimizes for multiple devices logged in at once and spamming the queue," notes Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino. "Once ticket sales are live, that's when the bots buy up the max tickets per person until they are all sold out in under 1 minute, though our software engineers are trying to get that down to 30 seconds."

Rapino adds, "Yes artists send out codes and have fan presales, but we always ensure that all of the bots get those too, since it'd be really unfair if these hardworking robots had to wait until general sale day." [...]

The announcement has been met with widespread support from StubHub, Viagogo, and a series of shell companies that, when contacted for comment, all responded within 0.003 seconds with identical statements saying they were "just regular fans."

The list of Live Nation's sins will not be news to anyone who has been following this blog for any length of time:

• "Wherein three national corporations control nearly all of San Francisco's live music."
• "Ticketmaster is recruiting professional scalpers who cheat its own system to expand its resale business and squeeze more money out of fans".
• "Live Nation admits putting tickets straight on the resale market".
• "Live Nation and DOJ reach 'settlement' that does nothing but extend the time period of the consent decree, with no fine."
• "Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who personally ordered that Jamal Khashoggi be kidnapped and dismembered alive with a bone saw, now owns 6% of Live Nation / TicketMaster."
• "Big Music Needs to Be Broken Up to Save the Industry".
• Wherein John Oliver reminds us that there are lots of things to be angry about, but one of them is still TicketMaster.